Ukyou looked up at the sign over her new school. Her new, all-boys school. At ten, she was still young enough not to need breast bindings to appear male. Dressing in masculine fashion was sufficient. The other boy's voices had not yet dropped, so she didn't even really need to conceal her higher tones. The difference was too slight to be noticeable.

Indeed, after five years of living as a boy, she no longer really needed to think about it to mimic the boys' behavior, and fit in easily. Nonetheless, she stood and looked for a long moment at the sign. Five years she had lived each day as a boy... but this would be her first day at an all-boys school.

Most of her classes that day seemed normal. The boys, in fact, seemed quieter during class than they had at her old school. Maybe that was because there were no girls there to impress. But between classes they were quite rowdy. She was prepared for that, but not for the scene that day at lunch. The swarm of boys was rushing, pushing, and shoving to get to the front and get a piece of the bread of the day before it was all gone. A call rang out, loud above the voices of the boys, "Last curry bread of the day!"

Ukyou saw a bread go sailing up over the heads of the boys. Joining in, she vaulted over the boys, just as one boy leapt up, shouting, "Its mine!" She landed on his head, and leapt upward, catching the curry bread. She bit a chunk out of it on the way down. Quite good, really. Not as good as her okynomiyaki, but still good.

Ukyou was shocked to see tears of bitterness in the boy's eyes as he glared at her. She wondered at first why he was so angry. He shouted something at her, but she lost it in the general din. Moving closer, she could see that his clothes were several days worn, and guessed that he hadn't been home.

She knew what a hard home life could be like, and started working her way through the crowd to him. He had turned away by that point, to leave the cafeteria, and she realized that unlike her and the other boys, he did not have a lunch with him. She realized with a shock that the bread would have been his only lunch. She pushed the crowd, eliciting startled yells, and reached his side, just as he exited the lunchroom.

He looked at her when she pulled on his sleeve, and recognized her with a look of rage on his face. She ignored it. "C'mon, man, let's go outside. I'll make you an okynomiyaki." The look on his face at that was stunned amazement, but she ignored it, and grabbed his sleeve, forcing him to keep up with her.

They exited the front doors of the school, and she headed for a tree. She sat beneath it, and pulled out her portable griddle, and her batter and ingredients. She poured batter on the smooth surface. "Beef or Pork?" she asked the boy.

"Huh?"

"Beef then," she responded. She flipped the okynomiyaki, and prepped the ingredients. Then she flipped it again, peppering it with the beef and other toppings as it spun in the air. She caught it easily, and handed it to the boy.

He looked at it wide-eyed for a moment, then said, "Thanks!" with a wide grin, and took it from her. It was half way in his mouth the next moment, and in another, it was gone.

"Wow. You sure eat fast," she commented. Good thing she had extra batter. She slapped two more on the griddle. "I'm sorry about the bread. It's my first day here, and I just kinda reacted." She flipped them both. She wanted to ask him why he didn't have a lunch... but she figured he'd probably be embarrassed about it. But she needed a friend here, and he looked like a good kid. Funny looking teeth though, she commented to herself, noting his long canines. But a hungry kid is a good friend for a chef. She flipped both, peppering them with toppings, and handed him one as she bit into the other. "How 'bout I catch you after school, and I'll treat you dinner to make up for it? My dad makes the best okynomiyaki ever!"

"Uhmm... yeah, sure." Just then the lunch bell rang, and Ukyou had to hurry to cool down her griddle enough to stow it and get to her next class. To her surprise, the guy from lunch was in her last class. She motioned to him when he came in, and he took the seat beside hers. It was math, which she was pretty good at. Her dad had drilled her in it as a kid. You had to be reasonably good at basic math to run a restaurant.

She caught up to him as he left the room after class. "Hey, man. I never got your name. I'm Kuonji Ukyou."

"Oh, uhm. Hi. Hibiki Ryouga. Nice ta meetcha."

"Well, come on, then. Dad'll be annoyed if we're late for dinner."

Ryouga allowed himself to be pulled out of the school, and along the street. He was busily wondering where he was lying asleep, and when he would wake up. Things like this just didn't happen to him.

His friends at school called him 'Lost Boy,' and they meant it. He had the world's worst sense of direction. He only found his way home about once a week, and so he spent a lot of the time going hungry. He didn't have all that many friends... it wasn't easy to make or keep them when you were wearing three or four day old clothing half the time, and always looked hungry. It didn't help that he had sharp teeth, just like the vampires in the movies, so a hungry look from him made most people want to turn and run.

Then today at lunch, yet again, some new kid had come along, and taken his bread, that would have been his only lunch for the day. He had shouted out his usual challenge, then marched out of the lunch hall, knowing that he'd find the kid sometime after school, and teach him not to steal his bread again. Or he wouldn't have to, cause his friends would get to the kid first, and point out how mean it was to take something from somebody who had nothing.

But he didn't get to, cause the kid showed up right beside him, hauled him outside, and cooked him several delicious okynomiyaki. He had hardly believed the kid when he invited him to come over and eat with his family, and had responded half-heartedly, but not really expected to see the kid again. Yet here he was, being dragged off to Ukyou's house to eat his father's okynomiyaki.

He pinched himself. Ouch. Nope, not awake yet.

--- 

Ukyou stood on the steps of her father's home watching Ryouga. He was standing at the edge of the street, looking back and forth. He clearly didn't know which way to go. She sighed, and walked down to stand beside him. "Don't know how to get home from here, huh? It's ok, I'll walk you back to the school. You can get home from there, right?"

"Uhm...," Ryouga looked down, and scuffed his foot against the ground. Oh dear, Ukyou thought, he can't have that bad a sense of direction can he?

"You can't? Hmmm. Alright, how about this. I'll ask my father if you can stay the night. I think we've got an extra futon somewhere. You can crash in the living room. After school tomorrow, we'll go by the office. They're sure to have your address on file. I should be able to find your house then, ok?"

Ryouga looked at Ukyou with startled eyes. "You'd... really? You think you're dad would let me stay?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Its not like I'm a girl or something, she though ironically to herself. That was why she had suggested the living room. She didn't think her dad would take being a guy so far as to let another guy crash in her bedroom.

---

At lunch the next day, Ukyou again cooked Ryouga several okynomiyaki, and Ryouga finally began to get used to the idea that he wasn't dreaming, and that somehow he had managed to gain a friend who didn't just want protection from bullies or someone to tease. On the way over, Ukyou had seen Ryouga's terrible sense of direction first hand, but said nothing, simply grabbing Ryouga's sleeve, and pulling him after her. Ryouga had nevertheless been startled when Ukyou had caught up to him as he was racing for the lunchroom, and pulled him from the crush of students. He was about to erupt in anger, when he saw who it was, and his stomach rumbled in memory of the delicious okynomiyaki Ukyou had cooked the day before.

After school, when Ukyou again caught him, and hauled him down to the office, and dealt with the curiousity of the clerks, getting the information without mentioning Ryouga's difficulty, Ryouga was becoming seriously confused. He had never had a friend who didn't want something before, and he was started to get worried... whatever Ukyou wanted, it was bound to be big.

When Ukyou actually found his house, though, and his mother turned out to be home, he was so excited that it simply slipped his mind that he had meant to ask Ukyou what he really wanted. He just introduced Ukyou to his mother, and badgered him into staying for dinner. Ukyou obviously appreciated the meal, commenting on the different flavours. He ended up making them okynomiyaki for dessert, after Ryouga's mother asked him about his interest in food, and he told them about his father's restaurant.

The next morning, as Ryouga was leaving his house, greatly relieved to be wearing fresh new clothes, and to have had time to soak in a real bath last night, he was startled to find Ukyou balanced on the front fence, waiting for him. Ukyou didn't say anything, just grabbed Ryouga, pulling him up onto the fence, and running ahead, hauling Ryouga along behind. Halfway there, he glanced back, and laughing, shouted, "I knew you could do it, Ryouga. You run fences before?" Ryouga just shook his head. He was trying to avoid thinking about it too much. He was a martial artist, and he had good balance, but damn it was gonna hurt if his feet slipped. He grimaced just thinking about it.

---

That Saturday, Ukyou again showed up outside Ryouga's house. Ukyou hollered up at Ryouga's window, tossing a rock up to rap against it, "Hey, Ryouga. One of your friends told me you were a martial artist. What say we go down to the park, and spar?"

Ryouga poked his head out the window, nodded happily, and jumped out, landing lightly on the lawn. "Sure... say, what's that?" he asked, noticing the bandolier of... spatulas? Not to mention that massive spatula on Ukyou's back...

"I do Martial Arts Okynomiyaki," Ukyou said, grabbing his sleeve. "C'mon, let's go." Ukyou again leapt onto their fence, pulling Ryouga up behind him.

Ryouga leaned up against a tree, after they had tired of sparring, looking out over the pond. "That was fun. You're really good, Ukyou. Did your dad teach you?"

"Yeah...," Ukyou's voice had suddenly grown dark and angry, and Ryouga looked over at him in surprise. "I gotta be good enough to get my revenge." Ryouga didn't comment. He knew how that was. He had had many fights for revenge.

---

It was three years later, shortly before the end of a school year, when they were both thirteen, that Ryouga got lost one night. Early the next morning, cold and wet, in driving rain, he found himself outside Ukyou's house, and decided to wait. He would go to school with Ukyou, and Ukyou would bring him home.

Ryouga leapt lightly to land on Ukyou's windowsill, and was about to rap on the window pane, when he realized what he was seeing. Ukyou, not looking at him, but at a mirror, was wincing as... as _she_ carefully bound her... her... Ryouga's nose dripped blood, and he lost his hold on the window, and fell with a wet thud to the ground below, not noticing the rain spattering down at him.

He got up suddenly, afraid she would look out and see him, and in a flash he was over the fence and gone. It was some time before he looked up, and he had no idea where he was. He sat, huddled and miserable, under a bridge, as the rain poured down around him.

His thoughts were in a turmoil. His best friend was a... a... a girl? It didn't even occur to him to think that she had lied to him. She had never told him she was a guy... , he said to himself. He answered himself almost immediately.

He... he was no better than they had been, peeping on her like that. Even if he hadn't known, he had seen her... her... He pinched his nose.

That's when he decided. He owed her. For everything she had done for him, for being his friend, even when he was just a dirty, smelly guy who couldn't find his way out of a wet paper bag, she had been his friend. He'd have to forget what he'd seen, just forget it, until she was ready to tell him... or ready to leave. He would have to go with her, then. Whoever had done this to her, whatever evil thing he had done to make her live like this, he had to pay.

---

It was nearly a year later that they were sitting in a park, having just finished a vigorous sparring session. It had taken everything Ryouga had, the year before, to think of her as a guy again, and to spar as if nothing had changed. But he had... and now he got the feeling something was about to change. Would she tell him, he wondered?

He had watched her, occasionally, when she went alone to the park. The look of utter hatred and fury she wore when she attacked the trees had pained him. He knew now who had hurt her so badly. She had chanted his name, as she attacked the tree. Ranma... and then afterwards, she had sat, slumped against it, crying, and sobbing about 'Ranchan.' Ryouga wondered if it was the same person.

He looked at her now, and she had a look of pain and determination on her face.

"Ryouga," she said, then faltered.

"I'm coming with you, Ukyou," he stated.

She stared at him in stunned surprise. "What? But, but, how?"

"I don't know what this Ranma character did to you," he said vehemently, "But you didn't deserve it. Whatever it was, you didn't deserve it. If you leave without me, Ukyou, I'm just gonna be the Lost Boy again, wandering, never knowing where I am. There's only one thing I can do with my life that's worth doing... and that's go with my best friend, and help her do what she's gotta do." He had practiced this speech in his head for nearly a year.

Ukyou's eyes grew wide... "How... how long?" How did he find out, she thought, how?

"About a year, Ukyou. Please let me come with you. I meant what I said. If you don't let me come, I'm just gonna end up wandering, never accomplishing anything. I won't interfere in your revenge. I understand that kinda stuff. But I can help you keep your edge, while you hunt for him, can't I?" His eyes pleaded with hers. He needed this, his honor needed this. She had given him his life back. For four years, he had had a normal life, like a normal boy. She had given him something she had never had. She hadn't had a normal life. She had been forced to live like a guy, and now it was his turn to help her.

"I... you're sure? You really want to come and help me? I don't know how long it will be. I could be searching a very long time."

"Come on, Ukyou. What else am I gonna do?" He grinned up at her, willing her to see the humour. She laughed, and his smile widened, showing his sharp canines.

"Alright, Ryouga. Come with me then." Then she sat, and she told him the story.

She told him how she had met Ranchan, when his father had distracted them so he could snatch an okynomiyaki from the cart, and she had attacked him to get it back. He had defeated her, and eaten it.

They had fought every morning thereafter, and played together for hours. Then finally, she had gone to her daddy, and asked him to engage her to Ranma. She hadn't really understood what it meant to be married, only that it meant being together forever, and she wanted to keep her best friend forever.

His father had agreed... and then the next morning, Genma-san had taken the yatai, her dowry, and run away. She had chased after them crying in, and watched hopelessly as the yatai had dwindled in the distance, Ranma sitting on it, waving at her.

When she came back to herself, she found that Ryouga was holding her, comforting her, and she was sobbing into his shoulder. It hurt everytime she thought about it, but it was worse when she had to talk about it, to acknowledge that Ranchan had left her.

Ryouga didn't say anything. He couldn't. It was all he could do to just maintain the pretense that he was comforting his best friend, a guy, not holding a girl. He just held her.

Pools of Sorrow

The Jusenkyo guide looked up in surprise at the brilliant flash of white light outside his hut. A young man stood there, clothed in a tight fitting black shirt that highlighted his strong musculature, and loose pants. He was tall, six foot at least. His hair was black, and his eyes a deep blue. He was staring at the pools. "Honored Customer understands Mandarin, yes?" asked the guide.

The young man turned to him, "Very well, thank you, Honored Guide. Tell me please, which pool is the Nyannichuan?" The guide turned almost purple. Customers NEVER listened to him, never heard him until AFTER they had fallen in.

"No, no, Honored Customer, you must not go to that pool. Is very tragic story," he said quickly.

Ranma interjected, "Yes, yes, I know. Very tragic story. Now which one is it?"

The Guide sighed. Even when they listened, it did no good. He said, "Very well, Honored Customer, I see you will not listen, like all the others. Nyannichuan is this way." He led the boy on a careful path through the pools, before finally pointing to one.

He sighed, and watched, as the young man set down his pack, then waded in and dunked his head. She broke the surface, brilliant red hair glistening in the sun. The Guide gulped, and quickly turned away, as she rose. The shirt that had been tight on the young man was looser on her waist, but threatening to burst under the pressure from her chest. She looked down. "Wow," she said, then quickly stripped off the shirt. The Guide fainted. She climbed out of the pool. She rummaged in her pack for a minute or two, then found a looser shirt, and put it on. Looking over at the Guide, laying in a pool of blood that seemed to have leaked from his nose, she lifted him easily to her shoulders, then tromped back the way she had come, focusing the Juushin Jisei ito keep from accidentally falling into any of the other pools.

When the Guide came to, he was lying in his own bed, a cool cloth on his forehead, being watched by the beautiful redhead. She was nearly a foot shorter than her male side, built smaller, but still well muscled. "Sorry to put you through that," she said, her voice softer and richer than it had been as a man. He gulped again in surprise. A customer apologizing to him? That had never happened before. They were always furious with him, even though he tried as hard as he could to stop them.

"You... you knew what would happen?" he asked, his fear clear in his voice.

She laughed, a delightful sound. "Yes, I knew. Now, you just lie here. I've got to do something. Don't interfere, please. It would be very bad, if you did." She stood up, and he noticed that she had drawn on the wood floor of his hut a circle in chalk, with strange symbols around it, and was standing in it. She reached behind her, and pulled off the small band that held her pigtail, and shook her head, freeing her glorious fiery hair, which fell in soft curves over her shoulders, spilling down her strong back.

She started chanting something, in a strange language, and he realized she had produced a scroll from somewhere and was reading it. How strange today was. First that crying man had come and turned into a panda, now this young man comes and turns himself into a girl and starts chanting strange things in his hut.

She seemed to suddenly have come to the conclusion of her chant. She slumped bonelessly to the ground. He got quickly out of his bed, and felt her neck. Her pulse was steady and strong. He lifted her, and placed her on his bed, watching worriedly. How strange this was.

After several hours, he heard movement outside. Leaving her, he found that the crying man had returned. He was jabbering excitedly about having finally 'felt his ki again!' and asking about a man named Ranma. When the Guide finally understood that the man was asking whether a young man had been by, he became nervous. This man was a martial artist, and the young man was now an unconscious young woman. If this crying man decided to kill or take advantage of the young lady, there would be little the Guide could do to help. He too was a martial artist, but he did not feel he was in this crying man's league.

He tried to draw the man out, slowly. He got enough of a physical description to think that this might indeed be the young man the crying man wanted... hair color and eye color were right, and he did indeed look Japanese, like the crying man. What finally convinced him was when the crying man explained that he was looking for his son, that he had been looking for him for eight years, and that he had just felt the touch of his son's ki.

He led the man into the hut, and pointed to the young girl. In broken Japanese, he said, "Young man come, ask for Nyannichuan. I try to warn, but very insistent. Finally show him, he go in, she come out."

The crying man broke down, wailing his anguish. The promise was broken, he would have to commit seppeku. The Guide had considerable difficulty understanding him, as he was wailing in Japanese, and too fast, and so assumed that the man's anguish was a natural thing for a father to feel about a son who had just been cursed. He did have to convince the man not to throw the boiling water for tea onto the young woman. "Much better when awake, you see, you see."

---

Ranma found himself sitting on a hill, looking over a valley. A stream ran down the hill from somewhere behind him, and babbled happily as it gurgled across the stony bed, before falling in a spray of color down the hill. All about, the land was green and bright. He noticed that he was male again, and wearing his tight black shirt. From behind him, he heard a tentative voice say, "Ranma?"

He spun around, coming immediately to a defensive posture, before relaxing. She was standing there, looking demure and frightened, yet truly beautiful, hair like a glorious nimbus of fire around her exotic face, with delicate features and wide slightly upturned almond shaped eyes, that sparkled a brilliant blue. She had a marvelous figure, and she was wearing a short yellow sundress.

She took a hesitant step toward him, and asked again, "Ranma, is that really you?" When he nodded, her face lit up in joy, and he felt his heart hammering in his chest. She leapt forward, wrapping her arms around him. He responded slowly, then hugged her tightly as he felt her sob into his chest. "Oh, Ranma, I've been so lonely waiting for you."

"What do you mean?" he asked. "You weren't supposed to have awakened until just now."

"No, no," she said, "I've been awake ever since that terrible pit with the cats. After... after you became the cat... the first time you woke up, the cat came here, and woke me up."

"Neko-Ranma is in here?" he asked, incredulous.

"Yes, he's ever so much fun."

"I... I... I'm sorry. I wish I had known. I've kept you caged in here for so long. I wish I could make it up to you."

"Don't feel bad, Ranma. You couldn't have known. Come with me, I want to show you my house."

He followed her down the slope of the hill, and saw a beautiful one story house of stone thatched with straw.

"Wow. You made this?"

"Oh yes. Neko! Neko, come here." She called out to the house, and the front door swung wide, and Neko-Ranma came running out, on all fours, and loped up to them, then sat and looked at them inscrutably for a moment, before starting to wind himself between their legs, rubbing up against them both, and purring.

"So that's how you recognized me. He looks just like me."

"He is you, Ranma. So am I. Come inside, please." She led him inside, and sat him down on a couch. Neko-Ranma jumped up and curled up on Ranma's lap, purring softly. Ranma petted his hair, and scratched behind his ears. She sat down beside him, and scratched Neko-Ranma's back lightly. "I've been wanting to meet you for a long time. I know what Alana told you."

"You know about Alana?," he asked in surprise.

"Yes, Ranma. I know that when Neko gets out, you don't remember. But I can see what you see, and I see what he sees. I watched him kill that man," and she saw the color drain from his face. "Ranma," she said sharply, "It wasn't his fault. That man tried to force him to kill someone else. He deserved it. Alana was right. And before you ask, no she didn't know I was awake either." Ranma sighed, and went back to petting Neko-Ranma's soft hair. Ranko considered for a moment whether to tell him that the Lady Sylia had known, but decided that he would feel less guilty if he didn't know.

"Maybe now, when you let Neko or me out, you can come here, and watch us, if you want to."

"What do you mean, let Neko out? He only comes out when I've been driven mad by cats. And that won't happen anymore. I've gotten over the fear."

"I know you have Ranma. But he's still a part of you, or he wouldn't be here. Surely you don't intend to keep him locked up in here forever, do you?" She looked at him with pleading eyes, big and blue, and glistening with tears, and he felt himself melt inside.

"No, I can't do that, can I. But I've got to be able to keep him from killing."

"But Ranma, if you let him out, then you aren't hiding... so you can be here watching, and take over if he goes too far."

"Hey, you're right! That's wonderful! And.. and that must mean that you know what I've just done," and his voice was suddenly small and scared. Here, inside his mind, he couldn't hide behind his barriers of ice, and his emotions were constantly visible on his face.

"Yes, Ranma, I know." She threw her arms about him, and hugged him fiercely. Neko-Ranma meowed piteously, trapped between them, and leapt to escape. "And I love you for it. Its more than I ever dared hope for. More than I deserve."

"No," he said sharply, "It isn't more than you deserve. You deserve so much more,... Oh dear. I just realized I don't know what to call you, Red."

"Red will do nicely, Ranma. But maybe, outside, I can be Ranko?" and she looked up at him with those glorious deep blue eyes, light glinting off a hint of moisture, and he lost himself in their swirling depths.

"Of course you can," he replied then he realized something was missing. "Where'd Neko-Ranma disappear to?"

"He went out," she said, quietly, silently pleading for him to not be angry, "do you want to go watch him?"

"Yes, please," he replied, trying to hold on to his sudden fear. That poor Guide, surely Neko wouldn't hurt him.

Red held him, and the scene changed around them, and they were sitting on a large rock, and before them was a pool, still and crystal clear, and as he looked at the pool, it suddenly clouded, and then he saw what Neko-Ranma was seeing... a panda, running away very fast, then Ranko's hand, as she licked it.

---

The Guide was still struggling with Genma about the hot water, when they both heard a low rumbling growl behind them. They turned slowly, and looked, and saw Neko-Ranko, crouching on the bed, growling. "Oh dear," the Guide said, "This never never happen before." Genma jerked away, spilling the kettle, which by this time had grown cold, and turned into a panda. For a split second, the two stared at each other, then the panda turned and fled through the open door, not daring to look behind him.

The Guide watched in stunned surprise, as the strangely behaving girl proceeded to lick her hand and use it to rub behind her ear, smoothing the hair back. She settled down, and purred at him. "Heh, heh. Nice kitty," he said, nervously, "that's a good kitty." He wanted to leap for the door as well, but he knew a sudden movement could well elicit a sudden reaction.

He didn't know about the cat's claws, but he could well imagine the father's reaction, if he came back, and found the Guide pinned under his son/daughter. He doubted any amount of explaining would save him then, especially since he had not the foggiest clue how to explain this peculiar behavior. So he did not move an inch, not even when Neko-Ranko leapt lightly down, and brushed up against his leg, purring. When no caresses were forthcoming, she loped off in the direction Genma had gone.

Genma, meanwhile, had run for several minutes, before glancing back, and realizing that he could see no signs of pursuit. The heavyset panda sat in a clearing, wondering what on earth had gone wrong with the boy. The Guide's explanation still ran through his head. Genma's form was an accident. But the boy had come and bathed in the Nyannichuan deliberately. Was it a ploy? Had the boy somehow found out about the seppeku pledge he had signed with Nodoka, forfeiting his life if he returned and Ranma was not a man among men? Could he possibly have learned of it and yet been unaware that Ranma would also have to commit seppeku? Who could have told him? Why else would he do it?

Genma was still pondering this, when he noticed the forest around him had gone eerily silent. He was wondering what it meant up to the very moment that Neko-Ranko landed on top of him, knocking him to his back. He instantly went rigid, terribly afraid, remembering what those claws could do, and realizing that there was no way he could get away from Ranma before Ranma could slice him open. If Ranma really wanted him dead, then Genma was dead.

But Neko-Ranko just stood there on top of Genma, then curled up on his chest, purring, and went to sleep. Ranma let Genma lie stiff with terror for nearly twenty minutes before asking Ranko if she wanted him to deal with Genma before she had to meet him. She nodded. "He deserves whatever you give him for what he did. But I never got a chance to know him, to have a father. I'd like to. Don't kill him if you don't have to. But make sure he understands I'm not you. I mean, I am, but not the way he would think it."

After twenty minutes, Onna-Ranma's head lifted. "Hey, Oyaji. Long time, no see." he shifted, so that he was kneeling on his father's chest. Genma sat, stiff and scared. He could tell that Ranma had continued training... even his female body was lean and strong.

"Why, boy. Why'd you do it?" Genma was terribly frightened of the answer, but he had to ask.

"For Ranko." Genma just gaped. "For Ranko, Oyaji. You locked her in my mind, trapped her there with your training. Because of you, I can't free the Lady Alana." Genma gaped some more. Who the hell was Ranko, how had Genma's training had anything to do with her, and who the devil was Lady Alana? "I know you aren't capapable of really understanding this. Just look at it this way. You had a daughter." Genma shook his head frantically.

"Don't shake your head at me old man. You are going to ACCEPT her as your daughter, got that?" He held out his hand and flicked his fingers out, and summoned Neko's chi claws, letting them hang there, visible. "I control the Nekoken now, Oyaji. I mastered it. Deny me this, and I'll flay you! Believe me, Ranko means far more to me than my worthless father, who drove his son mad." Genma nodded nervously. He had thought, for just a moment, to lapse back into the old ways of dealing with his son... but was stilled by the coldness he saw in his son's eyes. He looked in his son's eyes, and saw death, and at the same time, he was overwhelmed by a flood of pride. His biggest mistake, the stupid Neko-ken training, and his son had mastered it!

"Ranko is your daughter. She's trapped in my mind. She ain't talking to you right now, understand. This is still me, Ranma. I went and got this body, so she could be comfortable when I let her out. You make her uncomfortable about it, and I'm gonna make me some panda sausage. You got that?" Genma nodded vociferously, fear lurking in his dark eyes.

"Alright, I'm gonna get up now. You run, and I'll hunt you down. You stand up, and wait right here. I'm gonna get Ranko, and let her talk to you. I say again, you hurt her, and you're sausage meat."

Onna-Ranma stood up slowly and stepped back. Panda-Genma stood equally slowly. Onna-Ranma said, "You can't meet her like that." He pointed his arm at Genma, and a thin stream of hot water sprayed out of a previously invisible opening in his sleeve, hitting the old man in the chest, returning him to his human form.

"Hey, if you can do that, why aren't you turning back," Genma demanded. He didn't really understand what Ranma was going on about, and wasn't sure whether to believe his son, and now that he was human, and standing, he felt much more comfortable, ready to defend himself. He might have to unseal the forbidden techniques, but he could tame his wild son again.

