Parent Guardian

Chapter 1: New Mother

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or the Tenchi Muyo/Universe/GxP series.

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Ranma Saotome, heir of Anything Goes Martial Arts, was searching for some poor animal that would be dinner. Not having food for two days was nothing new for him, but adding hunger to his current female form was greatly eating away at his patience. So far, she had found nothing and it seemed that they would go hungry for another night. She cursed her father for taking them to Jusenkyo. She was turning to go back to camp when she heard a noise. She walked around a small mound where she found a woman lying on the ground she rushed up to her and checked her over. The woman was bleeding profusely from a crack in her skull and her vitals were dropping.

The woman slowly turned her face to look at Ranma. Hope seemed to well up in her eyes. She pushed a bundle that she had been cradling in her arms towards Ranma. "Take her. Promise me that you will raise her."

Ranma blinked. she didn't know what was in the bundle and it was strange to find a native speaker of Japanese in the wilds of China. "Look lady. I'll get my pop an' the guide. Maybe we can get you some help."

The woman tried to shake her head and held the bundle out further. "Take my child as yours. Raise her. I will not let her die. I am not long for this world."

Ranma looked the woman over again. She was growing quite pale and her arms were trembling. She reluctantly grabbed the bundle and opened it and saw a little baby inside. She looked back at the woman to ask her something else but the woman had fallen silent. Ranma felt for her pulse but felt nothing. She closed the woman's eyes and set the child down. "I promise to take care of her. Guess I'd better get digging. I need ta give your mom a proper funeral."

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A sullen and dirty Ranma walked back into camp with a bundle under her arm. #Boy, what took you so long?# flip # The guide just came back# flip #and said that he found that Amazon village not too far from here.# flip # You're lucky you got back before we left.# flip #And why are you in that weak girly form?#

Ranma frowned as she encountered her father. Since Jusenkyo, she was starting to figure out how much of an ass her father could be. "Says the giant walking rug. So we gonna get going or what old man? I hope they got hot water and food in that village cuz we'll be needing it."

The guide walked over at that point with his pack on. "Yes, Amazon village mile that way. We go now yes?"

Ranma looked at the bundle she was carrying and sighed. She didn't know how to take care of a child so it was probably a good thing that the village wasn't too far ahead. At least the kid had only cooed softly as Ranma stroked the baby's chin under the blanket. She had to hide it from her father for as long as possible.

Genma Saotome, in his panda form, shoved Ranma and the guide out of the way as he raced to a table full of food. Ranma missed this as she curled around the baby protectively and rolled with the panda's blow. When she stood up, she could here shouts of anger. "Oh no, customer shouldn't eat food. Is Amazon prize!"

She looked around and spotted her father greedily eating from a table full of food. She was almost tempted into joining her father until she noted all of the spears surrounding him. A girl with purple hair was shouting something at the panda while pointing a pair of giant bonborri at him. The girl then looked over at her and the guide and marched over to them. She started shouting again and the guide tried to translate. "She say you pet panda eat her prize. She want fight you."

Now Ranma would never normally turn down a fight, but she was currently holding a baby. Whether it was some maternal instinct or just some common sense leaking through the chauvinistic brain of the martial artist, she didn't trust leaving the child alone to fight at the moment. "Uh, I can't fight right now. Look just tell her that I got..."

Ranma didn't finish the sentence as the girl took a swipe at her only to meet air. "Hey, whatcha do that for?"

Ranma had sprung back ten feet as the bonborri landed where she had been. "Shampoo speak Japanese. She know what outsider say. Shameful not to fight. Coward."

The words stung and if she didn't have the child, Ranma would have pounded the girl into the ground for that insult even if she was a girl; however, Ranma was holding a baby and she wasn't about to let this psycho harm her. Shampoo continued her assault and Ranma kept dodging until she lost her grip on the cloth the child was wrapped in. Time slowed for the martial artist as she saw a bonborri coming down towards the bundle. Ranma used all of her skill to roll around the other bonborri as she dived in to rescue the child.

The poor baby finally decided it had had enough and began to wail. Shampoo did not hear this in her rage and didn't stop her swing as the outsider had foolishly dove to retrieve what she had been carrying which was in the path of her swing. The bonborri never connected. Shampoo couldn't fathom why her bonborri had stopped cold as the outsider was huddled over the bundle of cloth she had been carrying and had not done anything to stop the blow.

