Future imperfect, by Weebee.

Now in better-writing vision! (I hope.)

Misato(Sound of gun being loaded}: Yeah, for your sake.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2. There. I remembered one this time. Happy?

Summary: The Amazons attempt a desperate plan to gain Ranma for the tribe. It succeeds, but what far-reaching consequences will it have for Ranma and the tribe alike?

Notes: The first 4k words or so of this were in my vault for a while, and are virtually unchanged from that copy except for spelling and grammar corrections. I've marked where the new text starts with a search string, so if you want to go right to there, search "Future Imperfect CONT’d".

but anyways, I'm going to let you get on with the fic right now, but there's a lot of notes at the end that you may or may not want to read. Anyhow, I'll shut up and get out of the way now. Enjoy, and don't forget to tip your waitress... erm, review!

Prologue: So it begins.

Cologne nodded to the young green haired girl who stood in front of her, and took the envelope from her hands. “Thank you child.” She said, giving the girl a few hundred yen before she ran out of the restaurant. Shampoo and Mousse were out, Shampoo apparently trying to find her Airen and Mousse on a delivery, so she didn’t have to worry about the two of them walking in as she read over the letter. It wasn’t a particularly impressive looking letter, a brown envelope with a wax seal of a circle with a cross through it in the middle, but it made her distinctly nervous. The Amazon elders very rarely sent one of their curriers all the way to Japan with a letter, and when they did it was usually very important.

Slitting one edge of the envelope with a cracked fingernail, Cologne parted the seal, sure to nullify the Chi charge that would incinerate the contents if the wrong person tried to open it, and took out the missive inside.

“TO: Cu-lon, Third rank elder of the Joketsuzoku.

From: Leu-fa, first rank elder of the Joketsuzoku.

Subject: Ranma Saotome, acquisition for the tribe.

Message: It has come to the attention of the tribe that the defeat of Saffron of Phoenix Mountain was performed by Ranma Saotome, wayward husband of Xian-Pu. In light of this young male’s extremely great potential, it is my duty to inform you that his capture and addition to the tribe is now a top level priority, in any capacity. Top level artifacts are now authorized in the pursuit of the objective, including total memory wipe and any other measure that is deemed appropriate. Failure in this objective is NOT an option.

Cologne, your seat on the council is resting on this operation. I am sure I do not have to tell you what will happen if you fail.”

The Amazon elder lowered the letter to the restaurant counter, her hands shaking. There it was, the writing was on the wall. That threat about her seat on the council of elders was even more dangerous than it first appeared, as every family had one member who was elected as their elder, and Cologne’s had no other qualified members. If she were kicked off of the council, then her family, including Shampoo, would likely end up becoming menial laborers at best. With a harsh curse, Cologne threw her wooden staff through a mirror that hung over the large stove in the back. She had to get to work, and she had to do so quickly. She just felt sorry for what would probably be needed in order to subdue Ranma in the time allotted.

HR

Shampoo opened the door to the Nekohanten, to see that the lights were off and the main floor was devoid of customers. The purple haired woman hadn’t really been looking for it, but as she looked back she noticed that the sign on the front door was flipped to read ‘closed.’ This was rather odd, as the restaurant was normally open until around six thirty and it was only three now. “Great grandmother, you here?” She asked, beginning to become creeped out by the silence of the usually full room.

“I’m in the back, Shampoo.” Cologne said, her voice drifting out from the storage room at the back of the restaurant. “I need your assistance to help me find some things, please.”

Shampoo cheerfully chirped her ascent, and went to join her great grandmother in the storage room. To her astonishment, Mousse was already there, looking grim. “Great grandmother, Mousse, what going on?” She asked, confused.

HR

Ten minutes later, you could hear the sounds of Shampoo sobbing into something soft even from the main room of the restaurant, and Mousse whispering comforts into her ear. For now, he wasn’t going to try and push it by declaring his love. Shampoo had just been told something that had turned even him slightly green at the first suggestion of it.

“Surely, there must be other way do this!” Shampoo said, as she pulled away from Mousse. “You destroy Ranma!”

Cologne scowled. “Do you think I don’t know that child? Ranma was one of the most promising students I have ever taught, and this plan will remove all of that potential forever but we have no choice.”

“Shampoo give up claim on Ranma, that way he no have to go back to…” Shampoo started, before being silenced by Cologne’s staff, whapping her on the top of the head.

“This goes beyond you or me Shampoo. The high elders have decided that Saotome Ranma’s blood must be added to the Joketsuzoku tribe, and that is final.” The elder sighed tiredly. “Now go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a very… trying day.”

“Yes… Elder.” Shampoo said, almost spitting the final word as she turned around and stocked up to her own bedroom. Cologne seemed to wilt as if Shampoo had struck her with the final word, used instead of the traditional great grandmother. Surprisingly, Mousse was the one to lay a comforting hand on the elder’s shoulder.

He had thought that an occurrence like this would make him incredibly happy. Ranma Saotome would be destroyed, humiliated, and he, Mousse, would be able to see his former rival in his new lowly position every day for the rest of his life. Best of all, he automatically got to marry Shampoo… but somehow, it just felt wrong to win this way. “Don’t worry Elder, I’m sure she will understand someday.” He said, before he walked out as well.

Cologne just chuckled softly as she saw the spectacled boy leave the room. She knew that he had been forced to mature incredibly quickly with whatever had happened to him in China, but he surprised her with the fact that he wasn’t dancing in the streets, and he was trying to comfort her? Walking to the stove where her staff was still imbedded, she gave a good yank and pulled it out, destroying the cracked mirror in the process.

HR

Ranma Saotome whistled as he walked down the fence that lead to school. The failed wedding had been a week before, something that made him rather depressed, however he had also finally done it, on the roof, that night. He had finally SAID it. Of course, the walloping Akane had given him when he had explained that he had never said it at Jusendo was pretty bad, but he privately admitted that his foot, at least, deserved it for getting itself wedged that far into his mouth.

Ever since the night of the failed wedding, the two of them had been getting along much better, which had puzzled almost everyone they knew. Of course, Akane had gone ahead of him this morning for some sort of sporting meet, he still being tied up with his father at the time when she had left, but things were still going well. That was, until he heard the trademark sound of a set of chains tinkling as they flew through the air. As he jumped out of the way, he noticed that the chains seemed to be thrown with an almost apathetic motion, as if Mousse couldn’t be bothered to aim properly. “Hey, what’s up duck?” Ranma asked, paraphrasing a character that he had seen on a cartoon show that Nabiki liked to watch.

“Ranma,” Mousse said, glaring. “I challenge you for the hand of Shampoo!” With that, he flung out his arms, but instead of the expected flurry of chains, a single small letter flew out. Ranma caught it, and inspected it carefully.

“Aw man, c’mon Mousse. You haven’t been able ta beat me since ya showed up here, why do you think its gunna happen now?” Ranma asked, flipping the challenge letter over in his hand.

“It will change.” Mousse said, with a strange note in his voice that Ranma couldn’t identify. “It’ll change more than you think. Come alone!” he yelled, as he jumped to a rooftop and leapt away.

Ranma blinked rapidly as Mousse disappeared into the distance. That was a rather strange encounter, and if he didn’t know better he could have sworn that the blind boy had had his glasses on for the entire time. Shrugging it off, he opened the letter he had been given to see the usual stakes, if he lost he would give up Shampoo, and a street address. Ranma blinked as he realized that he didn’t recognize the address, but shrugged it off as he pocketed the note and started running to school. He was probably late thanks to Mousse, and would end up holding buckets.

HR

Later on that day, Ranma sat in class and looked at the blackboard vacantly as the teacher droned on about the warring states Era. Normally, history was the only class that really caught his interest, but his mind was absorbed with thoughts of what Mousse was planning. The Amazon had told him to come alone, which meant something big was going on. Either Mousse thought that the fight was going to get bad enough to endanger bystanders, or he was going to try and do something underhanded. As he pondered which of the two it was, Akane tapped him on the shoulder.

“Ranma? It’s lunch time, and I’ve made a bento for you!” She said, cheerfully. The pigtailed martial artist groaned.

“Aw, yer gunna try and poison me again?” he asked, wincing. “Please tell me it’s curry.”

Akane just glared as Ranma insulted her cooking… again. And to think, she’d been worried about him. He had looked as spaced out in history class as he usually did in math, and she had thought that there was something on his mind. Not to mention that he hadn’t even noticed when the lunch bell had rung. With an annoyed huff, she slammed the lunch bento onto Ranma’s desk and stomped off.

Ranma just shrugged as he opened the Bento, finding that fortunately it was her curried rice. A rather strange thing to make for lunch, but he just shrugged it off with the indifference of a Saotome who had been given edible food and dug in.

HR

Ranma lowered the piece of paper with the address of the challenge site on it to see a beaten up old warehouse, apparently part of a failed business nearby. It wasn’t very common for a place in the middle of Tokyo to have wasted space like this, but Nerima seemed to have a lot of places that could be used as martial artist battlegrounds, perhaps purposely created that way to keep property damage to the rest of the district low, not that that ever worked.

Walking through the unlocked personnel entrance door, he blinked rapidly to adjust his eyes to the darkness of the interior of the building. Yeah, in a place like this, Mousse was definitely planning something underhanded.

Reaching out with his senses for Mousse’s Chi, he surprisingly found it directly in the middle of the floor, on the other side of a stack of old crates from where he was. As he walked towards it, he began to feel nervous for some reason, and quickly turned around, only to jump back about three feet when he caught sight of the wrinkled face of Cologne. “Ah, it’s the ol’ ghoul!” he yelped, only to somehow get a bump on the head from the old woman without her having to move from her position on her staff.

Actually, the bump felt a lot harder than Cologne’s usual admonishing taps, and he staggered to the side as his vision began to blur. “What… what’s goin on here?” He asked, as he spun to see Shampoo, one of her Bonbori held in the finishing position of a swing. He noted with some pride that there was a pretty large dent in the ball like mace from where his head had impacted before he slumped to the ground, unconscious. The last thing he heard before his world went black was Shampoo’s sobbed apologies to him.

“Can I go now?” Mousse asked, as he stepped around the wall of crates where he had been standing.

“Yes, for now.” Cologne said, frowning down at the body that lay crumpled on the floor. “That blow was not enough to keep Ranma down for long, we must get him back to the Nekohanten.”

“Yes, elder.” Shampoo said, picking up Ranma’s body and slinging the dead weight over her shoulder.

