Disclaimer: Moi? Own these characters? Ah-ha-ha, sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. . .

. . . yeah, I won't even finish that sentence, for your sanity and mine. Let's just say that I own the characters in such a way that the lies in the documents involving them would make Enron blush. Huzzah.



Rating: It's R, you crazy people. Corrupting the youth of today is ever so much fun. Glee.



Author's Notes: Hoo boy. The current date is October 23rd, in the A.D. part of time known as 2002. Wasn't that interesting? So this is the starting point of Ch. 11. Pray like a friggin' televangelist that I write like the wind.

. . . besides that, I would just like to take in a deep breath and say THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your kind reviews on Ch. 10!! There were more than I expected, and I even got IM messages about it!! *^_^* I was so verra, verra happy (and one very nice and observant person pointed out a plothole larger than the grand canyon. . . . maybe I'm exaggerating, but it was friggin' huge, and I'm SO appreciative of that, thanks Bricobrosse!)

Anyhoot, yes, muchos thanks to Firewind for her constant ego-feeding and fun fun talks involving Sephiroth and Sesshomaru and Mr. Long Arms and a certain dungeon (you know what I'm talkin' 'bout. ^_~), Val for her spazzy, spazzy way of keeping me inspired and our delightfully depressing RPs, Tania for her hilarious comments about the story ("It was Carmen Electra, wasn't it?" ". . . yes." "I KNEW IT!"), and Naomi for your continued support/badgering me to write this, and of course your beautiful art. You guys are too cool. Too cool for school.

. . . that was long.

And so, brought to you this fine, fine day is the chapter that has been sealed in an air-tight mayonnaise jar since noon of last week. This is of the story currently sanctioned as . .



~*~

Pandora

~*~



Comfort. . . that's what he felt, resting in her arms like that. It was such an odd feeling, originating deep in the pit of his stomach; his eyes were closed, his lids heavy with a weary yet terribly familiar tiredness. His dark lashes rested against his rather pale skin, the track of where a lone tear had trailed down his cheek still evident, even in the moonlight. His breathing, once shaky and uneven, had calmed and evened out considerably, his head resting in the crook of her neck.

Comfort, however, was not enough to distract him from the matters at hand. Comfort and luxury never have been enough, and simply never *would* be enough. This was the case here; her arms, such an intensely foreign feeling upon his body, were slightly warm, but not enough to ward off the distinct chill of the night. Shivering despite himself and, half his mind refusing, he pulled out of their somewhat unexpected embrace. The place where the tear had fallen felt extra cold.

His head was drooped as a sudden flush of complete embarrassment filled his face. To be seen in such a state - in front of Nabiki Tendo, no less! To Tatewaki Kuno, it only served to worsen his problems. He wiped furiously at his eyes, trying to rid his cheeks and lids of any of the offending tears that he had tried so hard to hide. He had lost his sister, and now his dignity. . .

"I apologize," he started, still refusing to meet Nabiki's eyes. He meant to say more, really he did, but he found that the words he wanted to use simply did not suit the meaning he was attempting to convey.

"For what?" Nabiki asked in a surprisingly soft voice; she was still confused by the situation, however her empathy gears had managed to creak to life, which they rarely did. She watched him take a shuddering breath, expelling it soon afterwards, the water vapor wafting upwards until it evaporated from existence.

"For acting like this. For being so. . ." His mind searched for the right words. ". . . for being so weak."

She stared at him for a minute, unsure of herself once more. Shifting from one foot to the other, she rested her hand closest to Kuno on the guard rail, feeling the texture of the rough wooden plank under her palm. She sighed inaudibly.

"You're not being weak, Kuno-baby," she said, her voice a little more breathy than she would have liked. Nabiki's words puffed from her mouth, swallowed up by the suspiciously damp night air. Rain was coming soon.

"Oh?" the boy asked, emitting a choked, sarcastic noise that could be interpreted as a laugh, "how can you be so sure of that?"

"Kuno, I was just-"

"You were just what?" he softly implored, turning his face to meet Nabiki's; the flame that usually danced in his grey orbs had cooled significantly, down to a few, smoldering embers. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Nabiki figured her own eyes probably looked the same every day; at this thought, she became quiet. Kuno took her temporary silence as an answer in itself.

