SMARTALECK PRODUCTIONS

Destiny

            By arun<arundude1@yahoo.com>
                   <arun2110@sancharnet.in>

            Chapter06 <Originally completed on 10/25/2001> <REVISION #0>

            This is a Ranma 1/2 - Sailor Moon crossover with certain
aspects of Ramayana.

            Disclaimers:

            Rumiko Takahashi and Shogukkan own Ranma and the cast
members of Ranma 1/2. Rumiko Takahashi is one of the most brilliant
people to walk on the face of this earth. We the fans of the anime
world are forever indebted to her for giving us Ranma and co. Thank you
Rumiko Takahashi for bringing laughter back into our lives.

            Naoko Takeuchi, Toei animation and KODANSHA, owns sailor
Moon and its characters.

            I do not own the characters of both these shows, nor do I
even pretend to own them. This work of fiction is but a tribute to the
above anime shows.

            Guys:

            *....* indicate thoughts. In the first and second chapters
<...> indicates Japanese and  "..." indicates Chinese.

            In all the other chapters, the reciprocal is true.

***********************************************************************

Nabiki tapped her fingers impatiently against the table. Her assistant
Yuchida Yanega was taking and wasting a lot of her precious time.
Didn't the fool know that time was money and that wasting it by being
late for the meeting was costing them money?

            The restaurant that she was seated in was in the far north
corner of Juuban. It was a quiet place she had learnt from her
enquiries and she knew from personal experience that it was so. Her
business dealings had made her more aware of the modern world and Tokyo
in general. An Ishida Tokugawa owned the restaurant. A quiet man whose
ancestors, the Tokugawa shoguns had ruled Japan before the Meiji
restoration. It was ironic that the descendants of the powerful shoguns
had been reduced to running a restaurant and yet such were the ways of
the modern world.

            The restaurant, aptly named 'The Flower of Spring' had been
started about a decade ago. It had done well though not particularly
so. Then one fateful day three years back poor Ishida's wife had met
with an unfortunate accident. Ishida lacked the monetary resources to
take care of her medical bills and it was at that time that a kind
gentleman from one of the 'houses' had stepped in. Ishida had held out
at first refusing to have any part to play with the Yakuza but the man
had assured him that they only wanted to help his wife and did not have
any ulterior motives.

            Love had won in the end and Ishida had gone against his
better judgment. The Yakuza had helped but had asked for a small favor.
One little favor had led to another slightly bigger favor and soon word
had spread of Ishida's connections with the underworld. His clientele
had stopped and business had ground to a halt. Ishida had found himself
in dire straits with naught a rope to haul him onto the safe shores
that lurked just beyond his arms reach. The Yakuza had moved in then
and 'The Flower of Spring' had become a front for them.

            Ishida and his family got a pittance of the profits while
the Yakuza took the lion's share for the friendly protection that they
were giving him and his restaurant as well as his family members.

            The business had returned but this time the clients were
not the innocent white collars and the hard working manual laborers
that had kept the place afloat before. Instead the clients were
hardened criminals and in some cases murderers as well who worked for
the different clans such as the Yamaguchi-gumi, one of the premier
'families' of the Japanese underworld.

            *The poor fool!* Thought Nabiki absent-mindedly as she
caught a glimpse of Ishida behind the counter. There was no one else in
the restaurant at the time all thanks to her contacts in the Yakuza.
The Yamaguchi family had plenty of interest in cultivating her 'gifts'
and they treated like one of their high-ranking family members.
'Father' had told her many times that she was destined to be one with
the family and that she would rise amongst its ranks to the throne some
day in the future. She believed him for who could outsmart Nabiki
Tendo, businesswoman extraordinaire.

            Ishida had paid the price for being the sheep when the
wolves were prying around. *Too bad sheep's and wolves do not mix. It
seems ironical though, the wolves cannot survive without the sheep and
the sheep cannot survive without the wolves.* She thought to herself.
The fools in the government did not realize that without the wolves to
keep the sheep strong, the sheep would grow weak and die off
eventually. It was simple Darwinism at work really. The sheep needed
the challenges posed by the wolves to survive, else they too would
stagnate and they _were_ complex animals though their behavior seemed
to be simple to those who observe them daily. And the chaos theory says
that any system that stagnates would collapse in on itself and be
destroyed by its own complexity or something like that. She had never
been good at analogies and though she implemented the various theories
of Chaos mathematics in the business frequently, she had never been
good at explaining the theory to her aides and such.

            Taking a deep breath to calm her rising temper Nabiki
looked at her wristwatch for the thousandth time. It seemed that
Yuchida was nearly an hour late. She decided that she would wait
another hour before calling it quits.

            "Where is the damned fool?" she spoke aloud in frustration
though not loud enough for Ishida to hear.

            *I might as well order something to eat.* Thought Nabiki
and tapped the table a bit louder than before. Ishida did not need a
second hint as he was at her side in the wink of an eye. The Yakuza did
not pay you in monetary terms but they did spare your life for which
you had to be eternally grateful.

            "Do you require anything mistress?" he asked her in as
humble a tone as he could manage.

            Nabiki nodded. "Yes, I would like some sushi and pork buns
please." she said playing the part of the customer all too well.

            Ishida for his part kept up the charade. He knew that she
always ordered the very same dish every time she visited the restaurant
and yet they played the game time and time again.

            "As you wish, mistress!" *Bitch!* He turned towards one of
only two waitresses who still worked for him and ordered her to fetch
the food. The food had been prepared just a minute or two ago in
anticipation of her orders and not a minute too soon, he thought
thankfully to himself. You do not keep influential members of the
Yakuza waiting.

            The waitress arrived with piping hot plates of the Japanese
cuisine and Nabiki took a little bite of a pork bun.

            "Hmmmm..." murmured Nabiki as she lost herself for a brief
moment enjoying the delicious buns. She nodded her approval and Ishida
left her to her ministrations.

            She was done with the buns and was moving on to the sushi
when Yanega finally showed up. She cast him an evil eye and the boy
gulped audibly. No one wanted to get on Nabiki's bad side it was _not_
healthy to one's life to piss her off.

            With a little flick of her chopsticks, she offered him a
seat and he took it. Sweat was beginning to emerge on the young man's
forehead.

            Nabiki took her time and Yanega had to wait almost two
minutes, which would have been better spent in hell (there you knew
what they were going to do and therefore the anxiety attacks did not
take place.) before she spared him a glance again. She pushed the plate
aside and took a long sip of the red wine. Finally, she wiped her mouth
and the waitress scurried to clear the table.

            "So..." she began.

            Yanega felt his heartbeat quicken by just that much. She
used that tone of speech whenever she was furious.

            "Umm..." he stuttered not knowing how to apologize.

            Nabiki gave the poor boy an evil eye, which did not help
him any. His stuttering only grew worse.

            "I am waiting," she said impatiently.

            Yanega still could not overcome his jitters.

            "Well..." Nabiki's voice was assuming that emotionless tone
she used whenever she was extremely angry.

            *The calm before the storm.* Yanega gulped and began. The
bitch never failed to scare the shit out of him.

            "I am sorry that I am late ohaya-bun." he tried with his
fingers crossed under the table.

            Nabiki did not deign to reply. Instead, she raised her
eyebrows and waited for his explanation.

            "I... there has been what appears to be a terrorist attack
on the other side of Juuban and all traffic had ground to a halt.
Getting here from Nerima-ku was a miracle on his own," he ventured.
True, it had been difficult to get on the subway or even on the buses
but it had not been as bad as he was implying. Saving his skin took
precedence over all the things about honesty that 'the bitch', as he
usually referred to Nabiki in his mind, had taught him had been
forgotten.

            Nabiki arched her eyebrows a little higher.

            The beads of sweat now began to trickle down Yanega's skin.
Seeing it, she smiled inwardly to herself. It was fulfilling to see the
SOB sweat it out in front of her. She knew that he would do the same if
he were in her position so it made sense to put him through hell every
chance she got.

            "Accept my humble apologies Ohaya-bun." Yanega tried again.

            Nabiki nodded and drooped her eyebrows. Yanega let out a
breath that he had not known he had been holding.

            "Have you got the information that I wanted?" asked Nabiki.

            Yanega nodded and handed over two medium sized folders to
her. "This is all I and the others could get on him on such short
notice." he replied.

            A small grin bloomed on Nabiki's face. *Not bad! Not bad at
all!* She had not expected him to gather this much information on their
host in such a short time.

            Yanega continued, "Mr. Ranma is from the Honshu Island, a
small village near the Agano River. His birth records seem to indicate
that he is nearly thirty five years old..."

            Nabiki interrupted him. She could have sworn that Ranma was
not thirty from his appearance. "Thirty-five... have you verified it?"

            Yanega nodded. "We double checked it, went through all the
proper channels and all that. There was not much information about him
in the public archives but when we used some of our contacts inside the
government we learned some interesting details..." Yanega paused to let
the information sink into Nabiki's brain.

            "He is well off apparently and the source of his wealth is
a mystery... The government knows more than it is willing to reveal
though. There are three folders marked 00 and our contact refused to
reveal the information in them.

            "He is currently staying in the Juuban prefecture and he
has a job as a physical education instructor in Juuban high."

