The Real World

The Guide had finally gotten the boy into his cottage and in a futon. It was a pain dragging honored young customer across the valley, doubly so because the guide was not that big. He almost fell into a couple of springs when young customer kept changing weight. Still, he had been able to get him back to the hut without help, and was currently looking for some paper to take notes down on. This kind of occurrence needed to be recorded, and probably witnessed. Thinking about it for a few minutes, sent his daughter off to the nearby Amazon village to fetch an elder; they were knowledgeable and may be able to help. If nothing else, it would be good to have one around when young customer finally woke up.

Young customers form still gave him a headache when the guide looked at him and his eyes seemed to slide off his form, although it seemed to be lessening. That was a good sign. As he dried off his form should become obvious as the magic worked itself out.

He was interrupted from his search as the Genma came striding in the room, consuming a bowl of soup. The guides eyebrow twitched; that was his soup. "Hey Guide, you were right. Hot water does reverse the curse. Doesn't seem like such a curse to me, I even see potential in learning how to fight in different forms! Wake up boy! Time to train more!" so saying, Genma dumped the rest of his soup on Ranma.

"No-No Very Bad! No do that mister customer! Curse not go away with hot water! Only temporary fix. Cold water turn you right back!" the guide said.

"What? Well why didn't you say so?" Genma said.

The guide would have replied that he did, in fact, say so, but he was to busy regarding the form of young honored customer, who was currently haziness and indistinctness had currently grown to a much greater magnitude level. Honored customer had gotten Honored younger customer wet again. 'oy.

Dreamscape - Unknown

"Ah Tio, it is good to see you again. How are things fairing?"

"Not to well, My Goddess."

"Tio, I don't know how many times we've had this little talk. If you call me 'My Goddess' or 'Your Majesty' or something else like that one more time, I can't be held accountable for what I may do. For goodness sakes Tio, I held you as a kitten and helped raise you."

Tio hung her head. "Yes, Bastet-Sama"

"You couldn't resist the honorific, could you?" Bastet sighed. "So, why are things not fairing so well? Has something happened to your charge?

"Rranma rran into Jusenkyo. Harrd." Tio said.

"Oh… how bad off is he? I hope he didn't turn into some mongrel like Anubis. That would just make his day. " Bastet said

"Um, I don't know yet." Tio said. "He fell in a couple of springs, and ended up soaking in one. The magic is still fighting over what form his curse will be."

"So he is in a state of flux still? Hmm, well then that's not so bad, we can work with that. Maybe a nice tabby form, or better yet, a Persian, hmm… "

"Umm, Bastet -Sama? Therrre is something you should know, I wasn't rreally able to help explain what happened to him because, well…" Tio trailed off, trying to find a way to explain it.

"The Neko-ken right? Grrrr. When I get my hands on that fat oaf there wont be enough left to toss in the pit. But I digress, Yes Tio, I know about Ranmas training with the Neko-ken. It isn't as big of a problem as some would make it out to be, really." Bastet said.

"It's not? But I was in therrre, the mental scaring is horrrr.. horrrr…bad." Tio said.

"No, it's not really that bad, I just looks it. Most of my first disciples learnt from the same method. With you there helping him, he should work through it and be fine. By the way, how did you get in his mind?" Bastet said.

"The barrrr… barrrr… walls werre weakened by the fighting of the currses. Some of the perrrsonality changing ones had opened them, but starrrted fighting each-otherrr beforre they could enter. I closed the hole when I left, Rranmas mind will stay his own." Tio said.

"Good thinking. I must be off if I'm to help Ranma with this little problem. I'll see if I can't pay back that favor from Inari. He would enjoy having an Avatar again. You should head back to Ranma, Tio. He needs you, don't leave his side."

"Yes, Bastet-Sama."

The Real World

"Ah, Elder Ku Lon. It is good to see you. I'm glad you came." The guide said in mandarin. "Please step inside."

"It's good to get out of the village every now and again. By the way, your daughter ran all the way, she would make a fine warrior. Now what is this concerning a 'Stupid panda and boy who bounces on springs'?" The Elder said. She hoped off her cane and stepped into the guides hut.

"That's correct. His father bounced him through several springs I'm not sure how many, he came to a rest but didn't actually drown in the last. He is right over there, behind the fat man eating all my soup." the Guide said.

"Let me guess, he can't understand a word of Chinese. Sigh." The Elder said. "We should continue in a language your… guest can understand. Hello, I'm Ku Lon, elder of the Amazon tribe near here."

"Huh?" Gemna said, realizing for the first time that there was someone else in the room. Upon seeing Cologne he froze.

