Ranma cupped the chin of their marauding intruder and tilted it upward.  A chill shot through the veins of his hands and he verged on unconsciousness as he concentrated on the person's face.  "No!" he groaned in defeat as he fell backwards, stunned by the one thing that he had never expected to see in this life.

"Shampoo." he whispered softly, staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the prone figure on the floor.

"Ranma!" Akane and Ranko chorused.  The younger Saotome wasted no time in hobbling next to her brother.  "You okay, bro?" she asked with concern.

"Why?" was his only response, his gaze never leaving Shampoo's face.

"What?  You're not making sense, Ranma," Ranko said, following up with a light, open-handed smack to the cheek.  "Did he do something to you?"  She stepped in front of her brother, blocking his view of the stranger while trying to gain his attention.

"Is everything okay, Akane?" Soun asked worriedly.  His future son-in-law seemed pretty spooked, and given Ranma's demonstrated abilities, that bothered him quite a bit.  He vaulted down from the rafters and touched down right next to his daughter, intent on making sure that no harm came to her.

"I don't know what's going on, Daddy," Akane replied honestly.  She looked at Ranma again, and followed the path of his gaze to where the party-crasher lay silent.  "It's almost as if Ranma knows this guy."  She knelt down next to the body and reached out to tug on the hood of its cloak when Soun stopped her.

"Careful, Akane," he warned.  "We have no idea who or what may be under that cloak.  If it's bad enough to cause this in Ranma," he said, pointing to the stock-still youth, "then we shouldn't be reckless."

Akane nodded, taking care to guard herself against sudden movement from the person as she reached down and tugged on the hood.  "Huh?" she asked in puzzlement as a long lock of rich purple hair flowed from under the hood and spilled onto the hardwood floor of the dojo.  Emboldened by the lack of response, Akane tugged firmly and yanked the hood all the way back.

"Whoa!  Now *that's* a first-class babe!" Hikaru blurted out from behind Akane and Soun as Shampoo's face popped into full view.  They both turned to look over their shoulders and saw him standing behind them, his eyes locked on Shampoo's face.  He was so transfixed by her that he didn't realize that Ranko was angrily glaring at him.  As the seconds ticked, the intensity of her gaze quickly shifted from Ultra-violent to Infra-dead.

Ranko finally had to clear her throat to get her point across, her gaze a smoldering cauldron of doom.  The sound snapped Hikaru back into the realm of the living, his head turning towards the noise's origin.  He winced as he caught sight of her demon's-glare.  Feeling confused and a little angry at her attitude, he kept from responding out loud, well aware of her ability to snap his spine like a twig.

The stern noise of Ranko's throat clearing caught Ranma's attention, too.  His distant gaze changed as his eyes focused on his sister.

"Ranko, I don't believe it," he muttered in an eerily calm voice.  "It's Shampoo."  He grew silent again, his eyes betraying the shock and confusion that he was trying to hide.

Akane's brow furrowed as she looked down at Shampoo.  "What does he mean, Ranko?" she asked of her newfound friend.  She gazed at the long locks of purple hair cascading from their party crasher's head, which were matted slightly due to sweat and coated with dust.  "She does need to wash her hair, but I don't see why Ranma would care about something as trivial as that at a time like this."

"I don't think that's what he meant, Akane," Ranko replied guardedly as she cupped her brother's cheek in her hand.  "I swear, Ranma," she said in a near-whisper, her thumb gently caressing his jawline.  "You look like you've seen a ghost."  'Or a ghost from the past' her mind added.  Ranko gasped as something suddenly clicked into place.

"What is it, Ranko?" Soun asked at her sudden intake of breath.

'Dammit!' she swore to herself.  'I don't need to be explaining anything right now.  Besides, I'm not even sure if I'm right.'  Ranko looked up to Soun with what she hoped was a confused expression.  "I honestly can't say, Mr. Tendo.  I'll just have to keep talking to Ranma and hope that he can tell us something about her."

Satisfied with her answer, Soun clapped his hands together to dust them off, startling Akane enough to make her jump.  "Well, we don't seem to be in any danger from this girl at the moment," Soun declared after toeing the body with his right foot and getting no response.

"Yeah, she's out for the count," Hikaru added, his dreamy-eyed expression returning as he took in Shampoo's face again.

"Well, what'll we do with her?" Akane asked of no one in particular.

"We should confine her until she regains consciousness, and then ask her what the hell she thought she was doing."  Soun looked down to his daughter and Ranko for approval.

"Don't see anything wrong with that, Daddy.  Question is: who will watch her, and where will we put her?"

"How about lashing her to a tree outside?" Ranko suggested venomously, her anger at Hikaru's antics leaking into her words.

Soun seemed to ponder that question for a moment.  "You've got a point, Ranko, but I don't think she's so dangerous that we should treat her like an animal.  We could put her in the guest room, and two of us will keep watch over her," he mused.

"I would advise against that, Tendo-sensei," a shout issued from the rafters.  Soun craned his neck and spotted Sato sitting in the rafters, still cradling Nabiki protectively in his arms.  "That girl knocked a big hole in the outer wall.  I don't think she should be trusted at all."  The expression on Sato's face was a mixture of anger and fear, with anger winning out at the moment.

"You mean that she caused all that noise by herself?" Akane asked with alarm.

Soun 'hmmm'ed, and took Sato seriously.  He bent down and scooped his arms under Shampoo.  Despite the danger that she posed, Soun couldn't help but notice how tightly the cloak covered her, leaving little to the imagination.  "She's a light little girl," he commented as he hefted his burden, one of his hands closing around her legs and the other one touching near her left breast. "She's not armed, either," he grunted thoughtfully, feeling nothing beneath the cloak except the girl's body.  That seemed to cement his decision.  "I don't think we'll have to worry if we guard her, but I agree with Sato.  To minimize any risk to our guests, we'll keep her outside near the pond."

Ranko stifled a beleaguered sigh as Soun's words answered her unspoken question.  'Well, that doesn't leave much doubt as to who she is.' she thought with growing worry.  'First Kinuko, and now this.'  She looked up at Soun, realizing that he was waiting for her to respond to his suggestion. "I agree, Mr. Tendo.  After all, you are the expert and our host," she demurred.  "Ranma and I will join you in just a moment."

Soun nodded.  "Very well, Ranko.  As soon as you get Ranma on his feet and find out what's wrong with him, let me know.  I'd like to find out what caused this in him."  He turned to his youngest daughter after seeing Ranko nod her assent.  "Akane, go find Mr. Saotome and let him know what we're doing.  Also, see if your sister and Nodoka are okay."  She nodded as he continued.  "I'll bring this girl to the pond and wait for you there," he said as he regarded his destination a few paces away.  "Ah!  That reminds me!  Akane, I'll need you to bring a blanket with you when you return.  We can't just lay this girl on the ground."  Akane nodded to her father as they left the dojo.

Ranko noted with a heavy tinge of jealousy that Hikaru was following behind them.  His eyes had a target lock on the girl's impressive figure from the moment she collapsed in the dojo.  His head bobbed in time with her breasts as she bounced in Soun's arms.  Despite the obvious danger that Shampoo presented, Ranko began feeling very loathsome thoughts for both Hikaru and the purple-headed girl.  It took a couple of minutes of gritted teeth and angry breathing before she calmed herself and realized that she had a higher priority at the moment.

"You alive in there, Ranma?" she asked softly.  "You can talk about it now, they're all gone."  Ranma slowly emerged from his bout of shock, pulling Ranko into his lap and hugging her tightly.  He said nothing, drawing comfort from his embrace of her.  Ranko returned the hug, but was a bit anxious to get her brother mobile again.  "Talk to me, bro," she entreated, kissing him lightly on the forehead.

"I don't know what to say," he replied softly, running his hand across her back.  "That's Shampoo.  I don't know how she got here, but she's here."

"She's that Amazon floozy you told me about, right?" Ranko returned, unable to completely mask her anger.  Ranma nodded, saying nothing.  "She was one of your fianc‚es.  The most dangerous one, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, she was really violent.  But she wasn't dangerous.  At least not to me," he amended.

"Really?  Well, if she's not dangerous, why did you freeze up just then?  Mr. Tendo thinks you've lost it."  She tapped him on the forehead with her index finger.  "You definitely aren't making any brownie points with him right now."

He sighed and rested his head against hers.  "Hell.  She's gonna wind up ruining everything.  As for my reaction, well." he trailed off, having a hard time looking into his sister's eyes.  "All I can say is that I never expected to see her here.  She's got no reason to be here.  Dammit!" he shouted, clenching his jaw tightly and slapping his hand on the floor. Ranma saw his dream life crumbling before his eyes with that airheaded Amazon manning the wrecking ball.  Seeking a solid foundation, he clutched his sister ever tighter.  "I don't want to lose this life, but that could happen as long as she's here.  *That's* why I froze like I did.  I thought that the wish was over, and I was going to lose everything."  His eyes lost focus.  "Including you, Ranko."

"Ohhh!  Don't say that, Ranma!" Ranko hissed angrily, not in any mood to hear such a thing.  "We don't even know if that is Shampoo that Mr. Tendo dragged out of here."

"But it looked like." he began.

"Stop it, Ranma!"  She allowed herself a moment to calm down.  "Let's just go join the others, okay?  If we take things one at a time, then we should be able to get to the bottom of why she's here, and what she plans on doing."

A few moments of silence passed as he turned Ranko's words over in his mind.  Then Ranma loosened up as common sense reasserted itself.  "You're right, Ranko.  Regardless of who she is, Shampoo wasn't a match for me before, and the person out there won't be a match for me now!"

Ranko smiled and kissed her brother loudly on the cheek.  "Now *that's* the brother I've grown to love!"  She pounded him on the back, earning her a laugh followed by a slight groan of pain.

"Thanks, sis."  He said with a smile before looking at the door of the dojo.  "We should join Mr. Tendo.  I don't want him thinking that I'm a loser."

"Yep," she said as she stood up and held her hand out to her brother.  "Let's get over there while that bitch is still unconscious."  Hobbling on her good foot, she helped Ranma to stand and then followed him as he led the way to the Koi pond.

"Such language!" Ranma mock-chided.

"Yeah, well I learned from a master," she retorted with a smirk.  "The Saotome School isn't only known for its martial arts skills."

"Tell me about it." Ranma snorted derisively as they disappeared through the door.

****
 

Sato watched from his perch on high as Ranko and Ranma left the dojo, their voices fading as they headed through the doors.  "I think they forgot all about us," he muttered to himself.  He hadn't been able to hear the conversation between Ranko and her brother, but he assumed that Ranma was doing okay now that he was on his feet again.  'Ranma has been acting very different recently.  He's become a tough guy, even getting up the nerve to whip Kuno at school,' he mused.  'But to make things even more confusing now, he's getting frightened at the sight of an unconscious stranger.'

He shook his head vigorously, as if the agitation would magically shake loose the answers to all of his questions.  'What's freakin' me out is. he reacted the way all of us would've *expected* him to if something like this had happened three weeks ago.'  He gazed at the empty doorway of the dojo, focusing on the glow of the afternoon sunlight as it crept in through the opening. Try as he might to explain what he had witnessed so far today, he was unable to piece it together so that it made any sense.  'I don't know if Ranma's getting back to normal now, or if we're in worse trouble than I -'

A slight moan broke his reverie, making him return his attention to the only other person still in the dojo.  He looked down at the brown-haired beauty he had cradled in his arms and felt a warm upwelling in his heart.  Her head was still buried in his chest and her arms seemed welded to him.  He didn't want that moment to end, despite the trouble he was having breathing.  'I guess I have to give that purple-headed monster a little thanks for this,' he grudgingly admitted.  'This is the first time I've ever held a girl.'  He allowed himself a small smile.  'I kinda like it, too.'

Nabiki stirred slightly, then her head snapped up in alarm, her eyes wide with fear.  Sato quickly whipped an arm out to stabilize both of them before they wound up toppling from the rafters.  She calmed down long enough to look at him.  "Is it over?" she asked in a weak voice.

"I think so, Nabiki," he replied with as much false confidence as he could muster.

"Ah, good," she said before fainting dead away.

"Whoa, Nabiki!" Sato said in alarm as she went slack in his arms.  "Nabiki!"  He shook her, but got no response.  "Oh no!  NABIKI!" he shouted a little more frantically when she refused to stir.  'If that little purple-haired bitch has hurt Nabiki, I'll make her pay!' he thought furiously, before his more rational mind took control again.

'Yeah, right!  If I live three seconds in a fight with her, I'll be lucky!' he scoffed, laughing at the sheer stupidity of it.  He paused his rant as Nabiki's breathing became more noticeable.  Sato felt her chest expanding and contracting within the confines of his protective embrace, and flooded with relief upon hearing her breathe normally.  "Thank God, you only fainted!"  He felt his own breathing slow down to normal levels and his mind calmed.  But just as he was recovering from that false tragedy, Sato looked around as another predicament came to light.  "How the hell am I gonna get down from here!?"

****
 

"What was that?" Nodoka asked in alarm as an explosive sound rocked both her and Kasumi.  She quickly blushed and fought to regain her composure, having been taken so off guard that she had sworn in the presence of her host.  But before Nodoka could apologize, she jumped as another explosion took her by surprise, causing her precariously balanced cup of green tea to spill into her lap.  She yelped in pain as the scalding-hot liquid soaked through her clothing, sluicing between her thighs.

Kasumi, dazed by the loud sound of the crashes, reacted rather slowly to Nodoka's pained cry.  "What was that, Nanna?"  Seeing that Nodoka was doing okay, she turned her head away from the frantically hopping older woman and looked towards the entryway of the house, her brow furrowing in concentration.  "You know, that sounded like a car crashing into the boundary wall of our property.  Someone may be hurt!" she said in a panic.

"Crashed twice?" Nodoka returned, forcing calm and walking around to allow cool air to pass between her burned thighs.

"I'm not sure!  Whatever it was, it sounded horrible!"  Then Kasumi stood quickly from the table, almost tipping it in her rush.  "I hear yelling outside!  There might be trouble!"

"I hear it too, Kasumi-chan.  We'd better see if everyone's alright."

"Yes, ma'am!" she shouted as she took off for the door to the dojo, with Nodoka in close pursuit.

Kasumi had barely gotten around the corner when she ran into the barrel-chested bulk of Genma Saotome.  "Ooof!" she got out as her face buried itself in his chest, almost knocking him down.

Genma staggered, but managed to stay upright as the slight yet solid force of Kasumi rocked him.  He paused for a moment to right himself and catch his breath.  He looked down at young woman's face as she slowly pulled herself off from him.  She had red eyes, as did Nodoka, letting him know that they had been crying a lot.  But over what, he didn't know.  "You two okay?"

"What was that, Genma?" Nodoka asked worriedly as she latched onto her husband with a tight hug.

"I'm not really sure what's going on, honey," he said as he returned the embrace with equal vigor, then began to fill them in on what he knew.  "But I'll tell you what I *do* know.  We were working in the dojo when it happened.  The first blast startled us, and the second blast almost knocked me out of the rafters.  Hikaru wasn't so lucky."  Nodoka gasped, fearing the worst.  "Don't worry about him, Hon," Genma quickly amended.  "I caught him before he could hit the ground.  He's shaken, but okay.  Anyway, Nabiki and Sato had apparently seen what had caused the racket, because they ran back to the dojo after going out to get some wood.  They were covered in dust, and both were shaking.  Also, Sato was carrying Nabiki in his arms."

"Carrying Nabiki?" Kasumi asked worriedly.  "Oh my goodness!  Is she okay?!"

Genma nodded quickly, trying to keep his story going despite the interruptions.  "She's fine, from what I could tell, Kasumi.  Anyway, Sato was trying to tell us what was going on when someone in a dark cloak stormed into the dojo-"

"Someone attacked us?" Nodoka asked, her fear upgrading to anger.  "If anyone's hurt our kids, I'll do them two worse!"  His hug suddenly became a forced restraint as he struggled to hold her in place.  "Let me go this instant, Genma!  I need to know that they're okay!"

"Nodoka, they're fine!" he returned with effort.  "I wouldn't have left Ranma or Ranko alone if there was any hint of danger to them!  Now settle down and let me finish!" he yelled, a little louder than he intended to.  In any event, it had the desired effect.  Nodoka calmed considerably and relented to his hold.

"Thank you, dear," he said with a sigh.  "Now, after the person entered the dojo, Soun did something absolutely brilliant.  He faked a stumble in the rafters and dropped his toolbelt on the person's head."  Genma chuckled at the ease with which his old friend had dispatched the threat to them all.  "The intruder dropped like a stone."

Nodoka winced.  "Ouch!  Honey, what was in the toolbelt?"

"I'd say it had two hammers and about four handfuls of nails when he let it fly."

"So it's safe to assume that the person is either knocked out or dead," Nodoka deadpanned.

"Oh, no!  Daddy killed someone?" Kasumi squeaked.

"Nononono!  He didn't kill anyone."  Genma bit his lip to keep from adding, 'at least I hope he didn't.'

"Still, I want to go out there and see how everyone is," Nodoka stated firmly.  She shrugged herself out of her husband's embrace and headed back into the kitchen.

"Now where-," he began as his wife took off for the kitchen, breaking off his sentence when she disappeared from sight.

"Mr. Saotome, I'm going to check on them too," Kasumi stated, prompting Genma to turn to face her.

"Very well.  But I want you to stay with me in case something else happens-" he started to reply.

"Let's go, dear," Nodoka called from behind him as she approached.  His eyebrows went up in alarm as he caught sight of the sword she held in her determined grip, unwrapped yet sheathed.  He learned a long time ago to never argue with his wife when she was in this kind of mood, and instead led the way to the dojo.

The sight that greeted them wasn't what they had expected.  "Where is everyone?" Nodoka asked sternly, her voice echoing in the abandoned room.

"I have no-," Genma said as Kasumi tapped him tentatively on the shoulder.

"Ummm.  I think they're all over there, Mr. Saotome." she said in her delicate voice, pointing towards the pond in the distance.  Her father seemed to be holding some cloaked figure in his arms.

"You're right, Kasumi," Genma replied.  "We'd better get over th-," he said as he began ushering all of them out of the dojo.

"HEY!!!" a panicked shout issued from over their heads.

'For once I'd like to be able to finish a sentence around here,' he thought with mild consternation as he turned his attention to the latest interruption.

"Any chance I could get a ladder over here!?" a harried youth returned with as much deference and respect as he could muster under the circumstances.

"Sato?!"  Nodoka asked in disbelief.  Then she turned to her husband.  "You never said he jumped up *there*, honey," she added, elbowing him lightly.

"Oh, Nabiki!" Kasumi gasped in alarm as she saw her sister nestled in the grasp of the young man.  "Are you okay?" she shouted.

"I'm okay, ma'am," Sato replied.  "Nabiki's okay, too.  She just fainted from all the excitement."

Kasumi breathed a slight sigh of relief.  "Thank you for looking out for her, Sato-kun."

"Let's get you down from there, son," Genma said as he trotted across the dojo floor, mindful of the holes still in it, and placed the ladder against the wall nearest Sato's rafter.  "Can you handle it?" he asked concernedly.

"I think so, Mr. Saotome," Sato said confidently.  He shuffled across the rafter, taking great care to see that Nabiki didn't slip and fall from his grasp.  Despite all of his jostling, she dozed peacefully in his arms, unconsciousness granting her the serenity that he wished he were feeling for himself.  With a long slow effort, he made it to the edge.  Genma climbed partway up the ladder and met Sato as his feet touched the second rung from the top, then took hold of Nabiki's legs as Sato began his descent.  With only a little bit of struggling, Sato managed to get down to the floor while keeping Nabiki in his embrace.

Kasumi changed that when she ran to her sister and took her into her arms, crying softly.  "Oh, my little Nabiki!  Thank goodness you're okay!" she sobbed.

Nabiki stirred at the sound of her older sister's voice.  "Kasumi?  's'matter?"

"Everything's okay now," Sato added from nearby, trying to comfort Nabiki.

Genma stood alongside Sato.  "I want to take a look at the wall and see what our visitor did to it," he declared.  "Come along, Sato.  Show me where it happened."

"Uhhh.  y-yessir, Mr. Saotome," Sato said reluctantly.  A stout pat on the back from Genma forced the issue and he found himself quickly leading the way.

Nodoka turned to Kasumi after Sato and her husband had stepped out.  "You'd better get Nabiki inside and lay her down somewhere.  The poor dear must've been through quite an ordeal."  Nodoka reached up and ran her fingers through the younger Tendo-girl's hair, dislodging dust and specks of mortar and concrete.

"Yes, Nanna," Kasumi replied obediently.  "Will you be coming in with me?" she added while reshuffling the burden of her younger sister in her arms.

"Not as yet, dear.  I'm going to talk to your father and find out what he's doing with our uninvited guest," she said, pointing in the direction of her children and Soun with her sword.  Kasumi seemed to hesitate for a moment, prompting Nodoka to smile comfortingly.  "Don't worry, Kasumi-chan.  I'll be back inside in as soon as I can."

"Thanks," Kasumi said, returning the smile.  She shook her sister a little in her embrace, trying to roust her.  "Wake up, Nabiki-chan.  You may be petite but I'm not strong enough to carry a full-grown woman in my arms."

Nabiki attempted to snort derisively, but it came out as a weak moan.  "I cn' walk jus' fine, tanks." she retorted as best she could.

"Okay, then.  Let's go inside," Kasumi urged as she began walking in the direction of the house, her sister dragging alongside her.

Nodoka suppressed a sigh as she watched the two sisters shamble out of the dojo then focused her attention on the stranger in black that Soun had in his arms.  Fingering the saya of her sword out of habit, she tried to guess at what had prompted the attack.  Having no love for mysteries and disliking threats to her family even more, she gripped the saya tightly in her left hand and trotted out of the dojo to obtain the answers she required.

****
 

"You're kidding me!" Genma shouted, his mouth agape.  "That person caused *this*?!"  He stared at the bus-sized hole that had literally been punched out of the wall.  It was at least eight feet wide and was mostly open from top to bottom.  Some of the soil had been moved when the blast unearthed parts of the wall that had been below ground level.  Also, some of the blocks and capstones at the top were teetering precariously from crumbling precipices created when the wall was blasted outward.  Genma refused to advance any further for fear that they would clobber him should they come loose.

"Yes she did," Sato said soberly, looking at the damage anew.  He'd been too terrified when the attack had happened to take note of just what had happened to the wall.  Looking at it now, with no threat currently facing him, left Sato feeling very lucky that he and Nabiki escaped with their lives.  A couple of person-sized chunks were lying on the ground near where he and Nabiki had fallen together following the first explosive blow.  'If that thing had hit the wall a little harder, we would've been killed!' he thought sickly, his stomach somersaulting inside his belly.

"She?!" Genma countered in shock.  "How do you know that that *thing* is even human?"

"After you left to check on the others, Akane uncovered the girl's head and it was quite obvious that the attacker was female.  She was fairly attractive, in fact," Sato replied.

Genma grunted thoughtfully.  "Interesting.  And you only saw one person, right?"

"Yes sir," he nodded

"Did you have to fight this girl to get back to the dojo?"

"No way!" he said quickly, punctuating his statement by shaking his head.  "I was more interested in getting Nabiki and myself out of the way of that lunatic!  I don't think I could've fought her, anyway," Sato admitted.

"Oh?  Why is that, son?" Genma asked with a hint of challenge in his voice.

"Because she caused all of this damage by herself."

"Really?" Genma asked, honestly stunned.  "She did all of this without using any weaponry?"  His respect for their unknown foe was rising rapidly. 'I'm going to have to make sure that Soun's got everything under control.  Don't need some berserker girl coming in and ruining everything after Ranma went to such trouble to set it up.  Also, I don't need anyone dying.'

"I think so, Mr. Saotome.  I didn't see anything in her hands when I did manage to look.  Mr. Tendo also said that she didn't have any weapons on her when he picked her up and took her out of the dojo."

The elder Saotome found himself reassessing his opinion of the slight boy standing next to him.  He looked at Sato critically while the youth was surveying the damage.  'The boy did what was best, given the circumstances,' Genma considered.  'That, and the jump he did in the dojo.  He may have potential.'  He considered his next words carefully.  "You ever have any martial arts training, Sato?"

Sato looked at him askance, surprised that his name was even mentioned in the same sentence with the phrase 'martial arts'  "None at all, Mr. Saotome."  He restrained himself from adding 'Why do you ask?' because he didn't want Ranma's dad pissed at him for being an asshole.

"Would you like to learn?" he offered, wondering what the youth's reaction would be.

Sato looked like someone had slapped him silly.  "M- me?  Train w- with you?!" he stammered.  He thought he saw disappointment in Genma's eyes, and continued quickly.  "Don't get me wrong.  I'd like to, sir.  I'm just surprised that you asked, is all."

Genma nodded in understanding.  "You have potential, son.  I watched you while you were carrying Nabiki.  That jump wasn't an easy thing to do."

Sato shook his head.  Was that how he'd gotten up there?  Everything had happened so fast that he wasn't able to recall exactly what he did.  "Well, I did what I could at the moment, Mr. Saotome," he replied as honestly and obscurely as he could.

"That's all anyone should be expected to do, son."  He smiled at the youth.  "What do you say?"

Sato mulled it over and smiled sheepishly.  "I'll think about it, Mr. Saotome."

"That's all I ask," he said with a wry smirk.  "And drop the Mr. Saotome.  You can call me 'Sensei' now."

Sato's eyes widened both because of the unexpected increase in respect Ranma's dad was giving him, and because he knew that his pain threshold would be tested mightily in the days to come should he accept.  "Yes, Sensei," he replied obediently, adding a small bow to punctuate his sincerity.

"That's better!" Genma said with a chuckle, pounding the hapless youth on the back once more.  "Now that I've seen the huge hole in Tendo's wall we should get back with the others and get all of our facts straight."  The elder Saotome winced as he pictured his friend's reaction to the damaged wall section, which would easily cost more to repair than all the dojo work that had been accomplished thus far.  'He's going to shit when he sees this!'  He did take comfort of one small fact as he and Sato strode across the compound to the Koi pond.  'At least it wasn't the fault of anyone in the Saotome family this time.'

****
 

Nodoka's determined stride brought her quickly to the group standing beside the pond.  The sound of everyone shouting grew louder with every footfall as they argued about what to do with the girl.  Just as she was about to approach Soun, Akane trotted up to her side carrying a large blanket.  The two stopped just short of the shouting match.  "Were you and Kasumi okay, Mrs. Saotome?  I couldn't find either of you when I went in the house," she asked, out of breath.

"Oh!  Yes, Akane.  We were both fine."

Akane breathed a sigh of relief.  "Thank goodness!"  She chanced a sidelong glance at Nodoka while she walked.  Her eyes widened slightly as Nodoka's long sword came into view.  She kept her silence for the last few paces.

"I am *NOT* losing my mind, Mr. Tendo!" Ranma shouted indignantly, catching the attention of the approaching women.

"Then how do you explain that little panic attack, boy?" he shouted back, clenching Shampoo angrily in his arms although she was too unconscious to care.

"I was . caught off-guard is all I meant.  When you think about it, how can one girl cause such a racket?" Ranma returned as quickly as he could.

"Obviously you've never been married, boy!" Soun replied with a snort.

"Oh, and how can marriage be that destructive, Soun?" Nodoka asked sweetly from behind him.

He turned around in shock, and his arms took that opportunity to advertise that they were starting to hurt.  "I was being sarcastic, Nodoka."

Nodoka 'um-hmmmed' with a smug look on her face, making Soun turn away.  He suddenly felt very grateful that Akane had retrieved the blanket as swiftly as she did.  "Put the blanket down here, Akane," he commanded, shifting his attention to Shampoo to avoid any further conversation on the subject of marriage.  Akane obeyed her father by placing the blanket on the ground and smoothing it out as best as she could.  With a grunt, Soun crouched and gently laid Shampoo down on it.  He positioned her on her back, and crossed her arms on top of her stomach.

Nodoka got her first good look at Shampoo, and her eyes narrowed.  'This young lady is trouble,' she quickly assessed.  'She's built like a female bodybuilder.'  She vowed to watch the girl closely, as her son approached and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"I'm glad you're okay, Mom."

"Thank you, dear," she replied, placing her free arm around him while laying the flat of her sword's blade against her shoulder.

Without meaning to, the entire group surrounded Shampoo as she lay out cold on the blanket.  While the rest of them stared in silence at the marauder, Akane gazed over to her father.  She gasped as she got a good look at him.  "Daddy!  You're bleeding!" she shouted, pointing at his hand.

"Really?" he asked, puzzled.  He looked down and saw that the fingertips were slick with fresh blood.  "That's odd.  I don't feel any pain."

"You may be in shock, Soun," Nodoka suggested.  "Let me take a look at it," she offered, already reaching down to take his hand in hers.  A closer inspection on her part revealed no wounds of any kind.  She pressed the skin of his palm and moved his fingers, looking for any indication of pain on Soun's face.  Declaring him unhurt, Nodoka looked down to their uninvited guest and grunted thoughtfully.  "It must be hers, then."

A mixed chorus of "ouch"es and "oooh"s greeted the statement.  Nodoka knelt down and gripped Shampoo firmly by the shoulder.  Not getting any reaction, she tilted the girl up and gasped.  The blanket where her head had lain was coated with blood.  "Dear, could you hold this for me?" she asked as pointed the hilt of her sword at Ranma.  He wordlessly took the proffered weapon, his scrutiny of Shampoo's fallen form never wavering.  With her other hand free Nodoka propped Shampoo up and felt around the Amazon's scalp.

"She's got a nasty gash on her head, Soun.  You may have done more than just knock her out," Nodoka said darkly.

"B... But she's still breathing!" Soun said, his voice almost cracking.  He pointed at her heaving chest with a blood-covered finger.  "See?"

Akane and Ranko looked on with extreme concern.  Neither had seen someone with an injury this bad before.  Ranma, meanwhile, stared at Shampoo with an odd detachment.  He wasn't sure whether to be elated or grief-stricken.

"Mom, are you saying that she's never going to wake up?" Ranko asked.

"It's possible, dear, unless we get some medical attention for her immediately," Nodoka replied.

Soun looked to his youngest daughter.  "Akane, run in the house and call Dr. Tofu.  Tell him it's an emergency and we need him to come here.  Make sure you tell him that it's a head injury."  She nodded soberly and ran to the house as fast as she could.  "And bring some wet rags with you when you come back!" he called after her.

Genma and Sato approached just in time to see Akane fly past.  "Tendo, what's wrong?"

"It looks like I really hurt this girl, Saotome.  She's got a pretty nasty gash on the back of her head.  She may also have a concussion.  Akane went to get a doctor."  He paused to rub his temples, banishing a headache before it could start.  "I didn't mean to hit her on the head in the first place," Soun continued.  "I hit my head on a rafter and the belt came loose when I slipped.  It was honestly just a fluke..."

Genma nodded.  "It looked like you had faked the stumble to keep the girl from getting wise that you were about to nail her with your tool belt."

Soun waved his clean hand in a gesture of disagreement.  "I wish I were that good.  But luck, good or bad, was the main player."

