The characters used in this story are the property of other people, Rumiko Takahashi and Marvel Comics and I am using them without permission, and, hopefully, without insult. This story follows up on events in the House of the Gilded Hand. For those of you that missed it, basically this is the story: A man named the Mandarin found that the heir to the Anything goes school of Martial Arts was either destined to destroy him or bear his heir. To this end, he arranged to have Ranma killed. The attempt was only partially successful and left only Ranma’s girl half still alive. Akane, Ranma, Ryoga, and Mousse(who was the one that had been used to kill Ranma) travelled to China and Jusenkyo. Due to the nature of the place, Ranma was unaffected by the Spring of the Drowned Man. However, Akane fell into it when noone was looking. Mandarin had brainwashed Ukyo into fighting for him as his Lady Mandarin. When Ranma and the others showed back up, however, she betrayed the Mandarin and helped them defeat him. She ran away rather than watch Akane and Ranma still wind up together. Now you’re ready for Ranma 1/2: The Measure of a Man Part one: Standing in his Shadow One Week Later: Baka... Akane-kun stood up and looked at himself. The family had been at the park and enjoying a picnic when the balloon struck. They were celebrating the fact that Cologne had finally woken up and removed Malice, the evil spirit the Mandarin had used to trick Mousse into killing Ranma, from where she was trapped inside Kasumi. Truth be told, they were celebrating the fact that the week of whining was over as well. Malice had found no feelings of anger or guilt through which to corrupt Kasumi and hadn’t stopped complaining loudly about it once. The picnic had started off just fine. Ranma insulted Akane’s cooking and Akane insulted Ranma. Genma and Soun had brought along the Travel Go (copyright and trademark, Games You can use to Escape the Real World Incorporated, Travel Division) and were hurriedly attempting to cheat one another. Kasumi had packed a wonderful lunch. Nabiki had even managed to leave the ledger books at home for a change in favor of a frisbee that she and Ryoga were tossing back and forth. It was a beautiful day. Not far away, a group of young children that attended the Junior Engineering and Design School were just about to try out there class project. The water balloon was loaded into the spring arm of the catapult. They fired. The balloon arced up and over the trees. "Hey! What if it hits someone?" "Oh, don’t worry about it. Its just a water balloon, how much damage could it do?" Akane stood up, feeling the fabric of his outfit stretching to the limit. Ranma couldn’t help but snicker a little. But the ireful glance she received for it cut her off. "I’m sorry, Akane," Ranma said, "But it is funny to see that happening to someone else." Baka, he thought again. "Akane Tendo! I challenge you!" The white robed figure of Mousse sprang out of the bushes and stepped into the pudding that Kasumi had made for dessert. He slipped and ended up on his back in the middle of the sandwiches. Ranma stood up and stepped into a fighting stance. She popped her knuckles and waited for the chinese man to stand up. Suddenly she peered at Mousse. "What did you just say?" He picked himself up and slid the the glasses down his nose. "I come to challenge Akane Tendo." He turned to face Akane who was watching the whole exchange with some amusement. He started when Mousse’s words sunk in. "You want to challenge me? Don’t you mean you want to challenge Ranma?" "So, you are afraid to fight me? I will destroy you where you stand!" He lunged forward, producing a number of hen’s eggs to throw at Akane. The young man jumped back and avoided the exploding eggs. A series of backflips led Mousse away from the family meal. Akane felt his anger stirring. What was going on here? "All right, Mousse, I’ll fight you, but before we start, tell me why we’re fighting." "If I beat you, you must give me your fiancee! I want Ranma!" He said it with a straight face though Akane was certain the chinese man was joking. "You want... Ranma?" Akane had a difficult time keeping a straight face. "You want Ranma?" The redhead in question was about to attack Mousse for his impertenance. A hand on her arm stopped her. She looked at the hand, it was attached to Ryoga. "Wait," was all he said at first. She met his gaze levelly. He sighed. "Its... a man to man fight..." he immediatly regretted his choice of words. He winced visibly. "I’m sorry, Ranma, that’s not what I meant... I..." "I know what you meant." She pulled free of his arm. "Just don’t expect me to stick around to be the prize." She stormed away from Ryoga and the picnic. Meanwhile, Mousse pressed his attack at Akane, he was using a kusari to harry the shorter haired young man. Akane still wasn’t used to gauging his reach as a man and threw a punch that fell short of Mousse. The chinese fighter caught his arm in the kusari and launched a viscious kick to the stomach. Akane wasn’t used to having to fight like this. As a girl, her challengers had usually picked some kind of arena or sporting event. Now there was no referee to call a foul or break up a dirty fight. She was now a he and would have to learn to fight like one. Akane’s heel lashed down onto Mousse’s foot, hard. The chinese man howled in pain and was completely open to the roundhouse that Akane came up from the ground into. The result was Mousse on the ground. Akane jumped for him but caught a fist in the face. Suddenly a purple haired girl was between them. "You stop! Mousse you got no business fight Akane! You should be working! Great-Grandmother want you at shop." Mousse stood up and started