Cologne winced again at the coldness of her great granddaughter’s answer, as well as the few tears that were running down her face. When she got back to the village, she would have words with Leu-Fa, first rank elder or not. It was high handed actions like this one that had caused the last war with the Musk, and she didn’t want to know what would happen if her quickly cobbled together plan went wrong in some way.

HR

She woke to the sensation of a splitting headache, and the smell of some sort of herbal shampoo. Groaning, she cracked her eyes open to see the worried looking face of an extremely wrinkled old woman looking down at her. “Where… Where am I?” She asked, struggling up to a sitting position on the futon she was laying on despite the increased pain this produced in her skull and looking past the old woman to see a room, shelves lining its walls, apparently filled with food items.

“Oh, thank the goddess you are awake, daughter in law.” The old woman said, sighing in relief.

“Daughter in law?” she asked, feeling annoyed for no particular reason that she could pin down. “Who are you?”

The old woman frowned. “I was afraid of this; tell me child, can you remember your name?”

The girl tried to remember her name, thinking that the request was kind of odd, until she realized that she couldn’t. In fact, now that she thought about it, she couldn’t remember ANY events that had occurred before she had woken up in this room. “I… I don’t remember, I don’t remember anything!” She said, panicked, as she looked to the old woman, who shook her head sadly.

“I was afraid of that.” She said, before turning away from the girl. “To answer your question, your name is Rinsa, and you are the second wife to the male to whom my great granddaughter is married, not that he deserves her.” She finished, under her breath. “I am elder Cologne, and his name is Mousse but I’m hoping that you may remember something when you see him.”

Rinsa tried to take this in, as the Elder left the room, closing the door behind her. Her name felt… odd, in her mouth. It had the correct number of syllables, but she couldn’t help but think that it started with something like “Ran…” she muttered, “Ran… something…” she shook her head as the headache suddenly got about five times worse, causing her to lose track of that train of thought. Of course, the thing that would be really hard to get used to was the fact that she was apparently married, and sharing the man with another girl. She hoped that she could at least remember something about the man, or things would be pretty awkward. ‘Hi, the elder says we’re married, who are you?’ she thought, then couldn’t resist the urge to grin at the absurdity of the thought.

The door opened a few seconds later, and the elder returned, leading a purple haired woman who Rinsa vaguely remembered, and… her heart caught in her throat as she saw the next person to enter. His long black hair fell over the back of his white robes in waves, and his eyes sparkled with something behind the glasses he wore. “M… mousse?” She asked, her mouth dry and her hands shaking.

The elder nodded slightly, and took the hand of the purple haired woman, leading her out of the room. “I’ll just leave you two alone.” She said, as she closed the door again.

HR

Out in the hallway, on the second floor of the Nekohanten, Cologne and Shampoo stood outside of the door to the supply room. “And now, we hope that Mr. Part time is a good actor.” Cologne said, turning to Shampoo.

“Why we have to do this to Ranma, Elder?” Shampoo asked, the impassive mask that she had warn in the room now replaced by grief.

Cologne quickly lashed out and hit her great granddaughter on the head. “Do not use that name anymore, Great Granddaughter. Rinsa,” she put special emphasis on the name, “Is extremely strong willed. If we give her too many links to her previous life she may be able to break the conditioning of the Xi Fa Xiang Gao, and you know it.”

“Yes Elder, Shampoo know, but why she have be girl, and not even be warrior sister?” Shampoo asked, now getting slightly angry.

Cologne rubbed her temples. “You know why, Shampoo. Triggering her curse would cause the effects of the technique to wear off, and if she practiced martial arts it would be the anything goes school, which would bring up questions of where she learned such a style. Now stop asking such questions, I’m sure Mr. Part time has seriously botched things enough by now.

Surprisingly, when the two re-entered the storage room, they saw Rinsa cuddled into Mousse’s arms and fast asleep. The spectacled boy carefully set the girl down on her bed, and backed away. “Is she going to stop clinging to me like that eventually?” He asked, looking extremely disturbed.

Cologne couldn’t resist a quiet laugh. “I thought you would enjoy a cute girl like her hugging you like that, Son in law.” She said, noticing Mousse perk up slightly with the name.

“Well, if it was Shampoo I would, but it just doesn’t feel right with her. Now when will she stop acting like this?” he asked, looking down.

“She should stop acting so love struck by tomorrow morning, but she will always hold some affection for you, son in law.” Cologne said, frowning. “How else do you think we will add her blood to the tribe?”

“Right…” Mousse said, that disturbed look coming back over his face before he left the room, joining Shampoo outside. Cologne joined them a few seconds later, after pulling the blankets up over Rinsa’s sleeping form.

HR

“Where is he?” Akane muttered, as she walked through the streets of Nerima. She had checked the school, Ukyo’s restaurant and Dr. Tofu’s clinic, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Now, after about four hours of searching, she was headed for the Nekohanten. She doubted that Ranma would be there, since after the screaming match he’d had with Shampoo and Ukyo after the wedding they’d been keeping their distance, but it was the last place she could think of looking other than just wandering through town, randomly checking empty lots for dueling martial artists.

Opening the door to the Café, she noticed that no one was down stares. She was about to go up to the second floor when she heard the tap of Cologne’s staff coming down. “Oh, it’s the Tendo girl,” she said, as she entered the main room. “What can I do for you?”

Akane frowned. “Where are Shampoo and Mousse?” She asked, looking around.

“They are out on deliveries, now what can I do for you child, I am very busy.” Cologne said, seeming to be rushed. She had to get Akane out of here before Ranma woke up. All she needed was for the youngest Tendo to see her here right before she disappeared.

“Well, Ranma’s gone missing and I was wondering if you’ve seen him… or if you had something to do with it.” Akane said, narrowing her eyes at the old woman.

“Son-in-law is missing?” Cologne asked, doing her best to sound surprised. When one has been around for more than a century, their acting gets pretty good.

Akane sighed. “So you haven’t seen him?” She asked, before frowning. “Where did that Baka run off to?” Turning, she started to head out of the Café before Cologne stopped her by clearing her throat.

“I will send Shampoo out to find Son in Law as soon as she returns. This disappearance is troubling, especially since I felt a spike of his battle aura near the school just an hour ago.” She said, looking grave.

Akane paled as she realized what that meant and ran out of the front doors, leaving them to swing closed with a soft click. Cologne smiled to herself. At least the Tendo girl would be out of her hair for a while. It was quite amazing how gullible most of the people around here were.

HR

A week later, Rinsa was sitting on her bed in the storage room, reading a Chinese grammar primer. This was not the activity that she most wanted to pursue at the moment, however since the elder had forbidden her from leaving her room until they returned to the village, something about aggravating her injuries, it was about all she could do. Apparently, when she had sustained the head injury that had taken away her memory, from a poorly placed box of Herbs that had been on the top shelf of a cupboard she had been working in, her grasp of her native language had gone with the rest of her past. As she struggled over Verb and Noun placement in a sentence, she heard the door to the room open and looked up to see Shampoo, carrying a tray with a glass of something and a bowl of Ramen on it.

“How’s it coming.” She asked, in Chinese, before putting the tray down.

“I understand you.” Rinsa said, slowly, with a grin. “That good at least.”

The purple haired girl grinned, and switched back to Japanese. “At least Rinsa know how use pronouns in Chinese. You do too too good.” She said, with a grin. It was strange. Shampoo had kept her distance from Rinsa for the first few days, however she was now her most frequent visitor. Mousse seemed to be avoiding her, and Cologne was always busy working in the kitchen.

“So it’s time for dinner is it?” Rinsa asked, as she cracked her chopsticks and picked up some of the noodles.

Shampoo nodded. “Elder say we go back to China tomorrow.”

Rinsa raised an eyebrow. “I thought that elder Cologne was your great grandmother. Why do you keep calling her that?” She noticed that Shampoo had stiffened, and hastily backtracked. “It ain’t any of my business or anything, I just thought it was strange.”

“You really no remember anything, do you?” Shampoo asked, sadly. She had begun to stay close to Rinsa in the hope that some part of Ranma would show through, but aside from the slang speech she seemed like an entirely different person. It really seemed like her Airen was lost to her, and everyone else now, and the worst part was that what was left of Ranma didn’t even realize that something was horribly wrong. Sobbing, she jumped to her feet where she’d formerly been sitting on the bed and ran out of the room.

“Hey, Shampoo!” Rinsa yelled, getting up and following. To her surprise, Shampoo was locked in her room, and Mousse was standing in front of the door, glaring at her. “What did you do to Shampoo, Ran…” He said, before cutting off. “Rinsa?”

“I… I don’t know.” Rinsa said, flinching away from the glare that Mousse was leveling at her. “She just said that I didn’t remember anything and started cryin. Why’re you glaring at me like that?” It hurt to see Mousse glare at her, as if he hated her, like that. It had only happened once before, the morning after she had first woken up. For some reason, her husband was glaring daggers at her and Shampoo had puffey eyes. The same thing was happening now, and she was beginning to think that Mousse definitely had a preferred wife. Of course, that didn’t bother her nearly as much as she thought it should, judging from how she had reacted when she first saw him, as if she were falling head over heals in love.

Mousse frowned. “It’s all right, go back to your room. Elder Cologne will probably get angry at you if she sees you up.” He said, before walking down the hall in the opposite direction. Rinsa just sighed. Why did making Shampoo run off like that make her feel so bad? Turning, she headed to her own room again, closing the door and slumping down to the bed to continue eating and reading.

HR.

Future Imperfect CONT’d.

HR.

Nabiki sighed to herself as she saw her younger sister trudge into the house yet again, sore, tired, and without any results. She considered saying something to the blue-black haired girl, but in her sister’s currently volatile state, that may not be a good idea.

“Damn you, Saotome.” The middle Tendo girl said, her fingers tapping more forcefully on the laptop she was typing at in the house’s living room. It had been two weeks since Ranma had just fallen off of the face of the earth, and it seemed that he’d vanished for good, this time.

If it weren’t for what his disappearance had done to Akane, she wouldn’t have blamed him for finally giving up and running… but every time she looked into her sister’s sad eyes, she vowed again that she would find the little bastard, if only to ring every last bit of monetary value out of him in revenge.

Hearing the sound of her E-mail notifier going off, the mercinary quickly checked it to see that it was yet another letter from one of her contacts, saying that they’d found no sign of the boy. Growling in frustration, she let her head fall to the tabletop with an audible thump.

