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 15: Remember Me/ Episode 16: Genma's Punishment

Episode 15:Remember Me

As the group of four walked through the winding roads of the neighborhood, they each recollected fond memories that had of Shampoo. They each remembered her as it began to rain cold, even though it was summer in Japan. Fog began to form around them as them memories began to flow:

Soun:

It was a month after Shampoo had recovered fully and he was surprised to see Shampoo showing him gratitude for allowing her to heal in his home. The poor girl slammed her head on the floor before she spoke.

-PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

-WHA- Whoa, Shampoo, I was just showing kind courtesy to you as an injured guest! You don't need to thank me.

Soun then thought for a moment an came to a conclusion.

But, if you have time . . . Would you care to join me for some Shogi?

The girl raised her head, a small bruise where her head met the wood floor. She had a confused expression on her face.

-Shogi? hmm... What is that? It not familiar.

Soun felt a sharp pain, was he so old that the world had forgotten Shogi and he was one of the last who knew about it?

-Well, if you don't know then maybe I can teach you sometime. How does tomorrow sound?

-That sound nice. I see you tomorrow.

The girl left to be at the side of her great grandmother in her grief for Mousse.

It was the next day. It was a sky, filled with clouds in the air and fog on the ground.

Soun was playing his usual matches against Saotome, who was a sore loser and tried to cheat many times, failing each time as Soun became more aware.

Outside in a tree. Shampoo watched the pair until Saotome stormed off to "train". This really meant that he would laze around all day as a panda until he calmed down.

As soon as Saotome was out of the room, Shampoo swung inside and scared the unknowing Soun Tendo.

-Why you not beat him immediately? It easier to defeat opponent early is it not?

-Well Shampoo, Saotome might not be the best player, but this is something that allows him to focus on a game rather than remembering the things that he saw out there and the things we have been through. Sure, he may be outmatched every time and try to cheat, but it is when he is the most himself.

-I see. Even after watching you two play continuously though, I still have no idea what this game is.

-Well that's why I'm here to teach you so that you can come over and we can settle a game over tea.

-But why this of all things? I brought so much pain and sorrow into your home. Why ask Shampoo to play a game instead of punishment or avoidance?

-Because. there are so few of us left, that if we hate someone, we are just putting ourselves into isolation, breaking the only connections we have left over something from a long time ago.

Soun remembered that she seemed relieved that the person across from her and the others felt this way, if even for a moment.

[CRASH]

Tendo was startled by the thunder crashing and echoing through the empty neighborhood that the group was walking through.

It was only Akane who noticed Tendo flinch from the sound.

-Dad? You okay? You seem out of it.

-Oh I'm . . . alright.

Tendo relaxed his shoulders and kept walking with the rest of the group, who stopped for a second to assess his condition when Akane saw him.

Afterwards, Akane started to remember Shampoo herself.

It was a week after the supply run and Akane was by herself tonight in the watchtower.

Akane watched as the moon and stars shown their light on an empty Nerima, scented with death and silence. She stared at the sky, wishing that one day, she would look down and see lights in the hollow homes that filled Nerima and all of Japan.

As she stared, a figure sneaked behind her.

-What you doing blue-hair girl?

-FUCK. Oh it's you. Don't scare me like that, I could've hurt you!

-Oh please, Shampoo would defeat you easy!

The two stared for a second, intense looks in each person's eyes, then laughed a little.

-Well? What you doing Akane?

-Just staring at the stars dreaming of a different future.

-Aiyah... You know, I join you.

Shampoo then takes a seat next to Akane, staring at the stars.

-So Akane, what future did you wish for?

-I wished for one where my life was normal, with the fights with the club members at school, fighting with Ranma, going on adventures ya know.

Shampoo kept looking at the stars as she listened.

-So that's the future I wished for, what about you Shampoo? What future id you wish for before all of this?

-Well, in Amazon village, we have law. If we are defeated by man, we must marry them, if defeated by woman, we must kill them to maintain honor in village. I wished that I was still in the village, honor or no.

-Huh, so thats why you tried your hardest to kill him when you got here.

Silence went between the two, not because of what had transpired in earlier days, but to take a second to imagine their lives the ways they had wished it to be as they gazed upon the abundance of stars in the sky.

-Akane.

-Yeah Shampoo? What's up?

-I want to tell you something.

-What is it?

-I think I'm falling in love with Ranma.

-Wow, that's- WAIT WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!

-SHHHHH! Akane, I tell you because I trust you, no other's in family or great-grandmother.

Akane was speechless. She may be Ranma's fiancee, but their marriage wouldn't be set in stone if neither of them agreed to it. Not even their parents could force them if they didn't want to. Her mood dipped a little, but Ranma's rude personality helped her mood stabilize a little.

-When did you first notice your feelings for him?

