Characters and/or themes within the story are from the Anime Series, Ranma 1/2 and are property of Rumiko Takahashi, and whoever else may own the rights. I write without permission and do so with no attempt to profit off of the marvelous works. Rather, I do so for everyone's benefit. Please enjoy and tell me what you think. A ray of light beaming from the heavens shines down upon her, though she cannot see it. Unfortunately, time runs short for the boy turned girl, and not even she can fight it. With truth for a sword and fate as armor, Kimiko Nishiyama is at the top of the summit, one eye blue and the other green, and that is where she must face her past. There is only one obstacle between her and the desire of her new life with her old friends, but is it one she can face? Or will she say the one word that will forever severe her from the ones she loves? The heart she breaks is not her own as she utters, "Sayonara..." Warning: The fanfiction has themes, situations and language that may be offensive to some people. Viewer discretion is advised. ********************************************** *A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction: Misery Loves Company* ********************************************** Chapter Three of In Search of the South Star by Ryan Erik Part Three: Sayonara Sweat glistened on the young man's brow, although his blankets had been kicked off hours ago. The window's dark shades fluttered in the wind, but the air in the room was strangely humid. Kiyoshi Nishiyama breathed softly, rubbing his face in his sleep. His hair was scattered against his white pillow, like long splashes of black ink. Curled up in the fetal position, he slept, only one step in the world of dreams. Pulling his hand away from his face, Kiyoshi rested it beside him and sighed as he slowly became conscious. Light from a building across the street shone into the room, just enough to cover his face, just a slit over his shut eyelids. Squinting in displeasure, he blocked the light with his hand, realizing the layers of sweat covering his body. He wondered about it for a moment, his thoughts fragmented by the confusion of the newly awakened. He considered staying as he was, ignoring the habit of his body to wake slightly before dawn. The strange feeling of waking up soaked in sweat was one he had not experienced for years, and was enough to persuade him to get up. Blinking but once afterward, Kiyoshi snapped his eyes open. The sliver of light from the window caused him to wince. Warily turning to his clock, he read, "5:58," two minutes before he had set his alarm to sound. With a trick he used to orient himself in the morning, he watched the colon between the two fives blink steadily with each passing second until 5:59, when he reached over and turned off the alarm. Yawning deeply, Kiyoshi slid to the side of the bed and sat, firmly planting his feet on the ground. The coolness of the floorboards felt good under his uncomfortably warm feet. With his right hand, he cupped his jaw and rubbed it, regarding his morning stubble. A breeze from the window chilled his bare arms and legs, and he narrowed his eyes in thought. If the window was open, and the air was cold, should the room not be at least slightly cooler? It felt as if someone had left a humidifier on in the room all night long, and he had enough sweat soaking the bed and his body to prove it. The evidence did not add correctly. When Kiyoshi found such things out of place, it almost always meant something was wrong. He had no clue what it could be, but decided he would be better served checking his sister, Kimiko, before getting prepared to meet his colleagues. Stripping his sodden underclothes off, Kiyoshi tossed the garments into a small pile of dirty clothes in the corner of his almost tidy room. He then walked to the adjoining bathroom and grabbed a towel, wiping most of the sweat from his body. After collecting an outfit, he put on fresh underclothes and a pair of black pants, then slipped his arms into the sleeves of a white shirt, leaving his socks, shoes and his tie behind for later. Kiyoshi pulled his long hair out from the back of the shirt, letting it fall down on his shoulders, coming to a rest on his back. His short walk through the living room and to the other side of the hotel suite took him to the door of his sister's room. He rapped his knuckles against the door and began buttoning his shirt up from the bottom. When he reached the last three buttons, he paused and knocked again, waiting patiently for an answer, but still received no response. "Kimiko, are you awake?" His voice was strong, hopefully loud enough to stir her out of bed. But he heard nothing. "I'm coming in," he stated, taking the doorknob and turning it. The door creaked open slowly, revealing an empty room. He frowned, looking at the messy state of the room. Clothes were scattered about the floor, the sheets on the bed were all twisted and the comforter had been thrown to the floor. After a quick check of her bathroom, he shook his head and went into the living room. As he pressed the button to turn on the speaker phone, he knew something was wrong. It was a feeling in his gut, a premonition perhaps, or maybe last night's dinner...Akane was said to have been in the kitchen... "There's no reason to be alarmed," he told himself, fighting the slight shake of his right hand as he released the button. "She's probably at the Tendous'." Taking a deep breath, Kiyoshi spoke into the microphone. "Front desk, please." A moment later, a voice responded. "This is the front desk. How may I help you Nishiyama-san?" "Did my sister leave a message with you?" he asked, leaning on the table in which the speaker phone stood. "Yes," the voice replied. "She said to tell you that she would be out on a jog this morning. Is something wrong, sir?" "No, of course not," Kiyoshi replied, fidgeting nervously. He closed his eyes, wondering what he had felt earlier. It was a mixture of anxiety and dread, he thought. I never feel like that unless something is wrong, he thought. "Sir, will that be all?" Kiyoshi started, having forgotten leaving the phone on. "No, have a car prepared for me as quickly as possible. Thank you." He pressed the disconnect button on the phone and quickly walked to his room, snatching his shoes and socks. Somehow he knew there was little time to spare, barely remembering to close the door behind him. The hotel's halls were empty this early in the morning, he realized as he ran down them barefoot. He probably looked like a fool, he thought, as he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby. "I am a fool," he whispered to himself as he fumbled with his socks, barely managing to get both of them on before the ride was over. Running over the coarse rugs of the hotel's lobby, Kiyoshi quickly found the front desk. The well-dressed concierge stood and bowed from behind his desk. He did not even look the least bit fazed by Kiyoshi's disheveled appearance. "Your car is waiting for you, Nishiyama-san," the man said with a smile. "Will there be anything else?" Glancing out the glass doors to the street, he saw a limousine waiting for him. He then looked back at the concierge. "My sister didn't happen to say where she was jogging to, did she?" The man shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir, but she did not. She did head west down the street, though, if that is of any help." Kiyoshi nodded. "Thank you." He was about to turn but paused. "You wouldn't happen to have any string lying around, by any chance?" "String, sir?" The concierge looked confused, but looked around on his desk. A second later, the man actually found a small length of pink string on his desk. "You are in luck, sir." He then handed it to Kiyoshi. "Thank you," Kiyoshi whispered. "Please, credit yourself a tip of ten thousand yen for your help." Kiyoshi missed the man's greedy smile as he jogged out the door. The chauffeur, a large balding man dressed in an undersized tuxedo, opened the door for him. He slid onto the leather seats and the door was closed for him. "Where to, Nishiyama-san?" The deep voice of the chauffeur asked after he settled in. Kiyoshi thought for a moment as he slipped his shoes on, then replied. "West down the street, where would be a good place to jog?" The chauffeur hummed in thought. "There's a park no more than a few miles down the road, and it should be open by now." "Take me there," he told him, looking at the pink string in his hand. The car lurched forward, catching him off-guard slightly. After pulling the string to its length and gathering his hair, he tied it into a ponytail. Taking a deep breath, he wondered why exactly he decided to play overbearing big brother, again. Kimiko would probably roll her eyes at his concern, but it was more than worth receiving that then not listening to his gut if she was actually in trouble. If he was not careful though, he could end up pushing her away. The limousine contended with very few cars as it drove silently down Tokyo's streets. Only a few moments passed, leaving Kiyoshi in utter silence. The tint of the windows kept the car's interior dark, but Kiyoshi could see with unnatural clarity, and he noticed a crumpled note carelessly left on the floor by his right foot. He hesitated, sensing something wrong about the paper's message. Closing his eyes, he reached down and took it with his outstretched fingers. The note was not crumpled as much as it was folded carelessly. He curiously held it up against the light to read its message. "Kiyoshi Nishiyama," he began reading aloud. "This is the last warning. If you do not resign, drastic measures will be taken against you to make sure that you do not undermine the superiority of the company. Do not take this threat lightly, for it will determine whether or not you and your sister live much longer." He stopped at the end of the message, then looked at the typed letters, recognizing the print as the same used in the messages written before this one. He cursed under his breath, clenching his right fist. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he held the paper tightly in his left hand, and then stuffed it into the left pocket of his pants. He wondered how he could have been so careless to let Kimiko become involved. The car then pulled over to a stop in front of a large gated area. Kiyoshi turned his head and exhaled deeply. A wave of nausea washed over him with his first step out of the limousine. His attempt to stand was abruptly halted as he felt something force him back into his seat. It was as if someone had shoved him back into the car with a heavy hand. He coughed as he jerked and slid back, across the smooth leather seats and fumbled with the opposite door. Without even turning, he pushed himself through the door and rolled out of the car onto the street, then somersaulted to his feet. Turning on his heels, he felt a chill rush down his spine as tears nearly blinded him. He heard the chauffeur's door click open, and he watched it slam close as the driver began to exit the vehicle. Something was trying to stop him from getting to Kimiko. Kiyoshi catapulted himself over the limousine and onto the sidewalk on the other side. He rushed towards the gate of the park at full speed, feeling something just an inch behind him, breathing down his back, trying to catch him. Not even an Olympic sprinter could have caught him then, but whatever was behind him did, smashing into his back like a battering ram forcing down the gates of a defending castle. The force of the blow sent him sliding on the concrete sidewalk, and as he tried to roll to his feet, he felt a hand holding him down. "Damn you!" Kiyoshi growled, gathering a quick pool of energy. It only took the briefest of seconds, and his fists began to glow white. He spoke no name nor gave any further cry, but simply turned and unleashed the fiery white blast of his searing white chi energy upon his attacker. The pure energy blast cut through empty air, surging towards the heavens as a beam of light. Unfortunately, he detected that no enemy was there to receive it. Jumping to his feet, he tried to reach out with his senses, to locate the form and mode of his attacker's assault. He heard a cackle right before he felt the power. Somewhere nearby, someone was expending an awful amount of chi energy, for the very feeling of it was so strong that it made him want to vomit. Kiyoshi turned back to the gate, but could not lift his feet. As if glued to the ground, the rubber of his shoes seemed to have been fused with the concrete sidewalk. He struggled to lift even a single foot but could not. He looked around for an explanation, and saw it then. A shadow cast by no figure around lay gathered around his foot. It had taken the shape of a humanoid, and its hands wrapped around Kiyoshi's feet. He felt the hairs rise on his neck as he gathered himself for another attack. "Bakusai Tenketsu!" The concrete shattered, spraying bits all over the surroundings as a cloud of dust shot up around of Kiyoshi. Feeling no pain as the chips of shrapnel ricocheted off him, he wasted no time and emerged from the blast site, launching himself through the gates and speeding down the pathway into the park. "Nooooo..." a horrible voice cried as he made his way towards the origins of the energy, and hopefully towards his sister. * * * Unadulterated rage seethed through Ryouga as he stood waist deep in the icy cold water. In a haze of confusion, he stared down at his victim's wide blue eyes. The answer to his problem was within his grasp, and all he had to do was defeat the demon here and now. He watched as the girl's hair floated around her head in waves. Free of all binding, it flowed around her so gently, so much unlike the violence of their earlier battle, and its conclusion. Never had he remembered Ranma's female body possessing so much hair. With both of his hands pressed tightly against her throat, he struggled to hold her under the water. So far, she had refused to vanish as most of the specters had before this one. It continued to fight, though it was beginning to slow. "That's right," he muttered, shaking in the fierce cold. "Die." Her body slowly grew limp until she stopped resisting all together. He looked down and met her glassy gaze, suddenly shaken by her beautiful blue eyes. Although he still held her underwater with all of his strength, he wondered for the first time if he had been wrong. Did he just kill someone? No more thoughts passed through his mind when he felt a strong hand grab a hold of his. He shot his glance down at Ranma's hand, clenching his more fiercely than before. Her other one reached across and stopped over his fingers. Ryouga howled in pain as she forcibly wrenched his fingers back, three in her small hand, until he tore his hand out of her grasp and jumped back a half dozen feet. She gracefully rose out of the water, as if sitting up on a bed; he had never seen such a terrifying sight. Her face was blue and her eyes were strangely peaceful, as her long red hair clung to her shoulders and the tatters of her shirt. Though he was probably just shy of a foot taller than her, she now towered over him, her feet limply dragging over the surface of the water as her torn sweat pants rippled in the wind. Most frightening of all, the aura of chi glowing around her was so bright that he had to shade his eyes with his uninjured hand. Quiet as death, Ranma began her counterattack. Ryouga jumped away from the first chi blast's impact as it evaporated the water in a circle, six feet wide. Landing on the edge of the lake, he threw himself out of the way of the second, which cut through the air he had so quickly vacated. "You're not him," Ryouga stated with a dead voice, readying himself for another chi blast. "You are correct," the strange, hollow voice echoed from Ranma's slightly parted lips. Her arms did not even raise as a third chi blast formed of her aura, then spiraled towards him straight out of her body. The speed of the spherical chi blast took him off guard, and the end of it caught his foot as he tried to roll out of its way. Scrambling to his feet after his failed dodge, he was unprepared for the fourth blast, which caught him square in the chest. Tendrils of excruciating pain rippled down his body, and he crumpled to the floor in a heap. He struggled with his unresponsive limbs to stand and fought back for all he was worth, managing to pull himself into a sitting position. All of his muscled felt cramped, but he forced himself to stand and face Ranma head on. "What the hell are you?" Ryouga asked, struggling with his stiff fingers to form his hand into a fist. Her image blurred and vanished in response, reappearing to stand directly in front of him. She blinked, and in that moment, he saw himself reflected in the glassy surface of her eye. "Eternal Vengeance," she whispered so softly, it tickled his ears. He took an awkward step backwards, tripping under the pressure of his own weight. Crashing downwards, he tried to brace his fall with his arms, but they slipped in the wet grass, and his head swung back and collided with the ground. He feverishly looked up, fully aware of his loss. Ranma leaned over him, and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him above her. His feet dangled above the earth, skimming the grass. "I do not want you," her hollow voice whispered. Her image blurred in his eyes again, but this time he saw double. Her sickly pale, whitish-blue face danced before him as he tried to comprehend her words. "I don't understand," he said, allowing his body to fall limp, all but for his neck. He held his head up firm, wanting to keep at least that much dignity before his death. "Of course, you do not," she patronized, gritting her teeth at him. "I'm waiting for your demon." Fear paralyzed what was left of his awareness as she turned her head and looked over her left shoulder. A half smile creased on her pale lips. With her right hand, she turned his head the direction she had been facing. "He's come for you," she told him, her voice full of anticipation. "At last." Her words sealed his fate as he felt fingers, cold as ice, dragging against the skin of his neck. Shivering as they slid against his back, under his shirt, Ryouga stared at his captor. The nightmare was back, reaching into his heart, making him think things he did not wish to even conceive. The voices began whispering into his ears again, telling him to calm down, that all would be fine, but he knew they were lying. They always lied about everything. Struggling to pull himself free from Ranma's iron grip, he fumbled in his attempt to pry her hands from his collar. Numbness reached up his body to his fingers, making even gripping her hands difficult. It was so easy to lose, to give up, roll over and let go. Cold, tired and weakened by the fight, Ryouga fought to keep his head straight enough to face her. "Please, Ranma," he begged, pleading for his very sanity. "Don't do this. I've made mistakes. We've...all made mistakes. Let...me...go. I swear that I'll change." Tears freely streaked down his face, though he hardly noticed at that point, fighting just to stare his captor in the eyes. And then, when he finally pieced it together, his jaw crept open as horror froze what was left of his body. He stared into the eyes of a stranger, horrific green, shining like rounded emeralds, hard and empty but for stone to the very core. He would find no mercy from her as he helplessly dangled in her strong grip that held him steady. Somehow the look on the girl's face was familiar, from another time. Maybe it was the maniacal determination he recognized, or the uncaring wrath. Whatever it was, he knew that he would no longer even care in another moment. Turning his head one last time, his arms fell slack to his sides. Even as Ranma released him, allowing him to stand once more on his own, he knew it was too late. Day and night seemed to be fused together, for he was neither back in the park, nor in the field of endless green. Somewhere between worlds was where he stood, somewhere in the emptiness of his own existence. Countless horrific memories of ages long past mixed with his own again, making him want to shiver. In fact, he wanted to do anything but stand in front of Ranma, staring as he was now, but it did not matter what he wanted. His nightmare renewed. The dream was reality. It was not phantom, but true menace. When Ryouga's fist clenched and was sent towards Ranma with blinding speed, he smiled. Free again. * * * He stood on the edge of reality, of day and night, of light and dark. A rip in the air floated before him, its edges swirling around the center. Kiyoshi had followed the path for a few minutes. His sense was a compass, and it led him right here, right now. This was the north, the direction the pin pointed towards, as Kimiko was its destination. It shrieked madly, like nails across a blackboard, shredding eardrums. Something tore a hole through the very fabric of space, and that someone had to have a reason. Why here? Why now? Why her? Violet energy around the tear crackled in response, calling his name with words unspoken. Between two trees, merely infants in a fledgling forest, the paradox of his knowledge expanded violently, knocking him back with a shock wave that quaked the very earth. Kiyoshi blocked his eyes as it burned intensely bright for an instant, but held his ground. "Oh God, what the hell is this?" he asked, voice muted by the horrible screech. If this were the work of an assassin in his opposition, then he would renege his company the very moment he found a phone. Neither he, nor any hundred of his equals together could have accomplished such a feat, bending the very cosmos to the will of a mortal soul. On the fringes of the portal, hands formed out of the misty violet energy. Kiyoshi stood entranced, unable to move, paralysis creeping up his spine with growing the apprehension, a fear beyond which words could describe. He did not know exactly what beckoned him forward, but even as outstretched fingers wrapped around his body, he did not respond, simply allowing the force to reel him into the gap in space. A hundred images flashed in Kiyoshi's mind, times of pleasure, times of rejoice, every good moment in his life repeated before his eyes. Then it slowed, and stopped, on one brief instant in time... She sat by the well, under a bright, almost full moon. The pale light washed out all but a few stars, and she glowed underneath it. The illumination only enhanced the remarkable beauty she possessed. Her full, red lips, sullen on the spectacular night, should have been blasphemy, for it would have to any other been a sin. Somehow, her dark, pensive mood undermined the beauty of the night, dimming it to become only a background in a portrait of a woman. Her hands clenched the bricks of the well and she tilted her head, looking up at him for a moment, sending his heart aflutter. She noticed him, for the first time perhaps, or maybe not. A young Happosai stuck his hands through his short, unkempt black hair, daring not to look at her a moment more. But something drew his eyes back, and something willed him to approach her. She did not look up as he took a few nervous steps forward, testing not only his right to be there, but his courage as well. "You can sit, if you like," she offered, meeting his eyes without reservation. Her brown ones reflected the moonlight. "Thank you," he whispered, bowing his head as he meekly took a seat next to the woman of his dreams. They sat in silence sitting on the edge of the brick well, merely enjoying the night and the warmth of each other's presence. She scooted towards him, close enough for him to smell her perspiration, and a faint scent of spring flowers. She was the only thing on his mind as he turned his head to face her, to see her face again. Longing for her filled his every pore as he examined her closely, running his eyes down the pale features of her delicate jaw line, down to the scant cleavage of her chest, only revealed because of his proximity with her. He brought his eyes back up, and drank of her essence, merely sitting close with her. "Come away with me," she said in her subdued, light voice. "Just you, me and the moon! We can run far, far away from this place, with nothing to hold us down. No fathers, no reputations, no money, nothing. Let us leave here together tonight, right now, and forever!" Her eyes pleaded with him as tears ran down her eyes, smearing the makeup on her face. "Please?" In everyone's past, there is at least one moment in time which the person wishes that they could change the course of history, to alter one set of events that could potentially make all the difference in the world, to set things right, to ultimately make that individual happier. To purchase such a thing, many would do just about anything, but the reality of it was different than the fantasy. Happosai knew that as he stared at his eternal love's outstretched hand and the glistening tears streaking down her cheeks. Who would not say yes in his situation? That second he could have chosen his re-occurring fantasy of over a hundred years, to get that chance he had so wished for that he might have sold his very soul to get, but he did not. Too many good memories were mixed with the bad and the ones that could never be. People, places, lives and histories all flashed before him. Lives he saved, lives he ruined and others he simply enriched all mixed together into one elixir, from Kimiko to Tarou. Would things have been better for them? Would they have been worse? Could he risk all of that on one unfulfilled wish of his distant past? He closed his eyes and made his choice. "I can't," he whispered, and instantly knew he would regret it forever. When he opened his eyes, he drew back in shock. Her face began melting. With wide eyes, he watched in horror as his entire world faded, growing into one collective dark body of shadow. He threw his hands out to grab her, to perhaps save her from whatever fate awaited her, but met nothing as he passed through where she had sat, and then fell forward through what had been a well and solid ground. The sudden gravity made nausea collect in his stomach as he tried to concentrate on what was. He was Kiyoshi; he could not forget that. That was the name of his new life. He barely held onto himself as he fell through an empty black void. He then reeled, unbalanced as he found hard ground beneath his feet, and a sky over his head. He stumbled and fell to his knees, disoriented and nauseous, struggling to collect his scattered wits and fighting his blurred senses. A surreal pink glow encompassed him as a light breeze played with his long ponytail, pushing locks of black hair into his face. The muted rustle of trees in spring tickled his ears in his otherwise silent environment. Not adjusted to such sudden shifts of reality, and not entirely sure what had just occurred, Kiyoshi concentrated on deep breathing, regaining control of himself. The bright pink light filtered through the back of his hair, and when he brushed the locks out of his face, what he saw made goose bumps rise on his arms. As far as his naked eye could see, endless rows of cherry trees in full blood were ordered in a perfect line. A glance around him proved that they surrounded him. It was as if God had lifted him with His enormous hands and tossed him into the center of a sea of brilliant pink cherry trees. It would only take one gust of wind, and a tsunami of neon flowers would drown him. Looking down at his clothing, he remarked at the sky blue jacket, with matching silk shirt and pants. His loose clothing swished with each fruitless step he took, never approaching anything but trees. Everywhere they swayed in the light breeze that trickled past him, caressing his face, as if it tasted him, savoring every inch of his exposed skin. Was this any more real than the vision of his lost love, once again asking him to throw away his responsibilities and join her? The thought resonated in his mind as he looked about the land. Drawing close to the nearest tree, he reached and plucked a vibrant pink leaf from a branch. When he held open his hand, he blinked in surprise. The leaf's color had smeared across his hand, as if he stood in an oil painting that had yet to dry. He dropped the leaf, allowing it to sail to the ground. At a moment's whim, Kiyoshi licked the stain on his hand, marveling at its sweetness. Reaching for another leaf, he plucked another and then bit into it. The taste reminded him of cotton candy, but mixed with some artificial fruit candy. He let the remains of the leaf fall to the ground. "Where are you, Kimiko?" he demanded of the forest, vainly staring in a direction. A sharp pain exploded from the inside of his head in reply. He groaned, falling back against the tree with a hand to his head and his eyelids tightly shut. The pain vanished as quickly as it had struck him, leaving him light-headed. The rustle of the trees died instantly and he stood up straight, looking about him for a reason, as the breeze still lightly played across his skin, leaving him in utter silence. The swish of silk clothing other than his own met his sound-starved ears, and he searched for an answer, finding one. "I'm here, Kiyoshi." Kimiko stood a few yards away from him, dressed in a stunning silk dress that swayed at the tips of her heeled shoes, and every inch of her clothing was as pink as the trees. A matching ribbon loosely bound her beautiful red hair over her left shoulder. Shiny pinpoints of light gleamed at her ears, though he had not even known her ears were pierced. As she approached him, holding her dress at her hips to keep it from brushing the ground, her sparkling sapphire eyes blinked so slowly, amplifying the surreal quality of her appearance and her very presence there. "Do you know where we are?" he asked, walking forward to meet her half way. "I do not," she gravely replied, stopping inches from him. She looked up and met his steel-gray eyes. Her flawless features had never been so beautiful, under the soft glow of the pink shade. "But I am so glad you are here." "I'm just glad that you're okay," he told her with a smile, clasping his hands in front of him. "You really had me worried there." "Worried about me?" she inquired, tilting her head slightly. The oh so soft tone of her voice sounded strange coming from her pink lips, fragrant with so much femininity. "Well, I did get this note," he began, but promptly wished he had not. The last thing he wanted to do was worry her with empty threats of those who would see him ousted from his position as CEO. "Note?" she asked softly, blinking in confusion. "Nothing, forget it," he prompted her, turning his head to look out over the endless grove of cherry trees. "God, where are we?" He heard her gently sigh, then felt her hands take his and lift them up to her face. As he turned his head to address her, he felt the warm lips gently kiss the back of his left hand, and for a moment her hot breath before she let it go. Kiyoshi watched her in wonder as she took his other hand and led him from their place under the trees. Bringing his free hand to his face, he looked at the imprint her pink lipstick left upon his skin. It was bright, like her lips, like her dress, like the trees... "Come this way," she urged him, taking him towards a spot in the grass that was warm with the gentle rays sunlight. It warmed his skin when they stopped beneath it. The halo of light made a perfect circle, a small clearing in the wood that existed nowhere else he had seen in his inspection of the place. "What is here?" Kiyoshi wondered aloud as she sat, gently tugging his arm for him to follow suit. He did, crossing his legs and pressing the palms of his hands to his thighs. "We are," Kimiko cryptically told him, smiling sweetly. Her answer was so simple, yet it meant something, leaving him more puzzled than when he had asked her. Something about her behavior made him uneasy, something about the way she had walked, the way she talked... "Are you feeling all right?" Kiyoshi leaned forward, pressing the back of his hand to her forehead, but her temperature felt regular. She gently caught his hand before he could return it to his side, and then pressed it to her cheek, sliding it past her chin and onto her bare shoulder. He was embarrassed to notice how much cleavage was exposed by the circular curve of her dress. He would have immediately returned to sit back, but for his hand. "I am now that you are with me," she whispered, drawing his hand towards her lips again. He held his breath as she kissed his hand, once and twice, then turned it over, caressing his palm so gently it tickled. As platonic as he wanted to see her gesture, not one bit of it felt that way to him. Everything she did defied reality. "You are acting very strangely," he told her, taking his hand from her, eliciting a small sigh. "What is going on here? Why are you being so forward with me?" Kimiko looked up at him like a scolded puppy, her lip quivering and eyes watering. "Don't hate me." She sniffled and turned from him, clasping her hands tightly. "I've missed you so much. I thought I'd never see you again. I-I thought I'd be alone forever." This time Kiyoshi moved forward, gently catching her chin in his hand. A confusing wave of sensation flooded his body, but he tried to keep his mind clear, for her distress was real. "I only saw you a few hours ago, Kimiko-chan," he said with a smile, fondly rubbing her cheek with his thumb. "Why did you think it feel like forever?" Her eyes glazed slightly as she cocked her head in thought, as a crystalline tear sparkled down her cheek, leaving a trail of salty wetness. Kimiko bit her bottom lip, and then closed her eyelids as more tears flushed her eyes. Fighting sobs, she fell forward and tightly wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her face on his chest. "I don't know!" she exclaimed, losing her voice to uncontrolled sobbing. Just as confused as she, Kiyoshi slowly brought his arms around her, and then cooed to her, like he would a child. "Shush, honey. I'm here for you; there's no need to worry anymore. Please, don't cry." What had happened that could bring her to this state of being, his strong adopted sister, his once rival, and his forever love? He gently held her, unsure what he could say to ease whatever fears she might have. He would definitely need to discern the source of her angst, and then destroy it. "How did you get here?" he asked, soothingly rubbing her back. As her sobs died, and her breathing slowed, he slowly pulled her back to face her. She looked up at him, her wide, red eyes glittering. "Or do you not remember that, either?" She closed her eyes and shook her head, frowning so that he thought she might begin crying again. "What do you remember, then?" He held her by her thin shoulders, and could both hear and feel her heart beating rapidly. "Water," she whispered, opening her eyes to stare at him, as if fascinated with his eyes. "And eyes. Evil eyes. They hated me, hated me so much. I'm scared of them, Kiyoshi." She paused to sniffle, fighting to keep as calm as she was. "And there were kind eyes, too, that saved me from the other eyes. They didn't hate me. They love me, but I'm scared of them more. I don't know why, but I am." "Neither of those are my eyes, are they?" Kiyoshi asked, smiling warmly as he tried to piece together any sense from her hysterical puzzle. "No," she emphatically stated, hurried as if scared he would run had she said yes. "Not yours, Kiyoshi. Your eyes look cold, but they're not. I can see through them, to you. Those other eyes are mirrors, reflecting me, not the people behind them. I love your eyes, Kiyoshi. So honest, and they love to see me for no reason." She weakly smiled, and then stretched her arms to her hands on his shoulders. She spoke with childlike innocence, it seemed to him. Her words were heartfelt, flowing with pure, unfiltered emotion, but they were not checked by her rationality. It was as if he were talking to a child that could not lie, speaking wholly from her heart. That was the impression her speech and actions gave him. She had been like this after waking from her comma over a year ago, babbling her fears and insecurities as freely as her love. "Those other two aren't around here, are they?" He asked, trying to put her fears to rest completely. She slowly blinked, shaking her head. "Just us." Sliding her hands to his neck, she slowly leaned forward. Kiyoshi opened his eyes wide, surprised and unnerved as she scooted up against him, propping her body close. "Just us, Kiyoshi-kun," she whispered once more. Paralysis crept up his body as she completely encircled him with herself, and then passionately kissed him. He was completely at her mercy. Her lips tasted like the leaves, so sweet that his mouth watered for more of her, and she was only too willing to comply. Her kiss became more, taking advantage of his defenselessness, drawing him in deeper, draining away whatever resistance he had. She moaned as she fervently probed his mouth, tantalizingly bringing her hands down his back, as if searching. They stopped for a moment as they still kissed, then reached back up, taking the collar of his strange silk jacket, dragging it back. Breaking the kiss, Kimiko stared at him, drinking of his eyes. Kiyoshi stared back, mouth ajar, in shock. His head spun as she reached her hands underneath the jacket, drawing it back to his wrists. His cheeks began to burn when she released him and then brought her hands to his waist, catching the end of his shirt. Slipping her hands beneath it, Kimiko slid her hands up his brick chest with a half-smile. Lifting even that, she pulled it up until it barely obscured his nipples, then took her hands out and took the ends, tugging it over his head, sliding it to his wrists. With his hands bound by his clothing, Kiyoshi took a deep breath and released it, his naked chest shaking with a mix of fear and anticipation. As if the process had taken every bit of restraint she had, Kimiko flung herself on him, knocking him back to lay flat on the grass, where she sat on his lap and began kissing every inch of his face. Kiyoshi only closed his eyes, unable to comprehend this, fighting his hunger for her. Her lips met his once more, amplifying his need a hundred times. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to drown under her. Kimiko stopped the kiss prematurely, cutting him dry. He blinked his eyes open and helplessly watched as she began to unbutton the top of her dress. Somehow he knew he had to stop her, but that thought slowly evaporated as she reached the end of the rift of her dress, just above her belly button. Every last thought in his head vanished when she slid one shoulder out of her dress, exposing her perfect right breast. "I love you," she whispered, leaning down to kiss him again, pressing her chest against his. He gasped in pleasure as she brought her kiss lower, to his chest, dragging her breast against him. She stopped, sitting up. "You love me, don't you Kiyoshi?" He could hear the strain in her voice, her struggle against the promise of pleasure, and her loss to it. "With all my heart," he managed to tell her, pulling his left hand from the binding clothing. He sat, freeing his other hand, and then drank of her lips again, marveling at the exotic flavor. He slipped his right hand around her waist as she reached around his neck, and then brought the left side of her dress, and pulled it down. Although he gently took her left breast in his hand, she gasped in pain in spite of their kiss. He quickly retracted his body from her, shocked to awareness. "Are you all right?" he asked, catching his breath. She nodded, and then slid forward on him to continue where they had left off, but he stopped her by taking her shoulders. "What?" she whispered in disappointment. "Don't stop. Please, don't stop!" "Wait," he replied, realizing the source of her pain. Her left breast was still blemished from her fight with Rintaro, where she had taken a punch to the nipple. Remembering it was enough to restore at least a semblance of his self-control. That's it! He thought, suddenly understanding her behavior. Somehow, she was id without superego, left completely in its mercy and carnal desire. Much like a child, she was guided by the immediate satisfaction of a tryst with him. Wherever and whatever this place was, it was doing the same thing to him, empowering his id. "Don't you want me?" she asked of him, her naked skin quivering with the loss of his touch. "Please, I want you to take me. You have to. Please don't deny me." "I can't," he whispered, shying his face from her. "It's not right. We can't do this." A sob escaped her lips and she took his face with her hands, roughly turning his head. "Don't look away! Am I that ugly to you? Please, don't leave me." Tears coursed down her cheeks, becoming a river of her sorrow. "You are very beautiful, Kimiko-chan," he told her, taking the shoulders of her dress and pulling it up to cover her. "You are more beautiful than anyone I know, and it takes every bit of self-control I have to not do what you wish." He then started to button it up. "Why deny me, then?" she asked, whether confused over his answer or with her own desire. "Because I love you too much for this," he answered, somehow not able to back up his words as well as he would have liked. Why not? He asked himself. Why not, indeed. "It may not make much sense now, but trust me on this. You do trust me, right?" "More than anyone," she assured him, watching his hands intently as they finished buttoning her dress. Catching his them before he could retract them, she pressed them against her breasts. "But why not, if we love each other? I don't understand. Everything's so confusing." He nodded, turning his hands, interlacing his fingers with hers. Why not? He could not, at least not like this, not here, not now. "That's why. We're drunk here, in this beautifully dangerous place. And we have to find a way out." "But there is no way out!" she exclaimed, leaning forward and hugging him tightly. "There has to be," he argued, resting his arms around her. "Every prison has some escape." She shook her head against his chest. "There isn't! I've tried! The trees go on forever and ever, like the grass in the park." "What park?" Kiyoshi asked. Kimiko sat back and stared up at him, hard in thought. "The park! I remember it! I saw someone there. We fought, but everything was all wrong. I couldn't fight back, then I fell in the water, and he burned me." When she spoke the last, he watched in awe as the shoulder of her dress melted, revealing lightly burnt skin. She groaned in pain grabbing a hold of her shoulder. "Don't stop remembering," he urged her. She nodded warily, cautiously looking down at her shoulder. "There wasn't much after that, though. I just remember him choking me under the water, then nothing. When I woke up, I was here. I don't know how long I've been here, but it seems like I've been here for years." Glancing up at her brother, Kimiko pouted. "Really, I don't know anything else." Leaning forward, she rested her head on his shoulder, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He could feel her heart beating as she pressed herself to him. As he contemplated, her story made a strange amount of sense, as his own observations of her behavior seemed to fit together with it. The way she clutched him now did not alert him as it had formerly, but rather the fact that she actually thought she had been in this fantastic world for such a time did, and she was actually scared he might disappear should she let go of him. Trying to get her to recollect anything was like asking her to remember a nightmare that the little redhead had been desperately trying to forget already. Her murder that she had described was something similar he remembered dreaming once...so long ago he could not discern when that had been. Drowned, choked, murdered, those were a horrifying theme, and something he had hoped had not happened to her in reality. That thought brought a sliver of fear into his mind. What if the assassin, the writer of the note had already murdered her? Would he not then have to be dead as well? "What do you think we should do, then?" he softly asked her, whispering the words into her ear as he held her. "Do you know any way out, or anywhere we can go?" Kimiko drew back slowly, a puzzled expression echoing the confusing she had emoted in her earlier conversation. "Do? Go? Haven't you tried walking? There's nowhere to go! There's nothing to do! I thought I would be here by myself forever, until you came. I walked so far that I collapsed, and when I woke up, it seemed as if someone had put me back where I started from." Her words grew more hysterical with each uttered syllable, as if the very question he had asked was so ridiculous that it barely merited an answer. "I'm sorry," he apologized, bowing his head. "I just want to get out of here and get back to the hotel before it's too late, if it isn't already." "Don't leave me here!" Kimiko cried back, throwing her arms around him again. "Please, I love you! Don't go!" "I'm not leaving you behind," Kiyoshi replied, massaging her back. "You're coming with me, of course." "But-but-" she sputtered, pulling her head back to look up at him. "He said I couldn't leave! He said I had to stay here forever!" Kiyoshi blinked, stunned by her response. "Who said that? You didn't mention meeting anyone here." She started to respond back, but her reply caught in her throat. Gasping for breath, she grabbed her throat, looking into his shocked eyes with a horrified expression on her face. Then, as she struggled to stay upright on his lap, her eyes rolled back in head and she limply fell into his arms. "Kimiko!" he exclaimed, shaking her gently. "Oh, God!" Her heart, he realized, had stopped. And then, as he held her in his arms, the world began to wash away, as if it were but a painting, and the artist had splashed it with turpentine. He closed his eyes, holding onto his little sister for dear life, unwilling to lose her in the transition. Her body's weight suddenly became insignificant, as if she had been replaced with a bag of feathers. Opening his eyes, he gasped, staring at her transparent form. He could see his hands through her insubstantial body. Matters suddenly felt totally out of his control, leaving Kiyoshi feeling stranded, naked, and utterly vulnerable. Rarely in his life had he been trapped as he was now. Now, as he looked out over the endless green countryside, his eyes settled to look at the clear lake far in the distance. Manipulated, the earth shuddered beneath him. "Oh Kimiko," he whispered, crouching as he held his sister in his arms, hugging her tightly. * * * A cool breeze caressed Mayako's cheek as she slowly woke to a bright, sunlit room. The glow encompassed her, shining directly on her face. Drawing her arm to cover her eyes, she groaned in annoyance. There was a reason she preferred her curtains closed in the morning. Whoever designed the house must not have realized how perfectly the morning sun shown into this room. Although she chose this room because it had an extra window, as the other two bedrooms only had one each. She inhaled the chilly air, realizing the window was open as well. Strangely enough, she could not remember the last time she had left it open for any reason. Throwing aside her blanket, she sat up, and then found that she had slept on the floor. "Huh?" she whispered in confusion, the morning fog still clouding her brain. Mayako shrugged, then stood and turned towards the window. Rintaro sat on the edge of the bed with his eyes closed, relaxing in the warm sunlight. He almost looked peaceful. Then he opened his eyes and turned towards her with a blank face, and she realized what she had worn to sleep. "Eep!" she exclaimed, dropping back to her makeshift bed, a few piled up blankets, and covered herself with them. A shirt and panties were not something she wanted to be seen in by someone whom she considered a creep, most of the time. He did not even blink, but simply turned his head and closed his eyes. Mayako watched him as he weakly lay on his back. "I lost," he mechanically whispered, just loud enough for her to hear. "It was close," she consoled, tightening her grip on the blanket covering her. "I honestly thought you were going to win." Rintaro responded with a tired shrug, and continued to bathe in the sunlight. He still wore his uniform, as he had during his fight with Kimiko, but the front was open, and his pants were still laid out on Mayako's desk by the end of the bed. She was thankful he wore boxers, and not briefs. Seeing anymore of his body could not have been good for her now carefully maintained libido. The tireless exercise he endured made him into a hunk. "You're welcome," she said, in response to his unspoken thanks for letting him stay the night in her bed. "Thank your mother for me, too," he told her. She could not help getting a little angry over his ever-commanding tone. "Why can't you thank her yourself?" Mayako indignantly asked. Sucking in a deep breath, Rintaro did not answer. He merely continued his sun bathing on her bed. His tanned chest slowly fell as he exhaled the breath. "I'm not talking to a wall here," she snapped, dropping her blanket down to her waist. "You can respond once in a while, you know. It's not like you have to keep up that rude facade of yours all the time. I am your friend when you're not being a jerk off." Without even opening his eyes, he whispered, "I don't need friends," in a stale tone. She snorted, glaring at him. "Oh, you think you're too good for us now? Is that it? Or maybe now that you're a better fighter than all the rest of us, you're going to move on and find stronger friends. Which is it, huh tough guy?" That did provoke some action from him. He turned his head and opened his cold blue eyes to stare at her. "What makes you think either is the reason?" He then sat upright and bound his gi shirt closed. His bare feet found the floor, and he stood and walked over to where Mayako sat, stopping to glance down at her. "Just back off." He then started walking towards the door to her room. Angered at such a quick dismissal, she stood, abandoning her shame to lunge and grab his arm. "I'll have you know-" Rintaro's incredibly swift back kick cut her off as her instincts jump started an adrenalin rush, enabling her to dodge his foot as it skimmed her messy hair, but forcing her to release his arm. He recovered from the kick just as quickly, planting his foot out in front of him, then shot his other knee towards her stomach. Mayako jumped back across her room to avoid it, unable to say a thing as he opened the door and furiously stamped down the hall. "Hey!" she yelled, a little too loudly for such an early morning, and then took off after him, stopping in the hall just in time to see him start walking down the stairs. Mayako blinked in confusion. She had actually struck a nerve with that? A display like that from Rintaro was like squeezing water from a rock. Turning her head, she spotted his pants still neatly folded on her desk. He had to have been very upset to not remember to pick them up before leaving. That, or he decided he was going to be a shame show--as if she could talk, entering the hall without her pants on. "Wait up," she whispered, running down the hall to catch up with Rintaro. Mayako found him by the koi pond, going through the motions of a very basic kata, on hyper-drive. His punches and kicks tore through the air at each interval, so quickly she could barely see his arms and legs. "You didn't have to be such a dick," she told him, staying far enough back to not be in his way. "It's just that these last few years you've been keeping to yourself a lot, and shrugging us all off." Cutting the kata off abruptly, Rintaro paused with his leg fully extended, and then turned it in the air towards her. After setting it down firmly, he stood facing her, not saying a thing. "At least I know you heard me this time," Mayako said quietly, turning her head from his intense stare. "What happened to our leader, the guy who stuck up for his friends every time they needed help?" "You don't need help anymore," he stated, sitting down cross- legged on the grass. "Help isn't always physical," Mayako countered, walking up to kneel in front of him. The cold grass sent shivers up her bare leg. "Sometimes help can mean just listening when a friend needs to vent, or being a shoulder to cry on." "No thanks," he said, turning his head. "I have my own problems to worry about." "What happened to you, Rintaro Saotome?" she asked, resting her hands on her knees. "You were like my third brother ever since I knew you, and then you just wandered off one day. You don't realize how much that hurt. You used to be so cool. You even took that stupid engagement thing those old bags thought up that once without even flinching. Veins were bursting on my forehead, and you just laughed, like it was the funniest thing you'd ever heard." "I grew up, okay?" he said defensively, putting his hands on the grass, nervously gripping handfuls. "None of you guys like me anyway. It's better for everyone if we keep our distance." Clutching her arms around her legs to stave off the cold, Mayako shook her head. "It's only recently that they don't like you. It's because you've been such a cold ass to us. They'd all give you a second chance to hang with us again." Starting to shiver, she brought her knees up and held them to her chest. "Please, Rintaro? I miss little Rin-chan backing me up when we got into scuffs. Now I have to rely on Kenichi to get his pacifist ass into gear before we can fight, and he's more likely to try to talk us out of the fight. You always jumped with me at first chance. I miss that." "You miss getting suspended over spilt milk?" he asked, with half amusement and half suspicion. "Yeah," she replied, smiling through chattering teeth. When her adrenalin rush ran off, she certainly got cold all of the sudden. "It's not like anyone challenges me now, anyway," Rintaro quipped, turning to face her. "They just bow and run the other way if they even come within ten feet of me." "Not Jotaro Saito," Mayako said with a smile. "And the rest of his friends don't either when he's backing them." "You can even take Saito," Rintaro shot back. "You can probably take any two of them on a good day." "Thanks for the vote of confidence," she told him. "But Jotaro with anyone, even Shoji, could probably beat me. I'm a much better team fighter than I am at solo fights. That's where you used to come in." "And what's wrong with Kenichi?" Rintaro asked, as if wary for some verbal trap. "You two always fought well together, better than you and I ever did." "He's too serious about education and college, and that whole dull bit," Mayako complained, suddenly feeling very naked outside in the cold, across from a boy who was not dressed any more than she. His eyes were on her now, meeting hers with candid emotion, however mixed it appeared. He looked confused, like he stood on the line between friendship and being her enemy. She could not give up this chance to win him back to her side. "Why aren't you?" Rintaro asked, almost rhetorically, as he stood. "School isn't something you can just mess around in, not with so many students all competing for the same jobs." He then walked up to her and offered his hand. Mayako could not refuse it, and he lifted her to her feet. "I don't care about school," she firmly answered, releasing his hand. He smiled at her as she continued, "And neither should he. If he doesn't have fun once in a while, he'll become even more uptight than he already is." It was one of those moments where Mayako had no clue whether Rintaro would kiss her or punch her. So far, his relatively good behavior was a little unnerving, but when he leaned forward, as if it whisper in her ear, or kiss her cheek, she had a sneaking feeling that he would choose the first one. Unfortunately, when his smile turned into a grin, she knew it was the second. Bringing her foot down hard, she managed to kick his foot before it struck her bare ankle. As Mayako dropped back into a defensive stance, Rintaro merely chuckled. She regarded him curiously, still maintaining her defense. "What's so funny?" she asked, wary of any more tricks. "You saw right through me," he said, not even bothering to fall into his guard. "Like glass," she agreed sarcastically, lunging with a punch. He dodged the attack rather slowly, and she caught a bit of his shoulder. He groaned, taking a few cautious steps away from her. "No need to hit so hard. I'm rather sore already." "You should have thought about that before you tried to kick me!" she exclaimed, charging at him. She was rather surprised when he did not move, and she smacked into him, knocking him to the ground. He looked up at her a little dazedly, and then started rubbing his head. "That wasn't very nice," he told her, before wrapping one leg around hers, and using the other to trip her. Mayako fell forward on top of him, elbowing him to stop her fall. "Ack," Rintaro complained, and then tried to push her off, but she resisted, head-butting his chest. He coughed as the air was knocked from his lungs. Resting her knees around him on the ground, she brought them inward, squeezing his sides quite hard. When he caught his breath, Rintaro looked up at her passively. "I never knew you were into S&M, Mayako Tendou." He gasped again as she brought her knees into his sides again. "Christ, woman. Let go!" "I thought we were having a nice little chat, and you go and ruin it!" she growled at him, holding his shoulders down with her hands. "Are you going to be my friend again, or do I have to beat you some more?" He looked up at her, and she caught something in his face, something she had not expected: fear. It was as if for a split second, all the blood had suddenly drained from his face, and his eyes widened in surprise. Then, as if it had never happened, he regained his blank stare, and turned his head. "Rintaro, I'm sorry!" Mayako released her pressure on his sides, and stared down at him with more than a little concern. "Did I hurt you?" He responded by turning to glare at her, but still made no mood to knock her off him. "Really, I didn't actually mean to hurt you," she said sadly, sitting back and removing her hands from her shoulders. She still sat on his stomach, but without threatening him. "Honestly, you're so tough, half the time punching you doesn't even get you to notice me." Merely shrugging in reply, Rintaro stared up at her silently. "If you are going to molest my sister, could you take it elsewhere, Rintaro?" Both Mayako and Rintaro turned to Kenichi's sudden appearance in surprise as he continued. "I'm trying to eat breakfast, and you're ruining my appetite." Two and two clicked together, and she realized what a compromising situation she was in. Well actually, it only had to be one and one clicking together for that picture, but she jumped to her feet anyway, blushing furiously. Rintaro did not budge, keeping his head laid back on the cold grass. "Aren't you cold, Mayako?" Kenichi asked, giving her legs a curious look. "Oh right, who needs pants when you've got Rintaro? Silly me." The red of embarrassment quickly transformed into the red of anger. Mayako suddenly had the need to beat the hell out of her brother. But then again, she was a master of verbal fighting as well-- at least she thought she was. "Yeah, and who needs a blanket when you've got a naked redhead on top of you, right Kenichi?" Mayako added to level things out a bit. In spite of her, he just wagged his finger at her, and smiled. "Hey, at least I didn't have to beat her up to get her in a position like that," Kenichi quipped, grinning smartly. Oh, now she felt like beating him up again. But that would mean that he won their verbal sparring? No way, she swore that she would never lose to him in any match. "Yeah, Rintaro beat her up for you," she said, tugging her shirt to completely cover her panties. Boy, it really was cold out there. At least Kenichi reeled a bit from that one. "Well, my date isn't a brutal psychopath," Kenichi he challenged, putting his hands on his hips. He then added, "No offense, Rintaro." "None taken," the tall young man, who now stood uncomfortably close behind her, said. She did not realize he had approached her until he had spoke. Sometimes it was a pain being in a family of martial artists. Mayako turned with a wry face. "Thanks for the backup." "No problem," Rintaro said. Obviously, her sarcasm did not get past him. "I've had enough chatting for one day," Kenichi said, turning towards the house. "Really, running around in your panties, Mayako. You should be ashamed of yourself." He turned to her with a wink. "Next time try to wear more clothes. It must be forty degrees out here." Mashing her teeth, Mayako watched him walk away and enter the house. At least anger made the cold go away, somewhat. Her legs were covered in goose bumps. "Where were we?" Rintaro said suddenly, as Kenichi disappeared into the house. "We weren't anywhere," Mayako said, clenching her fists. "You were getting your butt kicked, and I was done kicking your butt, and planning to go inside." She started for the door when he stopped her with a hand on his shoulder. Turning in askance, Mayako blinked. "He is wrong about one thing," Rintaro said, leaving his hand on her. "Oh, and what is that?" she asked, letting the impatience slip into her voice. "I'm not brutal," he said with a grin. Mayako chuckled as the two of them walked inside, and went back up to her room. Kenichi, for his part, was quiet about the whole mess, at least while they passed him at the table and walked into the hall. When she entered the room, closing the door and locking it, Mayako gathered clean clothes from her dresser, ignoring the sounds of Rintaro slipping into his pants. As he went to leave her room, she stopped him. "Rintaro?" He did not even turn back, but paused at the door. "Tell me something." "What?" he asked, turning his head to face her. "What are you going to do about your loss?" He looked down at the ground for a moment, and then looked her in the eye again. "What you would do?" Mayako contemplated that as she changed her clothes. * * * A bright face stared down at her, contrasted by long black hair. It looked terribly familiar, but she could not think straight. Strong, handsome features prominently set him apart from other faces she could recall, but it sparked no memories. Concentrating on anything was becoming increasingly difficult. His lips moved, but she heard nothing. His eyes were wild, desperate, as if craving an answer only she knew. She tried to speak back, to tell him she could not hear him, but her lips uttered nothing, though she felt the air exhale from her mouth. Sadness crept over her like rust, slowly but surely. It tickled what sensations her body still felt. Staring back at the young man's face, Kimiko started to remember, when he closed his eyes and gently pressed his lips to hers. It was an explosion of vitality that he gave her, and her eyes bulged with the recollection, feelings and sound. "Listen," Kiyoshi whispered to her, his face so closed she could feel his hot breath on her cheek. "I don't think you have much time. The chi I gave you won't sustain you long, so I have to find out what is holding you here. I believe something has your body." "What...meaning?" she asked with strain. Kiyoshi quickly clasped his hand over her mouth. "Do not try to speak. You will only waste energy. You must meditate to the best of your ability, and conserve your strength. As I said, I am going to recover your body, and then I'm going to get us home." He lifted his hand, staring down at her for one more second before lowering her to the cold grass, and running off. Deadly intent drove him across the blank landscape towards what he knew to be his destination. On the horizon, two shapes were locked in ferocious battle, like stags, fighting until one fell in exhaustion, or death. He knew neither of them, for no one in his acquaintance had such power. It was beyond human. It was that which brought him here. With his entire focus on running, Kiyoshi cut the air like a knife, shredding reality with his speed. Never before had he been able to run as fast as he did then, coursing across the wasteland like jet fighter. He would not have been able to do so, but something enabled him here, as if his body no longer suffered the torment of physics. As he slowed his mad dash, sudden fear filled his heart to the brim, spilling over into his legs. He fell, unable to stop his body in time as he flew headlong into the fray. With little time to react, he merely selected his target: Ryouga Hibiki. Kiyoshi's new opponent only managed to turn his head in time to see the berserker frenzy in Kiyoshi's face. Barreling into him, Kiyoshi felt a sudden loss of balance as he continued soaring mere feet above the ground with Ryouga flinching under him. As if in space with nothing to stop their trajectory, Kiyoshi and Ryouga fought in motion. Kiyoshi knew something was wrong with Ryouga's aura as he struck the man in the chest with a deluge of punches, rivaling Chestnut Fist speeds. Ryouga did not even flinch as he brought his arms in to block his chest, simply defending with a sinister glare. "You will pay for interfering," the distorted voice calmly promised Kiyoshi. "I warned you, and now you shall die." Black energy gathered around Ryouga's body as Kiyoshi pushed off him with his feet, sending him soaring into the sky. Arching his back, Kiyoshi flipped himself around, stopped in midair for a brief second, and then gravity found him once more, driving him towards the ground. As he landed on his feet, Kiyoshi dodged a fiery, black blast of twisted chi by scant milliseconds. The energy stole the heat around his body as it ripped past him harmlessly. "You are fast for a human," the distorted voice yelled. "But you are human, none-the-less." "I've summoned and killed stronger demons than you before," Kiyoshi boasted, stalling to gather his strength. "I am no demon," Ryouga replied, slowly walking towards him. "I am the blessing, the madness, the hatred. I am your worst nightmare, and your fantasy. I am forever, and yet I live from moment to moment, ready to kill all that oppose." A spherical translucent shield of violent chi energy flickered to life around Kiyoshi as he brought his fists together. The energy swirled around him, humming like an engine. "And you are knowledgeable!" The possessed man cried out with a laugh. "We shall see how strong you are." Kiyoshi watched as the black energy gathered in the palms of his opponent's hands. "DIE NOW!!!" Another blast of the sickening energy shot towards Kiyoshi, but it disappeared as it struck the shield. Reeling back as if struck, he felt the tainted life force wash over him, then heard it reform behind him and continue past. "Astounding!" The demon yelled, standing inches from the edge of the shield. "That is some trick. It really is too bad I can do that forever, is it not?" With a half-hearted chuckle, Kiyoshi prepared his counterattack. "Oh, so you think that this little shield will hold?" Ryouga challenged, walking around him. "You will not be so jovial as I crush your bones into pulp and gnaw on your meaty flesh while you watch." "Is that so?" Kiyoshi asked with a grin. "What if I told you that I could finish you with one strike that you could not possible dodge? What would you say then, as your pathetic existence ends in this mockery of a world?" "That I could not dodge?" The demon asked, suddenly intrigued. "You would have to drop your shield before that, and as soon as it fell, I would rip open your throat." "That is where you are wrong," Kiyoshi said with a lot more confidence than he felt. In one more moment, his attack would be ready. "Show me!" Ryouga demanded, disappearing to materialize just outside of Kiyoshi's defensive sphere, poised and ready for the attack. "Spirit Lance!" Kiyoshi screamed, and the shield around him collapsed inwards. As the demon rushed forward, a violet lance formed in Kiyoshi's hands, and Ryouga impaled himself in his haste. A horrific scream ripped from the Ryouga's lips almost at once, sending a wave of sound energy crashing through Kiyoshi, though he held his grip and pressed the chi weapon further into the demon. As his ears protested with a loud ringing, Kiyoshi stood his ground as Ryouga thrashed around on the point of his lance. "Does that taste good?" he asked of the dying beast. "How would you like more?" Concentrating against the violent fighting of Ryouga's body, Kiyoshi manipulated the weapon to expand outward, as if to create a shield again, coursing up through Ryouga, until it totally consumed him. "You...are...dead..." the thing whispered one last time, before Ryouga's body fell through the lance, no longer afflicted by the spiritual weapon. Kiyoshi watched it hit the ground then lifelessly slump over. Before he had a chance to check Ryouga, the body vanished, leaving an imprint in the wet grass. Testing the empty space with his foot, Kiyoshi was not expecting an attack. A blast of white energy punched Kiyoshi right in the back, sending him sprawling on the grass. Rolling straight forward, he quickly found his feet and spun in time to dodge a follow up blast, which cut by him like a bullet. "What the hell?" Kiyoshi demanded, realizing the identity of his attacker. "Hello Kiyoshi," Kimiko said in a voice that reinvented the meaning sinister. "You just blew an opportunity that I've been eagerly awaiting the past century and a half." Another pool of white energy gathered around her as spoke. "May she forgive me for this." Taking a step back, Kiyoshi knew he could not summon his spirit shield a second time. "Who are you?" he asked, hoping to stall her a few moments while he regenerated his strength. "I am your darling sister, of course," the possessed girl said, hovering inches above the grass. "Who else would I be?" "A vengeful spirit, perhaps?" Kiyoshi answered, suddenly in awe of the power Kimiko gathered. It was far beyond what he could draw in and live. Waving a finger, Kimiko gave him no more time to recharge. The next bolt gathered in front of her like storm, spinning and shrieking around her hands. Simultaneously, the siblings released chi bolts, a white one meant to kill, and a blue one meant to deflect the other. In a bizarre twist, Kimiko's blast redirected itself around his and cut back towards him. Two bolts struck two bodies. The white blast lifted Kiyoshi off the ground like a doll slapped by its owner, and he desperately fought to remain conscious while his world flipped and rolled in an uncontrolled spin. He crashed onto the earth, wishing for nothing more than a moment's rest. His body ached in a hundred places, but he willed himself to sit none-the-less. Scanning for his sister, he saw Kimiko far across from him, lying face down on the grass. "Playing so dangerously with her life?" the girl asked, her body still against the earth. Lifting up in spite of gravity, Kimiko hung a few feet in the air, her arms and legs limp. "Damn you!" he cursed, thrusting his body up to stand. Kimiko's body flipped over then righted itself, setting her down on her feet, though her legs were not supporting her. The way she stood looked as if she were being held upright, as if someone were behind her with their hands gripped around the back of her neck. "I've already been damned!" she retorted, straightening out her torn clothing. "I spent many centuries in a watery grave, staring upwards at the ever changing sky, always knowing I would never escape. But I did, and now I want my revenge! You will not stand in the way of that when he appears before me once more, or you will die." Like a puppeteer bowing through the puppet, Kimiko bent at the waist, a final gesture before falling over in a heap. He stood, frozen by her chilling words. In the time it took him to blink, he regained his senses and rushed to his sister's side, pressing his fingertips to her neck. Gulping in a panicked breath, he slid his hand down her bare arm, to her wrist and held it in his palm. "What?" he asked himself as his arm started to shake. He understood as he saw her face, blue as the beautiful water sparkling in the middle of the grassy plain, like the blue of her eyes. Oxygen, part of the lifeblood, the staple of the brain--the house of the soul--faded. Cold as the lake, her wet skin felt dead to his warm, bruised fingers. "Damn you, Jusenkyou!" Kiyoshi cursed as he tilted his sister's head back, drawing close. "Damn you, Seiichi!" Filling his lungs, he closed his mouth over the redhead's, forcing oxygen into her deprived lungs. He pulled back, shivering with rage and fear. "Damn you! Not like this! Not again!" "You're forgetting something," an ice cool voice whispered in his head. "A body without a soul is a turnip, waiting to rot. Find and revive the soul and the body will remember life." "Soul?" he asked, suddenly remembering how he entered this plane. "Please God, help me." Scooping the lifeless redhead into his arms, Kiyoshi pulled his sister close to his body, resting her head against his chest. With every final ounce of energy remaining in his soul, he pushed off the ground and leapt towards his goal. Barely skimming the ground as he crossed the grass, he made his way to his goal. Almost completely transparent, she lay as if dead, her arms crossed over chest, her legs stretched out together. Green grass stained the pink of her dress, the pale white of her skin, and even the red of her hair. Kiyoshi looked between the corpse in his hands and the faint image of his sister on the grass, then without another second passing, he joined them. And as she began to cough, the world fell out from underneath him once more, and again he held onto her tightly. This time, she held him back. Finally, he allowed the sweet darkness to envelop him. * * * Suspended somewhere, beyond reality, is where I find myself again. Sometimes my cruel subconscious tortures me with horrible realities here. Other times, it slights me by ending pleasant ones. I never had trouble with sleep and dreams before, when everything was as it was supposed to have been. In the chaos, nothing could faze me. With no time to think, I never did. Once the chaos settled, perhaps I had too much time. That could be the reason I lost everything. Or perhaps not. I always think here. My reality shapes this place, I find, as new characters are introduced to the drama of my mind. Kiyoshi, Amanda and Sally burned themselves into my dreams once I met them, and now I wonder if the twins, my new brothers and the rest of my new acquaintances will work there way here, to either tempt, harass or join me in my misery. "Good afternoon, love," a voice from the abyss of the back of my eyelids greets. I now sit cross-legged in a Japanese garden, perfectly proportionate, as my adopted father had preferred in his life. Though I never met him, I truly like his tastes. The immaculate grass on which I sit is cool against the bare skin of my legs, and as I look up, I know my reality has crept into my dreams again. "Hello, Kenichi," I reply to the young man, standing to meet him. My sandals crunch as they move from grass to the gravel path that leads to the house. He wears the stripped blue shirt I bought for him around the time when we first met, and he still looks as handsome as he did wearing it then. Passively, I realize it is going to be one of the dreams with memories I never experienced, and with circumstances not yet possible. Though, whether I would control myself in the dream was another matter. Sometimes I could gain it, and others I would have to just watch and see how the dream played out. As I stand and greet him with a tight embrace, I know I will have little control over my body. I smell his clean skin, and pull deeper into his hug, sighing in complacence. Who am I this time? I wonder to myself. Kenichi's future wife? "How was your day?" he whispers into my ear before sliding back to look into my eyes. He smiles warmly as a reply begins to form in my mouth. "Wonderful," I tell him, feeling an alien urge to hold him close again. "Michael and his sister both completed their tests with flying colors! I couldn't believe it when I saw them perform their katas. I couldn't have even matched the heart they put into it." The pride I feel for two people I have never met blossoms goose bumps on my arms. Kenichi laughs, embraces me again, kissing my face sensually. I moan softly, sliding my hands across the flat of his back. He pauses his caresses and whispers, "What can I say? You are a spectacular teacher, and the kids love you. They'd fly to the moon and back for you." "I'm not that good," I reply. I draw away from him, turning my back. "You're better," he says as he presses his body against my back, wrapping his arms around my waist. "You don't give yourself enough credit. Michael and Tanya were a tangle of arms and legs before you, and now they're up there with your best students." "Well, maybe," I say, twisting in his arms to face him. "How was your day?" Kenichi grins, then slides one hand up my arm and rests it on my shoulder. "I sold the rainbow...and the jumper!" My mouth opens wide as he stands in front of me, smiling. "No way!" I shout, practically hysterical. "Without my brother?" He nods his head, bringing his other hand to rest on my shoulder, and then smirks. "You didn't think I could do it." Laughing, I playfully slug his shoulder, extracting a chuckle from him. "I knew you would, but I didn't want to pump up your ego by saying so." He turns his head, looking towards the house, which I just begin to notice. It is a carbon copy of Nobukazu Nishiyama's house in California. The garden seems very similar, now that I think about it, but so many seem to be in America. This one probably has the same landscape artist as Nobukazu's. "I think we should celebrate," Kenichi suggests as he looks into my eyes again with a wink. "Like you need an excuse," I tease, taking a step backward. Turning around, I quickly leap over the grove of small trees and to the path on the other side. "But you'll have to catch me first!" Listening to his feet, I know he is now running after me. Wondering about their references to celebrating, I wish only to close my eyes and go into a dreamless sleep. Even as I am fully in this world, I feel the distant pain from another, so faint that I wonder how my real body fairs. It is difficult to concentrate on other things than what my host feels: warmth, happiness and probably too much love for Kenichi. Sliding to a halt as I approach the perimeter wall, I turn to face Kenichi. He stops a few feet from me. "You'll have to beat me next," I tell him, dropping into a fighting stance. Even in a dress shirt and pants, Kenichi fits the martial artist profile. I love the way he slowly adopts a stance, suggesting that his opponent is hardly worth his time of day, without even realizing it. I must have taught him that. Like a choreographed maneuver