***  ###  ***

It was dark in Ranma's room at the Medical Centre.  Ukyou had gone to get
provisions, and Akane was napping fitfully in one of the chairs.  Akane did
not look like she had been sleeping well, or often - her hair was mussed,
and there were dark circles under her eyes.  Even now she was tossing
uneasily, caught in the throes of a nightmare.  "Ranma..."  she mumbled,
"no baka..."

Akane was in the dojo, venting her frustrations on innocent cinder blocks.
The play had been a disaster.  It was true that they had won the
competition, and the prize of "getting to see China", but 'Romeo and
Juliet' was supposed to have been a tragedy, not a comedy!

It was all Ranma's fault, thought Akane.  If he hadn't been so wrapped up
in getting back to China and that damned training ground, her first chance
to play Juliet would not have been ruined.

Instead, the entire production had dissolved into chaos.  Between Ranma,
Kunou, Gosunkugi and Happousai of all people, there had been *four* Romeos
- rather more than the script had called for.  If that hadn't been bad
enough, Ranma had taken her part as Juliet opposite Kunou!  The selfish
jerk hadn't cared how important this had been to her - all he had been
interested in was seeing China.

Akane smiled to herself.  That, at least, had been a touch of poetic
justice.  Ranma had not been happy when he had learned that 'seeing China'
had referred to an actor, not a trip to the mainland.  "Serves him right,"
Akane muttered to herself.

"What serves who right?" asked Ranma as he walked into the dojo.

Akane's temper flared.  "It serves *you* right, baka!  How could you *do*
that to me?  Don't you know how much that part meant to me?  Didn't you
care at all?"

"Hey, what'd *I* do?  We won, didn't we? - Not that it did any good," he
added darkly.

"That's not the point!  'Romeo and Juliet' is supposed to be a love story,
not an episode of Urusei Yatsura!"

"I thought Urusei Yatsura *was* a love story!"

"We're talking about Shakespearian tragedy, for God's sake!  NOT slapstick
comedy!"

"Huh!  In that case it's too bad we didn't do 'Taming of the Shrew!' - Now
*there's* a part that was written for you!"  Ranma retorted.

"BAKA!" roared Akane.

"Kawaikunee!"

"Pervert!"

"That's *Per-VECT*!"

Akane was livid.  How could he be such a total jerk?  She pulled back her
fist, ready to knock him into the middle of the next week.  "Die, Ranma!"
she yelled.

Before she could move to strike, Ranma looked at her and said, "Okay - if
that's what you want," and with that, his eyes rolled up, his breathing
stopped, and Saotome Ranma dropped bonelessly to the floor of the dojo.

Akane stood staring, too shocked to even move.  Minutes passed, and nothing
stirred.  Akane grew angry again.  "Ranma!  Ranma, this is no time for sick
jokes!"  Ranma didn't move.  "Ranma, stop playing around!  I mean it!"
Still there was no sign of life from the crumpled body before her.  She
approached his still form, and reached out to shake him.

"Ranma, cut it out..."  Her voice died in her throat as she touched him.
He was cold; cold as ice.  A frantic search couldn't find a pulse.  She
turned him over, and sightless eyes stared up at her.  He was absolutely
still - no sign of life remained.  Akane screamed.

"Ranma!  No!  I didn't mean it like that!"

She heard Ranma's voice from behind her.  "It's what you said you wanted."

Anger flared in Akane - "Ranma, how dare you..."  She turned to face her
tormentor and her words again died unspoken.  Ranma's body was still lying
inert in her arms, his head pillowed on her lap.  The figure that stood
behind her was Ranma, but she could see right through him.  The figure
looked down at her, a deep sadness visible in its eyes.

"But... But..." began Akane, "It was a figure of speech!  An expression!"

Ranma's ghost stood over Akane, and his own lifeless body.  "Be careful
what you wish for, Akane..."  The figure started to fade away.
"Good-bye..."

"Ranma!" Akane cried, "Don't leave me!  Not like this!"