From her kneeling position, Nodoka cleared her throat and looked at the two men.  "Ahem!  Do you think that we can cover the analysis of what happened in the dojo at some other time?  We should try to do something for this girl before she goes into shock.  If she loses too much blood she could die."

That got to everyone, including Ranma.  He handed the sword to Genma and knelt down beside his mother.  "What do we need to do, Mom?" he asked.

"Get her shoes - ah!  She's not wearing any shoes.  We need to get this dusty cloak off, elevate her feet, and -"  Nodoka looked about for items that she needed.  "- we need some water and clean rags.  Until the doctor arrives, we're going to have to apply pressure to her wound to keep her from bleeding out."

"What can I do, Mom?" Ranko asked as she hovered by Nodoka.

"We need something to rest her feet on so that they are higher than her head.  You understand what I'm asking for?" Nodoka asked.

Ranko nodded to her mother then tapped Hikaru on the shoulder.  "Let's go, Hikaru.  If it weighs a lot, I won't be able to carry it in my current condition, and ."  Her voice trailed off as she realized that he was hopelessly lost to Shampoo's face.  Growling slightly, she started to walk off on her own when she felt Sato's hand on her shoulder.

"Need a lift, Ranko?" he asked politely.

"Thanks, Sato.  I'd love to," she added, loud enough for Hikaru hear even though he wasn't listening.  Angry, she wrapped her arm around Sato's waist and walked with him as they headed for the dojo.

Trying not to smirk, Nodoka turned her attention back to her son.  "Ranma, dear.  Help me get this cloak off of her.  Try not to move her around too much."

Getting on the other side of Shampoo, Ranma reached down and unknotted the length of rough- hewn cord that held the thick, dusty cloth on her.  After they'd managed to loosen the cloth a bit and wrestled it open at her shoulders, Nodoka and Ranma both stopped and wrinkled their noses.

"Man, she's ripe!" Ranma complained, pulling his head away from the source of the noxious odor.

"She must have gone a couple of weeks since her last bath!" Nodoka added, likewise turning away.

Soun, Hikaru and Genma coughed as a slight wave of the odor hit, prompting them to move back a step.

Talking a deep breath, Ranma turned back to Shampoo and pulled her cloak open to uncover her.  He was rewarded with another gust of stinky air, forcing him to make another hasty olfactory retreat.  He turned away and gasped for air.  Hikaru joined him in gasping.  'Yeah, Gos.  That girl's definitely got a major Amazonian stink going on there,' Ranma said to himself.

"Oh, man!" Hikaru groaned an instant later.

Ranma and Nodoka both looked up at him, fully expecting him to retch on them due to the stench wafting from the uncloaked girl.  Instead his eyes and face looked almost placid, as if he were looking at one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Instinctively Nodoka whipped her head back around to Shampoo.  She barely kept herself from gasping as she saw that Shampoo was topless, her breasts almost too large for her slender frame.  Also, the pants that she'd worn underneath her cloak were so tattered that there was no need to guess at what she looked like with them off.  'No wonder Hikaru's lost touch with his senses.  He's finally seen what a girl looks like without clothes.'  Nodoka shook her head.

Ranma turned around and was greeted with a sight that he'd seen on several occasions in his past.  Still, the unobstructed view of her body rattled him a little.  "Shampoo!" he yelled, before he could think.  His arms went up a bit to obstruct his view of her heavily curved chest.

Nodoka nodded as she drew the cloak over Shampoo's breasts and pants, ending Hikaru's peepshow.  "That and a whole lotta soap, Ranma-dear," Nodoka amended.  "She's going to need a very long scrub and soak if she's going to get rid of *that* stink."

Ranma felt himself near-collapse after that slip.  He thanked his lucky stars that his mom had misunderstood his outburst.  "Uhhh, yeah, Mom.  No kidding there!"  He laughed nervously and stood away from Shampoo as Sato and Ranko approached with Kasumi right behind them.  "Looks like the rest of the crew's arrived," he announced as he made more room.

"Akane told me that someone had a head injur-  Oh my!" Kasumi shouted as a latent cloud of Amazon stink met with her nose.  "I know a little bit about medicine," she offered.  Her arms cradled a plastic jug of water and several rags.

Nodoka nodded and pulled back a lock of Shampoo's hair to expose the wound.  Kasumi knelt next to Nodoka and wet one of the rags.  "Thank you, Kasumi," she said as she took the rag and placed it against Shampoo's head, following the Tendo girl's directions.  Ranma flinched as the cold water made contact with the Amazon's skin, fully expecting to be running away from an unconscious cat a moment later.  As quietly as he could, he sighed with relief when she remained human.

While Nodoka was tending to Shampoo's cut, Kasumi wet another rag and handed it to Soun.  "You should clean yourself, Daddy.  You never know what she may have been infected with."  Nodding his agreement, he gladly accepted the wet cloth and vigorously cleaned his bloodied hand.

As everyone else moved closer to Shampoo to lend a hand, or in Hikaru's case, drool uncontrollably, Ranma started moving towards his father.  'She's not even conscious and she's playing with my mind!' he groused.  'I guess it would be asking too much if she would just wake up and leave.'

Sato and Ranko bore in their arms a combination of bricks and a few foam sparring pads that they'd liberated from the dojo.  They stacked the items at Shampoo's heels and then propped her feet on them.

Ranko then walked back to her mother, aiming a lethal stare at Hikaru as she hobbled in his direction.  Showing signs of life for the first time in nine minutes, he glowered at her.  When she was close enough to him, he spoke.

"What are you so mad for, Ranko?  I'm not doing anything here except watching," he hissed defensively.

"We'll talk about this later," she huffed; her intense stare boring into him.  Hikaru crossed his arms and returned his attention to Shampoo.  A smile returned to his face as the girl's cloak parted again, exposing one of her breasts.  He had to duck a moment later as Ranko swung at his head, barely missing tagging him on the face.

"You perv!  Quit staring at her tits!" Ranko almost yelled, her face purpling with rage.  'You should be happy with staring at mine, dammit!' she wanted to add.

Everyone except Kasumi and Nodoka caught the attempted pummeling and moved to keep Ranko from making pudding out of Hikaru.  "Dear, do you think that you'll need anyone else to help you with this girl?" Genma asked, realizing that there were too many people hanging around and doing nothing.  Besides, he didn't want to have to bail his daughter out of jail for beating Hikaru to a pulp.

"We should be fine, Genma," she said over her shoulder, never taking her eyes off of Shampoo.

"Pop, I'll stay behind and make sure she doesn't do anything to Mom or Kasumi," Ranma offered, standing next to his mother.

"You sure about that, Ranma?" Soun asked skeptically.  "You won't have another episode like the last one, will you?"

Ranma flushed slightly at the barb.  "No, Mr. Tendo.  It isn't a problem."  He took his mother's sword from Genma and held it to his chest.

Sato walked up to his friend and put his hand on Hikaru's shoulder.  "Let's leave Mrs. Saotome to work on the injury."  His friend didn't reply, but turned around to face Genma and Soun, and deliberately avoided looking at Ranko as she was still obviously smoldering over his leering at the stranger's bare chest.

Seeing that things were as well in hand as possible, Soun took control of the hangers-on.  "Okay everyone, let's get back to the dojo."  He was greeted by puzzled and, in a couple of cases, incredulous looks.  He continued despite the confusion, the commanding tone in his voice intensifying the more he talked.  "We can't do anything to help Nodoka or Kasumi.  They're doing just fine without all the extra attention.  When the doctor arrives, he'll not need us getting in the way.  There's still a lot of work to be done, so let's get back to it!"  He clapped his hands and started off in the direction of the dojo.

Slowly the group moved to follow.  "Son, don't take any risks with that girl.  If she wakes up, make sure you get our attention.  Don't try to fight her alone," Genma called over his shoulder as he followed the rest to the dojo.

"Don't worry, Pop.  I will."

Ranko moved to follow the rest of the group and was three steps into her march when Nodoka called out to her.  "And where do you think you're going, young lady?"

'Man!  She never even looked at me!' she groused.  "I'm going back to work, Mom.  Didn't you hear Mr. Tendo?"

"I heard him just fine, little girl," Nodoka replied tartly.  "And don't take that tone with me!  You shouldn't be overdoing it with your injuries!  I want you to take it easy on that ankle.  Now sit here with me until the doctor arrives."

"But what if that girl decides to get dangerous again, Mom?" Ranko countered.

"Then your brother will have to make sure we don't get hurt," Nodoka parried.

Resigned to staying put, Ranko sat down on the ground beside her brother and glared at Shampoo.  'Man!  I can see why Ranma thought that floozy was such a pain in the ass.  She's not said a word to anyone yet and she's still managing to piss me off!'

Ranma knelt down and put his hand on his sister's back.  He could feel the anger pulsing through her, and knew that she was a lot more upset than she was letting on.  "You okay in there, Sis?" he whispered, kneeling next to her.

"Yeah, bro.  I'm fine.  Just ticked at Hikaru is all."  She let her breath out in a long sigh, trying to will some of the tension from her muscles.  "He shouldn't have been staring at her like that!"

"Trust me, Sis.  You don't have anything to get angry about.  She would never go for someone like him, anyway."

Ranko snorted at that.  "He's just an idiot, that's all.  Hikaru knows it bugs me when he stares at other girls.  He's doing it just to tease me."

"Well, in that case I hope he keeps his insurance paid up."  Ranma chuckled and tickled Ranko on the back of her neck.  "You looked like you were about to make sukiyaki out of him a minute ago."

Ranko smiled despite her foul mood.  "Yeah, I wanted to practice my joint-dislocation techniques on him.  If I'd been in shape then he wouldn't have been able to stare at her twice."  She looked at Shampoo as her mother and Kasumi continued to fret over her.  "I bet they're fake," Ranko added with a slight tinge of jealousy.

"What do you . Oh, I see.  Sorry to tell you this, but those things are real," he whispered back.

Ranko looked at him strangely for a moment, then her eyes widened.  "How do you know that... Hey! You and she didn't. you know?" she hissed.

Ranma shook his head vigorously.  "Trust me on this one.  There's nothing fake about her body.  You have to keep in mind that she's an Amazon," he reminded his sister.

"An Amazon!?" Nodoka shouted, startling both of her children and Kasumi in the process.

'Awww, shit!  She could hear us!' Ranma thought as he scrambled for a quick explanation.  "Uhhh. well - yeah!  I mean, look at her!  She's built like one of those Amazons from the movies!"

Nodoka blew her breath out in a whoosh.  "Whew!  That's a relief!  For a moment there I thought you were going to say-"  She stopped herself as she considered something.  "Well, that's not important now."  She turned back to Shampoo and reapplied pressure to the bandage covering the cut on the Amazon's head, missing the puzzled look on Ranko's face and the sigh of extreme gratitude from Ranma.

"I hope that Doctor Tofu gets here soon.  This girl's soaked three rags so far, and she's still bleeding," Kasumi said, interrupting Ranko before she could ask what her mother had been so upset about.

"Ah, Ranma!  Where's my dad?" Akane asked as she trotted over to him.  "I figured everyone would still be over here watching our . party crasher."

"Our dads both thought that there were too many people standing around," Ranma replied.  "So they decided to go back to the dojo and return to work.  I volunteered to stay behind in case something happened here."

"Yeah, and I was *told* to stay here," Ranko pouted.  She frowned when her mother didn't take the bait.

"You can stay with us if you like, Akane," Ranma added, ignoring his sister's outburst.

She smiled at him, stepping just a little bit closer.  "I'd better check on everyone else, first.  If they need help, then I'll probably work in the dojo."  She turned to leave.

Ranma was about to reply when Kasumi interjected.  "Akane, how's Nabiki doing?"

"Oh, she's fine.  I took her to her room and she went to sleep right then."  Akane shuddered at thinking about what could've run through her middle sister's head when that stranger burst onto the scene.  "I'd say she's entitled to a rest."

"Okay, thanks Akane.  I'll be checking on Nabiki as soon as Dr. Tofu arrives."  Kasumi smiled to her youngest sister, and then resumed her duty of trying to clean off as much of Shampoo's body as she could.  Akane nodded, then turned and dashed for the dojo.

Kasumi's last words sparked a latent feeling of concern in Ranma.  Despite how much trouble Shampoo had caused him just now, he didn't want her to suffer at the hands of Tofu while Kasumi distracted him.  He had images of a bleeding pretzel with purple hair and felt some sympathy for the girl.  'I need to get Kasumi out of here before he arrives,' Ranma thought urgently.

At that moment, the smiling face of Dr. Tofu appeared in the distance.

****
 

Once inside the dojo, Sato objected.  "I don't think that someone as dangerous as that girl should be given much treatment or sympathy.  She's obviously a risk, Tendo-sensei.  Has anyone thought to call the police?"

"I don't think that the police are necessary at this time.  We've got things under control here for now," Soun said confidently.

'You wouldn't be saying that if you'd seen what she did to your wall,' Sato thought, although he didn't say anything further.

"Well, now that we're dealing with fewer people, I think we should concentrate on getting the wall boards replaced.  We'll take a break in an hour and see how things are going at the pond."  Soun looked at Hikaru and Sato.  "You two take your hammers and pound out the boards that I marked earlier.  Mr. Saotome-"  He stopped as Akane walked in.  "Everything okay, Akane?"

She nodded.  "Mrs. Saotome and Kasumi are handling things.  Nabiki's asleep, so I thought I'd come here to see if you guys needed any help."

"Ah, good!  Akane, you and Saotome can join me outside to put the new wall boards up,"  Soun suggested as he picked up his toolbelt from where it had landed on the floor.  Akane and Genma followed him out of the building, grabbed some planks and headed to the first repair spot.

As soon as they were alone Hikaru dropped his hammer.  "What kind of person works when his house has been bombed?" he groused, eyeing the door hopefully.

"And what do you think you can do for that girl, dweeb?" Sato shot back, easily seeing what Hikaru was getting at.  "The only thing that you were doing before was making a huge puddle of drool at your feet and I don't think that helps unconscious people much."

Hikaru glared at him.  "Don't be a smartass, Sato.  I coulda died falling out of the rafters earlier so I think that I'm entitled to a little bit of complaining."  He winked slyly.  "Besides, you can't deny that she was one of the most beautiful women *either* of us will ever see in our lives, dude.  I mean, think about it this way.  Would you rather swing a hammer or pay your respects to that goddess out there?"

Sato had to admit that the girl was definitely a looker.  Excepting for the peeks he took at his dad's Playboy collection, he'd never even seen a girl's breast before.  The stranger at the pond had plenty of breast to spare, and it wasn't just on paper either.  Still, he couldn't shake the sense of danger that he got from her.  "Hikaru, start thinking with the head on your shoulders!  That beauty out there knocked a hole in the boundary wall big enough to push a car through.  AND SHE DID IT WITHOUT ANY KIND OF WEAPONS!  Good looks or not, she's not someone I'd drool over.  She's too dangerous!"

Hikaru sighed impatiently.  "You're no fun, man!  Honestly, she looks like she'd be a tornado between the sheets.  In fact, I bet that if you treat her right she'd be all yours."  He smirked wickedly and elbowed Sato in the ribs.  "She's a natural purple, too!"

"You saw that much?!" Sato asked, incredulous.  He caught himself before he could ask more, knowing that it would only lead to a more lascivious description of not only the girl, but what Hikaru would like to do to various parts of her.  "Nevermi-"

He was interrupted by a shout from the other side of the wall.  "Are you two alive in there?  We need to get these boards up!" Genma's voice bellowed.

"Sorry, Sensei," Sato said, picking his hammer up and pounding away at the first of many boards.

"Sensei?" Hikaru mocked in a whisper.  "What's going on with you, man?  You caught the Chop- suey bug from Ranma, now?"

Sato glowered at Hikaru.  "Just pick up your hammer and help me knock these boards out.  The sooner you start, the sooner we're done."

"Whatever," Hikaru shrugged, bringing his own hammer to bear on the damaged wall planking.  'I'm gonna have to talk to Ranma when we get a chance.  The crap with Kuno and Kinuko was bad enough.  Now we've got this disaster and Ranko's bad attitude towards that babe.  Plus Sato seems to be going gaga over martial arts crap.  It's all due to Ranma.  It's like he's become a bad-karma magnet...'

"Boys, when you get finished with knocking the boards out, you can resume working on the floor," Soun called from the other side.

"Awww, man!" the two chorused to a background of muffled laughter.

****
 

"Umm, Kasumi.  I think you've run out of rags, there," Ranma pointed out, hoping to get her the hell out of the way before Tofu and she saw each other.

"Goodness, you're right!  I'd better go get some more."  Kasumi beckoned Ranma to kneel next to her.  "Keep on rubbing this spot here, gently, until I return."  She took Ranma's free hand and nearly yanked him to a kneeling position.  She placed his hand on the rag that she'd just been using to cleanse Shampoo's stomach.

"Umm, I... Err... " he spluttered as Kasumi stood up and dashed for the house, quickly adding a "Thank you" over her shoulder.

His hand trembled slightly.  'If I was touching the other Shampoo this way, she'd be all over me!' Ranma gulped.  Shampoo's entire torso was exposed once more now that prying eyes weren't drooling over her immaculate shape.  His discomfort was palpable, and his mother noticed.

"Ranma, dear.  You don't have to do that if it makes you uncomfortable.  She'll be fine if you want to stop for a moment," Nodoka offered helpfully.

"It's not a problem, Mom," Ranma replied automatically.  "I can handle it."  He rubbed around Shampoo's navel to prove his point.  "She's smelling a lot better, so it's worth it."

Nodoka laughed out loud.  "I guess you're right, son.  Still, you look a little green.  You sure you can handle looking at her?  I'd understand if you wanted to walk away."

"Nonono.  I'll stay," he said firmly.  His libido was communicating one thing to him rather clearly while his old preservationist tendencies were saying something quite the opposite.  The combination was making him quite tense.

"Ahh, hello there!" Dr. Tofu's voice issued as he finally reached the small group.

'Thank God!' Ranma thought jubilantly, his features relaxing quite visibly.  He didn't notice his mother smirking at him before she turned to greet the newcomer.

"Oh!  Good afternoon, Dr. Tofu," Ranko greeted, standing with the assistance of her mother's shoulder.  "We've had a busy day here," she said with a wan smile.

"So you're Dr. Tofu?  I'm glad to meet you.  I'm Nodoka Saotome, Ranma and Ranko's mother."  She bowed to Dr. Tofu, smiling as warmly as she could.  "We've got a stranger here with an open wound on her head."

Tofu saw the number of blood-soaked rags laying at Nodoka's knees and 'hmmm'ed thoughtfully.  "What caused the injury?"

"It's a long story, Doctor," Nodoka said with some measure of apology.  "Basically she had a toolbelt fall on her head."

"Ouch!" Tofu winced, then knelt beside Nodoka.  "Has she awakened or said anything since the injury?"

"Not yet," Ranma replied.  He lifted the rag from Shampoo's navel and tossed it in a pile of used rags.  "She hasn't said a word at all.  Not even when she stomped in here an hour or so ago.  No one knows why she's here or what she wants."  'And she'd better not say or do anything to ruin my wish,' he added to himself.

"Well, you and your mother seem to have done a good job of keeping this girl from bleeding out," Tofu complimented.  "Interesting... she looks Chinese.  Was there anything to identify her?"

Ranko shook her head.  "The only thing she's brought with her is confusion and a very big stink," she said with a gleam in her eye.

Nodoka shot her a stern look.  "What my daughter is trying to say is that this young lady apparently hasn't bathed in a couple of weeks.  We've been spending most of the time cleaning her off as much as possible.  She smells a lot better than she did."

Ranma and Ranko nodded their agreement.  "Yeah, Dr. Tofu.  She was really stinky," Ranko opined with a smirk.

Tofu turned to look at Ranko.  "And how are you doing today, Ranko?  I see you're not staying off of that ankle like I told you."  Ranko was taken aback by the sudden change in focus, leaving her speechless.

Nodoka sighed.  "My daughter is very headstrong.  She wanted to help with the repair work that is going on in the dojo.  I told her not to overdo things, but she insisted.  She can be very difficult when she doesn't get her way."  Ranko stifled an indignant retort, but couldn't keep from flushing with embarrassment.

"You've been exerting yourself, Ranko?" Tofu chided softly.  "Frankly, you should be laying down and doing absolutely nothing.  If you don't follow the regimen that I prescribed, your ankle will take a lot longer to heal."

Ranko's eyes widened, and Ranma shot an "I told you so" look in her direction.  "I'm sorry, Doctor.  I didn't mean to make you angry."

"I'm not angry, Ranko.  You're the one who has to live with the pain, not me.  I'm just trying to help you get well as quickly as possible."  He said with a warm smile and then looked at his watch as something occurred to him.  "When did you have your last herbal bath?"

Not wanting to deal with her daughter's prevarication any longer, Nodoka answered for her.  "Around eight this morning."

"Then you're due for another one now," Tofu suggested.  "Especially in light of the fact that you've been exerting yourself.  If you take a bath and relax for the rest of the day, you'll be doing yourself a big favor."

Ranko thought to protest one last time then resigned herself to the inevitable.  "Okay, I guess I'll take a bath as soon as I get home."  She hoped the evasion would work.

Nodoka cleared her throat.  "Ranko, I think it's best that you go get your father and have him carry you home now, and then you take a bath as soon as you get there."

Ranko growled in frustration, her instinct to protest was overridden by her common sense.  She saw that she was outnumbered, with her brother siding with her mom and Dr. Tofu.  "Okay, okay!  I'll go."

"Mrs. Saotome, you said that Mr. Tendo was working on some repairs today.  Does that include putting another egress in the boundary wall?" Tofu asked.

"She caused that," Ranma interjected, pointing to Shampoo.  "That's why I've been here with Mom and Ranko.  This girl could be a problem."

Tofu whistled, surprised.  "I understand now, Ranma.  You can go with your sister if you like.  I can handle things here.  You don't have to worry."  He turned to regard Nodoka again.  "You've been doing a masterful job of keeping her stable, Mrs. Saotome.  But I think we need to get her out of the sun and stitch her up."  His face lost some of its humor as he continued.  "There's also a chance that she's got a concussion, so we need to keep a close eye on her in case I have to rush her out of here."

Nodoka agreed and swapped places with Tofu, groaning as she stood up.  "Ouch!  I was on my knees longer than I should've been."  She stretched and stepped back a bit as Tofu moved to stand over Shampoo and examine her thoroughly.

Ranma grabbed his mother's arm and pulled her back a couple of steps.  "Mom, I'll help Ranko get over to the dojo."  He lowered his voice.  "Also, you need to keep Tofu and Kasumi apart.  Don't even mention her name to him.  He tends to get ... distracted whenever she's seen or talked about."  She started to ask him questions, but he held up his hand.  "Trust me, Mom.  I saw how he acted yesterday when Mr. Tendo talked about her in front of him."  'Accurate to a point' he thought.

"I -  Okay, Ranma.  It sounds strange, but I'll keep it in mind."  She pecked her son on the cheek and took her sword back.  "And thanks for watching out for Ranko.  I appreciate it, Ranma."

"No prob," he said before standing next to his sister.  "I'll see that she gets home safe."  With that, Nodoka followed Tofu as he headed towards the back door of the house.  'I hope that Kasumi and Tofu don't cross paths.'  He winced at the thought.  'I'll have to trust Mom to run interference.'

Ranko looked to her brother as his hand slid across her back and curled around her waist.  "Shall we go?" Ranma offered as he tugged her in the direction of the dojo.

"Do we hafta go, Ranma?" she complained, walking as slowly as she possibly could.  "I think that Dr. Tofu's overreacting."

"Ranko, please don't argue.  Mom told you to go home, the Doctor said it would be best, *and* you already agreed to go."  He looked her in the eyes and pinched her nose gently.  "You wouldn't go back on your word, would ya Sis?"

"No," she relented.  "I just think I'm wasting my time, is all."  She picked up a small stone and threw it at the distant boundary wall.  It pinged away, landing somewhere in a nearby plant bed.  "Besides, as worried as you were about how things would go today, I thought that you'd need someone to stay with you in case you needed help."

Ranma smiled at that and hugged his sister to his side.  "Thanks, Sis.  I'm glad you're concerned and all, but I don't think that much else will happen today.  Besides, I don't fear Shampoo.  I'm not scared of her, just mad.  The sooner she leaves, the better."  He stopped walking for a moment.  "I've been thinking about her since we got out to the pond.  The only thing she can do is try to marry me again.  If she does that, I'll just say no."

"But what if she doesn't take 'no' for an answer?"

"She'll have to, because it's the only answer I have for her," Ranma said firmly.

"Okay, Ranma," she said, not quite convinced that he'd be okay but accepting that he wasn't going to allow her to stay behind.  "Hey, I've got an idea!"

"What's that, Sis?"

"Why don't you just take me home by yourself?  We don't have to bother Pop with it.  Besides, if I was going to get a bathing partner, I'd much rather it be you than him."  'And you'll be safer at home than you would be here,' she kept to herself.

Ranma swallowed nervously as a rather nice yet lengthy scene involving both of them played out in his mind.  'That would be a pretty careless move on my part,' he thought.  The fantasy teased at the edges of his mind, the realism of it hard to resist.  "I dunno Ranko.  You think we'd be able to get away with just bathing?" he chanced asking.

"Oh, you have something more fun in mind?" Ranko purred.  She giggled as Ranma turned a deep shade of red.  "I understand that martial artists have good hands.  Wanna help me find out if that's true or not, bro?"

"Ranko!" Ranma shouted, embarrassed.  "I already toldja that I can't act like that with you!"

Meanwhile, Ranko was nearly doubled-over with laughter.  "You're cute when you're being teased, Ranma," she taunted.  She could see the steam escaping from his ears and relented.  "I'm kidding!"  She tiptoed on her good foot and kissed him soundly on the cheek.  "I'd never put you in a situation like that..."

Ranma sighed relief and resumed walking.  "Thanks, Sis."

"...unless you tell me that you want to be put in a situation like that," Ranko added with a sly wink.

****
 

"Nonono!  You've got it backwards, again!" Soun complained as he stepped ahead of Genma and Akane and poked his head through a recently created gap in the wall.  "Hikaru and Sato!  Both of you need to be keeping your eyes on the mark.  That's the second *good* board that you've knocked off of the building so-far!"

"Sorry Tendo-Sensei," a chastened Sato could be heard from the opposite side of the wallboards.

"But there are so many with marks on them, Mr. Tendo," Hikaru added by way of explanation.  "We started assuming that all of the ones in this group had to come down."

"That's why it's bad to assume, young man," Soun retorted, his patience with the boy starting to wear a bit.  "Please pay attention and only knock out the marked boards."  He hmmphed and returned to tacking on a piece of siding, ignoring the smirks from Genma and Akane as they worked ahead of him.

Work progressed for another few boards when the Saotome siblings suddenly appeared from around the corner.  "Wow, you guys got quite a bit of work done," Ranma commented as he and his sister came to a halt next to Akane and Genma.

Soun flushed with pride.  "Yes, she's really starting to shape up, isn't she Ranma?"

"Yes it is, Mr. Tendo."  Ranma turned to his father.  "Pop, Ranko needs an escort back to the house and Mom thought that you could take her."

"Oh, why are you leaving Ranko?" Akane asked, interrupting.

Ranko held up a packet of herbs that Dr. Tofu had handed her before she left for the dojo.  "I have to soak in a bath with this stuff every few hours.  It's part of my treatment for the injuries I got yesterday."  She looked to her dad sheepishly.  "I'm supposed to be carried home so that I can have my next bath."

"You don't have to leave!" Akane offered.  She put her hammer on the ground and took the packet from Ranko's hands before she could object.  "You can bathe here if you like."

Ranko smiled broadly at the idea.  "Hey!  Yeah, that's a great idea, Akane!"  She looked to her father and Soun.  "Is that okay with you, Pop?"

Genma shrugged.  "If Mr. Tendo says it's okay then I don't mind."

Soun was then besieged by a couple of girls saying "Pleeeeeeeeeease!" and otherwise acting very cute.  "I don't mind," he said after a minute's worth of listening to their begging.  "Just make sure that Ranko stays safe, Akane."

"I will, Daddy," she promised.  "Lets go, Ranko!"  Akane unhooked her toolbelt and dropped it on the ground.  She grabbed Ranko by the hand, tugging her from her brother's embrace as they left for the house.

Ranma watched as the whirlwind of girls swept past him.  He resisted the urge to shake his head at their blatant manipulation.  He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Soun regarding him sternly.

"Why are you here, Ranma?  Shouldn't you be watching that girl?" he asked urgently.

"Everything's okay, Mr. Tendo.  Dr. Tofu got here a little while ago and said that he could take care of things.  He and Mom both told me to bring Ranko here, so I did."

Soun relaxed and let go of Ranma's shoulder.  "How are things with that girl anyway, Son?" Genma asked.

"Mom was still cleaning Sh. the girl off when we left, and Dr. Tofu was examining the girl's head.  He looked like he was about to work on the cut," he guessed.

Soun nodded.  "Has she regained consciousness yet, Ranma?" he asked.

"Not yet, Mr. Tendo.  I'm sure that Dr. Tofu will let us know if she does.  He says that he could handle things, so I wouldn't worry."

"I agree.  He's a capable young man," the elder Tendo said.

Meanwhile Genma handed Akane's toolbelt to Ranma.  "Since you're here, you might as well get to work."  He smirked at his son and pointed to the piece of siding that he and Akane had been working on prior to the interruption.

"Saotome, it seems like now is a good time for the two of us to take a break.  Why don't you show me what that girl did to the boundary wall while Ranma and his friends finish up on this side of the dojo?"

"Excellent idea, Tendo.  My arms were starting to get sore, anyway."  Genma dropped his toolbelt on the ground and led the way.

"Son, make sure that your friends are knocking the right boards off of the framing.  We don't need them scrapping good pieces of siding."  Ranma nodded to his father while strapping Akane's tool belt to his waist.

"You better brace yourself, Tendo.  There's a bit more damage than you'd be expecting," Genma warned his friend.

Soun gave him a quizzical look, but kept silent.  Soon the two were out of sight and Ranma was left with five holes in the wall and the distant sound of hammers pounding on wood.

Suddenly a piece of siding flew away and Sato fell forward, his head poking through the new hole.  "Ow, you dickhead!" he yelled.

"Sorry, Sato," Hikaru could be heard to yell from behind.  "I guess I put a little too much oomph into that last swing.  Didn't mean to push you like that."

Ranma shook his head and tacked two more nails into the piece of siding his father had indicated.  'These guys are supposed to be my best friends?' he asked himself.

"Hey Ranma!" Sato said with a wave of his hand through the opening in the wall.  "Everything okay now?"

Ranma nodded in response.  "Yeah, everything's cool now,... Sato."  'Geez!  Gotta remember his name!'

Hikaru poked his head through the hole just above Sato.  "Hey, Ran-man!  How's it hangin'?  We didn't get much of a chance to talk before because someone -"  He pointed at Sato's head.  "- wanted to do some dojo-improvement.  Personally, I think he's crazy."

"Hey, doofus!  I'm not the one lusting after a demolition machine with big tits and Barney-colored hair!  *That's* crazy!" Sato shot back with an evil smirk.  He moved just enough to avoid a lazy swipe at his head.

