Looping Chapter 6: Touchdown, a ranma fanfic

This chapter is dedicated to a single objective: The conquest of the universe! ...

Ahem, I mean, my reviewers Edrik and Wolfwing who gave me the inspiration to create this finishing chapter.

Looping Chapter 6: Touchdown

"Fiancé?" The question echoed through the living room of the Tendo residence.

Soun Tendo began to explain. "Yes. The son of a very good friend of mine." He looked at his three daughters and continued. "The son's name is Ranma Saotome. If one of you three girls were to marry him and carry on this training center, then the Tendo family legacy would be secure."

He studied his daughters and was surprised by their reactions. Akane smiled happily looking at her sisters sitting to her left, Nabiki glared angrily and alternated looking to her left and right, and Kasumi seemed even more serene than ever with her head turned slightly to look at all members of the family in the room.

He was a bit confused by the lack of vocal reaction of his usually outspoken daughters and hoped this was a good sign. "He will arrive today with his father…"

Nabiki seemed to have heard enough, jumped to her feet, pointed her finger accusingly at Akane first and then at Kasumi, and yelled: "You! You, too! You know what's going on, right? You've heard this all before, too!" Soun was completely flabbergasted and couldn't make hands or tails of what his middle daughter said.

"Both of you remember?" Akane asked eagerly, which didn't help her father's peace of mind at all. "That's great! Maybe Ranma will remember again, too!"

"Ranma knows?" Screeched Nabiki. "I knew it! I knew he was behind it all the time! Oh, I will get my revenge. How he will suffer! Kekeke." She laughed creepily.

"Nabiki-chan. Please stop agitating our honored father. Oto-sama," she addressed Soun calmly, "it seems that the three of us have independently repeated the coming year many times for some unknown reason."

Soun had no time to be relieved to hear an explanation for his daughters' behavior when Nabiki yelled again: "Unknown reason? It was Ranma, of course! Who else ruined my life but that gender-bending freak of nature! He is some kind of evil kami!"

"Nabiki! Ranma is no freak!" Akane exclaimed. "And not an evil kami, either!"

Soun was happy to hear his youngest daughter defending his friend's son, although he was still confused how she knew him and what Kasumi had meant with a repeating year.

"Although he has a divine body." Akane added with a fond smile, which gave her protective father a whole new different set of reasons to worry about.

Suddenly there were loud crashes at the door, followed by the sound of rushing water and a young male voice cried out: "Hot! Hot! Hot!"

Soun hurried to the door to deal with the normal threat of home invaders, moving all thoughts about his daughters' behavior to the back of his mind.

Akane shot Kasumi a questioning look. "Did you…?"

"I arranged for some hot water to bath Ranma-kun and Saotome-san. I thought it best to not confuse our honored father any further."

"So you learned some magic, too!" Akane was happy to hear that both of them now shared another interest besides cooking. "That hot water was a good idea. What spell did you use? Are you a grandmaster of the Sureihando School of Martial Arts magic like me?"

"I think now is not the time to discuss our relative abilities. It would be most prudent to go and greet our guests." Kasumi rised to her feet to follow her father. "Are you coming, Nabiki-chan?"

Nabiki hadn't listened and sulked until she was addressed by Kasumi. "If I never see that damn jock again, it will be too soon. I am going back to my room. Again!" Nabiki sullenly answered and left for upstairs.

"What's with her?" Akane asked no one in particular and went to meet her future husband again for the first time.

In the hall she saw her father enthusiastically greeting Mr. Saotome, hugging him and patting his back, while Ranma stood aside scratching his neck.

"Welcome, Saotome-san, Ranma-san." Kasumi greeted their guests. "This is my honored father Soun Tendo, my youngest sister Akane and my name is Kasumi. My younger sister Nabiki is upstairs and will join us later. Would you please join us in the living room for some tea and refreshments?"

"Ah, thank you, Kasumi-san. Sorry about this," Ranma pointed to the bucket and water on the floor, "if you could show me where you've got the mop and stuff, I could…"

"That is quite alright, Ranma-kun." Kasumi denied. "Please join Akane-chan for some tea. She is the premier martial artist of her generation in Nerima and I am sure the two of you have a lot to talk about."

