Converging Series

by The Altered Destinies

The tale that started it all. A magic locket that has the ability to move people through dimensions gets loose. Havoc time! Crossover of quite a few fanfic worlds, the major ones being Ranma 2096, The More things Change and Ranma Nibunnoichi. This continues after the events of Descents and Inversions as Ryo Saotome attempts to return home. Things never work out right

9. Chapter 9

Act 7

The story so far...

ACT I:

In an alternate reality where Ranma married Shampoo,

their daughter had somehow obtained a magic locket that

allowed her to cross dimensions. A few accidents later,

several of Ranma's 'children' from various realities ended

up in one reality, where Ranma was still a teen-age youth.

One among them, Ryo Saotome (son of Ranma and Ukyou)

managed to get a hold of the locket before Cologne was about

to do something devious with it. Following his victory, Ryo

sent all the children of Ranma & company to their proper

realities, and then prepared to go home himself. Something,

however, went wrong. He ended up in a bizarre version of

Tokyo in 2096 and accidentally dragged along Ratiko Hibiki

and Childra Jansen in his attempt to fix this mistake. That

attempt dragged him to two other realities with amazing

speed. From them, he accidentally brought Miyabi, daughter

of Ranma and Akane, and Ishido, a mysterious amnesiac hunted

by a shadowy organization. Finally, they stopped in a

reality where Ranma & co. were still teens, but had never

met them before.

ACT II:

Childra, curious as to what caused their

dimensional/reality shift, watched Ryo Saotome closely, and

discovered that the locket is the source of their troubles.

She tried, and succeeded, in stealing the locket from him

without his noticing. Ratiko schemed to make sure that the

history of his world took place, and began a plan to kill

Ranma and frame Miyabi for the murder. He succeeded in

getting a blood sample from her and a torn piece of her

clothing, but was interrupted before he could go through

with his plan. In a talk with Ishido, he found out about a

certain umbrella-wielding maniac threatening to kill Ryouga

in Ishido's reality. In a panic, Ratiko rushed to Childra,

and accidentally triggered the locket. The three of them

found themselves on a bridge somewhere. Before they left,

they accidentally dragged along Ryo Muhoshin, a person that

looked amazingly like Hikaru Gosunkugi, but in truth was a

bit more devious. Bringing him along, the four crossed

several realities, narrowly escaping danger, capture, and

death. Then they returned to the Nerima they had left from,

with an irate Ryo Saotome waiting for them. Meanwhile,

Miyabi had put up with the antics of her grandparents (Soun

and Genma) who were overjoyed at her existence, distressed

at the way her parents were fighting, greatly annoyed at her

trans-dimensional half brother Ryo Saotome, and had decided

that a talk with Grandmother Nodoka was in order.

ACT III:

Miyabi went to Nodoka's to talk, unaware that Ranma's

life was in danger due to the promise Genma made to Nodoka

regarding manliness and Ranma's upbringing. The end result

was that Nodoka was invited to dinner, expecting to see her

son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. Miyabi's age,

almost that of Ranma, was, unfortunately, not foreseen as a

major problem by Miyabi. Upon returning from her accidental

trip through time, Childra surrendered the locket to Ryo

Saotome once again. Meanwhile, the extra passenger they

picked up, Ryo Muhoshin, passed himself off as 'Ryo

Gosunkugi, son of Gosunkugi and Ukyou' and had everyone

fooled. Nabiki got a hold of the material Ratiko was

planning to frame Miyabi with and used it to blackmail him

into buying her dinner, among other things. They end up at

Ucchan's, where he washed dishes to pay for things. He

eventually got drunk, hit on Ukyou, and was knocked out by a

blow to the head. Childra and Ishido became more...

intimately attached. When his guard was down, Ryo Saotome

was knocked out by Ryo Muhoshin, who then accidentally

triggered the locket and disappeared into times and places

unknown.

Ryo Saotome woke up much later to find the locket gone,

an image of it burned in his hand, and discovered what was

inside the locket:

A picture of him and Bell-chan, his fiancee.

ACT IV:

Ryo Saotome began making plans to assemble the locket

that he was apparently destined to create (the photo from

the locket being proof of that). Meanwhile, Ratiko spent

the day with Nabiki, buying her food and treats while also

beginning to feel somewhat attracted to her. Ishido and

Childra sorted through their fears and anxieties, but in the

end came together in a happy reunion within the local

graveyard. Miyabi & the Tendo household held a dinner for

Nodoka, who was expecting to see her son at last. What

happened instead was that she had an interesting experience

with a time traveler (Happosai) and realized that Miyabi

was, in fact, Ranma's daughter from the future. She also

assumed that 'Ranko' was Genma's daughter from an affair.

Soun briefly assumed Akane was Genma's child from an affair

with his deceased wife. Things got ugly, but got better

again as they usually did (although Nodoka still thinks

Ranko is Genma's illegitimate child). Meanwhile, Under the

distrustful eyes of Childra and Ishido, Ryo Saotome used the

arcane resources within Happosai's room to create the

locket.

ACT V:

Ryo Muhoshin, having borrowed the locket from Ryo

Saotome by means of an umbrella applied to the back of the

head, found himself whisked away to a post-modern,

futuristic world populated by thousands of Kasumis, Ryougas,

and other familiar faces (Ministry of Confusion). After

losing the locket in a fall, he settled in and tried to make

the best of it, striking up a friendship with a Kasumi

extender named Ami. The relationship progressed to the point

of a date, at the end of which Ami was murdered by a berserk

Ryouga extender. Muhoshin killed him in retaliation, and

began a slow but methodical hunt for Ryougas across the

city.

Ryo Saotome, having remade the locket with some help

from three goddesses of time, arrived in this world just as

Muhoshin killed a Ryouga to recover his own locket. The two

fought inconclusively, with Muhoshin escaping.

Leaving 'Ministry of Confusion' in a hurried fashion,

Muhoshin rescued one world's Kasumi from a group of

terrorists intent on beating her to death. A veteran

time-jumper already, she took the name Kaeri to distinguish

herself from the more serene person she had been. The two

stayed together for a few weeks, with Kaeri recovering and

picking up some of Muhoshin's skills. Still obsessed with

the need to protect her family, Kaeri prevailed upon

Muhoshin to take her to Nerima - and off they went.

ACT VI

Nabiki unwisely allowed Ratiko to take the lead in a

brisk walk through Nerima. As a result, she found herself

lost in Africa.

Obeying her wishes, Ryo Muhoshin brought Kaeri to Nerima,

the version of Nerima that just happened to be the resting

place for Ishido, Childra, and the others...

Miyabi hatches a plan to use Nabiki's tape recording

equipment to make a fake conversation between Ranma and

Akane, so as to discourage the other rivals and possibly

nudge the two closer together.

Ratiko, after having just one of those days, hunted for

Ranma. Instead of finding him, he had another one of those

days.

Ryo Saotome chased Ryo Muhoshin across the worlds,

stumbling through across strange realities, and learning

that he has more power over the locket than he knew.

Ryo Muhoshin and Saotome confronted each other once more,

with the end result being dozens of injuries and a destroyed

building. This convinced Ryo Saotome that bringing in

Muhoshin would require a team effort.

Kaeri spied upon the Tendo household, finding out (much

to her distress) about the fate of her family in Ratiko and

Childra's world and causing much confusion among them until

Ryo Saotome, returning from other worlds, runs into her.

She tells him her tale, leaving out her involvement with Ryo

Muhoshin, and asks for his help in putting an end to the

timeline that creates Ratiko and Childra's world.

Ryo said no.

Kaeri hit him when he wasn't looking and took the locket.

Just before she disappeared, Ryo Saotome, Ishido, and

Ratiko jumped into the fading afterglow of the locket and

all disappeared.

And now...

Reality _shifted_, folded...

And she was standing in front of a gorilla. In a tuxedo.

No, Kaeri thought calmly, gorillas don't have six arms.

It's just something that resembles a gorilla in a tuxedo.

"May I ask if Madam has a reservation?"

Ah. A six-armed gorilla in a tuxedo with an upper-class

British accent. She was rather surprised at how easy it was

to stay calm.

"Oh dear...no..."

The gorilla looked at her kindly. "May I ask Madam's

name?"

"Kas...Kaeri Tendo."

One of the hairy, black-clad arms fished in a pocket

large enough to accommodate a mailbox, withdrawing a list.

"Tendo section, K's... several Kasumis, a Konatsu, a

Kentaro, a Kedo... ah, here you are. Tendo Kaeri. A

reservation was made for you by a Mr. P. Noone. Your table

is in the East Wing, number 546. May I wish you a pleasant

meal, Madam."

Kaeri was feeling rather befuddled by all this. She had

asked the locket to bring her to the start of Reiraku's

timeline. Instead, she was being told that her table was

ready, and seemed in imminent danger of having a wine list

thrust at her. It was all very odd...

For the first time, she noticed her surroundings. It was

a large, lushly-carpeted, oak-paneled reception area, lined

with green leather sofas and armchairs. A set of bronze

double doors stood at one end, vibrating in their doorframe.

Aside from that...there was no way out, or in.

Then there was a flash of green light, and Nabiki

appeared in the center of the room.

Well...it looked like Nabiki. Mostly. Nabiki wasn't quite

as...bulked out...as this person, and didn't go in for

military uniforms. Nor did she tote around large,

futuristic, impressive- looking firearms.

The gorilla gave a smile that probably wasn't intended to

be menacing. "May I ask if Madam has a reservation?"

"Yes. General Nabiki Tendo."

Out came the list. "Hmm... _which_ General Nabiki Tendo?"

The General frowned. "I'm the commander of the entire

RDF."

"So are four of the others, I'm afraid. Can the General

perhaps be more specific?"

"We're fighting the Ravening Commie Argyle Death Fleet,

in a heroic struggle to make the galaxy safe for

capitalism."

"That narrows it down to two, then..."

"I was last here with Brigadier Fokker?"

"Ah. That General Tendo. North Wing, Table 523. I'm

afraid the General will have to check her plasma ejector at

the door."

"Here you are."

"Have a pleasant meal, General."

The Nabiki strode off towards the doors, as Kaeri stared

in confusion.

"Is Madam waiting for someone?"

The gorilla was peering down at her with what she hoped

was an expression of polite concern. She shook her head.

"No, thank you. Where am I?"

"Madam is in the reception area."

"No, I mean...oh dear. Where in..."

"Ah. Madam is in the Cafe Eternum."

"Oh."

"Perhaps madam would care to be shown to her table?"

Kaeri briefly considered this. "No, that's all right.

I'll find my own way. Thank you."

The gorilla watched as the rather bedraggled girl in the

apron made her way through the doors, and sighed. She had

been through that spiel before, but usually it was with a

Ryouga. You got all types in this job. Just two more hours,

and it was back home for a nice spot of tea...

The phone rang, and one of the arms reluctantly reached

out to take it.

"Cafe Eternum, Front Desk, Kasumi Tendo speaking, how may

I help you?"

The first thing to hit her upon opening the doors was the

wave of noise. Make that the tsunami of noise.

Chattering, yelling, laughing, clinking of glasses...all

the sounds one hears in a normal restaurant, only much,

much, much more of them. A rather good swing band was

somehow managing to be just on the verge of drowning it all

out, presumably by using speakers the size of Buicks turned

to the "Lethal" setting.

The second thing to hit her was the size of the room.

She'd seen smaller sports arenas. Mind you, most sports

arenas aren't done in tastefully stained wood panels with

lots of leather, ornate picture frames, and gilding. They

don't often have kilometer long wet bars, or enough tables,

alcoves, booths, and nooks to seat the entire population of

a small African nation.

The third thing to hit her was the people. Despite the

reference above, most of them didn't resemble the population

of a small African nation. Many of them, however, did

resemble Ranma. And Akane. And Ryouga. And lots and lots of

people who seemed to look a bit like Muhoshin-san.

The fourth thing to hit her was a very, very drunk Ukyou

Kuonji, who managed to plant a neat left cross on her jaw.

She fell to the floor, feeling rather hurt at this

treatment. And Ukyou-chan had always seemed like such a

nice girl...

"UKYOU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

Kaeri blinked. Ranma?

Ukyou turned, swaying rather noticeably. "Shee took my

Ryouga-chan, the violent, tomboy shlut..."

Ranma took her by the shoulders and shook her a bit.

"Ukyou, that's the wrong Kasumi. C'mon, give me the earring,

I'm taking you home."

"Shee can't cook, shee hits him, an, an, I'm cuter..."

"C'mon, Ukyou..."

The pair walked off, Ranma supporting a madly sobbing

Ukyou, as Kaeri struggled to her feet. The people sitting at

the nearby tables stopped staring and went back to their

respective conversations.

"...so it was a bit of a shock to discover that P-chan

was actually Akane! I mean, here she acts like she hates me,

always the "Ranma no Baka" and the mallet, and it turns out

that she's actually been my pet pig; sleeping in my bed with

me at night, trying to hump my leg..."

"...so strange, Ryouga's male in my world. You say

he...sorry, she actually married Ranma? Go figure..."

"..the Collective can get stuffed, Tsubasa. You're the

girl I love, and if they can't handle that, then they can go

to..."

She shook her head. Life had been odd of late, but

this...her grasp of reality was hanging over the cliff of

insanity by the fingernails of instinct, scrabbling

desperately for the protruding tree root of normality and

wishing the writer wouldn't use such bad metaphors.

Well...she could either stand here all day, or move on.

Moving on seemed like the better idea.

So she pushed her way through the tables, past clumps of

merrily chatting copies of people she knew, until her path

was blocked by a rather large party of gaijins. Loud, noisy,

slightly tanked gaijins. And Kodachi Kuno.

"Excuse me..."

One of them, a scruffy-looking young man, looked up from

his inspection of a whiskey stein. "Yah? Wot can I be doin'

fer ya?"

"I'm trying to get by..."

The scruffy gaijin nodded politely. "Right yah are.

Ko-chan, can ya be movin' yer chair outta the way o dis

lady?"

Kodachi obligingly transferred her person to his lap, and

Kaeri walked past, colliding as she did with another gaijin,

this one in a floppy, wide-brimmed hat and a multicolored

scarf.

"Excuse me. Would you, by chance, have seen a young lady,

name of Sarah?"

She stared at him. "Who?"

"Yes, actually. But about Sarah..."

"I'm sorry, I don't know her."

"Oh well. Sorry to bother you." He walked off, scarf

fluttering behind him, vanishing into a nearby blue phone

booth. Shrugging, she continued her trek.

Taking a left at a stand of potted palms, she found

herself staring at Ryo Muhoshin. All three dozen of him.

"M...Muhoshin-san?"

"Yes?" they asked in unison.

"Oh my...are any of you the Muhoshin-san I know?"

The Ryos adjusted their Havana cigars and considered

this.

"I'm afraid," one finally replied, "none of us are. Are

you Kaeri Tendo?"

"Well, yes..."

The Ryo waggled his cigar at her. "Hrumph. You've been

involved with that other Muhoshin, haven't you? The one

going around wiping out timelines?"

"Yes, I suppose I have...Muhoshin-san's a nice young

man..."

"He," the Ryo said with gravity, "is a menace."

"Not that he isn't a extremely clever, resourceful, and

stylish menace," another one added.

"A very witty fellow, I think," chimed a third.

"But," the first one finished, "a menace nonetheless.

Why, he wiped out Ryo's home reality!"

"Who?"

He pointed to a glum-looking Muhoshin playing backgammon

in a corner booth. "That one. Was in the Cafe when it

happened, luckily."

"Oh my!"

"Yes, it was quite a shock, poor chap. He just looked up,

said drat', and got blind drunk when they told him."

She looked at the unlucky Ryo with sympathy. "The poor

man. My home's gone too, you know..."

"Oh? That mad Ryo blow it up?"

"No, I did."

The assembled Muhoshins stirred uneasily at this

pronouncement.

"I'm on my way to stop this horrible future timeline

right now..."

The Ryo stuck his cigar back in his mouth and hastily

led her away. "You might not want to say that in public,

Miss Kaeri. We lot are about as sympathetic as you'll get,

and I think some of the lads are considering running you

through for that statement."

Kaeri looked shocked. "They wouldn't!"

"Well...no. We like you. But for your own safety, please

don't talk like that. Eh?"

"Okay."

"Good girl. Oh, and do steer clear of that other pack of

Ryos. Frightful scoundrels. Give us a bad name. They

actually want to _kill_ Ryouga, can you imagine?"

"Don't you?"

The Ryo looked shocked. "Certainly not! We want to beat

him at cribbage."

"Oh?"

"Oh yes. We're very keen on cribbage. Play the cursed

Hibiki every week. Good luck, and mind what I said." With

that, he headed back to his armchair.

"There you are!"

She spun, to come face to face with a rather annoyed

looking fellow dressed...well, like Ryouga. "Excuse me?"

"We told you people not to leave the reserved room. Come

on!" With that, he dragged her off by the arm. Somewhat

curious, she followed, apologizing to a group of Gosunkugis

she brushed against.

They stopped at the door to a side room, and the man

knocked. "I found her!"

The door opened, and a Gosunkugi... no, Gos wasn't a

gaijin...in a black trenchcoat stuck his head out. ABBA

could be heard in the background.

"You found..? Aw, damnit, Rod found her in the broom

closet five minutes ago."

"You mean...?"

"Yup."

The man turned to her, sweating. "Um. Sorry, mistaken

identity. Bye." He vanished inside the room, the door

rapidly closing behind him.

She stood staring at the door for a few minutes, an

unexplainable feeling of dread moving through her.

Once, she dimly recalled, long ago, life had made some

sort of sense. On occasion, it still did.

And then there were times like now. It was moments like

this that prompted people to shoot themselves, or refuse to

ever talk again, or start conversations with trees. At times

like this, insanity was much less odd than what was feebly

trying to pass for reality.

Well. She wasn't going to take this anymore. Fishing out

the locket, she stared at it, focusing her will. "Take me

to..."

It flared like a roman candle, causing her to yelp in

pain and drop it. Across the room, diners were swearing as

their coat pockets, purses, and, in a few cases, cleavage

erupted with azure flame.

Whoops. That's right. You can't use it by other copies.

Fortunately for her, no-one seemed to know who had

triggered the flareup. Several Muhoshins were loudly

insisting it to be the fault of a Ryouga, while a quintet of

Akanes began pounding their respective Ranmas (or, in one

case, Gosunkugi) into the ground.

It would probably be a good idea to leave the area,

before someone started to make a serious search for the

offender.

Her table, she dimly recalled, was in the "East Wing".

Perhaps someone would feed her. That would be nice; she

hadn't eaten in quite a while. Should she go find it? Yes,

said her stomach (which was filling in for her rather

overburdened mind), she should.

The East Wing, she reasoned, was probably east. Whichever

way that was. They had taught her in school how to find

north by seeing on which side of trees moss grew on. Sadly,

five-star restaurants have a distinct lack of moss-encrusted

trees.

So she did the sensible thing, and walked over to an

Akane eating dinner with Nabiki.

"Nab-chan, I still find it hard to believe we've only

been married a year. I don't think I could have asked for a

better wife."

Oh. Oh my. This was interesting. "Excuse me," she asked,

"which way is the East Wing?"

Akane turned, smiling politely. "Take a left at the clump

of pewter flamingos over there, and go straight on."

"Thank you, Akane-chan!" Kaeri strode off, her eyes

misting a bit. Even in alternate dimensions, Akane was

polite and kind. Mother would be proud.

