Disclaimer: the Ranmaverse characters owned by Rumiko Takahashi, and all that obligatory stuff.  This story based on the anime, not the manga.

Chapter 11: Cherry Blossom Blues

One of life’s few constants is change. This is true as one moves through time or space, or both; things that are a simple, unremarkable fact of everyday life in Zimbabwe are so far outside the scope of a typical day in Manitoba, Canada, that in many ways those two locales might as well be separated by a world-wall.  Similarly, an inhabitant of New York in 1812 would not likely fit in well if suddenly shifted into the New York of 2012.

And yet, even with change so prevalent, there remain some underlying themes, deep thrummings of a common pulse, which unite people in small but pervasive ways. One such theme applies to students the world over-- namely, upon receiving a summons to the principal’s office, the youth, whether boy or girl, whether Asian or Caucasian, will feel a quick thrill of dread, and will walk slowly and reluctantly to their destination, either wracking the brain in an attempt to fathom just WHY this has happened or (for those who know darn well why) mentally polishing the alibi.

“Why are you walking so slowly, Ranma-kun?” Kodachi asked curiously.  She knew very well that it took much more to scare her man than a measly little summons to the principal’s office.

Okay, so there’s an exception to every rule.

Ranma gave her a wry grin. “You mean you’re in a hurry to get back to class? Gee, Dachi-chan, maybe I SHOULD speed up. We wouldn’t want to miss any more of that lecture on the history of Greek philosophical thought than we have to.”  Kodachi giggled as he deliberately slowed his pace even further.

Shampoo glanced from Ranma to Kodachi, then back again.  She frowned slightly at their carelessness.  “Is both you not bothered by meet with Principal Fujima?”

Ranma shrugged. “Nope.  What’s to be worried about?”  Looking at Shampoo and invoking the empathic link between them, he was surprised to find the Amazon actually was feeling a bit of anxiety. “Come on, Shampoo, don’t tell me you really ARE nervous?!”

She gave a reluctant nod.  “Even as boring as last class was, I rather be there than get called to Principal Fujima.”

Kodachi blinked in mild surprise. She wouldn’t have expected Shampoo of all people to be intimidated by a visit to the principal’s office. Especially considering the only real reason Shampoo was at Furinkan at all was to be with her Airen and sworn sister. “Don’t worry, Shampoo. It isn’t as if we’ve done anything to get us in trouble, after all.”

“And besides, the only reason this school is still standing is cause the Kunos donate so much yen to it. Ain’t no way they’re gonna come down hard on Dachi, Tatewaki, or anybody important to either of them.” Ranma gave the Amazon a reassuring smile. “So you don’t have to worry.”

Shampoo gave the both of them strange stares.  “What is you talking about?”

It was Ranma’s turn to blink. “We were sayin’ there’s no reason to worry-- there’s no way we’re in serious trouble.”

“Silly Ranma. You think that why I not want see Principal Fujima? Shampoo could not care less about stupid school rules.  Besides, I already know what you say, why they not really give us hard time anyway.”

“Then why were you feeling anxious?” Kodachi asked.

The Amazon shrugged. “Is just… Principal Fujima always gives Shampoo the creeps.  He looks like he look straight through you, see all of what is inside you. Makes me uneasy.”  She gave Ranma a seductive smile.  “There only one man Shampoo want have no secrets from, after all.”

This statement did what ten visits to the principal wouldn’t have been able to do, causing Ranma’s heart to lurch in a sudden surge of nerves.  Nonetheless, he gave her a smile back, while thinking privately that it was unfair-- he’d finally gotten over most of his shyness around Kodachi, and that OUGHT to mean he wouldn’t be nervous with Shampoo EITHER!  Too bad emotions don’t always respond to logic.

The White Rose glanced swiftly up and down the hall, and was reassured to find that they were still the only ones present.  It wouldn’t take much of Shampoo acting like that while others were watching before a certain secret would be secret no more.  She took Ranma’s arm.  “Well, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed anything particularly disquieting about the man, but I’m sure we can rely on Ranma to protect us. “She looked up at Ranma through lowered eyelashes.  “Right, Ranma-sama?”

Shampoo sighed. “Kodachi, I is proud warrior of Joketsuzoku. To hide behind man is not Amazon way. “Then she grinned.  “Of course, we not in Amazon lands right now…” That said, she latched onto Ranma’s other arm.

Needless to say, the upcoming meeting was rather far from everyone’s minds for the remainder of the walk. They reached their destination, fortunately without any inconvenient witnesses.  A little regretfully, each girl let go.  Then Kodachi quickly grabbed Ranma again when it looked like he was about to fall over.

Ranma wiped the sweat from his brow with one shaky hand.  “Look, guys, it ain’t like I didn’t enjoy that, but if we wanna keep this secret we better not do that kinda stuff here.”

“Oh, all right, Airen,” Shampoo pouted. “You take Shampoo to date soon to make up for having to keep my distance at school?”

“Sure,” he responded. Gathering the rest of his composure, Ranma opened the door and the three went into the principal’s secretary’s room. She buzzed her superior on the intercom, sending the news that the students whose presence he’d requested had finally shown up.

Principal Fujima sat at his desk, staring down at three pieces of paper.  His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was rumpled. He’d not gotten much sleep the night before, waking up at two in the morning and spending the interval until dawn mulling over the dream that had aroused him.  This accounted for his red eyes and for the general aura of weariness that hung over him. As for his hair, it pretty much always looked like that.

He’d been staring at the papers for quite a long time, though not really seeing them. They were remarkably similar, each a letter stating that a particular student was transferring to another school. They all seemed perfectly legitimate. Fujima had had no reason to doubt their veracity.

After all, the Sakuras had shown up at the same time, had been assigned to the same class, had formed a fast friendship with one another.  If circumstances had so arranged themselves that one of the girls had to leave, Fujima would have expected the other two to follow her if at all possible. So when the letters came, and the Sakura triplets (as everybody thought of them, no matter how they complained that they WEREN’T related to each other) didn’t show up, Fujima thought no more of the matter.

Until eight hours past, when one of his rare precognitive dreams roused him from slumber in the dead of night, with the certain knowledge that they hadn’t left… they’d been taken.

“Whoever said ignorance is bliss knew what he was talking about,” Fujima muttered sourly. And the worst thing of all was knowing just enough to know how little you knew.  His dream had been annoyingly short on helpful details… it was all well and good to know that the girls weren’t in actual physical danger, but he would have far rather known just where they were being held against their will, or who was doing it.

But dreams come as they may, the principal thought with a long-familiar sense of irritation. All he knew was the three girls and their families were being held captive somewhere in Tokyo, and they weren’t in any danger, though there was a plan to exploit them in some way. Another person might have thrown his hands up in despair at the difficulty of making any sort of difference with such scanty information, but Fujima liked to think that his tour of duty as the principal of Furinkan High School had made him a better problem-solver than that.

His intercom buzzed, and his secretary announced the arrival of Ranma, Kodachi, and Shampoo. Fujima allowed himself a long, grim smile before schooling his features back to sternness and asking that the three be sent in.

Kodachi noted, with a bit of puzzlement, that the principal’s office had seen a few changes since the last time she was here.  When she’d arranged for the transfer of Shampoo, Ryoga, and herself to Furinkan, there had been only one extra chair in the room, a fairly comfortable one seated away from the desk at a bit of an angle.  The setup seemed designed to help put whoever sat there at ease, since the principal would be subtly letting go of some of his authority by not having the desk act as so much of a barrier between himself and the visitor. Kodachi had also noted that while the chair was old, it didn’t seem very worn, and had speculated (correctly) that most students called to the principal’s office were not invited to take a seat.

This time, though, there were three chairs, sitting side by side in front of the principal’s desk. As he directed them to sit down, she began to feel even more curious than before.  Just why had they been called here?  If they were in trouble, they ought to be standing, not sitting in chairs that must have been brought in just for them. But if they weren’t here for any sort of disciplinary action, why was Principal Fujima regarding them with such a stony look?

After a moment of silence, which he spent eyeing the three students, Fujima spoke up. “Not even a second’s worth of hesitation. You, Ranma, take your seat in the middle chair, Kodachi on your right, Shampoo on your left.”

“Uh… is there something wrong with that? I mean, you did tell us to sit down,” Ranma said, reasonably enough, or so he thought.

“Wrong?  Well, I don’t know, Saotome.  Why don’t YOU tell ME whether it wouldn’t have seemed more natural for you… a young man with a steady girlfriend… to take one of the end seats, with Miss Kuno next to you in the middle seat, and Shampoo at the other end.”

“…Goodness, sir, was this supposed to be some sort of psychological test?” Kodachi asked, doing her best to make it sound as if the idea were absurd.  What actually happened was that the question came out sounding remarkably guilty.

“No, not a test. Just an illustration.”  The principal leaned forward, forming a steeple of his fingers as he placed his hands together.  “I’m going to put all my cards on the table. Even if there’s only a month left in the school year, I seriously doubt you three are going to be able to keep a lid on your little secret for that long.  Walking down the hall with both of them holding onto you, Ranma… could you possibly have been less discreet?”

“Hey!  I check to make sure nobody watching before I take Ranma’s arm…” Shampoo’s protest dwindled away into sheepish silence as it occurred to her that, unless the principal really was a mind-reader, there must have been at least one witness.

“Look, I don’t see what business it is of yours!” Ranma protested.  Off-balance he might have been, but his fighting instincts were still functioning.  Switching tactics quickly was a basic tenet of Anything Goes, after all.  If denial won’t work, use some other method. “It ain’t like we’re in violation of school rules or nothin’!”

Principal Fujima whipped out a copy of the student handbook, opened it to a page near the back, and passed it to Ranma. A huge drop of sweat appeared on his forehead as he read, “ ‘In the interest of maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships, a student with a steady girlfriend or boyfriend may not date other individuals at the same time.’  What the heck kinda nutty rule is this?!”

‘One I put in the rulebook a few weeks ago, just in case I ever needed leverage over the three of you,’ Fujima didn’t say.

With some effort, Kodachi forced her jaw to do something other than gape in disbelief. “Sir, with all due respect, don’t you think you might better spend your time by targeting those students whose conduct actually causes problems here?  I’m certain our friends Ryoga and Ukyo would appreciate some intervention in their classroom. Why focus on us when we aren’t causing any harm?”

Fujima chuckled, though he didn’t sound particularly amused.  “Miss Kuno, you are one of the brightest students at this school. But perhaps in this case you’re a little too close to the situation to view it clearly.  So let me invite you to consider, just for a moment, what will likely happen once the general female populace of this school learns that just because you and Ranma are an item doesn’t prevent him from dating other girls as well.”

“Hold on there!” Ranma protested. “Ain’t no WAY anybody else is welcome to come butting in on us!”

“You’re a two-woman kind of guy, is that it?” Fujima replied, laying the sarcasm on extra thickly. “Do you seriously expect anyone to believe that? Without at least hoping they might have a chance too, or trying to find out for themselves?”