"Okay." Ranma nodded eagerly. He was used to clean up the messes his father left in the dojos they visited and their hosts were always more generous with food when he offered to help. The same part of his brain reminded him of other basic manners and how those influenced the amount of food he would receive, so he continued: "That is my father Genma Saotome and I am Ranma Saotome." He grinned awkwardly. "But I guess you knew that already."

"Daddy told us your names about five minutes ago." Akane answered. "And we could guess who is who. Please come on in. Kasumi makes the best tea in all of Japan."

"Akane-chan is exaggerating, of course. Oto-sama, Saotome-san, would you like some refreshments? There is some sake in the refrigerator…"

"Excellent idea, Tendo! Sake sounds great!" Interrupted Genma. "Let's join our kids, after all, traveling is thirsty work!"

"Quite right, Saotome, quite right! Why I remember…" Soun answered, while they went to the living room. Kasumi just looked at the floor to make sure that water and bucket were gone, both out of habit and because of the respect the home of her ancestors was due. She sent a spiritual double of herself to buy the sake from the shop and cooled it down, while she prepared the tea in the kitchen by hand. After all, if one did not respect the tea, one did not respect the guests. When the tea was finished, she put the dishes on a tray and went to the main room, where Akane had somehow managed to start a discussion of training methods and sparring instead of other kinds of engagements. The sake was greeted enthusiastically by the parents.

When Kasumi sat down to put the dishes on the table Akane whispered: "Did you remove the glasses?"

"Indeed. I just wanted to avoid the chance of our dear father witnessing any unfortunate accidents."

While the fathers discussed the various kind of sake they had encountered during their travels, Akane invited Ranma for a spar. Ranma was eager to see if the elder sister's endorsement was based on truth and was positively surprised. Akane favored a more ground-based combat and the sudden use of the weaponry stationed on the walls, while he preferred aerial maneuvers and fighting unarmed, but she seemed to know almost as many styles as him. Only his greater reach and strength decided the spar in his favor. He thought that both of them would be able to learn a lot from each other. Which was just the impression that Akane wanted to make. She had a lot of practice with this well-meant deception.

After an eventless bath and a wonderful dinner – the elders at the table had been too enthusiastic about the strong sake and didn't start any further conversations – the daughters of the house excused themselves to take care of housework and homework, while the men watched an unannounced documentation about the forgotten training grounds of Tokyo.

"Okay, you two." Nabiki stared at the other two women kneeling in the dojo. "Who changed the TV program?"

"Not me." Akane countered, while she soldered another set of cables to connect her cell phone with the third black box she had gotten from nowhere. "I mean I could have, but I was busy phreaking." She finished, used some duct tape to combine the four appliances to create something that looked like a preschool kid's first sculpture and pushed a button. "A-ha! It works as usual. I was afraid the combination of three of us being aware would somehow change the codes, but…" She dialed a number and when her call was answered she talked with somebody in a language that Nabiki couldn't identify, despite of hundreds of loops in different business oriented universities, but it sounded African.

When Akane had finished, Nabiki had to ask. "So, who did you call and why? Some sort of witch doctor?"

"Really, Nabiki- chan, you shouldn't pry." Kasumi scolded. "But I am curious as well. Why did you have to call a politician in Zaire? And why did you use his old tribe's dialect?"

"Because with the information I gave him he will be able to stop the warlords in the region and with a couple of other calls during the next months this will lead to a successful pan-African congress and some peaceful progress that will hopefully last after the end of the loop."

It seemed to Nabiki that her younger sister was still an idealistic fool. "A couple?" Nabiki asked snidely. "One should think you'd need to call everyone in Africa to do something like that."

"Okay, about two hundred people in Africa." She admitted defensively. "But most of them want to live in peace, too. You just have to know which ones mean it. Now, please be quiet. The French Premier doesn't like to hear voices in the background." She turned her back to her sisters and dialed again.

Nabiki gaped. Her little martial arts nut of a sister talking to a European politician? And acting as if she was doing that every day? This was a nightmare. Ranma must have invented some new kind of torture for her. She looked helplessly at her older sister who held a finger in front of her mouth, while they listened to Akane using some code to identify herself in fluent French as an agent of the Sûreté Nationale to advise the man on the other end of the line on issues of a forthcoming international conference concerning the war on drugs.

