Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. This story based on the anime, not the manga.

Chapter 3: A Season of Storms, Part 2

The Matriarch watched impassively through the window of the terminal, tracking the progress of the white-robed figure across the tarmac. She concentrated, focusing her chi senses sharply enough to pierce all barriers between them. He passed from her sight into the airplane, but Cologne didn't allow herself to relax. She focused all the more sharply, tracking Mousse's position by his aura, making sure that he didn't decide at the last minute to conveniently delay following her order. Although not with her ears, she heard the click of his seatbelt as it fastened, along with the faint disheartened sigh that he gave a moment later.

Cologne maintained her watch, allowing herself to relax only once the plane was finally airborne. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, reflecting on one of the more sobering truths she'd learned in her three hundred years: one sure way to lose everything was to be unwilling to sacrifice anything.

Opening her eyes once more and putting such gloomy thoughts behind her, the Matriarch left the terminal and took to the rooftops, bouncing back toward the Cat Café at a leisurely pace. It would be better to give Shampoo some time alone, to see how well she adapted on her own to the training exercise her great-grandmother had left her with. Cologne had deliberately skipped almost all of the starting details that she ought to have shared with Shampoo, and conventional wisdom stated that her great-granddaughter could only be failing miserable at the task. However, Cologne privately had a suspicion that her great-granddaughter's experiences in her new cursed form might make up for the lack of proper instruction.

The only way to know for sure, of course, was to see how far Shampoo would get on her own. Accordingly, Cologne stopped on a high-rise rooftop only a mile from the airport, settled herself down, pulled out her pipe, and enjoyed a long, pleasant interval of relaxation. This also gave her a chance to recover the chi she'd expended in tracking Mousse so closely, no small task when they were separated by that much distance and that many solid obstacles.

Eventually, when she estimated that Shampoo would have been working on the training exercise for at least an hour, Cologne got to her feet once more and prepared to resume her journey home. She paused, considering something. "If Shampoo has succeeded, she'll be in a good mood, open and receptive. And if she has failed, she'll be frustrated and should appreciate something to increase her motivation," Cologne mused. In either case it would be good to show her the ultimate fruit that would be borne from her training efforts.

"On the other hand, that technique is anything but subtle. Do I really want to make such a spectacle out of myself, give everyone a glimpse of what I can really do?" The Matriarch pondered that question for several more minutes. Eventually she decided that such a glimpse would more likely work in her favor than not. If Ranma learned of it, he might well be impressed, but that ought to be all. Depending on how it was employed, the Chariot of the Storm technique could be more terrible than anything her son-in-law had yet experienced, but simply using it as she had in mind shouldn't do more than inspire him in the same way she intended for Shampoo.

Conveniently enough, she was already on the tallest building in the immediate vicinity. Cologne gave a great leap, soaring nearly five stories higher into the air. As she slowed, approaching the point where gravity would overcome her jump, she aligned her aura, infused her staff with chi, and began spinning the weapon. In a matter of seconds, the air around her went from calmness to a maelstrom of roaring power, a thirty-foot tornado tightly centered around the Matriarch, and as tightly controlled. Cologne guided the vortex several hundred feet higher into the air, then set off for home with a smile on her face. Unlike the last time she'd used this technique, there were no panicked redheads grabbing her in terribly inappropriate places to disrupt her concentration.

As she approached the Cat Café, the smile dropped from her lips. Shampoo was nowhere to be seen, though Cologne's sharp-eyed gaze did spot the bag of balsa wood strips lying abandoned and forgotten next to the restaurant. Dropping her technique, the Matriarch descended to a perfect one-point-landing on the roof, directly above the room she shared with Shampoo. With her senses no longer surrounded by the swirling, chi-laden winds, she was able to sense her great-granddaughter's presence directly below her — and make out the faint sound of sobs.

Another descent brought her to the front door. She opened it, passed through, and closed it behind her, deliberately making enough noise to warn Shampoo of her arrival. Continuing up the stairs and into the bedroom, she found Shampoo waiting for her. The girl's tears were now under control, but she was making no effort to hide her misery.

There were times Cologne hated the shortness of stature age had wreaked upon her. This was one of them. She would have given much to be able to hug her youngest descendent and offer her the kind of comfort she needed, but all she could do was shuffle over and lay a gentle hand on Shampoo's arm. "<What has happened, Great-Granddaughter?>" she asked in as kindly a tone as she could manage, her use of Mandarin an indication that for this conversation Shampoo need not try to express herself in Japanese.

"<It's R-Ranma,>" Shampoo replied. "<I… I just… he….>" She stopped, closed her eyes tightly. A few more tears squeezed out. "<I love him so much, Great-Grandmother. But it, it seems like it doesn't even matter to him… I don't matter to him at all….>"

"<That isn't true,>" Cologne replied, lightly rubbing her hand along her youngest descendant's arm, subtly infusing the gesture with one of the few varieties of emotion-based chi the Matriarch ever allowed herself to use.

"<Then why does he treat me like this?!>" Shampoo demanded. She could feel a deep sense of compassion and care radiating from her great-grandmother, but it wasn't enough to displace her sadness and pain. "<I've done so much for him, given up so much for him. I was even breaking the law again for him, or at least I would have been if you hadn't changed it! And now this… n-now this… I did what he asked, and he just changes the rules again and yells at me… H-he still doesn't trust me at all….>"

"<What did he yell at you for, Shampoo?>"

The young Amazon took a deep breath. "<On Friday, Ranma came to me and asked me if I had any of the Falcon water left. When I told him I did, he wanted me to use it on Ryoga.>"

Cologne's eyes widened in pained understanding, and spared one instant to wish Shampoo's command of Japanese were better. No doubt she really had thought that was what her Airen meant. "<And that is why you wanted the next day off?>"

"<Yes. I found Ryoga, told him about the water, and when he turned it down I splashed him anyway.>" Shampoo closed her eyes and hung her head. "<And for that I get my husband yelling at me and accusing me that I would have done the same thing to him if he'd said he didn't want his gift,>" she whispered.

The Matriarch sighed. "<Child, I find it hard to believe that Ranma would directly ask you to curse Ryoga. Offer him the choice, yes. I can even see Ranma challenging him and beating him senseless as motivation to accept it. But not asking you to go directly to that extreme.>"

Shampoo's gaze locked with Cologne's. "When talking about Ryoga, him exact words was, 'It needs to stop! You want share something special with me, Shampoo? Then fix that for me! You give me gift like that, I'll be grateful for the rest of my life!' "

Cologne blinked, finding herself momentarily at a loss for words. Shampoo continued, "<He was talking about his honor, and how Ryoga abused it. It is true that when he first asked me, he said he wanted to offer the water to Ryoga. But I didn't just say yes to that; we talked more, he acted like it really was a big deal to him what was happening. He used those words and that was what I said yes to.>" She closed her eyes once more. "<And now he's just pretending all he ever meant was offer it to Ryoga. Maybe he just wants to blame everything on me so stupid Akane and Ryoga don't cause so much trouble for him. Maybe that's all I am to him, a girl stupid enough to let him use her for nothing….>"

"<That's not true, Shampoo.>" Best to derail this train of thought as quickly as possible. If Shampoo ever really did fall out of love with Ranma, things could get very ugly very quickly. "<And you should be ashamed of yourself, forgetting so easily that you're the one Ranma faced his worst fear to save.>" As Shampoo raised her head and gave her a teary-eyed questioning look, Cologne continued, "<That damnable Ghost Cat. Or have you forgotten?>"

"Shampoo did forget," the Amazon murmured. "<But, does that really…?>" she let the question trail off uncompleted.

"<It is enough for now,>" Cologne said with iron-hard certainty. "<And if it weren't, there's that business with the Reversal Jewel as well.>" She fell silent for a few minutes, pondering her own course while allowing Shampoo time to process this. When she felt enough time had passed, she continued, "<You talked earlier about the many things you've given him, Great-Granddaughter. And certainly you have sacrificed much for him, far more than anyone else. But there are still two things you need to give.>"

Shampoo actually found the backbone to glare at her elder. "<And what would they be?>" she asked, her tone making it very clear how far she was from convinced of this truth.

"<Understanding and time,>" Cologne returned, unfazed by this response. As Shampoo's defiance melted into confusion, Cologne continued the verbal offensive. "<You need to understand the effects his life has had on him. To know what his faults really are, and what he really means by what he says. The two meetings you had with him this morning and two days ago are a perfect example of that.>"

"<Well, I don't understand,>" Shampoo confessed. "<What are you trying to say?>"

"<You said yourself that Ranma's first request was for you to offer the water to Ryoga. That is how he would have been thinking of it afterward.>"

"<But—!>" With some difficulty, Shampoo cut her protest short as Cologne held up her palm.

"<Child, you are not the one at fault here. Ranma is. Those words of his that you quoted to me are proof enough of that.>" At least as long as Shampoo had gotten the quote right. Cologne hoped for both their sakes that she had; the Matriarch personally would not have thought Ranma would be willing to go to such an extreme so quickly. "<You say he said them in the heat of emotion, to persuade you to do what he'd asked. That shows how he really feels, and it means just what you took it to mean. Ranma wanted his rival's old cursed form gone, with or without his permission. But it is easier for your husband to feel good about himself if he thinks he just meant for you to make the offer.>"

"<So he is using me as a scapegoat?>" Shampoo asked indignantly.

"<Not deliberately, I'd wager. Give him time to face up to himself,>" Cologne replied. "<It's not easy to swallow an unpleasant truth just like that. And it's not easy to make big changes either, or to get used to them after they've been made. That is why I said you needed to give him understanding and time.>"

"<…Okay,>" Shampoo said after a long pause. "<I didn't do anything wrong, but I still have to wait for Ranma to admit that to himself.>" She sighed. "<Well, it's not like I don't have practice waiting for him.>"

Cologne narrowed her eyes. "<I didn't say that, Great-Granddaughter. You most certainly did do something wrong.>"

Shampoo blinked, then gulped against a sudden rising feeling of dread. "<What do you mean, Honored Elder?>"

"<Oh, suddenly it's 'Honored Elder'?>" Cologne remarked dryly. "<I wasn't talking about official Amazon business, Shampoo, but let me just touch on that anyway. I and my fellow Elders revised the law to allow Amazons to use Jusenkyo on themselves, with a few restrictions on which springs were acceptable. But with open access to the Cursed Springs, we had to address the issue of using cursed water on someone else.>" She paused for a moment, regarding her sweating descendent. "<Had you cursed anyone other than Ryoga Hibiki against his or her will, you would be liable for serious punishment under the amended law. Much worse than it used to be.>"

"<W-what? Why Ryoga?>"

"<Because he was using his old curse to take sexual advantage of a woman, even if she didn't know. As Akane Tendo is no member of the Joketsuzoku, we are not obligated to defend her, but there are those on the Council who would have done so anyway. If it had been one of them here in Nerima in my stead, Ryoga would long since have been put him to death, or his lie exposed to Miss Tendo's dubious mercies.>" Cologne paused for a moment, pinning her youngest descendent with her most intense stare. "<Neither of those was a suggestion, by the way.>"

"<I didn't think they were,>" Shampoo assured her great-grandmother.