Ranma didn’t say anything; his silence was response enough.  The principal continued.  “And that’s not even the worst of it.  Once word leaks out that in Shampoo’s culture it’s acceptable for a man to have multiple wives, do you have any IDEA how much pressure the boys are going to mount in order to get a student exchange program going between Furinkan and the Chinese Amazons?”

“Then you get some of Shampoo’s sisters here, weak boys hit on them, they pound weak boys into ground, boys not cause no more trouble.  Problem solved,” Shampoo said.

“As if that approach ever worked for Miss Tendo?”  Fujima sighed. “No, I think we’d do better to find another solution to this problem.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Kodachi queried, maintaining a measure of skeptical reserve. She hoped she wouldn’t have to hold the matter of her family’s regular donations to the school over the principal’s head in order to get him off their backs.

“What would you say, if I proposed that instead of spending this last month attending classes, the three of you work on a special project?  Then you wouldn’t be around for any inconvenient secrets to leak out to the student body. And this way you could work together, on your own schedule, doing something that I think will interest all of you. If you succeed, you all receive top marks for this year.”

Kodachi’s skeptical reserve melted like a snowdrift in the Sahara.  She should have known he wouldn’t really get tough with her. “What sort of special project?!”

Ranma held onto a bit of wariness. In his life, only a very few things that seemed too good to be true hadn’t turned out to have some hidden price tag. On the other hand, those few things had ALL come since his arrival in Nerima, so he allowed himself to be guardedly optimistic about this offer.

Fujima opened a desk drawer, withdrew three pieces of paper, and passed one of them to each teenager. “Read these.”  They complied, then looked back at him with questioning expressions.

“They seem perfectly legitimate, don’t they?” Fujima asked quietly.  “I certainly didn’t suspect otherwise, when I received them. “After a moment’s pause, he continued. “But those letters weren't written by the parents of the girls in question, and the story they tell is an outright lie. The Sakura triplets and their families have been taken somewhere and are being held against their will. And I want you three to find them.”

Kodachi was the first to find her voice. “Is this some sort of joke, sir?”

“No, Miss Kuno, I'm quite serious.”

“Really.”  Ranma packed a week’s supply of skepticism into the word. “There’s been a mass kidnapping, and instead of reporting it to the police, you come and ask for our help. Oh, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Sir.”

Fujima sighed. “Saotome, I’ve already told you everything I know about what’s happened.  I don’t know where they are, I don’t know who’s taken them or why, I don’t have even a shred of evidence that could be taken to the authorities. As absurd as it sounds, you three are the best hope I have of rescuing those girls.”

“Perhaps we might be a little more willing to believe this if you told us how you learned of the girls’ plight,” Kodachi suggested.

He’d been hoping nobody would ask that, but Fujima had known it wasn’t a very realistic hope. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. All I can say is that the source of my information can’t offer any more than I’ve already told you.  Except for one thing I didn’t mention-- the girls aren’t in immediate danger.  You can take the time you need to locate and free them.”

Ranma gave Kodachi a glance. She clearly understood the message: ‘You’re the one whose family keeps this place from going under, YOU tell him that’s not good enough.’ Returning her attention to the principal, the White Rose frowned.  “Principal Fujima, that simply isn’t good enough.  You need to do a lot better than that if you want us to take this seriously.”

“Very well, I will. Here are two reasons for you to accept what I’m telling you is true,” Fujima snapped back.  “First, how can you take the chance that it isn’t? You are the only hope for those girls, the only ones I have any influence with who are talented and resourceful enough to possibly rescue them. If you turn your backs on them now, whatever happens… however they are exploited and abused… is on your heads.

“And, if that reasoning isn’t enough to convince you that I’m serious about this…”Fujima took a deep breath, then said, “Miss Kuno, your family’s donations have made a huge difference to this institution. Furinkan owes the Kuno clan an immense debt of gratitude, which I doubt we’ll ever be able to repay.

“That being said… if you turn down the task I’ve set before you, I will expel the three of you.”

A long moment of silence was broken by Shampoo.  “That convince me. What about you two?”

Elsewhere, another meeting was taking place.  Instead of an office, the setting was a conference room.  A number of comfortable chairs were seated around a large, circular mahogany table.  The carpeting was thick and luxurious, and the walls were tasteful paneled oak. The overall impression of the room was that of power and influence, though there were two jarring notes. The first was that several of the attendees were clearly not full-blooded Japanese.  The second was that the figures seated at the table were dressed in casual, comfortable clothes rather than formal business attire.

However, the second of these seemingly incongruous facts had a simple explanation.  Namely, the whole POINT of this secret society was to make the world a more comfortable place for those seated at the table. As far as they were concerned, there was no room for three piece suits or neckties in their personal vision of the future. Most of the room’s inhabitants had to maintain legitimate jobs as a smokescreen, and they wore the usual sort of garb required then, but for these meetings there was only one person clad in something even slightly professional.

And that was just because it was a very comfortable lab coat.

The man wearing that coat, one Dr Yoshimitsu, cleared his throat and called the meeting to order. “Gentlemen, I am pleased to report that we have had a breakthrough, far sooner than the most optimistic models predicted.”

“What, already?!”

“It’s been less than a month!”

“Are you sure?”

“Which of them was it?”

As the hubbub died down, Dr Yoshimitsu continued. “It was the Fourth Child. Granted, it was an involuntary act rather than a conscious one.  She doesn’t even remember it.  But I believe we can safely say that the new program will bring results much, much more quickly than the years we had to invest in the First Child.”

One of the others at the table frowned slightly.  “Personally, Yoshimitsu, I’m glad it wasn’t a conscious act.  Let’s not lose sight of what could happen if the development of the newly-acquired girls’ abilities outpaces the controls the First Child has in place on them.”

Dr Yoshimitsu refrained from rolling his eyes with a mighty effort of will.  “Klewang?  Did you even read the memo I sent to everyone, describing the process the girls would be undergoing?”

“That so-called ‘memo’ was two hundred pages thick!  Some of us have to keep up our outside jobs to provide funding for this operation, you know!”

“I’ll take that as a ‘no.’ Regarding your concern, don’t worry. ALL the controls are already in place. The First Child saw to that before we even began the process of awakening their psionic potential.”

“Oh, really? But if the controls are fully entrenched, how did one of the girls take an unconscious action?  Aren’t uncontrolled abilities potentially as dangerous as abilities that WE aren’t the ones controlling?”

“That brings me to my next point… the nature of the breakthrough.  As you know…”  Dr Yoshimitsu blinked as a thought occurred to him.  “Um, gentlemen, when I prepared these remarks, it was with the impression that you all had read my memo and were familiar with the details of the approach we were taking.  How many of you actually did read it?”

A roomful of averted eyes and embarrassed coughs answered his question.  “Right,” he sighed, “I guess this talk is going to run a little longer than I had expected.

“As you know, sixteen years ago the Project successfully generated seven viable infant clones of the original subject. We have recently re-acquired three of them, and one we raised ourselves… the First Child. Most of what we now know, we learned from watching her and helping her develop her potential.  In particular, we learned that the additional children will be able to surpass the First Child in specific areas, but only if we encourage growth in those areas rather than a general development.  Our goal is to create a team where the First Child is the ringleader, the generalist with a full spectrum of abilities, with the others having limited but finely-honed powers.

“For this purpose, we need to know what each girl’s natural strengths are.  The First Child has therefore placed the controls, as I already stated, and is monitoring the others while using her own abilities to encourage the development of her sisters’ potential.  And you are quite right, Klewang, many of the powers we would like to see them develop are not ones that should be encouraged to run wild. The controls are in place and will prevent this; they will NOT prevent the First Child from sensing the psionic surge and understanding what would have happened.  We can then adjust the appropriate girl’s training program accordingly.

“But there are certain effects that we don’t mind happening at random.  The controls don’t block these, and in fact we wouldn’t want them to. It was an ability like this that the Fourth Child demonstrated.  To be specific, she had a precognitive dream.  One far sharper and clearer than any the First Child has ever had, which only proves the point I made earlier about specialization along one’s natural strengths as opposed to generalization.”

“A precognitive dream?” Just about everyone at the table had brightened considerably at this news.  That had been one of the main talents they had been hoping for, especially if the girl could learn to consciously control her ability. “I don’t suppose she got a glimpse of the state of the international stock exchange one month from today?”

At this, Dr Yoshimitsu’s expression became rather more grave.  “I’m afraid not, but she DID see something quite crucial to the success of our project.”

His tone and the look on his face caused the celebratory mood to lose a lot of its energy. “And what was this?” the man seated next to Dr Yoshimitsu asked.

Instead of answering directly, the scientist opened a folder and laid three drawings on the table in front of him. Sketches done in charcoal, each of a different teenager.

Dr Yoshimitsu opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a groan from the one who’d been responsible for acquiring the three new girls.  “Doctor, I recognize those kids.  Hate to break it to you, but one of our new girls has a massive crush on that boy.  I’m sure she does have some, ahem, intense dreams about him, but I doubt they qualify as precognitive.”

“It’s the Second Child, not the Fourth, with the crush you mentioned,” Dr Yoshimitsu responded. “And anyway, the only reason we know about this was the First Child was monitoring the girl.  She stated unequivocally that this was a true instance of psionic activity, and drew these from the images she saw in the other’s dream.”

“So what do Ranma Saotome, Kodachi Kuno, and the Amazon Shampoo have to do with us?”

The doctor looked slowly around the room, making sure he had everyone’s undivided attention, before responding. “If we don’t do something to distract them, they will eventually uncover our operation and destroy it.”

A man seated across the table, who hadn’t yet spoken, now gave Yoshimitsu a curious look. “Why do you say ‘distract’?” he asked coldly. “If these children really pose a threat to us, don’t you think we might do better to consider a more reliable means of keeping them out of the picture?”

Just about everyone at the table stared at him incredulously.  “What?!  Don’t tell me you’re ALL too squeamish to…”  Suddenly he blinked, as certain names that had been previously mentioned finally registered. “Wait a minute… did you say that’s… Ranma Saotome and Kodachi Kuno?!”  A round of nods.  “So! What kind of distraction do you have in mind, Dr Yoshimitsu?” he asked briskly.

Another two drawings joined the three already on the table.  “These individuals were also present in the Fourth Child’s dream. Both of them have grudges against Saotome, and would be only too glad to fight him again.  The First Child suggested we engage them for that very purpose, and even volunteered to work as our liaison to make sure they never get an idea of what’s really going on here.

“From what she saw in the dream, she guaranteed that she’ll be able to ensure these two keep Saotome and the girls from causing any trouble for us.”

There was undeniably an extra spring in Shampoo’s step as she, Ranma, and Kodachi left Furinkan and began walking back toward the Kuno mansion.  No more boring classes, no more need to keep up a ‘just friends’ façade that had been proving harder and harder, and the chance to have an adventure! Today was turning out far better than most Mondays, Shampoo thought to herself.

“Anybody have a suggestion about what we oughtta do now?” Ranma asked, frowning pensively. “I can’t say I got any bright ideas myself.”

“Well, is too early for lunch,” Shampoo remarked, giving Ranma a playful smile.  “So Shampoo think is best we get started right away on looking for captured girls.”

