This fic was surprisingly popular. I mean, 35 reviews for one chapter? Well, I really hope your confidence in me wasn't misplaced, and here I go trying chapter 1. Please tell me how I did, and I hope you enjoy the story.

Chapter 1, Setting Things Right.

In a small, quickly improvised tent made of two tarps tied together, a short red haired woman sat, leaning against one of the trees she'd used as support poles, and holding the plastic in place against the heavy downpour outside. "Just my luck." She muttered, glaring forward at the other end of the construction, where a small boy slept in relative comfort on his futon.

Sighing, the redhead grimaced as a bit of water seeped past the edge of the tarp, dripping on her head, and wished that she'd been more careful in picking out the trees for their camping spot. It had only been a few hours after the two had departed Setsuna's cabin, after passing through a small town to pick up a few things with the money they had, that the two had decided to make camp for the night. This had primarily been motivated by the fact that Ranma's injuries were still painful to walk on, and the redhead herself was feeling unusually tired.

Unfortunately, they hadn't had quite enough money to afford an actual tent, and their improvised alternative hadn't held up well to the storm that had blown in at about three in the morning, waking the one who currently called herself Saffron by almost collapsing the whole thing onto her.

So now, here she sat, trying to keep the thing up so at least Ranma could get some sleep, and resolving that she'd find a proper place to sleep tonight, even if she had to resort to some of her father's tactics. Frowning, she thought of the resources she did have.

Setsuna had given them about six thousand yen, plus a spare change of clothes each. Ranma's T-shirt and pants were obviously originally meant for a young girl, and Saffron hadn't had the courage to ask where Setsuna had gotten the men's school uniform she now wore, but it was better than a torn fighting Gi and what was, effectively, underwear.

Other than that, all they had to their names was Saffron's old wallet, which she'd started keeping in a chi pocket, using the bare essentials of the Hidden Weapons style, shortly after she'd started getting actual money and Genma had started stealing it.

As she was about to start contemplating what she could do with what she had, the redhead heard a sound. Moving her head to track it, she realized that it was coming from Ranma, who was whimpering softly in his sleep. Looking over, she saw that he'd curled into a ball, and was quivering.

She, of course, knew what this was. The boy was having a nightmare about the Neko-ken, which made a lot of sense given that he'd only finished the training the day before. For a moment, she considered using her father's method of stopping the dreams, but even she didn't particularly want to get out of the warm, sort of dry tent for a spar, so she moved forward, letting the tarp fall and anchoring it to the ground with a small rock.

She hadn't done this before since it dramatically reduced the space within the tent, but she wasn't exactly intending to lay back down. Moving silently, the redhead approached the small boy and lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. Almost instantly, he started to calm down, but he also rolled to get nearer the new source of warmth, cuddling up to her arm.

"Ack! What're ya doin?" She muttered, but the boy didn't respond, moving from hugging her arm to hugging her. The redhead's eye twitched, but apparently what he'd done had calmed Ranma down, and he'd stopped whimpering. "Damn it." Saffron sighed, and moved to get comfortable, the boy laying his head in her lap. "Anyone sees me doin this, I ain't gunna live it down."

Still, the redhead smiled to herself. She really wished that she could have had something like this when she'd first had the Neko-ken dreams, and making this kid's life easier was at least a big part of what she wanted to do before she got out of here.

From the way Setsuna had described what had happened to her while Ranma slept, or at least what she could understand of it, Saffron knew that this place was a different world, one where everything had gone, as far as Setsuna could tell, the same way as it had in Ranma's until the older pigtailed martial artist had landed in the pit with his younger self.

This meant that there were at least a few things that were going to happen that Saffron would like to stop, at least to know that somewhere, she'd managed to do something about things that she knew were beyond her control back home.

Of course, since the Neko-ken had happened, it meant that Genma had left Ukyo crying in the dust already, but Saffron distantly wondered if she could hunt down the young Okonomiyaki chef before she wasted her entire life chasing after Ranma. She wasn't really sure what she'd do when she found her, but…

As the redhead was just beginning to think of something to do about her best friend, her train of thought was interrupted by movement from the boy sleeping in her lap. Looking down, she saw that he was looking up at her blearily.