Meanwhile, Ranma stared oddly at Gosunkugi.  This boy was completely different from the one that had bothered him in his 'other life.'  Hikaru was confident, talkative, a little cocky, and he also didn't look like he was preparing to do anything weird.  "Yeah, well we all have our own little quirks, Gos."

Hikaru frowned.  "Ranma, you know I *hate* being called that."

'Oops!'  "Hey!  I was just kidding," Ranma replied as casually as he could.

"Yeah, well I still don't like it."

"Sorry, Hikaru," Ranma replied.  'Something else that I've got to remember now.'

"We still on for tomorrow, Ran-man?"

"Eh?  Whattaya mean?"

"The Sunday Attic festival, man!  We were planning a Urotsukidoji marathon after I got back from band camp, remember?" Hikaru said with a wink.  Sato nodded with a smirk.

"Err...  Well, I don't know if ..."

"Heh, I was just kidding, Ran-man.  I know that stuff makes you queasy.  Sato said that he was going to bring his Lodoss Wars box set with him.  I figure that we can spend the whole night watching that.  Whattaya think?"

"Well, that all depends..."

"Aw, c'mon man!  We've got a lot of catching up to do.  We've been gone for two weeks.  I need a good dose of anime and relaxation."

"Yeah!" Sato cheered, trying to get his friend in the mood.

"I guess..."

"Good!  It's settled, then!  We'll be at your place tomorrow afternoon.  Now let's get this wall finished before your dad gets back," Hikaru said with a triumphant grin.

Ranma nodded numbly and said nothing.  He picked up a piece of siding and focus-nailed it into place.  'What the hell is "Urotsukidoji" anyway?' he wondered

Meanwhile, inside the dojo Hikaru was smiling.  "I guess our friend's not as out of it as we thought, Sato.  At least he's still into the same old stuff."  He clapped his friend on the back.  'If I can find out more about that girl, then this'll be a *really* good day,' he added to himself.

****
 

"NO DON'T!" Nabiki shouted in a hoarse voice, jerking awake.  Her panicked eyes darted about as she tried to figure out where she was.  The dusk light of a setting sun cast a warm amber tone in her bedroom.  'Shit!  I'm in my room.  How did I get here?' she asked herself as she caught her breath.  She brought a trembling hand to her brow and mopped cold sweat from it.

'What happened to me?' she asked, trying to assert control over her nerves.  Sketchy details of what happened to her after the explosion at the boundary wall began to trickle into her memory.  'That guy.' she concentrated on his face, searching for his name, 'Sato.  He saved me from that *thing* that attacked us.'  The effects of her adrenaline overdose started to fade which allowed her a chance to think.

'I'm in my room, so I guess that we won against it, whatever it was,' she thought as she peered out her window.  She didn't see any activity in the direction of the dojo, and digested what she could of the situation.  'I don't hear any screaming, yelling, fighting or explosions.  I don't see any smoke or, thank goodness, blood.'  She walked to her door, the process being made more difficult due to the shakiness of her legs.  'Dammit!  I'm okay now!  I don't need to be this . scared.'

Taking a couple of deep breaths, and steadying herself against the wall, she opened her door just in time to hear footsteps in her direction.  Her immediate impulse was to dive for the covers and hide, but before her flight response could take hold, she heard her sister talking to someone else.  Nabiki paused with the door cracked, listening as the footsteps approached.

"You didn't have to follow me up here, Ranko.  I was just going to get something for me to wear after the bath.  I would've been right back downstairs."

'Ranko?  Bathing here?  What have I missed?' Nabiki asked, curiosity doing a better job of killing of her case of nerves than anything else had.

"I was just curious to see what your room was like, Akane.  That's all," the younger Saotome replied in a warm voice.

'Well, things MUST be okay if they're talking like that.  After all, who bathes during a brawl, anyway?'  Nabiki concluded.

"I don't mind you looking in my room, Ranko, but what about that ankle?  Climbing the stairs has got to be painful!" Akane scolded, though not unkindly.

Nabiki strained to hear, edging the door open a little more.  The two girls were making their way back downstairs towards the bath.  Despite her efforts though, their voices were soon difficult to discern.  The attack on them starting to become less of a traumatic memory, Nabiki's mind started to recall the offer that Kuno had made to her, and the promise she'd made to herself on Ranko's behalf. 'The only way I'm going to hear them is to go into the bath,' she concluded.  'But if I'm in there, they won't be as willing to talk about things.  After all, they sound like they're already good friends.  I'd just get in the way.'  She kicked her impaired scheming mind into gear, trying to formulate a good way to get what she wanted.  Nothing was coming to mind, short of sitting in the hallway outside the bathroom door and listening.

'Well, I can't think of any other way to do it, and I'm too tired to try rigging a recorder or something like that.'  She opened the door to her room fully and stepped into the hallway, making her way down the stairs with hands firmly planted on the rails.  As her feet touched the landing, she glanced towards the door with more than mild trepidation.  'I'm definitely not going outside to listen from the window.'  With that she made for the bathroom door, hearing the inner door to the change room close just as she stepped up to the outer door.  Sliding it open, she could hear the splashing of water as the girls scrubbed down in preparation for the bath.

Minding the "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging from the handle of the inner door, she carefully slid the door open a little and espied the two sitting on stools while Akane helped Ranko with the scrubbing.  Ranko, from what Nabiki could tell, had taken one hell of a beating.  At first she'd thought that the psycho who blasted the wall had done it to her until Akane spoke.

"Ranko, I'm sorry that those Kendo club idiots did this to you," she said while eyeing the myriad of bruises, cuts and scratches.  "It's all my fault."

Ranko put a hand on Akane's and turned to look her in the eyes.  "Hey, it's not your fault that they're a bunch of assholes whose Budo means nothing to them.  If they'd really been Kendoists, they would've let Kuno get back at my brother on his own."  She squeezed Akane's hand warmly and stood with a bit of effort.  "I don't want you to blame yourself for what happened to me.  They tried to attack my brother, and they also tried to attack you.  If the same thing was to happen again, I'd do the same thing."

"But, Ranko!  It *is* my fault.  If Kuno-"  She stopped as Ranko grabbed both of her shoulders firmly to support herself as she stood on her one good foot as well as to get Akane's attention.

"Akane, please!  It's in the past, now.  I wouldn't have done it any other way."  Ranko slipped her arms around Akane's waist and hugged her close.  "Please, Akane.  Don't get upset over this anymore.  My brother risked everything to defeat Kuno because he's very interested in you.  I think he made the right decis-"  She paused as she realized what she just said.  'Oh boy!  Way to go Miss Take-My-Good-Foot- and-Stick-It-In-My-Mouth Saotome!'

Akane started as the words sank in, and the reciprocal hug that she'd been giving Ranko turned into a vise-like press against the hapless girl's ribs.  "You mean it?!  Really?" she asked, her somber mood now banished and shock taking over for the n'th time that day.  The news, while not unexpected, still jarred her. "Akane.  Air. please!"  Ranko gasped.

Akane quickly relented and Ranko sagged into her arms while her chin rested against the young Tendo's shoulder.  "Sorry, Ranko.  That had to hurt."

"Well, I really shouldn't have said anything," Ranko replied sheepishly.  "I promised him I wouldn't tell, but looks like I slipped up."

"Oh, I won't tell him you told me, Ranko!  I promise!" Akane replied, stepping back from Ranko and crossing her chest at her left breast with her finger in a vow of silence.  Stepping back had allowed her a renewed look at Ranko's patchwork of injuries and a small amount of guilt wound its way into her heart.  "After all that you've done for me, I wouldn't dare tell Ranma that you told me how he felt.  A-. and I still feel responsible for all of those.  Especially that one," she said as she pointed to the angry bruise on Ranko's breast.  "There's gotta be something I can do for you."

Ranko sighed in exasperation.  "Okay, well if you feel that you want to do something for me, why don't you help me get my hair untangled and wash it?  That would do wonders for me."

"Okay!" Akane said with full enthusiasm as she guided Ranko to a stool and helped her to sit.  Shampoo at the ready, she lathered her hands and then began attacking her new friend's scalp.  After a few minutes of silence, during which time Ranko was in complete bliss, Akane's curiosity got the better of her.  Much to Nabiki's delight, she started asking questions.

"So, Ranko, now that you know I won't tell Ranma anything, you think you can tell me what your brother thinks of me?"

Ranko smiled and tried to respond, but Akane's massage was too heavenly for her to concentrate.  "Umm, well, Akane." she began

"I mean, I know what Kinuko said about Ranma and her still being together, but it didn't look like he was interested in her anymore," Akane pressed.  She stopped scrubbing Ranko's head for a moment.  "They're not still going steady, are they Ranko?"

Ranko coughed nervously at the mention of Kinuko Amagi.  The ditz was making her brother's life miserable, and seemed to be working her nasty spell on Akane as well.  "You shouldn't worry about Kinuko, Akane.  That psycho-bitch isn't seeing him anymore.  I can guarantee you that he's not interested in her.  She only said what she did because of what Ranma did to Kuno."

From the changing room, Nabiki started making mental notes, cursing herself for not bringing her notebook with her.  As frazzled as her nerves were at the moment, she couldn't trust her memory to reliably commit everything she'd heard thus far.  Still, despite the extreme commotion she'd been through, what she was learning now was starting to make up for the inconvenience of almost being killed.

"So you don't have anything to worry about, see?" Ranko said positively.  "In fact, as crazy as she is, I suggest that you ignore anything she says to you about herself or Ranma.  She's one of those who tries anything to cling to someone even after being dumped."

Akane nodded and put a smile on her face, then attacked Ranko's long hair anew.  "That's good to know.  I try to ignore Kinuko, but she always manages to get under my skin.  I don't know why, but ever since Kuno and I got together that little freak has always been after me.  There were a few times where I wanted to beat the crap out of her, but was trying to be 'lady like' for Kuno."

Ranko could feel the mood in the room begin to shift towards anger, and debated changing the subject.  "Akane, you don't have to tell me about-"

"But I think it's something you need to know, Ranko.  After all, you should know why you were defending me at school yesterday in the first place."

"Akane, I hate to disappoint you, but a lot of people at school have known all about how Kuno treated you."  Ranko felt Akane jump in shock behind her and quickly added, "We weren't talking about you to be mean, Akane.  The girls were only repeating rumors being told by the guys in the Kendo club, and you can guess how those guys found out about your relationship with Kuno."

Akane growled.  "It wasn't a relationship, Ranko.  It was servitude."

"I'm sorry, Akane.  I didn't mean to upset you.  I just wanted to let you know that I already knew what Kuno did to you, and that he damn well deserved the ass kicking that my brother gave him."  Ranko turned her head and winked at Akane.  "And the Kendo club got what they deserved as well, don't'cha think?"

Akane nodded, but concern still showed on her face.  "I didn't know about the Kendo goons talking about me, but it doesn't surprise me.  I was just thinking, though.  You said that Kinuko would do anything to get Ranma back because she clings, right?"

"Yeah," Ranko responded, wondering what Akane was getting at.

"Well, Kuno's the same way.  I just know that he's not going to give up on me because he lost a fight to Ranma.  He'd try anything to get revenge, and."

"What is it, Akane?" Ranko pressed.

"I was thinking that Kuno may have been behind the girl who blasted her way into my home."

"I hadn't thought of that!" Ranko shouted.

The sentiment had been echoed by Nabiki, although not aloud.  'Kuno is obsessive, but he's not that organized.  Besides, I would've known in advance if he'd tried to coordinate something like that.  Still, a girl did all that damage?  Better chance Kodachi did this, then.'  Her thoughts grew angry.  'If she is behind this, I'll make a mockery of the Kuno name in school before siccing daddy and Ranma on her and her brother.'

"Akane, if the 'Blue Wind of Furinkan High' -"

"That's 'Blue Thunder'," Akane automatically corrected.

"You have your description of him, I have mine," Ranko said slyly, snickering.

"Ah, I see.  In that case he's the 'SOB of Furinkan High," Akane amended, snickering as well.

"That's the spirit, Akane!  Anyway, if that dummy was stupid enough to hire a hit-girl to take out anyone in my family or yours, then he's going to suffer a lot.  Ranma was holding back against Kuno in that fight, and if it turns out that you're right about him doing that, then Ranma, myself, my dad and your dad will each take turns ripping Kuno's head off and shoving it up his-"

"I get the idea, Ranko," Akane said, smirking.  "And you can count me in on that, too.  I wouldn't want to miss out on giving him pain for everything he gave me."  Akane gave a hearty sigh.  "Still, I'm not worried about that girl now that your brother is here to protect us.  Besides, I'm sure she's still out after what my dad did to her."

'What daddy did to her.' Nabiki repeated.  'What did he do to her?'  She closed her eyes and concentrated, recalling being in Sato's arms somewhere and hearing him tell her that everything was okay.  'I wish I could remember everything that happened.'

"Speaking of Ranma, Ranko," Akane said, turning the course of the conversation.

"I don't mind, Akane.  He's one of my favorite topics, too," she said with a wink, causing a deep blush to consume Akane's soapy body.  "Hey, I'm teasing, Akane.  Lighten up!" she said, playfully reaching around and popping Akane on the butt.

Akane laughed, then squealed as Ranko's hand made a light, stinging contact with her bare behind.  "I'll get you for that!" she said, returning the favor by dumping a big bucket of cold water over Ranko's head.

"C-C-C-COLD!" Ranko shrieked, hugging her arms around herself as the last remnants of soap and shampoo cascaded down the flanks of her body to land in big droplets on the floor.  "That was mean, Akane-ch-chan!"  Despite that, she giggled.

"Now we're even, Ranko."  Akane winked and then doused herself with another bucket of water to cleanse the soap from her body.  "Let's get in the tub before we get too warm," she added, teeth chattering.

"The medicine's already in there?" Ranko asked as she stood with Akane's help.  Akane nodded as she stepped forward into the tub then helped Ranko in.  Both exhaled as the warm water assailed their senses, bring relaxing waves of comfort to their tired muscles. "You and Ranma are close, aren't you, Ranko?" "Yeah.  We're a lot closer than we used to be, Akane.  I love him, and he loves me.  There's almost nothing that we wouldn't do for each other.  You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, Ranko.  I do." Akane replied.  "Nabiki and Kasumi have both been wonderful to me.  And I'll gladly return the favor if either of them need it."

"Who else are you close to, Ranko?" Akane said with a sly voice.  "I've talked about your brother for awhile, but now I want to hear about you."

"I, uhh. Heheheheheh" she laughed nervously.  "You're right, Akane.  I guess I should be sharing, too."

'Yes, now for some solid intelligence!' Nabiki thought, believing that, despite her shakiness, her patience was now paying off.  However fate intervened in that moment as a hand landed delicately on her shoulder before Ranko could continue.  Nabiki jumped out of her clothes, and then decided that wasn't enough and jumped out of her skin, too.  "GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Kasumi jerked her hand back like she'd been shocked and she looked for the entire world as if she'd committed the worst of sins.  "Oh my!  I'm sorry, Nabiki.  I didn't mean to startle you!  Are you okay?"

Clutching her breast to keep her heart from escaping, Nabiki's lungs clawed for breath as she lay sprawled in a heap on the floor of the change room.  "I'M . DOING . BETTER . KASUMI" she bit out as her pulse slowed to subsonic speeds.  She gulped and was about to speak when the inner door flew open, startling Kasumi and scaring the bejeezus out of Nabiki all over again.

"Would you PLEASE stop doing that?" Nabiki ground out, glaring at the two naked girls who were staring at her curiously.

"What's going on?" Akane asked in alarm.  "Sounded like someone attacked you, Nabiki."

"That was my fault, Akane.  I surprised Nabiki when I walked into the change room."

Before she could be interrogated, Nabiki waved her hands to distract them.  "But I'm okay now, honest!  I'm just a little shaky after what happened.  Kasumi's not to blame.  I heard you talking, Akane, and wanted to know what had happened in the dojo.  I was about to come in and talk with both of you when Kasumi found me."  She breathed deep a couple of times, trying to weave her excuse ever tighter.  "I'm sorry for interrupting your bath, Ranko.  Akane."

"That's okay, sis," Akane replied.  "You look really tense.  I can understand why Kasumi could've scared you."

"I know what will help," Ranko suggested.  "She can join us in the bath and we can fill her in on what went on."

Nabiki's eyes got wide.  "I. umm, that is. "

"Oh, come on, Nabiki.  You're more than welcome!  You've got nothing to be ashamed of, right?" Ranko added with a playful wink.  "Besides, we're all girls here!"

Nabiki winced inwardly at being asked that particular question by Ranko Saotome, current target of a surreptitious investigation commissioned by Kuno, her sister's former betrothed.  Nevertheless, she relented.  "Okay.  I'll join you," she said, forcing a smile.

"Well, it seems that you're in good hands, sis," Kasumi said.  "Go ahead and give me your clothes and I'll leave a fresh change in here for you when you're done."  Nabiki nodded, stripping out of her clothes with a slight amount of modesty due to Ranko's presence.  'Not that I'm jealous of her body,' she thought to add.

Dumping a bucket or two of water on herself while the younger girls re-entered the hot bath, Nabiki followed with a slight amount of hissing in pain.  This being her second bath of the day, she didn't expect to stay in there long.  Besides, it was a tight fit with the other girls in there as well, and she wound up sitting on the opposite end with her legs separating Ranko and Akane.  Nabiki did her best to relax, and found the medicated water of the tub was helping her to do just that,

"Mmmmm, this DOES feel good.  Thanks for inviting me, Ranko," Nabiki said in a near-sigh.

"You're welcome, Nabiki.  I mean, after what you went through, I'm surprised you can walk at all," Ranko replied.

"Ugh!  Don't remind me," she said, shaking her head as more memories resurfaced unwanted.  "You guys are just lucky that I rinsed all that dust off of me before I got in the tub with you."

They all smiled lightly at that, then fell into companionable silence as the water worked its magic on them.  Then Nabiki snorted at something Ranko had said earlier.

"What?" Akane asked, curious.

"I was just wondering what daddy would say when he sees what happened to the boundary wall."

****
 

"Let me at her!" Soun thundered, squirming within the bear-hug restraint that Genma hastily slapped on his once-again friend.  "Let me go, Saotome!  I'm going to break every bone in that girl's body!"

'Ow, he's stronger than I remembered,' Genma thought with no small amount of pain, his arms straining to contain Soun's thrashing.  "Tendo, listen to... Stop moving for a minute, okay?" he yelled.  The thrashing diminished, but didn't stop.  "Killing her won't undo what she did."

"I don't care!  She deserves-" Soun shouted before being interrupted by Genma at full-blast.

"And after you kill that girl, what will happen to your daughters?  Are you so eager to abandon them because there's a hole in your wall?"

Soun went limp at that, going silent.  His recent revelations about how much he'd ignored his daughters were still fresh in his mind.  Saotome's words were true, and they struck him dead center in his heart.

After a few seconds of silence between the two, Genma felt it safe enough to release the Tendo Dojo's sensei.  "Thank you, Saotome."  He paused to catch his breath.  "That would've been a very foolish thing."  He looked at the breach in the boundary wall.  "Even still, you don't expect me to simply be calm about this and just accept it, do you?"

Genma smiled good-naturedly and clapped his hand on Soun's back.  "I don't blame you for being upset, Tendo.  I'd be very angry, too.  Fortunately, you've got a brilliant friend like me to help you see reason and keep you from doing something you'll regret later on," he said with a smirk.

Soun chuckled despite the devastated wall to his left.  "Your ego hasn't gotten any smaller since the last time we were together, Saotome."  He sighed again and kicked a chunk of broken wall away from him.  "Still..."  His words trailed off as commotion headed his way.

"Clear the way!  MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!"

He and Genma watched with open mouths as Dr. Tofu dodged around a stunned Ranma with Nodoka trailing directly behind him.  In his arms Tofu bore the cause of Soun's anger.

"What happened?" Genma yelled with concern as he broke away from Soun and ran directly to his wife.

"We were about to move her into the house and stitch up her head when she started convulsing," Nodoka replied through short gasps of breath.  "Nothing serious had been done to her once the doctor arrived.  We were preparing her head to be stitched up, but that's -"

Whereas she had stopped, Tofu had continued running.  "Excuse me, Tendo Sensei!" he shouted as he dashed past Soun.  "I need to get her to the hospital!"  Soun took off after him, following the doctor as he ran through the new hole in the wall and into the alleyway.

They stopped at an old car that Soun didn't even know the doctor possessed.  Tofu set Shampoo down on the hood of his car as carefully as he could, then fumbled for his keys.  'It's a good thing I followed my hunch and drove over instead of walked,' he thought as he got inside and folded down the passenger seat as far as it would go.

"What's going on, Tofu?" Soun asked as the doctor re-emerged from the car.

"Convulsions," he snapped.

Soun did the wise thing and didn't interrupt as Tofu picked Shampoo up and dashed around the car.  He opened the passenger door for the doctor and got out of the way.  After arranging her on the passenger seat and covered her with a blanket he dashed for his side of the car.

"I'm coming with you," Soun said.  Tofu looked to object, but realized that Soun was telling him, not asking him.  Just as he was about to get in the back seat of the car and take off with the doctor, Genma and Nodoka caught up with them.

Tofu displayed a rare moment of rudeness.  "I have to get her to the hospital now, so I can't be dealing with a lot of distractions.  She may not have much time left."

"Here's your bag, Dr. Tofu.  You left it at the pond," Nodoka said in a rush, handing it to him and stepping back.

"Let's go, then!" Genma said, climbing in the back with Soun.

Exasperated, Tofu tossed his bag in the back of the car, with Soun catching it just as Genma was wedging himself into the back seat with his friend.  Not saying anything, Tofu started up the engine and revved it a couple of times then pulled his door shut.

"Genma, what are..." Nodoka started, before he leaned in front of Soun, poking his head out of the rear door window.

"Honey, after what you said I decided that I have to stay with Tendo to make sure everything stays calm."  Before she could object, Tofu peeled away.  "We'll call from the hospital!" Genma shouted, his voice growing lighter as the car vanished down the street.

"Mom, what's going on?" Ranma, now sans tool belt asked as he, Sato and Hikaru ran to her side.  She didn't respond, her mind taking a moment to digest everything that had just happened.  Concerned, Ranma reached out and shook her arm.  "Mom, you okay?"

"Ranma!" she said, startled.  Catching herself, she put her hand to her breast and tried to calm her breathing.  "Where's Ranko?" Nodoka asked when she could speak again.  "Genma was supposed to have taken her home."

"Don't worry, Mom.  She's inside with Akane."

"What's she doing in...?"

"It was Akane's idea.  She invited Ranko to use their bath so she wouldn't have to walk all the way home.  Dad said it was okay, and so did Mr. Tendo," Ranma explained before his mom could get upset.

She deflated a little at that.  "Whew!  That's good.  I'm glad that she wasn't out here to see what just happened."

"What did just happen, Mrs. Saotome?" Hikaru inquired.  "All I heard was some yelling, then that car took off."

"Yeah, Mom.  It looked like something was wrong with Sh... that girl," Ranma added with no small amount of concern.

"Well, after you and your sister walked off, Dr. Tofu and I got ready to stitch the girl's wound.  She started convulsing when we tried to move her into the house."  Nodoka shuddered a bit at the recollection of the scene.  "It looked pretty bad.  Her skin went cold and clammy, and she was also foaming at the mouth a little."  Nodoka's look darkened as she contemplated the worse.  "I don't think she's going to make it, dear."

"But...She can't die!" Hikaru fairly shouted.

"Yeah, at least not until after we find out why she's here and what she wants," Sato added matter- of-factly.

"That's cold, man!" Hikaru retorted hotly.  'She can't die!  She's too beautiful to die!'

Nodoka sighed.  "I'm going to check on Ranko," she said, heading through the hole in the boundary wall on the way to the house.

Numb, Ranma let his mother walk away without acknowledgement.  His mind had blocked out everything, save one thought.  'Shampoo...'

****
 

"Ahh, I feel so much better!" Nabiki said, stretching lazily as she sat at the table next to Ranko and Akane.  All three were rosy pink from their hot soaking in the bath and had put on some loose, soft clothing.

"Thanks for loaning me the outfit, Akane.  I really appreciate it," Ranko said, putting an arm around Akane's shoulders to prop herself up.

"You're welcome, Ranko.  It was nothing, really."

"There's something that surprised me about Sato today, Akane," Ranko commented.  "I'd never seen him do that before in my life."

"I know what you mean.  I don't know him that well, but I do know that he's never done any kind of martial arts or gymnastics before."

"What're you guys talking about?  All he did was carry me away when that freak attacked us."  Nabiki shuddered at the remembrance of that event, and tried her best to ignore it.  "Before that, all he would do was *stare* at me.  I swear!  It was creepy."

"Now THAT is the Sato that I know," Ranko said with a chuckle.  "A pretty face will drive him to distraction, Nabiki."

Nabiki flushed at that and Akane chuckled despite herself.  "Still, it was spooky to have him leering at me like that."

"He's harmless, Nabiki.  Honest!  He's looked at me a couple of times like that, and I know he wouldn't have ever done anything bad to me.  He's quite a gentleman.  In fact, I think it's kinda sweet that he thinks I'm pretty."  Ranko leveled a serious gaze at Nabiki.  "I'll tell you what, though.  You're the first girl that he's ever really been interested in."

"How do you know that, Ranko?" Nabiki replied.

"You really don't remember what he did, huh?" Ranko asked, smiling.  "When that maniac was chasing both of you into the dojo, Sato jumped into the rafters while holding you in his arms.  He's never been willing to put himself between someone else and danger before.  At least I've never seen him do it before.  He was willing to die for you, Nabiki."

"You're putting me on, Ranko!"

"Well, I may be exaggerating the die-for-you thing just a little bit," she admitted with a smirk.  "But I doubt that I'm far from the truth.  You at least have to admit that he's cute, right?"

Akane nodded.  "Well, I agree with Ranko.  I don't think he looks all that bad."

"What is this, a conspiracy?" Nabiki shot back.  "C'mon you two!  We just had our home attacked and here you are trying to set me up on a date with someone I don't know!"

"Maybe it's a conspiracy, or maybe not" Ranko said with a wink.  "Aww, Nabiki, don't get upset about it.  After all, Sato's a good guy.  You could do a lot worse."

"Yeah!" Akane said, adding more oomph to her voice than she intended.

"Okay, okay!  I get the idea.  He likes me."  She paused, wondering why she'd become the focus of the two girls' attention.  "Still, I don't think I'm interested."

"We're not saying that, Nabiki.  Just saying that it's cute, is all."

"Yeah, don't be so serious, sis!" Akane added, punctuating her words with a quick hug.

Nabiki smiled as the enthusiasm of the younger girls rubbed off on her.  "Well, maybe."  Her words trailed off as Nodoka Saotome rushed into the room from outside, her face flushed and her sword gripped tightly in her hands.

"Thank goodness you girls are okay!" Nodoka declared.  "Where is Kasumi?"

"I'm right here, Nanna," Kasumi replied as she stepped in from the kitchen.  "Is everything okay?  How is Dr. Tofu doing with the patient?"

Nodoka took a deep breath and told them everything that had happened since Kasumi had left her side at the pond.

****
 

"Man!  This sucks!" Hikaru groused.  "No, don't try to shut me up, Sato.  I'm mad!  That pretty girl is going to die and I won't ever know anything else about her!"

"You don't know that she's going to die," Ranma retorted.  "That girl's got a harder head than you think."

"What makes you so sure?" Hikaru retorted hotly.  "And don't talk about her like that!"

"Hikaru, quit thinking with your little head!" Sato yelled back angrily.  "You didn't see what she is capable of.  She almost killed Nabiki when she punched through that wall.  Sure she's got nice tits, but she's a KILLER!  Can't you understand that?"

"Sato's right.  She's a tough girl, no doubt about it," Ranma added.

"Oh, NOW Mr. Hot-Shit Chow Yun Fuckin'-Fat knows everything about martial arts, huh?" Hikaru spat back, angry that his friends were ganging up on him.

"I'll show you just how much I *do* know if you don't can that attitude," Ranma replied, leveling a dangerous glare at him.

"Okay!  Sorry!" Hikaru said, toning it down before things got physical.  "I just."

"You're assuming too much.  You saw how strong she is; you saw how muscled she is.  Believe me, she'll live," Ranma assured him.  'You would never get anywhere with her, though,' he thought to add, but kept to himself.

"Anyway, we should-" Sato began when someone walked up to the boys.

"Pardon me, I got reports of a disturbance," said a police officer as he tipped his cap to Ranma.

'Oh, now the cops arrive!' Sato thought with more than mild irritation.  "What took you guys so long?"

"So I guess the reports are right.  You guys are making an awful lot of racket out here," the cop replied tersely.

"Waitaminute!" Ranma retorted.  "We aren't the disturbance.  That was!" he said, indicating the hole in the wall behind him.

"What the?!  Did a car run into the wall or something?" the cop asked as he inspected the damage.

"Not really," Ranma said, not sure he'd be able to explain that an Amazon with a penchant for destructive love plowed through the wall for no apparent reason.

The policeman whipped out a notebook and a pen.  "I think I'd better talk to you individually."

Sato and Hikaru groaned.  The cop pointed at Ranma.  "You first, since you seem to know more about this than the other two."

"ME?" Ranma shot back defensively.  "Officer, I-"

"Save it for your statement, young man.  Is there a place where you and I can talk alone?"

"Yeah, there is," Ranma replied, not wanting to get himself or the others in any trouble, but knowing that he couldn't avoid answering questions.  "Come this way," he said as he led the cop to the dojo.

"Hey!  Sato and I are going inside," Hikaru said as he wended his way through the ruined wall, Sato hot on his heels.

"You boys better not leave until I've had a chance to talk to you.  Your friend here WILL give me your names and if I have to come looking for you, I WILL be angry."

Both swallowed nervously.  "Yessir!" they said before retreating to the Tendo home.

Ranma and the officer walked silently to the dojo.  "Mind your step," he said once they were inside.  "We're doing renovations and some of the floorboards are still out."

"That's okay.  I know what it's like to have to do work on something to make it better.  Always have the chance of pitfalls being in your way," the officer said, suddenly showing a warm smile.

"Well, yeah.  I guess," Ranma replied, uncomfortable all of a sudden.  "I'd offer you a seat, but."

"No apologies needed, Ranma," the cop replied.

"How did you-"

"Maybe this will help," the officer said as he raised his white-gloved right hand and snapped his fingers.  A brilliant flash of light later and a man in a white leisure suit stood before him.

"HOW?  You..."  Ranma was too confused to speak in more than one-word sentences, but managed to ask a critical question.  "WHY?"

"I should be the one to apologize to you instead, Ranma.  This mess with Shampoo wasn't supposed to happen.  I would like to be able to fix it, but alas, what is done is done."  Ranma's face flashed angrily at the cavalier tone in the man's voice, and he made a move to get closer to the visitor.  Roarke held up a hand and spoke calmly.  "I can guarantee that you will not be able to hurt me, nor should you want to.  I am not your enemy here.  I suggest that you sit down and listen to me, because I have a lot to tell you and time is short.  Your friends will come back to look for you in a few moments, so please hear me out."

