*** Earth  0.000,0.000

A soft breeze blew gently from the east across the grassy, sunlit 
plateau as Shampoo thrust her foot up into the air, the cloth of her 
pants rustling crisply at her kick.  She held that pose for a single 
moment, her body perfectly poised as she balanced on her other foot, 
holding her right leg at nearly full extension.  The blow would have 
shattered a ribcage, if there had been a foe at the receiving end.

A moment later, she began executing a dazzling series of moves, weaving 
through punches, elbow strikes, kicks, blocks, parries, and evasions in 
a flowing blur of motion.  Her fists and feet struck outwards all 
around her with precision and power, mingling linear and circular 
techniques together into a single, graceful stream of movement, driving 
her blows without a hint of wasted energy.

Finishing the exercise, Shampoo came to a rest, bringing the palms of 
her hands together as if in prayer, her head slightly bowed.  Her own 
mother had taught her the core movements of the exercise many years 
ago, back when she had first learned to walk, for it was the way of her 
people to begin training children how to fight from a young age.  Such 
traditions kept the village strong.  Shampoo often used it to find her 
center whenever she felt troubled by anything.

A short distance away, Ensign Shan Pu sat on a smooth boulder, having 
watched Shampoo go through the exercise.  It was identical to one she 
had once seen used before at a martial arts demonstration given at the 
Academy by some of the Joketsuzoku Sisterhood, an all-female order of 
warrior-mystics founded some three thousand years ago, back when the 
Matriarchy first flowered on her Earth.  It saddened her a bit, to see 
the Joketsuzoku here reduced to little more than a feeble remnant of 
the Matriarchy's greatness that she remembered, sidelined in favor of a 
male-dominated paradigm by some cruel vagary of this world's history.

"<You are being very quiet,>" Shampoo said suddenly in Chinese, opening 
her eyes and looking at her uniformed twin.

"<I was just thinking.>"

"<About what?>"  Shampoo began another combat exercise as she spoke, 
one that brought in techniques from the many styles she had come into 
contact with through her time in the Arena.  She managed to seamlessly 
flow them together, a sign of how far her skills had improved since 
leaving her village and learning more about the martial arts than she 
had ever before imagined was available to learn from the world outside 
its walls.

"<I suppose I'm feeling guilty for stealing your life.>"  Ensign Shan 
looked down at her hands folded in her lap.  They were strong hands, a 
skilled warrior's hands.  At the Academy, she had been the very best 
barehanded fighter in her training class, but she knew in her heart 
that her skill was barely a quarter of that possessed by her analog.  
Now those abilities were hers, and she felt like a thief.

Shampoo laughed briefly, startling the other girl.  "Mirror Girl is 
too, too silly," she said, briefly shifting to Japanese in her mirth.

"<Silly?  What do you mean?>"  Ensign Shan looked at her other self, 
startled at the response to her words.  Why wasn't she mad?

Shampoo paused in her exercise and looked at Ensign Shan, a serious 
look on her face.  "<How could I refuse to help an Amazon sister?>"

Ensign Shan was surprised again at Shampoo's words.  "<But I'm not an 
Amazon.  Not really.>"

"<You come from a world where women rule over men, and you don't think 
you're an Amazon?>"  Shampoo grinned for a moment, and then her face 
lapsed into a serious look again.  "<I forgive you your trespass, my 
other self.>"

Ensign Shan was stunned at the ease of Shampoo's acceptance.  It took 
her a few moments to find her voice again.  "<As soon as I can locate 
the source of the resonator technology on this world, I can contact the 
Matriarchy and guide them here.  They should be able to extract my 
memories from you and put them back into my original body.  It will be 
like I was never here, except maybe for some random bits and pieces.>"

"<Then you are my guest,>" Shampoo replied, nodding in acceptance.  She 
sat down on the boulder in a lotus position.  "<Tell me more about this 
Matriarchy of yours.>"

Ensign Shan began to speak.  "<Well, according to our best records, it 
all began some three thousand years ago, when a Solnoid vessel with its 
crew in cold sleep crash-landed in ancient China...>"

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

Shampoo woke to a rolling sound of thunder, hearing rain slashing wetly 
at the window.  For a moment, she thought she was back in the village, 
and she wondered why her great-grandmother had let her sleep in so late 
in the morning.  Then she blinked quite suddenly and sat up, her silk 
negligee falling open in front a bit as she turned back her covers and 
rolled out of her bed into a sitting position on its edge.  Her bare 
feet came to rest on the smooth hardwood floor of her modest apartment, 
with a view overlooking Tokyo's fabulous Imperial Battledome.  It was 
on a floor far above the dormitory levels where most fighters lived and 
shared quarters, a courtesy of the Arena for one of her high status in 
the rankings.

She sat there, feeling confused.  She wasn't Shampoo, a Joketsuzoku 
Amazon warrior.  Or was she?  Her awareness seemed oddly split between 
two parallel points of view, and she struggled to remember if this was 
normal for a resonator-induced merger of two consciousnesses.  As she 
sat there, the confusion began to ease, memories of two different lives 
gradually sliding together into a rough semblance of order.  For the 
time being, they settled.

Shampoo stood up, shaking her head slightly.  She still remembered once 
being Ensign Shan, but the memories seemed less important to her, less 
vivid than those of her life here.  Her analog's life, she very quickly 
amended, blinking for a moment as a slight case of vertigo assailed her 
once again.  Merger was always an uncertain process, she recalled from 
one of Ensign Shan's classes, and the human mind was a very complex 
instrument.

Stripping off her negligee as she headed for the bathroom, Shampoo 
tossed it into the hamper basket by the door, pausing for a moment next 
to it to slide off her panties and drop them in as well.  Standing up 
straight, she flipped her long hair back out of her eyes with a hand, 
thinking to braid it today for a change of pace, especially since she 
had a match to fight tonight.  The crowd loved it for some reason 
whenever she wore her hair in a braid, since she sometimes used it to 
taunt her opponents.

Stepping into the bathroom, she stopped before the full-length dressing 
mirror and took a few moments to admire her figure and its shapeliness, 
from the generously endowed but youthfully firm breasts set high on her 
chest, down to her trimly muscular, long legs.  She smiled coyly as she 
slowly turned about in place, looking herself over.  She experienced 
another brief flutter of vertigo at the sight and decided that a hot 
shower would help her put things back into proper perspective.  She 
reached into the shower stall and twisted the knob over to the right, 
stepping under the steaming stream when it reached the temperature she 
liked.

Shampoo's thoughts briefly drifted to Ryu Kumon while she lathered up 
her hair and body with a lavender-scented soap, her favorite fragrance.  
After feeling that initial flare of attraction towards him, she had 
been disappointed when he hadn't proven himself strong enough to defeat 
her in battle.  After months of hearing Running Deer and some of the 
other girls that competed in the Arena talk about their boyfriends (or 
male conquests in certain cases), she felt a bit left out.  While she 
was an Amazon, and as fierce a combatant as any other fighter in the 
Arena, she carried within her the same dreams of finding love that any 
other girl did.  However, the main difference between her dream mate 
and theirs was that the man she chose had to first prove himself strong 
enough to be worthy of her love.

After all, her own mother had found such a man in her own father, who 
was acknowledged as the strongest man in their village, earning her 
mother great honor and respect for having taken such a good husband to 
father her children.  But, unlike almost every other couple in the 
village, after her parents had wed, her mother had never domesticated 
her father into being a proper Amazon husband, preferring an element of 
untamed freedom in her chosen man, which was scandalous to the more 
conservative members of the tribe.  Theirs was more or less an equal 
sort of partnership, and the happiness they shared together had left a 
deep impression on Shampoo.

That was why, when she was still a very young girl, Shampoo had vowed 
that she too would find a man to marry who was strong like her father, 
to have a man who could stand at her side instead of behind her, like 
the typical servile male that most other Amazons turned their husbands 
into.  That being said, she hoped she found him soon, so she could 
finally end her nights of sleeping alone.  She had managed to hold off 
her frustrated sexual desires up until now by maintaining a rigorous 
training regimen, but it didn't help her peace of mind any to now have 
Ensign Shan's memories of bedding a comfort male, an erotic reminder of 
what she was missing by not having a mate to call her own.

While she rinsed the soap from her body and hair with jets of hot water 
from the sprayer, Shampoo's hand brushed across the tiny bump of the 
contraceptive implant on the inside of her upper arm.  She had ceased 
noticing it some time ago, and only noticed it now because of her new 
awareness of even the smallest aspects of her own life.  Such implants 
were a mandatory birth control method in the Empire for all unmarried 
persons, starting at the age of thirteen, slowly dissolving away over 
time and requiring replacement every three years.  But her village was 
so remote that she had not received hers until she had first arrived at 
Tokyo's Battledome.  That she was still a virgin despite its presence 
was by her own choice, a part of the oath she had sworn to herself when 
she was younger, to wait and yield up her virginity only to the man who 
could defeat her, to honor him with it when she claimed him as her 
husband.

With Ensign Shan's memories now mingled with her own, Shampoo now knew 
better what she had been denying herself.  Before, she had only known 
about the pleasures shared between a man and a woman in an abstract 
sort of way, through the occasional stories that some of the other 
girls had told her about what it was like to have intimate relations 
with a man.  Even back home in her village, some of the older girls had 
bragged about their experiences with the local boys, leaving a younger 
Shampoo to wonder about what it would feel like to bed one.  And while 
her mother had told her the mechanics of what to expect, hearing about 
it and feeling it were two entirely different things.

Such thoughts of home and her mother caused her mind to drift off into 
pleasant imaginings of her eventual triumphant return to her village, 
hopefully with her new husband in tow.  In her brief fantasy, he was a 
handsome trophy of her time spent in the outside world, and every other 
Amazon in the village would be envious of her success in finding such a 
man, especially her most bitter arch-rival, the pink-haired Peh Fum.  
Rubbing her triumph in the other girl's face would be one of the best 
parts of the whole experience, if it ever happened.  But that would 
require a man strong enough to best her, and Shampoo was growing very 
doubtful that any male near her age could possess such ability.

However, even if such a one appeared and somehow managed to defeat her, 
her return to the village would still have to wait until after she had 
managed to deal with the Musk agents, wherever they were lurking.  Once 
that matter was concluded, she would seek out the resonator technology 
that was somewhere on this world, use it to contact the Matriarchy, and 
then turn it over to them.  Once her memories of being Ensign Shan were 
removed, then she would allow herself to relax and settle back in the 
village with her hoped for future husband, her duty complete, to live 
out her dreams.
 
Shampoo sighed happily at the pleasant thought of having children, and 
of having a strong husband to love her and be loved by her.  Every 
night after they were married would be spent enjoying long hours of 
sweaty, amorous exertions with him as they each learned how to satisfy 
the other's every carnal desire.  She and her future husband would work 
hard at that, as many times a night as their stamina lasted, hopefully 
producing several strong daughters together during their future years 
with each other.  And who knew?  Perhaps someday she might even take 
over her mother's duties as the Enforcer for the Amazon Council, or 
maybe even become a Matriarch herself.

As she showered, Shampoo began singing a song she had heard on the 
radio the other day.

"Yap-pap-paa yap-pap-paa ishanten..."


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Quantum Destinies
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
By Steven Thesken (quantumdestinies@cox.net)

Ranma 1/2 and its characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi.  This story 
is inspired by her works and the stories from some of my fellow fanfic 
authors.  Among these are D.B. Sommer's "Shampoo 1/2", Jim Bader's "A 
Very Scary Thought -aka- Nabiki 1/2", and John Biles' Elseworlds 
series.  All C&C is welcome.

Other chapters of this story may be found at this website, or you can 
email the author for them:

The Quantum Destinies Homepage
http://members.cox.net/quantumdestinies/


The list of worlds reoccurring in this chapter:
Earth  0.000,0.000 - The world of Scholar Ranma (Baseline cluster)
Earth +1.612,+1.509 - The world of Shampoo 1/2 (Shampoo 1/2 cluster)


What has gone before in this story (or at least what will help you 
understand what is going on):

On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over 
five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world 
and has done so for almost a century.  Theorizing that one could travel 
to alternate timelines by possessing counterparts in them, a young 
scientist named Ranma Saotome, through use of a device of his own 
invention, accidentally obtained the skills and memories of a martial 
artist version of himself.  Ranko has become a girl cut loose in time.  
Akane learned the secret of Nabiki's engagement to Ranma and plotted 
her revenge.  Genma was reunited with his best friend, promising 
further complexities on both timelines.  His scheme attracted the 
attention of a few new players, and they have come looking for Ranma's 
resonator technology, one of them wearing a face very familiar to him.  
Finally, Ryoko Masaki brought home a guest, as the cast of players drew 
closer together.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 20 - Of Cats and Women

     Men always want to be a woman's first love.  Women like
     to be a man's last romance.

                              - Oscar Wilde

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


A figure suddenly appeared at the top of one of the walls surrounding 
the Kuno estate, as rain sluiced down from the skies.  A bright flash 
of lightning briefly illuminated Ranma's face as his gaze studied the 
grounds.  A dark rain slicker he was wearing had kept him mostly dry 
while he made his way here.  It billowed slightly around him as he 
hopped down from the wall and began making his way to the house.

A shadowy personage watched Ranma pass by while remaining well-hidden, 
one of the Kuno Family's numerous ninja retainers.  The hand that had 
drifted to grasp the hilt of a sword moved back to a neutral posture, 
when another bright flash of lightning revealed the face of the young 
intruder to the guard's sight.  That face was known to them all, and 
strict and explicit orders had been given by the young mistress to 
allow him access to the manor at any hour, day or night.

Ranma paused near the guard's position, sensing danger for a moment, 
but then it seemed to pass, and he continued on his way to the main 
house.  He leaped up to the trees after taking several squelching steps 
on the muddy ground of the enormous lawns that surrounded the mansion.  
Leaping from tree to tree, he advanced towards his goal, Kodachi's 
bedroom.  He hoped she wouldn't misinterpret his sudden appearance, 
remembering her teasing words from the last time he had visited her.  
But he needed to use the resonator, and he would not have time after 
school, because of his scheduled date with Nabiki then.

The window to Kodachi's bedroom was unlocked and opened easily at his 
touch, swinging inward quietly.  He shed his outer garb and shoes on 
the small balcony, not wishing to tread mud and water into the finery 
of Kodachi's bedroom.  Gloom cloaked him as he stepped in quietly and 
looked around, pausing a moment to shut the window behind him, unable 
to make out very much in the darkness cast by the heavy curtains that 
covered the windows.  He remembered the general layout of the room from 
his last time visiting, and he slowly made his way to the bed, hoping 
to wake Kodachi quietly, without waking everyone else in the house as 
well by startling her.  He could not see her as he approached, only the 
vaguest shape that he knew was the enormous Western-style bed she slept 
in.

Something snapped Kodachi awake from the pleasant dream she had been 
enjoying, and she opened her eyes into thin slits to behold a menacing 
figure lurking in the dark shadows of her room.  It drew towards her, 
but she could not make out who it was in the darkness.  Rain slashed 
against her window, and there was a distant rumble of thunder.  Fear 
briefly gripped her, and she pulled the covers up higher over her face. 
But then Sukeban-Kodachi's bravado awakened within her.  Without making 
a sound, she slipped from her bed, on the far side from the intruder's 
approach.  She would deal with whoever had dared invade her chambers by 
herself, feeling no need to shout for help.

Ranma froze, sensing a sudden danger in the room.  His eyes had still 
not adjusted to the nearly nonexistent levels of light.  He scanned the 
area around him, seeking to penetrate the gloom while he also listened 
for the faintest scraps of sound, clues that would reveal the location 
of the danger.  A desire to protect Kodachi filled him, as he slowly 
turned in place, wondering who else was in the room with him and the 
young noblewoman.  As a noble, Kodachi could have made enemies.  Ranma 
had heard stories of the vendettas that occurred between noble houses.

Kodachi made her way quietly behind her assailant, her body clothed in 
nothing more than her silky black negligee.  She wondered who had dared 
to violate the sanctity of her bedchamber like this.  It could not have 
been Ranma.  He was too much of a gentleman to show up in her room at 
such an early hour, even if they were engaged, especially after how he 
had responded to her teasing the last time he had visited her.  It was 
likely either that perverted Ukyo or one of those thuggish Tendo girls, 
intending her some mischief.  It might even be that treacherous Asuka 
Saginomiya, finally attempting to exact revenge for the last beating 
that she had received at Kodachi's hands.  But still, what sort of a 
dishonorable wretch would sneak into someone else's room at night and 
attack them while they were lying in their own bed?

Ranma's first warning of an attack was a faint rustling of cloth.  His 
body bent back sharply to dodge a flying kick as an unseen foe struck 
at him.  Not wanting to scare Kodachi from her sleep by shouting to 
her, he remained silent even as he prepared to fight back, hoping he 
could finish off his opponent quickly, without making too much noise 
and waking her.  All but blind in the darkness, he could only rely on 
his ears and other senses for guidance.

Her initial surprise attack having been thwarted, Kodachi shifted her 
weight and flipped backwards, but her backwards somersault kick was 
deflected by a block, skillfully executed by her unseen opponent.  A 
wolfish smile lit her face as she leaped back on the offensive with her 
adversary, wishing she could see their face as she unleashed attack 
after attack.  All she could make out with her eyes was a vague shadow, 
but her ears were sharp.  Her mother had been training her in the skill 
of blindfighting.  A momentary breath or a whisper of cloth moving was 
all she needed to target her opponent with deadly accuracy.

Whoever was attacking him was good, Ranma quickly realized, narrowly 
dodging aside from another kick.  A quick series of side and backflip 
kicks flashed out at him from the darkness as his adversary maneuvered 
agilely around him, and he silently cursed at being hindered like this 
by the dim lighting, even as he evaded and blocked them.  His foe 
seemed much better able to fight in such conditions than he was.  He 
debated using the boost, but held off for now, since it seemed like 
cheating, now that he knew what it was.

Kodachi finally scored, managing to hit her foe across the face with a 
blow from her fist.  She had been keeping her distance by relying more 
on kicks to maintain her range, but they were proving to be too slow to 
deliver effectively against her unseen opponent.  A quiver of emotion 
akin to arousal ran through her as she felt her fist striking solidly 
into flesh, and she could feel something begin to stir in the back of 
her brain, like a sort of buzzing.  It swiftly seemed to fill her whole 
head, and moments later she abruptly boosted, feeling her muscles tense 
and a godlike feeling of invincibility enter her.  She swiftly moved in 
close to her suddenly much slower-moving adversary and began delivering 
several punishing body blows while her opponent was still off-balance, 
striking hard into the floating ribs and stomach.

Ranma revised his adversary's abilities upwards even as he struggled to 
get the initiative in this fight.  Unable to connect with his elusive 
foe with punches or kicks, he shifted over to grappling maneuvers when 
his adversary suddenly drew closer and began punching him in a powerful 
hailstorm of blows.  They rained into his torso with enormous force, 
and one just missed his solar plexus.  He managed to get a hold of one 
of his foe's arms, and he was puzzled when he only felt bare skin.  Was 
his opponent naked?

