Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Ranma, not gonna make any money off this, don't own the Langoliers either!

Chapter 15

"Oh come on" cried Ranma, looking to the heavens. "What do we have to do to get outta here?" He looked back at the key in the lock and turned it back and forth several times. He could feel movement in the lock, but nothing happened.

"Stand back!" he commanded as he moved away from the structure. "I'm going to see if I can blow our way in." In the years of training, he had built his Ki reserves up to the point where most of his Ki-based attacks were functional again. "Moko Takabisha!" he roared. The effort was futile however as the monument showed no sign of damage. That's odd he thought I would have expected to see something happen. It may be strong, but it should show some damage...

"Man this thing is locked up tighter than Nabiki's bank account!" He had left the key in the lock and now sat with his back to a nearby wall. Ranma Saotome may never lose, but right now he was feeling pretty darn frustrated.

"Ranma, we must be missing something..." Kasumi, always the calm cool one. Kasumi may have envied Ranma for his skill in the art, but Ranma always envied Kasumi's ability to stay above it all, to not let the frustrations of everyday life get to her.

"Kasumi, we've been all over the village, heck the countryside. We haven't seen anything. Not one clue. This has to be it! Heck, you saw how my Ki attack didn't even scratch it, but the key doesn't work! Maybe the key got broke coming through with us?" He stared off into the village, not looking at Kasumi.

She wasn't fazed. "No, this has to be it. We've done too much work, too much research. We're missing something." She scrunched her eyebrows together in concentration. This has to be the key, why won't it open for Ran... "I wonder..." she said as she reached for the key.

Kasumi turned the key, and immediately a loud rumbling was heard inside the obelisk. A door opened up in front of them and slowly swung outward, revealing a spiral stairway leading underground.

Kasumi had a huge grin as she turned back to Ranma. "Just needed a woman's touch, that's all."

Ranma shook his head in bewilderment. "But how, I tried that key several times, and it didn't work?"

"And whose village are we in?" she asked. "The Amazon village. As in women leaders, men aren't worthy, and why in the world would they let a mere man open the door to the Amazon treasures?"

"So since you're a girl..."

"...it opened right up for me! Shall we go on down?" she beamed at him.

"Hold on a sec. I need to get a couple of things." He disappeared into a storage hut nearby and retrieved a few torches. When he came back, Kasumi had retrieved a cup of water from the nearby stream.

"What's that for?" he asked her.

"Well, if the Amazons didn't want a man unlocking a door, I wouldn't be surprised if they had more surprises inside that only worked on men."

She handed the cup to Ranma, who didn't say a word, but just placed his hand in the cup, triggering the change. It was strange how long it took for him to realize that rather than dumping water on him, all he had to do was just stick his hand in some water. It really saved on being damp all the time.

After lighting one of the torches, they proceeded down the carved stairway into the chambers below. The stairs went down several flights before opening into a passageway that led to the North. The path seemed to be headed to a nearby rocky hill. When they had traveled enough distance to be under the hill, the tunnel opened into a huge underground chamber. Ranma noticed several torches on the walls and in stands around the area, so he lit one after another.

As the light increased, so did their sense of being overwhelmed by the task before them. Within the chamber were row after row of cabinets, each filled with books, manuscripts and scrolls of unknown content. They were looking at a proverbial haystack of written work, and they weren't even quite sure what the needle they were looking for looked like. To the one side of the chamber was what appeared to be a weapons locker. As they walked around the perimeter of the large chamber, they passed book after book, and if Ranma was correct a storage locker for jewels and gold.

"This may take a little while, huh Kasumi?"

Leave it to Ranma to state the obvious.

With so much before them, it was hard to even decide where to begin. The notes and signs on the top of the bookcases were cryptic, and seemed to be in some archaic forms of Chinese. Since they could perceive no real order in the collection, they decided they might as well start at the area closest to the main door and work there way in. As luck would have it, one of the first books near the entrance was a book on Amazon law. They grabbed as much as they could hold and proceeded back to the entrance. There was no reason to review the material in this gloomy cavern.

When they were back at their new Amazon house, they spread the books and scrolls they had brought up on the large table by the window.

The first book they looked through was the book on Amazon law. Even skimming the book, they recognized several sections that could help them deal with the Amazons if they managed to find their way back. They then started looking through some of the other books they brought back up with them, and as luck would have it, most were dealing with Marital Arts. Within a few minutes, they were both so excited they were interrupting each other.

