Shadows of Honor

by syncron

New Chapter! Brief Interlude - and setting things for what's to come!

11. A Tour To Blitz Creek!

Author's Corner:If ya wanna skip this, then go ahead. This is for people who reviewed. My replies.

Yo People!

Whew, Man I've been busy. Okies, I have been busy, then there was me getting married, then there was work…blah blah blah.

So, now to the story. Oh, chapter 12 is under way. I should have it done by tomorrow, ie. Friday,07,2005

Oh, Happy New Year by the way, and a belated merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. I guess I'll have a short, very short New Year gift for you. Just so you don't feel left out. Don't expect it to happen often though. You'll see soon enough.

Mind you. There is a backlog of lots of reviews I need to answer. If you don't wanna bother reading, you can easily skip this part. I'd dare to say that everyone who reviewed chapter 10, and 11 will get an answer. The least I could do. I like interaction between my reviewers. Makes writing all the more fun. Anyways, on to the Reviews!

Replies - Reviews for Chapter 10

WillLeung:Hey! Thanks for your review. Well, yeah. I think, personally, if the manga would have continued, Akane would have changed. But as stated before, Koryu's existence and Kasumi's increased interaction is having its own effects. Well, I'm glad you like the story.

Tin:Thanks for enjoying the story, I appreciate it. Oh, and double thanks for fixing that little part about the chapter 2 thing. I had re-posted stuff removing some stuff which I figured not to be needed anymore. Again, Thanks. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Master Chaos:Heya Chaos, heh. I'm glad you think this is still a great story. I hope it only gets better. It is taking me time to get used to some of the issues that need sorting out, my writing ability ( which I'm trying to improve ) and finalizing the plot so it would make a good story with a bit of everygthing…humor ( I aint that good at humor but im trying ) fighting…romance…etc. I don't claim to be good at these either, but at least you guys are happy. So I must be doing something right. Still dunno what it is. Lol. Have a good one!

Wonderbee31:Well, Kasumi is also one of my favorite characters, and frankly I wanted her character to be further expanded. I started off rough in the beginning, but now I think I am managing to bring things out. She is a pivotal character for this story. Regarding getting along, I think Ranma and Kasumi would get along, well as long as some circumstances are met. The personality I am expanding on Kasumi so far has really gotten well with him. But, everything doesn't always go perfect. Oh… is this some foreshadowing? Lol. Hope you continue enjoying the story.

Silverscale:Yo Silverscale. Um, I am going to update this story. Its just taking time. By the way, I really am very glad I have great readers who don't abuse me. I've read several stories where some readers, in an effort to force the writer, do abuse to get new chapters out. Hmm. Plus I get very constructive feedback. It's the feedback that helps the writer grow. So heh. A simple appreciation gives me motivation. Lol, so thanks for movitating me. Hope you continue enjoying this story.

Daniel Franstook:Hmm, well. I think…The opening scene in chapter 12 will definitely give you an answer to your question. Hope you enjoy the story. Thanks for reviewing.

Lumias :Heya Lumias. One of the best in ? Well, wouldn't that be an honor ( pun intended ). Well, I'm very pleased you think that way. I don't think that, but hey, that's me. I'm still not satisfied with my writing and plotting skills. Hopefully I will improve by every chapter. Don't worry. This story ain't dead. Thanks for reviewing. Take care.

Okami Shojo:I'm very glad you enjoy this story. Yeah, waiting for chapters can be very difficult. I'm not just an author, but a reader as well. Heh, so I understand your feeling. shrug Rushing chapters ruins them, in my opinion. Yeah, that sux, but I'd rather have quality than quantity or quickity… lol. I should be speeding up. But it seems I'm being dragged down by one thing or another. Hey. I work full time. That's always been my excuse, and it shall continue to be. Cant help that man. Well, I plan on making the consecutive chapters good. I hope you find them the same. Thank you for reviewing. Later.

Rogue1615:I'm truly happy you are loving this story. I know the feeling where you just stay up reading a story because its so good. You should read Inu Yasha AU stories from Rosefire. If you like that anime, etc. They are absolutely wicked. She's one of my favorite fanfiction authors. Regarding Ranma's ki. Yeah. I, I do plan on doing funky stuff with Ki. I think that is one aspect of the story which has been quite under developed. I will attempt to change that in my story. Lets see how things go. Thanks for reviewing. Take care

Shaiden:Heh. Hooked huh? Wow. That's nice to know. Well, you can always read during work…or not. That depends on your workplace and the 'business' factor. Heh. Well, I hope you like what I give. Thanks for reviewing. I should be getting chapters on sooner. It should be 2 weeks instead of 4, per chapter. Lets see. I think I might get this to work. Take care man. Thanks for reviewing.

K34:Thanks again for your review. I am trying to make the characters strong, and more vivid. At the same time, I am trying to integrate a level of character development which is clearly seen progressing at a slower pace, rather than a high speed. I did that in the first 7 chapters, didn't I? I made things progress too fast. Oh well. Still learning. But I think its still fine. It should level out in chapter 11 and further… Since chapter 11 is already out, and today's post is basically re-posting it after receiving from my Pre-reader, Grookill. Hope you continue to like the story. Take care.

ShadowBakaSama:First, let me congratulate you on your intuitive nick. I like it. Heh. I dunno why, but I find it quite amusing. Regarding Kodachi, and others. I think you'll find out what happens in chap 11, and 12. Heh. Hope things go well with ya. Take care. Thanks for reviewing.

Lordkazar:Thanks for reviewing. I do have a pre-reader, Grookill, and I find him absolutely amazing. Thank you for your offer though. I'll think about it. Yes, this is my first fanfic. I'm glad you think I'm doing a great job. I am trying to improve. Hopefully I will succeed. Take care!

Johnny G!:Heya buddy. How are ya? Man ,I'm still waiting for an update from you as well – Aitou & Aijou., and some of the other good stuff . wink. Heh. Oh, I also owe you a couple of reviews…I think. Heh. I'll get to them. Well. I'm glad you like the story. Lets see how things go onwards. I still need to create that stupid storyline for the novel. That might take a month or more. Lets see how it progresses. I'm doing it for the entire 3 books, so I need to plan very carefully. Anyways, I'm glad you think my story telling skills are good. Well, at least one of us thinks so. I'm gonna be adding a small part here, an insight into chapter 12, leaving it at a cliffhanger. I hope I've further improved in that part. Anyways, hope your family is doing great!. Oh man, I forgot to wish you a merry cristmas and a Happy new year! Sorry. Take care buddy.

Master Chaos:Two reviews for the same chapter? You rock!...lol. heh. Chapters will come out as soon as I have them done. I'll be giving a little present so you should check…it should be up by the time you're reading this…if you're reading this.

Hiryo:Ah, Hiryo. Heh, I really appreciate that massive suggestion list you sent me. I think only you and dogbertcarrol have managed to make a review so long. Nice stuff. Well. To your guess as to what will happen between the Neko-ken vs Koryu, it was quite close. There were two people who guessed right. I'll be writing that in chapter 12. I appreciate your comments on my writing and my story. I still wouldn't put my story above JohnnyG's, but that's just me. OH well. Take care buddy. Hope you like the Chapter 11 Revision and my tiny gift.

Niana Kuonji:Heh, bows. Thanks for the applaud. I hope to receive more. Lol. Haven't gotten a review I think from you for Chap 11. Oh well. shrug No one's forced. Its just what helps me go along. Thanks. Take care

Iceman19:Thank you for your compliment. Honestly, I hadn't planned anything out in the beginning, but after I got a pre-reader, I have started putting things in persepective. I'm glad you find this story well written. I am always trying to improve. Yeah, Ryoga and Koryu? I had already planned a friction between them. But I doubt there might be a fight. Koryu doesn't like fighting where hatred is involved. Ryoga's all that. So I dunno. Lets see how things go. Koryu will not fight against NWC unless he's under extreme circumstances. Lets see how things go. NWC will be having a very important part from now on. I was trying to focus mainly on Koryu / Kasumi / Ranma. As from Chapter 11, they are already expanding now. Part was also my inability to work with a large cast. I'm trying to improve on that. Hopefully things will balance out. Thanks for reviewing. Take care

Terryie:Medium length eh? What Do you think about chapter 11? Now This is a long chapter. Lol. Heh. I've traveled to like 3 countries like 3-4 times already since you've sent this review. Lol. Ranma and plate tectonics is one concept I find very interesting. I think this is one thing which is less associated in Ranma fanfics. I'm going to try and expand on it, in as much detail as possible. Magic…. I don't think I'm gonna make Ranma a magician but, …I don't think he'll need to be. Heh. Lets just say him and plate tectonics make a very nice combo. Thanks for reviewing. Hope you like further chapters. Take care

Gopu:Thanks for the compliment. Oh, by the way. If you remember your answer to my question on what might happen? Congratulations on being as close as possible with your reply. I think I emailed you with that as well. You and dogbertcarrol got the closest. Anyways, Take care. Hope you like future versions.

Dogbertcarrol:Ahh…you again. Heh, I like you. Lol…though don't take that the wrong way. Heh. You really have it in for Akane eh? LOL. Well, sometimes , I do to, but in this story I'm going to be very civil with her, but I will try to bring out everything I can which is in a way a flaw…that's the thing about Ranma ½. Everyone's got a character flaw. Heh, wait till you see Koryu's. rofl. I'm gonna have to give him one, if I want things to fit in. He can't be the only sane person in a bunch of insane people. No fun that way. Lol. Oh. Congratulations on guessing between Koryu vs. Neko-ken. You tagged the analysis almost too accurately, except the Kasumi part. In my opinion, Ranma would still only listen to Akane, or if in a good enough mood, be casual with anyone who doesn't seem like a threat. I hope you see where I'm trying to go with this. Him being all nice to Kasumi in neko-ken is a little too … obvious… Though I ain't saying its not gonna happen. Lets just see. Good job man. I like your analysis skillz. Heh. I was pleasantly surprised when I read your review. Thanks a lot. Take care man.

Jerry Unipeg:Thanks for the compliment. Well, yeah. Ranma has to grow up eventually. The death usually, usually be the operative word, makes people grow up. Lets see. I think Ranma is the type of person who would still revert back a bit if things were fine or not as he thought initially, if you get what I mean. Anyways, Take care. Thanks for reviewing.

Akiko Koishii:Heh, I'm glad that you're glad. Well, I have been holding back a bit on the humor…I should try and pick it up for chapter 12, after the fight of course. Mind you, I ain't an expert on humor. I hope I improve. Thanks for reviewing. I hope you like my future chapters even better. Take care

Badgerwolf:Please forgive me, for I'm not going to let out the pairings. I think the story should be enjoyed whichever way it goes, for the content. Though, if you're a little enthusiastic, you can try and do a little research. I'm sure you can find out what inclinations exist. grin. Don't ask JohnnyG! LOL. I really liked your response to my story. Thank you, really. Its really such kind of reviews that really get me to do even better and continue working on the story. Hell, reviews help me keep my muse. I wonder if that is fair or not. shrug. I do like writing the story, but I suppose I'm only human. Getting responses also is a big source of motivation. Thank you so much. Regarding the length of the chapters ,yeah…they're long. I dunno, I think its how I type. Lets see how things go. Anways, hope you enjoy the continuation of the story. Take care. Thanks for reviewing.

Reviews for Chapter 11

JonnyG:Heh, regarding Cologne's plan backfiring. Yeah. It may have worked if Koryu wasn't around, but…well. You guessed accurately. So its you, Gopu and dogbertcarrol who're really getting the hang of this story. Anyways. WOW. That was a brilliant review. I'm truly surprised. I'm glad you think my writing is improving. Even my pre-reader said I have improved in my hiatus. Heh. Regarding Kasumi and Ranma… I've already discussed with you in our emails. I have handled that in chapter 12. Yeah, it was a little out of the way…now it fits in perfectly. ( I think so…) Oh. Sorry. Ranma ain't going to Kasumi…well not in the way everyone thinks he is anyways. LOL. Thanks for your review man. It really gets me going. Hopefully I'll close the gap between our writing skills. Man I cant wait for your story either … Anyways, take care buddy. I'll get back to ya soon. Happy new year … oh wait.. I've already said that in my previous response to your review. Oh well. Thanx for the review. Take care buddy.

a:Nice nick. Lol. I'm glad you find my story interesting. Forgive me, I do not exactly understand your question. Cologne told him to try and focus on generating ki without using anger as a source, mainly as a purpose of diversifying his ability. Making him more flexible. Well, it might be dumb, but the best way to defeat Ryoga is to make him really happy ( he's easily fooled…shouldn't be too difficult.), and kick the snot out of him. If he goes unconscious, then well. Its over. Oh well. But better watch out when he comes back though. Heh. I hope that satisfies your question. If not, you can always email me. Thanks for your review. Take care

Leiws:Well Leiws. Its being updated. Thanks for reviewing and liking this story. I appreciate it. I'm trying to decrease the time for story development (err… writing – I'm a techie). Hopefully I'll manage. Anyways, Take care. Thanks again.

Dogbertcarrol:LOL. Homebody eh? Heh. Well, heh… no comment. grin heh…I hope you like my little present. Thanks for reviewing though. Hope you like this. Take care.

WillLiung:Heh, thanks. If you thought that was breathtaking, then I'm sure you're going to like my little present. Looking forward to your opinions on that. Take care. Thanks for reviewing.

Hiryo:Hey man. Reading my story seven times? One word; wow. Even I've not done that, and I'm writing it. Lol. Anyways buddy. I've taken what you've said into account. I really appreciate the effort you've put into your reviews. Stuff like that helps me analyze myself better. It helps me improve. Take care buddy. Thanks for your…really long review. Heh ) Take care.

Duke:Heh, thanks. English term paper huh? Wow. I hope you've done it by now. Lol Its nice to know you enjoyed it so much to get you that side tracked. If it was me, though I'd be looking into doing anything BUT writing my English term paper. Lol. Oh well. Thank you for your compliments. I really appreciate them. Hopefully you will continue enjoying my work. Take care.

Eric Oh:Heh, don't worry man. It's still going fine, though you did make a valid point, and you weren't the only one to make it. I made a little boo boo, but I'm trying to balance some things out instead of readily jumping into things like I had already done in the beginning. It should work out fine hopefully. You'll see. Take care man. Eagerly await your responses. Thanks for reviewing.

Gopu:Yo. Thanks. I hope you like my further chapters as well. Take care. Thanks for reviewing.

Wonderbee31:Well, this chapter is now finalized. I hope you like it. There are no flashbacks in this chapter, though. So I think it should read more fluently now. Yeah…Ranma's finally learning the hard way. Hope you find things better this time around. Not too much has changed, but I have distinctly made some revisions. Thanks for your review. Take care

OKAY!! Finally. The backlog is out the way. Damnnn. 3k words worth of replies. Um, I hope you don't mind me replying here. I prefer it that way. Reply to every review. I think it makes for better communication between reviewers and writer. I hope some don't find it annoying. Lol. Anyways, Finally I can get to the chapter. I hope you liked the revision. Not much has changed…and I have not added much to it. It stopped at the same place where it did last time. But some modification throughout it has taken place. I hope you all enjoy it. Take care people. And I hope you enjoy. I would appreciate any and every review. shrug You don't have to, but its nice getting response, good or bad. Good helps motivate me, and bad helps me improve. I would prefer constructive, in either case. But lol, whatever you guys deside. Have fun with chapter 11.

Chapter 11: A Tour to Blitz Creek!

"Ranma! Wait up!" Nabiki shouted as she crouched in a hurry, carefully slipping her middle and index finger under her heel. As she frantically tried to put her shoe on, the girl noted her bile from the corner of her eye as he casually jumped from the door to the Tendo wall and looked about to leap off towards school.

If he ran at his usual pace, there was no way she would catch up to him in time.

Luckily, the object of Nabiki's current ire turned around and crossed his arms, raising an eye brow in response to her call.

"What?" he asked.

"Ranma, you know what! I'm supposed to provide Kuno and his demented can of worms with Akane's official request today. If you leave before me, they will obviously attack you, and from what I saw yesterday, I really don't think that they will be in any state to comprehend what I will have to say." She huffed, walking up to him with her arms crossed.

'And what's with that expression?' She asked herself in consternation, noting Ranma's impatient yet serious undertones easily exposed through his posture. It was pretty much his usual arrogant one, but she couldn't help but feel something off about it.

Ranma grumbled something under his breath, and jumped off the wall to land beside the middle Tendo, causing her to come to an abrupt halt.

"They started it," he scowled, "with all those questions about Akane. When I told them she'd gotten hurt, they'd just pulled an Akane and jumped to the god damned conclusion that I did something to her!" Ranma paused, taking in a deep breath and calming down considerably before he spoke again, and much more slowly; seriously, "I'm sick and tired of people accusing me for crap I don't do."

Nabiki stared at the young Saotome for a moment, taking a moment to observe his narrowed eyes as they stood just below his fluttering hair, his folded arms, which were more like thick, tan colored iron bars that were probably stronger than real ones.

He stood proud with his back slightly arched. Though not gifted with a towering stature, he was taller than her, and he looked first-rate - She had to give him that. That controlled anger, calm, yet tense muscles and his natural good looks; rugged body well accentuated by his attire gave him a pretty good chance at picking up girls.

It was a pity, Nabiki wondered, that he was almost allergic to the female sex at times. Well, that and his lack of intellect was a major put down, at least for Nabiki. But then again, she wasn't really interested in this sort of thing for the time being. Granted that if she wanted, she could try and groom Ranma into a better person, but it would be extremely difficult even for her.

Ranma had had difficult childhood and many of his mannerisms were too deeply ingrained for anyone to easily remove them. The thought of a blow torch and sand blaster came to mind, the former to somehow open his thick head, and the latter to flush the junk out.

Well, in the end, Ranma was just not someone Nabiki would want anyways, no matter his good looks. Besides, he had deep feelings for her younger sister that even a blind man could see. Yet Akane, who's emotional understanding was still a fetus, could not see it.

The situation could be considered vice versa as well and still work, only that Ranma was more considerate of Akane's feelings when it counted. The rest was just his foot speaking - The thought that Ranma might have undergone training where a foot was actually stuffed down his throat was amusing – and Akane's pride had to always be kept.

Surely there would be a way to remove Akane's pride and Ranma's foot, the Tendo girl thought idly. Well, if there was one, she wasn't going to be the one to find it. She had much to earn still and as far as she calculated, she might have to do some extra in order to save up for university.

She was trying to get into Tokyo University. While she was confident in herself, it would be quite challenging to get in and raise enough funds. The expenses would be devastating. Getting scholarship would be hard even for her, unless she somehow tricked Kuno into paying for her fees.