Her arm caught, Kodachi suddenly shifted in and delivered a brutal knee 
strike low into her foe's gut, narrowly missing the groin area, hoping 
to free herself.  Her ears were rewarded with a sharp gasp of breath, 
but the off-center blow didn't take as much fight out of her opponent 
as she had been hoping.  Then, before she knew what had happened, her 
other arm was caught.

Pain ached fiercely in his belly as Ranma tried to catch his breath, 
angry now after nearly losing his manhood.  If his unseen foe's last 
attack had struck much lower, the fight would have been all over at 
that point, likely leaving him utterly helpless and retching up the 
contents of his stomach on the floor.  No longer caring about fairness, 
he boosted, and the added speed and strength finally allowed him to 
catch his adversary's other arm.  When his foe abruptly shifted weight 
to try and shake him loose, both of them ended up tumbling to the floor 
instead.

The two figures immediately began struggling and grappling with each 
other savagely on the floor, engaging in a brutal contest as they both 
brought their boosted abilities fully into play, each still unable to 
tell who they were fighting with in the gloom but now no longer caring.  
A vicious palm strike struck Ranma across the face, but he quickly 
recovered and regained his grip on the offending limb that had briefly 
escaped from his grasp to deliver the blow.  During the struggle, Ranma 
had become aware that his enemy was somewhat smaller than he was, and 
that there was something familiar about the shape that kept nagging at 
the back of his mind.  But in his current mental mode he was unable to 
get his thoughts together enough to figure out why, the boost driving 
him to an aggressive state that precluded other concerns.

Eventually, after a fierce struggle, he managed to muscle his adversary 
down and pinned to the ground, and both of them paused to catch their 
breath.  Ranma felt an intense thrill of excitement coursing through 
him at his apparent victory, surging past the veil of semi-controlled 
savagery that he was coming to grow used to, that the boost cast over 
his thoughts whenever he unleashed it.  He savored the sweet feeling 
for a few brief moments, a visceral sensation that bordered on sexual 
arousal.

Kodachi panted softly for a few moments as her lungs scavenged oxygen 
from the air, readying herself to renew her assault.  Whoever she was 
fighting with was a bit larger than she was, which ruled out either of 
the two villainous Tendo girls or even that cross-dressing barbarian, 
Ukyo.  There was something nagging at the back of her mind about the 
identity of her foe, but it refused to resolve into clarity while her 
mind was caught up in the boost, briefly contemplating her position and 
how best to escape it so that she could savage her adversary for this 
indignity.  Her wrists were pinned to the ground by a strong grip and 
her body was weighted down by her foe's weight resting on her hips.  
Her legs were spread apart, leaving her unable to work a knee up in 
between her opponent's legs to deliver a disabling blow to the groin.

A quiver of arousal was surging through her at the position she found 
herself in, and the shock of embarrassment somehow managed to penetrate 
her awareness, even though it still remained in thrall to the effects 
of the boost.  After all, despite the recent change in her relationship 
with her mother, and the new candor they were developing with each 
other, she had been brought up to believe that well-bred young ladies 
were not supposed to become aroused from wrestling around on the floor, 
like some kind of plebian tramp.  She nibbled guiltily at her lower 
lip, wondering what her mother would say if she ever found out about 
this.  She tensed her body, preparing to throw her foe off her.

A sudden flash of lightning lit the room through a narrow part in the 
curtains, and each combatant finally saw their opponent clearly for the 
first time.

Two pairs of eyes went wide simultaneously, and both of them suddenly 
dropped out of boost from sheer surprise.  The shock of the moment even 
dulled the chemical backlash in their bodies as the serums, endorphins, 
and adrenaline that had been flooding their bloodstreams suddenly began 
to clear.

Ranma's gaze was momentarily filled with the stark image of Kodachi, 
her nubile body pinned down to the ground underneath him, and his brain 
froze in sudden sensory overload.

Kodachi saw Ranma looming over her in the flash of lightning, and she 
was immediately caught up in powerful, conflicting emotions, her cheeks 
blushing more fiercely than ever before, as her brain abruptly locked 
up.  For several moments she could not tell if this was real life or 
one of the many fantasies she had experienced concerning him.

"K-Kodachi," stuttered Ranma after several long moments, finding his 
voice first.  His mind was suddenly filled with memory flashes of two 
other versions of the girl pinned underneath him: one that had tried to 
feed him to an alligator, and another one that had tried to feed him to 
a murderous mutant plant of her own creation.  He shook his head and 
very quickly released his grip on Kodachi's wrists, but ending up still 
half-laying on her with his hands awkwardly resting flat on the ground.

Kodachi's emotions grew even more confused, now that she knew it was 
Ranma she had been struggling with, grateful that he was unable to see 
her blush blazing in the darkness surrounding them.  She whispered, in 
a very soft voice, "S-Saotome-kun."  What was she supposed to do in 
this type of situation?  She tried to think, but it was difficult with 
him still lying on top of her like this.  The weight of his hips still 
rested on top of hers, pinning them down and maintaining her arousal.

"I-I'm sorry," he continued to stutter.  "I d-didn't know it was you."  
He really should be getting off of her, he absently realized, but his 
body was sending his brain insistent urges opposing that action right 
now, confounding him.  Their hips had become nestled together during 
their struggle, and now that intimate positioning was suddenly arousing 
him even further, even as he futilely struggled to will his manhood 
from responding, to hold himself back from doing what his body was now 
screaming at him to do.  It was all he could seem to manage to keep 
himself from groping Kodachi as he awkwardly held himself above her.

Timidly, Kodachi broke the deadlock first as she slowly reached up, 
allowing her fingers to gently brush against Ranma's face in the 
darkness.  "I-I didn't know it was you either, Saotome-kun," she said 
softly.  Her body was feeding her brain too many sensations to catalog 
at the moment, so she was content to remain exactly as they were and 
simply enjoy them.  She knew she was being brazen, but she also didn't 
really care at that moment.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the room, and Ranma could not 
manage to identify the odd expression that had appeared on Kodachi's 
face.  "I- I-" he managed to babble, and then his brain abruptly seized 
up on him again as his hormones went wild within him.  She didn't look 
angry with him.  Instead, there was an oddly needy expression on her 
face, from what he had seen of her face in that brief moment of 
illumination.

"It's all right, Saotome-kun," Kodachi whispered, her voice taking on 
more coaxing tones as instinct seemed to take control of her.  Her arms 
slowly went up around him, where her fingers briefly toyed with the 
length of his pigtail, and her questing hands felt the tensed muscles 
in his shoulders and back as they trembled slightly from his holding 
himself above her.  She began to gently tug on him, urging him closer 
to her.  He resisted at first, but his resistance began faltering as 
she alternated her gentle tugs with slow movements of her hands on his 
back and neck, her fingers tenderly caressing him and playing with his 
pigtail some more.

Unable to hold himself back any longer, Ranma slowly lowered his face 
to Kodachi's as she continued gradually entwining herself around him in 
a loving embrace.  He could hear her gentle breathing in the darkness, 
a soft susurration that was awakening rather erotic urges within him.  
"Kodachi," he whispered.  Their faces moved inexorably closer together, 
and their lips were about to touch in a tender kiss.

Closing her eyes, Kodachi parted her lips slightly, feeling powerful 
emotions welling up within her.  Time seemed to slow to a stop for her 
as she anticipated the gentle touch of Ranma's lips against hers.  She 
wrapped her arms ever more tightly around him, enjoying the feel of his 
muscular body as he slid his own arms around her, embracing her warmly 
in reply, his face drawing nearer to hers.

When their lips touched, the kiss was filled with a tender sort of 
passion that caught both of them by surprise.  Ranma felt an almost 
electric shock go through his body at the moment of contact, and he was 
a little frightened by the sheer intensity of the feelings that so 
suddenly awoke within him.  Kodachi gave off a gentle sigh in the midst 
of it, and she held him closely to her as she finally expressed the 
ardor for Ranma she had held within her for so long.

The kiss lingered between them for several moments, deepening a bit 
towards the end, and then it was over.  Ranma reluctantly drew himself 
back, his heartbeat racing within his chest, certain that he was about 
to cross a line with Kodachi he wasn't sure he was ready for if the 
kiss had continued on for much longer.  As he held Kodachi tenderly in 
the gloom, he could smell her gentle perfume tickling at his nostrils.  
His body yearned for more of her touch; to feel more of her warmth; to 
become one with hers.

Bright light from the hallway suddenly spilled across them both as the 
door was flung open with a loud crash, and Ranma glanced over at the 
doorway, startled and momentarily blinded.

"Vile wretch," Kuno snarled, taking in the scene in an instant.  His 
sister was held in helpless thrall before the degenerate depredations 
of the scoundrel Saotome, the brutish beast obviously about to ravage 
Kodachi of her tender innocence against her will.  That explained the 
fierce struggle he had heard through the wall, awakening him from his 
slumber.  He gestured with his bokken, pointing the end of his weapon 
right at Ranma's face.  "At last I see that you have revealed yourself 
for what you truly are, Ranma Saotome.  Fear not, my beloved sister!  I 
shall smite this villainous animal and deliver you from his bestial 
lusts!"

"Hey!  Waitasec!" Ranma cried out, still caught up with Kodachi for the 
moment.  He dodged as best he could, somehow avoiding Kuno's attacks, 
even as he struggled to quickly work his way free of her grasp.  She 
was still holding on to him in her own startlement at the situation, 
making a rapid escape rather difficult.

"Unhand my innocent sister and accept divine justice, Saotome!" Kuno 
raged, lashing out at his foe, several of his slashes scoring deeply 
into the floor tiling.  "Taste the righteous vengeance of heaven!"

"B-brother dear!" Kodachi cried, finally releasing her hold on Ranma, 
quite dismayed at her brother's interruption of the romantic moment she 
had been enjoying with her fiancé, after sharing a wonderful first kiss 
with him.  Perhaps it might have even become something more pleasurably 
intimate, if they had not been interrupted.  "Stop!  Please!  You don't 
understand!"

"I understand quite well, dear sister," Kuno snarled, taking another 
vicious swipe at Ranma.  "This foul, iniquitous beast shall feel my 
righteous wrath for attempting to prey upon your tender innocence to 
slake his brutish cravings for your maidenly charms."

Finally springing free, Ranma planted one foot on the floor for support 
and drove the other one hard into Kuno's face.  That slowed the older 
boy down long enough for him to spring back on his hands and backflip, 
bringing his right foot up under Kuno's jaw, staggering him.  When his 
adversary did not immediately drop, Ranma followed that up with a rapid 
series of punches, absently wishing he was fast enough to perform the 
Amaguriken technique at that moment, since Kuno was proving to be 
annoyingly resistant to being knocked out at the moment.

"I- Fight- On."  Kuno took a single step forward, enunciating each word 
slowly, a moment before his eyes abruptly rolled back into his head.  
He fell with a dull thud at Ranma's feet.

"Man, I wish I didn't have to do that every time I see him."  Ranma 
glanced over at Kodachi, and his brain abruptly stuttered to a halt 
again when he realized that apparently she wasn't wearing anything 
underneath her thin silk negligee, which was still in disarray from 
their grappling.  His gaze seemed to fixate upon the swell of her 
breasts of its own accord, and he could not quite bring himself to 
avert his eyes from marveling at the sight.

Quickly realizing what he was looking at, Kodachi demurely and speedily 
covered her bosom as best she could with one arm and sidled over to 
grab up her robe from off the bed.  Her face practically glowed red in 
the light coming in from the hallway, and she cursed herself for acting 
so shamelessly earlier with him.  She had kissed him so brazenly, and 
things could have gone even farther.  What must he think of her now?

"Uh."  Now freed of the mesmerizing display of Kodachi's bust, Ranma's 
brain stuttered back into activity.  He put his hand behind his head 
and chuckled nervously.  He was frightened about the intensity of his 
feelings during the kiss, so he chose to change the subject into 
something safer.  "I-I just came over to use the resonator.  I really 
need to talk to my father."

Kodachi abruptly froze in the midst of tying the belt on her robe, and 
the expression on her face fell.  "Oh, I see."

Calmly, she stepped right over her brother's fallen form, walking over 
to stop and stand before Ranma.  But her emotional state was not nearly 
as placid as her outward appearance.  How stupid she had been to think 
he could have been here to see her, she mused sadly.  While she was 
happy to help him rescue his father, Saotome-kun had made no secret of 
the fact that he cared more for his work than he did about her.  She 
left her gaze downcast, feeling depressed over the kiss.  Apparently, 
he was uncomfortable about it, which did not make her happy.  But it 
wasn't the first thing he had done that had distressed her.

For example, it displeased her that he chose to spend time with that 
horrible Nabiki Tendo or those two mannish, cross-dressing freaks, Ukyo 
Kuonji and Utena Tenjou, when she was obviously a far superior choice 
for him to spend time with instead of three such unworthy girls.  But 
at least that brutal Akane Tendo creature had finally ceased to bother 
Saotome-kun after she changed schools to Furinkan Military Academy, 
where she would likely fit right in with the other grunting savages 
that populated its ranks.  Kodachi wondered what sort of a horrible 
mother could have produced two such villainous offspring like Akane and 
Nabiki Tendo.

Turning her thoughts away from the utterly unpleasant matter of her 
rivals, she mused that it would serve Saotome-kun right that she had 
decided to accept the invitation from Kaoru-kun to the dance at Ohtori.  
An evening spent in the pleasant company of her childhood friend would 
be a most welcome tonic to her ego.  She found herself looking forward 
to speaking with him again.  She wondered, yet again, why Ranma could 
not be more like her old friend, instead of the insensitive young man 
that he kept acting like.

"You could have waited until a more civilized hour, Saotome-kun," she 
said in cross tones.  Grabbing up the key from her nightstand, she 
thrust it at him.  "Here.  Take it.  You know the way, I'm sure."

Ranma noted her angry posture, and he was at a loss at what to do, not 
knowing if he should even mention their kiss together.  He reached out 
and accepted the proffered key.  "I-I'm sorry, Kodachi," he babbled.

"I do not wish to hear your apologies right now," she replied, a bit 
brusquely, feeling angry with him now over his cowardice.  Apparently 
he couldn't even bring himself to talk to her about the kiss.  That was 
fine with her, she mused, taking him by the arm and escorting him to 
her door.  "Go and do what you came here to do, and leave me alone to 
attend to my fallen brother."  Before Ranma could stutter a reply, she 
pushed him firmly out into the hall and slammed the door in his face.

Standing with her back to the door as she stood in the quiet darkness, 
Kodachi leaned heavily against it.  Why did he have to make things so 
difficult between them?  Why did he not see how strongly she felt about 
him?  He had not even asked her out on a date yet, even though he knew 
they were engaged to be married.  A quavering worry assailed her, that 
he was more interested in spending time with any of those lower-class 
harridans infesting his life than with her.

Well, she would show Saotome-kun.  She would get all dressed up in a 
beautiful new gown and accompany her oldest and dearest friend from her 
childhood to Ohtori Academy's dance and enjoy herself.  It was going to 
be a perfect evening, and she swore she would not let herself even 
think about a certain pigtailed boy while she was there.

Then, if Kaoru-kun happened to ask her out again afterwards, not only 
would she accept but she would also make very sure to let her reluctant 
fiancé know about it.  That would show him that Kodachi Kuno's feelings 
were not to be trifled with, and that there were other boys she could 
be spending her valuable time with.  It helped assuage her conscience 
that she was certain she could trust Kaoru-kun to not take advantage of 
the situation, since they had been such close friends as children.  
Despite the strong feelings for Miki that she had been discovering 
within herself lately, she kept telling herself that she was only doing 
this to teach Ranma a lesson.  But Sukeban-Kodachi's vivid memories of 
many pleasurable couplings with his analog on her own world kept rising 
unbidden in her mind, flustering her a bit at their erotic vividness.

Kodachi flipped on the light switch by the door and turned to gaze at 
her brother, sighing.  She stepped away from the door and went to tend 
to him, all the while thinking about Ranma, Miki, and how powerfully 
both boys affected her emotional states.  The faltering beginnings of 
her relationship with Ranma had certainly proven to be star-crossed so 
far, to her extreme disappointment.  And while she fully intended to 
keep things on a strictly platonic level with Miki, despite the urges 
to the contrary she felt in his presence, she really was looking 
forward to spending more time with him and rediscovering the close 
friendship they had once shared as children.

As she helped her brother, Kodachi began to wonder what had possessed 
her during her fight with Ranma.  She had become stronger, faster, and 
a wildness, a sheer lust for battle, had possessed her.  She nibbled on 
her lower lip as she thought about it.  Could she bring it forth again? 
Could she use it against Nabiki or her other rivals for Ranma?  While 
under its spell, she had felt invincible, even godlike.  It had felt so 
wonderful and powerful.

A smile slowly lit Kodachi's lips.  Whatever it had been, she wanted to 
experience it again.  But for now, until she could learn to control its 
release on demand, she would retain it as her little secret.  Even now, 
she imagined she could hear it whispering to her from those primitive 
clusters of nerve cells in the base of her brain, calling to her to use 
it against her enemies.  Her smile gradually turned more predatory in 
appearance.  Soon her enemies would come to fear her newfound power, 
and she rather liked the thought of that.

Out in the hallway, Ranma leaned his forehead against the heavy door, 
thinking.  His aches and bruises were relatively mild concerns compared 
to the sudden heaviness he felt in his heart over Kodachi's abrupt 
brush-off towards him, since the boost seemed to accelerate his body's 
natural healing ability.  Why did he feel so bad?  If this was one of 
those other worlds, he would have been overjoyed to have her treating 
him like this.  But not here.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn't happy that she had chosen to 
spend time with that Miki guy from Ohtori when they had all gone over 
together for his rematch against Utena.  But he also felt rather 
uncomfortable that his gut response to that was to beat Miki up, for 
daring to invade his 'territory.'  Admittedly, the guy had looked down 
his nose at him, not to mention being far too friendly with Kodachi, 
but he did seem to be Utena's friend as well as Kodachi's.  So, as 
tempting as it was, beating him up should probably be held as a last 
resort.  Unless Miki was dumb enough to start something with him, he 
would try and be nice, for Kodachi and Utena's sake.

Nabiki seemed to be attracting attention as well.  It was odd, since 
many of her other selves that he was familiar with did not appear to 
have much of a romantic life, probably due to their money-grubbing 
natures.  But here, Nabiki was beginning to acquire admirers, and rich 
ones at that.  Even so, he discounted Kuno and Mikado immediately as 
being little threat in that regard, since Nabiki had seemed to be 
clearly repulsed by Mikado, and Kuno was an idiot.

