Author's note: I hope you're not getting tired of all these notes I'm so fond of. I just wanted to let you guys know that I added a bit to both chapter 1 and chapter 2. Nothing terribly life-changing, and no actual alteration of events you've already read. Just a bit more substance to the events in the village, and a bit of info on what happened to Ryoga when he drank the 'tea'. Again, not essential reading, but worth checking out if you want to.
"Don't just stand there staring! Grab him so I can knock that thing off!" Ukyo shouted, chasing the slender man with the octopus head.
"Knock his head off?!" Akane exclaimed, quite upset at the very idea. How was she to know this wasn't some innocent octopus yokai who just happened to be a little energetic...perhaps even terrified of the okinomiyaki chef who'd decided to start chasing him.
"Akane..." Ukyo took a deep breath, sighing. "That isn't his head, it's some kinda octopus trying to TAKE HIS HEAD!" She leaped towards the man, who tripped and began to roll around on the floor, managing to trip her in the process.
Cologne watched, with an almost amused smirk on her face. Reaching beneath her sleeve, she pulled out a brassiere and tossed it into some bushes nearby. Two things then happened...the octopus released Kuno's head and scrabbled in the direction the brassiere had flown on very wobbly legs, leaving the delirious kendoist with both a slimy face and hairstyle, and Happosai dived towards the bushes. What then followed was the sound of a rather violent scuffle.
"Master!" Soun pretended to shout with a more than zealous grin on his face, leaning forward to try to get a glimpse of the carnage he couldn't see.
"Master!" Genma chimed in, looking identical to his close friend...but unfortunately for both of them, the old man climbed out from the greenery with both a dead octopus under one arm and a bra under the other. He rubbed the negligee against his face with a rather cheerful expression.
"What a lovely bit of lace..." He cooed. Sometimes they all wondered why Happosai didn't just marry a bag of women's undergarments...but then again...he'd probably cheat on them with another bag.
Cologne chuckled and shook her head. "There isn't a day that goes by I don't regret marrying someone other than yourself, you old goat," she remarked, turning on her cane and hopping away. Not one person questioned the idea of following Cologne. Least of all Kuno, as he had Nabiki dragging him by the collar after them.
"You really are hopeless, Kuno-baby," she mused, looking down at him. He only laughed, somewhat oddly. Of them all, nobody doubted Tatewaki had likely enjoyed the most bizarre spirit journey that day. As for Ukyo, Akane watched her with a fascinated expression.
"Hey, Ukyo...what happened when you two...came here?" She asked, tilting her head.
"I don't know..." Ukyo looked at Akane, frowning. "But I could swear you were there..."
"Really?" Akane blinked, looking up towards the treetops. "Did you turn into a guy? Did Shampoo challenge you to a battle to the death over the hand of Mister Saotome? Did Cologne turn into an elephant?! Did...did I have three heads?"
Ukyo jerked, looking at Akane. "Why the heck would you have three heads?!" She wasn't even going to try to tackle the rest of those questions.
"Well, I mean...you had a spirit journey, right?"
The okinomiyaki chef sighed, placing a hand on her forehead as if she had the mother of all headaches.
"Akane, I really don't understand anything happening right now, and I'd rather not even think about what just happened to me. If spirit journey is code for something, I honestly don't have a clue."
And the youngest Tendo didn't doubt her words. Of all of them, Ukyo was the one with the patchiest knowledge of the events they'd experienced. She'd probably be pretty upset too...though she still was upset anyway for entirely different reasons.
"Long..." Ukyo glanced at Akane, squinting.
"Wh-what?" Akane asked, hoping Ukyo hadn't just gone off the deep end. That was the last thing anyone needed this evening.
"Long. You should grow your hair...you look good when it's long."
Akane smiled. "Did I ever tell you how I got it cut?"
"No, I don't think so...but did it have something to do with Ranma-honey?" Ukyo quirked an eyebrow.
"How did you-"
"The more I think about it, everything seems to have something to do with him...before and after I came to Nerima." She sighed. "I mean, I guess it's because I'm in love with him..."
"...But you don't really know why?" Akane asked, a glimpse of understanding in her eyes.
"Y...yeah, I guess so..."
