Chapter 2 - Prologue: A Horse Breaks Its Bridle

Leaping through the early evening two nights after the Wedding Massacre, Ranma found himself still angry about the whole thing, which was rather odd for him frankly, but something no one else could possibly blame him for. Having a cure that close and having it snatched away from him had hurt, almost as much as eating Akane's cooking. So much so Ranma had decided to take yesterday and hunt down Happosai.

What Happosai had told him though and proved by pointing out Pantyhose Taro and Rouge, made Ranma wince even now. How did all of us miss that? You can't cure one spring with another, they just merge! Unless you nullify the first one somehow. The Phoenix tribe seems to be able to, but I'm not 'xactly their most popular person, now am I?

That thought was a grim one. It'd taken them several weeks to move through China after his battle against Saffron, and Ranma still couldn't get over the fact that he had almost killed someone. He would have too, if not for Saffron's regeneration into an egg. As a martial artist Ranma knew that eventually he might be called upon to take someone's life in defense of someone else, but he had not been prepared for the reality of it.

If only Dr. Tofu was still around, he thought to himself shaking his head as he thought about the older man who had helped him think his way through several problems since he had arrived in Nerima. About six months before the Phoenix people first appeared Dr. Tofu had moved away. Not disappeared, just moved away. Since then Ranma had found out for himself (he couldn't afford Nabiki's prices) that the doctor had gotten married. Ranma supposed that the doc's old lady had gotten fed up with him not settling down and arranged matters herself, something Ranma was all-too-familiar with when dealing with his own parents.

Thank Hachiman mom didn't have any outstanding marriage contracts fer a daughter. With the way she'd been at me about acting girly when I'm a girl, she might be just as quick to force that on me as oyaji is in tryin' ta get me ta marry Akane. Still without Dr. Tofu around, I lost the only person around here I can speak to about serious matters.

Ranma had gotten into the habit of going to the doctor a few months after he first arrived, and so long as Kasumi wasn't around Tofu was a source of good advice, when he decided to give any, and a willing ear most of the other times. He'd also given Ranma a lot of medical books, some of which he'd even tried to read, and some of which had actually helped him advance his ki healing massively. That was why he didn't have brain damage after all the hits to the head he'd taken since arriving in Nerima.

He couldn't talk to Hiroshi or Daisuke about anything serious. They were a good source for information on normal things, most of which Ranma labeled under the title 'boring' in his mind. It was a gigantic file, almost as large as the file marked 'girl issues I don't want to touch with a ten foot pole'. But talking to them about serious matters like martial arts, marriages, fiancés and girls in general, that just wasn't going to happen. And of course I can't talk to anyone actually involved, the moment I do they try to twist it around to their advantage!

It had taken him a while to reach that conclusion, but Ranma had finally learned that he really couldn't trust anyone even indirectly involved in the crap that was his life. Nabiki was the most blatant, with Akane next in line. Several times Ranma had told Akane about learning some new maneuver, only to learn that Ryoga had somehow learned about it. Ranma didn't think she was doing it on purpose, but Akane just couldn't keep a secret to save her life.

His mother wouldn't keep secrets from his oyaji, and the less said about Genma's ability to keep anything secret the better. Soun too wouldn't keep a secret, and couldn't seem to talk about anything serious without turning into a blubbering mess anyway. And Kasumi, well Kasumi was a very good listener, but she also would not keep secrets from her family. She had also lost a lot of points from Ranma when she joined in with her sisters to make fun of his fear of furry devils. That had happened over a year ago, but it still stuck in Ranma's craw.

And as for his other two fiancés, talking to Shampoo was pretty much like talking to Akane only worse. The bubbly Amazon couldn't keep a secret to save her life and always tried to turn things to her advantage. Not as if I trust her anyway, with all the times she's used magic on me. Stupid Amazons, stupid laws. I know I've got Shampoo ta thank for Cologne bein' here, and without Cologne's training I wouldn't be nearly as good as I am, but still. I was wonderin' if continuin' to learn from her is worth the baggage months back, now it just don't seem worth it anymore. Of course, getting rid of them somehow is gonna be… tough.

Ukyo was actually the best listener among the three, and would only use what he told her to her advantage if it was about the whole contest between her, Akane and Shampoo for him. Better, she had even come by the day after the wedding to apologize, catching him before he went after Happosai and actually looking remorseful. I wonder if the others'll apologize? I doubt it, but it'd be nice.

By this point in his thoughts Ranma had crossed most of Nerima and reached the Tendo dojo. Leaping up onto one of the outer walls Ranma dropped down on the other side quickly. He moved as silently as he could, not wanting to deal with the Amazons or anyone else who could be watching the house. That was why he stopped by a small bush in a corner of the property, his hand lashing out faster than almost anyone in Nerima could follow, chopping into Sasuke's neck.

Before the little man could slump forward Ranma grabbed him and laid him down gently. Sorry dude, he thought to himself, I don't mind you spying on us most of the time, but I really don't wanta deal with either of your crazy charges tonight. Ranma actually approved of the little ninja's loyalty, not the people he was loyal to, but the loyalty itself was worth praising in his opinion.

That was why he thoughtfully pulled out a pad of paper and pencil, writing up a little note on it before sticking it on the unconscious ninja's chest. 'Find some new hidin' places, and don't just switch 'em up every other day, it's predictable. Check out the area near the eaves of the house and maybe underneath the porch, we just cleared it out o' spiders so its useable again.' Then Ranma ended it with a smiley face and a chibi version of himself holding up two fingers in a victory sign.

Chuckling quietly, he left the ninja there moving from shadow to shadow towards the Tendo house. Ranma could've used the Umisenken, but he had promised his father he wouldn't use either of the sealed techniques save in matters of life and death. And one thing that Ranma didn't do was break promises, at least not when they impacted what he saw as his personal honor or the Art.

Besides, he thought to himself grimly, as he was almost to the house, this is good stealth training, and my oyaji had a point, which he immediately proved in the worst way possible, but still, the techniques he created are too dangerous to let fall into the wrong hands.

He was about to jump up onto the windowsill of the guestroom that he and his father had shared for almost two years now when he heard voices. Pausing he cocked his head, wondering what Nabiki and Akane were talking about. The two of them almost never talked, especially since that incident where Nabiki had become his official fiancé for a time, so it was odd. Especially since Nabiki had a part in wrecking the wedding, not that I'll ever be able ta do anythin' to get back at her.

"I don't get it,Nabiki," Akane was saying as Ranma moved to stand underneath Nabiki's window. "It's not like you to make a plan like that and not make money off it. But there's no way those freaks and psychos paid you more than the damages to the dojo cost us." Despite the topic, Ranma was surprised to hear that Akane was almost calm sounding, not accusatory, simply questioning.

I know I've been away for a few days, but there's no way that Akane could've gotten over her anger that quickly. Not these days. Akane had begun to worry Ranma, the amount of anger-based ki that she had been using for years unconsciously had seriously started to affect her, though Ranma seemed to be the only one who noticed it. And he didn't have any idea how to convince her not to keep using it. Talking to any girls let alone Akane about anything like emotions or anything beyond schoolwork always seemed to end up with him getting bashed. Still however Akane has dealt with her anger she's got a point.

"Oh like you care." Nabiki scoffed, and Ranma heard movement up above him, as if Nabiki had moved in place or was doing something else, like those leg exercises she was always doing. "I know that you had your own plans Akane, but I had to scuttle the wedding quickly. One of my factors…"

"Oh call them spies, or enforcers or something, that's what they are aren't they?" Akane broke in, scoffing. "My sister the budding yakuza oyabun!" Again despite the words Akane sounded almost amused.

Nabiki's voice however was rather hard when she replied. "Since they're working in our favor sister, perhaps you should call them factors or agents rather than anything derogatory? They did just save our family of a debt of ¥170.5 billion."

Up above there was a sound of a body slamming into the floor as Akane possibly fell out of her chair, a sentiment that Ranma had no trouble understanding, since he had almost fallen forward to slam his head into the side of the house. He stopped himself just-in-time though, scowling angrily. Oh fuck-me-sideways oyaji, what've you got me into now?!

Above him Akane asked the same question and Nabiki replied. "There's a reason why Genma and Ranma never stayed in one place too long: debt collectors. The debt collectors know where they're living now, and a lot of them have banded together to call in the government. The government in turn is preparing an action against Genma, and anyone else with his family name."

"Worse, there are at least five more families around Osaka and two more in Korea he also apparently sold Ranma to. Most of them are willing to take a cash buyout, which is where that last seven billion yen came from."

