Hello again.  I'm back to writing again on this twisted story of Ranma being a descendent of Himura Kenshin.  As well as being taught by the ghost a Kenshin, Ranma has also found out that his family’s past ties him to the Sailor Senshi as one of the Knights of Earth.  Now that Shi Shi O has returned with the help of the mysterious leader known as Kallyen, what on Earth will be safe?  Everything as long as Ranma and the Sailor Senshi keep working together.  Again this is my first series of Fan-fics and I writing from my heart so be gentle with the comments.  Just send them to dark_knight_ranm@yahoo.com.  Read and be SAD . . . . . 

For Better or For Worse . . .

Chapter 3
MUCH WORSE

The Dark Dimension . . .

	"This is not going the way we had planned things. NOT AT ALL!" Kallyen screamed as he looked over the loss of Youmas and energy over the last three weeks.  Their loses at first had been tolerable because they were slowly gathering energy.  That had changed overnight as a warrior had taken a vigil against them last week.  The one warrior would be able to stop the Youma and its skeletal escort long enough for the Sailor Senshi to come and destroy them.
	"We need to do something about this and all you do is send one of your little skeletal servants to die as you smoke on that pipe of yours!  What do you intend to do?!"
	"Simple, I have been sitting here watching the entire time.  This Knight of Earth is using a unique sword style that was supposed to have died out about 100 years ago.  If we remove him, then we can proceed ahead of schedule.  On the next mission into their dimension I will send on of my more skilled servants to track her and find out exactly who this individual is who knows my sword style like she does."
	Kallyen had not expected to find that his partner would have devised a plan like that in such little time.  He must have been thinking about it all the time from this individuals first appearance.  Armed with this information, Kallyen began planning the next target.  A few months set back would be made up in a few days in they could eliminate this new Knight of the Earth.

	*	*	*

Juuban . . . 

	It has been three weeks since Ranma had found out that he was empowered to fight the forces of darkness with the Sailor Senshi.  He had decided to stand vigil at night and wait for the Youma's to come and hold them back so that no more innocents would be hurt by the Youmas.  So far it was working but his report card showed the slip in his grades from his making up sleep during school, unintentionally of course.
	"Ranma what is happening that you can't keep up with the rest of the students?"
	"I've just haven't been getting enough restful sleep lately, that's all."
	"Well in that case, I have arranged with Mizuno Hitome for you to tutored by Ami-chan.  You will start the tutoring sessions everyday after school until at least 4:30 and then you can go to the park and hold your classes until 7:00 and then I want you back here to go straight to bed.  Is that understood?"
	"Yes Kaa-chan."
	"Good now eat your dinner and then go to bed."
	"Yes Kaa-chan."
	About two hours after he went to bed Ranma made up his bed like he was in it and left through his window.  Luckily and quiet by accident he found out that he can access the power while in male form but he always turned into his girl form.  She went and stood vigil at her normal location and didn't have to wait all that long before the crowd showed up for a rumble.
	Running as fast as she could, she made it there just in time to see the Youma and its skeletal partner start to size up a a couple who were enjoying the park together.  To Ranma's surprise it was Haruka and Michiru she saw.  About the time she noticed it was them, they said the one thing that he never expected them to say.
	"URANUS CRYSTAL POWER! MAKE-UP!"
	"NEPTUNE CRYSTAL POWER! MAKE-UP!"
	This was going to be easier than she thought.
	"DO RYU SEN!"  Ranma let out the dust cloud to help hide his entrance and the Outer's transformation.  We they were out of the transformation Ranma was at their side ready for a fight.  "Let's take out the trash.  Shall we."
	"LET'S"
	"WORLD SHAKING"
	"DEEP SUBMERGE"
	"RYU TSUI SEN"
	The youma were not expecting to find not only two Senshi but their main target so quickly.  They separated with one youma and its skeletal aid going after the three while the third split into two one waiting for the chance to uncover the identity of the thorn in their master's side the other rejoining the battle.  The short lived battle was ended by Sailor Moon showing up and utterly destroying them with her newest attack.
	"MOON SCEPTER ELIMINATION"
	"Beautiful!"
	"Is it me are they getting a lot more sloppy these days?" Asked Ranma as she resheathed her Sakaboto and rearranged her hair.
	"All I know is that they need to choose a better time to attack than in the middle of the night."
	"I suppose, well anyway, goodnight ladies."
	"See you tomorrow night."