"How many people are you going to call today?" She asked incredulously.

"Only two dozen, but that can wait for an hour. Oh, and I have to call that mullah at three. I need to program the alarm!" After she had spend some time pushing buttons on her device, she looked up to Nabiki and asked: "I was just wondering – could we somehow coordinate our efforts? I guess you will have a different game-plan, maybe you're concentrating on the global economy. You always were more business-savvy than me…"

"Are you kidding me?" Nabiki exploded. "Global economy? Africans? Secret agents? Mullahs? How can you just call those people? What if they trace you back? What do you even want from them?"

"Well, I told you. I can call them because I know their numbers. And this baby here can't be traced! At all!" She held up the duct-taped artifact. "Do you think I haven't learned from my mistakes? And what I want is simple. World peace." She crossed her arms and looked at her gaping sister. "And this wouldn't be the first time I got it."

"Oh, my. Akane-chan, I… I am so proud of you! And I feel so inadequate now. I concentrated on bettering myself in the mystic arts before I tried anything while you were helping people with what you had."

Nabiki turned her head so fast she nearly broke her neck. "Mystic arts?" Her down-to-earth older sister playing with magic?

"Don't worry, Nabiki-chan, you don't have to ask. I've already convinced that kami you didn't intentionally tread on his avatar. He will leave you alone now and in the other loops."

"You can talk to kamis? You know what is going to happen in the loops? How powerful are you?" Akane asked wide-eyed. Then she made some gestures, tilted her head to the side and looked at her. She bolted upright, fell down on her back again, scrambled backwards to the wall and pointed at Kasumi. "You… you…"

"It isn't nice to point Akane-chan."

Akane quickly moved her hand behind her back as if it was scalded.

"And I only gave Nabiki-chan a marker that the kami will recognize in the following loops." Kasumi turned to the middle sister. "Nabiki-chan, how many repeats did you have?"

Nabiki looked strangely at her older sister. Then she decided that her little sister was still the queen of overacting. "Three hundred and fifty-one." She answered sullenly

"So did I." And she added softly: "Including those that I didn't live through to the end."

Akane had slowly returned to her old position and added apologetically: "I am not sure, but I'd guess I had the same number of loops, too."

"So, it's only us and Ranma who remember looping? Or is he doing that to other people, too?"

Nabiki's paranoia began to annoy Akane. "Are you trying to imitate my old behavior or something? And I haven't met anyone else with memories from the past repeats. It seems we are the only ones in this plane."

"Actually, little sister, this time there are three others who remember past loops."

"How would you know that?" demanded Nabiki.

"After what I've seen I would trust her if she told me the sky was green." Akane sighed and added: "Not that I didn't trust her before."

"And what is it that you've seen, Akane?"

"Do you understand Goze's theory of n-dimensional magic perception?"

"What?" Nabiki bellowed irritated.

"Well, I don't have three hours to explain it to an ignoramus, so will just have to trust me on that, won't you, Nabs?" Akane smirked in a manner that was all-too-familiar for Nabiki and turned to Kasumi. "So, who are those other three?"

"Ukyo-san, Shan Pu and that Kuno girl."

That Kuno girl? Was the thought shared by the two younger sisters. They both knew Kasumi meant Kodachi Kuno, but they had never heard her addressing someone in such an impolite manner. Especially one of Ranma's "little friends." And why didn't she use a honorific for Shampoo?

Akane wanted to know what was going on between, but she was still more than a bit awed by Kasumi's abilities, so she tried to be indirect. "Uh, what are they doing right now?"

"Ukyo-san plans to help Konatsu-chan, but she also wants to play a couple of pranks on both of you and other people she met in Nerima, so you should be prepared for some surprises." Kasumi smiled.

"Hey, I am all for pranks." Akane grinned. "As long as they are in good fun, of course."

"Indeed, imouto-chan. Gojira stopping by for my meals? Really?" Kasumi smiled at Akane.

"Ehehehe." Akane looked aside and played with her fingers.

"What's this about Godzilla?" Nabiki asked. "Did the jock get involved in some movie or something?"

"That's a story for another time." Kasumi decided. "But you should ask Akane-chan about Ranma and his senshi powers one time."

"Mind reading is so unfair." Akane complained. "What about Shampoo?"