"ENOUGH!" Shampoo's eyes widened as she knew that voice. She saw her great-grandmother holding her staff against the bonborri, stopping it. Her face was red with anger that she had never seen there before.

The diminutive elder creased her brow and shook her head. "LISTEN child. Don't you hear it. Do you even know what you almost did?"

Shampoo frowned and listened as her great-grandmother had told her to do. It didn't take long for her to figure out what the elder meant and she paled. "Is..is baby no?"

The elder nodded sagely. "Thankfully I stopped you child. You know the penalties for killing a baby and worse yet, killing a mother protecting her child. That is why she did not want to fight. She had her baby with her Shampoo. Have you learned nothing in our village? No matter, we owe her safe passage in our lands and a few favors thanks to your rash actions unless you'd like for her to take this case for judgment by the elders."

Shampoo paled and shook her head. "No, we treat her good."

The elder nodded and turned to Ranma who was getting up. The elderly woman could see the grace of the red-head's movements and the strength hidden within the tiny frame. She shook her head and smiled. Maybe it was a good thing that her great-granddaughter had not had to fight this outsider as she was certain the outsider would have won. What puzzled and worried the elder though was the exceptionally heavy yang ki in the tiny girl and the fact that she showed no signs of childbirth from what she could sense. Talking with the child would clear up some things.

"Child I must apologize for my great-granddaughter. She acted rashly. It is a sin in this village to attack one with a child. We shall therefore treat you to dinner in our hut. Come with us." Ranma blinked a couple of times before shrugging and following the elder and the purple-haired girl.

She didn't even notice her father being hit back and forth between Amazon's with pointy sticks. #Ranma stop wandering off and help your father!#

"Uh, so who are ya?" The elder shook her head at the red-head's speech.

"Kuh Lon but you would probably pronounce it Cologne. And who are you child?"

Ranma smiled. "Ranma Saotome, heir of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

Cologne had to hold back a chuckle when she heard that. Oh what would old Happi have done if he found out the heir to his school was a girl. She really liked this girl now. Any woman who could take over as the heir to Happi's school was a either the ultimate pervert or possibly one of the strongest woman she'd likely ever meet. Since this girl seemed to have no overly perverse reactions to the rather voluptuous women and strapping young men in the village, then she was probably the latter. Cologne smiled as the males brought in the post-competition feast as the one by the log had been destroyed.

Ranma had to admit that the spread was good. Chicken, ramen, pork buns, some sort of soup, fresh fruits, and bread were all served in a large buffet. She would have dived into it if the elder didn't stop her by hitting her hands with her cane.

When they had finished the meal, the baby started wailing. Ranma tried cooing and making funny faces but the baby wouldn't stop crying. "She's hungry."

Ranma blinked and looked back at the elder. "Huh?"

Cologne nodded her head sagely. "You've never had a child have you?" Ranma nodded. "How did you happen upon this child then? She seems to respond to you and you seem to sooth her."

Ranma explained how she found the woman and how she made Ranma promise to take care of her child. Cologne nodded sagely and left the room. When she had returned, she had a small vile in her hand. "The problem with a child this young is that she cannot eat the food we do. Even ground up. I have a potion here that will help you with that. If you drink it, then you will be able to feed your child properly."

Ranma looked at the vial warily and then back at Cologne. "Uh, can't you take the kid and feed her or something."

Cologne frowned and bopped Ranma on the head. "Ranma, this child is attached to you and besides that you swore to look after her. Will you go back on your promise?"

Ranma shook her head. "No. A true martial artist never goes back on his word."

Ranma took the potion out of Cologne's hand and drank it in one go. It was kind of refreshing. Ranma waited a few moments but she didn't really note a difference until her chest felt tight and the front of her shirt was straining. She unbuttoned her shirt to find that her breasts had grown larger and some kind of liquid was oozing out from the tips. "What the heck is this?"

The elder noted the panic in Ranma's eyes. She was surprised that the child didn't know how to feed a child, but to not understand her own body. Oh well, it could wait til the child was fed. It's wails were growing even louder and higher in pitch. She deftly removed the cloth from the child to reveal something that shocked her. The child had a tail and ears like that of a squirrel. It was a Musk child, but Ranma had said the mother was Japanese. More and more questions were coming to the elder but they would have to wait.

