Completed – 12 June 2003

Last revised - 10 May 2004

Reason - typos

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Chaotic Future . . . by . . . Cloud Dreamer

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He sat and pondered awhile before finally deciding. He quickly entered the commands into the system and sat back to wait for the appropriate cues to appear. There was more than one way to save the world. He grinned; this would also be a bit fun as well.

Skuld smirked to herself, 'these mortals are just so weird.' She had been watching her sister Belldandy to make sure that Bell's romance didn't get out of hand. Meaning, if she had a say in it, that zero forward progress was made. After all NO mortal was good enough for her sister. Bell and Keiichi had decided to attend a college event together. In this case, a group of fans of the TV shows 'Xena' and 'Hercules' were meeting several of the stars from these programs and doing their best to play act some of the roles and their fantasies out as well. It was chaotic, to say the least, and amusing as well. She'd have to tell Hercules all about this the next time she saw him. She grinned to herself; 'poor Herc' had been hiding his face from embarrassment a lot recently.

Cologne grinned as she looked out over the busy crowd. She and Nabiki had jointly planned this little excursion into the college crowd market now that Nabiki was in her first year of college. The convention was the money maker that Nabiki had promised and Cologne stood to make a small fortune this weekend even after all the operating expenses and Nabiki's cut were paid. She watched Nabiki stalk over to another table, a forced smile on her face. Cologne had turned the tables on her, so to speak. Running desperately short of help because of their overwhelming success, she'd told the crafty girl that Nabiki would forfeit her share if she failed to do her part to make sure this venture worked. So Nabiki was working along with her sisters, Shampoo and Ranma. Cologne snickered to herself; Nabiki didn't know that Cologne didn't intend to pay her extra for being a waitress. After all, if Nabiki's cut also included the wages for Ranma and her sisters, then it also included her own wages automatically. Cologne was sure she'd scream but, well, it was all according to how the contract was interpreted.

Kasumi winced as she watched Akane pull out a glowing mallet and flatten another 'pervert' at one of the more fervent but few remaining crowded tables. She turned her attention briefly back to the kitchen, making sure all was still well. She smiled softly to herself when she heard several of the slightly inebriated witnesses call her sister 'Thor-chan'. That was almost as bad as 'tomboy,' but Akane let it pass with only a 'huff' in their general direction. She was glad that Cologne was letting her work in the kitchen. These Chinese Amazon dresses that they were all wearing might be pretty and sort of match some of the styles in the Xena series, but, well, she felt a bit of a blush every time she glimpsed her own image. She wasn't sure how this was supposed to help Nabiki in one of her classes, but she and Akane were willing to help their sister out and it was sort of fun too.

Ranma rolled her eyes as yet another 'Hercules' made a pass at her. She set the order of ramen down on the table and then lifted the offender up off the floor. As she had taken a grip on the waistband of his briefs, this resulted in a world-class wedgie. As his eyes crossed, she snarled, "Touch me again and you'll qualify as 'Xena' from now on. Got me?"

At his frenetic nod, she snorted and set him back down. She paused to glare at Cologne when she heard the elder's chuckle at her antics. 'Darn her and double darn Nabiki for the two of them conning her into working this convention for Cologne just to pay the last of her debts off to Nabiki.' She was working her tail off, and the only thing she was getting was irritated at the jerks. Well that wasn't completely true, the tips were really great. She shrugged, she was sure that Nabiki would find a way to get those too. She paused as an idea came to her. 'Yeah, that'd get Nabiki's goat, besides Kasumi deserved it.' She was glad that this was the last day of this three-day convention. Tomorrow was another school day and she finally could catch up on her rest. 'Thank goodness the crowds were finally starting to thin out.'

Cologne bounced over to Akane and Nabiki and sent them to start helping Kasumi with the clean up of the mobile kitchen unit that she'd hired for this endeavor. Shampoo was handling the last orders at the other end of the eating area while Mousse was bussing the tables for the Tendou's. She decided to let Ranma know that the day was nearly done and to start wrapping up her area.

Ranma watched Shampoo deftly avoid another enthusiastic fan in the fast dwindling crowds. Ranma could see that the Amazon was treating it all as just another form of training. Ranma paused as she sensed someone fairly powerful nearby. Scanning the area she finally realized that it seemed to come from a couple of girls together with a rather short guy at a nearby table over by the outer wall. Noticing the younger girl was brandishing a slim mallet at the guy, she shuddered and murmured to herself, "Tomboys, they're everywhere it seems."

Apparently the slim girl overheard her as she frowned at Ranma and then stalked over to her. The two were almost the same height though markedly different in their development otherwise. "Tomboy! Did you just call me a tomboy?" she almost snarled, standing nearly nose-to-nose with the short but buxom redhead.

Belldandy was puzzled at her sister's actions and frowned at the truculent attitude. She knew that her sister was annoyed at the attention Belldandy and Kenichi were paying to each other, but there was no reason for this. She focused her sight on the redhead again and rubbed her head at the slight pain that appeared. Suddenly Belldandy paused and then stared piercingly at the girl. 'Ah, so that's it' she thought to herself.

Ranma smirked and replied, "Yeah, the name fits ya." She paused and then added, "Besides, ya ain't exactly feminine so might as well get used to it."

The first mallet swing scored a clean miss as Ranma easily dodged and grinned, "Yep, that's the standard tomboy response." Ranma added a little pain to the next insult. As the mallet swept by the second time Ranma pushed it hard to speed it up and make it swing the girl around uncontrollably until she landed on her rear, her head spinning dizzily. "Klutzy too, I see; certifiably a grade 'A' tomboy." Ranma's teasing ended as the young goddess stood and resorted to an overhead swing. Ranma dodged backward but was unprepared for the telescoping handle that let her nail Ranma. There was an explosion of flooring accompanying the blast of pain in Ranma's head.

Skuld started to stomp over to the hole in the floor only to be stopped by her sister. "Skuld, that was not appropriate behavior from a young goddess!" Belldandy snapped.

Skuld stopped, hesitating for long moments before she hung her head and whined, "But she called me a tomboy and . . . she just makes me so mad. It's all her fault!"

"He." Seeing the confusion on her sister's face Belldandy continued, "He has a Jusenkyo curse. It's a form of chaos magic that makes him change into a girl when splashed with cold water. It's reversed with hot water." She sighed, "It also gives us a headache since we are goddesses of time which we perceive as linear and controlled. Because of that, the chaos magic he has causes us distress whenever we are near him. We are sort of allergic to that type of magic. I guess that's one of the reasons you got so angry with him. But Skuld, that's not his fault and you went too far. You could be punished if you hurt him you know."

The worried pensive expression on Skuld's face was short lived.

"Yeah, like an uncute, undeveloped tomboy could hurt a great martial artist like me." Ranma said with a chuckle as she jumped out of the hole. Of course the effect was spoiled by the wince that crossed her face as she landed on her feet some distance from the two goddesses.

Skuld got a nasty (cute, but still nasty) expression on her face as she studied the magic aura around Ranma. Now that she was aware of it, she could see how the trigger worked and that gave her an idea; now to get close to this jerk. She put her debugging hammer away on her back and slowly stalked over to the redhead. Ranma didn't move away as Skuld didn't seem to be attacking and Ranma was sure she could avoid any sudden act on Skuld's part. When Skuld was in arms reach she slowly reached out and put both her hands on Ranma's shoulders and released the simple spell she had been muttering under her breath. There was an unexpected effect as her headache immediately vanished as the chaos magic was locked away.

Ranma jerked as she felt the magic wash over her. She jumped back and yelled, "What the hell did you just do to me?"

Skuld smirked and said, "Oh, I just locked your curse. I thought that you would make a much better tomboy than me seeing as how you USED to be a guy."

Ranma suddenly grabbed a pot of hot tea off a nearby tea and dumped it over her head. Nothing happened. Ranma froze and stuttered, "Loc . . . locked, but how. Why? I was just teasing. I didn't mean anything."

"Ranma," Ranma turned to Cologne as she continued. "Do you see the markings on their faces?"

Ranma nodded and said, "Yeah, I just thought it was some weird part of the convention. I mean we've seen a lot of weird costumes and body paints and stuff this weekend."

"No Ranma, their markings are not part of this." Cologne paused in thought a moment as an odd but curious fact occurred to her and then corrected herself, "well, in a way I guess it could be considered as being part of this 'environment' in one way considering how many 'gods' and 'goddesses' purporting to be like them show up on those two TV programs. The markings identify them as goddesses. That's how she did what she did."

Ranma was suddenly in Skuld's face screaming "UNDO this. I don't deserve anymore of this crap from the kami. You've already messed up my life enough as it is."

Skuld stepped back, her face hardening with anger at Ranma's verbal attack. "No, I won't and you can't make me."

Ranma turned to the other goddess and asked, "You're a goddess too. Can you undo this?"

Belldandy sighed; she hated it when Skuld put her in a position like this. "Yes Ranma, I'm Skuld's older sister Belldandy and I have the power . . ."

She was cut off as Ranma jumped for joy and yelled, "Yeah, the tomboy loses again."

Ranma stopped when she heard Belldandy continue, ". . . but I'm not allowed to do something like that without Skuld's permission. It's a matter of honor between us sisters."

Ranma stopped; stunned that honor would be used as an excuse to harm him. Again. How many times were people going to use their version of honor to justify hurting him? She bitterly said something that she'd recently heard many times. Somehow it seemed so appropriate at the moment. "So it is true. The gods and goddesses really are cruel and petty. They use false honor to justify harming others, just like Saffron did."

A startled expression on her face, Belldandy stepped back, looking almost as if she had been slapped. She had never thought to hear such words directed at her.

Skuld exploded in anger and nailed an unaware Ranma with a 'mega-hammer'. Backed by her goddess powers the blow sent her into the sub-basement this time. Belldandy quickly looked down into the hole at the broken body gasping for breath. She shuddered as she saw Ranma struggling to maintain life. Skuld was frightened at what she'd done and asked her sister, "Bell, I'm sorry. Can you fix it? Please don't let her die."

Belldandy quickly cast her strongest healing spell on Ranma and then staggered backwards into Keiichi's waiting arms. She was on the verge of falling asleep, exhausted from the effort. But it was enough.

Skuld released the breath she didn't even realize she'd been holding. Her relief was short lived as her father sent her a message, an E-mail. The lightning blasted through the roof of the center and like a veritable glowing finger of god, traced a message on the floor at Skuld's feet. Not only did it write a long message but it fried Skuld as well as it blasted her away. The convention center quickly emptied of the few remaining patrons.

Hair smoking, clothes in charred tatters; Skuld tottered over next to the startled awake Belldandy and they jointly read the message aloud in the heavenly language it was written in.

Skuld looked down at HIS body and briefly fainted. Not a very manly thing to do but perfectly understandable under the circumstances. It was only for a few moments and it was Ranma's question that woke him.

"Belldandy, I don't understand. You told me what it says, but why is Kami-sama punishing me like this? I didn't do anything wrong."

Belldandy shook her head denying knowledge but hazarded a guess anyway. The young girl desperately needed some sort of answer. "I'm not sure Ranma, but I would guess that it's because of your part in all of this. After all, you started the whole fiasco with your unwanted comment about 'tomboys' before you'd even met us."

"SEE!" screamed Skuld, "IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" With that he pulled his mallet out again and swung at Ranma. Ranma almost managed to dodge it. Almost, but not quite, and was sent rolling across the floor.

Skuld on the other hand dropped as if he'd been shot.

Cologne had seen enough. Even though she had no idea what was written as she'd missed hearing the other goddess translate it for Ranma, she could sense the goddess's powers and Kami-sama's involvement made her cautious about drawing attention to herself or her people. Ranma was on his own in this.

.o0o. .o0o.

In another part of Tokyo, Chiba Usa was sitting at a table with all the outer Sailor Scouts. She and Hotaru were having a ball gossiping about the inner scouts, while the others watched in amusement.

A wave of chaotic time energy swept over them and Setsuna nearly spilt her cup of hot tea in her lap. But she barely noticed it as she saw Chiba Usa change before her. The girl was now a little older, the same apparent age as Hotaru, there were freckles on her face now and her hair was washed almost clean of pink, becoming a wavy strawberry blonde instead.

"Damn," muttered Setsuna, "the Queen is going to kill me."

"Queen? What Queen?" questioned the young girl.

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld shook his head as he struggled to wake-up. He noticed Ranma was distraughtly looking at the writing on the ground as Belldandy once again read the translated version to her. Hearing the caution repeated ['To make sure you don't take this out on Ranma, the two of you are bonded to keep you from killing the other.'], Skuld belatedly understood that anything he did to Ranma would rebound amplified back on him. He sighed a soft 'shoot!' to himself.

It was softy said but Ranma heard anyway. Ranma came over to where Skuld was now sitting up and asked, "You OK? What happened to ya anyway? Are you really a guy now? I mean ya don't look any different."

Surprised at the concern in Ranma's voice, Skuld looked up and noticed the care that was echoed in the eyes as well. Not understanding this and with shame in his voice Skuld replied, "Yeah, I'm a boy now even if I still look almost the same. As for the rest, my pride and temper is what happened to me. I shouldn't have done any of that stuff I did to you." He sighed again and admitted, "That last one was all my own fault, Dad warned me that anything we did to each other would be returned even stronger back to whoever started it. But nnoooo, I didn't listen and tried to hit you anyway. I knocked myself for a loop as a result." Skuld paused and then softly said, "Sorry".

Ranma sat down beside the young appearing boy and said, "Ok, not a problem. Will you undo the lock on me now?"

Skuld blushed and said, "Can't." Seeing the look of betrayal on the young girl's face, Skuld hurried to explain, "Kami-sama stripped me of most of my powers."

Ranma's face became neutral as she digested this information. She smiled and then gaily said, "But your sister said she could if you said it was OK. Then that means she can undo it since you said you were sorry, right?"

Skuld nodded and he and Ranma stood and looked for Belldandy only to notice that she was gone. While the two of them had been talking, Keiichi had taken the now sleeping Belldandy home in his motorcycle-sidecar. Indeed the convention center was almost deserted by this time; Ranma's fight with Skuld having chased out the final lingering partiers.

Skuld smiled at the frantic red headed girl and said. "I guess Bell was just too tired from saving your life and went home. I'll ask her about it later." Skuld took one of the napkins and quickly wrote their address down. "Give my sister a little time to recover, then . . ."

His words were shut off as Ranma shoved him aside and out of the path of a dark bolt of energy that tore a ragged hole where the two of them had been standing.

Ranma used the unexpected resulting counter shove of the bonding between them to launch her attack at the sneering girl who had attacked them. Ranma had scanned her aura in mid-air and identified the 'girl' as a demon. Thanks to Happosai, Ranma was all too familiar with them and their abilities, including shape changing. With that realization, Ranma changed her attack from a warding one meant to dissuade the attacker to a lethal attack instead.

Mara attempted to brush off the puny human. This was a golden opportunity; Skuld was powerless and unprotected. As far as she was concerned, Skuld was toast, burnt toast in a moment.

Then the 'puny human' dodged her 'brush-off' and Mara found herself in a world of hurt. But she wasn't a first class demoness for nothing; she recovered almost immediately and attacked the irritating girl instead of Skuld. Well, she tried to attack, but the red head wasn't cooperating. She was dodging all of Mara's attacks at a blinding speed while connecting with a lot of her own. Normally such attacks wouldn't bother the demoness, but Ranma was already pissed and her fists were glowing with chi as she attacked. Confused, aching and frustrated after a few brief moments of the one-sided battle, Mara finally fled in a cloud of sulfurous smoke when she saw her hated half-sister show up.

Urd, eldest of the three Norns, started to rush toward where Skuld was slowly regaining his feet when she noticed the heavenly message on the ground. Urd paused to read it and then began to chuckle to herself. The message finally faded shortly after the second-class goddess of the past read it aloud again.

"Oh, this is funny," Urd chortled afterwards. "My little sister is now a guy and has to get a mortal girl named Ranma pregnant in order to be cured. Oh, that's rich."

Both Ranma and Skuld froze at Urd's words. They hadn't thought of it in quite that way. Both screamed out at the same time, "NO, No way am I going to do that with him/her."

Urd blinked a moment in confusion. It wasn't surprising that the redhead had said 'her' as that just meant the she knew Skuld's true gender, but Skuld had said 'him'. Urd looked closer, yep the red head was definitely a girl. No way to fake that pair and the short and tight Chinese dress left little doubt otherwise.

Ranma's ranting shortly cleared up the confusion as she said, "No way am I having anything to do with her while in my girl form and certainly not in my normal guy form either. Damn it, I'm a guy and as soon as I get this curse unlocked again that is what I will be. UGGH, the tomboy can stay a guy for all I care. Probably be better at it than a girl anyway."

Noticing the glares coming from both Urd and Skuld, Ranma began to reconsider the wisdom of saying those last few phrases aloud.

Fortunately, Skuld saved her, though probably not intentionally, when he said, "Big sister, hum, thank you for saving me from Mara." Skuld really hated owing Urd but well, they were 'sisters' after all and he was grateful.

Urd shook her head and replied, "It wasn't me kiddo. I'd have been glad to help you out but she might have been more than we could have handled." Now that she thought about it, Mara running away did sort of puzzle her. She turned to Ranma and asked her, "Ranma, did you see what happened to that girl that attacked Skuld that made her leave like she did?"

Ranma shrugged and simply said, "Yeah, she bit off more than she could chew when she tangled with me. She wouldn't have been the first demon that I've killed. Damn Happosai anyway."

Ranma had turned away as she said these last words so she didn't see Urd and Skuld's face's blanch. 'That simply isn't possible!' they silently screamed in their minds. Urd was the first to speak, "Ranma . . . Ranma? . . . Saotome!" She turned to the red head and nearly yelled; "Now I know where I've seen you before. I just didn't recognize your cursed form for a moment. You're Ranma Saotome, the nexus of the most convoluted 'lover's knot' that I've ever seen." She paused and then also added with almost a note of respect in her voice. "Yeah, you're also the one that killed the Phoenix God Saffron as well aren't you?"

Ranma sighed, this wasn't something she enjoyed remembering or talking about, "Yeah, I didn't want to but he didn't leave me much choice."

Skuld's face had grown even paler as he'd heard what was said. "Big sister, what is she? How can a mortal kill a God or a demon? She doesn't have the magical power necessary to do something like that, does she?"

Urd saw the fear in her little 'brother's' face and for the first time in a long time she didn't tease. Instead she wrapped her arms about Skuld and said, "Squirt, not all gods are powerful and not all mortals are weak. Ranma is a nexus warrior, she or he, makes no difference really, is the type of warrior that comes around only once or twice every millennium." She sighed and added, "Her type changes history if they live long enough, and most gods and demons have learned a long time ago to get out of their way. Those that didn't, well they generally died."

"But how, Urd?" asked Skuld. "I don't understand."

Urd shrugged, and replied, "If anyone knows, it's Kami-sama and He's never answered that question in the past. I guess that it's just an unknown 'mortal power' that 'we' haven't figured out yet."

Skuld shivered, and then whispered, "Urd, Saffron was more powerful than me."

Ranma overheard and then gently said to the scared god, "Hey, don't worry about it. I didn't want to kill Saffron." Ranma sighed and more softly said, "Didn't want any trouble with any of them, but trouble never seems to listen to me and what I want."

Ranma looked over at Urd studying her facial markings a moment, then asked, "Skuld, is Urd your sister and a goddess too?" At Skuld's nod, Ranma continued, "can she unlock my curse then?"

Urd cocked an eyebrow at Skuld, who shamefacedly explained. Urd studied the magic that she could see before slowly shaking her head, "No, sorry Ranma, like Skuld, I'm only a second class deity and I don't have the ability or power needed to overcome the spell that Skuld used while I'm limited to this classification."

"Well, Belldandy can . . ." but before Ranma could finish, Skuld quickly interjected.

"Wait!" He yelled; having gained Ranma's attention, Skuld hesitantly continued, "Ranma, what about me? You heard what the message said, unless you name our first born child, I'll be locked like this forever."

Ranma absently scratched her head and said, "What's the problem with that? I think you'd be glad to be a guy now." She smirked and added, "That's one way to avoid being called a tomboy after all."

Skuld stiffened in anger and hissed, "Really? So you don't think there is anything wrong with being frozen in the wrong gender?" The young god then yelled in Ranma's face, "Well, in that case, you can stay a girl for all I care."

Ranma had had just one too many bad things happen recently; she lashed out and 'popped' the jerk yelling in her face. By Ranma's standards, it wasn't a very hard blow. But it snapped Skuld's skull back and knocked him flying into the nearby wall, unconscious before he hit it. Ranma on the other hand vanished through a new hole in the high ceiling and ended up landing in the ocean. Unfortunately, the convention center was not ocean front property. The landing, though hard did have the advantage of waking Ranma back up.

.o0o. .o0o.

Before the outer scouts could begin to interrogate Chiba Usa, Luna-P began to flash a measured strobe. Squinting in concentration, the younger girl didn't notice the look of surprise and then focused attention that appeared on Setsuna's face.

Her face paling as she received the Morse code message from her companion, Chiba Usa turned to the eldest scout. But before she could say a word, Setsuna said, "I saw the message too. You have to leave before you cause a fatal time paradox."

Changing into her uniform and summoning her staff, Pluto opened a gateway for the future heir of the kingdom and helped her return to her home in the future. She then went to the time gates determined to find the cause of the change.

Shortly after arriving, she began to scan for Crystal Tokyo. It no longer appeared in any of the possible realities that she could see. Her face paled, as she noticed that in nearly half of them the Sailor Scouts no longer existed either. It took her a month of effort in the timeless world around the time-gates before she finally isolated the key events of the chaotic change that had destroyed her carefully nurtured plans.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma slowly dragged herself home, confused, wet and weary to the bone. Entering the home silently, she made her way to the kitchen and was not surprised to find Kasumi still working in her domain despite the late hour. Holding out a wad of yen, she offered, "Here Kasumi, this is your cut of the tips I got. It's only right that I share them with you since you worked in the kitchen and Nabiki took your pay from Cologne."

Confused, Kasumi hesitantly accepted the money. "But . . ."

Ranma shushed her with the comment, "Hush and let me do something nice for you. You've always been nice to us so let me have a chance to pay you back, OK?"

Kasumi's smile blazed at the younger girl, "OK. And thanks Ranma."

Kasumi's smile shifted as she watched the young martial artist walk away from her. It became more genuine and caring as she thought of all the changes that the young man had made not only in her family's life but made in himself as well. Of course, she chuckled to herself; it wasn't without her help even if Ranma hadn't realized it at first. Appalled at Ranma's lack of social skills, Kasumi had undertaken the relentless but subtle task to change him. And change Ranma she did. He was still brash and suffered from 'foot-in-mouth' problems as well, but he was now aware of those problems and since the failed wedding was making a conscious effort to change to a more caring person. She was very proud of him.

Ranma slowly made her way to her room. She almost made it but was ambushed by Nabiki just as she passed the older girl's door. "Ranma, just a minute; we have to talk about your debt."

Ranma paused and then replied, "No way do I still owe you. You said that all I had to do was work for you this weekend. Didn't matter how successful it was or not, all I had to do was do the job you and Cologne wanted for free. We agreed and I did my part so I don't owe you anything."

"For free, that's the key word Ranma," snickered Nabiki. "You got some pretty good tips, those belong to me too."

Ranma grinned, "Nope, for two reasons. First, we never said anything about it and second, I gave all that money to Kasumi as a gift to pay her back for all the nice stuff she's done for us."

Ranma grinned impishly and entered her room leaving Nabiki sputtering.

.o0o. .o0o.

The inner scouts were having a meeting, more for memories than anything else as Setsuna had said that they had faced the last of the challenges until the 'big freeze'. So it was a bit of a surprise when all the outers including Pluto barged into Rei's shrine.

Usagi blurted, "Pluto, is something wrong?"

Pluto sighed and simply said, "I'm sorry, my Queen but Crystal Tokyo is no more."

Shocked into a moment of maturity, Usagi responded quietly, "Tell us how this has come to be, guardian of time."

Massaging her temples as she assembled her thoughts yet again, Pluto began to speak quietly. "First, I'll need to give a bit of background." Looking around the room to make sure she had their attention, she then continued. "I'm not sure that you know this, but each of us is descended from a different kami almost 16,000 years ago. The first Queen Serenity was a granddaughter of Kami-sama Himself. Kami-sama was interested in what these semi-divine rulers of mankind could do, so He forbade all the kami from directly interfering with the 'Silver Millennium', of course such an order applied to Himself as well. The only exception to this was if they became a free avatar of a kami.

This non-interference policy did backfire on the kami when the underworld decided to attack the kingdom in that they couldn't directly help us like Beryl was being helped by demons." She took a deep breath and then continued again. "I thought that the kami would continue to leave us alone so I didn't bother to take them into consideration. Not that it really mattered as the time gates can't track the actions of kami or demons anyway. Nor can the gates predict what changes they initiate. I knew that the underworld was pretty well controlled now so I didn't think that they posed any problems either.

I was both wrong and right." Seeing the look of confusion appearing on their disbelieving faces, Pluto finished. "The prohibition against direct interference with us is still valid and now also applies to the underworld as well. But the problem is that indirect interference can still happen. And Kami-sama has done just that, maybe by accident or perhaps on purpose, I don't know and it doesn't make any difference at this point."

Pluto waited out their consternation and pointless questions. When everything had finally died down again, she began to finish up her explanation. "The key to this whole problem is a young goddess named Skuld . . ."

"Skuld?" interrupted Usagi. "I've heard that name before. Oh now I remember, 'the spore' once mentioned that I was, I mean will become her avatar when she was finally promoted or something like that."

"That's apparently not going to happen now," sighed Pluto; "I wasn't able to get all the details yet, but apparently yesterday Skuld got into a fight with some red headed girl named Ranma and ended up being punished by Kami-sama for nearly killing the girl." She sighed, "I don't have all the details on that yet though."

"But that means I won't become her avatar," Usagi paused and then asked, "how is that important?"

"Skuld is the goddess of the future. When she appoints you her avatar, it increases your power enough to make establishing Crystal Tokyo possible." Pluto grimaced, "Now with her being punished instead of on track for promotion, all of that just doesn't happen as near as I can tell. Hence, no Crystal Tokyo, well so far, but I'm still looking for ways to make it happen again. It's frustrating work though since the gates are a bit unstable now that Skuld has lost her powers." Pluto rose to her feet, weariness evident in her posture, "Well, it's back to the gates for me. There just has to be something that we can do."

Haruka interrupted Pluto's leave-taking with a question, "What about you going back in time a few days and 'eliminating' the red head? That should fix the problem shouldn't it? She's gone, so no fight, no punishment and thus everything is back on track, right?"

Pluto sighed and responded, "Maybe, maybe not. It would eliminate the fight in this time line like you said, but that doesn't mean that it would change Skuld's punishment." Seeing the confusion on the other scout's faces, she explained, "I don't have the ability to manipulate gods and goddesses and certainly not Kami-sama. I could change the past but they would still remember what happened. So Skuld's punishment might still stand but in addition, I would be held liable for the girl's murder as well. So, no, I don't think that will work but we could keep it as a last minute option." She paused and added, "Especially since the only way that I can do that is to use one of my 'forbidden powers' which would then result in my death." With that, Pluto vanished back into the time stream.

.o0o. .o0o.

As usual, Ranma was running a bit late in her preparations for school. Nabiki hadn't left yet to go back to college where she stayed in a dorm during the week so that was one more person for Ranma to deal with this morning than usual. Akane was still tired from the long weekend of working for Cologne and she took her resultant grouchiness out on Ranma almost from waking up.

"Ranma! It's time to go. Why aren't you changed into a guy yet?" Akane then sneered, "Maybe you are beginning to like being a girl, you pervert?"

Ranma sighed and then mumbled into her bowl as she finished off the last of her soup.

Unfortunately, Kasumi understood what she said and responded, "Oh, my. How did you get locked in your girl form again, Ranma?"

"LOCKED!"

The yelled chorus from Genma, Soun and Akane blew Ranma against the wall of the room. Ranma chuckled weakly as she scratched the back of her neck. She sighed and then admitted, "I got into a fight with a goddess last night. I won of course but she got mad and locked my curse."

Akane's aura flickered, "And just what were you doing flirting with a goddess?"

Soun and Genma chanted in unison, "Oh how dishonorable you are Ranma, publicly flirting with another girl. You must marry immediately to restore family honor." They grinned at each other as they began to dance around, sure that their performance would do the trick this time.

Other than an annoyed and disdainful glance, Ranma and Akane ignored the two fathers. Kasumi and Nabiki just watched the proceedings with sighs of near boredom.

Ranma glanced nervously at Akane and repeated, "Fighting, I was fighting with her not flirting. Don't you remember that big lighting bolt and stuff."

Nabiki decided to undermine Ranma a bit just for the fun of it and to get back at him for making her lose Ranma's tips, "Humm, so you say. Happens we were outside by the time that happened. But what were you fighting about; her room key or something like that?"

Ranma blanched as Akane's aura intensified and both father's scowled at him. "NNOOO, nothing like that. I just called her a tomboy and she flipped out."

"Sounds like you were flirting as that's one of your favorite 'lover's endearments' for your 'only true' fiancée Akane," Nabiki vengefully concluded.

Akane exploded and drove Ranma through the flooring of the dining room. She would have done more except that Ranma was now out of reach of her mallet. She glared at the hole as she waited Ranma's return for more retribution. Nabiki winced at the damage and then smiled as she decided to charge Ranma for the repairs.

Ranma had had a miserable weekend and a tough night on top of months of increasing abuse since the failed wedding. As she sat in the hole under the house and fumed, she remembered some advice from Dr. Tofu to her before he had left to take another job.

"Ranma," he'd said, "you are doing nobody any good by allowing Akane to hit you. It not only teaches her that hitting somebody for trivial reasons has no consequences but it demeans your skill and honor as well. Eventually she will hurt somebody without meaning it and you will bear some of the responsibility because you helped train her to do that. She will never respect you as long as you allow her to abuse you. Each time she does that she's treating you as an inferior rather than an equal. That is not the way to build a healthy relationship of any kind, especially a marital one." Ranma sighed as she finally began to understand what he'd said. She resolved that this phase of their relationship was over. She glanced up and saw everybody waiting for her, especially Akane.

As Ranma jumped back out of the hole, Akane took another swing. She was startled to miss as Ranma casually dodged. She angrily swung again but this time Ranma redirected the mallet so that Akane was tossed outside into the pond. The resultant silence was deafening.

"Ranma," Akane snarled, "I'm going to really pound you for that. Just you wait."

