Here's the next chapter.  Hope you like it.

                ======   NO REST FOR RANMA   ======

                Ranma slowly opened his eyes, not at all feeling up to sparring yet.  "Ugh, what hit me?"

                "Oh good!  You're awake.  You know, you took that a lot better than I thought you would!"

                "Hnn?" Ranma looked up to see the familiar face of Botan looking down at him.  Groaning, he grabbed his forehead.  'Great.  That means it wasn't a dream!'

                "Hello mother.  Or, should I call you father?"

                Ranma looked, puzzled, up at the little pointy face looking down at him, and immediately began sweating bullets.  "C-cat!!"

                Botan started off with her pre-made plea to Ranma, really wishing she worked better under pressure.  "Okay, now calm down Ranma!  Remember, this is your Spirit Guide, he hatched from the egg?" Ranma didn't panic right away, seeming to have latched onto the sound of Botan's voice for support.  "He is you in every sense of the word, he even has the same, or similar curse as you.  He is you.  You can't be afraid of yourself... right?" If this didn't work, she was ready to bop him unconscious and try it another way.

                "Me?" Throughout all of this Ranma kept his eyes latched onto those of the cat.

                "Think of it another way.  I am a Spirit Beast, not a cat.  Cats aren't Spirit Beasts, are they?" Ranma slowly shook his head no.

                "Remember, he's your Spirit Beast that you hatched from an egg.  There's no reason to be afraid of him, so long as you aren't afraid of yourself?"

                Ranma shook his head, as if shaking the cobwebs loose.  "No, I, uh... so, what's his name?"

                "That's for you to decide, I suppose."

                "I, um, uh..." In the fog of Ranma's mind, he tried to make sense of what his eyes were telling him verses what his mind thought it knew.  He was doing his best to see a Spirit Beast and not a cat.  That the creature in front of him was in fact a Spirit Beast, his Spirit Beast.  That, though it admittedly looked like a cat, obviously wasn't.  What cat could talk?  As far as Ranma knew, none.  So he forced out of his mind the image of a cat and into it he forced the image of a friend in disguise.

                And all this time he was frozen in place, barely breathing for a good five minutes.

                In his mind, which was slowly coming out of its fog, Ranma started putting pieces together about the outside world.  At some place in his mind he was already thinking about the problem of his new friend needing a name.  That part of his mind was working with the bits and pieces that came to it.

                Color?  He was almost all black, from head to foot to foot to foot to foot.  He had golden eyes and a few golden markings about his head, outlining his ears and making a cup-like arrow that pointed at his nose and expanded out to the top with a little dot in between the arms.

                The cat, er, Spirit Beast in question sighed.  "I just hope he doesn't come up with 'C-chan'."

                "Hmm?  Where did that come from?"

                "I don't know.  I just know I don't want to be called that..." (1)

                That got a laugh from Ranma, which helped to relax him a bit so he could think better.  'Well, he does look like a cat, but he's special, sooo...'  "I got it!"

                The sudden declaration surprised the still unnamed Spirit Beast cat enough to jump back, though he still landed nimbly on all four feet.  "Eh?  What then?"

                "Hyo-sama! 'Lord Panther!'" (2)

                'Hyo-sama' grinned in a catty way.  "Makes me sound important, I like it."

                Botan smiled.  'That worked better than I expected!'  "Well, Hyo-sama, welcome to Nerima!  And Ranma, welcome back to the world of the living!  Literally."

                Ranma kept his eyes locked on Hyo-sama as he spoke to Botan.  "So are you staying here?  Or do you have work to do?"

                "I suppose I do have to go, once I'm sure you're okay here.  I will drop in if there's anything you need to know... uh, why are you staring at him like that?"

                "Memorizing his face (3), and kinda waiting for Kasumi to get back.  I'm starving..."

                "Oh!  Well, then, I suppose I'll just have to see if I can't find her, heh."

                Ranma was still staring at Hyo-sama when Botan left the room to find Kasumi in the kitchen.

==

                "I'm home!"