Unable to argue with a man who could bend the laws of physics with a snap of his fingers, Ranma sank down in a cross-legged seated position and paid attention as the crazy guy in white started talking.

****
 

A pleasant tone echoed in the corridor followed by a pretty feminine voice.  "Paging Dr. Mikimoto.  You are needed in Pediatrics."

Soun and Genma ignored the hospital's intercom system and paced the hallway floor.  They had been hovering for quite a long time outside the room where the strange girl had been placed, and were eager for news of her status.  The past thirty minutes had been a blur to both of them.  Following a breakneck race to the hospital and a hurried admittance procedure courtesy of Dr. Tofu, the two men had found themselves going from being indispensable to being in the way.

"It's been awhile, Tendo.  I'm worried."

"I know, Saotome.  I'm concerned, too."

Genma stopped pacing and sat in a chair facing the door to the room.  "Is Dr. Tofu good?"

Soun nodded.  "Indeed.  He has been a tremendous help in taking care of my girls.  This stranger is in good hands."

As if on cue, Tofu stepped out of the room and removed the scrubs that had been hastily donned over his street clothes.  "She's going to make it."  He turned and looked directly at Soun.  "I want to apologize for my rudeness earlier, Tendo-sensei.  I have no excuse for my actions.  I'm only glad that Kasumi wasn't there to see me act that way."

"Nonsense.  You did what you had to do, and I respect that," Soun said, dismissing the incident entirely.  "Now what was the matter with that girl?  Is she awake yet?"

"Well, we don't know what caused the seizures, but she's not had any since we got to the hospital.  We've run a battery of tests on her and as far as I can tell she's clean, plus there are no life-threatening injuries.  She's lucky.  All she got from that whack on the head was a mild concussion and a split scalp."

Soun sighed.  "That's a relief, Tofu."

"We actually spent more time cleaning her off and washing all that hair than we did stitching her up."  He paused, taking off his glasses and cleaning them.  "I personally think that her seizure was due to dehydration.  She looked very malnourished, despite her healthy looking figure.  I doubt that she's eaten more than one meal every two days.  Whatever the reason, she was slowly starving herself to death.  We put two IVs in and are pushing in as many nutrients as her body can stand."

"I wonder what she was up to, Tendo," Genma mused.  "After all she's been through, you don't think she crashed the property wall looking for food, do you?"

"I doubt it, Saotome.  She was looking for someone.  That much was evident by how she was acting."

A nurse stepped out of the door.  "We're done, Dr. Tofu.  She's resting comfortably."

Tofu nodded and walked into the room with Soun and Genma right behind him.  Soun whistled as he caught sight of Shampoo lying in the bed.  What had been a dirt-smudged face with matted hair and cloaked in a heavy stench was now a very pretty face framed by long lavender locks.  She smiled in her sleep, accentuating high cheekbones.

"Look at her, Saotome.  She hardly looks like the kind of person to do what she did."

"You're not kidding, Tendo.  She looks like a child!"

Tofu nodded.  "I'd put her between sixteen and nineteen.  Hard to tell without doing a more thorough exam of her."

"Well, I wonder who she was looking for, Tendo.  What could someone have possibly done to this young girl to make her go through what she did?"  Genma mused, and then added, ". assuming that she's looking for someone and not just in a blind rage or something like that."

"I really believe that she was hunting someone, and being very persistent about it.  Who and why is what I want to know."

"Well, we'll have to wait for her to regain consciousness, then.  If you hadn't knocked her out, we may have gotten some answers from her," Genma said before thinking.

"I know, and I feel bad about that, despite the damage she did to my home."  Soun hung his head.

"I didn't mean it that way, Tendo," Genma added, placing a hand on Soun's shoulder.  His friend flinched slightly, then relaxed.  "What I meant was that we'll just have to wait to get answers from her.  You probably saved the lives of both our children by knocking her out.  Since we aren't sure what she wanted, or what she was willing to do to get what she wanted, we shouldn't start feeling guilty about what happened."

Soun smiled and nodded.  "You're right, Saotome.  I guess waiting a little while longer isn't going to hurt anything."  He stepped to the bedside and put a hand against Shampoo's cheek, which was warm and soft to the touch.  "She's looking a lot better than before.  Some pink is coming into her face."  He took his hand away and turned to Dr. Tofu.  "How long before she wakes up, Tofu?"

Dr. Tofu shrugged.  "It could be fifteen minutes or five hours.  She's a tough girl, but she's been very hard on herself.  I have no idea how exhausted she is."  He headed for the door and held it open for them.  "We should let her get her rest undisturbed while I fill out the paperwork."

"Good idea," Soun said as he walked out of the room, followed by Genma and Tofu.

"Anyone know how we're going to pay for this?" Tofu asked with a smirk once they were in the hallway.

"Pay?  What do you-" Soun choked, hearing his wallet scream.

"Not to worry Tendo-sensei.  I was only joking.  I'm sure she qualifies for indigent care."  Tofu led them into a general-purpose office/cubicle at the end of the hallway and started filling out forms.  "I guess we can call her 'Jane Chen' until we talk to her," he muttered to himself, not minding the shrugs from his office guests.

Seven minutes later Tofu was just about done with the preliminary formwork when a nurse burst in, frantic.  "Doctor!  The patient's gone!  I don't know where she is!"

"What!?  It can't be!" Tofu said as he vaulted over the small desk and sprinted for Shampoo's room.  He body-tackled the door and stared slack-jawed at the empty bed and open window.  The clothes that had been picked out for her were gone and her tattered rags were still in a heap at the foot of the bed.  "Damn!  I never thought that she would've had the strength to leave through a sixth story window.  I should have had an orderly keep an eye on her!"  Tofu slammed the food tray stand with his hand, then ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Well, Dr. Tofu, I wouldn't have thought she would do that, either," Genma supplied, hoping to calm the young doctor.  "Not for another hour, anyway."

Soun looked at the bed.  The two IV needles that had been feeding Shampoo were now taped to the pillow.  Squinting, he saw something fluttering in a fold of the white bedsheet.  He bent down and smoothed out the cloth, whereupon a piece of neatly folded paper fluttered free.  He caught it before the breeze from the open window blew it out the door and into the hallway.  It was a piece of paper from her medical chart, with Chinese writing crudely done in red wax pencil on the blank side.

"Well, we may not have been able to speak to her, but we do have something," Soun offered, holding the folded paper up over his head.  The other two men turned to look at him.  "Anyone here know how to read Chinese?"

Tofu shook his head

"Not I," Genma said.  "But-"

"Saotome," Soun interrupted, his mind jolted by a sudden revelation.  "I think we better get back to the dojo!  If that girl thinks that what she wants is still there, she may return and cause more damage."

Genma blanched as Soun's words struck home, literally.  "Dammit!  You're right, Tendo."

"Let's get back to the car," Tofu said calmly.  "I'll take you to your home on my way back to the office."

****
 

"Now do you understand?" Roarke asked.

Ranma nodded, although his brain was the consistency of tapioca pudding after listening to what the wish maker had to say for the past twenty minutes.  "Yeah, Mr. Roarke.  I guess I do.  Some of it anyway."

"I don't expect you to understand how we do our work, or why.  All I want you to do is keep in mind what I said about Shampoo," Roarke nodded and pointed to his forehead.  "And I guess I don't need to tell you to keep it to yourself about how she came to be here in the first place."

"Yeah, no one would believe me anyway," Ranma said with a wry smirk.  "Does this mean that she won't ever come back?"

Roarke shook his head.  "I can't guarantee that.  She's a part of your life now, whether you like it or not.  I can't change what has already happened.  You will have to deal with her at some point.  I don't exactly know what she'll want or do, but I'm sure you'll figure that out by the end of the night."

"How?" Ranma began, but stopped when Roarke held up his hand.

"Just have faith in yourself, your ability and your desire, Ranma.  I promise that you will not be hassled by any of us anymore.  This is your wish for you to live out as long as you want it.  And while I will continue to watch from time to time, everything that happens will be due to a 'natural progression' if you will."

"I understand," Ranma said, feeling a little better than he had right after Shampoo had crashed the dojo repair party.

Roarke nodded, smiling, then snapped his fingers.  Once again he was in his Officer's uniform.  "And I think you should refer to me as Officer Tokugawa," Roarke suggested, pointing to his name on the uniform.  "Now we should keep up the appearances here.  Go get Sato and tell him I'm ready for his statement.

"Sure thing, Mr. R-  I mean, Officer," Ranma nodded as he started for the doorway.

"You should keep an eye out for him, Ranma.  He's a good kid and a loyal friend."

Ranma smiled, pausing at the doorway as he considered something.  "I want to thank you for this.  Despite all this stuff with Shampoo.  well it's been a good life."

Roarke nodded and smiled until Ranma was out of sight.  "While my associates will not be a problem anymore, it's a shame that I can't be there when you will truly need me, Ranma," he said softly to himself.  "I only hope that you'll make the right decision when the time comes."

****
 

Ranma appeared in the doorway of the house and found his sister, Akane and Nabiki sitting together at the table.  Hikaru was sulking in the corner and Sato was sitting near Nabiki, but keeping a polite distance.

"Sato!" Ranma said as he walked towards the table.  "Officer Tokugawa is ready to take your statement.  He's waiting for you in the dojo."

"Did he give you any crap, Ran-man?" Hikaru said, coming to life and standing straighter in the corner.

"Nope.  He's convinced that the girl was on drugs or something."

Sato nodded and stood, sparing a smile for Nabiki.  He turned and just missed Nabiki's blank expression mutate into an irritated one as he walked outside and headed for the dojo.  "Thanks, Ranma.  I'll be right back."

"Mom told us what happened.  Still, bro, do you think the cop can handle that bitch when she's wakes up?" Ranko asked, noting that Hikaru bristled at the slur.

"Ranko, I think he'll have as many cops with him as he needs.  He knows what she's capable of.  I made sure to tell him," Ranma assured them all.

"I see.  Well, you look tired, Ranma.  Take a load off," Ranko offered, scooting over and patting the cushion between she and Akane.

Ranma hesitated.  "I. umm, that is."

"Oh, have a seat before you fall down!  I can tell that your back is bothering you."

"Okay, okay!" he said, defeated.  He took the offered seat, mindful of not straining his back as he contorted himself to not sit on either his sister or Akane.  Crossing his legs, he gave Akane a polite smile, then stared at his feet.  Without realizing it, they shared a common blush as every other pair of eyes in the room scrutinized their closeness.

"So. When do we eat?" Ranko asked, breaking the tension a couple of minutes later.

"I dunno.  Did Kasumi say if dinner was ready?" Nabiki asked.  Akane shrugged, although grateful for the change of subject from she and Ranma to something else.

"I'll go check," Hikaru offered as he headed through the doorway for the kitchen.  He reappeared a moment later with Nodoka.

"Looks like everyone but Soun and Genma are here.  Wait, where's Sato?" Nodoka asked as she scanned the room.

"Sato's with the police officer giving a statement," Hikaru answered before Ranma could.

"The police are here?  I wondered when they would show up.  I wonder why he hasn't come in here, though.  Surely he wants to talk to everyone who saw what happened."

Sato entered the room with a smile on his face.  "That won't be necessary, Mrs. Saotome.  He said that he had all the information that he needed from Ranma and me.  Officer Tokugawa told me that he wanted to be at the hospital when that girl awoke, so he left."

"Ah.  Well, in that case I guess we can rest easier now that the police are involved," Nodoka said.  "Now, Hikaru mentioned dinner.  Kasumi and I are almost done, so it'll be ready in just a few minutes."

"Is everyone okay?  I saw a policeman just now," Soun said as he and Genma rushed into the room.

"Yes, Soun," Nodoka said as she embraced her husband tightly.  "The officer was on his way to the hospital to deal with that girl."  She frowned as she realized that they hadn't been gone very long, nor had they called her from the hospital, both of which meant the worst.  "What's happened to her?"

Soun held up the piece of paper he'd found on Shampoo's hospital bed.  "I couldn't believe it, Nodoka.  She escaped from her room and disappeared not long after she'd had her wounds treated.  She left-"

"Oh, no!  Then she could be on her way back here!" Nabiki shrieked, scurrying away from the table and standing up.  She turned to run away but wound up running into Sato, who had been standing a bit behind her.  Without thinking about it, she wrapped her arms around him tightly and buried her head against his chest.  "Not again!" she sobbed, not caring who saw her.

Flustered, Sato reciprocated and held her close to him, patting her on the head.  "You'll be okay, Nabiki.  We'll protect you," he said, trying not to stammer.

"What about that note you have, Soun?" Nodoka asked.  "What does it say?"

"We can't read it.  It's in Chinese."

"Oh, is that all?  Give it here," Nodoka commanded, holding out her hand.

"You read Chinese?" Soun asked.

"I've done quite a bit since we last saw each other, Soun," Nodoka said with an enigmatic smile.  Ranko and Ranma shared quizzical looks as their mother took the note in hand and began to read.

"Even though I know little of your language, I overheard you talking about me with the other men in the room.  I want to apologize for what I did to your home.  It was regrettable, and I will make amends someday.  I will talk with you in person after I talk with the village council to make arrangements.  After that, you will know who I am and what I was doing here today."

"It's not signed?" Soun asked.

"No, she left her name off."

"So what's going on, honey?" Genma asked.  "If that letter is on the level, then we have nothing else to worry about from her."

"It's not that simple, dear," Nodoka answered as she began re-reading the entire message.  She managed to suppress a gasp as she got to the end of it.

"What is it, Nodoka?" Soun asked.

"Oh, it's nothing, Soun.  I'm just tired, is all," she said quickly as she folded the paper and put it in her kimono.  "Now that I've read it again, I agree with Genma.  I'll be very surprised if that girl tries to do anything to us."

Sato rubbed the back of Nabiki's neck gently.  "See, Nabiki?  It's going to be okay," he whispered in her ear.  Nabiki snuffled and wiped her eyes on Sato's shirt, leaving a pair of small damp dots behind.

"Thank you, Sato," she said in a fragile voice, excusing herself from the room.  He made a move to follow her, but stopped when he saw Ranko shake her head slightly. "I'll go check on her," Kasumi volunteered, following the middle Tendo daughter up the stairs.  A couple of uncomfortable moments later, Sato sat down where Nabiki had been at the table but reserved room for her in the event that she returned.

"What did the police say?" Soun asked, after Kasumi disappeared upstairs.

Sato related what he'd told Nodoka; along with the statement he'd given the policeman.

Ranma nodded when Soun and Genma looked his way.  "I told him pretty much the same thing.  He seemed to think that Sh- e was on drugs and wasn't in control when she did it.  He was headed to the hospital to verify that, but I guess he won't get the chance now."  'Not that it matters anyway,' Ranma thought with no small amount of relief.  'Now that she's okay and gone home, everything should be back to normal here.'  Still, there was something bugging him about what had happened.  'Sure Shampoo was going to say that she would return, since Roarke said something about that.  So what's bothering me?'

"Well, Tendo.  I guess that there are no hard feelings on her end since she heard everything we said," Genma offered.

Soun nodded.  "Indeed.  If she understood enough Japanese to follow our conversation, she knows that I was the one that hurt her.  I guess that if she held a grudge against me, she would've said so."

"Yeah, so you may be in the clear," Genma laughed, clapping his friend on the back.

Ranma cut short a gasp, his body unable to move as he finally figured out what had been bugging him.  'She knows that Mr. Tendo knocked her out!  Defeated her.  No way!  Akane's father is engaged to Shampoo!'

Suddenly paranoid, he looked about the room to see if anyone had caught his reaction.  When his gaze landed on his mother, he noted that she looked exactly like he felt.  Her eyes were the size of saucers and it looked as if she'd stopped breathing.  'Does she know what this means?' Ranma asked himself.  'And she reads Chinese, too.  I wonder what else she knows.'

"Who wants some sake?  I know my nerves sure can use some!"  Soun enthused; his spirits apparently not dulled much by the ruined wall and commotion caused by Shampoo's arrival.

"Hear hear!" Genma cheered.

"Yeah, Soun, some sake would be a really, really good idea right now," Nodoka said in an odd tone as she followed him into the kitchen.

"I sure could use some," Ranma whispered.

"No kidding," Akane and Ranko whispered in unison.

"We're going to eat first," Nodoka could be heard to say from the kitchen.  "No one is going to drink on an empty stomach, especially after all that's happened today."

"Okay, dear," Genma said, sounding a little put-off.

"Hey, Nabiki!  You okay?" Sato said softly as she appeared in the room once again.

Nabiki looked mildly uncomfortable as she shuffled into the room, avoiding eye contact with him.  "Yeah, I'm okay," she replied, taking a seat next to Akane without directly facing Sato.

Sato didn't have time to look disappointed as Kasumi dashed back into the kitchen and a short clattering of dishes later she returned with Nodoka, Soun and Genma all bearing a LOT of food.  Hunger quickly overcame feelings of anger, exhaustion, pain and shock as a chorus of rumbling from most of the stomachs in the room caused an eruption of laughter.

"Not that anyone here is hungry," Soun snorted, "but dinner is served!"

For the first time in a long time, the Tendo home resounded with the pleasant noises of friendly laughter and camaraderie, lifting the spirits of all in the room and making for an unforgettable evening for everyone.  Ranma smiled and immersed himself in the warmth of the moment, shared a wink and a hug with his sister, and felt his heart skip a beat as Akane favored him with a smile that seemed to communicate more than simple happiness.

Not long after that the table was emptied of food and the sake flowed.  All of the children abstained, including Hikaru after a harsh glare from Ranko.  The adults, however consumed quite a bit, and it wasn't long before Genma and Soun were regaling the captive audience with tales of their mischievous youth.  The storytelling went on for the next two hours, punctuated by moments of howling laughter, allowing the troubles of the day to be forgotten for a time.

****
 

The incessant ringing of a telephone blared through the overly cute confines of a teenager's bedroom.  Kinuko Amagi sighed tiredly, dropped a long blonde wig on the floor, shambled across the room and lifted the receiver.

"Hello?" she said glumly into the mouthpiece.

"K-chan, is that you?" Ami Nakato's voice hissed on the other end of the line.

"Ami-chan, is that you?" Kinuko responded, activating her speakerphone and hanging up the receiver.

"Yes," she hissed.

"Why are you whispering?"

"Because I'm still at work and I'm using the store phone, that's why!"

"But I don't understand.  They allow you to use the phone at work.  Why are you acting so strange?"

"K-chan, just be quiet and listen to me!" Ami commanded, still whispering.

"I."

"SHH!  I'm whispering because I don't want a nurse or doctor to hear me.  They sometimes wander into the gift shop and I don't want them to reprimand me for what I'm about to tell you."

Kinuko growled into the phone.  "This better be good.  I've been depressed all day long, Ami- chan.  This is the first time that I've had a free weekend and no boy to share it with."

"Trust me, you'll find this VERY interesting, K-chan.  I saw a couple of familiar names on the emergency room roster and decided to look them up in the telephone book."

"Was it my Ran-chan?" Kinuko shouted with growing alarm.

"No!  But Ranma's dad AND Akane's dad were both here along with some girl who was pretty banged up."

"PLEASE tell me that it was Akane," Kinuko said with undisguised glee.

"No, it wasn't her-"

"Ranko?" she asked, her voice still hopeful.

"No, I-"

"Mrs. Saotome?" she guessed, some concern starting to creep into her voice.

"NO!" Ami yelled into the phone, loud enough to startle a bleary-eyed father-to-be standing at the "Pokemon Baby Nametag Designer " carousel next to her cash register.  She covered the phone quickly and issued an apology to the customer before resuming her hushed conversation.

".n't understand why you aren't telling me who this girl is, Ami-chan.  Are you even listening to me?" Kinuko growled into the microphone, somehow managing to sound seductive even when she wasn't trying.

"I don't know who it is, K-chan.  You know, this conversation would go a bit faster if you would just stop acting like a dingbat and listen to me," Ami chided.

Too flustered by the criticism to respond, Kinuko decided to just grunt her acknowledgement.

"I was wondering why Ranma's dad would be here with Akane's dad, especially with everything that happened after school on Friday, so I snooped around the hospital for more info.  A couple of nurses on the sixth floor told me that there had been some kind of explosion or attack; they weren't sure which, at Akane's house.  The girl that had been brought in had apparently been the source of the commotion."

"Oh!" Kinuko responded, implying comprehension where none existed.

"Anyway, I also heard that Ranma's whole family was there when the attack happened-"

"WHAT?!" Kinuko spluttered into the speakerphone's pickup, causing Ami to wince.  "My Ran- chan was at that SLUT's home?  I oughtta go over there right now and-"

"K-chan?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up!"

"Okay." Kinuko replied meekly.

Ami sighed away her frustration before continuing.  "I don't know much more, except that no one else was hurt.  I also don't know why Ranma is at the Tendo house to begin with, but I thought you'd like to know that he was.  If I find out anything else, I'll call you as soon as I can."

"Ami-chan, I-"

"I've been on the phone for too long as it is, K-chan.  I'll tell you more when I find out something new.  For now you'll have to just be patient.  Do you want me to come over after work?" she offered to her best friend.

"Absolutely!  We have a lot of serious work to do.  Akane's gaining too much ground," Kinuko declared flatly, her anger building.

"Okay," Ami responded with a hint of resignation in her voice.  "See you then, K-chan," she said before hanging up.

Kinuko slammed a petite fist down on the speakerphone button of her telephone, cutting off the droning dial tone that had filled the void following Ami's disconnection.  She stood up from her bed and walked over to her full-length closet mirror.  She glanced down at the wig that she'd been trying on before the phone rang and sighed pitifully.  'How am I going to get Ranma back from Akane?  He has to know that only I can love him the way he wants to be loved.'  Kinuko ran her fingers through her short raven locks, her real hair.  'I can't lose this fight!' she thought, hoping to muster some determination.  'I can't lose Ranma to anyone else, especially to Akane!  I'd rather die than have that happen!'

Tears coursed down her young face, streaking the makeup that she'd applied hours ago.  Sniffling, she took a couple of tissues from a nearby dresser top and wiped off all of her makeup, revealing a healthy looking complexion with a light scattering of freckles.  'Of course if he or any other guy ever saw me like this they'd run for their lives.  Who wants a shorthaired girl that looks like this?'

Nearly succumbing to feelings of defeat, she crumpled the tissues up in her hands and wept.  Unsure of what else she could do, Kinuko decided to wait until Ami came over before making any more plans.  She shrugged out of her baggy Tokyo University sweatshirt, revealing her bra-less chest and nearly waifish waistline.  Her taut breasts bobbed slightly as she tossed the sweatshirt across the room to land on the floor next to her clothes hamper.

Unbeknownst to Kinuko, a pair of invisible eyes watched from the bedroom window as she slipped out of her sweatpants and panties, leaving herself thoroughly nude in front of the mirror.  Kinuko gnawed slightly on her index finger as she assessed her appearance, casting a critical eye at the curve of her breast, symmetry of her nipples, shape of her hips to make sure that everything was *just so.*  "I don't know, anymore," she said aloud to the world, cupping her breasts in her hands and glaring at them in the mirror.  "I thought that these were irresistible.  Ran-chan used to love them."

She barely suppressed a shudder at the memory of his extended playfulness with them, knowing that now wasn't the time to get antsy.  "This ugly face and these small breasts must've been what turned him off," she surmised.  "Maybe I should get implants."

From a perch near her window, the figure watched as she continued her ranting, complaining about how "fat" her immaculate figure was.  Shaking its head, it made a few mental notes about what priorities to place on the various things learned from the phone conversation.  'He will be most pleased by some of it,' the figure thought as it leapt from the tree branch that had been its perch and sprinted away, leaving the young girl to berate herself for a host of other physical slights that didn't exist.

****
 

Ranko looked around the room and unsuccessfully tried to suppress a yawn.  The party had dragged on well until midnight and everyone looked to her as if they were barely awake.  Soun and Genma were well on their way to falling asleep, each with a bottle of sake at their side.  Nodoka was cradled lovingly in her husband's arms and Ranko couldn't help but notice earlier that Soun had been eyeing the coupling with a bit of envy.

Ranko yawned again, sparking a room-wide yawnfest that stirred Nodoka to action.  Standing from her husband's embrace, she cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.  "Okay, everyone, I think we should seriously consider getting to bed while we're still awake enough to walk."

Hikaru, who had been keeping to himself for most of the night, nodded.  "You're right, Mrs. Saotome.  It's late and neither Sato nor myself ever told our parents where we were going.  I'm sure they're worried about us by now."

"Geez, you're right, man!" Sato exclaimed, standing up from the table.  He looked down at Nabiki, who had fallen asleep at the table, her head resting in her younger sister's lap.  "Will she be okay, Akane?"

Akane nodded.  "Yeah, I think so.  Are you leaving?"

Sato nodded.  "I have to get home or my parents will kill me.  I wish I could stay."

"You and Hikaru can call your parents from here and bunk in the dojo if you like," Soun offered.

Before Sato could say 'sure, love to' Hikaru clapped a hand on his best friend's shoulder, stopping him.  "Thanks for the offer, Mr. Tendo, but they're going to be angry enough at me for not checking in after being gone so long.  I don't think mine or Sato's parents would let us stay out any longer."

Sato glowered at Hikaru, then turned to Soun.  "I'm afraid he's right, Tendo-sensei.  We both have strict parents."

"You can come back tomorrow and check on Nabiki if you like, Sato," Akane offered helpfully.

Turning a previously unknown shade of red, he cleared his throat nervously.  "Umm, sure thing.  Besides, you still need help completing work in the dojo, right?"

"You have a point there," Soun answered.  "We'll be getting started again around nine o'clock in the morning if you boys want to join us."

Hikaru made a non-committal grunt while Sato smiled at Soun and ignored his friend.  "I'll be here, you can count on it."

"Ranko and I should be leaving also," Nodoka added.

"Nodoka, I have plenty of room in this big old house.  Surely there's room for your family here," Soun returned.

"I don't mind if Ranma and Genma stay, but Ranko needs her medication when she wakes up in the morning and we never thought to bring all of it with us.  I'm afraid we have to return home."

"I'll go with you, Mom," Ranma said, starting to get up.  He paused when he felt Akane's hand on his leg.  Words failed him as the light touch froze his mind.  He turned to see her favoring him with a smile as they looked into each other's eyes.

"Ranma, I'll join them and see that Ranko gets home okay," Akane said, breaking the spell and looking up at Nodoka.  "If that's okay with you and Mrs. Saotome."

"I don't mind if your father doesn't," Nodoka replied

"Daddy, I'd like to spend the night with Ranko if I could.  I promise I'll be back in the morning," Akane offered, trying not to wheedle.

"I don't mind, Akane.  You two just remember not to stay up too late talking.  We've got more work to do tomorrow."

"Thanks!  Excuse me for a moment."  Akane carefully extricated herself from Nabiki's embrace as she made for the bathroom.  Laying her sister's head on one of the cushions, she stood away without stumbling, using Ranma's shoulder for support.  "Be right back," she said as she dashed down the hall.

"Ranma and I will stay here.  I doubt that strange girl will return, but we'll be here in case she does," Genma declared, standing and stretching.  "You and the girls be careful, sweetheart," he said, standing behind his wife and wrapping her up in his arms.  He kissed her on the back of the neck and then released her.

"I will, dear," she smiled.

"Saotome, you and Ranma can have the guest bedroom.  Kasumi will show you where it is.  As for me, I'm going to bed.  Good night to everyone and I'll see most or all of you tomorrow."  With that Soun left the room and headed to his bedroom.

"Help me up, bro?" Ranko asked, her yawning getting worse.  She held up her hand for him to grab, but instead of him standing and hauling her up by her arm like she expected, he wrapped his arm around her waist and curled her arm around his neck, then they both stood.  "You didn't need to do all that," she chided softly, although her arm went around his waist in a side-hug.  "Thanks anyway," she said with a tired smile

"No problem.  You okay to walk on that ankle?" he asked.

"It's numb, so maybe."  Ranko tested her weight on it and walked a step or two on it.  "Yeah I should be okay."

Akane returned a moment later.  "I'm ready when you are."

Nodoka hugged her son and kissed him on the cheek.  "Take care, Ranma.  I'll be back in the morning."  She picked her sword and took it firmly in hand.  "Let's go, girls."

"Yeah, we're leaving too, Ran-man," Hikaru declared.  "See ya later."

Ranma avoided eye contact.  "Yeah, see ya."  'Jerk' he added to himself.

"Take it easy, Ranma.  I'll be back, in about nine hours," Sato said with a smirk.

"Sure thing, Sato," Ranma said with a hint of a smile.

Hikaru and Sato walked out of the house, and the ladies followed but at a slightly slower pace given Ranko's injured ankle.  Once they were all outside the boundary gate, Ranma stretched and yawned.

Genma followed suit, yawning loudly and stretching until his joints creaked.  "I'm going to bed, son.  Be sure you get some sleep.  I don't want you staying up too late and wind up being too tired to work tomorrow."

"I won't, pop," he replied.

"Right this way," Kasumi said, leading Genma out of the room and down to the guest bedroom.  A few minutes later she returned and started picking up dishes and carrying them to the kitchen.

"Let me help you, Kasumi," Ranma offered, picking up some items from the table and following her into the kitchen.  They worked together in silence for ten minutes until the room was clean, all the while avoiding Nabiki's sleeping form as she lay down on the floor next to the table.

Once they were done, Kasumi smiled at her guest.  "Thank you for the help, Ranma.  I am about to go to bed myself, but I was wondering if you could do a favor for me."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Could you carry Nabiki to her room?  I don't want to wake her, and I know I can't carry her," Kasumi asked, managing a smile before politely concealing a yawn behind her hand.

Stifling a slight bit of discomfort, Ranma nodded.  "Yeah.  I don't mind, Kasumi."  She gave him directions that he didn't need to both Nabiki's room and the one where his father was sleeping, and then she excused herself and went to bed.  He bent down to pick Nabiki up, mindful of not waking her.  His back protested as he stood up, yet he managed to hold onto her without any problem.

'I can't imagine what Sato sees in you,' Ranma thought as he looked down at Nabiki's sleeping face.  As if on cue, her arms went around him and she nuzzled his chest.  He found himself sweating a little bit, glad that no one else was in the room to witness her in his arms like that.

Still, it felt good holding her, in a weird sort of way.  'Maybe I should charge her for this later,' he thought with a bit of playful spite.

He walked up to her room, knowing right where it would be.  Nabiki's room looked a little bit different to him from what he'd remembered of her 'other room,' but not drastically so.  He lay her down on her bed but refrained from pulling back her covers, instead covering her with a nearby comforter.  She fidgeted for a moment before getting comfortable and then was very much asleep.

'Whew!  She didn't wake up.  I wouldn't have been able to explain it to her why I was at her bedside, or worse if she'd awakened while she was in my arms,' he thought as he exited her room, closing the door behind him.  He barely made it two paces down the hallway when he found himself standing at Akane's door.  It was open, and the lights were off.  'Akane'd kill me if she found me snooping around her room.'  Still, the temptation to enter was too great to resist, and he found himself walking into a room he'd been in many times before.