to turn away. He stopped and looked back at Akane. "This is not over, Tendo..." Akane watched him go, sandwiches still falling off his back. He was rubbing his jaw and wondering what had just happened. Slowly getting up he looked at Shampoo. "What was that?" Shampoo looked up at Akane (something else to get used to) and said only, "I no knowing, but I find out..." And she was gone, too. Several blocks away, Ranma was walking along the fence top and found herself next to Tofu’s. On impulse, she went in. Tofu was pouring over a book when she walked into his office. She noted with wry amusement that it was a book entitled "Not a Nervous Bone, A Romantic Guide for Shy Chiropractors." He quickly stuffed the book away under the desk and made a show of straightening his glasses. "Oh, Ranma, how are you? Is there something wrong?" The young woman looked critically at the doctor. "Doc, do I look different to you since... well since the whole thing a couple of weeks ago?" The doctor stood up and walked over to her. "Are you having some kind of pain or problems with your body? I can reccomend a good, discreet, gynec-" "Not like that!" she interrupted, blushing. "I mean, do I carry myself differently?" "Oh! I wouldn’t worry to much about that, Ranma, it’ll take a little time to get used to the differences between being a woman part time and full time. Just be patient." "But that’s just the point, Doctor, I don’t want to be treated any differently by my freinds. Even Ryoga doesn’t fight me anymore. He’s trying to be my friend now and thats really unnerving me. I never thought that I would miss having to fend him off at every corner. They’re all acting like I’m someone else..." She looked at him as though waiting for him to say the thing that would turn all this around. "In school, I’m an outcast now. The guys won’t talk to me because I’m a girl now, and the girls leave me out because I used to be a guy..." Tofu felt an inward twinge for the young woman. By all accounts, Ranma had been a popular young man at school and out. Now, to suddenly be left out... "I even started trying to help Ms. Hinako after school but she just thought that it was some kind of trick to get at her pressure points again and kicked me out." "I don’t..." Tofu started. Then cleared his throat and said, "I think the best thing for you to do is act as though nothing is different. If thats what you want. Eventually everyone else will come around." Ranma looked up at him, tears were hovering just as the edge of creeping into her eyes. "Do you really think so, doc?" He nodded at her. "Of course. Everyone just has to get used to new status quo. Go on and let me get back to work, now." He opened the door for her. "But, Ranma, don’t hesitate to come to me if you need to." She gave him a smile and leaped out into the world, ready to face it once more... A short distance away, a small figure watched her go. With a sigh the figure turned away. Swallowed into the shadows of Nerima Akane didn’t see Ranma again until that night. "Baka! You left us to clean up the whole picnic!" Ranma just shrugged at first, then asked, "Who won?" She tried to make it sound as though she didn’t really care, she could have been asking about two complete strangers. "What? What do you mean? Oh, with Mousse? Shampoo interrupted us and he left..." She looked at Ranma and seemed about to speak. The redhead found the scrutiny uncomfortable. "What?" "I was just wondering... how you put up with it all? These people challenging you all the time, usually without stopping to give you a reason or anything." Ranma thought back to all her fights with the various challengers. And all the times Akane had claimed that they must have somehow been Ranma’s fault, somehow... "So now suddenly you beleive me, huh?" "What do you mean?" "Skip it... Just be a man and take it... or don’t... its your choice. You don’t really have any sort of reputation as a man to uphold. If Mousse challenges you again, walk away if you want." Ranma shrugged. She turned away from Akane and was heading for the bath. Not so long ago, the bath had been a sanctuary for her, not now. She couldn’t use it to escape from herself. When she arrived, Nabiki was there already. "Sorry, I’ll come back later." "Its okay, Ranma, we’re all girls here..." She felt like she had stuck her foot into her mouth up to her knee. She had just automatically responded with what she’d have normally said to Ranma, before... all that had happened. Say it, she commanded herself. Before he died. And she lived. Ranma turned to leave, more depressed than ever. Nabiki called after her, "Ranma! Please come back... I really don’t mind. And I wouldn’t mind the company." The redhead turned back around, expecting to find either pity or a mocking smile on Nabiki’s face. She found neither. Just open freindship. What the heck, Ranma thought to herself. And went into the bath. At school the next day, during lunch, Akane was challenged again by Mousse. The chinese fighter had come out of nowhere with a bucket of water. Akane-kun stood there wearing his girls uniform. "Are you prepared for a continuance of our fight, Akane Tendo?" Akane got really mad and wanted nothing more than to pound Mousse into the ground but he remembered Ranma’s words. "I won’t fight you, Mousse. I don’t want to fight you." He turned away from Mousse and started looking around for some hot water. It always seemed to be handy when Ranma had needed it. "How dare you turn your back on me! I must break you now, Akane Tendo!" Ranma was sitting under a tree halfway across campus picking half- hearedly at the lunch Kasumi had packed for her. The sounds of large objects breaking reached her ears even here. Stupid Akane, she