straight out of a movie, I announce my spin kick with a showy twirl of my body, and the spin of my foot, telegraphing my move for Kenichi. Without fail, he pushes into me, stopping my kick mid-spin. My other leg is swept up into the air as he lifts me into his arms. "I win," he whispers, walking across the gravel with me, his right arm supporting my upper back, and the other just below my rear. "Round one of twenty," I reply slyly, slinging my left arm over his shoulder. I may be a bit naive in many things, but I understand what they suggested in oh-so low tones, and I do not like it one bit. My host, on the other hand, feels the need to flood me with anticipation. Hoping the dream cuts to the end with both of us dressed, like a movie made during the production code of the early years in American film, I dread where Kenichi takes me. This is my phobia, being trapped, unable to control my own destiny, and is only second to my fear of cats, although I think they are the same, too. My dreams have slowly become a trap for my consciousness, where any technique I learn is rendered useless. I have been raped and murdered; I have watched friends and family die right in front of my eyes, and I have literally lost myself, but I overcame those, realizing the conflict within myself tears me from within. I did not need the spiritual essence of a drowned victim of Jusenkyou to tell me that. I learned the Blast Fist to compensate for my loss of strength, but what I accomplished through it was a back door out of situations that get out of my control. Here, within my dreams, there is no quick escape, eject or stop buttons, nor even a control pad. I am a scared child watching my father beat my mother. I am mute when I am asked to tell the court why they should not order my death by lethal injection. Ignored, taken for granted, imprisoned, I watch helpless, my legs and arms bound, a gag for my mouth, a spear through my heart, and yet I can hear and see perfectly. Once more thrown into a pit of starving cats, I feel the madness creeping in. There is nothing I can do but cover my face during the perpetual wait for their ravenous frenzy to cease. Here they come again, the claws, the teeth, that horrible hissing, the one that I can always hear in the back of my head, the other me, the frightened little boy who begs for his father to let him out. I am trapped again, but this time, no one can hear me scream. Feeling the soft, silky covers against my legs brings me back to Kenichi and his lover. Lying still on the bed, I close my eyes as I feel his soft lips brush against my thighs. Warmth floods me as my heart races. He arouses a part of myself I can usually ignore, or put aside. My host moans as Kenichi touches me, as if searching desperately, his warm, wet mouth caressing my body. I want to hate him, close my eyes, scream, or fight. Instead, I take his hand from my stomach and interlace our fingers, squeezing his hand to tell him of my pleasure. As the wave of sensations of emotions deluge me, I try to concentrate, to find my center and block out everything, however impossible. Try as I might, I cannot help but enjoy it as my host forces her sensations on me, as Kenichi slides my shorts down to my knees. Oh God! Find the center, my safe place, away from the cats, away from Kenichi, away from...no, please stop! Oh it is so cold now, as my garments are being removed. Oh God! It is dark. I hate myself for not being able to stop this. Please stop! Pleasure courses through me, not stopping, pain and pleasure, like one, wanting, hating, wanting, hating, too much...stop...stop...stop-stop-stop-stop! "STOP!!!" I scream, shocked, my mind numb, confused at my own words. Her confusion, not my confusion, hers! Then everything stops, leaving me breathless and aching. My vision clears as Kenichi sits upright, his back arching quickly as he draws close. My heart thumps so loudly in my chest, fear coursing like poison through my veins. "What's wrong?" he asks, as confused as I. His eyes furrowed in concern as I breathe deeply, barely hearing him under the strain of somehow taking control from my captor. "I-I don't know," I stutter, drawing my legs together, and pulling up the panties that had still clung to my ankles. As I cross my legs and shiver, I realize that I can fight back, end this nightmare, stop it all, stop him, stop the cats and wrest my dreams from everything that wishes to hurt me. "Did I hurt you?" Kenichi asks, drawing the covers over my legs. "Please forgive me." Shaking my head, I reply, "It wasn't you, Kenichi." I pull the comforter up to my shoulders, gripping my knees to my chest. "What was it, then?" he demands, firmly resting his hand on my right shoulder. "Please tell me what is wrong." "I don't know!" I scream back, knocking his hand off me. As my host starts to calm, I know it is my chance again, and try to seize Kenichi, to throw myself at him like a wild animal. I picture a cat in my mind, injecting terror into my heart. I conquered her with fear once; I can do it again. "Jesus, are you all right?" he insists, but I feel my host starting to convulse already. "No," I whine, but the damage is done. Instead of one, a dozen cats are now locked in my mind, two dozen, fifty, one hundred... Mine. An elbow strike to Kenichi's face warns him that I mean business, but as I try to follow through and grab for his neck, he seems to dissolve into the bed. Jumping to my feet, I catch the scent, a trail of fresh blood. My prey wants to be chased. I am only too happy to hunt him. "This isn't funny!" the young man shouts from the doorway of the room, appearing as if he had been standing there the whole time. He holds his nose to stop the blood flow, but I want it to stream freely, everywhere. I want to break this toy. Sanity sneaks up behind me, like a stream of cold water splashing across my back. She wants back in. She loves him. But I show her what is there: claws, blood, and darkness. She hides again. I leap across the room at him, slashing with my claws. Missing his head as he throws himself back into the wall, they cut only air. Slash. Miss. Slash. Miss. He runs again, and I give chase. Wood floors give way to gravel, which then leads to grass. "Nice kitty!" Kenichi yelps as I scratch his shoulder, missing my original target: his chest. "Kimiko, it's me! Please stop!" I have my prey against a wooden wall. He is stuck; he is mine. Mine. Mine. Mine! As I swipe, meaning to knock him down, I miss. He ducks very low, throwing me off balance. I try to recover, but he throws his weight into me, hitting me so hard that I groan and fall back. I step across the grass as I stumble, and I began to regain my poise, my foot meets rock. The pain wakens me some, but it is the coldness that arouses a sanity within me that brings her back, that brings me back. The blanket of water that rises up around my face, burning my eyes and filling my mouth, muffles Kenichi's cry to me. I hear his voice again as pain shoots through the back of my head, covering me in sheet of blackness that obscures my vision further. Now I begin to drown, unable to move my limbs, sinking into the infernal darkness. The water is cold, but I no longer notice. I cannot help but wonder, why water? It has always been the source of my troubles, from Jusenkyou's pools, to the trigger of my curse, to my final imprisonment in another's body. Under the water, unable to breathe, I cannot help but fight against the paralysis, to push through the dark cloud to air. A scream of utter frustration escapes my lips and the icy water fills my mouth. Gagging the liquid out, I know my time runs short, but do not even conceive of dying in the koi pond. Frantically struggling against my weakness, I almost fail to realize the strong hands grabbing my shoulders. Kenichi, as warm as the sun itself, easily lifts me into his arms, so quickly that the sudden change in environment shocks me. The next moment, I convulse into a fit of coughs, unable control myself as the water I had swallowed spills from my lungs. "Kimiko, are you all right? Oh God, you're blue." Dazed and unable to answer him, I sink into his arms. The exhaustion of almost drowning in a pool the size of a Jacuzzi has drained me so that I can hardly remember anything past it. Kenichi lifts me for a second time, only he runs as quickly as he can, nearly breaking a glass coffee table in his haste. He sits me on the end of his bed as I only numbly watch him, shivering so that my teeth chatter. With look of absolute terror, Kenichi quickly strips me of my wet clothing. A funny ringing noise like the hum of a television set, only much louder, fills my ears, as tendrils of pain shoot through my head. "You didn't fall in the pond long enough for this," Kenichi protested as he lifted my naked body and carefully placed me under the thick comforter. "What is going on?" I listen to the sound of him disrobing as I clench myself for warmth, unable to process anything but the cold. As he climbs into the bed, I feel his gloriously warmth, and the numbness begins to fade from my limbs as I wrap them around him. Clouds clear from my mind, and the fear returns. I was seconds from drowning before he saved me. I had been so positive that this was a dream, but now I wonder, am I only just now waking from the a long nightmare? This feels so real: Kenichi's warm skin against mine, the wet sheets and my aching head. I only want to sleep and rest my aching body, but I have to discover what is real, unless I should just fall back into another dream. Kenichi is whispering in my ear, but I cannot understand what he is saying as the ringing in my ears blocks him out. "Where am I, Kenichi?" I ask him, completely in control of my voice, though I can only whisper as faint as he had. "You're home," he answers, stroking my back with his hands. "You're in bed with me. Do you...do you remember anything that happened before?" I think for a moment. "I think so." His hot breath burns my chilled face as we lie in silence. I can feel the steady beat of his strong heart, even as mine begins to race, so close to someone, like lovers. I suppose that is what we are in this place. Though I do not like it, I feel ashamed for my earlier behavior. How can I not? Kenichi thought I was someone else, no more than I thought he was Akane twice. I guess I am guilty, but who would not be after using the Cat Fist against a friend. Then again, who would have known I could utilize the unpredictable technique, and remember the subsequent events as well, even if this should only be a dream? It had felt more debilitating than alcohol, a complete surrender to whatever it was that drove my cat-self. Whatever had happened, it was my fault for using the Cat Fist, and Kenichi had not deserved it. My fight was and has always been with myself. I blink, trying to clear the blur from my vision, and notice large brown eyes, ones he could not have gotten from anyone but Akane. They blink as I stare at him for an eternity. His serious face breaks into a weak smile, and then he takes his hand from around me and puts it on my head, brushing his fingers through my hair. "I'm sorry," I whisper, closing my eyes. He closes his eyes as he shakes his head, the smile lingering on his face. When he blinks his eyes open, they glitter with tears. I draw a breath to say something, but he speaks first, his voice relieved and a little bit unsteady. "Don't be sorry," he said, lightly caressing my cheek with his hand. "I know you can't help it, but it's been so long since your last attack that I thought we'd put them behind us." "Last attack?" I ask, not understanding. He raises an eyebrow, as he answers, "Yeah, don't you remember?" I shake my head, and he continues. "Last year, a week before we were married, I had to get you down out of a tree." He pauses, pressing his palm to my forehead. "We're married?" I whisper, more than a little shocked. Of course, the question was rhetorical, but Kenichi answers anyway. "Yes, are you sure you feel okay?" The fact that I begin to remember, like stream water gathering at a dam, slowly building to become a lake, is probably what begins to scare me more. Foreign memories fill in the blanks, and suddenly I remember waking in Kenichi's arms that warm day, certain that I was making the right choice to marry him. He had replaced Akane, not merely filling her position, but creating a new one for himself. I had found myself drawn to his charm, his immense heart, but most of all, his selfless love for me. Although I seem to remember that never happening, the longer I lie here, the more solid it becomes. "I must have hit my head when I fell in the pond," I tell him, as I begin to doubt myself. I then turn onto my other side, facing away from him. "I'll call the doctor in the morning," Kenichi says, and slides up against my back. Although we had been close before, I only now comprehend more, and feel every inch of him pressed to me. It sends my heart racing faster as he adjusts to the contours of my back, draping an arm around my waist. Though I am still chilled, I wish he would stop. Although hard to think, I try to block his presence out completely, but it is simply impossible. "You're tensing up again," he whispers, drawing back slightly. "I know something is still wrong, but I can't help you unless you tell me what that is." I answer him with silence, unable to correctly answer his question verbally. How can you tell someone you are not the same person they fell asleep with the night before, when in reality, it is as close to a lie as possible? Remembering clearly, she did go to bed with him the night before, and the night before that, and on. "Please, honey," he pleads with such hopelessness in his voice, that I can barely believe this is the same child I sparred with days earlier. "I love you so much that it hurts when everything isn't right. Please tell me what it is so that I can fix it." I draw away from him, and then turn to face him. He does not attempt to snuggle against me again, as I prepare my reply. With one deep breath, I close my eyes and answer his despair. "You can't fix me. No hug, or kiss, or anything is going to make everything right. I don't even know where the hell we are, or how long I've lived here with you." The hurt on his face is like red paint splashed against a white wall, so visible that I cringe at bringing it to him. "We've lived here at your brother's house in Monterey for a year and a half," he says sadly, sliding his hand to rest in the space between us. "When I woke today, I was in the garden, right before you came in, but it wasn't quite me. I didn't know what was wrong until we began to talk." "When you asked me how my day was?" he asked, some of the sadness in his voice replaced by curiosity. "No, when I told you about my day, but that's irrelevant. Whoever I was then, it wasn't me. I'm not who you think I am." Without a trace of sarcasm, he asked, "Who are you, then?" With a gulp, I say, "Ranma Saotome." Kenichi shakes his head in protest, though the hand between us grips the bed sheets. "Yes, I am," I insist, lightly resting a hand over his. With the truth at the tip of my tongue, I began to realize how badly I have wanted to tell someone other than Kiyoshi, the only other human that knows my secret. "No, Kimiko," he says firmly, taking my hand in his. "Ranma is just a name, a name that you used once and have no need for any longer." Had I been shocked before, I would have seemed normal compared to how I felt now. As if I had jumped from a building, my heart leapt and I felt disoriented. "I already know who you were," he says with a look that speaks his yearning for me. "I can remember the day you told me as if it were yesterday, it's so clear in my head." He pauses, narrowing the distance between us slightly. He knows, and yet he still married me? I could not quite believe that. "We had wandered so far out after..." his voice seems to fade out, though his lips still move. I hear a few mumbled words in the midst of his story, so drained by the day, "...in the water...was so shocked...didn't care..." The last thing I feel is his hand, firmly grasped in mine, and his absolute acceptance of me within my heart. Then, as the world just seems to melt away, I fall asleep once more. * * * Kiyoshi Nishiyama had not felt as sore and as stiff as he did now for at least six years. The legion of doctors had applied a stiff cast to his arm, and it itched. Being unable to scratch it was very maddening, and he could not take his mind off it. After a visit by a half-dozen lawyers, a fleet of doctors and more than a few company guns, Kiyoshi felt exhausted as well. Entertaining them while injured proved to be a difficult task. Fabricating a story to encompass everything that had happened to sate the lawyers had been even worse. Once he convinced them that they did not need to press charges, he had to reassure them that he did not need to prepare for any possible allegations of child abuse. Although he did not think they would be so effortlessly persuaded, the police bought his story much faster than the lawyers, as they only requested that Kimiko make a statement when she regained her health. As for the armed sentries outside the door of the private hospital room, Kiyoshi reluctantly agreed to allow their presence to keep the lawyers from having a fit. The compromise did purchase him a few hours to quietly watch over his injured sister without being disturbed, however. With her brows furrowed, Kimiko squashed her angelic face in a pout, as she lay asleep on the bed provided by the hospital. He could not help noticing how cute she looked, twisted in the single sheet placed over her. With the lamp dimmed and the shades together, she seemed to glow in what little light filled the room. Although he could not help remembering the years he spent watching her in a coma, he took comfort in the fact that the doctors said she would wake after she rested a while. Now, he was only left with his thoughts. The deeply disturbing place he had visited the night before remained as one of the most reoccurring things he wondered about. After fighting a Ryouga who did not appear much older than when he left, meeting Kimiko twice under completely different circumstances and nearly watching her die in his arms, he was ready for some all-knowing avatar to come explain everything to him. If over a hundred years of experience was not enough for him to even have a rough explanation of what had happened, then nothing was. Lying his head back against the cool plastic chair in which he sat, Kiyoshi took a deep breath, sucking in air until he felt his chest burn under the strain of the attempt, then held it in. After a minute, he began to savor the growing ache in his chest and the light- headed rush that filled him. He then slowly exhaled. His body urged him to speed his release and quickly inhale, but he did it as slow as he could, letting only a bit of air out at each short interval. He controlled his breathing like this for several minutes until Kimiko stirred. When she woke up, she shot up so quickly that he coughed in surprise, and then began choking on the saliva he inhaled. As he brought his breathing under control again, he watched her carefully, planning to assess her mental state before engaging her in a conversation. It mattered little when she turned her head and focused her eyes directly on him. The glint of the pale lamplight reflected off her sapphire blue eyes as she blinked her eyes once. "Where am I?" she asked nervously, glancing about the room. Kiyoshi stood as he answered, "A private hospital room. Do you remember what happened?" With a reflective frown, Kimiko bowed her head, staring into her lap. After a few seconds of absolute silence, she raised her head and shook it. "What's the last thing you remember, then?" Kiyoshi asked, disappointed that she would probably not be able to shed much light on their experiences in the dream. He needed to talk about it, to bury what had happened, rather than let it fester like an open wound. Perhaps she thought it to be a dream, and nothing more than that. Did any of it really happen? Could he have hallucinated the whole night? The only two things keeping him from answering yes was that his broken arm, and his injured sister. Her eyes sparkled and her mouth dropped open with some sudden realization, giving him a little hope. She stared through him, as if she were watching her memories on a screen behind him. "Ryouga tried to drown me," she finally answered, drawing back to rest herself against the head of the bed. "I really didn't know how to approach him, so I just sort of started a fight. But he's very strong now." She paused, catching Kiyoshi's concerned look. "I'm all right though, aren't I? He didn't kill me after all." "Right," Kiyoshi replied quietly, furrowing his brow. "Can you remember anything else?" Looking at him puzzled, Kimiko slid across the bed to the sit on the side closest to him. "Why, do you know something you aren't telling me?" "Only if dreams count," he told her, resting his uninjured arm on top of the cast. "You have to try and remember, because anything you may say could help us tremendously." "I don't understand what you mean," Kimiko said sharply, apparently not liking his answer one bit. "And how did you break your arm? I've never even seen you with a stubbed toe before, let alone a broken bone." "Your attacker is responsible for my injury as well," Kiyoshi said, concealing the truth from her. "Oh jeez," she whispered, looking at him with wide eyes. "Is Ryouga in the hospital, too?" "He disappeared right after our fight," he told her, relaxing in his chair. "I have a feeling that we won't be seeing him for a while." Kimiko stared off into space, her expression confused. "I'm sorry things didn't work out as you expected," Kiyoshi said, sitting up straight, preparing to stand. "What are you going to do about it?" Looking up at him, Kimiko narrowed her eyes. "I don't think I ever want to see him again." Pushing himself to his feet, Kiyoshi glanced down at her. "I'm surprised you don't want revenge." She did not answer, looking at her feet instead. "Do you think you can get me something to drink?" she quietly asked, avoiding eye contact. "I'm really thirsty." "Of course." After Kiyoshi left the room, Kimiko collapsed to the bed and her body seemed to sigh in relief. Every muscle in her body ached, and pretending otherwise had required enormous energy. Muscles she did not know existed burned with every wiggle of her body, but the fact that she was still breathing with all body parts intact was a tremendous relief. "What happened to you, Ryouga Hibiki?" she asked of the empty room. A dull weight burdened her eyes as she tried to concentrate on the last moments of her fight, right before everything went black. She recalled the pressure around her neck, the few swallows of the putrid, cold water, but little more than images. Before that, she remembered jogging through the park, the old man who had greeted her at the gate, the shadows, but not much else. She had dreamed about Akane, a memory of hers gone awry. What else was there? Grilling her mind for more, a bead of pain began to develop in her forehead. The door opened and Kiyoshi entered, two glasses of water in his hands. The light from the outside shown into the room, hurting her eyes. He quickly closed the door with a push of his foot, and then walked to her bedside. There was a look in his eyes that she expected, stressed concern, but something else lurked there as well. She wondered what new skeletons he added to his closet. "Sorry for the wait," he whispered as he handed her the glass. She took it and took a few large gulps as he talked. "You wouldn't believe how many people I had to ask to find where I could get some water." She thanked him with a warm smile and set the glass on the counter next to the head of her bed. "A doctor is probably going to check up on you in a few," he said, and then sipped his water. "When you were brought in, there might have been some serious injuries, but every test they ran on you showed up negative of whatever. This one really old doctor was still worried, though. I asked him what he thought could be wrong, but he just said 'Nothing, yet.' I honestly think you just need some rest." "Yes, Doctor Nishiyama," she quipped, sticking her tongue out at him. "Any other orders?" "Yeah," he said, setting his water on a table she could not see in the dark. "Think back to what happened after you went unconscious." Taking a sip of her water, Kimiko looked at him with a raised brow. "But I just woke up." Shaking his head, Kiyoshi appeared to close his eyes. "You mean like dreams and stuff?" she asked suspiciously. She never knew him to be a big analytical dream person. "And stuff," he said, adding to her curiosity. "Whenever you feel well enough, meditate on it. And don't give me that face, I'm being serious here." "Sir, yes sir!" she exclaimed with a mock salute that sent a lance of pain through her arm. "Now go back to sleep." She did not need any persuading to follow that order. "What are you going to do in the mean time?" Kimiko asked, setting the glass of water down. "I'm going to sit right here until morning," he answered, fighting a yawn. "And sleep if I can ever stop thinking about the itch under this stupid cast." With a giggle, Kimiko laid back, her mind already beginning to drift. Hopefully tonight, she would not dream. Her eyes slowly slid shut as the darkness swallowed her. * * * With her face pressed deeply into a pillow, Nabiki Tendou barely heard the telephone ringing. The sweet smell of her herbal shampoo in her hair from the shower she had taken last night brought her around a bit, as she wondered what horribly early time it could be. Usually the sun would wake her up, since she left the shades on her high-rise apartment open enough to shine in on her. Sitting up, Nabiki rolled her eyes, trying to buy time before picking up the phone. It inevitably would be her secretary, or one of her employees, in need of help or alerting her to some great crisis. Looking at the flashing button on her nightstand, she pressed the "Voice Only" one next to it. There was no need for any of her staff to spy her in the clothes she had gone to sleep with, considering she wore none. "Hello?" she said as dignified as she could, following the word with a yawn. "Tendou-san, this is Ju. This one has that data you requested." Blinking her eyes several times, it took her a moment to remember exactly what she had requested. He must have taken the silence for not recalling, so he answered. "This one is sorry to wake you, Tendou-san," he said apologetically. "But you said to call as soon as this one learned of Nishiyama-sama's whereabouts. He has such information now." Ju, as everyone called him, was what one might call an investigator, not quite separate from Nishiyama Inc., but not quite a part of it either. She had only talked to him in person once, and that had been enough. The man was neither handsome nor ugly, and something about his neutral appearance sickened Nabiki. Perhaps she simply did not like the way he could move around without being noticed. She had often caught herself not detecting his presence, even when she had been trying to do just that. No, she corrected herself. The creepiest part about him was how he talked about himself in the third person. "Yes, thank you, Ju," she told him. "It is too sensitive a matter to speak over the phone," he said, sparking her curiosity. "This one wishes to meet ASAP." This is going to cost me, Nabiki thought, scratching her forehead. "How soon can you meet him, Tendou-san?" "Meet me in thirty minutes at the coffee shop across from my building," she told him after a moment of thought. The clock read 4:36, so it should be open by the time she got there. "This one thanks you," Ju said in his monotone voice. "He shall be there in exactly thirty minutes. He will not delay." Without another word, Ju cut the connection and the static that remained was quickly replaced by the silence Nabiki had known before his phone call. "This better be pretty damned good." * * * Another day passed without word from her. Kenichi Tendou had come home from work, praying for a message from her, but his mother had none to relay to him. He felt rejected and poured those feelings into his painting of her, the flame of his passion. Although the main body of the work had been finished already, he merely added touches of sadness: a sort of despair in her eyes that put tears in his. He bit his lip as he began cleaning up the details of her clothes, which he had neglected until now. For almost twenty minutes he sat on his stool, working on the canvas until he finished it. Smiling sadly, he remained still, tired from his long day at work and putting so much effort into one picture. A knock at the door took his attention from the painting. "Come in," he said. His sister slinked in the room, her arms crossed over her chest, a disapproving look meeting his eyes. He could already tell Mayako meant to nag him about something. "What?" he asked as she closed the door, and then walked over to him. "Nothing," she answered, turning her head away from him, pretending to examine his painted wall. "You never bother me while I paint for nothing," he replied, resting his hands on his thighs. "I was just bored," she said, turning to face him, and the painting. "You finished it?" Kenichi nodded, standing up. He lifted the canvas from the easel and placed it atop his dresser, out of harm's path so that it could dry unmolested by the elements and nosey siblings. "You make her look so sad, little brother," Mayako observed, walking up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Why'd you do that?" With a shrug of his shoulders, Kenichi left her touch behind for his bed, practically collapsing on it. "Ah come on, Ken," she whined, pulling his stool to the side of the bed and sitting on it. "You can tell me anything. I promise I won't tell anyone anything you say." He thought on his sister's apparent sincerity for a moment, not finding any holes in her speech at which to be suspicious. The concern in her eyes, which he had mistaken for disapproval, became evident as she drew in close to him. He decided to lower his defenses, for now. "I guess it's a combination of things," he told her, following that with a yawn. "When she's not absorbed in training, or talking with someone, she seems to get this look in her eyes. That's what I hoped to show. I don't know quite how to explain it, other than that it seems she puts on a show for us, and then retreats back to whatever sorrow she can't get away from. She just looks lost, and hopeless. "You don't see that, Mayako?" "I guess I'm not looking as closely as you," Mayako replied, staring at her bare feet. She raised her head to face him and looked into his eyes. "Maybe you shouldn't either." "What's that supposed to mean?" Kenichi asked, sitting up straight. "Why shouldn't I?" "Her problems are none of our business," she answered, crossing her legs. "I think it's great that you really like her, but don't think that just because you hit it off so fast she's Miss Right or anything." "Maybe she isn't perfect," Kenichi admitted, suddenly not liking where the conversation was headed and too tired to care what she thought. "But what I do isn't your business, either." "Little brother," Mayako whined, giving him a full on puppy-dog pout. "I'm just trying looking out for you." Disengaging himself from their conversation, Kenichi closed his eyes, and it felt as if lead had replaced his eyelids. His sister said something to him, but he ignored her and laid himself back on his bed. The dim light of his room shone down on him, but he ignored that as well, suddenly uninterested in anything but sleep. "Okay, ignore me," Mayako told him, rising from the stool. He felt her lean over him and her hot breath as she whispered in his ear. "I'll try not to say 'I told you' when she leaves the country." Kenichi's door clicked shut as Mayako softly closed it. She had not meant to put her brother on the defensive, and felt sorry about it. His sulking over her disappearance from their lives, though she had only appeared in them, grew on her nerves. If she could not prepare him for her exit from the country, he might grow another layer of scar tissue around his heart. Downstairs, Mayako shuffled through a drawer and located a pad of paper and a pen, and then lifted the phone and dialed information. "Information, what city, please?" a male operator asked. "Tokyo," she told the operator. "Prefect?" "Tokyo city," she replied. "The Hilton." "Which one, ma'am?" Which one? Mayako thought back to her trip to the hotel, but could not remember much in the way of the roads they had taken. It had been dark and they passed countless stoplights. "All of them," she answered. "One moment, please." She held onto the receiver for a moment, staring at the wall, and then received three different numbers and wrote them on a notepad. She thanked the operator, and then hung up. "Okay, Kimiko Nishiyama, where are you?" she asked of empty room. Dialing the first number, she watched as her mother entered the room with Eiji on her shoulders jabbering about something to do with plants. Mayako glared at the munchkin whose voice cut through the air like a blade. Akane quickly shushed him with an over-exaggerated motion of putting her finger to her lips and squashing her face. Eiji copied his mother as a man on the other line picked up. "Thank you for calling the Hilton, Tatsuyama speaking, how can I direct your call?" "I'm calling for Kimiko Nishiyama," she told the person, and then watched her brother pretend to zip his mouth shut and throw away the key. She repressed a giggle as he almost fell from the moment of the key throwing. "I'm sorry, there is no listing for a guest under that name. Is there anything else I can do for you?" Mayako thought. The room might be under Kiyoshi's name. "How about a Kiyoshi Nishiyama?" she asked, holding in her breath. "Hold one moment, please," the person said. "Mayako, tomorrow I need you to go into town for me," her mother said, placing Eiji on the floor. Akane approached her daughter, whispering her request. "Your grandfather needs a few dress shirts, and..." "May I ask your name, please?" "Mayako Tendou," she said, speaking more loudly than she needed. Her mother continued as boring classic rock played on the phone, "...a new tie. Also, ask Kenichi if he needs any dress clothes, not his school or work clothes, mind you. I want him to look nice for the dinner we're going tomorrow night. Oh yes, pick something for yourself, too. I'll leave the money on the table for you after I make breakfast. "Am I forgetting anything?" "Yes, that I'm on the phone," Mayako said dryly. "Oh, right, we're having dinner with the Nishiyamas tomorrow night. I forgot to tell you." Mayako blankly stared at the woman, and then shook her head. As her mother scooped up Eiji, who had been stumbling around the kitchen, searching for the imaginary key, so he could unlock the imaginary zipper, the man on the phone said he would patch her through to Kiyoshi. Suddenly, her heart started to pound in her chest. Not realizing that she had asked for Kiyoshi, she now had to speak to the god-like man without a chance to prepare herself. She almost squeaked when he answered. "Hello?" Kiyoshi answered, his voice weary. "Hi," she answered back, dumbly. "What can I do for you, Mayako?" he asked, his voice a bit more cheery. Unable to answer, she tried hard to say his sister's name, but nothing came out. When she heard a chuckle from the other end, he said, "I'll put her on." Sighing in relief, she began to wonder if her cheeks were burning red. They certainly felt like it. "Hi, Mayako," Kimiko's light voice sounded in stark opposition to her brother's deep, manly voice. "Hi, Kimiko," Mayako said, feeling her confidence levels begin to level rise back into place. "How are you feeling?" There was a slight pause on the other end, but Kimiko answered. "I'm okay, just tired." "Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Mayako asked, furrowing her brows. "No, no," Kimiko replied, shuffling something on the other end of the line. "I was just resting." "Good," Mayako said, sitting on the counter. Then once again, Mayako realized she had no clue what she was going to ask. She had called intending to ask many things, such as asking Kimiko of her intentions towards Kenichi, but that would be inappropriate. Plus, the phone was an impersonal way to talk about matters of the heart. She needed to talk to the girl in person. Then inspiration struck her. "I just called to see if you'd like to go shopping with me tomorrow afternoon," Mayako stated, watching her mother exit the room. Kimiko stayed silent for a moment, though she heard something in the background click. "I mean, if you have other things to do, that's okay." "No," Kimiko answered. "I'm free tomorrow. Where would you like to meet?" "Why don't you come here?" Mayako proposed, twirling her bangs with her finger. "At say, ten or eleven? I'll show you around. We can have lunch in the city, and check out a lot of cool stores. Not the massive malls like you have in the U.S., but real specialty shops. Sound okay?" "Sure," Mayako heard the reply. "Is Kenichi coming?" "No, just to two of us," Mayako replied quickly. She thought for a second, and then decided to play a hand. "Unless you want him to come?" "Oh, no, I mean, I don't mind if he comes," Kimiko verbally stumbled. "What about Mai or Reiko?" "Mai works tomorrow; it's Tuesday, and you do not want to shop with Reiko. She will get you to spend all your money on her, and you won't even realize it until you open your purse and realize it's empty." Kimiko's laughter loudly echoed on the phone. "So I'll see you here at ten?" "I'll be there." Mayako hung up with a satisfied smile on her face. * * * "What do you mean he's unavailable?" Nabiki demanded, her eyes fixing on the file cabinet in front of the phone in her office. "I've been trying to contact him the past few days, and he's always unavailable." The business suit she had dressed in the day before seemed wrinkled in every place possible. She had lost one of her heeled shoes the night before, and promptly through the other one out a window on the top floor. The past few days had not been kind to her. "All right, I hold this last time, but if I..." she started, pinching her forehead. Then the horrible elevator music switched on and filled her office with the distasteful sound. "Son of a bitch!" Information she had acquired the day after the Nishiyama's supposed accident confirmed a sneaky suspicion she had for a while. Kiyoshi Nishiyama had his share of enemies from his days as a corporation enforcer, and his past seemed to be catching him to him. Nabiki looked out the window from her rotating chair, and then childishly spun her seat, contemplating the intelligence she had received from a lead in another company. "Tendou-san?" her secretary spoke over the intercom. "I'm sorry to bother you, but there is a Ju-san here to see you. I told him he needed to make an appointment but he insisted." "Let him in," Nabiki said, turning down the volume of her speaker phone. Opening a drawer, she lifted a small mirror to examine her appearance. Bags, check. Smeared make-up, check. Dust covered clothes, check. Messy hair, check. Everything seemed in place to make a great impression on her subordinate, she mused sarcastically. Planting her feet on the ground, she put the mirror away and sat up straight in her chair. Ju entered the room quietly, turning to close the doors behind him. He wore black pants and a black shirt with a maroon tie, but no coat. He carried a plain, black briefcase in with him. She expected the slowness of his step as was so customary for him. Nabiki employed him so long because of his methodical nature, not for the speed of his results, which were just as satisfactory to her. "Tendou-san," he said, bowing ninety-degrees in a casual show of respect. Nabiki nodded and he found a seat. Nabiki put her finger to her lips and pressed the intercom button. "Suu-chan, please wait on the phone line for me. They put me on hold again." "Of course," her secretary responded. Nabiki closed her eyes as the speakers died down and the detested music stopped filling the room. She opened them again to look at Ju. He sat patiently, waiting for his turn to speak. "Now, I really hope there's a good reason that you're visiting me in person, Ju. I don't know how much patience I have in me today. As you can see, I've been busy the past twenty-four hours." "As there always is, Tendou-san," he replied, opening the locks on his briefcase. "It seems a friend of ours came through yet again, actually providing us with a little evidence of the plan in question." "You can speak the details," Nabiki informed him. "This office is secure." "Very well," Ju said quietly. "Frankly, I'm dissatisfied with the quality of the documents I procured, but they are better than nothing." He then pulled a manila envelope out and slid it across Nabiki's desk. She stared at it a moment and then lifted it off the table and opened it. As the contents fell into her hands, a click resounded in the room from her office speakers. "I have Nishiyama-san on hold, Tendou-san." Then, she told him everything. * * * An engine growled somewhere down the street from the plain house. The young man stood at his porch, one arm extended and level with his face, and the other clutched at his hip putting him in a defensive stance. He tried to ignore it, to lose himself in the kata he had been performing for to hours on his small porch, but he had not been able to keep his mental balance. While his body betrayed none of this, he felt himself lost, somewhere else. The engine's roar merely represented everything in his life he could not change, like the sun's ascent in the sky as it began the morning so brightly. His mother had approached him an hour before, but he had ignored her at the time, trying to find himself in the Art. Something had been on her mind, he realized now, something she had wished to discuss. His mother rarely even talked to him in the past few years, for which he assumed she was disappointed in him. It had always been like that between them though, for he always seemed to live in the shadow of a shadow, an heir to a non-existent legacy of perfection in body, mind, soul and the Art. Rintaro Saotome hated his family, not because they mistreated him, not because his father had the tendency to hurt him, and definitely not because he could never please them. Everything he hated about them reflected exactly opposite in the Tendous, their love, closeness and charity towards one another. He did not hate his family because they were not the Tendous; he hated them because he was not a Tendou. Reasoning like that did not make much sense, even to himself. He felt as if somehow he was a mistake, and that he belonged somewhere else. "Rintaro?" This time, he stopped at the sound of his mother's empty voice, and turned to face her, a neutral expression on his face. She stood in the doorway. "Yes, mother?" he asked, correcting his posture to stand straight and stare her in the eyes, his back arched slightly, his head cocking slightly to the right. "You are distracted, my son," she said, something in her voice resonating as she said the word 'my.' Even his mother could recognize the tear in his heart now. He had to be slipping. In silence, he stood. He would wait for her to come to the point so that he could train somewhere else, away from the engine, away from the oppression of his family. "Please tell me what troubles you," she said simply, expressing about as much emotion as he showed her, making the request almost as silly as he felt it to be. But if she really wanted to know, he had little reason to hide it. "You are aware of my loss to the daughter of Nishiyama-san," he stated, remaining as still as a cat watching its prey. "Defeat is merely a stepping stone, not a finale," Nodoka sagely replied. "Is it really?" he patronized, reflexively tightening the knot of his belt. She placed her hands on her hips, a warning to behave himself. "But of course you know that, coming as far as you have in your training. So I will ask you what bothers you again." Withholding another smart remark, Rintaro looked away from his mother. "Why do you care what it is?" A bit of hurt surfaced in his mother's brown eyes as she looked at him. He could almost read her pain from her eyes. "How could you not know my feelings for you?" They seemed to ask. "Why do you push us away, Rintaro?" she did ask, looking away from her son. "I'm not the one who did the pushing," he replied coolly, turning away from her, towards the gate at the edge of the porch. "A few years ago, I might have welcomed you into my life and my affairs, but you were deaf then, as you are blind now." Nodoka Saotome helplessly watched as her son continued his training, rougher than before, full of anger. He was the son she swore she would never allow out of her household, to raise him properly and carefully. This child had been her life, until she realized the imbalance of this, far too late. Her oldest son was a nightmare to even himself, and her husband was a bitter old man, forever lost with their first child, having never found anything but scorn from his wife for years of neglect. Rintaro was as gifted as Ranma, but he lacked the heart. In the year she had come to know her first child, she recognized the generosity of his spirit, and accepted him immediately, with all of his flaws attached. This was the same spirit that Rintaro did not have. Entering the house, Nodoka untied her hair, letting it fall to her waist. Although it had started graying years ago, it still contained the tinge of red from her childhood. She stared at the lock of hair in her hands, and then let it fall back to her waist. On Monday, Genma had been so excited that he actually took her out to dinner. It had been nothing fancy, but mere thought that anything could bring them together without any of hardship during their years of separation being brought up once during their date left warmth in her heart. He had told her then that he suspected that the child Kiyoshi Nishiyama brought with him could possibly be the daughter of their most beloved first son. Looking at Rintaro through the kitchen window that had a view the patio, Nodoka wished some of Genma's renewal of spirit could affect the heart of her treasured son. Attending to the breakfast she had preparing, Nodoka barely noticed her youngest son, Shintaro, enter the room. "That smells good, mommy," he said softly, smiling sweetly. "Thank you, sweetness," she replied, happy that one member of the family still had heart enough to share. It was truly too bad he did not have Rintaro's ambition, because then he would have been perfect. Rintaro stopped his kata and approached the kitchen window. "I'm leaving," Rintaro called from outside. "What about breakfast?" she futilely yelled back, but he already turned without a reply and was making his way out of the residence. After arguing with his mother, Rintaro had left through the gate, but instead of leaving, he immediately turned around the side of his house and climbed the wall. He quickly sneaked through the open window of his shared bedroom with his brother, who had just entered the kitchen. He located a pair of worn tennis shoes and slipped into them. Once he had left the premises, he quickened his pace, eager to be away from his house. It was still fairly early morning and he had yet to eat, so he decided to go to Ucchan's. His Aunt Shampoo would be there this early in the morning, and Rintaro did not mind her as much as he did her children. Mai was much to hyper a lot of the time, and way to sad the rest, while Ryosei's lecherous tendencies and pure spite for Rintaro were enough to draw the line at hanging out with him. A few customers entered the restaurant before Rintaro, a few teenage girls that he thought he recognized from Furinken High School. Except for the three that had entered before him, the place was practically empty. Rintaro slowly pulled the glass door and entered. Mai sat on a stool, talking with the girls that had entered. Wearing the usual Ucchan's getup, a white blouse, blue skirt and an apron, she swung her feet like a child as she chatted merrily, completely missing Rintaro's entrance. Preferring to keep it that way until Shampoo made an appearance, he sneaked into a booth at the back of the store. Slipping out of view, Rintaro stayed perfectly still, resting his head on the back of his headrest. Closing his eyes, he ignored the girl's mundane chatter. He sat their for a few moments, wondering what he could do that day. Although he still ached from his fight, he wished he could somehow sit Kimiko Nishiyama down and get a million yen worth of her thoughts. He had spent the last couple of days since then focusing all of his attention on his memory of the event. Bits and pieces blurred together after he had lost consciousness, but for the most part, it remained intact. At first she had performed quite inept, sluggishly responding and nervously retaliating. What Kimiko had done after that simply took the words out of his mouth. She opposed his every move as if they had trained under the same master, with two major differences. Rintaro was in much better physical condition, and yet she was ten times his match in speed and skill. Her tactics changed as often as he altered his, turning the friendly match into a duel. He had been so eager to test her that he completely forgot he could lose. One after another, they had traded blows. The fight raged in his head again, his victories, and then hers. Then something struck him. He knew something had been funny when she countered his "Dead Man's Takedown," but it had completely slipped his mind until now. How had she known its counter? How? Then other irregularities began appearing. Something very odd about her entire networked style mirrored his incredibly. Combination after combination became increasingly familiar to him as he thought about it. It had been obvious before that she had been versed in the Anything Goes style, but the he only just began to grasp how well. Although very modified, her style was Anything Goes in its core. "Mind if I join you, Rintaro-kun?" Shampoo asked, unnoticed by him until she was already sliding into the seat across from him. She looked exactly the same as she always did, except somehow even more beautiful, moving with as much grace as she did in her cursed form. "Not at all," he said as she rested directly in front of him. Her genuine smile unsettled him a bit and he looked over at her daughter, who happily served her friends at the grill. "I told Mai to make you some breakfast okonomiyaki," Shampoo said softly, resting her chin on her clasped knuckles. He looked into her brown yet almost maroon colored eyes, not giving up an inch in his stare. "How are you, Auntie?" he asked, not dropping his eyes from hers. She blinked slowly, and then smiled. "I am very well," she said warmly, patting his left hand with both of hers. She left them on top of his as she stared into his eyes, squinting every so slightly. "You know I will always listen if you want to talk." Rintaro looked down at her hands, still soft and smooth, her trimmed nails cut short, but colored to match her hair. The warmth of her hands felt relaxing on his cold one, and so he gently pulled it from under hers and jammed beside him. He could feel her eyes examining him so closely, finding everything without even needing to hear his voice. "I know," he replied, staring at his lap. "I think that's why I'm here." As he looked up, she nodded, her eyes unchanged and yet somehow more comforting and less judgmental than before. She related a silent message to him: I understand. "Ah, here comes your breakfast," she whispered as Mai walked from around the counter. The girl held the tray with the food and a mug of steaming tea balanced in one hand as she approached. "One breakfast special and tea," Mai announced, her voice flatter than usual as she looked at Rintaro, somehow accusing him of something. "Good morning to you, Rintaro-san." "Good morning, Mai-chan," he said as nicely as he could muster without sounding fake. "Thank you." She looked vaguely surprised as she walked back to her position. "I don't know who I am anymore," Rintaro said after Mai left earshot, his voice very low. Lying back against the parlor's cushions, Shampoo listened earnestly, not speaking a word. He had only talked to her like this once before, about a personal matter he no longer remembered much about. "I've been doing a lot of thinking," he said, trying to figure out what he was going to say. It all seemed so much easier, thinking that he would simply unload his feelings then go back to kicking ass. When it came down to it, was that what he wanted? Right about this point, his mother would have said something like, "Thinking is good as long as you are not over-thinking. Considering a matter too much with too little action is for cowards, those who avoid conflict by never deciding. But considering too little is for fools and vagabonds. Find your balance." Then he would have been too angry to talk anymore by her over-simplifying everything. "When I was younger, I didn't think about it," he continued. "Then for a while, I tried hard to create myself from scratch, to be who I wanted to be." He paused, scratching his forehead. "Am I making any sense?" "Yes," Shampoo answered with a slight nod. "Go on." "Well, last Sunday, before we all got together, I was so angry. I kept mulling everything over in my head, and I wanted to make everyone else miserable, because that's how I felt, too." Rintaro bowed his head, closing his eyes as he the words came to his mouth. "Everything bad inside me was building up and up and up, and I felt like I was going to snap. Then when I got there, I met that redheaded girl." When Rintaro looked up, the expression in Shampoo's face was different, a slight color in her cheeks. Stumped, he did not understand that reaction to his words, and so he continued on. "For the few minutes that the fight lasted, I felt alive, free and I didn't think about anything except the fight." The confusing look on her face changed as she smiled slightly, recognition that she felt the same. "I woke up in Mayako's bedroom," he whispered, looking over at young Mai as she chatted with her friends. "And everything was different. My head was clear for the first time in so long. Everyone looked different, and I felt strangely good. I mean, I technically lost a fight, but I didn't care." The slight smile turned into a comfortable one as Shampoo listened to his words, giving her attention to no one but him. "That whole day, my training was perfect. I was sore, but it was as if everything was in place. I harnessed my chi as if it was solid and I could hold in my hands. And then, the next day, I was myself again. I saw everything in the same light, the age-old decay that's everywhere that disappeared for a day. I kept thinking all those same thoughts, all that anger. "I don't want to do it all over again, Auntie," he said with a sigh, pressing his head into his hands. "I'm tired of hating everyone. I'm tired of being alone here." Shampoo sat in silence for a moment, her eyes still on him as they had been since he started talking. He wanted to reach out and take her hand, to feel its warmth again, to know she was really there, but he held himself back. "You have never been alone," she began, a faint touch of her Chinese accent sweet on her breath. "That day you saw clearly, you saw us there. When you went home and woke up the next day, you closed your eyes again. But you are here now, and Auntie is here now, too. You have made one step, and if only you can take the next. I cannot make it for you." Trying as hard as he could, he tried to understand, tried to take that second step, but nothing came to him. He looked up, pleading with his eyes. Where would this take him? He sought clarity when he entered the restaurant, and he wanted to take that step so badly. "Your Auntie thinks you are trying too hard," she said in reply to his silence. "Why not take very small steps?" "I don't understand," he whispered, looking down at the meal in front of him. His tea still steamed and the aroma of the okonomiyaki, he realized, had been making his mouth water for a few minutes now. "Yes you do," she said, beginning to slide out from the parlor table. Small steps, he thought. Taking the chopsticks at his plate, he took a bite of his food. Even he had to take bigger steps than that, he knew as he savored the flavor. "Auntie," he said as she stood up straight. She stopped as he slid out from the table as well. "Thank you." He bowed as low as he could. His heartbeat quickened when he felt her fingers touch his cheek. Lifting him from his bow, she very lightly pressed her lips to his forehead, and then released him. Straightening his back, he looked at her in wonder. "Thank you," she replied, putting her small hand on his shoulder. "You eat now, and if you have more to talk about, I am always here. I, too, must take my next step and serve my customers." As she walked around the counter, he realized a smile had comfortably planted itself on his face. He let it remain as he ate his breakfast, allowing the steady chatter of Shampoo's customers drowned out his thoughts. * * * A warm summer breeze, so late after the cold spring, lightly kissed his exposed skin, as Kenichi lay asleep. A smile touched his lips as he groped with his hands for the covers of his bed, but found them nowhere. Someone spoke, her voice so light that he did not realize that it addressed him until he heard his name. "Kenichi, wake up," his mother's voice chimed over him as he struggled to awake completely. "Your alarm has been ringing for five minutes. Wake up." His eyes slowly opened and he saw his mother's shining smile. "Morning, honey," she greeted, and then he watched her walk to his window and open the shades, flooding the room with the bright morning sun. "Ack," he groaned, sitting up against his own wishes. Morning fog clouded his brain and he could not even remember the day. "What's today?" "Wednesday," Akane said as she opened his closet. "Go take a bath. Your sister and her friend are finishing breakfast as we speak, so you might want to hurry while it's still warm." Kenichi yawned. He had to work today. Nothing could put a funk into any morning easier than knowing you have to work. A thought entered his mind. "A friend?" He looked at his mother with an odd expression. "Yes, Kimiko Nishiyama is going shopping with Mayako today, and she came a bit earlier than expected." His mother smiled, shifting through the shirts in his closet. "She's such a nice girl." "Uh-huh," Kenichi replied, sliding his feet over the side of the bed and planted them on the floor. "How soon are they leaving?" "I'm not sure," she answered, taking out one of his work shirts. "I'll set all of your clothes out. Why don't you go take a bath now?" "Okay," he said, rushing out his door and downstairs towards the bathroom. He paused at the door to the dining room, peeked in, and took in the sight of his heart's desire. The two girls sat with their backs toward him. His sister, still eating breakfast, laughed about something as Kimiko sat with Eiji on her lap. He still wore his Sailor Moon 4200 pajamas, kicking his legs out over and over. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Kimiko asked of Eiji as his little arms grabbed for a cup. "I want to be like big brother!" Eiji exclaimed before he drank from the cup. "You want to be a dope, too?" Mayako said with a laugh. "He'll beat you up for saying that, big sister!" he said between sips cheerfully. "If he ever wakes up," Mayako commented smugly. Kenichi held his tongue as he began to walk towards the bathroom, a small smile on his face. "I'm glad you look up to your big brother, Eiji-chan," Kimiko said just before Kenichi walked out of earshot. Stopping in his tracks, he walked back to the door, just out of view. "Oh really?" Mayako said with a giggle. "Sure," Kimiko said warmly. "Kenichi's a fine role model for this little goblin." "I'm not a goblin!" Eiji shouted, his little voice piercing Kenichi's straining ears. "I'm a martial artist and I challenge you!" "Better put down your water first, silly head," Mayako said. "I accept, sir goblin," Kimiko replied. With a wide smile, Kenichi walked to the bathroom, changing the sign outside the bathroom door from "Available" to "Occupied." He undressed and threw his undershirt and boxers into the dirty clothes hamper. With a yawn, he stretched his stiff muscles. Quickly he entered the bathing room and slid the door closed, noticing the floor covered in watery footprints. "What a slob," he muttered, knowing his sister to be behind the mess. With a towel from the dirty clothes hamper, he quickly mopped up the water before starting a bath. His mother quickly entered as he returned the towel to the dirty hamper, dropping off his clothes and his work shoes, nicely polished. Warm water coursed into the large basin, and he let it fill halfway, in order to save on water. As he tested the water with his fingers he heard the door to the bathroom open. "Kenichi?" A male voice asked. "What? Who's there?" Whoever had entered the room ignored his question, closing the door and by the sounds of it, had begun undressing. "Grandfather?" he asked, though he could have sworn his grandfather would be still asleep. The old man liked to rest at least until nine in the morning. His clock had read eight twenty when he had exited his room. "Wrong," the man said again. "Think of someone ten times more intelligent than you, ten times stronger and ten times better looking." With that tone of voice, it could be none other than Rintaro Saotome. "So intelligent that you couldn't find the bath at your own home, Saotome?" he asked. The door slid open in response, revealing a Rintaro. He frowned in disdain as he entered, closing the door behind him. "I assume your sister bathed before you," he stated, as he approached the bath. "You really should beat her until she cleans up after herself." Kenichi turned and began to add more water into the tub. "What'd I miss?" He turned back to Rintaro who entered the shower quickly, turning on the water. "Besides the smell of her?" Rintaro quipped with a smirk Kenichi imagined to be on his face. "There were some clearly feminine items carelessly left in the linen room." Kenichi soaked in silence as the sound of the shower drowned any other noise Rintaro made. Sometimes a friend, sometimes a foe, Rintaro always presented himself as a cynically arrogant person with little to no manners. He could not imagine entering someone else's bath without even bothering to ask. When the shower turned off, Kenichi asked, "What brings you here, anyway?" "Your mother insisted I bathe before I go with your sister and your girlfriend to the city," he answered as he toweled off. "How'd you get lured into that?" Kenichi wondered aloud. Rintaro answered with silence. Kenichi turned to see him gazing at himself in the mirror. "My mom," Kenichi answered for him. The only person that Rintaro would ever be swayed by was his mother. She always acted extra nice to him, but Kenichi could never figure out why. "Smart boy," Rintaro said dryly as he slid the door open, exited and then closed it behind him. "Mind if I borrow some of your clothes?" "No, go ahead," Kenichi replied, deciding he better hurry if he wanted to see Kimiko before she left. After grabbing a towel, he started to dry himself off when he began to hear Rintaro dress. "Hey, there's spare set of clothes there?" "No," Rintaro said cynically. Sliding the door to the linen room open, he saw Rintaro begin open the door to the hall, dressed in his work clothes. "Hey!" Kenichi exclaimed, losing his towel somewhere between jumping to catch Rintaro and missing him. Losing his balance on the slippery wooden floor of the hall, Kenichi caught himself on the wall opposing the door. "Come back here, Rintaro!" Almost running into his sister, Rintaro slipped past her, chuckling. "He took my clothes," Kenichi said, his cheeks steaming with anger. "I can tell," Mayako said with a giggle, quickly glancing down to motion towards his lack of towel. As one can imagine, the source of her laughter caused more steam to redden his cheeks. He fled to the bathroom quickly, grabbing his towel. As he did so, he noticed that Rintaro had left his work shoes. At least he had that much tact. "So, hot water causes some shrink, too?" With a towel firmly wrapped around him and clenched tightly with his right hand, and his shoes in the left, Kenichi gathered as much dignity as he could, pushing past her and sneaking down the hall, but he was stopped by the sight of two people there. To his horror, Kimiko stood in the hall, talking to Rintaro. She turned and smiled, her lips hiding more than a bit of mirth. She looked different today, as if more relaxed. Unlike the very sexy red dress she had on when he first saw her, or the other times when she wore sweats, she somehow seemed more happier in a mini-skirt and a midriff exposing, sleeveless blouse, showing much of her tanned, beautiful skin. He could not resist following her skin with his eyes, from her tennis shoes to the thighs, and then to her trim stomach, jumping to her face (the area between would have almost certainly caused a nosebleed). He almost did not give Rintaro a second glance as the older boy stood wearing Kenichi's tan collared shirt and black slacks, although the guy did seem to stand taller in it. "Yes, I am that good." Rintaro spoke with a wry grin as he watched Kenichi. "I took the clothes right off him, then dressed before he even had a chance to notice." "Uh-huh," Kimiko replied dryly. Flashing Rintaro an obviously fake smile, Kenichi walked past them without comment, though he did meet Kimiko's eyes a moment before she looked away with a slight flush to her cheeks. He wondered what it meant as he passed them in the hall. "That's easy," Mayako said to Rintaro from behind Kenichi. "I bet you Kimiko here could do that, then get Kenichi to thank her for it." Kenichi listened to their laughter as he exited, though he did not hear much more than a hiccup of a laugh from Kimiko. He wished he could go back and drink the sight of her again. After finding another outfit in his room, Kenichi heard voices outside, and decided at least to watch them leave. He slipped into the shirt and pants, and then ran back down stairs with his shoes and socks in his hands. He turned the corner on the stairs at full speed, not expecting anyone to be there. The moment he ran into Kimiko going down the stairs, he did not even know what hit him. With a cry of surprise, Kimiko tried to step aside from Kenichi's path, but she reacted too late and he crashed into her at full speed. His shoulder caught her as she angled sidewise, knocking her around to face him. She fell after him as they stared at one another, and sudden panic filled his face. The weight of her body violently slammed into Kenichi as they struck the middle of the stairs. Instinctively, she tried to absorb some of the blow by twisting Kenichi around and beneath her, but he stopped her. With his arms encircling her, he protected her as they bounced slightly, and then slid down the remaining stairs to the bottom, where they stopped. Stunned as she lay out flat against Kenichi, Kimiko stared dazedly at the floor just above his shoulder. He did not stir as she tried to regain her focus. "Are you okay?" she managed to ask, pushing herself up and off him. His eyes were closed as she sat beside him. "Kenichi?" "That hurt," he stated after a moment, rolling his eyelids open. He blinked several times as his pupils dilated. "Oh man," she whispered, looking over him a moment at the door, expecting someone to come in and pronounce "Ranma, you idiot!" right before punting her into orbit. In a position like that, anyone could walk in and assume the worst. "I'm okay," Kenichi said softly, rubbing eyes as she realized he had caught her staring. "Oh, heh, good," she replied, helping him sit up with a hand to his shoulder. "Wouldn't want you breaking a leg or anything." Kenichi turned his head to look at her, keeping his expression even. "Can you stand up?" She asked. "I think so," Kenichi whispered as he slowly began to stand, borrowing from her strength as he straightened his back. "Yeah, I'm fine." "You really can take a beating," she told him, mechanically straightening his shirt as they stood together. "I admire your training." "Thanks," he replied quietly, watching her hands adjust smooth out his shirt. "I'm really sorry about that." He bent down and picked up her purse, which had been knocked aside when they fell. Stopping herself as she looked up at him, Kimiko smiled, embarrassed by the whole situation, accepting her purse. "Thanks, and don't worry about it. No harm, no foul, right?" "I guess," he said, hanging his head, downcast. "I was just in a hurry to catch you before you left." When he looked up at her again, something about his expression suddenly looked very familiar, as if she had seen it before. With his eyebrows furrowed and he looked at her with real concern, and he frowned slightly. "Now are you sure that you're all right?" he asked, his eyes hanging about her waste a bit longer. Looking down, she found her skirt had ridden up her thighs quite high. A flush of embarrassment warmed her cheeks as she quickly fixed her mini-skirt and checked the rest of her clothes. "Sorry," he whispered, his eyes suddenly fixed upon the floor. "Little jostled, but I'm peachy." She looked over his clothes. He was dressed similar to when she first met him in the airport, a shirt and black slacks, and it was a look she liked, as most of the guys she ever hung out with wore training uniforms. Putting that thought elsewhere, Kimiko changed the subject quickly. "So, did you want to talk to me about something?" "I was just going to say bye," he said, looking away from her, suddenly bashful. "No need," Kimiko told him, taking his arm. "I just came back to see if you wanted to hurry and come with us. Your sister said that we'd be going by your work place anyway, so you can ride the train with us. Plus, we have to take your bike, and your sister didn't think it was a good idea to put Rintaro on a bike behind you." Kenichi chuckled, collecting his shoes and socks before they entered the courtyard. As he quickly put them on, Kimiko found his bike on the wall and walked it over to him. She watched him as he tied his shoelaces on his right shoe. As he began to tie the other, he looked up at her with a smile. The door creaked open and Akane came out in a yellow sun dress and a matching hat, followed by three children including Eiji, and her father. As Akane walked up to say goodbye, Eiji rushed past her and attached himself to Kimiko's leg. "Oh, I'm sorry, Kimiko," Akane told her as she looked down at her son with her eyes mildly scolding. "I don't mind him," Kimiko said, kneeling down to lift him up and propped him on her hip. "He just wanted to say bye to me, too. Right Eiji-chan?" The little boy nodded emphatically and pleaded, "Take me with you." She and Akane shared a laugh as Kenichi took a hold of the bike. The comfortable mirth in Akane's demeanor warmed Kimiko to the heart. She smiled at the older woman who reciprocated it. "Well, you better be off," Akane said, taking Eiji from Kimiko and setting him on the floor. She turned to address her older son. "Take care, Kenichi-kun. We're going on a walk." "I will, Mom," he said as Akane began to compel the children towards the gate. Soun waved at them before exiting with his daughter and the children. Kimiko and Kenichi were left alone on the brick walkway. When Kenichi began to walk towards the gate, she followed. When he walked through and had closed the gate, Kenichi swung a leg over it and then turned and patted the back of the seat. She approached it warily, realizing that her short skirt would make the journey unpleasant. After nimbly propping herself upon the seat, she pulled her skirt as low as possible. Only for balance, she gently clasped her thighs around Kenichi, causing a stir from him. "Ready?" He asked of her as she put her hands on his back. "Yeah." Riding down the street against the wind, they traveled in the direction of Ucchan's and the train station. * * * A few day's old, the yellow police line left around a blood- splashed area of grass had been left to rot in the warm sunlight, forgotten by the people who had left it there. A tall man in an overcoat stared at it, even as nervous couples gathered around the lake stared at him. It was the first warm day of summer after all. He stood next to a short, elderly gentleman whose age could have been sixty or eighty, who wore light colored shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. Even in the hot weather, not a drop of sweat touched the man's brow. He was not the one wearing an overcoat. "Apparently, the police stopped looking into the incident the day it happened," the caretaker of the park told the man. "Could you possibly recount what you remember from that night?" The tall man asked of the old man. "Of course," the gardener told the stranger. "You say you are hunting for the man who did this to the poor girl?" "If he is the one I have been following," he responded, his eyes taking in the older man's eagerness to tell. "Why don't we sit on the bench over there?" "Good idea," the gardener said. They two walked over to the unoccupied bench that overlooked the lake and sat down. "Well, I was opening the gates on Monday morning when a young girl appeared at them. She seemed nice and I walked with her a bit before she began her jog. It was still dark, but it's very difficult to get in at night, and the police run through the park before I close so that all the transient people are ejected. After Monday, I do not disagree with that policy. "So I let her in and walked with her partway to the lake. After opening the gate, I always walk through my flowers. They smell so good in the morning, fresh with the night's dew." Growing impatient, the stranger reached down, lifted a rock from the dirt ground around the bench, and threw it across the lake, half- listening as the old man continued. "It wasn't until later that I heard anything out of the ordinary. I began to walk towards the lake to watch the sun come up when I heard people being very loud. I really hate when people are loud in my park. It's so peaceful in the morning, so you can easily tell where disturbances are coming from. When I got to the lake, I saw two people in it. A man stood over a small girl, drowning her." "Drowning her, you say?" he asked, taking more interest in the conversation. "The police did not tell me that. But he did not drown her?" "No, no," the old man assured. "After I had called the police, I came back to see if I could do anything. By that time another man was crouched over her. It turned out to be her brother. He saved her, and when the paramedics came, they had to patch the both of them up. I heard that brother of hers had to fight her attacker off before he was able to resuscitate her." "Interesting," the stranger remarked, cupping his chin with a hand. "It does not sound like the man I am looking for. Did you see him at all?" "I only saw him that once in the lake," the gardener said, shaking his head. "He had short black hair and wore a dark shirt, but it was hard to tell anything else, since he was waist-deep in water." "How about the girl? What did she look like?" The old man looked up at him curiously, but he answered in spite of his suspicion. "She was short, ponytail, red hair. She looked Japanese or Chinese. Didn't you talk to her yourself?" The tall man did not answer right away, pondering the gardener's answer. After a cough, the man replied, "No, I am not investigating this crime in particular. I'm following a predator that might be the assailant here." The gardener bowed his head in apology. "Oh, forgive my curiosity. Is there anything else I can help you with?" With a nod the stranger stood. He supposed he would not find anything that would prove this to be the work of the man he hunted. A thought occurred to him as he considered leaving. "You wouldn't have happened to see any evidence that the other officers collected, or found anything out of the ordinary after the incident?" Considering this, the old man turned and looked over the lake, his old, sharp eyes shining in the light of the mid-morning sun. "Why, yes. I believe I did find something unusual. I showed the police, but by that time, they said the case was closed." "Hmm," the man thought aloud. "So they caught this villain?" "I would not know," the gardener replied. "But if you want the piece of material I found on the grass yesterday, I can give it to you if you come by my office." "That would be very helpful." After a walk along a path through trees and flowers, the old man showed him into his office, which consisted of a one-room cabin with enough room for a bed, small kitchen unit and a desk. He picked through a drawer and produced a small piece of fabric, which he offered to the stranger. "Oh yes, you have been very helpful, sir," the tall man said, staring at the piece of the headband that he knew belonged to his target. "Most helpful indeed." "Oh?" the gardener asked. "My prey has returned home." Pausing, the ex-florist took in the man's eagerness. "What station did you say you worked for?" With no response but a smile, the man simply exited the cabin and never looked back. * * * The gates to the Tendou residence inched open, revealing the dark man, his clothes stained by dirt, blood and time. He ruffled his black hair, matted with dirt and sweat and then took his first step onto the brick walkway in several weeks. It seemed to remember him, he thought, as the echo of his footsteps announced his return. Ryouga felt truly glad to be home. He crossed the walkway, his eyes intent on the front door. He approached it, about ready to open it, but stopped. Pausing for a moment, he looked over his shoulder at the bright sky. It had been far too long since his return home, even thought it was quicker than usual. After his bout with Ranma, or whoever the girl had been if she was even real, he needed something solid. Ever since the other man had defeated him, Ryouga found himself more able to pay attention to his surroundings and find his way home quicker than usual, as if the strange chi attack had knocked the beast loose from his mind. Trying the door, Ryouga found it locked. His spare key was hopelessly lost somewhere between here and Kyoto, so he settled for wandering around the back of the house, finding the backdoor after another few minutes of concentration. He had to keep his focus so that he could see his family before he inevitably had to leave. He found the sliding door locked as well. With a sigh, he walked to the dojo and sat on the floor. Feeling safe at his own home, the exhaustion that