The fading ghost's voice was no more than a whisper.  "I loved you, you
know..." and then it was gone.  A chill wind blew across Akane, and she was
alone.

"Ranma!  NOOOoooo!"  Akane sobbed.  "Nooooo..."

Akane woke with a start, her breath coming in short gasps, her pulse
thundering in her ears.  She was surprised for a moment to find herself in
a chair in an unfamiliar room.  "Ranma..."  She looked down at Ranma's
still form in its hospital bed, and was relieved to see that he was still
breathing.

"Ranma...  Thank god, it was only a dream.  Please, Ranma, don't die.  You
can't leave me that way..."

Footsteps sounded in the corridor, and stopped outside the door.  The door
opened and Ukyou walked in carrying a number of small bags from a local
restaurant.  She froze when she saw the expression on Akane's face.

"Omygod," she cried.  "What happened?  Ran-chan!"  She rushed forward, her
armload of parcels forgotten.

Akane looked up at Ukyou, tears still streaming down her face.  "It... It's
okay, Ukyou...  I... I just had a really bad dream, that's all."

Ukyou looked at Akane, and then at the monitors on the console behind
Ranma's bed.  She was relieved to see them chirping quietly to themselves,
and the quiet, albeit painfully slow, rise and fall of Ranma's chest.  She
sat down heavily.  "God, you scared me," she said.

Akane just looked miserable.  Remembering where she had been, Ukyou passed
one of the nearly forgotten parcels to Akane.

"Here, Akane.  You really should try to eat something."

Akane took the bag, and smiled wanly at Ukyou.  "Thanks," she said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Ukyou.

***  ###  ***

Ranma-chan hauled herself painfully onto the next ledge.  This one was
narrower than the others had been, topping out at about two meters.

There was a large boulder a little ways down the ledge, that left a narrow
passage between it and the cliff face.  In the shadow of the boulder there
was what looked like the entrance to a shallow cave.  Ranma-chan headed for
the boulder - the cave seemed like it would be worth a closer look.

As it happened, the cave was something of a disappointment.  It was little
more than a hollow in the cliff face, no more than two and a half meters
deep.  As Ranma-chan turned to leave the cave, a shadow blocked the
entrance.

Ranma-chan fell back into a defensive crouch as she looked toward the cave
mouth.  A figure stood silhouetted against the entrance, tall and imposing.
>From the stance and the bokken it held, she assumed that it could only be
Kunou.  She groaned to herself.

Ranma-chan started to stalk out of the cave, but Kunou blocked her way with
his bokken.  She stepped back and moved to go around the other way.  Again,
she was blocked.  She glared at him.

Kunou smiled and lifted the tip of his bokken to Ranma-chan's chin.  She
stared back at him defiantly.  Like Ryouga on the ledge before, he was
absolutely silent - <Probably the first time in his life,> she thought to
herself.  <At least I don't have to listen to the pompous fool too.>

Once more she tried to move around him, and as he moved to block her
passage, her leg shot out in a sharp kick.  Kunou's smile widened as he
parried the kick with the flat of his sword.

Ranma-chan fell back into her defensive crouch as she considered her
options.  This was not a good place to be trying to fight.  Her movements
were too restricted in the cave - she had very little room to manoeuvre.
Kunou would be limited too, but with his bokken, he had the advantage of
reach.  He also had her pinned in this stupid cave.

Kunou launched into an attack, his bokken stabbing in almost too fast to
see.  Ranma-chan was hard pressed to evade, having so little room to move.
Normally, she would just have kicked him into low Earth orbit as he was
pontificating, but a silent Kunou was actually proving to be a bit more of
a challenge.

The force of Kunou's strikes was also having an unfortunate effect on the
cave.  Rocks were beginning to fall from the walls and roof of the cave,
which were already brittle, and as the debris accumulated on the floor of
the alcove, it was making it more difficult for Ranma-chan to move.
Finally, she hit a stone wrong, and went down on her side.  Kunou moved in
for the kill.

