Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've updated this story and luckily I managed to have a breakthrough that lasted till I finished the chapter sooo... hooray!

No promises on when the next chapter will come out however.

I would like to thank TimberlineWolf for pointing out my slight error. I swear one of these days I will post a chapter and make no mistakes!

Is this the day? Let me know if it is.

Anyway... enjoy the chapter!

Mandarin= "Who are you?"

Inner thoughts= 'What's going on?'

Regular speech. "I don't know."

Chapter 4: Chaos Ensues.

Jay was exhausted. It had been a month since his fight against Mousse and after it… well, once the people found out that he didn't know about what was going on in the valley, they… changed. At least how acted around him changed.

A lot of them, especially those that liked him before, tried to hide it and act normally. But Jay always caught the looks sent his way out of the corner of his eye. They always looked sad, and if he asked about it they would say it's nothing and leave shortly after. So, he learned to stop asking.

Fei stopped hanging out with him as well. He hadn't seen her since that night. Cologne would stop by to train him every now and then but made it clear that if he asked about it, she'd stop. The only one who still acted the same around him was Shampoo. Of course, that was because she didn't know.

Then again, the month hadn't been a total failure. Mousse did dress up in his pink tutu and pranced around the village.

All of his attempts to find out the truth were… unfruitful. He tried everything possible to find out, even went to the witch that started all of this weirdness in the first place, Soap, for some answers but she just cackled wickedly, in his opinion, and said. "The day I tell you, will be the day I know it's too late for you."

Well… at least he'd know. It might actually be worth it, but for now he was happy to work off his frustrations on a dummy in the training grounds with his staff. Actually, "happy" might have been a stretch but let's just say it felt good.

Of course, it was in the middle of his beat down on the dummy that he heard the voice of someone else he'd love to beat down, again. "That's not how you do it." When he heard it his eyes narrowed and he lashed out with his staff. Of course he didn't expect it to just be taken away from him.

Mousse stood at the other end of the staff looking somewhat calm. A little edgy and apprehensive perhaps but other than that… calm. "I'm a master of weapons and you're... you're not."

His response to the assault threw Jay off balance. "That was strangely kind of you, not to mention calm. Now what do you want, Mousse?" He asked, more curious than upset. In the last month he had dealt with the guilt of almost being pushed to kill someone. Even if that person had tried to do the same.

If he had done it again he (she at the time), would have just tried to recreate the Kamehameha and blasted him through the colosseum . Satisfying, and without any of the drama.

Mousse sighed deeply. "I wanted to say… sorry." That last word came out as though it pained Mousse to say it. "The Old Ghoul came around sometime after our fight and, after a severe scolding, told me that you had not only saved Shampoo but also that you and her were siblings now. So now I'm here… saying sorry for overreacting and almost tearing your face in two."

Jay's hand automatically touched his scar. The wound was far too deep for it to not become one. But it could be worse. It could have been an ugly scar instead of a cool one.

It was then that he sighed. "Yeah well… I'm sorry for almost taking your head off with my 'crazy saw blade'. Besides, you did go through with the bet, even if it was made in jest."

"Well, I'm nothing if not honorable."

That would have made Jay laugh if he hadn't said it so seriously. So, clearing his throat, Jay decided to change the subject. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on with everyone, would you? Why do they keep looking at me weirdly?"

The way Mousse's face immediately became conflicted told him everything.

"You know, don't you? Please! Tell me." When Mousse looked away Jay followed his gaze. "No! Don't look away. If you know something just tell me!"

Reluctantly the nearly blind boy did look back at him again. "I can't tell you everything. The Old Ghoul might kill me if I do, but it's your curse. It puts you in danger."

That bit of info made Jay wary. Danger as in, 'the same danger that every girl has'? Or something more?"

Mousse cringed. "It's more… a lot more, and I'm sorry but that's all I feel okay telling you."

"No. It's more than what I had. Thank you. Now, what do ya say? Let bygones be bygones?" Jay said, holding his hand.

"Umm… I don't understand that."

Hmm… how would that go? "Let the past become the past?" He tried.

With that clarification, Mousse understood and happily took his hand. "Agreed."