"Mom?" The pigtailed martial artist asked, confused. The reaction from the redhead was instant, as she blinked, then her eyebrow twitched.

"I ain't anyone's mom, kid." She grunted, irritably, moving out from below the young boy, whose head promptly fell to his sparsely padded and tattered futon with a thump.

This apparently woke the young boy up a little, as he took a moment to survey his surroundings, then hopped to his feet. For a moment, he looked confused and a little worried, but then recognition seemed to come into his eyes. "Um, sorry." He mumbled. "Where's that guy, um, Saffron?"

The redhead sighed. "That's hard to explain." She answered, and then looked out of the makeshift tent. Much to her surprise, she saw that the sun was rising on the horizon, and the rain had tapered off to near nonexistence. Apparently, Saffron had been lost in thought for a long time, or had dozed off at some point without remembering it. "C'mon, we're going to break camp and head out right after breakfast." She ordered, stepping out into the clearing that the tent had been set up in.

Ranma nodded, following her out and looking confused. "Um, all right." He said, starting to take the tarp down as Saffron worked on starting a fire. The two worked in silence for several more moments, and Saffron was secretly glad that wilderness survival had been one of Genma's first priorities for lessons, or she would have been stuck doing all the work. A few minutes later, as Saffron was half way through boiling water for Ramen, Ranma returned, carrying a bundle that had been the tarp.

"Sorry, but one of the futons got wet." The boy said, frowning.

"Yeah, that's fine." The redhead said, poking the fire with a small branch. Ranma nodded, sitting down across from her and looking at her.

"So, um, who are you?" The pigtailed boy asked, curiously.

The redhead sighed, then produced a small tin cup, scooping some of the water from the pot. Luckily, it hadn't started boiling yet, and wasn't hot enough to burn her. Deciding that showing would be faster than telling, she dumped it over her head. "I'm Saffron." He said, adjusting the fit of his shirt.

Ranma blinked at the man who now sat across the fire from him, and then did so again. "H… how?" He stammered. His father had told him that there were many strange things in the world, but other than Uk-chan's Okonomiyaki fighting style, he hadn't really seen any yet.

"A curse I picked up in China." The older boy explained. "And for the record, I'm a guy."

"Oh." Ranma said, blinked several times, and then brightened up. "Okay, then since you're here, could we spar before we go?" When Saffron raised an eyebrow, the boy quickly continued. "Dad told me that I should always practice my moves in the morning, even if he's not around for some reason."

Saffron nodded, but then looked at the boy oddly. "All right, sure, but why didn't you ask me earlier?"

Ranma grinned, scratching the back of his neck in a way that Saffron recognized very well. "Well, um, I thought you were a girl, and I'm not supposed to spar with girls." He answered.

Saffron sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Forgot about that." He muttered, before looking up. "Bet yer ol' man told ya that?" Ranma nodded, so Saffron continued. "That rule's a little more complex than that, in my experience." He explained. "Girls're less likely ta be martial artists, so if ya just see one fightin or something, ya shouldn't just up 'n attack her. Ask first, is all."

"But Dad told me…" Ranma started, confused.

Saffron shrugged. "Yeah, I know. It's just I've met some girls who can fight half decent, 'n there was this old Amazon…" He stopped himself, and shook his head. "That ain't important right now. I'll spar with ya after we eat, if ya think you can move with your injuries."

Ranma nodded, and the two got back to eating, which both felt was far preferable to conversation.

HR.

Later that morning, Saffron and Ranma walked down the trail, small packs on each of their backs containing all of the camping supplies they owned. As they went, Ranma noticeably favored one side, but also looked very happy, for some reason. "I've never seen a lot of the moves in that style!" The boy chirped, happily. "How did you do that thing with the foot sweep?"