<Damn...> thought Ranma-chan, as she noticed the hate and fury in her
attacker's expression.  <I guess he finally caught on about the curse...>
As Kunou rushed forward, Ranma-chan rolled toward him, under his blade.
She slammed into his shins, and he came down on top of her.  The trouble
was, so did most of the roof of the cave.

When the dust cleared, there was a bigger hole in the cliff face, largely
clogged with a pile of rock and debris.  The silence was deafening, and the
stillness absolute.  After a time, something shifted, and a rock rolled
down the side of the pile to the ledge.  After another moment of stillness,
a second rock joined the first, followed by an increasing number of its
companions as the whole pile started to swell upward.

A battered and bruised Ranma-chan burst out of the pile, tossing Kunou's
still form aside as she gasped for breath.  She hauled herself shakily to
her feet and dusted herself off.  <Great...> she thought as she surveyed
the cliff face, <Just great...>  The cliff had sustained considerable
damage from the rockfall.  Cracks spidered the rock, and all the potential
handholds that Ranma-chan could see looked loose or weak.

Kunou was beginning to stir.  Ranma-chan spared him a withering look.  "Are
you happy now, you moron?" she asked testily.  "How the hell am I supposed
to make the next ledge now?"

Kunou did not answer, but she hadn't really expected him to.  Neither did
she expect him to jump up and attack her again, but he *did* do that.  Once
more, Ranma-chan found herself dodging a flurry of blows, but this time,
she had room to manoeuvre - and room to fight back.

Ranma-chan was running out of patience - not that she ever had that much to
begin with; and Kunou's continued silence was beginning to unnerve her.
"Won't you give it a *rest*?" she called out to him.  "I always *told* you
that I could never go out with you!  You can't blame me if you're too dense
to listen!"

Kunou's only reply was to increase the savagery of his attack.  Ranma-chan
ducked up under his outstretched arms and cut loose with a flurry of
punches of her own.  Faster than the eye could follow, she punched him
repeatedly until he dropped to his knees.  Hopping lightly over her stunned
opponent, she grabbed his collar and tossed him away from her once more.

Kunou landed badly, bouncing once and sliding toward the edge.  <Shit...>
thought Ranma-chan.  She dove for the edge herself, and got a firm grip on
Kunou's tunic as he slid out into space.  Ranma-chan just managed to halt
her own slide toward oblivion and still keep her grip on Kunou.  Her hold
on his collar was the only thing between Kunou and eternity.

Kunou thanked Ranma-chan for her efforts with a snarl and a thwack on the
arm with his bokken.  Reflexively, she snatched back her injured limb, but
in doing so, was forced to relinquish her grip on Kunou.

Kunou started to fall, but never finished.  He, like Ryouga again,
dissolved into nothingness as if he had never existed.  Perhaps he hadn't.
Ranma-chan wasn't certain of anything anymore - except that she was very
tired, and very sore, and not at all sure that she had the will or the
energy to continue.  She just really didn't see where she had a choice.

After taking a moment to try and catch her breath, Ranma-chan picked the
most stable hand holds that she could find and once more started the
agonizing climb toward the top of the cliff.

***  ###  ***

The Nekohanten was unusually quiet.  A somber air hung over the little
restaurant like a pall on a casket.  Cologne was in the kitchen, Mousse was
bussing tables, and Shampoo was taking orders and watching the register.
They conversed little, or not at all.

Shampoo went about her work listlessly; with none of her usual bounce or
enthusiasm.  She was polite to the customers, taking their orders, and
bringing their food as efficiently as ever, but her smile never reached her
eyes.  To anyone that knew her, it was obvious that she was in pain.

Mousse too, worked more quietly than usual, often stealing glances at
Shampoo as she walked past.  It broke his heart to see her this way - so
desperately unhappy - and to know that there was nothing he could do about
it.

He had tried to comfort her on the night they had found out about Ranma's
accident, but she had been inconsolable.  He hadn't heard her laugh or seen
her really smile since then.  She wasn't eating, she spoke only when
someone spoke to her, and she spent most of her off time in her room crying
softly.  She hadn't even insulted him lately.