That, Nabiki smiled inwardly, shouldn't be too difficult. Yes, she still had things to do. If she did manage that, she'd even go so far as to help Ranma and Akane finally get together. She occasionally did have a soft spot at times for the two, especially Ranma.

Maybe it was pity. Maybe not. It didn't matter.

Ranma's eyebrows furrowed deeper, bringing Nabiki out of her processing mode, and she glanced at his hands as they unfolded; one instinctively going towards his back pocket where his wallet lay. Nabiki's smile only grew.

"It's okay Ranma, You don't owe me anything...yet" She soothed sarcastically, making her companion twitch in response.

"Watcha starin' at me fer?" he asked, more annoyed than usual. His voice, though strained, still had control. That was strange. Usually he was almost frantic, or resigned to his fate.

The only thing that Ranma had control over was his hormones, which was probably why Shampoo was not a mother already, Nabiki thought before replying.

Ranma may just have kittens, though that was a very interesting thought. Ironic, though in a little of an adverse mood, she had many amusing ideas coming to mind.

"Nothing Ranma," she answered smoothly, noting his response – or lack of, "I just want to make sure that you do not mess things up today, or else you will end up wasting my time. You know time means money." She knew her comment would have the required effect.

"There ya go blamin' me. It's always my fault ain't it? Damn, maybe Akane's beginning to rub off on everyone." Ranma made a face, idly scratching his chin thoughtfully as he started at the sky. He turned around to make his way out the compound, this time walking slowly on the ground and glancing back occasionally to make sure Nabiki was with him.

Nabiki held back a snort, and kept quiet for a short while. It was only until they were out of the house and on the way to school did she speak again.

"Unlikely, Ranma, its just common for people here to jump to conclusions, and by the way, isn't it your fault she's hurt? Why didn't you help her?" She cocked her head to the right, giving Ranma perfect view of her smug smile.

The martial artist groaned in response, "Nabiki, if I did, then she'd have a tantrum asking why I didn't let her fight, or how I wasn't trying to protect her sister. It's one thing or the other. Either I get in trouble, or I get in trouble." He sighed.

Nabiki noticed the tired look on his face. Something was bothering him, and it was obviously taking its toll.

"What's the matter Ranma? Kasumi too hard of a task master for you?" she tossed out.

Unexpectedly, Ranma's tired look faded and was replaced with a relatively wistful and pleasant smile. "Yeah," he said drolly, "I could swear that working with her could be tougher than trainin' with pops at times. But its still fun though."

Training? Fun? Well, Nabiki knew that Ranma had appreciated Kasumi, and was lately growing closer to her because of her increasing involvement in family affairs. She didn't know it was going that well.

The Ice Queen pondered on his reply for a moment, only to dismiss it.

She knew and trusted her elder sister. Besides, this idea of Kasumi's for Kuno's baka brigade could turn out to be pure genius. The betting pools could easily evolve, and it was a change in the usual, and right now change was just what the doctor ordered.

Everyone was getting tired of only Ranma getting in fights all the time. He almost always won.

"Why? What's it to you?" Ranma frowned deeply. This time, however, it was different. He really did seem angry. "You ain- argh – aren't going to do nothing to Kasumi are you? I didn't think you'd go that low."

Ranma clenched his fists tightly.

"Relax, Ranma." Nabiki uttered, slightly put off from his display of genuine anger, but schooling her expression perfectly as she tried to sooth the aggravated martial artist, "I was just curious. It's just that you might regret working with her. She's quite the perfectionist."

"Yeah? So what? So am I. Anyways, its none of your business." Ranma replied tersely.

The elder girl rolled her eyes as she walked onwards. At least Ranma was protective of Kasumi. That was a good thing, in case someone misunderstood the relationship between the two.

Maybe she could help along the rumor that Dr Tofu and Kasumi were seeing each other. That could help, but Kasumi had already taken care of that by going to the Cat Café for lunch. That was a brilliant idea, worthy of being thought of by Kasumi Tendo.

"Anyway, Ranma I'm going to…Ranma?" Nabiki glanced around, only to see a nearly empty street. She twisted her head around to look back at where the martial artist had stopped. She was about to reprimand him about wasting her time with silly things when she noticed the look on his face.

Was it her or was he sweating, and his face was a little paler than usual. Trying to locate the reason for his reaction, Nabiki glanced around. Not finding anything, she turned her head back towards school – and stopped.

It was funny how she didn't notice the figure neatly dressed in a kimono and holding a wrapped up package in her arms. Would it help to say 'red hair'?

"Nabiki, you go on ahead" she heard Ranma clearly from behind. "You need to talk to that stupid crowd don't you? I'll be there after a while."

Nabiki glanced back curiously at Ranma, and then turned around to look at Nodoka Saotome. It was good thing that she was an expert at controlling her expressions. Inside her head, several thoughts were playing football with her mind. Why was he sweating? Why did he seem scared? Why did auntie have a solemn face?

One would think she would be happy to see her son again. Everyone knew she wanted Ranma to accompany her when she went to her family in order to get some financial assistance.

Maybe, it was because he didn't go that she was upset? That didn't make sense. She had left early because she had agreed with her husband on the subject of his studies.

The middle Tendo daughter shook herself mentally. She'd find out what was going on later. Right now she had other things to do. Besides, this was a good way to get rid of Ranma for the time being while dealing with Kuno and his ass-for-brains squad.

"Hello Auntie, nice to see you back!" she greeted, walking over and putting on a cheery face. It wasn't entirely fake either. She did like the woman. Somehow her kindness and manner reminded her of her own mother.

Nodoka smiled, bowing ever so slightly at the younger girl. "It is nice to be back," she stopped momentarily, glancing around for a moment as if searching for someone. "Where is Akane? Doesn't she usually go to school with you and Ranma?"

Nabiki was quite sure she had heard Ranma gulp. "Oh, Akane hurt herself a bit, and is staying at home for a few days. Ranma here," Nabiki gestured to her right, "is being nice enough to bring her back the work she missed. I was just giving him pointers on note taking, so he doesn't miss anything."

Noticing the small smile on Nodoka's face, Nabiki smiled inwardly. Telling a small lie wasn't all that bad. Ranma was supposed to bring Akane the work she missed.

It just so happened that Sayuri, Akane's classmate, had already called in yesterday to check up on her after noticing her absence from school. She and Yuka had agreed to bring her the work she missed, which was much better than anything Ranma could bring back, in Nabiki's opinion.

What did it matter? Ranma was one up on impressing his mom, something he had been trying quite hard until now. Now he was further in Nabiki's dept, and she would use this to figure out one way or another on what he was up to. This was one more advantage of his honorable attitude; one of many – if one knew how to exploit them.

She almost wished he was engaged to her again. She could earn lots.

After a few further greetings on how her trip was, and if she was successful in gaining some finances, to which the response was a slightly bigger smile, Nabiki headed off towards school.

As much as she wished she had someone placed here to do some recon, she thought better of it being left this way. It wasn't often that this specific parent and child had spent much alone time. Hmm, maybe she could use this to coerce Ranma into spilling the beans.

From a few feet away, Ranma watched Nabiki walk away with a bounce in his step. He inwardly winced, as it was probably something which had to do with his dept to her and he would have to somehow pay back. He turned slightly to the right and ended up staring at his mother's form.

"Hi Mom," he said sullenly. "How was your trip?"

His parent looked at her charge inquisitively, furrowing her delicate eyebrows, "It went fine, Ranma. Is everything alright? You seem depressed." She moved forward, aiming to close the gap between her and her son, but stopped when the young man matched her step backwards.

"What's wrong?" she inquired again, shifting the package in her hands. Ranma fidgeted slightly, racking his brains in a way to put it so his mother wouldn't be upset at his 'unmanliness'.

"I-uh," he stuttered, belatedly annoyed with him self for such a disastrous start.

"Yes?"

"You-uh-y-you're not mad at me?"

"Ranma, why on earth would I be mad at you?" Nodoka frowned slightly. Had something else happened that Nabiki had not disclosed?

"Um-about Akane being hurt. I-"Ranma began, staring at his feet, "I thought you'd be angry because I didn't protect her. I...I thought you would consider that...um...not manly."

Nodoka calculated her thoughts carefully, and reached to the quick conclusion that she didn't know enough on the matter, "What happened?" she asked softly, kindly, so as to not scare the boy.

Though it was good to know that her son was afraid of displeasing his mother, it did not sit well with her to know how much he feared her. Shouldn't he love her as well? She was his mother after all, and they had been apart for so long.

Her thoughts didn't change, much, when she heard of what took place between Kasumi, Koryu and Akane, but before she could comment, Ranma broke in.

"I only stopped because if I helped her then she would only get angry because I didn't let her fight." He flushed quickly. "She's always goin' on about being a martial artist and if she really wants to be a good one, she's gotta get hurt and learn from her mistakes. I've learned like that almost all my life!"

Nodoka was a little discontented at his rash attitude, but had a slight inkling as to why he was so. "Ranma," she started, and at noticing how he flinched, paused for another moment. What had happened to the boy? What was he so sensitive about?

He was perfectly fine when she left him, granted the slight situation with his other mistresses and fiancée. She didn't think it had been so bad.

Maybe he needed to spend more time with each girl instead of all of them being together with him?

"Ranma, I suppose that if Akane wishes to be a good martial artist, she must face the rigors that come with it, but you haven't explained to me to who exactly Koryu is. Could he really hurt Akane?"

"Oh-uh, that's alright mom." Ranma managed with a bit more relaxed attitude. "He wouldn't really hurt her. He only used defensive moves at time. He's Kasumi's friend. They were merely doing some practice moves and Akane thought the worst like she usually does." Ranma explained, still a little anxious.

He pushed away the guilt building in the back of his head, telling him he was lying, but he wasn't. Was he? Koryu was Kasumi's friend. Ranma mentally slapped himself. This wasn't the time to think about half truth and whole truth.

He was slightly relieved that his mother was being much more civilized than his father would have been, but after all that had happened, and the whole 'Shadows of Honor' thing that he had been grating his mind with lately, and his sudden close relationship with Kasumi, the young Saotome was very sensitive about problems coming his way.

Come they would, but he wanted to be ready for them. Meeting his mother so soon was not something he had expected. Not expecting that was kind of stupid, he thought in annoyance at himself.

He should have expected her soon, especially after Ukyo had told him that she was there where his father was training. Suddenly, Ranma felt his knees go slightly week in realization.

What would she think of Koryu if she met him? What would she think of Ranma and Kasumi's new friendship? He wouldn't be able to stand it if his mother placed Kasumi along with the other so called 'fiancées' or 'mistresses'. Ranma winced at the recall. He still had to deal with the whole thing, and he wasn't so sure his mom or his pop would like it.

His father's response didn't bother him, much, but his mother's did. He really valued her opinion. He just wished she would be more understanding, like Kasumi, or calm like Koryu.

Tense moments flew by in complete silence, as Ranma agitatedly waited for some sort of reply. Not being able to meet her thoughtful gaze anymore, Ranma dropped his head slightly, and stared at his feet again.

"I see," Said Nodoka at long last. "It is quite surprising though, isn't it? I would have never thought Kasumi would be able to re-ignite her passion for the art. However," she let out small laugh, "being the gentle soul that she is, it was quite surprising to imagine the kind of bouncy personality she had when she was young."

Ranma was taken aback, "You knew what she was like?"

"Of course, dear. It was before you were born of course, but I did keep in touch. We visited once or twice, especially to meet her mother. We always got along so well." Nodoka tilted her head, slowly walking a little closer to her offspring, noticing well enough that he was a little distracted to move away again. She frowned ever so slightly, recalling a small memory.

"After you and your father left for the trip, I visited them...twice. The first time was because I was terribly lonely, and second...when I received the notice of the poor dear passing away. It was then, when I become aware of the change in Kasumi. I could tell she enjoyed the art, maybe for not the same reasons as you, your father or possibly Akane, but I think she enjoyed it for itself. But after her mother died, she took on her mother's role so effectively that I was quite surprised. She never cried even once, not in front of me at least, though I did try to get her to let out her feelings."

The wife of Genma shook her head gently, smiling sadly as she did so. "I suppose that was when she adopted that serene smile of her mother. I could tell they had a deep bond. Maybe it was something between just the two of them that helped Kasumi take her mother's place and keep the house running. Sometimes...Sometimes I wish I had a bond with my offspring like that." She glanced towards her son wistfully, longing evident on her visage.

"I suppose my only son is too afraid of me to do so."

"Aw mom, it ain't- it's not like that!" Ranma exclaimed quickly. He suddenly noticed how close she was to him, perfectly in place to strike with her sword if she wanted to. He had been too engrossed in learning about Kasumi's past to bother with much else. "It's just; I don't want you to be mad at me. To think I'm unmanly or something."

Surprise illuminated his mother's face. "Oh Ranma, why would I be angry with you?" she repeated. "I don't think what happened to Akane was much of your fault. It was between Kasumi, her friend and Akane right? Then that should be fine. It was a misunderstanding."

What had Genma been feeding the boy about her so far? This was somewhat disturbing. "Besides that," she continued, this time not giving Ranma a chance to reply, "I suppose I am a little disappointed in you though,- oh, oh my." She quickly looked at her watch. "I'm so sorry, Ranma. Don't you have to go to school?"

"Huh?" Ranma quickly turned his head towards school. The late bell could be distinctly heard ringing. It was too late anyways. Besides, he had other things to worry about. "Oh- never mind that mom. What are ya disappointed at me for? – Ah, I mean, what did I do wrong? Why are you disappointed?"

This was getting bad. Whenever he got slightly distracted, Ranma always forgot to control his tongue, and at the worst possible time. He figured he was in safe however, if his mother's slightly bemused expression was anything to go by. Something hit him. Why would she seem amused if she was disappointed in him?

Why couldn't he understand women?

Nodoka's bemused smile lasted for a moment longer, before it became neutral, and her face began to show slight concern. "Ranma, is it true that you are becoming conceited? And that you are not studying well? Genm- your father seems concerned, and to be honest, so am I. He asked me not to tell you this, but he is in training to 'teach you a lesson'."

Ranma's face darkened slightly. From the information he had received, thanks to Ukyo, he had already assumed such. Lying was pop's forte.

He stopped himself for a moment. Why should he be angry? It was so normal for the stupid Panda to do something like this; blame everything on him. It was somehow the unspoken law of this whole place. Let's all blame Ranma. So why was he mad?

Ranma's eyes focused slightly, when a soft hand touched his cheek. The only thing he could see was his mother's concerned face, and it didn't escape his notice that her hand was shivering slightly. That only added fuel to the fire, and Ranma knew his answer.

It was obvious as obvious as Ryoga's curse, and unlike Akane, Ranma had the instinct to figure it out. This was his mother. The panda had lied to his mother. After everything that happened recently, Ranma had been battling for some sort of calm in the hurricane that was going through his mind.

The only people that had been able to help him where Koryu, who had in fact started the hurricane, and Kasumi, who was calmly helping him remove the mental turbulence and distract him from his problems while trying, with great effort on her part, to help him achieve better academically.

He still felt alone though. His mother was someone he had always wanted to meet, and not be afraid of, as motherly love was not something he remembered.

He didn't want her angry at him. What he had decided to go through with was going to cause a lot of problems. Kasumi, he'd have to protect, if anyone got the gist of their close association, and Koryu - He believed Koryu could take care of himself - but the thought of Cologne or Happosai going after him was downright scary.

"Mom," Ranma said, trying to restrain the bitter tone, and regretting his failure when he saw his mother's eyes widen in despair and concern. "Pop never trained me to worry about studies. H-he never really cared about it and now he's just lying so he can be on your good side, and get you angry at me. He's just annoyed that I'm much stronger than he is. There's little he can teach me. That's just got his panda fur in a knot."

A few moments of silence waddled by, echoing in Ranma's mind as Nodoka's hand stopped shivering, and she slowly retracted it before she spoke, in a gentle, yet solemn tone. "It may be so, however, I seem to believe that the conceited comment possibly holds some merit."

Ranma widened his eyes. "Huh? Ho- Why? I'm just speaking the truth."

"Ranma, please do not be ignorant of what you do not know. I have heard of your feats, and understand that you have become quite strong in the way of the fist. Who do you think provided you with the foundation to go that far? Genma is an accomplished martial artist, whether you would believe it or not."

Too defensive and angry to care about what he was getting into, Ranma replied immediately. "Me? Conceited mom? I train every day till I'm exhausted, and I deal with all the fiancées, rivals, that old ghoul, that old pervert, and I have been studying with Kasumi to improve my grades!" he almost shouted, much to his mother's surprise, though she calmly waited to see through her son's response.

"I try! I am doing what I can. Is it too much to ask to chill out for a bit? But NO! Pops is off to try some other snail brained idea to get me and Akane hitched, when he should know the shit that could happen! He doesn't care about them, and when he tries to kick me into the pond for a morning training session, I knock him out. Fine, I'll even admit that he gave me foundation, but it's not only because of him that I became so good. It's because of all those fights, Cologne, and as much as I hate to admit it, Happosai."

Ranma really didn't want to admit his appreciation for the old master's help, whether intentional or not, in his training. He knew he still had ways to go. Only yesterday he lost to that old pervert, while protecting Akane from the shriveled old watermelon.

News of Akane's injury had caused several people to be all concerned. While Kasumi handled the boys who had come to see her, Ranma had been left to deal with Happosai. Luckily, in his fight Happosai had been distracted enough to be taken out by a one handed strike of the tomboy's trusty mallet.

"Son," Nodoka began in a clam tone, evicting Ranma from his current state of mind, and making him realize that he had pretty much shouted at his mother. Boy was he in trouble now.

"Uh, sorry, mom. I shouldn't 've said that." Ranma murmured, quickly looking down at his feet again, his fists clenched tight. Things were finally taking a turn for the worse. He knew the last few days were too good to last.

"Hmm? No, that's alright. I am glad, in fact, that you let some of what seems to be bothering you to your mother." Ranma's mother smiled gently. "It is wise hear two sides of the story. I just wanted to see for myself, that's all. Forgive me, for I seem to have made you quite late for school. We can talk later."

Reaching forward's gently; the Saotome matriarch ran a hand through his hair.

"I'll see you at home then? Have a nice day at school. We will talk more later."

She almost let out a giggle when Ranma nodded dumbly, and stood there as if waiting for a sign from heaven, before he shook himself. After collecting his wits together he waved.

"Yeah, uh- later Mom."

He was gone in an instant, jumping from standstill to the top of a neighboring house, from were he leaped off again, towards school. She let off a small sigh, and started slowly towards the Tendo household.