Ranma shrugged and casually responded, "Nah, you ain't gonna pound me. I've decided that letting you vent on me is dumb so I'm not gonna let you do it no more." She smirked at Akane, "The only reason you ever hit me before was either because you blindsided me or I let you hit me because I felt guilty. That's not gonna happen any more so find another whipping boy 'cause it ain't gonna be me no more."

Akane dashed forward with a haymaker express aimed for Ranma's jaw. Ranma caught her fist and tossed her into the fathers flattening all three of them.

Nabiki was furious. Nobody treated her sister this way, even if she deserved it. She snarled, "Ranma, you've gone too far. Not only do you owe me for the tips and the floor but I'll make you pay for what you've done to my sister as well. You've crossed the line and I'll make your life hell for this."

Ranma momentarily froze before her long repressed temper responded to this last insulting extortion and misstatement of fact, "Pay? PAY! Let's talk payment, payment for over a year of violated privacy, abuse, extortion and blackmail. Let's talk payment as I'll find an attorney and see just whose life becomes HELL!"

This last she almost screamed into Nabiki's started face. Nabiki blanched as Ranma's words sank into her mind and her only thought was 'oh, shit. I'm in trouble if he does that.'

Akane's frigid voice broke the tableau between them as she said, "We are not engaged. Get out my home and never darken this door again. And if you ever threaten my sister again, I will kill you."

Ranma's aura flickered into being, a repressed incandescence that hinted of hidden power, "Yeah, you and which god? Oh, yeah, I've already taken out a god, so how are you going to kill me then?"

Kasumi's face was frozen in shock and she said nothing as Ranma glanced around for any understanding. Akane grit her teeth in frustration at Ranma's jib but said nothing.

The fathers glared at Ranma as Soun proclaimed, "You are not welcome in this house until you accept your proper place in this school."

Genma added, "I have no son until you get the curse unlocked and marry Akane."

Ranma couldn't help it; she'd watched too much TV recently. At her father's pontifical statement concerning son and locked curse, she slapped her forehead gently and replied "D'oh."

Kasumi was the only one who caught it and she almost grinned in spite of the situation.

Ranma sighed and went back upstairs, packed her meager belonging and vacated the premises through the window, over the roof and the back wall. She smiled grimly to herself as she noticed that she had avoided those individuals waiting to give her a send off, probably a violent send off she guessed.

Meanwhile, Nabiki was shocked to say the least. "Take out a god? What is he talking about?" Kasumi looked around and seeing that everyone else was ignoring Nabiki's question, she sat down and explained it to her sister just as Ranma had explained it to her early one morning shortly after it had happened months ago.

Nabiki shivered as she finally began to get a glimpse of just how powerful Ranma really was; and she'd made an enemy of him. She resolved to do some repair work on her relationship with Ranma.

She was startled as Kasumi dropped a wad of yen into her lap. "Kasumi, what's this for?"

Kasumi shrugged and said, "Its Ranma's tips. It seemed very important to you. Important enough to do what you did to him this morning so I thought I'd give them to you."

Nabiki frowned at her elder sister; it was only her skill at reading people that enabled her to see the disappointment there. "Kasumi, I thought I overheard Ranma say that you were going to get a new dress?"

Kasumi softly replied as she walked into the kitchen, "It's not important, just like me I guess."

Nabiki sat there, belatedly realizing that there were other relationships she had damaged today.

Nabiki went to her room briefly before hesitantly approaching Kasumi in the kitchen. "Sis?" Gaining her attention, Nabiki continued, "I'm sorry. Here are Ranma's tips back. He was right; I honestly don't have any claim on them. I've matched them as sort of an apology and I've included your wages from Cologne as well. It's all money that you have in truth earned. Please accept it with my apologies."

Kasumi considered the younger girl for a few long moments before nodding and placing the sizable wad of yen in her apron pocket. "You also owe Ranma an apology." Seeing Nabiki reluctantly nod, she asked; "What about Akane's wages?"

Nabiki grimaced, "Her wages will almost cover the hole in the floor she just made."

"Sounds about right to me," sighed Kasumi.

.o0o. .o0o.

Cologne had had a very restless evening. That morning she'd finally come to a decision and as Mousse started to unlock the front door to start the day's business, she stopped him and bade him fetch tea for all of them instead. She waved Shampoo over to a booth and the three Amazons sat together as Cologne started to talk to the two youngsters. "Mousse, Shampoo, the quest for Ranma has come to an end." She lightly bonked both of them on the head with her staff to silence their emergent questions and continued, answering their unasked questions. "Last night Ranma got into a fight with a goddess. She nearly killed him but that wasn't the worst. He teased her so much that she retaliated by locking his curse. Kami-sama punished her and now she's unable to undo the lock as well so Ranma is stuck as a girl permanently as far as I can tell. Further, Ranma's somehow involved in the punishment that Kami-sama meted out to the violent young goddess so Ranma's involvement with her is continuing. By herself, I might not be too concerned about the young goddess, but she has an elder sister whose power level is far beyond Saffron even. Add in the fact that Kami-sama is also directly involved in the matter and it makes it a matter of tribal safety that none of us draw any attention to ourselves by doing anything with Ranma that might interfere in their matters."

Seeing the stricken look on Shampoo's face, Cologne sighed and reassured her, "Child, this means that you can return home with your honor restored. This is one of the few exceptions that would let you do so without punishment and without Ranma."

Her face darkening at the look of glee on Mousse's face, Cologne added, "Mousse, if you do anything to take advantage of this situation or attack Ranma, then I swear that I personally will give you the kiss of death and execute it."

Mousse stuttered, "You wouldn't dare, my great-grandmother would . . ."

"Do nothing under the circumstances where the safety of the village has been invoked." Cologne grimly chuckled, "She may get a kick of having you annoy me and Shampoo but she'll not risk her neck or position on your behalf under these circumstances, me on the other hand, well let's just say that I'm waiting for a legitimate excuse, shall we?"

Mousse shakily got up and hesitantly bowed before taking his place in the kitchen. He muttered under his breath, "Damn you Saotome, you're going to get me killed even if you've lost my dear Shampoo. Why couldn't you just die?"

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma hesitantly knocked on the door to Ukyo's café. Ukyo soon answered as she was just preparing to leave for school. Seeing the pack that Ranma carried, Ukyo's hopes soared. "Ranma, what are you doing here? Finally wise up and decided to move in with the 'cute' fiancée," she joked.

Ranma blushed and hesitantly nodded.

Ukyo froze, she could hardly believe it. She'd won? She'd finally won! She glomped onto Ranma and dragged the smaller girl into the café. Grabbing the still warm kettle, she poured the last of the hot water onto the redhead but froze in shock as Ranma didn't change. "Ranma . . . Ranma, you didn't change. What happened?"

Ranma explained very briefly about the fight, skimmed over being locked into girl form and then dejectedly complained about being tossed out of the dojo. She hesitantly looked into the eyes of the taller girl, "Is it really Ok if I stay here with you?"

Ukyo absently nodded. In reality, she'd planned on having Ranma 'share her bed' citing lack of any other place to sleep. In truth, it was true anyway unless Ranma slept on the floor of the café, something that the health inspector probably wouldn't allow. "Sure Ranma, put your stuff in my room. I guess you'll have to sleep with me since space is sort of tight here." She turned away before seeing the stricken look on Ranma's face. "I don't want to be late, so I'll see you later at school, Ok Ranma? Gotta go, see you there, bye," the tall chef burbled as she hurriedly left seeking some time alone to consider what had just happened to her dreams.

Ranma's shoulders slumped as she watched her first friend hurry out of sight. A single tear made its way from the edge of one eye to fall unnoticed at her feet. Ranma whispered, "She didn't say anything about me. Nothing about how screwed up my life has now become, nothing." She looked about again noticing how neat everything was. There was a lot of pride showing in the place in how clean and organized everything was. Ranma noted that it was also pretty compact, not much wasted space anywhere. Ranma made her way upstairs and looked about the neat but cramped living quarters. Ranma sighed, picked up her backpack and slowly made her way back outside. Despite Ukyo's words, she didn't feel very welcome and couldn't make herself intrude into the obviously cramped living space that the chef called home.

Ranma had one choice left and it wasn't in Nerima. Ranma slowly made her way to Juuban where her mother lived in their newly rebuilt home.

.o0o. .o0o.

Author's note: Additional Ranma fan-fiction can be found on my Web Page.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld slowly sank to his knees as he once again failed in his latest effort to fix the small glitch in Banpei. It seems that his creation refused to acknowledge the reprogramming that he was trying to initialize; something about unauthorized user. 'Sigh', it seemed that the gender change caused Banpei to decide that 'he' wasn't the same Skuld that had created it.

Belldandy came up behind him to console the young god. "I'm sure that something will work out for you Skuld. You know Father never makes impossible demands. You just have to do your part." The middle sister paused and then asked, "Little brother, did you decide what to do about the lock on Ranma's curse?"

Skuld nodded, "Yes, for now let it remain so that that jerk can see what it's like to be frozen in the wrong body. She, he deserves it!"

Urd quietly came in at this point and said. "Humm huh, and that's why dad's punishing you; because 'he' deserves it and you don't."

Skuld blushed and slowly responded, "Ok, so I went overboard. Still she was the one who started the whole thing. I think 'he' deserves to know what being in the wrong body is like." Seeing Urd cock an eyebrow, Skuld blushed again and added, "Alright, so he probably already does know since he was working as a girl when we met; but being frozen in that form is likely to teach him a lesson about mouthing off to strangers."

Urd shook her head 'no' as she slowly answered, "Ranma's been frozen in that form several times, so all you are teaching her is that you are petty and cruel just like she said."

Belldandy looked quizzically at her elder sister, "Urd, how do you know this? I tried to look at Ranma's file this morning and I found that everything about him or her is locked out for 'Kami-sama's eyes' only."

Urd pulled a thick folder out of her robes, "I know because he was a hobby of mine for a brief while almost a year ago, until it got to be more than I could take just after he killed Saffron about six months ago." She sighed and opened the folder; "I was so interested that I printed out a copy of his life, including his expected future." The two younger sisters were surprised to note the pair of tears that made their way down the elder goddess's face. "I've never seen a child subjected to so much pain in the name of training. His heart is honorable and he's clueless too. Yet somehow he seems to be engaged to four girls. He was doomed to end up with the only one who actually didn't really love him as anything more than a possession. She would eventually kill him in a fit of jealously." She choked back a small sniffle, "I actually tried to help him with a small potion here and a little love spell there, but nothing I did seemed to make a difference." She sighed and then said, "Despite everything I did, he was on the fast track for a useless death in just a few years." She looked at her 'brother' and softly said, "It's odd in a way, yesterday you nearly killed her. But in locking him into female form, you may have ended up saving Ranma's life."

Urd tossed the file on Skuld's desk and walked away, "Be kind little brother, Dad doesn't make mistakes and He's paired you up with Ranma for a reason."

Belldandy opened up the file and smiled at the photo of a smiling four year old hugging a cat. "Ahhh, isn't that cute."

Skuld shrugged noncommittally; that was the last time he did so that day as the two of them began looking over the file. Both of them were too shocked to react as they spent the next several hours reading the file at 'godly' speed. When they finished, Belldandy sank to the floor sobbing while Skuld barely made it to the bathroom in time to hurl.

.o0o. .o0o.

Pluto sighed as she watched the flickering future life of one Ranma Saotome. Well, she tried to anyway. But the girl's life was in constant flux and was the source for all the chaos that Pluto saw whenever she tried to view the time stream. Pluto could only surmise that it was because the redhead was actively involved with three kami. Nothing else explained the chaos emanating from the girl for no apparent reason. Pluto couldn't see the actions of the kami directly though she could see the numerous possible affects on Ranma, sort of.

She could see the three particular kami that were caught up in this mess though and was not happy about which ones were involved. The three Norns were the kami that were the most important to Crystal Tokyo at this time and those were the ones most affected by this whole calamity. Pluto had already decided that the redhead alone qualified for the term 'disaster'.

Pluto tried to see the redhead's past only to find that it was blocked for some reason. Her control over the time gate had always been less than perfect in recent millennia since not all the Norns were 'first-class' goddesses at this time, yet now it seemed to be really out of whack as she kept getting views of this guy with a black pigtail instead. What his connection to the girl was happened to elude the Senshi of Time at the moment.

.o0o. .o0o.

Urd had been watching Ranma by using her domain, after all she was the goddess of the past and the past started nanoseconds after 'the present' so it was virtually real time as far as she was concerned.

She was about to embark on her own plan to 'help' him when she paused as a rare second thought occurred to her. She sighed and made her way to Asgard via the TV in her room. Once there, she initiated an entry into the 'Master Operations Log' and wrote her proposed action into the system. It was only a matter of moments later that it came back 'approved for implementation'. Urd was stunned. She'd done this a few hundred other times in her past and most had been disapproved, a few approved with changes and even two given preliminary approval after days of haggling. She'd actually gotten to the point of not bothering to get approval anymore since she so rarely got it when she asked. This was new. She smiled; with an approved plan, she could call up additional resources.

She was about to enter requirements into the Log when there was a knock on the door. When she answered it, there was an angel who simply handed her a large box and left. Urd took the box into her quarters and opened it. She looked over the papers that accompanied the training materials before noticing the short note. It was from Kami-sama and all it said was:

Urd blushed to her toes and changed her mind about skipping the briefing materials.

Several hours later she appeared out of a TV in an unoccupied student lounge at a university dorm. She made her way to the dorm office and presented her card to the receptionist. "Urd Odinsdatter to see Nabiki Tendou, official business."

The dorm student receptionist glanced at the card, glanced again and swallowed before nodding and sending another student to fetch Nabiki out of her room.

Nabiki scowled as she followed her fellow student back to the dorm office area. Unknown things unsettled her. Before her she saw a tall gaijin woman with platinum hair and dressed in a light grey neatly tailored business suit. As she came abreast of the stranger, she was asked, "Nabiki Tendou?"

Nabiki cautiously replied, "Who wants to know?"

"Close enough," grinned the woman as she shoved a bulky envelope into Nabiki's hands, "You are served." She grinned at the startled girl and said, "I'm Ranma's attorney Urd Odinsdatter. The court documents are pretty self-explanatory but I would recommend that you hire an attorney anyway. Trust me, you are going to need one because this is about to get very expensive for you."

Nabiki blanched and started to sputter, but the woman ignored her and walked quickly out of sight. The other people in the dorm office area carefully ignored all of this but Nabiki could already imagine the rumors that were sure to fly. And there wasn't much she could do about it either.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma trudged slowly along the sidewalk forgoing her usual path on the fences in deference to the melancholy that seemed to pervade her life for the moment. She paused when she heard the faint 'tap-tap' of a familiar irritant approaching.

"Hello Ranma," softly greeted Cologne.

Ranma paused at the unusual greeting and was interrupted before she could ask anything.

"It is my sad duty to inform you that you are no longer Xian Pu's husband to be anymore." She grinned slightly at the shocked look on Ranma's face and continued. "I realize you are probably more inclined to jump for joy instead of anything else, but I do owe you an explanation at least. Ranma, when you became the plaything of the kami yesterday, you became a danger to the Amazon village. When you were locked into female form as well, then it was necessary to sever all connections between you and the Amazons lest the attention of the kami be directed toward us. Therefore you are free of the kiss of marriage, the kiss of death and any other obligation between us." Cologne noticed the sadness creeping over the redhead's face and continued, "Ranma, just between the two of us. I'm glad I had the chance to meet you and though I wish you could have become a part of our village, I'm also glad that you did not because I don't think you would have been truly happy there. I like you too much to want that for you."

"You 'like' me? Really?" asked the stunned girl. Cologne nodded and was surprised to be enveloped by a hug. A very brief hug as the girl almost immediately regained her equilibrium and grinned as she stepped back before adding, "Well, I have to admit that I kind of like you too 'old ghoul'; despite all the stuff you did to me, you were one of the best teachers I ever had."

The two grinned at each other before bowing slightly to each other and simply parting without another word. All had been said that was needed.

Ranma had gone barely another block before Shampoo silently stepped in front of her. Ranma took in the traces of tears on the girl's face before she sighed, put her pack down and stepped into a mutual embrace with the girl. She held Shampoo as she sobbed and when she heard Shampoo ask 'why', Ranma answered equally softly. "It just wasn't meant to be. You look great, you're a talented fighter and cook and lots of other stuff too. But we got off on the wrong foot. I just never quite got over the 'kiss of death' thing." Ranma paused and then swallowed before adding, "And there was the matter of trust. With all the potions and stuff you used on me, I never did quite trust you and it seemed to me that you never did really trust me either. Maybe it was because you were trained to see males as property and inferior in general. But I never did see that you respected me as anything more than a fighter."

Shampoo pulled back and brokenly asked, "Ranma please come back to village with Shampoo?"

Ranma sighed and waved a hand toward herself, "As what Shampoo? I'm locked like this so I can't be your husband. And if the curse was unlocked, then all I'd become is another 'mere' male in your village. I'm sorry Shampoo, but I'll never accept being a 'mere' anything."

Shampoo's shoulders sagged in acceptance. She smiled a bit sadly then slowly stepped forward and carefully leaned forward and kissed the shorter girl on the forehead before saying, "Shampoo name Ranma, Shampoo's shield-sister and Amazon friend." She then handed Ranma a golden bracelet, saying, "Is bonding gift" before bounding away.

Ranma stood there stunned for a few moments before sighing and looking at the bracelet. It appeared to be of great antiquity and was beautiful in its simplicity. Ranma put it in her backpack and resumed her walk to Juuban, but with a bit more of a happy bounce than before.

Shampoo watched Ranma from a high rooftop several blocks away. She 'eeped' when her grandmother's voice spoke quietly from beside her. "That was well done, Xian Pu, warrior maiden of the Amazons. You have kept a powerful ally for the tribe and bound her in friendship when all else was lost though I am curious as to why you gave her that particular 'bonding gift'. It is said that it was once a magical item though no trace of magic remains in it anymore other than its indestructibility."

In her native tongue she replied, "I love Ranma, no matter the gender. I love Ranma enough to even consider becoming a male myself should the springs ever recover from the damage Ranma caused. But even then, it would not be enough, as Ranma does not love me. As for the gift, well as great-grandma said, the bracelet is indestructible, just like Ranma is. No matter what seems to happen to Ranma, somehow he wins in the end; usually not in an expected way but a win nonetheless. The gift seemed fitting somehow." Shampoo whispered these words in Mandarin so that no one could overhear her reply to her great-grandmother.

"Yes, I wish it was otherwise. But Ranma's heart is both broken and lost. Not even she knows where the pieces are anymore." Cologne's creased face showed a bit of sadness as she said this. Without another glance at Ranma, they turned together and started to return to the café to begin preparations to return home.

As they made their way home, Cologne casually remarked. "I'm surprised you named Ranma 'shield-sister'. You know that you now have an obligation to train her and guard her back."

"Aiaeee, Shampoo forget that! That mean Shampoo no can go home with you and Mousse now but must stay and watch over new sister."

Cologne chuckled, "Yeah child, you 'forgot' that. Tell me another." She grinned at the sheepish looking warrior and said, "Well, you'll have to go back to the village first and conclude this part of our expedition. IF the council approves, then you can return and fulfill your duty to your new sister. In the meantime, it's about time I increased your training so that you can do your duty better should it come to that."

Shampoo nodded in happy anticipation.

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld and Belldandy looked over the pages of the file slowly and almost randomly. It wasn't as if they needed to look at anything as both could recall almost every detail very clearly, unfortunately. But the motions somehow seemed to push the information away a little bit. Finally Belldandy asked, "Skuld, what are we going to do about Ranma's curse. It really does seem petty and cruel to leave it locked now."

Skuld rubbed his temples and slowly made a rare measured reply. "Yes, I have to agree with you big sister. But it would be even more 'petty and cruel' to unlock it at this time knowing the probable future consequences to 'him' like we do now." Skuld shuddered, "Nobody deserves a marriage and death like that, NOBODY."

Belldandy nodded, "Alright Skuld, the decision is yours." She looked at her brother and added, "Both Urd and I have talked about this and we've decided that Dad has placed Ranma under your care. Neither of us will interfere."

"But what do I tell Ranma?" Skuld asked. Seeing the questioning look on his sister's face, the young god continued. "At one point, I told Ranma that I'd let you undo the lock on her curse. I also gave her this address, so she'll show up here pretty soon to see you. But with what we know, I can't do that now. But if I tell Ranma the truth, she'll freak. But since we are deities, we can't lie either."

Belldandy sighed, "If you said you'd allow the curse to be unlocked, then I guess that counts as a promise."

Skuld shook his head, "No, not quite. I also said afterwards that I wouldn't. Neither time did I actually 'promise' anything. Either way, I didn't give any time frame, so that option is still open." Seeing the sharp look his sister was giving him, Skuld defended, "Yes, I know it's being picky. It's 'bending' the promised intent to release the lock but not breaking it."

Belldandy primly replied, "Bending is still not keeping the promise."

Skuld cut her off, "I know, and I would agree if I was doing this to be mean or to avoid keeping the promise. I do want to keep this promise; Ranma deserves it. But I can't be the cause of letting him die like he was supposed to, nobody deserves that."

"Skuld, you wouldn't be the cause . . ."

"YES I WOULD!" Skuld interrupted Belldandy again, this time with an emotional shout. "I can prevent it. No matter who actually kills Ranma, if I can prevent it and don't, then I AM the cause of her death." Skuld sat down, and whispered, "Please big sister, don't do this. Not until the danger to Ranma has passed. Not for my sake but Ranma's sake."

"Alright," Belldandy simply said. She watched her younger sibling for a few long moments before asking, "So, what are you going to tell Ranma?"

.o0o. .o0o.

Haruka and Michiru studied the image in the Deep Aqua mirror and then looked up, comparing the images in it to the redheaded girl passing them on the other side of the street at the moment. The same thought was in their minds, 'maybe Pluto wouldn't do anything about the situation, but they would.'

They turned into an alley and both transformed amid a kaleidoscope of flashing colors. Sailors Uranus and Neptune were on the prowl, not for justice but for revenge for their lost future.

Ranma's danger sense kicked in barely in time for her to dodge the two attacks by jumping straight up. She tossed her backpack into the roof of the bar she had been passing as she continued to bound between buildings on both sides of the street while she searched for her attackers. The bar itself was fortunately empty at this time in the morning. Fortunately indeed considering that the entire front was devastated and flames were already licking up the spilled liqueurs.

Ranma paused in her hunt and made a slow turn seeking her adversaries. Not seeing them, she cast a worried look at the flames before deciding to risk rescuing her backpack. As she reached for it, she heard the words, 'World Shaking' and 'Deep Submerge' yelled out. This time she had sufficient time to raise her aura to full strength and deflect both of the planet power based attacks. Unfortunately, her backpack wasn't similarly protected and all of her meager belonging vanished into charred and soggy bits of fused ash.

Tears of frustration in her eyes, Ranma saw the two shadows of her attackers and blazed out at them with weak twin moko takabisha.

The two Scouts were shocked by the attack; shocked that the girl survived their attack and stunned that she dared attack them in return. Both took the blasts in the gut and were thrown through the walls of the building behind them.

Thanks to the armor like qualities of their fukas, both were only lightly harmed and stalked out of the hole to face their 'enemy'.

As they appeared, Ranma backed away as he recognized the Sailor Senshi from urban lore. "Why the hell are you attacking me? I ain't no monster."

Uranus snarled, "You are responsible for destroying our future. Because of you Crystal Tokyo might never exist. For that you must die."

Ranma's face blanched, "Let me get this straight, because of something that might or might not happen in the future, you've decided to 'execute' me?

Neptune sweetly replied, "Well, it's really a bit more complicated than that, but, yes, I guess you could say that."

Ranma shuddered in disgust, "Well, so much for rumors that said you were the 'good guys'. I've heard tales of the Nazis that sounded similar." Ranma paused and then added whimsically, "Sailor Scouts, 'SS' . . . 'SS' troops, humm, there's even a name similarity in addition to a similar type honor."

Both outer scouts started to power up at this insult, especially since they noticed a news reporter recording the conversation with a directional mic in the near distance. But before they could do anything they heard the words 'dead scream' whispered behind them. Both grinned to think that Pluto was there to help them. That is until the attack blasted them both to near unconsciousness. They recoiled from the glare in Pluto's eyes as she stalked to where they lay in the interior rubble of a building.

"If the two of you ever attack her again, I swear to finish this. Am I understood?" the oldest scout snarled. Both Uranus and Neptune started to protest until they saw Pluto start to power up another attack. They both frantically nodded agreement at that point. Pluto glared some more, then answered the question they wanted to ask, "If she dies, the scouts die, ALL of the scouts, even me. Given a choice, I'll take you two murdering dykes out personally to save the others. They at least aren't into premeditated murder to gain personal goals. You both are a disgrace to the ideals of the Silver Millennium." Pluto then turned and stalked away into the portal that had appeared behind her.

The two outers shuddered at the fury they had seen barely leashed in Pluto's eyes. They de-transformed and made their way carefully out the back door of the building and then home. They had some serious thinking to do. Pluto's denunciation had shocked them. Neither could deny the elements of truth she had spoken.

Ranma stood in the shadows, pondering Pluto's words even as she marked the true appearances of the two scouts that had attacked her. This made no sense to her but at least she felt a bit of reassurance that those two would not be attacking her again. Without that knowledge, Ranma wasn't sure she would have felt safe about going home. She didn't know her mother all that well, but she didn't want to bring that kind of trouble home to her.

Ranma sighed softly to herself as she looked at the remains of her backpack in her hands. Nothing was left; all the pictures and mementos of her short life were gone. The only clothes she had were the tatters she was wearing. Ranma wiped at the tears she wasn't crying, nope, not crying at all. Ranma dropped the backpack shell to the floor, then paused and picked up the golden bracelet that tumbled unharmed from the debris. She put it on and then left. It was finally time for Ranma to go home.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ukyo sighed as she looked about her cramped quarters. No sign of Ranma other than the note left on the counter. She once again read over what it said.

Your friend, Ranma.'

"Oh Ran-chan, you idiot. You wonderful caring idiot." Ukyo sighed once again while wondering what Ranma was going to do about this latest problem of his and then forgot all about it as she started to get ready to open for business.

.o0o. .o0o.

"Prepare to DIE Saotome!" yelled Ryouga.

Ranma tiredly slapped a hand to the center of her face and jumped onto the inner ring of nearby fountain. Ryouga paused his headlong assault, teetering on the brink of the fountain. He scowled at his enemy and snarled, "For attacking Akane, I will kill you. It is unforgivable; you honorless cur."

Ranma stared at Ryouga, her eyes becoming harder as her aura gradually brightened, "And just what would 'you' know about honor seeing as how attack without proper challenge, sleep in the bed of another man's fiancée and blame all your stupidity on someone else instead of acknowledging your faults like a true man."

Ryouga had become gradually enraged as he'd listened, tendrils of sickly green chi started to swirl in response. Both were surprised to hear someone mutter 'amen to that' beside them.

Ranma shrugged and replied, "It's been said before Urd, but he never listens. He's as bad as Kuno or Akane for hearing only what he wants to hear."

"SO, cheating on Akane with another bimbo!" yelled Ryouga with a self-righteous smirk.

"Bimbo!" Urd's face froze in anger. She stalked over to the lost boy and slowly said, "My sister locked Ranma's curse. How about if I lock your curse pig-boy?"

Ryouga's aura immediately guttered out. "Lock?" He desperately shook his head 'no' and started to back away.

Urd softly said, "Attack Ranma like this ever again and you'll be a pig till you die; insult me again and I'll see that you visit the vet too. I hear neutering makes 'pets' much more docile." Her grin was feral.

Ryouga turned and ran.

Urd looked at the tattered and now damp clothing covering the mussed-up girl as Ranma stepped out of the fountain to stand beside her. Urd sighed and softly whispered a small spell she'd often found a need to use on herself at times.

Instantly Ranma's clothes not only repaired themselves to better than new condition but also resized and tailored themselves to a more feminine fit. Ranma was suddenly as clean as if she'd gone to a beauty spa for a day. She shuddered as she noticed that her hair was coiffured, the pigtail gone. Her nails were painted and she felt unfamiliar underwear in place. She glanced into the water and sighed in resignation to see the delicately applied makeup. Neither of them noticed that the spell had caused the golden bracelet Ranma was wearing to react by first glowing and then seemingly absorb the remaining tendrils of the spell.

"Oopps," smirked Urd. "Guess I went overboard. I set the spell for what a 'real' girl would want since that's the way I usually use it on myself."

Ranma waved it off; the way her day was going, this was just about par for the course. Anyway she was too damned tired to even resent it just now. 'Besides,' she thought to herself cynically, 'might as well get used to it. Skuld said he was going to leave me locked just before I 'popped' him one. I doubt that that bit of temper changed his mind. Come to think of it, this would be one way to introduce my new lifestyle change to mom.'

Her introspection was interrupted as Urd asked, "Want some ice cream, kiddo, my treat?" Urd grinned to herself, 'having an expense account was great.'

Ranma nodded and then somberly asked, "I'm sort of hungry too, is that ok?"

This bit of melancholy was a bit new to Urd. She studied Ranma briefly and realized that the redhead was steadily becoming depressed. "Not a problem Ranma, instead of the ice cream parlor, we'll hit a restaurant instead. At least we're both dressed nice for going out to eat now."

Ranma sighed in resignation and followed the platinum haired goddess.

The two slowly ate and quietly talked; both activities new to Ranma who was used to rapid gorging and insulting bluster. But the restaurant was nice, the meal large and Urd not only had a lot to share but was also willing to listen.

Urd started by admitting that she knew all of Ranma's life and then proved it by sharing a few of the details that even Ranma barely remembered. Just as the waiter was clearing the table and placing the desserts, Urd quietly released a previously prepared spell onto Ranma while she was distracted. It was one that Belldandy had helped her with and it was designed to lower Ranma's emotional defenses and enable her to reveal her true feelings. From there Urd opened the floodgates by asking Ranma how she felt about what had happened. Neither one of them noticed the ear rings that had momentarily appeared on Ranma when the spell was released.

Eventually Ranma gradually started to softly share how she felt so out of control of his/her life, felt unloved and was just a 'toy' for everybody else.

Once, Urd gently reached out and wiped the tears that were trickling down Ranma's face unnoticed by her. Urd thought to herself that, 'Ranma isn't very macho any more; I guess that his pride has taken a few major hits these past few days.'

Finally, at one point, the elder goddess gently set the younger girl into her lap, held her and slowly rocked her as she continued to mumble about how everything just totally sucked.

Eventually she started to wind down and then Urd asked, "Want to take control again?"

Ranma finally noticed where she was sitting and quickly scooted to the side, a blush suffusing her face as she hesitantly nodded in assent.

