Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, I do not claim any rights to any of the characters or concepts created or owned by Viz Video or Rumiko Takahashi. This is just the work of one fan to the others. The only characters or concepts that I claim are the ones I created or introduced. That said, I bring you:

For Love and Money, the War of the Horse. A Y3 story.

Chapter 11: The Curtain Rises…

Ranma moved from shadow to shadow as she placed the charges she had assembled in strategic places while she avoided the few guards that were in this area. She had chosen this route in the hopes that there would be fewer of the Musk in the area, and it looked like her gamble had paid off. The section she had found herself in was some of the most secluded sections of the temple, cut deep into the rocky heart of the mountain. It was out of the way enough that the chance of the charges being found was slim, while being to the integrity of the floors above to make them significant threats.

Ranma stuck to her plan, as she avoided the guards while more and more charges were placed. Besides the charges and a few other things, she had two wireless cameras she had brought with her to try to see if there was another artifact that had been brought with the prince.

She would just have to make sure that things were arranged correctly so that she could hopefully unlock her curse once more.

Ranma had a vague idea on what to expect, from some of the other ruins of this type that she had seen pictures of. There should be a number of shafts that run to the top of the mountain to provide light and air. With any luck, the shafts might provide her with a discreet way to move towards where she thought the Musk might be.

Someone like Prince Musk was likely to choose the grandest, most open space he could find for his lodgings. Power tended to breed overconfidence. It was those that thought themselves untouchable that were usually felled by something that they did not expect.

Ranma would play this cautiously. He would not let himself lose his composure like the last time. He would not give in to the temptation to let the sleeping presence in his mind out again. The therapist that had helped him tame the mental trauma that caused the Neko-ken had given him some control over when and how it manifested, but there were still limits to it, positives and minuses to it.

He would not make the same mistakes again.

After a bit of looking, Ranma found exactly what she had been looking for. A shaft that was just about the perfect size. Getting to it would be a bit of work, but hardly impossible.

Ranma tied off his bags to a rope that was attached to one of the D-rings on her harness before she started her free climb ascent. The transition to get to the closest point took a bit of work, but before long she was braced in the shaft as she pulled the bag upwards and into the shaft below her.

She started her climb up the shaft with the heavy bag hanging below her as she worked her way steadily upwards with the smooth efficiency of long practice. Her ascent proceeded smoothly and slowly as she checked each part of her ascent as she moved to make sure that there was as little disturbance as possible.

She stopped at the first opening, and listened carefully before she proceeded to climb out of the shaft and kept low as she looked about before she started to move along this upper passage as she watched for a passage down. Ranma moved swiftly, but silently as she moved down the corridor. She heard steps ahead of her around a corner and scanned the passage she had found herself in. With a sudden surge of movement, she launched herself against the wall, only to launch again and catch herself in the shaft that led upwards in this passage. She braced each foot against opposite sides of the shaft as the two Musk on patrol passed underneath her. Ranma waited until they were clear before she dropped down, and proceeded towards where they had come from. Her best chance at finding the chamber she needed would probably be in backtracking the Musk patrols.

Whatever it took to get things back to normal, and to make sure that he was able to avenge Xian Pu and Elder Koh Lun. Rai Zur had to pay, and he had to make sure that she would never be able to hurt anyone again. All of this was going to be hard enough on Qiang Pu already, she could not let any more pain or loss happen to her daughter.

She had to make Qiang Pu still had a home to return to.

Ranma finally found her way to an opening into the central chamber of the temple. The upper balcony encircled the inner sanctum on three sides, so it offered an excellent view of what lay below her. Immediately, Ranma spotted Prince Herb as he sat on a throne draped in expensive cloth and rugs. He looked smaller than Ranma would have expected, then a realization hit her. He was a she.

A lot of things made sense in a rush. Prince Herb of the Musk had been exposed to Jusenkyo. If not Spring of Drowned Young Girl, then one of the other springs with a similar curse attached to it. And if someone that bore one of the curses of Jusenkyo had an item that could lock a curse, then they surely had an item that could undo the lock as well.

At least that was the logic that Ranma had to work with.

The next thing that drew Ranma's attention was the bird cage that sat on a pedestal near where Prince Herb sat. The bird within hung her head as she sat on a perch. The cage itself was elaborate, with a lock on the small door. Rai Zur was waiting for her end, and Ranma would provide it for her.

Ranma spotted three likely spots where the items she was looking for might be placed. It would have been better if there were only two, since that was how many cameras she had to work with, but you did what you could with what you had on hand, as she had always been taught. There was no use in ignoring what was in front of you, for what you might be missing. She needed to know not just where it was, but what she needed to retrieve, as well. Still, two was better than none. And with the commotion she was going to cause, the chances of them not checking were pretty slim. She just had to make sure that when she came in for it, that she could still retrieve it with all that would be happening.

The chest that she hoped contained the items was the one nearest the throne, and the cage where Rai Zur was. It was also the one nearest to where Herb sat, so there was that, as well. If she could make some sort of peace with Herb it would be the best, but she couldn't count on that outcome.

It was very likely she would have to rely on her bargaining chip. To that end, she had placed most of the charges she had brought with her in strategic locations. She was pretty sure she could bring down a fair amount of this temple if it came to that.

She would have to set things up correctly. The odds of being able to sneak over to the chest and taking what she needed was practically nil without knowing what she needed. The odds of getting Herb out of the way and doing that were definitely zero. So, that brought her to this. She would ambush one of the patrols on one side of the chamber, and make sure they escaped. Then, while they were distracted, she would drop down on the other side, and make sure a patrol saw her leaving the area of the chamber with the ladle she had brought with her from the village.