Akane and the unseen Ranma were silent for a moment, considering the huge amount of money. Then Akane asked the question Ranma was privately wondering. "Why haven't you shared this with Daddy? Surely the news that the Genma sold off his son that many more times and the times we already know about plus the debt should cancel out the engagement right?"

Something is wrong, Ranma thought, frowning heavily now as he concentrated more on Akane's tone than the discussion. He didn't really care about money one way or the other, after so long on the road he could make do in the wild, or living off the land in cities easily enough. Besides, he had always loved to travel, and having an actual reason to run around made a lot of his father's actions when they were younger more understandable. Of course he also brought us here but… Ranma shrugged, all too used to Genma screwing him over. The future could take care of itself in Ranma's opinion.

But Akane's tone was bothering him. It was so lacking any kind of emotion when it was talking about their engagement. It actually hurt a little to hear her talking about it so… so detached like. What's going on here?

"You really think our father would listen to me? Father wouldn't listen to me even if I had the evidence in front of us, and I don't. In fact if one of my agents hadn't decided his loyalty to me counted more for his loyalty to the government, I wouldn't know about this now. He could be fired or even arrested for discussing a case like this with those involved. We need to wait until Ranma's 18, then instead of having a religious wedding we can have a formal change of name for Ranma, add him to the Tendo rolls and remove them from the Saotome, which will leave their family with all of the debts and leave us free and clear."

"Whatever, it's not like the marriage between our houses really matters beyond the whole honor thing Daddy's always harping on about. You know I was only going through with the marriage for the cure anyway, and not to get it for Ranma."

Down below Ranma's heart sank, but he didn't stop listening.

"Now that's cold sis." Nabiki said and there was actually a note of censure in her voice. "After all the times Ranma saved you, don't have any friendly feeling for him?"

"Have feelings for that freak, hell no! The freak revels in his female form, using it all the time to get treats, using it in some of those dumb ass martial arts contests. As if any of that shit mattered!" Akane said in reply, her voice getting louder with every word. All those so called martial artists aren't really ones, they just use tricks to make their styles seems unique! And that's not even talking about the way he's leading on Shampoo and Ukyo! The fucking pervert!"

Ranma's teeth clenched and his hands formed into fists. He was about to jump up onto their windowsill and retort angrily as he always did to Akane's accusations. He thought this was more of the same as always, her accusing him, never taking any of the blame for herself and always seeing him in a bad light. Yet in comparison to what had gone before it was almost a relief to hear Akane sound back to normal.

Then she went on, saying something that shattered Ranma's heart. "Besides, you know Ryoga and I have been going out for a few months now ever since that whole Pantyhose incident."

A heart breaking should make a noise, Ranma thought to himself in the corner of his mind where he could still think, slumping silently to his knees as his head came to rest against the wall of the Tendo place. She's been lying to me that long? No wonder she's been so much more violent ta me lately when Ryoga an' I fight! His hands remained clenched, and he had to stop himself from jumping up again to accuse the damn bitch.

"You know I never liked that." said Nabiki, and now her voice was cold, almost angry. "You leading on Ranma as you have, it makes you a damn hypocrite and worse. You're my sister, and I'm not willing to betray you or deal with the fallout if Ranma became truly angry at us, but why can't you simply transfer the engagement to me if you don't care?"

Nabiki went on in a much more normal tone, there even seemed to be a smile in it though Ranma couldn't see it. "I've always been interested in seeing if Ranma's stamina carried over into other things, and kissing a girl could be interesting. I can't experiment around here after all, it would ruin my rep, but if I was formally engaged to Ranma…"

"Because I won't lose to those bitches, that stupid cook who dresses like a boy or the bimbo gaijin! If I back down, it makes it seem as if I've acknowledged that they're better than me, that they're better than me at martial arts and as a woman! After so long listening to Ranma's jibes about my figure and everything else, I need all the assurances in that area I can get!" Akane retorted hotly, and Ranma could hear something straining as if Akane was pending an iron bar, something she had begun to do recently.

"Besides, you know that neither of them will fall for your tricks a second time."Akane went on, in a somewhat calmer tone. "Shampoo would just kill you, you couldn't fight back like I could."

Down below Ranma rolled his eyes, slowly coming back from the precipice of the fury Akane's betrayal had driven him to while he continued to listen. Akane then went on to rant about Shampoo, and Ranma's ki sense could actually feel the anger and rage from above him like a forest fire concentrated in one place. She really is using angry ki too much, it really is affecting her, but… well, it's not my problem anymore…

After several more moments of ranting Akane calmed down, and went on in a more normal tone. "And, don't talk to me about that perverted crap! Two girls together, that's just wrong! I don't how you're able to think about that! And besides, I doubt Ranma would even know what to do, not like Ryoga."

"Oh kami-sama," Nabiki said in a tone of revulsion. "Don't tell me what you two get up to, I don't want to know. How you can stand someone who turns into a little pig rather than a sexy as hell redhead is beyond me. And it's not perverted Akane, simply different."

But after a moment Nabiki went on more thoughtfully. "Still, it is odd that Ranma hasn't tried anything would with any of us. I know he's honorable and all, but I don't think I've ever even seen him physically react if you know what I mean. Not even when Shampoo glomps on him, and I'll admit that girl's body is better than most porn stars. And a lot of the times when his two perverted friends at school bring up girls and stuff he reacts as if he hadn't gone through puberty or something."

For some reason that stuck in Ranma's mind. Maybe it was because he was desperate for anything to grab onto at the moment, rather than the rage and grief he was feeling, but it did strike him as odd too. They'd had health class and he kinda knew what Nabiki was talking about, and Ranma knew his self-control wasn't that good, so why?

Ranma shook himself, pushing his body away from the wall as the two girls upstairs continued to talk, now moving onto less important subjects like schoolwork and where Nabiki was planning to go for college. Their closeness was surprising, but Ranma had other things to worry about. I need to talk to someone about this, someone I can get on my side on this, about everything they just said, and not just about Akane and Ryoga. That I'll deal with on my own.

For a moment Ranma thought about simply running, simply leaving Nerima and never coming back, but there were at least a few people here he cared about, and in particular one who might be able to help. I need to talk to mom, I just hope she listens.

OOOOOOO

Kasumi frowned, moving out onto the patio and looking around moving towards the back of the house for a moment. Looking around she frowned further, then shrugged. Her control of the house's Wa was not perfect, she routinely missed Sasuke's presence, and even occasionally missed Genma and Ranma so it wasn't unusual. With a shrug Kasumi went back inside, looking up into staircase she called out "Nabiki, Akane, dinner's ready."

OOOOOOO

Ranma cross the distance between Nerima and the district where his mom's house was still being repaired quickly, landing in front of it he was about to knock on the door when he paused. For some reason, a thought occurred to him: if Nabiki and Akane are so different when they're not around me, are they the only ones?

After the shocking revelations of the past hour or so, Ranma was in no frame of mind to chance anything. So instead of knocking on the door, he leapt up onto the roof landing lightly and then down into the small garden at the back.

"…And I still cannot believe that you were so stupid and thoughtless as to take part in ruining the wedding! You even went so far as aiding in the destruction of the only cure that could have returned our son to normal!"

Hearing that, Ranma winced. Knowing that his mother still had problems with his female form wasn't exactly surprising, but the vitriol in her voice was shocking. And it made him leery about trusting her as well, especially since she still carried around that damn contract and katana everywhere she went.

Inside his mother went on. "I've long been concerned about how that form affects our son's mind. Why hasn't he been manly with any of his fiancés? Surely choosing one of them shouldn't be that difficult."

"I don't know anything about that, dear." said Genma slowly, and Ranma actually smirked a little despite her his ongoing emotional roller coaster knowing how his father had to be walking on eggshells right now.

Looking inside quickly Ranma saw that the two of them were sitting at a table. Yes his mother did have the honor blade out, cleaning it while staring across at his father. Heh, serves oyaji right.

"But, it might not be that simple. It turns out that the Spring of Drowned Man water wouldn't've cured Ranma, or even me. Instead it would've merged with the existing curse. I would've become a panda man, and Ranma would've become…" The bald man shuddered a little. "Apparently the Grand Master actually knew that, and that was why he was so quick to drink the water rather than let it be used. It wasn't a totally uncaring act, whatever fun he had doing it."