"I told you old man," Onna-Ranma replied, popping her chi claws out again, and slicing the air with them, "You're here to meet her. You think she wants to meet you wearing my skin? Now shut up and wait." Her claws disappeared, and her eyes turned blank, then sparkled again.

Genma stared, as the solid fury of Onna-Ranma seemed to melt into diffidence. Ranko dug her foot into the ground, looking down. "Uhm.... Its nice to meet you, Genma-san." She looked up at him with kawaii eyes, big and blue and glistening with tears. "I never had a father. Will you be my father, Genma-san?" Genma nodded slowly, wonder and awe in his eyes. What was going on here? Ranko smiled suddenly, and Genma felt as if the whole clearing had been lit up, and then it didn't matter what was wrong with Ranma. He had a little girl, and she was hugging him, him, her father. He slowly hugged her back, wondering what on earth he was doing. Then again, as he thought further on it... Ranko might well be his key to controlling the strong and independent young man his son had become. Maybe he could extract some information from her, start planning his next move...

"R-R... Ranko, dear," he began, looking down at her, "Ranma said he mastered the cat-fist." She nodded happily, grinning up at him. "But, but... in the hut... You were acting like a cat."

"No Papa-san," she said, and he felt his heart swell again, to hear this beautiful little girl call him Papa, "That wasn't me, that was Neko. Ranma has mastered the cat-fist, and because he has, I have." She stepped back, and waggled her fingers, chi-claws playfully slashing the air before vanishing, "but Neko's still in there, and he wants to come out and play sometimes. You will let me keep him, won't you Papa-san?" She begged him, eyes huge and glistening, just as if she was talking about an adorable little kitten. Genma melted again. He could never refuse a kawaii little girl such a simple thing... especially if keeping her happy could restore his control over Ranma. Heh.

"Of course, Ranko, of course," he reassured her, patting her shoulder akwardly. She could display affection so easily, but it had never been easy for Genma, nor was it easy for Ranma.

"Papa-san?" she asked, looking up to him.

"Yes, Ranko-chan?"

"I know why Ranma came here, to this place. He came for me. But why are you here?"

"Oh, Ranko," and tears started trickling down his face, "I waited and searched for him for so long. But I never found him. I wanted to go home and face your mother, but I was afraid. So I kept on going with the trip. I tried to go to all the places I would have taken Ranma, pretending he was still with me. I had to send postcards to your mother, you see, or she would have been suspicious. This would have been the last training ground, the last place we would have come, before returning to Japan. Now I see that it would have been a huge mistake. But not as big as my trying to teach Ranma the Neko-ken in the first place. I thought I had lost him." He broke down sobbing, and collapsed to the ground. Ranko held him, soothing him, rocking him back and forth, until the tears finally stopped. "And now... and now I've got him back.... and I've got you... and Neko, I guess... but I can't go home again. Oh Ranma, I'm so sorry."

Ranko looked down at him. "Why, Papa-san? I want to meet my mother. I know Ranma misses her, too. Why can't we go back?"

"Oh, Ranma, Ranko, how I've failed you. When we left, I had to sign a pledge, before Nodoka would let me take you. It said that if when we returned, Ranma was not a man among men, we would both commit seppeku. So you see, we cannot go home."

"But Ranma is a man among men. Not only that, he is the Lord of Fey Castle," Ranko replied. She was confused... why was her father assuming that Ranma was not a man?

"The what? The Lord? My son's a Lord of a castle? Where? Where is the castle?" Genma asked, excitedly.

"Its back on the world we went to, the world we were summoned to." Genma's face twitched. His eyes betrayed his utter confusion. "Look Papa-san, the reason you couldn't find Ranma was that he wasn't in Japan anymore. He was on a different world. He was summoned there by a powerful sorcerer." Genma twitched again. "He defeated the sorcerer, and so he owns all the lands and power the sorcerer had, and the heart of Lady Alana." Genma fell over, twitching.

"The Lady? He's married?"

"No, no, Papa-san. He's not married. But I guess you might call her his fiancee, maybe. Certainly she loves him. But he is doing all he can to set her free. That's why he's here." Genma fainted. Ranko sighed, then hefted Genma across her shoulders, and trotted back to the Guide's hut. When she got there, she found the Guide in a heated discussion in Mandarin with a little old crone with a staff as tall as she was... all of three feet. The crone turned as Ranko emerged from the brush. trotted up to them. The crone's eyes sparkled as she watched Ranko carefully set Genma on the ground.

Kho Lon watched the girl. She was quite strong, that was clear. She had no difficulty swinging the man down, so her strength was not just in her legs and back, but in her arms as well. She had a relatively low ki level compared to the norm for warriors in the village, but her corded muscles showed promise. She moved easily and lithely, with a fluid grace.

Kho Lon found it difficult to credit the Guide's story. A young man dunked into the Nyannichuan should not move so much like a girl. Especially this early after the change, he should not be so completely at ease in that body. This girl had apparently had no difficulty with her change in height, her differing distance from the ground as she slung the old man down, nor the difference in how her hips moved and where her center of gravity was as she had trotted across the field.

This girl was definitely a girl... which meant the Nannichuan, and a lying Guide. Yet Kho Lon would have sworn that the Guide believed his words. This meant that the girl must have done something to the Guide, which was extremely disturbing. Kho Lon had fallen silent as the strange girl approached, not sure whether to credit the Guide's claim that the young man had spoken perfect Mandarin, given the girl's clearly Japanese features. Red hair was certainly uncommon for the Japanese, but her face was clearly Japanese.

"Greetings, Honored Elder," Ranko said in perfect Mandarin, turning to face Kho Lon, and bowing deeply to the old woman, then turned back to the guide, "Greetings, Honored Guide. May I have my pack?"

The Guide turned nervously towards the old lady, who nodded imperceptibly, then nodded and went into the hut, returning in a moment with Ranma's pack. "Here you are, young man," he said, handing it to her.

She looked at him strangely for a moment, then a light of realization went off in her eyes. "Oh, no sir, I am not a young man." She bowed again to both, "I am Saotome Ranko." Kho Lon gave the Guide a sharp glance, and he blanched. Ranko giggled as she turned to the Guide. "Ranma is sleeping with the cat."

I must know more about this, Kho Lon thought, I must get her to stay with us for a while. "Child, you must be tired after your journey. Please come with me, and accept my hospitality."

Ranko looked at her for a moment, then looked at her sleeping father, "Can I bring Papa-san?"

"Yes, of course, child."

"Um...," she paused, as a memory of the Lady's description of the area, and its dangers, came back to her, "are you Joketsuzoku, Honored Elder?"

"Yes, child. You have heard of us?" she asked, and glared again at the Guide, who shook his head desperately, trying to convey that he had said nothing. Kho Lon knew well enough what he intended, but held him pierced by the gaze for a moment longer, to remind him of his place.

"Yes, Honored Elder. I have heard of the laws regarding combat and outsiders. I am too young to marry, Honored Elder, and I do not wish to die, and Ranma, well, he sort of already has a fiancee."

By this point, Ranma had awoken, and retorted [I do not have a fiancee, Red.]

[But Ranma, surely you cannot become involved with another woman until you have freed Lady Alana? Until you do that, you are tied as tightly as if betrothed, are you not?]

[...sigh... yes, Red, you're right. Of course. Thanks. I definitely don't need Amazon trouble.]

Kho Lon was very surprised that this young sprout knew of the Amazon laws, and bitterly disappointed. She would have made such a perfect Amazon. Perhaps it was still not too late? "Very well then, child. I will take you under my protection. As long as you stay with me, you will be an honorary Amazon, and if a challenge comes, it shall be under the same laws that govern any challenge between Amazons. If you win a marriage challenge, then it will be your choice to marry or not."

"Oh, then I'd love to come, Honored Elder. But will my brother be under your protection, too?"

"Your brother," she asked, looking around, "of course, but where is he?"

"And my cat, will he be under your protection too?" she persisted.

"Yes, yes."

"And my Papa-san?"

Kho Lon sighed. "Yes, child."

"Oh, goody," she giggled, before bending over, grabbing Genma, and slinging him across her backpack. "Lead on, Honored Elder."

Kho Lon watched her sling the heavyset older man lightly on her shoulders, and recognizing that both the pack and the man must each by themselves weigh more than she did, decided that she was indeed worth the trouble.

The Amazons

So Kho Lon led off. As she walked, she considered some of what she had seen. Kho Lon was a great martial artist... but the Joketsuzoku also had many magical artifacts, and Kho Lon knew many spells. Most were potions and the like, but one was verbal, and she subvocalized it now. It was a vital spell to her community, for it allowed her to see the emanations of powerful magic, in the same way that powerful martial artists can see ki. Having cast it, she looked back at Ranko, and stopped short.

Ranko came up beside her, and looked down at her, worriedly. Kho Lon didn't really notice her expression. She was too busy trying to suppress the look of sheer awe on her own. The girl was glowing so brilliantly it was almost hard to look at her. Her very skin glowed, more so than could be accounted for by the curse alone, telling Kho Lon that the girl was a sorceress. But more than that, every single item on her, with the sole exception of Genma, who merely glowed with the light tint of Jusenkyo, fairly shone out with the brilliance given off by only the strongest magic items.

Kho Lon, realizing that she had stopped and was staring, and that Ranko had asked her several times what was wrong, snapped, "Nothing." and turned and stalked off, banishing the spell. What was wrong with her, becoming impressed with a little razzle dazzle... No, she couldn't lie to herself. Ranko was a find like no other. A brilliant sorceress clothed in magical glory, and yet somehow an excellent martial artist. If the dimbulb Guide was to be believed, it sounded like she might even have mastered the Neko-ken.

No guard stopped them at the gate, but Kho Lon took keen notice of the fact that Ranko's eyes had flicked to each guard's location, in spite of their skill at hiding, and the fact that they had not moved the whole time they were in sight. She even glanced towards the one was completely out of sight. Kho Lon decided she must be sensing their ki, since she herself had not felt the girl cast a spell. How the girl's ki could be so low, and yet she be skilled enough to detect auras, Kho Lon wasn't sure. Perhaps she was suppressing her aura? Kho Lon resisted the impulse to chortle with delight. What a find! What a find!

She led the girl through the village to her home, delighting in the envious stares of the other elders, who could sense some of the worth of her find, the lustful sidelong glances of the men, and some of the women as well, and the appraising looks of the other young warriors.

As she entered her home, she enjoyed the delight young Ranko showed in admiring the construction and design, and the decoration as they entered. Xian Pu was not in the home. She was probably out practicing somewhere, or beating off the attentions of Mu Suu. No, that wasn't right... Mu Suu was still out visiting his relatives, and wouldn't be back for another week.

Ranko slid off her Papa-san, laying him on the floor, then slid off her pack. She sank into a chair, then gratefully took the cup of tea that Kho Lon offered her. "Honored Elder, I thank you for taking me into your home. If you don't mind... my brother wishes to speak with you privately. Is that alright?"

"Of course, my child." Kho Lon half-expected what was going to happen, since the girl had insisted on protection for her brother and cat, yet brought neither with them. She simply wasn't certain yet how real this was. Was it an act, or insanity, or something magical? She did not know. But she was very surprised when with a light application of ki, Ranko suddenly became male.

She had expected to be asked for a glass of water, or hot water, if the Guide had been right. To change with just an application of ki implied either an unprecedented mastery of ki, or much longer experience with the curse than the Guide had indicated. It also didn't tell her whether she was right about the girl really being a girl or not. Certainly, the girl looked uncomfortable in her male form, almost timid. She had just about decided she was right, when the girl's eyes went completely blank, then suddenly shone again, hard with dark glints, where the girl's eyes had been happy and full of light.

The color wasn't different, really... just the expression. Suddenly the lack of comfort with the body was wholly and completely gone. She was once again facing someone who was completely and totally familiar with his body. Immediately she thought of him as a he. It was impossible not to.

"Honored Elder," and the voice was deeper and rougher, as expected, but also far harder, not something she expected at all from the light-hearted little darling she had been sitting across from, "Ranko has never had the opportunity to live with others before. And for a time, I am going to give her that opportunity without watching over her shoulder. She needs this, to understand and live this. Before I can begin to accept her, she must accept herself as real. So I am going to go, and live with the cat, and try to learn from him, and train him. In the meantime, she will be here with you. I put her in your care. If harm should befall her, physical, mental, or emotional, I will destroy the Joketsuzoko. I say this as the Lord of Fey Castle, Archmage of the Court of Farallon, GrandMaster of the Fey school of Anything Goes Martial Arts, Wielder of Dragon Fang... if harm befall my sister while I am away, I will return, and the Joketsuzoku will fall."

Cologne sat in silence through his little speech. She might have objected, might have argued his claim to the ability to destroy the Joketsuzoku, were it not for the fact that the very moment the eyes had come to life again, she had felt his ki surge before he brought it under control... and it had surged beyond even her own, and she had not felt it peak... she had felt him rein it in. At the same time, she had recognized his absolute faith in the truth of his words.

"You may make her an honorary Amazon, but she will not be bound by your laws. If she cannot be bound by the laws of nature, and boundaries of this world, your laws are as nothing. Do not try and entrap her. I warn you, Kho Lon."

She felt a shiver go through her. She was certain she had never given the girl her name, nor had anyone in the village greeted her by name. How had he known!? "If she chooses to train with you, or to train you, or to fight beside you, that is her choice. But if she comes to harm, whether by your action or your inaction, your people will die, by my love for her. Tell me that we have an understanding, Kho Lon, and I will return, and leave her to you." Kho Lon would swear the temperature in the room steadily dropping.

"Yes, Lord Fey," she stammered, furious at being so flustered, yet struck with an unreasoning fear for her people. She could not help but believe that he could do as he said, "it will be as you say."

She felt the gentle application of ki, and marveled that he transitioned back with hardly a hundredth of the ki his sister had used. His eyes went dark again, flat and empty, and then brightened and shone, and she giggled, and then looked across at Kho Lon, who shivered.

"Oh, Honored Elder, was he mean? He was mean to Papa-san too. I wish he wouldn't be so mean, but he just loves me so much, and he feels guilty for not letting me out before." She smiled, and the room brightened. Kho Lon breathed more easily. The danger was gone. She would protect this girl with her life, she knew that now. Her life was worth less than the Joketsuzoku, and so Ranko's life was worth more than her own.

Ranma, for his part, was silently blessing the lessons in diplomacy he had taken at the Mage Towers, and the experience with the Soul of Ice that gave him the ability to project such a cold demeanor.

As Kho Lon got out the chess board, and they started playing, Ranko took up a conversation with Ranma.

[Ranma. I need to tell you something.]

[Yes, Red-chan?]

[We've got two problems, Ranma, and I think I know a way to fix both of them.]

[Really? What's that?]

[As soon as I got in this body, I extended our senses, to feel the magic... Ranma, I can't see the threads in the Dragon Fang. Well, I can, but they're faint.]

[Maybe you're just not used to it yet?]

[No, no, you don't understand. I looked at Kho Lon, and I can see her power just fine.]

[Oh! You can see feminine magic! That's wonderful... but wait... no... I can't reach out with my senses from here. I can't see the magic when I'm inside...]

[That's what I'm trying to get at, Ranma. You need to find a way. First, you need to find a way to get out of this body. Maybe your ki aura? It took on nearly substantial form when you were with the lions... and then you made it real with magic. If you could do something like that, so that we were in two different bodies, then maybe we could work together to free the Lady!]

[Yeah, wow...]

[And if you make me a body...] Now her mental voice was timid. [We could go meet Mama-san together? And you wouldn't be a girl at all, you'd be a man among men, just like she wanted, so she wouldn't need to be mad at Papa-san, and we could be a family?] Her voice pleaded with him, and he could see her kawaii eyes in his mind.

[All right, Red-chan. You can stay here with the Amazon's, until I can make you a body. But I'm gonna have to talk to Kho Lon again, and this time I'm gonna have to face their Council. You remember what the Lady said about the politics here. If I'm not gonna be here to protect you, then I'm just gonna have to scare them good, so they'll protect you.]

[Oh, thank you, Ranma. I love you.]

[I love you too, Red-chan.]

---

Xian Pu was annoyed again... her private practice had been interrupted. She tried to force the annoyance down, and focused on being happy, and working at it a bit, she succeeded. She had a lot of practice at this. She was the top young warrior in the village, and it was a lonely position. Most of the other young women were distant to her, disliking the way she drew their boyfriends' eyes. It didn't help that so many of their boyfriends had tried to date Xian Pu, only to end up beaten by Mu Suu. So she had neither many girl friends, nor a good prospect for a boyfriend. She had liked Mu Suu, when they were both younger, and had even defended him when he was picked on due to his inferior eyesight. Ever since that day, he had adored her, and made her life a misery.

The elders detested depressed or angry young women, for they would quickly spread their depression or anger to others, so Xian Pu had learned early how to be happy in the face of pain. As she entered the village, she noticed the increased gossip, and looked for someone who would be willing to tell her. Seeing Li Te, she called to her, and ran over. "What is everyone so excited about, Li?"

"Xian Pu, your great-grandmother came in about an hour ago. She had gone to see the Guide at Jusenkyo, and she came back with an outsider."

"An outsider? Is it a man? Is he cute? Is he strong?"

"No, no, Xian, it was a young woman. She was strong. She was carrying a pack and another outsider, and both looked heavier than she was. And she had fiery red hair."

"Why would great-grandmother bring an outsider female in? Was the man she was carrying handsome?"

"Oh, no, he was a fat old man. Bald too, I think, though he had a cloth on his head so I can't be sure."

"Ewww. Why would a young redhead want an old bald man?"

"I don't know. Why are you still here asking me questions? Kho Lon brought the outsider into your home. They haven't come out since. Go in, and find out, and then tell me first."

Xian Pu thanked her, then ran through the village, calling out greetings as she passed people, dodging playing children and dogs, and leapt up the stairs in front of her home. She paused outside the door, taking a moment to collect herself, and ensure she looked alright, before opening the door and stepping in.

She was intrigued by the sight of her great-grandmother playing chess with an amazingly cute little redhead, while an ugly old man cowered in the corner, trying not to be noticed. "Great-Grandmother, I'm home."

"I know dear. Have a seat." Kho Lon waited until Xian Pu took a seat, quivering with excitement. "Xian Pu, this is Saotome Ranko. Ranko, this is my great-grandaughter, Xian Pu."

"Its nice to meet you, Xian Pu," said Ranko, in remarkably unaccented Mandarin. Not quite the local dialect, but perfectly understandable.

"Nice to meet you too. You are from Japan, Ranko? Where did you learn to speak Mandarin so well?" Xian Pu asked. She wondered if this little goddess had a brother. She looked perfectly edible.

"The Dragon Lady taught us." Ranko replied absently, at which Kho Lon looked up sharply. Before Kho Lon could ask, Xian Pu had spoken again, quivering in her excitement.

"Us? You said us? Who is us? You and the old man?" She asked, pointing to the corner.

"No, not me and Papa-san, my brother and I," Ranko replied. Kho Lon sighed softly, as Xian Pu broke into a huge smile. The little goddess had a brother! Oh but surely her brother could not look as perfect as her.

"Where is your brother?" asked Xian Pu, eagerly, again before Kho Lon could get a word in edgewise. Kho Lon considered rapping her granddaughter on the head, but she wondered how Ranko would answer... and she really wouldn't mind if Xian Pu managed to snag Ranma. Dangerous he might be, but that just made him a better catch.

"Oh, he's training with the cat," Ranko replied.

Xian Pu could barely contain her eagerness now. Training... that meant he was a martial artist... and she wanted to watch. Oh, how she wanted to watch. "Where is he? I want to watch him. Come on, let's go watch." She was bubbling over with excitement, and leapt to her feet, reaching for Ranko's hand.

But Ranko pulled back. "We can't."

"But why not?" Xian Pu's face fell. She almost felt like crying. So close... she knew he would be perfect.

"He isn't here. Wait... Maybe... Honored Elder, do you have a large basin that we could fill with water?"

"Of course, child," and Kho Lon wandered off to get it, noticing again that she still hadn't told the child her name, and the child still didn't seem to know it, even though Ranma had. Or perhaps the child was just being polite.

She returned with the basin, and a large flask, which she emptied into it. Ranko gestured to them, "Ok, now look into the water." She muttered a few words, and flicked her fingers, and suddenly the surface of the water was a hard clear image. "Oohh, cool, it worked!" She giggled, delighted at her success. Xian Pu would have given her a funny look, but she was entranced by the vision in the water.

Ranko was disguising her inner delight. She had needed to do this, to prove to herself that she was right, that she wasn't just doing this for Papa-san. She felt good now. She could see the threads of magic, and had drawn them up and cast a scrying magic, and it had been easy. She was right. They would be able to free the lady together. She smiled at the image. Ranma was showing off for her. He wanted to make her look good, to impress them.

Ranma stood in the middle of a grove, his shirt off, while Neko-Ranma crouched a few feet away. A blue glow was visible around Neko-Ranma. Ranma shifted from complete stillness, to sudden motion, flowing into a powerful kata, and Xian Pu sighed in happiness. He was a god, just like his sister. He was beautiful and he was perfect... and why were there two of him, and why was one now acting like a cat?

Neko-Ranma would crouch for a moment, then pounce at Ranma, trying to knock him out of the kata. Ranma would shift ever so slightly, and use Neko-Ranma's momentum to push himself into the next phase of the kata. This continued, faster and faster, until they were hardly visible. Xian Pu heard a muffled sob behind her, and glared back to see Genma standing, eyes wide in awe, shamed that he had not been the one to train Ranma to such greatness... and momentarily uncertain that he would ever be able to bend such a one to his will. No, the boy was his son, his blood, he would never give him up!

Ranko just said happily, "At least they aren't tearing up the grove. Ooops, spoke too soon." Kho Lon, Genma, and Xian Pu gasped as Ranma's assist to Neko-Ranma's momentum carried him into a tree, claws outstretched, slicing through the four foot thick trunk. It fell towards Ranma, and they all held their breath, then watched in awe as the portion in Ranma's vicinity puffed into sawdust as he failed to so much as slow in his Kata.

Finally, he came to an abrupt halt, and Xian Pu breathed out in admiration at his finely muscled form. He dropped gracefully into lotus position, and Neko-Ranma came up to him, and crawled into his lap. No sound had passed through the water, but Xian Pu could see his chest clearly, and saw that though he was sweating, he was not even breathing hard after that remarkable display.

"Amazing," she breathed, but then considered again, "Why are there two of him? And where is he?"

"Oh," Ranko replied, "There's not two of him. This one is Ranma," and she pointed to the seated figure, "and this one is Neko. And they're... well, nowhere really."

"Huh?" was Xian Pu's remarkably intelligent response.

"Well, I mean, there... where they are, that doesn't really exist."

Xian Pu almost sobbed, "Ranma's not real?! Why did you show me that if he's not real. He was so perfect." Then she did break into tears. The perfect man, and he was just a dream.

"Oh, no Xian Pu, I didn't say that. Please don't cry. Ranma's real. He's as real as I am. I just said, that there, where he is, that place, that isn't real. You can't go there. Only he and I and Neko can get there," Ranko said, laying a hand on Xian Pu.

Xian Pu looked up, startled. "You mean, he can come here?"

"Well, yes, he could. If he wanted to. But he wants me to be here for now. He wants me to get used to this, used to reality, used to people, for a while," replied Ranko, gesturing widely around her.

Kho Lon finally saw her opportunity. "Ranko, dear, I will tell Xian Pu about Ranma. Could you tell me... what did you mean earlier about being taught Mandarin by the 'Dragon Lady'?" Genma perked up. Neither Ranma nor Ranko had mentioned a Dragon Lady, had they?

"I mean she taught us, Ranma and I. She said we would need it. I don't know how she knew."

"Yes, yes, I understand that. What I mean, is, why do you call her the Dragon Lady?"

"I'm sorry. Its just that I didn't have a name for so long, that they didn't mean much to me. So I think of people differently. I meant Lady Alana."

Genma gasped, "Ranma's fiancee?"

Xian Pu sobbed again, "He's already promised?"

Kho Lon said sharply, "Yes, but why, dear child, do you call her the 'Dragon Lady'? Why do you think of her that way?"

"Oh! Well, because she's a dragon of course," Ranko replied brightly. Xian Pu, Kho Lon, and Genma promptly fell over.

"And how, child, did your brother come to be affianced to a dragon?" Kho Lon asked sharply, glaring at the child's father. His fault, she was sure.

"Oh, well, you see, we were summoned by this evil man, and he wanted us to kill this other guy, but we were Neko at the time, so we killed the evil man, and all his stuff sorta decided we were next, and we fought his clothes and lost and fell asleep, and this beautiful lady came and called us Master, and so we buried the guy we killed, and now she loves Ranma, and he's come here to accept me so he can set her free," explained Ranko happily, to the complete and utter confusion of the others. "Oh, heck, I can see you don't understand. Maybe I better get Ranma to explain it?" she asked, querulously.

"Oh yes," breathed Xian Pu, "Ranma!"

"Uhm, Ok, let me get him," Ranko said, nervously eyeing Xian Pu, who looked disturbingly hungry. [Brother dear... could you come explain Lady Alana to Honored Elder, please? I can't make them understand, I don't know how to explain it. Can I watch you explain it?]

[Yes, Ranko darling. Change for me, will you?] Kho Lon again observed that Ranko needed to apply considerably more ki than Ranma had to activate the change. She also noticed Genma's awestruck gaze, and realized that he had not the foggiest clue how it had been done. Indeed, she suddenly realized, if it could be controlled, even in the presence of water, Jusenkyou might suddenly become remarkably useful to the Joketsuzoku. She wondered whether Ranma and Ranko could resist the change when splashed.

She also noticed her Xian Pu's sudden increased heart rate, and heavy breathing. She was clearly smitten with the boy, after having watched him work out. Well, it would be to the good, if she could catch him. But she would have to be warned against using esoteric methods. He would likely catch on and be wroth. Kho Lon experienced a sudden chill at the thought of an angry Ranma. She watched the eyes, and saw the change.

"I have not been introduced to you, my dear," he said, turning to Xian Pu, then looking at Kho Lon. Best to give Kho Lon a carrot, as well as a stick. If she thought her child might catch him, she might be more amenable to aiding Ranko. He'd have to make sure they didn't try anything funny though.

"This is my great-granddaughter, Xian Pu," Kho Lon said with pride.

"Nice to meet you, Xian Pu," he responded, smiling at her. She felt her heart melt and puddle in her feet. He was so gorgeous, and strong, and skilled... "It is a whim of my sister to call this an engagement," he stated baldly, causing Xian Pu's heart to flutter. Did he mean he was free? "But it is a useful fiction. Certainly she is tied to me, by bonds of love and magic, due to the ensorcellment of the man I killed, while under the Neko-ken."

He paused to glare menacingly at Genma, who shrank back. "As a result, I am now Lord of Fey Castle. It is my responsibility to see that no harm comes to Lady Alana. One way in which harm may come to her, is for her to see me in the arms of another, or for me to leave her for too long. I was forced to put her under a spell, to stop time for her, so to speak, while I seek to undue the damage my father's training did to my mind."