he had ignored so long began to creep up from his feet until it reached his eyes. Fighting it off, he stood, leaving his pack and walking towards the locker room. Ryouga found his son's locker after a few tries and appropriated a clean training gi that he decided to borrow until he could enter the house and get his own clothes. Stripping out of the dirty ones he had on, Ryouga entered the showers and cleansed away a week of traveling and fighting from his exhausted body. He closed his eyelids tight as he felt a wave of nausea almost take him. Slipping against the tile, Ryouga held onto the shower head as his head spun, when a strange image appeared before his eyes: a muddy cliff broken by a circular blast, with him at standing at its center. The image floated through his head as he regained his composure and continued his shower. Dimmed by time and repression, he mentally waded through the rough in the way of recollection. Only a shower of sensations came back to him as he pondered the image: depression, fear, pain and relief. Everything but the relief was easy to place, as the very image looked like a bomb had been placed in the spot in which he stood. A blast of depression, a Shishi Houkoudan, could have easily made such a mark, a spiritual attack he had long ago stopped using. It all seemed to lead... "Ryouga," he heard a voice whisper. Spinning, Ryouga found an empty locker shower room staring at him. His heart raced as he watched the walkway to the lockers. "Who's there?" he demanded of the emptiness. Shutting of the water, he slipped a towel around his waist and quickly ran through the lockers, searching for anyone. After eliminating his anxiety, Ryouga returned to his shower, at a loss to what he had been thinking about only moments before. * * * They sat in the crowded train in silence, he on the isle seat next to her. The conversation of the couple in the seats in front of them more than made up for their lack of words. People throughout the train spoke just as loudly and rapidly as Mayako and Rintaro did, but they continually flung one insult after another at each other, like starting with their hands gripped at the bottom of a baseball bat, groping upwards until one had their hand on its very top. The latest line of banter led to an action Mayako claimed Rintaro did to her while they rode the bike to the train station. "I did not pinch your butt!" "So you say." "Not like I'd want to pinch your butt anyway." "Oh, so there's something wrong with it then? Is that what you're trying to say?" "Yeah, it belongs to you." Kenichi put his head in hands, rubbing his temples in preparation for his sister to turn to him and demand that he should defend her bottom. He knew it was coming: her unavoidable deflection. Whenever she lost verbal combat, she would try to throw the football to someone else and let that person be tackled. It had only been a few days since Mayako and Rintaro had patched up their makeshift friendship and they were already fighting over nothing. This fact further made Kenichi glad that Kimiko behaved nothing like his sister, who for all her good points, acted like a spoiled child half the time. Looking over at the redhead, he observed her as she looked out the window, her hands against the metal window seal, her head leaning against the seat and her back towards him. "Kenichi, tell me," Mayako said, her face peeking through the seats at her brother. "My butt is pinchable, isn't it?" With her voice carried that sisterly advice that read: Agree Or Die. Unfortunately, Kenichi also knew that Rintaro would only turn on him with an incest remark or something equally embarrassing. Sometimes, he wondered if it would be better to jump out of the speeding train than to try to come out unscathed in a conversation with anyone. To his surprise, Kimiko came to his rescue. "Well, he doesn't really count, does he?" she asked as she turned her body forward, her eyes suddenly meeting his wide ones. In those beautiful baby blues he could not miss the mischievous glint of light. "But I think it's very pinchable." That followed with a yelp from Mayako, who jumped forward in her seat. Although he had missed the quick movement, Kenichi watched Kimiko return her hand from between the seats in front of them. With a laugh, Kenichi awaited more. "So what," Rintaro asked. "So she likes girls and boys. What's so funny?" "No, Saotome-san," Kimiko told him, her voice like velvet. "Since we've both already kicked it, I felt it wasn't fair if we both didn't pinch it, too." At that, both Kenichi and Rintaro burst into laughter. When he heard a growl from Mayako's side of the train, Kenichi nearly spit he laughed so hard, . After he gained control of himself, he wiped his eyes and face with his shirtsleeve. "Well said, Nishiyama-san," Rintaro saluted, his voice cracking with chuckles. After a few minutes, a few stops and a few repeated chuckles, they arrived at Kenichi's stop. "I guess this is good-bye for now," Kenichi told Kimiko, setting his hand on hers with a pat. She blinked as she looked at him, and then smiled. Leaning toward him, she put her right arm over his shoulders and patted his back affectionately. "We'll meet you for lunch, okay?" she said, still smiling. His face and body warmed at her touch as Kenichi nodded. "I'm looking forward to it." Standing, he felt Kimiko's hand slide down his back. With a parting glance, he caught her hand waving a quick good-bye. "See ya, lover-boy," Mayako teased, batting her eyelashes at him. Rintaro merely acknowledged his exit with a nod. Kenichi stepped off the train and exited the station with a light heart. * * * A few rows back, five teenagers tried their best to look inconspicuous, one sitting by himself reading a newspaper, two talking quietly amongst themselves and two sitting quietly. Masami darkly sat at the back of the train next to Kojiro, trying focus on anything but the two girls and one young man that he and his friends followed. A knot had been growing in his stomach for the past half-hour that he had been shadowing the group. Earlier that week, the redhead sitting next to Kenichi Tendou pulled a Bruce Lee, taking out three of them: Seiko, Michio and himself. She had aided Ryosei in his duel with Shoji, and had bested all of them. Briefly glancing at Kojiro as the bleach-blonde stared at the window, Masami pondered the wisdom of challenging the girl again. "I swear, Masami," Seiko began, looking at him from her seat in front of him, "if you don't stop brooding, I'm going to kick your ass right now." The scar diagonally across Seiko's right eye seemed to curve as she glared at him. "I'm serious. We have to be ready to beat those bitches to a bloody pulp. You know how hard this is going to be without you acting like a baby." "Shut the hell up, Seiko," Masami heard Jotaro, the eldest of them, hiss from his seat on the isle next to Seiko. "You know he's always like that." Masami kept silent, as Seiko always snapped at people when she was anxious. He caught an apologetic look in her eyes as she bowed her head to Jotaro. "There's no reason to be worried," Kojiro said, ruffling his spiky blond hair with his fingers. "Saotome will not help them. He owes you one, Jotaro. If he's good for anything, it's his word, right?" "We still have to be cautious," Jotaro replied softly. "Even though Rintaro may not help the girls, this will still be a close fight. We have to stick to the plan. No exceptions." Masami reviewed the plan in his head as they had decided several days ago in at his brother Michio's hospital bed. Once the teens left Kenichi at his workplace, Seiko, Jotaro and Kojiro would call confront the three. He and Shoji would remain further back in order to surprise the Kimiko, a little bit after Seiko would challenge Mayako. That would be when Jotaro and Kojiro would jump Kimiko together, as the two had been planning their moves the last few days. After they engaged Kimiko, he and Shoji would wait to see if Seiko needed help, and then aid her. If not, they were to stay out of the fight all together, as surprise attacks might set off Rintaro. Hopefully, their plan would through a wrench into any team tactics the two could have in their heads. And again, it all depended upon Rintaro's non-involvement. If he joined the fight for any reason, they would have no chance to win, unless Kimiko and Mayako were already out of the picture. Masami quietly sighed to himself, reaching up to finger his glossy black bike hanging above his head. "Don't worry, bro," Kojiro whispered in Masami's ear. "All you gotta do is kick back with loud-mouth and make sure he doesn't jump the gun." At that moment, the train stopped, and Masami's heart leaped as he prayed that the trio did not exit the train. He wished that they would never leave it, so he would not have to fight the redhead or Mayako. When Kenichi alone stood up, he sighed, happy that at least Kenichi would be out of reach should they have looked to him for help. The train picked up speed and the city blurred out the window, though Kojiro's bleach-blond hair blocked Masami's view afterward. Picking himself up, he quietly walked past Jotaro and Seiko's seats and sat next to Shoji, who had been curiously silent, the entire trip. Clenching a newspaper tightly in his hands, the boy who had sworn undying vengeance against his foes read the comics with an enthralled look in his eyes. Turning after a moment, Shoji glanced at Masami, setting the paper on the floor of the train. "Almost time, huh?" he asked in a whisper. "Good." Masami looked at him meaningfully. "I know," Shoji replied to Masami's unspoken meaning. "I'm not to fight the bitch at all unless Jotaro calls for us." A glare later, "Okay, and I only help Seiko if you jump in first. You don't need to get so pushy." "That's not it at all," Masami whispered. "How can you read the comics still? Those are kid's manga." All Masami received for that was a glare and Shoji picking up his newspaper, continuing his reading while ignoring anything further from the boy. The train stopped at its next destination, and this time, Mayako stood up quickly, beginning to take down her bike. "That's our queue," Jotaro hissed from behind them. "Once the redhead they start walking out, grab your bikes and follow quickly. We don't want to lose them. You know your job, Masami." Yes, Masami did know his job. He was to follow closely. Going down the isle to his former seat, he quickly took down his bike and exited the train through a door the trio was not using. Catching a glimpse of the three making their way out of the station, he followed them as inconspicuously as possible, faking as if to check this station's message board. His heart beat quickly as he reluctantly followed the orders of his leader. * * * Riding on the seat of Mayako's bike, Kimiko closed her eyes as the reckless teenager steering the light, aluminum-framed, red bike cut through the scattered bicyclists as fast as her two legs would push her. The girl's black hair obscured what little vision Kimiko would have had opening her eyes anyway. Clutching Mayako as not to fall off, Kimiko almost yelped as her friend hopped up the curb from the bike path, onto the sidewalk and straight into a crowd of people. To ride a bike like this would not have scared her. What did was the fact that she was not in control of it! She almost felt like pulling her hair at their ends in frustration every time Mayako nearly struck a pedestrian. With a glance over her shoulder, Kimiko stole a glance at Rintaro, who followed close behind on Kiyoshi's black bike, not giving Mayako much more than a few feet of a lead. "Do we have to go so fast?" Kimiko asked as Mayako blindly turned a corner, nearly crashing into a couple, who had to jump in opposite directions to not be smacked. "I have to prove I'm a better on a bike than Rintaro!" she shouted back over her shoulder. For some reason, Kimiko thought of Sally in the light of Mayako's reckless driving, although driving ninety in an empty residential zone was a bit different than riding a bike through a crowded street. Neither of them, however, made Kimiko easier about the girls. "Stop the bike, Mayako," Kimiko sternly told the girl. "Ahh," Mayako whined as she slowed the bike and hopped the curb back onto the bike trail. "We're almost there anyway, Kimiko." Rintaro pulled up beside them and matched their pace. The redhead watched him and noticed the line of sweat at his brow a moment before he wiped it with the sleeve of his borrowed shirt. She still remarked at how amazingly similar he looked to her now lost male half, although the small clef in his chin gave him necessary separation from it. For some reason, she realized that she had not paid his appearance very much attention. Damp with perspiration, Rintaro's short cut, black hair flowed in the wind as he peddled next to the two girls. The clothes he had acquired from Kenichi fit him awkwardly. The black pants were a bit too long, and probably a notch too wide as they seemed to hang at the boy's hips with slack to spare. His untucked, green shirt rippled like a flag in the wind. As Kimiko examined him, he turned his face toward her for a moment, catching her eye for an instant. His blank expression and cold blue eyes made her shy away from him. Tortured was the only adjective she could think of to fit the soul behind those eyes. "Let's take a shortcut," Rintaro suggested as they two bikes pulled up beside an alleyway that cut through the shops. He then pedaled into the alley. Kimiko noticed that Mayako tensed up for a moment, before following Rintaro. Kimiko held on tightly as the girl sped down the dimly lit alley. They met a ninety-degree turn left passing the backdoors of all the shops of their destination, which a chain link fence guarded down its length on their right. Rintaro followed it closely, lightly brushing his fingers against the fence as he coasted to the end of the alley, and then cut right sharply in another ninety- degree turn. A few moments later, Rintaro slowed as they entered the shopping market Kimiko sorely missed after spending pocket-burning cash at the identical malls of California. Colorful banners with Kanji characters hung from all the light poles, swaying in a light breeze that cooled the market's customers. "How about food?" Rintaro suggested as they dismounted their bikes and began walking down the walkway through the mark. "Sounds good to me," Mayako replied. They spent the rest of the afternoon eating at all the street vendors. Jotaro Saito watched with held breath as Masami greeted him on the corner of the alley with his bike in toe. Looming over the smaller young man, Jotaro grimaced at his friend, scanning the crowd for their victims. Masami looked a little out of breath as he stopped in front of Jotaro. "Well?" Jotaro demanded, propping his hands on his hips. "Don't worry, man," the dark young man replied softly. "They stopped at an ice cream parlor. They parked their bikes just up that way." Masami paused for a moment, looking up at his superior, waiting for something. Jotaro grumbled in reply, glaring at the kid for stalling. "Get to it, Masami. We don't have all day." "Yeah, all right," Masami whispered, pushing his bike down the alley and around the bend where Kojiro would be waiting with Seiko and Shoji. A few moments later, Seiko and Kojiro walked toward him. Seiko grinned off her usual bad mood, winking at him when she approached. Kojiro rubbed his spiky blond hair when the two stopped in front of him. "All right, are you two ready?" Jotaro asked of the two a moment later. "You better be, because once things are set in motion, there's no stopping them. It's do or die." Seiko was quick to respond, her eyes burning. "Damn right! I'm ready to kill that bitch!" "Whatever," Kojiro said with a yawn. "I just wanna get this over with. Nothing like a brawl to make you miss lunch." When the three entered the lunch crowd, an avenue through the people opened immediately. Whether Jotaro's size or Seiko's look of pure murder threw them off, it did not matter as it served Jotaro's purpose. "You sure he won't help her?" Kojiro asked, rubbing a hand through his hair again. "Yes," Jotaro replied, glaring at the blond. "Trust me. I'm sure he won't help." "How can you be so sure, Jo? There's bad blood between us. Even if he doesn't like that redhead ho, don't you think he'll smack us out of spite? That's what I'd do." "That's why you're little league compared to him," Seiko mocked, elbowing Kojiro. "Shut up, the both of you," Jotaro fumed, ready to smack the both of them. Slowing his step, he picked it up and walked in the middle of them. "He won't help, and that's that. What, you want me to whip out the storybook and read to you exactly why? Just take my word for it. In fact, I have it on good authority that not only will he not help, but he might even just help." Kojiro shrugged, speeding his step as they neared the bike rack where they found the twins' bikes locked up tightly. They peered across the walkway at the dessert parlor, seeing all three of their victims with their backs to the window. "Do it," he told Seiko as the three of them crowded the bike rack. A pocketknife appeared in the black-haired girl's hands as she made quick work of the two bikes' tires. "If I eat another bite, I'm going to explode," Mayako complained at the second half of her ice cream sundae. Her stomach ached under the pressure of a large lunch and the ice cream. She looked down at the last few bites. "Oink, oink," Rintaro squeaked at her, pushing his nose up like a pig. She laughed in spite of herself, especially after seeing the chocolate moustache he sported as well as the pig nose. He had not been this playful in a while. "I'll finish that for you," Kimiko interjected, managing to dump the contents of Mayako's bowl into her empty one. "Hey," Rintaro protested, peering past Mayako who sat in the middle of them. "You're supposed to eat dainty portions so I get all the leftovers." Mayako smirked at him as she watched his expression turn from annoyance to surprise. Turning to Kimiko, Mayako watched with wide eyes as the girl devoured the remains of the sundae. She suddenly had the image in her head of a vacuum cleaner. "Wow, Kim-chan," Mayako whispered. "You eat like my brother." At that, Rintaro barked a laugh, spitting the last portion of his ice cream back in his bowl. "Close, but no one can match Kenichi." Kimiko shrugged in reaction as she polished off the sundae, spooning the sides of the bowl for every last drop. After they paid and exited the restaurant, Mayako grabbed Kimiko's bare arm, dragging her towards the shop next door. "Hey, where are we going?" she protested, stumbling in her heels. "Right here!" Mayako exclaimed, followed by a smile at the store next to the ice cream parlor. She pointed through the window of a clothes store with a front display of headless mannequins in various stylish fashions for both men and women. Releasing the redhead's wrist, Mayako flashed a smile at the suddenly troubled looking Rintaro who exited the parlor a bit slower than she and Kimiko had. As she crossed the threshold of the store with the unintelligible English words scrawled all over its windows, she pondered Rintaro's odd mood swings. From his normal cynical self, he took the time to flirt with her all morning, and then play like he had not renounced their friendship to the whole school. The few dark moments she caught him sulking, he seemed to be drowning in a shadow in the corner of the room. She wanted to believe his candid attempt at refreshing their friendship, and possibly taking it a step further, but in her heart, Mayako knew her heart to be too fragile for such an enthusiastic approach. She did not consider Rintaro a safe bet, but more like a one in ten gamble in a horse race. Putting her concerns aside momentarily, Mayako lifted her chin and strutted down the red carpet of the large American chain clothes retailer, ready to spend her allowance as she always did, frivolously. After all, how many times as an adult would she be able to spend working two jobs in order to still run the dojo and pay the bills? She could save now and pay it all into something just as stupid later, but she could enjoy new clothes now. She turned and met Kimiko's wide blue eyes with a wink. "Why don't you buy yourself something that'll cover that trim belly of yours? You're making all the mortal girls jealous." Kimiko blushed and managed to disappear down an isle on the men's side of the store. Mayako shrugged and picked the isle closest to the window where they put all the newest stuff imported from America. Rintaro followed, obviously an illiterate to the world of fashion in his borrowed clothing from her equally trend challenged brother. It did not take her long to find a couple of outfits to try on. Rintaro merely watched her with faked interest and glanced out the window every once and a while. Anytime she asked his opinion on a particular skirt or blouse, he shrugged indifference or nodded with feigned satisfaction. Engaging him in clothes shopping, apparently, was not possible. He even declined an offer for her to buy him an outfit. "I'm going to try these on," she told him. "Have you seen Kimiko? I'm going to try these on." "No," he said, quickly glancing around. "She's too short to see her head over the isles." He then grinned smugly. "Need her to help you try them on? If so, I volunteer my services." "Let me guess," she started, putting her hand on her hip. "You'd also offer your gracious service helping me try on new bras and panties? Oh, you're so wonderful Saotome-san." Flashing her teeth, she turned on her heels and began her search of the isles for Kimiko. "I'm going to wait outside," he said to her back dryly. "Big loss there," she whispered as she found Kimiko empty-handed at the back of the women's side, thumbing through some of the bargain clothing. "Ah, come on," she said, rolling her eyes at Kimiko. "I can pick you out something better than these rags." Kimiko looked as clueless as Rintaro as she smiled haphazardly, placing a hand behind her head. "Uh, thanks, I think," the redhead replied, biting her lip. After a few minutes of browsing, she found pulled a peach Chinese styled blouse from the rack in the middle isle, where all the most expensive stuff, supposedly marked down 10% or more, usually appeared. Kimiko could afford it, Mayako knew. From the look of her hotel room, Kenichi had to be worth a few million at the very least. Mayako could only imagine her credit line. "What about this?" she said holding the garment up to Kimiko's chest. It felt like silk in her hands, so she flipped the tag to see the price, coughed, and started to put it back. Her little trick worked. "Hey, I liked that," Kimiko protested. "Price doesn't really matter." "Yeah, but buying it at that price would be a sin," Mayako said, goading her new friend into it. "Just look at it!" She showed Kimiko the price tag. The girl's eyes bulged. "You're probably right," Kimiko said after a moment. Mayako sensed her reverse psychology failing and put it into overdrive. "Yeah, your brother would have a fit if he saw you buying stuff like that." Kimiko's eyes narrowed at the remark, so she continued. "Probably put you over his knee and spank you in front of company. I don't blame you being scared of him and all." "What?" she nearly cried back. "Hah, even if he did get mad, I'd just blow him off. The punk has enough money to pay off all of the American government and still buy a new tux." She then began rifling through the expensive rack with fresh interest. Her manipulation worked much better than planned. Kimiko even offered to pay for her clothes, too! She could blow the rest at the arcade tomorrow! They went into the women's dressing room and found one stall unused. "Why don't you go first?" Kimiko happily offered, opening the stall for her. "Don't be silly," Mayako whispered, pulling the redhead in with her. "That'd just be a waste of time." The raven-haired girl pushed the door closed. She saw a bit of unease on the other girl's face. "I'm not going to bite." "That's not it," Kimiko said bashfully, looking meaningfully at the pile of clothes in her hands. "Oh, never mind." "Never figured you for the shy type," she said, starting to strip out of her outfit. "I mean, you didn't bat an eye in the locker room." "I'm not shy," she said defensively, turning her back and quickly slipping out of the very little bit of cloth that made up her outfit. "No kidding," she told the redhead, looking down at her skirt and blouse. "Don't you feel naked dressed like that? I know I would. I can wear a skirt, but nothing that short, and definitely have to have my stomach covered." The thought of running around in anything as small as Kimiko's outfit made her arms grow goose bumps. "I don't have much choice, anyway," she replied, pulling the peach blouse over her head. It fit good and looked great with her red hair splashed down across it. "My nanny didn't pack anything but outfits like that except my gi and a few pairs of sweats." Boggling at the idea of having a nanny, Mayako wondered what kind of life the redhead led in the States. She did not seem to be like rich kids at her school, but at the same time she was probably richer than all of them combined. "I didn't used to have it this good, you know," Kimiko said, turning to Mayako a little rosy-cheeked at first seeing Mayako in her underwear, as if she had not showered in the locker room with her, though she did remember the girl paying a lot of attention to the wall. "Go on," Mayako urged her slipping into a skirt. "Oh, I like this one." "Until I was adopted by Nishiyama-san, I didn't have much more than a few yen to my name. I guess I'm still not used to it all. The simplicity of the road makes a lot more sense. All you worry about is where your next meal is, not this where will I buy my next outfit bull-" She cut herself off and looked up shamefully. "I didn't mean-" "Don't apologize for your feelings," Mayako said, suddenly liking Kimiko a bit more. The girl added more depth to her personality at every turn. "I really don't come here that often, unless you count once a month a lot?" Kimiko chuckled in response. "Hey, a girl's got to look good to lift her spirits sometimes, all right?" "I had a friend in America who would have cheered along with you," Kimiko said lightly with a wide smile. "Do what'cha like, she'd say to me. Screw the consequences, because it's not tomorrow yet. I don't get it, but it made people at my school cheer." "It is a good saying to live by," Mayako said, trying on her last outfit. "I think I'd get along with this friend of yours." Kimiko tried on a cute button up blouse that she had picked out. It looked a bit dressy for Mayako, but she had to admit it did look good on the redhead. "Looks good," Mayako told her. "Let's buy it all." With a chuckle, Kimiko agreed. "Hey, is it ok to wear these out?" Kimiko asked, gesturing to the pantsuit. "Short skirts and bikes don't match." "Yeah, just rip off the tags and show them to the cashier. Mayako led her friend to the counter and placed it all up there, grateful that Kimiko could afford the clothes. She could not even have afforded the peach colored blouse. With her back to Kimiko, she let herself distantly browse the isles for anything, when she stopped her eyes in the men's side. Kenichi had not bought himself clothes in a few months, and needed a new shirt for work, with Rintaro's 'borrowing' and unlikely to return of one of his few work outfits. One shirt caught her eye. A mannequin wore it with a pair of matching pants. The stripped blue shirt and dark blue pants fit Kenichi's conservative style and was marked down fifty percent. Who could beat that...plus she did promise her mom to bring back something for Kenichi. She would pay Kimiko back for it. "Hey Kim, mind if I throw something on the tab for Kenichi? I'll pay for it after. It's just that he needs a new outfit badly, and who knows if he'll ever go to the store on his own." "Ok, grab it." She found the pair on a hanger below the display and returned to Kimiko's side, placing it on the counter. The cashier took the garment's tags and ran them through her register, taking the credit card from Kimiko's outstretched hand for the final price. "Think he'd like that one?" Mayako asked. "Hmm, sorry?" Kimiko said with her eyes a little glazed. "Like what?" "The outfit I just put down on the counter. You know, the one for Kenichi." Kimiko looked around, but the cashier had already put it in the bag. "Oh well, you can see it on him before you leave to China." The girls began to walk down the red carpet towards the exit when Mayako failing to see Rintaro outside. Their bikes still sat at the bike racks across the street. Shrugging, she took Kimiko's empty hand and as they approached the glass door. As she put her hand on the door handle to open it, Kimiko pulled her slightly back. "Huh?" Mayako asked, cocking her head sideways to look at the redhead. Her eyes danced back and forth between two spots, one most likely the bikes, the other most certainly not. She turned and saw Rintaro approaching the bike rack quickly, sitting on it as he waited for them. "He just came out of that alley," Kimiko said, pointing to the one they used as a shortcut to the plaza. "And look. The bikes are wrong somehow." "What?" Mayako said in disbelief, looking closely at them. Rintaro pointed at his bare wrist as if he had a watch on. "Are you sure? What's wrong with them?" "I think someone slashed the tires," Kimiko whispered. "And Rintaro knows about it." "Miss Junior Sleuth, how can you see all this?" Mayako chuckled, trying to pull the girl forward, but met resistance. "You're serious?" "Dead serious," the redhead replied. Mayako turned and saw her eyes, sharp blues sapphires. "I don't like the look of his aura. Something's really wrong." "So the tires are slash, and he didn't tell us, huh? What the hell could he get out of that? I doubt he slashed our ride." "Mayako," Kimiko leaned in and whispered. "I think he means to jump us." "Hah!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed, elbowing her friend. "Jump me and you together? He'd never stand a...he came from that alley? The one he took us through?" Rintaro waved at them. The distance was not far enough for Mayako to miss the tension in his face. He did look uneasy. He must know about the tires. How could he miss it? If so, he would have told them right away, unless he had something to do with it. "Oh hell," she whispered back. "Let's see if there's a back way. Can't be too cautious with freaks like Rintaro." With Kimiko's hand held tight, Mayako rushed them to the cashier's counter. "Is there something wrong with your purchase?" the cashier asked. "Is everything all right?" "Do you have a back exit, or anything?" "No, sorry," the cashier replied. "Only the store manager can open the lock, and he's not in the store right now." "Can I please use your phone then? This is an emergency." "This phone does not call out of the district," the cashier informed her as she pulled a phone out from underneath the counter. She quickly dialed the number to Kenichi's work, the only number in range, if the cashier correctly informed her. She turned to the door to see Rintaro crossing the avenue to the store, and so she quickly handed the phone to Kimiko. "Tell Kenichi to come to this store as fast as he can," she told the redhead as she took off to intercept Rintaro. "If he asks why, just tell him Sailor Moon sucks. He'll understand." "Is that a stupid code phrase, or something?" "Yeah, because he knows if it's from me, I'm lying." Her heart rate sped up drastically as she rushed out of the store and met the young man before he could enter the store. "What's taking you so long?" "Why do you care?" she rebuked him. "Kimiko had to...use the bathroom. She'll be right out." Rintaro hummed aloud, as she turned him around for them to walk toward the sabotaged bikes. "She probably has to puke out lunch now," he said a bit more bitterly than the supposedly cynical comment called for. "No one holds a figure like that eating as she does." Keeping her reply to herself, which would have been something like, "Oh, so you already puked out your portion?" but she was too nervous. If Kimiko's eyes spoke truth, Rintaro was definitely messing with her. He almost positively would have mentioned the vandalism by now. "Hey," she said halfheartedly, pointing towards the bikes. "Somebody slashed our tires! What the hell?" All her tease play-acting started to pay off. "Yeah," Rintaro said solemnly. "I would have told you earlier, but you looked like you were having fun. Didn't want to spoil that." She caught his glance as it quickly brushed the alley. She might have accepted his reply if she thought him a considerate person. A spike of trepidation ran through her spine as she noticed something in the alley. "Oh God," she whispered as three recognizable faces appeared from it. "Hello?" Kenichi's voice asked on the other side of the city. "It's Kimiko," the redhead informed him, watching Mayako and Rintaro walk to the bike racks together. "Hi," he responded, his voice uneven. "What's up?" Mayako and Rintaro disappeared from her line of sight as Kimiko nervously held the phone to her ear. She fought the urge to check up on Mayako. Although she felt something really bad coming on, she wondered if Kenichi could even get there in time to help them if anything did occur. "Kimiko? What's wrong?" "Listen, Kenichi," she told him, trying to remain as calm as she could. "Mayako and I need your help now." A shiver shot up her spine. She had to get out there now. "It's busy here at work," he replied, his voice edgy. "Tell me what's wrong." "No time, listen. Get to the Rave Underground ASAP. I don't care what you have to do. Just get here." She held onto the phone only to make sure he understood, hoping he would just agree. Goose bumps formed on her arms as she stared at the unoccupied space by the bikes. "Where?" Kenichi said confused. "Why? What's the matter?" "Argh, Mayako said you'd know it. It's the clothes store across from the ice cream parlor that we stopped at." "Oh, I know that place. Never could read the name though." "Whatever," Kimiko impatiently replied. "Mayako said some stupid thing like, 'Sailor Moon sucks.' Now get your ass over here now." "All right," he said after a moment. "This better not be a joke. I could lose my job. I'm coming though." Hanging up the phone, Kimiko picked up the bags Mayako had left and her own, quickly marching towards the exit. Everything in her body shouted for her to sprint, but she ignored it. If traps had not been sprung yet, she did not want her behavior to set them off. The walk to the glass doors felt long, though the store was not very large. She pushed the doors open sharply, nearly knocking someone over as they tried to enter. Without muttering an apology, she shifted past the customer and onto the sidewalk. At the edge of the alley, Rintaro stood beside two strangers, with Mayako nowhere in sight. Their eyes focused on her immediately. "Oh shit," she whispered, stopping in mid-step. The two young men that now approached her were serious. They walked toward her determined, their eyes trying to pierce the armor of her self- confidence. Rintaro remained at his spot at the entrance of the alley. "Well look who we have here," the one on the right said, the taller of the two. He stood quite tall, probably six feet or so. Aside from his stature, he was unremarkable. The broad soldiers suggested he worked out, but he did not have the shape of a body builder. His walk, his movements suggested some sort of martial arts training. The spiky-haired, bleach blond on the left did not respond, his glassy black eyes reflecting focusing on her reluctantly. Like his friend, he shaped his body through some form of training, but unlike his friend, he looked nervous. Kimiko considered whether the twitch in his cheek, the drop of sweat on his brow and his cautious step meant that he planned to jump her. The dark-haired one stopped in the middle of the avenue, his fists clenched. "I don't know what you have besides a lack of common sense," Kimiko retorted from her spot near the entrance of the store. "You should know better than to jump me out here in the open." "Who said anything about us jumping you?" The dark-haired one asked suspiciously. "I have a few questions for you." "No, I don't sell drugs, so scram," she replied mockingly. She looked across at Rintaro who passively stood by the entrance of the alley, turning his head only once to peer in it. "Funny," the man replied. "But in all seriousness, I have to ask why you interfered in a fight that involved an acquaintance of mine." "Why'd you have to mess his brother up like you did?" The blond one demanded, his hand starting to shake, not with fear, but with outrage. Kimiko looked between the two of them, considering her options. She assumed he meant the fight in the alley a few days ago, when she stopped the thugs from picking on Mai and Ryosei Ono. "Oh, so you're with that brat Shoji and his friends," Kimiko stated. She smiled at them smugly. "Are you some sort of Yakuza wannabes? Should I pay restitution?" "Though you insult me, you venomous bitch," the dark-haired one began, taking a step closer to make him only ten feet away. "Yes, I am his friend, but it is my brother whom you injured that brings me here. And yes, you will pay restitution. How that will be settled depends on you, though." "Oh shut the hell up," Kimiko said setting down the shopping bags. "Threatening may make you feel nice and big, but it's hardly going to make me do anything but kick you and your surfer friend's ass back to the lowly shit hole you were spawned in." "I suppose that means you consider my colleagues and myself lower than scum? We do not belong in our country, when whorish American spoiled brat bitches visit our 'lowly' communities? We cannot settle our own disputes, without little gaijin sluts sticking their white little noses in our business?" The primal fear or flight adrenalin flooded into Kimiko's veins as she, too, recoiled from an unexpected insult. She knew now they planned to goad her into a fight from the start. Although she had not tangled with either of these rogues before, Kimiko knew their combined skill could not compare to her and Rintaro's. Her heart felt as if it had dropped from her chest the moment she realized the truth. The only way they would approach her in this manner, would be if Rintaro Saotome, the brother that had no clue of their relation, would not assist her in this fight. Her eyes went to Rintaro. It was true. Fighting the urge to start the battle prematurely, Kimiko, as calmly as she could manage, knelt down and began to pull off one of her pumps. "What the hell are you doing?" The leader asked, his eyes flashing his confusion and intent. Not responding, Kimiko removed the second shoe. Kimiko could feel their burning eyes on her as she quietly removed her right shoe. She then placed them next to the bag beside her feet. She then placed her purse in one of the bags. "I am Kimiko Nishiyama of the School of Anything Goes Martial Arts," Kimiko told them loudly, her voice echoing over the quiet street. "I'm Jotaro," the leader said informally, his voice muted. "This is Kojiro. I would say it is a pleasure to meet you, but you would have been better suited to stay in America to become a prostitute." She assumed they would attack her immediately, but something held them back. Was it the possibility of Rintaro's interference? No, she saw it in their eyes. They were too nervous to fight out in the open; hence, the two fights they had participated in were in alleys. Kimiko Nishiyama feared the authorities about as much as she feared losing to these two. With a careful look over her shoulder, Mayako stared at the spot had stood before he left Seiko and her alone. She knew he betrayed her, even though he swore he would defend her should any others attempt to assist the girl in front of her. The figures of Jotaro and Kojiro, two people she most particularly did not like, remained in her head. Something had gone down between them. That was the only explanation. "I hope you're ready," Seiko, the girl Mayako sincerely hated, said as she stood near the end of the alley. "I've waited a long time to duel you again." Mayako confidently watched as Seiko began to circle her the moment their friends left the alley. She had not been surprised that Seiko would want to fight, but the fact that she wanted to duel her alone did. Everyone, including Seiko herself, should have been aware of the fact that Mayako could wipe the floor with the scar-faced girl. After all, it had been Mayako who gave Seiko her scar. Fingering the line across her face, Seiko scowled at her nemesis with equal confidence. She held her hands up defensively, despite her aggressive movements. Mayako merely stood still, watching her from the corner of her eye, spinning only when the girl completely left her view. She knew that the girl had skill, but did not have much beyond that. Seiko was not very fast, was not very strong and became very sloppy when angry. Mayako knew this because they were in Kendo together in junior high, when Seiko had been the ascending star athlete, and Mayako merely the newcomer. Mayako had not liked Kendo and she never would, as using a sword stood for everything she disliked. She believed that one's body was the ultimate weapon, and when used correctly could overpower even the finest of weapon masters. When her mother forced her, she had been resistant to any teachings, but still excelled beyond the average student. Mayako Tendou had her father's stubbornness. Like they were now, Mayako and Seiko dueled over who would be the captain of the Kendo team, because Mayako would be damned if she would be pushed around by a punk like Seiko. The scar was a reminder of Mayako's superiority with the sword, or perhaps her recklessness in her desire to succeed without listening to her instructors. Either way, Mayako was now sorry about cutting the girl, but no apology would ever make that scar go away. "I know I can't beat you like this," Seiko told her, her voice not even hinting at weakness. "That's why I brought this." A blade flashed in her hands, not a training sword like they had dueled with the first time, but a real katana. How sharp the blade could be, Mayako did not know and did not plan to find out. "I hope you don't expect to equal the playing field with that toy," Mayako replied, her confidence growing in her opponent's weakness. "I've been preparing for this for a while, Tendou," Seiko said coolly. "Once I'm done with you, everyone will know I won. It doesn't matter if I'm at your feet in a heap." Mayako knew the girl meant to disfigure her the same way, if not worse than she had done to Seiko. It did not matter. Seiko brandished the weapon skillfully; she had been practicing. Mayako watched her, dancing with the cobra this time, changing her entire approach to this fight. No longer could she just overpower her. The blade danced, too, the sharp blade glittering in the sunlight filtering in through the overhangs of the buildings they stood between. The first strike came quickly, beginning with the twitch of Seiko's face, her eyes focusing a little bit more upon Mayako and her grip tightening against the leather-wrapped hilt of the katana. Mayako read her movements, flowing between the girl and the blade, remaining defensive until she could discern the girl's current skill. Three years was enough for anyone with a little conviction to improve. Seiko's wrist twisted as she slashed out, divining the exact angle the blade would take. Mayako could still read her every move like a children's book, easily dodging the attack. Her following thrust was also expected, as Mayako caught the blade with her bare hands. In her moment of triumph, so easily conquering her opponent, she let her guard slip the tiniest bit. A handful of white dust powdered Mayako's face as she held the blade, surprising her enough that she jumped backward in order to wipe it out of her eyes. The substance stung terribly, flooding her eyes with tears. "Laundry detergent tastes wonderful, doesn't it?" Seiko mocked before she came in low with a slash. Luckily, Mayako did not need to see her to determine where it would be, and she flipped over Seiko's head and as she landed, twisted quickly with a backwards spin kick. The kick caught Seiko by surprise, Mayako knew, for the girl stumbled back to defend herself, only managing a half-turn before Mayako's attack landed. Luckily for the scar-faced girl, Mayako did not have nearly the momentum she needed to pack it with any punch. It did buy Mayako enough time to wipe some of the soap from her face, though her vision still blurred with tears and pain. Again the two squared off, their bodies locked in the deadly dance of combat. Only this time, Mayako realized how dangerously close she stood to the wall, reducing her ability to evade. Seiko rushed, giving her almost no room to dodge her incoming slash. Her heart leapt as she did, into the brick wall to her right. She rebounded off the wall, pushing as hard as she could into her opponent with a horizontal kick of her right leg. Seiko's slash, although it missed her targeted area, lacerated Mayako's left leg. Mayako Tendou barely felt the sharp blade's tip rip through a layer of her skin as her foot connected squarely into Seiko's right temple. They collided so hard that the blade clattered loudly against the street as they their bodies tangled. There was a moment of uncertainty as Mayako fell on top of her opponent, quickly broken by the flicker of a shadow coming from above her. In one second, her momentary victory turned into a panicked revelation that she might not win this duel after all. Wasting no time after putting her good pair of shoes away, Kimiko took one step and leaped at the blond, catching him completely off guard. He backpedaled only once in surprise as she hurtled into his chest, knocking him over. Rebounding off Kojiro, Kimiko head butted Jotaro's chest. Although he had raised his arms to protect himself, her fierce blow sent him reeling towards the opposing sidewalk. Regaining her balance, Kimiko landed on her feet, no worse for ware. "You stupid bitch!" Jotaro hissed at her, still keeping his voice low. "You'll get us all arrested!" Her body ached for the battle as she took a few steps back, waiting for the two to recover. She slowed her breathing methodically, fighting her own body as much as she engaged the two before her in combat. Pain seemed to pour through every ounce of her blood, as if it had passed into her veins. Her depleted body stripped every last shred of energy for her to fight for what seemed to be the hundredth time in the same week. First there had been the exertion of the fight with Rintaro, and then her near death in the fight with Ryouga. Jotaro shot to his feet, brushing himself off as Kojiro gathered himself to his feet slowly, clearly stunned by her attack. "That wasn't cool," Kojiro said after he righted himself completely. "Boohoo," Kimiko mocked, thumbing her eye at him. "So go find a corner and cry, why don't ya?" "I'm ready for her, Jotaro," Kojiro said, gritting his teeth at her remarks. "As we planned." Straightening his back, Jotaro was easily the tallest person there. Cracking his neck as he rotated his head, the man leveled himself into an offensive stance that looked like a basic black belt Taekwondo. The two wasted little time in retaliating, converging on her quickly. With Jotaro on her left and Kojiro on her right, Kimiko kept them both in view as they attacked. She hooked her right arm under and around Kojiro's punch, pulling back just in time to evade Jotaro's sidewinder. "Bakufuuken!" Kimiko cried, generating a burst of calm chi energy in her fist, blasting Kojiro towards his friend. To Kimiko's surprise, Jotaro rolled out of Kojiro's way. The bleach-blonde, on the other hand, rolled face-first into the asphalt as Jotaro snapped up to his feet. The simple maneuver left Kimiko more drained than she had expected, giving Jotaro an opportunity to attack her. He performed an exceptional spin kick, which Kimiko blocked with her arms. The force of the kick sent Kimiko stumbling to the side. Jotaro took advantage of that fact and threw himself at her. Cleanly knocked off her feet by his tackle, Kimiko nearly lost consciousness as her head struck the concrete sidewalk. Jotaro began to pummel her, but Kimiko recovered enough chi energy and pushed herself up as hard as she could. Her opponent flailed in the air as she tucked in her body and channeled her energy at him. "Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Kimiko shouted, barraging Jotaro with punches. Their positions reversed, Kimiko pushed off of Jotaro, who lay beneath her, his breath and senses temporarily knocked out of his body. Even as she stood, Kimiko realized the fight had hardly even begun. "Get off him!" Kojiro shouted, surprising Kimiko with the speed of his attack. Unable to react in time, Kimiko's vision blurred as the blond struck her across the cheek. She reeled back, fighting to stay balanced. Although she found his strength admirable, she knew he lacked the skill necessary to follow through against her. Leaping over his head, Kimiko fell to her knees behind him and spun, sweeping his legs from beneath him. Quickly standing, Kimiko turned and found Jotaro regaining his lost senses. Backing away from him and Kojiro, she put some distance between herself and the two of them in order to regain some strength. "I guess I underestimated you," Jotaro told her, holding his hand to his chest. "What you did was wake a sleeping lioness," she muttered in response, falling into her stance. "Didn't your mommy ever tell you not to bite off more than you can chew?" Kimiko took a step towards them, looking up as she calmly took a breath. Be like the air. Tire your opponents. She could hear the voice in her head. Be right in front of them, but unable to be touched. The two rushed her again, attacking with a combination of low kicks and high punches, which she easily avoided with step backwards, just close enough to feel the breeze as they over-extended their attacks to reach her. Kojiro stumbled as his friend continued their rush, but even then Jotaro continued to meet air in every attack as she felt herself willed to avoid every attack, bending like grass in the breeze, not breaking like the tree. She timed his heavy breathing as he stopped and pulled back defensively, his breath rapid after the missed barrage. That was when she counter-attacked. Striking his retracting arm after his last punch, she threw herself in close, bringing her closed fist across his face. She then slammed her elbow into the space just below his shoulder, and finished the combo with a head-butt to his chest. Jotaro fell hard to the asphalt. Enraged at his friend's defeat, Kojiro attacked Kimiko again only a moment after Jotaro fell. He struck at her hard with a storm of punches. She blocked them, but her arms stung after she pulled out of his range. He pursued her like a bloodhound, his teeth caught in a snarl. He swung wildly and Kimiko used that to her advantage, ducking under his punch and sharply pulled up one of her own, a vicious uppercut that met his chin with a bone-jarring crunch. Like his friend before him, Kojiro fell to the asphalt, out cold. Only this time, Kimiko fell to a knee as a strong pain ripped through her right hand. Nursing it under her left armpit, she pushed herself to her feet and stumbled towards Rintaro and the alley. Her head and right cheek ached as she noticed the few people who had gathered from the local stores and the scattered shoppers who watched the fight. "I didn't think you'd handle them this badly," Rintaro remarked as she came close enough. "I thought for sure you'd take them out with your left hand tied behind your back." Even partially beaten, she did not miss the biting sarcasm. He glanced up her body and shook his head in feigned disappointment. "Yeah whatever, ass hole," Kimiko retorted, straightening her posture as she stood in front of him. "Now where is Mayako? What did you do to her?" "Nothing," he said with a casual shrug. "Someone had business with her that seemed pretty urgent." "What does that mean?" Kimiko demanded, gritting her teeth. "Is she back there in that alley we came through earlier?" "Yes." He tilted his head to look her in the eyes. "But that doesn't concern you right now. Your business is front of you." Kimiko narrowed her eyes at her blood brother. "Oh? And what would that be?" "I have a few questions that you're going to answer," Rintaro told her coldly, looming over her as he approached. "You better be candid, or I'm going to show you what happens to bad little girls. You don't look like you could beat much more than my little brother right now, so don't even put on that false bravado." "I still have a few surprises up my sleeve, little boy," she told him soundly, yet knowing that he probably would beat her right now. He proceeded with question number one, which he asked her as soon as they stood in the entrance of the alley, away from they prying eyes of bystanders. "I heard that story about that brother of yours teaching you the Anything Goes style, but who taught him? You even knew all the little techniques my father taught me. I'd assumed most he created himself. And you used the chestnut fist, too. That's an in- house thing that not many know about." "Kiyoshi is self taught," Kimiko answered truthfully. "His style isn't any one brand, but a variety of different ones. The Anything Goes style just happens to be one he taught me mostly. He was in contact with both your father and Soun Tendou, as well." "You avoided my question, still," Rintaro said in a low voice. "What about the chestnut fist? I thought you were fast before, but now I know why. Who taught you that?" "I had a little guidance, but I learned on my own. What's it to you anyway?" "Let's just say it's not exactly a well-known technique in martial arts circles worldwide. There are only a few people outside of a certain place in China that know of its existence." "Well, one of the people who taught me knew it," she replied, trying to get him to move on. She did not care to tell him the truth to that question. "Okay, but I'm going to find out who taught you eventually." Rintaro's piercing blue eyes seemed less like hers, and much more like a predator's. "But still, I want to know exactly what interest my father has in you. He seemed rather eager to meet you on Sunday, and I want to know why." The question took Kimiko aback. She wondered if he could have figured out her identity so easily, but have been unwilling to confront her. Had that been the case, should he not have been furious instead of eager? She regarded Rintaro with interest of her own as he awaited her answer, even as her head and hand ached worse. "What did he say?" Kimiko asked, hoping to glean some information from Rintaro without giving anything away. "You know something," he said staring at her strangely. "Yes, you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? The way he talked about you was as if you were the solution to all his problems." "I wouldn't know anything about that," she replied, taking a step back. "Of course not," Rintaro growled menacingly. "Neither he nor my mother had even seen you before, and yet they talked as if they knew you." Pausing, he stared hard at her again. "He did mention your father though." "My father?" she repeated, furrowing her brows. "Nobukazu-san?" "No," Rintaro said gravely. "Your biological father." Blinking, Kimiko knew she had no response that Rintaro was looking for. "Why would he talk about my biological father?" "That is what I want to know as well, Red," he insisted, backing her into a wall as she took a step away from him. Only a few inches lay between them. Genma and Soun had not figured out her identity if what Rintaro hinted at was true. She looked into his blue eyes, which nearly mirrored her own. She could feel his slow breath upon her face, because they stood so close. Her head spun a bit as he hovered in front of her. "No fainting now," Rintaro said, holding her still by the shoulders. The unexpected contact sent a chill down Kimiko's spine. He easily held her upright, gently pinning her to the wall. "I'm not done with you." "If your father mentioned mine like that," Kimiko began weakly, "then I don't have an answer for you. I don't know why he even cares I exist." Rintaro looked away from her, considering her words aloud. "Well he does and so does my mother, and even Soun for that matter. The only answer I can think of is if you were either related to my family or Mayako's." Putting her hands on his shoulders, she felt her knees start to buckle. "I think I need to sit for a second." She wondered how much of the spinning was from the realization her family might learn her identity, or already knew it. Kimiko did not think she could handle the questions that would come about with such an incident, at least until she found a way to turn into a guy again. As he softly lowered her to the asphalt ground, Rintaro regarded her with more care than she expected him to show. "Listen, my father and Tendou-san have been scheming for ages to join their families. There was some tragedy that united everyone together a while ago that no one talks about. One day my mother and Akane-san get this crazy idea to unite the family by arranging the marriage of Mayako and myself." "Mayako told me about that," Kimiko said with a yawn, suddenly very exhausted. The thumping in her head started to make her feel nauseous. "What's that got to do with me?" "Well, if you were a Saotome or a Tendou, then you could marry a member of the other family and finally unite it with shared blood." Kimiko could not help but scoff at the irony of his statement. "Wouldn't that be laughs? The stranger out of the red, white and blue just happens to have the right blood to lift the problem off your shoulders." She laugh dryly, resting the back of her head against the brick wall behind her. In the silence, Rintaro probed her with his eyes. He lifted his hand to her head and pushed his fingers through her hair, feeling along her scalp until it reached the point that struck the concrete in her fight with the two thugs. "You've got a concussion," he whispered, pulling his hand away to look at the small drops of fresh blood on his hand. "Hey wait, now that I think about it, you look do familiar." "We've never met before Sunday, Rintaro," Kimiko told him, wincing as he brushed his fingers lightly against her cheek. His touches began reminding her of Kiyoshi's medical probing. She hoped he meant nothing more. "I know," he replied, releasing her face. Pausing, he took her cheek gingerly. "Smile." The perpetual neutral look on his face did nothing to show her whether he was joking or not, though she could only guess what sick joke he meant to play. "Smile?" she asked, confused with his command. "What do you mean--?" "Just smile," he told her, dropping his hand to his side. "I'm serious." In a lame attempt at a smile, Kimiko flashed her teeth and nearly laughed at the ridiculous request. "That's what I thought," he said seriously, drawing himself up. "You're a bit more solid, but you look like my mother when she was a child." "More solid? I don't--" she began, but he put his finger to her lips to shush her. As he pulled it away, she saw a bit of her lipstick remained as if she had kissed his finger. "You know more than you're willing to admit," Rintaro said solemnly, resting a hand on her shoulder. "And I will have the answer, whether your kin or not, girl or not, hurt or not. That much you should know. I don't joke around when it comes to stuff like this." A loud scream stifled any possible response she could have had for him as they both turned towards the alley. * * * The moment they had fallen, Seiko shouted for help. It arrived faster than Mayako could have anticipated. A red-tinted, shiny steel Louisville Slugger smashed Mayako's left arm as she lay stunned after the collision. She screamed as the pain overwhelmed her senses, but she caught the second half of it caught in her throat, and miserably rolled away from her attacker's second swing. Quickly somersaulting to her feet, Mayako nearly buckled at the knees and fell as her first wave of pain tore at her consciousness, even as her eyes brimmed full of tears. Through the haze of agony, Mayako backed herself into the corner of the alley, barely able to stand, as she confronted not two, but three people. The grin on Shoji's face showed no ounce of discomfort in using the Slugger, which rested in his fists. Seiko still lay behind him, silently trying to pull herself together as a dark young man helped her stand. Although she could not remember his name, the dark one posed less a threat than the bat in Shoji's hands. Breathing steadily as she fought to remain upright, Mayako warily wedged herself into the corner between brick building and the fence. She watched Shoji like a hawk as he cautiously stepped toward her. Mayako was not prepared to let him gather into another attack without hurting Shoji really badly. She grit her teeth as she made her move. The attack must have caught Shoji by surprise, as he only managed to pull his arms back into a swing before Mayako bounded off the corner and charged him. Punching him directly in the Adam's apple with a right, open fisted strike, she put every ounce of her strength into the attack. The man dropped the bat as he grasped his neck, falling backwards on his heels. The dark man caught Shoji from falling, but wasted little time in turning the move into an attack. In a surprise move, he roughly pushed Shoji back at Mayako who had no time to dodge. Instead, she channeled Shoji's energy backwards and rolled with the hapless teenager, kicking him off her in midair as she flipped to her feet. Dizzy from the effort it required to perform the maneuver, Mayako fell to her knees. When he drew close enough, Mayako caught sight of Michio's boyish face a moment before he drew his leg back. The splintering pain in her arm quelled for a moment as new agony registered on her face. The bottom of Michio's foot caught her in the eye, spinning her around like a top to land on her back. She nearly lost consciousness again as the tears began to pour down her cheek. Mayako did not even have enough energy to cry as she looked up past the swelling of her right eye into the face of Michio. He seemed to say something above her, but his voice sounded as if he shouted from one length of a football field to her on the other. Suddenly feeling inexhaustibly tired, Mayako closed her eyes and lapsed into unconsciousness. * * * The cry shook Rintaro as he crouched near Kimiko. Kimiko tried to push herself up even considering the pain she must have been experiencing. He stopped her by pressing his index finger against her shoulder. The weight made her fall back to her butt, catching her by surprise. "Mayako could be hurt!" she protested, glaring up at Rintaro with her deep blue eyes. "You sit here," he told her and stood. "I'll make sure she's all right. It might have been the girl that Mayako was fighting. "I don't think so," she replied, starting to stand. "I don't trust you." "Fine," Rintaro agreed, briskly walking deeper into to alley. He felt a tingling on the back of his neck as he turned the left corner into the portion of the way that opened up into a parking lot. He heard the shuffling steps of Kimiko behind him as he passed the opening and followed the chain link fence to the dead end that Mayako and Seiko had been fighting. The sight that awaited him caught him by surprise. Mayako lay on the cracked concrete floor of the alley, her torso twisted around facing away from him, as her legs laid spread eagle in front, where a small pool of blood began to form. Seiko stood, supported by the loudmouth Shoji, while a young man whose name Rintaro could not recall stood in front of her. None of the teenagers saw him as he approached, and he would not give them the chance. The one standing over Mayako fell to a quick shoulder lunge. His nose exploded with blood as he flew into the corner of the alley. Seiko and Shoji barely reacted before Rintaro caught the male in the chest with an open palm, which sent both of them into the chain link fence. The clatter of metal rang loud as he looked down to see a bloody katana, most likely a family heirloom, falling from the hand of Seiko. He eyed it suspiciously before sweeping his gaze over Mayako. "Mayako!" Kimiko yelled with the pitch of her voice, sending a chill down Rintaro's spine. The wounded girl rushed to the aid of her friend, quickly checking the Tendou child's condition. With Mayako in good care, Rintaro turned toward his prey. The unknown one had already started jumping over the brick wall, so Rintaro allowed him to leave. Shoji did not react quickly enough, for he climbed the fence to slowly to evade Rintaro. Kicking the blade up into his hands, Rintaro struck the pest in the side with the flat of the blade, sending the teenager reeling to the concrete. Seiko faired less well, as she was barely able to lift the baseball bat that had been hidden behind her. "I hope you don't think you can win with that," Rintaro said evenly. Seiko did not respond, but merely held it in defense. Her eyes saw not him, but the weapon held in his grasp. Something about the look made him wonder. She did not seem so frightened about her safety as she eyed the blade in his hands with trepidation and yet some hint of jealousy. After the briefest moment, she looked up into his eyes and then he knew she started to feel the dread. "I suppose this is your family's blade?" Rintaro asked, resting his arm by wedging the tip of the blade into a crack in the concrete. "I wonder what brought it all the way out here to a duel between two- oh sorry-four people." Her eyes never left the blade as she responded, "What do you want?" The look of concern grew to outrage as she stared at his use of her sword. "An eye," he replied, watching Shoji as the boy pushed himself to his feet. Rintaro smiled sinuously at the two, as they stood petrified with fear from his answer. "For an eye. I mean to hurt you for hurting my friends here. I let the lot of you get carried away, and now I am going to make regret breaking your word." "Damn, Saotome, she's not gonna die!" Shoji shouted at him, holding his side. "Give me that bat, Seiko!" Seiko tossed Shoji the baseball bat, which he caught effortlessly. The two looked like trapped wolverines, but Rintaro considered them nothing more than cornered squirrels. He nonchalantly watched them, feigning disinterest in them as he rested the weight of his body on the katana, testing its strength. "Just let us go, Saotome," Seiko nearly whispered, holding herself up with one hand on the chain link fence behind her. "I swear I won't come near her again." "I don't believe liars," he retorted. "Believe this, ass hole!" Shoji shouted, swinging his bat rather accurately at Rintaro's midsection. Parrying with the flat of the blade, Rintaro channeled Shoji's energetic swing high and into the katana's hilt. The tremendous blow jarred his hand a bit, but the maneuver produced the desired effect. The force of Shoji's swing smashed the blade right above the hilt, rending the sword in half. "No!" Seiko screamed as she watched the bat bludgeon the katana into two pieces. With all of her pain forgotten, she rushed through Shoji and launched the desperate attack that Rintaro had hoped to provoke. Not even giving her a chance to swing, Rintaro sidestepped her charge and struck her in the back with the pummel of the katana. She fell to the concrete like a discarded toy. Shoji stared at his partner as she fell, his eyes wide with terror. As Rintaro approached him, he took a step away from Rintaro, the bat held loosely in his shaking hands. He looked towards his attacker with desperation in his stance. "Shoji Watanabe," Rintaro said with disdain. He approached the cornered teenager with the pummel of the katana still held in his hands. Anger started bubbling up in him as he thought of the teen striking Mayako with his bat. He continued threatening Shoji. "I should kill you for what you did to Mayako." "Do it then," Shoji bluffed, his knees knocking together slightly as he held himself into the wall. "Do your worst, Saotome." "This is unlike you," Rintaro replied, forcing a smile. "I thought you'd have tried to climb away, squealing like a piglet. But it seems you've simply traded swine for the likeness of a cornered rabbit. So, rabbit, what will be your first move?" "Just finish him and help me, Rintaro," Kimiko urged. "I think Mayako needs to see a doctor." Almost catching Rintaro off guard by the oddness of his attack, Shoji took a giant step forward and swung his bat with all his might. The arc of the swing angled towards Rintaro's head, which the martial artist simply ducked underneath, redirecting his energy forward into a ferocious head-butt. The blow sent Shoji stumbling back into the fence, knocked completely out of breath. He fell to the ground gasping as Rintaro threw the broken sword at the teen. It struck him in the forehead, knocking the boy out. "That was pretty brutal," Kimiko commented gravely, her eyes not even staring up at Rintaro as she applied pressure to Mayako's neck. "While you were playing around, I think I figured out what's wrong with her. Her left arm's broken, and she has a concussion. The cut on her left leg is shallow, but could use some bandaging. "Can we move her?" Rintaro inquired, kneeling by Mayako. He grimaced at the purple bruise across her face. "We'll have to split her arm somehow," the redhead said looking around. "Grab the broken katana and dull the edge. I'd use the bat, but it'd be too hard to tie to her arm to it with just scraps of clothes." Her brows furrowed and she looked at him strangely. "Wait, why don't we just call an ambulance? They can handle this better than I can." "Yeah, but then we'd all be spending a month in juvenile hall," Rintaro replied quickly, looking around at the two people next to him. "I'll call it if their friends don't collect them first." Kimiko only nodded. He thought he would have to explain himself further, but apparently she did not wish to spend a month behind bars any more than he did. "Damn, I wish they wouldn't have popped the tires. It'd be a lot easier to move her with a bike." As he grabbed what was left of the blade, he noticed that Seiko stirred, trying to force herself up. He ignored her this time, and she paid him only enough mind to avoid him as she stumbled over to Shoji, slapping his face repeatedly until he woke. As Rintaro began to saw the blade on the concrete, the two staggered away. "Hey, wait!" Kimiko yelled after them, jumping to her feet more sprightly than he thought she would have been able. She took off after them, without explanation. Rintaro merely continued with his task, ignoring her exit. When Kimiko saw Mayako's attackers start to flee the scene, the thought occurred to her that one of them might have a bike she could 'borrow' to transport Mayako. She felt light-headed as she tried to catch up to the pair, but as she turned the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks. Five figures stood in front of her, though the two she chased would not be putting up much of a fight. Michio, Kojiro and Jotaro had gathered at the point where five bikes rested against the brick wall near the entrance of the alley. Kimiko spun on her hills, but could not reverse her motion in time to avoid their first attack. A small object struck her in the lower back, hard enough to send her stumbling into the brick wall in front of her, striking her head. She fell backwards, barely managing to perform a half-roll to break her fall. "You're going to pay!" she heard someone shout through a haze. "Oh shit, let's get out of here!" sounded off next as she heard her enemies escaping. Kimiko felt too dizzy to even try to stand, or even sit. She merely lay there. "Not smart, Nishiyama-san," Rintaro said softly in her ear. "Now you're the one with a concussion." Not feeling inclined to respond, she ignored him, fighting off the daze in her head. Something from behind him caught Rintaro off-guard as she felt him spin to meet the new challenge. The newcomer's voice shouted out in anger, but the words failed to make sense. She tried to will herself to see who approached, turning sidewise. Akane seemed to stand there, limned in her bright red aura. * * * Sweat dripped into Kenichi's face as he peddled through the lunch hour traffic. He borrowed the bike from a friend that he had worked with up until ten minutes ago when his employer fired him for leaving early. As fast as he could, Kenichi rode to the train, barely catching it and exiting the vehicle on the next stop. The ride nearly cost him his life several times already at the speed he traveled through the pedestrians and cars. He only required another minute to arrive at his destination, his adrenalin rush had faded and his body began to ache with fatigue. The thought of the most important woman in his life and his heart's desire both needing his help drew him to peddle harder. Kimiko's rushed phone call had set his heart racing. What kind of trouble could make his the two capable martial artists require his help? Suddenly the crowd parted, giving him a wide girth of area. At the same moment, he realized he found the boutique with the incomprehensible English words that Kimiko mentioned in her phone call. He scanned the street, noticing two bags in front of the shop next to a pair of familiar pumps. Fairly close to those, a few bloodstains painted the otherwise white walkway. The lack of pedestrian traffic made sense. No one would wish to be caught up in a fight, nor would they like to be arrested for being too near. He scanned around a bit more and spotted his and Mayako's bicycles tethered to a bike rack. His skin turned to goose flesh as his eyes followed the logical place for a brawl to take place: the alley. After placing the pair of heels in a bag, Kenichi carried them and walked his bike towards the alley. The walk seemed eternally slow as he crossed the emptied street to the other walk. A siren lifted into the air like a mourning child at the death of a parent, signaling Kenichi's need to quicken his pace and find his sister and Kimiko. The tap of his shoes against the concrete sidewalk at the edge of the alley began to echo as he passed the buildings on either side of him. He walked to the end of the alley to a scene he could not have expected, dropping both bags beside him and leaving his bike against the alley wall. The shards of a broken sword lay scattered amongst a few small pools of blood. Beyond that, his sister lay immobile, sprawled out on her back. His heart fell into his stomach as he ran to her. A buzzing noise in the back of his head filled in the silence that surrounded him. Feeling his sister's neck for a pulse, he found one to his utter relief. Her chest rose and fell rhythmically beneath her bloodstained blouse as well, giving him a second to take in a deep breath. Lifting back her eyelids, he saw her reddened and tear-stained eyes and the tops of her dilating pupils. Taking in the rest of her, he wondered could have hurt her so badly. Bruises covered her petite face, accented by a giant black eye. Kenichi tried to slow his breathing, but he felt anger simmer in his blood. Rarely did he let his emotions take control, but finding Mayako as she was infuriated him beyond his breaking point. No one short of Rintaro and Kimiko could have ever taken her fairly, and even then he doubted either of them could possibly do this to her. He needed to find someone to blame, NOW. As if picking up to the pace, his heart beat like a drum as he heard noise from around the next bend in the alley. Fury slowed his awareness to a crawl as he left his sister and rounded the corner looking for her attacker. Adding insult to injury, someone left Kimiko lying nearly face down on the concrete, her elbows keeping her head from the ground. Her short skirt climbed embarrassingly high on her thighs, and her blouse looked ruined. With the alley empty but for her and the figure kneeling beside her, Kenichi burned to fight someone. Rintaro turned and stood to face the young man, his dispassionate face even more infuriating. "What the hell happened here?" Kenichi swore, squeezing his hands into tight fists. With a nonchalant shrug, Rintaro met his question with cool indifference. "They weren't careful. It doesn't matter now, though. It's over." Kenichi did not care that he had never beaten Rintaro in his life, nor that the Saotome probably was not the one who hurt two of the most important people in his life. All that mattered to him was that Rintaro was here, standing, unhurt and a big target. "Damn you!" Kenichi caught Rintaro off-guard, barreling into him with a quick elbow jab. Rintaro fell over Kimiko, who responded grunt. He would apologize to her later. Right now he had a jerk off's ass to kick. Hate swelled through him, and he liked it. "What the hell?" Rintaro shouted, outraged as Kenichi leapt over the redhead and tried to pounce his former friend. Rintaro rolled out of the way and quickly got to his feet. Kenichi did not let up a second, pushing off the wall and into Rintaro with a quick front kick. Having just stood up, Kenichi's target had a scant amount of time to react. The blow caught Rintaro's right hip, spinning him to the side as Kenichi kicked through him. Showing him the back of his fist, Kenichi caught Rintaro in the lip, causing a splash of blood to splatter his fist. Rintaro stumbled back in retreat. "Stop being so smug, you ass hole!" Kenichi shouted, his blood cooling slightly at the sight of his friend's blood. "Okay, I guess I deserved that," Rintaro admitted, rubbing his hip with his left hand and his lip with his right. "But if you try anything else, I'm going to rip your arm out of its socket." "How could you let someone hurt them like that?" Kenichi demanded, threatening him with a step forward. "It wasn't any of my business," Rintaro replied seriously, crossing his arms over his chest. "They had an argument with the girls, and it wasn't mine to interfere." "Was it Jotaro?" Kenichi asked, his anger rising again. Rintaro had no right to let them fight in an alley by themselves. Jotaro and his friends were notorious for back stabbing in the middle of a duel. Rintaro would have known that. "Kimiko beat him and Kojiro pretty well, but took a hard lick. She's only feint right now because she tried to chase down the lot of them. She'll shake it off in a few." "And?" "Seiko did a real number on your sister. She had a blade. Even then, she needed two of her friends to take Maya-chan down. I think Shoji broke her left arm with a bat. She might need a doctor, but she's okay at the moment. But that's the least of our problems." Kenichi rushed back over to Mayako who seemed ok, but for the bruising and a torn pant leg with a