Author's Note: I've read all of the review comments, and I thank you for the praise. A lot of the lore in the past of Ranma 1/2 happened either with Ranma and Akane were about 6 years old or at a very vague but similar point of time in the past. Because of that, this story format has a lot of possibilities. Most of the questions regard things that have or will be explained in the story, leaving just a few that need explicit focus. Also, I am requesting input on if I should change the "Mr." and "Mrs." to Japanese honorifics or leave them be. I am trying to keep the story easy to follow for those unfamiliar with such, but have a hard time writing Ranma without lapsing into the Japanese format.

I made a small correction to Chapter 4. The train Ukyo and Ranma rode on was a cargo train on the Tokaido Main Line, not a bullet train on the Tokaido Shikansen, and as such was going at about 130 km/h (~80 mph). The Bullet Train can go over double that speed, but lacks places to conceal two people as easily on its roof.

To clarify something else, the city of Maihara was renamed Maibara after Maibara Station and merged with the towns of Ibuki and Santo in 2005, but we're in late March of 1977. So for those wondering, references to Maibara and Maihara weren't due to typos but intentional.

Screaming Dean: The idea for making Cologne younger came from my musings in an initial idea that the Spring of Drowned Child or perhaps even the Spring of Drowned Girl could be used by their very nature to fight or even reverse aging due to the fact that they explicitly focus on early stages of life. Female Ranma might never age beyond just shy of her prime, for example. I also pondered if the Spring of Rebirth/Hot Jusendo Water transformed humans into their prime of life as it did Saffron, and we just never noticed it with Ranma, Ryoga, and Mousse in canon due to how they already started out near their prime before being dunked in it. When I was thinking of ways to make Cologne go through unexpected changes for the story and how she might go about seeking an advantage over Happosai, the idea of her casting aside her old age for a more capable and distracting body stood out as an option.

Dorumakk: I acknowledge that I'm not that good at naming things, but the "Wind Tunnel" is actually a deliberate nod to a very similar-looking technique used by the priest Miroku in the series Inuyasha. It was written by the same author as Ranma 1/2.

TGnat: Congratulations for spotting said Inuyasha reference!

Mr. Haziq: Finding a pun for Ran's Chinese name was very difficult and turned out almost impossible for me. It had to start with "Ku" which is Cologne's family name or "Xian" which is Shampoo's. The latter was a stretch. Ran (Japanese) and Lan (Chinese) are the same name, so going with a Ku Lan in an effort to come close to Ku Long was the best I could come up with...both to keep Ran's identity of being similar to Ranma while also trying to indicate that Ku Long wanted to train the girl to be like herself. The pronunciation is somewhat similar between Ku Long and Ku Lan at least – possibly close enough to have Ran be marked as 'a second Cologne'. Whether Cologne is successful in this remains to be seen.

Edit: I've since discarded the Ku due to it not working with true Chinese nomenclature. It's nicer for Ran to be known simply as Lan anyway.


Chapter 06: Waking Up

A beautiful young woman in a traditional kimono and carrying a parcel walked through the doors of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters. She appeared to be in her twenties and her hair was done up rather than loose. The lack of a 'kansai-ben', or kansai dialect, when she spoke revealed that she was not from the Kyoto area. Indeed, she had just spent the last three hours on the Tokaido Shikansen coming here from Tokyo. Her appearance, while well maintained in spite of the abruptness and haste of her journey, showed signs of immense stress and worry. This was noted by the receptionist when the woman drew close.

"Hello. My name is Nodoka Saotome. I was called here by Detective Ito regarding my husband and my son." Regardless of her apprehension and stress, the married woman wore this strain with an air of formality.

"Ah, yes. Mrs. Saotome. I will call the Detective to let him know that you have arrived. Please feel free to have a seat while you wait. If you require some tea or coffee, I can provide you some after calling for him." The receptionist smiled warmly as she picked up the internal phone. "Yes, Detective Ito? This is the front desk. Nodoka Saotome has arrived...alright...very well. Thank you."

She hung up the phone and looked up to the woman. "He will out in roughly ten minutes. He's finishing the organization of the files on your husband to discuss with you. Our new fax machine has been working pretty consistently for hours getting documents from all over Japan. Just two years ago, this would have taken days." Standing, the woman gave a smile. "You can have a seat over there, Mrs. Saotome. Do you have a preferred blend of tea? What we have isn't the best, but instant is better than nothing."

