Again: the obvious disclaimer: Ranma ½ is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

This story is a sequel to "Kasumi's Fate" and is actually the third tale in a series called Bindings, despite the fact that I haven't released the second story yet. The second story, "Brothers", is suppose to address the some of the plot holes surrounding Ryoga. However, whenever I tried to concentrate on "Brothers", Kasumi and Tofu began to complain at me that they had more to say and that they deserved another story (I really need to have my meds upp'ed again). In order to keep them quiet, I wrote this piece and then held on to it until "Brothers" was fleshed out enough so I knew the stories were consistent with each other. Since there actually isn't a lot of overlap between the two, I decided to release this story while I put a little more polish on "Brothers". I hope you enjoy it…

Oh – If you're wondering why Tofu's a Kitsune in this series, please see my Author's page for the long answer. The short answer is that there isn't anything in the manga or anime to stops him from being a Kitsune (and it fills in some of the plot holes nicely).


Chapter 1: Tofu Kitsune

Tofu stood in the clearing on Mount Terror looking at the dark sky. His brown eyes quickly located the North Star and noted the compass points from there. Standing very still, he concentrated and expanded his awareness to sweep the clearing and the surrounding area for any signs of uninvited guests. Not finding anything, he stretched himself further, sweeping his senses across everything within a kilometer of his location. Satisfied with what he found, he then turned to his dark-haired companion.

"We should be fine. There are some campers off to the south, but they are sound asleep. As long as we keep quiet, they'll stay that way," Tofu said quietly.

"Why don't you use a little magic and force them to stay asleep until sunrise?" asked the young man in the dragon scale armor.

Tofu turned to Taro with an eyebrow raised. "You were part of our team for over five months, and you still haven't learned about unintended consequences? What if a wild animal or, worse yet, a human criminal should attack the sleepers? I wasn't planning on hanging around. Shouldn't they have the opportunity to defend themselves? Never mind that it's rude to bypass someone's will and force them to do something at my whim? How would you feel about it if I did it you?"

The younger man looked at the ground and held his temper at the mild reprimand. He blew out the last of his anger with a sigh and looked at Tofu, who gave him a nod of approval. No one who knew him otherwise would believe it, but Taro had learned a little self-control while at Ryugenzawa. The doc was a teacher and had some measure of patience, but the others had not. Taro spent the first two weeks after his arrival at Ryugenzawa with both his forms wrapped in bandages. Eventually, it dawned on him that being the strongest in the room didn't make you the best fighter – even the Mouse could humiliate him and make it look like a game. Also, the team had been very quick to deal with a loose tongue. Taro had learned (painfully) that Olaf could nail anything with his war hammer within fifty meters. After the first month, Taro learned to stay with Tofu (or Fox as the others called him). Tofu at least gave you one warning before a Foxfire strike and would accept an apology without blood. Maybe that's why the others had respected him, even if he wasn't the strongest…

Tofu addressed Taro. "Did the Council give you your next instructions?"

"Yes, I'm suppose to go to Jusenkyo and meet Daran there. He'll work with me on my next task."

"Good. Listen to him. I know Daran is quiet, but when he does speak, there's a lot of weight behind his words. And don't go picking a fight just because you're bored or frustrated."

Taro snorted. "Yeah, don't think that will be a problem. I've been on the receiving end of that whip one too many times." Then he paused and continued: "Doc, why here? Why didn't you have me drop you off in Nerima?"

Now Tofu snorted. "Maybe because I'm not a glutton for punishment. Could you really resist going after Happosai?"

Taro's blue eyes narrowed. "He did sell me to the Council."

"No, he sold your name to the Council. Not that I really approve of that either. But, you were free to walk away at any time," Tofu responded. "And the Council did drop the 'Pantyhose' moniker immediately. You could have been content with 'Taro'."

"My tribe insists on two names. I'll hang in there until I complete the bargain."

"That's up to you, but Nerima's seen enough trouble, and it's going to see more. I don't want you adding to it. If you are going to take on Happosai, do it outside of Nerima, please."

"Fine." Taro replied petulantly. "But, you're not telling me the whole truth."

Tofu looked at Taro with surprise. "Was that actually insight, Taro? Amazing. There may be hope for you yet."

Taro gave another snort. "Despite what you and the others think, I'm not an idiot. So, why here?" he asked again.