****
 

With the near-whisper of tabe on tree bark, the faceless figure arrived at its destination.  From the top of a high branch overlooking a moderately well to do estate the intruder surveyed the surrounding area, deciding where it could best get in.  Espying an open window on the second floor of the home, it sprang from its perch and landed soundlessly in the yard.  Trotting under the cover of shadows the figure in black raced across the ground until it reached the side of the house.  Employing hand and foot spikes, it climbed up the stucco-clad wall of the gable end of the house until it reached the window.  Carefully the featureless form put the spikes back in their proper place.  Then with a fluid movement it slid into the window opening and dropped soundlessly to the floor.

"Must you always mark the stucco like that?" a voice softly chided from a high-back chair near the window.  "I grant that you need to keep your ninja skills honed, but really.  It gets expensive to keep getting all those little chips and scratches repaired."

Tatewaki Kuno stood from the chair and faced his visitor.  It bowed slightly at the waist, but never moved from its spot.  Nor did it deign to remove its facemask.

"I have some information regarding your current surveillance assignment," it said in a muffled voice.

"Oh, so soon?  Even Nabiki Tendo isn't this efficient," he said with a smirk.

"You were right to watch the Amagi girl.  She has a very passionate, almost possessive love for Ranma Saotome.  Also, it appears that the girl has confidence issues that could be exploited to your benefit, should you need her."  The figure in black went on to summarize the contents of the phone conversation that Ami and Kinuko had shared earlier.

"So, Saotome is trying for Akane that quickly, eh?  First he uses some kind of trick maneuver to defeat me and win, although I still insist he had outside help with that, and now he's ingratiating himself with that pitiful excuse of a family of hers."

"I thought you weren't interested in Akane anymore," the figure countered, unmoved by the irritated glare Kuno threw its way.

"I do not intend to discuss the rationale behind my actions to anyone.  Not even to you.  What I do and why I do it are solely my concerns.  Besides, I don't know that the relations between the two are all that close at the moment.  An attack of the magnitude you described being done by a single assailant has to have put the entire household on edge.  Also, Saotome and Akane have known each other for only a couple of days.  How could two people make such a strong impact on each other in that short a period of time, and under such conditions?  I would suggest that they are more concerned about a repeat attack than trying to fall in love."

Not in the least bit chastened, the figure continued.  "It would seem that this might complicate your pursuit of Ranko Saotome as well, given the communication between the Tendos and the Saotomes."

"You may be right there, I grant you," Kuno conceded.

"So what shall we do next?" the figure asked of him.

"Continue your watch on the girl, while Nabiki Tendo does the research I asked her to do."  He turned up a glass of tea that he had been drinking, emptying it in one swallow.  Setting the empty glass down on a small nearby table, he walked closer to the figure.  "Do you have any materials from tonight's surveillance?"

"Yes I do, and they are yours for the usual fee," the figure said, smiling behind its mask.

"Taking lessons from Nabiki, are we?" he said with a smile of his own, getting his wallet out and pulling bills from it.

"But of course," the figure replied, dripping sarcasm.  It took the bills from him and placed them in its outfit, then opened up a pouch and produced a micro-cassette recorder.  Popping it open, it handed the tape to him.  "Already rewound, of course."

"Excellent.  I am never disappointed by your work," Kuno replied, taking the cassette firmly in hand.

The figure took out a small roll of thirty-five millimeter film and tossed it his way.  Kuno caught it with a half-hearted thrust of his left hand.  "What's this?" he asked.

"I took pictures too, at no extra charge.  Consider this a gift.  I think you will find them. invigorating."

"Ah.  I am grateful for your thoughtfulness," Kuno replied with a naughty smirk.

Removing its mask, the figure shook its head and waves of long dark hair spilled free.  "What would life be without the occasional freebie?  After all, brother dear, I absolutely *adore* doing business with you," Kodachi Kuno said with a smirk.

****
 

"God, I'm sore!" Hikaru grumbled, rotating his arms to try to reduce some of the throbbing pain he'd been feeling.  "What ever made us do that, Sato?"

" I don't know about you, but I had pretty good reasons for helping them out, man," Sato countered.  "Besides, it was an exciting day, wasn't it?"

"Exciting is not the word, Sato.  Exhausting is more like it."  He refrained from adding 'erotic' to the list because of his current proximity to Ranko.

"Thanks for helping my family out, Sato," Akane said as she, Nodoka and Ranko all walked beside them.  "I appreciate it, and so does my dad.  Nabiki does too, she just doesn't express herself all that often."

Sato nodded, his face warming in the cool of midnight.  "I'm glad to-"

"Ow!" Ranko cried out as she suddenly crumpled in a heap on the ground.  Nodoka was immediately by her side, with everyone else a close second.

"What's wrong, dear?" she asked, running her hand across Ranko's forehead.

"I tripped on this," she said, holding up a small Pokka cappuccino can.  "My ankle's killing me."

Hesitating for a moment, Hikaru knelt down and put his hand on her shoulder.  "I can carry you if you want," he offered in a halting voice.

Ranko looked as if she was going to say no, but at the last minute she put her hand atop his.  "Okay, just as long as you don't drop me."

Nodoka gave Ranko a stern look, but refrained from saying anything.  Everyone stood away as Hikaru Gosunkugi knelt down in front of her and presented his back.  She curled her arms around his neck while he picked her up.  Struggling, he managed to stand.  Then the group moved off again towards the Saotome home.

"I still haven't entirely forgiven you for what you did earlier," she whispered into his ear while choking down on his neck.

Hikaru coughed and struggled with walking a straight line before she relented.  "But," she added with a slight sensual tone in her voice, "I still like you for some reason."  She smiled and surreptitiously slid one of her hands down and rubbed it against his chest.  Fortunately for both of them Nodoka was walking behind everyone else and couldn't see the affectionate gesture.  Her long hair currently being unbraided and flowing freely, she used it as a curtain to obscure her face as she kissed him on the neck and then nibbled his ear.

Sato, oblivious to the warming of relations between Ranko and Hikaru, walked closer to Akane until they were beside each other.  "I - I was wondering something, A-Akane."  He balled his fists, trying to keep his voice even.

"Yeah, Sato.  What's up?"

"I-Is Nabiki-  I mean, is she... seeing anyone right now?"  He felt a chill and tightness in his stomach and was on the verge of passing out.  'This is worse than being attacked,' he lamented.

Akane smiled, having expected the question to come up at some point in their walk.  "No, she's not seeing anyone right now.  In fact, Nabiki's never had a boyfriend.  At least, as far back as I can remember."

Sato frowned.  "Does she hate boys?"  Akane snickered, but he took it for a derisive snort.  "Oh, no disrespect to your sister, Akane," he hastened to add.

"No, that's not it, Sato.  It's just.  You're the first guy who has ever seemed interested in her, and no one has ever asked me about her.  I was laughing because the idea never occurred to me before."  Akane smiled to him.  "I think it's cute."

"Uhh, yeah." Sato looked down at his feet, shyness suddenly his best friend.

"Not that I'm complaining, Ranko, but how much farther?" Hikaru asked in a husky voice, his warm and cuddly burden causing him to breathe harder.

"We're about fifteen minutes away, Hikaru," Nodoka responded.  "If you're having any trouble carrying her, I-"

"That's okay, mom.  He's doing okay.  Right, Hikaru?" Ranko responded.

"Yeah, I'm okay.  Was just curious is all."  He gave Ranko's thigh a squeeze, which earned him another hidden kiss.  He wouldn't admit it with her mom present, but Ranko's ample chest pressing against his back was making him react embarrassingly.  Specifically two rigid points digging into his back were having a strong effect on his libido.  He was glad that he had to walk slightly hunched to keep her balanced.  'Someday soon those will be in front of my face,' he thought with glee.

"A-Anyway," Sato continued.  "Do you think that she would."

"Go out with you?" Akane completed.  "I don't know if I can answer that, Sato.  As I said, she's never gone out with anyone, so I don't know what kind of guy she likes.  On the other hand, she never has held anyone the way she was holding onto you before we sat down for dinner.  That's gotta count for something, right?"  Akane put a hand on his shoulder, causing Sato to flinch.  She quickly withdrew her hand, looking at him askance.

He laughed nervously.  "Heh, sorry Akane.  That's a long story." 'And I'm not going to talk to anyone about it,' Sato added to himself.

"I see.  Anyway, you should talk to her.  After all, she'd be a better person to answer your questions than I am, even though I am her sister."  She changed the direction of the conversation a bit.  "You coming back to my place tomorrow?"

Sato nodded.  "Yeah, I think it only right that I finish what I started there.  Besides, it's kinda fun, you know?"

"Well, I do have one suggestion."

"Yes?"

"Hold off on asking Nabiki out until Tuesday or later.  I know you went through the same thing she did, but you're dealing with it better than she is.  Let her recover a bit longer."

"Understood."  They walked in silence, with Hikaru's labored breathing punctuating their steps.

Only a few minutes later they were within sight of the Saotome residence.  "Wow, nice place!" Akane said as they got to the front door.

"Thank you, Akane," Nodoka replied, trying hard not to yawn.  "It's not much, but it's home for us."

"Ah," was all Akane could manage to say.  'Not much?' She thought incredulously.  'How could they afford something this big anywhere in Tokyo?'  She looked to the door, which was made of solid mahogany.  'Daddy would be so lucky to have a place like this.'

Nodoka fumbled for the keys while Hikaru knelt down and let Ranko gently slide from his back onto her rump.  He turned and stood, then helped her to stand.  They looked at each other, he at her breasts and she at his crotch.  Both turned a deep crimson at the obvious evidence of their mutual attraction.

They both turned their heads to the door as Nodoka opened it and stepped inside, followed by Akane and Sato.  "I'll be right back," Nodoka said, followed by rapid footsteps.

"Mom's going to the bathroom, so we have a few minutes," Ranko said to Hikaru with a wink as they remained outside near the front door.

"What I want to do with you right now can't be done in a few minutes.  Or without waking your neighbors and causing a big mess," he growled into her ear.

She giggled, and then pointed at his pants.  "I can tell."

He laughed through his nose.  "At least I'm not alone," he said, pointing at her breasts.

Ranko covered them for a moment with her hands and then saw the expectant look on Hikaru's face.  "Hell with it, you've already seen them.  Too late to cover 'em now."  She lowered her hands, again exposing two very prominent points on her shirt.

Hikaru put his arm around Ranko's waist.  "Hey, Ra-chan, I'm sorry about my reaction with that girl.  I shouldn't have been such a jerk around you."

"Well, I admit that I was very angry at you for drooling over that girl, that's for sure.  But I can tell who you really like just by looking at you now."  She gave him a sly wink before nodding at his crotch.

"Well, in my own defense that was the first time I've ever seen a naked girl in real life before.  I just wasn't prepared."  He shrugged and turned the waist hold into a face-to-face embrace.

Ranko brought one of her hands up and with her index finger she traced the outline of a heart on his chest.  She regarded him with a pouty look and deepened her voice a little.  "If you prepare yourself better next time, Hikaru I promise you that you'll get a chance to see and touch these without my shirt or bra getting in the way."  She pressed her chest against his, her nipples boring into him so that he got the idea.  Reaching her hand up, she bent his head down to his and gave him a very passionate kiss on the lips.

He returned the kiss fully, his tongue dancing at the edge of her lips and his hips pressing against her.  She moaned slightly into the kiss as she felt his jeans-covered masculinity rub against her belly and his hands take a firm hold of her ass.  For almost two minutes they remained entwined in their moment of bliss.  Both of them were tempted to rip each other's clothes off right there at the stoop of the front door and make love with abandon, until the sound of a closing door broke the spell they were under and forced them to break the kiss.  As they parted Hikaru couldn't resist sucking gently on Ranko's lower lip as she began to pull away.

"Mom's out of the bathroom," Ranko said in a rush, catching her breath.  "We'd better not let her catch us doing this.  She's very protective of me."

"I know," he responded with a sigh of frustration.  "I want you *so* bad, Ra-chan," Hikaru whispered in her ear.

"Same here, you bad boy," she said with a playful wink.  Ranko stepped back and put her arms at her side.  "You as shaky as I am right now?"

Hikaru let his breath out in a laugh, breaking the tension.  "Yeah, I am."

Both giggled, and then he took her hand in his.  "I think I'm falling for you, Ra-chan."

"I think you're already there," she countered, winking and squeezing his hand.

Their hands separated just as Sato re-appeared from the house with Akane behind him, giggling.  "You're so funny, Sato.  I never even knew that!"  Ranko crossed her arms across her chest while Hikaru clasped his hands together in front of his pants.  Both tried to look casual.

"We ready to go, Hikaru?" Sato asked.  His friend put his hands in his pockets and nodded.  "Thanks for the pep talk, Akane.  I'm going to keep what you said in mind."

"Sure thing!" Akane replied, winking at Ranko.

At that moment Nodoka reappeared.  "Your ankle must be doing better if you're standing on it, young lady," she half-reprimanded.  "We need to get you to bed."

"Awww, mom."

Nodoka stepped outside and stood next to her daughter.  "No complaints.  Come inside before you fall asleep standing up."  She took Ranko's arm and looped it around her neck, then started walking sideways through the front door.  "Thank you for carrying her home, Hikaru," she said, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder.

Ranko did likewise.  "Yeah, thanks Hikaru," she said, adding a wink before disappearing into the home.

"I should be getting inside, too.  I'm tired.  See you tomorrow, guys," Akane said as she stepped inside, waving before she closed the door.

They turned and looked at each other and then each issued a long sigh.  Turning to leave, Hikaru clapped his hand on Sato's shoulder.  "What a night!"

"No kidding!" Sato agreed as they walked off into the night.

****
 

'I probably shouldn't have done that,' Ranma thought as he silently crept out of Akane's bedroom, a guilty look on his face.  Leaving her door ajar as he had found it, he made his way down the stairs.  He headed to the guestroom, but stopped at the door.

'Man!  Pop never snored that loud before,' he thought as he slide the door open and walked into the guestroom.  Genma was sound asleep on a futon, curled under a blanket.  A stack of neatly folded bedding was next to his father on the floor and it was obvious that they were meant for Ranma.

He didn't even consider sleeping in there given that the volume of Genma's snoring outside the room was nothing compared to the sound level inside.  'I think that I'll sleep in the main room instead,' he thought, grabbing the bedding and walking out.

Taking his time, Ranma unfolded the various spare sheets and blankets and managed to assemble a fairly comfortable bed near the table.  He reflected on the weirdness of it all.  He was a guest that was making a bed for himself in a house that he had learned to call home.  'I'm a stranger among friends,' he thought with a sardonic grin.

Ranma had taken some hope from his conversation with Mr. Roarke earlier in the day.  'He never mentioned anything drastic.  I assume he would've warned me if something terrible were going to happen.  Shampoo's appearance had made things really touchy today, and I thought that everything was almost over.'  He coughed to clear his throat.  'I'm not ready for this to be over.  In fact, I'll never be ready for this to be over!'

Despite that determination, he still had plenty to consider.  'I have Kinuko to deal with.'  A sudden sensation of being trapped made him feel more than a little frustrated about the whole affair.  'Maybe affair is a bad word,' he told himself.  'I should've asked about that girl when I had the chance.  I'm sure Mr. Roarke would've been able to tell me what to do.  Damn!'

'Well, I'm not going to worry about it now.  It's late, and I'm tired.  Either she's pregnant or she's not.  If she is, I'll deal with that when the time comes.  If she's not then I'll just ignore her for the rest of my life.'  With that, he peeled out of his shirt, leaving his tee on.  Once he had turned the lights out and was comfortably situated under the covers he took off his pants as well and left them lying atop his covers.  'I should be okay with the boxers.'  Ranma yawned and yielded to the tug of sleepiness on his eyelids.

****
 

"So what was all that about, man?" Hikaru asked as they strolled towards Sato's home, which was next in the list of destinations.

"What was what about, Hikaru?" Sato asked defensively.

"The thing with you and Akane is what.  You two were awfully chummy during the walk home," Hikaru added with a nudge.  "You moving in on Ranma's territory again?"

"What do you mean, 'again'?  I never did anything with Kinuko!"

"Ah, so you admit you're trying to do something with Akane then, eh?" he said with a sly tone in his voice.

"Not!  Quit being a smart ass, Hikaru!"  Sato sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.  "If you have to know, I was asking her about her sister, Nabiki."

"Oh!  You're going after her?"  Hikaru paused to think about something, his face losing a lot of its humor.  "I don't know if that's such a good idea, Sato."

"Oh?  Little Sato the half-breed can't get any girl at all, that the idea?" Sato snarled.

"Hey, that isn't it at all, man!" Hikaru shot back.  "I'm not trying to rain on your parade."

"Then what *did* you mean?"

"I just know her rep."

"Oh?" Sato asked, his defensiveness ebbing.  "What do you know about her?"

"I don't know if there's any other way to say this without sounding mean, but Nabiki Tendo is a cold woman.  I've never met her before today, but I've heard *plenty* about her reputation.  I've heard that she's in love with money and will sell out her friends or even her family if there's a profit to be made.  She only thinks of herself."

"You are *so* full of it, Hikaru!"

"I'm not kidding!  You can ask anyone at school and they'll tell you what they told me.  She's a Yakuza member in training!"

"There's no way that sweet girl is as bad as you say," Sato countered.  Still, he couldn't say anything in Nabiki's defense since he had never met her before today.  Also, he tended not to listen to the banter around school since a lot of it was mindless gossip.  "She definitely felt soft and warm in my arms, Hikaru.  Besides, how can anyone say she's cold after everything she did for me today?"

Hikaru shrugged.  "Well, I think you're in a unique situation.  No one has ever held her like that before, least not that I've heard.  And I'd be willing to bet that no boy has ever touched her in her entire life."

"So I'm her first hug, eh?"

"And probably her second as well."

"Well, the one where she and I were running for our lives doesn't count.  We were both too scared to think of anything except continuing to live."

"Well, I just want you to be careful.  I know how you get with girls."

Sato hung his head.  "I know.  I can't help the way I get around girls.  I fall easy, and I fall hard.  Nothin' I can do about it really."  He looked at his friend and nudged him.  "And speaking of warm and soft, you certainly know that about Ranko now, don't you?"

"WHAT?" Hikaru shouted, jolted by the change of direction in the conversation.

"I saw what you were doing in Mrs. Saotome's doorway.  You two were about three seconds from screwing like bunnies right there at the door, man!"

Hikaru blushed, but not from embarrassment.  "You aren't kidding, Sato.  Ranko and I were *that* close!  God, I need sex *so* bad right now."

"Feeling a little tense?" Sato asked, chuckling.

"Man, her tits were mashed against me and her nipples were rock-hard.  They were poking into my chest, too.  I almost had my hands on them when Akane and you walked back outside."  He wrung his hands, wishing he were squeezing Ranko's gentle flesh instead.  "So to answer your question; *YES* I'm VERY tense right now."

Sato flushed also, the sexual images being quite vivid courtesy of his active imagination.  "Gee, I'd like to know what that's like someday," he groused.

"It'll happen someday."

"Yeah, right."

"Hey, think about it this way.  There are more girls than guys on the planet, so you're bound to get laid sometime."

"Stellar logic there, Hikaru."  Sato stopped and looked up at the nighttime sky, catching his breath and trying to ignore his frustration.  It wasn't working.  "You're very lucky to have someone like Ranko.  I think Nabiki would be just as fun as Ranko, but I don't know if she'd even want to do something like that with me."

Hikaru stopped and walked back to his friend's side.  "Ranko's fun, and she's okay and all, but I don't know if she and I would ever get *really* serious, dude.  After all, there are better looking girls out there."  He winked at Sato.  "Like the girl that raided the Tendo's home today."

"See, this is what I don't get about you, man.  Here you are dating one of the most beautiful and well-built girls on campus.  She wants you and is probably in love with you, and you're thinking about other girls.  Don't you have any sense of loyalty to her?"

"Hey, Ranko's the one who copped an attitude when I looked at that girl.  And all I did was look!"  Hikaru tried not to stay angry at his girlfriend, though.  'I guess I can forgive her.  After all, she made up for her attitude in a big way just now.'  "Right now she and I are just boyfriend and girlfriend.  We both want to have sex, but I think that's about it.  We're both just curious, understand?"

"She said she wants to have sex with you?"

"Yeah, right before you walked out, in fact.  Promised to do it, too," Hikaru said with a smug grin.

"Let me get this straight.  You have a guarantee of sex with an absolutely beautiful girl and you still think about having sex with that marauder?  You're whacked, man."

"Hey, what do you want from me?  Ranko's just a girl, after all.  Stop being so judgmental!  You act like Ranko's the most important thing in my life."

"Isn't she?" Sato countered.

"Hey, you need to get your priorities straight.  Guys date girls because they want to have sex, not for any other reason.  You start treating a girl like she's real important and she starts getting all mushy and clingy with you.  Then she starts talking marriage and kids and suddenly your life is over."

"That's terrible, Hikaru.  You're planning on doing this to Ranko, aren't you?" he accused, pointing a finger at him.

"What's your deal, man?  Get with the times!  True love is a myth!  The only thing it's good for is getting a girl in the sack.  I've seen a lot of seniors use it to get sophomore girls in bed, and it works!  The girls actually believe that crap about love and they wind up spreading their legs for the guys on request.  You should get the idea of a perfect relationship out of your mind.  There's simply no such thing."  Hikaru sighed.

"I'll never believe that.  And Ranko won't-"

"You better not tell Ranko *anything* that I just told you.  She's mine, and she knows it.  Besides, I'll deny everything you say to her.  Just stay out of my affairs, alright?"  His face reddened with anger and any good feelings he'd had from Ranko's kiss were now long since gone.

"I won't have to say anything.  Ranko's a smart girl, and when she figures it out, you'll be in a world of pain.  I'll just sit by and watch."

"You're nuts, Sato.  She won't know anything, and she won't do anything.  Girls get dumped all the time.  She'll accept it and move on when it happens to her."

Sato wanted very badly to punch Hikaru's lights out, but knew that he wouldn't have been able to stand up well to the return volley.  "Whatever.  Let's just drop it.  I gotta get home and get some sleep so I can head back to the Tendo's tomorrow."

"You go back to that place if you like, but I'm going to stay home and do absolutely nothing all day long tomorrow.  Besides, I have to study for a math test on Monday."

"So no anime night at Ranma's attic, tomorrow?" Sato countered.

"I forgot about that," Hikaru admitted.  "I might show up for that tomorrow evening, but I *won't* go back to that dojo.  I hate construction!"

"Thought so," Sato nodded.  "Anyway, I'm going to get on home.  I'll see you tomorrow evening, then."

"Yeah, sure thing.  G'Night, Sato."  Hikaru waved and then walked off to his home.  Sato watched his friend disappear into the night before walking towards his own home.  'I saw the look in your eyes when you thought we couldn't see you, Hikaru.  You're in love with Ranko, but you're afraid to admit it.'  He sighed and shook his head slowly; unable to comprehend the mood swings of his friend.  'Hikaru, if I was in your position, I would be admitting my love to Ranko every hour of every day.'

Letting go of his frustration at Hikaru's attitude, he returned his thoughts to Nabiki.  He smiled as his imagination gave him a wonderful fantasy to occupy him for the remainder of his trip home.  'She'll be mine.  I can feel it!  This time it will be different!' Sato vowed as snuck into the house and went straight to bed.

****
 

She didn't know how long she'd been running from it, but it seemed like forever.  Her breath was ragged, and she was on the verge of collapse.  "I have. to get . away," she panted.  Despite her zig- zagging along the road and running from tree to tree, rumbling footsteps that shook her to the core kept getting closer and closer.  She looked over her shoulder and saw a featureless shape, enormous in size, gaining on her.  Nabiki yelped as she realized just how close it was to her.

A loud rending noise that sounded like the crashing of a collapsing building jangled her nerves and sent her running faster.  She shrieked a moment later as a fast moving shadow closed in on her, prompting her to dodge to her left.  Her adrenal glands screamed along with her as a tree the size of a large house crashed to the ground where she had just been.  Nabiki couldn't stop herself fast enough to avoid the clutter of some of the branches and she tripped and fell, landing hard.

'My knee!' she thought, wincing in pain as she turned and struggled to get up.  Her blood ran cold as she saw the featureless thing lower its arm from where it had just thrown the tree at her.  "Why are you doing this?  Leave me alone!" she shouted.  A loud roar of pure rage was its only response, and her voice seemed to have spurred the thing into motion.  Her eyes widened in sheer terror as the monster stomped towards her.

Forgetting the pain of her knee, she leapt up and straddled an obstacle course of small and medium sized branches.  She winced as she heard her pursuer stomp its way through the felled tree a moment later.  Nabiki turned to look over her shoulder and saw that it had made pulp out of the remains of the tree and was gaining on her.

'What did I ever do to that thing?' she asked herself.  'I'm sure I paid off all of my losing bets, so that can't be it, right?'  Unfortunately she was too terrified to answer her own question.  Her heart felt like it was about to pound its way out of her chest and try to make a quick break for safety.  She didn't blame it because she wasn't doing a very good job of avoiding that maniac.  No one was coming to help her and she didn't see any place where she would to guaranteed safety.

Then she spotted her home.  'Daddy will be able to help me,' she thought as she made a beeline for the boundary wall doors.  Gallons of adrenaline coursed through her veins and lent her the strength to one- hand the door and sprint past it.  She made for the house and screamed as the thing that was running after her punched its way through the boundary wall as if it was paper.

Concrete and clay brick dust blew everywhere.  The thing stopped, roaring angrily and pounding its huge fists down on the ruined sides of the wall, bringing more of it down.  Nabiki stopped looking and ran into the main room.  "Daddy, someone's trying to kill me!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.  No one was around, and she was sure someone would've come out with all of the noise.  "Someone!  ANYONE!  HELP ME!!" she shrieked, making for the stairs and stumbling up to the second floor.  She ran into her room and slammed the door shut.

Lying down in front of her bed, she tried in vain to still her panicked breathing.  She was shivering and sore all over.  Her knee was killing her, and she doubted that her body would let her run any further even if she was sure to die.  She hoped she wouldn't need to since the roaring and pounding had ceased.  She wondered if she'd eluded capture, and was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when an enraged roar bellowed from the other side of her window just above her bed.

She stifled a scream and balled herself into a fetal position.  'God, no, please!  Whatever I did to make this thing angry, I apologize.  Just make it go away,' she thought desperately.  Her unspoken prayer went unanswered as the roaring lowered to a menacing growl.  Then she heard it, the rasping of something against the outer wall of her room.

The rasping turned to pounding, and then the pounding grew louder and more insistent.  The wall bulged as an immensely powerful force acted upon it until the wall made a sickening crack.  Then she sprung up from the floor and edged away from the bed as a hole was ripped out of the wall.  The featureless face of the animalistic thing peered into the hole and looked right at her.  It roared and punched the wall again, showering Nabiki with more dirt, dust and chunks of mortar.  The hole was now enormous, and the force of the attacks ruined her bed.  It reached inside and grabbed the remains of it, pulling them out of the way so it had plenty of room to reach in.

Nabiki watched helplessly as the fiery-eyed giant's hand pushed its way through the hole in her wall.  She screamed and struggled to get as far away from the reaching hand as she could.  She pounded and tugged on her door with all of her might, but it would not open.  A loud roar got her attention and she turned around in time to see long-fat fingers aimed for her waist.  She dodged and made for the farthest corner of her room.

"Hey, get your hands away from her!" an angry voice suddenly shouted from outside the house.  The hand retreated from her room and more stomping could be heard.  Nabiki couldn't see what was going on outside, nor could she place the voice.  It was familiar to her, but not one she'd heard that often.  She jumped as the voice shouted again.  "Get out Nabiki!  Get out while I try to keep it busy, don't let the monster take control of you!  Run!"

She risked a peek outside and saw a slight young man with his back to her charging at the dark, amorphous creature.  The guy was insane, running at the beast with no weapons, no hesitation, and no regard for his own life.  He jumped up, connecting with a kick to the face of the monster that was solid, but no more than a glancing blow against something so large.  Her defender landed on his back near the wall of the house.  She gasped when she saw the monster reach down for him with an outstretched hand.  "RUN NOW, NABIKI! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" he screamed as he got up again and charged the beast.  A ground shaking thump was followed by a moment of silence. 

Nabiki screamed in anguish, afraid of what had happened to her erstwhile rescuer.  "NO!" she shouted in a raspy voice, weeping openly.  She sat back down on the floor and shivered uncontrollably.  For several quiet minutes she did nothing but breathe hard and try to guess why that thing was attacking her.  'Did the guy out there beat that thing?  Did he survive?'  Wondering what was going on, she slowly crawled across the floor and peeked over the edge of her ruined wall again.

Her blood ran cold when she saw the bloody and mangled body of a boy pressed into a giant footprint-shaped hole in her backyard.  She closed her eyes and barely managed to keep from throwing up on the remains of her bedroom floor.  Despite the queasiness of her stomach, Nabiki opened her eyes again and found herself unable to rip her gaze from the gory scene.  She paled when she recognized the face of her would-be savior and screamed his name.

"Sato, NO!" Nabiki rasped, her dry throat preventing her voice from carrying.  "Nooo.  NO!" she wept into her trembling hands.  She sat up suddenly in her bed and looked around.  'God, why is this happening to me?' she asked herself desperately.  She took a moment to collect her thoughts after seeing that her bedroom was still intact.  'What a horrible dream!'  She was covered in sweat and the heavy comforter that was on top of her wasn't helping matters any.  'How did I get in here?' she asked herself.  'Last thing I remember was the party and falling asleep next to Akane.'  She stopped her thoughts as the dead boy's face flashed in her mind again.  'And Sato.  He was with me also.'

She crawled out of bed and turned a light on.  Nabiki half expected Sato to be in there with her, and was disappointed when she found herself alone in the room.  'Why did I think about him like that? We survived that attack on the boundary wall, after all.'  She looked around, gratified to have her room intact, and berating herself for being so paranoid.  'Geez, I don't need to be this wound up!  It was just a dream, after all.'

She tried to pick up her alarm clock to see what time it was, but her hand shook too much for her to be able to read it.  Putting it back down on her desk with only a minimum of clatter, she walked to her closet and opened it.  With hands still trembling she got out of her clothes and underwear and slipped on a long, loose T-shirt that nearly went down to her knees.  'I gotta get a glass of water or something,' she told herself as she opened the door to her room and headed into the hall.  She paused, listening for noise.  'It sounds like everyone's either gone home or gone to bed.  It's awfully quiet.'

Padding her way down the stairs in her bare feet, Nabiki wended her way along the walls of the main room and went into the kitchen.  She turned on the light and retrieved a medium sized drinking glass, then reached for the faucet to get some cold water.  Her hand shook terribly as she aimed for the stream of water to fill her glass.  She wound up getting her hand and arm wet, as well as the front of her shirt, and captured very little water in the glass itself.  Frustrated, Nabiki turned off the faucet and gulped down what was in the glass.  She almost gave up on getting something to drink when she caught sight of the sake decanter sitting nearby.

