Chapter 36: "I want you - I get you!"

Kasumi Tendo smiled to herself as she studied her reflection in the mirror. She was getting everything ready now for the day ahead. She felt a little guilty that she would try to get Ranma take part of this, but reassured herself that should everything go right, none of them would have any reason to feel guilty.

Looking herself over, the brown haired girl combed her fingers through her freshly washed hair again, and thought of the nice dress that Unazuki had helped her pick out and was now in a bag. The other girl didn't know why Kasumi wanted to take this dress with her to school, but she'd had a lot of fun helping her out.

Looking to the side of the table, Kasumi blushed at what was sitting there. An item that she'd have to bring with her as well, if only so that Tofu could decide for himself what to do when she finally broke through his shyness. She blushed fiercely at the thought of that, but shook it off, firming her resolve. She had left home in order to get what she wanted, and she wasn't going to stop now… unless, of course, Tofu decided he wanted her to, but…

Frowning worriedly, Kasumi checked herself for the last time, before going to the breakfast table.

-CM-

"Is everything in place, Bidet?" asked a hunched-over figure who was standing in front of a Mirror, with her back turned to her and holding a staff with an ornate crystal furnished at the top of the staff glinting eerily with only the sliver of lights coming from the doorway.

"May I speak with the Queen, Zirconia?" asked the one who was named Bidet in return.

Zirconia slowly turned facing Bidet, her face still shrouded in shadows. "You can speak with her when I say you can!" she yelled as she thrust out her staff and a black bolt of energy jolted out from the crystal on top of her staff and hit Bidet in the chest, throwing the old woman backward.

"Need I remind you that I put you into your current position? I can remove you and have another one to replace you just as easily. Did I make myself clear?" Zirconia's face twisted into an evil smile thoroughly enjoying the sight of the old woman struggling to get back on to her feet. True, Bidet was a little backstabber, but she was a useful backstabber.

"There is...There is," huffed Bidet as she clutched her chest, using her cane to prop herself up slowly, "...one outstanding issue... we currently...do not have someone... in Japan," continued Bidet as she slowly restabilized herself with her staff.

"We could send Khu Long's great granddaughter, she's too stupid and spoiled to understand what we are doing, all she wants is that stupid outsider male. I say we entertain her, but hold off for the moment. I'd like to see her humiliated a little more before we let her lose," Zirconia answered, with a menacing cackle.

"It will be done as you say" Bidet said through gritted teeth, as she slowly backed away. Once she was out of the room she turned and walked off.

-CM-

Ranma walked from his music class, astounded a little at how much progress he was making with the violin. Sure, he knew that it was mostly hand-eye coordination, but the rate he was learning at was even for him a little too fast. The comment from his music teacher that he probably always had had a hidden talent for it didn't help either.

Stepping into the elevator that would bring him to the floor for next class, he hit the button and the lift started moving rapidly. To his annoyance, it stopped once, but he blinked as he saw who stepped on.

"Kasumi?" he asked, surprised to have met her in the same place, two weeks in a row.

"Ranma-kun," Kasumi said, smiling. "You're just the person I wanted to see." For some reason, the look on her face when she said that made the pigtailed martial artist very nervous.

-CM-

Ranma was surprised. No, he was much more than that, he was shocked. Kasumi had just explained a plan worthy of Shampoo or Cologne, and worse, he was HELPING her in it. He already had prepared everything according to Kasumi's plan and now was waiting for her to return from whatever she needed for her own preparation.

He wanted to help Kasumi, especially given all of the things she'd done for him in the past, but this felt a bit like betraying the doc, whom he owed almost as much. His mind had been chasing itself around in little circles about this for the past few minutes, and nothing had been resolved.

"I'm back, Ranma-kun."

Ranma jumped as he heard the voice, having not heard Kasumi coming. She was one of the very few people who could do that. He'd never learned how exactly she was doing it, probably it was her way to put the training her father gave her to good use while fitting with her more passive personality.

As he finished turning, his mouth dropped. "K-Kasumi?" he asked, stuttering a bit.

"Oh, that isn't funny, Ranma-kun," she chastised him. "You shouldn't make fun of Tofu-sensei's problem like that."

"I'm not!" Ranma objected. "You just look… different..." he finished. He was about to say that she looked cute, but since the last time he'd said that had resulted in most of Ukyo's problems, he kept quiet.

"Well, yes. I am wearing something I selected specially for this occassion. Do you think Tofu-sensei will like it?" she asked, spinning around to reveal her knee-length skirt and well fitted white blouse.

"Um, yeah," Ranma said, suddenly reminded of what Kasumi had asked him to do. "You… still want to go through with this?"

Kasumi nodded, seeming to be radiating confidence. "I'm sure."

Ranma sighed, Kasumi seemed far more confident than in the past. "Well, hope the doc doesn't kill me," he mumbled. "Alright, let's do it."

"Thank you, Ranma!" she exclaimed, and then leaned forward, grabbing him in a tight hug. His pigtail stood on end for a moment and he waved his arms around frantically. This arm waving only got worse when he saw someone behind Kasumi.

