Disclaimer:

Oh, come on. If the previous TWELVE disclaimers didn't do it for you, do you think one more will? Ah, well. I do not own or have any rights to Ranma ½.

In his room, Ranma sat, and thought. He'd woken up an hour ago, long after falling asleep. He knew everyone else had gone to bed, and he knew that Akane, like Kasumi, had figured out what he had done.

Really, though, the jerk deserved it.

He knew Akane had figured it out, because he'd heard her laughing after he'd gone up to his room. He figured she would recognize it after a minute, and piece it together when she remembered Cologne jabbing Ryoga's chest with her stick as she announced his immediate punishment, effectively giving the lost boy the Cat's Tongue pressure point. His decision to split the Phoenix Pill, the only cure he knew of, between Akane and Kasumi had been simple. He had thought of having Mousse split it into three pieces, so he would have a say in it.

Ranma sighed. He knew he was probably too forgiving, and would give Ryoga one-third of the cure to the Cat's Tongue the next time he saw him. It was also why, when everyone else had gone to bed, he'd called a doctor to come get Ryoga and piece him together.

Locking him into pig form the next time he got wet until Akane and Kasumi forgave him was one thing, but leaving him outside with those horrible beatings was another. It didn't even look like Ryoga would be able to stand up on his own, much less drag himself to a hospital or a doctor's office.

Especially since Ranma himself had given those injuries to him.

Well, mostly Ranma. Akane had given him some of them, and Soun and his own mother had taken to whacking Ryoga's broken arm. Of course, Ranma had given him the broken arm in the first place.

He wondered how Akane had suddenly figured it out.

It was probably one of those weird girl things that were beyond him.

Maybe she had just been in denial or something?

Who knows? Ranma thought. Women can be weird.

I need to talk to someone. I know I need to be able to tell someone what I'm going through, someone who won't judge me, slap me, call me a pervert (though he wondered if Akane would still do that. But then, discovering that Ryoga was P-chan, and then finding that Ranma knew the whole time might put something of a strain on their relationship, even if they had just told each other they loved each other), try to glomp me, or try to get a marriage out of me.

Ranma knew that this line of thought was pointless. He'd been down it before, many times, and always came back to the same answer.

He wanted to go talk to Akane's mother again.

Ranma wondered if it would be at all safe in his... condition. Especially the part where he bought a rose from the flower girl.

Probably not.

He might be able to fight blindfolded (though not nearly as well as he could when he could see), but for roof-hopping, he wanted his eyes.

And walking down the street with the blindfold on would only make people stop and ask questions.

From the dojo, Ranma heard the sounds of someone working out, and the very faint sound of Akane's voice. Curious, he went to his window, and jumped.

He hoped he remembered exactly where the koi pond was, or rather, where it wasn't.

Splash

Oops.

In her room, Akane slept.

Or rather, sleeping was what one who didn't know better would have called it. Having taken a rather strong Amazon portion only hours ago, she was undergoing a secondary side-effect that no one had bothered to write down.

Mostly because when someone had taken it, it was usually after waking up in the morning, so that they would have the day to think about what they had learned. Akane had taken it a little after lunchtime.

As a result, she found herself 'suffering' a side-effect that no one had known about.

She was again living through Ranma's memories, and they responded to her questions almost as well as they had the first time.

"Crazy bitch... leggo of me... stupid Amazon glomp..." she mumbled in her 'sleep'.

Akane was going through Ranma's memories after he's come to the dojo, this time. If anyone had been awake to hear her, the might have wondered what was going on in her mind at the things she said, since none of them made any sense coming from her.

"...Ucchan and her damn okonomiyaki bombs..."

Well, except for that one.

"...tomboy, quit hitting me, I didn't do anything, why won't you listen?"

And that one would have raised some serious questions, whether or not you caught the tear rolling from her eye when she said it.

"...she listens to me, even if she can't say anything back... I heard she was nice..."

"...I'll be the best, I have to be..."

"...quit throwing me in the pond, old man..."

"...gonna beat that underwear-stealing old freak if it kills me..."

"...am I the only one who uses the occupied sign when I take a bath...? That hurt, tomboy..."

