Author's note:

Phew, okay, I'm taking a bit of time to say a couple of things. First of all, if you are reading this, you rock! Really, you make me so happy by just stopping to read my little story. I can't believe I actually inspired someone to finish the game and made another person think they should buy it (hmmm… maybe Blizzard should pay me some royalties). And can you believe that there are already over 60 reviews for this story?!?! I'm in complete shock!

Anyway, thanks for wading through this and not making too much fun of the grammatical issues (Damn it Jim, I'm a computer scientist, not an English major!) I've got a pretty good idea of how the rest of the story is going to play out so here's a few teasers:

1. There WILL be a cow level ^_^ Someone mentioned this, I love cow level, I couldn't do a Diablo story without it.

2. Please don't kill me. More importantly, don't stop reading the story 'cause something makes you upset. This isn't going to be like a Greek tragedy, I promise!

3. Diablo will be here… when I first started to write the story, I had a couple of Ranma characters as villains but to be honest… I started to run out of people!! So I'm pondering Diablo and who he might be…

4. Special guest appearance in the story to the person who can correctly guess who Anya is going to be before we hit Quest 4.

5. I have the rest of the story pretty much planned out so baring any major intrusions on my life, things should really get moving. And I think anyone who's played the game kind of knows what happens… of course, I already have at least a couple of post –game epilogue chapters planned so I'll try to make it a bit surprising.

So without further ado (if you are even still reading this), enjoy the next chapter… the longest one so far! They keep growing!! But anyway, pour yourself a nice tall glass of Flayer goo and read on…



* * *

Soun Tendo looked up at the sky, watching the clouds gather. A low rumble of thunder signaled the approaching storm. He felt the first few drops on his face as he stood up. He picked up the blanket he had been sitting and wrapped it carefully over his daughter's shoulders.

The blanket fizzled slightly before it fell to the ground. Soun looked up at the motionless form of Nabiki and closed his eyes. He tried to convince himself that this not happening, that when he opened his eyes, Nabiki would be looking at him with an annoyed look. Really Daddy, she would say, why do you always get so upset.

But when he opened his eyes, there was. Like a blue statue suspended in the sky, she made no move. Her eyes never blinked, her chest never rose or fell, her lips never moved. His face was wet, though whether it was from the rain or tears, he couldn't tell. He picked up the blanket and placed it back on the ground, taking a seat there and resuming his watch.

There were soft footsteps behind him. Soun didn't turn around, he knew who it was. A mass of white and black fur sat down next to him. He held his paw out and handed Soun a ceramic mug filled with a steaming brew. Soun took it wordlessly and drank it, hardly noticing that the rain had stopped falling on him as Genma-panda held up a make shift umbrella over him.

* * *

Mousse crunched the scroll in his hand before his tossed it across the room. How could he have missed it? How could he have just let Nabiki do that? He scoured through more scrolls, passing over his and Nabiki's notes, looking for anything that might give him a clue.

The door opened and he looked over at the fuzzy form moving towards him. The distinct tapping of a wooden staff gave the person away immediately. He turned away from the door.

"Go away," he said.

"That's hardly the tone I deserve," Cologne said as she hopped next to him.

Mousse snorted. "I'm sorry if I'm not thrilled to see you right now. Let me guess, you're here to tell me that I'm completely incompetent. That my blindness made me miss the signs. Or maybe that I'm just a fool who should never have been trying to look for an answer."

Cologne sighed. "As much as you want to make me the villain," she said, "I'm not. I only follow the rules as they have been laid out for me. And I am not here to blame you. In fact, no one blames you, you're the only one who does."

Mousse was wordless as he continued his work. Cologne frowned and walked over to a pile of papers and pushed them with her staff. She noticed something there and with a shake of her head, she gave the square of paper a hit with her staff.

It flew across the room and caught him on the temple. He flinched and almost let out a protest when he realized the paper had his name scribbled on it in Nabiki's handwriting. He quickly unfolded the paper and read the note inside.