It might seem strange to some that two people who very nearly killed one another would, rather suddenly, turn around and become friends. But if it worked for Naruto then it should be more than enough for him.

After all was said and done Mousse took one more look at the staff he'd taken. He glanced back at Jay and said. "You know a staff doesn't really seem like the best fit for you."

Jay shrugged back at him. "It's the only weapon I have any experience with.

Mousse put away the staff he had taken away from him and said, "Now, how about we find a weapon more suited for you."

By the end of the day, as Jay once again limped home, he had decided that it wasn't just Cologne that was crazy during training. It was all the amazons! They were all insane!

Mousse had him practically jumping through hoops all day as he searched for his ideal weapon. Nice, sharp and jagged hoops. But in the end, Jay had his weapons of choice and yes, I mean weapons.

Mousse decided that Jay should have a weapon for his male and female forms. Therefore, on his back and side he had a Daab and a Wakizashi.

By the end, he and Mousse had decided to practice together once a week. It would be a slow process but Mousse had assured him that being even remotely skilled with a blade might just save his life someday.

After finally getting back to his little home, (the amazons helped him fashion one when it became obvious that his stay would be, well permanent) Jaydon put away his new weapons and sat down in front of his investigation wall. His wall was split in two halves, on the one half had all the canon information he knew about the Ranma universe.

This served a pair of purposes. First of all, it meant that he could easily keep record of everything that happened in the future, which considering how far back he was before canon even started... Well it was very likely that by the time canon even started, Jay would be lucky if the only thing he could even remember would be that Ranma was an anime.

On the second half of the board, there were the various theories he'd managed to come up with about what the secret that the village was keeping from him could be. His 'wall' looked like something straight out of 'Numbers'.

This side of the board had been derived from his canon knowledge, his fiction knowledge, (in Jay's other life he was very much into reading fanfiction. Especially Ranma fanfiction.) and his personal knowledge of what was happening. Which admittedly, wasn't a whole lot. In fact most of his theories were based solely on his fiction knowledge.

The most reasonable theories he had come up with were around the lines of; captured and killed, captured, tortured and then killed, or just plain killed. Of course there were other possibilities but Jay didn't even want to consider them.

Sighing, the universally lost boy decided to do what he had been doing every night for the past two weeks since it became so clearly evident that the village was bound and determined to keep their secrets hidden: pace. As he did so, his earlier discussion with Mousse and the whole situation with the village kept going through his mind.

'More? What the heck does that mean!' He thought to himself. 'Blasted amazons keeping all this stuff from me when it's clearly important! I know I'm only like 12 in this body but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be told!'

For the several hours Jay spent going everything on the wall, there are really only two things that could possibly be a good direction to look in. The Phoenix people and the Musk. In the original manga, the Phoenix people were a myth. A people found deep in the mountains who tried very hard to keep out of contact with "landlings".

Then there were the Musk. A clan of warrior people who were presumed to be long dead. Or at least that's what Cologne presumed when Prince (or rather 'Princess') Herb came into Nerima and blew her theories to naught.

So, between the two tribes Jaydon would have to say that the Phoenix tribe would be more likely to be the cause of more distrust. At least with the Amazons and the Musk there was some sort of respect. After all, Prince Herb didn't go to Cologne because of her world famous noodles.

The Phoenix tribe on the other hand felt that they were on an entirely different level than any other species. Not that, that wasn't too far from the truth. 'I mean, their king had power over fire and all of them had wings.'

Jay stayed up until he felt like he was gonna pass out from exhaustion as he went over theory after theory, alone in his own home. The aquatransexual sighed at the gloomy reminder at how screwed up things had gotten since his fight with Mousse and went to bed. 'I really hope things go better tomorrow.'

The next day, Jay was proven wrong rather early in the morning. He felt absolutely horrible, which normally didn't happen. After even his worst day of training he never felt worse than when he went to sleep.

Then, she sighed as she noticed the tipped over cup of water she kept at her bed for whenever she got thirsty during her midnight theorizing. Sometimes it would fall over and trigger a change. Just like it did last night.

Normally she wouldn't pay it any mind. But with all her cramps and not to mention the way her breasts felt all... achy and everything...