Again he glared at Genma, and was joined by the hard stares of the two women, before whom Genma quailed and shook. "When my task here is complete, I will return to her and free her. I do not know what she will do. She is a dragon, as my sister said, and I am not privy to the workings of the minds of dragons. It may be, that after I free her, she will slay me out of hand. I do not know. It is said that dragons can be callous. I hope it be not so, but until the Lady Alana be free, I can consider myself bound by no other tie. Even be it one made before I were born." He stared at Genma, who truly shivered this time. How could the boy know? There was no way, there was no possible way Ranma could have learned of the promise he and Tendo Soun had made, before any of their children were born, to join their houses. Was there?

Ranma turned his gaze again to Kho Lon. He had given her the carrot, explained why he had been cold, and given her reason to think he might be catchable once his goal was achieved. Now it was time to show them a really big stick. "Before I return my sister to you, I would speak to your council. I have considered, and I know that politics can be a difficult thing. I do not wish to place you in the position of trying to defend my sister from those who know not the real consequences of their actions. I will speak to them," and his voice grew cold and hard, "and they will listen."

Then he turned to Xian Pu, and he smiled, and the room lightened, and Xian Pu felt her heart beat faster. "And you," and he took her hand, and she felt faint. His hand was strong and his tendons moving beneath the skin felt like taut steel cables. "My sister has never had a friend before. If you can find it within yourself to be that for her, I will reward you." From thin air, he plucked a crystal rose, green-stemmed, with brilliant red petals, and placed it in her hand. She sighed, and looked at it, and pretended to smell it, then looked up in shock. It smelled real!

She sighed, and sniffed her rose prettily, and smiled at him. She had long known that she had little hope of finding a strong husband in the tribe and she had hoped for the chance to find an outsider, who would be strong and skilled and handsome, and here he sat before her, and for him, she would be the best friend that Ranko would ever have. She still did not understand the connection between them... She thought that Ranma must know magic. She did not even consider Jusenkyou, as there had been no water involved. Jusenkyou required water to change.

He stood, suddenly, and looked at Kho Lon. "Gather your council. I will speak to them ere I return. I want to do it now, while Ranko is absorbed with Neko." He stepped to the door and was gone outside. Kho Lon followed, as did Xian Pu and Genma. Ranma stood just outside the door, yet somehow he had found time, in that instant of movement, to change, and now he wore golden armor, moulded to his curves, and a high helm with a tall plume, and carried a sword at his side. Truly he looked the part of the lord of a castle, and surely he was incongruous, looking as such, standing by the door of a home in a small village. Kho Lon hurried off, bouncing on her staff, to gather the council.

Xian Pu noticed with annoyance the swift gathering of a crowd of admiring young warriors, hunger in their eyes. She wanted to stake her claim, but could not do so, for she knew that to try to claim Ranma before he had fulfilled his given word to the Dragon Lady would anger him. He stood motionless for a moment, then sighed. "Xian Pu, how long does the council usually take to gather?" he asked her, looking up, blue eyes shining beneath the glittering helm.

"Sometimes, it can take an hour or more," she replied. Her voice was strong, and did not reveal her fear... somehow she did not want to anger him. He merely sighed again. "In that case, Xian Pu, is there a place where I can practice?" Her heart filled with desire. So soon after he had given such a performance, and he wanted to practice again? What stamina! She led him quickly to a practice field, followed by nearly every eligible woman who was out and about the village that day.

He stood there in silence for a moment, and she could see how his awareness of the crowd, and even of her, faded from his mind, and she was saddened for a moment that she could so easily be forgotten. That sadness disappeared the moment he began to move. He flowed so easily through the kata, even though he was wearing heavy armor. Now his sword slid from his sheath with utter silence, and she realized with awe that though he was now doing sword katas in the heavy sun and chill, thin mountain air, wearing heavy armor, he was totally silent.

After nearly an hour, as he continuously moved through the katas, steadily increasing his speed, he was moving so fast that there were regular cracks in the air as one limb or another broke the sound barrier. Xian Pu knew that Great-Grandmother could do that with the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken, the Chestnut Fist, but he had been doing it steadily for several minutes now, and showed no signs of slowing, nor even signs of strain.

Kho Lon pogoed up beside her and stopped, balancing easily on her staff. "He moves well," she said quietly to her daughter.

"He moves like a kami," Xian Pu replied softly.

"The council is ready," Kho Lon stated aloud, and the crowd gasped as Ranma came to instant stillness, in what should have been an untenable position. After a moment, he relaxed, and came towards her.

"Good. I would speak to them. Lead me there." The crowd gasped again, and murmurs arose. Even such as he, he was still a man, how could he speak to a Matriarch that way, and why did she allow it? She led him in silence, ignoring the whispers among the warriors, to a large, long building, and inside. Xian Pu did not follow, but returned to her home, to await the results. She hoped fervently that the council would not be harsh to him for his behavior. He was so perfect, it would be a shame to waste such perfection. It did not really occur to her to consider that his demonstration might mean that they would have little choice on what to do with him. She had been raised on the doctrine of Amazon superiority.

---

"Kho Lon," one of the elders demanded, "What is this about? Why have you called us together just to show us some outsider? And a mere male. Hmmph." Murmurs of agreement rippled through the seated elders.

"Sisters," Kho Lon replied, "Before you consider too harshly my actions, be aware that this man is betrothed to a dragon."

"Enough, Kho Lon," Ranma stated, "I can speak for myself."

There were shocked whispers, and then one voice rang out, "Silence, fool, you have no standing here. Let Kho Lon convince us to listen to you, and hold your tongue."

"You hold your tongue, Old Woman!" his voice rang out sharply, to harsh whispers, and several outcries, but he did not pause nor falter, "Lest there remain nothing standing in the valley of the Joketsuzoku." He released his hold on his aura, and it filled the room, touching each elder, shocking them into silence. When next he spoke, it was with a voice filled with ki, and it echoed through the hall and in their hearts, "I am Lord Ranma Fey, Lord and Master of Fey Castle, Archmage to the Court of Farallon, GrandMaster of the Fey School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, Wielder of the Dragon Fang," and here he drew his sword, and it glowed a bright golden in the light of his ki, "and Beloved of the Dragon Alana. I come before to warn you, lest you act in haste, and doom your people. My sister has been invited to stay amongst you. Any harm that you do to her, you do to me, and I will repay it a thousand-fold. If she comes to harm while staying with you, the Joketsuzoku will be a forgotten memory."

The whispers remained silent now, every member of the council was in awe of the power of his aura, and those who could sense magic were in awe of the might of his sword. "Teach her, and learn from her what you may, and when I return to take her away, I will consider what you have done. And if you have pleased me, then I may offer you the friendship of the House of Fey, a safe bastion of retreat and a source of great might of arms at need. But my sister and I are not yours, nor shall we ever be, and if someone from the Amazons win my heart or my sister's, it is they who will become Fey, and not I nor my sister Amazon. Remember that well, and perhaps in the future I will consider mingling the blood of the Fey with that of your own. Be aware, as well... My sister and I share the same body. I have taken on a Jusenkyou curse, to give her her own. So if you see me about your village, and think to speak to me or accost me, be certain you know first with certainty to whom you speak. Treat me as you will, but harm my sister, whether you think it to be I or no, and your valley will fall, and I will hunt every Joketsuzoku down, to the last child. I leave you now, to discuss your doom. Convince yourselves of its sooth, lest you bring destruction upon yourselves." With that, he disappeared, reappearing in Kho Lon's home, startling Xian Pu. He had considered transforming, taking on either tiger or dragon form... but he didn't want to reveal too much, and they had seemed sufficiently cowed.

"Aiyah... How did you do that? How did the council go? They didn't hurt you?" Xian Pu was startled at first, but regained her composure quickly. It would not do to show weakness before such a catch.

"Hurt me? No, not at all. They had very little to say, in fact." At this, Xian Pu was silent. Kho Lon's descriptions of council meetings was not one of silence. She could not imagine the irascible personalities that made up the council ever sitting in silence while listening to a mere male. "I am sorry, Xian Pu, I must go. My sister is eager to return." Xian Pu felt a pang at his leaving, but her heart leapt at the thought that he was sorry to leave her. Surely it was more than mere politeness that prompted his statement. She watched in interest as he magicked his sister in. She looked around, and spied Xian Pu.

"Hmm. Where'd Kho Lon go, Xian Pu?" she asked curiously.

"Kho Lon is at the council meeting, Ranko," Xian Pu answered her, though her mind was still on the delightful sight of Ranma in his moulded armor. She realized with a start that Ranko was also wearing armor, armor that showed off her curves, and her musculature, very nicely indeed. "Why are you wearing armor like Ranma was, Ranko?" she queried.

"What? Oh, dear. Drat him, he could have changed back first." Suddenly Ranko was back in her basic black shirt and loose pants. Xian Pu felt a sudden sense of foreboding about this. It seemed very strange that Ranko had not realized she was wearing armor... but it was clearly not the same armor that Ranma had been wearing. She put it out of her mind.

"Ranko, would you like to spar with me?" she asked. She was fairly certain that Ranko was a martial artist. Her body was so strong and lean, her movements so graceful.

"You want to? Really? Sure!" Ranko seemed utterly delighted, and happily followed Xian Pu out to the practice field. As they sparred, Xian Pu was very surprised at Ranko's apparent lack of skill... she regularly made mistakes in the execution of moves. Yet she was astounded by Ranko's rate of improvement. She never made the same mistake twice, and Xian Pu felt by the end of the sparring, that Ranko had made at least a twenty-fold improvement in her skills. It was absolutely unbelievable.

When they returned to Xian Pu's house, Genma intercepted them, and requested to speak to Ranko alone. Xian Pu conceded, and went inside to take her bath.

"Ranko, look, I know you've never had any friends before, and you've got to be enjoying this... but don't you think we ought to be heading back to Japan? I mean, how long are you planning on staying here?" Genma hoped he was right... he thought Ranko might be susceptible to a little guilt. He was sure Ranma wouldn't be, but if he could convince Ranko, he could use her as leverage to control Ranma. Sure, she'd be disappointed when she learned that they couldn't see Nodoka, but she wouldn't want to be die, nor see Ranma hurt, so she'd go along with it. He wasn't sure how she'd feel about the engagement, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

Ranko looked at him a bit sadly, and almost looked a bit disappointed. "Look, Papa-san, we're really staying here for you." Genma looked quite startled at that. "What I mean is, well, while we're here, we're going to be practicing our ki control of our Jusenkyou curse. So that we won't change when splashed with water, except when we want to. In the meantime, he's working on a body for me. It'll be just like this one, only I won't really be in it, I'll still be in this head. But it'll be just like it was real, and I was in it. By the time winter is over here, we'll be ready to go to Japan, as Ranko and Ranma Saotome, together." Genma looked rather confused. "Look, Papa-san, I know you don't really understand that well. Just look at it this way. We will go to Mama-san, and we will BOTH be there. You will have to explain where you got me from, but Ranma will be unquestionably a man among men. We'll get to meet Mama, and you get off the hook, ok?"

Genma looked rapturous, and a little fearful... a strange combination. "That's wonderful," he cried, and then "you'd do that for me? Why? I thought Ranma hated me."

"Ranma doesn't hate you. He doesn't think much of you though. I'm the one who asked him for this. I never had a father, and you agreed to take me as yours. So I'm gonna get you Mama-san back, so I can have a real family." She grabbed him, and held on to him tightly. He hugged her back, tears seeping slowly down his face. The tears became real when he thought of Nodoka. Now that he no longer had to worry about her coddling the boy, and the seppuku pledge would be out of the way... though now that he thought about it, it would be unmanly to try to get out of an honorable engagement, that would be a good tool to use on Ranma... he could go back to Nodoka, and live off his son. Ahh... life would be good.

Sweet Sorrow

After bathing, Ranko dressed again, and slipped out the back door of the house. As she snuck away, she extended her senses to be sure no-one was following. She leapt lightly, easily, over the village wall, then moved quickly through the forest until she found a clearing that had a large enough stone in it.

She pulled back, allowing Ranma to come to the fore. Onna-Ranma used her ki claws to inscribe a rune of power and holding on the stone, and several runes of strength, then begin charging it. She charged it slowly, but at a steady pace. She was timing herself by what she had learned charging the stones in the room where she had... had failed. If she went slow enough, her ki replenished itself, and by the end, she was still at full, as was the stone.

A little over an hour later, it was done. Ranma eased back, allowing Ranko to the fore again. At his urging, she focused, and drew up the ki aura, flickering blue flames that licked about her, then called on the Neko-ken. As the aura became more solid about her, Ranma watched in the glassy pool, muttering suggestions. He had noticed, from his external perspective, what she had not... that the aura was definitely, even distinctively feminine.

Yet Ranma could see it wasn't working... she couldn't get the aura to disengage itself. He quickly cast a gate spell, opening a portal to the location he was scrying, and stepped through. She gasped. "You... you look like a ghost, Ranma."

"I know." His voice was hollow and thin, strange-sounding even to his own ears. He reached out with threads of magic, and his will, and pulled on his ki. It resisted, and he strengthened the pull. Ranko cried out in pain, as her ki aura tore itself from her, and absorbed Ranma, becoming a male aura again. She fell to her knees.

"Ranko," he cried out, "Release the stone. You must release the stone!" Already, he could feel the drawing sensation, as her body reached out to regain what was hers. The stone flared, and she cried out in relief. She stood, strong again, and looked at him, glowing blue male half-tiger standing before her.

"I cannot come too close, Ranko. I can still feel the pull the body has for its ki. I've got to go away now. Don't worry... I've bound it with magic. I won't lose it." He turned, and leapt, bounding over the trees, and away from the clearing.

She stared after him. She had noticed what he had not. Their aura had grown... the half-tiger that left her was fully ten feet tall. She wondered how big he would be as a half-dragon.

Meanwhile Kho Lon paused in her slow thoughtful progress towards her house, and looked to the distant clearing. She had felt that sudden massive surge of magic and ki, and she started to move in that direction.

Ranma was moving quickly now, with utter silence. He had a semi-solid form, he could feel the claws on his feet biting the ground. He passed within meters of two crouching Amazons, intent on their prey. They didn't notice him... nor did he notice the two older Amazons nearly a thousand feet up the slope, watching the younger two. After he was gone, they came bounding down to land behind the younger two.

One of the younger two turned and hissed. "What are you doing?! You scared it off!" She was referring to the tiger she and her sister Amazon had been stalking.

"More important things, child. A massive tiger spirit passed not two meters from you."

"Over here," said the other woman, "Come here girls, look at these tracks. What made them?"

"A tiger... a big tiger," the elder of the two girls said.

"Look closer," the woman commanded them. "Look at the stride."

"A two-legged tiger? What is this?" The younger girl looked at the two older women in confusion. "Tigers don't walk on two legs."

"We watched the spirit. It was a tiger... and a man, and it walked on two legs, and moved in great bounding strides, but it glowed blue, and we could see you through it as it passed between us and you."

"What should we do?" asked the older girl, "Send for an Elder, and follow it?"

"Whatever mischief it plans will already be done by then," the first woman replied. "We will follow it, now!"

They set off, tracking the tiger spirit. They strung out in a long line. One would stand where the tiger landed, near the visible indentations of its claws, while the other three moved ahead to scout for the next tracks. When they were found, the whole process would repeat. After tracking it for four hours, they realized it was slowing, and moved slower themselves. They switched to having two teams, so that two women together waited at the known tracks, while the other two looked for the new tracks. One member of each pair stayed focused on their surroundings, hoping to prevent the tiger from catching them unawares a second time.

The second woman finally decided she knew where it was heading, and brought them around to where they would be able to look down upon the spot from a hill covered in trees and brush.

Though the cover was good, Ranma would have known they were there. But he did not. He was not scanning the night with his sixth and seventh sense. Instead, he had turned them inward. He had released the Neko-ken, and been pleased that his aura seemed to lapse into his own shape, as he dwelt in it, rather than returning to blue flames.

He had drawn up the magic into himself, and then stared down bemused at his body. It looked like him, on the outside. He was nude, he noticed, not having brought any clothing with him. He had been used to having Fey's clothing to fall back on, but the wristband was not on his wrist, it was on Ranko's. He decided to see if he could get out of the body without dissolving it, so he could look into it, and see why he couldn't seem to breathe, and felt no heartbeat.

The watching girls breathed long happy sighs in awe, when they peeked over the top of the hill, and saw the naked young man, strong and beautifully muscled, standing by the deep pool that lay deep and still beyond the foam that churned at the base of the fifty foot waterfall. It was a perfect scene to frame what looked like a young god, and the girls would likely have gotten into a fight over which one got to go down and get defeated by him for peeping on him, had the older women not been there to hold them back.

The older women held the girls back for the crucial moments it took for the tiger-spirit to step from the body, letting it drop lifeless to the ground. Ranma looked at himself, and realized that in even that short time, he had grown stronger, because the body had generated ki. "I should stay in a body, then." he said to himself, and drew up the magic strands.

The watching Amazons stifled their gasps when the tiger-spirit seemed to suddenly take on real physical form. No longer a glowing blue, it looked like a true tiger now, yellow and black, and they had to stifle their sudden strong swell of desire for the finely muscled form.

Ranma was delighted when he realized he could breathe. Apparently his tiger and dragon forms, based on his body as they were, had all the pieces, while the body he was trying to build was being created based on his spirit, an altogether different situation. He was also surprised that this body felt hungry... and it grew hungrier as it gazed on the body lying before it.

At first he was slightly sickened at the thought, but then he realized that he would have to cut it up anyway, to study it and see what he had done wrong. He would either have to go and hunt and kill something else, that had done nothing, so that his hunger would not overwhelm him... Or eat his own body as he examined it. The decision was an easy one. After all, this body was his, there was no-one else to care if he ate it. He supposed he could have summoned some fruit, but this body was that of a carnivore, and the thought simply didn't have the appeal it would normally have held for him.

The girls' desire was cramped when the beast reached out and tore off the boy's arm. The youngest girl could barely contain her retching. The second woman nudged the first. "Look at it. It is peeling back the skin, and looking at the muscle, before eating it. Why is it doing that?"

They watched in mingled disgust and awe, as the beast proceeded to eat its way through the chest cavity. When the beast dove into the waterfall, to wash away the blood that matted its fur, they saw their chance, and darted down, picked up the still hot remains, almost whole except the arm that had been torn off, and made off with it.

When Ranma emerged from the water, cleansed of blood, he shook himself vigorously, then gaped at the pool of blood, and the complete absence of his body. At first, he thought a wild animal had come to investigate the scent, but looking closer, he could see the footprints. The Amazons! Oh, no... he couldn't let them get that body back to the village. He was afraid of what Ranko would do when she recognized the face, which he had not harmed. He hadn't tried the mental communication, and didn't know if it would work. She would be asleep by now, so he couldn't try without alarming her. He set to work, hunting them, following the scent of his own blood.

Several hours later, they stopped and made camp. The youngest girl ran her fingers across the bloody face. "He was so handsome, so strong... He would have been a good husband. I wonder who he was?"

"Not Musk, I hope... though who else has such strong males, these days?"

"Oh dear. We'll really be in for it if the Musk catch us carrying one of their own like this."

"I doubt it. Its fairly obvious that the body was mauled by a beast."

Suddenly, their senses alerted them to approaching danger, and they grabbed for their weapons. Before they could bring them to bear, the huge tiger-spirit had leaped over the trees to land in the clearing, heaved the torn body to its back, and leapt away again.

They cursed fluently. "Now, what? We go back, and track it again?"

"We'll leave a message here for the elders. They will come look, before tomorrow is finished. Hopefully, they will find this place, read the signs, and find our message." Even as she spoke, she was writing quickly on a leaf of parchment. She rolled it into a tube, tied it off, and hung it from a high branch. "Let's go."

Ranma returned to his waterfall. He had surmised that they had come up while he was in the waterfall, and hadn't seen the massive tiger. He figured once they saw what took the body, they would leave well enough alone. That was why he had moved slowly enough to let them get a good look at him.

He needed to burn this body anyway. He placed it on a rock, out in the depths of the pool. Hopefully that would at least keep off any wild animals drawn by the scent of blood. Before he left, he slashed the face to ribbons, to prevent identification, in case someone tried the same thing again.

By the time he had built up a large enough pile of deadwood to lay the body upon, the women had returned, and taken up their position to watch. They observed him place the body on the pyre, deciding it must be some ritual the cat-spirit needed to retain his form.

They watched, and their thoughts seemed confirmed, when he stood back from the pyre, still unlit, and raised a hand. Sudden blue flames flicked about it for a moment, as he lifted it to the air, and flames roared up from beneath the pyre! He watched the orange flames for a long minute, then decided they weren't hot enough to do the job. He drew up magic, hands glowing with power, and the flames roared higher and hotter, moving from orange to yellow, then finally they flared blue.

The blue flame roared leaping high into the air, giving off no visible smoke, and when it finally died, Ranma leapt off into the night, wanting to focus on his body as it moved, and leapt, and breathed, so that he could feel the action of the organs.

The Amazons crept down the hill, and surrounded the fire. One knelt and felt the ashes. They were a fine gray dust. No flesh, not even bone remained... and bone always remained. "Very hot fire?," one asked.

"Spirit fire. The spirits took the body," responded another. They pulled back, and set up camp some distance away. They did not build a fire, this time.

---

When morning came, they again crept up to the hill. It took them a moment to realize that the tiger was there, lying sprawled upon the ground, snoring. They considered moving in and attacking it while it slept, only to have that option removed as it suddenly stirred. It sat up, shaking its large head back and forth as if to knock the sleep out.

Ranma looked about blearily. Too early, and his mouth... he tasted iron. He looked at the pool, and thought about washing his mouth out with that, then he realized, as his senses were again stretched about him, more by reflex than intent, that he was being watched by four women.

As he felt their auras, he realized they were not from his village, or at least, hadn't been there during the time that he had been. He wondered what to do about it... and realized he was entirely unclothed. He flicked his fingers and summoned a pair of black silk boxers, then a pair of loose, baggy pants. He didn't summon his usual tight shirt though. It would make his fur itch.

He tried to decide what to do about the women... but his head hurt, and he didn't want to think about it. He would feel better after a cup of herbal tea, he decided. He glanced in their direction, but saw no movement. He thought about looking for herbs, but decided not to bother. So what if they saw he could do magic? It would just make them more afraid, he thought, and maybe they would go and leave him alone. He summoned a low table, and a tea set, with five place settings. He wasn't sure why he did that, but then decided he wouldn't really mind company.

He summoned five tatami mats, and knelt on one, pouring the herbal tea into his cup. He lifted it, and took a large sip, rolling it around in his mouth, to get the taste of iron out, then spat it behind him. He took another sip, and swallowed this time. He looked directly at the women, with a challenging gaze, and smiled at them. He wasn't really aware that smiling with a mouth full of terribly sharp teeth is not the most reassuring thing you can do.

"Aiiee... he knows we are here!," the youngest squealed. The second woman slapped the girl's head. "If he was unsure before, he knows now, foolish girl. Well we know he can move faster than we. We cannot run and hope to escape, if he chooses to follow. Let us go down and meet him. It seems we have little choice to do otherwise." She stood, holding her spear, and stepped out of the underbrush, and walked down to the grassy waterside, followed by the other three, all holding their weapons nervously.

He had placed the four additional settings and mats across the table from himself, reckoning they would not want to get too close. He was only partially right. The closer they got, the stronger their desire for him became. As they approached, he smiled again, and holding the tea pot delicately in his massive hand, he poured tea into the four cups. They sat gingerly on the mats, watching him. It was only then that he really realized that he had gotten larger. Even sitting down, he towered over them.

The two younger ones still looked fearful, but the elder had firmed their faces. They would not show weakness before a spirit, lest he take it as an invitation to attack. They gripped their cups firmly, and drank, praying inside that it not be poisoned. He had drunk first after all, from the same teapot, but wait... he had... yes. Both coming to the same conclusion, they followed his pattern of swishing the tea in their mouths, then turning to spit it behind them, before drinking from their cups. The younger two followed suit, as he looked on.

When he saw that they weren't going to take the lead and speak, he decided he needed to impress on them that he was not prey, to be hunted. He raised his large claw, and the first woman's spear jerked forward, almost pulled from her grasp, as the haft just below the head slapped into his palm. She gasped, eyes wide in fear, as he casually snapped the head off the weapon. He took the metal head in one hand, holding it above the other, and supplied great heat with his ki, as he had done when learning weaponsmithing.

They gasped in awe, and the acrid scent of fear rose from them, as the droplets of brightly glowing molten metal dripped through his fingers to roll and pool on his palm. "I am not for hunting." Ranma said plainly. His voice was different in this form. It was deeper, rougher, almost a growl. The women nodded slowly. Finally, the woman who's spear he had destroyed spoke. "We were not hunting you, Lord Spirit. We are Amazons, and we must investigate possible dangers to our tribe."

"I am no danger to your tribe. I am here, not to disturb you, but to work in peace. I must make a body for my sister... but I must perfect my own first. I have no female example to work from, but I will manage." His words were simple, direct. He was stating in the plainest terms why he was here, hoping they could see his sincerity, and would leave him in peace.

He did not really consider the effect his words would have from their perspective. He didn't know that they had seen everything they had.

He didn't know that they had watched as he pulled the body apart, examining each piece before eating it. He didn't realize the implications they would draw from his statement of the lack of a female example. Each of them was picturing this beast slowly stripping their flesh, examining each piece, as he devoured it.

Furthermore, he had just told them enough to realize that he was not yet confident of his understanding of the male body... much less the female... He would surely need many examples, and they had just told him they were from a tribe of Amazons. His smile, meant to put them at ease, seemed to them the grin of a beast looking forward to having some fun.

Their hands were cold with sweat, and even to themselves they stank of fear, as they sat drinking their tea, and wondering how they would get out of this. Ranma smelled their fear, but didn't realize the real reason for it. He figured he had done enough to ensure they would not return, not realizing that he had in fact done exactly what would ensure their return in force. When he saw that they had finished their tea, he waved a hand, and the tea set disappeared, as did the table and mats. He stood, and they got shakily to their feet, looking up at him with fearful eyes. Even the older women could not disguise their terror, and they were frightened still more by the fact that they could still feel a strong udnercurrent of desire for him, through their fear, leading them to believe the desire was unnatural, perhaps even magical in nature.

"Remember," he said, in a deep rumble, "I'm not for hunting." He turned, and with several leaping bounds, was quickly out of sight. The Amazons sagged against each other in sudden relief, as the fear and desire both drained away.

"He doesn't need us?" The youngest asked hopefully.

"Not yet," replied the first woman, "Not yet. You heard him, he must master the male form, before he begins on the female. We must destroy him before that time. We must get to the village, quickly, to warn the elders." With that, they were off.

The next day, when Ranma awoke, there were two elders and ten strong warriors concealed on a hill across the stream, protected from his sight by a powerful magical medallion worn by one of the elders. They watched with wide eyes, as he stood up, stepping up and out of his body, becoming once again the glowing entity of ki, before suddenly filling out again. The tiger-spirit picked his old body up, and carried it to lay by the water. He tore open its chest, and washed the blood away with water.