'That might help my nerves,' she told herself as she reached out for the bottle.  Setting the glass down on the counter, she poured herself half a glass of sake with only a little spilling on the counter.  Nabiki placed the decanter back on the counter and took the glass in hand.  'I've never had this stuff before,' she thought as she placed the glass under her nose and sniffed.  It had a strong aroma, but didn't overwhelm her.  Hesitantly she brought the glass to her lips and turned it up.

She shuddered as the slightly sweet liquid coursed over her tongue and warmed her throat.  She took two big gulps and then sat the glass down on the counter.  She gasped as the power of the alcoholic content caught up with her, taking her breath away.  It tasted odd, and Nabiki found herself wondering what it was that her dad saw in the flavor.

Nabiki sat on a stool in the kitchen and tried to collect her thoughts. 'That dream was so real,' she thought, trying her best not to relive the terror of it and her near-death experience at the boundary wall.  She placed her glass on the counter and studied her hand.  It trembled, and despite her best efforts at control she could not make her hand stay still.  She picked up the glass and drained it.  Nabiki gasped again as the alcohol burned the top of her throat and took her breath away.  A wave of warmth coursed through her body a few moments later, and she could feel herself calming down.

'This stuff isn't too bad after all,' Nabiki conceded now that she was feeling mellow.  With a steady hand, she reached for the sake decanter and refilled her glass.  She nursed her drink slowly for a while, watching in silence as the clock turned twenty minutes.

'Well, the kitchen has officially gotten boring,' she declared, the room weaving just a touch.  Nabiki grabbed the decanter and topped off her glass, then stood up from the stool with only a minimum of stumbling.  Leaving the decanter on the counter, she took the glass and sipped on it until the sake was low enough not to splash out of the glass while she walked.

Feeling a little uncoordinated, she left the kitchen light on and used the ambient glow from it to navigate her way to the table.  She noticed someone sleeping next to the table as she stumbled her way around the main room.  Nabiki stood over the person's head, trying to figure out who it was.  "Ah, it's you, Ranma," she said in a soft voice.  "Bet you're getting quite a view right now, aren't you?" she said, giggling, not bothering to cover herself.

Nabiki stepped around his head and sat down next to him.  Sound asleep, he didn't move despite her presence above him.  She looked down at his face and took another long pull from the glass.  'So here you are, you sexy stranger.  You come out of nowhere and suddenly make yourself a part of our lives.  God, how does Akane manage to attract guys as good looking as you?' she wondered.

She sighed sadly and drained the rest of the glass in three big gulps.  She hiccuped and put it down on the table, giggling drunkenly as she almost knocked it over.  "Oh, the things I would like to do to you, Sato.  I mean, Ranma.  You are so damned cute."  She reached her hand out and smoothed Ranma's hair, stroking his forehead as delicately as possible.

He moaned lightly in his sleep and moved his right arm in the direction of the contact, but didn't awaken.  Nabiki 'hmmmm'ed as the movement of Ranma's right arm caused his hand to brush against her breast before landing on her thigh.  He breathed deeply, and for a moment Nabiki thought that he would awaken, but he settled back down and was sleeping comfortably a moment later.

She sat in silence as the alcohol claimed her ability to speak in complete sentences.  'So this is what getting drunk is like, mm?' she thought as she looked down at Ranma again.  'Well, you sleep tight, stud.  I'm gonna lay here on the couch next to you 'cos I don't feel like going back upstairs to my room.  That monster that got Sato might try to get me, too.'  She smiled to herself.  'Besides, I like the way you look, Sato.  Ranma.  Whatever.'

Nabiki burped slightly and giggled at herself for the social miscue, then mischievously lifted up Ranma's blanket.  'Oooh!  You're a *boxer* guy?  That's so sssexy, Ranma,' she purred as she dropped the covers and sat down on the couch.  "Mmmm, comfy," she mumbled as she extended her legs in a languorous stretch.

She giggled again as the shifting of her legs changed her balance and she started to slide off of the couch.  Gracelessly she landed on the floor, with an unfortunate side effect being that the edge of the couch had grabbed her shirttail and as she slid down from the couch her shirt slid up.  Less than a minute later she passed out propped up against the couch with her feet touching Ranma and her T-shirt up near her armpits.

It wasn't long before she was dreaming again and her feet started wandering.  Finding their way under the blanket of Ranma's bedding, they sought out a cozy spot within the confines of the covers.  Instinctively her feet congregated at the most concentrated source of warmth.

Ranma groaned as he felt something rub his leg.  He awakened partially as his blanket was kicked off.  A pleasing rush originated from his crotch as something rubbed him.  He opened an eye and saw a nicely shaped leg near his with a foot rubbing his crotch in a very nice rhythm.  He followed the contour of the leg until it met with its twin.  Suddenly he was very much awake as the hair-covered junction of those two legs was *quite* visible.  Shocked, Ranma tried to sit up.  Unfortunately he was too close to the table and his attempt to get up failed as he smacked his head on the side of the tabletop and knocked himself out cold.

Nabiki stirred slightly at the sound of her glass rattling on the table.  She looked down and grinned to herself drunkenly as she saw Ranma's boxers and the blanket laying bunched up on his left side near the table.  'Well, he wants me to join him I guess,' her intoxicated mind interpreted.  She didn't have far to go to get in bed with him, just fall down on her side.  Laying down facing him with her shirt still up and exposing all of her attributes, an oblivious Nabiki patted Ranma on the cheek.  "Night night, Ranma," she slurred, giggling uncontrollably before reaching out and pulling the blanket over both of them and going back to sleep. **** THE NEXT MORNING:

The incessant noise of a bird chirping from nearby roused Ranma from his slumber.  He blinked, unwilling to surrender the sweet warmth of his bed quite so soon.  He hugged one of his pillows close and yawned into it.  He squeezed the soft and yielding cushion, the warmth stored in feeling quite nice.  It was an awfully long pillow, though as he could feel the soft warmth of it all the way down to his toes.

'Mmm.  The last time I felt this good was when.  when Ranko was in bed with me,' his half- asleep mind pointed out.  The rest of him woke up shortly thereafter.  He flexed his fingers and realized what it was he was holding.  The unmistakable impression of an erect nipple pressing into his palm spurred his awakening and his arousal.

He opened his eyes and was greeted with a full head of dark hair directly in front of him.  He did his best not to panic.  'Oh man, Ranko musta fallen asleep with me again.  My hands are all over her!'  He pulled his hand back from her breast, trying not to wake her up in such a compromising position.  He winced as he felt the back of his hand tug against something.  'Whoa!  My hand's not just touching her shirt, it's *under* her shirt and I'm touching real skin!'

He bit his lip to avoid groaning as he grew within his boxers and his manhood nearly worked its way free.  Unable to stay near her anymore, and no longer caring if he woke her, Ranma sat up.  Afforded with a better view of his surroundings, he remembered where he was.  'That's right, this is the Tendo home.  I must've been dreaming the whole.'

He put a hand to his head and felt a bump near his forehead, wincing as he touched the tender skin.  His pain intensified as a groan issued forth from his covers, dashing his hopes about it being just a dream.  'But didn't Ranko go home last night?  So, if it isn't her.' he mused, dreading the answer.

Just as he was about to pull down the covers, a pair of outstretched arms did the job for him.  He stifled a scream as the person sharing his bed turned over and Nabiki's face came into full view.  A kick of her leg brought the covers down to her knees, exposing the fact that her T-shirt was up to her armpits.  He watched as her breasts gently rose and fell with her every breath, too stunned by this turn of events to move away or cover her up.  'Oh geez!  I was touching. Nabiki!!'  And it felt damned good too, his smaller 'mind' added, not helping matters any.

His eyes moved down her body until they locked onto her bare crotch and a massive surge of hormones claimed control of his mind.  'Oh man, the way she was laying before.  That means that my. it could have been brushing against her.  Oh man, oh man, oh man!'  Ranma verged on panic, then flinched as someone spoke.

"Ohh, my head," Nabiki said, sitting up and laying her hand on the floor to steady herself.

"Nabiki, what are you doing here?" Ranma hissed, unaware that his aroused state and quick movements had freed him from the constraints of his boxers.  "You're . my-" he gasped.

Nabiki jumped as a rush of pain hit at her temples, causing her to groan involuntarily.  "Ranma!  What are *you* -" she stammered, suddenly awake.  She went silent and looked down at him, her eyes wide open with shock as she realized just how close her hand was to his crotch.  Jerking her hand back as if a snake had bitten it, her breathing suddenly got a lot harder.  So did her nipples.

"I didn't .  I swear, I had no." he protested through panicky breathing.

Nabiki put her other hand to her chest and was surprised to feel her bare skin.  She looked down quickly and saw her shirt pushed up over her breasts.  She fixed Ranma with an accusatory glare, too stunned for words.

"Hey!  I *swear* that I didn't do that to you.  You woke up like that!  I promise that I didn't do-"

Numbly she pulled on her T-shirt and let the bottom of it flutter down to her lap.  Her crotch was still partly exposed, but she was too dazed to care.  She glanced down again at what her hand had nearly touched and was about to ask him what the hell he was doing putting his thing out in front of her when the headache hit her fully, and with it came a recollection of what she'd done the night before.

Ranma, meanwhile, kept stammering out explanations and questions.  "I don't even know what you were doing in the bed with me.  I brought you to your room and put you to bed myself, and then I came back down alone and went to bed here.  Alone, I tell you-"

"Ranma, you don't have to be so loud," Nabiki said, pressing her hand to her temple.  "My head hurts enough as it is."  She glanced back down and saw him half-drooping between his legs.  "By the way, it looks pretty cute, but do you think you could you tuck that thing away so I can think about something else?" she requested while she pointed at his crotch, her headache and guilt keeping her from acting indignant.

Ranma 'eep'ed and tucked himself into his boxers, re-pinning the fly opening so it wouldn't re- emerge.  "I am *so* sorry," he began, but was cut off by a wave of Nabiki's hand.

"It's not your fault.  It's mine."  Nabiki looked down at her lap then suddenly realized her crotch was still visible and that he was looking at it.  She crossed her legs, mostly obscuring the view, but didn't make an effort to pull the edge of her T-shirt down to cover it completely.  "I had a nightmare about the attack and couldn't sleep," she explained.  "I came down to get a glass of water."  She winced as a spike of pain from her headache nailed her between the eyes.  When she stopped seeing stars she kicked the inventiveness engine into gear.

"I guess I wasn't paying attention, because I grabbed what I thought was a pitcher of water and took a big glass of it," She said pointing at the empty glass on the table.  Ranma snatched it up and sniffed it.

"Sake?" he asked, sniffing again.

Nabiki nodded, her head telling her how dumb she was for overloading on the stuff.  "Yeah, had to be.  My head is killing me.  Anyway, I remember laying on the couch, and then I passed out."  She looked at him again, and noticed his eyes had locked onto her chest.  She looked down and saw that her own arousal was obvious.  "I never remember getting into bed with you, though!"

Ranma's face flushed with panic.  "Nabiki, I-  I didn't-"

"Shhhh!" Nabiki said with a wince.  "I'm in pain, here."  She placed a hand on his and looked into his eyes.  "I don't know how I got down there, but I doubt you did it.  More likely it was something I did when I was drunk."

"So you believe me when I tell you that we didn't . do anything, and that I didn't take advantage of you?" Ranma asked, hopeful.

Too numb to be devious, Nabiki nodded slowly.  "Yeah, I believe you.  Even though my breasts and my . were all bare to the wind, I don't believe you would take advantage of a drunk girl."  She winked at him, although the effort of doing so sent another shot of pain through her left temple.  "Besides, you're cute enough that you wouldn't need to get a girl drunk before you could touch her."

Ranma blushed, but sighed relief at the same time.  "I'm still sorry I couldn't control what just happened.  No one else has . well, gotten that close to me before." 'And BOY did it feel good when she was,' his hormones added, restoring girth to his manhood.  "Oh this is so. I'm sorry."

Nabiki smiled to Ranma, changing the direction of the conversation before he could apologize again.  "I know you're interested in my sister, Akane, right?"

Ranma nodded, then gulped.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to tell her anything about this.  No one would believe me, anyway.  Still, even though you are after her, I was wondering if you'd answer one question for me."  Nabiki got closer to him and pointed to the bulge in his underwear.  "Did seeing *me* naked do this to you?  Please answer me honestly."

Ranma studied her face and thought he saw earnestness in her expression.  It looked a little strange being there on Nabiki's face, but it made him believe that she wasn't up to anything.  He hung his head, thinking that she was insulted by his vulgar display.  "Yes, Nabiki.  When I saw you naked just now I got. excited.  You honestly did this to me.  I didn't mean to insu-"

Nabiki brought hand up to silence him.  "I'm not insulted.  In fact-"  She leaned over and kissed him quickly on the cheek.  "Thank you, Ranma."  She got up, earning Ranma a flash of the high curves of her ass as she turned and headed to the stairs.  She looked over her shoulder at him.  "This'll be our little secret, okay?  I know you didn't mean to do this, and it's my fault it happened in the first place.  In fact, I'll only ask one thing to keep my silence forever."

'Uh oh, here it comes,' he thought with mounting dread, expecting a multi-mega yen payoff that would extend to his grandchildren's late years.

"Please promise me that if you and Akane become a couple that you will treat her better than Kuno did, okay?  That's all I ask."  Nabiki turned to look at him again, her face the very definition of earnestness.  "Please?"

Ranma's tension ebbed as he stood up, not caring about his prominence showing through his underwear.  Both were beyond embarrassment now.  'This isn't the same Nabiki I know.  She seems more. human?'  He realized that he had been taking awhile to answer her question.  She started walking towards him again with an expectant look on her face.  "Don't worry, Nabiki.  I wouldn't have freed Akane from that damned engagement with Kuno if I didn't care about her.  You have my word that I will never treat her the way he did."

"Promise?"

"Yeah, I promise," he replied.

Nabiki smiled.  "You'd better get your pants on," she advised as she glanced down between his legs again.  'Although I have to admit that the view is rather nice with them off,' she added to herself.  He blushed at her scrutiny while she giggled.

'Nabiki, giggling?' he thought to himself.  His hormones were still raging despite the awkwardness of the situation and near-terror of being in her debt for several millennia.  For some reason her attention to him was arousing, despite the fact that it was Nabiki.

"Sorry if I'm being rude, but this is all very strange and unusual for me," she said with a full-body blush.  "This is my first time ever . being seen by a guy.  I just don't know how to react."

"You're not the only one," Ranma said with a nervous laugh.

She sighed, trying to diminish her arousal.  It was obvious from where Ranma was looking that she was still just as erect as he was.  "Kasumi will be up soon, and if she sees you like this and me with nothing but my T-shirt on we'll both be dead meat by my father's hands before the morning ends," Nabiki warned.  He nodded and bent down to retrieve his pants, slid into them and zipped them closed.  "Thanks again, Ranma.  I. appreciate your honest. opinion of me."

With that, she turned and dashed upstairs as quickly as she could.  The moment her bouncy figure was out of his sight, Ranma sighed very loudly.  His pounding heart slowly reduced to normal levels now that her body was out of view.  Also, walking was easier now that his heat-soaked crotch was no longer crowded beyond standard capacity.

'God, that was.  I don't even know *what* that was!  This definitely isn't the same place that I lived in before the wish.  I would've been killed at least three times over for what just happened!' He blew his breath out in a rush.  'Well, that absolutely has to be the last weird thing that could possibly happen this weekend,' he told himself.  'My mind can't take much more.'  Unable to even think about returning to the makeshift bed and sleeping some more, he occupied his thoughts with collecting all of the bedding and folding it neatly.  He brought Nabiki's glass into the kitchen and put it in the sink, and then corked the sake decanter that she'd left open the night before.

He wrinkled his nose at the sour smell of stale sake.  'Well, there's no doubting her story. or the fact that she feels as odd about what just happened as I do.'  He looked out from the kitchen into the main room as sunlight started to pour into the room.  'It seems that not even using a wish to force a change in my life lets me get away from having some of the *freakiest* things happen.'

At that moment Kasumi walked into the kitchen and saw Ranma standing there.  She offered him a smile and tried not to look too hard at his T-shirt clad chest.  "Good morning, Ranma.  You don't need to do that for us," she added, seeing that he was taking care of the dishes in the sink.  She stood next to him and took Nabiki's glass from his hand.  "Let me take care of this for you," she said with a smile as she washed the soapsuds off.

"Ah, okay Kasumi.  I'll go ahead and clean up my bedding and stuff, then.  Is the bathroom available?" he asked, knowing that it was probably being used.

"No, I think Nabiki is in there right now.  She bathes pretty quickly though, so it should be available soon."

"That's good.  I'll get out of your way, Kasumi," he said as he walked past her and out to the main room.  He let the worry of his 'hands on' discussion with Nabiki slip away and concentrated instead on preparing to finish the work on the dojo.  His first step in doing that was waking his father.  'This could be fun,' he thought with a smirk as he donned his shirt and walked to the guest room.

****
 

"You two awake?" Nodoka asked, rapping on Ranko's bedroom door.  Hearing nothing, she opened the door and was greeted by an unoccupied room and two piles of dirty clothes sitting on the floor.  'They must already be in the bath' she thought as she walked in and straightened Ranko's room up and made the bed.  She whirled around a moment later when two smiling girls wrapped only in towels entered behind her.

"Hi, Mom!" Ranko said in a rush, Akane on her heels.  Both girls were still slightly steaming from the bath, their young skin almost red from the hot soak.

"Morning, Mrs. Saotome," Akane offered cheerily.

"Good Morning, Akane," Nodoka replied.  "Ranko, dear.  Did you use the medicated soak?"

"Yes ma'am, and Akane already helped me put that smelly rub stuff on my bruises."

"It's called 'ointment' and yes, it's quite smelly," she corrected.  "How are you feeling?"

Ranko made a show of standing on her bad ankle, putting a hand on Akane's bare shoulder to balance herself.  "See?  It doesn't hurt at all"

Nodoka eyed her daughter critically.  "That may be, but you shouldn't overdo it, young lady.  Remember what the doctor said."

Ranko sighed.  "Okay, mom.  I promise I won't overdo it."

Nodoka smiled.  "You two get dressed.  I've already got breakfast on the table," she said as she gathered Ranko's and Akane's dirty clothes in-hand and walked downstairs with them.

"Oops!  I forgot to bring something else to wear, Ranko."

"Don't worry, Akane.  I fit into your clothes with no problem, so you should be able to fit into mine."

"You don't mind me borrowing your clothes?"

"Of course not.  Besides, something tells me that we're going to be doing this a lot now," she said with a giggle.

"You're probably right," Akane responded, giggling as well.

"Of course I am!"  Ranko dropped her towel and opened her closet.  "Hmm, we're going to be doing more construction work, regardless of what mom says.  Should get something that's not *too* nice."

Ranko turned around, holding up a black T-shirt with the kanji for "Wonder girl" emblazoned across the front in a bold font and a pair of stained workout pants.  She held them against her naked body and asked, "What do you think?"

Akane smiled.  "I like it.  The shirt communicates the right message, Ranko."

Ranko snickered.  "I don't mind beating my own drum from time to time, Akane.  Confidence feels good."

Her newfound friend nodded.  "Yeah, I suppose it does."  She stepped next to Ranko and doffed her own towel, surveying the selection of clothing.  She whistled at the large and fairly expensive collection.  "Ranko, you've got a nice closet full of clothes!"

"You like?" Ranko asked with a grin.

"Oh YES!" Akane enthused, running her left hand across the racks of clothing that must've cost several thousand dollars to procure.  "You'll have to tell me where you got some of this stuff sometime."

"Whatever you'd like to wear, feel free to borrow sometime, Akane.  I'm sure I can trust you."

Akane blushed slightly.  "Thanks, Ranko-chan.  That means a lot."  She stepped into the closet and eyed the collection over while Ranko walked to her bed, dropping the shirt and pants on it.  She rummaged through one of the drawers of her dresser and came up with a pair of panties and an old bra.

Akane, satisfied that she'd found something that fit her mood, stepped out of the closet with a worn pair of Levi's blue jeans and a plain red sleeveless T-shirt.  "What do you think?"

"Ooo, good choice Akane," Ranko said while trying to clasp her bra strap, having trouble managing with her sore muscles.

"I thought so, too," Akane said, then laid the clothes down on the bed next to Ranko's and stood behind her friend.  "Here, let me help," she offered, taking the ends of the bra strap from Ranko's hands and connecting the clasps.

"Ah, thanks!  My arm didn't seem to want to go all the way back there.  Not without a lot of straining, anyway."  Ranko snorted.  "Guess I'm not completely up to full health yet."

"I wouldn't expect you to be so soon after what happened, Ranko," Akane commented, almost chiding.  "Still, it's amazing how quickly you're getting back on your feet."

"Heh.  I guess I should follow Dr. Tofu's advice and take it easy, maybe just a little bit," Ranko conceded.

Akane nodded.  "He's never been wrong before."  She looked around the room.  "Ranko, can I get a bra and panties from you too?  Your mom got mine when she took my clothes with her."

"Oops!  I should've thought of that, too.  Sure thing, Akane."  Ranko walked over to her dresser again and pointed to the top two drawers.  "Bras in the first, panties and thongs in the second," she directed before picking up her pair of panties from the bed and struggled to put them on.

Akane smiled to her friend and pulled on the handle for the first drawer.  It was a large oak dresser than would've been out of place in a traditional Japanese home, but fit just fine in this house.  "Thanks Ran-" she began, but stopped in her tracks as her gaze landed on the contents of the drawer.  "-ko."  Her eyes widened slightly as she was again greeted by the fact that Ranko's wardrobe was definitely not bargain basement.  "Wow!" she said as she hoisted up a black French-cut bra with a very delicate lace design and no inner lining.

Ranko turned her head towards Akane and smirked when she saw what her friend held in her hand.  "Yeah, I'm kinda proud of that one.  Got it a couple of weeks ago through a catalog order."

"It's wild, Ranko!"

"Want to try it on?" Ranko said with a wink.

Akane started, scandalized by the sheer fabric that she held in her hand.  She wasn't sure it would fit, and wondered how bad her out-of-shape figure would look in it.  "I- I don't know, Ranko," she stammered.

"Oh, come on!  I've worn it twice, and it makes me look great!  I'm sure it'll do the same for you, Akane."

Akane fretted for a moment, then surrendered to her curiosity and Ranko's enthusiasm.  "Oh, okay!"  She slipped the bra around her chest and clasped it in back.  It fit snugly, but not uncomfortably.  Lacking shoulder straps, she tugged on the underside of the strap, pulling it up until it was pushing up her breasts.  Running a finger along the rim of the half-cups, she adjusted the soft lace so that everything was aligned properly.  Surprised by how well the bra supported her, she looked at Ranko and held her arms up.  "What do you think?"

"Akane, it NEVER looked that good on me," Ranko said with a slight touch of envy.

"What do you mean, Ranko?" Akane asked as she turned around to look at herself in a nearby mirror.  "I'm horribly out of-  Oh wow!" she said as her eyes met with the reflection in the mirror.  She had to admit, she looked good in it.  The snowy crests of her breasts met nicely with the black lace.  And while Akane possessed only a slight amount of sag, the bra made her stand out more than she ever had.  "I'm HUGE!"  She giggled.

Ranko joined her in giggling.  "I see that."

Akane blushed.  "I can see my nipples through the fabric, though!"  She didn't bother to mention that they were also visible above the rim of the lace cups.

"It's designed that way.  It's supposed to make you feel sexy."  Ranko stood next to her, putting her arm around Akane's waist.  "I certainly feel that way when I wear it."

Akane had to admit that Ranko was correct.  Standing beside the younger girl gave her the chance to compare their figures.  Ranma's sister was slightly shorter than Akane, and her musculature was far more toned.  She even had the beginnings of a "six-pack" at her abdomen, which Akane's smooth and lithe figure obviously lacked.  Also, while Ranko's breasts were a little smaller than Akane's, they completely lacked any sag and stood straight out.  Akane noted the differences with a critical eye, but despite the differences she liked what she saw of herself in the mirror.  "Yeah, I suppose so.  Still, it's not something I'd think would be good for running around and doing hard labor in."

"This is true, Akane.  Still, it's fun to dress up once in awhile, don't you think?"

Akane nodded, and was about to say something else when Nodoka called from downstairs.  "Ranko, dear.  Are you two ready?  Your breakfast is getting cold!"

"We're almost ready, mom!" Ranko called, shrugging into her T-shirt with only a minimum of hissing.  Akane took off the black bra, smirking as she mentally said goodbye to the bigger breasts and hello to the ones that she'd grown up with.  Finding a bra with good support and a pair of white cotton panties, she dressed herself in Ranko's underwear and dove for her clothes.

A few minutes later both were dressed, with Akane on her knees helping Ranko to put her socks on.  "Thanks for loaning me the outfit," she said with a smile.  "I appreciate it."

"No problem!  It looks great on you, by the way."

Akane smiled, but said nothing as she put Ranko's shoes on for her.  She stood, and held out a hand for her friend.  "Let's go!  I'm starved!" Akane said with an enthusiastic smile.

Ranko's stomach growled, causing them to almost collapse in a fit of giggles.  "Yeah, guess we should."

The two young ladies trod down the stairs and were greeted by Nodoka.  "Ahh, good.  The table's set, so help yourselves."  A knock at the front door grabbed her attention just as the two famished girls sat down and, chopsticks at the ready, started devouring their breakfast.

"Sato, good morning!  Please come in," Nodoka said warmly as she stood from the opened door and admitted him.

"Thanks Mrs. Saotome.  I'm back like I promised."  He stifled a yawn and waved at Akane and Ranko from across the room.

"Mornin' Sato" Ranko said around a mouthful of food.

"Good morning, Sato," Akane said after swallowing.

"Where's Hikaru?" Ranko added.

"Umm, it's Sunday, Ranko.  He's still dead to the world.  Probably will stay that way until late this afternoon," Sato replied, covering for his friend despite the unwelcome revelations from him just a few hours earlier.

"Oh," she replied, her appetite diminished by her disappointment.  "I shoulda figured."  She squelched her anger before it could make itself known.  'He should be here!' she couldn't help but think.

"He'll probably get here in time for the AAA show," Sato offered helpfully as he stepped over to the table and stood near them.  'Wow, they both look VERY nice today!' he thought as he approached.  'Hikaru doesn't deserve her,' he added to himself sourly, struggling to keep a smile on his face.

"Oh, yeah.  Forgot about that," she replied with a smirk.

"Umm, what's an 'eh-eh-eh' Ranko?" Akane asked, laying her chopsticks down on her empty rice bowl.

"Oh, it's an American abbreviation for 'Afternoon Attic Anime' show.  Ranma, myself, Sato and Hikaru go up to the attic and watch anime every weekend that we're all around.  Sato's fluent in English and came up with the title.  Makes it sound important."

"It is important," Sato added with a smirk.

Akane's eyebrow swept up in admiration.  "Wow!  You're fluent in English?"

Sato blushed at the scrutiny and replied, in English.  "Yes ma'am.  That I am, indeed.  Been speaking English since I was old enough to talk."  He bowed to them.

"What did he just say?" Akane asked.  "I didn't understand it all.  Sounded like he said he was as old as the English language."

Ranko and Sato snickered, and then he translated what he'd said.  "By the way, not many people know I speak English fluently.  I respectfully ask that you don't let that particular secret out."

"Oh, damn!" Ranko said, not realizing what she'd done.  "I'm sorry, Sato.  I forgot!"

He smiled and held up a hand.  "I don't mind, Ranko, so don't worry about it.  I'm sure you won't let it slip again."

"And you need to watch your mouth young lady," Nodoka chastised as she emerged from the kitchen bearing a tray with a bowl of soup and a bowl of rice for Sato.  "Sit and eat, young man."

"Don't worry, Sato.  I won't say anything," Akane promised.

He smiled politely and nodded, taking a seat across the table from the two girls and digging into his food.  He could feel Akane's eyes scrutinizing him and stopped eating after a moment.

"I'm sorry, Sato.  I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.  I was just curious," Akane apologized.

"You're wondering how I know English so well?"

Akane nodded, blushing slightly.

"Well, I just happen to be really good at picking up the language is all," Sato replied with a slightly nervous grin, then fell silent as he quickly polished off the remainder of the breakfast.  "Delicious as always, Mrs. Saotome," he said a few moments later, patting his stomach and carefully laying his chopsticks atop his rice bowl.  "I thank you."

Nodoka smiled at him, and replied to him in English.  "You're welcome, Sato dear."

"Your mom speaks English, too?" Akane asked, wondering just how many people in the house could speak it.

"Mooom.  Quit showing off," Ranko said, shuffling in her chair with a mild touch of embarrassment.

Nodoka laughed out loud.  "Okay you three.  We need to get on the road if we're going to be of any help to Soun."

The clock chimed, indicating that it was now nine in the morning.  "Yeow!  I guess we took too long dressing," Ranko offered, pushing her chair back and standing up from the table.  "I'll help you clean, mom."

"Thank you, dear," she said as she gathered dishes and cups from the table and headed to the kitchen.  Without saying anything, Sato and Akane likewise gathered all their dirty dishes and followed Nodoka into the kitchen.  "That wasn't necessary, you know."

Sato smirked and offered a slight bow.  "I didn't mind, Mrs. Saotome.  After all, you did cook for me."

"Yeah, he's right," Akane added.

She smiled and chose not to argue the point of how bad it seemed for guests to be cleaning for the host.  A few minutes later the dishes were in the dishwasher and everyone was standing near the door.  "You ready?" Nodoka asked, ensuring her bundle was securely held in her hands after checking that she had her keys.

"All ready here," Ranko replied.  "Let's go build us a dojo!" she cheered.

The three youths laughed at that and filed out the door with Nodoka locking the door behind them.  'I hope that's all we wind up doing today,' she thought as she took their lead and headed for the Tendo home.

****
 

"Stop snickering, Ranma.  It was only funny for a little while," Genma said sourly.

"Okay, pop.  I'll quit, I promise," Ranma relented.  He suddenly dug in to the feast that Kasumi had prepared for them, not daring to meet Nabiki's gaze as she sat at the table on the spot where they'd slept together.

"Quit what, Ranma?" Nabiki asked, catching his remarks when she entered the room.

Genma growled and Ranma shuffled in his seat.  "I had a hard time waking my dad up," he replied.  "Pushing, shoving and yelling didn't work."

"Ranma-" Genma warned, leveling a glare at him.

"No, please go on.  I'm curious," Nabiki said with a smirk.

"I tossed him into the Koi pond," Ranma said as expressionlessly as he could.

"Oh, those poor fish!" Nabiki said, cracking up.

The effect was contagious and Ranma was soon laughing hard again, despite stares of doom from his father.

"Ah, so that's why the bath was occupied just now?" a voice said from the hallway.  Heads turned as a smirking Soun greeted them.

"My son just doesn't understand how to respect his elders is all, Tendo," Genma growled around a mouthful of rice.

"You really should get out of those wet clothes, Mr. Saotome.  They certainly haven't finished drying yet," Kasumi said from the kitchen doorway.

"I would agree with you, Kasumi.  However I wasn't planning on staying over, so I didn't bring a change of clothes with me."  He held up a hand, waving off any further comment.  "Don't worry about me.  I'll be fine.  With the amount of work we have left to do outside, these clothes will dry out in no time."