Cologne walked up to Genma and snapped her fingers in his face. "Anyone in there?"

Whatever reaction she was expecting, Genma shouting "AHH IT'S THE MASTER! AND HE HAS HAIR!" and then jumping out the window was not it.

"Thank you Elder for getting rid of Customer. Almost eat all food." The guide said

"Well, I guess that takes care of that problem. Maybe he will trip and drown in a pool." Cologne said.

"We can hope." The guide said.

Hoping over to the blurry form of Ranma, Cologne eyed him closely. "Hmm, you've been taking notes I assume. May I see them?"

"Of course, honored elder, here they are." The guide handed her a small book.

Flipping though the book, reading it quickly, she went back and took a second look at Ranma. Her physical eyes couldn't actually see anything there, only a presence. That was normal for the instant of the switch when a cursed one would get splashed. Using her aura and chi sight, however, she saw a confused cacophony of forms and flows that seemed to overlap and wrap around each other, looking like glowing, twisty paths. That was not normal. Usually a persons curse integrated with their ki and chi flows, which was why it was so hard, to the point of impossibility, to remove it. Over time, the curse would take on overflow ki from the cursed, and incorporate it into itself. If the cursed individual lived long enough, the curse would eventually fully combine with the person, and become theirs to control. Most didn't realize the control, they just never wished to have their cursed form again, and so it never appeared. When Cologne looked at Ranma, what she saw stunned her. Most of the interweaving lines of individual curses fought over what would attach itself to Ranmas being near the "surface", but as she watched, a new golden path emerged from 'below', beyond her perception, and immediately, ignoring all the other curses, attached itself to Ranma. Limbs appeared off the path and seemed to touch specific other curses, twining those in with itself and with Ranma.

Amazingly she saw Ranma's own core ki twist and flow around the newly introduced lines. Already Cologne could see some of Ranma's excess ki flow into the new pathways. For the life of her, it looked like some of those new lines belonged there. She had never seen anything like it. As she pulled back and re-asserted her physical sight, she noticed that the other curses, the ones that had been fighting on the 'surface', were fading away.

"Can you do anything for poor young honored customer?" the guide asked, when he noticed the elder come out of her trance.

"I might have been able to affect which curse, or curses finally won out, but I dare not try anything now. In all experience, I have never even heard of something like this happening. His core ki just accepted an intrusion like it belonged there. It was like watching someone cut a babies umbilical-cord in reverse." Cologne said, Writing notes down in the book. She was worried for the boy. She saw the strength and goodness in him when she peered into his inner-flows. She could tell he was a prime specimen…. Hmm if he didn't come out so bad she may have to set him up with her great-granddaughter.

"Whatever was going on, it's starting to reconcile itself. He already looks more distinct. I want to get him back to the village to keep him under observation. He going to be very confused when he wakes up. Do me a favor guide? If his father shows up again, don't tell him where he is." She said. Picking up Ranma, she then turned and hoped on her cane, holding him in a fireman's carry.

The guide grinned. "I direct him to Musk, maybe Phoenix." Cologne burst out laughing at that. She was still giggling halfway back to the village.

Dreamscape – Ranma

Ranma was slowly waking up from his nap. He was in that area of sleep, that was just on the edge of consciousness between true sleep and wakefulness. He was comfy, just sleeping, and being warm. He couldn't remember the last time he got to sleep in, with his father kicking him out of bed every morning.

In his half-asleep state, Ranma's mind registered hearing a sigh, but noted it as only a curiosity. Ranma felt a slight tremor in the ground he was sleeping on. Great, it would figure pop's had set up camp around a volcano. His danger sense would warn him if there was any danger. He rolled over and pushed himself further into his blanket. … wait a sec…

"'Giggle'." Ranma froze. Pops didn't giggle. Snapping to a higher level of awareness, Ranma realized several things. One; the blanket that he was currently sleeping on up in wasn't a blanket at all. Two; the reason he was warm wasn't because of his own body heat. Three; he recognized that voice from somewhere, but couldn't quite place it.

Being trained by Genma, however harsh, did have advantages however. His body immediately started to fake his sleep pattern, while his mind started to think of a way out of whatever mess he was in now. Ranma didn't feel any threatening intentions, if anything he felt the opposite, but that didn't mean anything. Until he knew more, or was forced to do something he would stay there. Besides, it was kind of comfy.