It was highly apparent that Genma had achieved great results, and that Ranma did really have some reason to believe he was very strong. It was also highly apparent that Genma had been a very poor father.

Ranma had been scared out of his wits, from the one person he really shouldn't. Granted, she was a strict woman in some matters, especially ones relating to family honor, but she had also bottled up more than ten years of love for her only child.

The woman shook her head, inwardly chiding herself. She didn't know much of Genma's childhood, but knew enough to know that he, and obviously Ranma had little knowledge of a mother's love.

Perhaps Soun would know. He would know well enough, the love his dear, late wife had for her children. Maybe he would be able to get Ranma to be calm and more trusting towards her, even though he had been running from her for so long in fear of her discovering his curse.

Of course, she could take direct action, like she did today, but it would be better if she worked slowly. Her only son really did seem to be in some sort of internal turmoil.

With some sort of solution in mind, Nodoka Saotome walked a little lighter on her feet. Not only Soun, but she wanted to talk to Kasumi again; maybe thank her for helping Ranma in his studies.

She could also talk about this Koryu person with her as well. It was a bit of a surprise for Kasumi to know someone, a man, being the homely person that she was. That someone who had gotten her to spar as well; that man truly would be interesting.

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It was 09:00 hours, at a local restaurant opened up for breakfast in downtown Tokyo. A figure, dressed in dark blue jeans and an extra large white T-shirt, sat quietly finishing a glass of orange juice.

"Frustrated." That one word could pretty much wrap up his state. He had had no luck at all. Fine, this world was way low on the level of technology or medical science, but he still should have found something.

He had found problems with moving from place to place. Though his blood clotting rate was quite high, and his antibodies had a distinct level of mutation, thus making them more effective, Koryu knew his current ailment was trouble. This was definitely the case, even with his blood having a few 'extra' qualities that resisted being infected by poison, whichever it may be. Mutated hemoglobin levels were a big help.

His muscles, fiber, and other organs or body tissue had a raised level of resistance to poison because of the blood. Some of that was inherited from his blood line, but Koryu knew that the organ resilience was still not enough. He had worked quite hard to make sure that if he was poisoned, it would be hard for it to affect his muscles or brain.

Whatever was running through his veins was somehow magical. It was holding him back from the inside, and yet it was sealing his ability to manipulate spiritual energy. Damn it! Why could he still summon and use ki as effectively as he could before?

He knew there was a difference between ki and spiritual energy, but never had he thought that it would of such magnitude. If it that difference was small, then his ki manipulative skills would have become useless.

To seal a soul, Koryu wondered, but to leave it unsealed. Enwa really had outdone himself this time. For once, Koryu was left pathless. No, that was not the case. He had paths; just didn't know where they lead. Being in the dark easily led to mistakes.

He was never known for his power. Just for his ability to be prepared. In fact, he was considered a weakling among elites. Him not having alternatives and answers keeping him from making mistakes was bad. Very bad. This time, his private guard wasn't there for support. That only deteriorated the circumstances.

Granted, only one day had passed since he began searching, and many opportunities were still left unturned, but Koryu was used to solving his problems by himself; he almost never required assistance.

Assistance meant contact, and contact meant some form of revelation. This was one of his last options, and specifically one he did not wish to avail. He could wait, but waiting could be months, quarters, and possibly years. That didn't hover either.

He could constantly look out for the cure, and if need be, fake personalities and people, and use illusions to find out a substantial amount to rid him of this plague. It was obvious that he would need to thoroughly scout out places of information for skillful people who could be aware of his presence, or others who could be troublesome.

'Some vacation.' He thought idly, ignoring the side clatter of utensils against dishes and the casual talk of the people around him. They seemed normal enough. It had become too common for him to listen, yet completely ignore everything that he could hear, unless of course some key word was mentioned.

Koryu smirked, glancing down at his glass as he moved his finger across the rim in a slow motion. It was a simple glass, made of glass – with little yellow flowers painted around the body. It didn't feel like plastic, and did it look fancy, but Koryu knew that he shouldn't expect his tastes to be catered for.

There was almost seventy years' worth of time difference with no telling whether he was in his own timeline or not. He could just as well have come to the past – though that didn't sit well with him. It would be pointless to even consider the idea. Time travel was not possible; too many paradoxes and infinite loops.

Inconspicuously glancing around again – going over the heads of people and their general location, Koryu refreshed knowledge of his surroundings. It was an action not needed now, though he did it anyway. It wasn't in him to lax in his behavioral patterns.

He raised an eyebrow at a random thought, however. It appeared there were several women in this hall, and several conversations were going on about personal affects theft.

Now what would be more pointless than stealing underwear, Koryu would never know. He had an idea whom it was. Kasumi had told him. Of her 'grandfather' Happosai, though her description was very short, and didn't last longer than a few comments -namely the old man's addiction to steal underwear, and glomping onto unsuspecting women's…assets.

The ninja couldn't help snort at the thought of a perverted old man. He knew of a couple elderly. They were old, and very wise – not to mention hazardously strong, but even Risghter did not divert his attention toward such endeavors.

Koryu's face darkened in remembrance of the old ninja, positive that this whole plan had been brought by that jagged pair of fibers, from conception to commencement. The memory brought him back to business.

Koryu would feel relieved if he could develop an antidote but, in his opinion, it would most probably be a liquid that needed to be injected inside his bloodstream, possibly at a slow rate instead of a fast one.

That alone was quite risky. His white blood cells developed antibodies at a very fast rate and they could, and probably would attack this new substance almost instantly as they were attacking the current poison.

However, there was a limit the charge his immune system could carry. That would then further cause problems and not even come near a solution.

The way to avoid that would be to inject the antidote into an artery, and have it quickly disbursed. That would cause his blood and antibodies to probably fail in resisting the antidote; however, it would make him weak. He already was weakened, and not only spiritually. If the antidote was too strong, it could make him too weak and cause other side effects such as fever etc. In a worst case scenario, his body could itself react badly to the antidote.

What a rut. If it was too strong, it would become a poison and kill him.

If the antidote was too weak, it wouldn't work and cause the situation to become more complicated. His antibodies would react to the additional entry and treat it as they are treating the magical poison that already existed. His immune system would stop effecting the containment of the magical poison and it would further worsen his condition, possibly killing him.

How satisfying. It seems he could do nothing except sit down and do nothing but survive. It seemed this specific poison was made just for him – it probably was, he thought sourly.

Koryu decided to ignore the ramblings of a couple sitting beside heatedly discussing some weird guy on skates who had just kissed her out of no reason. She sounded like she was complaining, but one could tell in her voice that she was quite pleased.

There must be an antidote, Koryu thought warily. Enwa or the others wouldn't want a sealed spirit. They would have a way to extract it.

The Irai laughed inwardly as another idea occurred to him. He could just wait to see if his enemies would arrive, and willingly be captured. They would have means to cancel out the poison, to be able to get what they want from him. That meant his adversaries would be fully prepared. He was relatively sure he could figure out a way to escape by that time.

That would be pure suicide. If they didn't kill him, Loren would. Nah, no way. He'd rather spend an entire day in the dome. The fake atmosphere and environments setup in that building for people's pleasure didn't work on Koryu, who was used to seeing through illusions. It only annoyed him to no end. Still, he'd rather go there than try this kamikaze idea.

Besides, if things went his way, his body probably would be able to resist and weaken the poison. He'd done that before. He wasn't sure how long it would take, but given time, he could be able to re-open a portal back home, if that was possible.

He hadn't been the one to open it to this world.

A high pitched squeal drove Koryu away from his thoughts again, as he looked through the glass walls of the restaurant at a young girl wearing skating shoes, chasing a small black pig.

"Charlotte! Where have you been? I've been looking for you! Where are you going?!"

In an attempt to outmaneuver the girl, the pig, showing surprising levels of intellect and agility, ran in circles and then tried to dodge by either jumping through the girl's legs or stopping and instantly running the other way, and thus making the girl unable to catch him due to the momentum imbalance.

"Charlotte, what's wrong?" she squealed, expertly performing a mid air turn and running after the little piglet, only inches away.

What made Koryu narrow his eyes was not the girl, but the little black pig. A pig would not have that kind of agility, strength or intelligence – regardless of its size.

What also bugged him was that he recalled something about a black pig from Kasumi's...informative tale about Ranma's life. He knew there were immense chunks of the story that were left out for either convenience, or lack of detailed knowledge.

However, the fact that Akane had a little pet black pig was certain, and it was enough.

What Koryu could make out from his vantage point, was a metal collar around the little pig's neck. It was attached to a silver chain that appeared broken. It was obviously too short to be a leash. He didn't bother to wonder if putting a leash on a pig was practical. Something was obviously up.

His interest raised, Koryu paid the bill to the young lady – he tried to ignore the fact that she had hears in her eyes - and not lingering for the change, swiftly walked to the door.

He thought it would prove useful to keep tabs on events.

As he reached the entrance of the outlet, he expanded his senses outwards and inhaled deeply. While he was on this world and had no open enemies, keeping is ESP active would be a waste of strength and effort. Now however, it did seem a little prudent.

He kept to the sidewalks, elegantly swimming through the crowd as the girl regained efforts for the capture, almost being there but not quite. A moment later she started crying and skated off to the side, returning almost instantly, dragging a young boy with blonde hair behind her.

"Help me catch Charlotte!" she wined and threw him forward. While he didn't fly, he was still completely out of balance. That little girl was certainly strong.

Koryu didn't want to interfere. He glanced around and noticed something odd immediately. The people were easily ignoring the scene as if it never happened. The cars had stopped a short distance away. Koryu did always wonder why he never saw that many cars at times. This place was a distant area of Nerima, more close to the borders of other wards.

He thought it was quite strange, and wondered why even the local authorities had not made an effort to diffuse the situation.

The poor guy, who was busy shouting "Leave me alone, WENCH! That woman was awaiting my Ki-", tripped and fell face first, and onto the little black pig, who had abruptly stopped.

And it gets stranger, the ninja thought. The pig was evading brilliantly until now, and all of a sudden got taken out by something so simple?

Involvement at any stage was against his operational parameters at the moment, so Koryu continued his observation, while keeping his senses open to detect anyone who could be observing him. It was a force of habit, and even if not required, he did it anyway.

The girl gave a triumphant cheer and ran towards the fallen boy. The pig had some how made his way to the guy's back, from where he was peering around as if searching for something.

She leaned down and picked it up, making Koryu furrow his brow, wondering why the pig stopped resisting. The reason presented itself soon enough as he sensed to elongated projectiles from an elevated location, at his 9. He glanced sharply, again, instantly making the decision not to interfere.

His decision was correct, as two silver chains shot towards the little pig, completely wrapping around it, and quickly shooting away. A quick glance to the left showed the destination to be the fist of the Chinese blind boy Koryu had seen, while keeping Ranma's pursuers off his back a several nights ago.

The young boy immediately jumped away from the small building he was standing on, heading north, north-east.

Not waiting to view anything else, and completely ignoring the screaming of the man who was currently being kicked into oblivion by the whining girl about her Charlotte being stolen, Koryu made his way to the right and quickly moved into an ally, from whence he disappeared.

The Chinese boy did not have such good eyesight when he last saw him, and the pig was somehow related with what seemed to be happening. Perhaps those new glasses had something to do with it. New prescriptions perhaps? This was something he could not evade.

Since Koryu was involved with Ranma at one level, it would be prudent to keep tabs on what has taking place in relation to him. Of course, it would only be recon ops and secrecy would be paramount, but it would be practical none the less to be on familiar terms with what transpired, should a situation arise.

That was what he told himself anyways. He didn't bother to state his reasoning in a simpler way, and in one short sentence, though the thought did linger in his mind for a moment.

He was bored.

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P-Chan fumed quietly within the firm grasp of Mousse's fist. He had almost made it. If he hadn't run into that crazy skater girl he would have found his way to Akane. He just knew it! This would not have even happened if wasn't for Ranma!

He just knew it was that honor-less idiot's fault. He must have done something to make the old cricket go to such lengths to train Ryoga, not that he minded the training. He was becoming much faster, while getting steadily better at his other skills.

What really annoyed Ryoga was the inability to see anyone else during the time in which he trained with the old crone. He had heard Ukyo's voice while she was training during the day, and yet he was only trained at night, inside the restaurant itself. Why wasn't he allowed to see Akane? Cologne had told him that he wasn't 'ready' yet.

Fine, he had only been training for a few days, but he had other problems to think about. Akari or Akane, who to choose? He had to see Akane. Whatever happened, he had to at least tell her how he felt. That would help him find a solution.

He couldn't care that much about Ranma at the moment, though he was itching for another fight after the return from China.

"Why don't you keep your paws inside the cage? You're impertinence makes me weary, pig. I'm not your baby sitter, and time away from my training keeps me from getting stronger for Shampoo." His current captor murmured, as he placed him in his sleeve, and away from sight.

P-Chan snorted. How the old ghoul had managed to fool this idiot was beyond him. But then again, Mousse was getting stronger, and those new glasses he was wearing had definitely improved his eyesight. He was quite sure that spotting his cursed from that elevated position was not so easy.

The trip home didn't take long, and soon they were in the Cat Café. Mousse calmly walked in, ignoring the bustling customers, though his attempt at showing his affection for a young Amazon waitress resulted in a quick kick and a short, but swift air travel to the back room.

A few moments passed as he gathered his senses. The moment his eyes focused, they were looking straight into old, weary, yet sharp and annoyed ones.

"Did anyone see you?" Cologne asked, her tone firm.

"I doubt it. I was very quick, and didn't waste any time. I hid the stupid pig in my sleeve. Now I'll need to get a change of clothes, after a wash."

P-Chan snorted inside and started jumping around, trying to free himself from the shroud of Mousse's silk tunic. He felt a sharp hand grasp him, making him choke momentarily before it released some of the tension. He turned his head to look at Mousse who was staring at him with dismay before he dropped him, then made his way out of the room.

"Take care of the kitchens Mousse, and leave Shampoo alone. She needs to concentrate." The Elder Amazon commanded, and turned around to see the piglet after confirming Mousses slow, reluctant nod.

"Now, what shall I do with you?" The old crone leveled her eyes to wards the tiny swine. "Did I not explain the conditions of your training under me clearly enough? You are not to go outside. You are not to be seen. Is that too hard to for only a few weeks?" She asked calmly.

P-Chan snorted again and started to oink in response. Cologne rolled her eyes, sighing. "Stay here." She instructed, and left the room, only to return a few minutes later with a glass of warm water and Ryoga's bag.

"Here, boy. You better be quick. My time is important."

In a few moments, Ryoga was sitting cross legged, in a staring match with the Amazon Matriarch, for which he was hit in the head, again, with Cologne's stick.

"Ow", Ryoga winced, then gave an annoyed glace at the older woman, "Look old woman, I'll train, fine! But I won't stay here until you clearly explain to me what you are up to? My time is important too you know."

Cologne bashed him on the head again.

"Ow! Would you QUIT THAT!?"

"Listen up boy, tell me. Do you want to meet Akane? Do you want to fight Ranma? I can arrange it for that to happen, but if you go bundling now to meet Akane or fight Ranma, you will destroy the plan. Ranma has a knack for analyzing moves of his opponents. If you were to fight him now, he would know what you've done, and could be prepared for you the next time." Cologne pointed her stick at Ryoga's chest. "Is that how you want to be seen in front of Akane?"

"So let me get this straight. You really want me to win this fight, and then go to Akane, right?"

"What better time to confess to her after beating Ranma in a fight."

"We've done this before, and you didn't help me that much. I still lost." Ryoga clenched his fists, hard enough to make his knuckles white. "What's the difference going to be now?"

He stared down at the old woman, instantly getting more infuriated as each moment passed by on a wheelchair, whistling an annoying tune before the old woman replied.

"I suppose" the old woman started, carefully hopping around to look him straight in the eye, "there are multiple reasons for what I want. But mostly, yes. There will be a difference. I will be teaching you seriously. Last time, I only taught you the breaking point technique, with its supreme advantage to harden you. Ranma's punches still got you in the end, however."

There was a twinkle in her eyes as she continued with a one sided smirk, "What I am doing now is training you how to fight. There is a world of difference."

Cologne moved away to the side, and sat down on a small couch, still aware of the lost boy's eyes on her. She took it as a cue to continue her explanation.

"You see, boy," she started, "What I want is for Ranma to marry Shampoo. That is obvious. Forcing him to marry her is out of the question, especially after hearing how strong he has gotten. So I am trying for a different approach. I suppose it was my pride as an Amazon that prevented me from using this before."

"So what are you going to do?" Ryoga asked. He moved to where the diminutive woman was sitting and sat down cross legged in front of her, clearly being patient enough to hear the whole story out, though still miffed at her.

"Why, force him of course." Cologne's bag of wrinkles twisted strangely, making it look like a demon in a horror story, but a smile to the people who knew her.

Ryoga closed his eyes, and tried not to let his eye brow twitch. "I thought you were not going to force him," he said testily.

"Well, there are different way's to force someone. We've tried many ways already. The full body Cat Tongue and Love Pills are a few examples. None of them really worked on Ranma for one reason or the other. Forcing him against his will, would only make him resist harder, and Ranma has an incredible will. Wouldn't you testify to that?" Cologne smiled again.

"GET on with it already!"

"Well, what I am planning on doing, obviously is to have everyone train, firstly and fore mostly because you are all becoming very strong. If not controlled, you would cause a great deal of damage"

"So what," Ryoga broke in, "We've always caused damage. What's the big deal no- OW. I SAID QUIT THAT!"

He nursed his abused toe and glared at his 'mentor'.

"Don't interrupt me, boy. Now, as I was saying, you all need to bring up your skills of control, especially Ranma. To take down someone of the likes of Saffron requires immense strength. You and Mousse, and even Shampoo have become very powerful. I have to do what I can to ensure that no innocent is harmed because of any of us. Ranma seems distrust us a little, and obviously doesn't want to train. We had already asked him to do so, and he has not come yet."

"I intend on training you, and make you strong so you can either defeat him, or make it really difficult for him to win. How strong you become is up to your dedication to training. Of course, if he looses it would be better. We have shown no other intentions except that of training to better ourselves and bring more control to our abilities. I am sure Ranma is also quite disturbed after the fight with Saffron. Shampoo would be perfect to console him. I am sure Akane or any other girl would be able to do little."

"How can Shampoo do that?" Ryoga flicked away the fly resting on his wrist. "I thought you said he doesn't trust you. Why would he listen then?"

Cologne smiled again. "Where else can he go? Dr. Tofu can help him, a little, but definitely not enough to satisfy that young man's appetite. He will eventually come to us, and mark my words, Ranma has more in common with Shampoo than with any other girl."