Mousse, stop looking for what went wrong. I hid the papers that told me what I needed to do so you wouldn't tell anyone. Start looking for a way to get me out of this. Nabiki.

"So what did it say?" Cologne asked, hoping over. She read the note and smiled. "Smart girl."

"Is there a way to free her?" he asked.

Cologne paused and thought about if for a moment. "Well, why did Nabiki cast the shield?"

"To protect the town," he replied. Suddenly he stood up. "So if there was no reason that the town needed to be protected…"

"Then there would be no need for a spell," she said.

"But how do we get rid of the monsters," Mousse asked.

Cologne smiled slightly. "I think that's up to you," she said. But by then, Mousse had already opened several books and was looking for an answer.

* * *

Akane sat in her room, arms wrapped around her knees as her chin rested between them. There were tiny sparkles on her cheek, left over bits of tears left from her last cry. She was determined not to cry again. She didn't think she could anyway. It felt like she was empty inside now, like there was nothing left.

Lightning filled the air as the storm hit Kurast. Akane felt a surge of hope, thinking that it was Nabiki casting a spell. But the thunder followed soon afterwards and she realized it was just a storm and not her sister.

Images flashed through her mind. Nabiki holding out her hand to help Akane up the wall to fight. Nabiki winking at her after she razzed Kuno. Nabiki making her promise to find Kasumi.

And then Akane realized that even when someone felt completely empty, it was still possible to cry.

Outside the room, Ranma and Ryoga looked at each other as they heard her starting to sob again. Ryoga frowned deeply and started to pace. Ranma laced his hands and put them behind his head.

"We should do something," Ryoga said. "We should say something."

"Yeah," Ranma said, "like what. Sorry Akane that Nabiki's a frozen statue out in the middle of town?"

"I don't know!" Ryoga yelled. "Maybe you could try being supportive. Maybe you just sit next to her and tell her it will be all right."

"Why me?" Ranma yelled back.

"I don't know, maybe because she's your fiancée!" Ryoga answered. He frowned, realizing what he had just said. "Forget this," he said walking over and sticking his head outside an open window.

His body shriveled down and a second later, a little black piglet popped out of his clothes and headed towards Akane's door. He pushed it open with his nose and trotted over to Akane. He squealed a bit to get her attention.

Akane looked up and P-chan suddenly there. She did her best to smile and unfolded her legs, taking her little bet and putting him in her lap. Absent-mindedly, she began to pet him, but he could tell her heart wasn't in it.

Ranma watched the scene with frown. Ryoga was right, he should just do something. He could walk in and be supportive. But then Akane could just tell him to get lost. She probably didn't even want him around. Besides, one look at the grief stricken face and he'd probably just fall apart right there.

Amazing that a man who could face demons without batting an eyelash somehow could not find the courage to move his feet the twenty feet or so to get to her. He could watch a monster flop around in the agony of death couldn't bear to look at her tear filled eyes. All the armor and weaponry in the world the world was going to help him in this battle.

Suddenly, there were footsteps behind him. Ranma whipped around and came face to face with a stranger. His blue eyes pierced through Ranma, looking straight into the room. The guy looked pretty beat up. His hands were completely covered in bandages as was most of his mouth and throat.

He walked around Ranma and straight into the room before Ranma could say a word. Akane looked up at sound and gasped slightly. She stood up quickly, letting P-chan fall on the ground, and quickly ran towards the guy. Before he could react, Akane had him engulfed in hug.

"Shinnosuke!" she cried. "I thought you were dead!" It looked like he tried to say something but he stopped, his eyes squinting in pain. Akane started to cry again. "I'm so sorry," she said, between sobs.

Shinnosuke paused and then carefully lifted an arm, placing it on the back of her head and slowly stroking her hair. He shot a look over at the empty door but whoever had been in the hall was gone.

* * *

"Try it again…"

Shampoo paused and concentrated for a moment. "Sh… I am pleased meet Ukyo," she said softly.

Ukyo nodded. "Good! See, every time you want to say Shampoo, just stop and try replacing it with I."

