All rights reserved to the creators and the affiliated persons of Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon, so please don't sue me. All other characters were made up by yours truly.

C and c can be sent to kenshin_oro@hotmail.com. Please don't fry me too badly.

What Comes Around Goes Around

Happosai was sitting on Akane’s hospital bed staring at the baby. The baby grinned toothlessly. "Sweeto! I think she likes me."

"She doesn’t even know it’s you," Ryoga said, "Look, her eyes are close."

"Congratulations, son. She makes a fine addition to our family," Nodoka said. Genma nodded agreeably.

"Oh, my, what are you going to name her, Akane?" Kasumi asked her little sister.

Akane turned to her husband, "What do you think, Ranma?"

"Hmm—dunno."

"Look! Her nose is wiggling!" Happosai exclaimed.

Who knew that the old man could get so excited about babies? Ranma thought. Then a lightbulb lit up in his mind. "Usagi—her name should be Usagi!"
"Usagi?!" Everyone said aloud.

"C’mon, everyone got to name Kenji and Kimiko. I think Usagi is a perfectly normal name," Ranma defended himself.

Akane shrugged. "Perfectly normal if you’re naming her after a rabbit. But alright, I’ll go with it. It’s kinda cute, actually." Akane looked down at her sleeping daughter. "Usagi Saotome."

"Akane, I’ve been thinking," Ranma said. He was watching his wife playing with the children.

Akane looked up. "About what, Ranma?"
"Well, I think we should follow family tradition and take the kids on a training trip."

"WHAT?!" Akane glared at her husband. "No way! Remember how you felt when your father took you on your training trip?"

Ranma thought back and scowled. "I’m not going on that long of a trip. Besides, the main thing I resented about going back then was that I didn’t get to know mother all too well. I won’t be doing that to the kids.."

"Ranma, you mean, you’re not leaving me behind?"

"No," Ranma scoffed. "Of course not, you’re their mom. I don’t think children should be separated from either of their parents for extended periods of time."
"So, I get a say to their training as well, then?"
"Of course, the kids hafta learn how to develop an iron stomach after all."
"RaNmA!!!!"
"Just kidding, just kidding."

Akane calmed a bit. "So when are we leaving?"

"As soon as we tie up loose ends here, we can go and pack."

Kenji looked up from the blocks that he was playing with. "Where going?"
Ranma lifted his son up into the air. "You’ll be learning how to be like your old man, Kenji."

"Me..me!" Kimiko stretched up her pudgy arms to her father. Ranma set Kenji down and lifted Kimiko and Usagi in his arms.

"Don’t worry, you girls will be coming, too."

Both girls wrapped their short arms around their father’s neck and hugged tight.

"After all, someone has to teach you how to control that brute strengths of yours," Ranma gritted out.

Ranma looked at the sign. "This is it."

Akane and the children came up behind him.

"Ranma! Akane!" Someone called.

"Yo, Mousse!" Ranma greeted their old time friend.

"You made it."
"Of course we made it. We’re not Ryoga, you know," Ranma said, jokingly. "So where’s your wife?"
Mousse blushed. "Shampoo’s resting. We have a new daughter! Powder is happy to have a little sister."

"Congratulations, Mousse," Akane said sincerely. Mousse and Shampoo have been married for nine years, after Mousse had finally had the courage to go all out with Shampoo and winning the chance to marry her.

They came for a visit that first year of the Saotomes’ training trip. Usagi was three and the twins were four back then.

"So this must be Kenji, Kimiko and Usagi," Mousse said, addressing the two nine-year-olds and the eight-year-old staring up at him. Kenji had a pig-tail at the back of his head, like his father. Kimiko had two pig-tails, and Usagi had two dumpling buns on the top of her head. The children met Mousse when they were younger but they could barely remember that time.

"Kids, say hello to your uncle Mousse," Akane said.

"Hello, Uncle Mousse."

"Hello. Wanna go meet your new cousin, Bubbles?" Mousse led the children to the Chinese Amazon Village, letting Akane and Ranma follow.

Shampoo was in the yard doing tai chi with her bonbori when Mousse arrived with Saotomes.

"Ranma, Akane!" Shampoo greeted enthusiastically.

"I thought you said she was resting?" Ranma asked Mousse.

"She is, in a manner of speaking, that is. You know how we Amazons are."

Shampoo reached the group and fussed over the children like a doting aunt. She led them all to the interior of the house, offering tea and refreshments, then showing off her new daughter, Bubbles. Cologne had appeared after hearing that they had guests.

"Mummy, Daddy and Great-great grandmother are going to talk with friends. Go and play, okay?" Shampoo said to her oldest daughter, Powder. She kissed the little girl and patted her towards the three Saotome children.