"How long do you think it'll take to finish today, Saotome?" Soun asked as he took his place at the table next to Nabiki.

Ranma swallowed nervously as Nabiki's father sat at that particular place.  After this morning's not so rude awakening, he'd never be able to think of the dining area in quite the same way.

"Are we still talking about the dojo, or are we including the masonry work for the wall as well?"

Soun winced at the thought of repairing the damage to the boundary wall.  "You have a point, Saotome.  We should consider fixing it as well."

Nabiki held up her chopsticks.  "We shouldn't do anything more than estimate the damage.  Insurance should be able to take care of it, assuming they believe us.  I want them to get a look at it while it's still in its 'broken' state."

Soun nodded.  "Good point.  We'll limit our repair activities to the dojo itself."

"In that case, Tendo, I'd say we could get it done before one in the afternoon."

"A reasonable estimate."  He turned to the clock.  It was fifteen minutes after nine.  "Any word on the rest of your family and Akane?"

"If I know my wife, Tendo, she'll be here any minute."

As if on cue, the door to the boundary wall opened and in came Sato, Akane, Ranko and Nodoka.  Everyone stood from the table and congregated along the outside porch.  Ranma watched speechless as Akane walked up to them, dressed in a clingy red sleeveless shirt and blue jeans that looked painted on.  Ranko's clothing was a little looser, but she nevertheless looked very attractive.

"Hey dad.  Hey Bro!" Ranko shouted as they approached.

"Good morning, young lady," Genma said, wrapping his daughter up in a hug.  "You seem to be feeling better."

"Yeah, I'm a tough broad," she said with a playful smirk, standing between her father and her brother, an arm around each.

"Hello Ranma," Akane said with a smile.  She turned to look up in the sky, affording Ranma a view of her from the rear.  He remained speechless as he drank in the view of her long, lustrous hair as it cascaded freely down her slender back.  "Pretty day, isn't it?"

Ranko elbowed him gently in the side, breaking the spell.  "Answer her, man!"

"Uh. Umm, yeah you are."  He flushed crimson and acted quickly to correct himself.  "I. I mean, yeah, it is."

Both were suddenly aware of the attention being paid to them as Akane's skin tone matched Ranma's.  Embarrassed by the slip, he looked down at his feet and tried to ignore everyone else standing on the porch.  Soun broke the moment by coughing.  "I think we should get to work."

"Agreed, Tendo," Genma said, following his friend towards the dojo.  The crowd of people slowly followed behind, excepting for Nodoka, who went inside to join Kasumi.

Ranma moved to follow them when Akane took his arm, sending an electric thrill through him.  "Thank you, Ranma," she said with a blush.  "I understood what you meant."

Ranma smiled and tried not to look awkward.  He failed miserably.  "I-"  He stopped as he caught a glimpse of Nabiki watching him from the opening of the dojo and could've sworn that he saw her smile.  Then his gaze turned to Akane.  "You're welcome."  Their eyes met for a moment and nothing was said.

Akane released his arm, aware suddenly of how long they'd been standing there.  "We'd better get going before they start talking about us again."

"Something tells me that we're too late for that, Akane," Ranma said with a chuckle.

She laughed, her eyes crinkling.  "Maybe so."

"Still, let's get in there before we get stuck doing the drudge work," Ranma added.

"Sure," Akane said as she spun around and lead the way, her long hair flowing behind her.

Ranma followed her, looking at Akane with a new perspective.  'Wow!' he thought.  His mind and heart couldn't deny what was in front of him.  'She's absolutely NOT a tomboy right now.  She's very- very-  Wow!'

His thoughts got lost in the droning chorus of hammers on nails as they entered the dojo.  Moving with speed and purpose, they lent their strength and hands to the repair effort.

****
 

"Quite a fetching little outfit, isn't it?" Kodachi said from her perch atop a tree that had a vantage point across the Tendo property boundary wall.  She shifted soundlessly, her traditional ninja garb silencing her movements and making her hard to spot in the shading of the leaves.  She lowered her binoculars and looked to her left.

"It depends on which person you are referring to, dear sister," Tatewake Kuno said, avoiding the bait.  He was sitting next to her on the branch and was holding his own pair of shaded binoculars.  "I still don't see why you needed to have me climb up here with you.  I'm hardly the kind of person who will mount a tree when he has others to do that."  He looked down at the group of people as they filtered into the dojo, suppressing a violent rage as he saw the tender moment pass between Ranma and Akane.

"Because I thought you needed to see the damage to the wall for yourself so that you could comprehend the scope of it."  She craned her neck to try to catch at least a smattering of what was being said.  "Shame we can't hear what they're saying, brother dear," Kodachi frowned.  "You want me to get closer and plant the micro-cassette recorder?

Kuno grunted thoughtfully.  "While that may be a good idea from a curiosity point of view, I think we would only get the sounds of construction.  I believe it would behoove us to make use of our new resource instead.  She could prove useful, given her past with both Akane and that fiend Saotome."

"So are we leaving?"

"Yes.  I don't see any reason to hang around here.  If I were discovered, my appearance would only aggravate the situation and damage the plans I've set in motion.  Best to keep things low key for now."  He looked at the gaping hole in the wall, and then to the dojo where everyone was hammering away.  "I am curious about something, however.  Where is the person who caused the hole in that wall?"

Kodachi frowned again and then donned her mask.  "I do not have an answer for that, yet."  She hated not knowing something.  She prided herself on being in the right place at the right time, and more importantly, she prided herself on being right.

Kuno could sense her frustration.  "You mentioned the friend of the Amagi girl that had called with information about the attack.  Try starting there."

Kodachi nodded.  "Ami Nakato.  She mentioned something about a hospital, best that I could tell.  I'll check there and see if any of the records reflect the whereabouts of their attacker."

"Yes, this person may prove valuable as well."

"Fare thee well, brother dear.  My investigation commences."

He turned and, as expected, she was gone from sight.

'She could've waited until I got down first,' he thought in frustration as he began his struggle to descend from the tree.

'First I need to turn Miss Amagi to my advantage,' he began, enumerating his options.  'Once I have that particular pawn in-hand, I can deal with Ranma.'  He smiled as he contemplated the many ways in which he could, and would, 'deal with Ranma.'

****
 

Ranma smiled as he pounded the last nail in the last board along the wall.  Sato and Genma were a few seconds behind him.  He walked inside and looked around the dojo, which seemed to be in the best shape ever.  Akane, Nabiki and Ranko had spent the entire time sanding all the floorboards, and he could tell that their efforts had paid off.

"Is that it?" Soun asked from outside.

Everyone in the dojo looked up, breathing hard.  Nabiki scanned the perimeter from her point at the center of the floor.  "Wow, I think we're done!" she enthused.

"Thank God!" Ranko said, getting off of her knees and laying down on the floor.  All three girls were coated with dust.  Akane nodded wordlessly and sat next to Ranko, laying her head on her friend's belly.

"We did it!" Nabiki yelled weakly, taking a deep breath and resting her head on her sister's stomach, similar to Akane's position on Ranko so that the three girls created a crude Z formation.

Sato, Genma and Soun walked into the dojo and surveyed the results of their work.  "You three look comfy" Sato said with a smirk as he chose to survey the girls instead.

"Yeah, we are.  Wanna join us?" Ranko said with a wink.

Sato nearly fainted, turning crimson up to the top of his forehead.  "I- I c-couldn't."

Akane giggled at his discomfort and Nabiki did her best to keep her face neutral.  She'd had a hard time looking at Sato the entire time he was there due to the intense dream she'd had the night before.  'I'd rather not have him laying anywhere near me, thank you very much,' she thought firmly.  She couldn't exactly say why, outside of a dream, she was so averse to him though.

Sato propped himself against the jamb of the doorway and mopped sweat from his brow with the tail of his shirt.  "That was quite a tiring workout, Ranma."

Ranma, not struggling nearly as badly as his friend, merely nodded and smiled.  He approached the Z formation and looked down at the three panting girls.  "I think they'd agree with you too, Sato."  His comment was greeted with tired-sounding giggles.

"I need something to drink," Ranko said.  "I'm hot."

"I need a nap," Akane said with a yawn, stretching her arms but avoiding smacking Ranko's face in the process.

"I need a vacation," Nabiki groused.  Her head still hurt from her overindulgence the night before, and her body ached from all the kneeling, hammering and sanding she'd done for the past day and a half.

Everyone laughed at that.  "Aw!  Come on, Nabiki.  You have to admit that the place looks pretty good," Ranko enthused.

Ranma sat down at his sister's feet, and tried to avoid getting too close to Nabiki.  Sato sank down to a seated position at the doorway, popping his back against the jamb.  "I agree with Nabiki AND Akane.  I could use a vacation and a nap."

"Am I the only one that's thirsty?" Ranko replied.

"You shouldn't have let yourself get dehydrated," Genma chided.  "Everyone else was sipping water while they worked.  I thought I taught you better than that."

"You did, Pop.  I think it's the medicine," Ranko shot back.  "Anyway."  A yawn from deep inside interrupted her sentence.  "Sorry."

Kasumi walked in at that moment and noticed everyone in some form of repose.  "My!  What a change!"  Everyone turned to look at her as the eldest Tendo daughter surveyed the dojo.  She bent down and ran a finger against one of the floorboards, and then she wiped it with her whole hand.  Kasumi grimaced as it came up covered in wood dust.  Clapping her hands together, she cleaned them off as best as she could.  "Nanna is making lunch for all of us and it will be ready in about half an hour."

"That gives us just enough time to clean up, Kasumi," Soun said, straightening up from his relaxed position against one of the walls.

"I think that should be my job," Kasumi offered, producing a broom from nowhere.  "After all the work everyone here has done, this is the least I can do to help."  She held up her hand before anyone could protest.  "I'll sweep and wipe the floor down.  You can handle the rest, daddy."

Soun nodded and started directing people to pick up tools, nails and scrap boards.  "Let's get the tools put away first.  We need to get this floor completely bare so Kasumi can get her part done."  She nodded her thanks and then proceeded to an empty corner of the room.  Everyone else scurried around her, picking up what they could and hauling it to wherever Soun directed them to go.  Soon only the sound of Kasumi humming happily while sweeping the floor was heard.  Everyone else retreated to the porch outside the house and collapsed.

After fifteen minutes of silence, punctuated only by the occasional yawn or stretch, Soun disappeared into the house.  He returned bearing a pitcher of sake and a fair sized and slightly beaten-up wooden box.  "Remember this, Saotome?" he asked, sitting next to his friend and blowing dust off of the top of the box.

"It isn't." Genma started to say.  A grin spread across his face as his friend opened up the box to reveal a worn playing surface.  "Ah!  Our favorite game!" he cheered as Soun produced a large pouch from within his gi and placed it next to the Go board with a thump.

"Indeed," Soun replied with a smile.  "It's been awhile since I've dragged this old thing out.  I hope I can remember how to play."

The two men bent over the board and commenced a game, ignoring all of the young eyes watching them incredulously.

"That'll keep 'em busy for awhile," Ranko commented, then leaned her head against her brother's shoulder.  "How can they play after doing all that work?" she groused.

Ranma put his arm around her shoulder and watched his father try to outthink Soun.  "Don't worry, sis.  I have a feeling that this one won't last too long unless Pop cheats."

"I never cheat, my boy," Genma said confidently, his eyes never leaving the board as doubting gazes were leveled at him from all around.

"Yeah, right," the two Saotome children chorused, Akane giggling at the indignant looks from her father and Genma.

"Here you go," Nodoka said sometime later, appearing out of nowhere.  In one hand she bore a tray of tall glasses wet with condensation.  "Pink lemonade, anyone?"

"Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Ranko chanted, taking a glass from the tray and rubbing it across her forehead.  She sighed happily as the cool glass caressed her overheated skin.

"Just what I needed," Akane added, taking a glass and a straw and quickly drinking.

"You're welcome," Nodoka said pleasantly, putting the tray down on the floor and grabbing a glass for herself.  She took a big sip of the tangy liquid and sighed.  "Mmm, that is perfect."  She leaned against one of the support beams for the roof over the porch and watched the clouds pass overhead.  "It's a beautiful day."

"I agree, Nanna," Kasumi added, coming out with an additional tray bearing three more glasses and a pitcher of pink lemonade.  She set her burden next to the other tray and joined Nodoka on the edge of the porch.  "I haven't had lemonade in forever.  Not since."  She started thinking.

"Not since the last time I was here?" Nodoka completed for her.

Kasumi offered her a wan smile.  "I think you're right.  Is this the same recipe that I remember from my childhood days?"

Nodoka nodded.  "Made just the same way."  Before they wound up talking about Kimiko, she took the eldest Tendo daughter by the hand.  "Kasumi, dear, why don't you show me the gardening that you've been doing around here.  With everything that happened yesterday, I only got a slight look at it."  Kasumi's smile grew as she nodded and led Nodoka on a tour of the property.

"So what do we do now, Ranma?" Sato asked, watching the women depart before returning his gaze to the fleecy white clouds scurrying overhead.

"I dunno, Sato," he answered with a shrug.  "I'm kinda comfortable right here."

"I can't believe that I have to go back to school tomorrow," Nabiki groused before taking a swallow of her lemonade.

"Aww, man!  You'd think with all of the stuff that we went through this weekend that they'd give us a couple of days off," Ranko added.

Ranma snorted, hugging his sister to him.  "Sorry, Sis.  It doesn't work that way."  He looked at the dojo and felt a sense of accomplishment he had never known before.  "In fact, when you think about it, school may be a nice vacation from the weekend."

Soft laughter erupted from all of them at his statement.  "You ain't kiddin', Bro," Ranko said with a tired sigh.

"I know that some really bad stuff happened this weekend," Akane said while looking straight at her older sister.  "Still, we got a lot of things accomplished," she knelt between Ranko and Nabiki, hooking one arm around each of them.  "And," she blushed a little before continuing, "we managed to meet some new friends along the way."

"To friends!" Sato cheered, holding up his glass.

"To friends," they all echoed, glasses clinking together.

"And I'm sure that after everything that happened this weekend, we've gotten to know each other in ways that no-one else would," Sato said poignantly.

Ranma and Nabiki both suddenly went into coughing fits, putting their glasses down on the decking and eyeing each other strangely.  "What do you mean, Sato?" Nabiki croaked.

"Oh, I was just saying that it's not often that you meet friends during a stressful situation like the one we had.  Brings out the true nature of someone," Sato clarified.

"You okay, Ranma?" Akane and Ranko chorused, Akane moving to take a seat on the other side of him.

"Yeah, just tried to drink too quickly is all," Ranma said, trying not to look directly at Nabiki.  He cleared his throat, took a deep breath and then relaxed again.  "Wow, that was unexpected," he added before bringing the glass to his lips again.

"Anyway, considering everything that's happened this weekend I think I'm going to relax and do very little during the week.  Besides, what else could possibly go wrong?" Sato mused.

Ranma spluttered and coughed again, this time doubling over in a hacking fit that prompted both Akane and Ranko to pound on his back.  A moment later he looked up at Sato with bloodshot eyes and a pained expression.  "Never ask that question," he said with a haunting tone to his voice.

****
 

"Ami-chan.  What do you think?" Kinuko asked while her friend idly fingered her way through a Madoka's Secret catalog.

"What do I think about what, K-chan?" Ami replied with half-hearted interest.  Her mentally challenged friend had been ransacking her closet yet again looking for just the right thing to get Ranma Saotome's attention away from Akane Tendo, primary rival of Kinuko Amagi.  So far the only thing that Ami had been able to tell during the course of the evening was that her friend's desperation levels had grown to new highs.  Or rather, to new lows, depending on how you looked at it.

"This dress, you ninny!  Will this get my Ranchan's attention?" she snapped, leveling a DEFCON- 2 pout at her friend.  She stood in front of her friend at the edge of her bed, her arms spread wide and her head up in a Madonna-esque strike-a-pose moment.  The black dress was full length and form hugging to the extreme.  Thanks to the fact that the fabric was quite thin, her body shape was quite easy to discern.  Two slits on either side went up from her outer ankles to the tips of her hipbones allowing her to walk freely and everyone else to see a long expanse of her legs.

Ami's eyes widened and she couldn't hold back a gasp.  "K-chan, that thing is sinful!"

Kinuko snickered gleefully.  "You think so, too?  I knew it!  Then you think that this will get his attention?"

"K-chan, that dress would get the attention of every man on the planet.  It doesn't help that you're not wearing any underwear and it's chilly in here!"  Ami shook her head in mild disgust, tired of having to stroke her friend's ego over something that was, quite frankly, a lost cause.  "Why don't you just go naked if you're going to wear something like that in front of him?"

Kinuko looked shocked.  "Why, I couldn't possibly."  She stopped her protest amid sentence as a more devious idea came to mind.  She started snickering, the tone going from mild bemusement to something a bit more sinister.

"K-chan, I was kidding," Ami said with a bit of worry.  "You *do* realize this, don't you?"

"Oh this is *so* perfect!" Kinuko squealed, jumping up and down in her dress, exposing herself at the waist with every leap as her breasts bounced wildly beneath the dress fabric.  "I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!"  She reached down and tugged Ami off of the bed, hugging her and jumping around.

Ami returned the hug somewhat reluctantly and regarded her friend as if she'd finally lost her last thread of sanity.  "K-chan, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the idea I just had," Kinuko enthused, rubbing her hands together with gusto.  She'd not felt this good since the last time she was about to go beneath Ranma for a little 'fun.'  "I just *know* this is going to work, and I have you to thank for it my dear Ami-chan!"  She grabbed her friend at the waist and kissed her soundly on the lips.  "You are such a genius!" the brainless wonder shouted after breaking the kiss, stripping out of the dress and reaching for some jeans and a baggy shirt.

Ami, recovering from her first ever girl-girl kiss, calmly walked up to her friend and put a hand on each of Kinuko's shoulders.  "Pardon me, but-" She inhaled deeply.  "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, DITZOID?"

Unfazed, Kinuko clasped her friend on the shoulders in a return gesture.  "I'm talking about my final victory over Akane!  What you said made me think of the one thing that Ranma would want that he hasn't seen yet!"  She winked conspiratorially at her friend. "And I'll BET that Akane wouldn't have thought of it."

"Well?!"  Ami asked, thoroughly exasperated.  "What is it?"

Kinuko smirked at Ami and answered with a purr.  "It's a surprise."

****
 

"Is it really after four?" Nodoka asked from her seat next to Genma.  For almost three hours her husband and Soun had not moved from their spot on the porch, the rounds that were played having been too involving for either man to spare any attention to anything else.

Seeing that she wasn't getting a reaction from her husband, Nodoka craned her neck and started blowing into Genma's ear.  He swatted at her as if she was a fly buzzing around his ear and returned to his game.  "Your move, Tendo."

Nodoka sighed.  "I'd forgotten about their obsessive behavior when it comes to this game," she grumbled, then reached out and started tickling Genma along his flank, intensifying the assault as he tried to squirm away from her hands.  Finally he turned to her with a reddened face.

"Nodoka!  We're playing, here," he harrumphed.

She smiled sweetly at him.  "Yes, I can see that.  Are you aware, by any chance, that it's also four in the afternoon, dear?"  She regarded him sternly now.  "Just how long were you planning on playing?"

Genma snorted.  "Well, we were planning on playing the game for as long as it took."

"Then I guess we're done, eh Saotome?" Soun chortled as he clapped the winning piece on the board.

"Huh?!" Genma said with incredulity, his head whipping back and forth from the game board to Soun's Cheshire Cat-like grin.  "How did you do that, Tendo?"

Nodoka took her husband's hand and stood up to avoid a challenge to the final play.  "We've imposed on Soun long enough, dear.  We should be getting home.  Tomorrow is Monday after all."

Genma spluttered and tried to mount a defense for staying long enough for him to find a loophole in Soun's victory claim, but his wife wouldn't let go of his hand.  He sighed and relented to her tugging, standing up and bowing to Soun.  "Good game."

"Aww, Mom!  Do we have to go now?" Ranko asked, pouting.  Ranma had long ago dozed off while leaning against his sister and was unable to contribute to the argument.  Little did he know that Akane was also sound asleep with her head lying against his chest.

"Yes, Ranko.  We need to let them have some time to themselves.  Besides, it's not like we're on opposite ends of the world.  We'll be able to visit them again with no problem."

Soun stood and smiled good-naturedly.  "This is true.  I'll expect to see you and your family here more often now, Saotome."

Nodoka bowed and Genma extended his hand.  "We promise to be back, Tendo."  Soun accepted the hand, shaking it.

Nabiki stood up and stretched, not even trying to conceal a yawn.  She looked down at Ranma and Akane and couldn't help but smile.  'They look cute together, I have to admit,' she thought.  As her gaze lingered on them, her mind went back to the early morning and her sake-clouded memories of being wrapped in Ranma's embrace with his hands resting atop her breasts.  'And if you don't take him sis, I sure will!' she promised herself, her sensual side stepping up to the mike.  Stopping before she became flushed or worse, she bent down and shook Akane's shoulder.  "Wake up sis, our guests have to leave," she whispered in her sister's ear.

Akane stirred, sitting up from the comfortable place where she had been resting.  She put her hand down to steady herself and was confused when she didn't feel wood beneath her hand.  She looked down and saw that she was pressing against Ranma's chest, his steady heartbeat registering against her palm.  "Oops!" she said as she pulled her hand away, standing up before he was fully awake.  'I really must've been tired.  I didn't even notice that I'd moved,' she added to herself.

"Whazzat, Akane?" Ranma slurred, sitting up from his resting place on his sister's shoulder.

"Oh, nothing Ranma," she said quickly, blushing slightly.

"You have a nice nap, bro?" Ranko asked, trying not to smirk too obviously at both her brother and Akane.

"How long was I out?" Ranma asked, still waking up and getting his bearings.

"About two hours, wouldn't you say?" Ranko guessed, turning to Nabiki.

Nabiki nodded.  "Yes, about that.  You and Akane were both out like a light not long after you'd finished your lemonade.  I don't really blame you, either," she said, shrugging her shoulders.  "Both of you did a lot of work yesterday and today."

Ranko stifled a yawn.  "I'm pretty much pooped, also."  She stretched, her back cracking slightly as she raised her arms high overhead.  "Maybe Mom's right.  We probably do need to get home and relax."

"You're leaving?" Akane asked with a slight pout.

Ranma stood and then helped his sister up.  "We probably should."

Slightly disappointed, Akane looked to her new friend.  "Thanks for coming by and helping, Ranko.  I really appreciate it."

"No problem, Akane.  I'll see you in school tomorrow, right?"

Akane nodded and smiled.  "You bet!  Oh, should I return these to you then?" she asked, pointing to the red shirt and painted on clingy jeans.

Ranko waved her hand dismissively.  "Don't worry about that.  Whenever you want, it's no big deal."

Kasumi bent down and started picking up the empty lemonade glasses and putting them on the trays.  Nodoka got on her knees and joined her, making quick work of the dishes while Soun and Genma tended to collecting game pieces and putting away the Go board.

Akane looked towards the dojo and indicated it with a nod.  "Hmm, I'd better make sure everything got put away in there."

"Go ahead, I'm gonna pick up out here and then help in the kitchen," Nabiki volunteered, keeping her distance from Sato as she began to clean.

Ranma followed Akane to the dojo and helped her put up a few last minute things that they'd left sitting in a corner while Kasumi had swept the floor.  A few minutes of silent working passed before they were finished.  "Whew!" he said, surveying the place.  "Hard to believe that we did it in one weekend, don't'cha think Akane?"

Akane turned to him, her eyes wet and her cheeks slick with tears.  "I- "  She sniffled a bit and wiped her eyes.  "I-"

Alarm showed on his face.  'Did I insult her by asking about the dojo or somethin'? '  "Akane, what's wrong?"  He suddenly felt uncomfortable looking at a very feminine side of a tomboyish girl he used to fight with all the time.

"It's nothing, really," she sniffled, wiping her eyes again and forcing a smile.  Her insides churned as she pondered doing what she wanted to do.  A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed between the two until the sound of a door closing inside the house broke the spell.

"Well, I'd better get these dirty glasses inside for Kasumi to wash," Ranma said, indicating the small collection of water glasses that they'd left behind on a shelf after completing the work in the dojo.  He was halfway to the door when Akane called to him.

"Ranma, wait!" she said in a plaintive voice, almost yelling.  "I-"  She steeled herself.  'Dammit, you HAVE to do this!' she told herself.

He turned to look at her again and saw her advancing in his direction.  The look on her face was classic Akane, full of anger and venom.  He slowly began to back away, but found his way quickly blocked by the wall of the dojo.  Dread began to creep into his voice.  "Wha-  Wait, Akane!  Whatever's wrong, I didn't do it.  I think.  What-?  WAIT!"

Akane lunged at him and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.  Unable to hold back the flood of emotion that had built up inside her for so long, she cried harder than she'd cried in a long time.  Ranma, meanwhile, found himself juggling a burden of seven empty drink glasses as well as tending to a crying girl that had latched herself to his chest.  He leaned to his right and placed the glasses back on the shelf for a moment, then with his hands free he slowly closed his arms around her shoulders.  "It-  It's okay, Akane."

She tightened her hold on him and turned her head to lay her cheek against his chest.  "Yes.  Now it is."

Where he had heard sorrow in her voice before, now he heard something else.  'She's not upset with me, I guess.  So what's the matter?'  He didn't know if he should be enjoying the embrace or not, given her tears.  Still, he couldn't deny how good it felt holding her.  Noticing that no one was watching them or could see them from where he and Akane stood; he reached up and rubbed her head gently, running his fingers through her long silken hair.  "You sure you're okay, Akane?"

Her large brown eyes still wet with tears, she looked up at him and smiled.  "Yeah, I am Ranma.  I just wanted to thank you.  Not just for what you did for us this weekend, but for what you've done for me."  She closed her eyes and laid her face against his chest again, her smile still in place.  "You've given me back my life."

Ranma shuddered nervously.  "I-  You're welcome, Akane."  He stood there saying nothing, gladly holding onto her for as long as she wanted to be held.  His heart hammered in his chest and his pulse pounded behind his ears.  Every nerve of his body was on fire as the warmth of Akane's body radiated against his.  He'd dreamed about *really* holding her in his arms on many occasions, however the reality was far more enjoyable than any imagining he'd ever done.

Another sound, this time of a door opening and footsteps on the porch broke the moment and, with some reluctance, the two parted and Akane stepped back.  Mustering courage from the closeness they'd shared thus far, Ranma reached out and stroked her left cheek with a trembling hand.  She smiled and said nothing, merely covering his hand with her own.

"Akane?  Ranma?  You two finished in the dojo?" Nodoka called, her footsteps growing closer.

"Wow, better not let your mom see me like this.  I don't want her to think that you did something wrong to me."  Akane turned and walked to the far corner of the dojo while Ranma stood there, still slightly numb from the powerful moment they'd just shared.

He managed to turn and grab his burden of glasses from the shelf just as his mother entered the room.  "Not bad, you two.  It really looks good in here."  Nodoka did a slow spin, surveying all the work that had been done to the place.  "Hard to believe what can be accomplished sometimes when you put a lot of love and effort into something."

"True enough, Mom," Ranma said with a smile, turning to face her with his burden of glasses now cradled in his arms and propped against his chest.

"Oh, let me help you with those, son.  I didn't know we'd brought so many dishes out here," Nodoka offered as she took half of the glasses and led the way out.  "Kasumi's washing dishes now, so we should go ahead and get these to her."

Ranma hesitated at the doorway for a moment, and then turned to look at Akane.  As his gaze fell upon her he saw that she was looking right at him.  As their eyes met his heart rate increased until it was pounding against his ribs.  "Don't worry, I'll be in soon, Ranma."  She favored him with a smile before returning to what she was doing.

Smiling as well, he walked out of the dojo and made for the kitchen.  A quick walk brought him to the center of activity with Nabiki, Sato, his mom and dad and Mr. Tendo working in the living area and along the porch while Kasumi was working hard in the kitchen.

He laid his burden down on the counter and without any prompting from Kasumi began to wash the glasses that he'd brought from the dojo.  It wasn't long before he was done with his washing and had stacked the glasses on the dish rack as safely as he possibly could.  He turned to walk out of the kitchen when Kasumi called to him.

"Ranma?"

He stopped and looked over his shoulder.  "Yeah, what is it Kasumi?"

"I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for us.  I don't know why you're doing it, but you have my sincerest gratitude."  She bowed slightly, hands clasped in front of her.

Ranma turned around to face her, propping himself up with one hand by leaning against the doorway to the kitchen.  'This is the second time I've heard this in the past ten minutes,' he thought with mild discomfort.  The praise and thanks weren't things he was used to.  He cleared his throat and answered her.  "I just don't like people getting taken advantage of, Kasumi.  That's what Kuno was doing to Akane and I couldn't stand it.  I was glad to do what I did."  He paused to collect his thoughts.  "Even though we had some weird stuff happen to us yesterday, I enjoyed what we were doing in the dojo.  Besides, I knew that our dads used to be friends and I just wanted my dad to be happy again."  Another pause.  "Did you know that he's really missed being around your dad?"

Her smile seemed to slip just a bit, and she looked on the verge of tears.  She sniffled and collected herself.  "I see.  Well, you're welcome to come here anytime you wish."  Her lower lip trembled.  "You and your family will always be welcome."

Ranma bowed to her.  "Thank you, Kasumi."

Kasumi nodded and slowly returned to her duties while Ranma stepped into the living area just as everyone had finished what they were doing.  Nabiki waved to everyone and said, "Homework time!  I'd better get started."  She ran up the stairs before giving anyone a chance to respond.  Sato watched with obvious disappointment as Nabiki's shorts-clad derriere bounded up the stairs in record time.

"Akane's still in the dojo?" Soun asked.

Ranma nodded.  She still had some minor cleaning she wanted to take care of in there.  She said she'd be right in."

Soun grunted and let out a tired sigh.

"It was definitely a weekend for the record books, Soun," Nodoka said as she headed for the door.

"Indeed it was, Tendo," Genma said.  "I'll see you again soon."

Soun smiled.  "I'm sure of it.  Take care Saotome, Nodoka."  He turned to Ranma and Ranko, who were now arm in arm with Sato standing beside them.  "You three did a lot this weekend.  I hope you'll come by to visit again soon.  I promise you we won't put you to work next time."

Ranko giggled and Sato gave one of his patented 'Aw shucks' grins.  Ranma bowed to Soun.  "Thanks, Mr. Tendo."

With that the family walked out through the door and onto the lawn while Kasumi and Soun stood at the porch, waving.  "Take care, Nanna.  Mr. Saotome," Kasumi called cheerfully.

"Let's go home," Nodoka said to her family with a smile.

Kasumi and Soun waved until the Saotomes had passed through the gates of the boundary wall and were out of sight.

****
 

Ranko made her way to the end of the hall and opened the door.  "It's up this way," she said in a low voice, taking Ranma by the hand and leading him through the door and up a narrow set of stairs.  The walls of the staircase were left unfinished, with the structural timbers uncovered and all the wiring exposed.  At the second step she reached out and flipped a light switch, causing a dim yellowish light to illuminate the room at the top of the stairs.