“Still no luck, Nabiki?” Came her older sister’s worried voice, as Kasumi put a calming hand on her shoulder.

“I don’t understand how he could disappear so completely!” Nabiki growled. Even the Amazons had given up on finding him in Nerima and struck out across Japan about a week ago, and that was pretty dire. She’d actually suspected them of pulling some scheme and steeling him for a while, until she’d seen Shampoo. The look on her face when she’d talked about Ranma going missing was almost enough to make Nabiki feel sorry for her, and the middle Tendo knew that Shampoo was NOT a good actress.

A few moments later, the girl whipped her head up and glared out the doors that opened onto the house’s backyard. “Saotome, where the hell are you?!” She cried in frustration, before returning her gaze to the computer screen.

Kasumi just looked worriedly at her two younger sisters, thinking the same thought, but also that they may be getting a little obsessed.

HR.

Somewhere deep in the Qinghai province of China, a small group of travelers walked along a path. The black haired man and the purple haired woman were in front, with the red-head and the much older woman trailing behind. All three of the younger people were looking around the area with wonder, though for different reasons on one of their parts. Shampoo and Mousse were just happy to be home, finally, after years in another country. Rinsa, on the other hand, was amazed at the scenery which she didn’t remember ever having seen before.

Next to the red haired girl, Cologne smiled at the look on her face. It was at times like this, when the girl’s emotions were fully on display that the old woman could see a bit of Ranma in the person she had forcibly changed the girl into. She knew that it wasn’t enough for Shampoo, and truly regretted that, but perhaps her favorite student wasn’t totally dead, even with the memory wipe.

As the group continued up the path and came into sight of a massive wooden gate, Shampoo, Mousse and Cologne all stopped to take a look at the home they hadn’t seen in so long. Rinsa, on the other hand, just stood there looking confused. “Is… is this the village?” She asked, her face showing complete and total uncertainty.

Cologne was about to respond, but was surprised when Shampoo moved forward and clasped Rinsa’s shoulder. “Yes, this is Joketsu Zoku village, our home.” The young Amazon explained, smiling. “Welcome.”

Cologne threw her great granddaughter a confused look, since Shampoo had been avoiding Rinsa for the entire time they had been traveling to China. Shampoo’s response was a soft sniff and turning her face away from the elder, and Cologne’s shoulders slumped.

“Come on, we should probably go in.” Mousse said, uncomfortable about the actions that were going on around him and what they meant. The others nodded, and the four started in towards the village again. As they did so, he moved up alongside Shampoo again. “Shampoo…” He started, unsure of how to ask what he wanted to. Ever since the incident two weeks before she’d been a lot closer to him, but he didn’t want to ruin it with an improper question.

“Why did I start talking to her?” The Amazon warrior asked, quietly.

”Well, I…” Mousse said, uncertainly, and Shampoo quieted him with a shake of the head.

“I’ve been thinking over the last little while.” The girl explained. “It’s not her fault. What happened to Ranma, I mean.” She looked down. “It’s mine.” Mousse was about to exclaim something about that, but she stopped him. “If I… if I had been able to win Ranma from stupid Akane, this wouldn’t have happened… but I didn’t, because he never loved me, and the tribe did…” She shuttered. “I owe her a debt, because I killed someone very dear to her, even if she doesn’t know it.”

Mousse wasn’t sure about what Shampoo had just said, though he was definitely thankful she’d said it in clear, understandable Chinese rather than her choppy Japanese. “I… understand.” He said, slowly, realizing that he did. Throwing a glance back towards what had once been his worst rival, he shuddered. “I truly understand.” Reaching one arm out, he gently rested it across Shampoo’s shoulders. He wasn’t being lovesick, or even particularly firm. He just wanted to offer his comfort. ‘Who’d have thought the final loss of Saotome would make me feel like this?’ he thought, as the group entered the Amazon village, their home.

HR.

Kasumi looked up from where she was cooking dinner for her family as she heard the front door to the Tendo house open. The sound of two sets of tromping boots answered her question about who was at the door, and she called out. “Hello Akane, Saotome-san!”

“Hi, Kasumi.” Came her tired sister’s voice as she slumped into the living room, her body covered with mud, dust and sweat. From the look on her face, Kasumi knew that the girl had gotten no results, yet again. “Are you cooking dinner?”

Kasumi smiled. “Yes, some nice pork and rice.” She answered, happily, then frowned at her younger sister. “Now, how about you go upstairs and get cleaned up first?”

“Oh, sure.” Akane said, absent-mindedly, before leaving the room and heading up the stairs. Kasumi looked after her sister, a mixture of worry and pride on her face. It had been a year since Ranma had disappeared, and Akane had demanded to go looking for him when Genma had first started searching. The old man had gruffly, and rather rudely in Kasumi’s opinion, told Akane that she could only do it if she could keep up with him. Given that this was the sixth trip the girl had gone on, the winner of that challenge was evident.

“Hello, Kasumi.” Genma Saotome said, slouching into the room also covered in dirt.

“Still no luck?” The younger girl asked, knowing that Genma wouldn’t react as badly to the question as Akane would.

He fell tiredly into a seat, his head slumping forward onto the table. “Is it ever any different?” He asked, bitterly. Kasumi gasped, walking up behind the man and putting a hand on his shoulder. She’d often thought of Genma Saotome as a thief, liar, and generally reprehensible man… and come to think of it, a lot of that opinion still held true, but he never gave up on finding his son. This must be serious.

“What happened this time?” She asked, concerned.

“Nothing, really…” Genma sighed. “We stopped at Ryugensawa for a while, talked to that Shinosuke boy. He hasn’t seen the boy either.” He shook his head, sadly. “I think it’s time we stopped.” He admitted, his voice catching in his throat slightly.

Kasumi gasped, shocked to hear this from Genma, who had been resolutely searching for his son for an entire year. “But you…” She started.

“Kasumi, I’m one of the best thieves and trackers in Japan. Regardless of whether you like that sort of thing, it’s true.” Genma said this with no pride, just common fact. “I can’t track him. Hell, the closest we came was this guy with a similar pigtail in Okayama somewhere, but he…” The old man winced, rubbing at a part of his back. “He definitely wasn’t Ranma. I think we’ve got to accept that he’s gone.” He snorted. “Even Hibiki hasn’t seen him in a year!”

Kasumi nodded. “I suppose you’re right, Saotome-san.” She admitted, and then glanced upstairs where Akane was washing up. “I just hope Akane will take it well.”

"I'm not sure how she's going to take it." Genma said, following her gaze.

HR.

“This is all Mousse’s fault.” Shampoo moaned, laying on a bed in the middle of her home in Joketsu Zoku village. Rinsa giggled, a sound that Shampoo still hadn’t quite gotten used to hearing from her after a year, and lay a damp cloth across the other woman’s forehead.

“Oh? I thought you wanted strong little warrior children as soon as possible.” She snickered, and then stood up from where she was kneeling next to her co-wife’s bed.

“Yes, but can’t he have them?” The purple haired Amazon complained, trying to heave herself up slightly, but her very pregnant belly getting in the way of said action.

Rinsa’s eye twitched for a moment, and then she returned to her former smiling state. “I’m sure you’ll change your tune after the baby is born, they always do.” She said.

“Oh, and how do you know this?” Shampoo demanded, then groaned again as another contraction hit.

Rinsa shrugged. “I’ve been watching a few mothers around the village, in order to know what to expect from you.” She said, and then scribbled something down on a pad next to the bed.

Shampoo blinked, surprised. Then again, she thought, she really shouldn’t be. Rinsa was an odd person at the best of times, and it was something that she would do. She let herself smile as she thought about that. The other Amazon had started out in the village, almost a year ago, completely hopeless at most non-warrior tasks other than camp cooking and washing clothes.

Now, however, she seemed to have gained skills rapidly. When Shampoo asked Cologne about it, the elder had explained that Ranma’s previous determination to acquire skills had to vent itself somewhere, and Rinsa had apparently decided that she would be the best at what she did, even if it wasn’t fighting.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by another contraction, this time a lot more painful. She didn’t scream, however. She was a Joketsu Zoku warrior, after all.

Beside her, Rinsa made another note and started walking for the door. “Where are you going?” Shampoo asked, slightly afraid that she’d be left alone but not willing to admit it.

Rinsa returned what Shampoo recognized as a toned-down version of Ranma’s old cocky smile, before responding. “I’m going to get Mousse.” She explained. “Usually, this is where the wife starts yelling at someone.”

Shampoo laughed in spite of herself, as the red-head disappeared out of the room, and lay back, attempting to relax.

HR.

Outside of the room, Mousse was pacing back and forth violently, his fidgeting with his robes having already left a few small blades buried in the walls. As he paced, he tried to take his mind off of things by thinking of precisely how he’d gotten here. A lot of his childhood with Shampoo was a blur of blunt head trauma and broken glasses, and he tried to forget Nerima whenever he could. Even after all of this time, thinking that he was married to Ranma, even if Ranma, or Rinsa, usually acted more as a close friend than his wife, was REALLY disconcerting if he thought about Nerima.

Ever since Nerima, though, his life had mostly been getting better and better. He’d finally realized, after so many beatings, that all of his chasing of Shampoo had been what always pissed her off. Within a couple of months of their return to the village, the two had grown surprisingly close, especially since a lot of village life seemed somehow… old… to the both of them. It had been like a reverse form of culture shock that they had both suffered together, and it had made them grow much closer.

“Hey, Mousse.” A voice called out, breaking the blind boy’s train of thought. He looked up to see Rinsa standing in front of him, smiling at him. “I think you should go in and see Shampoo.”

He nodded, noting that, as always, Rinsa called them by name rather than beloved, before following her into the room where his first wife lay. “Shampoo!” He gasped, seeing her face contort in pain, and dashed over to the bed.

Rinsa merely watched over her two co-spouses, and waited for Shampoo’s new baby as anxiously as Mousse did.

HR.

Elder Cologne of the Joketsu Zoku watched from a distance as three proud parents fussed over a little baby held in the arms of her exhausted purple haired great granddaughter. The pride she felt at the moment, witnessing the next generation, was almost enough to make her start crying, but several things in the back of her mind kept her from doing so. Firstly, since it had been a child between Shampoo and Mousse, the council would likely STILL be on her back about producing an heir from Rinsa. She grimaced. The last time she checked, the Amazons weren’t into breeding women like cattle, but she shook that off.