Tofu looked up at the sky again. "Taro, for the last five months, I have been Fox – leader of a group of morons digging around in the den of a legendary monster, just begging for trouble. When I hit Nerima, I'll be Doctor Ono, one of the city's healers and hip deep in everyone else's problems. For just a few hours, I want to be Tofu Kitsune again, someone I haven't been in ages."

Taro looked at Tofu with confusion in his pale eyes. "I have trouble with one name, but you and the others seem to have many. It's like you exchange one identity for another at a whim. How can you change who you are?"

Tofu sighed. "We don't really change who we are. We just bring a different aspect to the foreground. In some ways, we've become so complicated, even our aspects need names."

Taro reflected for a moment, then said: "I don't really understand that, but maybe I will when I'm older." He straightened up and said, "I'll leave you to it." He turned and began to walk away, then stopped, but did not turn back. "Doc?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry," Taro said, struggling with the words.

Tofu allowed a small smile to appear on his face. "Really?" After a nod from Taro, who still refused to look at him, Tofu continued "Then you're forgiven." That was only a small lie – you couldn't really forgive someone for taking something that you never had in the first place.

Taro glanced behind, nodded and headed off into the woods.

Tofu watched the sky until he saw Taro's form rise against the stars and leave heading west. His smile was bright in the darkness. Finally! He could finally let go of Tofu Fox and put him back on the shelf. Fox was the Council's whipping boy. Fox had to deal with one set of morons sent from the Council after another. Fox then had to deal with the consequences of the morons' actions when they didn't listen to him and took matters into their own hands. The latest and greatest of these consequences had been the replacement of Omata no Yarochi, a manageable monster, with the re-incarnation of Yamata no Yarochi, a *decidedly* unmanageable monster. And Fox was not the Kami Susanoo!

Tofu stopped himself. He knew better than to dwell on the past. It didn't change the present. Besides, his present didn't look all that bad now. He'd thought he would be alone now, abandoned by his friends and locked into an endless cycle of tasks, but that hadn't happened. Instead, the Kitsune had come to him and forcibly reminded him that he was one of them, despite his mixed heritage. That, before he was the Council's Fox, he had been Tofu Kitsune. And the Kitsune had then performed a small miracle on his behalf. So tonight, Tofu was going to take Tofu Kitsune off the shelf and pay tribute to his people.

Tofu stepped out of the clearing into the surrounding evergreens. He slipped off his backpack and then opened his shirt to remove a small bag chained around his neck. The bag expanded as he did so. He placed the backpack inside and then removed his clothes, placing them inside the bag as well. Finally, he placed his watch inside – the sky would serve as his clock. He sealed up the bag, which shrunk to something that fit in his palm, and chained it about his neck again. Closing his eyes, he shifted his form to his spiritual appearance, then to his Kitsune shape. Opening his eyes he checked his form. "Let's see:" he thought.

"Four feet: check."

"One tail: check."

"Fur: check."

"Muzzle: Check."

Nodding to himself, he grinned and took off in a southerly direction toward the nearest camp site. The night's scents filled his nose, and he reveled in the speed of his form. Anyone looking at him, provided they could see him streaking through the underbrush, would have only seen a rather large red and brown fox, about the size of a German Shepherd. Granted, that would give anyone pause, but Tofu didn't feel like explaining to the local wildlife that he should be left alone to enjoy himself. His extreme size established that at the outset.

He quickly approached the campsite and took a look around. There was a single two man tent near the center of the site. A sniff of their scents identified the campers as a middle-aged couple. The fire had been put out for the night, and the food was safely stored in a rucksack about five meters above the ground. The site was neat and orderly. Obviously, the couple were old hands at this. Tofu sent his mind out to ascertain how deep asleep the two were and found both of them too far under to allow for dreams. He thought about it and decided they didn't deserve any mischief. However, he was a little hungry, so he sent his thoughts into their cooler and removed two eggs with a little slight-of-paw, making sure he left enough for the couple. He also grabbed a couple of carrots and some berries from their stores and settled down to eat. Once he had completed his small meal, he left a quick blessing on the campers for sweet dreams and moved on.

He drifted in the general direction of Nerima, never hurrying, but keeping an eye on the stars and the East any time he came to a break in the trees. After an hour or so, he picked up the pungent scent of beer. Intrigued, he decided to follow it. The scent led to a larger camp site consisting of a group of nine couples sprawled asleep around a dying bonfire. Each of the couples was wrapped in a handful of blankets and everyone appeared to be in their late teens. Tofu knew from talking to Kasumi that this was the week between the end of one school year and the start of another. Obviously, these kids had decided to escape from their parents and have a little party in the woods with the extra time. They were lucky the weather was decent since there were no tents and no sleeping bags, and none of the blankets were water proof. There was an extra musky smell coming from some of the couples that had Tofu praying they used some form of protection. He looked around the campsite and noticed beer bottles everywhere. A ton of junk food wrappers also filled the site.

