Standard disclaimer here. Un-betaed.

Ranma opened up his eyes slowly, the unfamiliar ceiling coming into view. He blinked a few times, then sat up, looking around the unfamiliar room. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was being pulled away from the king and queen, and seeing Yuuko and his father. He couldn't be back in that accursed mirror?

Standing up made Ranma stagger. He shook his head, placing his hand on a nearby wall to keep himself up. He frowned then, looking at his hand and clenching it. He felt differnt, and his surroundings felt oddly flat. A mirror, he decided, he needed a mirror. Fortunately there was one outside his room, a little piece almost for decoration than practicality.

The face that stared back at him looked subtly differnt in ways that Ranma couldn't name. He seemed older somehow, yet at the same time he looked ageless. No pointed ears though, but his eyes seemed to draw your gaze in and keep it locked on you. Ranma had to blink a few times just to keep himself from staring. He wasn't inside the mirror at least, and he was in the human world by his reckoning.

So where was he?

Ranma began to walk down the hallway, looking at the sun slowly rise through the window. He smiled at it, the world felt a bit less real to him yes, but he could deal with that. Seeing the sun rise cleared any thoughts that he might have been still stuck with that king and queen.

His first clue for where he was was the sight of his father sleeping on a couch. Ranma smirked at his snoring father, blinking his eyes to clear a vague afterimage. Ranma blinked again when the afterimage didn't disappear. It wasn't obvious, but it was like seeing some color out of the corner of your eye. After a moment of focusing Ranma tilted his head in thought. It looked sorta like a panda..

He was seeing the curse? Then why wasn't he seeing his when he looked at himself? Clenching a hand and looking at the fist resolved nothing, all he could see was an odd very faint 'glitter,' so Ranma decided to experiment. Going into the kitchen he ran a faucet and placed his hand under the cold water. Nothing, no change whatsoever. He no longer had his curse.

Ranma blinked suddenly wet eyes. So that was why he was in an unfamiliar house. He was cured, and no longer Yuuko's knight. Ranma took a deep breath, looking at his hands. A strange mix of emotions ran through Ranma, and he took a deep breath to calm them. He was happy, almost euphorically so that his curse was gone, he was sad that Yuuko was gone, and a bit angry too.

Bah, too much thinking. Ranma smirked to himself. He would deal with what he was feeling later. For now at least he needed to vent, and there was the perfect form of payback right on the couch.

One open window, and a perfect lineup later, and Genma went sailing out of the window with a perfect field goal kick.

"What the?" Genma asked himself from face first in the ground.

"Oh what have I done to be cursed with such a lazy good for nothing father?" Ranma's voice called mockingly from in front of him.

"Ranma?!" Genma, got to his feet. "Oh what an ungrateful boy you are! Making your father worry so!"

"Aww stuff it pops." Ranma snickered, standing with his hands behind his back. "I need a good spar, unfortunately you are all that is available. Try not to get your ass handed to you too fast alright?"

"Humph." Genma growled out. "Let me see how much your skills have gone without your father there to keep you in shape."

Ranma laughed and met his father at the halfway point.

What followed next was an interesting change in their normal sparring matches. Where before they had both been fast and furious, with both Saotomes bouncing all over the place like demented bouncing balls, now Ranma moved differently. It wasn't that easy to tell, but he moved slightly faster here, placed a punch slightly stronger there. But above all, he moved more gracefully, going from one stance to the other with far smoother motions than he had ever done before. That didn't mean that his father was slacking, but in the end Ranma got through the battle with a few bruises while Genma was on the ground gasping.

"Better boy," Genma grunted out, getting to his feet. "Far better than you were when you left."

"I don't think its all me though." Ranma looked worriedly at his hands. "I feel differnt."

"Eh, its still human. From what Yuuko told me, you managed to avoid any serious contamination, but Fae marks its visitors." Genma began to enter the house.

"Fae was it?" Ranma looked up, following his father.

"You will be fine boy." Genma smirked at his son. "Now quit being a girl about it."

Ranma stuck out his tounge. "Doesn't work on me anymore pop. No more curse!"

They both would have continued their banter if a woman had appeared at that point, grabbing Ranma in a hug with a wide smile. "Oh, my baby boy! I am so glad you have finally come back to me."

Ranma looked panicked at the glomp, looking to his father with wide eyes. Genma put a finger to his lips and mouthed slowly the word 'mother.'

"Ummm, hi mom?" Ranma asked and greeting the woman at the same time.

"Look at you, all grown up, and so handsome!" The woman smiled at him, completely missing how uncomfortable she was making Ranma. "You must have the ladies flocking to you all the time."

"Yeah.." Ranma trailed off, looking at his father stand in the corner.

"Oh, you must be hungry! I will hurry up and fix you something." The woman smiled and dashed off.

"Pops?" Ranma blinked at his father as his mother rushed into the kitchen.