"Shan Pu has apparently used the repetitions to become quite the warrior. I didn't like the idea of her hurting anyone."

Five minutes after the start of the new loop, Shan Pu had been once again on a trip across the Pacific to start a new South American campaign, when she found herself stranded on a uninhabited island that she only wanted to use as a stepping stone. She had somehow forgotten how to use the Step of the Martial Messenger and all similar techniques. She surmised that this was the work of a demon and went off to find and punish it. And eventually destroy it. Demons were good practice for torture techniques.

"And -"

"The other one is being taken care of."

Kodachi Kuno had just gathered her black roses with paralysis gas and wanted to go get her favorite toy once again – Oh, how she loved her toy! She could break it any way she wanted and next year it would be ready for a new way to break it! – when she opened the front door of the Kuno family mansion and found a group of people in white clothes waiting. The van on the street behind them had a black Greek letter Psi on a red cross and the text "Martial Art Psychiatrists."

"You don't want to know what she was doing." Kasumi continued in a cold voice that her sisters had never heard before and they independently decided not to ask. Ever.

"So, it's only us and Ranma's other girls. That just proves that it's all his fault."

Akane decided that Nabiki wasn't imitating her, but Ryoga. She just hoped she wouldn't get depressed and if she would that she hadn't learned the Shi Shi Hokodan. That technique left a terrible smell on the mystical plane. "Ranma has mentioned a couple of other groups from other universes who were repeating part of their lives when I met him. Apparently, we have got the shortest known loop."

"How did he meet them, Akane-chan?"

"He didn't say, but he mentioned some big accidents and said that the various loops somehow "fuse" after one."

"Accidents. Yeah, sure." Nabiki scoffed.

"Look, Nabiki, I don't know what happened to you, but…"

"It's not a question of what, it's who! And I told you! Ranma is just playing with all of you and you are just too blind to see!"

"Nabiki-chan, your unfortunate encounters with Ranma-kun were influenced by that butterfly…"

"That's what he wants you to think! Why can't you see that he is tricking you!"

"I have looked into Ranma-kun and I know that he doesn't have the power to create these repetitions."

"He is some kind of god in disguise!"

"Imouto-chan, I know kami and Ranma-kun isn't one."

"How the hell…"

"Nabs," Akane interrupted the argument, "if Kasumi says he isn't a kami then he isn't one."

"Hah! Ranma can fool everyone!"

"Nabiki. Kasumi isn't like everyone else." Akane had enough of her sister's paranoia and was at the end of her hard-earned patience. "She is the ipsissimus, the sorceress supreme, Mistress Order and Lady Chaos, the most powerful magician in existence!"

Nabiki just blinked at her younger sister.

Akane apparently regarded this argument as finished and addressed her older sister in a reverent tone, like a student asking a respected teacher. "Ah, Kasumi, I've always wondered, where does Ranma's female body come from? Its instant exchange and transfer of injuries violates Yashi's space-time theorem on the transport of transformational magic bodies."

Kasumi looked thoughtfully and answered: "Yashi is only mostly right, but I never thought about that. I think I will investigate this part of Jusenkyo." She bowed her head and a light purple aura began to surround her, becoming darker in the following minutes.

Nabiki wasn't used to her sister suddenly ignoring her and came closer to the meditating girl. "What is that light?" She tried to touch her, but before her hand could reach her, she snatched it back. "My hand! What happened to my hand!"

"Give me." She grabbed it before Nabiki could obey and looked at it. "It's bruised. You're lucky, considering the forces working in her aura, it could have been broken."

She made some gestures with her other hand and a strange green glow began to surround Nabiki's hand. Nabiki felt better and noticed that Akane repeated the gestures that she had used once before and once again looked at her sister.

"Simply amazing…"

Then reality broke.

"Fiancé?" The question echoed through the living room of the Tendo residence.

He studied his daughters and was surprised by their reactions. All of them were pale and shaken. He knew it was a bit of a surprise, but an arranged marriage wasn't the end of the world. "He will arrive today with his father." He paused again to look at his children and it seemed they were gathering themselves, so he continued with furrowed eyebrows as the only sign of his concern. "Ranma and his father have been on a voyage of training. Recently, it seems, they crossed into China."