Nodoka gave a worried smile as she processed this. 'All over Japan'? Just what had Genma been up to? The Detective implied that he had a number of warrants, but the scope seemed to be more notable than she'd feared. The offer of tea also carried with it a notable implication - that the receptionist believed that this would take a good bit of time. "Yes. Green tea, please. I suspect that I may soon need it."

The receptionist gave a respectful bow and quickly went to boil some water in a small anteroom. Nodoka gave a sigh as she seated herself and clutched her bundle to her chest, fearful that she might be forced to employ its contents. Part of her desperately wanted to see her child. The other wondered if he'd be better off not seeing her if Genma had failed in his task. However, the woman shook such thoughts from her mind. A pledge of honor was a pledge of honor. Such would not be cast aside simply because of what she wanted. The receptionist would arrive with the tea after a while, and Nodoka would thank her before testing it with a sip. It was hardly tea ceremony quality, as the woman had warned, but it would suffice. Not long after, a bespectacled man with a defined chin approached.

"Hello, Mrs. Saotome. I'm Detective Ito, one of the detectives who arrested your husband and is working his case. If you'll come with me, there are a few things I'd like to discuss." He said, gesturing to a nearby hallway. Before she would comply, Nodoka looked to him with concern.

"Genma and Ranma. Are they well, at least?"

The face of the man shifted in a way that made Nodoka uneasy. "Your husband sustained a large number of small scratches which were received as a direct result of his crime rather than police apprehension. They've been disinfected, but will surely sting for a while. He has been restrained due to previous encounters with the police showing the requirement for such. The fact that he bent a metal chair he was bound to has since shown such measures to be valid. As for your son, that is one of the topics we need to discuss. There is no sign of harm as of yet, though."

This response made Nodoka worry more, but she held that worry down. Rising, she went where the detective requested. He led her down a hallway and into a meeting room where she saw three boxes labeled 'Saotome Genma', all three packed full of folders and papers.

"How much do you know about your husband's activities?" Detective Ito inquired as he pulled out a seat for the woman.

"I know hardly anything. He insisted on taking our son on a training journey when he was two. I agreed, after much fighting and his yielding of a concession. I have not seen or heard from them since." This was said with a remorseful tone as she carried that bundle along with her tea into the room, setting the tea down on the table but keeping the parcel close. The detective was a bit curious about its contents. A gift for the son? It was hard to tell given how it was wrapped.

"Well, I'm sorry to say that he has been on a spree of petty crimes all over Japan. This 'training' has been supplemented by robberies, theft, fraud, illegal gambling, and the like. He even gave a police detective in Sapporo a concussion and broken arm when he escaped custody two years ago after being arrested for robbing a shrine's collection box, hence the level of restraint on him how. Your son was ignorantly used in many of these crimes, including numerous arranged marriages in which Mr. Saotome defrauded people out of the dowries." Nodoka's eyes widened and her expression turned blank. She gave a shudder, not wanting to accept that it was true.

"I see...do you have evidence of this?" She wanted to believe her husband over this man, but those boxes of documents didn't bode well. Still, she maintained her facade while Detective Ito started going through a folder from the box.

"While your husband was busy committing the largest animal abuse plot in the post-war history of Kyoto, which we caught him in red-handed by the way, someone happened upon your son...and left this note." He showed her a copy of the note, revealing that someone named Yamamura had claimed Ranma and taken him to honor a marriage agreement. Nodoka grabbed the copy and read it herself, trembling.

"We've verified that such an arrangement was made, and there's a document with your husband's signature here alongside that of the Yamamura family head's. It was faxed over in the past half-hour. Sadly...there's no sign that Ranma was actually abducted by this group." Nodoka's eyes darted to the Detective, bidding the man silently to explain further. "The handwriting is not a match, the man who allegedly signed the note has an iron-clad alibi of being in another part of Japan, and no one actually saw the abduction. In fact, the calligraphy of the note is labored and has been given extra care. It's clearly not the writer's natural hand."

"S-so you are saying that my husband is a petty criminal and that my son has been abducted." Nodoka trembled, unsure of how to proceed. Detective Ito gave a sigh.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Saotome. We're working to try and find him but have yet to make any headway. We have no leads thus far and your husband has been most uncooperative. He flew into a rage when informed of your son's abduction, ignoring everything we tried to say once he read the note. Afterward, he simply waited in his cell, meditating. We were hoping you could give us a clue or tell us anything."


