Chapter 3 -- The Next Day

Disclaimer: See previous disclaimer.

Note: I would like to thank Koala Kitty for prereading my last chapter. The mistakes are still mine of course.

Enaka was curled up and sleeping on her side. All in all she presented the picture of cuteness. She woke slowly stretched and yawned. Something was odd. Everything seemed peaceful enough. It hit her then. Ranma must still be gone. Well good riddance. He was nothing but a pain anyway. To think they wanted to make her marry the perverted idiot. Boys, the world would be better off without them.

Breakfast was served to the group. Genma was in human form which seemed the exception rather than the rule lately.

"Has anyone seen Ranma-kun? His breakfast will get cold." Genma's father had already stolen half of the food off the plate set out for Ranma.

"Maybe the perverted bastard will stay gone."

"Akane.."

"Now the houses will never be joined." wailed Soun.

Genma dodged the stream of tears since he didn't want to change. "Oh, how the gods must hate me to curse me with such an honorless son."

Nabiki grimaced inwardly. She considered speaking to defend Ranma, as she had quite often in the past. The bottom line is it would just make things worse. She held a certain amount of power over the others because they believed she did not care along with the assorted blackmail material she had on them all. Then again, it never hurt to put the panda in his place. Nabiki rolled her eyes. "You know your right. In fact I hear the police in Nekomi still have warrants for his arrest for running out on a bar bill ten years ago." She continued to pet the kitty cat that was purring in her lap in an effort to find her center lest her mask slip.

Genma sweated slightly. He had forgot about those. Well at least they weren't looking for him.

"Serves the idiot right if he rots in jail."

Soun turned to his middle daughter. If anyone knew where he was, it would be her. The only problem was it would be expensive. "Have you seen him Nabiki?"

"5,000 yen."

Soun sighed and handed over the money. "None of my contacts has seen him." Nabiki pondered the truth of what she had said. She had checked with her contacts and they hadn't seen him.

Soun tried to take the money back. "Sorry, no refunds. You should have known by the price that I didn't have anything important to tell."

"Well I hope Ranma-kun comes home soon. Oh you still have the cute kitty."

"Ya, I have asked around, but so far no one can keep him. It looks like I'm stuck with him for now."

Lunch began with a bang as the Amazon glomp machine announced her presence by exploding the wall in front of where Kuno was walking and then walking up on the pile of rubble covering Kuno's unconscious body. "Where Airen?"

"You tell me, you stupid bimbo. He hasn't been seen since yesterday. He's probably running lose somewhere still thinking he's a cat thanks to you."

"Shampoo no understand. Magic used no have that affect."

"So your the one responsible for hurting my Ranchan." She swung her battle spatula at the Amazon beauty. Shampoo easily dodged the awkward weapon. Enaka was torn between being angry at Shampoo and the Amazons and glad that the perverted bastard was gone. Not one to think too much in a given situation she decided to mallet the bimbo and think later.

After almost a half an hour Shampoo dusted off her hands and stepped over her fallen foes...

"Stupid people try to beat Amazon warrior get hurt."

A couple of groans filled the room, along with a shattered mallet, and a spatula with a bombori shaped hole in it. A careful observer might have noticed an odd gleam in Kuno's eye as he slowly recovered consciousness and watched the purple haired one crush her foes. The gleam faded before anyone could notice it though, although Ukyo did appreciate Kuno's abilities as a landing mat.

"Shampoo must go tell great grandmother." With a bright smile she said, "We finish later?"

Nabiki pondered attempting to get the Amazon's deported. No Shampoo could have really hurt them if she wanted to. Sure she would do pretty much anything to get Ranma for the tribe. Her laws said as much, but as long as those two lost, they were in no great danger from the Amazon. Besides if she managed to get them deported it would only make Cologne more suspicious and that was something she had to avoid at all costs. She shivered briefly. That old woman was a match for herself in guile and trickery. Who was she kidding, she very much feared she was the better. The real question was why she allowed her granddaughter to screw up so much. She had to be careful. She had no wish for anyone to find them to declare her an obstacle.

The rest of the school day passed uneventfully. Nabiki made sure to get to Dr. Tofu's far ahead of the arrival of Akane and Ukyo. She really didn't like the idea of expanding who knew the secret, but she needed his help unless she wanted a pet for life.

