Author's Notes Okay, here it is, I hope you people like it as much as chapter 1! Anyway, I just wanted to point out, before we got started that there have been several versions of this story posted. The first two aren't important, it only corrected the massive amounts of spelling errors and significantly improved the wrapping and changed the Senshi names to the Japanese version. The third one, however, did have one change in the story: the door to Crown Arcade was changed into a sliding automatic door. I had been re-watching some episodes of Sailormoon S and noticed that so I went and changed it. It also got perfect wrapping. (Thanks VGAP!) It isn't really important, but I just wanted to point it out anyway. If you really want to read a few extra line changes, then you can just do a search for the word 'Crown', and that should take you right to it. The next part where it is mentioned is where Ryoga throws Ranma out the door; and that's about it, I think. Anyway, that's it! Now go, read, and enjoy! KaosQu kaosqu@hotmail.com Sound Hearts A Ranma 1/2/Sailormoon S crossover fanfiction By KaosQu Chapter 2 "Geez, how long does it take ta make three lousy lunches?" Hotaru smiled and turned slightly to her left to regard Ranma. The pig-tailed martial artist sitting next to her was currently sighing, his hands propped behind his head and his face a perfect picture of boredom. "I believe it does take awhile to make what we ordered; it is a lot." Ranma flinched slightly at that last comment and his bored expression disappeared, replaced with a tense look. "Er... yeah..." Hotaru almost burst out in a fit of giggles as she watched Ranma's face. She could just guess what he was thinking of right then. "Don't worry Ranma, I don't mind spending the money." Hotaru shifted her gaze across the table, to where Ryoga was sit- ting, an almost comical look of guilt painted across his face. "You too, Ryoga. You're both my friends, I don't mind at all." Ranma just stared at Hotaru nervously, wondering for not the first time, if Hotaru was a mind-reader. The thought of that would have scared him if this were anybody other than Hotaru, and perhaps Ukyo. He knew that Hotaru wouldn't try to abuse something like that, and he and Ukyo had been best friends... As such, he was only very nervous, despite the part of his mind yelling at him that he was being stupid. "Um, that's nice Hotaru, but I'll pay next time," Ryoga replied, his guilt starting to fade away as he made the offer. "That's really nice of you, Ryoga." Hotaru said, favoring Ryoga with a sweet smile brimming with cuteness. Ryoga almost choked. "Ahh... No problem..." Ranma glared at Ryoga, who didn't notice. "I wanna pay next time!" he argued, his mouth working faster than his brain. His quickly face paled and he slowly turned to look at Ryoga as he realized what he just said. Ryoga smirked smugly at Ranma. "Why, that's really kind of you Ranma, of course you can pay," the Lost Boy agreed with a nod of his head, making sure only a hint of sarcasm was detectable in his voice. Hotaru giggled, realizing what her two friends were up to. Both of the present martial artists slowly turned to face the giggling girl, their previous feelings temporarily forgotten. They were used to this, having discovered that their good friend Hotaru had a weird tendency to start giggling at the strangest times. Taking a moment to compose herself, Hotaru then smiled at Ranma, relaxing him a little. "That's perfect, you two can both pay." Ryoga scowled and Ranma silently sent prayers of thanks to any deity who may have been listening. Ranma and Ryoga stuffed food into their mouths, as Hotaru chewed on her noodles, watching the two human vacuum-cleaners devour the food. No matter how many times she saw it, it never failed to fascinate her how quickly Ranma or Ryoga ate. She supposed it was because of the stark contrast between how her friends ate and how she ate. While she ate abnormally little and a somewhat slowly, Ranma and Ryoga sucked up enough food to feed five healthy men like there was no tomorrow. Taking a pause from eating his lunch, Ranma turned over to look at Hotaru. "Ynmu mnoud nmeat nmooh." Hotaru couldn't help but giggle. "Ranma, don't talk with your mouth full!" Ryoga burst out laughing, sending a few pieces of chewed-up food flying onto Ranma's face. This led to further laughter from Ryoga, which in turn led to more food ending up on Ranma's face. Swallowing his food Ranma calmly picked up a nearby napkin and wiped the food off, ignoring the twin waves of laughter and giggling assaulting his ears. Then, slowly, he turned to Ryoga. "Just what the hell's the big idea ya idiot?!" Ranma demanded angrily. "Hahahahaha!" "Why you..." Ranma drew back a clenched fist, ready to knock Ryoga into next week. Hotaru's giggles immediately ceased as she noticed what Ranma was about to do. "Ranma, stop!" Hotaru pleaded, grabbing the clenched fist and pulling it back down. Ranma calmed down a little when he felt Hotaru pull his fist down. If he wanted, he knew he could have lifted a clinging Hotaru up with that one hand alone, but he knew Hotaru probably had a reason, so he allowed her to pull his hand down and looked at her, slightly annoyed. "Hey, what's the big idea Hotaru?" "There's no need to hit him, Ranma," Hotaru answered, her eyes pleading with him to listen to her. Ranma glanced over at Ryoga, who was busy laughing his head off. "And why the heck not?" Hotaru shot Ryoga a stern look. "Stop it Ryoga!" The effects were immediate, as Ryoga ceased his laughing and coughed, looking slightly embarrassed. "Um, yeah." Ranma lost some of his annoyance and relaxed a little, but wasn't going to give up just yet. "Well, he should keep his food in mouth!" "Calm down Ranma!" Hotaru pleaded. "Didn't you spit milk in his face during breakfast today?" Ranma twitched a little as he took in that piece of news. Now that he thought about it, he did indeed remember something like that happening. He also realized that Ryoga had shown remarkable restraint by not trying to hit or even just yell at him. "I guess..." Ranma said, trailing off, starting to feel a little guilty. Then he tensed again, as his instinctive urge to not take responsibility for anything he didn't have to kicked in. "But he shouldn't have laughed at me!" Ranma stubbornly threw in. No way was he going to let Ryoga off that easily! Hotaru sighed. "Let's just forget it all, okay Ranma?" "I dunno..." Ranma answered, glaring at Ryoga. Ryoga glared right back, starting to get angry. Here he hadn't said a lousy word when Ranma had gotten milk on his face and now the bastard was getting all touchy over this little thing! "Please, you two? For me?" Hotaru looked in turn at each of the two martial artists with a pleading face, her eyes shimmering hopefully. "Uhh..." Ranma twitched as he was bombarded by cuteness rays. "I... guess..." he found himself saying, before he even realized it. And when he did, Hotaru's grateful smile made it all worth it. Hotaru then looked back at Ryoga again. "Ryoga?" "Er... If Ranma does, I guess I can..." the Lost Boy mumbled out. "That's great!" Hotaru beamed, smiling broadly. Ranma twitched again as the waves of cuteness bombarded him with renewed strength. Attempting to stop the assault, he jumped to his feet and spun around, feeling the strange emotions rampaging through him subsiding as he lost sight of Hotaru. Then he realized that there was still a sticky substance on his face. "Yeesh... I'm gonna go to the bathroom," he said as he felt Hotaru turning to face his back questioningly. "You just eat more Hotaru." And with that, Ranma headed off towards the back of the restaurant, where he thought he had seen the bathroom earlier. The sooner he got this mess cleaned off his face the sooner he could face Hotaru with his usual cockiness. Hotaru watched silently as Ranma's form disappeared into the bathroom and then turned back around, feeling a little lonely now that her friend was gone. Then she brightened a bit. There was still Ryoga. Smiling to herself, Hotaru looked up at the Lost Boy, who had resumed eating, although at a slower pace. "So Ryoga," Hotaru began, stopping a moment to relish how wonder- ful it was to have friends. Learning from Ranma's mistake, Ryoga swallowed his food before replying. Thankfully, Hotaru had seemingly stopped with the bombardment of cute rays, and he could talk with her much more easily. "Yes Hotaru?" Hotaru quickly ran through her mind for a second, searching for a good conversational topic. She smiled as she found one. "I'm just cur- ious about your family, Ryoga." She was indeed. Her family life was ra- ther lacking, and she was curious as to what kind of relationship other people had with their families. She already knew a little about Ranma's, but she didn't know much about Ryoga's. "Er, what do you want to know about?" Ryoga asked cautiously. The last person to have mentioned his family had been sent to the hospital after he had made the mistake of insulting the Lost Boy's parents. Of course, he would NOT hit Hotaru, but... He just couldn't help but feel a little defensive. Hotaru shrugged. "Anything." As Ryoga didn't say anything, she continued on. "Tell me about your father." Ryoga's face immediately took on a look of pride at the mention of his father. "My father's the strongest man in the world," he said in a tone that left no room for argument. Not that Hotaru would argue; she'd already seen how strong Ryoga and would've been ready to believe that the Lost Boy himself was the strongest man in the world. If he thought his father was stronger, she could easily believe that too. "So he's stronger than you?" Hotaru asked, fascinated. Although she didn't doubt that Ryoga's father was indeed stronger than him, it was still incredible. Ryoga nodded, a proud smirk on his face. "He can pull a telephone pole right out of the ground." Hotaru stared, starting to doubt just a bit. Pull a telephone pole out of the ground? That was... Hotaru shook her head. She shouldn't be doubting her friends. "But why would he do that?" "Well, you see," Ryoga began, starting to get into the spirit of the conversation. "There was this stupid gang trying to..." Hotaru listened intently, occasionally eating a little as Ryoga told his tale of how his father had single-handedly taken out an entire armed gang. She hoped Ranma finished soon. It would be nice to have him join in the conversation. Ranma splashed the cold water on his face one last time before turning the faucet back off. Grabbing a paper towel from the nearby dispenser, he then wiped his face dry. he thought as he crumpled up the wet paper and expertly tossed into a trash bin. It was, of course, the farthest one from him, just to keep his hand-eye coordination sharp. Turning back around, he found suddenly found himself faced with his reflection. Startled, he instinctively dropped into a defensive stance. Almost immediately after, he realized it was just his reflection and straightened back up rolling his eyes at his stupidity. Ryoga must have rubbed off a bit on him. Staring at his reflection a little longer, Ranma suddenly grinned. His doppelganger grinned back. He stared at the reflection silently for a moment longer, still grinning, amusement twinkling in his eyes. Ranma thought to himself, his grin fading away into a slight smirk. Ranma continued staring at his reflection a little longer, as if engaged in a staring contest. Then, he abruptly chuckled. A merry, amused chuckle that felt almost as natural as martial arts to him. Ranma wondered, shaking his head, still chuckling softly. First, he had left for the restroom just to so he could clean up his face, and now he was noticing his looks. When did he change? Before he came to Juuban, it hadn't been unusual for him to be walking in his own filth, mud over his face for days at a time. Was he getting to used to having a bath available and being clean? Was he getting... soft? The young martial artist rubbed his chin thoughtfully, dwelling on that thought for a moment. He knew he was getting better at the Art; he may not have been training as much lately, but his little sparring matches probably more than compensated for that. But was he getting too used to the easy life? Was he becoming reliant on the luxuries of modern technology? What if he got so used to it that he couldn't survive without it?! What if technology suddenly failed or something and he was so dependant on it that he died without it?! Ranma blanched and smacked himself on the head. He was worrying too much, everything would be fine. Paranoia was Ryoga's department. He was fine; the availability of toilets and the like were just icing on a cake of friendship. He could survive back on he road. Not that he wanted to; not without- Ranma shook his head clear of his thoughts as he realized he had been in the bathroom for a little longer than usual. Reassured that he was doing alright, Ranma was ready to deal with angry Ryoga's, cute Hotaru's and crazy fathers. Grinning one more time at his doppelganger, Ranma turned around and quickly left the bathroom. "Wow," Hotaru breathed out in awe. To think, that one of her first friend's father actually rammed a speeding car off course. "He saved five kids doing that," Ryoga said solemnly, although the air of pride was still strong around him. "You're lucky to have such a nice father," Hotaru said after a moment of silence, her voice sad and nostalgic as memories of her father from before flashed through her mind. "I suppose..." Ryoga said almost quietly, the pride diminishing, replaced by his own air sadness as he was forced to remember how his father constantly grew more and more distant as the years passed, his directional problem growing steadily worse with each day Ryoga came closer to manhood. He knew his father didn't want to, but it couldn't be helped. But his mother... Hotaru snapped out of her own thoughts, as she recognized the familiar look growing on Ryoga's face. She knew it well indeed. Before Ranma and Ryoga entered her life, and after the explosion, she had seen it nearly every single day of her life; every time she ever looked in a mirror. "What's wrong Ryoga?" Hotaru asked gently, her words soft and filled with concern that someone could have such a melancholy look about them. She HAD a reason, but Ryoga? She knew he usually was an angry and almost depressed young man, from what she had seen of his interaction with Ranma; but what did it have to do in relation with his father? He had seemed so full of pride and love when he talked about the man. "It's nothing..." Ryoga muttered, forcing a grin to his face and shoving aside thoughts of his father. There was no need to burden a sweet girl like Hotaru with his problems. She already had enough pro- blems of her own from what Ranma had told him. "Oh..." Hotaru said a looking down at her food a little sadly, not at all fooled by the false grin. She had seen enough like those from Kaolinite. She wanted to pursue the topic, but didn't want to pry. >From her experience, prying led to name-calling and tears. As a result, the young girl never pressed into a matter someone didn't want them too. Even with Ranma, she had never really tried to press him to tell her about himself. And so, still used to her cruel and cold classmates, Hotaru let the subject drop. Looking back up at Ryoga, she instead tried to give him a comfor- ting smile, and was relieved as she noticed some of the false grin being replaced by a genuine smile, albeit a sad one. Staring at Ryoga a little longer, Hotaru marveled at how differ- ent Ryoga was from his usual angry or annoyed countenance. Actually, Hotaru had always known that there had always been some hint of sadness behind the Lost Boy's proud appearance. But this... Hotaru could swear that she had never seen her friend this sad before. Even smiling, he was so sad... Maybe Ranma could... No. Hotaru almost giggled as she crushed that though. If anything, Ranma would be make Ryoga more angry. Hotaru doubted anything Ranma did would help Ryoga, even if the two 'friends' had been, strangely, a lot more polite to each other on the trip to the restaurant. Actually, Ryoga had just taken some of Ranma's comments less personally, settling for a verbal war rather than an all-out fight. Hotaru blinked as a thought hit her. She had said it herself: Ranma would make Ryoga more angry, not depressed. Maybe... Hotaru shook her head, glancing back up at Ryoga as he resumed his eating, assuming the conversation had ended. Maybe being angry would have bee better than being depressed for Ryoga, but she didn't want either of the two getting hurt. Especially after that last incident. The young girl shuddered, remembering how scared she had felt, the terror rushing throughout her as she saw the truck barreling towards Ranma. She supposed she should have know that Ranma would have somehow found away to survive what would have almost certainly killed a lesser man. Ranma would have survived even if she hadn't healed him. But still... She didn't want to have Ranma endangered just because of this. Sparring was okay, but that kind of fighting... Someone would get hurt; someone had gotten hurt. And speaking of the fight, why exactly were the two fighting? "Ryoga?" Hotaru called gently, getting Lost Boy's attention and causing him to halt his eating, which had been gradually picking up speed as his depression started to fade away. Taking a moment to swallow, so as not to repeat Ranma's stupid mistake, Ryoga looked up at Hotaru, his depression still slightly evid- ent to the trained eye, but having greatly diminished. "What is it, Hotaru?" Ignoring the sadness in Ryoga's eyes and her desire to ask what was wrong and help, Hotaru asked, "What were you and Ranma fighting about earlier?" Ryoga flinched as he was reminded of that incident, a little more sadness creeping into his eyes. Then, it all abruptly disappeared, like replaced with a slight blush and a look of comical embarrassment. Hotaru might have laughed under other circumstances, but she was instead confused. "Ryoga?" She asked slowly, not sure what was going on and notic- ing the discoloration of Ryoga's cheeks. "I, um... That is..." was Ryoga's flustered reply. How was he supposed to say that he tried to 'kill' Ranma because Minako thought Hotaru was his girlfriend? How was he supposed admit that he was in the wrong THAT time? Ryoga repeated to himself, steadily building up his confidence as Hotaru watched, patient for an answer. Ryoga opened his mouth, ready to say something along the lines of: "It was all a big misunderstanding, no hard feelings?" Of course, a certain pig-tailed martial artist would just happen to choose that moment to interrupt the conversation. "I know why Ryoga was tryin' ta turn me inta road-kill," came the familiar voice that sent Hotaru whirling around, almost jumping up to her feet to embrace her best friend. Catching herself, Hotaru forced herself to remain seated, slightly embarrassed that she had acted so childish. Ranma had only been gone a few minutes! She had managed to get through school days without seeing him outside her mind and still be able to greet him properly; she could do it again. "Ranma, you're back!" Ranma turned to Hotaru, regarding her oddly for a moment. "I was only gone for few minutes," he pointed out cautiously. Hotaru blushed and stared down at her hands, her embarrassment returning at her friend's words. Ranma, quickly noticed Hotaru's cheeks changing slightly red and realized that his friend was embarrassed about something, though he had no idea what. That just wouldn't do! Well, the only way to make her feel better was to direct attention to someone else. Which meant he had another reason to go back to doing what he had been about to do. Namely, humiliating Ryoga. He had let Ryoga have his fun saying, all those stuff about him and Hotaru. Well, it was time to pay back. Ranma gave a familiar cocky smirk; one that caught Hotaru's breath and, at the same time, drove fear into Ryoga's heart. "Ryoga was tryin' 'kill' me 'cause he thought it was my fault Minako left." Ranma paused, allowing his words to sink in. "He has a cru-" Ranma's words were promptly cut off by Ryoga lunging at him and clasping a strong hand over the young martial artist's mouth and apply- ing a firm head-lock at the same time. "Heh heh heh..." Ryoga chuckled weakly at Hotaru. "Just ignore Ranma, it was all a big-" Ranma sent a swift and strong elbow into his captor's gut, drawing a grunt from Ryoga's fanged-mouth. Feeling Ryoga's hold on him weaken, he reacted immediately and grabbed the Lost Boy's left arm, slipping down to free his head and shoulder-threw the him into the ground. Placing a foot on Ryoga's throat and applying pressure, he turned back to Hotaru, who was watching in shock, a hand over her mouth. "Y-you shouldn't fight... here..." Hotaru said softly, fearful of Ranma somehow getting hurt again. "Ah, don't worry 'bout it," Ranma replied with a cocky smirk. "Anyway, like I was say-" Ranma was once again cut off, this time Ryoga grabbed pulled his other foot out from under him, causing him to fall down flat on his butt. "Hey, that hurt!" Ranma shouted angrily as he flipped back to his feet, by now drawing the attention of the rest of the patrons of the restaurant. "Ranma, you better keep that mouth of yours shut..." Ryoga growled back as he too got to his feet. Ranma's annoyed expression quickly melted away, replaced with a familiar, mocking look. "Aw, what's the matter Ryoga? It ain't like Hotaru's gonna laugh atcha for bein' stupid or nuthin'," Ranma taunted, giving Ryoga an amused smirk. "That's not the point!" Ryoga shouted in... annoyance. the Lost Boy told himself as he dropped into an offensive stance. "Ranma, Ryoga, please!" came Hotaru's concerned voice. "I'm not going to laugh at you, you don't have to fight!" Ranma spared Hotaru a glance, his smirk softening for a moment