Chapter 9: Mistress of Time

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Note: slight edits have been made to Chapter 8: Mousse is not heading back to China, but being held in Nerima where Cologne can keep him under control.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"I hope you're happy," Nabiki said on the way to school.

"I told you, I don't remember it!" Ranma did NOT want to keep rehashing the kiss business all week.

"What?" Nabiki blinked. "Oh. The kiss." Her eyes suddenly narrowed. "You really don't want to give me a chance, do you?"

"It's not like I expect YOU to give ME a chance."

"I know how it is with guys. You can't admit your feelings, even to yourself. Girls love. Men... just use people."

"And certain pandas?" Ranma asked. "I am NOT going to be like Pop. I can be better than that."

"With who? Ukyo? Sounds like the cheap way out. She'll go on the road with you. One of us would just be a ball and chain, ne?"

"Cheap? It's called having chemistry. I don't see that happening with any of you."

"Huh. Well, that's not what I meant anyway. I was talking about the challenge to Akane." She looked over her shoulder at her younger sister, lagging behind from weakness and last night's poisoning, er, cooking.

"She's sticking with it so far."

"She's gone through five weeks worth of groceries."

"And you didn't factor that into her penalty?"

"Didn't YOU factor it into the challenge?"

"What do you want ME to do about it? I don't earn money."

"Well, neither does she. We're all just students."

"And yet YOU seem to have plenty coming in."

"I don't have that much to spare. Anyway, it was your idea, you really should pay for it."

"All right, you want me to bust some heads? That's about all I can do."

"Really, Ranma. There's so MUCH you can do..."

"You want me to be a waitress, don't you."

A gleam in her eye. "Something like that."

"Huh. We'll deal with it after school."

He expected her to know better by then.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

At lunch Akane was again trying to force down the contents of a self-made bento. She turned to one of her frineds. "Gaahhh! Yuka, you used to have as much trouble with cooking as me. How did you ever learn to do this?"

Yuka shrugged. "Just practice, I guess."

Ranma looked at her questioningly. "Practice? How much?"

"Three or four hours a day, sometimes. When I didn't have so much homework."

"Uh huh. How long did this go on for?"

"Over a year. Why?"

"Akane, what were YOU doing all that time?"

"I was trying too!"

"All the time I've been here you've been doing martial arts practice that much. You been doing that since Yuka was as bad as you?"

"Grrrr..."

"That look on you says yes. So while other girls have spent their lives learning to cook and sew and... well, BE GIRLS, you haven't. And you wonder why you're so bad at it?"

Akane smashed her bento box over his head. "Ranma no baka!"

"Can't deny it, can you?"

Nabiki suddenly came in, glaring. "Ranma. We need to talk."

Ranma groaned and followed her out. Mousse would have mentioned his powers when he offered his services to Kuno. Word would have gotten around by now.

In the hall, she had a pail of water waiting. She produced a hundred yen coin. "Call it."

Twenty flips. Seven guessed right. She splashed him. "Again."

Twenty more. She was good at reading people. Ranma had been horrible at keeping secrets (never having any before this curse) and was still working at it now. He saw she would know if he were faking it. He got all twenty correct.

"I know how we're going to pay for those groceries. And a HELL of a lot more besides." She headed back to her class.

Ranma sighed. "And so it begins..."

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

At the end of the school day Kuno, his kendo club, and Akane's admirers tried a series of surprise attacks most of the way home. Ranma had not bothered to game out the sequence; the effort was pathetic even by his normal martial arts standards. But it did give Cologne a chance to play cavalry coming to the rescue in view of Akane and Nabiki.

Ranma had just dodged a series of attacks and was up against a wall when some other boys dropped a large box of boulders on him. He feigned surprise and held his ground. Cologne jumped out of nowhere and shattered the boulders into gravel with a series of precise strikes.

Ranma dug himself out from under the gravel pile. Akane was only partially buried and climbed out on her own. Nabiki had been ignored by the atttackers and came running up from one side.