"Oh, not again," Jay moaned. It had been a long while since Jay last had her "monthly monster". Of course, even though it was a monthly occurrence for other girls and women alike, it wasn't that way for her with her curse. That only ever happened to her when she spent enough time in girl form.

Jay shook her head. "I cannot deal with this today." If she spent even one day in the village feeling the way she was feeling... well there'd probably be at least half a dozen buzz blades flying around Joketzuko.

Jay didn't even think, she just packed about a week's worth of clothes and walked out of the village. A while ago she found this great place when she was out trekking through the woods.

It was the perfect place to let loose without any repercussions. Not to mention with the nice, cozy little shelter she'd put together and the natural hot spring, it was the perfect place to lay low and get away from all the secrecy and drama. A perfect escape from reality.

'An escape.' Jay mentally sighed. 'Just what I need.'

Unfortunately in her haste to 'escape reality' Jay neglected to even leave a letter to let people know when she would be back.

(Back in the village)

Fei had to admit, life had been a lot more exciting ever since the new resident aquatransexual came to the village. To be honest, it had been a fun distraction from all the tension that had been around the village for the last couple of years.

Jay hadn't noticed that yet, as far as she knew. Ever since the fight between Jay and Mousse, Fei had been avoiding Jay. She wasn't exactly proud of it per say but she couldn't face him knowing what she knew.

At the moment, she was enjoying tea with her teacher, an amazon elder, Jiang Shun. Jiang was the first amazon medic to ever be named an elder, which meant that she was the best person to be Fei's teacher.

One of the things Fei enjoyed about being a medic was how everybody always underestimated her in a fight. Everybody but Jay… Fei discreetly looked out the nearby window for him.

Not discreetly enough to escape her teacher's notice. "Oh girl, would you just relax? He's not here so you can quit worrying about it." Jiang smirked.

Fei cringed, she'd been caught. "Sorry teacher. I was just… checking to see if it was going to rain."

The old elder laughed. "You would have had to look higher to see the clouds."

"Alright, alright. You caught me. I was keeping an eye out for Jay."

"I saw young Jaydon just last night. It appears that he and Mousse have put aside their mutual distaste for one another and have begun training together." She laughed again. "From what I saw, Mousse put Jaydon through his paces."

Fei's eyes widened. "He did? Well, does he need help? I've got some herb paste to help with any sores, cuts or bruises." Fei jumped up and ran to the door, only to stop shy of the outside when Jiang's voice sounded again.

"Haven't you been trying to avoid him?" She said while giving a stern look at the back of Fei's head.

She winced and said in a halted voice. "W-well, yeah, but that doesn't mean I don't want to help him." Fei turned back to Jiang.

"You can't have it both ways dear. You're either there for him or you're not. If you go back and forth on that you'll merely push him away further than you're already doing."

"Then what should I do? If I go back then he'll want an explanation about why everyone's been looking at him funny since his fight with Mousse." Fei started to tear up, her whole body language screamed for help.

"Why don't you tell him then? No one's stopping you." Jiang said calmly as she sipped her tea.

Fei's eyes widened and then narrowed in anger. "You know exactly why I don't tell him! The only thing is I don't get why the council doesn't tell him?"

"First, because most of us are not his friends. And secondly, the Elders council questions the wisdom of telling someone who's only just joined this world, lost his old life and recently been cursed to spend the rest of his life as a person torn in half. Half a man and half a woman. Telling someone who's been through so much in so short a time that his life and freedom could be in jeopardy…" Jiang paused meaningfully.

"Exactly! How do you tell someone that?" Fei's eyes looked away despondently. "How could you tell a friend that?"

Jiang gazed at her young student and spoke softly. "Liao Fei, look at me." Fei did so hesitantly. "A friend shouldn't be afraid to warn another friend. So long as you prove that you will be there for him when the time calls for it I don't think he'll be too worried."

Fei stared at Jiang for a while before she slowly shook her head. "But I can't tell him anything. Like you said, the Council forbade it."

Jiang smirked. "You are only forbidden to talk about certain aspects of the secret. No Elder has said that you cannot warn him to be careful."

