Disclaimer: About all I've got are rice and two pickles, so I sure as heck don't own this. (Scuffle sound) NO, I DON'T HAVE A DAUGHTER YOU FAT PANDA! (Scuffling)

Ranma-papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Twenty

"She'll be alright, I think. At least no worse off then you would be after using the Neko-ken." Doctor Tofu removed his glasses, considering his words carefully. "Honestly, she's handling it all better then she probably should be. Ukyo's a tough one."

Ranma nodded, sitting back in his seat. They were both sitting in the chiropractor's office, off his lobby, discussing Ranma's "Wife" while Akane and Shampoo were helping her dress. The attack that morning had forced him to seriously consider their lives and how complex they were. He'd also tried to figure out a way to simplify them.

"We can't fight the forces these guys have with me and Ukyo both on the mend." Ranma grudgingly admitted. "The old ghoul can watch the girls, and with the freak over there too I doubt Saffron could threaten them. I just don't know what to do when I get to this dinner." He'd called the number while Tofu was treating Ukyo. Of all the things he'd expected, a cheerful secretary hadn't been it. Two days from now he'd be eating dinner with someone who tried to kill his oldest friend (And third wife. Ukyo was satisfied with that as long as she got to be the cute one, according to Nadoka) and the pig tailed boy didn't anticipate it being a quiet meal.

"Two days isn't enough time for you to heal from those stab wounds. They might be shallow compared to what could have happened, but they are still slow to mend." Tofu sighed. "And Ukyo's going to take even longer. She's got a couple of infections that are flaring back up."

"Damn it doc, there has to be something we can do. Some… weird martial arts doctor trick or something."

"Instant healing is the realm of magic Ranma, and while I'm familiar with the occult, I'm no wizard. I don't know anything that can help you."

"I… wait, magic?" Ranma's eyebrows rose, and then he grinned. "Doc, would you mind crashing at my place. I'd feel better if a guy was there to back up Shampoo and Akane while I was gone."

Tofu listened, and watched as Ranma rose and began to limp for the door. "I can, but where are you going?"

"To see a friend, who probably has no idea who I am."

Ranma was strangely put out that the train ride only took a couple of hours. He'd remembered coming to Rugenzawa the last time, and thanks to how much hiking he'd had to do it had taken a day and a half to catch up to the tomboy.

He limped, less then he should have been but he'd risked actually taking a dose of the pain medications Tofu had prescribed in spite of his general avoidance of chemicals in general (Kodachi had beat that into him.). He felt a little less aware then usual, but all in all it wasn't as bad as he'd feared it could have been.

He hefted the light pack he'd taken the time to pack, and hurried through the village and into the forest with his eyes peeled for any traps. He managed to avoid all but one of them, and that one flung a rock at his head. Painful, but it didn't open up any previously existing wounds. Besides, the pain reliever ironically deadened that as well.

He found the old hut, and nearly punched a hole in the wall when he discovered the note on the door. "We've gone to Hawaii. Come back next week." The note also had yesterdays date on it.

"You've got to be kidding me." Ranma muttered. Wandering around in a woods filled with stupidly huge animals was bad enough, but without a guide it was just nuts. Of course he was going to do it anyway, but still it was crazy.

So the crazy martial art's master limped further into the forest, and towards his goal.

"Troika, are you recovered?" (Troikas boss) asked as the Russian stepped into the room. The bigger man grunted, fingers brushing the bandages covering his healing injuries.

"About as recovered as can be expected." He replied. "Did the boy respond?"

"He did, and we arranged to meet in two days. I'm hoping we can come to some sort of understanding. What of the other girls."

"The survivors have all been delivered on time, and I've… rewarded their trainers." Troika smiled darkly. "None of them seemed happy with their rewards, but I doubt you'll hear any complaints."

The mastermind of the whole situation nodded, sitting back in the comfortable leather desk chair he occupied, folding his hands in his lap. "Then the time draws near. It's interesting to me that he would choose the night it's self to meet with us. I suspect there is something prophetic about that."

"Perhaps, but what's that mean for the plan, and ourselves?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."

