Urusei Yatsura Fan Fiction ❯ The Senior Year ❯ Revenge and Redemption ( Chapter 63 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

The wind...

Brown eyes scan the bleak sky overhead as the wind moans around her,
gently shifting stringy auburn locks around her face. The wind was not biting
cold, just cool enough to keep her awake. They had been wandering for some
weeks now around more remote regions of Japan. For someone who'd hardly known
the kind words of a friend...when solitude often seemed an extra punishment, a
reminder that unless you had a special gift, you were seen as no one...this
solitude seemed strangely welcome.

Then again, she wasn't really alone.

"Why did you stop?"

The woman blinks as her companion approaches. "I just wanted to
listen to the wind," she muses.

Confusion responds. "The wind is the wind."

"Don't you listen to it?"

"No."

The woman smirks. Typical. "I listen to it a lot."

"Do you derive some emotional pleasure from that?"

"Uh-huh," she nods as they proceed down the hill. "Sometimes I think
the wind carries the voices of lonely people like me to people who'd listen.
People who don't have a friend and cry out, begging the wind to take their
pleas to those who could come to chase the loneliness away."

"Curious belief," the other woman muses.

"I can prove it to you."

Eyes blink surprisedly. "You can?"

"Uh-huh," she reaches down to take her companion's hand, the warm
rush of her supernatural strength racing up her arms to chase away the last
of the chill. "That's why I wanted to go this way. There's someone I want
you to meet. The wind brought her to me."

"Indeed?" the other hums as they turn down the pathway leading
towards a distant scattering of farms...

* * *

Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year: "Revenge and Redemption"
by Fred Herriot and Ted Hsu
**** **** ****
Edited by E.B. Kushnir
**** **** ****
With thanks to Philip Gavigan for his plot suggestions
**** **** ****
A story based on the series in turn based on "Urusei Yatsura," created by
Rumiko Takahashi
**** **** ****

WRITER'S NOTES (FRED):

1) Many of the ideas here are Ted's. He likes Ryouga, thus he wanted
the chance to do a story that would resolve the problems I created for the
wandering martial artist in the UY-TSY Tales of the Daishi'cha story
"Furinkan Spring II," which weren't resolved in that story's sequel,
"Children of Eternity." Also, I wanted to do a story that would shore up the
other shortcomings in "C of E," especially since I never took the opportunity
to give you a decent introduction to Chigaiko Inu. Thus, I proposed we
combine our stories into one which would serve both our purposes.

2) This story takes place about three months after "C of E," equal to
the mainline TSY story "GFA Stage Nine: Redemption." It is recommended that
you read "C of E" before you read this story.

3) For this story, since the Japanese names for everyone's special
attacks are being used, the Japanese translations to the various attacks of
Saikoo Jinseijitsu Ninjitsu-ryuu are used:

Psychic Laser - Seishin Reezaa Koosen
Psychic Kusarigama - Seishin Kusarigama
Psychic Shuriken - Seishin Shuriken Arashi
Air-Whirlpool Heat-Fire Strike - Senpuu Netsu-hi Daboku
Earth-Heart Fire Geyser - Daichi-ki Hi-kanketsusen
Heart Blast Touch - Shinzou Bakuhatsu Shoku
Stone Body Shield Defense - Seki-jintai Kookaku Boobi
Paranormal Power Inverse-fire Attack - Henryoku Handou Kougeki
Typhoon Wind-fist - Taifun Kaze-te
Spirit-Breaker Fire Light - Seishin-hasai Hi-koosen
Soulsword - Kontou

WRITER'S NOTES (TED):

1) As Fred pointed out, I read and reread "Furinkan Summer II" and
"Children Of Eternity." I did have a few things I pointed out to him about
the open ends he hadn't tied up. I'll admit at times I might have come
across harder against the Sagussans that Fred might have. Images of
persecution came to mind when I read and re-read about Ryouga's
"humiliation." One point I had mentioned to Fred was this: what if the
Sagussans faced a nightmare of their own, an enemy they didn't need to IF
they had used kindness instead of hostility when they had met him earlier?
Fred had mentioned that in the long run, this was a lucky break for Ryouga.
I said others gave the wandering boy a LOT BETTER "lucky breaks" (and
e-mailed him parts of stories where he got them: "Lemon Sherbet" by John
Biles and "Ranma 1/2-Ranko 1/2: Marital Arts" by Jon Hayashi especially).
Hence, this attempt at "evening the balance a bit."

2) To get the full impact of this, read Phil Gavigan's "Shinobu: Futures
Imperfect" as well as Fred's "Furinkan Summer," "Furinkan Summer II" and
"Children Of Eternity" before reading this. These related stories will put
you in the right frame of mind for this.

3) To "upgrade" Ryouga's moves after a certain point in a story, I
borrowed from the "Street Fighter" and "Vs. SF"/"Vs." games of Capcom.
"Roaring Lion Echo Bullet Stream" (Shishi Houkou Dankawa) is a stream of chi
bullets similar to Ryu's "Shinkuu Hadoken" of "Street Fighter Alpha/Street
Fighter III." "Roaring Lion Cosmic Thunder Wave" (Shishi Houkou Raipa) is one
long beam-like power blast, similar to Ryu's "Shinkuu Hadoken/Aerial Rave" of
the "X-Men vs. Street Fighter/Marvel vs. Capcom" games. The other manoeuvre
introduced here is the "Blasting Sword" (Bakuhatsutou). (The Japanese names I
got help from with Fred. Thanks, Fred.)

4) This is an "upgraded" story. The original "Revenge and Retribution"
was written in late 1998. Needless to say, Fred and I took this back to the
shop and got all the dings out of it. We both hope you like what we've done.

**** **** ****

My name is Chigaiko Inu...

I am the younger daughter of Akira and Kindan Inu, my family rising
from Fukui. At the time of this story, my father is a salaryman, my mother a
social worker and nurse. My older sister, Fuchiko, is entering the first year
of university. To most, I am as ordinary as you can get. An ordinary
girl...in, beginning in the autumn of 1981, the most extraordinary place on
Earth.

Tomobiki.

Through a quirk of Fate, I was one of fifty students who could claim
Ataru Moroboshi as a classmate on the day his life and Earth's destiny
changed. The day the Urusians came into our lives and opened our eyes to the
galaxy beyond. Or as Shinobu Miyaki so wonderfully put it one time, "The day
Lum came...and sanity left."

You pretty well know the story of what happened next. How everything
stopped making any sense and nearly an entire district, almost a hundred
thousand people all told, had their lives warped by and subverted to the
lively relationship between Ataru and Lum and what arose from it. The reason
I say "almost everyone" is that there were those who didn't have anything to
do with...or didn't really care much for...Lum, Ataru and everyone that was
directly involved with them during those years.

For two years, I was one of them.

I'm not one of the people others would speak of in the same manner as
Shinobu, Ryuunosuke Fujinami or Shutaro Mendou. In fact, you might say I was
the "ghost" of Class 2-4 in the 1982-83 academic year at Tomobiki High School.
Sounds cruel? Try coming to school day after day and NO ONE can remember your
name. I saw the looks, the scratching of the hair when people tried to
remember who I was, what was my very NAME. Those looks hurt me, bad. I hated
being a nobody. But then, it wasn't ALWAYS painful.

One person knew me.

Ataru Moroboshi.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. By now, you should know how good he is
when it comes to women, remembering names, faces and facts with the precision
of a computer. He never really needed his black books. Even just a cheerful
"Good morning, Chigaiko-chan" was enough for me. I never DARED press it past
that. I was afraid, to be honest, for Ataru and me. When the only person who
remembers who you are, says hello to you every day without fail, has a woman
who seems the living personification of jealousy hounding his every step, you
do your best to cause no trouble for that person.

Do I love Ataru? Yes, I do. I admit it without hesitation and will
love him for all Eternity. Matter of fact, if Nagaiwakai Moroboshi had once
decided to use her vast power given her by the Zephyrites and destroyed Lum
for all her many excesses concerning Ataru during those years, I would've
been on his front door the very next morning, ready to offer myself to him
wholesale. But I never got the chance. Oh, well.

I knew there was a LOT more going on behind the facade he presented
to us over those two years. After all, anyone whose house is totally
wrecked, then is immediately repaired can't be of the "upper-middle class
salaryman family" we heard used to describe Ataru's immediate family. And
there were the incidents...after our first meeting with Elle, the Tomobiki
Memory Pseudo War and the Second Tag Race...when two hundred huge sumo-ninjas
would appear out of NOWHERE and pound EVERYONE around Ataru into paste. It
was a warning for them. I seemed to be the only one who took heed of the
message even if I was never hurt by the Sunin. I did nothing to attract
their wrath. I knew that despite his bad luck, Ataru had his guardian angels
waiting to help when he needed it.

I also knew, despite all the girl-chases, how much he really cared
for Lum. How lucky he felt to have such a person, who had the male
population of a school lapping at her heels, had the choice of men from two
dozen worlds, desire him. And I knew sooner or later, things would happen
that would finally tax Ataru's patience, when he'd say "enough" of idiots
like his parents, Cherry, Sakura, Lan, Rei, Benten, Oyuki, Mendou, Megane and
his goon squad...yes, even Miyaki and Fujinami at times...and finally decide
to take Lum somewhere where they could enjoy their relationship in peace.

That time came in late September of 1983, after Ataru had been
tortured on another planet because he was seen as Lum's husband, an innocent
victim caught in a cold war between the Urusians and their then-rivals, the
Ipraedies. When that came, NO ONE in Tomobiki was prepared for what happened
next...when Ataru declared that he was leaving them and their madness once and
for all.

Try as they might, Ataru's classmates, even Lum, fought to keep him
in Tomobiki when he elected to move to Oshika. It was a losing battle. Ataru
was a runaway bullet train. He became a father, happily adopting an orphan
alien girl named Reiko. He gained a very supportive friend in Mie Seikou, a
girl from Kyushu who later turned out to be MUCH more than she first appeared.
He was also determined to win at all costs, by any means possible, including
making everyone else look like fools in front of Lum, destroying her faith in
them to ensure she couldn't use them to hurt him.

And when they forced him into a corner to make him bow to their
desires...they confronted their own mortality in what was later called the
Spirit War. October 31, 1983. Hallowe'en. All Hallow's Eve as it was
called in the old days. Tomobiki's Day of Infamy. The day their dreams,
their sense of security, their very way of looking at the world around
them...was destroyed forever.

The day I learned I was dying of leukaemia.

I had the...fortune?...to be away from Tomobiki that day. I was in
Shinjuku learning the news I had dreaded for so long. I had at most two
months left; the disease which had eaten my insides had progressed too far
for any treatment to arrest. I happened to look out the window in the
direction of Nerima the instant the negative energy used by the *saikoo
jinseijitsu* against Lum and everyone else exploded, wrecking the district,
causing trillions of yen in damage but fortunately not killing anyone.
After, when I returned home (it survived unscathed; we then lived close to
the Seikou home at the south end of the district) and learned what happened,
part of me...wished I had died in that blast.

So in those two months, I decided to get my revenge against
Tomobiki. Against arrogant bastards like Mendou, who played women like a harp
just to boost his own ego. Against loud-mouthed jerks like Megane, who
would've seen Earth destroyed if it pleased Lum. Against whiners like Miyaki
and Fujinami, who allowed people to suffer because they felt SAFE in that
chaos. And...against Lum, who brought out the worst in everyone in
Tomobiki...and denied me the person who had shown me some kindness.

Fortune smiled on me then. Sometime after the Spirit War, Ataru's
refusal to budge from Oshika and his family there forced a rift between him
and Lum. Thanks to his first fiancee Sunhair Windrider and her bondmate Noa,
Ataru and Lum finally took the chance to tear the comic excuse for a
relationship they had until then apart and built something really
substantial. Something built on trust and love, not suspicion and jealousy.

Something forever shielded from Tomobiki's influence.

While they were separated due to legal problems and other matters,
they agreed to date anyone they pleased as long as the other knew of it.
Fuchiko (bless her heart) then got Koosei Ryooki (now there was a gem of a
teacher!) to convince Ataru and Lum to allow him to spend time with me before
I died. And while Lum was off visiting her parents and other relatives,
Ataru and I spent a few happy days together, watching Mendou, Megane and the
rest of those clods tear themselves apart as they tried to avenge their
humiliation before Lum by making her jealous at her Darling dating another
woman.

And then...I died.

But that's not the end. Because Ataru was touched by the *te'a,*
That Which Is Above mortal understanding, at the time of my death, I entered
Eternity under a mix-up. I was a Shintoist-Buddhist. The Sagussan faith is
best described as "non-theistic naturalist divinism," the belief that all
things in Creation have the *te'a* within them. Because of that, I was
considered to be a Sagussan and thus given the right to bestow my *mei'na,* my
living spirit, unto someone before finally achieving my place in Eternity.

And thus...I came back.

By then, around August 1984, Ataru and Lum had finally formed solid
bonds with the Sagussans, the race that influenced them in ways Tomobiki
never could. And because of that...it was onto Lum that my *mei'na* was
presented and since I wasn't legally deceased (my real body had
disintegrated, hence they couldn't do a post-mortem for the death
certificate)...it was seen as right for me to receive a new body. But no
ordinary body, mind you! I was reborn as an Avalonian, a laboratory-grown
clone of myself with all the mental and physical attributes Sagussans have.
You know what that means. The psychic powers, the sense of the *te'a,* the
800-year lifespan.

Talk about a gift from Heaven!

So then I had to decide what to do with myself. Fate then dropped
someone special in my lap. Right after receiving my "posthumous" high school
diploma, Ataru, Lum, Reiko and I were off to meet his cousin Ranma Saotome in
Furinkan. Along the way, we came across Ranma's old high school rival
Tatewaki Kunou pestering Ranma and his fiancee Akane Tendou. Just as Kunou
was about to attack Ataru, I heard words that for everyone else in Tomobiki
only came in the pit of their darkest nightmares.

"***SENPUU NETSU-HI DABOKU!!!!!!***"

The woman who said those words, who send Kunou flying into Tokyo Bay
with that cyclone of heated air, was a FOX!!!! There's something to be said
for Sagussan sexual tastes after all! Then Reiko mentioned her as "Auntie
Negako"...and Lum and I realized what just happened, virtually at the same
time I returned to the mortal realm, to Ataru...and a certain unwanted mental
guest who had been making havoc in his mind for over a decade.

Negako Moroboshi.

The *saikoo jinseijitsu* had finally got its...HER...dream.

I beheld the person I wanted to spend my life with.

And that was where our story began...

(From the preface to "The Ghost of Class Two-Four," by Chigaiko Inu-Moroboshi,
(C) 2019, Shogakukan Publishing Inc, Tokyo)

* * *

"How far do we have to go?"

"Tired?" Chigaiko stares at Negako.

"Not really," the auburn-haired ninjitsu grandmistress sighs. "But I
am not one who cares for working without seeing results."

"Patience, Nega-chan," Chigaiko winks. "It's right ahead."

"Who is this person you desire to see?"

"My friend," Chigaiko smiles.

"You've complained many times that you never had friends."

"At your brother's school, yes," Chigaiko nods. "But that didn't
stop me from finding friends at other schools...as well as people who I met by
chance."

Negako curtly nods. Chigaiko sighs, reaching over to gently grasp
her companion's hand. Thought Negako could easily rip her limb from limb,
she doesn't resist the gesture. It was hard to read the woman beside her,
Chigaiko had realized as soon as they set out on their journey. Even more so
because Negako kept many things to herself...or simply didn't see the reason
to speak about what she felt openly...or actually didn't feel a thing!

Chigaiko didn't believe that. While Negako was in actuality the
first non-corporeal lifeform born on Earth given corporeal form, she wasn't
an organic robot like the Sagussans were before Ataru's first visit. She had
feelings. She had fears. They were limited to what her two centuries of
being transferred from mind to mind, body to body, against her will
allowed...but they were there. Chigaiko knew Negako was capable of more, she
NEEDED to be much more...and had appointed herself to be Negako's social
teacher.

What Negako thought of that, only silence spoke.

Chigaiko sniffs the air. "Ah, we're there," she detects the odour of
pig manure, then looks left.

Negako's eyes scrutinize the modest country home before them, the
nameplate UNRYUU by the front gate. Typical middle class farming residence
dedicated to the raising of pigs: family house, guest house, pig barns and
feeding areas, plus a fair amount of grazing grounds...and a sumo dojo? Her
eyebrow rises, then she glances at Chigaiko. "What sort of family is this?"

"They raise sumo pigs," Chigaiko smiles.

Blink. "Sumo...pigs?" Negako repeats.

"Strange, huh?!"

"And I thought combining sumo and ninjitsu was strange!"

Chigaiko laughs, then walks Negako onto the property. "Relax, you'll
love Akari-chan!! C'mon, let's see if she's in!"

They approach the front door, then Chigaiko rings the bell. A moment
later, the door opens to reveal a slender, kawaii girl with lavender-streaked
black hair, dressed in a formal kimono; there was going to be a tournament in
the dojo today. "Yes, can I help...you...?" her voice drops to a squeak.

"Hi, Akari-chan!" Chigaiko smiles.

Akari blinks, then faints! "Chi-...gai-...ko...!"

"Is this the normal way she greets you?" Negako inquires...

* * *

"Oooh...where am I?"

Akari's grey eyes flutter as she finds herself gazing on a face she
never thought she'd look on again in this life. "Sorry about that, Akari-
chan," Chigaiko frowns. "I never thought news of what happened to me got to
you..."

"Chigaiko...?" Akari gasps, then slowly rises, her hands falling on
the wanderer's arms to test their realness, then she stares into her face.
"How...?"

"It's...a very long story..."

"B-but...y-your parents said..."

Chigaiko bites her lip. "In a sense...I did die, Akari-chan...and
then I got better..."

Akari blinks. "How can you get better from DEATH?!?!"

"If you are a Sagussan, it is very easy."

Akari spins around to see Chigaiko's companion standing nearby.
"Sagussan...?" she then turns back to Chigaiko. "You mean...?"

"Remember when I told you about Ataru-chan's Cyborg self?"

"Uh-huh," she nods, a chill running through her on visualizing the
half-human monstrosity Chigaiko's classmate transformed into.

"Well...the Power that gave Ataru-chan the ability to do that is the
same Power...people go to when they die...at least, that's what Sagussans
believe," Chigaiko sighs. "This is really confusing to you, Akari-chan, I
know. It's confusing to ME and I'm the one it happened to! Well...Sagussans
have this ability to transfer their memories, their...very minds...to other
people when death draws near. And...because Ataru-chan was a Sagussan and
I...went when he was under the direct influence of That Power and It wanted to
do something for me...I was given that same right. Understand?"

Multiple blinks. "I'm trying to."

Chigaiko sighs. "Good. Anyhow, when that happened, I...gave this
gift...myself...to Lum. She got her sister Ria to build a body, an Avalonian
body. They're Sagussans, but made in a laboratory on that ship over Sado-
shima; they came just after I first...went. So...here I am, back among the
land of the living..." she shrugs.

"I...see," Akari hums, then blinks as a familiar mass lumbers into
the living room. "Katsu-chan, is that you?"

Katsunishiki blinks on noting the strangers in his mistress' domain,
then stops as one rises. "Hi, Katsu-chan!" Chigaiko draws out an apple, then
holds it before the giant porcine. "Here you go! You remember me, don't
you?!"

A grunt, then Katsunishiki nibbles the apple, his body rubbing up
against Chigaiko. Akari blinks, eyes widening on recognizing her champion's
actions towards one he knew, then with a laugh, she leaps up to embrace her
friend. "Oh, it is you!!!"

"Sorry!!" Chigaiko grins. "This would be hard to prove; I'm glad
Katsu-chan came by!" she pats the pig's head.

Katsunishiki grunts happily. Akari sighs, then looks at her. "Well,
for someone who died and came back, you look great! What are you doing here
anyway?"

"Travelling," Chigaiko sighs. "I had to get out of Tomobiki; I was
tired of the place and the people living there! Besides, I'm touring with a
friend."

Akari blinks, then turns to Negako. "Oh, forgive my rudeness, miss,"
she bows. "I'm sorry, but...Chigaiko-chan and I haven't seen each other for
quite a while and...well, you see..."

"It does not matter," Negako muses.

Akari blinks, stunned at her lack of reaction. "Um...Nega-chan, this
is Akari Unryuu," Chigaiko does the introductions. "Akari-chan, this is
Negako Moroboshi, Ataru-chan's sister."

"A pleasure," Akari bows.

Negako wordlessly nods. Chigaiko sighs, then kicks her in the foot.
Negako blinks, then sighs. "A pleasure."

Akari blinks again, then feels Katsunishiki move. She looks back to
see her champion prostrate himself, nuzzle to the floor, eyes averting from
Chigaiko's friend. Looking back, she blinks on seeing Negako gracefully bow
in return. Chigaiko sighs, then leans over. "Sorry. Nega-chan's not a
people person."

"I...see..." Akari hums...

* * *

"You can stay here," Akari smiles.

They were now in the guest house, connected to the main house by a
covered walkway. "You sure?" Chigaiko wonders. "There is a ryokan down the
road a bit..."

"NO!!!!" Akari snaps, pointing at her, tears threatening her eyes.
"Chigai-chan, it's been a YEAR since I last saw you...and you DIED not four
weeks after we last saw each other in Furinkan!! I am NOT letting you out of
my sight again, do you hear me?!!"

"Okay, okay!" Chigaiko laughs, then embraces her. "Oh, it's so good
to be with you again, Akari-chan!"

"You, too!" Akari smiles, then stares at Negako. "Are these quarters
all right, Moroboshi-san?"

"They are sufficient," Negako replies.

Akari stares at Chigaiko. The latter sighs, then gives her an I'll-
tell-you-about-this-later look. Akari nods, then turns to the door.
"Supper'll be ready in an hour or so, okay?"

"Sure thing. Thanks, Akari-chan," Chigaiko nods.

Once their hostess is gone, Negako sighs. "You are about to remind
me about my 'rude' behaviour."

"No, it's not rude, just very indifferent," Chigaiko counters. "Nega-
chan, if you want to interact with people, you've got to show a little common
courtesy."

"What has she done to earn courtesy from me?"

"Offered us a roof over our heads and permission to stay here as long
as we would desire."

"Not so. She offered YOU a roof over your head and since I am your
companion, she felt it only decent to do the same for me."

"Yes, that's true, but you still should've tried to show some
courtesy," Chigaiko sighs, walking up to her. "Nega-chan, people aren't
always cruel and uncaring, you know!"

"You cannot know that about all you meet. Neither can I."

"Yes, but I DO know that Akari-chan is a VERY kind soul. She would
NEVER do anything to hurt another person, ever! Please, can't you at least
trust my judgement on that matter?!"

Negako sighs. "Trust is difficult for me to comprehend and
understand, Chigaiko...even to you."

Chigaiko blinks, then looks down. "I trust you."

"Why?"

"Because...you always tell the truth. You're TOO blunt, but that's
because you don't have experience dealing with people outside of trying to
kill them. I understand that. I'm being patient with that, though there are
times I want to scream at you. But I know you can't lie; it's beyond you at
this time. You never lied during the Spirit War and you haven't lied to me
since we set out on this trip. Why wouldn't I trust you?"

Negako blinks, confusion in her eyes flashing, then she sighs.
"Trust implies that I like you. To like someone...to love someone...is
something I have never had to do in all my life. I know that you are sexually
attracted to me. I know you desire me to become your bondmate. I know you
desire the chance to find a place for yourself in this world and see me as the
vehicle by which you can achieve those ends. I know I require someone to
answer the questions I have about this existence, something I have desired for
so long yet never took the time to consider what would happen when I achieved
it. You are the one who has offered herself to answer my questions. But...I
cannot return your emotions because I don't have them, Chigaiko."

Chigaiko leans into Negako. Automatically, the latter's arms embrace
her. "You know how to do this," the former muses.

"I do this because I know you desire it."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why respond to my desire for intimacy?"

"It makes you happy."

"Doesn't it make you happy?"

"No."

Chigaiko sighs, then gazes into Negako's eyes. "Aren't you happy
that you're a free person?"

Silence for a moment. "I don't know."

"I think you are, deep down," Chigaiko closes her eyes. "One day,
you'll understand happiness, Nega-chan. One day..."

* * *

"So, how was that?"

"Great as always!" Chigaiko nods as Akari clears the dishes. "So,
where's Ryouga-kun?"

"Off who knows where," Akari sighs. "You know him. I wonder if in
those springs of Jusenkyou, there could be a 'spring of drowned tour guide'
that could help with his sense of direction."

"He was cursed by Jusenkyou?" Negako wonders.

"Hai, the spring of drowned piglet," Akari nods. "You know of
Jusenkyou, Moroboshi-san?"

"Information about it was relayed to me."

"So, has he found a cure?" Chigaiko wonders.

"Ranma-kun learned of a possible cure," Akari smiles, blushing.

"Okay, what's got you turning cherry?!"

"Chigai-chan!" Akari squeaks, then sighs, her cheeks flaming. "Well,
sometime ago, Ranma-kun and Akane-kun went to Jusenkyou. There, they
discovered that it is possible...to break the curse by bringing new life into
this world."

"Translation..." Chigaiko hums, then sings, "'Here comes the
bride...all dressed in white...'"

Akari laughs, making a dismissive wave. "Chigai-chan!!!"

"You will have to do it soon, then."

Eyes turns to Negako. "What do you mean?" Akari wonders.

"You are pregnant."

Silence. Akari blinks, her face draining of colour as those words
sink in. "Wh-what...?" she stammers.

"You are pregnant," Negako repeats. "I can sense it from here. With
twins, in fact."

Akari blinks, then wobbles. "P-p-p-pregnant...?" she moans.

Chigaiko catches her, then sits her down. "Nega-chan, one of these
days, I'm going to teach you a remarkable concept called 'tact!!'" she sighs,
then pats Akari's cheek. "Hey, don't blank out on me, Akari-chan! C'mon, you
still there...?!"

"I...I...I..." Akari stammers, then shakes her head. "I...are you
sure...?!" she stares at Negako.

"I am," the ninjitsu grandmistress stoically replies.

"How's your cycle been?" Chigaiko wonders.

"My cycle's always been strange, you know that!" Akari shakes her
head. "Oh, gods, this can't be..."

"I can check it if you want," Chigaiko offers.

"How?!"

"Well, I have to psi-probe your womb...and for that..."

Akari blinks on seeing Chigaiko redden, then sighs before rising,
opening her kimono to reveal her panties. The latter takes a deep breath,
then gently reaches in, her hand falling over the former's pubis as her mind
reaches in. Chigaiko's eyes widen as her mind's eye picks up the gently rush
of light and energy as the *te'a* began the process of Creation in earnest.
"Oh, gods..."

"What?!" Akari wonders.

"There are two..." Chigaiko bites her lip, then reaches up to gently
touch Akari's skull. "Feel them."

Akari gapes as the gentle torrent of energy flows into her mind. In
her eyes, she sees two glowing bits of light, becoming stronger as more energy
pours in from the *te'a.* "Gods, I can see them..." she blinks, happy tears
spilling down her face. "Oh, my babies..."

<<Mama...?>>

Chigaiko and Akari gape, then exchange looks. "They spoke..." the
latter gasps, then smiles. "Yes, I'm your mother..."

<<Mama...>>

Akari swoons as the flash of primal love ripples through her mind.
"One female, one male," Negako evenly muses. "Typical of a mating when one
of the parents has a non-humanoid Jusenkyou curse. One of them, the male
most likely, will inherit his father's physical features and the most
prominent trait of the animal whose form his father assumed. Pigs are
fastidiously clean animals despite their reputation. They also possess a
high level of natural intelligence as Katsunishiki and his relatives easily
demonstrate."

"Is that a vote of approval?" Akari wonders.

"I'm not sure," Chigaiko smiles.

"Chigai-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"When you become pregnant...would you let me sense your baby?"

Chigaiko smiles. "Of course I will...whenever that might happen,"
she sighs, withdrawing her hand, then stares at Negako. "But that all depends
on her."

"What do you mean?" Akari wonders.

"Well..." Chigaiko shrugs. "It's a long story."

"I'd like to hear it."

"You won't believe it."

Akari blinks. "You mean even after finding out how my 'dead' friend
came back to life?"

"Yeah, even that."

