Chapter Fourteen

Ranma had intended to only wait an hour for Cologne before going back out in the storm to go get her, but somehow he had missed that. 'Oh crap, I fell asleep.' He thought as he regained consciousness, feeling much better rested now. 'Wait, where did I sleep?'

He tried to sit up, but a heavy weight kept him down. Looking at his chest he saw purple-hair on him, and the memory came back.

-Flashback-

"Airen?" Shampoo called out, poking her head out of her room.

"Yeah?" Ranma replied, sitting down in the hall because he didn't really have anywhere else to be. He was just glad that his pack had held up and had some dry clothes to put on.

"You can come in if want, is okay."

Naturally the young man's first response was to deny the invitation, but he couldn't make himself say no. Once he thought about it, he realized he didn't really have a reason to refuse. 'It's not like Akane's my fiancee anymore, so she has no right to complain about anything. And I'd rather not wait out here in the hall doing nothing.'

With that he got up and went into her room. Shampoo was now seated on her futon with the blankets wrapped around her, her body still lightly shivering.

"You still cold?" Ranma asked, knowing it was a dumb question.

Shampoo nodded. "Airen keep Shampoo warm please?" She requested, moving the blankets enough to give Ranma a chance to get under with her so they could share body heat. In that moment he saw she was wearing teal pajamas, like she was getting ready for bed.

Feeling a bit chilled himself still despite the shower, making him wonder if the buildings heat was turned off or if the storm itself was making the whole place colder, Ranma chose to settle in under the blankets with the purple-haired girl.

-End Flashback-

'We must have fallen asleep waiting for the old ghoul to get back.' Ranma concluded. He glanced towards the window and saw the sun was shining brightly. 'Okay, the storm is over, but what time is it?' Looking around he saw a digital clock on the dresser that read 8:12 AM. 'We slept all night? Did the old woman even come back?'

Ranma made Shampoo get off him so he could get up and check for Cologne. Not seeing her in the room, Ranma exited the room and checked the rest of the restaurant, starting with the room at the end of the hall.

It was empty and half the size of Shampoo's room, and if the glasses and folded white robes were any clue this was Mousse's room. Ranma closed the door and walked away, briefly wondering where Mousse was too. Then he went downstairs, where he saw Cologne seated and sipping on tea. But there was one rather unexpected site, and that was Happosai across from her eating a cracker.

Ranma tripped over his own feet at the shock of seeing Happosai of all people here, and going downstairs while he was doing it only made it worse. And when he fell on his face on the hardwood floor neither of the old people came to check up on him, though they did acknowledge his presence.

"Good morning Son-in-law."

"Hey Sonny, sleep well next to a pretty girl for once? I knew you had it in you."

"What are you doing here you creepy lech? And did you find the game old ghoul?" Ranma yelled, trying to ignore the full-body ache he was feeling.

Cologne responded first. "Unfortunately Son-in-law, I could not track down the game."

"WHAT?" Ranma yelled.

Cologne looked strongly remorseful. "I don't know how I could have missed it but I did. It's possible I underestimated the size of the pipes in the canal or maybe the game is trapped underwater somewhere, but I couldn't find it."

"It's unlikely you will now anyway. Not without the pendant." Happosai added.

Ranma missed what Happosai said and just hit the floor in anger. "Dammit! We can't do anything until we get the game back!"

"Ranma, not all is hopeless." Happosai told him.

"What do you know you panty thief?!" Ranma glared.

Happosai didn't look affected. "I know all about Heian Conglin. You see, I once played the game too."

Ranma's anger disappeared immediately upon hearing that, replaced by stupor. "What? You played the game before?"

Happosai nodded. "Yep, long ago when I was eighteen. It's a long story, so go get your fellow player awake so you both can hear what I have to warn you about."

Ranma got up but he didn't look convinced. "You know after all the crap you've put me thru I'm not sure I'm willing to take advice from you on this of all things."

Happosai frowned deeply, so much so that even without his battle aura he looked intimidating. "Ranma, Heian Conglin ruined my life once. I'm not about to let it do that again, not if I can stop it. Think whatever you want about me, but when it comes to this cursed game I am more serious than you've ever seen me be before."