Ryoga snorted. "That's none of my business..." He stared at the old woman for a moment. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"What does he have in common with her?"

"I thought you just said it was none of your business."

"Never mind that and just Tell me! OW- HOW MANY-"

"Do not speak in that tone with me, boy. This is my last warning." Cologne leveled a hard glare at the lost boy, making him uneasy in his seat.

"Alright," Ryoga shrugged, as though it didn't matter, but Cologne knew otherwise. "Sorry. I was just curious."

"Honor." Cologne said.

"huh? What?"

"Honor, is what they have in common." Cologne repeated slowly, clearly.

"Ranma is an honor less coward. How can you-"he stopped prematurely, and gulped. Cologne really didn't seem to be in too good a mood today. Ryoga wondered, for a second, which was scarier; Cologne's smile or her frown.

"That is none of your business. Anyways, the point will obviously use that, and the constant irritation of Akane that will make her loose her patience, thus slowly moving the two apart."

"Hey! This is my business." The lost boy raged, "Leave Akane out of this. First it's because of Ranma she's getting kidnapped, and now you?"

"It is precisely this kind of thinking that has made her weak."

"W-what?" Ryoga furrowed his eyebrows.

"Do you see me going around chasing Shampoo every time she is in trouble? She fights her battles. If you constantly pamper the girl, she will never become strong. Besides, we are not going to seriously hurt her, or kidnap her. Her pride will probably lead her here. She will be trained and will probably become stronger. I am just going to play a little so her emotional attachment to Ranma is hampered, nothing else. Don't you think that should happen before you fight Ranma, hopefully to defeat him. Akane has a much greater chance of responding to your feelings in that circumstance."

Ryoga stared at the old woman, sweat covering his brow. This was not something he had thought. If Akane was only trained to get better, and it was true that one had to train rigorously, and was only annoyed to be pulled away from Ranma, then Ryoga would have a better chance. But...wouldn't that be cheating?

Hah, Ranma always cheated. He used whatever tricks he wanted in a battle, and otherwise. Ryoga distinctly remembered the time he had changed into his girl form, and the other time when he had employed the crouch of the wild tiger.

This was no different...but then, Akari. Ryoga wanted to know which would be better. Akane didn't know he was P-Chan. Akari did, and loved him for it. But that was because of her attraction to pigs.

Ryoga didn't have anything against that, but he was wondering if Akari loved him for who he was, or only because he was a pig or that he defeated her sumo pig. Akane liked him, or so he thought, for who he was.

"Why exactly didn't you do something like this before?"

Cologne looked solemnly at him, and answered after a moment's silence. Her voice seemed strangely resigned, as if she was admitting a flaw.

"I didn't think this male would be that stubborn, and I didn't really fathom it would take this long. But since this is the matter of my great granddaughter's marriage, I was very willing to be patient. I was wrong," she sighed,

"Maybe the reversal gem would have worked. But I've used pride, need, greed, everything to try and lure him, but the attachment that exists between the Akane and Ranma was strong. If one tries to separate them by physical force, then their emotional attachment only grows stronger. Hurting Akane needlessly will not work for any of us. We need only to damage emotional pressure among the two."

"But that means you will cause Akane pain emotionally." Ryoga countered, making Cologne flick her fingers in annoyance.

"Don't you get it boy? This needs to be done. Only when Akane is out of the emotional attachment she has with Ranma can she look at you fairly. Do you want to be overshadowed by Ranma's image when you confess to her? Don't you want her to think of you when she's thinking of you, and not thinking of Ranma in some way or another? Emotional pressure can hurt, but it can also heal. If things do go well with you, then it will be your job to heal her wounds. Are you saying that you can't? If and when you do, she will become emotionally attached to you. Isn't that what you want?"

Ryoga scratched his head in frustration. Why did the old woman have to make so much sense? Was he going to let dear Akane get hurt, only to help her get better? It had to be done though, didn't it? If he went to Akane now, that cad Ranma would interfere, like he always did.

"Really," The old woman muttered in disapproval. "This is why we of the Amazon treat males in a specific manner. You trained in the breaking point technique…right?"

She waited Ryoga's nod before continuing. "That hurt, didn't it? But you became stronger. This is also what's happening between Ranma and Akane. Their relationship has always been affected, but they went through it and became stronger from it. We need to stop that.

Ryoga continued to stare at the diminutive Amazon, thinking of Akane. She would never look at Ryoga for himself. If he wanted to see if things could work with Akane, and finally decide for himself, Akane had to see him fairly.

"Fine," Ryoga began slowly. "I'll do it, but you better not let Akane get hurt too much. I don't want her to suffer because of that cad."

"Fine." Cologne agreed, "Keep in mind that I do not want you to tell this to Mousse. That boy will only be trouble if he finds out." She stopped for a moment, then said, "and not that Okonomiyaki girl either."

The lost boy nodded, "What did you tell him anyways?" he asked, intrigued by the prospect.

"I've been discreet, I assure you." Cologne replied, "I have heard of this new person, that Kasumi has met. He seems to be a martial artist, so my goal is to specifically train Mousse to counter that threat, if indeed it is one. A good thing really, because I was at a loss of what to tell him. Now I have him willing to help, and the Eagle Eye is certainly making sure he doesn't go around picking up statues."

The old woman got up and made her way to the door.

"Now sit here and practice what I told you. You need to be able to draw out your ki without being depressed all the time. Your ki can affect the atmosphere. You don't want to make Akane depressed with it do you? Try anger, or other emotions. Perhaps the happiness you feel when you are with Akane might work. You need to hold your ki and keep it there, as it is. Tonight we will work on making you faster. No matter how strong you are, if you are slow, Ranma can always outmaneuver you and use a ki technique to take you down. Do you understand?"

Ryoga nodded in response. Maybe things would work out this way. He did have the urge to argue, stating that Ranma wouldn't be able to take him out that easily, but he didn't want to get hit in the head, toe, or nose again. What was that stick made of anyways? It sure didn't feel like wood.

He watched ruefully as Cologne got onto her stick and hopped out of the room. With renewed confidence that Akane could possibly view him for himself, Ryoga sat down to practice what she the Amazon had instructed.

It was difficult, but he had become too used to drawing out energy by being depressed. If he could change that, and if he became faster, and possibly learned new fighting techniques, Ranma wouldn't stand a chance against him. Heh. He would be stronger than Ranma. He would beat him. "HAH!" The lost pig barked, setting off in a bail of laughter rivaling a certain black rose at times.

Outside the room, Cologne silently slipped into the kitchen, absently noting Mousse working diligently, closing her eyes in approval – and ignoring the maniac laughter coming from the room she just left.

At least Mousse had not tried to enter or eaves drop whilst she was in her discussion with Ryoga. Had he tried, she would have sensed him. She needed him to be willing, though, if she wanted to be prepared for this Koryu person. Perhaps a meeting was in order.

Letting the lost boy in on her plans was not calculated, but his role was even greater than Mousse's. She needed his complete cooperation. Taking a moment to relax her mind, Cologne took a glass and filled it up from the tap. She reached out to the side, and gathered a few herbs. After quickly chopping them up using a knife hand, she put them into the glass, before swirling them around with a spoon.

Everything was going to plan. She really didn't want to admit it, but she was beginning to become a little attached to the martial artists in this ward. The old woman sighed as she placed the glass back on the rack after downing it.

Whatever the cost, she still had her honor, and it came first.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On the roof of the cat café, Koryu sat cross legged, completely camouflaged by his transparent tri-sect cloth. He was lucky to have it on him, and it didn't really seem conspicuous in the big T-shirt he was wearing. He had managed to hear the entire conversation between Ryoga, who was in fact P-Chan, and Cologne.

The Amazon Elder was probably the first person to talk sense, and thanks to her he knew why the blind bat had precise visuals correlation. Perhaps that boy had training in stealth.

Otherwise sending him against Koryu was obviously a risk since he was also part of the Amazon contingent and his actions could stir the pot, so to speak. Such actions would probably raise Ranma's suspicion.

It was a pity that Koryu was around, for not many would have been able to sense the young boy.

Hmm... Those chains had been very small, and to be controlled so easily, they had to have been dense, Koryu thought. Small chains like that were usually too light to be maneuvered so deftly. Composite metal? Magical weapon? He had no idea, though it was apparent to him that Mousse's abilities needed to be monitored, just in case.

He wasn't bothered by the old woman's precaution against him. He gathered from what he had heard that she was tired of having plans being messed up.

For his convenience, Koryu was used to being plotted against, and by people who wanted his life. This wasn't anything new, nor was it as dangerous as things usually were. He could simply stay out of this mess, and it would take care of itself.

That, after a moment's reflection, presented Koryu with an issue that did bother him. He had clear knowledge of what was being planned against Ranma, and he knew of Ryoga's curse. Gut instinct told him Ranma knew of this. That could explain why Kasumi had said they fought a lot. It seemed somewhat, that Akane didn't know, and neither did most of the other's in the Tendo family.

Perhaps Nabiki knew, if she was as knowledgeable as her reputation desired. He shook his head shortly. This was none of his business. If he tried to help, his efforts could easily have opposite effects than the ones he had in mind.

As he had already told Ranma, Koryu would stay out of his business. The only thing that made this trip to the cat café worth while was his introspection on the Elder's abilities. It had been quite difficult to keep out of her ki patterns, swirling and spiking occasionally, enveloping the entire area around her to sense anyone, yet keeping its intensity so low so to let no one sense it, except Koryu.

That old woman was good. No matter what, he had to avoid a confrontation with her at all costs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akane raised her leg slightly, and readjusted its position on the cushion. Spending the whole day watching TV wasn't as appealing as it earlier seemed. Maybe she was too used to being out and doing things. The last time she sprained her ankle before Kodachi's match it wasn't so bad; at least she still went to school on a crutch.

She didn't want idle time because it only brought her mind back to Ranma, and she didn't want to study either.

Akane turned towards the kitchen from where a scatter of voices could be heard. Ever since auntie Saotome had arrived a scant hour ago, she had just greeted Akane and followed Kasumi around the house. She did help with the chores, Akane thought, but mostly they were discussing something.

Maybe they were discussing how to rebuild their house again. Kasumi would be a good person to seek guidance from. She had kept such good care of their house.

She got up listlessly and hopped her way to the kitchen. "Hey guys, what are you talking about?"

She noticed Kasumi washing the cutting board, while Auntie Saotome was looking over the dishes. It was she who spoke up first.

"Oh, nothing much dear. A few lady things."

"Oh," Akane frowned. Was she that much of a kid? "Like what?"

"Well, like how Kasumi seems to be making new friends. It seems she is also trying to make things meet with the good doctor." Nodoka said.

"Oh yeah." Akane looked downcast for a moment, before brightening up so quickly, Nodoka thought she might have imagined it. "How's Ranma doing with his studies Kasumi? I bet he's giving you a hell of a lot of trouble."

The said girl turned around and looked questioningly at Akane. "Well...no. Ranma's been doing very well. Of course he's finding it quite difficult, but it's the effort that makes the difference." She said with a smile.

"Has he improved at all?"

"Well...no, not enough for it to be considered an achievement."

"Hah-" Akane, smiled. "I knew it. Does he keep on asking for the formulas?"

"Well, yes he does."

"Don't you get annoyed? I mean, he keeps on asking for them on every question he has to do."

"No, not really. I am there to help him. Getting annoyed wouldn't do that, would it? Besides, yesterday was only the second day he has started studying in me. For any results, we would need to wait for at least a month." Kasumi replied.

Akane frowned. Oh yeah, this was Kasumi. Wow, maybe letting Ranma study with her was a good thing. It would mean less hair pulled from her head.

"Anyways, what's this about Dr Tofu?" Akane made her way to the refrigerator, hoping on getting some juice.

"Oh, nothing really." Kasumi blushed. "I've just decided to try and make a little effort trying to..." she stopped. This wasn't Ranma she was talking to. Granted, Auntie was understanding, but she didn't want to give Akane a wrong example. After a moment's thought, she decided that it was all for the better. Maybe her little sister would take a hint.

"Well..." She continued, wondering why the carrot she was cutting seemed more red than orange. She raised her left hand, and noticed a tiny cut on her thumb. When did that get there?

"Well what?" Akane asked, while Nodoka looked upon with a bemused smile.

"Well, it seems I cut myself," She said softly, "I can't remember the last time this happened." Kasumi smiled at them and stuck her thumb in her mouth.

"Oh?" Nodoka walked up to the girl as Kasumi momentarily took out her thumb to show the old woman, before placing it back in again.

"I'll do the cutting." Nodoka offered, but stood back as Kasumi only shook her head, her thumb still in her mouth.

"Thentho Cuwlinawy Arths Masther." Kasumi bobbled as she swiftly moved to the side, pushing a few more carrots on the board with the knife, then proceeded to chop them single handedly.

Nodoka smiled at her, but wondered why she hadn't seemed to be behaving like this more often. Instead of waiting aimlessly, she went onwards to fill water up in the stove. Since Kasumi was unable to speak clearly, she decided to complete the story.

"It seems that Kasumi has taken Dr. Tofu out on a date. She's actively trying to get the relationship moving."

The speed of the cutting in the background slowed down, and Nodoka just turned around and politely glanced at Kasumi.

"Oh come on dear, there is nothing wrong in what you are doing. In our customs, one your age should be married right now. Had I known of the acuteness of this Dr. Tofu's – ah – situation, I would have tried to help you already. I would do it now, but it seems you have things well in your control, do you not?"

Her only reply was Kasumi's blush to increase and her chopping speed slow down to a trotter.

Akane was completely blown away. She was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with her elder sister. She had never blushed before! Here she was getting dressed in short skirts – well that didn't count because she's been in a swimming suit before – and being more open about Dr Tofu.

"Umm...are you alright Kasumi? I mean, you aren't exactly behaving like yourself lately."

"Hmm." Kasumi looked around at Akane. This was the question she had been dreading. Momentarily she decided to take her thumb out, and gave her younger sibling a solemn look. "I'm fine Akane. Thanks for asking. I know I seem to be acting rather differently. I just hoped no one would mind that."

"Oh...its not that I mind it. It's just that its so not you...so I was wondering if everything was alright."

"Oh, everything's fine," Kasumi beamed, her chopping speed back to full, as she had moved from carrots to onions.

"Okay...so what are you making today?" Akane decided not to press on the subject. Maybe her sister was going through a phase or something. What did it matter? It finally seemed that maybe Dr Tofu and Kasumi were getting somewhere.

"Oh, you want to help us cook Akane?" Nodoka asked. Kasumi fumbled again, almost cutting herself a second time.

Akane perked up. "Really?"

"Sure, why not?"

"But, I won't be able to help much right now. It's a little hard to get around." Akane gestured towards her leg. Nodoka frowned for a moment, then smiled again.

"Well then, how about you just look at us making dinner tonight. We'll tell you what we have already done and you can watch the rest. Later on we can try have you cook it with our help then. What do you think?"

Kasumi ignored Akane's gleeful outburst and continued chopping, wary of the knife now. It would be wise to hide away all of her favorite utensils. Perhaps it would also be useful to install another exhaust fan. It wasn't that she didn't want her younger sister to learn. Oh god she did, but she didn't want to ruin her kitchen or utensils in the process.

As she mentally prepared a complete list of what to do, Kasumi turned towards Akane and gave her a usual sweet smile. If she put in some extra help, maybe Akane wouldn't make that many mistakes in understanding.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Umm, Kasumi."

"Yes, Ranma?"

"What's the formula you use here again?"

Kasumi sighed, "Wait, where? – oh – Ranma, as I have already told you, you use this one." Kasumi pointed to the specific formula on a list she had created for Ranma.

"Ah-thanks...Sorry."

"Hmm? Oh it's alright. You are going to have difficulty with this. Math is your least favorite subject. Unlike others, there isn't much theory to it or some substance that you can relate to. All I can say is you should try hard. Oh, and if you want to be good at physics, you'll need math." Kasumi said. She fumbled with her hair, evidently trying to put it into a knot.

Ranma watched her for a moment, before he returned to his homework at hand. This was his third day of studying with Kasumi. The first night, she had left her hair all open. Yesterday, she had them delicately braided, and tonight she was tying it up in a knot.

A small sigh and the sound of a drawer opening caught his attention again. Kasumi had apparently given up on tying a knot by itself, and had taken out a pencil to wrap her hair around. The young boy kept on steeling glances at her as she renewed her efforts to tie up her hair.

Listening to Kasumi grumble silently was quite amusing. Ranma cracked a smile. Apparently he might have glanced one too many times, for no sooner than he smirked Kasumi had locked gazes with him.

"Find this amusing, Ranma?"

"Ah- no- well...its kinda funny."

Kasumi sighed.

"Why do you do that? I mean, your hair is fine the way it is." Ranma commented.

Kasumi smiled, straining it slightly as she finished her knot. "Well, for one thing...it gives me something else to do – apart from cleaning and cooking, of course when I'm not busy reading. 'Small changes help keep the mind fresh and purposeful.' I read that in a book I borrowed from Ono-san."

"Ono-san?" Ranma raised his eyebrows.

Kasumi's cheeks reddened a bit. "What? If I'm so supposed to be with him, shouldn't I be on a first name basis?"

Ranma smirked, shrugging it off. "Sure, I guess. I wouldn't really know. I'm not into all that."

"You call Akane by her first name." Kasumi smiled slyly, which made Ranma give her a surprised look.

"Yeah, but its not like...its different. It's Akane. Err..." He glanced down in at his book, completely forgetting how to apply the differentiation.

"Don't worry too much about it. Believe me, you are better off. All these honorifics can be bothersome at times. Trust me, I know." Kasumi flicked a few strands of hair from her head and narrowed her eyes at her companion before moving to the drawer to search for something again. "Besides, you will not sleep if you don't finish your math homework. You also need to read up on your history."

Ranma waved it off. "Don't worry about history. I found time to read it anyways."

While rummaging through some items back in her drawer, Kasumi threw him an inquisitive glance.

"When?"

"During lunch time. Its quite good actually. Since Kuno is too busy taking on the entire Furinkan baka brigade, I actually have some free time to myself. I decided to spend it studying, so I have more time to train in the afternoon."

"Hmmm...That was quite – ah - prudent of you." Kasumi fished out something, and because she had her back to him, Ranma couldn't tell what. A small crackling noise made him glance at her in confusion. "Huh?"

"Hmm?" Kasumi turned around, a wrapper in her mouth.

Ranma smirked, "Chocolate? I didn't know you hid that kind of stuff in your drawers."

