I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi or Steve Jackson Games.

A week later:

In spite of finally finishing yet another school day, Toshiko could not keep a face-splitting grin off her face as she loaded up her backpack with books for the afternoon's homework. (She was careful to make sure that no one saw her slip The Joy of Sex in along with the rest of her books—she had been reading Stacy's late wedding present at home while her husband was out and hiding it in her underwear drawer the rest of the time. But she had lost track of time yesterday and hurriedly stuck it in with her school books when he got home, and had forgotten about it until she opened her backpack at school.)

"You're in a really good mood for someone that blew off our tutoring session tonight," Mercedes said in Japanese as she loaded up her own backpack from the locker beside Toshiko. "Is it really that bad?"

"No, no!" Toshiko hastened to assure her. "Really, it's great! A lot better that the class, really, all the stuff ya—you—toss in about people makes it fun even if it won't be on any test. They just finally got me a place where I can really cut loose with my martial arts trainin'—training!—and they aren't sure how long they'll have it."

Mercedes giggled. "Relax, I'm just teasing. So that's what that phone call was about? I was surprised Nichols-san didn't make more of a stink about it."

"I doubt he gets many students that get calls during class from their husband. He seemed kinda shocked when I told him who it was. You'd think everyone in the school would know by now."

"Some people just don't bother to plug into the grapevine," Mercedes replied with a shrug as she closed her locker and hefted her backpack. "Anyway, tomorrow I'll know when we can—"

The shoulder of the boy walking past smacked into her shoulder, knocking her against the lockers.

Toshiko caught her new friend's backpack before it could land on her foot, and glared at the boy walking on without a word. "Hey—!"

"Leave it," Mercedes pushed away from the lockers. "He's an asshole." She took her backpack from Toshiko. "So, see you Monday."

"Yeah, see ya ... see you Monday." Toshiko watched her walk away, frowning at the absence of the spring in her step that had been there before, then shrugged as her earlier grin spread across her face. She'd find out what was going on later, right now she had a ship to get to! Too bad she couldn't roof-hop to get there faster.

/oOo\

Ryoga looked around and sighed. "Where am I now? This doesn't look much like Tokyo." Which was too bad, since that meant he was nowhere hear Nerima. He really wanted to get back to Nerima, and not just to court Akane now that Ranma wasn't an obstacle—or rather, not to court Akane right now, because Ranma was no longer an obstacle. Since Ranma had his curse locked and then ran away (not that Ryoga blamed her ... much), Akane's mood had been ... chancy, any mention of Ranma likely to threaten tears or another rant, anything hinting at romance (when recognized as such) threatening the same and even the Hammer. But if even he could see that courting Akane was out of the question for now, she still needed her friends.

So, if I'm not in Tokyo, how close am I? Following some advice Kasumi had given him that he try to pay more attention to what kind of place he was in as at least a hint of where he was, he winced—the blocky layout of the buildings surrounding him and rifle-armed guards standing by a number of entrances were features he'd come to associate with military bases, and the flags on a number of those buildings said US military base ... which meant he could be anywhere in the world, the world's current sole superpower had bases all over the world, he could be anywhere.

No, not anywhere. It's cold enough to keep real snow on the ground, this time of year that means higher northern latitudes. Which meant most everywhere since most of the US's bases were north of the equator, stretching from northern Japan all the way around the world across the US and Europe and back to its newest base on Russia's Pacific coast. So, time to wander on till he was somewhere both friendlier and closer to home.

Then a familiar redhead ran around a corner, backpack over one shoulder bouncing against her back, and Ryoga grinned. Maybe it wasn't quite time to wander off. "Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!"

The redhead froze at the familiar shout from behind her, then whirled around, a grin like he hadn't seen since before she was locked stretching from ear to ear. "Ryoga!" Then her eyes widened and she tossed her school backpack to one side and charged toward her friend. He didn't have time to shuck off his own much more massive backpack, but he yanked his umbrella out of the loose straps that held it across the top of the pack and swung it down to cross his body—he'd long since given up on trying to actually hit her with it, she would just flow around thrust or swing and pummel his sides, but it did give him more options for blocking her.

Only she didn't try to strike or kick, instead springing into a spinning leap toward him. He raised the umbrella to block any downward strike, and her hands grasped it and pushed off into another spinning arc to land behind him. He swung around only to find her running away ... toward two guards at a nearby doorway swinging their rifles down from their shoulders. She was yelling, "Don't shoot, he didn't mean it!"

The guards slowly lowered their rifles. One asked, "Mrs. Tatsuno, you know this man?"

