Bleu, also known to other people as Deis, was residing within her little desert cave, her upper torso comfortably resting on top of her green coils. All around her, her spirit guardians were floating, doing the domestic chores.
The snake woman sighed as she looked into the crystal ball that was attached to her magical rod. In it, she could see a young girl in the garments of a fighter, with much sorrow written on her furry face.
"And for all those years I have been hoping that she might forget her previous life..." She sighed. "Guess I was wrong..."
She turned around her head when one of her spirit servants came floating up to her. "Lady Bleu, we just finished with the weekly cleaning of your dwelling. Do you have some other wish?"
The sorceress absent-mindedly waved her hand. "No, you can leave... I'll call you if I need you again."
The ghost nodded. "As you wish, mistress!"
The five or so spirits then simply vanished into the cavern's floor. Bleu really liked to have them around, servants like that could come in handy sometimes...
But today, she preferred to be by herself for a while... She had to think about what her actions had caused.
Especially for a certain, red-haired Woren girl now commonly known as Katt.
"Did I do a mistake?" she muttered to herself. "Should I have left you alone when I heard your mental cries of anguish? You did find good friends in this world, after all..."
Suddenly, her thoughts were being interrupted by a blue flash, coming from a certain mirror that was hanging in one corner of her cave.
"Bleu, where are you? I know you can hear me, so answer me, dammit!"
With a sigh, the serpentine sorceress unsnarled her coils and slithered over to the mirror. She recognized that voice very well...
"Well, look who finally called," she said as she was in front of the mirror. "Long time no see, Cologne-chan!"
"Spare me that nonsense!" the wrinkled, Chinese matriarch that was visible in the mirror snapped back. "I've just learned that a certain young man from my homeworld got in contact with your mirror - yes, the same mirror I am just looking into - and I would like to know what happened to him. Admit it - this is one of your stupid little ploys, is it?"
"Why, Cologne, I'm hurt! Please, let's not jump to conclusions here, okay? What makes you believe I know anything of a boy that vanished in your world? Do you even know for sure that it was my mirror who made him vanish?"
"Don't play any games with me, Bleu, I'm not in the mood for this! Admit it already, you saw him, right? The mirror has never left your possession, and I know that none of my other artifacts would have made him disappear into thin air like that. I also have the testimony of a very believable witness who saw that the boy touched your mirror... so where is he?"
Bleu sighed. She knew Cologne wouldn't stop pestering her until she either told her the truth or she buried her mirror fifty feet below the desert's sand.
As she treasured her magical mirror, she decided to confess.
"Alright, I admit it, it was I who pulled him into our world. Satisfied?"
"How... how could you do this, Bleu? You have never acted this irrational before. Have you ever thought about what his family would think? Or his friends? What about the girl he loves?"
"Love? LOVE? I'll tell you what I think about that! I looked into Ranma's mind, and what I found within his memories shocked me. SHOCKED, with a capital S! That poor boy never could feel the true 'joie de vivre', as the French put it. His parents wanted to turn him into the perfect Martial Artist and never considered if there might be something else he's interested in. His mother always pestered him to be 'manly' and even made him sign a Seppuku contract! His father is a greedy fool that sells his son's hand for food, brings him to a cursed place and uses more than questionable training practices. I don't have to remind you about the Neko-ken, do I?"
"Well... true, but from what I know, he still loves them, does he? And what about his fiancee and friends?"
"His fiancee? Don't make me laugh! The only thing that girl cares about is to satisfy her own delusions. 'All boys are perverts!' 'Ranma no baka!' Sound familiar? And I don't want to get started about all the other people in his life. They have all been after him, either to marry him against his own will, to kill him, or both! And you and your dim-witted tribe of barbarians just added to the Chaos!" The sorceress shook her head. "No, Cologne! He might miss his home, but he has it much better in this new world! He has TRUE friends now, and he knows what it means to be accepted... even though I should maybe say 'she' instead of 'he'."
"Aren't you a bit overreacting?" Cologne sweatdropped. "And what do you mean, 'she'?"
Bleu shrugged. "I decided to help him a bit further to come to terms with what he - now she - is. I altered the curse, removing his male side completely. Now she will never have to worry about being splashed with cold water anymore."