	Ranma ran home dropping her disguise as she went home and flipped up to her room.  Just as she was settling into bed Nodoka turned on the light.  Ranma lost for words just looked at her mother.
	"Where have you been?  I thought I told you to go to bed."
	"But kaa-chan I can explain everything, really!"
	"This I will love to hear.  So what have you been doing?  Seeing your new BOYFRIEND??"
	"Mom, I don't swing that way and you know it!"
	"What I know is that for the last week you have been sneaking out late at night and coming back in female form and not even bothering to change back when you get here.  What am I supposed to think?"
	"Really mom its not like that!"
	"I'm not in the mood to hear it Ranko!  From now on, you will be going to school as a girl, since that is the way that you seem to be going around now a days!"
	"NO I WILL NOT GO AROUND AS A GIRL IN FRONT OF ALL MY FRIENDS AND STUDENTS AND THAT I WILL NOT STAND FOR WHILE I LIVE!" Ranma shouted at her mother as she got out of bed grabbing her Sakaboto and walking out of her mother's house.  Nodoka hot on her heals trying to talk to her son/daughter, but Ranma wouldn't hear it.  She had crossed the line as far as Ranma was concerned.  That was as far as she wanted to carry this conversation.
	Nodoka had just realized how far she had taken her anger and she was now crying at her front step as she watched her only son walk out of her house.  She never knew if she would be able to see her again.  She finally broke down so low that she would cry on the steps all night and in the morning she would go to Juuban and see if she could reconcile things with her son.
	Ranma on the other hand decided that she had to change back to a guy and find a place to stay for a while, long enough for his mother and himself to calm down.  Then he would be able to talk to her civilly.  Getting the hot water he needed he walk over to where Makoto lived.  Climbing the stairs to her apartment he knocked on her door hoping that it wasn't too late and she had already gone to bed.  He was answered by Makoto in a robe holding the door open.
	"Uh, Ranma.  What are you doing here?"
	"Can we talk for a few minutes, please?"
	"Sure come in."  Makoto had dreamed about this for the last couple of nights and she was thinking about how to rub it in Minako's face when she noticed that he wasn't walking like he normally did.  He had a sad step instead of his usual bounce.
	"Let me get us some tea, OK?"
	"Thanks."
	Makoto got the tea and started to serve it when she noticed that Ranma was on the very edge of crying.  "Ranma, what happened to you?"
	"My mother and I had a massive fight over something minor and I told her that I wouldn't stand for that kind of thing and I left.  I didn't know how hard that was going to be.  Maybe I should go back over there and apologize.  I might be able to make things up to her."
	"Ranma no offense, but if you are in this state, what state will your mother be in?  It might be better to wait for the morning."
	"You might be right.  Would you mind if I crashed here?  At least until I can talk to my mother."
	"Not a problem.  I have a large enough bed."
	"That's OK, I'll sleep out here if you don't mind."
	"OK"
	The two of them talked for about another hour before they turned in for the night.  True to his word Ranma had slept on the floor in the living room while Makoto slept in a big lonely bed having interesting dreams about her and Ranma.
	The next morning, Makoto made Ranma breakfast and got ready for school.  Ranma had decided that he needed a day off from school to think about what he was going to tell his mother and weigh the pros and cons of his actions.  Makoto said that she would tell the teachers that he was sick and get his assignments from them so he wouldn't get behind.
	At school, Makoto told the others what had happened.  Everyone but Minako was sympathetic to Ranma, Minako was just jealous of Makoto's luck that he would choose her place to stay while he and his mother worked things out.  School went fine until lunch while Saotome Nodoka came to the school looking for Ranma.  When she asked the girls Makoto was the first to speak up saying that he had called in sick.
	"Well, if anyone of you sees him, let him know that I am worried about him and I'm sorry for what I said last night.  Please."
	"Did he run away from home?"
	"Yes and it was because I wouldn't listen to his explanation of what had happened last night involving his little curse from China."
	"What curse?" Asked the girls as all of their interests where peaked.
	"Well he has a little problem with water now because of it.  That's all I will say on the matter.  If he wants you to know about it or you need to know about it then you will find out the hard way."