Shampoo looked at the other girl. "Sha… I think this is stupid."

Ukyo sighed. "You wanted to do some training."

"Not in talking!" Shampoo cried. "Sha… I want practice fighting."

Ukyo looked her. "No offense, but no one is really in the mood to do much fighting."

Shampoo sighed. She knew that. And in truth she had begged Ukyo to help her train just to get her mind off things. Of course, she would rather be practicing spear throwing seeing as she had screwed up royally the last time she tried. But anything at this point was better than just moping around thinking of Nabiki. Or worse, thinking about Mo...

"Hey!" Mousse said, suddenly coming down the stairs. "Anyone here!"

Ukyo rolled her eyes before she waved. "Over here Mousse," she said. Mousse nodded and followed the sound of her voice. As soon as he got close, he realized she wasn't alone.

Rather than make things worse, he just forgot the fact that Shampoo was right there probably staring daggers at him. "I have an idea about how to get Nabiki free."

That certainly caught their attention. "How?" they both asked at the same time.

Mousse quickly related what he and Cologne had discussed. "So I went through some papers and I came across this story about a legendary woman who had the courage to stand up against evil and defeat it. After she died, several parts of her body were scattered across this region, protected so that if the day ever arrived that evil would have to be fought again, they could be gathered and melded together."

"How?" Ukyo asked.

"The same way we got the Horadric staff," Mousse said. "The only problem is that the location of the items isn't written down."

"That big problem," Shampoo said. "Big area to look for. Not enough time."

"Right," Mousse said. "But Cologne said that we might get lucky if we ask the same guy that gave that potion to Akane. "

"Why?"

Mousse shrugged. "I don't know. I think she said something about him being here a really long time."

* * *

Mousse's face suddenly made contact with the door. He took a few steps back and looked over at Shampoo and Ukyo.

"What! I just said knock on the door!"

"Mousse think we no listen when Akane and Ranma tell us about hentai that lives inside?"

"This on is all yours, sugar."

Mousse was about to protest more but apparently his heading hitting the door, resembled a knock because whoever was inside opened the door.

"Whatcha want?"

"Ah, excuse me, sir," Mousse said with a bow, "we wanted to…"

Suddenly a blur of maroon flew by his face and sent him back on the ground. Ukyo screamed and threw up a full body block while Shampoo grabbed her spear and swatted down whatever was attaching them. A little lump on the ground looked up at her with hurt eyes.

"That's him!" Mousse cried. "Get him!"

Shampoo quickly crouched and tried to make a grab for him, only to have him launch an attack at her chest. She diverted him with a spear swing only to have him bounce of her spear and right towards Ukyo. Thankfully, she had regained her composure and was just a tad angry. The kick she launched at him would have taken out a dozen demons but he managed to avoid it and land on the ground behind her. His hand whipped forward and he managed to give a good punch on the rear.

Giggling, he sped away, knowing not to push his luck. But suddenly there was a staff in his way. He stopped short before he hit and shot a glance over to the owner.

"Well, well," Cologne said. "I thought that maybe it would be you. How are you Happy?"

Happosai grimaced at the name. "As if you really wanted to know. You exiled me here."

Cologne lifted an eyebrow. "You were the one who decided to pillage our private store of clothes for underwear. And then fondle all the statues of our goddess and heroines!"

Happosai shrugged. "That's hardly worth a permanent…"

"Need I mention the incident with the tribal elder before me?" Cologne said.

Happosai smiled innocently.

"LET ME AT HIM!"

Happosai and Cologne looked over and saw Mousse and Shampoo struggling to keep Ukyo back. "Perhaps we can discuss this somewhere else," Cologne said, motioning at Happosai. Somehow, he didn't argue with that at all.

* * *

Finding hot water when you're a pig is hard, unless someone tries to have pork stew. But Ryoga managed to get out of Akane's room and hobble downstairs until he found a cup of tea that someone had left out.