Somehow, looking at Happosai right then and there, Ranma could believe it. It was as if for once Ranma could believe Happosai was more than a short old man who liked young girl bodies and clothes a little too much for comfort. Ranma nodded and went upstairs.

Four minutes later he and Shampoo came down with Shampoo still in her pajamas. Happosai certainly was tempted to glomp her in his normal manner but he restrained himself with much effort.

"Go ahead and sit children, this may take a while." Cologne advised. Ranma and Shampoo sat down at the next table, chairs turned to face the two elders. "I tried my hardest to reacquire the game last night but the flood made that impossible. I am sorry. Fortunately the storm has passed although the streets are still flooded, but I suspect this wasn't a one-time occurrence."

"Why?" Shampoo asked.

"The inscription implied the storm would happen again if the game took a long time to complete. Not often, but again for sure. Anyway, while I was searching I ran into Happy and he greatly surprised me."

The two teens turned to the old man wondering how he had surprised the old woman. Happosai finished up his cracker before he answered. "I came right up to her and asked who was playing the game."

"Then I asked what game to test him after my initial confusion faded, and he knew I was bluffing. He even mentioned Heian Conglin by name and said he recognized what was going on and needed to know who was playing." Cologne continued.

"You know game?" Shampoo asked.

Happosai nodded. "It's the part of my life I'm the least proud of, but yes, I played the game myself when younger. The game... I'll never forget what it did to me. I had hoped it would never be used again. And yet fate saw fit for my disciple to become the next player."

"If you beat it I'm sure we can." Ranma claimed.

Happosai looked at him like he was about to give bad news. "Ranma boy, I said I played it. I never said I beat it."

That confused the two teens. "Wait, you found a way to stop playing?"

Happosai nodded. "Yes, and I've regretted it every day since. I wish I had finished the game instead."

"Why?" Both teens asked.

Happosai sighed. "Let me start from the beginning. I told you once that when I was eighteen I was in China, especially in Joketsuzoku for a time. Now, I wasn't exactly the most liked guy in the village..." He ignored the eye-rolls of his audience. "There was one girl who did like me. She was Soap, my first real love."

Shampoo suddenly felt she was supposed to know the name. "Why that sound familiar?"

"She was my sister." Cologne answered, surprising Ranma and Shampoo, who now recalled them name.

Happosai nodded. "Yeah, Soap was a fine young lady. Even more beautiful than Cologne was. No offense."

If Cologne was offended she didn't say anything about it. "She was beautiful, and quite gifted a martial arts too. Sometimes even better than me. Not something I was proud of given I was a year older, but she was strong. Her one flaw if I had to say she had one was that she tended to follow her own rules more than she probably should have." She gave Happosai a pointed glance, as if to implicate him in that point.

Happosai ignored it, but he did look guilty. "One day when we were on one of our dates outside the village, she suggested we play a game. She had Heian Conglin with her, she said it was a game made specifically for martial artists to challenge each other outside their comfort zone. Curious and not knowing any better, I went along with it. Then we found out exactly how Heian Conglin challenged martial artists."

"So this game does come from the Amazons?" Ranma asked, then looked at Cologne.

"Son-in-law I've never heard of the game before you two started playing it. I wasn't even aware my sister had anything to do with it." Her eyes widened then she turned to Happosai. "Happy, is this why she's gone?"

Happosai nodded. "I tried to explain it to you back then Cologne, but you were too much grief to really listen and chased me out to the point I could never come back, and with that I ended up leaving the game behind. I had hoped your village would have destroyed the game by now. I'm not surprised you didn't know the truth, given your emotional trauma and the fact you weren't yet an elder. There's no way you could have known about the game."

"Wait, what are we missing here?" Ranma asked.

"Sorry, I got distracted for a moment." Happosai said. "Anyway, me and Soap played the game as best we could, surviving the challenges the game threw at us. I don't remember each and every threat we faced, but the jungle plants were one of them. One thing you must know about the plants, they follow the players. No matter where the players go, the jungle will follow you two. Even more when you two are together. The jungle will spread out in all directions, as if it wants to take over the world, but wherever you two are going it will spread the most. And where the plants go, the animals and disasters are going to follow too."

