Ukyo's Reason

Thanks for the Feedback: Deus X Machina, GoldenRat, Dragon Man 180, Otritzi, borg rabbit, Fionn the Otaku, Wonderbee31, JakeTheSheepy, sandcrawlr, Jonakhensu, The Violent Tomboy, Silver Warrior, Dias of All Final, Xtor49, Hisshou, Katie, kazhdu

Disclaimer: Characters and setting are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihiro Togashi, I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

"He took Kasumi," Soun said in disbelief. No one, but no one harassed the eldest of the Tendo girls. She was simply too nice to be involved the normal Nerimian games.

Keiko and Kuwabara were clustered around Yusuke. "Was that like what happened with Sensui?" Kuwabara asked in a soft voice.

Yusuke hesitated. "Yeah," he said. Keiko looked at him sharply, certain that he'd lied.

"Hiei had it right," Yusuke said loudly. "Now we've got two people to rescue. We're gonna have to split up."

"I'm rescuing Ranchan," Ukyo said.

"You fought that Pantyhose-guy," Kuwabara said. "How good is he?"

"He'd give Bui a good work out if Bui were armored up, but I'll bet Pantyhose-boy is used to being the biggest and baddest around. He freaked when he realized I could out muscle him; I could practically taste it." Yusuke winced as he remembered licking Pantyhose Taro's blood off his hands – and liking the taste.

Kuwabara and Keiko gave him worried looks.

"Hiei's gonna clean the floor with him," Yusuke concluded frankly. "He took Bui at the Dark Tournament and we've all gotten a lot stronger fighting Sensui. Besides, the guy's like the rest of the Nerimians, he ain't gonna be able to cope with Hiei."

"I'll go after Saotome," Kuwabara decided.

"I-I'll-I," Akane stammered.

"He took Kasumi," Soun repeated.

"We'll make sure Kasumi-chan gets home okay," Atsuko said volunteering both herself and Soun.

Akane looked relieved at the knowledge that her dad was going after Kasumi. She walked across the room to join Kuwabara and Ukyo. "Take care of Kasumi, Dad," she said.

"I'm going with Akane," Ryoga declared.

"Guess I'm with them," Shizuru said as she wrapped the end of Ryoga's leash around her wrist.

"I'll keep Minamino-san company," Keiko said.

"I'm staying here," Nabiki said. "Call me if you lose either of them, because I won't. I already called my normal Pantyhose-spotters; the bird-watchers club has a good enough network to track him anywhere in Tokyo and they owe me. Beyond that - well he does tend to travel as the crow flies."

"Somebody's gotta chaperon these two," Yusuke said as he went to stand by his mother and Soun.

Kuwabara grabbed him by the collar and yanked him backward. "I thought you said Hiei could handle it," he whispered.

"Hiei can but I don't think I ought ta fight anyone human 'till I get a handle on this," Yusuke said quietly. "Look, I'll call Genkai and tell her you needed some back up after all."

"I do not," Kuwabara protested, but not too vigorously. His sister was the only person on his team who he'd seen fight before and Shizuru wasn't really a combatant. Still – "Look Urameshi, if you're that out of it maybe you should be the one talking to Genkai."

Yusuke grinned tightly. "You might be right," he said.

"Well? What are we'll wasting time here for?" Atsuko demanded.

Kasumi frowned. "Taro, put me down and change back to your human form," she ordered in her best 'stern' voice; what it lacked in actual sternness she more than made up through the guilt-trip factor. Kasumi's disapproval was something everyone associated with the Nerimian Wrecking Crew was loath to incur.

Taro quickly deposited her in his hideout then went outside to get some water from the nearby hot springs.

"It's inappropriate to involve other people in your fights," Kasumi scolded him.

"Sorry," Taro said. "I didn't have much of a choice. That guy wasn't human."

"Yusuke-kun? Well, no, but that doesn't make him a bad person."

"He was going to eat me!" Taro exclaimed.

"He's still getting used to his new power levels. I'm sure he didn't mean to frighten you. He just got a bit carried away," Kasumi assured Taro.

