Finally back. So manythings to clear up, first of all my carbon copy story of this one: When the power outage hit there were a series of glitches on my account. One of which was not showing any of my posted stories, believing I had lost my reveiws and stories I began reposting them. Only to find that some people were able to compare the stories. meaning mine still existed, so I waited and found a different browser to check my account. I realized that my account had a bug and removed the story. Those who felt well enough to review got an explanation via email. Second. NEVER Pressure a writer to make an ending if he's writing it as he goes. I have gone through so many different variations in the storyline it's not funny. but I have settled on an ending. Expect it next week. But for now enjoy the latest chapter.

The trip back to shore was significantly more calm then the trip there because now Shampoo could dump her Ranko responsibilities onto Ranma and relax. As it turns out the mushrooms of time can take root and exist in most places. And even grew sitting in the basket. But for the mushrooms to grow beyond 10cm they must be planted. Return fare on the "smoking water" was also easier to BS their way onto because must of the crew members weren't doing anything but sitting on the deck and giggling.

As the boat left shore Shampoo stared out the back to the shrinking visage of china. Shampoo sighed deeply as the last vestiges of building slipped out of view. Ranma took this time being lost to appear to the back deck, running straight into the back of shampoo's legs.

"Wha?" Ranma got out before turning around quickly and seeing Shampoo staring out into the distance, "You haven't seen it for a while now have you?"

"Warriors used to going and not seeing home for months, years. Sometime never." Shampoo gave a quick catlike smile before turning back to Ranma, "Before find Shampoo-sister-in-law before more trouble happens, yes?"

Turning around to the door Shampoo lead Ranma back toward the ship and Ranko. She was halfway in the door when a stray thought hit Ranma's mind.

"Hey Shampoo? Why didn't you get cured while we were there in Jusenkyo?"

The eye-popping scream of frustration and rage were audible for miles around that calm night on the sea.

Back to Ryoga

"Allo? You here Dr. T?" The med. Intern stepped into the darkened room with a cup of coffee in his hands, "Guess not. Aww, I hate when people just leave these filthy animals in here."

The intern looked over the cage and to the black piglet sleeping inside. He muttered something about lazy animals before placing the coffee on the carrier and wheeling the gurney into the room to clean and set up the next day's necessities. What happened next could only be explained as a scene from "Gremlins". The coffee teetered back and forth as Ryoga was awakened and annoyed by the intern as he began to sing badly to his walkman. The small pig attacked the cage and knocked it slightly, causing the already teetering cup to fall and send a hot stream of heat down the pig's neck and spine.

You could almost see the green light and fog as the cage shook and warped with gaining mass, finally splitting at the seams and revealing a very large, very angry Ryoga. The intern spun and took off head phones as Ryoga shot forward. The larger boy appeared nearly instantly in front of the frightened intern before flashing a smile with his menacing fangs.

"Those are some nice clothes."

Almost Home

"C'mon Shampoo. Look at me, I'm still cursed, and still a little kid." Shampoo had locked herself in the cabin and sobbed the entire trip home, "We made it to shore and Ranko wants to see the Warf rats. I don't even know what those are and we shared a body."

"Shampoo so close! AYIHA! Indiscernible Chinese profanity"

A nearby sailor strolling by whistled.

"Fine, Stay in there for as long as you want, I'm going to plant my mushrooms and return to normal."

Ranma walked for a half hour before realizing that the ship was massive and he needed a plan to get outside. As he sat thinking Shampoo opened her cabin door to see the small boy sitting in the middle of the hallway.

"You stay by Shampoo side all time? Airen!" Ranma didn't have time to react as Shampoo grabbed around his midsection and squeezed, "Thank for making shampoo feel better."

As she seized his hand, directing him towards the hatch outside to where his new sister was playing Ranma had only on thought, 'What the hell was that about?'

Shampoo stocked up on the all that was needed to make the plant grow during the company's time at the wharf, Ranko had some misdealing with one of the fishermen, but it was nothing a ki blast couldn't end. Ranma got bit while checking out what wharf rats are and caused a small atomic detonation.

All set with their relative duties complete the group catapulted themselves high to wards the distant forest and towards the final showdown in Nerima.

Dr. Tofu's clinic

"How did it happen doctor?" Nodoka stroked her blade when the doctor told of the boy's disappearance."

"Were not entirely sure, and the only witness is… unable to tell us anything." Tofu responded motioning to the young man being wheeled into the E.R. naked except for his boxers and shoved into a pet carrier, "But we can guess he's left the premises."

"Where's the most likely place for him to go?"

"I'm not the one to decide that." Tofu motioned his head to Akane before continuing, "So, what does Ryoga do with freedom?"

"Comfortable freedom, hang out at my place." Akane glanced out the window to the stretching city, "Disturbed freedom, He tries to eliminate what he thinks caused it."

"Which would be?"

"I think you know who."

"One more time…" Ryoga wasted no more time of his dwindling directional sense by walking; he literally leapt from tree to tree, catapulting of branches and limbs to propel himself farther along, "I'll kill him one more time. Then everything's good again."

Ryoga traveled along the grove of trees, following Ranma's lingering ki trail. He licked his lips as he tasted the salt air blowing in the wind.

The first attempt with the mushrooms turned out dismal; it was far too moist near the ocean to grow slow enough to get the measurement precise. It had eventually grown too large, it towered at 34 cm among the smaller mushrooms. The second mushroom was growing too slow for Ranma's taste, so a third was planted. With the correct balance it was the mushroom that grew at the right rate. It was only after planting three out of the 6 mushrooms that Ranma, Shampoo, and Ranko had realized that the mushrooms were prone to spurts of intense growth, each spurt varying from 1 cm in a split second to as much as 6 cm. They were being very careful.

