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Old 21st March 2004, 06:00 AM
Steve Thesken
 
Posts: n/a
[FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma] Quantum Destinies 23 (1 of 2)


Hi all,

Enjoy. Let me know what you think of it.

Steve


*** Earth 0.000,0.000

"BWEE!"

After his headlong rush into the street, the small black piglet froze
in terror. His death swiftly approached, its image filling his vision
from the brilliant headlights of an oncoming car. In the depths of his
mind, he paused to wonder if this was to be his final fate, to die like
the lowly animal he now was, crushed beneath the wheels of a common
automobile. Tears of rage welled up in his eyes, that he would never
have another chance to prove his love to his goddess, the innocent and
demure Kodachi Kuno, never to take her into his arms and make her his
own.

It wasn't fair!

Mikado's mind quickly flashed back to the insane babblings of that old
monk he had escaped from only a brief time ago, who spoke some nonsense
about curses and hot and cold water. He had fled from the scene, mad
with horror at his condition. What did that old man's odd ramblings
matter? He was a common barnyard animal, his precious humanity stolen
from him by the actions of that evil, vicious girl. She had not been
content with slamming her knee up into his treasured manhood when he
left himself unguarded, and then fleeing from his wrath. No, this must
have been her goal all along, to lure him into a trap. Thoughts of her
treachery filled him with a powerful lust for revenge upon her, for the
hellish state she had cast him into.

At the last instant, the car suddenly swerved aside, missing him by a
narrow margin, its wheels squealing on the asphalt, slick from the
recent rain. When it came to a shuddering halt, Mikado felt his small
heart stutter back to life.

He was alive! He was still alive!

One of the doors to the vehicle opened after several moments, and a
slender figure emerged. His small body still trembling from the shock
of nearly dying, Mikado could barely lift his head to look up. But
what he saw astonished him.

"Mistress, be careful! The beast might be feral!"

With the glow of a streetlight illuminating her from behind, the sight
of Kodachi Kuno approaching and kneeling down next to him greeted
Mikado's wondering gaze. Tears filled his eyes once again, but this
time they were tears of joy. His gentle goddess had come to redeem him
from his fallen state, and a brilliant halo of light cast down by the
streetlamp framed her, giving her an almost angelic glory. He trembled
some more, caught up in a rapture that suddenly filled him at the sight
of that gentle look on her face. Then she smiled at him, and he gave a
little piggy sigh.

"You poor dear," Kodachi said softly, studying the tiny creature before
her, cold and wet from the recent rain, looking utterly miserable and
alone. Gently, she extended forth a hand and touched the small animal
on the head, feeling no fear that it might bite her as she stroked its
coat of light fur. She looked up at the driver. "Get me a towel to
wrap it in. I'm bringing it home."

"Yes, Mistress!"

Moments later, Mikado found himself wrapped in a soft, fluffy towel,
and Kodachi was carrying him back to the limousine, gently drying him
with soft strokes of her delicate hands. She sat down and cooed to the
little pig as the car continued on its way to Whitehall Academy to pick
up her brother before heading home.

"That was a close one, wasn't it, little one?" she said with a smile.
There was something familiar about the animal, dredging up a memory of
some of the other worlds she had visited before arriving on this one.
It wore no collar, but it had the manner of a domesticated creature.
Well, no matter if it had once belonged to someone else. She was
already planning to keep it.

"Bwee," Mikado agreed softly, gazing up at that angelic face. When she
began to cuddle his now dry body against her bosom to warm him, he gave
off another little sigh of contentment.

"I even have the perfect name for you." Kodachi pulled the little
piglet away from her chest and held it up before her, smiling. She
noted absently that it was a male. "I shall call you P-chan."

"Bwee?" The newly dubbed P-chan cocked his head to one side. When she
smiled at him again and then kissed him gently on the tip of his nose,
the silly name didn't seem to be nearly so bad.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Quantum Destinies
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic
By Steven Thesken (sthesken@earthlink.net)

Ranma 1/2 and its characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. This story
is inspired by her works and the stories from some of my fellow fanfic
authors. Among these are D.B. Sommer's "Shampoo 1/2", Jim Bader's "A
Very Scary Thought -aka- Nabiki 1/2" and John Biles' Elseworlds series.
All C&C is welcome.

Other chapters of this story may be found at this website, or you can
email the author for them:

The Quantum Destinies Homepage
http://home.earthlink.net/~sthesken/fanfics/qd.html


The list of worlds reoccurring in this chapter:
Earth 0.000,0.000 - The world of Scholar Ranma (Baseline cluster)


What has gone before in this story (or at least what will help you
understand what is going on):

On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over
five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world
and has done so for almost a century. Theorizing that one could travel
to alternate timelines by possessing counterparts in them, a young
scientist named Ranma Saotome, through use of a device of his own
invention, accidentally obtained the skills and memories of a martial
artist version of himself. Around a bewildered Hikaru Gosunkugi, a
love triangle has now formed. Ranko, after a long journey across
several parallel worlds, arrived on Scholar-Ranma's version of Earth,
contributing to events there which led to Mikado, Ryoko and Ryoga
becoming cursed by the magic waters of Jusenkyo. After falling into a
vat of Jusendo water together, Ranma and Ranko were merged together
into a single being who becomes female when splashed with cold water
(Ranma-chan) and returns to male form through hot water.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 23 - Secret Identities

All warfare is based on deception.

- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Ranma gazed grimly across the dojo mat at Ranko, who glared back at him
with barely restrained fury. Clouds rolled across the sky, dark and
filled with promise of a great storm. The light in the dojo dimmed a
bit as the lights flickered.

At that moment, both opponents made their move, streaking across the
mat at each other. They leaped and met in midair in the center, hands
and feet lashing out with lethal accuracy, blows only barely turned
aside by the other as they sprang apart to land mere feet apart. The
glare each was giving the other was undiminished.

Again and again they clashed, each determined to put the other down and
finish this. But they found themselves too evenly matched, deadlocked,
as they struggled fiercely with each other. Grunts and curses were the
only other sounds than that of their limbs clashing, each of them
bringing all their fighting ability to the fore, holding nothing back.

"Damn you, you stupid jerk! Why won't you fall?" Ranko drove her fist
past Ranma's face, narrowly missing breaking his jaw with the blow.

"This ain't happening to me here! I'm not turning into a girl! No
way!" Ranma responded in an instant to her attack with an explosive
uppercut into Ranko's ribcage, which she narrowly turned aside with a
fast and graceful dodge at the last moment.

"Well, I ain't turning into a guy, you jerk!" Ranko flashed her foot
in a tight arc as she spun her body around in a blur of motion, but the
kick missed shattering Ranma's hip by a narrow margin when he deflected
it with a downward sweep of his arm.

Both of them promptly redoubled their efforts. Each fierce blow thrown
was followed up by a block or evasion, and then a counterstrike would
return, on and on in a brutal display of skill and grace. Neither of
them could manage to gain the upper hand, and their frustration visibly
grew as time passed.