"I wasn't afraid of him," Taro protested reflexively.

"Of course not," Kasumi agreed politely. "Still, I've been meaning to speak with you about a few things, now is as good of time as ever. Grandfather Happosai really did mean well when he named you. He just has – unfortunate – tastes. It hurts him that you dislike the name he gave and so he gets stubborn when you demand that he change it."

"He only lives to torment me!" Taro declared.

"Oh no, Grandfather also enjoys his games with Ranma, Father and Uncle Saotome," Kasumi said. "And of course there is his other – hobby." She blushed at having to mention Happosai's panty-raids, even obliquely.

"Pantyhose Taro!" Hiei shouted from outside. "Let the human go and I'll let you go."

A Few Moments Earlier…

Hiei landed and immediately headed some water for himself and Shampoo. Once they were free of their cursed forms he stalked up to the front door of Taro's hideout. "Pantyhose Taro!" he shouted. "Let the human go and I'll let you go."

"Don't call me Pantyhose!" Taro shouted charged at the diminutive demon.

Hiei leapt over Taro as he charged. He glanced questioningly at Shampoo while Taro splashed himself.

"Is bad name," Shampoo explained. "Pantyhose is woman's undergarment."

"Hn," Hiei sniffed. Shampoo wasn't sure if he was showing disdain for Pantyhose Taro's over-reaction to his name or to him not just calling himself something different. She knew Hiei had little respect for arbitrary rules or for hysterics.

Taro reached for Hiei. For his size Taro was fast, and he had limbs to spare, but Hiei was faster. He wove nimbly between Taro's grasping tentacles. Taro squirted ink at Hiei and Hiei ended up blinded and skidding across the ground. He still sensed Taro's follow up strike and the slide was more controlled than Taro had realized. Hiei's free hand plunged through the slippery liquid and found traction in the dirt beneath. He flung himself back and Taro and relieved the cursed creature of a few of those extra limbs. Taro crashed to his knees as he bellowed in shock and pain. Three of his tentacles hit the ground a few moments later.

Hiei remained on guard until he was certain Taro wasn't faking the degree of injury then he calmly splashed the injured monster with hot water. The bleeding stopped as Taro returned to his human form since there were no equivalent appendages for the wounds to be transfer to, but the shock remained.

Kasumi rushed out of the cabin where Taro had dumped her. "Was it really necessary to hurt him so badly?" she demanded.

Hiei glared at her. "I didn't kill him," he said. "Feh, obeying Spirit World directives with regard to stupid humans is more annoying than with the evil ones."

"What directives?" Shampoo asked.

Hiei gave Kasumi a disgusted look as she tended Taro. "It's against the law for demons to kill humans in Human World regardless of circumstances. Technically it's the same in Demon World, but King Enma can't do much to enforce his will there." Hiei turned to Shampoo. "You have the right to defend yourself, including using lethal force against another humans, I don't. I am required to leave idiots like this one and Mu Tze alive no matter how many times they attack me."

"Is not right," Shampoo said with a scowl.

"But you're stronger then they are," Kasumi argued. "You can protect yourself without hurting them too much."

Hiei shrugged. "The Detective managed to defeat me while he was still human. If Saotome fought for real from the beginning instead of trying to treat battle like a game he might be able to kill me. Not all humans are weak."

"Rule applies to Kasumi's Kurama too," Shampoo pointed out quietly.

"Good," Kasumi said firmly. "Killing is wrong. I wouldn't want Shuichi to kill anyone."

Shampoo and Hiei traded a look. "Let the fox deal with it," Hiei murmured under his breath. Shampoo nodded. It wasn't their place to tell Kurama's girlfriend that he held radically different beliefs about the taking of a life.

Hiei glanced at Kasumi critically. "You're not cursed?"

"No. Why?" Kasumi asked.

"We're going to have to walk," he said.

"We can't just leave Taro; he's injured," Kasumi protested.