couldn’t even back out of a fight right. Some part of her wanted to go and watch the fight going on but she resisted it. Girlfriends did that and Ranma Saotome was nobody’s girlfreind. A throat cleared nearby. She glanced over and saw a face she didn’t recognize. It was a slaughter. Akane started the fight face down and it was debatable whether or not she actually got all the way back up to her feet. Mercifully, Miss Hinako got both of them with the Happo Five Yen Shiatsu attack and interrupted the fight. Shampoo dragged Mousse home and Akane spent the afternoon recovering in the nurse’s office. Hiroshi and Diasuke had helped him get there. They offered to walk home with Akane in case Mousse showed up again. Oddly enough, Ranma never checked in on Akane. She was more than a little annoyed with Ranma by the time school let out. The four of them, Ranma, Akane, Hiroshi, and Diasuke were walking home when Akane (who was a girl again) asked with as much innocence as she could, "So where were you during lunch?" "Huh? Oh, I just wanted to be alone for a while...," she answered. "I heard," added Hiroshi, "That you were with that new guy, whathisname, um,..." "Hotaru. He’s a transfer student from Tombiki. Yeah, he was looking for the library. So I gave him a hand finding it..." "So, just, so that I have this straight, Ranma, you didn’t come and see me suffer the worst defeat in the history of defeats because you were with some guy?" She arched her eyebrows and shifted her stance, expecting a fight. Mousse was starting to make her paranoid. "Well, yeah, sorry... Hey! It wasn’t like that at all!" Hiroshi and Diasuke knew the mood for the walk home was set. The argument continued for quite some time until suddenly Akane realized the Ranma had stopped about a block back. The redhead was staring up at a building with a sold sign in the window. The sign was gone from above the door, but the name was still clearly visisble over the only clean strech of Paint. Ucchans. "Where are you?" Ranma whispered to the wind. "Come back and let us help..." Measure of a Man pt 2 An Infrequent Visitor to the Truth It took some time before Ranma would leave the storefront. Hiroshi and Diasuke had given up before Akane. "Come on, lets get home and get something to eat," she said at last. Ranma wouldn’t face Akane as she left the store. Her eyes were wet, though. By the time they got to the Tendo house Ranma seemed her old self again. They had a snack and did their respective homework. "Ranma," Akane asked at last. "Do you think that..." The redhead dropped her pencil. "Yeah, Akane?" "Would you help me with something?" A few minutes later they were in the dojo. "Now, remember, Ranma, I’ll never be able to hold my own against Mousse unless you help me get used to fighting like a guy." "Yeah, whatever," Ranma was angry with herself for being in this situation but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to be angry at Akane. Too be honest, it really wasn’t her fault. These fighters in and around Nerima just seemed to need to have someone to fight. If it wasn’t Ranma... Akane dumped a bucket of water over her head and Ranma was faced with the male version of her fiance. Fiance. Hah! Though noone had actually said anything yet, Ranma knew from the looks she had seen in her own father’s eyes and Soun Tendo’s that they were thinking that the marriage idea might not really have died with Ranma’s manhood. They had another think coming to them. Ranma cut loose at Akane-kun, striking with hands and feet. Frustration was apparent in her face. Akane was caught off gaurd by the frenzy that came along with the redhead and took a few shots before getting his balance back. Akane began to block the shots and even return a few into the opening that Ranma left. The redhead became even more angry when she realized how many openings she was actually leaving. Ranma had gotten used to fighting men in her girl body. Over a year of fighting the long limbed Mousse had seen to that. Ryoga, too, had at least a couple of inches of reach on her. And yet here was Akane actually making contact. Unthinkable! She connected with Akane-kun at the bridge of his nose, sending a flash of bright red pain over the young man’s eyes. In a panic now, Akane swept Ranma’s legs out from under her. They went down together, with Akane’s legs tangling the redhead’s. Akane followed up with an elbow strike that stopped just short of Ranma’s throat. Ranma’a rage was borne away on a wind of surprise. "You... you beat me..." Akane looked nearly as surprised then a look of indignation crossed his face. "You act as though that’s never happened before!" Ranma disentangled herself and walked to the doorway of the dojo. "Think about it Akane," she said quietly. "You’ve never beaten me on your own. With help from magical items, yeah, but... but..." Akane-kun moved up behind the girl and opened her mouth to speak when Mr. Saotome came leaping out of the house and into the koi pond. Kasumi’s voice could be heard loudly greeting someone. The answering voice was immediatly recognizable to both of the young martial artists. "Mom..." Ranma said with a sigh. She walked sullenly towards the house, Akane following with head held high. Despite how much it had obviously bothered Ranma, he was proud that he had actually managed a victory, alone. Just Akane versus Ranma. And Akane won! Nodoka Saotome was obviously upset that once again she had missed her husband and son as they left on yet another training mission. But she took it in stride and offered to help Kasumi in the kitchen. She had been taken aback by Akane’s curse but then seemed to relax when she learned that it was curable by hot water. Outside, a lonely figure