"WHAT?! But why did you remove his MALE side, Bleu? He was born a male, you know?"
"Might be," the snake woman said. "But he also had massive difficulties to accept a female as what she is... You know, all that anti-female-propaganda his father had drilled into his head? Now she had no choice but to come to terms with her femininity, and look at how happy she is! And while I was at it, I also did something about that horrible phobia of his."
"Don't tell me... you managed to cure his fear of cats?"
"Well, kinda... she cured herself, I would say. I just turned her into a Woren... you remember, the cat-people from my world?"
"BLEU!!" the Amazon matriarch screeched. "How is THAT supposed to help with his fear? You could have given the poor boy... well, girl... a serious trauma!"
"Well, I used some mental magic to make sure that she would not suffer any permanent damage from it... and in the end, she did what she did with her 'girl problem'... she overcame her fear and accepted what she was. And besides, the number of Worens in my world has dropped at an alarming rate over the past years... so I took care of that problem at the same time."
"I don't believe you..." Cologne shook her head. "You are seriously telling me that being separated from his family, being robbed of his manhood and being turned into a cat-person hasn't made a mental wreck out of him?"
Bleu shrugged. "Well, I helped her find a new job, at a coliseum... and of course I never told her that it was I who brought her here. I just said it was a magical accident... and that the path who brought her here would only go one way."
"And therefore you destroyed her final hope of ever returning home," Cologne seethed.
"Well, it only helped her, see? Now that she believes there will never be a way back to that hellhole of a life she had, she won't make her life even more miserable to try and find a way back."
"Bleu, her life wasn't nearly as miserable as you describe it. And who does she know in your world? No one!"
"That's where you are wrong, Cologne-chan!" the snake woman smirked knowingly. "Just two months after working in the coliseum, she met a young warrior who was on his own journey to save a friend... and together with various other companions, they went on a dangerous quest to stop an evil force from conquering this world."
She spread her arms. "All of these brave heroes, including sweet little moi, are better friends to her than those lunatics from your 'Nerima' will ever be."
Cologne sighed and stayed silent for a short while.
"You know I won't stay silent with this, right?" she then spoke up again. "As it was my own great-granddaughter who brought Ranma - indirectly - in contact with your mirror, I see it as my duty to tell his family where he has vanished to. And I will also tell them that there is a way to get him back... And believe me, Bleu, when I meet Ranma ever again..."
"Katt!" Bleu interrupted. "Her new name is Katt!"
"Whatever! If I ever meet her again, I swear, I will tell her the truth about what you did! And then you'll see that she will prefer her REAL home over that false life in your world."
Cologne's wrinkled face vanished from the mirror, and shortly after, the blue shimmering of its surface went out.
Bleu groaned as she collapsed on top of her coils. "Well, nuts!" she grumbled. "Now what am I supposed to do?"
Princess Nina of Windia was sitting inside her chamber, carefully preening her shiny, black wings.
She was glad that finally, the residents of her kingdom were accepting her in spite of her black wings. As for that old granny who had spread the rumor that her black wings would one day bring misfortune for the royal family... well, her father had her fired.
Still, she was a bit sad, as the reason she had to learn so much about what it meant to be a princess, was that her younger sister, Mina, was not able to fill the part of the crown princess anymore... as she had sacrificed her humanity to become the Big Bird.
True, she kept her human mind, and she only did so because the heroic group of friends Nina was a part of needed some sort of transportation to the island where Evrai, the main headquarters of the deceitful St. Eva church, was situated.
Still, the original plan had been that it was Nina who wanted herself to be turned into the Great Bird... but as Mina didn't want her older sister to suffer more than she already had by the results from being banished from the castle, she took her place.
Well, at least she was in good hands with the royal caretakers... and she got to enjoy the freedom of flight.
Nina's thoughts got interrupted, when someone knocked at her door.
One of her chambermaids looked into her room. "Princess Nina... your friends have arrived!"
Nina smiled as she stood up from the stool in front of her mirror. She had been looking forward to this visit for weeks.
"Please, let them in."
The chambermaid bowed, her own white wings almost knocking over the vase that was standing next to the door. "Right away, my lady!"
Shortly after she vanished, two familiar faces appeared in the door.
Katt grinned as she stepped into the royal bedroom. "Heya, Nina! How's our favorite princess today?"