Urd stirred her spoon in the remains of her alcoholic ice-cream dessert. "Ranma, I need to tell you what I've done to Nabiki on your behalf," she started. "I hope you'll approve it because it's something that is needed." Seeing Ranma's questioning glance that indicated she'd gotten the younger girl's attention, she continued. "Nabiki is on the fast track to a reluctant life in the gang underworld. She's made her heart callous and you wouldn't believe some of the stuff she'd done to take advantage of you for her profit. That is where I've decided to hit her. I've filled legal papers against her that will strip her of most of her net profit from you. She doesn't dare make any effective defense against it because all possible defenses that she can use just leave her vulnerable for me to present evidence of criminal behavior. She's going to lose, her only choice is does she want to risk jail in trying to save a few yen in damages."

Ranma's eyes got big and she stuttered, "I . . . I don't think that it's right for me to do that. I know she made money off me, but letting her do that was the only way I had to pay for my old man and I freeloading off her family."

Urd sighed and pulled out a thick folder from a briefcase that Ranma only now noticed. "That's why I said I was only going for the net profits." She paused and then asked, "You do know what I mean by 'net' don't you?"

"Ah, for fish, right?"

Urd grinned painfully. With that she began to explain what she'd done on Ranma's behalf concerning Nabiki. Ranma was a bit hesitant to go to that extreme until Urd said that having something like this happen to her might be the only thing that kept Nabiki from turning truly callous. She needed a 'wake-up' call about the affects of her actions.

Finally Ranma agreed to cooperate after Urd revealed some of the details of just how much money Nabiki had made off of Ranma. It was far more than Ranma believed and a lot more than was necessary to pay for the expenses caused by the Saotomes' or needed to pay the Dojo bills. Ranma fumed when she realized that Nabiki had used her, used her badly and needlessly too. With that realization, Ranma lost most of the fear and respect that she'd once held for the mercenary girl.

Meanwhile, the two of them finally finished up their desserts, lots of desserts. Ranma's were non-alcoholic, Urd was for once fairly moderate for her. Still, her capacity did impress Ranma who'd seen pros like her father, Soun and Happosai in action when it came to absorbing booze.

Just as Ranma was finally starting to relax, the final twisted bits of Nermia chaos in Ranma's life manifested themselves.

"Pig tailed girl!" Kuno caroled, "I hear you are finally free of that sorcerer Saotome."

"Flame haired strumpet!" hissed Kodachi, "Where is my love?"

The two Kuno siblings stopped and stared at each other, each momentarily ignoring their target to glare at each other. Urd's power flared with vexation as Ranma cringed away from the two idiots even as she prepared to also defend herself. Urd paused time, picked up the bill, put it in Kuno's frozen hand and then pulled a stunned Ranma into the nearest screen with her, a monitor at the cashier stand just behind Kuno.

As the two faded away toward Ranma's home Urd could hear the commotion as time resumed again in the restaurant.

"Pay? Where did this bill in my hand come from? The Pig-tailed-girl ate THAT much? No, don't accuse a goddess like that of thievery, obviously she entreats me to succor her from her companion's gluttony. You do take plastic do you not? Good, here's my Samurai Gold card; what do you mean you've never heard of it. Peasant!"

.o0o. .o0o.

Akane sighed as she looked to the spot next to her where Ranma usually sat. It wasn't mealtime for several hours yet but she was at a loss for something to do. She was ashamed of herself for the way she'd jumped to conclusions this morning but she'd die before she admitted it to anyone. She already missed him . . . her, whatever. It was like something that was hers had been taken away. She didn't like the feeling.

Kasumi came out of the kitchen and sat down beside her. "Akane, I find I need to do some last minute errands. Would you mind fixing dinner for yourself, daddy and 'uncle' tonight?"

Akane grinned, "Thanks Kasumi. I'd love to do that. You do so much for us and I'd like to show you that you can take a break sometimes." As she started to stand up, Kasumi pulled the hem of her dress causing her to stay seated.

"Akane," She hesitantly asked, "There are two things I need for you to do for me." She waited until Akane nodded, then continued; "Please PROMISE me that you will do these two things every time you use my kitchen to prepare a meal." Pausing to ensure she had her sister's attention, Kasumi said. "First, you will serve nothing that you have prepared without first tasting it. Second, you will leave the kitchen in the same shape that you found it. Clean."

Akane frowned until Kasumi added, "These are two rules that I follow. Is that too much to also ask of you?"

Akane sighed then said, "I promise Kasumi. I promise I will taste everything first and also clean up any mess I make."

Kasumi smiled, "Thank you Akane." Her smile faltered a moment, and then she added. "Akane, if you break these promises, then I will no longer cook or clean until reparation has been made."

"Kasumi!" Akane nearly shouted, "I keep my promises."

Kasumi merely looked her in the eyes before softly replying, "You once promised me that you'd never hit Ranma in anger. Tell me what happened to that promise?"

Akane' face mottled with suppressed anger but she forced out a reply nonetheless. "That baka made me break it. It was all his fault and he always deserved it anyway!"

Kasumi stood up and just before she left she said, "So you broke the promise and then blamed it on someone else instead? I wonder whose fault it will be when you next break another promise?"

Akane paused on her way into the kitchen, but then shrugged. 'Ranma was gone, he was the only one who caused her to break any promises, and so everything would be all right. Now what was she going to make? Something wonderful she was sure.'

.o0o. .o0o.

Nodoka was engrossed in watching her favorite midmorning 'soap' when Urd and Ranma suddenly appeared out of the TV and settled on the floor in front of her. Ranma hesitantly scratched her head and said, "Hi mom, sorry about this."

Ranma busied herself making tea while she and Urd waited for her mother to wake up. Nodoka shortly came awake but stared at Urd before finally sighing and saying, "Let me guess, the two of you really did come out of the TV."

"Yeah," Ranma replied with a smile. "It's a neat way to travel. Mom, this is someone I met yesterday. Her name is Urd and she's a Kami, she's the goddess of the past."

"Oh, my son is so manly" Nodoka gushed, "he even has goddesses after him."

Ranma hung her head and glanced over at Urd only to find her chuckling. The chuckle finally grew into full-blown laughter that she couldn't contain. "Oh, my," Urd finally said. "I saw it in the files and on the monitor, but seeing that in real life was just too funny."

Ranma weakly laughed herself, "Yeah, I guess it is sort of funny, unless it's happening to you."

Nodoka frostily asked, "And just what is so funny about what I said; and Ranma, why are you dressed like that young man?"

"Young Man!" Urd snickered. "That's not true anymore. Well, the 'young' still is, I guess."

"Mom" Hesitantly began Ranma; "I got into a fight with another goddess last night. Her name is Skuld and she got mad and locked me into my female form. Then she got punished by Kami-sama for almost killing me and was turned into a boy and lost her powers too. This is her oldest sister Urd, but she's not strong enough to undo the lock and their other sister who is strong enough won't unlock the curse without Skuld's permission. But I got mad at Skuld and 'clocked' him one so he probably won't say 'OK' anymore which means I'm stuck like this."

Nodoka paused to sort out the story, but before she could ask for clarification, Urd snuck in a small detail.

"Now Ranma," Urd mischievously added, "I'm sure Skuld would be more than willing to agree to unlock your curse if you'd help her to regain her female form."

Nodoka grinned at the simple solution proposed, 'it even sounded manly. Ranma helping a goddess in distress!'

"Oh, yeah," Ranma sighed, "all I hafta do is have 'his' baby, pick a name for 'our' kid and 'she' is back; just wonderful. NOT!"

Nodoka froze in stark shock. 'That certainly wasn't a manly solution to the problem.' Her world went dark again as her eyes rolled up and she fainted for the second time in an hour.

.o0o. .o0o.

Haruka and Michiru cautiously entered the house they shared with Hotaru and Setsuna. The latter was sitting at the table nursing a tumbler of gin. Seeing the two outer scouts warily eyeing her she waved the glass murmuring "the lonely girl's friend" to them by way of greeting and invitation.

They studied the sailor of time noting the overt signs of fatigue, the subtle signs of deep stress and the overall aura of hopelessness that she exuded. "Setsuna, you need to rest. What ever is wrong, you can fix later." Michiru softy concluded.

"I wish it was that simple" the elder scout replied. "I'm sorry for blasting you like I did, but your old ways of doing things are going to get us all killed; killed in ways that I can't see or protect against anymore. Kami but I'm so tired and that damned gate is so useless right now. Since Skuld lost her powers I can't see any details of the future anymore; just generalities. I feel useless. I feel like I let my queen down again, but I know that it's not my fault."

"Why did you call us murders?" Michiru asked sadly. "Was it because of all the monsters we've killed?"

The time guardian sat there for a minute and asked softly, "Did you ever tell Usagi the details on your hunt for your sword and mirror and how far you were willing to go?" She paused and added, "Hotaru may have forgiven you, but both she and I remember what happened at Galaxia."

Both outer Scouts blushed with shame recalling not only the innocents that they had been willing to potentially kill for them to recover their tools from their heart crystals, but how they had actually temporarily killed both Setsuna and Hotaru in their misguided efforts to destroy Galaxia."

Setsuna drunkenly slipped off the chair she was on only to be caught by Haruka who tenderly carried her up to her room and put her to bed. One of them whispered 'sorry', the other softly replied, 'I understand'.

They turned on the TV that evening for the first time in quite awhile. They needed something to distract them from their thoughts. Unfortunately, what they found didn't really help.

The news photojournalist had prepared a montage of previous Sailor Scouts fights, their enemies and the resultant damages. He'd commented that the damage, while substantial could be explained by public necessity to defend the city against attack. Then he had shown camera scans of the damaged buildings that their attack against the redhead had resulted in.

His comments weren't pretty nor undeserved. "Today I witnessed this destruction by several of the scouts. Was it a public enemy? NO! It was the result of a murder attempt on a private citizen who had displeased these two scouts. Don't believe me? Well, listen to this conversation that was recorded."

As the bar burned, the conversation between the two outer scouts and the redhead were aired. Unfortunately, even Pluto's comments had been captured. The only saving grace was that there had been no camera footage of any of them.

The reporter continued, "Who ever these two Scouts are, they should be arrested for attempted murder and held accountable for the damages they've caused. I personally vow that I will no longer blindly accept that everything the Sailor Scouts do is for the public good." He paused and then added, "I feel sorry for the redheaded girl though, who ever she is, not only has she angered the Scouts, but all their enemies now know a way to potentially defeat them."

"Ah SHIT!" snarled Haruka.

In her home some distance away, the teenaged girl Usagi who was once destined to become Queen Serenity just sat and stared at the news cast in shock.

.o0o. .o0o.

The three Amazons made their way to the loading gate at the airport early the next morning. Modern technology was sometimes amazing. By the end of the day they'd be back home. Shampoo shuddered to think of what she might face before the council despite the encouraging words from her grandmother.

Cologne was pensively studying the airport and thinking of the significance of just how easy it was to get anywhere in this modern time. 'The Amazon village was no longer hidden and safe in its remoteness. This was a message she needed to ensure that the other elders understood; they were vulnerable. They needed powerful allies.'

Mousse sighed as he pulled his glasses down and looked over the vaguely discerned landscape. He really didn't want to go back to the village, his freedom would be curtailed but at least he'd still be with his love. It was unlikely that she'd be allowed to leave after this last failure despite anything Cologne might have to say. Goddesses indeed, who'd believe that? He certainly hadn't seen them.

Cologne turned to Shampoo and asked, "By the way, I meant to ask you, did you tell Ranma how to remove the bracelet?"

Shampoo snickered, "No, Shampoo want Ranma to have Shampoo on mind while Shampoo gone."

Cologne suppressed a smile even as she admired her heir's mischievousness.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma got out of the furo absently rubbing at the golden bracelet on her arm. She hadn't been able to get if off and that was beginning to annoy her. She had managed to get the makeup off though it took more effort than she expected. She went to her room to dress in some clothes that she had found stored there. Unfortunately, they were the residue of 'Ranko's' stuff left over from when Ranma had been hiding from her mother. After the truth about the curse had been revealed a few months ago, her mother had packed all of Ranma's girl stuff up and taken it home intending to get rid of it. That hadn't happened yet so Ranma had a change of clothes available. She was tempted to go nude though instead, she almost admitted to herself.

Her only remaining pair of boxers had retailored themselves into silken panties that morning and while she did have one pair of newly refurbished and retailored pants, they were currently being washed. Ranma sighed admitting to the inevitable and not so calmly put on a pair of cotton panties and a dress. She then undid the dress partially and put on a bra before she finished dressing. 'Why the hell was dress material so thin anyway?' she wondered.

She once again rubbed the bracelet in another attempt to remove it only to be surprised as it flashed and her clothing once again retailored and refurbished itself changing from second hand to silken high fashion in a blazing half moment.

"Augh . . . URD! What the hell did you and Shampoo do to me?" She screamed.

Nodoka and Urd were there almost instantly. Urd whistled in approval, "Nice threads girl. Love your makeup too. You really have a sense of style," she added.

Nodoka just froze in shock at how utterly adorably feminine her 'son' looked. "Ranma, what happened? Where did you get those clothes and since when do you use makeup?" she asked finally.

Ranma pointed to the golden bracelet, "Shampoo gave me this bracelet as some sort of 'bonding gift,' and the first time I put it on, nothing happened." She snarled at Urd and added, "Now I can't get it off and it seems to be enchanted by Urd to force me into 'girly' clothes and appearance all the time."

Urd snickered and said, "No problem, here let me see it." Urd barely glanced at it then quickly cast an unlocking spell. Nothing happened other than the tendrils of magic were immediately absorbed into the bracelet and Ranma suddenly found herself wearing both earrings and pumps with her hair elegantly perm'd.

Ranma's hand hesitantly went to one of her ears. 'Nnooo,' she thought in shock, 'the earrings aren't clip-ons'.

Urd was a bit irritated. She started to cast a stronger spell only to be stopped by Ranma, "Tell me goddess", Ranma said as she shook the braceleted arm in Urd's face. "Do you have the faintest idea of what the hell you are doing?"

'Yes!" snarled Urd, "I am the goddess of the past, the eldest of the Norns and no trivial bracelet like this one is . . ." her voice trailed off as she took her first real look at the bracelet on Ranma's arm. "Oh shit" she murmured. "It's one of Aphrodite's fashion bracelets."

Seeing the look of confusion on both of the Saotomes' faces, she explained. "Aphrodite is the first class goddess of love. She's a bit more powerful than I am and we go waaay back." She paused in memory and snickered to herself, "oh yeah, way back."

She pointed to the bracelet and said, "Aphrodite has a thing about always looking good, the more feminine and daring the better in her book. So she imbued some of her strongest magic in several golden bracelets like that one to make changing to appropriate clothing easier." She snickered and said, "You got off lucky Ranma, that bracelet is one of her more modest ones. That's probably why she got rid of it in fact."

Nodoka interrupted and asked, "Well, if you can't take it off and you know to whom it belongs, can't you ask her how to remove it?"

A faint blush colored Urd's face momentarily, "Nope, maybe if it was someone else but not Aphrodite. She's a bit mad at me this last century."

"Century?" Ranma sighed and asked, "Ok, just what the hell did you do to her?"

Urd grinned a little shame facedly. "Well it was at a big blow out up on Mount Olympus. Everybody was celebrating Zeus' decision to allow the place to be upgraded to the modern world, up to and including technology in the next century as well." She snickered and added as an aside, "He was jealous of Kami-sama's Yggdrasil system I personally think. But anyway, it was a really big blow out over at their place and Aphrodite got totally wasted. I decided to have some fun with her. So I turned up the heat on her new electric blanket (it gets really cold on that mountain) and when she was just starting to sweat, well, I . . . I sugar coated her." She snickered, "I literally 'glazed' her like she was a doughnut. Then I used some more sugar to turn her hair into twin buns of pink cotton candy. She had a real time getting that out since I used magic proof sugar."

Urd chuckled a bit more before Ranma interrupted. "Well are you done?"

"Oh no," she snickered at the memory. "Not even. She was so proud of her new bathroom; that nice English fellow John Crapper had just invented the porcelain throne. So I took some 'saran wrap' and sealed the top of it. You couldn't even tell it was there when the seat was down unless the light hit it just right."

"Oh no," hissed Nodoka.

"Oh yes," chuckled Urd, "Aphrodite got up and ran for the toilet not even noticing her new hairdo. She lifted the lid, plopped on the seat and proceeded to wet all over herself. The saran wrap splashed the pee all over her bottom and down her legs making the sugar even stickier. Once she got started the 'candied' girl just couldn't stop so she ended up dancing about peeing all over herself and her new beautiful bathroom while shrieking about her appearance once she saw herself in the mirrors. And to top it all off, I had the foresight to have a few video cameras installed. You wouldn't believe the number of favors I was able to payoff with a copy of one of those CD's." She frowned, "I don't see why Dad busted me to second class for that though. After all, I'm pretty sure He got His own copy of the CD too."

Ranma sighed, "So it's pretty certain that she won't help me out then I guess."

Urd let out a huge sigh, "Yeah, you have that right. She's not forgiven me yet either. She probably won't until she thinks of a bigger joke to play on me. But she's careful; she doesn't want to get busted like I was. So she's just mad at me in the mean time."

"Urd?" asked Nodoka. Seeing she had the goddess's attention, "Somehow I never envisioned there being toilets in heaven. I mean you don't really have to eat do you?"

Urd shrugged, "No, you're right there. Technically we don't have to eat or sleep or, well, you know. But it's something to do to keep from being totally bored and it's a hard habit to break if you were once mortal like some of us were." Urd got a wide grin, "Speaking of heavenly toilets, would you like to know the real cause of acid rain and where meteors come from?"

.o0o. .o0o.

Shampoo sighed, frustrated. Her hearing before the Amazon council had been delayed until she had once again re-established her warrior status by passing all the warrior challenges. Unfortunately, her baka of a great-grandmother refused to give her blessing to her. Without Ku Lon's blessing, she was unable to start the challenge process. Her great grandmother insisted that she learn a lot of advanced techniques before she'd allow Shampoo to even start to regain her warrior status. Baka great grandmother; since Shampoo was technically a pre-warrior now, she couldn't even leave the village anymore.

Cologne couldn't help but grin slightly at her frustrated great granddaughter. Perhaps Shampoo would be sufficiently motivated to learn now; lord knows she hadn't been in Nerima. She'd been so focused on winning Ranma that she'd allowed her skills to become stagnant. Cologne was going to ensure that Shampoo was capable of fulfilling her duty to her new shield-sister, no matter how many months it took.

'Oh, well,' thought Shampoo to herself. 'Since Mu Tsu was an adult male and I am technically a pre-warrior again, he didn't dare harass me without facing major punishment from the warrior council. That's the only good thing to come out of this.'

.o0o. .o0o.

Author's note: Additional Ranma fan-fiction can be found on my Web Pages.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma tried to sleep in, but the soft bed and unfamiliar surroundings of her own boyhood room denied her that simple pleasure. She rose and put on her familiar red silk shirt and black pants. She shuddered at the close feminine fit and nearly gagged on her own cuteness when the bracelet 'prettied' her up once again when she accidentally rubbed it.

Nodoka couldn't help but smile at her cute daughter. If this had still been 'Ranko', she would have considered her bridal training a success at this point. "Ranma, look at the good side, you don't have to spend a fortune or a lot of time to look really sharp. Not to mention that if you need to, you always have a way to instantly clean up. If you have to be a girl, well the bracelet will really make it easier."

"Mom," tiredly responded Ranma as she morosely studied her delicately applied makeup in a small mirror. "The damn bracelet takes away the last of my choice about being a girl. I don't even have a choice about dressing or looking like a girl anymore. Damn earrings anyway."

Nodoka sat beside her child and hugged her. "Sometimes one has to be the reed before the wind. Resisting like an oak may just break you. I am proud of my manly son, but I can also accept my beautiful daughter under these circumstances."

"These circumstances?" questioned Ranma.

"Like now, where you have no choice in the matter." Her mother softly replied. "Accepting karma is also a trait of a man. It doesn't mean meekly accepting what others have forced on you, but it does mean making the best of what you cannot change."

Ranma asked with surprising calmness despite her nearly overwhelming melancholy, "What am I gonna do with my life, momma? Everything I once had planned is gone."

"Everything? What about your friends and . . ." Nodoka paused when Ranma shook her head sadly.

"No, momma. I don't really got any friends. No fiancées either unless the damn panda has engaged me in my girl form too." Ranma sighed deeply. "Urd is sorta helping me out, but after hearing about what she did to that other goddess, I don't know how far I want to trust her. Her fun could hurt me. The only good thing to come out of this is that I'm no longer engaged to anybody, including Akane." She leaned into a hug with her mother. "I actually glad those two old farts kicked me out so that I could live with you. I've missed you, momma."

Nodoka hugged her daughter and silently decided that she'd make sure Ranma was never forced to return to the Tendou dojo. "Well, the semester break for the high school here in Juuban will be ending next week. That gives us time to get you registered, get you your uniforms and some supplies as well. Maybe we can even get a head start on the schoolwork too. Who knows, maybe you can make a few friends at your new school without all the other distractions interfering now." She grinned mischievously at her neo daughter, "Maybe you will even meet a cute guy."

"Owie," responded Ranma as she rubbed her head from where it had impacted the table a few moments earlier. "Mother, I don't LIKE guys that way. I'm a guy inside, no matter what the outside looks like."

"The outside looks really cute and pretty," snickered Nodoka.

After a long (suffering) silence, Ranma asked, "Momma, not many of my old school mates are gonna recognize me dressed like this, but they might. Do you think it would be ok if I sorta changed my name so that I got a separate girl identity just in case it makes a difference later?"

"Ranko?" suggested Nodoka.

"Yes momma, just as long as it's spelt 'wild child' instead of 'orchid girl'. Do you think you'll have any problems registering me in school?" Ranko wondered, a hopeful idea in the back of her mind.

"I'm not sure, RANKO," her mother hesitated in thought. "With both the gender and name change, not to mention the radically different appearances of your two forms, there might be problems transferring your records and registering you."

"Momma," Ranko paused in embarrassment. "My old school grades ain't all that good. If I'm gonna hafta start over as a girl, could it be a clean start? It would give me an inced . . . inderce . . . reason to study harder before school starts again and later too."

Nodoka paused in thought at the mechanics involved in the several different ways this could be handled. "All right Ranko, since I'm still technically head of the clan because your father still seems to be on his never-ending training trip, I think that I can adopt you into the family/clan registrar. We may have to get a little creative explaining where you came from, but I think I and a few of my government friends can handle that. I'll see what I can do this afternoon."

Nodoka started the next day off by tossing a new identity card onto the breakfast table before her daughter after she came down from her bath after working out several hours in the early morning.

"Ranko Saotome," read the pleased girl.

"Yes," grinned her mom, "and early next week we need to register you at Juuban High School, get your placement tests scheduled and maybe pick up some school uniforms for you too."

"Mom?" asked Ranko in confusion, "The birthday is almost right, but this says that I'm two years younger than I really am."

"Yes daughter, I decided to select a younger age for several reasons, first, your girl form actually does look about fifteen or sixteen. Second, since you want a fresh start, you need to start at the beginning of high school to do it. Three, an age difference makes the distinction between your two identities all the more believable especially since we retained the same birthday to give an excuse for confusion."

Later that morning Ranko was taking another break from her training. That or schoolwork was all she had to occupy her time at the moment. She was leaning back against the outer wall of the Saotome compound sitting in the shade and enjoying her cool down after a vigorous workout. Her gi was sweat stained and her appearance a bit disheveled from her morning exertion.

Hearing an angry voice, she looked into the house only to notice Urd trying to dust herself off as she staggered away from the TV. The elder goddess was a mess. Her clothing was torn and actually smoked a bit still, while the woman herself was staggering from fatigue.

"Da . . . darn that Mara." Urd snarled to herself. Noticing Ranko studying her, she explained. "Mara is that demoness you met the night you were first locked in your curse by Skuld. She is always ambushing us, especially Skuld or I since we are weaker than her and she knows that Bell is too kindhearted to really do much damage to her though she could." She sighed, "It's worse now that Skuld has been stripped of all but her basic powers. She's a sitting duck for Mara outside the temple area."

Ranko slowly walked over to Urd and silently handed her a bottle of sake from the stores they decided to keep on hand for emergencies like this for her after learning about Urd's power-up mode at the restaurant. Urd gratefully accepted it and eagerly sucked at it visibly gaining health and energy as the bottle emptied. "That's da ticket," she slurred before shrugging off the intoxication effects as she cast a restoration spell on herself.

Unfortunately Ranko was still in range of the spell as the golden bracelet absorbed the excess magic using it to restore its faded powers even more. The affect on Ranko was immediate as she was suddenly cleaned and beautified in a moment. Ranko sighed with a 'put-upon' noise as she studied the designer fashion gi that she now wore complete with daring silk undies. She put her hand up and found earrings again.

"Damn it Urd, quit doing that to me!" she snarled.

Urd only chuckled as she insincerely said, "sorry."

Ranko quietly asked, "Will you take me to see Skuld?" Seeing the arched eyebrow, Ranko continued, "I have a duty to her, er him and you to help defend you both from this Mara creature. I lost the address so I don't even know where Skuld lives. Besides I guess I do need to talk to him. Maybe he's not mad at me for 'popping' him one that first night and he'll let his other sister unlock my curse now."

.o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi cautiously entered the house as the stench from the kitchen had alerted her to a certain problem even before she'd reached the front gate. She peeked into the kitchen and her face blanched at the disaster within. Hearing some moans from within the dining room, she hurried there only to see her father and 'uncle' looking as if they were in great pain.

Akane was sitting at the table, fuming as she snacked on a carton of ice cream. Kasumi noticed that her sister's plate was still clean.

"Akane, what happened here?" wryly asked Kasumi as if she were totally clueless.

"These two idiots are making fun of my cooking." She huffed, "They made me so mad that I couldn't eat anything except ice cream to cool myself down before I pounded them."

Kasumi put a finger to her mouth for a moment apparently in thought, "That's odd. What did the meal taste like?"

Akane brightened up and she hurriedly filled a dish with . . . something. Kasumi couldn't even guess at what it was originally intended to be. "Here you go Kasumi, eat up. I made plenty so we could have leftovers too." At these words, the men groaned once more and then fainted, out of their misery for the moment.

"Akane," sweetly smiled Kasumi; "I've already eaten. Besides, I asked you what it tasted like, not that I wanted to taste it for you. After all you did promise to taste it before you served it."

Akane beamed a confident smile, "I didn't need to taste it to know it was wonderful. Just try it and you'll see."

Kasumi's face lost most of its smile. "It doesn't matter how good it tastes Akane, what matters is that you broke your promise. Who are you going to blame this time?"

Akane's face darkened in anger, "Ranma was supposed to taste it, it's his fault."

"But YOU promised that YOU would taste it." She quietly responded. "We said nothing about Ranma having any part of this promise. You broke your promise to me."

Akane angrily set the ice cream carton on the table and rose, "I've had enough of this nagging. I'm going to bed."

"So," sighed Kasumi. "You'll leave your mess for me to clean up thus breaking the second half of your promise?"

Akane snarled in anger, the outline of a mallet almost visible in her hands. "It's not my fault. Besides, cleaning the kitchen is your job. I'm the heir to our art and you take care of the house. That's the way it's been. That's the way it is." With that she stormed off to her room and slammed the door.

Kasumi sat there in shock for a few moments; Akane had never talked to her like that before. She thought to herself, 'Little sister is taking Ranma's absence pretty hard'. She glanced into the kitchen again, paused in thought and then despondently made her way to her room after carefully putting the groceries away first.

She slept in the next morning. She ignored the noise when Akane pounded on her door. Akane broke the lock as she slammed open the door. "Kasumi, are you alright?" Akane asked.

"Oh yes, I'm fine." Kasumi languidly replied. "Since I now don't have to cook or clean I thought I'd sleep in a bit. Why? Is something wrong?"

"Why don't you have to cook or clean anymore?" asked her perplexed younger sister.

"You broke your promise." Kasumi frowned. "I promised that I wouldn't cook or clean here if you did until reparations were made. Unlike you, I DO keep my promise."

"That isn't fair Kasumi." Akane complained.

"You are the one who made the choice, so live with it." Kasumi said. "Oh, by the way, please close the door on your way out."

Frustrated, Akane hesitated then blushed when she realized she was considering violence against her sweet, kind and oh so stubborn elder sister. Out of options, she did as her sister asked. She sighed, then brightened at the thought that 'I'll make breakfast. After all, how hard could it be?'

Akane hesitated at the door of the kitchen. 'Wow, what a mess! Did I really do this last night?' She entered the kitchen and eventually found a semi-clean pot. She started to make something. She wasn't sure as her ideas changed a few times as she worked. She studied the mess, hesitantly used a spoon to dish up a small helping. She quickly looked in the dining room hoping to find somebody else up. Finally she tasted it. She woke up in pain several hours later.

Akane struggled to stand, and finally settled on crawling to the bathroom instead. There she was violently sick. She shakily rose to her feet and seeing that it was nearly noon, decided that going to see her friends could wait. She went into the front room in time to see her eldest sister come down the stairs.

Kasumi smiled and waved to Akane as she 'obliviously' made her way into the bathroom past her youngest sister. She closed the door before Akane could get out the words she seemed to be struggling with.

Akane stared at the door that Kasumi had all but slammed in her face. 'She was trying to apologize even though she really didn't think it was her fault. The promise was just so unfair anyway. That's it! It was Kasumi's fault for making her agree to an unfair promise. She'd explain it to her after she got out of the bathroom and everything would be all right again.' Akane smiled to herself as this perfect solution occurred to her.

In the bathroom, Kasumi washed up before taking a short soak in the furo. As she exited, she gathered up the clothing strewn about the clothes hamper and started putting them in the hamper. Yesterday she had been involved much of the day with ensuring that the hole in the dining room floor was properly repaired so she hadn't had time to really clean as she usually did.

She sadly smiled when she saw the Chinese dress that Ranma had been wearing the final night of the convention. She held it up, inspecting it for any needed special care. As she did, a napkin fell out of the shallow pocket of the dress.

Kasumi bent down to pick up the piece of paper to put it in the trash when she noticed that it had writing on it and the writing was glowing. She knelt down to look at the napkin closer without having to touch it. Nothing changed. She touched the napkin and felt a sense of peace. She thought about the omen before her and then decided that she'd visit the address given there; after all her day was free now.

Quickly dressing, she pocketed the napkin and exited the house while Akane was still in her room trying to find clean clothes for herself.

.o0o. .o0o.

Urd grabbed onto Ranko and started pulling her toward the TV. Ranko stubbornly planted her feet and halted the taller goddess. "Come on Ranko. You said you wanted to go to the temple where I live with Skuld. Why are you stopping?"