At the conclusion of one such exchange, as if of one mind, both of them
abruptly paused.

"This is stupid," Ranko growled, her chest heaving a bit. "We're not
getting anywhere."

"I agree." Ranma backed away a little, his breathing heavier. "We're
too evenly matched."

"We're going to have to compromise somehow." Ranko relaxed her posture
a bit. "I'm not going to just disappear because you're afraid."

"Who's afraid?" Ranma snapped back. "I ain't scared of nothing!" He
then paused and shook his head, the atavistic terror of losing his
manhood fading, the influences of those other versions of himself being
pushed back. After a moment, the gaze he turned towards Ranko was
somewhat gentler. He sighed. "Sorry," he mumbled. "You're right."

"I feel it too, Ranma. The fear of losing myself." Ranko relaxed a
bit more as she saw his posture changing, dropping from a combative
pose. "So we're going to have to compromise somehow. After all, it's
because of you that I've had that other Ranma, and you, in my head all
this time."

Ranma abruptly dropped to the mat in a seated position. "I was just
coming to grips with having your memories. Now I don't know what to
do."

Ranko came over, her hands open and relaxed. She sat down next to him,
the difference in their size due to their residual self-image showing
in this lucid dream they shared. She sighed and looked at him.

"Like it or not, it seems that Jusenkyo has screwed up both our lives,"
Ranko said softly. Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears. She hastily
wiped them away. "I just wanted to get back home, to see my Mom again
and to start over with her. That's never going to happen now, is it?"

Ranma surprised them both by enfolding her in his arms. She stiffened
for several moments in shock, then she relaxed and clutched at him.
Tears burned in her eyes again, but she didn't care.

"I'm so sorry, Ranko." Ranma felt tears in his own eyes, and a stray
thought of how unmanly he was being was quickly quashed. "This is all
my fault. But I'm going to make it right by you. Somehow. I don't
know how yet, but somehow."

They pulled apart and Ranko wiped at her eyes again, sniffling. "We're
going to manage," she said, her voice firming. "I've never given up
before, and I'm sure not going to now. So you're going to have to deal
with having me around, bro." She suddenly grinned at him, putting on a
brave face.

"Bro?" Ranma snorted in amusement. "Okay, Sis." He held out a hand.
"You and me, together, no matter what else the universe throws at us.
Is it a deal?"

"Deal." Ranko took his hand in a firm grip and held it, the two of
them meeting each other's gaze. "I'm in, no matter what. Something
tells me it's going to be interesting."

"Yeah," said Ranma, nodding. "Somehow, I think you're right."

******************************

Ever so carefully, Cherry reached out across the vat of water with a
pole and hooked out the skirt of an Imperial Academy uniform. He set
it down on the concrete with a soggy thump next to a jacket and a
blouse already retrieved, the fluid trapped in their cloth oozing out
across the floor. A small distance away, a now dry female cat with
greenish fur watched the proceedings with interest. A small fire
heated some water to one side, and Ryoko's clothes were drying next to
it, already rescued from the vat she had fallen into.

"Meow?" Ryoko inquired, then sighed again. She was still not used to
her new form, and she wondered what had happened to Ryoga. After being
struck by that other girl, he had disappeared.

"Questions can wait until I can restore you to human form." Cherry was
careful to not take his attention from what he was doing. He reached
deep into the water with his pole and snagged up first one shoe and
then another.

When he was finished, he carefully climbed back down the ladder and set
up another small drying pole, retrieved from his camp. He began to put
the items of clothing on it, pausing when he came to a pair of pink and
lacy panties. An odd trembling assailed his hand for a few moments at
the sight and feel of them, before he hastily set them on the rack. A
similar reaction came over him when he came to the pink brassiere. He
set the item to dry and hastily focused his mind on other matters.

By that time, the water had begun to steam heavily from the teakettle.
He removed it from the fire and poured himself some tea, setting it on
the concrete and letting it cool a bit before he used it on the cat
seated near him. He turned his gaze from her as a naked Ryoko seemed
to balloon back to her human form.

"Yeow! That's hot!" Shocked to find she had a human voice again, she
spent several moments examining herself and her regained humanity. Her
hands traced up her body to her face, feeling the familiar shape with
gratitude. Seeing Cherry still facing away from her, she quickly began
to dress in the clothes she had been wearing, now mostly dry.

"As I started to explain before your companion ran off, hot water will
bring you back to your normal form," said Cherry, picking up his cup
and drinking from it. "Cold water will transform you again."

"But there's a cure, right?" Ryoko quickly interjected. "There's got
to be a cure, isn't there?" She eyed the vats of water around them.
"Is it here?"

Cherry sighed. "I do not know if the cure is in here, but you should
not be so quick to attempt one. A Jusenkyo curse is a heavy burden,
but it is not insurmountable to live with one."

"Forget that!" Still half-dressed, Ryoko grabbed Cherry and hauled him
up to shake him. "I'm not going around for the rest of my life being
half cat. I want that cure, and I want it right now!"

"It won't do you any good, and it will only harm you to try and cure
yourself now," Cherry said quietly, meeting Ryoko's angry gaze. "If
you try and remove it with water from the Spring of Drowned Girl before
the proper time, things will only get worse."

"Worse?" Ryoko shook Cherry until his teeth rattled. "I turn into a
damn housecat when I get wet, Cherry! How can this get any worse?"

"If it's done too soon, before the proper time, before Jusenkyo is
ready to release you from its grip, the curses will mix together, and
you'll likely become a mixture of cat and girl, maybe for good."

Ryoko stood stunned for a moment, then her rage reasserted itself.

"Damn that little redheaded bitch," she growled angrily. "This is all
her fault! This is all her fault!" She dropped Cherry unceremoniously
and sat down, her chin resting on her fist. She began muttering under
her breath, her facial expression dark and forbidding.

"It is Fate," Cherry said, a bit piously. "You should return home
now."

"Home? How the hell can I go home now?" She growled again as she sat
up and smacked her fist into her open palm. "My mom will freak out the
first time I change around her, and I can't blame her. My brother
might be okay with it, but I don't want anyone I know to see me like
that. Anyway, right now I just want to find that little redhead and
pound her into mulch. It's all her fault that I'm like this!" Ryoko
got up and charged out of the warehouse, intent on getting revenge.

Cherry sighed again. Things seemed to be getting more complicated in
Nerima as time went on. He wondered what else was in store.

******************************

"Now you sit right there, P-chan," Kodachi told her newfound pet as she
set him down on her bed, a small pillow resting underneath him. "I
have to change my clothes now for dinner." She smiled when he gave off
a gentle grunt in reply and what looked like a slight nod, as if he
really understood her. What a smart little pig he was.