Saffron smirked. When he's sparred with the younger martial artist, he'd gotten a chance to see what level the boy was at, and since he was much better at carefully judging his strength than his father had been, was able to show the boy some tricks that were a bit above where he was at the moment. "You're a practitioner of Anything Goes. Ya know I can't just tell ya." The older boy said.

Ranma nodded. "So, you practice the style too? Is that where you know my father from?"

Saffron frowned for a moment, and then decided to go for the truth, or at least part of it. "Yeah. Yer pop taught me the Anything Goes before I started incorporating other styles of my own into it."

Ranma looked oddly at the other martial artist walking next to him. "I didn't know dad had any other students." He mumbled. "He always tells me that he's gunna train me to be his heir, and the best martial artist of my generation." He finished this off with a confident smirk.

"Yeah, but you've only been at it for a bit over a year, right?" Saffron said. "You ain't the best yet, and all Sensei should practice their technique on someone who can take it before teaching it to beginners."

"Hey, I can take it!" Ranma said, indignantly.

"Never said ya couldn't." Saffron replied, raising a placating hand.

The two dropped into silence for a moment, before Ranma spoke up again, more quietly. "Saffron-san?"

"Yeah?" The older boy asked, concerned. Even at six, he'd never used honorifics unless he was talking to someone he greatly respected, or being unusually serious with a stranger.

"Do… you know when Dad's going to come back?" Ranma asked.

Saffron shook his head. "Not really." He answered. "But if I know Genma Saotome, and believe me, I do, he'll show up eventually."

Ranma nodded, somewhat reassured, as the two came into sight of the outskirts of a small town.

HR.

Several days later, Saffron felt just a bit better about his situation than he had when he'd been cold, wet and female inside of a barely held together tent. This may have had something to do with the fact that he and Ranma were currently both sitting inside, as opposed to on top of, a passenger train that was headed at a pretty good clip towards Tokyo.

The past several days hadn't been terribly eventful, and Saffron had managed to find himself and Ranma some grunt work on a few of the farms on their path. As a result, they'd gotten enough money behind them to get better camping gear, and eventually a set of J-rail tickets to Tokyo.

As Saffron relaxed in his seat, which was far too comfortable to really be healthy, Ranma bounced excitedly in his own, peering out the window as the scenery sped past. "This is so cool!" The young boy exclaimed, excitedly.

Saffron suppressed a grin, remembering his own reaction to his first train ride. It hadn't been quite so exuberant, but that may have had something to do with the fact that he'd taken it when he was sixteen. His father wasn't big on fast ways of transportation, and generally insisted that they walk everywhere, in order to build character …or, rather, he insisted that Ranma walk everywhere. During the later years of the training trip, the old man had liked to separate from the boy for a while, claiming to need to make some preparations, and Saffron suspected that he'd hitched a ride on a few trains.

"Glad yer enjoyin yourself." The older boy said, smirking.

"So, you really know where Mom is?" Ranma asked, stopping his bouncing for a moment to look intently at the other martial artist.

"A little late ta ask now, isn't it?" Saffron asked. "Yeah, I know where she is."

Ranma nodded, trying to relax into his own seat. As he did, he continued to watch the scenery out the window. It had given way a while ago from countryside to the views of the inner city, and he was starting to recognize a few major landmarks from around his childhood home. Granted, things had started to get a bit hard to remember, especially since a few days ago and the Neko-ken. It was like every time he tried to think of something that had happened before that event, a haze obscured it just a little bit.

"You all right, kid?" Saffron asked, jolting Ranma out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The pigtailed martial artist said, just as the train started to slow.

"This is our stop." The older boy said, standing and grabbing his backpack. "You ready ta go?"

Ranma nodded quickly, following Saffron off of the train and into Tokyo.

HR.

Later that afternoon, two martial artists stood in front of a cozy looking two story house. Both had seen it before, yet to the older of the two the place seemed a lot nicer than he remembered. Of course, this time it wasn't in a half-way demolished state due to the efforts of a murder of fiancees.