The elders had looked at each other with awe in their eyes when he had stepped from his body. A spirit of pure ki... unbelievable! Silently, they praised their luck at its decision to examine its own body. Had they not seen it arise so easily from its prison of flesh, they would have attacked. They realized now that slaying its body would have little effect on it, and settled in to watch, hoping to see a weakness.

They looked on, as the creature removed one organ after another, tracing the connections between them, and slicing them open to examine the inside, before laying them back in the body. After examining his own chest cavity for nearly an hour, the spirit shucked his new body, then suddenly became a strong young man, shucked that body as well, then picked up the tiger body he had just discarded, and put it back on.

He lay the boy's body down, and broke open its chest in the same way. He had done better... there was a heart, and lungs, and he had been able to take a breath. Still, the stomach wasn't connected to the mouth, and the lines that went from the heart to the lungs were missing. He sighed. This would be a long slow process... and then he would have to do the same with women. Sighing, he gestured at the bodies, and they erupted in crackling blue flames that quickly reduced them to ash.

He sat lotus style, and went to reach for his flute, but it was not there. He realized, once again, that Ranko had the Dragon Fang. Aah... he could use that wakizashi he had made. He pictured where it sat, cradled on wooden pegs on a board in his room at the castle, and he called to it, and pulled it to him.

The watching elders gasped in awe when he pulled a beautiful dark blue wakizahi from nowhere. They were even more startled when it became a dark blue flute, and the tiger began to play. The warriors around them sighed happily, thrilled by the beautiful music. The elders were concerned... they could feel the ki that imbued the music with power, and wondered what the beast was trying to accomplish. They could see that the tiger's eyes were closed in concentration.

They all gawked in startled wonder when a gorgeous green haired neriad rose silently from the water, only hair covering her heaving upper body, to lie listening upon a stone amidst the depths of the pool. The young warriors saw only a well-endowed young woman with greenish skin, brilliant sea-green hair, and a long snake's body below the waist. The elders though, saw a being of power, a neriad, a spirit of water, drawn up, entranced by the tiger-spirit's music.

When he lifted his head from his flute, to draw a deep breath, and sigh, and look about him, the neriad slipped quietly from the rock back into the silent depths of the pool. She was gone before his gaze fell upon the rock, and the elders realized to their shock that the tiger-spirit had not only not intended to summon the water-spirit, but been unaware of doing so. The power implied in being able to accidentally summon a being of such power stunned them.

The music had eased his emotions, and his heart was steady again. But his mind still roiled with tangled thoughts. He needed to clear his head now. He leapt gracefully out to that stone in the depths of the pool, and began a slow kata. He did not see the neriad rise amongst the concealing waters of the waterfall, but the elders did. They too watched, entranced at his powerful forms and flowing punches and kicks.

They were stunned when he reached the aerial portion of the kata, moving considerably faster now, and several times landed upon the water and leapt lightly again, leaving only the faintest of ripples behind.

The first time his fist moved faster than sound, cracking the very air, they all jumped in shock, but the neriad clapped her hands in delight.

The tiger-spirit paused suddenly, landing lightly on the stone, and looking around for the source of the sound. The neriad moved from the concealment of the flowing water, holding her upper body easily above the water, and moved toward him. She opened her mouth, when his gaze lit upon her, and sang at him, a warbling beautiful sound like water babbling across stones in a shallow stream.

He stared in awe at the vision of beauty moving towards him. Not again, not again, he was thinking desperately, afraid that he recognized the hungry, possessive look in her eyes, but he seemed powerless to flee, mesmerized by the beautiful sound of her voice. Tigers, unlike most other cats, are not afraid of water, but will indeed go swimming in it for pleasure. He slid off the rock, and used the Juushin Jisei to hold himself partially submerged, so his head was level with hers. His eyes flicked down, and he saw her long body snaking away beneath them.

"Lady," he said, in his deep rumbling voice, "I'm sorry, but I cannot understand you." She had reached him them, and immediately raised a hand to run lightly along his chest, feeling his powerful muscles. "I did not mean to disturb you. I did not know this was your pool. I will leave, if you wish." He made the offer in hope that she would ask it, though the feel of her hand on his chest made him think she did not want him to leave. He was rather worried, in fact, about what she probably did want.

The watching Amazons were equally mesmerized by the sight. Only the two elders knew fear. They too could not pull themselves away, but they had heard stories of what angry water spirits could do, and they imagined that both spirits would grow angry if they detected their presence upon the hill.

Ranma moved slowly to draw up threads of magic. He could see she was a being of magic, and he wanted to move slowly enough that she could have time to see what he was doing, and that there was no need to fear it. When he completed the spell, he spoke again, and though his voice came out sounding like the rushing of water down a thin gorge, he understood it, and her response. "I say again, Lady, it was not my intention to disturb you. I am sorry. I did not know this was your pool, and I will leave, if you wish it."

"Please, do not leave. Your music speaks to my heart, fierce tiger, and I enjoyed watching you play above my pool. You are pleasant to look upon." He felt her coils sliding about his body, submerged beneath the rippling surface of the pool, a cold caress. "If I let you stay, will you play for me again?"

"Lady, I cannot stay forever, but if you let me stay, I will play for you." She smiled at that, and he saw that she had long fangs, like a poisonous snake, but it only made her smile more beautiful.

"I can see that another holds your heart, fierce tiger, so I will not ask more of you than that, and that you let me watch you at play."

"At play, Lady? I do not understand you."

"When you danced upon the water, just now. You are beautiful, you know."

"Oh... my katas. Yes, Lady, I do not mind if you watch my katas."

"What are you doing here, fierce tiger? Why do you sit and play by my waters? I thought you called to me, but that is not why you are here, is it?"

"No, Lady." He smiled. "I am making a body for my sister, that together we may free my Lady from bondage, and find my mother."

"A noble cause, indeed. I could wish your heart were not already taken, fierce tiger." She smiled at him, then backed away, and sank beneath the water.

The watching elders had not understood the words, but they could see that some agreement had been reached. They watched in surprise and wonder, when the tiger-spirit rose smoothly from the water, then padded across the surface as if it were solid ground, to stand upon the near shore, and shake the water from his fur.

He looked about him, then bounded off, disappearing into the distance almost instantly. The elders took the warriors back to the village. They would have to convene the council, to debate what to do. They were not sure that even the whole village had the power to fight this thing.

Ranko

Five days after Ranma left, a meeting was convened of the council. Ranko had been training with Xian Pu every day, and had quickly reached her skill level. Xian Pu could no longer defeat Ranko. Ranko had all the knowledge Ranma had, and had only needed some time in a real body to get used to how to apply it. Now Xian Pu had begun training in ki techniques, and was eager for Ranko to learn with her. But though she was an honorary member, it was a temporary thing only. Her quick ascension in skill had made it painfully clear that whatever they taught her, they taught to Ranma. While Ranko was eager to learn, and quite willing to promise never to teach the technique to an outsider, it was unknown how Ranma would respond.

The council debated for two hours, considering whether to even give him the opportunity. Some few felt that teach him would be foolhardy, tantamount to teaching the Musk, their sworn enemy. These were mostly the ones who refused to be impressed by his demonstration, and to believe that the Joketsuzoko had the power to resist him. Others felt that he could be trusted to learn, since he could destroy them anyway, but how could they trust that he would not teach them? If he did, there was nothing they could do about it. So better not to give him the chance. Others were all for it, as a way of giving him more reason to consider an alliance with him. A few more were of the opinion that they should ask him not to teach others, but leave it to his discretion, and teach him regardless, so that any time an enemy faced that that knew the techniques, they could call on him, saying "Here is one that threatens us because of you, so you should defend us."

In the end, they agreed to ask him. They asked Ranko to bring him, and were troubled when she said that she could not, that he was not with her. She told them she would summon him, if they convened the council.

They convened, and were even more disturbed when he appeared before them, without a body, merely a glowing figure of pure ki. He listened to them, then replied that he would refrain from teaching any technique that he did not already know, and did not learn from another source. It bothered them, but in the end they agreed.

They found out why he had given his curious prescription, when Ranko failed to learn the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken. She had watched with interest as Kho Lon demonstrated, tossing the chestnuts into the open flames of the small fire she built, then shouted "KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN" as her arms blurred, and she held out her hands with all the chestnuts. When Kho Lon tossed them in again, Ranko waited till they opened, and silently grabbed them all from the fire, showing them to Kho Lon, without saying a word, and using only one hand. Kho Lon had stared at her in shock for a long minute, because she had been watching for the signs of ki, and Ranko had not used any, nor needed any.

It was nothing special for her, just moving very fast. She could do it, they found, with any part of her body, even her whole body. She could move fast enough to tap every knuckle of each fist on each punch thrown by Kho Lon in the Chestnut Fist. In other words, she could easily, without strain, move five times faster than Kho Lon's Chestnut Fist. After a public demonstration of that, the last grumbles on the council died out. If Ranko could so easily defeat a Matriarch, no one any longer dared doubt that Ranma could destroy them.

---

A week after Ranko started sparring with Xian Pu, they were walking near the entrance to the village, when they heard the sounds of laughter and discussion. "They've returned." Xian Pu sighed in disgust.

"Who, Xian Pu?" queried Ranko.

"Mu Suu and his family," replied Xian Pu, and they both heard an exuberant male voice call out.

"Xian Pu! I'm back!" Mu Suu raced down the path, and saw his love before him, and heard her voice. He leapt to glomp her... and to his utter surprise, he actually landed. Usually, she batted him away well before he could reach her. She must really love him! She must have... wait, no, why was she so stiff, and why was she crying? A fist slammed into his head, and he was knocked away, and Elder Kho Lon had grabbed him firmly by the hair, and was dragging him away. "Xian Pu!" he cried out again. "I love you!"

Xian Pu held the crying Ranko, and guided her back through the village, shooting sharp glares at anyone who so much as looked twice. She helped the girl inside, and sat her down on the couch. "What's wrong, Ranko? It was just that stupid Mu Suu. He mistook you for me. Stupid blind fool." Xian Pu held Ranko and tried to comfort her.

"R-Ranma...," she gasped out, between sobs, "Ranma i-is going to be s-so angry with me... H-he gave me this beautiful body and I c-c-couldn't even defend it. I d-didn't even h-have a c-c-chance to react to the attack. I could have been k-killed."

"Ssshh.. It's not like that, Ranko. He wasn't attacking you," Xian Pu said, as she hugged the smaller girl to her, and rocked her back and forth. "He was just... he thought you were me... and he was trying to show me how much he loves me... the fool."

"It... it wasn't an attack?" Ranko asked tearfully, yet with a sudden light of hope in her eyes.

"No, Ranko-chan. It wasn't an attack. He wouldn't have hurt you," Xian Pu replied. I wouldn't have let him. Stupid blind idiot. She comforted Ranko, holding her until her tears stopped, then wiping them away. "Its alright... shhh... that's right... don't worry... Kho Lon has him... he'll never touch you like that again..." Ranko finally fell asleep in her arms. Xian Pu lifted her gently, and took her upstairs. She put her in bed, pulling the blankets up around her, and then just watched for a minute, smiling as the pain and fear faded, and her face was again innocent and happy in sleep.

Meanwhile, Kho Lon had dragged Mu Suu into an empty practice hall, and flung him to the floor.

"You fool! You complete imbecile! What were you thinking? What could you have been thinking?" Mu Suu tried to respond, only to get rapped on the head by her staff.

"Silence, male! You listen to me, and you listen well!" Her voice grew hard and cold, and it was tinged by a fear Mu Suu had never heard in her voice before.

"You may just doomed all the Joketsuzoku, you fool. We have put up with your foolish pursuit of Xian Pu for too long! She does not want you, and you know that. Yet still you chase after her." Kho Lon was pacing back and forth in front of him now. He pulled himself up to a sitting position, and folded his legs beneath him, keeping his head downcast to avoid her anger. He had never heard her so furious, but it was the tinge of fear that lurked in her words that struck him with a force nothing else had ever done.

"Now, in your endless pursuit of Xian Pu, you may have condemned her to death! Can you understand that, boy? Is any of this getting through your thick head?" She rapped him again.

"That little girl that you glomped is the beloved sister of the most powerful man I have ever seen. That little girl is faster than I, a Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku! She can move faster than my Amaguriken! And she is but a shadow of the might of her brother." Her voice was hard but low now. "The only reason she did not destroy you out of hand, boy, is the kindness of her heart. Her brother shares that kindness, boy. BUT! But, his kindness is overwhelmed by his love for his sister. If she comes to harm while she's here, he will destroy us all! Do you understand me, boy?!"

He bowed deeply before her. "Yes, Honored Elder. Forgive me... I thought she was Xian Pu..."

"Silence! Do you think that can excuse you? Who will be there to forgive you, when Xian Pu and the rest of the Jokesuzoku are DEAD because of you? You don't seem to comprehend the magnitude of what you have done. That little girl, is the sister of Lord Fey. He is a stronger martial artist than anyone here, the founder and grandmaster of his own school or martial arts, an archmage, and beloved of a dragon. He could destroy us out of hand, you stupid sniveling fool! If you love Xian Pu, you will stay far away from Ranko, and you will stay away from Xian Pu. I think that you have been reprieved, this time, boy. If she had gone crying to Ranma, we would already be dead. So you have a chance to redeem yourself. Do NOTHING to hurt her, boy. Attack NO ONE! Do you understand me? Ranma won't care that you didn't know it was her when you hurt her, Mu Suu. He will see her hurt, and he will destroy us. You will stay away from Ranko, and you will stay away from Xian Pu! Now, stay here until nightfall, boy, and think of how close you came to killing Xian Pu today, you who claim to love her." She spat this last in his face, and turned and stomped out.

---

Ranko awoke, wondering why she was in her bed. She didn't remember going to sleep... then she remembered Mu Suu's return. She slipped out of bed, and down the stairs, pausing to listen to Kho Lon and Xian Pu.

"Yes, great-grandmother, Ranko was very upset. She didn't stop crying until she was exhausted. I put her to bed upstairs. She seemed to think that Ranma would be very angry..." Ranko heard Kho Lon's frightened gasp. "at her."

"At her?," Kho Lon interrupted, "Why on earth would he be angry at her?"

"I'm not sure, I think because Ranko thought it was an attack, and she didn't defend herself. I managed to convince her that it wasn't an attack. That damned sightless fool."

"Yes, he nearly killed us all. But I had a long talk with him. He won't come near her again, and I told him in clear terms to stay away from you as well."

"Oh, thank you, great-grandmother. The last thing I need is for Ranma to come, and see that fool hanging on me. Unless you think he would be jealous?" There was a hopeful tinge to the last question.

"No. Until he frees the Lady Alana, I don't think he will even notice. The boy has an iron will, a control like I've never seen before."

Their voices faded, and Ranko heard the front door open, and close behind them. She slipped down, and out the back door, and went in search of Mu Suu. It sounded like they had been terribly angry with him. But he hadn't attacked her. He had thought she was Xian Pu, and was being happy. Now he must feel terribly alone and sad... She reached out with her aura, and felt among the auras around her, until she found one tinged with a deep depression. She followed it, finally finding it in an otherwise empty training hall.

She slipped in, and heard Mu Suu's gasp of surprise. She walked quickly over to him, and knelt down before him. Mu Suu said nothing after that first gasp. His glasses were straight again, and though blurry, he could see the fiery red of her hair, and knew that somehow, he had already failed Kho Lon, and come near her. He wanted to hate her, wanted to hit her, destroy her, for coming between him and his lovely Xian Pu. But he held himself still, knowing that to touch her, to hit her, even to frighten her, might make Ranma hurt his Xian Pu. While he only wanted to hate Ranko, he did hate Ranma. Ranko was only a danger to him because of Ranma.

It was Ranma who stood between him and his Xian Pu. Ranma who blocked him, hiding behind this small fiery girl. How dare he! How dare he hide behind a woman, and take his Xian Pu from him! Ranma must want Xian Pu for himself.

He shuddered in rage, then barely muffled a gasp, as his attention was brought back to the present, by the tender, innocent touch of Ranko's delicate fingers, as she took off his glasses and set them aside. He shivered as she ran her fingers lightly over his eyes, and he felt the unbelievably powerful touch of her ki, tinged with sadness, but bursting with hope, as she peered into his eyes.

"Poor Mu Suu," she said, and he cringed at the pitying words, before realizing suddenly that there was no pity in her tones, only sympathy. "Your eyes have been growing worse, haven't they?" He nodded slowly. "Yes... there is... an illness in your eyes, Mu Suu. This is not natural, not normal blindness. I can help you, I think," she smiled at him, and he felt the darkness of the room fade, and it was like he was lying in a field, soaking in the sunshine.

"Will you let me help you, Mu Suu?" she asked, softly. He nodded again, not daring to speak. Was it possible? The village healers and the western doctors had agreed, nothing could be done about his eyes. Could this little girl, so innocent, really be able to help him? Why would she want to, after what he had done to her?

She did not notice his confusion, only his assent, and laid her fingers on his eyes again, closing them. He felt the touch of her ki again, and then suddenly a blinding, burning sensation in his eyes, and he scrambled backward and away from her, shivering in fear. Red light swam before his eyes... he dreaded opening them. Somehow he felt sure that she had tried and failed, and now he would be truly blind, unable to ever see his Xian Pu again.

Then she was before him again, and he cringed back. But he was in a corner, and couldn't escape... he could, but he'd have to hurt her, and that would mean his Xian Pu's death, and so he held still before the little monster who had taken his sight, shivering in fear. Wasn't it enough? Wasn't it enough that she had stolen his sight? How far would her retribution go, what more could she take from him? He felt her light touch on his face again, and heard her soft voice.

"Mu Suu, please... open your eyes." Slowly, ever so slowly he did as she asked... he saw her, with perfect clarity, her beautiful face, her sad, deep blue eyes, her glorious fiery hair, her beautiful figure and taut wiry strength visible beneath her tight black shirt... and he gaped in awe. He could see! He could see perfectly, and he wasn't wearing glasses! He pulled himself quickly to his knees, and dropped his head to the floor.

"Thank you, oh goddess, thank you. Thank you." He was crying tears of joy, and they fell from his perfect eyes on to her bare feet. She giggled, then, and grabbing his shoulders, pulled him up.

"Stand up, silly," and she stood, lifting him easily to his feet, as though he weighed nothing at all. She grabbed his hand, laughing delightedly, as she pulled him to the door. She crushed his glasses beneath her feet. "You won't need those anymore." He gasped... mustn't let her get hurt, and she stepped on his glasses, her foot would be cut... and gasped again, as she pulled him forward, and as her foot came up, and he could see the bottom, soft and uncalloused, and completely uninjured. A goddess. She was definitely a goddess. She had come to him, after he had hurt her, and she had helped him, for no reason he could see, given him perfect eyes, and been happy to do so, without asking anything of him.

He could not hate her... he could not even be indifferent to her. He could only love her. He felt his rage and hatred to the unknown Ranma fade away as well. What kind of man would he be, if he did not do all he could to protect this goddess? Ranma made perfect sense to him now. He followed her out the door and down the steps, not even considering or realizing that he was breaking Kho Lon's command to him. His goddess wanted him to follow her, and he could do no less.

Kho Lon was still discussing what to do with Xian Pu, when they fell silent, noticing Ranko and Mu Suu leaving the training hall. "Oh, no..." Kho Lon groaned. They ran towards them, desperate to... then they both slowed together, and stared with a puzzled gaze at each other. Mu Suu and Ranko both looked... happy?

They watched bemused, as Ranko walked towards them, smile shining on her face. Kho Lon noted with some concern, that Mu Suu was not wearing his glasses. "Boy," she barked at him, "Where are your glasses?"

He smiled in the face of her anger, "I don't need them anymore, Elder. Ranko healed my eyes." Kho Lon smiled then. Such a beauty the little darling was. After crying herself to sleep because Mu Suu had thrown himself on her, she had sought him out just to heal his eyes? Amazing. Then she noticed something even more disturbing... with proper vision, she expected him to be filling his vision with his Xian Pu... but he spared her hardly a glance.

His eyes were fixed firmly on Ranko, and his face held a look of adoration. This definitely bore watching. If the fool started chasing Ranko the way he had chased Xian Pu, they might all be in trouble. But he didn't seem to be... he was just watching her. Ah well, it was all to the good if it got him to leave Xian Pu alone to chase Ranma. He really was a strong fighter... if his problems with his eyes, which had been steadily worsening since childhood, were finally gone, and he was over his silly infatuation with Xian Pu, then he would be a legitimately nice catch for one of the younger girls. If he caught Ranko, then Ranma might be more willing to consider Xian Pu... This could turn out very well indeed.

---

Ranko also surprised them by spending much of her time with the Healer, learning her art. It was clear to those who watched her spar that she did not learn this for herself. Any injury received, any cut or bruise, was healed by the time the next punch was thrown by her opponent, even before she started studying with the healer.

A few days later, Xian Pu began to understand why. Ranko started sparring with much more of her capacity. Xian Pu was getting hit harder, and thrown farther, yet by the time she landed, or the next punch she was thrown, her injury was healed. Their sparring matches became real spectacles, going on for hours. Xian Pu knew it was Ranko, because when she sparred with others, her bruises stayed with her, and she could last no longer than normal.

---

Ukyou looked at the sign, then at the booklet in her hand again. "Yep, this is the place."

"All these pools," Ryouga said, looking out over the hundreds of small pools, bamboo poles rising from them, "are supposed to be cursed?"

"Yep. Look, I bet that's the guide's hut, over there. Let's see if he's seen them. I still can't understand why every place we go to, they only remember Genma. That postcard we intercepted clearly said Ranma was with him." Ukyou shook off her confusion, and strode to the guide's hut. She rapped on the door, then stepped back waiting.

She heard a man's voice, some distance away, and turned to look. A rather ordinary looking fellow with glasses was coming towards them, picking a careful path amongst the pools. She waited in silence for his approach.

He stood before them, bowing politely, and saying something in a language she didn't understand. She shook her head, and he said several more things, before finally saying in Japanese, "Honored Customers understand tongue of land of Wa, yes?"

"Yes, we speak Japanese. We are seeking information."

"Ah, Honored Customers, Jusenkyou Guide has much information. Pools very dangerous. You stay away, please?" He about swallowed his tongue when they nodded. This was almost as weird... no, even weirder than that young man. Not only did they listen, but they actually agreed to stay away from the pools? He led them into the hut.

He listened politely, as Ukyou described Genma. Then he nodded vigorously. "Stupid man, not listen, turn into panda." Ryouga choked with laughter.

"He looking for son." Ryouga shut up, suddenly listening with an almost frightening intensity. "I not find that out till later. He leave, go away. Young man appear, dressed in black silk. Ask for Nyannichuan. I try to warn him, he say he know, make me take him there. He go in pool, come out a girl, very pretty, red hair. She come to hut, act weird, draw circles on floor, fall over. I put in bed, old man come back, describe young man. I tell him about girl, he go nuts. Girl wake up, think she is cat, go chase him after he turn into panda. Finally girl come back, carrying old man, and go with Elder to Joketsuzoku village. Not know where now."

Ukyou choked when the guide mentioned the Nyannichaun, and turned pale when he described the girl Ranma had become, but thanked him when he finished, and gave him several coins in return for a map to the village.

---

Some time later, they were approaching the village, when they heard a voice call out ahead of them, in an unfamiliar language. They followed the voice, and stepped into a clearing. Across from them, watching them warily, was a young girl, with brilliant red hair, dressed in a tight black silk shirt, and loose black silk pants.

Ryouga, noticing that the girl was not wearing a bra, pinched his nose, trying to concentrate on the fact that this was Ranma, Ukyou's enemy, not a beautiful young girl.

She said something again, in a demanding tone, her gaze worried and suspicious, though still in a language they did not know. "I am Kuonji Ukyou, and I've come to challenge you, Ranma. FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME, DIE!!" Ukyou whipped out her spatula, and leapt to the attack. Ranko pulled a golden katana from nowhere.

She too leapt forward, parrying Ukyou's attack. "You lie!" she shouted in Japanese, tears starting to run down her face. "What did you do to Ucchan?! You think I wouldn't remember my best friend was a boy?!?" Ukyou found herself suddenly on the defensive, as Ranko's sword pressed forward. The girl's face was set in a look of rage, but tears poured down her cheeks.

Ryouga finally mastered himself, and seeing Ukyou pressed back, tiny cuts starting to appear in her clothes, forgot his promise, and leapt to her defense, raising his heavy metal umbrella like a sword.

They were both pressed back, helpless against the fury of her assault. Ryouga was shocked at the degree to which he was overmastered. He was nowhere near Ranma's skill level, he realized with despair. He and Ukyou were going to die here. But the girl collapsed suddenly, leaning on her sword, sobbing deeply.

"What did you do to him? What did you do to Ucchan?" She looked up at them, her face lined with pain. "What did he ever do to you?" She stumbled to her feet, stepping back away from them. Ukyou was still trying to recover her breath, and Ryouga was desperately trying to figure out what was going on. "And why do you want to kill Ranma? He never did anything to Ucchan. I'd know, I'd remember, if he had."

Ukyou just stared at her. "R-Ranma?" It was obvious, he really had absolutely no idea that Ukyou was a girl. That meant that his stupid father had never told him about the engagement. Her heart soared for a brief moment. "You... you didn't reject me?"

Before the girl could answer, the forest about them erupted, and they were instantly surrounded by women wielding weapons. Swords were held at both their throats before they could react. An ugly, wrinkled old crone bounded into the clearing on a staff. She looked pale, and afraid, and angry.

She bounced directly to the red-haired girl. "Ranko, are you all right, my child?," she asked gently. Again the two travelers were unable to understand her words.

"Yes, great-grandmother... but they did something terrible to Ucchan, I know it," she said, in Japanese, between sobs. She pointed her sword at Ukyou. "She said she was Ukyou, and then she attacked me."

"Who was Ukyou, Ranko?," the crone said, responding in Japanese, to the traveler's relief, eyeing Ukyou, noting the missing Adam's apple, and the other subtle clues that said this was a girl.

"He... He was Ranma's best friend, when he was five," Ranko responded, tearfully. Ukyou was seriously disturbed now. The old crone had called the girl Ranko, and the girl was talking as if Ranma was someone else. Had they made a terrible mistake? She fit the guide's description. "She... she called me Ranma..."

The crone turned to face the two, who stood with swords against their throats. "Understand this. This child is under the protection of the Joketsuzoku. By attacking her, you have attacked us. The sentence for attacking us is death."

"No, Great-Grandmother. Please... at least, at least not until we find out what they did to Ucchan. I..." She stared up at the girl. "Did you fall in the Nyannichuan?" Her voice was quiet, strained.

"I was born a girl."

"You..." Ranko stepped closer, touched her cheek. "You look like Ucchan...," she said, almost with regret. She looked deeply into Ukyou's brown eyes, and Ukyou found herself lost in Ranko's blue eyes, so like Ranma's as she remembered them. Ranko reached out gingerly, and felt Ukyou's aura. She felt no deceit. Fear, anger, love... "Ucchan... you're.. you're a girl?" Ranko reached up and pushed aside the sword at Ukyou's throat. "You were a girl? But... but why do you want to kill Ranma? You were his best friend."