            Nabiki remained thoughtful for sometime. "I want you to get
the information on those top secret folders. I do not care what you do
to accomplish it. I want two 'dogs' on his back at all times."

            Yanega scribbled the instructions down.

            "Now, it seems that it will be quite a while before I
return to Nerima. I want you and Sakura to prepare a more detailed
report on the business every weekend. I will come down there this
Friday and I expect everything to be running smoothly. We do not want
to lose money."

            Yanega nodded.

            Nabiki shifted through the Ranma Qin folder and gave Yanega
the look. The boy withered.

            "Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation maybe? How
many times do I have to tell you that time is money? Now, get lost."
she sweetly barked at him.

            Yanega was only glad to acquiesce.

***********************************************************************


            They walked. A blind led by two guides. One in front and
another at the back. An armed escort of sorts if you will. All around
them there was nothing but darkness, the likes of which one cannot
imagine let alone explain.

            And they walked. The distance they walked might have been a
few hundred kilometers or a few kilometers. They did not know which nor
did they care. For without points of reference time was of no import.

            Still they walked. For there was nothing else, they could
do.

            There is an old Chinese saying - The journey of a thousand
miles begins with a single step. The truth in those words is profound
for we can only finish that we have started or that which has been
started.

            So they walked, intent on finishing the journey that they
had started. Two spirits of the old leading a guardian - a watcher of
the gates of time.

            They walked and Pluto followed in their footsteps. Her mind
was torn asunder by the silence and by her fear. Her thoughts whirling
around like a hurricane of monstrous proportions.

            She was afraid and anxious and she had plenty of reason to
be. Never before in the history of the gates had such a thing happened.
She felt that it definitely did not bore well for her. She was aware of
the things that she had done and her awareness made her fears burn like
a maelstrom of fire.

            There were many things that she had done to make the Neo-
Silver Millennium of the future possible.

            She had killed. More than once and not always the guilty.
Sometimes it had been the innocent to whom she had dealt the cards of
death. Oh the nightmares that she had whenever she had killed an
innocent man/woman! However, the nightmares had never stopped her. She
had been like a woman possessed by the holy fires of the God's. Good
and evil had not mattered nor had innocence or guilt. Not even the path
had mattered. With but the goal in mind she had acted and acted quickly
and decisively without conscience or the other bric-brac. True,
innocents had died and her hands would forever retain the saffron hue
of their blood but she was willing to live with the memories of her
terrible acts. The looks on their faces were forever etched into her
mind and they would never go away serving as remainders of the
sacrifices that had been done for a bright and wonderful future. She
could never forgive herself for having done what she had did to them
but she had sworn upon their souls that she would ensure that the
planned future for which they had all sacrificed their lives would come
to be.

            So many had died she thought with a shudder. So many had
died by her hands and so many had died by the hands of those that she
had let live. Hitler, Syyed Qutb, Stalin, Mao Zadong... the list went
on and on. So many and yet, all had been in vain.

            The sailors were about to face their darkest hour and she
would not be there to guide them with her knowledge and wisdom. The war
was lost even before it had begun she thought bitterly.

            She had reasons plenty to be bitter.

            Her innocence and the Silver Millennium were just two of
the numerous things that she had lost and what had come of them...
nothing.

            "Are we there yet?" she asked, partly to strike up a
conversation in the hopes of learning more but mostly to rid her mind
of those thoughts. Slowly but surely, the silence was driving her mad.

            "We will be," replied the young one in front of her.

            She had hoped that for something better than a short and a
straight to the point answer but it was not to be. She kept her silence
realizing that there will be no conversation.

            Madness tried to creep into her mind but she fought it
back. Like a tidal wave of immense fury, it pressed forward and she
held it back, her cup against the overwhelming power of the ocean. In
the end, she was destined to fail but against all odds, she struggled.
Hope flickered in her mind and as long as it did the madness could not
break in.

            Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the God's
stopped and so did she. The tidal wave receded to the edges of her mind
once more and anxiety took its place.

            She stood in the middle of nowhere, not sure of what she
must do or what will happen.

            Seconds stretched into minutes and minutes seemed to
stretch into an eternity. Abruptly the silence ended.

            "Guardian..." said a voice, rich with power, age and
wisdom.

            She knelt. There was something about the voice, something
that her little mind could not comprehend that made her want to kneel
and expose her very soul to whoever was behind that voice. She knelt
and looked to the ground fearful that laying her eyes upon the source
of the voice would destroy its sanctity somehow.

            She felt the face behind the voice grin and she felt
herself growing giddy at the thought that she had measured up to the
standards.

            "Arise guardian!"

            She arose but still refused to take her eyes of the ground.
Tears of joy trickled down her cheeks.

            "Tell me child, why are you here?" the voice asked.

            "Father..." she found herself surprised by the words that
had come out of her mouth even though they seemed to be the most
natural thing to say. " I am here to be judged."

            A pause. She imagined that she felt 'Father' frown and she
felt her heart weigh down with guilt.

            "No child, you are not here to be judged."

            She was shocked out of her wits when she heard those words.
*Why am I here then father, if not to be judged?*

            "Patience child, patience. You will learn all when the time
is ripe." he replied. 'Father' had gleamed her thoughts from her mind
to answer them for her.

            She nodded.

            "You are strong. Not many can pass through the hall of
eternity and retain their sanity," he said.

            She blushed. Somehow, hearing those words from him filled
her with unimaginable joy and pride.

            "Thank you father!"

            'Father' burst into laughter.

            "The pleasure is all mine child."

            She cheeks reddened some more.

            "You are beautiful child. And you are strong and fragile at
the same time." He paused. "Tell me child, why are you confused?" he
asked feeling her thoughts.

            She remained silent. He had said that she would know all
when the time was ripe and she was willing to wait for it. *Anything...
Anything for father.*

            'Father' sensed her thoughts and chuckled a little. She
felt his face assume a more serious expression.

            "Impatience is ill befitting one in your post child," he
chided.

            She lowered her head further in shame.

            "I am sorry father."

            He grinned and she felt happy once more.

            "Child, you are here because of your actions... you are
here to get a glimpse of the future and make a choice," he said at
length, his voice acquiring serious tones as he spoke.

            She remained silent waiting for him to fill in the details.
Then she would speak.

            "Look guardian... look into the future and see what maybe,"
he said.

            And she did. Images of two separate futures filled into her
mind and collapsed onto the ground, clutching her head in pain as the
filtered through her mind.

            It seemed to take an eternity - the images filtering into
her mind and she screamed a voiceless scream that had enough agony
behind it to rattle the very foundations of heaven and Earth. Madness
would have been a comfort in her condition but mad, she was not.
Finally, the flood diminished into a trickle and she got back onto her
feet.

            "Why?" she asked him.

            "Did you not know guardian that one must act without
acting?" he asked her gently. "For someone with such inner strength
your lack of hindsight is appalling." he chided.

            She felt like a piece of garbage when she heard those words
from his mouth. And she felt a hate, pure and complete, grow in her
mind. It was directed towards her and her face paled as all the
terrible things that she had done came back to haunt her mind. She
collapsed onto the ground once more and she sobbed.

            She sobbed and she sobbed until her heart was pure once
more. Her innocence was returned back to her and her guilt thrown away
but she did not stop. So great was her despair.

            For an eternity or was it a minute or a day or an hour or a
day or a week or a month or a year, she did not know and she did not
care, she cried. Finally, the flood of tears trickled down and stopped
altogether.

            She felt a comforting hand on he shoulders. She wiped her
wet cheeks and she looked up and saw 'Father'.

            He smiled.

            Her fears and tears melted away. She smiled back.

            "Do you realize where you went wrong, child?" he asked in
the softest, sweetest voice possible.

            She nodded her head in the affirmative.

            He hugged her and she melted into it. She was like a child
in his arms and she cried, this time in joy in his hands. Her innocence
shone around her like a star.

            'Father' held her there for the longest time. Finally, he
withdrew. She looked disappointed but the emotion was gone from her
visage as soon as it had appeared.

            He kissed her on her forehead and drew back to arm length.
He smiled and she smiled back at him, her eyes shining with
unconditional love.

            "Do you realize what you must do then, child?"

            She nodded. "Yes, father, I do."

            He did not reply but the twinkle in his eyes said that he
was pleased. She basked in their luminescence.

            "I am sorry father... I am so very sorry for..." words
failed her and she looked at him with regretful eyes.

            He hugged her and comforted her, telling that everything
was all right.

***********************************************************************

            Slowly Ranma opened his eyes and looked at the heavens.

            He could feel the grass against his arms and he could smell
them too. With little effort he turned sideways as he lay and came face
to face with a rabbit feeding just a couple of feet from him. It paused
in its feeding, ready to flee at a moment's notice and looked at him
for the longest minute. Then it continued having decided that he was
not a threat.

            Ranma lay as he was, supporting his head with his right arm
and looked on. His eyes had a blank look in them as he tried to process
and sort out him memories.

            The ki and the mana flows told him that he was within fifty
miles of Tokyo and that was enough for him for now.

            *What happened?*

            The last thing he remembered was the fight with the girls
and the last girl trying to fry him with some attack... He could not
remember anything after that point. His memory was cloudy at best and
completely blank at worst.

            *And then what?*

            Try as hard as he could he could recollect nothing. The
memories lurked just beyondhis grasp.