Shrugging, the two walked up the front path and knocked. Within moments, footsteps were heard, and the door swung open to reveal an auburn haired woman dressed in a formal Kimono. In the brief moment that she was standing there and blinking at the two martial artists, Saffron appraised her. She looked much the same as she had when he'd seen her just under a week before, though her face was much less aged. She had never really had wrinkles, but there had been a heaviness to her expression, as if she'd seen great sadness or loneliness.

"Hello, can I help you?" Nodoka Saotome asked, smiling politely.

Before Saffron could say anything, Ranma spoke up. "Mom!" He called, rushing forward and grabbing the woman around the waist.

"Ranma?" Nodoka asked, surprised, though her face split into a beaming smile. "What are you doing home?"

"Um," Saffron said, deciding to enter the conversation at this point, "His pop had ta do somethin and he needs some time to recover from a technique, so I figured I'd bring him here."

Nodoka looked up from her son, noticing the newcomer for the first time. For a moment, her eyes locked onto his and she looked puzzled. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you." She said, and looked as if she really wanted to bow in greeting, though Ranma's hug stopped her from doing so. "And you are?"

"I'm Saffron, I used ta train with Genma." The older boy said, looking nervous.

Nodoka frowned. She'd never known anyone by that name, and she knew most of Genma's old training partners. Also, this boy looked a few years too young to have traveled with her husband. Still, she wanted to be a polite host, and questioning his story wouldn't exactly be polite. "Well, Saffron-san, would you like to come in for tea?"

"Um, no thanks. It's all right." Saffron said, nervously. He could see that Ranma was pretty eager to talk with his mother, and he'd noticed the strange look she'd shot him. The danger sense that he'd had for most of his life, and that had been honed during his time in Nerima, was telling him to get the heck away before Nodoka figured something out, or things could get complicated.

"Hey, you haven't showed me those techniques of yours yet!" Ranma complained, taking his eyes away from his mother for a moment, but Saffron was already gone.

"Hmm, he was certainly a bit rude." Nodoka said, bringing a hand to her chin. Still, he had brought her son back to her. "Come on Ranma, why don't you tell me how the past year has been while we wait for your father?"

Ranma nodded cheerfully, following his mother into the house.

HR.

Hopping from roof to roof, Saffron vaguely wondered why he'd taken off so quickly. Granted, his mother had looked as if she had noticed something about him, but it wasn't like she'd guess the truth. Plus, now that he was gone, he had no idea what to do for the moment.

He'd never been one to think things out terribly well, and now was no exception. He was probably going to stick around until Genma showed up, to warn the old man against some of his dumber ideas, but other than that he was stumped.

Stopping at the edge of one roof before he aimlessly started to move again, the martial artist realized that his almost Ryoga-esque wanderings had carried him somewhere familiar. He was about half a block away from Furinkan, on the roof of Dr. Tofu's clinic. Jumping to the ground, he noticed that the clinic wasn't there at the moment, replaced by a small store that sold flowers.

Turning away, he remembered that Akane had told him that Dr. Tofu had arrived when she was around eight, around the same time that her mother had died. As that thought went through his head, the pigtailed martial artist stiffened. He knew something else he could do here, and cursed himself for being a moron. He wasn't the only person who hadn't had the past ten years easy, and given that he'd known the Tendos for a long time, he really should have thought of them.

Jumping to the roof again, the pigtailed time traveler now had a destination. He got there within minutes. After all, he'd been running through this district, at various speeds and with various people trying to kill him, for the better part of two years.

Coming to a stop, the pigtailed martial artist perched on the roof of the house next to the Dojo, studying the place. Even though he wasn't normally one to think things through, he'd already been through one spectacularly bad first impression with the Tendo family, and didn't want to make it two for two. He was pretty sure that someone randomly babbling about Mrs. Tendo's death would likely get him tossed out, unless he did something to get them to listen to him.