Cologne pushed the child into Ranma's arms. "What are ya doin ya old..."

Ranma didn't finish as the baby found it's target and latched on. Ranma's eyes widened and then glazed over as the child began to feed. "Great-grandmother, that Musk baby, is not? They need to go. We no want trouble."

Cologne nodded her head. "We still owe her a debt, but you are right. They cannot stay in the village. I doubt the Musk are after this child though. The Musk would have been on her long before she reached the village and would have taken both her and the child for breeding stock if they had been looking for this child and her mother. No, I can tell the baby is of one of the lower caste clans in the Musk and that it is female. No, they only value the male children enough to look for them should they go missing."

Shampoo moved around Ranma to look at the baby feed. "OOH, is too too cute though. Shampoo want to have baby. It look like Ranma really enjoy this yes."

Cologne shook her head. "Why are you insisting on speaking Japanese when you sound like a twit? Ranma isn't with us at the moment so talk in Chinese."

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Ranma awoke slowly with light hitting her eyes. It was strange. No water, no kick out of bed, maybe this was a dream. She yawned, looked down, and blinked. She was dressed in clothes similar to those that Shampoo girl was wearing the other day. "I see you are finally awake child. I have many questions but I believe you will have to deal with another feeding before that. Your baby is quite hungry."

Ranma's eyes flew open as she remembered the nightmare from the other night. She crossed her fingers and shook her head. "Uh uh, ain't no way I'm doing that again! What the hell was that..."

She didn't finish as she found something latched onto her. She looked down to see the baby from the night before latched onto her chest and suckling away. She started to grab for the child to remove it, but a cane wrapped her hands. "Whatcha do that for ya old ghoul!"

Cologne laughed and shook her head. "Let the child feed. You don't seem to be in shock and it isn't harming you. Your child needs the food you provide for her."

Ranma blinked. "She's sucking the food outta me?"

Cologne raised an eyebrow and sat down on a pillow. "Yes Ranma, babies get food from their mother which is produced in the breasts. They are there for more than a show for males you know. Hasn't your mother ever explained the facts of life to you?"

Ranma shook her head. "Uh well, I don't really remember mom. Pops said she's dead so I guess I'll never know. What are the facts of life anyways? They some kind of martial arts philosophy or something?"

Cologne's expression was stern after that comment. "So, your foolish father has taught you nothing of your body then? I wondered why you had no supporting undergarments."

Ranma looked curiously at Cologne. "No, pops taught me a lot 'bout the body: how to build up ki, weak points in the body, pressure points, and a lot of other stuff in the Art."

Cologne shook her head. This is just what she'd expect from a student of Happi's school. Keep a woman ignorant and you could do whatever you want with them. She shuddered at the thought of this child possibly being raised by one of Happi's students to be his 'plaything'. She would rectify that immediately. "Ranma, I'm going to tell you the facts of life and a woman's roll in them. Now a woman..."

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A rather pale Ranma was following Cologne as she pogoed towards a sty where the Amazon's kept their pigs. "Ah, here is your pet panda. I'm afraid we had to cage it and put a watch on it as it was rather unruly."

Ranma slowly turned her head to see a beaten up panda laying in a cage on a mud floor. It stirred at the sight of Ranma and pulled out a sign. #Boy, get me outta here now!# flip #Those crazy women are gonna kill me!#

Ranma frowned and let her anger rise to the surface. "This is your fault old man! Who was the one who insisted on coming to this village; who was the one who insisted on going to Jusenkyo; and who was the one who decided teach me the Neko-ken? Huh, old man! I should just let them take that prize ya ate outta your hide!"

A few things clicked in Cologne's mind at that moment. "Oh dear."

She turned to one of the guards while Ranma kept yelling at her father and spoke in Chinese. [Get me two pales of hot water.]

Cologne then pogoed next to Ranma and whacked her on the head. "Ow, why'd ya do that old ghoul?"

Cologne shook her head. "Berating the fool will get you nowhere child. If half of what I heard is true, then we have some more things to discuss. Although, I admit that it should have been obvious to me."