-I only accepted the fact today, but I first felt them as we talked about our different experiences. I saw as he comforted the others, including you. When he hugged me tightly as I told you all about my curse, his body felt warm and filled with hope. and a BIG something as well...

-Shampoo!

-Relax, I only joke. But only about last part, everything else is truth.

-So what are you gonna do?

-I do not know what to do... I love him in how he i able to be mature and even comforting in times like these, but this would go against what I and great-grandmother believe in Amazon law.

-Well, for now, just know that I will be the only person who will know your little secret.

The two laid in the watchtower, only realizing as the sun rose, that they had fallen asleep together in the watchtower, someone, probably Kasumi, had put a blanket on the pair as they slept.

-Yo Akane. AKANE.

-Huh? What did you say Ranma?

Akane was finishing her daydream when Ranma called her name.

-I said, get ready, we're entering the city, we know she's here, just not where. Come on, she could come from anywhere and kill us, remember, it's not her anymore, she's infected and won't give a damn who we are.

Ranma sounded strong and serious, but he hid how he truly felt under a layer of pride and ignorance.

The group walked, Genma in back, watching the rear guard. Soun was in the middle, watching their sides. Ranma and Akane were in the front watching for movement or if Shampoo appeared in front of them standing still.

It was dead silent. There was fog, making it extremely difficult to see any further than 5 meters. Clouds only go darker, making it ready to pour. With all of these conditions, the sniper was rendered useless to Ranma.

Pistols, shotguns and assault rifles were drawn and safeties were off. Going past familiar buildings didn't make it any easier though.

The group continued until they saw a figure standing still in the distance, their shadow being the only thing they saw.

Ranma raised his weapon, hesitating, unable to fire on a friend. Genma saw this and a single shot was heard, a loud echo breaking the silence. Ranma, Akane, Soun and even Genma were getting emotional as they prepared to see the body of the deceased Shampoo.

As they walked near, they saw that it was just a cardboard cutout of a person holding an ad for an insurance business nearby, only now, it had a single bullet hole, straight through the head.

They each automatically sighed with relief, but it was short lived, they realized how hard it would be to kill the real target, but their moment was interrupted by the sound of an empty can being kicked 3 meters from where they stood.

They each swung their weapons around to see purple hair running down the street in a dead sprint. They followed.

The four ended up in front of a cafe that was going to be converted to something else in the future, but they weren't told what.

Muffled, they could hear a voice from inside.

-STOP IT! STOP! JUST STOP, PLEASEE!

That voice, it was Shampoo!

-Shampoo, don't make this harder than it has to be-

Ranma stopped abruptly at the end of his sentence. (How the hell?! She's supposed to be as still as a statue, how's she talking, much less sprinting away from us?)

-Everyone, put your weapons down! Something's different about her infection.

Everyone looked at Ranma, wide-eyed by his command. Genma went first to voice his concerns.

-Ranma, are you outta your fucking mind!? She's shown signs of infection already, we can't just let her run around as an infected!

-Pops, don't you think it's odd that an infected is able to walk and talk like a normal human being? And can even speak normally?

-Shampoo! Come out so we can understand what's goin on.

The purple haired-girl walked out in a calm but shaky manner.

-Shampoo, how are you still alive? When you're infected, you should only have taken days to turn, but you're still alive, HOW?

Shampoo then spoken more calmly as she saw that most of the weapons were down, except for Genma Saotome's assault rifle, which he refused to put down.

-Ranma. I felt it inside me. That THING was moving around inside me so I ran here to get away from you before I turned. I wanted to leave without saying anything because I no put all family in danger. And there's something else.

Shampoo then opened the top part of her Chinese dress, exposing her bare chest. Everyone looked with horror as an infected parasite was right under the skin in between her breasts. It was pulsating with life, but just barely.

-It stopped moving when I got here.

Akane was now up to speak.

-I KNOW WHAT WE CAN DO!

They all looked at Akane, desperately looking for an answer.

-What's your idea Akane?

Genma still held his gun raised, not showing any signs of putting it down.

-We can take her to cologne, see if she can surgically remove the parasite!

-NO. We came here to kill someone, not bring her back with us.

Genma was fine before but now he was being aggressive to Akane. Although, she seemed to ignore it for the time being.

Ranma ran as his father point his gun at Shampoo, aiming to take the shot for the chest

Ranma . . . .

barely . . . . . . . .

made it before Genma squeezed the trigger. Genma then started firing above Shampoo and Akane. As he fired the initial shots, Ranma set the large man to the ground with a single kick to the chest.

Genma was now on the ground unarmed. He grinded his teeth together before he tried to make excuses, but not before Ranma knocked him out with the butt of his pistol, rendering Genma unconscious.

The three stood in front of Shampoo, ready to bring her home.

-Alright, that's enough excitement for one day, I''ll let mom deal with him later.