Genma's eyes were closed as he focused his efforts and his ki sense while restrained in his cell. Taking stock of things as he worked, he felt through her ki that Nodoka had arrived and was growing more upset by the moment. Ranma, however, still evaded his senses. The boy hadn't yet learned to suppress his ki, so he was either outside the range, weakened, or...well, his mind didn't want to go there. As horrible a father as he was, he was still a father and was concerned a bit beyond the scope of mere self-preservation. Still, he dare not ever confess such a thing to his son. Such softness wasn't acceptable.

He worked to try and turn the situation to his advantage. Those padded metal mitts concealed his hands and weren't enough to keep his fingers in position once he gradually pried them apart with his ki-reinforced digits. He spread apart and popped the individual finger restraints from within, careful to minimize the speed at which he did so so as not to attract attention via excess sound. Fortunately, the padding on those mitts kept the distortion of the metal underneath from being clearly visible to the guards. Rope may have been a better choice than metal, had they known what they were doing.

Only when he was ready did he force the whole Yamasenken stance, tearing apart the remainder of his restraints with loud groans of metal and a powerful kiai. Genma expected the guards to rush in to restrain him, but instead they put a hose through the feeding slot in the door and started to pump in a gas. Suspecting it to be the same sedative as before, Genma elected not to stick around.

A local Yakuza member in for processing was quite surprised when a Genma literally barreled through the wall of his cell using the Yamasenken, before moving across the small space to do the same to his cell door. Of course, Genma knew that brute force would only go so far in trying to escape the police to find his son and avoid his wife. He used the Umisenken once freed and vanished from sight, leaving the only briefly stunned Yakuza man to take advantage of the opportunity and attempt an escape.


Sounds of destruction preceded an urgent call to Detective Ito, who picked up the phone. "Ito here, what's happening? What? Right through the wall? Where are they?" His voice grew more animated as Nodoka grew more concerned. Had Genma dared?

"Lost? In our own headquarters? I want the checkpoints sealed, even the rooftop! I don't care if we have to flood the whole block with sedatives, put on your gas masks and get this under control!" He urged the person on the other end to comply, but an explosion nearby rocked the pair.

"That came from the Evidence Room!" The detective got up and rushed out to the scene with his revolver drawn. Upon arriving at the scene, he found a massive hole in the wall where Genma had barged in and taken back his stuff and some extra for good measure. That wasn't the most pressing problem though.

The most concerning thing was the Yakuza punk with an illegal handgun that was also taken from the Evidence Room. The criminal had already begun to level the gun at the detective as the latter rounded the corner of the hallway due to the Yakuza thug hearing his heavy and rushed footfalls. Time seemed to slow as he took aim at Detective Ito. The detective moved to try and aim his own revolver when he perceived the emboldened prisoner's movement, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to act in time.

But his guest could, and did.

Seemingly instantaneously after the shot rang out, a loud clang also resounded through the halls of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Headquarters. With an angled blade suddenly present between the Detective and his likely demise, the bullet caused a brief spark as it was guided over and past the Detective's shoulder with the ancient weapon. The tile under Nodoka's geta-clad foot shattered under the exertion of holding the katana in position against the bullet and redirecting its force, but her stance did not waver.

The two men were surprised, but a second shot rang out...this time from Detective Ito's revolver. The Yakuza thug cried out as a bullet cut his flesh along his forearm. It failed to disarm him, but it did give Nodoka the distraction she needed. The kendoist took this opportunity to close the distance and, with a ki-boosted slash, cleaved the gun the man had been holding in two. The rails collapsed and its internal mechanisms failed to where it couldn't even chamber a round or retain the one it was now holding. Continuing her momentum from the slash, Nodoka kneed the man hard in the chest with a jump, knocking him back and making him slide across the floor.

The would-be gunman rubbed his head and opened his eyes to look at the woman standing over him...or rather, at the rip of the Saotome Family's Honor Blade which she was pointing down at his neck. It warned him not to do anything other than to stay as still as humanly possible.

"That will be quite enough." The mother sternly stated to the man.

As backup arrived, and Nodoka carefully stepped back once their guns were trained on the man, Detective Ito allowed himself a chuckle of relief. "Crazy Martial Artists..."