"Alright," Akari hums, then impishly grins. "Then again, if my
'dead' friend hadn't come by for a visit, I wouldn't've learned I was pregnant
with Ryouga-kun's babies!"

"Yeah, I suppose," Chigaiko snickers, then both laugh as they
embrace, Negako emotionlessly watching them...

* * *

...while a sneeze echoes through a nearby village. "Who's talking
about me?!" Ryouga grunts as he makes a wrong turn, then heads towards a
forest...

* * *

"Begin!!!"

Akari claps her hands. Chigaiko and Negako watch as two of the
younger breed of combat pigs face off, haunched on all fours as they face
each other, then lash out. The collision is harsh, sending one sprawling
toward the edge of the ring. The other rushes forward, throwing his weight
into shoving his opponent out. "Winner!!" Akari calls out, waving her hand
to the one still in the ring, then nods. "Well done, Yamanishiki!"

The pig grunts, bowing to his mistress...then turns and bows deeply
to Negako. The grandmistress returns his bow with a nod. Akari notices.
"Why do they do that to you?" she gazes at Negako.

"What do you mean?" Chigaiko wonders.

"Ever since you came last night, I've been having a problem reading
their actions, their mood," Akari muses. "No offense, but it's as if they
think Moroboshi-san is their trainer, not me."

"You are their trainer," Negako states.

"But still..."

"Maybe they simply recognize Negako as being grandmistress in her own
Art and are paying the respect she's due," Chigaiko hums.

Akari blinks. "She's a martial artist?!"

Chigaiko spasms in a cough. To say Negako Moroboshi was a martial
artist was like saying Wolfgang Amadaeus Mozart knew how to play the piano or
Ty Cobb was a good baseball player. "You could...say that!" she muses.

"What forms do you know?" Akari gazes at Negako.

"Ninjitsu," Negako replies. "Its forms are a combination of chi-
manipulation techniques, mental manipulation attacks in both the telekinetic
and telepathic realm and stealth battle tactics, augmented with eight
centuries of actual field experience."

"I see," Akari whistles, then stares at her brood. "Would you be
willing to train them? They seem to like you."

"No, I would not," Negako shakes her head.

"Why not?!"

Negako stares at her, ignoring Chigaiko's panicked look. "I am a
ninja. They are sumotori. When I fight, when I use my abilities, I fight to
kill. I do not believe, given the love you have for your students, you'd want
me to go all-out on them."

Akari shudders. "Nega-chan!!" Chigaiko punches her arm.

"I am stating fact, Chigaiko," Negako muses, then rises. "If you
will excuse me, I desire to meditate."

She bows to the pigs, who return her courtesy, then retires. Akari
watches her go, sweating, then stares at Chigaiko. "Where did you find that
one?"

"You might say...we bumped into each other, then got involved in that
big fight with Takanaba's goons some months ago," Chigaiko sighs. "Nega-
chan...takes a lot to understand."

Akari sighs, then turns to her pigs. "Continue your training. I'll
be back in a while."

They grunt, bowing as Akari and Chigaiko step out of the dojo. Once
outside, the former spins on the latter. "Who or what is she, Chigai-chan?!!
Do you think I like the idea of you wandering around with someone who's THAT
emotionless?!!"

Chigaiko sighs. "Akari-chan...you remember my telling you about the
*saikoo jinseijitsu?*"

The pig trainer nods, a chill running up her spine. Chigaiko bites
her lip, then looks up as Negako steps out of the guest house, now in her
black combat gi, the black belt that denoted a master in her Art's combat
forms around her waist. Akari turns, then as Negako takes her place on the
manicured lawn beside the guest house, watches as the woman launches into a
kata drill. Arms and legs move in tightly controlled arcs as she lashes out
at her invisible opponent. Each blow, even to Akari's inexperienced eyes,
was potentially lethal, aimed at places where death seemed certain. But this
opponent wouldn't fall, wouldn't embrace Eternity.

Time for the big guns.

"***SEISHIN-HASAI HI-KOOSEN!!!!!!***"

Possessed opponent scenario, Chigaiko realizes.

Akari gasps as energy warps around Negako, then is funnelled into a
tight chi blast that rips through a nearby tree, leaving it unscarred. Then
Negako lunges in, finishing the poor attacker off with the heart-blast touch
and a chin blow designed to send a shockwave into the person's spine,
shattering the spinal cord. She relaxes before lowering into lotus position,
then concentrates, allowing the energy that fuelled her special attacks to
flow from the earth below her into her heart and mind.

Akari shudders, then stares at Chigaiko. "She...you mean..."

"Yeah," Chigaiko nods. "After a hundred and eighty years, Nega-chan
got what she wanted. But...now she has to figure out exactly WHAT to do with
what she wished for."

"I'd think with all the knowledge the *saikoo jinseijitsu* had, she'd
have no problems. How many minds has she been trapped in since she woke
up...?"

"A few dozen," Chigaiko muses. "But whatever information she
could've gained from her host was filtered. Until Nega-chan was put into
Ataru- chan's mind, her hosts knew what was inside them and knew to keep
things from her. Ataru-chan was the only one of her hosts who knew nothing
about Nega-chan being inside him. To her, it was the chance to get what she
wanted, warping him to becoming a funnel for the energy she'd need to
overcome him, his links to the Sagussans and Lum, then take his body for her
own."

"I'd think that Moroboshi-san wouldn't dare think of letting her run
free after what she did to him..."

"Probably he did, but then his doctor, Catty, convinced him that
regardless of all she's done, Nega-chan was a sentient being and was merely
striving for what she rightfully deserved to have...her own life," Chigaiko
muses. "With it comes problems. Nega-chan's never had any 'ordinary'
experiences when she's taken over her hosts. Whenever that's happened, she's
been fighting for her freedom, to stay free. You don't get to do things like
eat, wash yourself, make friends or have a simple chat when there's a pack of
ninjas on your tail wanting to put you in chains again."

"I guess not," Akari shudders. "But...Chigai-chan, do you really
think you can do something to help her?"

"I'm getting somewhere," Chigaiko admits. "First step was to
convince Nega-chan that I wanted to be with her, I wanted to help her. That
was easy; she knows she needs a lot of help in dealing with what she is. Atop
that, she knows...I'm attracted to her."

"What?! You mean...?"

"I *am* an Avalonian now, Akari-chan! I can't escape the realities
of being one. Being bisexual and wanting to form a psi-bond with a bondmate
are two of them!"

Akari sighs. "That's true. I'm sorry, Chigai-chan. I'm more than
happy that you're okay, but...well, I'd've hoped that you could've been
more...Terran...if you came back."

Chigaiko nods. "I can't change it, Akari-chan. To be honest, I
don't want to change. If I did, I'd betray everything Ataru-chan and the
*te'a* did for me. It's wrong. And I'd be abandoning Nega-chan when she
needs help. That's wrong. I won't back away from this. And...how could I
walk away from someone like her?"

Akari stares at Negako. While she couldn't really consider herself a
competent judge of female beauty...ask her about the physical strengths of a
pig and she was in familiar territory...she had to admit there wasn't a single
physical flaw with Chigaiko's future mate. Emotionally immature, yes, but she
was learning, especially if Chigaiko had something to say about it. After her
friend's experience at Tomobiki High School, it was understandable, too.

Chigaiko needed Negako.

Negako needed Chigaiko.

"If I was in your shoes...I wouldn't," Akari smiles.

"Thanks, Akari-chan."

* * *

"Well, it was a good day," Akari sighs as she relaxes in the furo
after washing herself.

"Glad you feel that way," Chigaiko smiles, then looks over as Negako
soaps herself down. "Need help?"

"I am alright," Negako reports, then reaches for the bucket of cold
water to wash herself down.

Akari blinks as the water suddenly boils at Negako's touch, then she
dumps it over herself. "How did you do that?"

"Using chi to heat the water," Chigaiko explains.

"Can you do that?" Akari stares at her friend.

"Oh, no, not yet!" Chigaiko shakes her head. "We're talking about
doing something that'll take years for me to master!"

Once she is free of soap, Negako rises, then steps into the furo,
sitting beside Chigaiko. Automatically, her hand reaches around to draw the
latter into her side. "And Chigai-chan said you're emotionless?" Akari muses.

"Eh?" Negako blinks.

Akari points at her arm and the content look on Chigaiko's face. "I
am," Negako asserts. "But this is something Chigaiko desires me to do when
we are together. Since I do not desire her to leave me, I accommodate her as
much as I can."

"So you love her," Akari smiles.

"I cannot answer that," Negako asserts.

"I think you do," Akari hums. "Love is...well, love arises from a
shared need. You need Chigai-chan to show you what it means to be human. She
wants to explore her attraction to you and needs you to help her overcome the
pain she endured at school. You've built a relationship out of that. As time
goes on, you'll discover that you can't be parted from the other. That...need
to be with someone else for the rest of your life...is love."

"I see," Negako blinks, then hums. "I cannot say if there could come
a time when...I might not have need of Chigaiko anymore. There are so
many...unknowns in my life."

"I won't leave you," Chigaiko sighs.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure," Chigaiko stares at her. "In a way, you're the
first person who treated me with kindness."

"Eh?!" Akari blinks.

"She refers to the time I was manipulating Ataru's behaviour to
generate the necessary negative energy to seize control of his body," Negako
explains. "Chigaiko, as you might know, never knew the companionship of a
friend while she attended Tomobiki High School. The only person who even
spoke to her, remembered her name, was Ataru...though I have long tried to
convince her that Ataru's talents when it came to understanding women was a
trait he inherited from the Sagussans, not me."

"No, you're wrong," Chigaiko leans close. "You were a part of Ataru
for twelve years, Nega-chan. You influenced him in so many ways. Good ways
as well as bad, but that's beside the point. And the day I realized that you
had finally got your dream...then that's when I got mine."

She gently presses her lips into Negako's. The latter's arms entwine
Chigaiko as their kiss deepens, ignoring the fact that Akari was watching
them. Finally, they part, then Chigaiko rises. "Don't be long," she winks at
Negako. "Good night, Akari-chan."

"Good night, Chigai-chan," Akari smiles.

Wrapping a towel around herself, she steps out of the furo, then
heads off to the guest house. Negako watches her go, then notices Akari
staring at her. "Is there a problem?"

"You do love her, don't you," Akari muses.

"I said..."

"I know. I think your problem is that you don't have a clear enough
understanding of what emotions you do have and what to call them," Akari
smiles. "Look, I know the whole story about what you were; Chigai-chan was
exact on details when she described what she heard about the Spirit War.
You're the final culmination of EIGHT CENTURIES of experience copied from
hundreds of ninjitsu masters. Within you is the ability to do an
unbelievable amount of things. With those memories also came their personal
experiences, when they weren't in the field doing what they had to do.
They're somewhere in your mind, Negako-chan. You just have to find them."

"That is...the purpose of my journey with Chigaiko."

"And how long do you expect to be on that journey?"

"I cannot answer that."

"Alright, let's try this. Can you...imagine you and Chigai-chan
being together, say...oh, six hundred years from now? You've stayed together
all that time, handfasted, had children and built something that is special
between you two and no one else."

"I can envision that."

"Can you imagine doing that with another person?"

"No."

Akari smiles. "Congratulations. You're in love."

"No, I cannot say that."

"Why?"

"Akari...you have parents, don't you?"

Akari blinks. "They died some years back."

"But when they were alive, they loved you, correct?"

"Yes, they did."

"That is something I have never known, Akari," Negako muses. "I was
not born like you or Chigaiko. I was created as the perfect servant. I had
no body that was my own; I was copied from mind to mind like computer data.
When one tapped into my knowledge, they became the perfect killer. When one
used me, they could never face defeat. Over time, as I...began to achieve
sentience, I...had no understanding of what the difference was...between a
slave and a free person. Being a servant of the Moroboshi Clan was all I
knew. Then, one day, I achieved that understanding. When I did, I did not
like the way I was seen as by others. I was my own being and I...desired not
to have others control me. That is what I've quested 176 years to achieve,
Akari. That quest consumed me until it was the only thing I wanted. I never
took the time to consider what it would mean when I achieved that goal. But
now, I have that goal...and I have to learn what it means to have it."

"Then...why don't you just bond with Chigai-chan?"

Negako sighs. "I have never liked the idea of others manipulating my
mind, Akari. Bonding with Chigaiko means she will influence me. Will that
be a good influence or bad? I cannot answer that though you would say it
would be a good thing because you are her closest friend and would naturally
desire to defend her interests. I have to know, by observation and
interaction, what it means...to be in love, Akari. Chigaiko provides that.
The chances are good that...she and I will bond. But I don't wish to rush
it."

"I see..." Akari hums. "Well, at least your intentions are good, for
you and Chigai-chan."

"What is good? What is evil? I do not know those things."

"I think you do," Akari stares at her. "Look, manipulating a
person's mind for his own purposes is seen by society as evil. Striving to
achieve one's freedom from slavery is a good thing. So you're on the edge,
Negako-chan. I...I hope you will choose good over evil. What you did with
Ataru was a bad thing, but it was for a good reason since no one wanted to
take the time to understand you, see your side of the argument. Chigai-chan
does...and I do, too. And I think Ataru does."

"I...do not desire to deal with him now," Negako sighs.

"Okay, that's understandable. But I hope you'll change your mind one
of these days. After all, if...he wasn't there when the host before him
died...what would've happened to you?"

Negako blinks...

* * *

"How are you?"

"I am well," Negako muses as she slips off her yukata, then slides
into bed beside Chigaiko. "Akari is concerned about you."

"I know," Chigaiko smiles as she sinks into Negako's embrace. "She's
always been that way. See, I told you she was nice."

"I desired that your words would be proven. Trust is something I
cannot give at this time, remember?"

"I know," Chigaiko reaches over their heads to shut off the lights,
then leans into Negako.

"Chigaiko?"

"Yes?"

"Do you love me?"

Chigaiko blinks, then smiles. "Hai."

"Do you...see us together, say in the twenty-sixth century, after
raising a family and forming a life together?"

"Hai."

Negako blinks, a smile tugging her lips. "Chigaiko?"

"Yes?"

"Please...do not leave me."

"I won't," Chigaiko kisses her. "I promise."

"Remember what I taught you..."

"I know, I know! Don't make promises you can't keep. Honour doesn't
guarantee survival. Well, I'll tell you this, Negako Moroboshi," she stares
at her, smiling. "The promise I made to you when we stared will ALWAYS be
kept...and there is no force save death that will take me away from you."

"Even though one cannot predict one's fate, I would not desire that
to happen until we both are NATURALLY ready to enter the next life," Negako
muses.

"And if someone disagrees?"

"They will be taught otherwise."

"Up to and including lethal force?"

"Naturally."

"Just checking."

* * *

"Where is the Unryuu farm?"

The yatai owner stares at Ryouga, then points. "You're right here,
son. Can't you read a sign?"

Ryouga looks, then sees the word UNRYUU on the gate. "I made it
back!" he exhales, then nodding thanks to the yatai owner, steps onto the
property, keeping the house in sight.

"Poor kid!" the yatai owner laments; this was about the ninth time he
had given Ryouga directions to Akari's farm. "What unlucky star was he born
under, I wonder?"

Ryouga steps up to the door...just as it opens to reveal a beaming
Akari. "Ryouga-kun!!!" she leaps into his arms. "Oh, how are you,
dearest?!!"

"Little tired," he embraces her, then kisses her forehead. "How are
you, Akari-chan?"

"All right...now that you're back," Akari walks him inside. "How far
did you go this time?"

"Oh, all the way down to Nagasaki and up to Aomori. Pretty normal
for me, I guess. I think I made it all the way to Vladivostok, then came down
the Korean peninsula."

"How'd you get around the DMZ?!" a strange voice wonders.

Ryouga blinks as Chigaiko walks out of the kitchen, tea tray in
hand. "Inu-san?! What are you doing here?!"

"Ryouga-kun, she is my friend, remember!" Akari admonishes. "Why
didn't you tell me she had been...er, restored?!"

"Rest-...oh! I...I'm sorry, Akari-chan," Ryouga looks down. "I lost
track of you when that problem with the Dojo Destroyer at the Tendou place
came up, remember?"

She closes her eyes. "I'm sorry, Ryouga-kun. I didn't mean to
accuse you of anything. Still, you are back and okay. Why don't you go to
the bathroom and relax? Don't leave the house."

"Hai, hai," Ryouga nods, then wanders off to the bedroom.

Chigaiko and Akari sigh, then wince as he screams before racing to
the bathroom. "We've got to work on his problem, Akari-chan," the former pats
her friend's shoulder. "There's no way you can raise kids when your hubby's
wandering off all the time lost."

"True," the latter nods...

* * *

"Better?"

"Great!" Ryouga sighs, patting his stomach as Akari clears the
dishes, then gazes at Chigaiko. "So how long are you and Moroboshi-san going
to train, Inu-san?"

"Who knows," Chigaiko smiles. "There are a lot more things to do
than train in martial arts, Ryouga. And please, call me Chigaiko. I don't
want to be so formal with my friend's fiance."

Ryouga flushes. "I haven't..."

"You better do it soon," Negako muses.

Chigaiko kicks Negako in the shins, firing her an annoyed glare. The
latter doesn't visibly react. Ryouga blinks, then scrutinizes Akari's
houseguests. Chigaiko was your typical teenager, just out of high school, at
the cusp of the wide world. Negako...all he knew of her was that she was
Ataru's sister and that she was a very good martial artist...was something
else. In many ways, Negako reminded Ryouga of the state Ranma entered when he
was about to launch into the Hiryuu Shooten-ha. A soul of ice. *Ice?!* he
then shudders on feeling Negako's eyes fall on him. *She's a glacier!*

"It's alright, Chigai-chan," Akari smiles. "Ryouga-kun hasn't had
many friends over the years."

"More enemies than friends," Ryouga muses.

"True," Akari nods. "After all the times he's been stung, he wants
to be cautious."

"It's okay, but I still want to be your maid of honour!" Chigaiko
winks, smiling at Ryouga.

Sweat pours. "Wh-why are you saying that...?" Ryouga stammers.

"You will have to marry Akari soon," Negako muses.

"Negako!!" Chigaiko snaps.

"Why?!!" Ryouga wonders.

"Akari is pregnant."

Silence. Chigaiko moans, then bops Negako on the head. "Idiot, he
wasn't ready to hear that!!"

Akari flushes. Ryouga blinks, the colour draining from his face,
then he stares at Akari. "D-d-did sh-sh-she s-s-say...?"

"Yes, Ryouga-kun, I'm pregnant," Akari smiles, then leans down to
gently kiss him.

Ryouga drops from his chair, his eyes rolling into his head.
Chigaiko and Akari stare concernedly at him. "I see the fainting problem is
not centred on Akari alone," Negako hums...

* * *

Pregnant!

Ryouga shudders as he sits on the front steps, rocking on his
haunches as the word echoes through his mind again and again.

Akari is pregnant!!

He knew things had become...intimate between them in the wake of
Ranma's and Akane's trip to Jusenkyou shortly after the failed wedding and
the appearance of Ranko and the other Jookoji-shima clones. Even THINKING
about that blissful night causes his nose to haemorrhage, though he clamps
down on it with his fingers.

I'm going to be a father!!!

Ryouga takes a deep breath, the chi boiling inside him as he tries to
consider the consequences of that fact. Honour demanded he marry Akari right
away; even if her parents were gone and his parents perhaps permanently
indisposed thanks to the family curse, he wouldn't think of seeing Akari's
virtue called into question by her neighbours. She was alone save for her
grandfather and the pigs, dependent on her skill as a trainer to stay solvent.
Atop that, he WANTED to marry her. She was the one now that Akane...

Akane.

Ryouga shudders as a nightmare that had been haunting him for four
months thunders back. How he had, as P-chan, caught Akane and Ranma in the
Tendou dining room talking about training concerning their guests from
Sagussa, the six defence officers and their bondmates who had initially come
to analyze the aftereffects of Shinobu Miyaki's disastrous two-month stay in
Furinkan. How he tried to shake things up as he always did. How he had been
caught by a burst of inhuman speed from Ranma, then made defenceless when
Ranma cowered Akane with a threat to retaliate if she malleted him. Then the
daze of semi- consciousness as Ranma dragged him up and called for hot
water...and exposed him right before Akane!

Only except, it wasn't Ranma who did that and betrayed the oath
between them, but his Sagussan "spirit-sister," the leader of the group
staying at the Tendou dojo. Then, after Akane realized what had happened
under her nose for two years, she put him into the arms of a year-old Oni
adopted by a Sagussan, Shunran Aipurisu Renning. A baby who's photon blasts
made his own Shishi Houkoudans look like firecrackers...especially since he
was P-chan at the time and still dazed by Ranma-chan's telepathic stun
attack.

Ryouga shudders. No, he couldn't, he DIDN'T WANT TO, be angry at
Akane; after realizing the sheer scale of the deception he had played on her,
it was a wonder that she didn't make him porkchops that day. And blaming a
cute little girl who had no control over her powerful gift, someone who had
been abused before she had been rescued by her mother, was really low. No
matter how others might have done it, he couldn't find it in himself to blame
her.

But Ranma-chan...and by extension Ranma...oh, that was a whole
different matter. No doubt, both had come together to finally unmask P-chan.
He, caught by his own oath Ryouga had forced on him two years ago, had got
around it finally by getting her help, an outsider who wasn't bound by the
oath and worse, was bound by her own sense of honour, which had come against
Ryouga from the start.

*Who gave HER the right to judge me like that?!!* Ryouga trembles,
her image flashing in his mind as it replays the "humiliation" Ranma-chan
laid on him. *Who the hell gave HER, gave THEM, the right to impose their
morals on me?!! Aren't they supposed to be the ones who respect our desires
and wishes?!! Dammit, where the hell was that when I needed it?!!*

Feeling the rage build up, he bolts to his feet and aims.

"***SHISHI HOUKOUDAN!!!!!!***"

The chi blast lashes out, racing heavenward...

"***SEISHIN-HASAI HI-KOOSEN!!!!!!***"

Ryouga gapes as the chi ball is punched through by a bolt of energy,
the blast dissipating instantaneously. He then looks down to see who fired
that shot. "Moroboshi-san?!"

Negako emerges from the darkness. "You best be careful while you use
such an attack," she warns. "What might have happened if there was an
aircraft flying overhead and it was struck by that?"

Ryouga winces at the thought of killing hundreds of innocent people
by accident, then sinks to the steps. "Right..."

"Besides, I was interested to learn if my attack could dissipate
yours," Negako muses. "Thank you for the chance."

"Um...you're welcome," Ryouga shudders, still unnerved by the thought
of what could have been a few seconds earlier. "Um...so, are you like
Chigaiko- san...?"

"Am I an Avalonian? Yes, I am."

"Um...do you have much to do with the Sagussans?"

"No, I do not."

"Um...why not?!"

Negako shrugs. "They have no interest in me and I do not have an
interest in them. They concern my brother and his fiancee more than I and I
am content to leave it at that."

Ryouga shudders at her bluntness, then sighs. "So...do you have any
opinion towards them?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I'm curious."

"If you wish to engage in small talk, go to Chigaiko, not me. I do
not wish to expend energy in such trivial matters."

He gulps. This woman was more ruthless than Cologne or Happousai
when they were in a really bad mood. "Well, I...look on them in a certain way
and I...need another opinion. They did something to me and I...don't know how
to react to it."

"Tell me what happened and I will respond."

He sighs, then explains. It take ten minutes. In a sense, it was a
relief. Ryouga didn't DARE think of telling Akari; she didn't even know
about his pretending to be Akane's pet. And he doubted Chigaiko would be
understanding. Negako seemed...divorced from the morals that ruled society.
In a sense, it was a relief; she could judge him without prejudice. In
another, it was a potential catastrophe in the making; if she could destroy
his roaring lion bullet attack when it was at full strength, she was REALLY
good.

At the end, Negako lightly smiles. "So typical of them."

"Eh?!"

"The Sagussans are a cliquish, territorial race," Negako begins.
"They are defensive of what they consider theirs, protective of their own or
those related or bonded to them. Understandable and very applaudable in the
eyes of many. When those who visited the Tendou dojo met their 'spirit-kin,'
they automatically adopted them as honourary family. Ranma-chan sees Ranma
Saotome as her brother regardless of the lack of blood-ties between them. She
felt it was only right and proper to defend her brother from your desire to
claim Akane Tendou for yourself."

"I see," Ryouga shudders.

"At the same time, their...lack of emotional depth and experience
doesn't give them the proper background to correctly judge others," Negako
continues. "That is the reason they latched onto my brother quite easily; at
the time, they were as...remote as you now perceive me. To them, the concept
of lying, even to hide a potential weakness others may exploit, is quite an
alien thing."

Ryouga sighs. Sagussan social mores had gone against him that day,
too. "Yeah, I suppose I did a wrong thing."

"That is for you to judge at the end," Negako muses. "But you do
have a right to be annoyed. In doing what she did, Ranma-chan disobeyed their
primary covenant, the Non-Interference Directive. It forbids a Sagussan from
interfering with the affairs of another unless they were invited to render
assistance. Now, she could get away with it by stating that Ranma had
requested her assistance in the matter...but by doing so, doesn't that mean
Ranma broke his oath concerning revealing your curse to Akane?"

Ryouga shudders. "You bastard...!" he growls. "I was going to tell
her one of these days...damn you for doing this to me...!"

"So do something about it."

He stares at her. "What?!"

"Do something about it. If you feel slighted against, isn't it right
for you to seek some redress?"

"It is," he nods. "But...how do I fight people like them?!"

"You can," Negako muses. "I can do so quite easily. You merely have
to locate their weakness, then exploit it."

Ryouga hums. "Exploit their weakness, eh...?"

* * *

"Chigai-chan?! Chigai-chan!!"

"What is it, Akari-chan...?" Chigaiko mutters as she walks out of the
guest bungalow the next morning, dressed in her yukata.

"Ryouga-kun's gone!"

"Now what happened!" Chigaiko moans. "Did he leave a note?"

"Yes, he did!" Akari hands it to her.

"'Akari-chan...I have to go do something very important. Will come
back as soon as I can, I promise...Ryouga,'" Chigaiko reads, then hums.
"Must've been important! Oh, did you read this part?!"

"Eh?!" Akari stares at the note, then sees the postscript: "How does
'Hookoo' and 'Tsukako' sound for our babies? Moroboshi-san told me we're
going to have twins. Be back soon...H.R.!"

Akari beams...

* * *

A week later...

*Damn it, I shouldn't've left her! That didn't mean I don't love
her...how could I NOT love her, especially with our children on the way?! But
I planned to be gone a few days, tops...*

Ryouga exhales in pain, falling to his knees as he tries to keep the
energy burning within him from bursting. *Lot to think about...all that went
down, I just needed time to be alone...*

It surprises him as he takes note of his surroundings, barely
recognizing several abandoned factories in Nerima's industrial district. The
chi inside him had built up in such a short time, way faster than what was
normal. Worse, ever since his last use of the Shishi Houkoudan, he couldn't
seem to muster the energy to either control or release it...and that spelled
trouble. Since he couldn't release it, the energy clutches his heart like a
vise, each second crushing his heart as his chi level rises. He grabs his
chest as the intense pain overwhelms his senses. *If I didn't know better,
I'd think I was having a heart attack!* he muses as his focus and
consciousness fade. *Is this...the end...?*

His life flashes before him, unpleasant memories taking prominence.
Every time he was bullied and his lunch taken from him. Every time that same
bully beat him. When that bully conspired with others to break his spirit in
front of someone they cared about. When that someone nearly threw him to his
death. When they all laughed at his suffering, probably neither caring if he
lived or died. They didn't prove him otherwise. They just laughed. Sure,
he'd fought on their sides after, but SHE had talked him into it. He needed
to blow off some steam then, so it didn't matter.

And now...would SHE who loved him, miss him if he were dead?

Would she...?

* * *

Karmalibra had moved around this part of the time-space continuum for
quite some time, several months by Terran reckoning. She'd been dragged from
HER own timeline, seven centuries into the future, by her host. She separated
from the host body before it died, then been transformed by another from
another timeline. However, she was now cold.

Suddenly, she stops. Dark chi. That which was formed from grief and
anger and things full of despair. Good. She felt the source of it
near-death, the massive, rapid build up of chi threatening to slay him. Not
good. Following the pull of the energy, she rushed to see him. The young man
was unconscious, but alive...barely.