One might also, after a time, have noticed that her comments were taking a strange turn.

"...gotta go in a spiral, gotta stay cool, can't let it..."

"...like the Shi shi hokodan, but this suits me better..."

"...gotta work on this kata in both forms, in case I change in a fight..."

"...if I don't figure out this stupid technique, I'm gonna be stuck as a girl-"

"-so I'm gonna figure it out if I have to burn my hands off."

Akane watched as she/Ranma kept trying to pull chestnuts out of the fire in front of her/me.

She had been 'here' in Ranma's memories longer this time, probably because she'd gone to sleep willingly. She was trying to understand him better, trying to see how she could avoid hurting him again, and maybe stop others from hurting him. She thought if she could see how everyone else had hurt him, then she could find a way to make it stop.

Half an hour into going through his memories to see it, she'd had to halt for a few minutes.

To stop screaming.

Ranma's mental and emotional pain had clawed at her mind.

From the almost daily Amazon glomps, which made him want to pummel the girl senseless (Akane discovered Ranma had a thing about people touching him. After all the fights and enemies that kept showing up, he was under the impression that anyone who came into sudden strong contact with him was most likely trying to attack) to the seppuku contract with his mother (which scared him for more than the obvious reason of being forced to slip open your belly while your mother chops off your head. He felt betrayed by a woman he had thought was dead. He finds his mother, and then gets the idea that if he isn't manly enough for her, then she wants to hack off his head. Akane also found that Nodoka had some strange ideas about being manly), Ranma felt like he was being assaulted from almost every possible angle, and was powerless to stop it.

And it terrified him.

Now it terrified her.

And she'd be damned if she wasn't going to stop it. Nothing was going to be allowed to hurt Ranma anymore. She loved him, and he loved her.

Her possessiveness of Ranma was a little disturbing to her, but that didn't stop her from wanting either him or his mental safety. And damn it, if it took being a little possessive of him to stop him from feeling like he could be attacked every second, so be it.

After going through his mind, she thought she had found a way.

Ranma defended himself as best he could-

Best best I'm the best his mind interrupted.

-as best he could because he was such a strong martial artist. It was his few weaknesses that held him back from stopping the chaos that was his daily life.

He would stop Shampoo, but he couldn't hit girls.

He would stop Cologne, but he still wanted more techniques.

He would tell his mother how much he felt hurt by her, but he didn't want to chase her away.

He would stop Akane from hitting him, but he didn't want to hurt her.

He loved her too much.

Well, dammit, if Ranma won't, then I will!

She knew she wasn't as good as he was. Akane loathed it, but it was true.

Whenever they would spar, now she knew how much Ranma held back.

She even knew how much better Shampoo was than her.

Ranma's opinion was that she and Ukyo were about even, but Akane lost her temper far too fast, and lacked style, speed, balance, and technique. He firmly believed that if she got her balance and speed up to the same level as her strength, and managed to keep a hold on her temper, she'd be a good match for Shampoo. As it was, even Akane knew that putting her current martial arts skills against Ranma's would be like trying to compare rowboats to nuclear-powered battleships.

If she wasn't unconscious on her bed, Akane would have sent Ranma on a one-way trip to lower orbit for that.

No you won't! Akane corrected herself. Not anymore!

And she was going to help Ranma, now that she knew how.

She was going through his memories, learning every technique he knew.

She didn't think she could pull off the Hiryu Shoten Ha, but she thought she should at least be able to recognize it better, and stop it if she ever found herself being used to make one. Another of Ranma's ideas, not hers.

Ranma was so full of martial arts ideas that had never even occurred to her that she wanted to slap him and demand to know why he hadn't at least suggested some of them to her, since some of them were about her, so that maybe she could learn them, and maybe be trained by him.

Thinking of being trained by him brought another deluge of memories Ranma's imagination had made. It showed-

Akane was being thrown off the roof by Ranma she needed to learn how to fall properly-

Akane was being launched from a catapult blindfolded to learn how to correct a mid-air leap at night-

Akane was being attacked by Ranma with a sword to show her it's strengths and weaknesses-

Stop it, stop it!