Of course, this moment was short-lived as a rookie officer approached with a report. "Sir, I'm sorry to report that the other missing prisoner seems to have escaped the site. Furthermore...well..." The officer hesitated, but a stern glance from Ito bade him to continue. "We think he stole the gold we seized from that Yakuza safe house last week."

"WHAT?" Came a roar from the Yakuza thug who had been seized in the same operation and was now having his handcuffed arm bandaged. "I'll kill that balding pig!" Of course, he wouldn't be permitted the opportunity. The man was dragged off, Nodoka looking on impassively after the man as she sheathed her katana.

"...You know, after this, I doubt that you'll have any trouble divorcing your husband and getting absolutely everything, including full custody." Detective Ito said, holstering his weapon. The woman gave a sigh as one of the officers picked up and looked over the katana's documentation, discarded with the bundle. Noting that the torokusho was valid and that the sword was thus licensed, it was returned to Nodoka with the wrappings. She then rebound the blade and documentation into the parcel as it was before. None of the police wanted to give her a hard time for carrying it around or using it since it was licensed and used to defend the life of one of their own.

The detective was about to bow to the woman and thank her for preserving his life, but was surprised when the woman got on her knees and bowed deeply to the assembled officers. It was a bow of profound shame, one they were not expecting. "I am deeply sorry for my husband's conduct. It is a stain on my honor as his wife and on the honor of the Saotome family name. I am only fortunate that my son was not able to see him act in this manner. If this is normal behavior, as I suspect though...I may have little choice but to follow him to his likely destination, Kagoshima, and resolve the matter as honor demands."

The officers looked at each other, confused, and Detective Ito felt his instincts kick in. Something about the finality of the woman's words didn't sound right. "I'm just grateful to you for keeping me alive and glad you weren't injured in doing so. You're hardly accountable for this. But what do you mean by resolving the matter?"

Before she could speak, another officer stepped forward. "Ito! We've got a lead on the Saotome kidnapping, but it's contradicting the current timeline of the boy's abduction. Can you come meet the witness?"

Wild horses couldn't have stopped Nodoka from being part of that meeting. The Kyoto Police weren't about to try.


Ukyo gave a gentle groan as she woke, noting that she was clinging to something. A dark fuzz obscured her vision, and her eyes widened as she groggily started to remember the events of the day. Finally letting go of her sleeping partner and sitting up, she stretched and rubbed her eyes. Almost looking over to the shared occupant of the sleeping bag, she was abruptly roused from her peaceful rising by a loud crash and a cry. Getting up in a hurry, the girl rushed out to see what was the matter.

A fire had been started and freshly caught fish were cooking, but this didn't even enter her perception. Instead she saw a battered Ranma swinging from a tree by a rope against a similarly battered and elevated boulder. Ranma had a hand bound to where it only exposed one finger. Other rocks were broken in halves and sometimes thirds or quarters, and a few small rocks were even mixed in with the coals of the fire. There was a good bit of destruction.

"Ran-chan? But...you were..." Her mind snapping back to awareness, she looked back to the sleeping bag to see a dark blanket bundled up lengthwise and placed in the larger sleeping bag next to where she'd been laying. How had Ranma gotten out of their sleeping bag without her noticing, much less substitute himself with the bundle as she slept? Feelings of irritation that the young girl had no real comprehension or understanding of came to the fore.

"Nnngh...y-yeah, you cling when you sleep. You've got an iron grip, Ucchan. You'll be a strong martial artist when you grow up." Ranma was wearing that beat-up gi, but it appeared even more beat-up than before. Ranma grasped a couple of ropes loosely tied to him and started to pull. Ukyo would then note that the ropes were attached to crude pulleys that soon pulled him and the rock apart.

Ukyo blinked, processing this, before her cheeks turned red and her expression briefly soured. Half in anger over his escape from her for those same incommunicable reasons, and half in the praise he gave her. She settled for a 'hmph!' before noting his actions. "What are you doing, anyway? You're all banged up again." She asked, irritated but curious.

"T-trainin' my durability and tryin' to learn the Breakin' Point Technique. You'll want to stand back..." With that, Ranma let go of the ropes and the boy and the rock started to move toward each other. The girl cringed as Ranma smacked into that rock full-force with loud crash and a groan. Now Ukyo knew what the sound from before was. She recovered after a moment, stunned.

