'What the hell?' Ranma thought as he looked at his hands. His left was stained with blood from a small wound on his neck. His right bore a straight seven centimeter cut between the heart and head lines of his palm that hadn't quite stopped bleeding. Quickly improvising a bandage with a piece of his shirt, Ranma wrapped the wound twice and tied off the ends using his nimble left hand and his teeth. While certainly not sterile, it would have to do until he could find something better. For some reason, figuring out how and where he'd been injured didn't seem... relevant.

The immediate problem solved, Ranma attempted to figure out where he was. It was a residential neighborhood of some kind with small individual homes. Some unremarkable apartment buildings stood a few hundred meters away. None of it looked familiar. 'Can't ask anybody where I am lookin' like this,' he realized. 'Sun sets in the west, so west is that way. Once it gets dark enough, maybe I can spot the Ginza or Shinjuku by the lights. But I gotta get a better view.'

Ranma walked briskly toward the tallest apartment building he could see. The hilt of the shattered Saotome clan sword was left behind unceremoniously. The few pedestrians out in the chilly evening air gave him a wide berth. Not that Ranma blamed them, he knew he looked like death warmed over.

Scaling the side of the six story building with only one good hand wasn't difficult for the young man, just annoying. One matronly woman on the fourth floor thought he was a burglar and threatened to call the police. Ranma ignored her and continued his climb. Reaching the top of the structure, Ranma scanned the horizon in the fading light.

The sun was half set, it's rays tinted the sky and clouds with reds, oranges and purples. Patches of yellow-white accented with colorful neon signs became relatively brighter as the sky continued to darken. Ranma took in the peaceful scene until his desire to figure out his location reasserted itself.

'Since west is that way, if that dark patch is the Imperial Palace, that makes the river over there either the Sumida or the Ara. Either way, I'm in Katsushika. Course, knowing where I am don't tell me how I got here.'

Ranma wondered why he hadn't wondered about it. He remembered telling his parents he'd got pregnant. His mother ordered him to leave and when he didn't move fast enough, she'd told Genma to remove him. His father motioned him to the entryway where he'd removed his house slippers and put on his shoes. Then he took one last look back and... fantasy. 'What really happened back there?' he asked himself, unaware that very topic was under discussion elsewhere.

-----

"Moshi Moshi, Tendo Residence, Kasumi speaking... No, Ranma hasn't come home yet... Yes, I will... Oh my... One moment." The eldest Tendo daughter set down the receiver, brought her father to the phone and returned to her ironing with a slightly worried look.

"Saotome you old dog, how are you?" Soun said with a smile that completely disappeared seconds later. "She did what?.. Please tell me this isn't true... Oh my... I'll meet you there." Soun hung up the phone and left the Tendo compound with a speed that showed that yes, he had survived training by Happosai and yes, he was damn good when he needed to be.

-----

Dr. Mame Suimono stood, patiently of all things, in the Emergency Room of Toshima Tokyo Metropolitan Hospital waiting for her husband to finish rounds. Her son Nawatori was old enough to look after himself for an evening and little Yasei was busy getting spoiled by her paternal grandparents. So for once, she and her husband Oebi would be able to enjoy an evening out, if the man ever managed to stop seeing patients. Their dinner reservations were at 8:30 and depending how the trains ran, they would risk being late if they didn't leave soon.

The doors to the ER flopped open and a gurney was pushed through. Mame caught a glimpse of a strapped down red-haired woman wearing a formal kimono. There were spots of blood on it, but the only thing that indicated an injury was a large square bandage on the woman's left cheek.

The dark red hair briefly caught her notice. It could have been a dye job. Many women tried to make themselves stand out from the crowd with odd hair colors and elaborate makeup. But it did bring up memories of the girl she'd performed an abortion on the previous day. Curiosity pulled her toward the admitting unit. Although not on staff, she did have privileges at the hospital through consulting work provided by her husband.