"Don't bring that any closer!" Ranma held his small arms out in an awkward stance, Shampoo raised an eyebrow as she lightly swung the tea kettle, "You boil that and the water vapor will drift to the mushrooms and then they'll be too big, or worse off, cooked."

"Shampoo no shower for three days. Unlike little Ranma Shampoo get pimple and boil when not wash. Shampoo need shower."

"Then don't heat it here."

"Shampoo could wash with cold water. Unless Ranma like seeing wet angry cat think he should let Shampoo boil water."

Another winning argument for the cat girl. Ranma pushed her back as far as she would allow keeping Ranko in sight. The girl had a penchant for running away. Speaking of Ranma's sister for a second it should be noted that Ranma and Shampoo are keeping her at the age of 4. As intelligent as she was it would be criminal to rob a child of childhood.

Those mushrooms grew quickly, the eldest of the three was starting to wrinkle about the edges of the canopy by the time Shampoo had finished her body wash and had grown to a whopping 52 cm, the second dwarfed at 8 cm and the third had grown quite nicely to 12 cm. Ranma had planted a measuring stick in at the precise level he needed and kept vigil the entire time. Ranma blinked and rubbed his eyes.

"I need to take my eyes off this for a while," he got off his haunches and cricked his back as he wandered around the camp, "I'm going to collect some more firewood."

"Not good idea." Shampoo seized his shoulder and held him at arms length, "Airen still have bad direction."

"I know, I know." Ranma muttered as he turned back to the tent. After rummaging through some priceless Chinese antiques he pulled out a length of rope, "I'll follow this back; it'll only take a minute."

"Stay in earshot."

"What are you, my mother?" Ranma began dragging the rope out of camp.

"Shampoo better than Airen's mother, not try to kill."

Ranma mentally weighed the correctness of said statement as he stumbled through the brambles and began picking up some of the small twigs he could fit his small hands around. After dragging the rope for a good while his back was weighed down with the fallen limbs and branches he found the rope wouldn't stretch any further. He resigned to picking up what little of the limbs and logs remained around him and began to follow the rope back along the trail to camp. He had walked for a ways and only the flicker of the dying fire signaled where the camp was, he decided rather than to chance getting lost by following the fire he recoiled the rope as he walked. After another few minutes of careful steps and direction he saw a small figure waving in the distance.

"What's wrong Ranko?" as Ranma drew closer he could see her eyes glistening red in the fire light, "Have you been crying? Ranko?"

Ranma stepped through the threshold of the clearing and saw that his new sister's cheeks were glistening with tears.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm so sorry."

"For what?"

"I couldn't stop him… I had to help him or he'd… h-he'd…"

"Who? Where's Shampoo!" Ranko lifted her arm to the tent, as he turned to stare the tent's side pushed out and light muffling was audible. Ranma wasted no time in running to the side flap and revealing a tied and gagged Shampoo, "what the hell happened?"

"RUN!" Shampoo screamed as Ranma cut the ropes away, "He's here!"

"Who is 'he'!"

"RANMA!" An all to familiar voice rang out, "Come out slow."

"Oh." Ranma looked up and turned to walk out of the tent, Ryoga held Ranko on his shoulder; he looked oddly calm wearing someone else's baggy clothes with his trademarked bandana still around his head. Ranma froze as he saw his sister on his shoulder, "Let her go."

"Shuanshonniichuan, isn't that right little Ranko?" Ryoga smiled as she nodded tearfully, "She's very smart your sister, isn't she Ranma?"

"Let her go." Ranma repeated, his rage barely concealable as his anger ki permeated through the air, "She has nothing to-ooff!"

Ranma was cut of by a light speed kick to the gut. His small frame flew a good 15 feet into a tree. He coughed up a small amount of blood but was essentially uninjured through his blow cushioning ki.

"I beg to differ. She's a part of you, meaning she does have something to do with this." Ryoga got out of the kicking stance and took a step forward, darting left, right and straight to appear beside Ranma. Hoisting the boy by the cuff of his collar he spoke more sinisterly, "Jusenkyo Ranma? You got cured?"

Ryoga flared with anger, spun and threw Ranma against the meat of another tree, seizing and pinning him there by his neck at eye level before gravity could even take effect.

"What makes you think your better! Why do you get everything? Why did you get cured before me?" Ryoga sighed and heaved out a dry cough before pulling his hand and Ranma away from the tree, "I guess it doesn't matter, you'll still die, cured or no."

Ryoga pulled his other hand to match around Ranma's neck and began to squeeze. The ki that protected his small body was pushed away and broken as the large pair of hands choked the life away from him. Ryoga chuckled aloud before a rock smacked him dead in the back of the head and shattered.

"Didn't even feel that." He muttered as he turned his head, another projectile zoomed, but Ryoga tilted his head sideways, effectively dodging the blur, Ranko stood red faced as he lifted another rock, "You need to work a lot more before you match me."

"I don't have to; I'm smart enough to be more than a match for you."

"How so?"

"I'm smart enough to use a distraction."

"Huh?" Was all Ryoga managed before he felt a slight bulge in his hands, Ranma held his fist out directly at Ryoga's face, not even reaching past Ryoga's elbow, A mushroom lodged in his mouth. This startled Ryoga enough to drop his grip for a spilt second, enough for Ranma to swallow the 16 cm mushroom.

I don't know if you people know what explosive resize would do. Snapping all of one's matter back to reality instantly would release a massive amount of energy, say, in the form of kinetic motion, or energy of motion, layman's terms; speed. All that matter and speed was not only enough to blow Ryoga's hands off, but also extended his arm to its normal size at about 'sideways 8' speed. All into Ryoga's chest. Needless to say that he was the one blow back, blood spurting, as the proud wild horse stood in ripped clothes.

"I think we can start now."