Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of update. In addition to writer's block, my family has been hit hard by real-life junk. I thank everyone for the continued support, and though I don't respond to absolutely everyone here, I read every single comment. I also respond to questions either here or in PMs, the latter in cases where spoilers might result.

To the guest who disliked the premise of the story: I can understand your not liking this story, especially since the curse's removal was a key part of the original storyline. If it's not for you, it's not for you. As for why the girl curse was knocked out of Ranma, the idea was that Ranma's body at this point in history was not yet cursed and there was nothing for the spiritual component of the curse/the female energy to hold on to. It struggled to cling to him, but Ranma kicked it out like an angry landlord. He mistook it for part of the Neko-ken simply due to where and when he ended up. Also, he escaped the pit before the psychological damage of the Neko-ken could be inflicted on this body's brain...but his memories of the state are now clear enough to draw from for our technique-absorbing genius to replicate the technique.

Chapter 07: Introspection

When Nodoka and Detective Ito entered the room, Detective Katsuragi raised an eyebrow at the tag-along. This was unorthodox, but something told him not to cross the lady. Her expression was that of a woman on the warpath with enough self-control and focus to turn her anger and panic into decisive action. Little did he know that she had already brought a sword to a gunfight and won a scant few minutes prior.

"Detective Ito, this is Tetsuya Kuonji. Mr. Kuonji, this is Detective Ito. He's working on the Saotome case. And this young woman is...?" Detective Ito's younger partner lead with while Mr. Kuonji gave a bow, allowing Detective Ito or the woman herself the chance to introduce.

"Ah, this woman is Nodoka Saotome. She is the wife of the accused. Mrs. Saotome, this is my partner Detective Katsuragi. He helped bring in your husband, as well as the Yakuza punk you took down a few minutes back." Detective Ito said, with a little bit of surprise on the face of his partner. Nodoka gave a demure bow, continuing to hold her parcel.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Saotome." Detective Katsuragi said before Mr. Kuonji interjected.

"Wait, what is this about some Yakuza? I just came to report the theft of my safe!" It seemed that Mr. Kuonji had no inkling of what was happening. Still, he had important information that the people present needed to hear. Detective Ito was handed his partner's notes and Detective Katsuragi allowed Nodoka to take a seat at the table.

"...According to this, you are a friend of Genma Saotome?" Detective Ito said.

"That's right. His son and my daughter were engaged to be married yesterday. Of course, the damn thief ran off with the dowry-ah...sorry for the language, Mrs. Saotome. I've got nothing against you, but your husband did wrong by us. At least Ranma did his best to set things right after he understood what Genma did." Just her appearance made the slightly crude man want to correct his behavior, the beautiful and traditional woman before him making the rough man uncomfortable. Her expression softened ever so slightly, however, at the mention of her son conducting himself more properly than her husband had. Perhaps there was still hope.

"So this safe was the dowry?" Detective Ito inquired, trying to make sense of the notes. However, Mr. Kuonji corrected him.

"Ah, no. That was stolen later. You see, Genma and I agreed that our kids would be married and that he'd take Ukyo with Ranma on his training journey. My Okonomiyaki cart was to be the dowry so they could carry more supplies and she could cook them better meals in their travels. Yesterday, he set Ranma down on the cart and stole it though, leaving Ukyo behind. Ranma just innocently waved goodbye, not knowing squat about what was going on, but he found out later. You see, Ranma brought the cart back to our place today. By himself." Mr. Kuonji's comment was quite interesting to Detective Ito. The kid was moving on his own?

"Around what time was this?" The detective inquired.

"Ah, about an hour before I opened my place. I have a home with a kitchen and walk-up serving window for okonomiyaki, you see. I'd say a bit before 7 AM." The man said while Ito looked back to his partner. The two shared a knowing glance. This wasn't long before they'd found Genma. After a moment, the man continued his story. "He showed up, covered in scratches and in an even more torn up gi than usual. The cart was emptied of most of its meat, but intact. Turns out Genma stole the cart to use its meat for a training method involving a pit of starving cats."

Nodoka's eyes widened. "Wait, my husband was found and arrested in a pit of starving cats! Are you saying he put my son through that as well?"