"Yeah, we used to ... spar all the time, and he'd start off each one yelling the same thing. Of course, he'd shout it in Japanese, not English." She glanced over her shoulder at Ryoga. "Why'd you use English, anyway?"

"Wherever I end up, I try to use the language of the people living there."

"You—" Ranma's eyes widened. "How many languages do you know?"

"I dunno. Four? Five? Six?" Ryoga reached up to rub the back of his neck, a nervous habit he realized he'd picked up from Ranma. "I used to think they were bizarre variations of Japanese."

"You ... you thought ..." Ranma pressed her lips together but couldn't keep in the giggles, which quickly grew to ever stronger laughter until she eventually dropped to her knees and fell over onto the street, arms wrapped across her stomach. Ryoga felt his cheeks heating up until it felt like his bangs should spontaneously combust from the heat, but the two guards were relaxing as Ranma's peals of laughter rang out. Finally fighting herself back under control, she pushed herself to her feet. "Sorry about that," she managed to get out in a voice tight with the effort to hold back more laughter. "Come on, I was just headed to show off what my martial arts training can do, with you here I can really put on a show."

"Sure," Ryoga agreed instantly, "I haven't had a decent spar since you left Nerima." He winced at the reminder of that mess, but Ranma just nodded and walked over to pick up her backpack and led him away down the street.

/\

The guards watched the pair walk away. "Do you think that was the Wanderer?" Private Alvarez asked.

Private Sims shrugged. "He fits the descriptions, the surprise is that Mrs. Tatsuno knows him—really well, apparently."

"Yeah. Well, let's call it in and pass that along with it, and get back to our post."

/\

Toshiko's face was beginning to hurt from the grin spread across it, but just couldn't help herself—this was the best day ever! Or at least, the best day since her curse had been locked, maybe. Now she was safe, with a home and a future (sort of), even if it was nothing like she'd imagined, even if she was still ... not exactly comfortable with where she was and found some aspects of that future moderately terrifying (like babies, having them and raising them, and kissing, which her husband hadn't tried to do to her yet). And when she looked back at the months she'd spent on the streets and on the run she wondered why she hadn't kill herself, her mental state had been that scary. Now ...

Davidson and a Navy officer she didn't recognize were waiting at the security post at the entrance to the docks, and both sets of eyes widened at the sight of her—no, not her, Ryoga. The guards were just as startled. That was odd, what would they know about him? She waved at Ryoga. "Hey, everyone, on my way here I met a friend. With him here I can really show off what I can do!"

"You know the Wanderer?"

The who?" Toshiko stared at the naval officer. "Who're you?"

"Sorry, I'm Captain Goodwin." The officer offered his hand for Toshiko and then Ryoga to shake, then nodded to Ryoga. "When you started popping up on secure military bases years ago, and no one could figure out how you were doing it, you caused quite a bit of consternation. But eventually word came down that you weren't a spy and that trying to apprehend you was pointless and would cause more damage than just letting you wander, you would be gone quickly enough. And that it's pointless to try to determine just how you manage to make your way into a number of the most secure locations on Earth—some of them underground—and cross continents in a matter of hours if not minutes." He grinned. "Care to share?"

Toshiko found herself having to fight back giggles as Ryoga started blushing again, rubbing the back of his neck. I wonder how many of the Nerima Wrecking Crew picked up that tick? The Lost Boy mumbled something about family and curses, and Toshiko lost control of her giggles for a moment before forcing herself back under control. "I can tell you about it later. For now, we got a sparring match to get to! Actually, where's Win—Lieutenant Blake? He's supposed to be here."

The two officers exchanged glances, Davidson and the captain exchanged glances, then Captain Goodwin shrugged. "We haven't received any notifications. Do you want to wait?"

Toshiko hesitated. She really wasn't supposed to be doing anything with Davidson's Company without her husband present, but ... "No, I'm just showing off what I can do—what we can do with P- ... with Ryoga here, I don't want to lose any time on that. You're recording everything, right?" Davidson nodded. "So just make sure we get a copy for Win to watch before we do anything else, we should be good. So let's do this!"

/\

Davidson's eyebrows were trying to crawl into his hairline as he watched one of the multiple screens being fed video of the pair of teenagers bouncing around the cruiser's hold ... well, one of them was bouncing around, the Wanderer—Ryoga—seemed more inclined to let Toshiko come to him and use his longer reach (umbrella included, of all things) to try to nail her on the transitions. Davidson couldn't really disagree with the strategy. Yes, it allowed Toshiko to set the pace of the fight, but Ryoga had shrugged off every hit she'd landed so far ... including the kick to the back of the head when she'd leaped over him! Over the years since joining the Company Davidson had been around some of the most lethal people in the world, but he had never seen anything like Toshiko's style even in professional gymnastics competitions. They were just lucky that they'd set set up the cameras for recording Toshiko's exhibition and had been able to set up the monitors for remote viewing in the captain's quarters, even if it was a tight fit, because she had flatly refused to spar with Ryoga with any 'civilians' (as she put it), in the hold with them.