watched the family prepare a meal and sit down to dinner. Ranma looked up at the garden and sighed. She hated doing this to her mother, but the vow her father had made definately couldn’t be fulfilled now. If Nodoka found out their secret, they were both dead. And yet, this was her mother she was thinking about, and to be honest, this wasn’t some Yakuza movie or the dark ages, could her mother actually expect them to commit seppuku? She came to the conclusion that her life basically sucked... Then her eyes caught sight of a shadow near the wall. A shadow wearing a spatula across her back. "Ukyo..." she said breathlessly. Immediatly she was on her feet and running straight at the girl. "Ukyo!" She never even made it to the hiding place as the girl jumped up and over the wall. Ranma had to jump and dodge several of Ukyo’s spatula darts as they embedded themselves near her feet. On the wind she thought she heard Ukyo’s voice whisper, "I’m sorry..." Like a flash she was on the wall and shouting Ukyo’s name. She shouted until she was hoarse but the girl didn’t come back. "Ranko!" called up Nodoka. "Come down, Ranko!" Rather than face her mother, Ranma ran along the wall of the Tendo yard to the roof and went in through her own window. All the while telling herself she wouldn’t cry. It almost worked. The family looked down at the meal, footprints tracked through the carefully prepared meal. "I guess I could call for takeout," Nabiki offered. Kasumi was clearing away the ruined meal when she spilled a cup of tea onto Mr. Panda. Nodoka was on her way through the dining room on her way to see Ranko when the panda changed into her husband. "G-Genma?" "Er, hello, dear. How, um, how are you?" It took several hurried minutes of discussion to get Nodoka calmed down enough to listen to the story of Genma’s curse. He left out the details of Ranma’s curse entirely. When the story was done Nodoka asked him THE question. "Where is my son? Genma, where is Ranma?" "Nodoka...There was an acci-" Two things cut him off. The first was the wail of anguish his wife let out. The second was a red headed blur that smashed him into the wall. "NO!" shouted both women at once. The rest of the room fell into silence. Both Soun and Akane reached towards Ranma but then hesitated. "I won’t let you do this! I’ve let you up until now and regretted it everytime she comes here. No more!" She was crying again, and shaking her father. "Do you hear me, old man? I won’t let you!" Genma grabbed both of her wrists and twisted them, trying to loosen the grip she had on his throat. The result was better than he expected as the twist easily turned into a pin with both arms held behind her head. He felt immediatly ashamed but was also desperately trying to get his wind back. Nodoka was in shock. "Genma, let go of Ranko!" The redhead spat out past the pain of her joints being streched just a bit, "My name isn’t Ranko! It never was! I’m Ranma! Ranma!" With a painful wrench she slammed her head up under Genma’s chin and broke his hold. Then she was gone. Out into the yard and over the wall. With only a momentary look back at the family, Genma in particular, Akane followed. It seemed that Ranma was determined not to be found, though. None of the usual places worked. Not the Cat Cafe, not.... Ucchans, not the school. She was about to give up when she looked up and saw the skating rink. This is where he said it... she thought to herself. This is where he told it to everyone. If only I had trusted in him more... She went in and looked around. It was a Monday and business was slow, a few couple skated over the rink and a class was going on in one section. They swayed and staggered across the ice. Akane smiled as she remembered the sight of Ranma trying desperately to keep his balance. Finally he got so frustrated that he turned himself into a girl to avoid embarassment. It didn’t really work, but even then she’d looked cute. And the match. "Akane is my fiance, touch her again and I’ll kill you!" The young woman walked through the rink, and her memories at the same time. Right after that all went down, everything seemed to fall apart. Shampoo and her grandmother showed up. Then, not too long after them came Mousse. And Ukyo. And Tsubasa. So much chaos, so much distraction that she and Ranma had never gotten around to saying the things that mattered to one another until it was too late. And now... Akane caught sight of Ranma talking to someone, a young man with dark hair and light eyes. He was listening to her. A gut wrench twisted in her stomach and she could feel the jealousy start. She looked down at herself. Is that it? Am I jealous? She turned and ran from the rink. Ranma was sitting with her new freind Hotaru. Hotaru had gotten part of the story of Ranma’s curse through talking to the other students. He listened now as she told the rest of the tale. "Now, here I am, stuck like this...," she said at last. "And this girl, this Akane, what does she think?" he asked her. They had met outside the rink, he’d been passing by and she hadn’t been looking where she was going. She’d barreled into him and the two had gone down in a heap. It had been obvious to him that she’d been crying. Hardly the behavior he’d been expecting out of her, considering all that he’d been told over the past day about the Great and Powerful Ranma Saotome. He’d offered to buy her a soda and talk. She accepted. The soda had turned into a snack, which by now was turning into an actual dinner. "I guess she’s handling the whole thing pretty well. Except that Mousse, the guy I was telling you about, he’s taken it into his head to challenge her boy side. Now she’s got me trainin’ her to beat him. Personally-" "Ranma? Here you