The most important thing that held her back, however, was that she wasn’t sure how Shampoo would react to her. The girl hadn’t been outright hostile over the past several months, which was an improvement, but Cologne didn’t want to stir anything up on such an important day for the girl. Her decision was made for her, however, when Rinsa suddenly stiffened and looked in her direction. ‘Damn, I still keep forgetting that girl has a martial artist’s instincts.’ She thought, cursing herself for a fool.

The redhead talked to Shampoo for a moment, and the girl’s face went through several expressions too quickly for Cologne to read before she reluctantly nodded. “Elder, will you come over here to witness the naming of this child?” The purple haired girl called out, loudly.

Cologne considered hopping away, but that would be showing a huge amount of disrespect to members of her family, even though she could get away with it as an elder. Unsurely, she stepped forward into the light. Shampoo gave her an unreadable look, but Mousse and Rinsa wore small smiles as she approached.

Once the old woman reached the bedside, Shampoo raised the baby boy that had been resting on her chest, and began to speak. “My son, I name you So-Pu.” She then smiled proudly, lowered the child back to her chest, and fell into a quiet doze.

“I recognize this name.” Cologne said, proud herself, and rested a hand on the boy’s cheak.

To her surprise, Shampoo’s own hand reached up over hers. “Thank you, great grandmother.” The girl said, softly.

HR.

Later that week, Cologne was having a much less enjoyable time as she sat in the tribe’s main council chamber, in one of the lower teir seats that were reserved for the tribe’s less important leaders. She was the war mistress, the equivalent of a military general, and she’d been called before the high council, who’s leader was annoyed at her, as usual.

The old woman grimaced, now knowing that her adventure in Nerima trying to catch Ranma had lost her quite a bit of status in the council’s eyes, and then took a deep breath before speaking. “You called me here to ask something of me?”

Elder Leu-Fa, one of Cologne’s political enemies, and the leader of the high council, frowned at her. “Yes, Cologne.” She said. “We wish to know why Mu-Tzu hasn’t produced a child with the outsider girl yet.” She said, bluntly.

Cologne sighed, and rubbed her temples as a massive headache promised to be on the horizon. “Rinsa is a member of the village, not an outsider.” She started. “And I do not know why the two haven’t concieved a child yet. You know that Mu-tzu is only in love with Shampoo, that may be it.”

Leu-fa scowled. “We inducted the outsider into the tribe under the understanding that we could obtain her blood offspring for training, preferably female. We are losing patience.”

Cologne blinked. It was odd that the elder was being so blunt in her demands, and she wondered why that was. Perhaps, she thought, they needed more strong warriors for the future? But that made little sense, as even if Rinsa became pregnant right now it would be at least twelve years before the child could fight. Keeping silent, she waited for the lead elder to continue.

“Cologne, your task was to bring the blood of the outsider who killed Saffron into the tribe. You have not done that yet. Do I have to remind you what the punishment for failure on this mission is?” The lead elder asked, seeming to take some sort of perverse pleasure in the words. “Given that your family has only produced a son so far, you are not exactly impressive.”

Cologne growled, clenching her teeth for a moment before regaining control. Her clan had just been threatened and insulted in the same sentence, and she inwardly marveled that such a tactless woman had managed to gain the spot she held. Still, the threat was very real, and the other elders hadn’t said anything to countermand it. “I will… take care of it.” She finally said, the words trying to catch in her throat. Inwardly, she was screaming that the Amazon tribe was not the Musk, but it was getting harder and harder to believe. “May I leave now?”

The lead elder nodded, and Cologne turned around to leave.

HR.

“Rinsa?” The red haired woman didn’t seem to hear her name called, as she concentrated on the garden in front of her. Moving one hand out quickly, she plucked something out of the dirt, then put it into a small bag by her side. “Rinsa?!” The voice came again, sounding slightly exasperated.

She looked up, clearing some sweat and hair out of her eyes, to see Mousse standing next to the garden with his arms crossed. He looked rather nervous, and she could see his hands rustling inside of his sleeves. “Hmm?: She asked, startled. “Is something wrong?”

“Not exactly.” Mousse said, sounding very uncertain. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.” He ran through the instructions Cologne had given him, and cursed her for having to ask HIM to do this. Then again, he felt, if anyone had to do it, it was better him than some random man the elders picked out. Grimacing at that thought, he offered the girl a hand up.

“Sure.” Rinsa said, whiping her hands off on her rough working pants, before accepting his hand and letting herself get pulled up. As she did so, he looked her up and down, trying to think of her as his wife, rather than the rival she’d been so long ago. “Are you sure you’re all right?” She asked, concerned.

“Yes… Yes, I’m fine.” He reassured her again, and then led her over to a bench that had been set in front of the house. “Rinsa, did the elders ever explain to you how you became a second wife?” He started.

Rinsa simply blinked. Truth to tell, she hadn’t really thought about that. After the rocky start, she just acted like another family member, trying to keep out of Shampoo and Mousse’s way when they obviously wanted private time, but otherwise, just there, doing what the others didn’t have time to do. “I… never thought about it, to be honest.” She answered.

Mousse muttered something that sounded like ‘figures,’ but Rinsa didn’t call him on it, waiting for him to continue. “Your family was full of good martial artists.” He said, barely hiding a grimace at the thought of Genma being called a ‘great’ martial artist. “The tribe wanted to ensure that the bloodline continued, even though you chose not to fight… which is the problem.” He looked down. “Apparently, they’re impatient to have an heir from you.”

“So they want…” Rinsa started, then looked away, scratching the back of her neck in a very familiar mannerism. Mousse didn’t respond verbally, merely nodding. As Rinsa thought about that, the first thing she felt was a sense of wrongness, that even THINKING about doing that with Mousse was out of the question, but then she blinked. Why would she think that? Mousse WAS her husband, and she still vividly remembered the feelings she’d had when she’d first seen him. She couldn’t remember anything before that point, but she knew that she loved him. Still, why did something feel… wrong?

Raising her hands to her temples, she gave a soft shake of her head as a lance of pain flew from one side to the other. At a soft sigh from Mousse, she quickly spoke, not realizing it was a sigh of relief. “Oh, I wasn’t rejecting you!” She said, quickly. “It’s just... that headache’s back for some reason. I’m sorry.” Once her head stopped hurting, she turned towards him. “The village elders actually asked you to do this?”

He shrugged. “Actually, yes.” He admitted.

She nodded. “All right, I’ll…” She felt a twinge in her head again, but ignored it. “I’ll do it.” She smiled at him, weakly. “We are married, after all. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing, right?”

Mousse nodded, feeling slightly sick… but Rinsa had agreed. He had told Cologne flat out that if she refused he wouldn’t do it, to hell with his and Shampoo’s position in the tribe, but she’d agreed. ‘Damn the elders,’ He thought, but slowly stood, and took Rinsa’s hand.

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki was lost, again. This was not an unusual event. He’d been lost countless times throughout his lifetime, but this time he was really lost. He’d been walking up the 401 highway that he was pretty sure lead to Tokyo, when he’d suddenly blundered off into the woods by accident. Now, he saw a great deal of bamboo and other things that he recognized as Chinese. This was a bad thing, since he had to be in Tokyo in at most 3 hours, or he’d miss his own wedding.

He shuddered at that thought. All he needed right about now was two thousand pounds of Sumo Pig trying to kill him because he’d left Akari at the alter, and he’d probably kill himself with a Shi Shi Hokodan before the pig had the chance.

Within a few moments, the lost boy had broken out of the massive bamboo grove he’d found himself in, incidentally passing a group of what looked like female warriors on the way past in the other direction, and broken out into what looked like a crop field. Ahead, he saw a small wooden hut. “There are people there!” He exclaimed. “I can get directions, and then Akari and I can get married.” Smiling at that thought, he let his mind wander, imagining the ceremoney. He just wished that Akane could be there, but she was off on yet another training trip with Mr. Saotome. Then again, he felt that she would have been slightly less nice than Ukyo if he’d have asked her to be his best man.

As he thought about this, the lost boy felt something slam into his chest. It wasn’t very hard, just enough to jolt him back to reality. Looking around to see what he’d hit, he stopped at the sight of a mop of red hair. ‘Could it be?’ He thought, but dismissed the thought instantly. There were a lot of redheads around, and accusing every one of them of being Ranma would be both counter-productive and probably insane. Realizing that he’d knocked the woman over, he spoke. “Oh, I’m sorry, Miss.”

“It’s all right.” The woman said, in Japanese that held a slight chinese accent. Ryoga nodded, and reached down to pick up some of the vegetables that he’d knocked flying out of the woman’s hands when he bumped into her. Looking over at her, his eyes widened. She was a pretty girl, wearing a chinese pant suit with some special modifications. Her hair ran down to her lower back, tied in a loose ponytail. The thing that surprised him, though, was that she was visibly pregnant.

‘Oh no, I just ran down a pregnant woman…’ He thought, and quickly picked her up and set her down on her feet. “Miss I’m really sorry, I didn’t hurt you right? My name’s Ryoga Hibiki, and I wasn’t paying attention. I really hope I didn’t hurt you!” He babbled, quickly.

“I’m fine, Hi… Hichiki-san.” She answered, waving off his concern, though a flash of pain crossed her face.

Ryoga stopped for a moment, wondering if she’d just insulted him by calling him ‘lack of direction’ on purpose, but shook it off. “Oh, well that’s good. Can I help you with your vegetables, to make up for the accident?”

“Yes, that would be nice, thanks.” Rinsa said, looking oddly at the babbling man in front of her. He seemed familiar, somehow, as if she’d seen him before. Still, she was sure that if she ever saw such a strange man, she would have remembered. Seeing the man start to walk, she cleared her throat. “My home is this way, Hichiki-san.”

“Oh, right, hehehe.” Ryoga said, laughing nervously. He followed the woman, as she led the way to her house.

After getting to the woman’s house, Ryoga set down the load of vegetables he’d been carrying. “Hey, I don’t mean to bother you, but do you know where Tokyo is from here?” He asked, nervously.

Rinsa’s eyes narrowed for a second. “Tokyo, that’s in Japan, isn’t it?” She asked. “We’re in the Chinese interior right now, Qinghai province.”

Ryoga processed this for a moment, and then blinked rapidly. “Oh… we are? Akari’s going to kill me!” He yelled, and then started running west as quickly as he could.

“But Japan is… east…” Rinsa said, blinking after the dust cloud that was vanishing into the distance. “Hmm, what an odd man.” She mumbled, turning back to store the vegetables, and absently rubbing her belly.