She'd just have to show Ranma that there were other ways of learning. Damn near every technique he'd learned had caused him pain, so much so that now he was almost convinced that it was the only way to learn.

So he wouldn't train her.

Well, if he wouldn't train her for real, she'd just take them.

She was currently reliving the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken.

And as much as learning it through Ranma's mind excited her, she wanted to pound on Cologne for the circumstances in which he learned it.

After digging the (painfully blunt) criticism of her martial artist abilities out of the memories of her fiancée, complete with memories proving his point, Akane had gone after several katas Ranma had either created or had been taught to help her correct them.

Ranma's memories of the kachu tenshin amaguriken finished.

Akane concentrated.

Mr. Saotome/Pops appeared in front of her/me in an odd stance. "Now," he was saying, "come at me from wherever you want."

Umi-sen ken.

Akane did not wake for hours.

Some time later, Akane was in the dojo, practicing. She knew that before she could try to master the advanced techniques she pulled from Ranma's mind, she would have to work on her... flaws.

She was trying to work on her balance.

It was another of Ranma's ideas. How could she expect to fight properly if she couldn't even maintain her balance to utilize her speed (which she admitted she needed to work on) or strength?

Ranma had developed a kata that wasn't too advanced, but was a challenge to properly complete. He'd made it so that he could practice in both his forms, and work on his balance while constantly shifting between them. Ranma had also had Soun and Genma sitting off to one side with water guns, firing constantly, but since Akane wasn't going to change into anything else (like Ryoga, damn him!), she didn't need that part. Just the balance issue.

But she kept falling, or needing to stop in order to avoid it.

Damn! Akane thought. I know how to do this, so why can't I? I've seen Ranma doing it, and I've lived it through his eyes! I know how he did it better than if he explained it to me! I know exactly how he moves, no matter what form he's in, so I know how to change it for me, so why can't I?!

She'd been at it for an hour.

Maybe I just can't. Maybe I'm not supposed to be as good as Ranma it. Should I just give up? Find another way to help him? Maybe I shou-

"You're doing it wrong."

Akane jumped, and spun. A wet Ranma-kun stood in the doorway, holding a kettle.

"How would you know, you can't even see?" snapped Akane, who instantly regretted saying it, even without the mental wince that came from the Ranma in her mind. "Sorry."

"I can hear you. You're working on one of the katas I made, right? The one for balance, so I wouldn't have to worry about it if I changed."

"...yeah."

"You don't have a curse, do you?"

"Ranma, you know I don't."

"That's what's wrong then. Can I...?"

"What?"

"Can I... help?"

"Sure," Akane said, suppressing the urge to yell I don't need your help!

"Okay. Assume the first stance, and begin, but do it slow."

Taking a breath, Akane started, and threw a slow kick.

"Stop."

"What?" Akane asked.

"Throw that kick again, slower."

Frowning, Akane did as Ranma asked, only to feel him catch it in the air.

"Here, you see?"

"What?"

"Here's where I got hit with the cold water, and changed. That's why this kata looks so strange to anyone who sees me do it without the water. It's not meant to do it without the water."

With a slight eep, Akane realized she already knew that.

"It's meant to help my balance during a move, just in case."

Akane flushed and avoided looking at Ranma, despite that he couldn't see her. She realized she already knew that, too.

"That's why you can't get it. You're not changing, so the odd stance only throws you off."

"Uh, yeah."

"So, if you're serious about improving-"

"I AM!" Akane winced at the angry tone she had. "I mean, I want to get better. I need to work on my balance, and speed. I know that." No matter how much I hate it. "So can you..."

"I ain't training ya."

"Dammit, Ranma, there are other ways to train people besides throwing spears at them to show them how to dodge!"

Ranma's face turned from hers.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to remind you of that."

"It's ok. I know you didn't mean nothing." Ranma didn't seem to catch that she shouldn't even have known that.

"I just meant, you could tell me what I could do to help with my balance..."

Ranma brightened. The idea had never really occurred to him before. "Uh, well, this kata would work, but we'd need to change a few things... Like the stance, it's meant to hold me a little off, so that when I change, my center is already where I need it, or close to it. So if you take a more solid stance, this should work much better." Ranma let go of Akane's leg.