Fei shook her head slowly. "I'm such an idiot aren't I?"

"You're too hard on yourself Liao Fei. You forget that you are only a child."

"So is Jaydon." She whispered.

"Maybe so, but he is no ordinary child."

"No, no he's not. But even so, this isn't something anyone should have to deal with alone." And with a sudden look of determination Fei bowed to Jiang. "Thank you Master!" Then she turned and ran out of the hut towards Jay's home.

"Jay? Jay, I have to talk to you!" Only when she entered Jay's hut, she was surprised to find that he wasn't there. Not just that but his pack was missing as were his clothes. As she searched for clues for where he had gone, a voice from behind surprised her.

"You're too late."

When she turned around, she saw Mousse standing there. "What do you mean? Where did he go?"

Mousse shrugged. "I think you mean, where did she go? As for the answer, I have no idea. I only saw her on her way out of the village."

The news stunned her. "She left? Without saying goodbye? Why would she do that?"

Mousse shrugged again. "I don't know. But she can't be gone forever. She left one of her swords." He informed her, pointing at the Chinese Daab that leaned against Jay's wall.

Putting aside the surprise that Jay now had swords, Fei shook her head. "Well it doesn't matter! I have to find her!"

Mousse gave her a look. "This coming from the girl who's spent the last month avoiding and ignoring Jaydon?"

"Don't patronize me Mu Tsu! You know as well as I do how dangerous it is out there for her." Fei warned, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Finally Mousse sighed. "Alright then. I guess we should get going then."

"Get going where exactly?" A much older voice suddenly said, startling the both of them.

"Ah!" When the two looked behind them they saw Cologne balancing on her pole as always.

After getting over her surprise for the second time, she and Mousse re-explained what had happened with Jay. Cologne looked pensive with her eyes closed after the explanation.

Then finally her eyes opened again. "I wouldn't worry too much about young Jaydon. You both know from experience that she is tougher than she looks."

Fei nodded while Mousse did the same, though Mousse also shivered. Back during his fight with Jay, even if he didn't like to admit it, something about it scared him. Her face as she held her giant killing buzz blade… it was strange.

He didn't think anyone else noticed, not even Jaydon herself. Back then as she held her destructo disk above their heads with blood dripping down her face. Her face… it seemed almost foreign. Even though he didn't know her well, he knew it didn't fit her.

She looked like she would have killed him without a second thought. But as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. Without a trace. But that face would continue to haunt him for the rest of his life. At the same time though, it sparked some major change.

In the past, even with everything going on in the village, Mousse acted childish. He knew it as well as everyone else. Normally it didn't have many consequences. A few light beatings, some major ones as well from Shampoo, but the one he got from Jay… that was easily the biggest consequence his childish attitude had received.

Yet for some reason he didn't blame Jay. Wasn't angry at him. It helped that Jay was humble in his victory. Even if that was because he was too busy worrying about the Elder's warning, he didn't gloat or make fun of him for losing or for being too weak.

He didn't even enforce the consequence of losing. Mousse did that all on his own. With a bit of encouragement from Cologne.

"That doesn't matter Elder Cologne. As strong as she is, there's no way she would be able to protect herself if she's attacked by them and that is something that you know."

Cologne sighed. But even she had to admit that they had a point. "Alright. You do have a point. Maybe we should go out to search for young Jaydon."

"Let's go then!" Fei shouted enthusiastically as she ran out of Jay's house only to be stopped by Cologne's staff.

"Easy there Liao Fei. Even with the three of us it is still too dangerous for us to go out there alone. I will gather a few more members to join us on our search. You both will wait at the gate of the village."

With that last word she and Fei left. Mousse was right behind them when he turned back to look at Jay's sword that she left behind. With a look of determination he took the sword and went to join Fei.

(With Jaydon in the woods)

Periods sucked. The forest and it's mosquitos sucked. The sun and it's heat sucked. Everything just kinda sucked lately. The only thing that wouldn't suck? Was that dumb hot spring. Now if only Jay could find it. It had already been an entire day since she had left the village and all she had done was walk in circles!