Of course, changing from a pig to a naked boy probably wouldn't be the greatest idea in the middle of a dining room. Well, this wasn't going to…

Suddenly P-chan was off the ground, grabbed by the collar and being taken against his will, up the stairs and … back to his clothes? He landed on them and felt the hot tea being poured on him.

As soon as he had gotten his clothes back on, he looked over and saw Ranma holding the cup. He was about to say thanks when he saw the look on Ranma's face. Somehow, he really wanted to be a pig again.

"Come on," Ranma said. "I want to get some sparing done."

Ryoga shook his head. "Despite what everyone think, I'm not dumb. I'm not going to be your punching bag 'cause your fiancée is in her room with another guy."

That looked like it hit Ranma harder then any punch Ryoga could have thrown. Ryoga almost felt the urge to apologize but before he could formulize a thought, Ranma was already calling out the window.

"Let's go," Ranma said. "It looks like the others found something." Ryoga followed Ranma down the stairs and outside to where Ukyo, Shampoo, Mousse and Cologne were standing.

"It's called Kikyo's Flail," Cologne began. "If we can assemble pieces we can use this weapon to defeat evil."

"How?" Ukyo asked.

"It's not the Flail itself," Mousse broke in. "The weapon doesn't defeat evil, it just opens a portal that will lead you to true evil."

"Great," Ukyo said. "Sounds like fun."

"If you can defeat this evil," Cologne said, "then you should rid this land of whatever plagues it."

"That'll work," Ryoga said.

"Then let's go," Ranma said standing up.

"Wait a minute," Cologne snapped. "There are four pieces to collect before you can…"

"Fine, Ryoga. You and Ukyo get the first one. Shampoo and Mousse take the second. I'll get the third and we'll meet to get the fourth."

"Ah…" Mousse started.

"Maybe Sha… I go with Ukyo," Shampoo said.

"I don't think you should go alone, Ran-chan," Ukyo added.

"Look, I really don't want to get into a big debate," Ranma yelled. "Just go with who I said!"

Everyone fell silent and looked at him. They couldn't recall Ranma ever being… well, that angry. Not unless something was after Akane.

Before Ranma could say another word, he felt a shadow fall over his back. Looking behind him he saw his father.

"The choices stand," Genma said firmly. "Mousse and Ryoga would be the blind leading the lost. Ranma, you're coming with me."

There was something about the tone he used that made any sort of argument seem out of the question. Ukyo just shrugged and shot an apologetic look over to Shampoo who seemed less than thrilled with prospect.

"Ryoga and Ukyo," Genma stated, "take the Spider Cavern and find her eye. Shampoo and Mousse, it's back to the Flayer Jungle."

"Come on, Ryoga," Ukyo said, grabbing him. "Just stay close and try not to get lost."

"Flayer?" Shampoo asked. "Why no send us to Spider cavern?"

Genma looked at Shampoo with skepticism. "Because Mousse would scream like a little girl at the first spider."

"HEY!" Mousse cried.

Shampoo threw up her hands and started to walk away. Lucky for Mousse he got a glimpse of her retreating form and took off after her.

Genma looked over at Ranma. "Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Ranma asked.

"To go out and kill any monster that comes with in fifteen feet of us," Genma said grimly, looking over to where Soun sat.

Ranma nodded. "Oh yeah," he said with a stern nod. "That's not going to be a problem."

* * *

"Shampoo would you wait up!"

Shampoo stopped short and put her hands on her hips. Mousse finally caught up with her, though it took him a few moments to catch his breath.

"Can you please not run," Mousse said.

"Need get to Flayer fast."

Mousse paused. Shampoo hated Flayers as much as the rest of them but it looked like she couldn't wait to get there. Like she was running away from something much worse then them. Then he suddenly got it.

"Fine," Mousse said, somewhat resigned. "Just go, I'll keep up."

Shampoo paused for a moment before she took off again. That went… better than she had expected it.

* * *

"And that's it," Akane said, looking up at her place from the floor. She had just given Shinnosuke the rehash of what had happened since the shipwreck. He nodded slowly and motioned outside.