"<In any case, your cursing of Ryoga slips nicely through one of the exceptions in the amended law. But his was the only such situation I'm aware of in Japan, so don't get any bright ideas about a repeat performance.>"

Shampoo shrugged. "<I dumped all the rest of the water on him anyway.>" Then, thinking back to a little earlier in the conversation, she asked, "<Did you say there was something else I did wrong?>"

"<Yes, I did,>" Cologne stated flatly. "<It's a question of responsibility and of pride. And again, the fault is as much Ranma's as yours. It's certainly understandable that he would want to end Ryoga's slight against his honor.>" Although the more she thought about it, the more it bothered her that he had been so quick to jump to the extreme of forcing Ryoga to take the new curse. Cologne had long been of the opinion that Ranma's life was too stressful for him to bear forever, but she had always kept a fairly close eye on the situation and she had believed he still had quite a large amount of tolerance left. The water would certainly have retained its power for another ten weeks; surely that was enough time to at least try convincing Ryoga to accept it of his own free will. That Ranma hadn't even felt it worth bothering with such a course was unpleasant news, and could mean that he was far closer to some sort of breaking point than Cologne had budgeted for.

Pushing those thoughts aside to be dealt with later, she returned to the issue at hand. "<However, even though Ranma did ask you to 'fix it', that was not what you should have done. The responsibility was his, and the water had been your gift to him anyway. You should have given it to him to use.>"

"<What?! Are you crazy?!>" Shampoo burst out. "<Let him take the Falcon water back to the Tendo Lunatic House?! It would've been splashed over Akane within half an hour! No way was I going to have that happen!>"

Cologne blinked, realizing with some chagrin that her great-granddaughter had raised a very valid point. That was just the sort of thing that always happened, wasn't it? "<Ah… let me correct myself. You should have gone along with Ranma to talk to Ryoga, but it should have been him doing the talking. And him deciding how to respond when Ryoga refused.>"

Shampoo gave the Matriarch a hooded stare. "Great-Grandmother so much wiser and more smart than Shampoo, much, much more experience. If her first idea was wrong one, why she get onto Shampoo if Shampoo's was too?"

The ancient Amazon lightly swatted her descendant's head. "<Saying it in that too-too cute dialect doesn't make it any less disrespectful, Great-Granddaughter. But I suppose you have a point.>"

Rubbing her head even though it didn't really hurt, Shampoo gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Thank you for cheer me up, Great-Grandmother. I go train more now, yes?"

"Certainly." Cologne hesitated, wondering whether she should accompany her great-granddaughter and watch the performance, or whether it would be better to slip by the Tendo home and perhaps get a better idea of Ranma's current mood. "I just wish I knew why he was in such a hurry," she murmured to herself.

"What you say?" Shampoo asked. She had been thinking about the training, or more specifically, Ranma training alongside her after he came back and apologized for snapping at her and blaming her unfairly. As a result she'd only caught the fact that Cologne had spoken; that the Matriarch hadn't been addressing her was a fact she'd missed.

"It's nothing, Child. I was just a little concerned over Son-in-law. Wondering why he wouldn't give Ryoga more of a chance to walk away from his mistakes on his own." Cologne fired off another piercing stare. "Are you sure about what you told me? You said that Ranma showed strong emotion at the way Ryoga was acting dishonorably, and that he asked you to fix it. Is there anything else you aren't bothering to mention? Something that would explain why he would be so quick to act?"

Shampoo blinked in clear incomprehension. "Why he need more? Ryoga hurt his honor, why he need more reason than that to end it right away?"

Cologne sighed, and once again thanked the ancestors that she had a far better heir to the Matriarchy than Shampoo back in the village. Her youngest descendent was almost as bad as Ranma himself in thinking abstract things through. "Because he's borne it this long without snapping Ryoga's neck?" she asked with a mixture of patience and sarcasm. "Because there are debts he owes to Ryoga as well? Because he did first say he wanted you to offer this to Ryoga? It would be different if what he meant was for you to convince Ryoga to accept the gift, or even if he meant to do the convincing himself if Ryoga turned you down. I would have expected Son-in-law to be willing to take at least a few weeks to try to work through Ryoga's stubborn foolishness, rather than deciding at the beginning that his decision didn't matter. Are you sure of what you've related to me, Shampoo?" She stopped there, taking a good look at her descendent. Shampoo was nervous. Very nervous. Nor was she trying to hide it.

"Um… well… Honored Elder…." Shampoo gulped, and switched to Mandarin. "<What if he thought there wasn't much time?>"

"<Explain.>"

The clipped tone of Cologne's command did nothing to settle Shampoo's nerves. "<I… When I first offered him the water, I told him how it would run out of power eventually… but I made it sound like it would happen in only a few more days.>"

"<What?!>" Cologne snarled, her fingers tightening around her staff until the wood flexed. "<Why on earth did you do such a foolish thing, Shampoo?!>"

"<Because of what you said!>" Shampoo wailed. "<Said not to use guilt on him. So how could I tell him I was going to get in trouble for giving this gift to him? How could I tell him the 'one or two days' thing was because that's how much longer I thought I might be able to keep it a secret from you….>"

All the tension drained out of the Matriarch at those words. Her grip on the staff relaxed and her shoulders slumped. She stood like that in silence for quite a while.

"<Great-Grandmother?>" Shampoo eventually ventured to ask.

"<Sometimes I wonder if the very gods fight against us,>" Cologne said quietly. "<Certainly fate has favored Miss Tendo time and time again. I wonder if her departed ancestors traded all their wisdom for power, in order to so strongly support her when a match between her and Son-in-law would ultimately be so bad for them both.>"

"W-what you say?" Shampoo whispered.

"<An Amazon never surrenders,>" Cologne declared, still more to herself than anything else. In the past she'd always dismissed these coincidences as just more random fluctuations of the general chaos of Nerima. But Shampoo's aunt, the aforementioned heir to the Matriarchy, was a fully-fledged mage, and she could certainly determine whether the lines of chance and fate themselves were struggling to cast down all of Ranma's other suitors and promote Akane Tendo. And if they were, Cologne wouldn't hesitate to invoke her own supernatural countermeasures.

But that was a matter for another time. "<Shampoo, forgive me for my failure,>" the Matriarch said with a sigh. "<I should have told you from the beginning about the change to the law. Instead I allowed you to think you were making a true sacrifice for your Airen, and gave you the good news afterward. It seems to have been a mistake.>"

"<I wondered about that,>" Shampoo confessed, "<why you didn't just tell me from the start.>"

"<It is because of what you believed. You honestly thought it would cost you a lot to give that gift to him, and that belief made the act more meaningful. Not as much as if the sacrifice had been real, but I thought it was still worth doing. And because of that, it seems your husband believed it wasn't an option to take the time to convince Ryoga to make the choice of his own free will.

"<I could be wrong here, Great-Granddaughter. I will admit that freely. But if Ranma believed there was only that little time, if the water had to be used on Ryoga immediately or not at all, then I can see him deciding it was better to take the chance than lose it. But when he learns otherwise….>"

It still didn't make complete sense to Shampoo. After everything Ranma had said about his honor, and how Ryoga was abusing it, would it really make such a big difference to him? Did her Airen truly feel that Ryoga deserved that much of a chance, time to make the decision for himself as long as that delay didn't destroy the possibility for the future? Weeks or months in which the Lost Boy could continue sneaking into Akane's bed? Was her husband really that forgiving?

'<He hasn't killed or crippled Mousse or Stupid Stick Boy yet even after all they've done, and he doesn't owe either of them anything,>' Shampoo thought with a sudden surge of cold fear. '<Maybe… maybe he really is that generous….>'

Swallowing, she took a deep breath, then asked, "Great-Grandmother… what should I do?"

The front door slammed. He didn't really notice.

Running steps shook the stairs in an approaching crescendo. He paid them no heed.

The door behind him whipped open so quickly it blurred. He didn't look around.

Even as Akane stormed across the room toward him, Ranma continued to stare down into the gap beneath the floor. The sound of his fiancée's voice washed around him like so much air, no more meaningful than the whistling of the wind. He didn't respond in any way — at least, not until Akane grabbed his shoulder and whirled him around to face her.

Then, at least, the glaze began to fade from his eyes.

"You're not even listening to me!" Akane yelled, her face flushed an alarming shade of red. She'd only just seen him out of the corner of her eye as she walked along with Kasumi, hadn't even been sure it was her transformed fiancé streaking toward the Tendo home. But she had been in no mood to risk missing her chance to catch him, and so she had abandoned Kasumi without hesitation, cutting her sister off mid-sentence without a trace of reluctance and racing back home. After all that, there was no way she was going to let Ranma just sit there and stare stupidly up at her.

"What?" Ranma finally managed, his tone sounding unpleasantly like a growl to Akane. She swelled further in indignation and righteous anger. If he thought he was going to make her fold as easily as last night, he had a very painful lesson coming!

"What do you mean, 'what'?! This is all your fault, Ranma! I told you this was all just another scheme of Shampoo's. But no, you didn't believe me, did you? You never listen at all when somebody tries to show you just how wrong you are! If you hadn't gone along with this in the first place, poor Ryoga would be just fine right now!"

"What? Akane, that doesn't make any sense at all," he protested, finally standing up to face her directly.

"Of course it makes sense! You did just what Shampoo wanted, that was her plan's first step. And once it worked she went on to the next one, cursing poor Ryoga like that! And all you care about is what you told me yesterday, that this curse is 'the best thing anyone's done for you in a long time'. Well, how about Ryoga, you jerk?!" Akane demanded, tears of anger and pain gathering in the corners of her eyes. "Was it worth it to give him a horrible curse like that, just so you could fly the friendly skies with Shampoo?! And even if you don't care about that, who do you think she'll pull it on next? Kuno, maybe? What about Ukyo?! Or maybe even me?!"

"Yeah, right," Ranma retorted disgustedly. "Jeez, you don't understand anything at all." The force with which he spoke those words only made the youngest Tendo angrier. Before she could say anything in return, he continued, "Y'know, it only makes you sound dumber each time you call this a 'horrible curse'. I've told you over and over again that it's a good thing. That's why Shampoo gave it to me. And the last time I talked to her, she made it real clear that she wanted this to be something special for her an' me to share. Offering it to you or Ucchan is the last thing she's gonna do."

"So you are still sneaking around with her behind my back," Akane said with a sort of frozen calm.

"Give it a rest, would ya?" Despite the relatively mild words, Ranma's tone and expression were anything but meek or plaintive. "Where I go or who I spend time with ain't things you get to dictate, Akane. You might as well accept that now, because it's sure as hell the truth."

"Oh, I guess you'd rather go hang out with Shampoo, maybe take her on a nice date, thank her for what she did," Akane retorted bitterly. She could feel something darker and more painful gnawing away dangerously quickly at the core of the anger sustaining her. It just wasn't fair! Ranma was wrong here, he was the one at fault and he didn't even care! Didn't care about Ryoga, didn't care about her, all he cared about was himself… and Shampoo…

Ranma winced at the reminder of the sort of things he was going to need to say to Shampoo at their next meeting, but quickly pushed those thoughts aside. "I sure am going to need to see her again pretty soon," he said — defiantly, angrily, disgustedly, bitterly. "Check this out." He skipped backward and to the side, gesturing down into the now-obvious gap in the flooring.