Powder was eight years old, a few months older than Usagi, but was not in the least intimidated by the two older kids.

"What you want to do?"

Kenji spoke for the three of them. "You speak Japanese good."

"Great-great grandmother taught me. Wanna play?"

All four of them went outside, keeping to the yard at first. Then after awhile of playing with dirt and grass, they went wandering off in the village. They went beyond the gates of the village and noticed a small gathering of mostly women.

"What’s that?" Usagi pointed out the gathering.

"Women of Amazon Village practice fighting. You come see?"

They went to watch the fighting. Kenji noted and made comments about a lot of the fighting, arrogantly criticizing some of the fighters’ faults and unaware of Powder’s reddening face.

"Tsk, tsk, that lady shouldn’t have swung too hard. Pop always said weapons slow a fighter down," Kenji said.

Powder blew up. "If you know fight so well, then show Powder. Village elders say Powder will grow big one day and be best fighter in village, like Mummy."

"Hmph, maybe in the village but not in Japan. I’ll bet that even Usagi, whose littler than me can beat you."

"Bet is on."
"Hey, Usagi, why don’t we have a little contest with Powder to see whose the better fighter."

Usagi readily agreed, always game to do anything that involves martial arts.

She squared off with Powder. They were concentrating so hard at each other that they didn’t notice some of the village women come over and form a loose circle around the two girls. Powder, trained in both her mother’s bonbori and her father’s hidden style, whipped out a pair of bonbori from her sleeve and charged Usagi. Usagi stood still until the last minute then she stepped aside, letting Powder’s momentum do the work for her. Powder fell over and tripped on her bonbori.

Powder finally noticed her elders and knew she had only one choice to save her pride. Humiliated, she stood up and hobbled to Usagi who stood staring at her innocently. Usagi still didn’t do anything even when Powder walked up to her and placed two hands on each side of Usagi’s face.

Kimiko and Kenji shouted something that Usagi didn’t hear because suddenly Powder stood on her toes and planted a kiss on Usagi’s right cheek.

There was a gasp and suddenly Powder was pushed from Usagi’s side.

"You meany!" Kimiko said. "That kiss don’t count."
Powder smirked. "Too bad. You in Amazon village, you follow rule. Move so I follow rule."
"NO!" Kenji raced towards an aggressively posed Powder. "I won’t let you hurt my sister."

"You fight, then," Powder said calculatingly. She often eavesdropped on some of the village women, and she was smart enough to understand the significance of finding a strong husband. Kenji struck her as a boy who could be her husband one day. "Maybe I not follow rule if you win."

Kenji was more concerned about his little sister whom his parents were always telling him to protect. "You’re on!"

Kimiko, seeing the gleam in Powder’s eyes, tried to warn her brother. "Kenji-kun, no! She’s trying to trick you!"

Too late. Kenji and Powder were already charging each other. Kenji was reluctant to hit a girl so he faked a punch then swept Powder’s legs from under her. Powder fell on the hard ground for the second time. But when she got up and admitted defeat, she hugged Kenji.

Kenji tried to pry her away but couldn’t. "Get off me! I won, so now, you hafta promise that you ignore the rule."

"I no said I will ignore rule, future husband. I said maybe."
Kimiko groaned. "I told you."

"W-what?!" Kenji nearly screamed. "I’m no one’s future husband!"

"You is!"

"Am not!"

"You is!"

"Am not!"

"If you no be Powder’s future husband, then little sister get hurt by Powder," Powder said.

"You’re insane!"

Powder pretended to cry. "B-but, Powder be cast off from village if you no say you be Powder’s future husband."
Kenji, unlike his father, could care less about a girl’s tears, except for his sisters’ or mother’s. He caught his sister’s hands in his and made a run for it. He didn’t go to his Uncle Mousse’s home but he ran in the opposite direction of the village gates.

"You come back!" Powder screeched after them.

Kimiko, Kenji and Usagi glanced back and gasped. The women who had been watching the little tournament between Powder and Usagi were running after them as well. With the women’s expression of determined scowls, the three Saotomes were inspired to run faster.

After a long while, they rounded a group of boulders to catch their breath. Kimiko looked around one of the boulders and noticed that there were only half the women still chasing after them. Powder was part of the diminished group.

"Man, those Amazons are persistent," Kenji complained.

"I ain’t gonna fight another one of them, ever." Usagi was huffing and puffing from all the running that her little body was forced to do. "I don’t think Powder was very nice to do that to me and you, Ken-nii." [Ken-nii: big brother Ken (short form of Kenji)].