Ranma stuck his tongue out at her. “Gee, Shampoo, good call. But I don’t suppose you could say just HOW we’re supposed to do that?  I mean, there’s an awful lot of room in Tokyo for them to be hidden in.”

The Amazon grinned. “Just like there was lot of room in Japan for Ryoga’s Oni soul to hide Akane in?  That make no difference to us.  We go to Nekohanten, borrow Eye of Bastet from Great-Grandmother, find lost girls with that.  Maybe even get this whole mess wrap up today, and have rest of month for own selves.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Kodachi agreed.  The three shifted their course, making for the restaurant.

When they arrived, however, they found that only Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung were there. “Where is Great-Grandmother?”

“She take day off, to train new Sailor Moon girl,” Ling-Ling answered absently, paying most of her attention to the ramen bubbling on the stove in front of her.

“Wait a minute… I thought the reason Usagi wasn’t in class was that she was sick today,” Kodachi said.

“No, yesterday Great-Grandmother ask if she serious about training, test her and say if she is, need to prove by skip school today to get extra practice in.  Rabbit girl show up bright and early this morning, and leave with Great-Grandmother.”

“Do you know what time she’ll be back?” Ranma asked.

“Ling-Ling think late evening… Great-Grandmother say we not going to open restaurant today.”

“Then why are ya cooking up some ramen this early in the day?”

“We trying master new recipe. Want to have just right for lunch with Airen,” Lung-Lung said.  The tone of self-satisfied happiness with which she’d spoken the last word might well have sparked a fight if Ukyo had been within earshot.

“Oh well, we not really need Great-Grandmother for this anyway.”  With that, Shampoo led the other two up the stairs to the sleeping quarters. The twins stared in shock at them, the ramen completely forgotten.

Oblivious to the rather large misunderstanding that was currently taking place one floor below them, the three made their way into Cologne’s room.  As Shampoo knelt down in front of the Matriarch’s chest of treasures, Ranma spoke up.  “Wait a minute, Shampoo, we know there’s no trap on the chest, but shouldn’t we still wait for your great-grandmother to get back?  Last time you used that jewel, it basically wiped you out.”

Shampoo paused with one hand on the lid of the trunk, and looked back over her shoulder. “No need, Airen.  Great-Grandmother tell me secret of using jewel right way not long ago. No danger this time of using up all my strength.  Is no reason wait for her to get back before we do this.”

With that, the Amazon turned back to the chest, and lifted the lid.  There was an audible *click*.  Simultaneously, a dart shot out and buried its tip in her shoulder. Shampoo stared in shock, then muttered, “Shampoo really wish Great-Grandmother would make up her mind…” before collapsing into a heap on the ground.

Ranma’s panicked cry of “Shampoo!!” brought the younger Amazons racing up the stairs at breakneck speed. As Ling-Ling reached the door of the room, though, it suddenly occurred to her that the pig-tailed boy might just have been caught off-guard when their cousin made her move on him. The cherry-haired girl tried to come to a screeching halt, but Lung-Lung, who was behind her and not expecting this, slammed into her at full speed.  The two ended up tumbling into the room in a tangled heap.

Ling-Ling groaned and shook her head, then took in the scene in front of her.  She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not that it wasn’t what she’d expected.  “What happen to big sister Shampoo?!”

“She opened the Matriarch’s chest and was hit by a poisoned dart!” Kodachi said, while desperately checking Shampoo’s vital signs.  They seemed stable, but who knew how long that would last?!  “Get out of the way!  We need to get her to medical attention as soon as possible!”

“No, not worry. Trap not fatal one,” Lung-Lung said, breathing a sigh of relief.  “You say she open Great-Grandmother’s chest without ask?  Why she do stupid thing like that?”  Ling-Ling glared and smacked Lung-Lung on the head, who just grinned unrepentantly back at her.

“Are you sure she ain’t in any danger?” Ranma asked desperately.

“Ask Ling-Ling,” Lung-Lung said with a smirk that earned her another swat.

“Is so,” the cherry-haired Amazon grumbled.  “Trap just use sleeping potion, make whoever hit by dart sleep for many, many hours. Big sister Shampoo wake up tomorrow by noon.”

“Maybe sooner,” Lung-Lung chimed in. “That how long it take for effect to wear off Ling-Ling when SHE try open chest, but big sister Shampoo is stronger, maybe throw off effects faster.”

‘Well, that’s a relief,’ Kodachi thought, wiping sweat from her brow.  ‘But I suppose that just blew away any chance of making a difference today in the matter of our unfortunate classmates.’

The red light of sunset was glimmering outside when she sensed their approach.  Sakura gulped.  Clairvoyant abilities notwithstanding, she hadn’t foreseen that she would be anywhere near this nervous.  She took a deep breath, reaching for calmness, blocking out the thought that these two were part of the mysterious and terrifying outside world she’d never so much as touched. She focused instead on the images of herself interacting with them that she’d seen in her sister’s dream. ‘Just stick to what you remember seeing yourself do, and it’ll be okay,’ she thought.

A knock at the door threatened to shatter her fragile composure, but she forced away the new surge of anxiety. “Come in,” she called, mildly surprised that her voice didn’t crack.

The door opened, and in stepped two young men.  Sakura regarded them closely.  Her stare was open enough that a normal person might have considered it rude, but neither of these two could remotely be considered normal, and both were accustomed to receiving looks like that.

As well they might be. One was tall for a Japanese, though not exceptionally so.  He had black hair, which was about the most normal element of his appearance. His green eyes were much less usual. Above the waist, he was clad in a loose, paint-spattered garment.  It was an artist’s smock, though Sakura didn’t have enough experience to recognize it as such. Below this he wore trousers, also stained, though only with black ink rather than the multicolored pigments that adorned his shirt.  He wore a beret at a slightly rakish angle.  His mouth was framed by a small waxed moustache and a scraggly goatee. Slung along his back were a number of bundles, as well as a gigantic paintbrush almost as long as he was tall.

The other didn’t catch the eye nearly as emphatically as his companion.  In fact, at first glance he seemed rather nondescript. The only thing obviously unusual about him was his hair; it was gray, rather than black or brown, even though the young man appeared to be in his mid-to-late teens.  His eyes were gray as well, and his clothing was as drab as the other’s was colorful.

On a closer examination, though, there was an air of secrecy about him, a sense of things hidden beneath layers of concealment.  A normal person, on being around him for any length of time, would become more and more uneasy, torn between a desire to get away and a morbid curiosity as to just what was causing this feeling of unease.  He’d become quite familiar with this reaction by now, and even derived a measure of bitter amusement at watching for the precise moment that it dawned on whoever was currently near him that he wasn’t casting a shadow.

Both young men saw nothing unusual in the intense scrutiny with which Sakura regarded them. Neither thought it remotely likely that she would seem reassured by the results, yet this was what happened. They were just like she’d seen in her sister’s dream, Sakura thought with a sense of relief.  And so, since she’d already seen this meeting play out, it wasn’t so hard now to relax a little and let things proceed.

“Good evening, mademoiselle,” the boy with the beret spoke.  “I received a telephone call this afternoon.  Someone who declined to identify himself stated that an old enemy of mine was causing trouble for him, and asked for my help. I was to come here for further details.”

The other boy stirred restlessly and gave him an odd glance.  “With a getup like that, shouldn’t you be using an annoying French accent?”

“Yes, but I never could get the hang of that,” the first speaker confessed.  “My attempts at a French accent make me sound like a buffoon.”

The gray-haired boy gave him a frankly incredulous look, as if wondering how the other could miss the fact that his choice of clothing made him LOOK like a buffoon, but decided not to pursue the subject.  He turned back to Sakura.  “Same thing here. Somebody called me, told me Ranma Saotome was causing a lot of trouble for him, and said he really needed my help. “He broke his eye-contact with Sakura to give one last sidelong glance at the other boy, then returned his gaze to her. She made a much more attractive sight, after all.  “Although they didn’t say anything about someone else getting involved. Care to fill in the holes?”

“I… there’s only so much I can tell you,” Sakura replied quietly.  She looked down at her hands, fingers twisted together in her lap, not realizing just how shy and vulnerable her posture made her appear. “My employers are engaged in an operation which is being threatened by Ranma and two friends of his. One, Kodachi Kuno, you have both met. The other is a Chinese girl named Shampoo. You’ll know her when you see her because she has red eyes and lavender hair that reaches below her waist. Plus, she’s always with the other two.

“The three of them are a serious threat to a business project of ours.  That’s why you were contacted.  Both of you have suffered at Ranma’s hands in the past. We want to ask you to fight him again, to distract him from threatening us.  But please, I beg you, whether or not you decide to help us, don’t tell Ranma about this meeting.  He’d beat our location out of you without a moment’s hesitation if he could.”

Sakura fell silent then. Both young men regarded her in contemplative silence.  As the quiet stretched on and on, she began to worry.  Had it really taken this long for them to respond, in the dream she’d witnessed?  Surely they should have said something by now.  Had she somehow botched her part?  Had she… had she already missed her chance to make the future take the branch she so desperately needed?

Just as Sakura felt like the silence would shatter her heart, the shorter boy spoke. “All right.  I’ll help you.”

“As will I,” the other was quick to add.  “Please, tell us more of what you need us to do.”

The last fading light of sunset had not yet vanished from the sky.  The two young men were now walking slowly through the streets of Tokyo. The gray-haired one was the first to break the silence.  “If we’re going to work together, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“What would that be?”

Grey eyes met green in a challenging stare.  “Just why did you agree? That had to be the vaguest story I’ve heard in my life.  Doesn’t it bother you to think you might’ve just signed up for a tour of duty with the Yakuza?”

The taller boy drew himself to his full height in a huff.  “Insolent cur! How dare you accuse that lovely young lady of such heinous associations?!  I will admit that I could wish for more complete information regarding her employers, or this mysterious agenda which Saotome apparently threatens, but I am fully prepared to stake my life and my honor on the virtue of that gentle girl!”

“Gee, then it must’ve bothered you when she asked me to be the one who reports our progress to her,” the gray-haired boy said bitingly.

Curiously enough, the other deflated at this, rather than becoming more insulted.  “No, actually that was for the best.  Such a fragile, delicate flower she was, a shy and demure angel, one utterly unfit for the harsh realities of this world. At least, so she seemed to me. And I cannot afford to repeatedly expose myself to that picture of innocent beauty.  My heart is for another, who is not yet free to return my affection. I must not waver in my devotion to her.”

They walked on quietly for a few more minutes, while the shorter boy tried to decide whether he’d be able to depend on this overly-romantic dreamer at all.  Before he could come to any conclusions, the other spoke again. “What of you?  Have you no poetry in your soul, that you would suspect that fair girl of such darkness?  And if not, have you no honor, that you would still be willing to ally yourself with Yakuza or the like?”

“In case you forgot, we aren’t getting paid for this,” he snapped.  “So don’t cop an attitude, like I’m selling myself or something. Like she said, Ranma and I fought before. I owe him for a lot, and I intend to settle the debt.  And just for your information, I’m quite sure that Sakura girl doesn’t mean us any harm.” Fujima himself couldn’t have been any more certain, though the principal would have been able to discern a lot more than just that the girl hadn’t been concealing any ill-intent.  “That doesn’t mean her employers are so innocent.”