Ranma scoffed outside shaking his head. Right, you only asked him about that after just like me. You were just as self-servin' in the battle at the wedding as anyone else oyaji. Still Ranma was actually relieved. His father wasn't acting any differently now than he would if Ranma was around.

"You mean our son is stuck with that body for the rest of his life?" His mother asked aghast. "That is most distressing. Especially given the fact that you vowed to make him a man among men. How can he fulfill his end of the agreement when he is stuck with that female form for the rest of his life? I warn you, one more step out of place from either of you, and I will not hesitate to enforce that pact."

Nodoka's voice had become colder while Ranma watched as her face had frozen at the news that his cure couldn't have worked. "Tomorrow we will discuss how best to educate our son in order to meet the honor obligations upon him, and to ward off any influence his female form has on them."

Ranma really wanted to blame that idea for the way his mother was acting, but she was so obsessed about manliness, and when he was in female form 'girliness', that he couldn't really say that was the case. She's just like all the others he thought to himself, using honor against me, not carin' about me as a person! Well, well screw her too! Gripped by sudden anger Ranma turned away, leaping out into the distance.

Behind him Genma moved far faster than his bulk would suggest, ripping the door to the garden nearly off its hinges. He stood there for a moment, staring out into the small garden looking around irritably. Behind him his wife asked "What is it?"

Genma frowned thoughtfully. "I could've sworn…" After a moment he shrugged and came back inside.

OOOOOOO

Ranma scowled as he raced back into Nerima, shaking his head. I can't trust mom, and I sure as hell can't trust dad, but who can I trust? I could go to Ukyo, but I don't think she could help me with this. There're too many honor obligations on me, too much coming at me all at once! I need to get away, need to talk to someone completely unconnected to everythin'! I need to find Dr. Tofu again. But Ukyo might be the only one who cares that I'm gone as in really cares rather than cares that his meal ticket, her toy, or cover or, umm….whatever Shampoo thinks of me as, is gone.

He landed on the roof of Ukyo's eatery, and was almost immediately challenged. "Halt varlet, who goes… oh, Ranma-sama, it's you. I do apologize, but might this humble one ask what you are doing here so late?"

Ranma looked around, only now realizing that it was actually the middle of the night by this point.

Then he turned back to Konatsu who had moved out from a shadow by a cooling fan, one hand delicately holding a kunai. As usual Konatsu was dressed as a female ninja, fishnet underthings, a pink ninja suit, and his long hair done up in an intricate style, held in place by a hairclip that could no doubt double as a weapon. The only guy around here that can match some of my skills, and he dresses more like a girl than any of my fiancé Akane should take tips if she's so worried about her own femininity.

That thought brought a scowl to Ranma's face as the memory of everything he'd learned came back to himagain, overriding his normal amusement and good humor at the Konatsu's cross-dressing. "Sorry…" he said a little shakily before he drew himself up. "Er, I mean I'm sorry I'm here so late." He went on in a more normal tone. "Didn't realize it was so late. Is Ukyo awake? I'd like ta talk to you two."

He knew Konatsu would listen in anyway, better to have him in front where Ranma knew where he was.

Ukyo had actually been asleep, but after Konatsu woke her up gently, was more than willing to hear what Ranma was there to say this late at night. She knew that her friendship with Ranma had taken a few hits lately, but deep down she still cared for him, though not romantically. She taken a good, hard look at herself lately and realized that the two of them just weren't compatible. Ukyo was ready and willing to settle down, head to college, get a good education and continue to run her small stall until she could move on to bigger and better things. But Ranma was the eternal wild child, and the idea of seeing him ready to settle down was just silly.

Besides, she wasn't blind, she knew why Konatsu hung around her and had taken to calling her his mistress. She was still uncertain of her own feelings towards the male kunoichi, but they did make a strangely decent pair. "So sugar, what brings you to my rooftop this evening?" She asked smirking even as she moved to cook them some okonomiyaki.

Ranma however held up a hand as she moved towards her kitchen. "Don't, I don't think I could keep anythin' down right now. So many things've hit me tonight, too much stuff I need ta deal with. I need to go, I need ta get out of Nerima. I don't think I'm gonna be coming back, and I figured you should know why."

"A moment please." said Konatsu sharply, holding up a hand. Konatsu delicately got to her his feet, moving with all the grace of a ballerina or a high-class acrobat and quickly disappeared to most normal people's senses, hurrying towards the door. A moment later he was back, brushing one out of place strand of hair back into his coif. "I needed to make certain that there were no listening devices or anyone trying to overhear us. One can never be too careful after all, and news like that…" The cross-dresser shrugged.

"I should've thought of that." Ranma said shaking his head. "I'm just too rattled right now."

"We're here to listen to you if it helps sugar, that's the least we can do." Ukyo said sitting back down next to him and taking his it gently. She winced a little when Ranma looked at her somewhat distrustfully and moved away slightly, but still smiled at him encouragingly. "Seriously, what's wrong?"

Ranma bluntly stated the most important part of what he had learned. "According to her, Akane and Ryoga have been going out for six months." Ukyo's eyes widened while Konatsu's narrowed in speculation but before either could say anything Ranma went on. "And that's just the tip of the iceberg."

The retelling took about forty minutes or so going by the clock, by the end of which both Ukyo and Konatsu were both looking angry, though most of the money matters had gone over Konatsu's head just like it had Ranma at the time he heard it. "That's some tale sugar." Ukyo said shaking her head. "Though it explains a lot. I was surprised that Akane's attitude towards you didn't change after the whole Phoenix Mountain thing, and the Seven Lucky Gods crap before that. After all…" she smiled whimsically. "What girl doesn't want her knight in shining armor to ride in on his white horse and rescue her?"

"Apparently one who's already got a prince in mind." Ranma laughed, now seeing some humor in it. "Of course her prince doesn't have a sense of direction, so in terms of savin' her, he's pretty useless."

His listeners laughed, though Ukyo was looking at him worriedly. Hiding his hurt under humor was what she'd expect from Ranma, but no one should be able to do that when they'd just had their heart ripped out. Ukyo might not have liked it, but she had always known that Akane was the one who'd been in the driver's seat in the race for Ranma's hand. To see him able to see any humor in this, well, it was just weird.

"Well anyway." Ranma said with a shrug. "I figured you two should know what's going on. I'd get out of dodge if I was you. The fallout of me leaving is going to be huge, and Akane and the others are going to look for someone to blame."

"I was planning to move away anyway sugar."Ukyo replied, coming back to the here and now. "I'd offer to go with you, but…"

Ranma shook his head quickly. "I need to be alone for this, there's more going on than just Akane and her… does the word cheating even apply since we weren't, y'know in an actual relationship?" Ukyo again frowned again at that, as did Kotatsu, but Ranma went on not noticing. "Well anyway, some of the other things that I overheard tonight have bothered me a lot, and I need a doctor's opinion on some of them."

Ukyo nodded her head, then reached across and brought Ranma into a hug, noticing that he stiffened a little and tried to shy away but she wouldn't let him for a moment. "I understand sugar, I hope whatever doc ya go to can help you get your head on straight, and whatever you do outside of that…" she shrugged. "I hope you find a place where you can be happy. I'm sorry that place wasn't with me." At that Ukyo pulled back smirking while she smacked Ranma on the shoulder. "But I can understand that you're still looking."

Ranma stared at her then nodded smiling and punched Ukyo in the shoulder before reaching across to shake hands with the cross-dressing ninja. A moment later Ranma was gone, and Ukyo turned to her other friend. "We got a busy night ahead of us sugar, so let's start packing. Once the news that Ranma's not going to come back from this gets around all hell's going to let loose, and I'd rather Cologne and Happosai in particular not come looking for us." Ukyo was willing to put herself and Konatsu up against most of Nerima's martial artists, but not the two grandmasters or Genma possibly, if he took the fight seriously.

"Shouldn't we go after Ranma-sama?" Konatsu asked. "I realize he wants to be alone, but is that really for the best?"

Ukyo shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe not, but it's him making that choice not us. Besides, both us've caused trouble for him in the past too, we might be sad about it, but that's in his mind somewhere as well. Maybe a clean slate is what he really needs." That thought was somewhat painful but Ukyo knew that Ranma really would want space from everything that reminded him of Nerima after something like this. "Come on honey, we've got packing to do."

OOOOOOO

It took Ranma two days to cross most of Japan down to Honshu where Dr. Tofu's new practice had opened. It was small and homely like his last one, and Ranma smiled. Tofu really did like that whole personable touch. Ranma couldn't really picture him working in a huge hospital with lots of other people. And Tofu also always opened his own door, which was a problem at the moment. Dr. Tofu blinked in shock looking at the young man before him. "Ranma, how, wha…UMmph!"