HR.

Rinsa fell back on the bed, panting with rivulets of sweat running down her face. Still, she had felt the sensation that told her that she was done her job, and leaned back to have a well deserved break. Around the edges of the bed, Mousse, Shampoo and Cologne all stood, the purple haired girl holding something in her arms. Cologne leaned over her great granddaughter for a moment, and smiled as she did something to the bundle. “Hmm, yes, it’s a girl!” The matriarch cried out, and Rinsa’s mouth broke into a happy smile.

Within moments, she had been handed the little girl, having been cleaned off quickly, and was looking down upon it in wonder. For the past nine months she’d been going through hell, and her headaches had gotten worse just to make her misery complete, but looking into the face of her child she could honestly say that it was worth it. The girl was small, pink and wrinkly, but she had a very thin fuzz of dark red hair on her head already.

“So, what will you name the child?” Cologne asked, smiling herself. She wasn’t quite as proud as she had been when witnessing the birth of So-pu, but it was close.

Rinsa thought for a moment. She hadn’t actually considered her child’s name, mostly because she’d either been too busy or too annoyed over the past few months. Still, now she had the girl in her arms, and a name was needed. She cast around in her mind for something, wanting it to be a good name, one for a strong person, like she had never been able to be. Then, she had it. She didn’t know where it had come from, but the word conjured up images of a firm jaw and a steel sword, but also feelings of love. “Nodoka.” She said, simply.

Shampoo and Mousse both went pale, and even Cologne’s eyes widened a fraction. “What did you say, child?” The old woman asked, urgently.

“I want to call her Nodoka.” Rinsa said, again. “I think it’s a good name.”

“It is.” Cologne said, regaining her composure. “How did you think of it?”

Rinsa looked confused. “I... I don’t know, it just sort of came to me.” She said, sheepishly.

“Well then, Nodoka it is!” Cologne said, resolutely. As Rinsa cuddled with her new baby, Shampoo gave the elder a frantic hand signal, and she nodded back. “I must go and talk with Shampoo.” She said, looking at the redhead. “You will be all right here.”

Rinsa grunted distractedly, as Mousse moved closer to the bed to get a look at his daughter, though he did throw a questioning glance to his first wife and great-grandmother-in-law.

HR.

A few minutes later, in the other room, Shampoo paced around nervously. She wasn’t sure if she was excited or horrified, but there was definitely some major emotion building. “Great Grandmother, what does this mean?” She asked, looking at Cologne. “Is Ranma… Rinsa… are her memories coming back?!”

Cologne sighed, lowering herself from her staff into a chair. She had been getting tired more and more often lately, and she needed to sit while thinking. “I don’t know, Shampoo.” She said, honestly. “There were some sections of her memory that I left mostly alone when erasing Ranma’s persona… perhaps the name was in one of those sections?” At Shampoo’s sudden downcast look, the old woman shook her head. “It’s almost as if you want Ranma’s original self to re-emerge.”

“Well, I…” Shampoo said, uncertainly. “Rinsa has proven to be a good friend, and I don’t want to lose her, it’s just that Ranma,” She shook her head. “I’m very confused, great grandmother.”

Cologne nodded. “So am I.” She answered, evenly. “However, I think I’ll let this take its course.” As Shampoo’s eyes widened, she continued. “You and I both heartily disapproved of what we had to do to bring Ranma into the tribe. Now, we have a child for our people. If she regains her memories, or if she does not, is as fate wills.”

Shampoo thought for a moment, and then nodded. “I agree.” She finally said.

HR.

“Just a minute, Soap. I’m almost done.” Rinsa said, batting the hands of the five year old boy away from the plate she was working with. Nodoka was playing nearby, trying to mimic a sword kata she’d seen Shampoo doing the day before, and the older redhead grinned at the little girl’s efforts. Unfortunately, the two children couldn’t take her mind off of what was going on around her for very long.

As she mixed the ingredients for the night’s dinner, she looked through the kitchen window, worriedly. Hostilities had started escalating between the Amazons and the Musk tribe over the past few months, and Shampoo and Mousse were both out there, patrolling the tribe’s borderlands for attackers.

She wasn’t sure how the fighting had started, but it had escalated to the point where each side would periodically raid the other shortly after one of the tribe’s hunting parties was taken out by Prince Herb’s troops over six months ago. At the moment, she wished that she could help, especially since her spouses were supposed to be back from patrol twenty minutes ago.

“Soap, no!” She said, snagging a small bit of bread that he’d tried to slip up his sleeve. “Go bug your sister or something.” She muttered.

He only nodded, running off to do just that, and Rinsa went back to what she was doing. Unfortunately, only minutes later, the front door to the house banged open loudly and someone stumbled in. Quickly looking around, Rinsa saw Mousse, his face pale and robes deshevelled. Dropping the plate she was holding, she ran over to him. “Mousse, are you all right?”

The master of hidden weapons frowned, noticing the two children nearby, and gestured Rinsa outside. She followed him, puzzled, and he quickly closed the door. “What’s going on here?” She asked. “Where’s Shampoo?”

The robed man winced, his eyes sparkling visibly from tears. “They got her.” He croaked, simply. Rinsa paled visibly, and he continued. “We were retreating, when one of their energy users got her in the back with an energy blade.”

“So she’s…” Rinsa said, a horrified expression appearing on her face.

Mousse nodded slowly, and then opened the door to the house. “Wait, where are you going?” The red haired woman demanded, following him inside.

He didn’t answer, merely opening the cupboard near the front entrance, removing handfuls of weapons and slipping them down his sleeves. Normally, he carried a lot of weapons, but now it looked like he was loading up for a war with the PRC. Then, she realized what he was thinking. “Mousse, you can’t!”

Nodoka and Soap looked over from the other side of the room, but didn’t move, as they saw that their father was seriously preparing for combat.

Mousse shook his head. “I’m sorry, Rinsa… but I have to do this.”

She sighed. She knew he was right. Though she and Mousse were always pretty close, she knew that his first wife was the one he truly, unconditionally loved, and didn’t begrudge him that. “You’re going to come back.” She said, flatly.

Mousse did not respond. He did not reassure her, or deny it. He simply walked to the door and opened it. The last thing he said before he left, though, chilled her to the bone. “Take care of Soap for me. Make him and Nodoka fighters I’d be proud of.”

Rinsa only nodded slightly as the door swung slowly shut.

HR.

“It wasn’t funny.” Nodoka grumped, walking next to her older brother as the two of them walked through the village’s front gates.

“Yes, it was.” He said, chuckling softly. “I mean, you were so happy about getting that balance exercize down, and then you face-planted into the mud. It was great!”

The auburn haired girl just grumbled, reaching for her wooden training blade so that she could whap her brother over the head with it. He really didn’t get the whole thing about female Amazon warriors having to get respect from the males, but then again, her mother had pretty well told her that that was nonsense a long time ago, so she let it slide.

“Mom’s going to kill me for breaking the bridge of my glasses again, though.” She mumbled, fingering said eyewear, which was just barely hanging onto her face. She would have taken them off, but she was completely blind without them.

“Glad I don’t need those.” The black haired boy said, running ahead of her, as he saw that their house was coming into view. She merely sighed. She seriously had to wonder about Soap’s maturity, even if he was fifteen, and a whole year older than she was.

“Hey, wait up!” She called, running after him.

HR.

Rinsa looked up from where she was working in her family’s house’s front yard, as she heard the sound of two children running towards her and talking to each other. Recognizing the voices, she stood up and shaded her eyes to see if she could see them. Sure enough, Nodoka and Soap were tearing along the road up to the house at top speed.

Soap was a black haired boy, wearing black Chinese pants and a white shirt with extra large sleeves. His hair was cut short, and he had an odd diamond shaped pattern on the front of his shirt.

Nodoka was slightly shorter and younger than he was, with free flowing auburn hair and a figure that was similar to her mothers. She wore a traditional Chinese Amazon warrior costume in red and black, with an armored breastplate. Rinsa frowned as she saw that the girl had one hand resting on her glasses. “Not again…” The older amazon muttered, but then just sighed and waved to the two incoming human projectiles.

Ever since Shampoo and Mousse had died, ten years earlier, the three person family had lived together. While both of the children knew a lot about their other parents, Rinsa had been sure to tell them the stories she knew about them, they both pretty well regarded her as their mother, and thanks to a request that both Mousse and Shampoo had put in their wills, and some maneuvering by Cologne, that’s what she was legally. “So, do I want to know how you did it this time?” She asked, as the two children came into easy speaking range.

Nodoka looked at her mother sheepishly, removing her hand from her nose to scratch at the back of her neck for a moment. “It was another training accident.” She muttered.

“Yeah, you should have seen it! She took a header right off of the challenge log!” Soap laughed, receiving a sharp nudge to the side of his ribs by his sister.

“I’ve got some tape in the house, come on.” Rinsa said, trying not to snicker at the mental image Soap had caused to pop into her brain. Nodoka grumpily nodded, but Soap shook his head.

“I’ve got to go. The lead huntress wants me to go on a hunting party today.” He explained. “Just wanted to make sure she didn’t run into any trees.”

Nodoka threw her brother a withering glance, but he quickly started running off. “Oh, don’t mind him, he’s just being a jerk.” Rinsa said. “Believe it or not, it’s a family trait.”

Nodoka giggled, and followed her mother into the house. As Rinsa was rummaging through the cupboard for the tape, she asked a question. “Was dad like that?”

Rinsa chuckled. “All of us were, sometimes. I know I used to say a lot of stupid stuff.”

“Like what?” Nodoka asked, curiously. Her mother gestured for her to hand over her glasses, and she did so, turning the room into a blurry mass of brown and grey.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, I can’t remember.” Rinsa said, reaching up with one hand to rub at her forehead before bringing it down to start working on the glasses’ frame. “I do know I did it a lot when I was younger, and the elders don’t like me much.”

Nodoka nodded in understanding, waiting for her mother to give her glasses back. She knew that the older woman had some problems with her memory, so didn’t really find the previous exchange odd. As Rinsa handed her glasses back to her, she put them on and then frowned. “I bet I probably missed the rest of training.” She grumbled.

The older Redhead looked over to a clock on the wall, and then nodded. “Yes, you probably have.” Seeing her daughter’s downcast expression, she thought for a moment and then smiled. “I think we’ve got some punching pads in storage somewhere, so if you want you can practice your hand to hand on a moving target.”