            *What is going on?*

            He brooded for a little while and gave up. If he could not
recollect what had happened then he might as well pursue other avenues
or think about other pressing matters.

            *And what do I do about the sailors?*

            He was worried about that situation. Not that they would
hurt him or anything like that but he was afraid that if they persisted
in their kill Ranma policy he might have to take a hard stance. He was
afraid that the situation would come to that.

            *Shoot and ask questions later, what kind of policy is
that?* He would not have been worried too much if they did not have
that mush power in them. The girl's practically oozed power when they
were mad! Worst of all they seemed to be pretty stuck up with the idea
of eliminating him.

            *And I will be damned if I know why?* He thought grimly to
himself.

            Sure, it was easier to assume that the girls had
overreacted on seeing the battle scene but he was not a dumb sod. He
had felt and tasted their ki and they had been filled with hatred
towards him.

            Less knowledgeable people would have thought that the
energy-absorbing aura that had surrounded him had made them respond as
they had and he wanted to believe it too. But that was not the truth
and he knew it. Everybody's ki was 'entangled' and they had definitely
been on the lookout for him.

            Ranma sighed in defeat. It had always been like this
through most of his two thousand years of wanderings and it would
remain so as long for as he lived. It was human nature, he supposed but
that explanation provided more questions and answers. Finally, he
abandoned that line of thought and focused on the ki and mana patterns
that he had memorized during the last few moments of his battle with
the sailors.

            The change in ki and mana patters had been subtle, more so
than most of the techniques that he knew of and the aroma and the
texture had also been different. He did not know of any technique that
accomplished these last two effects and he was curious as to the
purpose of such a technique.

            *Could it have been a teleportation spell? Naaah! It that
were so I would have tasted something similar when those girls
teleported to the battle scene.*

            The train of thought was logical and correct he decided.
Yet, it puzzled him. If the technique was not a teleportation spell,
how had he ended up fifty miles outside Tokyo?

            *Let's go through the facts once more.*

            He recalled the events once more and tried another set of
logic but in the end realized that it was flawed.

            *Which means that I was proceeding down the right road
before? Then...*

            This time around, Ranma began concentrating on the flaws
that he had seen in the technique instead of trying to deduce what the
technique achieved. The fact that he was a true master of the art
helped a lot too.

            His innate bond with ki and mana allowed him to see both
the forces and thus he had been able to see and feel the forces to an
extent that would have made any master of the art green with envy. With
this bond, he had felt and tasted the unnatural flows that the
technique had created and within moments had perfected an in sync with
nature variant of the technique.

            *Now, let's examine the other clues...*

            Concentrating just a little bit, Ranma tasted the ki in his
shirt and blacked out the ones that he could recognize. There was the
familiar ki signature from the air and from himself. Then there was the
ki signature of the Ashura that he had killed. The taste was quite
different from any that he had experienced in his life.

            *How queer?* He would have never thought that the Ashura's
were finetuned to such a level.

            He blacked out all these signatures and was finally left
with two. One was so weak and contained so much chaos that he could
scarcely identify it whereas the other was 'holy'. That was the word he
decided that fit the signature most.

            *Hmmm! A demon and a God... what the hell happened to me?*
He thought with surprise.

            And then he laughed at the answer. It had been right in
front of him all along. The rabbit should have run away from anyone who
had that much blood splatter on his body and emitted such a powerful
aura. It had not and that meant that he was either a God or he had been
in the presence of God's.

            Since, good and evil aura's tend to cancel each other out
he must have been in the presence of God's long after the demon had
departed.

            It must have a powerful demon if its ki signature was any
indication. To resist its counterpart it must have possessed an
insanely large amount of power comparable to his own.

            *I must have been trapped in the void by that technique,
which means...*

            Ranma found hard to believe the conclusion that he had
arrived at and yet he did. All the evidence was in front of him and
everything that he knew pointed in the direction.

            *She used a goddamn time warping technique on me!*

            He fumed and the rabbit looked at him with wide eyes.
Gradually, Ranma controlled himself and assumed the lotus position.

            He had to sort out his thoughts and then he would return to
home sweet home.

***********************************************************************

            Ryuu dreamt.

            There were trees from the tropics all around him and the
ground was lush with vegetation. The sky above was filled with clouds
and birds sang their songs of love in the canopy above.

            It did not take a genius to figure out that he was no
longer in Japan and Ryuu was a genius in his own right.

            >Where am I?< he spoke aloud. Feeling incredibly foolish at
having asked that question, he banged his head against one of the
trees.

            It hurt like hell, his head.

            >Ouch! What's that tree made of?< he groaned, rubbing the
sore spot on his head.

            >Hello!<

            The voice was feminine and whomever it belonged to,
radiated a lot of power.

            Ryuu turned slowly and looked at the most beautiful and
scantily clad girl he had ever laid eyes upon. Even his experience with
the Amazons had not prepared him for the image before him and his hands
went to his nose automatically.

            It was a great deal too slow as blood jetted out of his
nose. Ryuu decided to embrace the oblivious hold of slumber once more.

***********************************************************************

            >Idiot!< said a soft voice.

            >Uhhh! Where am I?< Ryuu moaned as he regained
consciousness once more.

            Only to feel his head pressed against the softest pair of
breasts in all of creation.

            Ryuu's eyes widened to the size of saucers and he began to
lapse back into unconsciousness.

            The girl realized where his thoughts were and withdrew
immediately. Ryuu fell to the ground with a thud. He got back up and
rubbed his sore behind.

            >What did you do that for?< he complained to the girl.

            >You are a pervert,< replied the girl.

            >Huh!<

            >And I am kami-sama,< continued the girl without missing a
beat.

            >Huh!<

            Thwack!

            Ryuu rubbed his head and eyed the girl with annoyance.
Almost all the women he knew beat him. It was not his fault that he was
better than them, was it now?

            >Stop hurting me, will you?< he complained, giving her the
old 'I am a whipped puppy look'.

            Sadly, the effect was lost upon the girl. She just grabbed
him by his ears and hauled him to God's knows where.

            >You are the reason that I look like this right now and I
am not going to hear you a single word about how big a bitch your life
is, okay?< she announced.

            Ryuu struggled in vain and made a fuss but it did not help
him any.

            The duo disappeared in a fog.

***********************************************************************

            Genma tried to sleep. However, he could not.

            Never before had he realized how insecure he was. Perhaps
it had been that very same insecurity that had made him a greedy cheat.
Perhaps it was and perhaps it wasn't.

            He was a completely new person now. Gone were the anger,
the greediness and the incredible stupidity that had brought him so
close to losing everything that he had ever held dear in his life?

            He had come very close to losing Ryuu as he had lost Ranma
all those years back. He was afraid of what might have happened if he
had been a minute of two late. That self-righteous bitch would have
murdered Ryuu.

            *Power without control... Why does it always has to be that
way?* he asked himself. He did not have an answer and he doubted
whether he ever would.

            It surprised him and filled him with no small amount of
revulsion that he had been very much like that girl only a couple of
months ago. Thinking that whatever he did was right and lauding it over
the others, like Ryuu for example. Thankfully, Ryuu had not respected
him then and thankfully, he respected the new Genma now.

            Genma allowed a smile to adorn his face. He had gotten his
son back. Now, all he had to do was to make Nodoka burn that stupid
seppuku agreement.

            *I'll discuss it with Soun in the morning.* He decided and
closed his eyes and tried meditating.

            It had always helped him with his sleep before and it
helped now. No sooner had he closed his eyes he was fast asleep.

            And then Genma dreamt.

            Genma-panda sat in the midst of a bamboo groove, munching
those delicious shoots of fresh bamboo. It had rained the day before
and the new sprouts had begun to appear all over the bamboo grove.

            *Yummy!*

            Genma-panda playfully swatted away the fly that had
alighted on his nose and growled in warning.

            *Why can't the damn things realize that no one disturbs
Genma during his meal?* Genma-panda thought annoyedly as another one of
the little pests landed on his nose.

            The panda made a good imitation of a shooow with his mouth
and pranced about trying to strike down the enemy. The fly quite
unaware of the crime that it had committed flew deftly in and out of
the Genma's range adding to his woes.

            Finally, Genma-panda gave up and squatted near the bamboo
groove where he resumed his snack. With care and precision that would
have done any master proud, Genma-panda carefully stripped the bamboo
shoots of their bark and ate them unaware of the muscle-bound master
who had somehow appeared miraculously behind him.

            >Gwargh! Mwargh! Sraohohh!< went Genma-panda as the bamboo
groove disappeared into his mouth with alarming speed.

            The man waited as long as he could before impatience gained
the better of him. First, came the tapping with his foot and then came
the snort of disgust. Finally, the man bonked Genma-panda on the head
nicely.

            >Yowrgh!<

            Genma-panda jumped up and rubbed his head with his paws. He
did his best to look as annoyed as he could and produced his board.

            +What did you do that for?+ He signaled towards the man
with rapidly produced kanji.

            The man sighed. *Like father, like son!*

            >Come on, we ain't got time to be wasting,< replied the man
nonchalantly.

            Genma-panda thought. The man looked like a master of the
art - at least his person fulfilled everything that Genma had thought a
martial artist should be. The strength and the power hinted at by the
body were enormous.

