"But what about the old freak?" Ranma asked. "He's dead, right? So why's he sitting here instead of rotting in the ruins of that old city?"

"Have a little more respect for the master!" Soun yelled angrily. "The master has his faults, but if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be sitting here, you wouldn't be sitting here, all this world would be ruled by the Cthulhu!"

Ranma was cowed somewhat by the outburst; he meekly sat back and waited for Soun to continue.

However, it was Tofu who continued the narrative. "I was shocked at seeing someone else like me, who looked like me, after all my years living in the ruins of Ralak Ur. My earliest memories involved escaping from the Vegeth Zhahk- our word for the Great Ones- and hiding from them, escaping when I could, killing my pursuers when escape was impossible. Eventually they stopped trying to catch me, and I only dealt with what few I stumbled on by accident. But when I saw Soun, I felt hope for the first time. And I thought if he was a new ploy by the Great Ones to catch me again, I could just kill him."

Ranma shuddered at the matter of fact way that Tofu said this, but Soun only nodded and began again. "I had to communicate with him in Cthulhu because he knew no Japanese. But he seemed overjoyed to see me, and in this place, I could understand why. So I told him that we were to escape, and a mighty friend of ours, who had killed a number of the Cthulhu, would help us do it. He agreed to join us.

"But when we got to the rendezvous point, Master Happosai was not there. By this time, the woman had decided to walk and would not let me carry her. So all of us, on foot, reached the empty place where the Master had said he would meet me. I heard no sounds of fighting so I knew that something had gone wrong. And, with all of the things I had seen, all of the things I had fought in this time, in this hellish place, I did the bravest thing I ever did in my life. I went and searched for the master.

"After a time, I found him, and I collapsed in grief on the stones of that place, for he was truly dead. I saw clutched in his hand, as though to say goodbye, a picture of a young and beautiful mandarin girl, a chinese amazon whom we all know as Cologne. It was sketched out in a careful, delicate hand, yet so true to life that you would have sworn she breathed, captured, I suppose, in a moment of peaceful thought, when she noticed not. The sight of this broke my heart.

"Then the roar of rage came from back the direction of the place where we found the woman, and I knew we had to leave. I steeled myself for what would come next, for I knew I could never outrun them. But the woman knelt down, and cradled the master's head in her lap, and touched her hand to his chest. And he screamed."

Tofu said, "I saw what she was doing, giving some of her strength to heal the broken man before us, but I couldn't help in time before the man jumped to his feet, and said, 'How did you do this?'"

Happosai said then, "I think it was a side effect of what she did to me that allows me to draw strength from fondling young women."

"Not that this ever bothered you in the first place," Soun murmured with a half smile.

Smirking, Happosai replied, "Unexpected fringe benefit of being brought back from the dead. Probably had something to do with the fact that she did so while stark naked."

"Or else it was shaped by your personal mindset," Soun replied.

"Perhaps."

Tofu said, "It was at this point that I said, 'Ahgash vew, mardra Vegeth Zhahk erduva ro.'"

"What?" Ranma said. "Vegeth Zhahk, you said the was the Great ones, but what was the rest?"

"We must leave, wrath of the Great Ones comes." Tofu answered.

"Oh."

Daddy nodded. "And leave we did. But as we were crossing the border into the welcome refuge of the frozen wastes of the Russian Steppe, the worst happened. One of the Greater Cthulhu had circled around in front of us and was blocking our way."

"It was my fault," Tofu said. "We didn't know it at the time, but the Cthulhu always know where the rest of their kind are. And they had not one, but two to track us by. Myself, and the woman."

Ranma's eyes widened. "Doc- you're one of them?"

Tofu nodded. "Yes. I didn't know it, though. I thought I was human. Or at least, I thought I was the same as Happosai and Soun. I didn't really understand the concept of being human, but the idea was there.

"He ordered me to kill the two humans. Said that I had to do as he said because he was the ruler and I the ruled. I told him, in greater Cthulhu, to go to hell. Or an equivalent phrase, one that really doesn't have a translation into Japanese, and one I wouldn't want to translate in the first place out of respect for all present."