Sitting still and playing the part of Kodachi's new pet was not proving
to be very difficult for Mikado. She had cuddled him during the entire
car ride home, which almost made up for the whole experience so far.
As she walked over to her closet, several female servants dressed in
fine silk kimonos and obis came into the room. One of them approached
him, a beautiful girl that was about his and Kodachi's age. He did not
recall her name, since servants were beneath the notice of their social
betters. However, on his occasional visits to the Kuno household, he
had seen this girl in Kodachi's company before. As a connoisseur of
female beauty, her face was familiar to him.

"Oh, Mistress," said the servant girl. "What an adorable little
piggy." She came over to P-chan and quite gracefully reached down and
began gently scratching his head as she cooed at him, hitting a spot
between his ears that caused in him a reflexive quiver of rapture.

"I think he likes you, Konatsu," said Kodachi, smiling at the girl, a
kunoichi, one of the ninja who served the Kuno's as retainers and
spies. Konatsu had been gifted to Kodachi by her mother to be her
personal retainer on her thirteenth birthday. She had since become a
confidante of sorts, and a quiet agent who performed any task the young
noblewoman needed done. "He's my new pet, and his name is P-chan."

Konatsu picked up the small black pig and cuddled him. "Oh, he's just
adorable!"

This was the life, Mikado thought dreamily, breathing in soft scents of
jasmine and lilac in the girl's perfume, his sense of smell as a pig
having a profound acuity that astonished him. He was used to enjoying
the sight and touch of a girl, but new vistas of smells had been opened
to him when first Kodachi and now this girl had held him enfolded in
their arms. She turned around, and he could see Kodachi in a state of
undress as the other servant girls assisted her.

He sighed with contentment, seeing her nude body gloriously displayed
to his eager gaze. She was even more magnificent than he had ever
dared imagine, a work of art crafted in flesh. Kodachi was actually
built much like Asuka Saginomiya, the so-called White Lily. Both girls
possessed lithe but solid musculatures from their gymnastics training,
firm, full breasts set high on their chests, and long, trim legs. But
there the similarities ended. Kodachi possessed a tender innocence and
a demure softness to her, which the spiteful Asuka simply lacked. He
gazed in rapture at Kodachi's lovely physique, aching for her.

"Please take him off for a bath while I have dinner with my family,
Konatsu," Kodachi said with a smile as the other servant girls began
helping her on with more traditional clothing. "He seems to like you,
so I do not imagine he shall give you any trouble."

"Of course, Kuno-dono," Konatsu replied. She bowed deeply at the
waist. "With your leave, I will see to it immediately."

Kodachi, now dressed in a kimono of purple silk with a finely stitched
black rose embroidery upon the left breast that she had done herself,
nodded. As one of the servants wrapped a white obi around her trim
waist and secured it, Konatsu bowed once again to her well-beloved
mistress and departed, carrying a drowsing P-chan in her arms, lost in
a waking dream of some kind.

A few minutes later, Konatsu entered an unused servant's bathing area.
She set down a still drowsy P-chan and went over to the furo, twisting
the knob to begin filling the tub with hot water, intending to enjoy a
nice soak when finished with her assigned task. She began singing a
peasant work song as P-chan watched the proceedings, beginning to wake
up from pleasant fantasies of bedding Kodachi, the two of them entwined
in sensuous passion, their ardor for each other knowing no limits.

Konatsu smiled at the small piglet and began to undress, slipping off
her obi and then her kimono. As she did so, P-chan seemed to watch her
with interest. Eventually getting down to her Western-style underwear,
she reached behind herself and unsnapped the brassiere, pulling it away
to reveal a more masculine chest, the brassiere filled with padding.
When the panties were removed, Konatsu was clearly not a female.

"Bwee?" P-chan squealed in surprise under his breath, blinking, shocked
and amazed at the sudden and totally unexpected transformation of what
he had thought was a girl into what was now a rather effeminate young
man, but definitely a man.

"I'll take care of bathing you in a few moments, P-chan," Konatsu said
pleasantly with a bright smile, sitting down on one of the stools,
quickly filling a bucket of cold water and pouring it over his head.
He continued to sing the little peasant song as he soaped himself and
then rinsed himself off, repeating the process a second time to be sure
he got clean.

Being bathed by a beautiful naked girl was one thing, but being bathed
by a naked young man was something else entirely. And didn't that old
monk say something about hot water? P-chan quickly scrambled away,
heading towards the door, hoping he could nudge it open enough with his
snout to provide an avenue of escape. He tried to be as quiet as
possible.

Still a few feet short of the door, a slender length of sharpened steel
suddenly halfway buried itself into the wooden floor in front of him, a
hiltless throwing blade. When he backed up suddenly, his eyes a little
crossed at the close call, he bumped into Konatsu, who had come up
unheard behind him. A hand came down and picked him up by the scruff
of the neck.

"Don't like baths?" Konatsu inquired with a pleasant smile, before
carrying P-chan over to where the soap was kept. Still speaking in a
feminine manner, he said, "I promise to be gentle."

"Bwee! BWEE!" P-chan struggled for all he was worth, but the strength
of the boy's grip, while it caused him no pain, was quite deceptively
powerful. The boy splashed him with cold water, soaped him up with a
delicate touch, and then rinsed him off with more cold water. He let
loose with a snort.

"That wasn't so bad, now was it?" Konatsu inquired with a smile. Still
holding P-chan tightly, which had been a bit more difficult when the
pig had been soap-covered, he approached the bath of steaming water.
"Just a little soak, and we're done, P-chan."

Konatsu stepped into the hot bath and brought P-chan down to touch the
hot water, intending to let the pig soak with him. At first contact,
P-chan's body suddenly swelled and transformed back into Mikado, and
the sudden extra weight in his hands knocked Konatsu off balance. He
and Mikado fell together into the water.

Both boys quickly surfaced, gasping for air.

"Wha-?" wondered Konatsu out loud, blinking water from his eyes in
shocked surprise. His gaze then quickly narrowed. "Mikado Sanzenin."

"Stay away from me, you freak," growled Mikado, moving to the other
side of the bath. The thought of a boy wearing women's clothing was
perverse to him, and it also didn't help his mood that he had been
entertaining sexual fantasies about Konatsu over the past couple of
years. He was about to step out when the other boy suddenly grabbed
him from behind and pulled him back into the bath, where a fierce
struggle began.

Konatsu wasn't sure what trickery Mikado had used to transform himself
into an animal, but his first duty was to protect Kodachi from the
other boy's treachery. But first he had to subdue Mikado, which was
not proving to be easy. The other boy was quite a skilled fighter.
Even so, he finally managed to get an arm around Mikado's neck and
applied pressure, hoping to end this without bloodshed.

Having been taken by surprise, Mikado had gone under before taking a
full breath. He felt Konatsu's arm lock around his throat as the two
of them struggled beneath the surface. He drove his elbow back into
the other boy's ribs as hard as he could, but the water blunted his
power. Already he could feel his vision fading as the blood supply to
his brain was choked off, and he desperately tried again. He finally
attempted breaking the hold, but the difference in leverage proved to
be too much to overcome and darkness overcame him.