shallow cut along her left leg. He shook her gently, and she stirred, but her eyes still remained closed. He sighed softly, sadly pressing the back of his hand to her bruised cheek. "The enforcers are going to tear us one if we don't get out of here quick," Rintaro warned from around the bend. "I know it's not good to move your sister and all, but I'd rather she see a family doctor than a Gen. Med." Although he hated to agree with Rintaro, he had to. In addition to a General Medical doctor treating his sister and Kimiko, they would get the unwelcome bonus of a fine for disturbing the peace. Plus, General Medical doctors were not the friendliest of people, paid out of the pockets of taxpayers at a general rate for their less than enthusiastic service. "Aunt Kasumi's house is the closest," Rintaro instructed, rounding the corner with a conscious redhead supported on his right arm. Kimiko looked confused with her eyes unfocused and dancing between Rintaro and Kenichi. She walked with a slight limp, but looked well enough to continue on. After positioning her hurt left arm on her chest, Kenichi gingerly put his forearms underneath Mayako's backside and neck, gently lifting her. Mumbling softly, she nuzzled her head into the nape of his neck. Kissing her forehead, he carried her to where he had left his borrowed bike. "You good to walk to the train, Red?" Rintaro asked of Kimiko as he passed Kenichi. Kenichi saw her nod after a moment. "Nichi, our bikes have flats. You ride on ahead with Maya-chan. Think you can do that?" Kenichi considered it. He had ridden with people before, but did not know if he could take his sister without hurting her more. He knew he definitely could not carry her the whole way. He looked at his sister's face, torn between staying for an ambulance and attempting to ride her all the way to their Aunt's house. As he turned to Rintaro, he saw the two of them walking their bikes over to him briskly. "Well?" Rintaro asked impatiently. "We really need to get a move on it." "I don't think I can do it, Rintaro," Kenichi said solemnly, watching his sister sleep in his arms. "You two get out of here. I'll wait here with Mayako for an ambulance." "Oh, just give her to me," the impatient young man said leaving Mayako's bike up against the wall. "I can do it." "Are you sure?" Kenichi asked, reluctant to give his unconscious sister to someone who let her down once already. "I don't know." "I swear I'll get her to Aunt Kasumi's no worse than she is now," Rintaro promised with a sincerity Kenichi rarely heard in his voice. He looked over his shoulder to Kimiko. She held her head in her hands, but appeared mostly all right now. Kenichi nodded, holding Mayako out to the young man. Rintaro took her gently into his arms and then walked over to the borrowed bike, and sat down on it, resting the girl on his lap. With one hand he gripped the handlebars and with the other he held her. In an amazing feat of dexterity, Rintaro kicked off and rode at a quick pace down the alley and out of sight. The sirens were almost upon them as Kenichi appraised Kimiko, as she covered her face. He walked up to her and softly took her arm, pulling a hand from her face. She straightened her back as he did this, squinting her eyes at him. The girl had escaped the brawl without a black eye, but a dark bruise painted her right cheek. "Are you okay?" Kenichi asked her. "Yeah, let's just go," she whispered, turning her head from him. Grabbing one of the bikes, she walked barefoot down the alley. Kenichi picked up the shopping bags and hooked them over his left shoulder. He followed her, walking briskly with Mayako's bike to catch up to Kimiko. As she walked ahead of him, Kimiko limped less than she had before, moving quickly through the alley. The wail faded from his ears as the clear sky and radiant sun warmed Kenichi from his foul mood. Reminding him of his empty stomach, street vendors lined the walk as the couple briskly marched in single file. It did not seem to peek Kimiko's interest as she calmly walked by them, the limp in her step having faded as they kept moving. They came to a wide intersection, where Kimiko stopped. She did not turn to face him, but he understood she meant him to lead now. People passed her on either side and he waited until they cleared until he walked his bike beside her. She looked over to him now, her bruised right cheek shining next to him. "Thank you, Kenichi," she whispered, and then reached up and put one of her small hands on his left shoulder. Placing a hand on top of hers, he patted it, even though he did not know what she was thankful for. "You're welcome, but for what?" "For coming," she replied quietly, her tired eyes staring into his. "I hope it wasn't too much trouble for you." Her lips curved somewhat into a smile as he shrugged. "That doesn't matter," Kenichi replied, squeezing her hand gently. He liked the feel of it on his shoulder. "What matters is that both of you are okay." His concern really stuck with his sister, though as her condition seemed much worse. Kenichi could do nothing for her at the moment, except to hope she was not too hurt. He trusted Rintaro would get her to Kasumi's house. Aunt Kasumi would know what to do. After all, she was a nurse at a local doctor's office. Kimiko's hand lingered for a moment more, and then fell, sliding down his sleeve heavily until she broke contact. Kenichi's cheeks reddened a bit when she released her hand. He bowed his head, staring down for a second. She ignored the crowd around her, staring at his face. It still amazed her how much he reminded her of Akane. For a second time, she mistook the boy for her former fiancée. Given the fact she had been dazed during that moment, she wondered what could cause her to see him as the woman he lost to the sands of time. Kimiko took a deep breath, reclining her head. The sun warmed her cheeks as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the light. She exhaled and looked back at Kenichi who held her pumps in his hand. "Do you want your shoes?" he asked her. Kimiko shook her head. She would be better off without the balancing act today. She still felt a bit dizzy from striking her head on the brick wall. "I'm better off barefoot at the moment," she replied, looking forward. The street seemed less crowded than it had before. "Let's go to your Aunt's house." Her young friend led the way, taking a right at the intersection. He had a vigor in his step that made Kimiko think. His image blurred a moment, so she rubbed her eyes, realizing nothing around him seemed as fuzzy as he did. Something about him made her feel not quite herself, though she imagined he felt the same way, but for different reasons. The walk calmed her as the pleasant sensation of warmth from the sun heated concrete traveled up her legs. Her mind focused on Kenichi as she watched him walk ahead of her, trying to figure him out. He did not act like the usual boys who fancied her, but she knew that he at least had some not quite so platonic feelings for her. The kiss they inadvertently shared in the koi pond proved that much. She still regretted that, though it did not bother her as much now. She did not want him to get the wrong message of her intentions for him, but at the same time, she did not know what those were. Conflicted at the center of her heart, Kimiko hated to admit she felt something more than friendship. It was not love, she knew, nor attraction. Could his likeness of Akane be giving her this feeling? After all, Kimiko still loved the woman fiercely, though that feeling changed to one of concern. With a sigh, Kimiko shook her head a bit downcast. What were her intentions towards him? She found her own feelings a mystery to herself. Ever since she had arrived here, mistaking him for Akane, something had been developing between them. She remembered the first night they shared together no matter how brief, under the stars as she waited for her taxi. That beautiful night she spent thinking of Akane, while her son warmed her body with his presence. Get a hold of yourself! she thought fiercely. How could she think about him as if that dream she had of him could possibly come true? She had a date with Jusenkyou that would reverse this curse over her, returning her to her proper form, though something in her mind nagged her. What if she could not become male again? What then? Maybe she should have a sincere conversation with him and clear some things up, like his feelings for her. Even more importantly, she had to crystallize her feelings for him. Kenichi held his bike on the left of himself, as she did, so she walked around the bike she led and stepped up her pace. After a moment, she walked beside him. She caught his glance, and his smile. Her heart skipped a beat and she swallowed in preparation. How direct should she be? she wondered. "Something on your mind?" he asked, his face less serious then it had been before. His thoughts must have been on his sister's condition. Kimiko hoped the girl would be fine. Mayako seemed to have taken a beating, but if she had a fraction of Akane's resilience, Kimiko knew she would okay. "Yes, as a matter of fact," Kimiko returned, her biting her lower lip after she said it. "I was thinking about the last few days I've spent here with you--and your family." She added the last part quickly, her nerve fading a bit. "Very interesting times, huh?" he said grimly. "I'm really sorry about all the fighting. Between Rintaro and those bastards in the alley, I'm surprised we haven't all been to the hospital." You would be surprised, she thought, remembering her less than cheery meeting with Ryouga and the day she spent in a hospital bed. Straying from that line of thought, she pushed their conversation further. "It's not your fault, Kenichi. Trouble finds me wherever I go." She paused a moment, looking over at him, her heart beating quicker. It felt like someone was holding her jaw shut as she quietly spoke. "But that's not what I meant." They stopped at a crosswalk. Kenichi put one arm up in the air to stretch. "What did you mean, then?" Kimiko had almost wished he did not hear her, but gritted her teeth. Why should she bring it up? It was not like she would see him again for a long time, if ever. As they started to cross the street, she realized she probably would not be able to tell him anyway. "Nothing, forget I said it." As they stepped over the curb and walked down the sidewalk further, Kenichi brought the subject up anyway. "You can't keep me in suspense like this!" She watched him grab his chest and cough with exaggerated motions. He added after a moment, more seriously this time, "You can tell me." With a deep breath, Kimiko mentally prepared herself. She exhaled slowly, looking away. "Well, what I meant was...was that I've been thinking...about..." As her face grew warm, she felt her jaw clench as she tried to mouth the word, but Kenichi finished it for her. "About...us?" The moment he said that, a lump formed in the pit of her stomach, as she felt her face flush. She figured that she probably looked like a lobster right about now, and Kenichi's warm brown eyes did not help matters. A glance at his face showed he did not look embarrassed at all. Rather, Kenichi smiled at her. "Do you want to stop somewhere and talk about this?" he asked her, looking about the area they were in. "Let's just keep walking," Kimiko said, regaining a bit of her spine. Just suck it up and say it, she commanded herself. "If it's about agreeing to just be friends," Kenichi began, his voice seemingly calm in the face of the subject matter. Kimiko wondered how much of it was him putting on a happy face to make her feel better. "You don't have to worry. I know you want to take your time. So don't sweat it, okay?" A bit of irritation did surface in his voice, though he hid it well. "Why do you like me anyway?" Kimiko said a bit exasperated. He had taken the wind out of her with the last, making her wonder just how much had she hurt him by rejecting his feelings for her. They quietly walked for a few moments before Kenichi replied to her question. Kimiko felt her face growing warmer as he looked into his eyes, an expression of deep thought on his face. "Believe it or not, Kimiko Nishiyama, you are a very intriguing person." "How so?" she replied, her brows furrowing. Intriguing could mean too many things for her comfort. She had wondered what he saw in her, because she doubted she would see it in herself. "You show up one day out of the blue and beat the best martial artist our age," Kenichi started, looking forward down the street. There were no longer any other pedestrians on the streets. Sidewalks had already disappeared as they entered a very residential area of this ward. "And yet you seem so a little fragile for such a strong person." Kimiko frowned and turned away as he said the last, but she let him continue without interruption. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that," he apologized. She turned back to face him again. "But when you sat down with us at Ucchan's the first day, you seemed so hurt that I couldn't help but wonder, you know? And then you proved yourself to be such a powerful martial artist, despite your appearance. I mean, I saw the black belt in your suitcase when it fell out, but I never imagined how strong you could be. There just aren't that many who can stand up to some of the people around here. "Don't look at me like that," Kenichi said with a chuckle. "Like what?" Kimiko asked, perplexed. She had just been listening. "You're making cute faces at me," he replied, still giggly. "If I had a mirror, I'd show you." "Cute faces," Kimiko muttered. "Okay, so I'm a yin yang. What's so special about that?" "Hey, everyone has to balance out somehow," Kenichi returned. "Believe it or not, lots of people have a soft side, even that hard ass, Rintaro. Most people don't show it to complete strangers, though...not that it's a bad thing that you did!" He added the last part after a moment. He seemed to be walking over eggshells the whole time he talked to her. "Anyway, all of that is why I like you," Kenichi finished. "Hah, I was expecting you to talk about my eyes while staring at my chest," Kimiko remarked, lightening up a bit. His admission affected her. Even though she hated showing weakness, he actually seemed to admire it beyond all reason. "Well, your baby blues are gorgeous, too," he snickered, putting his free hand on her shoulder. "I'd rather not stare at your chest and test just how much butt-kicking you have left in you." They shared a laugh at that, but the mood quickly changed. As his hand fell from her shoulder, Kenichi's attitude sobered after a moment, signaling his intention to dive back into deeper water. "I want to apologize for kissing you in the koi pond the other day." "Don't," she told him. The thought grounded Kimiko, making her seriously consider the situation again. He really had nothing to apologize for, because she was at fault for that incident. "You have nothing to apologize for. The cold water got to my head, okay?" "Then I'm sorry for enjoying it so much," he said quietly, his eyes a bit distant as he looked away from her. She could see a bit of the hurt bubble up again. "If I hadn't of led you on like I did, we wouldn't even be having this conversation." She watched his face carefully after saying the words, hoping to gauge his reaction. She felt as if they walked further and further onto dangerous ground. Her heart felt like it would explode it beat so hard. "I just really thought," he began but shook his head. "No, forget about it." He kicked a rock on the sidewalk, sending it shooting down the street. "Hey, now who's the person leaving the other in suspense?" Kimiko quipped, a smile forming on her lips. "Mentioning things and then leaving me dirt dry." "No really, it's okay. I can tell you don't want to talk about this." He had not returned her look for a few moments now, as if he tried avoiding her eyes. He wanted to tell her, she could see, but he did not want to press her. "I wouldn't have brought it up in the first place, if I didn't want to talk about it. So tell me what you thought." "All right," Kenichi said after a moment, finally turning back to face her, his eyes still downcast. "I just thought that there was something there. Between us, I mean. You really surprised me when you said you don't feel the same way. I kind of understand why you said you wanted to be just friends, but I had thought we both felt some kind of spark. You know, chemistry or whatever. It's just really frustrating trying to figure out what's going on, you know?" "Yeah, I know. It's really not that I didn't feel anything," Kimiko whispered, her voice gaining volume with each word. "I just don't want you to get attached to me or anything. I'm leaving the country in a few days, and I don't even know if I'm ever going to come back!" Kenichi's eyes grew wide before he replied. He must have been breathing hard, for his chest expanded and fell quickly. She must have stung him, for his eyes looked a bit watery. Wiping away whatever was there with his sleeve, Kenichi asked, "I guess that would be a bit of a problem, but is it because you don't want to come back?" "I don't think I can come back," she said, trying very hard not to turn away from him. It hurt her watching the pain in his face. How could she do this to someone as dear as the child of Akane and the nicest young man she had ever met? It felt like plunging a knife into her own heart. "It's something from your past, isn't it?" he asked, the pain in his eyes still showing, but much less. He moved closer to her as they walked, up until their shoulders touched. "I don't think my heart is ready for this," she said, the feeling of him so closer to her that she winced. "I told myself to get over it, but every time I think I'm okay, it comes back at me in full force." Kenichi stopped, gently linking his arm with hers. She stopped, looking back at him as he stood there, anger distorting his face. Thinking it directed towards her, she pulled away from him, but he caught her wrist as his hand slid down her arm. "I knew it," he said, his eyes softening as he pulled her closer. Their bikes and the shopping bag fell to the ground as she stared at him almost panicking. "Someone hurt you. Someone hurt you so bad. I have felt it since we first met and I can't stand it. How could anyone do something to you? You're one of the kindest, sweetest people I've ever met." She almost gasped as he took both of her hands in his. They stood together with scant inches between them. "I...I..." she stuttered, unable to pull away, or unwilling. Feeling so overwhelmed, she could not even figure out her own emotions anymore. "I could never hurt you, Kim-chan," he told her fiercely, meeting her stare with such emotion. Blinking back the tears that threatened to form in her eyes, she looked away. "I know you wouldn't, Kenichi-kun. I never thought in a million years that you would. That's not what I meant at all. I'm afraid of hurting you!" She met his bewildered eyes with all the compassion she could muster. Her heart ached almost as it had when she first realized that she had lost Akane after recognizing the sudden truth that all of this would vanish in a matter of days, if not hours. She knew that if she regained her male body that she could never return. If she could not cure herself of the Jusenkyou curse, could she even consider returning anyway? What if it meant losing herself so fully to the curse that she fell in love with Kenichi. "Hurt me?" he whispered, not able to comprehend her words. She knew that falling in love with him would be inevitably if she came back. His soft manner, so very like Akane, showed through more than Akane's had. The anger she had harbored for so many years took so much time for Ranma to whittle away at, but Kenichi already at sat on the stage Akane had when they finally decided to get married. "How could you hurt me?" She did not want to hurt him as she had Akane. Her life left little room for making engagements with people anchored in one place. Fate seemed destined to carry her away in a fiery chariot anytime something good remained in her life. Kenichi intrigued her just as much as she must have for him. Unlike Akane, he seemed so ready to open himself up to her. She looked into his warm, brown eyes, which no longer seemed to belong to Akane at all. Kenichi was worth all the unconditional love that anyone could offer him on his own merits. She could never slight him with her poor alternative for the love he deserved. "When I leave, I won't come back," she whispered to him, his warmth seeming to surround her. She felt a tear slip through her defenses and down her cheek, but quickly wiped it up. Blinking away more before she turned into a sobbing mess, Kimiko gritted her teeth. She had to be strong, and she could not lie to him. "I couldn't do that to anyone here. I'd hate myself for that." She tried to pull away, to flee, but he only pulled her closer. He held shoulders firmly, not letting her escape as she wanted to. She did not try hard, deeply wanting it all against everything. In another moment, he held her gently in his arms as she tightly wrapped hers around his waist, her head against his chest. Held as closely as she was, she never wanted to move. "I know I don't understand what you're going through," he began, his eyes looking down at hers. "But whatever it is, I'll always welcome you no matter what happens. I swear it." "You wouldn't say that if you knew what I can't tell you," she refuted, angry with herself more than him. "If your leaving is so painful that you couldn't come back, why don't you just stay here?" he suggested, his eyes too serious for his own good. "I wish I could," she said, fearing that she would cave in and agree. "But I can't. My trip to China isn't a vacation. It's a journey that I have to take if I ever want to feel peace in my life. I can't explain it any better than that." "Then take me with you." The intensity in his voice caught her off guard and she pulled back slightly. She stared up at his face with a mixture of shock and fear. He seemed determined to not let go. Why did he have to make this so hard for her? "What?" "To China. I could go with you." Confused she looked down. He offered to go with her. Almost stunned by the proposition, she hoped he joked. "Don't kid like that, Kenichi-kun. It's not funny." "I'm serious. I have a little money saved up, and I won't be missing any school since it's summer." And he was serious. Suddenly the vision she had of them together flashed before her eyes. Could she allow that to happen? Was that an omen of the future? Was she supposed to make some kind of choice? The entire thing scared her. She knew she had to try to scare him away, but lying to him would be out of the question. Another lair of guilt would be too much. "I couldn't ask you to go with me," she told him softly. "I'm the one that asked," he whispered in response, rubbing her arms. "I promise I won't be a bother to you. I need a real vacation anyway." "What about your job?" she asked quietly. He shrugged at that, releasing her arms. "That's really not an obstacle anymore." "What do you mean?" she wondered, furrowing her brows with confusion. "I was fired when I left to help you," he replied, his head bowed. "What?" Kimiko said, her eyes opening wide. Because of her, he even lost his job! The very thought tore at her. She could not even visit people without ruining their lives. "I'm sorry, Kenichi. I had no idea you'd lose your job over this." He shook his head. "Hey, I'm the one who chose to leave. No one put a knife to my throat or anything." He broke into a wry smile, if a bit forced. "Don't worry about it. It's not like I that was a good job or anything." His smile faded as he began to frown. "Not that you owe me anything, but I'd much rather go with you to China than make a few extra yen and slave over a fruit store. I mean, if your brother is okay with it, and everything." "It's none of his business," Kimiko told him, wondering if she could even think about letting him come with her. If she ever did manage to transform herself back, she would betray him worse than he could ever imagine. "But I don't know about this. Let me think about it, okay?" He nodded, his always-ready smile back on his face, making her feel a little better. It had to be for show, though, because he seemed about as happy as turtle rolled on its back. "Sure thing. There's no pressure or anything, even if you decide against me coming. It's just a stupid idea, after all." "It's not that stupid," she whispered, trying to make him feel better. If only Kiyoshi had never told her that Jusenkyou had recovered, then she could consider staying here without the voice in the back of her head demanding upon her honor that she go back to that wretched training ground. She would not have to hurt him anymore either. "You think?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, it would be a little weird having you along," she told him, Jusenkyou appearing in her mind. "But it's not a stupid idea." Kimiko looked around the nearly empty neighborhood as if people stared from the nearby houses at her. He seemed to take notice of this as a sign she wanted to move on, which of course, she did. "We're only a few blocks away from Aunt Kasumi's house now," he informed her, collecting the shopping bags and the bike. Kimiko lifted the bike she had been walking and set it on its tires. He weakly smiled at her. "Give me some time to think about this," she quietly said. "Every moment between now and when you leave." * * * Two things weighed down Rintaro on his flight from the scene of the crime. The weight of Mayako's body on his lap made the ride more difficult than he first imagined. He made balancing her possibly by positioning her seated in his lap, her unhurt left arm around his waist, while sitting on her hand as lightly as he could to keep it from falling. He cradled her with his right arm, encircled around her to keep her right arm from moving. Her breath tickled his cheek as he leaned slightly so that she lay against his chest and her head on his shoulder. With incredible effort on his part, he still managed to steer the bike with his left hand. Unlike her physical weight, the other thing that weighed him down did not affect the ride. Instead, his heart tried to balance the guilt of letting his friends down yet again. Before the consequences had not been so strong. The constant smell of blood and sweat in Mayako's hair drove the feeling deeper within him so that he could barely tolerate it. Unlike her physical weight, this he could not balance alone. He never considered his conscience much of a friend before, and he supposed it did not make much of an ally when he tried to shut down all roads to his heart. His conscience held the only key to the closed gates. Rintaro remembered the scene outside the clothing store, frowning. How could he have been so stupid as to think Jotaro would not take advantage of him? Rintaro had walked over to sit down on one of the benches nearby the store. It only took a few moments for Jotaro to sit down next to him. His manner betrayed him. His old enemy Jotaro had been nervous. "We need to talk, Saotome," Jotaro had told him, his eyes a bit shiftier than usual. "So talk, Saito," he had replied coolly, though Rintaro had wanted to smash the brute's face until it caved in for good measure. The thought was fleeting, though. "I have a score to settle with this redhead of yours." The words still burned in his ears. Rintaro knew Jotaro was going to play him, but he listened anyway. "So why should I care?" he replied, giving an air of indifference, pushing his hand through his bangs, affording him a scan of the area. A spiky bleached blond head caught his attention momentarily before he looked back at Jotaro. "Isn't she some kind of friend of yours?" the dark-eyed boy asked. "Not really," Rintaro had replied. "She's Kenichi Tendou's though, so I wouldn't play too hard. You know his friends are." "So then, you won't mind if we rough her up a bit?" Jotaro said with a smirk on his face. The look doubled Rintaro's urge to smash the boy's face. One thing kept him back though. "Like I said, Saito, play at your own risk." "How about Mayako?" "You touch her, and I will personally deliver your spleen to your grandparents." It had been half threat and half bluff. He might not have ripped out his spleen, but hair ripped from his skull might have suited. "Come on now," Jotaro had smoothly said, playing whatever hand he thought he held. "Seiko wants a piece of her, one on one. She has a legitimate beef with your woman. You wouldn't want Mayako to know certain things about you that you've kept from her." Two inches separated Jotaro from his death had he spoke a word more. His eyes contained a cool confidence that Rintaro would have made sure did not last long. "Your lease on life would be over, should your lips spill that which you shouldn't know," Rintaro had stated simply, meaning it implicitly. "Not many would bat their eyes over your missing persons report." "Don't be like that, Saotome," Jotaro said, a crack forming in his armor of coolness in the form of big droplet of sweat sliding down his forehead. "We both know I'm not going to say a word, because Seiko is going to have the duel she wanted. And you won't interfere in either fight. Neither girl will be hurt too bad." And so that had been that. With his lips sealed and his hands tied behind his back, Rintaro watched Kimiko beat the living daylights out of Jotaro and his blonde friend. Unfortunately, in the selfishness of his desire to make nice with Mayako once more, he put her safety aside for a secret he should have never kept from anyone. One too many drinks at a party he should never have attended put him in a position he never should have been in. At the time, Mayako and he had been an item. At the end of ninth grade, before he went to high school, their relationship started to snowball into an avalanche of distrust and hurtful words. His guilt had built to the point he did not want to hold it in any longer, and when they had broken up, it disappeared for a time. He never wanted to betray her, and never planned on fading away from his friends. It just happened that ignoring feelings was easier than dealing with them. Breaking up with Mayako meant severing his friendship with Kenichi. The twins were two sides of the same coin. Once he fell out of grace with them, Ryosei joined suite, his desire for Mayako overshadowing his friendship with Rintaro. Mai followed Kenichi, and Reiko...was well, Reiko. She never got the whole thing and still treated him fairly, though more warily than she had before. Who needed friends? he constantly had to ask himself. Self- delusion was a powerful tool for the weak. Rintaro knew himself to be the weakest link in the friendship between the Saotome and Tendou families. He never meant to be crass. He never meant to hurt her. Or let her get hurt. Sometimes things work out like that. "Ah, no, please!" Mayako woke with a start, her head flying back and striking Rintaro in the jaw. He almost lost balance on the bike, but quickly regained his balance. "Good morning," Rintaro said softly, weaving around a few pedestrians the moment he had the bike under control again. "Try not to move around so much or we'll both fall." He glanced down at her black and blue face and felt a spike of guilt shoot up his spine. Her wide brown eyes sparkled with alert confusion as they darted back and forth. "Rintaro?" she whispered, adjusting herself against him. "Yes," he replied, helping he proper her back up straight with the hand that held her. "Where are we?" "About three blocks from Aunt Kasumi's," he responded, slowing his pace to keep easier balance as she wiggled in his grasp. "How do you feel?" "Like someone mistook me for their punching bag," she said followed by a hiccup. "My arm is killing me. What happened? My heads all fuzzy." "You fought Seiko in the alley," he told her. "Don't you remember?" "Oh hell!" she exclaimed trying to lift her right arm with a small yelp. "My face! Did she cut me up?" "No, I stopped them from play plastic surgeon with your face," Rintaro said, feeling miserable. "But you have a really nasty black eye." "That's nothing compared to what Seiko promised to do to me," Mayako whispered, pressing up against him tightly, enabling him to put both hands on the handle bars. His heart betrayed him and started beating like drums in a rock song. "I knew you wouldn't let them." His stomach seemed to flip around as he gritted his teeth. He wished he could have stopped them before they hurt her as they had. God, how he wish for a time machine to take back everything, to not have slept with that little bitch who took advantage of him while he was drunk, to tell her he loved her. "You shouldn't be so serious all the time," Mayako said, snuggling up to him. "You saved the girl, after all." In a burst of conscience laced insanity, his mouth opened to confess everything. He could no longer accept her blissful ignorance of his evil. "I have to tell you something, Mayako. Please wait until I finish before you hate me, okay?" "It's not possible for me to hate you, Rin-chan," she said with a purr, her hand finding a comfortable point just above his left hip. He started at the beginning, his eyes growing misty with the memories. "You remember that party we went to right before we broke up? Where we had that fight about me having too much to drink?" "Oh, don't bring up all that old baggage," she said, pouting with her puppy dog eyes staring up at him. "I don't care about any of that anymore. We were just dumb." "Not about that, about what happened afterward." He looked down at her. She looked away, her brows furrowing with displeasure. He had to continue and tell her all. "You were right after all. I woke up next to Yusa not remembering anything. I could never tell you no matter how hard I tried. The words just never came." Mayako remained silent, but she still held him tightly, which was a good sign. "I didn't watch over you today, because Jotaro threatened to tell you about it. I let you fight Seiko without any backup, because I didn't want you to know. I did exactly what I was trying not to do: hurt you more. But it was all just my selfish desire to get you back again. "I threw everything away, because I didn't have the guts to tell you. It all came back down to me not being able to live with myself. I'm so sorry, Mayako. I never wanted any of this, but it all just spiraled out of control before I knew it." Rintaro paused and noticed she had been silent the entire time. He looked down to make sure she still was awake. Her eyes were closed, but she still held onto him. He spotted a tear glistening on her cheek. "Are you still awake, Maya-chan?" he asked, praying for it. He doubted that he could ever build enough nerve to say it again. "I am," she said in a small voice. "Aren't you mad?" "A little," she said, opening sparkling eyes. "Just a little?" he said almost shocked. He was certain she would be too furious to ever speak to him again. "I'm mad you didn't ever tell me, but it's not like I didn't know." That gave him a second's pause. How could she have known? She had never brought it up before in any of their fights after the incident. Had all of this been for nothing? he wondered as she continued. "But what we had, I wouldn't have thrown our relationship away for you being a stupid baka one night with that slut. I was angry for a while, especially that you didn't trust me enough to tell me, but I'd invested too much just to let everything go." "I'm sorry," he repeated, stopping in front of their destination. Reiko's house seemed like a mansion compared to the Tendou estate. There had to be at least ten rooms in the place, with an equal amount of bathrooms and studies. The front gate stood slightly ajar, so he stopped in front of it, juggling Mayako against his left arm so that he could kick it open. "Like I said before, it's old baggage that we can put behind us." "How can you be so forgiving?" Rintaro demanded, hating that she was not angry enough to sate his guilt. "I've spent two years trying to break away from your family completely, never giving you the time of day. And all this time, you've known? And you still can forgive me? I don't understand." Mayako remained silent as he peddled to the front porch of the house and stopped at the door, managing to reach and press the doorbell with his free arm. "My heart isn't for you to understand," she said cryptically. "Don't go spoiling your second chance with your self pity." Lifting her into his arms, he still managed to knock the kickstand in place with a swift strike of his right foot. "You shouldn't forgive me," he said, still unable to accept the fact that they could get back together. "Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't do, Rin-chan," she commanded him with all of her queenly power. "I'm not a doll here to please your every desire. I chose to forgive you a while ago, but you've been too blinded to see it. You need to learn to forgive yourself." Her last words, he imprinted upon his heart as Reiko opened the door. "What happened?" she nearly shouted, immediately swinging the door open for them to come in. "Oh, my poor Maya-chan. Are you okay, honey?" "I think so," Mayako unconvincingly said as she clung to Rintaro with her left arm. Having brought her all this way made him feel slightly better about everything, but not good enough to forgive himself, yet. "She's pretty beaten up," Rintaro informed the brunette. "Her right arm is probably broken, and she has at least one concussion. Is Aunt Kasumi home? She really needs to take a look at her." "She's at the hospital right now," Reiko answered as she rushed ahead through the foyer and into the hall that split the bottom floor of the house. Rintaro followed her into the guest bedroom, where she cleared about a half dozen pillows from the bed onto the floor. He walked around to the right side of the bed and set Mayako down on it gently. "I'll go call my mom," Reiko muttered, looking distracted by all the bruises over Mayako's body. "I'll be right back." Reiko then left the couple alone. For all of the pain she had suffered today, Mayako still grinned at Rintaro. He shook his head, and he could not help but smile back. * * * Reiko dialed the hospital where her mom worked as soon as she picked up the receiver. As it rang, she walked back towards the guest room where Rintaro had carried Mayako. Her heart beat quickly as she entered the room. Rintaro had drawn a chair up to the right side of the bed as he leaned over Mayako. He withdrew the moment he saw her re-enter the room. She stood in the doorway, resting her back against the wall as she navigated through a sea of automated questions, finally just pressing the 0 key to talk to an operator. "Nerima General Hospital," the female operator said in a cheery voice. "How can I direct this call?" "I need to talk to my mother, who is a nurse at your hospital. Her name is Kasumi Tendou." Reiko waited as she heard a click on the line. "Front desk, what can I do for you?" Reiko took a deep breath and repeated herself. This time the operator checked up on her mother. After a moment, the voice returned. "I'm sorry, but your mother has already left for home. Do you want me to leave her a message?" "No, but thank you," she whispered into the line and then hung up. "She not coming?" Rintaro asked after a moment. With a shake of her head, Reiko dialed her mom's cell phone number. It rang three times before someone picked up. "Kasumi Tendou?" Her mother's voice said from the other side of the line. "Mom!" Reiko exclaimed, her heart picking up speed again. "We need you home quick. Mayako's been hurt! She's at our house right now!" "Oh my!" her mother replied. "I was already on my way home, from the train. How bad is she?" Reiko walked over to the left side of the bed, sitting down next to Mayako. "Rintaro said he thinks her left arm is broken and she has some concussions. She seems to be asleep now, but she was awake when he brought her in." "Hmm, okay, just keep her comfortable," her mother told her. "Be careful not to move her arm unless you have to! I should be home in five minutes. I'll catch a cab. Call me again if anything happens. Bye-bye." "Okay, mom, bye-bye!" She hung up the phone and set it on a table beside the bed. Leaning over the hurt girl, Reiko pushed Mayako's raven bangs out of her face, and then wiped the tears from her cheeks. "She's coming?" Rintaro sat on the edge of his seat, staring at Mayako with more concern in his face than she had seen in a long time. "Yes, she should be here very soon," Reiko said, looking at Mayako's injured right arm curiously. Mayako had it angled away from her body slightly, yet it appeared odd. "It is broken, but it seems funny somehow. Could she have dislocated it, too?" Furrowing his brows, Rintaro leaned over to look at her arm. "Huh, I don't know. I didn't think to check. Check to see if she has a bump just behind her right shoulder." Already on top of it, Reiko pulled Mayako's collar back and looked at her naked shoulder. "Hmm, I don't see anything. It could be on the inside, though." "That's possible," Rintaro whispered, cupping his face in his hands. "We should wait for your mother before we do anything. I hate seeing her like this." "How did this happen, Rin-chan?" she asked as nicely as she could, despite her nearly overwhelming outrage at what had been done to her cousin. "Do you remember Jotaro Saito?" Rintaro asked her, sitting back in his chair, He seemed tired, his eyes still lingering on Mayako's face. Had they made up? she wondered. She certainly hoped so. If anyone could save Rintaro from himself, certainly Mayako could. "Yes, I do," she replied, remembering specifically all of the trouble he caused at Furinken High while she had gone there. "He and his friends attacked Maya-chan and Kimiko Nishiyama while they were shopping," Rintaro informed her, bowing his head. Whatever transpired seemed to have rattled the nearly unshakable young man. "I didn't realize that they would go back on their word and jump Mayako as she dueled Seiko Nomiya." Vaguely, Reiko wondered why they had not invited her to go with them, but she filed it away. After all, look at Mayako now! Reiko would have been little help against anyone that could do something so terrible to her friend. She frowned, only wondering why the Tendous, Onos and Saotomes constantly had to fight Jotaro and his friends. It seemed so pointless. "I hope you learned your lesson," Reiko admonished, hating to be that way to someone her own age. Then again, Rintaro had the maturity of a pubescent child. "You can never trust the lives of your friends and loved ones to people who are just as likely to take theirs. Honor be damned, if it means saving them from being hurt." "I-" Rintaro began, but stopped as they heard the front door open. He stood expectantly as Reiko thanked the heavens. Her mother had finally arrived. "We're in here, Mom!" she yelled, almost about to cry. If anyone could put the world back on its axis, Kasumi Tendou would be that person. Like the eye of a storm, the woman brought calm to everyone she touched. Kasumi entered the room, still wearing her maroon work scrubs, her long hair draped like a mantle around her shoulders. Although her ready smile not visible, a frown of concern occupied her face as she entered. The light in her eyes, the soft beacon of hope for anyone who could see them, focused on Mayako who still lay still on the bed. Reiko moved out of her mother's way, quickly finding a seat on the bed next to the injured girl. "You would think in sixteen years, she would realize she's too precious to run around beating people up," Kasumi said idly, maintaining her mysterious calm. "Hello, Rintaro. You're dressed nice today." For the first time, Reiko looked at what he had been wearing. Usually the boy wore a gi or something really tacky, but today he wore a collared shirt and slacks. "Hi, Auntie," he whispered with a smile. "Thank you for coming so quickly." "We'll talk about this later," Kasumi replied, a motherly sternness she rarely expressed resonating in her voice. "However, right now I need you all to help. Rei-chan, please find me a pair of scissors." Reiko immediately followed her mother's directions, managing to hear her mother say as she exited the room, "Rintaro, you know where the kitchen is, right? Please get me a bag of ice and some paper towels. Also get the first aid kit. It's above the fridge." Warmth radiated from her body as she ran into her father's study. The mess that surrounded her immediately overwhelmed her. Where would he keep scissors? Searching the top drawer, she immediately struck success. A pair of large paper cutting scissors stared back at her. Returning to the room quickly with the utensil clutched in her, Reiko found her mother hovering over Mayako. "Maya-chan," Kasumi whispered. "I need you to wake up, honey." "Here are the scissors, Mom," Reiko informed the older woman, stopping to stand beside her. "Thank you, darling," Kasumi said warmly, taking them from her daughter's hand. "Go around the other side of the bed, and try to wake her." The brunette did just that as her mother began to untuck Mayako's blue blouse from her white trousers. Sitting where Rintaro had before, Reiko leaned over Mayako and examined her black eye. It looked so hideous on the pretty girl. Moving her head close to Mayako's ear, she exclaimed quite loudly, "Mayako!" The raven-haired girl jerked as her eyes shot open. Immediately, her teeth grit together and tears started flowing down her cheeks. She looked to be on the verge of sobs, fighting it as her jaw clenched. "Hi Mayako," Reiko whispered softly, taking her hand. Mayako squeezed back as soon as Reiko touched it, somewhat surprised by the strength she had. "Not too tight now." "Sorry, Rei-chan," the girl apologized between sniffs. "My arm hurts so bad!" Kasumi leaned over Mayako as Rintaro returned with a plastic bag full of ice and several sheets of paper towels. The frown on his face lightened as he quietly placed the supplies on the nightstand next to Kasumi. He then walked over into the corner of the room and sat on a knee-high dresser next to a lamp. "Mayako, I need you to concentrate for me, okay?" she asked of the injured girl. Mayako nodded her affirmation. "I'm going to cut away your blouse and then look at your arm. Please try not to move at all." "Yes, Auntie," she whispered, taking quick, shallow breaths. As Reiko's mother started cutting Mayako's blouse up the center, Reiko took the girl's hand and clasped it with both of her hands, interlacing their fingers. Mayako turned her head to the side to weakly smile at her cousin. Returning it with one of hers, Reiko prayed the pain would not last much longer. Pulling away the scraps of Mayako's shirt and only leaving her bra for modesty, Kasumi gasped. Reiko's eyes bulged as she put a shocked hand to her mouth. The skin from her stomach to her shoulders was covered in a multitude of bruises and welts. Reiko reasoned that they must have knocked her down and kicked her. "Maya-chan!" a whimpered cry came from behind Reiko, causing the brunette to turn. She had not recognized Rintaro's voice, as it sounded to be more of a sob than anything. He did not cry, but she knew he must have been torn inside, seeing someone he cared for so hurt. His next oath did not come as a surprise, but Reiko had to strain to hear it. "I swear I won't let anything ever happen to you again." "Rintaro," Kasumi called softly to the boy who seemed to be in shock. She called his name again, louder this time to get his attention. "I need your help." "My help?" he skeptically asked walking over to the woman. "What can I do?" "You must have noticed her arm is dislocated," she replied, beckoning for him to stand by her. "You've had more than your share of them, from what I've heard." His face flashed crimson, but whether in anger or shame, Reiko had no idea. As he drew closer, he did not seem to be so angry as hurt. "You can say that," he replied, turning his head and closing his eyes after getting a closer look at her arm. "Yeah, it's dislocated. I hadn't realized until we brought her here." He turned back to face Kasumi. "What is it that you want me to do?" "You've had more experience with these than I have," Kasumi admitted, rather abashedly. Her eyes wandered down to the poor girl under her care. "Well yeah, but the last time I helped anyone with one of these, I was thirteen," he stated, sitting next to Mayako. "It hurts so bad popping them back into place. You have to put something in her mouth so she doesn't bite her tongue or hurt jaw. Then you just pop the bone back into place. It's not hard, but you have to know what you're doing." "Yes, that's why I need you to do it," the woman replied. Reiko looked at Rintaro with a new light. She did not know he knew anything about healing. "I've never done this before." "You haven't?" Rintaro asked almost shocked. "But I can't do it! Doctor Tofu always watched over me to make sure it was okay. Even when I had to pop my own arm back into place, it was always just mine. I can't take a chance with Mayako!" Kasumi shook her head. "The longer you wait, the longer she has to suffer. I could do it, but I think you need to." Reiko watched the color drain from Rintaro's face before he nodded gravely. What could her mother have meant by that? Reiko wondered. Her eyes followed the boy with interest. He unbuckled his belt and then removed it, as Kasumi stood and walked to the other side of the girl where she retrieved the first aid kit. Reiko then watched the nurse, as she pulled out a bottle and some gauze. With the scissors, she started cutting away Mayako's pants around her thigh, where a thick gash "Mayako," Rintaro said softly into her ear. "I need you to bite down on this. Go ahead and bite as hard as you need to." She nodded as he put the belt in her mouth. "I'm going to put the joint back in place. It's going to hurt really bad, so bad you're going to want to scream. Just bite down on the belt. You can scream all you need to after. It will only take a second." Still holding Mayako's hand tightly, the girl fidgeted as Reiko's mother applied something to her thigh. Her eyes as tears started flooding her eyes again. "Rintaro, go ahead." Kasumi stopped cleaning the wound to watch the young man. "Forgive me, Dr. Tofu," Rintaro sighed as he gritted his teeth. "On the count of three, I'm going to do it, okay Mayako?" The girl nodded tersely and already biting down on Rintaro's belt. Reiko turned her head as he counted. One, two, snap! The sickening pop of bones sent a chill down Reiko's spine. Mayako's chest surged up, squealing through the belt. Reiko strained to keep the girl from throwing her with her good arm, and she was lifted out of her chair. The belt slipped from the girl's mouth and she screamed, her voice piercing Reiko's ears. After a moment, she quieted down and merely sobbed into the pillow beneath her head. Rintaro already had the bag of ice in his hands, and he propped it up against her shoulder, protected by the paper towels. His eyes looked suspiciously red as he knelt on the ground, putting his head by Mayako's ribs. The dark-haired girl turned to her healer, and then put her hand through his hair. Reiko felt helpless, as she realized she could neither protect nor heal her cousin in the way that Rintaro could. He possessed the ability to cause so much pain as Reiko had witnessed on Sunday when he fought Kimiko. She had never known he worked with Dr. Tofu, though she did know he was always close to Shampoo and Tofu Ono. The doctor seemed to be a mentor to anyone who came along. "Mayako, I'm going to put an anesthetic in your leg so that I can stitch this cut. You'll only feel a prick." Just then Reiko caught a glimpse of a needle and looked at the spot where her mother planned to inject it. A sudden dizziness filled her head as she wobbled for a moment. "Reiko?" she heard Rintaro say, but her eyes had already darkened. As the room begun to spin, she fell backwards, caught by the chair. As Reiko fell backwards into her chair, it seemed a bit ironic to Rintaro that he would have laughed had her mother not been present. Ever since she had been young, Reiko talked the talk better than anyone he knew, but she had one fatal flaw. When reality came to close, she broke down. Everyone had tried to include her in their circle of martial arts, but she did not have the nerve to even think about using her fists. That was not what made Rintaro dislike the brunette, rather far from it. In a perfect world, he imagined that sort of peaceful nature might have been widely considered ideal. Not her though, she suffered from something much different than pacifism. He thought of her as having a sort of crass disregard for everyone and everything around her. Her entire life, she had been sheltered by family. Everyone at school knew that behind her stood the entirety of the Tendou, Saotome and Ono families, but more so since she had no ability to fight. With that shielding her, she had the mouth of someone who felt herself superior to that way of life, far too mature to require the martial lifestyle that all of her cousins and friends lived. She lived without caution like they did, as if someone would always be there to defend her, but she never acknowledged them for it. Rintaro did not really like anyone's personalities in his family, but Reiko the least. It had nothing to do with any menial vendetta, or anything she did to him. His dislike for her was completely because of her useless, arrogant nature. Not even a healer's lifestyle suited her, as the mere sight of a syringe caused her to faint. Significant amounts of blood probably had the same effect on her. He only gave Reiko a moment's regard as he held Mayako's weak right hand. Her tears had begun to stop, but she seemed to be falling asleep again. Rintaro did not blame her, and he wished he could collapse next to her, as he recalled the pain of having his joint knocked out of place and having it put back. The dark-haired young man suffered his first dislocation at the age of eleven, when his father did not care for his performance in a junior martial arts freestyle competition. His father had not purposely hurt Rintaro, but the fatigue of having competed and lost in the tournament, mounted with his father's need for him to be the best resulted in a grueling training session that lasted the better part of two weeks. It only ended when Rintaro failed to block an easy kick, which resulted in a loud pop and intense pain. Doctor Tofu did not even ask how it happened when he arrived on his doorstep. It must have been some unspoken pact between the martial artist families that everything was an accident as long as it was curable. After expressing a deep curiosity, even with the pain he felt in his arm, Doctor Tofu showed him how to pop his own joint back into socket, though he did have the doctor's guiding hands to help. The idea that he could cure himself amazed him to no end that any thoughts of his father hurting him vanished. Unable to do anything for a month as his arm healed, Genma allowed his son to informally apprentice with Doctor Tofu and stay with the Onos during that time. A bit of medical knowledge never hurt, the old man reasoned to his son as almost a disclaimer that Rintaro could not become a doctor, even if he wished it. He did not care, as it allowed him to learn something new and get to see what other families were like. Shampoo and Tofu shared more love with him in one month than Rintaro experienced in a lifetime with his family. After the four weeks ended, Rintaro managed to convince his father to allow him back a few times a month, in addition to more time during breaks. His father agreed, working with the Tendous and the two Ono children during those times. His father even began teaching at the Tendou dojo after that. It was strange how bad things ended in good, but eventually he stopped going to help Doctor Tofu, when High School started, competitions became much more intense and he found someone he would rather spend his free moments with. As much as he liked working with the doctor, he loved Mayako. Just thinking of the "L" word made him shiver. He took that back. He really felt obligated to her safety, and that was all, or at least that was what he told himself. "I'm done here," Kasumi stated, head drooping a bit as she shook her head. "We should cover her up before she gets a chill." Rintaro remembered Mayako's lack of a shirt and colored slightly as he stood. Mayako still clutched his hand as he rose, so he bent over as to not move her arm much. Kasumi walked around and up to her daughter. "Help me pull this sheet over her?" The two of them covered Mayako and stood for a moment, looking down at the injured girl. "I really don't want to know what happened," Kasumi told him, her tone very serious. He almost did a double take to make sure it was his Aunt Kasumi talking. "But Akane will once she finds out what happened to her daughter. Do you want to be the one who explains it to her?" Rintaro closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. She must have blamed him for this; otherwise, she would not nearly have been so straight forward with him. She always had a subtle way of getting people to do things, as Reiko did, but now she seemed a bit out of balance. "I will," he whispered, opening his eyes to see his Aunt kneeling by Reiko. "And I will make it up to her, Auntie." "I know you will," she replied, her voice returning to normal. "Could you also carry my daughter upstairs to her room? She's gained a bit of weight since I last picked her up." Trying to catch the giggle in his throat, Rintaro only have succeeded at the thought of Kasumi making a joke, rather than the content of it. "No problem," he told her. Kasumi nodded, took one last glimpse of Mayako, and then walked over to the end of the bed to pick up all the first aid supplies. "Don't put them all away yet," Rintaro said as he walked passed her to stop near Reiko. "Are you hurt?" she asked skeptically, her eyebrows furrowing. "No, but Kenichi's girlfriend is," he replied as evenly as he could manage, though he imagined he sounded pretty snotty. He certainly would not apologize for Kimiko's injuries. Those were entirely of her own creation. He only considered Mayako to be under the realm of his protection at the moment. Kneeling in order to lift the brunette, Rintaro slid his hands under her slight body. He lifted her, but put too much power into the motion and nearly fell over. Taking a step back to catch his balance, he realized she must have only weighed a bit over a hundred pounds. The woman needed to eat more. Leaving with Reiko in his arms, he wondered when the next woman would fall over, who he would have to carry around all day, realizing this would have been a pervert's dream day. Too bad for him, he could care less about Reiko. As he entered the house's foyer, he heard footsteps on the porch outside. Pausing in his step, Rintaro turned and watched the door open. Light flooded the foyer, stopping at Rintaro's feet as he stood, watching Kenichi and Rintaro enter. Their shadows stretched forward as they entered the house, their footsteps echoing in the wooden house. With a smug grin, Rintaro ignored them and walked up the stairs. Kimiko and Kenichi shared a quiet glance at one another the moment after Rintaro walked up the stairs with Reiko asleep in his arms. Kenichi's brown eyes looked just as confused as Kimiko felt. He shrugged and called out. "Aunt Kasumi?" "I'm in the guest bedroom," they heard from somewhere down a long hall that hid beneath the staircase. Kimiko felt the need to tug her ponytail at the sound of Kasumi's voice. If anything had changed, she doubted Kasumi to be a part of it. Following Kenichi into the hall, Kimiko marveled at all the pictures that lined the wall. She stopped at one, a group photograph of the entire Tendou family with the Saotomes and the Onos. Someone seemed missing from the picture, for some reason. However, she could not figure out who it could have been. The next picture was of Mousse with short hair and without his glasses, holding a small girl, whom Kimiko imagined was Reiko. She still wondered how that could have happened. The last Kimiko remembered of the duck had him following Shampoo back to China. Something had crisscrossed two couples that seemed more or less destined to be together. Kasumi and Tofu would have been a no-brainer a week ago, and beneath it all, Shampoo seemed to have some level of care for Mousse. The chance that the two would have switched partners struck her as odd. Though now that she thought about it, something strikingly similar connected the two: blind confusion. Mousse did not act as insane as Tofu could be when with Shampoo, but both men shared a relatively ridiculous attitude in the presence of their former significant other. If it could have happened anywhere, it would have been in Nerima. "Kimiko?" she heard Kenichi ask from the doorway to the hall. "Coming." Barely catching glimpses of other pictures as she walked toward Kenichi, she did notice one of all the children that she would go back and take a closer look at afterward. Kasumi sat on a bed next to Mayako, who from under the covers, looked to be asleep. The older woman seemed to be adjusting the position of a bag of ice on the girl's shoulder. Unlike everyone else, Kasumi looked so similar that it was almost shocking. Having slept through a good portion of it, Kimiko had missed meeting Kasumi or Mousse on Sunday. The older woman's long chocolate hair lightly rested upon her shoulders, freely down her back. Time had been very generous to the woman, who looked much younger for one well into middle age. Even in boring blue work scrubs, Kasumi held a regal stature about her soft exterior. She rose from the bed and turned to face Kimiko, dropping her jaw. The look could not have been explained any better than by calling it shocked recognition. No sooner than Kimiko witnessed the lapse in Kasumi's calm did it reappear on the woman's face. Kasumi whispered something to herself. More audibly this time, she said, "You must be Kenichi's girlfriend." At her mention of the word 'girlfriend,' Kenichi, who had been preparing to sit next to his sister, missed the bed and fell straight on his butt. Ignoring her nephew for a moment, the woman introduced herself with a bow. "I am Kasumi Tendou." Her gaze then turned to Kenichi who stood, rubbing his rear end. "Oh my, are you all right, Kenichi?" the woman asked, helping the boy up. "Will you introduce me to her?" "Uh, yeah," he replied, sitting back on the bed. His eyes found Kimiko for a moment, looking speculative, but then turned back to Mayako. "I'd like to introduce you to Kimiko Nishiyama, but we're not dating." "Hi," Kimiko said, glad the tension did not make anyone burst a brain cell. "Oh, I'm sorry," Kasumi said, her eyes finding Kimiko's face again. "Rintaro said Kenichi and his girlfriend would be coming, and that the girl was hurt. I had no idea there would be more guests. Is she still on the way?" Kimiko felt it best just to remain silent. "Err, uh, no," Kenichi said, looking rather uncomfortable. "I, uh, that is to say..." "Saotome-san must have just been mistaken," Kimiko said quietly, half returning Kasumi's stare, while feeling quite out of place. "I'm sorry, Tendou-san, is something wrong?" Though she already knew the reason, she had to ask the question to keep up her ruse, which thinned by the moment. "So, you're not hurt?" Kasumi asked slowly, approaching Kimiko a bit warily. Put off by Kasumi's shock and strange manner, Kimiko just stood like a doe in the headlights of an oncoming car. "Kimiko?" Kenichi asked, looking over at her. She weakly smiled at him. "Well, I took a few hard knocks to the head, and one to the cheek. But I think I'm okay now." "I should take a look at you anyway," Kasumi said. Close enough to touch her, the woman gently did, tilting her head downwards slightly. Kasumi did not have to do it far to see the top of her head, as the woman towered over the short redhead. "Hmm, I think I'll need some better light than this," she said, turning around to grab a white first aid kit from the bed. "Will you follow me to the bathroom, Kimiko? The upstairs one has a really bright light." Nodding to the older woman, Kimiko felt a bit of panic creep into her chest. Would not have any place close to a lamp have suited? she wondered, but followed the woman into the hall anyway. "So you're Kiyoshi Nishiyama's sister?" the woman asked as they made their way down the hall. "Yes," Kimiko replied, and then grit her teeth. "Your brother is very nice boy," the other stated, exiting the hall to turn onto the staircase that stood in directly to the right in the foyer. "He visited my father a few times when he was younger." "He did?" Kimiko asked, a bit shocked by that. She did not know he had that much contact with the Tendous. "Oh yes, but that was before Nishiyama-san adopted him into his family. Several years before it in fact. He trained with father and Uncle Genma, before taking a job out to the east. But you probably know much more about it than me." At the end of the stairs, Kimiko said quietly, "Not really." Kasumi paused at this and looked back, but then continued past a few more doors until she entered a large bathroom. Switching on the light, the woman beckoned Kimiko in. One thing about the bathroom was that Kasumi had been right. It was very bright and spacious. The floor space occupied the room in a square, with a double set of shiny white sinks on the counters ahead of her, a giant bathtub filled the left half of the room and a shower to the right. Several stools stood against the counter, one of which Kasumi pulled back and then patted. Obliging the woman, Kimiko sat down on the stool, nervously pulling her skirt lower. Sitting with a miniskirt tended to leave her panties unnecessarily exposed. Kasumi walked over and closed the door before returning. "I'm really sorry you got involved in their little battles," Kasumi told her, gently tilting her head again. "Wherever those ones go, they bring trouble in droves." She then started to look through her hair, pulling it aside in patches. "I can handle my own," Kimiko stated, looking down to avoid looking into Kasumi's breasts, especially since she exposed quite a bit of cleavage at the angle she sat across from her. "You practice martial arts?" the woman asked after a moment. "This might take a while. Your hair color makes it impossible to see if you are bleeding or even cut." "Yes, I'm about as good as Rintaro," she mumbled. "Really?" Kasumi asked, drawing back a bit. "That's surprising. You don't seem to be any older than fifteen." "Yeah, people always think that," Kimiko responded. "Sometimes they tell me I'm thirteen or fourteen, but I'm actually a lot older than that." "If you're lucky, everyone will always be a few years behind in their guesses." Kasumi continued probing her head. "If I ever need any tips at how to stay looking so young," Kimiko began, hoping to ward further discussion of her age, "I'll most certainly ask you." "Why thank you," the woman said, seeming to glow a bit afterward. "That's sweet of you. Where about do you think you hit your head?" Kasumi's fingers combed locks on the right side of her head. "One of those guys knocked me onto the street," Kimiko answered, thinking hard to remember the fight. "I think it was probably on the back of my head, since I fell backwards. The other was into a brick wall, but I don't remember where I hit my head exactly. Somewhere near the front, or a side. My whole head hurt by then anyway." Walking behind Kimiko, the woman started picking through her hair on the back of her head. "Consider avoiding fights in the near future," Kasumi advised the redhead, as she found what she had been looking for. "There is an abrasion here that could have been a lot more serious if you fell any harder. I'll clean it for you, but you need to be a lot more careful." As Kasumi bent over and opened a drawer below the left sink, she waited to hear an excuse. Kimiko made none, merely remaining silent as the woman found a bottle antiseptic. She applied it to a piece of gauze from the first aid kit and then touched the edge of the scrape. Kimiko yelped and jerked her head. "Hold still." "Sorry," Kimiko apologized softly. Picking through strands of crimson red hair to find red lines across a possible cut scalp had been a chore for Kasumi. A few traces of blood dried together some clumps of hair on the back of her head. Kasumi cleaned it thoroughly and then examined the small mark that remained. "You're really lucky," she told the redhead. "You said the other bump was on the side of your head?" "Yes, but more like the front right side, I think. It doesn't sting anymore, so I don't remember." Clearing through more clumps of the bright hair, Kasumi wondered about the girl. When she first saw Kimiko, Kasumi almost swore she saw a ghost. If not for the roughed up, but very feminine clothing, she would have immediately knew that to be Ranma. Her manner was all wrong though. If Kasumi remembered anyone from so long ago, it was the boy who caused so much trouble for her family. Finding nothing, Kasumi shook her head. "Other than that one scrape, you look okay," Kasumi told the redhead. "You probably damaged the concrete wall more than the surface of your head. Although, you probably lost some of brain cells." "Wouldn't be the first time," the girl said with a chuckle. "When you see Rintaro," Kasumi began, looking at the girl's pretty face, marred so by the bruise on her cheek, "tell him to get you a bag with ice. It will keep your cheek from swelling more than it has." She paused a moment, cupping the girl's chin with her hand. Aside from looking like Ranma's female side, Ranma's mother as a teenager, and a female version of Rintaro, she really did not know what all the fuss was about. Akane had called her to tell her what she suspected, but Kasumi would not accept the fact that the Ranma she knew would ever become pregnant. It was trying to mix water with oil as far as she was concerned. Ranma could have very well been this child's father, but thinking that the girl could have been born from the womb of Ranma's female side was ridiculous. Certainly Jusenkyou magic did not pervert people that much, she reasoned. "Well, you should be okay, but if you experience any dizziness or losses of consciousness, be sure to talk to me or a doctor. Aside from your face, does anywhere else hurt?" Kimiko blinked and then looked down towards knees. When she looked up again, she shrugged helplessly. "I think my clothes took the worst of it." "Speaking of your clothes, did you fight dressed like that?" One of Kasumi's eyebrows peaked as she looked at the girl. A miniskirt and a cut off blouse hardly seemed adequate for fighting. She must have though, considering the state of the apparel. The beige skirt and white blouse had black streaks and dirt smeared about them so randomly that it might have been a piece of artwork. "Yeah," Kimiko said, looking down at herself. "Martial artists have to be able to fight wearing anything." "I understand that," Kasumi returned, but could not help wondering if the girl had any modesty at all. "But you must have done some high kicking. Wouldn't that be giving everyone around a peek at your panties?" Crossing her legs mechanically, Kimiko's eyes bulged as her face took a particularly dark flush. "I didn't think about that when I dressed this morning. I just didn't want to look all trashy shopping with Mayako, and I didn't expect to get in a brawl today. How I'm dressed just doesn't come to mind when I am fighting for my life." "Next time consider shorts," Kasumi told her with a shake of her head. "At least you wore modest underwear. Some girls these days wear practically nothing underneath the tiniest skirts. It's so shameful." Kimiko smiled at her haphazardly. The pink in her cheeks gave Kasumi the sense to move on. "Would you like a change of clothes?" the woman asked. "I could get some of Reiko's clothes for you to borrow." "Oh no," Kimiko said with a quick shake of her head. "I just bought some outfits today. I can wear a new one." "Okay, but consider showering first." "Ah heh, okay," the redhead replied. "Make sure Kenichi does, too. He must have traveled across half of Tokyo today at light speed." "Will do," Kasumi said. Considering she probably would not have another moment alone with the redhead, Kasumi figured she should be straight with the girl. "Kimiko, do you mind if I ask you something personal?" With wide eyes, Kimiko looked up at her after a moment and nodded slowly. "Was your father named Ranma?" Still sitting on the stool, the girl nearly fell off as the stool wobbled. "Whoa!" she exclaimed before clattering to the ground on her side. "Damn." "Are you okay?" Kasumi asked, moving to help Kimiko to her feet. The girl accepted her hand and stood up straight, dusting herself off. "Uh, yeah," the girl said, still a little flustered. "My birth father is what you mean, isn't it?" She did not give the impression like she wanted to talk about this. "Well, I know who your adopted father is," Kasumi told the girl, speculating on her reaction. "I only ask, because you're the spitting image of him. My sister, Akane thinks you have to be, considering everything." "What's everything?" Kimiko asked. Kasumi realized her error in letting the redhead naively lead the discussion with her question. Now she had to tell her about what she hoped Kimiko would tell her in the first place. Her evasions were truly first class. "He disappeared a long time ago, child," Kasumi said, lifting the stool back up. "We don't talk about it, because it's a very painful moment between the families. Everyone loved him very much." "What happened to him?" Kimiko asked, another question which Kasumi was starting to get tired of. Here she was, giving away everything for nothing. "I was hoping you could tell me," Kasumi whispered, sitting down. "You can tell me while you clean yourself up, if you wish." "It's been a very long time since I've talked to my birth father," Kimiko told her, walking past her to the shower. "I was in a coma for a long time after an accident. All I know is that he wasn't with me when I woke up." Even after revealing so much, Kasumi realized she still knew very little. The girl had not even confirmed the name of the man she spoke of, though Kasumi did realize she purposefully avoided telling her. Starting the shower, Kimiko looked back at the woman. "A significant portion of my life, I traveled the countryside with my father. We never stayed in any place longer than a few weeks, and tended to move on quickly. I knew he was running from something, but he never told me what." That sounded more like Genma than the Ranma she remembered. "He taught me almost everything I know," Kimiko reminisced as she removed her tiny top. "He never told me about my family or where we came from. I never learned much about my mother during that time with him on the road, just because we had left her when we were so young. He always kept me at a distance, never letting on too much and always putting things in terms of training." The more she talked, the more her life sounded like Ranma's. Kasumi wondered just a moment if she were Ranma himself, instead of a child. Aside from a major discrepancy in age, the girl's story could have very well been told by Ranma. Her martial arts, according to Akane, might have been taught directly from Ranma as well. Akane had mentioned the girl knew things only a Saotome could have known during her spar with Rintaro. Kasumi averted her eyes as Kimiko removed the rest of her clothes and stepped into the shower. A quick glance proved that this could not have been Ranma. Steam rose from her body as she showered behind the glass that encased the shower. Heat quickly changed the clear glass to the hue of peach that colored the bathroom. She did not change into a boy. "Whoa!" the girl exclaimed from within the shower. "Didn't know it would do that." Now that Kasumi thought about everything Kimiko told her, it could have applied to Ranma also. Ranma would not have told Kimiko about her mother if that were him. Considering how long Akane searched for him, running away would have been the only way he could have escaped unnoticed. Perhaps the reason it sounded so much like Genma was because Ranma had in essence become the old man in his flight from Akane, as the elder Saotome had fled from Nodoka. "You haven't seen your father since you woke up?" Kasumi asked, cleaning up the few items she had used to examine Kimiko. She heard the girl pause in her scrubbing. "He wasn't there when I woke up," she replied barely loud enough for Kasumi to hear over the water. Her voice sounded more sad than angry. "After all the crap he put me through, if he didn't want to be there for me, why should I look for him?" "I understand," Kasumi responded, although she did not mean it. The sadness in her voice made Kasumi realize it must have really hit a soft spot beneath the girl's formidable armor. "I'm sorry I brought up those memories for you, dear. I didn't think it was such a touchy subject for you." The girl continued her scrubbing, but did not respond to Kasumi's apology. The older woman knew when she no longer was welcome to ask questions. Kasumi gritted her teeth as she stared at the peach glass that hid the shattered remains of Ranma's suspected child. She really wanted to get to the heart of the mystery and she knew Kimiko had an answer to a twenty-year-old question. "I'll have one of the boys bring your clothes up. The towels are underneath the right sink. You can bathe if you want as well. Take all the time you need." "Thank you, Tendou-san," Kasumi heard as she exited the bathroom. No sooner did she slide the door open in front of her did she regret confronting the girl. Ranma had proven to be unpredictable in the past, but never when it came to his family. If Kimiko were truly Ranma's daughter, where was he? Dropping the name had at least confirmed she knew it. Kimiko's answers bothered her, even though she should have been sympathetic for the child. Somehow, her return seemed to not be so much by chance as by design. Kiyoshi or Nobukazu Nishiyama must have had contact with Ranma early in his life to know who his daughter was. That gave her a chill. She had not even known of the two Nishiyamas until after Ranma's disappearance. Why would they not say anything? Could the truth of what had happened been that bad? She temporarily put it out of her mind as she went in Reiko's room to check on the poor girl. Between Mayako's dislocated arm and the syringe, her daughter must have shorted a few brain circuits. * * * For Mayako Tendou, the darkness of sleep was not filled with dreams. She felt and saw nothing pain, and never even knew it had a face. Though it was dark, obscured by shadows, she could see a pair of eyes watching her, like