Chapter 12: Back at the Hospital

The Cat laid on the bed the Healer had placed her on, where she had for most of the day. She had gotten up to relieve herself twice with the nurses' help. She knew she was in the Girl's body, and that the Girl was human, so she couldn't rely on the Cat's instinct. Due to the Sharing, the Cat had an idea of how things worked, and some of the Girl's instinct was still present which helped. The nurses had helped with the cloth coverings and guided her to the water box. She was surprised when the water carried her waste away the first time, but not so on the second. After the second time, the nurses had also washed her and changed the cloth coverings. She was amused that they dressed her with the Boy's coverings rather than the Girl's, but did not object. Then they wrapped her in a large cloth covering that tied around her and guided her back to the bed.

She had eaten fish twice. Her caretakers had cooked it and pulled it apart for her. She tried to eat it normally, but they scolded her and guided her to use her paws. Normally, she would have taken exception to that, but she was tired and weak, and she also knew they were trying to help. Drinking had been an issue though; her tongue did not work as expected. The nurses had tried to get her to drink using a small bucket (a glass?), but she had nearly drowned herself. Healer ordered them to get a large bowl and she was able to slurp water from that. Healer was with her for most of the day, leaving only occasionally for food and water. He spoke to her whenever she hurt while rubbing her back and massaging her paws, and made sure she stayed wrap in the warm blankets. The meaning of most of what he was saying stayed with her. He was trying to find Teacher, Mate, and Mother but he would stay with her until they could be found.

For her part, she lay quietly (except for the occasional gasps of pain) and focused on breaking the Binding. She knew she was winning. More of the Girl was flowing into her, expanding her mind. She was starting to understand her paws ("hands", they were called "hands") better and was able to grab things rather than just bat at them. The Binding was still there though, trying to split them apart. It was like a serpent squeezing her, trying to drive the humanity out of her. But she had buried her claws deep into it, and her teeth held its throat. The Girl was starting to stir in her chains and fight back, which was helping. The Cat was afraid of sleep though. She could not afford to let go or she would lose ground and the Girl would stop stirring…

Ryoga sat in the hospital lobby with Akari. They had left Katsunishiki at the Tendo Dojo and give him orders to stay put. It was odd that the gates had been locked, but Ryoga had leapt the wall and unlocked things from the inside without any issue. They had fed and watered the sumo pig and then Ryoga had used his Other senses to track Ranma to Nerima General (Akari had kept track of where they were and persuaded her fiancé to stick to marked roads). They had been here since about four o'clock, and it was now about eight. The hospital staff had been polite, but firm. Ranma was to have no visitors except those on Doctor Ando's list. The two teenagers had left messages for the doctor, but he hadn't gotten back to them yet.

Ryoga was now close enough that he could feel Ranma's pain. He knew his brother was fighting an internal battle against something that was trying to lock Ranma's humanity away, but Ryoga could do nothing from where he was. If he could get closer, he might be able to feed Ranma power to help the fight, or maybe shield Ranma to allow him to rest, but he could do nothing from down here. He began cursing again, while Akari squeezed his shoulder. "Hang in there, sweetie. Hopefully, Dr. Ando will get our messages shortly."

Ryoga just nodded distractedly. Suddenly his eyes sharpened and he stood up. "Kasumi!" he yelled.

The eldest Tendo daughter had just walked in the door of the hospital when she heard Ryoga's shout. Kasumi hurried over to the young couple as they both moved toward her. "What's wrong with Ranma?" she asked.

"The local gossip is that he was attacked by Genma last night," Akari said. "But we don't know for sure."

"They won't let us see him," Ryoga told her. "He's under court protection and Dr. Ando's in charge of Ranma's care, but Ando will only let a short list of people see him and we cannot get in touch with the doctor. We cannot find the judge in charge of Ranma either."

Akari took her turn: "When I pressed one of the police officers, the lady said that the judge – I think she said 'Judge Sanu' – was trying to locate documents pertaining to Ranma history."

Kasumi rubbed her head. "There are no court documents relating to Ranma," she told the couple. "Someone's playing games." She dropped her hand. "Never mind, who's on this list? Do you know?"

"You are!" Akari told her Sensei. "So is your dad, Akane, Mrs. Saotome, and the Doc."

"Can you get us in to see him?" Ryoga almost begged. "He needs help and I can give it to him. He's weak and tired right now. He's been fighting something all day – even the cat spirits are near exhaustion. I've got a full charge. I'm pretty sure I can feed the Cat Fu power back to him, but I have to be closer."

"Sit down," Kasumi told them. "I'll see what I can do." She walked over to the receptionist and spent a few minutes talking to the woman. When she came back she said, "They won't let anyone else in, but I found out where Ranma is."