Dr. Tofu's head jerked back at the blow to his chin, and then he was lifted off his feet and dragged further into his practice before he could recover. "That was for leaving without saying goodbye to anyone, not even Kasumi!" Ranma said setting the doctor on his feet and closing the door. "The whole clean slate thing is appealin', but you don't have people chasing after you, ya could have at least left a message behind or something."

"Dear who's this?" Said a young woman, coming out from inside the offices. She was tall, taller even then Kasumi and had a rangy look like a former athlete who had only recently stopped exercising regularly. She had black hair down to her waist done up in a long ponytail, and moved somewhat gracefully, not martial artist gracefully but certainly athlete gracefully which matched her body's build.

On one finger however was a wedding ring, which caused Ranma's eyebrows to shoot up. "Damn doc, you really did get married, what the hell?"

"It's true." Tofu replied, wincing a little as he felt his jaw. "I suppose I deserved that, but there's more going on than you know. This is an old friend Keiko, don't worry, we'll just be talking for a bit."

"More than a bit doc, I didn't come here just ta smack ya one for leaving. Like I said, I understand now why someone would just run away, but my reasons are way larger than yours."

Tofu frowned thoughtfully motioning Ranma into his observation room. "Before you ask, the reason I didn't say goodbye even to Kasumi is because of what my old sensei found when I met up with him at a symposium about two months before I actually left Nerima. For one thing, my sensei pointed out rather bluntly that the difference in our ages isn't that all that much different from Akane and me."

At Ranma's shocked expression Tofu's laughed quietly. "I've known about her crush on me for quite some time Ranma, it was rather obvious after all. When that was pointed out to me, I realized how foolish it was chasing after a girl half my age. Then he found out that I have… well the technical terms are a bit above even your ki knowledge Ranma, but what it comes down to is that I am physically allergic to being near Kasumi."

"It was masked by my, um well you know how I acted around her, turns out my father had the same reaction to my mother, but he was able to control it over time. I never would have been able to, and I would have continued to be a major danger to anyone who came to me for medical attention during that time."

"Thereafter he introduced me to Keiko, his daughter, and the two of us hit it off. With her I was able to get over my 'love response' in a few weeks after falling for her, just like my dad did with my mother." Tofu paused for a moment, sighing. "I can't say I was happy about leaving Nerima behind without saying goodbye to Kasumi, but a clean break really was necessary."

"I guess I can understand." Ranma said with a shrug. "Whatever Doc, like I said I wasn't here just to smack you one, I need your help."

"I'm always willing to lend an ear Ranma," said cautiously. He was always leery of getting involved in Ranma's adventures, knowing what they could cost him.

Ranma related everything that he had discovered recently, watching as Dr. Tofu took it all in. After moment the doctor shook his head. "I would've never suspected that Akane would be so duplicitous, I definitely think that girl needs to see a psychologist. It says something about her that she was able to convince herself that her cheating on you and keeping it a secret was all your fault in the first place. And Nabiki not telling anyone about it, that is a pure enabler attitude."

"I think I need to see a psychologist too Doc, since I ain't nearly as angry as I should be about it." Ranma said with a shrug. "At first I was furious, and a little weepy I'll admit." He said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Even that small an admission of softer feelings came hard to Ranma.

"But not now. And on top o' that what Nabiki said bothered me. I mean you know how boys are supposed to, er, react to girls, I mean, um, physically?" Ranma said trailing off in embarrassment and looking away. "That um, that ain't ever happened ta me. And given the fact that Shampoo jumps on me every time, well Nabiki mentioned that it was kind of odd that it never did, and I wondered if there was something that could, you know be, wrong with me in that area…"

Looking at the embarrassed and almost scared young man in front of him Tofu frowned thoughtfully. He was almost inclined to ask about Ranma's female form reacting in an aroused manner to exterior stimuli, but he knew the youth had problems with his female form even now. Plus he'd probably kick me through a wall for suggesting it. "There are pressure points that could have that effect, but why would anyone have done that?"

"Doc I stopped askin' questions like that a long time ago. If there's some way Genma could screw me over, he'd find it. Anything that wasn't the Art was a waste of time, I mean I ain't exactly interested in that kind of thing either, that's one thing oyaji was right about: the Art bein' more important than that stuff. It's just if there's somethin' wrong with my body, I want it fixed."

Dr. Tofu frowned further. He always considered Ranma's single-minded nature odd, but combined with the other things Ranma had just mentioned and his other observations during his time in Nerima, it might be there was something odd about Ranma even beyond whatever had been done to make him not become sexually aroused. "All right Ranma lay down on the bed and we'll see what we can find. I never did do a full physical on you did I?"

Ranma shivered a little at the very idea, not exactly comfortable with the idea of anyone touching him at all. But this was why he'd come to Tofu. He knew he could trust the older man, at least as far as Tofu not using what he found against him was concerned.

The procedure took over an hour, as various injuries and odd reactions were noted, with Tofu pausing a moment and actually shaking his head a little in jealousy at one point, making a comment about being thankful his wife wasn't in the room. Then he actually blushed a little as he performed the same physical on Ranma's female body, a process that was even slower and much more cringe-inducing for both of them.

Finally Dr. Tofu stood back shaking his head thoughtfully and very grimly Ranma was worried to note. "Well Ranma, I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?"

"How's about the good news?"

"Well the good news is I do know what's wrong with you, and they're both relatively easy to fix. Putting them on you in the first place would've been much tougher, but fixing them is much easier."

"Both?"

"You have two closed ki points. The good news is that reopening them should have an almost immediate effect on the flow of your ki. I noticed that your ki flowed differently than most men, but I'd put it down to the training you went through, more fool me I suppose."

Dr. Tofu shook his head. He would castigate himself for years for not noticing this, and wondered why some of the other masters in Nerima haven't noticed. Deciding to think about that later he went on. "The first is the Youthful Mind point."

He pulled out his trusty Betty, which he had brought along from Nerima pointing at a point here and there on the back of her head, and then twisting it around to point at two points on her chest. "Those are the points that would've been hit to inflict the Youthful Mind on you. It's a technique developed in the distant past by samurai who wanted to start training their children very early in their development. It makes you more pliable, and hampers both emotions and higher-end thinking in favor of heightening your ability to learn things physically."

Tofu shook his head again ruefully. "I can't believe I didn't spot it, I thought you were just a regular martial artist with a case of ADHD when it came to anything else." Once again Tofu had to stop himself from slipping into self-recrimination. Instead he turned Betty around once again for so that her front was towards Ranma and touched three points down low right above his crotch region. "This is called the Imperial Favor technique. It kills off practically your entire libido."

"Libido?" Ranma asked, cocking his head. "What's that mean?"

"I think I have several books you need to read Ranma." Tofu replied, shaking his head quietly. "The Technique was developed in China during the period where the eunuchs began to take control of the Imperial bureaucracy, suffice it to say it helped them add new members to their numbers, but it certainly hasn't helped you. However…" Tofu frowned thoughtfully. "I can undo the Youthful Mind right now, the other one I want to do a little more research on the effects of undoing it before I do anything, and I have no idea what the points being on you together could have done."

"Mind if I do some exercises while you do, Doc?" Ranma asked getting up off the bed.

"Certainly, just don't break anything." Tofu left leaving Ranma to himself for few moments before coming back with a large tome. He sat down reading through the old looking text thoughtfully then looked up at Ranma, watching as the youth moved through some kind of kata with such speed and precision most Masters could not have matched it. That brought to mind Ranma's physical abilities, which Tofu knew for a fact was so far beyond human norm that it was almost unbelievable. In fact no one outside of Nerima and certain parts of China would believe it at all.

But in relation to undoing the Imperial Favor Technique that's not a good thing. "As I said, Ranma," Tofu spoke, getting the boy's attention. "I could undo the Youthful Mind point now. The effect of undoing it will be slow to build, and it won't affect the Imperial Favor technique, I wanted to make certain of that. But undoing the second, um undoing it might have…"Tofu groped for an example that wouldn't make the nervous young man in front of him bolt.

"It might make your ki go out of control." He said finally not wanting to try and explain what really might go out of control. The Imperial Favor technique had indeed been developed by the Imperial bureaucracy, but they hadn't actually been the ones to create it. It wasn't initially created to make the process of creating a eunuch easier, but to punish those accused of sexual deviancy. Yet it didn't actually kill the libido, instead it suppressed it.