"So," he said, putting his hands on Akane's shoulders, "if you sit back on your heels more, like this, and pull yourself forward, like that..." he repositioned Akane, "now try it again."

For her part, Akane tried to ignore the feeling of his silk-covered hands when he touched her skin. She spun through the kata, taking her time. She lost her balance a few times, but nowhere near as bad as before; she never even needed to stop.

"There you go. Just keep practicing it that way, and you should improve a lot." Ranma turned to leave. She's probably still mad at me for knowing about P-chan.

"Ranma?"

He turned. "Yeah, Akane?"

Swallowing her pride, she asked, "Stay and... help me?"

Ranma paused, then, "Sure, Akane. What did you want to do?"

He stiffened as Akane's arms wrapped around him, sure that she was going to attack, until Ranma noticed that she was... hugging him. He relaxed.

"You're not... mad at me for knowing about him?"

Akane shook her head. "No. I know how much your honor means to you, and I know you hated it." Really, really know how much honor means to you.

"Thanks, Akane. You don't know how much hearing that from you means to me."

Ignoring the joyous shouts from her own mental Ranma, Akane just smiled. "Still love you."

Joyous shouts turned into mental praises.

"L-love you, too."

They stood there, in silence, just holding each other, until Ranma cleared his throat. "So, um, what else did you want me to help you with?"

Akane's smile became an impish grin as she recalled the many things she wanted to master.

She kept him awake until dawn.

Some time after Ranma and Akane had both collapsed (Ranma from lack of sleep, not from exhaustion, and Akane from lack of energy to move anymore) Kasumi woke up with a soft sigh. No one else was awake yet, although it was at least an hour later than she usually woke up. Feeling a little sluggish and mentally worn out from last night, Kasumi went to bathe, taking longer than usual to soak in the furo to help her relax, and then got dressed. She decided to stop by Akane's room to wake her sister, and to ask her exactly what Ryoga's... punishment... was. Kasumi knew what had happened to him, but Akane would know the details better, since she had been with Ranma when he had gone through it. But upon opening Akane's door, after knocking, Kasumi found no one inside. Her bed was messed, indicating someone had been sleeping in it.

She must have gone for her morning jog, Kasumi thought, deciding to stop in Ranma's room and see of she could get the details out of him. Somehow, the old routine no longer interested her as it used to. It hadn't interested her last night, either, after she had finally left the dojo. It felt less like something she wanted to do, and more like the set of chores they were. But Ranma's room was also empty, despite that his futon also looked like someone had been sleeping in it the night before.

Morning workout? Kasumi wondered. Or maybe he woke up and decided staying in the dojo would be... safer.

Since she didn't know when her sister would be back from her run, Kasumi went outside, wanting to ask Ranma a few questions. On opening the door, however, she did not expect to find what lay before her eyes.

Ranma was propped up against a wall, still blindfolded, and looking in need of a bath. His clothes were wrinkled and pulled, indicating he had, indeed, been working out for a long amount of time. Akane was collapsed in the middle of the dojo floor. Her gi looked like it had seen severe amounts of abuse, and she not only looked like she needed a bath, she smelled like it, as well. The aroma of a small amount of drying sweat hung in the air. Two bokken lay on the floor, as well as a few other weapons from the Tendo's training gear. Even in her sleep, Akane was smiling.

Narrowing her eyes, Kasumi left to go make herself some breakfast. No one was around to notice a jealous expression in territory previously never seen before.

Kasumi wore it until she entered the house.

Nabiki woke, and stretched, yawning. She slowly rose from her bed, and for the next few minutes, wandered around her room trying to determine what she wanted to wear today. After picking out her clothes, she spent the entire time getting dressed thinking up ways to make some yen off of Ranma's condition. Having thought of no less than three by the time she reached for her door, she was quite satisfied.

Until she got downstairs.

The Tendo dining room showed several signs of the previous night's battle. A few small holes in the wall and floor, messed up furniture, and a couple missing potted plants that had been smashed.

Then, of course, there were the occupants of the room to consider.