The Akane turned back to her wife. "I still can't figure

out how you managed to fall in love with me, with this curse

and all..."

Nabiki smiled. "Don't be silly, Ryouga-chan. I love you

no matter what you look like. Besides, I'm sure you could

have picked worse springs to fall in than Akaneniichuan..."

She was lost.

That is, even more so than usual.

The swing band was gone, and in it's place was something

by Bach. Not churchgoing Bach, either. This was the kind of

Bach Count Dracula enjoyed pounding out.

The walls had become faintly less cheery, and distinctly

more gothic. You wouldn't catch a potted palm dead in this

wing. On the other hand, maybe you _would_ catch it dead.

And then there were the people. They looked a lot like

Muhoshin-san, at least in that they were pale, thin, and

looked like they had been staying up past their bedtimes.

And those were the younger ones. The older ones

looked...well...embalmed. And not by a particularly

competent mortician, either.

"...Collective is insisting something be done! Four

realities, #843, four of them, all with Collective members.

Gone. And people are saying it's our fault, look at the

guy..."

"...my sister' is a fool. Worse than a fool. And that

white...shows the dirt and blood far too easily. Give me

basic black any day. Now. It's very simple. All you have to

do is..."

"...My brothers? Not a chance. They last saw me falling

into the abyss, with an arrow in my neck and another by my

heart. No, they all are safe in the knowledge that Brand is

dead. This Collective of yours, they can move through

shadow? How do they manage..."

She sincerely hoped this wasn't the East Wing. None of

these people looked as nice as Muhoshin-san. But it would

probably be a good idea to make sure. Walking over to a

young lady in a black dress, she tapped her on the shoulder.

"Excuse me? Is this the East Wing?"

The woman turned, and Kaeri noticed the alcohol blush on

her cheeks. Judging from that, and the half-empty bottle of

wine, the woman was likely a few sheets to the wind. "No,"

she replied, her voice annoyed and slightly slurred. "This

the the Northwest.." Her eyes, bordered by tattooed

diamonds of black, focused on Kaeri and went wide with

shock. "YOU!"

Oh dear. "Me?"

Leaping back from her chair, the woman in black reached

for a sheath by her belt in a smooth, practiced motion

(marred only slightly by a noticeable swaying), drawing

forth an ornate dagger. "You...you should be dead! How

did you..." Abruptly, her demeanor changed, going from

shock to contempt. "So, Our Lady of Mindless Saccharine

still lives. What a pleasure. Normally I'm only able to kill

people twice..."

She trailed off, suddenly noticing that every eye in the

immediate (and not so immediate) vicinity was trained on

her.

An elderly man stood, an expression of disapproval etched

on his face. "Sicarii. That's really the wrong sort of knife

to butter a roll with."

Several Gosunkugis chuckled. Sicarii turned an

interesting shade of purple, and curtly nodded.

Kaeri felt that she should say something polite to help

break the tension. "My, what a nice knife! What is it for?"

Sicarii stared at her for a second, gaping at the sheer

gall of the question. Then her face contorted into a feral

grin, her eyes gleaming with a unhealthy light. "Let me show

you!" she snarled, and leaped. The dagger in her hand flared

with green fire as it thrust for the heart, and scarlet

ki-flame rimmed her in a flickering aura.

Kaeri jumped backwards, her staff coming up in an arc

intended to catch the madly grinning Gosunkugi on the

stomach.

Luckily for both of them, Sicarii tripped over a chair

and fell to the floor. Kaeri's staff whistled over her,

ultimately coming to rest in a gentleman's groin. He made a

peculiar whistling sound, akin to a football being deflated,

and folded over.

Aghast, Kaeri walked over to apologize. Sicarii picked

this moment to tackle her from behind, sending both tumbling

to the floor. The waiter picked this moment to walk in with

Souji Gosunkugi's Duck Flambe. No-one picked that moment to

knock the waiter on his tuxedoed rear, but that's what

happened.

The duck rose like a gourmet meteor, and then fell to

earth. Or, rather, to Gosunkugi. Kento #25 found his jacket

alight, and immediately grabbed the nearest glass of water

to douse it.

Unfortunately, the nearest glass of water turned out to

be the nearest glass of Old Brainmelter Vodka.

*splash* *WHOOSH!* "AAAAARGH!"

Kaeri, had she seen this, probably would have apologized.

But having a yowling, squirrelish maniac in black trying to

strangle you is a tad distracting, and so she instead

concentrated on keeping Sicarii's hands off her windpipe.

Her hand fell on the edge of a plate, and she brought it

down on what she hoped was Sicarii's head. It wasn't.

Sicarii expressed her displeasure about being hit on the

bottom with a plate of Jello by attempting to remove Kaeri's

kneecaps with her teeth.

Several Gosunkugis had begun incanting extinguishing

spells, and unleashed them on the screaming Kento #25. Most

of them worked. But Hodoko #12 (who was not just teetering

on the brink of senility but was instead already in

freefall) managed to botch a simple incantation in truly

brilliant fashion.

With a flash of ruby light, all of the tables in the area

began to move. Several of them grew teeth of the sort

normally found on the more impressive types of carnivore.

The Gosunkugis began to blast them with mystical

energies, arcane enchantments, and handy platters of

sweet-and-sour pork.

The tables tried to eat the Gosunkugis.

Sicarii had found a perch on Kaeri's back, and was trying

to twist her head off.

Kaeri, on her hands and knees, was bringing up her staff

to remove her unwanted passenger when Joey #54 (of the San

Francisco Gosunkugis) lost control of his Symphony for

Flamethrower and Blender spell, and tossed it at her by

mistake.

Sicarii, her sense of self-preservation belatedly kicking

in, jumped for the relative safety of the floor. Kaeri,

running on instinct and not a whole lot else, placed her big

piece of wood in between her and the oncoming ball of

razorsteel and inferno.

The ball hit. And vanished.

The carvings along the staff erupted with crimson energy,

setting the nearby carpet aflame. Sicarii shrieked, and

frantically tried to put out the merry blaze that had

erupted in her hair. Kaeri took the opportunity to introduce

Mr. Skull to Mr. Chair, and the Assassin slumped into

unconsciousness.

And that's when the sprinkler system turned on.

Kaeri sighed, and began to crawl for the exit, unmindful

of the Giant War Dingos pouring through the rift that Hodoko

#12's latest mistake had just opened.

Three miles, five hours, and six sets of contradictory

directions later, Kaeri entered the East Wing.

The familiar faces had vanished several minutes back. No

Tendos or Saotomes, Hibikis or Muhoshins or Gosunkugis. The

most you could say about the East Wing was that some of the

diners were human.

She tried to place the music, a dreamy, outlandish, oddly

familiar jazz riff. Somehow, it fit. The walls here, a smoky

black marble, were almost invisible in the dim light. A

single candle was set in a wine bottle atop each table,

casting shadows that loomed at her before being lost in the

deeper blackness along the wall.

"...Miller, I tell him, you're keeping her on too tight a

leash. It could cost us our jobs, and Heaven isn't much for

layoff benefits..."

"...I'm sorry, Mr. Ishmael, but we're fresh out of

positions. I wouldn't be discouraged, though. We aren't the

only Hell in the realities..."

"...I HOPE THE STABLE IS ADEQUATE. BINKY GETS CROSS,

OTHERWISE. TRY THE NACHOS, BY THE WAY..."

"Kaeri Tendo?"

She spun, to find herself face to face with a man. What

sort of man, she couldn't say. It wasn't precisely that he

was unremarkable, or hidden by the shadows that swirled

around the room...he was just...hard to focus on. If eyes

needed handholds, this fellow was covered in an inch of

grease.

"Yes?"

"I'm Mr. Noone. Your table is this way."

"Oh! Thank you..."

He led her across the room (it did have a ceiling, it had

to have one) and seated her, and gave her a menu, and sat

down across from her.

She had the bouillabaisse. He ordered wine.

Setting down the menu, she tried to catch his eyes with

her own. When this proved impossible, she settled for

staring firmly in his general direction.

"I'm very grateful for the reservation, Noone-san. But,

please excuse me, do I know you?"

He smiled. "Yes, and no. I know a good deal about you,

and you, in return, know a good bit about me. You just don't

realize it yet."

Kaeri frowned. Her dinner companion was talking in

riddles, which she found rather unnerving, and slightly

rude. "Was there something you wished to discuss with me?"

If he danced around things, she would be direct. It ran

against her nature, though... no! Against Kasumi's nature!

Weak Kasumi! Blind Kasumi!

"Do you really think this plan to destroy Reiraku's

timeline will solve anything?"

Her mouth went dry. "How did you know..."

Noone chuckled, the sound somehow sad. "I have my ways.

But back to the question. What good will it do?"

She stared at him. "What good? Do you even need to ask?

The very idea of it is _obscene_. I wept at each word I read

of it. It's as though some mad, evil, twisted god decided to

to destroy everyone I love as thoroughly and completely as

possible. I'll cleanse it. Kasumi scrubbed floors. I'll

scrub worlds." She glared at him, waiting for him to

challenge her claims.

"And then what?"

She blinked. "What? I don't.."

"What happens afterwards? When you've destroyed..."

"Cleansed," she said, a bit too quickly.

"Either one. What happens then? There are worse worlds

than Reiraku's, Kaeri, and there are more of them than there

are tables in this restaurant. Will you destroy...

cleanse... them all? Their number grows daily, just as do

the worlds of love and joy. Will you ever see those bright

worlds? By the time you stop, will you even belong in them?"

It was a staggering concept, and one she had deliberately

avoided. There were infinite worlds. Infinite Akanes.

Infinite futures of pain and death.

"Of joy, too."

She looked up at the strangely elusive face. "Why are you

telling me this? Why?"

"You took a good choice for a name, Kaeri. Kaeri ni - on

the way home. Go home. Find that other broken soul, and help

him, for he needs your help more than the echoes of 2096.

You were born to serve, to nurture, to care, and he needs

that. You need that. Go home."

"But... father... Akane... Nabiki..."

"Are waiting for you, should you need them. But you

don't. That time is over, Kaeri. Go home. If you follow this

path you take, if you go on to do your deed, you will suffer

for it, and the one who truly needs you will suffer even

more. Go home. Before the graveyards of 2096 and it's ilk

become more your home than a kitchen full of sunlight and

laughter."

She shrank back, hearing truth in his voice. It was not a

pleasant fate he described, and it would be so nice to rest

for a while...to bring soup, to tidy rooms, to bake cookies,

to _love_...

No. Her duty was to her family. If that meant doing

without happiness... so be it.

"Not just that. Your soul."

She met his eyes.

"So be it."

Her hand tightened on the locket, and she summoned her

will. Save them. Damn Kasumi, she deserves it. Save...

Blue fire flared, and her chair was empty.

Noone slowly sipped his wine and stared at her seat for a

while. After a time, someone sat down in it.

The newcomer looked at him kindly. "You knew it wouldn't

work."

Noone shrugged. "I had to try." His voice was had changed

from the rough male baritone he had addressed Kaeri with. It

was now a clear, smooth female one.

"So does she."

'Noone' sighed, and raised her glass to her now obviously

feminine lips. "You know what will happen. I couldn't tell

her directly..."

"I know. Maybe things will turn out differently as a

result of your..."

"No. The Cafe has rules for these situations. There is

one clear choice, one path that leads away. If you don't

take it, nothing changes. She didn't take it."

"How do they manage that?"

She laughed. "Why don't lockets flare in the Cafe when

they come near each other? Who runs the place? Don't ask me.

It's just the way the Cafe Eternum is." Her glass had run

dry, and she poured a fresh draught. "She ran into Skeride,

you know."

"Oh? A nice girl, if you overlook..."

"Not _that_ Skeride."

"Ah. That one."

Silence for a while, and then the newcomer stood. "I've

got to check on my young charge. Take care of yourself,

dear."

'Noone' smiled. "Be careful."

He nodded, stepped sideways into nothing, and vanished.

"Excuse me?"

She turned, to see a spectral Akane looking up at her.

"Yes?"

"Can I possess you for a while? There's a Ranma in the

South Wing I'd really like to have dinner with..."

She shook her head. "I've got to go. Sorry." And with

that, she held up a locket, closed her eyes, and vanished in

a flash of cerulean fire.

The Akane sighed and slowly walked off, translucent shoes

scuffing the carpet. "Great. Another Saturday night, and I

ain't got no body..."

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

He felt dizziness as disorientation took hold and spun

his senses around and blinded him with azure light. The act

of shooting across realities recklessly tended to do that.

By now, he'd felt this sensation more than a dozen times,

and was getting used to it.

Ryo Saotome was getting sick of it anyway. He didn't

_want_ to get used to it. He wanted this madness to end.

He wanted to go home.

And at this moment, he was really hoping for a normal

landing.

-POP-

He hovered in mid-air awkwardly, and unfortunately,

upside-down, and crashed on a hard, cold floor.

"Ow."

A second later, two quick bursts of azure flame heralded

the arrival of Ishido and Ratiko... right above him. In

that small space of a second before they landed on him, Ryo

wondered why, as of late, whenever he traveled with company,

there was a tendency for the landings to be rough.

-THUD- "Ow!"

-THUD- "Augh!"

"Will you guys get off of me?!" he yelled, his patience

already worn thin. He shoved a few unidentified limbs out

of his way as he struggled to get up, ignoring any feelings

he might've been bruising.

"Hey, back off," grumbled Ishido, yanking his leg away

from Ryo's arm. Along the way, it whacked Ratiko in the

face.

"OW! Hey, watch it!" whined the Hibiki.

"A-hem."

The three paused.

"Good evening, gentlemen."

Ishido and Ratiko froze, jaws hung low. Ryo, on the

other hand, summoned up his willpower and utterly refused to

be surprised. Instead, he brushed the dust off of his

travel-worn clothes, quickly combed his hair with a fold-up

comb he had in his pocket, straightened his jacket, and

said, in perfectly polite tones, to the six-armed gorilla in

a tuxedo...

"Good evening."

The gorilla seemed to approve of it. "May I ask if sirs

have a reservation?"

Ryo frowned. "Reservation... mmm... no. I'm afraid

we're here accidentally."

"Ah. I see."

"You wouldn't happen to have seen a woman somewhat taller

than me, with three fingers on one hand and a few facial

scars?"

The gorilla hmmed. "Well, yes, there was in fact a lady

of that description. She passed by about thirty minutes

ago."

Ryo frowned. Thirty minutes? "If you don't mind, we

really need to find that lady. Could we get in without a

reservation?"

The gorilla frowned and thumbed through a book. "Hrmm...

well... we do have some room... but sirs simply can't be let

in."

"Why not?" asked Ryo, trying to remain civil. "It is

_very_ important that we find this woman!"

"My apologies, sirs, but there _is_ a dress code."

Ryo sighed. Ishido and Ratiko were still marveling that

Ryo was negotiating with a multi-armed gorilla that,

apparently, had an aristocratic accent and was the doorman

of the place.

"However, if it IS important, the cafe DOES have a way

for you to be admitted."

Ryo raised an eyebrow. "Oh, is there?"

The trio stood, embarrassed, baffled, and naked as a

conveyer belt moved them down a long white hallway.

There was one exception: Ratiko still had his headband

on.

"Um, guys, what was this again?" he asked nervously.

"We're headed to the showers, I think," answered Ryo.

"I don't like this," said Ishido, looking around

suspiciously.

- INITIAL SOAK CYCLE: BEGIN -

"Soak cycle?" asked Ratiko.

And then the large water cannons emerged from the walls.

"What the-"

*****FWOOSH******

"AAAGH! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" yelled Ishido.

"The soak cycle, apparently," said Ryo.

"They could've used warmer water, dammit," replied

Ishido.

*SQUEAK*

Ryo and Ishido paused, then looked down between them

where Ratiko once was. In his place there seemed to be a

small fruit bat.

"So. Jusenkyou, huh?" asked Ryo.

The bat managed an embarrassed squeak.

-INITIAL SOAK CYCLE COMPLETE-

"Well, that was interesting," said Ryo.

-SOAP CYCLE: BEGIN-

"This can't be any worse than the soak cycle," said Ryo.

Ishido and Ratiko-bat looked at him doubtfully.

"Of course, I could be wrong."

Many small hoses mounted to mechanical arms lowered from

the ceiling.

Ryo frowned. "Oh not again."

-FWOOSH-

"EYOW!"

Soapy water slammed into them from all angles. The water

was, fortunately, enough to get Ratiko back to human form.

Otherwise, there wasn't much that was pleasing about the

experience of hot soap and water being sprayed at all odd

angles and occasionally up orifices that the men would

prefer to keep dry.

-SOAP CYCLE: COMPLETE-

Ryo wiped some foam from his eyes. "Well... that was...

ah..."

"A lot more violent than your usual shower, yeah,"

finished Ratiko. "What kinda shower is this?!"

-SECOND SOAK CYCLE: BEGIN-

"Ohnotagain," whimpered Ratiko.

They waited for the water cannons to appear.

Instead they fell.

Ratiko flapped his arms around, forgetting that he wasn't

a bat. "I REALLY HATE THIS SHOWERRRRRRRrrrrrr-" *SPLASH*

They felt dizziness as disorientation took hold. There

was much awkward splashing and blindness as water got in

their eyes. The act of being dropped suddenly into a giant

pool of warm water tended to do that to people.

The trio coughed and splashed about until finally they

felt the floor rise up to meet their feet.

"*COUGH* Well... *COUGH*COUGH* that was unexpected,"

grumbled Ryo. The others didn't talk. They wanted to kill

whoever designed the system.

Three small robots hovered into the room, each carrying a

tray and a towel. On the tray was a glass of tea.

/REFRESHMENTS, GENTLEMEN? TOWELS?/

What the heck, thought Ryo, why not? "Yeah, thanks." He

put the towel around his shoulders and held the beverage in

one hand. The others, following his lead, did the same.

"Now this... this is much better," said Ratiko with a

grin. He leaned on the edge of the pool and casually slurped

his drink. Ryo did the same, while Ishido looked around

nervously. In his eyes, the whole experience was bad so far

and this part was surely a trap meant to lower his defenses.

After five minutes soaking in warm water, he had his

doubts.

"Okay, we're soaked and soaked well, where's the exit?"

asked Ryo. Immediately after he spoke, a door previously

unseen opened with a big /EXIT/ sign in cheesy neon

letters appeared.

"That answer your question?" asked Ratiko.

-SECOND SOAK CYCLE: COMPLETE-

The three went through the door and found themselves,

once again, on a conveyer belt.

"Aw man, I got a bad feeling about this," whined Ratiko.

In front and behind the trio, large air vents suddenly

dropped.

-DRY CYCLE: BEGIN-

Ratiko 'eep'ed.

-FWOOOOOSH-

Hot air blasted them from front and back, pressing them

flat with incredible air pressure for an incredibly long

stretch of time.

Ishido really felt like hurting someone.

Ryo was getting used to the rough treatment by now, and

only rolled his eyes as he was blown about.

"WE'RE DRY! WE'RE DRY! TURN IT OFF!" yelled Ratiko.

-DRY CYCLE: COMPLETE-

"THANK YOU! Sheesh."

-YOU'RE WELCOME-

Ryo fidgeted slightly and pulled at his necktie. Ishido

bypassed the irritation and undid his entirely.

"I hate this," grumbled Ishido.

"It isn't so bad," said Ryo as he scratched at his neck.