"We are alright, dear father. It was just the surprise, that's all." Kasumi reassured her father.

It hadn't been the simple shift from one position to another like it was during the other starts of the loops. There was a distinct feeling of parts of themselves, insides and outsides, the world, sounds and smells at the wrong place. Thankfully, it had only lasted for the blink of an eye.

It seemed to Mr. Tendo that he should have prepared his daughters better. They were usually more resilient and already able to take care of themselves and their problems. Maybe he should have mentioned it years ago? No, then they would have wanted to meet him and the problem was that he had no idea where Saotome was training his boy. He only suspected that there had been a training trip to China because that was where the postcard in his hand came from.

He thoughtfully looked at his daughters who were taking some sips from their drinks to steady their nerves. Maybe they should just meet the Saotomes today and next week they would decide who took the engagement? It wouldn't do to rush things, especially if they were this distracted.

He continued his musings and suddenly there was a loud noise at the front door. He heard a young man yelling. "Leggo, y'ol' fool!"

Leaping to his feet, he came to a conclusion born from experience with various kinds of noise. "Saotome, my friend! Is that you? We've been waiting!" He ran to the front door both eager to meet his old training partner and to explain the delicateness of the situation. He noticed gratefully that his daughters stood up to follow him.

When he arrived in the hall, he saw Genma Saotome coming in with his son over his shoulder. The elder Saotome hadn't changed much in all those years. "Saotome! It's been a long time." He greeted with open arms. His friend seemed to be surprised at something and set his son down in front of him.

"You've go to be Ranma. It's so good of you to come!" Soun greeted the young man enthusiastically and gave him a manly bear hug. When he let go, the boy seemed to be confused about something and touched his chest with his hands. It seemed he wasn't used to this kind of reception and Soun returned to Genma who seemed to be as confused as his son, before the two men began greeting each other.

Ranma was opening a pocket of his backpack and got his water flask out, when he noticed the daughters of the house. He put the flask on the pack and stood up. "Hello, my name is Ranma Saotome. It's nice to meet you."

"Welcome, Saotome-san, Ranma-san." Kasumi greeted their guests. "This is my honored father Soun Tendo, my younger sister Nabiki, my youngest sister Akane and I am Kasumi. Would you please join us in the living room for some tea and refreshments?"

"Thank you, Kasumi-san." He had noticed the girls looking at what he was doing with the backpacks. "Should I carry them outside? I guess they're a bit dirty…" He had met a couple of martial artists' wives who wouldn't even look at him after hard training and despite being a bit confused by his change without water he had an idea what their looks might mean.

"That won't be necessary, Ranma-kun." Kasumi denied. "Please join Nabiki-chan and Akane-chan in the living room. Akane-chan is the best martial artist of her generation in Nerima and I am sure you two want to compare your training."

"Okay." Ranma nodded eagerly.

While the others walked away, Kasumi addressed the fathers. "Oto-sama, Saotome-san, would you like some refreshments? There is some sake in the refrigerator…"

"Excellent idea, Tendo! Sake sounds great!" Interrupted Genma. "Let's join our kids, after all, traveling is thirsty work!"

"Quite right, Saotome, quite right! Why I remember…" Soun answered, while they went to the living room. Kasumi sent a simple spirit to buy the sake from the shop and cool it down, while she prepared the tea in the kitchen by hand. After all, it was an excellent method to calm oneself. When everything was ready, she put the dishes on a tray and went to the main room, where the parents talked about the time before they met their teacher. The sake was greeted enthusiastically by the parents.

When Kasumi sat down to put the dishes on the table Akane whispered: "What happened?"

"Please let us discuss this when we are amongst ourselves."

While the fathers discussed the various kind of sake they had encountered during their travels, Akane invited Ranma for a spar and Nabiki followed to watch. She wanted to see the boy defeated, but was disappointed when it seemed to her that despite centuries of training Akane was only as good as him when the match ended one hour later in a draw.

After everyone had a bath and a fine dinner – Soun started to talk about other topics whenever Genma mentioned the engagement – the girls excused themselves, while the men watched an old Bruce Lee movie and compared themselves favorably to the actors' abilities.