Kimiko replied without looking back at them. "Well, I think that we all learned something today. Dad would’ve said it that way." Her voice rose in alarm. "They’re coming this way!"

"C’mon, I think I see some water ahead. We’ll hide under there till they’ve passed, then we could come out and see if we can go back for mom and pops," Kenji said.

Kimiko and Usagi followed him. Through a copse of bamboo trees, they saw a number of bodies of water. Some big, some small. Some were obviously ones that flowed through one another, some were puddles in a shallow ditch.

"Kimiko, you go there, Usagi, over there, and I’ll go here, just in case that some of these things aren’t deep enough. We don’t have time to find out."
"Right!"

The three siblings ran in opposite directions of each other, looking at each pool and ascertaining that they were deep enough to be used as hiding places. Usagi heard a splash from the direction that Kenji went. She continued to run. Then another splash, more distant, was heard from where Kimiko had gone. She also heard voices coming through the trees and she started to panic.

"Hey, you, miss!" A man’s heavily accented voice called out somewhere ahead of Usagi.

A man dressed in a green and wearing a hat with the Chinese red star on it was running towards her.

"You gotta hide me!" Usagi pleaded with him.

The man’s head turned to the direction that the women’s voices were coming from and recognized them to be those belonging to the Chinese Amazons. He felt sorry for the little blonde girl and nodded. He looked at the pools around him with a frown and shook his head vigirously. With a determined pull, he led Usagi to some denser group of bamboo trees. "You stay here while I distract women of Chinese Amazon village."

Usagi nodded and laid down on the ground as she was told. She heard some murmur of conversation then some minutes after the man came back.

"You safe now," the man said.

"Thank you so much, mister!" Usagi effused.

"It’s good thing that you did not try to hide in the springs, young miss," the man continued. "I work here. I am the guide to the springs and I tell you that all these springs here are cursed."
"Cursed?"

"Yes, whatever fall in that spring will become whatever drown in that spring years and years ago."

"Oh no! Kimi-nee and Ken-nii hide in the spring!" Usagi cried out.

The guide’s eyes nearly bulged out. "WHAT??!!! There are children hiding in springs?"

Usagi nodded, pointing to the two directions that her older siblings had gone. The guide ran to one direction and fished out a half drowned wolf cub. The guide shook his head sadly. "This spring has very tragic story of wolf cub what drowned one thousand five hundred hundred year ago." He gave the cub to Usagi, "Where is other child?"

Usagi pointed and they walked in the direction that she had heard the splash from.

"Where she is?" asked the guide.

"Dunno."

"What the heck?!" a tiny, high voice screamed from somewhere among the reeds that lined the spring.

Usagi bent down and saw something moving. A second later, a miniature version of Kimiko with wings appeared. Usagi had to squint to make sure that she was seeing right.

"Usagi-chan!" the little Kimiko called up to her sister.

"Kimi-nee!"

"Oh, very tragic story happen there two thousand year ago. This spring was one of few where magic creature drowned. Spring of Drowned fairy is what this spring is called."

"Fairy?!" Usagi and Kimiko yelled.

Usagi looked down at her older sister. "Kimi-nee, you have wings on your back."

Kimiko turned round in circles trying to see her back. On her peripheral she could see iridescent looking wings like those on a dragonfly’s back.

"Kimi-nee, you have pointy ears too," Usagi observed.

Kimiko reached for her ears and screeched. "How--?!" She looked up at Usagi in horror.

The wolf cub in Usagi’s arms wiggled and hopped to the ground. Kenji-cub walked to Kimiko and sniffed.

"Usagi-chan! That dog is gonna eat me!" Kimiko said, unconsciously flapping her wings and flying over to hide behind Usagi’s dumpling buns.

"Kimi-nee, that’s Ken-nii," Usagi said. "He turned into a baby wolfie."
"W-wolfie?" At Usagi’s nod and the cub’s yip, Kimiko groaned. "What are we gonna tell mom and dad?"
The guide heard the fairy and interrupted. "No worry, little children. You reverse curse by pouring hit water on yourselves."

They all followed the guide back to his place where he heated up some water in a kettle and poured some on the wolf-cub and the fairy.

"Ken-nii! Kimi-nee! You’re back!"

"I never want that to happen again!" The twins said together.

The guide tsked and shook his head. "No good. It is curse of Jusenkyou that when you is splashed with cold water you turn in cursed form, and when you is splashed by hot water you return to normal."
"Wait a minute—did you say Jusenkyou?" Kenji said.

The guide nodded enthusiastically, warming to the topic that he was most familiar with. "Many come here to train long before, but boy with pig-tail like you come and fight with phoenix people of Jusendou and destroy Jusenkyou."