"Oh, you got Genma, huh? Yeah, Ranma said it was training to induce some sort of psychosis or something. He was pretty ticked off about his father doing that to him." Nodoka's expression shifted to one of restrained horror, worrying for her son's well-being all over again, but the man continued his tale. "He went on to say that his father engaged him to young girls all the time, promising to marry him off only to steal both him and the dowry. Since I dress my daughter in more traditional clothes though, he thought Ukyo was a boy until after it was all said and done. He even called his father a no-good thief and tried to get me to take back the dowry and the engagement. He said something about the only engagement his father intending to honor being made before he was even born. Apparently, Genma plans to take a whole Dojo as dowry and retire in his forties, leaving Ranma to support him from then on by teaching Martial Arts there. At least that's Ranma's version. Knowing Genma though...well, I've got to say I can see it happening." The man sipped some tea, letting all of this sink in.

"...tried to make you take it back? You didn't agree once you were told what sort of man Genma was?" Detective Katsuragi managed to softly inquire in spite of his growing dislike of the implications.

"...Listen. Ranma's strong enough at six to give fully grown men a hard time in a fight. When it comes to being strong enough to protect his wife, there'll be no problems. So I wanted him for Ukyo. I was surprised about Genma when he came back and told me, but the kid just impressed me more. Showed a solid head on his shoulders, cared about Ukyo's choices and future, and tried to do what he thought was the right thing. Genma pretty much taught the kid what not to be." As the man finished, Nodoka let loose a breath she hadn't been holding. This 'psychosis' didn't seem to take hold if her son was acting like that. Genma was on the way to honoring his end of the agreement, albeit not in the way she had intended. He was not a good role model, and it was simply fortunate that Ranma had somehow come to realize that at a very young age.

"What happened next?" Detective Ito inquired, taking comprehensive and detailed notes of this new information.

"Ah, Ranma asked to see the contract. He said that unless I've got something in writing, there's no way his father will honor it. Kind of surprising for a kid to think up, but it's probably because he's had to deal with this a lot already." Nodoka's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly as the man spoke. "I took him to my room, revealed where the safe was, hid the dial as I put in the combination, and showed him the agreement. After he knew that it was iron-clad, I put it back in the safe and locked it up. I had Ranma go back downstairs to finish the meal I'd made, and I helped Ukyo pack some of her things. After that, I loaded the cart down with some more preserved meats and sent them off."

"...Sent them...off?" Nodoka asked. The woman was more than a bit puzzled.

"Yes. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, keeping the front door shut as Ukyo cried, but she eventually left with Ranma while he pulled the cart. I figure that was at about 7:50 AM. I opened the shop at 8." The man said, crossing his arms.

"...how old is your daughter?" Detective Katsuragi inquired.

"Oh, she's six," Mr. Kuonji said, much to the shock of the others present in the room with the exception of Nodoka, "but she is very good at cooking and has a solid grasp of our family's martial art. She'll be fine with them."

One could hear a pin drop in the room. It took several tense seconds for the words to fully sink in.

"You...that's child abandonment! You threw your daughter out into the street!" Detective Katsuragi exclaimed while the mantra of 'crazy martial artists' resounded in Detective Ito's head once more.

"What? No! I had a contract with Genma Saotome that he was to care for her! So I sent her with Ranma back to Genma for him to do just that as agreed! But then my safe with the contract inside turned up missing when I went to put money in it after the lunch rush!" The two detectives blinked and looked at each other. The time frame was even further off than the notes implied.

"Are you accusing my son of stealing the safe?" Nodoka asked coolly. She didn't know the current Ranma, as much as it pained her to admit, but her long-neglected protective instincts were coming to the fore today.

"What? No! Even as strong as Ranma is for his age, hauling off a meter-tall cast iron safe that was bolted to the floor? That quickly? Without my noticing as he left? No, it had to be someone else. I think Genma let Ranma come to my place, watched the whole exchange through a window, saw where I kept my copy of the agreement and decided to steal it so as not to honor it!"

"...I'm afraid that doesn't work." Detective Ito shook his head. "Genma Saotome was arrested at 7:51 AM in Umekoji Park while being attacked by cats in a pit. We were responding to noise complaints which indicated that he'd done so without interruption for about an hour. The strange thing is that we found a note claiming that Ranma was taken before that time, but it was clearly forged. But if Ranma was out and about by himself at that time...could he have been followed before his abduction?"

