Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, nor claim to.

Chapter Sixteen: Return to Jusenkyo:

"Fallin', I am fallin' down the mountain once again. Does anybody know this man? Anybody understand how long it is the road we've come today?" Braddigan: Fallin'.

The boat rocked gently in the waves against the dock, the boards squeaking against each other in the tide. A lone man stood amongst a throng of travelers walking past him in both directions, the ocean breeze rustling his black hair as he stared off over the waters, to the east, a single sentence prayer on his lips.

"Sakura, I swear I'll fix this, no matter what it takes."

- - -

A week later, the man slowly walked through the village, far different from how he remembered it. There were many more people, men, women, and children all mixed throughout, all about ordinary, daily activities. No special events, no unusual occurrences, no changes in anything from a village's morning routine. The man had no interest in this. It was simply another marker on his trail, an all too familiar one, with all too familiar problems.

"RANMA?!" a woman shouted, running up to the man. He glanced over, saw who it was, and continued on his march.

She ran up, jumping to him, and grabbing on tightly. "Ranma! I so happy to see you!" Shampoo shouted, her purple hair trailing around.

"Hi, Shampoo. Can't stop now. I have to go to Jusenkyo."

There was a slight pause in everyone, as they glanced over at him. It was no more a mystery to people here than back in Nerima, and the mere mention of it drew everyone's attention for a moment. But it would take more than that to hold their attention. Which is why only three others were still watching him after that moment.

Ranma continued walking, despite any odd looks he received. "Why you go to Jusenkyo?" Shampoo asked, sliding her arms down, but keeping pace with Ranma.

"Sakura's gotten cursed. I don't know how, or why, but I'm gonna' fix it. So I came here."

"But, what about . . ."

Ranma interrupted her instantly. "I DON'T CARE WHAT SAFFRON DID! IF THERE'S ANY CHANCE IT COULD WORK, I'M GONNA' FIND IT!"

Shampoo shrunk back a bit. She had forgotten that when someone is on an irrational mission, it is best to stay out of their way until all the cards have been played. She opened her mouth to say something anyway, but was tapped lightly on the shoulder with a staff.

"No, Xiang Pu, it is best if we let Ranma see for himself. We will take him to Jusenkyo, and he can know the truth." Cologne said slowly, staring up towards Ranma. Shampoo sighed, nodding her head, before turning to Ranma.

"We shall go with you to Jusenkyo, Ranma." Cologne said slowly, less like a statement and more like an order.

"Fine, whatever." He muttered rudely, not slowing his march one bit, continuing through the village.

Mousse nodded, stepping back from the group, and taking his daughter Aki by the hand. As Cologne and Shampoo walked towards the edge of the village, Mousse led her to their home. "Father, who is that man?"

Mousse glanced at him, thinking of every last thing that had happened between the two of them, before sighing, and smiling to his daughter. "His name is Ranma, and he is our friend. And he needs our help."

- - -

"No." Ranma muttered softly to himself, gazing out over the Jusenkyo Springs. Shampoo, Mousse, and Cologne stood behind him, several feet back, letting him see the final effect for himself. "No." he muttered louder, before he began chanting it. "No . . . no . . . no . . . no no no No NO!"

The last one was a scream, driving him forward. His feet ran as fast as they could go, as he leapt off the cliff, jumping down to the springs below. He landed softly, thanks to years of training, and began running towards the one spring he needed now, more than anything, for reasons he didn't understand. The one spring he knew where it was. The one he had fallen into himself.

"Ranma!" Shampoo shouted from the cliff, almost as if she was begging him to stop, but it was too late. He was running through the graveyard now, a patch of old, dried up memories and problems, filled with bamboo poles.

- - -

"NO, DAMMIT!" Ranma shouted again, pounding the ground. This time, though, he left his hands imbedded in the soft dirt, before dropping down to his knees, tears forming in his eyes. "Dammit, no! Why did this have to happen?! There was still that chance! Even if it might make mixed curses, it might not! I have to try to find something!"

The three Amazons approached slowly, having already told the Guide everything was all right. "I am sorry, Ranma, but there's nothing to be done here."