"Picture a spring Ranma." Tofu went on, now not trying to lie or change the subject at all but not being completely truthful without actually touching on the subject matter. "You've been living your life with it wound up, pressed down as it were, as much is it could be. Once I release that point all that energy is going to come out. Especially since I think the Youthful mind is going to mess with your ability to handle your emotions somewhat. In fact, considering that, I'd recommend we wait on undoing that technique as well, just to be on the safe side."

"Cool!" Ranma said holding up both hands and making the victory sign, utterly ignoring everything Tofu said about his emotions, confident in his self control. "You mean I'll be an even better martial artist, faster, stronger and all that?"

"Yes I can honestly say that will be part of the side effects." Tofu said. "The main effect will be different, but after solving this issue, you'll be able to react normally to stimuli, and other things."

Ranma nodded, taking it at face value that Tofu meant his heightened ki would be the main point. "Still don't understand this libido thing doc, but if it makes me at least normal in one way I guess I'll jump on it."

"Good, but I'll need to prepare a room for you. After all, you wouldn't want to accidentally hurt anyone until you got control of it, would you?" Once again Tofu did not specify what it was, allowing Ranma to draw his own conclusion, which the younger man did nodding seriously. A little white lie won't hurt him. "In fact, while I find someplace to do this, I'll teach you how to release the points yourself."

Finding a safe place to do this took the rest of the day, and the room wasn't a room, but a former isolation-style jail cell. The area Dr. Tofu had set up his practice in wasn't quite run down, but it wasn't high-end either, and had several old buildings from World War 2, the jail being one of them. The walls were still solid, and with the help of a few of the locals Tofu was able to prepare one of the rooms for Ranma.

Watching the men work Ranma wondered why they were bringing in those magazines and laughing to themselves. Though the water, large portable light along with food supplies were also a little worrying. "Interestin' place doc, though I gotta ask why it wasn't torn down. And um, is there something ya should be telling me?"

"Oh, there was a plan for this place to be turned into a year-round haunted house, though it never went anywhere. As to your second question, I have no idea how long it will take you to get control of your ki Ranma." The doctor replied. "I'd rather you stay here until you're certain that you can jostle someone in a crowd without shattering every bone in his or her body."

"WHa-? Ranma gasped, looking at him aghast. "It's gonna be that bad, really?"

"Ranma, you routinely move faster than most people can see using that Amazon technique correct? Until you figure out how to control your ki, you might be moving even faster than that normally and not even notice it. And as you should know, speed has a mass all its own. And that doesn't even consider your ki itself going out of control."

"That would be bad." Ranma nodded his head seriously. Unlike most of the others in Nerima, Ranma had always taken the Art and the Code seriously. The idea of accidentally hurting someone accidently like that appalled him. "Though if I'm gonna be in here for so long, I would've preferred to have somthin' to say 'bout the reading material Doc. And what's in those brown bags anyway?"

"Graphic novels." Dr. Tofu said with 100% accuracy. "I thought you might like them especially after you're done undoing the Imperial Favor Technique. Now, show me that you've learned where the pressure points are so that we know there won't be any mistakes."

"Cool." Ranma said raising one finger to his forehead in a salute. "Hope there's some Naruto in there. I'm this close to figurin' out how to create my own version of a ki blade, like that lightnin' attack o' the One-Eyed Emo. Shapin' ki out of your body like that is really hard, but I think it's doable."

"That's nice Ranma." Dr. Tofu replied shaking his head. He honestly hoped that this wouldn't change Ranma so much, his single-minded attitude towards the Art was actually something Tofu admired. He just hoped that ability to concentrate and bring so much intelligence to bear would now spread to other areas of study. And whoever actually marries him will be very happy if it does, he thought to himself laughing quietly. Well, so long as they are bisexual at least.

Ranma nodded and did so gesturing to the different parts of his body he'd have to touch, looking a little uncomfortable at some of them down near his boy bits, while also explaining how hard he'd have to touch each of the pressure points. He was actually grateful that he'd be alone to do that, having someone else around for that part would be weird.

"I would recommend you remove the Youthful Mind point first Ranma, but that is up to you." Tofu said, moving towards the doorway. "Good luck." With that Tofu left, locking the heavy door behind him.

Ranma frowned hearing the locks on the door. Doc must be really worried about my ki going out of control doin' all this ta isolate me. Hmmf, I'll show him, I bet my control is up to the task whatever happens. Still, best follow his advice about the order. With a confident smirk on his face Ranma raised his hands up to his head, tapping here and there on different points of his head, and then two more on his chest.

For a moment nothing happened and Ranma frowned, wondering if he had done something wrong in the order or the pressure needed. But after a second Ranma's teeth clamped down while his heart sped up as rage hit him, more rage than he had ever felt before, more sadness. It was as if that first moment where he learned about Akane's betrayal had come back to him multiplied a thousand times over.

A small trickle of emotions before had suddenly become a flood. Everything that he had learned back in Nerima as well as everything before that but which hadn't registered for long mixed with other things that had built up inside of him without Ranma even noticing. Ranma went mad, sobbing, screaming, shouting about Akane, about his mother, about his father, and not surprisingly the Kunos and Amazons.

Pounding the floor and the walls Ranma was completely out of control with rage and grief as it hit him all at once, his ki igniting and roiling off him as Tofu had warned him, though not actually believed would occur, rather more afraid of what would happen when Ranma's libido was awoken. Tofu had no idea how much ki Ranma had built up since Tofu had left Nerima, enough to challenge Herb, a dragon descendent. Now that ki was flaring out like a heat haze, burning the ground of the cell underneath Ranma.

How long that went on Ranma didn't know, but when he finished he wasn't in the cell he'd begun in, instead he was in one of the outer rooms of the former prison. He blearily looked through tear streaked eyes at the carnage of his trip through the former penitentiary, shattered walls, ripped out doors, hell even melted bars here and there, along with the floor looking as if it had been scorched.

Ranma chuckled a little weakly before leaning against the outer wall, which had shattered in a few places, around what looked like holes made by his fists marching through it. "Wow, I don't think anyone's going to want to use this place as a haunted house anymore. Not without a lot of redecoratin' and rebuildin'." He shook his head laughing while his voice echoed through the confines of the jail.

He shook his head, thankful the doc had gone to such lengths despite his initial arrogance about his control over his emotions. "Damn, I always looked down on the others fer always getttin' so angry all the time, particularly…" Ranma paused, shaking his head and not wanting to use her name lest he set himself off again. And that was only one of the techniques, what's going to happen when I release the other one?

Moving back through the wreckage of the jail Ranma sat in the center of the semi-bare room he had started in. For a moment he debated waiting to do the next one. He knew his emotions were all over the place, hell his hands were shaking, and the doc had told him not to rush the process. But after a moment Ranma's usual confidence came back to him, if somewhat limited. I'll hold on until my hands stop shakin' can't make a mistake in where I press or how strong after all.

How long Ranma meditated he didn't know, but it was dark out by the time his hands stopped shaking and he stopped feeling spikes of rage and sadness. Okay, let's do this! After centering himself for another moment Ranma began to touch the required pressure points, wincing a little at the pain of them. It was like pressing a sore black and blue mark that went right to the bone, which caused flares of pain to spread out nearby even while the ache at that point receded.

The last one in particular doubled Ranma over in agony as ki began to flow through his body in a way that it wasn't used to. "All right, that hurt! That hurt like nothing I can think of…" After a few moments the pain receded, and Ranma frowned. He could feel his ki was building up somewhat, but not nearly as much as he had feared given how Tofu had been going on about it.

There was a sense of something else building up too, but he couldn't what it was. "I don't see what doc was worried about this point fer, the first one gave me a hell of a lot more trouble…"

Then it hit him, and he looked down in pain as a part of him that had never responded to anything shot to attention. "Wh-what the hell!?" Then he groaned aloud as that something he couldn't identify roared through him. "GUHHHH, wha…."

Images of the girls he had known in his life began to go through his head. Things he hadn't noticed before really, or had simply thought were interesting in a mild sort of way. Now the mere memory of them made all his higher brain functions shut down.

For several hours Ranma lost himself again, his body demanding his full attention. Afterwards his pants were soaked as if he'd been hit by a super soaker. When he hesitantly touched his pants over his crotch he found them very sticky as well as simply wet. Worse there was a smell in the air, quickly dissipating but still noticeable that Ranma couldn't place.