"I could try to sneak in," Ryoga said.

"No," Kasumi said while patting the carry-on she had. "I have a better idea – we just need a glass of water."

The Cat was getting very tired. Sleep was becoming more of an enemy that the Binding was. She had taken to pushing against her metal bedposts and used the pain and pressure to stay awake. Healer looked on concerned, but didn't stop her. Suddenly, a familiar scent entered her nose. DenKeeper! DenKeeper was here! And Pig-Brother? He was here too? But why was his scent weaker? The Cat sat up quickly making happy sounds, startling Healer. The Guarders in her room were also startled. DenKeeper's sweet voice chimed out, "I hear you! I'm coming. Just stay put!" One Guarder at the door stepped aside with a sigh of relief and let DenKeeper into the room. The Cat leaped from the bed and began rubbing against DenKeeper's legs. DenKeeper bent down and stroked Cat's head. "Silly cat," DenKeeper scolded. "We cannot leave you alone for even a weekend, can we?" Cat wanted to protest that this was not her fault, but was too happy to see DenKeeper.

Healer got up from his seat and gave DenKeeper a hug. "Thank God. Imia told me they had contacted you, but didn't think you could get here until morning."

DenKeeper hugged Healer back. "I'm sorry, Isamu. I hurried as fast as I could." Her eyes twinkled. "My spies said you've been very good though."

Healer flashed a grin. "Tell it to my boss then. I'm not the only one though. Your fiancé owes his staff dinner when this is over." Then he bent over to address Cat: "Back to bed, troublemaker." Cat heard the tones in Healer's voice though and just lightly bumped his chest instead of complaining. Healer responded by scooping Cat up and placing her back in the bed.

"I told you she liked you," DenKeeper said. "She only busts your chops if she is fond of you. She teases me too."

"All right, so I'm a slow learner," Healer replied as he wrapped blankets around Cat again.

Healer sat on the bed and DenKeeper sat on a chair at the head of the bed. She moved the chair close to the bed and began stroking Cat's head. Healer kept a reassuring hand on Cat's side and Cat simply purred. Then DenKeeper and Healer began to review the day, but Cat tuned them out. She was more interested in the bag DenKeeper had brought with her. The bag stuffed under DenKeeper's chair was opened just a little and Cat was sure she smelled Pig-Brother. As Cat watched, the bag seemed to open a little more revealing Pig-Brother's snout. Cat's eyes opened wide and her smile began to grow. Pig-Brother forced open the bag slowly and stuck his head out carefully, then looked around. When he spied Cat, he too began to smile, then he locked his eyes with Cat's human eyes. Cat felt Pig-Brother trying to touch her mind, so she let him.

Suddenly, the Binding's pressure vanished. It wasn't gone, but it wasn't attacking either. She tried to attack it herself, but she was so tired, and she couldn't really focus on it. "Sleep," Pig-Brother told her in the silence of her mind. The two of them could speak mind-to-mind when they were close to each other, but neither saw any point to it. If they were that close, why not use words? Now it was useful though. "Tomorrow's another day. I'll watch until you wake up." Cat wanted to protest, but she was so tired. "Sleep," Pig-Brother ordered firmly, so Cat listened for once, and did just that. (1)

Kasumi looked as Ranma closed her eyes and faded into sleep. The stress had vanished from the patient's prone form. Then the Matriarch looked at Ando and asked: "Why didn't you place Ryoga on the list of people to see Ranma?"

"Ryoga?" Ando repeated. "I thought he was an hour to the north. It just didn't occur to me. If he's going to be here tomorrow, I'll make sure he is on the list."

"Have you been getting any messages from the desk today?" she asked.

Ando stopped for a second. "A few earlier today, but not many and nothing since…."

"Since?" Kasumi prompted.

"Since that judge and his clerk went away earlier today," Ando finished. He started to get angry, "What's going on, Kasumi? What have I been missing?"

Kasumi sighed. "Someone is definitely playing games." She reached into her carry-on bag and pulled out Ryoga, then poured hot tea on him. Ryoga became a fully clothed human. "I'm happy Ranma taught you the trick to preserve your clothes during a shape change," she told him.

Ryoga looked at the surprised doctor. "Hey, Doc. I was wondering if you were mad at me or something." The five policemen in the room were also very surprised.

"What?" the doctor said, then caught himself. "No, no, Ryoga. If I knew you were in town, I would have placed you on the list. Why didn't you have…" His voice trailed off for a few moments, and then he asked sharply: "How long have you been here?"

"Over four hours now," Ryoga answered. "I tried to have a message sent to you."

