Chapter 8

Ranma grinned at Kasumi, "Oh come on Kasumi, you know there's nothing wrong with it, let's do it!"

"But Ranma, are you sure? What would people say? I'm not sure it's proper"

"Oh come on Kasumi, it will be fun, and nobody will ever know…."

"Yes, but I'm still worried that somebody would find out…it just seems wrong."

"Kasumi! It's a natural thing, besides, I need this, I really do."

"All right Ranma, I think you're right, I just feel so bad doing this"

Ranma took her hand, opened the door…and proceeded into the abandoned ice cream shop. "Come on Kasumi, it'll just go bad anyways. Everyone's gone, we might as well enjoy ourselves until we figure out how to get back." The two of them started helping themselves. Ranma was decidedly hungrier than normal. The drain on his Ki had sent his appetite through the roof. Before long, Ranma had made them both some huge bowls of ice cream and they were both digging in.

Ranma smiled at the uncharacteristic fun that Kasumi was having. When they had woken up this morning, they had enjoyed a quiet breakfast and then Ranma had helped Kasumi clean up. Normally, Ranma would have been arguing with Akane by then, but with her no longer present to vent her ever present anger and indignation, he had some quiet time available. He knew Kasumi was kind of spooked by being alone, so he again volunteered to help her clean up breakfast. It was a strange feeling to be able to help somebody, to just be nice and polite, without somebody either misinterpreting his actions, or having his father calling him weak for doing non-martial arts activities. For as long as he could remember, he never had time to relax and really socialize with anybody. As he had learned recently, he was so fixated on the Art that everything else had taken a back seat. It felt surprisingly good to just be helping somebody without being made to feel guilty about it. That pleasant feeling, combined with Kasumi's radiant smile put Ranma in such a good mood, that he was more than happy to spend the morning looking for any other people that might still be in this world.

Kasumi was just as pleasantly surprised by this morning's activities, but for different reasons. Ever since her mother had died, she had shouldered the responsibilities of the household. She was surprised at how quickly her father let her assume the role, and how little her sisters helped out as they grew older. Well, she shouldn't really think that, after all Nabiki had helped finance the family for the last few years, but Kasumi had a feeling that Nabiki performed that function for as much for her own desires as for the needs for the family. Who would have thought that such a potentially dangerous turn of events could have allowed her to experience such a pleasing diversion from her daily duties.

True, the day had started in somewhat familiar territory. She was the first to wake as usual, and as she was finishing breakfast, Ranma had come downstairs. Instead of the usual morning spar with his father, Ranma kept her company in the kitchen, and had talked with her as they both ate breakfast. Afterward, he had helped her clean up, and seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood. Even though she had wanted to see if anybody else was here except them, she suggested that Ranma take some time in the dojo first. He had then surprised her by suggesting they go search for others, and they soon were walking through Nerima searching for any sign of life.

They had both walked for well over an hour when Kasumi finally talked about both of their unspoken feelings. "Ranma, I'm afraid we really are the only ones here. Do you think we could go back to the house for a bit? I know there's nobody there either, but the familiar surroundings make me a little more comfortable."

"Sure Kasumi, no problem"

On the walk back, Ranma's stomach started announcing it was time for its mid morning feeding "Hey Kasumi, how 'bout a little snack before lunch?"

"Certainly Ranma, or we could head back to the house and I'd be happy to make something for you."

"No, I have a better idea, follow me." He decided to convince her that the ice cream shop would be perfect.

------------------------------

As they finished their frozen treats, Ranma argued with himself whether to tell Kasumi about the Ki drain or not. Ranma finally decided that the issue could wait, but that he should at least bring up what they should do while they were waiting to see if Cologne came up with anything or not. Before he could bring up the matter, Kasumi broke the food-induced silence.

"Ranma, do you have any new ideas on what happened yesterday?"

"Nope, not a one. Well, I shouldn't say nothing" he paused. "There is one thing really odd that I've noticed, but I'm not sure what it means."

"What would that be?"

"Well, remember when we first got zapped by that blue scroll thingie" he began. "When everybody first faded away, I had this weird feeling that everything around us wanted to drain my Ki levels. When it first started, I tried to resist the drain, only it seemed that the stuff around us started to go gray, and my danger sense went off that to close off my Ki would have been a very bad idea. Since then it's been drawin' on me ever since. I'm not sure what it means, but I'm pretty sure it means that were not in the regular Nerima any more."

Kasumi furrowed her brow while thinking. "Could you show me what you did?"

"OK…but only for a moment." Ranma shut his eyes and concentrated on stopping the flow of Ki to the surrounding environment. When the transfer had stopped, he opened his eyes, only Kasumi wasn't looking at him anymore, she was staring at the shop around them.