Konatsu surfaced with his captive and hauled Mikado's unconscious body
from the water. After making sure the other boy was still breathing,
he left him laying by the side of the furo and came back in a moment
with some towels that he used to quickly bind Mikado tightly with
special knots his instructors had taught him for just such occasions.
He had never thought he would have to tie someone up with towels, but
his kunoichi training had covered such possibilities.

Mikado came awake groggily, his head aching. The first thing he saw
was Konatsu, once more dressed in feminine garb, currently combing his
long hair and acting demure. His numb arms were bound behind him, and
he struggled for a moment to get free. When that failed, he glared at
his captor.

"Release me," he commanded. "I'm Mikado Sanzenin, damn it!"

Konatsu stood up from kneeling, as graceful as any courtly-trained girl
and approached him. "You invaded the bedchambers of my mistress in
disguise." A slender blade appeared in his hand and was held up tight
against Mikado's throat. "Are you one of the Goju? Only a Goju is
able to shapeshift like that."

Despite doing his best to hold it down, a note of panic was present in
Konatsu's voice, wondering if they had finally found him despite his
disguise. He could still hear the sounds as those creatures of shadow
had butchered his mother and sisters while he hid in terror. That
memory caused his grip to tighten on the blade, the muscles in his arm
bunching.

Konatsu pressed the edge tighter against Mikado's throat, releasing a
single drop of blood. "Tell me!"

"I don't even know what a Goju is!" Mikado cried out, now terrified
that this lowborn, cross-dressing pervert would end his life. "It's
some kind of curse I'm under!"

Staring into Mikado's eyes and seeing no dishonesty in them, Konatsu
eventually pulled the blade from the other boy's throat and concealed
it back upon his person. "I believe you."

"Then let me loose," Mikado demanded. "And speaking of disguises, what
are you doing dressed as a girl, anyway?"

Konatsu turned a cold gaze to Mikado. "That is none of your concern,
Sanzenin-dono."

A gleam suddenly appeared in Mikado's eyes. "She doesn't know, does
she? Kodachi, I mean."

The glare returned. "It would be best for you if you never revealed
such a thing."

"Then I think we have a bargain in the making," said Mikado, relaxing a
bit, the Sanzenin instinct for business sensing a potential solution to
satisfy all parties. "I don't reveal your secret, and you don't reveal
mine."

Konatsu considered the offer. "If you break this bargain and reveal my
true nature," he warned Mikado ominously. "I will kill you."

"I won't," Mikado promised. "You have my word as a Sanzenin."

Konatsu snorted. "I'd sooner trust a Kuonji," he said derisively, his
mother's bitter stories of the treacherous clan that had forced them
from their ancestral lands still vivid to him after all these years.
When he was a little older, he planned to reveal himself to the Kuonji
and regain those lands, by issuing a challenge to single combat with
their clan's champion.

"Be that as it may, we're going to have to trust each other," Mikado
replied in soothing tones. "So, do we have a bargain?"

Konatsu considered the matter a bit more, and then he nodded. "We do."

"Then untie me. I can't feel my hands."

Konatsu snorted unfemininely and untied him. As the other boy was
rubbing his wrists to restore circulation, he tossed a bucket of cold
water on Mikado.

"Bwee?" P-chan looked up at Konatsu and growled.

"What's wrong, P-chan?" Konatsu scooped up the small pig and began
drying it with a towel. "Your bath is over, and now I return you to
your mistress. But we will talk again another time. I'm sure you will
have need to come and go, so I will arrange things to assist you in
this. Consider it an added incentive to you to keep your silence."

P-chan nodded. It was a fair bargain.

Konatsu tidied up the bath and left it, P-chan cradled in his arms. He
would watch the other boy closely for treachery. Despite his threat to
Mikado, he was grateful for not having to kill him, but he would if the
other boy ever betrayed him. His place here was safe, and he would
allow nothing to jeopardize that or to hinder him from the path to his
goals.

Once, that would simply have been to take down the Kuonji champion in
single combat, a match which could easily become a fight to the death.
But the risks in that didn't worry Konatsu.

As the last of his line, he knew his only hope to salvage his family's
honor would be to regain their ancestral lands by defeating the Kuonji
champion, Ukyo, the heir to its leadership, who had been trained deep
in the mountains by the clan's current leader, Genji Kuonji. This Ukyo
had to be a most skilled and cunning shadow warrior after such severe
training, and Konatsu knew that facing such a one would be his greatest
challenge. If he failed, then his death at the hands of such a one
would be a blessing that would end his burden of honor. For such was
the way of the shinobi his mother had taught him.

Konatsu regretted that he wasn't truly a girl. If he was female, he
would have had one more option, to give up his name and marry into the
Kuonji. Genji Kuonji, grandfather to the current heir, had given a
scroll to Konatsu's grandmother upon their exile from their ancestral
lands promising this. But the Kuonji heir was a boy, so Konatsu's only
hope now was to defeat him instead. And he would defeat him, no matter
what tricks Ukyo tried.

Then, once he had regained his family's honor, he would seek out his
true goal, the one that drove him onward in continuing his training
beyond regaining his ancestral lands. Even if it cost him his life,
someday he would have his revenge for the family that had been taken
from him. He did not even know why they had been killed, but he would
unleash his wrath upon his enemies. He would destroy both the Goju and
the Shogun of the Dark, a being of ancient evil who had somehow
corrupted every man, woman and child of the Goju's once great clan,
turning them all into soulless vessels of shadow, and his servants.

However, until he was ready, Konatsu planned to bide his time and hide
here as a female, far away from any of the Kuonji and, hopefully, the
Goju and the Shogun's attentions as well.

******************************

Minami groaned as the security guard shined a light into her face, her
jaw feeling like it was swollen to twice its normal size. Where was
she? The back of her head ached where she must have struck it upon
something. Her memories felt fuzzy.

"Are you all right, Miss?" asked the guard, beginning to untie her.

"Fine," Minami muttered. "I'm fine." Her vision swam, belying her
statement.

"Well, I'm going to have to report this," he said with a frown. He
patted her down for several moments, quickly finding her ID card. She
was too woozy to protest. He punched her ID number into his handheld
computer. She passed out again while he was still dialing the phone.

******************************

Ryoga ran through the streets of Nerima, rage filling him, more rage
than he could have ever imagined feeling before. People cleared the
way for the large panda as it rumbled by, a heavy pack on its back and
wearing a bandana on its head. That wasn't something you saw everyday
in the Empire, even in Nerima.

This was all Ukyo's fault! And that redhead! And that Ranma guy! It
was all because of them that he was now like this! All three of them
were to blame! Because of them, he was in hell!

After a long time spent running, Ryoga paused a few moments to catch
his breath, feeling hungry, and he glared at his reflection in a nearby
window. He glanced around, and the few people on the street looked
back at him in awe and fear as they backed away. He growled at them in
frustration.