"'Giggle'." He heard the voice hovering over him. "So peaceful when you sleep. Just like a kitten. 'Sigh'" the voice turned away with the sigh. "Kittens. I hope to have some of my own someday. To be able to watch them grow up... someday maybe." Ranma could tell that even though the voice had an odd pitch to it, it was female. "It's just, that I don't think I'll everr find a mate. None of the ones at home seem interested with me. Huh, guess no-one wants to be frriends with someone who can't even save theirr charge from a scraped knee." Ranma could hear the sadness in the voice.

The only sound Ranma could hear was breathing and a heartbeat. Thum-thump. Thum-thump. Ranma kept his eyes shut. The option of opening his eyes and confirming his fears was no option at all. He would just ignore it. Think of better things, happier times. Like the time before the training trip… gods, had it been so long since he had a truly good memory? Before the trip, he remembered getting up every day, at sunrise, and going out and playing with his friend. What was his name? Pamiu. Yea, he and Pamiu would go out every day and play together. They would go exploring, play hide and seek, and even steal food from mom together. How could he have forgotten about his friend? There was something about Pamiu, now that Ranma was able to remember him. Something a little off. It had always made Pamiu different from the other kids his age, but for the life of him, Ranma couldn't think of what it was.

"You know, you'rre the first human that my goddess has given a guarrdian in over two thousand years." He heard her start talking again. "'Snort.' Some guarrdian. I'm supposed to help guide you, help make your life better, and what do I do? I get you thrown into a pit of starving cats." Ranma involuntarily twitched at the word. "Oh you poor thing. Can't you even get away from that pit in your dreams? Look at me, I even hurt you when you're asleep. I'll have to get Bastet-sama someone more competent to replace me, I'm worthless." She started to move to get up.

"No you're not." Ranma couldn't stand it anymore. This…this, this person was pouring their heart out to him, even if they didn't think he could hear them. So many of the emotions that Ranma felt he heard echoed by this person. The pain of not having any friends, or being allowed to have friends, was a deep scar for Ranma, and he felt the loneliness and rejection in her voice too. Here was someone who could understand him, he hoped, not like his father who only hit him. Maybe he would have to leave her like he did all the others, but they both could use a friend right now. "I m-mean, your not, ya know, Worthless. Don't ever think that, no one is ever Worthless." Ranma said from his position in her lap.

"Oh my! Y-you'rrre awake." Her surprised voice replied.

Ranma still held his eyes closed "Y-yea, I am. But your not worthless, dun ever say that. I can tell you're trying ta help."

"I try to help you, but every time I just end up making things worse for you." The voice said

"But it was you that went and changed my memory about the C-c-ca-hole, right?"

"You mean you rememberrr that? You weren't supposed to, I guess it's just something else I've done wrrrong, I am so sorrry." He could hear she was about to start crying

"NoNoNo! Please don't cry. You didn't do anything wrong, it's just the other memories don't quite line up. But what you did works! C-c-ca-ca- felines don't make me as afraid as I used to be! Really."

"You are so sweet kitten, you have a big hearrt, but you don't need to lie for me, I know when to quit and go home. You can't even look at me because of what I've done to you. I'll find someone else that will be able to help you better."

He could feel her get up and hear her turn and start to walk away. He screwed his eyes shut tighter. He knew if he didn't look, he wouldn't freek, but if he didn't do something she would go away feeling horrible, and he knew it would be all his fault. He had to do something. He could not let someone with that much heartache just walk away. Not without trying everything he could to help.

"Wait!" he shouted. He heard her stop and look at him. He knew exactly where she was standing, though he didn't know why. Listening he heard her take a breath to give a final farewell, but he beat her to the punch.

Ranma opened his eyes.

Standing before Ranma was what he could, at that moment, only describe as a magnificent, radiant creature. With bright green eyes rapidly widening in apprehension, She stood tall, around seven feet, with tawny golden fur covering her body, the same color of fields of grain on a clear day. Stripes of rich dark brown marked her arms, legs, and back while more of the rich color cascaded off her head in a waterfall of hair. Lighter colored fur marked her eyebrows.

Then it hit Ranma, the fear. But he held on. He had felt the desperate need of this person. He couldn't give in. it would ruin everything. He wouldn't give in. he wouldn't. It was a living, breathing, thinking person, not a monster coming to get him. He would not let the fear win, not this time. For this one that cared so much, he couldn't afford to.

"Ranma? Are you all right?" her voice called out, filled with hope and fear at the same time. She had turned to more fully face him. Dang, but that was a b-b-big feline. A b-big feline with b-b-big claws, and b-big teeth, and b-b-big … crying eyes. Ranma felt his heart wrench.

"Y-y-yea. I'm g-good. Hi m-my name is Ranma. Wanna be friends?"

"Hello Ranma, my name is Tio. I would love to be you're friend."