"His body remembers being injured," Hiei corrected. "In that form he's fine." He bared his teeth wickedly. "I could turn him back and cauterize the wound."

The word cauterize broke through Taro's shock induced stupor and he cringed.

"We can't just leave," Kasumi argued.

Hiei slung the larger Taro over his shoulder and marched into the hut. He tossed Taro on the bed. "Happy? Good. Let's go."

Botan swooped down and resumed her human form. "Wow, it's over already? I guess you didn't need me."

"Is good. Oar-girl can fly Kasumi back," Shampoo suggested.

Botan shook her head. "In this world I can only fly in my spirit form; I only transport spirits, not bodies."

"Ai-yah, was hoping," Shampoo shrugged. "Long walk yes?"

"I'm just saying; if you're gonna get kidnapped a hot guy is the way to go," Shizuru insisted.

"You're disgusting," Akane said.

"No, I'm uninhibited, there's a difference."

"Yeah, you're proud of being disgusting," Akane retorted.

"And you're a little brat who takes pride in being a prude because you don't know what you're missing," Shizuru shot back.

"So-" Ukyo said loudly. "What was up with your friend Urameshi? Pantyhose Taro is a pretty tough customer but Urameshi was eating him for breakfast."

Kuwabara winced at her word choice. He'd seen the look in Yusuke's eyes when he'd lost it during the first; it had been hunger. "He's just getting used to his new power levels."

"What'd he mean by that crack about Nerimains?" Ryoga demanded as he remembered Yusuke's analysis of Taro's chances against Hiei.

"Relax, it ain't nothing bad," Kuwabara said irritably. "You're all really good and all; probably a lot better than any of us if you're just looking at martial arts skills and not ki power, but ya don't fight the same. For all the screaming ya do you ain't normally trying to kill anyone. Heck, even when Ranma's dead serious he still tries to win without doing anything permanent if he can avoid it. You guys get surprised when the fight go hello to maim in the blink of an eye and that's Hiei for ya, I've seen him open a fight by cutting off a limb."

Akane and Ukyo both looked shocked at that. Ryoga looked ashamed because the first time he'd fought Ranma after Jusenkyo he hadn't even bothered to make his challenge before trying to cave in Ranma's skull; not that Ranma had taken it seriously. Still, it had only been due to Ranma's ability and luck that Akane's hair had been the only casualty before he'd cooled off. That near miss had drained away a lot of the anger from Jusenkyo and being left behind. If not for Akane becoming the center of their rivalry Ryoga knew that things would have probably gone back to the way they'd been in Junior High. 'Until Sensui twisted me,' Ryoga amended with a sigh, but he was undoing that damage and re-evaluating his whole rivalry with Ranma along the way.

As long as Akane's future was in the mix it couldn't be a friendly rivalry. 'Akane was clearly too good for Ranma,' Ryoga thought. As P-Chan he heard about every slight and every hurt feeling. It was obvious to Ryoga that Ranma had no appreciation for his fiancée and would never treat her right. Even if he could see himself developing feeling for Yukina, Ryoga still couldn't look favorably on a relationship between Akane and Ranma. Even when Ranma was being friendly he liked to tease and torment; Akane deserved to be worshipped.

As Ryoga's thoughts turned inward his feet developed a mind of their own. Shizuru tugged sharply on his leash. When that failed to correct his path she planted her feet and hauled back on the leash with her full strength only to end up stumbling after Ryoga.

"Need some help sis?" Kuwabara asked.

"Naw," Shizuru said and took a few running steps to catch up with her charge. She grabbed Ryoga's earlobe and twisted it, hard.

"Ouch!" Ryoga exclaimed.

"We're going that way," Shizuru said blandly as she jerked her thumb over her shoulder. Then she turned and stared, the rest of the group was more than half a mile in the distance. "I could have sworn we only took a few steps," she said.

Ryoga shrugged. Over-shooting his target was one of his oldest directional problems, sometimes it seemed like the only way he could make it to someplace close by was to take a round-about path.

Shizuru started jogging back. "Don't get distracted on me again," she ordered.