Shampoo couldn't believe how casual they were being. It seemed like any normal day to them.

-But why...? You can clearly see that I'm infected!

She fell to her knees, sobbing softly as she sat on the cold concrete floor.

-I could've KILLED all of you, killed your families! SO WHY!?

Ranma confidently stepped in front of her, extending his hand to her.

-We couldn't just leave a part of our family behind. And we certainly won't do it if there is a way to cure it, to us, you're basically family at this point!

(Akane couldn't help being jealous, but would let it slip this time due to the circumstances.)

Ranma, Akane and Shampoo walked to Cologne and Shampoo's house as Soun placed Genma in his and his family's room.

The three went to Cologne to explain the situation and she happily agreed at the attempt to disinfect her great-granddaughter.

The four set up a room with plastic tarp and Ranma went to the hospital to acquire knockout gas.

Ranma had already given Cologne the tools to complete the surgery.

The surgery itself took six HOURS to complete.

Cologne had to remove the parasite before it latched the mouth onto an artery or organ. It was already latched to the surrounding tissue using weak organic threads to stay still. Cologne had to remove each one of the web-like threads using a scalpel to cut very gently as to not alert the parasite. After severing all the connections, she was able to safely put the dying parasite in a trash bag and burn it, laughing for the first time since before she left China.

Shampoo would be completely rid of any effects of the infection, but she would be left with a large scar on her chest. stretching from the top of the rib cage to the bottom of her chest. Ranma, Akane, Soun and Shampoo all vowed not to tell the others about Genma's incident where he almost killed Akane and Shampoo. But whenever they see Genma, they give him a icy glance to let him know, he will not be forgiven soon.

In the following days, Genma would try to talk to any of the four, but they would just look away or run away from him. He tried to tell himself that his reasons were just.

-(I just wanted to keep everyone safe!) (She was Infected! What was I supposed to do?) (Why don't you all understand?)(I had to do it, I needed to protect our families.)

-It was another cloudy night, Ranma was alone during this time and remembered his memories of Shampoo. It there was one conversation that created a friendly bond from curses.

It was a month after Shampoo fully recovered, it was Ranma's turn to take watch over the house. He was a little annoyed though. Last time he was in the watchtower alone he fell asleep, and in the morning, was a punch in the forehead from Pops that woke him up.

(Ranma knew that everyone else fell asleep sometimes, but for some reason, HE was the exception.)

-I'll never get tired of this view...

He looked at the stars over Nerima. But the silent moment was then ruined by the sound of hundreds of Infected moving by the home at various speeds.

Ranma felt sour about the silence, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was survival.

His thought was again ruined by the sound of someone climbing up to the watchtower.

He assumed it was Akane coming up so he told her in his usual nonchalant tone:

-Go back to sleep Akane, I got it up here so it's fine.

He turned to look at his tomboy fiancee, only to see that it was Shampoo.

She held two buckets of water, warm and cold.

-What do you want Shampoo? I'm not really up for conversation right now.

-Good, then Ranma can watch silently.

Ranma was bored as it was, so he watched whatever Shampoo had planned.

He was then shocked as she poured the cold water on herself and disappeared, leaving only a cat.

Thanks to all the horrors he had seen up to this point, he no longer feared them. Because seeing walking corpse, giant mobs of deadly Infected, friends almost being killed and seeing the life fade from a person's body . . . kinda numbs the fear of small felines.

The cat then jumped into warm water, becoming Shampoo again.

Ranma looked with confusion:

-So ... You're cursed too huh. When'd it happen?

-It happen when Great Grandmother escape with Shampoo from China. A dying guide of Jusenkyo grabbed my leg and I fell into spring of drowned cat. Luckily, Great Grandmother had emergency hot water for Infected who fell into the springs of stronger animals and people.

-Why tell me all of a sudden? Why...

Wait a minute- Who else have you told?

-You are the first Saotome. I have seen you before how you turn into a girl and back time and time again. You look down, even though your father has been the person you can tell your struggles to since he knows what the curse feels like.

-Wow, did ya spy on me or somethin? That's creepy ya know.

-Not exactly, but it is noticeable enough to where people around you even notice *Ahem* Akane.

How the hell do you know that?

Ranma was getting annoyed. First, she was spying on him, now she listens in on their conversations!?

-(Has this woman ever heard of PRIVACY?)

-I just wanted you to know, that there is another person you can talk to. I know your father doesn't listen for shit, heck, he could care less.

-You're already startin to cross the line Shampoo, maybe you should head home for now.

He looked at her. She was looking at the ground, angry at Ranma pitiful father and embarrassed by the fact that she had little social interaction with others from her tribe.

-I see, well then Shampoo will visit during the nights to become friends with Ranma Saotome! Just do me one favor ok?