The Amazon guard that had left returned with two steaming pales of water. Cologne tossed the first over the panda. He immediately turned into a fat, balding man. "Yeow, not that hot woman!"

Cologne whacked the fat man over the head. "Be glad I do not skin you alive fool! You stole our food, you took your child to Jusenkyo, and you taught your child the Neko-Ken. The only thing keeping me from killing you is that your child would most likely not agree with that."

Genma paled and turned to Ranma. "Boy get me outta here! We need to leave. And why the hell are you in that weak, girly form! Change back."

Genma reached for the other pale of hot water through the wooden bars and threw the hot water into Ranma's face. Genma and Ranma blinked as Ranma didn't change. Cologne sighed. "Come Ranma, I need to tell you some things..."

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Two months later...

A red-haired girl was walking down a quiet street in a small town. She wore a red Chinese shirt and black kung fu pants and had a sleeping baby strapped to her front in a leather carrier. The few people who were around stared as she passed, not because she was a beauty but rather because of the large panda following her. "I guess having a place to stay for awhile will be good for Hitomi."

The panda held up a sign. #Yes# flip #I'm sure Noboyuki will let us stay at his house for awhile.# flip #He was fairly well off due to his building design firm.# flip #I'm sure he'd be delighted to see us.#

Ranma's eyes narrowed. They rarely, if ever, stayed in one spot for too long. Her father hightailing it back to Japan just to go to this friend's house had to mean something. Given that her father said he was well off, that most likely meant they'd be mooching off of him. There had to be something else though. "Yeah, well what was with the rush? Ya never rushed anywhere unless it's ta feed your belly. And since when did you care about Hitomi?"

The panda quickly flipped through some signs and pulled out one that he thought would work. #Don't talk back to your old man boy!# flip #I'm certain old Noboyuki will let us stay.#

Ranma narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, whatever old man. If this is some guy you owe something to and he tries to hurt Hitomi, then what I did to you after that crap you pulled in Shanghai with Hitomi is gonna seem like heaven compared ta the hell I'll put ya through."

The panda shuddered at that thought. The boy had become more willful after the Amazons had talked to him for a couple of days. He was just lucky the boy still had enough honor in him to follow him. And Shanghai... He shuddered again. Now the worthless boy was a weak, worthless girl and looked to be staying that way if what the Amazons had told them was true. He should have been taking the boy to Soun to marry him off to one of the Tendo's daughters, but no he had to become a girl. He was thankful he had this backup engagement for if he had a daughter. He had to get the boy married off before his wife found out what had happened. If she found out before he could marry the boy off, then he'd try the grandchild card and see if she bought it. He'd have to make sure that Ranma's new fiance understood the importance of taking care of him in his 'old age'.

#This way boy.# The panda looked around. When he was pondering, the boy had ran off.

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Ranma had noted that Genma was distracted for a moment and decided to use that time to make a split for it. She'd go to this Noboyuki's house and meet them, but she wanted to know the lay of the land in case she needed to make a quick exit with Hitomi.

The town wasn't too big and appeared to have mostly residents surrounding a central market street. She could see a Yamada's grocery and convenience store, a small bookstore, and … an ice cream shop! She ran over to the ice cream shop and opened the door. The only person there at the time was a boy manning the counter. She smiled as she knew exactly what to do. She carefully set Hitomi down on a table close to the counter and within her field of vision. She sashayed up to the counter and caught the attention of the boy at the counter. "Hey there handsome, got some chocolate ice cream."

The boys jaw almost dropped at the beauty in front of him. She was short but had a beautiful face and a rather prominent rack that she was pushing out towards him. He gulped. "Y-e-yess."

Ranma smiled and pouted her lips. "Maybe you could give me two scoops. Can ya do that big boy?"

"Uh-uh, s-s-su-sure. How about a sundae?" He was sweating and trying not to stare as she leaned over the counter.

"But I don't have enough money for that..." Ranma pouted and smiled internally as she saw that this was the clincher.

"Uh, on the house." Ranma nodded and the boy quickly got to work. He handed an abnormally large banana split with chocolate and vanilla ice cream to Ranma.