                Hyo-sama turned his head toward the new voice.  "Who's that?"

                "That's Akane."

                "Oh... okay.  Who's that?"

                "Don't worry, you'll figure things out eventually." Ranma finished his curry and set his bowl to the side, still staring at Hyo-sama in an attempt to burn the face into his memory.

                Some shuffling and other noises that Hyo-sama recognized as conversation went on outside the room.  Basically it cumulated to Akane rushing to the door of the guestroom while yelling Ranma's name.

                What she saw when she opened the door horrified her.  Ranma cat = disaster.

                Without thinking she dove down, scooped up the little black cat, and carried him out of the room.  She then unceremoniously dumped him on the floor just out of sight of Ranma.

                Standing in the door to the room, she wondered at Ranma finally being awake as he sighed helplessly.

                "Nice to meet you too." Drawled Hyo-sama as he twisted himself off of his own head.

                "Yea-huh?" Akane looked down at the little black cat as he walked back into the room.  She then panicked again and picked him up and took him out into the hall.  Holding him by his front legs she looked at him.  "Did you just talk?"

                "It's okay, Akane.  Hyo-sama's my Spirit Beast-Guide-thingy."

                "Hyo-sama?"

                "Yeah.  Don't you like it?"

                "Yeah but, you know its name?  You know it's a cat, right?" Akane set Hyo-sama back on the ground, where he, for some reason, started licking his fur back into place after Akane mussed it up by picking him up.  It just really bothered him that half his hair had been pushed backward!

                "Yeah, well, no, I mean yes, but he's not really a cat.  Besides, I was the one who had to name him, so yeah I know his name."

                "Okay but... why didn't you just name it 'C-chan'?  Or something like that?"  Hyo-sama immediately fell on his side, despite his catty agility, and found he suddenly had a headache as he had somehow managed to land on his forehead.

                "Is she serious?" Hyo-sama's distaste for the name came through in his tone.

                Ranma nodded.  "That's how she named P-chan, her pet 'pig'."

                "Pig?"

                Ranma nodded again as he rolled his eyes.  "Yeah, and he's a real pig." Hyo-sama decided to leave it at that.

                "Now that you mention it, where is P-chan?" After a few seconds of looking around fruitlessly Akane seemed to stop looking and just look at the wall blankly.

                She then turned around and hit Ranma over the forehead. "Hey!  What was that for!?"

                "Stop distracting me!!!" She then enveloped Ranma in a hug.  It wasn't like one of Shampoo's choke-inducing glomps.  It was more like Akane was worried she might break him or something like that.  She held him firmly, but only firmly enough to know that he wasn't going anywhere.

                Looking down, Ranma saw that she was crying.  "Uh, Akane?"

                "I missed you!  You jerk!  The least you can let me do is welcome you back... and promise me you won't do that again."

                Slowly, and without really knowing what to do, Ranma put one arm around Akane's back.  He didn't say anything, knowing that for him, such a promise was impossible.

== But where was Nabiki? ==

                "So it's this way?"

                Nabiki shook her head no.  "100 yen."

                Ryoga hung his head.  "One question.  How much will it take for you to lead me to Saotome's funeral?"

                Nabiki thought it over.  "10000 yen for me to show you there.  And another thousand for every time I have to go looking for you."

                 Ryoga felt his depression going even deeper for a moment as he emptied another ten-thousand yen from his pockets.  He had thought it a blessing to find Akane's sister out on the streets, but it turned out to be anything but.

                For her part Nabiki had thought it a pretty generous rate charging Ryoga only one-hundred yen each time he got the direction wrong.  She also noted that he tended to get turned to the right and often went in circles, straight back to where he got the directions from.

                Even without the ten-thousand, she had made quite a killing off of that Ryoga boy.  Who knew he had so much money on him?  Well, it's not like anyone would actually get it from him even if they tried.  Not without getting a broken wrist or jaw... or worse.

                "Now do your best to follow me.  I don't want to have to find you even for a thousand yen."