Nodoka blinked, then looked at her mother strangely. “You’re offering to help me train?” She asked, not quite believing it. As she said the statement, she realized that she probably sounded really insulting. “I mean, um, erm…”

Rinsa just laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not offended. I know I’m not a martial artist, but I’m sure I can hold up some pads for you to hit.”

“Yes, that’d be great, thanks mom!” Nodoka exclaimed, feeling that she at least had to make up for her previous foot in mouth problem.

Rinsa smiled, and went to look for the training gear.

HR.

About ten minutes later, Nodoka was starting to get a little bit freaked out. After her mother had found the punching pads, she’d taken a half-way passable defensive stance, and Nodoka had started attacking slowly. The older woman immediately blocked what she threw, so Nodoka increased speed. Right now, she was at about half her usual sparring intensity, and her mother was keeping up. She’d been about to ask the older woman if she’d always been lying about not being a martial artist, when she noticed that her eyes had unfocussed.

“Mom, are you all right?” She asked, stopping her assault for a second. Rinsa didn’t answer, however she did bring her foot up in a sweep kick that Nodoka just barely jumped over. “Mom?” She asked, falling back into a defensive pose. ‘Maybe I did make her mad…’ She thought. Rinsa didn’t answer, moving in on the much younger Amazon with a quick series of punches.

Nodoka only got out of the way of the blows because the punching pads strapped to Rinsa’s arms made her blows sloppy and inaccurate. “Mom, what are you doing?” She asked, the attacks getting harder to dodge by the second. In desperation, the girl started to fight back, if only to lessen the rain of attacks. At the moment, the two were at the same level she and her fellow warriors in training routinely sparred at, but she could detect an incremental increase in her mother’s speed.

“This can’t be happening..” She thought. “This is impossible!” Unfortunately, she didn’t have much more time to think, as her mother said something she couldn’t understand, and delivered a strong blow that knocked her back several feet and to the ground.

She flinched, expecting the beating to continue, an only looked up when she heard the redhead’s confused voice. “Nodoka? Why are you on the ground like that?”

“Why am I…” Nodoka asked, looking up to see that her mother was standing in a rather slack stance, blinking at her in confusion. “I’m here because you just beat me in a spar!” She exclaimed.

“That’s very funny.” Rinsa said, narrowing her eyes slightly. “But I think I can’t help you today. For some reason, I’m really tired. Sorry, No-chan.”

“But you… I….” Nodoka stammered, looking between her mother and the ground. Growling in frustration, she shook her head. “It’s no problem, Mom.” She finally said, giving up on figuring out what had just happened.

HR.

In the darkness, it paced. It was a massive black and red striped tiger, and it had been doing this for a very long time, but recently it had become much more agitated. It had seen a beam of light! Just for a few moments, the light penetrated and let it see outside. It had given up hope of ever seeing the outside again, but there it had been, for just a shining second. Grass, and trees, and water, and sky… it wanted OUT!

Roaring, the cat careened around the darkness of its prison, as it had done when the prison had first been constructed, it wasn’t sure how long ago. It knew that there were other things in the prison with it. A lot of its human side’s memories had been shoved in here, for some reason, and so had the water. The water was an odd thing, in the cat’s experience. It pulsed mightily against the walls every once in a while, apparently on some unseen signal that the cat couldn’t understand. The red and black monstrosity lumbered over to where the water normally pounded, running its nose along the wall. Yes… it could feel it, a tiny crack that the water had produced after so many years of pounding. Growling animalistically in the darkness, the cat began to pound at the crack with its claws. It WOULD be free!

HR.

“Oh, Ranma, you’re such a cute little boy.” “Son, come on! We’re going to go on a long trip…” “Just one more time, boy. I’m sure you can learn it!” "Saotome Ranma, of the Saotome school of..." "...I'm Ukyo. Nice to meet you!" “Very tragic story…” “Jusenkyo…” “Hi, I’m Akane, do you want to be friends?” “Ranma, you jackass!” “Oh, my!” “Airen…” “Ohohohohohohohohoh!” “Sweeto!” “Oh, my manly son!” “It’ll cost you, Saotome.” “Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!” “Foolish Landling!” “I, the blue thunder…” “Prince of the….” “Tea Ceremoney…”

Rinsa’s eyes shot open, and she stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom. Her arms were shaking, and there was sweat trickling down her back. “What… what was that?” She gasped, though the images and voices from her dream were rapidly fading away, only allowing her to keep a grasp on very few. As she thought of them, her head began to ache again. She groaned, getting out of bed and fumbling around in the drawer at the side for the small amount of medical supplies she kept there just in case.

Finding a bottle of headache medication that she tried not to use unless she had to, she opened it and popped one tablet into her mouth. She swallowed it dry, and stood. Looking out the window, she saw that the sun was just starting to rise. “Oh well, I would have had to get up soon, anyways.” She mumbled, and left the room to get a bath.

As she sank into the warm water, the redhead felt an odd tingling sensation, but ignored it. It was probably just something about going from the cold air into the warm water. Fortunately, the combination of the water and the medicine was having an effect, and her headache was subsiding. “I’ve really got to see the healers soon.” She mumbled, worriedly. She’d gotten headaches ever since she could remember, apparently a lasting symptom of the accident that took her memory sixteen years ago, but they had been building up to full migraines lately, and those dreams… Shaking her head, she tried to dismiss those thoughts, and started to wash up.

HR.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Soap said, as he reclined on a tree trunk, eating some cooked rabbit.

“Look, I’m telling you that Mom sparred with me yesterday, and she beat me!” Nodoka said, exasperated at her brother’s distinct disinterest.

“We both know Rinsa isn’t a martial artist, she can’t even throw a punch.” Soap said. “Maybe you spent too long face-down in the mud and hallucinated it?”

Nodoka sniffed at him. “Fine, don’t believe me, but there’s something weird going on here.” She said, annoyed.

Soap sighed, seeing that his sister was serious about this. “I don’t know, maybe she just got lucky? How did she tag you?”

“That’s the weird part.” Nodoka explained. “I mean, she started off as bad as I thought she should be, but then her eyes sort of glazed and she started to counter everything I threw.” Soap gave a non-commital grunt, so Nodoka continued. “Then, she said something I didn’t understand, and laid me out.”

“What did she say?” He asked, pushing off of the tree and actually starting to seem interested. When Nodoka repeated the string of syllables she’d heard, his eyes narrowed and he started to think. “Your Japanese pronunciation is horrible, you know that?”

“It’s Japanese?” She asked, surprised.

“Yeah... means something like ‘a hole,’ or ‘an opening,’ or something. Maybe she was pointing out a hole in your defenses?”

“In Japanese?” She asked, blinking at him.

He shrugged. “She can speak it.” He smirked. “I’ve heard her cursing in it.”

Nodoka sighed. “Well, that answers that one, but I guess we won’t be able to figure out what’s going on until later. My training group’s got a patrol today.”

“Mind if I come along?” Soap asked, curiously. At her upraised eyebrow, he shrugged. “I’m bored.”

Nodoka face faulted, as her brother laughed.

HR.

The village healer, a woman by the name of Was-Ing, hummed to herself as she sorted through various herbs that she had picked on a recent expedition to the lands around the village. Today was pretty slow fortunately, and she hadn’t had to deal with anything more severe than a blacksmith with a cut on his hand, so she’d decided to take the time to sort things out.

As she thought this, however, the front door to her small building creaked open, and she sighed at the return of work. Looking up, she saw a familiar red haired woman in the doorway, holding a plate full of food. “Oh, hello Rinsa.” The old woman said, smiling. Most of the village bartered goods for her services, and whenever it was Rinsa she usually made something that the healer would quite enjoy eating. “How are you this afternoon?”

The younger woman frowned as she placed the plate on the table, revealing it to be a freshly cooked chicken from the small group that she raised. The healer’s eyebrows rose. A fee that large meant something serious was probably wrong. “It’s those headaches I’ve been getting.” Rinsa said. “They’ve been getting worse, and I’ve been having strange dreams.”

The healer frowned. She really hadn’t wanted to hear that. Given what had happened to the other woman sixteen years ago, symptoms like this made her want to get her into a city for an X-ray or CT scan. Unfortunately, the elders didn’t like that idea. “I see.” She said, and stood from her seat. “Sit here, please.”

Rinsa nodded, walking around the table and sitting down. Immediately after, the older woman began to run her hands through the younger’s long red hair, feeling the top of her head. “So, what were these dreams about?” She asked, while conducting the exam.

Rinsa wanted to shake her head, but couldn’t, so just settled for speaking. “I can’t really remember. They’re all jumbles of different images and voices, and I can’t remember most of them when I wake up.”

“Hmm…” The healer said, nodding. “You can’t remember most of it, what can you remember?”

“Little bits and pieces.” Rinsa said, shrugging. “Something about… Jusenkyo… a few names, not much else. Every time I try to remember more, the headaches get worse.”

The healer nodded again, but unseen to Rinsa her face had gained a very worried expression. Most amazons didn’t even know about Jusenkyo. Since Rinsa had lived with Shampoo and Mousse, she likely did, but why she was dreaming about the place, Washing had no idea. “Do you have a Jusenkyo curse?” She asked, stabbing in the dark, though she was pretty sure of the answer since she’d been doing physicals on the other woman for years.

To her surprise, Rinsa flinched violently at that question. “I… Jusenkyo… what’s a Jusenkyo curse?” She asked, blinking in confusion.

“I see.” The healer said, now definitely worried. “Just a moment, I’ll be right back.”

Rinsa merely sat in the chair, waiting as she heard the healer bustling around in the back of the room. She was tempted to start fidgeting again, but resisted the urge as she sat. This turned out to be a bad idea, apparently, as the healer returned a few minutes later, and promptly dumped a glass of cold water over the smaller woman’s head.

“Hey, what did ya do that for?!” Rinsa demanded, not noticing that she had reverted to Japanese for the indignant question, and spinning on her heal. Seeing the healer nod slightly, she opened her mouth again… right before getting hit in the face with a glass of hot water. Instantly, her body began to tingle. “Wh… what’s happening?” She asked, before everything went black.

HR.

In its black prison, the cat feverishly dug at the crack that the water had made in the wall. It could feel the material, formerly so strong and impenetrable, giving under its claws now, and it increased its digging to a fever pitch. It would be free soon, it knew it! Rearing back, the cat pounded at the weakened wall section with its paws, feeling the whole thing shudder. The crack grew a little bigger, and the cat could actually see some light coming through from the other side.