"I don't remember any jungle around my home. Ever." Cologne stated.

Happosai sighed. "Even though I was chased out, I looked around and discovered no one remembered what had happened after I stopped the game. No one but me. As far as you and the rest of the Jusendo area was concerned it never happened. All you did know was that Soap was gone."

"What happen to her?" Shampoo asked.

Happosai looked like he wanted to cry. "After the two of us were nearly killed by forest fire from the game, among other threats, I had a moment of weakness. I wanted to get the game done and over with right away, but we were only halfway thru the game. I sought out help from the Amazons on how to stop the game and one of them offered me a way. She gave me an emerald pendant, saying it was connected to the game and would allow the possessor to have some control and immunity from the challenges. Not total immunity, but some, and if the game got lost the pendant would draw the game back to whoever held the pendant. But best of all, if a player had the pendant, they could use it to force the game to end early."

"Sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card?" Cologne asked.

Happosai nodded. "Only not as nice. I used the pendant to force the game to end. It worked, everything that came from the game or happened because of the game was gone, as if it never happened. When I checked the calendar, I saw I had even gone back in time to the day Soap and I started playing. So I figured that was why Cologne and the others didn't know what had happened, because technically nothing did. That timeline was erased."

"Wait, so you're saying that when Shampoo and I finish the game, we're going to go back to the day we started it?" Ranma asked.

"I believe so, and you two will be the only ones to remember anything that happened since you started."

"Then let's go get that pendant and end it before more people get hurt. Even if it will all be undone there's no reason it has to happen in the first place." Ranma stated.

Happosai shook his head. "Absolutely not! You must finish the game the right way!"

"Why?"

"It's because ending the game early comes with a price." Happosai announced. "I used the pendant. I was the one who got out of the game. But Soap..."

Cologne gasped in horror once it clicked together in her mind. "It didn't include her. She disappeared with everything else, didn't she?"

Happosai's mournful expression was answer enough, but he spoke anyway. "Yes, I was spared, but she wasn't." He then looked at the two teens firmly. "That is why you must not use the pendant. Only one of you could escape the game then, and the one who does escape will forever regret it. The one who doesn't... I don't know what happens to them. Probably trapped in the jungle forever."

That sent a chill down Ranma and Shampoo's spines. The idea that they could stop all this early but at the cost of one of the lives of the other... it had as much appeal as eating Akane's cooking, maybe even less.

"Shampoo no sacrifice Ranma to game. Shampoo beat game hard way if have to." The purple-haired Amazon declared.

Ranma nodded. "Agreed."

Cologne was silent in thought. 'Soap disappeared because of the game? I remember her going off with Happy one day and never returning. And I just knew he was responsible for it. I thought he left her behind somewhere dangerous or even killed her, so I never gave him a real chance to explain the situation. If this is true, then he just made an honest mistake.'

Happosai looked relieved to hear Ranma and Shampoo say what they did. "Good. Now I know you two don't like me much but I want to help you in this. It's what Soap would have wanted."

"How can you help us?" Ranma asked, a hint of skepticism obvious.

"I'm a former player. Who better than me to give you guidance in all this?" He replied, and Ranma couldn't think of an effective counter to that. "First, tell me what the game has already thrown at you."

Shampoo starting listing off what she could recall. "Snakes, bees, spiders, tiger, monkeys, stampede, boars, trees, and storm. Did Shampoo miss any?"

Ranma shook his head. "Oh, it did turn my old man into a panda when he tried to destroy it and he couldn't change back."

"Hmm... never saw anything like that before." Happosai said. "Anyway, those things you listed are manageable but only the beginning. You better believe me when I tell you it's going to get a whole lot worse."

"How much worse?" Cologne asked.

"Soap and I were once chased by cannibals during the game. Also, the main reason I wanted to end the game ahead of time was some giant mosquitoes bit her and gave her what I believe to be some form of malaria and I just knew she wouldn't survive long enough to finish the game. And if she died, the game could never end."