"An old ghoul...?" Nabiki muttered. "Who are you?"

"I come from a small village in China, where this boy got his curse. We have business with him."

Nabiki's eyes lit up. "Business, huh? I'm his manager. I charge a thousand yen an hour rental fee."

"We are not paying him as a contractor. He belongs to us now. It is our law." She handed Nabiki an amended copy of the Amazons' law book.

"Well, come with us and we'll discuss it..." She began reading through the book.

"What did you steal from THESE people?" Akane demanded.

"Other than the usual food, nothing," Ranma said.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

"A prophet?" Soun and Genma were suspicious. They didn't want Ranma becoming some sort of priest on them.

"Is that one boy who turns into a tiger related to you?" Nabiki said. "I heard today he was in on the effort to drive Ranma berserk. He said something about Ranma's cursed form seeing the future."

"For thousands of years only the champions of our village tournaments have had the right to bathe in that spring," Cologne said. "Ranma has taken what should belong to us."

"Ranma must remain here and carry on the Anything-Goes school," Genma said with finality.

"The Prophetess belongs with us. Surely you can see that."

"If these curses are from your area," Nabiki asked, "you must know how to cure them, right?"

"There is none for this one. It is more powerful than the rest."

"More powerful? Hmmm." Genma eyed Ranma as if sizing up a new and unknown challenger. He suddenly leapt across the table at his son, who ducked easily.

"You definitely saw that coming," Nabiki said.

"So did you," Ranma said. "You should know him by now..."

Cologne pogoed up to the fallen Genma. "The power only works in the cursed form. You will not be able to defeat him then."

Genma wanted to give it a good try. He rose and spent fifteen minutes trying to dunk his son in the koi pond, eventually succeeding. After that, their sparring session went as it normally did, ending in a panda knocked out on the lawn.

"He's been doing that for a while," Kasumi observed.

Nabiki had a better idea. She got the sports section out of the newspaper and handed it to Ranma. "Tell me who's going to win next week."

Ranma-chan looked at the baseball listings. She easily saw what the next week would bring. "I can't tell," she lied.

"She will need proper training in the power to use it to full effect," Cologne said. "Right now she still uses the Sight on an instinctual level. I will begin training her in its use. If there is a way to satisfy all our desires, she will eventually be able to find it then."

"As long as we're talking about super powers," Nabiki asked, "would this also have to do with those sailor girls in Juuban?"

"I wouldn't think so. We have dealt with these powers for thousands of years. These sailor girls only showed up a few weeks ago."

Nabiki did the math. "The same time as Ranma got cursed..."

"Coincidence. It dosen't mean anything."

Nabiki let it drop, but Ranma knew by her expression she wasn't done. She would start looking for connections. And tomorrow's youma battle would provide her with some.

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There was chaos in Juuban the next morning. The streets were full of accidents. People were impatiently rushing everywhere. Shops were opening too early. It was spilling over into other areas of Tokyo; several people in Nerima were getting an unusually early start.

Ranma was one of them, but not because he was being affected by the youma; there were no new clocks in the Tendo household. Not that his father woke by clock; he seemed to be a heavy sleeper, but if danger was in the area he could be awake and in stance in an instant. Ranma had been trained similarly, and found it easy to wake early with the suspicious flows of chi in the neighborhood.

"Not again..." Genma grumbled as he found Ranma had woken ahead of him and skipped out on morning sparring. Not that he seemed able to contain the boy anymore if Ranma really wanted to go. This curse of his was getting to be a major pain.

Ranma-chan bounded along the streets of Juuban, for once dodging ordinary citizens on the car roofs; impatience caused by the youma's influence had them adopting his habits. He made his way to the new clock shop that was the source of the trouble. The other Senshi arrived about the same time. Luna was out of sight, knowing Ranma would be there.

"Good! Here's the youma hideout, eh?" Usagi said.

Under the youma's influence she was showing the sort of impatience and boldness Ranma-chan and her opponents were used to. In this instance it suited her just fine. "Power up! Let's blast through!"