Kasumi beamed, something quite cute when she still had a chocolate bar – wrapper included- in her mouth. She closed the drawer, reached back onto the bed and took the bar out, using her canine tooth to rip the plastic material. "Well, I don't have it often, but I do like chocolate. I always have a bar or two in my room, just in case I feel a sudden craving."

It was quite a surprise for the young martial artist, to be learning so much about Kasumi in just a few days. He never figured she would turn out like this. Just by spending more time with her, he had begun to notice so many more idle, small, otherwise insignificant things to Kasumi than be ever believed possible.

This surprise didn't go unnoticed by the room's other occupant, who tilted her head to the side. "What?" she asked, taking another bite off the now wrapper free chocolate bar.

"Oh...nothing. Nothing much"

Kasumi frowned, or at least attempted to. Frowns just didn't go that well with her personality. After getting a look at her face, Ranma gave in.

"It's just," he started, "that there's like all these things I'm learning about you, just because I'm spending more time with you now. It's weird."

"What's so weird about it? It is natural. I'm learning so many new things about you as well."

"Not just that," Ranma explained, "I really didn't think you'd be they way you are... I mean...You turned out to be totally different than what I thought you'd be like, and that ain't a bad thing... I was just surprised."

"What kind of person did you think I'd turn out to be like?"

"Uhh...I dunno. I never thought about it much."

Kasumi giggled, "Well, that contradicts what you just said, doesn't it?"

Ranma looked at her blankly before realizing his mistake, scratching his head as he did so. "Ah. I guess...Hey, were you like this like...before you like... held your self back or something?"

The girl shook her head. "I'm always like this Ranma. It's just that in front of others, I choose to show restraint on openness. I'm always like this when I am by myself."

"Oh..." Ranma stared back down at his work. He really didn't fancy staying up the night.

"Besides, I'm the same person Ranma. Do you think I am that different now than, say... a few days ago?"

"Well, I dunno. I never really talked to you before."

"Trust me" Kasumi nodded, "I'm the same. I'm just a bit more open now, that's all. Which brings me to another point. I wanted to apologize to you."

Ranma furrowed his brow, "Apologize? For what? You didn't do anything wrong?"

His question was met with silence, since Kasumi seemed more interested with her bed sheet.

"Uh, Kasumi?"

"It's just...well. It has been quite some time since I've worn dresses like that." Kasumi began, very slowly as if she was in the confession box. "People change, and well... when I was in high school I found behaving a little umm, ditsy, or flirty made me feel a little less confined to the only life of studies and housekeeping. Ever since the day that you let your feelings out, and the night Koryu arrived I had decided to take an active role in the family."

The elder girl kept her eyes on the sheet. She could almost feel Ranma's eyes on her. It almost felt as if the entire room was watching her.

"Then the next day when you went out, Mr. Saotome and father seemed up to something. I really didn't want anything to happen to you, so I went to Koryu-san. I mean, you did say you trusted him, and I just wanted to ask him if he could help out."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing much. He just said you would handle things. That he would be insulting you if he butted into your affairs, something like that anyway. He asked what was going on, and I decided to tell him everything that I knew. I'm sorry if I didn't ask your permission, but I really wanted someone to help you. I really didn't know what I could do at the moment."

"Hmm," Ranma scratched his chin with the pencil lightly as he leaned back, "maybe that's why he told me the whole Shadows of Honor thing. But Kasumi, he already told me about this, before he told me about the Shadows of Honor. It's alright. There's nothing to apologize about."

Kasumi smiled gratefully. Ranma put forth his trademark smirk adding to it with a thumbs up sign.

"Nothin' to worry about, Kasumi."

Crack!

"...uh oh." Had there been something in his hand?

Kasumi frowned slightly. "Ranma, that is the third pencil you have either chewed out, lost or broken in the last three days, averaging one a day."

At the sight of Ranma slowly sneaking back into the corner of the room as if it would give him safe haven from her punishment, Kasumi had to smile.

"Lose, I can understand." She began with a smile. "Break? It's inevitable."

Kasumi glanced at the broken pieces in Ranma's hand, "but Ranma please tell me. How can you chew a pencil to pieces? I know for a fact that I feed you enough not to feel hungry every five minutes. Must you destroy your writing tools?"

"Uhh..The quiz was difficult?" Ranma offered. Geh! That was a stupid reply.

"Ranma, chewing your pencil out during a math quiz will not help you answer the questions, and you didn't perform that well. No. Just passing is not good enough. Now here," the girl fished out a new pencil, from where Ranma had no idea. "This is the last one I'm giving you. Now will you finish those questions? It's nine o'clock. You have an hour."

"Yes ma'am." Ranma sighed. This was going to be another tough night.

From her vantage point, Kasumi smiled at Ranma's antics. After all the stress he had been able to withstand, Ranma breaking sweat in a math quiz was something she found quite amusing.

The rest of the night passed quite smoothly. Ranma had out done himself and finished the math homework within quarter an hour. Since he had already read up on history, that made up for the work he had to do for the day.

So they talked. It wasn't about anything special, just Ranma thanking Kasumi for saving his ass that night. His mother was wondering when he and Akane thought they should arrange the marriage next time. Ranma had spit his mouthful right onto Akane's face.

Why he's still alive, he still didn't know, and probably never will.

Later that night the topic changed, drastically when Kasumi informed him that Akane was going to prepare the dinner tomorrow. It was supposed to be the same dish that they had this evening.

Ranma's plans to run away were cruelly slaughtered by Kasumi's personal request to be the first to try the dish.

"But Kasumi, you know she's bound to screw up!" he exclaimed, decreasing his volume slightly realizing that the bane of his stomach could arrive any moment. She could be like a devil at times.

"Ranma, relax. Tell me. Do you trust me?"

Said boy looked slightly startled. "Uh, yeah. Sure, I guess."

"Then don't worry. I'll make sure everything is fine. You have my word." She smiled.

That was the only solace Ranma had, hoping she would be there at every step while Akane cooked.

Somehow, he wasn't too reassured. He didn't think that anyone could be able to save food from Akane's mutative cooking skills.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was lunch break, and Ranma was up at the place he had found to be a good spot for some peace and quiet, ironically the same place on the Furinkan roof he had let off that Ki blast a week ago.

Reading up on world history, however, almost made him wish he had some noise to help keep him awake. What did he care for some Napoleon dude and his stupid history? He was dead, and he wasn't a martial artist.

Ranma didn't know what he would gain from reading about this.

A sound behind him alerted his senses. After a moment's concentration, he knew who it was. He let the girl come a few feet closer to him before he turned around.

"Hey Uchan."

The girl seemed a little surprised, but content none the same.

"You don't seem too surprised to see me."

"I'm used to people sneaking up on me." Ranma made up quickly, as he turned towards the girl. It was true to some extent.

"So... Studying history?"

"Yeah, sure as hell beats playing with Kuno."

Ukyo moved to the side and sat down next to him. "I thought you like sparring."

"Sparring with someone worthy, like Ryoga or Mouse or something. Kuno's just plain annoying now. I swear, I wonder if he's more a poet than a Kendoist. Well. It don't matter. He's shit at both."

"He's the best Kendoist in the region. Maybe you're becoming too strong?"

Ranma shrugged, and turned to his book again.

"He's been spending some time with Gosunkugi, you know. I think they're up to something." Ukyo said after a moment as she stared out towards the city. She glanced back only to see Ranma burying his head into the book.

She frowned. Ranma had been quite distant to her in the past two weeks. She understood that because of her actions someone could have gotten seriously hurt at the wedding, but she didn't expect him to show her such a cold shoulder.

"Ranma. Are you even listening to – ?...what's wrong?"

Ranma had started shivering, very slightly at first, but then gradually the shivering increased. She was about to get concerned when he blew out with a great big laugh, causing her to jump back in surprise.

"Bahahahaha! Hah-hah Kuno- and – Hah – Gosun- haHAHAH"

Needless to say, Ranma was out of it. After a few more minutes of laughing, he finally calmed down enough to hold a conversation. "Do you really think anything those two idiots can come up with will get me?"

Ukyo sighed, "Well, not really, but I just thought you should know. At least they wouldn't get you off guard."

Ranma thought about that for a moment. "Thanks, Ucchan." He said seriously.

"Umm, Ranma, Don't you think you're underestimating them? Or are you overestimating yourself?"

"Nah, Ukyo. I'm just used to what they do. Its always the same thing. Besides, Kuno is too busy fighting the rest of the Furinkan disaster wannabes. Didn't ya see him today, or yesterday, or the day before? Heh." Ranma chuckled. "Day before yesterday was the best. He was like totally screwed. I guess the guys may not have been able to catch him off guard since then, but he still seems more worn out lately."

"What if it's different? What if they manage something?"

"Doesn't matter. I'm not the same anymore either."

Silence ensued for a short while.

"Ranma," Ukyo began quietly. "Why don't you come to...- oh what now?" Ukyo narrowed her eyes. Ranma looking around himself, as if to see if something was stuck on him or something.

"Huh?" Ranma glanced back at Ukyo. "Oh, nothing. It's just that I tried Akane's cooking last night. I'm still surprised that I don't feel a thing. Maybe Kasumi slipped in some stomach medicine or something while Akane wasn't lookin'."

Ukyo raised her eyebrows. "Akane made something edible?"

"Uh, only 'cause my mom and Kasumi were like on guard all the time she was in the kitchen. They were sweating by the time Akane was done. I wonder what they were doing. Wrestling with her?"

"How was the food? What was it?" Ukyo asked, curious.

"It was alright. No where near as good as Kasumi made it. It was some sort of Chinese chicken with curry or gravy or something. I didn't get the name."

Ukyo smiled. "I guess Akane was happy."

Ranma smirked. "Yeah. I was the first to try. I swear it felt as if I was going in for torture. Since the food was eatable, I guess she was all happy. The rest o the family was still reluctant to try. Mom almost shoved a plateful into Mr. Tendo's mouth. That was kinda funny."

Ukyo remained silent for a while, watching as Ranma gathered the book from where it had fallen, and back to the page where he was.

"Why didn't you come for training with the Amazons?" She didn't want to talk about this subject, because it could remind him of her actions at the wedding.

Since Ranma was talking to her again somehow, she didn't want to cause unnecessary strains. Curiosity got the better of her.

"You know they really are training. Cologne is saying that everyone is becoming very powerful. At this time we should control our strength, and not let get carried away. Otherwise innocent people could get hurt."

"Whatever. I'm not sure. I just don't want to be lead into a stupid trap. So what kinda training are they doing?"

"Well, Mousse is training with this new chain that he got from Cologne. He's also playing around with his cloak doing something strange with it. Me? Cologne's teaching me and Shampoo the chestnut on an open fire technique. At the same time we're trying to get control over our chi."

That got Ranma's attention. "Chi? Or Ki?"

Ukyo shrugged. "It's the same thing isn't it? She says that after warriors reach a certain stage, instead of learning to harness it, they should be able to control what they have. So we're trying to meditate while we fight. It's really good Ranma. You should come. Cologne's even told me to ask Akane if she wants to train when her foot gets better."

Ranma arched his eyebrows. "They want to train Akane? Now that, I find hard to believe." he commented, folding his arms over his chest. They had had their good times, and not so good times. Though Ranma did not want to distrust, there were some alarm bells going off in his head.

"Oh come on, Ranma! I understand you are angry at us for what we did, but I really don't think there's anything suspicious about this."

Ranma turned to face Ukyo, an action which made her look away. He sighed. "Maybe you're right. Sorry, I've just been on the edge since Saffron. You guys at the wedding didn't help and all that bickering really just got to me."

Ukyo turned around happily. "So you're going to come?"

"I don't know."

"...but...okay. Just tell me when you want to alright? Believe me, the old woman is not making anything up. She wouldn't teach me Amazon techniques otherwise. She even asked me to tell Kuno to come."

Ranma frowned. "What's he.."

"Oh, just come Ranma. If you don't like it, you can leave. Does it matter. Cologne's really worried about you. She doesn't talk about it much but it really seems that way."

"I'll think about it. There's no hurry is there?"

"No, no, I suppose there isn't. Anyways, its time to get to class. Sorry I disturbed your study time."

Ranma scoffed. "You mean my nap time. It's hard reading boring history stuff. Japanese or Chinese history is kinda cool, but French history is really ...strange."

They both got up and went off to towards class, talking idly as they went along. The next subject was math. Ranma was not happy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was late evening after school had let out and everyone had gone home. Behind the gym building however, three dark figures stood around a fire.

"Have you the required?" the first figure asked.

"Yes. Be warned, it was quite difficult for me to get it, so use it well. If the old bat figures out what happened, she might suspect me. I'm putting myself at risk for this."

"Rest assured, thy worry for naught. You!" the figure pointed towards the third, who was now kneeling near the fire. "Start work, knave. This had better work."

"O-of course it will." The figure replied in a meek tone.

"Well, my task is done. She never really checks the old storage and its been a mess since Ryoga's training, so it wouldn't really be a big issue if a couple of things got lost. That new technique of his really did help me break that magical lock. Anyway, what you do now is your business. But I want to see Saotome squirm."

"Mousse, isn't it? Tell me. Why do thee also lust for Saotome's defeat?" asked the first figure.

"Don't mention my name, Kuno. But if you must know, Cologne as said that if I can defeat the Saotome, then I can have Shampoo's hand in marriage. Simple as that."

"But the Sorcerer will be defeated at my hands."

"Who cares? If he looses, then Shampoo will see him for the looser he is. It doesn't matter. Remember, I didn't come to you. Your ninja came to me. Anyway. As I said, what you do now is your business." Mousse said as he turned around and walked off to the side of the building, before bounding off towards the sunset.

The remaining two, Kuno and Gosunguki looked at each other momentarily before the latter started taking the small packet that Mousse had delivered.

"Will this work?"

"Of course it will. Ranma is said to become a cat, when he is too close to them. So why not use the power of sealed cat spirits to make yourself more powerful. Doesn't Ranma do something similar?"

"He resorts to magic for all his evil deeds. He summons demons with magic swords, then employs magic in battle, and hounds the women kind. I shall not hold back. To defeat that vile demon, even if I have drop to the deepest pits of hell, I shall do so!" Kuno raised his bokken high in the air, in a self proclamation power.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ranma! What took you so long?" was what greeted the Saotome heir as he entered the Tendo household. There was no need to guess as to who said that.

"Jeez. What're ya my mom?" he shouted back.

"No, she isn't, but the last time I checked, I am." said a voice from the stairs. Ranma doubled back. "Nabiki arrived a while ago. What took you so long? Dinner's gone cold and Akane's been waiting."

"Uh, hi mom." Ranma managed meekly. "I was out training."

Nodoka raised a brow, "Training? I see. I suppose you are in preparation against what your father might be readying for you, then."

Well, no not really. He was just training because he wanted a fun rematch with Koryu.

"Well then?"

Ranma looked at his mom, who was cocking her head to the doorway into the living room.

"Akane's waiting. She's made a new dish for you."

Ranma sweat dropped. "Uh yeah," he said, taking off his shoes and going inside. Today had been an okay day. He had succeeded in several movements of the kata he was modifying. His ki had been balanced as well. Of course, more time was needed, but the progress was satisfying.

It wouldn't be long until he started developing those techniques he had thought up. Their theory seemed to be perfect, and even Kasumi had agreed on that part. She just didn't know he was explaining the techniques. All in all, he was in a good mood.

Now if Akane had made dinner with Kasumi and his mother watching over her constantly, well it was not Kasumi's cooking, but at least it was edible.

When he reached the table, what he saw made his insides swirl. It was the same dish that as yesterday. When he saw Akane's smile, its accentuation, and its size, he knew what he had just dreaded became true.

"Um...did you help her today, mom?"

"No, Akane made it all by herself today. That's why she chose to make the same dish, since she had already done it once."

Ranma turned around to see Soun and two rivers of tears flowing from his eyes. He didn't see Nabiki anywhere. He figured she was upstairs either reading manga or studying.

If she wasn't doing that then she was either threatening someone, planning a scheme to threaten someone, or wondering how she could make more money at his or Kuno's expense.

"So," Ranma's mind came falling back to his current predicament.

"So? Sit! I want you to try this." Akane said. She had already placed a plate with the chicken on it. Ranma peered at it speculatively. He half expected it to jump out the plate and try to eat him. At least it was recognizable.

"Akane, you sure it's alright?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Come Ranma," Soun began, "we decided that you should be the first one to try this dish. So please. We're hungry too.

"Oh. What honor," Ranma grumbled mentally. 'They only did it because no one had the guts enough to try it. Now I know why Nabiki wasn't down here.' He thought irately.

He sat down at the table, idly noting Kasumi from the corner of his eye. She was standing in the doorway that lead to the kitchen, leaning against the wall. He sent a last hopeful glance towards her, one that lasted a few microseconds, and hope everything was alright.

She nodded, albeit slowly, but she nodded. That must have meant something. Much more relieved that he had been a moment ago, Ranma hastily took the plate – chopsticks included, and took a mouthful.

He chewed slowly. What'n'the hell? How much salt did she put in this stuff? Damn, what was that strange spicy taste he was getting.

A few tense moments passed as everyone was pretty much glued to his face. "Umm, did you taste this, Akane?"

"Nope. I don't need to. I made it the same way I made it yesterday, and I added a few things to try and make it even better," Akane said, "Why?"

The beginnings of a frown sketched its way onto her face.

Ranma sighed inwardly. Fine, it was a little too salty, and he didn't know that weird spice she had added, but at least it was edible. It was pretty much heaven compared to the failed genetic test experiments she used to try and make for him.

If only to save himself from further problems, Ranma figured he should compliment. While he would have loved to say 'At least I can eat this without worrying about becoming the next Frankenstein' he thought against it.

"It's not bad. Not bad at all." Well, that was an honest reply, and it seemed worth it for the look of utter joy that came upon Akane's face. She really did look cute when she smiled like that. She did make it on her own. This ought to be some sort of record.

"So was it better than yesterday's?"

"Uh.." Ranma stuttered.

"Well? I added some other stuff to this today. Which did you like more?" Akane asked, crossing her arms.

"Uh..."

"I'd say both." Kasumi spoke up from behind.

Akane turned to her elder sister. "Both? But you haven't even tried it yet."

Kasumi winked slightly. "While you weren't looking, I did. I think it wouldn't be fair to ask which is better. In my opinion it would depend on the mood of that person, which kind he would want at the time. Don't you agree Ranma?"

Ranma gave Kasumi a blank look. "Uh... yeah. Of course. I mean, I dunno. It's different, but I can't say which one's better. Yesterday's dish or today's dish."

"Oh..." Akane looked slightly disappointed, but cheered up all the same.

"You did a very good job Akane. I'm very proud of you." Kasumi smiled as she walked over to Akane and gave her a quick one handed hug.