Ryoga suddenly cupped his hands by his side and a sickly green glowing ball of light formed in them before he thrust those hands forward and the glowing ball shot toward Toshiko. She easily leaped over the attack with a similarly glowing ball, blue this time, forming in her own hands ... and the view in one of the monitors Davidson wasn't paying attention to shook as green light washed out its image of the dueling pair before the screen went dark.

Davidson's jaw dropped. "What ... ?"

"Whatever Ryoga threw at Mrs. Tatsuno hit the bulkhead near the camera and detonated," Captain Goodwin replied. He glanced over at Davidson and smiled tightly. "Good thing she insisted we observe remotely, isn't it?"

"Uh, yes. Yes, it is." Davidson stared at the blank screen for a moment, before switching his attention back to the other screens just in time to see blue and green collide with each other and the hold light up with an explosion that overloaded the screens' built-in speakers. "I can see why that order to leave the Wanderer alone was a good idea."

"An excellent idea," Captain Goodwin agreed, wincing as Toshiko dodged another green ball of light flashing by her and raced to close the distance with Ryoga again even as another monitor went dark. "How are we going to explain the scorch marks all over the hold?"

"I have no idea."

/\

"That was wonderful!" Toshiko enthused as she walked down the gangway to the pier. She had to force herself not to hobble from the pain of a deep bruise on one hip, she suspected she had some cracked ribs, her forearms ached from more bruises thanks to one time she'd had to block Ryoga's umbrella instead of flowing around it, and one eye was swelling shut, her clothes were singed where they weren't burned away, and she was covered with scrapes and scratches, and she felt great!

"Toshiko! What happened to you!?" Lieutenant Vernon all but shouted where she stood on the pier beside the guards at the foot of the gangway.

Toshiko waved at her husband's friend. "Hey, Stacy, good to see to see you, I just had the first decent spar in a year!"

Ryoga snorted. "That would explain why you took such a beating. You're out of shape, Ranma."

"Hey, I gave as good as I got," Toshiko protested, and made sure not to flinch when Ryoga ran his gaze over her injuries and battered clothing, and then at the few rents in his own clothes. "Anyway," she continued, "It told you, my name's Toshiko now. Genma can keep 'Ranma' if he doesn't want me."

Ryoga grinned widely enough to bared his almost-fangs. "I'll tell him when I see him, maybe he'll say something stupid and give me an excuse for a beat down."

"Like you need a new reason," Toshiko replied, waving a hand dismissively.

"Toshiko, I think I'd better—" Stacy started to say, then stiffened and saluted on noticing the two men behind the two martial artists ... especially the captain. "Sir!"

Captain Goodwin returned the salute. "Lieutenant Vernon, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you have a vehicle, Lieutenant? If so, I suggest you drive Mrs. Tatsuno home. Otherwise she's going to have every guard she passes stopping her to ask what happened."

"Yes, sir, just what I was going to suggest."

"I'll be on my way," Ryoga said, shrugging his shoulders to shift the straps of his massive pack into more comfortable positions. "That was fun, but I'm hoping to find Nerima tonight."

"Hey, say hi to Akane and Kasumi for me, just forget you ever heard of 'Tatsuno Toshiko', no point in giving those bastards a name to hunt. In fact, for anyone else forget you ever saw me at all."

"Sure ... Ranma. See you around, hopefully a little sooner than this time. You're the only one that gives me a decent challenge." He waved and wandered off down the pier to the shore, quickly vanishing from sight around the corner of one of the warehouses.

Toshiko watched him go, then turned to follow Stacy to her car. As they drove through the base, she frowned as the scenery passed. "Stacy, what's up with all the guards the last few days? That's not normal, is it? And do you know what's up with Win? He was supposed to be here."

Stacy's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "More guards get posted whenever things with China get tense. And for Win, during his patrol there was ... an incident."

Author's Note: So yeah, the military, at least, knows all about Ryoga. Kinda hard to see how they wouldn't—have him wander into a few very high security areas and red flags are going to be going up all over the place. And he's going to be utterly confusing: an unauthorized stranger in high security areas that's as confused about where he is as they are about how he got there, no stealth, no attempt to steal or destroy, no threat to anyone unless he's attacked, and then he's gone again who knows where or how. You bet some form of quiet instructions are going to go out, if only in response to the inevitable rumors and to cut down on property damage. And they are going to be going insane with curiosity.