Ratiko adjusted his slightly and brushed off some lint

from the fine ebony cloth. "Heh... you know the difference

between you guys and me?" he asked. "I make this outfit

look _good_."

Ryo sighed. Just great, he thought, the

trans-dimensional Diners In Black.

He tapped the two on the arms. "Time's wasting. C'mon,

let's go find her."

"How do you know she hasn't left yet?" asked Ratiko.

"I don't."

"Then... we're stranded?!"

"We'll confront that possibility when it comes. Until

then, I'm going on faith. You can either just stand there

gaping or do something useful. Now c'mon."

The three wandered from the lobby into a large dining

area, with a bar of seemingly infinite length running down

the side and fancy chandeliers everywhere. There was a

stage for a band, but they seemed to be on a break at the

moment. The sound of silverware clinking and people

chattering created a steady buzz.

"Fancy place," muttered Ratiko. He looked around

further. "And the people... er..." He watched, carefully,

as three Nabikis walked by, followed by two Elvises and

Akira Kurisawa.

"I don't like it here," said Ishido, almost in a snarl.

Ryo glanced at the table full of Egyptian kings and

sighed. "I'm trying not to be shocked anymore."

The three wove their way through the crowd carefully,

trying not to lose sight of each other. Ryo lead the way,

with Ratiko in the middle and Ishido bringing up the rear.

Unfortunately, with the crowds being thick and the noise

being high, Ishido found himself separated from the two. He

growled in frustration and tried to push his way through the

masses, but was soon entirely separated and lost in the sea

of people.

Ryo was getting that nagging feeling something was going

wrong. He turned back to Ratiko

"Hey, where's Ishi..."

Ishido was gone.

"...do..."

And so was Ratiko.

"Damn!"

He was alone.

Ryo tried not to scream in frustration as he wove his

way back, retracing his steps. Now was NOT the time for any

more delays. He wove around the tables and made his way

to the bar, where there was a walkway with a good view of

the room and a better flow of traffic.

Moving with the masses, he headed down the hallway once

more until a hand grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Hey, you."

The voice seemed eerily familiar. Then again, everyone

he'd met so far was eerily familiar, since they were usually

related to him in some trans-dimensional way.

He sighed. "Listen, I don't have time for..."

Their eyes met.

And Ryo Saotome met Ryo Saotome.

"Where on Earth am I now?!"

A passing penguin tapped him on the leg. Ratiko looked at

the animal. It had an oversized flesh colored beak, a red

bow tie, and was wearing a button that said "Opus 'N' Bill

in '92. This Time Why Not the Worst?"

"Yeah? What?"

"You're not on Earth. Just thought you should know."

Ratiko blinked. "Oh... thanks."

"No problem." The penguin waddled off, leaving the Rat

at a loss for words. After thinking things through for a

few minutes more, Ratiko tried again.

"Where in the Universe am I now?!"

This caused a passing waiter to pause.

"Hibiki?" he asked.

"Um, yeah."

"Ryouga Hibiki?"

"No, Ratiko. Ryouga's my ancestor."

"Ah, the Ratiko Hibiki group. Right. This way."

Having nothing better to do, Ratiko followed the waiter,

walking down the banquet hall/corridor for what seemed like

a strangely odd time.

"We almost there yet?"

"Yes sir."

That, thought Ratiko, was good.

"Where are we going anyway?"

"The Ratiko Hibiki group. You _are_ Ratiko Hibiki, are

you not?"

"Oh, yeah, I am." That seemed to make sense. He didn't

recall having a party, but the waiter's logic seemed sound.

Ratiko followed the waiter further, until at last they

came to a stop at a side booth enclosed by a curtain.

"Through the curtain, sir," said the waiter.

"Huh?"

"Your party, sir, through the curtain."

"Oh. Right. Um... thanks." Ratiko pushed the curtain

aside and walked nervously in. And then he nearly fainted.

Looking at him was a room full of Ratiko Hibikis.

"You lost too?" asked one of them.

At this point, he decided fainting would be a good thing

to do.

The Great Reiraku Hibiki party of Cafe Eternum was a

grand example of what happens when one isn't specific with

instructions in a restaurant that deals with the vagueness

of time.

Hibikis, by their nature, get lost. They get incredibly

lost. More than any beings in the realities, Hibikis tend to

cross dimensions and time barriers. A handful are bound to,

sooner or later, run into each other. Two particular

Hibikis, both being Reiraku, had one day made arrangements

to do lunch at the Cafe Eternum.

They had left instructions to the restaurant regarding

the matter.

It went, basically, like this.

Epsillion room reserved, Hibiki Reiraku. Will need

guidance to reserved area.

The staff interpreted said instructions as, basically, to

reserve a room and to toss any Reiraku Hibiki they found in

it.

The original two Ratiko Hibikis had long since left,

having grown irritated at the suddenly crowded room of

themselves. Since then, it had become a revolving door of

Ratikos. They didn't mind, since there was a drink and

snack bar as well as a neat view of the galaxy.

Woe be unto the last one out, though, since they were

going to be stuck with the bill...

One particular Ratiko, recently re-awakened, decided that

it was all a bout of temporary insanity and decided to

mingle and go with the flow until he was sane again.

"Hey, is that cheese dip?"

"Sure is."

"Cool. Pass it over, willya?"

After much wandering, Ishido ended up in a side room of

sorts, separated from the main room by a curtain.

What really set him on edge, however, was the occupants.

It seemed to be, in his eyes, a room full of Ryo

Muhoshin.

The Gosunkugi wing was still in a chaotic state following

the mess that had happened earlier. No one was sure exactly

how it started, they only knew that the tables were still

trying to bite their ankles off and the sprinkler system was

FINALLY off.

"Damn," said Gosunkugi #289, "what ELSE can go wrong

tonight?"

And then there was a growl.

There are many kinds of growls. There's the growl that a

chihuahua makes when it's threatening to piss on your shoe.

There's a growl that a dog makes when it wants you to stop

yanking on the collar.

This sort of growl was along the 'someone will die in ten

seconds' variety.

All the occupants of the room turned around... very...

slowly.

Ryo looked at his counterpart in silence, still surprised

by the turn of events. He knew that it was a possibility

that this sort of thing would happen, but it still didn't

prepare him for the event.

"C'mon, let's go to the bar," said his other self.

Looking him over, Ryo saw a few things immediately that

set them apart. The other was older by a few years, five

was his guess. The biggest difference, however, was how he

carried himself.

The other him seemed... tired.

"You're still chasing Muhoshin?" asked the other.

Ryo nodded.

"And you?" asked Ryo.

"I've... finalized things." He turned away from Ryo with

a dark expression on his face and ordered a drink. He

looked Ryo over and hmmed. "Bell-chan's still okay?"

"Yeah, the last time I saw her."

"Good, good. At least you have that."

"What do you mean by that?"

His alternate looked away. "Bell-chan... my Bell-chan...

she's dead."

Ryo suddenly felt a chill hit him. Bell-chan? Dead?

No. Oh no.

"It happened after a month of chasing him." The other

Ryo took a long drink, then closed his eyes. "I was chasing

the bastard through realities... and somehow he managed to

focus enough to land in mine. He killed Tachi and Godai,

then kidnapped Bell. Muhoshin wanted my locket in

exchange... when we made the trade he killed her anyway.

For five years after, I've been chasing him across the

realities, and I ended it all tonight."

"You stopped him?"

"I killed him."

Ryo blinked.

"Caught him while he was having one of those weird

epileptic fits of his. Snapped his neck. He never knew

what hit him. More than he deserved."

"You killed him?"

"Don't look so damned surprised! You don't know what

I've gone through! You haven't had to see all the people he

killed because you couldn't stop him in time! If you end up

in my shoes, pray that you don't, then you'd do the same!"

Ryo didn't reply. A month. It was after a month that he

went after Bell-chan. He'd been chasing Muhoshin for only a

few days now. He still had time.

He had to plan.

"The locket," said Ryo, "the one Muhoshin's got. The

last time I saw it, the thing was burned into his chest.

What's happening to him?"

"Chronal radiation. The locket he's got is older than

you even suspect, nearly at the end of its life. It's

spitting out enough chronal radiation to warp flesh and

really do some nasty things to the mind. When I finally got

to him, Muhoshin wasn't much more than a rabid dog. Be

careful, though. His link to the locket is stronger than

yours. Don't underestimate what he can do with that thing."

"What's the worst he could do?"

"Make a small town disappear."

"Oh... oh hell."

"That's where he said he sent them."

He was about to ask more questions, when there was a

sudden and familiar yell of rage.

It sounded very much Ishido-esque.

"Damn, that sounds all too familiar," muttered Ryo.

"Sounds like Ishido," said his alternate. "You'd better

go stop him before he goes and wrecks the place. Besides,

the last thing you want is to be tossed into their version

of a jail."

Ryo cut through the crowds as fast as he could, feeling

very much like a salmon going up a waterfall. Nearly

knocking over waiters and customers alike, he slowly but

surely made his way to the end of the crowded and noisy

corridor.

He paused a moment, took a few steps back, quickly walked

into a side room and winced.

"Hey, which one of you was with me?"

The room full of Ratikos blinked, except one sucking out

a can of cheese whip. That one paused, waved at Ryo, and

motioned for him to come over.

"Hey, Ryo! They got a snack bar here! Want some cheese

dip?"

Without a word, Ryo marched over, grabbed him by the tie,

and pulled him out of the room.

"Hey! What's the big deal?!"

"We don't have time for this," grumbled Ryo. "Don't get

los-"

There was a loud growl. It was followed by many screams

of terror. From a curtain many feet away, a body rocketed

forth. It looked very much like he was thrown.

"Oh no," muttered Ryo.

Another person was ejected forcibly from behind a

curtain. A third person scrambled away, yelling, "HELP!

PSYCHOTIC IN THE HOUSE!"

That person, and the two before him, were clearly

Gosunkugi-esque in nature, if not the man himself.

Considering how much Gosunkugi resembled Muhoshin, and

then add the odd surroundings and stress that Ishido was

going through, and Ryo had a really bad feeling about it.

He grabbed Ratiko's arm and stomped towards the

commotion. "C'mon, this way."

"That way? But that's where everyone else is running

_away_ from!"

"No kidding."

When the fifth Gosunkugi screaming his head off ran

through the foyer, the maitre'd knew exactly who was causing

the problem. He also knew who to talk to about it.

Leaving the head waiter in charge of the reservation

desk, he proceeded to the upper level bar of the east wing.

There he found a young woman dressed in black pants, a blue

turtleneck, and a tan sportjacket enjoying a friendly drink

with a woman dressed in red. He tapped the lady in the

sportjacket on the shoulder.

"Pardon me, Ms. Tsereba," said the Maitre'd. "But there

is a bit of a problem in the Gosunkugi Wing with one of the

members of your party. We were wondering if you could

assist us?"

The young woman looked at her watch and sighed. "They

just can't seem to stay out of trouble, can they? All right,

I'll need my gun, a pitcher of ice water and a copy of the

New York City Telephone Directory."

"The Yellow Pages, ma'am?"

"Better make it the residential listings. And make sure

it has the complete listings for all five boroughs. I'll

need the weight."

"Right away, Ma'am."

"Oh, and get me a private booth, please."

Ryo and Ratiko dashed into the room.

The first thing they noticed was the mountain of

Gosunkugis piled on top of each other all on one table. They

were conscious, quaking in fear, but conscious.

The reason they were quaking in fear was due to the fact

that Ishido was bouncing the head of one hapless Gosunkugi

repeatedly against another table. With the result that the

Gosunkugi in question, on the verge of passing out, now

believed himself to be "Tattoo" from Fantasy Island.

"I... WON'T... LET... YOU... HURT... CHILDRA!" Ishido roared,

redoubling his efforts.

"But, Boss... what is...Mr. Hubert's... fantasy?" said the

Gosunkugi between the impacts.

Rat and Ryo looked at each other.

"Jai-ken-po?" Rat asked. Ryo rolled his eyes.

"Just come on." he said. "Before he kills someone." The

two of them made ready to attack the lunatic assassin. But,

before they could do anything, an extremely thick book

sailed through the air, impacting neatly at the base of

Ishido's skull. The mentally unbalanced one's eyes rolled

back in his head, and he collapsed to the floor, releasing

the Gosunkugi, who also mercifully lapsed into

unconsciousness.

Ryo and Rat turned to find a young woman with long black

hair behind them standing next to the Maitre'd.

"Excellent shot, Ms. Tsereba." the gorilla commented.

Ms. Tsereba merely nodded. She turned her attention to the

two boys.

"Ryo Saotome?" Ryo nodded, frowning.

"Reiraku Hibiki?" Rat nodded, dumbfounded.

"And I assume the psychotic is Ishido Takashima. I've

been expecting you. If you'll follow me, please."

"Wait a second." Ryo said, stepping forward. "No offense

meant. We appreciate your help Ms.-"

"Tsereba. Reiko Tsereba." answered the woman.

"Ms. Tsereba." Ryo finished. "But, we're kind of in a

hurry. We're looking for-"

"A woman named Kaeri Tendo, right?" Reiko finished.

"Well, I'm afraid you're too late. She left about half an

hour ago."

"What?!" Rat shrieked. "She destroy it all! We've got to

find her."

"Not right now." said Reiko. "Right now, I need you to

come with me." Ratiko frowned at her.

"And why should we do anything you say?" he demanded.

Reiko glanced downwards. Rat and Ryo followed her gaze to

the pistol she held in her hand.

"You'll do it because this gun is loaded, and bullets

tend to make nasty holes." Reiko said, smiling. "Besides, we

have some business to discuss. So if you would care to

gather up your friend over there and follow me." Reiko

turned and spoke to the Maitre'd. Ryo sighed. And to think

this had all started out with such promise. He turned to get

Ishido, but Rat grabbed his arm.

"Are you seriously going to do what she says? Let's just

knock her out and get the hell out of here." the Hibiki

whispered. Ryo shook his head.

"I didn't hear her pull that gun out, did you?" he asked.

"No. So what?"

"So what it means is that she's pretty damn fast with

that thing. And in my experience, Fast Draw plus Gun plus

Martial Artist equals Dead Martial Artist. Got it?"

Rat thought for a moment.

"You get his arms, I'll get his feet." he said.

After a trip up three flights of stairs and through a few

dozen wings, Reiko led the two boys and their unconscious

friend to a large booth. As they got situated, Reiko pulled

the cord that closed the curtains of the booth.

"Okay," Ryo said. "We're here. Now what's this all

about?"

"First things first." Reiko said, picking up the water

carafe. She glanced at Ishido who was snoring slightly and

drooling on Rat's shoulder. "Sorry about this, Hibiki." she

said, turning the open mouth of the carafe towards Ishido.

Ratiko barely got out of the way in time.

After calming Ishido down and getting him a towel to dry

off with, Reiko produced a card. She tossed it to Ryo.

"I'm a representative of this organization. I've been

assigned to your case."

Ryo looked at the card, then back at her skeptically.

"The 'Save the Universe' Foundation?" he asked.

"What do you do? Prevent people from polluting the

spaceways with junk?" Rat asked, smirking.

"That's another branch." Reiko answered, frowning. "I'm

part of the branch that deals with reality hopping idiots

like yourselves."

"Hey!" Rat yelped. Ryo glared at him to keep quiet.

"So what are you going to do?" Ryo said. "Keep us from

jumping around anymore? Sorry, we can't oblige."

"I didn't expect you to. That's why I'm here. I'm a

Guide."

"A what?"

"A Guide." Reiko explained. "When a group of reality

hoppers like you makes a total mess out of every reality

they visit, my superiors sends a Guide to help them clean up

the mess. Especially if they've lost their means of

transport." She looked pointedly at Ryo.

"What about Kaeri?" Ratiko piped up. "She's on her way

to destroy my time! I won't exist!"

Reiko looked at Ryo. "Let me guess. He hasn't gotten

the concept of alternate realities yet, has he?" Ryo shook

his head.

Reiko sighed. "All right. In that case we'll just have

to stop her."

"And what about Muhoshin?" Ishido said coldly. Reiko

looked at him.

"What about him?"

"Aren't you going to help us do anything about

Muhoshin?"

"Sorry, friend," the Guide responded. "The SUF believes

in the old philosophy; 'You made the mess, you clean it up.'

I'll help you get the locket back from Kaeri, but after

that, you're on your own. Unless, of course, you totally

botch that bit, too."

"Fine." Ryo said, hoping to get on with it. "Where do

we go from here?"

Reiko reached into a pocket of her jacket and produced

a small brass disc. She pressed a hidden catch and the disc

opened like a pocket watch. Ryo noticed that the cover of

the item had the legend "Reality Is Not An Absolute"

engraved on it under a stylized design of seven hexagons

bordering on one another.

"What is that?" Rat asked.

"A Reality Compass." Reiko answered. "Standard issue

for all Guides." She turned it around to show them. The dial

had a standard compass face, only all the directions were

missing. Where "North" usually was were the words "Nerima

138."

"What's Nerima 138?" Ryo asked.

"It's where I live. You didn't think I spent all my

time here did you?" she turned the compass back to herself.

"Let's see... aha! Found her. Dimension 347890, Tendo dojo.

Ready?"

The three boys looked at each other and nodded. Reiko

turned an outside dial on the compass. There was a flash of

blue light.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Contrary to the image that the authors have thus far

painted, crossing dimensional realities is not as easy as

crossing the street. A far more accurate analogy would be

that crossing dimensional realities is like crossing a busy

interstate highway at rush hour, where the majority of

traffic is taken up by enormous eighteen wheelers

transporting who knows how many crates of nitroglycerin and

unstable plutonium, and there's one rabid lunatic postal

worker on the opposite side with a bazooka looking to have a

bit of fun.

In the case of Ryo, Ishido, Rat, and Reiko, the rabid

lunatic postal worker had the name Kaeri on her name tag.

There was a flash and the next thing Ryo knew, he was

face down in something cold and wet. Then something landed

on him with a loud "OOF!"

"Get off of me!" the Saotome exclaimed. The weight rolled

off of him. Ryo got to his feet and looked around. Snow

blanketed the landscape for miles around. The four of them

were in a valley surrounded by huge mountains and glaciers.

There wasn't a single person besides them to be found.

"Everybody all right?" Reiko asked, brushing snow off

her jacket. There was a loud squeaking coming from a

snowdrift. Reiko reached in and pulled out a very annoyed,

very cold fruit bat.

"Oh, it's you." Reiko said. She tossed Rat to Ryo and

got out her compass.

"What happened?" Ishido asked. "This doesn't look like

Nerima to me."

"It isn't." Reiko said, consulting the compass. " We're

too late. Kaeri's already done whatever she planned to do."

"WHAT?!" Ishido roared. Reiko gave him a look.

"Relax, Childra's okay. Apparently, she found a nexus

point. She's just created a whole sub-dimension from the one

Childra and Batboy over there are from."

"What's a nexus point?" Ishido asked.

"Nexus points are events that occur in various

realities that can change the world in an instant." Reiko

explained. "But, if someone tries to change or prevent that

event from happening, it can have disastrous consequences."

"What sort of consequences?"

"The complete unraveling of time and space as we know

it." The guide answered. "Fortunately, the universe knows

better than to let that happen, so if an outside force

fiddles with that event, it compensates by giving them the

outcome they wanted, but lets them know that the original

event will still continue. I imagine Kaeri isn't too happy

right now."

"That still doesn't explain where we are, or how we

got here." Ryo pointed out.