They had covered about three fourths of the distance when a teenaged boy confronted the five of them.

"Is this the guy?" Ryoga shouted.

"Nope, never seen him before," Ukyo shouted back.

"I've heard Nerimian's Martial Artists are world class," the boy said. "I'm here to find out how I stack up." His gaze lingered on Ryoga. "Hibiki Ryoga, right? Second only to Saotome Ranma from what I've picked up around the neighborhood. Ready to drop back to number three?"

"We don't have time for this!" Ukyo called.

"He challenged me!" Ryoga argued. "Besides it'll take all of four seconds to put this braggart in his place."

"Well then you can just catch up when you're done playing games," Ukyo snapped and walked off with Akane.

Kuwabara hesitated.

"Go on little bro," Shizuru said. "It's my job to babysit the muscle-head here."

Ryoga cracked his knuckles threateningly then lunged to the left. Almost before he threw the punch the other boy was moving to the left. The punch connected with teeth-rattling force.

"You thought 'I'm gonna hit him with a right'!" the boy protested in an aggrieved tone.

"Yeah? So?" Ryoga asked.

"That was a left!"

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was!"

"No, it wasn't!"

"Hibiki," Shizuru interrupted. "That was a left."

Ryoga blushed. "Oh. I have a little trouble keeping left and right straight."

"Understatement," Shizuru muttered.

"It's just my luck to end up fighting someone who's dyslexic," the downed boy groaned. "Oh well, good fight."

"Er – yeah," Ryoga said.

"Have you ever thought about wearing a ring to help keep left and right straight?" Shizuru asked as they hurried after the others.

"Naw, it's not nice to fight with rings on," Ryoga said.

"How 'bout a watch or a wristband?"

"Couldn't remember if I put it on my left or right arm."

"What if the band said left on it?"

"I'd end up putting it on my right arm."

"What if someone else put it on for you?"

"It'd fall off. Trust me, it would fall off," Ryoga said as he thought of P-Chan's hooves.

"You're just a hopeless case aren't you?" Shizuru remarked.

"Hey!"

"But you wouldn't mind if Akane-chan was leading you around by the hand," Shizuru suggested.

Ryoga sighed deeply. "She'll never realize how I feel about her."

"Maybe she'd have a better chance if you told her," Shizuru said. "Not that you're likely to get any with her."

Ryoga's nose spurted blood.

"But maybe that's about your speed," Shizuru finished as Ryoga frantically pinched his nose shut and tried to keep from passing out. " 'Course there's Yukina too, but if you keep making cow-eyes at her my baby-brother's gonna beat your head in and that's nothing compared to what I'd do to you if you stole his girl. Kuzuma's got it bad for her."

In Demon World Kurama and Genma forged forward, fending off repeated attacks.

"Why do they keep coming?" Genma panted.

"They smell food," Kurama said.

"If you'd told me, I've have had Kasumi saran wrap our supplies," Genma growled.

"Not that food; us. They eat humans and they've been on starvation rations for a thousand years."

Genma hesitated. "Am I slowing you down?" he asked seriously. "Your ki isn't human."

"No," Kurama said after a moment. "I've lived in your world for eighteen years; even in my demon-form the smell of it clings to me. Besides, you were right earlier; Ranma would not forgive me if I got you killed, nor should he since I involved you in this."

Genma grinned humorlessly. "You were right too; if Ranma dies my life means nothing."

Kurama looked shocked.

"We've been fighting or running for nearly two whole days; I'm too tired to lie to myself," Genma said with a shrug. "There are only two times in my life that have made me proud: When I asked Nodoka to marry me and she said yes and when I watch Ranma practice the art. I can't lose him, he's the only true thing I have. Even Nodoka's love is tainted, I had to run away from her before she realized that I wasn't what she thought I was, but Ranma is my son and my student and he's one of the best."

Kurama hesitated then decided Genma's honesty deserved an honest response. "I miscalculated," he admitted quietly. "I thought they'd be more focused on the weakened barrier than on the two of us, but we're closer and they're hungry. They've all been low-level demons, but they're delaying us. We're going to be pushing the deadline."