as he looked at her pleading and concerned expression. Then, as his brain registered her words, his smirked reappeared with renewed vigor. "See Ryoga, there she ain't gonna laugh atcha! Anyway," Ranma relaxed a little. If Hotaru wasn't going to laugh, Ryoga wouldn't be too embarrassed, right? Then he wouldn't mind, right? After all, she was a large part of why he himself had been embarrassed when Ryoga had started with his 'Ranma loves Hotaru' speeches. "Ryoga's got a-" "Shut up Ranma!" Ryoga yelled out, drowning out Ranma's voice and sending several of the restaurant's more cowardly patrons running. "He's got a cru-" "Shut up!" Ryoga shouted, shooting forward and ramming into Ranma. Falling back and rolling with the hit, Ranma grabbed Ryoga and, using the momentum, sent him flying over him and thudding against a wall. Rolling back to his feet, Ranma made a show of dusting himself off and sighed, shaking his head. "C'mon Ryoga, no way are ya gonna beat me, I'm the best!" Why was Ryoga still being so stubborn? Hotaru wasn't going to laugh at him, and they didn't even know who all these other people were, so what was the problem? Sure, he would laugh at the guy, nut Ryoga should have been used to that by now. "Just shut up, Ranma!" Ryoga shot back, starting to get a frus- trated. Not angry, frustrated. Nothing he tried had succeeded in making Ranma keep his mouth shut; in fact, it had all been turned around and used against him! . "Stop it you two!" Hotaru shouted desperately, causing Ranma to bite off his reply to Ryoga and turn around and look at her. "I-I don't want you to be hurt again..." she whispered, her purple eyes shimmering as tears formed, not yet falling. Before, she had let Ranma and Ryoga fight, confident that the two would be alright; but after last time... She couldn't bear the thought of losing either of her friends. She would die to heal them if she had to, but what if... What if she was too late, or too weak, or couldn't, or any number of horrible things that could go wrong? "I-I..." Ranma faltered, Hotaru's pleading look and unshed tears causing him to falter in his determination to get back at Ryoga. How could he deny Hotaru, his best friend? "You don't have to tell me..." The young girl whispered, almost unheard even by Ranma and Ryoga's sharp ears. "I just want you to be alright..." Ranma stared at Hotaru in awe; even when she so sad, she was so... beautiful... An image of Hotaru smiling at him, flashed through his mind. And Ranma smiled back. "Sure Hotaru..." Seeing her smile back at him, so full of happi- ness and joy, right before him and not in his mind's eye, suddenly made it all worth it. He would have let himself get hit by a truck everyday just so he could see her smile like that again. And then, with a shuddering blast, he realized something: he did see it everyday. Everyday he had spent with her, he saw that smile; with a price no greater than just a moment of his time, to be taken and returned, packed with the joy of a lifetime. Walking back to the table, his spirit uplifted and any thoughts about payback or revenge vanishing into nothingness, Ranma made the wonderful discovery that it was great to be alive. Behind him, Ryoga sighed in relief. Not too long ago... Determination written on her face and hope filling her heart, Minako Aino walked back towards Crown Arcade. She would get Ryoga. After all, he had passed out just because of her, right? He must like her more than Hotaru! She couldn't just give up just because he was taken, she never had before, except... except... Minako faltered, tears starting to come to her eyes as she sud- denly remembered what she didn't want to remember. She had forgiven Katrina for stealing, no... winning Allan, but... It still hurt, if only... only a... little... to think about it. Leaning against a wall, Minako took a minute to compose herself, her thoughts a chaotic swirl of images as she tried to compose herself. Slowly, she managed to force herself to stand up straight. What would Ryoga think if he saw her like this now? Taking a deep, cleansing breath, Minako forced a smile. It was all in the past now, she had to move on; and Ryoga was the perfect one to do it with! Her smile, turning genuine, Minako resumed her walk back to Crown Arcade. Hopefully, Ryoga was still there; oh, he'd better be there! Maybe he had dumped Hotaru and was looking for her? Or better yet, maybe she had heard wrong and he and Hotaru weren't even together! Minako shook her head, sighing tiredly. With her current luck with boys? "Yeah right?" the blond girl whispered to herself. Suddenly, Minako's head snapped up, an alert look about her and her hand ready to pull out her Transformation pen. Had someone just shouted something? Glancing around, she came to the conclusion that nobody else had noticed anything, what with the way they were all either chatting away with one another or looking so bored it was pathetic. Maybe her Senshi powers enchanced her hearing slightly or something? She would have to ask Luna about that. But meanwhile, there was that- *Beep* *Beep* Minako snapped out of her thoughts as she heard the familiar soft beep sounding from her communicator. Glancing around to make sure no one was looking, the young girl, as inconspicuously as possible, slipped into a conveniently-placed alley and pulled the communicator out of her skirt pocket. Staring at the ornate cover of the 'watch' for a moment, Minako hoped that this wasn't some kind of demon attack. Things had been slow in the rampaging monster department lately; but for all she knew, some crazy mad scientist with plans to destroy the world could have shown up during the short time she had spent with Ryoga. Minako sighed; it would certainly be her luck. Unconsciously holding her breath, Minako flipped up the cover and was greeted with the worried face of Ami. "What's up Ami, is there an attack or something?" "Oh, no, there hasn't been an attack for weeks now," Ami replied shaking her head to emphasize the point. Minako let out the breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding. Smiling slightly, she looked back at the communicator. "So what's the problem then, Ami?" Wait... This was probably about... "You didn't show up to study today and we were worried about you," the aqua-haired girl replied. "What happened, is something wrong?" "Wrong? Of course not! Everything's fine!" Minako exclaimed with as much cheerfulness as she could muster. "Well, if that's it, I'll just be going now." Chances of that actually happening were slim, and Minako knew it. One of the others, probably Usagi, would show up right about... now. "Minako!" the blond-haired girl cried cheerfully as she shoved her face in front of Ami's, blocking out the blue-haired girl's slightly embarrassed features with her own eager and excited one. "Minako, where were you! You're supposed to be studying!" The meatball- headed girl tried forced a stern expression on her face. It was so comical, that Minako almost burst out into a fit of laughter. "Listen Usagi, I've really got-" Minako paused for a moment, raising her head and glancing around. She was sure she had just hear something. Not seeing the source of the noise anywhere, the blond- haired girl looked back down at her communicator. "I've gotta go-" "What's wrong? Is a monster attacking?!" Usagi asked worriedly, cutting off Minako's sentence. "No, I-" "Don't worry, we'll be right there!" "Usagi, stop-" "C'mon guys, Minako's in trouble!" "STOP IT!" Minako shouted at her communicator in frustration. "M-Minako..." the meatball-headed girl whispered, tears starting to shimmer in her eyes. Minako mentally kicked herself for being so stupid. It could be so easy to forget, sometimes, how sensitive Usagi could be. Quickly glancing around and finding that nobody, apparently, had heard her, Minako gave thanks for the small miracle. "I'm sorry Usagi, I didn't mean to shout at you," Minako apolo- gized. "O-okay," Usagi sniffed. "There's no monster attack either." At least she didn't think there was one. At least there had better not be one. Right now, she just wanted to find Ryoga. Usagi's change was instantaneous as she changed once again into the almost annoyingly cheerful and enthusiastic meatball-head she knew and loved. "So why didn't you come to Rei's today?" Usagi asked cheerfully. "I came and so should you!" Usagi continued, looking a little miffed. "Well-" "You were chasing after a boy weren't you?!" Usagi gasped. "Um-" "How could you?!" Usagi demanded, her face an expression of shock. "You found a cute boy and didn't tell your own best friends?!" Minako groaned. This was what she had really been afraid of. Having Ryoga taken was already bad enough; she didn't need anymore competition. Usagi already had someone and wouldn't be too much of a problem, even if she would forget it for a moment. And Ami would be okay; but Rei and Makoto... Suddenly, the screen before her was filled with Makoto's excited face as she pushed Usagi to the side and took her place in front of the Mercury computer. "Who is he, what does he look like?" Before Minako could even open her mouth, Usagi again appeared, pushing Makoto off to the side. "Where are you Minako, we'll come over right away!" "There's no need-" "Ami, how do we find out where Minako is?" Usagi asked as she looked down at what Minako knew was the Mercury computer. "Usagi, be careful," Ami chided nervously as she appeared besides her friend, trying to gently pull her small hand-held computer away from her dear but very clumsy friend and accident-prone friend. "Oh c'mon Ami!" Usagi pleaded, pulling the computer back to her. "Usagi you idiot, let go of Ami's computer! You're probably going to break it!" came Rei's exasperated and annoyed voice. "Aw c'mon, just let her find where Minako is," Makoto's voice argued. "It'll only take a moment, right?" "Guys," Ami tried to reason as she attempted to pull her computer back to her. "The Mercury computer is- No Usagi, stop!" Ami's face twisted in shock and fear as Usagi started to randomly press things on her computer. "It has to be one of-" Usagi's voice was abruptly cut off and her determined face vanished into darkness. Minako stared dumbly at the blank screen for a few moments, surprised and yet not surprised at what her dear but utterly clueless friend had just done. Another few moments passed and Minako shook her head clear. What- ever Usagi had done, it had effectively gotten the others off her back. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Minako smiled, shut her communicator close and pocketed it. Walking slowly back towards Crown Arcade, Minako suddenly felt confident that nothing would go wrong. After all, fate had gotten her dear but very competitive friends off her back, right? Genma pushed his thin glasses back up the bridge of his nose again as he continued to walk along the streets of Juuban. Once again, he smiled broadly, remembering the morning fight with his son. Genma could barely contain his excitement and had to bite his tongue to keep from bursting out in a good, hearty laugh. His son had manifested an aura! It had taken two whole fights meant to anger the boy, and cost him his bandanna, but it didn't matter; once again, Ranma had managed to surprise him. The boy had managed to take the first step into serious Ki manipulation in almost a single day! Why, it had taken him almost an entire week with elaborate, step-by-step... training... from the... Master to get that far! Who else but one of his own flesh and blood could be so great a martial artist? Ahh... Truly, he had done a fine job of training the Ranma. Who could doubt that he was a man- amongst-men? Now all he had to do was toughen up the boy and teach him the... Saotome Forbidden Techniques. Then he would be ready for the REAL training. Or maybe he should just skip the techniques altogether... But first, he needed some supplies. Raising a child to be a man- amongst-men was hungry work after all... Minako stared at the scene before her. The sidewalk across the street was cracked and pitted with holes. A wall had been reduced to rubble and she could see scraps of debris scattered around the middle of the street. All-in-all, it wasn't so bad compared to some of the damage caused during fights between the Sailor Senshi and the various evil monsters that showed up in Juuban. The only difference were the people either staring dumbly at the space Minako was currently standing on, or walking away muttering "witch" or something like that. But she had not been here and, as far as she knew, neither had her friends. And the Senshi were definitely not witches! Sighing, Minako decided that it would prudent to investigate. She really wanted to find Ryoga, but whatever had happened here, it might be important. Walking up to an elderly-looking man, she reached out and shook him gently by the shoulders. "Excuse me, but do you know what happened here?" "A-angel..." was the confused reply. "Angel?" Minako wondered aloud. Had one of her friends been here after all? But they had never caused this kind of reaction before; at least, not to her knowledge... "S-she..." The old man continued, as if Minako's words were a cue to say something. "She?" A girl had caused this mess? Minako shuddered, hoping this wasn't another villain with plans to conquer the world. "B-boy..." A boy too? Could it been another Ann and Ail or something? "What did they do?" Minako decided to ask. The man just stared blankly at her, in a state of shock. Minako sighed. Whatever had happened, it must have been really something to cause this kind of reaction. Turning away from the man, Minako walked up to a young, attractive girl. Not as attractive as her, of course, but still pretty. "Excuse me, do you know what happened here?" "W-what?" the woman stuttered, shaking her head as if to she had just woken up from some strange dream. "Do you know what happened here?" Minako repeated patiently. The woman was in some kind of shock, and needed to be dealt with gently. "A b-boy, fighting," the woman replied almost drunkenly before she started to stumble away, a hand massaging her head. Minako sighed in frustration and glanced around to see if there was someone who looked they weren't in shock. She wasn't going to get anywhere anytime soon at the rate she was going. A few seconds later, Minako sighed again. There wasn't a soul in sight who looked like they could help her. And the rest were starting to slowly stumble away. Sighing one last time, Minako decide to just give up. She could tell Ami or the cats later; they'd know what to do. Minako suddenly brightened as she remembered what had brought her here in the first place. She could talk to her friends about this later. Besides, there was the matter of how to win over a certain cute young man to think about. Taking a moment to smooth out her skirt, Minako then walked towards the door of the Crown Arcade. Who knows? Maybe Ryoga would even know what had happened out there. Taking a deep breath, Minako took a step forward. Pushing the glass doors open she stepped in. "Ryoga, I'm back!" she called out cheerfully. She was greeted by a few strange stares and the high-pitched beeping and loud explosions of arcade machines. Minako ignored the odd looks given in her direction and slowly, almost fearfully walked towards where she had left Ryoga. With each step that didn't bring her into Ryoga's waiting arms, Minako started to worry more and more. Stopping by an arcade machine, Minako toke a deep breath and hoped Ryoga was still there. Then, she stepped around the machine. 10 feet away, she was greeted with the sad site of the very empty seat of an F-1 Racing arcade machine. "Alright, whaddya guys wanna do now?" Ranma asked as he and his two friends walked down one of the streets of Juuban. Ryoga shrugged. He knew what he wanted to do, but had no idea of how to go about accomplishing it. "I don't know." "Ooookay... What about you Hotaru?" Ranma tried, as Ryoga didn't have an idea. At least he hadn't tried to 'kill' him yet. Not that he minded one, but Hotaru seemed to still be a little scared from what he had observed from that last fight. So if keeping out of a fight with Ryoga would make her happy, then that was what he was going to do. "I... don't know," Hotaru replied, giggling a little. "Ooookay..." Ranma said slowly, rolling his eyes. "So nobody has an idea?" Two heads nodded in reply. "Then that means I get to decide!" Ranma exclaimed, smirking. Hotaru smiled, and Ryoga snorted at Ranma. "So what do you want us to do, go steal bread?" "Ah, shut up, man. How many times do I gotta tell you? I don't steal bread!" The young martial artist added silently. Things had been tough on the road, and sometimes, he and his father had to 'acquire goods without money' to get by. Still, that didn't mean he appreciated being called a thief by anybody. Especially since he was an EX-thief, really. To Ranma's surprise however, Ryoga just chuckled in return. "So where are you taking us oh great leader?" "Uh..." was Ranma's reply. A combination of Ryoga's odd reply to his denials and his own lack of an idea on their next destination caused Ranma to stop and think. "I dunno." Hotaru's giggles were sweet and beautiful. Ryoga's laughs, on the other hand, was just plain annoying. "Aw shut up already Ryoga," Ranma said in exasperation. Ryoga didn't. "Ya know, we COULD still be eatin' back at that restaurant if it weren't for you!" Ranma decided to point out. He had had enough of being laughed at; it was time to turn the attention to Ryoga. Ryoga's laughter died out, along with Hotaru's giggles. "What are you babbling about now, Ranma?" "They kicked us out!" Ranma answer with a roll of his eyes. And what did Ryoga mean by 'babbling?'. Ryoga was the one who babbled, what with his constant, "This is your fault!"s and the like. "And why is that my fault?!" Ryoga demanded, almost ready to bash his rival's skull in. "You-" "You two were making a big scene," Hotaru pointed out, inter- rupting her feuding friends. She knew they wouldn't do anything to her, but would probably fight it out with each other until one of them was out cold. She felt a little guilty for manipulating her friends like that, but she didn't want them to get hurt. "Me?" Ranma asked indignantly. "I was just trying to tell you that Ryoga-" "Shut up!" Ryoga growled, his umbrella pulled out and swinging at Ranma's head as he realized what Ranma was about to say. Without even blinking, Ranma ducked down slightly, letting Ryoga's umbrella whiz past his head. "Hey, watch it man, you might hit Hotaru!" Ranma yelled as he straightened back up, favoring Ryoga with an angry glare. "The only one who'll be hurt is you," Ryoga replied. Like he would ever hurt Hotaru; the idea itself was simply ridiculous. "Ha, me? You couldn't beat me on your best day!" Ranma snorted arrogantly. Then, slowly, and as inconspicuously as possible, he sped up a little; moving away from Hotaru. "Don't start getting cocky just because you beat me a few times," Ryoga growled back matching pace with the red-shirted martial artist and ready to swing his umbrella at Ranma's head again. Maybe that would shut him up. "Actually, I beat you..." Ranma looked down and quickly counted on his fingers. "about 20 times." "You were just lucky!" "20 times?" Ranma asked, an eyebrow raised in amusement. He shifted a little of his weight to his left foot in preparation for an attack. He was far away enough from Hotaru now that any opening attacks wouldn't hit her. And after that, he would have been long gone from the immediate area. "Ranma, Ryoga, it doesn't matter!" Hotaru exclaimed in exasper- ation. Ryoga was starting to get angry and Ranma had THAT look. The one he wore when anticipating something interesting. And Hotaru could only think of one thing that could have done that right then: A fight. And she wanted to put a stop to the whole thing before it got out of hand. Ranma's reaction did manage to surprise her however. "Eh? Whaddya mean?" Ranma asked, confused. "Um, what DO you mean, Hotaru?" Ryoga also wondered, scratching the back of his head, his... irritation having quickly drained away after Hotaru had interrupted his little disagreement with Ranma. "I..." Hotaru trailed off, getting a little embarrassed. Maybe she should have thought things through a little more before she interrupted the two; but she couldn't risk waiting and having another accident. "I mean, we're martial artists, we fight," Ranma continued as Hotaru hadn't answered their question. "To win," Ryoga added. "What I mean is..." Hotaru's trailed off, thinking as fast as she could. Ranma and Ryoga yawned and resumed walking, waiting for an answer from the trailing Hotaru. "You got an answer yet?" Ranma teased after several more moments passed and Hotaru still hadn't said anything. Hotaru blushed in embarrassment. "Look, she's blushing!" Ranma pointed, out, an amused smirk on his face as tried to keep from chuckling. Hotaru's blush deepened as Ryoga started chuckling and she turned away, trying to ignore her two friends who were currently doing a fine job of flustering her. "Oh, stop it you two!" she pouted, although Ranma and Ryoga couldn't see. The chuckle turned into a laugh, Ranma even joining in. Blushing even deeper, Hotaru buried her face in her hands, trying to tune out the laughter and failing miserably. She supposed she should have been used to people laughing at her, but this was different. When the kids at school, laugh at her, it was mocking and cruel; it hurt. This... This was full of amusement and friendliness that brought a warm feeling of acceptance to her heart, even as it brought crimson to her cheeks. "Oh, leave me alone!" If anything, the laughter grew louder, and Hotaru couldn't help, despite her awkward situation, but smile just a little. "No," Ranma simply said in reply. Suddenly, inspiration hit him. A merry light dancing across his eyes as he quickly scooped