"I can't say I really agree with your plan, but I don't see any alternatives either. Not with the Amazons goal anyway. You are right to fear them. Ranma might be able to come close to beating either Cologne or Happosai in a pure fight, but if the fight mattered I have little doubt who the winner would be. At any rate, you should treat him as human as possible, at least when your alone. Talk to him, try to get some kind of human reaction from him. If possible you should let him change back as much as possible.."

"I can't doc. At least not until I manage to get some more of the instant spring of drowned cat. I have enough soap for months given how small he is now, but no more of the others."

"Just try to treat him as a human as much as possible. Maybe I'll come up with something. What about his Chi claws? Has that been a problem?"

"I haven't seen them since he changed."

"Well let me know if anything turns up. Even that size, remember that he's potentially very dangerous."

"Thanks doc." She glanced out the window. In a sarcastic tone, "Well I see the martial artist of the family and fiancee #2 so I'd better get going."

Dr. Tofu turned toward the window. When he turned back Nabiki simply wasn't there.

"What happened to you two?"

"It's all my baka fiancee's fault. I hope he stays gone and takes his fiancees with him." My was said in a possessive tone, as if she was referring to her shoes.

Ukyo frowned at her. Just what was wrong with that girl? Why did she get into the fight if she didn't care? It made no sense. She wanted to go out and look for Ranma, yet she couldn't leave her restaurant for that long, that is if she wanted it to still be hers when she returned. The only reason she got the loan in the first place was her father, and she couldn't afford to miss a payment.

Night had fallen and Nabiki had put a litter box in the corner of her room. Neko had already used it once. There was also an extra heavy duty scratching post that had yet to be used. It actually had a lifetime warranty. She was fairly sure that the manufacturer was going to regret that warranty before long. Nabiki had dressed in her pajamas with Yen signs. She was glad that the last time the walls had been destroyed she had the builders sound proof her roof. She sat alone on her bed in the dark and silently wept. A black cat wallked over and rubbed up against her stomach. The cat butted his head against her as if in saying, "pet me."

Nabiki held the cat to her and began to pet. "Oh Ranma, please come back to us. We need you."

Before long both were asleep with Neko's head resting gently on Nabiki's pajama covered chest with her hands unconsciously holding him to her.

Ranma looked around and saw nothing but shifting colors and sounds, but nothing definite or distinct. It had seemed so lonely here, wherever here was, but for some reason things seemed to be better now.. Warmer.. He yawned and went back to sleep himself. He was still so tired, and he had no idea why. Of course some might say he had yet to fully wakeup since the change, but then this is nothing new for Ranma. Indeed for him to wake for anything other than hunger, water, or a major physical attack was quite rare for him. While he didn't realise he was held in the middle Tendo's arms, he did know it felt nice and for a change he wanted to savor it. In short the core that was Ranma was enjoying what he would call a holiday.
Akane had saw the cat through Enaka's eyes, and wondered. For some reason she was certain it was Ranma although she could barely remember what she sensed when Enaka petted him earlier. What she didn't know was how. Perhaps the Nekoken made him revert into that form, or perhaps her sister. Yes he was her sister's cat. The question was why if so? She hoped that Enaka would pet the cat again sometime soon. She had to know, and somehow that seemed the only chance.

Still she was so tired yet there was hope. Hope that Ranma was still around. Hope that he could do what she had failed at. Hope that Ranma would recover and forgive her for what she had done. Hope that she could somehow get free.

Cologne pondered the days events. It seemed that son in law had run off, but for some reason she was sure he was nearby. Ranma tended to disturb the weave of the pattern whenever he stayed in one place for long enough and she could still faintly sense that disturbance. Even now she wondered how he had gotten that way. Jusenkyo induced such effects but on a much smaller scale. Odd things happened to Ranma way to often to be explained by Jusenkyo alone. She suspected it was some foolishness of his father or perhaps even Happosai.
It had rained just for a few seconds as Ryoga stumbled once again upon the home of his hated enemy and his true love. Ryoga, "bweeed" and went off in search of Akane's room. He was sure it was in here somewhere. It took him a few hours, and for some strange reason he passed Akane's room several times in his search. There a door thats partly open.

Nabiki had just fumbled back into her room after a late night trip to the bathroom incidently failing to close her door completely. She could still feel the slight scratches where Neko had protested his pillow moving. She settled back on the bed and was about to fall asleep. Neko waited for his pillow to stop moving then proceeded to yawn and settle back into place. The sliver of light from the hallway grew larger.