'Check what out, that he's now damaging our home even when there's not somebody else to fight with?' Nevertheless, Akane did as instructed, leaning forward and looking down into the empty gap. "What?"

"It's where I was keepin' the soap Shampoo gave me," he growled. "Don't see any of that now, do ya?" His hand jabbed down into the space, then retracted with a delicate white feather clenched between two fingers. "This was the only thing there."

It took her several heartbeats to process the information — but when she did, it was like hitting a brick wall, the confusion she'd been feeling amplified a paralyzing thousandfold. The soap was gone? The very thing she'd come here to demand he share with Ryoga? The… the only thing that had saved him from Mousse's earlier trap….

Akane sat there gaping at the feather, her mouth opening and closing feebly, the color slowly draining from her cheeks. Ranma, watching the reaction, felt at least a little of his own stress drain away. Good to know the tomboy could still get concerned for him if it was something big enough.

"He… he did… Mousse did?" she breathed. Inside her, all her emotions tumbled and swirled in a senseless chaotic vortex. In this moment Akane didn't know what to think or how to feel. She'd experienced nothing but pain in the aftermath of the earlier "battle" with Mousse, pain at how effortlessly Ranma's alliance with Shampoo had brought him the victory. But with the soap gone, what would happen if the half-blind boy tried that very same tactic again?

Her emotions were still cascading around and around one another, but they seemed to be slowing and solidifying as well. She could almost put a name to some of what she was feeling, could almost understand some of the directions her heart was being tugged… and then, in a moment of greater clarity than Akane often managed, she recognized one emotion and grabbed it with all her strength.

Despite himself Ranma took a flinching step backward as pure fear filled Akane's eyes. But then the misunderstanding vanished as quickly as it had arrived. Later he would wonder just why he'd jumped to the conclusion that she was afraid of him; he'd seen this several times before, and they were some of his better memories. Akane was afraid, all right… but the fear was for his sake. Concern for him, especially such strong concern, was much better than getting hammered, mistrusted, or put down in favor of some other guy.

The girl in question gulped, then said, "You're right, Ranma. You do need to talk to her again for that. Even…" she swallowed again, gathering her strength, then admitted, "even if she makes you take her on a date for more soap, it would be worth it." A slight measure of fire returned to her eyes as she made her next statement. "But you better not just offer right away! That's no way to negotiate. Try and make her see it as something she owes you, because it was Mousse who did this."

"You ain't got to tell me anything about putting the blame on Mousse," Ranma said quietly.

'I hope it's not too early.'

The morning dew glistened on windowpanes as Ranma passed through the streets of Nerima. Furinkan's gate wouldn't even be unlocked yet, he knew, and the first bell wouldn't sound for more than two hours. Around him, the noise of the city was still muted, and the streets were all but empty of fellow pedestrians. Those that were present reminded him somewhat of Nabiki right after she awoke; they might have to be up at this hour of morning to attend to whatever their affairs were, but they didn't like it. Ranma could sympathize. Long years of early morning practices with his father meant that he could start his day this early with no real trouble, but he still preferred not to. Just like the vast majority of everyone else.

But he hadn't been thinking about the time of day.

'It hasn't even been a whole day yet. Sure, Shampoo's had time to sleep on it, but is this really enough time for her to get over the worst of it?' Ranma grimaced involuntarily, recalling the accusations he'd leveled against her and the strength of her response. 'Still can't believe I blew it like that. She probably still is pretty ticked.' He just hoped the Amazon's ire had faded sufficiently that his apology would restore her to her usual cheerful, happy, eager-to-please self.

'Damn Mousse anyway,' he thought bitterly. 'If it weren't for him, all I'd have to worry about now would be apologizing. That's bad enough, but how's it gonna sound when right after I get through with that I wind up asking her for more soap?' Ranma knew he wasn't the most sensitive guy around, and his only real skill with words was as another weapon in battle. When he tried to use them for other, softer applications, more often than not it seemed like his few successes had happened in spite of himself.

He kept trying to push one particular set of memories out his mind: the long ago "date" with Shampoo for what had turned out to be a packet of Instant Nannichuan. Several times through that outing he'd told the Amazon what she wanted to hear, and had honestly believed he'd tricked her — and each time he'd been completely wrong. Shampoo had proven much less gullible than he'd given her credit for. 'Wouldn't it be just my luck now, if she thought I was only going through with this because I wanted to get more soap out of her?' Ranma thought glumly. If even he could see that it looked suspicious for him to come up with the apology and follow hard on its heels with the news of his need for something else, something only she could give him, he supposed it would take a minor miracle for her not to make a similar connection. Shampoo was a lot better than some people about not jumping to negative conclusions about him, but he knew very well that there were limits.

'It'd be a lot better if I just apologized this morning and waited a few days to tell her about the soap. But that ain't an option,' he reminded himself. 'This isn't just about me. Ryoga needs his own share of soap.' The Lost Boy had lived up to his name, had already been long gone by the time Ranma had gotten back to the Tendo home yesterday, but in a situation like this Ranma suspected Ryoga could resurface at any time. And when he did, Ranma wanted to be able to make his peace offering right then and there. 'If it weren't for that, I could just tell Shampoo I'm sorry and leave everything else until later. That way at least she'd know I meant it.'

He walked in silence for a few minutes, pondering this, feeling like there was some logical extension of the thought that he needed to make, some connection he just wasn't quite getting. Eventually it came to him. 'Hang on… she never actually said she didn't leave Ryoga any soap.' Not that Ranma had any real uncertainty regarding this point, but that didn't mean he couldn't ask anyway. 'I can just tell her what Mousse did, and then ask her if she actually did give Ryoga any. When she says no, I can ask her to pass along at least one bar to him. She'll ask me too, I'm sure, and maybe she'll be a bit suspicious, but if I tell her I don't want any right now, that I'm gonna try getting by without it, that should be enough to set her mind at ease. She won't think I'm just going there to get something out of her with an apology I don't really mean.'

Ranma considered this new plan as he covered the next several blocks' distance, looking for downsides. 'Hmmm. If I do it like that, starting out asking her if she gave Ryoga any soap, she might think I was thinking about stealing some from him.' He considered this. 'Eh, I could live with that kind of misunderstanding.'

The fact that he'd be sacrificing his own chance at protection for awhile required more thought. The more he considered it, though, the better he felt about it. Going without the soap for a few days or a week or even longer didn't ultimately seem like that big a hardship. Mousse had certainly showed he viewed the Falcon curse as just another exploitable opening, and considering how far he was willing to go in his quest to end Ranma's "threat" to Shampoo that could mean a real danger someday. But Duckboy was out of the country for who knew how long. Ryoga might make a nuisance of himself, but when the rubber met the road Ranma trusted him not to really see his rival's new curse as a chance to make good on his frequent cries of "Ranma, prepare to die!" The Lost Bird might possibly trigger Ranma's curse in the middle of combat and proclaim himself the winner of the fight, but that was as far as Ranma believed he would go. And there was apparently some unwritten law that said Ranma Saotome would never be splashed when within the direct line of sight of a Kuno, so that was one more threat marginalized.

'Really, that soap doesn't matter all that much to me, when you get right down to it,' he thought with a mingled sense of surprise and gratification. It certainly hadn't felt that way yesterday when he'd stared down into the empty hole, but now that he was thinking about it things didn't seem nearly as bad anymore. 'I mean, what good would having a whole crateload of the stuff do me? Sure, then I could take a bath with the stuff every day and maybe go half a year without changing.' He snorted loud enough to draw a couple of stares from random passersby. 'Yeah, right. Go that long stuck here on the ground, without stretching my wings? Not a chance.

'So if that's out, all the stuff is really good for is protecting me from specific things. Like with Mousse. It was real handy then, but the deal was I knew I needed to be prepared. And fights like that are actually pretty rare.' If you excluded the missives sent by Ryoga, which after all were useless in telling him what time the battle would really take place, Ranma could count the number of challenge letters he'd received in Nerima on his fingers. The kind of situations in which he'd have enough warning to actually use the waterproof soap ahead of time were rare enough that it should be no problem at all to hold off on asking Shampoo if she could provide him with more.

In significantly higher spirits now, he covered the rest of the distance to the Cat Café rather more quickly. One good thing about Shampoo being an Amazon — he knew she would already be awake at this hour, getting in some early morning training before the restaurant opened its doors. 'Maybe I'll even get a chance to ask her about that weird routine she was doing yesterday.'

However, as he rounded the final corner and caught sight of Shampoo, he saw she was engaged in a more normal training exercise. The lavender-haired girl glided slowly and gracefully along, her body moving through a form that looked like it might be a distant cousin of Tai Chi. Those kata were intended to teach patience, control, and harmony with oneself, or so he'd always understood. They weren't something he or Genma had ever found particularly appealing.

He was still too far away to make out many details of the Amazon's expression. He could see her eyes were closed, but that was the biggest thing he could say for certain. She didn't look particularly happy, but he couldn't say whether the mask she wore was of concentration, or just subdued unhappiness remaining from yesterday. 'Well, if that's what it is, she oughta be glad to hear what I've got to say.'

Ranma trotted over to the mouth of the alleyway in which Shampoo was conducting her practice. He paused for a few moments, wondering how easily she could sense his presence. After several seconds ticked by and Shampoo remained unaware, he cleared his throat loudly, then followed up with a more subdued, "Hey, Shampoo."

The Amazon stumbled to a halt, whirling around to face him, her eyes opening wide. In that one unguarded moment Ranma saw surprise and a flicker of something else, and then her expression closed again. He wasn't quite sure what he'd seen, but it hadn't seemed very happy or welcoming. 'But that really isn't a surprise, is it?' he reminded himself. 'She needs to hear what you need to tell her before she'll be all smiles again.'

"You're… uh, you're probably kinda surprised to see me this early in the morning," Ranma said awkwardly. "Ah… can we talk?"

"Yes, Ranma. Shampoo need talk to you," the Amazon murmured.

"Okay, yeah, same here." He turned and jumped, landing lightly on the roof of the Cat Café. Even as Shampoo touched down a few feet away, he turned and seated himself on the edge, legs dangling over the side. It felt less awkward to sit than stand, and in a situation like this he could use every bit of reduced awkwardness he could get. As Shampoo followed his example, he twisted to face her, noting that her expression seemed even more closed than before. Taking a deep breath and screwing his courage to the sticking place, he blurted out, "I'm sorry."

She blinked, met his gaze for a few seconds longer, then dropped her eyes. Truth be told, he'd hoped for a more effusive response than that, but Ranma hadn't really expected it. He'd known he was going to have to go into a bit more detail than just those two words. "You were right. I did tell you how much it bothered me what Ryoga was doing, and I did ask you to fix it." He sighed, using the moment to buy time while he searched for the right words. "You did… what you did… because I asked it. There's no way in hell I shoulda jumped on you afterward or thought it might have meant you'd've cursed me against my own will. It was stupid and… and I'm sorry."

"So you believe in Shampoo now?" The Amazon didn't look up, nor had the look on her face brightened at all. A more adept listener than Ranma would have clearly heard a note of real pain in the question. Ranma himself wasn't so perceptive, but nonetheless his sense of foreboding grew.

"Y-yeah." He fell silent, searching for more words, trying to figure out what was wrong here and how to fix it. Somehow, this really didn't seem like the right point to introduce the "need for more soap" motif, even if just for Ryoga and not himself.

