-Back at the hospital-

"Hi, mom, come on in. Let me take that basket. Um... Kasumi, would you mind waiting here a moment, then going on a short walk with me? I think mom deserves some time alone with her daughter. After all, it's been a while, and I'm sure they have plenty to say to each other..." Kasumi smiled and nodded while Ranma took the basket and carefully set it aside, then guided his mother into the room. "Hi-chan, guess who this is?"

"Momma? Rrrranma, is that Momma?" A smile and a glimmer of tears from Nodoka was her only answer as mother looked on daughter for the first time in over ten years. Hikari struggled to raise her arms to her mother, and that was all the invitation it took for Nodoka to leap into a gentle hug. Nothing much would be said for nearly an hour as mother and daughter cried together.

Meanwhile, Ranma and Kasumi watched this for a few minutes, before they both took a walk.

When Nodoka saw her daughter, she didn't recognize her at first. She thought that maybe Ranma was visiting someone else, instead of his sister. But the weak voice that spoke, even though it had an odd rumbling to it, was still recognizable as the voice of her darling daughter. The emotions inside her became a raging storm as she took in the fact that this was her daughter, and Genma had scarred her and, if appearances could be believed, half-blinded her. Genma would pay for that... But later. Right now, she had a daughter to finally greet.

"Momma? Rrrranma, is that Momma?" At this, Nodoka could barely hold back the years of emotions bottled inside, and Hikari struggling to raise her arms was enough to totally shatter that control. She crossed the space between them almost as fast as Ranma did, dropping her sword in the chair in her need to comfort her daughter.

When she really looked at the scars she was all set to run to the Tendo dojo and take Genma to task immediately for this, but the weak arms holding onto her were better than the best amazon glomp at holding someone in place. Noticing how weak her daughter was only added fuel to the fire of her desire to see Genma pay. But she was able to bank that fire for the time being. Now she had a daughter to comfort. And Nodoka had so many questions that she didn't know where to start. Luckily, Hikari took the choice form her.

"Momma?" Said a quiet voice from inside the hug.

Nodoka answered in an equally quiet voice, "I'm here, my daughter. And I'll never let that man hurt you again." Had anyone been watching at that moment, they would have seen a red and black aura on par with Ranma's best burst into existence from the pair, but would have been unable identify which of the ladies was the source. Nothing else was said between them until Ranma and Kasumi returned.

While mother and daughter got reacquainted, Ranma and Kasumi were walking through the halls, talking about mostly nothing. After half an hour of this, Kasumi was getting tired, so they sat down in the waiting room, but continued talking. After they had been sitting there for about half an hour, Ranma's stomach started growling and they decided it was time to go back and see about getting some food. Little did they know that events were about to take a turn for the hectic.

"Nihao, Airen!" was the only warning Ranma had before he was engulfed in a classic Amazon glomp. He barely paid any attention to her, being used to her babbling from countless encounters with the amazon bear trap. However, he did catch the end of her babbling, since it differed from usual. "Who Airen's new girlfriend? She new fiancee? I take care of her real good. Obstacles is for killing." With that, she took off in the direction of room 732.

The last words had barely penetrated his mind when he figured out who she was talking about. 'Who's she talking about? She met mom already, so that aint it. She knows Kasumi. The nurse was male, and Doctor Kishiro is old. That only leaves...' His thoughts were cut off by his realization. "Hikari." By the time he realized who she meant, Shampoo had already burst through the door and had taken a swing at Hikari's bed, hitting and crushing it into splinters, but missing Hikari. Nodoka had managed to grab her at the last possible moment and pull her up into her arms right before the bonbori struck. A second later found her holding just the handles, as a swipe from Ranma's claws shredded the heads of her favorite weapons. The growl echoing through the room was deep enough that the glass rattled in the windows. Ranma disappeared from sight, only to reappear directly in front of Shampoo, his fist buried in her gut.

"You will neverrr hurrrt my sister, Shampoo. Trrry again, and I won't use my fist." With this he removed his fist from her gut and 4 red claws burst into existence from the knuckles of that hand. Ranma's fist blurred and four small tings rang out through the room as a large portion of Shampoos hair fell to the floor. Then there came the bright flash of blood as Ranma drew his claws across each of Shampoo's cheeks, flaying the skin deep enough to ensure that jagged scars would be left.

Shampoo was sent out of the room by an almost full-strength open-palmed strike to the chest from Ranma. He leaned over and picked up the mass of purple hair with four hair ties attached. Ranma then handed them to a now-cowering Hikari before going to the door just in time to see Shampoos retreating back as she fled down the hall in tears and trailing blood drops.

"Next time I'll take your head instead of just your hair and your beauty," he shouted at her retreating back.

"She's gone, and good riddance. As if I needed any more problems..." The sniffling of his sister brought Ranma back into the room and to her side.

"Rrrranma, who was that? And is she gone?" At this, two more arms went around Hikari as Ranma joined the hug that Nodoka started. After a few minutes of Hikari sniffling, the stress of recent events took it's toll and Hikari drifted off to a deep sleep. Looking over at the ruins of the bed, Ranma decided that he could continue holding his sister. It only took a moment to adjust his grip on her to a more comfortable two-armed carry. As he shifted his grip, Nodoka released hers and began to check Hikari over for obvious injuries. She was the first to notice that during the recent flurry of activity, Hikari had lost the eye patch she had been wearing, exposing the missing eye to their view. Her muffled gasp brought the missing eye patch to Ranma's attention just as Kasumi came back into the room, followed by 2 nurses pushing a gurney and Doctor Kishiro.

At first, the nurses tried to get Ranma to release his hold on her, but a quiet growl was enough to send them away quickly as he carefully lay Hikari down on the gurney. As he did so, Doctor Kishiro began to speak.