"Thanks," Akane said. "I just really miss her already." She paused and looked at him. "What about you, what happened? I mean, I know you can't talk right now but…"

Shinnosuke waved his arms in protest. He made a wave motion with this hand, and then a few swimming motions. He pointed at Akane, then made tearing motions and finally pretending he had brought something up to his mouth and pretended to bit into it.

"The harness looked like someone had torn it to shreds," Akane said. "But I didn't think that… I'm so sorry. Can I…"

Shinnosuke nodded and carefully pulled at a bandage on his hand and showed her the rope burns. Then he carefully pulled down the bandage around his mouth to show her the damage. His lips completely shredded and he made no move to open his mouth.

"Shinnosuke," she said reaching out to touch the wounds. He backed away reflexively and let the bandage fall back into place.

He looked back at her and shook his arms to show he didn't take it as any offense. Akane nodded. "Okay," she said. "Why don't I introduce you to the others?" Shinnosuke nodded and followed Akane as she walked out the door.

She was a bit surprised to find Cologne sitting by herself in the dinning area. She looked around for the others, even listened for their voices.

"Cologne," she asked finally. "Where is everyone?"

"They left," Cologne replied.

"What do you mean they left?" Akane cried.

Cologne shrugged. "They found something that might help your sister and they went after it."

Akane's face grew red and she clenched her fist. "Why didn't they say anything to me?"

"I guess they thought you were busy," Cologne said with a smile, looking at Shinnosuke.

Akane followed her gaze and realized what the old crone was thinking. But if she was right, then…

Akane turned around and left Cologne behind. Shinnosuke managed to grab her arm and shoot her a questioning glance. "I'm going after them," she said. "Stay here." He shook his head. "You're injured and it's not like…" But he just shook his head again. Akane sighed and realized it was pointless to debate things. "Come on," she said with a sigh, leading him out the door.

* * *

Ranma knelt down to the ground and looked out at the people walking around Lower Kurast. He looked over to his father.

"I thought you said this place was deserted," he whispered.

Genma nodded. "It is… those things are not alive. At least, not alive like us."

"So we can kill them?" Ranma asked. Genma nodded.

Before Genma could say another word, Ranma had drawn his sword and was walking towards them. It was in the moment, that Genma realized his own anger might have made him blind to something. This was not Ranma getting upset over Nabiki. This was Ranma angry over something much bigger.

The Zealots turned and saw him approaching. Quickly, they altered their courses so they would catch him. But Ranma's aura flashed an ugly red and most of them were engulfed in a wave of flames before he could even use his sword.

Unlike most monsters, the Zealots appeared to have at least half a brain and decided that massing on him was probably not the best idea. They scattered, seeking shelter in the neighboring jungle. But as soon as they were there, they heard a growl that was not from any monster ally they knew about.

Genma, in werewolf form, shredded about three of them with his first strike. They tried to retreat again but met Ranma head on and finally gave him the chance to use his blade. Genma morphed back to human form and nodded at his son.

"This isn't about Nabiki," he said, "is it?"

Ranma's eyes darkened a bit. "It doesn't matter," he said, taking off and looking for an entrance to the sewers.

* * *

Shampoo lined up her spear with the shaman's head. This was not going to fail. She was going to hit her target. She was going to prove that she was not losing her skills because she might be a bit distracted.

She let the spear fly and watched as it headed straight for its target only clip him on the top of the head. She watched with horrified eyes as the shaman turned to her with angry eyes. She was going to get fire spit at her again.

Standing up, Shampoo ran towards the shaman, knowing full well that he was going to try to roast her. She waiting until she was within his fire range and pushed off the ground to jump to her right, pushing off a tree trunk and bringing her knees to her chest as she flipped over the shaman's head. He spit his fire, following her path in the air but she was always a few inches out of its reach.

Shampoo landed on the ground hard and had to roll a few times to kill of some momentum. As soon as she stopped rolling, she got up running and headed towards where her spear was. Reaching over she grabbed her spear, turned and shoved it right into the approaching shaman's chest. Pulling it out, she quickly took care of the Flayer beneath him. She wasn't about to forget what happened the last time.