Happosai said, "The thing struck out at us like lightning. Even before, I had never seen anything move so fast. I was knocked down and out before I could lift a finger. But I was still weak, and I couldn't do much but watch anyhow. Tofu followed me to the ground, and the thing then started looking at Soun."

Daddy said, "I was sure I was going to die. The thing reared up above me, looking ready to crush me like an insect, and in truth, before this amazing monstrosity I felt very much the part. But then it stopped when the woman came behind me and held me to her, looking up at the thing as though in defiance, in order to protect me. I cannot describe for you what happened next, only that suddenly there was a rush of power into my body, the likes of which I had never felt before. And it came from the woman- she was feeding this raw power into me.

"It lashed out at her, and knocked her to the ground. I was stricken and mortified, and infuriated, at the gall, the heartlessness, the EVIL of this thing, that it had struck such a perfect beauty. And this, in combination with the power she had given me, is how I won."

"You beat it?" Ranma said, stunned.

"I killed it. One attack, with all I had and more behind it, all my rage, all my fear, all my hopes and prayers and dreams and nightmares. Everything I had and more."

Happosai said, "All I saw of it after the thing knocked down the woman was Soun look up at it with hate, pure hatred, and then a blinding flash of light. When my eyes cleared again, it was gone, nothing more than a stench of ozone in the air."

Tofu said, "After he killed it, Soun collapsed. I hauled him to his feet and told him we had to leave, that the others were coming. I didn't know how I knew, but I could feel it. I carried Happosai, but the woman would only let Soun touch her. Not even I was allowed to pick her up."

"I had forgotten about the cold awaiting us above. Even in the summer, the Russian Steppe is a harsh and icy place, with little to burn and nothing to drink." Daddy said. "As soon as we stepped up above, I was sure we were lost. Master Happosai had brought with us supplies, but they were still in the city below, abandoned in effort to save our lives. But as it happened, we did not need them.

"A local group of Russians came upon us as we emerged. They had their dogsleds and were taking a load of furs to the nearby city of Minsk, when they happened on us. Had the been returning rather than going, we might still have died of exposure. As it was, I nearly lost fingers to frostbite, and that I didn't is thanks to Tofu and his skills as a doctor."

"The next part of the story came as the woman and I were given our exams by the doctors. In spite of the exposure we had received out there in the ice, she and I were inexplicably just fine. The doctors were at a loss. Finally, they gave us both X-rays to check if we had no internal injuries.

"They thought the film was flawed. Somehow, the pictures didn't medically match with anything they had seen. They couldn't understand what was wrong when the pictures came out identical the second and third time around."

Daddy nodded. "They came to the Master and I with the X-rays, trying to find if we had any answer for them. We had none- Openly- but we recognized the organs as they showed up on the X-rays, the right positions, everything."

Happosai nodded agreement. "They were the exact position of the organs in the bodies of the Gnarga- one of the low caste, yet one of the most powerful of the Cthulhu.

"We found out later in the company of several others from the Kuomingtang province of China just what the purpose of Tofu and our female companion was. They were to be the force that infiltrated humanity and opened the doors once more for the rule of the Cthulhu."

Ranma nodded. "Okay, so we know what happened to one of the Cthulhu that came with." He said, pointing at Doctor Tofu. "But what about the other one- the woman? What happened to her?" Soun hung his head sadly. "I taught her Japanese, I worked with her, trying to teach her to live her life as human in spite of what we all knew, and it worked. She thought herself human, enough so that she eventually fell in love, married, had three daughters, and then died before her time when we had to face these things again. She died in defense of humanity, what she had been originally bred to destroy."

"What about her daughters?" Ranma pressed, not getting it.

"Ranma… Dad means us." Akane said softly. "She was our mother."

"I was proud of the three fine daughters my wife had given me. Hearty, strong, cheerful, they were everything I could have asked for, and more. When I first held Kasumi in my arms after she was born, I felt my heart lift in a way I had never felt before- this beautiful, smiling baby girl was my daughter? That somehow, against all odds, I fathered and would father this angel? I felt overjoyed." Daddy's eyes began leaking tears, and Nabiki felt she could have shed a few herself. "And so I felt I was honor bound to find a worthy husband for my daughters, a man upstanding and stalwart and honorable. Someone worthy of each of them. For Kasumi, I found Tofu to be the best choice available." Tofu blushed at this, his glasses fogging up a little. "And for the other two, I was hard put to find a suitable husband. Until I continued my training and sparred against Genma again. This time, I knew, I would be the victor."