            *Maybe he has come in search of Ryuu. I did engage him to a
dozen girls or so and sold him another two dozen times - I think, I
lost count after the thirteenth one.* In order to clear his confusion
Genma-panda did the best thing it could. It signed to the man asking
him to elaborate in as simple a way as possible it's thoughts on what
his relation to it was.

            +Huh!+

            Never let it be said that the men of the Saotome line do
not know anything about communication. They do but they always chose to
use the most efficient method possible, which unfortunately is not
always the best method around.

            The man smacked himself on his head and muttered something
on the lines of 'whaddamoron!' Then, he turned towards Genma-panda and
addressed him.

            >You don't want to make your son wait, do you?< he asked
trying to maintain his composure, which was showing every sign of
failing.

            Genma-panda replied in the true tradition of all men of the
Saotome line.

            +Huh!+

            The man shook his head and muttered something to himself.
Perhaps, he was cursing his luck.

            Genma-panda decided to help the man since he was acting
dumb and all.

            +Who are you and what are you doing here?+ he asked or
rather signaled to the stranger.

            >I am kami-sama and I am here to get you,< replied the man
trying to look as ordinary as possible and failing miserably.

            Genma-panda thought about it and then signaled once more.

            +Of course, it is only natural that kami-sama should decide
to meet me. After all, I am a... a... a...+ The board ran out of space
and Genma-panda turned the other side. The stranger stopped him.

            >Shut up will you. I am struck up in this stupid body
because of you. The sooner I get you to the others, the sooner I will
be rid of this ridiculous body,< said he and begun towing Genma away.

            +Hey! Wait a minute! I still have not finished my snack!+
he signaled. >Gworgh!<

            Kami-sama paid no attention to Genma's lamentations and
towed him away.

            The duo disappeared in a fog.

***********************************************************************

            Happousai lay back on the tub and sighed as the warm water
made him tingle all over.

            *This is the life.* Thought the puny Grandmaster of
Matsubetu Katuto Ryuu. Sure, chasing after young things - young and
beautiful things - for their panties beat the heck out of anything but
he was not complaining.

            What was there to complain about anyway? Four beautiful
women in the house, there was Cologne with whom he could reminiscence
about the 'good-old' days, there were his two torture subjects err...
students to poke fun at and then there was Ryuu and Ranma. One was a
master in the making and another he suspected was a true master. Both
were a joy to watch at and what a show he got, with Akane and Ryouga,
Genma and Soun, Nabiki and practically everyone else, and Ranma and his
students. It was very close to his idea of heaven and he was having the
time of his life.

            Now that he had found those pretty girls in sailor fukus,
he was sure that the fun was going to get all-better.

            *This definitely is the life.* He thought happily to
himself.

            And then he drifted to sleep almost as if by magic.

            And he dreamt.

            He was in a strip club and they were putting on quite a
show.

            He felt the pains of old age go away. The young things were
just so soothing on his old eyes that he wanted to never take their
eyes of them.

            The way they wriggled and shed their two-sizes too small
brassieres and panties was absolutely wonderful to watch. God, how he
wished that he was in his younger days.

            And the amazing thing was, he was young he realized as he
looked down at himself.

            >WHAT THE...< shouted Happousai and felt himself.

            He was young all right and his tubing was all there, only
now, it was better than before. It looked like all his wildest dreams
had come true.

            *Man, I cannot wait to test this new plumbing!* Thought the
old lecher lecherously to himself. It was then that he laid his eyes
upon the most beautiful, scrumptious thing ever.

            >Sweeto!< whispered Happousai.

            He controlled all his urges to 'jump the gun' and snuggle
against her luscious milk white breasts. This was not the time to be so
aggressive. He would have to put on the old 'perfect gentleman who does
not think with the thing in-between his legs' mask and play it to
perfection if Operation Shacking Up was to be a success.

            He walked up to her but not before seeing to it that his
plumbing did not draw attention to itself. *At least not now!* He
thought wickedly. It can draw all the attention it wanted later.

            There was a jump in his stride naturally.

            He approached her and turned on his charms to their most
powerful setting.

            *Let's hope that they work perfectly well.* After all it
had been over two hundred and fifty years since he had bedded a woman,
so there was a chance that he was a little bit rusty, right?

            >Hello there! It's not everyday that one sees a pretty face
such as yourself...< He paused. >Allow me to introduce myself; I am
Happousai Mishima, Grandmaster of Matsubetu Katuto Ryuu. My friends
call me Happy,< he finished with a big smile.

            She did not look swept off her feet. In fact, her
expression was entirely opposite to that. Her beautiful chin twisted in
revulsion and she glared at him.

            >EEEEEEW!< she screeched and stomped him on the foot for
good measure. >I cannot believe that you are trying to pick me up.<

            Naturally, Happousai was perplexed. He stopped dancing
around on a single foot while clutching the other with his hands and
looked at her.

            >My dear,< he said in his most innocent voice. >Why can I
not try to pick you up as you so crudely put it?< he asked.

            She sighed. >This night cannot get any worse than this,<
she moaned to the skies above.

            Happousai eyed her quizzically.

            >Whatever are you talking about, my dear?< he asked. Here
was a maiden in distress and for once, he was not the reason for her
distress. At least, he believed that he was not!

            >Whatever, he says!< she muttered.

            Happousai raised an eyebrow at her statement.

            >Do you have any idea who you are talking to?< she asked.

            Happousai shook his head. >No, but I think that it will not
hurt me to know your name,< he said and smiled broadly.

            >I am kami-sama,< said the girl and shrugged her shoulders.

            Happousai gave her a once over.

            >I am not sure about the kami-sama bit but you sure as hell
look like a goddess to me,< said he as he forgot his chosen course of
action and ogled at her breasts.

            Thwap!

            >I am kami-sama moron, and I look like this because this is
how you think I will look like in that perverted mind of yours,< said
she and dusted her hands.

            Happousai gingerly rubbed the sore spot on his face. He
could tell that he was going to have a nice set of impressions as a
souvenir for this affair. He had hoped that he would have impressions
for a long time to come but these were not the kind he had been
hoping... no, praying for.

            >Oh! And exactly why are you here?< he asked feigning
indifference.

            >I am here to meet you,< spat back the girl.

            >Now that you have met me what are you going to do about
it,< he asked, feeling sorry at himself that he wasn't going to get
some.

            >I am going to drag you back to the others, that's what I
am going to do,< she replied and grabbed him by his ears.

            >Ouch! Hey, where are you taking me?< complained Happousai
to no avail.

            The duo disappeared in a flash.

***********************************************************************

            Cologne meditated.

            Things were happening fast. And she did not have a faintest
clue as to what was happening. She found herself in the dark but there
was nothing she could do about it, at least not until Ryuu gained
consciousness.

            She had never liked mysteries and found herself liking them
lesser still. Her ancestor had revealed some of his powers and that was
frightening as well as awe-inspiring at the same time.

            There had always been disagreements in the council about
the extent of the dragon's power and she realized now that they had all
been wrong. The Amazon's had had the capability to conquer the world at
any time of their choosing if the power that she had felt was any
indication.

            And who were these new enemies and how powerful were they
to make the dragon unveil his powers?

            She found herself asking these questions repeatedly. The
evidence at hand did not provide her with the answers and she found
herself liking the situation even less.

            The Amazon's and the Musk were at war, that much was clear.
But who were the fighting against and why had the dragon felt compelled
to take part in the battle?

            For the first time in many years, Cologne felt weary. The
tribes was ill prepared for a war but they would follow the dragon
wherever he might lead them.

            And who were those mana-wielding girls? It seemed that they
were powerful but also exceedingly foolish. Power and foolishness did
not meld well and Cologne felt the beginnings of a major headache.

            She opened her eyes to ask Shampoo to get her some tea. She
had always found tea to be relaxing. Perhaps it would soothe her pain
and allow her to think freely.

            However, no sooner had she opened her eyes she felt drowsy.
Recognizing the symptoms for what they were, she embraced the trance.

            She fell asleep almost immediately and she dreamt.

            She was in one of the glades near the village by the pond
that the dragon had created all those centuries ago. The scenery was
now beautiful with lush trees and greens. The icy waters of the lake
sparkled under the noon sun and she found herself captivated by it.

            >It's beautiful, isn't it?<

            Cologne turned towards the source of that voice; surprised
that anyone could get so near her without her finding out.

            It was a hag, an old hag of about four hundred or five
hundred years. She balanced herself with her staff and her eyes had so
much wisdom and experience behind them.

            >Honored grandmother...< said Cologne with tears in her
eyes.

            The old woman smiled and clasped Colognes hand with her own
when it was proffered.

            >Honored grandmother, I missed you.<

            Tears were now flowing freely but Cologne did not care.

            >I missed you too child,< said the old woman. >My, you have
grown to be a beautiful woman.<

            Cologne looked surprised and looked down at herself. Sure
enough, she was young once again. Hiding her shock behind the veil of
happiness, she thanked honored grandmother for the compliment.

            >Come child,< said grandmother and took Cologne's hand. She
began to lead Cologne away from the village.

            >Where are we going grandmother?<

            Grandmother only smiled.

            >You will understand all when the time is right,< she said
and beamed in a smile.

            They disappeared in a fog.

***********************************************************************

            Ryuu awoke and decided not to open his eyes.