"That's it!" the man shouted, before furiously digging his hands into the dirt, throwing globs every which way as he tunneled into the ground. "Dig! We could dig up more water! It can't be too far down! There might be a underground river nearby, and if it comes to the surface, I can . . ."

"Ranma! Please stop!" Shampoo said loudly, hopping down into the spring, and placing her arms on his shoulders. "No more!"

Cologne sighed, hopping down and walking up to Ranma, who had stopped flinging dirt, and was back to his previous hunched position. "Ranma, there are things we can explain, but there is nothing here at Jusenkyo for you. Besides, there's more to the curses than you think, and with what we know, you might not want to break Sakura's curse at all."

Ranma sighed, realizing how futile it was, and let his elbows bend, dropping him almost to the ground. He was beaten. There were no more cures here. All the springs had drained away, leaving soft indents in the ground, completely water-free.

Then, he began to cry.

- - -

The walk back had given Ranma time to compose himself completely, although there was nothing to keep him out of the depression that had begun to sink in. He hadn't found anything to fix what had happened to Sakura. He needed something nobody had ever been able to find. A cure.

Entering the village, Cologne led the rest to the largest hut in the area, where the Elder council, which she was a part of, held meetings to discuss the future of the village. Right now, they were discussing the future of two outsiders, and two villagers. Most of the village was completely lost on the issue. But Ranma didn't care.

Cologne opened the flap. "I don't agree with all of this. I still think death is far beyond any sort of punishment, if punishment is even in order." An aged, female voice said. "We should train him completely instead, so he does not try to explain it to others."

Ranma glanced around the room. There was a large table, which had six people sitting at it, facing them. Five were very aged women, one was an equally aged man, and one seat was empty. On the right side of the room, there was a much smaller table, where two women and another man sat, the man being the oldest by far, around Cologne's unspecified "old" age, the two women being about their mid forties.

In the center of the room, there was another table, a few feet shorter than the one with the elder council, with the people sitting at it facing the council. From left to right, there was an empty seat; a young girl Ranma would later realize was Pai, Shampoo and Mousse's youngest daughter; a woman also about Shampoo's age; a second girl, possibly twelve; and two boys, both a bit older than Sakura was, about thirteen or fourteen. Those last two were definitely not Chinese. One had sand-rock tan hair, with a bit of height over the other boy, who had on a red scarf around his face and back of the head, with dark black hair. Their backs were to Ranma, though, so he couldn't tell much else.

"Ah, Kho Lohne, you have returned. Are you ready to return to council?" the oldest woman at the farther table asked. Cologne nodded. "Well, then, come and sit."

Cologne brought up her hand first. "I would like to ask a favor of the rest of the council, first."

"Oh, and what might that be?"

"Since this discussion does not involve Jusenkyo, I would like to ask that Ping Lao speaks to Saotome Ranma here." Cologne continued, pointing her staff up at Ranma. "Several people in Japan have received Jusenkyo curses from their parents, and most everyone who knows them is starting to lose their sanity. He's here to find some answers."

The old man on the side table spoke up. "I hope he is not looking for a . . ."

Cologne shook her head. "No, not anymore. We have already brought him to Jusenkyo, and he has given up on any sort of cure."

The other six elders looked between each other, all nodding together. "That is acceptable. Ping Lao, you are dismissed." Cologne nodded, and walked to her seat at the head table. The old man at the table stood up, bowed respectfully, and walked to Mousse and Ranma, who were still standing by the entrance. Mousse grabbed Ranma on the shoulder, and the three walked out, Ranma dragged along.

"Excuse me, Meuze, but might you get me some water before we begin? I would prefer . . ."

Mousse nodded, smiling. "No problem, child, I will get it. Were shall I find you?"

Ping Lao smiled. "Meet us in my home. Do you mind if we begin without you?" Mousse shook his head, and Ping Lao nodded in return. "Well, thank you, then." Mousse nodded, walking apart from Ranma and the old man, heading towards his own home.

Ranma glanced at them, still in the dark, as Mousse began to walk off. He was about to follow, when the old man spoke up. "So, sonny, I take it you got problem's wid' curses, so I heard. Am'I right?"