"Thanks." Ranma laughed inside. Sucker. Sure the curse had been bad at first and the first month stuck this way was as close to hell as she wanted to get but it did come with perks. If she was lucky, she could find some way to unlock herself. She had learned the hard way that Hitomi came first. She'd never let some fake cure or some bullshit story her father cooked up separate them again.

Ranma dug into the ice cream with her usual gusto and finished it in under a minute. She was considering going back for another bowl when Hitomi woke up and let her know it was feeding time. "All right Hitomi. Hold on, I gotta get the towel."

Ranma reached into her hidden weapons space and pulled out a towel to cover herself as she fed Hitomi. She had to thank Mousse for showing her how to do that sometime.

The bell of the shop rang and two figures walked in. "Mihoshi, we need to go on patrol. We can get it after we finish."

Ranma looked over to see a woman with green hair berating a tanned blonde. The blonde seemed to ignore the green-haired woman as she bounced over to the counter. The boy at the counter could be seen with his head bouncing up and down in time with the blonde. "Three sundaes please."

The boy at the counter seemed to get a goofy grin on his face and drool some. "Uh, sure. How about four for the price of two? You can take the extra one to the lady with the red hair."

Ranma cursed the boy for putting their attention on her. She wasn't sure what it was but she was getting some odd vibes from the two women that had entered the shop. She smirked though when she saw the disappointed look on the teenager's face when he saw her feeding her child under a blanket. The blonde bounced over to her table with two ice cream sundaes while followed by the grumbling green-haired woman carrying the other two. The blonde got up in Ranma's face as she sat down. "Hey, I've never seen you around here. Oooh, is that a baby? Can I see?"

Ranma was about to smack the blonde away when the green-haired woman grabbed her by the ear and pulled her back. "Mihoshi! She's feeding the baby right now. I think you should let her be." She then turned to Ranma. "I'm sorry about that miss. My partner doesn't really think sometimes. I'm Kiyone Makibi by the way and the ditz here is Mihoshi Kuramitsu."

The blonde waved like a crazy person to Ranma. Ranma shook her head. There was nothing wrong... well nothing dangerous about these two yet so maybe that feeling she was having was just telling her that the blonde was crazy or something. "Yeah, I'm Ranma Saotome and this is my daughter, Hitomi."

Kiyone's eyes widened a bit when Ranma brought her daughter out from under the blanket. This didn't go unnoticed by Ranma. "Oooh, she's so cute."

Mihoshi tickled under Hitomi's chin before Ranma could stop her. The baby giggled as she did so. "Huh, guess she likes you."

Kiyone frowned as she watched the byplay between her partner, Ranma, and the baby. It was obvious that the child wasn't human which meant that the child and her mother probably shouldn't be on Earth. "Excuse me, but are you from 'out of town'? I'll need to see some identification."

Ranma narrowed her eyes. She unfortunately didn't have any identification thanks to her father, but what worried her more was the way the woman looked at her child. "No, you can thank my father for that. He also dragged me here for some reason."

Kiyone put a hand on Ranma's shoulder and was going to suggest that they move to a different location so she could question the girl when Ranma threw off her hand and stood up. "I think I should be goin'."

Ranma backed out the door as she put Hitomi in her carrier and strapped it on. She quickly set off down the street with the intention of getting out of town. She started heading for the hilly forested area to the east as it would provide the most cover and a route of escape. She rounded another corner only to face Kiyone and a gasping Mihoshi. "Ki-yoneeeeeeeeeee! Why did we have to run?"

Ranma backed away from the duo. While she didn't see anything to indicate that these two were master martial artists, they had to have had some training to figure out where she was going and outpace her there. She'd have to turn it up a notch. "Listen we need to talk to you privately if possible. You may not be in trouble, but we'd like to find out how you got here."

Ranma sized the woman up. She could probably beat her but it might hurt Hitomi. She'd still be better off outrunning them. "And why should I trust you?"

The green-haired woman looked around the empty street before pulling out some kind of flashy badge with the letters GP on it. "We're officers with the Galaxy Police ma'am. We simply want to find out why you're on a restricted world. Official visits are supposed to be documented and planned with resident officers beforehand."

Ranma looked at Kiyone like she had a screw loose. "Huh? Never heard of no Galaxy Police before. And what are you talking about restricted world? That some kind of zoo or something?"