“Well, be that way if you wish. I prefer to see beauty and truth in the world around me.”

“You do that then,” the gray boy replied softly, and sadly.  “At least one of us won’t be so busy staring into the light that he forgets what kind of stuff hides in the darkness.”

Even as Lung-Lung had suggested might happen, Shampoo threw off the dart’s effects much more quickly than Ling-Ling had. If the younger Amazon had been there when her cousin awakened, she would have been more than a little annoyed… the lavender-haired girl woke up feeling quite refreshed and alert, with none of the grogginess from which Ling-Ling had suffered. On the other hand, this happened at one-thirty in the morning, so Shampoo didn’t get off completely free from inconvenience.

Finding herself in her own familiar bed at the Kuno mansion was a welcome experience. She had fallen into the blackness of unconsciousness with an unpleasant worry that the dart might have been laced with something worse than a sleeping potion.  She was more than happy to find those worries had been groundless… there were many things she still wanted to do in her life.

Shampoo tossed and turned for a few minutes, but quickly realized it was a wasted effort. There was no way she’d get back to sleep tonight; she was feeling much too alert.  What to do now? The idea of heading back to the Nekohanten and taking another crack at the Matriarch’s chest flitted idly through her mind, but was quickly discarded.  She wasn’t that desperate for sleep, thank you very much.

Another idea, that of making her way to Ranma’s room, waking him up, and seeing where things went from there, was discarded almost as quickly, if a great deal more reluctantly. She knew he wasn’t ready for that yet, at least not with her.  Besides, first dibs most definitely belonged to Kodachi, and the Amazon was certain her sister hadn’t claimed them yet.

That left exercise of a different sort.  Shampoo changed into some training clothes, picked up her bonbori, and slipped out into the hall.

This wasn’t her first late-night training session.  She’d been in Japan long enough to become used to the place, by and large, but there were still times when she woke up in the middle of the night, tense with the sensation of being in some place where she didn’t really fit. The sheer luxury of the Kuno mansion didn’t help either, contrasting so sharply with the Spartan conditions Shampoo had known for almost all of her life.  Her face still flushed whenever she remembered first waking up to the buzzing of an alarm clock. The Kunos could afford to replace the clock, the nightstand on which it had stood, and the door through which she’d smashed both of them, but still…

The late-night episodes of sleeplessness weren’t very frequent, but when they occurred Shampoo had found that a good, strenuous workout would put her back at ease.  This time, as she sneaked through the darkened halls toward the nearest training room, she was a good bit more relaxed than she had been the first time she’d done this.  Back then, she’d been as nervous as a cat, more than halfway expecting to have someone discover her, assume she was trying to sneak into Tatewaki’s room, and throw her out for good.

Those days of uncertainty were gone now, and though the Amazon used every bit of skill she had to creep along soundlessly, it was just out of consideration, to avoid waking anyone else up. She’d covered about half the distance to her destination when that stealth paid off in an unexpected way.

Hearing a faint sound where there should have been only quiet, Shampoo suddenly froze. She listened intently for a few seconds, then ducked back into a side corridor.  Without a doubt, there was somebody sneaking down the very hallway she’d been moving through seconds before.  Her grip tightened around the hafts of her bonbori.  This was one burglar who was going to rue the day he targeted her hosts! The barely audible steps drew nearer and nearer.  Shampoo tensed, preparing to spring…

… then remained frozen motionless for quite a long time after Ryoga had passed on his way.

Eventually the Amazon shook herself out of her shock.  It was unbelievable! Barely a week had elapsed since Ryoga had beaten her cousins and received the Kiss of Marriage. She would have been prepared to wager every material possession she’d gained since coming to Japan that it would take her cousins a lot longer than this to work through his shyness.  But apparently she’d been wrong.  Where else could he be sneaking off this late at night? She was certain she’d heard the opening and closing of the front door, which pretty much ruled out the possibility that he might just be making a raid on one of the larders.

Shampoo sighed a little.  It was true she was happy for her cousins, but she couldn’t help but wish things had turned out better for Ucchan. At least with the way things were it wouldn’t be too hard for Ryoga to let the other girl down easy. He pretty much had no choice but to date Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung, and Ukyo knew this.  He could start by pretending not to enjoy it, then slowly let his true feelings come out.  It wouldn’t be one massive crushing blow that way, but it would be just as effective. Surely Ukyo would give up long before the year was out, the Amazon thought.  Or better yet, maybe the chef would make peace with her cousins, so Ryoga wouldn’t have to forsake anybody.

There’s just something about the small hours of the morning.  Even if one is wide awake rather than half-asleep, the most ridiculous thoughts seem credible then.

Eventually Shampoo remembered that she had been meaning to get in some training.  She set out again, her mind still dwelling on Ryoga’s unexpected boldness. And truth be told, there was more than a hint of jealousy there too.  Her cousins were two years younger than her. It didn’t seem fair that she had to wait this long when they got to be with their husband right away.  And really, if Kodachi would just go ahead and break Ranma in, surely that would increase her Airen’s boldness with her too.

The Amazon turned that thought over in her mind for a few moments before giving a devilish grin. She turned on her heel and made her way back along the way she’d come, though headed for a different destination than her own room.

Normally it took quite a lot to wake Ranma up.  Being doused with a pail of cold water could do it, although that had never happened in his stay at the Kuno place.  The smell of breakfast cooking would rouse him without fail.  Threats and attacks, however, were more likely to be ignored and avoided with a subconscious roll to the side.

Introducing a subtle change into his environment had just about no chance of waking Ranma suddenly. But slowly, gradually, his subconscious mind became aware that something just wasn’t right.  At three-thirty in the morning, Ranma blearily opened his eyes and sat up, wondering just what had awakened him.

At least, that was his intention. The warm weight snuggled across his chest prevented him from carrying out the second of the agenda items.

Ranma’s gaze focused. His mouth instantly went as dry as the Gobi desert. His higher-order thought processes, which had just begun to come on-line, shut right back down. His heart gave such a thunderous crash that by rights it ought to have awakened Kodachi as well, but she just murmured softly and snuggled a bit closer.

That was the only discernable motion in the room for quite some time.  Eventually, however, Ranma felt his heart resume beating. His eyes shrunk almost back to normal size, and he regained the ability to blink.  Anything beyond that, though, was still beyond his reach. Especially, he was incapable of looking away.

The moon was hanging low in the sky, and its light was shining freely through the window. Ranma knew he didn’t have any words of his own that could possibly do justice to the wonder of the sight before him. Kodachi was wearing a fairly modest nightgown, which was probably the only reason he was still conscious. But this did nothing to hide her face, or the long, slender arm that was stretched out to leave her hand resting less than a finger’s width from caressing his face.  Her skin seemed to glow from within, with a beauty that would make alabaster and ivory seem dull.  Her hair was a limpid cloud of moonlight.  As if of its own volition, one of his hands reached out and gently stroked her unbound tresses.  She murmured again, too softly for him to make out whatever it was she’d said over the pounding of his own heart.

Ranma never was certain how much time slipped by like this.  Nothing lasts forever, of course, and eventually a cloud passed over the moon. The change in light levels was extreme enough that for just a second, he couldn’t see anything.  Acting on instinct, he shut his eyes, and tried to take deep calming breaths. The ‘deep’ part worked okay, but since each one was making him more and more aware that his girlfriend was sleeping with his chest as her pillow, ‘calming’ was a total bust.

The moon had come back out now… the reflection of its glow from Kodachi was obvious even through his tightly-closed eyelids.  He felt tempted, so tempted, to open them again and look once more, but his instincts were screaming that if he did whatever happened next would depend on her self-control, not his.  And one of her last memories prior to the Heart Link informed him that if she woke up now, she’d probably think she was still dreaming, and self-control wouldn’t even enter into the picture.

‘No,’ Ranma thought to himself with every shred of determination he could muster, ‘I won’t take advantage of her like that.  Bad enough I already sleepwalked inta her bedroom or something.’  Forcing himself to think about that wasn’t very pleasant, but at least the guilt helped him focus.  Slowly, and with a flexibility that many a ballet dancer would have envied, he managed to slide out from under Kodachi and then out of the bed without waking her.  She did mutter what sounded like a slight protest, but Ranma held firm in his resolve. No way was he gonna compromise Dachi-chan’s honor! He breathed a deep sigh of relief (at least, he told himself it was relief) as he slipped through the door into the hallway.  Now he just had to sneak back to his room, tie himself to one of the bedposts, and toss and turn for the rest of the night.

Right about then he realized he’d just come out of his own room, not Kodachi’s.

His only reaction at first was just to whimper.  How many shocks was he supposed to endure tonight?!  He didn’t think he could take much more of this.

Ranma considered his options. 1) Go somewhere else for the rest of the night. Let Kodachi wake up by herself in his bedroom… that one was quickly discarded.  2) Go back in there, wake her up in such a way that she knew she wasn’t dreaming, and let her make her own way back to her bedroom… he considered that for a minute before reluctantly concluding he didn’t have the finesse to pull it off.  “Hey, Dachi-chan, wake up.  You’re in my bed, and I can’t sleep.”  No, that option wouldn't work either.  3) Go back in, pick her up as gently as he knew how, and hope like crazy he could get her back to her own bed without waking her or passing out himself from stress. 4) Since he could sense that Shampoo was awake now, he could go get her, tell her what had happened, and ask her to help.

“Right.  Plan number three it is,” Ranma muttered grimly, summoning up all the fortitude he had remaining.  It might be risky, but it was his best option. Shampoo’s idea of help in a situation like this would probably be to toss him back in the room and barricade the door behind him.

At the breakfast table the next morning, Shampoo noticed that Ranma seemed quite tired, although Kodachi didn’t. That was one thing she really, really envied the other girl, the Amazon thought. It must be nice to be able to go completely without sleep if you needed to.

Keeping quiet until they were out of the house was rather a challenge, but Shampoo managed it. She didn’t say anything until they were walking toward the Nekohanten.  “Ranma look exhausted. What is the matter? Not get enough sleep last night?” she asked innocently.

Ranma jumped like the sidewalk had suddenly become red-hot.  “Ahh… well, actually… No!  I had a really hard time falling asleep last night.  I was, y’know, worried about you.  Even if the twins said that dart was harmless, it still felt really bad seein’ how still you looked.”  This was even the truth, as far as it went.

‘Nice try,’ Shampoo thought to herself. She cast a sidelong glance at Kodachi, and blinked.  Hard. The White Rose wasn’t blushing at all, or giving any indications that something had changed. Granted, Shampoo didn’t know her quite as thoroughly as she knew Ranma, but the Amazon was certain that if what should have happened had happened, Kodachi would be showing obvious signs of it.