                Ryoga only nodded as he latched his eyes onto Nabiki's well-formed, feminine rear.  When he realized where he was staring, he quickly developed a massive nosebleed and passed out.

                Nabiki heard the thump and turned around to find Ryoga on the ground with blood coming out of his nose and a pale look on his face.  Looking around, she tried to spot something, anything, that could possibly wake him up.  Cold water was out, he had to be human.  Smacking him was also out, nothing short of a bus could wake him up.

                Smirking, Nabiki came up with something she was sure would wake him up!  "Akane!?  What are you doing here?"

                "Akane!  Where!?" Getting up immediately, Ryoga began searching the crowds for his beloved Akane.  His eyes then locked on Nabiki.  "Where is she?"

                "Back at the dojo by now.  And that'll be one-thousand yen, thank you."

                Knowing better than to ask questions, Ryoga simply handed the girl the money, this time deciding to keep an eye on her back, rather than its end.

==

                "I'm home!"

                "Oh!  My dear Akane!  Let me console you in your time of need!"

                Ryoga was seen in the back yard, looking around confused.  However, he was determined not to get lost so he anchored his feet to the ground.  "Uh, I can't go anywhere right now, so if someone could take me to see Ranma's casket?  Or possibly grave?"

                Ranma, feeling a good-bit better after getting some nutrition into his system, had been stretching out in the dojo at the time.  Hearing the commotion, he went to the yard to investigate.  Smirking, he got Ryoga's attention, doing his best to ignore the several ghost-like demons still surrounding him.

                From atop his head he looked down at Ryoga's face.  "Hey there, Ryoga.  And if you're looking for my grave, you're just a bit out of luck."

                Ryoga scowled from his place beneath Ranma's feet.  "So, Ranma!  You fake your own death!?  And here I was looking forward to dancing across your final resting place!"

                Ranma scratched his chin, his child-like demeanor the only thing keeping him from freaking out on the ghost-bugs surrounding Ryoga.  "That so?  Well, I was dead, but now I'm not.  Is there something wrong with that?"

                Now, if this was anyone else, they probably would have asked Ranma what he was talking about.  But as it was, NASA was able to detect the vibrations when Ryoga exploded.  "LIAR!!!" He then landed a hit directly on Ranma's face, sending him falling into the Koi pond behind them.

                Ranma angrily crawled out of the pool, pulling at her shirt so it wouldn't stick uncomfortably and tightening her sash to prevent her pants from falling down (why else?).  "Alright then, let's see just how much weaker I am after my three-week nap."

                "Whether you came from the grave or not, I intend to PUT YOU THERE!!!"

                Ranma didn't wait for Ryoga to attack first; instead she opted for a quick start to the fight.  She ran at Ryoga at full speed, using her left elbow to strike him in the gut once in close enough, and swinging powerfully upward, sending him into the air a ways.

                Ryoga, being Ryoga, wasn't even fazed.  "Hah!  Is that it!?  If it is then I might believe that you're dead, I've never felt you hit so softly!!  HAHAH!!"

                'Crap, I must be more tired than I thought... guess I gotta stick with it then...'

                Realizing that, being so tired, she wouldn't be able to effectively block or parry Ryoga's pile-driver hits, Ranma started working himself to the limit dodging hits.

                "HA!!  YOU HIT LIKE A GIRL RANMA!!!" BAM  Ryoga struck the ground with one fist, making a good-sized crater in the ground where Ranma had appeared only a moment before, and had quickly flitted away.

                "Ranma!!"

                "Botan!?  AHH!!  Kinda busy right now!!"

                "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING TO, RANMA!?!?" BAM

                "Take off the wrist-bands!  You aren't ready for a fight like this with them on!"

                Ranma, still on the run for the time being, registered Botan's words in her mind and went to pull off one of the wrist-bands, only to not find any.  "Huh?"

                WHISH!! In her moment of distraction, Ranma nearly bit the dust with one of Ryoga's harder punches.  Still retreating, she hazarded a look at her wrists.

