Spar looked at the pile of empty beer and wine bottles. "So, she was here?" he asked Wildcat.

"Oh yes," the restaurant owner smiled. "She left with one of my best customers, Nimufu the witch. She even left me a generous tip for the chaos their little - ahem - drunken rampage through my restaurant caused."

Bow groaned. "Oh no! Not that witch!"

Neither he or Spar had ever met the curvaceous femme fatale, but they had heard enough from her through Ryu, Katt and their other friends.

"Hopefully she hasn't started a new statue collection..." Bow murmured.

Spar shrugged. "Well, we just have to go after them, right?"

"Are you nuts? Do you know where she's living? Her tower is just near SimaFort... we have to travel past Owl Woods, cross the Capitan Channel and walk around all of SimaLake before we can get there."

"What choice do we have? You know Nina and Katt took the Whale Bell."

The dog-man whined. "But I don't wanna walk such a long distance..."

His plant friend pondered something. "Well, I might have another idea..."

"You have?" Bow asked. "Well, out with it!"

Spar gave his friend a knowing smirk. "From what I heard, the younger princess of Windia always had a... little crush for you. And from what Ryu told me, you always were glad whenever she came to HomeTown."

Bow sweatdropped. "I know what you're getting at..." he mumbled. "Spar, please don't..."

"But what's so wrong about it?" Spar asked. "You like her, she likes you, we need to get to SimaLake, and the best way to do it is by asking Mina a favor..."

"But she's the Great Bird now!" Bow protested. "You think she's still interested in me? Besides, you know that Katt is my only love now!"

"I know, I know, but what I mean is, you two are best friends, so why not ask her if she can carry us there? She certainly will be happy for a change."

"All right, all right..." The hunter grumbled. "But only this once, you hear me?"

Akane looked around Nimufu's chambers. "Say, these pieces of furniture look expensive. Furnishing this tower must have cost you a fortune!"

"Ah, never mind that!" the young witch grinned sheepishly. "I inherited the whole tower from my mother when she died, including furniture, magical equipment and guardian monsters."

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that," Akane said. "My mother is dead as well... I mean, what I want to say is: Thank you for letting me stay the night here, Nimufu! I don't know anyone in this world, and I don't think I want to go back home just now..."

"Hey, I understand!" Nimufu said. "And don't worry, it's not a big deal. I have a big amount of space and the only ones I have shared these walls with are my imbecile servants... you try commanding an entire troops of monsters whose only interest is in killing anyone who enters the tower."

"If you don't like them, why didn't you already get rid of them?" Akane asked in surprise.

Nimufu grimaced. "Well, they are kinda my mother's creations... she always had tried to remove their bloodthirsty habits. I just wanted to finish her life work, but I still wasn't able to turn the monsters into polite cohabitants."

Akane chuckled. "I can see how that gives you troubles with the boys..."

Nimufu nodded. "Yeah, it's kinda hard to invite a nice guy when the only place you have to offer him is this dark tower filled with monsters. And that always made me so angry..." She sighed. "For some time, I tried forcing young men to be my boyfriends, but that never worked... In my rage, I always turned them into stone statues."

Now Akane was a bit worried. "You won't do the same thing to me, will you?"

The witch shook her head. "No, I'm past that. Ever since that one day, I never forced anyone to enter my tower against his will. I also released everyone I had under my spell up to then." She looked down. "But the worst thing is that these little fits of rage turned away the very last friends I had..."

Akane felt pity for the pink-haired girl. She could relate to her experiences. Only that she never turned anyone into stone... she just gave them a mallet-bashing.

"And you... never had anyone who entered your tower willingly? Someone that liked you for what you are?"

"There... there was someone," Nimufu sniffed. "He was nice... and charming... and fairspoken... Damn, he's even a prince!"

Akane frowned. That almost sounded too good. There had to be a catch. "So... what was the problem?"

Nimufu stared at her. "The problem was... that he is a FROG! A green, slimy, disgusting FROG! And there's nothing that I hate more than frogs!" She retched. "They are just so... yucky!"

"You... had a frog as your visitor?" Akane murmured. 'A frog prince?' she thought to herself.

"He... he's the prince of the frog people in SimaFort, in the middle of the great lake nearby," Nimufu sniffed. "I suppose I can't really blame them... See, when I was a kid, I once entered the laboratory in which my Mom did her magical experiments. She didn't see me when I entered the room... I could see a bucket standing next to her... a bucket full of dead FROGS! And then... then she... she picked up one of those frog corpses and she..." Another retch. "She DISSECTED it!"

Akane blanched. She could imagine how that would traumatize a young child.

"I turned him down. But he just wouldn't quit. He always came for a visit and never left me alone. I don't really know why I never turned him into stone or why I told the guardian monsters to never harm him, but... whenever I looked into his eyes, I saw that they were full with... gentleness! And love!" She shuddered. "I could never harm a person that was so full of compassion for me. If only..." By now she was crying. "If only he weren't a... frog!"

"What happened?" Akane asked as she sat down next to the distraught witch.