Nina chuckled. Her best friend's cheerful manner always managed to improve her mood. "Hello, Katt! Patty, it's been a long time!"
The dragon-winged girl stepped in behind her feline friend. "Well, we had nothing better to do, so we just had to make a tour around the world to visit our friends, right? Hey, nice dress!"
Nina looked down at the pale blue dress she was wearing. "Well, yes... my mother insisted I should wear at least sometimes some garments that are befitting a princess..." She sighed. "I still prefer my old wizard robes, though..."
"Well, I like it," Patty said approvingly. "It suits your black wings."
"Th-thank you," Nina blushed. "Um, and what do you think, Katt?"
"Well, I'm no expert," the Woren replied. "But I think it looks good. Still, I would never wear it myself..."
Patty giggled. "Yeah, you're more the tomboyish person, I know."
"Hey, a dress wouldn't do any good in the coliseum, right?" Katt asked impishly.
"Weeellll, I don't know..." Nina said with amusement. "Maybe not a dress, but what about a short skirt? Just the right thing to distract your male opponents, right?"
"Oh, ha ha, very funny!" Katt grumbled as her two winged friends laughed.
"Okay then, shall we go downstairs?" Nina asked. "We have prepared a big banquet just for your visit... and I still haven't introduced you to my parents, Patty!"
"Um... you really think the king and queen are willing to meet a person like me? I mean, I am known as 'Phantom Thief'..."
"Oh, they know that you are Ryu's sister, as well as my friend, so they would treat you as they would any visitor to the castle. Don't be so shy now, they won't bite."
"Um, okay... if you say so..."
Katt snickered as she followed Nina and the reluctant Patty.
But just as they were going to leave the room, a strange noise was heard behind them.
Patty blinked. "That somehow sounded as if... someone just flushed a toilet."
"What's going on here?" Nina asked as she turned around. Then she gasped. "Oh no, my bed!"
On top of her bed, a tangled mass of bodies was squirming, as the four people up there were trying to get free from each other, and the silky bed sheets that had wrapped themselves around their limbs and torsos.
"Ack! Ryoga, you're heavy! Get off me!"
"I would like to, but - GARGL - whatever has wrapped itself around my neck is choking me..."
"Ukyo, get your spatula out of my face!"
"I can't! Shampoo is clinging to my leg!"
"A-HEM!"
The loud cough made the four teenagers turn around their heads in confusion.
The blonde, attractive girl that was dressed in an elaborate, pale blue gown, and had black wings sprouting out of her backside, was standing in front of them... and she didn't look to amused.
"May I ask who you are... and what you are doing in my bedroom?"
"Um, sorry about that," the boy with the spotted bandana around his head muttered as he freed himself from the bed sheets. "We appeared her by accident..."
"With your sense of direction, I wonder we didn't end up in Antarctica, sugar," the girl with the strange tools strapped to her body murmured, while a lavender-haired girl was clinging to her leg. "Shampoo, let go of me already!"
"We shouldn't have brought her with us..." the short-haired girl grumbled as she stood up from the bed. "I mean, as soon as we find Ranma, she will hang all over him again, I'm sure."
The lavender-haired girl looked hurt, but she didn't reply, instead, she just let go of her friend's leg and sat down on the bed quietly.
"Excuse me, but you still haven't answered my question!" Nina said in an irritated voice. "Who are you?"
"Well, I'm Akane Tendo, this is Ryoga Hibiki, and over there are Ukyo Kuonji and... Shampoo."
"Okay, but what are you doing here?"
Ryoga scratched his head. "Well, as I said, we came here by accident... Actually, we are looking for a friend of ours, Ranma..."
A dull 'thud' suddenly made them all look over to the other side of the room, where a certain girl with red hair and a tiger-striped tail had just collapsed on the ground. Her finger was pointing right at the four strangers and was shaking uncontrollably, while tears were appearing in her eyes.
"A... A... Akane...? G... guys...? How... how are you...? I thought..."
Akane and the other looked past the winged princess and saw the miserable cat-girl sitting on the floor.
Akane frowned. "Do we know her?"
Ukyo laughed. "Oh, come on! How many cat girls have we ever met in our life?"