"What'cha got here Sam?" she asked informally of the ambulance crewman. A glance at the woman showed her to be unnaturally still.

"Nothing major Doc," the uniformed young man replied. "Possible involuntary commitment from Adachi. Called in by the husband, but he wouldn't sign off on a medical protection commitment. Probably couldn't afford it. But the cops thought she needed someone to take a look at her. So she was brought here for 'evaluation pending further determination'."

"How was she on the ride over?" Mame asked as she pulled a penlight from her pocket. Pupil response was normal. Tucking the light away, she took the patient's pulse manually at the left wrist. The woman made no move to resist or to cooperate.

"Non-responsive. Didn't flinch when I bandaged the cut on her face. But she wasn't rigid either. Pulse 140 and BP was 165 over 94 on the first reading, but down to 75 and 110/68 after I popped her in the wagon.

"Down to pulse 68 now," Dr. Suimono observed.

"Mame-chan, is this one of your patients?" a new voice asked from behind her. Dr. Suimono turned to see her husband Dr. Suimono. Polite kisses on cheeks were exchanged.

"Uh, not really dear. But she does look familiar."

A nurse handed a chart to Oebi Suimono. "Then perhaps you should let Doctor Kurumi handle..." he said glancing at the chart, "Nodoka Saotome's case. We don't want to be late for dinner do we?"

"No, we don't," Mame replied absently as her husband took her arm. 'Ranma Saotome, I do believe that is a gotcha,' she thought to herself. 'If you raped that girl, you'll wish you were never born.'

----

Soun found Genma exactly where he said he'd be. It was a bar where you paid by the drink instead of by the hour. Rare enough for Tokyo, even rarer considering his friend's capacity for alcohol.

As he approached the corner booth Genma had staked out, he saw one of the bar's ubiquitous 'come on' girls leave Genma's table. The woman, whose job it was to entice men into buying overpriced appetizers and 'drinks' containing mostly colored water for her, didn't look happy.

There were four bottles of sake on the table. One empty, one from which Genma poured a stiff drink into a small bowl, one Soun cracked open as he sat down and one more for later.

"Are you drunk?" Soun asked his friend.

"Not nearly drunk enough Tendo. Not nearly drunk enough," Genma answered. If he wasn't sober, he was still fairly close to it.

"What did mean when you said your wife tried to kill Ranma?"

"Exactly that. I thought the boy was going to let her do it too. I swear by every drop of sake I've ever drank and ever will drink, that damn sword touched his skin bef-"

"No, no, no. Back up. What happened?"

"Where to start, where to start..." Genma muttered as he wiped a sheen of sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his gi. "Ranma came over to the house this afternoon. He looked all mopy and upset about something, even though he'd unstuck his curse. So I drug him into the backyard for a spar to beat the depression out of him.

"When I'm practicing, Nodoka leaves me alone about getting a job, so I've been practicing a lot lately. The boy is better than I am, I know that, but he was happy that I was just a little bit stronger and a little bit faster than he expected. First real signs of life out of him since he lost that fight to the Hibiki boy last Saturday.

"Then... I'll admit it, I fucked up." Genma poured another bowl of sake and drank it.

"Fucked up how?" In the background a scorned woman was speaking to a bartender.

"After he bounced me off the fence, I engaged the Umi-Sen-Ken, disappeared and stomped him for a bit." In a lower voice, Genma added, "I should have left those damn techniques sealed."

"How did he beat you?" the Tendo patriarch asked knowing that Ranma would have found a way to win. A bartender spoke with a bouncer.

"Flared his aura, and believe me it was full of some nasty shit. The entire yard fills with this yellow haze and next thing I know, the boy is all over me like white on rice. After I wake up, I'm ready for another round, but Nodoka says the boy has something to say. He's all mopy and whiny again but eventually, he tells us how his curse got locked after the fight he had with the Hibiki boy."