"FIRE SOUL!" "SUPREME THUNDER!" "MOON TIARA ACTION!" A hole wide enough for all of them opened in the shutter in front of the shop. They all charged through.

Ranma-chan noted the hole sealed behind them as they made their way to the stock room in the back of the store. No matter, once the youma was dead they would be able to get out normally.

In the stock room there was a severe-looking woman, presumably the youma, standing in front of a giant grandfather clock. "Who -?"

"For love and justice - hey!" Sailor Moon was cut short as Ranma-chan gave the youma a flying kick into the clock. It went flying through the glass front. The interior was suddenly a chaotic swirl of colors. The youma could not be seen within.

"Where'd it go?" Jupiter asked.

Mercury scanned the chaos. "It's some kind of alternate dimension," she said. "She's hiding in there."

A voice came from within. "If you want to die here today, come on, Sailor Senshi!"

"Famous last words!" Ranma-chan said, and led the group inside.

The interior had distorted clock faces floating amid clouds of raw colored energy. "Where'd she go?" Sailor Moon asked.

"Be careful, everyone," Mercury said. "The youma may have placed traps."

"I'm getting impatient. There's no time! Hiding like this - no fair!"

The youma's voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. "I'm waiting in here. You should come."

"Should we do what it says?" Moon asked.

"Wait," Mercury said. "It's dangerous if we just walk blind. Ranma...?"

The Senshi turned to Ranma-chan, who was staring deep into the chaos. "I can see them..." she said absently. "I can see the time-flows..."

"Ranma?" Jupiter waved a hand in front of Ranma-chan's face.

"She's right..." Mars said. "There's something wrong with time in here. The youma must be changing it!"

"My mission..." Ranma-chan was saying. "My power... my duty... I can see it. Feel it..." She turned to Mercury. "Can you?"

Mercury activated her visor and linked with the computer Luna had given her less than an hour ago. The Silver Millennium technology had not deteriorated in subspace storage; relative to 1992 human technology it was more powerful than any mainframe supercomputer on Earth for the next few years, and could connect with still-functional Lunar mainframes vastly more powerful still. With these, she analyzed the time flows in the region.

"That way?" Mercury asked, pointing in the direction Ranma-chan was already moving. "Let's go!" Moon said, folling Ranma-chan's lead.

Moon kicked in a clock face, opening on an area with a circular pattern. They walked further until the pattern changed to vertical green tubes. The youma faded into view, gloating. "You've come this far pretty well, Sailor Moon. But it ends here. Prepare yourselves!"

"You're the one who'd better prepare!" Moon said. She started to charge, only to fall to her knees. "I can't stand up! What happened?"

The youma laughed. "Caught at last! My clock sucked out all your energy!"

"Energy?" The other Senshi realized they were all feeling weaker.

"I got plenty," Ranma-chan said, stalking forward. "Everybody fire!"

"You're in the way!" The youma fired a beam of energy that swept across all of them. The other Senshi froze in their tracks. "Now I've stopped your time!"

Ranma-chan felt the energy flow into her, slowing her down. She tried to fight it, first with brute strength, then by raising chi. As this failed, she began to feel something else, something similar, but slightly different.

Willing to try anything, Ranma-chan reached out to this new power, trying to get a sense of it, expand her senses to use it. She felt a nexus of power and focused on it, pouring herself into it.

Light blazed forth about a foot in front of her, quickly taking shape and solidity. It was a pen, like the other Senshi transformation pens, with the Pluto symbol on it. *I'm never gonna live this down...* Ranma-chan thought as she gripped the pen and called out, "PLUTO PLANET POWER! MAKE UP!"

She felt her clothing dissolve, leaving her naked, though her skin was so charged with energy she was only a silhouette. She swung the pen around in a circle, a flow of wind erupting from her feet, engulfing her and forming clothing. She could feel jewellery materialize, makeup being applied. The winds dispersed, leaving her standing before the youma clad in Senshi fuku.