"Nabiki Tendo, accept the fact that, for once, you do *not* know everything," he said, his voice sounding a tad strained. He turned his head away once more.

"This goes deeper than the trivialities of rivals, of jealousy, and of whatever ridiculously pitiful relationship of consumer and capitalist we have." Kuno bowed his head, moonlight pooling onto his features. Nabiki didn't say anything to this. Yet.

"For once, I just. . ." he started, his words choked, "I am. . ."

"You're scared," she said quietly, more of a statement then a question, tilting her head slightly. Her voice carried a distinct tone that would normally be reserved for a restrained person who had just figured out a complicated problem. Kuno's face hardened at this; ever the stubborn one, he said nothing, only just tolerating the fact that he allowed his breath to hitch at Nabiki's words.

"Kuno-baby, I'm right, aren't I?" she asked, moving beside him again, noticing him flinch, "It's okay to be-"

"I am NOT scared!" he yelled suddenly, snapping his face to look at Nabiki, his eyebrows knotted in a resolute 'V' of defiance. The middle Tendo daughter was found herself to be surprisingly. . . unsurprised.

"Kuno-baby."

"I am not!" he repeated sharply, returning his gaze the Tendo's backyard. His shoulders sunk down a little bit as he did. "I am not. . ."

Nabiki sighed, turning around, leaning her weight back on the porch's handrail, which was oddly sturdy. So that's how he wanted to play it? Fine, let him wallow in denial.

"Say it enough and you might believe it yourself, Kuno," she asserted dryly, finding her compassion gone, though she didn't quite know why. He had opened up a little before - just a little bit - and it was enough to thaw the so-labeled Ice Queen's heart to her more sensitive and maternal side. Frankly, she wouldn't stand for it, now that she had regained her wits.

"When you're finished wrestling with all those inner demons of yours and want to talk some sense, you know where to find me," Nabiki said, replacing her weight on her feet, walking to the sliding door before her.

'Maybe I'm being a little cruel,' a tiny voice in her mind complained. This minute thought was forcibly squashed between walls of slightly self-righteous logic and apathy.

'He needs to cool off.'

'He just lost his sister. . .'

'She's not dead, he'll come to his sense.'

'That doesn't matter and you know it.'

'Oh gods, I'm having a conversation with myself!'

When she realized this, she shuddered a bit, blaming it on the increasingly chilly air. Reaching the paper door, she slid it open; Nabiki paused, her hand still on the wooden frame of the door, and glanced over her shoulder for a moment. Kuno still was half-slumped on the rail.

Two choices presented themselves to her - go back, because he looked like he needed some help, or go inside and do as she normally would. She paused in the doorway before making her decision.

With a dull 'thunk', Tatewaki Kuno was left standing alone in the night's cold air.



=*=*=*=



As she entered the living room of her house, Nabiki was greeted with the sounds of footsteps rapidly speeding around the nearby hallway's corner. Curious, she stepped forward once, only to be promptly smacked in the face with what her brain immediately thought was a brick wall wearing a red, Chinese-style shirt. She was knocked to floor in a slight daze.

"Oh, Nabiki, I didn't see ya there!" the brick wall, later discovered to be Ranma Saotome, said to the girl he had plowed over as he offered his hand to her. Still a little bit on the concussed side, Nabiki's hand flailed a touch before Ranma's fingers closed around it, pulling her up to her feet. With Ranma's help, she stood warily and ran a hand quickly through her hair, gathering her wits soon after. She began to think she really *would* have been better off to run straight at a wall; then again, how silly would that be. Her thoughts briefly wandered to their school's rugby coach Mr. Chisomu, and how he would command rugby players to run into a wall and knock themselves unconscious when they weren't hustling enough in his opinion. Entertaining as that spectacle could be to watch, the thought was waved aside to make room for more important matters.