"Your training is beating yourself up with rocks? That's...that's stupid!" Ukyo exclaimed, still having a measure of sensibility that many high-level martial artists had either long discarded or never possessed in the first place.

Ranma groaned as he pried himself from the gradually deeper indent he'd making into the rock with his body. "M-maybe it is, but it still works. Makes your body really durable. The Joketsuzoku are some of the best warriors in China, and they've done this for hundreds of years. Not only does gettin' hit with the rock gradually make you tougher, but it forces you to instinctively learn to see these fault lines in the rock. At least that's how it was told to me. Heard about it second-hand." Ranma recalled what Akane and Cologne said about it, but he'd never bothered to learn the move.

The young boy let himself down from the rope, landing with a bit of pain from the training. He still moved as rigidly as he had the previous day, but that was understandable given what he'd just been doing. After removing his glove, the boy tended to the fish impaled on skewers. He rotated a couple of them so that they cooked evenly. Then, the boy suddenly started to punch into the flames themselves and winced at what Ukyo considered an obvious outcome. He pulled his hands back out and blew on them to cool them down, before blinking in realization and simply calling forth his Soul if Ice to mitigate the heat. This didn't stop Ukyo from grabbing his hands in worry immediately after.

"Baka! Why did you do that?" Ukyo quickly recoiled from the cold sensation of Ranma's hands, which was confusing to her, after which Ranma simply smiled and waved it off.

"Ah, it'll be fine, Ucchan. It's more Joketsuzoku trainin'. This time for speed. What you do is grab chestnuts, or in this case rocks, out of a fire so fast you don't get burned. It boosts your punchin' speed. You also learn to re-enforce your arms with ki so they can handle it. I've got that last part more or less down." Ukyo froze, looking at Ranma dumbfounded. At first she thought it was stupid, but remembering when he used that yellow glow to protect her from the wind and the cold before...she wasn't so sure anymore.

"I-if someone told you jumping off a cliff would make you stronger, would you?" She asked in anger and concern in an attempt to convince herself as well as Ranma that this was crazy, before Ranma's expression changed to a pensive one that looked more at home on an adult than a child.

"Roof-hoppin' aside, I didn't have a choice. Neko-ken, remember?" Ukyo shuddered as she remembered what Ranma had gone through. As crazy as Ranma's methods seemed, the child felt that Genma's training regime was truly insane if it included that. It had to be, for Ranma to get this strong. The boy stretched, and dumped a boulder out of his ki-space behind him. It was the same size as the one he kept smacking into, and he gave a relaxed sigh and moved more fluidly after letting it out. Ukyo stared as Ranma wordlessly picked up a skewer holding a now cooked fish.

"More training, Ran-chan?" Ukyo asked bluntly as the boy took a bite of his earlier catch.

"Ucchan, everythin's trainin'. The sooner you learn that, the quicker you'll get stronger." The child answered bluntly, having discarded the 'training weight' he was using to help build up his body's strength and speed faster. He didn't know how Mousse mitigated the impact of the weight on his body when carrying all that metal junk, but right now he could use the incomplete technique to help him train by uniformly stressing his body.

The young girl took a fish of her own and watched Ranma eat. She was a chef-in-training, and thus in no way squeamish when it came to the food in various forms, but eating fish like this was...new. Eventually, though, she took it as the training he presented all things as and took a bite from the fish while mindful of its bones. She realized that it was a good supplement to the okonomiyaki ingredients they had in the cart. The girl pondered for a moment before asking what was on her mind.

"Can I get as strong as you, Ran-chan? If I do that?" Ukyo asked, quietly. Ranma pondered the matter, blinking a bit. He had a decided advantage over her, especially with his experience and ki reserves, so it'd be hard, but the look on her face made him stop and hold off on the cocky, prideful response that might have gotten him throttled in the past—err, future. He knew that a 'no' was a stupid thing to say, and not even necessarily true, but a blind yes...that was also bad. He didn't need another self-assured Akane on his hands. After some careful thought, something Ranma wasn't usually too good at, he settled for the truth.