Back in the Living World Ukyo hesitated at the foot of the stairs leading to the temple. "Guys, let me try reasoning with this one," she said. "I just don't feel good about pounding someone else who got screwed over by Saotome Genma."

"He kidnapped Ranma! How can you-" Akane shouted

"Look sugar, when I first turned up I'd convinced myself that Ranma and the panda were cut from the same cloth and I made an ass of myself. I wanna give this guy a chance to recognize that he's making the same mistake. After all, Ranma never held the whole me showing up looking for his blood thing against me, this guy deserves a second chance too."

"Ranma probably never even realized how mad you were," Akane muttered.

Ryoga nodded. "Yep, that's one of the really, really annoying things about Ranma; even when you're fantasizing about how perfect your life would be if you could just leave him in a shallow grave he still acts like it's all some big game."

"He doesn't know when to quit," Kuwabara admitted. "That's when ya shove him off on Genkai or Kurama, they can deal with him."

Ukyo smiled nostalgically. Instead of remembering how frustrating it had been when she showed up looking for revenge and Ranma insisted on greeting her like a long lost friend – And it had been frustrating, but only until she'd realized that Ranma truly didn't have a clue what his father had done to her and that he really was happy to see her again. Of course it was annoying to learn that the boy she'd wanted to marry was so dense that not only had he not notice how she felt about him, he hadn't even noticed that she was a girl. A niggling little bit of her even had trouble believing Ranma when he said she was his cute fiancée no matter how much she wanted to believe that he saw her that way; after all he saw her as a teenager and still didn't realized that she was a girl until he'd ended up grabbing her breast. How could he think she was cute when he thought she looked like a boy?

But that wasn't what came to mind this time when the others brought up just how oblivious Ranma could be.

Instead Ukyo found herself remembering the six-year-old Ranma cheerfully 'playing' with the local bully and his gang until they'd run off to beg their older brothers for help – not that it had done them any good. Ukyo had practically laughed herself sick as she'd watched six of the jackasses who'd been making her life miserable ever since she and her father had arrived in town and four of their older brothers trip over themselves as they futilely tried to get their hands on one slight, spry boy with laughing blue eyes. Eventually one of the older boys had realized that even if they couldn't stop Ranma from making fools of them he could stop Ukyo from laughing about it. The boy had grabbed her arm and viciously twisted it behind her back as he forced her to the ground. When Ukyo cried out in pain Ranma quit fooling around; within seconds all ten of the other boys were on the ground nursing bruises.

While Ranma sternly lectured the bullies about proper sparring etiquette; aka that you didn't keep hurting someone who was down,;; Ukyo quietly fell in love with the boy who had been both her friend and her rival for the last few months. That night she'd told her father that she wanted to marry Ranma more than anything and he promised her that he'd arranged it. Only Genma hadn't taken her with them when he left, still Ukyo was deteremined, tthat she would get Ranchan back.

Still that didn't mean she had to do it by pounding other of Saotome Genma's victims. "If he doesn't listen to reason we can always go back to doing it the hard way," Ukyo said then sheathed her combat spatula and started climbing the steps to the temple.

"Where's Saotome?" Ryu demanded as soon as he saw Ukyo.

Ukyo looked around the temple courtyard and frowned when she failed to spot Ranma but she perched casually on a low wall and asked "How'd Genma wreck your life?"

"I don't have to tell you anything," Ryu snarled.

"The bastard stole my dowery and abandoned me," Ukyo said conversationally.

Ryu paused, he blinked at her in surprise. "You're not on his side?" he asked then said "Because of him my inheritance was destroyed. He cost me my father!"

Ukyo nodded sympathetically. "In a way he cost me my Dad too. After Saotome Genma abandoned me I was humiliated; my family name had been humiliated. My father removed me from the family register and re-registered me as a boy so I could get revenge on the Saotomes. I know my father loved his daughter Ukyo, but she's dead and I'm not so sure that he feels anything but shame for his son Ukyo; he wouldn't even look at me before I left. But if Ranma marries me I could go back to being my father's daughter; it'd all be just a big misunderstanding. How does that scroll fix your problems?"