"We were in transit when Kaeri's sub-dimension was

created. My compass is designed to keep up with the number

of dimensions out there. It recalibrates itself every time a

new dimension is created. Which means that when Kaeri did

whatever she did, the resulting 'shockwave' for want of a

better term, played hell with the compass, so it set us down

in the nearest dimension so it can recalibrate itself."

Reiko said.

"So where are we then?" Ryo asked.

"Iceplanet." Reiko responded. "It's a place where a

second Ice Age hit the Earth, but the human race managed to

survive. Don't worry, I've been here before."

"How long before we can leave? Kaeri may try something

else." Ryo said. Reiko checked the compass.

"We got hit with a pretty big shockwave." she said.

"It'll take time."

"How long?"

"About 24 hours."

"24 HOURS!" Ryo yelped. "She could do who knows how

much damage in that time! We can't wait that long!" Using

the speed he inherited from his parents, Ryo reached over

and plucked the compass from Reiko's palm.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Reiko demanded. "You

don't know how that thing works, we could end up anywhere!"

"It's better than freezing to death waiting for this

thing to decide to work!"

"And how do you know we won't end up someplace worse?"

"Could anyplace be worse than this?"

Suddenly, the group became aware of a distant

rumbling sound. It was too close to be thunder. There wasn't

a cloud in the sky. Reiko looked off into the distance.

"Ryo," she said quietly. "Give me the compass. We're

getting out of here."

"What is it?" Ishido asked. Ryo looked at the guide.

"No tricks?"

"No tricks." Reiko agreed. "Give me the compass."

The rumbling sound got closer. Ryo handed the compass

over. Reiko popped the lid and set the dial. The rumbling

was almost deafening by this point.

"Where are we going?" Ryo yelled above the din.

"What's going on?" Ishido hollered.

"We're going home and it's an avalanche!" Reiko yelled

back. She twisted the dial and the four of them vanished

just as a wall of snow slid down from the mountains and

blanketed the area they had just been standing.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Muhoshin appeared about three feet off the ground, and

proceeded to land on his behind on a cobblestoned street. A

cobblestoned street of an oddly familiar style...

He looked around. London. He was back in the London of

the barbarian Queen Victoria. Damn it all, this was NOT

where he had been wanting to go...

Wait.

Wasn't that a Ryouga walking by?

Picking himself up, Muhoshin padded after his quarry,

idling wondering what the hell Hibiki was doing here, years

before he was supposed to be born. Perhaps he was another

reality jumper? The thought sent a shiver of pleasure down

his spine; killing Ryougas, while satisfying, didn't

really... mean much any more. They weren't _real_, not

really. Kill one, and there were plenty more. But a

jumper... That was different. They were unique.

There. Hibiki had turned into a alley. Cat-quiet,

Muhoshin followed, noting with pleasure that it was empty.

He cleared his throat, and Ryouga turned.

"Ready to die, Hibiki?" he said. Or tried to say.

o/~ Oh hated hated hated enemy o/~

o/~ It's time to shuffle off this mortal coil o/~

o/~ For sadly sadly sadly do you see o/~

o/~ Your existence I shall lance like a boil! o/~

o/~ Prepare to die... o/~

Ryo blinked. THAT certainly wasn't what he had meant to

say, and where the hell did that music come from?

o/~ Your plans I'll foil," Ryouga sang back, o/~

o/~ For although I'm afraid I know you not o/~

o/~ Your murderous plans and toil o/~

o/~ Against me shall come to naught! o/~

o/~ For you see... o/~

o/~ What do I see? o/~

o/~ For you see... o/~

o/~ WHAT DO I SEE? o/~

o/~ You face the mighty Ryouga Hiiiiibikiiiiiii! o/~

o/~ I face the mighty Ryouga Hibikiiiii!o/~ chorused

Muhoshin, backing up a step. What the hell? Why was he

chorusing? NO CHORUS, he mentally yelled at his mouth, which

ignored him.

Right then. He wasn't certain, but he suspected killing

his old enemy would give him back control of his mouth.

o/~ I'll have your head and see you dead, o/~

o/~ Oh source of my miiiiisery o/~

o/~ The street I'll flood with your lifeblood o/~

o/~ YOU DIE NOW, HIBIKIIIIIIII!" o/~

A nice swipe, he thought. Ryouga didn't even try to

dodge, just reached for a pistol at his belt. His hand had

almost reached it when Ryo's blade slid into his chest.

"I breathe my last..." gasped the Ryouga

o/~ You breathe your last!o/~ Muhoshin gleefully sang,

as the music swelled grandly and died with his opponent.

Wiping the blood from the tip, he strode back out onto

the street, smiling. He had never killed to opera before,

and he found it a novel and satisfactory experience. If

somewhat puzzling.

Glancing about at his fellow pedestrians, he noticed that

they were gesturing somewhat dramatically when they talked.

And a bit of music, ever so vaguely, came from each...

It would seem that this reality had a soundtrack, and

made it's dwellers conform to it. How novel.

o/~ Alms, Alms o/~

o/~ For a miserable womaaaaaaaan o/~

o/~ On a miserable... chilly... morning... o/~

He turned, startled. He had heard that voice before...

Well, well. Akane Tendo, clothed in rags and looking

decidedly out of her head. How the mighty have fallen.

"Off, I say! To the devil with you!" Odd. No singing,

although a burst of rather bleak music did accompany it.

Akane glared at him, and hurried off.

No, he'd had enough of this place, amusing as it was.

He'd depart for more normal climes...

The odor of fresh okonomiyaki wafted past, and Muhoshin

stopped in his tracks. Hmm.

He'd depart. Right after he had a bite to eat.

Ryo Muhoshin stared at the shop he was approaching in

disbelief.

/Ucchan's Okonomiyaki/, proclaimed the sign. Tables and

benches, filled with Londoners, stood in front. And there,

he noted, was Kuonji herself. Singing. Of course.

o/~ Gosling! o/~ she sang. Muhoshin snarled, then

noticed that she wasn't looking in his direction...

"Yes, mum?" returned Hikaru Gosunkugi, appearing out of

a alcove.

"Ale there!"

"Right, mum!"

[Mum?] wondered Muhoshin.

"GOD THAT'S GOOD!" bellowed the customers.

o/~ Have another yaki, o/~ Ukyou sang.

o/~ No, we don't do take-out o/~

o/~ Ain't they very tasty? o/~

o/~ Gosling! One for the gentleman o/~

o/~ Spatulated nicely o/~

o/~ Tender but not flaky o/~

o/~ Gosling! Throw the old beggar out! o/~

Muhoshin watched as Gos ushered a protesting Akane away.

o/~ GOD THAT'S GOOD! o/~

Hmm. This posed a problem. If he became a customer, did

that mean he would have to join in the song as well? Not

good at all. Perhaps there was somewhere else he could-

His eye fastened on the sign for the shop a floor above

the Ucchan's. /Saotome Ranma, Barber/

The mighty Saotome, perhaps the most fearsome fighter Ryo

knew. The father of his enemy. A barber.

Muhoshin grinned. His hair was getting a tad long anyway,

and the humiliation value was priceless. Ranma was probably

a top-notch barber here, too.

Something nagged at him, but he quickly shrugged the

feeling off. Maybe he'd have to sing, yeah, so? A real

barbershop quartet.

o/~ Eat them slow, o/~ sang Gos and Ukyou.

o/~ And taste the yummy flavor of it o/~

o/~ Eat them slow o/~

o/~ Coz every one's a prize o/~

o/~ Eat them slow o/~

o/~ Coz that's the lot and now we're sold it o/~

o/~ Come again tomorrow... o/~

"Hold it," Ukyou muttered, watching Muhoshin walk up the

stairs to the barbershop and knock on the door. Ranma

promptly answered it.

"Right this way, sir," Saotome intoned.

Ukyou grinned.

o/~ Bless my eyes o/~

o/~ Fresh supplies! o/~

o/~ Gosling! Warm up the oven! o/~

Ranma ushered Muhoshin into the chair, a fancy-looking

metal contraption, and began mixing a bowl of lather. "And

what may I do for you, sir?"

The great Ranma Saotome, calling him sir in an ever-so-

humble tone. Ryo grinned.

o/~ I am, sir, a man with higher tastes o/~

o/~ My business you might say is grave o/~

o/~ So fetch the pomade and pumice stone o/~

o/~ To give me a suitably dapper tone o/~

o/~ A sprinkling, perhaps, of fine cologne o/~

o/~ But first, sir, I think - a shave. o/~

"The closest I ever gave," Ranma finished, smiling. He

began to apply the lather to Muhoshin's face, whistling

happily as he did. Ryo leaned back a bit, and began to

whistle along with him. Quaint, this.

After covering the face before him with white froth,

Ranma took out a rather large, silver-chased razor and began

the business of shaving. Muhoshin, who had been almost

drowsy, came awake. Having a blade that close to his neck

made him decidedly nervous...

o/~ And are you beautiful, with hair o/~

o/~ As black as raven wing, like her? o/~

o/~ I think you'd have such raven hair o/~

o/~ The way I dreamed you were o/~

o/~ Miyabi... o/~ Ranma sang, his razor flourishes

becoming more and more artistic.

Muhoshin started. Miyabi? Must be a common name, but why

on Earth was Ranma singing like...

On pure instinct, he caught Ranma's hand just before the

razor could be drawn across his throat. Ranma gave a puzzled

frown, pushed Ryo back into the chair with his free hand,

and kept moving the razor towards his throat.

Panicked, Muhoshin tried to keep the blade away... but

Saotome was stronger than him, and his other hand was

pinned...

That questing other hand fell upon a lever of some sort,

set into the side of the chair. Maybe it lowered the chair

back... the razor was only millimeters away, now, and Ranma

was smiling in a horribly vacant way...

He pulled the lever, and was very surprised to have the

bottom of the chair give way, tumbling him down a metal

chute. He landed on something soft, and quickly surveyed the

room he had fallen into.

It was the bakehouse of the Ucchan's, with a roaring

oven, a grill, and... what was he sitting on?

Hmm. A dead body. With it's throat cut.

Muhoshin looked at the meat ready for the okonomiyakis,

looked back at the body, and was suddenly very, very glad he

hadn't eaten lunch here. This has ceased to be novel.

Blue fire flared, and he was gone.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Kaeri stumbled out of the light, her face dripping with

sweat. The locket was fighting her. She could feel it.

Trying to stop her. Leading her astray.

She had faltered, there in the Cafe Eternum. The words

had almost turned her aside. Almost. She had a purpose, and

the purpose was the Work, and the Work was her Family, and

her Family was All. This nightmare of 2096 would fall in

ruins, disappear like blown dust, vanish like a bad dream.

And Reiraku would fall with it.

But she needed her bearings, needed to know where was

where and when was where...

Her eyes opened. The dojo. She was in front of the dojo,

on a fine, sunny day.

A voice, inside. Happosai? It had to be. This had to be

the start of that hell-timeline, where the demon was

wrenched from its pit by the horrible little pervert. Her

grip tighted on the staff, and the locket sputtered

slightly. He dies. She would wipe the future clean with his

foul little life.

Silently, she walked inside.

"Ranma-kun, you disappoint me."

Kaeri's lip curled in disgust at the sound, her eyes

adjusting to the dim light. Kasumi, happy happy WORTHLESS

Kasumi. Ranma had probably forgotten to put his laundry in

the basket, or something equally...

A tanto, she was holding a tanto to his stomach, what...

"Mother disappointed me, too," said happy happy Kasumi as

she thrust the blade slowly into Ranma's stomach.

The blood ran down the blade, Kaeri noted, and the blade

was connected to the handle, and the handle was connected to

Kasumi, who was watching Ranma stare at her in glassy,

helpless horror. Kasumi smiled. And smiled.

"I told her I was ready to run the household for her, but

she would just smile at me and say that I could run my own

house..."

"NO!"

Kasumi jerked around, sliding the tanto out of its

resting place in Ranma's belly. "Oh my. What are you?"

Numb, feeling strangely ill, Kaeri advanced. "What are

you?"

"I'm Kasumi Tendo. Oh dear. What happened to your face?"

"You're not Kasumi. You're not me."

Kasumi smiled reprovingly at her. "I certainly am

Kasumi... it looks like you are too, which is strange. Are

you from the future?"

No, no, no, she would never have done that, never...find

out, she had to find out somehow..."What...what's the name

of the bear on my dresser?"

"Mr. Buttons! Although he's on the bed, not the dresser."

Her teddy bear. She had named him that. And she hadn't

told anyone, not even Mommy. It was her special name for

him. Hers.

"Are you here to warn me about the future?"

"Mother wasn't sick here, was she." It was a statement,

not a question.

Kasumi laughed, the sound musical, bearing peace and

serenity. "Mother was too healthy. She didn't understand

that it was our turn. We were meant to do the Work."

She tried to grasp it. Tried. Mother had been healthy.

Would have lived. But Kasumi couldn't wait.

SHE couldn't wait.

It's not me, she told herself. Not me.

Yes it is, replied Mr. Buttons. You.

The smiling, gentle, happyhappyhappy Kasumi turned. "I'd

better finish Ranma-kun. Afterwards, I'll make some tea and

we can talk. Everyone else is asleep, so..."

Filth. Obscene. Kasumi was a stain, you clean stains, you

wipe them out, you scrub them away...

Kaeri leapt, the blade sliding from the end of her

outstretched staff. As if she expected it, Kasumi darted to

the left, the tanto held in a knife fighter's grip.

"Damn you. You evil, sick _thing_. You had everything

important, and you KILLED her."

"I had nothing! I was just another daughter. Someone to

do what they told! Now, now, I tell them everything...I run

the house, their days, their lives...me! US!"

And the worst thing was that it was true. Us. She had

enjoyed being the head of the house. Overseeing things.

Giving orders. Us. And it was all she had ever wanted to

do. Us. Both of them.

Was she any different from Kasumi? If Mommy had lived,

would she have...

Kasumi sensed her distraction and struck, knife thrusting

in short, vicious arcs. Kaeri barely had enough time to

bring the staff up to avoid being disemboweled.

The battle was short, crazed, a nightmare of blind fury

and instinct. Kasumi kept clawing ever inward, fighting with

hands, tanto, and teeth, while Kaeri found herself

frantically trying to get her doppelganger at arm's reach,

where her staff would be effective.

There was a bad moment for her, when Kasumi had gotten

her free hand around her neck, the smiling, empty face

leering into hers. She wrenched loose, Kasumi's fingernails

leaving bloody trails along her throat. It was only a matter

of time, time and focus, before one of them made a

mistake...

The moment came. Kaeri's leg swept out to trip her

double, and with a strength born of desperation she pushed

Kasumi away. Her hand stabbed the button controlling the

needle, and she thrust towards the leg of the charging,

snarling, dreamy- eyed murderer...

"BAKUSAI TEN-SATSU!"

The first stab to piece the leg didn't do anything.

Neither did the second. The third was right on target.

Kasumi's femur exploded as the needle hit the breaking

point, sending her crashing to the ground with a shriek of

agony. The tanto fell from her hand, skidding across the

floor to land at the base of some piled practice mats.

Kaeri stepped forward. Time to finish it.

"Let's... oh my...talk about this...you won't really kill

me..."

"The world will be a better place for it."

"Mr. Buttons! That's...ahhh...the name of the bear! The

teddy bear!"

"I know." She raised the staff, positioning the blade.

"He had a green cap. Mother knitted it for us."

"I'm you! You can't do it! You're killing yourself!" The

blade rose, a hungry gleam sparkling along the edge. "I'M

ONE OF YOU! I AM YOU!"

"THEN THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE OF US!"

The staff came down. It made a noise like slicing a

watermelon, Kaeri thought, watching Kasumi's head fall to

the floor. The carvings on the staff flared, the red light

matching the gouts of blood flowing from the corpse in the

yellow dress. And now, she had to kill Ranma.

She raised the blade once more, watching him stare with a

sick, uncomprehending horror at her...

Ranma? Why was she...

Kill him! Kill him!

Why was she about to kill...

KILL HIM!

She lowered the staff, horrified at the incredible urge

she had to chop him to bloody rags.

Ranma, poor Ranma looked worried. And he was bleeding,

too. She carefully tore off part of Kasumi's apron, and made

a makeshift bandage.

"I'll call an ambulance, Ranma-kun, and they'll make you

all better. All better."

He managed to make a low, mewling sound. The poor boy was

still scared, silly boy, nothing to fear, nothing at all.

"Kasumi can't hurt you, Ranma-kun. She's all better, and

I won't hurt you. See?" Picking the head up by the long,

flowing hair, she held it up to him.

Ranma made gurgling noises. Kasumi's head smiled at him,

and dripped.

Patting him on the shoulder, she set it on top of the

corpse's apron and watched the blood congeal for a few

minutes. Then she went to summon help.

The phone was lying on the floor of the living room,

carelessly dropped. The dispatcher assured her that an

ambulance would be sent, and he seemed to know what he was

talking about. Ranma would be fine, just fine.

The naughty, naughty locket wasn't taking her to the

right place.

"Now, listen," she said in her best cheerful-but-firm

voice. "You will take me to this 2096 dimension, the one

Reiraku is from. You will put me in a position to kill

Happosai before he can kill them all, kill them with the

thing, the demon. You will do this and YOU WILL NOT DRAG ME

THROUGH THIS AGAIN! DAMN YOU!" And the monsters jumped out

from the walls and the Kasumis scrubbed and hummed and

whistled and danced without heads and the staff howled and

spun and cleansed...

Above, a sick and dizzy Akane awoke to the sound of

shrieking and crashing. As she unsteadily descended the

stairs, an eruption of blue light blinded her for a second.

She noticed the near-total destruction of the living room

almost immediately. She found the dojo only seconds before

the ambulance arrived, and for a minute the paramedics were

worried that the sedative wouldn't kick in.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Kasumi was in a daze.

Having your mother's ghost telling you she hates you does

that.

Couldn't hide in her room forever. Everyone would worry.

Couldn't have people worry; it would give them wrinkle

lines.

But she really didn't know what to do. This was beyond

her experience. She was really confused.

Having your niece from another universe screaming for her

father in the throes of orgasm does that.

Kasumi buried her head under a pillow.

So what was she to do?

This was the sort of thing not covered in the Housewife's

Little Handbook. Somehow, they seemed to have missed the

section on this kind of thing. She couldn't think of

anything about daughters loving their fathers

inappropriately. Poo. Maybe there was something else she

could find.

She mentally flipped through the little handbook.

Nothing. There MUST be something she could do. After all,

she had to keep the family together.

Together.

Right. Family together. If they wanted to show their

togetherness like that, who was she to say no?

Still, it bothered her. Something should be done.

Something she could do. She mentally flipped through her

little Housewife's Handbook for things to do when something

was beyond comprehension.

Maybe chopping a few vegetables might help. Yes, that's

right. Those nice long sharp knives in the kitchen. They'd

help her feel better. After all, chopping things always DID

help her a lot. And it was almost time for lunch. Maybe

cooking would help her aching head. Yes, perhaps that was

what she needed, time to think? Yes. Now what to make...?

Ah. Cold sliced pork for lunch might do nicely.

Miyabi sighed as she headed down to lunch. After all the

recent chaos, she realized, it was even more important to

make sure that her parents got together.

Ranma HAD to marry Akane, if Miyabi's reality was to come

about. And if it didn't...

Well, she _really_ hoped she wouldn't be around to see if

a future with that (%*# (*%# Ratiko could happen in this

reality.