As soon as they were both dead, she turned back to the jungle and called out. "NOW!" she screamed before scrambling up a tree just as the Flayers started to come after her.

The area below her erupted as several bone spears ripped through the area and tore the little beasts to shreds. Anything that wasn't hit initially definitely felt something when the corpse explosion spell was cast. Simple plan, really, but it always seemed to have the same result. Flayer goo.

Shampoo climbed down the tree just as Mousse stood up. "That worked," he said. "Now…"

"Mousse!" Shampoo cried, throwing her spear. It whistled right by his ear and landed with a distinct thud behind him. Looking to where she had thrown, Mousse could barely make out the quivering form of a second shaman.

"Nice throw," he said softly. Shampoo walked over and grabbed the spear, trying to hide her smile. She had finally hit the little bugger. Of course, it had taken Mousse being in dire danger for it to happen but…

She looked down and realized that underneath her spear, an axe had split the Flayer in two. Looking up, she saw Ryoga and Ukyo coming through the forest.

"Told you it was them," Ukyo said. "Look what we found!" she said holding up a box with an eye it. Mousse leaned forward and looked at it with a nod.

"Damn," Ryoga said. "I knew we should have swapped it for a spider. Man, the look on your face would have been priceless."

"Thanks Ryoga," Mousse said a bit upset.

Ryoga shrugged. "Well, Ukyo said something about it not being a good idea since you tend to lose your head and do stupid things when you see one."

Silence.

"Yeah," Mousse said, trying not to sound too angry. "Stupid, meaningless, completely out of character things that I would never do for any reason otherwise." Well, at least he almost convinced himself. And from the blistering heat he felt from Shampoo's glare, it appeared she believed it too.

She turned on her heel and threw up the door to the Flayer dungeon stomping down it. With a sigh, Mousse went after her. Ukyo looked at Ryoga with an angry glare and smacked him upside the head.

"Hey!" Ryoga protested.

"You and I, honey, are having a long talk after this," she said, dragging him down into the dungeons.

* * *

Ranma's sword came down with a devastating blow. He hit the creature again and again until after awhile he didn't even realize what he was doing. Who was that guy? And why was he so friendly with Akane? And why didn't she hit him or call him names like she did to him?

"Ranma!" Ranma looked up and saw his father looking at him. "I think you killed it."

Ranma looked down and realized that he couldn't even tell what the creature was anymore. It was almost completely pounded into the ground. He took a step back and suddenly he realized that this was a problem. A paladin was never supposed to lose control like this.

What the hell was wrong with him? He never had problems like this before. Nothing phased him at all. But now, he saw Akane being friendly with some guy and he wanted to kill things because of it. It was even worse then the feeling of fear he felt on the ship after they realized Akane wasn't there.

It wasn't anger. At least, it wasn't anger at Akane or the guy or anything. It was at himself. Because he knew he was a coward. Because it probably should have been in that room instead of that guy.

"Ranma!" Genma called, pointing to the jungle. It took a minute to realize that the dark clouds were not rain but smoke clouds. It looked like the jungle was on fire. Why would the jungle be on…

Genma blinked and Ranma was gone. Well, at least the boy realized what was going on without a long explanation. Too bad Genma had no idea where he went off to. With a shrug, Genma walked down into the sewers to retrieve the next item.

* * *

"Hang on Shinnosuke!" Akane called. "I'll get him the next time."

Akane held up her hand and recited the spell, holding the last word on the tip of her tongue while she waited for the creature to emerge. The swamp water bubbled and Akane dropped her hand, casting Inferno.

The fire dissipated and Akane got ready to celebrate. The only problem was that the creature was still very much alive. And apparently rather upset at being set on fire. It shot a wad of green poison at her and Shinnosuke barely had time to pull her out.

"It's not working!" she cried. "So long as it's in the water, my fire spells just won't work." Worse than that, she was hitting trees instead.