black orbs darker than night, a spot of nothing against a plain of stars. They never blinked and they saw her as she lay in someone's arms. Daring not to move, even the slightest bump shot a dull pain through her body. When she woke, the darkness and the eyes vanished, but the pain did not. Her body ached as a whole, no spot free from pain. She heard a voice as she opened her eyes, unable to understand the words. But she recognized that voice, but could not put a name to the sound for a moment, and then she recalled. Her brother, Kenichi. He must have come to take away the pain, or at least she hoped. "Can you hear me?" he asked as she tried to focus. She lay on a bed. Her right arm felt terribly cold, and her left leg felt numb. Her eyes focused on Kenichi's face, and she tried to smile, but that only made her eye hurt. "You had me worried, butterfly," he whispered so softly in her ear that it tickled. Butterfly. He had not called her that since elementary school. She did not even remember why he called her that. She did like butterflies back then... "Hi," she whispered back, aware of her whole body now. The pain was not as bad as it had been in her dream, or when Rintaro had helped her. The pain then almost caused her to black out, but she had held on to show Rintaro she was made of tougher stuff. It had not lasted long as she fell fast asleep from the exhaustion of so much pain. She felt his soft lips kiss her forehead, one of the few places that did not hurt. "My body hurts," she whispered to him, not feeling energetic enough to lift her head. How long was I out?" She felt Kenichi's fingers intertwine with hers, making her smile weakly. His voice tickled her ear as he spoke. "Not long. A few minutes or so." "Who's here now?" "Here now?" he asked. "Well, just me right now. Rintaro left to carry Reiko to her room. She seemed a little out of it. Aunt Kasumi took Kimiko to another room to clean her up, too. She had some nasty looking bruises. The question is, how are you feeling?" "Did you catch the license of the speeding bus?" Mayako joked, though her jaw felt a little raw. She must have bitten a whole in that belt. Her blur in her vision started clearing, revealing Kenichi's worried face. Kenichi chuckled lightly, kissing her forehead again. "Don't ever duel one of them again, okay? They always pull something funny. They even tried to gang on Ryosei last week, before Kimiko jumped in." "I didn't think Seiko would sink so low," she admitted, wincing as she tried to move her leg a bit. "The katana I could handle, but the surprise attack caught me off guard. It shouldn't have." She looked up at her brother, focusing on his face. He looked so tired. Red stains marred his pretty brown eyes, even as his lids seemed to droop a bit. Then she noticed a speck of blood on his forehead. It seemed out of place against his tanned skin. No cuts or abrasions ruined his smooth skin. "You have a little blood on your forehead," she whispered. She laughed a bit as he scrubbed his head with his sleeve. "That get it?" he asked. "Yeah," she replied, smiling. It did not hurt as bad this time. "Rintaro's lip must have splashed me," he muttered, seemingly to himself. He smiled back down at her. "No worries." A little confusion crept over her. Rintaro's lip? she wondered. How could that have splashed him unless he... "Did you get in a fight with Rin-chan?" she asked suspiciously, trying to glare at him, but the effort of hurt her eye. Kenichi lifted the bag of ice from her shoulder as she watched. The paper towels covering it stuck with the bag as he balled it up and then leaned over her. "Close your eyes." She shut her lids and felt him place it over her right eye. Opening the other, she poked her tongue out at him. He laughed back as he stood. "Don't evade my question," she admonished, using her open eye to glare. "Yes," he said simply with a shrug. "I was so mad when I saw him standing, not even injured with both you and Kimiko lying on the concrete that I just snapped. I didn't even care that he didn't do anything. The fact that he LET you get hurt..." "He saved me, you know," she interjected as his voice trailed off. "Seiko meant to cut me up. He didn't let her do that." Kenichi nodded, bowing his head. "It's okay, though," she muttered. "I think you knocked some sense into him." "How so?" he asked. "If he had any sense at all, he wouldn't let people who care about him get hurt." "He respects my abilities," she responded, turning her head slightly to look away from Kenichi. "And he wasn't too far off. I just didn't get a chance to alert him until it was almost too late. Afterwards, he carried me all the way here and popped my arm back into place." "It wasn't broken?" Kenichi asked, poking her arm. It did not hurt her at all, she realized. Only the throbbing in her shoulder really hurt. "Kasumi said it was just dislocated." "HE fixed it?" Kenichi said, the shock clear in his voice. "What's he a part time doctor now?" "Don't criticize him," she said with a scowl. "He did a lot for me, and I'm thankful. Can't you be happy that he's finally coming back to us?" "I'm not so naive to think he's just suddenly cured from being a jackass." Mayako replied with a humph, but knew that Kenichi could not easily forgive Rintaro. She hoped he would try for her sake though. Mayako felt that she could fall in love with him again, if he would let her. "You don't have to make that face," Kenichi said coyly. "I'll give him a chance, but if he messes up like this again, I don't think I can ever forgive him." "He won't," she said, sure of it. "I know he won't." At that moment, the creak of the door caught her ear, but she did not hear anyone enter. She felt Kenichi's body stiffen as his grip on her hand right hand tightened. Rintaro must have entered. "She's not dying," Rintaro's voice echoed from across the room. "Let her breath a little or she won't wake up at all." The ever- present ice in his voice emotionally chilled the air. Kenichi's grip loosened from hers as he straightened and stood. His body no longer blocked her view of the doors as she stared past his legs where the eldest Saotome stood. Mayako knew this was where the bucks had to butt heads, and decided to figuratively interject herself between them. She figured that the best way to do that was to start making fun of people. "Oh Rin-chan, I didn't hear you come in. The usual clucking of the hens didn't announce your presence." Kenichi seemed to lighten up as she spoke up. Rintaro blinked as he looked down toward Mayako. His grimace cracked slightly into a grin. "But, you just did, right?" Mayako's brows involuntarily crooked as she bit her lip at his remark. The tension in her face lessened in even though she could not think of a retort, turning into a smile. She missed having people who could figuratively go toe to toe with her. "Do you think I could have a word with her alone?" Rintaro asked of Kenichi. Kenichi involuntarily rubbed his arm as glanced back at Mayako..When she nodded to him, he shrugged and brushed past Rintaro, knocking shoulders with no love lost. Mayako knew that Kenichi did not like Rintaro before, but it never ceased to amaze her how deeply he resented the Saotome boy. She did not even know the entire story behind the break in their story together. They had been friends enough in junior high school. Not left to her thoughts any longer, Rintaro seemed happy that Kenichi had walked far enough away and then closed the door to the room with a sleepy motions. He did not seem as physically tired as he seemed weary with the empty motions his life seemed to be from Mayako's perspective. He did nothing but train, study and pick on people for all she knew, but there was something about him that she could never deny. The moment he walked toward her, his tender blue eyes staring at her with a hopeless kind of sadness, she knew exactly why she could never deny him what he wanted. Even when they had been platonic friends and rivals, she had been inexplicably drawn to him. Back then, she challenged him. He took her bother's place on the bed, sitting next to her. As he sat she shifted her knees to brush up against his lower back. He shifted slightly, not away from her, but closer to her lower thigh. Without the use of one arm, she still managed to sit up and place a pillow against the head board for her back. Rintaro did not turn to look at her right away. His black bangs dangled in his face as he stared at the bottom of the dresser across from him. "So..." Mayako queued, hoping to get something more than a little contact out of him before her brother came storming back in. Hopefully, he would admit he loved her the whole time they were apart, and that he could not live without her. Now that was the type of ego booster Mayako have loved to hear. She had to admit the chances were poor, but she could always dream. "I'm sorry about your arm," he said quietly, not with usual spunk. Kenichi's leaving seemed to have deflated his defenses somewhat. "I'm glad it was you who pushed it back in the right spot," she told him, hoping he could get past the apology without her having to shame him by acknowledging it. She wanted to lift his spirits, not accept an apology for something of which he had no part. "I knew that Seiko was going to challenge you before it happened." Mayako blinked, wondering if she heard him right. "I swear I didn't know they'd play cheap like that, though," he insisted the next moment, turning to look her in the eye. His eyes looked a bit misty, but it could have been the low lighting in the room. "How?" She asked him, still boggling how he could have known. "Jotaro confronted me while you and Nishiyama-san were at the boutique. He asked me not to interfere." He wet his lips the next second and turned his eyes downward. He did not seem the valiant warrior king of her dreams and more like the sullen puppy expecting to be struck for its behavior. "Why on earth would you do such a thing?" she demanded of him, clenching her teeth at the very thought that he might have intended her to be hurt. Pulling her hand from his, she looked at him, not sure if this was the same person she knew as a child. Kenichi might have been right after all. "I..." he began, drawing back into his shell by physically distancing himself from her and becoming emotionally distant. She saw it happen before. She would never get anything out of him if he felt she would cut him off as he had her. She took his hand before he could slide completely out of contact with her. He looked back up at her with shocked eyes and his mouth ajar. It was not quite as gaping as she might have preferred, but it would do. "I owed Jotaro a debt of honor from a few years back. It's hard to explain to make it sound serious, but back then I thought it would be the end of me. I prided myself on keeping perfect grades and perfect behavior record." Rintaro furrowed his brow as he looked at their held hands. "Jotaro covered for me once, when he shouldn't have. I never expected him to take the heat that was mine. And so I look the other way once and a while when he asks me to." Something stirred in Mayako's head as he told her his vague debt to Jotaro, someone who had plagued the existence of not only the school, but everyone in the Nerima ward. He had been expelled from the junior high they all attended at the time, ruining his chances of entering any type of esteemed colleges. It had been a slight loss to Jotaro who probably would never get beyond preparatory colleges. However, the loss would have been severe to Rintaro, who almost always scored insanely good grades and had high aspirations for college. He managed to avoid many close calls with the authorities in the past for fighting, and other prankster activities that some would consider vandalism. "I didn't think Seiko would have the guts to pull a blade on you, and even bring help once she lost. I didn't think, and I know I'm totally responsible for your pain." He grimaced, adding, "And Nishiyama-san's, too." His clammy hand showed more emotion than his rock face, shaking ever so slightly as she reassuringly gripped it. "Rintaro, if you want to be with me, you have to look out for me before anything else. That means you have to think what's more important to you." She gladly welcomed his half-smile and solemn nod. "Now that we have that clear, go get me a drink, slave." He barked a quick laugh and quickly obeyed. * * * After his brief conflict with Rintaro, Kenichi had retreated into his Aunt Kasumi's perfect kitchen, where she somehow had time to scrub every surface, and still work full time as a nurse for the local hospital. The kitchen was much like his at home, except it did not have a separate door leading into it, but rather swing doors that an American western might have for a saloon. The place was at least twice as large with a few modern appliances that the Tendou house lacked, like a dishwasher and dish dispenser that automatically sorted and stored dishes for the user. Standing in front of the refrigerator, Kenichi held his hand outstretched with an empty glass in his hand in an attempt to acquire a glass of water. A solitary ice cube fell into the glass, but none followed the first. He heard the rumbling of the refrigerator trying to pour ice from the hole above his glass, but his glass still remained nearly empty. He closed his eyes, shook his head and felt the day had a whole slough of torments before he could get to his bed and put it all behind him. Ducking his head, he turned his head to look up at the facet and saw the ice suspended above his face, heavily clogged with the small cubes. He stood up straight once more, and then replaced his glass underneath the device. Using his right index finger, he pushed it up and felt the pieces of ice. With one good push, he released the clog and filled his glass very quickly. Removing his glass to stop the flow of ice cubes, he watched in dread as the ice kept falling, and falling and falling until he put his glass in the way to stop it. "Damn it, you stupid piece of shit!" he cursed, kicking the base of the refrigerator door. "That's not going to stop it from filling the kitchen and your empty head with ice cubes." Kenichi cocked his head to the side to see his cousin staring at him with a grin. He glared at her with all the spite he could muster, but that only made her laugh out loud. "My hopeless, hopeless cousin, I hope your future wife can make up for your utter lack of common sense." Reiko walked up to him, pushed him aside and lifted the release button out from its position, stuck against the glass. She then pushed another button and filled his glass with water. She put the glass to her lips and took a long draft before offering it to him. "Thanks, but I'm not thirsty anymore," he quietly said, not able to think of anything witty with which to reply. Why did Mayako get that gene? He could have said something about her fainting spell, but that was more cruelty than comedy. "Oh, you can use the towel over there to clean this up now." With that said, she left as quietly as she entered, sipping his glass of water on the way out. It took him a few minutes to gather all the ice that had spilt onto the floor and empty it into the sink. As he finished and started wiping the water from the floor, he heard someone enter the kitchen. He looked up and saw his aunt standing above him. She crouched down beside him. "The ice machine?" she asked. "Yeah," he replied. His eyes still glanced about the floor, scanning for any shine that might be the a pool of water he missed. "I've been meaning to have the fixed, but something always comes up." Kasumi stood and looked down at him with a smile. "Are you hungry at all? I could make something up." His mouth salivated a bit hearing this, but she had just come home from work and he did not want to impose on her. "I'm okay, but thank you, Aunt Kasumi." His stomach grumbled at his mouth's betrayal. "I'm going to go check up on Rei-chan then." As she turned to leave, he told her, "She's up, but she's probably in her room anyway." Kasumi nodded and left him alone in the kitchen. The thought of getting another glass of water sounded bad, so he took a second glass down from the cupboard, which he had left open in the first place and filled his glass with tap water. As he put the glass to his lips, he heard the door to the guest room where Mayako had been resting open. A few moments later, Rintaro stepped in. He cooly regarded Kenichi in silence at the entrance of the kitchen, but quickly broke his stare and passed Kenichi to acquire a glass from the cupboard as well. As he went to fill the glass with ice, Kenichi considered telling him that the button for the ice sticks, but decided Rintaro deserved to clean up the mess of ice cubes that would result from his ignorance. Unfortunately for Kenichi's mood, Rintaro did not have that problem and easily filled the glass with ice and then filtered water. He turned and did not drink from the glass, but regarded Kenichi again with his hard blue eyes. "Enjoy your walk?" the boy asked of him. Kenichi could not tell if that was supposed to be an insult or some sort of valid question. Rintaro did not betray anything from his face or body. He simply stood there calmly. "It was okay," Kenichi replied, taking a sip of the tap water. He grimaced, realizing they did not have a filter on their tap. The water tasted like it had been used for boiling something greasy and then simply returned to the faucet. "They probably have soda pop, you know," Rintaro said. Apparently he noticed the face Kenichi had made. Kenichi only afforded the boy a shrug in return. He would not engage in any conversation with him unless he had to. "Probably some beer, too." "I don't drink," Kenichi said, glaring at Rintaro for the implication. "Maybe you should look into it," Rintaro said, betraying the beginnings of a smile. "I know I would if I had your brain. Not much to lose there." "Yeah, take up the bottle and end up like you," Kenichi retorted, not entirely jesting. "That would make us twins. We could roam the countryside challenging cows. What a manga that would make." "Imaginative aren't you? You gonna draw that manga with your sub par artistic ability?" "It's a good thing I'm a better artist than you are martial artist, or I might be stuck training babies how to slap crayons against paper, like you'll be teaching them to crawl the rest of your life." Rintaro chuckled and shrugged. "Hey, someone's got to teach you." Kenichi nearly spit his wretched tap water but forced himself to swallow it before joining Rintaro in a laugh. "Jeez, do I have to teach you how to swallow, too? I mean, your shirt is soaked already. Back to the training cups for you." "Okay, okay," Kenichi said with a wave of his hand. "Just don't go around being a complete baka just because you're strong." Rintaro nodded and then turned, leaving Kenichi alone in the kitchen again. He quickly dumped the remainder of his glass of water into the sink, and then put the empty container into the dishwasher. He stood around for a moment, contemplating going back to see what his sister and Rintaro were up to, but nixed that idea after another second. Mayako would just send him out again. Exiting through the swinging doors, he walked into the adjacent dining room, which immediately led to the front door the stairs. He stopped and looked up the stairs, his mind suddenly back on the redhead that walked him here. It had not felt right, asking if he could go with her to China, but he needed to get it off his chest. From her tone, he honestly did not believe she would invite him, but he had to ask for his own sake. She must have come here with a closed heart, and nothing he could have done would have opened it for anyone. The look on her face when he had asked if she would let him go with her made him feel guilty. He was not quite sure how she felt about his request, or him for that matter, but it did not match his enamor for her. Kenichi shook his head and decided to wait in the family room, where he would wait for Kimiko to finish her shower. * * * The tall man in the shabby, beige overcoat examined a ripped yellow piece of paper clutched tightly in his hand. Nodoka Saotome watched him closely as he stood outside the gate to her family's home. Methodically chopping the carrots for the salad she was making for later, she divided her attention between food preparation and watching the stranger. After another moment, the man reached for the latch to the gate and opened it, creating a loud squeak. He entered her property, closing the gate after him. She made a mental note to oil the gate as he walked through her modest garden in the patio. She examined him more closely as he neared her. His eyes hid in the shadows of a wide- brimmed, American hat. He might have been an American businessman or a cliche detective, but Nodoka did not like the look about him. His shadowed face concerned her only slightly less than his mud-caked, rough brown boots. Yelping in surprise, Nodoka looked down and realized she had lightly sliced the nail of her thumb, gouging it but not cutting any skin. Looking through the window again, she realized the man would be at her door in a few seconds. Removing her apron, Nodoka hung it on a peg next to her refrigerator as the man solidly knocked on the door. She walked through the right portal from the kitchen into the living room, and then walked directly to her left where the front door stood. She checked her hair with her right hand as she reached for the knob with her left. Opening the door as far as the chain would allow, Nodoka revealed the stranger, but still could not see the man's face in the shade of her covered patio. He seemed even taller than he had when she saw him through the window. "Good afternoon," the man said with a slight bow of his head. "Yes, it is," she replied sternly with a stiff incline of her head. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," he said, though she doubted he meant it. He had an impetuousness to his personality that she mistrusted. She could see through the overcoat to his rough interior. "No, what can I do for you, sir?" she asked as demurely as she could, resisting the urge to snap and tell him to leave. "Would I be correct in assuming that you are Nodoka Saotome, wife of Genma?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously as he said this, but she nodded in spite of herself. "Would your husband be home at the moment?" the man asked a moment later, his head cocking to the side. "No," she curtly told him, taking the door in her hands, ready to close it at a momentary misstep from the stranger. "He isn't. If you leave your number with me though, I can relay it to him when he comes home." He slowly shook his head. "Would you happen to know where he is, Saotome-san?" The unsavory nature of his question made her shiver from behind the door. Nodoka Saotome knew a predator when she saw one, and knew that this man had no good intentions for her husband. "I'm afraid I do not, sir," she replied as calmly as she could. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meal to prepare." She pushed the door closed, but something obstructed it and it unexpectedly inched inward at her. "If you will forgive me, I do need to locate him," the man said so calmly that it chilled Nodoka. Firmly pushing the door with both of her hands, Nodoka felt her heart pounding quickly in her chest. "I don't know where he is!" "I merely wish to question him about another person, Saotome-san," he factually stated, blocking the door with the toe of his foot. "Do not hide his whereabouts from me. He will not be harmed." Nodoka did not believe that for a moment, abandoning the door for the katana at the mantle of the living room. Adrenaline already coursed through her veins as she nearly tripped over the coffee table that lay in the way of her path. Quickly taking the family blade down from its place at the mantle, Nodoka unsheathed it in one quick motion and discarded the scabbard onto the floor. The man had not tried to force his way into her house yet, but she had little doubt he would try if she did not answer him. "Leave the premises of my property immediately," she shouted at him. "I'm calling the police now." Although she did not make good on her threat, she gauged his reaction. "That won't be necessary," he replied solemnly. The four inch shadow he cast from what little light outside disappeared from the ground inside her house. She quickly rushed to the front door and closed it, locking it. After that, she hurried to the kitchen window to make sure he departed. However, the gate still stood closed with no sign of the man, and yet she had not heard the gate squeak. Panic that had already touched her, began to well up in her stomach, turning it over as she scanned for him. She decided to call the police after all, just in case he decided to try in break in. Unfortunately, the only two phones in the house were in the parlor, near the back of the house and in Rintaro's room, which usually stood locked. The parlor was adjacent to the living room. Hurrying through the living room, she still held the katana tightly in her hands. Making her way past the couch in the living room and into the parlor, she stopped in front of the cordless phone recharger, but did not see the phone in sight. Thinking hard, she tried to remember where she used it last. As the memory of where she left the receiver came back to her, the shattering of a window somewhere in the kitchen sends her in a dead run for the stairs. A slight ringing developed in her ears as she charged up the single flight of stairs and into the small hall that led to her room. The door was open and she rushed to the side of her bed and quickly lifted the receiver. Pressing the "talk" button, she pressed the phone to her ear and waited for a dial tone, but heard nothing. Glancing at the digital display of the phone, it read "Batteries low." Her jaw fell slightly ajar as she heard heavy boots thudding up the stairs. Pushing out of her room, still clutching her katana, she quickly cut at the lock of Rintaro's door. The clink of metal on metal hurt her ears that already strained to hear her attackers approach. A second slash brought the lock from the latch on the door. It fell to the floor as she caught a glimpse of the stranger approaching her from the other end of the hall. Throwing Rintaro's door open, she rushed in and then closed and locked the door behind her. Unfortunately, it was only one of the flimsy doorknob locks that could be easily picked open with any small, thin object. His room was incredibly neat, and she quickly found the phone, grabbing it and glancing at the receiver for the memory button that would dial the police. Unfortunately, Rintaro did not have a single item listed under his memory keys. She tried the first one anyway, but nothing happened. He must not have entered any numbers on his memory key. In fact, it occurred to her the moment before the man kicked down the door to the room, that she had never noticed any outgoing calls from Rintaro's room on the phone bill since they had installed it two years ago in an attempt to get him to be more social. The sound of the man's heavy boot crashing against the door was only shortly followed by a thick crack and the sight of the flimsy wooden door crashing down onto Rintaro's hardwood floors. Not one to back down, Nodoka dropped the phone and readied her katana. "I warn you, I am learned in Kendo and I'm not afraid to use my family's blade." Nodoka's threat seemed hollow to even her own ears, as she had hardly practiced in the last fifteen or twenty years, ever since she had her second child. The man rushed her in spite of her outstretched blade. She raised the blade above her head and then brought it down in a forward slash, but the man was too quick, knocking the blade to the side and drawing far too close for her to strike a second time. She attempted to jump over her son's bed in order to get away from the man, but he caught her leg. She came down face first into Rintaro's pillow. "Where's Genma?!" the man demanded, raising his voice for the first time. Nodoka barely managed to scream before he lifted her by the back of her shoulders and spun her around. "I will not ask a second time!" He struck her across the face, knocking her across the room. She tumbled across the bed as the strength of his slap sent her sprawling. Her head spun and her eye stung terribly. After a few more slaps, the stubborn woman divulged her husband's whereabouts to the man in the overcoat. He smirked at her face as she stared at him, still dazed by the attack. Genma Saotome would soon be in his hands, and then he would ring his neck, right after acquiring the information he needed to complete his task. No one would stand in the way of his honor. His new destination worked out well, killing two birds with one stone. * * * Wispy white clouds twirled ever so slowly in the beautiful blue sky above the head of the Ryouga. He lazily stared into the heavens above him, enjoying the rare cool breeze that caressed his half-nude body. Stripped to the waist, he enjoyed his afternoon more with every breath he took, lying back on the reclining chair he had found in the back of the house near the dojo.. He felt his body warming from flesh to bone. The weather trends of late, from north to south of the island had kept him dodging rainstorms and bundled up to avoid freezing. Locked out of his own home, Ryouga no longer felt so annoyed as he had when he arrived to an empty house. Akane, her father and the kids could be anywhere, doing anything, and he not right to feel any animosity for them. He had been gone for weeks, or even a month this time, but he was not quite sure, which was longer than usual. On such a beautiful day, his mood improved substantially. After what seemed like hours, someone had returned home. The opening gate alerted him and he sat up, quickly putting on the uniform he borrowed from his son's locker. By the position of the sun, he guessed it would probably be three or four in the afternoon. After a moment, Soun and Genma walked through the gate together, seemingly arguing about something. They looked as they usually did, older than when he had first met them, but still ageless in their retirement and wearing their familiar gis that Kasumi and Nodoka must have many a fine day repairing the heavily patched garments. Their words tapered off when they saw Ryouga waiting for them. Ryouga tried to gauge their moods by their faces, but that was only possible with Genma, whose face lit up like a street light in welcome. Soun seemed a bit pensive in his expression, perhaps angry at Ryouga's longer than average disappearance. The old man had never come down on him before about it, but he obviously would sympathize more with Akane than his directionally challenged son-in-law. Ryouga approached the two men and stopped a few feet from them. Genma closed the space and reached his hand forward to shake Ryouga's firmly. "It's good to see your back, Hibiki-kun," he said jovially, his mood must have been good previous to Ryouga's arrival, for Genma never greeted him this warmly, shaking his hand with a merry vigor. "I'm happy to be back," Ryouga replied with a smile. He turned to Soun who extended his hand a moment later. "Good day, father Soun." He bowed his head respectfully to his father-in-law and smiled. "It's been a while, Ryouga-kun," Soun said a bit warmer, smiling after he shook his hand. "I'm glad you have returned. Much has transpired since you left." The three men walked to across the brick walkway to the front door, where Soun reached into his "I'm afraid I'm locked out," Ryouga stated as Genma and Soun stopped at the front door. "I must not have brought my keys with me when I left." Soun and Genma chuckled at his remark as Soun bent over and pulled a key out from a flower pot near the door of the house. Ryouga passively watched the old men open the door and enter. For a brief moment, he felt compelled to turn around and lose himself. A shiver ran down his spine as he walked through the doorway after them. He rarely ignored his gut, but time away from his family was becoming unbearable. His hunger started to growl as he crossed the threshold. He traveled many days without anything but his own meagerly prepared meals. Although he knew she was no cook, Akane could make some ok basic meals. They tended to become leftovers quickly, even when she made them properly. To his surprise, the fridge was empty. "Oh, I forgot to say," Soun said to him as he stared at the empty refrigerator. "Akane, Shintaro and Eiji went shopping. They'll be back later." From the other room, Genma added, joining them in the kitchen. "If you know what's good for you, boy, you'll be full by the time she gets back!" Soun coughed in a unconvincing rebuttal. The thought of Akane exciting and cooking for him sent another chill down his spine. Maybe his gut could sense death in his next meal. "Where did you two eat then?" "With my wife," Genma said with a smile on his face. "She made far too much, I'm afraid to say." Ryouga tried to picture Genma's house in his head, but his mind came up blank. He would just get lost trying to get there. "I'll take you there, Hibiki-kun," Genma offered, quit out of character for him, Ryouga thought, until the old man added, "I just found another spot to fill." "If you need help getting back, I'll send one of the kids to get you." Soun warmly patted Ryouga's shoulder. "Good night to you, Ryouga-kun and Saotome-kun. It is time for me to practice before dinner." He left the kitchen. To Ryouga's relief, he would not be alone for this trip. * * * The walk home took so much longer than Kenichi was used to. His aunt's house was only a train stop and a half away, which took almost no time on bike, took the better part of an hour on foot. With one bike slashed, the four decided to walk both of the bikes home together. Since his cousin offered to take the borrowed bike back to its owner at the fruit stand he used to work at the following day, they had two bikes to four people and only one worked.If only Reiko owned a bike, Kenichi would have almost assuredly been able to have Kimiko as a passenger. The idea of being so close to her again made his heart race. Now, the four of them walked separate, except for Rintaro who hunched as he walked to support Mayako's good shoulder as they walked. She probably did not need it, Kenichi reasoned, but something was happening between them, and he did not want to interfere, lest he evoke his sister's anger. Both he and Kimiko walked bikes like they had the earlier in the day. He felt eager to get her alone again. Everything came back to her. His entire focus felt lost around her. He used to be the most grounded person in the group. Now he felt like he could fly if she asked. Kimiko had Mayako's bike on her left arm, placing it in between him and her. She had only shot one glance at him the entire time, and now she seemed to be avoiding both eye contact and a conversation. Her clean red hair, still damp from her shower, lay freely on her shoulders, leaving damp marks on her sky blue tank top. He watched the red locks bounce with each step. "Watch it," Kimiko told him, looking at him quickly. Surprised by her sudden words, he looked back at her. She merely looked ahead of him. He almost walked into a lamp post in his obliviousness to everything but her. "Thanks," he sheepishly replied. As they continued their journey home, he still kept his eyes on her. "So that's what it takes to get you to talk tonight." "Huh?" she said, furrowing her brows, but keeping her eyes forward "What do you mean?" "It took me almost walking into a pole to get you to talk. You've been avoiding me ever sense we left." She finally turned to look at him, her piercing blue eyes looking tired. They stared at each other for what seemed an uncomfortably long time before she moved to put the bike to her right side, but she merely resumed their shared stare. "So, what do you want to talk about?" Kenichi shrugged, not holding back his smile. "I don't know. I just want to walk with you." She blinked slowly staring at him as if he spoke in tongues. "Isn't that what we're doing?" She seemed more determined to keep her eyes on his, making him even feel a little uncomfortable, and he was the one who enjoyed staring contests. "Walking beside me doesn't me you're walking with me," he said quietly. She still look confused. "Two people can walk next to each other for twenty years and never walk with each other. They're merely sharing space. Walking with each other means acknowledging the other's existence and sharing words or a feeling." Kimiko finally broke her stare, her baby blue eyes glancing up and down his body. "I acknowledge you, Kenichi. That mean we're walking with each other?" His smile broadening, Kenichi nodded. "Good, because it's the least you deserve," she said mysteriously. "I didn't mean to ignore you. I was just thinking. You know, deep stuff." She smiled back. "I have a lot to decide before I go back to the hotel tonight." Kenichi's heart picked up with his next thought. "What if you stayed tonight? Don't go to that lonely hotel. Kick it with us. We can tell stories or watch a movie, or something." With a shrug of her shoulders, Kimiko looked forward with unease in her face. "I don't want to burden your family anymore." He would have immediately answered her and said she was not in anyway a burden, but the way she said it carried more weight than he could interpret. "Why do you think you're a burden?" She walked a bit closer, nearly touching him with her free left arm as they traveled in step. "Trouble follows me wherever I go." Kenichi followed her thought to its logical conclusion. "You can't blame yourself for Mayako's injury. That was something brewing before you even came here." He put his free right hand on her shoulder. The contact made his heart jump again. The butterflies in his stomach wreaked havoc on his mouth. He wanted to say more, but felt unnerved by his own move. "You might not think it, but this type of thing happens a lot around me." The street lights suddenly turned on as they walked. He watched her eyes glance up at them, fall to meet his and then look down at his hand on her arm. "What?" she looked a little bewildered, meeting his stare again. "You're beautiful," Kenichi risked, unable to look away. She almost stumbled, but holding her, he was easily able to correct her imbalance. "Are you okay?" "Why do you think I'm beautiful?" she asked, ignoring his question. Their conversation began to mimic the earlier one they had with him explaining his feelings for her. "I kind of answered that already," he said, trying to wiggle his way out of the catch-22 she asked him. "Let me reverse this one on you. What do you think about me? Your real, honest, dead-hearted truth." Kimiko's eyes widened when he asked her. "You answered already?" She turned to stare at her hand that held the bike. "Oh. Right. But seeing beauty in someone is different than why you like them." "Scared to answer my question?" "No!" She looked at him, her cheeks red. "I'm not scared. I just don't know how to answer that." "Let me help. You start like this: Kenichi, I think you're blah, blah, blah, and I like blah, blah, blah about you, and don't like blah, blah, blah about you." She narrowed her eyes for a moment, but then giggled at him. "Kenichi no baka. You know that's not what I meant." Looking out ahead of him, Kenichi watched the front wheel of his own bike flop around. "Well, okay, how about this. What do you look for in someone you would date?" "Why do you want to know something stupid like that?" Kimiko demanded, the tone in her voice betraying her agitation. When Kenichi looked at her, he saw the tension in her eyes. Quieter this time, Kimiko spoke again. "What do you want from me, Kenichi Tendou? I'm just a homeless girl with no future." She turned to face him again with those eyes. Kenichi fell back, more than a little surprised at her anger. Her eyes softened when she saw his reaction. "I'm sorry," she quietly apologized, bowing her head slightly. "No, I'm sorry," he replied quickly. He wanted to touch her arm again, but felt it might be inappropriate. "I was only asking in play. I'm sorry if I offended you." She shook her head. "You didn't. I don't know why I reacted like I did. I'm just feeling a little off today." The four of them arrived at the train station. The commuter train to Nerima was already there as they walked up the stairs to the station. They hurried and piled into the last compartment. Rintaro and Mayako took the corner seat at the read of the train, while Kimiko and Kenichi gave them some space and sat across from them and a few chairs down. The empty train gave them plenty of privacy. With the bikes hanging on the rack above them, the two finally found the place for the rest of their conversation. He watched her as she slid to the end of the row nearest to the window. He noticed that her navy blue Capri pants matched the color of the cushioned chair. Before Kenichi began to speak, Kimiko quickly cut him off. "Before you say anything, I want to tell you something." He nodded. "I don't date much," she began, scooting in so close that her left thigh ran into his right. The contact made his heart beat just a bit faster. "I don't even consider people for dating. I never really did. The first person I ever loved sort of fell on me. I didn't even want to go out with her for the longest time." Her? Kenichi thought, his mind bewildered. As she continued her story, he could not help but be confused at the details. She spoke as if she might not ever get a chance. "Before I knew it, we were going to be married by the end of high school. I didn't think it would ever happen like that, but it did." She put her hand on his shoulder fondly, her smile marred only by the pain in her eyes. "One day I was just traveling around Japan and China, and the next I was engaged. I focused on my training so hard that I almost took her for granted. Now, I see you look confused, but please just bear with me. I didn't tell you this on a whim." Kenichi tried to digest what she said, but from the feminine pronoun of her significant other to the part about being engaged, he really did not know what to think. "What I'm trying to say is that my past is really screwed up. More screwed up than you can possibly believe. And I've lied about my past and who I am since we first met. But before I say anymore, I want you to swear on your honor, your family and your very life that you won't repeat to anyone what I'm about to tell you." "I swear by my honor, my family and my life that I won't ever speak a word of what you'll tell me." The serious tone of Kenichi's voice spoke volumes about his nature. Kimiko knew she could trust him with her secret, but she wondered how much he could accept. She smiled in spite of herself. "Well, since we don't have much time until the train arrives, I'll give you the brief version. It all starts in this place you might have heard of: Jusenkyou." Kenichi's eyes widened when she said the name. She continued. "I thought you'd know it, with your family's history." He cocked his head and stared at her. "Everyone knows about Jusenkyou." It was Kimiko's turn to be surprised. "Everyone?" "Yeah," Kenichi simply said. "Well, at least everyone in Nerima. All kinds of people from there got cursed, including the principal of my high school, my aunt Shampoo and a few others." With the steam of her story all released, Kimiko felt a little disappointed, although that made it easier for him to at least believe her story. "Hey, how do you know about it?" Kenichi asked, cutting right back into her story. She had to tell him about her past now. She could not help entertaining the thought of bringing such a great person with her to China, even though she knew it would be out of the question. "That's what I was going to tell you," Kimiko began when Kenichi put his hand to his mouth. "Did your brother get cursed? I heard he goes to China a lot." Kimiko shook her head at his question. "I did." Hearing that, Kenichi furrowed his brows and looked at her skeptically. "I'm serious here," she told him. "I'm not trying to tell you anymore lies. I swear." "Okay, I'm sorry," Kenichi said waving his hand in deferment. "Go on." "Alright," she began again, watching his mouth to make sure he did not have anything left to say. "My pop and I went there some years back. He took me out of school a few months early so we could travel around the country. It wasn't long before some guy convinced my dad over a sake to go with him to China, to make out on some investment. The guy was full of B. S., but my pop didn't know that. He told me it was some training trip that we were going on. "Anyway, when we got to China, we went to this place where they had guides to all the remote training grounds. Jusenkyou wasn't close, so we took a bus part of the way and walked the rest. When we got there, we didn't listen to the guide who was yelling at us half in Chinese and Japanese. Well, we both fell in good." Kenichi looked at her in wonder. He then put his hand to his chin and squinted his eyes in thought. "Wait, but we fell in the koi pond together on Sunday. You didn't change." She nodded in response. "I know, but that's the kicker. The curse stuck, so hot water doesn't work anymore." With a half-smile, Kenichi stared at her. "You mean you beat it?" Shaking her head, Kimiko could only say, "It beat me." Kenichi frowned, looking her up and down. He thought about it for a few moments. She could tell he was trying hard by the strained look on his face. "I'll make this easy for you," she told him solemnly. "The way you see me now--it's my cursed form." His jaw gaped open. "Yeah," she agreed, turning her head to look towards the front of the train car. "I looked a lot different than I do now." "What, did you get shorter?" Kenichi asked, poking her arm in fun. "I don't see what else could have changed." "Well, yes, that among other things," Kimiko quietly replied. "Be blunt with me," Kenichi said to her back. "I don't know what you're getting at. If this is your cursed form, you got off easy. Everyone else turns into an animal. My aunt Shampoo turns into a small, purple cat." Hearing the word cat sent a shiver down Kimiko's spine. She turned back to face the youth. He no longer looked at all like Akane to her eyes. Although they shared the same eyes and chin, his cheeks looked a bit wider, and his hairline was a little higher. The longer she came to know him, the less he seemed Akane's child and the more he seemed like a peer. Kimiko took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Pressure felt like it was building in her chest. She felt like crying, but held it back. This was not a place for that. "I need you to promise one more thing," Kimiko whispered. She kept her eyes closed. She took in another breath. "Promise you won't get mad when I tell you?" "I can't promise that," he said with a wry grin. "Short of you being an animal and falling into a person pool, I can't think of anything that would throw me for a loop." "I was a boy," she said a moment after he spoke, unable to look at the reaction on his face. She could not bear it. The admission felt wrong now, as if she had been lying to herself as well as him. She looked back at the things that felt wrong that she had felt comfortable with before, such as using the girl's locker room, the girl's bathroom, not to mentioning kissing Kenichi. If she had been in his place at the same age, she would have been sickened to her stomach. It was in realizations such as that which made her uneasy with her decision to tell him. She was jeopardizing only her momentary friendship with the son of her ex-fiancée. "I take it back," he whispered. The unease in her chest became unbearable and a tear slipped past her defenses and out of nowhere. She gasped suddenly, unaware she had been holding her breath. She slit her eyes open to view his face. He harshly stared at the seats across from them. "So it changed your gender?" he asked, gritting his teeth. He seemed unable to look at her. Kimiko could only imagine the pain this was causing him, but she had to tell him. He was the closest thing she had to a real friend here. "Yes," she whispered back, trying to hold back more tears. She thought telling him would be freeing, but all it felt was like she betrayed him. "Wow, I didn't see that one coming," he said quietly, putting his hands on his knees. When she saw his reaction, she had little doubt that she just lost a friend. He pressed his fingertips to his forehead, his mouth open and his eyes fixated on his knees. Another tear dripped down her cheek, but she barely noticed it until it reached her lips. She wiped it away and turned to look out the window of the train. She recognized their location. They were close to his home. "Do you understand what I told you?" she asked quietly, observing him closely. He still did not look at her. She wondered if he ever would again. "Yes," he replied, his voice strained. "I understand the words, but what am I supposed to say to them? It's not something you hear every day, you know?" He looked up and out through the window as the train's breaks engaged, slowly bringing the car to a halt. She could feel the tension in the air as he obviously avoided looking at her. As he stood up, she copied him, trying to calm herself down. Looking away from everyone herself as the other two joined them, Kimiko occupied herself with retrieving the bike she carried. The four youth piled out of the train as the doors slid open. Mayako walked out on her own with Rintaro right behind her. They did not seem to notice anything, too preoccupied with each other. Kenichi followed them, his step slower than usual. He glanced back at Kimiko as she followed him out, but turned to face forward quickly. The walk home seemed like it was going to be one of the longest of her life. * * * A resounding knock on the door startled Soun awake. He had fallen asleep on the back porch, cooling off after performing a few katas. He no longer had the stamina of his middle age. Shaking the drowsiness from his head, he stood, entered through the back and walked into the living room when he heard the door open. "Ryouga-kun?" he asked aloud, suddenly curious why he would knock. He glanced down at his wrist watch and noticed only an hour had passed since Ryouga had left. Half-way through the dining room, he heard a reply. "Wrong, old man," a thick, masculine voice informed him. In another second, he stood face to face with a tall man in long trench coat and hat. Beneath the disguise, Soun recognized an old foe. "I told you not to come back!" Soun shouted at him, furious that the man before him had returned. "We do not have the answers you seek!" "You have this one, old fool," he said, cracking his knuckles. "You will tell me where your son-in-law is." Suddenly, Soun felt his heart beat quicken as perspiration ran down his cheeks and forehead. The last time this man had come, Soun had much of his family to fight with him should this villain have attacked. Unfortunately, no one was home to protect him this time. He would have to fight or surrender. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Soun figured Genma and Ryouga could handle themselves against this fiend, so he conceded. "They retired to Genma Saotome's house." Removing his hat, the man revealed his scarred features. It had been at least five years since he had come here looking for an answer to the question Soun and his family had sought themselves. The villain seemed to consider his answer for a moment before tossing his hat aside. "You know what I can do to you," the tall, dark man simply stated, closing the distance between him and Soun. "There's no reason to hide his location. I will eventually find him." Soun's eyes opened wide. He had not considered the man would not believe his answer. He had nothing else to tell him. "I do not lie," Soun told the man, his voice starting to break. "I swear, he left here not an hour ago." The angry features of the man alleviated and changed into a smirk. Apparently, that answer pleased him very much. "Good, that will save me the trouble of hunting him down. Unless of course, you lied to me. Then I'll have to turn this beating into murder." Soun's blood turned cold the instant before the man pounced. Relying on his instincts, he managed to avoid the villain's charge, which crashed through the area he stood a split second after he left it. Retreating to the deck in the back of the house, Soun pushed his body to run, but the exhaustion of his walk across town, the meal and his light work out made it more difficult than he imagined. His old body could not flee that of his pursuer. He ducked into the dojo moments before the man caught him. Soun tumbled to avoid the blow intended to knock him in the back of his head. He sprung back up across from his opponent, now facing off with him. Falling into his style of Anything Goes, he felt oddly comfortable. "I'm just going to bruise you a little, old man," the villain told him, stopped scantly six feet from him. "I just want to give your family more reason to answer my questions. Your son-in-law got the best of me before, but that was when I was injured. Now I'm whole and he's not." Soun did not respond, saddened at this turn of events. He had taken up training with his daughter again after Ranma had vanished, if only to ease the pain of his disappearance. What was a simple means of alleviating their pain had become a new purpose. He had felt renewed by his training, even if he could never come to the level he had been under his old master's training. Even then, he was no where near the level Ranma had been at his peak, and scant fractions below his daughter and the most impressive Ryouga. However, he would go down fighting, even if it cost him his life. No longer would he be the fool who watched from the corner, tears in his eyes and fear in his face. Soun would prove his manhood, even in his old age. The fight did not last long. The last rays of sunlight from outside the dojo shone on his face as he slumped back against the far wall of the arena. The sky was as nearly red from what he could see. He imagined his blood joining that of the angels, but it only poured from his nose and down the side of his face. * * * The entourage of the four teenagers neared the house moments before Soun's defeat. The talkative nature of their journey ended after the train ride. It suited Rintaro just fine with Mayako hanging on him, but Kenichi insisted on helping on the other side though he still walked the bike. He obviously intended to ignore the redhead that trailed behind them sullenly. Mayako seemed to notice it as well as she had cast a few long glances between her brother and Kimiko. It even bothered the thick-skinned If the tiff they had in the train led to anything, Rintaro hoped Kimiko would leave to wherever she had come from and leave him undisputed champ of Nerima, a title that slipped into ambiguity once this usurper arrived. He turned his head and caught a glimpse of her walking about six feet behind them. Something about her just seemed so familiar. The redhead brushed passed them suddenly and pushed the gate open for the three, having left the bike she walked against the wall. She waved them in and they obliged her, entering the Tendou's grounds. As he walked passed her, Rintaro felt gooseflesh rise on his arms. He exchanged a look with the girl before continuing his way to the house. "I think I'm going straight to sleep," Mayako announced to them. As they approached the house, Rintaro stopped. Someone had left the front door ajar. "What?" Kenichi asked. Rintaro saw the boy looking across his sister at him. "The door's open," Rintaro informed them, glancing around the visible perimeter of the house. "Isn't that strange?" Kenichi shrugged and pulled his sister up to the door, pushed it open and walked in. Rintaro stared after them for a moment, when Kimiko joined him. "Are you staying?" she asked quietly. Her pretty blue eyes sparkled in the dying light of the sun. "Of course," he said, looking after the twins, who had disappeared into the house. "Never mind, let's go in." The two walked through the front door and into the house. He heard Kenichi and Mayako walking up the stairway. After discarding their shoes, they walked to the foot of the stairs. "Hey, I'm going to go hang out in the dojo," Kimiko said to him as he approached the stairs. In response, Rintaro shrugged. She narrowed her eyes and rested her hands on her hips. "If anyone asks," by which he was sure she meant Kenichi, "let'em know, okay?" "Whatever," he replied. "Just don't steal anything." The black look she shot him made him feel good about himself. She stormed passed the stairs and into the living room. He walked after the twins. Rintaro jogged up the stairs and walked towards the end of the hall where Mayako's room lay. He steeled himself to go there again, where his life seemed to begin anew after waking up in her care. That moment made him realize he needed her. He intended to enter the room when he heard whispered voices from inside. The twins talked. "That's no excuse for treating her like that," he heard Mayako say loudly. What she said next escaped his ears, but he could guess what they were talking about and stepped away from the door. He did not want to overhear anything about Kenichi and Kimiko's pseudo relationship. Rintaro slouched against the wall in the wall, when about a minute later Kenichi exited the room. He sternly nodded at Rintaro who took his place. Pushing the door open to his room, Kenichi sighed deeply. He had enough of today. He wanted to go to sleep, wake up and forget it existed. It started badly in the morning, with his sister embarrassing him and drew to a close with his sister getting beaten up and the girl he wanted more than anything dropping a stranger story on him than he could have imagined. He flipped on the light and looked at the mural he had painted on the wall. He drew it when he was twelve and filled with that type of inspiration. Now he despised it. He had just seen an Anime with his friends and came up with this image. He drew the world people wanted, the pristine earth, in a myriad of earthy colors. The line threw the center represented the cross between dreams and reality, separating the beautiful dream of the natural from the reality of the mechanical world, drawing it with metallic, shiny colors. It made him angry that he could be that imaginative then, and not have a shred of that now. Everything felt so clear when he drew that. The dichotomy of it seemed so simple. Cut the world into two. One was evil; one was good. He did not have to sift through grays to find that he was a baka and his perfect match was supposedly a boy. He shook his head. He did not want to start moping. Although tempted to sleep through everything and sort it out in the morning, he doubted he would ever see Kimiko again in that case. A guilty part of him asked if that would be so bad. He knew hardly anything about her, and did not know if he could believe what little she had told him in their conversations. She carried a lot of emotional baggage, he knew, from how she guarded any information about herself, especially regarding her love life. Now, he wondered if it came from whatever curse inflicting her body, and affecting her soul. He knew he had to talk with her at least once more, to get the whole story and make a decision then about whether to pursue her. He had no idea what he was getting himself into anymore. Before it made since, charming her with his life here, convincing her little by little that she belonged. She fit into his life like a lost piece of the puzzle. She knew the Anything Goes style of martial arts, somehow, through her mysterious brother. She liked his friends and even seemed to like him somewhere in her heart, even if she avoided getting too deep. And then there was that feeling of having met her before that made him wonder if fate brought them together. Maybe Kami-sama had plans, but Kenichi certainly could not figure them out. This piece of the puzzle had been left in the weather too long, and seemed to not stick in its slot tightly enough to stay. Kenichi stood sharply, suddenly knowing his place. He had to continue on the path he started and find out where it would end. But before he could take a step towards the door, a noise from outside caught his attention. His room, his mother's old room, overlooked the dojo in the koi pond and the dojo in the back. He peered out. It would have been too dark to see anything, but the light in the dojo covered the area in light and shadows. He wondered if that was where Kimiko went. He certainly had not looked back before helping his sister to her room. He watched for a moment when he saw Kimiko tumble out of the dojo door's as if thrown. He furrowed his brows and stared at her dumbly for a moment, not understanding the situation. She did not immediately get up as she might have if she were training. He wondered who she could be training with as the three she arrived with were upstairs. The only other people would have been his mother or his grandfather, but both options seemed so unlikely. As he put his hand to the handle of the window seal to open it, she started pushing herself to her feet. Kenichi watched in stunned horror as a tall man in a suit exited the dojo, walking towards Kimiko. His stomach turned in circles as he watched the spectacle. Kimiko wobbled as she stood there, unable to defend herself. Kenichi's thoughts sharpened to a fine edge as adrenalin rushed through his body. He wasted not a single second more, only slowing a moment to open his door on the way out. * * * Minutes before Kenichi watched the incident, Kimiko had made her way through the house to the back, where she found the sliding door to the back wide open. The room she stood in remained strangely dark. She approached it cautiously, moving quickly to the door. She peered out, her eyes catching a flicker of movement from the lit dojo. However, the door to the dojo was closed, though she could tell the light remained on. The light on the inside was linked to the ones on the outside. She shrugged, leaving the house and walking into the backyard. When she had made the decision to go to the dojo instead of upstairs in order to avoid feeling awkward around Kenichi, she did not consider that Akane might be training at her destination. Just being around her felt like emotionally walking across hot coals. The woman was no longer the Akane that was engaged to Ranma. Seeing her reminded her of the years she lost. She took a deep breath as her bare feet stepped onto the wooden planks of the dojo. Standing at the door, she calmed herself, brushing her hands through her ponytail, which felt tight. She pulled out the tie and let her hair fall to her shoulders. Seemingly moving of its own accord, her left hand jerked out, and slid the dojo's door open. What she saw confused her. Someone lay at the end of the mat, as if asleep. She took a few steps in, forgetting to close the door behind her. Suddenly, she knew who it was. "Tendou-san?" Her voice sounded strange, the height of its pitch, the tremor of fear. He did not look asleep. He looked dead. Everything shut down as she rushed to his side, dropping to her knees early and sliding to a stop at his side. His face looked smashed: his nose broken and his puffy eyelids matching the dark blue of his bruised cheeks. "Tendou-san?" she asked again, more loudly, her voice teetering on the edge of panic. She put one hand under his head and pressed the other to his neck. His pulse beat regularly, but he looked like hell. She breathed out a sigh, pulling her hands back gently, when she noticed the blood on the hand that touched the back of his head. Her eyes opened wide. "Head wounds bleed a lot, do they not?" A deep voice asked from behind her. The fear vanished just as quickly as it appeared the moment she saw a man whom she could have been her father-in-law had circumstances not led her to this moment in time. She felt it then, the new power she cultivated in America. The calmness poured through her, the powerful white chi that always amazed her with its foreignness. She took her time standing, drawing up in one motion, gliding to the position in which she would spin. With one step, she faced Soun's attacker. A tall, unfamiliar man stood at the exit of the dojo. He wore a brown trench coat and stood so tall, he must have been a head taller than she was when she could still return to her male form. "I don't think we've met," the man said calmly, twirling a hat in his hand, which he placed over his short, black hair. "You must be one of the rug rats' friend." He smiled, walking slowly towards her. "Why did you do this?" Kimiko asked calmly, subtly placing her right foot behind her left as she looked down towards Soun. He lay so still. "No," the man said, stopping in the middle of that mat. "That's now how this works." He cracked his fingers, one at a time, his eyes glaring at her from the depths of the shadows gathered under the bill of his hat. "I ask the questions, and you answer. Otherwise, I might have to bruise your pretty little face." The smallest tendril of anger rippled over the surface of her calm. He did not seem to like her reaction, as she had not even remotely shook her, and so he took another step. "So, you think you can take me?" His voice asked darkly, though she could hear a vain mirth behind it. "You probably weigh half my weight and you have no more than a quarter of my skill. Nothing short of Ryouga arriving could save you now." The name of her rival spoken from the lips of a total stranger startled her. "And how is that?" Kimiko soundly asked, trying not to let anger cloud her mind. It took almost all of her willpower. "I should give you a black eye for asking a question," the man told her, shaking his head. "But since that's why I'm here, I'll tell you. Ryouga is why I'm here. I don't care about anything but finding him." Kimiko stared at him in disbelief. She could not connect how beating Soun would bring him any closer to Ryouga. "So why this?" "He's merely a way of getting what I want," the man explained quickly. "This is the time you shut up and listen. I'm gonna ask you a few questions. You answer. It's that simple. If you don't answer or your answer doesn't satisfy me, I may add you to K. O. pile." His threat did not scare her, but she wanted as much information as she could about his movements, his skills and his background before she took him on. "Who are you?" "Kimiko Nishiyama," she answered, no more than a second before he asked the second question. "How do you know the Tendous?" "Friend of the children," she answered, sizing him up. He looked like he could back up his words. He had stayed out of her awareness until he spoke. He could have been somewhere else, but she had a feeling, he had been hiding in plain sight. "Who's your master?" Kimiko narrowed her eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know." This drew a loud crack of the knuckles from the stranger. "That will cost you one bloody nose. Now, answer my question." "No more questions," she replied, ready to test his skills. "I have one for you, though. Who are you?" The man shook his head, removing his hat and tossing it aside. "You have guts, girl. I'm not sure if you're just stupid, but I'll play your game if you play mine. Tell me who your master is, and I'll tell you my name." Suddenly, it dawned upon Kimiko that she knew this man. The combination of his cocky attitude, his face, his mannerisms and his stance all added up to a conclusion of familiarity. She knew him somehow. The memory of his name would not come to her, so she decided to play his game. "Past or present?" she said back. The man threw his arms up in the air. "What are you, fourteen? I don't care. Who do you consider your primary teacher. Who taught you your basics?" Weighing her answer, she thought for a few seconds about how to answer it. "Those are two different people. I learned the basics from my father." The man rolled his eyes. "That's not a good enough answer and cost you a broken arm. Tell me all of your masters and I might consider not breaking one of your legs, too. He took another step closer when she noticed something strange about the man's clothing. As his coat opened, she noticed something irregular. Although he wore a dress coat and pants underneath his trench coat, a dark spherical object was strapped to his hip. This also seemed strangely familiar. Her memories, unfortunately, no longer sparked as quickly as she would have liked. "Well, it's the best you'll get from me," she replied. "My father taught me the basics. When I surpassed him, I found training among various masters. My current trainer is my step-brother." "That cost you a leg and some broken ribs. I'm afraid, I don't have that much more I can break without killing you." The man spoke with such confidence, she knew she could play him. "I admire your spunk, though, and will give you one more chance to tell me something interesting." "You're pathetic," she replied, holding back her adrenalin from wasting her precious energy. The man stopped mid step and raised his brows in surprise. "I think I'll start with your face. You're entirely too cute to leave it as is. A few scars will do it some good." Kimiko fell into the most basic stance as regularly as she could, evenly dividing her weight between her legs. Concentrating as hard as she could, she weaved her chi around her tightly to absorb the shock of his punches. He darted forward, his opening move a sucker punch designed to be the beginning of her end. Although his move was remarkably quick, it felt like a minute before he reached her with a quick jab. The strike struck her squarely in the cheek. She felt a twinge of pain as the force knocked her over the unconscious Soun and into the wall. It would probably leave a bruise, but it did little damage. "Just as I expected from a girl," the man said, almost sadly as he stood near her. Kimiko kept her eyes closed, ready for his next move. Kimiko flexed her neck muscles as she felt one of his hands grasp it. Easily lifting her, he held her face up to his. "You get cheeky with me, and I break you cheek bones," he told her with a tone he might have used in any other situation. He wound back his arm back and she prepared her chi again. This time, it smashed into the other cheek with so much power that it actually shook whole body, but she still managed to go forward with her plan, striking his arm several times after it struck her face. She fell back into the wall, feigning to be pained by his attack. He threw another punch towards her face, but this one she dodged, feigning a fall straight to the floor. His fist struck the dojo's wall the just before she hit the edge of the mat with her body. She lay still at his feet, holding her energy back. It was not time yet. "Yes, you're eating your words now," he said smugly, picking her up by the back of her shoulders. She pushed off the dojo wall with a lot of force, pushing into his stomach as hard as she could. The move caught him off guard and he fell back, bringing her with him. They both collapsed onto the mat in a heap, she on top of him. She struck him numerous times, both in the air and on the ground. She rolled off him slowly pushed herself to her hands and knees. She knew he had gotten to his feet quickly and reached her only a moment after she had reached her current position. Just as she expected, his foot appeared beneath her as he kicked towards her ribs. She subtly blocked each kick with the palm of her right hand, which she held close to her stomach as if guarding herself, each time striking his foot and leg. On the last one she fell to her side and rolled over to her back. She looked up at him pitifully, the color of his punches decorating her cheeks. "You absorb punishment well, girl," the man said, almost as if a compliment. "But by now, I bet your whole body hurts. I really wouldn't even have done much more than knock you around if not for your mouth." She heard him crack his knuckles. "Hmm, it's a bit warm in here, yes? I think I'll finish the job outside. With that, he lifted her with one hand on her left breast and the other under her stomach. He then threw her hard towards the dojo's entrance. She flew most of the way and then rolled with the throw and managed to generate enough energy to tumble her way out of the dojo entirely, finally resting on the ground just below the wooden porch of the dojo. The rouse had worked better than she could have planned. All of her strikes went unnoticed. A couple more would give her a significant advantage against his size. He might have been as skilled as she was, but she wondered about his lack of awareness about her counterattacks. She slowly got to her feet, but as she rose, her legs wobbled, drawing a chuckle from the man. "Just stay down girl. I don't need you standing to break your arm and your leg." That was close enough for her. Without even lifting her head to look at his location, she took a couple lightning quick steps forward, leaping into him with all of her might. The blow knocked him straight back into the dojo. This time, he rolled to a stop, though at the middle of the mat. All while he tumbled, she had followed, so that when he halted in the middle of the mat under his own volition, she pounced the next second, jumping onto his back. The sudden blast of her weight landing on him knocked him back down. She fiercely struck four pressure points on his back, making no attempt to be subtle about it this time, the moved down his legs and struck two more. A moment later, he pushed himself up, leaping to his feet. She pressed off him towards the side of the dojo. He stood a bit shaky this time, his body shuddering slightly. "What the?" he asked, moving his limbs slowly. "Damn it, what the hell is this?" "A trick my pops taught me," Kimiko informed him casually, cracking her knuckles. "Hurts, huh?" He raised his head to look up at her, the strain in his face apparent. "So you're another Saotome. I should have known. You look just like the lot of them." She stared at him coldly, letting the adrenalin course through her body freely, inviting the jitteriness through her body. It felt good, readying all of her techniques to fully lay into this guy. She wanted to hear lots of cracking bones. "It's going to take more than pressure point tricks to win this one," the man informed her stretching his arms back. "Though, I really admire your endurance. You obviously endured some Bakusai Tenketsu training, or am I wrong?" Before she could reply smartly, Kenichi burst into the room and barreled into the man faster than Kimiko imagined he could move. The smacking sound of their bodies colliding made Kimiko grimace. They slid on the mat a second before Kenichi rolled off the man and rushed in with a brutal kick to the man's chest. Kimiko's surprise increased when the man caught Kenichi's foot with ease, throwing the boy straight at her. Kimiko braced herself and caught Kenichi, only taking a few steps back to balance the two of them. Kenichi's berserker state seemed to wane a bit as he looked back at Kimiko, his eyes still burning with rage. At that moment, he reminded her of Ryouga so much that she put her hand to her mouth. This time, however, the look was not for her. "Are you okay?" he asked, his mouth unclenching just enough to allow him to talk. She nodded and then motioned towards Soun with her head. "Grandfather!" he cried out, making a move for the old man. Kimiko caught him with one arm and pulled him back quick enough for him to avoid the stranger's amazingly quick axe kick. As she stumbled back, trying to balance both her and Kenichi's weight again, she marveled at his recovery from her pressure point technique. Anyone normal would have been unable to move much if any. She had used a lesser version against Kunou in their first match at Furinken High School. Without the disabling technique, Kenichi would probably already be knocked down on the floor, instead of stumbling back in her arms. Both teenagers dodged back, putting space between them and their attacker. "Why?" Kenichi demanded, his voice trembling. "What did my grandfather ever do to you?" "He associated with a villain so despicable that he makes me look like a saint." The man seethed with anger now, glowering at them. The look of his rustled around in her memories, stirring more things she could not recall of a past she no longer could even consider relevant. "What?" Kenichi asked, but the man did not answer with words. He approached them quickly, though this time he attacked Kimiko, his leg shooting out at hers so swiftly, his foot brushed hers as she jumped back. It stung, though it missed. She knew he had to have been holding the strength of his blows back before she showed she could manage them. He followed up with a lunging sidekick that she blocked with her hands, unable to dodge anymore as she was too close to both Kenichi and the wall of the dojo. When he pulled back his foot to repeat the kick, she felt the stinging added to her hands as well. Kenichi did not waste anymore time talking, punching at the man while he attacked the redhead, but Kenichi was deflected. The block enable her to counterattack. She used her chestnut fist against him, now that he was within range, raining dozens of blows against his arm and lower side. The rest of his body had been brought forward towards Kenichi to block. Unable to shield himself from Kimiko's barrage, the man leaped back, drawing something from his coat pocket. Kimiko's eyes widened as he threw a shuriken at Kenichi. Kenichi had no chance to catch the first, which struck his arm, burying itself in his flesh as he used it to guard his face. The second he did catch, however, in a testament to his training under Akane. The third one Kimiko caught, throwing low at the man's leg, which stopped the fourth from leaving his hand. He leaped aside out of the shuriken's path. Kimiko put her hand against Kenichi's chest, pushing him back. He understood the gesture and took the time to take care of the shuriken while she occupied the brute. "I recognize your fighting style," Kimiko said, her energy waning more than she thought it should have. "It's a version of Anything Goes, isn't it?" The man grinned, quickly retrieving the third shuriken from he mat and then placing it back in his pocket. He watched Kenichi patch himself up, strangely allowing them time to recover. "It's not a pure form, so I think you got it form a third party." She ran some of his movements through her head again. It definitely reminded her of her own style, however altered. "You've definitely met the founder." This caught the man's attention. He looked at her with a new intensity that he had not shown before. "You've studied under him." The emphasis he placed on the pronoun startled him. It sounded like a paranoiac using the catchall "they" to refer to a conspiracy group. "Huh?" she asked, truly confused. She wondered if he