"Look where you're going next time, then," she mumbled, glaring at Ranma out of the corner of her eye. Mere milliseconds later, an extremely worried looking Ryoga rounded the corner, yelling Ranma's name. Of course, the poor lost boy failed to realize that Ranma was standing stationary in the middle of the narrow hallway and could not stop himself in time. As Newton's Law would have it, Ryoga slammed right into the pigtailed boy; he hit the ground hard, the slap of skin against wood resounding through the area. Both cried out in surprise as their respective bodies flailed in the air before Ryoga landed solidly on top of Ranma's form; the fact that Ranma's face was beginning to turn blue conveyed to Nabiki that the bandana'd boy's weight was severely depriving Ranma of much needed oxygen. Was he flushing red as well? All the colours of the rainbow - who needed Skittles anymore?

Nabiki smirked as she watched Ryoga pick himself up, untangling his limbs from Ranma's. If Nabiki had believed in cosmic fate or something as ridiculous as that, she would have thought it was in full karmic effect.

"Why'd you stop like that?" Ryoga demanded, rubbing the back of his head, wincing slightly. Ranma glared daggers at him.

"It wasn't my fault that you smashed into me like the idiot you are!" Ranma snapped back, also getting to his feet. Irritation was obvious on both the boys' faces; much to Nabiki's surprise, and indeed surprise seemed to frequent the household that night, instead of Ryoga and Ranma starting a fight with each other, Ranma simply shook his head.

"Whatever, forget about it," the pigtailed boy said quickly, turning back around to face Nabiki and addressing her, "have you seen Kuno?"

Nabiki blinked once.

"I have, and I'm withholding information for my own sadistic pleasure. Why?" she asked, crossing her arms. Ranma, looking strained as he was, balled his fists at his side in what could have either been irritation or. . . no, it was just irritation, really.

"Nabiki, we ain't got time for this, I need you tell me where Kuno is right now!" Ranma barked at her. Nobody barked at Nabiki Tendo.

NOBODY.

"Why? To profess a secret, undying love for him?" Nabiki asked innocently enough, tilting her head, "Because I swear that I've seen you check him out on more than one occasion, in your guy form no less. . ."

"I knew it," Ryoga stated dryly, smirking at Ranma.

"Shut up pig boy, she's just bein' annoying! Gods!" the pigtailed martial artist shouted, gritting his teeth together, finding himself to be at the end of his rope temper-wise. "Nabiki, just tell me where he is!"

"Again with the why."

"Do you *want* to be murdered in your sleep?"

"By you? Ranma, I had no idea of your homicidal tendencies, I should really inform Akane."

"Not by me, Nabiki, by Kuno!!"

There was a lull of silence that hung over the room for a scant few moments; once again, Nabiki found herself blinking a few times in order to process the extremely weird information she had just been force-fed by Ranma.

"What are you talking about?" Nabiki finally asked after a couple seconds, looking curious, if not a wee bit disturbed. Ranma sighed a bit, glad that he was *finally* getting somewhere with such an important issue.

"Okay Nabiki, me and Ryoga think that Kuno's the one who tried to kill Kodachi," Ranma said solemnly, looking Nabiki square in the eyes. Nabiki tried extremely hard to suppress the laughter that was steadily worming its way up her throat; she managed to do it, a credit to her acting abilities.

"Kuno? You don't say?" Nabiki said, feigning surprise and interest, a tiny smirk chiseling itself onto her features, "well that makes perfect sense!"

"I know!" Ranma began; however, he was promptly cut off by Nabiki raising her hand.

"Ranma, that was sarcasm." On his part, the young Saotome furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Why're you being sarcastic with me, Nabiki? This is serious!" he stated, a hardened tone in his voice. Nabiki, in the back of her mind, noticed that Ryoga wasn't saying anything, but switching back and forth from looking worried to having a face of determination. Lost boy aside, her mood now was steadily slipping from quaintly amused to tottering on the edge of exasperation; as such, Nabiki rolled her eyes.

"Please. What reason would Kuno-baby have for trying to kill his sister? Yes they fight, but so do you and Akane. It doesn't mean she's out to murder you." She paused. "Well, most of the time. Sometimes she can get damn upset, and we all know it's not pretty."

"But she has every right to!" Ryoga said, finally piping up. He was blushing a bit - whether it was from righteous anger or from that adorable little crush he had on the youngest Tendo daughter, Nabiki wasn't entirely positive, "Ranma always makes her angry by being a jerk, so it's not her fault!"