Toga, on the other hand, troubled him far more.  The other boy had 
spent far too much time ingratiating himself with Nabiki for Ranma's 
tastes when they had been at Ohtori.  He was obviously a smooth talker 
with girls, and he was a noble with a lot of money to burn.  What was 
he going to do if Toga started giving Nabiki expensive gifts, or even 
asked her out on a date?  His hand tightened into a fist at his side.  
Fortunately, unlike with Miki, beating up Toga remained a very viable 
option, one that he might even find somewhat enjoyable.

Thinking about Nabiki reminded him of Akane.  She had been a bane to 
him ever since he had first arrived at the Academy, singling him out 
for abuse and bullying him mercilessly for weeks.  Seeing analogs of 
the Tendo girl in his other lives, as his fiancée of all things, had 
been a profound shock.  But then, after the accidental memory download 
through the resonator had left him suddenly able to fight back, even 
skilled enough to defeat her, their relationship had taken a rather 
disturbing twist.

Akane seemed strongly enamored with him now, as if she was suddenly 
seeing him as something other than an object for her aggressions.  What 
was worse, this Akane, even as brutal as her nature appeared, possessed 
a sense of true self-confidence that many of her other analogs lacked.  
This version of the Tendo girl did not care that she was not skilled in 
traditionally feminine skills, for she obviously saw herself first and 
foremost as a warrior.  It made for a rather profound difference in 
personality from her other selves, and that bravado was even somewhat 
attractive, now that he thought about it.

Ranma shook his head suddenly.  He could not believe that he was even 
thinking about Akane Tendo like this, even if she was cute.

No, she was _not_ cute.

She was not his fiancée in this world.

She was not a girl he should feel any sort of desire for.

This Akane Tendo was nothing more than a vicious thug, and he was most 
decidedly _not_ interested in her.

That decided, he moved on to the other remaining girls in his life, 
ignoring the qualms that thoughts of Akane were still causing him and 
stubbornly refused to vanish.

At least with Ukyo and Utena, things were simpler, although he would 
not call those situations simple either.  Ukyo seemed so much like her 
analogs that it had been easy to fall back into buddy mode with her, 
but with the added dimension of physical attraction he felt towards 
her.  In one reality he had visited, she had been his wife, and theirs 
had been a wonderful and loving relationship.  And, unlike how it was 
with Kodachi and Nabiki, there did not appear to be any other boys in 
the picture, so that was another mark in Ukyo's favor.

His relationship with Utena had the same sort of easy feel to it as the 
one he had with Ukyo did.  He was really looking forward to exploring a 
friendship with Utena, maybe even something more.  He could confess to 
himself that he found her to be pretty pleasing to his eyes, especially 
the sight of her long, coltish legs.  She had a gently tomboyish manner 
to her that made it seem practically effortless for him to get along 
with her.  And she had kissed him on the cheek as well, which was a 
pretty good indication to him that she was interested in something more 
than a friendship.

Wait.  What the hell was he thinking?

Ranma stepped away from Kodachi's door with a sigh.  Dealing with girls 
was a far more complex problem than any sort of scientific conundrum 
that he had ever come up against.  But, at least for now, he needed to 
try and keep the situation stabilized and under control until he could 
rescue his father.  Then he could start dealing with the girls.  Then 
the problems in his life that the resonator had caused would finally be 
behind him.

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

Herb moved through smoke, hearing the sparking of shattered consoles.  
He was dressed in the uniform of a junior officer, and the outfit was 
charred and ripped in several places.  He vaguely remembered being in 
the lavatory of all places when the facility had been bombarded by a 
Matriarchy vessel.  The attack had been as brutal as it had been swift, 
leaving him to move frantically through the wreckage when it was over.  
As he walked past a wall console, the crazed plastic reflected a small 
multitude of both male and female versions of himself, but he did not 
notice.

"<Sage!>" he called, coughing from the smoke as he paused to shoulder 
aside a fallen support beam as flames roared up in the hallway behind 
him.  The muscles in his back screamed with pain as the massive weight 
grudgingly moved aside from blocking the door to the laboratory.  Then, 
with a loud crash, it fell to one side, and he scalded his hands as he 
frantically pulled on the battered metal.

When he got inside, more wreckage greeted his eyes.  Sage had been in 
the midst of testing his equipment, utilizing a radical new method of 
resonator technology when the Matriarchy vessel had struck the research 
facility.  Herb could not see him in the gloom, but he heard a female 
voice speaking in fits and starts.

"<...uploading...error...uploading...error...>"

Herb remembered teasing Sage about programming the computer to speak 
with a woman's voice during the tests.

Please let my brother be all right!  That phrase repeated like a mantra 
as he searched frantically for Sage.

"<...uploading...error...uploading...error...>"

When he reached the center of the room, Herb could only stare in horror 
at the headless form lying there on the high-backed, cushioned chair, a 
sheet of blood-spattered metal embedded in the concrete to one side as 
mute testament to what must have happened here during the attack.

"<...uploading...error...up-load-ing...err-err-or...>"

Averting his eyes from the scene, Herb stared at the console display, 
seeing what looked like a report of an interrupted upload sequence for 
a moment before the screen abruptly flickered and died.  He wailed in 
rage when unseen figures appeared behind him to drag him away from the 
scene.  He reached out for Sage's body, and one of its arms flopped 
down, the hand appearing to beckon to him.

"<Sage!>"

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

Herb started awake suddenly from the nightmare, one that had appeared 
off and on for a little over two years now, ever since Sage's death at 
the hands of the Solnoid Matriarchy's forces.  Up until recently, that 
time had been spent fruitlessly searching for the timeline Sage must 
have contacted at the moment of his death.  Her former self had called 
in every single scrap of political favor he owned to obtain a ship, a 
crew, and a brevet rank sufficient to command them, all to find him.

Exploring well over a hundred alternate timelines in that quest, her 
former self had driven his crew relentlessly for some sign of Sage, 
even while maintaining the cover that they were looking for new worlds 
for the Musk to exploit in their war against the Matriarchy, even as 
they moved further and further away from the front lines.  Herb was 
certain that Sage was still alive, trapped somewhere across unexplored 
timelines in an analog of himself, carrying the knowledge of the 
precious advance in resonator technology that would finally allow the 
Musk to break the deadlock with the Matriarchy, the knowledge that had 
been destroyed with his lab.

Confusion quickly transformed into a dull anger when she recalled where 
she was, and who she was now.  Self-loathing roiled through her mind.  
Rolling over on her side, she grimaced at her predicament, a prisoner 
now in more ways than one.

In the dim light, Herb stared at the feminine hand she held up before 
her eyes, briefly closing it into a tight fist, feeling the muscles and 
tendons in her forearm bunching and tightening.  The short nails dug 
hard into her palm, coming near to cutting into the flesh there, and a 
strange feeling began to fill her eyes.  She blinked away the sudden 
tears.  They were an unacceptable reaction, a betrayal of the strength 
of her Musk forebears, conquerors one and all, who had built a dynasty 
that was inexorably fated to grow to rule all possible timelines, once 
the Matriarchy and its allies were finally crushed into dust.

Getting out of bed, Herb quickly walked the short distance to the small 
sink in her cell and turned on the tap, cupping the clear, cold water 
in her hands for a moment before splashing it on her face.  When she 
looked up, the small mirror mocked her angry gaze, showing a head of 
close-cropped white hair framing femininely beautiful features, instead 
of the masculine good looks she had once been so proud of.  The urge to 
shatter the mirror rose and died quickly before she could even lift her 
hand.  What would be the point?

Driven by a sudden, almost masochistic impulse to see herself as she 
was now, trapped in a body she had never expected to have, Herb began 
stripping off her clothing and tossing each item aside after it was 
removed.  When she was finally naked, save for the thin collar of metal 
around her throat, she studied herself in the mirror, noting with a 
clinical eye that she was quite beautiful.  She gazed at her reflection 
in the mirror as she slowly turned about.  After a time, Herb realized 
the sight was turning her on and quickly turned away from the mirror, 
suddenly feeling perverse.

Sleep had proven to be of limited comfort, offering up a confusing and 
troubling melange of images, both from her old life as a man as well as 
this unwanted new existence she now had as a woman.  Life for this 
analog had been a fairly simple affair repeated in an endless cycle of 
sleeping, eating, and exercising, with occasional breaks for bathing 
and taking care of life's other biological necessities.  This analog's 
mind had been oddly content with such a dull routine, and one devoid of 
any significant memories prior to three years ago, apparently from some 
kind of amnesia.  It was a quiet, sheep-like existence, and it offered 
annoyingly little usable information on this world and what it was like 
beyond the walls of this place, seemingly a cross between some kind of 
a hospital and a prison.

Yesterday, guards had solemnly escorted her to a communal hall where 
she had eaten bland food, where Lime and Mint had been the only other 
prisoners she had seen.  She had been kept separate from them, but she 
had watched them out of the corner of her eye as they spoke in whispers 
to each other, occasionally glancing over at her in apparent confusion.  
After her meal was done, she was taken for several hours of rigorous 
exercise, left alone with only a pair of solemn guards in plain black 
uniforms to watch her efforts, before being allowed to bathe, use the 
facilities, and then return to her cell to retire for the evening.

There had been one benefit of such an existence though, at least as far 
as Herb's own needs were concerned.  Beneath the enticingly feminine 
curves of this body were sleek, tautly powerful muscles, the result of 
countless hours spent in rigorous conditioning and weight training, for 
reasons this analog did not know or even seem to care about.  However, 
combining this body's surprisingly capable physique with the well-honed 
martial arts skills of a battle-trained Musk warrior should enable her 
to escape from this place, wherever it was.  Then she could pursue her 
quest to find the source of the resonator technology on this world 
wherever it led her, and, hopefully, to at last find Sage.

Herb closed her right hand into a tight fist again, feeling her sense 
of purpose renew itself.  Being forced to endure such trials, even the 
horrifying indignity of a female body, would be repaid in full when she 
found what she had sought for so long.  And whether by force or by 
guile, it would be hers, although force was her definite preference at 
the moment.  Then the Musk's forces could incinerate this world from 
pole to pole for all she cared.

Stalking over to the bed, Herb lay back down.  She still felt somewhat 
aroused by the memory of her own reflection and idly touched one of her 
breasts in curiosity, then cupping it gently, feeling the swell of its 
fullness filling her hand.  The resulting sensations were pleasant, so 
she began to gently stroke and caress herself, varying her motions and 
experimenting a little.  That felt extremely good, so she continued, 
feeling her arousal growing as she brought her other hand into play 
upon her other breast as well.  She closed her eyes as her breathing 
began deepening.

Her nipples stiffened from her gentle ministrations to them, feeling 
like miniature erections, and they responded to her stroking them with 
intense feelings of eroticism.  She kept at it, almost unable to stop, 
and then reached down between her legs with one hand, doing to herself 
what she wanted to do to herself.  Herb imagined herself, her old self, 
here with this beautiful girl, first working her up into a fever pitch 
with his touch upon her body, and then penetrating, thrusting.

Herb became lost in the erotic sensations now filling her mind as she 
continued playing with herself, a pleasurable tension building up 
within her.  Then, suddenly, she experienced an orgasmic explosion that 
rocked her entire body, causing her to gasp and moan with pleasure as 
she writhed about on the bed, her hips pumping involuntarily.  It felt 
so good that she kept at it, accomplishing it several more times, 
crying out and loudly moaning each time as the force of the erotic 
feelings briefly overpowered her senses.

A sudden concern that her cries had been overheard brought Herb down 
from her sexual high, and she stopped, catching her breath.  Male and 
female orgasms were certainly related experiences, but they were also 
decidedly different, she realized.  Opening her eyes, she noticed that 
the small window to her cell was open, allowing some light in from the 
hallway, and the young guard that was normally on duty in the mornings 
was watching her.  Seeing him gave her a sudden idea.

"I'm lonely," she said coquetishly, attempting what she hoped was a 
seductive smile.  She rolled over on her side and reached out with one 
hand, crooking her finger suggestively.  Inside, Herb doubted any male 
would really be stupid enough to fall prey to such an obvious ploy, but 
she felt it was worth a try.

Surprisingly, the guard unlocked and opened the door, and she closed 
her eyes slightly.  Even as she smiled with apparent warmth at the 
young man, inwardly she noted with distaste the obvious lust in his 
gaze as it traversed her body and mentally sneered at his weakness.  
Her escape was apparently going to be far easier than she had first 
thought.

"Come closer," she purred, sitting up slightly, her gaze glancing at 
the keys on his belt.  Her smile grew more subtly predatory.  "I want 
to show you something."

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

At Kashuoh Manor, the servants maintaining the grounds, various models 
of samaels and liliths (male and female replicants), paused in their 
labors and looked up as a long limousine passed by them in the heavy 
rain, heading for the main house.  A few of them continued to watch for 
several moments longer, as the car came to a stop and parked, but the 
rest went back to their labors immediately, showing no interest in 
anything beyond the scope of their duties.  Those few that were still 
watching saw the driver's door open, and a Puma-class lilith nearly two 
meters tall with dark blue hair got out and snapped open an umbrella to 
shield herself from the rain.  She was dressed in a Western-style, dark 
gray chauffeur's outfit made of armorcloth, with a white silk blouse 
worn under the jacket and a very short skirt and black silk stockings 
instead of long pants.  Her official designation in Genom's database of 
active units was serial number 9815-PS2-1138, but her name was Nana.

Quickly reaching into the car, Nana pulled out a chauffeur's hat and 
set it at a jaunty angle on her head between her two catlike ears, 
before smoothing her clothing and briefly adjusting the shoulder 
holster she wore, which carried within it a Kuno Militech 12mm heavy 
automatic pistol.  When she was satisfied with her appearance, she 
stepped over to the rear door and opened it.  She offered a hand to the 
occupant inside and held her umbrella to cover them both from the rain.

"I can still walk fine on my own, Nana," came the slightly amused voice 
of Kado Kashuoh, the elderly patriarch of the Kashuoh Family and the 
current CEO of Genom.  He stepped out of the car, a withered old man in 
a Western-style overcoat, wielding a cane with a solid gold handle.  He 
patted Nana's rump fondly after he stood up, and he left his hand there 
as he looked about.  "I may be old, but I'm not feeble, as you well 
know."  He then cackled slightly and gave her rump a friendly squeeze.

"Even so, you should be careful about exerting yourself unnecessarily, 
Kashuoh-san," Nana replied with a professional smile, but her ears 
twitched in amusement as she closed the car door.  They began walking 
towards the house, Kado's hand remaining firmly on her behind.  "It 
will be nice to see your grandson again, Kashuoh-san."

"Yes."  Kado tapped his cane on the ground as he made his way up the 
steps to the front door.  "It will be interesting to see what the boy's 
been up to while we've been gone."

Nana nodded in agreement, moving the umbrella aside and folding it back 
up when the pair were finally underneath the font eaves of the house.  
She removed a set of keys from a pocket and unlocked the massive front 
doors before pushing one of them open easily.  She set the umbrella in 
the stand by the door after the pair entered the house.

"Welcome home, Kashuoh-san," said several of the house servants that 
had observed their entry, almost in stereo, bowing to him.  Each of 
them was dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and wore the same 
vacuous smile.  "May we be of any assistance to you?"

"Where is my grandson?" Kado inquired of the nearest one, a beautiful, 
Nordic-looking young woman, as he let Nana help him with removing his 
overcoat, leaving him dressed in more traditional Japanese clothing 
that was suitable for a man of his station.

"The young master is in the main dining hall, Kashuoh-san," she replied 
with another bow.

"Come, Nana," he commanded mildly.  "Let's go see how the boy is."  He 
looked at the other waiting servants.  "The rest of you, return to your 
assigned duties."

In the dining hall, Kinnosuke was in good spirits.  Today was going to 
be the day when he finally laid claim to Nabiki Tendo, as well as 
giving a demonstration of his physical superiority to Ranma Saotome, by 
crushing his unknowing rival for the middle Tendo daughter.  Arrayed 
around him at their usual places, the trio of catgirls quietly ate 
their own meals, but each of them would occasionally glance lovingly at 
him and smile wistfully.  All four looked up in surprise when Nana and 
Kinnosuke's grandfather suddenly swept into the room.

"Grandfather," said Kinnosuke, quickly rising from his place.  "And 
Nana.  If I'd known you were returning today, I would have prepared a 
proper welcome for you.  How was Europe?"

"Cold, wet, and filled with a generally unfriendly people," said Kado 
with a slight grimace, remembering the experience.  "Especially the 
French.  I had a much better time in the North American prefectures.  
You should visit Angel City sometime, boy.  I think I may retire there 
someday to enjoy the warm weather, since I don't think it rained more 
than twice in the entire month I was there."

Kinnosuke walked over to speak with his grandfather, and Nana moved 
over to stand with the other three catgirls.  She nodded to each of 
them in turn and spoke to them quietly, noting their modified Security 
cadet uniforms with mild interest.  "Tiger.  Lynx.  Panther.  How has 
everything been around here?  I trust that Kinnosuke-san has been 
receiving proper care from you all."

Tiger calmly replied, with a slight edge of disdain in her voice, "We 
have given Kinnosuke-sama the very best of care, Nana."  Who did this 
outdated lilith model think she was, to question their capabilities?  
Her ears folded back slightly in annoyance.  "We have served his needs 
most excellently, in every capacity that he has ever required of us.  I 
am certain that Kinnosuke-sama has no complaints about our performance 
in any area of our service."

"Tiger is correct, Nana," said Lynx quietly, but also with a certain 
professional pride in her voice, stepping forward to take up station at 
Tiger's left shoulder.  "We have taken care of all of his needs as a 
man."  She then frowned demurely, and her ears were slightly folded 
back as well, a sign of her aggravation at even being questioned on 
this.

Panther nodded, stepping forward a single pace to stand at Tiger's 
right, her fists on her hips and her carriage erect with indignation.  
"That's right.  We have satisfied him in all aspects."  She then 
smirked, but her ears were folded back like Lynx's and Tiger's were.  
"Especially in the bedroom."  Her tone was kept soft as well, but she 
was still somewhat naturally louder-voiced than either Lynx or Tiger.

Nana studied the trio, meeting their gazes levelly, and her hands began 
to curl into fists at her sides, her own catlike ears folding back at 
the silent challenges they were each giving her.  Just who did these 
three little prototypes think they were impressing?  She had been with 
her young charge for years, loved him, protected him, and taken care of 
him as he grew into manhood.  She was as much his mother as his genetic 
parents ever were, and she was not about to be crowded out of his life 
by these three young upstarts.

After a moment, with a hint of a growl in her voice, she said, "That is 
good.  His well-being should always be your highest priority."

"It is!" all three young catgirls snapped, in stereo.

Kinnosuke, who had been making small talk with his grandfather during 
this exchange, glanced over.  "Nana?  Is there a problem?"

"No, Kinnosuke-san," she said pleasantly, her ears perking up and her 
hands relaxing back open, immediately turning to face him.  "I was 
simply asking them how things were going around here.  The girls were 
just being a bit overly-enthusiastic in telling me."