She silently admonished herself for cursing, and for

thinking such bad thoughts as that about the little ratbat.

After all, if her plan worked, she would never ever have to

see that little piece of excrement again. She smiled as she

headed into the dining room.

There was everyone. Daddy. Mum. Grandpa Soun, and

Grandpa Genma. And of course, Auntie Nabiki was probably out

taking perverse pleasure in the Art of the Deal. Wait,

where was Auntie Kasumi? Oh there she was, just coming in

from the kitchen.

Miyabi smiled to herself. This was such a nice pleasant

family gathering. She hoped there would be more of them in

the future. Mentally, she smacked herself. Of COURSE there

would be more of them! After all, her tapes, the ones she

was going to send to all Ranma's fiancees, were going to

help show everyone that Ranma really DID love Akane. And

they would all give up and let her parents get together like

destiny always meant it to be. It'd work, it had to work,

so that everyone could have a happy sappy warm and fuzzy

ending. After all, love conquers all, right?

She giggled to herself. Kasumi looked at her curiously.

It looked like a good lunch. Then again, Kasumi always

made good lunches. It was Auntie Kasumi, after all. And

that cold sliced pork looked absolutely delicious. Even if

there wasn't that much pork on the plate.

Wait, why was Auntie giving her those strange looks?

Miyabi frowned, then shrugged to herself. Kasumi hadn't

been feeling well lately after all...

Miyabi smiled at Kasumi. "It looks delicious, Auntie!"

Kasumi absentmindedly smiled, a strange and vacant smile

empty of any true cheerfulness.

Miyabi looked down at the table and sighed. Then she

smiled as she reached out for several choice bits of pork

and veggies with her chopsticks. Maybe Auntie Kasumi would

feel better soon. Check that, definitely feel better soon.

After all, a lot of Auntie Kasumi's troubles would be gone

once she got the tapes to Ranma's other fiancees.

Miyabi paused. She picked up a bit of pork with her

chopsticks and put it in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

Hmm. How was she going to deliver those tapes to the

other fiancees? Mail? Overnight delivery? UPS? Carrier

Pigeon?

Ah well, she was sure she could find something.

You know, the pork was pretty tasty. Thin, smooth,

tender... not tough at all. Must have been quite a young

pig.

Wait, what was that horrible bawling sound?

Miyabi blinked, and looked around. Why was Grandpa Soun

screaming and tearing his hair out? Oh no, Daddy's chokin'

on something... Oh good. Mum's helping him out. Wait, why

is Mum hitting him? Why is she screaming "PERVERT!"?

Miyabi slowly grew aware of Kasumi's stare. "What?"

Kasumi said, without a trace of ingenuity in her voice,

"I said, I hope you and Ranma have been using protection.

You did, didn't you?"

Miyabi blinked, then realized with a sinking feeling what

Kasumi had done with that one question.

Kasumi had destroyed all her plans and hopes, and trod

on them with dainty little slippers.

Kasumi didn't understand why Miyabi and Ranma were quite

vocally denying it all. After all, there was nothing wrong

with closeness between father and daughter, was there? Even

if, she had to admit, it bothered her a little.

She frowned a little. Her harmony was disturbed. She

needed a nap.

But she had to make sure that Ranma and Miyabi understood

that, if they couldn't abstain, they really should be

practicing safe sex. After all, if Ranma had another child

through his daughter, Kasumi thought, she'd never be sure

whether to call the child a nephew or a grand-nephew, or a

nephew once-removed. Or a niece, or a grand-niece or...

"But Auntie! Grandpa! Grandpa! We REALLY didn't do

anything!"

"See, you uncute tomboy? Stop doing that!"

"PERVERT! BAKA! With OUR DAUGHTER?! *WHAM*"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

This was going to give her a migraine if the chaos didn't

stop.

Kasumi quietly *AHEMED*.

Everyone stopped and looked at her.

Kasumi gave her friendliest smile. "Now, Miyabi,

Ranma... it's all right to love. Just be sure you do it

safely."

Ranma turned quite red in the face. "I DIDN'T DO

NOTHIN'!" Goodness, that vein in his head didn't look

good at all. She smiled warmly at him, hoping to get Ranma

to calm down.

Miyabi put her head in her hands. Then suddenly, she

ran out of the room.

Kasumi blinked. She looked at everyone else, then walked

over to her father. "Now, now, father..."

Miyabi came running back into the room, holding a few

audio tapes. "See? This will show you all what happened!"

Everyone didn't understand, Kasumi realized. Well,

except herself.

Kasumi smiled. "It was nice of you to record your love

and share it with us, Miyabi."

Kasumi blinked. She really didn't understand why

everyone was making such a big fuss over such a perfectly

wonderful thing.

Maybe she really should go take that nap now.

Miyabi sulked outside the Tendo dojo. Beside her was a

large trash can.

She had played the tapes for everyone. She had to. She

explained how she was trying to make sure her parents got

together. She explained how she had spliced Ranma's words

together using Nabiki's audio equipment, and pretended she

was Akane and make everyone think that Ranma and Akane were

really in love. And she had explained how she was trying to

scare off the other fiancees using the tapes, hoping to make

them give up.

Genma and Soun were alternately bemoaning how deceitful

Miyabi's act was and berating each other for not thinking of

it themselves. But what made Miyabi's heart ache the most

was the sight of Ranma and Akane looking everywhere except

at each other.

It wasn't much condolence that Kasumi had apologized,

Miyabi thought.

After all, her parents were no longer speaking to her.

Leaving her in this strange reality, one that was nothing

like the warm and comfortable reality she had grown up in,

where everyone loved each other and were very happy and

mushy and sappy.

Here, nothing was like what she knew. Not Dad-... no.

Ranma didn't love Akane here, so she couldn't call him

Daddy. Not Mu... Akane either. Everything was too

different. Here, everyone hated each other.

Including her.

She had never felt so alone in her life.

Sighing, Miyabi looked at the matchbox she was holding.

She took out a match, and lit it. She stared at the burning

match briefly, then slowly put it in the trash can.

She watched as her papers, her tapes, her notes...

everything she had ever used in trying to put her parents

tog-

No.

No, they weren't her parents. They were two strangers

who she had thought she knew.

And quietly, as she watched her hopes and dreams go up in

smoke, Miyabi began to cry.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

The locket was an odd device, with all sorts of quirks,

flaws, and annoying features. But, when you came right down

to it, operating it was pretty simple. You just pictured

something in your mind, summoned your will, and commanded

the locket to take you there.

Sometimes, if the locket picked up especially strong

images, it would ignore the bits about "will" and "command",

and just take you places.

Sometimes, if another mind nearby was thinking strongly,

the locket would attempt to please both people. And

inevitably fail.

Sometimes, when other strong magic was nearby, the locket

would be affected.

Sometimes, if the mental processes of the user were

incredibly strong and, at the same time, completely

uncontrolled... the locket would have a hard time stopping.

In the terribly long and terribly confusing and

annoyingly circular history of the locket, these conditions

have only twice occurred all at once.

KaesumiiiiiiTENDOKaseri was her name and the world was

blackgreyred and the seas were blood and the blood came in

seas and the foes were legion and all of them were her, her,

her with her face and hands stained redcrimson though she

tried to wash them off but IT WOULDN'T COME CLEAN WHY WON'T

THEY COME CLEAN still still still there was work that needed

doing, yes yes yes, mustn't forget or they're dead why did

they did I kill them maybe just possibly it seems so NOT ME

NOT NOT NOT NOT kill them no no no KILL THEM no I won't KILL

THEM-

She ran down down down the maze of twisting walls that

bled bright red, and there was something following her. You

don't want to turn, she knew, you don't want to turn and

look because it will be something you really verymuch don't

want to see, no no no. But she looked anyway, and, of

course, it was the Dead running behind her.

She took a left at the pile of charred sisters, and

brushed blue fire from the sleeve of her apron as she walked

through the dojo. The things with claws and fangs left off

gnawing a femur and chased her across the kitchen until she

dived into a pool of cool light, and surfaced in a black

cistern somewhere under the bones of the earth. For a little

over a year she trod water and tried to stop thinking,

but the chittering grew louder and louder and the grub-white

hands began pulling her under, so she left.

The sun shone red and guttering, and the hill she strode

upon began to burn. Ranma was already gone, poor boy, and

the red in his shirt turned alive as flames began to engulf

the body. Weaponsfire in the distance, screams and screams

and screams and turquoise flame...

The box was closing in on her, so she tore her way out

with her good good staff, and flung the cardboard pieces

across the alley. A vagrant looked up, startled out of her

repose.

"Shh," said KaTendoMiRi, "go back to sleep, Nabiki-chan."

Nabiki took a long pull from the bottle of sake, and fell

back into a world far away from rotting clothing and

streetdeath. Kaersumi began to stumble away, away, not nice

to watch Nabiki-chan drink and decay...

So she stumbled into a warehouse, where Akari's corpse

dangled from a gaff hook set in the ceiling, and drew a map

in the pooling blood to find her way. After a while the map

was true, and when the halo of blue cleared she was in the

City of Dead Names.

The streets were paved with skulls, and they had raised

the spires with the bones of ancestors. But it was empty,

and she wandered for a time down the boulevards and

fountains, past the banks of lilies, under bridges of cold

iron. In time the wind began to tell her things, but then it

occured to her that wind couldn't talk. So she was probably

in the wrong place, she reasoned, and turned right out the

Gate of Sun's Exit.

She walked through the train and found her seat, and

watched Muhoshin-san and Ryouga play at cards. The maggots

began to catch up with the train, and soon her car would be

consumed...

...Muhoshin-san?...

So she began to get up and...

...what? Where...who...

She walked out the aisle and up the stairs as Akane's

screams mingled with the ratatatatat of gunfire...

...no, it's not like this, who am I...

of gunfire, but she was proof against bullets, and would

turn and sweep them...

..I am...

sweep them and their...

Kae..

and their owners...

Kaeri.

For the last damn time, 2096.

Blue fire exploded, and died away to reveal a graveyard.

Out of an odd compulsion, she looked at the nearest

tombstone.

SAOTOME RANMA - 1980-1996

"No," she said. "Back. You know when."

The stone grew brighter, and the wear of years faded, and

the grass grew shorter.

And for the blink of an eye, Akane's face, wearing more

pain and grief than anyone could ever comprehend. Anyone but

her.

The gravestone vanished, and Kaeri smiled. Maybe they

would bury Happosai here, after she got done with him.

The thought comforted her as she fell into a black sleep.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

This... now this was puzzling.

He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but Ryo Muhoshin

found himself standing deep within a majestic city made

entirely of crystals.

Muhoshin looked around at the people walking by. They

seemed rather pleasantly happy. It was all utterly

disgusting to him.

There was sickening pleasantness and happiness was

everywhere, in the air, in the people, in the clouds above,

in the crystals...

The crystals?

He looked around again.

Everywhere he looked, breaking points. In every square

meter of the place, a nice loud breaking point shone to his

senses.

The pitfalls of making a city made of crystal, he mused.

The reason he was here suddenly became clear.

Recreation.

"Heheheh."

He cracked his knuckles, strolled up to a crystal tower,

then touched it.

The tower cracked, then shattered in an impressive

explosion that sent crystal bits everywhere and happy

civilians screaming in terror.

Muhoshin waded through the rubble, a maniacally happy

look on his face. That, he thought, was quite a rush. He

took off in a mad dash down the street, striking breaking

points as he went, resulting in a wave of crystal

destruction following his heels. He sprang into the air,

umbrella twirling in a blur, then launched a spray of

ki projectiles aimed at breaking points across his field of

vision.

Buildings, streets, all shattered in one thunderous

crescendo as the citizens of this crystal city ran screaming,

a song of mayhem that lifted Muhoshin's soul. Only killing

Ryouga made him feel as good as this.

He _grinned_.

"Stop!"

Muhoshin raised an eyebrow and turned around. In a

menacing (well, a good attempt to be menacing) pose, a girl

with pink hair tied in two ponytails stood.

"What are you doing?!"

"Having fun," he mumbled.

"You're destroying the city!"

"Mm-hm."

"You take pleasure in destroying our paradise? In the

name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

"You must be kidding."

AN HOUR LATER...

Muhoshin took a deep breath, then sighed happily. Those

Sailor girls, they were quite a workout. He hadn't beaten

them, but they didn't touch him either.

He did, however, manage to destroy most of the city

before they chased him away to the barren outskirts. At the

moment, he was taking refuge behind a boulder and catching

his breath.

"Hold it right there, mister!"

He blinked.

Surrounding him, flying in the sky, a squadron of Sailor

Warriors circled.

"Well, this's ALL been fun, but I do think I'll be

running now," said Muhoshin.

"No you won-"

"BAKUSAI TEN-KETSU!"

Rocks, dirt, and a massive cloud of dust burst from where

he stabbed the crystal earth, obscuring him from view

entirely. Within the clouds there was a brief flicker of

blue followed by a hollow roaring sound.

The Sailor Warriors struck with fire, ice and lightning,

but once the cloud dissipated the only thing they saw was

the crater at the center of the explosion, a tiny speck of

blue fire that quickly disappeared, and mocking laughter

drifting in the wind.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Ryo Saotome & company found themselves in a modestly

furnished apartment. Ryo and Ishido looked around in

surprise. Compared to all the places they'd been recently,

something this normal was like being on another planet.

"Where are we?" Ishido asked. Reiko took off her jacket

and hung it on a coat peg.

"I told you, home." she said. "Specifically, my home.

You didn't think I spent all my time at the Cafe, did you?

Do you want some tea?" the Guide vanished into the kitchen.

Ryo followed her.

"Wait a second." he said, as Reiko put a kettle on to

boil. "What do you mean, your home?"

"This is my apartment. It's one of the few places we

could get to without having to worry about the compass

freezing up. Otherwise, we'd have to go back to the Cafe

and I don't think Ishido would be very welcome there."

"Can I ask why we're here, instead of out tracking down

Kaeri?" Ryo frowned.

"Look, I explained that already. Right now,

cross-dimensional travel is not a viable option until the

compass recalibrates itself. Thanks to our emergency

departure from Iceplanet, we've got to wait at least 30

hours before we can go anywhere, otherwise the compass will

become even more out of sync with the multiverse until

things are so screwed up that it would be nothing more than

a useless chunk of metal."

"But Kaeri-"

"Let me worry about finding Kaeri." Reiko snapped. "It's

partially my fault anyway that we're stuck. If worse comes

to worst, we'll go back to the Cafe and I'll talk to my

superiors."

"Why not now?" Ryo demanded. Reiko sighed in

exasperation.

"Because the Save the Universe Foundation assigned me to

your case, and it's now MY problem. I can't go to them until

I've exhausted every other solution." She pulled the compass

from her pocket and consulted it. "Yep, I thought so. We

couldn't get to the Cafe now, even if we tried. The

shockwave is still moving." She turned the face to Ryo. The

young dimension hopper could now clearly see that where one

of the points of the compass had previously said "Cafe,"

there was nothing.

The kettle began to whistle.

Night fell over this version of Tokyo. Ryo, Rat and

Ishido were camped out in Reiko's living room. Of the three,

only Ryo was still awake. This was partially due to his

contemplation of his current situation, but mostly due to

the fact that Ratiko and Ishido both snored. Loudly.

After a few moments, Ryo couldn't take anymore and

decided to go for a walk. He was about to leave, when he

heard Reiko's bedroom door open. He quickly resumed his

place on the floor and assumed a position suggesting deep

sleep.

Through half closed lids he saw Reiko, fully dressed,

come into the living room, look them over, grab her jacket

and quietly leave the apartment. Ryo silently counted to

thirty, then stood up and exited the apartment himself,

following the guide.

Ryo followed Reiko, keeping to the rooftops of the

neighborhood. She walked for about half a mile before coming

to the local cemetery. Ryo leaped from his perch and followed

Reiko.

He found her kneeling in front of a marker. The full

moon shone brightly, casting everything in near perfect

light. Ryo cautiously crept towards her, careful not to make

a sound.

His eyes widened in surprise when he got close enough to

read the name on the marker.

KUONJI UKYOU

"Well, come on, Ryo." Reiko said without looking up.

"You've come this far."

As if in a trance, Ryo stepped from his hiding place and

knelt, dumfounded next to Reiko. She looked over at him,

tears in the corner of her eyes.

"Now you see why I was given your case." she said.

The two of them went to a small all-night coffee shop

where Reiko proceeded to spill her guts.

She was once a cop from a world where Ukyou had died from

a hithertofore unknown disease. It was later revealed that

the "disease" was a malignant Ki-Spirit that fed on all of

Ukyou's hate and prejudices. The Ki-Spirit had then

decided to go after Ranma, but was defeated by him. Ranma

then attempted to bring Ukyou back from the dead but had

failed. Ukyou hadn't wanted to come back.

"She told Ranma that it would cause too many problems

for all of them. Even if the police left them alone, there

was still the matter of their relationship." Reiko

explained. "Something like that would put a serious strain

on her relationship with Ranma and Akane. So she gave them

her blessing and went on to...wherever she went."

"And how did you get involved in this?" Ryo asked.

"The Ki-Spirit had decided to attack Ranma by making him

think that Ukyou had come back from the dead. My partner and

I were put in charge of the investigation when Ranma was

arrested for grave-robbing. Anyway, while Ranma was dealing

with the Ki-Spirit in the astral plane trying to get Ukyou's

soul back, Akane and I were kept busy trying to find Ukyou's

body, which it had moved just before it decided to attack

Ranma."

"So, this is where it all happened." Ryo said. "Wow.

You know, back in the other reality, where Childra and

Miyabi are, it's been kind of hard to see Dad falling for

Akane, but at least here I can see that he does really care

about Mom. It's kind of comforting."

Reiko smiled. "Yeah. But this isn't my home reality,

either."

"What?"

"It's one where things happened in a similar way, but

with a few major differences. I don't have a counterpart

here, for example. And in this reality, Ukyou died from the

disease, but it wasn't a Ki-Spirit in disguise. It was

closest thing I could find to my real home."

"So why aren't you based there? Why here?"

Reiko sighed and looked out the window. "One of the main

problems with working for the Save the Universe Foundation

is the recruitment policy. In order to prevent a lot of

questions, you have to fake your own death and set up shop

in another reality. Or, in my case, have your death set up

for you."

Ryo stared silently at her, realizing how lonely the young

woman actually was. He tried to imagine the solitude of the

job. Sure, you got to meet a fascinating cross-section of

the inhabitants of space and time, but what good was it when

you had to come home to an empty apartment and a place where

you see people with faces and names that you know, but they

don't know you. He briefly thought about the other Ryo he

had met at the Cafe. Was he to share Reiko's fate?

"You can never go home again, Ryo." she said quietly. Ryo

opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the

sound of a small bell ringing. Reiko reached into her pocket

and consulted the compass. Her expression brightened.

"Great!" she said cheerfully. "The shockwave has

stabilized."

"Does that mean we can leave?" Ryo asked.

Reiko nodded. "Things have evened out enough that we can

travel without any real danger. In fact," she fiddled with

the rotating dial on the compass. "Perfect! I've found

Kaeri. And even better news. She hasn't moved from her

current location. Let's get back to my place and get the

other two."

Reiko got out of the booth and went to the register to

pay the check. Ryo watched her silently, touched by what

she'd sacrificed. He hoped that he'd never have to do the

same.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Kaeri woke, cold and stiff, at the base of a gravestone.