            It felt so cozy inside the soft, welcoming embrace of the
blanket. He was more comfortable then he had ever been in his entire
life, not even at the Tendo's and the Amazon's, the only two families
that he could truly relate to. He decided that the real world could
wait just a few more minutes for him then it had already had.

            True, he had a mother and a father but they had been mere
namesakes for most of his life. Never had he felt the comfort and love
that one expected from one's parents. He was beginning to look up to
his father again in a very long time but it was still too early to
trust him implicitly and the lessons from the past still made him wary
of Genma.

            And there was Nodoka, his mother, if she could be called
that. She was still stuck up in her fantasy world and was ever ready to
make him undergo that stupid seppuku pledge.

            It really pained him to have and yet, in all sense of the
word not to have a mother in his life.

            Ryuu pulled the blanket closer for comfort and sighed in
heart's content. It was really cozy!

            Having made himself comfortable, he let his thoughts drift
to the fight.

            He knew without a shadow of a doubt that the girl had
attacked him with murderous intent. He had seen the look of madness and
murder in her eyes and he could not for the life of him fathom why.
What had he done that was so wrong that it had driven her into a
murderous rage? *What am I thinking about? It's not my fault that she
attacked me. I was trying to help her friends for crying out loud!*

            He thought it over some more and finally gave up in
frustration, accepting the fact that he would never truly understand
women.

            *Maybe it was her time of the month!* But that idea too
sounded too hollow in his mind. He knew that it made them all jumpy and
irritable but would it drive them to a murderous rage. He thought not.

            "Do you think that we should wake him?"

            Ryuu started.

            His confusion was understandable. There were only a handful
of people who were able to sneak up on him and the woman that he had
just heard speak was definitely not one of them, at least she was not
someone that he knew. With speed born of years of rigorous training as
well as the huge amounts of adrenalin that was pumped into his body, he
got to his feet and assumed a fighting stance. There were three of
them, two strangers and Genma with _hair_ on his head. The woman and
the man stood beside Genma with a smirk that he considered annoying on
their face.

            She was short and lean. Though she was not a major babe, he
could tell that she was as dangerous as they came from the way that she
carried herself. Her movements were short, precise, efficient and
literally, poetry in motion.

            *I definitely do not want to get on her bad side!*

            The other stranger, who stood by her was similar to the
woman in all departments except for the rather glaring gender
difference.

            The woman spoke first.

            "Well! Well! Well! He is a cute one all right. No wonder
Shampoo and Wu Li were smitten with him so!" she said in teasing tones
while giving him a once over.

            Ryuu realized that he was naked and that she was looking at
him in a manner that could have made even Cologne flinch. It was really
unnerving, the way that her eyes lingered at her waist. It triggered
his danger sense like it had never before and made him want to crawl
under the bed and hide.

            *Man! And here I was thinking that the Amazon elders were
bad!*

            "Huh!" said Ryuu in the true fashion of men of the Saotome
line. How had the woman known about his days at the Amazon village? To
say that Ryuu Saotome, heir to the Saotome branch of Matsubetu Katuto
Ryuu, was bewildered was like saying that the universe is the size of a
dime.

            Finally, the thought processes in Ryuu's mind took over and
he scrambled to cover himself with a blanket.

            The woman laughed at the sight and the other two joined
her.

            "Pops! What the hell is going on?"

            The woman paused in the midst of her laughter to add
another comment. This too, the others found quite amusing.

            "And he is as clueless as ever too," she added.

            Ryuu could only sigh in exasperation and clutch desperately
at the blanket, which slipped off of him. It looked like he would have
to wait until they regained their senses.

            Finally, they quieted down and Genma begun the
introductions.

            "Boy," he said in that righteous voice, he usually reserved
for his 'I have got a new technique that I want you to master' speech.
"Allow me to introduce the founder of the Anything goes school of
martial arts, Grandmaster Happousai and the matriarch of the
Joketsuzoku Amazons, Cologne," he finished with a flourish.

            Ryuu stared at his father for a long minute. "Pops! Have
you flipped your mind or something? Cologne and Happousai look like
dried up mummies and they are two-foot tall, you know this big," he
pointed with his hand. Unfortunately, the blanket chose that moment to
slip off him again.

            Ryuu scrambled desperately to cover himself. When he was
done, he secured the blanket with one hand and pointed to Genma how
tall Happousai and Cologne were.

            "Well I never!" said the woman, sounding outraged.

            "Yadda! Yadda! Now shut up will you!" replied Ryuu.

            "Grrrrrr! I swear Genma, that son of yours is the most
irritating brat on this planet," complained Cologne.

            "So, what's new?" he turned towards his father. "Pops! Now
tell me what the hell happened to your hair and who are these two
geezers?"

            "Boy, I am so ashamed of you. Oh! The shame of it all. My
son does not respect his elder's," moaned Genma, doing the tried and
trusted 'I am ashamed of you' routine.

            Happousai and Cologne bonked Genma on the head. He
shriveled up and addressed Ryuu once more, this time seriously.

            "Boy, I don't know how I got my hair back and these two are
elder Cologne and the master."

            "All right pops, I believe you. Now tell me what is going
on here and why am I buck-naked?"

            "I can answer that question young man," said a new voice.

            To Ryuu's amazement, everyone knelt when they heard the
voice. He felt the compulsion too but overrode it and turned towards
the man who had spoken the words. The voice had seemed so familiar and
yet so alien to his senses that he could not quite place his hands on
the face behind it. It was as though he had known the speaker
throughout his life though he had never met him face to face.

            As he turned and the compulsion to kneel increased a
thousand-fold. Finally, it was so great that he just had to kneel. He
did as his mind wished him to and bowed his head in a show of utmost
respect. It was the voice that was making him do it, he realized at
last. There was something in that voice that commanded the utmost
respect and love that one could give.

            "Father," addressed Ryuu, surprised at the fact that it
seemed the most natural way to address the man. Love filled his heart
until he felt that it could burst. He had never felt so loved in his
entire life.

            All of them felt 'Father' smile at the words at the address
Ryuu used and tears came unbidden to their eyes. It was as if
'Father's' smile was the only thing that mattered to them in the world.

            "Arise children, arise," said 'Father'.

            They did but dared not look into 'Father's eyes. No one
dared to speak for a while lest they destroy the sanctity of the
moment.

            Surprisingly it was Genma who asked 'Father' the first
question.

            "Father where are we?"

            "We are in the dream plane, children. You are all asleep
and you are all having the same dream."

            "Why are we here?" asked Genma. Happousai and the others
looked at him as though he had grown a head or two.

            "A darkness, the likes of which the world has never seen
and will never see again is coming. The weapon to defeat this darkness
has been forged but the time to unveil it has not yet come.

            "You, my dear children, will be the guardians of this
weapon. Because he is so powerful others who fight on the same side as
you will be afraid of him. It will be your duty to protect the weapon
from these threats."

            "Hai, father," chorused all, happy at the fact that they
could help 'Father' in some way.

            'Father' nodded and continued. "The forces that you will be
facing will have a significant advantage in numbers and overall power.
In the end, they might get lucky and that cannot be allowed. As a
result, I am going to give you powers that will be helpful in
fulfilling your duties as the guardians of the dragon."

            With that, 'Father' asked them to stretch their hands in
front of them. They did and there was a small flash of light in each of
their hands. When they could see again they saw that a bracelet of the
greenest Jade adorned their hands as braces.

            "Children, those braces will be the sign of your offices as
guardians of the dragon. They will remain invisible to all eyes unless
you wish them to see it. Magic has been woven into them and into you
such that you are both one and the same.

            "The magic also allows you to hide your real identity
behind magical barriers. The magic also links your souls to the mana
flows and some of you can manipulate in any matter that you want though
you will find that you are most proficient in a particular field.

            "Cologne, you are now the watcher of the gates of time.
Happousai and the others are warriors. They can manipulate mana in its
raw form and can will it to do anything they want it to do."

            Father continued on with the lecture and they listened and
learnt.

***********************************************************************

            Ranma flew.

            It was an indescribable feeling, the power of flight. The
freedom, peace that one felt was incomparable, and language lacked the
words to communicate the feeling.

            Sure, he could have just transported to Juuban but he did
not feel like it. He preferred flying to teleporting anytime of the
day.

            It was the first time in over four hundred years that he
had truly enjoyed the simple pleasure of flying. The westerners were
afraid of dragons and on most other times, he had been in a hurry to
enjoy the feelings that coursed through him whenever he flied. It was
like a bottle of champagne, it had to be savored and not hurried
through.

            With an idle flip of his wings, he changed direction and
executed a double flip. The scenery above and below him was absolutely
enchanting to watch. Even though it was dark, his super sensitive
dragon vision had no problems adjusting to the light or the lack of it
therein.

            Tatsu-Ranma now stood at a proud seven-foot five. (He was
still very young when compared with the impossibly long lifespan that
dragons lived.) He looked like a curious cross between the traditional
western and eastern dragons.

            There was the long and slender, almost serpentine body that
any Asian would recognize as a dragon coupled with the veritable
Chinese beard that gave him an old and wise look. The bat like wing,
barbed tail and powerful legs were most like that of the traditional
western dragon. True, he could not throw fireballs out of his mouth but
the amount of ki he produced and stored was phenomenal compared to even
his normal levels.