Kiyone had a puzzle in front of her. This girl had a child that obviously wasn't fully human, but claimed to know nothing of the GP. She pulled out a scanner that Washu had made for her and hit a few buttons. She noted that the girl tensed some as the scan started. The results only added more questions. The child was human which was odd as the scan showed that the non-human appendages were real. The scan also showed that the baby was not her child but the girl showed signs of a recent pregnancy. The girl also showed up as human but the ambient energy radiating from her was anything but human. The scan was telling her that the girl's energy was equivalent to a young Juraian tree.

Kiyone looked up from the scan to see the girl crouching down some. "Uh, look, Ranma. Could we just talk somewhere less public?"

Kiyone patted herself on the back mentally as Ranma seemed to relax until Mihoshi ruined the moment. The blonde had been toying around with her cube again as she wanted to get some of her stuffed animals out of her subspace storage to show the baby when her gun fell out and went off. Kiyone could only watch in horror as the beam seemed to make a bee-line for the baby only to see Ranma disappear and reappear on top of a roof before bounding off towards the east by jumping to the next building.

Kiyone turned back to her partner and was going to chew her out only to find the blonde crying and apologizing. She sighed and patted her on the back. "Come on. We've got to catch her and find out what's going on here."

Ranma sighed as she realized that she had given the duo the slip. The problem was that she now didn't know where she was. She jumped to the top branch of a tree and looked around. She was outside of town and the only thing she could see was a temple on top of the mountain nearest her and a house surrounded by fields not far from it. She could head off into the woods and disappear, but she didn't know what to do after that. Her father would come looking for her eventually and drag her back. She also had to worry about Hitomi. She weighed her options and headed for the temple.

Genma let out a contented sigh as he had found some hot water at a ramen shop. He was also happy that the owner didn't call the police when he barged in as a panda. He was about to swipe some buns off of a patron's plate as he passed by when he heard someone call his name. "Genma, is that you?"

He turned around and smiled as he saw the very man he had come here for. Noboyuki stood in the door of the ramen shop and walked over to him. "It is you, you old dog? How is Nodoka doing?"

Genma laughed nervously and motioned for his friend to take a seat as he sat down. "Good. Actually, I came hear for a reason. You remember our pact awhile back, the one we made when you, Achika, Nodoka, and I met at the Three Dragons bar."

Noboyuki nodded as he grabbed a menu. "Yeah, actually I do. We signed a contract stating that if you had a daughter, then she'd marry our son." He paused in his perusing of the menu and lowered it as a shit eating grin came across his face. "You're here with her now aren't you. Is she a looker? Where is she?"

Genma smiled as he knew he had his friend's support. "Oh she's a looker alright." He pulled out a photo and handed it to Noboyuki. "Lost her in town a little bit ago but she should be around here somewhere."

Noboyuki almost drooled looking at the picture. She put Ayeka and Ryoko to shame with her looks. He looked closer though as he noted something. "Old friend does she have a baby?"

Genma blinked and looked at the photo. He cursed to himself as he had handed the only one he had with the baby in the picture to his friend. He needed to think fast. "She adopted the child in China. She apparently found some woman dying in the woods and promised the woman to take care of the child as her own as it was the mother's dying wish."

Noboyuki teared up at the sob story. This girl was a perfect choice for Tenchi. She was beautiful and best of all caring and sweet unlike two alien women. "Tell you what old friend. Ramen and buns on me. Heck I'll throw in two beers."

Genma wanted to cry and hug the man. He was so easy to manipulate.

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Ranma dug some wax out of her ear as she entered the shrine grounds and looked it over before flicking it off. She was going to look for the priest to ask for some room for the night when Hitomi started squirming and bawling. The smell also gave away the problem. "Aww dang it Hitomi! You had ta reach your limit right now didn't ya. Guess I gotta clean ya up."

Ranma reached into subspace and pulled out what Cologne had lovingly called her 'Motherly Load'. This translated to an old leather bag that she had given Ranma with various powders, towels, and cloth diapers for her baby. She found a flat stone and laid out the cleaning blanket. She gently put Hitomi down on top of it and removed the soiled garments. She placed the diaper into a special pouch of the bag that was supposed to ward off odors and proceeded to wipe off any extra mess before applying the drying and cleansing powders Cologne had shown her to use. Hitomi giggled as the powders were applied and squirmed around as Ranma tried to pin a new diaper on her. When she was finished, she reloaded the bag and slipped it into her subspace pocket.