Even as he watched though his crotch region began to twitch again, his penis once again showing signs of heretofore unknown life. For a moment Ranma was almost tempted to redo the pressure points, not having any idea how to deal with this. But he wasn't one to give up, and the feeling of his ki moving through his body told him that even trying would be a very bad idea indeed. Putting a dam up in front of a small stream was one thing, putting it up again after that stream had become the Chang Jiang at full flood was something else entirely.

"Er, maybe something to take my mind off it." Ranma thought, moving over to the bags of graphic novels. His mind however was replaying conversations he and his two friends had several times, where the two of them talked about girls to what he thought was excess. Huh, if this is what they have to go through, maybe they ain't as perverted as I thought. Now if I could only remember some of the terms they used…

By that point Ranma had reached the bags, and gratefully began to pull out a strange assortment. Some were medical texts, mostly about pressure points, ki, old style healing and other things of that nature, simple copies of older tomes that Tofu had tied up with a note, saying it was a Christmas present for not noticing the problems in Ranma's body before this. Ranma grinned then stuffed them all into his ki space for now, joining a few other books he already had in there that he had bought at some point thinking they might help him but never was able to muster enough interest in to actually read.

The second set looked at first like school books about human anatomy but there were others that had title which caused Ranma, with his slowly growing knowledge of this area of the human condition, to blush. "'Romance and You, the Do's and Don't of Dating', 'It's Perfectly Normal', 'How babies are made'? Umm…."

It was the last group of books however that caused Ranma's face to turn red. Though, he was astonished to note, that didn't take all of his bodies blood since his lower portion was still demanding most of it. These were indeed graphic novels, but of the adult kind. Some of them almost reminded Ranma of a few similar books that Ranma had seen Hiroshi and Daisuke bring to school, but they had never interested him before.

Now it was all he could do to tear his eyes away from the images. There was one of some older woman wearing only an apron, another was a school girl sucking on an ice cream bar, and then there was some girl his age in an extremely loose kimono wielding a blade. A few others showed images of various characters from different animes he had seen in situations that they would never be put in in the original.

He looked at the three small piles then muttered hesitantly, "Um, I suppose I should, um, kind of switch off maybe?" Messing up the books in a large pile, Ranma then closed his eyes and waved his finger over the pile, picking out the first book. Opening his eyes, he found he had picked up the 'It's Perfectly Normal' textbook. "Ugh, well, um, I suppose it would help, even if it looks boring…"

For the next hour or so Ranma worked his way through the book, with his own face showing his growing disgust and some interest as well. After the first chapter he took a break, checking out the graphic novel with the kimono-clad girl on it. After about twenty pages he threw it into the wall followed by a Moko Takabashi which incinerated it. "Gah, okay, I might not know what I like, but I sure as hell know what I don't! Blech!"

Throughout the night, Ranma did this, reading the book slowly and then switching to a manga after every chapter. At one point he hesitantly changed form into his female body, and was utterly astonished at how responsive his breasts became, though he was a little too leery to try anything below the belt.

It still felt amazing and Ranma spent an interminable amount of time playing with himself and figuring out what he liked and what he didn't, reaching what he had learned was called 'the clouds and rain' several times, before changing back and doing the same with his penis, or what the mangas called his dick.

But Ranma was surprised to note that when he 'came' as the mangas called it in his male body, it felt more intense than in his female form. Though the sensation didn't go on for as long, and didn't have those little aftershocks he felt when in his female body.

In male form he had far less of what the book called erogenous zones. His breasts and nipples were just there, which was really weird to Ranma, why would one form be so much more sensitive than the other? He found the answer to that out several chapters later, and the answer made him literally retch into one of the corners of the room thinking about Kuno or some of the other freaks out there that had hit on his female form doing that with him.

The thoughts about Kuno and the other assholes started the rage/grief cycle all over again, causing Ranma to back away from what he was doing and force himself into some of the most difficult katas in his repertoire to get his anger out. After that he was tired and ate something before falling asleep only to wake up a few hours later as dawn broke with drenched pants and sleeping bag again. Groaning he took some time to clean both his clothing and the bag before stuffing it back into his ki space, along with the rest of the food Tofu had left him. He hoped to be done this whole thing in the next few hours.

Once again Ranma spent some time reading through the book, surprising himself by actually understanding a lot of the things it talked on, and on how well he concentrated for so long on something that wasn't martial arts related. For some time he simply read the book rather than the mangas, having burned several of the doujinshis. The content of those disturbed him greatly. Then he switched off to Romance and You.

Several times he had to stop, dealing with spikes of anger and rage as he was forced to realize how badly they had all been screwing one another over. Yes, Akane was in the wrong going out with Ryoga and not telling anyone (and now with his heightened ability to concentrate on things, Ranma could actually think of a few moments which might have pointed to the fact, if anyone had noticed, least of all him) but Ranma had also been at fault with how he treated her.

With how I treated all of them, he thought morosely. Especially Akane and Ukyo. Shampoo'd be after me whatever she actually thought 'cause of those stupid laws of hers, but I shoulda never led Ukyo on like that. Akane was right about that damn it. But I wonder why nobody ever told me why name callin' and stuff like that wasn't good. They told me not ta do it, but never explained why! I mean, how was I supposed ta know? Genma always motivated me like that, hell name callin' was how he showed affection too!

Yet after what she had done to him, he couldn't find it in himself to really be sad about his not having treated Akane better. Especially since she sure as hell don't have the female equivalent o' the Imperial Favor point or the Youthful Mind point on her, or does she?

For a moment Ranma actually thought about that then shook his head, speaking aloud. "Nah, if she did, she wouldn't be datin' Pig-boy. She might be a bit repressed, and Kuno's crap might've made her paranoid, but that's still no excuse fer going behind my back." Ranma's teeth clenched at that and he hurriedly stood up, moving to go through one of his katas.

After that he went back to the book, blushing at parts and forced to relief some pressure a time or two despite his roiling feelings at the girls he had left behind in Nerima. Nabiki for some reason particularly made him have control issues. He could remember all too easily the number of times she had been doing leg exercises or something else in his presence, wearing those yoga pants of hers…

While Ranma, after reading the first few chapters of the second book knew it would never work between them, she was easily one of the sexier girls he'd meet. Shampoo and Kodachi, the other two girls that fell in that category, scared him more than they aroused him. Kodachi was just insane, and Shampoo, she had gone from hunting him down for several months in order to kill him to hunting him for marriage. While the change made sense to her, it sure as hell hadn't to him at the time, and while he understood it from her point of view now, it was still bizarre to him now more than a year later.

The sun was high in the sky by the time Ranma had finished all he wanted to read in that book. A lot of it he didn't care about, such as how to act in public, how girls should act with boys they like and shit like that, but some of it was actually really helpful. "Have to think about getting Doc some kind of present fer helping me with this stuff. It answered a lot more questions than I had when I showed up at his door."

Ranma sighed, then pulled out one of the bentos that Tofu had left for him, before going through another kata, still needing to deal with some of his anger, strangely enough fueled by the food. He remembered how the others had tried to poison him with Akane's food so many times despite knowing how bad it was. And he remembered how Kasumi would always make him and his father delicious food but never really helped him otherwise, even when it would help calm down the issues all around them.

He sighed sadly, realizing that he wasn't close to dealing with his emotional issues. He felt he was somewhat in control of the other thing, his libido, but the emotional thing was still getting him. Yet even his libido control or whatever might need some work as well before he trusted himself in public. It seemed to come on him suddenly so Ranma wasn't ready to leave the jail just yet.

That was unfortunate because the rest of the world was ready to force him to rejoin it. Ranma looked up in dismay as the walls all around the jail cell were blasted apart. In one of the holes stood his Genma, followed by Soun, Happosai and Nodoka, Ranma was dismayed to see. That group was high on the list of people who evoked the most feelings in him.

The other holes were actually a relief in some ways, not so much in others. In one of them stood the Amazons, all three of them. In another working together for now at least were Akane and Ryoga of all people. And in the last was the two Kunos having made two separate holes in the same wall.

"I'll have to thank you son-in-law, your self-control going out of whack as it did today allowed us to find you much quicker than I had anticipated even with Nabiki, narrowing down our search to this area of Kyoto. Your self-control is normally ironclad," Cologne cackled. "I wonder what happened to make you go out of control like that."

"Boy!" shouted Genma, "You've run long enough, it's time to return and marry Akane as honor demands!"

"Ranma!" bellowed Ryoga from the other broken wall with Akane next to him. "How dare you make Akane cry!"