up Hotaru in his arms. "Follow me Ryoga!" were his last words to the Lost Boy before he jumped onto a nearby fence, and then, bending his legs and steeling his grip on a nervous Hotaru clinging to his chest, he jumped again. "Y'know," The broad, burly truck driver said to his slightly shorter companion. "I think I might've hit somethin' on the way over here." The shorter man stared at the large, almost foot-long dent on the front of his friends truck and nodded in agreement. "Least we know you didn't kill no one." The other man nodded. "Yup. Ain't nuthin' human coulda dent my baby." "Yup." "Yup." A moment of silence passed as the two truck drivers stared at the damage inflicted on the truck. "Y'now, this's gonna come outta yer paycheck." "Yup." On the top of that very same dented truck, meanwhile, a bald, bespectacled man wearing a dirty white Gi slowly crawled over towards the back of the large automobile. His name: Genma Saotome. He was on a mission, and there didn't seem to be anyone in Juuban willing to engage their daughter to a boy they'd never seen before. "Don't worry boy," Genma whispered to no one in particular. "Your old man will get us something to eat..." Slowly, applying all his skills as a martial artist to the task of keeping quite, Genma crawled towards the back. He didn't know how long the driver would wait here before moving on again, but he hoped it would be a veeeery long time. He had already had to wait an unbearably long time for the other men to unload part of the cargo for the local market or whatever. He needed as much time as possible to be able to pull off this job effectively. If he hurried, he might give away his position, and that would lead to a fight. And fighting while holding boxes of food in his arms could be rather tricky... Finally, however, Genma made it to the back. Making a mental note to land a little closer to the back the next time he jumped on top of a moving delivery truck, Genma extended an arm over the edge of the truck and tried to feel for a door. The aging bald artist smile. It was open. And the driver was still talking with that other man back in the front. It was perfect, he would be in and out before anyone even noticed, and no one would be able to identify him because no one would even see him. Almost chuckling, Genma grabbed the edge of the truck and flipped down and into it's interior, landing on his feet without making even the slightest sound. Ki manipulation could be useful for so much more than simply fighting. Ahhh... The site the greeted Genma was almost as beautiful as his own dear wife. Stacked neatly together all the way to the back of the truck, were scores of boxes of Instant Ramen: travelling food of the Gods themselves. Walking quietly forward, Genma smiled broadly. With a the exper- ience of years of service under the dearly departed Master, Genma bent down and picked up three boxes of ramen, stacked ontop of each other. Placing the boxes on top of another three, Genma then picked up all six. Oh, if only he could take all of the truck's contents. Actually, between him and the boy, they could probably finish the entire six boxes in a few days, but that was if they let their appetite get the better of them. He had drilled discipline Ranma and they WOULD stretch these supplies out for as long as possible. And if they didn't, well... he'd just have to get some more. Genma suddenly gave a tired sigh. How low he had sunk... But the path of a true martial artist was fraught with peril, and with the training he had in store for Ranma, that would be even more so. The least he could do was make sure he and his son had enough to eat. "Well, I'd better git goin' now, I'll see ya later." Genma froze, a hint of panic starting to appear. He had taken too long! With only seconds to spare, Genma, as quietly as possible, put down the boxes in his hand and made a jump towards the back of the truck, landing softly on a few boxes of ramen, crushing it slightly. This was the only way, unless he wanted to jump outside and try to race after moving truck. Besides, the risk of being seen was too high. Ignoring the badly out of tune whistling nearing him, Genma pulled a box of noodles up and tossed it to the side. Finding another one under it, he pulled reached down and pulled it out, tossing it to the side as well. Then he did the same to another, forced to bend down even more to reach it. One last one, and Genma could finally see the floor of the truck. Hopping in, the bald martial artist tried to make himself as small as possible and discovered that his head still stuck above his little hiding hole. With lightning speed, Genma's hands shot out and grabbed several nearby boxes of ramen, pulling them in front of his face, just as the driver appeared. The burly driver reached the back of the truck and made a quick scan of the state of his cargo. "Those guys sure made a mess," he noted, shaking his head sadly as he noticed the stack of six boxes and about 6 or so boxes in the back scattered around on their sides and in general disarray. Sighing, he stepped into the truck. Reaching up, he grabbed the door and pulled it down a little. After it was far enough down that he could reach it from the ground, he jumped back out. With one last tug, the door slammed shut, the metallic sound of metal meeting metal echoing throughout the interior of the truck. "Well, I'd better git goin', or I'll be late," the man said to himself before he turned around and headed back to the front. Inside, Genma Saotome, Master of the Saotome School of Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, sighed as he pushed against the boxes of noodles surrounding him in an attempt to make room and get comfortable. He hoped he wasn't going to have to stay too long. "Minako!" a familiar voice called out. Hearing the familiar voice, Minako raised her head from the counter it had been slumped on. She knew it wasn't Ryoga, but who was she to be picky? "You look a little depressed Minako, something wrong?" Minako smiled, not totally forced, as she looked up at the hand- some owner of Crown Arcade. she mentally added. "Hello Motoki, I'm okay, really." Motoki frowned slightly. Minako was one of his regular customers, along with Usagi. He had grown to know them and their friends really well, and could definitely tell when one of them was feeling down. "Minako, I know something's bothering you," Motoki said gently. "Well, yes, something is wrong," Minako admitted after a moment. At least until she could catch up with Ryoga that was... Motoki nodded. "You looked really depressed when you left here earlier; did it have something to do with that boy who was here?" Chances were, it did. Actually, it almost certainly did have something to do with the bandanna-clad young man who had been at his arcade a while earlier. Minako raised an eyebrow. "You were here?" "I do work here..." Motoki said slowly. He knew better, but Minako could seem rather... ditzy... at times. "Oh, right..." Minako said, giggling weakly. "Anyway, what's the problem?" Motoki asked, ignoring the incident. "Oh." Minako gave an almost depressed sigh. "It's just that I was hoping Ryoga was here." "Ryoga?" Motoki asked. "The boy you were with, right?" Minako nodded. "I was hoping he hadn't left." If only she had been a little faster... With a start, Minako suddenly realized something, just as she finished her sentence: Motoki worked here! "Motoki!" Minako exclaimed. Motoki looked at Minako oddly. It looked like she just had one heck of a mood swing. A few seconds before, she had almost radiated depression, a tired look with a familiar hint of determination on her face. "W-what is it?" "You know where Ryoga went, right?" Minako asked, her face filled with hope. "Not exactly..." Motoki replied. He hated to have to disappoint her like that, but... "Oh..." Minako said simply, her face taking on a downcast look. "I'm sorry..." Minako sighed and straightened up, forcing a smile on her face. "It's alright, I'll find him." Indeed she would. No matter how big Juuban was, she'd find Ryoga again. She'd transform into Sailor Venus just so she could do it faster if she had too. There would be no rest for her until she saw Ryoga again! "Maybe it would help if I told you what happened after you left?" Motoki suggested hopefully. Well, maybe it wouldn't, but it at least would be an interesting story. Minako lost some of her false cheer and nodded at Motoki. "Sure, go ahead." "Well," Motoki began. "He seemed really upset after you left." Minako inwardly cheered. Then, as she recalled what had happened, she became a little despondent again. How could she be so stupid as to leave? Especially if Ryoga had missed her! What was she thinking?! "It looked like he blamed that other boy." Heh, looked like indeed. Ryoga had looked like he had been ready to tear of the other kid's head. And judging from the sounds of the fight outside, he may have very well tried. "You mean Ranma?" Minako asked as she was reminded of the handsome pig-tailed young man. He was... almost as cute as Ryoga. Not a bad catch actually... "Is that his name?" Motoki asked. He had heard several names spoken by the strange trio, but couldn't have been to sure as to who was who. Well, actually, he was pretty sure, but he really shouldn't go around assuming too much. That was one important lesson he had learned during his stay in Juuban... Minako nodded, slightly impatient. "Well, what happened?" the blond-haired girl asked eagerly. "Well, the other girl-" "Hotaru," Minako cut in, slightly irritated. That rather perceptive girl was what was keeping her from Ryoga. After all, Ryoga had said she was his girlfriend... Motoki noted the familiar look of jealousy in Minako's eyes and inconspicuously backed away a little. "Um, yes. Hotaru tried to calm him down, I think." "Calm him down?" Minako wondered. "Er... I think I told you that he was upset when you left." Motoki said, once again regarding his blond-haired friend oddly. Minako gave a weak smile. "Oh, sorry..." Inside, she cheered as she was once again told that Ryoga had missed her. Ryoga missed her! And once again, she realized sadly that she had left. "Anyway," Motoki said, getting back to the topic at hand. "Ranma said something, and Ryoga must have been really angry, because he threw him out the door!" "Threw him out the door?" Minako asked incredulously. Motoki nodded, as he recalled the incident. "I was lucky the door was open, or he might have broken it. Minako's eyes narrowed and she rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she realized something. The door was automatic, so it should have opened up if Ryoga had thrown Ranma out. So what did he mean by he was lucky? "Was the door broken?" Minako wondered aloud. Motoki shook his head, realizing what Minako was getting at. "No, what I mean is that he wasn't close enough for the door to detect him." Minako's eyes widened. Wasn't close enough? The door's sensor could detect movement up to about 5 feet. That meant Ryoga must have about 6 feet or so away to have been able to throw Ranma outside without activating the automatic door! That wasn't too inconceivable, actually, but still, most of the guys at her school probably weren't even half as strong at that. And the ones that were, were real jerks. "Wow, Ryoga's really strong isn't he?" Minako said out loud. Motoki nodded in agreement, a bit of the awe coming back to him as he remembered what had happened. Ryoga had just picked up Ranma as easily as if he had a rock, and threw him out the door almost 40 feet! "So what happened next?" Minako asked eagerly, her depression starting to fade away. "Then Ryoga and Hotaru both ran outside," Motoki answered. "Do you know which way they went?" Minako asked hopefully. Motoki shook his head. "Sorry Minako, all I know is that I heard some fighting out there afterwards." "Oh," Minako said simply, her hopes crashing down. She sighed. "Well, that's all I know, sorry I couldn't help you more." Motoki said, stepping forward and placing a hand comfortingly on Minako's shoulders. Minako forced up a small smile. "That's okay Motoki." Minako swore to herself, a hand clenched in determination. No way was she going to lose Ryoga! She would search Juuban all over without rest if she had to, but she'd find him. Motoki quickly withdrew his hand and backed away as he recognized the familiar gleam of determination in Minako's eyes. Things could get messy if what she wanted somehow involved him or his store. "I'll find you Ryoga!!" Minako's shout rang throughout the entire arcade, masking even the sounds of the machines themselves. People looked up from their business at the blond-girl stomping away from the counter, fist clenched, a hard look on her face, and double-checked to make sure they weren't in her path. Genma squirmed around and sighed in frustration for the what was, by his estimate, the 50th time. It hadn't been all that long since he had gotten trapped inside the truck, actually. It was just that the place was so cramped! Confined in his small space by walls of cardboard, Genma silently swore he would try to lose some weight before he ever tried to pull another stunt like this. A minute later, he quickly forgot about his little decision. Genma thought darkly. He had just decided that for all his troubles, he should receive a very large, extra portion of the food he was... getting. Genma sighed, for the 51st time. Just when was that stupid driver going to stop?! Maybe he should just break out. It would certainly save time... Sure, the truck was made of very hard metal and his hand would probably hurt like hell if he tried to hit it, but... Genma quickly discarded that idea... and started seriously considering resorting to the Forbidden Techniques to break out of his dark prison. Feeling herself shoot into the air, Hotaru gave a startled, almost fearful "Eeep!" and tried to press herself further into Ranma's chest, eyes tightly shut. As she felt the air rushing by her head and rustling the hem of her dark skirt, a storm of emotions and sensations rushed through her. She was startled at the suddenness of everything; one moment, she was feeling more embarrassed then she ever had in her life, the next, she was shooting in what she definitely knew was upwards in the arms of her best friend. She was happy that Ranma had chosen to share with her whatever this was. Happy that he was holding her. Happy that he cared so much about her. Full of joy that she was with him at all. She was a scared because she was going through what she knew was dangerous. It almost seemed that everything her friends did was dangerous in some way, small or otherwise. They could even turn a simple visit to an arcade into an all-out fight... And yet at the same time, she felt safer than she ever had before. Rushing into the unknown, her life possibly in jeopardy she knew in her heart that she would be alright. Nestled in his arms and clinging to his chest, she knew Ranma would make sure that no ill would befall her. And most of all, she was exhilarated. Abruptly rushing into the unknown, cradled safely in her protector and friend's arms all had a sort of... excitement and appeal to it. All too soon, it was over. "Whew, I made it," she heard her friend say. Feeling herself placed onto the ground, she slowly opened her eyes and reluctantly released her iron hold on the pig-tailed martial artist. "Man, jumping on a roof carrying someone's a lot harder than I thought," the young martial artist commented, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow. "I wonder if Ryoga made it?" "R-rooftop?" Hotaru asked aloud, blinking in confusion. She knew she had gone up, but she had assumed she had landed back on the ground. Hotaru watched as her best friend turned towards her and gave that infuriatingly cocky smirk that she loved so much. "Yup, take a look around. Or better yet, look behind ya." Nodding dumbly, Hotaru turned around. She was met with empty air and a building across the street from her. Funny thing was, she was looking at the top of the building. Slowly, understanding yet still not believing what she knew was true, she looked down. And realized that she was standing at the edge of what suddenly seemed like a very tall, two-story building. Ryoga stared curiously as Ranma's airborne form flew through the sky and landed onto a nearby roof. He had jumped onto a roof? Well, if Ranma could do it, so could he! Hopping easily onto a fence, Ryoga then jumped again. Applying some of his meager knowledge about mid-air combat, the fanged-youth shifted his weight and hunched his back slightly, attempting to maximize the distance of his jump as much as possible. He had to admit, though, air maneuvering was his rival's specialty, not his. Unfortunately, Ryoga suddenly found that he had more important things to worry about; like how he was going to make it to the roof! "Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!" Maybe Ryoga had miscalculated the distance between fence and roof. It could have been that he hadn't used enough force, or that he had incorrectly emulated Ranma's air maneuvers. Or maybe Ranma was somehow trying to torment him. Or, perhaps, it had just been plain ol' bad luck. But whatever the reason, Ryoga had just made the discovery that he was going to land short. No big deal, really; he could survive a two-story drop no problem. The only thing that would be injured would be his pride. No way was he going to just sit by and let Ranma out-jump him while actually carrying someone!! And so, while simultaneously yelling his lungs out, Ryoga Hibiki shot out with both an arm and grabbed for the edge of the roof before him. And he made it, of course, his hand grabbing onto the stone edge of the roof with and iron-grip. A grip so strong and desperate that it sent cracks spreading across his hand- hold and beyond. "Heh, I made it," Ryoga said proudly to himself, even smirking a little. He had... well, not beat Ranma, but he had... well, not exactly matched him... but... he made it! That was when the section of roof Ryoga's hand was so strongly clenched on decided to crumble away into all-so-many pieces. "W-we're on... a rooftop?" Hotaru asked shakily, backing away from the edge of the roof. She wasn't afraid of heights, and she knew that Ranma would catch her if she slipped or anything, but, well... there was no need to tempt fate. "Yup, pretty cool, huh?" Ranma asked, his proud smirk still spread across his face. Turning around and catching site of Ranma's smile, Hotaru felt herself relax, reassured that Ranma would keep her safe. Just like her Poppa had... "Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!" Anything Hotaru had been about to say was cut off by the loud, familiar scream. "What the..." was Ranma's muttered reply as he turned around to face the direction of the shout. That sounded like... "Ryoga!" Hotaru exclaimed, a hand reflexively reaching up and covering her mouth as she caught site of her other, bandanna-clad friend dangling from the roof of a nearby building. "Ryoga?" Ranma said, more annoyed than anything. Walking over to the other side of the roof, he stared over at his... rival. Hadn't he told the idiot to follow him?! "W-what's Ryoga doing over there?" Hotaru asked quietly, her voice laced with concern. Lifting a hand up to rub his chin, Ranma pondered the question. What the heck was Ryoga doing way over there? He had said, "Follow me." So what was... Oh. The answer had been so simple, that Ranma had missed it. An amused smirk forming on his face, he turned back towards Hotaru, shaking his head and chuckling lightly. Hotaru stared at Ranma oddly, wondering what he was laughing about. "W-what is it?" "Ryoga's just gotten lost again," he replied. "Nuthin' to worry-" "Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" Jumping slightly at the sudden scream, Ranma gave an open- mouthed Hotaru a sheepish look and turned back around in time to see Ryoga impact the ground, a small crater forming around his prone body. A shower of dust and debris rained down around the bandanna-clad martial artist a second later, obscuring him from view. Ranma's eyes narrowed and his brows wrinkled suddenly as he felt something: a brief flash of... power. Like some sort of... energy had been released when Ryoga had hit the ground. Shaking his head, Ranma decided that it didn't matter. He couldn't feel anything anymore, and he had no idea how to try to look for things like that. His father had been strangely-mouthed on the subject of Ki, the only form of energy he really knew of that a ridiculously-strong martial artist like Ryoga could probably release like that. It was weird, really, that the old man mention an actually interesting subject like that and then just say, 'You already use it, subconsciously. Now enough talk, it's time to fight!' Although Ranma hadn't learned anything about Ki in the following 'sparring' session, but the following beating did teach him to not let essentially irrelevant things to distract him from more important things. "Looks like he didn't make it," Ranma pointed out, pushing his irrelevant thoughts aside and focusing on the more enjoyable task of talking to his friend. Hotaru nodded mutely. He hadn't made it, but what Ryoga had done was still amazing nonetheless. And Ranma actually did make it; while carrying her! But, in a way, she wasn't really surprised. She had already come to the conclusion, many days back, that Ranma was special. Even if all the almost awe-inspiring fights that he had with Ryoga hadn't told her that Ranma was someone different, she would have already know, deep in herself, that her friend was somehow special. Maybe it was because he could jump buildings; or because he hadn't been afraid of her, but she had known that Ranma, and even Ryoga, were important, somehow. That they could and would, like the Senshi, make a difference; change the way people looked at things. Or something. But