She looked terribly confused, Ukyou thought. "Our fathers decided to engage us, Ranchan and I. The yatai was my dowry..."

She gasped when Ranko suddenly flared with blue light, flames that seemed to flicker about her without burning. She turned to the old crone, and said, in a flat hard voice. "Bring Papa-san here, please, Kho Lon." Ukyou stared, eyes wide, when she realized she could see long blue blades flickering in the air beyond Ranko's fingers as they twitched. She looked about her, and all the faces of the women about them seemed frightened. Ukyou realized then, for perhaps the first time, how truly close she had come to dying. This girl had truly believed that Ukyou was a boy, and that therefore she, Ukyou, must be an imposter, and must have done something terrible to her Ucchan... and even worse, the girl was really good enough to have killed her. She had been beating both Ukyou and Ryouga together before she stopped.

Ryouga stared at the girl. He knew that she was glowing with ki. He had not yet begun to try to master his ki, and she had ki enough to burn? No wonder everyone looked afraid of her. He realized again how hopelessly overmatched he and Ukyou had been. Even as she fought them, she had been holding back because she wanted to know what they had done to her friend... If she hadn't, he and Ukyou would have been dead in seconds.

Soon two women entered the circle, dragging a man Ukyou recognized between them. "Genma-san," Ranko said, and he sagged, realizing that somehow, he had just lost Ranko too. She had called him Genma-san... not Papa-san. She hated him, just like Ranma. Tears sprang to his eyes, but did not fall. He realized only then how much it had meant to him to have her affection. He had thought she was nothing more to him than a pawn to manipulate his son, but the pain he felt when she spoke to him in that harsh voice told him that he was fooling himself. The women who held him pulled him forward to stand before her. "Look at me, Genma-san." Her voice held a strong tone of command now, and though directed at Genma, it caught every eye in the place and held it to her. "You remember Ukyou don't you, Genma-san?" He shivered at her hard tone. "Did you engage Ranma to Ukyou, Genma-san?"

"No, no," he protested immediately, "the yatai was a gift, a gift." She snarled at him, a menacing sound like a large cat, and he wilted. "Yes."

"How could you do that, Genma-san? Ukyou was a boy."

"What? No, she wasn't. You never realized?" He looked up at her in surprise.

She snarled again, and slashed her hand across his chest. Ukyou gasped, as his chest was opened by four deep cuts. Genma screamed in pain, but even more, he screamed in anguish. His little baby girl... hated him enough to kill him! Ranko banished her aura, and put her hand on the wounds, and they knitted back together. She spoke again, as they faded to thin scars. "A reminder, Genma-san. Never, ever do anything to hurt my brother again." Genma stared, wide-eyed, fearful, and realizing suddenly that she was definitely no-one's pawn.

Kho Lon watched, shivering. She realized finally that there was much less difference between the two than she had thought. It wasn't that Ranko was less powerful... it was just that neither responded with anger or even grave concern to a threat against themselves. But a threat against the other... and they were ready to kill, even their own family.

Ranko turned, smiling happily as she bounced over to Ukyou, giving Ryouga a nose-bleed. She hugged Ukyou tightly. The Amazons backed off, raising their spears and lowering other weapons. "Hi, Ucchan. I'm sorry about that. Stupid Papa-san." Genma's head jerked up at that... his baby girl was gone... replaced by this hard cold woman... and then suddenly she was back? He felt a deep fear, as he wondered what damage he had done to his child in the name of honor, for that stupid seppuku pledge. Had he driven his child insane?

Ukyou felt a warm glow spread through her, and the little cuts on her closed and faded. "Who's your friend?" She turned to Ryouga, putting a hand on his shoulder. He was about to jerk away, having just seen those same delicate fingers open a man's chest, but a soothing warmth spread through him, and he felt his wounds healing.

"This is Ryouga. He's been with me since middle school."

"Cool," she grinned, then her face turned suddenly hard as her gaze shot to Kho Lon, and her voice was cold, "These are _my_ friends, now. They're under my protection. No challenges." Kho Lon nodded slowly. Ranko smiled happily. "Come on, Ucchan, Ryouga, let me show you the village." She grabbed Ukyou's hand, and Ukyou grabbed Ryouga's sleeve, as she pulled them from the circle. The warriors just looked on, bemused.

---

Ukyou and Ryouga were sitting, finally, on the couch in Kho Lon's home, having just been dragged all over the village, introduced to hundreds of people, and shown dozens of places that they couldn't find again if their lives depended on it. Ranko's indefatigable enthusiasm had exhausted them.

"So, Ranko, how come the Guide at Jusenkyou told us Genma was looking for Ranma? We intercepted a postcard a year ago that said Ranma was training with him. The Guide seemed to think he had been looking for Ranma for a long time before he finally found him there."

"Cause Papa-san was lying. He was sending those postcards home so Mama-san wouldn't realize that he'd lost Ranma."

"So... when did Genma lose him?"

"When Ranma was seven."

"And he just found him again, at sixteen? Wow! So where's he been for the last nine years?"

"On another world."

Ukyou and Ryouga's jaws dropped. "Huh?" said Ryouga. "Say again?" was Ukyou's response.

"He got summoned. Papa-san had driven him insane by wrapping him in fish stuff and throwing him in a pit of starving cats again and again, and so he fit the bill for what this one guy was trying to summon, and gat taken there."

"Genma did WHAT?!? Where is he, I'll kill him!" Ukyou shouted.

"Ucchan, no, please calm down. It turned out for the best, no thanks to Papa-san. We ended up getting raised by a dragon, and we learned magic as well as martial arts."

"You... you know magic? Like... real magic?"

"Sure. Only, we're each kinda only good at half of it. That's why he had to come here. He had to free Dragon-Mama-san from a spell, but he couldn't do it alone. It nearly killed him, when he tried. So he had to come here, and let me out. He's in the mountains right now, working on making a body for me, so we can go back and free Dragon-Mama-san."

Ryouga was having difficulty understanding most of this, but he wasn't really dumb, just not quick at putting things together, and he had gotten the idea that Ranko was Ranma's female form from the Jusenkyou curse. So he actually managed to ask an intelligent question. "You two only have the one body between you right? So if you're here, and he's up in the mountains, making a new body for you... What body is he in?"

"Oh... Well, he isn't. He's inhabiting our ki aura... Although I suppose he might have made himself a body by now."

"Oh. Uhm... is he as good at martial arts as you are?"

"Oh, no. He's much better. I'm still trying to learn how to do the stuff I picked up from him."

This basically blew Ryouga's mind out, and he sat silent for a while. Ukyou, on the other hand, was rather curious about one particular bit. "So you two share the same body... and its right here, not up there. Does that mean... uhm... could you... uh... could you show me what..."

"You want to see what he looks like after so long, huh?

"Yeah. If you don't mind. Should I get some hot water?"

"No need, Ranma figured out how to control the curse with ki the first day." Otoko-Ranko said. Ukyou studied him, as did Ryouga. He was tall, taller than either had expected, well-built, muscular but in the lean sense of an athlete, not a body-builder, and trim, with no extra fat anywhere. Ryouga was surprised to notice that his hands were smooth, with none of the visible scarring, roughness, or oversized knuckles that usually went along with the martial arts.

Then she shifted back, and was Ranko again. Ryouga, his mind back on track again, commented, "Not so bad having a curse if you can control it. Being able to suddenly be somebody else and all. Pretty cool."

"Well, yeah, I guess. But he didn't take the curse for that. He took the curse to make me more comfortable. If he just wanted to change forms, well, he's been able to do that since he was nine. But you can't change sex that way, not really change... just the outward appearance. But he learned how to be a snake, or a lizard, or a cat, or a bird, and so forth."

This reminded Ukyou of what she had been thinking about before he had asked about Ranma's body. "Could you show us some magic, Ranko?"

"Uhm... sure... what do you want to see?"

"Oh! I don't know... maybe what you just said? Could you turn into a cat?" Ranko didn't reply, just shrank, until she was a black cat, with white socks, and a red tipped tail, and red ears.

"Merrowww?" She jumped onto Ukyou's lap, and rubbed against her, purring.

"Oh! Oh, wow, sugar, that's really cool." Ukyou petted her, scratching behind her ears, delighting in the way she reacted, purring, and pushing up against the caress. Then Ranko hopped down, and back up to where she had been sitting, and swelled back into the beautiful redhead again.

The front door opened, and Xian Pu bounced in, calling out her greetings. Thankfully, she had seen Kho Lon first, and knew to speak Japanese, though she wasn't great at it. "Nihao, Ranko, Xian Pu is home. Great-Grandmother say you have new friends, yes?"

Ranko introduced her to Ukyou and Ryouga. Xian Pu eyed Ukyou, "Kho Lon says you after Ranma too?"

"Huh? Oh! Uhm... well... His father engaged me to him when we were both five, and then stole my dowry. I've been... ummm... training to get my revenge ever since. I was supposed to exact in in blood from Genma, and either get it in blood from Ranma, or get him to accept me again. But I found out from Ranko that Genma never told him. He doesn't even know I'm a... a girl!" Tears sprang into her eyes at the last.

"Too too bad," Xian Pu looked at Ranko, "Kho Lon told me what you did to Panda-man. Good good thing. Let me beat him up, next? Please?"

"No, Xian Pu. You know Ranma would be unhappy if I let you do that."

"Why? Ranma do it too, when he get back." Then she looked at Ukyou. "But he no be happy to hear this. Too too bad story. He already say, he accept no tie, until he free his Lady."

Ukyou looked up. "Free his lady? He's already got a girlfriend?"

Ranko was quick to step in. "No, no, she's talking about Dragon-Mama-san. She is bound by a terrible spell put on her by the man she loved, who betrayed her. Ranma won't even think about any other obligation until he's freed her."

"That not true," Xian Pu protested, "he put one even before her!"

Ranko looked at her. "Huh? Who? No, he doesn't. Nothing is more important to him than freeing her. Its what he's been working to his whole life."

Xian Pu looked at her a bit sadly. "You not understand him as good as you think. There is another, even more important. He working to free her right now, not go back to the Lady until he do."

Ranko just looked confused. "What are you talking about, Xian Pu? He isn't working to free anybody right now, he's just busy making... making... Oh..." Her eyes grew very wide as she contemplated the implications of this.

"That right. You, Ranko, you more important to Ranma than anyone. Today, Kho Lon say, she see no-one more important to you than Ranma, too. Neither of you ever want kill anybody, ever even want hurt anybody... But both of you willing to kill if someone hurts other one."

Ukyou looked up. "He'd... he'd kill for you? Wow..."

Xian Pu looked at her, and laughed shortly. "He do more than that. Kho Lon say he scare Council bad, say anybody hurt Ranko, he wipe Joketsuzoku off map, hunt down every last child. Then you come, threaten Ranko, scare Kho Lon very bad. If Ranko not ask for you life, you be very dead." Ukyou turned green, and Ryouga looked a little pale. "Ranma do it too, or Council not be scared. They see through empty threat. This not empty threat. Ranma not only have power to do, would do. If Ranko hurt, Nichiezu will be no more. Ranko killed, and Xian Pu think China, and maybe whole world be gone." Ryouga turned a bit green at that thought.

He protested, "He can't be that powerful. Its not possible."

"Is possible!," Xian Pu retorted. "Kho Lon find way talk to Dragon Lady. She give us history of Ranma." Ranko stared at her. They had talked to Lady Alana? "Listen to what he do, for woman he never know before. Just after he meet her, he go away and master more than ten weapon styles in three months, then go and face whole army, beat the champion of a kingdom, at seven, then come back, learn Tai Chi Chuan to grandmaster level in three months, then go blind for three months, then go with Lady to face a dragon, and defeat a powerful evil sorcerer just cause get in way. Face dragon, then face greatest fear. You know about cat fist? How Genma wrap Ranma in fish sausage, throw in pit of cats? It so bad, he look at cat, and go mad. But for the Lady, who he not even really know, to free her, Ranma go and live with a pack of lions for a month."

Tears were running down Ukyou and Ranko's faces, as Xian Pu continued her fiercely passionate if crudely worded account, and Ryouga was turning steadily paler. "Every day for nine years, he dedicate his life to freeing this Lady. What is so so terribly bad about her chains, that he must spend his life for her? She is spelled to have to love him and be near him. It not hurt her, she happy. All this he do, just because she is in chains. When he try the last time to free her, he already know he no can do it, but he give everything he has, he nearly die, he try to die, because he know that if he die, she will be free. Then, after all this, she finally tell him why he cannot free her."

She took a deep breath, then continued. "She finally tell him, is like he has a sister, and she is trapped in his mind. All this he has done, to free a lady who knew she wore chains, and was happy about it, nine years he has spent every day trying to free her, and he holds his own sister in chains in his mind. But no no, Lady say, she is sleeping, and you can awaken and then free her. But you have to give up your manhood, and become a woman to do it. And he does! No objection, no second thought, no but I am a man. He go, and he do it. And he go to wake her, and he learn that she been awake, trapped in his mind, for all those nine years. Now you think what will he not do for her? Think of what he did for the Lady, who was held prisoner because of him, but not by him, and what will he not do for his own flesh and blood, held prisoner BY him for nine years?"

She took another deep breath. "But no, you not say he won't. You say he can't, not strong enough. You listen then. He strong enough. When he seven, he face down powerful sorcerer, and free the bonds of his magic, which not even the archmages could do. Same day, same day mind, he twice create a crystal rose, something which took the man who trapped the dragon lady, who most powerful man on world before he die, a month, and leave him weak, Ranma do twice in one day, after facing maybe third most powerful man already same day. That when he seven! And every day after that was dedicated to getting stronger, so he one day be strong enough to free the Lady. When he eight, he create a whole new race, dragon lizards, by accident. He master the Neko-ken, and go beyond it, turn into tiger, then turn into dragon. He as close to Kami as any man can be."

Ukyou and Ryouga just sat in stunned silence. Xian Pu turned, and took Ranko into her arms, rocking her softly. "Xian Pu sorry to remind you of bad things, Ranko, but must make outsiders understand. Anyone ever hurt either of you, end of world maybe."

She dropped back into Mandarin. She hated talking Japanese, knowing that she sounded stupid, and uneducated. "I'm really sorry, Ranko, but I had to make them understand. I was afraid that when that boy saw Ranma, he'd go nuts like Mu Suu used to. I think he likes Ukyou, a lot. If he's been following her for a long time, and she's been focused on revenge, he's probably been building up a picture of Ranma and how terrible he is in his mind. If he lost control... well, it wouldn't be pretty, and nobody would be happy then."

Ranko looked up at her, and hugged her, hard. "I know, Xian Pu. I thought the same things. But I couldn't bring myself to talk about it... it hurts too much. And it hurts me terribly to think how much it hurts him to think of how he hurt me."

"Ow," Xian Pu rapped her on the head lightly, playfully, "Stop that. Twisty words, making my head hurt. I know... you're both hurting so much. But he'll come back, and you'll be free, and then you'll go free the Lady. Maybe then, you can both finally have a real life, without all the pain and misery. I hope so." She kissed the top of Ranko's hair, twirling her fingers idly in the fiery strands. "I wonder if Ukyou knows Ryouga thinks about her like that? I doubt it... she's probably been terribly focused. I know how revenge can be... I've seen what it can do to people."

Ranko looked up at her again, smiling now. "We'll just have to help her see, then won't we?" They both turned then, to grin cat-like smiles, full of feral promise, on Ukyou.

Ukyou and Ryouga had not understood a word of the last several minutes, though they could see that Xian Pu was comforting her. Ryouga had wanted to do the same for Ukyou, but held back, until she moved over to put her head on his shoulder, crying. He had held her then, loosely around the shoulder, trying to be comforting, though he didn't really know what to do. She finally stopped sniffling, and sat up with a weak smile at him, and turned to look, just as Ranko and Xian Pu gave her those feral grins. She gasped, looking a bit frightened.

Ranko whispered, in Mandarin, "Tickle attack?" Xian Pu nodded, and they both lunged for the girl, knocking the couch over. Ryouga was sent sprawling, and leapt back to his feet, scared out of his wits at the sudden attack, but paused when he saw Ukyou writhing, laughing helplessly under the pair's talented fingers. Finally, they stopped, and pulled Ukyou up.

"Ukyou not hunting revenge anymore, right?" Xian Pu asked. When Ukyou nodded, slowly, she continued firmly, "Then not need dress like boy anymore." She fixed a stern glare on Ryouga. "You stay down here. Not go outside, unless you want to be married or killed." He nodded, mystified, as Ranko and Xian Pu picked Ukyou up bodily, and carried her upstairs.

Ryouga looked up as the door opened again, and the withered old crone bounced in. She looked around. "Where'd the girls go?," she asked, in perfect Japanese.

"Upstairs."

She nodded. "You play chess, boy?"

"No, ma'am."

"You'll learn. The board and pieces are in that box. Well, hurry up, I haven't got all day." Ryouga went to get the box, as directed, and wondered sourly if all the women in this village were this bossy.

Outside Encounters

Ranma bounded over the trees. He was heading for a mountain that seemed to stand a bit apart from the others. He would climb it, and exercise upon its peak, in the rarified air, and see how that changed the way his body worked. In time, he would have a sufficient understanding to make a new body for himself. It had been nearly three weeks, and the bodies he was making were showing definite improvement.

As he bounded up the rocky crags, his mind was focused on his body, and the changes within it. He spared only enough attention to maintain his upward motion, and so was completely unaware as he leapt high over traps and rigged rockfalls, avoiding them by mere instinct.

The Lady Kima, Protector of Saffron, responsible for guarding Pheonix Mountain, was understandably disturbed at the description of the tiger-man that was even now reaching the lower levels of the open entrances.

It should have been near impossible to scale the mountain from the outside, without wings. It was designed to be so, full of traps to deter even the most skilled. But this beast seemed to move like a mountain goat, springing from foothold to foothold, avoiding every trap as if he knew where each one was.

By the time the guard made her report, and Lady Kima moved to intercept, the beast had already passed the upper entrances, without seeming to notice them. She unfurled her wings, and leapt upward. She soared from the upper entrance, and headed for the top of the mountain. There she found the man-beast, performing what looked like martial arts exercises, on the very peak. She stopped within arrowshot of him, and nocked her bow, before speaking.

"To set foot on Pheonix mountain without the leave of the Lord Saffron is punishable by death," she stated. The beast paused in its motions, perfectly balanced and holding what looked like a very painful position, while it sniffed, and looked about. Spying her, it turned to face her, and bowed low.

"Good day, Lady," he said, then paused and looked more closely at her, "Hmm... I was not aware that there were non-humans living on this world," he commented, thinking to himself that her appearance would have fit in well in his Lady's world.

Lady Kima stared, as he made small talk, and bared his teeth at her, as if smiling. She felt indescribable fury, as he ignored her statement, and made no comment about the sentence she had declared. How dare this beast mock her? She let fly, and the arrow landed with a satisfying thunk, right through the heart of the beast.

Ranma jerked in pain, staring at her in surprise as he fell. He hadn't expected so cold-blooded a response. He roared in pain when he crashed against the mountainside, and rolled, the arrow snapping off in his wound.

He focused, and drew on his ki, as he grabbed the arrow and tore it from his chest. Blackness flickered at the edges of his vision, as he fought ot hold his concentration, and heal the wound in his heart before his consciousness faded. He succeeded, his chest was healed and his vision cleared, even as he slammed to a halt on a ledge.

He saw the bird-woman flying down towards him, another arrow nocked. She let fly, and he embraced the Neko-ken, focusing his ki into his limbs, and snatched the arrow from the air, leaping to his feet. "That hurt!," he growled.

He had, on hearing her first words, considered allowing her to kill his body, while he left it. He had simply not been prepared for her to act so quickly, and so was unready to leap from his flesh, while that intent of his had been sufficient that he had not bothered to protect himself by focusing ki into his body for protection.

He decided he would still allow her to carry out her sentence, but he would get some payback first. He roared at her, snatching another arrow from the air. She had a distinctly annoyed look now, and she slung her bow onto her back, and pulled out a sword.

He grinned, a feral smile full of sharp teeth and the promise of pain, and pulled out a deep blue katana, and took a defensive stance. Kima swooped down, knowing that most humans were very inexperienced in fighting airborne opponents. She wasn't certain if that would be true for this tiger, but she would not be surprised if it were.

To her surprise, he leapt, and met her in the air, blade flashing, ringing against her own. She parried as he fell past her, towards the wall, and spun to face him, only to parry again in spite of her shock, as he rebounded well before reaching the wall, changing directions in mid-air and increasing speed.

She felt a sudden pulse of fear, as he whipped past her again, moving ever faster, redirecting his momentum seemingly at will. Her fear eased and a smirk grew on her face, in spite of her desperate straits as she frantically parried his blows, when she saw more warriors rising up about them, bows notched, arrows ready.

He snarled, "Playtime's over, little birdy," and she felt a stunning blow on her back, right between her wings, and she hit the ground hard. She was shocked to realize that she hadn't even seen him move... from the speaking, which was done as he passed in front of her, to his blow, only the merest instant had passed, and she hadn't seen him move.

She heard the twanging of bows from all around, and realized that he had made a fatal mistake by getting her out of the way. She rolled over, and was surprised when her body responded. She had, though she was trying not to think too much about, half-expected to be unable to feel anything below her shoulders. Hadn't he struck her with that katana?

She was even more shocked to see that only about a quarter of the arrows had hit their mark... the rest were collected in his hands, though there was still a look of startled surprise on his face... as if he had expected to catch them all. He faltered, and collapsed, falling from the air to smash heavily into the ground.

Ranma suppressed his ki as best he could, and pulled out of the dying body, then, as soon as he was beyond the ring of warriors, called up the blue flame to incinerate the body. He smirked, enjoying the startled expressions on the warriors, but most of all, on the Lady who had first attacked him.

---

Ranko and Xian Pu pulled Ukyou into Xian Pu's room, and Ranko shut the door behind her.

"Wha.. what are you doing?," protested Ukyou, as Xian Pu started unbuttoning her shirt.

"Told you. Man's clothes not right for you now. You must dress as woman now." With that, she pulled Ukyou's shirt off of her. Ranko started unwrapping her breast bindings, while Xian Pu unfastened her pants, and pulled them down.

"Boxers?," Xian Pu snorted when she got Ukyou's pants off. Then she looked up, as Ranko undid the last wrap, and freed Ukyou's breasts completely.

"Good. Is bad to hide such beauty. Women are stronger, anyway." Xian Pu looked at her speculatively, then down at herself. She turned and fumbled in a drawer, before pulling out a long cloth measuring tape, and wrapping it about Ukyou. "Hmmm... Wait here, I go borrow a bra right size. Be right back!" She bounced out of the room.

Ranko turned to Ukyou, who had sat down on the bed, her head awhirl, and handed her a pair of pink silk panties. "Here, try these."

Ukyou took them, and blushed. She was almost naked... it wasn't that she was embarrassed, they were all girls... But from what Xian Pu said, Ranko really WAS Ranma, in a peculiar way, and the thought of being naked with Ranma was doing interesting things to her body. She hoped Ranko thought her nipples were just stiff from the cold, as she quickly shucked the boxers, and pulled up the panties, which fit reasonably well.

Xian Pu bounded back in a few minutes later. "Why Ryouga fall over when I came back?," she asked, and Ukyou blushed again, as Xian Pu held out a lacy black bra.

"Probably because you were carrying this," she replied, taking it from Xian Pu. "He's rather shy about stuff like that." She put the bra on. It felt rather good against her skin. She had never had an opportunity to wear such things, and when a few minutes later she was wearing a tight fitting blue cheongsam, she felt wonderful.

She let them lead her downstairs, and was gratified when Ryouga got a nosebleed and passed out upon seeing her.

"Wow, he must really like you," Xian Pu said, "He your boyfriend, yes?"

"Huh? What? Ryouga? Uh... no, not really." Ukyou looked down at him, stunned. She realized suddenly that she didn't really look much different from Ranko or Xian Pu at the moment... and he hadn't passed out when he saw them. Was it possible... did Ryouga really like her, as more than just a friend?

---

Meanwhile, the Council of the other Amazon village, the Kunichiezu, met, and deliberated long into the night. When the assembled elders heard the story of the younger women, they were dismissed, to await the decision with the rest of the village.

Inside, the two elders who had led the morning's sortie described the scene at the pool. The other elders listened in wonder, then finally one spoke.

"If he is so powerful as to awaken a water spirit, and arouse its desire, and yet the water spirit dares not take what she wants, then can we truly think to prevail against it?"

"You speak truth. Remember, all, what happened to the Linichiezu, after they challenged a water spirit? Nothing would grow for them, and when they tried to irrigate, the river flooded, and washed the village away. We cannot fight that kind of power."

There was some minor dispute of her words, but in the end they agreed. They were powerless to face it. "The only choice then, to save the village, is for warriors to volunteer, as was done in the long past with dragons, and we must pray he does not need too many, to do what he wishes."

There was furious dissension, and in the end nothing was decided. They met again the next night, and then sent another sortie to watch. The reports only continued to confound them.

The arguments lasted for nearly three weeks, before finally, in the end, they had to accept it. Their careful vigil told them how close he was to perfecting the male body, and if they did not act soon, he might move first, and that would be disastrous. Even at the end, there were vociferous arguments over whether they should take volunteers or hold a contest of arms. Finally, it was accepted that they would follow the laws written long ago for the appeasing of dragons. It had long been accepted that there would be times that a few would need to be sacrificed for the many, and these were laws written for just such times.

When they finally agreed, they broke the news to the village. It was the young warrior, who had been with the first group to see him, who volunteered to be first, for it had been her reaction, she felt, that had confirmed their presence to the tiger-spirit.

---

When Ranma awoke the next morning, he sniffed critically at the morning air. He smelled an unusual scent... he looked around, and was quite startled to see the young Amazon, sleeping nearby under a thin blanket, smelling of jasmine.

He worried over what it might mean, but decided that all he could do was wait till the girl woke up, and try to find out from her what the Amazons wanted, and why they hadn't left him alone. At least they didn't seem to be hunting him, anymore. She didn't look like she had any weapons... unless she were the bait for a trap? He stretched out his senses... no, she was the only one nearby.

He built a quick fire, and retrieved his metal platform. Then, as he had all those years before, when traveling with the Lady, he pulled out his mat, and set about cooking a meal. He was just stuffing the dove into the quail, both well worked over with spices, when he realized the girl had sat up, and was staring at him. He grinned at her, and she cringed away. Sighing, he continued, stuffing the quail in the pheasant. He didn't realize that she had never seen such a thing before... and watching him pull the skeleton from each bird in turn had put her in mind of him doing that to her...

She watched in wonder as he pulled vegetables and fruit from nowhere, washed them in water, and sliced them expertly. He finally looked up, after having set out the meal, and two places, on a low table. He saw her, still sitting where she had slept, watching with wide fearful eyes. "Come," he said, gesturing to the table, "eat with me."

