Disclaimer: I have proof that I don't own Ranma ½. I'm not Japanese. I'm male. And… um… I can't draw, so there.

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter 19

Ukyo sighed, looking out the window of the Saotome home. The birds nest in the tree caught her attention for a few moments, but she jerked away when she realized she was staring.

She hadn't been completely honest with Dr. Tofu. While she honestly couldn't remember any details in specific about her "training" in the neko-ken she could remember a face, a voice, and a feeling of hatred for that person. She couldn't remember his name, or even describe him to another person. Perversely it was like trying to describe a family member. He just looks like… him.

She also had concealed some of the other side effects of her training. She didn't have the fear of cats Ranma or Himeko seemed to suffer from, she didn't get away unscathed. She kept catching herself focusing on things like the bird nest, or sudden movements. She had even found herself entertained for over ten minutes by a piece of string. Granted Ranma had played with the same piece of string for a few minutes not long after (It was hanging from the living room sofa, and he'd been lounging on the floor.) but no where near as long.

Her eyes turned to the steel bakers peel in the corner and sighed. That was the other side effect. Her hand to hand skills had increased, even Ranma had said so, but her traditional weapons just seemed awkward in her hands. Part of her almost yelled "What good is fighting if you can't FEEL your enemy when you hit them?"

The cat might not take her over like her pigtailed husband and ersatz daughter, but its presence was no less felt. Perhaps more so in her case. Even Shi sometimes seemed more human then Ukyo felt.

Absently she wondered if she should find some sort of cat girl outfit for Akane. Why should she be left out of the feline family values? Other then one of them should probably not fall asleep anytime there were more then a few quiet minutes and warm sunlight.

Sighing Ukyo turned back to the window and out over the street. Then she froze.

Him. Walking up the street like he owned the place. His name came back as a growl deep in the chef's throat.

"Trroika…"

Ranma really wanted to know how the hell he was in this position. Sure, Ukyo moving in made sense, after all she was hurt. He could even grasp Akane moving in to help care for the convalescing martial artists. She was surely strong enough to help Ranma move around, since his knee had finally given out in spite of his attempts to hide the injury.

And granted, his mother did have a lot of extra mouths to feed and Shampoo staying for a time would make sense to help with the cooking (A Saotome's stomach only grows more rapacious when the Saotome is injured. Apparently the Kounji family had the same trait.). And yeah, sure, shi goes wherever Shampoo is for any length of time.

But then, out of the blue, his mother declares that she and Genma were going to be staying at the Tendo's for a while. Then, in a blur of large packages and some off hand comments about some grandson's to go with the granddaughters, they were gone and Ranma had a strange suspicion that they weren't coming back!

Then, in an insane twist of fate Ranma found himself actually trying to maintain order in what was quickly becoming "his" house in his mind!

"Okay Shi, one more time. What did your mother tell you about jumping out at me and Himeko when you're a cat?"

"That it was funn… I mean that I shouldn't do it." Shi was a great liar when she wasn't thinking about it. Sadly when she was thinking about it, she made Ranma look like a card shark.

Sadly, Ranma suspected the first part was the truth. "Well it's not fun, it's not funny, and you definitely should not do it. Now go out and wash the walk." The girl huffed, which compared to Ranma's relationship with is father was rather polite, and stormed off. "And with cold water young lady." He yelled after her, suspecting he was going to be her next target. '

"Stop snickering, both of you." Ranma said, not even turning to look at Akane and Shampoo. "Himeko, would you please let go of the ceiling fan now?"

The young girl looked down at her father. "If she does that again, can I PLEASE drop a bag over her and put her in the dryer?"

"No. Although if Shampoo does it to you again." Ranma shrugged suggesting that was between her and Shampoo.

"Bad husband, teach daughter to abuse Shampoo." The laughter not only distracted the Amazon from her greatly improved language skills, but caused the comment to loose some punch.

"Whatever." He walked towards the stairs of the Saotome house, figuring he'd visit his cute, quiet bride. He shivered with even the thought of that.

He stepped onto the front step when his highly tuned danger sense kicked in. Sadly, between the cane he was reluctantly using, his weak leg, and still very sore arms he couldn't dodge, in spite of the warning, and was ran over by a blue and brown streak of rage.

