This is the full version of the chapter, new stuff at the bottom...

	(Previously:  In this alternate reality, the Jyuusenkyo springs 
alter minds as well as bodies.  Thus, Ranma's female form is effectively 
an entirely different person who calls herself Ranko.  Despite this, 
events have progressed much as they did in the mainstream continuity, 
even to the appearance of an enraged Ryouga.  But there's about to be a 
sudden twist...)

			TWILIGHT EXISTENCE
			by Scott K. Jamison
			(Takahashi Disclaimer)
			     Part Five

	The clinic was closed when we got there.  Dr. Tofu's note said 
he'd be back in a couple of hours.  Apparently, he was so old-fashioned 
he actually made house calls.  Rather than wait there, we went the little 
ways home for a rest first.
	I quickly wrote up the end of the Ryouga fight in our diary, then 
checked up on Akane.  She was sitting in her room staring into space with 
a melancholy expression.
	"Are you all right, Akane?"
	"Just...remembering.  I don't care about my hair!  So leave me 
alone!"  She shoved me out the door and slammed it.  Akane has these 
angry moods when she can't be reasoned with, but she calms down pretty 
quickly if you let her or she's distracted. 
	Sure enough, three minutes later, Akane came out with a pair of 
scissors and a calm expression.  We walked down to the kitchen where 
Kasumi was making supper.  She was tasting the soup.
	"Mmm.  Delicious!"  She put down the saucer, then started on the 
stirfry.  At that moment, she heard us enter.  "Oh, Akane!  And how was 
your--"
	When she saw what had happened to Akane's hair, Kasumi's arms 
went up in shock, sending the pan of food flying.  Good thing I was there 
to catch it and save the stirfry. 
	"Do you have to overreact to everything, Kasumi?" asked Akane 
with a bit of a smile.  Actually, it's about as shocked as I've ever seen 
Kasumi.  She's normally pretty unfazeable.
	"But...but...but...your hair!"
	"I'm afraid it's my f--" I began.
	"I just felt like a change, that's all!  Can you fix it up for 
me?" asked Akane. 
	While Kasumi did some quick barbering, I held down things in the 
kitchen. 
	When she returned, Kasumi said, "Thank you, Ranko.  But isn't it 
Ranma's turn today?"
	In all the excitement, I'd forgotten.  I fetched a new shirt (the 
old one being pretty badly torn) and Kasumi poured the hot water. 
	I woke up in the drainage canal with Akane looking over the 
fence.  Her hair was pretty short now, and looked kind of cute.
	"Haha.  Gotcha."
	"What was that for?"
	"Oops.  I--um--sorry, Ranko."
	I hauled myself out onto land.
	"What did Ranma do this time?"
	"Well...he was very meek and nice...and he said he liked my hair 
better this way."
	"So you threw him in a canal?  You are seriously weird, Akane."
	"Not exactly threw...I don't know why I did that, really.  I felt 
so...uncomfortable...when he complimented me."
	"He probably won't make that mistake again."
	"What did you say, Ranko?"  Her voice rose dangerously. 
	"If you make him black out when he's nice to you. Ranma's not 
going to try to be nice to you anymore.  You *would* like him to be nice 
instead of insulting you all the time, right?"
	Akane tried to calm herself.  "Yes--no--I don't know!"  She took 
a deep swallow.  "I guess...I'm afraid, a little bit.  I've never even 
been on a real date, and now Daddy is pushing for me to marry someone I 
barely know!  I feel like if I admit I kind of like Ranma, we'll just be 
shoved into a wedding.  I don't want to lose control of the most 
important decision of my life!"
	"I hear you.  From what he writes, Ranma feels the same way.  
After all, he loses control of his life to me every time he gets wet.  He 
doesn't want to lose any more control, so he tries to keep you at arm's 
length.  Least ways, that's how it looks to me."
	"But you've had pretty much no control over your life so far, and 
you manage to be nice, even to Kunou."
	"That's because I'm *supposed* to be nice.  I don't know how much 
control I have over even my own feelings."  My tummy growled.  "Must be 
time for dinner.  Hope Kasumi saved some for us."
	We laughed and headed for home.
	Later, Ranma wrote me that Akane had cried on the doctor's 
shoulder, and said she was over Dr. Tofu.  I wrote back that he should 
make more of an effort to be consistently nice to Akane so she wouldn't 
be so suspicious when he was kind.