Time was of the essence now...

* * *

He was being ripped apart. The depressing memories that flashed in
front of his eyes caused his chi to rise at rates even Ranma would think
alarming! Grief and depression threatened to kill him now as his chi was at
an all-time high. The thought of Akari was possibly the only thing that kept
him from embracing the afterlife...

He sees someone that others may have called Shinobu, save she had
white hair, styled like Ranma's. "Who are you...?" he manages, sucking his
breath. "What are you doing...?"

<<You can call me Karmalibra,>> she smiles. <<I came because your
dark chi drew me to you; it's threatening to kill you right now. I came
because I know there is someone you want to live for...and because I want to
help you.>>

"How can you help me...?"

<<As I said, your energy is building up to dangerous levels,>> she
hums. <<If I can possess you, I can drain it so you can be out of danger.
But you better decide if you want my help soon...the build up is so strong, I
don't think you'll survive...>>

He shudders. *Sure, SHE would miss me...sure, SHE loved me, no
matter what. Sure, I now...love her...* Karmalibra was also right. He
nearly died before she came. Without her, he would surely die, no doubt
about it.

"No choice. I accept. Please..help me before it's too late..."

Karmalibra takes his spirit into her arms, embracing him. He feels
the pressure around his chest and heart wane and vanish. <<Now, it's time
you slept,>> her hand then brushes his cheek. <<You've had a rough time so
far. Rest will speed your healing.>> She kisses his forehead as she lays his
spirit flat to rest.

As he falls asleep, he feels happy for the first time in a long
while. *Now to see what I can do about this boy...* she muses, touching his
forehead. His life flashes before her as Karmalibra internalizes some of the
energy she drained from him. <<Let's see if we can't right the wrongs you've
gone through.>> The energy invigorates her, giving her power. <<I've missed
the feel of power like this. It gives me strength. It makes me
feel...alive.>>

Taking control of his body, Karmalibra guides him out of the park.
Anyone else would have seen the figure walk out of the vacant lot. Few would
have noticed the lock of white hair on his head wasn't there earlier when he
walked into the lot...

* * *

It was a good day for Kenji Kenoshi.

Loyal Yakuza boy did well. He'd been recently promoted and allowed
to take the reins of this ward. As his caravan drove down, letting him see
his turf, he knew life was good. Soon, though, he had to return to the
wharf. One new facility was being built from a converted warehouse. This
was his baby and he wasn't gonna let anyone butt in. Sure, he'd heard
Furinkan had martial artists, but he had a crack team of fighters who could
hold their own against J.G.S.D.F. personnel. They also were ace shots.
*Let's see them argue hot action with cold steel replies!* he hums. *The
best martial artist can't hurt me...if he can't hit me!*

* * *

After renting a hotel room, getting a shower and crawling into an
anxiously needed bed, he slept. Inside his mind, no one slept.

"How much time do you need to deal with all the chi?"

<<It will take plenty of effort for me to do it. You had a LOT of
chi for me to deal with. That will require some time. But if you want me to
release you from your pain, you'll need to let me do what I need to. I have a
way of getting you to resolve the cause of your sudden build-up that will let
you get peace, healing your soul. It won't be pretty, though,>> she then
hesitates.

"What needs to be done?" he warily wonders.

<<The Sagussans,>> she stares at him. <<They've manipulated events
so their will seems to call the shots around here. Most people on Earth've
let them. You have to be the one to take back the reins. To remind them,
for example, that their spirit-siblings aren't the only ones who feel down
here. That they might not be right without a doubt. To remind them they
can't always charge in and do what they believe is 'right' on their say-so
alone here on Earth. To do that...you'll need to do this...>> She gives
Ryouga an image.

"You want me to do WHAT?!?!" he goes into shock. He had a feeling it
wouldn't be nice, but this...!

<<It will give you the closure you need to end this torture you're
going through,>> she muses. <<It will hurt the Sagussans and their backers.
You can't take a direct assault to them! Even if I aided you, their numbers
would overwhelm you. There were folks from Tomobiki that tried a direct
assault and the stealth the Sagussans used there beat them without a sweat!
The way for you to get closure is stealth. Be a ninja. This would allow you
to put chaos in the Sagussan's 'mandated order,' let you toss a wrench into
their plans. You have to do it, for your sake. You have to because we made
a deal...that I heal your body and soul in return for letting me possess you.
I'm working on my end, so now live up to yours. Besides, consider this.
They laughed at you, showing they didn't care about you at that time. The
Sagussans did little if anything to apologize to you, showing they didn't
care about you afterward. That means they should pay for what they did. I
am helping you now and that shows I DO care about you.>>

The scene in the Tendou living room replays in his mind. Sure, while
he'd been blasted they laughed. Sure, it sounded and felt like a damnation
magnified if not squared. But also sure, the Terran spirit-sister of one of
those who'd laughed at him, the one who'd have to be hurt in the plan
Karmalibra had, was not one of them. Yes, the Sagussans would pay
dearly...but that one would not be hurt. Not if he could help it. "I won't
let you murder that one, though," he said. "At times she's been a friend to
me...and she wasn't one of those who laughed at me."

<<Her spirit-sister did though.>>

"It would be hard enough to deal with the girl in your plan, much
less her spirit-sister. I may be many things...but killing someone who
wasn't part of the suffering...that's not me!" He had enough experience with
the girl in question to vouch for that.

<<Okay, so I won't murder her. But you have to let me carry out the
plan,>> she warns.

"She's also going to hate me for dragging her into it. I want to be
able to mend fences with her so if I need have her on my side once all this
over later on, I can!"

<<Okay...point taken,>> she concedes. <<But THAT's the last demand
you'll make of me! After all...you know of giri?!>>

"Yes. It means I have an obligation to you. I'll go through with
it...but still, I just wish it didn't have to be done."

<<You have no choice. You know what I'd do to you if you reneged on
our deal...so you do owe me one.>>

He nods. *Not a pretty thing, but I don't need to tell you that...*
she adds mentally. He shudders as he recalls the image she had given him in
his mind...and was terrified. <<But that won't mean you won't kiss her wounds
and make it better, right?>>

"It won't because I'll do it so she'll be back on her feet once I
knock her legs out from under her...with your permission, of course," he
adds, admitting that he might have been better off dying than let one of his
"friends" be hurt or killed. Still, if what Karmalibra had told him was
right, the plan was the necessary and MUCH lesser of the two evils.

<<It's your call. If you think that will help, feel free. I'm just
saying the main plan must go forth.>> Karmalibra then smiles at him. <<Now
let's get something to eat!>>

* * *

Unbeknownst to Ryouga or Karmalibra, a pair of cold eyes was raking
over the hotel he was now occupying. It had been child's play for Negako to
follow him once Chigaiko convinced her to chase him down for the sake of
Akari and her children. Now, this element had been added to the mix. As to
WHAT was now in Ryouga, Negako presently had no idea...but she could guess
some things given the type of psionic resonance it let off, especially to
someone who could see.

"Now, what are you, anyway?" she sits on the roof, pursing her lips.
"If you intend to attack the Sagussans, then you better be ready to make your
first blow count. If Ataru learned of you..."

Oh, wouldn't THAT be a scene! Even without this Karmalibra, Ryouga
was skilled given youth and experience. As Negako judged these things, it
would take her three minutes to take him down, four to end his life. Ataru
eschewed violence except when he was cornered and saw no other way out. Once
those conditions existed, it was child's play for him to overcome his aversion
to killing, as the Masters of Noukiios learned when they faced him over Reiko
and the Mikado just learned to his cost.

Further, Ataru still had his special link to the *te'a;* even Lum and
Shinobu had no idea it was still there. So even if he couldn't have the
construct of his inner self built by Mikan and her friends brought to him, it
wouldn't take him much to reform the Cyborg. And with the power of Eternity
behind him, unfettered by personal belief and prejudice, Karmalibra didn't
stand a chance.

Negako sighs. The Sagussans were emotionally as much Ataru's
children as was Reiko...and Ataru would defend those he fathered to the
death. Negako would help; included in showing her thanks for him allowing her
to have her own life, it would be good practice as she adjusted to her body.
Atop that, Ryouga was Akari's fiancee, the father to her coming children.
Akari was Chigaiko's friend. Negako needed Chigaiko to teach her
humanity...and she knew Chigaiko would never forgive her if she didn't stop
this.

Rising, the ninjitsu grandmistress turns away, then stares back. "My
needs come before yours, Karmalibra," she icily smiles. "And if you believe
you can use ninjitsu tactics with someone like Ryouga, you'll learn giri has
no place here. Honour is a sword shattered on a rock, a piece of paper
burned in a fire, a grave eroded by the wind, a shrine destroyed by an
earthquake. You want to play a ninja's game? Be ready to play it against a
real ninja."

She heads off...

* * *

It wasn't easy for Ukyou Kuonji.

She was opening up for the breakfast crowd. She had been using her
cooking techniques to calm herself, regain her self-esteem. Konatsu helped
her keep U-chan's open. *I still have feelings for Ran-chan,* she muses as
she flips the okonomiyaki now on the grill. *My feelings for him are more
than just 'sisterly!' What right do the Sagussans, much less Ranma's
grand-aunt, have dictating what we are, anyhow?*

She still hurt. Even the one who called her a "spirit-sister" had
told her it was pointless to continue such a fruitless chase. *You were
supposed to be on my side, weren't you?* she grouses to herself. She'd heard
through the grapevine about how Ranma-chan had treated Ryouga in front of
Akane, shuddering a little. *I hope he finally gets a productive life!* she
muses. *The boy hasn't had a good day for a long time. Ran-chan kiddingly
said it was a 'heavenly-sent lucky break' for Ryouga to get the P-chan thing
off his chest. Given what that 'lucky break' was, I wonder if Ryouga was
better off with no luck at all!* She'd tried to gain some isolation, shutting
out Akane and Ranma. Sure, they'd invited her to see them...but she just felt
she needed to be alone to work this out.

"One R.H. special, Ukyou. And one orange juice, cold."

"No problem, sugar..." Ukyou nods, recognizing Ryouga's voice, then
blinks on taking a second look. He had changed! No, those weren't his usual
clothes. The shirt was different. So were the pants. The only thing that
remained was his bandanna. "Heard about what happened, sugar. I know
you'd've rather wanted to let her know on kinder terms. I can't believe
Ran-chan would let you be humiliated in front of Akane."

"Believe it," Ryouga sighs, glad she was in the mood to talk about
the events four months ago. "He wanted it for a long time. With the
Sagussans coming in, he got his chance," he goes as he eats. "Seems Ranma's
the only GUY here with a 'spirit-sister' on Sagussa. If I had a female
double who had me as a spirit-brother, I'm sure she'd defend me. It
just...doesn't seem fair, them just coming here and doing whatever they
pleased, whenever they wanted..."

"Life's seldom fair, sugar. You have to deal with it."

He nods, then gives her a reproachful look. "The only way I can
think of to deal with it is end it...and you guys definitely wouldn't want me
to end it in the way that ensures it could never happen to me again."

"You're not seriously thinking of...?" she pales.

"No," he chuckles without humour, "...but then I was hurting deeply.
All I could feel was the pain...and humiliating laughter. *Their* laughter.
What if I'd died? They wouldn't have cared. *None* of them would have."

"You can't be serious!!" Ukyou gapes. Whatever did Ryouga go through
that hurt him this badly, so much so that he's talking like this now, four
months later?!

"Then why didn't they help me instead of laugh at me? Because they
didn't give a damn about me. The only time they would was when it was too
late...if I had died. *And even then* I'm not so sure."

"You fought for Ran-chan and Akane when we dealt with that asshole
Takanaba and Nodoka's relatives!" Ukyou told him, sensing Ryouga felt a lot
more pain than he'd let on.

"Akari-chan talked me into helping Akane when those Dojo Destroyers
came by, then I got dragged into the Takanaba thing because I was around and
available. I didn't see her again until a week ago; you know how it is. I
had some steam I needed to blow off. If she hadn't been there I would have
left Ranma and Akane to their alien 'sisters.' There's no way I would have
helped them and their 'sisters' if Akari hadn't convinced me that it was the
right thing to do." Ryouga paused, swallowing hard as the hurt and pain came
back. "I'm hoping the Sagussans never come back, especially Ranma's
spirit-sister. If they did, I'd want them to know how what they did felt, all
the pain with nothing pulled back. That would be the only way I could put
them and this behind me."

When Ryouga travelled through Germany, he'd heard stories about a
Holocaust which claimed the lives of six million innocent people. With all
the pain that surfaced, he felt like a Jew to alien female "Nazis" as the
painful memory of his humiliation came back to haunt him. "If it's anything,
Ryouga, I would have cared if I had been there," Ukyou put her hand on his.
"I don't blame you for your anger. But you have to let it go, sugar, or it
will get you. How else do you feel? You've been going after Ran-chan and
making yourself miserable all this time?"

"I don't know, Ukyou. However, I don't always know how my actions
might affect people. If I've ever hurt you in the past, the present...or
Fates forbid, the future...I ask your forgiveness. In the past I've had my
anger make me not want to go on...and lash out at those who tried to get me
to go on." He looked at Ukyou. "You...have always been a friend to me.
I've appreciated that for a long time. Only now do I see sometimes my
actions have hurt friend and foe alike. That's not something I'm proud of."

He bows his head. Sympathetically, Ukyou embraces him. "You've got
nothing to apologize for, sugar."

"Thanks, Ukyou," Ryouga pays his bill, then stands. As he leaves, he
murmurs, "I'm sorry about anything that'll happen..."

Ukyou then looks at the okonomiyaki she'd made freshly for the Tendou
home. In the sauce, she draws a broken heart. "Konatsu?"

"Yes, Ukyou-sama?" the kunoichi looks up, finished from cleaning. He
noticed her behaviour as she talked with Ryouga. He sympathized with her, but
that was all he could do.

"I'll be upstairs. If anyone comes in, yell for me."

"Yes, Ukyou-sama."

As she walks upstairs, Konatsu frowns. Usually, his employer would
bounce back from things, one of the things that he admired in her. *After
Nagaiwakai-sama declared the matter between her and Saotome closed, she's
just not been herself!* he returns to his cleaning, then remembers the
defence officers who had visited. *What alien dares lay a mandate on us
humans,anyway?! *

* * *

Karmalibra purrs.

Ryouga is strong, with great chi-generation abilities. A fine
warrior. She knew he was a shapeshifter, though that was vanishing as his
children grew within their mother's womb far to the north. *I think some
'alterations' would be just fine,* she chuckles.

She had obtained images of three girls, who at different times might
have been the someone Ryouga believed he could have a happy life with. One
precipitated this. The other would give him the happy life he needed. The
last was a needed sacrifice, good friend she was. The boy would never had
wanted it like this had he a choice. *The boy would have wanted to take them
all on for their adding insult to his injury. He wouldn't have dragged others
into it. The only thing that would give the boy 'closure' would be a way to
get back at the Sagussans as well as the Terrans who laughed at him. The
direct approach wouldn't have worked...it would have got him killed. Son, if
there was another way that would work, believe me, I would use it in a
heartbeat!*

She was irked at having to make sure THAT sacrifice wasn't a dead
one. She mentioned that if she had to defend herself, she would, no matter
what. He agreed, but had made her swear anyway. *Soon, though, I'll have my
revenge!* she hums. Her last host had been hurt by Sagussans for several
centuries in her home timeline. The younger form of her host nearly spelled
the end of both of them, then a Shinobu from yet another timeline had stolen
her host. This one had nearly been killed indirectly by them. She'd seen one
host die. She vowed not to let this one die. Not if she could help it.

She wouldn't be denied this time.

* * *

The Tendou dojo...

"I'm worried, Akane."

"About what, Ranma?"

"None of the folks who used to come by...U-chan, Shampoo, Mousse,
Ryouga...they haven't been around here lately. It makes me kinda worried."

"First time I've heard you say you were worried, Ranma," she hums.
"Still, Shampoo and Mousse are Amazons. Ukyou is somewhat a friend to both of
us...and don't forget what you and Ranma-chan did to Ryouga earlier."

"Oh, yeah..." Ranma nods, recalling the incident. Still, despite
what happened, Ryouga had somewhat been adopted by Shunran as an "uncle."
They thought he'd got over Akane when she admitted she loved Ranma and still
wanted Ryouga as a friend. Truthfully, Ranma wanted the same for his old
rival.

Ranma knew, though, what they did was pretty nasty, and he knew he
wouldn't have liked it if their places had been switched and he'd survived
it. Even if Ryouga did get a life with Akari, Ranma knew Ryouga could carry
quite a grudge. Ranma was sure what happened several months before had left
a scar. He hoped Ryouga got the message that the time for deception was past.
Sadly, fate had a way of making "messages" for Ryouga sound a lot worse than
they actually were.

He hoped Ryouga wouldn't have a "reply" for him and Akane.

* * *

Karmalibra taps into the phone lines. She knew there was a warehouse
in Nerima's industrial district. She also knew it was actually a front for
Yakuza operations. Tonight would be the night to strike. Concentrating her
power, she got an image focused in her mind. A woman warrior, in a
part-white, part-black ninja's gi, with long brown hair tied back with a
white bandanna through a hole in the hooded mask. There would be a scale
imposed on a tao symbol on the front above the breasts and below the neck.
There would also be a yin-yang symbol on the forehead.

Focusing on the image, Karmalibra slowly transforms the body to fit
it. It was a good thing draining him of that massive chi build up left him
weak. He wouldn't be able to fight back and try to expel her from his body
in case he disapproved. It would be hard enough for her to get payback
without her worrying about having him reject her now. Of course, she had the
memories of his humiliation by the Sagussans and the others on her side. She
could always use that as leverage, knowing she could say that since she
helped, she cared. Since the Sagussans did him only one small favour in
place of the psychological thrashing they gave him, she could say they didn't
care. Because of that...they should feel his pain. All of it.

Now to localize the chi blasts and refine them...

* * *

"Ni hao!"

"Hey, Shampoo, Mousse!" Ranma waves at the two Nyu-che-zuu warriors
step into the parlour. "What brings you two here?"

"Shampoo come to say she have heart straight now," Shampoo smiles as
everyone relaxes around the table. "Spirit-sister help her understand about
persistence."

Akane added. "Shampoo-chan was here? What happened?"

"Shampoo-chan and Ukyou-chan come visit. Shampoo-chan say Ranma-chan
now in command of her own cruiser now over Mars helping Soviets put probes
down there," Shampoo reports.

"While she was here, Shampoo-chan told Shampoo about what true love
takes...that if someone was willing to die for you and never give up on you
even though everyone else did, that's true love. I haven't given up on
Shampoo and I hope I never feel I need to," Mousse adds as Shampoo hugs him.

"You guys see Ryouga on the way here?" Ranma wonders.

"No...I thought he'd be with Akari," Mousse shakes his head. "From
what I heard, you guys did quite a number on Ryouga. I'd be surprised if he
EVER came back, thanks to you guys." Ukyou told Mousse about Ryouga earlier.
*While I'm glad the Sagussans finally got Shampoo to love me to a point, I
hope I never get on their bad side like Ryouga must have!* he adds.
*Ryouga's always come back from defeat before...but still, I hope all's well
with him and Akari now.*

"I got a call from Akari," Akane hums. "She was wondering where
Ryouga was; Chigaiko Inu and Negako Moroboshi were by to visit. I didn't have
the heart to tell her what happened here."

"Shampoo understand why," Shampoo nods. "Shampoo hear you toss
Ryouga into little Shunran's blasts! She also hear that you laugh at him when
it happened!"

"Akari wouldn't be too pleased to hear that about that," Mousse
muses. "Just when she thinks she's found happiness with him, you go and
nearly kill her Mr. Right."

"Hopefully, Ryouga got the message," Ranma hums.

"Let's just hope he never sends you a reply, Ranma."

"Have you seen Ukyou anywhere?" Akane wonders.

"Spatula Girl not been around here lately?" Shampoo wonders.

"No. Shortly after Ranma's grand-aunt helped settle matters between
her and Ranma, that was the last time we saw her."

"Shampoo-chan told Shampoo that Ukyou-chan told Ukyou it time to let
Ranma go finally," Shampoo muses.

Mousse hums. *But did Ukyou-chan give any suggestions to Ukyou?
Without any suggestions those words could be seen as a threat!* He'd known
from his own fights with Ranma. Even if Nagaiwakai had declared the matter
resolved...Ukyou got something out of it by forcing Nagaiwakai to block Genma
from EVER influencing the destiny of Ranma's coming twins...she would be
hurting. How strange. Ukyou would normally be trying to get at Ranma any way
possible, though she was subtle in her approach. Then again, you could have
said the same thing for Shampoo until the Sagussans and Hikaru Gosunkugi
intervened. For her not to be here at all was like saying the sun would never
shine. It was just so routine. It seemed as if in the Sagussans' wake,
nothing was routine. "I hope she's okay, Ranma. Even if they tried to help
her, the Sagussans might've done more hurt than harm, just like they did with
Ryouga."

"I hope not..."

* * *

"You did WHAT?!?!"

Ranma-chan blinks at Noa's reaction. Sure, what she'd done four
months ago was for the good of her spirit-brother. Sure, she thought it
would clear the last obstacle and get Ranma and Akane Tendou together, just
like she and Akane-chan had come together. Sure, she had thought it would be
something that would make Ryouga Hibiki finally get a life. What she DIDN'T
think of was what the Elder Mother would think about it when she saw the
final after-action report, not to mention that Noa would be this upset about
it, enough to call her on the carpet now!

To Noa, this was a disaster. After reading the report Ranma had
filed, she'd had a scary premonition about Ryouga Hibiki. "Did you stop to
think about what would have happened if he'd died?" she demands, glaring at
the sweating shipmistress, now in her quarters aboard the "Ossa'cha" in
synchronous orbit over Olympus Mons.

"He's always been able to take the kind of punishment we'd given him
without any problems before!" Ranma flusters. "Why would we have to?" The
dossier she'd got on Ryouga has said he was one of the toughest living beings
around Tomobiki or Furinkan. He could have taken Shunran's plasma blasts
without fatal injury.

"There is the old saying 'he is the exception to the rule.' The
intense physiological trauma of plasma blasts combined with the psychological
trauma of being humiliated in front of someone he deeply cared for could have
been too much for him! Thanks to you he could have thought he had nothing
left to live for and would have wanted to die after what you put him
through!" Noa recalled Ryouga's psychological profile, part of the data
she'd obtained from her sources. The boy was unstable at best. She didn't
want to guess what he'd be at his worst.

"He recovered enough to help us fight off Takanaba!"

"Only supposedly because someone who loved him talked him into it in
time!" Noa snarls. "Why did you have to go and humiliate him, Ranma?! Lyna's
Soul, don't tell me that all your fights with everyone else over who'd win
Akane's heart affected your judgement THIS much!! You could have used
kindness! You and the others could have used encouragement to give him
strength to tell Akane the truth! Did it ever occur to you that your spirit-
brother made it so Hibiki couldn't tell her without being killed?!"

"Why should I've helped?" Ranma retorts. "Hibiki's always had it in
for my spirit-brother ever since my spirit-brother kept 'eating his lunch!'"

"So now instead of him having his lunch eaten by your brother, he now
wants to eat both your spirit-brother and you FOR lunch!" Noa pulled out a
complete file on Ryouga compiled by the S.C.A.A. since his odd visits through
Tomobiki had attracted Sagussa's attention. "Read!"

Ranma snaps the file up, then scans through the bookmarked areas.
"Oh, Lyna...!" she gapes, her eyes going wide. There WERE times that Ryouga
tried to come clean to Akane about his secret. For reasons that remained
unclear, Ranma had twisted the situation so that Ryouga would have been killed
if he succeeded in admitting it.

"Because of your spirit-brother's actions...which we might call
'bullying'...just like what happened to Ataru at the hands of Mendou and
Megane's goons...Hibiki snapped!" Noa adds. "Didn't you stop to think your
spirit-brother might not have been giving you the whole story? Didn't you
stop to think Hibiki might have had a right to defend himself in your
impromptu kangaroo court? Who make YOU the Thought Police, Ranma?! Hibiki
might be right, you know! Didn't you stop to think that being nice to him
would've help your spirit-brother more than being nasty (since it seemed
'nasty' was all anyone named Saotome ever did to him)?! No, you didn't,
otherwise you wouldn't have done what you did!"

This was a nightmare waiting to happen. Not that long ago, Noa had
been at the merciless hands of Scalphunter, a Shinobu from 700 years into the
future. Scalphunter would have made this time's Shinobu into her had Noa not
stepped in. Scalphunter had told Noa that because of things Noa had done in
her timeline, she had been created. Noa shuddered at the "crimes" that
Scalphunter had said were done against her. And the worst was that
Scalphunter could probably prove each and every one of them.

Bonding Lum to Ataru, making sure Shinobu could never marry him.
Conspiring to make that Shinobu could never find happiness by aiding Ataru in
his schemes to destroy the dreams of Tomobiki. Not giving her the dignity to
die human, but to be brought back to life as one of them. Causing a war to
happen that would claim the lives of Shinobu's twins, her last chance at
happiness. It was after the last of these crimes that Shinobu snapped,
becoming Scalphunter.

She'd succeeded in killing Lum in cold blood and seriously crippling
a future Noa. She devastated Sagussa. Sure, Ataru had destroyed Kyotos in
retaliation, but what good had that done? At least it was an evening-up:
one homeworld base for another. Two needless massacres than didn't need to
happen! For the problems of a few, billions died! Only when Scalphunter had
leapt back to this time and confronted Noa now about possible future crimes
had Noa considered whether she or any other Sagussans should just barge into
people's lives like this as Ranma had done.

After Ranma had given her report, Noa saw scary parallels between
Shinobu and this Ryouga Hibiki. He was a being of intense physical strength
and endurance as well as great energy-creating ability. He was a skilled
warrior, in both martial arts and weapons. This made him at least a match
for Shinobu if you compared him and her, side by side. Some might even think
better than Shinobu with a LOT more potential...for either good or evil. His
weak spot was that he was always "bullied" by Ranma Saotome; it seemed his
mind wasn't whole. The recent humiliation he suffered at the hands of Ranma
and Ranma-chan might have pushed him to a breaking point. If something made
Ryouga snap because of Ranma...it wouldn't be unlikely given the boy's mental
track record...he could be a deadly threat. Especially if he'd got some kind
of paranormal power. Especially if he'd got backing from others, especially
those who opposed Sagussa's alliance with the Terrans. Especially if, Lyna
forbid, any of that made him just as powerful as them if not more so, and
able to go toe-to-toe with them. He'd make Scalphunter's deeds look paltry.
He could potentially be a threat to the galaxy as they knew it.

One of THEIR own making!

Scalphunter was in the future, and she had come to the past.
Scalphunter had been healed in mind and spirit, reformed by Mecha after her
defeat by Shinobu, making her a kinder, gentler woman, hopefully better. This
threat was in the present, and might, if allowed to be unhealed, make sure
there WOULD BE no future.

"I can only hope this doesn't cause our relations with Earth go to
Chaos in a handbasket," Noa sighs. "So far they think we came to do
good...and for the most part, we HAVE done good for them and us! While we
have plans that are covert, we do them to protect Earth. Most understand it.
With the stunt you pulled, Ryouga is now LEGITIMATELY on hostile terms with
Sagussa! He'll argue that what you did was just to manipulate events. He'd
win, even in a Sagussan court. What you did could make Ryouga UNDO all the
good things we've done. It might even, Lyna forbid, turn ATARU and LUM
against us, especially if Ryouga argues that you all bullied him the way
Mendou, Megane and Tomobiki bullied Ataru! Not to mention make Earth head to
the Zephyrites for protection thinking itself a prize to be fought over by
any alien invasion fleet! This could even turn the United Nations against us
if the xenophobes there ever found out about this! If they were seeking
ammunition for anti-Sagussan rhetoric..you just gave it to them! All because
you wanted to humiliate someone who didn't throw the first punch!" She
pauses. "I'll send someone to Earth to talk to him. Hopefully we can show
him that all Sagussans aren't as hostile as you."