"Your mother boy." Genma grimaced slightly.

"Yeah, I got that, but was she ignoring you or is that just me??" Ranma looked at the kitchen and listened to the sounds come from inside it.

Genma grimaced, looking into the kitchen. "Your mother and I... We have a strained relationship. It's not something that I wish to talk about, and it was around since before you were born."

"Alright then?" Ranma trailed off as Genma began to slowly leave. He blinked again as his mother ran rushed him inside the kitchen, completely ignoring Genma again.

That night found Ranma on the roof, almost wishing that he could see the stars over the bright lights of the city. Apparently another one of the affects of his little trip was that the darkness really didn't effect him anymore. It made him surprisingly restless after everyone had gone to sleep.

Spending the day with his mother was almost bittersweet. He felt like a child again under her constant presence, and to be honest it grated. He was getting the feeling that she was looking for the little boy that left with his father, and was fooling herself into finding it.

The real thing though that made him restless was there was no Yuuko, no annoying Maru and Moro. Heck he was even starting to miss the little marshmallow things that had attacked every now and again. Ranma chuckled slightly, it was not as if he couldn't visit right?

With that he got to his feet and began to bound across the city. It took but a few moments, but when he reached the address of where Yuuko was, and found it empty.

For a moment he gaped in disbelief, before verifying that yes, the place where Yuuko's shop had been was completely empty. Instead, there was a vacant lot.

Ranma's face contorted into a variety of different emotions before settling on a sort of rage. Snarling slightly Ranma smashed the ground where the building once was, cratering the ground in a terrific dislpay of strength. Finally he sighed and looked up to the sky.

"So that's how it is?" Ranma asked himself.

For a moment he was tempted to give up, but Ranma steeled himself. That Yuuko had moved her shop only meant that she was planning something. Probably something that she didn't want him involved in. Ranma knew her, far better than she realized probably, and if there was one thing he was never going to do was allow her to go into danger without him.

Ranma grinned to himself, getting to his feet and beginning to run back to his mother's home. He had only agreed for one year of being her knight in exchange for her to remove the curse. He was just going to make a new deal.

Jumping into his window, Ranma stopped short when he spotted his father's form on his bed.

"Pops?"

Genma sighed, taking a swig out of his bottle. "You are going off, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess." Ranma felt like a child who had just gotten into trouble.

"Good luck then boy. Send a letter every now and again," Genma replied throwing a pack at Ranma. "And don't worry about your mother."

Ranma looked from the pack to his father. "Huh?"

Genma said nothing, just leaving the room and taking another swig on the bottle of alcohol he had.

Finally shrugging to himself, Ranma shouldered the pack and jumped out of the window again. He chuckled briefly, it was all well and good to say he was going to Yuuko's shop, but it was harder than it sounded. However, he remembered something from that trial he had. Something about feeling the way the world worked? Diana had made it sound so easy, but Ranma knew that there was more to it.

He would get it, he wouldn't lose to something as simple as moving a shop.

Yuuko's shop seemed subdued somehow. The doors were closed and locked, and the inhabitants were not in their beds. Instead Yuuko was cuddled up with Maru and Moro in the living room. It looked like the girls had been crying, and Yuuko looked sad, clutching the girls almost desperately.

A figure entered the house, looking at the three curled up around one another, before shaking his head. He reached down gently to pick up a wine glass that had fallen out of Yuuko's hand and went into the kitchen. A soft clink of a glass being set down sounded out, and the figure made his way back to the three, holding a blanket and draping it over them.

In time the sun began to rise, and began to shine on the three sleeping females. Maru began to wake up first, blinking and rubbing her eyes cutely. Her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of something sitting at the open door. Her eyes widened and she then shrieked out in pure delight.

"RANMA!!" The following glomp was of epic proportions.

Moro snapped awake and looked at her twin. Her shiek was just as loud as she joined her sister.

Ranma laughed out loud, holding the two girls and spinning them around merrily.

Yuuko groaned as she dragged herself awake. She still felt drunk and had a splitting headache. The shrieking twins didn't help the matter. However when her eyes opened she blinked in shock. "Ranma.."

"Heyya Yuuko." Ranma set the twins down and knelt next to her. "How are you?"

Yuuko simply reached out, cupping Ranma's face, then wrapped her arms around him. "It is good to see you." A few tears fell down her face. "Very good to see you."

"And thus a new player enters the battlefield." A mans voice rang out, as the view shifted from Ranma's empty house to the Funakrin High School. "I almost feel sorry for that witch. There were two paths open to her. To see the one she loved happy and safe, but to never know him, or to know him, and know that he will die." A deep sinister laugh rang out. "What do you think Xing?"

Xing stood next to the man, remaining silent as she watched the view flicker briefly to Akane. She honestly could not answer the same question.

"It doesn't matter. Apparently one of the paths was never open at all." The view flickered out.