            Tatsu-Ranma was a ki reactor of sorts, producing more ki
and thus storing more energy than most of the nations of the world used
in a single year. The few other dragons that he had encountered in his
travels produced much less than a hundredth of the ki that he normally
did and it seemed that he was the mutant in the dragon side of his
family too.

            The wings were truly magnificent to look at. His wingspan
was a cool fifteen-foot eleven inches the last time he had measured
them and that was nearly two hundred years ago. Now they had probably
grown another foot. They were skinny like a bat's and most certainly
did not provide the lift needed to carry him at great speeds through
the air. He was capable of speeds greater then Mach-2 for extended
periods of time and if he really pushed it could reach Mach-7 for small
periods of time, a fact that the air force of the PLA could attest to
very well with their numerous 'close encounters of the dragon kind'
over Chinese airspace.

            *Land ahead!* Tatsu-Ranma thought comically to himself. If
his draconian form were capable of speech, he would have laughed at his
own joke. As it stood all Tatsu-Ranma could manage, were a couple of
grunts that reminded one of a pig as he steadily lost altitude.

            He touched down on one of the botanical gardens and quickly
changed forms.

            *Good thing I know hidden weapons. Otherwise, it would be
really embarrassing to walk around naked every time I change forms!* He
thought as he hastily donned his clothes.

            Then he jumped out through one of the many holes in the
skylight at the place and headed towards his house. He expected his
great great granddaughter to be worried stiff about him.

***********************************************************************

            The front door was locked. Obviously, everyone had gone to
sleep.

            Ranma found the situation quite amusing. He, the master of
the house, had been locked out and left to spend the night in the open.
He could wake them up but he did not want to. Of course, he was capable
of spending the night in the near freezing temperatures of late autumn
but it did not have to be, not while he still had a warm house of his
own to live in.

            *Cologne must not have informed them of my disappearance.*
He thought and felt grateful towards his great granddaughter for that
bit of insight. Now, he would not have to explain everything to them. A
short summary would suffice.

            *Oh well! Gotta use the second doorway then.*

            He smiled to himself. Breaking into his own house, what
would Li Pan and the others have thought of him if they were alive
today. He would have never lived through their jibes at his slip: The
great Ranma Qin forgot the keys to his own house.

            With scant an effort, he was airborne and on the
windowsill. *Thank the kami, I have always kept this window open.*

            He extended his ki senses to check on the other inhabitants
of the house. He would be surprised if Cologne wasn't awake.

            And she wasn't. It appeared that she was dreaming about
something pleasant from the taste of her ki, which pulsed with joy
every now and then. He thought about visiting her but gave up the idea,
there were more pressing matters to attend to. Ryuu was hurt, it
seemed.

            That made him mad. No one hurt his brother. It was bad
enough that the trigger-happy buffoons had attacked him but to attack
his brother, who had just stood by and watched the whole damned fight,
well, they had gone too far.

            His face, a mask of pure anger, he walked out through the
door and straight into his little brother's. The boy looked so at peace
with himself and with the universe that it mollified his anger some but
the girl's would rue the day they crossed paths with Ranma of the Qin.
He quickly summarized Ryuu's injuries. There was no serious damage
though there was a scratch or two and the concussion that he had would
take a week to heal even with the pressure points that the elders had
applied.

            His fears allayed, Ranma turned to leave the room. At the
door, he stopped, turned and walked up to Ryuu once more. "Sweet
dreams, little brother," he said and caressed Ryuu's face with his
hand. Finally, he left the room.

            Ryuu opened his eyes and stared at the door with wide-open
eyes. *Brother!*

***********************************************************************

            If anyone had ever asked Kasumi what was the best time of
the day she would have said early morning readily. It was during the
wee hours of the morn that she got some time for herself. It had always
been this way.

            Before her mother's death, Kasumi would wake up early and
spend the morning helping her mother with her chores in the kitchen.
After her death, when she had taken up the mantle of the housekeeper,
the mornings had been the only peaceful hours in her life.

            Now, it was all changing for the better. Her father had
shown signs of the spine that he was so famous for a decade ago. And it
was all thanks to Ranma. He had brought that something that had gone
missing from her father when mother had passed on.

            She looked to the sky through the open window in the
kitchen. The sky was devoid of clouds and the stars and the Moon shone
bright, their light filtering into the room and painting her face with
their glow. Kasumi's eyes shown under the light in contentment. To all
others, the Moon was a symbol of romance and love but to her it was a
symbol of peace and a sign of the ways things could have been.

            Presently, she felt a presence in the room. She paused in
her work and turned towards the doorway.

            It was their host, Ranma. He was standing by the door,
leaning against it with a dreamy look on his face. There was something
in his face that she could not quite fathom.

            "Good morning, Ranma-kun," said Kasumi in her sweet voice.

            That startled him.

            "Huh..." he said. "Good morning Kasumi-chan."

            "I see you are up early Ranma-kun."

            "Yes, well, I could not sleep... so..."

            Kasumi smiled. She understood his feelings all too well.
She, too, had spent many a sleepless night in the Tendo home. "Would
you like some tea Ranma-kun?" she said as she wiped her pristine hands
against her apron, more out of habit than out of need.

            Ranma returned the smile. "That would be nice Kasumi-
chan... You have to forgive my reaction just now. I was lost in my
thoughts..." he said, with his fingers crossed behind him. *Let her
accept my excuse.*

            Kasumi's smile did not fade. "So tell me Ranma-kun, what
were you thinking about?" she asked quite aware of where his thoughts
had been. It felt nice to be treated like a woman once in a while.

            Ranma congratulated himself on the fact that she had
accepted his excuse. "I was thinking about times gone by..."

            "Oh!" She tried to sound nonchalant but failed miserably.
She was incredibly curious about his past life.

            "Yes," continued Ranma. "You know Kasumi-chan, you remind
me so much of someone I loved dearly."

            Kasumi paused in her ministrations and turned to face him,
carefully placing the tea leaves by the stove. She wiped her hands
across her apron and eyed him quizzically.

            "Her name was Jasmine. She was the most beautiful, kind
hearted creature that ever walked this Earth... she was very much like
you..." he paused once more, not wanting to continue any further and
yet wanting to continue. For some reason, he felt that he could
unburden his heart to the girl who stood before him.

            Kasumi blushed. It was the first time that anyone had ever
complimented her on her looks. She lowered the burner to a lesser
setting and took a seat opposite Ranma's.

            "Do continue, Ranma-kun," she said and handed him the tea.

            He looked up at her, his eyes full of sadness. "She's
dead... She's been dead for so long and I miss her. I..." he choked
back the tears that came and rose. "Thank you Kasumi-chan, your tea is
wonderfuul as always," he said and moved into the hallway.

            Kasumi looked at him long after he had disappeared. She
felt an overwhelming urge to console him and make all his pain go away
but she did not have the faintest idea as to how she should go about
it. Finally, she returned to her chores, breakfast had to be readied
before the rest of the household woke up. Ranma Qin was a puzzle she
was determined to unravel but he would have to wait for some other
time.

***********************************************************************

            Ryouga was lost. There was nothing surprising in that.
After all, there had been precious few times in his life when he had
been where he had wanted to be. Yet, he could not help feeling
disappointed.

            The night before, he had gone to satisfy the call of nature
and had somehow ended up in the opposite side of Juuban. *Maybe I
should have asked Akane for help...* But he knew that it could not have
been helped. She had been busy watching that emergency national address
and he had not wanted to disturb her. None of that mattered now. All
that mattered now was that he was lost and Akane was alone in her
house.

            *Kami-sama! A nuclear bomb,* he thought in horror.
Naturally, Ryouga being the gullible soul that he was had completely
misinterpreted the premier's address. Having grown up alone for most of
his life, small things such as subtlety went right past him. He also
did not know that the nuclear bomb alert had been called off a scant
half an hour after it had been announced by the big shots at the Diet.
American spy satellites had established without a shred of doubt that
the explosion was not nuclear in origin.

            Naturally, thinking about the previous day's happenings
made the lost boy depressed. And like always he begun to glow an
unhealthy shade of green as he wandered through the streets of Juuban,
two blocks from the Qin residence. People around him, noticed the glow
and fled from the scene afraid that it was another power hungry maniac
or monster or whatever.

            "WHERE AM I NOW?" screamed the lost boy in frustration at
the skies above as though the kami would provide him with some sort of
sign or something.

            The remaining few, who had been bold enough to remain in
his vicinity fled the scene and Ryouga had the decency to blush. It was
all someone else's fault, he could tell but for the life of him, he
could not tell who it was.

***********************************************************************

            Shampoo moved through the kata, graceful as a predator
stalking its prey. Her bonbori's swirled in complex patterns that were
as old as the Amazon nation itself.

            The dance of death continued for near an hour until she
came to an abrupt halt, pointing the maces to the ground.

            Akane could not help feeling jealous of the purple haired
girl. It seemed that everyone in the house was her better in the art by
a wide margin. She could only hope that one day she will be as good as
the rest of them.

            She sighed to herself in resignation and turned to the
other side of the front yard. Happousai, Cologne and Genma were
fighting against Ranma. All she could see of that battle were blurs and
every once in a while one of the trio would be unceremoniously thrown
out of the melee. Amazingly, it looked like Ranma was winning against
their combined might easily.