are!" The voice came from a young man wearing a red chinese shirt and black fighting pants. His black hair was tied back into a micro-tail. It took a moment for Ranma to recognize him. "Akane? Why are you..." Akane eyes drifted over to the young man his fiance was sitting with. He seemed like he wasn’t much of a threat. Handsome, to be certain, and in good shape. Might even know how to fight. How to fight like a man. No, not much of a threat. He was just everything that Akane wasn’t. Akane felt awkward next to the handsome young man. "Can we talk for a minute? Alone?" "Go on," the young man said. He seemed vaguely amused by Akane. He seemed uncomfortable in the fighting clothes he was wearing. His hair was still damp from the water he had used for his transformation. Hotaru scratched behind his head and grinned at Akane. "Have a good time, you two." They walked away together. They were walking along the edge of the rink in silence for a moment then both spoke up at once. "So what did you-" "Are you gonna-" They immediatly shut up and the silence returned for a few moments. "Ranma," Akane said at last, "You’re not handling this well. Don’t even try to deny it. I hate to see you like this..." "Like what? I’m doin’ fine! I don’t need you to tell me how I’m doin’!" She snorted. "Look at you! Dressed up like that! And you used to call me a pervert!" Akane felt that old anger stir up. She gave it its head. "You are a pervert! Look at what you were doing! Having dinner with that boy! Running around crying like a little kid!" It was starting again, just like always. Everytime that they started to have a serious talk, "The Talk," this happened. Akane was trying to get herself under control but Ranma had a good head of steam built up. "Who are you to critcize me? You haven’t been in my shoes nearly long enough to have any idea what its like!" Suddenly she stopped walking. She looked out at the skaters. Akane opened her mouth to respond when he realized that Ranma wasn’t with him anymore. He turned around and saw her with the lost look he remembered from the day after Mousse had attacked and killed her other half. It had scared Akane then, it scared him now. He walked back to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "That was a good time, Akane. Do you remember what I said that day? I do..." "I remember..." "I meant that, you know." "And now?" Silence for a moment. Only the hiss of blades on the ice interruped it. "I- Akane, you can’t ask me that right now. Not now. Give me a little time to figure it out myself." She looked over at Akane. Akane sighed. It wasn’t a ‘no’. A ‘yes’ would have been better. But this would have to do. "Would you like to get some skates? We haven’t done this since that day." The red head took the young man’s hand and they went skating. Hand in hand, but not together. Measure of a Man Part Three Leftovers... Only one light in the Tendo house was on when the two came home. It was late, after eleven but everyone was still up. Earlier there had been heated words between Nodoka and Genma. To his credit, the Saotome patriarch didn’t run from his wife or even try to hide as a panda. He took the stream or epithets and added his own when necessary. He had tried to make their son a good man. He had tried to teach him about honor and tradition. Genma couldn’t seem to teach by example, in fact the opposite had actually happened, and he admitted as much. Ranma had taught him a few things about responsibility. He told his wife that he would honor the agreement made before that fateful journey if she required it, but hoped that she would give him another chance. He also told her that she would have no right to hold Ranma to the agreement. Their son had died. He was gone. Their daughter remained and she would need help to cope. His wife was shocked that Genma would think she would have actually held him to his ridiculous vow. "It was your idea in the first place, you old fool! I would rather have a dishonorable husband where I can reach him than a dead family and an empty house." But that was exactly what she had been given. For nearly ten years she had been alone. And she had waited for them to return. And they had lied to her. Genma had seen the loss in her eyes and still he hadn’t told her. Ranma had flaunted her womanhood at Nodoka in the face of her pain and said nothing. She didn’t know what to say about that. She wasn’t sure she wanted Genma back if he could be that cold. But she knew that she didn’t want his life. That would be to easy. So a cold silence was over the house when Ranma and Akane came home. Ranma walked to where her mother sat and dropped into a kneeling bow. A man’s bow, her mother noted with something bordering amusement. "I have behaved in an inexcusable manner to you, Nodoka Saotome. I could plead that I was mislead about your intentions but that is not sufficient reason for the dishonor I have done you. I will tell you this: I will not take my own life, no matter what promises a child made to his mother. That boy died already, I am all that’s left of him. I hope, though, that you will still give me the chance to be your child." Ranma didn’t look up at her mother during all of this. "If not, I will understand. We don’t really know one another all that well. I can survive, will survive." Ranma got up and walked to her father. She gave the surprised martial artist a quick and clumsy hug and said, "Goodnight, father." Ranma was gone upstairs before Nodoka allowed herself the luxury of tears. She shut the door to the room she had shared with her father until all of this had happened. Leaning back against the door she gave a sigh and then suddenly realized that she was not alone. She rolled to the