It was far from ideal, but it should get her at least an idea of the hat she had to get. Even if she ended up having to walk in and demand it with the detonator, she still needed to make sure she knew what she wanted, or they could very well just hand her anything and she would not know the better until she tried to use it.

Things would have been better if Prince Herb and the Musk had stayed out of all of this. If she had been able to resolve all of this herself. If she could have been heading back home to Japan right now. Back to her wife, her son, and her daughter. Back to the jobs she did, the people she helped. Back to spending time with the people that mattered to her the most.

Right now, that was what she wanted. She wanted to go home and try to make things right. To try to put all of this back into something that resembled normal again.

Even if she knew that there was no way things could go back to how they were before. The sooner that they could start to work on putting things back together again, the better off Qiang Pu and the other Amazons would be in the long run.

Even if the thought of having her daughter live with them made more and more sense, with the loss of Xian Pu and Kho Lun, Qiang Pu would have almost no family to turn to. But, then there was the consideration of the fact that her daughter was likely in line for a leadership position, especially with the losses that the Amazons had suffered.

Ranma shook her head as she took a breath and waited for the patrol to pass under her. She had decided to stage her ambush using one of the overhead shafts, with the certainty that they would not know where she had come from when she hit them from behind. It was the same shaft that she would ascend up into when she made her break from them. The corridor overhead made an almost direct path to where she needed to be for the next stage of her plan.

Now, things just had to work out correctly, and she could move on to the next stage of her plan.

It would depend more than a little on luck, and how she had gauged the command structure of the Musk. Having Prince Herb with them made that task considerably easier, since even his most trusted lieutenants were considerably less likely to take too much independent action and incentive with the Prince there, watching them. It also made it much more likely that Herb would feel the need to be part of any reaction to an incident. It made what she had to do a bit more risky, but it did mean that it was much easier to gauge what Prince Herb's likely reaction would be.

Herb might be stronger on a raw physical level, but that did not make them omnipotent or unbeatable. It also made it much more likely that they had a fair measure of overconfidence, as was common in people like that who had become accustomed to power, both personal and granted by position or title. Ranma had dealt with more than a few of those types of people over her years, both during and after her time with the Yakuza.

The patrol she had chosen was going to be passing under her any moment. They were a mismatched pair, as seemed to be rather common. The smaller man had white hair, and reddish eyes, He seemed to be rather jumpy, and moved with quick, spastic motions. The larger man moved with an almost ponderous ease. He was solidly built, with a heavy jaw and low eyebrow ridge. He would be the one she would fight, while making sure that the smaller man would almost certainly flee to bring reinforcements. Prince Herb would almost certainly react, and most of the others would be drawn along in the wake. As long as at least one stayed behind, it should be possible to make the rest of the plan work, as long as everything went according to plan.

Ranma watched them pass under her, neither of them looking up even as the smaller man shifted nervously for a moment, before a sharp comment from his larger companion pulled him back into motion. Ranma let out a slow breath, as she waited for them to turn the corner before she dropped silently down and moved to follow them. She waited for a moment more, before she moved to engage them while they had talked. Ranma made sure that her footfalls at the last moment were loud enough to alert the guards before she engaged them.

As Ranma launched a quick strike at the smaller man, as she had expected the larger man moved to intercept her attack, before the smaller man started to run towards where Prince Herb waited. Ranma had waited until they were on their way back towards the central chamber to launch her assault. If the Prince was not alerted, then it would not work. Now, she just had to end this fight quickly, before the Prince could arrive on the scene. She wouldn't kill the guard, but things were about to get very rough for the big man.

Ranma let the larger man push her back as he stepped between Ranma and the fleeing man. The larger man settled into a stance, and Ranma smiled grimly as she settled into her usual non-stance. She observed the larger man for a moment before she moved into motion with a quick, fluid strike. She flowed from attack to attack as she did not give the larger man a chance to recover. She just needed to keep him on his back foot as she moved fluidly from strike to strike, but all the attacks so far had been merely feints, probing the defenses of the larger man before she lashed out with a quick and fluid strike with the back of her fingers.

The larger man lurched back as he gasped and struggled to breath. Ranma had struck the nerves that flanked the trachea, and knew that right now, the larger man certainly felt like he had been choked. Ranma stepped into the open guard of the larger man before she drove the heel of her palm upwards into the lower jaw of the larger man. Ranma twisted and turned into the strike, as the larger man's feet left the ground. Ranma followed up as she continued to turn, and drove a back spinning thrust kick into the solar plexus of the larger man. The Musk guard slammed into the wall with a bone-shaking impact, and slumped to the ground. Ranma hesitated for a single moment as she heard the sound of running feet approaching towards her rapidly.

Ranma spun on her heel and dashed back the way she had come. She had to move quickly, and hope that the men that pursued her would not give up the pursuit too quickly. Time was the thing she needed right now, and with any luck things would continue to move in the correct direction.

Ranma entered the corner at full speed as she launched herself against the wall, and bounced from one aspect of the corner to another. She made sure that she didn't lose too much speed in the transitions, and moved towards the next segment. She jumped towards the wall, then bounced from that wall to another as she ascended. The final segment involved another jump before she entered the shaft, and continued to move with fast, sure movements. Parkour had been one of the many things that she had added to her collection of techniques over the years. It had added onto what she had learned from the Saotome school, and had added even greater mobility to an Art that already specialized in mobility and agility.

When she exited the shaft, she slowed down just a little as she moved with silent, quick steps back the way she had come so that she could get to the shaft she would use to enter the central chamber from the opposite side.

She scooped up the bag with the ladle as she dropped into the waiting shaft on the other side of the central chamber.

Time for the next phase.