Characters do not belong to me.
9
Ranma quickly packed up his belongings and taking Shampoo's hand, led her back to Nerima and the Nekohanten. If anyone knows what happened, it'll be the old ghoul. The journey back was long, as Shampoo traveled at a snail's pace. As they neared, Ranma just scooped her up in his arms and carried her the rest of the way. He had hoped that her being in his arms would invoke some kind of reaction as it had always done in the past, but was disappointed, when he had to keep her hands holding onto him, to make sure she didn't slip from his grasp. Inside the restaurant, Ranma called out.
Cologne rushed from the back area and found Ranma holding Shampoo in his arms. "Ah, finally the two of you came back. If you were just going to elope, I could have recommended a few spots." She chuckled.
"This isn't a time for games. Something happened to Shampoo." He set her down, and she stood away from him.
"Hello great-grandmother." her voice was flat.
She doesn't have any feelings toward Cologne either. This can't be good."
Cologne could see the emptiness in her great-granddaughters eyes. "What's happened to her?"
"I don't know for certain. We were taken and locked away. I'm not sure how many days it's been."
"It's been a week. I tried looking for you two, but couldn't find a trace of you."
"A week? It only felt like a couple of days."
"So what happened?"
Ranma explained what happened, at least to him.
"Shampoo, do you remember what happened to you?"
"Shampoo shown footage of Airen. Showed over and over, times Airen trick Shampoo and use Shampoo. Trick on dates to get something, shampoo, soap, or trick to get out of dates. Showed many times, how Airen try to get to angry girl. Then on last day there was a smell and Shampoo felt torn."
Ranma looked down in shame as Shampoo recounted her week. I haven't always been fair to her, he admitted to himself. "What happened to her?"
"I may have an idea, but if I am right, it's not good."
"What do you think it is?"
"Incense of Cupid's Hold."
"And that is?"
"It's an incense that you can use to strip someone of their love, and lock it away. The only way to get it back is to unlock the box."
"How do I unlock the box?"
"First we have to find it. It's probably where you two were kept."
"I don't know how to get back there. Are you sure there is no other way?"
"I don't believe so. There was some talk about love being strong enough to break the box, but you would have to be the love to break it, and can you honestly say you love her enough to break a curse? Can you say you love her at all?"
"Why did he have to do this? I chose her after all. What more did he want?"
"Maybe he wanted love too. If he was able to show you all that, he probably saw that her affection is deeper than yours."
"But how would taking her love help? What do we do?"