The Real World

Cologne sat in her hut regarding the figure before her. The haze surrounding the boy was slowly receding, and according to her references that meant the curses had sorted themselves out and were 'laying in roots' as it were. But at least it was receding, that was a good sign. She had read accounts of people who never turned back, eventually dissipating to nothing; evaporating like water. Thankfully that didn't appear to be happening, but he had indeed picked up several curses that were tightly intertwined. She didn't even know the boys name, poor child, but she knew his life would never be dull again.

Still, at the rate it was going away it would be hours, perhaps days, until the mist fully left. She had already missed most of the tournament her great-granddaughter was fighting in by staying here and watching the boy. There had been no real change in his condition since her observation at the guides hut earlier that day, and she was getting board with watching him lay there. Hmm, he should be fine laying there alone for a bit. Cologne reasoned. If I hurry, I can watch Shampoo finish her last match.

Cologne took one last look at the boys form, then hopped on her staff and bounced out the door. She left just in time to miss the blur around his body start to rapidly pull in.

Dreamscape – Ranma

Ranma was feeling fairly content at the moment. He was leaning against Tio's side while she lay on the ground. It was a different experience for Ranma. Most of Ranma's interactions with other people consisted either of Genma beating on him for some reason or another or some Sensei teaching him, then Genma beating on him afterward. Just sitting with someone, spending time and doing nothing, was a new thing for Ranma, and he was finding that it was kind of... nice.

He was glad Tio had accepted his offer of friendship. He had too few friends, and were often forced to leave them. Sure she was a half-cat. A half-cat with claws. And fangs. Ranma sighed. And big eyes, and a big heart too. Whenever he started to feel the fear get bad and enter the loop that eventually spiraled down to the Neko-ken, memories of his old childhood friend Pamiu would always pop up. That always seemed to calm him down, though he still couldn't place what made Pamiu different from all the other kids in the neighborhood. That was another thing he owed Tio. He could feel the path that lead to the Neko-ken in his mind, but he could turn away now. With luck, and baring pits of hungry c-c-ca-cats, he might never go Neko-ken again.

Sighing again, but in contentment this time, he leaned back further. Tio was still purring softly, an amazingly soft and surprisingly natural sound. It had freaked him out at first, until she explained what it meant. They had talked for a while after that, mostly about little nothings. Ranma felt a sort of connection with Tio that he never felt with anyone else except for maybe his mother, what little he could remember. Suddenly he felt Tio shift.

"Is everything alright?" Ranma asked.

"Hmm," Tio said, looking around. "I thought I felt…"

"What? What did you feel?" Ranma asked.

"I think our time is over, you'rre going back." Tio said.

"What? Are you sure? I want to stay here with you. I've already had to leave too many friends, I don't want to leave another!" Ranma said.

"Kitten, we arre not actually leaving each other , we just can't stay like this. It wouldn't be healthy for eitherrr of us." Tio said.

"But why? Can we see each other? Why am I leaving?" Ranma asked.

"Because kitten, you arrre waking up. This place we'rre in is rreally just a part of yourr subconscious. Your conscious mind rrretreated here when you werre knocked into too many cursed sprrings and the currses started to fight each otherr." Tio explained. "Some of the currses change the way you think. They do it by tearring down your mental barrr…barr…walls and enterring your mind to change things. They starrted fighting each otherr before one actually entered, but the hole was still therre. I put a patch on it, but I had to be 'inside' to do it prroperrrly. Now that you arre waking up, your mind will fix the hole on its own, but I don't think eitherrr of us wants me stuck inside yourrr mind when it does, even if the company is good.

"Oh… I u-understand." Not really. "We can see each other again though, right?" Ranma said.

"I'm surre therre is some way, but I don't know what it would be, we arre on different planes. Rrememberrr I'll be watching, and helping where I can." Tio said. Ranma could see Tio was turning transparent before him and he could feel her presence leaving.

"Goodbye Tio, I'll see you soon." Ranma called to the disappearing figure. Tio just smiled as she faded completely out.

"I'll find some way to find you again T-chan." Ranma said, as he too started to fade out.