	It took Ryouga a little over three days to return from wherever 
he'd gone.  
	I woke up in the Tendou's pond.  It was dark and rainy out, and I 
was wearing just a sleeveless t-shirt and shorts.  Ryouga landed on the 
border of the pool, umbrella open above him.
	"So!  I was right!  You *are* Ranma in disguise!"
	"It's not a disguise, Ryouga, I really--"
	"Silence!  No matter your shape, I shall have my revenge!" 
	"Would you cut that out?  I don't even know what you're getting 
revenge for!"
	"I'll say one thing...before I send you to hell."  Thunder 
rumbled.  "When you ran out on our duel, I followed you...all the way to 
China!!"  Lightning flashed nearby.
	I stalled.  "Um...you mean you went to Jyuusenkyo...and you 
transform into something when you get wet?"
	"Silence!  The time for words is past!"  He jump-kicked at me, 
and I barely dodged.  He kept coming at me, and I kept dodging, trying to 
think of some way to convince him to stop.  About the only thing saving 
me was that he was very carefully holding the umbrella above him.  Sure 
seemed like he didn't want to get wet.  But if he'd been to the Valley of 
Cursed Springs, wouldn't he know I wasn't really Ranma?
	Suddenly, an object flew from the house and impacted Ryouga on 
the back of the head.  (I found out later it was a dumbbell thrown by 
Akane.)  He dropped the umbrella, then realized what he'd done.  He 
veered and leapt over the wall.
	"Ryouga!" I cried, and followed.  I had to see what the rain had 
done. 
	Half a block away, I found Ryouga's pack, and just beyond it, 
Ryouga, nursing his head in his hands.  The rain hadn't done anything to 
him!  So much for that theory.
	"Ryouga?"  He didn't respond.  "Excuse me, are you all right?"
	Ryouga looked up at me, and there was no recognition in his 
eyes.  "Wh-where am I?" 
	"About half a block away from the Tendou Dojo."
	"Where's that?"
	"In Nerima.   I know you get lost, but--"
	"Why am I here?  Do you know me?"  As far as I could tell, he 
sincerely didn't know.  A new suspicion began forming.
	"I think you'd better come back to the dojo with me.  Get your 
head looked at."  I stretched out my hand.
	"O-okay."  He took it, and I led him back.  On the way, we passed 
a stray dog that growled at us.  It made me a little frightened, so I 
made Ryouga hurry.
	Once inside, I told Ryouga to wait, grabbed a couple of towels 
and the first aid kit from the kitchen, and set a kettle to boil.  I put 
some iodine on the lump on his head, then we started drying off.
	"Thank you, Miss...um..."
	"Ranko Saotome.  And you are?"
	"I,,,I don't know."  I'd suspected as much.
	"What's your first memory?"
	"Um...I was in a pool with a bamboo post sticking out of it.  
There were a bunch of other pools.  I don't remember how I got there." 
	"That was Jyuusenkyo, I'll bet, in China."
	"Oh.  That explains why everyone spoke Chinese for the next day 
or two.  I wandered around for a while, then spilled some tea on myself 
and blacked out.  Ever since, I've been waking up cold and wet, and 
blacking out every time I touch hot water."
	"Welcome to the club.  It happened to me too."
	"You mean I'm not the only one?  But then--"
	Just then, Akane entered.
	"All that racket at 2 A.M.!  Oh, you finally got Ryouga calmed 
down, Ranko?"  He looked at her, no recognition there either. 
	"Not exactly, Akane.  *This* fellow was born at Jyuusenkyo, just 
like me!"
	"But I thought those springs changed you into something else." 
	"Good point.  I wonder..."  Then I noticed he was staring at my 
chest.  The wet scooped-neck t-shirt was still plastered to my skin and a 
little blood was trickling from his nose.
	"Etchi!  No peeking!" as I draped my towel for better coverage. 
	"Sorry." he said, but he was grinning.  Then I noticed something 
odd. 
	"Akane, doesn't Ryouga have fangs?"
	"Yes."
	"Fangs?  And who's this Ryouga you keep talking about?"
	"Say `Ah.'"
	"Ahh."  Sure enough, no fangs.
	"Well, Ryouga is, for lack of a better term, your other half.  He 
apparently fell into one of the Cursed Springs.  They change your body 
and steal your memory.  My other half, Ranma, fell into the Spring of 
Drowned Girl, and I came out.  You must have fallen into the Spring of 
Drowned Boy, or something like that.  So you don't look too different." 
	"Ryouga...`Good Fang'?  That's a pretty silly name."