A panda. He had been turned into a panda. Why couldn't he have become
something less frightening? Something smaller? One of the neighbor
families back home had raised small potbellied pigs for pets. If he
had turned into something little like that, at least then he would have
been cute, and girls would coo over him. A bird would have been better
too, since it could fly, or maybe even a bat. But he was a panda, a
hulk of fat, fur and muscle that scared people.

"GROWR!" Ryoga raised his paw and shook it with fury at the sky, then
he took off running again.

Just you wait, Ukyo Kuonji! You, that little redhead, whatever her
name is, and Ranma, that boyfriend of yours, you're all going to pay
when I get a hold of you! I SWEAR IT!

******************************

Ukyo sneezed suddenly, and she looked up at the ceiling above the small
storeroom of her aunt's restaurant. Ranko was laying unconscious
upstairs in Aunt Yumi's bed, the older woman taking care of her while
Ukyo handled the customers. She had been wondering if she might have
been wrong about Ranko being Yumi's daughter, but there had been a
distinct flash of recognition in the woman's eyes when she had brought
the injured girl here.

There was also Ranma to consider. Where had he disappeared to? One of
her classmates had recalled seeing Ryoga talking with him, and she
hoped Ryoga hadn't been picking on Ranma. The Hibiki boy hadn't made
any sense at all when he showed up the other day, ranting about his
sexual preferences somehow being all her fault, but that was no excuse
for him being mean to Ranma. She had looked for them after classes,
but they were nowhere to be found. It had been while she was searching
that she had come across the injured Ranko. With her possibly being a
kinswoman to her, Ukyo felt it was her duty to help her, and so she had
carried the girl here, the only place she could think of to go.

"Hey! What about my pork okonomiyaki?" came a customer's voice.

"On my way!" Ukyo shut off the light in the storeroom and quickly went
back to taking care of the customers, her thoughts about Ranko and
Ranma set aside for now.

******************************

Nabiki raised a single finger to her lips as she and Yohko watched a
security guard helping a girl dressed in clothes that looked similar to
Ranma's garb of late. Her eyes narrowed. This fan club thing was now
getting out of hand. They were even dressing like Ranma now. She
couldn't quite tell at this distance who it was.

When the guard and his captive were gone, she and Yohko supported each
other as they made their way upstairs and away from the campus. With
every step, her anger grew at the girl who had beaten her.

"Ranko Kuonji," she muttered. "You picked a fight with the wrong girl.
I won't forget this. The next time I see you, you're going down, and
you're going down hard."

******************************

Ranma-chan awoke with a sudden start.

"Where-?" she started to ask, when suddenly strong hands held her down.

"Rest easy, Boy," Yumi said in a comforting tone. Ranma-chan had been
laying there thrashing and panting from some kind of nightmare, but she
had calmed down just before waking up. "You've had quite a busy day."

"Boy?" Ranma-chan quickly felt her chest, suddenly looking hopeful,
thinking it had all been a horrible nightmare, until her hand squeezed
one of her breasts. Her look of hope quickly faded. "Oh."

Yumi raised an eyebrow at the sight. "Well, when Ukyo dragged you
here, it was a surprise, but not nearly as big a surprise as finding
this in your pocket." Yumi held up an identification card for the
Imperial Academy between two of her fingers, bearing the kanji for
Ranma Saotome emblazoned on it. "So, seeing that now dashed look of
hope in your eyes just now when I called you a boy, I'm left with a
couple of choices. Either you beat up Ranma and stole his clothes and
ID." There was a brief pause. "Or you've had a run-in with a place
called Jusenkyo. Care to tell me which one it is?"

Ranma-chan's eyes went wide at Yumi's casual mention of Jusenkyo. "I-I
don't suppose I could plead the Fifth?" the boy turned girl asked a bit
hopefully.

"Pardon?" Yumi looked confused.

"Uh, never mind." Ranma-chan wasn't quite sure what 'the Fifth' was.
But it was something one of her analogs had heard said on television
when questioned. "Yeah, it's me. I'm-" There was a brief moment of
uncertainty in her gaze. "I'm Ranma."

Yumi nodded. "I thought so." She studied the ID card a moment before
passing it back to Ranma-chan, noting the holographic logo of the
Imperial Seal on it. "Care to tell me what happened?"

"I-it's a long story," Ranma-chan said uncertainly, taking the card and
pocketing it. She suddenly realized she was not wearing her own
clothes, but an okonomiyaki seller's outfit the was almost her size.
Probably some of Ukyo's clothes, she realized after a moment. She
looked over at Yumi. "But how do you know about Jusenkyo?"

"Wait here. I'll be right back." Yumi smiled in a reassuring manner
and got up from her chair. She went into the next room and closed the
door behind her. Ranma-chan heard running water.

"Kuonji-san?" Ranma-chan sat up in bed, her injuries from the fights
she had been in far less painful than she had been expecting. She set
her feet on the floor and was about to stand when the door suddenly
opened. A young man emerged, perhaps only a year or two older than
Ranma-chan herself was, dressed in exactly the same outfit that Yumi
had been wearing, toweling at his hair.

"Ta-dah!" He flashed Ranma-chan a grin.

"K-Kuonji-san?" the boy turned girl stuttered. "Y-you've been to
Jusenkyo?"

"What was your first clue?" The boy nodded and grinned more broadly,
dropping the towel around his neck. He came over and flipped the chair
around, sitting on it and leaning forward up against the backrest. "I
can see you've got all kinds of questions."

"H-how long have you been like this?"

Yumi-kun smirked. "Since I was a bit older than you are now, Ranma.
Years." The smirk faded, and his face took on a more resigned sort of
look. "It's been years."

"Years?" Ranma-chan let that thought sink in for a moment. To live
with a Jusenkyo curse for such a long time was a very sobering notion
to her. "B-but you look so young. Not like you look as a woman."

A fist slammed down hard on Ranma-chan's head. "Ow!" she cried out,
clutching her skull.

"It's not nice to tell a woman she looks old, Ranma," Yumi-kun said, a
brief twinkle in his eyes, offsetting an otherwise stern look. "Even
when she's a man." He chuckled and looked himself over. "But you're
right. My cursed form hasn't aged a day since I fell into that water,
as near as I can tell." He rotated an arm in its shoulder socket, the
now greater muscle mass in the limb stretching the cloth of his outfit
a bit. "That's partly why I've kept it. Maybe in a few more years
I'll just stay this way for good."

"Stay?" Ranma-chan blinked.

"Who wouldn't want to remain young and strong? I'd be male, but I've
never been much for acting as what men see as a woman's role. And
there are ways to hold off the change." Yumi-kun tossed the girl a
small cardboard box. "It's much easier to stay in my cursed form."

"What's this?" Ranma-chan opened the small box. A cake of some waxy
substance fell out into her hand. "Soap?"

Yumi-kun pointed at the bar of soap. "Washing with that each day, you
can stop a lot of the changes from random splashes. An acquaintance of
mine makes it himself."