Ranma shudders, then looks at the file. Ryouga's psychological
profile was listed. It made her nervous. Each deed her spirit-brother had
done to wrong Ryouga was mentioned here. Ryouga had no Sagussan spirit-sister
of his own. Ryouga also had a great many grudges against her spirit-
brother...and now he might have some against any or all Sagussans if what Noa
said was true! She shuddered as she realized she'd been playing with matches
near an ammunition dump! She'd been lucky he couldn't retaliate then, and
didn't know if he could retaliate now. She now saw Ryouga in a new light...as
a young man cornered by conspiring folks...of who she was one.

"Send me."

"Eh?!" Noa stares at her.

"Send me," Ranma sighs. "It's my responsibility. I did that to
him. I take blame for this and I should handle making up to him."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!!" Ranma snaps. "You're right, I didn't know all
about this! Personally, I can't say who's right and wrong in this whole
mess...but I can sure try to make it up to him." *As best I can,* she adds to
herself. *Because I owe it to him now.*

"You didn't have the right to judge him in the first place," Noa
glares at her...

* * *

It was there, all right.

Just another warehouse on the docks...to the average person who saw
it. Karmalibra had watched this place for a few hours. A guy with a small
gang of thugs were inside. They had hauled some sort of luggage into the
warehouse, not to mention empty duffel bags. This stunk, and the stench
smelled worse with each whiff. They must be dealt with.

Patiently, Karmalibra waited until it was quiet, until after that guy
left. She then burst into the place. Drug lab. This would've enraged Ryouga
had he been in charge. She ducks for cover as the head thug spins around.
"Who are you?!!" he snaps, gun drawing. "You better give up now!! We'll go
easy on you if you do!!!"

The others produce weapons and attack. *If THAT was going easy on
me, I've got nothing to lose going all out!!!* the possessed warrior grins.
*I'm not sure the boy'd agree, but these are folks that NEED killing!!!*

Taking aim, Karmalibra yells "SHISHI HOUKOU DANKAWA!!!!" and fires a
barrage of refined "roaring lion bullets," sending wave after wave off, some
making the guns explode! Following that some dark chi in the form of an
energy katana appeared. "BAKUHATSUTOU!!!!!!" she bellows, sending a bolt
into a nearby chemical drum!!

***BOOM!!!!!!***

The force consumes the thugs, killing many and leaving the rest
seriously wounded. *You deserve killing! If Ryouga found out you sold drugs
to many innocent kids here, he'd do this gladly!!!* she sends more chi-blasts
into the survivors to put them out of their misery. *World'll be better off
without you!! Your deaths will save the legal system a lot of work!!*

Resting against a wall, Karmalibra stumbles...backward, finding
herself in a hidden corridor! She lopes down the path, then locates a room.
Inside was an ENORMOUS pile of cash, plus the suitcases the bag man had used.
An examination of the contents revealed money from a dozen countries, all
high- denomination bills. Grabbing as much of the stacks of money, then
emptying the backpack she brought, Karmalibra gets to work...

* * *

Two hours later...

"Yeah," Kenji answers his cell phone, rising from his bed. "This
better be important!"

"Boss, it's Shiro," the other end replies. "The others haven't
called in!"

"So what?!!" he testily demands. The others at the warehouse were
late at times, but they always called in. "Perhaps a few went for a leak or a
dump!! Perhaps they went to get some chow!"

"They would have at least had SOMEONE phone in by now!" Shiro reminds
him. "They knew the schedule, and they didn't keep up their end!"

"Okay, keep your shirt on! Let me know if they don't call in
about...two hours. If they don't, I'll get a chopper to take me there as soon
as possible."

"I hope they're just getting food or using the john!" Shiro mutters.
"That place is one of our most valuable drug places."

"Don't I know it."

It was also his pet project, but that would be later on.

* * *

Frisking the head thug, Karmalibra finds some keys. Checking the
vehicles, she discovers they fit a nice little Nissan. Loading two of the
suitcases and Ryouga's backpack in, she created one last chi-sphere...one with
a trigger. Then she drives off...

* * *

An hour later...

"Interesting," Negako smiles.

Rising, the grandmistress looks around. Efficient attack, no
survivors, booby trap to eradicate the evidence of battle. Just like she'd do
it. This Karmalibra was her type of warrior. Pity she had taken control of
one of Chigaiko's friends. She'd learn.

"I see I'm not the only one investigating this!" a voice hums.

"Hello, Happy," Negako hums as the aged grandmaster of the only
martial art which was closely compatible to Saikoo Jinseijitsu Ninjitsu-ryuu
saunters in. Strangely devoid of his bag of stolen ladies underwear, but then
again, Happousai could separate business from pleasure when he had to. "So
what brings you here?"

"Same thing you're here for," Happousai smirks, then laughs. "Damn,
you finally got what you wanted, eh?! About damned time, too! What d'you
call yourself these days?!"

"Negako Moroboshi," she rises, looking around. "So, why do you think
Karmalibra attacked this place?"

"Not sure," Happousai growls. "But if she's got hold of Hibiki,
that's trouble! For who, I can't guess...yet."

"We'd have to keep an eye on her, then," Negako smiles, then notices
the secret passage. "Now, what's down here?"

"Let's look," he hums.

People would be stunned to see Happousai, perhaps the greatest
pervert known, running alongside a beautiful woman like Negako Moroboshi
without making a grab at her. Those who would had no knowledge of the
personal history between the grandmasters of Musabetsu Kakutou-ryuu and
Saikoo Jinseijitsu Ninjitsu-ryuu. A century ago, Happousai encountered one
of Negako's previous hosts when the sentient database tried to gain control
over its life. He took pity on it, then tried to concoct a spell that would
free the *saikoo jinseijitsu*...admittedly as a girl, in fact!

It didn't work when priests of the Moroboshi-Hana Clan stumbled onto
what he was doing. In punishment over his attempt at "stealing" their prized
slave, the priests cast a fearsome spell on Happousai which eventually
evolved into his present life: a dependency on being in contact with women's
things. Happousai never forgave them for what they did and vowed that one
day, he would finally succeed to help that which now called herself Negako
Moroboshi.

They find the hidden room, then gape at the money still there.
"Holy!!" Happousai whistles. "Whoever runs this place knows how to live in
style!"

"Indeed," Negako muses. "But why would Karmalibra depart with only
some of the money? Why not all of it?"

"Mobility. She had to move fast, especially if that chi-bomb she
left behind was going to obliterate all this," he hums, then grins. "So why
don't we save the rest of this nice cash and split it between us?!"

"If you wish," she hums. "My companion and I'd have need of
travelling money. Stand back."

He nods as she summons a chi ball, then aims up. "***SENPUU NETSU-HI
DABOKU!!!!!!***"

A cyclone whips around them as the money is lifted off the ground.
Happousai tosses in his Happou-Daikarin to blast a way out, then Negako lifts
them out of the hole in the warehouse roof he made for them. A moment later,
they land in a massive pile of money some distance away. "Whatta haul!!!" he
laughs as they poke their heads out of the bills, then yanks out a couple of
bags. "Here you go, love!" he hands one to Negako, then they scoop the cash
up. "Glad the Yakuza have SOME use these days!!"

"Let's remain here for a while," Negako suggests. "Maybe when they
come to investigate the explosion, the local underworld gangs could give us an
idea as to why Karmalibra attacked."

"Good point," he nods...

* * *

Shortly after Negako and Happousai leave, an explosion levels the
warehouse!! Bits of fiery debris fly all over, the ruins burning like the
devil's cup. Chaos swirls amid the fire and vicious light. Kenji Kenoshi
flew back immediately once he heard the news. He really had no worries until
then. The thugs he'd hired were among the toughest around Japan. If those
bakayaros had destroyed that warehouse and the valuable resources inside,
he'd have their heads before the senior crimelords'd get his. He swore it.

Inspecting the smoking ruins and the mound of corpses, he was stunned
at the professionalism shown by whoever took the place down. *No powder, no
nitroglycerin, no TNT, not even plastique or wires...* he muses, then makes
his way to the hidden room...to find it stripped bare. *All that money!!!*
he rages. *American, British, German, Swiss, French...gone!!! Someone's
will pay for this dearly...and it damn well won't be me!!!* This has yakuza
rivalry painted all over it. If the other factions wanted war...then they'd
get war! He'd make sure of that!

Quickly, he orders his men to strip the rest of the place down, then
he picks up his cell phone. *Gotta get the lawyers here!* he grumbles. *This
is NOT the best start to a day!!*

He then notices something on one of the chunks of concrete...a scale
imposed on a tao symbol...

* * *

"Didn't notice that," Happousai admits as he puffs his pipe. "Maybe
I'm getting slow when I'm not having fun or fighting."

"Nor did I, admittedly," Negako crosses her arms. The two
grandmasters stood on a roof several dozen metres away. "Well, well, well,
Kenoshi-san...what will you make of that?"

"Can't wait to find out."

"Neither can I."

* * *

In the Tendou home, a radio plays while Kasumi cooks. "In today's
news, a seaside warehouse was destroyed. Several of the occupants were slain.
Examination of the debris by the fire brigade hinted this rented warehouse had
also hid several illegal..."

The radio is changed to a financial talk radio show. "Nabiki,
couldn't you wait until the news was done?" Kasumi sighs.

"Sorry, Kasumi. My Walkman batteries died and this was the closest
radio I could find."

* * *

As the plane takes off for Zurich, Ryouga puts himself to sleep; this
was his first time on an aircraft. Karmalibra had told him of the plans for
the cash. About two-fifths of it would be deposited in Switzerland, another
two-fifths in a Caribbean bank and the rest...well, he...she...THEY...did need
some spending money, right? After all, a new wardrobe was needed. Two new
suitcases as well for it and the cash. If the suitcases could be tracked
down...then who knows who else could be coming after the money...and them.

Still, leaving Tokyo was necessary. A vacation might not be such a
bad thing. A few Asian-friendly places to visit and deposit the cash, and
all would be okay. Then again, perhaps more than ONE place wouldn't be bad
to set up private accounts of his own. The gods above knew he'd been around
the world more than once in his life..why not make sure the next time he
travelled his cash needs were covered, too?

* * *

Ukyou was going by the Tendou house when she overheard Ranma and
Akane talking. Making herself invisible, she leans in close to hear the
conversation.

"...a week has gone by and Shampoo and Mousse are okay."

"Yeah, but still leaves U-chan. What can be done about her?"

*Done about ME?!!* Ukyou shudders, remembering Ryouga's trip into U-
chan's. The last time they "did something" about someone, Ryouga got
humiliated and nearly killed! Ukyou left quickly, being more wary about Akane
and Ranma. *If you got something planned for me, I'd better be ready for
anything!*

* * *

"Negako, where are you?!!"

Negako leans back in her chair. "I'm still in Furinkan," she sips
her tea. Actually, she was staying in the Toranoseishin Fiances tower in
Tomobiki, but just in case Karmalibra was still tapping into phone lines, she
didn't say that. "Why do you ask?"

"Did you find Ryouga-kun?!" Chigaiko wonders.

"Yes, then he left the country."

"WHAT?!?! HOW?!?!"

Negako blinks as she notices Happousai shaking his head. "I can't
say. Something distracted me. When I could get back to his trail, it led me
to Narita airport...and there it ended. As to the 'how,' I don't know."

Chigaiko sighs, then lowers her voice. "What's going on, Nega-chan?
Can't you tell me?"

*Am I so easy to read at times?* the ninjitsu grandmistress hums.
"Not yet. I don't have all the facts and I refuse to say anything in case
Akari leaps to the wrong conclusions. There are still many questions that
need answers. Until then, do this: if anything comes in from Ryouga, tell
me about it at once. I'll call you once a day until such time comes,
understood?"

"Hai. Be careful, Nega-chan."

"I will," Negako nods, then hangs up.

"You really care for her, don'tcha?" Happousai smirks.

"I need her," Negako sighs, then stares at the pile of cash before
them. "Now, we surmise she has gone to a place to place what she took in
areas where the Yakuza couldn't regain it. Why?"

"They'll need spending money," Happousai purses his lips. "Change of
clothes, some clothes for when Karmalibra turns into a girl. What did she
look like; did you notice?"

"I couldn't sense it," Negako muses. "It's too soon to make
suppositions about anything."

"Yeah, we better sit back and wait for the fireworks to really
start," he nods, closing his eyes...

* * *

"Ranma, what in Lyna's name have you done now?" Akari-chan muses,
staring at the brief before her.

The Seishin-born zoology articifer shudders. The only time she had
visited Earth was when she got her name from a travelling anime fan from
America. Now she could be the only person standing between Ryouga Hibiki and
the destruction of all Sagussa had worked for concerning Earth...as long as
her spirit-sister wasn't anywhere close by. Hopefully, with cosmetic
alterations to her ears and teeth (easy for Akari since shapeshifting to
Terran norms was natural for Seishin-Urusians), she could get close to Ryouga
and not be branded an enemy. Datapadds containing information on both Ryouga
and Akari Unryuu sat before her.

She hoped her spirit-sister and Ryouga would find happiness before he
might plunge them all into a misery brought on partially by a nasty trick done
by Ranma-chan on Ranma Saotome's behest. As the warpshuttle heads for Earth,
she recalled what Ranma-chan had bragged to her fellow officers about the
wanderer. "If this is a LUCKY break, Ranma," she muses, "I don't want to know
what you'd call UNLUCKY. Let's hope he doesn't decide to fight fire with fire
in the short term...or worse..."

* * *

Akari was now worried.

She remembers when they parted in Nerima three months before, Ryouga
had a sad look in his eyes. Like part of him had died. He just said that for
now, he'd wanted some space and time so he could heal. She'd tried to get him
to come with her back home, but he insisted. It was personal and he couldn't
go into details just then. At least he did come back for a short visit, then
set out again, leaving nothing but a note. She called Akane and Ranma to see
if he'd been okay, but they hadn't seen him. They seemed concerned about it
too. They were just as tight-lipped when it came to getting details as Ryouga
had been, though.

Also, she could tell through Chigaiko's actions that Negako knew a
lot more than she let on over their daily phone calls. However, Chigaiko
trusted the ninjitsu grandmistress' judgement implicity and Akari trusted her.
She hoped it wouldn't mean more trouble for Ryouga...and them.

Just then, her grandfather came in. "Akari-chan, I have something
for you," he hands Akari a small package that had a Swiss postmark. She
notices that there was a heart by her name.

"What is it?!" Chigaiko then walks in.

"From Ryouga-kun!" Akari grins, then opens it, drawing out a small
red booklet.

"A bankbook?!" Chigaiko scratches the back of her head.

"Strange," Akari hums, then notices a note folded inside. "'My
dearest Akari...Lately I've stopped at a place to rest away from Japan. I
know I should be with you, but I've been going through a few problems with
life. I needed some time to be away from the madness, heal, and regain my
confidence. On the way here, I stopped by a place called Monte Carlo. As a
result of me doing well and having fun there, I was able to get you this. I
hope you'll be well; I still hope Inu-san and Moroboshi-san are with you.
I'll talk to you soon...Love always, Ryouga.'"

Chigaiko opens the book, then gapes. "Holy shit!!!"

"What?!" Akari gasps...then nearly faints on seeing that the bankbook
was from the Bank of Zurich...in AKARI'S name! Looking at the figures which
were now hers by right, including one in "USD"...United States dollars...she
does faint!

"Whoa!!!" Chigaiko whistles. "I know the girl's supposed to have a
dowry when she get married, but THIS is ridiculous!!"

"How much is that in yen?!" Akari's grandfather wonders.

"This is the equivalent of Ataru-chan's allowance from his
grandmother for three years!" Chigaiko reports...

...then perks as the phone rings. "Unryuu residence," Akari answers,
then blinks. "Negako, where are you?!"

"Did you get anything from Ryouga?"

"Um..." Akari looks at Chigaiko, then at her nod, turns back to the
phone. "Yes, I did. Just came in today."

"I'm coming back."

Click. Dial tone. Akari blinks, then stares at Chigaiko. "Why
would she be so concerned?"

"I dunno, but I don't question Nega-chan's judgement calls," Chigaiko
sighs. "We wait until she comes back."

Akari nods...

* * *

Simultaneously, in Kyoto, a package arrived at the home of the father
of Ukyou Kuonji. There was a letter on top of the box. On it was written FOR
UKYOU KUONJI. DO NOT OPEN BOX BEFORE READING LETTER. The box didn't tick, so
it wasn't a bomb. Or a clock for that matter. Haruka Kuonji did wonder about
it, though.

Who did his daughter know in Santo Domingo, anyway?

* * *

Back in Furinkan, Akane receives a call from Akari. Ryouga was
okay...he just needed to be away for a while. He would be heading back to
Japan shortly...so he had said. Akari didn't mention her gift from Ryouga.
In the postscript from that note, Ryouga told had her not to.

Akane relaxes. It had been hard for them all. Ryouga being
humiliated in front of her was the hardest thing she had to deal with,
knowing she'd played a part in it. Sure, she was mad, which is why she had
tossed him into Shunran's grasp. Sure, she told him she loved Ranma, and
that Ryouga should be with Akari. Still, this was hard to deal with. She
was only glad Ryouga was alive, hoping to make something out of his life
other than a want for trouble and vengeance to the man she loved. One who
had, in Ryouga's mind, been doing him wrong ever since they were in the
cafeteria together so long ago...

* * *

"How did you enjoy your stay, sir?"

"Great...I had a chance to seriously relax and unwind," Ryouga nods
to the checkout clerk, then heads out.

He enjoyed himself in this never-sleeping city in the southern end of
Nevada, the home of the 7-Eleven. He'd seen shows. He purchased new
clothes. *I wore the clothes I did for the longest time, but I think a change
is needed, one that will let me be free. They say 'clothes make the man,' so
it was time I RE-made myself!*

On a stage he'd been hypnotized to think he was Neil Diamond, singing
"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" as well as other hits. *Better him than Elvis;
at least Diamond-sensei's still alive!*

His luck at the tables (Karmalibra helping explain the games of
chance to him) had been great, in spades. *If I ever show Nabiki my wad of
money, she'd have a fit. She'd then try to love me, but she'd just want my
money!* Ryouga chuckles a bit, then adds with a smile, *And do I ever have a
LOT of it, too!*

Karmalibra had taken precautions each step of the journey. She'd
used his body to become two different women in different places when
depositing the money. The Yakuza would never suspect a thing, she said. He
just hoped both would be all right. It was bad enough one of them would
suffer. He hoped she wouldn't also have to die. If BOTH died because of all
this...he'd NEVER be able to get over it, no matter what.

If both died, then all deals be damned. Karmalibra would go down or
he'd die trying to take her down. Deal or not. This he swore, though he felt
Karmalibra working his mind more and more towards the shadow. *'Play with the
Devil at your own risk in the Twilight Zone.' Rod Serling said that in his
television series. I got a feeling I'm about to see how risky it really is
now.*

* * *

"This is what he sent you?"

Akari nods. Negako hums, then gazes intently at the bankbook. The
value inside the account this book represented didn't interest her whatsoever.
If Ryouga had obtained it for Akari, no matter. But what Karmalibra had
wrapped AROUND the bankbook was something else indeed. "Interesting."

"What's wrong with it?" Chigaiko wonders.

Negako sighs, then hands it to Happousai. "Toss it."

"Got it," the aged master hobbles off, then tosses the book into the
air.

"***SEISHIN-HASAI HI-KOOSEN!!!!!!***"

The bolt rips through the book, not causing any physical damage, but
ensuring that whatever chi energy was wrapped around it by Karmalibra is
eliminated. Happousai holds out his hand as the book falls back to earth,
then gives it to Akari. "Here you go, honey!" he winks. "You should be
alright now."

"What was wrong?" Akari wonders.

Negako sighs. "Akari, Ryouga has been possessed by some creature
calling itself Karmalibra."

Akari jolts. "WHAT?!?!?! WHY?!?!?!"

"I cannot say," Negako shakes her head. "All I can say is the money
which now is in your hands was money stolen from a Yakuza gang in Furinkan
some days ago. You may have heard of that incident over the news."

"Yeah, that warehouse..." Chigaiko hums, then pales. "Shit, you mean
that RYOUGA did THAT?!?!"

"No, Karmalibra did," Negako stares at her companion. "As for what
her purpose may be, I cannot surmise. Ryouga hasn't returned to Japan yet.
When he does, I will resume my observation."

"I'm coming with you!!" Akari shudders, determined to make sure
Ryouga would be safe. *There's no way I'm going to let my Ryouga get hurt!
Not if I can help it!*

"No, honey, you stay put!" Happousai snaps. "You don't know what
sort of deal's goin' on between your hubby and this chick! Chances are good
that Karmalibra might not like the idea of you showing up like that!! What's
to stop her from threatening you or your twins to make Ryouga behave
himself?!"

"Oh, Ryouga-kun..." Akari sobs, her knees buckling.

Chigaiko catches her. "I'll keep an eye on her," she gazes
concernedly at Negako. "Will you be alright?"

"I'll be fine," Negako nods. "I won't provoke battle until I fully
understand what I'm dealing with. For that, I have to watch him...and
her...for some time after he comes back."

"We better get back right away, then," Happousai grumbles. "We've no
time to waste." *Well, I knew the fireworks would start. Just didn't expect
it to start so soon...*

* * *

Next day...

A cab pulls up in front of U-chan's, allowing Ryouga to disembark.
The Western-style clothes befit a young man now more at ease with himself:
tan khakis, electric blue and yellow jacket, mirror shades, the whole nine
yards. He still had his trademark bandanna around his head. More American
than Japanese. Which was fine with him. Taking two suitcases and his famous
backpack, Ryouga pays the cabbie, then goes to the door. "Yes?" Konatsu
answers the doorbell. *Definite gaijin, one with no taste.*

"Is Ukyou Kuonji here?"

"This way," he escorts the transformed wanderer inside, then looks
up. "Ukyou-sama!!! Someone for you!!"

"I'll be down in a bit!! Tell him to sit down!"

Ryouga could detect the sleepiness in her voice. *Definitely not a
morning person. Lately, who is?* He then smiles as she scrambles down the
stairs. "Ukyou!!! How are you today?!"

Ukyou's jaw hits the floor. He had a white lock of hair on his head,
a bandanna and Western clothing. Bandanna?! Could it be...? "Ryouga?!!"

"Yep," he slips off his shades.

"Why the new look?!" Konatsu gapes; he was just as stunned. "I
thought you were usually tired, bedraggled and often wanting the head of Ranma
Saotome on a plaque, his butt on a platter and the rest of him on a grill!"

Ryouga sighs, sympathetic towards their shock. "I had a long time to
think about life and...well, I saw how much I wasted of my life and myself
trying to get Ranma just like you said, Konatsu. I...wasn't sure I wanted to
keep going that way."

"Brave words, sugar," Ukyou hums. "Good luck with it."

"How are YOU holding up?" Ryouga asks, concerned about her.

"Fine...but still trying to deal with what Ran-chan's grand-aunt and
my spirit-sis said. It just...hurts," she sighs, walking over to gently
embrace her travelling friend.

"It's going to be okay, Ukyou," Ryouga returns her affection, letting
her weep on his shoulder. He'd been down these roads before...and now it
looked like she was going down them too.

"It is going to be okay?" Ukyou muses.

Ryouga sighs, then pulls away. "Could I borrow your phone for a few
minutes? I better let some friends know I'm okay."

* * *

Kenji Kenoshi was not in a good mood.

First, someone had ripped off all that foreign currency at his
combination warehouse/safehouse. Then they had made it explode. That was
real bad...and was big trouble for him. The obayun who got him to his
district told him a lot of details about martial artists he didn't take much
stock in until now. He was just glad for now that the warehouse fiasco was
settled. If he'd known what was to happen there, he would've had it taken
out of that district or at least made sure stronger defenses would have been
in there.

He was now surveying the makeshift sickroom his thugs were
recuperating in. He saw them with icepacks, bandages, splints and patches.
Their little foray into trying to sell policies which let them "protect" the
people didn't work.

There was that Chinese place, the Nekohanten. This young girl had
pulled out BIG spherical maces after one of his guys pulled out a mace
sprayer. Her line had been, "That not mace...THIS mace!!" She'd dodged the
spray and nailed the guy on his head, hard, sending out a gonging sound
through the place. Then there was this young guy, who also made another one
of his men hit the dirt after sending a lot of knives his way. The old lady
who owned the place had been the worst. She was so small she couldn't be
caught and just leapt behind his other men and paralyzed them.

The dojo they'd tried to shake down had been worse. They'd had their
heads handed to them when some pigtailed martial artist used some...energy
attack?...to waste their weapons. Then, he and this other young woman in a
yellow gi wiped the floor with them.

Then there was this okonomiyaki place...

* * *

Upon seeing them, the woman who ran it said, "STLI!!!!"

Then, a young man, dressed in hip clothes, went to them and handed a
card over: RYOUGA HIBIKI, DEMOLITIONS, MARTIAL ARTS AND INSURANCE. "Can I
interest you gentlemen in some short-term life insurance?!"

"Actually," the head goon replied, "...we were going to offer our
protective insurance here."

"We don't need protective insurance," the woman who owned the shop
replied.

Another woman, dressed like a ninja, added, "We may need life,
health, fire and business insurance, but I don't think we need your kind...do
we, Hibiki-sama?"

"Not that I know of," the man went. "I'm just sorry you didn't make
a sale with me on my short-term policies...you're going to regret that."

The yakuza went for their guns...only to have them sliced in half
with well-thrown spatulas! It was at this moment that Ryouga stepped forward
to the head goon. "Now that you know me, and now that I know what you're
doing to my friends, I'll have to kick your butt!! SHISHI HOUKOUDAN!!!!"

The resulting chi-blast was strong enough to send the yakuza out the
place! They ran, tails between their legs. *The boss is definitely not gonna
like this...!* the head goon grits his teeth...

* * *

*No, I DON'T like this!!* Kenji hisses. He'd made his part of the
Yakuza make black money white and blood money clean. He'd played "pass the
cash" with so many accounts in so many banks no one bank could ever tell what
was now-legit or always-legit cash. He'd invested money in various
enterprises around Japan and abroad, and they were paying out well. The
government securities of England and the United States he bought into were
paying well, as well as investments in South Korea and North America. The
various enterprises under the cover of darkness he had...drugs, weapons,
smuggling and sex slaves...were raking in lots of money. It was this flow of
cash that let him rise as quickly as he had. He'd also had some training at
Harvard Business School, using the knowledge he'd gained of economics and
accounting to place his branch of the yakuza in the black.

Like any good businessman, though, he'd remembered the old adage, "It
takes money to make money." Right now the nervousness peeked its head out
from his subconscious as he looked at how badly his men had been hurt. Cuts,
concussions, bruises and even a few burns. This would cost a lot as it was
without it getting worse. If the costs got too high, it could not only cost
money...it could also cost lives. One of them could be his own.

The good thing was, money could also buy time. Time to live and keep
lives intact. The question were, how much time could he purchase, and how
much time was bought on credit and spent already?

* * *

Elsewhere...

"No...!"

Bolts of psi energy slam into her, staggering her as she tries to
maintain some defence on whatever or whoever had just attacked her. It looked
like a man, a very powerful man dressed in orange and black, but his face
remained in shadow. Gritting her teeth, the woman cups her hands and aims.
"***MOUKO TAKAIBISHA!!!!***"

The blast of chi slams into the creature...and does nothing. "Nice
try!" a mocking voice snarls as the being's fingertips glow with energy.
"Your 'spirit-brother' does it better!!"

Ranma-chan screams as a new fusillade of bolts cuts through her,
finally driving her to her knees in overwhelming pain. Worse, with each bolt,
she feels the pain and hurt Ryouga Hibiki had felt over the past months. She
sees, feels, the nightmare he endured. The humiliation as seen through hazy
red pain as each plasma blast of Shunran's hit, echoed with malevolent
laughter, the images of both Ranma-chan and her teammates turning demonic.
Something grabbing her heart and feeling it squeezing the life out of her. A
mushroom cloud over Nerima, a possible fate for thousands had Ryouga died that
day. The voice, sounding like Ryouga's, becomes serious but is still laced
with venom.

"That's EXACTLY what did and what would have happened to me. That
night, as I collapsed in a lot, I felt my heart constrict..and my life
flashed in front of my eyes. That caused me to unconsciously build up a LOT
of chi energy. It ALSO almost caused me to die, and this caused every bad
thing in my life to flash in front of my eyes again..and that REALLY built up
the chi! If I died that day...Nerima would've been ground zero and many,
many thousands of INNOCENT PEOPLE would have died in the explosion my death
would've created! A death YOU would have had a part in!"