"I want to walk there, besides you could use the exercise there chunky." Ranko snickered at the other woman as she froze and then stabbed the teasing girl with a sharp glance.

"Humph," snorted Urd, "You are just jealous because I'm better proportioned."

"Naw," retorted Ranko with a grin. "I think you are just trying to justify the fact that I'm bigger than you are."

"Am not!"

"Yep."

"Not so."

"Pretty obvious."

"Prove it!"

Glaring at each other, the two gals sat facing each other, chest to chest, whipped off their blouses and bras and began a critical comparison. Well they started to until Nodoka collapsed onto the other couch giggling hysterically. Seems they hadn't noticed her in the room with them. At which point they blushed equally brightly and quickly redressed. Ranko whispered, "Tie?" Urd reluctantly nodded.

Ranko blushed again as she really couldn't believe she had just done that. 'Man, I gotta stop being so competitive.'

Urd hurried out of the house walking toward their destination. She stopped when she noticed that Ranko was not with her. Seeing the other girl stopped behind her, she walked back and asked, "I thought you wanted to go to the temple together. What's up with walking so far behind me?"

Ranko scratched the back of her head nervously, "Well, ya see. It's about this Mara that's harassing you. I met her already so I don't think she'll bother ya if I'm with you. So I thought that maybe . . . I should . . ."

Urd thought about that for a moment, then asked. "You mean I'm bait?"

Ranko nodded hesitantly.

Urd didn't like the idea, but thought about it a bit more. She was especially remembering just how vulnerable Skuld was at the moment. "I don't really like the idea, but I guess you're right. Just give me some warning if you can, Ok?"

Ranko nodded and with that Urd set off toward the temple, her senses on alert.

.o0o. .o0o.

Belldandy quietly responded to the doorbell summons. Her questioning smile brightened when she saw Kasumi. Even though they were strangers, they both sensed kindred spirits. "Hello, may I help you?"

Kasumi smiled warmly, "Hello, my name is Tendou Kasumi and I'm not sure why I'm here. I found this napkin in Ranma's dress. The writing was glowing and I took that as a sign that I should come here. Do you know anything about it?"

Belldandy looked at the napkin Kasumi was holding out and said, "Oh, that's my sister . . . er, I mean brother's handwriting. He probably gave it to Ranma. How is Ranma doing anyway? Skuld is really sorry about locking Ranma in his cursed form." She paused a moment and then added with a slight amount of embarrassment, "My name is Belldandy, please call me Bell, Tendou-san."

Kasumi's smile faltered a bit as she followed Belldandy into the main room of the converted temple. "Bell, please call me Kasumi. As for Ranma, well, things haven't gone too well for her. After Ranma admitted that she was locked as a female, well everything just sort of snowballed. It was a series of misunderstandings and people jumping to conclusions that ended with Ranma being thrown out of the house after my sisters threatened her; one with financial ruin and the other with death. It was so unfair and I wanted to talk with her and tell her that I thought she was still a really neat person."

"Kasumi?" Belldandy and Kasumi looked at the heap before the TV where Ranko was holding a barely conscious Urd. "Kasumi, do you really mean it?"

"Urd!" Belldandy quickly prepared a healing spell and revived her elder sister and incidentally 'refurbishing' Ranko yet again. Not that anybody but her noticed, since most of the attention was on Urd.

"Yes Ranma, I do." Kasumi continued a bit hesitantly. "I wish to apologize to you for the way my family has treated you. It was neither fair nor right and I'm ashamed of that."

Ranko turned to her traveling companion and asked, "Urd, how ya doing?"

Urd shook her head and accepted the sake bottle that Belldandy was holding out to her and took a big swig. "I'm doing Ok Ranko. But we need to talk. I didn't realize you were going to try to kill Mara."

"Oh, my," in stereo at that. None of them noticed Skuld stop at the edge of the doorway to the room and silently listen in.

Kasumi posed her question first. "Ranma, why is Urd calling you Ranko; why are you dressing so femininely and why were you going to kill this Mara person? That seems so unlike you."

Ranko shuddered at the memory of the recent fight between her and Mara. It was tough and Ranko had been losing big time until she utilized the Saotome sealed techniques. Seems that while demons had some sort of natural protection against normal martial arts and weapons because of their abnormally tough hide; they had almost no protection against ki attacks like a vacuum blade. Ranko had come close to eviscerating the demoness before she had finally fled limping from the mortal plane with a half severed leg and holding her stomach with both hands.

Ranko softly replied, "Since I'm locked in girl form for the foreseeable future, I asked my mom if I could be Ranko so that my guy reputation didn't get all messed up at my new school. Mom agreed and even got me a new identity card." Ranko tossed her new card on the table and Kasumi picked it up and immediately noticed the revised birth date.

Ranko explained, "Right now I'm listed on the family register as my own sister."

"And Mara?" prompted Belldandy.

Ranko hung her head a bit and started, "Well, I told Urd that I'd help her against the demoness named Mara that has been harassing her and Skuld. It's my duty to help as a martial artist and also since I'm at least partially responsible for Skuld being weaker now."

Ranko looked at Urd and apologized, "Urd, I'm sorry I didn't protect you better. She got those couple of good shots in at you before I got really serious. I'll try and finish her off next time so that you and Skuld will be safe."

"Darn," Softly whispered Urd. Seeing the puzzled expression on Ranko's face she explained. "Ranko, Mara is a demoness but she's also my half sister. I know she's evil but it . . . it bothers me to think about her dying."

"Oh, my," said Belldandy. "And there is the doublet system to consider as well. I know the demons don't care all that much about the consequences, but we kami have to consider them."

"Doublet system?" wondered Kasumi.

"Yes," responded Belldandy, "All demons and kami are linked in pairs. Only Kami-sama knows the identities of each pair, but the pairing ensures that each time a kami or demon is slain then the paired demon or kami also dies. Its purpose is to stop the killing of either kami or demons by the other."

Ranko blinked, "Then if I kill Mara, I also kill a kami. DAMN, that means each time I took out a demon, I slew a kami as well. Damn, damn!"

"No Ranma, I mean Ranko. You didn't!" Urd hugged the cursing girl to her. "The doublet system only applies to demons or kami killed among themselves. The rule doesn't apply to deaths caused by a mortal. Not many kami know about that since it's almost impossible for a mortal to kill a kami, but I looked it up after you killed Saffron."

Ranko sighed in relief, she studied Urd and realized the turmoil of the older goddess. Finally Ranko said, "Alright Urd, I won't try to kill Mara, just hurt her a lot. But all bets are off if killing her is the only way to stop her from killing an innocent."

Urd softly said, "Thank you Ranko."

Skuld tentatively entered the room. But before he could say anything, Kasumi asked, "Ran . . . ko, why is your birth date two years later on this identity card than your real one."

"Oh, that." Ranma pointed with her thumb over her shoulder at Skuld, "Well, since the flat-chested un-cute tomboy locked my curse for the foreseeable future, I decided that I might as well make the best of it and try to get a new start on my life. Mom decided that meant redoing the school stuff that I messed up too. So she changed the listed age of my cursed form to give the illusion that I'm my own younger sister. It actually makes sense since I also look about that old in this form."

"Ranko, that wasn't a very nice thing to say about a goddess," reproved Kasumi with a questioning glance at the sniggering Urd.

"God." Seeing the questioning look in Kasumi's eyes, Urd clarified; "Skuld was transformed into a boy by Dad after she almost killed Ranma for mouthing off." She sighed theatrically, "Seems nothing, even almost dying can get this redhead to quit chewing her toes."

Ranko blushed. She looked over at Skuld, then hesitantly said, "Skuld, I . . . I'm sorry for all that stuff I said to you. Urd is right, I do let my teasing get away from me. I guess it's the only way I know to interact with others. I'm not really very good at making friends it seems. That's probably why I don't got any." Ranko swallowed and continued, "You really don't deserve to be cursed like me . . ."

Ranko stopped talking as Skuld had placed his hand over her mouth. "Apology accepted. And you don't owe me an apology for me being a guy now. I did that all on my own when I lost my temper, I'm just sorry that you got pulled into my punishment. Maybe that was Dad's way of punishing you for your teasing, but on top of everything else you've had to endure, well, I don't think it was really fair."

Ranko looked hopeful, "Then you'll let Belldandy unlock my curse?"

Skuld shook his head, "No."

Ranko looked annoyed, "Ok, whata I gotta do for ya? What da'ya want to change ya mind?"

Skuld softly said, "Nothing. I just can't undo your curse now and I can't tell you why."

"Yes, you can and you should tell." Everyone looked to Urd as she said these words with a quiet authority that was unusual for her. "What you should have realized from looking over the file of Ranma's life is that almost every major decision in his life as been made by somebody else without once consulting or even telling him why or giving him a chance to have any control over his life. He's earned that right and it's a courtesy that you do owe him . . . her."

Belldandy thought about if for a moment before catching Skuld's eye and nodding her agreement with Urd.

Skuld took a deep breath and began. "If I let you change back to boy, a really cute boy at that; you'll end up married to Akane Tendou by the end of the year and murdered by her before the end of another year." Seeing the look of disbelief he added, "I am the goddess, er . . . god of the future. This is part of my powers and it is something that WILL happen. Even though you know about it now, somehow you will be manipulated, most likely by using your honor against you, into marrying her. And she WILL KILL YOU! This isn't theory; it's been recorded as future 'fact'. Ranma, I mean Ranko, my honor won't allow me to let you die. I will be the cause of your death if I have the means to stop it and fail to do so. I'm sorry; I won't let you die. You will have to stay as a girl until that danger is past. Once I'm sure that the future has changed and you are safe from that particular danger, then I promise that I'll allow you to be unlocked, even if you decide to never help me return to my girl form; I promise." Skuld had taken the redhead's face in his hands and looked her in the eyes as he made this promise.

The mortals were surprised when a clear bell like tone seemed to echo faintly from everywhere at once. Urd explained, "A kami cannot lie and when one of us makes a binding promise, it becomes a part of reality itself. It is now impossible for Skuld to not keep that promise because the very universe itself will force it to happen."

"How long?" asked Ranko despondently as she accepted the necessity of being locked.

"No idea at this point. Reality is still readjusting itself to what Kami-sama did a couple of days ago. The future is still sort of fragmented." Skuld gestured to his two sisters, "The three of us took a quick look at the future early this morning and it's still a mess. A change like that involving someone as important as you just causes chaos to the future. It could be only a few months, but it might be years. I just don't know right now, sorry."

"I'm important?" softly questioned the redhead.

"Yes Ranko," softly said Belldandy, "A warrior like you only happens once every thousand years or so. Nobody knows what your destiny is, certainly not even you; but be assured that you do have one if you survive long enough."

Kasumi hesitantly asked, "Are you sure about my sister Akane and Ranma? I know she has a temper, but killing someone just seems so unlike her. Despite her anger she really is a sweet girl."

Belldandy placed a comforting hand on Kasumi's arm, "Yes, we're sure. She doesn't do it on purpose, but her jealousy causes her to lose control. Part of the blame is Ranko's since she helped teach Akane that venting her anger physically had no repercussions."

"And Akane . . .?" hesitantly asked Kasumi.

Urd spoke softly, "She goes insane with guilt and grief. She never recovers."

The five were silent a moment before Ranko concluded with a sad heartfelt sigh; "Then I guess I'm Ranko for awhile. I suppose that I could live with it alright if only I could get rid of this annoying bracelet." The explanation left the others in near tears from giggling. A demonstration replaced the earrings that Ranko had removed twice already. 'Damn earrings anyway' thought Ranko.

.o0o. .o0o.

Urd sat down at her terminal. She hesitantly typed in a query:

'Demoness first class Mara, request health status.'

The system's response was immediate: Authorization?

Urd sat and contemplated the question for a moment before hesitantly responding:

'Sister'

The terminal paused a moment, an occurrence that was very unusual for this system, then:

Authorization accepted. Demoness first class Mara gravely injured but will survive. Recuperation expected to take a minimum of six months since injuries delivered by mortal Ranma Saotome will not readily heal for demons because of his chaotic nature. Query reported to subject. Subject asks 'why do you care?'

Urd thought of all the hurtful or wiseacre responses she could make and then typed:

'Because I am a kami and you are my sister. I don't like what you do but I do care for you – Urd.'

Urd then quickly logged out before she had to think anymore.

She decided not to tell Ranko that Mara was unlikely to show up for awhile. Perhaps Skuld could get to know the redhead if Ranko still thought she had to show up as a bodyguard.

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld watched Ranko as she gracefully executed a series of kata. Ranko was not pushing herself; she was just refreshing her muscle memory of some of the little used knowledge that she had gathered over the years of her wandering training.

Moving to a somewhat secluded part of the temple grounds, Skuld hesitantly tried to repeat some of the moves he'd just seen. Being blessed with an eidetic memory enabled him to faltering work through them gradually. He didn't notice Ranko slip up unobserved and watch him for a while.

"Not bad," smirked Ranko; "for a wimp anyway."

Skuld flushed with a mixture of embarrassment, irritation and surprise. He was about to make an angry retort when a momentary vision of a broken Ranma gasping for life surfaced in his memory. Shuddering, he said instead. "Thank you. Would you be willing to help me get better?"

Nonplused by the unexpected response to her taunt, Ranko paused for a few moments, then responded, "Depends on how serious you are. If all ya want is a bit of toning up, then nah. If ya really want to learn the art, then I'll think about it after we talk some first."

"Sounds fair," replied Skuld. He thought about all the things he'd learned about Ranko. He walked over to the redhead and asked, "Hi, my name is Skuld, I'm the god of the future. Do you want to be friends?"

Ranko's eyebrow's knitted themselves and she suspiciously asked, "What do ya mean? Ya know that I'm NOT gonna have ya kid, right?"

Skuld shrugged, "That's my problem, not yours. I'm not asking anything of you but the chance to be your friend." He hung his head a little and added, "I don't have very many and I know you have even fewer. I thought that it would be nice to have another friend, especially if you decide to teach me some of the martial arts."

Ranko slowly nodded and smirked, "Ok, but that don't mean I'm going to go easy on ya, puny."

"Ranko."

"Yeah, Skuld?"

Skuld wanted to scream, pound and bomb Ranma; but the memories of the 'bonding' effects forced her into an unusual somberness. "Friends don't insult friends." He added quietly, "I know that one of your fighting techniques is insulting your opponents until their rage overtakes their judgment, but we aren't fighting. Insults just don't help friendships grow. Thanks to Urd, I KNOW all the details of your life so that I know that you've experienced this perhaps without realizing why it happens that way. I'm guessing that you've never stopped to really think about it before or maybe you just don't know any better since that's how your father taught you. Please don't insult me. I want to be your friend, not your enemy. I think you already have enough of those."

Ranko was stunned into immobility and watched wordlessly as Skuld turned about and walked rapidly into the temple.

.o0o. .o0o.

The following day, Ranko and Nodoka were sorting the clothes that Ranko had asked her mother to get for her from the second hand store. They both figured that the 'annoying' bracelet would fix them up anyhow so why waste and money on good clothes that would only be ruined (from Ranko's point of view anyway).

Ranko was pondering Skuld's words and working the concept back through her relationships with others in the past. She had watched her mother closely all morning as she interacted with everyone else while they had been shopping together. She needed a few questions answered.

"Mom," hesitantly asked Ranko. "Words are pretty powerful ain't they?"

Nodoka nodded, "Yes Ranko. That is the source of the saying 'the pen is mightier than the sword.' While it is referring to the written word, the concept also applies to the spoken word. While your actions have something to do with making friends and enemies, your words are really the deciding factor." She paused then added, "Not only the mere words themselves, but also the context, when you say them, whether they are true and even how you say them; all of these are part of the way other people perceive what a person is saying to them. It's also part of the reason why it's important for you to learn to speak properly. It's a valuable tool that you can get the best effect out of only if you use it not only precisely but correctly as well."

'Sigh,' Ranko picked up a pair of tattered shorts and a stained tank top. "It sounds both really simple and horribly complex at the same time."

Her mother praised her, "Well said Ranko. That is an example of the power of words. That's why Nabiki was able to dominate so many others despite not being a warrior."

"Oh . . . OH!"

.o0o. .o0o.

"Hey Skuld, what cha doing?" asked Ranko as she settled next to the young god.

Skuld smiled at the girl and then replied, "I'm putting a computer together out of spare parts just to see what I can do with them. Do you have a computer?"

"Me? Nah, I've never used one of them things." She paused a moment and then continued, "Some of my buddies were trying to get me to play some games on their computers, but it seemed awful boring compared to the real stuff so I passed on it."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," sighed Skuld. "No matter how good a game gets, it is still only a game instead of real life. But the computer does have other uses. It's like a huge library at your fingertips."

"Really? Hummm, what's the use of a library?" Ranko asked. "I mean, I ain't really had much use for all those books and stuff unless there were some martial arts scrolls in there."

Skuld stopped what he was doing and thought deeply for a few moments while absently staring at the redhead. Ranko was puzzled at first then blushed deeply and turned away with a muttered imprecation, "Pervert!"

"What? Huh? Oh, I'm sorry Ranko, I didn't mean to ignore you and stare at you like that. I was just thinking." Skuld paused and then asked with a puzzled expression on his face, "But why did you call me a pervert?"

"You were staring at me. I always get called a pervert by Akane when she sees me looking at her." Ranko paused and concluded, "That's why I called you a pervert."

Skuld scratched his head in confusion and then replied, "Well, I may have been a little bit rude, but it was unintentional but certainly not perverted. Any perversion you sensed was in your own mind, not from what I did."

Ranko blushed again and then abruptly asked, "Well, do ya wanta train? I've decided that I'll teach ya." As she said this, she absently cracked her knuckles; apparently she had a bit of frustration to work off.

Skuld nodded and stood, but he stopped and then asked, "But what about the bonding, do you think that will interfere in training?"

Ranko paused, then nodded, "Yeah, I don't think there are exceptions to the rule. 'Member when I pushed you out of the way from Mara's first attack? There was a counter shove on me even though we weren't fighting. So I guess I can show you the moves but we won't be able to spar." Ranko shrugged, "Not that it matters anyway. We are so far apart in skill that sparring together wouldn't do either of us any good."

"Ranko?" Seeing that he had her attention, Skuld continued. "Why did you blush and call me a pervert a little while ago; what were you thinking?"

The redheaded girl hesitated, even going so far as scuffing her toe in the dust before responding in a whisper. "I was imagining what you were thinking when you were looking at me like that." She looked up defiantly, "I know what I look like and it's good, real good. I've heard how boys talk about girls so I thought that you were thinking those kind of things about me." Ranko gulped audibly and then softly said, "I forgot that you are really a girl just like I'm really a guy. You were right, the perversion was all in my own mind, sort of anyway."

"Sort of? What do you mean?" asked Skuld, a bit puzzled.

Ranko blushed, "Well, it's sort of funny in a way. I've been called a pervert a lot of times, but I really don't know just what it means. I sort of have an idea that it's something bad that guys do to girls but that's about all I know."

Skuld paused and then softly said, "Ranko, I don't have a whole lot of experience with all of that even if I am sort of old the way mortals measure time. Because the future is my domain, I've always been a kid, sort of. But I do know that you are missing a lot of knowledge that you should have. You really should talk to your mother or some other adult that you trust. What you don't know CAN hurt you, especially if you are a girl."

Ranko paused, a puzzled expression on her cute face, "Really?" At his confirming nod, she thought a moment and then apparently coming to a decision, said, "Yeah, maybe you're right." She sighed again and grumbled, "I just know that momma is gonna enjoy making me all embarrassed, but maybe it will be worth it."

She turned out to be right on both accounts when she asked her mother that evening.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranko was absently wandering through the mall trying to ignore the guys that were ogling her. She was supposed to meet with Urd for lunch in an hour and they would go to court together afterwards. She was not looking forward to it. Especially since that damn bracelet had already 'prettied' her up twice this morning. She'd given up on getting rid of the earrings for now and she was actually getting used to panties and a bra. She had to admit that silk was pretty nice. For lack of anything else that was fit to wear to court, she'd actually agreed to put on a dress that morning. It was now a rather sharp business suit. Seems that the bracelet had a link with the wearer and adapted its magic to the occasion. She was not happy.

"Pervert!" It was all the warning that Akane gave her. But it was enough as Ranko dodged the unseen mallet by jumping straight up onto the open second story floor of the mall.

Ranko leaned over the edge of the railing and coldly asked, "And just what is your problem Tendou?"

Akane was standing below glaring up at her; her friend Yuka beside her with a disgusted look on her face. "You're a pervert you baka. How dare you go around dressed like that?"

"Jealous?" asked Ranko with a smirk as she posed slightly.

Akane's face suffused with anger, she stormed up the stairs and stalked over to stand in front of the redhead. "Jealous? Of what? Of you? Don't make me laugh. You are just a nobody; a cursed pervert who leads other girls on with your womanizing ways. You have less honor than even your worthless ole man. Your martial arts skills are all based on dirty tricks and I'm tired of everybody believing that you are better than me." She paused and continued with a malicious grin, "I challenge you, right here and now. You always refused to spar with me, so let's fight instead. Right now, or are you afraid of getting your dress dirty?"

Ranko's face had blanched under this diatribe. A decision firmed in her mind; a decision that was the culmination of months of earlier talks with Tofu and more recent conversations with both Skuld and Urd. 'If I'm a girl, then I can fight girls without loss of honor. I have the right to defend my honor and myself.'

Ranko's only response was to slip off her heels and put her purse down on top of them before backing out into an open area of the mall. Her eyes had never left Akane. Once she'd set herself she asked softly, "Your challenge, what are the conditions?"

Akane was momentarily surprised at Ranko's response but then grinned. She was confident of her skills and really needed to work off some anger. This was going to be fun and 'he' had it coming anyway; "Straight martial arts, no dirty tricks or weird special moves." She handed her purse to Yuka and took a stance.

"Terms?" tersely demanded the redhead.

"When I win, you drop all that ridiculous legal stuff against my sister." She glowered and prepared to attack only to stop when Ranko asked.

"And if you should lose?"

"I never lose, especially to someone like you!" she screamed and attacked.

Ranko simply invoked her father's hidden thief technique and vanished. Her voice was easily heard though. "I will not fight under those conditions. Either state fair terms for your loss or admit that you are a bully."

Akane stood there fuming, her mallet in hand. "I said no special moves. You're already cheating."

"No, I am not cheating for I have not agreed to the terms, therefore I am neither fighting nor cheating," snarled Ranko still invisible but seemingly behind Yuka. "Besides," she added, "you are pretty obviously a hypocrite seeing as your mallet is a special technique."

Akane blushed as she glanced at the mallet and noticed all the frowning faces around her that seemed to agree with Ranko's assessment. She stored the mallet again and began to angrily pace back and forth, searching for her foe. "Alright, IF you happen to win without cheating, then I agree to apologize for all the times I've insulted you. I also will not insult you anymore. THERE!"

Ranko sighed as she de-cloaked. "You seek to take away damages truly owed me by your sister if you win and offer to give me what you already owe me should I win. Typical! Very well, I accept for the chance of actually pounding you for once instead of the other way around."

Akane hesitated as Ranko almost snarled these last words. But confident that her former fiancée would never harm her, she accepted with a feral smile and attacked without further warning.

Ranko slapped aside the incoming fist and dodged the rising knee as she gracefully slipped inside Akane's defense and slammed a palm into the other girl's gut. It was a gracefully executed but brutal blow that left Akane kneeling on the floor puking her guts out and struggling to not faint.

Yuka was stunned. The fight was unlike anything that she'd expected. She stared at the well-dressed redhead who was smoothing out her dress after putting her heels back on. She'd never believed that Ranma would have ever hit Akane ever in his life. But somehow he was gone and that redheaded demon was here instead; a demon of incredible skill that had no problems defending herself.

"You cheated. You had too. That was the only way you could have done that to me." Akane choked out, tears of pain and frustration hoarsening her voice.

"I dodged a slow clumsy attack and countered with a single open palm blow like any other skilled martial artist in defense and all you can do is cry 'cheat' like a little three year old girl." Ranko paused and then added almost as an aside, "I guess you really are a true heir of your pathetic school after all, Tendou. Humph, 'like father, like daughter'. Know this Tendou, I will defend myself from now on."

She walked away, her words spreading a wave of somber silence as she walked away.

Akane's face paled as she heard these words and she whispered, "Oh, no, what have I done. Ranma, I'm sorry." She struggled to her feet but Ranko was already gone. Yuka did not meet her friend's gaze. She was embarrassed for Akane's actions and words.

Akane hurried after Ranma, catching her just as she met up with Urd. Recognizing the pale haired goddess from Nabiki's description of her, Akane's temper once more surged and she snarled. "YOU! You are that damned attorney that's been harassing my sister. Well, I'll just teach you to let the Tendou's alone." With that she swung a haymaker for the taller woman. She connected and sent Urd sprawling.

A triumphant grin on her face, Akane smirked, "Well, that's what you deserve. Now let me tell you the way things are going to . . ."

That was as far as she got before Urd nailed her with a mana bolt that left her clothes in tatters, her skin almost parboiled and her hair shorn in a ragged cut that smoked a bit. Ranko's eyes were wide with shock, but before she could rush to help her former fiancée, Urd grabbed her wrist and whispered, "Relax, Ranko. It looks worse than it really is. She's not really hurt, a little sore perhaps and a whole lot embarrassed when she wakes up in just a few moments. Leave her to learn this lesson without you rescuing her again. If you interfere, she won't appreciate it; neither will she learn from it either."

Ranko looked into Urd's eyes questioningly, but then nodded and followed her attorney into the restaurant for their meal and a final briefing together. Akane regained consciousness just in time to see Ranko walk away from her. At that moment something broke in her heart, she knew beyond any doubt that she'd lost Ranma.

Yuka had sunk to her knees beside her friend nearly sobbing, "Akane? Akane, are you alright? Should I call for medical help?" She paused when Akane sat up and then she helped Akane to her feet.

Yuka barely heard her friend whisper, "Oh, Yuka. I really messed up. I finally drove him away. Damn my temper anyway."

"Akane? Are you Ok?"

Akane looked over at her nearly hysterical friend and then painfully replied, "No Yuka, I don't think I'll ever really be OK again. But for now, all I want to do is go home." She took a few painful steps away. She was either unaware of how revealing her clothes were now in their damaged state or she just didn't care. She held her hand out to her friend, "Come on, let's just go home before I make it any worse than it already is."

Yuka quickly took off her light jacket and wrapped it around the injured girl. "Ok, let's go. I'll stay with you till you get home."

.o0o. .o0o.

Author's note: Additional Ranma fan-fiction can be found on my Web Pages.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld hesitantly made his way across Asgard. He watched Thor practicing with his hammer for a while before he gained enough courage to call out, "Hey Thor, do you have a moment?"

"Huh, oh, hi little one." Thor grinned down at the diminutive (by comparison) kami. "What do you need? Misplace your doll or something?"

"Thor, I'm in trouble . . ." That was as far as he got.

"I'll tear him apart." Thor roared, "Who has taken your honor from you young maiden?"

Blushing brightly, Skuld grabbed onto Thor's arm and yelled to get his attention. "NO, that's not what I meant."

"Oh, well . . . that's good. Right?"

Skuld decided to just 'bite-the-bullet', dragging the explanation out just wasn't going to work he could see. "Thor, I made Dad mad and He changed me into a guy. But I don't know how to be a boy. You are the manliest man I know so I thought that maybe you'd help me . . . you know, be a guy."

Thor was shocked for a moment before gently chuckling. "That's one heck of a practical joke. I didn't think the ole Man had it in Him." Thor didn't get a chance to say anything else as a massive lightning bolt toasted him.

Fortunately lightning was part of the massive kami's domain and he recovered almost immediately. Hair in wild disarray and clothing smoking, Thor observed somewhat rhetorically, "I guess it wasn't a joke then."

Skuld sighed and decided to try again later.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranko watched as Skuld explained the mechanics of how a computer worked. She was a bit loathe to admit it, but she was impressed with what Skuld was able to do.

Skuld smiled, "Here Ranko, let me show you something called the Web." He grinned as he thought of a way to capture her attention, "It's a place where you can find information about all sorts of martial arts and you don't have to worry about being forced to pay for it."

He shared a grin with the redhead, "That's why Nabiki was so careful to not let you know anything about it."

In the next couple of hours, Skuld taught Ranko how to use the computer and surf the net. Ranko was hesitant at first until she happened on an obscure martial arts technique that she already knew. Suddenly fired up, she began to treat it as a challenge, her mind seeking ways to glean information useful to her.

Skuld looked at his newly assembled computer and then back at the redhead using it with obvious enjoyment. Finally coming to a decision he hesitantly asked, "Ranko, would you like to have this computer for your own?"

Suddenly suspicious since nobody ever did anything for her without wanting something in return, Ranko asked, "Why? What do you want in return? I ain't gonna have your kid, you know that don't ya? I'm a guy. So bribing me ain't gonna work."

Skuld absently observed to himself that Ranko's language skills apparently deteriorated whenever she was under pressure. "Yeah, I know that. It's ok too. I really would like to become a girl again, but it's not fair for you to pay that price for somebody else."

Ranko was apparently not listening very well; "I ain't gonna marry ya, no matter what you say."

Skuld sighed and then decided that it was time to clear up a misunderstanding that was primarily Urd's fault at the start. "Ranko, you don't have to 'have' my child. Kami-sama only said that you had to 'name' my first born child of a mortal mother."

"But . . . I thought."

"Well, unless you happened to be interested that is," Skuld teased a little.

"No, nope, nada, no way . . ." Ranko would have continued if Skuld hadn't placed a finger over her perfect lips. Still she muttered, "I'm a guy."

"I understand," Skuld said as he smiled at her. "No, the only reason I brought up the computer bit was that I was just wondering if you wanted to have a computer at home to use. I already have a couple of them and I thought it would be nice to be able to exchange e-mail with you as well as paying you something for teaching me some martial arts."

Ranko felt a slight warm glow in her chest at these words and hesitantly nodded yes. She didn't try to speak, as she was very confused in a happy sort of way that made no sense to her at all.

The two of them boxed up the computer and quickly transported it to Ranko's room. As they set it up, Nodoka peeked in at the young couple. She said nothing, but she inwardly smiled as she watched her child's horizon's expand a little further.

.o0o. .o0o.

Thor was enjoying teaching the younger kami all the end's & clouts of being a guy, at least from his perspective that is. "Alright, Skuld, let's see you twirl that mallet of yours again. After all, 'real men' use war hammers in battle."

"But . . . bu"

"Humm, I see what you mean. Your mallet is a bit lightweight to get much distance with it and still do much damage." Thor's massive brow beetled in thought a moment. "Here, try my hammer and see what you think. If you like it maybe we can modify your mallet to be like it somewhat."