"Holy cow! Look at these techniques! Man, pop would have sold me ten times over just to get hold of one of these books..."

"Oh My! There are some really interesting ways of controlling your Ki that we hadn't thought of before..."

"Wow, I though Doc Tofu had some good medical books, these old bats have stuff that puts his to shame..."

"I had no idea that Amazon cooking was so fascinating..."

And so on. They had clearly found the Amazon treasure trove, and the two of them knew they were in for a real learning experience.

--

Time passed quickly for the two castaways in the Amazon village. Weeks ran into months, months quickly stretched to years.

One of the things they broke up their exploration of the Amazon written works was the learning of the multitude of Martial Arts techniques found in the books. Ranma was aghast out how little Cologne had shown him of the true repository of Martial Arts techniques available to the Amazons.

An observer wouldn't have learned much watching the two spar after learning more and more of these techniques. Even the most trained combatant would only see quick blurs and hear loud cracks of strikes as they practiced their new moves. Many times each of them would fade from view as they learned to not only hide their visual presence with a version of the Umisen-ken, but with techniques that could also mask their Ki signatures as well. As intense as these sparring sessions were, they always ended with the couple walking back to their house, hand in hand, talking about the training they had just completed.

They both found that Martial Arts techniques weren't the only things that Cologne had either failed to mention or didn't know herself. As time went by, each of them repeatedly came across, cures, potions, pressure points or magic that could have cured almost all of Ranma's problems back home, and then some. One of the few solutions that eluded them was a cure for Ranma's condition. It seems as though the Jusenkyo curse was permanent.

Many people back home would have wondered why Ranma didn't visit the cursed pools to try to rid him of his curse. Kasumi had been the one who had pointed out the problem with that on their journey to China. Ranma had brought up the possibility of traveling to Jusenkyo.

"What do ya think Kasumi. Do you think we could visit Jusenkyo to see if the springs have returned to normal? I wouldn't have to be like this anymore?" she said.

Kasumi looked back at Ranma, she had been looking out at the ocean, wondering how much longer it would take them to make land in China. "What was that Ranma?"

"I said, do you think we could stop by Jusenkyo before we get to the village? Maybe the springs are back to normal by now."

It took a moment for Kasumi to catch up to what Ranma was talking about. "Oh, you want to try to jump in the Nannichuan?"

"Well...yeah! I mean I wouldn't have to be a girl anymore!"

Kasumi giggled at her show of emotion. Ranma was so cute sometimes. He didn't try to do it, but somehow, when he was in girl form, it just came out so naturally. "So you want to jump into another spring?"

"Yeah!"

Kasumi thought for a moment, then added "Has anybody else jumped in a spring who already had a curse?"

Ranma then thought for a moment, "Yeah, Pantyhose Taro..."

She had a look of unending patience when she asked him the next question. She knew the answer to this question, and wondered why he never put two and two together before. "And did Mr. Taro turn into whatever drowned in the new spring?"

Ranma's expression of hope quickly faded. "...not exactly..."

"Not exactly? What happened?" she asked.

Ranma gulped. "The curses kind of...mixed."

"I see. Do you have any reason to believe that the same wouldn't happen to you?"

"No" she said in a small disappointed voice.

She reached over and grabbed Ranma's hands, forcing her to look her in the eyes. "Ranma, I've told you before that your curse doesn't matter. I suppose that is only partially true."

Concern flashed across Ranma's face and Kasumi hurried to correct herself. "Wait, let me finish. Your curse, as it is right now, doesn't bother me. You are a wonderful person to be with in either of your forms, and I'm proud to be seen with you. However, if the results of the springs mixed, I can't honestly say how easy it might be to be as comfortable in whatever form you might end up with. Do you understand?"

Ranma nodded vigorously. The possibilities were making her somewhat queasy.

"I thought so. I like you the way you are, please don't change that okay?"

"You got it Kasumi!"

Since that time, he never mentioned Jusenkyo again. She returned to her search through the archives, tossing books that dealt with Amazon lineage and family history, keeping anything of interest in a pile to her left.

Reading through the archives was generally boring work, but they grew to appreciate the Amazon's abilities to gather esoteric moves, forms and techniques over the ages. They also began to learn about magic, and its limitations. Most magic involved tapping into to the worlds Ki and manipulating the manifestations of matter that this Ki helped define and enforce. They were surprised to learn that some magic was possible when a Ki adept stored some of their Ki in an inanimate or living object. The scroll that Gosunkugi used was an example of this type of magic.