The Real World

Ranma sat up suddenly. He was in a bed. The bed was in a room. He was in a bed, in a room. He was clenching the sheets. That was different. Usually he woke up in a ditch or huddled in a bowl of a tree.

He tried to remember what happened, but everything was fuzzy with sleep. Last thing he remembered was hopping around on the bamboo poles fighting his father. He remembered his father jumping, Ranma seeing his weak right feint, and his own maneuver that knocked his father into a spring. He remembered turning. He remembered saying something to his father. He remembered a panda jumping out of the springs and attacking him.

Analyzing his memories, he remembered that the panda was using what appeared to be Anything Goes in its attacks, and he was sure he had never seen a kick like that one besides him and his father. Some small voice in the back of his mind whispered that there was someone there shouting about cursed springs, but Ranma didn't remember anyone else being there. Then he remembered getting hit by the panda, remembered bouncing of what had to be the surface of one of the springs… hmm, he hadn't been skipped across water since he was nine, and that was when his father used a … reverse triple inverted spin-kick? That was the same move the panda… wait cursed springs? That panda was pop! Grrr, pops is so getting turned into a wall rug when I get my hands on him.

While he was on his internal tirade about filleted panda, and getting more and more irate, Ranma Chi started to shift into a more emotional state. Unbeknownst to Ranma, while he was getting angry he started to change. His canines elongated slightly, his ears became slightly pointed and his fingernails started to taper into points. Ohh-kay, calm down. Gotta remember what happened after that, calm down… As Ranma calmed down, the changes disappeared.

So he hit the springs. He remembered that. Funny, just sitting here looking at himself he didn't look different. Certainly no panda arms flailing about. Maybe he got lucky and didn't get a curse? No, not with his luck, he was liable to have picked up every curse in the place. So what curse did he get? He was sure he had one. He hoped he didn't turn into something like a grasshopper. That would just plain suck.

Hmm, he bounced across a coupla springs, then blank… nothing. It felt like there was a gap there, something he should remember but wasn't. Slowly Ranma pulled himself into a sitting meditation stance on the bed, and entered a meditative trance. He knew that if his father caught him doing this he would get the beating of his life, but the feeling that he was missing something was just too great to ignore.

Ranma was glad that his father had gotten food poisoning at that one monastery in the hills, forcing them to stay there long enough to get snowed in. Not that they couldn't have left at any time they wanted to, but his father was lazy and didn't want to go out across the deep snow. Still, the monks there had been more then happy to teach Ranma their art. Genma was less then enthused. The monks practiced a passive combat art that focused heavily on meditation and avoiding conflict. Genma had thought that the monastery was a secret training place for warriors; gods above know where he got that idea, and was disappointed when he learned that it wasn't. While they were snowed in, Ranma started to learn under the masters, but kept it a secret from his father. Genma had told Ranma not to practice their art, calling it a weak, inferior, and woman's thing, not to be practiced by men. Ranma didn't believe his father, but couldn't convince him to change his mind. Shortly before they were going to leave, Genma got food poisoning, and they got snowed in. Ranma was happy to stay and study, even if he had to keep it a secret from his father. When they finally left he was still a rank novice in regards to what the masters could do, but Ranma was still able to give both his physical and spiritual self a decent analysis.

Searching himself for a bit while in a trance, Ranma couldn't find anything that would lead to the feeling of something being off. He was about to exit his trance when he felt a tug. It was a small tug, but if felt… familiar somehow. He followed the tug deeper into himself, further then he had ever gone before. It was becoming difficult to maintain his concentration this deep. Still, the familiar feeling he was having grew stronger. Feeling himself come close to his destination, he focused himself, solidifying his position in his mind. Finally he came across what he could only call a construct in his mind. He had seen nothing like it ever before. It for the life of him looked like a few bent and rusty I-beams and rotting planks and sheets of wood piled on the ground. It was very messy to look at/feel. He noticed it was blocking off a few of the pathways in his mind that to him felt like memories.