Just as it let out a triumphant howl, the cat noticed that there was light coming from its side, as well. It looked back to see the strange 'water' that it could never understand, as it let loose another blow at the wall. Instantly, the whole thing crumbled, and the cat was out in the open air, in his own body.

In front of him was a female that his human side’s memories labeled as a friend, but his human side’s memories were very confused and muddled at the moment. Cocking his head to the side, he looked her over and meowed at her inquisitively.

The female backed away from him, nervously, and ended up catching her legs on the edge of a chair. Letting herself fall back into it, she stared at him fixedly. Normally, the cat would stop to meow at her for a while and see if she would pet him or give him food, but normally he hadn’t been locked away for over fifteen years. Yowling, he turned around, and charged for the door.

HR.

Washing sighed as the male that had been Rinsa turned away from her, heading for the door. No, that thing wasn’t a male. She wasn’t sure what it was, but the way it yowled and moved was positively inhuman. “Next time I want to test out a theory, have some armed guards on hand.” She muttered to herself, letting her head fall back against the top of the chair and staring up into the ceiling. “Also, I’m getting too old for this.”

HR.

At the edge of the Joketsu Zoku village, two guards stood and studied the road in front of them in a state of almost complete boredom. “You know, nothing’s going to happen.” One of them, a young man with a set of maces strapped to his back, commented lazily.

His partner, an older and more battle-scarred warrior, snorted. “That’s no reason to let our guard down, boy.” She said, her eyes studying the road intently.

“Yeah, right.” The younger man muttered, looking around for something more interesting to look at. He knew that the Musk were still a substantial threat, at least whenever they decided to try another raid of Amazon territory, but they hadn’t tried that in over six months, and there really wasn’t anything else to worry about. As he looked back over the village itself, his eyes widened.

On one of the roofs near the edge of town, he saw what looked like a man wearing the remnants of a worker’s pant suit, standing on all fours and looking around. “Holy… look at that!” He exclaimed, causing his partner to look over at him.

“Don’t get distracted.” She rebuked, annoyed.

“No, seriously, look over there!” The boy exclaimed, pointing.

Deciding to humor the new guy, she glanced over to where he was pointing and her eyes popped wide. “What in the world is that?” She exclaimed.

Her question was quickly answered, as the man on the roof had apparently noticed the two of them. He bounced off of it, and came running up to them. As he did so, they could see him more clearly. He was, indeed, wearing the remains of what looked like a female farmer’s clothes, and how he’d managed to get them on before ripping them up was beyond the experienced warrior. They looked about 4 sizes too small for him.

Wearily, she drew her sword from over one shoulder, and her partner followed with his maces. The strange man grinned eagerly, and then jumped at the two of them with an unearthly yowl.

HR.

The cat was having fun. He wasn’t sure where he was, since his human memories kept giving contradictory accounts, but all he knew was that it was open, there were lots of places to jump around, and there were a bunch of neat people to play with.

It had started with two of them, a male and a female who were pretty fast, but before long there was a whole group chasing him around the village like a demented game of follow the leader. As his first day out of the darkness, the cat thought this was pretty fun. Still, there was something nagging at him from the human part of his mind, the one that usually told him who to like, who to attack, and other things like that.

While it was still very confused, it was starting to get angry as well. It was as angry about him getting locked up as he was, apparently, but it didn’t know who had done it, so with his usual carefree attitude, the cat put that aside for later consideration. For the moment, he had people to play with, and a whole village to run around in.

HR.

Elder Cologne! Elder Cologne, someone’s attacking the village!” the elder who had just been called woke from her half-doze at her desk, and looked sharply at the messenger who had just run into her meeting room.

“The village is under attack?” She asked, “By who?”

The messenger shrugged, though he looked panicked. “We don’t know, elder. There’s only one of them, but so far he’s managed to out-run the whole village’s guard squad.”

“One male?” The elder asked, shocked. “Is Herb of the Musk here?”

The man shook his head. “No, he doesn’t look like anyone we’ve been trained to recognize.”

The elder nodded. “All right, that’s fine.” She said, and then pulled her staff from behind her chair. Perching on its end, she began to move towards the room’s main door, the messenger following her. As she reached the door, she saw a blur of black, pink and blue flash past her.

Blinking, she reviewed the last few things she’d seen, and frowned. “So, that's what fate decided." She muttered, low enough for the messenger not to hear.

She quickly came to the realization that, if this was Ranma, he wasn’t acting normally. Given what had been done to him, she’d expected him to be angry, tearing up the village in revenge or something. As she thought, she looked down at the ground, and noticed a set of marks that had been dug into it when Ranma had run past. “That is… the Neko-ken?” She mumbled.

“Call the other elders, and find Rinsa or her two children!” She ordered, before pushing off of the ground, chasing the blur. She had to make sure that Ranma didn’t injure anyone in the village while in his cat state.

HR.

Over the next half an hour, Cologne gave chase to the cat until he finally seemed to notice that she was following him. Coming to a stop in the main contest square, he watched her warily as she landed on a log in front of him. The cat recognized this one. He’d had quite a lot of fun with her on a beach a long time ago, though his human side didn’t like her much.

Snorting at her, he waited to see what she would do. She slowly approached him, making calming noises, and he frowned slightly. She was trying to calm him down, to get him to stop running around and let his human self take control. He was planning on doing that eventually, but this was the first time he’d been out in so long, he wanted just a little more time. Meowing sadly, he shook his head at her.

Cologne blinked. It seemed that the cat wasn’t nearly as angry or annoyed as she thought it should be, and she wondered why. She tried to call it to her again, but the cat just shook it’s head, and she grumbled. “This is like trying to get a pet cat to do something.” She muttered.

Just then, a large amount of water was thrown at the cat from the side of the square opposite Cologne, and it leapt over the wave, hissing angrily. Cologne slapped her forehead, seeing that Elder Leu-Fa was standing there with six warriors. “I had him contained.” She grumbled, but thankfully not loud enough for the higher ranked woman to hear.

“Cologne, how did this happen?” Leu-fa snapped, glaring past Ranma at her fellow village elder.

Cologne shrugged. “Ranma did have a very strong will, I was surprised that the technique lasted that long without showing signs of strain or needing re-application.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me this because…” Leu-Fa growled. At the moment, Cologne reflected, if expressions could kill, then Leu-Fa’s would murder her on the spot.

“You never asked.” She said, having had enough of the other woman’s high handed attitude, and now relatively sure that she was going to be exiled no matter what she said.

Leu-Fa’s eyebrow twitched violently.

HR.

Nodoka and Soap ran through the bush at top speed, on their way back to the village. A messenger had just reached their patrol, reporting that something bad had happened, and it involved them somehow. Given what Nodoka had mentioned about her mother earlier, they were both very worried, and pretty thankful that they had only been about a mile from the village at the time.

“So, what do you think happened?” Soap asked, dodging under a branch as the two broke onto the main path that lead to the village gates.

“I don’t know.” Nodoka replied. “I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with mom.” Both her father and Shampoo had already been killed in battle, and if it happened to Rinsa as well… She shook her head to clear her thoughts, seeing similar thoughts crossing her brother’s face.

Jogging through the main gates and towards the village square, the two young warriors noticed a large crowd gathered there.

“What’s going on here?” Nodoka asked, tapping on the shoulder of one of the warriors surrounding the square. The older woman just shrugged, pointing, and Rinsa’s two children followed the finger to see something rather odd. In the middle of the square stood an unfamiliar looking man, as well as two of the village elders.

“Hey, isn’t that what mom was wearing this morning?” Nodoka asked, pointing at the shreds of clothing that covered the man.

“Yeah, I think you’re right…” Soap said, confused, and the two edged deeper into the square. As they did so, they saw one of the elders, who they identified as Leu-Fa, move towards the man and try to reach out and touch him. He immediately jumped away and over her head, lashing out with his hand as she tried to hit him with her staff. To the two young warriors’ shock, the end of the staff fell into several pieces and clattered to the ground.

“What’s going on here?” Nodoka said, apparently too loudly as both the elder and the strangely moving man looked towards her. They both had distinctly different reactions. The elder suddenly started to smile, as the man moved, bounding towards her.

Soap instinctively got between the threat and his younger sister, getting bowled over by the man, who sat on his chest and started purring. “Okay, this is getting just plain weird.” He muttered, looking up into blue eyes that sparkled slightly. After a few seconds of silence, he tried something else. “I don’t suppose you can get the heck off of me?!”

The stranger didn’t seem to hear him, bending his head slightly and nuzzling Soap’s face. “Hey, do you mind?” The younger boy asked, now half way between embarrassed and freaked out.

“Yes, I’ve lost most of my patience.” Came the annoyed voice of elder Leu-Fa, causing Soap to crane his neck to see where she was. When he did so, however, his face went pale.

Immediately, the strange man jumped off of Soap, taking up an angry, four legged, stance and opening his mouth to yowl loudly. In front of him, the thing that was causing this reaction smiled. “Yes, that’s right, pay attention to me.” Elder Leu-Fa said, as she stood next to Nodoka, who was stiff as a board, with the end of the elder’s staff held against her neck. “Now, I’ve gotten tired of your games. Unless you want to see her die, you will let us revert you to normal.” The elder said, smugly.

Across the square, Cologne groaned and slapped her forehead. That had, quite possibly, been the dumbest thing to do around Ranma, especially in Neko-ken mode.

Almost instantly, Cologne was proven right by the sound of the cat’s angry hiss, and the sight of battle aura crackling at his fingertips.

For their parts, Nodoka and Soap were both confused. Well, Nodoka was terrified and confused, while Soap was angry and confused, but the basic emotion was the same. “Why would he stop because you’re threatening me?” The auburn haired girl asked, feeling the staff press against her throat every time she said a word.

“Be quiet.” Leu-Fa snarled, annoyed, while Cologne’s mind was going a mile per minute. There was one thing the smarter of the two elders knew, and that was if Leu-Fa hurt Nodoka, despite his so far easy going attitude, the cat would start destroying things, likely starting with Leu-Fa.

Cologne had never seen Ranma’s cat side angry, but she sure as hell didn’t want to, and she didn’t want to see it destroy the village out of revenge. Walking forward, she cleared her throat. “Ranma?” She asked, clearly.