Detective Katsuragi crossed his arms. "Strange though. The only reports we have of an okonomiyaki cart being out of place were a bit before 7 AM. One was rolling around Umekoji Park and points past it. That was probably Ranma pushing it from alongside, outside of the witness' view...but we haven't heard or seen anything indicating that it's still out there. There's no sign of Ranma or this girl, either."

Mr. Kuonji blinked and was immediately alarmed. "W-what? It wasn't Genma, but someone else? And Ranma's missing?"

The two detectives looked at the man and the elder one gave a sigh. They wanted to say 'this is what happens when you toss your six-year-old out onto the street, you fool', but rubbing it in further wouldn't accomplish anything. He was getting the point. Detective Ito spoke next to the alarmed-yet-neglectful father. "Exactly. While we could consider that Ranma fled alone from the abuse, your report about the safe and the kanji written on the note essentially eliminate a six-year-old from consideration. At this point, I suspect that Ranma was stalked by someone else Genma Saotome knows. At this point, our only clue is to start investigating the various families who have an interest in the boy. We'll need to comb through the list of defrauded victims, but those are only the ones who have reported him. We also need to employ Mrs. Saotome's memory of any others there might be."

Nodoka shook her head gently. "I only knew of one other engagement that Genma has made. The one to the Tendo family which was made before Ranma's birth. They are the ones to whom Ranma referred. My husband and Soun are martial artists under the same master and seek to merge the two families and schools they developed. Ranma is to marry one of their daughters and receive the Tendo Dojo as dowry. Ranma's interpretation is crude...but perhaps not wholly inaccurate given recent evidence. The Dojo is in Furinkan, Nerima District, Tokyo." Nodoka's opinion of her husband had taken a massive hit, and she had started to question his motives in spite of her desire to believe in the man. Was Ranma simply a means to an end for him? His conduct was neglectful and criminal...

"Tokyo...the opposite direction of Kagoshima on the train lines. It would make sense to lead us in the wrong direction. Do you think they are likely to be responsible?" Detective Katsuragi asked Nodoka while he looked through some paperwork.

Nodoka appeared contemplative for a time. "I know them as good people but the master, Happosai, has trained my husband to resort to...questionable means to survive. While Genma reassured me that this was simply to toughen him, it has clearly loosened his code of honor. If that has happened to Soun as well over the years..." The woman shook her head once more. "I do not know one way or the other. I do, however, know his wife to be quite ill. It is unlikely that Soun would leave her or his daughters unless prompted by Happosai or Genma if he is still the man I remember him to be. I don't believe them to be responsible with what little I admittedly know."

Detective Katsuragi gave Mr. Kuonji a displeased look as he planned what to do next. "Well, I'll add Ukyo Kuonji to the list of missing children, and to the file. Then I'll start working with other prefectures to get the police to investigate. Genma Saotome's probably Kagoshima-bound, so I'll also put out a call on that case. This is just getting more complicated..." Mr. Kuonji simply sat there in stunned silence as he listened, staring blankly at the table.

All Nodoka could do was stand and pat the man's shoulder in comfort. He made a mistake, but it was too similar to an action she'd taken all those years ago. Any critique from her would be hypocritical.


CLANG!

A sound rang out through the mountains just east of Maihara as spatula met rock. A flock of birds flew out of the nearby trees from the disturbance with squawks of protest. However, their irritated cries went unheeded. Ukyo watched Ranma roll away from her strike and gave chase, attempting to intercept him. Her mounting fury added to the ferocity of her attacks, but Ranma took clear advantage of her accompanying loss in precision.

"Why-can't-I-hit-YOU?" Ukyo asked with building anger, every word accentuated by an attack as Ranma dodged and evaded her repeated assaults. The fight had started normally enough, simply being a way to get a feel for Ukyo's skills and limits. Ranma had advised her not to hold back, which Ukyo was finding wasn't a mere taunt. The boy wore that cocky grin, and Ukyo was learning that it wasn't worn without merit. Ranma's speed and evasion had increased significantly in the span of a single day and his skill even more so. Ukyo couldn't fathom why except perhaps that he'd been holding back all along. This idea infuriated her even more.

"It's because I'm faster and more experienced, Ucchan~" came Ranma's reply, the taunting of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts getting under her skin further and egging the girl on harder, though he held off on being too cruel with it. She was just a kid, after all. Ukyo managed to move faster, increasing the pace of her strikes. Kicks and punches that had helped knock down the Gambling King a few days prior lashed out but were largely ineffective. Ranma even got behind her and grasped her arms, shifting her position.

