The combined Tendo-Saotome household sat down for breakfast the next morning like they always did. Kasumi turned to Snarf and asked, "I was curious Snarf. Are you planning on searching out the reincarnation of the Princess of Saturn?"

Snarf scratched the back of his head and answered. "I would like to find her Kasumi. Besides my oaths to her as my lord's overlord, she was a very sweet and friendly lady every time she visited the Cats Lair. She and Lord Claudus, Lord Lion-O's father, were childhood friends with the old lord looking on her as his little sister. Lord Lion-O often called the princess auntie even though this embarrassed her given her very young age for an Isu."

Nabiki interjected. "Really? How young could she be if she was the childhood friend of Ranma's past life's father?"

All eyes turned to Snarf who reluctantly revealed the information. "Princess Saturn was barely in her 50s when Lord Lion-O was born. This made the Isu view her like you all would view a preteen even though she was physically and mentally mature. To help you understand her situation I should explain that while Thunderans, Edenites, Snarfs, and the rare human citizens were all legally adults at age 25 in the Silver Millennium; the Isu were not legally considered adults until age 125. Please keep in mind that Isu could on average live from 1,000 to 1,100 years with standard medical care in the Silver Millennium whereas the other species tended to live between 200 to 300 years on average."

Akane then asked, "Well what's the problem with finding her then? You were able to find Ranma after all and you were on another world at the time."

"The problem with finding the Princess of Saturn is that I don't have a way to track her. With Lord Ranma I was fortunate enough to have access to the Sword of Omens. I don't have access to such a magically powerful and mystically intwined artifact when it comes to the princess. There is also the fact that even when their powers are inactive, Sailor Senshi are extremely hard to track as part of their mystical defenses. I also don't have any knowledge about how her mystical signature has changed due to her reincarnation. Lord Ranma's signature is very similar, but still different to the signature he had in his life as Lord Lion-O."

Genma could see Snarf trying to find a way to start his search. The elder Saotome then said, "Why not try tracking down Bakusaiga? Its one of three blades that the family records refer to as a 'fang' and it's the only one we haven't accounted for. Its also one of the earliest mystical weapons mentioned in the family history."

Snarf scratched his head and said, "Bakusaiga was the name of your ancestor Sesshomaru's personal sword, correct? If I remember what you told me last night that blade went to a closely related clan to the Saotomes that perished in the closing months of the Bakumatsu roughly 120 years ago correct?"

Genma nodded his head. "You are correct Snarf. One of their daughters married into a clan that survived the fighting and inherited most of her family's possessions. I'm fairly certain that Bakusaiga was among those possessions."

"Any family records you have on that daughter would be very much appreciated Mr. Saotome. I know it is a long shot given all the events that happened between then and now. But it is my only starting point at the moment." Snarf did not want to vent how frustrating it was to try and start searching on such flimsy grounds. They had no concrete idea what the 'fang' Tenseiga sensed was or how it was related to the princess. For all they knew whatever the sword had sensed was in a shop somewhere and the princess just happened to be passing by right as Lord Ranma held the sword.

Snarf didn't want to be pessimistic about everything. Its just that seeing your near paradisical homeworld turn into a hellhole before your eyes along with having 99 percent of all life in the Solar System wiped out in a single day gave one a healthy dose of cynicism. In his humble opinion Lord Ranma would have a better chance of finding the princess given the entanglement of their sailor crystals than he would have. Snarf did not want to mention this given how some people at the table had misinterpreted things and the implications of those misinterpretations would be problematic for Lord Ranma.

The phone started to ring prompting an end to the conversation. Kasumi got up and quickly hurried over to the phone and answered it. "Good morning, you have reached the Tendo Residence. Why yes, Mr. Saotome lives here. I will get him for you just please hold on for a minute." Kasumi put her hand over the phone's speaker and turned to the dinning table. "Uncle Saotome can you answer the phone? The police want to talk to you to follow up the incident with Ranma."

Genma nodded his head and got up. He accepted the phone from Kasumi and said, "This is Mr. Saotome how can I help you? I see, I have no problem coming to the station or with bringing Ranma with me. When do you want us to come over? I see. That would cut into the boy's time at school is there a way to do it later in the day? Oh, I understand. Very well, both of us will be there."