Tiger, Lynx, and Panther quickly nodded, following Nana's lead.  All 
four of them then smiled innocently at Kinnosuke.

"Anyway," said Kado, tapping his grandson on the shin gently with the 
tip of his cane.  "Tell me how you're getting along at the Academy.  I 
trust things have been going well."

Kinnosuke smiled.  "Quite well, Grandfather.  Alongside my studies, I 
have been quietly working on accumulating influence over my fellow 
cadets, as a sort of hobby.  Now only a few last obstacles remain to be 
overcome, and then I will have solidified my control.  I've also found 
a girl that interests me, one of the subjects of Project Phoenix.  I 
intend to make her my bride."

"What?" Kado sputtered, taken by surprise.  "You should have no need to 
involve yourself with one of them.  Trust me on this, boy.  Why bother 
to involve yourself with a human woman, with all of her petty needs and 
abstinence, when a lilith can provide you with all the companionship, 
loyalty, and love you could ever want?"

Kinnosuke looked uncertainly at his grandfather.  "But where's the 
satisfaction of conquest in that, to have a girl programmed to love me?  
Besides, this one is perfect for me.  I've been watching her for the 
past few months.  She's cold, calculating, ruthless, and quite probably 
without a single moral qualm in her being.  A worthy woman to be at my 
side, even if she is genetically inferior to me."

"Even worse," Kado remarked sourly.  "The absolute last thing you need 
is a woman with her own agenda.  Try again."

"Well, a lilith can't breed with a human, Grandfather.  They're all 
sterile.  How can I ever have children without involving a human woman?  
I know lilith's have been used as host mothers, such as for noblewomen 
who don't want to ruin their precious figures with childbearing, but it 
still requires a viable ovum.  I want to father my children on a woman 
without any need for a test tube."

Kado raised a finger and waved it from side to side.  "Ah, but Genom 
has finally cracked that flaw, boy, and that's where those three come 
into play."  Kado pointed proudly at the trio of young catgirls.  "Each 
of them is designed to be as naturally fertile as any mere human woman, 
but the ovums they produce can only combine with human sperm to form 
human male children, thereby ensuring Genom remains as the only source 
for future liliths.  Think about it, boy!  Our market share will grow 
to crush that of all of our competitors, now that we can provide any 
man who can afford one with his own beautiful, perfectly loyal and 
loving, tailor-made lilith, who can now even give him human sons.  No, 
mankind no longer needs women, now that Genom can provide an improved 
alternative."

Kinnosuke was a bit stunned.  The whole idea sounded both appealing and 
perverse.  He looked at the trio of catgirls, who smiled warmly back at 
him.  He turned to face his grandfather.  "But I've been with each of 
them on a pretty regular basis since wintertime, and none of them has 
gotten pregnant yet."

"Well, they were each given a four-month contraception implant before 
they were decanted," Kado replied with a smile, then lightly elbowed 
the boy in his ribs in a conspiratorial manner.  "That was so you could 
enjoy your 'honeymoon' with them without any unexpected surprises.  But 
they've been fully capable of getting pregnant for at least a few weeks 
now.  Its possible that your own contraception implant hasn't fully 
dissolved yet.  But it will, given time.  That's why I didn't have you 
renew it."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kinnosuke asked.  "Why use me as the guinea 
pig in this?"

Kado sighed and laid a gentle hand on Kinnosuke's shoulder.  "Because I 
wanted you to be happy, boy.  A young man your age needs an outlet for 
all those sexual urges and adolescent hormones percolating through your 
body.  They were designed to be the ultimate sexual companions."  His 
gaze grew hooded as he studied his grandson.  "Besides, you share some 
things in common with them, even if the basis of your entire genetic 
code originally comes from my son."

"But my father, my mother..."  A horrible thought was occurring to him.

"Your father died when he was a teenager, Kinnosuke," Kado said sadly.  
"But I saved enough viable genetic samples from him to create you.  As 
for your mother, she was simply a donor, but she was a woman of good 
genetic stock.  I had the portraits and pictures made up to give you a 
sense of family while growing up."

Kinnosuke stared at his grandfather in sudden horror, feeling his world 
crumbling all around him.  "I'm a replicant," he said hollowly.  "You 
created me in one of those damned tanks."

"No!" Kado snapped, feeling his grandson beginning to tremble.  His 
voice softened.  "No.  Not at all, boy.  While some aspects of Genom's 
genetic technology was used in your creation, to craft the penultimate 
human by resequencing your DNA, you were born like any other man, to a 
woman who loves you.  She nursed you at her own breast, protected you 
from harm, and she raised you into a fine young man all these years."  
He nodded once to Nana, who came over and put her arms around Kinnosuke 
as Kado stepped back and let her comfort the boy, but he shook his head 
when the other three started to approach as well.

"Shhh, Kinnosuke-kun," Nana said softly, taking him gently into her 
arms as he began to tremble and sob, holding him to her bosom.  "There 
there.  It's all right."  She patted him on his back, resting her chin 
on top of his head as she enfolded him in the warmth of a motherly 
embrace.  "Nana is here to take care of you.  Shhh...."

Inside, Kinnosuke's mind whirled with the sudden knowledge that his 
entire life had been built on lies.  His emotional reserve suddenly 
shattered, and he found himself clutching tightly to Nana, mournful 
sobs escaping his lips, just as he had done when he was much younger 
and something had hurt him.  He felt her hands patting and rubbing his 
back like a real mother would, and he was reeling with the knowledge 
that Nana was his birth mother.  Despite his grandfather's words, he 
wondered if he was really a human being, and that doubt was terrifying 
him on a primal level.  But Nana's warmth and her familiar smell was 
calming him as he sobbed out his pain, and as his thoughts gained 
clarity, he felt disgusted with himself for showing such weakness.

Off to the side, Tiger, Lynx, and Panther ached to rush over to their 
beloved master's aid, to comfort his emotional wound as Nana was now 
doing, and their ears were flat on their head from their unhappiness.  
Kado slowly approached them.

"Kashuoh-san," said Tiger mournfully.  "Will Kinnosuke-sama be all 
right?"

"He'll be fine, girls," Kado replied, patting Tiger on the hand.  "My 
grandson has just had a shock.  But he's strong.  He'll recover."

All three catgirls breathed a quick sigh of relief.

After several minutes, Kinnosuke's sobs gradually eased, and he pulled 
himself away from Nana and looked up into her face, looking at the face 
of his birth mother.  She smiled at him, drew him close to her again, 
and then she gently kissed him on the forehead.  He pulled her back 
into a hug, feeling a sense of contentment that he had found a mother, 
offsetting the emotional pain of having lost so much else.  Then he 
thought about Nabiki and Ranma, and his thoughts darkened.

Pulling back from Nana once again, he turned from her, looked over at 
the three catgirls, and then he nodded at them.  "Come with me, you 
three.  We have preparations to finish before class today."  He looked 
back at his grandfather, and his expression became unreadable.  "Thank 
you for telling me the truth."

"Are you all right, Kinnosuke?" Kado asked, studying the boy with some 
concern.

"I'm fine, Grandfather," the boy replied.  He stepped away from Nana 
and gave her an inscrutable look before turning back again to face his 
grandsire again.  "Certain things have just become much clearer to me 
now."

With that, Kinnosuke turned and left the room, and the trio of catgirls 
filed out behind him, following closely on his flanks.  Nabiki's face 
filled his thoughts, as well as Ranma's.  Despite what his grandfather 
had said, he still desired Nabiki, still lusted with all of his being 
to possess her.  And his jealousy against Ranma, the only obstacle he 
saw in his path to obtain her, flared up to new heights of hatred.  His 
fellow Science cadets spoke of his pigtailed nemesis's abilities with 
varying degrees of admiration, but Kinnosuke had never shown them his 
true abilities, never made it any sort of real contest between them.  
Well, today that would all change.  He would demonstrate who was truly 
the superior being between them, and he would begin by beating Ranma 
Saotome to within an inch of his life.

"Tiger," he said over his shoulder.

"Yes, Kinnosuke-sama?"

"I have given the matter some more thought," he said calmly, his look 
neutral.  "You may... indulge yourself where Nabiki Tendo is concerned, 
while I am dealing with Saotome.  But take great care that she is left 
alive and without any permanent damage done to her."  He turned to look 
at the other two catgirls.  "Lynx.  Panther.  That order goes for you 
two as well.  Break her spirit a bit, and then you can bring Nabiki 
before me to finish her indoctrination.  But be quick.  My business 
with Ranma Saotome should not take me very long."

A cold sort of smirk suddenly crossed his features as he turned away 
from them and began walking.  He muttered grimly, "After all, he is 
only human."

"Yes, Kinnosuke-sama," said all three catgirls, feeling a new spring 
entering their step as they happily trailed along behind him, looking 
forward to committing some mayhem upon the one they hated above all 
others in the world: Nabiki Tendo.

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

Ranma suddenly sneezed as he closed the door behind him, the lights 
flickering on quickly in the room.  As he absently rubbed his nose, he 
mused how much better his life would be if it could be dealt with as 
easily as a lab experiment.  He studied the chair that was over by the 
equipment and then sat down heavily in it.  He flipped on the main 
power switch, hearing the hum of electricity beginning to flow through 
its circuits when it engaged.  As the equipment warmed up, he leaned 
back in the chair and tried to relax.

He had kissed Kodachi, and if Kuno hadn't interfered, he would have 
gone a lot further than that.  But the kiss raised questions in his 
mind that he had been trying his best so far to avoid.  Did he want to 
be intimate with Kodachi, to do the sorts of things with her that he 
had heard other guys talking about doing with their girlfriends?  For 
that matter, what about Nabiki, Ukyo, or even Utena?  His adolescent 
libido was saying 'yes' pretty loudly.  But he also wanted to be sure 
of his feelings before he took such bold steps with any of the girls.  
After all, despite a few romantic interludes he had experienced through 
the resonator so far, what had happened between him and Kodachi had 
been the first real intimacy he had ever experienced in his own life 
with a girl, other than Utena kissing his cheek.

Remembering the aftermath of Utena's visit, Ranma then recalled again 
his mother's words, telling him to try out all the girls, in order to 
help him make his choice from among them.  While his adolescent libido 
cheered at the notion, the thought also caused a shiver of fear to run 
up his spine, and his pigtail stood out stiffly for a few moments.  He 
was pretty certain that extremely unpleasant things would happen to him 
if the girls thought he was actively trying to be some kind of a 
playboy with them.  Maybe he should take a page from the lives of his 
two Jusenkyo-cursed analogs and just ignore the whole situation, hoping 
that it somehow resolved itself.  He decided to give that solution some 
serious consideration.

With a sigh over his predicament, Ranma picked up the headset unit and 
settled it on his skull, moving his head slightly to one side and then 
the other, hearing a satisfying cracking sound from his neck vertebrae 
as they realigned back into their proper places.  Feeling much more 
comfortable, he turned to the console and set up the program for an 
hour run, and activating the new buffering algorithms that Kodachi had 
programmed.  An hour would give him enough time before he had to head 
off to class, to share the schematics with his father for the beacon 
and talk to him a bit about his concerns over what he had learned 
recently about himself and his past.

Laying back, Ranma heard the computer speak when it was finished with 
its calculations.

"Initiating upload cycle."

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

*** Earth +1.612,+1.509

Ranma's first sensation was a brief ringing sensation in his ears, like 
tintinitis.  It faded quickly, and he opened his eyes to see a ceiling 
over his head, the ceiling of his other self's room.  He blinked, and 
he took a moment to acclimate himself to his surroundings, waiting for 
the rush of memories to assail him.

He was not long in waiting.  A dizzying array of images and experiences 
passed across his awareness, making him feel slightly nauseous.  He sat 
up and took a deep breath when it was over, reviewing what had been 
going on around here.  School, training, and homework dominated most of 
the new memories, and he was pleased to see that his father had been 
helping his other self with his studies at night, efforts that had been 
causing a slow but steady improvement in his grades.

This timeline's version of Shampoo dominated a good portion of his 
other self's memories.  He and the Amazon had been spending quite a lot 
of their time together since leaving the Tendo's: improving their 
martial arts skills through innumerable sparring matches against each 
other, studying for school, going skating, and even just goofing off 
and having fun.  Neither of them called such activities dates, but that 
was what they were essentially doing.

Ranma actually felt jealous of his other self for a moment, of his easy 
friendship with this timeline's Shampoo.  The two were slowly beginning 
to grow closer, a side-effect of much calmer surroundings and far fewer 
distractions away from spending time with each other.  This particular 
analog's life had quieted down, even as his own life was turning into a 
romantic maelstrom of emotionally-charged girls all competing for his 
attention, each of them with significant martial arts skills.

For a moment, he found himself wishing that he had an analog of Shampoo 
in his own life, to be able to enjoy the same, easy sort of camaraderie 
that this Ranma was enjoying with this version of the Amazon.  But that 
was never going to happen, he realized, feeling a slight emptiness in 
his heart at the thought.  Shampoo, if she existed on his world, lived 
far away from him in the backwoods of China, and the odds of his ever 
meeting her were too small to even contemplate, he mused with a wistful 
look.

Ranma stood up and stretched, and then he pulled on a shirt and some 
pants and very quietly opened the door to his room.  The house was 
quiet as he made his way to the master bedroom.  He took a slow breath 
to center himself before opening the door.

Two figures lay intimately entwined together in sleep on futon mats 
that had been pushed together, and Ranma goggled a bit at the sight of 
his mother's counterpart snuggled up against his father's slumbering 
form so closely, even though were dressed in nightwear.  Quietly, he 
approached the couple and knelt down next to his father.  Genma was 
snoring loudly, laying on his back, and his analog's mother murmured 
softly in her sleep, clutching herself rather intimately to him and 
looking contented in repose.

"<Father,>" Ranma whispered in Russian.  "<Wake up.  We need to talk.>"

Genma opened his eyes, unsure if he was still dreaming.  He felt Nodoka 
lying next to him, and then he saw Ranma kneeling nearby.  Struggling 
free of his slumbers, he blinked his eyes owlishly.  "<Is that you, 
son?>"

"<It's me.  Meet me out in the hall.  I have some good news for you.>"  
Ranma got up and stealthily walked to the door and outside, leaving it 
open behind him.

Nodoka stirred next to him when he moved, and she sleepily said, "Take 
me again, Dearest.  Last night was so good."  She then fell back asleep 
and snuggled up against him.

Ranma's eyes went a little wide as he stood out there in the hall.  He 
hadn't just heard what he thought he had, had he?

Genma slowly disentangled himself from Nodoka and got up, before he 
quietly stood up and slipped on his robe.  He pulled his glasses from 
the robe's pocket and put them on before sneaking out of the room to 
join Ranma in the hall.  When he got there, Ranma had an odd expression 
on his face.

"<Pop- uh, I mean Father, is there anything you'd like to tell me about 
what I saw in there?>"

"<She's been a lonely woman for too many years, because of my analog's 
idiocy, son.  Let's leave it at that.>"  Genma shut the door quietly 
behind him.

"<Uh, okay.>"  Ranma shrugged his shoulders, deciding to set that topic 
aside for later discussion when there was more time.  There were more 
important matters to deal with for now.  "<Anyway, I've figured out a 
way to get you back home.>"

Genma relaxed a bit.  That was good news, but he had to warn the boy 
about what had happened in the meantime since his last visit.  "<That's 
wonderful, son.  Unfortunately, it seems that my counterpart has been 
busy too.  Come into the den, where we can talk a bit more privately.>"

"<What kind of problem?>" Ranma asked as he stepped into the room, his 
mind wondering what the other Genma could possibly have been up to.  He 
looked around, seeing numerous scientific books and papers strewn about 
the floor.  There were also a number of history books as well, causing 
him to raise an eyebrow in brief curiosity.

Genma closed the door behind them and he began speaking without any 
sort of preamble.  "<Soun Tendo is here, the one from our world.  But 
it wasn't by his choice.>"  He then took off his glasses and polished 
them with a handkerchief briefly before putting them back on.

Ranma blinked as a memory suddenly made itself known to him.  "<I'm 
afraid it's even more complicated than you think, Father.  My analog 
saw you meeting with Tendo-san yesterday.  He thinks you're both up to 
something about re-instating the engagement.>"  Inside, Ranma had a 
brief panic attack at the thought of both idiot fathers from this world 
loose on his own, especially when one of them was able to draw on the 
resources of the Security Directorate.

"<Wonderful,>" Genma sighed, sliding into the deep-cushioned chair at 
the desk.  "<I thought I was making progress with the boy, repairing 
the damage my other self had caused in their relationship.  Now it 
looks like I may be back to square one.  Well, tell me what you have in 
mind.>"

"<Yes, Father.>"  Ranma pulled out several sheets of paper and began 
sketching circuit diagrams and writing down lists of components that 
would be needed.  "<I've discovered a way that should allow me to 
physically transport you back home, bypassing the risks of using the 
resonator and trying to reverse the accident.  One of my analogs was 
using a device that can open up a quantum tunnel between different 
realities, like a kind of molehole.  Combining it with my resonator 
technology, I've come up with a way to set up a beacon of sorts, both 
here and at home, allowing me to safely navigate from our world to this 
one and back.>"

For most of the hour, Ranma explained the technologies involved in fair 
detail, making sure that his father understood all that he needed to 
acquire, and how to assemble it to make it work.  When he was done, he 
glanced up at the clock, seeing that his time was almost up.  As much 
as he wanted to know what might have been happening between his father 
and this timeline's version of his mother, there was still the matter 
of Project Phoenix to ask his father about.

While Ranma considered the matter, Genma pondered the papers before 
him.  He could find nothing wrong in the equations or schematics, but 
much of it was over even his head.  He decided to trust his son that 
this would work.

"<It will take me some time to find all the components, but I'm fairly 
certain I can do it with this world's technology,>" Genma said finally, 
nodding at his son.  He noticed the boy's troubled look.  "<What is it, 
Ranma?>"

Ranma looked his father steadily in the eye.  "<Mother is pregnant.  I 
found out the other day.>"

"<Well, that- that puts a certain sense of urgency to things,>" Genma 
replied, caught offguard for a moment.  He looked at his son, his 
expression unreadable.  "<Thank you for telling me, Ranma.>"  He noted 
that the boy still looked like he had something important to say.  "<Is 
she all right?>"

"<She's fine.>"  Ranma looked away from his father's gaze.  "<But 
there's something else.>"  He looked back, meeting Genma's eyes.  "<I 
know about Project Phoenix.>"

"<Oh.  I see.>"  On top of learning of Nodoka's pregnancy, Ranma's flat 
statement about the Project broke his composure, and he removed his 
glasses and began polishing them for a few moments while he regathered 
his thoughts.  He wasn't surprised that Ranma had finally become aware 
of the Project, but it was a definite shock when heard within moments 
of hearing the news of his wife's new condition.  For a moment, his 
mind turned to thoughts of the other Nodoka upstairs.