"You're out of your league. Face the power of Sailor Pluto!" Ranma-chan charged into the stunned youma, giving it an Amaguriken in the chest. It went flying backward, lying stunned on the ground.

Suddenly the other Senshi were free. "Ranma!" For a moment she had seemed to speed up incredibly, almost like a videotape skipping ahead, then flashed with light. She was now jumping clear of the youma, clad as a Senshi.

"Now! Hit it!" Ranma-chan said. They did.

"Like we trained," Mercury said. "SHABON SPRAY!"

"FIRE SOUL!" "SUPREME THUNDER!" "MOON TIARA ACTION!" The youma crumbled to dust. The energy field scenery faded, along with the entire shop. The Senshi were left standing on a vacant lot. They quickly detransformed.

"That was exhausting," Usagi said, sinking to her knees.

"That one forced us to use a lot of energy," Ami said.

"Ranma... you transformed?" Makoto asked.

Ranma-chan was blushing. "How can you guys wear that stuff?" she said.

"I think it looks good on you!" Moon said.

"You can keep that stuff. But the power... I could SEE the time-flows. I think I can work with them... change them... like the youma did..."

"You can?" Rei said. "I don't think I can do anything like that..." Her own prophetic visions had been getting stronger, but from her discussions with Ranma-chan in training, it seemed the powers of Pluto were much stronger and more precise.

"I think it's Pluto's powers. Her duty, maybe. Stopping time changes."

The others had more questions, but Usagi's friend Naru ran up, cutting them short. "Usagi! Emergency! They're having a free early bird special at the cake shop!"

"No way! Hurry!"

The other Senshi left to continue their day. Ranma-chan got up and started back toward Nerima. Her thoughts raced with possibilities. To manipulate time... gain speed in combat, slow enemies down, even stop them in their tracks, or jumping backward to recover if you made a mistake...

There was much to try for the next few weeks. She was thankful Nerima would be as quiet as it ever got.

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Nabiki put away her binoculars and waited a suitable amount of time to keep distance from Ranma-chan before heading back to Nerima herself. She would not get out of punishment for being late (Juuban schools might forgive it due to the general chaos affecting everyone, but Nerima hadn't suffered the full effect) but for what she had just learned it was worth the price.

Sailor Moon had a full sentai team backing her up now. Ranma WAS one of them. She had been right; it was no accident these monster attacks had started and Sailor Moon had appeared around the same time as Ranma had gotten cursed. What else that might mean... she would have to keep an ear to the ground.

She was stopped dead by Cologne dropping down from a rooftop to land in front of her. "I knew you were too smart to be put off."

"What are you going to do?"

"That depends on you. I assume you were thinking of selling this information to his admirers or rivals?"

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"Then I would have to silence you."

"Really? It's that important?"

"The Senshi are fighting a war against a Dark Kingdom that means to destroy the world as we know it. Secrecy is paramount at this stage. Ranma has seen that if any of the Senshi, including himself, are exposed, they all will be shortly, and they will not be able to defend themselves against assassins in the night. We cannot afford to lose anyone." She looked Nabiki in the eye. "They are all that stand between the enemy and your chances of living to see next year."

Nabiki paled. "Your point is taken."

"See that it is. It's also worth noting if there is a cure to the curses of Jusenkyo, either the Senshi or the Dark Kingdom should have it."

"Including a cure that works on Ranma? Freeing up the Spring of Drowned Prophetess for Shampoo?"

"I can only hope." Cologne sighed. "Or it may destroy her Spring, or all of the springs. Or Ranma may be killed and free up the Lady's Spring that way. Fortunes of war. We must be ready for whatever happens."

Nabiki hurried along to school. This was getting heavy. There was too much at stake. Her safety, her family, her fortune, were all at risk if anything happened to the Senshi. One gambling principle definitely applied here: Never bet your life.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

That evening Akane humgrily scarfed down the dinner Kasumi had made. Ranma hadn't been so sure she would make it. Not that it mattered to him.

"Congratulations, Akane," Kasumi said. "You went the full week!"