After the millionth time seeing the exact same stone, and she knew it was the same stone since she had seen it a million times, she had had enough of that rock and the trees. "Alright that's it!" Jay cut the large rock in two with a destructo disk and decided to change her way of traveling. So she hopped up onto the big rock and leapt into the trees, Naruto style.

Several hours of discomfort later and Jay finally found the hot spring. She could practically smell the minerals coming from it. 'Finally! My body has been saved!' Jay jumped down, stripped down to her garments and practically dove into the large spring.

She then burst out of the hot water with a large sigh of relief. 'It's only been a couple of seconds and I already feel instantly better.' Jay didn't move again for hours. Just enjoying the soothing sensations of the bubbles and the heat. 'Ohhh I'm making this a tradition every time this period crap happens.' Every time Jay's period started she ended up trapped in her girl form.

Jay almost fell asleep before he heard something moving in the forest. Reluctantly she got up out of the hot spring, shivering as the breeze hit. Carefully she stepped out, grabbed the sword she brought with and held it in a defensive position. What she didn't expect to find was another girl to burst out from the woods. Let alone a girl with… wings?

The girl stopped when she saw Jay and drew her own weapon. Though Jay noticed almost immediately that the other girl's stance was also defensive. A watchful eye also showed that the girl was out of breath and covered in scratches, dirt and bruises.

That was when she realized. 'She's being chased.' And as though listening to Jay's thoughts, the girl turned around and other men came out. Big and buff, quick and lean. Not to mention very animalistic. 'Does that one have a tail?'

The other girl quickly turned around to fight the men. But it soon became clear that she was outmatched as well as outnumbered. Luckily for Jay, none of the men even seemed to notice her existence.

Which for some strange reason bothered her since she was barely wearing anything. 'Wait… why would that bother me? I don't want them to look at me.'

Jay's inner confusion was forced aside when she noticed another man try to attack the winged girl from behind with a spear. She quickly drew her sword and used it to cut off the tip of the man's spear. Jay smiled… a bit prematurely it seemed as the man grabbed her arm and threw her.

"Ahh!" Jay shouted in pain as she collided with a tree with the winged girl being thrown at her as well. When next she opened her eyes, the men had them surrounded.

The leanest of them quickly pounded on top of Jay, stunning her and forcing all the air from her lungs. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck as he inhaled her scent. "Well would you look at that boys? Looks like we got two birds for the price of one! And this one smells ripe!" He said excitedly as he bound her hands and feet.

'What's going on! Who are these guys?' Then, slowly the pieces came together and she realized. "The Musk!" The lean one lifted her up and she saw the other ones grinning smugly and… lustfully? One thing was certain. She didn't like the looks on their faces.

The buffest of the group approached her and caressed her face prompting an attack via bite. He snatched his hand back just before she reached him. "Oh ho, well aren't you just a feisty little flower? Those clothes of yours… they look like they're from the amazon village. But now that couldn't be it now could it? If it was, you would have known better to leave the safety of the village alone."

"I no understand all you speak! Try again, will not miss. If no let live, will regret!" Jay threatened, her battle aura flaring dangerously.

The battle aura was so fierce that it surprised the man at first. Then he smiled maliciously. 'This girl… he will be most pleased with me this time I think.'

Outwardly however he mocked Jay's show of power. "Aha! This little flower thinks herself powerful?" He backhanded Jay's face, which to his surprise didn't knock her out.

Jay smirked smugly as she spat out some blood. "Nāozhǒng."

That made the man furious and this time he put the whole weight of his body into a punch that knocked her out cold. The other winged girl was already knocked out from the earlier throw so all they had to do was carry the two girls.

As they moved on the lean one licked his lips. 'I will look forward to breaking her in.'

Not long after he thought that, another of the men blocked his path. "Don't forget your place Fa Run! You know all the girls of age are to be brought to the Musk Emperor! Untouched!" He warned.

Fa Run hissed at the other Musk warrior. "Don't think you know my mind Zhang Wei!"

Zhang Wei stared at Fa Run distastefully. "Then you won't mind if I take care of carrying her now will you?"

After several moments of intense staring, Fa Run huffed and handed Jay over to him. Before letting go however, he said, "If she's not chosen I get first go at her."