side and came up in a fighting stance. "Relax," came a quiet voice out of the dark room. "If I wanted you dead, you would be." "Ukyo?" "Part of the time. Right now. Sometimes I’m the other one. The one He made." A deep shadow shifted, giving Ranma a clue as to where the girl was. "Is it true that you can’t change back? I... I’ve been watching you and he told me, but..." "Its true. Are you... okay? Can I help you with this? I want to help you. Let me." "I wish it were that simple. I want to... hurt you sometimes. It wouldn’t be safe for you. Part of me doesn’t like you very much. But the rest of me..." "Ucchan..." "You’ve been crying tonight, haven’t you? Did Akane make you cry?" Ukyo’s voice adopted an edge that Ranma wasn’t sure she liked. "Akane can’t make me do anything. I was crying, but over a lot of things. I think I have enough reasons to warrant a few tears once in a while." She tried to spot the other girl in the dark. "Dr. Tofu says that if I try to act like I’m not any different, then the everybody else will come around." There was a bitterness in her voice as she continued. It had always been easier to talk to Ukyo about these things than Akane. "It’s really hard, though. Sometimes I feel like the part of me that wants to act like the old Ranma is... is..." "Dead?" offered Ukyo. "I guess I can understand that. Your male half died. It took some things with it. Dr. Tofu is a smart man, but he really never had any schooling to prepare him for any of the strangeness that has come his way. "I thought about going to him, or to the ghoul, either one of them might be able to help me. But I also know that She won’t go without a fight. And She beat Cologne once already." Finally Ranma managed to focus on her exact location. "Let me help..." she said taking a step forward. "She can’t possible beat both me and the old woman." "Can’t I?" The voice had that edge that Ranma didn’t like again. "You aren’t anything remotely resembling a challenge, Ranko Saotome. The man she loved is dead. You aren’t anyone. You don’t exist." "That’s not true! I... I-" Ranma felt the blade passing through the air at her and twisted just in time to avoid it as it cut along her sleeve. it embedded itself in the wall near the door. "Finish it. You’re the waste product of someone else’s life. Leftovers that noone wants to eat. You’ll sit in the back of the fridge until finally you rot away." The voice was closer to the window now. "Let everyone get on with their lives. Finish it." Ranma dropped to her knees, quietly crying. Was she right? Was she nothing but a leftover of her male life? Her fingers closed over the spatula. Was this how a man died? You’re no man, she told herself silently. She started to pull the spatula out of the wall. It was sharp enough to cut her. Slash her wrists, she had no honor, no real life, she didn’t deserve this existence. The kick took her directly under the chin and drove her head back into the wall. Plaster and wood cracked with the impact. Ranma’s world began to spin. The second kick caught her on the shoulder and spun her away from the wall. Instict took over finally and as the battle spatula sprang from its sheath and arced towards her, Ranma rolled to the side and out the now open door. Genma tumbled onto his daughter and barely managed to avoid putting his weight down ontop of her. Akane-kun jumped over the two fallen Saotomes and into the room. Ukyo stood in the traditional dark colored uniform of the Hand assassins guild, though her hood was thrown back. Dark stains coated her cheeks, to allow her to remain hidden in the night. The room was suddenly filled with a silence that roared between them all. The ninja broke for the window and made it only a half step before Akane. Genma let the ninja go and rose to his knee beside his daughter. Her face was already purpling with bruises. "Tendo, I need bandages and disinfectant." Ranma’s eyesight was swimming now that the adrenaline that had kept her awake was no longer needed. She tried to reach for the Genma in the middle of all the swirling images. "Its all right, Ranma. It will be all right. Try to stay awake though. Listen to my voice and stay awake." Nodoka stood in the doorway watching her husband care for what was left of their child. She couldn’t help but feel her heart melt at the sight of his tenderness. He hadn’t been like that since he had dated her. She wasn’t certain what she should do and so she did nothing. Akane came back up through the window. "She’s gone," he announced, not really certain that anyone cared. Soun had given the first aid kit to Genma and stood back. He was still talking to her, wondering somewhere in the back of his mind where all the words he was saying were coming from. He was talking to her about nothing much, anything that would keep her awake while Nabiki called for the doctor. He had never been confidant about showing his own feelings. It wasn’t the way a martial artist and a man comported themselves. He remembered his own father being harsh with him over wearing his feelings on his face. He had carried that with him through life. Only in a few, rare trusted moments with Nodoka and Soun had he ever shown what he felt. As a martial artist he knew that showing expressions could give away his moves and show weaknesses to his opponent. He had tried to teach this toRanma. He had tried so hard, it had been good enough for him, why shouldn’t it be enough for his son. That conditioning had led them here. To this place. It wasn’t too late, he hoped, for an old man to learn. Ranma’s bandaged hand brushed his cheek. "Papa...," she whispered weakly, "Why are you crying?" Somewhere inside of her, something in her was mad at her weakness, but amazed at