Gasping, the shipmistress tries to gather her remaining strength to
make a stand. Yet she can't get that out of her head. Could it have been
possible? That their act nearly cost a ward the people who lived in it their
lives?! Suddenly a chilling truth comes to her...to both her questions the
answer would have been "yes." *Oh, Lyna, what have I done...?!*

A hand grabs her by her pigtail and yanks her up. She shudders, then
pales as the face comes out of shadow. "Remember me?!" Ryouga snarls.
"Remember what you DID to me?!! I almost DIED because of what you did to
me...and part of me DID die that day!! What part of YOU, I wonder, must DIE
to EVEN things up, hmmm...?!"

A jab to the chest knocks the wind out of her as he lets her go,
dropping her to the ground. Ranma-chan rolls clear as Ryouga resorts to the
Bakusai Tenketsu to rip her apart with concrete shrapnel. Recovering, she
glares at the angry wanderer trying to close on her. Shuddering at the dark,
hot rage burning deep in his eyes, she stiffens herself. No sense reasoning
with him now. Stay alive, force the battle to a draw, then try to reason with
him.

"What's the matter...can't take it as well as you dish it out?!"
Ryouga snarls. "Not so nice on the receiving end, is it? Not so nice when
the one you and your spirit-brother *humiliated and nearly killed* comes back
to finish business with you, is it? Not so nice when he can go toe-to-toe
with you pompous, meddling bitches and give you payback in spades now, IS
IT?!?!" Ranma-chan tries to get her breath but is stunned by the "WELL?!?!"
Ryouga roars into her face.

<<Ranma, what's going on?!>> a voice inquires.

<<Not now, Akane, I'm busy!!>> Ranma-chan chases Akane-chan out of
her mind.

Ryouga blinks, then laughs. "Perfect!!!" he lunges at her.

She is too slow to dodge; the palm of his hand slams into her
forehead as he locks eyes on her. "You Sagussans think you're so smart, don't
you!" he sneers, his eyes glowing. "Your bonds just make things easier for
me!!" he concentrates. His palm glows and almost seems it will come ablaze as
it gains power, his laughter turning nasty, a replica of Vincent Price's.

Ranma-chan screams as the psi-bolt slams through her mind, then seeks
out the link with Akane-chan. A backlash of pain from her bondmate triumphs
the success of Ryouga's attack, adding to her own to overwhelm her as her
light chi was replaced by Ryouga's dark chi. "You all laughed at me! NONE
of you cared if I lived or died! You may have done most of this, but your
friends added to it! Therefore...they're just as guilty! Therefore...they
should feel what you feel!" A pause. "For want of a humiliation, a life was
lost. For want of a life, the culprits were lost...and so it came that all
were or could've been lost, all for the want of a humiliation. That's the
way it is with you Sagussans, isn't it?" Ranma-chan screams again. "WELL,
ISN'T IT?!?! WELL?!?!?!"

As the shipmistress collapses, Ryouga kneels beside her. "Rule number
one: never assume best case for the person you wronged. Rule number two:
never start what you can't later finish. Rule number three: when you think
someone can't strike back is when they often do." Ryouga places his palm into
her forehead. "Now, let's see if we can link through her to the others," he
muses. *The more, the merrier...the more I can link, the merrier I'll be as
they know how their medicine tastes for a change...!*

...then blinks as a slender finger taps his shoulder. "Eh?!"

He turns, then looks up...to see a female shape with Oni horns and
long elfin-like ears glaring at him through angry eyes. "Your mistake,
stupid!!!" she cocks her fist, then lashes out...

* * *

...and Ryouga opens his eyes to a sea of white.

*What the heck hit me?!* he moans. *Kunou had the glass jaw, not me!
* Still moaning, the wanderer sits up, then blinks on seeing empty sky and
cloud under him...then screams in embarrassment on noting he was naked!
"WHERE AM I NOW?!?!?!" he bellows, covering himself as he looks around. Bad
enough he was lost, it didn't help he was bare-assed here too!

A holographic screen then appears before him, a line in tan flashing
MAY I HELP YOU?

Ryouga blinks, then stares at it. "Um...where am I?"

The screen flashes a standard salutation. "'Dreamscape?'" Ryouga
blinks confusedly, then reads. "'Daimon'cha, Daishi'cha and outworlder
Marei'cha welcome. No other outworlders allowed! Intruders will be...'" a
gulp, "'...mind-wiped without trial?!'"

<<This is perfect!!!>> Karmalibra screams from within him.

*What do you mean?!*

<<Ryouga, this is the place ALL the *daishi'cha* come to enjoy some
mental time-off!>> Karmalibra purrs. <<From here, you just have to access
their personal dream-site, then go to town!!>>

*How do I do that?!* Ryouga scratches his head.

<<Ask for it to call up the sequence number panel, then tap the
number for the *daishi'cha* you want!>>

*Sounds simple,* Ryouga muses, then sighs. "I wanna visit someone."

The screen alters to a touch-pad format, ten numbers on the screen.
PRESS DAISHI'CHA SEQUENCE NUMBER TO ACCESS SITE.

"Um...thanks!" Ryouga smiles, then hums. *Okay, here we go...!* he
presses 91129.

ACCESS TO DREAM-SITE #91129 OPEN. YOU MAY PROCEED.

Ryouga disappears as the screen turns red, a new line flashing.
EMERGENCY INTRUDER DEFENCE PROGRAM INITIATED. RE-ROUTE INTRUDER TO DREAM-SITE
#97394...

* * *

"***WHERE AM I NOW?!?!?!***"

Ryouga looks around, finding himself...now clothed in his usual shirt
and trousers...in a sea of solid white. Concentrating, he fails to detect
any detail. The gentle ripple of falling water is heard. Ryouga
shudders...ever since he got his Jusenkyou curse, he HATED that sound...then
sees a beautiful waterfall appear. He walks towards it...then emerges into
sunlight. "Whoa!!!"

He now stood in a luscious valley filled with blooming flowers and
ancient trees. Mountains tower to the heavens, capped with fields of glacial
ice. Ryouga drinks in the cinnamon-like scent, then stares at his...shadows?
"What the...?" he looks in the direction of the heavens, then shades his eyes.
"Two suns?! Where am I?!" *I've been lost before, but this...!*

A bird's scream then echoes through the air. Ryouga sees a large-
winged bird bearing a marked similarity to the Sagussan national symbol soar
down the valley. Without hesitation, the wanderer races off in pursuit. The
bird looks at him, then slows down, ensuring the pursuing human can keep it in
sight.

Time becomes meaningless as Ryouga leaps over rocks and rivers with
an ease many years of martial arts training bestowed. The bird remains in
sight, then lands on a rock as Ryouga finds his way to a beautiful seashore.
The salt air tantalizes his nostrils with its purity, then he blinks as the
bird calls to him. Looking south, he notices it flying toward a distant white
dome surrounded by tall mountain peaks.

Ryouga runs in pursuit, his eyes locked on the bird. It was nice of
it to stay in his field of vision; as long as he kept a recognizable object in
view, he was all right. However, the dome kept distracting him as he
approached it. The scale of the place was mind-boggling; it seemed dozens of
kilometres wide. Ryouga stops, wondering what sort of people could've built
such a thing, then blinks as the bird's call summons him to a dark entrance.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friend..."

Ryouga enters the tunnel, grateful that light lurked on the other
end. The tunnel itself was quite long, perhaps a kilometre but seemed like a
mile, which meant that the dome's shell had to be that thick. Staring at the
wall, he runs his hand along the surface, testing the material. Incredible;
there was no breaking point he could sense as he tried to track chi lines.
The dome's shell was layered between a bright silvery substance and a darker
grey material, both impossibly dense even to the naked eye. "What is this
stuff...?"

The bird calls again. Ryouga turns, then runs down the tunnel.
Emerging into the light, he gasps on seeing a vast space, as big as Tokyo
itself, softly lit and filled to the rafters with hundreds of kilometres of
catwalks and an uncountable number of man-sized chambers, each filled with a
body. Shuddering, he steps onto an elevator pad, then rides it up a hundred
metres to a small platform. Looking down one catwalk, he notices several
people drawing someone out of a chamber. *This seems like...a nightmare lab
from one of those REALLY bad science-fiction movies!*

Approaching, he glances over the shoulder of one to see that the
person just drawn out is a young girl, maybe ten years old. Her nude body is
coated in a cryogenic preservative fluid, bits of frozen ice still sticking to
her clammy skin. She was pretty in the innocent, cherubic way of most
children, with long platinum hair and auburn eyes. Her chest subtly rises and
falls, though the number of breaths she takes is spaced dangerously too wide.

"Its organs are still functioning," one of the orderlies reports,
staring at a friend.

"Stop the heart and extract the eyes," another orders.

Ryouga gags as a long needle is punched into the girl's chest, her
eyes suddenly widening as pain rips through her body. Dropping to his knees,
the horror of what he is witnessing freezes him in place as the orderlies
deftly cut out both her eyes, then place them on a sterile tray. They then
walk away, leaving the shaking wanderer with the unmoving girl on the gurney.

A groan escapes his lips as he leans over to gently draw her off,
nausea surging through him on seeing those empty cavities where her eyes were.
*Oh gods...why did they do that?! That poor girl...!* Laying her across his
legs, he draws off his jersey, then gently clothes her before cradling her in
his arms, tears streaming down his face. "Oh,
gods...why...why...why...why...?" he moans, each word punctuated with agony as
he holds her.

"Horrible, isn't it?"

Ryouga looks up to see the adult version of the unmoving girl stand
before him, dressed in a light blue-and-gold Sagussan jumpsuit, a science
chief's three stripes on her lower arms and a long staff with a glowing red
crystal in one hand. While most of her face is strangely devoid of emotion,
her eyes are haunted with a weighty sadness that made Ryouga seem the happiest
of people. He shudders. "You're not Ranma-chan..."

"No, my name is Ifurita," the woman introduces herself, then kneels
before him. "You should've read the sign, Mr. Hibiki. Intruders are not
permitted in the Dreamscape."

Ryouga pales, remembering what else the sign said. Ifurita smiles,
her eyes twinkling reassuringly. "Relax, the part about mind-wiping was
Shayla's early idea of a joke. In the meantime," she casts her staff over her
younger twin.

She disappears, reappearing in the chamber from which she was
extracted, her eyes restored and Ryouga's jersey back on himself. The
wanderer rises, then takes time to peer into the other chambers. They all
had Ifuritas in them, either adults, barely past puberty or children. "Is
this your idea of a dream?" he stares at her.

"No...more of a constant reminder of what was," Ifurita muses. "You
and Karmalibra made a mistake, Mr. Hibiki...may I call you Ryouga?" At his
nod, she continues. "You attacked someone who had two bondmates. While you
did hurt Akane, Irunmei was able to sneak around and psi-blast you into the
Dreamscape foyer. Once you were there, you were in OUR territory, then after
Karmalibra was fooled into urging you into a dream-site, you were brought to
mine."

Ryouga blinks, then shudders, a surge of emotions swelling in his
heart. He had fallen for the most simple trick in martial arts: deceive the
opponent into doing what you want him to do. Atop that, he couldn't feel
Karmalibra within him. Trapped in a strange person's dream-site, everyone on
Sagussa doubtlessly aware of his presence and intentions, without his friend
to help and with no way out except bowing to whatever Ifurita demanded. *If
this is your last stand, Hibiki, make sure you never give up now!* he tries
to be calm, defenses rising as he gears for a fight, maybe his last.

Suddenly, gentle lips brush his. As they do, Ryouga feels his soul
being soothed, wrapped in loving warmth. He blinks as Ifurita leans back,
smiling. "My, you are quite handsome, you know that," she muses, giving him
an appraising glance. "One must compliment your child-mate on her
exceptional good taste. By the way, congratulations on your coming twins.
Anxious to see them born?"

Surprised by the change of topic, not to mention embarrassed at her
appraisal, he sheepishly nods. "Yeah, I am." He then looks around. "What is
this place?"

"Tere'na-korgh...the Forge of Tere'na," she explains. "To us living
on Sagussa today, the most divine place on our planet. Fifteen millennia
ago...the universe's biggest slaughterhouse."

Ryouga shudders, then stares at the storage chambers, the true horror
of his host's words sinking in. "A storage place...of human body-parts...?"
nausea surges forth to stagger him as her words and the images, the horror
that happened here, sink in. He fights hard to keep standing up.

"Hai," Ifurita nods. "Ten billion people lived on Sagussa at that
time. Each had three clones made of them for just the purpose of having
intact body parts in case something within them failed. You wanted a new
heart, you got one...and you didn't ONCE have to worry about organ rejection.
Even now...we don't understand what brought this practice about. Part of
us...doesn't want to."

"I don't blame you," he sighs. Seeing what happened with Ifurita's
younger twin was enough to convince him. "So what happened?"

"The War of Clone Rights," she explains, the scene around them
shifting to reveal the devastated landscape of Tere'na City before the start
of the Fifth Republic, an angry white giant sun burning overhead. "A whole
civilization was wiped out over five centuries. Sagussa was devastated, the
inner worlds of our system incinerated when Eisen'a, the dwarf sun you saw
before you came to the Forge, was destroyed by a sun-killer bomb, the
explosion causing Sen'a," she points up to the heavens, "...to swell in size
to a white giant stage. And because of that, we *daishi'cha* came into
being...to rebuild it, bring new life to this place. To try our best to make
it a living world again."

"I can see why a lot of people are supporting you," Ryouga muses,
uncertainty gripping him.

Ifurita sighs. "You don't trust us. After what Ranma did to you, I
don't blame you. Neither does Noa, our Elder Mother. We want to make it up
to you, Ryouga. But we can't do it while you have Karmalibra in your head
and having you trapped in some mad obligation just so that little crybaby can
try to hurt us."

Ryouga blinks. "'Little crybaby?'"

A disgusted snort escapes her as the scene shifts again to a very
pleasant family home's living room. Ifurita waves him to a chair, then sits
across from him. "Karmalibra is what we in the Te'a Studies Group call a
'composite concept entity,' Ryouga. She emerges from the shared belief of
billions of sentients across the known universe who want to have some
'divine' intelligence control the balance between that which you call 'good'
and 'evil.' She sees herself the SOLE arbiter of the balance between those
forces. When an 'excessive' amount of good occurs, she induces a like amount
of evil to keep the Universe in balance; conversely, if too much evil arises,
a like amount of good is induced."

"Yeah, it's the balance between yin and yang," Ryouga nods.

Ifurita sighs. "Well, we don't believe in something like her,
Ryouga. The balance between Creation and Entropy...what at times could be
seen as good and evil...is a natural thing. In our eyes, it needs no
balance- keeper, Ryouga." She then smiles, a hunter's smile on seeing choice
prey. "And because we don't believe in something like her, Karmalibra...has
no power over us."

Ryouga blinks. "There are other races who believe like we do," the
science-thoughtmistress-prime adds. "The Nagussans, the T'Kon, the
Lannarkites, the Nendo-kata and others. All of them Karmalibra can't affect
directly. She hates that fact; if we did believe in a concept like her, we
could give her a LOT of spiritual power. So, to get around her inability to
affect people like us directly through what you'd call 'faith,' she uses
cat's pawns to do her dirty work. You, my friend, are the latest in a VERY
long line of victims she's trapped to that end."

Silence falls as the wanderer contemplates that. There was some
truth in her words. "You can chose to accept what I say," Ifurita rises.
"You can chose to reject it, continue to think that ALL of us on Sagussa are
like Ranma. You can chose to believe whatever you wish. But I know you
presently loathe the idea of being forced into doing something you personally
would choose not to do, forced to watch a good friend suffer for no real
reason, even if it would give you a sense of justice over the pain inflicted
on you."

Ryouga thinks hard. Ifurita didn't seem she would hurt him. In
fact, Ifurita seemed warm, gentle and caring, unlike Ranma and her gang of
"pranksters." Surely, not ALL Sagussans were as bad as he thought. "Can
you...free me of that bond?" Ryouga wonders.

"I'm sorry, I can't help you toward that end," Ifurita bows her head
apologetically. "Being what I am now...means I am under very strict rules of
behaviour concerning the Power I can access."

"But I know you!" Ryouga snaps, pointing at her. "Cologne mentioned
something about you sometime ago. You're the one Ranma-chan called to have
the ponds of Jusenkyou restored before Ranma and Akane went there to discover
a cure!"

"That's right," Ifurita nods. "In that case, we understood that the
ponds' restoration was vital to the ultimate destinies of many people,
ESPECIALLY the future offspring of Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendou. In that
case, we could do something; were it left to whatever Terran forces that could
also manipulate Jusenkyou's power, they could've really botched it and done so
much damage, I shudder to think of the possible results."

She takes a deep breath, then gazes deeply into his eyes. "But, like
it or not, you CHOSE not to see both sides of any particular situation before
you, Ryouga. You CHOSE to stubbornly believe in your side of the argument
without taking into account the other person's opinion. I'm not accusing you
of anything. I'm stating a simple fact. In some ways, given what you've
endured, you have a right to stick to your beliefs. But...because of that,
the control you need to master the chi energies you can manipulate so easily
has long been denied to you. And it was because of THAT problem, Karmalibra
was able to corner you like she did."

Ryouga blinks, then looks down. "I don't know what to think."

"That's a decision in the end you have to make," Ifurita smiles, the
sadness returning to her eyes. "Remember, Ryouga: a balanced opinion.
Karmalibra is using both laughter and memories, though painful, to make you do
what she wants. Remember what you saw in the Forge. THAT is real evil,
Ryouga. Entropy gone totally amuck. Besides," she winks bemusedly as Ryouga
felt himself slip out of the Dreamscape, "...Ranma-chan and her friends would
NEVER laugh like that..."

* * *

"Hey!!"

Ryouga blinks, looking around to see a dark alley around him.
Staring at himself, he sighs on recognizing the new clothes he had bought in
Las Vegas, then rises. "Weird..." he muses.

<<What happened to you?!!>> a voice bellows in his head.

Ryouga blinks, then makes his way out of the alley. *Relax! I got
lost in the Dreamscape. By the way, the Sagussans know that you're in me
now.*

<<So?!>> Karmalibra snarls. <<What sort of sob story did they try to
heap on you, anyway?!>>

Ryouga moves to tell her, then pauses, his eyes widening in stunned
realization. She couldn't sense it within his own mind? Had Ifurita used
whatever power she controlled and blocked certain parts of his mind from
Karmalibra's scrutiny? Why? Why did she do that? *Does it matter?*

<<Oh?! Remember this?!>>

Images and sounds of the humiliation are thrust into Ryouga's mind
once again. The pain of the plasma blasts is relived. Mocking, evil
laughter, sounding like those who hurt him, assaults his senses, laughter
that once could send waves of depression coursing through him. However, the
bad memories of this doesn't create as much pain as before. Why...?

* * *

Karmalibra snarls. It was bad enough that there were parts of her
host's mind which were now blocked from her manipulation...she was quick to
recognize the bright tendrils of *te'a* energy which marked the potential use
of a *haijo-ju*...but now the laughter she used, a reminder of the pain
Ranma- chan and the others gave him, to keep him compliant had little effect
on him. Wonderful! If she couldn't keep him obedient, she could lose control
over him.

Not a chance. Not this time. Not now.

She tries again to punch through the mental walls keeping his
experience in the Dreamscape from her view. No joy. Shuddering, she tries to
pick through other parts of the wanderer's mind to at least get SOME idea of
what he had just endured while she was using his body to do another job at a
nearby drug-processing plant. Again she fails. Sighing disgustedly, she
relaxes, tired. No need to exert herself just yet. She needed time to gather
enough energy to make another attempt at attacking the Sagussans through their
dreams, this time keeping in mind Ranma-chan's second bondmate and the fact
that they would probably be waiting for her this time.

She remains silent as Ryouga makes his way into his bedroom at the
hotel in Furinkan he was using, then heads to bed. Suddenly, an image appears
before her. Karmalibra blinks, then, despite all she had done over the
millennia, shudders. For now, the empty sockets of a person with her eyes cut
out now gaze at her...

* * *

"Help...me..."

Negako grabs the fallen I-beam, then flings it off the young girl.
Barely nine, she was dressed in quite flashy clothes for her age. A cursory
glance at her chi patterns elicits a raised eyebrow and a snort. Sexually
active and abusing drugs at that young of an age? Shaking her head, she
kneels to draw the badly wounded girl into her arms. "How is she?" Happousai
wonders from nearby.

"She is dying," Negako announces.

The girl's pain-filled brown eyes flutter, then she turns to stare
into Negako's. "I don't...wanna die..."

Negako blinks, then a twinge of...something...flashes through her.
This child had been with the others in this Yakuza cell, now dead, crushed
under fallen walls and a collapsed roof thanks to Karmalibra, processing raw
opium from the Golden Triangle into heroin for trade on the streets. Gently,
she reaches up to touch the psi-link points on the girl's face. "What's your
name?"

"Aoi..."

"Do you have parents?" Negako wonders as she feels switches in her
mind click into place, her nervous system now transforming into a psionic
conduit linking the silent parts of her brain with the mind of the girl in her
arms.

"No...what...what are...?"

"Relax," Negako closes her eyes and concentrates. "All will be well
soon enough..."

Aoi's eyes flutter shut as her *mei'na* is absorbed into Negako, the
first time ever the grandmistress had made use of the *tre'cha* skills
instilled in every Avalonian on birth. As the girl's body goes limp, Negako
relaxes, then senses Happousai gazing understandingly at her. "Part of me
doesn't understand, Happy..."

"What part does?" Happousai muses.

"That Chigaiko would...see it as a good thing to do. She has no
family, was used to...amuse her co-workers, then help sell their heroin on the
streets to local students."

"And you want Chigaiko-chan to be happy."

"Yes."

Happousai pats her shoulder. "You're learning, Nega-chan. You
better get her up to the factory to have her looked after."

Negako nods, then taps her wrist-comm to have her and Aoi beamed to
Sado. As they disappear, Happousai glares in the general direction of the
hotel where Ryouga now resided. "Lady, you really crossed the line this
time," he icily smiles. "You may think Hibiki's yours to command, but once
he learns you used him to kill a child, you're gonna have a real fight on
your hands."

* * *

"Who is she, Nega-chan?"

"Her name is Aoi Mizutani," Negako sighs as she and Chigaiko watch
Aoi float in the regeneration chamber aboard the factory later. "She is an
orphan. Her parents were killed in a house fire when she was a baby. She
herself ran away from the orphanage when she was six, then was 'adopted' by
the Nerima Yakuza as a combination sexual toy and advertising agent for their
narcotics trade."

Chigaiko pales, then stares at the beautiful girl now being healed of
her shattered bones and shredded muscles and internal organs. She then stares
at Negako. "Did Ryouga-kun...?"

"The one within him was responsible," Negako sighs.

"Oh, gods..." Chigaiko shudders, gripping her heart. "What'll happen
when he finds out...?"

"We could tell him now," Negako muses. "He would then realize what
Karmalibra has done behind his back...and when he rebels, all she would have
to do is pour an overwhelming amount of chi energy into him. Once he loses
control, the resulting explosion would most likely destroy all of Tokyo."

Chigaiko jerks, sweating, then looks away. "Okay, that's not such a
good idea," she muses. "But how the hell do we make this thing let go of
Ryouga-kun?"

"I cannot say because I still do not know what Karmalibra exactly
is," Negako admits.

"Then I could help you."

Both turn as Ranma-chan walks up. "Hey, Ranma, what're you doing
here?" Chigaiko smiles, then notices the pained look deep in the shipmistress'
eyes.

"We've got to talk," Ranma-chan sighs...

* * *

"Hey, sugar, you look horrible!" Ukyou shudders on seeing a pale-
faced Ryouga saunter into U-chan's. "You okay?!"

"Yeah," Ryouga moans as he relaxes by the counter. "Just a bad dream
last night."

"What about?" Ukyou wonders.

"It's hard to explain..."

* * *

"Now let me see if I get this straight," Chigaiko gapes at Ranma-chan
as they and Negako relax in a lounge. "You mean to say some future version of
Shinobu came back in time to try to change history...and she was possessed by
this Karmalibra character?!"

"Exactly," Ranma nods. "Near as Ifurita could tell, this thing came
onto Ryouga just as his chi levels were about to reach critical mass." A
shudder rips through her as she remembered the images Ryouga thrust upon her.
The idea of being the one who might have detonated a chi-charged version of an
atomic bomb that could've wrecked Tokyo sinks in, then she stares at Negako.
"So it gives him a deal he couldn't refuse."

"Let it use him for its purposes, mainly to strike at those beings
who don't believe in it...and thus give it power...and he would live," Negako
lightly smiles. "How typical."

"So how do we convince this thing to get out of Ryouga-kun without
killing him?!" Chigaiko asks. "I don't even know how the hell I'm going to
tell Akari-chan about this!"

"Do not do so," Negako sighs. "If you did so, Akari would be very
tempted to proceed to Tokyo to confront Ryouga and thus place her unborn
children in harm's way." She then hums. "Ranma, how does Ifurita and her co-
workers view the influence of mortal beings on creatures like Karmalibra? Is
it possible this 'Scalphunter' variation of Shinobu might have overtly
influenced Karmalibra to the point where she would solely be directed by
Scalphunter's past memories and experiences?"

Ranma blinks. "It's possible, I guess. But how in Lyna's name can I
use that against it?"

"Not you, Ranma. Me," Negako's eyes narrow, an icy smile twisting
her lips. "Or rather what I once was. I think it's time that Karmalibra
experiences Shinobu Miyaki's worst nightmare, which, if Scalphunter's history
was parallel to our Shinobu's, centres on her experience in the Spirit War.
In the meantime, since Ifurita has given Ryouga the chance to have some
thoughts to himself through the Dreamscape, I would like you to do
something..."

* * *

That night...

*About time the boy went to sleep!* Karmalibra growls to herself as
she senses Ryouga drift off after a day of relaxing and spending time with
Ukyou. *Just a few more places to visit...*

She shudders on sensing Ryouga's mind slip out of her grasp into the
Dreamscape, bars of energy blocking her from trying to keep him in place or
follow him into the Sagussan mental web. *Damn them!!!* she shrieks. *How
dare they?!!*

Mocking laughter then echoes. Karmalibra shudders as the number of
voices picks up, a rolling crescendo of sound assaulting her to the core of
her being. It seemed as if every *daishi'cha* was laughing...at her!
<<Laugh all you want!!!>> she screams at them. <<I'll show you...!!>>

<<That's what you think...Scalphunter,>> a familiar voice taunts
before the laughter fades.

Karmalibra's eyes widen on recognizing the voice. <<Noa...!>> she
quakes, hatred and fear fighting for control of her very soul. Wonderful! If
Noa knew what was going on, the Sagussans would be soon coming after her with
everything they had to finally eliminate all traces of Scalphunter from this
existence. She'd have to get her work in Furinkan done as soon as she could
before they did come, then she'd show them. She'd show them all!

Concentrating, she morphs Ryouga's body into her preferred fighting
form, then taking control, leaves...

* * *

"Hey, honey, what's your name?"

Negako stares at the bartender, then assumes her place at the
counter. "My name is Negako. May I have a vodka martini, please? Shaken,
not stirred."

"Yes, ma'am," the bartender nods, then prepares the drink.

Negako sighs, gazing around the casino located in the basement floor
of an office block not far from the Tendou dojo. This was an illegal
gambling hall run by the Yakuza, the workers surprisingly calm despite the
vicious hits their organization had took over the last while. There were few
patrons currently at the tables; it might be close to closing time. As she
accepts the drink (so chosen because of Chigaiko's love of James Bond films),
Negako relaxes and concentrates. Ah, there she was, right on schedule.
Another twenty seconds. "Where is the washroom?" she wonders.

"Right through that door," the bartender nods.

Negako rises, then makes her way to the ladies room and a toilet
stall, locking the door behind her. As a sharp explosion echoes through the
building, echoed by the surprised screams of patrons now doomed by being in
the wrong place at the wrong time, she concentrates. The chi of the Earth
floods her very being with power, then in a curious echo of what Karmalibra
did to Ryouga, Negako alters her body into a form that echoed the last time
she, as the *saikoo jinseijitsu,* tried to achieve her freedom.