"Why the heck didn't he take anyone with him if it was that dangerous?" Stephanie demanded of Akane Tendo, when the shorter haired girl explained where Ranma Saotome had disappeared to. "I mean, setting aside rather I even believe you about the giant animals, which I'm not sure I do. How could he be crazy enough to think he can handle a trip through the wilderness when he's in as bad a shape as he is right now?"

"Cause he's an idiot." Akane assured the American. "I offered to go, and god knows I know that forest better then him but he wouldn't hear of it. He said something about wanting as many people here as possible to protect the girls, but still…"

"Shampoo knows husband too stubborn for words… but even for him, this is pushing it." Shampoo muttered, concern causing a bit of her old speech patterns to slip into the conversation. "But he has a point, the girls need the protection. Too, too many ninjas attacked our house, and could attack here."

After discussing strategies for protecting the girls, it had been decided that everyone would move into the Tendo Dojo as a fairly defensible location. "How's Maria settling in, by the way." Akane asked.

"She's about as well as you might expect considering her life up till we found her." Stephanie sighed. "Frankly I'd have been happier if she'd gotten upset about the move after she'd just gotten settled in, but dad says she just calmly packed her back pack and was ready to go in an hour. How the heck have you worked such magic with Himeko."

Nodoka, who'd been sipping tea while the other girls talked around the Tendo dining table, chuckled. "With my son, I'm not surprised. He has a way with women." She winked at the other two Saotome wives. "Also, she got Shi, Shampoo, Cologne, and Kasumi along with him to help."

"Not to mention the world's biggest teddy bear." Akane giggled, pointing outside where the four young girls where playing an energetic, and martial arts oriented variant, of hide and seek with the long suffering 'Mr. Panda' in the backyard. Maria giggled softly as she landed a hit on Genma with the Shanai's they were using to 'tag' the other players, apparently slipping through the bears defenses. "Who knew Mr. Saotome would do so well with little girls? He's a softy at heart."

"Let's ignore Happosai." Cologne cackled as she pogoed in, just in time to see the girls tackle the ancient grandmaster of Anything Goes as he popped out of his own hiding place, ostensibly trying to get away. Granted, none of the Shanai's landed a blow, but the old pervert never did have any luck getting away from martial artist women, even those to young for his 'refined tastes'.

None of the girls noticed the black clad man, hiding in the eves of a house across the street. He was watching the girls, both older and younger, carefully. His Masters would want to know details of how well defended they were.

"Damn, stupid, dragon with a head for a butt!" Ranma yelled, well past the point of making any sense as she, for the martial artists current form was definitely female, dodged the Orachi's seventeenth attempt to devour her.

This time the Saotome heir hadn't bothered with any costumes and instead had just lobbed a Moko Takibasha into the water as a wake up call. It had worked, and managed to severely piss off the dragon thing.

In spite of the annoying situation he'd found himself in, the pigtailed martial artist smiled even as the unsuspecting monster lined up for the eighteenth attempt at her soft, delicate flesh.

Like clockwork the monster dove forward with all it's mobile heads, and for all the world it seemed, from it's perspective, that the tasty snack hasn't noticed the latest attack. It didn't bother taking to close of a look at where she was standing.

At the last moment Ranma jumped straight up into the air and let the heads plow straight into a rock outcropping. Half a second after the impact, the rock shelf in question dropped onto the heads, trapping the whole monster, the cries of the butt head (Ranma chuckled to herself at that thought) the only noise the monster managed to make.

Almost negligently Ranma walked over and brushed the broom she'd brought over it's nose, then walked away whistling.

An hour later he sighed, now male, as he removed the poultice he'd made from his now fully healed leg. Ranma looked at the watch he'd bought in the train station before leaving Nerima, and growled. He'd only barely have enough time to clean up once he got home before heading out to this dinner. But it couldn't be helped.

Troika looked at the group of ninja's his employer had sent with him carefully. There were twenty of them, twenty of the best, and he still wasn't sure if they'd be enough. It was past midnight however, and surprise would be on their side.

"Fetch our Master his property. Recover the girls."

They moved in unison at the order, jumping over the walls of the Tendo Dojo.

AN:Okay, a loong time in coming, but here is the next chapter. Ironically I thought I'd already posted the first half of this. Who knew?