The younger, Japanese man stared for a moment at the venerable old man standing there. His voice was odd, almost whistling, and very different from the way he spoke in Chinese. It almost seemed too odd to be real. "Well, uh, . . . yeah, yeah, I do. My daughter," Ranma leaned forward to step into the house, "just got cursed for no reason. She doesn't remember gettin' hit with any kind of cursed spring water, and she's never been to China."

"Mmm." The man murmured, clearing the table. Ranma glanced around the home. There was a second room off to the side, most likely where everyone who lived here slept, and in here was the living room, dining room, and kitchen. There was a large fire pit in the back, with a clay chimney rising up through the ceiling. The table was large, with colorful rugs set at strategic places around, most like to show where people were to sit. Otherwise, except for another table set around the fire, the room was pretty empty. "I take it she's healthy?"

"Huh? Whaddya mean, healthy?" Ranma asked, sitting down at the table when motioned to do so by the old man. It was clear of all dishes except for a small bowl of water on the other side of the table.

"You ottah' know what an old coot like me means, sonny! Y'know, healthy, as in not dying?! Is she okay?!"

"Oh. Yeah, she's fine." Ranma suddenly paused. "There's another person, though. Kite, he's the son of my best friend. He's got a curse to, and he had a heart attack the day he first turned into . . ."

"I don't care what they turn into, ya dang fool!" The old man shouted, sitting down at the table, laying a large cloak on the floor next to himself. "But that's interestin'. A heart attack, you say?"

"Are you sayin' that the curse he got caused that?!"

"I ain't insinuatin' nothin' yet, sonny. I'm just askin' questions. Now, did he survive it or not?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, he survived. He's fine now, but Ryoga and Akari are freakin' out about it every time he changes."

"Ryoga and Akari? I think I heard of one of 'em." The man paused, stroking his wrinkled chin. "Which one of 'em has a curse?"

"Ryoga."

There was a pause. "And that would be?"

"Huh?" Ranma asked. "I thought you didn't want to know what their curses were?"

"Not 'de kids, ya dang fool! They're the ones who wanna' hide their curses now, prob'ly. They ain't used to it yet, so they're gonna' want to keep everyb'dy quiet 'bout it. But if somebody's got a kid with a curse, they're probably tellin' others right now. And I wouldn't want ya to break a promise to some liddle kid and tell me what kinda' curse they got."

Ranma blinked. This man really knew how everything worked with Jusenkyo. Even how it affected the people psychologically, it seemed. Best to tread carefully. "Pig. He fell in the spring of the drowned pig."

"Oh, y'mean the small, black ones?" Ranma nodded. "Oh, those are delicious on whole grain toast." He said with a chuckle. At Ranma's glare, he turned serious again. "Anyone else born under a cursey?"

"Meaning?"

"You have any more kids, or that Ryoga-fella?"

Ranma paused. "Yeah, a son and another daughter for myself, an' Ryoga's got a second son the same age as mine."

"Oh, dat's right. You got a curse too." Ranma tensed. "Heh, and if I remember right, from what Shampoo and Mousse told me, then . . ."

Ranma leaned to dodge, but the old man was surprisingly fast. Grabbing the bowl of water, he flung the contents at Ranma, who was instantly soaked, reverting to a buxom, red-headed girl. "What was that for?!" Ranma shouted angrily.

The man just whistled. Loudly. "Now, that's a looker of a body!"

Ranma glared for a moment, before brushing the hair out of her eyes. "Don't even .. ." there was a loud crack as she snapped her knuckles, "THINK about it!"

Mousse entered the room. The old man just chuckled, removing his shirt, tossing it to the side, sliding off his belt, and placing the cloak over his shoulders, clasping it together at the neck. Shifting the large, patterned fabric around, he completely covered himself from neck down with the red cloak, including sitting on it. It was large enough to fit another three people it in, but nothing seemed out of place. "Now now, sonny, you wouldn't want to marry me, would ya?"

Ranma blinked. "What does that mean?"

The old man smiled. "Meuze, do you mind?" Mousse shook his head, smiling a bit. He walked over, pouring the kettle of hot water he had brought over the man's head. There was a seconds pause.