Thor handed his massive hammer to Skuld who strained to pick it up.

Thor grinned and imparted some of his energy into the hammer with a deft twist.

Skuld and the hammer began to twirl. Thor scratched his head a bit puzzled as he wasn't sure if Skuld was twirling the hammer or if it was the other way around and around and . . .

The kami of thunder shrugged his massive shoulders and sent a stronger surge of power to the hammer. The huge war hammer began to glow and lightning coursed its path about the struggling Skuld for a few tense moments before the hammer soared off into a thunderous strike against the mountain face that Thor used for his target practice.

"Good toss young one." Thor glanced about for Skuld. "Young one? Skuld? Where did that scamp go?"

Thor summoned a lightning bolt and rode it to the cracked granite mountain flank. He reached for the handle of his massive hammer only to stop when he heard a pitiful sound.

"Owie."

Thor carefully pulled the hammer from the indentation that it had made in the mountain and looked into the hole. A large sweatdrop rolled down the back of his head as he looked at Skuld imbedded into the mountain with the imprint of a war hammer running the entire length of his body.

"Humm, maybe a war hammer isn't the right tool for you after all," he said. Thor looked about himself, he could have sworn that he heard Odin laughing somewhere in the distance.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ukyo was a little bit surprised when she heard the full (modified) story about what happened to change Ranma into Ranko; they withheld the fact that Skuld was the goddess who had locked Ranma and they said nothing about Skuld's gender dilemma. She was somewhat appeased when both Skuld and Ranko affirmed that they had absolutely no intention of ever becoming an item, not that she really thought her Ranchan swung that way in any case. On the other hand, it pretty well ended her chances with Ranma after Skuld said that it probably be years before a 'cure' could be found. Ranko's feminine appearance was very disconcerting to her though. She admired the new identification wistfully wondering if maybe her legal gender could be changed back to girl.

Ranko grinned, "Let me ask mom about it. Give me the details and I'll see if she can help my best friend."

Ukyo sighed, 'there it was again; 'best friend'. She was really beginning to believe that Ranma, no, Ranko really was serious about just being best friends.' A whimsical smile played across her lips as she considered the problem. She really didn't want revenge on Ranma or Ranko anymore, but a little payback would be nice. She grinned, "Ranko, I've got a better idea. Since I'm legally a guy and now you are legally a girl, whatta ya say that we tie the knot?"

Skuld and Ukyo blinked as Ranko seemingly vanished, the slamming of the door telling them that she had really left at 'light-speed'.

Before Skuld could say a word, the momentary silence was broken by Ukyo's giggles. "Gotcha Ranma!" she crowed.

Skuld thought about it a moment then chuckled too. Seeing the questioning expression on the chef's face, he continued, "So I guess that you were just getting back at Ranko for stringing you along. Do you want me to let her know that or do you want to 'develop' this situation a little longer?"

Ukyo wiped the tears from her face and softly replied, "Just let it be for now. Ranma, I mean Ranko and I will work it out. In some ways I'm serious, but I couldn't really do that to my best friend. Besides, I'm into guys, not gals.

After leaving Ukyo, Skuld quickly found Ranko and soon the two were walking along together talking about their recent experiences. First at Ukyo's, but the conversation quickly turned to something on the internet that was bothering Ranko. Ranko was blushing both with anger and embarrassment as she described a recently found web-site that specialized in semi-nude photos of herself.

"What!" Skuld fumed. "Tell me their address and I'll see about creating a virus that not only will wipe out the site, the server it's on, but will poison everybody who visits it."

A week ago, Skuld's threat wouldn't have meant anything to the neo girl; but now, all she could say was, "Re . . . really! You'd do that for me? Thank you."

"RANMA!"

The young couple stopped and after a quick glance at each other, rapidly scanned the area for . . . oh, Akane.

The angry girl stormed up to Ranko and hissed, "It's only been just over a couple of weeks and already you have another bimbo. Did you tell her your dirty little secret?"

Skuld chuckled (as opposed to giggled, he really was working on the guy stuff). "Actually, I'm a guy. But don't get me wrong, I think his guy side is just as cute as her girl side is."

Akane lost it then. But just before she could swing the chi mallet she had projected, Skuld nailed her with a carefully judged mallet strike of his own that was delivered like an uppercut. Akane vanished into the atmosphere to appear in the Tendou koi pond a few moments later.

Akane sat in the pond sputtering with anger and frustration. It seems that every time she decided to approach Ranma and apologize, Ranma would do something perverted and set her off again.

Soun sat on the porch and wailed . . . the Tendou patriarch waterworks was in full operation.

She hissed in seething anger. "This is ALL your fault you two lazy old farts!" Akane then pointed an accusing finger at her father, "If you had at least acted like a father and a man, your daughters wouldn't have to cover your ass and we wouldn't be in this situation."

She glared at the elder Saotome, "I'm beginning to understand why you've been able to stay away from your wife for a decade. Maybe your interests lie along the same path as that of your worthless son." Matching their angry glares with a blazing one of her own, she clarified, "I saw Ranma walking along with a guy; a guy that likes both his girl side AND his boy side." She paused and added snidely, "Maybe that's why you spend so much time with my dad instead of going home to your wife."

Passing the two frozen men, she stormed into the house, carefully avoiding the destroyed kitchen and made her way upstairs to her room where she had some snacks hidden.

Kasumi quietly came home from spending her day with Belldandy and some of her other friends and amusedly watched the two fathers build a campfire in the yard and prepare a meal for themselves.

Gathering her courage, Kasumi spoke, "Father, as Akane has taken over the household as part of her bridal training since she's the one designated to inherit it, I've decided it was time for me to start to get my own life together. I've enrolled in the local community college. Beginning Monday, I start classes."

Both fathers whimpered.

.o0o. .o0o.

Over the next several weeks, Ranko studied hard with her mother's encouragement and help. Several days before school started, Ranko was reconsidering having to repeat several years of school. "Mom," she asked. "Do I gotta start school all over?"

"Yes dear, you gotta." She snickered, "at least until you learn to speak somewhat more civilized at the very least."

Ranko nodded, "Well, ok, I guess it really doesn't matter. Besides, it will make it easier in school this way since I already took these classes."

"Really?" asked her mother. "That would be true only if you learned it the first time through."

Ranko sighed and picked up her books again after she finished breakfast.

* * * *

Setsuna grimaced as she read the dossier on the new student. 'So this was the source of all their problems, Ranko Saotome, age 16. Drat! That means she'll be in the same class as the inners. Oh, whoopee. Wait a moment, I thought her name was Ranma, oh, that's her elder brother, ok. How odd, they have the same birthdays. Hummm, there's a note in her file about how she sometime 'subs' for her brother. Ah, so that is where the name confusion comes from.'

Her brow creased in surprise, 'pretty good scores. She's a lot smarter than her brother it seems.' She looked over at the other Saotome folder on her desk that had a note on it that said, 'withdrawn from school for training trip'. 'I wonder why the time gate only shows her now and only her brother in the past since that disaster with Skuld? Hummm, must be the influence of the kami or maybe it's because that's why and when Skuld lost her powers because of her.'

Setsuna decided that she'd have to give the four inner scouts that also attended the school some advance warning and information about the girl. It wouldn't do for them to be either unaware of or alienated from someone so important to their uncertain future.

.o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki came home briefly one weekend. She didn't stay the night.

Akane struggled with the laundry. She snickered to herself in embarrassment as she pulled out her pink (formerly white) blouses. Genma stared at his pink gi.

Kasumi just smiled as she did her own laundry.

Soun hesitantly started to clean up the kitchen. Mostly they just tossed out the pans and bowls instead of trying to clean them. Genma used a hammer and chisel to clean several of the counter tops of splatters from Akane's experiments in exotic cuisine.

When dinnertime came around, Kasumi left citing a previous engagement with a friend. Genma resignedly started another campfire.

Soun whimpered, he'd tried talking with Kasumi but she'd been rather obstinate in her decision that reparations from Akane were necessary before she'd make another meal for the family.

Akane just snarled. She was NOT going to admit that she was at fault. On the other hand, she no longer tried cooking. Not after the third time she'd tasted her own food.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranko sighed as she waited to be introduced to the rest of the class. It was the start of the second half of the school year and she wasn't all that thrilled to be returning to school; especially not as a sophomore instead of a senior. On the positive side, she had managed to score exceptionally high on the tests. On the negative side, her mother had used that as a basis to enroll her into a pre-medical study group. 'Oh, joy. What was it with mother's wanting their kids to be doctor's anyway?'

The day had gone fairly well. She had actually managed to stay awake in class and learn. It was amazing what having a good night's sleep and not having to fight virtually non-stop did for one's ability to stay awake and concentrate.

She had met some very friendly girls who almost seemed to already know something about her. That made her a bit suspicious, but she reserved her judgment for the moment. Ranko was hoping that Ami, Usagi, Minako and Makato would all turn out to be friends. All four of them had unusually strong auras that intrigued her. They all sat fairly near to her seat in class. Each of the four girls was very different yet that actually make their potential friendship all the more interesting.

After school, Ranko trudged off to find where this 'doc-club' was meeting. 'Oh, joy, whoopee, yea'.

The club councilor, who turned out to be Ami's mother, was a practicing physician. She glanced at the new addition to the club and decided to talk privately with her later. "Hello kids, I hope you had a good vacation between semesters, but as I warned you last time, this semester we will be doing 'hands-on' training instead of classroom study like last semester. This will be a chance for all of you to put some of your book skills to practical use. In addition, it will help you to decide if this sort of work is something that you can enjoy."

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld decided that if he was going to be a guy for the rest of his life, he might as well get a bit of social training on how to go about it. He knew just who to ask for help too.

"Hey Thor, can I ask you for a favor?" Skuld blushed brightly but continued, "Tell me about guys and girls, Ok?"

Thor scratched his head, a sound like a logging chain being drug through the brush. "I don't understand Skuld. Since you used to be a girl, don't you know all about girls already?"

Skuld blushed even brighter, "No, you see I never even thought about stuff like that before so I . . . well, I mean I never did anything. I mean, I mean . . . I just don't know any of that stuff because it wasn't ever important to me."

Thor nodded in simulated understanding. "Ok, I'll tell you some of the stuff that I've done and seen and let you chose what you want to try. That work for you?" Seeing the younger fella nod, the older kami then said. "Come on. Let's head over to the tavern for a few mugs of mead. While I talk, the other guys may have some advice to give also."

.o0o. .o0o.

'Lousy miserable weekend,' mumbled Ranko under her breath. Actually it wasn't the fact that it was a weekend that was bothering the girl. She was complaining about what was happening this particular weekend. Weekends in general were great, but this weekend, she shuddered.

She opened the fridge and looked for some leftovers. She saw the bowl of 'red beans and rice' and shuddered again. 'No way was she gonna 'celebrate' that again.' She grabbed an apple and quickly shut the door.

She looked at the clock, 'well, Skuld would be over soon. That would distract her for awhile,' she thought. She was all too aware of her body just now and craved distraction.

.o0o. .o0o.

Belldandy was beginning to get worried about her younger brother. For nearly a month he'd come home to the temple on most school nights staggering into the temple and collapsing into bed and reeking of mead.

She asked Urd for help only to blush a bit as Urd revealed that Skuld was receiving guy training at the local heavenly stud institute, i.e. the Asgard tavern. "As though any of those idiots know anything," whispered Belldandy only to blush when she realized that the reason Urd was giggling was because she'd overheard her and agreed too.

Oh well, at least Skuld was keeping his weekends free for Ranko's visits. Both of the youngsters seemed to enjoy their time together. Belldandy sighed, 'it was a shame that they couldn't spend more time together.' Belldandy paused in thought and then placed a call to Nodoka.

"Hello Nodoka, this is Belldandy . . ." Ten minutes of feminine pleasantries passed before Belldandy suggested, "I hear that Ranko is having a little trouble with her classes. You know, Skuld is very smart and has already completed all those same studies. He could tutor Ranko and she could also continue to give Skuld some additional martial arts lessons as well. That would be good training should Ranko ever decide to pursue a career as a sensei."

Nodoka though about it for a moment then, "I'll ask Ranko. It's time my child started to make those kinds of decisions for herself. I think the idea is a good one though. Will that do?"

"Of course," said Belldandy. "Please have Ranko call if the idea is acceptable."

.o0o. .o0o.

Urd sighed in satisfaction. The legal wrangle with Nabiki had gone just about as she'd expected. She'd met with Nabiki and her attorney in a pre-court meeting after the initial court appearances and displayed the evidence she was prepared to present to the court.

While Nabiki's attorney had appeared shocked, Nabiki was in fact stunned. She'd not realized just how legally vulnerable she was not to mention that the picture Urd painted of her was chilling even to her.

Urd was not interested in negotiating and Nabiki was scared to fight her in court, so the settlement had resulted in Ranko receiving the lion's share of the net profits. Nabiki was able to negotiate a deal whereby she surrendered all her financial interests in Ranma/Ranko and no longer marketed any images of him/her. In return, Urd agreed to not make public the information she had been able to gather.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranko had talked to Dr. Mizuno and been granted permission to participate in the club's work-study program based on her years of experience dealing with her own injuries during her 10 year martial arts journey.

Ami grabbed the redhead as her club partner in order to study the other girl a bit closer. The two of them were assigned to be 'candy-stripers' each Saturday afternoon at a pediatric rehabilitation ward in the local hospital.

Ami and the hospital staff were surprised at the depth of knowledge that Ranko displayed on how to restore body mobility.

Ami grinned at the redhead as she cajoled the 8-year-old boy into attempting to walk. "I was watching this Dragonball episode the other day," Ranko started.

"Really, what happened?" the boy eagerly asked.

"I saw them do this really neat maneuver," she squinted at the lad, "You know, I think that you could even do it."

The boy's face fell. "No . . . not since my dad . . . hurt me." The boy struggled to hide his tears, his face to the floor.

"Hey, your ole man is a saint compared to mine and I can do it," the redhead challenged.

"Your dad hu . . . hurt you too?"

Ranko pulled up her skirt on one side noticing that the young boy was much less embarrassed than she was. "Yeah, see the couple of scars here?" She sighed, "There's more but I'm sort of embarrassed to show them now. Anyway, let me show you this move. It's neat and I know that it's something you can do."

The boy looked at the pair of faint white scars that arched over the older girl's knee. He hesitantly held out a small hand and touched them. "That must have hurt a lot." Seeing her nod, he asked, "You really think I can do this." At her smile, he grinned just a tiny bit, "Ok, I'll try if you'll help me."

"No problem kid. Now first you have to stretch out the muscles like this, really slow and careful. Don't worry, I gotcha." Ranko added.

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld spent the time just after school tutoring Ranko. Afterwards the pair of them worked out together in the very large new dojo that Ranko had had built next door to her mother's house using the money gained from Nabiki. Skuld had suggested that perhaps he could be Ranko's financial advisor and agent. The brilliance of Ranko's answering grin rivaled Akane's best.

Ranko was inordinately pleased with the progress that Skuld was making. On the other hand, Skuld was actually remembering when (s)he'd once learned this before when it was the 'wave-of-the-future' several centuries ago or so.

The pair spent every weekend together besides the near daily after school tutoring. Ranko was still on the watch for Mara and Skuld felt guilty for forcing Ranko to be a girl. Both were also helping the other to cope with being the 'wrong' gender. Sometimes it got sort of funny.

Nodoka has having a hard time suppressing her giggles as she watched the two youths attempt to teach the other 'how-to-walk-right' as they termed it.

"No Ranko, don't stride like that! Take shorter steps and keep your feet closer to the centerline of your travel." Seeing the blank look, Skuld attempted to exaggeratedly demonstrate what he meant only to have Ranko fall over giggling uncontrollably.

Still giggling, Ranko stood up and attempted to mockingly repeat what Skuld had done only to have the unusual stimulation of her rear gracefully swaying as her body moved slightly in counterpoint as well. It was very frustrating to her for him to be so blatantly right; especially when her mom praised her for walking so femininely.

Ranko was a bit more direct in her countering lesson. She grabbed Skuld's hips from behind and held them in place as she forced him into a 'manly' stride. In fact she ran him several miles before she was 'satisfied' with the lesson. She wasn't exactly sure what the lesson was but his body trembling with fatigue and sweat seemed to work for her.

Skuld had released his hold on his age lock and even allowed it to accelerate to about thrice the mortal rate. At this rate, in a year his apparent age would match Ranko's.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ami and Ranko were just finishing up their 'shift' at the hospital one Saturday afternoon when a diamon suddenly appeared outside the building. Ranko was stunned to notice that the weird creature seemed to look a little bit like an animated sub-compact car. But when it crushed the outer wall of the hospital grounds and advanced toward the children's wing, she lost all hesitation about confronting it.

"Ranko" Ami called to her, "Let's get out of sight. Let the Sailor Scouts handle it." Ami was going to add more but Ranko was already gone. Dashing behind the shadowed edge of another building with her communicator in one hand pressing the emergency call button, Ami raised her transformation pen in her other hand in preparation for changing when the sight before her caused her to stop in stunned surprise.

Ranko was pissed: totally, royally and thoroughly. She attacked without fanfare or insults. No testing or kid gloves, she went for the kill from the first strike. She hit the arm that threatened the hospital with a moko takabisha blowing it off at the apparent elbow. As the creature screamed with its blaring horn, she darted at full speed between its legs and hit both knees with the Amazon 'breaking point' attack as she passed. Both knees exploded in shrapnel that she left behind so fast was her attack. She rebounded off the building wall and her glowing fists suddenly shimmered with a huge glowing mallet that she swung with all of her incredible strength. The blow was so fast that the mallet head became supersonic and the sonic blast blew out the windows of the hospital on that side even as the remains of the diamon simply vanished in the resulting explosion that left a fuming but slightly panting redhead standing in a deep crater where a construct of evil had once stood.

"Holy shit!" murmured Ami into her communicator. The shy girl was subjected to rather intense teasing by her teammates when they met for a Sailor Scout meeting later that evening. The teasing did not last past the explanation of what she'd seen.

.o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi and Belldandy were sitting and talking, having a very pleasant visit when they were startled by Urd's shout, "YES, way to go girl!"

Urd appeared, almost trotting as she rushed to the TV, turned it on and inserted a tape into the player. "You just have to watch this. It happened only a few minutes ago and it's awesome."

It was, especially the appended slow motion 'replay' that Urd had thoughtfully prepared. "Oh, my!" Was the other two girls' response, in stereo.

Kasumi hesitantly said, "That was Ranko, but what was she fighting and when did she get so powerful?"

Urd grinned and replied proudly; "The monster was a leftover from those that the Sailor Scouts used to fight. As for power, Ranko is a lot more powerful than even that. It's pretty obvious that she wanted to end the fight in a hurry so that no one in the hospital would be harmed." She snickered, "Looks like she should have pulled that last blow with her war hammer a bit though. The breaking glass caused by the sonic boom didn't hurt anybody but it could have."

"Oh, my," whispered Kasumi. As Urd started to remove the tape, Kasumi asked, "Urd, may I have a copy of that, please?"

Nabiki had come home for the weekend again and Ryouga had shown up also. After the rest of the family had eaten the camp meal prepared by Ryouga for the family, Kasumi (who had eaten with Belldandy) slipped the tape into the player.

Responses were just about as expected.

Ryouga rose to his feet and shouted out enraged, "How dare he learn MY technique. That dishonorable cur will die when we next meet." A sudden visage of Urd caused him to blanch and then sit down again.

Akane frowned and snarled, "I can't believe that jerk has stolen my technique." She sniffed disdainfully, "and she didn't even have a very good follow through either."

Genma huffed, "I don't know who that was. That girly girl is no relation to me."

Nabiki's eyes nearly popped out, "You . . . you mean that's normal for Ranma?"

A quiet chuckle brought everybody's attention to Kasumi. "Her IDENITY card says she is RANKO Saotome, age 16, DAUGHTER of Genma and Nodoka Saotome. She's using a standard GIRL's mallet attack just like Akane does and an AMAZON technique that I believe Ryouga also knows. She was there to defend the children's wing of a hospital and YOU weren't." Everybody caught the significance of the words that Kasumi had emphasized. Ranma had got on with her life and was doing well; very well without them.

Kasumi added as an aside to Nabiki, "Hummm, actually, Ranko was holding back on her power a lot so that she wouldn't cause any harm to the kids in the hospital. Apparently she's a lot more powerful than that even." She sighed and added, "I hope she doesn't get into any trouble for breaking those windows. It was an accident. I don't think she anticipated the mallet head's sonic boom."

"Daughter?" Genma questioned, "I don't have a daughter. What do you mean? That used to be my good for nothing son who got himself locked as a worthless girl."

Kasumi responded with a quiet grin, "Oh, but I heard it from the head of the Saotome clan, one Nodoka Saotome I believe, that she'd adopted Ranko as her daughter since you had declared that Ranma was not your son anymore."

"Nodoka?" Genma thought about repercussions possibly involving a katana and decided that visiting his home was not a desirable thing to do any time soon.

"Why age 16?" asked Nabiki.

"I think it was to give Ranko a chance to do better in school, besides with her having the same birth date as Ranma, only two years younger, it created an explanation for the confusion between them." Kasumi added, "Sometimes that's all somebody needs in order to be able to ignore the actual magic in Ranma life. Beside," she added, "that is Ranko's apparent mental and physical age anyway, so it works out pretty well."

Ryouga asked, "Why was she at the hospital anyway? I don't think that it's near her school or home or even a mall."

Nabiki gave him a weird look, "You're right, but how would you know that given your sense of direction and spatial relationships?"

Ryouga just glowered a bit in response.

Kasumi grinned; she had discovered that she just loved doing this. "It turns out that Ranko is in a pre-med school club; she's sometimes a 'candy-striper' there in the hospital's children's wing. Apparently she's pretty good. I've heard rumors (from Nodoka only) that she may give up martial arts and study medicine instead."

Soun and Genma both blanched and quickly huddled to confer about what they could do about this latest development without seeming to take Ranma back just yet.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ami had just finished helping Skuld to tutor Ranko at the redhead's home and was watching Ranko teach Skuld some of the basic kata of her school. She was in awe both of Ranko's martial arts skill and her teaching abilities. One thing she did notice though was that every once in awhile Ranko would issue a slighting jib that was obviously aimed at challenging Skuld to do better. Skuld on the other hand would simply freeze at that point and wait. Eventually Ranko would apologize and restate what she was trying to say. Skuld would nod and they would continue. It was pretty obvious to the casual observer (herself in this case) that lessons were being taught on both sides.

When Ranko was finished teaching and had set Skuld to repeating some of the day's lessons (kata), Ami took a chance and asked, "Ranko, I was wondering if I and a few of my girl friends could train with you like Skuld is doing?"

Ranko hesitated. She wasn't really licensed to teach yet but figured that since Skuld was a kami, a minor problem like that wouldn't matter; besides she did have a sort of honor debt to the girl turned guy. She sighed, "I'm sorry Ami, but I don't have a license to actually teach classes, so" . . . she paused in consternation as Urd flipped a large manila envelop toward her.

Urd snickered to herself, 'having an approved operations plan made this go so much easier', she thought to herself. It had been quite a while since she had really enjoyed her work so much.

Ranko opened the folder she found inside the envelope. She stared blankly at the certificate inside until Ami finally took it from her hand and curiously examined it.

"Wow," exclaimed Ami. "This says that you do have a license to teach. That's just weird. I mean you are only 16; you must be a prodigy or something."

"I'm the best," absently murmured Ranko.

"Now that your license has shown up, will you teach us now?" Ami was about to mention all the free tutoring that she'd been doing but then changed her mind.

Ranko hesitated, and as she did, Skuld absently noted. "Ami and her friends are a pretty diverse lot. Trying to cope with them might be more than you can do. On the other hand, it would provide a lot of experience in being a sensei. Come to think of it, those girls are your friends and they've all helped you in various ways." He looked over at Ami and added significantly, "Some more than others."

Ranko shrugged her shoulders in reluctant acceptance, "Yeah, I guess it would be ok. Can you arrange a meeting with all of the ones that are interested and we'll set up some sort of schedule."

Ami nodded. After seeing Ranko fight, she was pretty sure that this was something the scouts needed to do to supplement their magic powers.

After Ami left, Skuld walked over to Ranko and remarked, "Well you have your first formal class. Now all you have to decide is whether your students are going to be your friends or your enemies when you are done. In other words, are you going to teach them in 'your' newly emerging style or your father's old insulting style."

Ranko frowned and snapped, "Yeah, I understand. By the way, you haven't finished up your assigned kata yet."

Skuld grinned slightly and began to work his body again while his sensei glowered. Skuld was glad that Ranko would be helping the Sailor Scouts as she knew who they were since she had actually suffered a bit of hero worship for the pretty warriors before her encounter with Ranma. As a result of her interest in them, she had made the effort to discover their identities. Ranko's recounting of her sole meeting with the outer scouts had shocked the young kami and forced him to reevaluate the consequences of Crystal Tokyo.

.o0o. .o0o.

Soun was in a panic. Nabiki had refused to pay for the upkeep of the home and dojo and they were running out of instant ramen. Genma had suggested pawning a few things but Akane had overheard him and promptly pounded him for attempting to 'steal' her inheritance.

He sighed, "Genma, old friend, I'm afraid that it's time for the unthinkable."

Genma shuddered. "You don't mean . . . get a . . . get a job do you?"

Soun nodded. "It's either that or start additional classes in the dojo."

Akane paused, "Daddy, I like that last idea. If the two of you team taught, then I could not only learn from you but I could help with some of the classes as well and get some experience teaching." She paused and then blushed and quietly muttered just loud enough for them to hear, "I can't do housework or cook, so I better concentrate on the martial arts if I want to carry on the school."

Kasumi had been quietly listening and now quietly asked, "Akane, that's father's idea. What are your dreams? I know you once had dreams of the theater."

Soun frowned at his eldest who just ignored him. Akane sighed and then quietly answered, "Maybe once I did. But like a schoolgirl crush, it was something I grew out of. Father's dream of continuing the dojo and school is also my dream as well now." She grinned, "Come on, Ranma has shown us that the Art is also a type of theater." She began chuckling and added, "In actually, it's a too real form of virtual reality or perhaps it's a weird form of some type of performance arts."

Soun and Genma shouted with joy and slapped each other on the backs. Kasumi just smiled proudly at her youngest sister. Akane knelt before Kasumi, "Kasumi, I'm sorry for breaking my promises. What do I need to do for repatriations?"

Kasumi firmly replied, "When the house, yard and dojo are in the same condition as before you broke your promise to me, then I will resume helping. But understand that I will no longer shoulder the whole load as I did before." She added, "I have my own dreams to follow now."

.o0o. .o0o.

Author's note: Additional Ranma fan-fiction can be found on my Web Page.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

Usagi was getting what she claimed she wanted. She was no longer going to be Queen; she could just be a normal girl instead. Well, most of the time. She still appeared at times as Sailor Moon, whenever some sort of public disturbance seemed to require it. Still, it was different. The public no longer seemed to blindly trust them and that hurt a little bit. She was irritated that the outers were avoiding her. Haruka and Michiru had never provided a very good explanation for their attack on the girl that was fast becoming a friend for the inner scouts.

The bonds between the scouts were changing too. Mamoru had said some mean things to Usagi again but this time she'd done the unthinkable. She'd dumped him. Rei had gleefully caught him on the rebound.

The other four inner scouts had formed into a closer team facilitated perhaps because they all attended the same school. The training that Ranko was providing not only helped improve their skills but it allowed them to watch over her. Ever since the news cast had made public Pluto's declaration that the very existence of the Sailor Scouts was tied to Ranko's very life, the Scouts worried that someone would discover her name and she would become a target.

She was glad that Ranko was still doing the 'candy striper' work even with her life potentially in danger if her identity should ever be found out. It was one less day that they worked out she gratefully thought.

.o0o. .o0o.

Soun stood proudly as his youngest daughter graduated from high school; not at the top of her class like Nabiki or Kasumi but reasonably close. Close enough that she'd been able to combine her martial arts honors and scholastic skills into several good scholarships.

Kuno strutted proudly toward his future family-in-law. "Behold, I am come among you. Where is she that is destined to be my bride?"

Genma, ever quick to pick up on these types of opportunities, nudged Soun and suggested, "You know, since Ranma is no longer available, we still need to make sure of the future of the school. He does like Akane and he's rich too. Could do a lot worse; at least we would both have a proper retirement after all our hard work. We might have to spend some time training one of the grandkids but we can share the work this time. What do ya think?"

Soun happily nodded. It was the best idea he'd heard in awhile. As Akane walked laughing and giggling with her friends over to where her family stood. Soun quickly confronted Kuno, "Young man, what are your intentions toward my daughter?"

"AND her family and friends," quickly added Genma.

Kuno quickly puffed up; "She is my destined. I would cherish her and her family as I do my own." He paused; something didn't seem right about that.

Before he could continue, Genma shouted, "SOLD! Now what was the normal 'finders-fee' for this sort of arrangement?" Seeing Soun glaring at him, he quickly added, "Oh, yes, some sort of settlement with your future father-in-law is normal in the case involving a noble house, is it not?"

Kuno paused in consternation, he wasn't actually sure but it did sort of seem right considering all his dealings with Nabiki. He shrugged and pulled out his entire monthly allowance, he thought that it would do. He pulled off a few large bills and gave them to Genma who greedily accepted them even as his eyes never left the rest of the money. The remainder Kuno simply handed to Soun, "This should do, should it not?"

Soun was about to take the bills when a slim hand intercepted the bills. Nabiki quickly counted the money, a surprised look crossing her face. "And what is this for?" she asked as she fanned the bills toward her father.

Soun grinned and gleefully announced just as Akane finally joined them, "I'm so happy! Congratulations Akane, Kuno is your new fiancée."

Kuno glomped onto Akane for a brief moment of happiness before she decked him. She glared at her father, but before she could say anything Nabiki fanned the money in front of her. "What?" she snarled.

Nabiki stuffed the money in Akane's pocket, "This is what you were sold for this time. I thought that you should get to keep it instead of them; especially since you are now responsible for the household budget instead of me."

"DAD! How could you do this to me? Especially today," Akane screamed.

Genma and Soun nodded to each other, "Another perfect match," Genma observed.

Genma glanced to where Nabiki stood with her hand expectantly outstretched. He sighed and gave her the bills he had just received. She counted them out, surprised at the total. She smirked as she took her ledger, totaled it and gave Genma 150 yen in change and informed him that he was finally 'all paid up' with her. She smiled as he winced at the unfamiliar words.

.o0o. .o0o.

It was just shortly after starting her junior year that an ole fiancé returned to Ranko's life.