So what had gone wrong? There was no way Ranma could possibly have done what she did, and carried Kodachi the distance between their rooms without waking her. Shampoo had hit a series of sleep pressure points on Kodachi, repeating the strike every half minute so the effect wouldn’t wear off too soon, but before she left Ranma's room she had tagged a different set of points, which would bolster Kodachi’s natural resistance to shiatsu manipulation.  Given the White Rose’s already formidable resistance, that effect probably hadn’t worn off even now. It was completely unbelievable that Ranma could possibly have taken her back to her room without waking her up.

“Ranma-kun, are you forgetting the sleep wards in your bathroom’s medicine cabinet?” Kodachi chided her boyfriend gently.  “My father went to a great deal of trouble to make enough for everyone to have an adequate supply. Magical sleep is a lot safer than using drugs, after all.  Next time you can’t drop off, just use one of those.  That’s what I did last night.”

“Oh, yeah, I did forget all about them. “A thought occurred to Ranma. “Uh, they don’t have any… side-effects or nothin’, right?”

“Like what?”

“Um, well, sleepwalking, or weird dreams, or not being able to get to sleep the next night, or sleepwalking,” Ranma answered.

“No, they’ll just give you a peaceful eight hours of unbroken slumber,” Kodachi reassured him.

“No suppose father has ward what cure headache?” Shampoo asked grumpily.  Blast it all, she should have barricaded the door!

“I'm afraid not. Why were you banging your head against that wall anyway?”

This time, the twins weren’t the only ones to greet them when they reached the Nekohanten. The Matriarch was also there. “Well, now, Shampoo, did you learn a lesson about patience yesterday?”

Shampoo’s jaw dropped. How in the world could Great-Grandmother possibly know about her attempt to speed things up between Ranma and Kodachi?!

Cologne frowned in puzzlement at the unexpected reaction.  “I’m referring to your opening my chest without asking… again.”

“Oh, Shampoo wondered what you meant, Great-Grandmother.”  Her great-granddaughter wiped sweat off her brow.  “Why you no tell me you put trap on chest after I open before?”

“Because I thought that this would serve as a better lesson.  ‘A burned child fears the fire’, after all.  When you need something from my private collection, ASK first.”

“No worry, Great-Grandmother, I learn lesson now.”  ‘If need something of Great-Grandmother’s, and she not around, get Kodachi to open chest.’

“Anyway, could you please fetch the Eye of Bastet for us?” Ranma asked.  “There’s kinda a lot riding on us, and we really need it.”

Cologne gave a mysterious smile and opened one wrinkled hand.  In her palm was the jewel in question.  Kodachi blinked. “Um, Ranma-kun? Did you mention to either of the twins that that was what we came for yesterday?”

“I was just going to ask you the same thing, Dachi.”  He turned back to the Matriarch.  “Do I even want to know how you knew that was what we wanted?”

Cologne just maintained the mysterious smile.  “Never mind, son-in-law. I have my ways. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung decided it was in their best interests not to spoil the moment. Therefore, they kept quiet about the fact that just before Ranma and the others had come in, Cologne had been using the Eye to try to locate their Airen’s parents.

The ancient one passed the jewel to Shampoo, then continued speaking.  “But I would like to know just what you need it for. Why don’t you tell me while my great-granddaughter makes use of it?”

Shampoo settled down into a meditative position.  Although she’d learned the secret of using the Eye properly from the Matriarch, she hadn’t actually practiced with it.  Her reassurances of the day before to Ranma notwithstanding, she was a little nervous now that the time came to act.  Still, there was no reason for this, she told herself.  Great-Grandmother would pull her out of the trance if something started to go wrong.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing her awareness on the jewel in her hands. The amber cloud formed again in her mind, with flashes of energy far off in every direction.  This time, though, Shampoo knew what to do. It wasn’t time yet to try to find the ones she was looking for. Instead, she picked what seemed to be the closest arc of energy, and concentrated on it. Even as the Matriarch had described, the flow strengthened, stabilized, and began moving toward her apparent position. It continued to grow as it drew nearer to her. The others began moving in as well, drawn by the gravity (for want of a better word) of the largest.

By now, Shampoo had forgotten her earlier nervousness.  This was as easy as Great-Grandmother had said!  At least, once you knew what you were doing.  The energy flares were all around her now, and with ridiculous ease she stopped their advance and began weaving them together into a seamless screen of brilliance.  Once it completely encapsulated her, she withdrew her will from the energy. Shampoo didn’t have a body just now, so she couldn’t give a big grin.  But she felt like doing so; the power didn’t even flicker, but held perfectly stable, ready to show her the ones she needed to find.  She pictured the Sakura triplets in her mind’s eye, then sent forth her wish that she be shown their current whereabouts.

And nothing whatsoever happened.

Not having a body at the moment also meant she couldn’t blink in surprise.  She had to settle for a moment of blank non-comprehension. Perhaps she hadn’t been clear enough in picturing the girls?  Shampoo didn't know the triplets all that well, after all.  She ignored the nagging voice that whispered she had managed to find Akane, with whom she’d been much less familiar, and concentrated on building a crystal-clear mental image of the three girls.  When she was satisfied that it was as good as she could possibly manage, she sent it out again into the viewing matrix. Again, nothing.  The energy still hung there,  perfectly stable, perfectly unresponsive.

Now Shampoo was beginning to get angry.  What was wrong with this stupid thing?!  Great-Grandmother had said that this was the easiest part of all.  Once the matrix was formed, just send out a desire to see whoever you were looking for.  Why wouldn’t it work?! Perhaps she’d made some subtle mistake that created a defective viewing window.  Or maybe the girls were screened against scrying magic.

Shampoo considered that. If it were the case, how would she know? Maybe she should try looking for someone else. If that worked, then she’d know she hadn’t made a mistake, and would just have to ask Great-Grandmother what was going wrong.  Let’s see… whom should she look for?

“… He told us they weren’t in any real danger, and we could take the time we needed, but of course we don’t want to leave them in captivity any longer than we have to,” Kodachi said, finishing up their explanation of why they needed the Eye.

“Interesting.  Is there something special about these three classmates of yours, that someone would go to such trouble to abduct them in secrecy?”

“Well, they’re supposedly not related to each other, but they look absolutely identical. Like triplets separated at birth, which is basically what everybody at school thinks happened.  Don’t know why that would make anybody want to kidnap them, though,” Ranma answered.

Cologne was wondering how best to gently break it to him that there were those who’d pay a fortune for three well-trained identical ‘servant’ girls when the import of what he’d just said got through to her.  She sighed, and turned back to rouse her great-granddaughter from her trance.

Before she could do this, however, Shampoo’s eyes shot wide open in shock.  She let out an earsplitting “AIYAH!!” that made everybody jump. As if by magic, the water from Lung-Lung’s glass shot halfway across the room to drench Ranma, though not a droplet landed on anybody else.

“Shampoo!  Is something wrong?!” Ranma-chan asked anxiously.” Did you find the girls? Are they in trouble?!”

The Amazon shook her head in negation.  Kodachi noticed that she seemed quite dazed.  “No, Shampoo could no find Sakuras, Ranma.  Jewel would not show them to me.  So Shampoo wonder if she make mistake, try to find someone else to see if using magic the right way.  That time it work just fine.”  She gulped.  “Shampoo just not prepared for what she see.”

“What that?” Ling-Ling asked, curious even though she knew it might be someone she’d never met or even heard of.

“Was…”  Shampoo paused, pinched herself hard, reassuring herself that this was actually happening, then spoke again, “… was Mousse. Want make sure he not throw off Xi Fang Gao or come back to Japan. “She laughed, the kind of laugh that comes when you absolutely do NOT believe what you’ve just seen. “For sure we no need worry about that anymore. When I see Mousse, he in bed with cousin Xiao Yu.”

Lung-Lung really should have known better than to pour herself another glass of ice water. When she heard her cousin’s statement, she facefaulted, as did her sister and Ranma-chan.  Once again, water flew through the air.  Once again, it unerringly targeted the only person present with a Jusenkyo curse.

Kodachi looked around in surprise. “I don’t understand why everyone is reacting like this.  If Mousse has forgotten all his love for you, why shouldn’t he find someone else?”

“Because Xiao Yu treat him coldly all the time.  She make fun of him for way he chase me, for glasses, for hairstyle, for fighting style, really for just about everything.  Is last person in whole world what Shampoo would think he end up with. No, wait, next to last.  Was forgetting about own self.”

“Maybe Mousse use love potion on cousin?” Ling-Ling suggested faintly.  “Xi Fang Gao no make him forget what she do. Could be this is revenge.”

Of those who actually knew Xiao Yu, only Cologne hadn’t seemed surprised by Shampoo’s revelation. “Or it could be that now that he isn’t chasing someone else and ignoring her, perhaps she felt like it was time to let her true feelings be known,” the Matriarch suggested in a tone as dry as the desert sands.  “Shampoo, you know how very bitter she was toward you.  Did it never occur to you that it might have been over something other than not being able to beat you in combat?”

Shampoo shook her head mutely, an expression of even greater shock in place now.  “So all this time, you say reason Xiao Yu so angry with Shampoo and Mousse is because Mousse chase Shampoo, not her?”  Cologne nodded.  Slowly, the lavender-haired girl’s expression faded back to neutrality. “Is strange to find out now, after so long. So now cousin not have reason to be angry with me no more.  When I see her again,” suddenly Shampoo’s expression twisted into maniacal rage, “I BEAT HER TO DEATH WITH OWN LEG!!  She could have tell me truth long ago and I ECSTATIC to give Mousse to her! But NO, stupid cousin have to keep truth to self and let EVERYBODY suffer!  When Shampoo get hands on her, she be too sore for MONTH to take Mousse to bed!!”

Kodachi cleared her throat loudly. “That’s all well and good, but right now we need to concentrate on our classmates.  You said you were unable to find them?”

“That right. “Shampoo heaved a deep sigh, attempting to calm down and focus on the more immediate concerns.  “Not sure why.”

“I’m afraid the Eye of Bastet isn’t going to be any help to you,” Cologne said regretfully. “Its magic allows you to find any person, but you must focus on that one person in order to do this. If these three girls are as identical as Ranma says, there’s no way for the Eye to single one of them out. I’m very sorry, but I don’t think there’s anything here that can help you find your classmates.”

Ranma would have liked to remain at the Nekohanten to plot their next move.  He knew very well just how crafty Cologne was, and felt like they could use any help they could get now.  But since the restaurant had been closed the previous day, the Matriarch wanted to open early this morning.  The three of them left, Shampoo still looking a bit dazed from her unexpected discovery, and began rambling aimlessly through the streets of Nerima.

Everyone was quiet for a while. Eventually, hoping to distract herself from the morning’s shock, Shampoo broke the silence. “Well, since my idea to use Eye of Bastet no work, we need new plan.  Is Ranma’s turn to come up with idea.”

“Huh?  Why me?!”

‘<Because I’m still annoyed with you for not cooperating last night.>’  “Because Shampoo say so,” she answered with a smirk.

Ranma rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Shampoo, that made it perfectly clear.”