The only times she seemed to regain a spark of her former energy were those
times that she caught sight of a delivery truck, and that had been hard on
the delivery trucks.  As word spread, it was becoming increasingly
difficult to get anything trucked into Nerima.  The drivers and the
insurance companies were simply unwilling to risk it.

Mousse watched Shampoo for another moment before turning back to his own
work with a long sigh.  Even losing her to Ranma would be better than this.
Not for the first time, Mousse wondered what power Saotome had that
inspired such devotion.

***  ###  ***

At one of the more secluded tables in the Nekohanten, Happousai sat staring
morosely into his ramen.  He had hardly touched his food.

After he had fled from Akane, he had come here in search of a meal and
maybe a chance to grope Shampoo.  That hadn't worked either - Shampoo had
deflected his approach without even seeming to notice him.  It was then
that Cologne had told him about Ranma.  At least now he understood why
Akane had been so upset.

He found the potential loss of his best student to be a sobering thought.
If Ranma died, there would be no more Ranma-chan, either.  While he knew a
great deal of magic, none of his spells were the type that could help Ranma
now.  He was not used to feeling helpless, and he had just about decided
that he didn't like it.  He didn't like it one bit.

***  ###  ***

Ranma-chan was nervous.  The last two ledges had been booby trapped, and
with real boobs no less.  She didn't know where they were coming from or
why they were attacking her, but instinct told her that the worst was yet
to come.  She strained her senses to the limit, but they told her nothing.
The effort was beginning to wear on her.  She was about ready to begin the
next part of her ascent, but was reluctant to leave the relative safety of
the ledge until she was sure that there were no more nasty surprises
waiting for her.

As it happened, her caution served her well.  A flicker caught her eye, and
she whirled to face the new threat, whoever (or whatever) it might turn out
to be.  She put her back against the rock face and scanned the area for
more signs of movement.  Something flashed and Ranma-chan ducked.  A mace
attached to a chain impacted the rock wall where her head had been and
bounced to the ground.  Her gaze followed the chain back to its source, and
she groaned softly.  It was Mousse.

Ranma-chan felt sorry for Mousse - even if the boy had no dignity left, it
was impossible not to admire his persistence.  There was no questioning his
devotion to Shampoo, but Ranma-chan could not help feeling a bit put upon.
She could understand fighting for something or someone that was important
to her, but it seemed to her that Mousse carried things too far.  After
all, she had never intended to "take away" his beloved Shampoo - she had
never intended to get involved with her at all.  It just didn't seem fair
somehow.  People were always trying to kill her for things that just
weren't her fault.  It was enough to give anyone a persecution complex.
Ranma-chan was beginning to despair of ever getting her life straightened
out.

Ranma-chan returned her attention to her attacker.  This Mousse, or
whatever he was, had eyesight no better than that of his real-world
counterpart.  He was still dangerous, to be sure, but he was only a real
threat when he remembered to wear his glasses.  Idly Ranma-chan wondered
why Mousse never looked into contact lenses.

Mousse swung around to attack again.  While she knew that he could not see
her as more than a blur, she was acutely aware of every sound she made.
Mousse was homing his attacks on her that way, and he was darned good at
it.  Mousse's own movements made no sound whatever.  She dove for the cliff
face as another barrage of weapons whirled through the space she had
occupied only fractions of a second before.  Where on earth did he keep all
of those things?

Ranma considered her options.  Close quarters combat was ill advised - in
her present form, Mousse had the advantages of reach and sheer power.
Besides, all the weaponry he was tossing around would have made it
difficult to get that close.  By the same token, she really couldn't take
him at a distance, either.  She had no weapons capable of reaching him,
while he seemed to have a limitless arsenal.  The situation appeared
hopeless - sooner or later she would get tired, or slip, and he would
finish her.

Mousse paused for a moment to recover some of his weapons - they were still
connected to him by lengths of chain.  Ranma-chan noted that there were a
hell of a lot of chains hanging out of his sleeves.  <All that iron mongery
must weigh a ton,> she thought to herself.  At last a strategy began to
take form in her mind.  All she had to do now was keep Mousse attacking as
fast as he could.