Ranko froze up when Shampoo grabbed her into a tight hug. But then she relaxed a bit and even hugged her back a little when she realized it was actually a genuine hug instead of a glomp. "Hey Shampoo, why are you here? I thought you were all done chasing me."

Shampoo quickly pecked at Ranko's cheek as she stepped back. "We is shield-sisters. Shampoo have duty to Ranma to guard back and help life get ok."

Ranko grimaced at being reminded of the shield sister stuff. She definitely wasn't happy about the bonding gift that went with it. "Shampoo, while I'm locked in girl form, can you call me Ranko instead?"

"Why ask this?" queried the puzzled girl. "Ranm . . . ko no never mind using male name when girl before. Why now?"

"Because I'm embarrassed for anybody to recognize me in my girl form while I'm wearing this annoying gift of yours." She snarled.

"What Ranko mean? Is honorable and very rare gift. Legend say come from one of kami that help found Amazon tribe." Shampoo's eyebrows were crinkled together as she wondered if Ranko was rejecting her again.

Ranko grimaced again as she looked at the ragged cutoff shorts and stained tank top she was wearing. 'Darn but she hated to ruin good clothing, but maybe a demonstration would be the fastest way to explain.'

"Let me show you what I mean," said the redhead. She slowly rubbed her hand down the bracelet and was 'rewarded' with a brief flash of light. Both girls looked at Ranko's new attire. Shampoo was shocked to see that Ranko was now wearing tailored shorts that looked new and very expensive with the delicate nature scenery embroidered on them. The tank top was now a delicate sleeveless blouse that failed to hide the silk bra underneath it.

"How this happen? Legend say bracelet once have this power, but not have it for almost five hundred years. What Ranko do?" Shampoo asked as she stared in awe at the transformation.

"URD!" Yelled Ranko. 'This is her fault after all! I wonder if this is one of her practical jokes?' she thought.

"Urd?" asked Shampoo. "How shield-sister know part of secret words to unlock bracelet?"

"You called?" asked a certain platinum haired goddess.

"It's your fault that this damned bracelet keeps ruining my perfectly good clothes," snarled Ranko.

"Who you?" interjected Shampoo.

"Urd" the other two jointly retorted.

"Goddess of the past," Urd added.

"And pain in the butt." Noticing Urd's frown, Ranko relented and finished, "and she's my friend too."

Urd leaned over to hug the shorter girl and with only a moment's hesitation, Ranko returned the hug.

"How Urd fix Aphrodite's bracelet?" asked the Amazon.

Urd looked puzzled but Ranko spoke before she could say anything. "You know, now that I think about it. It wasn't working at all until after Ryouga cornered me in that fountain and Urd drove him off. It was just after that that she used that 'refurbish' spell on me for the first time."

Urd snapped her fingers, "My magic must have recharged it. That's why it wasn't working at first; its original magic charge must have worn out. Coming in contact with my magic all those other times afterwards must have recharged it even more."

"Shampoo, can you tell me how to remove this bracelet?" hopefully asked Ranko.

"Ok, is easy. Amazons not know what magic words mean, but Shampoo show Ranko and sister repeat, Ok?"

Ranko nodded Ok as Urd looked on interestedly.

"Ok. First must hold both middle fingers in air like this." With a blush Ranko joined Shampoo as they flipped the world off together.

"Now must say magic words while dancing in circle, ready?" Seeing Ranko nod, Shampoo began to recite ancient words whose meaning was long lost to mortal folk. "Urd @#$%, Urd ^&*(?&!, Urd )/$&@*" Shampoo yelled and Ranko echoed. With the last phrase, the bracelet unlocked and fell loose into Ranko's hands.

Urd had gone pale as she heard the insults. Her aura flared and she screamed, "I'll kill her!" and she then dived headfirst toward the TV. She bounced off the blank screen, snarled, turned the TV on and then left mumbling angry words that Ranko did not understand except for the name 'Aphrodite' occasionally.

.o0o. .o0o.

The two martial arts masters wearily sat down to dinner. Between the repairs to the house and the two classes they'd taught, they were eager for a relaxing evening. Their grins appeared as Kasumi gracefully appeared from the kitchen. It had been a long time coming but they'd finally met her conditions for having her cook for them again.

With Akane off at University with Nabiki now, it was just her and the pair of fathers. After dinner, she placed a small bottle of warm sake before the two of them. When they were obviously starting to feel mellow she gave them her good news. "Dad, Uncle; I have good news."

"Oh my daughter is going to be married and take care of us forever! Isn't it wonderful Saotome?" wailed one.

"This calls for another drink!" concluded the other.

Kasumi sighed, reflected that it would have probably have been even worse without the sake. She continued, "Oh the two of you are so silly. No, I'm not engaged, but this last semester I was able to challenge a lot of preliminary classes based on my readings with Dr. Tofu. In fact, I did so well that I was offered a scholarship into a pre-medical program with the possibility of it covering medical school too. Isn't that wonderful?"

Dumbfounded, the two of them didn't know what to say. Neither was exactly sure as to the consequences of what this entailed but both knew without any doubt that irritating Kasumi meant Akane would cook for them on weekends. By default, both sort of smiled and nodded their heads.

"So, it's alright with the two of you if I try and achieve my dream? You'll provide moral support?" she softly asked.

The smiles became more fixed and the nodding frequency increased even as both of them wondered about the 'moral' support thing.

"Great!" she enthused. "I'll start packing tonight and by tomorrow evening I'll be at my new home at the University. I'm so glad the two of you agreed."

Tears streaming down from their eyes, both men dumbly accepted the additional bottles of sake she offered them.

.o0o. .o0o.

It had taken several days, but Urd finally found her quarry. She had eventually discovered that Aphrodite was hiding and relaxing in her rooms on Olympus, that's when Urd started pounding on her door. When Urd stormed in she noticed that the room her opponent was in had several large screen TVs set up. In one the infamous 'bathroom' scene was showing, the other revealed that Aphrodite had captured Urd's recent discovery of the bracelet unlocking phrase.

Urd stopped as she saw those images.

Before she could continue, Aphrodite snickered; "When my old bracelet started working again, I investigated the matter. It was pretty simple to guess that you'd find out what the Amazons had been saying about you for the last couple of thousand years just as soon as Xian Pu arrived at Ranko's. I invited all your 'friends' to come for the 'live show'. By the kami we are, it was hilarious to see the expression on your face and to watch you hunt for me later. Belldandy and Skuld especially enjoyed the show. I even had it piped to Mara's room for a dual showing in the underworld too."

Urd's face had blanched at those words. She covered her face with her hands as numerous odd events these past few days suddenly made sense to her. All those other kami really were snickering at her behind her back she suddenly realized.

Urd looked up at the two TVs and watched both scenes for a few long moments. She finally began to smile, then broke into a wide grin. She looked over at her best friend and snickered, "Remember the last time we made up? Want to do it again?"

"In this day and age!" the other goddess protested weakly. "Might be kind of fun. It was what, almost six centuries that the two of us and a couple of the younger girls spent the week dancing on the waves in almost nothing. We got a couple of the more musically inclined gods to provide music in unison with the pounding of the waves. As I recall, that's how those rumors of mermaids got started."

Urd thought about it then added, "Yeah, I think you're right. Have to do something different this time."

"How about if we jerk the strings of those Sailor Scouts?" Aphrodite offered.

"Hummm, how many do you think will show up? We'll need to recruit the same number for our side." Urd said as she started planning.

"Well, it turns out that one of them, Minako, is my great, greeeaaat, granddaughter so I've been keeping tabs on her recently. I don't think the outers will show up. They've been really scarce since that incident with 'Skuld's girlfriend'." Aphrodite stopped to giggle about that situation for a few moments. Urd couldn't help but smile a little bit too. Aphrodite continued, "I think that if we cause some sort of unusual disturbance, just the five 'inner' scouts will show up."

Urd nodded, "Ok, that works. Let's see, we need three others who can dance with us then."

The mountain gal suggested, "Maybe your friend Ranko would be up to it. Kami knows 'he' was really good at raising his own brand of chaos despite denying it. Might be kind of fun to show her how real girls strut their stuff. Her Amazon friend would go for it too if she came. Especially if the offer came from one of the kami that helped found the tribe."

The Nordic girl grinned her approval of the idea. There was an idea just on the edge of her mind. 'Nah, that wouldn't work would it?' She shrugged then suggested it anyway. "You know, we need something 'naughty' to make this work. How about if we invite my half sister Mara to join our little venture? That would make it five and if possible I'd really like to reduce the tension between her and I just a bit."

Aphrodite turned a measuring and very surprised eye toward her best friend. "On the top of it I'd say no, in fact, 'hell no'. But it really does have some promise." She thought about it for a moment then grinned mischievously, "You know, if we can get this to work, it might be one for the record books. Let's give her a call and see if she'll buy into it."

Surprisingly, Mara was all for it and immediately offered her binding word of truce as a show of . . . well, 'good faith' doesn't seem to apply, but you get the idea.

By the time the three of them had made preliminary plans, it was midmorning Saturday down on earth. Skuld was visiting his friend Ranko and had been introduced to the recently arrived Amazon warrior. Skuld was now performing a kata as Ranko and Shampoo watched and evaluated him prior to the pair of them beginning to team teach him and share with each other as well.

Shampoo was both amused and a bit skittish at the idea that Skuld was once a goddess. The idea that his return to the female gender depended on Ranko naming or potentially bearing his child sent chills up her spine. Fortunately for her peace of mind and vague future hopes, neither of them seemed even remotely inclined to pursue the idea. She was not particularly surprised at the reason Skuld refused to allow Ranko's curse to be unlocked. There was a reason that she called Akane, 'violent girl'.

Urd, Aphrodite and Mara watched the three of them from the shadows of the doorway for a few moments before being noticed by Ranko. Her immediate defensive stance with slightly flared battle aura alerted all that she was aware of her visitors and that she considered one of them to be dangerous.

Urd stepped in front of Mara and held out her hands in a placating gesture. "Take it easy Ranko. My sister Mara is here under truce bond. Me and Aphrodite have an idea for some fun mischief that she wants to help out with. We thought that maybe you two gals might like a chance to join in. Ok?"

Ranko hesitated then decided she could trust the elder Norn's opinion. She took a loose stance only to belatedly notice that Shampoo was kneeling on one knee with both hands supplicating outstretched to the strange goddess that Urd had named as (her nemesis and friend) Aphrodite.

Her position resulted in the eyes of all present being fixed on her. Shampoo shakily asked, "Goddess of the Amazons, what has this humble one to do. Have I failed you? Are you here for retribution on me or my people?"

Aphrodite was not unprepared for this situation since she had been studying Shampoo and her circumstances while waiting to setup Urd. "Xain Pu of the Amazons, I am aware of your circumstances. Your honor will be restored fully to you should you join my companions and I in battle. I will journey to your home to let them know of this."

Shampoo blazed with eagerness. Her bon-bori appeared in her hands and she was almost eagerly bouncing on her feet and elsewhere too. "Yes, yes, Shampoo go and fight now."

Ranko smiled at her friend, "Way to go girl. I'll be glad to help too."

Then Urd began to explain, Ranko was tempted to back out but she really didn't want to leave Urd with Mara and there was no way she'd spoil Shampoo's chance to restore her honor. Not five minutes later, choreography and dance class began. Being the quick studies that they all were, they were ready to hit the town by 4 pm, and they did.

Unnoticed by any of them, Skuld had left shortly after the training and rehearsing had started. He rejoined them shortly before they left; he had a very sophisticated video camera in hand. Also, but unknown to them at the time, he'd passed the word to heaven and there was a crowd of kami gathered to watch as well.

On the other hand, Urd and Aphrodite hadn't mentioned the 'musical' section they'd put together. Thor started it off when they posed themselves in a line along the railing of the Tokyo tower. The lighting rumbled from cloud to cloud in a driving bass. The wind whispered a melody predominately in minors and a few other kami helped as well. Skuld actually used his technology skill to give his big sister a small controller that acted like an automatic DJ for her. It provided selectable music that literally resonated from the very structures of the nearby building frames themselves.

They had the demon in the center of the line flanked by both mortals and the kami on ends of the line. They swayed and strutted left, skipped right, thrust upward, slunk right, moon-walked left, jumped up and then to a nearby building in syncopated rhythm with the music and each other.

Mara wore the least, a transparent chemise over a brief black thong-bikini that accented her blond curls. Both Shampoo and Ranko wore golden green bikinis of moderate modesty. They both wore matching bracers and calf warmers. Bikini, bracers and warmers all had long fringes that danced as they did. The fringe and headband Ranko wore was lavender while Shampoo's fringe and headband was scarlet. Urd and Aphrodite wore short sleeveless half-open tunics of gold that seemed to flash everything underneath them periodically yet no one could be sure.

They strutted and danced. Thor's dominating driving bass with the disco strobe effects of the almost continuous inner-cloud lightning gave a surreal feeling to those watching the dancers. Everything in Tokyo shut down; the images began to be sent worldwide. Aphrodite had sent out the word, and soon everybody knew who was dancing, who was on drumming on clouds and everything else she felt anybody needed to know about the performance.

Everything came to a stop in the Amazon village as everybody was gathered together to watch a village champion dancing with the kami. Ku Lon was nearly bursting with pride as she watched her heir strut.

In a small home in Juuban, Nodoka watched in shocked awe as her child showed the world that she could dance with the kami.

Somebody (they all claimed innocence later) sent the emergency call to the inner Sailor Scouts. Sailor Moon confronted the dance team on a wall of the Imperial Palace.

Let's say it went downhill after she said, "and in the name of the moon we shall punish you for looking prettier than us and dancing better and having nicer costumes and getting to visit the Imperial Palace and . . ."

Noticing that the 'enemy' were all presently rolling on the ground hysterically laughing while her four friends were blushing, moving away from her and trying very hard to give the impression that they did not know her; Sailor Moon paused for a moment of thought (hey, better late than not at all, right?), not that it mattered as she didn't get a chance to say anything. On the other hand this event did go a long way toward reestablishing their innocent image. None of the scouts recognized either Urd or Ranko because of a minor spell that Aphrodite had cast on the inners when they had first arrived.

Mara vanished in a cloud of sulfurous smoke only to reappear in front of the flustered girl. "Sailor Moon, my name is Mara. I am a demon, my dance companions are a couple of kami named Urd and Aphrodite and two of their mortal friends Xian Pu and Ranko. We collectively challenge you five to a dance contest. So little girl who would be queen, think you and your princesses can handle something like that?" Pausing just a moment so she could interrupt Moon just as she started to reply, Mara added, "or are you children too young, untrained and klutzy . . . humm, not to mention the lack of talent, good looks or grace."

This hit Minako where she lived; she'd always had dreams of being an idol star. "We accept!" she yelled.

Mara smirked; Aphrodite's advice concerning her descendant had worked like a charm. "Great, we'll give you twenty minutes to prepare while we take a short break." She added just before she left, "we'll start first to give you amateurs a chance to get some pointers."

The dance contest was varied. Sometimes it was one on one from each team, other times the entire teams danced and strutted. Several times it was pairs versus pairs. The demoness and the kami brought millennia of experience and supernatural powers to the contest while Ranko and Shampoo used the opportunity to express the sheer joy of being martial artist. They gave a whole new meaning to the term 'break dance'. The princesses were surprisingly good but the other team was dancing from the simple joy of dance in their heart and shut them down. The contest also shut down Tokyo as they danced on the roofs, across the cars tied up in traffic, on the railings of bridges and elsewhere. Most of Japan and a significant portion of the world also watched as well. The contest ended an hour before midnight when the team from the three planes strutted to the line of weary and faltering Sailor Scout team and banished them from the roof top they were all presently on using simultaneous hip thrusts.

After falling from the low roof into the garden below, the Scouts lay there exhausted as the other team simply vanished into the night as far as the rest of the world knew. In actuality, they appeared moments later in Ranko's dojo. They had some serious partying to do. The inners were also stunned to finally recognize Ranko and Urd as Aphrodite's spell had dissipated just before they were banished from the roof in defeat.

Some friends shortly joined them and the party finally broke up just at dawn when Nodoka chivied the kami and Mara homeward.

Just before Aphrodite left, she turned to Shampoo and said, "Xian Pu, warrior champion of the Amazons, I bless you and lift your curse as a sign of that approval."

Ranko started to ask to be cured as well but the visual image of Akane in a padded cell stopped her and she backed away instead.

Seeing the puzzled expression on her friend's face, Urd whispered, "'Dite, I'll fill you in later, promise, but for now let it go, please."

Aphrodite nodded and the two left together, they still had a few centuries of gossip to catch up on anyway.

.o0o. .o0o.

The BIG boss of the Japanese Yakuza grinned to himself. He'd spent thirty-five million yen to try and find the girl and failed. Then she'd revealed her name and image to the entire world. 'Ah, yes things were about to go lot better for his interests in Tokyo, just as soon as those pesky Sailor Scouts were done away with,' he thought to himself.

As he uttered those words, Pluto noticed a drastic change in all the time lines. She shuddered as she noticed that in almost half the time lines, the human race had become extinct on a permanently frozen planet. In most of the remaining time lines, many if not most of the Sailor Scouts had been assassinated. Desperately she began to probe for the cause. She was stunned to realize that the proximate cause in each dead time line was Ranko's murder.

She hit the 'all call,' emergency button on the communicator just as she exited the portal from the time gate into Rei's bedroom.

She snarled at Mamoru, "Get your pants on and get out of here. Get to the kitchen and make yourself useful."

Less than an hour later, Pluto paced nervously before all the assembled scouts. She sighed as she noticed the fatigue still evident on the faces of the inner scouts.

Hotaru gushed, "Wow, it was so neat the way all of you danced like that."

"That's the problem," sighed an obviously frightened Pluto. Seeing that she had their attention, she somberly added, "Ranko's identity was broadcast to the world last night. Because of that, almost half the time lines now show the human race going extinct some time in the next millennia."

Haruka guessed the problem immediately, "Someone kills Ranko and it snowballs from there; right?"

Pluto nodded tiredly. "Yeah, and the damn time gate can't give me a good fix on 'who' is behind this just yet; so in the mean time we will just have to concentrate on protecting Ranko." She sighed, "There are eight 'possible' attacks in the next several weeks beginning three days from now." She turned to Haruka and Michiru; "I'll need the two of you to watch over Ranko's home. They may try to attack Ranko's mother, that's a weak point for her. Use the mirror to scan for trouble while the rest of us concentrate on Ranko."

The two outer scouts nodded, silently understanding why they weren't going to be directly involved in protecting Ranko.

.o0o. .o0o.

Reacting quicker than conscious thought, Ranko pushed both Shampoo and Skuld to the sides as she dove for the floor. Five bullets hit the wall outlining the locations where her head, spine and heart had been milliseconds before. Before she could react further, a soft 'dead scream' was heard and moments later pieces of two different bodies began to rain down in the space between them and where the shots had originated.

Pluto came out of the shadows, more shaken she'd been in a long time. Not because she'd killed the two thugs; no, killing was not new to her; but she had almost been too late. Rather she could have been just in time to get the blame.

Ranko adopted a loose stance, waiting but not attacking, yet.

Skuld waved her down even as she gestured the oldest Scout over to them.

Pluto sighed for the necessity and moved over towards a nearby park bench, the other three meeting her half way. "I suppose you want to know what this is all about?" She asked rhetorically.

With Skuld there, Pluto had opted not to play the role of 'wise and cryptic advisor' and instead had just laid it all out.

"I don't believe it," whispered Ranko to herself. Seeing the stressed expressions on the faces of the other three, she clarified, "According to Urd, I was originally fated to die next year . . . and it was no big deal, I mean just my family noticed and it didn't affect the rest of the world. Now you're saying that if I die, then one thing leads to another and the end result is that 'everybody' dies." She huffed, "That just don't make no sense no how no way."

Pluto shook her head and quietly observed, "That was before Kami-sama took an interest in you." She paused and then added regretfully, "It was also before Sailors Uranus and Neptune took pot shots at you."

Not making the connection the other three just glared back at her.

"It linked your life, no . . . that's not right; it linked your 'death' to the Scouts; not only here on earth but in the heavens as well. If you die now, it will automatically be linked in the public mind to the Sailor Scouts even if we had absolutely nothing to do with it. That perception poisons the future to an extent that the Sailor Scouts are prevented from helping when the extinction of the race is imminent. It also makes us targets for all the various radicals and most of the Scouts are assassinated long before it becomes an issue. Normally our unblemished reputation and anonymity would have shielded us enough that that wouldn't have happened without the stain caused by the attack and then your 'death'. Also the time gates were working a lot better for me prior to all this starting as well. I could avoid most of these problems then, but now I can't see them in time or accurately enough to make much difference."

.o0o. .o0o.

Shampoo was watching her shield sister fuming as she worked out. Makoto (as Jupiter) was there as 'bodyguard' for the day and it was really getting on Ranko's nerves; especially since the Scouts had actually saved her life three times this past month. The news media was once again turning very favorable toward the Scouts as a result of these efforts and it had the side effect of significantly damaging the Yakuza operations in Tokyo as well.

Finally coming to a decision, Shampoo reached into her personal storage space and pulled out a scroll. She studied it for a few moments to make sure which one it was before she called, "Hey 'Lil Red', would you like to learn a new technique?"

Pausing in her kata, Ranko relaxed and walked over to the Amazon. "Huh?"

Jupiter snickered and asked, "Just where did Ranko pick up than nickname anyway? I mean, is does sort of suit her."

Shampoo giggled and said, "One of reporters read it somewhere and decided it fit so she used it and everybody else copy. Shampoo think it fit too."

Ranko on the other hand just grunted and frowned. She thought to herself; 'If 'she' was into dance, then it would be a cool name, but she . . . 'he' was a guy damn it.'

The Amazon maiden explained her idea, "Shampoo have a few special scrolls that Shampoo have permission to teach shield sister if needed. Shampoo think that Ranko need to know this technique." Shampoo paused a moment and then drew out a small knife, almost a pen knife. She focused on the technique and then drew the blade of the knife down the inner length of her forearm. The blade was obviously depressing the skin deeply but there was no cut.

Stunned, Ranko watched as Shampoo then used the knife to start whittling on a broken bokken in the trash. It was definitely sharp. Shampoo explained, "Technique is called 'iron-skin'. If one has lots of ki, one can focus it into the tiny layer of dead skin that covers everybody. That skin layer becomes like metal, is bullet proof." She added, "Shampoo can only do it for short time, but shield sister should be able to hold for many hours."

Ranko took the scroll, and then sighed as she handed it back to Shampoo to translate for her. Shampoo giggled and then began to read it. She ignored the scout since the girl didn't have the perquisite skills and training to even understand the terminology let alone master it.

It took Ranko two days to master the technique and she found that she could hold it for no more than three hours at any one time. On the other hand, she did discover that she could 'raise' the technique in less than a tenth of a second. She practiced both aspects of it, both the prolonged holding of it as a method to increase her ki potential, and raising it rapidly to increase her ki mastery.

.o0o. .o0o.

It bugged Ranko that the Scouts were actively defending her. But then came the day that her home was attacked. Fortunately Cologne had just arrived that day with good news.

"Great-grandmother?" Shampoo gasped, "What you do here?"

"Relax granddaughter," chuckled the old crone. "I come with news that not only has all your honor been restored but the council has voted to make you an 'Apprentice Elder' as well."

Ranko grinned and hugged the giddy girl. "That's great Shamps, umm, what does that mean though?"

Shampoo grinned, "It mean that Shampoo is released from lots of rules that apply to rest of village but not to elders. No kiss of marriage and no kiss of death plus Shampoo can teach techniques to anyone Shampoo think might be asset to tribe."

Than night a group of five darkly dressed assassins met Cologne as they quietly entered the home through her window; a room they believed to be empty. She laid them out unconscious in seconds. Ranko scowled as she looked them over. She knew that she should just call the police, but experience told her that they would probably be back at their own homes before she finished filling out all paperwork against them.

On the other hand, she couldn't execute them. Cold-blooded murder just wasn't her way; in fact she probably wouldn't kill them even in combat unless it was necessary or an accident. In this respect she did vaguely envy the Scouts, their experiences with non-human attackers had enabled them to kill the earlier Yakuza thugs with only a few qualms.

Cologne understood the redhead's dilemma and had another solution. She pulled out a package of instant Jusenkyo cursed spring water. Motioning for the girls to bring the other four, she carried one of the thugs into the bathroom. Taking the cover off the cooled furo water, she poured the powder into the tub. Understanding immediately, Ranko and Shampoo each gently placed their pairs of captives in the water as Cologne rolled her captive in as well.

Cologne grinned as she used her cane to fish out the five white laboratory rats. The creatures were stunned as they looked about themselves in confusion. A few moments later Cologne carefully set a metal canister on the floor that she had fetched from her room. Seeing the questions in the eyes of Nodoka as well as Ranko and Shampoo she said, "This is 'permanence water'. It's water recently taken from the 'locking ladle' that the Musk have." She was not surprised to notice that both Shampoo and Ranko had plastered themselves against the wall that was the furthest from the fluid. Shampoo had apparently forgotten she was no longer cursed.

Using a kitchen ladle, she carefully dipped out enough water to lock the cursed forms of each of the rats. "Now what shall we do with you?" she chuckled in a voice that made all the listeners shiver.

Unseen in the background, both Sailors Uranus and Neptune shuddered and decided that there really were fates worse than death. They closed up the mirror they were using to watch with and quietly left.

The following day, Shampoo came into the house with a broad smile. "Shampoo talk with mercenary girl; she sell rats to University psychology people. Mercenary girl say it be big joke on them when put rats in maze."

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranko sighed as she looked out the hospital wing and spotted four girls that she knew were Sailor Scouts in 'normal' disguise waiting to escort her home. She turned her head to the ring of children clustered about her; she gently smiled and resumed reading to them. She really didn't understand why they just seemed to gravitate to her when she was here. Anyway it did make it easier on the rest of the staff. She entertained them while her partner Ami and the normal staff worked with some of the other kids one on one. She had never told anyone before, but this was stuff she really did like to do even before she had gotten cursed.

Afterwards she and Ami moved towards the change room to remove their striped aprons and freshen up a bit before going home. Ami was detained talking with her mother and Ranko had a mischievous idea. When she was alone, she carefully invoked her father's cloaking technique and walked out of the hospital and home alone.

She finally released the technique only after changing into some workout clothes and beginning a kata in the dojo.

A half-hour later she was mobbed by five Sailor Scouts in full battle mode. They were angry and relieved all at the same time. They were torn between hugging her and testing her resilience to some of their milder attacks.

She hesitantly explained the technique and pointed out that it made their efforts to guard her unnecessary as what the Yakuza couldn't find, they couldn't attack.

Ami thought about it, "I hear what you're saying, and it's true but only if you consistently use it. Are you going to do that?"

Ranko thought about it, then sighed, "Yeah, it would be safer for all of us in the long run wouldn't it?"

.o0o. .o0o.

Pluto stared at the time gate wondering why it was suddenly able to focus so clearly on Ranko. It was almost as if the kami were . . . oh, yeah, that would make sense, wouldn't it.

Aphrodite, invisible to Pluto, stood next to the time gate and added her powers to it as Pluto searched for a solution.

Pluto nodded in hopeful understanding of the change and proceeded to ferret out the source of all these problems. It really didn't take too long. She scanned a few future divergent time lines looking for the solutions that would give the best results for both Ranko and the Scouts.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranko was relaxed leaning back in a bench placed against the park wall. She had just sent some kids off to a nearby street vendor to get some ice cream after taking them from the hospital for a short outing. Unknown to her several different parties had identified her. One was the reporter and cameraman that had initially caught her confrontation with Sailors Neptune and Uranus almost a year ago.

The second group was a 'kill-group' that had been given some rather desperate orders by their boss. He'd said, 'someone was going to die, either their boss was going to kill them or they had better succeed.' Needless to say, this latter group was very motivated and started firing as soon as they saw the girl.

The reporter watched in disbelief as the redheaded girl was knocked down by the hail of machine gun bullets that turned the wall behind Ranko into a cloud of dust.

Before anybody else could react, three Sailor Scouts were attacking. No posing, no speeches, just blasting. In moments the group of five Yakuza were dead.

Just as the reporter was about to berate the Scouts for letting the redhead die, said redhead stormed out of the dust cloud. "Where the hell are those idiots?" she snarled.

"Ah, Ranko," interrupted Sailor Jupiter.

"What?" she steamed.

"Do you realize what happened to your clothes?" Jupiter asked.

Ranko looked down at herself, noticing for the first time that her dress and 'candy-striped' apron were barely hanging onto her. She shrugged and pulled her coat out of stuff space and put it on. Somewhat quietly she said, "That's not important Jupiter. This has got to stop. Those idiots might have killed those kids if they had spotted me just a few minutes earlier.

That evening the news caster had made another history changing report even though he didn't realize it again. "Today I had the displeasure of seeing just how depraved the Yakuza have recently become. Please watch this footage of an attempted assassination that happened earlier today. Notice that the girl was volunteering at a children's hospital luckily just sending them for ice-cream prior to the attack. This girl is famed in Tokyo as 'Lil' Red' to her fans as one of the Challenge Dancers that beat the Sailor Scouts; apparently there were no hard feelings for it was the Sailor Scouts that somehow rescued her and killed the goons that were trying to kill her. Please watch the following footage." He paused until Ranko finished storming. Then he began again, "I think . . ." (Well, let's just say he not only beat the horse he rode in on to death but continued pounding on it long enough to tan the hide as well.)

But it did have some results. Things began to go bad, very bad for the Yakuza from that day forward. Seems they were now more despised than feared. Not good for business, especially the bottom line.

.o0o. .o0o.

"Boss, this hunt for this redhead's scalp is really going badly," said one minion.

Another shuddered, "She ain't human; she's bulletproof and nobody but nobody ever comes back from a mission to her home. No bodies, no nothing, it's scary."

He turned a withering glare towards them, "Screw what you or the public thinks. We take her out, then the Scouts, next is Tokyo and then all of Japan." He began to chuckle only to cough suddenly.

A lieutenant opened the door and started to roll in a new executive chair as the old one was rolled out with its unmoving cargo of former boss.

The new big boss sat down in the new chair and said, "Well, first order of business is to recall everyone assigned to any part of operation 'Ranko'." Seeing the approving nods he then added, "Go easy on operations in Tokyo until we can reestablish control."

"Gotcha boss."

Pluto smiled from the time gates. 'That would put an end to that. It was also a benny that the Scouts were finally seen in a good light with respect to Ranko.'

.o0o. .o0o.

Author's note: Additional Ranma fan-fiction can be found on my Web Page.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

A month later Pluto opened a portal to the time gate and started to stride toward her domain only to freeze in shock when she noticed the three figures standing before the time gate. Stunned, she realized that they were using the gate with much more precision than she had ever managed and they didn't even have the Time Staff either.