"What does that have to do with your wife trying to kill Ranma? If she does that, the families can't be joined," Soun complained before taking a drink of his own. The bouncer, seeing the two men were dressed as martial artists, decided to get the other bouncer and a couple of the bartenders to teach the moron in the white gi not to mess with the hostesses.

Genma reached out and put his hand on the other man's shoulder. "I'm getting to that Soun." Releasing the other man to pour another drink, he added. "The boy said what he had to say and the next thing I know, Nodoka's disowned him, pulled that damn sword off the wall and is waving it around. She tells the boy to get out and then orders me, orders me, to throw him out because he's not leaving fast enough."

"What could Ranma have possibly said for Nodoka to do that?" The bartenders carried baseball bats while the bouncers slipped brass knuckles onto their hands.

"Don't take this the wrong way old friend, but I can't tell you. It's not mine to say," Genma said wearily. "But I wave him over to the door because it's a lot easier to let Nodoka have her way than it is to reason with her. I figure I'll catch up with the boy later and let him know that Nodoka doesn't have the authority to kick him out of the clan. She thinks she does, but she don't.

"Then Ranma looks at me and says, and I quote, 'Genma, ya know she's gonna kill you, right?' And for the life of me, I couldn't say that he was wrong." The part-time panda shook a few drops out of his sake bottle and immediately opened the remaining one.

Genma continued, "I mean it was clear to me that Nodoka had finally gone completely nuts. She's always had some problems, I mean what sane woman would accept a seppuku pledge from her own infant son? Hell, I just wanted to train the boy without her butting in, I never believed she'd take it seriously. But when she started carrying that damn sword every time she left the house, it was pretty clear she meant it. We left in a hurry and didn't see her for over ten years after that."

Further conversation was interrupted two punches. Genma received brass knuckles to the jaw. Soun, because he hadn't insulted the woman involved, was struck by a simple fist from a bartender. Both men were accustomed to taking blows from far stronger opponents and pretty much ignored the attack although Soun did state, "Excuse me, my friend and I are having a serious discussion."

This impressed the bouncers and bartenders not at all. The bartender threw another punch, or tried to. Soun casually caught the fist with his right hand, and twisted clockwise as he brought his left hand up to lock the barman's elbow. With the leverage thus obtained, Soun threw him into the wall. He slid to the ground because Genma had already reached down, ripped the bolted table from the floor and used it to block two brass clad fists and a baseball bat.

"Shall we?" Soun asked with a smile.

Looking forward to some stress relief, Genma replied, "I think we shall."

-----

'Alright, now that I know where I am, what ta do about it?' Ranma asked himself as he climbed down the apartment building. 'It's not like I got a home ta go to. Mo... she made it clear I'm not a Saotome anymore. I guess that lets Akane and Ukyo off the hook. They can't be engaged ta someone who don't exist. But I do need ta get my stuff from the Tendos. What little I got.'

Finally having a destination, Ranma set off to the west. He wasn't in any sort of a hurry, so he walked instead of leaping from rooftop to rooftop. It would give him more time to think, something which the last week had showed was more important than he'd ever believed.

'Let's see... Can't stay with the Tendos cause with no engagement, there's no reason for me to be there. Well, no reason to stay there anyway. Ukyo... No. It'd never work. If her dad woulda given her a girl's name, I think both of us would be a helluva lot happier right now. Ku- C'mon, I'm not that desperate. Shampoo... No doubt that she'd just love for her 'airen' ta move in. No doubt Cologne would approve too. Also no doubt that Mousse would blow a gasket. Not that I wouldn't in his place and I owe him one anyway.'

It was full dark when Ranma reached familiar ground by crossing the Sumida River into Taito. Had he been so inclined, he could have been in Nerima in under an hour. Even though he was getting quite hungry, the need to keep placing one foot in front the other gave him a task to focus on.

'I wish Doc Tofu was still around.'