"And my cooking has gotten better! I'll make some for everyone tomorrow!"

"I just remembered I have to study late at school tomorrow," Nabiki said. "We have a training trip," Genma said.

"I may have to meet an old friend..." Soun began.

"You could at least try some!" Akane exploded.

"Eh," Ranma said. "If it doesn't kill us..."

"That's NOT encouraging."

"Oh, by the way," Nabiki said, "I did some more research on La Belle France School of Martial Arts. Seems they're not so big on cooking. Their art is more about how you *eat* the food. Style and grace and all that."

Akane's eyes lit up red with anger. "RAAAANNNNNMAAAA! YOU were the one who said I would have to be a good cook!"

"Hey, I hardly heard of these people before either," Ranma said. "Who would have thought, you know?"

"Well, you're the one who eats like a pig around here! YOU can just take the engagement!" She hefted a pail and gave Ranma a splash.

Ranma-chan looked at Nabiki. "You know, if it takes someone who eats like a pig, we should find some way to get Ryoga to do it."

"No help from me, Saotome. You go find him."

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

La Belle France would wait; it was weeks away. Another mess was due to be cleaned up the next day.

Ranma stood outside of Ucchan's, collecting his thoughts. He knew what he had to do. There would be no feeling in it for him - there was no precedence in his life for dealing with romance. Where other men had to navigate by their feelings, he had none. Fortunately, he didn't need them. He had the Sight.

He took a deep breath and walked in.

"RANCHAN!" Ukyo came bounding over the grill and glomped him. She might not have heard of the kiss, to look at her now.

"Ucchan," Ranma replied as soon as he had breath. "How's it going?"

"Just great. You? I heard you weren't serious when you kissed Nabiki."

"Not when I'm like that, I'm not. I just forget myself..."

"Well, no harm done. As long as you do one thing for me."

"One thing?"

Evil grin. "Kiss ME." She puckered up, closed her eyes, and leaned in.

Ranma kissed her. It felt totally wrong, unlike him. He knew she wouldn't buy it.

She didn't. She broke away, arms straight down at her sides, fists balled up. "Come on, Ranchan! You can do better than that!"

"You DO realize that was my first real kiss?"

"Didn't feel all that real."

"It was real enough for SOMEONE..." He threw a glance out the door. Ukyo followed his gaze.

Nabiki was there, a sour expression on her face. "Dumping me so soon, Ranma?"

"As if we were together. You know I wasn't myself. I know you don't seriously have feelings for me. You just want the money I can make for you."

She teared up, clasping hands in front of her chest. "But after all those things you said to me..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Preached my undying love, took you out to a restaurant, a movie, a theme park, father of your unborn child. Gimme a break. I got proof. Your sisters and your classmates can vouch for every time where you and I could possibly have been together, and what we said."

She adopted an angry look. "You're being no fun. Just you wait, Saotome. I'll have you yet." She stalked off.

"Well, now that that's settled..." Ukyo started.

"For now," Ranma interrupted. "She'll be back. If you want her gone for good, we gotta work together."

"We? Who's 'we'? She's YOUR problem."

Now it was Ranma's turn to look hurt. "Being a fiancee means facing rivals together. We both have to do our parts. We work together to make sure no one in this neighborhood can think she's a serious contender."

Understanding dawned in Ukyo's eyes. "Ranchan..." Those words would sound so romantic to her. "I'm with you. For anything..."

"It's going to be tough on both of us. But we can do it if we have faith in each other. Here's what we gotta do..."

Some of his father's advice was still useful: When you're studying a strange Art and you have no idea what you're doing, find an expert. He would have to thank Minako Aino when she actually told him these lines several months from now.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

The next few weeks were blissfully calm. Ranma threw himself into training, with the Senshi and at home with the Tendos. He was frustrated to find he had no intuitive energy attack like the other Senshi had. His strength and speed, however, were phenomenal, truly up to super-hero standards.