Ranma-chan did an end run around Mousse's position on the ledge.  He
attacked as she passed, just as she hoped that he might.  She swung to the
side and prepared to dodge the next wave.  Mousse did not disappoint her -
barrage after barrage of blades, maces and other assorted implements of
destruction hurled past her as she tried frantically to avoid getting hit.
But this time, there was one critical difference.

Instead of keeping her back to the rock face, Ranma-chan was now between
Mousse and the drop.  It was inherently more dangerous, but this way she
had one advantage.  Instead of landing on the ledge, Mousse's weapons were
all sailing out over the edge of the cliff.  As more and more weaponry
sailed past her, and the number of chains hanging out of Mousse's sleeves
grew, every bit of that weight was now hanging out over the drop.

Even as Ranma-chan watched, Mousse was starting to slide forward as the
weight of all that accumulated weaponry overcame the force of friction.
Mousse did not seem to notice.  He maintained his attack with a single
mindedness that could only be described as suicidal.  Ranma-chan vaulted
over Mousse as he slid past her position on his way toward the edge.  He
turned toward her as he passed, his hand outstretched.

Without even stopping to think about it, Ranma-chan made a grab for
Mousse's arm in an effort to halt his slide toward oblivion.  As she
reached toward him, Mousse rewarded her actions with one last attack - the
mace caught Ranma-chan hard on the shoulder and she went down.  As she
fell, she saw Mousse go over the edge.  To the last second he looked as if
he were trying to attack - his own fate had been of no importance.
Ranma-chan shuddered.

When she managed to stand up again, she approached the edge cautiously, and
peered over.  There was no trace of Mousse - she was alone again.

Ranma-chan backed up until she was leaning against the rock face once more,
as far away from the edge as she could get.  She slid down to sit on the
ledge, exhausted.  Nothing made any sense any more.  If she was indeed in a
world of her own creation, who was trying to keep her from reaching the top
of the cliff?  Why were all of these people attacking her, where were they
coming from, and where were they going?  The whole thing was starting to
make her head hurt.

After catching her breath, Ranma-chan returned her attention to the cliff
face before her.  The next ledge wasn't getting any closer by itself.  She
sighed and once more resumed her climb.

***  ###  ***

It was early morning at the Medical Centre.  Ukyou and Akane had just
finished breakfast, and were talking quietly when they were interrupted by
a gentle tap on the door.  Before either of them could get up to answer it,
the door opened and Shampoo walked into the room.  She set her pack and her
bonbori on the floor, near the door and nodded at the girls before turning
her attention to Ranma.

She stared at him for a long time, her expression a peculiar mixture of
hope, and of dread.  It was as if she were willing him to wake up and talk
to her, but not daring to believe that it would work.  It didn't -
continued silence was her only answer.  With a sigh, her shoulders sagged,
and Shampoo sat heavily on the floor and buried her face in her hands.

Shampoo felt a touch on her shoulder.  Blinking back tears, she looked up
to see Akane leaning over her.  She stiffened defensively for a moment, but
relaxed after looking into Akane's eyes.  She had come prepared to defend
her right to be there, but it did not look like Akane was inclined to make
an issue of it.  That seemed a little odd to Shampoo, but she was unwilling
to look for trouble under the circumstances.  It was a moment before she
felt she could trust her voice.

"Ranma still no better?"  Akane's expression told her all she needed to know.

Akane helped Shampoo up, led her over to one of the chairs and eased her
into it.  Akane retrieved Shampoo's pack from its place by the door and put
it in the closet alongside her own and Ukyou's.

Shampoo looked at Akane curiously.  "You no try to make Shampoo leave?" she
asked.

Akane smiled sadly.  "This isn't the time for us to be fighting, Shampoo.
I've already learned that lesson."  She looked at Ukyou meaningfully.
"Ranma is going to need all the help and caring he can get... from all of
us.  Even you."