They had made a significant dent in the archives, with still no clue as to how to actually return to their own world. They were walking to the top of a hill near the village one evening after another unproductive day in the archives.

Kasumi could tell something was bothering her husband. "What's wrong Ranma?"

He turned and gave her a quick smile "Nuthin. Why?"

Ranma might be a magnificent Martial Artist, a wonder husband, and a promising man of medicine, but one thing he had never been able to do was lie.

"Ranma, you know you can't lie to me to save your life. I know some thing is bothering you. What is it?" She reached over and held his hand as the reached the top of the small peak.

"Well, I was wondering lately. We spend so much time going through that stuff from the cave every day, and I was thinking...is it worth it?"

They sat down on their favorite log which overlooked the valley. They both looked out at the fading day as Kasumi finished his thought "You mean is it worth all this effort getting back, when we are both pretty happy right now?"

He wasn't surprised Kasumi knew what he was thinking. Over the years their bond had strengthened with every day. He knew it sounded silly, but he realized he really did find his soul mate, the other half of him that made him whole.

"Yeah, who knows if any of this will get us anywhere. I'd hate to waste this time with you."

Kasumi chuckled at the thought. "Ranma, as near as we can tell, we're not even aging! I don't think we're really wasting our time. Plus, I enjoy being with you. Every day we embark on our own type of treasure hunt. We haven't found the grand prize yet, but look at all the wonderful things we've learned. I don't look at it as a waste of time."

"You know what I mean. I'd rather be enjoying more time with you than pawing through ancient Amazon history."

"Oh it isn't that bad. Look how much Martial Arts we've learned going though those archives. Why during the first week we found out several ways to get out of the Kiss of Death and Kiss of Marriage." She gave him a quick squeeze. "You just hate changing to a girl each day to go down there."

"No, you know that isn't true. You've done a excellent job making me comfortable now matter how I look. I don't even think about it much anymore. I guess I'm just worried that we may do all this work and find nothing, and then what?"

Kasumi swept her hand across the horizon, "Then we explore, we travel the world. We have an entire world to explore. I couldn't think of anybody better to be with." She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Kasumi could tell his heart wasn't really into this conversation, he was trying to convince himself of something.

He finally said, "So why don't we start now?"

"Because of one simple reason. We'd both like to have a family, and we can't imagine what it would be like for our children to grow up here, with nobody else to meet. It wouldn't be right. This is a wonderful life, but I think both of us would finally want to have a family as well. Plus, if anything happened to either one of us, the other would be left here, alone. No, it isn't something we have to rush, but eventually, it's where we'd both like to be."

She stopped and thought for a moment. "Besides, wouldn't you like to share all of this learning with others? Wouldn't it be great to help others have better lives too?"

He shrugged "Yeah, it would. I just hope we can find out how to get back."

She snuggled next to him. "We will, we will." Those Amazon's never threw out a thing. You know we'll find what we are looking for eventually."

"Thanks Kasumi, I know we will too."

--

The years went by as the couple slowly went through the Archives. They could have made quicker progress if all they did was comb through the contents of the cavern, but when they first started, they decided that they weren't in so much of a hurry that they didn't want to enjoy each others company, and the world around them, as they looked for a way back home. Consequently, they only spent on an average of four to six hours a day going through the material they found underground. The rest of the days were spent in the village above. Some time was spent practicing the Art, but much was also spent hiking, carving, and just enjoying a beautiful day.

When they were about two-thirds of the way through, they finally came across a scroll that looked very familiar"

"Kasumi! Look!" Ranma cried as she held up the scroll.

Kasumi walked around a pile of books on the floor as she came toward him. "Did you find it?"

"I think so! Help me grab some of these books that look like they go with the scroll." He began picking up several old books and papers that were placed with the scroll.

Kasumi helped grab everything that had been placed with the original scroll on the shelf, including several seemingly identical scrolls to the one Ranma first found. She followed her husband through the tunnel, up the steps to their house on the surface and helped spread the items on their "artifact" table.

Ranma pulled open the scroll and read the inscriptions. "Yes! This is it, I'm sure it is, this is just like the scroll that sent us here!"

The two women spent the next several hours going over the scrolls and the accompanying books. After they had both scanned most of the documents, they talked about what they seem to have found.