As his eyes drifted over the place, the martial artist didn't see much that surprised him. The grounds hadn't seen nearly as much battle damage, and the rocks at the edge of the Koi pond were a little differently placed, but otherwise it was just like he was coming home from school. There was only one difference that he could see, and that was the sign board hanging next to the front gate, which now carried a set of class times along with the school's name, and the request that challengers knock at the rear door.

As he read that, the martial artist couldn't help but frown, recalling how many of his challengers had just flat out ignored that damned thing. Still, he thought it gave him an idea.

HR.

Soun Tendo hummed to himself quietly as he swept the stone steps that lead to the entrance to his family home. There weren't any classes today, and on occasion he liked to do this as it relaxed him quite a bit. For a moment, he thought he felt a presence nearby, one that was rather powerful, but when he turned his head in its direction he felt nothing. "Hmm, that's strange." He muttered, walking to the doorway and leaning his broom against it.

Moments later, his previous feeling was proven correct, as the ringing of the challenger bell at the rear gate resounded through the compound. Soun let the relaxing lethargy that had taken him at the beauty of the day fade, straightening the brown fighting gi that he habitually wore and heading for the gate.

As he got there, he saw his wife, Midori, bowing towards a figure on the other side of the gate. "Hello, sir. Are you here to challenge the Dojo?" She asked, politely as Soun came up behind her.

For some odd reason, the boy looked at his wife in a near state of shock. "Something wrong, son?" The Dojo's master asked.

"Um, nothing." The boy said, shaking his head. "Yeah, I'm here to challenge the Dojo, but I've got a kinda odd set of conditions."

Soun raised an eyebrow, and nodded to the boy. "Then please, come in."

Ranma bowed to both adults, and did his damnedest to be polite. For a second, he'd gaped at the woman who'd answered the door, because she had looked amazingly like Akane, if she dressed a bit more like Kasumi.

As the three headed for the house, the woman spoke up. "I'm curious, what are your terms?" She asked.

Ranma shrugged. "Well, I've got somethin I need ta tell both of ya, and I don't want ya interrupting 'till I'm done." He explained.

"And you need to challenge for this right because…" Soun asked, confused.

"Because, well, it's gunna sound real weird, 'n I don't wanna get kicked out before I can finish." Ranma said, shamefaced.

Both older people shared a look, before Soun continued. "And your stake in this match will be?" He asked, very businesslike.

Ranma furrowed his brow for a moment. He knew that he would have to put something of at least some value up against his request, that was how a dojo challenge worked. Usually, it was the labor of the challenger, to help around the place for a short time, or a monetary reward. "Well, I've got some techniques ya could be interested in." he offered. "I can teach you the basics of how to use Chi as a projectile."

The Moko Takabisha was one of his more powerful techniques, yes, but it was also one of the very few that he had created himself, with no external input, and that he could therefore teach with no one else's permission.

Soun stopped, stiffening, one foot stepping into the Dojo, and turned to Ranma slowly. "Y… you know a technique like that?" He asked, visibly shaken. Ranma heard him mutter something about the master, but shrugged it off, knowing full well who he was talking about.

"Yeah. I can't use it in a match inside a Dojo, at least not one like this, 'cuz it does too much property damage, but I know it." The younger martial artist explained, then cupped one hand. Within seconds, a small ball of blue energy formed there, floating several centimeters up.

Soun gasped, and then nodded shakily. "That… is acceptable." He said, slowly, then looked to his wife. "Midori, could you go back to the house and prepare the first-aid kit?"

The blue-black haired woman nodded, leaving the two martial artists for the moment, and coming back a moment later with the kit, which she set next to the door before proceeding into the fighting hall. Both combatants followed her, taking up positions on either side.

"The stakes are set and understood?" The woman called out in a calm, clear voice. When both men nodded, she continued, "The match will continue until one of you forfeits or is incapacitated, according to my judgement. Lethal blows are prohibited." After saying that, rather than raising her hand, Mrs. Tendo reached into her Kimono top, and produced a small pistol. Ranma's eyes widened, until she fired it upward, revealing that it only contained blanks, and yelled "Begin!"