Everyone watched as Genma hung up the phone and walked over to Ranma. "Well, boy it seems that the police need to talk to you about finalizing your testimony for the Kuno case. They also have had a break on the hooligans that were trying to kidnap you while you were in the hospital. We both need to head over to the station to sort this all out. Grab your bookbag as you'll be heading off to school once everything is handled. They've also promised to write up an explanation note for the school to explain why you will be late today."

Ranma snagged one last bite to eat and then left the table to get his bookbag. He hoped that things didn't take too long at the police. The longer it took him to get to school the more outlandish the rumor mill would have the supposed situation he was in. Fending off dumb questions got real old real fast.

It was almost lunchtime when Ranma left the police station and headed to Furinkan High. First there had been the taking of his testimony. Then there was a delay due to most of the police officers being called away on an incident. Once they got back, he was informed that Kodaichi Kuno had been arrested on charges of attempted kidnapping. She apparently had been paying a yakuza group that was involved in a lot of shady stuff to try and bring him to the Kuno Mansion. There were many other charges to go along with the kidnapping, but that was the charge that directly involved him.

Blaze had gotten a series of heartfelt thanks from Ranma for protecting him while he was in the hospital. Ranma didn't want to imagine what Kodaichi would have done to him while trying to 'care for' him. That loon was dangerous enough to deal with on a normal day when he was at perfect condition. Dealing with her in a more unstable state than normal and being physically helpless was a nightmare to think about.

The sounds of sirens pulled Ranma from his thoughts. He saw several fire trucks rushing down the street on the way to Furinkan High. Probably a coincidence, but it made Ranma decided to pick up the pace from a walk to a jog. That jog got faster and soon Ranma broke out into a full-blown run as he saw that the fire trucks were continuing down the path to the school. Ranma then pulled on his still novice magical training to increase his run to speeds that a person who didn't know about chi or mana would call superhuman. Still not as fast as Ranma had been before his mana started to activate. However, Ranma was getting close to replicating his physical chi abilities before Jusenkyo with mana.

Ranma's nervousness spiked into fear for a second as he saw the fire trucks pull into the front lawn of Furinkan High. He ran over as fast as he could trying to see what was going on. One of the firemen getting out of a truck held up his hand. "Whoa there kiddo! Stay back and let us assess the situation."

Another fireman called out, "What the? We were called here for a fire not to deal with a sudden barnyard invasion!" Ranma felt a pit in his stomach as more and more firemen started gawking at the scene before them. After a minute, Ranma decided to hop onto the school fence to see what was going on and couldn't believe his eyes.

Furinkan High was not on fire which was a good thing. Not even on his worst days at school did Ranma wish the building would catch on fire. However, that would have been easier to accept than what he did see. The windows of the school were filled with wet dogs, birds, cows, and donkeys. Many of these animals were running out of the school into the front yard. A large number of the animals had shredded bits of the Furinkan High uniform on them. The animals in the school yard revealed that some of the dogs Ranma had spotted were actually foxes.

Things got even weirder as a donkey walked out of the school in a daze with Ucchan's giant battle spatula strapped to its back. Next to the donkey was a little dog that a dog lover would identify as a Papillon radiating angry chi. Both animals spotted Ranma and made bee lines towards him. The firemen would have moved to intercept the two wild creatures, but they had hundreds of others to deal with. When they reached Ranma the donkey started braying while the little dog started to bark up a storm.

Ranma blinked his eyes in shocked trying to make sense of what was going on. "What the hell? I'm late to school one day and it all goes to the animals?" That was the wrong thing to say as the little toy dog chomped onto Ranma's heel while the donkey turned around and gave him a donkey kick into the wall. This caused Ranma to fall to the ground in pain with only his magic preventing him from having to return to the hospital.

Apparently, Ranma landed on the little dog forcing it to squeeze out from under him. The dog and the donkey started making noises at each other while Ranma focused his mana on healing himself. It almost seemed like the two animals were having an argument. Part of Ranma wondered if that was just him imagining things from the pain.

Somehow, things became even weirder as a seemingly sulking fox walked over to them dragging a bookbag. The fox bonked both the dog and the donkey on the head with its tail and then started digging through the bookbag. Ranma knew thanks to the still present pain that he was not imagining things as the fox pulled out a notebook and a pen. It then grabbed the pen in its mouth and tried to write something on the notebook.