Shaking off the morning dew, she glanced fearfully at the

name engraved on the headstone. A giggle of relief emerged

as she realized it was someone she didn't know.

It hurt to stand, and her joints popped slightly, the

noise audible even over her thin laughter. Was she still

chuckling? It probably wasn't proper to be doing that in a

cemetery, and Kaeri hoped she would stop soon.

She had had such terrible nightmares, and she wasn't sure

when she had fallen asleep.

Gingerly, she looked down at herself, straightened the

ragged apron, and froze. In a threadbare buttonhole, a pale

white lily was stuck.

...and she walked through the City of Dead Names, along

the court, up the avenues, her shoes clacking on the

pave-skulls, and the spires rose above her as she strode on,

past the frost- encrusted black fountains, past the bridges

of cold iron, pausing by a bank of chalk-while lilies to

pluck one as the moon shone down, cold and sterile...

But that had been a dream. A delusion. It had to have

been, didn't it?

The lily remained in her buttonhole, solid, undeniably

real.

Her laughter peaked, faded, and died. It had all been

real. She had lost her grip on things, and the locket had

spun her nightmares into flesh.

She shivered slightly. Any of her 'delusions' could have

easily killed her. She couldn't afford to go ma... to go

insan... to...

Kaeri hugged herself tightly, whimpering slightly. She

was not losing her mind. She was sane. Despite it all, she

was sane. It was all too terribly important to break down in

a mewling heap, too important to run back to Mommy's lap.

All that mattered was the Work and the Work was her Family

and, God but it hurt, it hurt...

She screamed, a long, shrill, drawn-out shriek of

despair.

And as the echos faded, she half ran, half stumbled out

of the graveyard. Happosai. His fault, his and Kasumi's.

Kill them.

She slipped though the house like a ghost.

Soun was playing shogi. Akane and Ranma were fighting.

Nabiki was lounging. None of them knew that their lives were

about to be shattered. Blind, blind, blind and innocent.

But she, she was the Adult, the Eyes, the Watcher, the

Angel of Mercy and Death. And she walked without noise

through the halls.

Kasumi turned a corner, and Kaeri smiled at her, the

empty bliss rising though her veins. As the worthless

housekeeper opened her mouth to say something, the good

staff whistled through the air to land with a sharp crack

against her skull. Kasumi fell, crumpling like a puppet with

cut strings, and did not move.

Stepping over the fallen traitor, she walked the

remaining feet to Happosai's room, the nest of the viper.

It was a place of filth and disorder. Kaeri marveled

that she hadn't seen the corruption in the squalor before.

Kasumi had been a blind, weak, pathetic girl. Traitor!

Cleanse!

And in the middle of it all was Happosai, squatting

amidst a pile of soiled clothing, intently studying a book.

He didn't even look up as she entered.

"Kasumi? Is that you, m'girl?" asked the filth, not even

looking up.

"Yes, Master Happosai," she replied calmly, euphoria

filling her soul. "I'm here to clean."

"Ah, good, good, just don't bother me."

"I won't," she said sweetly, raising the blade.

She brought the blade down. Happosai turned, far too

late, and the staff sliced cleanly through his neck. The

runes erupted with crimson energy, blazing, glowing, sending

purifying fire sweeping across the defiled room...

She brought the blade down. Happosai turned with

unnatural speed, knocking the staff aside with jaguarlike

force. A withered hand slammed into her throat, snapping her

neck instantly...

The runes erupted with crimson energy, blazing, glowing,

sending purifying fire sweeping across the defiled room. And

then she split.

She was two, she was one, she was floating above it all,

she was dying in a pile of dirty undergarments and

triumphant in the midst of an inferno, and suddenly she

KNEW.

She hadn't changed anything.

Unlike her home reality, which her actions had rewritten,

the timelines of this world could not be destroyed. As she

had dropped the blade, the lines had split.

In one, the new one, she killed Happosai.

In the other, the old one, Happosai lived and she died.

Both still existed.

She hadn't changed anything.

Last time she had saved them all. This time she couldn't.

Ranma would die in flames, and Akane would kill herself, and

Nabiki die in an explosion, and Daddy die broken and alone.

She hadn't changed anything.

With a howl, Kaeri returned to the timeline and died, her

throat crushed, choking on blood and vomit.

With a howl, Kaeri returned to the timeline and collapsed

in enraged, despairing tears, Happosai's corpse burning

merrily in the dying flames.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Energies erupted, and the forms of four apprehensive

reality jumpers flashed into being.

Ryo rapidly flashed a look around, sliding into a

fighting stance. Hallway in the Tendo home, right... picture

frame on wall, doors...

He heard Ishido's snarl of alarm a split second before he

noticed the apron-clad figure lying crumpled on the floor.

His instincts as a healer took over, and he quickly knelt

to have a look at her. She might be insane, but that didn't

mean she didn't deserve...

Ryo swore.

Craning his head, Ratiko shot him a timid look. "What's

wrong? Doesn't she have the locket? She's got it, right?"

His fingers carefully probed the swollen, blue-purple

lump on her forehead. "This isn't Kaeri. There's no scars,

and the fingers are all here."

"Then who's that?" Rat asked, voice rising shrilly.

"Kasumi." She had what looked like a mild concussion;

hard to tell without equipment. Still, her breathing was

smooth and regular. "She should be okay. We should probably

get her a doctor, though."

Reiko cleared her throat. "If Miss Tendo isn't in any

danger, perhaps you should find the person you're after?

Before she jumps out again?"

"She's right!" Rat yipped eagerly. "She hurt poor,

innocent Grandmother Kasumi! We should stop her! Before she,

uh, hurts anyone else!"

Yeah, Ryo thought blackly, like you. Still, they had a

point.

"Right," he said, standing. "Kaeri said something about

killing Happosai. We should probably check his room first."

The others made agreeable noises, and followed him down

the hall.

Failure.

Moving figures, somewhere.

"Is that her?"

"Yeah. That's... oh. Oh, damn. I think this is Happosai."

"Gack... what'd she DO to him, burn him?"

Happosai? Dead. Alive. Deadalive.

"Ryo... she's giggling at us..."

"I don't think it's at us, Ishido."

Ish-ieeee-dooo... fit the sounds together, dip them in

blood and bone, watch the names become moving shapes...

"Kaeri? It's me, Ryo... are you okay?"

Ryo? Muhoshin-san?

"Kaeri?"

No, no, no, not Muhoshin-san. Other one, other one,

doctornice and polite and unhelpful.

"Kaeri, can you hear me?"

No, let him go away. Him and the terrible things.

"go... away..."

"Kaeri, do you have the locket?"

Locket, ah, locket, blueflame, death, AKANENONONONONO

"Hey! You'll hurt yourself! Stop that!"

Blood, bone, blessed sleep...

"Ish, give me a hand here!"

"If she wants to kill herself, let her."

"Rat, shut up."

Not use struggling, she knew that now. No use at all.

Hopeless. Failure.

"Man, now she's crying. This is creeping me out."

"She's very sick, Ish."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Kaeri? Can you give me the locket? Please?"

It didn't matter. She saw that now. He'd learn that too,

eventually. It didn't matter.

Move hand, open chain...

"I'll be. She actually gave you it."

"Thank you, Kaeri. We're all going home now, okay?"

Home. Burn, ashes, corpses, rubble, akanenabikidaddyno

"Hey... hey, it's okay..."

"Why is she screaming? What'd you do?"

"I don't know! Reiko, thanks for the... hey, where'd she

go?"

"Probably rode off into the sunset on a white horse. Can

we go home now?"

Death, gone, loss, pain, blueflame...

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Miyabi mulled. Atop the roof of the Tendo Home, she

mulled as her father did many times before her, and it was a

mull of equal depth as any mull sessions Ranma had ever

embarked upon.

Her sulk also accomplished for Miyabi what Ranma's did

for him: Absolutely nothing.

She sighed again, one of a dozen melancholy sighs that

evening, wallowing in melancholy. The overcast sunset was

all too appropriate for her mood.

What else, she wondered, could happen now?

As if to answer, a fiery blue light began to glow from

the back yard.

Must be them, she thought. Miyabi wondered if everything

was FINALLY settled so that she could just GO HOME.

If, of course, she still had a home to go to.

The glowing stopped, followed by a startled yelp and a splash.

"Might be Ryo," she grumbled. "Serves him right if he

fell in the pond."

"Aargh! Why me?!"

Mm-hm. It was Ryo.

She rose and leaped easily to the grounds below.

Seeing a grumbling and soggy Ryo stepping out of the pond

brought a slight smile to her face. Ishido was walking

away, grumbling something about finding Childra, shaking off

a wet leg.

She was somewhat puzzled at the fact that they were all

in black suits. There was even an empty spare half-soaked in

the pond.

Then there was the bat that was flying about looking

dazed, baffled, and lost.

Bat?

"EEEK!" With a lightning fast punch she sent the thing

out of the backyard and into the horizon.

"EEK!"

Miyabi frowned. That wasn't her. She finally looked at

Kasumi, who wasn't looking quite right herself.

"Auntie Kasumi?"

Kasumi flinched at the sound of her name and started

screaming incoherently, shuddering and with tears in her

eyes. Then looked at her surroundings and curled up into a

ball on the ground, covering her face with her hands.

"A-auntie?"

"Um, Miyabi," said Ryo, looking apprehensive. "She's...

not what you think she is."

Miyabi glared at Ryo, then grabbed him by his soggy

shirt. "What did you do to her?" she hissed.

He met her gaze without a flinch, returning a look of

extreme seriousness that was strong enough to halt even her

temper. "Don't even blame me for this. I'll explain later.

Really."

"Oh my!"

Ryo winced. Miyabi turned around.

Kasumi stood at the porch doorway... looking at Kasumi,

curled up in a ball in the backyard, her face frozen in

shock. Miyabi looked from one Kasumi to the other in

general confusion, then returned to glaring at Ryo.

"You'd _better_ explain this later."

"Just... dammit," Ryo looked from Kasumi to Kasumi and

frowned. "Just get Kasumi back into the house, okay?"

"Which one?!"

"The one in the doorway," hissed Ryo. "Go. We'll talk

about it later, okay?"

A few minutes later, after she ushered Kasumi back into

the house and assured her that everything was, for the

moment, okay, Miyabi headed upstairs to look for Ryo and

that other Kasumi.

She eventually found them in the guest room, waiting

quietly. 'Kasumi' was lying on a futon, again curled up, but

this time with eyes closed. She tossed and turned, her

expression troubled.

"She's asleep," said Ryo quietly. He neglected to tell

her he'd used pressure points to induce the sleep,

suspecting that she'd just accuse him of going for a cheap

feel.

"Who is she?" asked Miyabi. "I mean, she's Kas-"

Ryo covered her mouth with his hand. In response, she

covered his mouth with her fist.

"Ow!"

"What do you think you're doing, pervert?" hissed Miyabi,

keeping the volume low so as not to wake Kasumi.

"Don't say that name," hissed Ryo in return. "Call her

'Kaeri', okay?"

"Kaeri?"

"She doesn't like her old name. She really doesn't like

it."

"Well, why's Kaeri here?" She gave him an accusing glare.

"You didn't accidentally drag her here, did you?"

"No I didn't," he said angrily. "Stop trying to blame

everything on me. Just listen, okay?"

"This better be good, 'brother'."

"Look... she used the mirror to get here."

"The mirror?"

"The Nanban mirror. From what she told me, she came from

a reality where everyone died."

"What?"

"And it, well..." Ryo frowned. "It left her badly

scarred too."

"I noticed the scars on her face, yeah."

"And she's missing a few fingers."

"What?!"

"Not so loud! You wanna wake her up?" said Ryo.

Miyabi frowned and knelt by Kaeri's side. "So why's she

like this now?"

"She tried to make everything right, I think. It's hard

to tell. She just mumbles a lot now. Anyway, I guess

whatever she did didn't work and she couldn't deal with it."

Ryo sat on the floor and sighed. "I hate seeing her like

this. It just seems so... wrong."

Miyabi gently brushed a few hairs from Kaeri's forehead.

"Oh Auntie... what're we gonna do?"

"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about,"

said Ryo. "Look, that other Ryo's still out there and I have

to stop him. Can you look after Kaeri-"

"Who?"

"Her," said Ryo, pointing to 'Kasumi'. "She doesn't like

being called... by her old name, okay? Call her Kaeri.

Look after her, okay? At least until I fix this mess with

Muhoshin?"

Miyabi looked thoughtfully at Kaeri, lips in a frown.

"Yeah, I'll do it. No problem."

"Thanks." Ryo sat there for a moment more, then left.

He felt a little uneasy about leaving Miyabi to care for

Kaeri, but he didn't think it was wise to have one of the

Tendo sisters tend for her. It was bound to get ugly,

especially if Kasumi...

Oh yeah.

"Hey, one more thing," said Ryo, poking his head back

into the room.

"Yeah?"

"DON'T let Kaeri and... Kas... you know... don't let

those two see each other, okay?"

"Fine. And Ryo?"

"Yeah?"

"Since when did you join the Men In Black?"

"Huh?"

"The suit. What's with the suit?"

He frowned and looked down at his attire, fiddling with

his tie.

"This," he said, shaking the tie around, "is a short,

weird story. You'd never believe me."

Suddenly, appearing from nowhere, Reiko appeared with a

large duffel bag and a backpack.

"Reiko-san?" asked Ryo, clearly puzzled. "What're you

doing here?"

"You guys forgot your stuff," said Reiko. "The pack is

Hibiki's, and all your clothes are in the duffel bag."

"Oh. Er, thanks."

"No problem. And keep the suits. Seeya!"

-POP-

"Do I really wanna know?" asked Miyabi.

"Transdimensional guide," said Ryo.

"Uh-huh."

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Childra and Ishido were stargazing

where Miyabi was mulling only a few minutes earlier. Well,

the idea was to stargaze (Childra thought it was romantic,

and that was all Ishido needed to know) but in the end they

did what everyone else that ever sat on that roof did.

They mulled.

"So she didn't succeed, huh?" asked Childra.

He held her a little tighter. "You're still here, so she

didn't succeed. Right?"

Childra shrugged. "Yes and no."

This caused Ishido to frown. "Yes and no?"

"Temporal dynamics are weird. She did and she didn't

succeed."

"What do you mean?"

Childra pointed to one of the backyard trees. "See that

tree there? Now imagine the trunk was time. And see where

the branches start splitting out? In time, that'd be a

place where things happened differently. In this branch she

tried and nothing happened. Somewhere else out there, it

worked. Get it?"

"How can you be sure?"

Childra frowned, ever so slightly. "Tried it myself

once. Long story. I'll tell you sometime later." She felt

a little sympathy for Kaeri at that moment. The realization

that one changed things, changed _important_ things, for the

better but can never enjoy the rewards was a bitter moment.

Ishido wasn't entirely sure of what she said, but as long

as she was in his arms, it didn't matter much to him.

"And by the way," said Childra, "what's with the suit?"

"Oh, this?" Ishido frowned and tugged at his tie. "I

forgot I was wearing it. We had to go to some weird place,

and they wouldn't let us in unless we wore these."

"I like it. You look cute in a suit."

"Really?"

She snuggled closer to him, and in a sultry voice, said,

"But you look even cuter out of it."

It was a blissful, romantic moment.

Of course, it wasn't to last for long.

"Ishido! You up there?!" yelled Ryo.

Ishido groaned. Childra patted him on the arm.

"Now now, Lobis, go see what Mr. Hero wants."

"Me?"

"You. I-" Jansen sighed and smiled faintly. "I have a few

things to think about." [Like how I'm going to explain this

to Zannen when I get back.]

Even had he been inclined to, it would have been

difficult for Ishido to resist her dimples and watery eyes.

With just the slightest frown, he resigned himself to his

duty.

"I'm coming!" he yelled, and clambered down the side of

the building.

Ranma tried something new. Instead of mulling on the

roof, he was mulling in his room.

The topic of the night's mull was the ongoing situation

with the miscellaneous time-traveling wanderers. They'd

been there for about two days now. That wasn't so bad,

though. The Tendos had tolerated worse for longer, and two

of these were practically family.

Things were certainly getting stranger since they'd

arrived. Having two grown up children from two different

mothers was a mixed blessing. Previously unknown parental

pride had emerged in him, as well as fear of the future, or

futures. Which way was he destined? If anything, the recent

events made clear that his future was wildly undecided and

anything was possible.

Shampoo and Cologne would NEVER stop pestering him if a

kid from a Ranma/Shampoo reality showed up, and he felt he'd

definitely have an anxiety attack if a child from him and

Kodachi decided to appear.

It was his lack of participation in it that was really

bugging him. He was Ranma Saotome. He was the one everyone

in Nerima challenged or went to ask for help. He was the

guy that eventually solved The Big Problem.

Nobody was asking for help.

Not even his son, or his daughter.

At first it was nice to be left out of it, but now he was

starting to feel ignored, and he hated feeling ignored.

From the backyard, he could hear his future son calling

out, "Ishido! You up there?!"

They were meeting again.

Without him.

"That's it," he muttered. "I'm in."

He stood and walked off, intending to confront his son

about a few matters whether he liked it or not.

Ishido landed somewhat awkwardly at Ryo's side, skinning

his elbow in the process.

"What's going on?" he asked, somewhat irritated.

"I need your help."

"My help?"

"You were right, he was dangerous, and I've been trying

to stop him but I don't think I can do it on my own."

Ishido frowned. "Oh, you mean Muhoshin."

"Right."

Ishido shook his head.

"He's WRONG, if any man ever was."

With a sigh, Childra looked down from the clouds. It

didn't seem fair that there should be so many different

kinds of love, and each of them incompatible... Why couldn't

others feel as she did? Why couldn't they understand that

no matter how much she wanted to, she COULDN'T choose, and

still remain herself? As she raised her hand to wipe the

tears from her face, she noticed Ryo Saotome and Ishido

walking away from the dojo.

She waved.

"Where you going, boy scout?"

Ryo paused hesitantly and looked up. "Out."

Three seconds, a flick of the bo and a somersault or two

later, Childra was standing next to the two boys.

"Out?" she asked, running her hand through her hair.

Ishido glanced at her elbow, then hid his own and colored

slightly.

"Of this universe. We have to-"

Childra raised her hand, stopping him mid-sentence.

"Wherever you're off to, I'm going with you. You've caused

enough trouble on your own." She smirked. "Besides, I want

to-"

Ishido froze.

"You CAN'T go!" He protested. "What if-"

Jansen looked him in the eye. "What if what?"

"Well, I, uh..." Ishido looked down.

"I'm going, Lobis."

"Count me in too."

The three looked up to see Ranma, standing at the

entrance to the backyard from the house, arms crossed and

looking as confident as ever. Ishido and Childra weren't

terribly impressed. Ryo, on the other hand, looked

horrified.

"Ah, dad, no. I really don't think this is a good idea."

"You're facing a dangerous martial artist, right? Look,

you know it and I know it, I'm the best martial artist

available right now and you need all the help you can get.

Right?"

"Maybe I do, dad, but I really don't... well... Ryo

threw his hands up in the air. "I REALLY don't need

anything else going wrong right now, okay? It's bad enough

we're misplaced. I don't want you getting lost too."

"But-"

"You gotta admit, he has a point," said Childra. Ishido

seemed to look just a little envious.

"Aargh! Fine, dad, fine. Okay. Come on, everybody."

He held up the locket and it began to glow. Childra,

Ishido, and Ranma stepped towards him as the glow became

brighter.