Ranma narrowed his eyes, then smirked. He would never have expected Soun to use as cheap a trick as that to surprise his opponent, but then, he was a practitioner of Anything Goes. As the Tendo patriarch moved forward quickly, the pigtailed martial artist did so as well, though he also drifted slightly to the right. When the two passed, Ranma brought up his left leg to drive the air out of the other's lungs, but was surprised as he felt it knocked out of his own as well. Turning his eyes back to himself, he saw the end of a staff buried in his stomach.

Reacting quickly, the martial artist grabbed the weapon, preparatory to taking it from Soun, when it disappeared in a flash of chi. More than that, the energy hadn't been restrained, and the younger man felt small burns appearing on his hands where he'd touched it.

"You're a lot better than I thought." He admitted, wincing as he cracked his knuckles. Soun merely nodded, and the two went in for another charge. This time, Ranma went for a direct, frontal assault, testing the older man's defenses. They were quite good, especially when the staff seemed to materialize in his hands to help with blocking again, but Ranma quickly countered that by increasing his speed until he was hammering away at almost twice the speed Soun could manage.

The old man grimaced in pain as another of his opponent's hits connected, and then the grimace seemed to twist, getting much more distorted as the face it was on grew into a full demon head. Despite his exposure in the past, this caused Ranma to flinch and step back, allowing the other to bring the staff around in a hard blow to his side. Rolling with the attack, the pigtailed boy came up wincing from what felt like a bruised rib, but he saw that Soun was a lot worse off.

Many attacks had connected with the mustached man's body, and small bruises were already beginning to show from the earliest ones. "All right," He grunted, "It's time for me to stop playing, I see." Ranma wondered what the gi clad martial artist had meant by that, until Soun's staff reformed, a long, flat blade forming on its end. Ranma recognized the weapon as a Naginata, the same one the Tendo patriarch used whenever he donned that weird Samurai armor to fight Happosai.

Within moments, the taller man charged, flowing into a blistering series of attacks with the bladed weapon that Ranma had to avoid. This fight was getting serious, which was odd, given he was fighting Soun Tendo, the man agreed by most Nerimans to have less spine than an invertebrate.

Deciding that this was getting just plain ridiculous, the pigtailed martial artist moved in, jumping onto the blade and riding it as Soun swung it back towards himself. As he did this, he raised one leg for a hard stomp onto the master's face. To his surprise, Soun actually managed to get one arm free to block, and the Naginata became a very unstable platform, but physics, for once, would not be denied and all of Ranma's weight came down on Soun's head with a tremendous crash.

The Tendo patriarch teetered for a moment, swaying on his feet, before falling to the floor with a loud thud as Ranma landed next to him, panting slightly. Looking down nervously, he noted that Soun was laying with a stupefied look on his face. "You okay Tendo-san?" He asked, worriedly.

Within a few moments, Mrs. Tendo walked up to the two, bending down and checking her husband's vital signs. "He's still conscious, but you definitely stunned him." She said. "You've won this match."

Ranma nodded, and offered a hand to help carry his dazed opponent into the house.

HR.

It took Soun about ten minutes to recover, during which time Ranma sat in the Tendos' tea room, looking around and noting that there were a few less pictures on the walls. Across from him sat Mrs. Tendo, who was looking at him inscrutably. After her husband joined her, an ice pack held to his head, the man cleared his throat. "So, young man, what is it you would like to tell us? And… what is your name?"

The boy stopped for a moment, thinking, and then decided to be blunt. "I'm callin myself Saffron, but that ain't my real name. I'm Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes martial arts."

"Saotome?" Soun asked, then winced. "Ranma, that's Genma's boy, isn't it? But he's… only six, I believe."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, why I said this'd be hard to believe." He answered. "Basically, about a week ago, I woke up in the middle of a trainin technique I'd gone through about ten years ago. A while after that, I found out from someone who apparently knows that I've traveled back in time, sorta."