	Saying her good byes to the girls, Nodoka left.  The rest of school went by at a quicker pace to Makoto because she was not really paying attention to class but thinking of what Nodoka-san had said and what type of curse Ranma had.  When school let out she reminded everyone that practice was off this afternoon because Ranma wouldn't feel like it and to let the others know.

	Makoto raced home to tell Ranma that his mother had been looking for him at school but she was also curious to find out about the curse that Nodoka-obaa-san had told them he had.  Things were not what they seemed and Ranma was going to get to the bottom of things very shortly or her name wasn't Kino Makoto.  Rounding the corner to her apartment building she had second thoughts about telling Ranma.  It might not be the best time for him to try yet.  Climbing the stairs Makoto firmly decided that this wasn't the best time fro Ranma.
	"Ranma, I'm home."  She could have sworn that she heard a female voice coming from the bathroom so she dropped her books and ran straight for the bathroom to see if Ranma had invited some girl over while she was away.  If he had done that then she was going to kill him.  She threw open the door and just as quickly turned right around.  All she had seen for a very few and wonderful seconds was a stark naked Ranma in the shower.
	"Makoto!!  What are you doing?  Is this how you treat all the boys you invite over to stay the night?"
	"NO!  Its just that I thought that I had heard a girl's voice coming from in here and I thought that you had invited some girl over here and the thought of that just sent shivers up my spine.  I was just concerned that's all."
	"Believe me Makoto-chan, after what you did for me last night, you know, taking me in and not knowing me that well.  I couldn't do that to you.  And I wouldn't.  Not so soon after Akane's death."
	Ranma's words melted her heart and made her feel about the size of an ant.
	"You know, you need to be more careful about who you let in here and offer your bed to.  Someone might just take advantage of you in your sleep and there would be nothing you could do about it.  Except call the police after the fact and have the guy thrown in jail."
	Makoto turned around and looked Ranma full in the face.
	"Ranma you can be so dense sometimes you know that."
	"Nani?"
	"Why do I even bother?" Makoto said as she walked out of the bathroom heading for the kitchen for glass of water with a confused Ranma right behind her.  Makoto had just grabbed the pitcher of cold water and was turning around to go to the living room when she slipped and dropped the who pitcher right onto Ranma who right before her eyes, changed from male to female.  Makoto was about to scream when Ranma cupped her hand over Makoto's mouth.
	"Please don't scream.  I can explain everything, just please don't scream."
	Makoto nodded an affirmative that she would trust this girl in front of her for just a few moments.
	"Could you please heat up some water for a little bit, it doesn't need to be boiling, just hot."
	Makoto grabbed the kettle that she used for her tea and started heating some water as she turned around to she the girl setting in Ranma's favorite thinking position, on her head.  Although how she can stay like that with her chest is a mystery.  "Well are you going to tell me?"
	"Is the hot water ready?"
	"Yes, here you go now spill."
	"Pour it over me please."
	"OK"  Makoto emptied the kettle on the girl and was greeted with the sight of male Ranma in the same exact position and in the same exact place.  Ranma got up, straightened his clothes, and sat down on the couch.
	"It all began with one of my father's training trips to China.  The man couldn't even speak a word of Chinese, and yet, there we were at a cursed training ground called Jusenkyo.  The springs that the training grounds are on are cursed.  All of the springs had something drown in it and now anyone who falls into one is cursed to take that form when splashed with cold water.  Hot water reverses the curse."
	"So that's what your mom meant by you having a water curse."
	"What!  When did mom tell you about that?"
	"Well, I wasn't going to tell you until you were ready to talk to her, but, she came by the school looking for you today.  I told her that you had called in sick and she said that if we see you to tell you that she was sorry for the argument last night about the curse."
	“Well I guess I had better go on back and tell her how I really feel then.”
	Just then the phone rang.
	“Hold that thought one minute Ranma,” Makoto ran over and picked up her phone.  “Moshi, Moshi. . . What?  A youma TEAM on tenth street two blocks from the park?  Are you sure?”
	“WHAT  That’s near mom’s house, Makoto listen I promise to explain everything to you later but I have to go.  KNIGHT POWER, TRANSFORM!”  
	Ranma assumed his knight form with his Sakaboto by his side.  Makoto dropped the receiver.  Ranma, now as the Rurouni Knight, jumped out the window and was away faster than she thought any of them could move.  
	She then realized that Ami was still on the phone.  “Ami, I’ll meet you there as will Ranma, or should  I say the Rurouni Knight.”  Makoto hung up the phone pulled out her henshin wand and called out “JUPITER CRYSTAL POWER! MAKE-UP!”
	Everyone was at a flat out sprint to the location of the youma invasion.  Ranma was beaten only by Pluto who could directly teleport to where the disturbance was.  When Ranma got there he saw his mother in the claws of a crab like youma who was crushing the life out of her and asking her something in the process.  At that sight, Ranma lost full control of his mind and powers.  The very Earth shook with the scream that escaped her lips.