"That's really sweet, I'll make sure to tell Akane," Nabiki said, her tone far too sugary-sweet to not be disturbing. Ryoga, attempting to decide whether to blush further or to be scared, decided to simply knot his eyebrows together, stand there and, not say anything; his mouth opened and closed a couple times before letting his gaze fall to the floor, and his mouth stay shut.

"It's true," he whispered determinedly, scratching the back of his head nervously. Ranma, annoyed to all hell by this, sighed cacophonously.

"We ain't talking about Akane and her maniac tendencies - Ryoga, shut up before you say anything in her defense, 'cause I don't care!" Ranma warned, shooting the aforementioned lost boy a meaningful glare. Ryoga silently glared right back.

The brown haired Tendo, leaning against the wall, arched an eyebrow disinterestedly.

"Well kiddies, it's been fun, but really, you should get out more. When you're alone with your thoughts, they tend to get warped," she said in her normally deadpan fashion, beginning to walk past both of them.

"Nabiki, wait! I'm being *serious* here!"

"So am I; I'm being seriously annoyed. I'm going off to do something productive with my life, I'll see you around."

In a sheer sign of desperation for the girl to listen to him, Ranma grabbed her arm, forcibly whirling her around. Surprised by this, Nabiki lost her footing temporarily, but managed to gain it back with only some slight wobbling.

"Ranma, what the hell-??"

"Nabiki, just shut up and listen to me for once!" he yelled, releasing her arm, "because it's too dangerous to let you be around him alone!" Now this really got Nabiki's proverbial goat; not only does he grab her, but now he's telling her what to do? Exasperation turned into anger. In fact, some of that anger wasn't simply directed at Ranma for him being annoying, but the fact that he would accuse Kuno of such a thing - in the state he was currently in? No. It wasn't allowed.

"Ranma, have you actually *seen* Kuno since we found out what happened?" She paused briefly for dramatic effect. "Well? Have you? He's acting worse than a little lost puppy, for Kami's sake!" Nabiki watched Ranma's eyes flash for a moment; hello, was what she was saying actually getting through to him?

For a few moments, Ranma didn't say anything.

'She's got a point,' he thought, 'I saw him in the classroom that day, and. . . gods, he looked so sad. . .' He quickly shook his head, as if to clear it of the offending train of recollection.

"That don't mean anything, Nabiki. Maybe he's just actin' really well, or something like that - c'mon Nabiki, you know as well as I do that Kuno is a psycho, an' we don't know how far he'd go with some things," Ranma stated, somewhat more for his benefit than Nabiki's. In turn, Nabiki felt a flush of anger run through her system; what was Ranma saying, that Kuno was just some sort of mental case that belonged in an institution?

Nabiki surprised herself by her next spoken sentences.

"He's not a lunatic, Ranma! Gods, did you ever just stop and think about his feelings for once?? His sister has just been kidnaped - he's depressed, confused, and gods forbid this, he's SCARED! Where do you get off accusing him of hurting his own sister like that??"

Ranma was a bit taken aback by Nabiki's sudden outburst - Nabiki never got this emotional about anything, *especially* not about defending the likes of Kuno. Silence hung in the air; he stared at her for a long while, before he set his mouth into a thin, determined line. Gathering his wits, he stalked forward towards the middle Tendo daughter.

"Last night when Akane kicked me outta the house, I ran into Kuno. You wanna tell me something about him not bein' a looney? He was covered in *blood*, Nabiki."

Surprise clearly registered on her face; her eyes widened slightly, and her mouth opened to say something, yet the words choked and died in her throat before seeing the light of day. Ranma nodded once, as if to confirm that what he just said was, indeed, true.

"Where do you think all that blood came from? It sure as hell couldn't have been from training, he didn't have many cuts on his body, but his clothes were soaked and dripping in blood." He took another step forward, his electric blue eyes challenging Nabiki.

"You tell me how that blood coulda got there, Nabiki. Use your brain to make up some excuses." Ranma paused for a short while; during this time, Nabiki said nothing. "You can't, can you? There ain't no other way it coulda happened. Just give up an' admit I'm right, for *once*."

Nabiki still looked stunned; she swallowed the lump in her throat, and stared blankly at the floor. No, it couldn't be true, it just *couldn't* be! Kuno-baby wouldn't lie to her like that. . . she saw his eyes. They were so empty and sad - there was no way any actor could do that, no matter how good they were. It was just impossible!