"But that's not a cure," Ranma-chan said dismissively. Both of her
other cursed selves had already encountered such soap and discarded
them as being of any use. "What good does it do?"

"Well, think of having a Jusenkyo curse as like having a chronic sort
of illness, Ranma, like asthma." Yumi-kun took the bar of soap from
Ranma-chan and held it up in one hand. "You're right, this isn't a
cure at all. But it is a means of controlling the curse, if even a
little bit. I had to soak my head in cold water for well over a minute
just now before I changed. So while I may not be able to go swimming,
except as a man, I also don't change every time I get splashed with
random water either. However, even that little bit of control comes
with a price."

"A price?"

Yumi-kun smirked again. "You have to give the curse its way as much as
you can, or the soap gradually becomes less effective. I try to spend
some time each week as a man, which has been a lot harder to do with
Ukyo around, let me tell you." He closed his hand into a loose fist
around the bar of soap. "Before she was around, I would sometimes
spend an entire day as a man, but not lately."

Ranma-chan sprang to her feet. "I can't do something like that!"

******************************

Ukyo arrived outside the door to her aunt's room, having stealthed up
the stairs and down the hall during a lull in the crowd, even ghosting
across the boards that were specially loosened and designed to creak
loudly if any weight was placed upon them. She could hear voices
talking in the next room, so it appeared that Ranko was awake. She
opened the door.

******************************

Ranma-chan was startled when the door suddenly opened and Ukyo came
into the room.

"Can't do what?" Ukyo asked, looking at the other girl. She then
noticed the young man, and she frowned suspiciously. "Who are you?
Where's Aunt Yumi?"

Yumi-kun blanched briefly, surprised at letting himself get so involved
with talking to Ranma-chan that he had utterly failed to notice Ukyo's
approach. He quickly recovered and grinned. "Uh, hi there, I'm Yu."
He then quickly added, "I'm Yumi's son."

"Her son?" Ukyo replied, blinking in surprise. She was taken aback a
moment, then noticed the strong resemblance the boy in front of her had
to her aunt. "But I heard Ranko call herself a Kuonji."

"I'm his sister," Ranma-chan chimed in without hesitation, earning a
surprised look from Yumi-kun, which then quickly turned into a nod.

"Yes, that's right," Yumi-kun said, deciding to play along by putting
an arm around Ranma-chan's shoulders, hoping it gave off a brotherly
appearance. He felt compactly solid muscles in Ranma-chan's upper arm
when he gave it a squeeze. "Ranko here is my little sister."

Ranma-chan grinned a bit nervously. Ukyo's not going to buy this, she
thought. She stood there, striving to look sincere, as Yumi-kun left
his arm there around her shoulders.

However, the other girl suddenly smiled. "This is great! I'm glad to
meet you both." She studied her two newfound cousins with interest.
Then a puzzled look crossed her face. "But why aren't you two living
here with Aunt Yumi?"

"Oh, we're out training," Ranma-chan blurted out. She then quickly
added, "a long training trip."

Yumi-kun nodded, giving Ranma-chan another brief hug before releasing
her. "Uh, yeah, we're out training together. I just came by when I
heard Ranko was here, to pick her up. Mom had to go run an errand of
some kind. I'm sure she'll be back soon."

"Well, I could use some help downstairs in the restaurant." She then
grabbed Ranma-chan by the arm and grinned. "Since my date with Ranma
was a bust, work is the next best thing. Maybe you and I could even do
some sparring later on, Ranko. I'm kind of curious to see how good you
are. So come on."

Ranma-chan gulped. "Y-you want me to help?"

"Sure." Ukyo paused. "I can run the griddle just fine on my own, but
I need some help serving. I'm sure Aunt Yumi's had you do waitressing
duty before."

While Ukyo dragged off a still protesting Ranma-chan, Yumi-kun just
smiled and shook his head.

"Looks like you were right, Cherry," he murmured. It bothered him a
little, lying to Ukyo like this, but it was better this way. The girl
had looked really happy to discover a female cousin, especially since
she did not seem to have any friends here yet. And having 'Ranko'
around the restaurant on a regular basis would let him keep an eye on
the cursed boy while he thought about what he could do to help Ranma
deal with his condition.

Yumi-kun could remember his own fears and doubts from the days of his
own youth, the horror of knowing that his original gender was like some
kind of tissue-thin mask that cold water could wash away in an instant.
What had seemed a simple mission in China for the Mobius Institute at
the outset had forever changed the destiny of the girl he once was,
leaving Yumi Kuonji as only half a woman, bearing a curse that forced
her to turn her back on the Kuonji Clan. She had forsaken an arranged
marriage to a childhood friend and left the clan behind her to try and
find a new place for himself. The experience had been terrifying and
yet also deeply liberating.

However, Cherry had been right. The past always had a way of catching
up to someone when it was least expected. And downstairs right now was
a teenaged girl who was originally a teenaged boy, a boy who needed a
mentor, needed someone who understood the profound changes his life
would have to undergo, and the secret that he would have to live with
until he either found a cure, or he chose to accept his body's cursed
condition, as Yumi-kun had accepted his years ago.

For a moment, Yumi-kun considered the choices he had made. There were
few regrets he had in life, but one of those was his decision to leave
the place he had found for himself in Nerima many years ago, even as
bad as it had seemed at the time. It was partly why he had come back,
out of nostalgia. When he had chosen to continue on in service to the
Mobius Institute instead of staying, at his request they had erased the
memories of those few who had come to know both Yumi and 'Yu' Kuonji in
the interim. At the time, it had seemed to be the only real choice
available to him. Now, he was uncertain.

He could still remember when a much younger Yumi Kuonji had come to
Nerima all those years ago, and how chaos had followed after her like a
carnival coming to town. Even as she had been struggling to come to
terms with her curse, weird events and all sorts of people wanting to
fight her or her male self had appeared on an almost daily basis. It
was a year that he would never forget, even if the others who had
experienced it with him could not say the same. Thinking about it now,
it seemed so long ago.

However, the past was gone, and those lives had gone on without him.
His younger self had only brought strife in her wake, so perhaps that
was sufficient reason to do as she had done. But seeing Ranma-chan had
brought all of those old memories back to the surface, as well as some
regrets associated with them. He had since repaid the Mobius Institute
several times over for erasing the memories of his existence, allowing
that younger Yumi Kuonji to simply walk away from the whole complicated
mess her life had become. Perhaps she should have requested them to
take her own memories of those days as well, so that he would not feel
what he felt now.

Yumi-kun abruptly shook his head. It was time to focus on the present
now and call in some help. He pulled out his cellphone and dialed a
number he had not called in some time, feeling a pang of concern at
using it now. It rang twice before being picked up.

"Hello?" came a voice from the other end. "This is Sakuranbo."

"Hello, Sakura," he said calmly. "It's me, Yumi Kuonji. I could use
your help with something. Can you come see me tonight?"