	Akane frowned.  "Well, what's your name, then?"
	"I...I don't know.  I've been calling myself Daremo."
	"`Nobody'?!  That's an awful name!"
	"You do need a better one," I said, "like...um," my eye lit on 
one of Nabiki's manga, "Shinnosuke, maybe?"
	"That does sound better."
	Akane nodded agreement.  "I like it.  It has a good feel to me 
for some reason." 
	When I got around to actually reading the manga a few days later, 
I discovered it probably wasn't the best inspiration.  But at the time, 
Shinnosuke Hibiki was pleased.
	"Oh, and this is Akane Tendou.  This is her house."
	"Pleased to meet you, Miss."
	"Likewise."  She yawned.  "It's nearly 3 A.M.!  Let's all turn 
in, and we can sort this out in the morning.  Shinnosuke, you can bunk in 
Uncle Saotome's room tonight.  He's a heavy sleeper, so you shouldn't 
wake him if you're quiet."
	I changed into my pajamas and went to bed.  I remembered 
Shinnosuke's grin.  He was a handsome boy...
	The next morning, Kasumi had to call three times to wake me up.  
Since it was my day to go to school, I took a cold sponge bath (which 
also woke me up the rest of the way) and dressed in my girl's uniform.  
Father hadn't liked that idea, but finally relented on my promise not to 
get Ranma into any embarrassing situations.  And not wearing Ranma's 
clothes all the time helped establish us as different people to help hide 
our secret.
	Shinnosuke sat at the breakfast table, looking kind of dazed as 
everyone whirled by him. 
	"Morning, Shinnosuke!"
	"Morning, um, Ranko, right?"
	"Right!  Please pass the rice."
	We ate for a bit.
	"Um, Ranko?" Shinnosuke asked.
	"Yes?"
	"This Ryouga person...does he know about me?"
	I mock-slapped my forehead.  "That's right!  You spent a couple 
of days wandering away from Jyuusenkyo before you turned back, so he 
probably never got an explanation!  Ryouga probably thinks that spring 
gave him brain cancer or something.  No wonder he's so hot on revenge!" 
	"Revenge?  On who?" asked Shinnosuke.
	"Ranma, my other half.  Apparently, Ryouga blames him for what 
happened.  We should really find out what's going on with him."
	"Easily done." said Father, tipping a kettle over Shinnosuke's 
head. 
	The boy's eyes glazed over for a second, then refocused on me, 
filled with rage.
	"This time, you won't escape, Ranma!  Die!!" he screamed, fangs 
bared as he launched himself across the table.  I wasn't able to dodge in 
time and he fastened his fingers around my throat.
	"REVENGE!"
	It took Father, Mr. Tendou and Akane combined to pry him off me. 
	"Please let's not be violent at breakfast." admonished Kasumi.  
Nabiki took pictures.
	"Please listen Ryouga!  I know they're in the same body, but 
Ranko isn't Ranma!  Whatever he did, she isn't responsible!"
	"Oh, the girl with the hair.  Akane, was it?  It looks better 
now.  Okay, I'm listening."
	So Akane told him.
	"Ranma turns into this wimpy little girl, and whenever I black 
out, I'm actually becoming this Shinnosuke guy?  That would explain a 
lot." 
	"Right.  How did you end up at Jyuusenkyo anyways?"
	"Well, after Ranma ran out on our duel," Ryouga shot me a 
venomous glance, "I was eventually able to discover he'd gone to China 
with his father.  It took me a year of searching, but at last I caught up 
to them.  I charged at my enemy, screaming a challenge, only to have him 
deliberately duck at the last moment.  It was only then I discovered 
they'd been standing next to a cliff.  I went over and into a pool.  I 
blacked out when I hit the water, and woke up two days later and miles 
away with tea all over my clothing.  Only now do I fully understand what 
Ranma did to me."
	Nabiki gestured at her watch.  "Fascinating as all this is, we're 
running late and I for one do not intend to carry any pails today."  She 
left, and Akane and I followed quickly.
	"Bye, Ryouga!"
	"Hey, wait--"
	The day itself was rather uneventful, though I did get caught 
doodling during algebra; I'd been thinking about Shinnosuke and Ryouga.  
How alike were they, having nearly the same body?
	I would not find out that day, though.  When we returned from 
school, Ryouga was gone.  Kasumi said he'd asked directions to Furinkan 
High.  It would probably be a while before we saw him again.

	To Be Continued

Next time:  Oh, come on!  We all *know* what comes next!  But there's 
just one little problem...

SKJAM!