"You will tell me where you have spirited my air pigtailed goddess foul sorcerer!" Said Kuno from where he had broken through a wall as well.

Ranma glared all around them then noticed Happosai staring at him in shock. The old master and the young prodigy stared at one another for a moment then Happy shook his head, moving back and away rapidly, leaving his two stupid apprentices to deal with this.

How the Grandmaster had figured out at least a little bit of what had happened to Ranma was beyond him at present, though given his skills in other areas it wasn't that surprising. What was surprising was that Cologne wasn't aware, but Ranma guessed that was simply because she wasn't using her ki sight or whatever her version of that technique was.

However Ranma put that minor mystery to the side for now, his lips peeling back in a grin that showed all his teeth. Without Happosai involved, this battle just became a lot easier especially since I'm in no mood to hold back!

"Assholes." Ranma said cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders. "You lot picked the wrong moment to mess with me. I'd suggest ya take yer boyfriend and leave Akane, unless you don't want yer secret boyfriend to actually be good for anythin' in that area for a few months."

While Ryoga blustered and moved forward angrily Akane was frozen in shock. "How did you … I mean I don't know what you're…"

"Oh don't bother," Ranma said laughing coldly as everyone else turned to stare at the two accused. Even the wanna-be-samurai stopped pontificating for a moment staring in shock at Akane and Ryoga. "I heard you and Nabiki talking Akane, about how you had to put off the wedding until you could figure out a way to not have to pay the ¥170.5 billion debt that that oyaji somehow built up?"

Now everyone was looking at Genma who blanched. "I-I don't know what you're…"

"Yeah, I know money matters go over your head oyaji. So how about the five families near Osaka that you sold me to, or apparently the two families in Korea? Do ya remember them? By Hachiman, you spout on and on about family honor. What family honor did you actually leave us!?" Ranma roared.

"Quiet boy!" Genma bellowed, getting back into form. "I did it all for you and for the Art, life is hard on the road!"

"The Art is the only thing you ever did right oyaji." Ranma said shaking his head and moving back slightly to the side, so he could keep all the possible combatants within his line of sight. "I'll admit you taught me to be better than anyone else, but after this is all over, ya'll should probably talk to about the pressure points he used on me and what they'd done long term."

That caused Cologne's eyes to widen, and Ranma could feel, (gods he could actually feel it, his ki sense was through the roof! WHY?) when she began to use her ki sight like Happosai might have had done before, though Ranma hadn't felt anything from him. Almost immediately Cologne backed away, her face pale. She was so shocked she almost fell off her staff.

Cologne opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say was overridden by Kuno's haughty bellow. "Your small minded monetary concerns are not mine! You will release your hold on the pigtailed girl and you, you foul cur," he said, now pointing at Ryoga. "You have shown your true colors at last, ensorcelling the most glorious Akane as the pig-tailed knave hast done before. Release her from thy clutches, or prepare to face the justice of heaven!" In his hand he held a real katana for once.

Next to him Kodachi scoffed laughing her mad cackle as she stood there in the leotard that, despite himself made Ranma stare for a moment, though he thankfully did not react physically, her cackle saw to that. "HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Brother dear, if you harm a hair on Ranma-sama's head, I will tie you up and feed you to Mr. Turtle! He's been looking peaky lately. As for your harlot, if Ranma-sama will agree to go out with me, I will deal with her as she should be dealt with, and the pigtailed girl as well should she show such stupidity as to show herself in front of me!"

Ranma's teeth ground together, irritation rising within him. Thankfully at that point Ryoga had enough and charged forward. "How dare you make those accusations Ranma, I'll kill you!"

"Bring it on Ryoga!" Ranma shouted back, leaping to meet him with a kick to the face that Ryoga only barely got his hands up in time to block. Even so the power of the kick threw him backwards. But Ryoga was a good enough martial artist to roll with it.

While fell backwards Ryoga's hands flashed from the front from guarding his face to the back of his head pulling off two of his bandannas. They quickly hardened it into weapons stronger than steel and he hurled them at Ranma.

But Ranma dodged them easily, smirking that arrogant grin that always irritated his opponents. "You're going to have to do better than that Piggy!"

"Ranma don't you dare pick on Ryoga!" Akane said getting over her shock at her and Ryoga's relationship being outed like this to charge forward, her mallet at the ready.

"I attack!" said Kuno, jumping forward with his own blade.

"Ranma, how dare you lead on Shampoo and get in the way of Akane and Ryoga's pure love!" Mousse shouted his hands suddenly full of knives.

"Aiyah, you come home with me now, airen, if kitchen destroyer and spatula girl not interested in you anymore, you and I now can live alone and no one be bothering us!" Shampoo said, entering the fight, though she aimed for Akane rather than moving after Ranma.

Genma grimly charged forward with his friend at his side. "You will come back and do the honorable thing boy!" He neglected to say what the honorable thing was in this case however. Despite not truly being able to control himself from reacting as he normally would, i.e. putting all the blame on Ranma, Genma had actually heard Ranma's accusation against Akane, and even more surprisingly he had seen the truth of them. But that wasn't enough to make him stop thinking about Ranma as his meal ticket.

Smirking Ranma dodged Akane's blow, jumping up to meet his father in midair. He batted his hands to either side before mule kicking the older man in the face using the momentum to springboard further into the air. Doing a role in midair Ranma blocked a throwing knife from Mousse then twirled, grabbing the end of the ribbonthat Kodachi had just shot at him for some reason, pulling it out of her hand easily.

Using the same technique that Ryoga had the ribbon quickly hardened into a long pole, which slammed into Mousse's head sending him sprawling to the ground. "If you want me to go back with you oyaji then you're going to have to take me by force!" he said, now standing on top of the ribbon/pole, balancing easily.

His mother had paused thoughtfully, staring at Akane coldly. When she spoke it was in a calm tone of voice as if the battle before her was simply background noise. "Obviously if Akane has chosen to cheat on my son in such a manner, then she is no longer in consideration to marry him. But the Tendo household has two other daughters, and certainly one of them might prove suitable. As for the other accusation, I would have to see proof of that before believing my husband could be so lacking in common sense and honor as to build up a debt of that size. Regardless Ranma, you will be coming home with us."

"I'm never returning to that place!" Ranma bellowed, punching out hard at the Kuno, catching him on the chin and smashing his head into the angle of one of Akane's mallet blows, which sent him flying through the ceiling of the increasingly abused jail. "Besides, I could never inflict my crazy life on Kasumi, as much as she coulda helped me I can't say I wouldn't've done the same if I wanted my life ta be normal. And as sexy as Nabiki is, she and I'd get on like oil and water!"

Ranma used Mousse's back as a springboard to leap over Shampoo who had turned to attack him when he said that. "Silly Airen not talk about other womens like that in front of Amazon wife!"

He landed directly behind her, grabbing her around the waist for a second and whispering in her ear. "Sorry Shampoo, you might've had a chance with me before if I hadn't had those pressure points on me, but there's been too much bad blood and too much damn magic between us."

Feeling daring and still riding the high of having his emotions and feelings and above all his released libido at that moment, he reached down and smacked her on the ass, causing her to squeak a little in a very un-Amazon manner before he leaped away from Mousse's enraged assault. He absently noted that the boy had actually thrown the kitchen sink at him that time. Oh, and several kitchen knives. "Did you ransack someone's kitchen Mousse?"

"How dare you treat Shampoo so?!"

Shampoo for her part seemed to be caught between outrage, some other emotion that Ranma had never seen on her face, and amusement. However she turned, twirling her maces meaningfully. "If Airen want touch Shampoo's rear, all need do is ask, but must take on date first!"

Ranma laughed, euphoric. Not about smacking Shampoo's ass, though the feel of it on his palm was something he knew he'd remember. No what was making him laugh was the fact that he was taking all of his opponents on, every one of his normal sparring partners, friends, enemies whatever the term really was for their dysfunctional group, in neutral! It was so easy! Those pressure points might've helped me learn when I was younger, but it's obvious they were holding me back now!

He knew he wasn't really in his right mind just yet. He hadn't had the time to really get to grips with his emotions completely, simply get them under control a bit, he knew there was a difference in the two. And whenever he looked over at Akane his grief and rage came back, though the rage was slowly receding into simply a dead sort of sadness coupled with a dark humor.

"My son," said his mother in a loud voice to carry over the din of battle. "It isn't very manly to ignore your mother!"