Ranma remembered reading something about memory blocking constructs from one of the books at the monastery, and the description in the book almost matched the description of what he was seeing/feeling to a Tee, except that what he read in the book described a much more clean and solid structure. Ranma didn't have a clue as to who would have been able to put such a thing in his mind.

Forcefully, Ranma ripped the barrier apart. The pieces fell apart and dissolved into nothingness, but Ranma didn't notice as memory assaulted him. He was catapulted out of his meditative trance. Memories of home. He never knew what it looked like. Memories of his mother. He remembered the warm feeling he got when he was little and she would hug him. Memories of his life before the training trip, of friends and places. Of Genma using one his masters trinkets on him just after they left on the training trip, and him, in a panic, forgetting the memories he was just now remembering. He remembered his friend Pamiu. Of playing and having fun. Memories of Pamiu lead to memories of that dark, cold pit. Remembering the pit, he remembered that one time that the cats didn't claw him. He remembered someone saved him that time. Tio…

Ranma was mad. Ranma was beyond mad. Ranma was angry. Really angry. His heart started beating harder and his Chi started to heat up rapidly. As his Chi started to show in a small aura around him, Ranma shifted. It was a fast shift, and he felt himself change. It was the strangest feeling he had ever felt, and couldn't become close to describing it. He was hot and cold, wet and dry, stretched and squashed at the same time. And then it was over. Ranma was entirely disoriented. He had been really angry, but now when he felt for the anger he just felt drained. All his senses were out of whack too. He could smell whose room he was in, and tell that they were female. He could hear a bird taking off from the building next door. His eyes felt weird, but he could see as well as normal. It felt like he had a coat on as well. My butt really hurts too.

Ranma slid off the bed and tried to stand up, but fell flat on his face. His balance was all off. His rear was really hurting him now, so he reached back to try and feel if there was anything wrong. What he felt defiantly register in his mind as wrong. Needing a visual confirmation, Ranma pulled the offender around into his line of sight. Yeap, that's a tail, all right. Yea sir buddy, that's a tail, and hoo boy, I think that's my tail. Yank-yank. Ow. Yeap, definitely my tail. What am I doing with a tail! Ok, don't panic, there is a perfectly logical explanation for all this, like I'm dreaming. Yea, that's gotta be, it's a dream. Then Ranma saw a mirror hanging on the wall. I-I-I'll just look in the mirror, and I'll see myself, just like all the other dreams. Then I can wake up.

Ranma shakily stood up on his two feet … scratch that, on his two paws. Not gonna panic. Not gonna panic. Not gonna panic. Ranma started walking towards the mirror, unsteady. Just gotta look at myself. Its like all the other dreams. This has happened before. I wake up as some c-c-ca- feline monster, look at a mirror, see myself, and then I wake up. I'll do it again, and everything will be all right. As he walked he started to unconsciously use his tail to adjust his balance. Ranma made it to the mirror without falling on his face again, but what he saw when he looked in made him freeze.

The face that was looking back from the mirror wasn't the one he grew up with, and not nearly the one he expected looking back at him. The same blue eyes looked back but that was the only thing unchanged. His face was covered in black fur. He had cat ears on top of his head. Cat ears covered in black fur. He had a snout. It was a big snout, covered in black fur. He had two huge fangs coming out of his mouth at the front of his snout. They were big, white, six inch fangs. His fangs weren't covered in fur. His crystal blue eyes stared back at him from under an umbrella of black hair hanging down over them. He stood gaping at himself, which probably wasn't the best choice because it gave an excellent view of his fangs and other various pointy teeth. N-not g-gonna p-p-panic. N-not g-gonna p-p-panic. N-not g-gonna p-p-panic. Ranma continued to stare at himself repeating his mantra, regardless of the fact that repeating it like he was, in itself, a form of panicking.

The only thing that kept Ranma from totally losing his sanity were his eyes. Even with the rest of him changed, they were still his, still the same they had always been. They were the same eyes he had grown up with. They were eyes that showed intelligence and meaning, not beast eyes. Tio had the same sort of eyes. S-so does that mean I'm like Tio or something?