	“KAA-CHAN!!! YOU HAVE SIGNED YOUR DEATH WISH YOUMA.  BY THE POWER OF EARTH AND THE RUROUNI KNIGHT YOU SHALL NOT LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY FOR THIS!!!!”  Ranma moved like lightning leaving a trail of fire behind him.  Pulling out his Sakaboto, which was now flaming with a golden flame.  When she was half a step away from the youma she let out a scream as he sliced the blade through the monster’s arm with such force that she sent her mother and the limb a good fifteen feet in the air and perfectly aimed to land in Pluto’s waiting arms.  She finished that demon with a flash as she jumped into the air screaming out,
	“RYU TSUI SEN!”
	The youma was turned into a fine ash as fifteen more came out of the wood work.  Each of them trying to get to the Rurouni Knight and kill her.  They were all meet with quick blows that spelled the deaths for all of them.  All but a smart one that had started a spell and fired it off right at Nodoka who was now safely on the sidelines of the battle.  Ranma seeing the shot screamed out as he moved faster than any human being, magical or not, had the right to move.  She barely made it when the blast connected.  She held her ground against the attack and saw with sickening realization that the sword wouldn’t be able to handle all of the spell and true enough the Sakaboto shattered into a million pieces as the rest of the attack hit Ranma full force in the chest sending her flying over her mother and straight into a wall all most knocking her completely out.
	“OAK EVOLUTION REVISED: NETSURETSU RAKURI SUPREME”
	The youma was bombarded with a shower of pink thunderbolts super charged by Jupiter’s passion for what see had just seen.  The youma was turned to dust.  The Sailor Senshi turned around just in time to see another youma grab Nodoka and sprint away.  Ranma was just coming to when he saw his mother being abducted by another youma.
	“NO!  KAA-CHAN” Ranma sprang up not even noticing that both of his arms were broken in three places from of the punishment he had already taken.  She ran after her mother with a renewed vigor.  She caught the youma, just as he was about to jump and pulled him down so had that the youma crushed Nodoka’s chest  beyond repair.  Ranma didn’t even see as she destroyed the arm holding his mother with a brutal blow from his bare fist.  Nodoka being free of the monster, Ranma picked up the youma with both of her hands and held the youma in her hands high above her head.  She began flooding the youma with the power of the Earth.  She pumped the energy into the youma faster than the youma could handle and it began to glow brightly as it was disintegrated from the inside out.  After a few moments all that was left of the youma was a smoking ash pile.  He turned around to where his mother was laying being held by Sailor Moon.  The tears in Sailor moon’s eye had brought Ranma to the conclusion that he was about to lose his mother.  He dropped the Knight power and returned to his natural form in front of everyone not caring whether or not they knew.  He crawled over to his mother.  He could tell that she was having trouble breathing and she was about to die from internal injuries.  With tears in his eyes and his arms burning with pain, Ranma took his mother in his arms and started stroking her face to wake her up.  Her eyes fluttered open and her eyes registered the pain in her chest.
	“Ranma . . . is . . that . . You?”
	“Yes mom, I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.  I’m sorry for the things I said to you.  I’m sorry I didn’t explain things to you from the beginning.”
	“It’s all right Ranma. . . . I’m sorry I let my pride get the best of me to. . . Ranma. . . I . . love . . . . yoouu . . . . . . .”
	Nodoka went limp in  Ranma's arms as his tears started coming faster and harder.  Not being able to hold back anymore Ranma screamed his pain, his anger, his hurt out in a way that surprised everyone there.  What was worse was that he had started glowing a sickly green.  The aura filled the area.  What had started slowly was growing at an immeasurable rate.  The Scouts were seriously concerned about this.  Suddenly Jupiter knew what was about to happen.  She dropped her Sailor Senshi form and ran up to Ranma.  She started shouting to him partly afraid to get to close to him.  He was building up enough depression based chi to level the entire city.  Realizing that he wasn’t listen but only screaming, Makoto did what her heart told her to do.  She walked into the growing aura of depression with the rest of the Sailor Senshi screaming for her to come back, that it was too dangerous.  She didn’t care.  If Ranma was going to die, then she was going to die with him.  Because she finally realized that not only did she truly care for him, but she loved him more than life itself.  When she got to Ranma, the depression was making itself evident in Makoto as well because she herself was in tears.  The aura itself was giving her visions of everything Ranma had lost and how he had lost it.  A flying man sending a Ki attack to kill his father, his fiancé dehydrated to death and his holding her as he realized that he was too  late, and now the loss of his mother.  She sat down next to him and held him rocking back and forth with him as he screamed.  
	Ranma finally came around to the fact that someone was there with him.  He looked through his tears to see Makoto by his side crying with him.  He then realized that he had gathered more Ki than he had the ability to control and it was going to kill both of them.  He focused himself one last time, raised his head to the stars and screamed out the only thing that could save the girl who cared this much for him.