The wish went unanswered. But it did give Ranma an idea. Before the chiropractor had dropped from sight, Ranma had spent enough time in his office to know where the outside keys were hidden. As of that morning, the office with it's attached living quarters were still unoccupied. The market for commercial property in the Furikan section of Nerima wasn't very good. It would do for a couple of days at least. Ranma figured that if he could make enough money doing... something... and contact the right person, maybe he could even stay there legally.

Ranma picked up his pace and nearly ran down Edo Avenue toward Asakusa station.

With some of the little money he'd had left over after paying for his abortion, Ranma bought food from a vending machine plus some medical supplies from a somewhat intimidated drug store clerk. He used one of the immaculate public restrooms that Japan is known for to clean up a bit and properly bandaged his wounds. There was no sign of infection and as long as he didn't reopen the wound, he figured he wouldn't even need stitches.

Feeling and looking much better, Ranma paid the fare to enter Tokyo's excellent subway system. At that time of night, the trains didn't maintain the hectic pace they did during the morning and evening commutes. Still, Ranma didn't have to wait long to hop on the subway at Asakusa and hop off three stops later to change trains for Shinjuku. Another swap there and the Nerima subway station soon came into view. Ranma left the train, left the subway system and the first person he saw, and who saw him, when he stepped out on the street was Nabiki.

A brief moment of mutual shock, Nabiki asked, "Where the hell have you been?"

There were a few ways Ranma could play this considering he was no longer engaged to Akane, was no longer a Saotome and didn't even consider himself a martial artist. Most of which involved Nabiki being unconscious. However, the deeply instilled belief to not hit girls remained. Which was fine by him, he knew a few pressure point combos that would knock her out without hurting her in the least. But then he'd have to carry her to the Tendo compound and Ranma knew he didn't want to do that.

He suddenly realized that Nabiki had been talking to him the entire time he'd been deciding whether or not she was fair game. Which she wasn't. But just barely.

"And did you even think about Akane?" Nabiki finished, unaware that man she'd spent sixty seconds threatening hadn't heard her. Considering what she'd said, that was probably for the best.

-----

Soun Tendo poured a beer over his left knuckles. They were a little sore from excessive use. Next time he got in a bar brawl, he'd kick more often.

Genma brushed off his hands after transforming back to human and counted score. Seven bar employees. Nineteen customers. Six cops, including the one in the power suit. 18 tables, 10 benches, 42 chairs, half the bar, but none of the alcohol behind it and not even a scratch on any woman in the place. Overall, a battle well fought.

"I am shocked, simply shocked that they would allow such behavior in an otherwise exemplary establishment," Soun said mockingly to the survivors, ie: the people who were smart enough to stay out of it.

"Come come old friend," Genma said in a matching voice, "let us seek refreshment away from these ruffians." The two very nearly marched out the back door knowing that there were two police cars and the armored car the power suit came in parked out front. After a few minutes of stealthy rooftop scrambling, the two landed in a small park on the Toshima-Nerima border and laughed their asses off.

Genma said, "Nineteen to thirteen Tendo, and that power suit should count extra. You're getting soft. You need to go on a training trip."

"Perhaps I do at that," Soun replied knowing that he would not make any such trip without being forcibly dragged on it by Happosai. "But as much fun as that little barroom brawl was, we were discussing something important."

The smile faded from Genma's face as if it had never been. "Quite right Tendo. Where was I? Wait, I remember. Nodoka was waving her sword around after 'disowning' my son. The boy was leaving when he stopped in the entryway and put his shoes on. Then he looked back toward his mother and stopped.

"Just stopped. Like he'd turned to stone. After a couple of seconds, the same aura he'd used on me earlier just sort of... leaks out of him. My wife is raving at me to do something, but I'm just as far gone as the boy is because I figure that no matter what happens next, she's going to insist I commit seppuku."

"She's always seemed very keen on the idea of being a kaishaku," Soun admitted.

"Apparently she didn't care if the head came off someone performing seppuku or not. She starts stomping over to where Ranma's standing, winds up like she's holding a baseball bat and takes a swing that would have cut down a tree.

