Ranma and Akane were in the dojo sparring. Well Akane was sparring and Ranma was dodging her blows. To make matters worse, or better, depending on your opinion, Ranma was taunting her about her inability to hit him.

"Come one Akane! I know babies that hit harder then that!" Ranma shouted and Akane got angry. "You're slower then Nabiki!" Akane got even angrier. "I could get a better sparring match out of Kasumi!" Akane paused mid motion and seemed to think about this last statement.

"You're probably right," she said thoughtfully.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, falling over because he had been mid-dodge when Akane had stopped. He hadn't been expecting that for at least 3 more minutes, even though Akane's stamina had been improving, so it could have been even 10 minutes more.

"Oh, Kasumi always wins, at everything. In fact, she was so good at The Art, that she started to practice Nice Fu," Akane explained.

"Nice wha?" Ranma asked sitting up from his fall.

"Nice Fu. Ask Cologne about it. She would know," Akane said smiling.

"Why don't you tell me instead?"

"'Cause I can't tell you about it. You need to ask an expert to believe it. Besides, you'd probably think I was making it up," she muttered before she rushed at Ranma again.

They started sparring again, but Ranma was oddly silent for the rest of the session. It lasted over a half an hour without Ranma's taunts.

-:-:-:-:-

The next afternoon, Ranma walked into the Nekohaten. After dodging an Amazon glomp from Shampoo and several projectile objects from Mousse, he finally reached Cologne.

"Ah Son-in-Law. What brings you here?" She asked as she serenly pogoed her way around the kitchen.

"I need to know about Nice Fu," Ranma stated bluntly, ignoring the Son-in-Law title.

Cologne's large eyes widened even more then Ranma ever thought possible. "What would you want to know about a technique like that?" she demanded.

"Well, Akane said that Kasumi was a master of it, but she wouldn't tell me what it was. Said something about me not believing it," he grouched.

"Kasumi Tendo?" Cologne asked incredulously. "Yes,yes it all makes sense now."

"What?"

"Son-in-Law, I have to talk to Shampoo for a moment," she said, obviously agitated, and quickly left the room. Ranma heard some mutterings in Chinese, but because he never learned the language, he remained blissfully ignorant of what the conversation held.

Cologne reappeared. "Ranma," she started, "Nice Fu is an ancient technique. Only a select few warriors can use the technique. When a warrior gets so good at the Arts there comes a point in their life where they are given the choice to either being the best in the world, or giving up the Arts to control a small portion of the universe so that they will never need to fight again. Those who choose the path of giving up the art are known as masters of Nice Fu. It is practically impossible to hurt that person, physically, mentally, or emotionally. Just the thought of it makes people physically ill, and if you were ever to actually hurt that person, you would never survive to tell about it."

"No way," he breathed. 'No wonder Akane sent me here.'

Cologne didn't even bother to respond. She just got back to preparing for the dinner rush.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Ranma walked home in a daze, all the information he had learned about Kasumi was zooming through his head at lightning speed. 'Could I do that?" he asked himself. 'Could I give up the Art for the power to control the universe?'

He thought about it for a while. Thought about how boring it would be if he never had to fight again. 'Even the Tonboy wouldn't be able to hit me,' he thought wryly. Akane hitting him was the only way they communicated.

He was brought out of his thoughts by shouting and crashing coming from the Tendo home. 'What the hell?' he thought as he hopped the fence and peared into the yard.

"Are you nuts Shampoo!?!" Akane yelled as she took a defensive stance.

"This Shampoo's last chance to get Violent Kitchen Wrecker away from Airen," Shampoo said smugly, "I, Shampoo formally challenge you, Sister Akane Tendo, for the hand of Ranma Saotome in marriage."

"Sister?" Akane asked.

"Knowledge of Nice Fu is only for Amazons. This mean you an Amazon and therefore have to be formally challenged."

"What are you talking about? I'm not an Amazon. My mother told us about Nice Fu. She's the one who taught Kasumi."

"Your mother Amazon, that make you one too. Now prepare to die!" she shouted as she launched herself at Akane.

"Akane!" everyone shouted. Then time seemed to freeze.

"Shampoo," Kasumi said calmly as she stepped in between the two combatants. Before anyone could blink, she took the bombari out of Shampoo's unprotesting hands. "Does your great grandmother know where you are?" Shampoo shook her head slowly, "Well I think that she would be very disappointed in you if she knew about this." And with that she turned around and went into the house.

Everyone was silent. Finally Ranma broke the silence.

"So that's a Nice Fu master in action," Ranma said aloud, to know one in particular, "Scary."