	“SHI SHI HOKODAN”  The Ki started to channel itself through Ranma and out of his mouth, eyes, tears, and hair.  A pillar of green light would be seen for over a thousand miles away as the pillar continued to rise in the sky.  As the aura faded to where the Sailors could see the two holding each other they saw Ranma the source of the pillar.  Ranma was emitting the column of light through every open orifice of his face.  When he stopped screaming, Ranma fell over with exhaustion.
	Makoto opened her eyes to see a passed out Ranma leaning on her.  She looked over to the other Senshi who were just looking at them.  Slowly they dropped their powers one by one and stood around the two friends and Ranma’s now dead mother.  All of them with tears in their eyes.  They had lost a lot before, even their own lives, but to lose an innocent like this was unthinkable and cruel.  They helped Makoto take Ranma back to her apartment where all of the Inners called there parents to let them know that they would be out at Makoto’s comforting a friend who had just lost his mother.  None of the parents could argue the fact, especially since a guidance councilor from Juuban was there to supervise and chaperone them.  She had called the principal to explain the situation and had gotten them excused from classes the next day.  Ranma spent the night crying in his sleep while being held by Makoto in her bed.
	When Ranma woke up the next morning he didn’t move a muscle.  He just looked over to the face of the woman who had held him through out the night.  He numbly realized that there were some other people there at the apartment.  He didn’t care.  All he wanted to do was curl himself into a ball and die.  He was starting to do just that when Makoto woke up and held him closer telling him that everything would be all right.  She tried to comfort him to the best of her abilities but it was not having any affect.  Ranma shrugged off her arms and stood up.  He walked right into the living room full of girls from school and even the lady from the antique store who had given him the sword.  The girls had started to wake up when they saw Ranma standing in the middle of the room.  A feeling of dread washed over the girls as they saw Ranma raise his head back and scream out.
	“KENSHIN, YOU PROMISED ME THAT I WOULD NEVER FAIL AGAIN!!  YOU LIED TO ME.”
	They were even more shocked to see a ghost come from within Ranma and turn around to face him.  The man wore the same thing that the Rurouni Knight wore.
	“Ranma, I know that I told you that you wouldn’t fail with this technique, but even you must know that you did things that even these girls couldn’t do.  You did everything you could do and much more.  There are times that even the greatest will fall.  That is just life.  I gave you what you needed and now you need to find the one thing I couldn’t teach you.  Your own path.”
	“You have no room to talk to me like that.  You lied and that’s the bottom line.  I should have never listened to you in the first place.”
	“And then where would you be?  In a grave with thousands of others that you have saved from not taking your own life then?”
	“At least my mother would be alive and I would be with Akane and not here alone and hurting.”
	“Ranma?”  Makoto said in less than a whisper as she had just heard the conversation.  She now had tears in her eyes.  When Ranma saw this he couldn’t help himself.  He collapsed in the floor.  He had taken too much pain.  He didn’t think that he could ever love again.  Here was a woman who knew everything that he had been through, had even held him in his sleep, and he could nothing but think of himself.
	“Ranma, when you decide that you want the responsibility of being a defender of the weak again.  I will be only a thought away.”  With that said, Kenshin vanished into thin air.  All of the girls there gave Ranma a look of pure sympathy as he started crying right there.  He would never move from there again.
	“I will never accept what you offer again KENSHIN!  DAMN ALL OF YOU ANCIENTS AND KAMI WHO DON’T CARE ABOUT THE FEELINGS OF US!  I HEAR BY RENOUNCE MY NAME AND ALL I HAVE.  I AM THE RUROUNI KNIGHT NO LONGER!”
	Ranma was lifted into the air and transformed into the Rurouni Knight.  The clothing then disintegrated into nothingness.  He was the set back down on the floor.  Now free of all the power that the Earth had to offer Ranma felt a little weaker.  No, he felt normal again.  He looked around to see the faces of all the girls around him.  They were all shocked, including Setsuna.  He slowly stood up and walked over to the door.
	“I have things that I must take care of.  Makoto, I don’t know when I will be back.”
	“Then let me come with you Ranma.”
	“I’m sorry but no.  There are things that I need to do alone right now.”
	Ranma opened the door walked outside and closed the door.  Makoto had taken too much.  She crumpled to the floor and started crying all over again.  The rest of the girls moved in to comfort her.  Haruka stepped up to Setsuna.
	“Setsuna, what will happen without the Rurouni Knight to help us?”
	“All is lost.  Without his help in the end there will be no way that we will be able to defeat both of our enemies.  I don’t plan on giving up though.  I have sworn to give my life for the future and I will not stop just because there is no way for us to win now.”
	Haruka nodded her head in agreement and walked out of the house with Michiru hot on her heels.
	“What are you going to do love?”
	“I’m going to stop Ranma and I am going to give him a piece of my mind for what he did in there.”
	Haruka turned the corner to see Ranma walking down the street heading for home.