Her demeanor was now a smiling face with a single tear.

-What is it?

-Don't tell anyone about our interactions. I don't feel comfortable with the other's talking about my and my new friend.

-Wha? Aren't you're friends with the Tendo's and my Mom? Why keep it a secret from the others?

-Just do it okay? And don't even tell Akane either. I know you share all of your secrets with her...

-Okay! Fine! I'll do it.

-Aiyah! See you soon Ranma!

She leapt back to her home, making no noise as she landed.

She began to visit during nights where Ranma was in the watchtower, even if Akane as with him or not.

As he finished remembering the night he made that new friend, his father tried to start a sparring match from the courtyard.

-Hey Ranma! Wanna spar a little with your old man?

C'mon, I haven't seen you train in days, ya gotta keep yourself in the best shape possible you ungrateful child!

Nadoka was sitting on the walkway outside, waiting for a silly match to ensue.

As she waited, she saw a flash of scarlet light land on Genma and move near her. It was Ranma! She moved so fast that she knocked Genma out without warning. He didn't even acknowledge his own father.

Ranma was about to storm off but Nadoka was confused by what JUST happened.

-Ranma WAIT!

She caught up with the angry red head. Ranma stopped to face her.

-Why are all of you being so aggressive after avoiding your father? What happened out there?! Tell me, please!

Ranma then looked at her with a calm face as she was about to go grab her sword to make Genma commit seppuku.

-I forgot, nobody's told you guys about yesterday. Come on, let's talk with EVERYONE.

End of Chapter 15: Remember Me

Chapter 16: Genma's Punishment

Everyone fit into the common room, the Tendos, Nadoka, Ryoga, Shampoo and Cologne, and finally Ukyo.

Conversations ensued as the group waited for the meeting to start, but two people were missing. Ukyo was the first to notice, then everyone else noticed.

Ukyo asked the question:

-Hey Mrs. Saotome, where are Ranma and that excuse of a father of his?

-Ranma said he needed to do something before and my husband, I'm not sure.

But as she finished her sentence, Ranma, in his male form now, threw a tied up, knocked out, Genma in the middle of the room, everyone looked at Genma, then at Ranma, then back and forth between the two until Soun warily asked Ranma:

-Is HE the topic of discussion for this meeting?

-You're damn right he is! Mr. Tendo, Akane, Shampoo, have ANY of you told the other's about what occurred yesterday?

Each of the four looked at Ranma and shook their heads silently. Those who didn't understand became more worried than when they saw Genma Saotome beaten, knocked out and tied up in front of them.

-Okay then, what about to tell you guys is something that I believe everyone should know. Those who went out to find Shampoo and possibly kill her, all saw what happened! Genma tried to shoot and kill Shampoo without realizing that her condition was not like that of the infected that we've seen so far!

Everyone was shocked, but also confused. Ryoga was the first to question this claim:

-What do you mean by all of this? You all went out there to find her and kill her. I don't see what he did wrong here. Explain!

Before Ranma could continue, Akane came to his defense.

-You see, when we found Shampoo, she ran and hid from us, also, she was able to talk to us and display fear and sadness! Don't you find that odd for an Infected?

Ryoga sat down and Nebiki stood up, as confidant as ever to state her confusion.

-Even if she were able to o all of these things, they could be the result of a mutation! Still opting to save her was extremely dangerous and irresponsible! You could've endangered Akane, Mr. Saotome and my father, r worse, everyone here at home! If anything, we should be questioning your decision to bring HER back!

Nebiki then proceeded to then point accusingly at an already nervous Shampoo

Ranma wasn't having Nebiki's shit today so he stood next to Akane and before Cologne could protest, barked his words at Nebiki ferociously.

-Nebiki . . . I didn't see a single weapon in YOUR hands yesterday, nor have I ever seen you volunteer to do night watch!

He lowered his tone a bit

-Have you ever had to kill a friend? Family? A complete STRANGER? Tell me why I should kill someone instead doing everything I can to save them if I can? You may not give two shits because all you do is menial chores an stay here all day while I bust my ass in getting supplies we need, but we are ALL family now, we can't just send a bullet between the eyes and call it a day!

-Nebiki was humbled and she sat back down.

Soun then chimed in:

-So what are we discussing about your father?

Ranma gritted his teeth and then spoke.

-I want to take a vote to have Genma Saotome should lose weapon privileges and be denied access to going on supply runs.

Everyone just watched Ranma talk as if he were speaking a different language. They were already spreading themselves too thin as it was in the current situation, taking Genma out of the ranks would make supply runs even harder if they didn't replace him.

-That being said, we will need someone to replace him, any volunteers?

A hand went up and everyone shared with disbelief! Nebiki Tendo, the most selfish person they knew, was raising her hand to volunteer for the supply runs!

End of Chapter 16: Genma's Punishment