(Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any of the characters and stories associated with it.)

Tofu's Return

Dr. Yokomoto turned towards his colleague, "I don't know why this young lady requested your presence, Tofu. Your special skills don't seem to be the sort of thing a normal patient would require the services of."

Dr. Tofu bowed to his colleague, "I imagine there are a couple of reasons why she did, my friend. I once operated a small neighborhood clinic close to here and the members of this family were my patients. I have personally treated this young girl on several occasions for her various injuries, including a broken bone or two."

"I see. So you were the family doctor?"

Tofu nodded, "In addition to my chiropractic and acupuncture practice, I assisted the Tendo and Saotome families in their martial arts related injuries. Ranma Saotome in particular came to me on several occasions for treatment."

The older doctor smiled, "Well, since you know this youngster a bit, take a look here and tell me what you think."

Tofu turned towards the two parents, "Would you two mind waiting outside for just a few minutes? I would like to examine her and I need absolute calm. Don't worry, Mr. Tendo. She's going to be fine."

Nodoka nodded politely and led Soan out of the room. When they had closed the door behind them, Dr. Yokomoto pointed towards the numerous marks on Akane's arms, "Look here, Tofu. She's covered in these bruises. Someone beat her pretty bad."

Tofu shook his head, "No she wasn't. Look here at these marks. They are quite small for fist strikes and do not look like they caused any real harm. I imagine they stung her quite a bit, but they were not meant to do a lot of damage."

He pointed to Akane's chin, "This however, was meant to knock her out. If she did go berserk, then knocking her out may have been the only safe way to control her."

The other man shook his head, "I find that hard to believe, Tofu. She looks like just another young girl to me."

Tofu was gently touching Akane's arm and shoulder, "What the heck is this?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's her ki. It's not right."

The other man was puzzled, "I don't understand…"

Tofu touched a few more places on Akane's neck, "It's her life force, it seems to have been changed. Here, help me roll her over. I need to see her back."

The older man helped roll Akane over and Tofu immediately began to touch and press parts of her back. As he worked along, his heightened senses began to see the flows of Akane's life force through her body. Normally, he would see three concentrations of bluish energy, one in the lower abdomen, one at the heart, and one at the head. In healthy person, these three spots would be trading energy between each other as well as flowing energy to the other parts of the body such as the hands and feet. But what Tofu viewed now was far from normal. Akane now had three additional fiery red concentrations of energy present in her body. One on each shoulder, and one in her upper abdomen. A swirling circle of red lines connected the three while isolating the one at the heart. Red rivers of sickly looking ki flowed to the other parts of the body from the circle.

Tofu gasped, "Dear god!"

Outside the room, Nodoka had been comforting Soun, "Why don't you go downstairs and rest a bit while the doctors take a look at your daughter. We'll call you up as soon as they're done."

Soun was clearly upset, "I don't know if I can, Nodoka. I'm so worried about my little girl, I don't think I could ever sleep."

"I understand how you feel, but you will do her and yourself a lot more good if you relax and get some rest."

The man sighed, "I guess you're right. It's been a rough night and I'm a bit worn out. Alright, I'll lay down for a little bit, but only if you promise to come get me as soon as they have something."

Nodoka nodded, "Certainly, Soun. We'll let you know right away."

Before he left, he reached out and clasped her hand in both of his own, "Thank you my friend. I don't know what I would have done without your help."

She blushed slightly and smiled, "We're going to be family, Soun. It's the least I can do."

After Soun had gone down the stairs, Nodoka moved over to Nabiki's door, "Now it begins to get a bit tricky."

Ranma and Kasumi had been chatting for the past several minutes and looked up as Nodoka entered the room, "Hi Mom. I heard the Doc talking with ya. How's Akane doin?"

Nodoka smiled, "Yes, they're looking at her now and I'm sure things will be fine. Ranma, I need to have a little chat with Kasumi for a bit. I hope you don't mind if we chase you out for a while."

Ranma flashed a bright smile, "Nah, that's okay. I wanted to see how Nabiki was holding up anyway."