Truthfully, he had never meant to keep the Project a secret from Ranma 
for so long, but he had never managed to find the right words to tell 
him about it.  There always seemed to be something else more important 
to do.  And just how did you tell a mere boy that he was superhuman?  
No matter how intelligent Ranma was, he still only had the emotional 
experience of a teenaged boy on the verge of manhood.  After several 
moments spent polishing the lenses, he put his glasses back on and met 
Ranma's gaze.  "<I meant to tell you about it some time ago.  How much 
do you know about it?>"

Ranma's gaze did not soften.  "<A fair amount.  Someone sent me a disc 
with my file from the Project on it, with a note daring me to figure 
out the encryption it was protected by.  But it didn't tell me why, or 
who it was from.  It was a pretty tough code, but I broke it.">  Ranma 
suddenly clenched his fists at his sides.

"<I was part of an experiment, Pop!  And you and Mom both knew about it 
and didn't ever tell me!>"  He turned his gaze away from his father's 
face, lowering his voice.  "<It makes me wonder what else you haven't 
told me about.>"

"<Relax, Ranma,>" said Genma solemnly, still considering how to explain 
the matter before speaking.  Unlike how it had been between their two 
counterparts here, theirs had been far and away a more open and honest 
relationship, except for this one thing.  "<Remember that I'm not the 
same as this other Genma.  I didn't engage you to random girls around 
the world in exchange for food or money, and I certainly didn't subject 
you to anything like this Genma did to this Ranma.  And as for Project 
Phoenix, there's really nothing sinister going on.>"

Ranma relaxed his hands, looking away to one side.  "<Father, I really 
want to believe you.  But after seeing what some of your counterparts 
are like->"

"<Son.>"  Genma abruptly took Ranma by the shoulders.  "<I'm not like 
them, and we've always been truthful with each other.  So let me be 
honest with you now.>"  When his son turned his face back and met his 
gaze, he continued.

"<Project Phoenix is to be the rebirth of humanity, Ranma.  A rebirth 
for those whose bodies can tolerate the symbiote you bear, into a life 
freed of disease, infirmity, and possibly even the ravages of aging.>"  
Genma paused for a moment, feeling the same sense of wonder come over 
him at all the myriad possibilities for the future his son would enjoy 
that he had when Fuyutsuki had first invited him to make Ranma a part 
of it.  He looked at his son, and his expression was filled with 
fatherly pride.

"<Think about it, Ranma.  Men have sought for such things for countless 
millennia.  Because of that symbiote placed inside you, you've never 
been sick, and you've always healed quickly.  It purified your gene 
code, enhancing your basic traits, leaving you with the potential to be 
faster, stronger, and smarter than your natural capabilities would have 
allowed you to be.  There's even a strong likelihood that you'll live 
for decades longer than other men, possibly even for centuries more 
than you would have lived otherwise, remaining strong, healthy, and in 
your physical prime, instead of withering with age and dying after only 
a few score of years.>"

Genma paused again and his gaze was serious.  "<As your father, I saw 
it as my duty to give you that life before the window of opportunity 
closed forever, before you were too old to undergo the treatment, and I 
did so.  I'm sorry I kept it a secret from you for so long, and I'm not 
proud of having kept it from you.  I should have told you a long time 
ago.  And I would have, eventually.  But I could just never seem to 
find the right words or an appropriate time.>"  There was another 
pause, and he bowed his head.  "<Forgive me.>"  His tone was sincere.

"<Father.>"  Ranma looked at Genma and felt the anger drain from him.  
He started to say something more, but then suddenly his vision blurred, 
and then the world went dark.

Ranma blinked, wavering on his feet and nearly falling until Genma 
caught him and held him up.  He was uncertain what was going on and 
where he was.  He looked at Genma.  "Pop?  What happened?"

"Looks like you were sleepwalking, Ranma," Genma said, after a brief 
hesitation.  "Why don't you go wake Shampoo and the two of you do some 
training in the backyard before breakfast?  I'm sure it will make you 
feel better.  I'll be along in a bit."  He began carefully gathering up 
the scattered papers on his desk and storing them safely in a drawer.

"Uh, sure thing, Pop."  Ranma headed out of the room, holding a hand to 
his head.  He could not shake the feeling that he was missing something 
important.  He glanced at Genma from the doorway, wanting to ask for an 
explanation for what he had seen the previous day.  Then he shook his 
head and left, mumbling to himself for a moment, trying to order his 
thoughts.  Maybe the old man was right.  Practice always helped him to 
focus, and he needed some focus right now to cut through the confusion 
of his thoughts.

Genma sat back down in the chair heavily after Ranma was gone, and a 
deep sigh escaped him.  With a little luck, he would be able to return 
home to his own wife and son.  And he had to get back, especially with 
Nodoka now pregnant.  But how could he just leave this family back in 
the hands of a man like he knew his counterpart to be?  That thought 
weighed heavily on him.  This wasn't his life, but he felt responsible 
for it anyway.

Maybe that was the difference between him and his analog from this 
timeline, he mused, that sense of responsibility.  It was certainly 
something that bore thinking about.

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

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

"Retrieval cycle complete."

Ranma opened his eyes, finding tears in them, and he quickly wiped them 
away with his sleeve.  When he had confronted him, his father had been 
candid about Project Phoenix, without attempting any of the lies or 
evasiveness that his analog would have tried, and that was comforting.  
He slipped off the neural interlink headset and stretched his arms out 
until his spine popped lightly.  Bracing one hand against the edge of 
the couch, Ranma flipped himself off of it with unconscious grace and 
landed on his feet.

Enhancing your basic traits, he mused, thinking over his father's last 
words.  That would mean, in a sense, that the enzyme the symbiote used 
to edit his DNA had left him as more of what he was already inclined to 
be.  He had always possessed curiosity in abundance and an insatiable 
desire to learn, which his analogs had channeled into their martial 
arts skills, whereas he had focussed it on scholastic achievement.

That reminded him of something.  Classes would be starting pretty soon 
for the day.  After shutting down the power to the equipment, he very 
briefly debated getting a ride to the Academy with Kodachi.  Then he 
remembered that a ride would also likely mean sharing the car with 
Kuno, an unpleasant prospect at best.  It was only a few miles to the 
grounds of the Academy.  He could run it easily now; something he would 
not have been able to say only a few months ago.

Ranma shut off the lights and was in the process of locking the door 
when he felt a hand land on his shoulder.  He came within an instant of 
decking Lord Kuno before he realized that the man wasn't attacking him.

"Good reflexes, boy!" said Lord Kuno approvingly, noting Ranma's brief 
change in posture to a more combative stance before it reverted back to 
a more neutral one.  "You certainly remind me of your father when he 
was younger.  He was always ready for a fight."

"Uh, good morning, Kuno-sama," Ranma replied, relieved that he had kept 
enough presence of mind to avoid punching the man.  That would have 
been awkward, to say the least.  And it was odd that Lord Kuno didn't 
seem startled to see Ranma in his home so early in the morning, but he 
wasn't going to bring it up.  "I was just on my way to classes."

Lord Kuno put an arm around Ranma's shoulders and guided him away from 
the lab.  "Then you're fortunate we ran into each other.  Come with me, 
Ranma.  It's time we had a little talk."

"Uh, sure."  He let himself be led, wondering if he was going to miss 
classes entirely or just be late.  Lord Kuno took him out one of the 
back doors, ignoring the bows of the servants as they passed them in 
the hallways.  The early morning storm had dwindled to a stop for the 
time being, but dark clouds promised more rain before long.

The older man was quiet during the walk, leaving Ranma to wonder what 
he was getting into.  The pair headed out into the garage, where Lord 
Kuno produced a key and let them in by one of the side doors.  A smile 
lit his face as he flipped on the lights, his expression practically 
beatific.  Several rows of motorcycles greeted their eyes.

"So tell me, Ranma," said Lord Kuno, finally releasing his hold on him.  
"Did your father ever teach you how to ride a motorcycle during your 
time out in the world?"

"Uh, kind of."  Ranma was a bit bewildered.  "When we were in Moscow, I 
used a scooter to get around."  He was startled when Lord Kuno made a 
derisive sound.

"A scooter is a child's toy, Ranma," Lord Kuno said disdainfully.  He 
walked over to one of the newer model motorcycles and ran a hand along 
the gleaming red paint on the gas tank.  "But a motorcycle is a man's 
vehicle, a modern horse for a modern samurai."  His tone grew a little 
wistful, almost rapturous.  "No, not a samurai, but a ronin.  A ronin 
of the open roads, answering to no man, freed of the stifling demands 
of our society."  Memories of past glories resonated in his voice.  He 
turned back to face Ranma and smiled.  "It will be my honor to give you 
one from my own collection, and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer."

"Huh?"  Ranma looked around at the well-kept assemblage of motorcycles, 
brought together from manufacturers from around the globe.  "Why me?"

Lord Kuno turned back to study the ranks of motorcycles.  "While it is 
my sincere hope that you'll marry my precious daughter, any prospective 
son-in-law of mine has to possess certain qualities."  He stood a bit 
taller when he turned around, suddenly appearing more imposing.  "One 
of these I demand is skill with a motorcycle.  Choose any one you see 
here.  It is my gift to you, and a charge that you will master the 
skills in riding it."

Ranma gaped a bit.  He looked around, a brief flash of memory appearing 
from the depths of his mind at the sight of all the motorcycles, and a 
name: the Road Ronin.  It took him a moment to place it, the timeline 
tangent where one of Nabiki's analogs had taken the fateful training 
trip with Genma instead of the Ranma of that world.  After several 
moments, he heard Lord Kuno step up behind him and pause, and then a 
hand came down on his shoulder.

"Choose," said Lord Kuno insistently.

Ranma's gaze was caught by one of the motorcycles, painted black and 
red.  It was a much more current model, one of the Katana-series from 
Mendo Motors, as opposed to the majority of more classical styles that 
dominated the room.  He slowly approached the vehicle and briefly ran 
his hand along its chrome and steel skin.  A smile suddenly lit his 
face, and he turned to Lord Kuno and nodded.  There was a momentary 
pause, and then the older man smiled as well.

"A good choice."  Lord Kuno walked over to a wall cabinet and opened 
it, revealing sets of hanging keys.  He pulled one set down and tossed 
them to Ranma, still smiling.  "Now you'd better hurry.  You don't want 
to be late for classes, boy."

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

Belldandy stepped into the interior of the shrine and looked around, 
hearing the rain start up again outside.  Rain seemed to be leaking in 
through holes in the roof, adding to the melancholy feel.  There was a 
sadness born of long neglect to this place, and the spirits within it 
carried it within themselves with a quiet resignation.  Her heart ached 
at the feeling, and she set her cloak and carrybag down, a determined 
expression settling across her lovely features.

Tenchi came in, loaded down with his grandfather's luggage, and saw 
Belldandy suddenly cast her arms wide apart, as a glow of holy power 
coruscated through her frame and her outfit swirled around her.  She 
began loudly incanting words in a foreign language, and he could only 
stand there, awestruck, as the building began healing around him, for 
lack of any better term to describe the experience.

Broken pieces of wood rose into the air and settled back into their 
former places as Belldandy slowly turned about in place, feeding her 
divine power into the building's structure.  Cracks vanished, and the 
wood and mortar took on a renewed appearance.  When it was finally 
done, a quiet contentment seemed to be felt in the building, and Tenchi 
looked about, his eyes filled with wonder.  His gaze finally settled 
back on Belldandy, and he felt an unfamiliar feeling suddenly come over 
him at the sight of her, standing there and looking so beautiful and 
radiant with inner peace and holy power.  He swallowed down a suddenly 
dry throat.

Belldandy walked over to a support beam and ran a hand along it.  "So 
much time has passed since this building last felt useful, Masaki-san," 
she said to him, having learned his name during the brief car ride over 
from the Tendo household.  Then she staggered, and Tenchi hustled over 
to catch her before she fell.  "S-sorry," she muttered, blinking for a 
few moments as she rested in his arms.  "That took more out of me than 
I expected.  There was such need for healing in the spirits here."

"Uh, that's all right," said Tenchi, swallowing nervously again.  He 
helped her back to her feet.  Belldandy was certainly different from 
any girl his age, he mused, watching her gracefully step away from him 
and pick up her things.  There was a serene maturity to her, but then 
he realized that she could be thousands of years old, since she was 
supposedly a goddess descended from the heavens.  He suddenly felt very 
plain, ordinary, and young next to her.

"There you two are," said Katsuhito jovially, stepping into the room 
and setting the rest of his luggage down.  Rei Hino came in a moment 
behind him, looking around curiously, and Sakura Sakuranbo brought up 
the rear.  He looked around at the shrine's interior, before bringing 
his gaze back to his grandson.  "So what are you standing around for, 
Tenchi?  Get home and get ready for school," he said gruffly.

"Yes, sir!"  Tenchi scurried to head home, which was luckily only a few 
blocks away, when Rei suddenly stopped him by taking a quick grip on 
his sleeve.  There was a light blush on her cheeks as he saw her shyly 
hold out a cloth-wrapped package to him, her gaze lowered demurely.

"I-I made you a lunch," Rei said, feeling her heart fluttering in her 
chest like the wings of a hummingbird as she kept her eyes lowered from 
meeting his gaze.  Looking at him always made her feel so timid inside, 
and she loved him so much that sometimes her heart seemed to ache with 
the strength of her passions for him.  Sometimes she even had rather 
vivid dreams about him, with Tenchi as a prince and her as a princess, 
usually set on some alien world and filled with watching his swordplay 
as he fought some enemy to rescue her.  Occasionally, there were also 
rather naughty romantic interludes between them.  She blamed those 
dreams on the large number of romance comics she read, and she felt her 
blush deepen a bit as she continued gazing at the ground.

"Thank you, Rei-chan," said Tenchi in a gentle tone, taking a moment to 
take the small package from her hands and giving her a smile.  He then 
waved at her as he dashed out.

Sakura cleared her throat, and Rei jumped a bit.  She turned, wondering 
what she could have possibly done wrong to be assigned such a scary 
lady as a mentor.  "Y-yes, Sakuranbo-sensei?"

"Find a broom and start sweeping this place out, Hino-san," Sakura said 
gruffly, looking around the room and nodding.  There was a good feel to 
this place, she noted.  It would make an adequate place for training 
her young protege, passing on to the girl all the mental and spiritual 
discipline she would need to become a proper shrine priestess.

"Yes, ma'am!"  Rei hurried to obey, rushing out of the room to start 
her search for a broom.

Off to one side, Katsuhito studied Belldandy and Sakura, thinking about 
what the days ahead could hold.  Then he shrugged.  It should prove to 
be interesting at least.

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

Ranma drove his new motorcycle through the rain-slicked streets, the 
wind in his hair making him feel more alive.  He grinned, realizing 
that taking Lord Kuno's gift was proof that he was still his own man, 
that the new memories he had obtained through the resonator had not 
overwritten his personality with those other selves, only enhanced the 
person he had always been.

As he parked his motorcycle in the small parking area by the Academy, 
he put one foot down on the ground to balance it as he knocked the 
kickstand down.  The troubles he had experienced with Kodachi could be 
dealt with, and his injuries were already healing.  Finally having had 
a chance to clear things up with his real father had made him feel much 
better about things, and starting today he would be learning from the 
legendary Bruce Lee himself.  Given that, his loss to Nabiki was only a 
temporary aberration, to be corrected after he had some time to train.  
After all, Nabiki wasn't better than he was.  She had simply caught him 
offguard by using the Chestnut Fist.

Looking forward to his day, Ranma ran for the main building with a few 
minutes left to spare before the first bell rang.  But he stopped short 
when a small crowd of girls suddenly emerged from the building, many of 
them armed.  They streamed at him, declaring their feelings for him 
even as he charged through them, doing his best not to hurt any of 
them, even as they ganged up on him and tried to subdue him.  Other 
cadets watched his progress through the windows with interest and 
amusement.  He still had no idea why they kept doing this, and he made 
a mental note to find out in the near future.

He just managed to make it under cover before the skies opened up with 
more rain, leaving semi-conscious girls scattered in his wake, and a 
few more bruises on his body as a reminder of their group attack.  He 
felt a bit guilty about the girls outside, but they were the ones who 
kept attacking him.  It was a lot like what Shampoo-kun had endured a 
while back.

Ranma shook his head, banishing the stray thought from another world's 
events.  A few of the girls were from his class, so maybe if he was 
circumspect about it, he could get one of them to explain why they kept 
attacking him.  He went to his locker to change his shoes, and he found 
a small note inside.  He pulled it out and opened it.

It read, 'Ranma-kun, please meet me over by the old dormitory after 
classes are over.  Don't mention this to anyone.  Nabiki'

Ranma considered the note.  It looked like Nabiki wanted to keep their 
date tonight a secret from the other girls.  Thinking about it for a 
few moments, especially after what he had just been through, he decided 
that was probably for the best.  He pocketed the note and headed off to 
class.

Peeking from around the corner, Lynx watched Ranma depart and smiled.  
It appeared that the first of the targets had taken the bait.  She 
hurried off to report to Tiger.

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

"This is ridiculous.  We're not getting anywhere at this rate."

Ryoga looked over at his green-haired companion, both of them shielded 
from the pouring rain by umbrellas they each held.  Ryoko did not look 
very happy to his eyes, and he suddenly felt guilty at needing her help 
to find his way around such a big city.  Compared to the small village 
of his home, Tokyo felt like an alien planet.  It would have taken him 
days just to walk a few blocks, or weeks to try and navigate the whole 
city, if he even knew where he was supposed to go.  The sooner he dealt 
with Ukyo and went back home, the better it would be for him.

"I'm sorry," Ryoga mumbled, looking away from her and feeling the shame 
of his situation clutching at him.  The miserable feeling was quickly 
rechannelled back into his rage towards Ukyo, and his mood darkened as 
he suddenly railed to the skies.  "Damn you, Ukyo!  This is all your 
fault!"

Ryoko sighed as a few passerby eyed them curiously.  "Let's stop for a 
minute and wait for the rain to let up a little," she suggested.  It 
would have been nice to hole up in a cozy cafe somewhere, she mused, 
and then she suddenly recognized where they were.  Yumi-sensei's place 
was nearby.  And wasn't her last name Kuonji as well?  Maybe she knew 
where this Ukyo guy was staying at.  Without another word, she bodily 
dragged Ryoga across the street to stand under the awning in front of 
the restaurant, where she was a bit disappointed to find it closed up.  
Yumi-sensei was probably out shopping for fresh ingredients, or maybe 
she was indulging her passion for Go at one of the neighborhood parlors 
until the lunch hour rolled around.