"So. What exactly happened when you started glowing, Ms. Sorceress Supreme?" Nabiki asked sarcastically when the three of them arrived at the dojo. She noticed that Akane had the cell phone with the extra boxes taped to it already with her and she suddenly noticed that she had no idea when and where she had gotten the parts.

"This will take some time to explain, imouto-chan. Akane-chan, do you want to make your phone-calls first?"

"No, I've already phoned them while you were in the kitchen. I can make the next ones while you answer Nabiki's questions."

"My questions? Don't you want to know what's happened, too?"

"Sure, but I bet you'll have a lot of Muggle questions."

"Muggle?" Nabiki asked angrily.

"People who don't know anything about magic. Like you."

"Hmph. Well, some of us have to live in the real world."

"And wear tinfoil hats, I know. Seriously, magic is part of the real world. Next thing I know you will claim there is no love." She made a surprised face and quickly pointed into the air like she had a sudden insight. "Oh, wait! You do that already, Ms. Ice Queen."

"Akane-chan, Nabiki-chan, please." Kasumi asked wearily. She knew her sisters were only acting this childishly because they were still shaken by the break.

"Sorry, big sister." "Yeah, sorry." Came from the two.

" I will try to put this as simple as I can. I believe I found the reason for the time-loops." The younger sisters had just sat down to listen and were now shocked to attention. "And I think I stopped them."

Akane was speechless of joy following that announcement. And end to the loops? Freedom from the repetitions? A whole life? Growing up, marrying, having children and growing old? Death held no fear for Akane after the hell of repetition.

Nabiki had noticed other parts of Kasumi's announcement. "You believe? You think?"

"I have noticed that there was a temporal component to Jusenkyo which interacted with another set of curses that was connected to the old borders of our family estate. In essence, the two sets of magic interacted when Ranma-kun was about to be betrayed by Saotome-san on that very border."

"Betrayed?" Akane was shocked. She knew that Genma was no saint, but she had once used farseeing to observe what had happened to Ranma when they arrived and what she had seen didn't seem like a betrayal to her.

"He struck him from behind." Clarified Kasumi. Curses didn't care for intentions, only actions.

"That must be the curses bought by the Hibiki clan, right?" Akane had checked the area for other magic and their origins. Using some divining spells and diverse libraries, she was able to find the history of nearly all magic in Nerima, except for a cursed tanuki statue that she hadn't encountered in the original timeline. It seemed that the Saotome-Hibiki feud didn't start with Ranma and Ryoga, but with two of their ancestors who were also fighting for the hand of a Tendo woman. A Chinese wizard was visiting the area and was hired to curse the Saotomes to betray each other as soon as they arrived at the Tendo estate. But it seemed the foreigner had problems with the Japanese language and the Saotomes would only be cursed if they betrayed each other. She couldn't divine more of the curse, but looking back it was obvious that this might have been part of the problem. The curse itself was too weak for an immense phenomenon like the time-loops, but if they had a connection to the waters of Jusenkyo…

And there was the possible feedback effect with the curse on the Hibiki clan. Clan Saotome had heard of the scheme of the Hibikis and hired the same Chinese wizard to curse them as retaliation. Once again the language barrier was in the way of a simple plan and instead of never finding their way home again, the Hibikis now rarely found their way anywhere. Akane had once broken that curse at the beginning of a loop, but even with a sense of direction Ryoga still had a lousy sense of timing. She couldn't get anywhere with Ranma during that loop, just because of that pig-boy's insufferable interruptions.

She had used the ceremonies to dissolve the curses at the end of every loop, but she couldn't do it before the loops themselves started and once started, curses could only be broken when the right circumstances were met, not by a simple cleansing.

"Indeed." Confirmed Kasumi. "Those curses are gone now. As are the Jusenkyo curses."

"Ranma is cured?" Akane asked sadly. After many lifetimes with her fiancé/e it was near impossible to imagine him without the curse. He wouldn't even remember what both had learned from it. Then again, Akane had already made a plan for this possible end of the time-loops, many repeats ago. Dream manipulation was surprisingly hard.

"And everyone else who fell into the springs." Kasumi continued.

Akane looked up in shock. Even though she knew intellectually that Kasumi was the strongest magician on Earth, she couldn't grasp that someone could break all the curses of this ancient and powerful site. The cursed water flowing from it had polluted all water on Earth with its magic and was already part of all life on Earth. It was as unimaginable as a single fish changing the currents of the ocean.