they were special; she knew and believed that with all her heart. "Well, I'd better go get the idiot before he goes walkin' off a cliff or something." Hotaru shook out of her reverie and looked back at Ranma. The pig-tailed martial artist was currently shaking his head, an exas- perated yet amused look on his face. "Wait right here, I'll be right back," Ranma said, smiling quickly at Hotaru before walking back a few steps and bending down, preparing to launch himself from the roof. Despite her fascination in what Ranma was doing, Hotaru managed to shake that off and call out, "Wait!" Turning back to his friend, Ranma gave Hotaru a confused look. "What?" he asked simply. Hotaru winced at the curt reply and stared down at her feet, suddenly ashamed that she had interrupted Ranma. "I-I'm sorry, nevermind," she mumbled. She just hoped that Ranma wasn't mad at her. She should have just stayed quite... Ranma became even more confused at Hotaru's words. Sorry? For what? "C'mon, what is it?" "I-It's nothing," Hotaru replied softly "I-I'm sorry for bother- ing you..." "Bothering me?" Ranma asked, now even more confused. Now why would she think that? Hotaru never bothered him; it was always fun to hang around with her. Hotaru nodded taking a shy step away from Ranma. "I-I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me," she pleaded. Ranma almost choked. This again?! She thought he was mad at her again? Man, he must have the biggest mouth in the world; constantly making his best friend think he was mad at her without even knowing it. "H-Hey, I ain't mad atcha." Hotaru looked back up at Ranma. "Y-you're not?" she asked hope- fully. "'Course not," Ranma replied, trying his best to smile reas- suringly at his friend. "Man, you gotta stop thinkin' I'm mad atcha." "R-Right," Hotaru agreed shakily, suddenly very embarrassed. Here she had just gone through telling herself Ranma was special, and then the net thing she did, she treated him like all those other kids at school and thought he was mad at her. "Now what were you askin' about earlier" Ranma asked, trying to carefully steer the subject away from his supposedly being angry at her. "I-It's nothing..." Hotaru replied, still staring at her feet nervously. Ranma gave a frustrated sigh. No mater how absolutely cute his friend looked right now, he had to get an answer and get to Ryoga now. Besides if she was sad, then the price was too high. "C'mon, just tell me. I ain't going nowhere till you tell me." Hotaru slowly looked back up at Ranma. "W-well..." Ranma waited impatiently. He'd love to spend time with Hotaru, but he couldn't just let Ryoga run off either. "I just wanted to go with you..." Hotaru finished. As soon as the words left her mouth, she was quickly and without fanfare scooped into Ranma's arms and soaring through the air with him once again. Coughing out all the dust he had inhaled upon impact with the ground, Ryoga slowly got back up to his feet. The fall had hurt a lot less than he expected. Maybe it was because he had managed to land on his side rather than his back. Or perhaps his fights with Ranma were starting to pay off physically. Well, whatever the reason, he still hadn't made the jump. Sighing in frustration(and then coughing a moment later)at the thought that Ranma had beaten him yet again, Ryoga slowly stumbled away from the crater he had created. Best to be out of the area before he was forced to pay for the mess. Besides, sitting around in the middle of a swirling cloud of dust wasn't exactly his idea of a good time. "*Cough* *cough* Dammit! *Cough* How do I get out of here?!" Ryoga demanded, squinting to prevent any dust particles from reaching his eyes. "Yo Ryoga!" Ryoga thought darkly to himself. "Ranma?" the Lost Boy called out. "And Hotaru!" another familiar voice shouted back in answer. Ryoga thought to himself. So Ranma had Hotaru with him too. Well, that didn't change the facts any. "Ranma, this is all your fault!!" Ryoga shouted angrily. "Me?! How the heck is it my fault you can't even jump onto a building?!" was Ranma's frustrated reply. "Just shut up and tell me where the exit is!!" Ryoga shouted back, a coughing fit immediately following his words. "No! First tell me why it's my fault!!" Ryoga grit his teeth, tensing as he prepared his words. "Alright! So it's not your fault!" There. He had said it. Practically apologized to the annoying thief. "That's what I thought!" "Just shut up and tell me how to get out!" Ryoga shouted back angrily. "Hahahahaha! What's the matter, Ryoga got lost?" "Shut up!" "Alright," Ranma said, his laughter starting to die out. "Just hang on, I'll go getcha." Ryoga snorted indignantly and crossed his arms. To think, he actually needed Ranma's help. But he had to admit, his sense of direction wasn't exactly great, and he really wanted to find Minako. And doing that involved staying within the general vicinity of Juuban. A second later, he started coughing, snorting apparently being a good way to result in the breathing in of many, many dust particles. "W-wait for me!" Hotaru called out, hurrying after Ranma as he started to head into the dust cloud. Stopping, Ranma turned around, regarding Hotaru curiously. "You wanna come?" "Of course!" Hotaru replied firmly. "Well, if ya want to..." Ranma said with a shrug of his shoul- ders. He would've thought that Hotaru would've rather wanted to stay out of the dirt, but... Well, he supposed he shouldn't have been too surprised. HE would have wanted to go with Hotaru if the situation had somehow been reversed... He had to keep reminding himself that Hotaru was different from the few other girls he had met; Healing powers and all aside. Smiling gratefully, Hotaru ran up to Ranma's side. "Okay, let's go!" Full of enthusiasm, she wrapped herself onto one of Ranma's arms and waited, patient and eager. "Er... yeah, I guess..." was Ranma's hesitant reply. They were just going to unselfishly rescue Ryoga from a cloud of dust; but the way she said it, she made it all seem like some sort of grand adventure. Well, if that lead to Hotaru holding onto him like that, he really didn't mind at all. "Come on Ranma, lets go." Hotaru said, tugging at Ranma's arm and snapping the boy back to reality. Giving his friend a sheepish look, Ranma nodded and walked towards the cloud of dust. Minako blazed through the streets of Juuban, swinging her head to and fro, trying to find Ryoga. she wondered. She had been searching for a whole five minutes now, and there still wasn't any sign of Ryoga!! Well, she wouldn't give up until she found him! Suddenly, Minako skidded to a halt as and idea came to her. She'd just ask people if they'd seen Ryoga. What a perfect plan! Smiling to herself in satisfaction, Minako looked around, scanning the are for someone to ask. There were plenty of people, of course, the question was, 'Had any of them seen Ryoga?' Well, she'd find out soon enough. The truck stopped. Genma had to stop himself from jumping up in celebration and wait patiently. Something he had never been very good at. But he had to this time. He to or he would... er, he and his son would starve. Well, maybe not starve. He still had that job as a janitor, but that could hardly pay enough to feed the mouths of a... er, two hungry martial artists! He didn't care if anyone saw him now, he didn't care if his face would be all over the news, he had enough of sitting around in the back of a dark delivery truck. He was going to break out fighting, witnesses be damned. Besides... he was hungry. "Alright, here ya go boys." With a rusty screech, the metal door slowly started sliding upwards. Squinting, as to allow his eyes to get used to the light, Genma tensed, ready to punch, kick, and throw to his hearts content. The four men outside had been in the delivery and unloading of goods business for a long time. Well, five years anyway. In that time, they had seen or heard of hijackings and robberies of trucks. Of course, all those had been of armored vehicles containing stacks of money or other precious materials. Naturally, there wasn't even a single guard in sight. Who, in their right mind, would even think of robbing a truck of Instant Ramen? The last thing any of them saw before succumbing to several quick blows to the head was a white blur leaping from the shadows. "Oh yes, I've seen the lad. Walking with a lovely-looking couple he was." "Where?!" Minako grabbed onto the old lady like she was drowning. "Where did they go?!" "C-calm down miss!" the old lady said, startled by the sudden outburst. Minako let go of the lady and took a deep breathe. "I'm sorry." she apologized. Could you please point me in their direction." "Much better," the old lady said, smoothing out her shirt. "A lovely young lady like yourself should learn to be more polite to people; especially your elders." "I said I'm-" "That young man you're looking for, and the other pig-tailed lad, they argued with each other a lot-" "Could you just-" "Hush, child! You shouldn't interrupt your elders like that!" the old lady scolded. "Now where was I?" Minako sighed in frustration. Normally she would be much more polite, but she really wanted to find Ryoga. "Ah yes," the old lady smiled, remembering what she had been saying earlier. "Those to fought a lot, indeed, but they were very kind and polite to the young lady. The very epitome of politeness, they were." Minako sighed again. "Could you please tell me which way they went?" "Oh, I believe they were heading down in that direction," the old lady replied, pointing further down the street. "Nice young people they were. I could tell without even talking to-" "Thank you ma'am!" Minako shouted, shooting down the street like a rocket. Another intersection. Which way could Ryoga have gone? Well, time to ask someone again. "Excuse me sir," Minako said as she grabbed a passing man, attired in a business suit. "W-what?" the man stuttered, obviously not used to people suddenly grabbing him for no apparent reason. "I'm looking for a boy, about 15," Minako said, quickly. "Dark, short hair, Yellow bandanna and shirt; have you seen him?" "W-what?" the man stuttered, his shaken mind still trying to absorb the information. "Have you seen him?!" Minako nearly shouted. "Yellow bandanna, red umbrella!" A moment of silence passed between the two, other pedestrians clearing a wide path around the obviously crazy girl and unfortunate man in her grasp. They would have liked to help, really, but... Okay, maybe they would have rather avoided the two. A flash of memory and the man pointed frantically down the direction he had come from. "T-There!" Releasing her hold on the man's shirt, Minako flashed him a grateful smile and the shot down the street. "Hmmm... can't say I have..." the man said, leaning back into his chair. "Are you sure? Nobody? How about a boy with a pig-tail?" Minako tried desperately. "Or a girl with black hair." "No, I haven't seen a boy with a pig-tail, and I can't even begin to count how many girls with black hair have passed by here Minako sighed, crestfallen. "But perhaps I could interest you in some jewelry?" the man gestured to the table full of various sparkling trinkets or gems before him. "A pretty young lady like you would surely look even more beautiful with a nice necklace or ring." Minako blushed a little at the compliement, forgetting about her quest for a moment. "R-really?" "Of course!" the man replied, practically oozing with confidence, that was, perhaps, even real. "I'll even give you a 25% discount." "25 percent?" Minako asked, tempted by the idea. Some of those necklaces did look rather pretty... The man nodded. "I'm sure it'll impress that boy you're looking for." Boy! Of course, how could she have forgotten?! "I'm sorry, I have to go now!" Before the man could even open his mouth, Minako was already blazing down the street as fast as any Olympic sprinter. "Oh, I know who you're looking for!" "You do? Where is he?!" Minako questioned excitedly. "He was walking down there," the girl pointed down the street. "He was with this other pig-tailed guy and a girl." Minako frowned a little at the mention of Hotaru but managed to convey her thanks before shooting down the street again. "Leave me alone girl, I'm in a bad mood!" "Please! Just tell me where if you've seen him." "What's the matter girl, are you deaf?! I said, 'Leave me alone'!" "Just tell me!" "Go away!" "You shouldn't be so rude, I just want to know if you've seen him, that's all." "Arrgghhh!!" with a frustrated scream the large, burly man ran down the street and away from Minako, hands pressed against his ears. Sighing in frustration, Minako glanced around for someone else to ask. "*Cough* *cough* *cough*" Ranma looked over at Hotaru worriedly. They hadn't even been in the cloud for a minute yet and she was already coughing. Actually, that in itself wasn't too bad, but with her already frail health... "You okay Hotaru? Maybe we should go back- *cough* *cough* out." Ranma smiled sheepishly at Hotaru. Hotaru managed looked up at Ranma through squinted eyes. She may have burst out giggling if she hadn't know that would have just sent her into another coughing fit. "I'm alright Ranma," she assured, trying not to ingest any dust or the like. "We have to find Ryoga." "The idiot can take care of himself," Ranma replied, careful not to get dust into his mouth. That involved waving his hand in front of him repeatedly, in hopes of keeping all the floating particles away form him. "Ranma *cough* that's not very *cough* nice," Hotaru chided. "Hey, I'm more worried about you than that idiot Ryoga!" "You should *cough* stop calling him names," Hotaru said. "And this won't take too long. The *cough* cloud isn't that big." Although it was sweet of him to worry about her. "Oh alright," Ranma said, giving in. It was just so hard to deny Hotaru something. Well, as long as she didn't fall into a seizure, or something he could deal with it. "Thank you Ranma," Hotaru said, smiling and tightening her hold on Ranma's arm. Ranma twitched slightly at Hotaru's action but chose not to comment on it. "Ryoga's the one who should thank me..." he instead chose to mutter. "Don't worry, I'll remind him," Hotaru replied, smiling and leaning her head on Ranma's shoulders. "Sure, whatever," Ranma replied resisting the sudden urge to sigh. Moving forward, he wondered how Ryoga had managed to make such a big mess. He did fall from a three-story building, and his head was pretty thick, true; but still... Well, then again, it didn't really matter, he supposed. "*Cough* *cough*" Then again... Whistling cheerfully, Genma grabbed a conveniently-placed grocery cart and wheeled it over to the back of the truck he had just recently escaped from, carefully avoiding the four unconscious bodies sprawled around the ground. It wouldn't do to have to the wheels on the cart damaged, now would it? Especially if that cart was going to be wheeling food on home. Once he reached the back, he easily hopped into the interior and grabbed several of the numerous boxes of Instant Ramen and tossed them, one by one into the cart behind him with an almost careless ease. Grabbing another he then proceeded to toss that into the cart as well. Then another one. And another one. And ano- Waitaminute... Genma paused for a moment, and lifted the box up closer to his face. Scrutinizing it carefully, almost as if he were shopping for groceries, Genma frowned. There just so happened to be a rather large hole in the bottom of the box. Not much of a problem, actually, as each cup of Instant Ramen inside was covered in a protective layer of plastic; but hey, if he was going to steal, he may as well go for quality. So, tossing the box aside, Genma then proceeded to pick up another one. Quickly scanning it and finding that it was apparently undamaged, Genma nodded to himself, and tossed it into the cart. Genma smiled to himself. He would be eating well for awhile indeed. Oh, and Ranma would have some food as well, he added after a moment. Ryoga sat quietly on the ground, legs crossed and eyes closed; attempting to take in as little air through the mouth as possible. That, of course, meant his mouth was closed, and oxygen reaching his lungs via his nose. But despite the lack of several of senses right then, his hearing and danger sense were on full-time alert. Thus it was only natural when he sensed- "Ranma!" Ryoga shouted, jumping to his feet, "What took you so *cough* *cough* long?" "Stop complaining and *cough* let's get outta here!" Ranma shot back in irritation. His features softening, he cast a worried glance at the young girl besides him. "Hotaru doesn't look too *cough* good right now." Ryoga dropped his annoyed look and shifted his gaze slightly to look at Hotaru, who was looking even paler than usual and tightly latched onto Ranma. Ryoga could tell that she was leaning on his rival as much for actual need of support as she was out of affection or anything of the like. "Why'd you *cough* bring her in her you *cough* idiot!" Ryoga demanded angrily. Hotaru was both of their friends, and maybe even more to Ranma. How could he put her in danger like that! Sure it was just dust, but... but... but he shouldn't have brought her in, especially with her health. But despite his feelings on the matter, Ryoga didn't take any pleasure in watching the guilty look that crossed his rival's face. Besides, it was partly his fault for creating the damn cloud in the first place. Before either Ranma or Hotaru could open their mouths to say anything, Ryoga cut in, "Forget *cough* *cough* Forget it. Let's just *cough* get out of here before she *cough* gets hurt or something." Nodding grimly Ranma turned around and started walking away, Ryoga close behind him. Whistling a cheerful tune and trying to look as innocent as possible, Genma pushed his cart, loaded to the brim with boxes of Instant Ramen down the streets of Juuban, heading towards his apartment. A few pedestrians glanced curiously at him, but most didn't pay him any heed. After all, a man who loved Instant Ramen wasn't so unusual. Heck, if energy-sucking monsters weren't even unusual anymore, why worry about a bald, noodle-eating man? Genma thought to himself proudly; nevermind the fact that the job had been to rob a delivery truck full of Ramen. He'd have to reward himself with a good meal once he got back. After all, he couldn't fight with an empty stomach; and Ranma needed to be trained. Then a little more advanced lesson in Ki manipulation, and Ranma would be ready for the REAL challenge. And once he finished that, as he surely would for was it not he, the great Genma Saotome himself, who trained the boy? And after all that was done and through... Genma sniffled, a single tear running down his checks as he allowed himself to get sentimental for a moment. Real emotion. Not the ones he faked to get Ranma to cooperate with him, but a real feeling of joy and nostalgia. For after all was done and through, Ranma could marry one of Tendo's daughters, and the future of the Anything Goes Schools of Martial Arts would be secure. Not to mention his retirement... But before that, there was still work to be done. Genma sighed. Work. So much work still... Sometimes when he was half-starved and freezing to death in the middle of a snowstorm, he was sorely tempted to just put an end the entire training trip and go get Ranma married. But he had endured. Gods knew how, but he had managed to drag through nine years of his and Ranma's journey still alive and healthy. Well, not exactly as healthy as he'd like to be, but close enough. Besides, after all that the... Master... had put him through, his life-style could be considered, in comparison, almost idyllic. Now, the Last part of the whole training mission was nearing to an end. First, he would finish things in Juuban, and then after a little trip to China, it was on to the Tendo's and happy retirement! Genma sighed again. No matter how much he had tried to rationalize things to himself, fruits of his labor still seemed and felt like it was an eternity away. Especially once he took into consideration that he had no idea how long he would be in Juuban. Well, he had lasted nine years, he could survive another 9 if he had too. Sure, it was getting harder and harder to defeat the boy for his meal, but Ranma's own experience helped compensate for that. The boy was now rather adept at hunting, thus he was able to help provide food. Genma would have rather the boy had just stolen food, but he supposed hunting for fresh food could do. Besides, his dear, dear wife probably had something against stealing. Most likely it was considered unmanly. And while he wasn't sure if his beloved Katana-wielding wife would actually force him and his son to commit Seppuku for being unmanly, he wasn't about to take any chances. Genma thought to himself as he stopped and stared at the apartment building he lived in. It didn't look like much, and was nowhere near as comfortable as his or Tendo's home, but it was still better than camping out in some vacant lot. And he could even get his clothes washed for a small price. Oh; and Ranma's as well, of course. Well, he'd best get his little cargo inside; he was starting to get hungry. Resuming his whistling, Genma started pushing the cart inside the building, glad that there was an elevator in the building. He could have walked up the stairs carrying the cart, but that would have taken too long, and he wasn't feeling up to any hard labor right then. And he might have been able to jump three stories with the cart, but there was no way the thing could fit inside through the window. Genma wondered to himself as he pushed through the glass doors of the building. He hoped not. He wanted to start training on the boy immediately, really, but... well, he was hungry right then, and his son would have probably tried to steal some of the food that he, Genma Saotome, had rightfully 'aqquired'. Genma paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. Nah. If