Shampoo still wasn't looking at him. The Amazon took a deep breath, then said, "Ranma… Shampoo m-make mistake."

"Mistake?" he repeated, thinking back to the last thing she'd said to him yesterday, hoping she didn't mean what he suspected she did, wondering why the thought was causing such a cold ache. Sure, Shampoo had declared that maybe she shouldn't have given even Ranma himself this new curse, but it wasn't like she could undo it now that it was done. Why should this thought hurt?

"Y-yes. Was mistake. Shampoo tell you water would lose real power in few more days," the Amazon said, ending his misinterpretation. "Would actually have taken few more months before that happen." And with this, she steeled her soul, lifted her head, and made eye contact with him once more.

She'd expected to see anger or some equally negative emotion. The utter absence of that was so reassuring that what she actually was seeing didn't even register at first.

"You mean…?" Ranma's voice trailed off, as his confusion rose ever higher. Now, all of a sudden, Shampoo was looking so much happier? Why?

After a few moments of silent wondering, he pushed it aside for now, returning to the question he'd started to ask. "You mean you didn't know how long it would really last? Getting that wrong was your mistake?" His confusion only grew higher as this innocent question caused all of Shampoo's newly-regained happiness to transform to shock. Why would she… hang on….

Shampoo wasn't sure she was even breathing. Her pulse hammered in her ears. '<That's what he thought I meant? I never thought of… I could… I could….

'<No, I can't.>' Closing her eyes once more, she answered, in a voice not far above a whisper, "No. Shampoo knew whole time water would really last that long. But no—" She stopped, sensing the sudden change in her companion's position.

Forcing her eyes open once more took a serious effort. When she did, she was rewarded with the sight of Ranma, standing, facing away from her. Tension was plainly evident in his posture and the tightly-clenched muscles of his arms, neck, and back. The silence stretched and stretched, Ranma holding voiceless and motionless, Shampoo finding no breath to continue with the explanation she desperately wanted to give, the explanation Cologne had warned her he'd probably not be ready to hear in the heat of the moment.

Ranma himself wasn't really aware of his surroundings just now. The message he'd just received hurtled round and round through his mind like a brick swung on a string, smashing through the pre-established constructions and leaving only messy ruin in its wake. Everything he'd believed… all the careful thought he'd worked his way through… the conclusions he'd so painstakingly reached… damn it all, what good was any of this? Why did something like this always have to happen, every single time it looked like things might finally be starting to look up in his life…

Eventually, the tension in her Airen's posture eased away. Shampoo firmly quashed the hope that tried to flutter to life, which was just as well for her. When Ranma turned around, there was no real sign of anger present in his eyes or his voice, but that didn't come as any kind of good news. Frankly, Shampoo would rather have had at least some anger than seeing her beloved look so cold, tired, disillusioned, and discouraged as he stared straight into her eyes.

"You told me Mousse is gone." Ranma's voice rasped across the early morning stillness, like sandpaper against Shampoo's heart. "He packed at least one thing for the trip that I guess you probably didn't know. That being my three bars of waterproof soap. He did leave one duck feather in their place, but it don't seem like a very good trade to me. I guess maybe that's just par for the course with Amazons."

He paused, maybe giving her a chance to respond, maybe just gauging the effects of his words. Shampoo hung her head and turned away, silent as the tears began to fall to the rooftop below. Ranma found no more words as well, so he turned, dropped to the street below, and walked steadily away.

Despite the walls between the two of them, Cologne's eyes shifted in tandem with her target's movements, arcing across one hundred and forty degrees as he dropped from the rooftop above her to the street one story below. Her gaze narrowed, tracking his progress away from the restaurant. It might well be a natural human response to hurt someone back when you yourself were hurt, but her reluctant son-in-law had pushed a little too far this time. Slandering all Amazons for the actions of two of them, one of whom would certainly throw aside all her Amazon heritage for his sake, was the act of a fool. Someday she would have to make that crystal clear to him.

But such was a matter for the future, specifically a future quite far off. Ranma still had some maturing to do before he would be ready to accept discipline and freely learn from it, rather than balking and fighting like his namesake. For now, the important thing to do was give Shampoo renewed comfort, and help her understand that this wasn't nearly the disaster that it seemed to her youth and inexperience.

Deciding not to wait until Shampoo came to her, Cologne opened the window of the bedroom she shared with her great-granddaughter, then slipped out through it and up onto the roof to join her great-granddaughter. Shampoo had pulled back a little from the edge, and was now seated with her legs drawn up against her, arms curled around her upper shins and head resting against her knees. The Matriarch crossed the distance to her youngest descendent, and once again laid a comforting hand on the girl's arm.

"<Y-you heard him leave, huh, Great-Grandmother?>" Shampoo asked, raising her head and turning to meet Cologne's gaze. She was under better control this time than the previous morning, but tears were still leaking out of her eyes.

"In Japanese, child," Cologne said, gently but firmly. Shampoo's need to learn her husband's language was just as great as it ever had been. Best to let her know that now, which would only reinforce the point Cologne would shortly be making — that this last encounter with Ranma was not any sort of ending.

Shampoo blinked at the apparent non sequitur. "O-okay," she said, then fell silent, not finding any more words just then.

"I didn't just hear him leave, Great-Granddaughter," Cologne said. "I heard his reaction as well. He really didn't take it any worse than I'd expected." Or at least, he hadn't been angrier or more bitter. Once again Cologne reminded herself never to underestimate the Saotome ability to say the wrong thing.

This, Shampoo hadn't expected. Such was clear from her wide-eyed, disbelieving stare. "But… but… what he say… Great-Grandmother, you no s-see his face…"

The Matriarch suppressed a snort. Like she'd needed to see it when she could just read his aura. "Oh, to be young again, when everything is fresh and new and a minor squabble with your loved one seems like the end of the road," she said sarcastically. "Shampoo, I told you to expect him to be unhappy. You deceived him about something that was a big factor in several important decisions he had to make. Of course he was going to resent that. But you certainly should have seen enough by now to realize how forgiving Son-in-law really is. Give him a few days to get over the worst of it, and then…."

"Then?" Shampoo prompted after a few seconds of silence.

Cologne's eyes glittered. "Then you tell him just why you originally said there were only a few days to make use of the water. You think this morning's apology was nice? You won't have seen anything yet."

"Shampoo hope you right," the lavender-haired girl said quietly. "Not able to enjoy this apology much. Too worried about what I have to tell him. But… but he do come today, less than whole day after last time he hurt me, came to say he sorry without anybody push him." Maybe her great-grandmother's take on the situation really was accurate. She was certain that Ranma had at least meant this morning's original apology — if he hadn't, if he'd just come here to weasel more soap out of her because of Mousse's theft, surely he would have demanded it from her after hearing her confession.

With some effort, she pushed aside the confusing mix of pain and hopefulness that was her thoughts of Ranma, concentrating on a less personally difficult but no less important topic. "Great-Grandmother, you say you hear what he say. Whole thing, right? You hear what he say about stupid Mousse?"

Cologne sighed. "Yes, child, I did," she replied, suddenly looking older and more weary than Shampoo had seen in a long time. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. We should probably count ourselves lucky he didn't leave some sort of exploding boobytrap behind when he took the soap."

"When he get back, I pound him flat!" Shampoo growled. Mousse had been a friend for a long time, a good friend once, but there were limits to her affection and patience. How dare he keep making things harder for her and her Airen! "Knock some sense into him."

"Do you honestly think that will do any good?" Cologne demanded, staring at her great-granddaughter with an intensity that thoroughly shocked and unnerved the girl.

The response was unsettling enough that Shampoo stopped, and really thought through her answer. "Should," she said at last, speaking a bit hesitantly. "Great-Grandmother, you know I not do more than give him medium smack almost ever. If Shampoo treat him for few days like Akane treat Ranma, he crumple like tinfoil."

"You have a point, although I believe you're underestimating his resolve," Cologne returned. "But it is true that if you hurt him seriously and thoroughly enough, you could crush his spirit and drive him away for good. Is that what you want?"

This time Shampoo took even longer to respond. "Shampoo… I want him to give up. Just be friend, not try for more. Not challenge Airen for anything other than grow as warrior, not try push him away from me, not try hurt him because he have what Mousse never ever get. That… that is what I want."

"And if you put Mousse down, broke his limbs and damaged him enough to require a long recovery time, made it utterly clear that you'd rather kill him than give yourself to him," Cologne paused for emphasis, staring directly into her great-granddaughter's eyes, "…do you think that would happen?"

Shampoo shook her head. "No," she whispered. "That maybe good as kill him." In a scenario such as that, she could far more readily envision her blind pursuer ending his own life rather than facing up to the mistakes he'd made. Louder, and with a little desperation leaking into her voice, she asked, "But what Shampoo do instead?"

The sight of Cologne sighing and shaking her head wasn't particularly reassuring. "The best thing to do is continue as you have been. Keep him at a distance, don't encourage him, but don't destroy him either. If things get worse, and matters reach a state that requires drastic steps, I'll take care of it. It's my responsibility anyway."

Shampoo blinked, and stared at her great-grandmother for what seemed like quite a long time. "How you responsible, Great-Grandmother? Ow!"

Cologne retracted her staff and leveled a glare at her youngest descendent. "Just how many lessons on our laws did you sleep through, Great-Granddaughter? In the first place, he had no right to leave the village and come here without permission. In the second, his entire purpose for this trip was to make you his bride, when by our law you were already bound to Son-in-law. You did at least know that his interfering with your own honor-bound course was itself a violation of the law, didn't you?"

Shampoo nodded, refraining from pointing out that Mousse only obeyed Amazon law as long as it didn't run counter to what he really wanted. She wasn't quite sure why, but it didn't seem like the kind of comment she ought to make.

"And he's piled act upon honorless act on himself ever since," the Matriarch continued. "It was my decision to allow him to stay here rather than sending him back to the village in the first place. It's been my decision to look the other way and allow him to make mistakes. I've cut him slack time and time again," her shoulders slumped, ever so slightly, and she let out another sigh, "and it may just turn out to be enough rope to hang him."

"What… what you mean, Great-Grandmother?"

"What do you think I mean, child? Think back over all the things Mousse has done here, especially when he thought I wasn't around to see. And then imagine what would happen to him if Mo Hwaran," she named the strictest, harshest, most hidebound member of the Council of Elders, "were to know of his record."

"Um… she want to come down hard on him, other, nicer Elders would fight her, argument go back and forth, and Mousse end up with few years of hard chores to do, no freedom to leave village and make pest of self. That not sound too bad to me," Shampoo said, brightening as she followed the thought along. "Is true reason you send him back to China?" Taking note of the Matriarch's glare, Shampoo stumbled to a halt.

"I didn't say, 'What if the Council as a whole found out'. And in any case you're being far too optimistic." Although Cologne couldn't really blame her. As the descendent of the Matriarch, Shampoo had all her life been held to a higher standard of adherence to the law than most people her age, and it was only natural that this would breed the assumption in her that other people could get away with even more than they really could. "If all of them were aware of the depths he's sunk to here in Japan, he would face exile or Xi Fang Gao personality rearrangement at the least."

Shampoo paled, gulped, and managed to stammer, "S-so bad?"

Cologne answered the question with a question. "How far do you trust Mousse?"