"No," she said quietly, still not looking up at Ranma.

"Yes," he replied, his voice softening, "Nabiki, there isn't another explanation, really. Even I can see that, and I ain't smart like you are." Ranma took Nabiki's continued silence as an answer.

"Those weird auras he's been having too? That ain't natural; it's not chi, and I can tell. I dunno if it's some stupid, magic thing that he's found like that Phoenix Egg, but whatever it is, it's *wrong*. Then, just by coincidence, Kodachi is suddenly gone, leavin' a bloody mess behind. It just fits together too well for there to be any other way," Ranma explained to Nabiki, stepping back from her to give her some room. He looked over at Ryoga, who bit his lip in return, a fang peeking out cutely.

Due to the silence in the immediate area, it was rather easy for the three of them to hear the sliding door to the backyard open. It was a quiet, but remarkably distinct sound as well; it closed soon after, and the soft treading of footsteps echoed quietly through the hall that Nabiki, Ranma, and Ryoga were standing in.

"That was Kuno, wasn't it?" Ranma said, a statement if there ever was one, and he was still looking at Nabiki. The gears in the girl's mind were manically cranking and winding away, attempting to file away all the information that she had beared witness to in chronological, *reasonable* order, however she was currently failing miserably.

"Yeah. It was," she replied, looking down the hallway. The footsteps were getting distinctly closer.

"Stand back, then. This ain't gonna be pretty," the pigtailed martial artist grimly announced, cracking his knuckles together. At this, Nabiki widened her eyes a bit.

"Ranma, what do you think you're gonna do? Just walk up to him and beat him senseless?" she asked, sounding astonished, though realizing that, as depressing as it was, it was Ranma's only known course of action for him.

"Well, yeah, what else? I do it every day anyway," he said, looking at Nabiki oddly. This was not enough to satisfy Nabiki Tendo, though.

"What if you're wrong?"

"What if I'm right?"

Nabiki sighed sharply, frustrated by the futileness of her words to sway Ranma; the boy was being as stubborn as ever, and it certainly wasn't helping any that. . .

. . . gods, he actually sounded like he was *right*.

"Ranma, maybe Nabiki has a point," Ryoga said, much meeker than he was before. He had been quietly observing the heated conversation for the most part, and both had made some rather interesting points.

"Ryoga, what do you mean?" Ranma inquired, looking oddly at Ryoga, "I thought you an' me were agreed on this!"

"Well, I'm just saying that m-maybe Nabiki has a point is all! I mean, we don't really know all the facts, and. . ." he began, hesitating in his speech, yet making his face as determined as he could, ". . . and I just don't think that anyone could be horrible enough to do that to their own family! I saw his reaction when we saw what was on the T.V., and he just looked too sad!"

"Ryoga. . ." Ranma said, sounding rather annoyed, practically growling the lost boy's name.

"I'd be acting weird too if I found out that someone in my family was hurt like that," Ryoga stated, his eyes now focused on the ground. With the way he was talking, it sound as if he was only vocalizing selected pieces of an internal soliloquy; his facial expressions knotted into that of worry after a few moments.

"Well how would you feel if you just let him go, and it turned out that I was right all along, and he ended up hurting Akane?" Ranma bit off, glaring sharply at the bandana'd martial artist. Getting the reaction that he was looking for, Ranma saw Ryoga's eyes widen slightly, and his visage of concern becoming even more apparent. The footsteps seemed to have faded to nothingness, but Nabiki found she was the only one who had taken much notice of it.

"I don't want her hurt!" Ryoga exclaimed, looking up at Ranma, his eyes brimming with worry, wringing his hands together, "but I don't want to needlessly harm him if we're wrong!"

"Yeah, well, maybe we have to take some chances with this, then!" Ranma shouted right back, looking as established in his ideals as any greater man who walked the earth before him. It was Nabiki's turn now to watch the argument that was ensuing, yet she found herself wondering where Kuno could have wandered off to, if she couldn't hear the footfalls anymore.

"But I just. . . I've thought about this a little more, and I just can't believe that he would do such a thing!" the lost boy said, gazing down at the ground once more.