the boy was there, he would just have to be beaten into the leaving the food alone. He had won almost all the previous times they had fought for food; why should this time be any different. The fact that Genma hadn't won a fight with his son in the past three weeks escaped the aging martial artist's mind as he was currently busy anticipating the upcoming feast of Instant Ramen. With one last cough, Ranma broke free of the cloud of dust, Hotaru by his side, leaning heavily on him and looking even paler than normal. A second later, he was joined by a Ryoga, looking a little messy, but otherwise okay. The trio slowly walked away from the area of the dust cloud, taking their time more out of worry for their female companion's health than their own. Ranma, however, very quickly got either too impatient or too worried and, with one swift motion, lifted Hotaru into his arms, cradling her gently and breaking into a short sprint for the shade of a nearby fence. Laying her gently down onto the ground, he looked worriedly into her purple eyes. "Hotaru, are you alright?" he asked, his voice choke- full of concern. Hotaru slowly nodded in reply, making an attempt to rise back to her feet but only managing to get up a few inches before falling back down but a soft thud. Hotaru winced, feeling slightly embarrassed, but more tired than anything else. This wasn't like one of her fits; those occurred spontaneously, whether she was feeling full of energy or tired as a sack and forced her to cough and cough and then just pass out, often rather painfully. Right now, she just felt so... tired, period. Like she how she imagined she would feel if she had ever run a marathon and survived. Very, very tired; yet not sore or out of breathe, just like... like she hadn't had enough sleep, but... worse. But... Ranma would protect her. It would be alright. Ranma would keep her safe, she knew it. With him around, everything would turn out alright. Lifting her head up weakly, she found herself, just as she knew she would, gazing into her friend's concern-filled eyes. And nearby, also radiating worry, she knew her other dear friend was watching. Her heart warming at how much her friends cared for her, Hotaru forcing up a weak, reassuring smile and once again attempted to get back to her feet. Her smile, apparently, wasn't reassuring enough, as she found herself gently pushed back down by Ranma's strong hand. "C'mon Hotaru," he chided softly. "You better rest; ya don't look to good right now." "I-I'll be okay..." the dark-haired girl muttered out. "I'm just... a little tired..." So very, very tired indeed. She had never, in her life, ever felt so completely... drained... before. And yet... she felt like she should be familiar with the feeling for some reason. But... this was no time to be thinking about things like that. Right now, she just wanted to curl up into her nice, warm, bed and go to sleep. Sleep... Slowly, her eyelids suddenly feeling heavy, Hotaru shut her eyes, wishing she could muster up the strength to yawn. But she wasn't asleep yet; though she wanted to. "Yeah," Ranma said softly. "You better get some shut-eye, Hotaru." She was just... resting. She couldn't sleep yet... Someone had to... keep her friends out of trouble. Without her... Ranma and Ryoga would probably... fight. And someone would... get hurt... And she... wouldn't be able to... And then she'd be... alone... She didn't want to be alone anymore... Not anymore... She had to... "Ranma..." the young girl managed to mutter out tiredly. "Just go sleep, Hotaru," Ranma said in answer, his eyes never leaving his friends face. "Please don't... fight... I don't want you... hurt..." the girl continued. She had to convince Ranma not to fight; at least not while she was asleep. "Yeah, whatever," Ranma said, a hint of frustration barely evident in the sea of concern that was his voice. "Just go to sleep, alright? I'm more worried 'bout you than me..." Ranma paused, forcing up his usual cocky smirk, even though he knew his friend wouldn't see it. "After all, I'm the best; ain't nuthin' that can beat me." Hotaru's lips moved just slightly, barely even noticeably, upwards. Inside, through her tired mind and body, a familiar warm feeling spread throughout her. It soothed and comforted her, making her feel safe and protected and enveloping her like a blanket. It had all the effects of a nice cup of hot tea and a warm blanket and fireplace: it made her want to sleep even more. But before she did, she still had to take care of one last thing. "You too... Ryoga..." Ryoga nodded despite knowing that Hotaru would not see his gesture of agreement. "Of course, Hotaru. You just get to sleep." Once those words reached her ears, she barely had time to feel content, before she feel into a deep, peaceful sleep filled with visions of warm beds and flaming fireplaces. "Thank you sir!" Minako yelled as she shot down the street. She was getting closer, she knew it. Not only were the number of people who had seen Ryoga getting larger and larger, but she could feel it inside of her. Like a sense of anticipation and excitement, mixed with the slightly nervous feeling of not-knowing what exactly was going to happen. But she had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen: she was going to find Ryoga, and win him over! She felt a little sorry for Hotaru, but only a little. After all, this was destiny. Ryoga was made for her and vice-versa. She was sure Hotaru would understand once she explained it to the girl. And if not, well... who could stand against the powers of fate and what was meant to be? With a satisfied belch, Genma tossed his empty cup of Instant Ramen into the large paper bag that served as a trash can. Then, he grabbed another package of the food from the open box besides him and and quickly tore it open. Genma thought to himself as he poured the hot water into the cup. Immediately after placing the kettle down besides him, Genma dug in with his chopsticks. So what if he hadn't waited long enough for the noodles to become soft and sepearate? Crunchy Ramen was just as good as soft Ramen to Genma. Noodles were noodles, after all. Less than a minute later, Genma tossed another empty Styrofoam cup into his paper trash bag. Belching yet again in satisfaction at the delicious meal, Genma reached to his side to grab another package of Instant Ramen... and came up empty. "Huh?" Genma turned his head and looked down at the box of Instant Ramen curiously. The empty box of Instant Ramen, that was. "I finished already?" the martial artist wondered aloud in surprise. Picking up and tossing the empty box next to his trash bag, Genma then reached over to his other side and picked up another box of Instant Ramen. Lifting the box up to his face, Genma stared at it intently, almost as if he were studying an opponent, searching for a weakness. Genma though to himself. Not the soundest of arguments, but it worked for Genma. What should he do? What should he do indeed? It was just one more box, after all. Only one, nothing important. It wouldn't even be missed; especially not by Ranma as he hadn't even known what that Genma had gone out and... acquired... the food. But... he did want to make the food last as long as possible, and Ranma would be forced to ration the thing... A whole half-minute longer passed as Genma stared at the box of Instant Ramen held up before him. Genma decided to himself before tearing open the box and pulling out another package of Instant Ramen. All feelings of guilt were washed down his throat along with a mouthful of noodles. "You should have known better than to bring her with you!" Ryoga said, keeping his voice down but making sure the anger was easily evident. Ranma winced, a pang of guilt striking him as he walked, almost pausing him. Instead, he unconsciously pulled Hotaru, cradled safely in his arms, even closer to him. "She wanted to go!" Ranma shot back, keeping his voice down so as not to disturb the peacefully slumbering girl held in his arms. "Still," Ryoga continued, his voice more calm and this time, "You shouldn't have done that, Ranma. You know, better than either of us, how weak she is." Hotaru was his friend too, dammit! He was just as concerned about her health as Ranma was and didn't want her to be hurt. "I didn't think the dust would be so bad," Ranma replied defensively. He knew he was to blame for Hotaru's current condition, but he be damned If he was going to take all the blame! "She wouldn't be like this if it weren't for you making that big mess." "Are you blaming me for this?!" Ryoga demanded, a fist clenched. He wouldn't fight Ranma. He had told Hotaru he would avoid fights and he was going to stick by those words. Besides, if he tried to sock Ranma right then, it would've hurt Hotaru more than his annoying pig- tailed rival. "Y- I mean..." Ranma trailed off, taking a deep breathe. He and Ryoga had both told Hotaru that they wouldn't fight, and he would stick by his promise until Hotaru was up and about again. In the meantime, he should probably avoid provoking his 'friend'. "It's both out faults, okay?" Ryoga lowered his fist. He hadn't intended to use it, and there was no need to act threatening as he had already learned that threatening Ranma would get him probably even less than nowhere. It had been more out of habit than anything else anyway. "What do you mean our faults?" Ryoga asked instead. "You were the one who said, 'Follow me'!" "Yeah, and where did you go instead?" Ranma asked smugly, shifting the weight in his arm slightly to what he thought would be a more comfortable position for his passenger. Ryoga's face twitched slightly as Ranma's cold logic was presented to him. "W-well..." he said, flustered. "And then you went and jumped for a three-story building!" Ryoga blinked, confusion replacing embarrassment. "I almost made three stories?" he asked, his previous feelings temporarily forgotten. "Who cares if you almost made it?!" Ranma snapped. "The point is you fell down and made the mother of all dust clouds!" "Three stories?" Ryoga repeated, staring at Ranma , mouth hanging slightly open and apparently oblivious to Ranma's previous words. Could it be? He hadn't actually lost to Ranma? "Yes!" Ranma almost screamed in frustration. As he wanted a certain important someone to remains asleep, however, he had to settle for snapping at Ryoga. "I made three stories!" Ryoga shouted, jumping in the air. "Shut up!" Ranma hissed. "And you didn't make three stories!" "S-sorry," Ryoga apologized softly, settling down. He had almost awakened Hotaru for something as stupid as the thought that he had jumped three stories and beaten Ranma. And it was true that he hadn't actually made three; And Ranma had actually went two while actually carrying someone. Sighing dejectedly, Ryoga tried to turn his mind back to Hotaru. For one brief moment, he had been happier than he had ever had been before. For one incredibly short moment, he had thought that he had beaten Ranma Saotome. And it had been false. Ryoga sighed again. Disappointment: the story of his life. Hearing Ranma speak, the Lost Boy snapped back to reality. "W-what did you say?" "I was wondering how the heck you screwed up the ground so bad," Ranma replied, a curious look on his face. It was almost amazing; any signs of previous hostility had vanished, replaced with a familiar curious and almost care-free Ranma that now stood before the Lost Boy, Hotaru held snugly in his arms. "What do you mean?" Ryoga asked, although he already had a pretty good idea what Ranma was talking about. "I mean all that dust and stuff," Ranma answered. Abruptly, Ranma's face darkened slightly and the pig-tailed martial artist was replaced with the serious and angry Ranma that Ryoga had never seen much of before. "It sure hurt Hotaru." "I-I don't know..." Ryoga replied, a little taken aback by the sudden hostility in his rival's voice, although he would never have admitted it to anyone. "I just took the fall on my side..." Ranma stared intently at Ryoga, as if studying him. The seconds ticked by as the two martial artists walked in a direction roughly leading them to Hotaru's house, and Ranma still stared at the Lost Boy, all signs of anger and the like having disappeared, replaced with a calm and neutral expression. For Ryoga, it was just plain annoying. And a little unnerving as well. All of Ranma's mood swings and now his little staring contest was starting to get to the Lost Boy. Just as Ryoga was about to open his mouth and scream in frustration, however, Ranma spoke up. "You've gotta have a pretty thick head ta be able ta make a mess like that." If Ranma hadn't been carrying Hotaru right then, he would've had a nasty headache the next day. "Why must you keep tormenting me ?" Ryoga instead demanded, trying to remain cool and in nonviolent. Ranma was just so damn annoying! If the risk of hurting Hotaru hadn't been so high, he would have been pounding some manners into his pig-tailed rival right then and there. Ranma's lips formed a cocky smirk. Ryoga fist clenched shut, his veins popping as he tried to keep control of his emotions. He really hated how Ranma kept insulting him. The 'smile' was just too much. By itself, Ryoga didn't really mind, but right then, he just KNEW that Ranma was insulting him. 'You too... Ryoga...' Hotaru's words suddenly came flooding back into Ryoga's mind, accompanied by images of the sweet young girl smiling and hanging onto Ranma. 'Don't fight.' She wanted them not to fight. And Ryoga was pretty sure she didn't want Ranma hurt either. Taking a deep calming breathe, Ryoga closed his eyes and thought peaceful thoughts, trying to subdue his anger. Hotaru had wanted him to stay out of a fight. And until she woke up, he was going to do exactly what she said. "Just shut up Ranma." Ranma dropped the smirk, curiosity briefly flashing through his eyes before his face adopted a mock-innocent look. "Me?" the pig- tailed martial artist asked, his words laced with disbelief. Ryoga gave Ranma an odd look, a hint of anger buried within it. "All I did was smile, I didn't say anything!" Ryoga scowled and smacked himself on the head in frustration. "Ahhhh... this is the life..." Genma said to himself, sighing in content as he lay down on his sleeping bag. Patting his stuffed stomach happily, Genma closed his eyes, dreaming of what it would be like when he was able to have meals like this everyday. A frown briefly crossed the martial artists face. Well, he had to admit that eating 3 boxes of Instant Ramen everyday could get a little expensive... Well, at the very least, he would be able to eat well once Ranma got married and was running the dojo. And who knows? Maybe if the place was successful enough, he would be eating those noodles everyday. Genma sighed wistfully. He could only hope... For now, all he would be able to do was train Ranma as best he could. And under his expert leadership, the boy would no doubt become a truly great martial artist. He was already beating his own father in sparring matches. Genma added silently. Ranma still had a long way to go before he would be able to match his father's fearsome skill. Why, was it not he who was able to get rid of the dreaded... Master? Genma smirked proudly. Yes, Ranma was doing well, but the boy still had a long way to go. Why, if he went all-out, the boy wouldn't even stand a chance! Of course, Genma had conveniently forgotten that short of the Forbidden Techniques and a few more advance Ki techniques, he had been going all-out against Ranma. Minako stared at the large cloud of dust before her dumbly. She had just been running down a rather empty residential area street, hot on the trail of Ryoga when she had practically runs smack into the middle of a large cloud of dust. The fact that what looked like a large, unmoving dust-devil was sitting in the middle of a street was strange enough, but that wasn't what had really caught Minako's attention. Sure, that in itself would have been interesting and maybe a good story, but it wasn't anything too special. No. What caught Minako's attention was something far more serious than just a cloud of dust. Minako Aino was one of the Sailor Senshi, a defender of Love and Justice. In her case, Love in particular. As such, she was gifted with several little bonuses when she was in 'civilian mode'. The first ones included the standard package of increased strength, speed, etc. While not as much as what she would get when she transformed into Sailor Venus, it was still quite a bit. The next was a strong and fierce loyalty to the princess. She would willingly and unhesitatingly give her life for Usagi if necessary. And she had, actually. She had given up her life when Usagi had gone to fight Queen Beryl, only to be brought back to life by the princess. That act had only strengthened those already strong feelings. She, essentially, owed her life to Usagi. And the next gift could actually be considered a curse. She, along with the rest of her friends seemed to be trouble magnets; or rather, monster magnets. Whenever there was an evil maniac out to conquer Tokyo and/or the world, their plans always seemed to be executed when she or the other Senshi were around. Or maybe it was the other way around: she was actually cursed, bound by the all-powerful threads of destiny to wander into any maniacal, supernatural schemes that happened to be brewing. Heck, maybe it was a bit of both. And finally, there was her 'evil-sense'. Whenever she was close to a Youma, or Droid, or something evil like that, she would get this feeling inside her that told her to watch out and be careful. And Whenever she was close enough, she could feel it if there were any dark or even good magical energies. It was the reason behind any time she said the words 'I've got a bad feeling about this,' in relation to monsters, demons and the like; and she had learned to trust it in a fight. It wasn't as accurate as the Mercury Computer, of course, but it was still very useful to help decide when to be on one's toes and ready to transform. And Minako, being by far the most experienced of the Senshi, had developed that certain gift to a much greater extent than her fellow defenders of the Moon Kingdom. And thus the blond-haired defender of Justice was able to much more easily sense the small dark-energies currently swirling around the cloud of dust, keeping it airborne much longer than natural and even helping it grow stronger. She could tell it the energy had been borne from some type of monster and not just the normal dark energies used in the up-keeping of the universe. it was quite distinctive, especially as it was, technically, being applied to a task right then. It couldn't have been another enemy could it? Not so soon! Well, actually there had only been a short period of time between the previous major enemy appearances; a few months between each at most, but this could just be an unrelated individual demon outbreak, right? And if there was a monster, where was it then? Maybe it was just some kind of random energy-leakage from hell or something? Sighing tiredly, Minako decided that she might as well inves- tigate and see if it was harmful or dangerous or if Ryoga was trapped in there and then she could rescue him and he'd fall in love with her and- Shaking her head clear, Minako walked towards the cloud warily, ready to transform at a moment's notice. She couldn't be distracted right then, she had to be ready to be on alert least she lose her life. Slowly, she walked into the cloud, her field of vision becoming more and more limited as she ventured deeper into the cloud. Squinting her eyes and keeping her breathing slow to minimize the effect ill-effects of dust in her eyes and mouth, Minako slowly scanned the area. She couldn't see much, but she could feel the dark, evil swirling around her. Yes, evil. If she hadn't been sure before, she was as sure now as she was sure that Ryoga was meant for her. And it seemed like the energy was growing stronger the further in she went. It was all about, as far as she could sense, teasing and mocking, swirling around in an endless dance of darkness. The air around her streaked with invisible energy and she could feel it. Surrounding and enveloping her like a cold blanket. Not comfortably cool, but like the coldness of death itself. "*Cough* *cough* *cough*" Minako stopped, covering her mouth out of habbit as she coughed. Taking a moment to recover Minako tried to continue forward, but fell into coughing fit. Feeling suddenly tired, Minako fell down to her knees, coughing violently. It drew closer, embracing her with icy arms and she felt her more of her strength fade away. Closer and closer, more and more, swirling winds of darkness and death. With a blast of fear, Minako realized the truth: she wasn't walking closer to the source of the dark energy, if indeed there was one; the energy was coming to her! With a strangled gasp of fear, Minako summoned her Transformation Pen and, with the last of her strength, and then some, thrust it into the air, shouting out the magical words that would save her life. "Venus Star Power Make Up!" She didn't even waste time pausing before the words 'Make Up.' "Well, I still can't believe you made that huge cloud just fallin' down; even if it was three-stories, and your head is thick." "Just be glad Hotaru's alright," Ryoga replied simply, having long since calmed down from Ranma's previous insults. He had actually been starting to get rather uncomfortable with the minutes-long silence, having becoming almost used to Ranma's insults and such. Ranma glanced down at the girl in his arms, apparently peacefully asleep. But if the price for such restful slumber was her suffering, Ranma would have rather gone back into the pit of... well, maybe not, but he still would have went to hell and back to keep Hotaru safe. "Maybe, but I woulda rather she not get hurt at all." Ryoga nodded