Ranma was broken out of his contemplation as the door to the room opened. Startled, Ranma dropped into a defensive stance. However, standing in the door way was not something he was expecting. He could hear her heart from across the room. He could tell it was a fighter's heart. She stood in a formfitting outfit accentuating her dangerous curves. Long purple hair tumbled down in waves. Light from outside was streaming in through the doorway, seeming to create a glow around her. The effect was stunning.

The effect was somewhat ruined however, when the beauty pulled out a pair of huge maces and took a threatening aggressive stance.

"Who are you? What are you? Are You Musk!" She Commanded in Chinese.

"What? I don't underrrstand you." Ranma said. His voice sounded deeper then it had before and rolling his r's.

"What did you do to the boy Great-Grandmother brought home! " She shouted, again in Chinese.

"I-I'm sorrrry, I don't underrrrstand." Ranma flinched back. Whether he flinched because of his voice or the threatening gesture the girl made he wasn't quite sure.

"I wont ask again; Who are you, what are you doing in my room, and where is that boy? I bet you ARE a Musk!" The girl was clearly quite agitated. Ranma paused to think of a way to try and communicate with the girl, but apparently he took to long in thinking of a way.

Further contemplation by Ranma was cut short as the girl suddenly rushed forward faster then Ranma was expecting. Really fast. She had crossed to him in almost no time flat and was already swinging her weapons at him. He did not want to get hit by those, it looked like it would hurt. Falling back on instinct, Ranma leapt strait up and grabbed the ceiling. The girl, surprised by the move and thrown off balance, went sailing past into, and partially through the wall.

Ranma dropped down from the ceiling and landed on his feet. He slowly backed towards the door, stumbling a little. He hadn't felt this clumsy since he had his last concussion.

"Wait, I don't want to fight!" Ranma said.

"Shut up and die monster!" the girl replied as she pulled herself out of the wall and took another swing at him. Ranma managed to dodge the first few swings, but one managed to get through with his precarious balance. The blow hurt less then Ranma was expecting, but he was still propelled through the door, down the stairs beyond, skidded a good way down the hallway at the bottom. Getting up again, Ranma could hear a frustrated scream coming from up the stairs.

"What's going on out here?" an old voice asked to Ranma's side.

"AHH It's a MUMMY on a STICK." Ranma screamed when he saw who was speaking, it was a shriveled up little gnome of a person, barely a foot and a half high, perched on top of a staff.

"Respect your Elders' boy." Was Colognes reply as she promptly bashed him on the head with her staff. Then she started eyeing Ranma's form.

They both turned and looked down the hall as the sound of a freight train descending became apparent. The sound resolved itself into the purple-haired warrior as she landed at the bottom of the stairs. Seeing Ranma, charged again.

"That's it, I'm leavin' this frrreek house." Ranma turned and ran out the door behind him, the purple haired girl hot on his heals.

"Sigh. Youngsters…" Cologne said. "Nothing but hormones and hot heads."

"True." A second figure agreed as it exited the doorway Cologne had been standing it. "Do you think its wise to let shampoo go after him like that in his state?"

"I don't see a problem with it Soap. There's not much she can do to hurt him. He could stand to learn how to use that body properly too." Cologne said.

"Learn how to use his body? I though Jusenkyo endowed it's victims with the knowledge of how to use their bodies" Soap said.

"It does. That half-cat form you saw he had? That's not a Jusenkyo curse. I got a good 'look' at him while he was standing there, and that forms completely natural to him. It's been a while since I've seen one of his kind." Cologne said.

"Wait, 'One of his kind?' what do you mean by that?" Soap asked.

"Ever hear of a were-wolf? Same kind of thing with Mr. Cat-boy there. The odd thing is, he doesn't seem to know what he is, nor have ever been in his were form before." Cologne said.

"Ok, with the Musk and Phoenix, I can accept were-wolfs and were-cats. But what about his curse?" Soap said.

"Hmm? Oh, right, his curse. I had forgotten about that." Soap face-faulted. "I guess we better go out there and calm them down before the entire village gets riled."

AN

's all for now, More in the works. I wanted to make this chapter longer, but I had to balance that with regular updates. Comments and criticisms are appreciated.