"So be it. Until then however you don't get to lay a finger on her. Do you understand me?"

Fa Run nodded reluctantly with a sneer on his face and the group quickly carried the winged girl and Jay away into the forest.

'Jay, where are you?'

Fei mentally wondered. Cologne had long since found a few other people to join the search for Jay. It wasn't much of a challenge following her tracks.

"This boy really had no idea where he was going did he?" Li Na asked rhetorically after they discovered where Jay had gone around in circles.

After a while though they realized that was where the trail ended. "Where could he have gone?" Enya asked, one of the younger amazons on the hunt. "I don't think he would go through all this trouble just to suddenly start hiding his trail. Since nobody's told him he's in danger in the first place so I doubt he'd know it'd be a good idea."

"Quiet Enya! It is not your place to question the Elder's decision." Cologne sternly said.

"But Elder Ku Lon! You can't possibly agree with the Council's decision!"

"Of course I don't, but the Council's decision is final! Jaydon is not to be told about the things that are going on here in the valley. Anyone who tells him will be punished one way or another. Have I made myself clear?"

She had, and even though some of them did not agree with the declaration there wasn't much they could say. Cologne was their Elder and whatever she said went.

After a while of being unable to find Jay's trail again the group spread out in search for any clue of Jay's whereabouts, with each choosing their own directions.

As Fei searched the woods for Jay, she was disappointed to find no sign of him anywhere outside of the circles he walked. 'Come on Jay, where are you? I'm sorry I abandoned you. If only I had stayed with you. I could have warned you about the dangers outside the village.' Just as she was about to give up hope however…

"Amazons! Come here, I do believe I've found a clue." Cologne called out.

"What does a rock have to do with where Jay went?" Li Na asked, confused as to why Cologne would think that it did.

"Take a closer look, Li Na. This rock… as well as several trees behind it have been cleanly cut." Cologne explained, gesturing to all the trees that had been cut down behind the rock.

"Yeah, and?"

Li Na may not have understood what Cologne was saying but Fei certainly did. "Jay's destructo disk cuts clean through anything. So he was here. Was it a fight?"

Cologne appeared uncertain. "I'm not convinced of that. If it was a fight, there would be more evidence of that. This just looks like young Jaydon got frustrated at walking around in circles and decided to take her frustrations out on this rock."

"But Elder… that doesn't sound like Jaydon. He's always been a really calm person. He wouldn't destroy nature for no reason like that."

Cologne hummed curiously. "Mousse, you said that young Jaydon was in her female form when you saw her leave the village?" When Mousse nodded she thought to herself, 'I wonder… if it's what I think it is… then Jaydon may be in more danger than I thought.' Then she looked up. "She went this way."

Mousse walked up to her, doubtful of her assumption. "What are you talking about old ghoul?" Mousse wasn't able to dodge the wack from Cologne's staff. He rubbed his head where it hurt. "What'd you do that for?"

Cologne ignored Mousse for the moment but still answered his question. "I can feel her ki this way. This time I think she is fighting." However before any of the group could celebrate, Cologne frowned. "It's gone." She told the others, before she rushed off in the direction she had felt the energy.

Even though most everyone else was surprised, they recovered quickly and chased after Cologne.

"What do you mean it's gone? That aura was so powerful that even I felt it. And I'm not exactly the greatest at sensing ki." Enya said, shocked at the sheer power behind that aura.

The reason Enya was brought along was for her ability to sense ki from afar. She may not have been the best but only Cologne was better at sensing from far away.

For her to be feeling Jay's ki from here, and so powerfully… "Just how powerful is Jaydon, Elder Ku Lon?"

The other warriors were confused but Cologne answered seriously. "If she were to master using even just her ki, I'm not sure that I could beat her."

"She's that strong?" Enya wasn't the only one who was surprised by Cologne's statement.

Cologne said nothing more, only keeping her eyes forward as they ran towards where they felt Jay's presence. After a little while Cologne spotted something shining in the distance and hopped down there. When she landed she found Jay's clothes strewn around the hot spring, a bad feeling grew in her.