                There they were, two little red wrist-bands.  But when she tried to peel them off, it was as if they weren't even there!

                "Crap..." BAM

                Ranma watched as rocks and pieces of concrete from the sidewalk beside the street they were fighting in flew in front of her face.  She then decided to get a little distance between her and Ryoga.  As she retreated away from Ryoga, she felt something brush up against her arm.  As it was left behind, she saw one of the green-colored 'balloon' demons still present around Ryoga.  'I wonder...'

                When Ryoga came in close enough to force Ranma to move again, she went just beside him, quickly grabbing one of the nearby creatures, she found that it was just as solid as if it really were solid, despite that she could see straight through it.

                Not allowing Ryoga any time to catch up to her, she deftly rammed the thing against her knee and used one fist to smash it well enough.

                "Huh?" Ryoga could swear he was getting that weird feeling again.  In a way, it was a bit like the relief he felt each time he scored a hit on Ranma.

                "HYA!!" In Ranma's mind, if one could make him stumble for a moment, then two could stall him.

                But back in Ryoga's mind, the entire world was reeling.  It was like he was being forced to relive all those times Ranma had attacked him, real or imagined.  Anger and depression swirled together in his aura as he turned around with wild-eyes.  "RANMAAA!!!!  YOU WILL DIEEEE!!!"

                "SHIT!!" Ranma started running away as Ryoga as he pulled one arm back, focusing the purple-red mix into his hand.  'BAAAD IDEA!!!  STUPID RANMA!!'

                "SHI SHI HOKO-HAK!!"

                Ranma turned around to see Ryoga tied to a lamp-post with a peculiar chain that led to a nearby rooftop.  "Huh?"

                "YOU THINK THIS IS GOING TO STOP ME!?!?" Ryoga then proceeded to pull the lamppost out of the ground and use it like he normally did with his umbrella.

                Before Ranma could think of anything to do, a figure clad in light-red armor came down and gave Ryoga's head a good klonking.  Ranma then watched as Shampoo, as he had affirmed that it was Shampoo, slipped around Ryoga's side and delivered another strong hit directly to Ryoga's back, knocking him to his face.

                "Shampoo?"

                Shampoo turned a serious eye to Ranma, who saw much the same Shampoo that had once been out to kill her.  "Shampoo is Ranma's Shield Sister.  Will fight to death for Ranma!"

                Beside her Ranma heard Ryoga getting wrapped up almost instantly in at least twenty loops of chain.

                "My chains won't hold him long when he's like this, we need a way to knock him unconscious!"

                Shampoo walked straight up to the bound berserker and powerfully swung her bonbori at the captive's head.  When that didn't work, she tried again.  Still, Ryoga fought the chains while trying to get to Ranma.

                Meanwhile, Ranma knocked on a nearby door.  "Excuse me?"

                "Perhaps this will do?" Mousse took from his robes a few eggs, which he promptly threw at Ryoga.

                BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM

                Ryoga was now singed a little around the edges, but otherwise okay.  "Where is he!!"

                "Thank you." Ranma politely said to the generous homeowner. "I'll be sure to return it as soon as I'm finished."

                "Nothing's working!"

                "Shampoo got idea!" Shampoo then walked up to Ryoga close enough to count being in his face.  She then pulled down her a metal breast plate and pulled at the collar of the cloth beneath, giving Ryoga a good view of her cleavage.

                If anything, Ryoga seemed to become even more enraged.  "RRRAAANNNMMMAAA!!!" He wiggled around and, with a few lucky turns, managed to ram his forehead directly into Shampoo's still half-exposed chest.

                "It not work?"

                "Why don't you try this?" Ranma then upended a glass of water on Ryoga's head and grabbed onto the bandanna of the instant P-chan.

                P-chan then latched his jaw onto Ranma's wrist while scratching up her arm and hand as well as he could.

                "Uh, Shampoo?" Ranma held out her hand as Shampoo readied her bonbori.

                Shampoo smiled a bit as she stalked toward the relatively-helpless little piggy, who still had his mouth around Ranma's petite wrist.  "Yes, sister Ranma."