Ranma gasped at the sound of ripping cloth, as the man began to change. His hair grew back where it had balded, to a short, ear length cut. The gray was quickly replaced by a vibrant light blue, the wrinkles on the man's face fading, the whole body growing, especially around the chest.

And there sat a cloaked, beautiful young woman in her late teens in the old man's place.

"W-what?!" Ranma shouted.

"Venerable old man spring. I was born with it." The girl replied, in much improved Japanese.

"Venerable old man?!" Ranma shouted before thinking. "You weren't much of a venerable old man, you know!"

"Oh, right, that. Well, I figured that might be how old people talk in Japanese, so I gave it a shot. Either way, it was fun."

"No!" Ranma said suddenly. "I meant you didn't act like a venerable old man!"

"Why would I do that?" Ping Lao replied, brushing some of her new hair out of her face.

"Because you just said you fell in the spring of the drowned venerable old man!"

The girl paused, staring at Ranma oddly. "No, I never said that. Besides, what does the guide always say when someone falls into a spring?"

Mousse, adjusting his glasses, did his best to impersonate the guide. "OH NO! He just fallen into spring of drowned something! Whoever fall into spring take on body of something!"

"Right. Takes on the body of whatever drowned there. Not the mind." Ping Lao replied, tapping her temple for effect. She paused for a minute, noticing Ranma's brain was still fried from her transformation. Time for explanation. "Whenever you turn into a girl, you don't actually think like a girl, do you?"

Ranma paused a moment, then shook her head. "No, not really, . . ."

"Exactly! Sure, if you stayed a girl long enough, biology and psychology would take over, and then you would think sort of like a girl, with hormones and all that, but that's not because Jusenkyo makes you."

"Oh." Was the woman's only reply.

"Anyway, now that we've sufficiently wasted enough time for me to change back, answer me this. How old is your daughter?"

Ranma blinked, before saying, "Twelve years and three weeks."

"A ha. Now, how long has she had her curse?"

"About three weeks, now."

"Okay, and this . . . um, Kite, I think you said, how long has he had his curse?"

"A little over two and a half months."

"Now, what special day did he get his curse on?"

Ranma paused, thinking this over. There was something important about the day he came down with his curse and had heart failure when he changed. It was . . . "His twelfth birthday!"

"Bingo!" Ping Lao replied. "That's almost always the day that kind of curse appears. Sometimes a day before, sometimes a day after."

"Wait, did you say appears?"

"Yep, sure did. There's more to the Jusenkyo curses than you think." The girl tightened the cloak over herself. "When one parent, or two, has a Jusenkyo curse, the magic from the springs is passed on, like your genes and DNA and all that stuff. At age twelve, right around when puberty begins, it manifests itself, and appears as a full fledged curse."

"But wait a second!" Ranma protested. "Sakura doesn't have the spring of the drowned girl as a curse! She wouldn't have cared if she did!"

Ping Lao motioned for him to be quiet. "That's the thing. When the curse is passed on, the spring it is based on is chosen randomly from all the springs in existence now, not just the ones when you fell in. It can be any spring. There's only one thing that makes the curse slightly less random. And that is something I doubt you've heard of: Jusenkyo Symbiosis."

"Symbiosis?" Ranma asked tentatively. "What the hell does that mean?"

"If you'll be quiet, I'll tell you. Since the magic is passed from parent to child, it isn't absorbed solely through the skin. That means, the magic isn't just a surface curse; it's actually a part of them. Symbiosis measures how much of a connection lies between the magic of the springs and the person's body.

"Everyone with a curse has symbiosis. People who fall in the springs have a number between the smallest number above zero and . . . five at the absolute most, and it can sometimes vary over the course of a person's life by up to approximately . . . mmm, four or five."

Ranma looked strangely at her. "Wait, a number? What's the number for?"

Ping Lao sighed. "If you'll let me finish, I'll explain." Ranma quickly slid back and shut up. "The number represents the amount of water necessary for the person to shift between their cursed forms. The symbiosis number is equal to the percent of a person's skin that must be covered in a certain temperature of water in order to change.