She crept slowly to the table, and pulled herself up to sit on the cushion, then watched, silent and wide-eyed, as he pulled the wakizashi from nowhere, and making it into a large knife, carved the birds, then handed her a plate piled with meat and salad. She didn't start eating, until he had made himself a plate, and begun eating it, himself. She had feared he might have been... fattening her up.

Several times he tried to ask her why she was there, but each time he did so, she pictured him breaking open her chest, and pulling out her heart and eating it, and went white. She never said a word.

He stood then, and she cowered, but he simply turned, and leapt over the water to land lightly on the large stone, where he settled in lotus postion. She watched, wide-eyed, as the neriad swam up, to rest her arms on the rock, as she listened to him play for her.

Then he stood, as she watched, bobbing back to lie in the water, resting her head on the surface like a pillow. He began his kata, and the young girl sitting on the grass at the waterside felt sudden desire swell up in her again, as she watched his graceful motions. She stifled a gasp, when he leapt from the rock, until to bounce lightly off the surface of the water several times, before landing again on the rock.

Finally, he stopped, and bowed to the neriad, saying something in a voice like water rushing around stones in a narrow passage, before turning to look at her, then leaping away into the forest. The neriad turned to look at her, and beckoned.

She shook her head, fearful, mindful of the stories she had heard, of neriads luring people to them, only to drown them in their waters. But the Lady beckoned again, and said something in a soft voice like the babbling of a brook in the warmth of the summer sun, and she felt her desire for the tiger crest, and crash over her like a wave, and she stumbled, panting, to the edge of the water.

The neriad came to her there, and took her in strong wet arms, and kissed her on the lips. Then she lifted her head, and spoke again, and this time the girl understood, though the voice was as before. "Now you can understand me child. I feel your desire for him, for I share it. Come, assuage your desire with me." She took the girl up in her arms, and carried her behind the waterfall, and stripping her of her clothes, made slow love to her, as the water cascaded down upon them.

---

Ranma headed for a different mountain this time, and stayed on the lower slopes. It was thus, as he danced amongst the boulders, slashing at them, slowly carving one into his form, and one into the form of Ranko, that the Lady Kima, flying a long search pattern, sighted him.

She flew down to land upon a stone near where he danced, and tucked her wings behind her. "You tricked me," she called out. He stopped and looked up at her. It was then that she finally realized that he had not merely been slashing the stone... two of the stones were beginning to take on definite, almost human forms.

"You again. I did not trick you. That which set foot on your mountain is dead, ashes now. I have no feet, no body at all, so I cannot be in violation of your law, and this body I am wearing has not touched your mountain."

She felt a sudden strong fear, realizing that if he took offense at her actions, and attacked... well, she had not her support troops now, nor had they in fact suceeded in killing him the first time. Firming her resolve, and recognizing that had he intended to kill her, he could have done so when first they met, she leapt lightly down to stand before him.

He was tall, ten feet at least, and strongly muscled. He stood still, as she walked about him, looking him over. "You look as you did before. If you are a spirit, as you imply, taking and using this body, then why is this body identical to the last one?"

"I did not take the body, Lady, I made it."

"A pity you did not give it wings, then. So beautiful a body to be landbound."

"I am not landbound, Lady, wings or no. But if you prefer wings..." The creature collapsed forward, and yet it still stood before her, a glowing thing now. She could feel it... it was ki, pure ki. It stepped back, and then suddenly grew in height, and became solid. She stepped back, gaping in awe.

It was fifteen foot tall, even more heavily muscled, and its skin was scaly. Its head was reptilian... draconic, really... It spread its wings... They were five feet from shoulder to the first joint, and fifteen feet from the first joint to the tip. When furled behind him, they reached two feet over his head, and when fully extended, as now, they stretched an awesome forty feet.

"Lady Kima," a rich baritone drawled. "I thought you told me you don't consort with dragon kind?" Prince Herb of the Musk leapt from a rock above them, to land before the beast. "Greetings, brother," he said to it, bowing.

"Brother?," asked Ranma, curiously. His voice was much deeper than even his cat's voice, and it had a strange echo to it, that made it seem to resonate with power.

"This is Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty. He is descended from a dragon," Kima interjected. She had been flying about because he had been reported in the area.

"That does not make us brothers," Ranma replied. "There is no dragon blood in me."

Prince Herb stared at him. "But... but... you're clearly half-dragon, at least!"

"No. This is not my true form. This is... I think this is the ultimate expression of the Neko-ken. It is a martial arts technique."

Both of the other two just gaped at him. This massive beast was claiming to be nothing more than a martial artist.

"I was raised by a dragon, though," he continued, and their mouths dropped.

"But...but there aren't any dragons in the world right now," protested Herb.

"I wasn't raised on this world," Ranma replied, and their jaws dropped further. He turned to the Lady. "Well, Lady Kima. Do your laws still say you have to kill me?" She shook her head, numbly.

Finally she found her voice. "If... If this isn't your real body... then where is it?"

"My sister is using it, until I finish making her one. I never really realized before how complex a human body is."

"You're... you're making a body for your sister?" Prince Herb was having difficulty grasping this. Ranma reached down with a massive claw, and gripped the shoulder of his cat body, and held it up.

"Yeah, like I made this one. This is the lesser final stage of the Neko-ken. I think it has to do with yin/yang. You know, the tiger and dragon motif?"

"Uh... yeah...," Herb said, staring at the massively muscled body being held up before him. "You made that, too?"

"Yes. Making these two bodies is easy though, compared to making a human body." He shucked the dragon body, suddenly, and Herb gasped, as he felt the sheer power of the being of pure ki standing before him, as it drew the cat body on like clothing. The cat walked over to the two partial statues, stepping on the dragon body to do so. He glanced down at it, and suddenly, it stood up again, and moved back out of the way. "Better," he muttered to himself.

Suddenly, he turned into a blur of orange and black and blue streaks, and the stone seemed to melt away to reveal a boy and girl, who looked, in the stone, almost like twins, though the girl was near a foot shorter. He drew back and stilled, as the dust cloud kicked up by his motions settled slowly about the statues.

"She's beautiful," Prince Herb said quietly, staring at the stone that seemed so real it might come to life any moment. Lady Kima gazed at the statue of the boy, surprised to feel a stir of desire. She had never felt that humans were beautiful, but this boy was. "Is that your sister?," Herb asked.

"Yes," he replied, and then pointed at the boy, "and that's me."

"You're human?" they both asked together, equally startled.

"Heh, yeah, sorry, I should have introduced myself, since you both did. I'm Fey Ranma, the Lord of Fey Castle, Founder of the Fey Musabetso Kakuto Ryuu."

He bowed to them, then continued, "Well, its been a pleasure, but I gotta get back. I need to feed that Amazon before she wanders off."

They both looked startled at his words, and were even more startled when the cat sprang into the air, and disappeared with a sharp crack. Then their attention was grabbed by the half-dragon, as it snapped its legs, launching itself into the air, lifting higher with a lazy flap from massive wings, before sailing off to the south.

They stared at each other for a long, long minute.

---

Silk, the young Amazon, was sitting on the shore by a fire. The water-spirit had disappeared shortly after their tryst, leaving her to her own devices. She hadn't been permitted to bring any weapons, lest the tiger-spirit get the idea they were hunting him, so she made a fire, and kept it going, so she would have a defense if some wild animal decided she looked tasty. The fire the tiger-spirit had made had gone out while she was... busy... with the neriad.

The sun had passed mid-sky, and she was beginning to feel hungry, when the tiger-spirit fell from the sky to land lightly near her. She leapt away, startled by his sudden appearance. She had just begun to wonder when he would get around to eating her... waiting was rather boring. But his sudden appearance made her realize she didn't really mind waiting. Not that much, anyway.

He didn't look at her, just watched the sky expectantly. Soon she was cowering in a little ball by the edge of the forest, as a truly massive dragon-man swooped down, his huge wings reaching nearly from the edge of the forest on one side, to dip into the water on the other. As soon as it had settled, and firmed its stance, it drew its wings in. The tiger walked over to stand in front of it, and the dragon reached out, taking the tiger's shoulders in its huge claws, and lifted... leaving the tiger-spirit glowing blue beneath it. The tiger-spirit stepped away, and the dragon sat heavily, curling its tail about it, as it pulled its heavy legs in.

She jerked in shock, as the discarded tiger body proceeded to sit up, and fold its own legs, sitting atop the dragon's legs. The tiger-spirit seemed to nod at them, and turn away, and as he did so, he fell into a much smaller form. He firmed suddenly, and Silk's mouth went dry with desire at the beautiful hunk of nude male flesh, before the tiger reached out and pulled the body up off the spirit, who swelled again to tiger form. Once again the discarded body seemed to suddenly reanimate, and it walked over to stand by the dragon.

The spirit then turned to look at her. She knew, it was her time now. Well, frightened though she was, she would face her end like a true Amazon. She stood, burying her fear, and walked, face held high, to stand before the ten foot tall transparent blue figure. It seemed to regard her for a moment, then pointed to the tiger figure. She looked up at the tiger, confused, and the nude male body came to stand beside her. It took her hand, and she glanced at its face. She was deeply shaken by the empty look of the face. There was simply nothing there, no emotion, no awareness, no life, just emptiness.

The body stepped up to stand on the dragon's knee, still holding her hand, and pulled her up. It sat her on the tiger's lap, arranged her, then stepped back down, and walked over to the spirit, who put the body on, like putting on clothing. She shivered.

The boy stood before her, then glanced down, and suddenly it was clothed in black silk. It looked at her, and now its face was alive, its eyes were vibrant, a deep, brilliant blue.

"You would not answer me, this morning. Will you do so now?" His voice was much softer in this form, much more human. "Why are you here?"

She screwed up her courage to reply. Hopefully she would not anger it... if she said the wrong thing, and it killed her from anger, then she would be dooming another of her friends from the village to death. "We know we cannot stop you. So as with the dragons in the long past, a few will be sacrificed for the many."

"They made you come here?" he asked, gently.

"I chose. I volunteered."

He sighed. "I did not want this... but you could be of use to me. But I think your people have misunderstood me. I need kill no-one, to do what I am doing, and have killed no-one in doing it. This body, that your people have, I assume, seen me cut and eat, is my own, a creation I made in mimicry of my body. It has no life apart from me. But if you are willing to help me, then you need do no more than sit there, and wait, and watch. I will not hurt you, nor will you die."

She sat, looking in silence at the boy. She was terribly confused, but refused to allow herself to hope. She had given up her life, she would not embarrass herself or her people for pleading for it.

He sat before her, and blue flames began to flicker about him as he stared at her, with flames visible in his blue eyes. She shivered as his eyes seemed to see right through her clothes, indeed, right through her skin. She felt like he could see her heart, her innermost thoughts and desires. Still she faced him, head held proud. She would not shame her people by showing her fear.

Finally, as he stared at her, the body of the boy stood, and walked to the side of the dragon, leaving the tiger-spirit in boy form, sitting, staring at her. Slowly the spirit shifted, until she was looking on a transparent blue young woman, who suddenly became real. When it did, Silk gasped. It was like she was staring at herself in a mirror! Other than the complete lack of clothing, of course.

She watched, as if in a dream, as she rose from the ground, and looked down at herself. She placed a hand on her own breast, over her heart, and Silk felt a moment of disorientation when she didn't feel a heartbeat. It took several moments for her to tear her eyes away from herself, to look down, and realize that she wasn't touching her own breast... her hands were lying still on her thighs. She looked up again, to see the boy walk out to stand before her. Then she watched herself reach out, to place a second hand on the boy's chest. It was as if, she thought, the tiger spirit were comparing heartbeats.

Her eyes met her eyes, and she beckoned to herself, and so she climbed down to stand before herself. She reached out to herself, and placed her hand on her breast so she could feel both heartbeats, but she didn't feel anything in her hands, because her hands were still by her side, though she felt the hand on her breast. She smiled suddenly, and wrapped herself in a hug, and felt her breasts against her own. The boy reached out from behind her, and held her, and the naked her slumped, face going frighteningly dead, as the boy's face suddenly came back to life.

He lifted her naked body easily in his hands, and handed it to the tiger, who cradled it against him. He turned to look at her, with those amazingly vivid blue eyes. "Thank you. You have given me the key." That beautiful body collapsed, and the transparent blue boy looked down at it, his feet still within it, and it burst into blue flames so hot she was forced to leap backwards. Just as suddenly, the boy was back, real, and standing nude before her, before becoming clothed in an instant.

He smiled at her. "You have done what you were asked to do. I have accomplished my goal, thanks to you. I would give a gift, ere you go. What would you ask of me?"

She shook her head sadly, looking at him.

"If you insist. You are free to go, Lady." He turned to look at the tiger, and it leapt down, and loped over to him. He stood, looking at the nude body. "Now what am I going to with this? Hmm..."

He heard a soft voice behind him. "Can... Can I have her?" He turned to see the young girl, looking intently at her own nude body.

"It has no mind," he said.

"Can't you give it one?" she asked him.

"Not really... I could... I could give it a cat-like mind... but not one of a human level."

"A cat would be perfect," she said, clapping her hands. He looked at her, and sighed.

"A cat wouldn't be really happy in this body... would you object if I gave her cat ears, whiskers, and a tail? It would make her happier..."

"Sure!"

He sighed again. He pulled the magic up, changing the body, and then gave it a tiger striped pant-suit, before giving it a mind, and a love for the other girl, to make sure it didn't hurt her unintentionally. Neko-Silk looked up, purring, and leapt down, rubbing her head against Silk's leg. Silk looked delighted, and ran off, chased by Neko-Silk. Ranma watched them go.

"I hope that doesn't get her in trouble. But at least it got rid of the body. I really didn't like the idea of eating her body... or even hurting it. Its not the same as when it was just my body I was doing those things to... but it definitely made all the difference to have a human body to look at as I made a new one. Comparing my body with the tiger body was nice and all, but they aren't really built quite the same."

---

Ranko looked around the breakfast table that morning, at her two new friends, and Xian Pu, and came to a sudden decision. "Its been three weeks... I want to see how he's doing. Xian Pu, feel like making a little trip?"

Xian Pu looked up, a cat-like smile appearing on her soft lips. "To surprise Ranma? Oh, yes... definitely."

"Ukyou should certainly get a chance to meet the real thing... make sure she doesn't really want to kill him..." Ranko grinned at her, letting her know she wasn't worried. "Kho Lon, is it ok with you, if we go to visit Ranma?"

Kho Lon considered it for a long minute. It would be risking Ranko... but then, there was very little she couldn't handle, and Xian Pu would be with them, but still... "You may go, child... if you take Mu Suu with you."

"Wonderful! I'll go find Mu Suu. Xian Pu, start packing, ok?" Without waiting for Xian Pu's nod, Ranko leapt from the table, and was out the door.

A short while later, the five travelers set out. Ranko led them first to the grove where she had last seen Ranma. Ryouga was the first to spot the exploded stone and circle of char. "What happened here?"

"Oh," Ranko replied, "Nothing much. That was a power stone. I stored as much ki in it as my body normally holds, then when I was full again, Ranma tore it from me, and possessed it. Then I released the ki in the stone, and reabsorbed it. That's how he got his ki body."

Mu Suu examined the stone, but made no comment. Ranko pointed out the direction Ranma had taken, and after thinking for a while, Xian Pu decided they should go to the Amazon village that was in that general direction, and see if they had seen any signs of him.

---

They stood in the Amazon village, facing two wrinkled old women. "You are serious, young ones? You seek the tiger spirit? We know where he is, indeed, but he is very dangerous. You should keep away. Angering the spirits is very bad."

Ranko laughed. "He won't be mad. He's my brother."

The old ladies turned white. They drew Xian Pu aside, and spoke in quiet Cantonese. "Is what she says true? She is the sister of the tiger spirit?"

"It is."

"But the tiger spirit said he is making a body for his sister. What is wrong with hers?"

"Nothing. That's not her body, its his."

"That doesn't look like a man's body to me."

"Jusenkyou."

"Oh." They told her where he was, and how to get there, but weren't done dispensing their warnings. "Be careful child. We sent one of our warriors there. When she returned, there were two of her." They pointed to two young warriors, who looked identical, except that one had a long furry tail, and was acting like a cat. "Also, there is a water spirit near him. He has some agreement with it, but avoid angering her. They can be deadly enemies."

Xian Pu assured them that they would be cautious, and they set off again.

Reunion

Ranma decided that as long as he had the three bodies here together, he ought to get used to controlling them. He had been able to spar against five unseen foes by manipulating weapons with the Juushin Jisei... this was just an extension of that, though an important one.

Ranma took the three bodies to the base of yet another mountain, hoping for some undisturbed sparring time. This time, his senses remained stretched about him, as he was no longer observing the reactions within his body.

Ranma began sparring, steadily working on controlling the three bodies at once. He discovered that the human body he was in was stronger than either of the other two, in spite of their greater mass, emphasizing the difference his ki made.

Realizing this, he pulled out of the body, and floated above in tiger form, as he controlled the sparring going on below. After nearly an hour of sparring, the bodies below him were moving fluidly, and fighting in something that actually approximated his style, though all three were slower and less powerful than when he was within them.

This made him realize that without his ki, these bodies might be more of a hindrance in a fight, than a help. However, the slight drain he was feeling after only an hour out-of-body, made him remember that all three bodies were generating ki. If he could only harness the ki of the body... That was when he realized a vital point. He had to master this, or Ranko would have to do what he was doing... roam around as a being of pure ki inhabiting bodies. Unless she could fully master and control the ki the body generated, and use it instead of supplying her own and supplementing it with the body's...

He moved the tiger and dragon each to one side, then focused on the human body. He started, by trying to get the body to generate a ki aura... but with no results. So then he shifted, and thought, maybe I need to be more in tune with it. He reached out with his sixth and seventh senses, focusing on the body's senses, on the miniscule flows of ki from the eyes, and the brain...

Suddenly, he was looking out across the rocks, instead of down at them. He flicked his gaze upward... had he been drawn into the body by trying too hard? His gaze met the gaze of the ki form, floating in the air above him. The ki figure did not move. Then he looked at his hands, and trying to pull up ki, and his hand flared with blue light. He leapt lightly into the air, and studied the ki figure. He tried to move it, and nothing happened.

He realized, finally, what had happened. He had tuned in to the body, until it had pulled his spirit out of the body. He pulled himself free from the body, and drifted up, and fell back into his ki-form. Well, at least that explained how to work with Ranko... if she used his exit to the spirit-form and entered the body... or if he left her with their body, and did the same himself, then the body would be really theirs.

That still didn't get him where he wanted to be, and he went back to work, trying, from a distance, to convince one of the bodies to use some of its ki, to get a flicker of aura. As the light slowly failed, he gave in, and brought the bodies back to the water.

When he reached the side of the water, after a mighty bound, he was startled to find several tents set up there, and a fire, and five people around it. One of them had brilliant red hair. She leapt up when he appeared, and was about to run to him, when the tiger landed behind him. They all jumped up, staring, and then the dragon descended behind the tiger. Ranma just stared, stupefied. How had she known? He had planned on giving her several months to get adjusted... and who were these other people? He recognized only Ranko and Xian Pu.

Ranko shook off her surprise, and leapt for him, wrapping him in a hug, squeezing him tightly, feeling the strength, the realness of his body. "You did it! Wow, already? I love you, brother."

He put his arms around her slowly, still staring at the group. "I love you too, Ranko-chan. But... but who are all these people?"

The young woman he didn't know stepped forward, her hair long and dark. "I'm... I'm Kuonji Ukyou."

His eyes widened, flashing with sudden delight "Ucchan...," then they darkened again, and he shook his head, "You can't be... Ukyou's a guy... Oh, no, tell me you didn't fall in the Nyannichuan?"

Ranko spoke up, looking up at him. "She was always a girl. Papa-san admitted that he knew." She released him and stepped back, and he stepped towards Ukyou, staring.

"Ucchan?" He still looked confused. She ran up and hugged him tightly.

"Ranchan... its been so long. Its good to see you again." Then she turned, and left his side, to go to Ryouga, and pull him forward. "This is Ryouga. He was my best friend from middle school. He came with me, to help me."

Ranma looked at him. Ryouga looked strong, and fit. "You're a martial artist, huh?" Ryouga nodded. "Thought so. You look it."

Then Ranko was pulling Mu Suu forward. Mu Suu stepped up, and bowed deeply. "This is Mu Suu, Ranma."

Ranma bowed back. "I am honored to meet you. You're a Master of Hidden Weapons, eh?"

"Kho Lon told you?," Mu Suu asked, surprised. He hadn't really expected Xian Pu or Kho Lon to have wasted words on him around Ranma.

"Nah. Its just, you'd have to be, to be carrying that many." Mu Suu prevented his jaw from dropping through sheer force of will. He stepped back, then Xian Pu bounded up.

She had waited until last, because she wanted to hold him the longest. She hugged him tightly, glad that the events of the day had given her sufficient reason to do so. He felt strong, and solid. It was like hugging a warm statue. She stepped back. "Aren't you going to introduce us to your friends?," she asked, batting her eyelashes at him prettily.

"Uhm... right," he said slowly, a glint of amusement in his eyes. The ten foot half-tiger, and fifteen foot half-dragon stepped up to either side of him, and then all three said, in that curious unison. "Hello, I'm Fey Ranma." They bowed, in perfect synchronization. Ranko clapped, Xian Pu gasped, Ukyou, Ryouga, and Mu Suu just gaped.

Ranma took Ranko's hand, and pulled her close so he could look into her eyes. "There's someone I'd like you to meet, too," he said, then released her hand, and leapt to the rock in the depths of the pool, and pulled out a deep blue flute, and began playing.

All five watched, shocked, when the neriad cleared the surface. Her hair was swept back this time, exposing her generous assets, and Ryouga fell, stunned. She called out to Ranma, in a voice like running water, and he paused in his playing, and stood, and gestured to his sister. She leapt lightly across the water, and then he cast his spell. To Xian Pu, watching from the shore, it was like a bell of doom, tolling for her. He was standing there, looking upon the exposed beauty of a goddess, against whom she could not hope to compete, and showed not the slightest disturbance, not the least discomfort. How then could she hope to win him? This was beyond iron will, of which his Lady had written. This was will of diamond, or something harder still. She could only hope, and pray, that he would soften after he freed his Dragon Lady.

"Lady, this is my sister, of whom I spoke to you."

Ranko sat on the edge of the stone, looking at the beautiful neriad. The Lady swept up close to her, and then looked between them.

"You are beautiful as well, child. Will you dance together for me?"

"We will," Ranma replied. Before he could act, she spoke again, glancing between the two of them.

"But... but you are both fierce tiger," she said. "You are one spirit!" Her surprise and astonishment shone through her eyes.

"Yes," Ranma said, smiling, "we are one." He turned to Ranko. "By dance, she means she wishes to see a kata. Aerial, on and above the water, alright?" At her nod, he tensed, and she tensed with him, and together, they launched into an aerial kata.

All four of those on the shore were stunned. It was the first time anyone had ever seen the two spar, and it was amazing, and very like an aerial ballet. The still surface of the water began to seem like a solid floor, for they would land on it, and leap again, leaving only the very lightest of ripples. Ryouga was grateful for it, for it was so amazing it held his attention, keeping it from wandering to the water spirit and knocking him out again.

The neriad too, was entranced, though she alone could truly see the oneness of spirit that allowed, indeed defined, the tremendous display. Finally, the tiger and dragon leapt to join the dance, and now it was truly unbelievable. To see a fifteen foot dragon set one massive clawed foot lightly on the water and leap again, it verily hurt the mind.

The watchers on the shore might have been able to trick their minds into believing the surface of the lake to be solid, were it not for the unbelievably beautiful water spirit, that bobbed lightly, moving back and forth, swaying gently as the water rippled about her. She was the final piece that made the whole scene utterly surreal.

Finally, the tiger and dragon leapt back to the shore, and Ranko and Ranma landed together on the rock, holding each other's hand, one foot on the stone, the other held high, knee bent, and their free hands curled under their chin, with their elbow resting on their knee. Everyone burst into applause. They grinned, then slid into lotus position, back to back, and pulled out their flutes. Ranko's flute was golden, the original Dragon Fang, while Ranma's was deep blue, the wakizashi he had made. He held out the wakizashi to her over his shoulder, and she nodded, and handed the Dragon Fang back to him over her shoulder.

She understood immediately the significance of the seemingly pointless exchange. The Dragon Fang was, in a sense, the symbol of the office he held, the Lord Fey's weapon and scepter. By accepting it back, he was both saying that the wakizashi was hers now, his gift to her, and, in a deeper sense, and one that touched her heart, he was silently informing her that he had no intention of taking his body back from her. He had made a new form for himself, and would allow her to keep the body that had been theirs since childhood. In a way, it was an offer of equality, of assuring her that she need not always stand second to him. They began softly, notes only barely audible, slow and long, like a gentle murmuring, building to the rushing of water in a trench too narrow to hold it all, fading to the slow rumble of water overflowing its banks, moving slower, but powerfully. Ranko spun her harmony over and under Ranma's melody. Then they joined each other, playing in perfect unison.

The neriad could see Ranko's eyes twinkling, as they were suddenly joined by a slow deep drumbeat. Ranko took off again, weaving a flight of fantasy around Ranma's more sedate, steady melody. She was joined by the trill of a piccolo, as Ranma's melody was suddenly supported by a clarinet.

All the watchers looked about them for the players, but neither player nor instrument did they see. A violin picked up Ranko's flight, followed by a viola taking up Ranma's. A snare drum picked up the rythym, as the music intensified.

Ryouga was beginning to sense the ki in the notes as they washed over him, while the neriad could see that the notes were beginning to be infused with magical energy. Light droplets started leaping from the water into the air, as if it were raining, though no water was coming from above.

A koto joined in, lightly plucked, followed by a shakuhachi, a traditional bamboo flute, its haunting sound complementing the koto, and lending a more Japanese air to the tune. The rising water thickened, becoming two sets of thin ropes of water winding about each other, though never touching, about a foot apart as they spiraled upward. The rising water intensified again, forming two upward flowing columns of water, moving slowly about the pair of musicians.

The music became steadily more focused, as each musician's set of instruments focused on their theme, reducing, though not eliminating, the connection between the two melodies. As it did so, the columns gained more definition, until they were water in the shape of Ranma and Ranko, dancing on the water about them.

The two clear blue figures came together, giving the four on the shore a curious view of Ranma and Ranko, rippling as they were viewed through these watery versions of themselves. The two water figures bowed, then took each other's hands, and began to dance, as the music became suddenly suited to elegant ballroom dancing, of the fashion popular at the Court of Farallon.

They crossed the water in a long glide towards the shore, then Eki-Ranma spun Eki-Ranko, spraying the four watchers with light droplets, then swung her back towards the center of the pool. They danced in a long circle around the stone, then stopped, and bowed deeply to each other, then bowed together to the watchers on the shore, and lastly to the water spirit, before collapsing back into the pool, causing a large ripple to spread, as the music faded, one instrument after another falling silent, until it was again only two flutes, and they too grew quieter, and finally stopped. Ranma and Ranko put their flutes away to loud applause.