"Tell me about it!" Akane exclaimed, stretching her arms above her head and sighing.
Both girls began to pick up their pace just then, realizing they'd slunk back a little too far from the rest of the group. Neither wanted to get lost without Cologne in the spirit world to protect them. There was no telling if she'd be able to do it again, or if they could handle something quite like what they'd been through either.
At the head of the group, Cologne hopped alongside her silent grand-daughter, who held Mousse in her arms, almost tenderly. No telling how the stupid duck was going to get himself hurt if he didn't have someone being extra careful to keep him secure. Even if she didn't love him, she didn't want him to die.
For the purpose of their conversation, they decided to speak in Mandarin to protect their words from the rest of the group.
"Grandmother, are the things I saw going to come true?" Shampoo asked, unsure whether she could handle such a future.
"It isn't for me to say. If you decide to live a life that leads you to a future like that, then of course it may come to pass. Unless you saw something of a stranger nature..." Cologne raised an eyebrow. "Somehow, I suspect you didn't..."
Shampoo held back tears that threatened to form, and held tighter to Mousse. He would have quacked in protest, but he desperately hoped she was trying to hug him in some...oddly uncomfortable and violent way.
"I saw everyone back home. Their grandchildren, grown up...and I saw myself. Old. Alone. Sad. Broken. I do not want a life like that, grandmother!" She glanced at the rest of the group and tried to smile in a silent way of assuring them their topic wasn't a serious one.
"Shampoo," Cologne called her grand-daughter's attention ahead. "You really think something like that could happen to someone like you?"
"What...what do you mean?"
"You may make bad choices sometimes, but that's only to be expected. You are young, Shampoo, and a far more worthy bride than any of the girls present," Cologne informed her, and the purple-haired girl knew her grandmother was not using false words of comfort. She truly believed Shampoo would not die alone.
"But...what about Ranma?"
"I'm not telling you to rush out and be defeated in battle by some random boy right after we get back to Japan, you silly girl!" Cologne jumped down and knocked Shampoo on the head with her cane, then hopped back up to continue their progress forward.
Shampoo rubbed her head tenderly and nodded. "But I don't think this pain will ever go away..." Shampoo insisted. She couldn't even begin to imagine a life without Ranma as her fiancee. The dream had become too close to reality.
Cologne glanced back at Happosai and then forward once more. "We never think the pain of a broken heart will go away. If we try our best, it will heal like anything else. Perhaps even stronger than before," she whispered.
"Cologne," Soun called, looking a bit nervous when she looked back at him with a somewhat bored expression. That woman was intimidating by no small stretch of the imagination. He cleared his throat and lowered his eyebrows so that he presented a more mature image, and not the look of a man being led along like a sheep.
"Uh, that is, Cologne...I'm not sure if we're going to find an inn out here. Before I saw my...vision...I didn't see anything but fog and trees. I don't see how-" he was cut off by the sudden appearance of a very nice-looking building ahead. It rather resembled an inn from an old Kurusawa picture, and Soun was nothing if not a die-hard fan of Akira Kurusawa (though he kept this fact to himself.)
"That's the funny thing about the spirit world, Tendo..." Happosai intoned, hopping onto Soun's head and sitting down as if he were prepared to meditate. He still held the brassiere to his face.
"Whatever you seek, you ultimately find. It's like a convenient form of supernatural GPS." Happosai nodded as he spoke, as if agreeing with himself. Because he was just making it up as he went along.
"Prepare yourselves," Cologne interrupted, frowning. "It's rude to stare...and you'll be tempted to do so...mark my words..." Even as she spoke, a large blue dragon emerged from the front door, garbed in a plain white suit, and looking for all the world like he was either about to go hunting for a meal or head to some sort of office for a long evening of hard work. He was, in short, quite scary.
Cologne nudged Mousse's beak closed, which had dropped open in shock. "Watch it, Mousse. People with curses here who take the forms of delicacies are prized, and I don't want to have to worry about keeping you off the dinner table..." She paused. "Does anybody have some hot water with them?"
Author's notes: When I first put Ukyo into the story, I had no idea what I was going to do with her. I just knew she deserved a voice too, and I'm beginning to realize it was probably one of the best ideas I've used in this so far.