"I... I asked him to stop visiting me, but he said that he couldn't do such a thing, 'for his heart was yearning to get to know me personally'. These words... they gave me such a yucky image in my head that I couldn't stand it anymore. And then I did something I'm regretting to this very day. I turned him into... into a frog!"

Akane blinked. "Huh?"

"I mean, into a real frog! He actually looks half human in his normal form, but I turned him into an actual, giant frog and forced him to live in the swamps. I don't know what I was thinking... but at that time, I believed that this was the perfect place for such disgusting creatures as frogs to live."

"Oh boy," Akane sighed. "But you did turn him back?"

"Well, in a matter of speaking..." the witch sniffed. "A group of adventurers came into my tower. My monsters were no challenge for me. They had met the frog in the woods and asked me to take the spell of him. In the end, I told them the only way to cure him. A beautiful girl had to... had to kiss him. I could have done it myself, but you might understand the reasons why I couldn't do it." Another sniff. "In the end, one of the adventurers gave him the kiss that freed him from my spell. From what I heard, it was a young Woren who did it, you know, one of those cat people. I think I saw her when they came into my chambers. She had red hair and carried a long stick.

Akane froze. She couldn't be speaking of Ranma, could she?

"It was that girl who yelled at me the most for transforming the prince," Nimufu sniffed. "She asked me if I cared about his feelings at all. And then she said something... Up to now, I never understood the reason why. She called me an 'uncute tomboy'." She snickered. "I mean, look at the way I dress. Is that something a tomboy would do? Maybe the strangeness of this situation was what pulled me out of my misery and made me tell them the secret... as well as turning all of my victims back into flesh."

Akane was silent. Could it really be? Was Ranma angry at Nimufu because... her actions had reminded her of... of herself? Of Akane Tendo? Was that the reason why she called her that?

'Maybe... maybe I was a little too violent...' Akane thought. 'Maybe I should have treated him a bit better... Maybe this is one of the reasons why all of this ended like this.'

But there was still a question unanswered. A question she would like to hear the answer of.

"And... what did the prince do after they turned him back?" she asked. "Does he..." She hesitated. "Does he hate you now?"

"NO!" Nimufu cried. "He might not be as persistent as before, but he still sends me letters and asks me to meet him. He never blamed me once for what I did too him. He is just so... sooo... generous!" She blushed. "I would never... never deserve such a gentle man like him... Besides, he's still, well... a frog!"

Akane didn't ask if that was really the reason why she didn't answer to his letters... that he was a frog.

But that meant that this frog prince still seemed to love her. But Nimufu... what about her? Did she love him? Or did she not?

She didn't dare ask her new-found friend that question, but... no matter if Ranma - Katt - loved her or not - would Akane be able to accept her just as a friend? Or would she end up as miserable as the young witch?

Nimufu sniffed. "Thanks for having listened to my story," she said. "It must have been pretty boring for you..."

"No!" Akane said quickly. "Not at all!"

Nimufu giggled. "You're so nice, Akane... I think we might be friends. What do you say?"

Akane smiled. She walked over to the young witch and extended her hand. "Hello, I'm Akane! Would you like to be my friend?"

Nimufu smiled. She accepted Akane's hand and said: "Yes... yes, I'd like that, Akane!"

All of a sudden, a shrill whistle echoed through the chambers. Startled, Akane jumped back. "What was that?"

"The warning signal," Nimufu frowned and walked over to a gleaming crystal ball. "It means that someone is about to enter my tower."

"You... you're not going to do anything to them, are you?" Akane asked.

Nimufu shook her head. "No, I ordered my monsters only to attack someone of I tell them to. But I still wanna see who these unexpected visitors are."

She looked around the room. "Mummy? Where are you?"

Akane blinked. "Didn't you tell me that your mother has already..."

"I'm not calling my Mom," Nimufu grinned. "I'm calling one of my servants: The Magic Mummy!" And she yelled: "DAMMIT, MUMMY, WHERE ARE YOU?"

A tiny imp suddenly dropped down in front of the loud witch. "Excuse me, mistress, but the mummy excuses herself... she is on her lunch break!"

Nimufu fumed. "What?? She can't do that! I need her now! Dammit, I WANT MY MUMMY!!"

"C-calm down, mistress!" the imp that was dressed in a tiny armor stuttered.

Nimufu sighed. "All right, Seenate! You and your pals are gonna welcome the visitors and ask them what they want. If their intentions are not hostile, you'll bring them into my chambers... and don't hurt them unless I tell you to!"

"Y-yes, mistress!" the Seenate squeaked and ran away to fetch his team mates.

The grass man and the canine hunter were being led into the big entrance hall of the tower by the Seenates, where the tower's mistress was already waiting for them. Akane was standing nearby.

Bow smiled. "There you are, Akane! Good thing we found you! You see, Katt and the others wanted us to tell you that they already returned back home, and that you could follow them via the mirror, and that it is now hanging in Castle Windia and..."

"Um, Bow?" Spar interrupted his friend. He gestured at the girl's face, which didn't look too happy.

Akane gritted her teeth as she looked at the dog-boy who stole away her Ranma, the one who made him a girl completely, the one who slobbered her face, the one who...