	“Ranma!  Wait right there!”
	Ranma turned around to see two girls walking up to him.  He really didn’t want to have a confrontation with the two girls so he turned back around to face the empty house of his mother.  He had taken about five more steps when he was forcefully turned around to look into a blonde’s eyes.  She slapped him across the face hard enough to leave a red mark and turn his head.  When he looked back the woman was staring at him with loathing in her eyes.
	“You may have lost your entire family, but so has Makoto.  She took you into her house held you while you cried your eyes out in your sleep and this is the thanks you show her.  I have half a mind to kill you where you stand, but that would be too easy on you and not fair to Makoto as well as the rest of the world.  When I first met you, yes you were depressed, but at least you hadn’t given up.  Now look at you.  You think you have lost everything when there is a girl back there that risked her own life to save you.  You don’t even care that she loves you more than her own life.  You can only see the pain in yourself that has blinded you to those who are still here that care about you.  I would love to see you by my side fighting against our common enemy, but you don’t have the courage or the strength to do what is needed for the world.  Why you were chosen to be the Rurouni knight is beyond me.  I hope you crawl into a hole and die for what you have done.  No, on second thought, I hope you live long enough for our enemy to defeat us and kill everyone on this planet.  And that will happen because without you, we don’t have a prayer of winning.”
	Haruka turned around taking Michiru with her leaving Ranma to think on the words that she had told him.  Ranma couldn’t think.  He just turned toward home and walked. When he got there, Ranma began to make the arrangements for his mother’s funeral.  He opened her last will that had been prepared after Genma had died and found out that he had been left with everything that she had.  He paid for the services and the head stone.  He was going over the house cleaning up and packing away all of his mother’s stuff.  He placed her picture in the family shrine along with his father’s and the only picture of Akane he had, Akane smiling.  He broke down and cried again.  He was awaken by a knock on the door.  When Ranma answered it, he found Soun, Nabiki, and Kasumi at his door.
	“Ranma, we got a call from your guidance counselor and were told that your mother had been killed.”
	“Please, come in.” Ranma said as he backed out of the doorway to let his friends into his home.  The four of them talked for a while and shared the memories of all the things that had happened since Ranma had returned from China.  The memories were fond ones and it helped Ranma to grieve.  
	They left for home leaving Ranma with a large empty house all to himself.  He walked over to the phone and dialed up the number to Makoto’s apartment.  He waited and counted the rings.  After ten rings, her answering amchine picked up.  Ranma hung up the phone, not leaving a message.  He walked out the front door and locked it.  He began to walk towards Makoto’s place at a simple pace.  As he got to her apartment building, Ranma stopped and looked up to Makoto’s apartment to see if he could see anything.  He couldn’t even tell if the girls were still there or not.  He climbed the stairs to her apartment and knocked on the door.  No answer.  He used his senses to see if anyone was in there.  He found one person lying in the bedroom.  Ranma tried the door and found that it was open.  He walked into the Makoto’s apartment and into her bedroom.  He found her crying into the pillow that Ranma had slept on.  He walked over to the bed and touched Makoto on the shoulder.  She spun around his tears in her eyes.  She didn’t know if this was real or it was just her imagination.  Her question was answered when Ranma picked her up off the bed and held her close to him.  They cried together for a little while until the tears subsided.
	“Makoto, I’m sorry for what I said earlier.  I didn’t know you were the one to come in and help me.”
	“Ranma, I would do anything for you.  All I want is for you to hold me.”
	They held each other a while longer.  Ranma noticed that he was smelling her hair while he held her.  It had the scent of fresh cherry blossoms.  He also noticed that she was soft to the touch and he finally realized that he had come to care for her deeply.
	“Mako-chan. . .”
	“Yes Ranma-chan>”
	“Would you like to come with me and stay at my house for the night.  The house is going to be lonely and I would like some company.”
	“Sure.”
	Together they left for Ranma’s house.It was a cool night so they walked close together.  When they got to the house, Ranma unlocked the door, and the couple went inside the house.  Ranma started tea while Makoto started on a late dinner.  They ate together talking about everything and nothing.  Sometime later after their meal and tea, they decided that it was time for bed.  They went to bed together.  Makoto in Pjs and Ranma in his boxers and tank top.  Nothing happened that night.  They just laid in each other’s arms.  Both of them got the best sleep either of them had had in a long time.
	When morning came, Ranma woke up to find himself in an empty bed.  *Was it a dream?* he thought as he got up and went into the kitchen for some breakfast.  When he walked in, he saw Makoto in her Pjs cooking him breakfast.
	“Two more minutes and it will be done.”
	“Great, enough time to take a shower.”  Ranma ran off to the bathroom and showered.  When he returned breakfast was waiting for him.  Ranma and Makoto ate and then got ready for school.
	