Her youngest descendent blinked. "Trust for what? He never give up fighting for Shampoo, can trust him to ends of earth, or at least ends of his own self, for that. No can trust him for anything else at all."

"And that is the root and heart of the problem. Mousse has great potential. Not as high as your husband's, but he is a treasure unequalled by anyone else born in his generation in our village. But how can we accept that kind of power from someone who consistently acts as honorlessly and selfishly as he does? Without trustworthiness, without responsibility, he ultimately represents a terrible threat."

Shampoo blinked, having missed the last part of that passage due to getting stuck on an earlier statement. "You mean, he unequalled other mans. Right?"

"No, Shampoo. His potential is even higher than your own."

"<The hell you say!>" Shampoo protested, more shocked than angry. "<I can wipe the floor with the blind idiot!>"

"That is because of his personal flaws and lack of dedication and understanding," Cologne snapped back. "If he were to turn away from this damnable fool's quest to make you his own, and instead take a good, long look at who he is, he might actually start to learn some truly important lessons." Seeing Shampoo still frowning rebelliously, the Matriarch added, "Just how much chi do you think it takes to pull off those Hidden Weapons tricks anyway?"

Shampoo's scowl only deepened. "Level of chi is not near important as control and skill."

"Exactly," Cologne agreed. "And those things require balance and understanding. Which would Mousse rather do — train his own skills, or stare dreamily out the window and watch while you train? Respectfully ask me to teach him something new, or stew in resentment that I never gave him my blessing to pursue you? Go on a journey to seek new techniques, or stay right here in Nerima to make sure Son-in-law doesn't get too close to you?"

None of those questions were very hard to answer. Shampoo nodded, conceding that point, but unwilling to give up the argument yet. "But how that say he better potential than me?"

"None of that does, it merely explains why you could 'wipe the floor with him'," Cologne replied. "If you aren't willing to take my word for this, there's really no way to convince you. The skills you'd need to evaluate someone's absolute potential on your own only come after many decades of growth and learning. If you like, just don't bother with who has the better upper limit. Think about Mousse, that you knew already that he was dangerous and skilled, and that you also knew how poorly he goes about trying to become better."

Shampoo nodded. That made a lot more sense, and didn't raise the annoying uncertainty as to whether her great-grandmother really meant that Mousse's potential eclipsed hers, or whether this was just a tactic to ensure she put forth maximum effort in her own training. "Can understand that, I guess. Mousse is maybe, how they say it, diamond in the rough?"

"More like a brilliant gem that is deeply flawed," Cologne said grimly. "He could reach such heights and shine so brightly, but it would take him learning and accepting some very painful lessons. The hardest of them all is something that it's critical to accept, something he has never accepted — that some goals cannot be attained, and others shouldn't. That there comes a time to turn away from something no matter how badly you want it, and that there are lengths to which it is wrong to go.

"That was why I allowed him to stay here, even when he came without permission and for a purpose that went directly in the face of the law. If I'd given him a flat order to stay in the village away from you, he might never have faced up to the reality of his own problems. He would have simply blamed his failure on the 'interference' of others, and never grown past his own flaws. He had to be allowed to freely try and freely fail, to watch with his own eyes as you walk away and out of his life." Cologne ended the impromptu lecture as she got a good look at her youngest descendant's face. Shampoo was looking just a tad bit overwhelmed.

"That… that kind of stuff Great-Grandmother have to think through all the time?" Shampoo eventually asked. "Try to follow all that make me dizzy. Very glad is not my job to be next Matriarch."

'<You're not the only one,>' Cologne thought. Choosing a kinder, gentler message to actually speak aloud, she replied, "If you were suited to the role, this sort of thing wouldn't seem so bad."

"Mmmm," was Shampoo's neutral response. "So… about Mousse. Shampoo understand, at least think so, about why we do what we do until now. But… is really working? Should change be made?"

Once more the Matriarch sighed. "I just don't know, Great-Granddaughter. It may be that helping Mousse grow beyond his flaws is our own goal that's beyond our grasp. Or it may be that trying to do so will cost us too much. I guarantee you this — if it ever seriously threatens your chances with Son-in-law, I'll throw Mousse to the wolves in a heartbeat. Ranma has endured far worse in his life than has Mr. Part-Time, and has come out far better. He's a treasure greater than Mousse in his potential and his current level of mastery…" here the Matriarch summoned up a small, but warm smile, "…and my great-granddaughter loves him very much."

"Is so," Shampoo said firmly. Then, a little of the firmness deserting her, she continued, "You really think it come to that? Have to let Mousse fall to own demons in order to be with Ranma?"

"I hope not, child. But only time will tell."

'There he is, by the tree.' Hikaru Gosunkugi's face twitched, but failed to solidify into a new expression. He couldn't quite decide whether to smile or sneer. The boy underneath the spreading foliage was one of Gosunkugi's least favorite people at Furinkan, which an impartial observer might think was odd. This person, at least, had never beaten up the scrawny voodoo student. In fact, Hikaru would be surprised if the other boy even knew his name.

No, it wasn't his personal treatment at the hands of Tatewaki Kuno that made him despise the upperclassman. A large part of it was disgust at all the blessings Fate had seen fit to dump on him; it was brutally unfair for someone to be born with both Kuno's physical talents and his bankroll. Gosunkugi snorted bitterly, his eyes taking in the cut of Kuno's kendo outfit, the richness of the cloth and the obvious lack of wear. He'd heard that Tatewaki had used to wear the standard school uniform at least occasionally, but Kuno had stopped bothering with that before Gosunkugi had enrolled in Furinkan. Given his position, disposition, and physique, no teachers bothered even to try enforcing those rules with the elder scion of the House of Kuno.

But even more than the unfair largesse Tatewaki had received from life, it was the kendoist's treatment of Akane Tendo that caused Hikaru's stomach to clench in bitter, futile knots. He'd seen the older boy hound and annoy the object of his affection time and time again, treating her in a way that surely would have got a less fortunate pervert hospitalized or incarcerated. Gosunkugi supposed he ought to be thankful that Kuno's obsession was directed against a girl strong and capable enough to handle it, rather than one of the nameless rabble of uninteresting ordinary girls that cluttered the halls of Furinkan, but that was a little more altruism than he was capable of. As far as he was concerned, the only true redeeming feature of Tatewaki Kuno was his ability to harass, annoy, and perhaps even threaten Ranma Saotome.

The scrawny boy gritted his teeth, forcibly restraining his mind from running down that track. No matter how infuriating Ranma was, no matter that he treated Akane even worse than did Kuno (comparatively speaking, of course, since Saotome didn't have the excuse of Kuno's obvious mental eccentricities to keep him from seeing just what he was really doing), no matter that Gosunkugi estimated at least three quarters of the school's female population (a figure which most definitely included some teachers) would go after the boy in a heartbeat if he weren't already pursued by girls that could squash them like flies, no matter that Ranma himself was as fast as a viper, strong as a rhino, and indestructible as a cockroach — this was no time to let himself get caught up in black thoughts of the unfairness of it all. He couldn't afford to miss this opportunity. It was quite rare for Tatewaki Kuno to appear in the open at this time; the kendoist usually spent his lunch hour in the school's training hall, dining on fine French cuisine while overseeing the training of the rest of the club members.

He still wasn't quite able to dredge up a smile, but as Gosunkugi hurried over he at least managed to put on an obsequious look. Kuno was looking around as he approached, rather impatiently Hikaru thought, as if perhaps the kendoist were waiting for someone. The older boy's eyes slid over him without pausing. It wasn't like there was anyone else at Furinkan for whom Gosunkugi could be mistaken, after all.

"Greetings, Upperclassman," Gosunkugi said as he came up beside Kuno.

"I don't really have time to talk right now, ah… whoever you are," the kendoist replied dismissively. "And despite the fact that today is the final day in which our illustrious kendo team is accepting new applicants, I don't think joining is a fitting endeavor for one such as you."

'No, really? Did you figure that out all by yourself?' Gosunkugi kept any hint of that reaction out of his voice as he replied, "I didn't come here to talk to Tatewaki Kuno the leader of the kendo club, but to Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High."

Kuno raised one eyebrow, politely hiding his real reaction. 'Does the fool not realize that that is my title as captain of the team? Truly, it is sad to see one so deluded.' Glancing quickly around and still seeing no sign of the person he was waiting for, he asked, "And what is the reason for this distinction, Underclassman?"

"Captain of the team is something that will last less than one more year. But the Blue Thunder is the warrior who will fight on, never giving up, never admitting defeat, never ceasing to strive until he finally defeats that bastard Ranma Saotome. Right?"

Tatewaki smirked, inclining his head in a gracious gesture. "Truly, you are far more perceptive than I first gave you credit for. Is it in regards to Saotome's villainy that you seek my aid?"

"Yes, that's right. Or rather, I wanted to give you information that may be of benefit to you. Information that I don't think Ranma wants anyone to know."

"…Very well, speak on." Kuno spoke the words with what was, for him at least, remarkable hesitance. On the one hand, the thought of finding some secret that would at last expose a true weakness of the fiend Saotome was quite appealing. On the other, no matter how hard he tried he'd never be able to forget what had happened when he tried to exploit the "opening" his ninja servant Sasuke had told to him. The only bright spot in that entire debacle had been the fact that Tatewaki had forced his enemy to openly display his insidious and infernal powers. Only the blackest of fiends would bind a demonic cat totem spirit to himself like that. 'I should have known better than to put such faith in an incompetent like Sasuke. Hopefully this boy is a little more reliable.' Then he took a good long look at Hikaru. 'Perhaps it would be better to have someone else act on whatever information he provides,' the kendoist thought dubiously.

"It's about what he is. What I heard you realized about him before anyone else did." 'For obvious reasons.' "What I mean is, that he's a dark, foul sorcerer." Even in the cause of creating trouble for Ranma and hopefully giving Akane some Saotome-free time, it pained Hikaru to use such a ploy as this. Giving Ranma credit for mastering magic really grated on him, considering how his own efforts to plumb the mysteries always failed so abysmally. But it was too good a plan to pass up, and anyway he had his orders and couldn't afford to make an alteration as significant as that. Swallowing the last of his reluctance, he spit it out. "And from the fables and tales I've read, two things can really harm dark magics."

"And those are?" Kuno asked, feeling a bit more hopeful in spite of himself. Just as long as neither one of them involved cats.

"Flowing water, and cold iron."

The kendoist blinked, a sort of awestruck expression of enlightenment slowly spreading across his face. 'Water… as all know, cats hate water. And iron… the first collars were certainly made out of iron, and all know that cats utterly loathe being so bound. This sounds like it could actually work!'

Encouraged by the manic grin spreading across his companion's face, Hikaru continued, "And I believe I know how the two things could best be combined, as well."

"You do? Please, tell me!" Kuno blinked, cleared his throat, then said, "I mean, by all means share your knowledge that might aid in Saotome's downfall."

"Use water that has stood for a night and a day in a bucket of cold iron. Fling such water over him, and I'm sure it would negate all his magical abilities, even if only for a little while." Gosunkugi just barely managed to keep the smirk off his face. Then, an instant later, it dawned on him that there was no reason for such restraint. He grinned widely, knowing that Kuno would just think he was enjoying the thought of their foe's defeat, when in reality it was another thought that was giving him such pleasure. Specifically, Gosunkugi was finding a huge amount of satisfaction in what would follow once Tatewaki Kuno learned how to summon his Pigtailed girl whenever he so desired.