A bad feeling that only got worse as Mousse grabbed her attention, in his hands he held another blade. A wakizashi. Judging by the look on Mousse's face… "Please don't tell me."

Mousse looked around the sight before he turned back to him. "I don't believe I have to, Elder. We were too late. She's been taken."

"No. I'm so sorry young Jaydon." She turned her head so the other Amazons wouldn't see her cry a tear of remorse.

The other warriors all looked away. Even though some of them didn't know the young aquatransexual, they all knew that whatever he/she was about to go through… it wasn't going to be pretty.

Very soon however, determination sparked inside everyone present. They weren't about to let someone as young as Jaydon go through what awaited her at the Musk stronghold.

"We should have told him." Enya quietly said.

This was mostly to herself but the other Amazons; Fei, Cologne and Mousse especially agreed. If they had told Jay the risks and dangers of leaving the village. Well, then maybe they wouldn't be out here looking for him.

When Jay woke up again she found herself laying on her side. Right away she noticed that she was tied up, her hands and feet tied together by a long piece of rope. She also noticed, even though the room she was in was fairly dark, a strange large symbol underneath her and weird men in robes standing around her.

'What the heck is this? Some sort of male witch cultist coven? Does China even believe in witchcraft? Who am I kidding, they've got Jusenkyo, that's all the proof anyone would ever need to believe in magic and witchcraft. Oh please tell me I'm not gonna end up part of a ritual sacrifice?' All joking aside, with everything going on… especially since she was still wearing just her underwear… she was terrified of what might happen.

That fear only rised as the men started to chant. Their chanting got louder and louder, only serving to rile up Jay's apprehension and fear. Jay's eyes darted around the room from man to man before she made her move. Using her ki control, she built up said ki inside herself until she could feel it raging just beneath her skin.

She was certain the men noticed her buildup of ki judging by the way their chanting got faster. Not to mention the fact that guards, whom she had not managed to see before, came out from the shadows and brought up their weapons. Not that they would do any good against her.

Now granted her technique… it wasn't very hard to spot unfortunately. It really explained the men's nervous actions. The massive buildup of ki just under her skin had the tendency to make her eyes glow.

While this was kinda cool and unnerving, it wasn't the most comfortable of feelings. But she could handle it if it would get her out of this creepy place.

'NOW!' Her ki burst out, destroying the ropes tying her up. In retrospect it was actually a good thing that she wasn't wearing her clothes. This technique had the tendency to tear them to shreds. The shockwave blew past the men surrounding her, who once again chanted faster, and knocked down the guards.

Jay smirked evilly and ran towards the nearest man who looked panicked, judging by his eyes. 'Oh you better be nervous. Cause I'm about to beat the meaning of pain into your head.'

Or so she thought. As she ran towards him, all of a sudden the chanting stopped and the man suddenly looked victorious and smug. Immediately after that, the symbol on the ground glowed red and started to... come apart?

The lines of the symbol wrapped around her to try to hold her back. Their mere touch burned like hell but even so, she fought through the pain and pushed even more of her ki out as she fought to reach the man who thought he had won.

The man's smug look slowly fell to disbelief and even… horror? Nevermind that, right now that look, looked good to Jay. Step by step, inch by inch she neared the end of the circle.

However with each step she took, the more ki she pumped out to fuel her strength… the lines became even stronger and it was then that she realized what the lines were doing. 'It's sealing my ki. Well I won't go out without a fight!' Even as the lines wrapped around her face, she grabbed the man's robe and shouted as she knocked him to the floor.

Something which surprised would have surprised her, if it wasn't for the fact that she knew her ki was being locked away. Not a moment after she did that, the glowing red lines cooled down and just like that, her battle aura shut down.

Yet even though she was down on one knee, exhausted, panting and as weak as she had been when she first came to this world, if not weaker than that… no one came close to her. In fact when she looked up at the others she saw that they were all looking at her in shock and awe… not to mention terror.

Jay got up to run but her legs gave out on her and she fell to the floor, groaning in pain. Whatever those lines were, they made her whole body ache like she had worked out for days without any breaks. And no matter how much she called on her ki, it wouldn't come out.