"Nah, Ucchan. Like this. You'll get more power behind your punches if you do it this way!" The boy had easily grabbed her and adjusted her posture in the middle of a fight, which made her even angrier.

Leaping back, the girl felt the urge to use the ninjutsu-based techniques of her school. However, she shouldn't waste okonomiyaki ingredients. It was better to gauge her fighting skill without them anyway. Ranma had said that much. She panted hard, her stamina largely gone, but she rushed forward in a final charge. Arms flailing in an attempt to strike Ranma, she neglected her footwork and found herself tripped by the tricky fighter. "KYAAAAA!"

Ukyo groaned after hitting the grassy ground and tried to recover some of her stamina instead of getting up right away. She couldn't even hit him unless he allowed it so as to measure her strength. It was like fighting someone else entirely from their fights even one day prior. However, he didn't actually hit her back. Ranma was instead adjusting her posture or poking her in areas that were vulnerable. The closest he came before was tripping her, and that came with an apologetic look which was all too easy to mistake for pity. It was meant to be constructive, but it was infuriating to the girl.

"Ran-chan, that was supposed to be a fight! You're just...poking instead of hitting! Why're ya holding back, jackass?!" Ranma flinched at Ukyo's outburst, having worried about this. He'd agreed to train her but had forgotten about something in the process.

"You know how I thought you were a boy before, right?" Ranma reminded the girl, who nodded at the boy with a clenched jaw...angered at the fact. "Well, I don't hit girls."

"...What!?" Ukyo inquired in an incredulous tone.

"I said I don't hit girls. It ain't right. I...kinda forgot about it when I agreed to train you." When Ukyo stood up, Ranma could tell from her expression that this wasn't going to end well. Ukyo glared at Ranma, approaching him slowly and with a determined focus, and smacked him across the face with her hand. It didn't do any real damage, but he could see that Ukyo had tears at the corner of her eyes. Before he could react, she began to openly bawl.

"U-Ucchan?" Ranma recoiled in response. He never knew when to expect the crying and was never able to cope properly once it started. Any ideas he had of how to proceed always flew out the window when this happened.

"First Daddy and now you! No one wants me 'cuz I'm a girl! Daddy wanted a boy an' always makes me act like one, but...he...it wasn't enough so he threw me away! An' now you hate me because I'm a girl too! Why? Why ain't I good enough, Ran-chan?" The girl openly sobbed as she lamented her gender, and Ranma realized that the seeds of Ukyo's insecurities were rooted deeper than he thought. He recalled his father's insults to his own female side and how they stung. He didn't know how to respond to this. While awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, he desperately tried to think of what to say.

"L-listen, Ucchan, I don't hate you! You're the best friend I've got! It's just...look, most girls are a lot weaker than guys, right? So I'm not supposed to hit them in case I hurt them!" Ranma tried to explain, Ukyo's sobbing softening as she heard this.

"R-really? You don't hate me for being a girl?" Ukyo asked, trembling.

"No, Ucchan! Bein' a girl's fine! You be as girly as you want! If your pop didn't want a girl, that's his problem! I just don't want to hurt you!" Ranma was profoundly tense as he clarified his position and only relaxed slightly when Ukyo stopped crying and pondered his words.

"Well...then hit me when we fight...just not super hard! I know you can do that! Just like you did when you thought I was a boy!" Ukyo pushed into Ranma's personal space insistently. "Hitting is part of learning the Art, right? I wanna get stronger even if it hurts sometimes! Then someday, when I'm strong enough, you won't have to worry about anybody hurting me anymore!"

The martial artist found himself struggling with the idea. Akane hated when he held back against her and this was similar, but Ukyo's reasoning was different. Akane wanted Ranma to immediately treat her like an equal and recklessly give her his all, regardless of the consequences. Anything less was seen as disrespect. Ukyo knew she wasn't on his level, accepted the fact, and wanted to be trained up gradually. He struggled to find a reason to decline because it seemed to be a reasonable request. Even a necessary one.

He crossed his arms and thought harder, his face looking constipated as he conducted the act to which he was not accustomed. Ranma had always acted instinctively, but sometimes it burned him. His father had taught him that he couldn't hit women because they were weak. But were they really? Most of the people he met were weak, male or female, and he'd seen as many strong women as he had men. Maybe more if the total population of the Joketsuzoku was added in. He also knew that his old female form was anything but weak and made up for any loss in strength with a boost in speed. So what was the difference? Was his father wrong about this too?