Shinnosuke looked around for something to help and grabbed a fallen branch. He held it up for Akane to see. "Right!" she said. She cast her Enchant spell and repeated the process for herself. She nodded at Shinnosuke and they took off towards the edge of the water, with enchanted clubs raised.

The tentacles reached out of the water and the duo hit them sharply with the clubs. There was a squeal of pain as the creature drew its tentacles back into the water. Akane smiled and looked over at Shinnosuke. He nodded with appreciation.

They were about to continue on there way when the swamp exploded and the monster itself emerged from the swamp. They backed up quickly as a tentacle hit the ground in front of them. Shinnosuke took a good swipe at it and hit it square on. But instead of retracting, it wrapped itself around his legs and started to drag him into the water.

Akane tried to get a spell together but the sheer panic of it all she couldn't find the words. She ran forward to grab his hand and fell onto the ground. Her hands reached forward and wrapped around his. It would have been a rather heroic move if she hadn't suddenly found herself moving towards the water. She felt the dirt pushing into her skin, scratching the surface of her arms as the creature pulled. She had to close her eyes against the dust and could only wait of the cold blast of swamp water.

Then suddenly it stopped. Akane opened her eyes and realized she wasn't moving. She looked forward quickly to make sure that Shinnosuke was still there. He looked back at her a bit dazed but okay. Akane stood up slowly and got a good glimpse of the tentacle, or better yet what was left of it.

The creature let out a horrible scream and Akane finally found the source of its anguish. A sword was completely embedded in its eye. Ranma reached forward and pulled it out only to strike again. As the monster died, Ranma jumped off the head to avoid getting wet and landed on the ground next to the two.

"Ranma!" Akane said, helping Shinnosuke up. "We were trying to find you. Why did you leave without telling me! Especially on a quest that might help my sister!"

"You seemed a bit busy," Ranma said, shooting a glance at Shinnosuke as he put his sword away.

Akane looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Wait a minute, the old crone was right?" she said. "Are you… jealous?"

Ranma got flustered. "That's not what I'm saying!"

"Yes it is! I can't believe it. What did you…" She looked out at Shinnosuke and he just gave her a shrug. She looked back at Ranma. "No…"

"Forget it," Ranma said. "Just forget it."

"No, I really want to know," Akane said, putting her hands on her hips.

"It doesn't matter," Ranma yelled back. "Just do whatever you want with… what is your name anyway?" Shinnosuke looked at him blankly. "What you can't talk or something?"

Akane's anger flared. "No, he can't. His name is Shinnosuke and he was a sailor on the ship I was on after I left Lut Gholeim. He's hurt because he saved me when we got shipwrecked."

Akane looked at Ranma. "But then, it's not like you ever thought to ask me. I mean, after all when the hell would you care about what is actually the truth when it comes to me. You just need some empty headed doll that kind of looks like me and that's enough isn't it?"

Ranma blinked like he had been slapped. Suddenly things had been turned around and he was the one getting grilled.

"How couldn't you have known," she cried, a little sob escaping her throat. "How couldn't you have known that it wasn't me? She was a doll, she didn't even act like me. And you just followed her around like she was me! Do you know what it feels like to realize you can be that easily replaced in someone's life?"

There was silence. Neither Ranma nor Shinnosuke moved. The only tangible sound was the bubbling of the swamp.

"Well, our timing sucks," Ukyo said. Turning quickly, Akane realized that others had snuck in while she was yelling.

"Just… just forget it," Akane said and started to walk away.

"Akane," Ranma said, trying to catch her. But Shinnosuke got in the way. He gave Ranma a cold glance before he headed after Akane.

"Somehow," Ukyo said to the three people with her. "I think saying we had the eye and heart won't really create the celebratory mood we were hoping for."

"Ukyo say real obvious thing," Shampoo said.

The wind picked up and it looked like a storm was brewing to the north. But there was something unnatural about this storm. The clouds swirled into a perfect spiral, save a single point in the center where it was clear.

"Hey, where's Mr. Saotome?" Ukyo asked, softly.