"Er, isn't Saotome Ranma a girl?" Ryu asked in confusion.

"That's a long story," Ukyo replied. "The scroll?"

Ryu sighed. "If I had the Umisen Ken Scroll I could rebuild my family's Dojo, that's what my father said before he died."

"The panda, Saotome Genma, isn't around right now," Ukyo said. "But when he gets back I'd happily help you beat the scroll out of him, heck I've been planning a panda pounding for a couple of days anyway, but it isn't right to drag Ranma into this. First it isn't his fault his father's a jackass. Second he's hurt pretty bad right now, attacking a guy when he's down is just low. And third, look at how messed up our lives got after one encounter with Genma; he's had sixteen years to screw up Ranma's life. Do you really want to contribute to that?"

Ryu's expression wavered.

"You mentioned Ranma being a girl," Ukyo pressed. "Thanks to Genma Ranma has a gender-switching curse; it's locked at the moment but normally he turns into a girl when splashed with cold water, hot water changes him back. Then there's the Nekoken, Genma found this supposedly undefeatable technique but he didn't bother to read the whole training manual before trying it out on Ranma. Specifically he missed the part about it severely traumatizing the victim, I mean trainee. Genma just tossed his ten-year-old son into a pit with a bunch of half starved cats after wrapping him in fish products… he did this repeatedly, by the way. Ranma looses his mind whenever he's around a cat thanks to that experiance."

Kuwabara overheard Ukyo's description of the nekoken, it left him looking like he couldn't decide whether he should get sick or o skin a certain part-time panda. Genma had essentially turned cats into an implement of tortured which he'd used on a small child, Kuwabara's love of kittens only made the Nekoken training that much more disturbing.

"And I only know the highlights of his life," Ukyo continued. "Ranma doesn't tell me everything. I wish he would."

"All right already!" Ryu exclaimed. "You don't have the scroll, Saotome Genma's not coming. I wasn't really going to hurt her – him? I still can't believe you're telling me she's a guy. But I can't give Ranma to you; a couple of weird guys took her from me when I was on my way here. I figured I could bluff Saotome to get the scroll then volunteer to help him rescue her in exchange."

"What?" Ukyo shouted.

Akane, Kuwabara, Ryoga and Shizuru jumped out of hiding to glare accusingly at Ryu.

"Look, if it had been just one I would have stopped them, but while I was fighting the big one the little one ran off with her! If I'd gone after them myself the same thing would have happened again. Give me a break! I need that scroll! I wasn't going to hurt her, I wasn't doing anything the lot of you weren't doing anyway," he said as he held up Nabiki's flier.

If looks could kill Ryu would have dropped where he stood.

Shizuru sighed, "Okay, what's done is done, the important thing is getting Ranma back." She glared at Ryu, "You said you were going to help get him back, now's your chance to prove it. Take us back to the place were they took him."

"Come on," Ryu said.

As the group trailed after Ryu Kuwabara dropped back to talk to Ukyo. "That stuff you said about not holding Ranma responsible for the crap his dad does – isn't that what you're doing by trying to make him honor the engagement to you?"

"That's different," Ukyo hissed.

"Yeah, it's her," Akane remarked.

Ukyo glared at Akane and forgot all about Kuwabara. "You don't get it do you? Ranma promised to take care of me! I asked my dad to let me marry him. The dowry and everything between our dads was just formalizing what Ranchan and I had already decided."

Akane rolled her eyes. "Ranma thought you were a boy."

Ukyo grimaced; she didn't want to admit that her interpretation of Ranma's promise to care of her for the rest of her life if her special sauce tasted good probably didn't match Ranma's. "He still promised, he still cared that much about me. This is what I need to fix the mess the panda made of my life, Ranma's the only boy I've ever even thought about," she said quietly. More loudly she added. "And I'm sure as hell not going to let my Ranchan end up married to you."