The transformation proved not to change hair styles, which Ranma was uneasy with. "Our hair is a dead giveaway. Especially Usagi. No one in the world has hair like yours."

"Hey! Isn't it bad enough the transformation changes my RACE? At least Ami and Rei are still Asian! Mako-chan and I turn into Westerners!"

"You turn into a Scandinavian supermodel," Makoto pointed out. "I'd hardly call that grounds for complaint."

"Well, Venus is in the same boat," Ami said. "Although, I thought that was because she was operating in England..."

He grew more concerned over Happosai. The old freak's actions were hard to pin down, not as bad at times when cats were involved, but he couldn't see as clearly as he could normally. He had to ask Cologne for more information about him.

"You said he visited you when he was young. Did he know about the Prophetess?"

"We didn't actually see all that much of him," Cologne said, "so I'm not sure how much he knew or when he knew it. But our Prophetess developed the same problem with him as he got older. We suspected it was an effect of his chi getting stronger as he grew more powerful."

"Mmmm. There's some things he can do that will really slow us down. We gotta be ready for anything."

Ranma was grateful for not having to do the tea ceremony battle. His new movements didn't place him on the street in the rain when Sentaro was riding through, unconscious, on horseback. He wasn't interested in finding out what became of him.

He did not assist the Senshi with their next few battles. Already having Jupiter with them gave them more than enough firepower to deal with the youma. He was planning to attend the final battle with Jadeite. After that, he guessed, Queen Beryl would make an example of the failed general. Happosai would show up the next day, and consume all of his time for the next few weeks.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Meditations were now being practiced with his father in attendance. Other members of the household were getting interested in some of his results. Kasumi, for instance, wanted to know what he could see of her mother and her parents' early marriage.

Ranma-chan went into a low-level trance, just enough to see things clearly but able to hear requests and speak of what he saw. "Soun Tendo... son of a good martial arts family... house burns down when he is eight years old... only he survives. Old master takes him in..."

Soun and Genma interrupted their shoji game. If he mentioned Happosai's name...

"They pick up another student, same age... Genma Saotome... they train many years. Harsh training, working off the master's debts, helping steal, suffering punishments... Genma from a proud family, impatient with normal pace of training ... wants only to be the best, heard this old master was unbeatable. Runs from family, does not speak to them, but not formally disowned.

"Their master allows them to court when they are 18. Soun finds a woman at a midsummer festival. Love at first sight. He meets her father, does things for her family, becomes friendly. Gains permission to court. They date, they marry..."

"What about your family, Ranma?" Akane asked.

"Genma asks many families about courting daughters. They always say he has to defeat all the men in the family to prove himself. He finds a family with an only daughter, no brothers, no uncles. Only her father to fight. He wins, marries her."

"Then the old master died, didn't he?" Akane asked.

"YES!" Genma shouted, breaking Ranma-chan out of her trance. "Dead! Don't have to worry about him anymore!"

"Ah, the times we had, eh, Saotome?" Soun pitched in.

No one looked fooled. "Later, Ranma," Nabiki whispered.

"I always knew you were both bakas," Akane grumbled, looking at Ranma and Genma. "At least my father TRIED to be normal."

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Sailor Pluto's face tightened in concentration. She brought her arms up, crossing them over her chest, then down, then moving in several katas. She was looking for a focus, a way to use her magic for attacks like the other Senshi. So far she was only getting frustrated.

They were in a forested area in the mountains, practicing attacks. Some boulders had been split or shattered by lightning, fire, or rapid fire-cold shifts. All the Senshi present were getting used to Moon not being here.

She ended up with her hands curled on her right side, as if holding something. "It feels like I need a weapon," she said. "Something to channel through."

"We can ask Luna if she has anything," Mars said.

Pluto didn't want to wait. She looked among the trees, found a long straight branch, and broke it off, paring smaller branches and leaves and fashioning a crude sort of staff. She tried focusing magic through it, only to have it explode in her hands.

"Phew." She wiped dust from her face. "Need something else. Try a bunch of materials. There has to be something that can take the charge." She looked at Cologne. "What about your Prophetesses? Could any of your Lady's hosts do anything other than see the future?"