"So, let's see…" he thought to himself.

"Underage drinking: Check."

"Lack of preparation: Check."

"Underage sex: Check."

"Unguarded fire: Check."

"Littering: Check."

"Deserve a little mischief: Check."

"What to do, what to do…Let's see, something harmless, but requiring a little work to get undone," he continued. A memory struck him - a while back, up in Sendai, Tofu had roomed with a potter. This man had worked with clays and pigments from all over the world. One of the more interesting clays arrived packaged as a fine blue powder. If the powder happened to spill, it would coat and cling to everything as if it was a dye. The proper way to clean it up was with a vacuum. If you used water or a wet rag, the clay absorbed water like there was no tomorrow and became a very goopy and clingy mess.

"Perfect!" The fox grinned to himself.

Tofu moved over to the fire and began sifting through the ashes. Once he had a sizable pile of fine ash collected, he used fox magic to change the ash into the clay. He then sent it into the teenagers' hair with a thought. The end result was that all the couples now had very bright blue hair. The couples now had three options: they could try and wash it out, which was the worst thing they could do; they could shake the clay out of their hair, which should take a couple of hours of brushing and shaking (fox magic was very thorough); or they could wait 24 hours for the clay to become ash again and wash it out then (provided they had any inkling that they were tagged by a Kitsune). Either way, tomorrow planned to contain great deal of entertainment for the couples. The best part was that some of them were likely from Nerima, so he was sure to hear about it eventually. He grinned and moved on again.

As he moved up the slope, the underbrush thinned, and Tofu amused himself with a little hunting. For the most part, voles were not that tasty - something foxes ate when nothing better was around. When he heard one, he made a point of cornering the small rodent, then letting it go. He quickly grew bored with it though – it wasn't the most challenging game. "Now that rabbit over there, on the other hand, could be more interesting," he thought to himself. Tofu was about to give chase when he felt a thump on his back. Turning his neck around, his eyes met the saucer shaped eyes of a small grey owl, standing on his back.

To his brief amazement, the owl addressed him mind-to-mind: "Fox, you're making it hard for the rest of us grab a meal here. Either get serious, or cut it out."

"Oh, look," he replied with amusement in his eyes. "Dinner just arrived."

The owl made a derisive noise. "You're going to pass on fresh vole for stringy old owl? I don't think so."

"If you can talk to me, then 'old' is right," Tofu commented.

"You're no spring chicken either," the owl retorted. "Either you passed the century mark with ease, or your parents have really have overfed you. You put a hunting dog to shame and you're moving quieter than I can fly."

"I'll take that as a compliment – I never heard you coming."

"No surprise there." The owl preened some of its feathers and then looked at the fox again. "You're the Kitsune, who lives in the city, aren't you? You've been gone a bit now."

"Yes, but I have come back."

"Fine by me," replied the bird. "But keep in mind that some of us cannot shift our shape like you do and mingle with the humans. And we still need to eat."

Tofu laughed, "Oh, all right. I'll behave."

"Good" the owl said, and then it took off. "Safe travels."

"Good hunting," Tofu called back. He moved on quickly to allow the area to settle again.

The exchange made him think deeply though. The Elder animals around here were aware of him in the city. Maybe he should spend a little more time paying attention to the wildlife in the city itself, both as a source of information and potential trouble. Spies worked both ways after all, and he probably stuck out like a sore thumb – foxes that lived long enough to join the ranks of the Kitsune stayed away from people. Even the half/quarter-breeds like himself tended to keep to the country. He probably needed to make a little more of an effort to blend in. He grinned then – maybe marrying one of the local women would do…

He stopped briefly when he crested Mt. Terror. Looking at the sky, he estimated sunrise was about four hours away. Not too bad, but he was going to have to put on a little speed if he wanted to be in the lower hills by then, so he hurried along. He was about half way down the mountain when the evergreens gave way to more leafy trees. A little way further down from this boundary, his nose picked up the scent of an open food cooler. Even more interesting was the scent of two raccoon dogs, most likely a mated pair. He adjusted his body size down a few notches so not to unduly frighten them, and changed direction to track them. The pair might be willing to share if approached properly. If nothing else, they might provide a little info if he was polite enough.