"So, I see you found the other thing I wanted to tell you, Ranma. As you can see, the accident that gave her that bad scar also cost Hikari her eye. From what I read in the records, the doctors at that time tried everything they could to save it, but the eye was too far damaged to really do anything with. It was decided at that time to just remove the few remnants of the eye and close the hole over completely."

"This was no accident, Doctor. My father had some really stupid ideas for training. This is the result of one of the worst. In fact, I still carry a few small scars from this training myself, but nothing like this." With his free hand, he gestured to a few barely visible scars on his arms and wrists, and then pulled up the back of his shirt to show more of the same.

"Ranma, according to the records from the time of admittance, one Genma Saotome admitted her after her 'having fallen and broken a glass, which cut her badly with the shards.' If he actually did this on purpose, then I have to report this to both my boss and the local police." With that, Doctor Kishiro walked towards the door, only to be stopped by Nodoka's hand on her shoulder.

"Doctor, I appreciate everything you have done for my daughter, but I have to ask you for a favor. Can you give me an hour before you make that call? I have to go deal with my stupid husband and make sure he doesn't run off." Doctor Kishiro's answer was a simple nod as she walked out of the room to see about arranging another room for Hikari before she made a few calls.

Nodoka then turned to Ranma and smiled. "Stay here and protect your sister, Ranma. Who knows what else could happen?" With that, Nodoka knelt down and retrieved her sword from the wreckage on the floor and left. Ranma looked around the room, and could only agree with Kasumi when she said, "Oh, my! What a mess."

A moment later, a pair of twin growls was heard from both of the Saotome stomachs, which was loud enough to awaken Hikari. "Rrrranma, I think we arrrre hungrrrry. Is therrrre something we can eat?" With a chuckle, Ranma went to find the basket of food his mother brought. Just as they were about to dig into the food, the earlier 2 nurses came in and said," We have found an available room for Hikari that would be more comfortable, if you will let us guide you there."

Ranma could only smile. "Sure, but make it quick, I don't think Hikari can wait much longer for her food..."

Just as they got to the new room, Ranma perked up. "The old ghoul is here." And sure enough, there she was, just coming down the hall on her walking stick looking rather distressed.

-Nekohanten, earlier-

Cologne was quietly sitting and enjoying a cup of tea during a slow period right after lunch when Shampoo burst through the front door. It only took a moment for the elder to recognize something was terribly wrong with Shampoo, and not just the fact that she now sported a radically new hair cut and a few cuts on her face.

"Shampoo, what happened? And how did you lose your hair?" Cologne had a few suspicions, but wanted to hear it from Shampoo.

After Shampoo managed to calm down somewhat, she answered in Mandarin. "I think I may have messed up, great-grandmother. I went to see Ranma, but Ranma wasn't at home. I waited to see where Ranma was, but it wasn't that easy to do when no one was home except Kasumi and Ranma's mother. I managed to hear them talking about Ranma being in the hospital visiting a girl named Hikari."

"I was not really listening since I was distracted by some noisy birds but decided that since they said they were going to see Ranma for lunch, I would follow them and see Ranma. I thought it was a good plan, so I sat down to wait. A few hours later, Ranma's mother and Kasumi walked out carrying a large basket. I followed them to the hospital, not close enough to hear them talking, but able to see them."

"I had to take a separate elevator to get to the same floor as Ranma's mother and Kasumi, since I did not want them to know I was following them. I managed to hide and follow them all the way to the room Ranma was in and saw him smiling at a sick girl in a bed. I thought this was bad, since Ranma never smiled at me like that. So I got mad and thought maybe she was an obstacle..."

Cologne could see where this was going, and decided to ask a question of Shampoo. "Tell me, Shampoo. Did you try to attack this young girl?"

For a moment a burst of pride comes through Shampoo as she remembers her first impulse to attack the obstacle. "Yes, great-grandmother. I know the rule about how to deal with obstacles."

Then a nearly palpable wave of sadness and depression came over Shampoo. "But I made a big mistake. I did not get enough details before I attacked the girl. I did not know that the sick girl was Ranma's sister..."

Cologne did a spit-take as she heard that piece of information. "YOU DID WHAT?! You attacked son-in... You attacked Ranma's sister? Do you realize what you may have done? Had this girl been just an obstacle, I could have overlooked the fact that she was sick, depending on just how sick she was. But the fact that she was not an obstacle, coupled with the fact that she is sick... You may have not only cost yourself Ranma, but you may have just caused a war between Ranma and the entire Amazon tribe. Pray that I can fix this. I'm going to go see Ranma now. You are going to tell me what room they can be found in, then you are going to go bandage your face and go to your room, and on pain of death you are not to leave it until I return. Am I clear on this?"

Without even bothering to wait for an answer, Cologne pogoed out of the Nekohanten and quickly headed towards the hospital, thinking furiously along the way on how to solve this. 'I could flat out dissolve this mess, but that would make our entire stay here a wasted trip, and I know the council would reject that one. Perhaps I can offer some kind of restitution, and maybe Ranma will consider joining our tribe on his own, or being an ally. I just hope I can work this so that he doesn't see us as enemies. He would be well within his rights, even by our laws, to call for both Shampoo's death and mine. And after Saffron, I'm sure we would not be able to stand against him if that was what he really wanted.'

After a moment, Cologne continued with her thoughts. 'But just to make sure, maybe I can offer some kind of assistance with healing his sister.'

This line of thought brought her to the entrance of room 732 just in time to see Ranma, Kasumi, and Hikari going into a room a few doors down the hall, and with a few quick staff-strides she dismounted.

"Hello, Ranma. Do you mind if I join you for a while?"