"Just please," said Ryo as the blue flame swirled around

them all, "try not to pick anyone else up along the way, and

don't get lost."

As they faded away, Ranma's last words echoed in the

wind.

"Hey, why are you guys wearing suits?"

The glowing column of blue flames began to shrink in

size, from the width of several people to that of a straw.

Just when it vanished, a small, battered bat landed

face-first into the ground. It rose unsteadily, reminiscent

of a drunk and seasick sailor, and then tried to fly, which

was somewhat reminiscent of a drunk and seasick seagull.

A violent gust of wind took the unfortunate creature in

its grip and hurled it away into the night sky.

THE NEXT DAY...

What, Miyabi wondered, in the name of Kami-sama was going

on here?

She looked at Kaeri. So like Kasumi, but not Kasumi.

She sighed, then smiled softly to herself. Auntie

Kasumi, in any universe, was always sweet, loving, and

caring. It seemed only fair that she return the favor.

Miyabi reached over, soaked a handcloth in a basin of

water, and mopped Kaeri's fevered brow. Kaeri grew a little

calmer under her administrations, and Miyabi smiled softly

to herself. Despite that horrendous scar, when sleeping

calmly, Miyabi could see, there was still that sweet Kasumi

in her, although she looked like she was having an

unpleasant dream.

Miyabi frowned. What sort of things had Kasum... Kaeri

seen? For some reason, she just couldn't picture anything

disturbing Kasumi's inner peace, and...

Gods, what kind of sicko would even THINK of harming

Kasumi?

She reached over to gently brush a stray strand of hair

from Kaeri's brow.

"Don't worry, Auntie Kasumi," Miyabi murmured. "I won't

let anyone hurt you. Ever again."

Kasumi was happy, once again, in the kitchen..

Fresh vegetables. Fresh meat.

Just in time for Miyabi's friends, who were here

visiting.

Well, they were her nieces and nephews, sort of, but it

was easier to think of them as Miyabi's friends. After all,

she was hardly old enough to be anybody's aunt.

Kasumi sighed, and then looked over at Akane, who had

just entered the kitchen.

"Hi, oneechan! What're you making?"

"Breakfast. Oh, Akane? Can you please get Miyabi?

Breakfast should be on the table in a few minutes."

"Okay, oneechan!"

Kasumi smiled. It was going to be a wonderful breakfast.

Akane knocked on the door, cautiously.

She knew she was still upset with Miyabi, but she had to

admit, a small part of her kind of... admired what she was

doing. But still... Ranma...?

She cut that thought off, and opened the door.

Miyabi started up, her eyes opening wide. She

frantically began to wave her hands. "Mum! Wait, no,

don't..."

But Miyabi was too late.

Akane's eyes went to the figure in bed, widening in

horrified fascination. It... it was Kasumi... wasn't it?

No, it couldn't be, Kasumi had just sent her upstairs...

Akane moved closer, ignoring Miyabi's pleas, to get a

better look.

Kaeri opened her eyes.

Miyabi watched, tension showing on her face, as Akane

leaned over. "Kasumi...?"

Kaeri began to shriek.

This was not good. This was definitely not good, Miyabi

thought, as she frantically tried to free Akane from Kaeri's

fierce grasp.

"Kasumi!" Akane screamed, as she tried to free herself.

Kaeri held on to Akane, sobbing as though her heart would

break. Not even the combined efforts of Akane and Miyabi

could break Kaeri's grip.

Miyabi paused. This was getting her nowhere. What

would've Mum done? Slug Kaeri... Miyabi shook her head.

No, not Auntie Kasumi. Not even if it wasn't really Auntie

Kasumi. Wait...

Quietly, Miyabi began to hum. A quiet lullaby... one

that her aunt Kasumi had taught her. Wordlessly, Miyabi

hummed, moving around to hug Kaeri. If there was anything

of the Kasumi Miyabi knew inside this scarred woman,

maybe...

Kaeri slowly began to loosen her grip. Taking the

opportunity, Akane tore free and ran out the door. Kaeri

started to reach out after Akane, but Miyabi tightened her

hug, humming that quiet wordless lullaby again.

Slowly, Kaeri began to relax against Miyabi.

The two of them sat there in the room, in the bright

sunlight, amidst the quiet wordless humming.

Kasumi smiled to herself. After the disturbing incident

yesterday, it was nice to have such a ...

"Kasumi!"

... peaceful morning.

Kasumi turned to smile, only to nearly be knocked over by

a sobbing Akane.

After a short hysterical period in which Kasumi could

make neither heads nor tails of Akane's tale, she was able

to get the whole story.

Oh my.

Kasumi mechanically comforted Akane, assuring her she was

still there, but her thoughts were running wild.

Another Kasumi, this one scarred? What did this mean?

Was this her mother's warning? Premonition?

Akane left, finally calm.

The same could not be said of Kasumi.

Somewhere in Nerima, a little bat was scowling, with her

little fangs showing.

Ratiko scowled as only a Hibiki could, as she flapped her

little wings through the air.

She knew that Kaeri was going about destroying realities,

trying to eliminate future universes where her family died,

where her sisters and her father had perished untimely.

And Ratiko knew that her universe was one of those. That

much, she could reason out. And what she knew, the Onocorp

O.P.I.M. chip in her head knew. And the chip, which

enhanced her self-preservation instincts, knew that the end

of HIS universe meant the end of Ratiko himself, and was

driving him on his mission.

There was no doubt about it.

For Reiraku 'Ratiko' Hibiki to live, 'Kaeri' Tendo had to

die.

The first major obstacle was finding her way back to the

Tendo dojo after Miyabi punched her over and out of the

Tendo yard when she was in her bat form.

Through a minor meteorological miracle, the wind was

rough enough to steer Ratiko about wildly in the air...

... and onto the Tendo roof.

Dragging herself upwards, she managed to flap her way into

the house, and began looking for the bathroom.

Being a Hibiki, Ratiko totally overshot her objective

several times.

It was during one of those times that she encountered

Miyabi Tendo leaving a room, closing it quietly behind her.

Or at least, almost encountered. She quickly ducked out of

sight. She most certainly didn't want to remain around

Miyabi, not after her discovery that he had tried to kill

Ranma and frame Akane before. And Miyabi was very likely to

strangle her.

So Ratiko hid, and watched, as Miyabi started down the

hallway, only to stop as Akane Tendo walked down the hall.

She watched as Miyabi began to explain the story of who the

girl was that Akane had seen, and grinned a little batty

grin.

So, that was where Kaeri Tendo was hiding herself.

She flew around, looking for the bedroom...

Again, her Hibiki heritage betrayed him, and she flew

around aimlessly...

***PLOP***

... and into the Tendo bathroom.

With a conveniently hot bath awaiting.

Complete with its own Soun Tendo(tm).

Ratiko calmly stepped out of the bath, muttering a quick

"excuse me," to an utterly stoic Soun, he pulled his clothes

from that mysterious subspace where all Jusenkyou victims

keep their clothing and went in search of his victim-to-be.

Miyabi sighed, as she walked back to Kaeri's room. It

had taken some doing, but she had finally managed to

convince Akane that the person that had been crying and

hugging her was not really Kasumi.

Even if it did seem an awfully lot like Kasumi. She DID

respond to familiar things, and so it HAD to be Kasumi.

Miyabi frowned to herself. The same question that Akane

had asked her was the same thing that plagued her.

What had happened to the Kasumi Tendo of that universe?

What would make her become "Kaeri"?

She sighed in front of Kaeri's door. First, she had to

help Kaeri recover.

And with a smile, Miyabi Tendo opened the door to see

Ratiko Hibiki hovering menacingly over Kaeri Tendo.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[(*)]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

He had a headache.

Muhoshin staggered across the barren, alien plains, his

mind in a blue haze.

Sick.

He was sick.

That didn't seem fair at all. Powers of a god and he was

ill.

Not fair.

Not fair.

He'd shifted reality again.

It seemed lately that he'd been tripping through time and

space more than traveling through it. He wandered through a

desert forest swamp with blazing cold fiery sands of icy

monsoons with the sunrise sunset full moon forever across

the night and day, with the blue flame always surrounding

him. Always.

Stop.

He had to stop.

Muhoshin leaned against the ancient ruins of a city long

forgotten in a world he did not know.

*COUGH*

He blinked, looked at the ground, then sighed. His spit,

it seemed, was glowing bright azure. Just great.

[Where am I?]

He looked around and was pleased that the world wasn't

shifting around him. Instead, the world was at the moment a

grassy plain, with a few hills in the distance. The

structure he was leaning on was ancient, massive, and in

ruins. It appeared to be the edge of some sort of city, all

built by ebony stone.

[Lovely decor.]

*COUGH*

A grumble from his stomach reminded him that he hadn't

eaten in a long time.

Ah. That was easy to fix.

He focused his will and his mind, feeling a slight

headache as he did.

Somewhere out there in the infinite worlds, an 18 ounce

steak with a potato and a bottle of soda disappeared.

It reappeared before Ryo's feet a moment later.

"Itadakimasu."

He had a few doubts about using the locket's power like

that. It seemed awfully trivial.

Then again, the steak tasted awfully good.

In mid-chew he stopped, shifting his eyes around warily.

He felt something, a disturbance, a slight chill in the

spine.

They were coming.

He'd seen this moment in his dreams and in his visions a

hundred times, the day he'd fall. And, though he did not

have a reason why, he knew this was the moment of his

downfall.

No.

No more running.

It was time to make a stand.

If he was going to fall, he would not fall quietly. He

would make the heavens scream in terror before he was

defeated.

He'd do it his way.

Ryo Muhoshin looked into the fires of the locket... and

he focused.

*poof*

There are two major schools of thought on what happened

next.

One line of thought theorizes that the locket makes all

things possible, and therefore Muhoshin had actually

_created_ this world he was about to enter into.

Another line of thought believed it was already there

to begin with, awaiting his arrival.

Regardless of what really happened, it was Muhoshin's

personal world.

Everything seemed sterile, untouched, new, and yet the

entire city was empty and silent as death. Surrounding him

were gothic buildings with nice, wide ledges. They jutted

out into the sky as if they were meant to touch the heavens.

The street lamps had a dead Ryouga hung on every corner,

swaying in the turbulent winds.

Atop every tower was a clock that made Big Ben look

modest. Each one was spinning one way or another, no two

matching in time, and all spinning wildly and

inconsistently. In the distance, giant bells rang wildly,

counting off hours that were passing in someone else's

worlds.

And of course, it was raining, a constant heavy downpour.

He liked the rain. After all, he was trained on how to fight

in the rain.

As lightning flickered and thunder roared from on high,

Muhoshin opened his umbrella and sat at the steps of one of

the buildings.

And he waited.

Within one of the dark alleys of the dark city, a ball of

cerulean flame erupted and dissipated, leaving four people

in its passing.

"Aw man, it just had to be raining," said Ranma, now in

his girl form.

"What kind of place is this?" asked Ishido, barely

audible over the howling wind and rain.

Ryo wiped the water from his eyes, held the locket before

him, and moved it left and right. Its glow grew brighter,

then darker, then brighter again as he moved it to and fro.

"We're here and he's still here and that's all that counts.

C'mon, this way."

The four stepped out into the street, their vision

blurred badly by the constantly pouring rain. They emerged

in the middle of a long and wide street with gargoyle-esque

street lamps lining the sidewalks. At the very end of the

street was a dark tower, stretching far higher than any of

the surrounding buildings.

He heard the deep tone of a bell and looked to the tops

of the buildings. Each one had a clock mounted on its face,

and each clock face was spinning wildly forward or backward.

After only a few seconds of looking at them, he began to

feel disoriented and ill.

There _was_ something strange about this place. It was

something he couldn't see, but it was there.

"Hey, what are those things hanging on the street lamps?"

asked Childra.

They approached one of the street lamps cautiously, then

felt horror when they saw what it was.

"R-Ryouga?" stuttered Ranma.

Ryo closed his eyes. "Oh no."

"Um, he's over here too," said Childra, standing by

another street lamp. "I think they're all Ryougas."

"What the hell is this?" asked Ranma.

Ryo's thoughts were assuming the worst. Was this the

result of Muhoshin's handiwork? Dozens, maybe hundreds of

dead Ryougas as macabre street ornaments for an empty city?

He was snapped out of that line of thought when he

thought he saw something moving down the street. In the

darkness and the downpour of rain it was hard to see, but

there was _something_.

Ryo listened carefully for a moment. Sensing his mood,

so did the others.

Splish-splash-splish-splash...

...splish-splash-splish-splash...

Footsteps?

...splish-splash-splish-splash...

Fast. Echoing off the buildings. Hard to tell where it

was coming from.

...splish-splash-splish-splash...

Running this way? Yes, definitely getting closer.

...splish-splash-splish-splash...

Ishido stood in front of Childra protectively. Ryo and

Ranma stood ready, awaiting an attack.

...splish-splash.

And then it stopped.

"Nice suit, Saotome," echoed Muhoshin's voice. "Why, I'm

almost envious. BAKUSTAI-TEN-KETSU!"

Glowing yellow shapes whistled down from a ledge above,

striking at the ground between them. As they hit, the

street exploded with a deafening roar, throwing the four off

their feet. They scrambled for cover as more projectiles

screamed downward, continuing the destruction of the street

around them.

Unfortunately, with the savage weather, dark night and

explosions, they found themselves separated.

Childra stumbled through the doorway of the building,

wiping the rain from her eyes. As her eyes adjusted to the

dim lighting, she saw that she was in a room lined from

floor to ceiling with black marble. There was the first

steps of a stairway peaking from the shadows across the

room.

"Childra!"

That voice. Ishido, calling to her. He was still out

there.

"Ishido! Over here!" shouted Childra.

"Childra! Where are you?!" replied Ishido.

She rushed to the doorway, then stopped as she saw who

was standing in it.

Dripping wet, with an eerily calm look on his face, Ryo

Muhoshin stood.

"He's coming too?" asked Muhoshin. "Convenient."

Displaying speed that comes from messing about with

Nerima martial artists, she pulled out her bo and swung at

his skull in one graceful swipe.

He caught it in his hand. Then he adjusted his grip

slightly.

A second later, the bo was reduced to splinters and dust.

"Childra!" echoed Ishido's desperate voice from the

streets outside.

"Over hee-eeere!" yelled Muhoshin in a mocking tone,

looking behind him for a moment. Then he was punched

solidly in the jaw, sending him reeling for a second.

"Don't underestimate me," said Childra gravely. She

followed her punch with an uppercut aimed at his jaw

again...

... and was horrified when he caught that too.

Muhoshin narrowed his eyes and stared at her. She wasn't

sure, but she thought she saw his eyes glow.

"That's enough from you," he hissed.

-WHAM-

"Childra!"

Ishido ran around in the rain, frantic ever since Childra

left his sight.

"Ishido! Over here!" shouted Childra, her voice coming

from nearby. To the left? To the right? With the

rainstorm from Hell, Ishido wasn't entirely sure.

"Childra! Where are you?!"

"Over hee-eeere!" Ishido's blood ran cold. That wasn't

Childra's voice. It was Muhoshin's.

He felt it take over, the 'automatic' training that

possessed him in times of extreme fear or stress.

Instantly, his senses seemed to improve, overcoming the

rain and wind. A block away, he saw an open doorway and a

slight hint of movement in the shadows.

"CHILDRA!"

He charged in a berserker run, storming through the

doorway of the skyscraper and ready to fight. As he

entered, his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting quickly.

At the far end of the empty building, standing in another

entrance, he could see Ryo Muhoshin's silhouette and

something Childra-sized slung over his shoulder.

"Come, oh valiant hero," said Muhoshin flatly. "The

lady awaits."

Ishido charged across the room silently, his battle aura

flaring to life around him.

Muhoshin tapped the floor.

The building collapsed.

"Dammit, this isn't good," said Ryo Saotome, pacing

around in an empty building he and Ranma managed to get

into. "This is a mess."

"He did the breaking point with ki blasts?" asked

Ranma-chan, wringing out her shirt. "Impressive."

"Um, dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you put your shirt on please?"

"Oh. Sorry."

Ryo stared out of one of the giant windows while Ranma

put her shirt back on, frowning at the darkness outside.

Then he noticed the window was stained glass and formed a

picture.

"What the heck is this?" he mumbled, taking a few steps

back. The picture began to take shape as he walked

backwards. Legs. A dress. An... apron?

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that was Kasumi."

"Yeah, you're right," said Ranma-chan. "She's on all the

windows here."

Before they could give it any further thought, they felt

the ground shudder under them and a deep rumbling from

outside.

"What was that?!" asked Ranma-chan. Ryo raced to the

doorway and peered out into the street. His eyes widened in

shock as he saw a skyscraper several blocks down collapse on

itself.

"Uh oh."

Ranma-chan joined him in watching as it crashed. The

height of the building was impressive, as after several

seconds it was still crashing.

"Think he did this?" asked Ranma-chan.

Ryo looked down at the locket in his hands, currently

held towards the collapsing building. It was pulsing with a

blue light, occasionally flickering out tongues of blue

flame.

"Yeah, that's him," said Ryo.

Then the locket started glowing brighter.

"And he's coming."

The two backed away from the walls, standing in the

middle of the room and ready to fight. And then Ryo

realized something.

"Uh oh."

Ranma-chan glared at Ryo. "Uh oh? Uh oh what?"

"I think we'd better get out of the building."

"And back into the rain?"

"This building's made of stone."

"And?" Ryo stared at her for a moment, until the facts

finally sunk in. "Ah... oooh. Oh boy."

Then the walls began to crack.

Ryo frowned. "Damn."

"RUN!"

From high atop one of the many towers in the city,

Muhoshin looked down upon the crumbling skyscraper, the

second one he'd leveled today.

He wiped the rain from his eyes and frowned. It seemed

to be obscuring the view of the destruction. He didn't like

that.

"Enough."

The rain gently tapered off until only a light drizzle

remained.

"Hrm. Really worked."

Far below, concrete and rock debris littered the city

where two towers once stood.

"Not bad for a 'gosling'. Don't you think?"

He looked above him, where Childra was tied upside-down and

hanging from the maw of a gargoyle. She wasn't saying

anything, mainly because she was gagged.

He closed his eyes for a moment and put a hand over his

chest, where a blue glow began to flicker.

"Mmm, yes. Not moving. Down for the count?"

Muhoshin stared at the wreckage below for a moment.

"Down for the count. Time to get the locket. Guess I

didn't need a hostage after all."

*COUGH*COUGH*COUGH*

Childra's eyes widened in surprise as a spray of blue

sparks flew from Muhoshin's mouth.

"You see," he said to her, wiping his hand on his suit

jacket, "I'm a little ill. Nothing a small vacation won't

fix. Now, on to the wreckage."

With a swipe of his umbrella blade, the rope hanging from

the gargoyle's maw was severed, sending Childra into

free fall.

Then Muhoshin caught her by the foot.

"Come along, Miss Jansen. You may be of use yet."

They took the elevator.

With Childra tied up and slung over his shoulder, Ryo

stood there and whistled idly while the elevator speakers

softly droned out music with strange lyrics.

o/~ Heads are hanging from the garbage man trees o/~

o/~ Mouthwash jukebox gasoline o/~

o/~ Pistols are pointing at a poor man's pockets o/~

o/~ Smiling eyes ripping out of his sockets o/~

o/~ Got a devil's haircut in my mind o/~

o/~ Got a devil's haircut in my mind o/~

o/~ Got a devil's haircut in my mind o/~

o/~ Got a devil's haircut in my mind o/~

-DING-

"Ground floor," mumbled Muhoshin.