Cologne shook her head. "Honestly, they never tried. We never imagined there might be more to the Lady than her prophetic power."

"I want to shift time like that youma did. Speed it up for us, slow it down for youma, jump us backward if we make a mistake..."

"Sounds cool," Jupiter said. She wished she could see more of Ranma-kun. He looked like one of her old boyfriends.

"Changing speeds may be possible," Ami said, "but changing things after they happen may be too dangerous. Can you even DO that?"

"I want to try. Right now I can't even get a grip, or whatever you do to time to work with it."

"Your memories may help," Cologne said. "Shampoo is due back tomorrow."

"You sure Mousse is locked up?" Ranma-chan asked. "I'm seeing some blanks for tomorrow. Some fighting on the street."

"Possibly that Kuno boy. Mousse is in a steel cage when he isn't working."

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Tatewaki Kuno swung hard, projecting his chi along the steel blade. It cut through the unenhanced iron lock on the cage like it was butter. The tiger within burst out through the door and headed for a sink to turn on the hot water tap.

"It seems I am in your debt," Mousse said once he was human. He began donning his clothes.

"Think nothing of it. It will be paid on the morrow, when Saotome is finally laid to rest."

"I take it you have a better plan this time?"

"We have a few new... resources to work with. He should either be lured to a place of our choosing, or pinned where you can get to him. You can reduce him to a dumb beast, and we know how to deal with such."

Kuno did not specify what the new resources were, and Mousse did not bother to ask. If he had known, he would have told Kuno they would not work. Not that it would bother him; the plan, he fancied, was robust enough that they were not strictly necessary.

Both relaxed in confidence that their common enemy had met his match.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Scenes from another fine day in Nerima:

Shampoo was entering the shopping district with a larger than usual backpack. It contained two casks of Jusenkyo water and a full shelf of her trademark shampoos. She saw no reason to be delayed in reaching her great-grandmother and Mousse on time. She had not yet learned that in Nerima, reason had little to do with anything.

Ukyo was at her shop, filling customer orders, her martial artist's senses ever wary of sudden ambush. She expected Kuno, Mousse, Ryoga, or one of Ranma's more obscure rivals or hunters to come by and make trouble. She would not be disappointed.

Not far away, Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane were delighting in a shopping expedition. It was refreshing to get out of the house and away from dealing with Jusenkyo curses and other strangeness.

Ranma was waiting on a rooftop, trying to clam down his sense of panic. Cologne had informed him of Mousse's escape last night. No doubt that was why he could not get a clear picture of what was about to happen. Looking beyond, he could see he was in a no-win situation: something disastrous was about to happen, and he could not stop it. He would be blamed for it, at least partially. Worst of all, it was true: it would happen simply because he was here. Whatever he did, people would imagine they would have avoided their fate if he had chosen otherwise.

Tatewaki Kuno and his group of erstwhile retainers were setting up the trap, hoping to catch Ranma. They had several kinds of Jusenkyo water, with generous supplies of boy and girl water in case of accidents. Not generous enough, of course, and poorly positioned, but it represented more foresight than they had shown thus far.

Mousse was in position on a roof overlooking the shopping street. He knew his mere presence in tiger form masked events from Ranma's scrutiny. Truly, his curse was in fact a blessing. The Gods must have been responsible. It was no accident that Shampoo's prize had been stolen by one who had such a weakness, or that he happened to stumble into the one pool that could take advantage of it.

And a very lost boy had found someone he did not want to meet, rushing in to provide a spark to a powder keg that the shopping street had become.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

AN: I've always figured it was an author's perogative to choose early who will end up with whom. That said, I do have a bias toawrd Ukyo. In the context of this story I read early-series Ranma looking at his future options and becoming resigned to marrying SOMEONE and choosing his best option, naturally taking the path of least resistance toward Ukyo. Shampoo does not force herself on him, Kodachi he can avoid, Akane he sees as inevitably abusive while he would be willing to choose Kasumi she will not be hurt if he doesn't, which isn't true of Ukyo. In normal Ranma canon, I would break down his fiancees this way:

Kasumi: The Tendo he would choose, if he could get over the age difference. She would require a lot of protecting against rivals, and her younger sisters would eventually decide she was too good for Ranma and try to spare her the dangers of living with him.