"Thanks Sis."

Thus dinner started properly for the rest of the family. Ranma quickly gulped down the food, ignoring the saltiness, and made his way up with the excuse of studying.

Kasumi came up with him as Nodoka had agreed to do the dishes, while telling Akane to go rest.

While they were almost to Kasumi's room, Ranma turned to her expectantly.

"Okay, so she knew exactly what to do and she still screws up. But hey, at least the chicken wasn't still alive. That's always a good thing."

"Oh...you have no idea." Kasumi murmured as she opened her door, letting the two of them inside her personal abode.

"Oh?"

Kasumi made her way to the dresser, opening it only to throw in the ribbon she was wearing. She shook her head, letting her hair flitter about, letting Ranma gaze at her hidden beauty, and slumped down on her bed.

"When Akane said that she wanted to cook today, I had to clear out the entire kitchen. I hid everything – yes – everything that was not going to be needed for the dish. I color coded and contrast labeled all the packages for the ingredients. That was a little tiring, I suppose, and took a while. At least my kitchen was saved from another visit from the bio hazard unit." She sighed.

"Uh, Kasumi. You alright? I mean."

"Hmm? Oh, yes Ranma. Sorry. I'm just really tired. That and it's a little uncomfortable, opening up to everyone again." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "And I'm thirsty."

"Hmm? You know, I am to…" Ranma added as an afterthought.

Kasumi took a moment to fish out a rather large water bottle from under her bed. Ranma glanced at it, then at the older girl and frowned slightly. "Kasumi?"

"At times I dislike refrigerated water." She offered with a small smile.

"Oh."

"You want some?" She asked, before completely disobeying 'rules' as she took a swig of the bottle, gulping down quite a bit of the liquid. Ranma stared at her in shock.

"Ah, Kasumi?" he asked blinking away stupidly, eliciting another smirk -albeit a small one – from the girl.

"Oh Ranma, No ones perfect." She walked over to him and handed him the bottle, "Not even me. Though I do make it quite close, don't you think so?"

Ranma remained stumped, glancing between bottle which Kasumi had drunk from, and the girl. After a moment he shrugged it and washed down a couple large gulps before he handed it back to her, and sat down in his usual place for studies.

"Oh yeah," he thought out loud offhandedly, "What do you mean? About when you said stuff about opening up." Ranma asked.

He was half way through taking the books out of his bag. Thank god! No math that day. He did have chemistry and physics homework but at least that made some sort of practical sense. At the silence, he turned a blank look at the brown haired girl.

"It's just," Kasumi got up for the moment, moving to sit down cross legged on her bed like she usually did, "I'm finding it somewhat difficult to open up to everyone again. I suppose it's the same with you, but... I don't know. Perhaps it will take time. I'm just worried that they might change the way they look at me or think of me. I mean, I'm still the same person."

Ranma shifted in his seat uncomfortably for a moment. He didn't really know what to say. "Um," he started. "I don't know about all that stuff, but does it matter?"

"Hm?" Kasumi raised her head, and cocked it to the side.

"It doesn't really matter, does it? You're Kasumi. Yeah, they'll be shocked and all for a while. I was shocked. But they'll realize that you're still you, like I did. At least I think they well." Ranma said quietly, drumming his fingers on the chemistry book he was holding.

Of course, it wasn't a sign of nervousness; he was just doing it for fun.

Kasumi smiled slightly, "Thanks Ranma. That was really sweet."

"Uh...Sure, I guess. Oh and thanks to you to. That was a real hell's cradle you saved me from."

"Hmm? Oh, when you were about to say my version was better than Akane's?" Kasumi gave furtive smile.

"Well it was true." Ranma commented, quite honestly. "Your version was even better than what we had at that restaurant, and well... Akane really messed it up. But I guess I can't complain though. I won't be in torture tonight. At least I hope not."

"Good. Let's get to your studies. I want to try and wrap things up quickly today. I'm tired."

"Yeah, me too. Today's training was tough."

"Lets get to it then." Kasumi voiced, a little more energy making its way through than it did few moments ago.

"Oh, by the way, Kasumi. You know why Mom's not pestering me about Akane or pop anymore?"

"Certainly. I asked her not to."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Kasumi?"

"Hmm?"

"You're a life saver."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ranma took a moment to grind his heel into the ground in frustration, turning around again to look at the two people behind him. After taking a glance at their faces, he sighed.

There was no way out of it. He took a deep breath, and walked through the open door way and into the building.

"Ni-how wel- Ranma! You come finally!" An Amazonian bundle of energy jumped at the Saotome, showering him in the usual glomp.

"Ahem!"

Shampoo turned to the voice and saw who her 'airen' had come along with. She had what appeared to be a beginning of a scowl, but it quickly turned into a slightly strained smile as she welcomed her guests. Beside her stood Ukyo and Akane. She then frowned slightly and glanced at Akane's ankle.

"Shampoo thought Akane was hurt." She said in slight dismay.

"Well, that doesn't mean I couldn't come and watch, does it? Besides, I'm much better now." Akane replied tersly. "Now would you two mind getting off each other?"

Ranma sighed. This was precisely why he didn't want to come.

"Get off him sugar. Leave him alone." Ukyo said.

"Come, now Shampoo" Came a voice from behind, effectively stopping Shampoo's response. They all turned to see Cologne standing in front of the kitchen. Shampoo reluctantly released her hold on Ranma and walked back.

"So, it has been a while, Son-in-law." The old woman smiled, giving Ranma and inward shudder.

"Yeah, whatever old ghoul. So what are you guys up to?"

"Up to? Training of course. Everyone has come along well enough with regards to strength, in my opinion. I just wish to make sure that everyone cultivates their control and abilities. I wouldn't want powers that could even destroy mountains, going on rampage without any control here in the city, now would I?" Cologne said dryly, giving Ranma a rather calculative look.

Ranma stood there for a moment, not sure what to make of the current proceedings. Maybe he was being way too cautious. That remark Happosai made was just playing with his mind.

It was true, he did need to learn to control his abilities. In fact, this was what he had already been doing in the last week.

"Fine. So what kind of training are you going to do? Where do ya train?"

Cologne smiled, and raised her hand slightly. Shampoo quickly ran past the group towards the door to close it.

A sudden flash of silver lines passed everyone's vision. Ranma saw Mousse standing behind Cologne. "Damn, that was a lot thinner chain than what he usually used," he thought out loud.

Ranma watched his surroundings as all the tables and chairs instantly moved from their positions in random order, seeming to be flying about, only to be orderly placed on top of each other at the sides of the room. Ranma smirked, "Wow, Mousse. You've really developed your skills. What's next? Mopping the floor?"

Mouse frowned, having been expecting to see at least a small amount disbelief in his adversary's eyes. "You dare to mock me Saotome. You will feel the wrath of my skill yet."

The new golden frame his face did not go unnoticed by the Saotome heir.

Why had Ukyo not mentioned the new glasses?

"New prescriptions? About time, Mousse. You are actually looking in the right direction for a change. I'm impressed."

Further aggravation was stopped when Cologne jumped in between Mousse and Ranma just as the former was about to launch an attack.

"This is not what we are here for." She said calmly, though Ranma did detect a slight hint of impatience in her voice.

"Today we shall start with a spar, since Ranma has just arrived. First it will be Ukyo and Mousse. Then it shall be Ranma and Shampoo. After that you will specifically train through meditation through movements." The old woman commanded.

"You train here? What if you messed up the place?" Ranma was surprised.

"That is a rule. No damage, except maybe to the ground, must come to the building. Controlling your abilities in close combat is the real challenge."

A few moments later, both Mousse and Ukyo were standing opposite each other in offensive stances. Ukyo had her giant spatula still latched on her back, while hands were crossed in front of her, smaller spatulas in each.

Mouse suddenly moved, flicking his hands forward to send a couple of chains, not the ones he previously used, out towards Ukyo. Using her mini-spatulas as knuckle-braces, she quickly punched the chains while leaping to the inside of the attack with her right fist.

Moving swiftly she did a quick turn on the inside, lashing her left hand in a wide arc. Ranma could see the glimmer of mini-spatulas that she had released towards Mousse, who barely dodged them and leaped forward in a quick attack with another set of chains.

Ukyo jumped up in an attempt to evade them, then felt something latch onto her foot. "What?" It was too late to notice, but the first chains Mousse had thrown were firmly locked around her foot.

Mousse pulled hard, effectively putting his opponent completely out of balance. Just as she was about to land, she took hold of her giant spatula and sliced it downward. She landed on her free foot, grinding her knee painfully in to the ground while the spatula got embedded in front of her, cutting the binding chain off.

Mousse retracted it and leaped back, as did Ukyo.

There was a moment's break, before both opponents jumped into each other again.

It was quite a simple battle, though fought with a bit more complexity. Ranma was quite impressed to see Ukyo nearly pulled off the amaguriken, when in range. She was a bit off, and Mouse was doing quite well in keeping her out of mid range with his chains constantly twisting and slithering about in mid air.

He had improved as well.

How long the fight lasted wasn't an issue. Ranma assumed it was about ten minutes, it being called off before a proper conclusion could be met. Ukyo did seem have the upper hand in the fight, however.

Mousse kept on using more of his long ranged attacks with very few close ranged ones in combination. Ukyo seemed well prepared. It was obvious that they had been fighting each other.

When they came back to the group, Ranma nodded in Ukyo's direction. She had definitely gotten better. Her reflexes and fighting instincts were much faster. She didn't waste movement either, and was fought quite intelligently.

Akane prodded Ranma, "Hey, how did Mousse get that chain that was already dead on the ground to swing up like that?"

Ranma glanced at Akane, before turning to Mousse. He was about to reply when Shampoo cut in.

"He use whiplash effect. If you watch Ukyo and Mousse at same time, you would see. Experienced fighter can watch more of battle at same time."

"Oh- Hey, what do you mean and experienced fight-"

"Not only that," Ranma silenced Akane, "He twisted the chain. That's how he got it to wrap around Ukyo from behind."

"That's my son-in-law. Keen observation skills." Cologne commented with a smile.

Her smile grew fractionally when she saw Akane's temperament change for the worse. "Akane," she said quietly, "As I am already sure you know, when you have healed you are welcome to come here and train with us."

Akane was a little surprised at the open invitation. She had gotten Ukyo's message on the phone from Sayuri, telling her that if she wanted to come to the training with them, it would be good. It was quite unexpected for the old woman to invite her for such an event.

Maybe what she said earlier was true. She just wanted people to control their abilities. Plus, it would be a good way to get better. She'd also prove herself finally in front of Shampoo and the others.

"Sure." She said eagerly. Cologne turned to Ranma, "What about you. Do you want to spar with Shampoo?"

Ranma glanced at the everyone. This did sound like fun, and they all were improving. Maybe Cologne would teach him a new technique. Yeah, Happosai was just jerking his chains.

"Sure, I guess. But I ain't gonna be able to come all the time. I got to study for school as well. Exam's are coming up and Mom's all up for me to do well."

Not to mention Kasumi would wrap his ears around the planet if he didn't. It was either that or find out what her other counter measures were. He wasn't to eager to do that.

Cologne chuckled haughtily. "Sure son-in-law. Do you want to spar Shampoo now?"

"Uhh... this ain't a trick to make me beat Shampoo again or something is it?" Ranma asked suspiciously.

"Oh, no. Not at all. Though, you might find it difficult to beat her now." Cologne cackled. Ranma folded his arms indignantly. "Yeah, right."

Okay, so maybe his arrogance found its way back to him again.

"There's only one way to find out. Or," Cologne smiled, then turned to the side, "you can fight someone else."

The moment the words left her mouth, there was a loud banging on the door.

"Huh?" Ranma asked. He focused slightly, and frowned. What was Kuno doing here? Cologne invited him as well?

Shampoo quickly went to answer. "Can't you read, we closed!" she said as she opened the door.

Kuno stood in the doorway. "I was told that the fiend Saotome was here." He said proudly.

Ranma sighed, while Akane and Ukyo both rolled their eyes.

"What do you want Kuno?" Ranma said in a tired voice. Damn, and it was only afternoon.

"Ah- but of course. Thy mind is already quivering with fear, so much that thee cannot understand fact should it stand right in thy face-"the sentence was left short with a prompt kick in the face, courtesy of the pigtailed martial artist.

"Ah...that felt good." Ranma commented. "I forgot what kind of therapy beating on Kuno provided."

"How dare thee..." Kuno began, getting to his feet. He drew his bokken and immediately launched into an attack. He swung his weapon swiftly but struck nothing. A moment later, there was darkness.

Ranma watched Kuno fall down unconscious, taking a moment to retract his reverse elbow, unaware of the people watching him.

Akane was in shock. She had barely seen Ranma move. How had he so quickly executed that reverse elbow. Heck, she wouldn't even have known he did that if he didn't stay in the outstretched position after the strike.

Similar thoughts were going across the others as well. One thing was clear. Ranma had kept up with his training.

Cologne couldn't help but smile. Ranma really was growing to be a great martial artist. She wanted him in the tribe even more...but she had to be careful. She could not afford to mess the plan up.

She watched calmly as Ranma sighed and turned to walk out the door.

Shampoo moved to stop him but Cologne held her back with her stick. "Leaving son-in-law?" she asked calmly.

Ranma turned around and grinned. "Yeah, this stuff sounds kinda cool. But I gotta get some work done at home. Kasumi's gonna rip my head off if I didn't do good on my next math quiz. When do ya guys train?"

"Daily, during the afternoon. You can come right after school. You can also come on the weekends." The Elder matriarch replied.

"Sure. That's cool. Later old ghoul." He said as he walked out, "Yo, Akane, you coming?"

"Uh wait Ranma!" Akane called out and ran towards him. She gave him an inquisitive look. "You really feeling alright? You never cared about studies that much. Not enough to give up a chance like this."

"Yeah, well I didn't have Kasumi teaching me then." Ranma shrugged nonchalantly. Akane noticed he was a little nervous. She smiled inwardly. She had heard from Nabiki some time ago that Kasumi was a perfectionist. This was something that would definitely cause Ranma some problems.

"I'm going to stay." Akane said.

"Huh?"

"I'm staying, I want to see what they're doing. I won't spar, but maybe do a few katas."

Ranma frowned, "Akane, you should just-"

"What? You don't think I'm capable?"

"No it's just that you"

"Fine then. Tell Kasumi that I'll be home later on this evening." Akane said gruffly, before she turned around and went back into the Cat Café.

Ranma sighed. He knew what training Cologne was giving them. He was doing the same thing. Why couldn't she ever listen.

Ranma jumped on to the top of the Café and started towards home, thinking about the fight between Mousse and Ukyo. Mouse was able to channel ki into his chains.

Ranma had sensed it during the fight. Ukyo, he wasn't sure. Maybe he needed concentrate on being more sensitive to other people's ki patterns as well during his training.

Maybe it was to make the chains stronger, but if it were, then Ukyo wouldn't have cut it off so easily with her weapon. But then again, she was also probably channeling ki in her.

How this all really worked was still confusing, but it was beginning to make a little sense. It would certainly explain why Cologne's staff and Happosai's little pipe were so damn strong.

Besides, he was using the same concept in his training. In order to move at faster speeds and not destroy the ground, he had to let his ki seep into the ground to strengthen it along with his own legs.

In the modified Hi Ryu Shoten Ha, he was controlling bits of air with his ki as well.

The others were definitely catching up, but they weren't there yet. Ranma knew he was stronger. More to the point, it didn't really matter. He was training to fight Koryu.

Koryu was right. Separating himself from the Nerima Crew did have its benefits. It cleared his head up a bit.

It didn't take long for Ranma to reach the house, and when he did he was about to go straight to Kasumi's window when something caught his eye.

Mr. Tendo had just walked out of the gate, with a little package in his hands.

People may call it intuition, or gut feeling, Ranma just knew the middle aged man was going to visit the panda.

Ranma decided to follow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Genma Saotome sat quietly, mediating in the abandoned building near the edge of the Nerima ward.

He had a mission. He was going to set his son on the right path. After coming back from China, Ranma had become to cocky of himself. He needed to be humbled.

Since Ranma was his son, he, Genma, was the one who would do the deed.

Nodding to himself in self appreciation, the deluded panda-turned martial artist moved to pick up the tire, placed it in the hell's cradle formation and started concentrating on his new move. Hell's bed!

He would teach his wayward son the folly of his ways.

"Genma, old friend. Is that really going to work on Ranma?"

The panda turned to face the direction of the voice and saw the Tendo patriarch giving him an uncertain glance.

"Ranma has become quite strong, and he is young." Soun explained.

The panda growled something back.

"Yes, yes. I know the master is even older and is still going strong. Trust me, I suffer from his childish antics, still. Have you forgotten the town meeting? I was just wondering if this move of yours will still work on Ranma."

Genma growled back again.

"A new move?" Soun was surprised, "Well, if it is effective then I suppose it is good. You are not," he frowned, "planning on using the sealed techniques are you?"

The panda's face was solemn.

"I see. I have an idea about the second plan as well, but first you must eat."

The mustached man unwrapped his packed to reveal a thermos, a cup and a small box.

"Here," he poured some liquid from the thermos into the cup and splashed it at the panda.

"GAAA- ah – ah – That was hot!"

"It's much easier to understand you when you are human." Soun smiled, "Though I think I am getting quite good at understanding your panda talk."

"Hah, it's True friendship at its best!" Genma, a little red in the face from the tea, said stoutly.

"So, about the sealed techniques."

"Don't worry, old friend. I will make sure my son understands his mistakes. Then we can go ahead with our second plan." Genma smiled. He took the box, opened it and started inhaling the food.

"Hmm this is good. Too salty, but still good. Now, was I?"

"Operation: Get Ranma and Akane married?" Soun uttered gleefully.

They both grinned instantaneously.

"It is a fool proof plan!"

"WAAA! My little daughter is going to be married!!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ranma sighed to himself. The irony of it all. A fool proof plan? How can a fool proof plan be created by two of the biggest fools to walk this Earth.

Just by its name, one would know that they couldn't come up with such a thing.

And here he was slightly worried at what his pops might do. Sure, he'd taking on some variation of the sealed techniques. He was sure he could do it well enough.

Ranma turned leaned away from the window sill he was kneeling on, and leaped away. He had wasted his time for nothing. Kasumi was going to be upset.

That night, Ranma learned what Kasumi's counter measure three was.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A few days later, the pitiful heir of the Saotome school of martial arts sat idly in his chair during lunch time, not really wanting to move.

"Hey Ranma! How's everything going man?"

Ranma groaned. "What is it, Hiroshi?"

"We're just wondering what you were doing here. All of last week you like disappeared during lunch breaks."