"Water… cast forth from a bucket of iron." The expression of joyous awe returned fivefold to Tatewaki's face. "The very thing which by chance… nay, which the gods themselves led me to use against him on the first day of our long struggle! The wretch dodged with alacrity and with panic, but I failed to understand the true significance! You have done me — no, you have done all of Furinkan a great service this day!" Kuno reared his head back and laughed loud, long, and hard. Gosunkugi shrunk further back into the shadow of the tree, hoping that his natural ability to lurk unseen would stand him in good stead here. He didn't want word getting back to Ranma that it was he who had put this idea in Kuno's head. Frankly, if it had been up to him, Gosunkugi would have done this whole thing via anonymous letter to the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High.

His attention was drawn back to said student, as Tatewaki finished his peal of triumphant mirth. "Know that all good and decent men, as well as Tatewaki Kuno himself, thank you, Underclassman," Kuno said, speaking with a greater measure of respect than he'd afforded anyone in at least six months. "I go now to finally cast down the foul sorcerer."

Gosunkugi blinked. "What? Now?! You can't!!" Before Kuno could do much more than blink in surprise, he swiftly amended, "That is, I think the water needs to have sat in the bucket for a full twenty-four hours, or as the tales put it, a night and a day. Anything less might not be enough to fully strike down Saotome's evil." Noting Kuno still looking reluctant, his body language clearly showing a desire to hurry off in search of a bucket, Gosunkugi wracked his brains. 'Come on, think! There's got to be some stupid quote from Sun Tzu or Shakespeare or somebody, about waiting to attack at the proper time. That at least would get through to him!'

Before Hikaru could scrounge up an appropriate quote (or craft a sufficiently authentic-sounding counterfeit), Tatewaki sighed and let the tension bleed out of his stance. "Once again you are correct," he said regretfully. " 'At Christmas I no more desire a rose, Than wish a snow in May's newfangled mirth; But like of each thing that in season grows.' The time for attack shall be the time that I attack. And anyway, I am expecting company now, and it would not be wise to abandon her or keep her waiting." Having spotted the approach of the girl he'd been awaiting all this while, Kuno continued, "And here she comes. I must ask you to take your leave now, but know this: tomorrow after school you shall see your aid carry the Blue Thunder on to glorious, majestic, final victory."

Hikaru bowed, and said his first entirely truthful sentence of the conversation. "I'll be looking forward to it." He turned and hurried away, not bothering to make eye contact with the approaching senior, but allowing her to see his smile as each passed the other.

"You are late, Nabiki Tendo." Kuno spoke the words far more cordially than he usually would have, as that very uncharacteristic tardiness had allowed him to have the fortuitous conversation that had just concluded. Had Nabiki not asked to meet him out here at the beginning of lunch, he would have been in his usual place overseeing the training of those placed under his command. Had she arrived on time, such an unfortunately ill-favored youth as his recent benefactor would never have dared to approach. Rare indeed was the Furinkan student who would cross its Ice Queen by interrupting her during a business deal — particularly one that would be so critical to her as his own illustrious patronage. No, all things considered, it was truly fortunate that Nabiki Tendo had arranged to meet him here on this Thursday lunch period and not kept her own half of the bargain in timeliness.

"Sorry, Kuno-baby, but you know how it is. Every now and then someone starts thinking he can get away with too much, and I have to deal out a reminder of how things really are. Arranging for that was what kept me from being here on time," Nabiki said with sarcastic honesty.

"Very well. You said you had obtained more photos of Akane Tendo and the Pigtailed Girl for me?"

"That's right. Ten thousand yen for each set of five," Nabiki replied, holding out four envelopes.

Kuno quickly took the offered packages, ripped them open, and scrutinized the contents. "Ten thousand yen for each set?! Surely you jest!"

"You ought to know by now I don't 'jest', Kuno-baby," Nabiki replied in a bored tone.

"But such a fee is ridiculously exorbitant! And these photos aren't even of particularly high quality!" Tatewaki protested all the louder. After waiting this long for his next fix, he frankly felt he deserved the very best the mercenary wench staring impassively at him could offer. At times in the past she'd procured photos for him that were much better at showing off the beauty, fire, and strength of his twin loves. And those had gone for a significantly lower price!

"Yes, about that." Nabiki sighed, and whipped up a convincing appearance of mingled sorrow, frustration, and remorse. "Ranma has been unusually harsh and suspicious lately, Tatewaki. That's the reason this batch isn't as high quality as I've managed in the past. You did know I have to evade his detection for every single photo I get for you, whether it's the pigtailed girl or Akane. Right?"

"O-of course I knew!" 'Damn that fiend! Is there no end to his vile interference, his twisted need for control over the beautiful Akane and the fiery pigtailed girl? Does his lechery know no bounds?!'

"So then you understand that if someone were to start making things a little more generally difficult for Ranma, I might be able to acquire better specimens for you," Nabiki stated.

"Of a certainty!" Kuno declared, drawing his bokken and holding it high. To Nabiki's amused eye, it looked rather like he was pledging his service to her. "And Nabiki Tendo…."

"Yes?"

"I know that you and your henchwomen often offer bets on the various epic struggles that so regularly flare up within these grounds." Kuno smiled at her, mixing grimness and magnanimity in equal parts into the expression. "Tomorrow, after school, shall see the final battle between Saotome and myself. I finally have the key to unlocking the chains of his dark magic."

"Thanks for the hot tip, Kuno-baby," Nabiki said in immense satisfaction. 'Good job, Gosunkugi. You've earned every bit of that ten thousand yen reduction on your debt. And as for you, Ranma…' Her satisfaction only deepened. Even with what he would learn tomorrow, Kuno still wouldn't be competent enough to pose a truly life-threatening danger to her wayward resource, but he certainly ought to become enough of an annoyance to kill any lingering goodwill in Ranma toward his "gift" from Shampoo. And Tatewaki wasn't the only one who'd jump at the chance; the same went for Gosunkugi, today's choice of cat's-paw, as well as Principal Kuno and probably other guys as well. There were a few hotshot freshman martial artists who were nowhere near Ranma's league but would likely be eager to rack up a few victories over him any way they could. 'Time for you to get what you earned.'

It was the final half hour of the final class of the day. Had Furinkan been a normal Japanese school, Akane would have been in the same classroom and in the same seat as she'd occupied since the beginning of the day, focusing on the last of a series of teachers with most of her mind while part of her watched in irritation as Ranma blew the lesson off. Had Furinkan been typical, any club Akane wanted to attend would have required her to stay late after school, arrive early, or perhaps sacrifice her lunch hour.

However, Furinkan was anything but ordinary, and although most clubs still held to the Japanese standard schedule, there were four with special dispensation from Principal Kuno. The members of these clubs were allowed to skip what would have been their last class of the day and meet during that time instead. These included the kendo club, for reasons that were obvious to everyone; the Taoist club, due to the fact that its members were uniformly male with shaved heads; and the astronomy club, for reasons that were a mystery to the general student body.

The fourth organization whose members were allowed to skip their final class was the first club Akane had joined in her high school career — the flower arrangement club. Yuka and Sayuri had been members since their freshman year, and they'd wanted her to join then as well, but at that time Principal Kuno had still been in Hawaii and all the clubs had had to meet outside of normal school hours. She hadn't had enough interest in the intricacies of flower arranging to get to school an hour early for the meetings. And then Kuno started up the "defeat Akane Tendo to date her" challenge, and Akane was all the more thankful she'd made the decision she did. If she'd gotten to school an hour early for the club meeting, she would have had to deal with the mob when she left school, anticipating it and stewing about it all day long instead of getting it out of the way first thing. That would definitely have been worse.

But at the beginning of this year, the club had received a new captain, and she'd arranged the new hours with Principal Kuno. It felt a little odd to Akane; in her junior year she was attending a club whose captain was a newly-arrived freshman. She was sure it was even stranger for the seniors. But Miyuki was the heir to the school of Martial Arts Floristry, and nobody was contesting that she was the best girl for the job. Not after the way she'd whipped together that fifteen-by-thirty foot arrangement of palm trees, loa flowers, and other native Hawaiian vegetation, and presented it to Furinkan's headmaster. Akane had heard that it brought actual tears to his eyes. Whether or not that was true, she knew for a fact that it had been enough to not only get the club its preferred schedule, but also reward each member with three miniature ukulele-shaped "get out of haircut free" passes. Akane had earned quite a bit of yen allowing Nabiki to auction hers off to students who couldn't defend themselves.

Even with all those things in the new captain's favor, Akane had still been a little nervous, at first, thinking that with Miyuki's background the other girl would probably turn out to be as much of a slavedriver with her club as Kuno was with his fellow kendoists. But Miyuki had pleasantly surprised her there too; the other girl had quickly identified how serious each club member was about their common subject matter, and she focused most of her attention and effort on working with the girls who were really motivated. She only enforced discipline when necessary to prevent the serious students from being hindered in their learning and practicing, which basically meant that Akane herself could use the club meeting to do homework or chat quietly with Yuka and Sayuri.

Her interest today in the club's official purpose had been desultory at best. She'd put a few token dahlias in a vase, surrounded them with sprigs of baby's breath, then slid a morning glory into the center of the arrangement. It had taken all of two minutes. Yuka and Sayuri were focused intently on their own work today, though, so instead of talking Akane had simply sat back and brooded, her eyes resting absently on her arrangement while her thoughts roamed over everything that had happened lately.

Five minutes ago, her confused, tangling thoughts had finally worked their way to a decent conclusion. It wasn't a perfect, flawless solution by any stretch of the imagination, but to Akane's eyes the drawbacks were more than made up for by what she'd gain. And so now she smiled broadly, and glanced over toward Sayuri and Yuka. If her friends were still caught up in their own work, she'd try making a few more arrangements of her own. But if not, it would be nice to talk things over.

Both girls appeared to be finished, Akane saw, not really noticing that Sayuri was gazing down at her arrangement of pussywillows and tiger lilies with a murderous expression and Yuka was staring at the other girl with a mixture of sympathy and concern. "Hey, guys," Akane whispered. "Are you done?"

"Huh?" Sayuri said, blinking and looking around as if coming out of a waking dream. "Did you say something, Akane?"

"I asked if you wanted to talk now. I've got a lot of stuff to tell you," Akane whispered back. "Some really big stuff has happened. You have to promise not to tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you, okay?" Akane would certainly never expose Ranma's change of curses to the student body as a whole, but he had never actually asked her not to tell anybody and she frankly felt her friends deserved to know.

"Okay, we promise," Yuka murmured curiously. "What's up, Akane?"

The youngest Tendo took a deep breath. "It all started a little over a week ago…" Telling the whole thing took some time. It was enjoyable to watch Sayuri's eyes widen in stunned disbelief, and quite gratifying to see Yuka's expression of righteous anger as she heard of Shampoo's dirty tricks.

"I don't believe it," Yuka eventually gasped. "What… what are you going to do?"