The kanji was terrible and for a moment Ranma wondered if the fox was just playing with something it found interesting. He then saw the words 'curse water'. The fox gave up trying to write more than that and then pointed a paw at itself while staring at Ranma. It was like a light went off in Ranma's head as he connected the dots and he said, "Jusenkyo?"

All three animals nodded their heads in agreement confirming Ranma's question. That would explain why all the students had been replaced with animals. But how the hell had the cursed waters gotten over here? Ranma shook his head and pulled out a thermos of hot water from his magical pocket that Snarf had taught him to make. He uncapped the thermos and was getting ready to splash the animals when the fox held up a paw.

"What? Don't you want to see if this reverses the curse?" Ranma couldn't understand why the fox had stopped him. The fox somehow gave him a 'you are an idiot' glare and motioned at itself and its companions. It pointed at the thermos and motioned towards the ground. Then the animal pointed at Ranma and made a turn around gesture. Both the dog and the donkey suddenly made a ruckus as if they realized something. Something that then hit Ranma like an angry mule's kick. Ranma quickly put the thermos on the ground and turned around before his cheeks could show his embarrassment.

There was the sound of someone knocking the thermos over and seconds later the sound of someone throwing water onto someone. Then there was sound of people shifting around and several embarrassed squeaks. After that Ranma heard Nabiki say. "Keep your eyes straight Saotome when you turn around."

He heard twin cries of "Nabiki!" from Akane and Ukyo. The voices of the girls were filled with anger and embarrassment.

Nabiki replied before Ranma dared to turn around to face the girls. "Look girls, I'm not any happier about this than you are. But it's not like Saotome here really has any spare clothes to give us. He did burn all of 'Ranko's stuff yesterday. None of his Thunderan outfit would really work for us and its not like he's got a shop up his sleave like duck boy. We're already covered as best as we can and its not like he hasn't seen what we've got in the mirror before."

Ranma nervously turned around to see an annoyed Nabiki, an enraged Akane, and a mortified Ukyo sitting in their birthday suits. The trio had positioned themselves so that their modesty was barely preserved. Ranma deliberately did not look to make sure that the girls had covered everything. He then turned around and said, "I'm going to see if the firemen have any blankets they can spare." Ranma then got up and headed over to a fireman to see if he could find anything to cover the girls. He did not want to be around if their tempers got the better of their mortification.

Ukyo tried to focus on something other than the fact that she was sitting naked in public. This day had really gone downhill fast. One moment she was in class wondering when Ran-Chan was going to show up and the next the fire alarm was going off. Then the sprinklers kicked in like they were supposed to and everything went to the zoo. Ukyo wasn't about to consider if the curse was permanent. She remembered that there was the instant stuff and she was going to hold onto the belief that they had all been hit with it instead of the genuine stuff until proven otherwise.

The thought of being permanently cursed was too terrible for Ukyo to contemplate. Sure, she had her fun with Ran-Chan triggering his curse a couple of times when she first found out about it. The novelty of such an idea quickly wore out when she saw his frustration day in and day out dealing with the curse. Part of Ukyo even grew to admire Ran-Chan's strength to be able to just put up with the shit that the curse threw at him every day. That wasn't even counting all the disgusted and disbelieving looks strangers shot him whenever the curse acted up. Ukyo was terrified that she'd be called on to have that kind of strength and she didn't think she had it in her.

Her internal turmoil made Ukyo barely register the sounds of disbelieving shock and surprise coming from the fireman or the argument Ranma was having with them. She never noticed when Ranma started walking towards them with some blankets or when he threw the blankets at the trio. It took the thud of the blanket to pull Ukyo out of her head.

Soun kept his face stoically calm to keep the typhoon of rage he was feeling from showing as he sat down at the emergency town council meeting. Damn it to yomi! He wanted to be back at the dojo trying to help Nabiki and Akane cope with the irreversible change that had happened to them. A small voice in the back of his head told him that he really wouldn't be able to do much for his daughters to help them cope. Genma and Ranma were there with them and both Saotomes had practical experience living with a Jusenkyo curse. Those facts did not matter to the father within him raging over this travesty.

Everyone in the council rose and bowed as Nerima's mayor walking into the council room and took his seat. The old mayor's face was the picture of serenity to calm everyone down. Everyone knew that the mayor must be fuming over this matter, but the polite political theater helped to keep everyone calm. The mayor spoke, "Before we begin this meeting, I wish to speak to you all off the record."