"I'm guessing he's there," Ryoga said pointing to the storm. "Hey Ranma! I think your pop is in trouble."

* * *

Druids are powerful folk. That's a well known fact in the world so most people know well enough to avoid making them upset. But then monsters are different like that. They don't have much smarts to begin with, so they don't know when it's probably not a good idea to tick a druid off.

Genma was upset to begin with. He had to watch a good friend of his suffer because monsters like this wouldn't leave Kurast alone. So in retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea to attack him as he came out of the sewers carrying Kikyo's brain. But the horde of monsters never really got a chance to second guess themselves.

In seconds, Genma had managed to conjure up a huge storm, one of the largest he had ever done by himself. If there was any part of his mind that wasn't filled with thoughts of revenge, he might have been impressed with what he had done.

Well, okay, he was a little impressed. And he couldn't help but smile as the horde disappeared into the maelstrom. As soon as it was clear, he began to walk back towards where he had left his son.

"Pop!" Ranma said as he ran up, most of the rest of the group following close behind. He stopped short and looked around, the calmness of the area made him feel completely uncomfortable.

"Ranma!" His father scolded. "You left your father behind to deal with these monsters all by himself! Well, at least you managed to find everyone else. And Akane too! With…"

"Look, we've got the brain and the eye," Ukyo said, holding them up. Shampoo shot her an angry glance. "Sorry, I just wanted someone to be happy about it."

"Then we've almost got all of it," Genma said. "All we need is the flail. Come on, it's got to be nearby."

* * *

"Well, at least we know what happened to everyone in Kurast," Ukyo said.

Which wasn't entirely a good thing, Genma thought as he took in a deep breath and nodded slowly. The stone walls were smeared with blood. Makeshift altars still had body parts lying on top of them. Monster milled around the area, traipsing over the articles that once belong to the inhabitants of the village.

"All right," Genma said. "I think the ones near the temple are the leaders of this horde. We'll have to take them out first and then we'll do clean up with the rest of the them. Mousse, Shampoo take the two on the left. Ryoga and Ukyo, take the two on the right. Ranma and I will take the others."

"What about me?" Akane asked softly.

Genma looked at her. He nodded at the others to tell them to go ahead before he turned to Akane. "Akane, I need you to stay here and cast fire walls to protect us."

"You mean, stay out of the way," Akane said.

"Yes," Genma replied. Akane was about to protest but Genma silenced her quickly. "I'm not about to explain to your father how I managed to lose another one of his daughters. Ranma, let's go."

Ranma gave Akane one last look before took off after his father. Akane sighed and looked over at Shinnosuke.

"Sorry," she said. "You and me get to sit around while everyone else has fun."

Shinnosuke looked relieved. His last encounter with a monster was something he would like to forget. Or at least until he was back in full health. He hit Akane's arm to get her attention. When she was looking at him, grabbed the back of his hair and pulled it out.

"Pony tail?" Akane said. "Oh pig tail! You mean Ranma."

Shinnosuke nodded. Akane didn't say anything. He motioned to her and repeated the motion.

"Oh, it's a… long story," she said softly. Shinnosuke motioned around to the quick area. Akane sighed and walked a couple of steps away from him. "Well, it's like this…"

"Ah, Akane…"

Akane looked up and saw Ranma suddenly back. "What is it?" she asked.

"Pop said there's an ice based leader out there so can you…enchant my sword."

Akane sighed. What had she been expecting? An apology? An invitation to fight along side him? "Sure," she said, somewhat annoyed.

She took a few steps forward, grabbing her staff and beginning to word the spell when suddenly, her foot sank in the ground. "What the…"

The floor underneath her collapsed and she dropped her staff in surprise. "Akane!" Ranma called, dropping his sword and leaping after her. He got a good grip on her hand but her momentum downward was too much and he followed her into the hole.

By the time Shinnosuke realized what was happening, they were gone. He looked down the hole and only saw darkness. And worse, he could hear the sounds of battle in the distance. Looking at the fallen sword, he realized what he had to do. He picked it up and headed back towards Genma.