referred to Happosai, her now strangely beautiful step-brother. "You trained under the beast," he said, licking his cracked lips. "You had to have to know of him. Yes, you did. I know it. You're too young to have trained with him before he disappeared." "What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Kenichi demanded, his eyes never leaving the man. Kimiko shot him a look that meant for him to shut up, but the man gladly answered. "I'm talking about the missing link of your treasured little school." Kenichi would not understand that answer, Kimiko reasoned. "He's talking about someone who's long dead," Kimiko said as evenly as she could. She could feel her calm energy draining from her body slowly, but certainly. The fight she had earlier today left little of her usual energy reserves. She had fought so many fights recently that the exhaustion common to her early days after the coma felt as if it were returning. "What?" the man asked, his voice higher than she had ever heard it. "Dead? That old bat? Impossible." He did mean Happosai. She connected the dots, putting the mental mug shot of him together with his hatred of Happosai, the canteen on his hip and everything else about him. Twenty years changed this man more than anyone else. He was so twisted by his curses that she no longer recognized him. "You're still hunting him?" Kimiko said, amazed by the one part of the man that had not changed over the ears. "I can't believe it." The time he had given them ended when she spoke last. He rushed at her with so much purpose that she realized a bit too late she would not be able to avoid his charge in time. Luckily, Kenichi had recovered, doing her the favor of pulling her back and jumping in her place. The two men collided again, but this time Kenichi was thrown back. Kimiko moved in and struck the man's ribs with a dozen blows of her chestnut fist before he started to block her attacks. He countered with a subtle kick that Kimiko barely noticed in time. It struck her on the back of her knee, which she had rolled just in time to avoid it striking her squarely and breaking her kneecap. Instead it knocked her to a kneeling position. Kenichi countered the charge finally, but the man swatted his attacks aside and still managed to kick Kimiko in the ribs. Unable to roll with it or block it, Kimiko absorbed the full of the blast without the protection of her chi. She released a quick shriek before the blow sapped her breath and the bone crunching blast knocked her back three feet before she fell over backward. Stunned, it took her a few moments to recover. The pain of the kick did less than her loss of chi. All the energy she had accumulated in preparation of the fight had evaporated. The exertion of so many fights in such a short period of time hurt her so much more than the kick, though several of her ribs felt broken. Luckily for her, Kenichi had been able to hold the man back from attacking her, though she had not been able to spare any energy to notice how he fared. Ten seconds in a fight could easily mean victory or defeat, and as she rose to her feet, Kenichi looked to be near the latter. The man savagely attacked him. Her friend could do little but defend himself. She knew she had to divert attention to herself, and quickly. "I know your secret, old man!" she yelled as loudly as she could will herself. Shoving Kenichi to the ground, the man she recognized to be a figure out of her past stopped and turned his attention to Kimiko for a brief second. He smiled and then lifted his leg to crush Kenichi. For his part, Kenichi looked okay, but the attack seemed to leave him dazed. "I'm talking to you, Pantyhose!" Taro's foot paused above Kenichi for a moment before falling beside his other one. His aura started to burn around him, rippling so quickly that it began to hurt her eyes. Anger literally coalesced down his body as the veins on his neck pulsated. "You will die for that," Pantyhose Taro promised slowly, his body rigid with fury. "I'm going to tear you apart!" As if to make good with his words immediately, the older version of the same tall, feminine young man that challenged Kimiko in her other life so well turned to glower at his new opponent. As Taro turned, Kenichi rolled away, gathering himself together. Kimiko realized one other thing that could hurt her plans to win this fight. If Taro had grown in skill and size, she wondered how might this affect his monstrous form. She seriously started to doubt her ability to defeat him. Taro left a trail of chi in his wake. The fiery red aura around him began to gather around his fists. Without her chi shield, Taro would easily do as he promised. "You're still looking for Happosai, aren't you?" Kimiko speculated aloud, hoping to stall him. Again, Taro's narrowed eyes opened wide, his anger flowing even more strongly upon her speaking of the name. "You DO know him!" He shouted, his chi ripping around him violently. Even Kenichi should be able to see that aura. "Yes, I know everything about him," she said, backing towards the door of the dojo. Taro stared at her, his eyes transfixed. "Tell me where he is." Kiyoshi could handle himself. Surely, he could fight this monster, she hoped. If Rintaro and the rest of the family's martial artists did not aid them soon, she might have to tell him what he wanted to know. "Will you leave if I do?" Kimiko asked, feeling the breeze from outside. A few more steps and she could make a run for it. Taro would certainly follow her and ignore Kenichi. Soun could get the help he needed. Taro matched each step she took, but did not approach. His anger did not wax nor wane, but the greedy look on his face knew her lure worked. "You have to promise not to hurt this family ever again." "Done," Taro agreed, grinning in such a way that she knew he did not care about anything else. "I won't hurt them." "Then follow me!" she shouted, and then turned and fled. "No, wait!" Kenichi yelled after her as she ran across the backyard. "Get help for Soun, Kenichi-kun!" she shouted back before leaping the perimeter wall in one bound. Mayako raced down the stairs, only taking care not to jostle her arm. She and Rintaro had been getting intimate in her room when they heard some noise from out back. They tried to ignore it, but Rintaro got curious and opened the window in time to hear Kimiko's yell. Rintaro had wasted no time and jumped out the window. She watched him a second in awe before running through the house to follow. She reached the living room where she tripped over Kimiko's bags. The door was closed, but as she opened it, she caught sight of Rintaro at the entrance of the dojo. He remained there for less than a second and took off into the shadows. Mayako ran to follow, but he leaped to the top of the perimeter wall, glanced back and then jumped into the darkness. She turned toward the dojo, running to peek in. She saw Kenichi standing above the body of someone who looked seriously injured. "Mayako," her brother said in a small voice. "Call the police. I have to go help Kimiko." He ran towards her and she barely had time to move out of the way before he left her there, standing at the entrance of the dojo. Taro followed the redheaded girl closely, wondering what she had up her sleeve. The girl fought her with remarkable strength for someone her age. As he stripped his suit from his body, he held her image in his head, trying to decipher why she looked so familiar. Her relation to the Saotomes was obvious, but in reviewing the images in his head, he recalled seeing no pictures of a redheaded girl in any photos at their family home. In fact, he had never seen anyone with such a head of hair short of... He knew why he was having such a difficult time with this whelp of a girl. Fem-boy had returned. He and Happosai must have left together somehow, but there had never been love between those two. The reason why they had left escaped him. However, Ranma would not. Rintaro instinctively followed trail of burning red energy. His eye for auras paid of today as this one left in the wake of whatever villain had hurt his sensei. He would punish this criminal severely. When he found Kenichi wounded, his Sensei brutally injured and blood spatters on the mat of the dojo, he knew this is what he had to do. He had even recovered a couple shurikens from the floor of the dojo. It took him a few minutes of running through the streets of Nerima, but he knew he gained on his prey. He knew exactly where this man was going. They were on a path directly to Furinken High School. Knowing this, he cut through an alley. He would get ahead of this scoundrel and ambush him at a place before the school where there would be no escape. Kenichi followed Rintaro as long as he could, but he turned a corner and his former friend had vanished. He stared at the empty streets in front of him, knowing that enforcers would close in on this space soon if he did not keep on the move. So he did what any untalented person could do in that situation. He just kept running. * * * Instinct alone ran her body down the streets of Nerima. It never occurred to Kimiko to lead her assailant to a police station, or any place of authority that might aid her. If it had, she would have probably ignored it. The call of the martial artist to protect loved ones did not involve police, but only oneself and her desire to defend them on her terms. Tarou wanted only her now. That was how she wanted it. With no one to protect, she could unleash everything that remained. So when she found herself on a familiar path, she knew that the school's recreation grounds would be the only place she could fight without notice that she could recall. At this time of night during summer vacation, no one would be on the premises. The run was relatively short, but had a few obstacles. Water would be dangerous on her trip. If any water triggered Tarou's cursed form, she might not have a chance to defeat the beast. That meant anywhere near the river or the bridge on the way to Furinken would be disastrous. She would have to quickly disarm him of the flask once they arrived at the school. She also considered diplomacy. With her knowledge, she could avoid combat, but that would involve betraying her adopted brother. He would not be pleased to hear his identity revealed to an unstable and dangerous opponent. Certainly, Kiyoshi could defeat Tarou, but the revealing of his identity would be disastrous for him. If anyone then did the math, they could figure out that her identity as well. This felt like playing shoji to her. She had to weigh each move carefully, or she would regret the smallest slip of her tongue for the rest of her life. "Where are you going?" Tarou demanded, betraying his distance from her. She had possibly gained a few yards since they left the dojo. She did not respond, but continued running down the street adjacent to her old path to school. She did not want to risk falling into the water, so she kept a street away. "Damn you, girl!" she heard a moment later. This time it sounded as if he were a bit closer, but without turning her head, she could not be sure. If she went a street over, she would find herself near the place Akane used to like to skip stones into the river, just before the bridge. She made good time in arriving here. Kimiko turned the corner to the right and ran straight for the bridge. Strangely, no traffic filled the road. On a week night, she would have expected someone to be driving home. Barely considering the road, she flew across the street and onto the bridge. Luckily for her, no boats crossed the bridge, so the crossing remained lowered for her to cross. She had not considered that when choosing this path. Picking up the pace, Kimiko hoped to make it across the bridge without incident. The walkway across the bridge was narrow and often filled at night with any combination of homeless and young couples. The many nooks of the bridge enabled people to hide both underneath and along the raised suspension. She had once climbed over the side of the bridge in a dare from her friends and found a nice place to sit while having pretended to fall. She almost made it halfway across when the most unexpected thing happened. Her pursuer stopped. Slowing, Kimiko turned her head and looked behind her. Nearly twenty feet behind her, Tarou engaged a new opponent, the echoing of their feet creating vibrations along the metal walkway. The image of her genetic brother fighting Tarou took her aback. His attack looked chaotic in the way Anything Goes always did, as a high level black belt of the art, she could see the pattern and recognized the moves that her father had taught her so long ago. If not for his moves, she might not even have recognized him in the dim light. The two fought in between two sets of lamp posts, obviously an ambush point that Rintaro had chosen for this moment. How he got ahead of them was anyone's guess. Rintaro came close to achieving Chestnut fist speeds with his barrage of punches and kicks. He still wore the clothes he had nicked from Kenichi, but they would need replacing now. She watched the torn sleeves and pant legs from her position and marveled at how much damage Tarou caused in only his defensive blocks. "What the hell is this?" Tarou demanded as he did a move Kimiko just missed analyzing. He knocked Rintaro without hurting him much, but the blast seemed quite powerful and sent the boy tumbling. Kimiko lowered her center of gravity and pushed into his fall, softening his roll and catching him. Kimiko lifted Rintaro to his feet as quickly as she could. He did not seem to notice the help as he quickly regained his balance. He rushed forward without even consulting her, but she quickly grabbed him by the shoulders. Rintaro shot her a glance, but she ignored him. "You've made enemies, Tarou-san," she said carefully, not wishing to enrage him anymore. On the bridge, he had the advantage. They could not avoid his attacks here and he could no doubt absorb more damage than they. "Well then, after I beat him, tell me where the old man is," the tall man said cooly. "Who the hell is this, Nishiyama-san?" Rintaro asked, his voice sharp. He was mad. She could hear his heart beating, the violence in his voice. She could not blame him after what he did to Soun, but she had a few more things to worry about. "Never mind that," she said quietly, but a bit too loud. Her body still flooded with endorphins from the run, felt light, and her ears rang slightly. "We need to get moving." "No!" Tarou shot back. He took a few steps towards them. "This ends here! I will not allow you to escape again." "We're not going anywhere, whoever the hell you are," Rintaro said in a near growl. "I am going to rip you apart." The laughter of response Rintaro received sounded like the maniacal laughter of a villain from a silly movie. "A boy after my own heart," Tarou said, cracking his knuckles with such a pop that Kimiko could imagine someone across the bridge hearing the echo. He approached them in a slow walk, but their distance was so little now it made her nervous. She pulled her brother back, stepping away from their attacker. "I think it's about time I got my answer girl," the violent man said. "If you prolong this, you and your little friend are going to both lose limbs. I'm sure you don't want that. Now tell me!" "What's he talking about?" Rintaro asked, his voice filled with something Kimiko did not want directed at her. "She knows something about the man whom I am sworn to kill." Tarou's statement even drew a bit of wonder out of Kimiko. He seemed to want not just a name change, but the death of Happosai. She supposed the twenty odd years he spent hunting the old man had twisted him, but still felt weird hearing how far he had gone for his revenge. "Who is this person?" Rintaro demanded. His bloodlust seemed temporarily abated, but she knew he must have seen Soun. She did not know if they were close, but Rintaro's hatred seemed to suggest it. She did not have much time to consider her answer, but nothing short of a half-truth would do for this occasion. She could not risk letting something slip that would jeopardize her brother's identity with a real Saotome nearby. "A very old man who stopped living a long time ago," Kimiko said mysteriously. "He's gone, Tarou-san. You will find nothing but his remains any longer." "Wrong answer, girl," Tarou said ominously, close enough for her to make out the details of his appearance. He no longer supported the shirt and coat, having lost them somewhere on the road, but sported a modified version of his green scale vest that now encompassed his bulk. It left nothing to the imagination, as it conformed to his body. Luckily for her eyes, he still wore his pants, though they looked like someone had run the bottom of it through a shredder. "I don't have any others for you," Kimiko said, hoping he could come to accept that Kiyoshi no longer was the same person that Tarou searched for. "What old man is this?" Rintaro demanded again, to her alone this time. "Tell me, Kimiko." "This isn't the time," Kimiko replied, glaring at him. She wished she could have gotten to the school where it would be safer to fight. With Rintaro, they could win with enough room. Here, she could neither use a chi blast, nor the move she knew would render this easily angered fool to a pulp. "Yes it is!" Rintaro yelled. His voice echoed throughout the metal bridge, but the horn of a boat obscured his voice from traveling too far. "My sensei is nearly dead and this man is to blame. He's here to find some guy and you just happened to know him? It's too easy. I don't know whether I should be fighting him or you, Nishiyama!" In the middle of his words, she sensed something amiss. Neither Tarou nor Rintaro had moved, however, so she ignored the feeling. "It is, isn't it?" Tarou said loudly, the anger in his voice transparent. "I came to the Tendou school looking for Ryouga, but instead I find someone I never thought I'd see again. The most infamous--" "Shut up!" Kimiko yelled, interrupting Tarou. She moved to charge passed Rintaro and attack, her secret almost exposed, but Rintaro's hands stopped her. He grabbed her by the right shoulder and left hip. He held her with a surprising amount of leverage. "No, I want to hear what he has to say." Rintaro's words stunned her. He had turned against her again. This time, he would expose her identity. Tarou stood closer now, his eyes shining in the darkness. "Rintaro Saotome, no?" the viper of a man asked of the boy who held Kimiko. Rintaro did not immediately respond, but Tarou seemed to not need a verbal answer. "I'll take your silence for yes." "So you and Nishiyama know each other?" Rintaro offered. Kimiko opened her mouth, but felt the hand on her shoulder reach and cover her mouth. She had about enough of him when she felt his left hand strike a pressure point on her side that sent her sprawling to the floor. She knew the technique as it had been used on her by Dr. Tofu before a while back. Her legs felt like jelly and would feel like that for the next twenty minutes. She did not fall, as Rintaro grabbed her by the shoulders and gently set her on her knees. "What the hell, Rintaro?" she demanded, twisting her torso to hit his thigh with as much force as she could muster. He took a step back after that. "Be quiet for now," he whispered to her. She silently fumed at his words. Not only did he completely take her out of the fight, but he now it seemed like he might blow her identity, and possibly even her brothers if they compared their notes enough. "You were saying?" Rintaro asked of the villain. "You can say that we are somewhat of rivals, he and I," Tarou said. He looked down at Kimiko with such violence in his expressions. "A long time I have hunted for his master. Our ways have crossed many times before." "You say 'he' referring to whom?" Rintaro asked, the wonder in his voice overtaking his anger. Her heart beat so loudly in her chest, that Kimiko was sure that they both could hear it pounding away madly as if accompanied by a symphony, her heart striking the beat in a rhythmic manner. "Rintaro," Kimiko said smoothly after pulling his hand away from her mouth. "I'll explain more later. Please, trust me. Don't listen to him. He just hurt your sensei badly. Not me! You have to believe that!" "But I understand his reasons," Rintaro replied. His words would have scalded her if they were moistened. "You, on the other hand, seem to be the cuckoo in my nest. I knew you were bad news since I first laid eyes on you, bringing all the pain with you, stirring up bees from their hive." Tarou laughed again. "What are you laughing at?" Rintaro demanded, his eyes once again baring into the villain. "You, dear Saotome," Tarou replied. "You don't even know your own kin when you stand on top of it." "What?" Rintaro asked, his voice pitched. "Meet your older brother," Tarou began... "Ranma Saotome." The name chilled Rintaro to the bone. His parents never told him of another sibling, but not everyone was as tight-lipped about the secret as they. He learned from old acquaintances of the family that his parents had a child before he and his brother, but learned very little other than his name. However, all of that information hinged on one key fact that did not match. "Ridiculous," Rintaro shouted back, his anger boiling up again. He wanted to smash the fiend before he could lie more. "I should have known you'd just lie to me." He now regretted using the disabling technique on Kimiko. He would need her to defeat this man. "And how is that?" the evil man's mirth had vanished, replaced after Rintaro's response. "This is a girl, you fool!" Rintaro said, putting his hands on Kimiko's shoulders to help stabilize her sitting posture. She had been trying to regain use of her legs during their exchange, but the effect of the technique would last a bit longer (for how long, he had no clue). "So sure, are you?" Rintaro considered it. Even if this girl below him hid male genitalia beneath his clothing, Rintaro knew that his brother would have been at least as old as his Aunt Akane. The man, however, did not seem to be lying. Kneeling, Rintaro did what he never though the would do to a girl. He surprised the redhead beneath him by putt his hand directly on her crotch, receiving a fierce strike to his wrist in response. "Ouch," he hissed, pulling back a bit. "Hey, I had to make sure." "Baka," Kimiko shot back. "You're lucky I can't move my legs." "Well, even if you were right about her gender, which you're obviously not," Rintaro started, but never finished. "Shut up, boy," the man growled. "Have you never heard of Jusenkyou? Have you never seen the remarkable change of the body that those people your parents call friends undergo with water?" Immediately, Rintaro knew he referred to his Aunt Shampoo. Jusenkyou was the explanation for her transformation into a small cat. "You're saying that she--he, whatever--changes in the water?" "Exactly, boy," Tarou said. "Not only that, but Jusenkyou has been known to change the age of its victims, so you can never truly know what they are until you see their true form. This girl is really an old guy like me, and a shape changer." The idea was preposterous, considering how much time she had spent with the Tendous. They would have certainly noticed something. Kasumi even helped the girl before she took a shower. However, he could not help shaking the feeling that this man Tarou spoke the truth. Kimiko had not spoken in her defense, either (though he did tell her to be quiet). "What do you have to say about this, Kimiko?" Rintaro asked in her ear. "You're awfully quiet." "You're the one who said you wanted to listen to this ass." Rintaro put his hands on her shoulders again. He knew that she had not regained use of her legs and was buying time until she could run again. He did not understand how he knew it, but the sense of her intentions just rushed through him. "Listen," he said quietly, rubbing her shoulders once. "I don't believe him, but you're making it harder to throw away." Now that he thought about it, she did look familiar when he first met her. His senses seemed particularly sharp around her, magnifying beyond his regular experience. He could not explain it. "I'm not going to deny something I cannot prove either way," she told him neutrally. Her statement was so evasive. Suddenly, the bell on the bridge rang so loudly, that he nearly jumped back. The bell only rang when the bridge controller intended to lift the middle of the bridge up to allow ships to pass underneath. He took a quick glance around and realized that they were on a section that would be lifted. Lights around them lit up, emergency lights spinning yellow light around it. "Don't even think about moving," the man warned, taking another step closer. Less than a six feet remained between them now. "I want to know the truth, Fem-boy." Rintaro felt Kimiko tense after hearing the slur used against her. Whatever the truth of the matter was, these two had a past together. No matter how unlikely, the sixteen-year-old under him and the thirty to forty year old man knew each other. Sliding his hands down beneath the short sleeves of her blouse and felt the skin on her arms. He felt her heart beat through the veins in her arms, the vital pulse quicker than normal. Before Rintaro heard the sound of echoed footsteps running across the metal bridge, he heard Kimiko take in a sharp breath. Before he could ask her anything, she whispered Kenichi's name in a sigh. Rintaro quickly stood and stepped in between Kimiko and his sensei's attacker. "I don't plan on running," Rintaro told the man, subtly drawing the shurikens he collected from the dojo before leaving. He drew himself into a stance, hiding his right hand behind his hip where the three shurikens remained in between his fingers. The one pressed between his forefinger and middle finger felt slimy. He imagined it had found a target earlier, still coated in that person's blood. The man Kimiko had called Tarou looked like he meant to reply, but the echo of footsteps along the metal bridge signaled Kenichi's arrival so obviously that Rintaro wanted to hit the idiot. If he had used even the smallest amount of caution, he might have caught the stranger by surprise. Rintaro drew lower, poised, ready for this moment, expecting the slight hesitation on Tarou's part. That would be his opening. "Kimiko!" Kenichi shouted, not slowing his charge towards them. Rintaro's eyes widened. He hoped that Kenichi did not plan to run straight through to the girl. If he missed Tarou, he would likely hit Kenichi with his throwing stars. The moment arrived. Tarou turned his head and shifted his feet away from Rintaro, his attention for that brief second tuned on the new arrival. It was all Rintaro needed. One moment, Tarou moved in anticipation of Kenichi and the next, three shurikens left Rintaro's fingertips. He kept his movements so slight that no one but a trained martial artist would have noticed it. The first struck Tarou's right shoulder, just missing the soft spot between his collar bone and his neck. The second caught him directly behind his right armpit. The third would have struck him in the ribs, but it struck his hand instead. All of this took place in an instant, but Rintaro clearly saw everything, taking notice of the blood of the damage before blood splattered out of his target. His timing had been perfect, leaving Tarou open for Kenichi's rush and Rintaro's follow up attack. Kenichi did not slow even for a moment, to Rintaro's surprise. He was always the cautious Tendou. Rintaro drew even lower before he kicked his legs into motion. His muscled tensed right before time rushed back up to speed and he flew at his opponent. The shuriken attack did not stun Tarou as much as Rintaro had wanted, as he drew his arms back and sunk into a defensive stance. The two boys moved towards him quickly, and as Rintaro timed, they both struck at their opponent at the same time. Kenichi leaped like an Olympic jumper long and came crushing forward with a massive jump kick. Rintaro, on the other hand, moved in low striking forward with kick toward the side of the man's knee. Had they struck him, he would have been crippled and defeated. However, the man did something impossible. He contorted his motions, counterattacking both of them at the same time. His left leg kicked backward and struck Rintaro at the very same moment he caught Kenichi's kick. Even briefer than the instant Rintaro found his opening, he saw a brief flash of chi energy from Kenichi travel through Tarou's outstretched arms, down his body and through his outstretched leg. Somehow, the chi of Kenichi's force found Rintaro unprepared for the energy. One instant, Rintaro imagined victory through his subtle offensive, and the next, he quickly tumbled head over heals backwards. He had no chance to see how Kenichi faired in the fight, his senses spinning even as he stopped rolling. The force transferal did not hurt as badly as it stunned him, but the small hands of Kimiko quickly had him sitting upright. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly. He immediately damned his decision to use Dr. Tofu's leg disabling pressure point strike against her. His perception of the events tagged her as a conspirator originally, and not as a victim, which he suddenly realized was most likely the case. "Go help Kenichi then, baka!" she hissed at him, pointing forward. He looked up at his friend for the first time since his uncontrolled tumble. Apparently, he had absorbed Rintaro's attack, because he seemed to have gone the exact opposite way. However, Tarou had decided to make his target the Tendou twin. Mockingly saluting Kimiko, Rintaro got to his knees and pushed up. He wasted no more time in coming to help Kenichi. The man attacked the boy, who also was just recovering from the tumble. He kicked at Kenichi as the Tendou tried to stand. His vicious assault only lasted a few seconds, as Rintaro quickly arrived to the boy's aid. Rintaro attacked with a series of quick punches that Tarou blocked, but the move worked as Kenichi managed to roll away from his attacker. Tarou replied with a quick kick that would have crushed Rintaro's shin, but he foresaw the move and lifted the target leg and brought it down on Tarou's foot. The counter backfired when a chop to his forward shoulder sent a jolt of pain through his body. He grit his teeth, absorbing it and attacking with a punch of his own. Tarou blocked that as well, catching his wrist. Rintaro broke the intentioned throw by breaking his wrist lock at the man's fingertips, the weakest point of his hold, bringing it back ever so slightly and the chopping his wrist. This strike came down soundly, wrenching a grimace from the man. However, Rintaro did not match Tarou's sheer strength and was quickly knocked back by a violent volley of punches. Rintaro managed to block the strikes, but felt as if he were blocking a cactus. He leaped back and examined his arms. They hurt badly, though he saw no visible wounds. Tarou looked no worse for ware, but now Kenichi rejoined the fight. The two faced down the much older and more experienced fighter. Rintaro wished he knew more about this strange man, but his moves were far from ordinary. He fought like a completely original fighter, and seemed to be holding back something. Rintaro did not want to find that particular part out before he managed to beat this guy into a bloody pulp. Tarou was hard enough as he was now. The bells that he had heard earlier began again, and this time Rintaro realized they were the final warning. The bridge would commence opening very near where they fought. "Uh, should we take this somewhere else?" Kenichi asked nervously, looking down at the bridge. "The bridge controller can't--" The stranger cut Kenichi off before he could finish. "I don't think so." "But-" Kenichi started. "Let's end this, Kenichi," Rintaro interrupted, suddenly realizing how they could create a nice long delay of game that would give them a better place to fight. When he chose to the bridge for the ambush, he had not considered that his opponent would be far superior to him. "What?" Kenichi asked, but would not receive a response verbally. Tarou delayed not a second more, attacking Kenichi. Rintaro tried to move in and attack the man's back, but Kenichi surprised the both of them. "Bakusai Tenketsu!" Metal did not react the same as stone or earth did to the remarkable move. Instead of completely shattering, leaving monstrous ruins behind, it snapped one of the thick suspension cords that held the bridge together. The one would not hurt the bridge much, as it just under a hundred holding it up, but the wire was not meant to crash the bridge. It caught the villain directly in the right arm and then ricocheted off and struck him in the face. The blow sent him falling backward with a cry of pain. His voice echoed. Rintaro did not let up his attack, but as Tarou moved towards him and he lost his leverage, Rintaro struck Tarou in the back with a head butt. The blast sent Tarou stumbling back. Just as Kenichi moved in to continue the beating, the siren came on announcing the beginning of the bridge's ascension. The lifting bridge did not catch Rintaro off guard, but he had not realized exactly at which point the bridge would open. He turned his head back as his feet began to slide forward as the squealing of the bridge stung his ears. It lay just behind him. The movement of the bridge gave Tarou enough time to move. He regained his poise and barreled into Rintaro. Although Rintaro managed to strike the man multiple times across the chest and stomach, he ignored the attacks and pushed him aside with a stiff arm. Rintaro watched him take a few more steps away when Kenichi yelled. "He's going for Kimiko!" Kenichi shouted at Rintaro against the loud sound of shifting gears. Rintaro redirected his momentum and chased Tarou, but did not pick up speed quick enough, as Tarou attempted to pick up the disabled redhead. "No!" Rintaro heard Kenichi yell from behind him. He felt Kenichi's frustration as he saw the villain scoop up the girl with a surprising lack of resistance. The exact moment he felt the bridge separate in two pieces, he crossed the point at which it split. His foot narrowly missed landing in the split. The elevation of the bridge gave him enough leverage to push against it towards his enemy. He might have reached the two in time, but a sudden rush of chi energy caught him off guard. One moment, Rintaro's body moved forward in a frantic attempt to save Kimiko from abduction, and the next he hit a solid wall of energy that sent him backward. As a blue wave of chi knocked him off his feet, he caught glance of Tarou flying toward him. The brilliant energy shook Rintaro as he tumbled over toward the now-gaping separation in the bridge, he felt the body of his opponent crash into him. The sudden pull of gravity took Rintaro as he ran out of bridge on which to tumble. He threw his arms out in an attempt to grab the edge of the bridge, but his tumble left him dazed in his mid-air summersault. As he fell off the bridge, he closed his eyes, concentrating his entire existence into one move. He twisted his body completely around and grabbed onto the only object left in his range. Regaining his senses, Rintaro found himself dangling off the leg of the man he had hoped to knock off the bridge from which he almost fell. He felt his ascent as the insanely strong man pulled himself up the bridge. Looking up, Rintaro saw this and self-sacrificially directed his weight down in a solid tug. He heard a grunt as the man lost his momentum and fell back down to the length of his arms. "Stupid boy!" he heard from above him right before the man kicked out his legs. Rintaro resisted the attempt to knock him off by reaching up and grabbing the man's belt. He then strongly wrapped his knees around the man's ankle for support and looked up. He could see the man losing his grip, his fingers slipping off the edge of the bridge of which he barely had a hold in the first place. It all came down to one movement. Rintaro yanked once more, this time using his strength to rebound off the man and make a grab at the edge of the bridge himself. In that instant he felt exhilaration as Tarou lost his grip and fell, and then the sudden redirection of his inertia as his hands came fractions within the top of the bridge's edge. Instead, his hands uselessly slapped the side of the bridge and slid off. His heart skipped a beat as he began to fall. He looked up in futile effort to will himself up but only watched as the bridge started to move away from his grasp. He could only gasp when icy cold fingers reached around his extended right wrist. He swung back and forth a moment at the sudden loss of movement. As he reciprocated by grabbing the wrist of his savior, he looked up to see her face. Kimiko grimaced down at him, as he noticed her other arm extended back, likely held onto something as well. Without the counter-force of her legs to hold him out of the water, she could only use her arms. "Hold on," she said with a strained look in her eyes. Her hand suddenly began to glow blue, just like the burst of chi energy he had suffered earlier. He suddenly felt the burst of strength that pulled him up. She groaned and lifted him up the bridge. Just as he reached the edge himself, he grabbed it with his other hand and between their strength, pulled himself to kneel at the ledge for a moment, only to realize the bridge's raising had reached a critical point, and he fell again, this time tumbling down the bridge instead of off it. He took hold of his inertia and moved into a controlled roll, softly landing on his back. He looked up only a brief second before he realized Kimiko could not control her roll and plummeted at him. He considered a second whether he should move, but instead braced himself and attempted to catch her. The effort was only slightly better than being crushed while unaware. The only thing he could do before was release his breath to not have it knocked out. After a ragged breath, Rintaro coughed and then moaned. Kimiko lay face down on top of him, her face landing on his chest. All he could see of her was her thick mane of red hair splashed all over him. Even after all of the day's exertion, it still smelled of soap. "Are you okay?" he asked of her, putting one hand on her back. It took a moment for her to respond. She lifted her head and looked up at him, and then nodded. "Who was that guy?" Rintaro asked, not ready to move yet. He felt dizzy as if he had been spinning around in circles for a few seconds. He trained his eyes on hers. Her blue eyes sparkled under the lamp post on the bridge. "Old rival," she whispered to him. She tried to push herself off him, but did not seem to have much energy left after whatever she did to both defeat Tarou and pull him up. Though she had seemed to weigh a lot when she had fallen, he felt comfortable with her lying on top of him now. Somehow, that disturbed him. "I didn't think he'd ever turn out like that," she elaborated. "His name is Tarou. He used to be on this journey to get his name changed by the man who named him, but now I think he just wants to kill someone." Her answer mystified him. She could not be more than sixteen, and yet she spoke as if she knew him for years. It made about as much sense as her being a Jusenkyou victim. She obviously did not change in cold water, as he had seen her before and after a bath in the Tendou's koi pond. His Aunt Kasumi would have noticed something if she had changed in the hot water of the shower as well. It left him clueless. "You're probably thinking about what Tarou was saying before," she said, as he realized he had just stopped talking. "I don't blame you, but we better get moving unless we want to fight him again." Rintaro looked at her. "He just fell off the bridge." "You don't know him like I do. He'll be back, and he'll be stronger. He fell in Jusenkyou, and it made him into a monster." Now all Rintaro wanted to do was scream. All she could do was make him more confused. "Well?" he asked, waiting for her to get off him. "You disabled my legs, baka," she told him, almost fondly. "Sorry, I forgot," Rintaro replied, planting his hands by her shoulders. He lifted them up together, holding her up by her armpits. "It should wear off soon. I didn't realize it would last this long." Kimiko grasped his shoulders, but her legs obviously could not move, as they just dangled. "Well, we gotta get out of here," she said. "Shouldn't we wait for Kenichi?" he asked, looking back to the bridge, which had lifted up diagonally. "I mean, he's probably going to be on the other side waiting for us." Kimiko shook her head. "He doesn't want Kenichi." Rintaro nodded. "I guess you're right. Want me to carry you?" She said yes, but her eyes looked quite displeased with the notion. He turned his back to her and pushed back onto her. She reached over his shoulders and grabbed onto his chest. He knew this was going to be the longest piggyback ride of his life. "All right, you explain while I run," he told her. "This better be good, because whatever you're involved in has my master Soun injured badly." * * * The phone rang at the Tendou house, but no one immediately answered it. The night had been a scare for the family. Ryouga had been the first to arrive home to find his daughter and father-in-law. Apparently, she had carried him into the house after someone had beaten him badly. The ambulance had arrived later, with police who had a million questions for his daughter. Ryouga only had one question: who did he need to kill? Whoever did this to one of his family members would pay dearly. After it was clear he knew nothing, the police had given him space. So when the phone rang, only he was available to answer it. He let it ring for a moment, still lost in thought about who would hurt his family. When he had arrived at the Saotome's home with Genma, he found it thrashed, and Nodoka injured. Genma had called the police and stayed with his wife, while Ryouga received the attacker's message and rushed home. Picking up the receiver, he answered the phone, annoyed. "Hello?" "Dad?!" he heard on the other side of the line. It was Kenichi's voice. "Nichi-chan?" Ryouga asked, a bit surprised. "Where are you? Mayako said you chased the man who did this to Soun." "Yes," his son replied. "We chased him to the old boat bridge near Furinken. But the bridge lifted and we got separated. I'm not sure where Rintaro and Kimiko are." The name of the girl visiting the Tendou family was not unfamiliar to Ryouga. She was all Genma talked about on their trip to his house. Ryouga did not know exactly who she was, but it seemed obvious to Genma that she bared some resemblance to Ranma. However, he had not been sure. Ryouga knew that her appearance and the appearance of Ranma back in Nerima was no coincidence. "Is that man still there?" "I don't know," Kenichi replied. "But we need help badly." That was all Ryouga needed to hear. "I'll be there shortly. Stay where you are. Hide if you must." Ryouga told his daughter of his plan and left her to deal with the police and her mother, who would return home shortly. He then left the house and ran as fast as he could. Not even his bad direction sense would get in the way this time. His mind was finally clear. It took him barely five minutes to get there at full speed. He arrived at the bridge, where Kenichi appeared from a phone booth. "Are you alright?" Ryouga asked as ran up to his son. "Did he hurt you?" Kenichi shook his head, but the blood splatters in his white work shirt were visible even under the dim lamplight in the night. Ryouga pulled his son to him and examined him. He noticed several cuts in his skin, some a bit deep, but none seemed particularly bad. "Where are the other two?" He looked around but saw them no where. Before Kenichi could reply, the bridge lit up with yellow lights and began to make noises. It obviously was lowering once more. He watched it for a moment. "We were separated. The bridge lifted when we were fighting that guy. I don't know what happened to them." Ryouga nodded. He would search the bridge and the nearby area, but his primary concern now was his son and his father-in-law. Tarou had watched from the shadows as Ryouga arrived to rescue his son. He could not know how close he had been to losing a child. If not for his approach, Tarou would have used him to bait Ranma back to fight. However, as it stood, he would need to retreat. He did not want anything to do with Ryouga. He obviously had nothing to do with this plot any longer. It was all Ranma's doing. Happosai and he left the country somehow. He had to find them. So he waited, watched and followed. * * * Carried by her real brother, she felt torn by her fate never to have known him, or to have guided him to become a better man. Being in Nerima and finding more family than she knew what to do with was a surreal reality. This was another life, a dream, a nightmare, anything that was not twenty years in her future. She hated feeling sorry for herself, but her world had tumbled on its head and now she was left with reversed gravity. Rintaro carried her away from the bridge. He had disabled her like Dr. Tofu had when he had first arrived in Nerima to teach him to rely on others. Her brother had used it to keep her talking. This was the second underhanded thing he had done to her, as if he had no honor to simply confront her. As they left the bridge, she peered over his left shoulder, looking for any sign of the monster Tarou would turn into. She had hoped to avoid water, but instead sent him falling into it. He would be much stronger than the two of them now, and they needed to move. Whether or not that fall hurt him, he would be back. "Not to sound ungrateful for the present on the bridge, but could you hurry it up so he doesn't have a chance to follow us?" She added a thick lair of cynicism for motivation. It always worked with Akane. He responded by picking up speed. She turned her head and watched him soar down the sidewalk. He ducked down an alley as soon as they reached the houses and ran for another block before slowing. "See anything?" He asked, not taking his eyes from the road. Kimiko had been watching but saw no sign of their opponent. She whispered in the negative and fell back into her thoughts. It was getting hard to suppress her day dreamed concerns. One moment she was celebrating her upcoming wedding to Akane, and the next she's awakened in a hospital somewhere in the United States. How she had gotten there, the betrayal she suffered from Ryouga and the loss of her entire family always ran thick in her blood. Kiyoshi had so many things to tell her when she regained her memories, so much bad news. She examined Rintaro's face closely as one would look in a mirror to search for flaws only we see. Every time they passed underneath a street lamp, his face lit up brightly, and when they would pass into the darkness, she could still see it in her mind's eye. The simple reflection she had missed so much and taken for granted for her entire life. Nothing seemed real anymore. "I think I've lost him sufficiently." Kimiko heard his whisper and felt his breath against her face, heavy with exertion. It drew her out of her self-reflection. "Yeah, go that way," she said, pointing down a road that would lead to Furinken. It would be quiet there this time of night. Staying too long outside on the streets might bring about unwanted attention. "Why?" "Just do it. We can talk easier there." He did as she asked without further protest. Shadows and light crossed his face once more, but this time he returned the stare. "I don't believe what that man said," he told her after a moment. "But you look like you could be my sister, Nishiyama-san. I can't tell you how disconcerting that is." "Please call me Kimiko," she requested of him. She hated the formality he used with her. "Where to now?" he asked, stopping at an intersection. "Or just tell me where we're going." "Straight ahead," she told him. "Just keep going. I'll tell you when we're there." She did not know why she just did not tell him to go to his own school, but she really did not need to. "We're going to the school, aren't we?" Rintaro asked, as if reading her mind. She nodded her head, rocking her body slightly so he would feel it even if he did not see it. "That's where I thought you'd go," he said confidently. "I don't know why, but that's how I got to the bridge faster." "I was meaning to ask about that," she replied, still unsure how he got there so fast. "Did you go through people's yards or something?" He did not reply, but he did accelerate his pace. They neared their destination. "I was a bit curious how you knew where our school was," he admitted, shifting her in his arms. "Getting tired?" she asked, but he just shook his head. She answered his question after another few seconds. "I've been there before." "Oh?" he said, voicing his curiosity as they arrived at the school. "Now what? It's locked." She turned her head and looked over her own shoulder to see the gate closed. "Come on, Rintaro, just jump it." He muttered something that sounded more like a grumble, and then approached the gate. He took a few steps back and then burst into action. She felt light as he jumped to the top of the gate. Now she knew how Akane felt all the times she ran with her cradled in her own arms. Their airtime lasted a lot longer than the vibration of the gate, but not longer than the descent from the gate. Her heart beat rapidly. The entire experience of being carried around made her feel uneasy in that she could not control the movements she was easily capable of making herself. Rintaro landed firmly and then began to walk towards the deserted building. "Just go to the gym," she ordered again. He looked at her curiously. "There's a phone there we can use." "When did you come here last?" he asked, shaking his head. "One of the kids here broke that thing a couple years ago. They put the new one inside the gym." She decided not to respond, wondering where the nearest available phone was. The landscape had changed so much, she barely recognized any nearby locations and certainly did not notice a phone the entire distance. At least, that was when she had been looking at something other than his face. "Well, where's a phone we can reach then?" she asked. "I didn't say we couldn't reach it," he said, going towards the gym anyway. "I 'tee-ay' for the P. E. teacher there." "You do what for the teacher?" she asked. "T. A. means teacher's assistant. I supervise the school athletes' training. There's a window in there without a lock that we can use. It will give us access to the pool and the phone." "You work with Dr. Tofu, you train all day and you're a T. A.?" she asked rhetorically. "Busy guy." He stopped, halfway to the gym, when she spoke. "Who told you I trained with Dr. Tofu?" he asked suddenly, his eyes piercing the shadows and reaching her with suspicion. She mentally yelled at her mistake. She knew from his pressure point techniques. No one she knew but Tofu Ono could have taught him moves like that. His skill far exceeded anyone in the area by far. "That technique you used on me," she admitted truthfully. She was going to have to tell him the truth. However, this time she was telling the unpredictable Rintaro. "Your recognized it," he finished for her. "You recognized a move that my one-time mentor taught me last year. You also know where my school is and the location of the phone barely after I started going here, and I know for a fact that you're younger than me." "Fact? So your eyes never lie to you??" she refuted, grinning at his observations. He must have been suspicious of her from their first meeting. "Come on," he said, continuing his walk again. "I might escape being carded once in a while, but if your bust was smaller, you could pass for fourteen." His remarks really stung. If anything she shared with from-birth women, Kimiko hated when people misjudged her real age. She considered herself nineteen or twenty, even if her body said sixteen and Ranma's birth certificate said thirty-six. "Don't make faces," he said, stopping at the side of the gym where the pool must have been located from the outside. "I'm going to need you to hang onto my back so I can climb up to the window. Can you climb through and tumble down ahead of me?" She grumbled, which he must have took for a yes, because he knelt and set her down, turning his back to her. "The pool's indoor, huh?" she asked. Last time she had fallen into that stupid thing, it had been outside. "I thought you had been here before," he said sarcastically. "Now grab onto my back." She reached around his neck and used her elbows for leverage to keep herself having to hold onto his neck. She felt her lower body dangle against his back as he stood. Color rose to her cheeks at so much body contact with her brother. It felt indecent. "Okay, hold on," he said as he lifted their bodies above the ground. He crawled up the wall like a spider, up to the top of the building where a row of long windows sat. "How are we going to do this together, exactly?" she asked. "I'll push you through, so just hang onto the edge. I'll go through and help you down afterward." It made sense, but that meant he would have to somehow help her through the window while still maintaining their position about a story above the ground. She did not look down, but would not have saw anything in the dark anyway. In a marvelous show of dexterity, Rintaro reached one hand up and put his fingernails in between the window and the window seal. "Damn, I shouldn't have cut my nails so short," he complained. "How are your nails? Mind opening this window?" Kimiko dug one of her nails into his chest. She had not cut them in a while, and had made a bad habit of letting them grow out like a girl would. It annoyed her that people thought long nails were attractive--not that she wanted to look attractive. She rationalized that she just got lazy about cutting them sometimes. He pulled her up closer and she reached out, wedged her nail in the same place he did and managed to pry the window open. He then opened it the rest of the way. "Grab onto the window seal," he ordered, pulling himself up so her hands were close to it again. She grabbed onto the ledge and immediately pulled herself up, sliding along his back until she got her head through the window. That was about where her lack of leg movement made it seriously hard. She groaned, lacking the leverage to pull herself through the tight window. "I got you," Rintaro whispered, right before his head embarrassingly pushed against her buttocks. She suppressed it and pulled as hard as she could to get her arms and upper body through. His head helped and he enabled her to get in most of the way where he stopped pushing. "Okay, this is where the gymnast in you has to go a little crazy. These windows aren't tall but they're long. I'm going to push you around so you can fall with your chest to the glass." She groaned again as he grabbed her thigh and her arm and man- handled her parallel to the window. She felt like action figure. However, she did as he said and positioned herself, ready to fall. "Can you do that?" he asked, his face closer to hers where she rested her chin against the window seal, her legs dangling on either side of the window. "Yes," she said bitterly. "Just push my leg through." He once more lifted her thigh and push it up over the glass. She used that momentum to fall over the side and just managed to grab the window seal again. Rintaro wasted no time in squeezing himself through the window and falling so that he landed on his feet. With working legs and a lack of breasts, he had all the advantages. She then felt his fingertips brush her ankle, so she let go. He caught her in mid-air and managed maneuver her body to cradle her again. "I'm sorry, by the way," he told her after he caught her. The light in the pool reflected wavy blue shadows against his face that gave it an eerie look. He later added, "About the whole pressure point thing." "You should treat me as an ally," she told him, her eyes looking to bore through his skull with such a piercing look. "I don't know what I did to earn such distrust." "Hey, you show up, my teacher gets smashed, and you seem to know the guy who did the smashing. I'm not the most trusting person in the world, either." "I couldn't tell," she shot back. "I have good reasons not to be," he replied. They did not talk for a bit after that. He carried her around the pool and to the area where the girl's and the boy's locker rooms met. There, just as he had promised, the phone sat. Unfortunately, there was no seating anywhere near the phone. He would have to hold her the entire time. She felt really uncomfortable in his arms. He did not feel like a brother, but a captor. She could not explain why that was, but it probably was due to the fact that he had all the power in this situation. "I'm sorry about everything, okay?" he apologized, positioning her so she could grab the phone. "Who you going to call, anyway?" "My brother," she said, which sounded strange to her ears. She had referred to Kiyoshi as her brother for a while now, but with her actual brother in the room, it felt wrong. Everything seemed to feel that way these days. "Your brother is that guy who took over the Nishiyama fortune, right?" The question just sounded strange. "Yeah, you know of it?" Rintaro nodded. "His passing was a bit of a story, with Nishiyama Nobukazu being a former Nerima local and a multi-millionaire." She stopped talking and lifted the receiver, and then dialed the number to Kiyoshi's cell phone. She would have dialed the room's number, but she forgot it. "Hey Kiyoshi," Kimiko said into the phone as she started talking to her brother. Rintaro could not understand whatever her brother said on the other side of the line, but he could hear the tone of the voice. He sounded mad, or scared, or both. "No, I'm okay," she replied into the phone. "No, just bruised. I'll be fine. Not like last time." Rintaro wondered if she meant his exhausting match with Kimiko the time before. He doubted it, as they really did not hurt each other much. "Well, to be honest, I got in another fight before this one," she said. "Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't exactly pick either of these." The other party sounded angry for sure this time. He spoke for another ten seconds. "No, I said, I'm just bruised. Give me a break. I'll be as good as new in an hour." She paused and looked at Rintaro. The pool reflected off her face and he suddenly knew why she looked like family. She could have easily posed in his mother's place for all her photos as a teenager. He marveled at their likeness. "No, I left that at the Tendou's," she said after her brother finished talking, and then engaged in a quick succession of question answering. "I'm on a pay phone. Yes. Uh-huh. Hey, I'm not a kid anymore. Yeah, but I can take care of myself just fine. You don't have to mention that anymore--I get it. Yeah, I know the guy. It was Tarou. Yeah, he's still on that revenge trip, but now I think he's completely lost it. You need confront him. I don't think it'll stop unless you do." She paused for a while after that, apparently receiving a lecture. It sounded more like her father than her brother, but he knew some older brothers to be that, especially with younger sisters. "You don't give me enough credit. I didn't say anything." She paused for a moment, listening and nodding. "I don't think so." It sounded like a silence, and Rintaro felt his hands slipping. He readjusted her, apparently breaking her concentration, because she yelped slightly. He realized his mistake and brought his hands down her thigh, away from her buttocks. "No, I just got startled. No, not really. Rintaro. Yeah, him." Hearing his name mentioned, his ears perked up, but he could not hear anything. Kimiko seemed like she was intentionally leaving her answers brief to let her brother do the talking. "Yeah, he saved me back there. He's good like I used to be-- probably better. No, we knocked him into the river near Furinken. Yeah, I'm on the payphone next to the pool. Get this, it's an indoor pool now." Rintaro filed her comment away. She obviously knew about the pool before it became indoors, which was way before his time. Perhaps she had grown up near here. It seemed unlikely, but possible. "No, please Kiyoshi," she said, this time her voice lifting a bit, almost to a whine. He had never heard her talk like that. It must have been a sibling thing. "Just send a cab, please. It's really better that way. Okay...Okay...I will...I love you, too. Bye...No, bye." She then hung up the phone. She looked at him for a moment and then looked away. She looked really sad for some reason. "I need to set you down for a second," he said suddenly, realizing that they had not been in contact with the Tendous a while. She nodded and he did so, then lifted up the receiver, dialed in his caller id number and then his house code. "Hello?" he heard his Aunt Akane greet on the other end. She sounded shaken, her voice rather pitchy. "Hello, Auntie," he said as sweetly as he could. "It's Rin-chan." He almost grimaced at his own use of her nickname for him. "Rin-chan!" she shouted on the other end. "I'm going crazy over here! They hospitalized my father and Maya-chan's all beaten up! Who did this?" "I don't know, but we trashed the guy good," Rintaro told her. "We're all okay, but we lost contact with Kenichi. Is he there now?" He assumed he was not since Kenichi had not informed Akane of what happened. "No, his father went out to get him though," Akane told him. That sent a warm feeling through him. Ryouga was seriously one tough bastard. If anyone made him feel better about psychos being on the loose was that Ryouga could trash any of them. "Tell him we're okay if he checks in," Rintaro said. "We're at Furinken." "Why are you there?" Akane asked. "Are you calling from that old payphone near the gym?" The question through him back a bit. Apparently, Akane knew about the payphone's old location, too. He had to figure out when they changed it. "Yes," he lied, not wanting to let her know that he broke into the school. That would not look good. "Is Kimiko Nishiyama there with you?" "Yes." "Is she okay? Mayako said that guy hurt her." Rintaro looked down at the girl at his feet. She was staring at the pool, but had probably just been looking at him. Her eyes looked too focused on the water. "She's fine." "That's good," Akane said. He heard another voice talking to Akane. "Mayako says she left all her stuff here." Keeping his eyes focused on the girl, he repeated what Akane told him. She looked up at him, staring for a moment, and then nodded. "Can you put her on, Auntie?" he asked politely. "Of course, honey," she said and then he heard rustling on the other side. "Rin-chan!" Mayako exclaimed the moment she must have put her lips to the receiver. "I'm so glad you're both okay. I've been so worried!" He changed his voice with Mayako, covering over the emotion with confidence. "We're just fine, sweetness. I'm sorry I had to leave you out of all the fun." "It's not your fault," he heard her say; although, he knew she was wrong. "If your dad calls, just tell him we're at or around Furinken," he told her calmly. "I think a cab is coming for Kimiko, though, so he might just find me here." "Yeah, she always takes cabs," Mayako laughed on the other side. "Anyway, take care of your mom," he said seriously. "Don't let this get to her." "Easier said then done," Mayako replied. "Well, you should go." Rintaro nodded, even though it was obviously a fruitless gesture. He felt like he should say something special to her, but just could not. She seemed to understand his silence, responding with a light giggle. "I'll be thinking about you. Take care and come back in one piece. Bye, Rin-chan." "Will do, good-bye," he replied warmly and then hung up. "Mayako's dad?" Kimiko asked the next moment, surprising him. She had been silent the whole time, resting her back against the wall near the phone. "Yeah, the cavalry is on the way. Between him and your brother, we should be pretty safe now." She seemed to look perplexed by his answer, but he was beyond explaining her weird responses to things. She seemed to know everything at times, and then would come back and not know something so simple. "Speaking of being safe now," Rintaro began, sitting down in front of her. The tile felt cool on his hands, and a bit damp. The two of them probably had wet bottoms now. "Yes?" she asked after he delayed his question. "Since we now probably have a few minutes to talk, I'd like you to explain a few things to me." She turned her head, probably subconsciously, as she gazed out over the pool. "Will you?" She turned back to face him and did not look pleased. He felt bad about disabling her legs now. It had turned out to be the stupidest thing he had done in a while. "Do I have a choice?" she asked, crossing her arms under her breasts. "I can't force your tongue to move, or the wind to make the words in your throat." "Let's get out of here first?" she suggested, pushing herself to her knees. Apparently the effect of his technique had not worn off. "It's already been a while. Why isn't this thing wearing off?" Rintaro shrugged. He really had only managed to use it with any effect once before, and it had lasted only a few minutes because he had not hit the pressure point fully. In fact, Dr. Tofu never taught it to him directly, so he never got it to work properly. "Well, I'm not worried," she told him, gesturing for him to stand. "Pick me up and let's get out of here." "Okay." He followed her suggestion and stood. After a quick stretch, he scooped her up. She put her left arm around his neck and looped her thumb under his collar. "It's a good thing I know the security codes to the pool, or we'd have to go out the way we came in." He walked through the door that led to the gym and followed it until he walked into the main corridor. The security panel on the wall started flashing as soon as he walked near it. He used his right hand, leaning Kimiko back so it would be free. After disabling the code he walked out. "Break into the school often?" she asked, a bit of mirth creeping into her voice. "Not for a while," he replied. "Plus I know the P.E. director." He paused for a moment. "She...likes me." He walked with her in silence until they reached the entry courtyard. "Just set me down by that tree," she whispered, pointing at the one near the path that lead directly to the school's main gates. Rintaro obliged. His arms were beginning to feel sore. After another few moments, they sat under the tree together. He gauged her condition for the first time. She looked cold, as she only wore a sky blue tank top and blue Capri pants, and completely lacked shoes. Of course, he had taken a random pair of slippers from the dojo before he left. "So you want to know about how I know Tarou?" she offered, breaking their silence. He nodded and she continued. "Well, we kind of crossed paths a while back. We were never really enemies or anything." "Your brother knows him, too," Rintaro threw in. "Well, yeah," she said. "Martial artists are kind of the big fish in the little pond. We always seem to cross paths. When I lived in Japan, we crossed his path once or twice. I guess he never settled his score with the old man who named him." "Explain more," Rintaro said. Clutching her arms to her chest, Kimiko met his eyes without looking away to let him know she told the truth. "I learned from a lot of different masters in my time. There was this old man who taught me some, but fought me more often. He named Tarou, his full name being Pantyhose Tarou." She looked at him as if expecting him to laugh. "That's it?" Rintaro asked, bewildered. "He's looking for some guy who named him? Why not just change it himself?" "That's the thing. It was an honor issue. He wanted Master Happosai to change it." Rintaro's eyes opened wide. Grandmaster Happosai was the founder of his school, but he died a long time ago. No one spoke his name anymore in fear of him returning from the grave (again). His father had told him horror stories of the evil man many times to scare him as a child. "What an idiot!" Rintaro exclaimed, obviously taking Kimiko aback. "He's looking for a dead guy? What the hell?" His thoughts suddenly focused on one fact that he just realized. She knew Master Happosai, but he was supposed to have died years ago, when she could have been no older than Eiji. "Yeah, that's why I think it best if I left town," she said sadly. "He's just going to look for me now, because he thinks I know where he is. I only led him on to get him away from the Tendous." Rintaro looked hard into her eyes. It was dark, but the light from the street was enough to see her eyes. "What?" she asked, rubbing her nose. "How long ago did you meet the Grandmaster?" She looked at him curiously, cocking her head slightly to one side and then her eyes opened. "I heard he died a long time ago, when I was little," Rintaro informed her. "And I'm older than you, so you must have met him when he was in China." She did not immediately respond, obviously trying to develop an answer for him. She looked as confused as he felt. "Tell me what you heard about him last," Kimiko said probably as diplomatically as she could. "I met the old man a long time ago, so the details are fuzzy." "That's not going to fly," Rintaro told her. "You're in a hole now. You said you crossed paths with this Tarou guy, but if you did it anywhere near the Grandmaster, then it must have been recently, or the old beast is still alive." Kimiko looked at Rintaro, completely speechless. "I met him when I first came here," she said softly. He knew he had her now. Her eyes were downcast and her hands were trembling. Rintaro felt like a jerk for doing this to her, but he needed to know everything. "If it helps you tell me the truth," Rintaro began, "I won't tell anyone else what you say here." She looked up at him with relief in her eyes, but she still shivered. "Thanks." "I don't really care about what the rest of them know anyway," he bragged, right before he moved in closer to her. She drew back, but he clasped his hands on her icy cold, bare arms. He rubbed his hands up and down them. "I met him when I was sixteen," she told him, staring at the tree, her eyes avoiding his again. "I fought him on and off for a year or so. He left on some crazy trip to China right afterwards." Rintaro looked at her bewildered. "Wait, I thought you were sixteen." She shook her head briefly as her shoulders drooped. He narrowed his eyes. "Seventeen?" "Would you believe I'm thirty-six?" she meekly asked. It did not sound like she was joking, but he assumed it. "Of course not," he believed as surely as he knew the fact sat next to her at Furinken. "I'd believe you were nineteen or twenty at the most, but that's really pushing it. I mean, you're in high school, right?" She licked her lips and looked at him. "Well, I was in this accident when I was eighteen." Her words cut off as she readjusted herself on the grass. She began again after placing a hand over his. "I woke up last year." His mind struggled but found one detail missing: how long she was in the before said coma. "My brother tells me he had me transferred from a hospital to my house like six years ago." That meant she was at least twenty four years old, if she was telling the truth. "I'm as good as math as the next guy," Rintaro told her firmly. He did not like being toyed with. "But you're skirting around this. When's your birthday?" She gritted her teeth and answer, "1980." He rolled his eyes. "You asked," she said dryly. "I may look young, but this stupid curse did something funny to me when I was in the coma. I don't think I aged any the whole time." She mentioned the curse again. "Jusenkyou, you mean?" he asked. Debating her age seemed pointless, so he went with it. "So it's some sort of youth curse?" She shook her head. "I was cursed when I was fifteen to look like this. I used to be able to turn back to normal with hot water, but it stopped working after I woke from my coma." "So what that Tarou guy said was true?" Kimiko nodded. "God, I don't know what to say," he admitted, stumped by her story. "I mean, my own family mentioned you must be Ranma's kid, but not even they imagined you were Ranma Saotome." "Pretending for a second I am Ranma's daughter," she began, her tone so soft, he could not make out any sarcasm or even deceit. "I'd know all this stuff through my father, and telling people I'm him would be pretty stupid." Rintaro could not help but breathe a laugh out of frustration. "Yeah, why would you say that? If you're his daughter, why hide it with such a silly story?" "I'd have to be hiding something," she said with a sigh. "You won't believe my story, because it's easier to just say I'm your niece, instead of your brother." That would be right. If she were Ranma's daughter, she would be his niece. The sudden thought occurred to him that he knew why she looked familiar. She looked much like his mother did when she was young, but her hair was more vibrantly red than his mother's had been. "I was taught to accept the simpler truth," he admitted, trying to catch her eyes. "Please look at me." She had been crying, for how long, he did not know. "It's okay if you think I'm Kimiko," she told him, looking him directly in the eye. In a moment of compassion he was really not used to showing, Rintaro moved the final inch that separated them and pulled her into a hug. She did not fight him, but did not hold him back either. "Your dad's grave is near here," he told her, which made her back go rigid. "Akane took me there once to show me his grave. She told me all about him, but would never let me talk about him again, especially around my mother. She wanted me to know about my big brother." His words elicited a sniffled giggle from her. "What's funny?" he asked. She drew back, pushing with her hands on his shoulders. "Nothing, it was just nice of her." "Well, my parents weren't about to even talk about him, but I gathered enough information on my own. He apparently was quite the local celebrity. Everyone over the age of thirty seemed to know about him. Apparently he disappeared before he could graduate high school." Kimiko nodded in response. "So that much is true?" She nodded again. "Right before he married Akane." Rintaro's eyes opened a bit. He never knew Akane had been the one. That part everyone disagreed about. Some said he was with Shampoo. Others said it was Kasumi, Nabiki or Akane. There were even a few other names mentioned that did not make any sense. Like the Furinken High School P.E. director (from her own word) and Ucchan of the restaurant in the same name. "What happened to him?" Rintaro asked, looking at her seriously now. "I don't know," Kimiko told Rintaro, telling him the strange truth of the matter. Her alter ego, her true self, had been mysteriously absent since the discovery of her inability to transform back. She could barely even remember how she acted differently as Ranma. Even Kiyoshi remarked how different she was since her awakening. Kiyoshi said he would have a cab there in fifteen minutes, but it was entirely too long for her taste. She wanted to tell him the truth, but he only grew more and more suspicious of her when she told it. Anything she could have said to verify her identity could be countered in the fact that her 'father' could have told her all of it. She also did not want to lie too blatantly, as that could cause her problems if he ever did find out the truth for himself. Rintaro nodded at this, sliding his hands up her forearms. His arm hands sent a shiver down her spine. She was so cold from not being able to move much and the wet tile of the pool. She imagined he was trying to comfort her now, because her 'father' was gone, but it seemed so silly. Ranma had died in a way, and was also somehow lost. "When I woke up after the accident, he was just gone. I haven't seen or heard of a word from him since." "Oh God, I'm sorry," Rintaro whispered. He looked truly sad from this news. "I'm glad you survived it though." "I'm not," she replied honestly. If anything, she could tell the truth about her feelings. "I wish we had both died back here in Japan. It would have made things so much easier." "Maybe," Rintaro said with a shrug. His hands seemed to idly rub her arms. He was being so different know that he at least believed her to be family. "But without you, Ranma would disappear forever. You can at least tell everyone what you know about him." "No way." Kimiko gritted her teeth and shook her head. "No, I can't do that." "Why not?" His hands stopped caressing her arms. He then took her by the cheeks. "Why not?" "They wouldn't understand," she told him. She intended to knock his arms off, but felt a surprise burst of strength from her legs respond instead. She jerked forward from her knees and her forehead landed on his collarbone. He caught her from falling face first in his lap. "Hey, you're legs moved." His tone was so much lighter now. He did not seem to be demanding nearly as much now, as if he had become more satisfied with her answers. "I think it's better to let the past stay where it's been," she said after recovering back to her knees. "Help me get my legs stretched out?" He did just that, lowering her back to her bottom so she could move her legs. "Thanks," she said, forcing her legs out straight. They finally started responding again, however weakly. It was like waking from that awful coma again, only to realize she could barely move. "I suppose you're right," Rintaro whispered after another moment. "I mean, my parents have always been really hurt by his disappearance. As much as I don't like them, I wouldn't wish them to relive all that." Flexing her thighs, Kimiko rolled onto her back and lifted her legs into the air. Her muscles seemed to be recovering fast now, as if whatever block had been created by the technique was removed. She then dropped her legs and rolled forward, generating enough momentum to push up to her feet. She wobbled a second, but steadied herself by grabbing the tree. "Guess you're okay now," Rintaro said from behind her. Kimiko turned around and then squatted next to him. "I'm going to go sit on the wall to the school so I can see when the cab comes to pick me up." Rintaro nodded and stood up. The two of them walked a few yards to the wall, where Rintaro knelt and offered her a boost up. She humored him, though she was pretty sure she could do it herself. She stepped on his linked hands and he pushed her up the wall. She grabbed onto the edge and pulled herself over. After another moment, he was sitting next to her. * * * Kenichi waited while his father made a phone call home to let his sister know everything was okay. He still felt jittery from the fight with the man on the bridge and the dojo, though he imagined a lot of it had to do with it being cold out tonight. It was warmer earlier, but once the sun went down, the temperature had dropped significantly. "You say he called in?" his father said to someone on the other side of the phone. "Okay, we'll go there and see if we can find him. The bridge just lowered, so we'll go right now. Okay, I love you too, good-bye." Ryouga hung up the receiver. Kenichi looked at his father expectantly, waiting for an answer. "They hid in the high school," Ryouga said simply. "Let's go see if we can find them and then all go home together." "Okay," Kenichi replied. The two of them jogged across the bridge without incident. After his initial hug, Ryouga had barely acknowledged his son. Kenichi always felt like a child around his father, who never seemed to see his son for his age. He treated Mayako much better, always saying that she impressed him. Ryouga never said that to Kenichi, but rather, told him he disappointed him and that he had to be stronger to survive. The differential treatment always confused Kenichi, who had to work twice as hard as his sister to do the same thing. Ryouga followed Kenichi as he always did, never leading the way though he must have been to the school hundreds of times. He became lost easily, as almost everyone knew. It was really embarrassing, as his father never arrived on time to any social function (if at all), and had to be led to them. If anyone deserved to be demeaned, Kenichi figured it was his father. It took them a few minutes, but they soon neared the school. As they approached, Kenichi noticed two people sitting on the wall just past the gate to the school. The pair slowed to a walk as they approached. The people sitting on the wall must have noticed them, because they jumped down onto the sidewalk. Kenichi quickly recognized Kimiko and Rintaro. Kimiko limped toward them. She looked rather worn down. Her unkept red hair seemed wet in parts as it clung to her head on one side, while frizzy on the other. Rintaro looked a bit worn as well, as his clothes ripped in places. This angered Kenichi as those were his clothes he borrowed in the morning. When the both pairs arrived in front of each other, he saw Kimiko's tired mannerisms quickly change. It was like watching a cat prepare to pounce on a small creature. She stopped quickly and all but fell into a stance, her bare feet gripping the concrete sidewalk tightly. The strangest part was that her eyes were focused on his father. He looked to his left where his father stood next to him only to notice much of the same reaction. The two knew each other somehow. He could not explain it any other way. The pair faced off for another second before Kimiko spoke. "What are you doing here?" Kimiko asked of Kenichi's father. Her voice trembled slightly. From anger or fear, Kenichi could not tell. "That's Kenichi's dad, Kimiko," Rintaro said quietly, but loud enough to be overheard. He seemed a bit perturbed by their reactions. "Say what?" Kimiko asked with her body rigid. She looked at Kenichi this time, as if she had never seen him before. "He's your father, Kenichi-kun?" "I am," Ryouga said, stepping forward so that he stood in front of the girl. "And you're Kimiko Nishiyama, of whom I've heard so much." "Shut up, Ryouga!" she yelled so quickly, it caught everyone off guard. Kenichi moved to his father's side, just out of the circle of light that the street lamp near them provided. "I'm sorry?" his father said apologetically. "Do I know you?" He looked bewildered. "Do you always forget the people you try to drown?" she demanded violently, pushing him back so strongly that Ryouga almost lost his balance. "Excuse me?" Ryouga said, his voice sounding as mystified as Kenichi felt. "I don't even know you. What are you saying?" "Oh no," Kimiko said, falling into an offensive stance. She raised her hands as if ready to fight. "You can't play coy with me. You nearly killed me in the park Sunday. You think I'd forget something like that?" "What the hell is going on?" Rintaro demanded. He grabbed one of Kimiko's hands. "Are you crazy? This is Kenichi's father. Did you hit your head or something?" Kenichi walked around the three of them to gauge his father's face better. He examined him thoroughly, but all he saw on his father's face was confusion. "Let me go!" Kimiko snapped at Rintaro, pulling out of Rintaro's grasp. "I spent Monday in the hospital because of this guy. You think I would make something like this up?" "Ranma?" Ryouga asked, his voice raising an octave as he took a step back. "Is that you?" It only took a half-second, but Kimiko answered him with a kick to the thigh. Ryouga stepped back and the kick missed its target, but struck his foot anyway. So close to his opponent, Kenichi knew his father would beat the tar out of Kimiko, but he did not. He simply tried to push her back. Kimiko deflected his arms and chopped Ryouga's side with her rigid hand. It must have had some force, because it made Ryouga fall back. Kimiko did not want to stop there, but Rintaro quickly moved and grabbed her by the back. Ryouga recovered so fast that Kenichi did not even notice until Kimiko and Rintaro both went flying across the street. Kenichi's jaw dropped as he watched Kimiko and Rintaro land hard into the back of the wall. Ryouga began to run across the street towards them, but Kenichi got in his way. "Stop!" he yelled, putting his hands out. His father ran into him, but slowed down in time and merely knocked him back a few feet into the street. "What is going on with you? Why'd you hit her?" Ryouga looked down at his son with eyes full of deep sadness. He did not even look like himself with such tragic eyes. Taking Kenichi by the hands, he shook his head. "What?" Kenichi asked before Ryouga lifted him up and set him to the side. Kenichi thought that Kimiko had started to recover at this point, but it was Rintaro who lifted her off himself. He held her tenderly, looking down at her. She looked really hurt. When Ryouga reached them, Kenichi watched in fascination as Ryouga separated the kids and lifted Kimiko up in his fists. Kenichi rushed towards them as Rintaro stood up. "Please don't hurt her, Hibiki-sensei!" Rintaro pleaded, carefully maintaining his distance from Kenichi's father. "I think she's just confused!" "She...is not," he snapped, emphasizing the pronoun. "This is just same game that he likes to play. Isn't that right, Ranma? You're fine, so snap out of it." Kenichi approached them from the side. Ryouga had lifted Kimiko by the collar. Her tiny tank top stretched upward so that Kenichi could see her the bottom half of her torso. His eyes opened wide when he saw the huge welt that Ryouga had put on her right rib bone with his strike. Kenichi feared that it broke a rib. She seemed to weakly be holding onto his wrists, unable to fight back. In response to Ryouga's question, she spat blood in the man's face. Her eyes shined with hatred. Kenichi did not know what was going on, but he made a decision early. No one treated his friends like that, not even his father. He caught his father completely off guard by striking him so hard in the ribs that Ryouga not only dropped Kimiko, but also fell onto the sidewalk. Rintaro caught the girl quickly, his arms reaching around her shoulders and supporting her. Kenichi rushed to her, taking her from Rintaro so that he laid her out on the ground. She did nothing to resist, as she seemed to be catching her breath. The hit must have struck a lung. She whispered something, but it came out more as a cough. "Do you know what the hell this is about, Kenichi?" Rintaro asked Kenichi as he stood near the two of them. He currently had his eyes focused on Kenichi's father, who seemed fine enough to stand on his own. "Not a clue," Kenichi replied, lifting Kimiko's shirt to examine the bruise. The black and blue shape a fist resided just under her left breast along her ribs. The strike would have definitely broke a rib and would also explain why she spit up blood. "Damn it, Kenichi," Ryouga swore from where he stood up. He had not moved towards them, which probably meant he was seeing a bit of reason now. "You don't know who you've got in your arms there." Kenichi looked down at the girl in his arms. No matter what crazy story she told, he did not care what his father had to say in his defense. No one deserved the kind of thing he did to her. The three of them stood leagues below Ryouga in a match of strength, speed and skill. He would be surprised if the three of them together could even take Ryouga if he was being serious. "You called her Ranma," Rintaro said sharply at Ryouga. He seemed angry, but Kenichi could not tell, as his voice rarely changed tones and he faced away from Kenichi. "Even if she was Ranma, that would make her my brother. So you have a lot explaining to do." "Me?" Ryouga said, his voice furious. "He should be answering it. He's the one that attacked me in the park! He's lucky he's still breathing." Kenichi could hardly believe his father. By referring to Kimiko as 'he' and reinforcing Kimiko's story of being cursed by Jusenkyou, Kenichi wondered exactly what he should do here. He felt like he was in the middle of something ages old coming to a conclusion. "Well, I don't think she's going to tell us much for a while now," Rintaro said dryly, looking back at her. "So why don't you try to explain why you just hit a sixteen-year-old girl hard enough to kill her?" "That's not a girl," Ryouga said, more calmly this time, but still full of determination. "That's a thirty-six year old martial arts master who can take punches just as well as I can." He dusted himself off, his eyes fixed on Rintaro. "He was cursed by Jusenkyou years ago and likes fooling people to think he's a little girl. And yes, he is your brother, but not one who should deserve your protection." Kenichi looked down at the girl in his arms. Her eyes were open now. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she weakly sobbed. Her mouth trembled as she cried. She did not look thirty-six or male, but she did look like a Saotome. He was surprised he had not thought about it earlier, but his mind had been elsewhere. Now that he thought about it, he was sure that she looked a lot like Rintaro's little brother, Shintaro. "She doesn't change shape," Kenichi told his father sadly. "She's not like Aunt Shampoo at all. She doesn't change in cold or hot water." Ryouga's face changed from one of anger to one of shock. He looked down at his son and the girl in his arms with disbelief in his squinted eyes. "You know that for a fact?" he asked slowly. "I fell into the koi pond with her," Kenichi informed him as he stared at his father. He suddenly hated him so much. "Mayako showered at the dojo with her. I'm sure she would have mentioned if she changed into a boy." His father seemed to consider his words, as he cupped his chin with his hand. Kenichi turned his attention back to the girl, who took in a ragged breath and tried to sit up. Kenichi did not try to stop her, but between her jerky movements and her wince, he knew whatever his father did, it hurt her badly. She sat up with his help and then surprisingly pushed herself to her feet. "If you're not Ranma, then why did you attack me in the park?" Ryouga demanded. To Kenichi, it seemed like he was trying to justify action, which he now questioned. Ryouga staggered back, his hands on his face. He looked suddenly like he was growing ill. Kimiko did not look like she was going to respond anytime soon, and simply walked over to the wall. She leaned on it, facing Ryouga with a scowl. To Kenichi's surprise, she did speak. "Stop acting the victim, Ryouga. Yes, I did attack you in the park, but I didn't try to kill you! You're the one that held me under the water until I passed out! If my brother didn't get there in time, I'd be dead right now." Once again, Kenichi's eyes widened as he stared at his father as if seeing him for the first time. As hard as Ryouga tried, he could not recall if she ever claimed to be Ranma during their brief scuffle in the park. He had thought her a figment of his imagination, because it would not have been the first time. His attempt to drown a ghost left a black hole in his memory of the night. He had woken up the next day across the other side of the park under a bench, and his body ached so badly he stumbled to a nearby hotel where he stayed a few days recuperating. He thought the whole thing might have been a dream or a part of whatever curse befell him at Jusenkyou all those years ago when he thought himself cured. He merely traded one curse for another. He knew he did not get the better end of the deal. After the redheaded girl had stood and yelled at him, he realized his error. He had assumed this girl had been Ranma, because she looked like him and knew his name. Now he was slowly beginning to realize she was probably exactly who Genma and Soun thought she was and only knew him because of Ranma. His son now stared at him like he was some kind of monster. Even Rintaro looked at him slack-jawed. They now took this girl's side without a doubt. His actions made him seem the less reliable point of authority. He wondered whether he should agree with them. "I-I'm sorry," he apologized, bending his body into a deep bow. He did not know what else he could do to at least take it back. He straightened out and looked at the girl. "You're sorry?" she incredulously asked, her tone making it quite apparent it was not forgiveness she sought. "You think that takes back everything you've done to me...and Ranma." She added his former rival's name tentatively, as if trying it out. He could not even believe he thought she was Ranma at any point in time. She was many years too young, and far too inexperienced a fighter to match what Ranma would be like now if he had survived the fall. That drew Ryouga back. Ranma must have survived the fall if he could have had a child, though he wondered what kind of shape it left him in. She looked to be his son's age, like she was fifteen or sixteen at the most. She did not have the body of a martial artist either, as her muscles were smaller. Ranma would have taken that blow and walked it off. The person he had fought on Sunday seemed tougher than this girl, who looked like she had been beaten a few times in between now on the time in the park. "I can't explain my actions," Ryouga started to say, but cut off his words as the headlights of a car turned onto the street in front of him. It drove down the narrow one way street towards them. "Are you insane?" Rintaro asked, his voice trembling slightly. Ryouga hoped he did not think that he would attack the young Saotome boy. "You tried to drown her?" "It was a mistake," he said as the car slowed and stopped next to them. The sudden arrival took all of their attention away from the current events. "I thought you were Ranma." The three kids looked away from him at the car. It was a small, black luxury sedan that probably cost a mint. Although he could not tell the make, it looked foreign and expensive. The driver turned off the engine and opened the door and stepped out onto the street. Although the man that exited the vehicle was a complete stranger to Ryouga, he had the sudden feeling of deja vu. The man was tall, probably a few inches taller than Ryouga. He was dressed in a suit, but had long black hair down his back that was longer than even the redhead's. One other thing that made him seem familiar was the look on his face. He shared the same look of anger that the three kids on the sidewalk sported on their faces. The man looked at Ryouga strangely, as if he had not expected to see the him here. Just before the stranger spoke, he slipped his arms out of his coat and rested it on the hood of the car. "So you didn't get enough last time, eh?" He then rolled back the sleeves of his white dress shirt. Ryouga struggled for words, but somehow could not answer. He merely felt confused. He took a step back. "Who are you?" The man walked over to the redhead and Ryouga's son, appraising her injuries. "Her brother," he said simply. He sounded cool. Ryouga knew this man was more powerful than he looked. He walked with pure confidence. "Kiyoshi," the redhead said almost as a hiss. "Why are you here?" "Not taking any chances," Kiyoshi responded with a glance Ryouga's way. "Are you okay? You look a lot worse off than you mention on the phone." He took the girl from Kenichi and examined her arms. Before Kimiko responded, Ryouga suddenly got the impression that this was not the first time he saw the dark man in the suit. Ryouga's memory refused to divulge any details, but Kiyoshi definitely met Ryouga before. "I just want to go," Kimiko said after a moment of silence. Her eyes met Ryouga's. She seriously looked injured though, as she still was being supported by her son. Ryouga intended to knock the wind out of Ranma, not injure a teenager. He gritted his teeth, feeling guilty for hitting a real girl half his age. "What's the pig doing here?" Kiyoshi said, his eyes turning to meet Ryouga's for a moment. It was in that moment, Ryouga knew the night would not resolve peacefully between them. He hoped the man packed more punch than beauty, because he would need it all to best him. "I think there's been a misunderstanding here," Rintaro said loudly, his voice echoing down the empty street. "Let's all go somewhere and explain what the hell is going on so I'm a little clearer on the subject." "Before we make any mistakes," Ryouga began, unable to let them talk over his head anymore. "Let's do as the boy says. I deeply apologize for what happened and really want to clear this situation up before we go any further." Kiyoshi did not seem to hear. He walked Kimiko over to the car, where he opened the back seat and sat her down and closed the door. Ryouga could not see her behind the darkly tinted glass. He had an ominous feeling about this. Rintaro watched in shock as Kiyoshi leapt at Ryouga so suddenly that the two adults had already begun to fight when his brain recognized that Kiyoshi had made the first move. His eyes opened wide at the speed of their attacks. Kiyoshi moved with such fluid speed that Rintaro doubted that Ryouga could even keep up with his storm of attacks. It ended before anything even seemed to happen. One moment, Kiyoshi leapt at his opponent, the next their arms were a blur of attacks, and then in the finale, Ryouga slid to the ground with Kiyoshi standing on top of him. Rintaro could only watch with his mouth gaping. "What's this?" Kiyoshi said atop his fallen foe. "Where's the man I fought the other night?" Ryouga seemed to stir as if to answer, but Kiyoshi kicked him in the gut. It was about that time that the two in the car came out. Kimiko stumbled and fell, but held onto the door as she did so. Kenichi seemed to run for his father, but strangely did not get far. Rintaro did not see the boy and assumed he must have stopped on the other side of the car. "Don't do this, Kiyoshi," Kimiko in a voice that did not even hint at pleading. It was almost as if she was angry with him. "Let's just leave. I can't take it here any more." Kiyoshi did not seem to pay attention to her. With his jaw set, he drove his foot into Ryouga's abdomen. For his part, the older man did not seem to fight off the attack or even challenge it. He seemed to want to answer, but obviously could not with the force against his lungs. "I'll deal with him, Kimiko," Kiyoshi said, dismissing his sister casually. His words seemed cruel as his eyes never left the man he punished. "Stay in the car." "You can't tell me what to do," she responded angrily, stabilizing herself. Rintaro walked across the street to help her, but she waved him off. She had the look of a time hardened warrior. Rintaro was surprised she was still breathing after Ryouga's attack. Rintaro felt guilt for his placing the blame on the girl. She seemed to have enough problems that his trials would be too much to pin against her as well. To find family as strong as or stronger than he really felt like an honor now. "Kiyoshi, he's Akane's husband," she said fiercely, walking to the end of the car. Kiyoshi stood over Ryouga in the middle of the street, and he did not even stir. "Did you hear me, Kiyoshi?" Kimiko demanded as she reached the end of the car, keeping her hand firmly over the hood of the car. "I can hear you just fine," he snapped. He turned his head to face her with violent eyes. "Go sit in the car." "You knew," she said with shock in her voice. It was about this time that Rintaro looked around, not seeing Kenichi anywhere. The boy had not turned up since he exited the vehicle. "You knew, didn't you?" she asked, much louder this time. Rintaro approached the car and went to the other side, where the rear passenger's side door remained open, but he was not in the vehicle nor standing beside it. Rintaro bent over and looked underneath the vehicle. He then righted himself and looked over at the trio. "Why didn't you tell me?!" Kimiko shouted in demand. She now stood close to the car. "Kenichi?" Rintaro asked of the darkness, looking about. "I told you more than you should have heard," Kiyoshi finally replied. "You were barely able handle what I did tell." Rintaro took one step forward towards them when he felt something slimy slip around his neck and tighten like a noose. The sudden shock of it caused him to hiccup as he was about to yell Kenichi's name. It took less than a second and he was yanked off his feet and over the wall. He could only mutely dangle his feet and grab at the slippery tentacle around his neck. "You should have told me!" Rintaro heard someone shout as he fell hard onto the grass on the other side of the wall. Then something sharp dug into his back. He would have yelled, but the cord around his neck kept him from speaking. He mutely gasped as whoever held him choked the breath from his lungs. "Told you what?" Kiyoshi demanded of Kimiko. He looked angrier than she had ever seen him before. She did not know how much of it he directed at her, and how much of himself. "That the scum under my feet ruined your life? You knew that much without having to know the details." In one quick move, Ryouga threw Kiyoshi's feet off his body and rolled to his feet. He backed away from Kiyoshi, warding the man back with his hands. "I would like a chance to defend myself." His flushed face sported a footprint on his face and he breathed heavily, but did not look much worse for wear. "By all means, try to block as I rip you apart," Kiyoshi said with such emotion, Kimiko stared at him in confusion. It was almost as if he had suffered under Ryouga, and not she. Something did not make sense. Kimiko's memories of the event that lead to her coma were fractured at best, and she really did not even know for sure whether Ryouga was behind all of it. One part of Kimiko wanted Kiyoshi to do just as he promised, but she knew deep inside of her, that was not what she really desired. For a year and a half they practiced, fought, but never had she ever wanted to hurt Kiyoshi. He made life possible for her. He offered her safety, not pity. She owed him so much, but she could not let him do something that she would regret. She felt like hell, but managed the few strides to Kiyoshi. With his back turned to her, Kiyoshi never saw her coming. She quickly struck a few pressure points on his back and then reached around his waist and pulled him back. He did not struggle much as he fell back against her. The strikes on the inner armpit disabled his arms temporarily and the strikes along the spine made his feet wobbly, but she did relatively little to him in terms of damage. "What?" Kiyoshi said as he fell into her arms. He seemed completely caught off guard by her move. "Kim-chan?" "Ryouga, you have a minute to explain yourself before he recovers. If you want to walk tomorrow, you better make it quick." Kiyoshi did not fight his position, even though she knew he could easily have done something to reverse his situation. She had hoped he would accept her decision to listen first. Ryouga looked about to speak, when a look of absolute horror took his face. He only took one step back as his arm rose and his finger pointed above her head. Kimiko turned to look where he pointed. Standing on the perimeter wall of the school stood one of the most terrifying things she had ever seen. Whatever he had been before, he no longer was recognizable. The beast that stared down at them stood so tall that the wall doubled his height. His hairy legs were mountains of muscled flesh and the least distorted part of his body. His upper body no longer looked at all human, or even mammal. Two arms were almost obscured by the flailing tentacles that covered his chest and sides. At the top of the beast rested the head of a bull. "What?" Kiyoshi said, his back still slumped against Kimiko. "Tarou," she said faintly, but then saw what scared Ryouga the most. She turned the two of them to face the creature. The beast jumped down from the wall, extended his wings and landed on the roof of the car, crushing it with his massive weight. From behind him, he showed the two boys that Kimiko had failed to notice disappear. Both Rintaro and Kenichi were held high above the ground, now shining in the light of the nearby street lamp. Tentacles held them at the neck and waists. It was obvious he could strangle either of them without much trouble. "What in the name of God?" Kiyoshi whispered, his voice expressing his surprise. "What has he become?" "It's been twenty years," Kimiko reminded him. "We've all changed." The last time Kimiko had seen Tarou's cursed form, he was half the size and was not so gravely distorted. Kimiko suddenly wondered if she would see a friend die tonight because of her thoughtless wish to return home. "Tarou?" Ryouga demanded, his voice tight with anger. "Let go of my son." The beast did not say a word, but merely stared down at them, almost dispassionately. He shook his head once with a grin that displayed a mouth of narrow, sharp teeth that might have resided along the jaws of an alligator more so than a human or even a bull. "What do you want?" Ryouga said, each word pronounced slowly. "I told you everything I know already. When will that be enough?" "When I find him!" Tarou hissed back, his voice so distorted by the changes to his body, that Kimiko barely understood his words to be more than a low growl. "Stall him while I recover," Kenichi whispered to her. "I'll deal with him after that." "Okay," she said, setting him on the ground. She then stood and looked down at Kiyoshi. He pulled himself into a kneeling position and closed his eyes. "I have your friends, girl," the beast growled, waving Rintaro with a tentacle on his left side. Rintaro immediately began to choke as the tentacle holding his waist released pressure, merely binding his hands and legs instead. "Stop!" Ryouga shouted. "What's she have to do with the old man? I thought you were after me." Kimiko looked around for anything she could use to cut the tentacles, trying her best to ignore her brother's pain. The only thing on the street was the car. Shattered glass laid around the vehicle in shards. She noticed a particularly large piece on the side of the vehicle closest to the sidewalk. "Only he matters," came the guttural words from the mouth of the monster. Kimiko could not help but shiver. "Stall him for a few minutes," Kiyoshi whispered in her ear. He still felt like dead weight in her arms. "Your technique was excellent, I'm afraid." Casting a glance over at Ryouga, she suddenly realized they were allies again. The only time that ever occurred was when the odds piled up against them and their causes were the same. Glancing down at the shards of glass, she had to get Tarou to move off the car without jeopardizing the life of her brother and her friend. When the plan came to her, she wondered if she could pull it off without losing her life. Ryouga trembled slightly as Tarou held his son by the neck. He knew first hand the strength of the beast, but that was not the revelation tonight. He had fought Tarou on several occasions, but never did he imagine that he could assume such a form. The last time they did battle, he was smaller and lacked the sheer amount of appendages that he sported across his back and sides now. Ryouga could only imagine what changed with the man's curse. Glancing down at the redheaded girl and her brother, he began to panic. He doubted either of them could fight right now and Ryouga would not be able to save both children alone. His heart racing, the man grit his teeth. "I thought you were after me," Ryouga said again, the growl he received before not really explaining anything. "Why are you after her? She can't know anything about him." "Yet she does," the thing said with its horribly distorted voice. "Speak or I break this one's neck." Kenichi, who dangled over the beast's right shoulder, suddenly dropped a foot. His eyes bulged as the tentacles wrapped around his waist no longer held him. He began to choke loudly. "Stop it!" Kimiko yelled as she stood up quickly. "I will tell you anything you want to know. Please, just let them go!" "Talk now or he dies!" Kimiko took a few steps forward as she spoke. "I haven't seen him for years, I swear it! It's been so long I barely remember what he looked like!" "Come closer and I crush their necks," Tarou threatened, lifting Rintaro forward. Unlike Kenichi who struggled, Rintaro seemed to limply hang by his neck. He did not fight, which really worried Ryouga, who felt totally powerless to help the children. "Tarou," Kimiko began with her palms turned up with her arms stretched out. "Take me instead. I'll tell you everything if you release them." The beast seemed to entertain the notion as he regained his grasp on the waists of the two boys. Ryouga let out a deep sigh of relief, exhaling the air he inadvertently held in. "Although it's true that I haven't seen him in a long time," Kimiko said quickly, "I know someone who is closer to him than anyone. I'll lead you to him if you just let them go. Please." "No, Kimiko!" her brother yelled helplessly from his slumped over position on the street. His face burned with anger. Ryouga began to walk towards him when the girl walk forward towards the crushed car, her bare feet walking over the glass on the street. With each step she left behind droplets of blood. She seemed to complete ignore her brother. "If you even think about fighting, someone will die," Tarou said simply in his raspy, torn voice. Ryouga reached the young man who glared up at him. "What did she do to you?" "A crippling pressure point technique I taught her," the man replied. He seemed to regard Ryouga more neutrally now that more was at stake than the past. The older man still wanted to know who this young man and his sister were, and why they hated him so. He assumed Kimiko was related to Ranma, who must have passed on his grudge to her. He was not so sure he could accept Genma's rationalization of her appearance, though. It was still bizarre. After the accident so many years ago, he thought Ranma almost certainly perished from the fall. "How long?" Ryouga whispered at him. "She pushed too hard. A few minutes, I think." He seemed to strain to move as Ryouga examined his back with his hand. "Wait for me to take him out. I'll make sure it's his last." The way the man he heard called Kiyoshi sounded quite calm for a man who just said he would kill another man. "Don't let Kimiko risk her life. Please, if she tells him what he wants to know, I'm sure he'll kill her." Ryouga looked up at the girl who bravely risked her life for his son and Rintaro Saotome. He felt torn between his selfish need to allow her to be taken for his soon, and his guilt over Ranma's disappearance. He owed both of the children life. He only wished he could trade his own for theirs instead. He wished he could find Happosai and hand him over, dead or alive to the beast so this would end once and for all. Kimiko stood defiantly at the side of the car, so close to the beast that he could easily attack her now. "If you kill either of them, I'll never say a word. I'll kill you, or you'll kill me and you'll never get your revenge." She then knelt, bowing and extending her head in offering. "God no!" Kiyoshi screamed, his eyes focused in on the event. He started babbling in his panic. "Ryouga, stop her and I'll forgive you everything. Please, don't let him have her! He'll kill her!" "If you move, only your son dies, Hibiki," the creature said as he deftly waved Kenichi in the air. "I think I'll take you up on your offer girl, but I'm keeping one of them. Who shall I release?" Kimiko looked up, her face calm, her eyes strange. She looked stronger, like she did when she fought Ryouga in the dream. "Release them both or you will never get what you want. One way or another." "You're in no position to demand anything," he said a free tentacle on his left side, just below Rintaro, reached down towards her slowly, caressing her face. "I can take all three of you if I wanted." Kiyoshi started to twitch out of the corner of Ryouga's eye. "Buy another minute. Please." His eyes were focused in on Ryouga as he turned to the man. "Even if you regain your strength in time, you cannot move quick enough to stop him from breaking my son's neck," Ryouga said, confident that even remarkable as this young man's skill was, he could not match the speed at which one of those tentacles could snap the boys' necks. "I can and I will," Kiyoshi replied. Just at that moment, it seemed too late for Kiyoshi's plan. "Fine," Tarou began, his voice low. "We have a deal, but I will drop this boy off after we leave here. I do not want his father thinking he can keep his child and still kill me." Ryouga's eyes opened wide as the tentacle carrying Rintaro drew back and then whipped him around and released the child. The eldest Saotome child flew across directly at Ryouga. He barely managed to catch the boy before he realized he was too late to do anything. He, Kimiko and his precious son were all gone. * * * She did not struggle when the tentacle grabbed her by the waist and the beast carried her off, so quick it left Ryouga sprawled on the asphalt street with Rintaro on him. After the disorienting sprint, Tarou grabbed her with two other tentacles, around the neck and legs, but still left her hands free. As he carried her around, she felt the piece of glass she smuggled in her waist band dig into her hip as the tentacle around her waist tightened. Ignoring the pain and the blood, she focused on her goal. She needed a moment when they stopped so she could severe enough of his tentacles to free herself and Kenichi. With only one person to focus on saving, she could possibly do it. She could buy time with half truths if he questioned her, but his tolerances for them seemed to dissipate since their last confrontation by the car. Kimiko decided to test to see if Tarou had nerve endings in his tentacles, by digging her nails into the one along her waist. What she found was the tentacles were harder than flesh and resisted her piercing nails like Kevlar. Using her nails like a saw, she brought them across the tentacle, bringing slightly more success. The cutting motion did more and pierced the outer lair of thick skin, but still brought no reaction from her captor. As the tentacle around her neck began to tighten, she took in a deep breath and began to concentrate. It slowly cut off her air, but she could last several minutes without it. If it squeezed tighter and cut the blood from her brain, she would lose consciousness quickly. She wondered how well he knew that threshold. They traveled on, which meant little since as soon as Kiyoshi regained his strength, he would track them down fast. The longer they traveled, the less she would have to buy time, and the more quickly she would be safe on a plane out of here, bringing her misfortunate luck with her. She began to get dizzy as the tentacle around her neck did not release after a few minutes. Her vision began to darken and her senses faded. However, moments later Tarou released her neck. At the same time he released her, she heard Kenichi coughing and wheezing. He must not have been paying much attention, treating them both the same way as he traveled. Kimiko took the time to properly breathe, catching her breath and preparing for more. That did not happen as Tarou stopped in front of a motel room. She watched entered the door, which had been left ajar. He threw Kenichi across the room, where the boy rolled to a stop against the wall. He did not immediately start moving, which worried Kimiko. He did not release her, instead grabbing her around the ribs with his overly large hands. When he removed the tentacles from around her waist and replaced them with his hands, the piece of glass fell from her waistband down her right pant leg, cutting her along the way. "Where did you see him last?" The beast asked as he walked her into the room. "Your friend does not have time for stalling. I know Ryouga will find us soon, so don't play around. If you don't know anything, I will kill you." That was the most he said since confronting them in his beast form. When he turned her around to face him, she marveled. His body remained the same but his head returned to normal. "How did you do that?" she asked, her breath caught. "What? This?" He then performed another remarkable feat before her eyes. If she had not known better, she might have mistaken him for an angel, with wings growing out the back of his back, and expanding the entire width of the room. "You seem interested, little girl," Tarou said smugly, grinning through his yellowed teeth. "Perhaps I'll tell you, release you and your friend, if you tell me everything I want to know." He laughed at his own words. "Don't let anyone tell you I'm not generous. All I want is that wrinkled old man and you will never see me again." She considered his offer. Kiyoshi could handle the fallout, but she did not want that information in the wrong hands. It could tear him down from his very roots. On the other hand, he could probably kill her if he chose to. She had to buy some time and recover the weapon that now felt like it lodged itself in her thigh. With all the pain from all over her body, it was difficult to pinpoint what was hurt. "When I said I haven't seen the old man in a long time, I wasn't lying." Before she could say more, he stunned her with a slap across the face. The sting remained as she noticed his hands had reverted to human ones, even though tentacles still held her by the neck and legs. She shook off the blow. "That's not what I wanted to hear," he said plainly, without any emotion. "What I do want to hear are names, locations, new identities, anything I can use." "How do you know I won't just lie to get you off my back?" she asked, doubting his offer for their safety if she tattled. "I'll know," he said smoothly. His eyes bore into hers. "I'll know, because that is what I do best. You will tell me the absolute truth, and I'll feel it." "He's here in Tokyo," she said, teasing him with the truth, testing his ability. Hook. His jaw cracked open and his eyes narrowed. "Interesting. Go on." "After you attacked us, I called him," she told him. "He will probably find you." Line. He jerked and then began to shake her, whipping her back and forth. "How aren't you lying? That's ridiculous! Why would he evade me for so long only to come now? What are you to him?" After he stopped shaking, she regained her composure and stared him directly in the eyes. He looked almost frantic. "I don't know what I mean to him, or why he trained me. I bet you can guess why, though." Sinker. Tarou softened and released her completely. She fell backwards against the bed he had been holding her over. His laughter pierced her eyes. "All this time," he said softly, almost belligerent. "All this time and he's coming to me for some puny girl. For some girl, he'd confront the monster he created, trained, cast off. I can't believe my luck." Kimiko took the opportunity to try and recover her weapon. She slid the weapon up her pant leg and into her shirt. As she began to drag it up, she felt the tentacles grab her arms. Before she could get a hold of the shard of glass, it ripped upwards slicing through the tank top she wore under her shirt, and lacerating her stomach. The other end tore her shirt from both of its sharp ends. She struggled for only a moment, and the piece of glass fell to the side of her shirt as he took her by the hands. "What does he know?" His eyes looked hungry as the maniacal grin extended from his lips across his face and his intentions. He looked capable of anything at this moment. "Everything," Kimiko told him. "Well, he can't know about my new abilities yet," Tarou reasoned. "So I can surprise him with that. I'm sure the old man doesn't have too many new tricks up his ragged sleeves." Kimiko said nothing, but he noticed the expression on her face. He scowled. "He knows. Somehow he knows." He brought his fist back and punched her across the cheek so hard her head whipped back. He still held her right hand, so she fell back onto the shard of glass. It felt oddly warm as the edge sliced along her side. Stars swam across her vision as she tried to right herself. She did not know how much longer she could hold out. The day had been long and full of pain. She held onto consciousness with all of her will. "Did I hurt you?" Tarou mocked, releasing her hand to allow her to drop back against the bed. "Getting a bit bloody, are we?" She felt him grab her by the ankles and pull her back to the edge of the bed. He then lifted her by grabbing the front of her blouse. As it became untucked, she felt the shard of glass slide out beside her. Her left eye refused to open, but her right one saw his face clearly. Entirely human now, Tarou held her tightly around the wrists. The look in his brown eyes displayed nothing more than absolute control. He believed he would get what he wanted and that he would win out over her. She wanted that look to be there. "Saotome," he said. "You can't fall asleep yet. I haven't even begun to have fun yet. The night has only begun." Kimiko put her hands down and managed to palm the shard of glass, hiding it behind her wrist. "He's going to kill you." Her words echoed for a moment and she braced for another punch, but it did not come. "I didn't ask." He glared at her but then squinted his eyes. "That man who arrived in the car. The one playing with Ryouga is somehow involved with the old man." A change overcame his face. His lips curled into a vicious grin. Kimiko did not reply. She readied her arm. She would only have one chance at it. "Good," he said with a grin. He eyed down at her blouse. "Did you cut yourself somewhere? You're bleeding more than I expected." "Let Kenichi go," she whispered. She had intended to speak firmly, but her lungs wheezed as she tried, coming out tiny. It dawned upon her that she might not have the strength to fight any longer. She silently cursed her training, Kiyoshi, herself, Ryouga, and every flighting image that went through her scattered mind. "Alright," he said, chuckling right afterward. "Hey, Kenichi, your girlfriend bought your freedom. Leave before I kill you." Kimiko looked over at him. He still lay face first on the ground, his arms haphazardly laying beside him. He looked unconscious and did not respond to Tarou's words. "Looks like he wants to die," Tarou said wryly. "I'd be only happy to oblige the little bastard." He released her and she felt her final opportunity had arrived. In her mind, she fell back so slowly as he turned to go hurt Kenichi. Her back fell back, but her eyes did not leave her captor. She felt her energy return to her as she bounced back against the mattress beneath her. Her eyes focused on his unprotected back as the energy sprung her back up. She strengthened her abdomen and pushed forward, using every ounce of will to force the rebound. It happened slowly, like the fiercest of fights she experienced. Her analytical mind saw the opening, the unprotected right side he had turned to her. The shard of glass slipped through the cracks of her fingers as she surged forward, until her hand held it like a dagger. As her left arm thrust forward, her legs flexed and the resulting energy carried her toward her opponent. Several feet lay between them as she rose to her full height and continued forward. Her arm extended as her left foot took one careful step, directly at Tarou. The shard began to enter Tarou's side when something smashed into her blind spot. The strike felt like a brick across her already swollen eye, knocking her sprawling. Pain shot to her face and then the room grew dark. She thought she heard something distantly in another room, or another floor. It sounded vaguely like clapping, but only one person cheered. As her mind focused again, she realized it was the sound of slapping and the pain in her cheeks meant she was its recipient. She came to as if doused with cold water, but she remained dry. Her right eye opened wide as another slap crushed her cheek. A sob escaped her lips, freed quicker than she would ever be. The sudden pain of her entire body roused her and the room grew dark again, but a sudden jerk in moment woke her. "Not yet," she heard. "Open your eyes." Kimiko complied, not totally sure who was asking. Her eye slid open to look at her captor once more. "Good, don't fall asleep just yet. I'm not through with you." She hated him so much now that she willed a deep breath and then spit as much fluid from her mouth as she could, covering his face with splatters of blood. "I suppose that means you're going to fight me?" he asked, almost as if bored. "You are definitely a Saotome. However, I don't really care. I know you're still withholding information from me." His words swam circles in her head, coming to no destination. She felt him place tape against her lips. "Alright, rest then," he said. His words, softer now, tickled her ears. He must have whispered them in her ear, for she recognized the sensation as his breath. She remained awake, but lay immobile. Her arms felt like gelatin, and her legs felt bound by a heavy weight. She peaked her eye open and realized he sat on them. "Not tired? I don't blame you. You're probably eager about your boyfriend's health. I didn't hurt him, if you must know. He woke up for a bit, but he didn't seem to want to leave, so now he's asleep again." Kenichi could not escape him either. Kimiko could barely think, but she regretted missing his awakening. It would have been a better opening than a simple turning of Tarou's back. She still did not regret her choice to go with the vicious man, even though she realized she would probably not survive. "Pretty piece of glass you found, by the way," Tarou taunted. "Let's see what art it created on your body as you hid it away from me." Kimiko heard the sound of tearing and managed to peak her eyes open to see him shredding the remains of her blouse. He tore it open and looked down on her exposed stomach. "Beautiful," he whispered, tracing one his finger over what must have been a cut, because it triggered a ripple of pain that made her hiss. "Not the safest place to hide it. You're lucky you didn't hide it in your bra, or it'd have shredded your breasts." Energy she might not have had, but anger she had plenty of. It rose within her, quickening the beat of her heart as she strained against him. He merely slapped away her hands. Her lips fought the tape binding them as she felt a sudden pain in her hand. He stabbed it with the piece of glass. Tears began to freely flow down her cheeks. "Tears, at last" he whispered in her ear. "You hold out well for a skinny whelp of a girl. I think you're still hiding things from me as well." Kimiko felt the familiar feeling welling up within her tired, exposed chest. She first experienced the helplessness when Cologne trapped her as a girl during her first year living with the Tendous. However, she had learned ways around her innate handicaps and rose to meet the challenge. Fortune had been with her that she had not needed the Phoenix pill, because she would never compromise her integrity or honor. Again the helpless feelings nearly buried her alive in her forced seclusion to the United States, where she had to overcome difficulties she would have never dreamed about in old life. She neither liked reflecting on the past nor did it often, but to learn from her mistakes in the past, she would have to focus on the future. She had to leave this hotel room with Kenichi. There would be no compromises and no more deals. She had to do whatever necessary to insure both of their safety. She breathed deeply, focusing on her emotions rather than the pain. Reflecting had a way of drawing her somewhere else, away from reality. The crying, the tears, they were not her. Those were the natural reactions of someone she could be if she followed a course. They were an appearance of a weakness she did not have. She let her body cope with the pain as it needed to, putting her opponent off his guard with every tear sliding down her cheek. * * * Kimiko had not even realized she had fallen asleep, when she awoke to bright sunlight. The Thursday sun woke her gently, but the stinging pain in her body were not as gentle. Her head ached and her skin felt cut in a million places. A shade fell back into place, allowing her to focus her tired eyes. Tarou sat in a chair by the window of the motel room, leaning against the adjacent wall. He listlessly peered out the window. She felt the bindings around her wrists, tied behind her back as she realized her ankles were similarly bound. Although the air in the room was warm, she felt chilled because most of her clothing had been stripped from her body. She wondered about the material used to tie her, and realized it felt a lot like shoe laces. In addition to the bindings, she also felt strips of material wrapped around her, including her right hand, which Tarou had stabbed the night before. The man was not without a sense of pity, she supposed. Tarou did not notice she had woken up, so she decided to play asleep and hope for a chance at escape. Keeping her breath rhythmic, she did not want to betray anything to her captor. Closing her eyes, Kimiko crept her arms back, feeling at the soft sheets of the bed. It was an uncomfortable feeling, being on a bed again. She had one in California, but since she had arrived in Japan, she had slept on futons as it was meant to be. Even the slightest movement could bring about the slightest squeak of the springs under the mattress. What she felt a foot away from her stopped her hand. The backs of her fingertips gently brushed a soft body behind her. Inching her arms back, she pushed the palms of her hands against what felt like Kenichi's abdomen. His stomach muscles flexed in response to her touch. She almost felt like crying in realizing he was okay. Minutes seemed like hours as she concentrated on keeping her heart rate slow and her breath controlled. With each exhale, she worried he would see through her rouse and begin to torture her again for answers she would never reveal. The longer she lay in wait, the more tired she became. The warmth of the room and the fatigue of the night before had drained anything she could have used to stay awake. She was about to slip into slumber land again when she heard a voice. "Kimiko," a girl's voice called, startling her awake. The chair by the window lay empty. She listened carefully, but heard nothing but Kenichi's slow, rhythmic breathing. She curled into a ball, aggravating the cuts along her abdomen and her side. Looking over her legs, she did not see Tarou anywhere. Her heart skipped a beat. "Kenichi-kun, wake up," she said quietly but firmly. "He's angry," Kenichi said in a small, far away voice. She wished she could hug the poor boy. "Don't talk or he'll hurt us again." "He's gone, Kenichi," she said more firmly. "I need your help. I'm not strong enough to break these ties." "Okay," he whispered. "What can I do?" "I need you to turn over so I can untie your wrists," she told him. She felt the bed bounce as he flipped around in the bed. She felt his hands clasp hers, leading them to the restraints. She felt the rough laces wrapped so tightly around his wrists, searching around them for the note. She reached around them and found it on the inside, but realized it would be impossible to untie the tightly wrapped knot. "There's no way I can undo that." She took in a deep breath. "We're going to have to find a way to break the ties on our legs so we can at least run out of here. Think you can break your legs out?" "Yes, I think I can," he said after a moment of shifting on the bed. He then grunted and made a low growling sound as he strained against the bonds on his legs. As he struggled with the ties, Kimiko slowly sat up. Even as her weary head spun, she kept her mind focused. She looked down at her exposed chest. Cuts and scratches covered her skin. She still wore her bra, though it had shifted up and over her right nipple. Her pants had also been removed during the night, as she lay there in only her underwear. Although she did not feel modest because of the situation, it brought a rush of anger back into her body. She needed to ready herself for a final fight. Then a thought struck her. In the haze of last night's events, she almost completely forgot about Tarou's miraculous ability to change to and from his cursed form without the catalyst of water. It brought a moment of clarity to her situation. Vaguely, she recalled someone telling her that she could control her curse through will power, but her memories before her coma still were unclear. If that were the case, she contemplated whether she unconsciously controlled her curse to bind her in this form. In fact, she even remembered fighting Ryouga in the park as Ranma. The entire thought process almost completely took her mind off her and Kenichi's predicament. As she turned around, she saw Kenichi's strong legs break the thin rope binding them. "Got it!" he said, his voice high with enthusiasm. He then stood and walked around the bed to face Kimiko. "I'm going to kill him." She paused at his statement, then realized he was looking at her injured chest. He blushed and turned his head when he saw her noticing that he was looking there. She then noticed the black bruise around his neck and had to fight a gasp. He had been strangled repeatedly that night, so much that it left such a mark. It hurt her deeply to see him injured so, but she fought the anger back in hope to use logic. Anger could not help them now. She had to get Kenichi far, far away from that man. "That will have to wait, Kenichi. Right now I need you to go run for help." His eyes stared down at her in shock. "I'd sooner die than leave you here." "Then break your hands free and help me out of these ropes." He nodded and fell into a horse stance by bending his knees to lower his center of gravity. It would not help his arm strength as much as it would allow him to focus more energy into his arms without falling over. As he strained against the ropes, he grit his teeth and strained his face. "Relax your face and breathing," she instructed him. "It will allow you to focus all of your energy." The red left his cheeks and his jaw relaxed as he followed her advice. She watched him strain against the ropes, even though it obviously pained his wrists to do so. As he did this, Kimiko stood and looked around the room. The sudden shift to her legs made her feel wobbly. She widened her feet to the extent that the rope would let her and hopped past Kenichi and around the bed to the low dresser. She searched the room, and then locating the shiny object, glinting in the bathroom mirror. She had hoped it would still be here. With a grin she hopped over to the bathroom. Stopping at the sink, she turned around and found a familiar jagged piece of glass. Tarou had obviously cleaned it the night before, because it retained none of her blood. Turning the torture weapon into a tool, she used her uninjured left hand to begin slicing the rope binding her hands. The glass was not sharp, so it took her a minute of slice with her less coordinated hand. After freeing her hands, she bent over and quickly cut through the ones binding her feet. She then shook her arms out to relieve some of the tension from having laid on them for so long. Her body felt like the sheath of many needles, unable to pinpoint one particular pain over another, almost like it washed her skin from head to toe. Her right hand strangely only ached terribly when she tried to use it. As she walked into the other room, she saw Kenichi still struggling with the rope. "I almost got it," he said, his face purple with strain. "Stop and hold still," she commanded, walking around him. The rope binding his hands was threadbare, the might of his arms pulling it within a thread of breaking. She easily cut his hands free. "Thanks," he said, smiling with closed eyes. He looked as tired as she felt. Without wasting time, Kimiko walked to the front door and tried the knob. It opened without any trouble. A thought occurred to her as she peeked out, finding the way clear, except a woman walking by in a robe. She closed the door and turned her head back at Kenichi. "Do you think he's letting us go?" she asked Kenichi, who hovered a few inches behind her. "Why would he do that?" Kenichi asked, furrowing his brows. "It's not like we have a choice, anyway." Kimiko looked down at her bare feet and thought about it. They really did not. She imagined they would be playing bait for Kiyoshi, but if she wanted to get Kenichi out of this, they would have to take any opportunity that presented itself. He was far too important of a person to risk in order to keep their secret. As she put her hand on the doorknob, Kenichi put his hand on her shoulder. She turned her head back to look at him. "You can't go out like that," he said, his face blushing slightly. She looked down at her nearly naked body and suddenly felt really warm. "Yeah..." It felt strange, flushing over such a silly situation. Kenichi started unbuttoning his white work shirt, watching his own hands intently. Kimiko looked into his eyes, so much like his mother's. She watched as he exposed his hairless chest, slowly removing the garment and then slipped it back over his arms. A moment later, he held it forward. "Kenichi-kun," she whispered, blushing more now than just being exposed before him. He did what she had done for Akane in China, after saving her life on the mountain, offering his shirt, too large for the girl before him, to cover herself. It was so simple action, but she recognized the complex kindness driving it. It was in that moment she knew how it felt to be loved. As she took the white shirt that smelled of Kenichi and slipped her slight body into it, she felt protected. She was now on the receiving side of what Akane must have felt with her. Kenichi and Kimiko shared a different dynamic of skills and strength than Ranma and Akane, the similarity overshadowed the difference in her mind. Kenichi turned around and picked up her pants from the floor. Unlike her shirt, they had been slipped off her legs, instead of torn from her breast. He handed those to her as well, and she quickly slipped back into them. "What do you think we should do now?" he asked, putting his hand against the black bruise around his neck and rubbing it cautiously. "I think this is something Kiyoshi must deal with alone," she said sadly, dropping her eyes to the floor. "Of course, we'll call my family. They'll bring everyone, and that monster won't have anywhere to run." Kenichi sounded triumphant, as if the gods had already granted them victory. Two outcomes formed in her mind as Kenichi said that. She knew Kiyoshi was protective of their identities, but she did not know whether or not he would kill the monster. She did not want that for him. At the same time, she did not want to be exposed to the entire family that she was Ranma after all. The lie felt heavy on her chest. Even though she had told Kenichi the truth, it was not he who deserved the truth. The woman who he spent two of the best years of his life with was that person, but seeing her the few times in the Tendou home was crushing enough, as with the knowledge of Ryouga being her husband. "Are you okay, Kimiko?" Kenichi asked as he touched her arms in concern. "I don't know what to do," she said quietly. Her mind felt like it was racing, her blood suddenly hot. "I can't stop thinking about everything." Kenichi put his hand to her forehead and gasped. "Kimiko, you're burning up!" Unable to stop the images, she saw the dream of her and Kenichi as a couple once again. Her she saw how happy they were in that dream, but also felt betrayed by it. It reminded her too much how little control she had over her own fate. She tried to focus on the mission ahead of her, but it almost seemed impossible. "Kimiko!" Kenichi yelled, his voice shocking her out of her reverie. "Hold on!" She tried to comprehend his words, when she realized she had fallen, but her body felt tingly and she couldn't tell where she was any longer. Unable to focus, she saw the mists of Jusenkyou, the fog that covered the valley of lost souls one of the days she had stayed there. It looked the same as the first time she had arrived there with her father, before the floods destroyed the cursed training ground. She saw someone in the distance waving at her. A woman with long black hair stood at the edge of a pool, her naked, wet body shining in the light of the day. "Kimiko," the woman said, with a voice that sounded so far away. "Don't fight it..." the voice she vaguely realized was Kenichi's trailed off along with her consciousness. Kenichi's heart nearly stopped in his chest when Kimiko collapsed. He had taken her arm to help her stand moments before when she stopped responding, and realized she was burning with a fever. Bending over, Kenichi scooped her up into his arms and gently placed her on the bed. Wasting not another second, Kenichi burst out of the room running directly into someone. With a sudden redirection of his energy, he felt a jolt and flipped head over heels backward into the room. The surprise of it left him reeling on the floor, his head spinning. "I see the sleeping children have woken," the deep voice said over Kenichi. He knew exactly who it was and rolled back away from the beast. "What did you do to her?!" Kenichi demanded, his own voice shocking even him at the volume. "In searching the world, I've come across many people with grudges like my own. You have to understand how paramount these things are in our minds. We do anything to accomplish our goals." Tarou passively stared back at him. This was the first good look Kenichi had of the man. He had short, straight black hair, except for some of the ends that naturally curled around his ears. He wore a brown trench coat, tied closed even in the warmth of the day. "I don't understand," Kenichi replied, unable to comprehend the words. He could not understand what grudges had to do with Kimiko's condition. Tarou looked quite pleased to answer. "You see, I heard about this Chinese woman, who among other things, knew a great deal about ancient Chinese medicines. It took me a while to find her, as her village was hidden so deep, I found it by accident, while visiting another site with which I am fondly acquainted." Kenichi half-listened, backing towards Kimiko's still form. He checked her pulse, counting to fifteen while counting the beats of her heart. "When I told her of my plight, she seemed all too happy to help. It turns out, she has a grudge against the same man I do. Who could have guessed?" The man had been out of control, and now he seemed calm and collected. Kenichi wondered if he was completely mad. Her heart beat remained healthy for the time being, but she looked pale and her face was covered in sweat. Kenichi's heart raced as he looked between the villain and the girl on the bed. "To make a long story short, she gave me the poison that I injected into this girl's body." Tarou seemed incredibly pleased with himself, smiling as if he had just announced the birth of a child. Kenichi's jaw fell agape and his eyes opened wide. "Why? Why did you do this to her?" He could barely bring his voice above a whisper. Anger built up in his head as he stared at the man. He had never known anyone so treacherous in his life. "I had to," Tarou said, with a little less pleasantness in his voice. "It's the only way I can be sure he won't evade me this time. I could keep her, but she's too dangerous to hold prisoner. She'd end up killing herself somehow." "WHO IS IT?!" Kenichi yelled. Tarou leveled his head at Kenichi and stared him directly in the eyes. Kenichi swallowed, staring back, his heart still racing. "The Grandmaster of your school of martial arts," the violent man said calmly. "He has many names, but mostly known as Happosai." Kenichi remembered talk of such a man, but his mind was too scattered at that moment to recall. All he was certain of was that this man was not someone he ever met. "What does she have to do with him?" "I'm guessing Happosai trained her," Tarou said with a half-smile. "I'm gambling that he cares enough to seek me out. Should he seek me out, I'll make sure she's cured, regardless of my victory." He paused, as if waiting for a reply. Kenichi took a deep breath to slow his breathing, feeling a slight rush to his brain. "What if this Happosai doesn't show up at all?" "Then her blood is on his hands," the villain replied. "Damn you!" Kenichi yelled, unable to hold back. "Give me the cure!" He fell into an aggressive stance, ready to do anything to stop the man from leaving. "I don't have it on me, kid," Tarou said casually. "Even if I did, you'd never get it from me. You might have a chance if she wasn't incapacitated. Alone, you're a fly, buzzing over her rotting carcass." He turned and then took one step towards the open door. "Contact her family, or whoever she's with. Tell them to tell Happosai to meet me at the last place we saw one another. He'll know the spot. You have about four hours before her heart stops, so you might want to hurry." Kenichi took a step forward to hopefully stall Tarou, but it did nothing, as Tarou vanished without a trace. He could only stare in horror at the situation left to him. He turned to Kimiko and sat by her side. "I'm sorry," he whispered in her ear. "I'll save you. I swear it." * * * The location where Tarou's life ended would be the same for his mortal enemy. All that remained of the man's old life was the cement foundation of an empty property he still owned. A flourishing neighborhood a decade ago, the land where he lived with his wife and child now resembled a black eye in the prefecture. Nothing grew where the houses once existed, as if the land itself had been cursed by the atrocities committed there. Through his eyes, he still could see the modest patio that he would have been standing on, while facing the small, but comfortable two story structure that had been his home briefly. Five years ago, he might have come here to mourn the loss, but the last of his tears dried long ago and so did the pitiable feeling he had for himself. He was no longer the youth he had once been. His eyes no longer looked forward to the future, as his head now turned backwards, unable to see beyond that moment fifteen years ago. Everything now hinged on Fate's fickle coin toss. The dichotomy of his outlook made the world easier to understand and the whims of the power a simple matter to discern. It was a matter of good and evil to Tarou. Everything could be explained by the two sides of that one coin. He might have wondered upon which side he now stood if he cared any longer. His reason to live was another's reason to die. He waited patiently for the end to come. He would die no matter what happened this day. The only thing left undecided was who would be joining him in hell. * * * Akane stared and the still form of the redheaded girl that now lay unconscious in her bed. An hour had passed since Ryouga arrived with the small girl in his arms, and her precious son in tow. The vicious bruises around Kenichi's neck startled her. Although she heard what had happened from her husband the night before, seeing the damage inflicted upon Kenichi in person was almost too much to bare. Her son had been the lucky one, as the pain he suffered was nothing compared to that Kimiko did. She was a mess. Cuts lined her body top to bottom, and a deep wound pierced her hand straight through. It would be a long time before she would be able to use it again properly. Although messy as her appearance was, all of those injuries were fairly topical. It was the source of her unconsciousness that brought Dr. Tofu to her house early in the morning, when they realized the extent of her poisoning. He still remained at her house, although he had fallen asleep in the living room an hour ago. The doctor could not do anything for her and advised that she be sent to a hospital immediately, and Akane agreed. Kiyoshi Nishiyama, the boy she met as a child before he disappeared in China, had disagreed, the one who should have been the quickest to seek help. He seemed to know something that no one else did about the mysterious poison, and insisted that his adopted sister stay at the house until he returned with an antidote. The pretty young man with long black hair was calm in the face of his sister's peril. There could be no telling whether Tarou would even have the cure. But the young man had been resolute. He also had a reason why she would not go there. Akane looked at the syringe in her hand. It was the last resort. Kiyoshi promised it would save her if he did not return in time. He said to keep it secret. She did, but felt guilty from keeping anything back from her trusted friend, Dr. Tofu. She knew not what chemicals filled the small, plastic syringe, but she wondered if she should trust the young man with the life of a girl that quite possibly might have been a child of hers in another life. The look of strain on Kimiko's face almost made Akane tear up as she looked at the sick child's sweat-covered face. The toxins steadily poisoned her heart and mind even as the girl calmly slept deeply. The towel covering her forehead absorbed copious amounts of sweat, even though an ice pack sat on top of it. Nothing could keep this girl cool. Her temperature had not yet reached a critical point, but it rose nearly a tenth of a degree every hour or so. Soon, she would have to inject Kiyoshi's mysterious chemical or give in to Tofu's wishes and call an ambulance. She examined the child's beautiful face, gently playing a finger across the girl's smooth cheeks. The girl looked exactly like she remembered Ranma, even though he had almost faded from her mind. Twenty years dimmed her memory dramatically, and she knew that wishes could alter the fragments to be what the heart wanted. She reached out her left hand and cupped the girl's chin. It felt the same as the time she had willingly kissed his female lips for the first time. The image remained firm in her mind, though now instead of seeing the girl's face, she imagined Ranma's male face. Closing her eyes, she remembered the last time they had spoke. Three days had remained before she would have married him in a small ceremony, unlike the previous fiasco that left a fog of flour and smoke in the air. Ranma had spoken to her about children, how he wanted a son to carry on the Saotome legacy of martial arts. The words she recalled now were when she brought up her wish to have a daughter. Ranma had looked at her with one of his suave smiles, and carried on about how great a martial artist his son would be. Akane had let him talk, because she had known better than to interrupt a Saotome when talking about the greatness of their male heirs when speaking to Genma. However, without prompting an answer to her previous question, it seemed he had heard her after all. "If we do have a girl," he had told her quietly. "I want her to be like you, Akane. As much as I care for your sisters, no kid of mine is gonna ever be soft. She'll fight with the best of them. But still, I'll protect her with everything I've got." When she recalled those words, she knew this child had to be Ranma's. He would have raised her to be strong, but still left her protected. She would administer the syringe as per Kiyoshi's request. Her ex-fiance would never have left his daughter's life in the hands of a person who did not have her best interests at the top of his priorities. The whole situation felt like a bad nightmare from which Akane just could not awaken. She looked down at her daughter and then turned to face Kimiko. "Are you okay, mom?" Mayako asked, resting her injured arm on her mother's lap. "I've never seen you like this." "I don't know, sweetie," Akane replied sadly. "She's the daughter of a dear, old friend that I haven't seen in a really long time." Mayako turned her head and looked carefully over at the sick, sleeping girl on the bed behind her mother. Her red hair lay splashed out against the white of the green of her mother's pillowcase. The mesh of colors had a hypnotic quality that irritated Mayako's eyes. She focused on the girls face, and wondered. Kimiko's hair always threw Mayako off. She spoke perfect Japanese and looked Japanese, but had bright red hair like a foreigner. It was so distracting she never really paid attention to the girl's face. "But I thought she was Grandfather Soun's old friend's daughter," Mayako protested. "You barely know her." Akane shook her head and sat further back on the bed towards the sleeping girl. "She was adopted by him. " Mayako shrugged. She had a sneaking suspicion she was about to have be surprised. She took her mother's left hand with hers and sat down beside her on the bed. Her mother's hand trembled as she looked down at the girl. "When I was your age, my father promised me to Uncle Saotome's son." The trembling stop as Akane kept telling her story. "Well, not me in particular at first, but one of his daughters. I just happened to fit the bill when Genma brought his son, Ranma." Mayako stared at her mother, her eyes wide. She had never heard this story before. She had known that Genma and Soun wanted to marry the two families before now, but she never knew that Genma had older son. It made a strange sort of sense in her own predicament. "Ranma was my fiance for two years before he disappeared. We were going to be married a week before he vanished, and I haven't seen him since." The words soaked into Mayako's head as she held her mother's hand tightly. It was a lot to take in all at once. Her mother was supposed to be married to a Saotome. She wondered where that left her father. "I'm almost certain this is Ranma's daughter," Akane told her daughter. "I almost thought that she was him when I first met the girl last week. They look so much alike, I could hardly believe my eyes." Furrowing her brows, Mayako kept silent. "I'm sorry I never told you, darling," her mother said softly, turning to her. "But that would make her..." Mayako began, drowning out when she realized who was laying in the bed. "A Saotome," Akane finished for her daughter. "She's almost like family," Mayako whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. She barely realized how much this information hurt her. "I thought she was just some girl, and I was so glad that it was her and not Nichi-niichan that was hurt so bad." She grit her teeth to hold the sobs at bay. "Oh, Mayako-chan," her mother whispered as she enveloped her daughter with her warm arms. Mayako felt slightly relieved in her mother's bosom and released her tears. "Why did this happen to us?" Mayako managed to say between sobs, releasing all of the stress of the last few nights. "I don't know, love," Akane said softly. "But we have to be strong for her. If she's going to pull out of this, she's going to need all of our love and support." * * * Kiyoshi Nishiyama walked exited his vehicle a block away from his destination. As he stepped out onto the asphalt, still in the dress shirt and slacks he had worn from the night before, he felt the warm summer's sun beat down on his shoulders and face. The pleasant sensation of warmth was one he did not feel more than skin deep. His eyes did no look beyond his destination, his rage barely in check. He saw nothing as he walked through the scarred neighborhood, left to ruin years ago. Some of the residents in the neighborhood rebuilt their homes, but the majority left, as the area seemed cursed never to recover. It still smelled of burning ash, although the fires had been extinguished over a decade ago. He seemed to remember the fire only vaguely, not quite sure why it made a difference in the mind of Tarou. He knew he saw him in this place the night of the fire, but could not recall any event that occurred that night. Beneath his sunglasses, his eyes focused on the empty lot that seemed remarkable to his memory. The only parts of his memory that remained were of that shriveled man fighting the beast-like Tarou, and even that was more like the negative of someone else's picture. He saw the image but did not remember actually being there. He would have thought it strange, considering his microscopic memory of techniques, enemies and women, but he did not. It was another stain in a ruined shirt used for painting. The middle-aged man standing in the center of the lot made no move as Kiyoshi approached him. He wore brown slacks and a matching brown trench coat with a white dress shirt underneath. This was the first time Kiyoshi saw the boy he created from an urchin and cursed water. He wondered how he came to be the man he was today. The man watched his entrance onto the property with little regard, as if he expected nothing less than Kiyoshi Nishiyama to appear, as if he knew the entire time exactly who he was. "You're late," Pantyhose Tarou, the closest thing that the shriveled old man had to a nemesis told Kiyoshi as the much younger man stopped twenty paces ahead of him. "Give me the antidote," Kiyoshi replied curtly, holding back everything, enveloping himself in his calmness. He felt his invisible aura strengthening through his technique. The beast man would not be aware of it until it was too late. "You being here means one of two things," Tarou said, ignoring his opponent completely. "You either are conspiring with Happosai, or you are Happosai." Kiyoshi did not respond, remaining still, and invoking more of his chi energy. He would not risk the antidote to a street fight. He would snuff out his opponent immediately. "So you are Happosai," Tarou said with a smile. "I've been waiting so long for this moment. You've changed." "Give me the antidote," Kiyoshi said as a final warning. He would not spare even the progeny his old diabolical machinations. "Tell me, Happosai," Tarou said calmly. "Tell me why I shouldn't destroy it right now." He reached into his trench coat and produced a small jar filled with a clear liquid. "This has everything to do with the two of us, not the girl you poisoned." Kiyoshi stared nervously at the vial. With it in Tarou's hand like that, he could not attack without breaking the thing. All he needed was a split second with the vial back in his coat