He waited until he had gotten nods of agreement from everyone before continuing. "We all know the true generalities of the situation. Many of us have family or friends of family that go to Furinkan High. We've all lived in Nerima long enough to know our fair city's interesting quirks. Everyone here is allow to know the complete details of the situation later with such discussions being held in the privacy of one's own office or house."

"However, the official record must be kept sanitary for wider public consumption. We will not be able to cover up that something happened at Furinkan High. The latest incident is too big to cover up and will have even wider notoriety given the Kuno Incident earlier this month at the school. Moves to hide the true nature of the event are already in motion. I have already been contacted by the emperor himself along with the prime minister who was visiting the emperor at the time. Both have already given me their condolences on the 'chemical attack' that happened."

The mayor paused for a second so he could make sure everyone got the message as he repeated himself. "This meeting will be about the chemical attack that happened at Furinkan High. Keep all your questions that will be on record in this meeting focused on the chemical attack. Other questions can come later off the record." Everyone nodded their heads to show they understood the mandated cover story.

There was the pro forma official start to the meeting and then officer Adam Hunter was called to give the initial investigation on the incident. "This chemical attack appears to be the work of four individuals who are students of Furinkan High. There names are currently being withheld as we are still investigating whether they are all of the conspirators or if there are additional accomplices. The perpetrators of this attack acquired 5 different chemicals that have not been cleared for any use by any government regulatory body."

Soun spoke up at this point. "Why did these individuals acquire these unlicensed chemicals?" Hearing that it was fellow students at the school through him for a loop. Didn't those idiots understand just how dangerous Jusenkyo was with Ranma as a constant reminder and his companions as additional reinforcement?

Officer Hunter frowned and said, "That is still being investigated. However, it seems these individuals were under the impression that the chemicals they had acquired would act to enhance the beauty of their female classmates. They used the sprinkler system, which I have been informed by the fire department was apparently illegally modified some time ago, to distribute the chemicals to the student body."

Some of the older council members and those like Soun who were directly involved had flashbacks to the late 1960s when the Invaders showed up threatening world conquest starting with Japan unless a randomly selected person won a game of tag against them. Covering that up had been a bitch and a half especially with the high tensions of the Cold War then. It had been a minor miracle they had been able to convince people that it all was part of an upcoming movie that never got released due to the production company going under from legal issues. How the hell where they supposed to handle several thousand teenagers permanently cursed to turn into animals? That wasn't taking into consideration that cameras and home video recorders were much more prolific now then they were in the 60s.

The mayor kept his calm and asked, "How much of Furinkan High's student body was affected by the chemical attack?"

Officer Hunter sighed and said, "Almost every student out of the nearly 5,000 students at Furinkan High. A total of twelve students were not hit by the chemical attack. 4 students are the suspects behind this attack, 1 student who was delayed in coming to school due to filling out information on the Kuno Incident with my subordinates, and 7 who were absent due to illness. I will mention that the student who was delayed has dealt with a similar chemical attack in the past."

Soun spoke up at this point. "I know the individual you are talking about Officer Hunter. I can also testify that he was delayed going to school today as the officer said. He has been trying to help some of the students cope with the aftereffects of the chemical attack."

A councilwoman who was also on the ward's educational board spoke up. "I think we should, provided Officer Hunter's investigation clears them, move the 7 unaffected students out of Furinkan High into other schools in the district. The resentment their fellow students will feel over those 7 avoiding the attack due to random chance will create a toxic learning environment for all students. We also will need to majorly reorganize things at Furinkan High. 1 major incident for a school is unacceptable. Having 2 major incidents within a month is beyond any level of tolerance."

One of the newest councilmembers spoke up. "What about closing down Furinkan High and dispersing its students to other schools?" The newbie did not notice the glares that the more senior councilmembers were giving him as he continued. "Having 2 major incidents will make it very hard if not impossible for the students to get into good colleges on time. If we shuffle the students around to different schools, we can mask them from the effects that having been at Furinkan High will have on their resumes. We can also use the shut down to show that such shenanigans are not tolerated."

There was silence for a moment as the experience councilmembers wondered who would have to politely take the newbie out to the woodshed. The mayor looked at Soun and gave him a small gesture that he was to lay the smack down on the junior member. Soun nodded his head slightly and spoke up. "I may not be on the educational board and I do not know all the intricacies of the school system. For such particularities I would have to defer to more knowledgeable members of this council." Soun paused and motioned to the councilwoman who accepted the complement.