                WHACK

                And it was lights out for P-chan.

                With Ryoga thoroughly neutralized, Ranma raised an eyebrow at Shampoo.  "Sister?"

                Shampoo cocked her head to the side.  "Ranma is Izar-rei, is sister to Amazons." Surprisingly, she then got down on both knees, "No time to ask before, but will Ranma let Shampoo be Ranma's sister?" Shampoo then offered her hand out, obviously for Ranma to accept.

                Ranma looked over Shampoo's obviously subservient form, wondering at the sight of a proud Amazon being so... what was the word?  "What is this?"

                Mousse stepped in, "Shampoo feels bad for making things hard for you.  Honestly, she didn't truly want to, but was convinced it was necessary.  What she's asking is for you to let her make it up to you by allowing her to assist you in the future."

                Ranma looked at Mousse, now puzzled by his demeanor.  'Well, I guess now that Shampoo doesn't want to marry I'm not competition.  I guess I won't go farther into it than that... ugh.' That they could even remotely possibly be brothers, moreso than already, didn't exactly appeal to Ranma.

                Looking back down, she considered Shampoo again.  It was true, Shampoo had helped to make Ranma's life very, very difficult since her first arrival in Nerima.  But the fact was that, in some way, such difficulty would have likely come to him anyway, as in retrospect, Ranma could see such chaos following him all his life, even before having left his mother in Juuban.  And the fact was that through nearly all of that, the blame almost always laid on his father in one way or another.  There were some, if not many things that the baka-panda had nothing to do with, such as Herb, the Kunos, and more recently Saffron and even Shinji.

                Although, now that she looked back on it, Shinji was more of a blessing in disguise, as a way to seemingly solve so many problems and reduce a good portion of the chaos that filled Nerima.  Like a kettle, he had been a bit of a release-valve.  A burst of steam that let the overall temperature go down just a bit and relieving a good amount of the pressure.

                In his previous thoughts, he had come to a sort-of conclusion that, it wasn't really her fault.  In a way, Ranma somehow knew that he would come to the same conclusion for the others as well, except perhaps the Kunos, whom he still had to deal with, eventually.  Looking down at Shampoo's offered hand, Ranma nodded and took it.  "Come on Shampoo, stand up..." she then blinked when Shampoo stood in front of her smiling in withdrawn happiness.  "And do you think you could..."

                "Mm?"

                "Could you put your shirt back on?"

                Looking down, Shampoo noted that her shirt had fallen just a little too far down and instantly covered herself, blushing madly.

                "Haha, um, well, I'm gonna go back to the dojo now..." It was then that something decided to make itself known in Ranma's recollection, "Hey... where'd Botan go?"

                "Stick-girl fetch Shampoo and Mousse, then say she go get something from Spirit World."

                "Oh... haha!  That makes sense!  I guess..."

                Ranma then walked off, leaving Shampoo as she replaced her armor and motioned for Mousse to follow her back to the cafe.

                Mousse sighed as he looked at the sky.  "Where is Khu Lon when you need her?"

==

                At that moment 'Khu Lon' was on her way back to Japan, bearing two surprises for the newest Spirit Detective.

                The first was her 'gift' to the boy, something that she hoped would help him in any coming ventures.  The second was a new ally, someone that, though not particularly powerful, still held great potential.

                Tsukiko's training had gone spectacularly thusfar, and she was now under Khu Lon's personal tutelage.

                "Elder?  Where are we going?"

                "To Japan, child.  The Detective should have arrived by now and we don't want to make him wait too long before getting the chance to meet you."

                Tsukiko smiled brightly, reminiscent of the child she now was.  "Yes Elder!"

                Khu Lon sighed as she continued to walk along, her staff having broken during one of her retraining sessions with the bright youngster.  'I should get a stronger staff.'

                "Elder?  When are we going to be training next?"

