Disclaimer: This is a fan-fiction and not an official Ranma 1/2 Storyline. All rights to the official name and official characters are reserved for their proper owners.

Before you Read: As the Chapter title suggest, I am starting this story at the same point as the Ranma 1/2 Anime.

Another thing: ++++ Represent any setting change or time-skip.

Episode 13: The New Girl / Episode 14: "She's Not Human Anymore"

As the male Ranma and Akane sat in the room with the mystery girl, Ranma remembered the name plate attached to the girl's uniform.

-Oh yeah, that's right!

-Ranma? What're you doing to our guest?

-Well, we might as well find out her name from that name plate she had.

Ranma looked for the name, and he found it, shining from her apron pocket.

-Here it is! It says . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He was frozen as he looked at the name.

-Um, Ranma? What's with the look Who is she?

-F U C K. M E.

-What? What is it?!

- Sooo many years ago, when I was trainin with my pops on the road, we ran into a father and his daughter. They made okonomiyaki in a traveling stand. My dad made a marriage contract with her dad, then left her out of sheer ignorance and douchery. I'm pretty sure she would kill both of us at the first chance.

As he said chance the girl herself slowly awoke.

The pair hid their weapons, as not to scare the girl, and so she wouldn't try to shoot Ranma with his newly acquired gun.

The girl, quickly as she awoke, flung herself to the edge of the room, ready to fight!

-WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE AND WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!

She pulled out an extremely thin, but sharp spatula from her back, like she were drawing a sword. The pair's first instinct, by mistake, was to draw their weapons and point.

The girl stared down the barrels with panic, then defeat as she lowered her weapon as they did theirs.

-What do you want from me?

She still looked defeated, but then she removed the apron.

-Whoa, calm the hell down Ukyo, its me, Ranma!

The girl's looked went from defeated to a blank surprise in an instant.

-Wait . . . Wat? . . . As in . . . Ranma Saotome? THAT Ranma?

-Yes, it's me, not calm down, you're safe for now. Now do you know the current situation or the state of the world right now?

Ukyo nearly reached for the spatula again, this time retraining her

-Weellll . . . not really. I've been up n the mountains training for a few years, so I haven't seen any news or headlines as of late.

Ranma and Akane then went back and forth between themselves to explain everything from the beginning to now. It took over 3 full hours to explain all the details

-Do ya get it now? Everything has gone to hell and there are Infected out there. We've fortified ourselves here and go out on supply runs to find more materials, and then that when we found you in the middle of the street.

Akane then had a realization.

So Ukyo, I gotta question. How'd you get there anyways? and alive at that with no injuries whatsoever!

This was an odd occurrence because, till this point, infected hordes would come through en mass and they would travel through any space they could just to keep up with the rest. They wouldn't even stop for a survivor unless their horde leader willed it. But other than that, they would just trample anything unfortunate enough to be in their path.

-Ya know... thats true. We found you in the middle of a street. Somewhere you would've easily been trampled to death by a few hundred infected. But you were totally fine, just exhausted.

WAIT... HOW THE HELL ARE YOU ALIVE RIGHT NOW?

Akane was tired and annoyed, so instead of saying anything, she just shut Ranma up with a blow to the head. The force of the blow itself would give any normal person a skull fracture, but for Ranma, it just knocked him out cold.

-Well, it's getting late and we'll probably have to talk abut this tomorrow so get some sleep alright? Good night.

-Uh . . . Alright (Is that sort of thing normal here? If so, what the hell happened when I left?)

It was 8:30 A.M. on a clear fall day:

-Kasumi was making breakfast for the family and their new guest.

-Ranma, Akane and Ryoga were training in the dojo, with the truck parked right outside in a makeshift driveway.

-Soun and Genma were playing a silent game of Shogi, Genma still lost every match, but he was getting better, even going so far as to not automatically cheat when he was losing.

-Shampoo and Cologne were finishing the house across the street that the Tendos and Saotomes helped fortify.

Everyone was doing their own thing until their guest attacked Genma with a piece of hotter than hell okonomiyaki.

-Argh, HOTHOTHOT! FUCK! What the hell Ranma, are ya tryin to kill your old man!? Wait a minute.

Genma didn't even try to remove the okonomiyaki from his face, he just ripped off a piece and ate it.

-So, you're the person they brought here. Didn't know you were still around.

-So, you remember me you fuckin piece a' shit?!

By this time every member of both families were coming running into the room, wondering what the commotion was, and who was causing it, but Ranma was the closest to guessing what was happening.

-Oh, hey Pops. Sorry, forgot to mention it was Ukyo. . . You remember her right?

-Yes you idiot, I do in fact remember her! Why didn't ya say anything earlier!?

-Uh Pops. It was 3:00 in the morning. I am not waking up a SLEEPING PANDA at 3 in the morning, only to wake up in the street.

-Are you jackasses finished yet? Genma, hear me now!