Akane smiled even wider. "Well, it took a lot of thinking, but I finally figured out what the best thing to do is. We've got to get more waterproof soap. At first he was going to just get more from Shampoo, even though that Amazon," she invested enough venom in the word that both Yuka and Sayuri thought she might as well have gone ahead and used one that was officially dirty, "probably would have squeezed him for one date for each bar. And he needed to get at least four, two for him and two for Ryoga."

"Were you just gonna let him get away with that?" Yuka wanted to know. Akane had said "at first", which seemed to indicate that the plan had changed. She wasn't quite sure where this fit in with what Akane had just gotten through telling her, about Ranma finding out that Shampoo had lied to him about how long he had to think things through. If she had to guess, she'd estimate that Ranma learning that had put a stop to any plans to go back to the Amazons and ask for more help.

"I wasn't exactly happy about it," Akane retorted. "But come on! Ranma may be too stubborn to admit it, but you guys aren't as idiotic as he is. You can see it for yourself, right? This stupid 'gift' from Shampoo could really get him hurt, or even killed! He can't do anything to defend himself anymore, not in his new cursed form. Thanks to Shampoo tricking him, he's now basically helpless whenever he gets splashed!" Akane wasn't quite aware that she had taken several leftover flowers between her hands and was now anxiously shredding the various blooms. "Can't you imagine how terrible that is for him? And for Ryoga too, of course, but at least for him there's not a bunch of guys ready to attack him. Ryoga's a nice guy who doesn't make enemies, and falcons are a protected species anyway, so he should be okay for awhile. But Ranma's living on borrowed time until we can get some more soap!"

"Then… you are going to tell him to go back to the Amazons?" Sayuri asked.

Akane's jaw set mulishly. "No. Not anymore. That's what I was telling him, and I tried again at lunchtime today. I even volunteered to be the one to do it, but that jerk just told me to quit sticking my nose into it, and said something even stupider than usual about Shampoo knowing that Mousse took his old stash of soap and he wants to see if she'll admit she was wrong and make up for everything on her own." At another time the thought of Ranma deliberately staying away from Shampoo would have felt quite nice, but under these circumstances he shouldn't have even been thinking about an apology! He ought to have gone to her and gotten more soap from her because she owed it to him, and not let her pressure him into forgiving her as part of the package! But, Akane reminded herself with a mental grumble, there was no way Ranma would be that decisive. She was lucky enough that he was willing to walk away from the Amazons even to this extent.

"No, I had a better idea just a little while ago." Akane pushed aside the remnants of her anger, focused again on the inspiration she'd had, and smiled. It was a much more satisfactory solution than going to the Cat Café anyway behind Ranma's back, which was what she'd been more or less planning on. "As soon as I get home, I'm going to talk to Nabiki and get her to find out how to order the waterproof soap from China."

"What?!" Sayuri exclaimed, only just holding the outburst to a whisper. "Akane, won't that be way too expensive?" She well remembered the times throughout her years of friendship with Akane that the Tendo finances had temporarily hit rock bottom.

"What, you think I've got something better to spend my money on than keeping Ranma and Ryoga from getting hurt? Or killed?!" Akane shot back. "Yeah, it'll probably be pretty expensive, but it'll be worth it. And there's the other side of it too — this way, he won't have to go crawling back to Shampoo. It'll definitely be worth it to show that bimbo that someone else can give Ranma a real present. All she's ever done is give him stuff that turns out to be more tricks and traps and ends up hurting him. If this finally makes Ranma realize it, it would be worth it just for that."

"Ordering something all the way from China…" Yuka looked worried. "Expensive is one thing, but what about how long that'll take? Nabiki still needs to find out how to do it, even. You think Ranma can wait that long?"

"It should be okay," Akane replied. "Even if an accident happens once, it won't be the end of the world. I can jump in and save him for a change if it comes to that," she said in tones of suppressed satisfaction. Since Ranma had eventually remembered to tell her that Mousse was out of the country right now, Akane felt much better about that prospect. She could handle anyone at Furinkan, after all. "And if it did get out to the whole school, he would just have to skip until we can get him protected again. But right now nobody at Furinkan knows, and considering how long he was able to keep the secret about his original curse, he ought to make it through okay.

"Even if he is too big of an idiot to think things through," she continued, speaking in a bit of a huff as she recalled something else. "Believe it or not, two days after Ranma got rid of his old curse, I asked Nabiki whether he'd gotten her to promise not to tell anyone at school. And of course he hadn't even bothered. Honestly, he's so helpless in anything outside of a fight."

"Maybe he just needs the right person to take care of him in things like that," Yuka said slyly.

"He needs to start listening to me and using his brain is what he needs," Akane retorted. "But at least this time worked out pretty well. Nabiki promised me that she wouldn't tell anyone, and she didn't even charge me. If Ranma had been the one asking, he might have racked up a whole year's worth of debt for that."

"Don't worry, Akane," Sayuri murmured, laying the innuendo on even thicker than had her friend. "Sooner or later he'll open his eyes and realize who's really been there for him the whole time, always looking out for him and treating him better than he deserves. It'll all pay off sooner or later, I'm guessing sooner with all the—"

"HEY!" Akane exclaimed, the outburst coinciding nicely with the end-of-day bell. "It's not like that, you guys! I… it's just… he… Oh, was that the bell? Gotta go, see you tomorrow!"

Yuka snickered as she watched Akane stuff various books and papers into her satchel, then hurry out of the room without even remembering her flower arrangement. She cast another long look at hers. It was nice, and she'd had an enjoyable time creating it, but she didn't think she would bother with taking it home.

Then her attention shifted to her remaining friend, now staring back at her own creation with a renewed glare. "Going to take this one home and burn it too?" Yuka asked lightly.

"No. I thought I'd find a really tall building and drop it off the top," Sayuri growled.

"That doesn't sound like a very good idea," Yuka replied, letting her worry come through loud and clear. "What if it lands on someone? Shouldn't you just throw it into the canal or something?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Cats hate water, right?" Sayuri said, glaring all the more intensely at the unfortunate bunch of tiger lilies and pussy willows. "Drop it into the canal, from the top of the tallest building I can find…."

"Um… Sayuri, don't you think you're taking this a little too hard?" Yuka ventured to ask. "I know it must have been traumatic and all, but Ranma rescued you from the Ghost Cat before anything really bad could happen."

Sayuri made a truly disgusted noise in the back of her throat. "Excuse me, Yuka. I think that having my first kiss stolen by a giant undead cat easily qualifies as 'really bad'." The schoolgirl's gaze sharpened, as if she were trying to bore a hole through her flower-arrangement-as-effigy. Then, some tension leaving her, she sighed and said, "A first kiss is special, you know? It doesn't have to be with the guy you're gonna spend the rest of your life with, it doesn't even have to be with a guy who's special to you, but it darn well should be with a special guy! And I don't mean 'Ghost Cat' kind of special!"

"Well, it could be worse," Yuka said sympathetically. "Akane could have overheard you telling me that you always kind of hoped you'd be able to get your first kiss from Ranma when he was under a random love spell."

Sayuri involuntarily shivered. That had been a close call. "Yeah, you're right," she admitted as she got to her feet and gathered her own schoolbooks. "I need to move on past this." She hesitated a moment as Yuka followed suit, then deliberately walked away leaving her arrangement behind.

"Miyuki will be happy, anyway," Yuka joked. "You've used those same flowers for your last four bouquets. I think the monotony was starting to get to her."

Ranma moved through the halls, uncomfortably aware that something in his immediate surroundings was amiss. He couldn't quite put his finger on the wrong note, but it was definitely there. It wasn't the absence of Akane; she'd spent her last period in that silly club for the past several weeks, and by now he'd gotten used to meeting up with her at the front gate of Furinkan to walk home.

"Hey, Ranma!" The boy in question turned, to find Hiroshi coming up behind him. "I hear Kuno's waiting in the courtyard to challenge you. Word is he's really gonna go all out this time."

The pigtailed teen blinked, and shot a searching glance at the other students in the hall. Now that he was looking for it, he could easily make out the speculative glances and the thrill of anticipated vicarious combat. Ranma supposed that if it had been a real threat, rather than the Blue Thunder, his danger sense would have been tripped, but as it was he'd just vaguely been aware that something was different.

He turned back to Hiroshi and grinned. "Thanks, man. Not that I need the warning or nothin' to deal with him."

"I dunno, Ranma." Hiroshi lowered his voice. "Nabiki's stacking the odds a little differently this time. She's giving out a better payout on you than she usually does, by a pretty fair margin."

Ranma stared at his friend, nonplused. "What's that mean, exactly?"

"Means she's encouraging people to bet on you, offering more money than usual if you win. And I think we all know Nabiki doesn't like to let large sums of yen get away from her." It had taken Hiroshi three solid years of getting fleeced by Nabiki in her betting games, as well as a blistering lecture on financial responsibility from his mother, but he'd finally started to wise up to some of her tricks. "It seems to me like she's expecting something different than the usual this time."

"And that's not all," Daisuke piped in from behind Ranma's current position. "I hurried on ahead just now and got a good look outside. Kuno's waiting by the front gate, and he's got something pretty big sitting beside him. It's covered with a tarp, so I couldn't tell what it really was, but it looked about the size of four okonomiyaki carts like Ukyo's clumped together in a square."

"The tarp wasn't moving around or nothing, was it?" Ranma asked nervously. Somewhere in the back of his mind lurked the nagging fear that one day Kuno would decide to try another cat trap at school. Sure, the last one had turned out pretty badly for the kendoist, but it wasn't like he seemed to learn any lessons from the standard beatings he got. "You hear any yowls or hisses or anything?"

"Fraid not. Looking for an excuse to give Akane a little more action?" Daisuke said slyly, elbowing his ladykiller friend in the ribs.

"Get real, Daisuke," Ranma said with a snort. "I got better things to think about than that on the worst day of my life. Which this better not be," he muttered darkly and strode away toward the waiting confrontation.

Another couple of minutes brought him out through the front gate and into sight of Kuno. As Daisuke had said, the kendoist was standing beside a bulky object covered with a tarpaulin. Ranma didn't have long to wonder about its true nature though, for as soon as Kuno caught sight of him, the older boy turned and whipped the covering off in one blinding motion.

"Face your long-awaited and richly deserved doom, Saotome!" Tatewaki proclaimed, turning back to face his nemesis. "Today is the day you — what?" His lower jaw dangling slightly and his eyes bugging out, Tatewaki stared at the space that had held the foul sorcerer only an instant before. But there was no sign to be seen of Ranma there now.

From his new position, clinging to a windowsill two stories up, Ranma studied the situation. It grated on his pride a little, to have retreated so quickly before even seeing what Kuno's "secret weapon" was, but he didn't let that bother him too much. If there was even the slightest chance that this was another cat-themed ploy, he wanted to get out of the line of fire and to a place of relative safety before deciding on his next move.

As it turned out, though, Kuno hadn't yet opted to repeat his earlier mistake. The tarpaulin had been covering a large, low-slung flatbed trailer sort of thing, and said trailer was filled full of what any Jusenkyo-cursed victim could instantly identify as buckets of cold water. 'Why's he got those? Did someone finally tip him off about how he could summon his pigtailed girl?' For a second he wondered whether Nabiki might have been the guilty party, then recalled what Hiroshi had said — she'd been structuring her bets to encourage people to bet on him to win. And Nabiki had to be smart enough to know that even if Kuno did splash him, that wouldn't mean he'd lose to the likes of the Blue Thunder. He'd just fly away, flipping his opponent the bird with a pinfeather as he left, and she'd have to cancel all her bets.