The Lady swam up to them. "Thank you. That was beautiful. I assume, fierce tiger, that this means you are leaving?"

"Yes, Lady. My purpose is achieved, and though I had thought to give my sister more time amongst her new friends, I will go with them now. Yet would I leave you something to remember me by, Lady. I know you saw the threads of magic in the music. It was for more than what you saw... it was also for this." Ranma reached out and set a lotus blossom on the water, brilliant red in the center, fading to pink and finally white on the outside edges. "This is a memory blossom... pluck a single petal, and cast it upon the waters, and the waters will replay for you this last dance of ours, and the music we played for you. It will regrow the petal in a week." She reached out her hand, and pulled it to her, caressing it with a long delicate finger.

"Thank you. I will remember you always, my fierce tiger spirit." She took the blossom, and holding it up in one hand, she sank beneath the water until only the blossom was left on the surface, and she was gone.

Ranma and Ranko leapt for the shore. They were immediately surrounded by exclamations of congratulations, wonder, and amazement. Ranma grinned, and pulled out three minature lotus blossoms, crystal. He handed one to each of the girls. "Set them on still water, and you too can relive that dance. You didn't really think I'd forget you, did you?" Ranko grabbed his head, pulling it down so she could kiss his cheek.

"Thank you, Ranma. That was sweet, and fun. A fitting gift for a water-spirit."

"And for a spirit of fire, Red-chan," he grinned, and kissed the top of her head.

"But I guess you weren't really thinking, Ranma." She grinned up at him. "After all, if the girls want to remember, and watch you, mightn't the guys want to watch me?" She too produced three miniature lotus blossoms. Ranma looked delighted. Ryouga blushed, as he took his, and Ukyou gave him a mock glare, and then spoiled it by giggling. Mu Suu fairly shone as he took his, and tucked it carefully away.

Ukyou looked at Ranma for a while, before finally working up the courage to ask... "Ranchan, where did you learn ballroom dancing?"

"Oh... I had to learn. All these stuffy parties I had to go to while getting to know the nobles of the Five Kingdoms. It was either dance with pretty girls, or listen to the blatherings of idiots. The trials of being an ArchMage." He sighed dramatically.

Ryouga asked the next question. "Where'd you learn to do the thing with the water?"

"Huh? Oh, I didn't. I've never done that before. It was pretty cool, huh? I used the music as a focus to shape the magic to make the forms, and we let our ki ride the melodies to infuse the forms."

"You made that up? On the spot? I didn't see you discussing it..." Ryouga was curious and impressed, not skeptical but wondering.

"Oh. Well, we did discuss it. Our spirits are one, really, so we can talk, no matter where we are, spirit to spirit."

"You play more than flute, that just magic, or you really know how to play?" Xian Pu asked, hiding her annoyance at having to speak Japanese to be polite.

"My twelfth year... Alana had run out of martial arts masters to teach me, so she brought in some rather esoteric martial arts masters..." He looked speculatively at Ukyou. "Hmmm. Ukyou, your family is the only one to practice Martial Arts Okynomiyaki, right?"

"Yeah, its our family art. We're the only ones I know of."

"I think your father was one of my masters. Made me learn to make them on the beach. Made me find the place on the planet that had the biggest waves and breakers first, too."

"That sounds like Dad alright... but why didn't he attack you?"

"Oh... Probably cause I was just Lord Fey to all my masters. Anyway, I learned a bunch of cooking martial arts, then I learned musical martial arts. I can use a violin like a bow, among other things. So yeah, I can play all those instruments. Anyway, I reckon we'll go ahead and sleep here tonight, since you've gone to the trouble to set up your tents. Tomorrow, we'll go to one of the mountains I've been practicing at. There's something there I want to show you, Ranko. Then we can decide together what we want to do."

"What about you," Mu Suu asked. "We did not bring an extra tent."

"So? I haven't been using a tent the whole time I was here, why should I start now?"

"I asked, because there is room in the our tent. The tents are the same size, and can fit three each, comfortably."

"Oh. Well, sure, why not." He clapped the two guys on the back, then stopped, and looked closely at Ryouga, who eyed him back nervously. "Hey Ryouga, when'd you get cursed? What do you turn into?"

"Huh? I'm not cursed. I don't turn into anything."

"Really? Ranko, come here, I want to compare." Ranko walked over, and stood quietly as Ranma studied them both. "Well, you're right, its not a Jusenkyou curse... so what is it?"

"I dunno. I tell you, I ain't cursed."

"I bet I know what it is," Ukyou piped up, "In middle school, before I met him, Ryouga was called the 'Lost Boy.'" Ryouga blushed. "He only managed to find his way home about once a week. I often thought he must be cursed. He gets lost in a room with only one door, and that's more than just a bad sense of direction."

"You... you really think its a curse? Do you think there might be a cure?" Ryouga looked hopeful.

"I dunno. I never really tried to cure a curse before. But tell you what, why don't you come with me when Ranko and I go to free the Lady Alana. She's a dragon, and very old, and assuming she doesn't kill us when we set her free, she might be able to help, or know who could."

"That'd be great, man. Thanks."

"No problem. Any friend of Ucchan's is a friend of mine."

---

Nothing dared disturb their slumber that night... not with the massive tiger and dragon watching over them. So they woke in the morning feeling refreshed and clear-headed. The four travelers watched in startled wonder as Ranma and Ranko pulled a table and mats from nowhere, and proceeded to cook a very impressive breakfast in a surprisingly short amount of time. After they had all eaten, they set off in the direction of the mountain Ranma wanted them to see.

They moved slowly, land-bound, since Ranma wanted to take the time to get to know Ucchan again, and her and Ranko's friends. The tiger loped ahead of them, and the dragon strode behind.

Ranma listened and commented, as Ryouga and Ukyou told the story of their journey. Ranko told of her meeting with Mu Suu, who blushed terribly through the first part, not looking at Ranko or Xian Pu. Then Ukyou told the story of her meeting with Ranko, and watched in surprise, as Ranma took the news of their engagement by Genma and her father far calmer than Ranko.

She understood better some of what Xian Pu had said, when he listened to the end, and then spoke in a calm, hard tone. "I will not hold myself bound by my father's foolish promises. I have seen what he did. Were I to try and uphold the promises he has made for me, I would end up marrying at least fifteen women. That, I will not do. I do not need his name. I have my own now. Regardless, I can consider no tie binding until I have fulfilled my duty, and freed Ranko and the Lady Alana from their bonds."

Ranko blushed, as she realized the truth of what Xian Pu had said back in the village. Ranma had just placed her name before the Lady's.

Ranma took Ukyou's hand. "I am terribly sorry for what my father has done to you, Ucchan. Believe me, I will do all that I can to help you. I will not try to make restitution for all my father's misdeeds though. That is for him to do, should he wish to have a son again. I will do all I can for you, not as one who has been wronged, but as my friend."

Ukyou smiled at him, and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Thank you, Ranchan. You were always a good friend." Ukyou didn't notice the look of pain on Ryouga's face, though Ranma did.

They stopped midday, and ate again, and reached the base of the mountain around mid-afternoon. They worked their way carefully through the mounds of stones, until they came to where Ranma had been exercising the day before. It was easy enough to tell the place. Deep gouges in the stone left little doubt.

Ranma stood in the middle of the debris, examining the ground. "They've been taken."

"What have?," asked Xian Pu. "What was here?"

"Hmmph. I wanted to show you, not tell you. I wonder where they went."

"I'm sorry about that," Prince Herb said, leaping down from a stone. "We didn't realize that you would be back for them. When you did not return that day... I'm afraid we assumed..."

Xian Pu looked startled. "I know you... You're the Musk Prince!"

He bowed to her. "I am indeed Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty." He looked at Ranma, then across the group. His mouth fell open when he looked at Ranko. "You... you are the vision of loveliness that he tore from the stone. You are even more beautiful in the flesh."

Mu Suu stepped in front of her. "Stay back, Musk. She is under the protection of the Joketsuzoku Nichiezu."

Ryouga looked at Xian Pu and Mu Suu, who bristled with anger and nervousness, and Herb, who's face had darkened. "Seems to be a bit of hostility here."

Two more figures dropped into place behind Herb, two men, dressed in animal skins.

There was a fluttering of wings, causing most eyes to glance up, to see Lady Kima settling on a stone. "Of course there's hostility. They're sworn enemies, after all."

Xian Pu looked up in shock. "You... you are real? But the phoenix people are just a myth!"

"No," Kima laughed, "We are no myth, I assure you."

Ranma looked up at her. "Ranko, this is Lady Kima. She was my executioner, when first we met. She had me slain me for setting foot on the wrong pile of rocks." He grinned at Lady Kima's look of shocked dismay, and Prince Herb's look of lust tinged with fear, as Ranko's aura burst free, blue flames roaring about her, forcing everyone to step away, as the chips of rock that had been torn from the stones by Ranma were swept aside as by a high wind.

"You! You hurt Ranma!" Her aura suddenly swelled nine feet, becoming cat-like, and then she swelled into it, suddenly a very feminine half-tiger. "You dared hurt my Ranma?!?" she screamed in her fury, and her aura swelled again, and she grew into it, becoming a fourteen foot tall half-dragon, reaching out with a massive claw towards the Lady Kima, who spread her wings, and would have leapt into the air to escape.

She was too slow, as Ranko blurred, her claw wrapping about the Lady, lifting her up. Then she seemed to slump suddenly, and turned to Ranma, still holding the Lady Kima. Kima was struggling desperately, fear etched on her features, but Ranko didn't seem to be having any difficulty keeping her grip. She reached out, and set Kima on a different stone. Kima looked frightened, but didn't try to flee. She had realized that massive as Ranko was, she was still far faster than Kima.

Ranko's voice echoed within itself, as she spoke. "That wasn't very nice Ranma." She seemed to collapse back, wings and mass evaporating as she became the cute little redhead again.

"I know," he replied, "But I want to make sure that Lady Kima and Prince Herb have a very clear idea of what exactly they are facing." He turned to face both of them, noting in passing that the look of lust on Herb's face had given way to glazed look of fear.

"Mu Suu was correct, but he also had it a bit backwards. The Nichiezu are in fact protecting Ranko, because they know if she is hurt I will destroy them. But as long as we are with them, they are under our protection as well. If you attack the Nichiezu, and they ask for our aid, we will give it, and you will face the fury of two dragons. So I suggest you forget your enmities for a while." They both looked pale and frightened.

The group watched in silence, as Ranma turned his attention from the mutual enemies, and prowled among the stones. He was followed by most of the party, but Lady Kima and the Musk took the opportunity to slip away. Ranma looked until he found two stones that looked right. He looked at Ranko, and she smiled, and moved to stand beside him.

They began running around the two stones, then leaping and bounding around them, bouncing off the other standing stones, and then they blurred with a pair of sharp cracks, and a blue glow started to trace their movements, and then large chunks of stone started to fall away from the two stones, and were smashed to powdered rubble before reaching the ground.

The chips of stone started falling smaller and faster, and the stones almost seemd to be melting, as if the forms of Ranma and Ranko had been hidden within the stone, and they were just brushing off the concealing mould. The forms that they took were those of Ranma and Ranko in their triumphant pose the night before, hands outstretched to clasp one another, though not touching.

When they finished, Ranma and Ranko stood proudly, each by the other's statue, and they pushed them together, and shifted them slightly, and the statues' hands clasped, and fit together perfectly.

Once more they were surrounded by applause. "So, what are we going to do with them?" Ranko asked.

"I figured we could put them as the centerpiece to a pool in the wisteria garden, with another lotus blossom."

"Oh, wow, I bet Lady Alana would love that."

"I'll just store them away for now, though." Ranma waved his hand at them, and they disappeared, eliciting gasps of surprise from the others.

"Now, as I said earlier," Ranma continued, hopping up to sit atop a stone, looking down upon his friends. "We need to decide what to do from here. When are you all expected back at the village?"

"Not for a week, at the earliest. They won't worry until three weeks have passed without word," Xian Pu replied, in Mandarin. To heck with being polite, she wanted to be understood.

"And you've been away from the village for how long now?"

"Today is our second day out," Ranko replied.

"Then as I see it, we have three options. We can either wander about, doing who knows what, or we can go back to the village, or..."

"We can go free Dragon-Mama-san!" interrupted Ranko, smiling with delight.

"Exactly. But do your friends wish to come with us? I suspect Ryouga will..." Ryouga nodded. Ranma continued, "since it is the best chance for him to get a cure. What about the rest of you?"

"I would love to see your castle," Xian Pu replied, eyes shining with eagerness.

"I too would like to see your home, Ranchan," Ukyou smiled up at him, "especially if it means getting Ryouga cured." Ryouga felt a little disturbed at this. Did Ukyou mean that she would be happy to see Ryouga cured, because she liked him, because she would be happy for him... or because she was tired of having to help him, and deal with it, and would be happy for herself? Did she see him as a burden? He shivered.

"And you, Mu Suu? How do you feel about coming to our world for a while?"

"No objections."

"Wonderful." Ranma looked around quickly, until he found a large stone that was significantly larger than a normal doorway, He sliced it, to form a single smooth plane, then etched a complex design into it, like the outline of a door jamb, but filled with intricate sigils. Then he stopped, and looked over at Ranko.

"I know you're not too happy with him at the moment... I'm not either. But I want Genma-san to be with us. I want him to see that all that I've said is true. I want him to really understand that I don't need him anymore, so he stops trying to use us. You okay with that, Ranko-chan?"

"Yeah. He needs to see it with his own eyes."

Ranma nodded, and a panda appeared beside him. He looked around, and growfed in surprise. "You're coming with us, Genma-san. We're going home, to free the Lady." Ranma reached out and opened the door in the stone, revealing another stone wall several feet away. He pushed Genma through, then turned. "After you," he said, gesturing to the portal. As they passed through, he reached out with his ki, and the dragon and tiger burst into brilliant blue flames, and fell to ashes.

Breaking Chains

In Fey Castle, where once a blank wall of stone had stood, a door now opened. A large panda bounced in, rebounding off the far wall to roll a few feet before finally stopping, and sitting up. This earned surprised stares from the guards at the end of the hall, but they were not particularly worried. Being in the household of two of the world's foremost magic users inured you a bit to their vagaries.

They had somewhat more difficulty controlling their hormones, though, when Xian Pu _bounced_ through, certain portions of her anatomy moving in enticing ways, followed by an achingly beautiful fire-haired girl with a luscious figure, and a brunette with long hair and a shapely figure. They were followed by a young man carrying a wooden umbrella, wearing a yellow and black bandanna, a clothing affectation they had never seen before, and a young man in white robes. Their concern and anxiety were beginning to rise, as they considered the size of the invading group, until finally, a third young man entered, shutting the door behind him. Lord Fey had returned.

"Ah, good," he said, "The sleeping hall, exactly where I wanted to be." He jogged swiftly towards the guards, stopping just before reaching them, giving them a quick salute, which they returned smartly, before snapping open a door and looking in. "Ah, Genma-san. Your room is here."

Genma had followed him, but took a bit longer than Ranma had to get there. He looked in, and stopped in awe. The room was huge, the bed was huge, and there was a furo off to the side. His own private furo, that he could soak in as long as he wanted. And a dumbwaiter! It must lead to the kitchens. The others laughed to see Genma capering about, clearly thinking he was in heaven.

"We'll eat supper at around seven, Genma-san," Ranma said, then turned to lead the others away, closing the door behind him.

Genma was immediately subdued. The honorific and the name... they hurt. Why couldn't the boy just call him Oyaji again? Even 'Old Man' was better than Genma-san, as if he were an unrelated man. But Genma knew why. It would be that way, until Genma gave Ranma a reason to respect him again. Genma sighed, as he wondered how he could do that. It was clear to him now that he had no hope of forcing this dynamic and self-possessed young lord do his father's will because he was his father. Ranma no longer recognized the relationship. Family honor would not be a strong lever, for the boy could just drop Saotome, and become Ranma Fey, any time he liked. He was a Lord here, a Duke or something, Genma wasn't real clear on what. He didn't need the Saotome name. Perhaps he could use the need for Master Happosai's approval before the boy could teach... but he didn't want anything to do with the Master. He couldn't use Ranko, he had learned, for her reactions to his engagement of Ranma and Ucchan had gone beyond even Ranma's threats. "Oh, Tendou-san, I am so sorry. My promise will mean nothing, for I have lost my son," he wailed after Ranma shut the door, and left him alone in the room. Alone with his grief, and his failure... which lasted for about five minutes, until he looked about himself, and realized that he didn't really need the Tendo agreement any longer. All he had to do was get Ranma to at least tolerate him, and he could retire here, and live in the lap of luxury far beyond what he would have had at the Tendo's.

Ranma showed Ukyou, Ryouga and Mousse to their rooms, pointed out Xian Pu's room to her, then guided her to the exercise hall. She oohed and aahed with delight at the marvelous equipment. In one corner, innumerable bars, just the length of the foot's width, hung in the air, suspended by nothing. Ranma gave her a short demonstration of the Anything Goes aerial style, and how to use the bars. She found it exhilarating, though doing it herself wasn't quite as fulfilling as watching him do it.

He left her then, there in her private heaven, and went to collect Ranko. This would be his first chance to speak with her alone. She looked up at him.

"Will you give me my body, now?" she asked softly. She felt she already knew the answer. The trading of flutes had implied it. But it was hard for her to accept the implications.

"You already have it, Ranko-chan. I will keep this one."

"But... but... this is your body. Yours! You're the real Ranma. I'm the one that's not real." She started sobbing.

Ranma soothed her, stroking her hair. "Shhhh, Ranko, its okay. You are real. You are me. You are as real as I am, and I love you. And I have another gift for you. If I'm going to let you be out, always, then its only right that Neko should be freed of me too."

Ranko sobbed again, "I don't want to be free of you. I am you. Don't leave me alone. Please." She finally allowed herself to speak her true fear. He had gone beyond the need for her... he no longer even needed a body. Was she losing him?

[You're not free of me Ranko. Not like that. We are all still one. This is only on the outside. Our house is still there, we can all still go there, and be together. No matter how far away you are, I will always be there with you.]

[Oh, Ranma, thank you. Thank you so much. I love you.]

[I love you too, Red.]

She laughed into his shirt.

Ranma gently pulled away from Ranko, caught her attention, then reached inside himself, and pulled from within his chest a huge black panther, who dropped panting to the floor. Ranko looked at it with wide eyes, then wispered, "Neko? Neko, is that you?" and laughed joyously as Neko padded up to her and rubbed against her legs, purring loudly.

Together, the three crossed a courtyard to a free standing building, built in the style of a mausoleum. Inside, they went down a spiral flight of steps, stopping when they came to an immense wall of stone. Ranma chanted something in a strange tongue, then rapped on the wall, and a doorway appeared in it. They walked through, into an elaborately tiled room, centered around a raised basin, in which floated the Lady Alana, submerged in golden light.

Ranma explained quietly to Ranko what they had to do. He watched her in his mind, and waited as she sank into the meditative state, and examined the chains. As she began to describe them, he followed her in, and in their minds, they pictured what they saw, and looked, each, at the other's picture. To their joy, they saw that what Ranko was seeing was different from what Ranma saw. Ranko had been right, and they would be able to free Alana!

Even more delightful, there was already some overlap. Ranko could see the masculine strands, though but faintly. Ranma could see the feminine strands, though still faintly. Together, they reached out, and brushing lightly with their ki, they watched in wonder as the first knots fell apart. Working together, they moved eagerly from knot to knot, and as they did, the dragon in Alana's ki writhed, and seemed to tense with eagerness, shifting between a motionless patience, and a twisting fury. Finally, they severed the last bond, and the bonds that held the Dragon in chains fell, and the bonds that tied the Lady to Ranma fell with them. They arose from their meditation, and watched the Lady, as Neko flowed between them.

Ranko cried out in joy, as Alana rose from the water, and flowed from the form of a mature woman, into the long sinous coils of an ancient dragon, her coils slithering across one another as she floated in the air before them, face inscrutable but wise, eyes with depths upon depths, flame curling from the edges of her mouth.

Ranma and Ranko stood before her, silent and waiting. They had both accepted that if the Lady chose to take their lives in retaliation for her years of bondage, they would not resist. The only sign of the fear they held within, was Ranko's hand, seeking for Ranma's, and grasping it tightly, as Neko's purrs rose from beneath them.

Finally the Lady spoke, in her own voice, free of bondage, and awesome as the heavens. "You surpassed me in wisdom, child. I thought that only be becoming one again could you be whole and free me. You have become three now, and yet are more whole than when you were one. And now I find that though you have freed me from the bonds Fey laid upon me through his treachery and deceit, yet I am not free from my bonds."

Ranko burst into tears, and put her face in her hands. Ranma spoke calmly. "Lady, it worked, I know it did, We sundered the bonds, we found every knot. They are gone, there are no more!"

The Lady spoke again, and Ranma fell silent. "Yes Child, it worked. As I said, the bonds that Fey laid upon me are gone. But the bond of love for you that I have laid upon myself is as strong as ever. The love of a proud mother for her children, grown strong, for whom she need fear nothing. Will you accept my love, children? Will you be my children?"

Ranma and Ranko looked at each other. [We're not giving up on Mother, Red. We're just getting another Mother. Think you can deal with that?] He did not seem to notice, or perhaps simply understood and accepted, her tears.

[Baka,] she replied gently, [If you can, I can. I am you.]

They knelt before her, and Neko lay still. "Mother," they said together, as they looked up at her, beauty incarnate before them, "we are your children." Their voices sounded as one voice, every note and inflection identical, matching in every way except pitch. Ranma's eyes were clear, but Ranko's overflowed with tears of joy.

"Well said, my children. If my children you would be, then my blood must mingle with yours." So saying, she became a woman again, though now her true beauty shone through like a beacon. She stepped forward. "Draw your sword, Ranma Fey, and let our blood become as one." She took his sword, and cut his arm, and hers, and pressed the wounds together. He felt the shock of her blood entering his, and it spread like liquid fire through him. Ranko stared in awe, as he glowed golden, then gasped as the golden glow flowed on, filling her and Neko as well. It soared through her, burning away her tears, and she felt the fire in her veins, and smiled in delight and happiness as Neko roared.

They mounted the steps slowly. The glow had faded, leaving them feeling rather weak, and yet paradoxically, immensely strong. Though the glow was gone, still their skin seemed to hold a golden tint, and their eyes flashed gold as they looked at each other. Looking deeper into each other's eyes, they realized that their eyes looked like Neko's now, a vertically slit pupil, and they grinned at each other.

Hand in hand, they walked finally out of the mausoleum, to find Xian Pu and Genma there, with five guards before them blocking their way. Ukyou, Ryouga, and Mu Suu were standing some distance back, watching. Xian Pu was trying to get Genma to calm down.

Genma was frantically arguing with one of the guards, insisting that the roar had meant trouble, and that they had to go and help. He cut himself short, as he saw the pair stepping forth from the building, Neko loping beside them. They looked golden. From behind them came a glowing light, and a beauteous woman stepped into view, light spilling from her skin like water, to fall all about her. The guards parted like a curtain before them.

"Father, friends," Ranma and Ranko said, their voices in a curious unison, saying the exact same words at the exact same time, with identical intonations, but different timbres, "we want you to meet our Dragon-Mother Alana." Genma just stared, shocked beyond words. Dragon-Mother? What on earth did they mean... and how could anyone be so beautiful?

Xian Pu, on the other hand, knew what to do in the presence of a dragon. She immediately dropped to her knees, and put her hands before her on the ground, and rested her head on them, then spoke, "It is my very great honor and privilege to meet you, Venerable Lady."

Alana laughed, and her laughter was like the chimes of heaven, and she spoke. "Rise child. You need no ceremony with me. You are a friend of my son and my daughter, and that is enough for me."

Xian Pu rose immediately. "We were worried, Ranma. We thought we heard you roar."

"You did," and this time Ranma spoke alone, as he stroked Neko's fur, and scratched behind his ears. "Neko spoke aloud in his joy."

Xian Pu looked at him for a moment. "You are talking funny, Ranma. Where did you get the big cat?"

"This is Neko-Ranma. You saw him once before. It can be a bit embarrasing having a human boy behaving like this around you, so I gave him a proper cat's body."

Xian Pu leaned closer, looking up at his face. "What happened to your eyes?"

Alana had been steadily dimming behind them, and when she spoke now, her voice was still beautiful, but as a human's voice might be, not the voice of dragon. "They accepted me as their mother, and became my children."

Genma could hold it in no longer. "Your children? Yours! But what of their mother? What of my wife? We were to go and meet her in the spring. Is she to be left alone?" He could not keep the fear from his voice. He knew that if he returned without Ranma, he would be committing seppuku, and even worse, he would be leaving his wife completely alone.

Ranko laughed, and hugged him. "No Papa-san. Mama-san is still our mother too. We have two mothers now." Her voice fairly shone with her joy.

Genma sighed with relief. "Good, then can we eat?" Ranma laughed at him, but nodded, and led the way.

As they left the grounds of the mausoleum, they passed several smaller gardens, and suddenly the Lady gasped in awe, and they all stopped to see what had caught her attention. In a small garden plot, surrounded by a low stone wall, the shattered remains of what had once been a crystal vase lay amidst the pieces of a marble pillar that had held it up, both cracked and shoved aside by a crystal rosebush, flooded with white blossoms. "Oh," cried Ranko, "Its beautiful!"

The Lady smiled, and nodded. "It is a promise, fulfilled." She hugged them both again. They all looked at in in awe for a while, as another few blossoms opened, and the scent carried the sweet rich scent to them.

That comment made Xian Pu think of the peculiar crystal flower in a vase in her room at home. Some strange crystal, that smelled like it was alive, she had thought at first. She had felt sorrow, when the first petals fell from the rose. She had thought it was a gift that would last forever, but apparently it was not.

When the bud had finally fallen, she felt heartbroken, until the next morning, when she saw a new bud forming. When it reached full bloom, she had gathered her courage, and plucked it from the crystal stem. Indeed, the next morning, a new bud had formed.

The second blossom, the one she plucked, never dropped its petals. It floated now in a small bowl of water, and around it floated the other beautiful petals, fallen from the first blossom. There were a few missing. They had gone to Kho Lon, who was steadily trying to figure out what they were made of, and which magic potion they would be good in.

Kho Lon had found, when she first bit one of the petals, that crystal is not a good thing to bite, and she had been forced to let Xian Pu carefully pluck the pieces of glass-like crystal out of her mouth. Later, she had set one on her tongue, and after a few minutes, it had dissolved quite suddenly. Her arthritic pains, which she normally suppressed with ki, had simply vanished for a week, and when they returned, they were lessened. Peculiar, but not overly informative.

She had mixed the petals into several potions, and observed that they dissolved, but had not been able to isolate the effects they had had. She had been surprised to note, however, that the petals that fell in the water in Xian Pu's room didn't dissolve in it.

---

When they entered the dining hall, Ranma was quick to make Lady Alana take the end seat, the seat of honor. Not only was this the day of her freedom, but he didn't want to deal with the confusion over whether he or Ranko should sit there, or what it might mean either way. Instead, he and Ranko sat on either side of the Lady. Xian Pu sat beside Ranko, and Mu Suu sat beside her. Beside Ranma was Ukyou, and then Ryouga, and finally Genma.