This, thought Childra, was strange. Weren't they on the

87th floor before? Amazingly fast elevator, that.

The elevator opened.

-WHAP-

"Aaaagh!"

Muhoshin staggered back, holding his nose, as Ranma-chan

sprang into the elevator and began pounding on him

relentlessly. Meanwhile, Childra was dropped on the floor

and managed to roll away from the raging battle.

A few seconds later, Muhoshin was flung out of the

elevator, slamming through the doors and tumbling out into

the street.

Ranma-chan emerged from the elevator a moment later and

quickly untied Childra.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I'm fine, but where's Ishido?!" she said frantically.

"Ishido? I dunno. I didn't see him anywhere. C'mon, we

gotta get outta this building before-"

-crack-

"Uh oh."

Childra and Ranma-chan burst from the building just as it

began to crash down on itself. Muhoshin stood in the middle

of the street, awaiting them.

"I'll destroy the whole city if I have to," he said

calmly. "I won't go dow... d... urgh."

Suddenly, he doubled over in pain and began to yell.

Blue flames roared from his eyes and mouth as he writhed in

agony on the ground.

"What the hell is happening?" asked Ranma-chan. She

felt, with much reason, she'd been asking that too much

lately.

"I... I'm not sure," said Childra.

Muhoshin continued screaming and turning, until finally

the flames died down and he settled into a constant and

slight twitching.

World upon world upon world was his to view, tiny specs

of sand in an infinite sea, swirling forever. More and more

and more and more...

No human has ever seen the whole of creation.

Ryo Muhoshin, however, was coming awfully close to it.

"Hey Ryo! You can come out now! We got'em!"

From underneath some rubble, Ryo Saotome emerged. He

looked a little dusty but otherwise was fine.

"It worked, huh?" he asked.

Ranma-chan nodded. "Mm-hm."

"You guys actually had a plan?" asked Childra.

Ryo nodded. "Muhoshin could tell whenever I got near.

The lockets are a giveaway. So I just stayed here and

played dead while dad ambushed'em."

"This guy wasn't so tough," said Ranma-chan confidently.

"He demolished three buildings, dad."

"Sorry to interrupt your testosterone moment, boys," said

Childra. "But have either of you seen Ishido?"

"Ishido? Um, no. He wasn't with you?"

"Oh... oh no. Ishido! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

Large Pile of Rubble That Was Once A Tower #2 began to

shudder.

The three backed away, very carefully.

A large pillar of energy burst from the wreckage,

accompanied by a bellowing roar. When the dust settled,

Ishido stood at the center of a large crater, breathing

heavily and looking tremendously stressed.

"Ishido!" Childra raced to him and took him in her arms,

where he collapsed easily.

"H... holding a... a ton... of rock... up... is not...

easy."

And then he passed out. Of course, Childra didn't mind

holding him in her arms at all.

Meanwhile, Ryo Saotome looked down at the twitching for

of his nemesis, realization dawning on him. His future self

did say Muhoshin had some sort of radiation poisoning from

the locket. Here was evidence he was right about the

future.

At that moment, he was extremely grateful that he stopped

him before Bell-chan... before she...

"What're we gonna do with him?" asked Ranma-chan.

"Well, first, I've gotta do this." Ryo kneeled by

Muhoshin's side and carefully opened his shirt, revealing

the 'other' locket, pulsing brightly beneath a thin layer of

skin. The chain, however, was still above the skin,

looping around Muhoshin's neck.

"Oh jeez," muttered Ranma-chan. "That's gross."

"Dad, hold his arms down."

"Why?"

"I need to get the locket."

"You... aw man, this is disgusting."

"I agree with you entirely," said Ryo. He reached down

and took hold of the chain. After a moment of hesitation,

he pulled the chain.

Hard.

The view was breathtaking. He was seeing everything!

Billions upon billions of galaxies! Billions upon billions

of realities!

And across the realities, there was him.

A legion of him. Martial artist, common man, salary man,

loving parent, angry loner, wandering student, immortal

conqe-

And then everything went black.

"I'm gonna be sick," said Ranma-chan, looking a little

pale.

"Yeah, me too," said Ryo. He put the bloody locket down

for the moment and turned to his enemy again.

Muhoshin's only reaction was to finally stop twitching.

"Let's see," said Ryo. "What else... oh." Ryo held the

locket up for a moment. A second later, after a flash of

blue light, a straitjacket was strewn on the ground.

"Help me put this on him," asked Ryo. With minimal

resistance, they fastened the straitjacket. Then he turned

his attention to Childra. "Hey, is he all right?"

"Just burned himself out, I think," replied Childra. "We

going back now?"

"Yeah, we are."

Ryo Saotome took the bloody locket once more, noticing

that the two were flaring violently now that they were in

close proximity to each other. He briefly wondered if

having the two would render both useless. No, that wasn't

right somehow. Not logical. Since he was the only one

holding the lockets, his was the only will guiding them

both.

It should work. He hoped.

"C'mon, let's get outta here," said Ranma-chan, looking

at one of the hanged Ryougas. "This place just isn't

right."

"You felt that too, huh? Let's get outta here."

He dropped it in the pocket of his shirt. Then, with

the remaining locket held high, he took them away from

Muhoshin's world.

-End Act 7-

Annotations for Act 7

" The story so far... " Long summary, isn't it? - " Ah. A six-armed gorilla in a tuxedo with an upper-class British accent. " I don't understand it either. Blame Mike Loader. - "..the Collective can get stuffed, Tsubasa. You're the girl I love, and if they can't handle that, then they can go to..." Referring to the Gosunkugi collective yet again, first appearing in the Ranma 2096 story "GOSUNKUGI: Generations" by Rod M. Any time you see the word 'Collective', you can be sure it's referring to the legion of Gosunkugi. - " So she pushed her way through the tables, past clumps of merrily chatting copies of people she knew, until her path was blocked by a rather large party of gaijins. Loud, noisy, slightly tanked gaijins. And Kodachi Kuno." Cameo by the Institut Rats, direct from their appearance in the Nameless Sequel. - "Excuse me. Would you, by chance, have seen a young lady, name of Sarah?" A Dr. Who reference, Sarah being one of the Doctor's many companions. - "You found..? Aw, damnit, Rod found her in the broom closet five minutes ago." Yes, kids, that's the Converging Series writers pestering poor Kaeri. - "...My brothers? Not a chance. They last saw me falling into the abyss, with an arrow in my neck and another by my heart. No, they all are safe in the knowledge that Brand is dead. This Collective of yours, they can move through shadow? How do they manage..." Brand of Amber, chatting with a Gosunkugi. - " Leaping back from her chair, the woman in black reached for a sheath by her belt in a smooth, practiced motion (marred only slightly by a noticeable swaying), drawing forth an ornate dagger. " Sicarii Gosunkugi, yet another of the denizens of Ranma 2096 - "...Miller, I tell him, you're keeping her on too tight a leash. It could cost us our jobs, and Heaven isn't much for layoff benefits..." Reference to the Heavenly agents in the Ukyou vs Skeride arc of R2096 - "...I'm sorry, Mr. Ishamael, but we're fresh out of positions. I wouldn't be discouraged, though. We aren't the only Hell in the realities..." Wheel of Time reference. - "...I HOPE THE STABLE IS ADEQUATE. BINKY GETS CROSS, OTHERWISE. TRY THE NACHOS, BY THE WAY..." A tip of the hat to Pratchett, his character Death, and Death's horse, Binky. Yes, Binky. - "She had the bouillabaisse. He ordered wine." Obscure 'Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom BEam' reference. - " "Tsereba. Reiko Tsereba." answered the woman. " Reiko Tsereba is a character from the stories "The Letters" and "The Shadows" by Erin Mills. - " o/~ Have another yaki, o/~ Ukyou sang. " The Ranma cast as inserted into the musical "Sweeney Todd". - "Ranma-kun, you disappoint me." Crossing over into Richard Lawson's "Appearances", where a psychotic Kasumi dominates the Tendo home. - " He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but Ryo Muhoshin found himself standing deep within a majestic city made entirely of crystals. " Yes, that's Crystal Tokyo of the Sailor Moon universe that Muhoshin is wrecking. It had to be done.

Souji had known it was a mistake to get a job with an

American firm. He had known it. But he had taken the job anyway,

which was why he was currently driving home in a state of very,

very high stress.

Amalgamated Consolidated Inc had no company song. No sense

of community. And the coffee was terrible.

And the upper-management, Americans all...horrible. Geki-san

had goofed a bit on the Likoda account, and the boss had called

him in to yell at him. He had stared straight at him with a nasty

look the whole time, until finally poor Geki was in tears. Did the

boss comfort him, tell him it was all right? No! He looked

_embarrassed_, mumbled something, and left. How unfeeling!

As he glanced to the left, towards a house built alongside a

training hall, a few images registered through the front

windows.

A long metal streak, glinting, being swung in an arc.

Something falling to the ground.

An eruption of searing, brilliant blue light.

And then the car was past. Souji blinked. That had been odd.

He spent the remander of the drive mulling over poor Geki-san,

his uncaring boss, and what the blue flash could have been. By

the time he walked up the steps to his apartment, he still had no

answer.

He tossed his jacket on the sofa, poured himself a drink, and

turned on the news.

"...just arrived at the corner from the Tendo Dojo. We have

what looks to be a woman's decapitated body, lying on the floor

next to her own severed head..."

S

by Mike Loader

Based on characters created by R. Takahashi and developed by

Richard Lawson. Lawson's work used with permission.

"This is nuts. The case was solved, damn it!"

Detective Okasa paced the floor of her office, slowly wearing a

track into the already-thin carpet, hands balled into fists. Her

partner, knowing this mood all too well, sighed glumly. It was

going to be a long day.

"Maybe he was lying. I mean..."

"No, he wasn't. I'm sure of it." She stopped, sank into her

chair, and turned to face him. "Look, you know me. Have I ever

been wrong about this kind of thing before? The Saotome kid was

telling the truth. Or thought he was, which amounts to about the

same thing." A look of frustration crossed her face, and she

sighed. "Besides, even if he _were_ lying...he can't possibly be

guilty.

"He goes home from his interview with me. He's safe. I just

got done telling him that the deaths of Kuonji, Hibiki, and the

two Kuno nutcases weren't his fault. If he were the killer, he's

just been told he's home free."

"Maybe he didn't believe you..."

"So he kills someone else to get me off his trail? Nope. Doesn't

make sense."

He leaned back. "Look, Okasa, the kid might be a nut. Split

personality, or whatever the term is. Maybe he thought he was

telling the truth, went home, and flipped out again."

She nodded. "I thought that might be it too. But motive aside,

he _couldn't_ have done it. Look, about an hour after he gets

home the emergency dispatch gets the call..."

TRANSCRIPT OF CALL #235, STATION 5, 3AM 7/5/96

Station: Emergency Dispatch, can we help you?

Caller: Oh yes, yes you can. Ranma-kun's been stabbed in the

stomach, and he's bleeding a bit...

Station: Okay, Miss, where is he, we'll get an ambulance there

right away...

Caller: The Tendo Dojo, Nerima ward, a few blocks down from

Furinkan.

Station: Okay, they're on their way...just stay calm, Miss. Do you

know how to make a pressure bandage?

Caller: Oh yes! I already put on on his stomach...was that right?

Station: That was very good, yes. Now, what I need you to do is...

Caller: Thank you for your help.

END OF CALL

"The person who made the call was Kasumi Tendo. Everyone we

played it to who had ever heard the girl agreed on it. After

Ranma was stabbed, she went into the living room and called the

ambulance. Just the ambulance. Not the police. As if whatever

had happened was over, and the only concern was getting

Saotome to a doctor."

"Some people are like that, Okasa. So worried about another

person that they don't look out for themselves." He leaned back

in his chair. "And it sounded like this Kasumi was that kind of

person."

The detective sighed. "Anyways, the ambulance arrives about

five minutes later. They hear screams from the dojo, run in..."

TESTIMONY OF RENKI KASI, PARAMEDIC, 7/5/96

Okasa: So you heard screams coming from the dojo building?

Kasi: Yeah, a real shrill, bad scream. The kind you, uh, hear at

accidents, when a mother just lost a child.

Okasa: What did you do then?

Kasi: Well, Hikaru and I ran in, to, you know, see what was going

on. We figured that the stab victim was in there.

Okasa: And what did you see upon entering?

Kasi: It was bad, real bad. This girl is the one doing the

screaming, about seventeen or so, just standing there and

shrieking, and on the floor is this other girl, dead, with her head

off.

Okasa: That would be Kasumi Tendo.

Kasi: I guess, yeah. Yellow dress and an apron, and the head's

been set on top of the body, staring out at the door. Over in the

corner is this guy, seventeen, sixteen, with a bandage wrapped

around his stomach. He's just sitting there, looking a little

bleary-eyed, not quite all there. My first thought is that the

guy's on drugs or something.

Okasa: What happened then?

Kasi: Well, I head over towards the guy, and Hikaru goes over to

the girl, when all of a sudden she starts screaming "KASUMI! NO

NO NO! BAKA!" and she runs at the guy like she's going to kill him.

Hikaru and I grab her, and sedate her, and for a bit it was scary.

It was like we were trying to hold down a gorilla, not a teenage

girl.

Okasa: And you then treated Saotome?

Kasi: The kid? Yeah, we got him and the girl to the hospital, and

called the cops and the coroner.

Okasa: You didn't see anyone else around? None of the family?

Kasi: No, but we didn't go in the house or anything. We leave that

sort of thing for the cops, you know?

Okasa: A wise policy. Thank you for your time, sir.

Kasi: No sweat. Hey, catch the guy who did this, okay? That kinda

stuff is just wrong.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

"So I arrive, and the body-boys and forensics jocks, and we get

to work. We find plenty of stuff, all right, but the stuff doesn't

make much sense.

"Kasumi Tendo was killed by a sharp, bladed weapon...probably

a sword of some sort. There was no such weapon at the scene.

There was, however, a tanto lying some distance away from the

body, with blood on the blade. DNA says it's Saotome's blood;

that and the shape of the wound say it's the weapon he was

stabbed with. It had two sets of prints on it, his and Kasumi's. In

the main house...at first we thought a bomb had gone off in the

living room. Someone went nuts in there, slashed up everything,

broke furniture...a few things looked like they actually were

blown up, but there weren't any traces of explosive material..."

"So what did the two witnesses have to say? Wouldn't that

clear things up?"

She scowled. "Yeah. Clear as mud."

TESTIMONY OF AKANE TENDO, 7/5/96

Okasa: Akane-san? I'd like to ask you a few questions. Can you

tell me what happened yesterday? (Time passes) Akane-san, we

want to catch whoever did this, but we need your help. Can you

tell me what happened?

Akane: Kasumi's dead.

Okasa: I know. I'm very sorry, Akane-san.

Akane: Ranma no baka.

Okasa: Ranma? What about Ranma?

Akane: He just sat there...I came downstairs, there was a noise,

blue light...

Okasa: Blue light? A explosion?

Akane: Someone broke the shogi table. Broke it in half.

Okasa: What happened after you came downstairs?

Akane: I tried to find...something, and I went in, in the dojo,

Kasumi, Kasumi-oneechan. Dead. Dead. Kasumi-oneechan.

Okasa: Akane-san, this is very important. What was Ranma

doing?

Akane: Baka. Baka. He just sat there and held his stomach. Baka.

Kasumi.

Sensei: I'm afraid I can't allow any more questions right now,

detective.

Okasa: I understand. Goodbye, Akane-san.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

"Maybe in a few weeks I can get more out of her. Right now..."

"What about Saotome?"

"Oh, he was drugged, all right. Not like the paramedic thought,

though. Someone slipped him a mickey finn, just enough to keep

him awake but immobile."

"So he saw the whole thing?"

"Yes and no."

TESTIMONY OF RANMA SAOTOME, 7/5/96

Okasa: So. I hear you'll be fine in a month or two.

Ranma: Yeah. That's what the docs tell me.

Okasa: Want to tell me what happened?

Ranma: Kasumi. She was the one behind the killings. Ukyou,

Ryouga, Cologne...

Okasa: But the Kunos were found to be responsible for that,

Ranma-san. You said so yourself.

Ranma: Yeah, I know. She used them.

Okasa: So you killed her?

Ranma: No. She drugged me, brought me into the dojo, and started

to cut me open. Woulda looked like suicide.

Okasa: But you're alive, and she isn't. Why?

Ranma: I dunno...someone came in, and then...I don't know. I think

the drug was causing me to hallucinate, that and the wound. I

kept seeing more than one Kasumi, and someone shoved her head

in my face after it had been severed...

Okasa: You say you were hallucinating. Is it possible that you

also hallucinated Kasumi as the murderer?

Ranma: I don't...I'm not sure. It seemed so clear at the time, but

now...the painkillers they got me on are making it a bit hard to

focus.

Okasa: Did you kill Kasumi?

Ranma: What? No! I told you, someone else came in and did it. I

think. Everything after she...started to cut me is a bit hazy.

Okasa: Did you see Kasumi use the phone before you entered the

dojo?

Ranma: No. I knocked it over while she was carrying me out, but

she didn't even pick it up off the floor. Why?

Okasa: Because Kasumi seems to be the one who called the

ambulance to come get you. We have a tape of her voice telling

the operator that you had a stomach wound, and needed help. Do

you have any idea why she would have done that?

Ranma: No...not unless she wanted them to arrive too late...do you

know where the Tendos are?

Okasa: They're with Akane. She found the body, and...well, she's

under psychiatric observation.

Ranma: Damn. Is she bad?

Okasa: Hard to say.

Ranma: Damn.

Okasa: If you do see her again, don't mention your suspicions of

Kasumi to her. I don't think she's in a position to handle it.

Ranma: It's a bit more than a suspicion...yeah, I won't tell her.

Okasa: Good. Thank you for your time, Ranma-san.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

"He thinks Kasumi did it, huh? The other murders?"

"Yeah. Everyone else says the girl was a living saint. I think

that in between the drug and the murders...he's a little paranoid.

Don't blame him, either."

"So why don't you think he did it?"

"He _couldn't_ have. Look, Kasumi calls for the ambulance and

tells them he's got a stomach wound. Which he did. No way would

he be able to cut her head off while drugged and bleeding to

death." She sighed. "I can't even build up a chain of events.

Logically, things had to have happened in this order; Ranma is

stabbed, Kasumi applies a bandage and calls the ambulance,

Kasumi is killed. But why didn't she call the police? Did she

really drug Ranma, like he says? And who ripped up the living

room?" Her fist came down hard on the edge of the desk. "It

doesn't make sense."

The phone rang, and she picked it up. "Hello?"

After a few minutes, she hung up. "That was the lab. According

to them, Kasumi was killed _before_ the call was made. Which

is, of course, impossible."

"A tape recording, maybe?"

"That answers questions? Nice try."

Silence for a second.

"And what the hell does "Kaeri Ni" mean?"

"Huh?"

"It was carved into one of the bits of sofa."

"Odd."

"Yup."

"Look at the bright side, Okasa. This'll make a hell of a story."

"Yeah. Well, I'm getting some sleep. Maybe something'll turn up

tomorrow."

In a rain-swept cemetery, close and yet unimaginably distant

from Okasa's office, blue fire erupted. A figure staggered out of

it, limmed by the flames, and collapsed.

Almost there...

-finis?-