Ryoga looked closer. "I don't know, but... guys, just imagine a pigtail attached to the back of her head, and think away the fur and tail... who do you see?"
Akane gasped. "RANMA!"
After hearing that name for a long time again, the young Woren suddenly pulled back and crouched in the corner of the room. "I'm... I'm not... I'm not who I used to be, Akane... I can't... I can't turn back..."
Now Patty and Nina were confused. Turn back into what? Who were those guys? Why does their appearance seem to frighten Katt that much?
"Ranma, please, look at me!" Akane pleaded and took a step closer. Katt winced and shuffled even further away.
Patty had seen enough. "Hey, I don't know who you are, but can't you see you're scaring her? And why are you calling her 'Ranma'? Her name is Katt!"
Akane stared at the blue-winged dragon girl. "I just happen to be her fiancee, and we haven't seen each other for two years."
"Her FIANCEE?" Patty shouted in surprise. She looked over at her friend. "Katt, you never told me you were a lesbian!"
"I'm... I'm not," Katt said in a quiet voice. She seemed to calm down a bit more. "Well, I... it's a long story, Patty..."
"I don't get it..." Ukyo said while shaking her head. "If that is Ranma, why... Why does she look like a cat?"
"Ukyo, you didn't listen to what Cologne told us, right?" Ryoga groaned. "Somehow, when she came here, she got turned into THIS! And on top of that, she lost her male form."
"It doesn't matter," Akane said. "I finally found you again, Ranma... you can come back! We... we will find a way to cure you, don't worry! C'mon, let's go!"
She stretched out her hand, but before she could touch the flinching Woren, Nina stepped in front of her. "Excuse me, but whatever your reason to be here is, you can't just come and take her with you. I want to hear the full story behind this, understood?" Nina was now in full princess-mode.
Akane frowned back at her. "And who are you? Another new fiancee hussy? Listen, girl, I'm already fed up with those two pieces of excess baggage back there..." ("Hey!" Ukyo shouted.) "...and I'm not going to let you take away my Ranma!"
Nina gasped and stuttered: "H-hussy? HUSSY?" She was downright shocked, no one had ever talked to her like this, even back when nobody knew that she was of noble birth.
But this...
"Listen up, I am the crown princess of Windia, and your behavior within my very own chambers is an OUTRAGE! Apologize, or I will have the guards escort you out of my castle... or into the dungeons, if you prefer!"
"Why you little..." Akane snarled.
She was going to take another step towards the black-winged princess, but Shampoo quickly stepped in-between them and shook her head.
"What do you want, Shampoo? Out of the way!"
Shampoo again firmly shook her head and spread her arms. Her message was clear: No fighting!
Ukyo decided to intervene: "Listen, sugar... Um, I mean, your majesty... we didn't mean to insult you. My friend here is just a bit... edgy, that's all! I'm sure this is all just a big misunderstanding."
"What are you doing, Ukyo?" Akane hissed. "Are you going to listen to that bi..."
"Akane, insulting a member of royalty within her own castle is not what I consider a wise thing to do... Besides, maybe we really misunderstood something... It's not as if we know about the whole story here."
"Very well, you seem to have more common sense than your... friend," Nina sighed, glad that she didn't have to call for the guards. "Okay then, tell me your story!"
"They're... old friends of mine..." Katt's small voice suddenly spoke up from the corner of the room. "Friends I never... never expected to see again."
"Oh... I see," Nina said. "But what was that about a fiancee? Is it common practice in your home country to engage two members of the same gender?"
"But she's a boy!" Ryoga tried to explain.
Patty and Nina looked at their feline friend, then they gave Ryoga weird looks.
"Ryoga, it has been nice of you to come along as our bodyguard, but please leave this to me," Ukyo sighed. "Listen, Ranma..."
"Her name is KATT!" Patty snapped.
Ukyo grimaced. "Okay, KATT... isn't really a girl. She was born as a boy. He just has been changed by... a curse."
"A curse?" Nina looked at Katt. "I've never heard of a curse that has changed a person's gender..."
"She... she is right... kinda..." Katt sighed.
"Okay, NOW I'm curious," Patty said. "And confused..."
"It is a long story, as I said," Katt sighed as she stood up. "Nina, can your parents wait for a while until we start with dinner? This might take some time..."