"That's just the way my luck is going today," she muttered, glancing 
over at Ryoga, who appeared to be plotting his revenge again in his 
head.  She sighed, realizing that it was going to take days, if not 
weeks, to find this Ukyo guy, unless they caught some sort of a lucky 
break and Yumi-sensei knew where they could find this Ukyo person.  
Besides, it would be nice to do some catching up with the woman as well 
and show her teacher how much she had improved on her recent training 
trip, maybe with a sparring match.

Oh well, she mused, trying to look on the bright side, at least they 
were out of the house.  Her mother had been eyeing Ryoga quite darkly 
all through dinner and again through breakfast this morning, and she 
would swear she could have heard the wheels turning in the woman's 
mind.  Just because a girl helped out a guy did not mean they were 
dating or something like that.

Ryoko hung her head.  It was far easier beating people up than dealing 
with her mother.  At least Ryoga's quest got them out of the house and 
away from any of the woman's inquiries, as if she and Ryoga were a 
couple or something, not that she would mind it very much if they were.  
She sighed again.

Standing to her right, Ryoga kept himself warm from the occasional gust 
of wind by picturing his eventual vengeance upon Ukyo.  You smirk-faced 
jerk, he thought darkly.  Just you wait, Ukyo Kuonji.  Just you wait.

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

At lunch, Nabiki was given a note by one of the minor associates in her 
organization, who bowed to her and then departed.  She unfolded it.

It read, 'Nabiki, please meet me over by the old dormitory after 
classes are over.  Don't mention this to anyone.  Ranma'

She was pleased to see that Ranma was making an effort to keep their 
date a secret from her rivals for his attentions, and the covert aspect 
appealed to her as well.  She folded the note back up and pocketed it, 
and then she felt a sudden cold shiver run up and down her spine.  She 
glanced around quickly for the source of danger, expecting some sort of 
an imminent attack.  When it didn't materialize, she shook her head and 
headed over to sit with Yoko, chatting with the Devil Hunter as they 
ate lunch together.

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

Through binoculars, Tiger watched Nabiki eating and smiled grimly.  It 
was going to feel so good to finally deal with her, and Tiger could 
hardly wait until the Tendo girl felt her wrath.  She would have to be 
careful though, to avoid losing control of herself and doing permanent 
damage to her nemesis.  As much as she would wish otherwise, she had 
been given very strict and explicit orders on the matter.

Lowering the binoculars from her face, Tiger whispered, "Soon, Nabiki 
Tendo.  Soon."

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

"Well?  What do you think?" asked Ukyo, gazing at Ranma expectantly as 
he ate the lunch she had prepared for him.

Ranma swallowed.  "It's good," he said with a grin.

Ukyo grinned back, pleased to see Ranma enjoying her cooking.  She had 
been making a sincere effort to improve her okonomiyaki skills with her 
aunt's assistance, and it looked like her efforts were paying off.  She 
started grilling him up another one on her portable unit.  At the start 
of lunch, she had commandeered a seat near his desk to share mealtime 
with him, since it was too cold and rainy to eat outside.

Ranma ate the next one that Ukyo made him just as quickly as he had 
consumed the first, his body needing to refuel after the grueling 
morning he had undergone with Master Lee.  So far the man had been a 
solemn figure, offering very few words, and they had spent the entire 
morning doing nothing but sparring, as his new teacher tested his 
abilities to see what his limits were.  It had been difficult and yet 
exhilarating trying to keep up with the older man, an intense test of 
his capabilities, but he had kept at it and persevered to the end.

When it was over, Master Lee had told him that the next few days would 
be spent in more of the same, so he could fully gauge Ranma's current 
abilities and weak points, before the real training began.  Truthfully, 
Ranma looked forward to it, discovering new strength in himself with 
each passing day, ever since his accident with the resonator had gifted 
him with his fighting skills.  He wanted to see just how far he could 
take those abilities.  He had taken a shortcut in training by what he 
had received through the resonator, but how far could he take himself 
from here?  How strong could he become?  He wanted to see the answer to 
that, to see what his genetically-enhanced limits were, if he even had 
any now.

Kodachi had not joined them for lunch, and Ranma was feeling a bit 
guilty over being able to enjoy a peaceful lunch with Ukyo without the 
girls arguing over him.  He wondered how long Kodachi might stay mad at 
him over what had happened, and he had been thinking over what he might 
do to smooth things over between them.  An answer had been quick in 
coming, that the logical thing to do would be to ask her out on a date.  
It was only fair, after all, since he had gone out with Ukyo, and he 
was spending this evening with Nabiki.  He owed Kodachi a date, at the 
very least.

In the back of the room, Gosunkugi ate his meager meal of rice and 
vegetables while he absently heard Minami grumbling under her breath 
next to him.  His attention was focussed on Ranma as he ate, his eyes 
filled with dark menace.  Now and then, he would spare a glance or two 
at Ukyo, letting the ninja boy feel the full weight of his glare as 
well, hoping something particularly nasty happened to both of them.

Next to him, Minami glared at Ranma too, her emotions seething within 
her, watching him eat lunch with Ukyo.  She had flaunted herself at the 
handsome ninja boy, practically throwing herself at him, only to see 
the object of her desires and newfound passions choose to spend time 
with her pigtailed nemesis.  It seemed that girls were not enough for 
Ranma, she mused grumpily, since he was poaching on the cutest boy in 
their class with his wiles as well.  She grimly watched Ukyo and Ranma 
as they talked and ate lunch together.  It just wasn't fair.

Their other classmates had chosen to clear the pair some space during 
lunch, since a malevolent cloud of angry menace and evil spirits seemed 
to hover around them.

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

The early afternoon sun shone down on a solemn fortress that stood at 
one end of a peaceful, mist-shrouded valley.  Beyond it lay a vast wall 
that encircled a multitude of still pools of water, scattered all over 
the length and width of the valley.  All of them were clearly marked 
with metal signs on posts, but the many bamboo poles that once stood 
upright within them had been removed a long time ago.  Scattered guard 
towers monitored the perimeter around the outside of the wall, normally 
alert to any trespassers that may come from beyond, but they were oddly 
empty now.

Inside the fortress, a scene of battle had finally ended.  The bodies 
of a few scattered guards lay face down.  Many of their bodies were 
contorted in directions that were normally quite impossible for the 
human skeleton to do, their limbs dislocated and broken.  Scores of 
bullet holes had shattered consoles and damaged walls, and smoke still 
drifted up from some of them, as well as the crackle of sparks.  One 
elderly scientist had fallen within inches of the alarm button that 
would have locked down the entire facility.  His unconscious form was 
nudged away from the button by a bare female foot.

"<Weaklings,>" Herb spat in Mandarin in the direction of her piled 
foes.  Every soldier in the facility had come against her, only to end 
up falling by her hand.  But, despite that, the battle had lacked true 
glory.  All of these men had been taken by surprise, obviously never 
expecting such an act from one of their docile charges.  At least when 
some of them had begun shooting at her, that had been more interesting, 
but now it was already over, leaving her naked body spattered with 
splashes of her enemies blood as she contemplated the aftermath of her 
efforts.  Calmly ignoring the numerous drying splotches of vital fluids 
on her frame, she casually appropriated a cloak from the unconscious 
remains of the guard commander and swept it around herself with a 
dramatic flourish.

She had felt an odd reluctance to kill any of them during the battle, 
but many were likely permanently disabled and might never walk again.  
She shrugged, dismissing the matter as a necessary act.  The guard she 
had enticed into her cell had only been the first of them to fall, and 
his keys had enabled her to remove the inhibitor collar that had been 
fastened around her neck, as well as open her cell door.  Idly, she 
kicked aside one of the fallen guards, rather disappointed at their 
poor showing against a small wisp of a girl like herself.

She muttered under her breath, "<Such pathetic weaklings.  If idiots 
like these are the current crop of warriors that this world can muster, 
then my path to find Sage will be an easy one.>"

Herb turned and stalked through the chamber with an arrogance worthy of 
nobility, stepping over several battered and bleeding guards.  She 
scanned the cells in turn, finding most to be empty, until she finally 
found the ones she sought.  The lock on the first door opened quickly 
when she swiped the cardkey through the lock.  The figure within 
stirred at her entrance, the inhibitor collar on his neck blurring his 
thoughts with random pulses of electricity.  She undid the locking 
mechanism with the key that had unfastened hers, and it clicked open.

Leaving the young man to regain his senses, Herb went to the other cell 
that interested her.  She opened the lock barring her entry, and then 
she stepped inside to see another young man.  This one was not quite as 
muscular as the first, but his skills would be useful to her and his 
loyalty was unquestionable.  She quickly removed his inhibitor and went 
back outside the cell.  The two figures emerged from their respective 
cells after a time and stood before her.  At a stern glare from her, 
they knelt down and bowed their heads.

"<Milord Herb,>" said the smaller one in a slurred voice, knowing her 
name from the memories in his new body, and that his sworn master was 
within the fierce beauty that stood before him.  He looked up at her, 
devotion appearing in his eyes.  If his gaze hadn't stopped a foot 
below her face, then she would not have had cause to grow cross with 
him.  She hurriedly shut the front of her cloak and kicked him hard 
across the jaw for his impudence, almost knocking loose a few of his 
teeth.  Quickly, he prostrated himself low before her when he finally 
regained his senses.  The other one had not lifted his eyes yet.

"<That I should suffer such indignities,>" Herb muttered.  She whirled 
to face the other way.  The cloak gave a brief glimpse of finely toned 
legs as it swirled up.

After a moment spent in thought, she whirled back to face her minions.  
Herb was furious to think that the three of them were all that remained 
of the mighty Musk Dynasty on this misbegotten tangent's version of 
history.  Both young men looked up at her, awaiting her orders.  She 
was not long in giving them.

"<Lime.  Mint.>"  She spoke in commanding tones, wisely keeping her 
cloak shut tightly in front of her so as not to distract them.  "<We 
will gather some supplies for our journey, then we are leaving this 
place to find my lost brother and his resonator technology.>"  She then 
laughed deeply.  "<After we call our brethren using it, I will have 
them visit so much blood and terror upon this world that our ancestors' 
disgrace in this misbegotten timeline will finally be blotted out.>"

Both men clapped their right fists against their chests and bowed to 
her deeply.  "<By your command, my lord Herb.>"

Herb paused briefly in thought.  "<Lime, I want you to see if you can 
get some information out of these consoles while Mint and I seek out 
supplies, such as where we are, how we came to be here, and anything 
else that might be of interest to me.>"

"<At once, my lord Herb.>"  He bowed deeply to her once again.

"<Excellent.  Mint, strip these fools of anything that resembles this 
world's currency.  I will investigate the storerooms myself.>"

With that, the three separated to their tasks.  When Herb was far out 
of earshot, Lime and Mint looked at each other.

"<What do you make of Lord Herb's condition, Mint?>"

The other sighed slightly.  "<It was a shock to hear his commanding 
tones coming from the lips of that beautiful girl, but I will obey his 
orders, no matter what his outward form might be.>"  He cocked his head 
slightly to one side, thinking.  "<Despite being handicapped by that 
tempting female body, he is still Lord Herb inside.  He has not changed 
where it matters.>"

Lime nodded his agreement.  His fingers began dancing across the keys 
of the console, counting himself fortunate that one of the scientists 
had been logged in when Herb had staged her escape.  He was grateful 
that he knew the language of his analog's captors, since his analog 
would not have been able to read the displays.  He paused when he came 
across something interesting.  "<Hmmm.>"

"<What is it?>" asked Mint, currently riffling through the pockets of 
one of the unconscious guards.  The man started to wake up, and Mint 
calmly snapped his neck with a quick, brutal twist.  None of the men he 
had searched so far appeared to be dead, but that was likely due to 
Lord Herb's weaker new form.  Being female, perhaps she was unable to 
generate enough power in her blows to kill a man.

Mint could conceive of no other reason why a warrior of Herb's great 
skill in battle would fail to take an enemy's life.  For that was the 
way of the Musk Dynasty, that the strong lived to breed and improve the 
next generation, and the weak perished to make room for their betters.  
It was natural selection, a fierce embrace of the natural order that 
most timelines had abandoned out of some senseless weakness, until they 
were indoctrinated back into the true way by Musk conquest.  The few 
survivors of the brutal purges of those deemed genetically unfit by the 
Musk would then be allowed to have their world serve the Musk Dynasty 
as a vassal state.

The foolish women of the Matriarchy were the only ones the Musk had 
ever encountered that stubbornly refused to bow down and take their 
natural place in the universe as brood mares and pleasure companions.  
But they would be ground into the dust in due time.  On his own world, 
the ancestors of the Matriarchy had been defeated long ago, their 
strength subsumed into the Musk's genetic heritage, so it was the 
height of irony that on some misbegotten timeline they had emerged as 
the dominant group.  But their days were numbered.  After all, the news 
services had reported nothing but an endless series of victories over 
the enemy for months now.  Mint was looking forward to personally 
breaking one of the proud Amazons to the yoke of servitude.  He smiled 
lecherously at the thought.

"<This is a biological research facility,>" Lime said after a moment, 
as he scanned the flowing lines of text, interrupting Mint's musings.  
"<Among other things, they are studying some local phenomenon they 
refer to as the Jusenkyo Effect.  Waters from some springs nearby cause 
living things to transform into other living things when splashed with 
cold water, and one version turns men into women.  Sound familiar?>"

"<The holy waters?>"  Mint's eyes widened a bit, remembering the legend 
telling of the founding of the Musk Dynasty many centuries ago, before 
an earthquake had destroyed the springs, burying them forever.

"<Yes, apparently it still exists on this world, and these barbarians 
used it to reshape Lord Herb's true form into that delectable one we 
saw,>" said Lime, anger tinting his voice.  "<She is really a he.>"  He 
continued to read.  "<It appears that they then used an artifact stolen 
from the Musk when they were conquered on this world, the Chiisui-ton 
(Stopping Water Bucket), to lock Lord Herb's analog into that frail 
girl's body he now has.  Since they lacked a breeding age female among 
their subjects, they chose Lord Herb to become one, even performing 
some sort of telepathic brainwashing at someplace called the Mobius 
Institute to domesticate 'her' into accepting that role as natural.>"

"<Then we must find a way to reverse it!  We must return Lord Herb to 
his true form!>"

"<Agreed.  We'll need to take some of the Jusenkyo water with us when 
we leave and use it after we unlock his present transformation.  There 
are too many potential bad side effects for us to try it in his present 
condition, unfortunately.>"

"<Do they have the Kaisui-fuu (Opening Water Pot)?  Is it here?>"

"<No, for that we'll need to travel to Japan, to the heart of their 
empire.  It is held by this Mobius Institute organization, it seems.>"  
Lime paused for a moment.  "<Hello.  What's this?>"  He tapped at a few 
keys, quickly scrolling through some text.

"<What have you found?>"

"<The name of our people's original jailer: Colonel Hisato Tendo.  Hold 
on.  I'm checking family registries.>"  After a few moments, Lime said 
with a wolfish grin, "<Well, it appears that there are several direct 
descendants of the good Colonel living in Tokyo, and one of those is 
even a high-ranking officer in their Empire's Security Directorate.  I 
think we should pay the man and his family a brief visit, to express 
our displeasure at the captivity his ancestor put our ancestors in.>"

"<After we restore Lord Herb to his proper form, of course.>"

"<Agreed.  But let's keep this a secret from Lord Herb for now.  He has 
enough on his mind as it is, being trapped in that frail female body.>"

Both men shuddered in misogynistic horror at the notion.  They nodded 
in agreement to remain silent on the matter for Lord Herb's sake, and 
then each of them continued with their assigned tasks without any need 
for further speech to the other.

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

After classes were over for the day, Ranma said his good-byes to Ukyo, 
who had given him a friendly punch to the shoulder and hinted pretty 
strongly that she wanted to go out on another date with him soon.  As 
she walked past them, Kodachi had given him a rather terse goodbye, her 
nose in the air.  She had then gotten into her waiting limousine and 
departed without any further words.  While the scene was better in some 
ways than having the girls fighting with each other, it still wasn't 
very pleasant.

The old dormitory building was scheduled to be torn down during the 
upcoming quarter break.  The students that had been living there had 
moved to the newer and larger facility on the other side of the campus, 
where Ranma had suffered through a week of hell to prepare for his 
rematch against Utena.  As he headed over to the abandoned structure, 
it began to rain again, and the occasional arc of lightning gave the 
scene a rather spooky look.  None of the lights were on at first, but 
then a single bulb suddenly flickered into life as he approached.  He 
saw Nabiki go into the building, and he made his way over to the door 
she had used.

"Nabiki?" he called, stepping into the darkened building and setting 
down his umbrella into the stand.  "Are you in here?"

"Over here, Ranma-kun," he heard her say in reply, hearing the sound of 
her voice coming from further down one of the halls.  "Come this way."

Ranma tried the hall light switch a couple of times, but there was no 
response.  He shrugged and followed after the sound of Nabiki's voice 
leading him on, eventually ending up in an auditorium area.  It was 
dimly lit by a single bulb holding back the darkness, and he saw Nabiki 
standing on the stage with her back towards him.  He paused briefly, 
admiring the rather enticing view of her shapely backside and her long, 
coltish legs.  He quickly shook his head, dispelling the lecherous 
thoughts that had shot through his mind in those moments, certain that 
Nabiki would have pounded him into a pulp if she had been aware of 
them.

"Come up on to the stage.  I have something special to show you."

Dressed in a regulation girl's Security cadet uniform, her hair and 
catlike ears covered up with a wig that resembled Nabiki's hairstyle, 
Tiger quietly waited for Ranma to enter their trap.  She kept her face 
hidden by remaining in the shadows, but her voice was now an identical 
match for Nabiki's, courtesy of an electronic modulator she wore up 
against her throat.

"So what's with all the secrecy, Nabiki?" asked Ranma as he hopped up 
on the stage and walked towards her, looking puzzled.  "Why'd you want 
to meet here?"

"Like I said," Tiger replied in Nabiki's voice, turning around suddenly 
and pulling off her wig.  "I have something special to show you."  She 
grinned malevolently at a shocked Ranma as Lynx pulled a lever over on 
one wing of the stage.  A trap door opened up beneath his feet, and he 
vanished into the darkness with a brief cry of surprise, the opening 
closing behind him.

"Now we have fun," said Lynx, smiling like a predator as she emerged 
from the shadows a few moments later.

Tiger smiled back.  "Yes, now we can finally deal with Nabiki Tendo to 
our hearts content, at least until Kinnosuke-sama summons us to his 
side for the grand finale to this little spectacle."

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

Nabiki made her way to the old dormitory building for her rendezvous 
with Ranma, having spent a little longer chatting with Yoko after class 
than she had originally been planning to.  Rain sluiced down from the 
skies in heavy sheets and bright bolts of lightning ripped across the 
heavens, punctuated by loud rumbles of thunder.  She saw one light lit 
over on one side of the building, and she made her way towards it.  The 
door opened easily at her touch, and she saw a single umbrella in the 
stand, still wet from the rain.