Nimufu looked at her upset friend and frowned. "It seems like she isn't too overjoyed to see you. Did you two meet in the past?"

Bow nodded. "Yes, we met shortly when we saved Katt from those bandits and she..." Suddenly, he gulped. "Oh no..."

He now clearly remembered that the only time Akane really saw him was when he was giving his girlfriend a kiss... the girl that had once been her fiance.

He chuckled nervously. "Um, about that, you're not too angry at me because of that, right? I mean, Katt has decided she wants to stay a girl, after all... You can't blame me for falling in love, right? So, no hard feelings, okay?"

Suddenly Akane's angry glare turned into a grin. "No hard feelings, eh? Well, okay... I still might forgive you for stealing my boyfriend away from me, but..."

She pulled out her mallet. "How dare you give him a KISS while I was watching? That was the most disgusting, disturbing, gross thing I've ever seen in my life..."

Bow winced. "Um, you can always give her another kiss, if you want. That is, if she agrees, I don't mind at all..."

"Why... why would I EVER want to kiss that disgusting, perverted catgirl? You are right, she isn't Ranma anymore. I would NEVER want to have anything to do with that bitch again! If she's happy with a mutt like you... FINE! I DON'T CARE!"

Nimufu now was pretty confused. "Now wait a minute here... who are we talking about? Katt? wasn't that the red-haired Woren girl I told you about? But if you said she was your fiancee..."

"Katt has been a boy once," Spar explained softly. "She thought she would be trapped in this world forever, so she accepted her role as a girl and... fell in love with Bow."

Nimufu sighed. "Oh, I see... it's one of those complicated 'love triangle' stories..."

"I DON'T LOVE... that is... I couldn't possibly love..." Akane sobbed. She couldn't stay mad at her new friend. "Nimufu, she's a GIRL for god's sake! How could I still possibly love her? And the way she kissed that... that..." She glanced over at Bow with furious eyes. Then she leaned at her new friend's shoulder again and wept.

Nimufu sighed. "Oh boy... when it rains, it pours, right? Well, was there anything else you guys wanted to tell me about?"

"Um, only that if she wants to go back home... she should ask at Castle Windia. And if she wants to come with us, we could always escort her through the woods..."

He then glanced over at Bow. "Although I don't think that would be a good idea anymore..."

"I'd say the same," Nimufu nodded. "Don't worry, if she should decide to leave, I will bring her to Windia. Now, would you two please leave now? You see how upset she is."

"Yes, of course," Bow mumbled. "And I'm really sorry..."

"I don't need your apologies!" Akane snapped. Bow winced and she sighed. "Never mind, just... leave! Just leave!"

Bow decided not to say anything else and simply left, after looking one last time at her.

Nimufu looked at the Seenates. "Escort them outside and make sure that nothing happens to them on their way out."

"Yes, mistress!" their leader saluted.

When the two guests had left, Akane buried her face even deeper in her friend's shoulder while Nimufu patted her head soothingly. "Poor girl... I bored you to death with my stories, and I never saw how you were suffering... and it was much more recent than what happened to me."

"M-maybe we... we can help each other overcome our worries..." Akane sniffed. "I don't know how long I will wait until I return back home, but... in the meantime, could I stay here?"

The young witch smiled. "Of course! That's what I already offered you! Stay as long as you like!"

Akane sighed. She was feeling a bit better. "Thanks, Nimufu! Say... about Ranma..."

"Who?"

"Katt, I mean..." She sighed yet again. "She was called Ranma back when she was a boy. Do you think I should just forget about him... her?"

Nimufu looked at Akane sternly and shook her head. "No, Akane! No, don't you ever forget about him! He was the man you were in love with, and that's something very precious, believe me! I don't know if you can possibly love who he has become, but at least try to understand him, okay? If he really was trapped in this world, living as a girl wasn't exactly his decision alone. I can imagine that he had a very hard time accepting that. And if she and the dog are really in love with each other, imagine what would happen if you were in their place. Would you want to be pulled apart from your beloved one? I know it's pretty much the same that they are doing to you, but with one important difference."

"What... difference?" Akane asked.

"Katt chose to be with Bow, simple as that. And even if it breaks your heart, it is her decision who she wants to be with. And before you go and start calling her a traitor and a bastard, think about what happened to him... her. I can't really say if it is possible to be in love with two persons at once or if he really was in love with you, but if she chooses Bow, you can't do anything about it."

"I... I guess that's true," Akane sniffled.

"And one last thing: Disregarding the fact that seeing her hurts... wouldn't it be much better to have her as a friend than as someone you hate from the bottom of your soul?"

"I... I don't know. It sounds logical, but it is a bit much to take in at once, Nimufu. I guess I should just sleep over it for now..."

Nimufu nodded. "That's a good idea! Come, I've prepared a bed for you. Tonight, you will sleep and forget all your worries, and tomorrow, you can still decide what you're going to do."

Akane had to agree that this was pretty much the only thing she could do.

And maybe - just maybe - Nimufu was right. As long as thinking of Ranma as 'just a friend' stung her heart, it was much better than thinking of her as a 'perverted two-timer'.