            *Maybe I should get Ryouga to train me,* thought the
youngest Tendo to herself. She did not like being left behind in the
art. It seemed that everyone was improving while her skills had been
more or less stagnant for nearly a year or two.

            *Thinking about Ryouga, I wonder where he is?* It always
irked her that her boyfriend had such a bad sense of direction. He was
never there when she needed him the most.

            *I bet that he got lost as usual trying to find his way to
the toilet.*

            She doubted veryily whether she could learn anything from
him though. His technique was based on brute strength and though she
was powerful, she was leagues behind Ryouga or even Ryuu in terms of
brute strength. Even if she had the strength, she doubted whether she
would be able to use his training methods. He used depression as the
source of his power and though she got angry easily, she could not
maintain that anger at the levels that Ryouga maintained his
depression. Finally, if everything worked out fine, she had to contend
with his sense of direction. It would not do for him to go missing for
weeks on end at a time. Her training would suffer and she did not want
that to happen, not ever again. Something had to be done about his
sense of direction and she had just the thing in mind though she knew
instinctively that it would not change anything when he started
training her. The more she thought about it the more unlikely it seemed
that Ryouga would ever be a good teacher.

            *I will just have to swallow my pride then,* thought Akane
as she walked down the steps and into the living room.

***********************************************************************

            Ranma was having the time of his life. It had been a long
time before he had faced such a challenge. He could not help grinning
as he weaved in and out of the blows from the three masters that he was
facing against. Even though they had little experience fighting side-
by-side, they were doing an admirable job of trying to tag him.

            He held up his hand as a signal to stop just as one of
Genma's fists blurred towards him at speeds that put the Amaguriken to
shame. The bald martial artist did just that and so did the others.

            Ranma wiped the small beads of sweat of his face and turned
to face the youngest Tendo. Evading the three masters using as little
ki as possible was tough.

            "Yes, Akane..."

            "I... I... Iwouldliketotrainunderyou," she finished in
rapid-fire speech.

            Ranma smirked.

            "Is that so?"

            Akane nodded in the affirmative.

            "Are you sure that you would not back down once the
training begins, for I assure you it will be no walk in the park?"

            Akane could feel her fuse melting. "Are you telling me that
I am not a martial artist?" she said between her teeth with
unmistakable menace.

            Ranma nodded. "There is no need for me to tell you the
obvious, is it not?" he asked, not ruffled by her outburst.

            Akane's temper chose that moment to give and she rushed
forward, her hammer appearing in her arms out of thin air.

            Ranma neatly sidestepped the attack and sent her into the
koi pond.

            "I said that you are not a martial artist but I did not say
that you cannot be one. However, if you give into your anger as easily
as you do then you shall never be a martial artist," he said neutrally.

            Akane sputtered and thrashed about in the water, trying in
vain to stay afloat.

            Ranma continued. "You may have a chi attack but it would
not do you any good if you lose your temper like that. A martial artist
is a master of self more than anything else and I am sorry to say that
you are lacking sorely in that department."

            Akane sputtered some more and thrashed a lot more.

            "Kho Lon, please help Tendo-san out of the water. I think
that between the three of you, you will be able to teach her self
control and the basics, won't you."

            Cologne nodded and the others acquiesced.

            Ranma turned and left, speaking over his shoulders, "I will
train you when you are ready Akane but not before."

***********************************************************************

            Ryuu woke up to the smell of freshly cooked food. He tried
to sit up but his head hurt like hell.

            "Ugh!" he moaned. "Where am I?"

            "Shhhh!" soothed Kasumi's sweet voice. "Everything's
alright Ryuu-kun."

            Ryuu tried opening his eyes but he could not handle the
brightness. His lips felt dry and he had the mother of all headaches.

            "Kasumi..." he croaked softly.

            "Shhhh! Don't speak Ryuu-kun. You are weak. Everything's
going to be all right. Here try to sit as slowly as possible and I will
feed you your breakfast," she soothed.

            Ryuu tried to nod but the action sent huge waves of pain up
his spine and head. Groaning did not help too. Slowly and silently, he
assumed a sitting position and allowed himself to be fed by the girl he
had come to think of as a mother.

            Kasumi was patient the whole time, feeding him slowly and
firmly rebutting all his efforts to stop feeding with a firmness that
only a mother can. Finally, he was done, having ate twice the normal
amount that he had for breakfast.

            Ryuu burped unceremoniously and Kasumi could not help
giggling at his antics.

            "Kasumi, could you get oyagi to come here?" he asked in a
much stronger voice.

            "I will tell him that you wanted to see him Ryuu-kun. Now,
lay back and try to get some sleep and that concussion will be gone in
no time."

            She left, giving him an affectionate kiss on his forehead,
and in a few minutes, Genma arrived.

            "Boy..."

            "Old man, I want to talk to you about my elder brother,"
said Ryuu as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

            Genma's face showed his surprise. He sat down by the bed
and looked questioningly at his son.

            "Old man, what was my brother like?" he asked. He had never
seen a picture of his brother and Genma scarcely spoke about him.

            Genma remained silent for a long time. Finally, he took a
deep breathe and begun. "What can I say about Ranma?... I... I realized
early on that your elder brother was a genius when it came to the art.
He took to it like a fish to water.

            "Naturally, I pushed him harder. Ryuu, have you ever heard
of the Nekoken?"

            Ryuu shook his head. No, he had not.

            "It was a technique that was supposed to make a martial
artist nigh invincible. Unfortunately, it also damages the users mind
very badly. I knew about the risks but I thought that Ranma could
retain his sanity when the training was done.

            "I was foolish then... very so. I thought that he could
take anything that I threw at him... I mistreated him... I pushed him
to the edge and then kept on pushing him further. Through it all, he
learnt, faster then I had ever thought possible... That was one of the
things that made me want to teach him the Nekoken.

            "I ignored his pleadings... for the sake of the child and
for the art, I managed to convince myself. And he bore it. Your elder
brother Ryuu, was easily a hundred times the man that I will ever be.

            "Then something happened. I think it was the kami or
something... I do not know. One minute he was in the pit with the cats,
screaming for my help and the next all was silent. I went there and
what a sight I saw."

            Genma choked back his tears.

            "He was suspended in the air and a glow surrounded him. He
opened his mouth to say something but either I could not hear it or he
could not speak... I do not know for sure. Then there was a flash and
he disappeared."

            Ryuu silently filed away this information. He had never
seen Genma this emotional in his entire life.

            "What did he look like?" asked Ryuu.

            Genma wiped the tears from his eyes and his face assumed a
dreamy look.

            "He was honorable, more so then even you. He had eyes like
your mothers and he had a pigtail... He was cursed, you see," said
Genma.

            "I can just see how he got that curse," remarked Ryuu
mildly.

            Genma almost smiled. "It was my fault... It always was in
his case. He was too young and he did what I told him to even though I
could see that he did not like some of the things that I did to him.
Anyways, why this sudden interest in your brother?" asked the Saotome
patriarch.

            "Nothing pops, I was just curious is all."

            Genma rose. "Well, go to sleep, I want you back to your
healthy self in no time."

            "Alright pops, I will get better and kick your ass all over
the place."

            Genma grumbled something and left.

***********************************************************************

            "What do you mean they failed?" boomed Chola.

            Chitan shriveled into himself. *Why did it have to be me?*
He knew very well that when the Lord was angry, he was prone to
vaporizing anything and anyone who was near him. As a result, he and
the other messengers had drawn straws and unfortunately, he had drawn
the smallest one.

            Chola paced back and forth, his face showing not the least
sign of his anger. Nature did, however. The lighting the cavern
darkened and the temperature in the cavern dropped steeply as energy
was pulled into him.

            "How did they fail?" he asked, his voice calmer than the
calmest waters in a lake.

            "We are trying to find out My Lord," replied Chitan.

            Chola stopped in his tracks. "In other words you do not
even know how they failed," he spoke. His voice remained as calm and
steady as before. However, his eyes seemed to bore into Chitan's very
soul now.

            Chitan trembled and nodded. It was getting too cold to bear
in the room. Sheets of ice were forming on the cavern walls.

            Chola's eyes flashed. Chitan was thrown into the air, where
he hung, suspended nearly a hundred feet above the ground. His hands
and legs were stretched to their fullest and then some and his face was
contorted in pain.

            "Then why Chitan, pray tell why do you stand before me if
you had so little information?"

            "My Lord, I beg pardon," screeched Chitan. The skin in his
shoulder joint was breaking apart as his arms were pulled out of their
sockets by some invisible force.

            Chola nodded. "Go now! Go find who killed the Indra and
Surya and return to me. I will expect better from you next time."

            Chitan nodded and he slowly floated back on to the ground.

            He excused himself and retreated as fast as he could happy
that he had been spared.

            Chola stood in the center of the cavern and mused. He had
felt the two scouts die. He had even felt their executioner and he knew
what it meant.

            "Cowards!" he muttered to himself. *They cannot face me
therefore they create a weapon... no matter, I will destroy all of them
in the end. Anita we will have our revenge.*

            He could play their game too. If they were afraid of mixing
it up with him then what was he to say about it. The more afraid they
were, the sweeter would be the revenge.