She picked up Hitomi before sighing and turning towards the temple. "C'mon out old man. I know you're there."

An elderly priest fully opened the back door to the temple while chuckling. "You have sharp senses miss. I'm the priest of this shrine, Katsuhito Masaki."

Ranma looked the man over. "Uh yeah, I'm Ranma Saotome. Pleasure ta meet you I guess."

The amusement never left the old man's eyes as he walked over to Ranma. "I'm sure. I must say though. Aren't you a little young to have a child."

Ranma didn't take up a guarded stance but she did tighten her muscles a bit. The man was skilled to have barely registered on her senses before. "Well, I kinda adopted her. Her mother died in my arms asking me ta take care of her child so I couldn't refuse that could I?"

The old priest nodded sagely. "A noble goal for one so young. Did her mother have the same ears and tail as she does?"

Ranma automatically tensed at that. The last priest that asked a question like that had tried to 'exorcise' the both of them with purifying arrows. She didn't want a repeat of that. The old man seemed to catch on though and waved his hand. "I mean you and your child no harm. I am just curious."

Ranma loosened up and eyed the man over. "No, but Elder Cologne told me that the Musk tend to have them. She said something about Hitomi's mother just being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Ranma felt something waver in the elderly man before he spoke. "And these 'Musk', how do they get their women exactly?"

"Uh, they either catch any woman they come across or turn animals into women. That's what Cologne told me. She said I was lucky I didn't get caught by one of their patrols or I woulda been poppin' out their kids right now. They live adjacent to the Amazons and the Phoenix people in China." Katsuhito noticed her shudder at the mention of 'poppin' out their kids'. He had a sinking feeling as he knew what that meant.

He seemed to contemplate what she said for a minute before before nodding. "And what of the Amazons and the Phoenix people?"

"The Amazons are female warriors. They kinda took me in for a little while after we sorted out the problem with pop stealing their prize feast. They got a ton of cool secret techniques although they only showed me a couple cuz I'm an ally or something. Don't know much about the Phoenix people. Cologne said they got wings coming out of their backs and can fly. They got talons for hands and feet and they don't like humans much cuz they usually kill humans on sight. Said they evolved from birds or something."

The elderly priest studied the enigma before him. The girl was obviously human but the child and possibly the Musk and Phoenix people she was talking about were not. This also brought up the question of how these non-humans came to be on this planet and why no one knew about them. The other issue was the power radiating off the girl. It was not Juraian but she was no push over. "Hmm. While I would like to claim this shrine to be the most hospitable in Japan, it is no place for a young mother and her child to hang around as they talk to an old man. Why don't we go to my grandson's house down the hill to talk and have something to eat?"

Katsuhito had Ranma hooked the second he said 'eat'.

"Old friend, we've been around most of the town looking for your daughter. Are you sure she didn't run away?"

Genma nodded his head. The problem was that nobody seemed to have noticed where she went. He was proud that she could hide her presence but annoyed that they were having trouble finding her. He was sure the boy wouldn't shirk his duties, even as a weak girl... though he had become willful after the Amazons and the Shanghai incident. He was going to suggest a different tactic until he literally ran into someone.

The blonde blur had come around the corner and managed to entangle herself in his limbs. He looked up to see some blonde foreigner trying to extract herself from him. "Dammit woman, get off of me!"

The blonde teared up and he could feel his annoyance building until he heard his friend's voice. "Mihoshi, you need to stop running into people. I'm sorry sir, my partner doesn't know any better."

The other woman stuck out her hand and helped him to his feet. He was about to say something, but Noboyuki beat him to it. "Mihoshi, Kiyone. It's great seeing you like this! Can you help us? We're looking for Genma's daughter. Hey Genma, show them her picture. These two are police officers and I'm sure they can help."

Before Kiyone could protest, Genma eyed the two warily before reaching into his gi and pulling out the picture he had shown Noboyuki. Kiyone's eyes widened before she looked back at the two men. "Uh, why are you looking for her?"

Noboyuki smiled. "She's Tenchi's fiance."