"But how…?"

"The valley of Jusenkyo is gone." Kasumi said simply. Akane had sat on her knees and now she slid sideways down on her back with her mouth gaping.

"What do you mean, the valley is gone?" Nabiki inquired.

"In a sense, it was never there." Kasumi stated, then she continued. "In ancient times there was only one unremarkable spring on the mountain that later surrounded the valley."

"Don't you mean mountains?" Nabiki emphasized the s.

"Of course not. The spring grew until it became the valley that the others have visited."

"Wait a minute! I've been there and it sure didn't look like it was only surrounded by one mountain!" Akane protested.

"That was just an effect of the spatial distortion created by its intense magical aura. Have you ever looked at it with magically enhanced sight?"

"No." Conceded Akane. "But how did it become so powerful? You said it was just a normal spring, right?"

"Indeed. It only became magic when the egg of an dragon fell into the spring, The dragon hatched and drowned and its body lured a phoenix bird to the spring. When it tried to eat the hatchling in the water, the Phoenix was extinguished. These two contrary magic powers sank to the ground of the spring and gave it necromantic power."

"Wait a second. Necromantic? Doesn't that mean death magic?" Nabiki asked.

"Nabs, the cursed people get the bodies of living beings that drowned in the springs." Akane drawled. "They are wearing bodies of the dead."

"Hey, isn't there a spring of the drowned Akane?"

"Even Phoenix people know CPR." Akane answered stiffly. Inwardly she shuddered. She still had nightmares of that day.

"Okay. And how did that thing get bigger?"

"Because of the hydrologic cycle." Answered Kasumi. "The magic water flows down into the oceans, evaporates and some of it returns to Jusenkyo and makes it stronger. And the bigger Jusenkyo got, the more water did it sent away and the more it got back. It reached a sort of magical critical mass – sorry Akane, I am trying to explain it to Nabiki – at the beginning of the time-loops and connected itself to various other magic phenomena, including the Saotome curses. This is also why we have seen so many magical artifacts arrving in Nerima. At the end of the loops it had once again reached that critical mass, thanks in part to the creation of another spring, the death of Saffron the Phoenix king and the flooding of the valley."

"The phoenix dies in flames and is reborn from the ashes…" murmured Akane. "It created a chronological cycle?"

"Indeed, Akane-chan."

"So, why us? We weren't cursed by Jusenkyo and we don't have any other magic on us." Nabiki hesitated. "Don't we?"

"Because we are closest to Ranma-kun and female. If Saotome-san had defeated the Phoenix, there would be three very unlucky Pandas stuck in the loops."

"So, all the magic is gone. But where did it go? Such an amount of power …" Akane wondered. "And why three Pandas, didn't you mean six?"

"Both questions have the same answer. I've used the magic to create the time-loops for the other three."

"But they were already in loops! You said so yourself!" Nabiki protested.

"And that's why I knew it would work." Explained Kasumi serenely.

Nabiki wasn't impressed. "Explain."

Akane on the other hand was. "You used the Moebius Maneuver? With that kind of power? Wow!"

"Indeed, Akane-chan. I am happy to hear how advanced your studies are."

"Well, I did specialize in time magic because of the loops…"

"I said explain!" Nabiki interrupted.

"Please, let me." Akane asked Kasumi, then turned to Nabiki. "Imagine time as a ball made of rubber bands all wound around each other…"

Kasumi was shocked. "You follow the timey-wimey ball theory?"

"Don't tell me you are a fan of the silly string can theory." Akane said dismissively.

"The concept of compressed time that has to pass the present "valve" to become the past certainly explains time-bursts and bubbles much better than Dr. Whatshisnames stuff." Kasumi argued heatedly. "I am pretty sure he just made that up to impress his girlfriend."

"Oh, you are…" Akane wanted to counter but was interrupted by Nabiki.

"You know what, you two? Forget it, I am going." Nabiki said and went.

Akane looked like she wanted to continue arguing, but then she thought of something else.

"I have met a Ranma who was looping, too! Does that mean you missed some part of the magic?"

"I think I have a theory regarding him. Please, tell me what he was like."