"Now, when there is a child between two humans with at least one Jusenkyo curse between them with any symbiosis number, that child will have the magic added into their system, and they will receive a symbiosis number as well, when they reach the age of twelve. That number does not have to be the same as that of their parents, and is usually ten to twenty points higher from parents who received their curse from the springs themselves, such as yourself. Although, it can rise unbelievably huge amounts, or not at all. It all depends on chance. The only thing that can't happen is for the number to go down.

"The number also affects what curse will appear. The higher the symbiosis number, the more human-like form the person will take. For example, once the number breaks thirty, it is highly unlikely that they will receive the curse of the Niu Ho Man Maolen Niichuan Spring. (Note: The spring of the yeti riding an ox while carrying an eel and a crane.) While most animal forms remain until about seventy, the more unusual shapes slowly get weeded out. Once the numbers break ninety, only about seven or eight forms are left, almost all of them human. But there's a second effect to symbiosis as well."

"Second effect?!" Ranma asked, butting in.

"Will you please stop interrupting me!" Ping Lao shouted. She was in full lecture mode, and she really hated people who interrupted her. Ranma nodded dumbly. "Yes, there's a second effect.

"As the magic of the curses begins to grow to a serious part of their body, the cursed form often begins to show signs of what the curse is. For example, people with a cat curse often take on the elliptical shaped eyes of a cat, or the color or patterns of fur will often be visible in small parts of their body. These mixes can be anything from physical abnormalities to skills and senses that the person is often seen as exceptionally skilled with.

"However, the crosses with their cursed shape often go no father than simple body misproportions and senses. In their cursed form, the effects appearing on the human side will remain on the cursed side, but nothing new will appear from the human side. The curse then has total control. Also, as the number rises, the crosses increase in number and appearance. Since the curse is continually passed down, it increases constantly until it reaches one hundred.

"And when it hits one hundred, things go differently. At the age of twelve, the person receives a curse that falls within all the normal bounds of any other curse, which limits them almost totally to young, human forms. At the age of twelve, they take on the cursed form. Since the magic and body have fused totally, the change is permanent, and the curse is not passed on ever again."

"Never ever?" Ranma asked.

"Never ever ever." Ping Lao replied, shaking her head for emphasis. "The problem some people think to use is to re-curse themselves with something similar, which works, but it also just starts the process over from the beginning, back at skin–level curses. And then it has to be weeded out again through heredity."

"So, what happened to Kite?" Ranma asked, remembering his form. "He doesn't have any signs of his curse, and his body changes far more than I ever did."

Ping Lao sighed again. "My guess is, since he had a heart attack, which is quite a common occurrence in his case, is that he has a negative symbiosis number. It's not below zero, and it still has to rise from the parents' numbers. However, the body has rejected the magic, and so the curse and the body grow separately.

"Your curse is that of the drowned girl, but as you grown stronger in either form, it translates over to the other form of you. Someone with negative symbiosis does not have that. Which means, after twelve years of growing, their muscles, which the heart is one of, are still infantile, even though the body grows in size and development issues anyway. So, their heart is too weak to support the body for any long length of time, usually only for a few minutes at most, and most have a heart attack and die."

Ranma stared in horror. "D-die?!"

"Well, if they survive, and once they spend a few weeks alive in their cursed form, the heart can usually grow strong enough to support the body. And if they spend enough time in it, especially while young, they can actually build the body up to safe levels. But most people die before that happens. Since you said he was fine now, I figured he's grown a lot stronger. It should never turn out like that again, but the more he can bring his bodies to equal levels, the better he'll be. Or, at least, he should put some strength into his cursed form."

"Is that going to be passed on too?" Ranma was still visibly shaken, but recovering.

"Nope. Of the three children who've been born of parents with a negative symbiosis and risen to the age of twelve, none of them had a negative number too. We guess that they have the same chance of getting that defect as everyone else."

Ping Lao stood, keeping the cloak carefully draped around herself. Ranma looked up at her. "And what's that chance?"

"About one in a thousand."

"One in a thousand?!" Ranma shouted, jumping up. "How many people have gotten through having a curse and givin' birth to children?!"

"Well, the springs have been used since their creation over five thousand years ago, although they didn't really start being used until about two thousand years ago. There were a few thirty year breaks here and there, but otherwise, it's been pretty constant. It's just that we Amazons have only just gotten all the records brought together. Heck, even the Guide didn't know much beyond the act of falling in and coming out."