"Ranma-kun?" she called out into the dark building, trying the light 
switch a few times as she set her umbrella down next to the other one.  
Her eyes began adjusting to the dimness.  "Where are you at?"

"Over here," she heard Ranma's voice, coming from farther down one of 
the hallways.  "Follow my voice."

A little suspicious due to her training and inherent nature, Nabiki 
paused.  "Come on out where I can see you, Saotome."

"Uh, it's a little embarrassing," came the reply after a moment.  "I 
was looking around while I waited for you and got my foot stuck in a 
hole in the flooring.  Could you come help me out?"

Nabiki shook her head, grinning.  Leave it to Ranma to get in trouble 
with something silly like that.  He really did need her around to take 
care of him.  She walked down the hallway, following the sound of his 
voice.  "Keep talking, so I can find you."

"I'm in here," came Ranma's voice through one of the doors.  "Hey!  Can 
you hurry it up?  My foot's starting to itch."

"Yeah, yeah," said Nabiki, still grinning at his plight.  She put her 
hand on the knob of the partly open door and opened it.  Within the 
gloom of the room's interior, she saw a figure crouched on the floor 
near the middle.  Shaking her head, she stepped into the room.  "I just 
can't believe how stupid you are sometimes, Saotome."

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us," she heard Ranma say.  Then the door 
behind her suddenly slammed shut, and all the lights came up.  Nabiki 
recoiled at the sight laid out before her, taking in the scene in an 
instant.

The room was filled with cats, and they were all looking right at her.  
Tiger presided over the scene, dressed once again in her usual uniform 
and seated in a chair over by one wall.  Her legs were crossed at the 
knees in a demurely seductive pose as she gently petted one of the 
cats, and she idly bobbed one booted foot.  Lynx stood up from where 
she had been crouched in the middle of the room, and she pulled a voice 
modulator away from her throat and let it dangle from her hand by its 
strap, a very nasty smile on her face.  To Nabiki's suddenly terrified 
perceptions, the two catgirls were like demon queens from hell.

Nabiki whirled around, her mind jabbering in terror.  She had to get 
out of here!  She had to get out!

Panther stood there like an immovable wall, her sleekly muscular arms 
crossed beneath her full breasts.  She smiled evilly at Nabiki, her 
catlike ears pricking forward.  Nabiki hastily backed up a step, and 
then another, her mind yammering with mounting panic.  When Panther 
lowered her arms to her sides and stepped forward, her hands closing 
into tight fists, Nabiki hastily backed away again.  But after a few 
steps she bumped up against the other two catgirls who had quietly come 
up behind her.  All three now hemmed her in as they surrounded her, 
smiling like predators.

"We must insist that you stay awhile, Nabiki Tendo," said Tiger in a 
malevolent tone of voice.  "After all, we've prepared such a special 
experience for you, and it simply wouldn't do for you to leave without 
enjoying it fully."  Her voice chilled in tone and increased in menace 
as she spoke, even as she gently stroked the stray cat she held cuddled 
in her arms.  She leaned in closer to Nabiki, who had begun to tremble 
from the presence of the many cats in the room, not to mention that of 
the three catgirls themselves.

Tiger smiled menacingly.  "Welcome to hell, Nabiki Tendo."

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

Ranma shook his head as he rose to his feet, his body's few remaining 
aches from his fight with Kodachi and his would-be paramours that 
morning having gained some new friends from his uncontrolled tumble 
into the darkness.  As he stood there, a sound came whispering across 
his awareness that caused an involuntary shiver to wash over him.

It was a cat's meow.  One soon joined by others.  Many others.

The wails raised a sudden, atavistic terror within him that nearly 
unhinged his mind in that moment, almost masking his notice of the 
sound of a single human footstep.

"Wh-who's there?" quavered Ranma's voice, latching on to the sound to 
focus himself away from his mounting horror.  He quickly shook his head 
and demanded more forcefully, "Show yourself!"

"As you wish, Ranma Saotome," came a male voice as the lights in the 
room came up.  As the gloom in the room dispelled, Ranma saw a single 
male figure dressed in a blue uniform like his own, his hand still on 
the wall switch.  "It is good that we can finally meet at last.  It has 
been delayed long enough."

Ranma blinked when he saw the other boy standing there, fighting to 
keep his attention away from the small horde of cats that filled the 
room, surrounding them both.  There were so many of them!  Countless 
slit-pupilled eyes gazed at him, and he could feel a quivering of raw 
terror run through his body when several of them gave out meows.  He 
had to get out of there!  But, for the moment, he forced himself to 
face the stranger, when he suddenly realized that he had no knowledge 
as to who the other boy was.

"Uh, do I know you?" Ranma inquired.  He was startled when the other 
boy suddenly crashed to the ground in a heap, before springing back up.

"It's Kinnosuke Kashuoh, you idiot!" shouted Kinnosuke, incensed with 
Ranma for causing him to lose his temper and ruin his planned dramatic 
entrance.  But he quickly smoothed his appearance and picked up one of 
the cats, cradling it gently in his arms and petting it.  It obligingly 
began to purr for him, and he smiled coldly as he observed the tic that 
crossed Ranma's face at the sound.  "I'm the one that's going to crush 
you, Ranma Saotome, for all the trouble you've caused me."

Ranma blinked.  "Me?  What the hell did I ever do to you?  I've never 
even talked to you before, Kashuoh."

"Ah, but you have frustrated several of my plans and caused me many 
difficulties, Saotome," said Kinnosuke as he slowly approached, still 
slowly stroking the silky fur of the cat held in his arms.  It yawned 
sleepily.  He saw another nervous tic flit across Ranma's face as his 
gaze kept slipping nervously to watch the cat.  Kinnosuke smiled coldly 
at the sight.

"The first time was when I sent my Wolf Pack to deal with Akane Tendo," 
he began.  "They had been ordered to brutalize the girl, to work her 
over to send a message to Nabiki Tendo that her days spent controlling 
this campus were over.  But you stopped them.  I gave them one chance 
to redeem themselves, and you beat them again, ending up costing me 
their services when they were expelled.  Then, after that utterly 
pathetic showing you gave against Utena Tenjou, I loaned Tiger to the 
Academy to assist in your training, costing me her valuable services 
for a week while you built up your strength for your rematch at Ohtori 
Academy."

Kinnosuke paused, still stroking the cat in his arms.  "But your most 
heinous crime against me was your engagement to the very beautiful and 
intelligent Nabiki Tendo, against whom I have so enjoyed scheming for 
many months now, maneuvering amidst the shadows as I slowly eroded her 
network away from her, learning how her mind works as she struggled to 
find me.  For it was while doing so that I came to realize her to be 
the only girl in the world worthy of me, and so I mean to have her as 
my own."

He paused, standing in front of Ranma, his glaring gaze filled with 
brooding menace.  "I'm taking Nabiki away from you, Ranma Saotome, and 
there isn't a thing you can do to stop me.  And once I have her, I 
intend to bend her to my will, to make her mine, body and soul."  He 
laughed chillingly.

"You're nuts!" Ranma shouted, his anger now overcoming his fear.  He 
had to keep this psycho away from Nabiki, no matter what the cost to 
himself.  He had to protect her, since that was what a true man did for 
someone he cared about.

Kinnosuke suddenly surged forward before Ranma could analyze that last 
thought more deeply, brusquely tossing the cat he had been cuddling off 
to one side and grabbed Ranma by the front of his outfit.  He hauled 
the pigtailed boy in close, his face now filled with a cold rage.  "You 
will _never_ address me in such a disrespectful fashion again, Ranma 
Saotome," he commanded, an icy calm in his voice.

"L-let go of me," Ranma warned, after a moment of surprise, his gaze 
now locked with Kinnosuke's.  "I'm warning you right now.  You'd better 
stay away from me and Nabiki.  You don't know who you're messing with."

"I am not used to being addressed in such a cavalier manner, Ranma 
Saotome," said Kinnosuke calmly, releasing his grip on the pigtailed 
boy.  "Apparently you require some instruction in how to speak to your 
betters."  Then, in a blindingly fast move, he snapped an uppercut into 
Ranma's jaw, his fist moving in a blur.

Pain exploded across Ranma's awareness as his head popped upwards and a 
spray of spittle blew from his mouth as he came close to biting his 
tongue.  He stumbled back a couple of steps and sat down heavily as his 
knees suddenly gave way beneath him.  It had happened so fast!  He had 
just barely sensed it coming, and he had been too slow to respond in 
time to dodge or block it.

Kinnosuke stepped over to the still stunned Ranma, then reached down 
and hauled him up by the collar.  A wicked smile rested on his face.  
"I was just going to pummel you unconscious, Saotome."  He punched 
Ranma solidly in the gut, blowing the air from the pigtailed boy's 
lungs.  "But now you've really angered me."  He then hurled Ranma 
across the room to land with a crash after bouncing off one of the 
walls.  Screeching cats scattered away.  The Kashuoh heir smirked 
coldly as he began stalking across the room towards the fallen Ranma, 
who had already begun painfully struggling to rise, and he began 
cracking his knuckles coolly.

"Now I'm going to make you really suffer."

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

"G-get out of my way," commanded Nabiki, her will forcing her fear back 
for the moment.  Her father had never let his emotions rule over him, 
even when her mother had died.  So it shamed her that she would do any 
less than her sire, the man she had admired for so long in her mother's 
absence.  She was able to hold it back for now, and she would continue 
holding it back for as long as it took to deal with this situation, she 
fumed, feeling a fury at the trio building within her.  She was Nabiki 
Tendo, after all, the true heir to the Anything-Goes School of Martial 
Arts!

"Or what, Nabiki Tendo?" whispered Lynx in a sultry timbre from behind 
her, her voice holding a purring undertone to it.

"How about this for starters?" growled Nabiki, suddenly elbowing Lynx 
sharply in the ribs as hard as she could and then springing clear of 
the trio during the brief confusion, narrowly evading them grabbing at 
her.  Several fearfully yowling cats scattered at her landing point, 
and she instinctively recoiled from them.  It took her a moment to 
force down her fears again.

Lynx glanced once at Tiger, angry with herself for being overconfident 
and allowing Nabiki to actually strike her.  It would not happen again.  
"Let me be the first, Tiger.  I know I can take her."

Tiger nodded once, curtly.  "Very well.  But save some for the rest of 
us, Lynx, if you can."

Lynx leaped at Nabiki, her eyes scanning the girl's defensive posture 
as she cleared the distance between them in a single bound.  Landing 
right in front of Nabiki, she began dueling with her, the two of them 
exchanging a rapid series of blocks and blows.  Her senses were alert 
to detect the slightest weak spots in the middle Tendo daughter's 
defenses, her subconscious compiling every response Nabiki made and 
scrutinously analyzing them for vulnerabilities to exploit.

When she felt Lynx's fist slam hard against her lower ribs for the 
first time, Nabiki grunted once in surprise, even as her own punch was 
deflected away from Lynx's jaw.  The catgirl was fast!  Even with the 
Chestnut Fist training under her belt, she was having a difficult time 
keeping up with Lynx's sheer speed.  A punch cracked solidly across her 
chin, driving her back a step, but she rallied again quickly.  It was 
as if the leggy catgirl was able to tell where her defenses would be 
weak a moment before it happened.

A cat meowed behind her, and Nabiki quivered as the fear threatened to 
explode past her control, distracting her for a moment.  Lynx was quick 
to pounce on the opening and laid into her savagely.  Several punches 
drove into her body, and then a solid kick impacted into her ribcage, 
blowing the air from her lungs as it lifted her off her feet to fly 
back and slam hard into the wall.  She fell to her hands and knees, 
stunned, struggling to take in a breath, even as cats scattered away 
from her.

Lynx sighed as she lowered her extended leg and relaxed her posture.  
She had barely even broken a sweat so far.  "Somehow, I was expecting 
much more of a challenge from you," she observed in a mocking tone.  
"The great Nabiki Tendo.  Or should I call you the Iron Bitch as the 
other cadets call you?  Either way, this is just... sad."

Tiger strolled over and grabbed Nabiki by the hair, lifting her head 
back.  "This isn't going to be very fun for us if you collapse so 
quickly, Tendo," she said with a smirk, feeling joyous inside at the 
other girl's plight.  "The rest of us still want a turn with you."

"G-go to h-hell, you b-biomechanical love doll bitch," Nabiki groaned 
out, glaring back at Tiger.  Nothing felt broken, but she was sure she 
would have some colorful bruises in the morning.  "I-it's not over 
yet."

Tiger's eyes flashed as her ears cocked forward.  She grabbed Nabiki by 
the throat in an iron grip, lifted her up with one arm, and slammed the 
other girl back into the wall once again.  She held her battered foe 
suspended there, Nabiki's toes hanging just above the ground.  "Now 
that wasn't a very nice thing for you to say," Tiger growled out.  "And 
it also wasn't very smart."

Nabiki felt her vision swimming as she fought for breath.  Tiger's grip 
was like a vice upon her throat, and she grabbed at the arm the catgirl 
was using to hold her up.  Her breath refused to come as her trachea 
threatened to collapse under the pressure from Tiger's hold on her.  
Then a fist suddenly hit her hard in the belly once, and then again.  
Tears of pain leaked from Nabiki's eyes.

"It seems your abilities were far overrated, Nabiki Tendo," sneered 
Tiger, allowing her prey to drop from her hand to collapse on the floor 
and roll on to her back.  "To think that our beloved master would want 
such a pathetic weakling of a creature like you at his side is simply 
incon- urk!"

Now it was Tiger's turn to suddenly lift up and fly backwards as Nabiki 
planted her hands on the floor before launching a double-footed kick 
with all the strength she could muster, impacting into Tiger's upper 
body and coming close to cracking several ribs.  Lynx was caught upside 
the head by one of Tiger's flailing arms as she flew backwards, giving 
Nabiki a brief moment of surprise to spring back to her feet and make a 
staggering dash for the door, pushing her battered body as hard as she 
could.  She charged across the room as she gained speed with every 
step, as Lynx staggered after her in hot pursuit.  Meanwhile, Tiger 
struggled to free herself from some old chairs that had shattered under 
her body when she impacted into them.

Nabiki's fear was leaking at the edges of her iron control even as she 
tried to catch her breath and keep moving.  She had to get out of this 
room!  She had to flee and make a stand someplace better, not this 
place filled with monsters from out of her nightmares.

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

Kinnosuke paused when he heard the crash in the distance, and he hoped 
that the three weren't treating Nabiki too harshly.  Then he shrugged 
and smiled.  They had their orders, and his lethal beauties would never 
disobey any command he gave them.  They were designed to be that way, 
after all.  He would let them have their fun, just so long as Nabiki 
wasn't permanently damaged in the process.

Ranma groaned from the pain of his mounting injuries, tasting blood in 
his mouth, even as he struggled to rise to his feet.  The siren call of 
the boost danced at the back of his mind, promising a fury to lay his 
enemy low, if only he unleashed it, embraced it.  Now that he knew what 
it was, he feared it even more than he had before, feared becoming 
addicted to its effects like a drug.  But he needed its power now, and 
so, without any hesitation, he released it and boosted.  He felt its 
power come roaring upwards from the most primitive and atavistic depths 
of his hindbrain.  He had to win this fight, both to protect himself 
and to protect Nabiki.

Kinnosuke saw Ranma, who was still on his hands and knees, suddenly 
seem to quiver as the pigtailed boy boosted.  That would make things a 
bit more interesting, he thought with pleasure, finding the fight so 
far with Ranma to be an utter disappointment.  He reached into the 
depths of his own hindbrain and released the beast waiting there, as 
his own boost took hold.  He felt its rapture and knew joy, looking 
forward to savagely beating his foe down, avenging himself on Ranma for 
all the many frustrations that the pigtailed boy had caused him.

Then, once he was done breaking Ranma's body, done with proving his 
physical superiority over his chosen nemesis, tomorrow he would show 
the Academy the bright star that had been in their midst all along.  No 
longer would he force mediocrity upon himself, holding himself back 
among the pack of his lessers to suit his grandfather's wishes.  When 
the other cadets spoke of the most brilliant and capable one among 
them, it would be him that they praised, not Ranma Saotome, which was 
as it should have been all along.  After all, he was greater in every 
respect.  His was the superior intellect, not this base pretender now 
pathetically kneeling before him.  The pigtailed boy would never be his 
better.

Ranma's head snapped up as a furious light seemed to ignite within his 
eyes.  Everything had shifted into slow motion around him as the boost 
took hold of him, and the intense fear that the cats had caused him was 
abruptly gone, washed away by the chemical stew now loosed within his 
system.  He spat to one side as he stood up, seeing Kinnosuke standing 
there and watching him with an odd smile on his face.  It was time to 
show this guy who he was dealing with.  He was Ranma Saotome, the heir 
to the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts!

Charging across the distance that separated them, Ranma's lips split 
into a feral grin.  He threw a punch with all the speed and power his 
boosted frame could muster, but he was startled when Kinnosuke's hand 
suddenly snapped up and grabbed it before it struck him.  They stood 
there in a brief tableau, gazing at each other.

"Was that your best shot, Ranma Saotome?" sneered Kinnosuke suddenly.

"I haven't even begun," Ranma snarled back.  Without hesitation, he 
unleashed the full measure of his martial arts skills upon the other 
boy, bringing everything he had within him to bear against his foe.  
Wrenching his hand free, the pigtailed boy battered away at Kinnosuke's 
defenses furiously, determined to break through them and finish this 
quickly.  His mind was now cleared of all doubts and fears, and his 
thoughts attained a crystalline focus.  His only desire was to put 
Kinnosuke down hard, to end this and to dominate his enemy utterly.

They dueled about the room, each of them moving at incredible speed, as 
Kinnosuke played a waiting game.  He had trained his body to tolerate 
the serums the boost utilized for many months, so he was confident that 
he could outlast his opponent.  In the meantime, he would enjoy their 
battle.

However, he was astonished to discover during the match that a few of 
Ranma's blows were actually managing to connect with him.  Not many 
did, but one was a fairly solid hit.  Blood dribbled down his chin from 
his nose where Ranma had driven his fist into it, but the flow dwindled 
quickly as the boost's serums supercharged its clotting and his healing 
factor by several-fold.  He revised his initial assessment of the other 
boy's abilities upwards a notch as he continued fending him off, as he 
waited for his foe's boosted speed and strength to run out.

When it did, then it would all be over, and he would be the victor this 
day, as it was always meant to be.  After all, even as capable as Ranma 
Saotome was showing himself to be, he was still nothing next to his own 
power and skill, and the Kashuoh heir was looking forward to crushing 
his nemesis.  But it was so difficult to wait.  Even so, he would 
endure to the end, until his moment of victory arrived, savoring the 
savage journey along the way.

Then nothing would stop him from claiming the fierce and proud Nabiki 
Tendo as his own, forever.