"Hey that’s daddy!" Usagi said.

The guide looked at her. "Boy with pig-tail from long ago is your daddy?"

The three nodded.

Kimiko, the more analytical of the three questioned the matter. "But if daddy destroyed Jusenkyou, how come there are still springs around here?"
"Many more springs than this before. Hundreds and hundreds more. Now there are only few. Mostly springs that are on edge of original Jusenkyou site. Most spring like Nannichuan and Nyannichuan are gone. Many like you see is all dried up. Many springs also come together and be like ponds. Very bad to fall into those one because there many animals that combine now."

The three shuddered at the thought, remembering their father’s story of his old rival Pantyhose Tarou.

"No way to reverse us, then?" Kenji asked the guide.

"Sorry, little boy, no way at all, except for hot water."

"This sucks!"

Kimiko looked at her little sister. "Hey, Usagi-chan, you didn’t tell us what you turn into."

"I don’t," Usagi said. She blinked up at her sister. "The guide stopped me in time and hid me in the bamboo forest instead."

"Very good she no fall in spring very close to where I found her," the guide nodded sagely.

"What spring was that?"

"Spring of drowned mouse sitting on cow’s back while cow was being eaten by alligator. They all drown together. After Jusendou, that spring combine with spring of drowned ostrich and spring of drowned moose."

The children’s eyes glazed. "Oh."

"How are we going to tell mom and dad about this?" Kimiko worried.

"Why you worry? If you say truth and father is really pig-tailed boy from long ago, then no worries. Father is cursed too and will understand."
"WHAT?!"

"Daddy cursed?"

"Into what?"
"Why did he not tell us?"

"Hold on, hold on!" the guide placated the little group. "I tell you all the story if you like, then you no worry."

So, for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, the guide told them the stories he’s heard of Ranma Saotome as well as other stories of people falling into the cursed springs.

The moon was up and the stars were out when they heard a knocking on the door of the little hut.

The guide answered it and gasped. "You the boy from before!"

"Yo," Ranma said, walking into the hut. He spotted his children and grinned. "See, Akane, they’re all fine."

Akane rushed pass the guide and Ranma and went to her children, enfolding them into her arms. "I was so worried about you three. Powder came back to the village and told her parents what had happened. It took us this long to get you because the village was called to a meeting about you and what they should do."

"What will happen now?" Kimiko asked, nibbling on her bottom lip.

Ranma spoke for his wife. "Everything is fine. Cologne argued that the fight took place outside the village gates and therefore did not count. Plus, all of you were under-aged, not to mention outsiders as well, and therefore the rules can be bent this time. But I think it would be a good idea that we all stay away from the village for a long time. Your Aunt Shampoo and Uncle Mousse said that maybe they’ll visit us in Japan sometime when Bubbles is older."

"As long as they don’t bring that meany, Powder," Kenji spat.

"That’s mean, Kenji," Akane said, scolding lightly. "But anyways, she didn’t hurt you guys and that’s all that matters."
"She couldn’t even touch Usagi-chan much less hurt me or Kimiko, ma," Kenji declared.

Ranma chuckled. The boy obviously took after him. Then Ranma noticed the hut. "Oh boy, this place looks familiar."

"Good evening, sir and madam," the guide greeted, thinking that it was safe to remind his guests of his presence.

Ranma and Akane looked at the guide with suspicion. "So, how did my kids get here?" Ranma asked.

The guide shook his head and tsked. "Very tragic story--."

"Oh, no," Akane groaned.

"How tragic?" Ranma was grinding his teeth.

"I found little blonde girl running away from Chinese Amazon women. I hide her in bamboo trees."

Akane and Ranma sighed in relief.

"Not end there, though. Little girl told me that brother and sister hiding in the springs."
"Oh, no." Akane groaned again.

"Which springs," Ranma gritted out.

There was a splash and Ranma and Akane turned around to see Usagi holding an empty pail. Next to her was a wolf cub and a flying thingy. "Ken-nii is a wolfie and Kimi-nee is a fairy."

Akane and Ranma groaned again.

"No worries, sir and madam," the guide said rushing to get some left over hot water and pouring them over two cursed children.

Akane hugged her twins to herself. "I knew we shouldn’t have come here. This place is nothing but bad luck!"

"The guide said that daddy was cursed, too," Kimiko said to her mother.

"Great," Ranma looked at the guide. "Looks like we might be staying here for tonight. Do you mind?"

The guide grinned. "No problem. I no have this many visitors in long while, anyway."

So, Ranma and Akane made themselves comfortable and began a story that went back almost fifteen years ago.