Kodachi giggled. “Well, really, I think it’s pretty obvious what we need to do now.  Principal Fujima said the reason he couldn’t go to the authorities was that he didn’t have any evidence. So what we need to do is hire some private detectives and have them investigate. If we’re lucky, it won’t take long to find a lead on the girls’ location.  At the very least, no matter how well covered-up this kidnapping was, eventually they’ll manage to turn up some evidence of wrongdoing.  We could take it to the police then.”

Ranma frowned slightly. “Yeah, I guess that’s our best bet,” he said. But his tone indicated he wasn’t too happy about it.

“Ranma-kun?  What’s wrong?”

“Well… it just doesn’t seem right to sit back an’ let other people do all the work like that. Of course, I can’t say I got any idea of how we could help, though…”  That admission made him even less happy.  Sitting on the sidelines was one of the things he was poorest at.

Neither the White Rose nor the Amazon really knew what to say in response to this.  Both turned the thought over in their minds as they walked along, and realized they agreed with Ranma’s assessment.  It just wouldn’t feel right to goof off and take an extended vacation when the reason they’d been let out of school was to find some helpless, innocent captives.

Shampoo brightened as an idea occurred to her.

Kodachi smiled as a thought struck her mind.

Ranma smacked his fist into his palm and gave a cocky grin.

All three started to speak at once, causing a verbal traffic jam.  Just another of the minor quirks that come with having your soul directly connected to someone else’s.

Eventually Ranma claimed the floor. “What I was thinkin’ was that we don’t just have to do nothin’.  Even if we don’t really know where to start looking, Principal Fujima did say they were in Tokyo. So maybe we oughtta just start roamin’ around at random.  Seems to me that with all the craziness that pops up in our life, there’s a good chance we’ll just stumble across those jerks that kidnapped the Sakuras. May take awhile, but at least we’d be trying to make a difference.  And we’d get to explore Tokyo and do new stuff together.  If we stay far enough away from Nerima, we wouldn’t have to worry about anybody who knows us seein’ us and figuring out the truth about Shampoo.”

“That exactly what Shampoo was going to say.”

“And I as well. Great minds think alike, it seems,” Kodachi said. Then another thought occurred to her. It wasn’t quite as pleasant, but now that she’d thought of it, she couldn’t in good conscience keep silent. “Perhaps we should invite Ryoga at least to come along in the afternoons.  It seems like he tends to draw trouble too. Having him with us might increase our chances of stumbling onto these lawbreakers.”

Shampoo frowned slightly. It would be much more fun if it were just them and Ranma, but she supposed her sister had a point. And anyway, they’d still have the mornings for themselves. Still, the Amazon would have preferred to have the afternoons as well.

Ranma had just opened his mouth to say something when the sound of running caught his attention. He and the girls turned to look, and stared. A figure in a torn dress was racing at top speed along the lane.  Although this person was desperately trying to hold up the tattered top of the dress with one arm, enough of the torso still showed to make it painfully obvious that this was a guy, not a girl.  He had long flowing brown hair, which snapped and crackled behind in the wind of his passage. Ravening behind him, bellowing roars of incoherent rage, glowing with an intense battle aura, came Ryoga. The duo shot past Ranma, Kodachi, and Shampoo, continued down the lane, and passed out of sight.

“Y’know, Dachi, that was a good idea, but I think Ryoga’s already got enough on his plate. Let’s not give the poor guy anything more to worry about,” Ranma said briskly.

Nobody had really expected for their strategy to pay off immediately.  Especially not Ranma.  In his experience, things just didn’t work that smoothly where he was concerned.  However, he also hadn’t expected for a whole week to pass without anything odd happening while he and the girls were patrolling throughout Tokyo. He hadn’t even been randomly splashed more than a handful of times.  The pigtailed martial artist should have been grateful for the peace, but it was actually starting to fray his nerves.  Didn’t it just figure that the one time they actually wanted to find some trouble, it completely avoided them?

Kodachi was unusually out of sorts this morning as well.  This was due to an oversight on her part, which she’d discovered the previous day. Since the White Rose was the most familiar with dealing with underlings, not to mention that it was her family’s funds that would be paying their fees, it had fallen to her to deal with actually hiring the detectives.  She had thought she’d done a good job, too.  Weeding out the people with talent from those who basically had no clue how to do anything other than check for Burakumin ancestry, then negotiating reasonable fees (her allowance didn’t stretch THAT far, after all) had left her with the satisfaction of a job well done.

Unfortunately, she had made a slight error, and had neglected to inform any of the detectives that he wasn’t the only one being hired for this job.  Yesterday she had finally discovered that the glowing leads each investigator had been reporting to her had come from getting wind of one or another of the others’ interests in these families.  According to Kodachi’s calculations, each detective was now thoroughly investigating one or more of his fellow investigators, and no attention was being paid to any real clues that might be out there.  Of course, it could still turn out that one of the people she’d hired had actually been involved in the kidnapping, but somehow the White Rose doubted it.

Shampoo didn’t quite have her usual air of sunny optimism today either.  She had woken up feeling impatient, eager to resolve matters quickly. She’d tried to tell herself that there was no need to hurry, that they knew the Sakuras weren’t in any danger, but that had brought an uncomfortable realization… namely, that they only had Fujima’s word for that.  And when it came down to it, the Amazon had to admit to herself that she didn’t really trust the man.  Quite aside from his refusal to reveal his source of information, there was just something about him that set her teeth on edge.

The three were walking along in silence, Ranma trying to convince himself that it was crazy to be upset about a whole week of peace, Kodachi reflecting moodily that the yen she’d shelled out had so far been completely wasted, Shampoo wondering whether or not she ought to track down Fujima and shake him until he spilled his guts about the source of his information.  It was the first time since they’d started these patrols that none of them were thinking about their task, or hoping to stumble across someone involved in the crime.

You know what that means, right?

To the casual eye, Ranma, Kodachi, and Shampoo seemed to be the only people on the street. Only the closest of scrutiny would have revealed the presence of one other person… a young man with gray hair and eyes, standing under the awning of a shop that hadn’t yet opened for business. Though he wasn’t hiding behind any solid object, he seemed to disappear into the shadow cast by the overhang, fading like the night’s dreams under the noonday sun.

This wasn’t the first time he’d watched these three.  He’d trailed them several times over the past few days.  It had frustrated him to no end that he’d not been able to get close enough to overhear them… whenever he’d tried, the girl with the purple hair had started to become uneasy, and he’d realized that if he got too close, she’d see him, shadows or no shadows.

He’d concluded that he wasn’t getting anywhere just following them, and would need to take a more direct approach soon. And somehow, this moment seemed to be the perfect one.  He stepped out from under the awning, becoming completely visible, and waited for them to approach.

The gray boy felt his pulse begin to race as Ranma drew nearer.  Of course the girls were there as well, but he frankly didn’t much care about them.  It had been Ranma who defeated him so easily, Ranma who had brought him to where he was now, Ranma with whom he yearned to fight again, Ranma who would fall this time.

Ranma who’d just walked right past him without paying him the slightest attention.

The gray boy gaped for a moment, then recovered.  “Hey! Saotome!  What do you think you’re doing, walking past me like I’m not even there?!” he shouted.

Ranma blinked at the cry of anger, then whirled around in a defensive stance.  Shampoo and Kodachi took up supporting positions at his sides. A long moment of silence hung like crystal over the street.  A sudden breeze sprang up, ruffling the teenagers’ hair.

The silence was broken as Ranma’s wary expression shifted into confusion.  “Do I know you?”

“What?”  His challenger didn’t seem to be expecting this. “What do you mean, ‘Do I know  you’?!  Take a good look, Saotome!”  Ranma did so. “Do you know me now?” Ranma shook his head in negation. “I don’t believe this!  You destroyed me and you don’t even remember?!” This was NOT how the meeting was supposed to go.

Shampoo gave an exasperated sigh, then darted into a nearby café.  Kodachi’s eyes followed her in a puzzled glance, then she returned her attention to the boy in front of them.  She concentrated, trying to find a scene from either her memories or Ranma’s that would explain this boy’s grudge.  He did seem vaguely familiar, now that she came to think of it.

Her concentration was broken as Shampoo returned to the street, her arms full of bread. “We no have time for silly boy with silly old grudge against Ranma.  Here, take this and go away.”  She tossed the bread at the other boy, who reflexively caught it.  He was looking a lot less angry now.  Complete confusion does tend to have that effect.

“Um, Shampoo, that didn’t work when I tried it with Ryoga, and he’s the only guy I ever had a bread feud with,” Ranma pointed out.

“Well, Shampoo thought it worth a shot.” The Amazon put on her best ‘cute’ look. She gave the mystery challenger a big smile.  “You accept this as peace offering and not cause trouble, okay?”

The gray boy gave one last incredulous look at the bread in his arms, then tossed the loaves off to one side. They all landed unerringly in a garbage can. “I don’t have a clue what that was about, but it doesn’t matter.  Ranma Saotome, I challenge you to a rematch!”

“Rematch?!  I don’t even remember you!!” Ranma shouted irately. “Who the heck are ya anyway?!”

A gasp from Kodachi. “Copycat Ken?!  Is that you?”

Ranma turned and gave her a strange glance.  “No, Dachi, of course it isn’t.  That Ken guy didn’t give off any aura at all, cause of that weird disguise trick he had. This guy is definitely radiating fighting spirit.”

“But Ranma dear, look at his face. It’s just the same as Ken’s was, other than when he was using all those disguises during your fight with him. Except his eyes and hair weren’t gray then.”

Ranma turned back and eyed the challenger closely.  “You sure, Dachi? I know you got a better memory for detail like that than I do.  You really think this is Copycat Ken?”

The other boy gritted his teeth. “Let me settle the issue,” he growled. “Yes, I’m Ken. Not ‘Copycat’ any longer.  Thanks to you, Saotome, I lost that part of myself forever.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ranma asked.

Ken laughed bitterly. “No, you didn’t even know, did you? For our match, I tried copying the most powerful fighters I’d encountered, I switched disguises five times, I even copied you! But no matter what, I couldn’t take you down, or even stop you from getting through my guard with your own attacks!”  As the memory rose up again, his anger began burning even hotter.  His battle aura began to grow as well, becoming visible as a faint gray haze, twisting and shifting around him.

“Do you know what you did to me?! Afterwards, I realized what I should have done in the first place.  I knew you wouldn’t be able to go all out against the person you cared about most, so I used my family’s heirloom kerchief to copy her instead!” He pointed at Kodachi, who blinked in surprise, then blushed. “But you must’ve done so much damage to it in our fight that it couldn’t take another transformation. It disintegrated!” He was shouting now. “That had been in our family for eight generations! Do you know what it felt like to see it turn to dust?!”

“Um, Ken, wait a minute.” Kodachi spoke up hesitantly. “My brother told us about you, when you first sent that challenge to Ranma.  He said your modus operandi was to copy other martial artists’ techniques and use those to defeat the very ones who relied on them.  He also told us you had something that helped you do this, that duplicated the potential and at least part of the skill of your target and lent it to you.  Is that the kerchief you’re talking about?”