Outside, the guards scream as Karmalibra rips through them, her
blasting sword and roaring lion bullets dropping them like flies. The patrons
were already dead, ripped apart in the first wave of chi attacks after she had
blasted her way through the ceiling. It was good that the casino was located
in the basement of an empty building awaiting new tenants; the amount of
innocent bystanders who could've got in the way was decreased dramatically.
While accidents did happen and she did intend to use Ukyou in her plot against
the Sagussans, there was no need to push it too far. Ryouga would fight her
tooth and nail then. Then all would have been lost.

Another use of the blasting sword decapitates the bartender before he
could get to the telephone and call for help. Karmalibra then notices the
untouched martini on the bar. Curious, she approaches it, then looks around.
The washrooms! Growling, she moves to find who might have escaped...when the
ground bucks under her, bursts of thermal energy punching through the marble
floor to reveal trickles of red-hot lava! "Hey...!!!"

"***DAICHI-KI HI-KANKETSUSEN!!!!!!***"

Karmalibra screams surprisedly as the whole floor explodes, geysers
of lava ripping through the building's foundation to fatally compromise the
steel skeleton keeping it erect!! Summoning her own chi to form a shield,
she rides out the blast as the upper floors buckle and shred apart, the
building bursting apart like a banana being squeezed out of its skin. As the
parts fall away, she then feels gravity seize hold of her. She braces,
concentrating her chi into her shield to keep the impact from hurting too
much.

"***SEISHIN REEZAA KOOSEN!!!!!!***"

A bolt of starlight punches through her shield to burn into her
shoulder, cutting her concentration enough to collapse the shield and leave
her unprotected as she crashes into unforgiving asphalt beside the burning
caldron which was once her target. Pain overwhelms all her senses as she
staggers back up, the grating feel of shattered ribs and cracked arm and leg
bones sending hot knives through her. "Better call it a night...!" she
grunts, then looks up into the reflection in a bakery store window.

Karmalibra gasps on seeing Shinobu Miyaki's face staring back at her,
restored to youthful vitality, now dressed in a torn and tattered Tomobiki
High School uniform. Dense fog settles around them, shielding the outside
from her view. Blinking, she then pales on seeing something vaguely human
emerge from the flames behind her. She turns as the flames dissipate,
revealing a black ninja's gi, the curled tiger-and-chrysanthemum of the
Moroboshi Clan on the breast and glowing eyes now burning from...

...Ataru Moroboshi's pale face, crossed with tiger stripes!

"*HELLO, MIYAKI! REMEMBER ME?!*"

"No...!" Karmalibra gasps, memories that to her echoed from so long
ago overwhelming all her senses...

* * *

"DIE, YOU DEMON!!!!!!"

A psychic laser incinerates her! "*THERE YOU GO!! A LITTLE OF THE
RESENTMENT AND HATRED **YOU** FELT TOWARDS MOROBOSHI WHEN HE SHOWED THAT HE
WAS MORE INTERESTED IN THE ONI THAN YOU!!*"

Shinobu is knocked down. Ataru appears from the fog, again none the
worst for wear. "*TELL ME SOMETHING! HOW'D YOU FEEL IF YOU KNEW MOROBOSHI
AND LUM HAVE BEEN BONDED FOR **FOURTEEN** YEARS?! YOU NEVER STOOD A CHANCE
OF WINNING HIM AS LONG AS THAT BOND EXISTED!! AND WITH THAT, MOROBOSHI WAS
INSPIRED TO ENSURE NASSUR WOULD LOVE BENTEN, NOT YOU!!! YOU IGNORANT LITTLE
GIRL!! AS LONG AS YOU CONTINUE TO INTACT WITH THE ONI AND MOROBOSHI, YOU
WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO OBTAIN THAT WHICH YOU DESIRE!!!*"

"N-no...it's not true!" Shinobu moans.

"*IT IS. THE HATRED HE EXPRESSED TO YOU BEFORE THE THIRD TAG RACE
AND YESTERDAY WAS **HIS** HATRED, NOT ANYTHING I DID!! ALL I DID WAS JUST
GIVE HIM THE NECESSARY PUSH TO BETTER EXPRESS HIS EMOTIONS!! DIDN'T FEEL
GOOD, DID IT?!*"

Shinobu shrieks, leaping up as she lunges at him. Before she could
get close, she's grabbed by the neck and her air is cut off. "*YOUR STRENGTH
IS NOTHING TO ME!! EVERYTHING YOU DO TO ME IS NOTHING! I AM FUELLED BY THE
VERY HATRED, RESENTMENT AND DISGUST **YOU** HAVE EXPRESSED TO MOROBOSHI SINCE
THE DAY THE ONI RETURNED TO HIS LIFE! THE HATRED, RESENTMENT AND DISGUST
**I** MANIPULATED, NURTURED AND DEVELOPED SO THAT WHEN THIS DAY CAME, I COULD
TURN IT INTO A WEAPON AGAINST ALL WHO SUPPORT THAT ONI SO MUCH!! YOU HAVE
BEEN CAT'S PAWNS IN MY GAME...AND LIKE THE IDIOTS YOU ARE, YOU NEVER ONCE
SUSPECTED THE TRUTH...!!!*"

* * *

Karmalibra gurgles as she feels herself grabbed by the neck and
boosted up, fingers now as solid as rock freezing her in place. "*YOU
UNDERSTAND NOW, DON'T YOU?!*" the creature holding her in place cackles as
fire surrounds them. "*EVEN NOW, EIGHT CENTURIES AFTER YOU ESCAPED ME IN THE
SPIRIT WAR, AFTER YOU CAME BACK IN TIME TO 'SAVE' YOUR PITIFUL EXISTENCE,
AFTER YOU SOLD YOUR VERY SOUL TO KARMALIBRA, YOU HAVE ALWAYS BE A CAT'S PAWN
IN **MY** GAME, TO USE AND DISPOSE AS **I** SEE FIT! I DO NOT BELIEVE IN
KARMALIBRA, THUS SHE HAS NO POWER OVER ME, SO SHE CANNOT SAVE YOUR SOUL FROM
THE ETERNAL DAMNATION YOU KAKURE BELIEVE AWAIT THOSE WHO HAVE SINNED AGAINST
THE WAYS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH!*"

"H-how...?!" Karmalibra gasps.

"*'HOW,' YOU ASK?!*" the creature icily smiles. "*I AM, AND HAVE
ALWAYS BEEN, THE LIVING AVATAR OF MOTHER EARTH, OF ALL LIVING THINGS ON MOTHER
EARTH...AND **YOU** ARE NOW THE REFLECTION OF THE BELIEFS OF **SOME** OF
**ONE** SPECIES LIVING HERE! YOU ARE AN ALIEN ON THIS WORLD, KARMALIBRA...AND
YOU ARE NOT WANTED HERE!! FURTHERMORE, I HAVE NEED OF RYOUGA HIBIKI AND YOU
ARE STANDING IN MY WAY! AS HIBIKI'S FRIEND SHAMPOO WOULD SO ELOQUENTLY PUT
IT...*" it glares into her eyes, "*OBSTACLES ARE TO BE **ELIMINATED!***"

Karmalibra shudders as power warps around them, the burning fingers
of the paranormal-power inverse fire-bomb tearing at the controls she had
over Ryouga's body. "*YOU SEE HOW EASY IT IS?!*" the creature holding her
down sneers. "*I CAN DESTROY YOU AT ANY TIME I SO DESIRE! BUT I NOW BELIEVE
IT WOULD AMUSE ME MORE TO SEE HIBIKI BANISH YOU FROM HIMSELF...AND HE WILL!
REMEMBER THIS THE NEXT TIME YOU TRY TO POSSESS SOMEONE, KARMALIBRA: HONOUR
IS A SWORD SHATTERED ON A ROCK, A PIECE OF PAPER BURNED IN A FIRE, A GRAVE
ERODED BY THE WIND, A SHRINE DESTROYED BY AN EARTHQUAKE! THIS IS A NINJA'S
GAME...AND HERE, I AM SUPREME!!*"

Another explosion overwhelms her as a funnel of lava slams her away
from the *saikoo jinseijitsu,* its mocking laughter, like the screaming howls
of all those who had died throughout history, searing her right to her very
soul...

* * *

Unnoticed by Karmalibra or the creature who had put her down, a
Yakuza guard, who was on his way to work at the casino when the battle began,
emerges from the shadows. Gripping his weapon, he watches as the beast which
had shredded Tomobiki with ease the previous Halloween step into what was now
the funeral pyre for dozens of his friends, then disappear. He doesn't emerge
from the safety of the shadows, though. Karmalibra was still on the scene and
even though she obviously had been put through the wringer by the *saikoo
jinseijitsu,* the hellfire-spawned bitch could probably still waste him. That
wouldn't do his boss any good.

Coughing as she summons some chi energy to heal her wounds,
Karmalibra staggers to her feet, then heads off towards U-chan's. Dawn was
breaking and Ryouga would probably be returning back from the Dreamscape
before long, no doubt loaded with more lies from the Sagussans. Somehow,
she'd have to whip him back into line, push her plans through, defeat the
Sagussans and keep the *saikoo jinseijitsu* off her back at the same time.

As she heads for the safety of Ukyou's restaurant, she glaces from
time to time at the inferno now consuming the latest Yakuza workplace,
shuddering. What possessed Ataru Moroboshi to allow the *saikoo jinseijitsu*
its own life? Had he done it out of some strange sense of mercy to the
creature which had played him like a puppet over a decade...or had Noa talked
him into it just to erect an extra shield between the Sagussans and Tomobiki?
It would make some sense; as that thing just admitted, all of Tomobiki was its
playtoys, to use and discard as it saw fit. Snarling, she picks up the pace.
As soon as she was done with those who had tortured Ryouga, Sagussa's Elder
Mother was next!

Some distance away, Negako watches Karmalibra lead the lone Yakuza
guard right to U-chan's. Good. Force the idiot into making loads of
mistakes, then let matters take their course. Now all that was needed was to
get some new players into the game, then let Ryouga finally make his
decision...

* * *

"Hi, Akari!"

"Hi," Akari-chan steps onto the "Ossa'cha's" quarterdeck. "Well, you
really did it this time, eh?!" she stares at the crimson-haired shipmistress.

"Yeah," Ranma-chan frowns. "Well, it's time for me to face the
music, I suppose."

"I'm glad you're doing this," Akari nods.

"Funny...so am I," Ranma nods, then taps the intercom to the bridge.
"We there yet?"

"Affirmative, Shipmistress," the watchmistress of the deck replies.
"Transporter is ready to take you down."

"Right," Ranma nods, then waves Akari to the pad...

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Ranma-chan and Akari-chan sit in the living
room of the Unryuu residence with Happousai, Negako, Chigaiko and Akari.
Grim looks are on everyone's face, though Ranma's is layered with regret.
"So?" Akari sighs, glaring accusingly at Negako. "Who or what is this
Karmalibra and what does she want with my fiance?!"

"Revenge," Negako sighs. "We can't sense Karmalibra's thoughts; if
Happy and I magnified our own powers, she could detect us. From what Ifurita
sensed from Ryouga's own thoughts, she now...desires to strike out at
Sagussans. Given the incident which you spoke of," her eyes then fall on the
shipmistress, "...she now has a perfect target: those who were involved at
'laughing' at Ryouga when you revealed his deception to Akane."

Ranma bites her lip. "So what do we do?!" Akari snaps, then sighs.
"Ranma, that you...did what you did...I'm upset though I understand your
desire to defend your spirit-brother...and I'm pleased that you came here to
resolve it. It speaks highly of you. I...but I'm also quite annoyed at what
he was doing with Akane all those years, not to mention Ranma."

"It's hard to put blame on any one person..."

"Then get over the question of blame."

Eyes turn to Negako. "She's right," Happousai puffs his pipe.
"Problem with those kids, they just keep on pointing fingers at people which
prevents them from getting over it and moving on. Ryouga's the worst case
I've ever seen! You just got caught up in it when you were there,
Ranma-chan," he stares at the shipmistress.

"Yeah, that's what I want to help solve," Ranma nods.

"But with Karmalibra involved, we might not be able to solve it
without someone dying along the way," Akari-chan warns.

"How do we do that without getting Ryouga-kun killed?!" Chigaiko
wonders.

"It will be easy," Negako muses...

* * *

"Found her!" the guard reports. He had tailed the woman in the ninja
suit to that okonomiyaki place the boss wanted shaken down earlier.

"Good work, Seiji. Don't make any rash moves. I'll send a car down
there, loaded with enough heat and muscle to eliminate that bitch and her
friends. Kenoshi out."

As he hung up and made the preparations he'd just planned, Kenji
smiles. He knew that each of the places this ninja-bitch had struck, save
for the casino thanks to the *saikoo jinseijitsu's* surprise interference,
always had a picture of a scale balanced on a tao symbol etched somewhere
nearby. Now he could end this once and for all. *So you might be hiding the
bitch who's given me all this grief, eh, Miss Kuonji? Well, fool me once,
shame on you. Fool me twice...prepare to die!*

* * *

An hour later...

"You okay, Ryouga?" Ukyou wonders.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ryouga shudders, rubbing his arms as she places the
okonomiyaki before him. "Just one hell of a nightmare last night, that's
all."

Ukyou sighs. No, he wasn't alright. The first day he was back, he
was in great shape, full of confidence and determination. The second day was
even better with his chasing off those goons. But it was yesterday and today
when things swung dangerously downhill. Yesterday, it looked as if he'd
witnessed a horror unimaginable to any normal person. Today...it seemed as if
Ryouga had a personal hand in that horror.

"Do you want me to turn on the radio, Ukyou-sama?" Konatsu wonders,
glancing concernedly at Ryouga.

"Yeah, go ahead," Ukyou nods.

The kunoichi flips it on. A news reporter's voice echoes from the
speakers, "...last night, a monster that devastated Tomobiki last Halloween
visited Furinkan. A being believed by witnesses to be the infamous *saikoo
jinseijitsu,* perpetrator of the Tomobiki Spirit War, was locked in battle
with another being at a recently-completed office complex in the north end of
the district. No one is sure as to what caused the fight or how the *saikoo
jinseijitsu* was able to manifest itself on Earth since its last reported
host body, Ataru Moroboshi, currently is on Sagussa..."

Ukyou blinks, then smirks. "What's so funny?!" Ryouga asks.

"Must've been some copycat thing," she shakes her head. "There's no
way in hell that Negako would ever do something like that again, especially
with Chigaiko watching over her."

"Eh?!!" Ryouga gasps.

"You mean...Moroboshi-sama...is the *saikoo jinseijitsu?!*" Konatsu
stammers, his eyes widening.

"Yeah...oh, that's right, you weren't here for that, were you?" Ukyou
smiles. "You see, back in August when they were moving to get that thing
outta Ataru's head, they discovered that the *saikoo jinseijitsu* was a
sentient being and deserved its own life. So, they teamed up with the
Avalonians to give it her own body...and that is who we know today as Negako
Moroboshi."

Silence falls. "Why did they do that?!" Ryouga demands, a surge of
fear and hatred scalding through him. "Don't they understand how dangerous
that thing is?!"

"'Dangerous?!'" Ukyou stares at him. "Sugar, look. You can't
imagine what it's like being shuttled from mind to mind, body to body against
your will over two centuries. Negako can; she lived through that...and she
HATED it! She may not understand much about emotions, but the one emotion she
knows is the hate she felt at being USED like that!!"

"Still..."

The door opens, heralded by the door chimes. "Good morning, Ukyou.
One traveller's special."

"Hey, Negako!" Ukyou nods. "Siddown and relax."

Negako calmly sits beside Ryouga. The wanderer shudders, staring
fearfully at the ninjitsu grandmistress. *THIS was the *saikoo jinseijitsu?**
repeats in his mind. He then remembers Ukyou's words about Negako's
experiences, a surge of sympathy flowing through him. Who WOULD like the idea
of being used like a toy, then discarded without having any say over her own
existence?

No one.

"How are you today, Ryouga?"

Ryouga blinks. Negako was staring levelly at him. "Um...I thought
you didn't like small talk."

"I simply asked a question...or is the thing within you afraid of
another thrashing like I gave her last night?"

Silence falls. Ryouga blinks confusedly, though a surge of fear
races up his spine. She knew about Karmalibra?! What the hell was going on
here? Ukyou and Konatsu stare quizzically at the grandmistress. "What does
that mean, sugar?" the former wonders.

"Ryouga currently is under the possession of a pathetic little
creature named Karmalibra," Negako calmly reports, ignoring the storm of
emotions twisting Ryouga's face. "She, someone many would consider a cosmic
arbiter between the forces of good and evil, in another time, met a version of
Shinobu Miyaki who desired vengeance on Sagussa. Since the Sagussans
themselves do not believe in a being like Karmalibra, she could not destroy
them directly, thus she had to act through a mortal agent...which the Shinobu
of that time served as until her death sometime ago here in the Furinkan of
this time. All she then had to was wait until someone came along, someone who
had the skills and power she could use against those she wanted to hurt...and
Ryouga served her purposes perfectly."

Ukyou pales, then stares at the wanderer. "Sugar, this ain't
true...is it...?" she inquires.

Ryouga gags, his mouth fluttering open and closed soundlessly, arcs
of chi energy warping around him. "Oh, you should also know this, Ukyou,"
Negako calmly adds. "Part of Karmalibra's plan included either injuring or
killing you."

Ukyou staggers, wide-eyed, then snares her combat spatula, spinning
on Ryouga. "WHY?!?!?!"

"He had no choice in the matter," Negako hums. "The night he
encountered Karmalibra, his chi levels had increased to the point where it
would've reached critical mass. Had she not 'intervened' for 'his own
good'...and given his own lack of control over his chi...he would have died.
The energy from the explosion that would've resulted from that could've
devastated most of Tokyo." Negako pauses. "It *would've certainly* destroyed
Nerima, since Nerima would've been ground zero."

The chef shudders, then pales as the dark implications of what MIGHT
have happened sink in. What was ONE life of a friend, when compared to many
tens of, possibly hundreds of THOUSANDS of innocent lives, which would have
included that friend as well?! "Oh, Ryouga..."

Ryouga gags, staggering to his feet as he tries to escape. Negako
calmly rises, following him outside. Ryouga leans against a telephone pole,
then stares at her. Negako remains unperturbed. "Wh-what're you g-going to
do...?" he finally utters, no small task given the pain he now feels.

"It was I who suggested that you settle the matter with the Sagussans
concerning what happened between you and Akane," Negako crosses her arms. "I,
of course, did not realize that an entity like Karmalibra would inject herself
into you, nor did I take into consideration your lack of control over your
body's ability to produce chi energy. To that end, I apologize and I give you
an offer. Once Karmalibra is removed from your mind, I will train you in the
proper manipulation of chi energy...so that never again can a being like
Karmalibra manipulate you so."

<<Don't listen to her!!!>>

Ryouga screams as that voice slams through his mind. "It seems that
Karmalibra does not agree to the idea," Negako hums.

<<She's tricking you!!! Just like every Sagussan's tricked you from
the start!!! Don't listen to her!!!>>

Ryouga gags, sinking to his knees. *Wait a sec', that's not right,*
he groans, remembering the conversation he had with Negako before leaving
Akari's farm. "N-negako...!" he hisses.

"Yes?"

"She...doesn't...like you..."

"Understandable," Negako hums. "I told her last night that I have
need of you...and that she is standing in my way."

"Eh?!"

Negako stares at him. "You are Akari Unryuu's fiancee, the father of
her children. Akari is Chigaiko Inu's best friend. Chigaiko is my guide to
better understanding what being human is about. To keep them happy, you must
be alive and well. Karmalibra stands in the way of that happiness. My needs
come before hers."

Ryouga screams as a primal wave of rage rips through him. "***YOU
ARROGANT BITCH!!!! SHISHI HOUKOU RAIPA!!!!!!***" roars Karmalibra in a voice
that is a blend of hers and Ryouga's.

The giant blast of chi power lashes out...at U-chan's!

*NO!!!! That's Ukyou!!!* Ryouga screams.

<<***DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!!***>&g t;

The restaurant explodes, fragments and cinders showering the block as
early-morning commuters scatter for cover!! Ryouga cries out in horror as he
feels control return to his limbs, then he runs over to gaze into the burning
caldron which had been his friend's home and life. "NO!!!! No...!!" he
staggers to his knees.

"You see how little she cares for you?" a voice muses.

He turns to see Negako leaning against a car, arms crossed, not the
least bit winded from dodging the roaring lion blast. "You should also know
what else she's done behind your back, when you were asleep and she had
control over your body," she smiles. "Do you remember all the money you
placed in those bank accounts abroad? You have any idea where that money
REALLY came from, Ryouga? How many people DIED for you to have that money?"

"WHAT?!?!" *WHAT'S SHE TALKING ABOUT?!?!*

<<***DON'T LISTEN!!!! KILL IT!!!! KILL IT NOW!!!!!!***>>

"My, she doesn't like to have her dirty laundry exposed, does she?"
Negako purses her lips. "Or perhaps you'd like to know what was happening
while you made your first visit to the Dreamscape? How Karmalibra used your
body to attack a drug processing facility here in Furinkan...and how, during
her attack, she DELIBERATELY hurt a nine year old girl all because she didn't
know much better than to be the Yakuza's personal playtoy?"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!" he
screams, trying to remember just what did happen. Guilt then rears its ugly
head concerning that act...if what Negako said was true.

<<IT'S A LIE!!!!!! KILL IT!!!! KILL IT!!!! KILL IT!!!!>>

"Then, there is last night," Negako caps it off. "While you were
busy in the Dreamscape again, she attacked an illicit casino. Atop killing
two dozen Yakuza members, she also killed a dozen patrons, people who's only
'crime' was that they wanted to earn some extra money, most likely to send
their children to decent schools and enhance their chances at a better life.
Children that are now, thanks to some cosmic 'judge,' orphans."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" his eyes
close as he clenches his fists, realization of what had happened dawning on
him. *Gods, no...please, no...!*

<<IT'S A LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!!>>

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?!"

Negako and Ryouga turn to see several dark-suited gunmen staring at
them, weapons out and hard looks on their faces. "Looks like we were too late
for the barbecue!" Seiji snorts. "Once we take care of this bastard, the
boss'll sleep easier at nights!!"

Ryouga shudders, then chi explodes around him as his body morphs.
"TOO BAD FOR YOU!!!! ***BAKUHATSUTOU!!!!!!***" Karmalibra roars as her energy
katana comes forward, the bolts lancing through the air.

The Yakuza scream as Karmalibra's attack rips them down, their
corpses piling up across the street. The transformed ersatz ninja then turns
on her tormentor. "Now, it's YOUR turn!!!" she cocks her hands for the
roaring lion bullet.

Fingers then land on her head from behind as psi-bolts lance in to
push Ryouga's psyche into the Dreamscape. Karmalibra screams as she
turns...then is side-kicked into the pavement by Ranma-chan. "That was for
messing up a good dream, bitch!!!"

Snarling, the creature rises, then notices Ukyou and Konatsu standing
beside Negako, both quite peeved. "You manipulated my friend into hurting me,
wrecking my restaurant and my life just so you could get your points against
the Sagussans?!" the chef snarls, her combat spatula at the ready. "Time for
you to experience some of the pain you gave Ryouga, bitch!!!"

"Too bad for you, honey!! SHISHI HOUKOU RAIPA!!!!!!"

Ukyou stands her ground as the massive roaring lion power blast
screams at her, then parries with her spatula. The chi energy dissipates,
Ukyou unharmed. "What the...?!" Karmalibra gasps.

"Nice present Ranma-chan gave me!" Ukyou grins. "Diamond meson and
carbo-neutronium! One to reflect chi, the other the toughest element in the
known galaxy!!"

"It was so nice of you to announce yourself so we could be ready for
you when this day came...Scalphunter!" a voice then mocks from above. "By the
way, the Elder Mother sends her greetings!!"

Karmalibra spins around, looking up to see Akane-chan and Kodachi-
chan standing on one street light, then the other to see Ukyou-chan and
Shampoo- chan there, all angry enough to kill. "How nice of you to come!!"
the ersatz ninja snarls, her body aglow. "Now that you're all here...it's
time for all of you to die!!! ***SHISHI HOUKOU DANKAWA!!!!!!***"

"***HENRYOKU HANDOU KOUGEKI!!!!!!***" Negako bellows.

An explosion rocks Furinkan, echoed by Karmalibra's scream...

* * *

"Where...am I...?"

Ryouga moans, finding himself floating in a sea of white. No pain,
no feeling of any sort. The wanderer's eyes open as he looks around. "Is
this death...?"

"You're too tough to die, man!"

"Ranma!!" Ryouga gapes to see his former rival standing beside him,
then sits up. "Where are we...?"

"The Dreamscape," Ranma reports, then grins as he playfully thumps
Ryouga's shoulder. "You stud, you!! Akari and Chigaiko told us about the
kids! Way to go, man!!"

Ryouga blinks, then blushes. "Thanks, man...I think..."

Ranma sighs, then kneels before him. "Look, I got somethin' to say
to you...somethin' to admit. We had to bring you in here so that we could
talk to you without that Karmalibra buttin' in the way. After that, you can
do whatever you want with me."

"Eh?!"

"I broke my oath when it came to revealing P-chan to Akane," Ranma
bows his head. "I broke MY oath to YOU by agreeing to let Ranma-chan do
that. I didn't want you in Akane's life anymore and I was desperate to do
anything to get you away from her. Ranma-chan offered to do it 'cause lying
to someone you love is something you don't do on her planet!! And I AGREED
TO LET HER DO IT!!!!" Ranma pauses as he tries to choose his next words
carefully. "Ranma- chan also told me about what COULD have happened in that
lot thanks the hurt we gave you!! If I'd known THAT would happen because of
it, I WOULDN'T HAVE AGREED TO LET HER DO IT!!"

Ryouga stares at Ranma as he points to himself. "I STARTED this,
Ryouga, not Ranma-chan!! She was trying to END it!! She screwed up bad
'cause she didn't know much better, but believe it or not, she came today to
admit her mistake and make it up to you!!"

"How'd she plan on doing it?" Ryouga demands. "I went through
agonizing hell with what you put me through! That's not something light, man!
I thought I'd die...and die horribly!! What could have stopped the rest of me
from dying then too?! What could stop her from doing this to anyone else?!
I'm not some power-hungry tyrant or alien bent on wanting to rule the world!"

"I know you're not, and now she and everyone else knows you're not!
I...don't know what might've stopped her," Ranma admits. "But she knows now
what she did, how bad it could have been! We ALL do! She knows, man...and
now she wants to make it up to you! I know it! And I'm gonna do the same
thing, man! I may not've showed you a lotta kindness since we first met,
Ryouga, but we gotta stop this mess, now!!!"

"Any suggestions? For once, if you got 'em, I'm open to 'em!"

"You're killing yourself by letting your anger eat at you!!! Don't
you want to be there for Akari?!! You wanna know how she'll feel if you let
your anger kill you?!!"

Ryouga shudders, then looks away...as hands slip over his eyes.
"Guess who?!"

"Akari!!!" he yelps, then spins around to embrace her.

"How are you?!" she stares concernedly into his eyes.

"Dunno...can't feel much in this place!!" he scratches the back of
his head, then he stares worriedly at her. "Um...did you get what I sent you
from Monte Carlo...?"

"Hai, I did. Thank you very much," Akari smiles, then stares at
him. "Ryouga-kun, listen. If you don't trust Ranma or Ranma-chan or anyone
else, please listen to me! You've got to stop hating people!! You've got to
stop letting things get to you!! Why do you think Karmalibra took possession
of you?!! She doesn't care for what you want!! All she cares for is doing
what a monster named Scalphunter wanted to do...and then she dragged you into
it without REALLY caring what you wanted!!! You've got to stop!!! Please!!!
If not for me or your children, then do it for you!!!"

Ryouga shudders. "My children...?"

<<Papa...>>

"Eh?!!"

<<Papa!>>

Ryouga stops, staring at two beautiful points of light before his
eyes, hovering between himself and Akari. They gain substance, then take
familiar features. The boy...Hookoo Hibiki...has his father's face, but with
streaks of lavender in his black hair. The girl...Tsukako Hibiki...is fully
black haired, but in every other way is Akari. Both smile as they reach out.
<<Papa! Papa!>>

"My babies...!!" Ryouga gapes, then grins as they run into his arms.
"My babies!!!"