'I'm doomed...' he thought, as Haruka walked up to the two. Oddly enough, though, the blonde didn't pull a hyper-dimensional weapon of pain out of nowhere, she just rose one eyebrow. Within about five seconds, Kasumi had pulled away from Ranma, seeing that he'd gone board-stiff and started shaking. Instantly after getting let go, Ranma started babbling frantically.

"Haruka, it's not what yer thinking, really. This is Kasumi, she's Akane's older sister."

Haruka looked at him oddly for a moment, noting how his speech had slipped significantly, before turning to Kasumi. "You're Akane's sister? Nice to meet you."

Ranma stopped babbling and stood slightly shocked at how Haruka was acting. 'Why haven't I been hit yet?' he thought. Admittedly, Haruka hadn't raised a hand against him other than in sparring, but this was a pretty clear cut case according to all he knew.

Kasumi bowed to the blonde, and looked the newcomer over for a moment. She was puzzled as to why Ranma would act so oddly when one of his friends showed up, until she noticed that the 'boy' in front of her had no Adam's apple.

"Nice to meet you as well," she said. "Ranma, do you mind making introductions?"

Ranma didn't move or speak for a moment, before snapping out of it. "Um, yeah," he said, unsteadily, finally accepting that Haruka had actually observed the situation without jumping to the worst possible conclusion. He slowly started to smile, thanking whatever Kami had decided to stop playing games with him since he got to this district, and spoke. "This is Haruka, we're living at the same place, and, well, engaged. This time it was our decision."

"Oh, you're Haruka." Kasumi said, surprised. "Ranma told me about you."

"Yeah, he's told me a bit about you too," Haruka said, before her watch beeped. "Crap, I gotta get to next class," she said, looking at Ranma worriedly but noticing that he was starting to act more normal now. "I'll see you after school, okay Ranma?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding. "See you then."

After Haruka had left the area, Kasumi looked at Ranma. "I'm sorry about hugging you like that. I just wasn't thinking…" She trailed off, then shook her head. "We'll start it at lunch hour, right?" she asked, hopefully.

"Yeah, don't worry. Everything will go according to plan," Ranma replied. Kasumi merely nodded, and then left with a spring in her step.

-CM-

"Hey, doc!" Ono Tofu turned as he heard the call from down the hall, seeing Ranma running towards him with a bunch of books under one arm.

"Ranma?" he asked, surprised to see the younger boy, especially since lunch hour normally would mean Ranma being busy with eating. "Is there something wrong?"

"Nah," Ranma waved it off. "Just wanted to ask you some questions. I've got a bunch of biology stuff in science class that I just don't get."

"I see." Tofu said, nodding. He found it odd that Ranma was coming to him for help, especially since most biology related subjects were actually well studied by martial artists, but he didn't mind helping. "I'd be glad to help you out for the remainder of the lunch hour."

"Thanks." Ranma said, gratefully. "There's a classroom down on the third level that's free."

"That'll be fine." Tofu said. "Let's pass the Cafeteria first though, alright?"

Ranma nodded, and the two started to walk.

Their travel took place mostly in silence until after Tofu had gotten his lunch, the older man surprised that the younger hadn't gotten anything. A few minutes later, though, Ranma surprised him by asking him something. "Doc, if I knew a way to get you over your Kasumi problem, would you want it?" he asked, looking away slightly.

Tofu stopped, his glasses fogging up for a moment before he blinked the clouds away with a mighty effort. "Why are you asking me about that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"I'm just curious," Ranma said. "I've just gotten access to some of the old freak's techniques, and I think a certain one could help." He was of course lying through his teeth, but thankfully Tofu was too busy fighting off his usual haze to care.

"To answer your question," he said, turning left only to plow into a brick wall, "Being able to hear K… Ka… her name without… well, you know… I would give almost anything for it," he sighed.

"Good to hear..." Ranma said, suddenly sounding a lot happier for some reason. "And doc, sorry 'bout this."

Tofu was about to ask him what he was sorry about, when he noticed, too late, Ranma going for one of his paralysis pressure points. He started working the Chi based counter for the point almost immediately, but Ranma had already scooped him up in his arms and started running. By the time Tofu had reversed the point's effects enough to ask what in the world the boy was doing, he was already being pushed through a door into a slightly dark classroom. The door slammed behind him, and he fell against it with a thump, hearing it click as the lock was turned.

"What in the world…?" he asked, before twitching his hand to be sure he could move it, and reaching to flick on the room's lights.

As they came up, he said one thing. "K-K-Kasumi, what a coincidence meeting you here, of all places!"

-CM-

Shampoo checked the last of the supplies in her backpack for the second time, comparing them to a carefully made list and nodded in satisfaction. She was ready, and the rest of the hunting party that had been assembled was also doing final checks of their equipment. Luckily for her, the high council had accepted her explanation for her failure and she had regained at least some of her face with the tribe, or she wouldn't be able to mount the operation she was preparing.