Ranma waited expectantly.

"And I was soundly defeated. Even with all I knew, all my training, all that I had fought against and fought for, I was no match for Genma. Slowly, a suspicion dawned on me. As I spent more and more time with Genma, I knew why the eerily smooth and flowing motions that both my wife and Tofu had seemed so familiar to me. Because Genma moved the same way. And I had my suspicions about him.

"Then I thought, 'What better husband for one of my daughters than the son of my friend? My companion in arms and sometime rival?' And that very night I proposed that we have our children marry.

"Ranma, I had to tell you this. Because I think you are as much Cthulhu as my daughters are."

Ranma sat there for a moment, absorbing all of this. "Wait a minute, Mr. Tendo. What about Tofu's mother?"

"A woman who adopted me when I came here to Japan. She knew also of the Cthulhu, and could speak the language. She taught me to live among humans." Answered Tofu. "She has been my mother in all but flesh."

Ranma nodded. "So what does this have to do with the letters you and the Doctor got?"

Nabiki spoke up. "Because when our mother died, two men- Roichi Kuongi and Kaoruu Hibiki- fought by our side- my mother's side and mine."

Daddy's eyes streamed now, but his voice remained level. "The Cthulhu had risen up and attacked. The militia was powerless to stop it. And these two, with my three daughters, master Happosai, and my wife and I, fought back the Cthulhu to their holes in the ground. In the process, one of them killed my wife in its dying blow. I was powerless to save her. In an ironic twist of fate, it was the same manner of flash and light that took her from me as was that flash and blast by my hands with which I gained her. But we fought them back."

Nabiki spoke up. "Until then I was devoted heart and soul to the art. But after mother died, my heart was no longer in it. And so I hung up my Gi and never looked back."

Ranma nodded. "So what does this all boil down to?"

"Something worse than what happened before." Nabiki answered. "This letter- it's labelled on the front as though by Roichi and Kaoruu, but inside-" Nabiki shuddered and handed Ranma the letter.

The letter read:

	Regahs vejmal urusa, margra Vegeth Zhahk erduva ro
	Vidros nal teruba ka, adnesh wyak veudada nakmo
	Urusa vedadi? Roichi ida Kaoruu rejana remado?
	Icha char! Ida wyalma edurdas maknani do!

Nabiki said gravely, with horror in her heart, "In short, without the mocking poetry, it means the Roichi and Kaoruu are dead- and that the Tendo family and all they love are next."

Ranma looked closely at the letter. "Wait a minute. How did they know Roichi and Kaoruu's names?" He said, pointing at them on the page.

"What do you mean?" Asked Tofu.

"Right here." Ranma said, touching the page, causing a bit of the blood to flake and fall off to the floor. "Yorussa vedadi Roichi ida Kaoruu."

"It's Urusa, not yorussa, and I have absolutely no idea." Said Nabiki. "Daddy, you knew them better than we did- could the Great Ones have tortured information out of them?"

"I have no doubt that they were capable of it; They have no morals by anything human that I could ever discern. But whether they could have cracked Roichi's or Kaoruu's resolve I am less sure of- they were two of the spiritually strongest men I have ever met. But if they didn't break Roichi or Kaoruu, that suggests something even more unpleasant."

Nabiki picked up on this immediately; Ranma took a bit longer. "What's that?" He asked.

Nabiki answered, "The possibility exists that other Cthulhu like Dr. Tofu and our mother are already in place and feeding them information. Which means they could be anyone. They could be in the Amazon village, they could be in Hokkaido, Ikoku, or even…"

The unsaid words hung like thickening fog in the room- even in Nerima.

And three new families had moved into the district in the last year since Ranma and his father arrived.

"Wait a minute, now." Tofu said, pushing his glasses back. "We're jumping to conclusions here. We don't KNOW that there are others like me or Reiko- but still, the possibility exists. We shouldn't act until we're sure, but just to be on the safe side, let's keep our eyes open."

Ranma and the others nodded soberly.