"Well, he was sort of still the same. He was a better martial artist than me, he knew more magic, more science and has seen more of the world. He admitted that he had done some mean things during the loops, but it didn't seem to be worse than anything he has done before. And there were those tales from the fused loops – he has met ninjas, shinigami, spaceships, magical girls, robots, mechas, lots of stuff. There seem to be worlds out there that are like something from a manga."

"So, in essence he was still the same as before, but he only knew more?"

"Erm, yes."

"All the things he knew – you've seen them before and learned them since, right?"

"Yes, what do you…"

"And these people he met, has he demonstrated anything he could have only learned from them?"

"No, but…"

"And these bad things he has done in the time-loops, they were similar to your pranks and you could forgive him because of that?"

"Yes. What are you getting at, Kasumi?"

"Are you sure you didn't use your magic to make him up?"

"What! No! I don't have the power to do that! The only thing I know with that kind of power is that one wishing scroll!"

"The one in the Danjon to Doragon mansion?"

"Yes! And I can't reach it anymore. It can only be used once by any user."

"I know that. I've used that wishing scroll once, too. And I can tell that you used it, but even for me it is impossible to know what kind of boon you asked for."

"So you think I used the scroll to make up that Ranma?" Akane asked hesitantly. "But I can't remember doing that."

"Can you remember your wish?"

"No! But that doesn't mean you're right!" Akane yelled desperately. She wanted that Ranma back.

There was an uncomfortable silence and both of them tried to think of something to say.

Finally Akane asked: "Are you sure it's over?"

Kasumi answered optimistically: "We will know in a year, for sure, ne? Until then you will have a loop with an uncursed fiancé."

The End (?)

This is of course not the canon ending of the time-loops. Only Innortal can write that.

I guess Nabiki's behavior and different level of knowledge deserve an explanation. She has spent most of the loops collecting trivia for blackmail and an easy life, while her sisters have learned. And Nabiki had a constant adversary in form of a clueless Ranma leading to her paranoia. She had no idea about that butterfly.

[Suraihando – sleight of hand]

[goze –blind female beggar who sings or plays shamisen]

[yashi – showman, charlatan, faker, quack]

[danjon to doragon – dungeon and dragon (as depicted in western myths)]

Well, this is very probably the last chapter of this former spamfic collection. I was very surprised to find a sort of resolution, even if I only used the Tendo sisters. The only other idea I had for this is a Kodachi fic that could only be posted at adultfanfiction. I hope you are not too disappointed to find that this was basically all set-up and after-fight exposition. Sorry.

Anyway, thanks for reading. The Ranma chapter is now its own page with other fused/FUBARed loops.

A variation of Kasumi's story. I couldn't imagine her fighting, so I made up an excuse why no other wizard noticed her before she became a virtual goddess.

Kasumi without enemies

Kasumi noticed that despite her growing proficiency no other mages came to challenge her like the martial artists who would come to the dojo to meet her brother-in-law, that came without him ever advertising his skills. Finally she found the answer to this riddle in the diary of a long deceased wizard.

According to his observations, the aura of practitioners of the magic arts accumulated itself in the first two and a half year of studies before it became visible for the senses of others. During that time other magicians who lived in the area could not find the aura's center until it was finally established. Like mist covering a valley in the night, its center could only to be seen by someone standing on the surrounding mountains, but the metaphorical traveller would be lost when he came down to the valley.

This had only minimal bearing on the abilities of the practitioners themselves, but made their auras practically invisible for other magic users during their initial stages. The wizard had mused that it was a gift of the gods to give the young time to prepare themselves before they were tested, but he had neither proof, nor had he any idea which part of the pantheon to thank.

Like raindrops, magic knowledge gathered itself in the hands of Kasumi. And over the time-loops the collected raindrops became a puddle, became a pond, became a lake, became a sea, became an ocean.

This is not to say that she spend her time only learning the mystical arts. She gave her household duties to some sprites that she had conjured and went out to meet other people and occasionally helped them with words and deeds and gave them what they needed but not what they wanted.

At the beginning people had to talk to her directly about their problems, but as her powers grew she learned to see problems from far away and finally she could listen to all people while they were at their home asking for an answer to their problems. And when she began to answer their calls the prople started to give more than just words of thanks.