Stepping out of the small house she had been assigned in the village -one much smaller that her previous one thus showing her reduced status- she looked over the rest of the group, but scowled when she saw the elder that lead it. Though she'd been given another chance, it hadn't been with total freedom, and she was just a part of someone else's group.

Elder Bidet was probably the most conservative of the elders, making her great-grandmother look like a radical progressive. That, and Bidet had always been not all too keen on her family. Though she did not want to say it aloud, she had a suspicion that the elder was responsible for causing her grandfather and father to leave the tribe and live in a city. Her father had just said he couldn't any longer live 'under the old crow's eye' after the premature death of his wife.

"Shampoo, you are not ready for the final hunt right now and the hunt is delayed for now," Elder Bidet stated, stomping her staff down on the ground.

"But... elder." The purple haired girl whined, while the others in the group looked disappointed.

"Everything is not yet in place for the hunt, we do not yet know where your husband is right now. We need more information before we go," Bidet cut Shampoo out completely. In truth, she did not know why they would even oblige this intrepid stupid girl's request in the first place. She was the elder after all, however the fact that she had to answer to Zirconia's whims irked her to no end.

"Keep on training, you need to subdue your husband," Bidet said as she nodded signaling the end of the conversation and walked away from Shampoo's hut.

-CM-

"Alright, how about we try this again?" Dr. Osamu Taikuchi rubbed the bridge of his nose below his glasses, and flipped over another card. "Mr. Kuno, tell me what you see."

Tatewaki Kuno sighed, looking at the doctor in clear annoyance. "We have traveled this ground before. Tis obviously a picture of the beauteous Akane Tendo!"

Osamu sighed, leaning his head forward to bang into the table. "Yes, right…" he muttered.

This case was, quite possibly, the most disturbing thing he'd ever had to deal with in his life. Every time he'd asked the boy to identify images from random patterns, they had something to do with either Akane Tendo, a girl with bright red hair in a pigtail, Kendo, or a foul sorcerer of some sort. It was clear that it had been a good thing to have him off the streets.

The other issue was none of the other doctors wanted to take this case, citing his mother as an excuse. It was a good thing he'd studied abroad for the most part and could look at this patient with an unbiased eye, from this patient's prognosis. He had to say it would not bode well for Tatewaki.

"Well, Mr. Kuno… I believe that I've come to a final conclusion in regards to your treatment," he finally said, after taking several deep breaths to keep himself from exploding.

"You have finally come to the conclusion that I, the scion of the Kuno line, am of fine mental stock, correct?" the boy asked, puffing his chest out arrogantly, despite the straight jacket that they had put him in when he'd attempted to assault one of the orderlies who just happened to have blue-black hair.

"No, Mr. Kuno..." Osamu said, simply. "I've come to the conclusion that you have an unhealthy and obsessive fixation on the feudal era, Akane Tendo, and this… pigtailed girl of yours. Furthermore, this fixation is a danger to anyone around you who is REMOTELY similar to either of them."

As Kuno's face fell in disappointment, the frustrated doctor took far more delight in his next statement than he really should. "Therefore, combined with all the other stuff in your file, I happily come to the decision that you need to be put into the high-security wing!"

He then turned, knocked on the door to Tatewaki's holding cell and walked off into the complex, ignoring the shouts of outrage that followed him.

-CM-

Haruka stuck several books into her storage locker, shutting the door and twisting its combination lock expertly in order to ensure that it was locked. School was finally over. As she turned around, slipping the shoulders of her brown jacket into place over her white shirt, she saw a brown-haired woman coming towards her, one of the teachers walking next to her.

"Haruka-San!" the woman called, stopping the blonde as she started to turn away.

"Yes, Kasumi-san?" she asked, politely, recognizing the woman from earlier that day.

"Have you seen Ranma-kun around?" Kasumi asked, while the eyes of the man who was walking next to her narrowed.

Haruka shrugged. "Sorry, Kasumi, he has already left, said something about an errand," she explained, apologetically. There was no need to explain that it was for their upcoming trip. "Why, is something the matter? Is he in trouble?"

Kasumi shook her head. "No, nothing is wrong, but can you tell him that Tofu and I want to talk to him tomorrow?" she asked.

"Sadly, no. We have some business out of town and won't be back until Friday. Is there anything I can convey to him until then?" she asked, wondering what Ranma now had done.

"Please give him our thanks and tell him he is not in trouble. We just want to speak with him in person once he is back," Kasumi said, cheerfully, before waving and walking away.

Haruka shrugged, and started to head home. As she did so, she once again thought over what had happened recently. She did this a lot while she had some alone time, since it helped keep her grounded against the strange stuff that had been happening lately, so she wasn't that annoyed that Ranma had apparently split at lunch.

This time, though, she had something slightly unsettling to think over.

The destruction of the entire planet was a pretty good motive for taking a few lives, if there ever WAS a good motive for doing that. She grimaced, as the thought left a bad taste in her mouth, and re-affirmed her desire for both of them to go through training to stop themselves from having to kill another human being. She wanted to use her powers to do good, not to become like the ones they were fighting against.

They were the good guys, and they'd have to work hard on staying that way.

END

Beta-read by Tribun.