No, Nabiki probably just heard Kuno say something about having a new surprise in store for this fight, and in that kind of situation — a rival coming up with a new move or tactic — Ranma usually did have to lose the preliminary match before coming back and winning the real one. But the fact that those practice fights weren't the real thing wouldn't matter to Nabiki; she would collect her winnings anyway.

Well, she was gonna be disappointed this time, Ranma thought with some satisfaction. Kuno finally getting some idea of splashing him wasn't nearly enough to pose a threat, although he suspected it could prove to be a serious irritation.

With that in mind, he decided he'd better get a better idea of just what his opponent knew, didn't know, and was expecting from this ploy. "Yo, Kuno! Up here!"

Tatewaki looked around, then up, and located the target of his ire. "Curse you, Saotome! Think you to escape beyond the reach of my righteous vengeance?!"

"Actually I was just checking out the view from up here," Ranma retorted, putting on his best "bored" expression. "Whatcha got in those buckets, anyway?"

"As if you didn't know, and did not flee from this very weapon!" Kuno pivoted, in one smooth motion drawing his bokken with one hand while reaching into the trailer and grasping a bucket with the other. "As all know, water cast forth from a bucket of cold iron is a weapon feared like no other by the wielders of dark magics! With this, I shall finally smite thee once and for all!"

"Huh?" was Ranma's eloquent response. 'He thinks that… where the heck would he…?' His eyes widened in pained realization. Unconsciously shifting his weight and tightening the grip of his feet, Ranma brought both hands forward and up and began massaging his forehead. Taking a two story fall would have hurt less than this anyway. "Kuno, I can't believe even you are this dumb," he said disgustedly. "That was a gaijin fantasy movie. Ain't no way I'm gonna melt down into nothing when you throw that over me." He'd never had a high opinion of Kuno's mental prowess, but taking a cue from The Wizard of Oz was even lower than he had thought the kendoist would sink.

"Silence, wretch! I attack!" With this proclamation Kuno leaped, rising into the air with bokken and bucket aimed directly at his foe.

"Yeah, whatever," Ranma retorted, pushing away at a sharp downward angle from the window, the force of his move sending him shooting down through the air much faster than a standard fall. He was safely on the ground before Kuno had covered even a quarter of the distance of his own jump. With no target waiting for him, and unwilling to drop either bokken or bucket, Kuno didn't quite know how to handle the endpoint of his leap. Ranma got a good smirk out of seeing the kendoist smack awkwardly into the side of the building, even as he felt the tiniest measure of respect at the skill Kuno had showed in altering his trajectory that much. The upperclassman's original path would have sent him crashing through the glass of the window, but he'd managed to avoid that. 'Guess I've actually been a good influence on this moron,' Ranma thought with equal parts surprise and smugness.

"I fight on!" Kuno roared, landing from his fall and sprinting back to the trailer. "You can't dodge forever!"

"I can sure dodge long enough for you to make a fool out of yourself by wasting all that water," Ranma replied, retreating from the now charging Kuno in a series of backflips. As his hands touched the ground for the final move, he clenched his hand and pulled up a clod of dirt. Coming back to his feet, he chucked this straight at the bucket Kuno carried.

The kendoist turned his charging attack into a whirl, bringing his sword around and deflecting the missile. "Not this time, Saotome!"

"You just spilled about three quarters of the water when you did that. You do know that, right?"

Kuno snarled and tossed the bucket with its remaining water at his hated foe, then raced back to get another one. For Ranma's part, it wasn't too hard to dodge the relatively small amount of water remaining in the container. "Hey, Kuno, see if you can spill the next one into the flower beds. That way at least you can say you accomplished something at school this year."

"Jest if you will, but today shall be your downfall!" Having learned a lesson about moving too swiftly while carrying his precious anti-sorcery liquid, Kuno settled for a measured stalking tread of doom rather than a charge. "Today is the day I finally put an end to your evil!"

"NO!!" The cry came from above, and was followed immediately by the splintering crash of breaking glass and the crunch of destroyed masonry. Ranma and Tatewaki both looked up, gaping at the sight as a desk was forcibly ejected through a second story window (and a bit of the wall around it), streaking down to smash with brutal force into the midst of Kuno's collection of liquid ammunition. The trailer buckled, both ends coming up as the middle was forced down, and in an instant the only water left to Kuno was what was contained in the bucket he held.

"Who… what… why…?" Tatewaki wasn't left to wonder long. As the dust cleared from what had formerly been a standard Furinkan window, he saw his raven-haired love standing there, looking faint, swaying dangerously on her feet. "Akane Tendo! Step back, or you may fall!"

"Upp… upperclassman Kuno…" The words escaped Akane's lips only just loudly enough to be heard across the distance. "Please… catch me…" And with that she tilted far enough forward to make a descent inevitable.

Casting both weapons aside, and displaying greater speed than he had in the fight, Tatewaki raced across the distance. Ranma, meanwhile, though tense, held back. He had seen clearly enough that Akane was still in control of her actions. Sure enough, it was with a deliberate motion that she stepped forward and angled herself toward the spot toward which Kuno was streaking. The kendoist was there in plenty of time to break her fall, staring up with a look of mingled desperation and resolve, his arms stretched wide to catch her prostrate form. Ranma just watched, feeling rather ambivalent about the interference, as Akane angled herself so that her landing was knees-first on Kuno's forehead, followed up by a rebound to the ground, an elbow to the solar plexus, and an uppercut that sent him flying in the general direction of home.

From her third floor vantage point, Nabiki pondered the events she'd just witnessed. That wasn't how it was supposed to happen. 'Oh well. Kuno will try again soon enough, I'm sure. And if I recall the spread correctly, almost nobody bet on Akane being the one to end the fight. We profited about as much as we would have if Kuno forced Ranma to retreat.' Nobody who was at all familiar with the two boys in question ever bet on that option.

But Akane's interference was a little troublesome. Nabiki had wanted Ranma to get a good bit more fed up with things in general before Akane started being nice and helping him out again. This act had clashed with both parts of that. It might get Ranma thinking more positively of her sister, but Nabiki doubted it would have anywhere near as big of an impact as something like this would have had in another week or two. 'I swear, little sister. Your cooking isn't the only thing you sabotage.'

"You didn't have to do that, you know."

Akane's only response was a noncommittal sort of sound, one which nonetheless managed to convey the impression that she was both humoring him and quite pleased with herself. Ranma's frown became a degree more pronounced.

"I'm serious, Akane. I had everything under control."

"I'm sure you did, Ranma."

The boy in question gritted his teeth. If Akane had been talking to Kuno or Ryoga, she would have a right to expect them to miss the patronizing way she'd said that. But Ranma Saotome wasn't anywhere near that clueless. "So that's why you decided to drop out of a second story window, huh? A clumsy chick like you ought to know better than to take a risk like that for nothing."

"Excuse me, Ranma." The self-satisfied note in Akane's tone was suddenly conspicuous by its absence. "I can handle jumps like that just fine, thank you very much!"

Ranma snorted disdainfully. "Yeah, you sure proved it during that mess with Kuno and the Phoenix, didn't ya? Shampoo had to dive and save your butt from that fall, if I recall correctly."

"I would have been just fine!" Akane snarled, hands tightening into fists at the memory. This really wasn't a good time to hear Ranma putting her down and showering more praise on Shampoo.

"I'm sure you would, Akane." He managed to duplicate her earlier tone with near-flawless exactitude.

"I'd have been a lot better than you would have if Kuno had gotten that water on you!" Akane exclaimed. "He was about to show everyone in the school what's happened to you! Everybody there would have found out your secret. Can't you even thank me for saving you?!"

"Saving me? From Kuno?!" Curiously enough, Ranma felt his irritation diminishing. If Akane really was that clueless, he felt like maybe he ought to be pitying her rather than chewing her out. "Akane, I could take that moron with both hands tied behind my back. I can certainly manage to dodge a few random splashes from him."

"Whatever," Akane said, making it clear that she didn't believe a word of it. "You're always getting splashed at the worst possible moment. Like you could really manage to dodge forever when someone's trying to get you wet."

"Oh, you mean like what happened when Mousse was tryin' to stick me with a Yazuniichuan curse… no, wait, that ain't right. I seem to recall avoiding the worst he could throw at me, even when he had you as a hostage."

Akane felt her temper slide just that much closer toward a breaking point. "Ranma! Could you please stop bringing up the Amazons already!"

"Well, excuse me for the fact that my example wasn't something you wanted to hear!" Ranma took a few moments after this to breathe and calm down, then said, "Look. Thanks for thinking about me and worrying about me and all that, but don't expect me to act like I needed help from you with Kuno. If I had to get someone to save my butt from somebody like him, Pop would turn over in his grave."

"ACHOO!!" The sneeze couldn't have come at a worse time for Genma, as it caused him to break his stride. And when you're carrying a hundred pounds of various stolen foodstuffs on your shoulders, racing along half a step ahead of your best friend (similarly encumbered), who is in turn three steps in front of a mob of angry townsfolk, the last thing you want to do is break your stride. The elder Saotome stumbled, feeling Soun smack into him from behind an instant later. He used the last second he had before the arrival of the mob to fire off the most vicious glare he could manage at Happosai's distant backside, wishing that the murderous voices of the villagers were loud enough to drown out the Master's obnoxious chortles. How much longer was this damnable trip going to last?

"Fine!" Akane screeched. "Next time I'll just leave you alone!"

"Good!" he retorted. "Then I wouldn't have to worry about you breakin' your neck from trying a move you don't have what it takes to pull off! If Kuno hadn't've been there you woulda wiped out completely on the landing!"

"If he hadn't been there I wouldn't have jumped in the first place! Or angled myself like that!" At this point only the desire to win the verbal argument was holding Akane back from belting her ungrateful betrothed. Already quite a large part of her mind was wondering whether the restraint was worth it. "That's like saying that you shouldn't walk on the fence because if you jumped up to it and it wasn't there you'd fall in the canal!"

"Unlike some people I know, I wouldn't do something that dumb."

"How dare you!"

Ranma blinked. 'Wait a minute. That wasn't Akane.'

He whirled, his gaze leaving the fuming tomboy and arcing around to settle on the fuming Lost Boy. His rival was standing about ten feet down the road at the mouth of an offshooting alley, clutching a map in one hand and glaring furiously toward him. "Ryoga," he said blankly. "What are you doing here?"

Ryoga swelled further in rage. "How can you say that, you bastard! Today was the day I set down in your challenge letter. Or were you planning to run away again?"

"Yeah, it was today, which means the actual fight will happen in another week when you finally find your way back…." Ranma let the sentence fade away as he realized that the impossible had actually happened. Ryoga wasn't going to be late for a preset battle? But then again, the time for the match was still two hours off, and this street certainly wasn't the place where Ryoga had said he'd meet him. If his rival hadn't randomly run into them now, Ranma didn't suppose the odds were very good that the other boy would have been able to keep the appointment.

Feeling somewhat better now that the universe didn't seem to be falling to pieces around him, Ranma spoke again. "Heh. You're early, Ryoga, but I guess I don't mind about that."

"You should!" Ryoga declared, shucki