"That ain't up to me, Ucchan. It's up to you. You've gotta want it enough to dedicate your life to it. I'm how I am because live and breathe it. Could you do that for the Art?" Ukyo stared at Ranma for a good few moments. The boy who kept beating her in duels for free okonomiyaki wasn't the same as the one who was talking to her here. She didn't quite understand what he was saying, but it did sound like arguments her mother had with her father when she was still alive. Saying he didn't 'live' the Art. Was this living the art? Taking everything as training? Trying hard with everything they did? She was supposed to do that for her own family's art, but could she do it for this too?

"I...I don't know. But I want to find out, Ran-chan..." She said, before finishing her fish. She didn't catch Ranma's smile. It was the best answer she could have given.

"Then that's that. Our trip to Tokyo will be your first trainin' journey!"


With a groan, Cologne opened her eyes. After a bit of time for things to come into focus, she recognized the ceiling of her home. Laying in her own bedding on the floor in simple clothing, she moved her hand before her face and inspected the youthful appendage. She still bore the conditioning of a warrior, her hands those of a world-class Martial Artist. The Spring of Ranma had not taken that away from her. Feeling warmth at her side, she looked over and became aware of Shampoo's presence. The young girl was curled up with her, clearly having fallen asleep in worry over her multi-great grandmother.

'She's been at your side ever since they pulled you out of the Spring. As soon as you were dried off and put on the stretcher. She was still close to you in the future, so I'm not surprised.' Ran said quietly from the doorway. Her hair was loose and she was dressed in various colors of Orchid like her new namesake. Red orchid dominated her attire, and the young woman looked...amused? Her Mandarin had also improved, indicating returning memories.

Cologne smiled gently, watching her descendant sleep and even gently caressing her head. 'She takes to me and my mindset well. Even among her other family members, she seems to be born for greatness. It is good to know we are still close as she nears maturity. Odd how you won't tell us what role we play in Ranma's life though. Clearly, we teach him things of import for him to know the Hiryu Shoten Ha.' The woman fishes for information, but Ran shakes her head.

'They were not enemies. You taught him the Hiryu Shoten Ha after Happosai dishonorably weakened him once. At times he and Shampoo stood side-by-side in combat. Mousse felt his monopoly threatened.' Ran parsed her words carefully, but this still piqued the woman's interest.

'Did he have cause to feel threatened?' Cologne inquired, a possibility entering her mind.

'No. Ranma would have liked a friend in her, but romance...his father ensured that his life was too ruined in that regard as it was. She grows to be very beautiful, but he wasn't interested.' Ran pondered for a moment, before pulling something out of her ki-space. A small book of randomness and paperclips which had Ranma's chicken scratches for school and a few other things. When Ran walked over and showed it to Cologne, the once-old woman's eyes widened.

'Images...photographs from the future?' Indeed there were few images of a handsome young man, a number of young women, and even Happosai. In a couple, she saw her older form along with a young man that was much like Mousse and a beautiful young woman that was clearly her Shampoo. 'So much like her mother...' Cologne muttered, wistfully. She smiled, looking down at the child happily.

Ran noted the nice scene with a smile. It was a shame that it would have to be brief. 'Get dressed, Elder. The Council wants you once you wake.' With a sigh, the now youthful woman gently rose and moved her grandchild onto the bed. Shampoo needed rest after the stress of the day.


The Council of the Joketsuzoku was in a controlled uproar. Never before in the history of their people had such a thing occurred. Oh sure, they were used to life-extending treatments, but age-reversing? What could it mean for them? Loofah, meanwhile, had resorted to smoking a few of her herbs simply to relax and keep her stress down. She had never truly been compatible with the Soul of Ice and had to resort to such things in extremes like this. Not that she was the only one who had done so among the Elders on this day. Even the herbs did not dull the sense of defeat in her old bones, though.

She'd cornered Cologne, only to get masterfully countered for her trouble.

'Imagine it. The ability to stay young forever. Forget dying with each generation! Our warriors could remain young and flourish across the globe!' One proclaimed with glee.

'-and leave the tribe behind. Such separation breeds division and malcontent. We need to avoid moving too carelessly and remain in control. The temptations of the modern world are not to be taken lightly.' Their critic responded.

'They would have to return now and then to stay youthful, remaining within the good graces of the tribe to use the Spring at all. That blessing is also an anchor to our ways in the face of such division.' Yet another observed.

'It would allow our people to gain mastery over the Arts that is otherwise impossible given our mortality. Aside from the Phoenix People, of course. Perhaps we should consider seizing full control of the site.' The first speaker considered, smiling at the possibility.