"Yeah," Daisuke walked up towards Ranma's desk and leaned on it. "What's with the face man. I know its only Tuesday, but what does it matter. You can like disappear whenever you want right?"

"Yeah, like when you went to China." Hiroshi agreed.

"That was different." Ranma grumbled.

"Yeah, man. What really happened there by the way?" Hiroshi leaned in close. "I heard some pretty weird tales man."

"Yeah well, what you heard is probably true then. I dun wanna talk about it."

"Heard you killed someone. Is that true?"

Ranma gave Daisuke a blank look, then answered after a moment. "No. He didn't die. He just reverted to his baby form or whatever. He expended all his energy or some shit like that."

Kasumi had apparently done some research into the matter with Dr. Tofu, after Koryu had told Ranma and her that Saffron was part Phoenix. When she did, Ranma didn't know. He supposed it was on Sunday, since it was that night that she told him of her findings.

"Wow man. All that for Akane? She knows right?"

Ranma remained silent.

"Man, and the wedding was ruined, huh?"

"Hey man," Daisuke voiced at the continued silence, his tone clearly showing his annoyance, "we know we aren't your best friends or nothing, but we think of you as a good friend. You haven't told us shit of what happened since you came back."

"Yeah," Hiroshi agreed, "You have any idea how much we had to pay Nabiki to find out what we do know? And what's with your face man. You constipated or something?"

Ranma groaned again, then quickly shoved Hiroshi out of the way and ran out the class room.

Hiroshi, slightly shaken, turned to Daisuke. "What's up with him?"

Daisuke shrugged.

Ten minutes later, Ranma arrived back, looking a little weak as he walked strangely to is chair and sat down.

"Uh, what's wrong man? You feeling alright?"

"Ugh. I can't believe that was her counter measure three," Groaned the martial artist, "That woman is deadly."

Hiroshi and Daisuke shared a smile and both leaned in again.

"Woman troubles again?" Hiroshi asked.

"Man, you get all the girls, don't ya?" Daisuke muttered.

"So. Who is it this time?"

"Shuddup," Ranma voiced painfully, "It ain't like that. God, I can't believe Kasumi did that. As if I didn't have enough of Akane's cooking already."

Ranma's friends stared at him blankly.

"Umm, Kasumi forced you to eat Akane's cooking?"

"Ugh, No. Much worse. At least I can smell or taste and prepare for that. I usually puke that stuff out as soon as possible anyways. This was..." Ranma shuddered. "much worse."

"How?" Hiroshi implored.

"It tasted fine. It tasted really, really good! Just like Kasumi's usual food. She added something weird to the recipe and my stomach's been like this. This is the third day."

"Why did she do that?" Daisuke asked, clearly baffled.

"I was late for our studying session, and couldn't complete my history essay on time." Ranma grumbled. "I mean. She was all sweet about it, saying it was alright. Nothing to worry about. Then she gave me some food, and it tasted good! Those pork buns were really nice. It was only after a few hours that I really had to go to the bathroom, every five minutes. I barely got any sleep on Saturday."

"You're studying with Kasumi? Wow. I didn't know that. Hell, I didn't think she'd do something like that" Daisuke commented, sitting down in a chair next to him.

"Actually, I've heard some stuff about her actually." Hiroshi said thoughtfully.

"Some of the seniors were talking. You know the day Akane was absent, and loads of guys went to visit her? Some seniors went as well. They were saying something about Kasumi being really popular when she was still in Furinkan. She was called 'Kasumi Tendo of Furinkan' or something like that. She was like flirty and all with some of the guys. She never went out with anyone though."

"So? That still doesn't explain why she would do this" Daisuke argued.

"Yeah, well I heard that most of the guys were actually scared of her. She had these counter measure she would use if anyone went out of line. The first was... I think kneeing in the groin. The second was pulling the hair or something."

"Ears," Ranma corrected sourly, "Her second is pulling the ears. She's got a hell of a grip too."

"Oh, and her third was really nasty. No one knew it was coming. She would come up to the guy and ask them to try something. Obviously the guy would take it. But that guy would not be able to make it to school for the next few days."

"Damn," Daisuke wondered, "Does she have a fourth countermeasure?"

"IF she does, I do NOT want to find out." Ranma grimaced, tightening the grip on his stomach. "Man. I'm shitting like my piss has been redirected to come outta my ass."

"Eww man, you don't need to go into details." Both guys shuddered.

"Why are you studying with her then?"

"Because she's helping me out. She's really nice actually. It's not that often that she uses all those countermeasures." Ranma said.

"Yeah," Hiroshi agreed, "The guys were saying that everyone wanted to date Kasumi when she was in high school. She was supposed to be like the perfect girl or something, being flirty yet homely. But she would always decline everyone. But she always declined everyone. There was a rumor that she was going to come to the senior dance with some girl called Hayate, but she didn't. You know what happened?"

Ranma snorted. "Sorry, even if I did, I wouldn't be able to tell ya guys. It's her business ain't it?"

"Hmm. It seems that all the Tendo daughters are scary in one way or another. Some thing inherited?" Diasuke thought out loud.

Any reply from Ranma was cut short as the door was barged open.

"Ranma, what are you doing here?" Akane asked.

This was her second day back, her hand and ankle being healed, and she was quite pleased to say the least. She had found Kuno battling the hentai brigade quite amusing.

"Nothing. Just talking with these guys." Ranma noted.

"Oh, aren't you hungry? Aren't you going to eat?"

"Me? Nah, trust me Akane, I'm really not in a state to eat anything."

"Why not?" Akane asked, "You didn't even have any breakfast."

"Lets just say, I'm not feeling that well." Ranma claimed, hoping Akane wouldn't argue anymore. He knew that in her excitement that her food was somewhat edible, she had made the bentos with Kasumi's help, but he really wasn't in any state to eat anything, even if he was starving.

His train of thought was halted suddenly when he felt a strong aura coming from outside the room. "What the hell?" Ranma thought. This aura was totally out of the norm. It was totally strange, this aura.

The door was opened and in walked Kuno Takewaki, with a torn shirt and bruised arms, but also with a strange greenish aura surrounding him.

Ranma felt a pang of foreboding. Something was wrong. Kuno's aura wasn't like that, nor was it this strong.

"Uh, get back guys. Something's up."

"Don't worry Ranma. We're old Nerima veterans at finding and running away from danger," said Hiroshi.

"We're worried about you, in your current state." Daisuke mumbled.

"Don't. Just get outta here." Ranma waved to the side. "Take Akane with you. Kuno's gone and pulled something out of his ass again."

Both boys nodded and quickly made their way towards Akane.

"Do not touch the fierce Tigress! Knaves. She desires..." Kuno lost his balance and seemed out of it, but then became focused again. "She desires to witness the defeat of the evil Saotome at my hands. Then she shall know that I am worthy. Worthy of dating her."

"It said only to be my FRIEND in the letter you dumb idiot!" Akane shouted, but was quickly dragged away by Hiroshi and Daisuke.

Kuno made to stop them but was himself distracted by his adversary.

"Hey Kuno!" Ranma shouted, slightly pissed off. "I dunno what you've gone and done now but ain't you wanna fight me? What's the point of a witness when you're gonna loose anyways?"

The Furinkan senior let out a low hiss type sound that sounded way too like a cat for Ranma's comfort. Said person instantly flipped back onto the window sill. "Come get me Kuno. You remember this place the day I arrived?"

Ranma smirked and jumped backwards, doing several backward rolls in the air before landing past the swimming pool with a loud explosive sound, sending the dust into a frenzy around him.

He landed gracefully, his legs in a crouch position, an arm resting over one knee and the other by his side. His feet had made impressions into the ground.

He stared three stories up to see Kuno leap off. Heh, there was no –

That thought was cut short as Kuno's body traveled in a similar pattern – minus the gracefulness – to his.

The Kuno heir landed a few feet away with a large thud, having embedded one knee in to the ground. He turned towards Ranma and smiled triumphantly.

"Ah, to finally defeat he vile sorcerer. I shall make this a great day indeed. It may not have worked at the Amazon's abode, but today, the gods are by my side!"

"Yeah, whatever Kuno." Ranma muttered. He moved to open ground where there were less trees and waited in a ready stance. He wanted Kuno to make the first move. He wanted to judge his ability before he made any attack.

He didn't have to wait long as Kuno, in an instant, turned into a black and white blur as he tore the ground away in a leap towards Ranma, totally surprising the pig tailed martial artist. Had he not seen fast moves against his fight with Koryu, Ranma may not have been able to dodge, but luckily he had, and made clear of the bokken strike, back flipping away. As he got into another low crouch stance, Ranma felt a prickle on his neck. After reaching for it and retracting his hand, he saw a small amount of blood trailing down his fingers.

"Damn," he thought. He could see a greenish aura surrounding the sword as well. It seems that this attack wasn't just air pressure. He was using his aura to make the blade stronger.

It wasn't anything knew to Ranma. He did so himself many a times whenever he wanted to use a knife hand to cut something cleanly in half. Kuno's agility bothered him though.

Well, this time he was prepared. He had seen Kuno's speed.

Instead of waiting for another attack, Ranma leaned forward, making sure to use his ki carefully in his legs, and burst forward. Apparently Kuno wasn't prepared for an attack so soon as he tried to parry helplessly.

Ranma shot a quick punch into the gut and leaped to knee Kuno's face in, sending kendoist flying back and landing with a loud thud.

"Heh, you're not so tough." Ranma commented, grinning. His contentment was short lived, for in a few moments, he saw Kuno standing again.

Oh well. He supposed whatever Kuno did certainly made him more resistant to attacks. While that knee would have taken Kuno out earlier, Ranma supposed maybe a few new attacks were in order.

A shadow of a smile snuck onto his face. He glanced around for a moment. This place was too small for what he was about to do. The trees and the swimming pool provided a few problems.

Deciding on moving to a better battle ground, Ranma jumped away, heading for the school gate. The place where morning battles took place was good enough.

Even though he couldn't see, he could feel Kuno giving chase, and he was catching up.

What had Kuno gone and done?

He arrived at his destination within seconds, Kuno hot on his tail. The moment Ranma landed, he rolled to the side. Moments later the ground he had been on shuddered and bits of concrete tiles flew about.

That was close.

As Ranma got up, he gave a fleeting glance at his sides to make sure no one was close by. Usually everyone could sense a fight coming a mile away and stay clear.

One thing caught his attention.

Nabiki was standing in the far corner with a boy kneeling in front of her.

Ranma growled. "Gosunguki."

He wasn't given much respite to think of much else. He sensed Kuno go into action and prepared to strike before the Kendoist.

What happened next totally caught him off guard. Kuno's face was inches away from him and his hand poised like it was about to claw into something.

Ranma moved to evade, but was too slow. He followed Kuno's movements to try and block.

Since when did Kuno use hand to hand combat?

The result of the block was a nasty looking cut on Ranma's right forearm. He grimaced, crouching low to do a sweep, only to be struck by something on the back of his head. Ranma flew to the side, landing with a grunt and quickly using the momentum to move into a roll.

DAMN! He thought as he got into another stance, his hands and feet wide a apart. Kuno was fast with the bokken, but not THAT fast. The speed he had shown now was similar to the amaguriken.

For some reason, instead of feeling uncertain (this was Kuno, after all.) Ranma felt exhilarated. Finally, Kuno had done something to give Ranma trouble.

Kuno hadn't ever been a bad martial artist. He was just not a match for Ranma, especially since his return from his fight with Saffron.

Ranma took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Time for fun.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akane was standing with Nabiki, watching the fight going on between Ranma and Kuno. Hiroshi and Daisuke had dragged out of the room before she let go. She had entered the room only to see Kuno jump out.

Following her instincts, Akane had just ran down to the front yard where she saw Nabiki standing in front of a cowering Gosunguki. She was interested in what her sister was talking about with him, but battle had already run away with her focus.

"Kuno's not fighting like usual, is he?" came a voice that Akane registered as Ukyo's.

"Yeah," she agreed, "And Ranma's not fighting like usual either. What's with him constantly dodging from side to side?"

"He's testing Kuno's agility and reach."

"I know that!" Akane spat indignantly. She turned to Ukyo with a frown marking her face. "But he's been doing that for the last five minutes. Shouldn't be start attacking now?"

"Hmm, maybe." Ukyo mumbled, watching the fight closely.

"See? Loo-..." Akane started but became quickly silent, observing the fight. Both girls stared as Ranma kept on moving from side to side at an incredibly fast rate as he dodged Kuno's attack.

The bits of concrete flying from Ranma's movements were testament to how much pressure his legs were exerting.

"Well, there's good news and not so good news," said Nabiki, walking towards the two onlookers, turning to give the fight a small glance, and raising an eyebrow in response. "What on earth is our Ranma-kun doing?"

"That's what we'd like to know." Akane stated, turning to face her sister. "So what's the good news and what's the bad news?"

"Thanks to our friendly spirit freak," Nabiki pointed towards Gosunguki, who was still kneeling, but to engrossed in watching the fight, "Kuno-baby seems to have gotten himself possessed, again."

Akane sighed. "Great. A new sword or something?"

"No, not really. This is the not so good part. It seems he's been possessed by a cat spirit or something," she flashed her eyes towards the fight momentarily before turning to the girls, "and it has nothing to do with the sword. So the spirit might just stay until, I suppose Ranma or someone beats it out of it. I guess that's why Kuno-baby is actually putting up a fight against Ranma."

Ukyo rolled her eyes. "So that's all right then. Ranma's just going to kick his ass out of here."

"I hope so."

"...what do you mean?" Akane asked.

"Nothing, I just said I hope so. You know Akane, things never go how we want them to. As much as I wish, I don't really know – nor do I care – about this whole spirit thing," Nabiki shrugged, making a face.

"Anyways, I better get going. My girls will have already made the betting pools on Ranma. I really do wonder why many people still bet against him." Nabiki's eyes retained their money hungry look. "Well, there's always those hopeless fools with too much money hoping they'll get lucky." She smiled, and headed off towards the crowed to the side.

"What do you think she said to him?" Ukyo asked Akane, as she watched Gosunguki get up to meekly head off towards the fight, probably to get a better look.

"Who knows? Its Nabiki, she's always got something on everyone." Akane didn't let her eyes off the fight.

Ukyo, shrugged carelessly and turned to the fight, just in time to watch Ranma leap instantly back into close range after evading a quick strike to his neck, and let loose with his amaguriken, striking Kuno countless times in the face.

Finally. He was beginning to fight like usual.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This was fun, Ranma thought, though a private area of his mind wondered why Kuno wasn't using his repetitive fast strikes. He had been waiting for those. He had sufficient ki coursing through his arms and legs, and while his control wasn't as good as he wanted it to be – even he could see the dust flying anywhere – it was good enough improvement in a week's time.

Kuno did try a lot of jump strikes. They were good, if used properly. Ranma had wanted to use the chess nut fist with Kuno repetitive strikes and see his response to that.

Even if that blade was coursing with ki, so were Ranma's arms. The cuts he had received had already stopped bleeding. They weren't so nasty after all.

After evading a quick slice to the neck, Ranma decided he was at his patience's end, and leaped in to strike Kuno in the face with a one handed amaguriken.

The result was the same as before. Kuno staggered back slightly, but was quick to move again, much as though he wasn't affected.

"Such strikes shall not impair one such as I, Saotome!" he shouted, and jumped back for some space.

'Idiot' Ranma thought as he powered up a ki blast in his hands. He was about to let Kuno eat it when he felt something. It was a sneaky feeling creeping up from the bottom of his neck, as if someone had just walked over his grave.

The only time he felt that was when he was near...

Yes... you will do.

Ranma stood taken aback. Where had that voice come from? It was like it had been spoken right in his head!

He kept his senses active long enough to be aware of Kuno's movements. The elder boy sliced the ground in front of him, and Ranma was about to smirk at the futility of that out-of-range attack, but his eyes widened when he saw the slice in the ground continue onwards.

That, and the sensation of a sharp piercing aura traveling towards him gave Ranma the initiative to dodge to the right, barely avoiding it. He felt as if he as just avoided the guillo - whatever it was used to behead people in France.

Damn, a traveling wave? Where did he learn that? Ranma stared at the strange greening hew surrounding the sword.

"Heh, fine. Be that way," he muttered to himself. Ranma had a few tricks up his sleeve as well. Intent on wasting no more time, he sprinted towards his adversary.

Kuno lashed out again with another traveling slice but this time Ranma was ready. He could feel the area in front of him where the ki blade, momentarily reminding him of the sealed techniques, would effect.

Ranma increased pressure on this left leg and almost shimmered away from view, rapidly going at a tangent. He then instantly corrected his direction by doing similar with his right foot when he 'felt' the wave pass.

As he briskly approached Kuno, Ranma went into a sweep kick, shifting his entire momentum into the leg. It was ironic how Kuno could fall for the same attack again and again.

This time, it was different. Ranma had already recovered from his sweep by the time Kuno was in mid air, strangely still in some sort of balance. To finish the deal, Ranma twisted his waist, making sure to continue the momentum, and slammed a powerful ki-filled kick into Kuno's gut.

The hapless kendoist sprawled away landing in a crumpled heap.

Ranma smirked. It never really took long to take out Kuno when he really wanted to.

Oh well. He'd better get going. Class was gonna star-

Yes...yes...You will do.

What the hell? Slightly worried, Ranma turned around to see Kuno slowly making his way to his feet again.

This body is strong, but yours seems more efficient. The strange voice said in Ranma's head. You will be a better host. to me! It commanded.

Ranma didn't know what was going on, but this was really freaking him out. He'd never had things speak in his head before.

Enough was enough. Now he really was going to finish the fight. Ranma leaped high into the air and crossed both his arms in front of him, one glowing orange, the other glowing blue.

"Tornado Blast!" he shouted, just as he started his descent. He reached the ground relatively quickly, two twin flowing lines light trailing from his hands. They were dense, thick and didn't take long to become intertwined.

Ranma landed hard on the ground, expecting to hit Kuno but completely missing him as his opponent had jumped up just before the attack landed. Ranma looked up at Kuno in the air.

"Stupid dumb idiot" Ranma thought. That was the last move Kuno wanted to make.

Kuno, still in the air, readied his bokken for another attack when he felt the winds start picking up around him. He looked towards the twin mixing thick blue and orange lines of light as they formed a white mist in the middle.

Then it happened all too quickly. Kuno was sucked into the mixing void of twin ki, which had become a super compressed twister and was pulled down, hard.

Completely disobeying the laws of nature, the twister flung him downwards in a rapid spiraling motion where Ranma was waiting eagerly.