	When the two arrived at school, they meet the other girls at the gates as the school was closed.
	“What’s going on Usagi-chan?”
	“School has been CLOSED because of water damage.  They are going to give out absentee assignments and then we can go.  On top of that tomorrow is Saturday with no school!!”  
	Ranma and Makoto looked at each other and it was then that Minako butted in on their thoughts.
	“Hey Makoto, where were you last night?  I tried to call but only got your machine and when I stopped by you weren’t home.”
	“Well, you see.  Ranma and I were together last night. . .” Makoto and Ranma playing completely innocent because they were.  
	The rest of the girls then started to gossip about what exactly Ranma and Makoto had done together.  Ami thought they might be studying together. Usagi thought they were out on a romantic date.  Rei was closer to the truth when she said that they were comforting each others pains.  Minako on the other hand was jealous with ecchi thought runing through her head.  All of a sudden the Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru walked up to the girls.
	“Hey what’s going on here?  Did your school get hit with water damage too?”
	“Yeah.  How did you know?”
	“The same thing happened at both our schools.”
	Everyone started talking as Makoto remembered that there was a fair at the amusement park this afternoon.
	“Hey, what do you say to a day at the fair?”  Makoto chimed in as the rest of the girls looked at her.  “There is a fair over at the amusement park that starts today.”
	All the girls agreed to meet at the park after they changed clothes.  Everyone, including Haruka and Michiru noticed Ranma and Makoto leaving together arm in arm.  Haruka and Michiru gave a nod and a smile to each other.
	
	Things were going good now, but Shi Shi O Makoto had other plans in store for them.

To be continued . . .