pocket and Kiyoshi could render the beast unconscious. "So that's how you think it is," Tarou said wistfully. "I wish it was so. There would be no fight between us, and I would be eating lunch with my wife and child right now. The three of us, or four if another child blessed our marriage, would be happy, or not. Perhaps my wife and I would have separated and my children would be sharing their time between the two of us. I really don't know, and can't tell you. I don't play with the words 'what if' and 'should be' anymore." Kiyoshi listened to his words, but he was missing a piece of the answer. He had to have done something to Tarou, beyond the name and abandoning the boy after he taught the boy enough to survive. Kiyoshi remembered very little of his dealings with the beast man before leaving Japan. "You look confused and yet you found me," Tarou matter of factly stated. "It's not as if I'm asking you to recall the turn of the 19th century. You should recall the evils you commit against others." "Shut up," Kiyoshi said, his control slipping. "Give me the antidote and I'll spare your life." "Rewarding me with my life, eh?" Tarou replied, holding the vial up. "If that was what I desired, I would not have sought you out, devil." He then proceeded to crush the glass container, causing its contents to spill between down his fingers and onto the dirt. Stunned by the move, Kiyoshi took a step back to balance himself as his heart skipped a beat. "All I want is to hurt you as much as possible," Tarou said so calmly that Kiyoshi knew there was nothing left but to kill him. "You have only delayed my plans," Kiyoshi said trying to regain his composure. He had to play this one safely. Without the antidote, she would still be okay. He would just have to wait a few months until he could find another source. He kept telling himself it the result would be the same in the end, but somewhere along the line, a part of his mind broke. "So your machinations have yet to cease," Tarou said still calm as if he was not staring at the last face he would see. "You have no idea," Kiyoshi replied, before bringing his immense chi into place. "I only wish you could see the day after so you could hate me more." Finally, Kiyoshi words affected Tarou. He saw the man mouthing the word 'what' right before he collapsed his chi around his opponent. The air caught in Tarou's throat as he was struck by Kiyoshi's power. His eyes bulged as he fell to his knees, as if severely beaten. He then wretched, coughing out the contents of his stomach. Kiyoshi watched his opponent suffering impassively for a minute before the man recovered enough to stand. It took the man several long moments of labored breath to find the strength to stand. "Yes, it is you," Tarou said as he weakly pushed himself off the dirt. "I'm glad I could hurt you enough to make you this angry. I wanted to see your true fury before I died. I knew it would be satisfying to kill the person dearest to your heart." "You've killed no one but yourself," Kiyoshi replied, approaching Tarou calmly. "You're bleeding internally by now, so even if by some miracle you defeat me, you'll already be dead." "No doubt," Tarou said with a bloody smile, the red fluid dripping down from his eyes. "You killed me when you killed my family. Now I've killed yours." "Didn't I tell you?" Kiyoshi asked with a smile, standing next to his opponent who was already finding it difficult to stand. "She's going to be fine." "Somehow I doubt you have the antidote," Tarou said smugly, his eyes meeting Kiyoshi's with unflinching resolve. "That is true," Kiyoshi said with a shrug. "But I will soon enough to revive her from the coma that Akane Tendou has no doubt administered. It may take some time, but I'll find it and abolish the poison before it can harm her." "Maybe killing her would be a mercy," Tarou told his nemesis in the guise of a young man. He wondered what manner of brainwashing he did to get the Fem-boy to accept Happosai as a brother of all things. He knew it was about time to change. He had no choice, for Happosai in this form was far beyond his strength as a human. The change was not as quick as a splash of water would have administered, due to his injuries, but he transformed his legs first, growing nearly two feet. He watched young Happosai's face change from one of victory to irritation. He pushed his body further, watching the man's eyes grow wider and wider. "How did you...?" Happosai asked with a voice full of awe. The pain of the young man's attack was disappearing from Tarou's body as the change carried itself further than he had ever taken it. Unlike the swift change of water, his manual change was slow and painful, erasing the memory of his old body as he became the Bull, the Yeti, the Eel his personal addition to the curse, the Bat. He extended his wings out to their fullest extent and let out a roar. His mind begin slipping as it always did when he became the Beast. * * * Sweat dripped from the girl's pours as she slid her hands blindly along smooth, wooden surface. The steam in the room heated her to the point of exhaustion, but she could not find a way out of the small cell within which she lay imprisoned. She had tried yelling for help, but her voice remained muted. She felt the air pass through her lungs and felt the words, but her ears failed to hear them. Time passed slowly in the madness of the darkness. She wondered if someone brought her here while she slept. Her mind searched for answers in her indefinite imprisonment. She felt nothing beyond the heat and disorientation of her situation. Her name had slipped away sometime in the hours, though she could not remember ever having one. She wondered if she had ever existed outside the hellish existence inside the dark sauna. The boy woke up from a nightmare in a dark room. His eyes searched for the night light his mother had left on for him. Not seeing it, he started to cry. A few minutes later, the door to his room opened, shedding light into his small room. His mother's shadow loomed over him as his arms lifted up to his beloved mother. She approached him and lifted him into a warm embrace. The nightmare he could no longer remember still troubled him as he cried into his mother's chest. She started singing a lullaby that defeated his sadness. His tears stopped and his cries silenced. His mind entranced by the harmonic sound of his mother's voice. He listened until he fell back into the dark room, his sweat soaked existence of suffering. The despair of his last visit to the sauna was not there as his mother had reconciled this out to be nothing but a nightmare. As bad as his chest and stomach hurt, he knew it was just a dream. He knew his mother was real. The fragrant, soapy smell of her soft reddish brown hair lingered in his nose, even as he recalled the warmth of her bosom. As unfathomable amounts of time passed, he began to wonder if this was the truth, and the boy and the mother were the dream. He knew she was real, but could not remember seeing her for a long time. He tried to recall her name, but could not. The only name he knew her by was mother. She scolded him when he used her proper name once, he recalled weeks before he left with his father. The remembrance of his father and their training trip sparked more memories, as if he regained some form of cognitive abilities denied to him earlier. His name still escaped him, but he did remember he had black hair. The length varied in his memories, but it was always black. He remembered wearing his white gi often, when he was not wearing a school uniform. The uniform reminded him of the lost boy, a friend of his in junior high. He wondered how old he was now. He remembered fragments of junior high school, the all boy's school in the city. Then he remembered China. The trip was fun for a while. He remembered he was fifteen when they left for China. He had his sixteenth birthday in some weird forest, which was long after he knew better than to ask for gifts from his father. "You're almost there," a voice said clearly through the heat and the darkness. It startled the boy badly. He gasped and started choking on air. It spoke again. "You don't have much time, so I'll help you." The next instant, lights startled his mind as his eyes began to function again. As if the light had always been on, his did not have to adjust to the sudden change of brightness. He was in his bedroom where his mother had sung him the lullaby, except in place of the door was a full length mirror. A girl in the mirror stared back at him. Although she looked like his mother, he knew she was not. Her image was blurry, but he could see her well enough to know that. She was too thin and too young. "Now you see," the girl in the mirror told him. He tried to ask her who she was, but his mouth still spoke empty words. His mouth would open, but soundless air would only pass through. Panic filled him as he held a hand over his lips. "It's okay," she told him. "You don't have to speak out loud for me to hear you." He looked at her strangely as he wondered how that could possibly be. "Because I'm you." That made little sense to him. She was a girl. He was a boy. Simple. "Of course it makes sense. Think about it. Before the dream in this room, you dreamt that you were a girl, before you remembered the boy underneath." His mind still felt foggy, but Jusenkyou crystallized as if he had never forgotten it. He could picture the valley of a thousand springs, where he had been cursed. "Yes, Jusenkyou." He looked at her with intensity, trying to make out her image better, to maybe remember it. He wondered what happened to make him forget. "I don't really don't know, kid." He saw an image in her head for the first time. She could not hide one simple, disturbing fact from him. She thought she was dying. "So you can see my thoughts too, huh?" she said as she stepped out of the mirror and into his room. "You going to lie there forever?" He sat up in the bed, realizing for the first time that his body had been prone. He looked down at himself, remarking at his familiar blue pajamas. It had been a long time sense he had worn those. He looked up at the image in the mirror with tears rimming his eyes. "It's okay, I'm sure we'll pull through this. We always do, don't we?" He knew she was lying. "Can't I be confident about it?" Confidence and acting were two different things. "I guess not. So we might be dying. I get that. What I don't get is why we're all splintered up in our head. I mean, why am I apart from you? We're the same person, aren't we?" The curse. "It just changed our body, not our soul. Right? "And why are you so small? I don't get it at all." He looked at his body and found it still small, like in the dream with his mother. However he should have been, the body felt right. He did not want to go to China and leave his mother. Six was the perfect age. He missed her so badly it ached in his heart. "Hey at least you can remember her well," the girl said, sitting down on the child's bed. Her body brushed up against his thighs. It felt so real he could scarcely believe this a dream. "Yeah, it's pretty weird. I wish we could remember our name." The child focused on his memory of his mother. What did she call him, he wondered. "Ranma," she said in his mother's voice, the voice ringing harmony in his small ears. The image of the girl suddenly looked like his mother, her hair darkening and her body filling out. "Hey, did you do that to me? That's really messed up." It comforted him, though. He reached out for her and she hugged him. "You really are a kid, aren't you? I guess your the me that Pop erased." She held him for an undeterminable amount of time while he went through stages of cries and sobs. Her confidence slowly worked its way into his mind after his tears slowed and his mind grew calm. "I'm scared," he said, his own voice shocking his ears. "Hey, you talked," she said warmly, pulling him back to look at his face. "My voice was getting hoarse doing all the talking for you." "I remember being older," he said softly, unable to look at her in the eye. "But it's a dream, isn't it?" He looked at the image of his mother that he held in his arms. She was beautiful to him. Her short reddish hair and blue eyes, his eyes. He smiled. "I wish this was real, kid," his mother said in a voice that was not his mother's. "But this is the real world and it sucks sometimes. We have to remember what happened so we can get the hell outta here. The question we have to figure out is why do you think you're a little kid?" "Because I want to be!" he forcibly replied. "Because it's safe," she said in a near whisper. "I can see that. You're scared and you're hiding. I get that now." The feelings of her understanding him felt strange, as if someone else were borrowing his thought space. The image of his mother began to fade, replaced by a crystal clear, younger version with redder hair and a younger face. Her eyes were blue like his mother's, but she looked different somehow. Her nose was smaller, and her cheeks a bit thinner. He stared at her as she stared back. "So that's what I look like. It's weird seeing myself through your eyes, kid." He frowned, missing the image of his mother. The thought of her presence comforted him. "Hey, you got something better," she told him. For some reason, he could not understand what she meant. "What?" he asked, confused. "Better than mommy?" "Me," she simply replied, her smile wide. He looked at her dubiously. "Hey, don't look at me like that. I'm not kidding. I'm pretty tough. I can handle whatever comes our way." He glowered at her. Whatever made him split, fragmented and trapped in his own mind, she was not able to handle. "What? I can't hear your thoughts anymore." "Why am I hurt then?" She looked at him seriously, contemplating his question. "Well, maybe I had to take some hits to save someone, like Akane." Akane. The name rang through his head like a bell and instantly he felt his body growing. It did not hurt, but it was disconcerting as his arms filled out and his mind began to mature again. Akane. Akane. Akane. He kept thinking the name over and over again in his mind. It all began to rush back, from the curse to the fights to the crazy years he spent at Furinken. "Whoa, what did I say?" she said as he now outsized her dramatically. "Was it the taking hits part?" "Akane," he replied. She looked him deeply in the eyes and then nodded. "We do crazy things sometimes for people we love." He loved Akane. It felt strange admitting that to himself, but it rang true as her name. He looked down at the girl he held in his arms. She looked smaller now, like he had outgrown a parent. "This curse is really doing a number on me," he said to himself and she nodded. "I guess we still haven't answered why we're all split up. Any ideas?" "Why should I have all the ideas if we're the same person?" she asked. "It's not like I have different memories or anything." It was then that he realized something. The color of his pajamas had faded from a royal blue to more of a washed out sky blue. He looked down at the relics of his past strangely. "What?" she asked. "I'm fading," he said with a bit of panic filling his mind. "It's your clothes, who cares?" she told him, but he shook her off and stood up. "What's wrong? Clue me in here." "You don't get it," he said, realizing the reason he couldn't remember past one particular night. "I'm dead." She squinted her eyes, cocked her head to the side, and then after a moment, laughed. "What, we in the afterlife then?" He shook his head. Somehow, he realized it the moment she spoke Akane's name. He loved Akane, but she somehow did not--not the way he did. That name broke them apart, splintering their thoughts. She remembered quicker than he did and did not draw from his mind as she had before. She knew more than he did, remembered further into his past. He could not remember him and Akane marrying. He remembered planning a second wedding attempt, but it always froze weeks before. Something broke. "So do I have to talk to myself then?" she asked. "I mean, I am doing that already, but a little return talk from myself would help." "I think you're on your own," he said as he noticed his pajamas faded completely white. "You're forgetting me." She looked at him blankly. "Are you okay?" "Obviously not," he said as his pajamas completely faded, leaving him bare. The girl turned her back quickly. "Since when did your own body embarrass you?" he asked sadly, already knowing the answer. "That's not my--" The words stopped as quickly as she responded. She then winced as if she had been struck. "I don't get it. I remember being Kimiko. That much I remember, but what's in a name? I use it because it helped me get through the recovery from being bed ridden for like twenty years. It let me pretend that Ranma was safe while Kimiko was weak and could barely walk and needed to be fed sometimes because her fingers were too weak to hold chopsticks together. "I just haven't seen myself in a while, okay?" He put his hand on her shoulder. She still wore the clothes his mother had worn in the dream. "You're not dying," she whispered. He did not hear with his ears this time, but through her heart. "You're fine. Ranma isn't disappearing. He's still where you left him. Once you get your manhood back, you can go back to being normal. Everything's fine. You're not really a girl. It's just something that true right now. Nothing's wrong. You're not dying; you're just knocked out or something. You're just in one of that woman's head trips or something." Ranma remembered the face of the pale faced Chinese woman drowning in the pool. He remembered her face as he fell into the pool. He remembered her and she appeared before both of them. "Wha-?" Kimiko exclaimed, falling to the bed. "We're meeting together for the last time," Lily whispered, her melodic voice that of Ranma's mother. "Hey, you're that girl from the dream. I felt that whole thing at Jusenkyou. What happened there?" "I drowned," she replied sadly. Ranma took a step back as he always did, deep into the recess of the darkness where he lay for years. He would lay there again until she needed her past again. He watched sadly, wondering how much longer that would be. "So, I like have some of your memories from the curse?" Kimiko asked, her clothes shimmering out, replaced by the clothes she had been wearing the day Tarou beat her to a pulp. The tears in her clothing turned red with blood, even though she did not even notice them. "The curse doesn't give you memories, honey," the woman replied. "Herb fell into the same spring you did, but he doesn't have my memories." Kimiko shook her head. "I guess not. Maybe you chose me, since you're a ghost and all." "I'm not a ghost," Lily replied. Kimiko took a step back. Ranma thought she recalled the pain of her wounds, but she did not reach for them. She looked over at Ranma and he felt his body fade into focus. He wore his favorite red shirt and black pants this time. "Not a ghost?" She stared him in the eyes for a long moment before turning to see for the first time. "You mean?" And at that very moment, their surroundings changed and they stood on the edge of an adult's bed with three new occupants. An middle aged woman embraced a teenager at the edge of a bed, while another lay asleep in that bed. The two memories and the girl stared at the older woman. "Akane," Ranma said before anyone else could. Perhaps he recognized her first, or perhaps last. He could not tell how much older she was since he last saw her before their wedding, a beautiful young woman at the age of eighteen. "Oh my god, mom, her eyes opened," the teenager in Akane's arms said, pointing at the girl in the bed. "Call in Dr. Tofu right now," Akane said with a deeper voice. He could see the goose bumps raised on her arms and he could almost feel her fear seeing her face. "Kimiko-chan?" "Is that me?" Kimiko asked, leaning over the bed to look at her face. "I look weird." Ranma noticed that the girl in the bed did look odd, her face pale, sweat-covered and sickly. Her hair needed a haircut, covering all of the pillow as it splashed out like a fan. "So is this some kind of weird dream?" Kimiko asked of her memories, but they did not respond. She turned to look at them, but they had vanished. In her mind, she fumbled with the idea that this was real, but it seemed surreal, like something out of a movie. She never had an out of body experience before, not counting dreams. "Can you hear me?" Akane asked of the girl in bed. "I can," Kimiko responded, but the girl in bed made no indication of being able to hear. Not receiving any response, Akane looked at something in her hand. Kimiko missed what it was, as the next moment Dr. Tofu walked through the door. He looked upset, though Kimiko had no clue why. "I think she's awake," Akane told him, laying a hand on the prone girl's leg. Dr. Tofu adjusted his glasses as he took a few steps over to the bed and sat beside it. He leaned over her and waved his hand. "Her eyes are open, but I don't know if she's aware of us being here." Kimiko watched them almost in boredom. She did not feel sick, let alone sick enough to warrant this much attention. She remembered feeling sleepy, and hot, but she figured it was probably just a cold from not sleeping enough and being out at night too much. She wandered through the open door and stopped dead in her tracks. There was nothing beyond the door, besides darkness and a warm fog. If she had taken one more step, she would have fallen straight into some place. Her eyes opened wide as she peered over the edge into the void. "I think we have no choice but to take her to the hospital, Akane," Dr. Tofu said seriously. "She's burning up, fighting something we don't know anything about, and I really can't help her in anyway." "No, but maybe I can." The two adults on the bed looked to the door where Shampoo materialized through the void. Kimiko fell backwards in surprise. The purple haired woman took a few steps towards the bed with a bag held in her hands. "What do you mean, honey?" Dr. Tofu asked, adjusting his glasses to look at her. "Rintaro came by the restaurant and tells me what happened last night," she said. "He say that Pantyhose Tarou poison her and now she running a fever?" "That's right," Akane said quickly. "Do you know something, Shampoo?" Their voices became muted to Kimiko as she stared at Shampoo. She looked down at her hands and saw the ground through her skin. That translucence occurred all over her spiritual body. Like Ranma and Lily, her body began to fade into the background of her life. Her life did not flash before her eyes; it merely faded away. * * * Kiyoshi balanced on a wall that the Beast had yet to crush with his enlarged fists. The wizened man stayed back from the creature's grasp, as it had nearly knocked his head off a moment before. He watched the Beast carefully. Every movement it made seemed unnaturally accelerated with inhumane speed and power. Nothing in his later years had ever posed as much of a challenge as Tarou did for him now. His arm still bled where the Beast's tentacle had stung him. It had melted through his shirt and caused a fairly nasty burn on his biceps. It was more of a topical wound, but if the Beast managed to grab hold of Kiyoshi, he would not survive long. He needed to find this thing's weakness. The Beast furiously roared, rushing at him again. Kiyoshi waited until it leveled its longer ranged tentacles at him and jumped, grabbing onto it as he leapt over the Beast. Pulling around back of the Beast tied up half of the tentacles from reaching around to defend the Beast's back, giving Kiyoshi an opening. His arm shot out and struck a pressure point on the Beast's back that should have crippled it. It merely roared as it turned, swinging two tentacles at him. Kiyoshi deflected the strikes and attacked the Beast's unprotected flank with a side kick. It struck the beast hard, but did not even faze the monster. Kiyoshi half expected the result and rolled out of the way of the incoming swing of the Beast's fist. Unfortunately, he had mistimed the backhand strike. The back of the thing's hand grazed Kiyoshi's shoulder as he haphazardly rolled to his feet. The shock of the wound stunned him a half second longer than he should have remained in the spot. Tentacles reached out, stinging his arm again before he could leap back out of the Beast's reach. The strange sting felt more painful than the last. He looked down at his arm and realized that the graze had nearly ripped his sleeve off and had cut his skin. The stinger had struck the exact same place, leaving the gash burned and marred, possibly now a permanent scar. That did not bother him so much as the pain that flooded his already overworked brain. He tore his hanging right sleeve off and then tore off the left sleeve as well, as it already had the hole in it from his first sting. Kiyoshi hoped the cool afternoon breeze would calm some of the more persistent pain. Without his tools, Kiyoshi doubted he had much of a chance against the beast straight on. If he had his katana, he could take the creature down relatively quickly, but he had not expected to need it and left it in the trunk of his car. He earlier had attempted to reach his car, but the Beast had anticipated something and crushed it under his heel. Now Kiyoshi would have to pry the trunk open against the twisted metal of yet another destroyed rental vehicle. He was glad he paid the extra for the insurance this time. He could pry the trunk open, but it would take extra time that he did not have. The Beast shouted something that sounded like a taunt, but its voice was so heavily distorted that it was unintelligible. It had lured him into a sense of superiority and he had let his guard down. He could not let it happen again, for the sake of Kimiko's life. He wondered if she would already be in the catatonic state that saved her life once before. He wondered if he would have to wait another twenty years for her body to recover on its own. He drew upon that wish for someone else and found his strength. His heart slowed as the energy drained from his body to power his attack. The Beast charged Kiyoshi as he anticipated it would. It rushed forward with its tentacles flailing ahead of hit. Kiyoshi arced his arms in defense, clipping the tentacles with his chi empowered chops. The defense kept the tentacles at bay, but did little to stop the offensive. The Beast roared as it barreled forward, threatening to stampede Kiyoshi as he passively defended. At the last moment, Kiyoshi focused the cold energy into his body as he absorbed the Beast's blows. The resulting energy knocked them both flying. Kiyoshi, having been ready for the collision, braced himself as he ricocheted down an passage between two houses. He had been completely thrown across the street from the empty lot, crashing into a neighborhood fence. The entire fence collapsed under the force projected by his body. Kiyoshi felt okay nonetheless. He knew this would be his only chance to find his blade before the Beast recovered and found him. Picking himself off the dirt, Kiyoshi sprinted to the crushed remains of his vehicle. He looked at the trunk. I large footprint crushed into it, making it impossible to open it normally. He would need something to pry it open, but he realized the jack had to be in the trunk as well. Kiyoshi closed his eyes and did the next best thing. He put all of his remaining chi into his finger and used his Bakufuuken, the blast fist, pressing it at an upward angle in between the trunk's lid and the metal attached to the car itself. To his amazement, the car's back end lifted into the air as the trunk went flying off its hinge like a projectile into the sky. Just as the car climaxed in its trunk-over-hood arc, the Beast lashed out with a surprise aerial attack, its immense black wings carrying it downward like a falling kite. Kiyoshi barely dodged as both the Beast and the car fell to the asphalt street. The car screeched as its top scrapped the street. Kiyoshi rolled to the side as the Beast followed up his strike with a tentacle attack that stung Kiyoshi ankle as he barely dodged the majority of the attack. The pain was minimal as the blood rushed to his feet for another quick sprint. He heard another roar as he ran to the other side of the car, but the Beast anticipated this and jumped over the vehicle, landing on the lopsided vehicle, sending the other end up in the air like a seesaw. Out of the corner of his eye, Kiyoshi saw the box containing his weapons fall out of the trunk, dislodged from its hiding spot by the immense weight of the Beast. "No toys," growled the Beast as swung downward at him with its giant fists. Kiyoshi dodged the attack, countering with a blast fist to the Beast's right wrist. The counter knocked the Beast's arms to the side, exposing its tentacle laden side as Kiyoshi followed it with what anyone but a user of the Amaguriken would call a Chestnut fist attack. His strike was much different, as it relied on precise strikes rather than random blows to the enemy's body. His strikes struck the base of each of the tentacles on that side. The Beast roared, this time in pain, as it leaped off the vehicle and onto the sidewalk. The car's back end lifted up significantly as the Beast's weight no longer held it down. It left Kiyoshi with just enough time to slide his hand under the vehicle and retrieve the long, relatively unscathed box from the car. Kiyoshi rolled backwards as the car once more fell downward, the Beast's body once more landing on top of it. It clipped Kiyoshi's hand, knocking the wooden box out of his hand as he rolled out of the way. Kiyoshi cried out as he rolled to his feet. He looked down at his red right hand, crushed between the box and the car. He surmised his finger were probably broken in the attack. "You take my weapons," the Beast said carefully as it lifted the box with its good left tentacles. "I take yours." It proceeded to crush the box with its huge paws. Kiyoshi smiled and performed a maneuver he would have never attempted without the urgency he required. It would tax his body beyond anything he attempted before. The Beast looked down at what remained in its mitts. An undamaged katana sheath. However, the blade no longer remained in the lacquer casing. Back about twenty feet behind the Beast, Kiyoshi held the blade in his left hand, extended behind him. The technique had sent him straight from his position across the street, through the Beast's tentacles and back to the lot behind him, all in a split second. He only had time to grab the blade from its sheath as he flew through the space faster than an eye. All the Beast would have heard was a crackle as he broke the speed of sound. Kiyoshi nearly collapsed under the pressure of his maneuver. His whole body felt exhausted, beyond what he expected from earlier attempts. Trying to press the advantage, he managed to right himself as he turned his body to face his opponent. The Beast must have caught on at the same time Kiyoshi turned, for he roared, throwing down the remains of the box and turning to continue its attack, heedless of Kiyoshi's acquisition. Bringing the blade to bare, Kiyoshi's chances fluctuated between better and worse as he was only able to defend himself from the Beast's attack as he tried to gain a second wind. "Die!" hissed the Beast as he crashed into Kiyoshi, warding off the blade and striking him in the shoulder with a fist. The punch sent Kiyoshi flying. He barely managed to catch his flight and roll with his blade as he hit the wall in the back of Tarou's empty lot. He felt the stone wall that separated the empty lot and the neighbor's houses collapse as he crashed into it with the force of a bulldozer. Splintering pain ripped through his left arm as he fell to the dirt. He coughed liquid out of his lungs. The sickly salty flavor of blood tickled his tongue as he regained his senses. One was never too old to outsmart oneself, Kiyoshi thought. The Beast wasted no time to follow up his attack, giving Kiyoshi two seconds from the time he looked up and saw the creature to the time he had to be far away from his attacker. Kiyoshi knew he could not and did the next best thing. Just as the Beast came down with a gigantic stomp to the ground, Kiyoshi pressed himself upwards at it with his broken hand and legs, propelling himself over the kick and into the creatures belly. Using the sharp end of the blade he still nursed with his broken arm, he managed to aim it directly at the Beast. The blade met flesh as Kiyoshi repelled off the creature, his body again struck by the Beast's powerful strike. He crashed into the back of the house, this time, his body taking little damage but for the strike to his right shoulder that would bruise horribly. Catching himself on the wall, Kiyoshi bounced off and landed on his feet. To Kiyoshi's good fortune, the Beast's right side of tentacles had yet to recover from his strike earlier. He held the blade out in front of him again, ready for the charge this time. With his broken arm behind him and both hands firmly gripping the katana's hilt, he grimaced as the creature neared him. Not much kept him going as he prepared to resist the Beast's attack. Taking a giant step forward, Kiyoshi met the Beast's charge with a series of lightning quick slices to his left side, severing all but one of the tentacles from the creature's side. He heard the roar sound from its throat about the same time he fell to his knees, the shock of the remaining stinger wrapped around his broken arm, jabbed deep into a pressure point. The Beast fell back, pulling Kiyoshi with it as it teetered back from the pain of its injuries. Kiyoshi tumbled forward, unable to stop as the blade fell from his hands and his arms was yanked from its socket. His left arm sent unbearable spikes of pain through his body as he landed haphazardly on the Beast. With his right hand, Kiyoshi unwrapped his right arm from the tentacle and dislodged himself from the Beast, who lay fairly still underneath him. He fell back onto his bottom and looked at his opponent. No longer did the ghastly form of the Beast consume Tarou's shape, but replaced was a nearly naked man, whose left side bled readily. Kiyoshi's blade remained in his side. True to his survivalist nature, Tarou already began to come to his senses as Kiyoshi stared at the bloody wound in his former student's side. "You lied to me," Tarou whispered, his looking Kiyoshi straight in the eyes. He barely regarded the wound in his side, dislodging the blade from his ribs and holding it out in front of him. He twisted it in the afternoon sun, examining the blood in it. Kiyoshi did not respond. He merely stared at his opponent, gauging what he would do next. His entire body ached with exhaustion he never remembered feeling before. He was sure he must have pushed his body to its limit like this before, but of late, he could barely remember past the twenty years he spent working his way up the Nishiyama Inc. ladder. "You're not Happosai at all," Tarou said, standing up with little effort. His eyes glared down at Kiyoshi with such strength that Kiyoshi wondered if Tarou would finish him with his own blade. "What makes you so sure?" Kiyoshi asked, his mind shuddering with the pain. "I knew him well," the man replied, grinning down at Kiyoshi. "You are anything but the Master of the Anything Goes Martial Arts. You perform the moves as if you watched someone else perform them. Your body doesn't know the moves your brain does." "Jusenkyou does wonders," Kiyoshi shot back with contempt in his voice. He angrily glared at Tarou. "You really think you're the old man, but you're not him." Tarou looked at the blade held in his hand again. "This is a family blade. Your father's?" Kiyoshi stared at the man, his mind unable to find an answer to the question. He almost said yes, but to say such would admit his awkward situation to assuming the identity of the Nishiyama prodigy. "Yes, this is your father's," Tarou said knowingly. "I know of the Nishiyamas, through reputation. I even checked them out before, due to their odd relationship with the Tendou family." "I made that connection," Kiyoshi said. "I put my Nobukazu in touch with Soun and Genma, as he was quite interested in training bodyguards with authentic Japanese martial arts." Stalling for every moment possible, Kiyoshi looked around, unable to see a way he could escape alive. "You know what?" Tarou began rhetorically. "You look more like your mother than your father. You have his eyes, but her face." This made Kiyoshi's eyes narrow and forget about his escape plans. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded, throwing his hands down to his arms discomfort. Although it hurt, he knew he had to make his last stand a strong one. "I met your mother before she passed on," Tarou said with a grin, his eyes drifting up and down Kiyoshi's body. "She was tall like you. Your father was from a short breed, but not you. You're of your mother's strong genes. I'm not surprised he chose you." No longer the puppet master, Kiyoshi had no idea what to say. Tarou held some information or something that Kiyoshi did not. The younger man's mind could not concentrate after all of the fighting. His chi had been depleted, all but for the bit keeping up conscious and alive. His arms had been rendered useless in a fight and his legs would not get him through to the next day. He could run, but he doubted he would escape the much healthier Tarou, who could possibly even fly to catch him. "I'm done with you, Kiyoshi Nishiyama," Tarou said softly. He turned and threw the blade on the dirt in front of Kiyoshi, who quickly snatched it up. "Wait!" Kiyoshi yelled, his teeth clenched tightly. Tarou, bare to the waist, turned around. The new blood blended with his burns, cuts and scars of old. He stared at Kiyoshi, his eyes piercing deeper than Kiyoshi could stand. "What about that antidote?" he nearly screamed. His teeth chattered with the aftereffects of so much adrenaline and fear. With a laugh, Tarou turned and walked away. Kiyoshi would not follow. "When you wake up, seek me out. I could use an apprentice like you." The man's voice would echo in Kiyoshi's mind for days. * * * A caustic silence permeated the Saotome household as it often did. Everyone knew better than to stay in it longer than they had to, finding other locations to spend their time. Genma spent most of his time at the Tendou home, playing Shoji, eating and otherwise making a nuisance of himself. Nodoka took solace in the classes she taught in flower arrangement and cooking at the local adult's school. Shintaro usually played at his friend's house, as their family had money and could spend thousands of yen on electronic entertainment. Rintaro often trained about town or picking fights with local toughs. Today, however, he was doing something he rarely did during the day. Every member of the household sat in the sitting room, where a television set might have lit their lethargic faces. However, they owned no such object. Nodoka's household usually remained pristine, like a sterile museum of family artifacts and shrines, though that also was not to be today. Rintaro had arrived home late in the evening to find the usual silence, but not the usual parents. His mother, attacked by the vigilante, whom Rintaro had fought that very night. Both the Tendous and Saotome seemed interconnected by past hatred, so deeply that they suffered for it together. He realized what he had to do at that moment. "If you leave this house today, do not expect to come back in defeat again." Genma said across from Rintaro, his legs crossed over a large pillow. He stared up at his eldest remaining child, a frown of disgust on his face. Rintaro said nothing, looking at his mother. Her bruised face was hard to look at, but it did not bother Rintaro so much. She was alive and healthy. He could hardly ask for more, considering the shape that Soun Tendou was in. His mother did not yell at his father as another might, declaring some kind of favor for her child. Instead, she sat quietly, a look of quiet disappointment on her face. She did not need to say a word. He knew what she wordlessly communicated. Shintaro, on the other hand, sniffled through his tears. He exchanged one look with his brother and took off out of the room, sliding the door shut behind him. Swallowing his pride, Rintaro knelt and bowed his head to his parents. "I will not return until I have proven myself worthy of the Saotome name, and worthy successor to our school. I realized I thought too much of my abilities and shamed my family with my behavior over the years. I will not return until I am a man amongst men. I will not return until you are proud to call me son." He heard his mother gasp toward the end of his statement. Whatever it was, he stood with his eyes closed and turned towards the door. Although neither tried to stop him, he heard his mother whisper something. He ignored it and walked out the front door, a traveler's pack on his back. It was much easier to walk out the door than it was to make the initial decision to leave the safety of his existence in Nerima. Rintaro planned for several years to leave, but never really could solve a few of the major problems that would arise because of his choice. One would be his scholastic state. Since he was now eighteen and graduated from high school, it no longer stood in his way. The second problem was more of a lingering one. He had to finance his trip somehow. Although he had a little money saved away from his more illicit activities in street brawls, it would not last much more than a month. So he decided he would have to find small jobs wherever he went. He figured the more rural communities would be able to support this sort of travel more readily than the ones he lived in, as Tokyo had no need for transient workers who would only stay a week in any one place (barring illegal jobs, of course). The final problem was the one he was on his way to hopefully find a solution for on the first destination with his newfound freedom. It was a more recently acquired problem, and as such, he hoped his heart would freely accept his choice as his mind did. On his way to the Tendou house to both check on the family after the vicious attacks made by the beastly creature and see Mayako, Rintaro wondered how his journey would hold up in the light of his feelings for the girl who forgave him. The trip took him several hours because he refused to take the train. He never understood why his family insisted he attend Furinken High School, even though he it was so far away. He could have just as easily attended the local high school and still remain friends with the Tendous and Onos, but the extra traveling between his house and the school limited his time to spend with the others outside of school. Now he realized how much of that time he wasted. Before his call to leave had been the outrage he felt over his treatment at the hands of his father. However, he eventually realized at least a portion of that was because Rintaro was not the man that neither he nor his father wished he would be. He lived in the shadow of his deceased older brother. He knew enough about their shadowed past to decipher that his sole comparison for his accomplishments. Realizing the impossibility of competing with his dead brother, he came to the conclusion that he would have to be someone else. That person isolated himself to become a perfect fighter, but that backfired and alienated his friends and family. At one point he was merely a disappointment. He became the black sheep and shame of his family. Two people shook him out of his dark place. Mayako, his primary savior, used love and the promise of friendship to bring him around. It had been several years since his friends had even talked to him at any length, mostly because he shut them out. Even when they were on talking terms, he had been aloof from them, keeping to himself during training, which took up the majority of his free time even then. Mayako re-opened the door he had begun to close years before they had become estranged. Her selfless enthusiasm reawakened his need for others. Her forgiveness restarted his dormant heart. Just thinking about it made him feel sappy. His path lead him to his first stop on his zigzag way to the Tendou house. He looked up as a dark mass of ash colored clouds swallowed the afternoon sun. The thick must of moisture in the air even smelled of rain, as he realized he had not brought an umbrella of any kind. He would probably have to rest at Ucchan's, rather than be caught in a downpour. He could get lunch there while he was at it. A low, cool breeze lifted his bangs out of his face and refreshed him. He concentrated on walking and silenced his thoughts. The hairs on his neck raised as a man approached him, walking along the road. He wore a dark trench coat and a wide hat that a detective in a manga might have worn. The man stared back at him as they crossed paths, his eyes betraying not even a hint of recognition. For some reason, Rintaro thought he knew this man, but could not place him. They passed each other without incident and Rintaro put it behind him. The strange sense of deja vu passed as he neared Ucchan's. The first drops of rain began fall on the asphalt street as Rintaro looked up to the heavens. A thin mist met his eyes and caused him to blink. He quickly moved to the overhang of the shops to avoid getting damp as he continued towards Ucchan's. He saw the sign of the shop as he approached. A few moments later he pushed the glass doors open and entered the warm restaurant. He took a deep breath in to let the delicious smell of okonomiyaki fill his nose and wet his appetite. A smiling Mai Ono greeted him with a wave. "Rintaro-kun," she said with affection as she walked around the counter and latched onto him with a hug. The force of her hug knocked him back a step as he countered the weight of his pack. "Hello, Mai-chan," he replied, giving her a quick squeeze so she would let him go. He noticed her heart was beating quickly. She pulled back and looked up at him with doe eyes, and he knew she wanted something from him. He forced a smile as she talked. "I'm so glad you came," she began, her wide eyes blinking slowly. "My mother is in trouble." Something snapped in Rintaro as he looked down at Mai. He recalled the suspicious man walking in the opposite direction, and remembered what that man reminded him of. Tarou. "Did he hurt her?" Rintaro demanded as he took Mai's arms. She looked startled for a moment before shaking her head. "She left without her umbrella!" Rintaro's jaw became unclenched and fell wide open. "You scared me there Mai." "Well, I can't leave the store until Ryo-kun comes back." "Shampoo can find her way back here fine if she needs hot water," he whispered. "We can get her clothes later." "No, you don't understand," Mai said, grabbing his hands. "This man came by and left something with her. I didn't hear what he said to her, but she knew him and took it and told me to stay here while she went to the Tendou house for some reason. It seemed really important." "You say a man?" "She called him Tarou." That was all she had to say. Rintaro handed Mai his pack and grabbed the umbrella and the pot of hot water she offered. It would be difficult, but he would find her. * * * For the second time in her life, Shampoo found herself attempting to save the life of a Saotome. Only her youth and strength evaporated through the years since she approached middle age. The life she once devoted to fighting, she now focused on her husband and children. Her family grew healthy and strong in her presence at the neglect of her training. She had not regretted a single moment of it until now. Her heart beat heavily, and even though she stayed in shape, she could no longer travel as she once did. She gasped for breath as she sprinted to the Tendou home, but still she kept up with Rintaro, his black hair matted with the rain. She pushed her body, keeping the umbrella firmly in front of her, to shield herself from the rain. If it had not been for Rintaro's interference, she would have had to return home to change back from her cat form and then once more find her things and hurry to save the life of an innocent. When the two finally arrived at their destination, Shampoo was so out of breath, she nearly collapsed at their front door. Rintaro pushed the door open and helped her through the threshold. The umbrella caught on the door frame and jerked out of her hand as they crashed into the Tendou's home, leaving soaking foot prints with each step they took. "I'll look upstairs," Rintaro told her, looking back at her with his blue eyes. "You check the bottom floor." The purple-haired woman nodded as Rintaro sprinted up the stairs. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before she walked down the hall towards Akane's bedroom. What she saw startled her. At the doorway to the room, Kenichi held himself against the door frame, tears shining on his cheek. She heard a soft crying from the inside of the room. She approached, taking heavy steps to make her presence known, but Kenichi did not notice. In fact, he did not even turn his head when she stopped to stand by him and peer into the room. "I think we have no choice but to take her to the hospital, Akane," Shampoo's husband said in a voice that broke the strange silence that haunted the room. Shampoo saw him next to Akane, who held the redheaded girl in her arms. "She's burning up, fighting something we don't know anything about, and I really can't help her in anyway." In the moment after Tofu spoke, Shampoo pushed passed Kenichi at the exact same time Akane did something that shook the doctor. She tried to see what, but Akane's back was to the door. "No, but maybe I can," Shampoo said aloud, her own voice sounding like an intrusion. She held out a small bag that she had used to carry the antidote given to her by Tarou. "What do you mean, honey?" Dr. Tofu asked, adjusting his glasses to look at her. "Rintaro came by the restaurant and tells me what happened last night," she said. "He say that Pantyhose Tarou poison her and now she running a fever?" "That's right," Akane said quickly. "Do you know something, Shampoo?" "He poisoned her and gave me this." Shampoo then proceeded to remove a small vial from the bag. "He say it will cure the Saotome girl and he says he's sorry." There was a moment of silence as Tofu stood and retrieved the vial from her. He stared at it, adjusting his glasses to his head. "Why would he poison her and then give us the cure? What would be the point?" Akane's gasp erased all thought that everyone in the room might have had. Shampoo startled in surprise, walking toward the woman, as Tofu did as well. "She's not breathing!" Akane shouted, her voice panicked. Tofu rushed to her side and put two fingers against the girl's throat. "Her pulse is faint. I'm going to need to perform CPR, Akane." The collected calm of Tofu's demands shook Akane out of her stupor and she slid the unconscious girl off her lap and onto the bed. Shampoo watched as her husband leaned over the girl and started to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation. "He said it would help her," Akane intoned with shock in her voice. "He said it would keep the poison from killing her." She held something tightly in her right hand. It had been concealed beneath the girl, but now Shampoo saw what she gripped so tightly. An empty, ejected syringe with a needle attached shined in the light of the room between her fingers. Akane stared at it with horror in her eyes. "What is that, Akane?" Shampoo asked, mystified by Akane's actions. "Who said it would help her?" Tofu took notice of this and when he started to pump Kimiko's chest, he demanded, "What did you do, Akane?" "I gave her this, like her brother said to. He made me promise that if she was dying that I'd inject her with this." "What was it?" Shampoo demanded, but Akane's attention and slipped through the cracks of the floor. "I heard him say it would save her if he failed to get the cure," Kenichi's voice echoed from behind Shampoo. "I didn't know what he was talking about, though." Tofu stopped and looked at the vial in his hands. "Give me that syringe, Akane." When Akane did not respond, Shampoo took the needle from the end of the syringe and handed it to her husband. Tofu took it and attached it to the syringe that Shampoo received from Tarou. "God help me," the tired doctor whispered, his red-rimmed eyes staring down at the dying girl as he injected the serum. * * * In the back seat of a company car, Kiyoshi Nishiyama stared at the palms of his hands. He barely felt the pain in his arms and his broken right hand, trying to focus his thoughts on too many things at once. He faded in and out of consciousness on the ride to the Tendou house where he had left his sister. Although the company men that had picked him up urged him to go to the hospital, he had to check on Kimiko first before he could rest. As he started to lapse back into unconsciousness, he heard a familiar voice. "You failed." He stared through the darkness at the back of his lids, but his eyes saw the old drowned soul from Jusenkyou, the one who made everything clear. The way the ghost appeared now, Kiyoshi barely recognized him. His gaunt appearance suggested the breakdown of his spiritual presence. "I trusted you with her," the voice spoke without the ghost's lips moving. As Kiyoshi's mind digested the words, his body called him to awaken, but as his eyelids began to flitter open, the old soul grabbed him with diminutive hands. "Ignore the Beast and listen to me again." The darkness around the being seemed to become a funnel around him, as if he were pulling everything into himself. Waves of nausea swept through Kiyoshi as events outside his mind called his attention. However, whatever hold that the being Kiyoshi had come to know as Seiichi had over him would not allow his consciousness to emerge from the trance. "Let me go," Kiyoshi whispered, his voice lost in the sea of darkness. "Never," the curt response hissed in his ear. Through his eyes, Kiyoshi saw the car traveling through a neighborhood, but he could not move his limbs. The paralysis of sleep seemed to have overcome him. "She will die because of you." The words shredded his heart. His sole light in the world needed his help and he had failed. As much as Kiyoshi did not want to face the truth, he was almost certain there would be nothing he could do to stop the poison from destroying his love. The guilt seemed to strangle him so much so that it affected him physically. He started coughing for hair as he choked on his emotions. He vaguely heard the driver's panicked voice, but it did not register. "You sorry excuse for a disciple," the ghost berated, ripping at him from the inside out. "Why do you think I chose you? Why do you think I spared your life?" Kiyoshi's head begin to throb so suddenly that he vomitted a mouthful of acid down his chin and onto his shirt. After a moment of dejectedly lying on the car seat, the car door opened. "Sir, are you okay? I'm going to call an ambulance." Kiyoshi's focus suddenly became as strong as his guilt. He sat up and stared directly at his driver. "Keep driving. I don't care what it takes, just get me there now!" The driver looked shocked, his eyes looking over the younger man. "If you want to keep your job, you will do as I say!" The glare that Kiyoshi shot the driver bowing. He closed the door and went back to the driver's seat and continued the drive to the house. * * * A cold, damp brightness woke the girl from a deep slumber. Her mind awakened slowly, as if she had been asleep for a long time, like a bear hybernating through the winter. However, from the cold that penetrated her flesh, this bear had not slept long enough. She opened her eyes, but only white light met her tired eyes. As she reached up to wipe her them, her fingers ran through what felt like thick, damp cobwebs. When she rubbed her eyes, her warm hands thawed the cold around her face, and water dripped down her cheeks. She thought to sit up, as the fog around her mind began to clear. Cold air brushed her face as her head poked through to blanket of snow that had fallen on her overnight. Ranma's eyes widened to the spectacle before her. Laid out before her, a deep layer of snow covered the forest that looked green the night before. She had also gone to bed male, but apparently even snow could initiate the curse that she hated so much. The change did not diminish the beauty of the forest, for even the newly turned girl drew a deep breath in admiration. She turned to where her father had gone to sleep the night before, in the hallowed out stump of a long dead tree. She walked over to the stump, but it had been covered in a deep blanket of snow, completely obscuring her father's form, which was almost assuredly the shape of a panda by now. "Hey Pops," she called out to her father, standing up. The chill of the morning air caused a shiver to escape down her spine. Shaking snow off her small body, she reached her arms in the air to stretch. A moan from under the snow nearby caught her attention. She approached the lump of black and white fur poking out of the snow. "Pops, wake up," Ranma stated as she gave a kick to her father's side. A low growl escaped from the panda's mouth before he rolled over, ignoring his child's attempt to wake him. "Come on, old man! I'm hungry!" she shouted, attempting to kick him again, but her foot met nothing but snow, causing her to lose her balance and slip on her behind. "Is that anyway to treat your father?" a voice spoke in a deep, guttural voice from behind her. The very words shocked Ranma as she had not heard her father speak since they had gotten lost in the mountain forest since their escape from certain death at the hands of the amazons. Ranma rolled to her side and looked up at her father. The old man still remained a panda, yet somehow he spoke to her. "You've been holding out on me, grunting this whole time? What gives?" The panda merely growled in response, as he had the entire time since they had fallen into the horrible cursed springs. "Must have been my imagination," Ranma said as she stood to dust the snow off her pants. "Stupid pandas can't talk." The panda stared off into the distance, his eyes lost in the white of the forest. Ranma growled and then kicked some snow in her father's direction. "Well? What are we going to do about breakfast?" The panda shook its head and pointed forward. Ranma turned in the direction of his paw. A bright red and yellow bird sat perched on the branches of a giant tree, staring down at the pair on the forest floor. Ranma exhaled in surprise and delight of the visage of the bird, which looked to be the biggest bird she had ever seen in her life. "What kind of bird is that?" she reflexively asked, knowing her father could not speak. "A phoenix, of course," the response came, surprising Ranma. "You can talk!" she yelled as she turned around to face her father, who no longer bore the shape of the panda. "Hey, where'd you get the hot water?" "We need hot water anymore," the middle-aged man told his son- turned-daughter. "You should know that by now." A sudden pain shot into Ranma's head as she stared at her father, wide-eyed. With every oddity, her reality began to tear apart at the seams. One moment, she was on a training trip with her father on their way home from the misbegotten Chinese adventure, and the very next moment she realized she had to be dreaming. The face in front of her changed, so quickly Ranma suddenly stared at a young man who appeared familiar. His steel gray eyes blinked as he stared into her blue ones. "Sister," the man with long black hair said softly. A gentle haze clouded Ranma's mind as her eyes, as the minutes of her waking in the snow slowly evaporated from her mind. She fought to remember, but the reality she perceived in the next moment began to overwrite the memory. "Kiyoshi," she whispered as a disorienting, sinking feeling sat in the base of her stomach. "I feel sick." She felt his gentle grip take her in his arms and guide her to her knees. He held back her hair the sinking feeling turned to nausea and came rushing out her throat. After she vomited the contents of her stomach, she fell exhausted against her brother and started to fall unconscious. However, the moment her eyes closed, she felt a jolt in her spine. "We're almost there, Kimiko," a voice urgently said in her ear. "We're so close, if you can just try harder." Regaining some of her senses, Kimiko looked up and saw something amazing. Her eyes had longed to see the place below them for so many years. The valley of a thousand springs lay beneath her, but her legs felt like jelly and her arms hurt, as if cut by glass. The pain combined with the taste of vomit made her feel light-headed. "It's okay, we'll rest a few more minutes," Kiyoshi whispered in her ear, pulling her tightly into his lap. "It's okay." Her mind ached from what she did not know, but it was becoming clearer, as her senses were sharpening. "A little color came back to your cheeks," her brother said softly, pushing his fingertips gently through her hair, massaging her scalp. She slid into a deep sleep, ignoring the voice in her head crying out for her attention. Quietly ignoring her better judgment, Kimiko fell into a gentle sleep. She woke hours later, as her eyes met the warm orange sky above her. The color of the sun painted gently across the landscape, softly illuminating her brother's sleeping face. His long hair lay splashed across his face, masking one of his eyes and crossing his nose. She pushed it back with her finger. Sitting up, Kimiko felt immensely better, unsure why she had been sick in the first place. Her eyes lingered on him for a moment. She rested her head against his chest for a moment, listening quietly to the sound of his strong heartbeat. She gently wiggled out of his arms and pushed up with her feet. Her body felt miraculously recovered from earlier. Taking a deep breath of the August air, Kimiko greeted the evening with a smile. She looked down across the valley, knowing her time would soon come when she could become herself again. A thought suddenly struck her in the midst of her day dream. If Jusenkyou had recovered from the terrible floods that nearly destroyed it so many years ago, why did it look exactly the same as the first time she encountered it? Her eyes gazed across the untainted horizon, covered in the cursed pools. It appeared exactly as the first day she saw it with her father. "You're trying too hard to rationalize everything," Kiyoshi spoke warmly, his body suddenly against hers. She felt his hand fall gently her shoulder. "You finally have your wish. You should just forget your doubts and go meet your destiny head on. It's what you wanted ever since you changed for the first time. Don't you still want to be normal?" "Yeah, but..." she began, but her voice trailed off. "You're so difficult," Kiyoshi chastised as he pulled away. "Soon you're going to be too proud to accept more than a handshake, let alone an embrace." The hurt in his words were hard to bear. Kimiko loved him like a real brother. Somehow the year and a half they spent together stretched to an eternity in her mind. "I'll still be me," Kimiko told him, her eyes falling down to stare at her feet. "You're still the closest thing I will ever have to family." "You forget," Kiyoshi said quietly. "Once you become Ranma again, you will no longer be my sister. You will have to extinguish that side of yourself forever. You will have to remember your life as Ranma, even if you never go back to Nerima." A tear slipped from her blue eye down onto her cheek. Catching it with her finger, she wiped it away and turned her head. "When you go into the spring, you'll never be a woman again. Every friend you've made will no longer know you. Your body will grow old and you will be even older than me." Kimiko looked down at her hands, opening her palms face up. Her life lines seemed to glow along the base of her hand, stretching all the way to her thumb. She wondered if it would suddenly uncoil from her hand, withering until only a sliver remained. The thought that this curse hold her hostage with youth made her head hurt a bit. "Let's at least get closer, shall we?" Kiyoshi said, offering his hand. Kimiko felt strange as she took his hand. The guide before her was not of Jusenkyou, nor her original life. He was neither Happosai nor her brother. As they drew closer, the warmth of his hand kept her mind focused amidst the confusion in her soul. With each step she took towards the goal she had sought for all of these years, a piece of Kimiko fell to the earth and shattered. Like pieces of clay that made up who she had been, she felt each fragment come loose, wiggling away from her grasp. Fear began to replace each piece. The last time she had come here, she had lost her childhood. The time before, she lost her manhood. She knew this time would be no different. This time she would lose something more dear than the two of those things combined. "We're almost there," Kiyoshi said, his voice oddly serene as he lead her to the base of the mountain they had stood upon. "Kiyoshi," she said, pulling him to a stop. He turned to face her, their arms crossing their bodies, his left hand to her right. "Why are you crying?" He asked, pulling in close. Kimiko took a step back, releasing his hand. Kiyoshi's eyes left her gaze and gazed to her hand. "I don't know what lies beyond for us," she began, the tears sliding down her cheeks freely now. She had not noticed them until he mentioned it. "This is something I have to do. If I don't at least try, I can never rest, or be happy. As pleasant as you made my life, I am not whole without him." "Him?" The word sounded foreign, although Kimiko had spoke it. "I mean, my manhood of course." "No, you mean Ranma." His eyes were on hers again, this time peering sharply. Her eyes widened. Suddenly she felt the weight of her seperate identities crushing her. A disturbing thought coursed through her body, sending a shiver down her spine. Her sanity suppressed it deep with herself. "Stop!" Kiyoshi yelled, catching her attention. Kimiko saw herself outside of her body, running towards the basin where the cursed pools lay for a millenia. Horror took her as she once more became a spectator of her own life. A flash of deja vu overcame her. The transluscent body of a young, dark-haired woman ran across this same path. Kiyoshi hand grabbed hers, stopping her at the same post that she had stopped him in the dream. "This is madness!" he yelled at her, grabbing both of her wrists as she struggled in her grasp. "If you're not careful, you could fall in another spring and curse yourself even worse than you are now." "We have to run!" The girl cried frantically. Kimiko heard it and felt it from her mouth, but it still did not sound like her voice. "What?" Kiyoshi bewilderdly asked. It was then the scream tore through the air, as if a cat had been ripped in half, its lungs still able to deliver one last cry. The noise burned a hole in her, for she knew what it was. Fear paralyzed her limbs as she stared, wide-eyed at her brother. Kiyoshi's eyes widened as he turned to look behind them, frantically searching for the source of the sound. He released one of her wrists, but refused to let go of another. "If it something indigenous, it would know not to go into Jusenkyou." He pulled her into the cursed valley. His words would have made sense if she had not known what made the noise, the shadow from her dreams, the beast that stalked her even now, a millenia later, to tear two new souls asunder. She tried to speak, to say anything to Kiyoshi, but she could not even keep her legs moving forward. Kimiko fell forward as the momentum of Kiyoshi's weight pulled her off balance. She would have struck the ground face first had Kiyoshi not been swift enough to turn and grab her. He lifted her into his arms and ran so fast, she wondered how anything could keep up. She wondered if he should be slowing because of her weight, but it merely seemed to accellerate his run. He flew across the poles, high above the ground now, suspended above the pools. "I think we'll be..." his words trailed off as something caught his full attention. "What the hell?" Whatever caught his attention, Kimiko could not see, whether or not she actually wanted to. Only darkness met her eyes as the moonlight became her only lumination. For a brief moment, she saw two faces above her instead of one. Kiyoshi's eyes reflected the moonlight strongly, but so did the eyes of one other, someone who also held her in its arms, someone who could have been holding her all along. "I need to set you down for a moment," Kiyoshi said, his eyes trained on something beyond her vision. She clung to him tightly as he jumped down, her hands encircling his neck. She felt him lower her body and touch it softly to the ground, but she did not release her grip. "It will take but a moment," he whispered in her ear softly. The words tickled. "Please trust me." "It can't take us together," Kimiko replied, her hands shaking as she pulled back to look him in the eyes. "Stay here and it can't hurt us." A wave of desperation filled her as he pulled her grip apart and stepped back. "Trust me," he said confidently. "I won't let them have you." His words began to bleed together with the ghost. Suddenly his face looked like Ranma's, his eyes blue instead of grey. Like a book spoiled by reading the last page, the outcome played itself over in her mind. He would die in her arms, but she would not die in his. She would be lost to the darkness again. The shadow appeared once more, playing its part, charging forward. A shimmering spear appeared in Kiyoshi hand to ward off the blow of his attacker. She recognized the weapon somehow, though for the life of her she could not remember in this horrible moment. It glowed with his life force, his pain and joy. Her soul felt the weapon, forged of his will to save her. A bright clash of weapons blinded her. "You!" Kiyoshi yelled, his voice tempered with rage. "I destroyed you!" The shadow knocked Kiyoshi back, his boots ripping through the dirt as he held his balance. "You displaced me," the shadow bellowed, its voice the scream of a thousand dying felines. "But here, here I shall displace you! That old soul of yours will die as he choke it with my hands!" The last word cut Kimiko's ear drums so much so that she fell to her bottom, holding her deafened ears in pain. Bright flashes of light followed, but Kimiko could not follow the battle from her place in the dark. Each time the two weapons met, she was blinded again by the intense shock of light. For a brief second, she caught a glimpse of Kiyoshi's face, but it promptly disappeared into the darkness. The fight drew closer. As her ears began to recover, she could hear the sounds of their fight to the death. The noise grew louder by the moment, so she forced herself to stand and be ready. One moment, she heard the loud crash of static, as she saw a flash of light that blinded her again, and then the next it grew strangely silent. She waited for what seemed like forever before opening her mouth to speak. "Kiyoshi?" She dreaded not seeing his face, but moments later he stood before her, illuminated valiantly in the light of the moon. "I-I-I," he stuttered, his voice cracking. He fell to his knees, but did not collapse. Kimiko broke fear's grip over her and ran to him. He breathed heavily, but seemed alright, short of exhaustion. "Are you all right?" she asked, taking him by the shoulders. He looked up at her and nodded, but his eyes looked troubled. She looked over his shoulder, but her eyes could not penetrate the darkness of the valley. "Not until you're free," he said cryptically, his eyes looking past her. She turned and saw nothing but the moon's reflection in a pool of water. "That's it," he told her, his voice crackling. "Please...bathe..." Kimiko looked at him in curiosity. "What do you mean?" She looked over at the pool he identified. "What..." "Please!" he begged, looking into her eyes. "Please, for your own sake, jump in, free yourself of all of this!" She stood, releasing his shoulders, and turned to the pool of water directly behind her. It took ten steps to reach the edge of the cursed pool. She peered down into the water and gasped. While the pool should have reflected her image, instead the ghostly visage of a woman lay beneath its hellish exterior. "Lily," she whispered, her voice clear and resonant. The ghost merely waited, passively locked in her watery cell. Her eyes glowed a dull green beneath the pool, the intelligence still present even in death. She wore a tattered white dress that was so bright, it almost hurt to look directly at it. Kimiko ignored everything, knowing exactly what she had to do. "I'm here to save you," she told the ghost as she reached down and pushed her hand through the surface of the water. However she tried, Lily did not reach back. "Take my hand!" She stared through her own transluscent image to look at the ghost, only, the face that reflected in the water, suddenly was no longer one she recognized, It was older, rougher and wider. She stared in shock and realized what Lily had been waiting for. Her hand met the cold one beneath the water, and so she pulled the ghost. Kimiko had not anticipated the distance that Sun Li's spirit lay beneath the water, as it felt like she had to pull her many yards before the woman's head poked out of the water. The eyes stared wildly for a moment before she began to vomit a thousand years of water from her transluscent lungs. Seconds later, she heard the scream again, this time sounding like thousands of metal sheets being ripped apart in unison. Reacting on pure instinct, Kimiko covered her ears, releasing the hand of the spirit, who immediately began to sink beneath the pool once more. Kimiko released her ears and waded into the pool to catch Lily's body, which began to rapidly sink back into the depths of the underwater prison. She grabbed onto the woman's leg arm, digging into the dirt beneath the pool. Although she could feel the bottom of the pool with her feet, it was definitely deeper for the spirit, of which only that arm Kimiko held still remained in sight. Kimiko pulled with all of her strength, which was amplified by muscle she had long forgotten. Every inch of her knew she had returned to being a man, but she also knew it would only last so long as she saved the woman in the water. Another screamed tore her ears, but this time Kimiko recognized Kiyoshi's voice. She pulled harder, the urgency of the moment fueling her adrenalin. With all of her will, she pulled the spirit back to the visible water. First Lily's head came back from whatever hell she had been sucked into, and then her torso. When her face once more pierced the surface of the water, her mouth spit not water, but words. "I've missed you so much, my love," her voice sounded as soft as Kimiko remembered it from the dream. "I dreamed of you all this time. I went to you and saved you all those years ago, so that one day you could remember me and finally save me as you promised." Kimiko heard fighting behind her, but chose to ignore it, concentrating everything on pulling the spirit completely out of the water. When Lily's waist became exposed to the air, Kimiko's mind became splintered. One moment there was nothing there but saving the trapped woman, and the next she realized this was it. She knew what she would lose this time. In that moment, she sadly looked into the loving eyes of Sun Li, the woman who haunted her and yet saved her. "What is wrong?" "I'm sorry," Kimiko said, tears beginning to pour down her cheeks. "Why? I will give you everything back!" "I already have everythnig," she whispered. Lily's hand fell from hers as Kimiko stood and turned. She could not bear to watch the woman sink back into the watery grave, so she ran in the direction she last heard Kiyoshi, bawling every step of the way. It took a moment for her to reorient herself, but she quickly found what she was looking for. Above a pool, a shadow stood as she had moments before, have submerged in the water. Only this time, the person above the water was not saving the person below, but drowning him. Urgency like she had felt only a few times in her life raged within her. She tore across the space and ripped at the shadow with her fingers. They slashed it like daggers, sending it back to the nether. She turned to face down beneath the pool where she saw the young face of Kiyoshi Nishiyama. For a brief instant, his face was that of a child of about ten years of age. His face spoke of agony like none she could imagine, his features distorted in the wavy depths of the pool. Kimiko quickly attempted to jump in the pool, only to find it frozen over. Although it did not feel cold to the touch, a hard layer of ice stopped her from saving him. She recognized the glassy touch as she fell forward onto it. Her face hit the glassy surface of the water, but her eyes remained fixed on the boy's face. She pushed herself back, centering her right arm in the pool, focusing on the weakest point of the barrier. She stood, but kept her arm aimed straight down. Opening her palm, she felt her life's energy pouring into the center of her hand. If she could have taken a step back to observe herself, she would have witnessed the final act she made as Ranma Saotome, the most magnificent thing she could have done. Rimmed with blue light, her arm came down with a hiss of air before the earth shook from her blow. The icelike surface of the water shattered all at once, causing her to fall straight through it. She wasted no time in bringing her brother's body out of the water. It was more difficult, as her body had shrunk in the water, the curse reactivating for perhaps the final time. Pulling him completely out of the water, Kimiko shivered as she rested her hands firmly on Kiyoshi's chest. She pumped it several times before she paused a moment and took a deep breath. Adjusting his head back, she opened his mouth with her hand and then kissed him, exhauling with all of her strength. His chest rose and fell, so she continued for what could have been an hour, but only occupied the spawn of a minute. The fifth time she leaned over and touched her lips to his, her breath sparked something in him. A gargling sound came from his throat as she pulled back. Righting him on his side, he quickly coughed out the water from his lungs then enhauled without her assistance. Although it was ragged and lead to a series of coughs, it was the most beautiful noise she had ever heard. She collapsed her head to the ground as sobs racked her small body. Crying left her immobilized as she fell over to the wet dirt. Both happiness and grief flowed through her so strongly that she could only cry herself to sleep. She awoke the next morning, dry in Kiyoshi's arms. She knew it would have to be enough. The price of salvation had been far too steep.Ryan Erik ryanerik99@gmail.com http://www.geocities.com/ryanerik99/