"Wait, wouldn't that be game over instead?" Ranma asked.

Happosai shook his head. "Heian Conglin doesn't work that way. The only way to truly beat it is for both players to make it to the end, and the game sends out challenges in order to keep you from succeeding. Remember, like most challenges it has to try and keep you from winning. Though fortunately as a game it has to be possible to win without cheating."

"How do you know that?" Cologne asked. "Not everything you're saying sounds like you learned thru experience, but rather like you were instructed."

"The Amazons that gave me the pendant told me. I don't remember much about her, but Soap said this girl gave her the game in the first place, thinking it was a normal game. I sought her out and she went thru some old documents telling me about the game in full detail. She then gave me the emerald pendant to end the game early, but she probably missed the part where it only lets one player escape. At least I hope so, I'd hate to think she wanted such a result."

"Who is this Amazon? If she's still alive maybe we can find her and learn more about this." Cologne asked.

Happosai closed his eyes and thought hard. "It's fuzzy, but I think her name was... it started with a P."

"At least we have a lead." Cologne said. "And with the storm gone you two can go back out and try to find the game yourselves if you want."

Ranma nodded. "Alright, but while you're here, there's something I want straightened out." Everyone looked at him curiously. "Shampoo said something about how you guys were testing me and you could explain it best. Just what did she mean by that?"

Cologne looked to Shampoo who started speaking to her great-grandmother in Mandarin to properly tell her the situation. After she finished, Cologne nodded and turned to Ranma. "Son-in-law, I had hoped not to tell you this as I worried it would give you the wrong opinion of us, but given the situation the two of you are in you probably should know the truth."

Ryoga woke up and stretched his limbs, grateful to be human again. Last night he stumbled upon a closed bathhouse and went inside for shelter, and lucky him there was still some hot water in it. Apparently it had been closed in a hurry, likely because of the impending jungle. With no one around Ryoga decided to simply bunk there.

After rubbing his eyes he gazed upon the pendant Perfume had given him along with the game, saying the two were connected, and saw it was lightly glowing for a moment. 'That's odd. I wonder what it means.'

After getting ready he stepped outside and saw how much Nerima had changed. Jungle foliage was everywhere, now it looked like the city had been built into it rather than the other way around. The streets were covered in water like a marsh, with debris both natural and man-made floating in it. Some people were outside trudging thru the water trying to get somewhere, and oddly enough people in army outfits were guiding them.

'The armed forces are here? Things must be getting really bad.' Ryoga thought before reaching into his pack to grab some galoshes, nifty things for Jusenkyo-cursed people. When he went to put them on he saw, of all things, the game Heian Conglin floating in the water not far from his reach.

'How'd that get here? Did Ranma lose it?' The lost boy thought as he put on his shoes and waded into the waters to grab the game. 'Hmm... if he doesn't have it, he can't finish it. Maybe I should let him suffer with the jungle a little longer.' He gained a bit of a wicked smile at the thought. 'And for once, he'll be the one forced to trek thru the wilderness to find me. Let's see how he likes it.'

"Excuse me young man." A soldier's voice called out, snapping Ryoga out of his revenge-based fantasy of Ranma struggling futilely thru an Asian jungle to find his rival. If Ranma ever found out Ryoga had the game in his possession that is.

"Yes sir?"

"This whole district is being evacuated. We don't fully understand what's going on but we will soon have it under control. The animals will be captured and relocated, the trees will be removed properly, and property damage will be covered. But for now all residents of Nerima must vacate the town and find shelter elsewhere. Do you have kin in other parts of Tokyo or Japan?"

Ryoga nodded. "Yeah, my home's somewhere else. But maybe I can help you."

"Just leave this to us son and everything will be alright." The soldier replied.

"Actually, I think I know who started this whole thing in the first place. If you get them, you could stop them from ruining the city more or spreading it to another one." Ryoga said, evil laughter in his mind at the thought.

The soldier seemed surprised but not dismissive of Ryoga's words this time. "You're saying a person is responsible for all this? How?"

"Find Ranma Saotome and you'll get your answer. You may have to arrest him first though. He's likely to put up a fight."