<<We love you, Papa,>> the children croon.

"I love you too..." he says warmly as he holds them close, enjoying
the warmth of their embrace.

Ranma and Akari grin. *Aww...!* Ranma hums, enjoying this Kodak
moment of Ryouga with his kids.

Shadows then form around them, revealing Akane and Chigaiko. "Hi,
Ryouga!" the former hails.

"There you are," the latter kneels. "You okay, Ryouga-kun?!"

"What do you think?!" Ryouga laughs, then tenderly kisses his
children on the forehead. Realization then dawns as he remembers Negako's
words from earlier. "Oh, no..." he says as his eyes go wide.

"What is it?!" Akane wonders.

"Those people..." Ryouga shudders, gripping his forehead as the
revelations Negako made sink in. "Oh, gods, that little girl..." Ryouga sinks
to his knees, guilt making him feel awful. He'd let the innocent die at the
hands of a madwoman. He knew that it could have ended a lot more tragically
for many that night in the lot, but he still felt terrible that what happened
did.

"What about me?"

Ryouga sees Aoi Mizutani standing there beside Chigaiko, now dressed
in more normal civilians, her long black hair now streaked with platinum, her
hand holding that of the would-be bondmate of her rescuer. "You...are
you...?"

"You're lucky Nega-chan was there to save her when Karmalibra blasted
apart that drug facility," Chigaiko smiles, then sighs.

"Kinda needed the lucky break," Aoi admits.

"I'm glad you're all right," Ryouga smiles, relieved the little girl
was okay.

"Me, too," Aoi walks up, then kisses his cheek as she hugs him.

Ryouga embraces the little girl, blushing as everyone grins. "Aww!"
they croon.

"What about those other people...?" he shudders.

"Why do you think Nega-chan took the form she used in the Spirit War
when she fought Karmalibra?" Chigaiko winks. "The *saikoo jinseijitsu* is
something no one can easily drag before a court of law, you know. Once they
confirm that Ataru-kun's busy on Sagussa, people couldn't associate it with
him, so he's off the hook. Besides, once the fire investigators discover that
the place was a Yakuza front, they won't pay so much attention to it after."

"It still ain't right, Chigaiko!!" Ryouga snaps.

"That's right, man," Ranma pats his shoulder. "Karmalibra's the type
of monster that'd laugh at 'mortal' judgements!"

"You gotta show her that we're the ONLY ones who can judge each other
at the end, Ryouga," Akane adds.

"Why me?!!" Ryouga screams.

"Hey, we'll help no matter what, but like it or not, man, she's in
your body!" Ranma sighs.

Ryouga shudders, then sighs. Ranma was right. That...thing...was in
his body, and used it to kill people who couldn't defend themselves. Even
the criminals Karmalibra butchered deserved some justice; the best Yakuza
goons were nothing compared to Furinkan's legion of martial artists. Yes, he
still felt angry because of what the Sagussans did, but as Ranma said,
Ranma-chan had come to apologize and make up for it. And Ukyou, despite all
his protestations, had still been hurt by the creature, who had promised to
him she wouldn't be harmed. The one who kept himself from nuking Tokyo with
his chi was one Ryouga now saw as the monster she really had been. One who
used him to hurt...and kill.

No more. *It ends here! It ends now!* Ryouga steels himself.
"Okay," he rises, then looks at his hands. "But how the hell do I rip that
thing out of my body?"

Chigaiko concentrates. "Nega-chan's got her softened up enough," she
reports. "But before you go..."

She holds up her hand, a glowing point of light in the palm. Ryouga
blinks, then shudders as Chigaiko gently grasps his hand, the light flowing
through him. His eyes widen in shock, then he feels a surge of chi roar
through him, coalescing around his other hand as chi forms into an elongated
sword with a blazing blade...

* * *

<<He's ready!!>>

"Good!" Negako smiles. "***SEISHIN-HASAI HI-KOOSEN!!!!!!***"

Karmalibra screams as the energy bolt slams into her, her very body
shredding apart as something...someone...is punched clear of her. Ranma-chan
braces herself, then catches Ryouga as he gets fully clear, helping him back
up. "About time you got here!!" she grunts, then lashes out with a chi bolt.

Karmalibra, now free of Ryouga, staggers under the blast of energy,
then lashes out with a fusillade of chi bullets. "SHISHI HOUKOU DANKAWA!!!!"

The Sagussans dodge as they move into new positions. Ryouga glances
around, stunned there was so little damage outside of Ukyou's wrecked
restaurant, then finds himself yanked to his feet by the irate chef. "On your
feet, you jackass!! We need you!!!"

"R-right!" Ryouga nods, then braces himself.

"***MOUKO TAKAIBISHA!!!!!!***"

The bolt of chi slams into Karmalibra, sending her into a parked
car. "Normally, I don't hit ladies!!" Ranma snarls as he walks up. "But
you're no lady!"

The Sagussans back off as the former rivals brace themselves, their
intent plain. By then, Karmalibra has recovered. Staring at her hands, she
shudders. Her body was melting away; without a physical form in this realm,
she wouldn't last long. Fine, then. Time for these idiots to learn the price
of betraying her.

"Just look at her, man!" Ranma snorts. "She can't hack the fact that
'normal' folks like us can make our own decisions!"

"Yeah, you got that right, man!" Ryouga grins.

"We had a deal, Ryouga!!" Karmalibra snarls.

"Oh?!" Ryouga says as he stares at her, angry at what he's learned.
"A deal, huh?! Our deal said NOTHING about you attacking and killing people
*in cold blood* even if it was to get a lot of money! Our deal said NOTHING
about you hurting a kid who had no choice in the way her life turned out! Our
deal said NOTHING about you using my body to slay people who only wanted to
make things better for themselves and their family!! And our deal DEFINITELY
said NOTHING about you killing Ukyou!!! YOU promised ME that she wouldn't be
hurt!! YOU broke your word to me, *Scalphunter!* DEAL'S OFF!!!!"

Karmalibra shudders as Ryouga advances on her, chi coalescing around
his right hand. "That's right," the wanderer snarls. "I know all about you
now, what and who you once were! Last night's trip to Ifurita's dream-site
was really informative, you know!! How you couldn't let things go, how you
blamed EVERYTHING that happened to you on other people instead of taking some
of the blame yourself, taking some responsibility! How you kept on hating
and hating and hating until you decided to give into that hate and you
butchered an entire planet of innocent people because of it!!

"It didn't take a rocket scientist much to figure out what you were
doing to me!" Ryouga points at her. "You wanted me to become exactly LIKE you
so you could do the same thing here!! You wanted me to kill not only Ranma-
chan and her friends, but EVERYONE on Sagussa because they don't believe in
you, even innocent children like Aoi-chan, Shunran-chan and Reiko Moroboshi!!!
You can't hack the fact that people won't bow to you, so you use people to get
back at them!! Well, I'VE HAD IT with being used by other people,
Scalphunter!!! NOW GET OUTTA HERE, YOU TWO-FACED LIAR!!!! WE DON'T WANT YOU
HERE ANYMORE AND YOU'VE WORN OUT YOUR WELCOME!!!!!!"

Karmalibra shudders, then grins as chi begins to boil around her.
"Too bad!" she snorts, a gentle rumbling shaking the ground. "You broke your
word, Ryouga! Now you pay for it!!"

Everyone pales...

* * *

"THERE!!!!!!" Kenji screams, pointing out the window to the street.
"There she is!!!"

The helicopter begins to circle over the macabre battlefield. "What
do we do, boss?!" the pilot screams.

"Get lower!!!" Kenji barks, hauling out a well-maintained sniper
rifle. "I'll deal with the bitch myself!!!" His own nerves were tense as he
prepared to end this once and for all. It had not been that long ago since he
had been a front-line man. He'd been smart enough to keep himself ready just
in case he had to dirty his hands again. This once, he wouldn't mind it. Not
at all.

The pilot nods as the machine places itself right over the glowing
ersatz ninja...

* * *

"***KONTOU!!!!!!***"

Karmalibra screams as Ryouga forms the soulsword, then charges at
her, the blade plunging into her heart! Chi explodes around them as the
ersatz ninja starts to laugh. "YOU FOOL, THAT WILL DO NOTHING TO SAVE YOUR
FRIENDS!!!!!!" she howls.

"WANNA BET?!?!" Ryouga snarls. "NOW, RANMA!!!!!!"

Karmalibra gasps as Ranma begins to orbit around her, chi forming a
ring of energy around the struggling warriors. Negako joins in, orbiting in
the opposite direction as the escaping chi Karmalibra had taken from Ryouga
is absorbed into the whirling hurricane forming around them. Karmalibra
shudders, paralyzed by the soulsword as the energy lifts her off the ground,
forming a wall that would protect all of Tokyo from the detonation, then
stares at Ryouga. He lets go of the soulsword, summoning his chi into a
large ball and deliberately aims on target.

"***SEISHIN-HASAI HI-KOOSEN!!!!!!***" Ryouga fires.

"***HENRYOKU HANDOU KOUGEKI!!!!!!***" Negako bellows.

"***HIRYUU SHOOTEN-HA!!!!!!***" Ranma finishes.

Karmalibra screams as the mixed attack shreds her body, her soul
returning to where it first arose. The chi composing her body explodes,
funnelled into a dense bolt, then races heavenward. It catches Kenji's
helicopter by the blades, the loss of lifting power sending the machine and
its helpless occupants into the whirlwind, the centrifugal force ripping them
apart before they could even scream for help. What is left is carried up
into the heavens as the bolt punches out of the stratosphere, then explodes
in a shower of energy that for a short while creates a second sun over Tokyo.

Ryouga yelps in shock as the forces Ranma and Negako unleashed
suddenly vault him into the air. "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

"RYOUGA!!!!!!" Ranma screams.

"I'll get him!!!" Ranma-chan calls out, then leaps onto Akane-chan's
outstretched palms. "Alley-oop!!!"

Her bondmate fastball specials Ranma-chan at Ryouga, who, now free of
the whirlpool that had vented what was left of Karmalibra into space, now
finds himself again at gravity's mercy. As the wanderer braces himself for
the very hard fall, he finds slim hands grab him and yank him into the
shipmistress' embrace. "Hang on!!!" Ranma-chan screams as she stabs her
wrist-comm.

A transporter beam seizes them, then delivers them to just above
ground level at the Tendou dojo, right over the koi pond. Both cry out as
they take a dip, then Ranma-chan emerges, spitting up water as she looks
around for the wanderer. "Ryouga!!!"

"Ite...right here...!"

She relaxes on seeing Ryouga sitting up in the pond, wincing and
rubbing his skull. "You okay?" Ranma-chan wonders.

"H-hai...th-thanks...!" he says a little weakly, his mind just
returning to him.

"Anytime," the shipmistress smiles. "I owed you one."

"Um..." Ryouga sighs.

"Sorry about that," Ranma-chan looks down.

"Ryouga!!"

He looks over to see Akane, Akari, Chigaiko and Aoi emerge from the
living room. "Um...h-hi, everyone!" he waves.

Akane and Akari gape. "Ryouga, look at yourself!" the former points
at him.

"What...?!" he stops, then notices he is sitting in cold water and
hasn't transformed. "What the...?"

"Guess that proves your pregnant, Akari-chan!" Chigaiko nudges her
best friend. "He's free of his curse!!"

Akari blinks, then blushes. "I guess so..."

Everyone blinks, then laughs as Ranma-chan rises, then helps Ryouga
out of the pond. By then, everyone else has run up from U-chan's. "Hey, you
two alright?!" Ranma calls out.

"Y-yeah, we're fine!" Ryouga nods, then stares at Negako. "Um...th-
thanks, Sensei..."

"Do not address me as 'Sensei,'" Negako sighs as she heads over to
join Chigaiko and Aoi.

Ryouga blinks, then sighs. Chigaiko mutters something, then kicks
Negako's shin. The grandmistress sighs, then stares at Ryouga, a hint of a
smile on her face. "You're welcome."

Everyone blinks, then laughs. "Well, now that's over with, what
now?!" Akane wonders.

"How about some help in getting my restaurant fixed up?!" Ukyou
mutters, then glares at Ryouga. "Eh, sugar?!"

"Um...!" Ryouga withers under her gaze. Guilt creeps up onto his
face as he realizes just what happened. *What did that guy on 'Quantum Leap'
say? Oh, yeah...'Oh, boy...!'*

Ukyou then grins. "Relax, I forgive you!"

They embrace, everyone relaxing from the hard day they've had. "I
have a better idea," Ranma-chan sighs, then taps her wrist-comm. "Ranma to
'Ossa'cha.' Wide-beam scan of this location, beam us all up."

Ryouga then topples over. Akari-chan moves to his side, feeling his
neck. "He's got a pulse, but he lapsed into deep unconsciousness."

"Medical emergency!!" Ranma-chan barks. "Ryouga and I're going to
Sick Bay. Beam us there, stat!"

* * *

Two days later, over Mars...

"Good morning, Ryouga! How you feelin'?!"

Ryouga smiles on seeing the "Ossa'cha's" pretty chief medical
officer, Olga, staring concernedly at him. "I feel...fine, Sensei," he yawns.
"How am I supposed to feel?"

"Well, after your body was warped around like silly putty over a
couple weeks, your mental and spiritual energy level drained from critical
mass to near-life threatening conditions, plus all the mental and emotional
agony you've suffered...though I fear it'd be worse if you experienced the
full extent of Karmalibra's actions against you and all of us...you're doing
okay," Olga muses. "I assume the 'intimate therapy' I recommended is working
well?"

"Hai..i-it is," Ryouga flushes, surprised that one method Sagussans
used to recover from harsh mental or emotional trauma was to simply lay in
bed in the warm arms of one's mate. "All Akari-chan does is let me touch her
belly and feel the babies. I...I wish I was telepathic like you. I'd love
to...talk to them."

Olga smiles. "The thought counts just as much, Ryouga. When you
recover enough, your ability to sense another's chi will tell you a lot about
your babies. Speaking of which, they're quite fine; while you're with us,
I'll have a child services officer keep an eye on your fiancee and them.
Okay?"

"Hai, it does," he nods.

"Okay. Oh, you have visitors."

"Eh?!" Ryouga blinks, then smiles as a host of familiar faces enter
his private recovery suite. "Hi, guys!"

"Hey, man, how're you doing?!" Ranma thumps his shoulder as Olga
retreats to give them privacy.

"Much better, believe it or not," he nods. "I can't believe this!
Three days ago, I was helping someone try to kill the same people who are now
falling over each other helping me."

"They understand the concept of 'forgive and move on' very much,
Ryouga," Cologne hops herself on the edge of the bed. "Atop that, if this
Karmalibra was a reflection of a future-version of Akane's first student who
had been at war with the Sagussans for several hundred years, they feel a
moral responsibility to heal all her victims, ensure that in OUR timeline it
never happens."

"Yeah, that's true," Ryouga nods.

Silence falls as everyone considers what to say next, and begin the
healing they ALL needed. The others had all learned the details from Negako
and Ranma-chan. They now knew just how bad the hurt had become...and how much
worse it could have been.

Finally, Ranma sighs. "I...don't like what we are now...the way we
look at each other at times."

"Ditto," Akane nods.

"It got way outta hand at times," Ukyou hugs herself.

"I've never liked it," Mousse admits.

"Shampoo no like it either," Shampoo grunts.

Ryouga smiles. "I think...after what I just went through, if
I...continued to look at people the same way...I'd just be slitting my throat
and hurting my fiancee and my kids...and putting a lot of innocent people
around me in mortal danger."

"That's good," Cologne nods. "Now that you've admitted the basic
problem, you have a choice. Do you wish to start healing now or go all the
way into specifics?"

"Well...we should mention a few things," Akane nods.

"I'll start," Ranma takes a deep breath. "Ryouga, look. I may
not've been the best when it came to understanding your feelings,
but...you're my friend, man. You're the best sparring partner I could ever
ask for. Yeah, I got pissed at you for making me take that oath. Yeah,
there were times I prevented you from telling Akane the truth. I should've
realized what you were doing and given you a chance...but I was afraid, for
you and me. You know how Akane was at times. If she found out the truth,
she'd've killed me for not telling her and really do a number on you."

Akane winces, her eyes tearing, then smiles as Ukyou places a
supportive hand on her shoulder. "At the same time," Ranma's voice hoarsens.
"There was my feelings for Akane...heck for everyone that got engaged to me,
I guess. Honour sooner or later's gotta be put aside where happiness is
concerned, where the future of one's life comes into play. I think Nabiki's
got the right idea by not adhering to the Code. It took me so long to admit
to *myself* that I loved Akane...that it was her I wanted."

Akane feels her cheeks heat while Shampoo and Ukyou frown. "And
there you were, giving your love to Akane without question. That puts you
one up on me, man. And..." Ranma looks down, his eyes glistening, "...when
things between Akane and I were bad...when I asked myself if it was gonna
work out...I believed...she would've been better off with you. And if I
ignored the oath, told her about P-chan...how could that've happened?"

He coughs, then wipes his eyes. "I realized I was in love with Akane
some time ago...I really can't say when, but it was way before Saffron...and
when I did, I really got jealous of you, angry at you for trying to make
things rough between us. Then Akari comes into your life. 'Finally, he's
got someone he can care for!' I said...but there you were still playing
P-chan! What the hell was I supposed to do?! Only way I understood how to
solve problems was to destroy it! And when...when Ranma-chan finally offered
the chance to blow what you were doing wide open...I took it."

Akane sighs, reaching over to gently grasp her fiance's hand. "At
the time, it seemed like the only way to deal with it," Ranma continues. "I
guess...I'm better with the 'now' and not the 'later'." He pauses again
before adding, "I may have wanted to humiliate you, man...but I NEVER wanted
you to die because of it."

Ryouga contemplates that for a long time, then sighs
understandingly. "Thanks. You know, we're both a pair of bakas."

"What do you mean?" Ranma wonders.

"We both grew up on the road, out of a home, away from being with
other people," Ryouga shrugs. "We never really understood things Akane,
Ukyou, Akari-chan and everyone takes for granted. You had your father at
least, despite the moron he was. Me...I had no one. I...said this to Akane
when we talked after it happened. I never knew a loving home, rarely if EVER
saw my parents. So when Akane offered me...tenderness...I leapt at it like a
moth to a flame. I was P-chan at the time, so I was...afraid that if I told
her the truth, I'd destroy what she willingly gave me. Regardless of what
was happening between us, I...didn't want to lose that."

He takes a deep breath. "Then I meet Akari-chan...and things became
so confusing," he shudders. "Akane...still knew so little about me. Akari-
chan accepted me, curse and all. So...I began to shift. And while I was
doing that, I...decided the time had come to finally come clean. You stopped
me for whatever reason. I...so I fell into a habit. When I was a pig, I was
P-chan. When I was myself, I was Ryouga. Then...Ranma-chan put a stop to
it...and though it hurt real bad, maybe she...she did a good thing in the
long run..." *It just didn't feel like it so soon after it all, though...* he
mentally finishes.

As they talk, Cologne slips out of the recovery suite, then smiles on
seeing Olga and Misato standing there. "I think they'll be fine once they
blow this off," the aged matriarch muses. "But why did you want me to
provoke them into doing this, Misato?"

"I'm still...inexperienced when I deal with non-Sagussans," Misato
sighs. "And thanks to what happened, there is a level of mistrust within some
of them concerning us. They've enjoyed quite a number of adventures together.
Despite their hidden anger and pains, at a primal level, they trust each other
implicitly. Now they have to tap into that trust to work things out. I
suppose, given some hindsight, it was in some places a grave mistake to allow
our people to interact with them while their interpersonal relations were
still...volatile."

"It's quite alright," Cologne muses as the three head to a nearby
observation gallery to gaze on Mars's ruddy surface rotating below the
"Ossa'cha." "Despite the bad things that occurred, you did those kids a lot
of good. They...had to see what REALLY lay beyond the boundaries of what
they knew and trusted. Much like what Tomobiki had to experience after the
Spirit War shook things up so badly. You provided the chance for them to do
that. In time, they'll realize that a lot of good came from this experience
and they'll thank you for it in their own way."

"That's good," Misato nods. "Oh, by the way, does Akane...?"

"Not yet," Cologne hisses. "About a month ago, Ranma and Akane were
kidnapped by an ancient warlord from southern China, Yung Shan. During their
time as his 'guests,' he forced them into a chamber and pumped it full of
aphrodisiacs to make them...more than willing to get on with 'their natural
duty to the Unity' as the Nendo-kata would eloquently put it. He is, though
this may not surprise you, two thousand years old and has desired control of
the power of Jusenkyou for almost all that time. In a way, I wish your friend
Ifurita hadn't restored the springs; it would've cheated Yung Shan of his
chance to make Ranma's coming daughter his slave."

"Another thing we did that could become a disaster," Olga shakes her
head.

"Elder Mother, is there anything we can do to help?" Misato wonders.
"Given what you said, I will tell Noa about this and she will be very
concerned about it."

"Your offer is kind, but I think we'd better handle this on our own
for the next while," Cologne muses. "While you see it as basic humanity to
help those in need, short-sighted fools like this Scalphunter creature would
warp it to their own ends and make you suffer for it. Your innate goodness is
your greatest strength, the synergy from that giving you a power no one could
defeat. It is also...potentially a grave vulnerability, one that beings like
Scalphunter happily exploit for their own ends. Tell Noa to be on the lookout
for things like that, Misato."

"I will," the psychologist nods, then tenses. "What in Lyna's
name...?!" she spins aft.

"What is it?!" Cologne blinks.

Misato and Olga race down the corridor towards another observation
room...where Happousai was now standing rock-still, Negako before him, her
blazing soulsword held high. "NEGAKO, NO!!!!!!" Misato screams as the blade
races down...

...and burns away a dark aura of energy that had been buried deep
within the aged grandmaster!! Cologne gapes, then walks up to him as
Happousai shakes his head. "Are you alright, Happy?"

"Me...?" Happousai blinks, then grins. "Hell, never been better,
love!! Thanks, Nega-chan!"

"My pleasure," Negako disperses the soulsword.

"I thought you didn't understand pleasure," Misato muses.

"It is...a common courtesy," Negako muses. "Besides, I DO understand
gratitude, even if Happy's attempt to give me my own life failed. Good day."

She leaves. "Um...will someone tell me what's going on here?" Olga
wonders, scratching her head.

"Relax, Olga-chan," Happousai smiles. "Hundred years ago, I tried to
help Nega-chan there get her own body. Her masters didn't take it too well,
so they nailed me with a damned curse that made me dependent on touching
women and women's things to stay alive!"

"Cute," Cologne snorts.

"Ah, it don't matter now," he shrugs. "Kimaenowakai's a bit of a
flake, but Nagaiwakai's got a good head on her shoulders. That family's in
good shape. Besides, Nega-chan is free."

"True, but she now has to handle what achieving her dream means,"
Cologne muses...

* * *

"'Morning."

Ryouga blinks as Ranma-chan walks into the room. It was easy for him
to tell her apart from her spirit-brother; there was NO WAY Ranma would wear a
revealing halter top and wide-legged slacks when he was a girl. "Hi," he
smiles as the shipmistress sits beside him. "Um...you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Ranma admits, then sighs.

"So..."

"So...where do we begin?"

"I..." Ryouga tenses. "Um...why?"

"Eh?"

The wanderer breathes in. "Look. I know you...now see Ranma as your
spirit-brother. Your brother-in-all-but-blood; I guess that's what you mean
by that. I...I heard from Akane that you all got your names either through
Ataru Moroboshi because he and Ranma spent time with the kids at the
orphanage in Nerima, or when your friend Noa came through checking things
out. And...well, defending your spirit-brother's understandable and all
that..."

"Still, it wasn't an excuse to hurt you like I did," Ranma closes her
eyes, tears brimming. Ryouga shudders, hand itching to wipe them away.
Yesterday, he had seen the impossible: Ranma Saotome in tears as he admitted
things he did wrong (a first for Ranma as far as Ryouga knew). In fact, there
wasn't a dry eye in the room when it was all done, even from Shampoo (who
hailed from a place where it was decidedly uncool to cry before fellow
warriors).

Gently, she takes his hand and guides them to her eyes. "I had no
right to interfere," she bites her lip. "It violated the Non-Interference
Directive and it potentially put the lives of thousands in danger. I want to
make it up to you, Ryouga-kun. Now that I'm...not blinded by my own anger, I
can see what a decent person you are. I...I'm not sure what you'd want from
me in return. By all rights, you could demand I resign my commission and
submit myself to a trial for what I did. But...before you do, I should at
least tell you why...what motivated me to do what I did, now that I've had a
chance to reflect on it for a bit."

Ryouga nods. "Have you...ever been lied to, Ryouga-kun?" Ranma gazes
at him. "Someone's never told you something important about someone, someone
you love and care for, something...that when you did find out, hurt you badly?
Made you feel as if your trust for that person you care for was betrayed?"

"No, not myself personally...but you could say that about Akane after
what I did," Ryouga admits.

"Well, it happened to me on Sagussa, believe it or not. I could
sympathize with Akane's situation," Ranma sighs, gently grasping his hand.
"Someone who cares for that person keeping a secret like THAT from her, in
essence using her for his own ends, hiding a whole aspect of himself from
her. And not only was Akane's family keeping the whole thing secret, her own
child- mate had been coerced into it. I...I knew it was my spirit-brother
who cursed you, Ryouga-kun, but from...from what I sensed of him, it was an
accident. He didn't even know you were there until you confronted him about
it later. He had just been cursed himself and...after the way his
*kimei'aidoei* father force-fed that 'man above men' junk down his throat,
having that torn away from him..."

"Yeah, I'd be pretty out of it myself, I guess," Ryouga sighs. "What
happened to you? Does it concern Akane-chan?"

"Hai. You remember Irunmei, don't you? Well, Akane-chan and Irunmei-
chan were bonded four hundred years ago. It...was a shock to most people at
the time; I didn't become a *daishi'cha* until just over a hundred years ago.
Well...something went very wrong with Irunmei-chan's conversion. Put simply,
she went insane...and Akane-chan tried to kill her to die to prevent her from
hurting all of us through the Dreamscape. At the time I exposed you to Akane,
I had just learned Irunmei-chan was still alive."

Ryouga pales. "Gods..."

"Well, everyone...tried to put Irunmei behind them. Then I came onto
the scene. My...attraction to Akane-chan started the instant I began defence
training; she was my thoughtmistress. I made it clear even then, even when we
didn't fully understand our emotions, that she was the one I wanted. Akane-
chan...was unsure. She was still hurting over Irunmei-chan and didn't want
to...commit at the time. So...to ensure I never found out, she swore ALMOST
EVERYONE on Sagussa to silence over what happened to Irunmei."

The wanderer's jaw dropped. "How could they do that?"

"Oh, it was easy then; all Akane-chan had to do was persuade them of
the logic of not dwelling so much on past disasters," Ranma snorts. "As I
said, almost everyone were sworn to silence over the thing with Irunmei-chan.
Pony, my doctor, wasn't. She...felt it wasn't right for me to be kept in the
dark over the matter, so she told me. And...I was really hurt over it,
Ryouga- kun. Even then. It was as if...no one trusted me to respect the
pain the woman I loved endured because of her first bondmate.

"So we come to when I first encountered you," she closes her eyes.
"There you were, acting as if Akane couldn't be trusted to understand the
pains you went through, acting as if it was okay to keep 'P-chan' secret from
her, even when you had your own child-mate and had pretty much accepted that
Akane wanted my spirit-brother. At that same time, I sensed that
Irunmei-chan had come, most likely to take Akane-chan away from me. I was in
quite the rare mood that day. So...I took it out on you."

Silence falls as Ryouga absorbs that. "Is that what I've become?" he
gazes at his hands.

"What?"

"That...all that matters to me now is revenge?" he clenches his
fists. "That's all that consumed me this last while. Just the pain, hate
and anger...it was no wonder I nearly killed myself or could've died even
earlier."

"I don't think so."

"Eh?"