Ukyo then spent half an hour saying some "choice words" to Genma after he left her as a child. Some of the things she said sometimes were incoherent, but nobody was bold enough to dare speak over the furious woman.

She finally calmed down enough to speak normally.

-Now that I got that outta my system, Ranma, Akane. Would you let me stay here until I can board up one of next-door houses? I can't exactly stay out there after what you've told me.

-We'd have to ask my father, but i'm sure he would be okay with it, right dad?

-Why of course, the more the merrier. Just know that she'll have to join one of the supply run groups.

-Wait, do you mean what you were talkin about earlier this morning Ranma?

-Yeah and you'll just join our group, Group 1. Ok?

-It's funny though, you'll be joinin the group that found you in the first place!

While this was going on at the Tendos, their neighbor woke up as well, but they didn't hear the yelling some how.

Shampoo woke up, still sore from the supply run from yesterday, her thoughts wondering "How could one house have so much weaponry and NOT get caught? "

She went into the common room of the house that was similar to that of the Tendos. At this time Cologne was usually sipping tea on the porch outside.

Cologne was about to take another sip of tea when she was startled by Shampoo suddenly sitting next to her.

-OH SHAMPOO! You scared me just now! I didn't even hear you coming dear.

Shampoo didn't answer, something that wasn't unusual when she got up in the morning.

-Lets train granddaughter, and prepare you for the next time you have to go out there, into that world of terror.

Shampoo simply nodded and went into a fighting stance.

Cologne started to attack Shampoo with practice blows from her staff and herself, quickly trying to knock her student off balance. But one thing was really odd about this morning. Shampoo had this distressed look on her face but said no words. She also protected her chest by putting extra force into defending her chest area, almost as if her life depended on it for survival. This went on for a few hours and then Shampoo suddenly jumped out of the way and vanished into the streets, not saying a word. It was not as if she were injured, but as if she were fleeing a fight.

-(What the hell is with that girl, she goes to sleep sore and now she abandons training with no second thought? Fuckin kids these days...)

She then went over to the Tendos to tell them about the weird encounter. Nadoka was the first to put any input into the description.

-She was probably stressed and tired from yesterday and left to go relax, she's still a teenager after all, she's just doing what teenagers do best, ignore responsibilities and do nothing.

The rest of the girls and (for some reason) Ranma all said at the same:

-Yeah, thats BS and you know it!

But Soun and Genma looked at each other, with fearful looks in their eyes.

-Saotome, doesn't that sound like . . .

-Unfortunately, it does Tendo.

The two looked down grimly, not sure if they should even mention the possibility. Ranma and Akane were the first to object.

-Pops, you can't be serious right now! This is a healthy, living PERSON we're talking about, and what proof do you have that she IS infected? She's not even cursed!

-Yeah, and even if she was, she would've turned by now, wouldn't she!?

Nadoka then spoke up.

-Don't you two remember last night? She IS cursed from Jusenkyo, and think of all the symptoms that she's already displayed for us.

- She has:

Shown violent behavior and murderous tendencies (Fight against Ranma)

Can turn into an animal (Can turn into a cat due to falling into a spring at Jusenkyo)

Became mute (Didn't say a word to Cologne before leaving)

-But one thing I don't understand is that she covered up her chest and defended it with her life. Why would she do this? Could the thread be elsewhere?

As all this commotion was happening, Cologne couldn't believe what she was hearing! She had already lost Mousse, she wasn't ready to lose another.

-ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!

The room went silent, they had never heard the old woman shout so loud.

-SHE IS NOT INFECTED! SHE IS NOT GOING TO TURN! SHE IS MY GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER! I WILL NOT LOSE ANOTHER FELLOW AMAZON! We're the only one's left...

She left the residence, sobbing loudly. For 20 minutes, the room went silent and then was replaced by the sound of loading ammunition in to weapons. The house (Except for Ukyo) was preparing to hunt Shampoo, to kill her before she lost her most precious thing, her humanity.

End of Episode 13: The New Girl

Episode 14: "She's Not Human Anymore"

Ukyo watched as every member of the Tendos and the Saotomes were loading pistols, rifles, a shotgun and a sniper rifle, all the while Cologne was at Mousse's grave, talking to him, asking him to keep Shampoo safe for now. Ukyo could feel the heavy tension that hung in the air.

She felt as if she were at the funeral of a close friend, a friend she didn't know, but a friend all the others did. She sat near Ranma to gauge the situation. He had a stern and stressed look on his face as he loaded bullets into his personal weapon, the french pistol from the first world war.

As he loaded the magazine and placed the extra ammunition he had found in the boxes he had found them, Ukyo started to whisper to him:

-Hey, Ranma. Who was this chick and why are you guys looking like your about to take her down like some dangerous animal?

Ranma looked at her with frustration, but remembered that she probably hadn't seen or heard the radio broadcast from the government.

-Her name was Shampoo. She was rough around the edges, but was a person you could depend upon. She gave me an my family the cold shoulder, but was an angel around the Tendos and Cologne, her great grandmother, the woman at the grave right now. She came here with that woman awhile back to escape the infection and get revenge on me.