Gone were the bright colors of the ice cream parlor. The smells of ice cream and chocolate were gone, and the shop seemed even quieter than before. As Ranma turned to look behind him, a spoon that was on the edge of the table fell to the floor. To their surprise, it did not make the loud clatter they expected, but instead produced a muffled clinking. Once again, Ranma's danger sense started screaming at him, and he immediately re-established the Ki flow. At once, the colors, sounds and smells of the shop returned, and his danger sense fell silent.

"Oh my" said Kasumi as she continued to look around the shop.

"Yeah. Not sure what it means exactly, but I've got a real strong feeling that if I stopped the Ki flow, it would stay like that. I'm not sure why it looks like that, but I know it sends my danger sense off the scale" he admitted.

"So it really does look like we were sent somewhere else then?"

"Sorry about that…but…yeah, I think we were. I'm sorry again I got you into this Kasumi"

For some strange reason, Kasumi immediately brightened. "Nonsense! I'm sure we'll get back, and until then, I'm having a wonderful time."

A wonderful time? He thought. I know it's a nice change of pace to have things quiet for me, but why should Kasumi be enjoying it? "I don't understand Kasumi, why are you having a good time?"

Kasumi focused her gaze on Ranma. "Because this is so different! And it's an adventure! And…" she stopped.

"And what?"

She paused, deciding whether to be completely honest with him or not. "And I don't have to share it with anybody" she confessed.

"What do you mean, share it with anybody?" Ok, now he was seriously confused, first she wasn't freaked out by this place, and now she doesn't want to share it with anybody?

"Ranma, ever since my mother died, I've been taking care of my family. At first, everybody just kept to themselves. All father did was sit around and reminisce. Nabiki started up her moneymaking activities, and Akane decided she wanted to become the next great martial artist. Things were pretty dull for a long while, and all I had to look forward to was taking care of the house and the family. I never told anybody else, but Mother asked me to watch over the family before she died, and I promised her that I would. I loved her very much, and I never planned to break that promise." She paused, thinking about what she wanted to say next.

"Once you came along, everything changed. All the life in the house that had been absent returned. Yes, it was a bit crazy" she saw the look on Ranma's face and corrected herself "Alright, a lot crazy, but it was exciting. The only thing was…" she paused, looking uncomfortable about continuing.

"Go on" prompted Ranma.

"The only thing was, everybody had fun….but me" she finally said. "Oh I know, it wasn't all fun and games, but every time something bizarre happened to Akane, I secretly wished it might have happened to me. I know it sounds strange, but if you had been stuck in a house doing chores day after day for years, you'd look forward to new things just as much."

Ranma didn't say anything right at first. It was true; he had taken Kasumi for granted almost as much as everybody else had. Kasumi's servitude was such an accepted thing around the Tendo household that he had never thought about it himself. He always just assumed that she wanted to take care of things. It had never occurred to him that she might be doing it for…honor's sake. "Kasumi…I am so sorry. I should have known…"

"Nonsense" she countered. "You were a guest in the house. Did anybody ever tell you otherwise? Did I ever complain or drop a hint?"

"No, but…"

"No buts about it, it was my decision, and I accepted the consequences." She looked out the window of the shop. "Although it doesn't mean that I don't appreciate a change, even one as strange as this."

Ranma was speechless. Here he had been feeling sorry for himself lately, and Kasumi was understandably more depressed about her life than he was. He was about to utter more apologies when he realized that the best thing he could do for her was to help her enjoy their visit to this world, for however long it might last.

Kasumi sat looking at Ranma, waiting for him to digest what she had just told him. It brought a lightness to her spirit when he finally said "All right Kasumi. Let's make your stay here as fun as possible. Heck, we both may as well enjoy the time off from family and duty."

His statement was rewarded with one of the most beautiful smiles he had ever seen on a female. "Thank you Ranma, that would be very nice indeed."

--------------------------

Not far away, but still separated by a different yesterday, Hikaru had given up looking for the creatures of this world for the night. He had walked from one end of Nerima to the other, and found no sign of inhabitants of any type. As he walked the empty streets, it seemed to him that the night came a little quicker than he expected. He checked his watch and it said it was only about 3:30. Hmmm, the watch must not be working quite right.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out some of the food he had stashed there earlier. Like before, it had lost its dullness and seemed normal enough. He downed the few morsels he had and found a nice abandoned house that would do as his home tonight. He calmly strode through the front door and within a few minutes had located a suitable bedroom. The stress of the day hit him and he went promptly to sleep.

Authors Note: I'd like to thank many of you for some really good suggestions. I've tried to work in the ones that I thought would help and that stayed consistent with where I'm taking the story. It's true, I've painted Akane and Nabiki as a bit more harsh than they might be, but I still think that the cumulative effect of their negative behavior would be enough to turn anyone off, and that shouldn't be ignored.

Again, thanks for the positive reviews. I really appreciate them! I'm amazed at how much it motivates me!

And thanks to Rogue7 for catching my little continuity error in this chapter!