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

Nabiki's hand was about to grasp the door handle and make her escape 
from this chamber of horrors when Panther's knee slammed into her back, 
right between her shoulderblades.  In all the chaos and confusion, she 
had lost track of the third catgirl.  Pain exploded all through her 
body as she was driven into the wall next to the door from the impact, 
and she slumped to the ground again, her vision dancing with spots as 
she struggled to remain conscious.

"Looks like I get to have some fun with you after all, Tendo," snarled 
Panther with savage glee.  She grabbed Nabiki by the back of her skull 
and drove her stunned foe face first into the wall again, scraping 
Nabiki's forehead and leaving behind a thin smear of blood.  Her lips 
quirked into a grin.  "And here I thought I was going to be left out."

Nabiki's only response was a moan of pain.  Flashes of memories fired 
at random in her brain.  She tried to regather herself together, even 
as her battered body screamed at the abuses it was suffering.  She 
could not remember ever being beaten this badly before, in either life.

"To think you were brought down by this," sneered Panther, snatching up 
a large cat that moved too slowly to evade her grasp.  It yowled in 
fear and frizzed out its fur as she held it up by the scruff of its 
neck.  She brought the animal closer to Nabiki, and the middle Tendo 
daughter cringed away from it as best she could while held in Panther's 
steel grip.  "Aw, what's the matter?  Afraid of a kittycat?"

"N-no.  D-don't."  Nabiki's voice was a whisper, memories of Genma 
putting her in the pit suddenly surfacing in her mind, vivid and clear.  
She could suddenly smell the scent of fish cakes and cat urine in her 
nostrils, hear the yowls of hunger and fear the animals made, feel 
their claws and teeth ravaging her young body even as she screamed and 
begged for Genma to come pull her out.  But he never came.  He left her 
there, alone in the dark, with a pack of starving cats biting and 
clawing at her, in an endless torment of fear.  When the first attempt 
failed, he did it again and again, until her young mind finally broke.

"What's there to be afraid of?" Panther taunted, and she shoved the cat 
into contact with Nabiki's face.

Battered, bleeding, exhausted, Nabiki trembled uncontrollably when she 
felt the cat's fur come into contact with her skin.  Her fear finally 
exploded beyond her tentative control like a wild thing.  When the cat 
clawed at her face in its own terror, she willingly yielded herself up 
to the embrace of warm, numbing darkness.  Her last conscious thoughts, 
before that oblivion washed over her mind, was to curse Genma Saotome, 
even though she knew she was about to unleash the most powerful weapon 
in her arsenal.

Panther tossed the cat aside and grasped Nabiki from behind in a choke 
hold, her muscular arm tightly wrapped around the other girl's neck.  
It was over.  Nabiki Tendo was defeated and would soon be unconscious.  
She idly noted that all she had to do was flex her arm a little more 
tightly, and the object of her hated would be dead.  The desire to snap 
the girl's neck like a dry branch warred against the orders she had 
been given.

The muscles in her arm bunched and tightened as Panther struggled with 
herself, her programmed need to obey matched against the sheer hatred 
she felt towards Nabiki for stealing away the heart of her beloved 
Kinnosuke-sama.  Then her ears suddenly twitched forward, picking up a 
stray sound.  Her captive seemed to be trying to say something, and she 
relaxed her grip a bit, curious to hear what it was.

"Mrowr," growled Nabiki-neko.

"What?" Panther blurted out in confusion.

Nabiki-neko, in an incredible surge of strength, hurled Panther away 
from her.  Whirling around, she glared as she crouched down and a growl 
filled her throat again.  Every cat in the room suddenly scattered away 
from her presence, hiding in the corners as best they could, trembling 
with fear, sensing something that the trio of catgirls were just barely 
becoming aware of.

"What's with her?" Lynx said in confusion.  She could not get a reading 
on Nabiki now.  She was acting totally differently.  The Tendo girl was 
moving like a stalking cat now, like her mind had somehow transformed 
into a beast.  It made no sense!

Standing next to her, Tiger had a sudden flash of memory.  This was how 
Ranma had defeated her.  The stance was identical.

And after he had defeated her...

After he had defeated her...

Tiger could not remember what happened.  Why could she not remember?  
Why could she not remember what happened next?  The redheaded catgirl 
suddenly clutched at her skull as a blinding headache surged to life 
within her, forcing her down to her knees as her personality governors 
fought to assert their control over her sudden resistance.  Why could 
she not remember?

"Lynx!  Tiger!  Snap out of it!" Panther shouted, getting back to her 
feet.  She was eyeing Nabiki, puzzled by the feral look in the girl's 
gaze, but she immediately discounted it.  "She's beaten.  That was just 
a desperation move.  Now let's finish her off!"

Nabiki-neko's gaze narrowed in her wrath as she focused her gaze on the 
trio of catgirls in front of her.  These three had hurt her.  These 
three had dared to challenge her.  It was time to teach them all a 
lesson, a harsh one.  With a snarl of rage, Nabiki-neko hurled herself 
at her three foes.

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

Ranma was beyond fear now as he dueled with Kinnosuke, both of them 
moving and striking within the span of an eyeblink.  A savage joy was 
within him as he felt an epiphany come over him, fueled by the stew of 
endorphins and serums flooding his brain.  This was what he was meant 
to be, a warrior, and he embraced that feeling, savoring its seductive 
sweetness as he hurled blow after blow into Kinnosuke's defenses.  What 
did his studies have to compare to this?  What did books give him that 
could replace the fierce pleasure of driving your fist into an enemy's 
gut, to breaking down their defenses, to finally gaining the upper hand 
in battle and then savagely exploiting it?

Even the pains caused by Kinnosuke's blows added to the experience for 
him.  They were gone in moments, wiped away by the heady brew of serums 
and endorphins filling his system.  But each one was a punctuation to 
the symphony of battle that raged between them.  His head snapped to 
one side as Kinnosuke caught him with a punch, even as he drove a knee 
upwards into the other boy's gut.  On and on it went, as Ranma felt 
himself fading away slowly into the savage beast he had unleashed from 
the most primitive cells of his hindbrain and given his skills to.  It 
was like he took a step back away from himself, freeing his body from 
any conscious thoughts or doubts that could hinder his responses.

Kinnosuke was quickly growing tired of waiting for Ranma's limiter to 
kick in, finding it increasingly difficult to restrain his desires to 
unleash himself fully in brutal battle.  Why didn't Saotome fall?  Both 
of them had wracked up bruises and other injuries, and Ranma had taken 
the worst of it by far.  Yet the pigtailed boy was still boosting, and 
still fighting him hard at every turn.  He was better than Kinnosuke 
had expected, pulling out techniques that came from no combat style he 
had ever seen before, and the struggle between them was the most brutal 
and intense he had ever faced.

It was glorious.

This was what he had wanted!  This was an enemy he could sink his teeth 
into!  Unbidden, he loosed the small bit of control he had retained 
over himself, and he put everything he had into the fight.  Things 
began moving even faster and fiercer between them, as their feet danced 
over the floor, and Kinnosuke began gaining the upper hand.

Ranma suddenly felt his clarity shatter, as the boost reached the wall 
of what his body could withstand, and his subliminal limiter kicked in.  
His muscles, pushed to their limits by the sustained adrenaline surge, 
suddenly weakened as the accumulated fatigue poisons hit him all at 
once.  He missed a block, and Kinnosuke's full power punch caught him 
squarely in the stomach, just below his sternum.  He folded over the 
blow as his knees buckled, unable to get his body to roll with it and 
lessen the damage.

Sensing his imminent victory, Kinnosuke did not hesitate, and he laid 
into Ranma with a savage fury before the pigtailed boy could even fall 
to the ground.  Brutal blow after brutal blow pounded into Ranma's head 
and body before the Kashuoh heir finally managed to regain control over 
himself, only after several moments of beating a helpless Ranma.  He 
panted deeply as the pigtailed boy was finally allowed to slump down to 
the floor into unconsciousness.  And he felt godlike as he gazed upon 
Ranma, seeing a small trickle of blood leaking from the other boy's 
face and pooling upon the floor.

"And so you fall, Ranma Saotome," Kinnosuke whispered, feeling himself 
slump to his knees as the accumulated fatigue poisons caught up to him 
in a rush.  His belly roiled within him, hunger gnawing at his guts.  
But none of his discomforts could erase the joy he felt inside.  He had 
beaten his chosen nemesis.  He was victorious.  Now all that remained 
was to claim his prize: the infinitely desirable Nabiki Tendo.

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

"Hold her!"

"I've got her!"

A cacophony of battle raged behind the door as Kinnosuke paused outside 
in the hallway.  Behind him he dragged Ranma, still unconscious, his 
hand gripping the back of the pigtailed boy's shirt collar as he hauled 
him along.  Somewhere along the line Ranma had lost his shoes, and a 
sticky matting of blood stained the front of his Chinese-style shirt.  
That it sounded like Nabiki was still resisting impressed Kinnosuke, 
but he was also surprised that the trio sounded like they had their 
hands full with the Tendo girl.  After all, she was only one and there 
were three of them.

"Aiyee!" came a sudden howled cry of female fear, quickly drawing 
closer.  Kinnosuke was startled when a body abruptly came hurtling 
upside down through the closed door just in front of him, blowing it 
completely off its hinges with a loud shattering of wood and rending 
hinges, where it ended up slamming against the far wall of the hallway.  
Lynx, the rather unwilling missile, collapsed heavily to the ground in 
front of him, badly battered and bleeding a bit, her uniform scored by 
numerous slashes.

An animalistic growl of rage resounded from within the room, and the 
Kashuoh heir cautiously peeked his head around the edge of the opening, 
wondering what could have possibly done something like that to Lynx.  
And what he saw caused his eyes to widen.  He blinked, but the image 
did not change.

Nabiki-neko stood facing off with Panther, her body crouched and ready 
to spring.  Off to one side, Tiger was struggling to return to her 
feet, not quite as badly beaten-looking as Lynx was, but it was obvious 
she had been in a fight.  Blood dripped from the fingertips of one of 
her hands, and her jacket was ripped in several spots, but she did not 
seem to be very seriously injured.  Panther, on the other hand, had one 
eye swollen shut, was sporting three thin slashes along her jawline, 
and her clothing was rent in several places, as if from some kind of 
knife.

Tiger noticed him out of the corner of her eye, and she shouted, "No!  
Stay back, Kinnosuke-sama!"  She forced herself to her feet, and she 
hastened to stand between Nabiki and the Kashuoh heir.  "There's 
something wrong with her!  She's gone mad!"

While Tiger had been distracted, Panther had leaped to the attack, 
driven by her own rage and combat programming to render the Tendo girl 
unconscious as best she could, especially now that her beloved master 
was in the danger zone.  Punches that would have shattered concrete 
blurred past Nabiki-neko's head, the girl evading the blows by the 
thinnest of margins.  On one of Panther's attacks, her fist crashed 
through the floor, and then Nabiki-neko first backhanded her, before 
her other hand raked downwards quickly, clawing Panther's shoulder and 
then her chest and spattering a few droplets of her blood across the 
floor, as invisible claws of chi energy ripped through her flesh.

Tiger was about to leap back into the fray when she was startled to 
find Kinnosuke suddenly step in front of her and place an arm before 
her.  Her eyes shimmered for a moment with tears at the gesture, one 
obviously meant to protect her, and that he would do such a thing for 
her filled her heart with joy.  She started to speak.

"I'm disappointed in you, Tiger," said Kinnosuke coldly.  "I'm most 
disappointed in all three of you, that you could not deal with Nabiki 
more effectively than this."  He watched, his gaze icy, even as Panther 
was brutally batted around by Nabiki-neko's fists.  He turned his gaze 
to Tiger once again.  "I'll deal with this."

Kinnosuke boosted, feeling the rush surge through him.  He would pay a 
steep price for boosting again so soon after the last time, but it was 
necessary.  Before Tiger could say anything, feeling as if her heart 
had been crushed within her chest, he then shoved her back behind him.  
"Stay out of my way for now.  Tend to Lynx and Panther while I subdue 
Nabiki."

Nabiki-neko paused in her battle with Panther, holding the now almost 
unconscious catgirl up by one paw.  Her hair suddenly stood up a bit as 
she sensed a new enemy approach, and she let Panther fall limply to the 
floor, no longer interested in her.  She made a soft sound in the back 
of her throat as she sniffed the air, like a puzzled growl.  Her gaze 
narrowed as she glared at Kinnosuke.

"I can't tell you how long I've been looking forward to this day, 
Tendo-san," he said to her arrogantly.  "I plan to remember this battle 
well."  Then he charged at her.

Nabiki-neko dodged her head swiftly to one side and then the other as 
the unfamiliar boy tried to hit her.  She growled low in her throat as 
he laid into her defenses, forcing her to give some ground even as she 
blocked and evaded his strikes.  She slipped her body away from his 
attacks, but she found him to be a more capable foe than the three 
catgirls.

Her lips split into a feral snarl.  "Mrowr!" she growled as a warning 
to him that he should back off, if he knew what was good for him.

Kinnosuke pressed his attack, his mind caught up in the lust for battle 
that the boost caused him.  He ducked low and threw an uppercut that 
grazed across Nabiki-neko's face, and then Nabiki-neko lashed out at 
him with one hand, swiping at his chest.  He backed off in surprise, 
and a strip of cloth from his uniform fluttered to the ground between 
them.

Nabiki-neko was annoyed.  The strange boy was standing between her and 
the remaining catgirl, preventing her from finishing her off.  She 
glared at him, and her throat rumbled with another growl, her back 
arching as she suddenly hissed her rage.

Kinnosuke pressed a pair of fingers to his chest, and when he pulled 
them away, he saw his own blood.  Then he raised his eyes to gaze at 
Nabiki with a look burning with sudden passion.  He charged her, caught 
up in the desire to conquer her, to take her to the floor and embrace 
her.  A savage lust filled him, mixed with rage at her defiance.

Nabiki-neko hurled herself at the strange boy when he came rushing at 
her, and the two became enmeshed in a vicious exchange.  Kinnosuke 
struck his elbow across Nabiki-neko's face, and the brutal blow only 
seemed to irritate her.  He kneed her in the gut, and it barely seemed 
to register on her awareness.  Meanwhile, her return strikes were 
savaging him in return.  Some he managed to turn aside or dodge, but 
there were others that impacted hard into him, and more of his blood 
spattered on the floor.

Kinnosuke slowly began to experience a sensation like he was burning up 
inside, and discomfort began to penetrate through the fog of endorphins 
masking his body's pains.  Quite suddenly he realized that he was 
losing, that the Tendo girl was rapidly gaining the upper hand, and it 
galled him.  The fight with Ranma must have taken too much out of him, 
and he knew that he would have to retreat for now, that Nabiki had won 
the day here due to his overconfidence.

The boost ebbed away at his will, and Kinnosuke felt himself fall to 
his knees on the floor, then over on to his side.  He felt sick and 
weak, and every muscle in his body seemed to be trembling all at once.  
Hunger was like a ravaging beast raging inside his guts, and he wavered 
on the edge of consciousness.  In the haze of that moment, he now knew 
how close to his limits he had gone.

"KINNOSUKE-SAMA!" came a simultaneous cry from three throats, and only 
the fierce growl of Nabiki-neko kept them from his side.  The trio eyed 
the Tendo girl, an unspoken communication passing between them.

Nabiki-neko backed away from her fallen foe, never taking her eyes off 
of the trio of catgirls as they slowly came forward and picked him up 
gently, making sounds of concern over his state.  Each of them glared 
at her with hate-filled eyes for several moments, and a growl rumbled 
deep in her throat, a warning that she was more than ready to continue 
if they so desired.  Each of them looked away from her eventually, but 
the one with red hair kept a wary eye in her general direction as the 
other two half-dragged the male human away.  When they were gone, she 
sighed once and hunkered down on the floor to rest a bit, her body's 
exhaustion like a dull ache.

A faint groan came from the hallway, and Nabiki-neko lifted her head 
warily.  She padded over to the doorframe, and her senses were alert 
for an attack.  When she peeked her face around the corner, she saw 
Ranma laying where he had been abandoned, his bruised and battered form 
still where Kinnosuke had left him.

The face was familiar to her, and she sniffed the air delicately.  Her 
nose caught a whiff of a faintly musky scent, and then she recognized 
him at last.  Unlike the other male with the strange scent, this one 
smelled right, and her instincts identified him as a highly desirable 
mate.  But the male had been injured, and a feeling of intense sadness 
filled Nabiki-neko's chest.

Quietly, she lay down next to the pigtailed male, uncertain what else 
to do.  And as they lay there together, face to face, she gave his lips 
a gentle sort of cat kiss.  She then nuzzled softly at his face, and a 
soft, questioning sound arose in her throat.  But he made no reply and 
remained unconscious.

"Mrowr," Nabiki-neko called in a low and mournful tone, before settling 
herself down to sleep.  She would stay with him and protect him until 
he was better.  Closing her eyes, she fell into a doze, ready to wake 
up if any danger threatened.  She snuggled up against him a bit, softly 
purring.

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

"How do you think it's going, Saotome-kun?" asked Soun as he lifted his 
sake cup to take another sip.

"I'm sure it's going fine, Tendo-kun," replied Genma happily, feeling 
the warmth of a couple of bottles of sake already inside him.  "Here's 
to the joining together of our two families, and the future of the 
Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts."  He raised his cup, and the two 
men clinked their cups together.

Over at another table, the man known as Nanashi paused suddenly in the 
midst of taking a drink from his cup.  He turned his head slightly in 
the direction of the two fathers, studying them with interest, the gaze 
in his brown-gold eyes intent.  When the redheaded waitress passed by, 
he grabbed at her sleeve.  She turned to look at him.

"Can I get you something else, sir?" Akemi Roppongi said with a saucily 
professional smile.  Inside, she held her breath.  She had passed by 
the handsome foreigner's table a few more times than was necessary, 
hoping he would notice her.

He smiled at her and nodded in the direction of the two father.  "Do 
you know those two men?"

"Sure," Akemi replied with a grin.  She sat down at his table.  "Buy me 
some sake, and I'll be glad to tell you all about them."  She rested 
her elbow on the table, and she rested her chin on her palm.  Her eyes 
sparkled as she gazed at him.  She moved her other hand and rested it 
on his thigh.  "I'll be happy to tell you everything I know.  And if I 
do, maybe later you could do something to make me happy?"

Glancing down at her hand caressing his thigh, Nanashi nodded.  "I'm 
sure something mutually beneficial could be arranged," he said with a 
smile, studying the woman's appearance for a moment, his gaze briefly 
dipping down to the cleavage of her dress.  He ordered her a bottle of 
sake and another one for himself from another one of the waitresses.

When it arrived, he poured for her.  "Now, tell me what you know about 
those two gentleman.  And please don't leave anything out."  He smiled 
at Akemi charmingly, but his gaze was intense.

"I want to know everything about them, my dear woman."


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Well, a milestone has been reached, as this marks the twentieth chapter 
of this story.  Thanks to all the readers who still follow Quantum 
Destinies as I slowly release more material.