in silent agreement. He would have done anything to protect the poor, innocent girl lying in his... rival's arms. She was one of his first... Ryoga shook his head clear, berating himself for even thinking of Ranma at such a time. "Think we should take her home?" Ranma asked, his expression completely neutral and unreadable. Ryoga looked up, shoving his thoughts aside. Ranma had asked something, and it actually sounded important. And from what he had managed to figure out about his pig-tailed martial rival, the things important to him were mainly: Food, fighting, and Hotaru. They had just eaten and Ranma had given a promise to not fight, so the first two should be out. SHOULD be. Ryoga had once thought Ranma a dishonorable dog, but now... well Ranma couldn't be ALL bad. Well, with the first two out, that left one more. "What about Hotaru?" "I was askin' if we should take her home." Ranma replied softly. Ryoga immediately understood what was going on: Ranma wanted to stay with Hotaru, but was worried about her health. The same thing had happened not too long ago that very morning. "Didn't you already ask me that?" Ranma glanced over at Ryoga, looking confused. "What the heck are ya talkin' about now?" He felt tempted to include an insult in his already rather rude-sounding question, but refrained. Actually using his head, he decided that perhaps the best way to get an answer would not involve bombarding his 'friend' with name-calling. "I asked you the same question after... that incident with the truck," Ryoga replied, a little surprised that Ranma had not insulted him. But then again, the pig-tailed martial artist did seem to be in one of the more serious modes; the one that Ryoga had only seen once before today. Ranma cocked his head to a side, wading back to his memories of the day. Ranma's face darkened for a moment as he remembered that certain event, but then quickly shifted back into thoughtful mode. After all, what was done was done. Ranma mentally slapped himself for thinking of such thoughts right then. Besides, it was best not to think of such things at all, in his opinion. Too distracting. Ranma smiled slightly. proud at himself for finding the correct answer. Now, what had happened next? The memories rushed back and Ranma's brain, rattled from all the emotional stress he had been going through all day, recalled exactly what happened. He recalled exactly how Hotaru looked like as he looked upon her while she slept. He recalled exactly how much more time he wanted to spend with Hotaru and even Ryoga. "Well, it's different, now," Ranma said simply. "Oh?" Ryoga asked with mock-curiosity. "And why is that?" Ranma gave Ryoga an icy look, but refrained from commenting on the Lost Boy's tone of voice. "This is the, what?" Ranma did a quick mental count. "Third time Hotaru's gotten all sick and stuff." "Well, that didn't stop you from going on, did it Saotome?" Ryoga asked in reply, crossing his arms over his chest, daring Ranma to challenge his statement. Ranma shrugged, unperturbed. "Yeah, but this is the third time. Don'tcha see a pattern or somethin' here?" Looking at Ranma curiously, Ryoga scratched his chin in thought. "Umm... No?" Ranma would have smacked his head, or perhaps Ryoga's head if his hands had been free. After all, that wasn't considered fighting, right? "You idiot!" "What did you call me?!" Ryoga demanded heatedly, keeping his voice below shout-level, but still loud enough to show that he was... displeased. Ranma rolled his eyes. Ryoga could get upset at the littlest things. "Alright forget I said that." "..." Taking the Ryoga's silence as an 'I didn't say no,' Ranma went on. He had to know what to do, and although he could think of better people to ask for advice, Ryoga would just have to do. "What if she get's one of her fits again?" Ryoga blinked, soaking up the information. "Fits?" "Ya know!" Ranma said, in exasperation. "Seizures?" Realization dawned on Ryoga and the fanged martial artist nodded his head. "Ooooohhhhhh..." "Yeah, oooooohhhhh..." Ranma said, sarcasm coating his voice. "So you think she might get another seizure?" Ryoga asked, ignoring Ranma's previous words. The serious Ranma dropped back into place once again, and the young martial artist nodded. "Yeah... It's already happened three times, whadda you think?" "I..." Ryoga trailed off, thinking. The obvious and logical course of action would be to take Hotaru back home, but still... He could tell that Ranma still wanted to spend more time with Hotaru. If the pig-tailed martial artist's reluctance to do the sensible course of action hadn't been clue enough; well, Ryoga just knew. So, what should they do? Ryoga sighed. What could they do, really? Hotaru's well-being had priority over any of their own wishes. And if she had already fallen unconscious three times, there was just too much of a chance that it could happen another time. If it did, it would be best it she did so in the safety of her home and comfort of her bed. Well, Kaolinite aside... "You'd better take her home Ranma," Ryoga said softly, surprising himself with how sorry he actually felt for the pig-tailed martial artist before him as he watched him deflate. "Yeah, I guess you're right for once..." Ranma replied with a sigh, shoulder's slightly slumped. he chided himself half-heartedly. He would see her again. The very next day, actually; there was no need to act so... down in front of Ryoga. He had gone years without friends before, he could go another day. He had been able to go a day away from Hotaru before, too, he could do it again! But... she was his best friend... Ranma sighed again. Maybe he was getting soft. "Venus Crescent Beam Shower!" The yellow beam of pure magical energy shot forward from Minako's extended fingers, spreading into multiple rays of destruction as they cut through the air and disappeared into the brown cloud of dust before her. A moment later, Minako was rewarded with the ear- pounding sounds of explosions, as her attack impacted something: most likely the ground. The 'Venus Crescent Beam Shower' wasn't her strongest attack. That spot had recently been taken over by her 'Venus Love-Me Chain'. But her older attack, while generally weaker in power, still had the advantage of being able to affect a broader area. And as she didn't know exactly where, or even if there was a monster hidden inside the swirling cloud of dust and dark energies before her, she had decided it would be best to bombard the area with multiple attacks. Her 'Venus Crescent Beam Shower' had proven ideal for the task. Well... it had looked good on paper anyway. So far she didn't think she had done much more than cause massive amounts of damage to the street and perhaps add even more dust to the cloud. But she'd give up Ryoga before she gave up a fight! Well, actually... "Venus Crescent Beam Shower!" Once again, Minako, heard only the sounds of large chunks of the street being blown into it's component atoms. No demonic howl or nightmarish screech of pain and death; just property damage. Sighing in frustration, Minako focused her mind and tried to 'sense' the energy of the cloud. With her 'evil-sense' increased significantly in Senshi form, Minako was able to tell, even 50 feet away, that the cloud's power had dropped, if only slightly. Without the Mercury Computer handy it was the best she could do and good enough. All she needed to know was that she was making progress. After all, she wasn't going to run out of attacks anytime soon. "Venus Crescent Beam Shower!" Once again, only the sounds of property damage, the cloud seemingly unaffected. But a quick moment of intense concentration and she was able to ascertain that the cloud's dark energy HAD decreased slightly. "Venus Crescent Beam Shower!" "Venus Crescent Beam Shower!" Minako sighed, this time not even bothering to check on the cloud's status. She'd just shoot till the dumb thing dissipated or whatever. "Venus Crescent Beam Shower!" She had a funny feeling she was going to be there for awhile. It was a simple plea, full of hope and longing; but her past experiences had repeatedly told her that such wishes were made in vain. Well, she always was a stubborn one. "I got it!" Ranma turned his head slightly to the side, looking at Ryoga with rather bored and slightly depressed eyes. "What?" he asked impatiently. He wanted to enjoy his time with Hotaru and that involved not being pestered by Ryoga and his dumb accusations and the like. Ryoga favored Ranma with an arrogant smirk. "You should be more polite Saotome, I just discovered the answer to your problems." Ranma gave Ryoga a wary look. Images of him being thrown off a cliff, shot in the head, and run over by a truck passed through his head as he tried to think of what Ryoga's 'solution' to whatever he problem he supposedly had. "What problem?" Ranma asked. "How you can stay with Hotaru!" Ryoga replied, a superior look on his face, elated at having outdone Ranma at something. Ranma's interest was immediately, caught, but being used to a more angry Ryoga out to get him, Ranma kept all emotions carefully wrapped under an almost comical layer of neutralism. Besides, it wasn't like it mattered whether or not he was with Hotaru; he was just worried about her. Not like he wanted to stay by her all the time... "Well, go on," Well, maybe just a lot of the time... "And why should I tell you, Saotome?" Ryoga asked smirking at his rival. He was rewarded with the gratifying site of Ranma's right eye twitching. It wasn't much, but... "Damn it Ryoga, I ain't in the mood..." Ranma slowly said in irritation. If his hands had been free, he would have whacked Ryoga a good one on the head by then. The were currently preoccupied with a much more pleasant task however, and he just had to settle for glaring at the fanged martial artist before him. Seeing Ranma angry only added to Ryoga's ego. "You're not going to get anywhere being so rude," the Lost Boy lectured, shaking a finger in front of his rivals face mockingly. Ranma took a deep breathe... And kneed Ryoga in the stomach. "Venus Double Beam Shower!" Twin beams of yellow energy shot forth from each of Minako's outstretched hand, splitting apart into multiple shafts of power and cutting into the cloud, devastating the ground within. Frustrated and impatient beyond belief, Minako had invented an attack on the spot. It had just been taking far too long for her liking and as she wished for a way to speed things up, inspiration had hit and she had just field-tested her new attack. Minako smile proudly as she heard the sound of explosions. She had been able to cause twice the damage with her new attack. It was the best she could do without the other Senshi helping her. Minako sighed as she shot forth another 'Venus Double Beam Shower'. Even if her communicator had been working, she wasn't too sure if she actually would have called her friends for back-up. It looked like it was going to take an annoyingly long time to get rid of the current threat, but it wasn't very dangerous at all; as long as she stayed out of the cloud, that was. If she did call her friends, things would probably go much faster, but the chances of one of them going after Ryoga would be much higher too. Well, the communicator hadn't been working when she tried it, so the choice was already made. "Venus Double Beam Shower!" Hopefully, her new attack wouldn't be all she got by the end of the day. After all, she had learned the attack pretty much just to be able to reach someone. "Venus Double Beam Shower!" she thought wistfully. But now was not the time for that. Right now, she was on 'Sailor Business'. "Venus Double Beam Shower!" "Saotome..." Ryoga growled angrily as he slowly stepped away from his pig-tailed rival, removing his abdomen from a certain knee along the way. "You promised Hotaru..." Ryoga said slowly, angry and slightly confused. The only thing that had been hurt from Ranma's attack was his pride. In fact, if he hadn't known any better, he might have even thought the strike had been pulled. But still, Ranma had basically broken his promise to Hotaru: no fighting. He knew Ranma was an insensitive thief;(though he had... 'forgiven' Ranma for the latter) but he also knew that Hotaru and her opinions were very important to the pig-tailed martial artist. So why? "In case ya didn't notice Ryoga, I pulled the knee," Ranma said, rolling his eyes. "No need ta get all ballistic on me." Although the anger at being hit in such a cowardly manner remained, Ryoga's confusion only deepened as heard Ranma's words. "So I wasn't fighting," Ranma continued as Ryoga hadn't said anything. Ryoga took a deep, calming breathe. He would have liked for nothing more than to start pounding Ranma right then, but a combination of the facts that he had pretty much promised not to, and that there was a large chance of hitting Hotaru, refrained him. Instead, he took a deep, calming breathe, eyes closed. "What's the matter Ryoga? I didn't ya too hard did I?" Ranma asked, a hint of concern in his voice, as he watched his 'friend'. He hadn't hit the idiot too hard had he? All he had been trying to do was get the guy's attention and make him shut up. Ryoga tensed and took another deep breathe, telling himself that Ranma was an idiot and didn't know any better when he made that insulting inquiry. It didn't matter whether or not it was true. He'd figure that out later and pound Ranma for it. Right now, however, he had a promise to one of the sweetest girls he had ever meet, if not the sweetest, to keep. "You alright man, I didn't mean ta hurtcha," Ryoga took another deep breathe. Ranma wasn't making it any easier... "Venus Double Beam Shower." Minako's twin attacks blew off large chunks of street she could not see yet again. She had long since lost enthusiasm, opting to merely speak the name of her attack as opposed to yelling it out. Her voice was starting to get strained after shouting out the same words repeatedly again and again and she was feeling slightly weaker already, though she didn't think much of that. 'Over-using' her powers had never been a problem before. Minako sighed. She was getting bored. Something she never thought could be applied to fighting monsters. But this one had been so DULL since she had escaped from it. She probably should have been thanking her lucky stars that the monster was rather harmless, and that no people had come by yet, but it was all just taking so damn long! Who knew where Ryoga could've gone to by now? And in the 15 or so minutes she had been there, the cloud had only gotten slightly smaller. Standing on her legs the whole time, pumping out attack after attack didn't help much either. "Venus Double Beam Shower!" With a bored sigh, Minako decided the hell with it and just plopped down onto the ground. If she had to stay for awhile, she might as well be comfortable. "Ranma, I am trying very hard not to hurt you, please shut up." Ryoga said slowly, his voice strained as he tried to keep his calm. Ranma looked at Ryoga oddly for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "Fine, I was just aksin', sheesh." Taking advantage of the silence, Ryoga focused his mind on calming thoughts. Thoughts that, in other words, did not involve beating anybody, particularly certain pig-tailed martial artists, into bloody pulps. A minute of awkward silence passed, Ryoga with his eyes closed, and Ranma standing nearby, Hotaru in his arms. As a whole minute ticked away, Ranma decided Ryoga was a moron and turned back to more important matters: namely, Hotaru. Or rather, enjoying the time he had left with her for the day. Well, as much as he could with her being unconscious, anyway... "Dumb Ryoga..." the pig-tailed martial artist muttered darkly to himself. Well, he might as well get going. "Yo Ryoga!" He was greeted with the solemn face of a quite Ryoga, eyes still closed and mouth unmoving. Ranma gave his 'friend' another odd look, the fact that the Lost Boy couldn't see him passing over his head. Well, as long as the ears weren't covered... "Since ya ain't gunna talk about your 'answer to my problems', let's get goin' already," Ranma suggested loudly. Once again, Ryoga remained silent, as if in meditation. "C'mon Ryoga, this ain't no time to meditate." Ranma tried in annoyance. The more time he spent trying to get Ryoga moving, the more time spent with Hotaru was wasting. Well, at least that was how he figured it. Once more, Ryoga's eyes were closed and no response was drawn from the Lost Boy's lips. Ranma took a deep breathe, annoyed at Ryoga's ignoring him. It wasn't so bad really, but this was all so pointless; and they needed to get Hotaru home! So just what the heck was Ryoga doing wasting time being a lousy statue?! Ranma was sorely tempted to say 'the hell' with his promise and just clock Ryoga a good one. Whether a direct punch to the Lost Boy's inhumanely strong face would hurt the receiver or the executor more, however, Ranma was unsure of. Besides, his hands were occupied. "Can we go now? the pig-tailed martial artist asked impatiently. Slowly, Ryoga opened his eyes. Without a word he turned to look at Ranma, staring at him calmly, all traces of anger apparently gone. Ranma just looked back, getting bored and tired of whatever it was Ryoga was doing. "Look," the pig-tailed martial artist said, "I ain't in the mood for whatever it is you're up to; I'm outta here." With those words, Ranma turned around and started walking off, glancing around for a good fence to jump onto. He had next to no idea what Ryoga had been up to, except that it had involved him and his supposed problems somehow, but if the guy was going to be so stubborn in keeping quite... Well, Ranma had more important things to do. "Aren't you interested in staying with Hotaru?" the Lost Boy's words, drifting to Ranma with a faint hint of amusement and mockery in it stopped Ranma dead in his tracks, hitting him with the full impact of one of the bandanna-clad martial artist's punches. "What?" "Venus Double Chain Shower." At the command of her bored words, the flying projectiles once more flew forth from Minako's fingertips wreaking mass havoc upon the cloud-obscured streets. The blond-haired sighed tiredly. The cloud had been getting smaller, certainly, but it was all so... BORING! To think, just a scant twenty or so minutes ago, her life had actually been in danger. Now... "Venus Double Beam Shower." Well, on the plus side now she had discovered a new attack. Smiling lightly, Minako gave thanks to Ryoga for helping her discover the 'Venus Double Beam Shower'. Without him, she would have taken twice as long destroying the cloud! Surely it was sign that they were meant to be! "Venus Double Beam..." Sailor Venus dropped her hand back down to her side and took a deep breath. She could hardly believe it, but she was actually starting to feel tired using her attacks. She had almost believed she had no physical limitations in her Senshi form, as in practically all the fights with monsters before, she had never had to shoot so many attacks! And the long, epic battles, were usually taken care of by Usagi. Sailor Venus sat, staring at the cloud before her lazily. Her arms were starting to feel a little tense... Well, at the least the cloud was getting smaller. She had been slightly afraid that she was just adding more dust to the cloud at first, but the cloud had just been getting smaller and smaller. She was no rocket scientist, but she had come to the conclusion that it was the dark energy that was keeping the cloud up, thus with less energy to keep the dust afloat, the cloud got smaller. Actually, that had been her thoughts from the beginning, but it was nice to be able to actually use that scientific process Ami had pestered her so much about. Now if only she could finish off the stupid thing and be on her way to find Ryoga. Who knew how far he could have gotten already in twenty minutes? Especially someone as strong, handsome, muscular... "Ohmigod it's Sailor Venus!!" Uh oh. Someone had found her. That meant the press would no doubt be there soon. That meant that she had better get off the ground and start putting up a good show. It wouldn't do for all of her loyal Sailor V fans to see her any less than spectacular and awe-inspiring. Well, she was still feeling a slightly drained, but still more than strong enough to take on a Droid, Youma, or any other monster, especially a dust cloud. "Stand back, it's dangerous!" Sailor Venus shouted as she jumped into the air, executed a perfect mid-air flip, landing lightly on her feet and striking a dramatic pose. Ack, stupid shoes were being a bother; almost tripped there. So maybe she was a little more tire then she thought... "Sailor Venus, defender of Love and Justice will handle this!" Mentally smiling as she saw the awed faces of her now five- person audience, Venus launched her newest attack, her need to please her fans digging up the necessary will power to overcome the extremely minor tiredness she was feeling. "Venus Double Beam Shower!" The yellow beams of energy streaked forward from her gloved- fingers, splitting apart and crashing deep inside the cloud of dust with a loud explosion. Turning to her now seven-person audience, Venus smiled and winked at them. "You're the first ones to see my new attack." Watching the awed and open-mouthed expressions on her audience of mostly elementary-school students, Venus felt the intense boredom disappear. "You're the best, Sailor Venus!' one brave girl shouted out to her. "Of course!" Venus replied enthusiastically favoring her with a smile. "I bet you're pretty smart at school!" Ooooh... It was always so nice when her fans were around to cheer her on. Blowing all of the audience a kiss, Sailor Venus launched herself into the air, back-flipping gracefully and landing lightly on her feet a good 15 feet away, spinning around to face the cloud. The shoes again. Sometimes, she wished she had something better to fight in than