The boy looked to his friend with a calculating expression. Ranma knew what she could become. He knew that her father had started her on the path to being such, though the girl had accomplished a lot of it on her own. Without her father in her life, it was up to him to make her at least that strong. Besides, he had promised. Giving a sigh, he rubbed his cheek where she'd slapped him. "Maybe you're right, Ucchan. Pop taught me that hittin' girls was always wrong, but he taught me a lot of stuff that was messed up. I don't know if this is right, but we can try it your way. But we'd start with conditionin', kata, and theory before doin' that anyway, okay? That fight just now was just so I knew where I should start with you. Besides, your style seems based on misdirection as much as strength. It ain't a bad thing, but you need to back up bein' tricky with more speed and power."

Ukyo's tears had yet to dry, but she was feeling a lot better after the concession was given. Rather than replying right away though, the girl stayed silent for a minute as she contemplated something. "Well...I wanna hear more about ki-space! It seems like something Daddy was trying to teach me before to store my weapons and combat ingredients! I...lost a spatula trying to learn it." Ranma blinked at Ukyo's somewhat embarrassing confession and pondered the matter. It was actually true that many of Ukyo's attacks in the future employed okonomiyaki ingredients. Rubber noodles, tempura with gunpowder, exploding okonomiyaki...she typically wore a bandolier with throwing spatulas, but routinely carried far more than was obvious into battle. Perhaps her ninjutsu-like school employed something analogous to the Hidden Weapons Style that Mousse employed? Well, there was one way to find out.

"Right, well, remember how he described it and see if it lines up with what I have to say. Ki-space is sometimes called other things. Hidden Weapons, Dark Magic, sometimes even Hammerspace by those who don't know the difference. But it's definitely ki. It's a pocket of space we make with our life force, and it can exist indefinitely if somethin's in it. Time won't even pass inside it and food won't spoil or anythin'. Nobody can grab inside somebody else's ki-space except maybe twins with very similar ki. Takin' stuff in and out is ki manipulation that's easiest to pull off when used in shadows, like from inside sleeves, but the real limitation is that it's gotta be unobserved. If nobody's lookin' at the spot you put it in or pull it out of, you can even pull big things like the yattai seemin'ly out of nowhere." Ranma explained, Ukyo following along and nodding. Seeing Ranma drop her father's safe behind him out of nowhere earlier was a real shock. To think he had that much control when she had none... Of course, she had another question in mind.

"Hammerspace. You mentioned that before...like those shows with the dirty old men getting hit by girls they're mean to? That's real?" Ukyo asked, calling forth Ranma's memories of Akane pulling her hammer out of nowhere.

"Yeah, or even just believin' they've been wronged and wantin' to hit somebody strong enough. It's not always used right. Hammerspace isn't somethin' I understand well, but I know it's instinctive and girls-only. Ki-space is controlled and can be used by boys or girls, so it's not the same thing. Anyway, when someone sees you try to do use ki-space, their observation injects their ki into the process a tiny bit, makin' your access to your own ki-space fail. So use your senses and make sure no one's watchin' the spot you use to access your ki-space. Shield it with your body or somethin' if you have to. If you've put somethin' in the ki-space before, you should remember how usin' it feels and be able to pull it back out. Maybe you just did it where people were lookin'?"

That particular part hadn't been explained well by her father, and she'd kept trying to replicate the move in front of him to get praise. Smiling widely, she ran over to her backpack and started trying to pull that spatula out of ki space from within the bag's confines. While she did so, Ranma decided that watching would just reduce her chances of success. He decided to get some Chestnut Fist training in, gradually improving his speed. Pulling out the Kinjakan, Ranma used the magical implement of fire and destruction to re-energize their fire pit. Ukyo froze in her endeavors and stared intently until Ranma noticed her frozen in place.

"Oh...it's a magic fire staff and unicycle. Long story. Don't let it distract you." He tried to explain, electing to say nothing more on the matter before putting the royal regalia of the Phoenix People away and commencing his own training. Ukyo was underwhelmed with the explanation, to say the least, but was still excited about her own practice.