"Ucchan?" Ranma grunted, and struggled to his feet, chasing her at his best speed, Shampoo and Akane hot on his heels.

They got to the houses gate, to find Ukyo attacking a large, but fast moving man with a mindless rage, screaming every time he blocked her attacks. The entire group of spectators froze as they realized she was going straight for kill shots, and not the submission techniques favored by even Shampoo.

Then she over extended one punch and the large man delivered a savage blow to her stomach, spinning her around and grabbing her around the neck, in a perfect position to snap her neck. Ukyo froze, and he stopped, looking at the assembled martial artists.

"Ranma Saotome I presume?" he said, a slight Russian accent tinting his voice.

"That's me. Now let Ukyo go!" Ranma tossed the cane aside. He wasn't at his best, but he was still not going to let this man hurt his oldest friend.

"All in good time." Troika replied, and tossed an envelope towards Ranma with the hand not gripping Ukyo's chin. Ranma ignored it and let it fall to the asphalt. "My employer whishes to invite you to dinner. He wants to discuss the girls you've been taking in, and the plans you've set upon their ears. The number to call is in the card."

What neither man was watching was Ukyo. She had frozen, which gave them both the impression that she was trying not to anger the man who could easily snap her neck in the position they were in. They were wrong, she was frozen in horror for a few second, not at the danger she was in but at the idea of being CAUGHT again. Then she had started to get angry.

"What makes you think your leaving here after what you did to Ukyo?" Ranma demanded. He'd pieced together why the girl had responded so violently. It wasn't hard.

"Because you can't stop me in your current condition." Troika gestured towards the roofs around them. "And my associates might take it poorly."

Ukyo had already spotted the black clad men on the roofs. They wouldn't slow down the wrecking crew for long, but long enough for Troika's escape. Low in her throat a growl started. Troika ignored it.

"How can you do these things?" Shampoo demanded. Not looking at troika, instead favoring the men on one roof. Akane had turned to watch the others while Shi and Himeko moved to the middle of the crowd. It was a relatively safer position, but one that allowed them to help if things turned bad.

Troika shrugged. "It must be done Amazon. You will understand when my employer speaks with you."

Ranma's eyes shifted, noticing Ukyo's posture for the first time. She was balling her hands up in fists. "Don't…"

"Don't what, Mr. Saotome?" Troika asked, thinking he was the one Ranma was addressing. He was wrong, but Ukyo completely ignored the pigtailed boy.

"TROIKA!" She screamed, spinning more lithely then she'd ever moved before, slipping free of his grasp and delivering a savage uppercut punch to his stomach. The Russian stumbled back with a gasp of pain.

Ukyo's hands came back bloody, with four two inch claws of chi flickering up from her knuckles.

The ninja's attacked and everything was chaos for several minutes. In the end three men and one woman were unconscious on the ground, and the first family of martial arts mayhem was breathing hard.

Troika had escaped, but obviously not unscathed.

"Shampoo, take the girls to the Nekohatten and tell Cologne what happened." Ranma commanded, his tone brooking no argument as he picked up the envelope he'd earlier ignored. "I need you to go tell our parents what happened Akane. Meanwhile me and Ukyo are going to go see Doc Tofu." Ranma's eyes had never left the chef as he spoke. "Why didn't you tell us?"

She stared at her hands, which were just now releasing the most devastating effect of the Neko-ken. "I… I didn't know I could do that. I was just so… angry and scared."

Ranma nodded, understanding more then almost anyone. "We'll talk to doc, make sure this isn't going to send you back towards the cat. Then we'll see about this dinner. It seems we'll finally get those answers we've been wanting, after all."

He crushed the envelope, to angry to care about its condition.

AN: Okay, so most of this was building up. Now come on, who expected UKYO to be the first to use the Neko-ken while sane?

Note: From things I've seen I'd guess the "True" Neko-ken probably extends about a foot from the fists. Ukyo, however, is far weaker then the average survivor of the Neko-ken (Ranma, since both she and Himeko were helped back to sanity by ki techniques and he only got a comfy lap.) she's not tapping its full potential. At least not yet.