high heels. It wasn't exactly the best of foot-wear to fight in, although she managed to compensate for most of it with her experience and skill. After all, Usagi and Ami had the much more sensible boots, which were much easier to fight in. Then again, maybe they had it easier because they were the *ahem* least skilled in the art of fighting among her friends... On the plus side, she didn't feel any strain at all. How could she, when she was surrounded by so many loving fans? They loved her, she loved them, how could she feel tired helping the people? Pushing those thoughts aside though, Sailor Venus focused on the task at hand. She had a job to do, and she needed to make it look good. After all, her friends weren't there to cover for her if she did something stupid. "Venus Double Beam Shower!" And she needed to make it snappy too. Ryoga was somewhere out there and she wanted to find him. "Venus Double Beam Shower! Venus Double Beam Shower! Venus Double Beam Shower! Venus Double Beam Shower!" Heeey... A bit more tiring, but it could work... Sailor Venus proceeded to launch as many of her 'Venus Double Beam Shower's as possible in the space of two seconds. "Tell me already ya moron!" As soon as the words left Ranma's mouth, the young martial artist realized that it may not have exactly been the most tactful thing to say. Not that he really cared; he had actually kneed the idiot, after all. Ranma's realization was confirmed as he watched Ryoga cross his arms and snort indignantly. "You ought to learn some manners, Saotome. What makes you think I'll tell someone as rude as you anything." Biting down the instinctive urge to give Ryoga a reason involving large, unsightly bruises, Ranma took a deep breathe, calming breathe and looked at Ryoga, who was smirking mockingly at him. "Oh mighty Ryoga," Ranma began, not even trying to conceal his sarcasm. "Please... er... tell me whatcha know!" Having unsuccessfully tried to come up with a large word, smart-sounding word to fit in his sentence, Ranma had to settle for the less-than eloquent wording from the top of his head to phrase his request. "Better, but you're not convincing me..." Ryoga said, not at all perturbed by the dripping sarcasm. "Um..." Ranma frantically started picking his brain for an idea. Beating the answer out of the Lost Boy was out, what with his promise and all; and that pretty much screwed most of his ideas. Which were all pretty much variants of the basic, 'hit Ryoga' suggestion. "Please?" Ranma tried hopefully. Ryoga stared silently at his rival for a moment. "Hahahahaha!" He couldn't help it, he just had to laugh. The expression on his rival's pleading had just been too hilarious. He had NEVER seen Ranma look so... pitiful, and now that he had... "Ah, shut up," Ranma said, scowling and then settling into an extremely annoyed glare directed at the laughing boy before him. Great, that was the last time he tried to be polite... "Hahahahaha!" "Shut up!" Ranma repeated, wishing he could hit Ryoga right then. But even he hadn't promised not to, his hands were still occupied with more important matters. Slowly, Ryoga's laughter died down, into chuckles. Then, after many more glares and demands to 'shut up', the chuckling died out, replaced with and amused and knowing smirk. "Geez, I thought you'd never stop," Ranma said, relieved that Ryoga had finally stopped with his pointless laughter. His reply was an amused snort. "Stop being such a girl." "What did you call me?!" Now Ranma wasn't just annoyed, he was angry. "A girl," was Ryoga's simple, reply. This was all so much FUN! Now he had an inkling as to why Ranma enjoyed tormenting his so much; well, two could play at that game. "Why you..." Ranma growled, tensing. "You take that back." Ryoga was silent for a moment, his amused smirk never leaving his face. Just as Ranma was about to say the hell with it quit and accidentally trip Ryoga into the nearest, hard, solid wall, the Lost Boy spoke a single, very important word. "Fine." Ranma's expression softened and he relaxed. "Great," the pig- tailed martial artist said. He'd get Ryoga back for the whole thing later, but for now, he was just glad that the Lost Boy hadn't put Ranma through all that crap while Hotaru had been awake. "After you tell Hotaru you're in love with her." "W-hat?!" Ranma demanded, immediately tensing back up, not really angry, but... well, surprised. "Don't try to deny, it!" Ryoga said, still smirking. "Hmph, you're even groping her right now." "I am not!" Ranma shot back angrily, glancing down at his hands, satisfied that they weren't on any inappropriate parts of Hotaru's body. "Well, you have a rather 'strong' grip on her." Ryoga replied simply. "S-shut up!" Ranma shot back uneasily, quickly relaxing his tensed grip on his unconscious friend. Enjoying the Ranma's flustered state, Ryoga continued on. "Why don't you tell her you're in love with her?" "Why the hell should I do anything you say?!" Ranma demanded, twitching slightly as he tried to avoid his least favorite conversation topic. Ryoga just seemed to love bringing up him, love, and Hotaru at the same time. "You still haven't denied it Ranma," Ryoga replied. "Will you shut up already?!" Ranma shouted out, forgetting for a moment that he might have been disturbing Hotaru's much-needed rest. "No." And although Ranma had not, Ryoga had noticed that the pig-tailed martial artist had, once again, not denied anything. More fuel for the flames, it was. The remaining dust particles that still hung in the air was swiftly carried away by soft, natural winds, reveling the devastated street, filled with an almost uncountable number of mini-sized craters and hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of debris. Catching the attention of most of those present, including the beautiful Sailor Venus herself, however, was a significantly larger crater off towards the side of the street. But what really caught Venus's attention what lay in the crater. Perhaps the others couldn't see it, but Sailor Venus could just barely make out the remains of something... strange at the center of the crater. Actually, a normal person probably would not have notice it, unless they knew what they were looking for, and were looking very hard. But with the swirling cloud of dark energy gone and no longer masking the power of whatever had been inside, Sailor Venus could clearly sense the powerful residual dark energies that emanated from the center of the crater. Or rather, from the fragments of... something that lay scattered around the it. Something well-camouflaged among the pieces of debris created by her attacks. "Stay back," she called out to the small crowd that had formed to watch her. They had been so kind, cheering her on like that, and she didn't want to risk them getting hurt. Even if most of the dark energy was gone, the kids would still have problems like how they were going to navigate through the crater-pocked street to actually even reach the large crater; and Sailor Venus wasn't about to risk their well-being. Venus broke out into a slow jog towards what had once been the edge of the cloud of dust. Now there was merely a fine layer of the floating particles on the ground, marking the line to what had once been dangerous ground. Focusing for a moment, Venus was satisfied to confirm once again that there was not much more than residual negative energy floating around in the area. Quickly calculating the distance between her and crater Venus the bent down and launched herself into the air, the 'oooohs' and 'ahhhhhs' of her fans bringing a smile to her face. She was only airborne for a short second before gravity took effect and she found herself falling towards the ground. With a soft thud, her feet hit the ground, scattering dust and debris. She stopped for a few seconds, catching her breath. Those attacks she threw had worn her out... a bit, and she had discovered that she couldn't run on idolization alone. After the three seconds that it took for her to regain her strength where her fans couldn't see her she was up into the air again soaring towards the crater. After all, she couldn't let them think that she actually had a weakness, could she? "It's simple," Ryoga said, having finally stopped laughing and decided that he might as well tell Ranma what he wanted to know. "Well, go ahead and enlighten me," Ranma deadpanned. Ryoga just ignored him. "All you have to do," Ryoga said, pausing dramatically. "Yeah yeah, tell me already!" Ranma said impatiently; he had practically went through a hell of torture and was now on the edge of going insane. "is stay with her!" Ryoga finished proudly. An eerie silence fell on the two martial artists; one with an expectant and proud look on his face, the other carrying a dark-haired girl in his arms and staring speechlessly at the other. Ranma was the first to break the silence. "You idiot!" he almost shouted. "That's what I want to do! What I want to know is how!" Ranma was disgusted. He had put up with all of Ryoga's crap for this? He suddenly felt a strong urge to start hitting the Lost Boy multiple times on the head. "By staying with her!" Ryoga repeated, more confused than anything else. Just what the heck was that idiot Ranma babbling about? "You moron!" Ranma said shaking his head and groaning. What the heck was Ryoga talking about her. "What?!" Ryoga demanded defensively. "I'm helping you out, you idiot!" "No you're not!" "Yes I am!" "No you're not!" "Yes I am!" "No you're not!!" Sailor Venus bent down, clearing away the larger chunks of debris with a swift, casual flick of a wrist. She could feel it, right at the spot in front of her: the source, or what had been the source of the dust cloud. She could feel it, but she couldn't see it; at least, not yet. Venus wondered, pushing aside the small pieces of black debris and dirt. There. That had to be it. Laying among the clutter of debris was an inch-long piece of... something. It was from this mysterious still-white fragment with strange grooves running down it's side, that a large amount of the residual dark-energy in the area was coming from. Although she knew that the whatever significant power that had been in the thing had been destroyed, Sailor Venus still tensed as she slowly reached down and picked up the strange thing. Nothing. A slight tingling as the residual power still clinging to the... rock, for lack of a better term, clashed with her own; but that was all And in a swift second, even that was gone; overcome by her magic. Although she knew it had been stupid to worry about a little thing like that, Sailor Venus sighed in relief anyway. the blond-haired Senshi thought to herself. she amended as she suddenly remembered Ryoga. Staring at the white fragment of what had once probably been a monster or something, Ryoga in her thoughts, the Senshi suddenly felt a surge of anger rush through her. That one stupid little rock had delayed her from finding Ryoga! with one swift movement, she crushed the white 'rock' in her hands, a small part of her mildly surprised at how tough the thing had actually been. Venus thought in annoyance to herself. If anything did there wouldn't be enough of it left to make moon dust... A sudden screech of rubber against the street brought Sailor Venus's head up in surprise. Somehow, she had been so distracted that she hadn't heard the news van's arrival sooner. Well, publicity was fine, but Sailor Venus had a certain boy to find! Dropping the crumbled remains of white 'rock' onto the ground, the orange-skirted Senshi jumped to her feet and flipped backwards into the air as high as she could manage, spinning around in a dazzling display of acrobatics she normally did not bother to do. But right then, she wasn't Sailor Venus of the Sailor Senshi; she was Sailor V, lovely defender of Justice, and she had fans to amaze. Cutting through the air in a in a series of graceful spins, Venus smiled. It always felt wonderful to almost fly through the air like that; just another one of the many perks to being a Sailor Senshi. She had long since acquired all the skill necessary to beat the best in the world of acrobatics and the like; all she lacked was physical ability. She could still jump higher and was stronger than most, but who, without magic, could really leap over buildings? Landing lightly on her feet, Sailor Venus was met with a thunderous wave of applause. Smiling and winking cutely at her fans and the few cameras that were set up, the Orange-skirted Senshi then spun around and broke out into an almost unbelievably-fast sprint out of the area. Minako Aino suddenly felt a lot better. "Oooohhhh..." Ranma said, nodding in understanding, having finally figured out what Ryoga had been talking about. "It's about time you finally figured it out," Ryoga said, rolling his eyes. And to think, Ranma actually called him an idiot. "Ah, so I missed one lousy thing," Ranma said his voice casual and unconcerned although his face took on a slightly embarrassed look. "Whatever you idiot," Ryoga replied, rolling his eyes. "Just remember, you owe me." The Lost Boy's face smiled, showing off his teeth, and in particular, his fangs menacingly. Ranma twitched, more than a little nervous by Ryoga's words. "Uh..." he trailed off, trying to buy some time to come up with a good idea. He was beyond glad to have found such a simple way to stay with Hotaru longer, but he didn't want to be owing Ryoga any 'favors'. "Uh..." Ranma repeated, the gears of his mind spinning overtime as he tried to figure something out. "What are you babbling about now?" Ryoga asked, annoyed at Ranma's 'uh's. "Er, I don't owe you nuthin'." Ranma decided say, having decided that trying to think was taking to long, despite Hotaru's insistence that it would be better in the long run. He knew it was in vain, but he prayed, nonetheless, that Ryoga wouldn't ask- "Why?" the Lost boy asked remarkably keeping his calm, more annoyed than anything. Who knows? Perhaps the Ranma mentality was starting to rub off. "I did you a favor," the bandanna-clad martial artist continued, an eyes starting to twitch. Then again... "Uh..." Ranma said nervously. He was half-surprised that Ryoga hadn't burst out in anger yet, but thankful nonetheless. Maybe it had to do with the promise; or perhaps it was because of his long period of supposed meditation or something. "Stop that!" Ryoga snapped. "What?" Ranma asked, feigning innocence, as he turned around, and started walking in the general direction of Hotaru's home. "Stop stalling!" Ranma came to an abrupt stop, twitching slightly. Okay, he supposed he should have known better than to think that he could have actually cleverly changed the subject like that... "You owe me a favor, Ranma!" Ryoga repeated loudly when the pig-tailed martial artist didn't say anything. Sighing in frustration, Ranma spun around, careful not to disturb Hotaru's rest as he gave Ryoga an annoyed look, not bothering to use his brain anymore. "Are you crazy?! You'd probably make me go... and..." Ranma trailed off, his face growing white as he upon a solution to the problem of owing Ryoga a favor. Unfortunately, it also killed Ryoga's plan. Ryoga's annoyed look vanished as he watched Ranma pale. Was there some sort of danger? Had something happened to Hotaru? The Lost Boy clenched fist, anger starting to surface as the thought of his friend, sweet Hotaru, being hurt presented itself to the boy's mind. "What is it?" he asked steeling himself for the worst. Ranma only whispered a single, quite word in reply. "Kaolinite." A split second of shock and Ryoga was spinning around, expecting the red-haired housekeeper to have somehow managed to sneak up on him. He was met with empty street. "No," Ranma shook his head despairingly, understanding what his 'friend' had been thinking. "Your plan, Kaolinite." This time, Ryoga understood. The blond-haired girl shot down the street at blazing speeds, even faster than the one she used whenever she was late for school. Normally, the girl would have been able to keep up that kind of speed for quite a long period of time, but she had been running almost nonstop since she had left Crown Arcade. She HAD to have gotten a little tired by then. Of course, that little rule of supply and demand only applied when she wasn't in Senshi form. Now the only thing keeping her from an appointment with destiny was knowledge. Namely, knowledge of where her Ryoga was right then. All she knew was that he had gone down the street she was currently on. Oh. And she had made the discovery that throwing a constant stream of magical attacks on something for extended periods of time could wear her out a bit. Fortunately, she had yet to find a limit to how long she could run, and she had already recovered from a little thing like expending too much energy. Minako thought to herself as she blazed down the mostly empty residential streets. She knew she had wasted a lot of time destroying that cloud, but Ryoga was probably walking, and she had long since broken world records with her blinding speed. She HOPED it would compensate for the lost time, maybe even more then. Her guilt at using her powers for her own purposes may as well be non-existent. Heads hung low, shoulders slumped, Ranma trudged slowly towards Hotaru's home, Ryoga behind him, also depressed, though those who looked would have merely labeled him as 'serious'. "Some plan that was," Ranma sarcastically repeated yet again, a touch of bitterness mixed in his voice as he shifted Hotaru slightly, his arms starting to get restless. "Shut up," Ryoga replied, any emotion having long since fled from the normally rude reply. Right now, it was all routine; he even had to admit that Ranma had a point: his plan had been rather flawed. >From what he had observed of Kaolinite's behavior, he doubted she would let them in. And as for Hotaru's father, he really doubted the man would appreciate seeing his daughter brought home unconscious. The two continued their silent march to Hotaru's home, a heavy air of depression and other negative emotions hanging over them. Eventually, Ranma broke the silence yet again. "Some plan that was." "Shut up," was, once again, the rather unenthusiastic reply. Minako screeched to a halt, her hopes deflating as she saw what lay in front of her: an intersection. the blond-haired Senshi thought to herself as she quickly and impatiently glanced around for anybody to ask for help. If people had been so willing to help her before, then they'd be doubly so now that she was in Senshi form, right? Problem was, there wasn't another soul in sight; and she had pretty good eyes. Minako thought to herself as she gave a frustrated sigh. There were three ways Ryoga could have gone, and she had no clue whatsoever on which path the boy had taken. It looked like she was just going to be making a lucky guess. Muttering darkly to herself, Minako shook her head in frustration. Taking a deep, calming breathe the blond-haired glanced at each of the three possible routes briefly. she decided. She hesitated for only a split second before breaking into a run towards her decided course. A wild guess; but love was on her side, was it not? "Some plan that was." "Shut up." Silence, broken only by the heavy and slow fall of weary feet. "Some plan that was." "Shut up." Again, silence. "Some plan-" Ryoga's head shot up, his eyes shining and a smirk forming on his face . "Of course!