She tried to kill me, but that was only after I had to kill her infected companion.

Ukyo darted her eyes toward his face, hoping to see a laugh forming...

-Wait . . You had to kill somebody? You mean the grave in the next yard over. That person died by YOUR hands?

She heard her voice echo throughout the room, everyone stopping to look at her and Ranma, then immediately went back to work. Ukyo's face went a little red from embarrassment, only because she was still focused on the chilling revelation. The person she knew as a child, the carefree Ranma Saotome, just told her that he killed a living, breathing human being.

-Just tell me. Why?

-He was infected and I didn't know what to do. Pops and Mr. Tendo told me to kill him and it was my choice to end him before he awoke. He died in his sleep, so he didn't feel anything when it happened. Or at least, that's what I told myself.

-So why are you guys loading guns and using her name in past tense as if she's dead? ARE YOU GOING TO KILL HER TOO?

-She looked around, they were insane! They were planning to use these weapons on one of their own! This was someone they have lived with! Had meals with! Trusted! So WHY?

This time, nobody looked at her. They kept their heads down and worked. Some were loading bullets carefully into magazines, others were polishing their weapons, but they all felt her words hit them. They felt terrible for the act that they were about to commit, but there wasn't any other options, this was the only way to save her, and her humanity.

-You see, when my mother explained those characteristics just now, they were early symptoms of the infection. She had fallen into the Jusenkyo hot springs when she escaped China, the origin of the infection and the Infected.

Ranma paused for a moment as he was filling the boxes of ammunition.

-You may not have seen these things up close, but we have seen them pass right by us in front of the house. They can kill anything in their sights, they don't care about who it is or what they are were to them as humans, they are just mindless abominations

But the point is . . . . . . They lose their humanity in the process.

Ukyo was still confused. She saw that Ranma seemed a little more distraught than the others and she felt like she had to know why, so she asked.

-So why do you seem more upset? She fell into some hot spring in China, big whoop, but what else is there?

Ranma was almost offended by this, but decided that she needed more than words to understand how he felt, and what he meant.

-Akane, you mind givin me a hand for a sec, Ukyo, come with us.

Akane silently nodded, getting up from polishing her own pistol.

The three then walked to the outside pond, Akane didn't react, but Ukyo was fairly confused.

-Okay Ukyo, watch very closely okay?

Ranma was usually happy to show this off as a party trick, but today, it seemed like he felt differently today. He threw himself into the water, slowly walking out, her clothes now loose fitting.

She looked at Ukyo half expecting the usual gasps and awes, but they never came. Ukyo was speechless.

-(How the hell did he do that? He looks like a girl now! But how?)

But as she thought, Ranma placed Ukyo's hand on her chest. Something she did to snap Ukyo back to reality and to stop the usual groping from both genders that ensued. Ukyo instantly reeled her hand away, feeling a mix of fear amazement and embarrassment.

-Wait! This doesn't make any sense! What did you do? Why does your chest look bigger than MINE?

She was panicking and looking everywhere at once. But Ranma then grabbed her hands and spoke in a calm manner

-Ukyo, what I'm showing you is a curse from the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo. It is a dangerous place that martial artist go to train over cursed springs that can alter your appearance.

Ranma then looked out at the cloud-filled sky and continued to explain.

-I went there to train with my pops and we both fell into separate springs. He fell into the spring that drowned a panda over a thousand years ago. But me, I fell into a spring that drowned a girl over two thousand years ago.

Ukyo pieced together what Ranma was trying to tell her.

-So this Shampoo person also fell into one, yeah. So you too had a bond from that shared experience am I right? So she only gave you the cold shoulder in front of everyone else because of her pride.

Ranma was surprised by her assumption, but smiled as he remembered the nights that she would join herself and Akane on night watch from time to time.

-That's actually right, I thought we were gonna have to explain the whole thing to ya but yeah, she was closer to me in private, you could say we were actually friends at one point.

His smile faded as he directed himself towards the house, the others, including Cologne waiting for them. Genma spoke first.

-Son, I know you've already had to do this once already. But we don't know what she is capable of or if all of us at once can even stop her. We need to trust you in taking the shot to end her suffering.

Genma handed Ranma what looked to be a fairly new Heavy American Sniper Rifle, with the engravings Barrett on the side. It was painted black and the scope was cleaned for usage.

Ranma had trouble initially holding the rifle, but was able to adjust to it's weight along with hers.

Ranma didn't question it this time. She returned to his male form and loaded the two weapons. He held the Sniper Rifle with both hands and the pistol was in it's holster at his side.

Ranma, Akane, Genma and Soun were the team that was going to kill Shampoo. She wasn't Shampoo anymore.

"She was just . . . Another Infected" is what everyone told themselves as they said their goodbyes. It was as if the families were saying their last goodbyes as their soldiers went to war.