            "Shankara," he clapped his hands.

            "Yes, My Lord!" came the reply momentarily from Chola's
back.

            Chola did not even deign to turn towards the new Ashura nor
did his eyes drift from the crystal formation at the top of the cavern
as he spoke. "Surya and Indra have failed," he stated.

            Shankara did not reply rather opting to wait for his Lord
to provide him with the details. He did not have to wait for long.

            "The enemy is stronger then I thought he would be... I want
you to take the best troops under your command and go amongst the
humans. I want you to hunt down all the sailors and the one who killed
Indra and Surya not necessarily in that order."

            Shankara nodded. "My Lord, are the tears big enough to
allow a large contingent of troops to pass at this time?"

            Chola smiled at the question. Shankara had always been a
brilliant thinker, a fact that had stood him in good stead during their
war with the Moon kingdom.

            "Yes it is but the energy needed is uneconomical. So much
so that it would be impractical to try it frequently."

            "Yes My Lord..."

            "Good. Now, I want you to scout and find as much as you can
about the mortal world. It has changed much over the ages it appears."

            "I could take a few scouts with me My Lord. I hear that
Veeraraghavan of the Poonai clan is one of the best."

            "Do as you please but I expect results. The enemy is strong
Shankara, much stronger then you can imagine. Be careful and may the
lady be always with you."

            "And may she be with you My Lord."

***********************************************************************

            Akane was in hell. *Ohhhhhhh! I hate that bastard!* She
thought angrily to herself and sure enough it showed in her aura.

            "Sweetums," croaked Happousai from atop his seat on her
head as he tipped the boulder from her head and on to the ground.

            "Arghhh!" screamed Akane in frustration. Now, she would
have to do the whole damn thing all over again.

            Happousai giggled. "Run cutie or grandpa will _punish_
you."

            Akane shivered at that word. She knew fully well, what the
old pervert meant when he said that. She would rot in hell rather than
let the old lecher touch her in _that_ manner.

            "Keep your hands to yourself..." *PERVERT!*

            She ran as fast as her tired legs could carry her to the
front lawn where her father's friend stood with another boulder for her
to carry.

            She really hated the perverted bastard.

***********************************************************************

            Ranma whistled to himself as he stepped out of the furo.
Gingerly, he dried himself with the towel, taking care not to ruin the
polished floor.

            There is nothing like a warm relaxing soak in the tub, he
mused contentedly to himself. Of course, the silence could not last
forever. He almost last his balance as Akane's scream went Ultrasonic.

            *Happousai must have gotten to her,* he thought lazily, his
hands dropping down to his waist. Sure enough, Happousai broke through
the wall and landed heavily on the polished floor.

            He was up as soon as he had landed and jumped out through
the exit that he had so recently created with a cry of 'I am coming
sweetums'.

            Ranma shook his head. *Man all that for nothing, now the
floor is wasted once again.*

            "Hey, will you keep it down you guys," he shouted through
the hole and continued towards his room.

            As he rounded the passageway, he nearly smashed into
Kasumi. Recovering quickly, he brought the renowned Qin charm to the
fore.

            "You should look where you are going Kasumi-chan, or you
might end up like Ryouga."

            Kasumi smiled, "Ranma-kun, here you are! I have been
searching the whole house for you."

            Ranma looked confused. "I did say that I was going to take
a bath, did I not, Kasumi-chan?"

            She blushed in reply. "Oh my! You did Ranma-kun."

            He shrugged it off. Even the resourceful Kasumi (he had
found that out during the last two days) was human.

            "So, Kasumi-chan, what were you searching me for? Any
errands to run?" He had been hoping that he could lay back, relax and
ponder about the yesterday's events. It was a local holiday after all
and he wanted to use it to its fullest.

            Kasumi wiped her hands on the apron. He noted that she was
doing it even when it was not dirty. *Must be a personality quirk or
something.*

            "No no no! Ryuu-kun was asking for you..."

            "Well, I'd be going to meet him then. No use making him
wait for me, is there?" said Ranma and beamed his brightest smile.
"Catch up with you later Kas-chan."

            Ranma disappeared, leaving a blushing Kasumi behind.

            *Kas-chan... I think I like that name.*

***********************************************************************

            Knock. Knock.

            Ryuu shifted in the futon, yawned and stretched. "Who is
it?" he asked loud enough to be heard through the door.

            "It's me," came the muffled reply.

            Ryuu rubbed his eyes.

            "Come in sensei." *or should I call you elder brother?*

            Ranma peeked into the room. "What's up Ryuu? Kasumi said
that you wanted to speak to me."

            "Nothing. Sensei could you sit with me?"

            Ranma grinned. "Of course Ryuu. Anything for my student."

            He took a seat by the bed and looked at his student
quizzically. Ryuu just stared into his eyes for an eternity.

            "Ummm Ryuu... Anything you want to talk about."

            Ryuu sighed. "It's just that I have been thinking about my
brother and..."

            Ranma interrupted. "You have a brother," he asked, trying
to sound surprised.

            Ryuu looked right into his eyes and nodded. "Yes, I had a
brother... My father tells me that he died in an training accident just
after I was born." He turned his gaze once more onto Ranma. "Sensei,
are you my brother?"

            Ranma was caught off-guard by that remark. He let his
surprise show for just an instant and then burst out laughing.
"Whatever gave you that idea kohai?"

            "You did sensei." A pause. "I was awake when you entered my
room last night."

            The seconds ticked by as Ranma formulated an appropriate
answer. "I... I... Yes, I am your brother," he quoth at last.

            Ryuu nodded. "I figured that much."

            "Look Ryuu..."

            "Shhh! Let me speak big brother."

            Ranma nodded. What else could he do? In the end it would
all be easier this way, he thought to himself.

            "Where have you been all this time brother?" asked Ryuu,
curious about his brother's lost decade to say the least.

            "I have been around," replied Ranma evenly.

            "Around is not good enough an answer brother."

            "Look Ryuu, I am here, aren't I? I don't think there is
nothing much that matters beyond that."

            "It matters to me," muttered Ryuu to himself.

            Ranma heard it.

            "Ryuu, I was lost for a very long time but now I am back
home again. I think that is all that matters in the end."

            Ryuu nodded. It was not a perfect explanation but he could
live with that.

            "So brother, when are you planning on telling father and
mother?" he asked hopefully.

            Ranma took a deep breath. "Ryuu... I don't think that this
is the time to tell them but I promise you, I will tell them when the
time is right."

            "And when will the time be right? When they are on their
deathbed maybe?" asked Ryuu sarcastically. How could he not take
offense? Here was his elder brother, thought to be dead yet, very much
alive and with him refusing to even acknowledge to his parents that he
was their son.

            "That was totally uncalled for. I... I don't know when the
time will be right but I will feel it when it is time..."

            "So, you are going to keep acting like a stranger till
then?"

            Ranma placed his hands on Ryuu's shoulders. "Yes
_brother_... Now, I want you to make a promise."

            Ryuu stared dumbly at his brother.

            "I want you to promise me that you will never tell the
truth about me to anyone until I say otherwise that is. Okay?"

            *Can't win for losing.* "Alright," Ryuu sighed. How had he
been maneuvered into this position?

            "Everything's alright then. Do you want me to stay with you
squirt?"

            *Squirt?* "Naah! I am going to sleep."

            "'kay then. See you around squirt."

            Ranma walked out of the room with a brotherly pat on Ryuu's
shoulders leaving Ryuu to stare at the door long after he had gone.

***********************************************************************

            Author's notes:

            Well that about does it for the sixth chapter. I know, it
is smaller then the previous chapters but I think that I got everything
that I planned to put into this chapter just right.

            Anyways, I have good news for all of you. My semester
holidays are beginning and I am going to be free. I will try to cram in
as much writing as I could during the holidays. One more thing, I have
finalized the plans for this story and it will all be over in eighteen
chapters. Heyyyyy!

            Till next time, Seeya!

            Oh almost forgot! C&C would be most welcome.

            I would like to take this oppurtunity to
prostrate myself in front of my pre-readers. Thank you, guys! This
couldn't have been possible without all of you:
 jakub [jpilecki@poczta.onet.pl]
 Kaz [kazblah945@aol.com]
 Madcat [madcat08@hotmail.com]
 Brain [bmccullough@nucles.com]
 James Merritt [j.merritt1@home.com]
 Philip Penty [plainswaker@hotmail.com]
 Nathan Shuker [rezantis@hotmail.com]
 Zero [shinzero@home.com]

            Hints for you readers from the author:

            Hint #1: Arun doesnot write to a schedule, he really has to
spend a lot of time with his psychiatrist.

            Hint #2: (for those out standing critics out there[;)])Call
Arun anything you want in your mail provided (though he won't) he has
the right to call you by these same names. Arun appreciates
constructive negative comments and he really loves the positive
comments. Its the 'Go to hell you mother F***ing Freak of nature' and
such that he hates. Please send me your negative comments though I
would be most grateful if you would tone down the I hate you part a
little.

            Hint #3: The truth is out there, hey, don't ask me where
but is out there since Fox 'spooky' Mulder says so.

            Hint #4: There is no hint #4.

            Hint #5: Read the author's rants section if there is one.
It would clear some of yer questions as well as create some totally
unrelated ones.