Shampoo looked relieved.  "Shampoo glad to hear that - not look forward to
fight right now."

"We have a truce for now," agreed Ukyou.  "I've been wondering when you
would get here.  To be honest, I thought you'd have been here days ago."

Shampoo glared at Ukyou, but there was no heat in it.  "Shampoo have...
business to take care of."

Ukyou nodded.  She had been listening to the radio from time to time, and
had heard the reports about attacks on delivery vans in the Nerima sector.
It hadn't required any great amount of insight to guess who might have been
responsible.

In a way, Ukyou had taken some satisfaction from the reports - It was not
the sort of thing that she would have done herself, but it made her feel a
little better to know that even if pedestrians had to watch out for
speeding lorries, the speeding lorries also had to beware certain
pedestrians.  It had a certain balance - a symmetry to it that appealed to
her.

"Besides," Shampoo continued, "Great Grandmother say husband no need
Shampoo's help.  She  no let Shampoo come until today.  Shampoo no like it,
but Great Grandmother very... insistent."

Ukyou and Akane shared a knowing look at that.  They both knew well that
Cologne was a force to be reckoned with.  Neither of them would have been
inclined to ignore her instructions either, had they been in Shampoo's
place.

"What changed her mind?" asked Akane.

Shampoo looked sheepish.  "Is only way she get Shampoo to eat." she said.

While Akane helped Shampoo settle in, Ukyou arranged for a third chair.
The charge nurse just shook her head and sighed.

***  ###  ***

The Head Nurse shook her head as Ukyou left the desk at the nurse's
station.  "Another one?" she muttered to herself.  "How does he do it?
*Why* does he do it?"

Ranma was already a main topic of conversation on the floor.  As word
spread, whispered conversations among nurses often carried remarks about
the odd young man ranging from mere incredulity to rather graphic
speculation.

"*Two* iinazuke?"  "Sure, he's cute and all, but really!"  "That's gonna be
one wedding I'd like to see..."  "Why do they both stay with him?  I'd
never stand for it..."  "Ranma - Wild Horse... I wonder if that means
anything..."  "He seems a little young to be that well versed..."  "You say
he's a *martial* artist?  I thought it was *marital* artist..."  "I wonder
if he'd be interested in a third?"

Things had just begun to quiet down and now a third actually had shown up.
The Head Nurse sighed.  Three iinazuke!  The rest of the staff was going to
have a field day with this one.  At least most of her staff had the tact
not to say anything where any of the young ladies could hear it.  From the
assortment of weaponry she had seen Ukyou and this new one carry, she was
quite willing to believe that any nurse foolish enough to be overheard
would rapidly switch from "hospital employee" to "hospital patient".

***  ###  ***

As Ranma-chan hauled herself over the top of the next ledge, she was only
mildly surprised to find that she was not alone.  The ledge was like most
of the others, ranging between two and five meters wide from the narrowest
to the widest points.  About eight meters along the ledge, a large figure
sat hunched over a campfire, staring intently at a kettle of water set over
the fire to boil.  It was a giant panda.

Ranma-chan got slowly to her feet and dusted herself off.  The panda
appeared to take no notice of her at all.  Ranma-chan approached
cautiously.  "Oi, Oyaji!" she said.

Still, the panda ignored her.  Again, Ranma-chan felt herself getting
angry, but this time, she was not going to let it get the better of her.
Since her father had elected not to answer her, she decided to take matters
into her own hands, and stepped forward to reach for the kettle.

Before she could get a grip on the handle, the panda dissolved into a blur
of motion, and with a soundless snarl it swatted her hard into the side of
the mountain.  As Ranma-chan peeled herself off the rock face, she turned
to glare at the panda.  Somewhere deep down, a part of her wondered when
her old man had learned to move so fast.

"Oyaji!"  Ranma-chan said accusingly, "Don't be so selfish!  That kettle
holds enough water for both of us!"  Again the panda waited until she was
all but touching the handle of the kettle before it reacted with inhuman
speed.  Ranma-chan managed to avoid most of the blow, but she still took a
glancing hit to the side.  The panda acted as if she weren't even there as
she picked herself up off the ledge.