The cat didn’t take his eyes off of Leu-Fa, but he did somehow manage to twitch an ear at the word. ‘Well, it looks like this is my karmic punishment.’ The old woman thought, before continuing. “If you can understand me, I just want you to understand one thing. What was done to you, and what is likely about to happen to your daughter, was not the fault of the entire village, but several misguided elders… including myself, and the woman in front of you.”

The cat did understand. Or at least, he understood enough. Now, he knew that the woman who was menacing his cub had also been responsible for trapping him in the black place. Instantly, his hackles rose, and the crackling aura around his limbs started to get more powerful.

“Cologne, you fool, what have you done?” Leu-Fa hissed, glaring across the square at her fellow elder and taking her staff away from Nodoka’s neck to point it angrily at her. In retrospect, that was quite possibly the stupidest tactical move of her entire career as Nodoka immediately rolled away from her. With his cub now out of immediate killing range, the cat leapt.

A few moments later, Soap gulped and turned away from the scene. “I… think I’m going to be sick.” He said, his face turning green. He had seen a lot of things die in his life. After all, he helped the tribe’s hunters quite often. Hell, he’d even seen a few humans die. This, though, went beyond anything he'd ever seen before.

Nodoka, on the other hand, was just relieved that she no longer had a village elder’s staff at her throat, but was also trying to piece everything that had happened together. Fortunately for her piece of mind, she hadn’t looked back to where the elder had been yet.

All she knew was that she and her brother had arrived to see that guy fighting two of the village’s elders. Then, elder Leu-Fa had grabbed her and threatened her life in order to stop him. That, in itself, was pretty hard to believe, but what elder Cologne had said afterwards was stranger. ‘…likely about to happen to your daughter…’ Who was his daughter? Looking back to the man, she saw that the elder had apparently been taken from him. He stood on all fours, the lower half of his arms covered in blood, and she shuddered to think what had likely happened. Just then, he turned towards her, showing his face… and it began to rain.

Instantly, the man’s body began to shimmer, similarly to how she vaguely remembered Shampoo and her father’s curses doing, and the man shrank at least six inches. “No, it…” the auburn haired girl gasped, taking off her glasses for a moment and rubbing them on her tunic. Putting them back on, she still saw the same thing. Her mother was laying in the tournament square, her arms covered in blood, and the tatters of her clothing just barely covering her modesty.

HR.

It had been several minutes since the incident in the village square, and Nodoka, Cologne, and Soap all stood around a bed in Rinsa’s house where the red haired woman lay, unconscious.

“All right, what just happened?” Soap demanded, tactlessly, as Nodoka looked down at her mother uncertainly.

“It is a very long story.” Cologne said, sighing.

“Well, can you try and tell it anyway? Please elder?” Nodoka asked, looking down at the old woman with a lost expression.

Cologne nodded. “A few years before either of you were born, my great granddaughter, Shampoo, was beaten in combat by an outsider male.”

“But, Shampoo married dad, he’s not an outsider, is he?” Nodoka asked, and got an annoyed look from Cologne.

“No, it wasn’t your father. Now, if you wouldn’t interrupt…” She said, receiving a slight nod from the two. “The boy didn’t want to marry Shampoo. He was engaged to another girl from his own country, and he put up a rather heavy resistance.” Cologne explained, deciding not to make things too complex at the moment.

“Shampoo was about to accept the dishonor of the failure and return home, when the boy did something that made the tribe’s high council determined to have him, no matter the cost.” At the two younger Amazons’ curious looks, Cologne shook her head. “That’s not important to this situation.” She said, dismissively. “As I was saying, they wanted him, and his blood, in the tribe, and they gave me a very strict time limit to do so.”

She looked down at the sleeping face of the redhead in the bed, and sighed. “I ended up using the Xi Fa Xiang Gao Shiatsu technique to erase his memory, then I locked him into one form so that his Jusenkyo curse wouldn’t activate and reverse the effects.”

Nodoka and Soap were both about to ask what that had to do with what happened today, when the penny dropped. Rinsa had amnesia of her early life. Both of them knew that and they had just seen a man they’d never seen before turn into her when the rain started. “That means you…” Nodoka said, looking pale. “That’s…. horrible! No, this can’t be… there’s no way.” She sank to her knees next to the bed, looking into her mother’s face.

As she did so, the older redhead’s eyes fluttered open, and she caught her gaze. “Nodoka?” She croaked, softly.

“Mom, you’re all right! Tell me what Elder Cologne just said isn’t true, please!” Nodoka begged, her eyes filling with tears as she hugged her mother fiercely.

“What… the old gh… the elder is here?” The rather confused redhead said, looking around.

“So, judging by that nickname, you’ve remembered everything?” Cologne asked, sighing.

“I…” The redhead said, slowly, before her eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment. “Oh, kami, I…” Her facial expression changed dozens of times within a few moments, as two conflicting worldviews suddenly tried to influence the same person’s actions at the same time.

It was almost like having two different people in her head, screaming for her to do different things, but worse because they were both her, and both had the same amount of validity.

Disentangling herself from Nodoka’s grip, the person who was both Ranma and Rinsa hung her head over the edge of the bed, and threw up her breakfast. At the moment, it was about the only thing her two halves agreed on.

“Mom?” Nodoka asked, while she and Soap both looked at the retching older woman in concern.

After a few moments, the redhead raised her head, grimacing at the taste left in her mouth. “I’m sorry.” She mumbled. “This is… really confusing. Hell, right now I don’t even know what my name is.”

Cologne nodded. “That is understandable.”

The redhead suddenly turned to look at Cologne, and she gave the matriarch a hard glare. “You, get the hell out of here.” She barked.

Cologne sighed. “Well, yes… I suppose that is a far better reaction than I could have hoped for.” She mumbled, and exited the room.

“Do… do you want us to leave as well?” Soap asked, uncertainly, and the redhead looked back to see both he and Nodoka looking at her nervously. She sighed, and let her legs fall off of the bed on the opposite side from where she was sick. Standing up shakily, she walked towards the two and grabbed them both by the hand. “I don’t want either of you to go anywhere, if you’re willing to stay.” She said, trying to muster a smile. “Even if I’m not sure of much else, you’re both my kids… if you don’t mind the problems I’ve suddenly got.”

The response was very quick, as Nodoka threw her arms around her mother’s neck, crying with relief into her chest. Soap only rested a hand on her shoulder, but his grin stretched from ear to ear. The red haired woman found herself tearing up as well, though now she could hear her father saying how it wasn’t manly in her head. Not particularly caring, she hugged Nodoka back and rubbed her back gently.

HR.

The redhead sighed as she packed the last of her rations into her backpack. “There, that should be enough to last for a while.” She said, snapping the top of the backpack closed, and testing its weight. Luckily, she hadn’t lost a lot of muscle tone since Nerima, and she was capable of lifting the pack easily.

Taking out a glass that she’d brought from the bathroom beforehand, she dumped it slowly over her head, and promptly shifted into a taller, male form, which both felt more comfortable and foreign at once. “May as well get used to this again and make the pack easier to carry.” He muttered.

As he was strapping the thing on, he heard the sound of someone knocking on the door. “Come in!” He called, easily. Seeing Cologne opening the door, he narrowed his eyes. “What do you want, Ol… el… Cologne?”

Cologne wanted to be offended, but she had, truthfully, expected a much more hostile reaction. “The council has finished deliberating.” She said. “Most of the members who are on it now weren’t around when…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “At any rate, they understand your motives for what you did when you killed Leu-Fa, but they can’t really forgive you for killing an elder.” Seeing the black haired man about to say something, she raised her hand. “They’ve decided to exile you.”

The man snorted. “Well, I was planning to leave anyways, if only to sort myself out.”

“That’s good to hear, then.” Cologne said. “And what of Nodoka and Soap?”

“I’ll ask them.” He replied, simply.

“Ah, so I should tell the council that they are off training, then.” Cologne said, knowingly. Turning, she started to leave the room, but turned back at the door. “Oh, and I know that this will probably mean little to you, but… good luck.”

The conflicted individual just grunted non-comittaly, before settling the pack on his shoulders and starting for the door.

HR.

“So, are you sure that you want to come?” Nodoka sighed at that question, looking over at the person wearing the pack who was her mother, and currently male.

“How many times are you going to ask us that?” She asked, evenly, hitching her own pack up.

The other just shrugged. “I’m being exiled, not you two… I could understand if you want to stay.”

Soap shook his head. “No way. We don’t want to lose you too, so we’re going.” He said, resolutely, staring into bright blue-grey eyes and daring their owner to disagree with him.

“All right, let’s go, then.” The older black haired man responded, and the three started walking through Joketsu Zoku’s main gates. From several hundred feet away, Elder Cologne watched them leave, raising her cane in a silent salute. They were technically her last living relatives, and she hoped that they would be back soon. For now, though, she had a lot of things to take care of. Sighing, she turned and walked into the main council building, as the three travelers faided into the distance.

END.

Okay, now it's time for the end notes. For those of you who think this is strangely familiar, yes, I have published it before. That was a long time ago, and it got torched back off the net relatively quickly because I decided that I was going to do a lot of explaining in flashbacks that I REALLY should have done at the time.

Will it be continued? Well, um, I honestly don't know. While there are a lot of hanging plot threads, I feel that I did finish a story arc here. This is mostly my attempt to rehabilitate an old idea that stares at me occasionally and whines for attention, and that I have done. Still, there is much more for Ranma/Rinsa and the two children to do, not the least of which is heading back to Nerima and watching the fur fly.

Simple answer, it may be continued, but it isn't burning in the back of my brain for updates like Contrast Match, or even Character reconstruction.

Now, since you've waided through all of those notes, let's have a little fun, shall we?

Omake, Omake, Omake. (Axelrad:This actually happened.)

Rinsa’s eyes narrowed for a second. “Tokyo, that’s in Japan, isn’t it?” She asked. “We’re in the Chinese interior right now, Qinghai province.”

Ryoga processed this for a moment, and then blinked rapidly. “Oh… we are? Akari’s going to kill me!” He yelled, and then started running east as quickly as he could.

“But Japan is… west…” Rinsa said, and then looked oddly at her script. Reading it to herself again, she sweat dropped. "Um, wait, isn't Japan to the east?"

Moments later, after she stood there uncomfortably with the cameras rolling, an annoyed Ami Mizuno ran on-stage and read over the script. "Japan is... west... yes, that's what it says." She mumbled, then turned to glare at something behind the camera. "Weebee, I told you, we have to stop relying on Ryoga for navigation! Now he's confusing the rest of us!"