She could still feel it inside of her but for whatever reason it wouldn't… it was hard to describe. Jay could still control it, and felt it responding to her commands as it moved throughout her body, almost as though it was looking for a way out. Like there was a wall that now kept it at bay.

The lines on her body had become a kind of tattoo that covered her whole body in a very bizarre design. However she didn't have time to wonder what design her new tattoo had, as the guards had apparently worked through their fear of her feat of strength and brought her to her feet and trekked her up out of what she presumed was their dungeon.

Eventually she was brought in through a really big set of doors. 'Which only ever means one thing… this is either a king or… a big old giant. Which to be honest I would not be surprised if that ended up being the case at this point.'

When she was roughly thrown to the ground, she looked up to see a normal looking king… at least if one considered a 6 foot tall, extremely buff chinese guy with long spiky long hair to be a normal looking king. Said king looked extremely menacing as he glared down at Jay from his throne.

"So this is the girl that gave my men so much trouble down in the sealing room? The one with such powerful ki that she earned marks covering her entire body and even that barely managed to bring her down?" The king questioned, his tone clearly suggesting that he couldn't believe that for an instant.

A man came up to the king and bowed. "Your majesty, I assure you that this is no jest. This girl almost managed to break out of the circle when it was activated. And even then she still managed to withstand the sealing powers of the ritual and even used her ki to knock one of your priests to the floor."

The king stared at Jay for a long while and before long, she felt something poking at her locked away ki. However as quickly as the feeling appeared, it went away. 'What was that?'

Eventually the king smiled, called his guards and ordered them to bring his oldest son. When the guard returned he had brought the king's son. Who, for the record, looked nothing like his son. Long pink hair and a lean build.

To her surprise, it wasn't Herb. He still looked like the kind of person that somehow managed to look like a twig, though still looked like he could snap you in half like a twig. Needless to say, Jay didn't think she should mess with him. Not even if she still had her ki or her male body.

"Yes Father?" The boy asked. He looked to be about 14 or 15 years old and wore what was probably the traditional outfit for the royal prince.

The king smiled at his son and said, "Son, I would like you to meet your new wife."

Needless to say, that was not what Jay, or the king's son expected to hear. "Wife!" They both shouted.

The king ignored his son's outburst and instead looked at Jay furiously, his battle aura flared. His aura actually scared her. "Womenfolk should learn their place!" And immediately he shot off a wave of ki that hit the side of her face, almost like a slap.

Jay instinctively reached for her own ki to retaliate, only for her new tattoo to start to glow a bright red and suddenly it felt as though her whole body was on fire. "AHH!" The burning lasted well after Jay had stopped pulling on her ki, gasping as she tried to recover from the pain.

The king laughed at the pain his prisoner was in. "Your efforts are worthless! None can use their ki once the seal ritual has been completed. And even though you can still reach your's momentarily, the seal on your skin will punish you until you are too weak to continue. It's pointless to try."

However now he had angered her, which may have been why she shouted, "I'll never stop trying, you hear! I don't know what you did to me but I will never submit and willingly become someone's wife!" the word "wife", being spat out like a curse word.

If the aura the king had before had scared her, the blood red aura of rage he had now, terrified her. "You listen here little girl! You have no rights here! You have no room to refuse me when I command you to do something! Now you will do as I say and become my son's obedient wife! Do you understand!"

Even though Jay was sure she was currently trying to shake out of her skin at the moment, she stood her ground. However weak that ground was. "I said, never!"

"Maybe some time as an ordinary prisoner will soften you and break that damn pride you amazons always seem to come here with. Come back when you're ready to submit your will to mine and my son's."

As the guard whisked her away, Jay caught sight of the son who was staring at her in what looked to be a whole bunch of emotions. But the one emotion she understood was… sadness?

'Weird kid.' That was the last thought she had before she was escorted out of the room and her life changed again for what seemed like the millionth time.

However unlike all the times before, this time Jay got the distinct feeling that she wasn't going to enjoy this particular change. And soon she would come to realize just how right she was about that. The coming times would make her wish she had never challenged the Musk emperor.

(End of Chapter 4)

"Nāozhǒng." Means useless or weakling. It's a pretty severe insult in chinese.