'Trying to simply seize in greed what Ku Long has already managed to secure for us through diplomacy seems needless. The Phoenix People are not to be trifled with. Let us not lose what we have gained in our excitement.' Another, one of Cologne's allies in the council, warned.

'You simply want the rest of us to needlessly die while waiting for a solution! I know your daughter is on the way to joining our chambers should one of us perish!' One of Loofah's allies managed to lash out.

'At what point did I say not to use it? Are you so paranoid of your own station that you'd plunge us into a war to claim what is already in our hands?' The rebuttal from the original Cologne supporter let the Joketsuzoku Elders re-enter their managed chaos as Loofah pondered matters. If she waited for Cologne to leave, then things would die down...but the chaos would abate. Was it better to wait or to strike now? Her anger won out over her trepidation.

'There is another matter. Should Ku Long retain her standing as Elder?' Loofah's words shocked the others into silence for a brief time. Even Lotion looked upon Loofah in curiosity.

'Just what do you mean by this, Lu Fa?' The aged Matriarch inquired.

'Ku Long has masterfully gained an undue advantage over the rest of us. A spirit of a Drowned Spring with many generations of experience as a daughter, a youthful body which will likely outlive the rest of us by far, and goodwill that will one day propel her to become your successor regardless of the wishes of this Council. It is too much power, too quickly. With the means at her disposal, she may yet attempt to become Matriarch Eternal! Can you all not see the danger? With her imminent departure, we have an opportunity. She leaves us to resolve one of the wrongs of her past. It may be the only opportunity we have to put her in check!' Loofah appealed to the council desperately, attempting a final measure. There were murmurs, most of them confusion Loofah sought to take advantage of, but a youthful voice rang out.

'Had you been quicker to respond to what could have been a threat to our people, you could have stood before Lan as easily as I. Had you not manipulated and sabotaged my duties at every turn, I would not have had to risk myself by transforming my own flesh. Had you not crafted a challenge for me to overcome...' Cologne walked into the spotlight, indeed standing as her fellow Amazons in the room remembered her being long ago. '...I would not stand in my prime once more, listening to a ploy that reeks of desperation and dishonor being proposed behind my back.' Cologne looked at Loofah with a glare that the woman recalled from their youth...one of extreme displeasure.

'Dishonor? You dare accuse me of such?!' Loofah roared hoarsely in a building rage that even the calming effects of her trusty pipe could not dull.

'Let us call it what it is, Lu Fa. For an Elder to rise to purge another is not something done so lightly. Not without the promise of much bloodshed.' Cologne's eyes narrowed. 'Is it your intention to make war with my family while I am away over your failure to harm me directly? To drive our village to civil war? How is that anything less than dishonorable?'

'Enough.' Both women looked to Lotion at her stern but measured response, and the chambers grew silent. She regarded Cologne and Loofah with care. After a moment of appraisal, the Head Matriarch's eyes bore into Loofah with malcontent. 'No such warfare or ejection shall happen. I will not entertain such notions before Ku Long's return. I will not tolerate any attacks of proxy for such...pettiness, especially ones that will tear apart our council and people. Ku Long has met all of your challenges but one, and she will be permitted the chance to meet that final one without worry for the family or allies she leaves behind. I will not tolerate attacks on the Phoenix People at the moment either. Such would be foolish when we already have what we need. Should they try to deny us access in the future, that is another matter entirely.'

Lotion then looked upon Cologne and sized her up one final time. 'Train your restored body and prepare for your mission undisturbed by the trifles of such politics, Ku Long. When the time comes, take Xian Pu and Lan with you. Your goal is either proof of Happosai's death or the treasures he has taken from our village. Accomplish either and you may return with your head held high. It will be a good experience for the young ones...yourself included.' The Matriarch gave a bit of a laugh and Loofah trembled in rage. To be dismissed and condemned so readily, for her standing to fall so quickly...she was not one to forgive this.

'I understand, Honorable Matriarch. I have much to prepare for. Thank you.' Cologne gave a bow to the woman, her position maintained for the moment. Loofah had lost her composure and tipped her hand. Were she thinking clearly, she'd have waited until Cologne was gone to act. But now, the whole of her family and allies had the protection of the Head Matriarch while she was away...

Cologne's instincts, however, hinted that she should remain vigilant. This was not over.