To everyone else there it was as if Ranma suddenly teleported in front of her. His eyes were still red-rimmed from his emotional roller coaster. Indeed, tears were still streaking down his face despite the manic snarl on his face while he confronted one of the people in his life he was most enraged at and feeling betrayed by. "Really? Then exactly, in a single sentence or less, explain what 'manly' is supposed to be! It seems ta change every day with whoever the hell you're talking to and your moods save for the perverted crap that makes it sound like your idea of manly is like a fucking hentai tentacle demon!"

"None of that!" His mother said, making the same mistake that her husband had in falling back into old routines. "I am your mother, you will obey me!"

"That sounds more like I'm supposed to be your slave rather than your son!" Ranma bellowed into her face, then back flipped up into the air to avoid Ryoga's furious charge, watching with a laugh as Ryoga slammed into his mother.

Mousse and Akane attacked him from behind while Shampoo was ensnarled by Kodachi's second ribbon. Dodging under some kind of pole-weapon seeking his head, Ranma angrily shattered Akane's mallet with a single finger. He stared furiously into Akane's shocked eyes for a moment. "I thought I loved you! Lucky me I think I was wrong, you cheating, lying shit! You and Nabiki are so alike it's not even funny!"

There was a bellow behind him as Genma extricated himself from the rubble of the wall that Ranma had thrown him into. "Boy, you will come back to Nerima with us!"

The battle went on from there, moving through and destroying more of the prison, until they broke out into what must have been the exercise area. Watching as the remaining combatant's chased out Ranma sighed sadly, a sudden realization hitting him. They'll never stop. They'll never stop coming after me. The Amazons can track and Genma ain't exactly a slouch in that area. They'll just keep following me rather than admit I don't want anything to do with them!

For a moment his eyes flicked over to where his mother was being helped along by Cologne, glaring angrily at Ryoga who had rejoined the battle without even making certain she was alright. I don't want ta have anything to do with any of them, users, abusers, deluded fools the lot! I'll be the first to admit I ain't perfect, I know I've got problems, but at least I'm starting to get over 'em. But none of these people'll ever let me go!

A sudden thought hit him. The Nanban mirror!

By this point his father and Ryoga were both on him again. But Ranma weaved between their blows, a snap kick lashing out before becoming over 500 similar kicks hammering into Ryoga's chest throwing him backwards into Mousse. The male Amazon had been trying to use Ryoga as cover for a moment to get in close with a pair of extremely large sabers of some kind.

Ranma was now moving faster. No longer coasting in neutral he dealt with his father brutally. Even so, Genma was a martial arts master. Say whatever you would about his morals, his ability to think things through, his personal courage and his general attitude towards women, he still was one of the finest martial artists living. He kept up with Ranma blow for blow for a time, but he didn't have the sheer endurance or the depths of ki that Ranma had.

He began to falter somewhat as the two dropped back to the ground and when they landed he made a mistake. Genma looked down wincing at his hands for just a second, and Ranma pounced.

"Moko Takabashi!" he bellowed, thrusting out his hands. Rather than a basketball sized ball of ki or even an ovoid with a similar circumference what came out of Ranma's hands was a wave of power, slamming into Genma and carrying him up backwards roaring in pain.

For just a moment everyone paused in shock and Ranma took advantage of it. Reaching into one of his ki pockets he quickly pulled out the shattered mirror, which he kept in a small specialized segment of his ki-space. The mirror had originally been a tool that Happosai had used to try and return to the past for some reason Ranma couldn't remember, but Cologne had said it was also able to travel in space as well. All the user had to do was cry on it, wishing to be somewhere else, and it would do the work.

Unfortunately, the mirror had been broken slightly when they went to the past after Happosai, and it had barely been able to work long enough to get them to back to their own time. Even so, Ranma had carefully gathered the pieces of the mirror, gluing it back together over time and keeping it safe in his ki space, which he had learned from observing Mousse a few weeks before that.

Ranma knew it was a long shot, but what else could he try to completely throw his oyaji and the Amazon's off his trail? Ranma thought he might have to force himself to cry or something, only to lift a hand to his face and wipe away a tear realizing with a jolt he had never stopped since confronting his mother. He stared hard at all of them, lingering most on Akane and his mother and said simply. "Take me somewhere, take me somewhere I can find acceptance, where I'm needed!"

The mirror began to glow, shaking in Ranma's hands as bits and pieces of it began to glow brighter than others and he winced as it somehow began to drain ki from him to power it. It was obviously on its last legs, and for a moment Ranma feared his desperate gamble wouldn't work despite feeling the drain.

But that wasn't his only problem because he had stayed in one place for too long. "Shi-Shi Hakoden!" Shouted Ryoga, having pushed himself to his feet again.

Like Ranma's earlier attack this wasn't a sphere of power but a wave, powered far more by Ryoga's depression than raw power in this vase. Even so Ranma couldn't dodge it, and the blast zoomed towards Ranma. Yet instead of hitting him it disappeared as if being sucked into a vacuum cleaner by the mirror, merging with the light coming from it. There was a sound of breaking glass, then a tearing noise, and suddenly Ranma was gone.

It was that simple, after the noise and the lights receded enough to let everyone see there wasn't anything there. The mirror was gone save for a few small fragments of glass falling from where Ranma had stood holding the mirror but they disappeared before they even landed on the cobblestones. There was no rubble, no hint that Ranma had ever been there. He was simply gone.

Cologne and happy looked at one another from where they were sitting on one of the nearby rooftops giving them a birds eye view of the battle. "That was odd," Cologne said blandly, though her face showed her shock. "I wouldn't have thought the old mirror had any power left to it."

"Do you know when was it made?" Happosai asked.

"Sometime during the Xia Dynasty, that's about all I know for certain. Why?"

"Sometimes those old magic devices are able to use ki as a secondary power source. In the early days there wasn't much of a difference between the two disciplines I've heard. Before even my time!" Happy cackled, shaking his head. "I think the wild horse has well and truly found a way to get out of the bridle."

"And that doesn't bother you?" Cologne asked cocking her head.

Happy smiled blandly around his pipe, holding out of the pouch of tobacco which Cologne took gratefully. "It bothers me somewhat I'll admit. He was the finest martial artist of his generation, and certainly the finest one my school's ever produced at such a young age! Still, it isn't as if Genma's without his good points, and there are a few other practitioners out there."

"And the fact that two of those practitioners are young and nubile girls has nothing to do with your attitude?"

"Of course not!" Happosai said with a laugh shaking his head. "I'll miss the boy, but after those pressure points were released…" He shook his head. "I couldn't control him, I simply couldn't have kept up with him for very long. I'm old and even with my ki-leaching technique I doubt I'd have the endurance to last long. The Boy had as much ki as Herb for Kami-sama's sake! I'm a letch but I'm not stupid. What about yourself? You've tried for even longer that I've been around Nerima to get him to pair up with your granddaughter, haven't you?"

"Yes but now I know at least part of the reason why our ploys never worked." Cologne said glaring down to where Genma was moving around rapidly, trying to pick up the trail while angrily shouting at the others. "Genma and I will have words about that, and given the events here, I doubt the Council will be angry with me. Especially if I have Genma's testimony however willing or no."

"Leave him in enough pieces for him to be useful to me my dear, and I won't get in your way."

Down below people were beginning to realize that Ranma was really gone, and they had no clue as to where he went. From Ryoga, Mousse and the returned Kuno there was jubilation though in Kuno's case it was tempered by the knowledge that the pigtailed girl might well be out of his reach as well. Kodachi was still unconscious elsewhere in the former prison.

For Akane there was anger, a lot of anger. She'd wanted to pound Ranma herself, his disappearing like this was a copout in her opinion. On the other hand, he was out of the way for good apparently. That meant she and Ryoga could come out into the open about the relationship and she wouldn't have to deal with the pervert's actions, or his freaky-ass friends. In other words, her life might actually return to normal.

She conveniently neglected to remember that Kuno had been bothering her long before Ranma had shown up. Or that a lot of the other craziness seems to revolve around an area itself rather than Ranma.

Shampoo however was looking crestfallen and angry. She turned to glare angrily at Genma and Akane, her maces gripped in her hands so hard their shafts almost warped in her grip. Mousse's glomping onto her however gave her another target. "With Ranma out of the way we can be free to act on our feelings for one another, my love! Now let us GAHHH!"

While Shampoo proceeded to make a very bloody mess of her would-be-paramour Nodoka slumped to the ground, staring at where Ranma had been in shock, rising horror and, far more powerful than either of those emotions, guilt. "What have I done, what have I done?"