                Khu Lon looked back on her charge.  After only three weeks she had grown to be stronger than Shampoo herself, yet her training seemed lacking in Khu Lon's opinion. "Today... we will be reflecting.  There is more to martial arts than punching your opponent's lights out, and we must reflect on that..."

                "Oh... okay."

                In those few weeks since the Musk had dropped her off with some of the Amazon Forward Scouts, she had learned well the lesson of how to be human.

                But there were many things she had yet to learn...

==

                Ranma returned to the Tendo house to see Botan speaking with Kasumi.  "I'm back."

                "Ranma!  There you are!"

                "Yeah.  Uh, so, Botan.  Where'd you go?" Ranma looked around the main room for something to restrain P-chan with.

                "Oh!  Just a second and I'll show you..." She then pulled out a briefcase from beside her and rummaged about in it.  "Here, put these on."

                Ranma took the red cloth bands and looked at them suspiciously.  "Don't I already have some of these?"

                Botan shook her head no, "Your spirit does, but when you couldn't take them off I realized that your body didn't.  Put those on and they'll fuse with the other ones and let you take them off."

                "Oh!  Well that's better!" Ranma put them on her wrists and they seemed to move around until the see-through ones and the solid ones met, fusing together.  She then experimented by lifting the edge of one of them and was elated to see that they both moved together.  "Great!!"

                "And one more thing before I go, I have to show you how to use your Spirit Gun."

                "A gun?"

                "Yeah, but you can't lose this one.  You just point your finger out, focus your spirit energy at the end, and then fire it.  The hardest part should be the focusing part since you're used to using your chi alone, but you should be able to get it with practice."

                Ranma decided to try it out.  Putting one hand forward, she made a gun with her finger, pointing out a nearby window, and started concentrating.

                After a minute or so she sighed as she dropped her arms.  "Yeah, I'll get it eventually.  Thanks for the tip, Botan.  Now I have a question for you."

                "Hmm?"

                "What should I do with him?" Ranma pointed to the little black pig laying unconscious on the floor beside her feet.  Something occurred to her then and she turned to Kasumi.  "Hey, where'd Akane go anyway?"

                "Oh, she went up to her room when all the commotion started.  She should still be up there now."

                "Oh, okay."

                "Why don't you just give him to her?"

                Ranma seemed to blanch for no apparent reason.  "Because..." Ranma's face took on a slightly blank look, which then turned mischievous as she looked down at the little piggy.  "I just got an idea..."

                Botan, Kasumi, and the newly-present Nabiki blinked as Ranma walked off while carrying P-chan in one hand...

== Some Time Later ==

                "... RYOGA!!" Crash!

                Ryoga ran blindly through the streets of Nerima, which wasn't really all that much different from usual, except this time he was naked and wishing for a bit of cold water.  Cue the old lady.

                Plash!

                "SQUEE!!" Even as a piglet, Ryoga continued running, fearing for his life (to a degree).  'Damn you Ranma!  I'll get you someday!!!'

                Akane sat, stunned and fuming, in her room as a bowl of steaming-hot soup was allowed to drip off the walls after she had thrown it at Ryoga.  And to think, she allowed that little pig to eat that soup!!!

                Ranma sat in his room snickering as he watched the little light on the end of his right index glow steadily.  He knew that Ryoga was really hating him right now, though that wasn't unusual.  He also knew that Akane was going to be really angry with him too, which was also okay.

                He remembered the encounter well.  (It was only like twenty seconds ago...)

                                Once the family had finished with dinner, Ranma turned to Akane.

                                "Hey Akane.  Why don't you wake up your pig and give him some?
                I'll bet he's real hungry about now..."

                                Akane smiled.  "Good idea, Ranma!  I'm glad to see you and P-chan
                getting along finally."

                                "Well, you know.  After you've been dead for a while, you kinda look
                at things different...  You see things you didn't see before..." 'Well, that is true...'

                                Akane took a bowl of the soup up to her room with her and looked at
                P-chan.  Probably commenting about how beaten-up he looked.  Waking the little
                pig up with a bit of cold water, she began scolding him while holding him.  "You
                really shouldn't get in fights with animals bigger than you are!  Now, eat this.  It'll
                help you get better."