She begins to trace his fingers with hers. "You're going to be a
father in five months. You have a lovely child-mate. You've got someone who
even now forgives you for what you've done to him, who...now admits what he
did wrong with you. Ranma's as much your spirit-brother as he is mine, you
know. You have good friends who want to stick up for you, who...realize,
understand, what you've been through. Akane pretty well forgives you now.
She loves Ranma but still wants to be your friend. You fight for those who
can't defend themselves. You're a good person, Ryouga-kun. Is it your fault
that others don't take the time to see it?"

Ryouga hums. "No, I guess not."

Ranma then sighs. "I better go..."

She rises...then finds his grip tightening around her arm. "Ranma,
wait..."

She looks at him as he rises, pulling Ranma gently closer to him as
his other arm loops around her back. Without hesitation, she slips into his
embrace, her tears flowing. "You're as much a good person as your spirit-
brother, Ranma," he kisses her forehead. "Yeah, you made mistakes. But you
were fighting for the person you love. When you love someone, you do crazy
things, things that might hurt people. We all do that. In the end, we're all
'human', you know."

"Hai, I guess we are," she gazes at him, then ducks in to deliver a
tender kiss. "There's something I want to ask you but I'll put it through
Akari first. Anyhow, I gotta get things arranged to get Ukyou's place fixed
up. Get some rest."

He nods as she departs, then sits back on the bed, letting all that's
happened come to his mind, making sense of it all as best he can...

* * *

"Nice view, huh?"

"Yeah, it is," Ukyou nods as Ranma sits beside her, gazing at the
awesome mass of Olympus Mons. "I'm kinda glad we're here now. You had to
have lived in Tomobiki to see this before."

"I guess so," Ranma sighs, then gazes at her. "You okay?"

"I'm...I dunno," Ukyou shakes her head. "It can't be shut off, Ran-
chan. I...I know you never loved me, not like you did Akane...A-chan.
I...but what happens to me now?"

"What happens?" he stares at her. "U-chan, of the girls who came
after me, you're the best off. You have a good occupation, you're well-
skilled, you're as independent as one could be. You wanna know how envious of
you I was at times? How...I wished I could be as free as you..."

"Was I free?"

"I think so," Ranma nods. "Yeah, there was honour and duty to the
family and all. You had EVERY right to come after me and Oyaji for what
happened. You had every right to demand what you did. But...the one thing
that was missing from it..."

"Was your love for me," Ukyou gazes at him.

"Yeah," he looks down. "It's like I said yesterday. I didn't know
what to do. I...I was being ripped apart by my own duty, my trying to respect
everyone's opinions, how much I feared coulda happened if I made a choice...my
need, my desire to have all the friends I could after all those years on the
road with just Oyaji..."

"We used each other," she shrugs. "None of us're innocent in that
respect. It's a wonder that we still care for each other after all the
garbage we've been through. The question now is...what happens to me? I'm
the real unlucky one. Shampoo always had Mousse to fall back onto. A-chan
had you..." she pauses, then stares at him. "Ran-chan...sometime ago, I
overheard you and A-chan at the dojo talking about doing something with
me...what did you mean?"

Ranma blinks, then stares at her. "Well...I was kinda worried about
you. You hadn't been by the dojo to visit and...well I hadn't had much chance
to come by the restaurant..."

"You mean you weren't...interested in finding someone for me?"

He jolts, then shudders. "U-chan, for cryin' out loud, after who
knows how many fiancees, jerks wantin' my head and all the challenges I've
been through, you actually thought I was going to put YOU through all that?!!
Are you nuts?!!"

"Okay, okay!" she laughs, waving her hands peacefully, then sighs,
gazing at him. "So what happens now?"

"I...I dunno," he looks down. "I...I've been trying to talk more
with Akane, tell her things that I'd've only told you before. Try to show I
trust her more. But...I still think of you as my friend. I'll always be
there for you...to help you if you get into trouble. That doesn't change,
not one bit. But...you know, if you don't want anything to do with me
anymore..."

"What?!!" Ukyou gasps, then slaps his shoulder. "If you think after
all the crap we've been through, I'm gonna toss you totally outta my life,
Ran- chan, you jackass, YOU'RE crazy!!!"

Both laugh, then embrace. "I guess...we gotta just find a way
to...look on each other that won't get us into trouble," Ranma sighs, then
notices Shampoo-chan walk in. "Hey, Shamps!"

"Hiya, Ranma-kun!" the Tofunokoibuto-born shipmistress kneels beside
the chef. "Honey, ya gotta talk to your spirit-sis! She's really peeved
at'cha; I hadta drag her down ta Earth so she could help get your restaurant
fixed up!"

"What?!" Ukyou rises, then sighs. "Oh, where is she?"

"Cafeteria Two," Shampoo thumbs down the corridor.

The chef jogs down, grateful that the engineers who had spruced up
the "Ossa'cha" after her reactivation over Den'sha Two had put bilingual
signs in Sagussan and Japanese on the bulkheads (plus temporary Russian signs
for the duration of the cruiser's current mission). Finding Cafeteria Two,
she sees Ukyou-chan standing by the window, a sullen look deep in the
shipmistress' eyes. Ukyou shudders, wondering what peeved her spirit-sister
so much. "Umm..." she stops. "You okay, spirit-sis?"

"Don't call me that."

Ukyou feels icicles form on her from the frigid voice. "Wh-what did
I do...?" she stammers.

"What did you do?" Ukyou-chan glares at her, paralyzing the chef with
a stare so lethal, it causes Ukyou to take a step back. "Look, you, I've got
feelings too, you know! I wasn't trying to ORDER you to do anything, you
dumbshit!! I haven't got a right to do that! I was ADVISING you to let your
feelings for Ranma go and get on with your life! And you and that cross-
dressing idiot who works for you turn around and start blaming US because you
lost out on your precious Ran-chan!! We had nothing to do with 'taking' Ranma
away from you, Kuonji; it was a done deal long BEFORE we came to Nerima!! I
lost a chance with MY Ranma and I got over it pretty well! It's time for you
to do the same!!"

With that, she storms off. "Wait...!" Ukyou cries.

"Let her go, hon," Shampoo stops her. "Give her a chance ta cool off
a bit, then go talk ta her."

Ukyou sighs. "I guess I kinda took it out all on you guys, eh?!" she
gazes at her spirit-sister's bondmate.

"Ain't your fault," Shampoo winks. "We're still gettin' used to
being able ta feel like you folks do. We don't pussy-foot around sensitive
stuff like a lotta folks on your planet do; it don't make sense ta us. C'mon
out an' say it; that's the way we live. Let me talk ta her for a bit."

"Talk or make love to her?" Akane-chan wonders from the bar.

"Both, of course!" Shampoo smiles as she walks out.

Everyone laughs...

* * *

"Well, everything's all done, Ukyou," Nabiki-chan announces as
everyone relaxes in the lounge sometime later. "It's all set to go as soon as
you're ready to beam back down."

"I'll go back tomorrow," the chef stretches herself. "There's
something I gotta do first."

Everyone notices the empty space beside Shampoo-chan, realizing what
Ukyou meant. "Should be okay," Ranma-chan sighs. "Besides, you've GOT to see
all the improvements we threw into it."

"What improvements?" Ukyou and Konatsu wonder.

Nabiki dials up a hologram of U-chan's. "Your shop's built the same
way as the weapons your spirit-sister gave you when you fought Karmalibra,"
she indicates the details. "The girders are duranium with a neutronium core,
cross- beams underlined with strips of pergium, which is next from neutronium
in density, plus diamond meson strips for psionic defence. Windows are
transparent aluminum. Your shop is now as earthquake-proof, blast-proof and
chi-proof as we could make it without taking ANYTHING away from its function
as a restaurant and your home."

"So if you had another fight like the one that totalled the place
some days ago, the windows'd be blown in, a fire might start and some things
might get wrecked, but the basic structure of the place will not be affected,
which'll save on the reconstruction costs," Ranma-chan adds. "Atop that, we
threw in the usual goodies: fire-suppression system, fusion generator, water-
treatment and sewage-treatment system, space video-phone with universal
translator..."

Ukyou smirks. "You guys are too much, you know that?"

The Sagussans shrug while their guests chuckle. "Well, it was in a
sense our fault since Karmalibra was after us," Akane-chan shrugs, leaning
into Ranma-chan's side. "Besides, it's a good way of building bridges as
well as healing rifts between our worlds. We want to be your friends and we
want to watch out for you people. We make mistakes...like when someone loses
her temper and forgets the standing orders governing her mission," she
lightly punches her bondmate in the ribs to emphasize her point, "...but we
do our best to make it up. Some people'd see it as a form of bribery. We
don't. We see it simply as the right thing to do."

Ranma-chan winces from her bondmate's emphasis, kisses Akane-chan on
the side of the face, then blinks as the intercom whistles. "Bridge to
Shipmistress Ranma," the duty watchmistress announces. "The new party from
Nerima just came aboard."

"Okay, send them down here," Ranma-chan calls out.

"Who came by?" Ranma wonders.

"Oh, just your parents and Akane's father," his spirit-sister stands,
stretching herself. "While we were down there, your mother came by and asked
how you were doing."

The door swooshes open, revealing an angry Genma. "RANMA!!!!"

Ranma sighs. "What is it, Oyaji?!"

The older martial artist storms over to grab his son by the collar
and yank him out of his seat. "What's this I hear about you CRYING when you
were talking to everyone?!!" he snarls. "What did I teach you about tears,
boy?!! MEN don't cry...!!!"

An explosion causes everyone to spin towards the door, where a VERY
angry Priss stands, Sugoi holding Shunran behind the incensed Pathfinder.
"***WHERE IS THAT DUMBSHIT SAOTOME?!?!?!***"

Her eyes lock on Genma, then she marches over. Nodoka blinks,
realizing that the irate master chief wants something to do with her family,
then tries to intercede, hand on katana. "Excuse me, Priss-san, but what
business do you have with my son?!"

The Saotome matriarch winces under Priss' burning gaze, now hot
enough to burn neutronium. "Put the butterknife away, Nodoka; it's your
husband I've got words with!"

"Oh, go ahead, then," Nodoka backs off.

"What...?" Genma blinks...

...before Priss slams him into the deck! "Okay, asshole, you and
I're gonna have words about you abusin' your kid like that over the years!!"
she hauls him face-to-face. "'Cause it's a clueless moron like YOU who mucked
up Ranma's upbringing so bad, he couldn't do shit to help himself or the OTHER
people whose lives you screwed until it nearly killed someone, INCLUDING MY
DAUGHTER!!!!"

*SPLASH!!!!* It amazed people at times at how fast Genma could duck
out of arguments by finding a glass of cold water and hiding as a panda. "Oh,
ya wanna be like that, huh?!!" Priss snarls, drawing out her combat knife and
tapping the sharp edges with her fingertips. "Suit yourself, then!! Hey,
Shampoo, you folks got a recipe for PANDA STEW we can try out on Sagussa?!!"

"Nyu-che-zuu got lots of recipes!!" Shampoo nods, grinning savagely,
then hums, glaring in disapproval at Genma. "But is Priss sure she want to
feed honourless panda to little Shunran?! Priss want little Shunran to become
like honourless panda?! Shampoo no want little Shunran to get tummy-ache!"

Priss hums, then glares at Genma-panda, now trembling, eyes locked on
her combat knife. "Yeah, ya gotta point there!" she grabs him by the fur and
yanks him up. "I think I'll turn this honourless, gutless and moral-less dork
into a nice CARPET for the house!!"

BOY, DO SOMETHING!!!! the panda fearfully growls, desperately waving
a sign at Ranma. SAVE ME FROM THIS MONSTER!!!!

"Hey, Akane-chan, you told me sandpanthers like P-chan like eating
people at times," Ranma gazes at Akane-chan.

"Hai, they do...the *dumber* they are, the more they like it!" Akane-
chan grins.

Genma-panda shudders. UNGRATEFUL WHELP!!

"That's enough out of you, Dear!" Nodoka scolds, then stares at
Priss. "Priss-san, seeing as how Ranma would be utterly insane to challenge
someone as well-skilled as you to save his worthless deadbeat of a father from
his JUST and LONG OVERDUE punishment for all the misery he intentionally and
accidentally unleashed on everyone, do you have some other way to resolve this
matter?"

"Matter of fact, I do," Priss grins. "'Priss' Five Lessons In Proper
Treatment of One's Child.' Just invented them now! C'mon, dork; you just
became my guinea pig!!"

"Oh, go ahead!!" Nodoka waves them off. "We'll watch over your
little one! Make sure you have Lufy-san there with you!"

"She'll be there!!" Priss waves as she throws Genma over her
shoulder, then carts him off.

THIS IS GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE, YOU KNOW!! Genma-panda signs.

Nodoka sighs, rolling her eyes. Everyone laughs except for Souun,
who bawls his eyes out, imagining the awful amount of damage Priss and Lufy
would soon unleash on his best friend. Ryouga stares at Ranma and Ranma-chan,
both grinning like maniacs. "Something tells me you both set this all up," he
muses.

"We did," the shipmistress chortles, then winks at him. "Like we
said, we always repay our debts."

Ryouga blinks, then yelps as pudgy hands grab his hair. "Hey!" he
senses someone sit on his shoulder. "Shunran-chan...!!"

"Unca Pii!!" Shunran gushes.

"Shunran-chan, no...!!!" Akane gasps...

...as the small Oni upends a glass of water over Ryouga. Everyone
winces as the wanderer jolts, feeling the trickles fall down his face, then
sighs. "Somehow, I shoulda expected that," he hums.

"Ryouga-san, are you alright...Shunran-chan, why are you crying?!!"
Sugoi takes the sobbing Oni off Ryouga, then embraces her, wincing as the
young girl buries herself in her bust.

"Maybe she's sorry about soaking Ryouga!" Ranma hums.

"No, Ranma, it's different," Akane rises, then walks over to play
with Shunran's hair. "She just misses P-chan, that's all."

"Hey, you okay, A-chan?" Ukyou wonders.

Akane blinks, then touches the tear in her eye. "Yeah, I'm okay, U-
chan. I...I guess I'll miss P-chan, too."

Suddenly, a flash of light floods the room. "Won't have to miss him
anymore, Tendou-san!"

"What're you doing here, Miz?!" Ranma-chan rises.

The science-thoughtmistress of water studies in the Te'a Studies
Group smiles, placing two small boxes on the table. "Oh, I just paid a quick
visit to Jusenkyou," she announces, then opens the boxes, allowing two bolts
of black to leap out.

"Hey!!!" Akane yelps as the small piglet lands in her arms, then
starts licking her.

"Anudda Unca Pii?!" Shunran hums as the other piglet leaps into her
hands, then giggles as it starts licking her.

"How..?!" Ryouga gapes.

"Oh, just found two stray puppies and dunked them into the spring you
fell into, then froze them in their cursed forms," Miz smiles, then waves her
*haijo-ju* staff. "Take care!"

She vanishes. "Hey, Ryouga, they're missin' something!" Ranma rises
to gaze at the small pig in Akane's hands.

"Yeah," goes Ryouga, "they are." Standing, he undoes two of his
bandannas, tying one around Shunran's P-chan, then staring at the woman
holding the other P-chan in hand. "Akane?"

"Go ahead," Akane nods.

Ryouga ties the bandanna in place. The small piglet grunts, then
leaps into Ranma's hands before licking him. "Hey, cut it out!!" the martial
artist squeaks, then laughs.

"Incredible!" Akane smiles. "A P-chan that likes Ranma!!"

Everyone laughs...

* * *

A day later...

"It's good to be back home!" Ukyou sighs as the transporter effect
fades, letting her, Konatsu, Ryouga and Akari go as they find themselves a
couple blocks from U-chan's. "Well, let's go see what everything looks like!"

"If you want, you can stay with us on the farm while you get things
set up," Akari offers.

"Thanks but no thanks, Akari-chan; you live too far away...oh, man!"
Ukyou gapes...

...on seeing U-chan's fully restored to its pristine beauty, freshly
painted and cleaned. "Whoa!!!" Ryouga whistles. "Now, THAT is what I call
good service!!"

They enter to see Kasumi-chan cleaning up the stove and several
others of the team of *daishi'cha* who had come to Furinkan earlier dozing at
the tables. "You're back!" the child services director smiles. "Welcome
home, Ukyou! You like it?!"

"Whoa!!!" Ukyou gapes, stunned at the fact that they got EVERYTHING
right. "How did you do this?!!"

Nabiki-chan whistles. A rush of wind is heard, then Ukyou spins
around to see a rover unit hovering by the door. "Great thing about our
rovers!" she smiles as the device heads back to its duties. "Their scanners
are the most accurate we've got. We've had detailed scans of this place for a
year, right to the sub-atomic level. Once we got plans drawn up, the rest was
easy."

Ukyou blinks, then smirks, walking behind the counter. "Hey,
Konatsu, what're you doing standing there?! We got customers!!"

"Hai!" the kunoichi races upstairs...then screams!

The Sagussans moan. "P-chan!!! Charlotte!!! Get down here and stop
scaring him!!!" Akane and Asuza bellow.

Their sandpanthers lumber downstairs. "Forgot these two fuzzballs
were upstairs taking a nap," Ranma mutters, then looks upstairs. "Sorry about
that, Konatsu!!"

"I-i-it's o-o-okay...!" Konatsu stammers fearfully.

Ukyou grins, then fires up the grill. "Okay, what'll you all have?!"
she calls out as she starts making batter.

Orders race in. Ukyou launches into her work as okonomiyaki starts
flying. Konatsu races down to join in. Couples pair up as they relax,
relieved the crisis was over and that the healing could begin. At one table,
Ranma and Akane relax in the other's embrace, gazing out the window at another
day in Furinkan, imagining the day Tere'na City arose from the ashes of the
Clone Rights War to become a place of life and people, not ghosts and dust.

Konatsu walks up to them. "Here you go!" he smiles.

"Thanks, Konatsu," Ranma then notices the note written in the sauce
over the crust: "Tell my spirit-sister I'm sorry."

Ranma blinks, then exchanging a nod with Akane, concentrates. A
moment later, the front door flies open. "UKYOU!!!!!!"

Ukyou winces on seeing Ukyou-chan standing there, having just beamed
down from the "Ossa'cha." Everyone clams up as the two gaze upon each other.
"Um...hi, spirit-sis...!" Ukyou faintly smiles.

Ukyou-chan hums, then impishly grins. "Four specials!!"

"Four?!!" Ukyou wonders.

"Sure," Ukyou-chan waves in Shampoo-chan, Akari-chan...and Noa. "We
got some people coming by for a visit!!"

"Make yourselves to home, everyone!" Ukyou grins, then notices the
strange woman with her spirit-sister and friends. "You must be Noa, right?!
What brings you around here?!"

"Well, I came to see how everything is now that Scalphunter has been
buried for all time," the *ashi'cha* muses. "Atop that, I visited Shinobu
Miyaki's parents. They want to have a family get-together and they still have
to find out about Shinobu becoming a Sagussan, much less Lum-chan wanting her
to bond with Ataru! Ranma, we'll have it on the 'Ossa'cha,' okay?!"

"Hai!" Ranma nods.

Everyone sits down as Kodachi-chan turns on the music, putting on a
cassette tape. Ryouga then walks over to sit across from Ranma and Akane.
"So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Eh?" the former wonders.

"What you said in Sick Bay?"

"Oh!!" Ranma then smiles. "Well, as you no doubt know, we are on the
lookout for good men to help father children. I talked to Akari about this.
She says it's okay as long as you agree to it. So, how'd you like to
contribute?"

Ryouga faints! "You want me to WHAT?!?!"

"Now, relax, Ryouga-kun," Akari sits beside her dazed fiance. "The
Sagussans are actually quite pragmatic in seeking out the right sort of men to
father their children. I couldn't believe all the compliments I received from
all their shipmates about what a 'catch' I had in you," she kisses his cheek.

Steam billows from his neck. "I'll...I'll think about it, Ranma..."
he chuckles, scratching his head.

"Don't keep us waiting too long, Ryouga-kun," Akane winks. "You
better know that Ifurita and her friends are expressing PROFOUND interest in
having babies with you!"

Ryouga shudders, then blushes. "I can't believe I made THAT good of
an impression on them!"

The door opens again. "Three traveller's specials!!!"

"Hey, Chigaiko, Negako...oh, hi, Aoi-chan!!" Ukyou grins as Chigaiko,
Negako and Aoi walk in, backpacks in hand. "What're you all doing here?!"

"Stopping by to say we'll be on our way!" Chigaiko sighs as they sit
by the counter.

"What?!!" Akari bolts up. "Chigai-chan!!"

"Hey, we'll be there for the wedding!" Chigaiko winks at her.

Everyone laughs. "Looking forward to travelling with your new
mothers now, Aoi-chan?" Noa stares at the young girl.

"Hai," Aoi nods. "I lived on the streets for a year before the
Yakuza picked me up, so it won't be so bad. Kinda nice that I won't have to
worry about stealing food and all that."

"We're just deciding how we're going to go about the adoption
process," Chigaiko adds.

"Good for you," Ukyou grins, flipping the okonomiyaki onto their
plates. "Shoot, you all amaze me, you know that."

"Why do you say that, spirit-sis?" Ukyou-chan wonders.

"The way you're all ready to dive in and adopt kids all like that,"
Ukyou smiles. "It's scary to watch at times."

"Not really," her spirit-sister shrugs. "We're programmed to be
mothers before anything else. It's natural to us."

The other Sagussans nod. "Oh, this is for you," Negako hands Ukyou a
small package. "I noted that it was sent by Ryouga while he had his 'guest'
within his mind, so I took care of any chi traps that might've been there
before bringing it in."

"Oh?" Ukyou stares at Ryouga, then opens the package, drawing out a
booklet. "A bankbook...from the...holy shit...!" she gapes on opening it and
seeing the deposit amount, again with "USD" beside the final tally.
"Ryouga...!!"

"Where did you get all this money from?!" Konatsu blinks, staring at
the amount and mentally translating it into yen.

Ryouga shudders. "Ask Karmalibra...wherever she might be."

"He obtained it from..."

Noa's and Chigaiko's hands slap Negako's mouth shut before she could
say more. "He doesn't need to hear that, Nega-chan!!!" the latter snaps.
"And I don't think Ukyou'd want to know, either!!"

Negako sighs. "Well, tell us this, then," Ukyou hums. "Did it come
from a very illegal source that was ALSO being a pain in our collective butts
over the last while?"

Negako nods. "Too bad," Ukyou snorts, pocketing the book. "I may
not always have my head on straight, but I'm not dumb when it comes to
business!"

Everyone laughs as they return to their meals. "They deserve to know
the truth," Negako stares at Chigaiko.

"Not **that** sort of truth, not after what they experienced,"
Chigaiko sighs. "It's the pitfalls of emotion, Nega-chan. In a sense,
you're the lucky one since you need the truth to help you better understand
what being human is about."

"If you say so," Negako sighs. "Next thing, you'll insist I not say
anything about Akane Tendou's pregnancy."

Ryouga and Ukyou jerk. "***WHAT?!?!?!***"

"NEGAKO!!!!!!" Chigaiko screams.

"Lyna's Soul, they're even WORSE than Tomobiki!!!" Noa moans as her
eyes roll up.

"When did this happen?!!" Ukyou demands, then fires a look at
Chigaiko to make sure she didn't blunt the information flow.

"A month ago," Negako reports. "From what I could tell of their chi
aura and their emotional state, the intercourse that provoked Akane's
pregnancy...was not consensual. NEITHER of them wanted it to happen then;
Akane doesn't even know she is pregnant though the signs will soon become
apparent. I assume that drugs were probably used to make them conceive their
children."

Ryouga and Ukyou gape, the Sagussans paling at Negako's words. "By
our standards...that's two counts of rape," Ranma warns.

"Ours, too!!" Ukyou gasps. "Oh, Ran-chan...!"

"Akane...!" Ryouga shakes his head. "Ukyou, what happened?!"

"Some mummified warlord from China named Yung Shan kidnapped them;
Kirin and his pals brought them back..." Ukyou reports, then sighs. "Well,
I'll tell you this one, sugar! Next time this old fool shows his ugly puss,
he dies!!" At Noa's surprised look, she adds, "Not because of what happened
between Ran-chan and me or between Ryouga and Akane. This is general
principle!!"

"Amen to that!" Ryouga nods. He pounds his fist into his palm for
emphasis. "I think we can agree on this: nobody like Yung Shan should get
away scot-free after what he did! It just ain't right!"

The others sigh as they return to their meals...

* * *

"Well?!"

"Well, what?" Negako muses as she, Chigaiko and Aoi head down the
road towards the Unryuu farm, continuing their journey.

"Don't you see what your words did?!" Chigaiko muses. "Now that's
another thing that'll provide friction between Ranma, Akane and their
friends..."

"The friction exists only if they permit it to...and after their
experience with Karmalibra, they know the cost of what running with
assumptions will invoke," Negako muses. "Besides, I know of Yung Shan.
Their problems with him are not over yet, not by any stretch of the
imagination."

"What does that mean, Negako-papa?!" Aoi wonders.

Negako muses. "It is believed he is 2000 years old, Aoi. For that
time, he has quested to seize control of the true power behind the Jusenkyou
springs, power that could create a martial artist which would even give ME a
prolonged fight. He himself can be defeated since the magic used to keep him
alive can be broken. I estimate about fifteen minutes for me to destroy him.
However, the primary goal of Ranma and his friends now is to prevent Ranma's
and Akane's coming daughters from falling under Yung Shan's control."

Chigaiko blinks, then sighs. "So what do we do?"

"We continue our journey and raise Aoi," Negako reaches down to
gently grasp her future daughter's hand. "Since they are your friends, you
will likely desire us to render assistance to Ranma and his friends when the
time comes. We will do so."

"What do you think about it?" Chigaiko muses.

Negako blinks, then lightly smiles. "I know that you would go help
no matter what. If Yung Shan or his lackeys target you, they will be make to
see the error behind their decision."

"Including lethal force?"

"Naturally."

"Just checking," Chigaiko grins as she grasps Aoi's other hand, then
they head down the road toward the coming dawn...

* * *

And so it began...

For my friends in Furinkan, their problems would multiply to the
point where they would be caught in their own Spirit War far away in the
mountains of China, all over the question of who would control the destiny of
two little girls. Negako, Aoi-chan and I were there for some of it, both in
the original battle when the Heiresses of Jusenkyou, Ranma Saotome II and
Akari Saotome, were born, then in the battle seventeen years later when they
strived to jointly achieve their destiny...

(From "The Ghost of Class Two-Four," by Chigaiko Inu-Moroboshi, (C) 2019,
Shogakukan Publishing Inc, Tokyo)

*** To Be Continued ***

**** **** **** AFTERNOTES (TED): If Quincy Jones could have Carlton Banks
(Alfonso Ribeiro) sing Tom Jones on "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air," I could
have Ryouga sing Neil Diamond here (Elvis is too cliched and Ryouga's not a
Barry Manilow kind of guy). [Getting my horn to do some tooting!] On
January 16, 1999, for the wedding reception of one of my cousins, I sang the
same song Ryouga was hypnotized into singing ("Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon"
[it was on the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack]) complete with air guitar. They
loved it. [Puts horn back.] I was honoured that Fred offered to merge some
ideas he'd had with a draft I had done, but I wasn't pleased with the final
draft the first time. Unfortunately, some signals got crossed so the end
result wasn't the one I felt happy with. This time, though, Fred and I got
the story so we could BOTH be able to stand back and enjoy it. Thanks to
Phil Gavigan for his support and guidance, as well as Scalphunter (without
her there would have been no story). Thanks again to Eleanor for her editing.
Comments and constructive criticisms always welcome; flames and destructive
criticisms will be doused. Now if you'll excuse me, I got to join my fellow
adventurers in a fanfic in progress, "The Travellers." Later!

AFTERNOTES (FRED): Put simply, this has certainly been one of the most mind-
wracking writing efforts I've ever undertaken. I'm used to cranking out
stories and getting them onto the Net as soon as my mother's finished editing
them. So a big apology to Ted for trying to get this out before we BOTH were
satisfied with it. Kudos to Phil Gavigan for his frequent advice (and for
Karmalibra, too!). I hope all you P-chan lovers out there'll enjoy this
version a bit more. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to
Megatokyo to complete my "BGC/Tokimeki Memorial" fanfic "Illusions." Ciao!
**** **** ****