"I actually spent a lot of time up here?" Ranma asked, unsure about the whole thing.  Not one for usually cloistering himself in a dimly lit room with no windows, he regarded his destination with skepticism.  "Doesn't seem like a very comfortable place."

Ranko yawned, still tired from their weekend labor.  "Trust me, bro.  This is a fun place to be."  She stopped on the seventh step and looked at him.  "You do watch anime, don't you?"

He shrugged.  "Not really.  I had plenty to do with my martial arts and stuff."

"Movies?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Concerts or music?"

"No concerts, but I listen to music now and again."

She shook her head sadly.  "We have to get you a culture, big brother."

Ranma wondered exactly what she'd meant by that and was about to comment when he saw what lay at the top of the staircase.  "What *is* that thing?" he asked, eyes wide.  A large white wall dominated the back of the attic.  Speakers were mounted at the top corners of it and were angled down towards two couches that sat, one behind the other, facing the wall.  A rather imposing black cabinet dominated the left side of the room with a bunch of electronics stacked neatly within.  Everything in the cabinet was dark, which Ranma assumed meant that it was powered off.

Ranko beamed proudly and walked over to it.  With a wave of her petite hand she began a Vanna White showcase of the contents.  She cleared her throat and began to speak with a higher pitched TV personality voice.  "This is a Nakamichi AV-10 with built-in decoders for both Dolby Digital and DTS discrete 5.1-channel surround sound, Dolby Pro Logic surround decoding, ambience synthesis circuitry, five powerful state-of-the-art amplifiers, refined AM/FM tuner circuitry, and a full complement of digital and analog inputs.  Also, the AV-10 incorporates power amplifiers based on Nakamichi's innovative Harmonic Time Alignment (HTA) technology. This unique approach to amplifier design maintains the correct timing relationship between the signal and its distortion components."

Ranma nodded, not understanding a word she just said, but continued to follow her as her hand caressed the next item in the stereo rack.  "The Nakamichi Dragon-DAC Limited Edition audio CD player has the capability of holding 7 CDs and providing up to 8 hours of listening pleasure."  She went on to discuss the Pioneer DVL combination DVD and Laserdisc player, along with a graphic equalizer, satellite dish receiver and two VCRs.

He shook his head as the details overwhelmed him.  "Ranko, how do you know all of this. stuff?" he asked, pointing at the cabinet.

"Oh, I love this, Ranma!  Hardware gets me right here," she said, pointing at her heart.  "It's your passion-  I mean, it was your passion."  She shrugged at his lack of enthusiasm and pointed to the roof.  "Look up."

He looked up and saw a metal plate that was suspended by thick chain links bolted to the rafters.  Some cables could be seen running down towards it.  "What is it?"

She regarded him with a 'Don't you know anything?' look.  "It's a projector.  Hadn't you wondered why there isn't a TV in here?"

He hadn't even thought to look for one.  Although the more he studied the room, the more it resembled a movie theater kind-of layout.  "Umm, it didn't really cross my mind, sis."

Ranko put her hand to her head and groaned.  "I know you're not like you used to be, but I figured you'd at least know a little bit about this kind of stuff."

Ranma shook his head and smiled at her.  "Hey, if it wasn't fighting or learning about fighting or eating, I didn't do it.  Pop kept me up on my training all the time."

Ranko sighed, giving up on getting him excited about the place.  "It's a Viewsonic computer projector, one of the best ones they make.  It also does a good job of projecting movies and stuff.  You got it about three months ago to replace the big-screen TV that you used to have here."  She reached down to a table that sat in front of the first couch and pointed at the wall with a small remote control.  She pressed the red button and suddenly the large empty expanse of wall was awash with a blue background and the words "VIEWSONIC: A VISION OF INNOVATION" written in large white Hiragana.

"Oh, I see," Ranma said as he stared at the roughly four foot by six foot display.

Ranko groaned at her brother's blas‚ attitude.  "Just sit on the couch, Ranma," she commanded as she maneuvered her way around an old and stained coffee table that was in front of the first couch and sat down.  As her brother sat next to her she lifted his arm up and put it over her shoulders so that she could get really close to him.  "Now you'll need to pay attention, bro.  The guys will be here in about thirty minutes and I can tell that you don't stand a chance in hell of being able to use this system.  This is a problem since YOU are the only one who usually gets to mess with these controls. Unless you learn quickly it's going to look really weird when you can't operate your own home theater system."

"Oh, great!" Ranma groused, staring at the daunting rack of audio and video components with dread.  His eyes quickly glazed over as she began to discuss the various features of the projector remote and another, much bigger remote with the words "REMOTE COMMANDER" etched in gold-tinted boldface Kanji.  She pressed a red button on the top and suddenly a loud thrum issued from the speakers.

"I love that sound," Ranko said with a smirk, immersing herself in the deep bass sound of the receiver's self-test.  Ranma's head moved, tracking the sound as it bounced across the room.

"It sounds like it's moving around us, sis."

"That's because it is, bro."  She pointed around the room, indicating speakers that he'd missed earlier which were mounted behind them on parts of the attic roof.  "We're literally surrounded by sound."

She got up and pulled a DVD off of a shelf that was next to the component cabinet.  "Even though you don't like movies much, here's something you have probably seen before."  She dropped the disc onto the tray and closed it, then returned to the couch.  "But trust me, you've never seen it like this."  She pressed another button and an audible click could be heard from behind them as the lights went off, leaving them almost completely in the dark.  The remote control was backlit, allowing her to see what button needed to be pressed next."

"Okay, so far it's just dark and quiet.  Powerful stuff," Ranma said, teasing slightly.

"Hush!  I have to get used to navigating this thing on my own," she said, swatting him playfully on the leg.  "Okay, DVD Play.  Found it!"  Suddenly a black and white starburst image displayed on the screen followed by the Kanji for "Toho Studios."  Music could be heard, barely discernable at first, then rising in volume as the title came up: "Kurosawa Akira's Seven Samurai."

Ranma smiled.  He did recognize it, and it wasn't long before he was immersed in the classic story of a farming village's struggle against a horde of bandits.  As he watched he had to admit that the quality of the picture and the sound were far better than how he'd seen it previously when he was much younger.  "This isn't bad, sis."

Ranko hit stop and looked at him as the room went dark again.  "The other you may have been an asshole to me most of the time, but he sure knew how to enjoy himself.  If there's only one thing I can credit him with, it's this," she said, gesturing towards the component rack.

Ranma heard the small note of pride in her voice as she spoke, making him feel just a little uncomfortable.  He struggled with something that had been gnawing at him since the day he'd wished himself there.  "Sis.  You-  You don't miss him, do you?"

She paused to consider the question, her facial features completely concealed by the darkness.  "It's hard to describe it, Ranma.  I mean. he was a part of my life for a long time, but I was never close to him the way I am to you.  And really, *you* are my brother.  You're still Ranma.  So while you don't act like him, you still *are* him."  Despite the minor discomfort she felt when she put pressure on her ankle, she put the remote down on the table and stood up.  Reaching over with her left leg, she straddled him so that she was sitting in his lap with only an inch separating the two.  "You're my brother, okay?" she whispered, her breath a sweet caress against his cheek.

Ranma nodded, smiling at her even though he was pretty sure she couldn't see him well enough to tell.  "Yeah, sis.  I understand.  I'm glad to be your brother," he added, wrapping his arms around her waist and locking his fingers together.

"There's one other *important* thing that you shouldn't forget, Ranma.  I never would've loved him.  Respected him?  Maybe.  Honored him as a part of the family?  By obligation, yes.  But love him?  Not in a million years."  She closed the gap between their faces, pressing her lips to his in a short but tender kiss.  "In two weeks you've gotten me to love you the way I've always wished I could love my brother," she said as their faces parted.  "I love you with all my heart, and will do so for the rest of my life."  She hugged him tightly, the second such hug he'd received that day.

He found that he couldn't speak at first.  The raw emotion made him feel uncomfortable, just as it had when he was in the dojo earlier with Akane.  Instead of responding immediately to her words he rubbed her back with one hand and held her close with the other.  "Well-  Considering I never had a sis until a couple of weeks ago, I don't know what to say, except-  Well, I feel the same way about you, Ranko."  He rubbed the back of her neck for a moment during the ensuing silence.  Both jumped slightly when they heard a loud knock at the door to the attic stairs.

"Wow, we must've taken longer than I thought," Ranko said, quickly getting out of her brother's lap and standing up.  She pressed a button on the remote to turn the lights back on and suddenly the DVD powered down.  "Damn!  Wrong button."  She fumbled around with the remote control, squinting in the near dark for another moment until she located the right button.  A click was heard and suddenly the lights were back on.  Both squinted as their eyes adjusted to the change.

"You guys already up there?" Hikaru's muffled voice called from behind the attic door.

"Yeah, we're in here," Ranko answered.

"You didn't start without us, did you?" Sato's voice called out as the door opened.  The door closed again and the sound of feet climbing the stairs soon followed.

"No, we didn't start anything yet," Ranma answered, blinking his eyes to get them adjusted to the difference in lighting.

"That's good because I brought the treats and the videos," Hikaru said with a smile, as he reached the top of the stairs.  Brandishing two six-packs of drinks and a bag of shrimp chips, he walked towards the couches.  Sato was right behind him holding a cloth bag bulging with more stuff.  Ranko walked up to them as quickly as she could, wrapping her arms around Hikaru and kissing him soundly on the cheek.  "Shrimp chips?  Yucky!  Is that all you brought?" she said with a teasing smile.

He bent down and put his lips to her ear.  "I brought me too, sweetie."

Ranko giggled, shuddering slightly.  "Dessert later, Hikaru.  What *else* did you bring me to nibble on?" she whispered back

Hikaru immediately stood at attention, yet he never left his crouching position.  "Ummm.  I. Ummm."

Ranma quickly grew tired of watching Hikaru Gosunkugi hitting on his sister and getting downright sexual with her.  He reached over and took the bag from Sato's hands and set it on the table.  Unzipping it, he opened it up and did a quick inventory.  "Hmm, looks like two DVDs, one videotape and a big box of Pocky."

"YOU GOT ME POCKY!" Ranko squealed with delight, fishing her hand in the bag and retrieving the big red box.  "Glico, I choose you!" she said in a very shrill voice, holding the red and white box up and giggling madly.

'What has gotten into my sister?' Ranma asked, watching her walk around the attic space with the box of pocky as if it were gold.  'It's like she's gone. *really* girly or something.  It's spooky.'

Sato stood next to Ranma as Hikaru went to claim another hug from Ranko.  "You're such a good boy!" she giggled, kissing him on the lips before hugging him tightly.  Ranma and Sato watched with muted looks of near-disgust at the exceedingly cute display.

"Thank God I'm not a diabetic," Sato said before turning his attention to the now-abandoned bag.

"Yeah, that display would've killed anyone that was sensitive to sugar," Ranma agreed.  He lowered his voice to a near-whisper.  "It really creeps me out to watch them like that."

Sato looked at Ranma as if he were viewing a stranger.  "Funny, that's the first time you've agreed with me on that," he whispered back.  "You know, yesterday and today I kinda thought you were acting when you were being all lovey-dovey and careful with Ranko."  He regarded Ranma critically.  "But you've really changed, haven't you?"

Ranma nodded and watched as the two lovebirds engaged in a tickle-fest, both laughing hysterically.  "She's very important to me, Sato," he said seriously, eyeing Hikaru and resisting the urge to pull them apart.  "I'd protect her with my life and more if I need to."

Sato's eyebrows went up as he looked at Ranma.  Seeing only sincerity in his friend's eyes, he smiled and clapped Ranma on the shoulder.  "You know what?  Me too."  He reached his hand in the bag.  "Let's see what Hikaru managed to buy while he was out and about today," he said in a louder voice as he pulled out the DVDs and scanned the titles.

"Hmmm.  This is a new one.  'Tenchi in Tokyo'.  Sounds like it might be fun." He commented as he flipped the DVD sleeve over and read the back.  "May be a bit mushy, though."  He put that one on the table and read the second one.  "Ah, here's the ticket!  'Rurouni Kenshin'!"  He looked up at Ranma.  "I know you probably had your heart set on 'Evangelion,' but it was Hikaru's turn to choose and you know how he likes fight stuff."

Ranma shrugged.  "I'll watch whatever you guys want."

Sato's eyes widened again.  "Really!?  You usually argue like crazy if you don't get what you wan-"  He paused as he saw the look of shock in Ranma's eyes and flushed with embarrassment.  "I mean.  I- I'm sorry, Ranma.  That was unfair."

Ranma smiled at him and waved it off.  "Don't worry, I'm not angry, Sato.  Although I am starting to feel tired," he added, stifling a yawn.

"Then we should get started," Ranko said from behind him as she grabbed the Kenshin DVD and walked over to the rack.  "It'd be bad if you fell asleep now."

Sato and Ranma took the front couch while Hikaru took a seat in the back.  Ranko put away the Seven Samurai DVD and put in the Kenshin episodic DVD.  "Your magic wand, sir," Sato said with an over-dramatic voice as he handed the remote to Ranma.

"I-" Ranma started, mind starting to fill with panic.  He looked up to his sister for help as she walked to the back couch, but saw that she only had eyes for Gos.  Shuddering again with mild disgust, he had to again hold himself back from slapping the guy for touching his sister.  Turning his attention to the wall, he concentrated on what Ranko had taught him.  Very carefully and deliberately, he powered down the lights and after a moment's fumbling he found the DVD play button.

The screen lit up and an annoyingly cute song began to play through the credits.  After watching for a minute or two, Ranma had to admit that the storyline looked fairly enjoyable.  Still, he yawned and tried to maintain his focus on the screen.  As the episode continued it wasn't long before he found himself wanting to slap the shit out of that kid Yahiko for his smart mouth.  The series' saving grace was the lead character, which he could identify with in some way and respected totally.

For the first twenty minutes or so Sato was oblivious to everything but the screen in front of him.  He was enjoying watching the exploits of the Battousai as he dished out some Hiten-Mitsurugi style justice to the oppressors of the defenseless.  Just as another episode was getting underway his ears started to pick up muffled noises that sounded like clothes shuffling.  He turned to his left and saw that Ranma was dead to the world.  Shrugging to himself, he dismissed the noise as some random sound from his slumbering friend and returned his attention to the show.

The source of the noise moaned into Hikaru's mouth.  Ranko broke the kiss and looked into his eyes.  "Sorry I almost got us caught," she whispered.

Hikaru smiled at her and kissed her on the tip of the nose.  "It's okay, Ra-chan.  They're really into the show, so I don't think we're in any trouble."

Ranko put a hand atop his, a more mischievous smile growing.  "Then it should be okay if I do this."  With that she quickly pulled the tail of her shirt out from her workout pants while maintaining her hold of Hikaru's hand.  His eyes went wide as she slowly guided both his hand and her own under shirt until they rested just beneath her bra.  She placed his hand against the bare skin at her sternum and let go.  Bringing her hand up a little more she pinched the clasp between her bra cups and with a barely audible snap the cups loosened and fluttered down and away from her breasts.

Hikaru's heart was going mad and so was a certain part of him that resided between his legs.  'Holy shit! I've never been this close to her before," his young mind thought in a rush.  'I never thought I'd get anywhere this close with any woman!  God, her skin's on fire!'  He swallowed nervously, his mouth dry as parchment.

Ranko caressed his fingers then slid her hand down his arm until it reached his elbow.  "They're all yours, Hikaru," she said in a very lusty whisper.  "Go ahead, I want you to."  Her lower lip extended in a slight pout, trembling slightly.  Her cheeks were flushed and her heart was beating wildly.

Hikaru nodded and slid his hand up a little, feeling the strident beat of her heart.  His breath caught in his throat as his pinkie and ring finger brushed against the beginnings of her left breast.  His mind going insane with lust and anticipation, he moved his hand over until all of his fingers were brushing against the underside of her breast.

Ranko's breath shuddered as his hand worked on her breast.  "Oh shit." she ground out as his fingers found her nipple.  She moaned a little as he concentrated his attention on it.

Unable to contain himself anymore, he grabbed her breast with his hand and squeezed.  He grew quickly inside his pants as she her body shuddered.  "Hikaru, not too tight!  I'm very sensitive there," Ranko managed to get out in a hoarse whisper."

He released her breast from his grasp and instead stroked it gently.  "I'm sorry, Ra-chan.  I didn't mean to hurt you," he returned in a shuddering whisper.

"It's okay, you're doing *just fine* now, sweetie," Ranko cooed, panting slightly.  "You're having a big effect on me."  She pulled his head down a little and kissed him on the forehead.

Hikaru took hold of her hand with his free hand and kissed it.  "You're having a big effect on me too, Ra-chan."  He reached down and placed her hand on the bulge in his pants.  Both gasped loudly as she closed her hand around the rigid object.  Hikaru hissed and squeezed her breast again, but not as harshly as before.

He jumped a moment later as he felt Ranko's hands fumbling for his zipper.  "What if we get caught?" he managed to say as he pulled repeatedly on her nipple.

"I want to know what it feels like to hold it," she whispered as her fingers yanked determinedly.  The metal zipper came undone with a loud rip.  Sato's head jerked up at the sound and immediately Hikaru's hand disappeared from beneath her shirt.  He put one of his hands over hers as it rested in his lap and his other hand went over her shoulder just as Sato turned to look at them.  "What?" Hikaru asked breathlessly, eyeing Sato as if he were interrupting something critical.

"Umm, nothing, man.  You rip the couch or something?" Sato asked.  The ambient glow from the projector allowed him to see both of them from the torso up, and he found himself looking at Ranko's obviously erect nipples as they pushed out the black fabric of her t-shirt.

"No, nothing like that happened, dude.  I think just had my shoulder joint pop when I put my arm around Ranko is all."  He pointed at the wall where Jin-e and Kenshin were duking it out.  "You sure it wasn't the show?"

Sato shrugged.  "Just checking, is all," he said as he looked again at Ranko's chest.  He felt himself stirring as he saw the extremely crisp outline of her breasts rising and falling with her quickened breaths.  He turned back around and faced the screen.  'Goddamned lucky bastard,' Sato thought venomously.  'How does that jerk manage to get so lucky that he can feel her up like that?  He's such an asshole most of the time.  How can someone that's such a son of a bitch get beautiful women like Ranko to fall all over him?'  Somewhere between being horny and being angry, he clenched his fists in frustration, sighed loudly and tried to focus his attention on the screen again.

Hikaru, meanwhile, heaved a huge sigh of relief as soon as Sato's head turned away.  "That was *too* close," he whispered into Ranko's ear.

Ranko nodded, tight lipped.  "Still, I wanna know what it feels like," she said as she untangled her hand from his.  She wormed her fingers inside the opening of his fly and spread them wide to give her hand more room.  Hikaru gasped as her fingertips grazed against his underwear-covered privates.  She fought with the opening of his underwear for a moment until suddenly her hand touched something warm and rigid.

Hikaru's breath came out in short gasps.  He looked at her with wide eyes and squeezed the nearby arm of the couch and grit his teeth.

"Does that hurt?" she asked, pausing her tickling.

"Ohhh. Oh, no.  nonono.  It doesn't hurt at all," he got out in between gasps of air.

"So I'm doing okay?" she asked, her breath short as well.

"Uh- Uh-huh.  Yeah." he said, nodding.

He groaned a minute later as her fingers moved about inside the fly of his pants.  She bit down on her lower lip as her hand grabbed hold of a shaft of fire.  It was soft on the surface, but hard as a brick inside.  She kept her hold of it, unsure of what to do.

"Oh m-man," Hikaru stammered.

"Hmmm?" Ranko asked, barely audible over her panting breaths.

Suddenly, Hikaru turned to Ranko and looked at her.  "Ra-  Ra-chan.  I'm.  I'm about to-," he tried to get out when suddenly he went stiff as a board.  Ranko jerked in shock as something landed on her hand.

Hikaru's breathing began to slow, but his heart never stopped pounding.  He bent his head down and nuzzled her neck, breathing loudly into her ear.  It took him a moment before he could trust himself to speak.  "That-" he croaked, then swallowed to find his voice.  "That was fantastic," he whispered in her ear.

Ranko moved her hand underneath her shirt and wiped it off with the underside of her shirttail.  She smiled and waved her somewhat cleaner hand at him.  "So it felt good?"

He nodded vigorously, kissing her suddenly on the tip of the nose before breaking out into a big smile.

Ranko returned the smile.  "I'd want to do it again but mom will be telling Ranma and me to go to bed anytime now.  I don't want her catching us doing anything like what we just did.  Still-"  She put her clean hand against his face and kissed him deeply.  "It really turned me on, you bad boy," she said with a sly wink.  "Did these do anything for you?" she asked, rubbing her t-shirt clad breasts against his arm.

Hikaru nodded, trying to stammer the word "yes" but unable to get anything out.  He kissed her again and just held onto her in silence as another episode played out on the wall.  As the credits began to roll, he crossed his arms in his lap and leaned forward a bit.  "Looks like your brother's out for the count, Ra-chan" he said in a louder voice.  Sato looked at them both.

"He's been asleep for an hour at least," Sato said, as he regarded the two would-be lovers.  'Guess they decided to calm down.  Looks like they've managed to keep to themselves.'  He shrugged and turned back to watch the last of the final episode on the DVD.

Hikaru sat back down and put his arm around Ranko's waist at the back, holding her against him.  He put his other hand up to her chin and turned her to him.  "Thank you, Ra-chan," he said before kissing her tenderly.

"We'll have to do it again," Ranko said after the kiss was broken, winking slyly.

He rested his head against hers and looked down at her lap.  "Hey sweetie, you'd better tuck that in before your mom sees it."

"Oh shit!  Yeah, I forgot about that," she hissed as she reached her hands up her shirt.

"Oops?" Hikaru said, trying to hide a smile.  He was about to say more when the door opened.  Ranko moved away from him and quickly clasped her bra together.  She just did manage to get her shirttail back underneath the waistband of her workout pants before her mother got to the top of the stairs.

"You kids about ready to call it a night?" Nodoka asked, watching the animated slugfest with bemusement.  She walked around to the front couch and laughed to herself.  "Poor dear must've really been exhausted," she said as she saw her son snoozing away.  She eyed her daughter and Hikaru and was happy to see that they weren't climbing all over each other.

Ranko rubbed her nose and caught a whiff of Hikaru's scent on it.  She quickly put her hand down in her lap, grabbed hold of her box of Pocky and ate nervously as she watched her mother.

"It's after nine thirty, kids.  I'm going to have to call it a night," Nodoka said as she knelt down next to Ranma and ran her fingers against his cheek.

"Mmm, Akane," Ranma muttered in his sleep, shifting his position on the couch a bit.

Sato and Nodoka both smirked at that.  "He really likes that girl, doesn't he Sato?"

"Yes ma'am," he nodded.  "Haven't seen him this wound up about a girl before."

"Not even Kinuko?" she challenged, her face darkening a bit as she said the name.

"Not even close, Mrs. Saotome.  Akane and Kinuko are light-years apart."

"I'd have to agree with that mom," Ranko said as she leaned forward and propped her clean hand on the back of the front couch.  "That Kinuko is a sneaky little b. tart.  She loves things, not Ranma."

"I knew that much the moment I first saw her," Nodoka said with a sigh.  "Just glad they're not together anymore."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Saotome," Sato added.  "Akane's not like that.  I think you could trust her."

She nodded and stood.  "Well, I don't think it's good or polite to speak about my son's love interests while he's asleep in front of me."  She headed for the stairs.  "When the show is finished you kids need to get downstairs."  She pointed at her daughter.  "And you need a bath, young lady!"

Hikaru went stiff with fright and Ranko did her best not to look completely shocked.  Still, her paranoia made her nervous.  "What do you mean by 'a bath' mom?  I don't see what you-"

"Enough, little girl.  You're not going to get out of it this time!  You have to take a bath before you can go to bed, so hop to it!"  She shook her head.  "If you don't take care of that ankle and those bruises you're going to pay for it later on."

As she disappeared down the stairs Ranko and Hikaru both breathed a big sigh of relief.  "I thought." Hikaru began.

"I know.  Believe me, I know."  Ranko took six Pocky sticks in her hand and chewed on them all at once.

Meanwhile Sato had started clapping Ranma on the shoulder.  "Hey man you'd better wake up!"

"No, not the cold water again," Ranma groaned.  Sato and Hikaru exchanged strange looks.

"Cold water?" Hikaru mouthed to Sato.  His friend shrugged and resumed waking Ranma up.

"Hey, wake up Ran-" he started to say, then stopped when Ranko put her hand on his shoulder.

"Let me take care of it guys.  You two better go ahead and get your stuff together.  If we wait too long our mom'll get pissed."

Hikaru nodded.  "You're right, we'd better get out of here."

"Wait," Ranko added, standing up as he did.  She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her body into his.  Managing to stand on her toes, she kissed him on the lips.  "Sleep tight, you bad boy," she said with a smirk.

Sato had managed to not only get the disc out of the player and put it in the bag, but also powered down the whole system.  He stood by the arm of the back couch with a smirk on his face waiting on his friend.  Hikaru blushed at being caught by his friend during such an intimate moment.  He shuffled around Ranko and stood at the top of the stairs.  "See you in school tomorrow, Ra-chan."

Ranko waved as the two bounded down the stairs then turned her attention to her brother.  She grimaced as she bent down to wake her brother up.  'Yuck, that cold stuff is sticky!  It's probably ruining my panties, too.'  She sighed to herself.  'At least they're old.'  Trying not to depend too much on her tender ankle, she sat down on her brother's lap and hugged his head to her chest.  "Wake up big brother.  You fell asleep."

He groaned and wrapped his arms around her.  "It's not time for school yet, is it?"

Ranko snickered.  "No, Ranma.  It's not even ten at night yet."

He opened his eyes, feeling very sluggish.  He stretched his arms for a moment then returned them to encircling her waist.  As his head lay against her chest he could hear her heartbeat and was soon fighting the urge to sleep.  "What happened?"

"You fell asleep during the show.  I swear, if I'd known you were that tired I probably would've just told you to head to bed instead of falling asleep on this old couch."

"I dunno, sis.  These cushions feel pretty comfortable to me," he said with a weak laugh.

"Ha ha ha.  Don't get to comfortable with those cushions, bro.  I have to wash 'em in a few minutes."

"Eh?  I don't understand."

"You will when you wake up all the way.

Ranma snorted tiredly.  "IF I wake up all the way, you mean."

"I meant that I have to take a bath," she amended.

"Oh, that medicated soak for your bruises?"

"Yep.  So let's get downstairs, okay?"

"Heh, I will if you'll get your big butt off of my lap," he teased.

"Big butt?!  I've got a tiny butt you jerk!" she said, slapping him hard on his leg.

"Ow!  I was kidding, sis," he said, now fully awake.

"I know, dummy," she replied tartly.  She stood up and offered her hand to him.  "Shall we?"

"Absolutely," he said, groaning as he stood up.

"You ready, old fart?"

"Old fart?  You're not the one that had to carry some big butt girl around on his back for half the weekend."

"Hey, I-" Ranko said looking like she was about to cry.  As his expression became one of concern she broke down in a fit of giggles.  "- gotcha."

"Okayokay!" Ranma said, waving his hands.  "I give, let's get downstairs," he said as he led the way.

"Okay, old man."

"Blubber butt."

"Geezer."

"Wide load."

"Mister Retirement."

"Miss Ample-Ass."

"Urn Candidate."

"Support hose poster girl."

"Ooo, good one!"

"Thanks!"

Both laughed as they reached the last step, turned the lights out and exited the attic.

****

Author's notes:

(5/14/97)
 

Began first-level entry of material for part five.  Looks like a long road ahead for me, as well as the characters.

(5/13/99)
 

Damn!  Has it been *that* long?  I can't believe that so much has happened to me since I last put finger to keyboard on this story.  I apologize for the lateness of the update, and know that what you're reading here isn't much, but at least it is a continuation.  I look forward to any comments that you may have, along with any expectations as to how you would expect the story to go.  I've got the story plotted, but I'm always open to new ideas.

(3/06/2000)
 

Well, this is going to do down in history as the longest-written chapter of Careful Destiny.  Not exactly a good record to have, but still it's better to have that record than an unfinished story.  Mayhap if life decides to stop conspiring against me I won't have such long wait problems with parts six and seven.  As always, I welcome comments.  Thank you for reading!

(7/27/2000)
 

More work has finally been done, and I can at last see the end of the tunnel!  Maybe part 5 will be complete before the year ends!  *wink*  Sorry, just getting used to working on this story again, so I'm getting a little full of myself.

(11/02/2000)
 

In-betweening is a slow and agonizing process.  Nevertheless I persevere.  That and a new job are making progress usually slow.  My editors have also started to send back material, and I can feel that soon part 5 will be more real than myth.

(05/07/2001)

"A date which will live in infamy."  FDR may have been talking about a different Japan during a different era, but the words still have impact in this day and age.  I have FINALLY finished adding all the necessary content to part 5!  *Does assorted backflips and whatnot*  At approximately 10:56am EDT I put the final paragraph down in the main body of the story and hit save.  After almost FOUR YEARS, I can claim victory!

This story was a bit difficult to write because of the extreme amount of lag in-between writing sessions.  It was hard to maintain focus on the threads when you go four or five months between pages (in some instances).  My pre-readers are sure to balk as they read this (appropriately) 69 page monstrosity.  I'm sure a month or so of polishing will ensue as we weed out bad dialog spots, inconsistencies in the content and thread continuity.  I think I'm going to chug a Diet Dr. Pepper and relax for a moment before hitting "send" on the distribution to my few and treasured pre-readers.

(05/23/2001)

Oh boy!  Editing has been completed.  As of this writing, this is the beta version of part five.  A final release may happen in just a couple of days!  WOOHOO!  ^_^  I want to thank the following people for their efforts in giving me a speedy reply on editing this behemoth of a part:

(The following are IRC nicknames from #fanfic on the server irc.nabiki.com)

* DaveEddy
* KaraOhki
* Fido
* Maxwell_E

I look forward to any C&C, complaints or other forms of correspondence about this part, and most importantly, I thank EVERYONE for their patience and for keeping the faith.  Careful Destiny rides again!


Acknowledgments:
 

Bert Van Vliet.  You're the one who gave me the writing bug <bzzzzz...  *smack*>.  Prior to picking up my first BubbleGum Zone printout, I was clueless as to the ways of writing fanfic.  You're a good friend, and I thank you for the support.  Hail SkyKnight!  ^_^

Sean Hayden, AKA Maxwell_E.  My best friend and a good fanfic writer in his own right, he and I have collaborated on a couple of items, and will probably resume one (or both) of those projects in the near future.  The one project I'm really interested in continuing is "Die Hard 2031" which is a BGC, Die Hard crossover (and a damned good one if I do say so myself).

John, Julie and Rebecca for recently helping me to fully understand the meanings of betrayal, human weakness and the art of manipulation.  As future parts of this story are released, their influence will start to be seen.

Thank You <yes you, the one staring at the monitor> for tolerating my extreme (and I do mean EXTREME) delays with this part.  Real life has a way of screwing up the best intentions of mice, men, and me.