Her father looked like someone had used him as a practice dummy for a first aid course, and also sported more than a few large bruises and a few band-aids. Genma Saotome also was wrapped, had bruises, and a much larger band-aid on his forehead, and didn't seem to want to move his neck in any direction as though it pained him to do so, which may or may not have had anything to do with the fact that both Ranma and Akane had thrown him into the floor by way of his neck.

He also looked extremely nervous, and was sweating a bit, but that was probably due to the fact that his wife Nodoka was alternating between casting adoring looks at her son and death glares at her husband.

Mousse had his head wrapped in a large bandage, like someone had thrown him headfirst into a wall (of course, someone had).

Akane also looked tired, but somehow very happy (she had come a long way the previous night in way of martial arts, and even Ranma had been so impressed that he had actually demanded to know if she was using magic to learn fast) and extremely pissed off (damn Ryoga) at the exact same time, and didn't seem to have any injuries. She sat next to Ranma, who looked slightly tired, even though he was blindfolded still. Like Akane, he also looked none the worse for wear, though what Nabiki could see of his face, he looked guilty (for beating everyone to a pulp) and slightly happy (for the amazing progress of his new 'student', who declared that her amazing advancement was die to Ranma's excellent teaching skills, which was not a total lie).

Oddly enough, the most confusing person was Kasumi, who looked upset (she was, over 'P-chan') and... was that jealousy?!

Nabiki also noticed that the seating arrangement had been moved a bit. Ranma now sat at the end of the table, and Akane was just around the corner to his left, and Kasumi sat around the corner to his right. Everyone else sat on the other half of the table, with as much distance as they could manage from Ranma as it was possible to be without sitting on each others' laps.

"Someone want to tell me what I missed last night?" asked Nabiki, as she pulled out the earplugs she wore to bed to drown out Ranma's midnight fighting sessions. She was more than slightly annoyed by the disturbed look that everyone (minus Ranma) shot in her direction.

"What?" she demanded.

Half an hour and one story later, Nabiki decided against using Ranma to make money while he was still under the influence. She didn't think the amount she would pull in would cover the hospital costs that would visit her when Ranma snapped and started trying to beat her up.

She made a mental note to check into ways to ruin Ryoga's life while simultaneously trying to determine why Kasumi kept looking at Akane with those tiny jealous glances.

Outside, it began to rain. Kasumi smiled, and Akane and Ranma both started to quietly laugh. The harder it rained, the harder they laughed, and the more Kasumi smiled, until finally, as the downpour really hit, all three of them were laughing hard enough that they all fell over.

Nabiki thought they had lost their minds, until her father spoke up.

"Ah, so now that Ryoga boy is stuck that way, is he?"

In a dimension we still don't know much about, there are five Gods.

These Kami are all of the same order, the Order of Chaos.

They work tirelessly.

They work hard.

They do what they must to ensure the results they desire.

They have been keeping Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo's friends and enemies away.

They want them to get together, so that Nerima, and all of Tokyo, are full of the chaos that they seek.

They have been working without stopping for almost 48 hours.

They are asleep on their desks.

Hey, 48 hours of non-stop work gets to everyone!

Ukyo felt the voice that had been telling her to leave her 'fiancée' alone fall silent. Picking up her battle spatula, she set out to see him.

Tatewaki Kuno awoke, feeling refreshed, and healthy, despite his sister's attempts at turning him into a certain pet crocodile's afternoon snack. He thought for a moment, and determined that, though he felt physically fine, his spirits were low.

Perhaps a visit to his pig-tailed girl and the fiery Akane Tendo would lift any burdens from his mind, and restore his noble soul.

He left for the Tendo dojo.

A/N

Gobstopper: Ah, another chapter finished, another chance to finally get some sleep. Personally, I think this chapter was a little, well, slow, but I needed some filler to help move the plot along. As the line goes, sorry about this.

For anyone out there who is scanning the pages looking for characters named either 'Hououza' or 'Xero-Ghost' to show up, they've both elected to appear in future works.

Now I'm just going to have to figure out which one to write first.

I know Ranma was getting a little... dark, shall we say? In the previous chapter, where he punished Ryoga. Sorry, but I needed him that way. But he's back to normal, see? See? He even called a doctor to fix Ryoga up before the lost idiot could run into something wet and cold! Like WATER!!