There was a brief hesitation, and then Sakura said, "Yes. Yes, of
course. Give me the address, and I'll be there shortly." After he
told her the address, they exchanged brief good-byes, and Yumi-kun
heard the phone hang up on the other end. He closed up the cellphone
and put it back in his pocket, feeling relieved. He then headed off
downstairs to help out his 'sister' and his cousin.

******************************

Kasumi was tired from a long day spent at the Directorate and getting
used to her new assignment, so she had decided to stop off in downtown
Nerima and buy dinner tonight instead of cooking. It was unfortunate
that she was unable to work in her father's section, but the Security
Directorate had strict edicts about such matters to prevent nepotism.
So her current assignment was under Assistant Director Ninomiya, in the
Special Investigations Bureau.

It was considered to be a plum assignment for a young agent, so she
should feel honored at receiving it. Instead, she felt unsettled.

Meeting with her superior had been disconcerting. Assistant Director
Ninomiya had seemed to be a pleasant woman, nothing at all like the
image of a poisonous viper that her father had painted of her in his
occasionally lurid descriptions over the past few years. Doubtless she
had a core of steel underneath her beautiful exterior, but that was a
necessity in order to rise to such a high position of authority in the
Directorate, especially for a woman. Still, Kasumi planned to keep her
guard up, which was always a necessity anyway amidst the cutthroat
politics of the Empire's Security Directorate.

For now, she was assigned to work with Assistant Director Ninomiya's
personal assistant, Yui Ikari. Likely it was so that her new boss
could keep an eye on her. But she and Ikari-senpai, who was only a few
years older than she was, had hit it off very well. She had even been
invited to come with her tomorrow evening, to meet with the woman's
friends for a night on the town. Despite some initial hesitancy on the
matter, she had eventually decided to go. It would help keep her mind
off of her other concerns, and it had been too long since she had gone
out and enjoyed herself.

Restaurants of all kind were around her on the street, but some were
busier than others, a good sign of better food and service. While she
was walking down the street, it began to rain again. She hurried into
the nearest restaurant, named 'Yu-Chan's' on the banner out front.

******************************

Ranko was proving to be popular as a waitress, Ukyo observed, watching
her cousin quickly taking orders and carrying trays of food back to the
tables with an experienced manner. Men in the restaurant smiled and
watched the attractive girl as she maneuvered her way around obstacles.
Ranko had seemed nervous at first, especially at the mildly lust-filled
stares men gave her, but after a little while appeared more at ease.
However, she still didn't seem to be comfortable with the flirtatious
comments she was receiving from men, part of the reason why Ukyo kept
up her masculine disguise here. Men could be real jerks to women.

Her other cousin, Yu, was currently taking his ease at a table near the
door. After spelling her at the griddle for a while, he had ordered
one of the house specials from her and had taken it to the table he was
currently sitting at. He had eaten it with a slightly critical look on
his face, an identical expression to the one Yumi always seemed to wear
whenever she sampled Ukyo's cooking. He seemed to be watching the door
for someone. A girlfriend perhaps?

At that moment, the door slid aside and Kasumi walked in. She looked
around, her sense of smell taking in the scents filling the air, of
fresh okonomiyaki batter frying, mixed with the rich odors of the
various toppings added in. She took a deep breath and smiled, looking
around at the interior. When her eyes passed by Yumi-kun, they paused.
She quickly blinked and looked away, embarrassed that she might have
been staring at the strange young man who had been looking back at her.

"Welcome to Yu-chan's," Ukyo said with a smile. She saw the brief look
her cousin and the uniformed girl had exchanged, but it was not one of
familiarity or even recognition. She was not his girlfriend. Pity.
She rather liked the other girl's looks and manner. She turned her
head and shouted, "Hey, Ranko! Would you show this nice lady to a
table?"

"On the way." Ranma-chan came hustling over, having been in the back
delivering some food to some other guests. But when she saw who had
come in, she paused for a moment in surprise. She then slowly walked
up to where Kasumi stood, dressed in a tailored Security Directorate
uniform. She pasted a smile on her face and gestured with one hand
towards an empty table. "Right this way, Miss." She then led Kasumi
to sit alone at the table for two, which happened to be right behind
where Yu was seated against the wall at another such table. She handed
the eldest Tendo daughter a small menu and gave her a nod. "I'll be
back in a minute to take your order."

"Thank you," Kasumi replied graciously. She promptly busied herself
with the menu, looking over choices without really seeing them. Her
heart seemed to be beating a trifle fast, and she chastised herself for
having such a visceral response towards a strange man for the second
time in a week. She felt like such a wanton woman lately for noticing
men other than her husband like that, and she was grateful that she was
seated with her back towards the younger man at the next table.

First Lieutenant Godai and now this young man, she thought, feeling a
slight blush arising on her cheeks. What was wrong with her? She was
a married woman! She quickly consoled herself that her latest lapse
was simply a momentary physical response, some combination of things
that prompted her to feel this way. She forced herself to pay more
attention to the menu, meanwhile berating herself internally. Besides,
she had never been interested in younger men. They were so... young.

Yumi-kun took a sip of his water, feeling the cold savor of an icecube
in his mouth. He crunched it absently between his back molars as he
thought about what to do about Ranma-chan. Revealing his own secret to
the cursed boy might have been a mistake, but Yumi-kun didn't believe
so. It had felt like the right thing to do, and it would be nice to
have someone around who understood what it was like to bear a Jusenkyo
curse. He took another swallow of water as Ranma-chan walked past.

"So, what can I get you?" he overheard her ask behind him to the girl
seated at the next table.

"Um, I'll try a shrimp special," Kasumi replied. Ranma-chan made a few
quick scratches on the order pad and headed off to give it to Ukyo.

Yumi-kun was grateful that his back was to the girl. Staring at women
was not something he normally did, since he was one himself much of the
time, he mused. The hormones of his male body tended to make him more
easily aroused, as they would any teenage boy. It was a distraction he
could have done without more than once. Luckily, he was saved from
further thought on this by the arrival of Sakura Sakuranbo, but then he
blinked at the sight of how she was dressed when she opened up her
overcoat.

Sakura looked around, grateful to finally get into a warmer place after
enduring cold, wet gusts outside, and she quickly met with Yumi-kun's
startled gaze. She slid her dripping umbrella into the stand near the
door and slipped off her overcoat to hang it up. Underneath it,
instead of her usual shrine priestess garb, she wore a trendy, short-
skirted cotton dress in white with a matching, wide, loose leather belt
resting down low on her hips, the outfit showing off her feminine
charms quite well. The skirt barely came down to mid-thigh, exposing a
generous view of her long legs. Light tan hose, a small black leather
pocketbook, and ankle-high black leather boots with modest heels
completed the ensemble.

Ukyo studied the strange woman as she sat down at the table her cousin
was seated at, surprised to see him involved with someone several years
older. But it confirmed her suspicions that he had a date. No woman
would wear something like that to meet someone who was just a friend.

Yumi-kun realized belatedly that his mouth had been hanging open, and
he hastily shut it. He looked at her in puzzlement.