"Do what sort of thing?" a deep, yet soft voice questioned from a little ways down the hall. All present turned their attentions to the end of the hallway that, by all standards, was not a terrible distance away. There stood none other than their subject of conversation and arguments; he leaned against the wall of the corridor, his arms crossed over his chest, yet in a way more befitting a person who was cold than one who was angry or being defiant. His tired eyes seemed weighted down.

"Kuno-baby?" Nabiki asked, as if just saying the boy's name would force everything to make some sort of merry sense. It didn't. Out of the corner of her eye, Nabiki saw Ranma tense up slightly, and Ryoga simply stood there, unsure as to what he should be doing or feeling. Kuno looked at the three of them, furrowing his eyebrows a bit; he looked as if he was studying something tritely complex, if that was at all possible, with his head slightly tilted. While curious, he seemed far too tired to be really interested.

"What is it that you are discussing?" he asked quietly, blinking a few times, "the animosity is near to the point of solidification." Nabiki was a bit surprised; Kuno never seemed to be the brightest crayon in the box, and perception was never his strong point, so it was quite amazing that he was able to pick up on the tension alive and kicking in the relatively small hallway.

"We're talkin' about you," Ranma answered, a slightly bitter tone in his voice, "an' I don't know what animosity means, but yeah, it's pretty big here." Once again, Kuno looked tiredly perplexed.

"Why am I the centre of your argument?" the kendoist inquired, stepping forward into the hallway. He made a conscious effort not to meet gazes with Nabiki as he did so.

"You wanna know why?" Ranma asked dangerously, he himself stepping forward, balling his fist by his side, "I'll tell you why! 'Cause I've figured everything out, *that's* why!" Kuno looked very much like a bemused little puppy before everything in his tired mind clicked into place, and his eyes widened a bit.

"You have?" he breathed, searching Ranma's face for any sort of indication that he was lying. Kuno couldn't believe it; of all people, it was the most loathsome Ranma Saotome who had discovered the people behind the heinous kidnaping of his sister! That is what it had to be about; he looked so dead serious, there was no way he was referring to something else.

"Yeah, I have. Don't look so shocked Kuno; I mean, it was pretty obvious after I really thought about it," Ranma stated, looking steadily at Kuno who, indeed, appeared to be shocked.

"You, thinking of something Ranma? No wonder Kuno-baby's so surprised," Nabiki commented dryly, deciding her words would have more effect if she didn't actually look at Ranma; despite the fact her eyes were not on his form, Nabiki could feel Ranma just bristling with annoyed anger.

"Nabiki, stay out of this," he ground out, keeping his own eyes trained on Kuno.

"But. . ." Kuno began, his brow creasing slightly in confusion; he looked straight at Ranma, his eyes wide and imploring, "but how?" Snorting in indignation, Ranma crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oh, it was obvious enough, once I knew what to look for. You've been acting weird lately - well, weirder'n usual - and then that night when I ran into you, and you were just *drenched* in blood. I'd say that was a bit outta the ordinary, wouldn't you?" he asked scathingly, glaring at the boy before him. Kuno looked as if he was about to say something before Ranma raised his hand, silencing him.

"I ain't finished yet," he said simply, looking rather serious, "so don't talk until I am."

"Ranma," Ryoga said quietly, stepping towards the pigtailed martial artist, looking a bit apprehensively at Kuno before turning his full attention to Ranma, "come on, that's enough."

"No, it *ain't* enough, Ryoga, so shut up!" he growled, "You and me both know exactly what happened, so stop being so wussy about it! Who knows what he'll do next? If you don't stand up with me, Akane could get hurt!" Ranma mentally smirked as he watched Ryoga's eyes widen, his deep pools of brown sparkling with concern. Kuno's own eyes mirrored Ryoga's at Ranma's comment.

"What?? Who will hurt Akane!?" Kuno asked, a frantic tone clawing its way onto the edge of his voice. On his part, Ranma was about fed up with the innocence that Kuno was so aptly feigning. He whirled around to face him.

"YOU, ya sick bastard!" he yelled, his fists balled so tightly by his side he was sure he was going to break the skin on his palms. Shock mingled famously with confusion and distress at Ranma's sudden outburst; Kuno took a step back, not only due to Ranma's course language, but also because of the tremendous weight of his statement. Biting her lip in annoyance, Nabiki quietly, but purposefully, strode down the hallway, away from the fight. No one seemed to notice.