"Well, it looks to me like this is what we were looking for. Looks like the Amazons had several of these scrolls locked up in their archives, along with some books describing how to use the scrolls. The stuff that you looked through looks like it was written by some of the Elders who had the same type of visions we've had about the ball-creatures with the big appetites." Ranma pulled on her pigtail, a sign Kasumi had long ago learned to associate with Ranma being worried about something.

"But..." she prodded.

"But, I didn't see anything right away about a counter-spell or somethin' Looks like they used the scrolls as a one-way ticket to send people they really didn't like away."

Kasumi nodded in agreement. "Yes, that seems to correspond to what I've read. It looked like most of the accounts of people sent to this world ended in relatively quick deaths after three or four days."

The two continued to look through the documents for the remainder of the day, and the next, and the one after that. When they felt that they understood everything they could about the scroll, they recapped their finds the final day after dinner.

Ranma started off the discussion. "So Kas-chan, what do you think?"

Even though it wasn't out of the ordinary with her husband, Kasumi still felt a swell of pride that he always valued her opinion on things. She had too many years of living at home where nobody seemed to care what she thought. "Well, I guess it doesn't look to good does it?"

Ranma had learned to be patient when talking to Kasumi. She would readily let him dominate the conversation, but he had learned that she had terrific insights and always had great ideas. "Go on..."

"As near as I can tell, these scrolls are a one-way ticket to this world. Most of the Amazon writings refer to the scroll as the 'Scroll of Yesterday'. It seems this was a seldom used punishment, due to its vicious nature. When used, it knocked the target individual out of the normal progression of time into a world of Yesterday. At this point, we only have visions of the elders..."

"...which correspond with our dreams" interrupted Ranma.

"...which correspond with our dreams. It seems that the world of Yesterday is a lifeless gray world, that is consumed by creatures called Langoliers. It is effectively a death sentence, only the reader of the scroll doesn't necessarily have to kill the person themselves."

"I agree. The real question is, why haven't we met that same fate? I think it's because of the large drain on my Ki when we first got here. For some reason, my supplying of Ki to this world is protecting it from the Langoliers."

Kasumi nodded, "I agree. That's why we see it go gray, like in our dreams, when you cut off the supply that one time. Basically, you are giving life support to this world, and keeping us alive as well."

Ranma reached behind his head in his trademark move. "Yeah, I guess I am. We should get you used to doing the same, at least as much as you can, if something ever happens to me."

Kasumi grew pensive. "Ranma, if something happened to you, I wouldn't want to be left here by myself!"

He grabbed her hands and looked into her eyes. "No, I know that. I just mean that if I were to get really injured. We know I can keep supplying the Ki while I sleep, but if I got knocked out for a bit, I'm not sure what would happen. It would be good if you could be my emergency backup."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." she agreed.

"So, the next question is, how do we get back? I didn't see anything about doing that, did you?

Kasumi shook her head. "No I didn't, I think I understood how the scroll got us here. It interrupted our...synchronization...with the world's natural Ki flows. This knocked us into yesterday, but I don't know how we're supposed to undo that, to get us back in sync."

Ranma sat back in his chair, with a determined look in his face. "Me neither. I guess it's back to the archives. But this time, let's see what we can learn about using our Ki for 'magic' as we've seen them talk about before. Maybe we can adapt the scroll to make it work backwards somehow."

So the two of them returned to their normal routine. They had done it for so long, it really wasn't too much of a disappointment, more of an extension to an already long, but pleasant journey.

In her heart though, Kasumi knew they'd scored a major victory with the finding of this scroll. It wasn't the way home...yet...but she knew Ranma would come up with something. Once he had a foot in the door, a problem didn't stand a chance against his will. She remembered how long ago, when she struck her head during one of her first practices with Ranma how he had vowed to learn how to take care of her better. Many of his friends wouldn't recognize the Ranma they knew. He was almost as good as Tofu was when it came to chiropractic techniques and acupuncture. He was also becoming an accomplished carpenter, and his cooking was almost equal to Kasumi's. She didn't want to bring up some of the old memories, but she remembered how he wanted to be more than a 'One Trick Pony'. She thought it was somewhat funny that he had grown so much, in so many ways since, that he never even thought about that label that was used on him so long ago. It was ironic that for Ranma to find himself, he had to be separated from everyone he knew in Nerima.

Authors Note: It may seem like I'm repeating myself, because I am. Thank you again for all the kind reviews. Yes, they are almost home, and yes the story is not over yet. I estimate another six chapters before I'm through.