"Of course you'd have a magic weapon. Life just ain't fair..." With a pout, she got to work trying to rekindle the feeling she'd held when that spatula vanished. She did so in the shadows of her bag away from Ranma's eyes, and the next fifteen minutes were spent with the two practicing their own respective abilities. Ranma gradually reclaiming the Chestnut Fist while using an incomplete Hidden Weapons Style for weight training and Ukyo working on her own ki-space. Ranma's speed gradually improved as his small muscles acclimated to what his mind and spirit already knew, but Ukyo had no barometer for her closeness to success...until her eyes widened. Grasping a familiar handle and pulling the steel implement from the shadows, she gave a squee of delight which abruptly distracted Ranma from his own task.

"Ran-chan! Ran-chan! I did it, see? It's here! I got it back out!" She was elated at her success, and Ranma grinned back. It was impressive, considering that Ranma hadn't been taught the skill until years later. He wondered how long until Ukyo's father would have figured out the problem with her training method.

"Great-job, Ucchan! Hold on to that feeling in your ki! We're going to practice using your ki-space until you drop tonight, to hammer the sensation into your body until it's instinctive!" Ranma responded, already gathering up pebbles and the like to get started. It was the best way to learn a new martial art, after all. By doing.

Ukyo beamed, knowing she was one step closer to bridging the gap between her and Ranma. Maybe this training journey would be exactly what she needed!


'My daughter, leaving home so soon! I...waagghhh!' The father embraced his young daughter while making a scene at the dinner table. Shampoo patted her father's back. Though she liked the attention, the child was already becoming aware of how prone to overreaction he was. Ran, meanwhile, looked on with memories of Soun Tendo flashing through her mind. The part of her that was Ranma felt a strangeness from the paternal display of affection. One more reason the whole of her felt an urge to remove Ranma from his father's care as soon as possible.

'Daddy, I'll be fine! After I help Great-grandmother fight the imp man and meet Ranma, I'll come home to see you again!' The girl was happy at the idea of seeing the world outside, though she was a bit nervous about leaving home. She had to be brave though. She would be brave.

Shampoo's mother had returned victorious from her own mission only to learn of what had transpired after the fact. The treatment of her ancestor at the hands of the council had her irate. Manipulating the elderly woman into a position where she felt she had to risk her life, merely for politics? It was a cowardly attempt that, thankfully, her ancestor was able to turn on its head into a victory. Still, seeing her now-youthful ancestor at the dinner table with her adopted daughter from the future was shocking enough to keep her from yielding to her impulses. She needed to be kind to her child and send her off well. That was why Shampoo would have her favorite meals until she left, within the scope of reason.

'For the council to allow you to be attacked so harshly politically...should I tend to Lu Fa in your absence, Great-grandmother?' The implication, of course, being that Shampoo's mother desired to kill the manipulative elder. This question got a smirk from her rejuvenated ancestor. One could count on family to stick together in such instances.

'No, child. At least not without cause. The Head Matriarch seems to have permitted these trials only as a test for me and Lu Fa. A test that Lu Fa has failed miserably at thus far. Matriarch Lo Xian has amended the terms to ensure that my family is protected while I tend to my mission, which has changed to either bringing proof of killing Happy or bringing back that which he stole.' Cologne's expression hardened a bit, which Ran took notice of. 'You will, however, help protect the Head Matriarch from attack or the weakening of her position by Lu Fa and her allies. Be careful not to violate any rules which she can take advantage of. I do not feel that this is over. I have entrusted my vote on the council to your grandmother, and she will monitor things in my absence. Treat her as the head of the family while I am away.'

Ran could see the family's worry and also felt concerned about the possibility that Cologne might attempt to force Ranma to battle and wed Shampoo. Hopefully, she could resolve this matter promptly enough to avoid such a development. 'Happosai is due to be sealed away this year. He may be weakened and an easy target. He also doesn't hurt children like Shampoo. I know a place where he hides his stolen wealth. I hope to help resolve this as quickly as possible. Try not to worry.' Shampoo's mother looked to her new aunt and gave a smile along with an added helping of food. It wasn't easy accepting this woman into their fold, but it wasn't without precedent or cause. Her own husband was from outside the tribe, after all. Ran seemed to care for the well-being of Shampoo, which went far in the mother's book.

They had only two days and nights left before leaving for Japan. Hopefully Ran could help Cologne reclaim her position and get the pair back to China where they belonged. Ranma did not need them in his life.