"I suddenly understand why you challenged my husband to a duel in order to keep us from throwing you out." Mrs. Tendo said, her formerly rather bemused behavior suddenly turning a bit more irritated.

"Yeah, figured you'd react like that." Ranma said, and then thought for a few more seconds. "Didn't really wanna do this, but here." He said, taking his wallet from his back pocket. Flipping it open, he withdrew a small white Polaroid image, bought off of Nabiki for 200 yen last Christmas. He'd never admitted to anyone, especially is father, that he had the thing, but now it apparently had a use to serve. "Take a look at this." He stated, handing the image over.

Soun took the picture, and noted that it was a group shot of four girls, standing in front of a tall man who he recognized. The man looked rather sad, as if he were going to burst out crying, but it was definitely his face. The thing that caught his attention, however, were the girls. One of them, a short redhead with her hair in a similar pigtail to the boy's and a green dress, was unfamiliar, but the other three… "Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi?" He asked, surprised.

Mrs. Tendo took the image from her husband, and then her eyes widened. "Um… why's there a Panda in the background?" She finally asked, latching onto something else and trying to deny that she was seeing an image of her daughters all grown up.

"Um, the Panda's a long story." Saffron said, nervously. "Now, ya gunna hear me out?"

"I beleave that was agreed upon for if you won." Mr. Tendo said, simply, though now he was looking at Ranma worriedly. He had noticed something about the image, but didn't want to say anything, just in case he was wrong.

"Well, I'm here 'cuz I thought I could warn ya. I'm not sure how, other than that it was some sort of disease that came on pretty fast, but Mrs. Tendo…"

He trailed off, causing the woman in question to look up. "Yes?" She asked, now shocked herself.

"You die in about a year." Ranma blurted out, not sure how to lessen the impact. "I thought if I told ya, you could do somethin about it, or the warning'd help ya cope, or… something." He looked down, unsure what had really been his reason for doing this.

"Help us cope?" Soun asked, concerned.

Ranma nodded. "Mr. Tendo, after your wife died, ya pretty well fell apart. Ya were always cryin, 'n stuff, and your art… Well, let's just say that if ya fought now the way I remember you fighting, I woulda won in about five seconds. As for Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi, I dunno, but they definitely took it hard."

Both Tendo parents sat, looking at the strange boy who had entered their house, and unsure of what to say to him. Finally, Mrs. Tendo said, "Why?"

Ranma shrugged. "Like I said, I ain't really sure. Felt like the right thing ta do, I guess… Kasumi talked about how ya died once, said if the doctors'd known earlier they could maybe have done somethin."

"Boy, if this is a joke…" The woman started, now almost hysterical, especially considering how seriously Saffron had delivered the news.

"I swear on my honor as a student of Anythin Goes, I'm telling the truth." Ranma said, formally.

It was at about that time that Soun nodded, surprising his wife. "I see." He said, finally. "We will try and use your information to improve the way things turn out."

Saffron nodded, and then rose. "I… um, I'd better get goin." He said, quickly, and turned. Someone called after him, but he ignored them as he bounded up towards the rooftops.

Unseen by anyone there, a small girl stood at the door to her family room, having left school suffering a stomach ache.

HR.

Landing in front of the Tendo Dojo, Saffron felt like five different kinds of idiot. He hadn't thought things through, as per usual, and ended up telling Mrs. Tendo that she had a year to live, without being at all helpful in telling her how to survive. He just felt like such an..

"You idiot!" Yeah, that was about right. Saffron thought, as he was hit over the head by a giant mallet.

END.

Nabiki(Older): Okay folks, now taking bets! Who was the wielder of the mighty mallet?

Weebee: Well, there it is, folks. And no, Nabiki wasn't taking a vote. I already know who it is.

Name Note:Midori = Green, as far as I understood it. Given Takahashi's punny sense for names, I felt that someone who looked like a cross between Akane and Kasumi should have a color themed name like Akane, but the complete reverse. Meh.

Again, Please R&R!