"Uh, Sakura," he said eventually. "That's quite an outfit."

"I was out on a date," she said simply. "But it wasn't going well.
I'm actually a bit glad you called."

"You are?" Yumi quickly glanced over at Ukyo and Ranma, seeing Ukyo
hastily look away from observing them. Ranma-chan, on the other hand,
was currently busy with a customer. "Uh, I see." He shrugged. "I
have a need for your services."

"I'm listening." She set her purse down to one side and leaned in a
bit. Her gaze became all business. "What do you need me to do?"

Behind Yumi-kun, Kasumi blinked at what she was hearing and took a
hasty swallow of some water from her glass. It sounded like the rather
handsome boy behind her was engaging in some sort of transaction with
the woman. Judging by how she was dressed, which Kasumi had observed
in a quick glance before the woman had sat down, that could only mean
one thing.

"Not here," said Yumi-kun, standing up. "Come with me."

"Very well." Sakura stood up gracefully and smoothed her skirt a bit
before picking up her purse and following him as he headed off towards
the stairs.

Ukyo watched her cousin take the strange woman upstairs and blushed.
Yu was certainly a fast worker, not even buying his date dinner before
taking her up to the bedrooms.

Kasumi was blushing as well, seeing the boy going off with a woman who
was quite obviously several years older than he was, to conduct their
transaction in private. She took another drink of water and tried not
to think about what was likely about to happen upstairs.

******************************

Yumi-kun let Sakura walk into the bedroom ahead of him and then he
followed her, turning briefly to shut the door behind them. When he
turned back, he received a stinging slap across his face that came
close to knocking loose several teeth.

"What was that for?" he said, holding a hand against his sore cheek.

Sakura felt her anger seethe within her. "You don't call me for well
over a year, and when you finally do, it's for business." She tried to
slap him again, but he caught her wrist well before the blow could
land. They held that tableau for several moments, their gazes locked.

"I'm sorry, Sakura," Yumi-kun said quietly, finally releasing her hand
and looking away. "I never meant to hurt you at all. I've just never
been good at dealing with the complexities of relationships, and ours
was pretty complex."

"Well, you did hurt me," she huffed, then sighed. "But I've gotten
over it, mostly." She stepped away from him to look over the room. "I
didn't even know you were living in Nerima."

"Well, after what happened between us," he said, looking uncomfortable.
"I thought it best to give us some distance apart, so I came here about
a year ago and set up my restaurant." After a moment, he then added,
"Cherry visits me every few months to deliver me my supplies. He told
me you'd gone to Europe on an assignment for the Institute."

"Yes, I needed a change of scenery as well and just returned to Japan
recently." Sakura stood in front of the window overlooking the street
and turned to face him. She crossed her arms in front of her. "You
must have known that, or you wouldn't have called. So, why did you
call me, Kuonji-kun?"

"The girl, downstairs," Yumi-kun said. "The redhead. She's really a
boy. He has a Jusenkyo curse. I need your help to set up an identity
for him in his female form, one that will stand up to fairly heavy
scrutiny, as well as an ID card that works like mine, one that switches
when he changes."

Sakura shrugged. "It's a simple enough thing. Why not just go to the
Institute directly? Why call me?"

"I'd prefer to keep this quiet and deal with it myself." Yumi-kun came
over to stand next to Sakura. He looked at her. "I'm the only one who
understands what it's like. I'm his best hope to help him deal with
what he's going through, until his chance at a cure shows up. So, will
you help me?"

Sakura looked away after a moment. She snorted once, and her tone
became a bit venomous "It must be nice to find someone with a reversed
curse to yours, Kuonji-kun." Her voice then softened. "He's very
attractive in female form. Is he as handsome in male form too?"

Yumi-kun blinked, her observations cutting a little too close for
comfort. "He's engaged to my niece, Ukyo, the girl who was at the
counter," he said a bit defensively. "She doesn't know about his curse
or mine, by the way, and I'd like to keep it like that."

He paused for a moment before speaking again, and his tone was softer.
"Now, while you're right that he's attractive in both forms, setting
aside the fact that he's engaged to my niece, he also happens to be
less than half my age. I'm not about to rob the cradle, Sakura."

"It's difficult to tell a difference in your ages when you're like
this," Sakura said solemnly. She stepped a little away from him and
kept her eyes averted from his face. "I'll help you, Kuonji-kun, on
one condition."

"What sort of condition?" Yumi-kun studied Sakura. He had never been
very good at figuring out women, even having been born one, and that
was still true.

Sakura lifted her gaze to meet his. "I just want us to try again,
Kuonji-kun. All I'm asking for is another chance for us to be a couple
again."

"I-I'm not sure that's such a good idea, Sakura," Yumi-kun said, his
gaze breaking from hers to look out the window. "We had our share of
troubles, and I don't think Cherry would approve." In fact, he was
pretty sure his mentor would not.

"Not all of it was bad," said Sakura as she laid her right palm flat on
his chest. She felt his heart skip a beat at the contact and smiled
slightly at feeling such a response from him. "There was a lot that
was good between us too, and I think there still is, even more so now
after we've both had some time apart to think about things. As for my
uncle, I'm a grown woman, and he does not dictate my life."

Yumi-kun met her gaze again and considered her offer for several long
moments. His own social life as a woman was basically non-existent,
and it would be nice to have a relationship again, even with another
woman. Sakura understood his curse and accepted him in both forms.
While she preferred him to be Yumi-kun rather than Yumi, the two of
them enjoyed a certain level of comfort together when he was in either
form. And, while he didn't want to admit it, he had also missed her a
great deal, despite the fierce arguments they sometimes had.

Finally, he nodded. "All right, Sakura. We'll give it one more try,
but I'm not promising anything. Let's just take it one day at a time
and see how it goes."

"Very well," she said, looking at him seriously. "Kiss me, to seal our
bargain. Do this little thing right now, and I'll help your protege."

"If that's what it takes." Yumi-kun smiled slightly in amusement as he
moved to rest his hands lightly on Sakura's hips. She demurely closed
her eyes and tilted her face upwards slightly, and he lowered his lips
towards hers. They met in a soft, rather tentative kiss, one that
began deepening within moments. His arms went around her waist as
Sakura's arms moved up to encircle his shoulders, clutching at him
tightly, familiar passions surging up within them both from the kiss.

After a short while, Yumi-kun reluctantly pulled back from the embrace.

"Satisfied?" he asked her, his breathing a little heavier, stepping
back with a twinge of regret. He saw her take a quiet breath and open
her eyes again to look at him.

She nodded. "Yes." Her usual serious look faded for a moment into a
pleased smile, her eyes sparkling. Her old partner and nemesis, Ayaka
Kisaragi, was out of her life, and she had received a second chance
with someone she had once thought irretrievably lost to her. Life was
looking very good.

"Yes, I'm satisfied. For now."

******************************

(to be continued in 2 of 2)


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