Sure enough, Tofu came upon the male and female, about 100 meters from another campsite. Obviously, the campers had not locked their cooler down, and these two had carried it off. The female was pregnant and about half-way to term. Neither one was an Elder animal, so he'd have to help them out a little if he wanted to talk to them. Tofu spun a small magic about himself. Then he lay down and addressed the pair. "Hail cousins! Good hunting?"

The male spun quickly and ran to protect his mate. Once he turned and saw Tofu, the grey and brown animal relaxed a little. While foxes were occasionally known to attack raccoon dogs, they never announced themselves so openly before they did so. "Well enough," the canine answered carefully.

The female appraised Tofu, "You're a little large for a fox, Kitsune."

"I'm not exactly making a secret of it. But I mean no harm," replied Tofu. "Certainly not to a whelping couple."

Both raccoon dogs relaxed further. "We are just going about our business, Kitsune," the male stated.

"Then I'll wait until your business is done and help myself," Tofu responded affably.

"Hmmm… I'd rather not have you watch us eat."

Tofu pretended to think. "How about I pick something? If you object, I'll put it back. Otherwise, I'll take it and leave you alone."

The male thought about, and then responded, "All right. Choose."

The fox wandered over and grabbed a well sealed pack of bacon.

"You want that?" asked the female. "It's has no scent."

Tofu set the bacon down and picked up another pack, placing it before the raccoon dogs. "Watch and learn," he said. He held the second pack down and used his teeth to slit it open. The strong scent assaulted all three noses. Tofu backed up a little, standing over the one he first picked. "I'll leave the open one and take the sealed one. Deal?"

"Deal," the parents-to-be replied.

"Then enjoy." With that, the fox grabbed his prize and left the couple.

The dawn had just started to stain the morning sky when Tofu finished cooking the bacon. He had already reverted to his mortal form and gotten dressed again. It had been a great night, but he wanted to watch the sun rise before placing Tofu Kitsune on the shelf again and taking back his responsibilities. He sat on the last real hill overlooking Nerima. His sharp eyes picked out his clinic in the distance, and even though he couldn't see it directly, his imagination filled in the location of one particular dojo. Yes, Nerima did hold responsibilities for him, but it also held pleasures – if nothing else, the sweet voice of a certain young woman.

Tofu Kitsune reflected on his situation. He was only a quarter Kitsune. Like a full Kitsune, there was a stretch of time where he did not age, but unlike a full Kitsune, that stretch would end. In his case, it had ended, more or less as he had expected. Tofu had thought that the true Kitsunes would abandon him then and leave him to the mortal world once they found out. Sometimes that had happened to other part-breeds like himself.

However, his Kitsune friends surprised him. Once his mortality became evident, they did not abandon him, but instead launched an amazing campaign of innuendo and misinformation against the Council in true trickster fashion. Even the Kitsune Elders had joined in, insisting that the Council and their minions had set Tofu up against a creature beyond his abilities and Tofu had lost his immortality as a result. They stated that the Council had robbed the Kitsune of their rising star, their Taliesen. Tofu knew this was a complete load of crap, but anytime he tried to protest the nonsense, he had been silenced by the Elders (and one did not cross the Elders).

The end result of the campaign was absolutely amazing. The Council had been required to approve three Proclamations as written by the Kitsune Elders to appease the Kitsune community. The first regarded the return of certain metaphysical lands that the Council had taken away long ago. The second restored an ancient artifact to the Kitsune that Tofu was unfamiliar concerning. The third however, was drafted by the Elders for Tofu, and Tofu alone. Although several days had passed since the Council meeting, the words of the Council Proclamation still echoed in his ears:

"It is with great regret that we cannot release Tofu Kitsune from his obligations to the Council. However, since his future tasks will reside solely in the mortal city of Nerima and in recognition of his exemplary work on behalf of the Council, we hereby revoke our previous prohibitions regarding the courtship of Kasumi Tendo by Tofu Kitsune and will offer any reasonable aid to Tofu Kitsune in his pursuit of Miss Tendo's hand in marriage, so long as it does not impede Miss Tendo free will."

Tofu grinned to himself as his reflection came to an end, and then watched the sunrise. As the sun cleared the horizon, Tofu Kitsune picked up his backpack and became Doctor Tofu Ono once more. It was time to resume his duties, and the pursuit of a beautiful woman.