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers and cutting off his rival's sentence. Glancing back at the Lost Boy briefly, Ranma just rolled his eyes, unaffected by the young man's enthusiasm. "What is it now?" he asked rather uninterestedly, not even attaching an almost customary insult to the end of his question. "Got some stupid new plan?" Knowing Ryoga, it was probably a plan on how to get Kaolinite lost. Ranma paused in his thoughts for a moment, thinking about that idea. Oh... That still left her old man though... Ryoga merely stared smugly at his rival's back, unperturbed by the fact that all facial expressions he made were currently next to useless in drawing a reaction from his rival. "Heh, I'd take that back if I were you," the bandanna-clad martial artist suggested, his posture and voice so proud and confident that you could hardly relate him to his usual self, much less his demeanor just a scant minute ago. Ranma thought to himself, rolling his eyes. "So what's your plan now?" the pig-tailed martial artist asked, a hint of mockery and a definite dose of sarcasm in his voice. "You gunna break into her house or something?" Ryoga stopped, twitching nervously as the words left Ranma's mouth. "Umm..." Ranma stopped and quickly turned around as the familiar sound of heavy footsteps behind him disappeared, wondering absently why that idiot Ryoga had stopped. He hadn't even insulted the guy yet; all he had said was some weird stuff about breaking into Hotaru's home. "Whatcha stopping for now, Ryoga?" Ranma inquired as he shifted Hotaru's weight slightly to hopefully better accommodate her. "Don't tell me you're," Ranma halted his sentence, looking closely at the tight-mouthed and expressionless martial artist before him. "Don't tell me your lost?" Ryoga's reaction was as swift and sudden as a volcanic eruption. "What kind of man do you take me for, Saotome?!" the Lost Boy demanded to know angrily." "I dunno," Ranma replied with a simple shrug, not at all taken aback by the sudden mood swing. "A stupid one?" The chances of Ryoga getting lost while directly behind him should have been non-existent, but you could never be sure. "What did you call me?!" Ryoga demanded , his fists clenched. "Ah, forget about it," Ranma replied, rolling his eyes. "Grrr..." Ryoga merely glared at him for a moment, before taking a deep, calming breathe and composing himself. As soon as Hotaru was awake, he could start pounding Ranma to his heart's content. "Yeah yeah, whatever," Ranma said long since used to Ryoga's vainly intimidating nature. "Let's get goin' already." And with that, he turned around and continued walking in the general direction of Hotaru's home, his conversation with Ryoga, although he would never admit it, having cheered him up slightly. Ryoga stared, confused for several moments as Ranma walked off. Shaking his head clear, he quickly ran after the pig-tailed boy. "Don't you want to hear my plan?" Ranma shook his head negatively. "Like some stupid plan of yours could really work." "If you don't want to hear it, then I'm not going to say it!" Ryoga threatened. Stupid Ranma. He knew the idiot wanted to hear his plan, so why wouldn't he just admit it? "Fine." Ranma said simply, wishing Hotaru were awake so he could actually have a conversation that didn't involve threats, insults, shouting and the like. He didn't really mind, actually, but it was starting to get old. And Hotaru... Ranma smiled briefly. Hotaru never bored him. "What?!" Ryoga exclaimed in disbelief. Ranma didn't... want to hear his plan?! Why that little... Ryoga clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes. He KNEW Ranma wanted to spend more time with Hotaru, so what was going on? "Whatever stupid plan you have, it probably won't work," Ranma said, answering Ryoga's unspoken question. "What?!" Ryoga demanded. Stupid?! Well, if Ranma didn't want to hear his plan, he was going to tell it anyway! "Then I suppose you're not interested in going through Hotaru's window!" Ranma paused. That almost sounded like it could work... But there had to be something wrong with it... "So how about that, Saotome," Ryoga taunted, arms crossed over his chest. Of course. There was one major flaw in the plan. Ranma wasn't happy to have found it, but he could hardly go around trying out stupid plans that wouldn't work. "What're we gunna do? Break her window?" "What are you talking about?" was Ryoga's confused reply. "We'll just open it you idiot!" Once again, Ranma was acting stupid. Break through Hotaru's window? What kind of dumb idea was that? "I dunno," Ranma answered sarcastically, rolling his eyes. And Ryoga called him and idiot. "Maybe her window's locked!!" Ryoga suddenly wished that Minako was with him. "No," Minako whispered to herself. This wasn't the right way, she knew it. Something inside her, something that she had felt twice before in her life wanted her to go back. Go back to the intersection and take the path that had led forward. Screeching to a halt, Minako spun around and ran back, doubling her speed. She knew she had been on the wrong path. She knew without a doubt that Ryoga was waiting for her on the other path. She knew she could trust this feeling inside of her; because she had felt it twice before, and she had followed it. She followed it once and had found Artemis. She followed it again, and she had found her princess. And now, once again, she was following it. Only, it had never been so strong before. "Some plans those were," Ranma said as he trudged onward. He wasn't feeling as down as he had before, but the thought of leaving Hotaru alone was still as depressing as ever. Not only would he be leaving her all by herself with that psycho Kaolinite, whom he knew his friend... disliked; he would also be leaving himself alone with Ryoga, without even the pleasure of being allowed to engage in a good fight! "Shut up Ranma," was Ryoga's nearly routine reply. He couldn't believe it: he had practically humiliated himself twice in a roll. In front of that idiot Ranma, no less. But at least the idiot hadn't laughed at him or anything... Ryoga shook his head in frustration, resisting the urge to groan and hit something. He was calling Ranma and idiot, and here he was coming up with stupid plans that had extremely low possibilities of success. If Minako had been there, or Hotaru had been awake... "Some plans those were." And he couldn't even let it all out in a nice, crushing hook to Ranma's head, either! He was starting to wonder if making that promise to Hotaru had really been a good idea. Well, what's done is done. Only the present to deal with. "Shut up Ranma." The annoying present that just wouldn't bury the past. Of course, that was the same way Ranma felt about every time he had been called a 'thief' by a certain bandanna-clad martial artist. It was getting stronger, she could feel it. So much like what had led her to being a Senshi in the first place; so much like what led her to Usagi. And so much... stronger! The first time, she hadn't even been aware that something had led her to Artemis until long after; and the second time, she had barely even felt it, and did not even realize what it had meant until long after she had met Usagi. And now... now it pounded her with such strength, leading her own with such vigor, that she wondered how she could have missed this the last two times. Minako smiled briefly to herself; a smile that although small, was full of more joy then any of her previous grins or laughs. Twice before, she had been led to... destiny by this feeling. And if she was feeling it so strongly this time, what did that tell her of her and Ryoga? She felt slightly sorry for Hotaru, but if destiny was favoring her and Ryoga, it just couldn't be helped. the blond- haired girl thought happily to herself. "R-Ranma..." As the soft voice reached his ears, accompanied by stirring, Ranma immediately stopped and looked down at Hotaru. Was she awake again? A guilty part of him hoped so and that she would want to continue on with the day as normal. The other wanted her to awaken so he could get past Kaolinite and stay with her. Either way, Ranma's hopes were pinned on Hotaru's awakening. "Hotaru?" he asked softly, hoping the girl would answer him. His only response was a soft moan and the young girl's stirrings. "What's going on?" Ryoga asked as he walked around Ranma to see what had stopped him. He had been expecting Ranma to say something regarding his proposed plans. "Hotaru!" Ryoga gasped as he saw his friend squirming around in Ranma's arms. "What did you do to her Saotome?!" In one swift motion, Ryoga pulled his umbrella out from behind him and pointed it threateningly at his pig-tailed rival. Promises be damned, but if Ranma had hurt Hotaru, he would pay. "W-what?!" Ranma exclaimed as he managed to tear his worried gaze from the girl in his arms and turn his head to look at Ryoga. "If you hurt her..." the Lost Boy started menacingly. He thought Ranma had had something for Hotaru, but if he had done something to Hotaru... "I didn't do nuthin!" Ranma shouted angrily as he took a step away from Ryoga. What was with the guy? Him, hurt Hotaru? That idea was just plain stupid! "Then what's with all the moving around and screams?" the bandanna-clad martial artist demanded, unconvinced. "Screams?!" "You know what I mean!" the Lost Boy snapped, not at all embarrassed at his extreme exaggeration. "So are you going to answer me, or shall I beat one out of you?" "She's probably just waking up, you idiot!" Ranma shouted, wishing he could whack Ryoga a good one on the head. If that idiot did decide to break his promise and fight, both of them would be at a severe disadvantage. He was carrying Hotaru, and Ryoga wouldn't want to hit her; at least, he had BETTER not want to hit her... Ryoga lowered his umbrella slowly at Ranma's words. He didn't think that Ranma would hurt Hotaru, but he was a thief... No. Ryoga shook his head as the memory of his conversation with his rival after that truck incident flashed through his mind. He couldn't call Ranma a thief... yet. And not after he had almost gotten him killed, even if he had been forgiven. No, especially since he had been forgiven. Still, he couldn't let Ranma just get away with calling him names. "Don't call me an idiot." He wanted to do so much more than that, but under circumstances, he had to settle for the words. "Shut up Ryoga, this is NOT a good time," was Ranma's distracted reply as he watched Hotaru moan and turn about in his arms. In fact, he had barely even registered what his 'friend' had said. All he knew was that Ryoga had said something rather pointless and unimportant under the circumstances. The Lost Boy, to his credit, did not push the subject once he he followed his rival's gaze and saw that Hotaru's thrashings were becoming stronger. "We better get her home NOW, Ranma." He had never seen Hotaru this bad while unconscious, and it scared him. "Y-yeah," Ranma muttered. No more taking their time. Maybe Hotaru was just waking up, but he had never seen her do it this way, and he wasn't about to take such a big risk. "Let's get going." And then with a startling abruptness, Hotaru stopped. Moaning, thrashing, everything. All was silent. Ranma could've sworn he heard his heartbeat as he slowly turned his gaze back towards Hotaru. He couldn't fathom why, but he suddenly felt very tense and nervous, like something bad was about to happen. It wasn't his 'danger sense', though that, too, was quietly telling him that something was wrong; no, this was something else. Something... in the air. Something... wrong. And then he saw her. Simultaneous sighs of relief at the angelic sight of Hotaru, apparently soundly asleep, were made. Smiling fondly at the beautiful face before him, Ranma decided that he was just getting paranoid. The dark-black hair, the fine eyebrows, the... waitaminute... Where was the smile? Ranma quickly resisted the urge to smack himself on the head. Hotaru didn't always smile when she was unconscious; heck she didn't even smile when awake when he first met her. Still, it felt kind of strange not to see her cute face graced with that soft and kind smile that he... liked so much. And why did he still have that stupid feeling that something was wrong? As if on cue, Hotaru's eyes shot open. Looking back on the next few minutes of his life, a slightly older Ranma could have sworn that his heart had stopped. It was stronger, so much stronger now, as if a spark had been. She could feel it inside of her, pulling her unerringly towards... Ryoga. It had to be Ryoga. What else could it be? It all made sense to her in a weird sort of away that this... feeling would lead her to Ryoga. First, she had found herself. Then, she had found her friends. It only made sense that now she would find her love. What else could it be? Ryoga wasn't, after all, a girl and thus not able to be a Senshi. Therefore, it was a sign that her and Ryoga were meant to be. She felt sorry for Hotaru, but if this was fate and destiny, they had better not fight it. And if someone did try to... Well, they'd just learn the hard way that some things were just meant to be. Minako sighed wistfully. It would be sooooo wonderful to have someone like Usagi had Mamoru. A love so great that even death could not destroyed it. Well... Maybe something of that caliber was too much to hope for... But she could dream, couldn't she? And like Usagi and Mamoru, hers was destined, so who knew? She could feel it. Just up ahead and around the corner, she could feel was where she was being led. "H-Hotaru?" Ranma asked shakily of the girl that had silently slipped out of his arms and now stood before him. The girl looked like Hotaru, but... she couldn't be. He KNEW with dead certainty that the figure standing before him was Hotaru, but... she couldn't be. The look the girl wore was a... hostile one; a face more suited for the times she had 'conversed with Kaolinite. The way she stood, even, was different. Slumped and loose, yet still radiating danger; a far cry from the graceful and shy girl he had grown to know and... And the eyes. Those cold, emotionless eyes were definitely not like those of the cute girl he had been tutored under for the past week. The purple was gone, replaced with glowing yellow; hell, the whole damn pupils were gone! All that was left were glowing, yellow orbs, somehow managing to shine forth not only cold, yellow power, but a strong aura of... evil. Those eyes were evil. A quick glance at Ryoga confirmed the fact that the Lost Boy was also... disturbed. As if he didn't already know... "H-Hotaru?" he repeated. It wasn't Hotaru, it couldn't be. Hotaru wouldn't look at him like that; Hotaru wouldn't make him feel so threatened; Hotaru wouldn't make every instinct in his body scream at to kill the person standing before him before something so bad it was worse than an extinction-level event happened. But he had to ask. His only reply was a cold, silent stare that seemed to bore right into his soul. Ranma could only stare speechlessly back into the strangely familiar eyes, a sense of dread starting to creep into him as he sensed something. A surge of power filling the air with energy, almost like something... was charging up... "I-I don't like this..." he heard Ryoga mutter out off his side, followed by the rustle of clothes as the boy shakily dropped into a half-hearted defensive stance. And he knew with dead certainty, as everything martial arts in him screamed at to, that he should follow suit. But he didn't. Another ingrained part of him; one strengthened by every bright smile, every melodic laugh, every friendly look, every sweet word and kind gesture, demanded that he not hurt the girl before him no matter what; that he have faith in her. Because no matter what, she had to be Hotaru. She... just had to. "H-Hotaru?" he tried again. Mustering up his courage to approach the girl before him, fighting against the waves of hostility that assaulted him, Ranma took a step forward and raised a hand towards her, not even sure himself what he intended to do. The girl remained expressionless, staring at the outstretched arm as if waiting for the it to do something. "W-What's wrong?" he asked, barely getting the words out of his mouth. He could feel his heart beating steadily faster, a sweat starting to form his brow and a cold, uncertain fear building within him. Fear that whatever happened to Hotaru would endanger him. Something that the martial artist in him screamed was a certainty, that the girl before him was infinitely more dangerous than Kaolinite could be. It wasn't that he doubted his ability to win a fight against... the girl... Hotaru; his pride refused to admit that there was a fight he couldn't win. No, it was that he didn't WANT to fight with her. How could he betray their friendship like that? How could he just throw away everything he owed Hotaru by hurting her? Wasn't she already in a bad enough situation? Ranma didn't even try to think of an answer to any of that though. All he felt was the fear, his pulse accelerating, and the cold eyes upon his outstretched hand; upon him, as if she were judging something. But he couldn't bring himself to look up, look into those cold, yellow eyes. Pasting a picture of Hotaru, the Hotaru he knew, smiling in his mind, Ranma concentrated on his hand. He was being stupid, probably, leaving himself exposed like this; even Ryoga's weak stance was better than his position! But he couldn't, not to Hotaru. "R-Ranma..." The pig-tailed martial artist's head snapped up as he heard the strained voice, the feeling of danger starting to evaporate away. "Hotaru?!" The eyes, they were normal! Tired, but normal! Relief filling him, he took a step forward, a smile, a real one, not a smirk, starting to fill his face. Hotaru was alright, he knew she was alright. No stupid seizure could have kept her down; he knew it all along. Hearing Ryoga sigh in relief next to him, Ranma felt pride flow into him at his faith in Hotaru. He had put everything in the belief that no stupid seizure, no matter how weird, could beat Hotaru. "You alright Hotaru?" Ranma asked, relishing how relaxed he suddenly felt now that everything was okay. That had been one weird seizure, especially with the glowing eyes, but that had probably just been because of the girl's healing powers or something. "W-What?" the girl asked, shaking her head in confusion, and taking a step towards the pig-tailed martial artist. "I'll tell-" Ranma's words were cut off as a yellow aura shot up around the girl in front of him, blowing both him and Ryoga back a few dozen feet as waves of power impacted them. Shaking head clear, the first thing Ranma noticed as he got back to his feet were the yellow eyes. To be continued... Author's Notes Don't you just love the cliffhanger? You can blame my good ol' prereaders for convincing me to cut off the original ending of chapter 2 and transplanting it to chapter 3. Specifically, VidWizard! Anyway, moving on, I have some stuff to clear up, explain etc. Okay, the Hotaru dust cloud thing. For some strange reason, which I wont bother to come up with an explanation for, the dust cloud was after Senshi more than other 'regular' joes. Since Hotaru wasn't yet an official Senshi, she wasn't affected as badly as Minako. However, because of her poor health, she still got knocked out. And the thing that led Minako to Ryoga; yes, I know it seems a little cheesy, but here's the real reason she was led towards Ryoga: it was because Ryoga was with Hotaru. That's right, Minako got the 'feeling' around the time before Hotaru went into 'possessed mode' because she was in Senshi form and her powers were both picking up on Hotaru and the possibility of another Senshi. At the same time, however, Hotaru started going into possessed mode in the first place because of a combo of her being in the dust cloud and getting knocked out along with her picking up the supposed threat of a powerful Senshi in the area. Namely, Minako. The reason she even 'reacted' to Minako at all probably had something to do with her being in the cloud. Hmmm... That's about it. Sorry I didn't get more action in, but I did say 'later'. I didn't specify in chapter 2. ^_^ And don't worry, there'll be more Senshi coming in 'later' on as well. Okay, a few other things. For those of you who want to know, I'm posting my fic at Tannim's page: http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim/ which is a great place to find crossover fiction. He updates every two weeks,(unless it's his birthday...) but at least you can be practically guaranteed that SOMETHING will have been added. I'm also posting at VGAP's page: www.vg-ap.com It's a pretty cool site, with some good fanfiction from both VGAP and other people's works he hosts. The main attraction, in my opinion, though, is the Church of Crossover Couples. Go check it out, and if after reading my fic, you're starting to love Ranma/Hotaru match-ups, like Christopher Angel's "Turn the Page" did for me, then think about sending in your vote for the pairing. Hotaru had been tied with Ami at 13 when I sent in my vote, but now the blue-haired Senshi is back in the lead with 15! And finally, I'm also posting to RAAC. Hopefully. Long story and I don't want to explain it. Just hope my story shows up there sometime. Okay, here's where I say thanks to all the wonderful people who helped in getting chapter 2 out. First of all, thanks especially to Tannim for being the first person to host one of my stories and also being the first person to ever send me mail about a fanifc I wrote. And on toppa that, it was a very positive reply too! I swear, my hands were shaking as I read it! Then there's VGAP, who is also hosting my work. Thanks to him for making me realize there were tons of spelling errors in chapter 1. It's because of him that chapter 1 is currently looking as nice as it does. (spelling, wrapping, Senshi names, wrapping, wrapping...) And then there's Lim Tzu Chan, who got the idea to go and run the first version of "Sound Hearts" through a spellchecker... right after I had just done the same thing. Well, thanks to this thoughtful person(who had lousy timing ^_^), whom I sent a teaser to, Ryoga was saved from the horrible fate of being struck with the Ultimate Technique of the Saotome School of Underhanded Tricks. ^_^ And finally many thanks to my pre-readers. First, of all, special thanks to the very first person to volunteer to preread for me, Windmage. His conversion table for the Scouts and company's Japanese names and their meanings, and especially the list of their attacks, is greatly appreciated. Saves me so much trouble! You coulda been a little faster with the prereading itself, though... And if you don't like Minako getting tired when she went against the dust cloud, it's all his fault! ^_^ And my second prereader: Vidwizard. If you want to flame him for getting me to cut chapter 2 short, his e-mail is... ^_^ Just messing around Vid. Anyway, thanks goes to him, and feel free to visit fanfic page at: http://members.tripod.com/~ryogahibiki I think his own fanfics are down at the moment, but, err... he has some good links! Waitaminute... you can find his e-mail adress on that page... And my third prereader, Chester, or Chet if you will. He was the one who found the most grammar/spelling mistakes in the fic, few as they were. Man, he must have good eyes or something. Anyway, thanks to him for keeping tabs on my progress and forcing me to write very damn fast when I foolishly told him I'd have the story finished by tommorow or the day after. After all, I can't back down on what I said. And finally, there's Will, The Eternally Lost Tone-Deaf Bard. Most of the critique on the story-line itself came from him. No corrections on grammar, but there wasn't much of those and I was more interested in what people thought of the people itself anyway. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, etc. Well, that's it. Now it's time to work on chapter 3 and hope that chapter 1 shows up on the RAAC. Oh yeah, I have a question for you guys. Do you think I should bring some of the other Ranma cast? And I don't mean the Tendos, I mean people like Tarou, Kumon Ryu and Ukyo, maybe even Happosai. I did originally intend to bring them in, but I don't know anymore. Maybe I'm just getting lazy or something, but tell me what you guys think. KaosQu kaosqu@hotmail.com -Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. - Charles Schultz