Having already anticipated Kuno's descent, Ranma crouched low and rammed an upper cut into Kuno, completely offsetting the hapless Kuno heir's momentum backwards.

The entire crowd watched in shock as Kuno flew backwards through the no longer existent mini inverted tornado – it had vanished almost instantly – and met Ranma's foot.

Ranma hadn't wasted for an instant after the upper cut, jumping away to slam a kick into Kuno's back, sending him back where he had been initially been struck from.

"HAH! YOU LIKE THAT HUH? YA WANT SOME MORE?" Ranma bellowed just as he landed. He was grinning like a stupid idiot, then felt his stomach rumble. His proud, confident composure turned into a meek looking one as he leaned forward and hugged is stomach.

"Uhh...I better finish this, quick. All that running around didn't help my condition at all. I guess I was too into the moment."

After noticing that Kuno wasn't getting up anymore, Ranma slowly made his way over to the loser of the fight, interest getting the better of him. He wasn't sure what had happened, but something had made Kuno get all that weird ki.

And what was with that voice?

He kicked Kuno gently, prodding to see if the guy would wake any time soon.

"Man, and he's still holding on to his stupid stick." He commented to himself.

Whatever Kuno had done, it had greatly increased his speed, and ability to withstand attacks. It was all ki, of that Ranma was positive.

Ranma could head footsteps coming closer to him. Turning to investigate, he saw Akane and Ukyo jogging towards him.

"Oi, Kuno!" Ranma said, irked , and kicked him a couple more times, "Ya awake?"

He had to go to the toilet, quick. In an effort to get a closer, final look, Ranma moved forward just when Kuno's eyes flashed open.

Ranma leaned back in surprise before he felt that strange greenish aura again.

"What the hell?" He voiced, surprised.

Come, come to me! The voice was much louder this time. Ranma noticed Kuno's eyes. They were...

"Oh shit." Was all he said before he tried to jump back in utter fear. The strong greenish aura had already surrounded him and had somehow trapped him from movement. His body froze, as he tried to fight it with everything he had.

"Damnit." Ranma cursed.

Why the resistance? I can make you stronger. The same voice said seductively. I want you. You will be mine!

"Ranma!" Akane and Ukyo shouted, having just reached the two combatants. Akane moved to grab Ranma when Ukyo stopped her."

"What are you doing?" Ukyo shouted.

"What does it look like? I'm getting him away from that thing." Akane pointed to the strange greenish aura. Ukyo shook her head.

"Akane, think about it, do you really want to enter that thing unprepared. What if it grasps hold of you as well?"

"Well what would you have me do?"

A terror filled cry took their attention away as they turned towards Ranma, watching him as he got on his knees and grabbed his head tighter.

"No... NO! Get away from me! Get OUTTA my head!! HAAA!!"

Both girls watched impatiently and tried to call out to Ranma, while he just sat there shaking his head rapidly, and trying to wave something off as if a bunch of flies.

Akane, ignoring everything else, ran forward to pick up Ranma when he suddenly burst forth with a bright blue aura. There was a short display as both battle aura's seemingly butt heads for supremacy.

After a few tense moments, the blue aura finally stared thrusting the invading green aura backwards towards Kuno, where it instantly shriveled up and vanished so quickly one would wonder if it had ever existed.

Both Akane and Ukyo breathed a sigh of relief as they quickly ran over to him, kneeling down to see if he was alright.

"Ranma, you okay?"

"..." Ranma remained crouched on all fours, and slowly, steadily moved on all four limbs. He arched back angrily and looked at the first person to his right. It happened to be Ukyo.

He reared back and hissed, jumping away from Kuno and the girls.

"Ranma!" Akane shouted. A light of realization hit her eyes. She quickly moved to the side and called out to him again.

"Here kitty."

"Kitty?" Ukyo looked confused. "Why? – oh" Realization struck home. "That cat spirit forced Ranma into the Neko-ken? So that was what drove that green ki away."

Akane ignored the other girl as she tried to call to Ranma, who looked extremely irritated.

Ranma glanced towards Akane, and hissed. He turned to look at Ukyo, and then finally the fallen boy.

"Ugh, why does my head ache so?" The Kuno slowly voiced groggily. He listlessly moved to sit up, wincing in the sunlight.

Ranma hissed angrily again, setting off another wave of fury filled ki around him.

Nabiki, who was close by, and in the process of getting the feedback from her lackeys regarding the betting pools, turned around again. She watched as Akane tried to gather Ranma.

"Neko-ken?" She raised an eye brow. "Well, that's hardly surprising, but what's with the energy show? Isn't Akane able calm Ranma?"

As if to further spite Nabiki's words, Neko-Ranma turned and ran away from Akane, jumping on the boundary wall. After a scant glance backwards, he leaped off, completely disappearing from view.

Great, Nabiki thought. A runaway Neko-Ranma who didn't even come to Akane's call was just what everyone needed. Well, at least she had made some money. No one had even thought about Ranma going into that.

She just had an intuition in these things.

"Okay girls, here's your share." She sliced a section of the notes she had and deposited it into the hand of a very happy girl. "Yes! I needed this money." She said gleefully.

"Good then, huh?" Nabiki smiled, and cut another section off from the cash she had. "Here. These are for the others alright?" With that she turned and started walking to Akane and Ukyo who were just standing there, staring at where Ranma had been, as if they were lost kittens. The irony.

Nabiki sighed to herself.

Another problem to solve, and for this one she couldn't think up of any possible solution on the top of her head. Well, she would find one eventually, and charge Ranma double for this one.

Nabiki grinned. Maybe she should go into politics. Having people owe her heavily would really help around, wouldn't it?

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Neko-Ranma jumped from building to building, running away. That thing, whatever that was, was messing with it, what is "it?" trying to force itself into him. Like he would ever let that happen.

But it was difficult fighting that thing off. IT had almost taken him over. He needed to stay away from that place.

Besides, he wasn't feeling right at the moment. He was feeling strange. His body was hurting. He felt as if he needed to relieve himself, yet when he tried, he couldn't.

But the pain didn't stop.

The cat-psyche induced martial artist kept on running. Maybe if he went to the place of stay. He was hungry as well. He needed food.

He jumped into a nearby street, smelling some hot food, hoping to satisfy his hunger right now. Maybe that nice one would have given him some food, but he didn't want to be close to that thing, and he also hurt.

He came to a screeching to a halt when he sensed someone behind him. He saw a dark haired one walking towards him. He hissed back, to ward that one off. He didn't want to be bothered, but his nose twitched.

There was smell of food coming from this one. He turned and noticed that this man had some thing in his hand. It looked warm, and delicious. Neko-Ranma, very slowly started walking towards the man.

The man, as if realizing what the human cat wanted, got down on his knees, and gently held the roasted chicken.

Neko-Ranma's eyes didn't leave that one's as he slowly approached and pawed the chicken. His mouth watered and he took a tentative bite, and reared back a bit.

This one didn't say anything, and only smiled, like the other one did. Also, Neko-Ranma felt calm. This one felt as if he was nothing. He wasn't angry, nor sad, but felt like he was going to do nothing but sit there, and be calm, letting Neko-Ranma be calm.

He felt waves travel through his body, and he felt the pain in him lessen. Maybe this one wasn't that bad. Neko-Ranma shifted forward and concentrated on the chicken now, and only purred a little when this one stretched a hand to gently scratch his chin.

Yes. This one wasn't bad.

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Koryu smiled gently as he scratched Ranma's chin. He was really lucky, having some roast chicken with him. He had just gotten it from the deli a short walk away.

While he tried to give off as much soothing emotions as possible, he looked at the boy's form.

He had two cuts on his fore arms, and he was slightly bruised on his shoulder. His left hand was reddish, probably came across some heat, and the other was shivering slightly.

Koryu resisted the urge to frown. One hand came in contact with heat, and the other with cold? That was strange.

Well, whatever had happened, Ranma obviously was in the control of the Neko-Ken. What was it Kasumi had said? Yes, Akane was the one who could bring him out of it. What else was there? Oh yes, water. Good, Now if he could just find some liquid. It shouldn't be too hard.

He wanted to hurry but decided to let the young man eat. He was eating as if he hadn't eaten much for days, or was that the animal ferocity that he had taken in his current mindset.

Even thought he had been told about the Neko-Ken, Koryu still felt uncomfortable of the thought. Such cases usually mean spirit possession, but after doing a scan of Ranma's ki, Koryu was at a loss.

This was all Ranma, there wasn't anything that was possessing him. That meant that this was a psychological situation.

That was something Koryu had no idea on how to cure, or even help. Treating Ranma like he would treat a stray cat had gotten him this far, but doing that just made Koryu's stomach churn in revulsion.

He was human, not a cat.

Whatever. When Ranma finished eating, Ranma would lead him to some place with cold water. It shouldn't be too hard to splash him, what with his abilities.

He was about to rub Ranma's back when he heard someone land behind him. He quickly turned to see a dark haired girl, dressed in school uniform?

"Um, don't you have a place to be?" Koryu remarked casually, trying to keep Ranma, who, in the arrival of this new person has started hissing again.

"And what are you doing with my Ranma-sama?" the girl asked.

"Your Ranma...sama?"

"Yes, I have been busy, and have not seen my Ranma-sama for much too long a time." She said in a dreamy voice, making an exaggerated display of love and affection. "He must miss me, like I missed him."

Koryu felt his hair stand on end. What was with this girl?

"Look lady," Koryu began, not knowing how to handle situation perfectly. "I don't know the situation too well myself, but I can tell you shouldn't be here. Why not come back in a few hours or something? This isn't the best of times."

He roamed his hands over Ranma's head in an attempt to calm the ever increasing aggravation he could feel in Ranma's stature.

"And what, would you know about a best time? Whenever we meet, it is the best time! Now move, peasant" Kodachi made a shooing motion with a ribbon she had brandished out of one of her sleeve.

Koryu narrowed his eyes towards the girl. Kodachi Kuno, hidden tricks with bombs and other chemical concoctions, and mainly uses a ribbon as a weapon. He let the information he had heard from Kasumi and Ranma trickle into is consciousness.

He didn't want a fight, but if it meant getting Ranma out of this situation, he might have to.

Leaving Ranma in this state with the girl was out of the question. How she couldn't see that Ranma was not comfortable with her.

"Look. Ranma's not himself right now. Please, just leave. Can't you see he's not comfortable with you right now?"

"How dare- How Dare you try and command me, Kodachi Kuno, you peasant. " Kodachi flashed her eyes angrily. "Don't you dare tell me of Ranma-sama's feelings for me either. I already know them, and if he's not himself, then its my duty to see to his welfare. Now more or I will make you"

Was this girl demented? Or just retarded?

"Look," Koryu added with some asperity, and leaped out of the way as a ribbon attack swathed his previous position. He shot a quick glance to the right, confirming that Ranma had also moved out of the way.

Just great! And I had just calmed the guy down, Koryu thought sourly. Ranma going into the Neko-ken was not a completely disastrous event, he wondered. It had apparently happened before, and a few people had gotten away with a little more than some bruises – or scratches in this case.

Koryu could just leave, and let the girl take care of the situation. He would have too, had he not sensed the incredible rage coming from the cat induced martial artist.

Koryu leveled a sharp glance at Ranma, and saw him growling on all fours, arching his back. Even then, it might have been alright. Neko-Ranma could just run away, from where Koryu could track him, if needed.

That idea didn't build any static though, when Neko-Ranma started emitting a high level of energy. First it was just being dispersed, then it started slowly swirling around him.

Oh shit. The cat side had somehow learned how to harness the ki instead of just letting it off. Should Ranma choose to attack, that girl wouldn't get away with only a few bruises.

As he feared, Neko-Ranma instantly launched into an attack. How stupid the girl could be, he didn't know, but he considered her to be quite mentally retarded if she was running towards Ranma with open arms in THAT state.

It was obvious the feral boy had vicious intentions.

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"Ranma-sama! "Kodachi twirled her ribbon happily when she saw Ranma starting to run towards her. "Oh! I knew you must have missed me so! Here I have pr-"suddenly her view was blocked the dark haired peasant's back as he suddenly shoved her away. She momentarily stopped to wonder how he had gotten past her defenses without even alerting her of his movements?

She narrowed her eyes, and stepped back. "You wish to come in-between my and my Ranma-sama? Stand away peasant, or I will force you to understand why one mustn't cross the Black Rose."

"Must you ignore my advice?" The man said calmly. There was diminutive amount of vapor or fog rising around him, followed by a hissing and meowing sound. Kodachi stared hard and readied another attack.

"What are you doing to my Ranma-sama?" She asked, angry.

"Me? He's the one who's injured me." There was a measure of amusement in the man's voice. "Look, I said it once. I'll say it again. Please leave. After five or ten minutes, you can come back. Just go, alright?"

He sounded like a waiter serving at a five star hotel, what with that politeness.

Kodachi flicked her wrist, following through with her arm, as she directed her sharp ribbon in efforts to move the current obstacle. "I spent all this time making a worthwhile present for my Ranma-sama. I won't let you delay our meeting. Now make your leave!"

The man simply twisted slightly and lashed out with an arm, effortlessly catching the ribbon. He tugged at it, making the strip taught, and spoke again, this time with more brusqueness. "Look, Ranma will attack you in his current state. – "He turned and frowned, staring down at a black rose a few feet away from him.

Kodachi could see and hear Ranma from behind the man as she smiled. Moment's later there was a small explosion, sending black smoke anywhere. Hah! That should take care of the annoyance.

She let the smoke clear before she walked forward, having already taken the antidote. When she saw the man at the street side, coughing, a silly smile tugged at her lips.

"Love, in the end, truly conquers all." She chimed lovingly. "My Ranma-sama, Are you alright? That peasant will not be a problem anymore. It was a paralyzing smoke. Don't worry. Even if you took some in, I have an antidote for you."

"Don't... Don't get near him. I assure you he does NOT return your feelings. He WILL hurt you very badly, if you were to aggravate him any further."

The Kuno Heiress turned a disgruntled face to the man. "You," she acquiesced, "You have no understanding of our love, now watch there, peasant."

"Pfft, I swear. I've never seen someone as demented as you. Just look at him. Does he really look like he wants to see you?"

"Silence!"

Kodachi turned towards her beloved with a smile, and almost reeled back in surprise. Her Ranma was hissing at her like a feral animal. His eyes were completely strange.

"What have you done to my Ranma-sama?" She demanded from the black haired man.

"Nothing. He was like this. You don't know about the Neko-ken?"

"What?"

"Just go away. Get it through your head that he does not like you. Whatever his reactions are right now, prove his feelings." The black haired man said.

'Why was he able to breathe so easily? The paralysis powder normally makes breathing extremely difficult, thus disabling the foe' thought the demented bimbo in the black leotard.

He was not normal.

"And why should I believe you? You are just in a long line of annoying peasants trying to get in me and my Ranma-sama's way!"

The black haired man gave her a solemn look. "Fine, have it your way. I don't know the exact way the Neko-ken works. But I can tell you that HE" the man pointed towards Neko-Ranma, who was slowly making his way towards the Kuno offspring, "does NOT like you."

Kodachi's retort died in her throat the instant she felt something swipe at her face.

It was Ranma. She had felt his aura move, him with it, but it was so fast she could do nothing but reel back in pain of being swiped across the face.

She jumped back, kneeling for a moment to examine the wound with her hand. She was bleeding profusely. She glanced at her present, before turning to look at Ranma advancing at her again.

"But, Ranma-sama. What has happened? Why are you doing this? Did that peasant do this to you?" Kodachi leaped back to the wall using it as a ledge to jump to the opposite side.

Neko-Ranma hissed angrily and moved to attack. Totally in shock at being attacked by her Ranma-sama, Kodachi screwed her eyes shut, but it never came. Only, she felt a sense of... otherness.

She felt a sizzling sound, and felt something sting her cheek. She winced, then opened her eyes to see a cut with a slight amount of clotted blood in an...arm that was holding her. The blood was evaporating?

"Sorry, about that." Her savior said, in a deep apologetic tone. She looked up to see the dark haired man smiling her gently. She glanced around her, upon realizing that they were a-top a previously adjacent building. She felt herself go slightly warm at the close contact she had with her current 'savior'.

"Look." He said calmly, "Your belief's aside, Ranma will hurt you. Now why don't you go and get that cut looked at. I would be grateful if you stayed quiet about this whole affair. I'll take care of Ranma, somehow without hurting him."

Subdued by the subtle force of that request, though was not acquainted with its existence, Kodachi only nodded dumbly, and moved a little distance away, not taking her eyes off the man, when he let her down.

"Go." He commanded softly.

"But, what-"

"Go." He repeated. Koryu narrowed his eyes dangerously towards the girl, and watched in silent satisfaction as she obeyed his word. Not that he was an expert at subliminal mental force, but it should have been easier to force her to away.

He was only instigating his own destruction, he knew. Why must he be forced? His rationale was speaking to him in no silent terms, telling him to leave. He couldn't.

The possibility of watching Ranma from shadows was as good as an earthed lightning rod. That ki... it was too strong.

"Right," he commented with a smirk. "Some water huh?"

Summoning a technique to squeeze some water out of the air to curse the neko-ken away from Ranma, Koryu raised his hand...and promptly flickered out of existence.

A massive dust cloud erupted from his previously occupied position, clearing to show Neko-Ranma angrily hissing towards his right. An instant later, Koryu flickered back into existence, as if light had decided to show his presence again as he slid back at great speeds, grinding his hand into the concrete to stop his rapid backwards movement.

It was no use. Apparently he was no longer on Neko-Ranma's 'allowed to pet me' list anymore.

Not good. A fight was not what Koryu wanted.

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Author's Notes:

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Hey people! Wow, revised…re-done. Blah blah. Actually, this turned out to be different than I had originally emagined. I was about to continue onwards with this chapter, but decided against it. I shall continue onwards with the next one. Its called…wait a second.

"Neko Ken vs Irai Clan – and the Aftermath"

Heh. Hmmz. I have made some changes, but it seemed my pre-reader Grookill, did not fight too many changes to be made. That's good I suppose, but I did add several things to this chapter. I hope this chapter was worth the read, or re-read.

Now, the Christmas and New Years present huh….

I'm sure by now if you look down to the left of this window, you should be able to find a "next" button. That's not a complete chapter. It is what I'm working on right now. Again, its subject to change, and I'm going to continue working on the chapter tomorrow, so you should be able to expect the a posting within 1-2 weeks. That is what I am trying to focus on. Hopefully I'll stick to that. Except on 20th Jan and a little onwards. I'll be busy after that. Gonna travel to Dubai and see my wife…etc etc. Ya'll get the idea.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and will like my little surprise. Take care people.

Syncron-