Nabiki: Demonstrates quite adequately in Volume 15 why she is not a contender in the arc where she takes the engagement. Would not take the engagement seriously without a compelling reason.

Akane: Many fanfic writers have gone on ad nauseum about her problems. Basically she needs to grow up, meaning she has to realize she can't do so at the leisurely pace she prefers; she has to move faster.

Ukyo: The non-Tendo he has the best chemistry with and the one overall he would seem happiest with as an equal partner. He offers to validate her womanhood, she offers to change him the least and won't demand he live any particular place.

Shampoo and Kodachi are interlopers with no claim on his honor. Shampoo in particular has a weak hand; trying to win him by force, and failing to understand his feelings toward others, Akane in particular.

Concerning the Senshi transformations: The common assumption in fanfic is that the Senshi are protected by glamour magic that prevents recognition of an unchanged face. My view is that there has to be SOME change, and I have always seen the Senshi appearances in canon as being their 'true selves', what the world sees of their Senshi appearances, while their Japanese identities would still fundamentally be dark-haired Asians, even if of supermodel quality.

My take on a few other common Ranma ideas:

Ranma/Dragonball crossover, Spring of Drowned Saiyajin. Most treaments I've seen give him Goku's personality, but what if he's... Vejita? Messy. Challengers get literally torn to pieces.

Ranma has siblings, or is a girl from birth: Like Happosai, Genma would never train a girl. If his firstborn is a girl, he will keep having kids with Nodoka until he gets a boy, and have all that much more reason to flee on a training trip to prevent contaminating his son with feminine influence. So they arrive at the Tendo home a year later, with Akane having defeated Kuno and the hentai horde once and for all, and a friend/classmate of Ranko, who has a deep grudge against her father - she sees the training trip for what it is, and abandonment - and her mother as crazy for being willing to go along with it.

Ranma Redux series: One Ranma character is sent back, Quantum Leap-style, from fifty years in the future. With a lifetime of experience and wisdom, they are essentially a wholly different person from canon, and react very differently to circumstances.

- Ranma: No longer defensive of his independence, selfish, antagonistic, is now willing to go along with an engagement to anyone. Could choose Akane, whose standards of behavior and perception he can now meet, and whom he eventually learned to respect; Kasumi, the type a traditional Japanese man like himself would normally choose, and whom he can impress with his maturity; and Ukyo, obviously. Kodachi he will avoid, and Shampoo he would bargain with, offering a secret marriage/mistress relationship.

- Akane: Still cynical about men, but willing to tolerate them. Could try to make engagement to Ranma work, but I also see a possibility that she might have decided by that time that Kuno or Ryoga was actually better for her. Sisters will know something is up, and may try to take the engagement for themselves...

- Nabiki: Generally, Ranma/Nabiki pairings require the writer to come up with a reason for her to take the engagement seriously. My preference: She knows of devestating warfare in the future, which Ranma would be instruental in winning or preventing, but only if he can be prevented from marrying Akane. Starts practicing martial arts again.

- Kasumi: takes the engagement immediately, over her sisters' protests if necessary, knowing Ranma and Akane end up in a mutually abusive relationship.

- Ukyo: Arrives earlier and crafts a better strategy for winning Ranma's love.

- Shampoo: finds herself already in Japan, looking for the Tendo residence. Goes straight there, steals Ranma away in the middle of the night, brainwashes him, and takes her back to China. At Jusenkyo she bargains: if he marries her, she will cure his curse, allow him to have "mistresses" elsewhere, and demand he spend only a few months a year in the village. She will also help him with his enemies. And they have to kill Happosai...

Next: Battles