Ranma-chan elected to change her strategy, just a bit.  More than the hot
water, she wanted information.  She felt that her father owed her that
much, at least - at the *very* least.  Besides, being a girl had largely
been working to her advantage since she had been here.  Upon reflection, it
seemed unwise to tempt fate more than she already had.  There would be time
for hot water later.  She hoped.

"What'd you do that for?!" she cried indignantly.  "Just what *is* it with
all of you?!  Where in the *hell* are we?"

Rather that allowing her anger to make her careless, Ranma-chan drew
strength from it, using it to sharpen her focus.  She advanced on the panda
until she was standing right in front of him.  "Answer me, damn you!"  No
response.

"Fine!  Ignore *this* old man!" Ranma-chan popped the panda in the nose.
The panda didn't even flinch.

Ranma-chan spun toward the kettle once more, but she made no move to take
it.  Since she was between the panda and the kettle, she had one clean
shot.  Her leg lashed out, and the kettle went flying into space.  Now
maybe she could get her father's attention.

Get his attention she did.  As the kettle cleared the ledge, the panda
swatted Ranma-chan from behind, knocking her into the coals of the
campfire.  She screamed in agony as she rolled through the embers.

As Ranma-chan got painfully to her feet, the panda pressed his attack.  The
panda was faster than he had any right to be.  Ranma-chan was hard pressed
to evade his attacks, and was having trouble landing any blows herself.
Even her chestnut fist technique was proving to be totally ineffective.

"What are you so mad at me for?" she asked the panda.  "If you hadn't been
so damned selfish or so damned stubborn..."  She paused to duck a paw.
"But no...  it *always* has to be this way, doesn't it?  Always thinking of
yourself, and no one else!"  Ranma-chan managed to land a kick on the
panda's belly.

A fragment of a memory drifted through Ranma-chan's mind.  It was a comment
Akane had made during one of their fights.  "Like father, like son," she
had said.  Ranma-chan could almost imagine that she was hearing Akane's
voice at that instant.

Ranma-chan faltered as the cold realization hit her.  <If that's the way
Akane sees me, then it's no wonder she hates me...> thought Ranma-chan.
Her anger intensified as she turned once more toward the panda.  "And I'm
turning out just LIKE you!" she shouted as she renewed her attack.

"No!  No more!"  The tide of the battle was definitely turning.  As her
rage burned hotter, Ranma-chan focused on her attacks, and started to drive
the panda back.  "You're to blame for this!  It's your fault!"  She grabbed
a paw and slammed the panda into the cliff face.  "And the *worst* part of
it is..." she said as she drove the dazed bear back toward the edge,
"you're not even *real*!"

With that, Ranma-chan kicked the panda solidly in the chest.  The panda
staggered back, and over the edge.  This time, Ranma-chan just watched.
She was through risking her neck for shadows that faded into the aether.

The panda fell.

"Nooooo!" screamed Ranma-chan as she ran forward.  She watched, horrified,
as the panda struck a boulder on the ledge below, and rolled limply over
that edge as well.  When the body bounced off of the next ledge and into
the void, it was human... and badly broken.

Ranma-chan fell to her knees, almost toppling herself.  "Nooo..." she cried
again, "You're not real...  You *can't* be real..."  She buried her face in
her hands and sobbed.  Her father.  She had just killed her own father.
Hadn't she?

After what seemed like an eternity Ranma-chan stood and shuffled back
towards the rock face.  She had been so sure that nothing here was real -
that they were all shadows in her mind.  Now, she was sure of only one
thing.  If she was going to get any of the answers that she needed, she had
to get to the top of the cliff.

Ranma-chan sighed to herself and turned once more toward her climb.  She
was close to total exhaustion, but she was almost there.  The top was so
close, she felt like she could all but reach out and touch it.  One more
ledge, one more stop, and then the top would be hers.

***  ###  ***