She was initially tempted to attack them but quickly dropped that plan after recognizing them. They were the Norns. She was the guardian of the time gate, but they were the 'owners'. The gate depended on their powers to function. She hesitated, since when did Skuld have a . . . beard?

Urd waved her over.

"Yes," Chirped Belldandy, "It looks as if it is finally safe for Ranma's curse to be unlocked."

"Curse? What curse does Ranma have?" asked The Sailor of Time.

"That," Urd waited until she had Pluto's attention and then snickered, "is a secret."

The three Norns left the time gate while Pluto was still struggling to regain her equilibrium. She hated it when she did it to herself, she hated it even more when somebody else did that to her.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranko was whistling happily as she arrived at the temple for dinner. Much as she really liked her mother's cooking, Belldandy's cooking was somehow, well, heavenly.

Ranko grinned at her hosts as she sat down to wait for the meal to be served. She was startled when Belldandy came out of the kitchen carrying a kettle of hot water and knelt beside her. She watched with trepidation as the kami of the present started to chant. Belldandy finished by kissing her on the forehead. Without a word of explanation, Skuld picked up the kettle and poured the hot water over the redhead who was surprised when a long absent feeling washed over her. Ranma's face blanched with pain as a major problem with guys in form fitting panties and shorts became painfully apparent to him. Ranma quickly grabbed a glass of water and drenched himself becoming Ranko again. Her sigh of relief was very audible.

This confused the Norns at first until Urd suddenly realized the problem when she noticed that Ranko's formerly form fitting clothes were now rags that were barely hanging onto her. She started to giggle and then when she noticed everyone staring at her, she dramatically crossed her legs and put her hands protectively over her crotch. Ranko blushed deeply and Skuld suddenly realized what he had done to Ranma when he'd poured the hot water over the once again cursed girl.

"Ulp, humm, Ranko, I'm sorry about that." Skuld said as he blushed deeply. "I didn't think about what tight clothes would do when your form got bigger and changed into a guy as well. Sorry."

Urd finally got herself under control and cast her usual 'refurbish' spell on Ranko. Ranko nodded in appreciation even as she reached up to take the earrings out of her ears again. She was actually ending up with quite an earring collection from all the magically created earrings she had removed so far. Damn earrings anyway.

She sighed and said, "Thanks Bell and Skuld for releasing the lock on my curse. She paused and asked deferentially, "I don't suppose you can cure it like Aphrodite did for Shampoo?"

Belldandy shook her head and said, "I'm sorry Ranko, but Kami-sama has forbidden that from happening." She paused and then answered before the redhead could ask why; "No, He didn't say why, sorry."

Ranko sighed with resignation but then grinned and said, "The first thing I'm going to do when I get home is go shopping and find some clothes that will fit 'Ranma'."

Skuld blushed but then asked anyway, "Ranko, can I go with you? Except for pictures and a peek just now, I've never seen what the real 'you' looks like and I'm sort of curious."

Ranko hesitated; it just somehow felt wrong for a guy to be interested in how Ranma looked. But then she realized that Skuld was really a girl and so she answered, "Sure, how about just after we leave here?"

Skuld nodded and that is what they did. Ranko of course bought copies of 'his' usual clothing.

Ranko rushed into the house with her purchases and barely paused when her mother called to her. She answered, "Sorry mom, but I gotta surprise for ya. Hang loose a moment and I'll show ya." And with that she rushed upstairs and quickly changed twice.

A quizzical frown on her face, Nodoka looked over at Skuld to see if he had any explanation to offer. His wide smile suggested that the surprise was a good one so she decided to wait before saying anything about her child's brash attitude and sloppy language. Shampoo merely shrugged her shoulders and waited.

A moment later and her son descended the stairs. Shampoo rushed to glomp him but was surprised to find Nodoka already there.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma grinned as he decided to introduce himself to his 'sister' Ranko's friends. The scouts were boy crazy and he was looking forward to teasing the slightly younger girls. It was fun to have his boy form back and yet not be tied down anymore.

The grin faded a bit as he recalled his mother's decision concerning Ranko.

Well actually, she'd left it to him, but that didn't make it any easier. Having started on this particular path with 'Ranko', he decided that he'd continue it and she'd graduate high school in just over a year from now. At the same time he decided that HE would take his equivalency test . . . maybe next year after he felt comfortable with his/her studies. After that, maybe he/she would enroll in some small local college and each gender would show up in class on alternate days or something.

He was glad that Skuld still maintained their friendship even after Ranma's curse was unlocked. It wasn't like Skuld had any leverage anymore on forcing a relationship with Ranma. He grinned slightly to himself, Skuld was actually the first true adult friendship that he had. It was very nice that they could just be friends without any demands on each other.

He snickered to himself as he thought about the girls he was teaching. Skuld had revealed the four girl's Scout identities during all the trouble with the Yakuza. Actually all the young kami had really done was confirm Ranko's suspicions based on observed similarities between the auras of the girls and the Scouts the few times she'd met them.

'Ah, the Scouts, here they came in normal girl appearance; now to mess with their minds. Let's see, first change into Ranko and let them know that HE was here. Then . . . oh, yeah; that would work.'

Somewhat later, in the dojo . . . and Ranko then concluded, "Well, that's it for the workout. Do any of you want to meet my older brother?" Seeing the eager looks on all their faces in hope of meeting this near mystical master martial artist who was rumored to have slain a god with his bare hands; Ranko snickered quietly in anticipation and continued, "Ok, wait here and I'll go get him. While you talk with him, I'm going to clean up so I guess that I'll see you all later. Bye." And with that she quickly vanished from the dojo and into the house.

Ranko quickly changed twice and then strode into the dojo in his customary Chinese red silk shirt and tied-off black pants. Seeing the girls he casually waved to them and said, "Hi girls. My name is Ranma Saotome, Ranko has told me a lot about you and she also said that you know some of the highlights of my life as well. Let me see if I can fit names to the descriptions she gave me." Ranma paused and then casually said, "Humm, odd hairdo, you must be Sailor Moon." Ignoring the shocked stances of all four girls he continued, "Another blond, that means you're probably Sailor Venus," he said to Minako. He glanced between the other two apparently studying the differences between them. "Let's see, tall and dark haired, that means you're Sailor Jupiter," he said to Makato. Turning to the last girl he said, "Well, the last one left, but the blue hair and her head in a book would indicate Sailor Mercury." He said to the shocked Ami who had indeed been reading.

He then waited. Sure enough . . . nothing?

All four girls had fainted in shock.

While they were out, Ranma quickly bathed and returned as Ranko. She was there when they returned to the waking world.

The five girls exchanged multiple glances, Ranko knowing far more than they believed. Finally Ami took a chance. "Ah, Ranko; just what did you tell your brother about us?" she fished hopefully. She really hoped that what had occurred with Ranma was only a mass hallucination but she doubted it.

Ranko grinned, "I told him all that I knew about you; including your Sailor Scout identities." Seeing their shocked faces, she blithely continued, "After all the aura skills and chi control that I've demonstrated for you, it should have been obvious that I can tell who you are even when you're transformed."

Seeing their faces blanch with trepidation, she reassured them, "Don't worry about it. I know you all had valid reasons not only to make sure you were around me but to keep your Scout duties secret as well. I don't hold that against you." She chuckled as she thought, 'We all have secrets. My curse secret probably won't last too much longer from them, but I'll just wait it out.' Aloud she said, "Don't worry about us saying anything. It's your secret, not ours to tell." She almost giggled at the looks of relief on their faces.

.o0o. .o0o.

Nabiki was sitting under a tree on the university campus making some notes on various possibilities for earning some money. The settlement that Urd had forced on her nearly a year ago had left her a bit short of casual cash. Oh she still had enough for college for herself and her sisters and the dojo bills were paid but that's about all.

"Hiya Nabs, how's it going with you?" murmured Ranma as he casually strode on by.

"Huh, oh hello Ranma. It's none of your business and don't call me . . . Ranma?"

The youth she hadn't seen in nearly fifteen months stopped and scratched his head, "Huh, I thought I said 'Nabs', I'm pretty sure that I didn't call you 'Ranma' after all that's my name."

Nabiki meanwhile was imitating a goldfish, eyes bugged out and mouth slowly opening and closing of its own accord while her mind was off line.

Ranma shrugged and turned to go only to find Nabiki suddenly there in his face. "You're a boy again! How did it happen?"

Ranma grinned mischievously and answered, as he slowly looked downward at himself in apparent wonder. "Hey, you're right! I'm a boy again and as for the rest," he paused and slowly held out his hand to her, palm up.

Nabiki glanced at his palm then back into his smiling eyes and back and again in disbelief. She then snickered and dropped ten yen into his hand.

Ranma gave her three yen in change, which caused her to start giggling.

He said, "The kami who locked me in my cursed form finally decided that it was time for that to be undone. So it was. That's just about all there is to that part." 'At least as far as you are concerned,' he mentally added.

Nabiki grinned, "Then that means you can go back home to the dojo, right?" 'And maybe those two old men will finally get off my back about you,' she hoped inwardly.

Ranma's face became expressionless, "No Tendou, not in this lifetime. At least not to live there again; that part of my life is over."

As Ranma walked off, Nabiki thought to herself that she really preferred the teasing 'Nabs' to the icy cold 'Tendou'.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma was sitting on the ground in an outer paved area of the temple courtyard watching as Skuld worked his way through the somewhat advanced kata that Ranma had just taught him. At the same time his mind was ruminating on a few choice words his mother had given him earlier in the day.

She'd said, "Ranma, son, most of the ambitious young men your age are already starting college in preparation for their chosen lifework. I know that your dual lifestyle with Ranko does preclude anything except college night classes for you right now. But you need to consider starting to make some choices in your life. If you don't, your father will. Count on it. I know that it's impossible to restore all the honor that his actions have cost our clan in the past, but I think you should make the effort to do what you can."

Skuld finished up but noticing that his sensei was apparently lost in thought, wandered over and sat quietly beside the taller boy.

Ranma blinked a few moments later and then sheepishly turned to Skuld, "You did really well." When Skuld silently cocked an eyebrow at him, Ranma hurriedly added, "When I'm watching you, only the mistakes catch my attention. You did good, really."

Skuld nodded and then asked, "What's bothering you?"

Ranma sighed a few times and debated whether or not to say anything. Looking at the expectant look on his friend's face decided him. His friend's face, yeah. "Mom wants me to do what I can to clean up some of the dishonorable things that my dad has done. She's not making any demands and realizes that it's impossible to fix them all." At Skuld's understanding nod, Ranma continued. "The most serious area concerns engagements. Those for food, I don't really consider binding on me. I mean, charging for what should have been charity. No, I'm going to let pop worry about those, if and when they come up. But there are three engagements that have merit. The one with Shampoo has been honorably resolved, first when Cologne cancelled it and again when Aphrodite affirmed Shampoo's honor. I consider that the Tendou engagement was broken by the less than honorable actions of Akane, Nabiki and Soun; so that engagement is one that I'm not gonna worry about either. But my friend Ukyo, pop stole her dowry and she wasted ten, now almost thirteen years of her life in pursuit of me. First it was for revenge and later for marriage, still, that engagement has wasted most of her life so far."

Skuld cocked his head to the side and asked, "So, does that mean you're going to marry her then?"

Ranma shook his head negatively. "Nah, I don't love her like she wants me to." He added, "I'd marry her in a heartbeat if I didn't feel so strongly that she was just a friend of mine." He shuddered and whispered, "She feels more like a bother than a sister really."

"But I don't know how to honorably resolve it without marrying her." Ranma shuddered and then added, "I doubt that we would remain friends if we married. I'm not even sure we would remain married given that both of us have different lives planed. I don't think that I would fit in her life plans very well."

Skuld snickered, "Oh, I don't know. Shouldn't be too hard to learn to say, 'Shall I super-size that for you or would you perhaps like fries with your order as well?' Don't you think so?"

Ranma glared at his friend even if he had hit the nail in his life dead center. He sighed.

Skuld stood and held out his hand, "Come on, and let us go ask both big sisters. Maybe one of them has an idea."

Actually, Ranma lucked out as Kasumi was visiting again and best of all she was helping Belldandy out in the kitchen.

Ranma broached the problem just after they finished dinner. Belldandy thought about it for a few moments and then agreed saying, "I've studied your life Ranma. There are actually about two dozen more engagements based on meals that you may have to deal with but I agree with your assessment that those contracts are not 'exactly' honorable on either side."

From there Kasumi added, "It's too bad that nothing can be done about the dowry. As for the time Ukyo wasted, that's really her father's fault instead of Ranma's. If he hadn't rejected his daughter and forced her onto the revenge path to make up for his mistake in the first place then she wouldn't have wasted ten years of her life." Kasumi paused and added, "You know wasted isn't quite the right word. I mean she actually mastered her art during that time didn't she?"

Ranma nodded, he hadn't thought of it in those terms before but she was right.

Urd just shrugged and remarked, "So return the dowry, ah, it was a vendor's cart, a yattai, right?"

Ranma nodded again but remarked, "Dad got rid of it a dozen years ago. I haven't the foggiest idea of where to look.

Urd laid a hand on his shoulder, "I owe you one kiddo, let me take a look for it and I'll see what I can do."

A bit unsure, Ranma nodded anyway. He was sure nodding a lot recently; maybe he was more tired than he thought. While wondering he faded off into slumber.

Skuld snickered, now was his chance he thought to himself. With that he rose from the table and carefully pulled the slumbering young man into his room and rolled him fully dressed onto Skuld's futon.

Skuld laid out another futon for himself next to Ranma's.

He missed the startled expression on Ranma's face the next morning when he woke up and found his face only inches from the other boy's face. Unmoving, Ranma suspiciously checked to see what gender he was. Boy, good. Pensively he studied the other face and realized that he found it sort of 'cute'. As soon as he realized that, Ranma was gone out the door.

Panting in the hallway, Ranma saw Belldandy coming toward him with a towel and some clean clothes. Clothes for him he realized as she handed them to him with a smile and a gentle shove toward the bathroom. "Sleepyhead; you must have been really tired to fall asleep at the table like you did. Wasn't it sweet of Skuld to let you take his bed while he used the spare futon?"

Ranma nodded, wondering but then shrugged and took his bath.

Urd showed up about midmorning just as Skuld and Ranma were finishing up their workout. She yawned widely but then said, "Hey Ranma, how about today we take a short trip. I found the yattai. Your ole man hid it in a cave and it's apparently still there. Hopefully only dusty but we won't be able to tell until we see it."

Ranma carefully inspected the yattai, not that he really knew what he was doing. Fortunately, Skuld did have some idea of what worked and what didn't. Skuld gave Ranma a 'thumbs-up' and Urd used a transportation spell to bring them and the cart home to the temple.

After a brief conversation with Belldandy, Urd and Skuld replaced some of the older worn hardware with modern equipment; then Belldandy blessed the yattai with a restoration spell. As a result, the yattai was in modern 'like-new' condition. Ranma grinned widely and hugged both of the older goddesses in an unusual show of appreciation. He hesitated a moment before accepting Skuld's hand and shaking it.

Ranma looked at his hand, a puzzled expression on his face. A few moments later he went into the kitchen. Ranko came out and promptly hugged Skuld as well. She blushed as she grinned at the surprised god. "You deserved a hug too. Thank you for your help. Without your prompting, I don't think I'd gotten this far in this matter. Thanks." Impishly, Ranko leaned up and kissed the young looking kami on the cheek; a cheek that promptly flamed pink.

Startled, Ranko's cheek's also flared. She turned and ran to the bathroom where she slammed the door. It was nearly an hour later before Ranma appeared. By unspoken agreement, neither said anything about it to each other. The others were under 'orders' from Skuld to not tease Ranma/Ranko.

.o0o. .o0o.

Earlier, when Ranko had fled into the bathroom, she had just stood looking at herself in the mirror for several long moments before hurriedly splashing herself with hot water.

Ranma sank to the floor, his back blocking the door from being opened. Internally, there was an interesting conversation going on between 'me, myself and I', or perhaps the good, the mischievous and the clueless would be better terms.

'Damn, the first time 'I' kissed somebody of my own free will and it was another guy!'

'He was cute though; remember, we decided that when we woke up in bed with him this morning.'

'Hey! He was in his own bed and we were both dressed anyway.'

'I didn't say anything about how we were dressed or not. Something on your mind? Humm?'

'This sucks, the first time somebody kissed me; it was a guy. The first time I kiss somebody and it's another GUY!'

'Hey, knock it off with the angst, you're interrupting us. Besides, you know Skuld is really a girl, just like you're really a guy; so it really was a guy-girl kiss if you think about it.

'Bleah'

'Actually, it was a sort of nice kiss.'

'Yeah.'

'Well, ok, I guess.'

'Too bad it was only on the cheek. I wonder how a little lip-lock would be; maybe we should go try it?'

'I'm outta here.'

'Yeah, right; and just where are you going to go idiot?'

'Snicker'

'Humpf, maybe I'll call neko to play with us! How about th . . .OWIE!'

'You try and pull that again, idiot, and the two of us will really pound you instead of just administering a few 'love-taps'. Know what we'll do to afterwards? We'll tie you up with all these 'good intentions' lying around here and toss YOU to neko.'

'Maybe we should do it as a guy?'

. . . prolonged mental silence (also known as shock) . . .

'Ewwuueee'

'Well, if she was a girl, then maybe it would be ok.'

'You know, there really wasn't much difference between Skuld as a goddess and a god when we first met her and she got locked as a guy.'

'True, but, well, did you notice that he's got a small chin-beard started?'

'Yeah, I think it makes him cute.'

'Maybe we should have pounded you instead.'

It was a long hour with his thoughts before Ranma finally gave up on resolving his confusion and left the bathroom.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ukyo was startled when Ranma showed up at her place. She immediately glomped him and held it for a long time. Finally she whispered, "Ranma, I'm so glad you got your curse unlocked. I was just about to give up on my dreams with you. I'm glad I didn't though." She leaned back a little so she could see his face. His eyes were sad she noticed. "Ranma?"

"I'm sorry Ukyo," he softly and sadly said. "I'll gladly be your friend but that's all."

"But my dowry!" she started.

"Is returned in better condition that when you gave it to pop," Ranma interrupted her as he stood aside and showed the refurbished yattai to her.

"But I wasted ten years of my life on revenge and another three being led on by you," she screamed in frustration as she sensed disaster for her dreams on the verge of reality.

Ranma shook his head and replied, "No Ukyo, you spent ten years learning your art. The revenge part was our dad's mistake, not mine. As for the last three years, I've lost count of the times I said I wanted a friend instead of a fiancée."

Ukyo screamed as she swung her giant spatula, "Get out, just get out. Get . . . out!"

Ranma left, knowing his first friend was hurting and that there was nothing he could do to comfort her.

Ranma sat on the roof of Juuban High School sulking. His mother had crossed the line today as far as he was concerned, again it seemed. No matter how hard he tried, she pulled out that old 'manliness' crap anytime he wavered from what she wanted of him. It seems that it really didn't matter that she'd already deemed that he'd satisfied it. Besides, he thought she'd gotten over all of that when he'd been locked in his cursed form this past year plus. But nnoooo, as soon as his curse had been unlocked, all this manly crap started up again. This last time he had finally called her on it. Ranma wasn't happy about the way things went though. It was just an hour ago that . . .

"Ranma," His mother sighed happily as prospects of her son's 'conquests' danced in her head. "I want you to invite some of those cute Sailor Scouts over for dinner so that I can meet them."

"No mother," Ranma once again repeated, "they are friends and I've promised to protect their identities, therefore I can't invite them over."

Nodoka frowned and said, "Ranma, I'm beginning to worry about your manliness. You have all these girls hovering about you, yet you do nothing 'manly' with them."

Ranma's frown matched his mother's as he slowly said, "So your version of my manliness relies on me dishonoring my friends because they are girls?"

She blanched at the way he'd phrased his question but she couldn't deny its accuracy once she'd thought about it. Suddenly angry at being put on the spot, she snapped out, "Don't take that attitude with me, young man. I'm your mother and I deserve respect."

Ranma's face hardened with anger at being attacked unjustly by someone he wanted to trust instead. He hissed, "Very well, I will yield the respect you demand." At the gratified look on her face he continued, "It should take me only a few moments to get the family tanto and prepare myself; I assume you will do your duty as my second?"

Hey eyes widened with shock, "NO Ranma, that's not what I meant!"

"It's what I mean, though. You leave me only two ways to prove myself a man. Either Seppuku or dishonoring both myself and my friends by living 'down' to your definition of manliness." Ranma looked his mother in the eyes and continued, "I will not be my father. I will not dishonor myself or my friends."

"Ranma, please don't do this." Her face blanched as she perceived his seriousness.

"As long as you continue to hold that contract over my head, I have no choice," Ranma sibilantly replied. "I'm tired of this game you play with my life using that contract. I will not accept it any more. Once again, I ask you, are you prepared to be my second or should I proceed on my own?"

"No." Nodoka saw the weariness increase on Ranma's face before she finished the thought, "No, Ranma. It's no longer necessary. You have just now proven your manliness in a most unexpected way." She reached into her Kimono and pulled out the contract, tore it in half, then again and yet again before handing the pieces to Ranma. She turned and then walked out of the room, her back straight but her shoulders shuddering with the emotion she would not show before him.

That was an hour ago.

Ranma looked at the pieces of the contract in his hand once again. He then tossed them into the air and destroyed them with a small ki blast. He hated the idea that it took the threat of his death for his mother to simply accept him. Apparently her total acceptance of Ranko was conditional on 'him' not reappearing.

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld and Ranma had a weakness in common. It was ice-cream and though he loved it, Ranma refused to eat it as a guy. Not that Skuld minded eating it as a guy or that Ranma wouldn't. Actually from Skuld's point of view, it worked out pretty well. It also helped that it was the kami's power up means as well.

Skuld knocked on the door and a few moments later it was opened by Ranma.

Skuld grinned, "Hey Ranma, I'm a bit 'peaked' and need a charge up. Want to go and get some ice-cream, my treat?"

Ranma hesitated; he really loved ice-cream, especially when somebody else was buying. The Saotome stomach won again. "Sure, come on in for a few moments. I need to let mom know and get changed too.

Nodoka silently studied the young god.

Ranko came down the stairs dressed in a tank-top and shorts. She almost made it out the door before her mother spoke.

"Ranko!" said girl skidded to a stop. "No daughter of mine is appearing in public without a bra, especially when going out on a date." Nodoka pointed up the stairs, "Now march yourself back upstairs and put on something more appropriate."

"But mmoooomm."

"We will talk about it after you return," Nodoka smirked, "anything besides 'yes, mom' is going to get you grounded."

"Yes momma," sighed Ranko as she trudged back up the stairs.

The young god silently studied Nodoka.

Ranko slowly descended the stairs in a pale blue sundress and hesitantly walked out the door. It was the first dress she'd worn since getting her curse unlocked. It felt both right and strange at the same time.

Skuld lifted her hand and put it into the crook of his elbow as he silently led the way to the shop. He was smiling even though he was sure this was going to cost him.

He was right; Ranko's troubled spirit took a lot of ice cream to pacify.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma was daydreaming about a cute mallet-wielding tomboy when he was broken out of his introspective moment by the ringing of the cell phone that Nabiki had given to him shortly after having his curse unlocked. She was being unaccountably nice recently. He was learning to hate the phone, but did admit that it really helped when his friends needed to contact him in an emergency. He had to threaten some of the Scouts with refusing to wear the phone in order to get them to not call him all the time after he had introduced himself to them again as a guy at the dojo. He had not yet needed to explain his curse to them fortunately.

It wasn't an emergency; it was merely Nabiki again. Ranma sighed but this time he accepted the invitation to dinner at the Tendou's. He really didn't want to go home yet as he was a bit irritated that his mother had seemed to develop some sort of preference for Ranko; especially when Skuld was around. He'd avoided the Tendou home since being thrown out even after having his curse unlocked but he just couldn't refuse the offer of Kasumi's cooking again. Perhaps it was time to see how things had changed.

Ranma knocked at the door and patiently waited until Kasumi answered it.

"Oh, hello Ranma," said a smiling Kasumi. "Why didn't you come on in? After all it's your home and there really is no need for you to wait for an invitation to enter."

Ranma shrugged and quietly responded as he shed his shoes and walked into the dining room behind Kasumi, "Well, I don't live here any more so I thought it would be the polite thing to do."

Akane spitefully interjected, "That's new! Ranma being polite; let's mark the date."

Ranma paused, then turned around and strode back toward the door, leaving plainly his intent.

Akane blushed with shame and the beginnings of anger at the glares her sisters gave her. She quickly ran to Ranma, "I'm sorry, I was just teasing."

He hesitated then allowed the youngest Tendou to pull him back into the room.

The dinner was excellent, marred only by the attacks his father continued to make upon his food. Ranma chose not to participate in the food fight this evening and instead embarked on a counter move that involved using his chopsticks to touch several pressure points on his father's hand and forearm that caused Genma to release his own chopsticks. Each time he did this, it took Genma several minutes to undo the disabling move and regain control of his hand again. Each episode gave Ranma an opportunity to eat peacefully.

Ranma ate quietly, almost politely, one would say; if it were not obviously because he was introspective at the moment.

At the end of the meal, Genma and Soun stood and jointly proclaimed, "Now that you have regained your proper male form, it is time to unite the schools before anything else happens."

Akane promptly when ballistic; "What! NO, there is no way that I'm going to marry that womanizing pervert."

Ranma uncharacteristically ignored the commotion and spoke to Kasumi, "Kasumi, thank you for the delicious meal. May I help you with cleaning up?"

Akane snarled, "How dare you ignore me and flirt with my sister?"

Ranma turned to her and nonchalantly commented, "I agree with you that we are not engaged. Besides, I understand you are engaged to Kuno now unless your father is as worthless as mine and has made a false engagement as well. In addition, the last time I was here you threatened my life and we mutually agreed that it was over. I consider that ended the engagement between our families. Therefore anything I say or do with any other girl is NONE of your business. If I choose to flirt with Kasumi, it's her choice, not yours, whether that is acceptable. By the way, I wasn't flirting; I was offering to help her with the clean up work, something that I had noticed that nobody else in this house ever did while I was living here. You all tended to treat her as little more than a slave and she deserves better than that, especially from her own family."

Ranma had met Kasumi many times at the temple this past year and fully approved of the changes that the older girl had made in her life though she still seemed oblivious at times.

Akane seized her mallet only to freeze when she noticed the ball of glowing ki balanced in Ranma's hand. Ranma sat there, waiting. Not threatening, just waiting to fulfill the promise that he'd made to her that he would not tolerate her attacks anymore. She swallowed her sudden fear and powered down her anger.

Genma and Soun took up the task though. As Soun's demon head started to rear its ugly head, Genma yelled, "Boy, how dare you flirt with Kasumi and offer to do girly stuff. It's unmanly for you to threaten you fiancée like you did. Oh, how sad that I'm cursed with an unworthy, unmanly son. We are doomed if your mother should ever learn of this."

Ranma sighed and tossed the ball of ki at the two worthless masters. The resultant explosion blew them both out the door and into the pond where they sat, dazed.

Nabiki wondered how to salvage the situation. She temporized by remarking, "I'm sure your mother would understand."

"Doesn't matter if she does or not; she destroyed the contract after I gave her the option of doing something like that or being my second a couple of weeks ago not long after my curse was unlocked." Ranma shrugged, "I got tired of her attempting to use it and my honor to manipulate me, so I called her on it."

Nabiki shuddered, "Would you have gone through with it?"

Ranma nodded, "Yes, if I wasn't prepared to go through with it, then the contract would have been meaningless to me anyway. Only the fact that I was willing to abide by it gave it any meaning."

Nabiki saw an opening to the topic she wanted to talk about. "That means that you consider honor to be important?"

"My honor anyway," clarified Ranma, "Family honor is pretty well shot thanks to the old man."

Nabiki winced at the qualification Ranma had added; this was not going to be as straightforward as she'd hoped. "Ranma, family honor is involved in the engagement. Maybe you don't care all that much about your family honor, but what about the Tendou family honor? Don't forget that there are two other Tendou daughters."

Ranma paused in helping clean up the table and looked uncertainly between both Kasumi and Nabiki for a few moments. "I'm not sure I understand. Are either of you saying that you are interested? Neither of you have ever said anything before."

Kasumi blushed but hesitantly nodded, "I find that one particular younger man is exceptional and I . . . I" Her blush deepened and Nabiki filled in the opening.

"Ranma, I made several mistakes with you." Nabiki admitted. "The first was foisting you off onto Akane that first day and then later giving you back to her after the engagement was temporarily switched to me. The second was not treating you with the respect that your skills entitled you to." She bowed, "I'm sorry."

Akane fumed as she heard this and finally screamed, "NO, you can't have him! His dad and all of you gave him to ME. He's mine. You ca . . . n't have him. Oh, oh."

Ranma exploded, "I'm not a toy, and I'm not some prize for you or anybody else to claim. You can't have me. I'M ALREADY SPOKEN FOR!" Ranma froze after he shouted that last sentence. He sank down and softly repeated it to himself, oblivious to his shocked listeners. "I'm already spoken for. When did that happen? When did I accept that? It's true though, isn't it? I'm already spoken for and I just realized it. Damn, now what do I do?"

Kasumi sank down beside him and looped an arm comfortingly about the younger boy. "Is it Shampoo, Ukyo or one of the Sailor Scouts; so who is the lucky girl?"

Ranma turned into Kasumi's shoulder and hugged her, seeking comfort in his confusion. Kasumi embraced him and waited for his answer. Ranma softly said, "None of them."

Genma, head steaming from a recent dose of hot water, with Soun backing him up, took this time to intervene. "Doesn't matter who this new bimbo is! The only girl you are marrying is a Tendou! Do you hear me?"

A lopsided grin appeared on Ranma's face and he slowly said, "Humm, I think I can actually agree to that in a way."

After they all recovered from the massive face-fault, Nabiki asked, "Ok, this isn't making any sense at all. Who is the lucky bride that isn't one of us but is a Tendou?"

Ranma smiled mischievously and poured a glass of water over his head. She said, "She was introduced to my mom as 'Tendou Ranko' and she's going to marry a guy named Skuld." With that, Ranko rose and made her way past the bodies laid out on the floor and then out the door chuckling mischievously all the while.

Akane sat there dazed. "I can't believe that pervert chose a guy instead of me."

Nabiki shrugged, "Actually, considering how we've treated him, it makes perfect sense to me."

Akane was irritated to notice that Kasumi nodded in agreement. Kasumi sighed wistfully for lost opportunity; a sound that Nabiki understood and echoed even though she was unhappy at the results.