“Yes, it is!” Suddenly the anger drained away, to be replaced by sadness. “It was. Like I said, it was a family heirloom. My father gave it to me, and someday I should have given it to my son.  But thanks to him,” he directed a harsh glare at Ranma, “that’ll never happen now.”

“Actually, Ken, I don’t think it was Ranma’s fault.”  Kodachi took a deep breath, then began letting her own battle aura build. “You attempted to copy me.”  She was glowing noticeably now.  “Your kerchief would have tried to duplicate my potential.” They had to shield their eyes as the brilliance of her aura continued to build.  “I rather doubt it could handle that level of power.” She noticed a faint smell of smoke, and realized that she had almost reached the point of igniting her own clothes. With a mental twist, she drew her aura back in all at once. The sudden, dramatic change made the perfect illustration as she finished quietly, “I am the reason your heirloom destroyed itself.  Not Ranma.”

Ken stared at her in blank shock. If the thought of challenging her instead passed through his mind, it was quickly discarded. Regaining a measure of composure, he spoke again. “It doesn’t matter. This has gone far beyond the kerchief anyway. That’s nothing compared to the real reason I’m challenging him!”  He turned back to face the target of his ire.

Shampoo heaved another exasperated sigh.  “Shampoo hope you not about to shout, ‘Ranma, because of you I’ve seen hell!’ At least use original line.”

Ken, who had been about to say something quite like that, began to wish he’d picked a time to confront Ranma when he was by himself, not surrounded by these interfering girls. “Look, stay out of this. This is a man-to-man fight between the two of us!” he snapped in the general direction of Kodachi and Shampoo.

“You think he half-Oni too? Maybe Ryoga have cousin or something,” Shampoo remarked to Kodachi.

Ranma just rolled his eyes. “Great, somebody else who’s blamin’ all his problems on me when it ain’t my fault,” he groaned. Then his gaze snapped back.  He fixed Ken with a stare like a laser beam. “You break Kodachi’s arm and I’ll rip your head off.”

Ken was now certain that he should have waited until Ranma was alone before asking for this rematch. “Do you people realize just how much of this conversation hasn’t made any sense at all?!  Why the hell would I break her arm?” he shouted. “She’s the only one who HASN’T been acting like a lunatic!!”

“Is you including yourself in that statement?” Shampoo asked with a smirk.

Ken just put his head in his hands and counted to ten.  Twice. After this was finished, he spoke with a sort of frozen calm.  “Ranma, I challenged you to a fight.  Are you trying to win by talking me to death?  Or maybe getting my blood pressure so high that I keel over from a stroke?”

“Look, if you want a fight, I’ll give you a fight,” Ranma said exasperatedly.  He moved into a ready stance in the middle of the street. Ken took up a stance of his own, and the girls moved back to the sidelines.

“This no should take long,” Shampoo commented.

“Indeed.  What can Ken possibly hope to accomplish?” Kodachi wondered. “In the past, his fighting style depended on copying whatever technique his opponent relied upon. I think that was partly why he fell so easily to Ranma-sama, who doesn’t depend on any particular attack.  And if Ken can no longer even copy others to use their special moves, I doubt he’ll last five minutes.”

“That’s what you think, rosebud!” Ken called back.

Ranma frowned, but didn’t really see anything offensive in the appellation.  Now, if Ken had made some sort of albino joke, there’d already be blood on the street…  anyway, if this guy was so eager for a fight, he ought to BE fighting, not exchanging remarks with the spectators.  “Yo, I thought you were the one who wanted to quit talking and start fighting.”

Ken smiled grimly. “Darn right.  I’ve been through a lot to get ready to face you again, Saotome. Time to find out just which one of us is the better martial artist.”

Kodachi blinked. “Is it just me, or is the ambient light level dropping?”

It wasn’t just her. The brightness of the morning sunlight was indeed fading, falling into shadow.  Before Ranma could recover from his surprise, the lane had seemingly passed into dusk.  From the way Ken’s aura was once again hissing and roiling with streamers of darkness, Ranma was fairly certain he knew who was causing this. “Nice trick,” he commented casually.” It might even scare me, if I was ten years old.”

Ken didn’t respond, just stood there with a smirk on his face.  Ranma slowly began advancing toward him, wondering when the other shoe was going to drop.  As he got near enough, he suddenly dropped the cautious act and blazed forward at top speed. Darting to one side of Ken, Ranma struck out with a blow to the other’s solar plexus.  At the speed he was going, this would knock the wind and possibly even the fight out of his opponent.

However, as his fist reached its target, the image of Ken dispersed.  Ranma, who’d expected there to be some resistance to his strike, was thrown off balance.  He stumbled, and a kick slammed into his lower back, sending him to the ground. He rolled frantically and shot back to his feet, trying to locate his opponent.

The dim light showed only an empty lane. Ranma jumped, spinning through a three-sixty degree arc in midair, but the scan revealed no trace of his foe. He landed, straining his senses to the maximum, trying to get warning of any incoming attack.

A chuckle resounded through the lane.  “What’s wrong, Ranma?” the disembodied voice of Ken whispered through the air. Ranma couldn’t tell where it was coming from. “Can’t figure out where I am?” An image of Ken suddenly appeared twenty feet in front of him.  “Maybe I’ve already left, and I’m laughing at you for staying here by yourself.” Before Ranma could move, not that he’d been intending to charge forward anyway, it faded and another took its place ten feet away on Ranma’s left side.  “Maybe I’m hiding, waiting for you to exhaust yourself punching at shadows before I take you down.” The new image faded as well. “Or maybe…”

“… Maybe I’m right behind you!”

This shout had clearly come from directly behind him.  Ranma executed a back kick with every bit of speed he had in him. Again, his attack struck only air.  Again, the same wasn’t true of his opponent’s strike. This time, it was a punch that hit Ranma, smashing into his jaw from directly in front of him.

Ranma stumbled back, fighting a moment’s disorientation.  A random flash of empathy from the Heart Link distracted him further, allowing his opponent to connect with a few more strikes.

He barely felt them. The glimpse he’d received of the girls’ emotions just then claimed most of his attention.  From Kodachi, a measure of anger, that this dog should fight so unfairly, mixed with an odd balance of concern and faith. She fully expected him to pull out victory yet, but at the same time she was worried that he’d be hurt badly. This didn’t surprise Ranma even slightly… he knew just how fragile Kodachi thought the world was.  As if anybody but her would break into pieces from anything more than the slightest tap.

Shampoo’s emotions were less mixed, and much less expected.  There was a bit of worry there, but she wasn’t nearly as concerned as Kodachi. In fact, the Amazon was feeling almost pure disbelief.

That hit him much harder than Kodachi’s worry.  Had his performance really sucked that bad in this fight, that Shampoo couldn’t even believe her eyes? That was NOT acceptable! He was Ranma Saotome, of the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts!  He had beaten every challenge he’d ever faced, and he wasn’t about to lose this fight!

Ranma’s anger, determination, and rush of fighting spirit ignited his battle aura nearly to the maximum. It wasn’t as bright as Kodachi’s blinding glory had been, but it would still have been enough to read by at midnight.

And it was enough to pierce the shadows around Ken, who’d just circled in front of Ranma for another attack.

For just a split second, Ken froze, his eyes wide in shock as he felt his protection dissipate. The stunned expression that spread across his face was enough to clue Ranma in that this was no false image. He closed the distance and unleashed a barrage of strikes at maximum speed.  The attacks unerringly smashed along a series of vulnerable spots on his opponent’s torso, and ended with a spectacular kick to the head. Ken crashed backward, out like a light. The shadows fled, and once again the late morning sun shone brightly in the lane.

Some minutes later, a passerby would have seen the entertaining spectacle of Ranma complaining that he was fine while Kodachi and Shampoo ignored his protests and checked him thoroughly for injuries.  Ranma groaned, but he didn’t object too strenuously.  Having both girls fuss over him like this was actually kinda nice.

Shampoo gave one last look at the bruise on his jaw, then nodded her head, agreeing with his last statement that he was all right.  “Ranma do seem okay.” Her expression changed to irate. “Airen, why you let him hit you like that?! Was you trying to lull him into false sense of security or something?”

Both Ranma and Kodachi gave her incredulous stares.  “What?   What Shampoo say?”

“Shampoo, do you mean to say you could see Ken as he fought with Ranma?” Kodachi asked.

Shampoo nodded in confusion. “You could not?”

“Nope, not me,” Ranma answered. “I’m guessing not you either, right, Dachi-chan?”

“That’s right. As far as I could tell, he had disappeared completely into the shadows.  I wonder why Shampoo was unaffected by that technique,” Kodachi said pensively.

“I not have any idea,” the Amazon replied.

Ranma pondered for a moment, then let it go.  He walked over to Ken’s still-unconscious form and gave him a quick once-over. Satisfied that the other would be fine, he and the girls set off again.  After walking in silence for a few minutes, he gave a soft chuckle.  “Y’know, I actually feel better now.  I was starting to get really frustrated because nothing strange had been happening all this time.”

“This encounter certainly brought an end to that trend,” Kodachi replied.  “But it’s too bad we couldn’t have run into someone connected with the Sakura triplets’ kidnappers instead.”

Sakura’s eyes widened at the vision of suffering in front of her.  This meeting wasn’t one of the ones she’d seen in her sister’s dream, and she was completely unprepared for the sight before her. It looked like it was taking all of Ken’s remaining strength to keep from falling flat on his face.  He limped over from the doorway and collapsed into a chair near her. “I’m here to make a progress report. Went up against Ranma this morning.”

She couldn’t even speak at first, still too stunned as she mentally added up his injuries. Bruises all along his torso, a couple of really nasty ones on his head, a twisted ankle, a sprained wrist, and she was almost sure that was a hairline fracture in his right collarbone. “R- Ranma… did this to you?!” she whispered in a tone of horror.

“Well, no,” Ken admitted. “Not exactly.”  As the disorientation began to clear, he realized that it would have been a lot better to wait and make this report when he wasn’t in such obviously bad shape.  That way he could have gotten away with omitting certain unimportant details. Oh, well, he could take a little humiliation. He’d endured much worse, after all.

“Like I said, I fought Ranma this morning. I’m sure he doesn’t suspect anything-- I made it seem like I’d just caught up with him to have a rematch.  We fought, he caught me off-guard, I lost. He knocked me out with a few good hits.   That’s all, though, he didn’t really do that much. I woke up pretty quickly, so quickly I was still kinda dizzy from his last shot.  Should’ve waited until my head cleared, but I wanted to make my report right away.”

 “You shouldn’t have done that,” Sakura whispered, looking down in remorse.  “You should have gotten medical attention first.  As hurt as you are…”

“Hey, like I was saying, I wasn’t anywhere near this bad off after the fight with Saotome,” Ken growled. “Just wasn’t paying enough attention to what was going on around me, and I got in an accident a couple of blocks later.  Nothing to say it wouldn’t have happened anyway if I’d been heading toward a doctor’s office instead.” He wasn’t sure what to say, but felt the need to reassure the girl in front of him. She’d looked like she was blaming herself for some reason. That was absurd. Coming here to make his report first was his choice, and had nothing to do with Sakura.  Ken completely ignored the little voice questioning whether the reason he’d hurried straight here from his fight with Ranma might be the hope that his battered condition would get him some sympathy from her.