"Wh. . . what. . .?" the kendoist asked quietly, his eyes widened, staring with numbed horror at the three people surrounding him. Ranma continued to look extremely angry.

"Don't give me that!" he shouted, taking a step forward to compensate for the closeness lost between them. Ranma let out a short, sarcastic laugh. "I should have known it was you, Kuno - you were always so weird and obsessive; it just figures you would do something like this!" Tatewaki continued to back up with every step closer that Ranma took; the shock had not yet worn off, and while Kuno's mouth opened and closed, no word of defense was brought forth from his lips.

"What a-are you saying??" he said, an frantic edge in his question. Ranma narrowed his eyes.

"I'm saying that it was *you*, Kuno. Who else would it be? It was done with a bladed weapon - why not a *sword*, huh? You ain't as good as me, but you ain't dumb with a sword, are ya?" he continued, smirking a bit at Kuno's shocked silence, "Then you managed to hide her somewhere. You're pretty much all alone in that big ol' mansion of yours, you must know of *plenty* of great places to hide a body, don't you??"

"No-!" he started, desperately attempting to try and say something. His eyes were wide and panic stricken, almost as if he was on the verge of tears.

"Oh, I think you do. And then you go off running down the street for some bizarre reason only *your* twisted mind could conjure; just one problem - you run into *me*." Ranma finally stopped stepping closer to the boy, now mere inches apart from his face. The pigtailed martial artist lowered his voice so only Kuno could hear.

"I saw the blood all over you, Kuno. It all makes sense," he contended, his voice steadily rising in volume as he spoke. Kuno had seemed to have gotten over the shock somewhat, and his face was eerily unreadable.

"And now I know that you were the one to do it. Your own sister! Gods, you sick, twisted, crazy little-"

Ranma was suddenly cut off by the sensation of cold water being poured onto his head. Nabiki, who had silently returned with a glass of water, dumped the stuff all over Ranma, successfully triggering his change into his cursed body, and stopping his rant.

"Cool off!" Nabiki ordered, staring down at the now red-headed girl, spluttering and wiping her bangs from her eyes. She glared up at Nabiki, angered at having his bombast cut off so suddenly.

"What was that for?!" she demanded, her rage still quite alive, but redirected for the meantime.

"I won't have any more property damage tonight. I know where you were headed with this; enough is *enough*, just stop it," the brown haired girl ground out, her words just oozing with venom as she spoke to the soaked girl in front of her.

Kuno stared blankly at the two girls now before him.

"Pigtailed Girl. . .?" he asked, his voice as small and vulnerable as that of a child's. Ranma quickly snapped her head to the direction of Kuno's voice, opening her mouth to say something more caustic than before; however, she stopped suddenly when she saw the expression on Kuno's face.

Tears were shining in his eyes; he stared at some point that laid between the floor and the face of the boy-turned-girl, grey and temporarily unseeing. His mouth hung ajar, his eyebrows upturned, looking the very picture of a beaten and abandoned animal, breathing unsteadily.

"I c-could. . . I could never. . ." he said, his words trailing off somewhat as his mouth attempted to work once more, moving yet silent. He swallowed dryly, and it was as if some sort of floodgate had been opened; a tear streaked down his ashen face, his breathing becoming heavier and more ragged. His fists, clenching and unclenching by his sides were trembling minutely.

He also began to glow a soft, yet remarkably dark, shade of blue.

"I could never hurt her like that!!" the desperate boy exclaimed, snapping his gaze up to girl-type Ranma's, his eyes as despairing as his voice, sparkling with the unmistakable glint of tears, the blue aura reflected in the unshed drops.

"I w-was supposed to protect her, but I. . . I failed! I was n-not there when sh-she needed me, a-and now. . . and. . . oh g-gods, Kocchi!" he choked out, quickly turning his back to all those present, covering his eyes with his hands. At that moment, all he wanted to do was go crawl into some horrendously unpleasant black hole and die. He felt so miserably. . . alone.