"However," he continued, "I do know some basics of the educational system and I do know that such a plan is infeasible. Furinkan High is one of the largest and, current incidents aside, one of our top preforming high schools in the ward. I wouldn't have sent my own daughters to it if the school was a bad one. There physically isn't enough room in the remaining schools to house the students if we shut down Furinkan High. Trying to build a new high school somewhere else in the ward would cost far too much money and would take years to build."

"The students would also receive no benefit from being shuffled to different schools. All transfers would have to be appropriately noted in the school system which the colleges will have access to. They will find it harder to maintain their friendships given the increased travel times to school and their friends being scattered across the ward. Friendships that will be vital to help them all deal with the lingering effects of the chemical attack. That attack will also leave the students isolated from the other students at any new schools we might send them to. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down after all and the chemical attack will leave the students like nails sticking out to any new classmates. Besides, if we keep them all together it will be easier and less costly to provide counseling services to help the students live with the effects of this attack."

Everyone except the mayor glared at the newbie who wilted under the combined hostility of the council. Here they were trying to contain this supernatural incident and he wanted to spread it all over the ward? Keeping the affected students together gave them time to teach the kids how to hide the supernatural from the wider population.

The mayor remained an island of serenity in the meeting as his council scolded its newest member. He made a mental note to speak to that councilmember after the meeting to explain things. Normally supernatural incidents were handled at a much higher level of government seniority. Nerima was one of Japan's hotspots that tended to require more active local participation in keeping up the masquerade.

Most governments around the world had in informal and unwritten rule that the supernatural was to be relegated to the realm of fantasy stories and the ramblings of less enlightened times. It was extremely hard for people as individuals to accept both mysticism and science as equally true at the same time. Trying to do so as a society was effectively impossible to the mayor's knowledge. Society apparently had to choose between the mystical path and the rational path for now.

Mystical advancement was tied to individual ability and access to knowledge that was both hard to acquire and pass down. Scientific progress was easier to spread throughout society and provided a more uniform benefit to society at large. In the West, those who held to the scientific school of thought had risen to dominance unleashing the largest increase in population and quality of life that anyone had ever known. This made it clear even to the most harden of the mystics that of the two paths the scientific path was the better one for society at large. Besides, many magic users found that there were less attacks against them as potential threats when people thought they didn't exist.

The councilwoman who was on the educational board spoke up, "Major reforms will be necessary at Furinkan High. The vice-principal who has been running things will be offering us his resignation papers after this meeting. I will visit him later today to get the papers. I am also certain that a number of higher-level administrators at the school will also be giving us their retirement papers after I visit them." That got a round of nods from many at the council. Someone had to answer for this travesty and the individuals the councilwoman would talk to were responsible for the safety of the students. It would be better for everyone if they just quietly resigned or retired instead of dragging things out.

Then the head of the town's finances spoke up, "I would be willing to help you collect those papers if you want Miami. It has been a long day and it would be better if everything was file away as soon as possible."

The mayor spoke up and said, "I appreciate it when members of this council are willing to step up and help each other in their duties. However, I would like to remind you not to go overboard in your help Ichoku. You do not have an exhaustible wellspring of energy to help others even given your generous nature." Most councilmembers smiled slightly and nodded in quiet agreement with the plan that had just been proposed.

Soun then said, "I have a vested interest so this is especially important to me. Who will head Furinkan High in the aftermath of this latest incident? It is imperative we disrupt the children's education as little as possible even given the trying times they are enduring."

Many turned to the councilwoman wondering what she would say. Anyone taking control of Furinkan High would be facing tremendous challenges and under a lot of scrutiny. Successfully turning the school around given its and its students conditions would secure said principal's career in the education industry for life. However, the chance of failure and shame were very high. Most educators would not be willing to risk their careers given the two incidents that had hit the school this month.

The councilwoman looked up and said, "That has not yet been determined as we are still determining how much of Furinkan High's staff are responsible for the prior incidents and the required level of discipline they will need. I can assure everyone that a new principal will be put into place for the school by the end of the week even if I have to take the role myself. I do not think it will come to that as I have several leads for a possible new principal that I will be pursuing tomorrow."