After Ranma had left, Nodoka turned towards Kasumi, "I have a little surprise for you, my dear."

Kasumi raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean, Auntie?"

The older woman sat down on the bed beside Kasumi, "A while ago, when you and I talked about the engagement, you told me that you had another person in your life. A person you said you had not seen in a very long time."

Kasumi nodded, "Yes, he had been our family doctor for a quite some time. I had grown very fond of him and even though he acted very strange around me, I began to develop deep feelings for the man. Because he was always so kind to everyone he worked with, I felt more and more attracted to him. Later, I would make up excuses to borrow his medical books, hoping to get some kind of conversation going."

Nodoka placed her hand on top of the other woman's, "What would you say if you had one last chance to talk with him. To tell him exactly how you feel and to ask him how he feels? Would you take command of that opportunity, or would you waste it and let that same opportunity slip through your fingers forever?"

Kasumi looked at the other woman closely as her normally calm and friendly eyes focused sharply, "Auntie, all of my life, I have been somewhat of a pacifist, calmly smiling and taking care of the family while the world passed me by. I love my family dearly, you can be sure of that. But if I had a chance to talk to Tofu again, I would not let him leave until he had no doubt in his mind of my feelings for him."

Nodoka smirked slightly, "So you're telling me that if Tofu were here right now, you would confess your love to him?"

The older Tendo raised an eyebrow as she stared at the woman, "Certainly, Auntie. I wouldn't let…"

"Hmmm?"

Kasumi's eyes widened, "Oh my! He's here, isn't he?"

Kasumi started to stand up, but Nodoka reached out and grabbed her wrist in a firm but gentle grip, "Wait!"

"But I have to see him!"

Nodoka stood up, "He's helping with your sister now. You don't want to interfere in her care, do you?"

Kasumi shook her head, "N-no Auntie. I just want to see him."

She gently clasped both of Kasumi's hands, "I promise that I will see to it he visits you tonight. In the mean time, why don't you go into your room and prepare yourself for his visit. Make yourself presentable.

A very un-Kasumi like predatory smile formed on her lips, "Alright, Auntie. I'll be waiting."

As the young woman walked out of the room, Nodoka sat back down on the bed and smiled, "This might work out after all."

Downstairs Nabiki was handing Ranma the teapot of water she has just heated up, "Here ya go, Ranma. You know, I should charge you for this."

Ranma smiled as her took the teapot and poured a bit over her head, "Yeah I know, it's probably the only time I'd be glad to pay ya."

After Ranma had changed back to his old self, Nabiki smiled approvingly as she sat down next to him on the steps leading outside and leaned against his arm, "That may very well be true, Saotome. While I do like the idea of a cute little redheaded for a friend, this part of you is defiantly more attractive to me."

Ranma was suddenly very aware of the girl's closeness and began to sweat a bit, "Err, ah…Nabiki?"

Nabiki giggled, "For a big, bad martial artist, you're sure easy to tease."

She then reached up and kissed him on the cheek before resting against his arm again, "Don't worry, Ranma. We're going to take this nice and easy because I don't want to rush it either."

Ranma was startled by the kiss and for a moment froze up, but as Nabiki once again snuggled up to his arm he smiled to himself as something inside him began to feel warm and cozy. Not really realizing it, he brought his arm up behind Nabiki and held her far shoulder, pulling her close to his side. Nabiki almost purred as she snuggled up against Ranma.

Ranma rubbed his cheek against her hair for a moment before gazing at the stars outside again, "I could really get used to this."

And so they sat for nearly a half hour, enjoying the soft night sounds as they filtered through the back yard and becoming comfortable in the closeness of each other. It was then understandable when a sudden clearing of a throat caused the two teens to practically leap off of the steps in a panic.

The three culprits were all smirking in their attempts to keep from laughing at the two. Tofu could barely keep a straighter face, "Well, hello Ranma. It's been a while."

Ranma was red as a beet, "Dang doc! Ya scared the wits outa me!"

The boy then smiled a bit, "Yeah, good to see ya too."