Genma’s. "Because this is all my fault. Ultimately I brought us here." He shamed himself with the tears, but shame was for later. Now he needed to say this. "Did... another Fiancee show up or something?" she asked with the ghost of a smile. "Foolish boy... er, girl, I’m trying to apologize to you!" "You don’t have to apologize," she said with a little more strength, "I knew you were sorry. I have to... get used to my limitations now." "Its not limitations, just impediments. I’ll help you past them if you want. Ranma." She didn’t say anything. Her eyes had rolled back and her breathing stopped. It was late at night and still Tatewaki Kuno prowled the streets. He had seen that his training had not been in vain. The dreaded enemies of his line were still in existance. He prowled now, in search of more signs of them but found nothing thus far. He was also using the time to do something he rarely did, think. He had admitted to the others that he had known that the Pig-tailed girl and his hated enemy, Saotome were one and the same. He had not really allowed himself to admit that even to himself until that moment. Did it make him less of a man that he wanted to woo someone else who until recent events was also a man? Or at least half a man? What did this mean to him? And now Akane Tendo suffered this selfsame affliction... Was romantic tragedy his lot? The sounds of crying caught his ears. Crying meant that someone was hurt, either physically or emotionally. Usually that meant that they had been wronged in some way. It was the duty of all samurai to aid those who had been wronged. So it was that he came to the weeping form of Ukyo Konji. She was sitting on a bench at a busstop. She still wore the uniform of his enemies. The Hand must have betrayed her as surely as they betrayed their own to the demons they served. "Fair maiden, I ask the cause of such suffering. Would that I could take the pain that is clearly visible in your eyes out of your heart. I would strike it dead, if I could..." Ukyo started at the sound of his voice. She could only barely make out the face of Kuno. She immediatly labelled him not a threat but stood up aprehensively anyway. The little voice in the back of her head was screaming at her to kill him. She could have done it, too. He was reaching out a hand to her and she knew where all the points along that arm were she could use to cripple or kill him in an instant. She didn’t use any of them. Ryoga really wasn’t sure where he was. That was nothing unusual he was looking for the Tendo’s bathroom and somehow found himself outside. Now he was looking for anything that seemed familiar. Maybe if he ran he’d get there more quickly? He suddenly ran right into someone. A tall chinese man with long, loose hair and wearing a business suit. "Oh, um excuse me sir, could you tell me where the..." He trailed off as he looked up at the man. "Shishihokodan!" He fired off his ki attack sending up a huge flash of greenish white light. "Take that, Mandarin!" The flash cleared and while the edges of his suit were a little singed, the Mandarin was otherwise unharmed. "You are an annoyance, boy." He held up one hand, clenched so that the rings that adorned it were visible. One of them began to emit a swirling nimbus of light that drew Ryoga’s gaze like a moth. He stood slackjawed as the kick took him in the side of the head and dropped him like a sack. "Bow before me and call me Master," the Mandarin intoned with a voice that sounded like angels to Ryoga. The lost boy felt the push of the Mandarin’s personality over his own. "I... I..." He leaped towards the Mandarin, not really certain until the last moment whether it was to fall down in worship of him or to fight back. The first two fingers on his right hand shot forwards, through the pretty, oh so pretty lights, and brushed the ring that had produced them. "Bakusai Tenkenshen!" The explosion was visible for well over a mile. Measure of a Man part Four Revelations Dawn found Ryoga on his back in a tree. Branches had broken his fall and shredded what little remained of his clothes. Luckily the focusing of his chi had made him nearly indestructible during the use of the Technique. The old Ghoul was a merciless teacher but she had taught him well. The explosion had sent him flying in an arc over the city, he thought, anyway. It might have been further. He wanted to get back home. Home. How long since that had been the house that he had lived in with his mother and father? Now home meant the Tendo house. His bed was Akane’s. Or occasionally Ranma’s now. He really wasn’t all together comfortable with how quickly the redhead had latched onto P-Chan. She didn’t treat him any different that Akane did. Sometimes it seemed she forgot he was a man. He was a security blanket to her. And he had hurt her without meaning to. When Mousse had first challenged Akane, he saw it as a man to man fight. And Ranma no longer had any place in such a challenge. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but it had happened. So often he hurt the people around him and didn’t mean to. But now he had destroyed the Mandarin. Wait until he told Akane and Ranma that! He would never know what miracle led him straight to the Tendo Dojo that day, but he didn’t complain. However, when he arrived, noone was there. So he sat down and waited. Mousse slipped cautiously over the fence in the Tendo yard and into the back yard. He had come to fight for his love and would let nothing stand in his way. His intention had been to sneak into the house and confront his rival. He came up to the back porch only to see the blurry sentinel keeping watch over the back door. "Ahh, so you have kept a vigilant watch for me, Akane Tendo! Now you will die!" Ryoga looked up in time to roll to the side as a series of chains with multiple blunt and sharp ends struck the porch. Why me? Ryoga thought to himself. "Mousse, I’m not-" he started to say. But he stopped himself. "Okay, Mousse, winner gets Ranma." The Kuno household. Ukyo woke on a soft bed. She was warm and content. She’d been with Tatewaki last night after her visit to Ranma. She knew now that the visit had been a mistake. She- The sounds of breathing caught her ear. Hmph! Some ninja assassin, she chided her inner voice. The breathing was coming from Tatewaki. He was slumped in a chair, his bokken still clutched even in sleep. (She ruefully thought, I won the bet, he does sleep with it.) He looked so young and innocent. She felt ancient by comparison, though he was really the older one. Her life had made her feel old. First the endless pursuit of Martial arts perfection then the quest for revenge on Ranma that turned into a Romantic Quest, now the capture, torture and binding to the Mandarin. And now she lay in Kuno’s bed. Why was she here? Kill him, he is your enemy. He is the enemy of your clan. He is the enemy of the Hand. No! He showed me kindness last night. Is there no room for mercy in you? Mercy is not a useful talent to a ninja. Kill him. Use his own weapon. It was a battle she knew that she would lose on her own. Very well, I will kill him. But when and where I decide and no sooner. Do you understand? The voice didn’t answer. She felt closer to it though, and that frightened her. Tatewaki finally stirred and saw her watching him. "Forgive me for drifting off. I was lax in my duties to watch over you. When we saw the explosion last night, you fainted. I brought you here because I could think of nowhere else." He moved from the chair into a graceful bow. "If left untended, the tree of vigilance doth bear a bitter fruit." Ukyo had no intelligible response to that. "Why do you always talk like that?" Kuno raised an eyebrow. He shifted in his seat. "What do you mean?" "All that poetry crap and flowery verse..." She sat up and realized she was still clothed in her ninja garb. "I... it is simply something I do... Why? Does it offend you? For in beauty comes the most harsh judgments." He smiled sheepishly when he realized that he had done it again. "No, I was just wondering." What are you waiting for, he’s at your mercy. He’ll be useful, she told the inner voice. White room. One minute she’d been asleep, the next awake. A sleep so deep that if she had dreamed she recalled none of it. Warm bed. Stiff. Off the ground. Not a futon. Beeping noise. Drip. Drip. Ranma looked to the side of her, a heart monitor and IV stand were connected to her chest and arm respectively. Her head hurt. But also there was a numbness in her. She knew she’d been given drugs. She slipped back into the sleep that had held her so tightly. Ryoga’s wrists were chained together and linked to a tether that the amazon man held tightly. He couldn’t reach his own weapons to use against Mousse. The umbrella lay in two pieces not far away. Why, he asked himself, are you fighting so hard for this? This isn’t your fight. Because Akane is your friend. Because You don’t want to see Ranma fought over like a piece of meat. It was a fight like this that led to our whole situation now. If we hadn’t been out fighting over Akane, Ranma might not have been distracted during the fight with Mousse. Ranma might not have died... well, half died. Whatever. It all came back to Akane. Ryoga wanted her still, curse and all. Ranma still loved her, he was certain of it. Ryoga couldn’t bring himself to fight Ranma for her now. It wouldn’t be a man to man fight. He hated himself for that prejudice, but he couldn’t help it. "Pay attention, Dammit!" Mousse yelled at the lost boy. The amazon man came flying in at Ryoga with claws outstretched on one hand, ready to skewer Akane, well, Ryoga. He never made it. Ryoga found himself staring at Shampoo’s posterior. Mousse collided with a Bonbori and fell back. "What? Can it be? My love?" He glomped onto Shampoo. "Aiya! I no love you, Mousse!" She bopped him on the head with the butt of one of her bonbori. The amazon man released her and pulled out his glasses. "Oh, its you, Shampoo," he said with something bordering on disgust. "Where did Akane go?" He started looking for Akane and wandered away. Shampoo looked after him with an almost jealousy green tint to her cheeks. It was not pretty. Ryoga slipped away before things got really ugly. The family was in the hospital. The were anxiously awaiting news as to whether or not his future bride would live. It was time to get to know them. Mandarin raised his uninjured hand and one of the rings began to glow. The glow surrounded the man and he began to shrink. His features took on a younger cast and his clothes changed into a Furinkan High School uniform. He walked purposefully into the hospital and to the waiting area that the Saotome’s and Tendo’s were waiting in. The Father was solemn and sullen, the mother paced nervously. The Tendo sisters sat together, whispering to one another. Soun Tendo stood off to the side. His hands twitched a little. Mandarin could tell he wanted a cigarette. It was filed away as a weakness should it ever be necessary to beat the elder Tendo into submission. He cleared his throat and spoke in a boyish voice. "Excuse me, is this where Ranma Saotome is at? I’m a friend of hers from school and I was wondering if she was gonna be all right. My names Hotaru." Back at the Dojo, a small figure crept along the wall and to a window. It peered in. The figure held a volumous sack on its back. "Hmm... Noone home. Might as well go to work." To be continued...