"Wait, thirty year breaks?"

Ping Lao nodded "Yeah, whenever something like a flood or earthquake messes up the springs, after about a year, they drain themselves away. By ten years after, the springs have completely disappeared beneath the earth. About twenty years after, the springs start to resurface with the same curse they had before. Thirty years after, everything is back to the way it should be."

Ranma just stared for a moment. "Oh." She replied quietly, rubbing her head through her red hair.

"Well, that's the gist of what you need to know about Jusenkyo, so I'll . . ."

"Wait a second!" Ranma shouted, remembering something important. "What about the musk people?! They didn't have curses unless they fell into the springs!"

"Yep, they sure didn't." Ping Lao said calmly, walking towards the other room. "Since one of the partners isn't human. Like I said, both parents have to be human. You and Ryoga could have sex and you could give birth to a child who would have a curse at the age of twelve. But a man and a monkey woman do not count as two humans, no matter what the form they posses."

The girl turned to Mousse. "Thank you, Meuze. If you will excuse me, I should change before we train today." Mousse nodded, smiling under his thick glasses, before the two of them turned to Ranma. "Well, Ranma, if you'll excuse me, I have to change into some un-ripped clothes." The girl turned and walked into the next room, disappearing.

Ranma dropped back to the ground, on her knees, shuddering. Her face was pale. "Did . . . she just say I should have sex with Ryoga?!" She shuddered violently, before trying to take deep breaths and calm down.

"Now now, Ranma, don't worry about it." Mousse said quietly, sitting down where Ping Lao was sitting. "She was just trying to explain things to you. You don't have to take her examples literally."

"Yeah, you're right." Ranma muttered, calming a bit, but still shaken. "Who was she, anyway? And how did she know so much about Jusenkyo."

Mousse paused, thinking over what to say. "She is the daughter of a researcher of Jusenkyo from Japan and one of our villagers. Her father is the one who taught her everything about Jusenkyo, and brought most of the records together. Her mother was an average fighter by our standards, but the two of them were happy."

"Is she all alone?"

Mousse nodded. "Her mother died in childbirth, and her father died a few years ago. She is alone, but the entire village supports her. I have been teaching her most of the basics of hidden weapons fighting, while she develops her own abilities." Ranma raised an eyebrow at the Amazon male. "Her father had a special ability which allowed him to defeat her mother in combat, which she has inherited as well."

"And that would be?" Ranma asked carefully.

Mousse paused again, before looking up, right into Ranma's eyes. "Ranma, what are you doing down here?"

"Huh?!" Ranma said suddenly, looking up from the table. He was sitting in his living room, leaning against the table. Akane stood in the doorway, staring at him, wearing the bathrobe she kept in their room. "Oh, hi, Akchan."

"I was wondering why it was so cold. What are you doing down here? I want to sleep, and I get cranky waking up freezing."

"Oh, just thinkin' about the trip to China."

Akane sighed an all knowing sigh. "Ranma, it's time to let go. You did your best. Things turned out okay, didn't they?"

Ranma nodded, stood, and walked across the living room to his wife. Turning, they walked up the stairs together to their room. But one thought came back to Ranma's mind. "I broke my promise, though."

Next Chapter: A dream, a nickname, and a new alliance: while things seem to calm down, they only grow more potent.

And that's the end of that chapter. It's been surprising what people ask me about, and I couldn't believe nobody asked how all the kids got curses. I thought that would be the first thing people would ask about, but I guess I was wrong. And nobody has asked about who the principal was, or why Sauske hides his aura, or how come he didn't change even when half soaked with water. Oh well.

Anyway, there isn't much to really say after this chapter. I don't have any bio for this chapter, since none of the main old characters have reappeared yet, so there's not much else to say. So, on with the reviews:

kitsune-dragon-inu: Yay! Another person who likes my story!

The Liz: Yeah, Sauske is not a complete idiot when it comes to talking to girls. And as for Aki warming up to him, she is and isn't, as you'll see soon. (I am so cruelly vague sometimes.)