Soun had by now wiped the smile off his face, "As happy as I am to see you two getting along, we need to have a talk about Akane."

"How's the tomboy doing? She's not doin bad is she? I didn't want to hurt her and I only hit her to protect Nabiki."

Nodoka clasped Ranma by the arm, "We all understand that, Son. In a way, the fight you had with Akane revealed an important discovery."

"Huh?"

Tofu pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, "Nodoka and Soun told me that her more violent behavior began on or before your trip to China. Am I correct?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, that's about right."

Tofu continued, "That makes sense then. When I checked Akane, I discovered her ki patterns had been recently altered in such a way that she was feeding on her own anger. In addition to her normal centers, she now has three new ones I have never seen before. These new centers have formed a circle around her heart.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, "As scary as that sounds, Dr. Tofu, what does it mean?"

Tofu glanced over his shoulder towards the bedrooms for a moment before turning back to the others, "What it means is that her emotions of anger, hatred, and mistrust are growing out of control and will continue to increase in strength. I've done what I can to other pressure points to give her a bit of relief from those emotions and to limit her strength, but it's only temporary. Without the knowledge of what was done and how to remove it, Akane is in danger."

This was too much for Soun and he switched on the patented Tendo wailing water works, "WAAAAA! My little baby is going to die a monster!"

Tofu reached over and touched Soun on the back and immediately the elder man fell to the ground and began to snore. He grinned sheepishly, "Sleep points…."

Ranma chuckled for a bit before looking up, "That's all and good, Doc, but what are we going to do about Akane?"

"Yeah, we can't let my sister keep going berserk until it finally kills her. We need to find answers to this before it's too late."

Ranma snapped his fingers, "Hey! What about the old ghoul? She knows as much about this stuff as the Doc."

Tofu smiled, "That's right, Ranma. In fact Cologne has considerably more knowledge of this than I do. It certainly wouldn't hurt to go ask her."

Nodoka nodded, "As much as I am concerned about dealing with elder Cologne, especially after last night, it appears to be our only choice. It's too late right now, but tomorrow would be the best time to approach her."

Tofu turned towards Ranma, "I'd like you to come with me, Ranma. You know her better than I do, and she seems to trust you more."

"No problem, Doc. Ya just gotta be on your toes when it comes to the old ghoul."

Nodoka nodded, "Alright, tomorrow it is. You two go ahead and get some sleep while I chat with Dr. Tofu for a bit."

When the two teens had gone Nodoka smiled at Tofu, "There is one more injury you will need to attend to before you go, Tofu. Follow me please."

As they walked up the stairs Tofu questioned, "When we found that Akane's problem was ki related, Dr. Yokomoto excused himself and went home. Was someone else injured with the fight with Akane?"

When they reached the top of the stairs, Nodoka stopped in front of one of the bedroom doors and turned, "No Tofu. This person was hurt by someone else. Someone who broke her heart without knowing it. The same someone she is willing to give a second chance to."

Tofu turned and read the name on the little wooden duck mounted on the door, "No…"

Nodoka's voice was low and firm, "It was you that hurt her, Doctor. While she waited for you to tell her how you felt, you pranced around like a fool. You squandered every opportunity to tell her your true feelings and selfishly kept them to yourself."

Tofu gazed at his feet, ashamed, "I-I was too embarrassed and shy to let her know. When she was around it made me so giddy, I lost control of myself."

"You don't deserve it, but you are a lucky man, Tofu. Kasumi is willing to give you one last chance to prove yourself. Prove that you are not the dancing fool you pretend to be and tell her how you feel about her. She is inside waiting your answer."

She let that sink in for a moment before continuing, "The only question you have to answer is, are you going to be a man and face her, or are you going to remain the fool and break her heart once again?"

Tofu glared at the woman before turning to the door once again. He gently touched the little wooden duck, then knocked on the door.

From inside was heard, "Come in."

Tofu swallowed once before opening the door and entering the room.

Author's notes: Once again changes have been made to the story in order to justify the presence of Tofu. As the story progresses, the reason for his presence will be known. And of course there is Kasumi.