They watched him cry, and gods, was it painful to see. The aura that surrounded him continued to glow, and seemed to almost glitter, like there were diamonds carefully studded into the sobbing boy's atmosphere. Like diamonds, or. . . or like ice, even. Cold and lonely and as untouchable as ice.

Nabiki, Ryoga and Ranma watched this, unable to say anything that would fit into the situation; there they were, unable to understand, or even comprehend, all that was happening in such a short period of time. Everything was quiet except for the choked sobs issued from the shuddering boy's body; he hugged himself, his entire frame quaking as he fell to his knees, embraced by the deathly cold of the hauntingly beautiful aura surrounding him.

She felt something twist inside the pit of her stomach as she watched him, so helpless on the ground. Nabiki, biting her lip, walked forward, kneeling down beside Kuno - gods but he was cold! She wasn't even touching him, and she could feel what could only be described as sub-zero temperatures biting at her skin.

"Kuno-baby. . .?" she whispered, wanting to calm him down; she had no idea why he had these auras, but from what little she had seen, they always affected his body, and *always* for the worse. They even seemed to go hand in hand with whatever sort of emotional extreme he was experiencing; as such, Nabiki figured she needed to get him less depressed, and quick.

She took another look at him, and decided it was only a few hairs short of impossible.

"Kuno-baby, shh, come on," she coaxed, the entire situation once again feeling horrendously unknown, "it's okay, you'll see her again. . ."

"I w-would not hurt her. . . I c-could not-!" he pleaded between sobs, hiding his face as best he could from Nabiki. Her own features softened.

"I know, Tacchi," she assured him, in a voice so quiet no one else could hear. Nabiki also noticed that she had used a rather affectionate nickname for him that she hadn't for quite a long time. "I know you wouldn't hurt her. Don't listen to Ranma, it's okay. . ."

Nabiki continued to utter soothing words to Kuno, who was shaking like a leaf in the wind on the floor of the Tendo house. As she did this, his aura steadily began to deplete; it first lost the almost hypnotizing glitter of icy white, becoming progressively paler, changing from indigo to something of a washed-out blue. Reaching her hand across to his back, Nabiki rested her palm against his quivering body; it was still colder than should be humanly possible to survive, but she could feel heat begin to slowly radiate once more from him as she continued to speak and rub his back.

Ranma stared at this, not knowing what to say. She was positive - *positive* - that Kuno was behind it this entire time! Everything had coincided so neatly, it all made actual, logical sense that he would be the one to have hurt Kodachi like she had been; and yet, there Kuno was, reduced to a wreck on the floor. She knotted her eyebrows, half in concern, half in confusion, taking a small step forward; if she was wrong, then. . . then she had said some pretty nasty things to him.

She shook her head - no, it didn't make a difference that Kuno was putting on this show! A lot of people could turn their tears on and off like a faucet, actors did it all the time! Not even bothering to believe that train of thought, Ranma looked morosely down at the progressively calming kendoist, finding her once hard-as-rock resolve to be collapsing like a souffle.

The trance that she had been lulled into by the generally depressed mood of those surrounding her came to a screeching halt when she heard distinct sounds coming from what could only be the roof. Snapping her gaze upwards, Ranma Saotome's ears strained to listen for the sounds of footsteps walking across the roof; they were far too heavy to belong to that of the normal fare of martial artists in Nerima, who preferred to wear Chinese-style slippers. No. . . these footfalls sounded like they were wearing boots.

They were also walking towards where the door to the backyard was.



~*~*~*~*~*~



Screw it. I know this chapter is short - much shorter than usual - but I have been having such a terrible time with school lately that it's the best I can do for now. End of semester sucks. =P I couldn't even work on this properly during Christmas break, because I was in Florida (and computerless, go figure) for a good portion of the time. Though it *was* quite warm, and I got to go on rides. ^_^

*sighs* I'm very, very sorry for this disappointing and crappy chapter. ;_; I promise to make the next one super great though, with action, suspense, and. . . and something meaningful to the plot! =D Alright, so please don't stop yourselves from reviewing, even though this chapter was significantly below my usual caliber. _-_ Blame the teachers. Blaaaame the teeeeeachers. . .



~Chibikat

P.S.: Just a bit of FYI, Pandora is now officially a year old. O_o Weird. . .