Akane's eyes narrowed angrily.

Ukyo held up a hand. "Hang on a second sugar. I didn't forget about our truce, I'm not trying to make you mad. It's just – everyone knows how you feel about the curse; Ranchan's girl-form disgusts you."

"That's not true," Akane protested. "If he were really a girl…"

"You're a lesbian?" Ukyo squeaked. Her eyes practically popped out of her head.

Akane's battle-aura manifested visibly. "One… Two…" she ground out between gritted teeth.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shizuru demanded as she turned around and glared.

"Counting," Akane all but growled. "Genkai-sensei made me promise that until I learned to really meditate I'd count to ten before hitting anyone who said something to make me mad." The act of explaining allowed Akane to calm down enough to see Ukyo cringe away from her as the other girl remembered the unnatural strength Akane could summon when she was lost to her temper.

A calmer but still not particularly nice part of Akane's mind, a voice she'd mentally dubbed her 'inner Nabiki' reminded Akane of all the garbage Ukyo had pulled to make herself look good at Akane's expense in front of Minamino-san. 'Not that I care what Ran-Kurama's mother thinks of me,' Akane thought. But that cold little part of her enjoyed seeing Ukyo scared. "If I count to ten then it gives them a chance to run," she added with a vindictive glare at Ukyo.

"My mistake," Ukyo said quickly. "It's just you're always calling him a pervert-"

"Because he's a BOY!" Akane exclaimed. "All boys are perverts."

"I'm registered as a boy. I've been passing myself off as a boy for ten years now. I didn't have a choice about that," Ukyo said. "If someone I loved thought I was a pervert because of the cross-dressing thing it'd just kill me. I don't want Ranchan getting hurt like that whether you think he's a pervert because of his curse or simply because you've got a problem with boys you're disgusted with him for something he can't help. That's why I can't lose to you when it comes to Ranchan, no matter what it takes."

Akane's anger withered away like a popped balloon. "I never meant it like that," she said. "I never meat that the curse made him perverted; it just – look at the guys at Furinkan, Kuno, Sanzenin Mikado, Urameshi – And don't say Urameshi's not! I've seen him grope Keiko-chan! – They're all perverts! And Ranma keeps walking in on me in the bathroom, and the way he'd rub up against Shampoo and let her sneak into his bed, and, and everything!" With every incident she mentioned Akane felt more comfortable. Her opinion of Ranma was true and justified. She desperately wanted him to be okay but she would never marry a jerk and a pervert like him!

"We're here," Ryu announced. "They went that way."

Kuwabara glanced around the nondescript crossroads "Oh man, we could really use Hiei's Jagon-eye, so naturally the shrimp's no where to be found.

"What kind of psychic are you baby-bro?" Shizuru asked. "Of course I always did own your ass when we used to play hide and seek as kids. Don't tell me it never occurred to you to use your talent to find me."

"You can really track people psychically sis?" Kuwabara asked. "That's great."

"Well, it'd help if I had something of the kidnapper's-"

"How about something of Ranchan's?" Ukyo asked.

"Well if his soul was in this world I could probably use something of his to summon his spirit, but that wouldn't get us anywhere so I would really rather have something of the kidnapper's, I'm assuming that their spirits are in their bodies. Luckily, Kumon here was right about Ranma's latest kidnappers being weird. I might be able to follow their psychic residue without a focus." Shizuru's face wrinkled in a disgusted expression. "Their psychic residue is like nails on a chalk board, there's just something about these guys that really bugs me."

"You mean they're perverts," Akane said.

"You know, for once you might be right," Shizuru agreed.

A heavily cloaked figure paced impatiently around the Nekohauten. "I'm going to kill those two idiots! Making me wait like this!"

Cologne watched cautiously. 'I'd best contact Xian Pu and Son-in-Law,' she thought to herself. 'They're looking for Ranma, trouble goes looking for him and this is trouble.'

Author's Notes: I promise, Mint and Lime are the last kidnappers, I don't want things to get too carried awayed.