“What kind of accident?” Sakura asked.  Hearing that had made her feel a lot better.  An accident was far preferable to thinking she’d set him up to be half-killed by Ranma.

Ken started to answer, then lost his nerve.  “If it’s all right with you, I’d rather not say.”

Sakura blinked, unsure why the boy in front of her was suddenly radiating such a level of embarrassment. Oh, well. If it was important, she’d eventually find out.

She realized that she was stalling. There was something she needed to do, and lack of self-confidence notwithstanding, she needed to do it now. Sakura took a deep breath and gathered her courage.  “You can make your report later.  Sit still. “Abruptly, she got up, walked around her desk and over to Ken, and knelt down beside him.

“Excuse me? What are you doing?” Ken asked, more than a little confused. The girl was trembling, which was easy to tell since she’d just placed her hands along his right shoulder. What did she think she… was…

Cool numbness was replacing the pain, spreading out from Sakura’s touch to wash over the rest of his body. Ken didn’t really have time to recover from his surprise before the anesthetic effect spread completely through him, blanketing his thoughts with a fluffy pillow of blissful unconcern.

An uncertain amount of time passed.  Eventually, Ken struggled back to awareness.  He was still in his chair, but Sakura was no longer kneeling next to him. She was sitting in the chair she’d been in when he first staggered in.  Ken noticed faint traces of red around her mouth, and legends of vampires and their special powers surged into his mind.  He nearly began to panic.  He was still feeling weak, far too weak to defend himself, too weak even to raise a hand to his neck and check for damage.

Sakura was still drained from stretching her psychokinetic healing abilities to the limit. As a result, she didn’t sense the fear rising in Ken. In fact, she didn’t even realize he had woken up yet.  Hopefully he wouldn’t for another few minutes, she thought.  She hadn’t realized at first just how much energy she’d used up.

Ken blinked as the girl bent down. He heard the sound of a desk drawer opening, then Sakura straightened up, holding a large dish. She lifted the lid and transferred another massive serving of cherry cheesecake to the plate Ken hadn’t even noticed in front of her.

As she finished her second helping, Sakura noticed Ken shift in his seat.  She blushed.  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know it’s rude to eat in front of others, but using my healing ability that much leaves me with really low blood sugar.  I tried to finish before you woke up.”

Ken could feel his own strength returning now.  The relief at that, the realization that he wasn’t on the menu, and the pleasant discovery that he was no longer in the slightest pain, put him in a much more playful mood than was usual.  “That way you wouldn’t have to offer me any, huh?  I understand.”

Sakura was far too inexperienced to realize he was joking.  She flinched, and said miserably, “Well, I only have one plate… and one fork…”

“Hey, ease up, I was kidding.” Ken sighed mentally. It figured that as soon as he met somebody as different as he was, who might not be frightened by his altered state, he pushed her away with his personality instead.  “Thank you for healing me.”

“You’re welcome,” Sakura murmured, blushing now.

A long moment of awkward silence fell.  Eventually Ken cleared his throat.  “Well, anyway, I suppose I should make my report.  I’ve been trailing Ranma over the past week. I’d hoped I could get close enough to overhear him talking with his girlfriends, but whenever I tried that purple-haired girl got uneasy. That’s the first important thing I found out.  She’s gotta be way more perceptive than a normal person.”

Sakura’s brow wrinkled in puzzlement. It sounded like Ken had said Ranma was romantically involved with both Shampoo and Kodachi. That didn’t fit at all with the memories she’d glimpsed from her sisters.  She must have just misunderstood him.

“And the other chick, Kodachi…” Ken shook his head.  “She scares me,” he admitted frankly.  “Before I fought Ranma, she let her own battle aura out.  It was too bright even to look at.  She’s got more power than anybody has a right to have.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” she said.  “What do you mean, battle aura?”

“This.”  Ken summoned his, noting that Sakura didn’t even flinch at the sight of the shadows shifting and coiling around him.  She just seemed interested.  “It’s a sign of a person’s strength.  You can see it when somebody with a lot of power is really mad, or in the grip of some other intense emotion.  Skilled martial artists can summon it consciously, like Kodachi did. Hers was radiating enough power to rip a hole all the way through this building.”

“Oh.”  Sakura hesitated, then asked, “What about Ranma?”

“Ah, yes. Ranma.”  Ken laughed mirthlessly.  “He’s even faster than he was the first time we fought, which I wouldn’t have believed possible. He shrugged off several decent attacks like they were nothing.  He got through my guard for only a couple of seconds, but it was enough to take me out completely. It’s Paintbrush Boy’s turn to go up against him next, and all I can say is I hope he doesn’t go in thinking he’s bound to win cause he’s got righteousness and truth on his side.”

“DOES he have righteousness and truth on his side?” Sakura queried.

“He thinks so.” Ken shrugged.  “Personally, I think he’s in desperate need of a wake-up call.”

The attack narrowly missed Ranma as he leaped straight up into the air.  Twisting in ways that made several onlookers wonder if this kid’s skeleton was made of rubber, he shifted in midair from perpendicular to parallel with the street below him.  Kicking out against a nearby wall bought him enough velocity to shoot backward out of immediate danger. Ranma landed, and tensely surveyed the scene before him.

Kodachi and Shampoo looked down at themselves in shock.  This was the first time EVER that Ranma had managed to dodge incoming cold water and they hadn’t. The girls just stood, stunned, for nearly a minute.

“Hey, you two just gonna stand there and let those kids keep using you for target practice?! C’mon already!” Ranma called. They shook themselves out of their dazes.

Kodachi gathered up the sodden remains of her dignity and whirred into a series of backflips, ending at Ranma’s side. Her maneuver had the additional bonus of flinging away most of her excess water, leaving her damp rather than drenched.  She glared at the children and their Super Soakers who’d ambushed the three of them, as if daring the little ragamuffins to advance.

“Thanks, Dachi-chan,” the love of her life commented dryly.  Ranma-chan’s tone was the only thing dry about her, thanks to the water shed by the White Rose.

Meanwhile, Shampoo produced her bonbori, put on the most hideous scowling expression she could muster, and began stalking forward.  Maybe it was too late to salvage her dignity, but at least she could scare the children into behaving better in the future.  She advanced like grim death, a specter that would haunt these kids for years. Let them learn the consequences of turning their water weapons against a Chinese Amazon!

The streams lessened, then ceased, as one by one the guns fell silent.  Shampoo stopped next to the gaggle of children, holding her bonbori in a menacing position.  “That was not very polite.  What you say now?” she demanded.

What seemed to be the leader, a boy of perhaps ten, looked tremulously up at her. His lower lip quivered as he gulped, and answered, “Ummm… how about… OPEN FIRE!!”

Shampoo was caught totally off-guard as every child suddenly began blasting away again, with her as their sole target. She stumbled back, dropping her weapons and falling gracelessly on her bottom.

The children dashed away, giggling furiously.  Their target rose back to her feet, as bedraggled as a wet cat, and sent an intense glare after them. For a moment she considered at least running down that snot-nosed little punk who’d given the order, and gifting him with the spanking of his life, but she let it go.

Shampoo retrieved her bonbori and walked back to the others.  “Next time we see them, Shampoo do more than bluff,” she growled. Then she blinked.  “Airen?  I thought you dodge that water.”

“Chalk it up to friendly fire,” Ranma-chan groaned.

Kodachi punched her playfully on the arm. “Now, Ranma-kun, if we have to get wet, so should you.  Share and share alike.”

Ranma-chan gave the White Rose a deceptively innocent smile.  “I’ll keep that in mind the next time I get splashed and you guys dodge,” she promised cheerfully.

A quick side-trip to a nearby shop got them reasonably dry and put Ranma back in his natural form. The three diligently resumed their patrol through the streets of Tokyo.  They were intent on their task.  They were determined to see justice done.  They were as focused as hawks, watching for the slightest clue that might mean the difference between victory and defeat.

“I still can’t believe you managed to dodge that water and we didn’t, Ranma-kun. It’s always been the other way around.”

They were completely ignoring the author’s attempts to set a mood.

“Yeah, I know, Dachi,” Ranma answered. “Only thing I can think of is, I’ve pretty much been on edge for the last couple of days now. It’s been a week since that Ken guy showed up, and nothing crazy has happened in all that time.  I’ve been keeping myself as alert as possible, tryin’ to be aware of everything around me.”  He sighed.  “We still got time, but I wanted this to be finished already.”

“I, too.” Shampoo frowned slightly.  “Like you say, is surprising we not have more crazy things happen while we’re searching like this.  Only run-in with shadow boy.  Shampoo wonder if that meeting use up all our… um… allowance of strangeness.”

“If that’s so, he’s gonna have a lot to answer for.  Maybe if he hadn’t been there, we would’ve run into something instead that woulda actually helped us find the girls,” Ranma growled.

“Perhaps so.” Kodachi made a dissatisfied face. “I still can’t believe that none of our detectives have turned up any leads yet.  At least when they were investigating each other there was the illusion of progress. I really do hope it doesn’t end up all falling on our shoulders.”  She sighed. “Especially since things are going so slowly. It’s almost gotten to the point where I’d be glad to have some ridiculous coincidence happen, just to reassure myself that they still do.  That there is a chance our current course of action might eventually succeed.”

The three turned the corner even as she said this, and nearly ran into Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung. Only an adroit zig by Ling-Ling, counter-pointed with a timely zag by Ranma, prevented a massive pile-up. Had either twin been carrying a glass of water, collision would have been unavoidable.

“Well, Dachi, ask and ye shall receive,” Ranma commented.  He turned to the twins.  “What’re you two doing out here?  This is way too far out for the restaurant to deliver, isn’t it?”

“We just exploring,” Ling-Ling said quickly.  Too quickly. “Great-Grandmother give us day off.”

Shampoo frowned. Something was definitely wrong with that reply. “Really?  Why she do that?  Shampoo understand if you get day off to train, but that not look like what you do to me.”

Ling-Ling grimaced, obviously trying to decide what to say in response.  Shampoo began tapping her foot impatiently, and frowning. Her cousins could say it was none of her business if they wanted to, but they’d better not lie to her!

Lung-Lung looked down. “Is her idea of way to cheer us up, because things go so slow with Airen,” she muttered.  “We know need to take it easy, but it hurt he not even comfortable with give us hug yet.”

Shampoo’s irritation crumbled, leaving her feeling terrible.  Not only had she obviously jumped to a really ridiculous conclusion awhile back, now she’d gone and brought up a painful subject, hurting her cousins when they were trying to cheer themselves up.  This day wasn’t turning out very well, the Amazon thought sadly. Hopefully it wouldn’t get any worse.

“<You’re lucky to have an Airen who’s not afraid to care for you, big sister.  Is Ranma a good kisser?>” Ling-Ling asked.

“H- Hey! What kinda question is that?!” Ranma sputtered.

Ling-Ling did a double-take. “Oh, sorry, Ling-Ling forgot Ranma speak our language.”

Shampoo managed to