Ando started to get angry again, but Kasumi placed a hand on his shoulder. "It won't do any good now. As I said, someone's playing games. We need to get Ranma out of here."

Ando didn't really calm down, but he stopped getting worse. "Unfortunately, that new judge is involved. We cannot move Ranma to the dojo without his approval, and I have a feeling he is more involved that he should be," he said with frustration.

"Why the dojo? Why not the clinic?" Kasumi asked. Ando then proceeded to tell Kasumi (and Ryoga) about everything that had happened at the clinic and what Hideo had discovered.

"No wonder it feels like a serpent," Ryoga commented.

"Huh?" Ando said intelligently.

"The magic Genma used. It literally feels like a serpent, or I guess a young dragon. I have it by the neck right now, but I cannot pull it off. All I can do is use the link between Ranma and myself to ease the pressure on Ranma." He pointed at the sleeping girl.

"Hmph. And here I thought it was just Kasumi's presence," the doctor said.

"Oh, I'm sure having Mommy nearby helped," Ryoga teased. Kasumi gave him a dope slap.

"All right," Ando started. "If someone is playing games, we need to start playing as well. We also need to change the rules in our favor."

"Let's start by getting Ryoga, Akari, Shizuka, and Hideo added to the list," Kasumi said.

"What about Daisuke and Hiroshi?" Ando asked.

"Not yet," Kasumi said. "That judge will be watching anyone on the list. Let's keep a reserve team who can move around without notice. I have a few people I want added to the reserve team besides those two. Let's not give away all our secrets though," she said with a meaningful look around the room.

"Do you have any idea what they are talking about?" one policeman asked another.

"I'm sorry, I was lost in my thoughts," the other said.

"Thank you gentleman, but you don't have to lie about what you don't know," Kasumi said firmly. They just shrugged. She went on: "We also need to find out what is in that phony file on Ranma."

"What file?" Ando asked.

"This Judge Sanu is off trying to locate court documents related to Ranma, but Ranma's never appeared in any court. All his offenses have been handled by the Book. (2) I'm not sure why he thinks there is a file, but if he is still looking, then there *is* a file – a null search would have ended pretty quickly," Kasumi said.

Ando winced. "That might be my fault," he explained. "I said you and Soun were foster parents. I also obliquely referenced another foster father. I didn't think he would take it literally, but he is a judge and I should have realized the fact."

Ryoga shrugged. "He could have picked it up just as easily from town gossip. Ranma and I often simplify our relationship as foster brothers."

"Well, don't beat yourselves up too badly. If he didn't think I was a foster parent, he would have questioned my name on the list. He also knows about Akane then, since he didn't question her name?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ando said. "I figured if anyone could snap Ranma out of it, she could. I made a point of saying they were more than friends so I could have her on the list."

Kasumi returned to her original point. "O.K. But we still need to know who created the file and what's in it?"

One of the police officers coughed: "*Ojima*, *Ojima*"

The three conspirators looked at each other in silence for a second and then moved on. "I think that's a task for Shizuka," Kasumi said. She ignored the grins on the faces of the policemen as they contemplated the She-Wolf squaring off against the Inspector. She looked at Ranma peacefully sleeping.

Ryoga spoke up: "Doc, can you call the front desk and have them send Akari up? Ranma can only sleep as long as I stay awake, and she needs sleep. I'm going to need Akari's help – I've been up since 3AM. The Cat Fist isn't going to help me here – it's busy. Ask her to bring up some caffeine and a deck of cards?"

Kasumi looked at the clock. "I'll call Shizuka and get her to track down the Inspector. If he's at the precinct, she can corner him there. Otherwise, she can hunt him down at first light."

"Interesting choice of words considering her nick-name," Ando commented.

The Cat dreamed as it slumbered, slowly recharging itself. It dreamed of walking through a rich jungle and discovering three ruined temples, all facing each other. The temples had been destroyed by years of war and strife, but as it watched, the temples started to restore themselves, one piece at a time. A stone plaza was forming between the temples. As the Cat watched, a white marble water fountain slowly bloomed in the plaza. The Cat smiled and walked toward one particular temple. From the surrounding jungle, the Cat felt Others in the Jungle also watching and hoping. The Cat hoped that they would be free soon…

Footnotes:

(1) This is a previously unmentioned side-effect of the Binding between Ryoga and Ranma. Please see the story "Brothers" for more information. It's interesting what can happen between two rivals when they actually make peace and admit they are friends/family.

(2) The "Book" was mentioned in "To Serve and Protect in Nerima". It's an accounting ledger that tracks the damage a Nerima martial artist creates and when he/she makes amends, either by paying for it or fixing it. The police maintain the ledger.

Next: Countdown to Ignition