They ate in silence, each busy with their own thoughts, until the repast was finished. Ranma leaned back in his chair, and looked at Lady Alana. "Lady, you know that Ranko and I must leave again, and try to come to a reconciliation with my first mother. I do not expect it will be easy. We will return to you, eventually, but I cannot give you any guarantees. It may be a long time, before we return. I will leave the Land of Fey in your hands, and know that it will be well looked after. But we have a problem to lay before you, and maybe with your wisdom, we will solve it."

Ukyou was staring at Ranma through this speech. Ranko was far more like the Ranma she had known, than this man beside her, speaking so eloquently, and with such quiet power. She shivered at the thought of what would have happened had she faced him first. He might have decided, as Ranko did, that she had done something terrible to his childhood friend... but would he have allowed his pain to stop him? Looking at his calm poise, the complete control he held over himself, in spite of having just achieved the goal to which his life had been dedicated for nine years, she did not think his pain would have, or even could have, stopped him.

Ranma turned to Ryouga. "Ryouga here is a friend of Ukyou, who is a friend of my childhood. He is cursed, dear Lady. He has been cursed with a terrible sense of direction. I invited him to join us here, because I thought that you might have some insight on how to rid him of his curse."

The Lady looked at Ryouga, and smiled gently. "Come here, child, and let me look at you." She pushed the heavy chair back, turning it, so that as Ryouga came to her, she could face him with no barrier between them. She took his head in her hands, and as she did so, her skin took on a golden hue, and her eyes glowed with a golden light.

She looked deeply into his eyes, and he found himself lost in their depths. They seemed ageless, deep still pools of the distilled wisdom of uncounted years, and he seemed to lose himself in them forever. Finally, she released his head, and sat back, sighing.

She looked at Ranma. "I know of nothing that can help this man."

Ukyou sighed, and Ryouga's eyes flicked to her. Why was she sad? Was it because she wanted to be free of him? Was she sad for him, or for herself? He wished he knew. He had felt his feeling for her grow steadily over time. When she had faced Ranko, and been defeated, and later, when she had faced Ranma, and accepted that he was not hers, and given up her quest, he had been torn. He was terribly happy that she was no longer driven, she could think of other things now, do whatever she wanted. He was also desperately afraid that she would leave, and he would have no reason, no excuse to stay by her side. She was here to see Ranma's home... and him cured. If he were not cured, would she leave him? Or would she stay with him until he was cured, and leave then? Did she perhaps see it as an obligation? To help him, as he helped her, so her debts would be paid, and she could leave him without guilt?

"You know the one who can help him, Ranma. Do you not?"

Ryouga looked up at the Lady's words. Hope and fear warred in his heart, and he did not know what he wished more... for Ranma to agree, and tell him, or for the Lady to say that it wouldn't matter, couldn't work, and leave him to return to his own world with no cure. Did he hope and wish that Ukyou wanted to see him free because she... she liked him... or did he want there to be no cure, so that he would still need Ukyou, and she would have a reason to allow him to follow her.

"Sylie. I cannot go with him, though. Nor can you, Lady. My people need their leader. Who can guide him? Beorn, perhaps."

"Beorn and Li can guide him to Sylie."

Ranma looked at her, showing his surprise on his face for the barest instant. "Li has returned, then? Was he successful?"

"He would not say. He said only, 'it is over.'"

Ranma turned to Ryouga. "There is one who could help you. She is an elder dragon, and she cured me of the fear induced by the Nekoken. I cannot go with you. I must return, and find my mother, so that Ranko can have a family."

Ranko looked up, startled again at being put first in Ranma's thoughts. Was her happiness truly that important to him? Why? She was him, so it made some sense... but not that it would be more important than his own.

"I can offer you two guides. Both have experience in this world, beyond my own realm, and both are masters of my school."

Genma looked up in surprise. "Ranma, what have you done? You know you cannot teach until the Master licenses you!"

Ranma looked over at Genma. "I trained under the Master for three months, and won my license from him when I was seven, Genma-san."

Ranma looked back to Ryouga, ignoring his father's shocked expressions, and sputtered protests, "There are sufficient masters now to hold the dojo in their absence. They are masters of ki, as well, and can train you, if you wish it. You have great potential. As for Sylie, they can lead you to her. Dealing with her will be up to you. If you choose to go, the Lady Alana can return you to our world, when you make it back here. Will you go, or will you return with us?"

Ryouga looked at Ukyou. He knew she wanted him to be free of his curse... he just wished he knew why. It didn't matter. She wanted it, and he did, even if there were reasons to consider retaining it. He could not back away from this. "I will go, and seek my cure."

"I will go with you, if you want me to come, Ryouga." Ukyou said, looking at him. His face lit up with a wide smile, and she wondered. She had become attached to him. He was a good companion, and now that her entanglement with Ranma was over, Ryouga was the person she was closest too. But his reaction was so... so powerful. Did it really mean so much to him? After all, it was merely doing for him what he had done for her. "It is the least I can do for you." She was shocked at the way those words, meant kindly, nonetheless wiped the smile from his face. He nodded though.

---

Arkus stared at the message he had just received by crow from his spy in the castle of the Lord Fey. "Fey has returned!," he shouted, exulting. "Finally, I shall destroy him forever!" Arkus found himself filled with new energy after the enervation of being unable to even find the slightest hint of his enemy's whereabouts. He moved with a speed he had forgotten down the halls to his summoning room.

The circle was ready, the ritual prepared, his power was at its height, this time Fey would die! Arkus began the ritual, and several hours after dark, Arkus left his castle in the company of a being wrapped in darkness and cloaked in evil, though not before setting in motion the final stages of a trap that he had spent months preparing.

Ranma, Ranko, and the Lady Alana suddenly sat bolt upright, heads cocked, listening and feeling the weight of untold evil as it approached their demesne.

"Arkus," Ranma and Ranko said in unison.

"And something darker," warned the Lady.

Ranma looked at Ranko, "I'll face the challenge head on, you suppress your aura and work around till we can get them in a V attack. My bet is that Arkus doesn't know about you." He turned to his Lady, "Lady, I'm also betting that he doesn't know you've been freed. If you would, could you guide my friends to the parapets? If needed, you can act from there, and take them by surprise, and until then, my friends can watch, but be safe."

"I will do as you ask, my Lord," she replied, bowing to him. Ranma nodded, encased suddenly in golden armor, and he raced from the room towards the front lines. Ranko kept her wakizashi hidden, not wanting its magical aura to reveal her presence, and she leapt from the window to work her way around the castle.

Alana led the rest of the small group, several of whom protested that they should join the fight, though none were willing to directly act against the lady, up to the balconies, the parapets upon which the archers would defend the castle in a normal defense, that they might watch the battle unfold.

Arkus stood proudly, wearing his finest fighting robes, ready to unleash magical fury, before the gates of Fey castle, his minion hidden in the darkness behind him, held in reserve for a surprise attack that would utterly destroy the upstart whelp.

He laughed as Lord Fey strode from the gate, wearing his golden armor, and wielding that damned sword. "Today it ends, Lord Fey! Today I take your life, and your woman, and your lands, and most of all, today I take back the divine gift that you stole from me when you took my enemy's life!"

Fey Ranma felt a cold rage boil in him at the words. How dare he threaten the Lady! Yet that rage boiled beneath a wall of ice, and no sign of it appeared on his features. "Arkus, since I first came to this world, you have plagued me. This is the last time, Arkus. I am tired of playing your game."

Fey released his hold on the Juushin Jisei Juuryoku, just a bit, and his aura sprang into snaking cerulean flames, then he released his hold on his aura, and it sprang into full life, blazing about him, reaching nearly twice his height.

Arkus grimaced. That damned blue flame was the one spell of Fey's that he'd never managed to duplicate, or even understand. No matter, it would not avail him, for Arkus would not be denied. He summoned his first wand to his hand, and launched a mote sized point of light at his opponent.

Ryouga, standing on the parapet, laughed to his companions. "Man, does he really expect to hurt Ranma with that peashooter?"

The mote reached Fey, and just before it would have impacted his aura, it blossomed into a searing sphere of flame that engulfed Fey completely, hiding him from view, concealing even his brilliant aura.

"Oh," muttered Ryouga.

Ranma focused, noting idly that the Lady's gift of blood seemed to have had more of an effect than he had realized, for though he felt the searing heat, it did not bother him, even before he focused his aura against it. He concentrated, remembering the several techniques he had learned for absorbing magical and normal energies, and focused his ki.

The flames were suddenly sucked inward, leaving trailing wisps of smoke to be forced away by Fey's aura, still intact. He looked entirely untouched, though there was a light tinge of red to his aura.

Arkus growled, and pulled out a different wand, brandishing it at Fey, and a bolt of lightning streaked from it. It impacted with Fey's aura, and he forced a grin, gratefully absorbing the extra energy, but increasing his hold on his aura to prevent the increase from being noticed. So nice of Arkus, to help beef him up, but damn, that was a lot of energy to soak at once. If Arkus realized, he could overload him pretty quickly. Better get rid of some of it.

Fey lifted his blade, and retaliated with a peculiar bolt of what looked like green lightning, otherwise identical to Arkus's blast. Arkus disappeared, reappearing five feet away, allowing the bolt to pass harmlessly through his former location. He laughed. "Ha, Fey, you'll have to do better than that!" He waved the wand, and chanted something, and a shadow fell across the field.

The watchers on the parapet looked up to see an ominously black cloud, and even as they did so, it flared a brilliant white, and a bolt of lightning crashed down from above, slamming into Fey. They looked on in shock and dismay. That bolt was at least six feet wide, and it wasn't stopping!

Finally the lightning dissipated, and the cloud was ripped apart by a breeze too high to feel, and when they could see again, Fey was still standing, aura blazing, and they could see ripples of electricity flashing across his armor.

[I'm in position Ranma.]

[Hold until he brings on his toy, Ranko. I can take whatever Arkus is dishing out, so I want you in reserve for that. So far all he's managed to do is fill my reserves.]

[Gotcha.]

Arkus screamed in fury at the failure of one of his more powerful attack spells, and began castign, weaving a spell this time, rather than using a wand.

Ranma eyed the spell, and decided it was time to stop being stoic, and start introducing Arkus to what he was really facing. Besides, it rather looked like that would hurt when it hit. He examined it carefully, even as the deep azure sphere left Arkus' hands and hurtled towards him. Ascertaining that it would do no harm to the castle when it hit, he leapt easily out of its way.

Arkus chuckled, and shouted, "You'll not escape my vengeance so easily, Fey!" Ranma realized instantly what Arkus meant, for the azure streak had zipped past, but immediately pulled around, coming at him again, rather than impacting the castle walls. Ranma led it towards a tree, noting that Arkus was casting again, but forced to focus on the sphere to avoid it. Standing firm before the tree, he waited, and at the last possible moment, used all his speed to dodge. When he saw the tree become stone, instantly, he was very glad he had avoided it, rather than taking the punishment.

Even as he was congratulating himself for the successful avoidance, he sensed more incoming, and leapt to avoid them. Multiple silver streaks passed beneath, but Arkus was being more cagey this time, and had held some in reserve, and as Ranma leaped, he fired more. Ranma, who had momentarily focused on the silver streaks to determine what manner of spell they were, moved just a hair too slowly to avoid the new attack, and was slammed into by an immense force.

He halted his supersonic flight with the Juushin Jisei, then leapt to the side to avoid another attack, as golden flashes of light speared past.

Ranma fired several quick ki blasts followed by magical arrows of force at Arkus, to give him a moment to recover his bearings, and hopefully disrupt whatever Arkus was in the process of casting.

Arkus teleported out of the way of the attack, and fired a sickly green beam from a wand. Ranma sought to avoid it, but it twisted in the air to meet him, and unlike the azure sphere, ignored momentum and inertia. The beam hit him, and Ranma realized the severe error he had made by trying, as he usually did, to fight on an even level with his opponent, as he could feel his ki being drained.

He screamed in pain, and ignoring his ki, afraid to use it while this attack continued, threw magic threads into a shield using the old techniques the traditional mages used. Finally he managed to force the beam away, and with that momentary respite, he let out the Juushin Jisei Juuryoku until he was back at his prior ki level, then lashed out with his ki, and used his skill in dispelling to unweave the magic of that hideous wand.

Arkus was gloating, delighted in the success of the attack, for he was the recipient of the drained energy, and he had received such a surfeit of power from the attack that he could be forgiven for believing the Lord Fey to be drained beyond any ability to recover.

His fury was unmatched, then, when the Lord Fey appeared before him, aura undimmed, and fired a blast of blue fire at him. Arkus teleported away, then felt his teleport ring's magic dweomer collapse into nothingness. He attempted to fire the draining wand again, only to discover that it was now an unmagical stick. He cast it aside in anger, and retrieving his lightning wand, moved to attack with it.

It too lost its magic as soon as he moved to use it. Ranma was tired of being on the defensive end of this fight, and was steadily divesting Arkus of his advantages. He fired another small ki blast, and when Arkus' instinctual attempt to use his teleport ring failed, he was too late to avoid the blast, and was knocked back, the wind driven from his lungs.

Moving quickly to try and throw the Lord Fey off-balance to give him time to make a more competent attack, Arkus cast a quick and easy spell, turning the ground on which the Lord Fey stood to mud. Ranma recognized the casting, and rather than acting against it, and perhaps giving Arkus time to respond, he focused the Juushin Jisei, holding himself above the mud, and threw a massive dispelling at Arkus, hoping to both disrupt whatever Arkus was casting, and perhaps take out some more of his magical objects, those wands and rings that were allowing him to keep up such a pace.

Arkus screamed in fury as he felt several more of his wands fail, and the spell he was beginning die as well, then pulled out all the stops, pulling out two wands and snapping them before Fey had a chance to dispell them. Their energies began mixing visibly before him in the air before them, as he prevented their explosion. Finally a ball of sickly green and black energy floated before him, and he looked at Fey, gloating. "Even if you survive this attack, Fey, your castle and home will be destroyed!"

Arkus laughed, evilly, not noticing Fey's sword lifting, as a thin beam of ki speared out, impacting almost unnoticeably with the sphere, doing nothing more than holding it in place, for the moment, but ready to throw it off course the moment it moved, or expanded. Arkus stopped laughing, not seeing the ki, as the globe obscured his view of it, and shoved forward, a move that should have sent the ball flying. It was held by Fey's ki though, and the result was Arkus driving his hands directly into the ball, and screaming in agony.

[Damn! I didn't think he'd be stupid enough to still try and attack, I gotta help him!]

Fey's ki beam rose and fell, slicing the ball, dissipating it, but Arkus collapsed to the ground, black and green energies still swirling about him. Fey ran toward him, but a sudden blackness moved over Arkus, coming between them.

"Now you must face me!," roared the dark beast, piercing his own shroud of darkness with a dark red flame that appeared, licking about the massive sword he held. The sound of a whip cracking was followed by flashed of blue and white light, sparks flying from the end of the now visible flail.

[Damn, I bet he wants Arkus to die, so he will be free of whatever compulsion is on him. He's going to keep me from Arkus, Ranko, can you get to him, I'll lead big ugly off here.]

Fey faded back before the beast, who laughed, then roared in triumph. Fey drew in his ki about his sword, so that it glowed with golden flames, then shot a beam of ki at the beast.

It blocked it with its own sword. "Unlike yon fool, I know about the power of the spirit, boy, it will not defeat me so easily!"

Fey allowed his posture to show concern, as he carefully lead the beast away from Arkus, but before Ranko could reach him, the beast realized it, sensing her presence now that she was closer, and turning, unleashed a blast of dark lightning, then fired flame from his sword, lighting a circle of hell-spawned fire about the wizard's crackling, pain-wracked body.

Fey roared in anger, and rushed the beast. Their blades met with a flare of light, then again and again. As he had before, so long ago, Fey matched the beast's skill, taking the time to learn what he could. He wanted to keep the beast occupied, and give Ranko time to make it through the flames.

The watchers viewed the scene with trepidation, unable to see clearly what it was that Fey was facing, but clearly seeing the flash of light from the impact of the darkness and the light.

Ranko was using her wakizashi, her own ki flaring, to carve through the demon's red flame, and make her way to the dying wizard. She finally reached him, and knelt by him, focusing on her training in the Amazon village, turning her ki a brilliant white, as she poured it on him. He looked up at her, through eyes filled with pain, that suddenly cleared. "I have lost, and in losing, I finally see how I have failed. In attacking innocence, I betrayed my own oaths, I fought against evil once, now I have fallen into it. Forgive me, if you can." His eyes fell shut.

"I forgive you," Ranko whispered, then jerked back, realizing the implications. Though she had purged him of the fire, he would not be healed if he did not fight for life, and he was not fighting. "No! Don't give up, you can still live!," she screamed at him, tears springing to her eyes. "Please!"

He opened his eyes again, looking on her, "Now you have the final prize, child, all is as it should be." His eyes closed, and his breath rattled in his chest, then stilled. Ranko screamed in fury. If only that beast hadn't slowed her down!

Her aura burst forth, a pure white, and washed away the red flames, and Ranma, sensing it, stepped up the attack, ceasing to merely match the beast's skill, but surpassing it, pushing himself to move fast, pouring ki into his limbs. The heads of the flail fell, severed, one by one, as the demon roared in sudden confusion, then laughed, as it too increased its skill, and Ranma felt the darkness about it grow. "You're not the only one holding back, insignificant pest!"

It spun away from Ranma suddenly, feeling a pure power from behind it, like that of an angel, fearing that it faced a second attack. It saw before it what did veritably look to be an angel, haloed in an aura of pure white so intense that to look upon it burned it, and even as it realized this, a blade burst through its chest, glittering with golden flames, as Ranma took full advantage of his enemy's distraction.

Instantly recognizing its peril, should its opponents use that powerfully enspelled blade to funnel their spirit into its innermost being, it lunged forward, ripping itself from the blade. It leapt to the side, out from between the two, and faced them, dark flames roaring about it.

It snapped its flail, and the heads regrew. It lunged for Fey, and moving impossibly fast, slammed its fist, hardened by the sword hilt it held, into Fey's chest, sending him flying back across the field, then turned to face the angel.

"You are too late, servant of Light! My summoner has died, and I am freed. This world is Mine!"

Ranko screamed in defiance, and fired a blast of ki at it. It batted the ki aside almost casually, only to discover that it had been but a distraction on Ranko's part, for she was now within its black flames, her own sword piercing its side.

It threw itself backwards, enraged beyond belief that these puny mortals had twice managed to pierce its defenses, and defile its flesh. It leapt forward again, casting aside its flail, to grab the now armored angel about the throat. It began draining her, and it groaned in pleasure as the pure power coursed through it.

Its pleasure was cut off, quite literally, as its arm below the elbow fell to the ground, and it bellowed in pain, darting back on wings of black flame. It roared, as its black aura flared, and a new arm shot forth from the bloody stump.

"Playtime's over!" With a shattering roar, it cast black flame at its tormentors, the male now standing beside the angel, lending her his strength.

Ranma leapt, pushing off against Ranko so that she too was driven out of the way of the dark blast. [Ranko, we need to power up. Go half-dragon, so at least we'll cut down its size advantage.]

The demonic beast gaped as both auras flared twice, and its opponents became great winged beasts. Was it mistaken? Was it perhaps facing other demons here?

It fired another dark blast, and this time, it was Fey who batted its attack aside as if it were nothing. It leapt back to the attack, pushing its speed still higher, trying to disarm the beast it faced. Fey released the Juushin Jisei Juuryoku still further, until he could match the dark being's speed, nearly losing his sword before he got there.

Ranko faded back, and began weaving a spell about them both. The demon fought with desperate power. It would not allow its chance to ravage the mortal plane be so easily denied! Focusing, it began drawing more energy from the life around it.

It was the Lady Alana who first noticed and recognized the implications, as the trees, shrubs, and grass around the combatants began wilting suddenly, for Ranma was focused on his opponent, and Ranko on her spell. The Lady's warning to Ranma in his mind came just too late, as the demon dumped all his collected and hoarded energy into a single movement, pushing his speed, in that instant, far beyond what it had been, and in a lightning fast movement, he struck off the Lord Fey's head.

The watchers on the height cried out in dismay and despair, as for the first time, Fey's aura dimmed, and they could see him clearly, and watch, as the head rolled slowly away from the body.

Ranko screamed in denial, as streams of tears poured from Alana's eyes. Ranko finished her spell with a cry of vengeance, and released the Juushin Jisei Juuryoku in a single swift rush of power. Moving far beyond the speed that even the dark beast had achieved in its moment of triumph, she struck of its limbs and then pierced its chest with her blade.

Its flames died about it, as it screamed in fear. This was impossible, this was its moment of triumph, it could not be defeated now! It strove once again to throw itself back, to remove itself from the piercing blade that had riven its chest, but it found itself held still, unabled to escape, as Ranko focused the Juushin Jisei upon it.

Ranko poured the full force of her released aura into her blade, and the cleansing flames surged down the dragon blade, searing its flesh from the inside, as heat built within. It screamed then, white flames bursting from its mouth, then its eyes, and ears. Wounds opened that had healed long centuries before, it felt again the touch of every weapon of light it had faced, and white light poured from those old wounds as they split.

The demon vanished, cleansed from existence by the searing fire of one pure spirit, and Ranko collapsed to the ground in tears of agony.

[r...ranko?]

Ranko looked up, then looked about wildly. Where had that voice come from?

[Ranma!?]

[Ohhh... that hurts...]

[Ranma, where are you!?]

[Itetete... I'm back in the house, Ranko... the house you built. I guess... since that wasn't really my body... I didn't go with it. Give me a minute to recover here.]

Ranko was startled away from her conversation by the impact of the Lady Alana, wrapping her in a tearful hug. "I'm so sorry, Ranko. He... he was doing so well... I was too slow, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Alana sobbed as she held Ranko tightly, feeling sorrow at her loss, and gratefulness that her daughter had survived in equal measure.

"Lady... he didn't die," whispered Ranko, trying to soothe her.

Alana pulled back, staring with wide eyes into her face. "He lives?!"

Ranma appeared suddenly behind Alana, and Ranko turned her to face him. He was pale and transparent, like a ghost, and the blood drained from Alana's face. "It's alright Alana," whispered Ranko, holding her tightly from behind, "He's not dead."

She looked at Ranma. "I guess you need a new aura, huh?"

He looked down sheepishly. "Uh, yeah... if you don't mind."

With the Juushin Jisei Juuryoku completely released, Ranko was feeling surfeited with power, but rather than following the procedure they had once before, she decided to try a technique she had learned from the Amazon healer.

Granted, it was intended to share ki between two individuals in two separate bodies, but then Ranma had always been one for improvising. A thin thread of ki reached out from Ranko, and wrapped about Ranma, then thickened, and the flow began. In moments, Ranma had enough aura to recreate his body.

"Thanks, Ranko love." Ranma enveloped his sister in a hug. "It won't take long now for my ki to recover.

---

Several days later, they said their goodbyes to Alana. She took Ranma aside first. "Ranma. You have the blood of a dragon now. And if you find someone worthy, you can give them your blood, as I gave you mine. It is your choice to do so, and it will affect them less than mine did you, but remember, once given, it cannot be taken back, and it will affect them and their heirs for many generations. Be careful."

"I will Mother. I promise. Will you stay here, in Fey castle?"

"Yes child. I grew to loathe it in the years I was Fey's servant. In the years with you, I have grown to love it again. I will maintain your place in this kingdom. I hope you will bring your bride to meet me, and I hope even more that you will consider bringing her here to live with us. And if you do, Ranma, consider this. If you bring your loves here, you are the law. You have more than enough love for one woman. Many societies allow multiple wives, and most of those that surround us do so. If you have only one wife, I fear they will never stop trying to capture you for their daughters, as they did when you were at the Mage Towers. If you find you cannot choose without hurting where you do not want to hurt, bring them here, where you can love them all. And now that you have given Ranko her own life, let her find a love, or loves, as she will. Do not let jealousy come between you. And should you grow to love Ranko too much, bring her too. She is you, and there is no shame in loving yourself."

She looked into his troubled eyes. "And the body Jusenkyou gave her is not your body, and its seed is not your seed. Even should she have your child, it will not bear harm. Now stop gaping at me, and go find your birth mother, and at least one to love." So saying, she led Ranma back to the group. He had been fighting a blush throughout her little speech, but by the time he had gotten back, it was gone. Ranko, however, was blushing like a little cherry, and would not look at him, and Xian Pu was looking at her curiously. He said nothing to her about it, afraid of what it might mean, but strangely hopeful.

---

Ukyou and Ryouga followed the Lady Alana, as she led them from the castle proper through several courtyards. Ukyou's eyes watered as they passed the crystal rosebush, and she thought again of the story Xian Pu had told them. If Ranma had done that for someone he had hardly known... she sighed, trying to imagine what it would be like if he had stayed with her, and loved her. It would not have been the same... he would not have been the same, and this beautiful Dragon Lady would still be in terrible bondage to a cruel and evil man. She could not wish that on anyone, and she held Ryoga's hand tighter.

Ryoga heard her sigh, as she pulled him along, keeping him from getting lost. He did not notice the crystal rosebush, nor have any idea what made her sigh, but when he felt her grip tighten, he smiled at the thought that whatever it was that pained her, it was to him that she turned for comfort. It didn't bother him that in fact she had not turned, and was still hauling him along. He hoped he understood what that additional pressure meant, and believed he did, and his heart soared to think that he could give her comfort.

The Lady led them to some stables that stood near the massive front gates. There were seven horses there, three well-laden, sturdy horses, and four saddled horses carrying much lighter loads.

Both Ukyou and Ryouga were shocked when a young Japanese looking man moved towards them from amongst the horses. Despite being skilled martial artists neither of them had noticed the man. He had short black hair, and was wearing black leather. He looked young, younger than themselves, maybe fourteen or fifteen.

He stepped towards them as they approached, and bowed low toward the Lady, then turned towards Ukyou and Ryouga, and bowed again. "Greetings. I am Fey Li, Master of the Fey Musabetso Kakutou Ryu. I will be one of your guides to the Lady Sylie."

"Greetings," Ukyou replied, responding with a bow of her own. "I am Kuonji Ukyou."

"And I," Ryouga replied, bowing in turn, "am Hibiki Ryouga. I thank you for your willingness to guide us."

"It is my duty and my pleasure to serve the Lord Fey. No thanks are required." Li bowed again to the Lady.

She bowed slightly in return, then turned to glance at Ukyou and Ryouga. "I will leave you in Li's care. Please return safely." They bowed to her, and she left.

Ukyou watched her leave, then turned back to look at Li.

Two hours later, the Lady Alana sat at a window in the library tower, and watched as the small party rode out of the gates. She sighed... alone again. She might be able to survive Ranma's distance, now, but it did not ease the ache in her heart.

She mulled over several possibilities before finally settling on one. She would train a replacement to manage the day to day affairs of the nation, then she would journey to Ranma's world. The thought made her feel young again.