"Like I said earlier, I swear Ranma didn't move until the sword touched his neck. Then he must of broke the sound barrier. His head moved right and he clapped the blade between the palms of his hands despite being at a bad angle for it. All he got was a nick. I've got worse cuts shaving.

"Nodoka tries to pull the damn sword away and slices the boy's hand when she does. That yellow aura... flowed... down the blade and Nodoka got a good dose of whatever it was. She lets go of the sword and drops to the ground. I move forward to check on her, she is my wife after all. The boy grabs the sword by the hilt with his right hand and his left arm disappears because it's moving so fast. There's a noise, I can't even describe it, and the sword shatters. Nodoka got cut by a piece of the shrapnel.

"I don't think the boy even noticed. He just turned with a dead look in his eyes and walked away carrying what was left of the sword. I tried to wake Nodoka up, but couldn't, so I called for an ambulance. Before it and the police got there, I cleaned up as much as I could and dropped a glass on the floor to make it look like an accident."

"Why did you do that?"

"Because I know which way the wind blows Tendo. As much as I love my wife, she's gone too far this time. She put up with a lot from me over the years and I'm grateful. But this... This was too much even for me. First thing Monday morning, I'm filing for a divorce."

Soun was clearly shocked. "Even though-"

Genma raised a hand to silence his friend. "Even though. Ranma is too important to leave him subject to the whims of a madwoman."

-----

Nabiki got more and more nervous as she walked with Ranma toward the Tendo home. She had a finely tuned sense of when she could press someone and when to back off. It was part of the reason that she managed to successfully avoid the many threats to her physical well being that Nerima presented. That sense was screaming 'danger'. Yet she felt if she bolted, that would be worse.

Ranma was being too quiet, not having said ten words in ten minutes. Nabiki didn't like being ignored. He looked through her, not at her. She didn't like feeling insignificant. Ranma wasn't the Ranma she knew and took advantage of. He was something different, something dangerous. He was no ticking bomb that was going to explode and destroy everything. No, he was a gun that was going to be precisely used to take out very specific targets.

And she was taking him to her home in the hope that he'd find there a target other than herself.

After returning home, Nabiki pawned Ranma off on Kasumi as quickly as possible. She walked with a calm facade to her room. Once inside, she very quickly and quietly packed an overnight bag. If Ranma had finally been pushed too far, she had no plans to be anywhere nearby when the fireworks started.

-----

"Oh my," Kasumi said as she watched Ranma devourer the food in front of him. She'd cooked chicken teriyaki with vegetable fried rice for five (six since Ranma counted double) and served only herself. Akane said she wasn't hungry. Nabiki had said she'd be back for dinner but when she returned with Ranma, said she'd already eaten. Her father had left in response to a summons from Genma and not returned. It was nice to know her efforts would not go to waste. Although she did wonder why Genma had specifically asked her to feed Ranma and not to upset him. That was like asking the sun to rise in the east.

Ranma made enthusiastic and appreciative noises as he shoveled food into his mouth. The food was good, but he couldn't spare time for conversation. He knew that eating before talking to Akane would make her mad. He was hungry enough to not care. Every condemned man was entitled to a last meal, this was his.

As his pace slowed from 'feeding frenzy' to 'breakneck' to 'faster than polite' to 'normal for a normal person' and finally to 'nibbling', Ranma wondered where Akane was. She had to know he was home by now. According to Miss Hinako, she'd come straight home after school. Kasumi said she hadn't left, even after Miss Hinako called to say he'd been found.

Thinking back over what he remembered of the day's events, Ranma felt like that morning had been a lifetime ago. In a very important way, it had been. He padded up to his room and loaded his traveling pack. He was surprised that there were things left over, things that he couldn't take. There were also a few things he didn't want. But in under five minutes, he'd triaged his year long stay in Nerima into a single backpack. Only then did he walk down the hall to Akane's door and knock.

-----

End Part 6

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