                                When she offered the bowl to P-chan he began looking nervous and
                started squirming.  "Now quit fighting!  You have to eat or you'll never get better!"
                Still, P-chan resisted.  "Fine then!  This is for your own good!" She then
                proceeded to force the still-hot soup into the pig's mouth, making some of it
                dribble down his chin...

                Ranma didn't feel one bit sorry for the little piggy, he'd had it coming to him two years fold.  In fact, Ranma kind of wondered why Akane never noticed that her pet-piglet never seemed to get any bigger.  Ranma was only glad that his own hunger had sparked that particular idea...

== Even Later That night ==

                "Are we ready yet?"

                Two pairs of eyes met the third in the darkness.  The two pairs both nodded as the third moved in.

                Shwik shwik!

                Two armored guards standing on either side of a pair of large doors fell limply to the ground.  "Move."

                Three shadowy figures moved into the building and, under the cover of night, made the theft of the decade.

                There was much destruction and blood left in their wake as the three marauders left the building, precious cargo in hand...

==

                "BOTAAAANNN!!!"

                The blue-haired woman in question popped her head into Koenma's office.  "Yes?  Koenma sir?"

                The toddler-sized ruler was currently wearing a lane into the top of his desk, hurriedly pacing back and forth while sucking fervently on his pacifier.  He then turned to Botan with a worried look on his face (who can tell?) and spoke with an urgent tone.  "Botan, I really hate to send your trainee out on a mission so early, but something very important has just come up!"

                "What's that, sir?"

                "Someone just stole the three Shadow Items!"

                "Oh my!  Do we know who?"

                Koenma pulled a file from beneath his foot and threw it at Botan.  "That's all we know for now, now get the detective on this pronto!!!  We need to get those items back before my father returns from vacation!!!"

                "And how long is that?  A week?"

                Koenma's face took on a grim look, "Three days, he decided to cut it short..."

                "Oh my!  I'll get on it right away!"

                "Please do..." Koenma said this to a closed door as the sound of frantic footsteps retreated down the hall.

                "Koenma sir?" A young-looking woman wearing a black kimono embroidered with flowers poked her head into Koenma's office.

                "Come in Shairi."

                "Latest reports on the suspects."

                "Thank you." Koenma took the file and looked it over.  His face turned sickly as the information sunk in, "This isn't good.  All that strength in one place?" He then slumped into his chair as he held his palm to his forehead, "OOHHH!!!!  I can see it now!  Waves of zombies and mindless demons taking over the world in waves... and the destruction when my father finds out!!!" Koenma crossed his arms and frowned, "Not to mention the damage to my precious bottom-side!  I'm sensitive you know!"

                Shairi smiled nervously, "Yes, sir.  Is there anything else you need?"

                "No, that'll be all for now.  It's up to Ranma now..."

                ======   End Chapter 4   ======

                Notes:

                (1) Ranma's distaste for the name P-chan carried on to his Spirit Beast.  It is only one of many.  No complete memories, however.

                (2) Thanks again to Psycho King for coming up with this name.  And it's a good thing too, or else I probably would have called him something like 'Quoghaan', and noone really wants to try to pronounce that, right?  OO"

                (3) For those who are wondering, the reason Ranma is memorizing Hyo-sama's face is that the only thing that separates Hyo-sama from other cats is his face, his distinctive feature being mostly the golden markings found there.  Ranma is trying to memorize those markings mostly so that he doesn't accidentally mistake him for a cat.

                Well, that's the end to yet-another chapter.  Things are somewhat more likely to move on now that we're all alive again, but don't expect things to go just as you expect them to.  .

                And just to get a general feeling for the audience, I'm going to make an unofficial poll, giving you three choices.  And yes, these do mean something.

                1. Explode

                2. Freeze

                3. Cleave

                If you want to know why, then you have to vote!!  I don't know how long I'm going to take to finish it, so vote now!

Alex Ultra: Creator of Eternal Realm

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