Kasumi commented, "Skuld is such a nice boy though. He used to be a goddess before he locked Ranma's curse and got punished by Kami-sama."

"Skuld was THAT goddess!" yelled Nabiki. Nabiki paused a moment, "Wait, you know this Skuld?"

Kasumi nodded, "Oh, yes, Skuld is my friend Belldandy's younger brother now. They are all very nice to me and Ranma."

Ranma-chan danced along the fence tops all the way home. There was a light shower falling, more of a heavy misting than anything else. The sun shone in steamers and glancing beams among the scattered clouds and gave a surreal appearance to the dancing and laughing girl as she made her way home.

Nodoka was watching the moving clouds from an upstairs window as she pondered the mistakes she'd made with her child. She'd been doing this for hours before finally deciding that simple acceptance was all she could offer that would make any sense any more. Sighting Ranko in the distance, she became entranced with her daughter's performance as Ranko radiated her joy in life to all around her. Lil' Red was dancing again it seemed. She smiled to herself and whispered, "Ah Ranko, I missed you . . . son."

Shampoo had moved to stand next to her and was also watching Ranma-chan. She smiled to herself and said, "Ahh, shield sister is back. Ranko finally find heart again."

Nodoka was puzzled and asked her, "Shampoo, what do you mean?"

Shampoo shrugged prettily and sighed, "Ranma become more balanced over past half year. Ranma finally realize that Ranma is both boy and girl, not just one or other but both all time. Ranma is Ranma all time even when Ranko."

Nodoka considered this before finally smiling slightly and nodding her understanding.

Ranko came into her home and was greeted warmly by her mother. "Hello dear, let me get you some hot water, or did you perhaps want to take a bath instead. You look chilled, though I really would like to know what makes you so happy."

Ranko hugged her mother and said, "Humm, a bath sounds great. And the reason I'm so happy is that I just realized that I'm going to marry this really neat guy. He's 'god' like," she snickered. With that she danced upstairs and thence into the bathroom.

Nodoka didn't move for 10 minutes, finally uttering, "Guy . . . marry?"

Shampoo sighed as her hopes for marrying Ranma were finally laid to rest.

Ranma soaked in the furo considering his next steps. He looked down at his strongly muscled body and pondered the mechanics of what he wanted to happen in the future. He shuddered momentarily as he considered marrying a 'guy' then started to panic at the thought of never seeing Skuld again. Shampoo silently washed up and entered the tub with him. She slid over to him and embraced him. Ranma froze momentarily before he realized she was crying into his shoulder. He slowly put his arms about her and hugged her loosely wondering what was wrong and what did he do now?

"Shamps, I'm sorry . . ." He started but she interrupted him.

"Ranma no do anything bad," the Amazon maiden whispered as she hugged him closer. "Shampoo glad for shield sister but miss airen."

"Shampoo, will . . . will you stand with me? Will you be my maid of honor?"

Shampoo giggled, "That sound funny for guy to say."

Ranma grinned, "Yeah, it sort of does, doesn't it?"

Shampoo released him and pushed herself back so they could see each other easily. "Shampoo honored, when is date? Is Amazon wedding?"

Ranma's grin faltered, "Well, Skuld actually hasn't asked me yet."

Shampoo stood up and drug Ranma out of the furo with her, "So? You is Amazon, you TELL him when date is. Come, we get you ready." This last was said as she poured cold water over the boy.

Ranko was dragged into Shampoo's room. Shampoo looked her over, considering, when they heard a knock on the door. A moment later Nodoka entered and paused upon seeing the two naked girls standing there. Shampoo sighed and said to Nodoka but mostly to herself, "This be big job. RANKO want to tell Skuld they get married soon. Ranko have to convince him. Ranko have to look good, but not have much experience with how girl do girl stuff."

Nodoka smiled; this she could do! "Well, I guess that's when a girl's mother and best friend have to help out isn't it?"

Ranko smiled hesitantly at her mother; "You mean it? You're ok with this? I know Shampoo is. But are you sure that this is ok?"

Nodoka grinned; this was going to be fun. She hadn't missed out on everything important in her child's life, not yet anyway. "Lingerie," she said decisively. "That's what we should start with."

Shampoo nodded, "Shampoo have just the thing too. Was saving for airen." At that thought, both she and Nodoka began to chuckle. "But didn't think airen would be one wearing it."

Ranko blushed deeply presenting the unusual vista of a girl that was totally red from hair to toes. She hesitantly put on the skimpy scarlet bra and panty set that Shampoo offered her and her blush only deepened to the amusement of the other two women.

"Now we need a lovely dress." Nodoka suddenly snapped her fingers; "I have just the thing; wait a moment while I get it." She hurried out of the room and returned only a moment later carrying a dress that Ranko remembered from those months that she'd been hiding from her mother as 'Ranko'.

Shampoo intervened and offered Ranko a choice of several scents. Ranko chose a jasmine scent and Shampoo proceeded to powder and dab her before holding out a slip for her put on. Shampoo quickly dressed in one of her better pantsuits meanwhile.

A few moments later and Ranko was dressed in a full-length velvety emerald green dress, the skirt was full and the sleeves short but puffed out. Sitting her down, Nodoka quickly undid her braid and brushed out her hair into a simple flowing mane that shown with health.

Shampoo and Nodoka sighed together as they watched Ranko turn before the mirror as she checked herself out. They both had the same thought, 'how can someone who was born a guy be so beautiful a girl?'

Shampoo thought a moment before announcing, "Needs jewelry. Shampoo might have something." Nodoka nodded and left the room to check her jewelry as well.

Meanwhile Ranko thought of something and returned to her room. She wasn't one to collect 'girly' stuff like jewelry but she had acquired a few treasured pieces these last eighteen months. Ranko paused and then picked up the 'bonding-gift' that Shampoo had given her. It was the first thing that had really acknowledged Ranko as a girl. Ranko put it on momentarily forgetting the golden bracelet's magical nature since she hadn't worn it in several months.

As soon as the lock closed, the bracelet glowed with the magical enchantments imbued into it. Shampoo and Nodoka entered just at that moment and stared transfixed as the beautiful but otherwise normal garments Ranko wore, suddenly became 'other worldly'.

Ranko's appearance suddenly became perfection. Apparently the enhancements responded strongly to the nature of the starting 'base'. Ranko was dressed to kill; suddenly she was dressed to start a war like the famed Helen of Troy was once fabled. Her now silk dress had rainbow opalescence highlighting its stunning green. Her hair was coiffured and adorned with small glittering emeralds that matched her earrings.

Ranko grinned widely at the mirror, "All right!" She crowed delightedly. "If I'm gonna go girl, it's gonna be as a world class babe."

She thought for a moment, and then said, "Well, the next step is to find Skuld. If he's not at the temple, Belldandy will know how to find him, so the temple is the first stop."

Nodoka held out a hand, "Shampoo and I want to go with you but I don't relish the idea of strolling downtown like that. You are likely to start several riots again before we get there. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to call a taxi." And that is what they did.

.o0o. .o0o.

Author's note: Additional Ranma fan-fiction can be found on my Web Page.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.

Belldandy sighed in frustration. Keiichi was so nice but he was rather clueless. Coming from her; that was pretty bad she surmised.

She answered the door only to find someone she least expected. "Ranko-chan! I'm so glad to see you again." She hugged the short girl and then welcomed Shampoo and Nodoka. "Hello Shampoo and Saotome-san, please come in. It's good to see you all again. But what brings you here?"

"A wedding to plan," was Ranko's cryptic reply.

"Mine?" She asked hopefully.

"You mean that baka still hasn't proposed?" Ranko asked then paused before adding. "What would you say to a double wedding; you and him and then me and Skuld too?"

Belldandy didn't know whether to be happy or shocked. Her composure deserted her for the first time she could ever remember. Finally she nodded, then started nodding frantically the more she thought about the idea.

"Bell, is Skuld here?" asked Ranko hopefully. When Belldandy shook her head, Ranko continued. "Can you find him, or arrange for me to see him?"

Belldandy thought a moment then replied, "Let me see if Urd is here. If so, then we can use a spell special to the Norns and contact him no matter where he is. It will be a full image spell, almost like being in the same room together." Ranko grinned acceptance of the idea and Belldandy rose to start this quest.

Ranko thought a moment then strode into the garage area. Sure enough just as she'd thought and hoped, Keiichi was there working on one of his bikes. "Keiichi, Bell is awfully sad because of you." She opened up with the big guns at point blank range. His armor was pretty tough so drastic measures were necessary.

Shaken to the core by the barrage, he could only stutter, "What, what are you talking about Ranko? RANKO! WOW, what happened?"

Ranko smiled, "I'm here to talk to Skuld about when our wedding date is. Belldandy is sad that her little brother is getting married before she is even though she's been 'engaged' for much longer. Her guy is apparently a thoughtless, clueless selfish wuss without sufficient balls to ask her. She was really, really hoping to make it a double wedding but, well, I guess her dreams are pretty much shot now."

"Double . . . you're marrying Skuld?" Keiichi lost the ability to speak for a few moments, then sighed and said, "Ok, I'm a wuss. But it scares me to ask. What if she says no?"

"Keiichi," softly advised Ranma, "If you love her, you owe her the chance to say yes."

Keiichi sighed; stripped off the outer coveralls he was wearing, washed his face in the utility sink and then reached up to a small box hidden on the shelf above the sink. He opened it and showed Ranma the simple diamond engagement ring within.

Ranko grinned and said, "She'll love it. Trust me; she'll love it even more because she already loves you."

They walked into the room where four women were discussing Ranko's plans. Keiichi had eyes only for Belldandy. He marched into the room stiffly, eyes fixed and almost unaware of anybody else. He knelt before Belldandy and hesitantly asked, "Bell, I know it's asking an awful lot of a goddess like you. But . . . but would you marry me?"

Belldandy stared stunned at the ring he held out to her; with trembling hands she fumbled for it and shakily slid it onto her finger before collapsing into his arms crying.

Seeing the panicked expression on his face, Urd smiled and reassured Keiichi. "She said 'yes'."

"YES! Yes, I said yes. Oh, Keiichi, you've made me so happy." A now laughing Belldandy gushed as she hugged and kissed her now official fiancée.

Ranko was impatient but held it in. This was Belldandy's moment and Ranko respected and owed her enough to not diminish it at all. Her own moment would come soon enough.

Finally, Belldandy leaned over and kissed Keiichi again, blushing as he blushed. Urd snickered and then the two goddesses turned to Ranko. Belldandy smiled warmly and said, "Thank you Ranko, 'little sister'." Both goddesses smiled warmly at Ranko's pleased blush.

Urd walked into the center of the large room and began to sketch out a magical circle. Belldandy joined her in drawing the required runes as Urd began to speak. "Ranko, normally we can use this spell so that one of us calls the missing member of the Norns while the third member sort of 'steers' or powers the ring. It usually won't work for anybody else but us, but I think that since you are still bonded to Skuld, then you can be the one to make contact while both Bell and I do the empowering. With both of us doing that, the image should be much more tangible than usual."

Ranko smiled tentatively, her heart in her stomach. Shampoo walked over and hugged her. "You is Amazon. Go get airen. You is worth it."

Ranko hugged her back and softly said, "Thank you shield-sister."

Shampoo smiled and gently shoved Ranko toward the ring.

Shortly after Ranko entered the magical ring, Urd and Belldandy began to chant in unison. There was an abrupt flash of light and then all those in the room could see an image of Ranko in a room full of guys. Gods specifically, gods guzzling booze, playing cards, telling coarse jokes and all the other stuff guys do when there are no gals around to impress. Now there was one, and she was indeed impressive since Aphrodite's fashion bracelet had once again absorbed a hefty dose of empowering magic. One had to look twice to make sure Ranko wasn't wearing wings since she appeared so angelic.

Up in Asgard, Thor was throwing one of his near famous 'bachelor parties' despite his nominally being married. Many of his guests also fit this category. The locations of these parties were closely guarded secrets from the female gender. Everybody froze when Ranko's image appeared in their midst.

Pan was the first to speak, well sort of. He let out a long wolf whistle, grinned and started to approach Ranko with a leer when he abruptly vanished through the floor. This impressed everybody since the flooring was marble. The oversize mallet wielded by a glowing Skuld left no doubt about how it happened. Thor grinned and gave his student a 'thumbs-up' for good style.

Ranko ran an icy eye over the ranks of rather 'rank' gods before settling on Skuld. All the gods present pulled in belly's, swept empty bottles out of sight, squared shoulders, straightened out clothing and generally turned 'innocent' eyes toward Ranko. All of them memorized her heavenly beauty and most of them blushed whenever her eyes met theirs.

An aisle appeared between her and Skuld. He hesitantly walked so that he was a few feet in front of her and softly greeted her. "Hi Ranma, I didn't expect to ever see you like this again. I took your advice and tried to become just one of the guys since that is what I'm going to be from now on."

She smiled warmly at him and many of those gods present envied Skuld. "Skuld, it's Ranko, not Ranma. Come home. We have a wedding to plan; a double wedding with your sister Belldandy." She reached out as if to caress him and softly whispered, "I love you tomboy."

Skuld reached out as if to touch her hand, both of them stopped before their images touched. Skuld whispered back, "I love you too. You're a jerk sometimes, but you're my jerk and I love you."

Ranko smiled and then asked, "I know, can I see my ring now?" Shampoo and Nodoka giggled together at Ranko's deviousness. Urd and Belldandy almost lost their focus.

Thor suddenly roared and slammed his hammer down on the oak table, splintering it into a dozen pieces immediately drawing all attention to himself and away from his student. Meanwhile Pan's shaky hand appeared out of the hole next to Skuld and placed a ring in Skuld's hand. He whispered, "Guy's stick together; even when one of them is really a goddess."

Skuld nodded imperceptibly, "Thanks" he whispered, "I owe you."

Skuld quickly studied the ring and then opened his hand and said. "Will this do?"

Ranko had arched an eyebrow at Thor, but quickly turned back to Skuld at his soft question. Both eyebrows arched as she saw the ring. It was one of those rings made up of three interlocked rings that were separate yet could not be removed from each other. Each band was of gold, yet two of them were alloyed to present either a silvery or reddish color. At a point where the gold band was in the center, three stones were mounted. A pair of smaller rubies flanked a large faintly bluish diamond.

Ranko smiled and said, "Good save. See you soon. Oh, the rest of you are invited to the wedding. Bye." And then she faded out.

Skuld started to wander out toward the door but was stopped in the doorway by Thor's laughing voice. "Boy! You do realize that you're 'pussy-whipped' don't you?"

Skuld smiled, "Oh, yeah, I sure hope so." He grinned at all the other gods and said, "It's great too and all of you know it. You're just jealous and wouldn't be here if it happened to you." With that he turned and left.

Pan spoke for all of them as he crawled out of the hole, "Gods, he's got that right." Everybody else just nodded in agreement.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranma and Skuld sat together on one of the low walls of the temple. Both were looking at each other a bit nervously since they were discussing wedding plans and both were male at the moment.

Ranma finally reached out a hand toward the cup of water sitting between them only to have it intercepted by Skuld. "Please don't, I know that this version of you is your true self and you don't especially like being a girl. Me on the other hand, I'm still enough of a girl at heart that I'm kind of turned on by you." Skuld paused and with a blush admitted, "Maybe I'm a pervert but I'm also turned on by you in girl form too."

"Do you mean you swing both ways?" asked Ranma.

"Actually," confided Skuld, "I really haven't ever 'swung' at all. But you are the only one who has ever caught my attention that way; in both forms too!"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I think I know what you mean. You're the only guy that I've ever even thought about that way." He paused a moment, "Of course it helps that I remember you as a girl and sort of still think of you that way. Humm, well that's not completely true. I think of you as a 'tomboy', somebody really special. The fact that you're a guy right now sort of doesn't matter since you still look almost the same, just a little bit more buff than last year when you first got changed; well other than that beard."

Skuld held out an arm and said as he flexed a muscle, "Thanks to you and Thor, I'm actually getting into shape." He paused and added, "I wonder if it will carry over into my real form?"

"Probably," guessed Ranma. "It seems to for me, but then I have a Jusenkyo curse and that might be different than what Kami-sama did to you."

Skuld sighed and then said, "So how do the wedding plans sound so far?"

Ranma hesitated a moment then sighed and drenched himself with the water anyway. "It was just too weird to be talking about being a bride while a guy." Ranko explained. "I think the plans are great. You don't think anybody will mind that I don't want my pop there?"

"Actually," smiled Skuld at the cute girl, "I know several sisters of mine and a few others as well who would most certainly object to being anywhere near that jerk at a special time like this."

Ranko grinned, "Good. I know my mom approves of that. So what else do . . .HEY! . . . What are you doing?"

Skuld didn't say a word as he deftly leaned Ranko backwards over his lap and quickly captured her lips in a kiss as she grabbed hold onto him to get her balance again.

Ranko initially froze with the contact of Skuld's lips on hers, but then she softly smiled, relaxing her lips as she returned the kiss while her grasp on his clothes turned into a hug.

Inexperienced, their first mutual kiss was hesitant at first but both enjoyed it. As Skuld started to release Ranko, she snuggled into his chest instead. She softly said, "I think Thor has been giving you other lessons as well, hasn't he?"

Blushing yet very happy, Skuld nodded; "Yeah, he thought that I might need it sometime in the future."

"Thank you." She whispered, "I needed the reassurance that this was the right thing for us." She sighed softly, "It just feels ssoooo right to do this."

He hugged her closer and grinned like an idiot. 'I was right,' he thought to himself. 'Ranko couldn't be forced, his/her life proved that. But she could be wooed by just being there. Just consistently being a friend is all it took.' He held her a little tighter and she snuggled in a bit. 'Her loneliness was her only real weakness.'

.o0o. .o0o.

Urd frowned as she watched Nabiki in the monitor. 'Darn, and here I thought she'd learned her lesson.' Urd was also very unhappy with the reactions of both Ukyo and Ryouga as Nabiki revealed (for a price) that Ranma was going to get married and to a god to boot. She paused, 'how did Nabiki even find them anyway? Oh, at Ryouga's home.'

Urd got up and began to pace her office, fragments of plans swirling in her mind. They all had misery for the three mortals in common. Urd was about to embark on an impulsive response to them when she happened to see her reflection in the mirror. She was startled by the black energy swirling about her. 'That almost reminds me of Mara', she thought.

She shuddered to a stop and slowly sat down. 'What I was planning was also something that reminds me of Mara', she realized. 'Darn.'

Getting herself under control, she sought out her younger sister. "Bell," she paused hesitantly and awkwardly. "Bell, could you help me figure out a problem?"

In an echo of recently absent behavior, Skuld taunted; "HA, the old bag finally admits to needing help!" Skuld would have said more except for the quiet question that Ranko asked.

"Skuld, remember what you told me about insults? Does that mean you want Urd as an enemy?" She added, "I hope not since I consider her a friend."

Urd heard the question too and stifled her own angry response. Skuld swallowed embarrassedly and apologized, "Sorry big sister. I didn't mean it. Is there something I can help you with?"

Urd bit back her sharp response and said instead, "Maybe. Let me explain the problem and see what advice y'all can offer." She then explained what she'd seen and gave examples of her response. Bell's response was a restrained "t'sk, t'sk," but who she was chiding was uncertain.

Ranko began to fume, muttering, "Why can't they just leave me alone? Why couldn't they be my friends and be happy for me? It's not fair!" She started to snarl only to be pulled into an embrace by Skuld.

"Shuu, it's ok. We just won't invite them to the wedding. There's nothing that they can do. Just let it go." He crooned holding the betrayed girl closer. She shuddered a few more times and then hugged him back.

Ranko shuddered in Skuld's embrace. On one hand 'his' early training made 'him' want to resist being in this situation. On the other appendage, she craved loving attention and caring friendship. She sighed and consoled herself with, 'it's really ok, after all, Skuld is actually a girl.'

Skuld spoke slowly, "Urd, I don't think that Ranko and I should help with this at all. Our motives would be suspect and I have to admit that right now that some of the things that I'm considering might cause me to lose my license permanently."

Bell thought about it for a moment and then suggested, "Urd, you are right to ask for help but I think it shouldn't be us. I think you should put the problem in the master operations log, schedule a problem resolution meeting and see who shows up and what their suggestions are."

Urd thought about it for a moment before saying, "But that would admitting that I need help solving this problem."

Belldandy cocked her head and asked, "But you've already done that. What's the problem now?"

Urd scuffed her foot a bit, but then sighed, "Ok, I'll do it then."

.o0o. .o0o.

Skuld stood nervously before Kami-sama's desk.

"So, I hear you got engaged," the over-deity observed.

"Yes father," he weakly responded. This summons was not expected and he was a bit apprehensive.

"I'm pleased with the responsibility you showed both when you refused to release the lock on Ranma's curse for his sake and then again released it when the danger to him was past. You never abused the situation to try and force Ranko to comply with the conditions to release your gender change lock." HE paused a moment and continued, "On a related note, I'm also pleased that you ceased hindering Belldandy and Keiichi. Why was that?"

The young kami, hesitated then confessed, "After what you said to me, it seemed wrong to get in their way if I was somehow doomed to end up in the same type of relationship."

"Doomed?" HE sighed, "Child of mine, is that how you feel? Are you just using Ranko to meet My conditions? Is that all she means to you?"

Skuld shuddered, "I really didn't think it would happen even though I tried to subtly encourage it. I knew from reading Ranma's file that he could not be forced. I really didn't think it would happen." He finally glanced up and almost defiantly faced his father. "Something strange happened, something unexpected. I fell in love with the idiot and I would do anything for him or her. Even not marry her if that was what she wanted or needed. I love her, him too."

"I'm proud of you; your second class license is reinstated. Tell Urd and Belldandy that I think fondly of them as well."

Skuld staggered out of the office, stunned.

HE grinned at Skuld's yell of sheer delight moments later as the kami of the future finally took off running to share the news.

.o0o. .o0o.

Urd looked about the room studying the attendees. Fortunately there were a lot fewer than she feared, unfortunately several of the ones she least wanted were there anyway. She started off the meeting by passing out copies of Ranma/Ranko's life for them to read.

Two days later she stumbled out of the meeting room. She had to stop every hundred meters or so to catch her breath. Who knew that hysterical giggles could be so debilitating or so much fun. 'Whoa,' she thought to herself, 'and I thought I had a warped sense of humor. Those guys are crazy, but it was approved. Oh, this is going to be so much fun and revenge, revenge for Ranma will be so very sweet in the end.'

As she sat on a bench just outside the temple trying to compose herself before she entered, she noticed a tall myopic Chinese boy wandering by.

She grinned, 'Yep, there he is, the final player has shown up just in time for his cue in a few months.'

.o0o. .o0o.

Mousse was searching for his beloved. He had left the village without permission, indeed against specific instructions forbidding it so he was pretty much on his own as he did not dare go home again. But he just couldn't let his beloved get married. As soon as he'd heard that Saotome and Shampoo were busy making wedding arrangements, he'd literally flow to his love's side. Well, sort of, he was sure she was somewhere near here.

Shampoo shuddered as a cool wind seemed to warn her of impending changes. A college brochure fell open on the table before her.

Akane let the wind dry the tears from her face as she finally began to face who she truly was. The theater and psychology classes were helping her to deal with facades and self lies in a most unexpected way.

For some strange reason, Nabiki found herself looking at baby clothing. 'Weird,' she thought to herself, 'and I don't even know anybody who is expecting.'

Ryouga was happily pulling the cart despite the heat while Ukyo and Konatsu rode upon it. He paused in confusion as he saw the sign,

"Jusenkyo, two kilometers ahead"

'Odd,' he thought to himself, 'I didn't think there was one of those in Nerima. I wonder why it was in Chinese?' He turned the curve and shivered slightly in the newly falling snow.

Kasumi happily ensconced herself in her new world, worry free and oblivious still it seemed in some ways.

Dark and forbidding storm clouds swirled about the Kuno mansion, which was a bit odd since it was cloudless in the rest of the city. Gos threw down his latest effort at magic and stomped it just as lighting blasted Kodachi's prize rose garden.

.o0o. .o0o.

Urd hesitantly faced her father. "All Father, I am come as summoned." She blanched as she noticed that the far wall was displaying a recording of 'The Challenge Dance' from about five months ago.

"On one hand, I'm not particularly pleased that the world was treated to such a divine performance, since it's a time for both kami and demons to be in the background instead of the foreground as in millennia past." HE paused and continued, "On the other hand, I am very pleased that you invited your half-sister Mara to participate. That one simple little thing has done much, very much to reduce the tensions between the heavens and the underworld."

Urd blushed and softly replied, "She was my sister; as a kami I thought I should let her know I cared for her despite her actions."

HE smiled at her, "Tell me what prompted you to take charge of heaven's efforts on Ranma's behalf."

A soft smile graced Urd's lips, "She deserved it after all the cr . . . ah, bad stuff that had happened in his life up to that point." She shuddered, "Not to mention what his future life was potentially going to be."

"You followed the rules this time." He considered her a few moments and then observed, "Following the rules was never your strong suit in the past. As I recall, you typically said something about the rules getting in the way of both the fun and what needed to happen. Tell me about that change."

A large gulp was heard from Urd's direction. "Ah, well," she sighed, "it was sort of strange. In the past I was doing what I wanted and, yeah, the rules did sort of get in the way of my fun and what I felt needed to happen. But, I don't really know. Somehow it was different this time. This time I was focused on doing what Ranko needed and wanted instead of myself. The rules just seemed to help every step of the way." She turned a broad smile to Him, "In truth, I don't think I've ever had so much fun in my entire long life."

"Well done, well done indeed." With that HE handed her a set of earring-limiters. "You'll be needing these now. They are required for all first class goddesses stationed on earth."

Urd couldn't help herself, she hugged her ole man. HE just grinned and hugged her back.

.o0o. .o0o.

The day of the wedding dawned serenely; the scattered clouds a canvas of pastel colors. A beam of sunlight speared the temple where the Norns and their friends were making last minute preparations. The beam had an odd appearance as if it was a stream of liquid light being poured out. The light stream washed the temple clean of debris and age, refurbishing it immediately. It swept over the grounds of the temple, healing the plants and bringing the flowers to full bloom. It lapped at the outer walls, restoring, strengthening and warding them.

Mara saw the stream from the heavens and sensed the wards. She backed away from the temple fighting her nausea, yet vaguely wishing she could be there too. Ryouga walked up to the temple gate and made a sharp turn away from it never noticing that he had altered directions. Nabiki waked past it four times unable to read the address she sought and not realizing the high walls shielded the temple she sought to invade.

Urd silently appeared just behind Mara as she was wanly looking at the temple in the near distance. "Sis," seeing she had the demonesse's attention she said, "I wouldn't mind you being there but it is probably best that you aren't. On the other had, well, when and if I ever do get married, will you be my maid of honor?"

"But what about your sisters Belldandy and Skuld?" protested Mara.

A finger over her lips silenced Mara as Urd replied. "You are also my sister."

Unfamiliar tears seeped from her eyes as Mara happily nodded.

Urd grinned and handed her a small TV, "I set up a remote camera so that you could watch; sorry, gotta go now," and with that she vanished into the small screen.

Just before the ceremony, Ranko asked Belldandy for a favor. "Bell, could . . . would you lock my curse for me again?" Seeing her questioning look, Ranko explained, "It's my honeymoon. I don't want my guy form to spoil it for Skuld, please?"

Belldandy cheerfully complied with an understanding smile.

The wedding ceremony was in the western style mostly. Shampoo was Ranko's maid of honor while Urd was Belldandy's. Thor stood proudly as Skuld's best man while Keiichi's sister insisted on being his best man. Ranko had arranged for Rei's grandfather to officiate for them even though the ceremony was not Shinto.

Instead of a wedding dress, Ranko wore an Amazon pantsuit of fine silk enhanced by Aphrodite's bracelet so that it seemed to be patterned in shades of pure white. At first it appeared to be merely all white but on closer inspection one noticed the faint images of a dragon and a phoenix delicately traced out in fine silver thread. She was glad she had allowed her hair to grow longer so that it fell just past her waist in true Amazon style.

Belldandy wore clouds and sunshine, that's about all one can say by way of description of her heavenly gown. The guys; awh, who cares what they wore as they were there only for background decoration anyway. Most of the guests were from Asgard except for the Sailor Scouts and a few others like Cologne, Kasumi, Nodoka and Keiichi's parents.

The ceremony went very well with no interruptions. The gifts were incredible but none more so than the one from Kami-sama. He made Ranma and Keiichi immortals for the sake of Skuld and Belldandy.

Belldandy took Keiichi to heaven, in more than one way. As far as the details of their honeymoon, only they know them.

Urd arranged for Skuld's and Ranko's honeymoon. With her newly regained first class powers, she used her domain and sent the two of them into the past for a couple of months or so. Of course, being Urd, she also spied on them a little bit too.

Both dressed in shorts and tank tops, Ranko and Skuld nervously held hands as they scanned the landscape. Both of them were telling themselves that the cause of the nervousness was that there just had to be critters out there where ever Urd had sent them. It really had nothing to do with the situation, nope, nothing at all. So what if they had just gotten married earlier in the day and the honeymoon hadn't happened yet. Nothing to be concerned over, nope, nothing at all.

Ranko noticed a table with a couple of chairs next to a huge refrigerator in the meadow just below and to their right. She pulled Skuld toward it and when they got to it, they noticed the note on the table. Recognizing his sister's handiwork and writing, Skuld hesitantly opened the note and read it.

Ranko was entranced. She stared at the colorful birds, amazed at the way they were totally fearless of the humans, a few even perching momentarily on them. Skuld whispered, "It's one of the few mortal paradises. There are almost no land based predators of any size, no mammals other than seals."

Ranko grinned and teased, "Yep, just bugs, birds and us, huh?" Seeing both the hesitation and the longing in Skuld's eyes, Ranko smiled and wrapped her arms about the god. She turned her face up and he kissed her . . . much later they woke up in each other's arms. Tired and naked but sheltered from the sun by the palms and cushioned by the grasses and ferns.

Skuld turned over and watched Ranko's sleeping face for a moment. He noticed the tear making its way down one cheek. He reached out to wipe it away and she grabbed his hand and pressed it to her cheek.

"Ranko," he asked. "What's wrong, why are you crying?"

She sighed and replied. "A little bit because I'm so happy; a little bit because a dream died and a little bit more just because."

"A dream died?"

Ranko nodded, "All my life, I thought I'd be a guy the first time I . . . huh, well you know." Seeing the flicker of hurt in Skuld's eye, she sat up and embraced his back as he started to turn away. "But it's OK, because it's you. It's you, and you DO understand. 'Cause you had a dream too. You thought you'd be a girl on your honeymoon." She giggled, "Who knows, maybe in a year of so, we can try this again, make our childish dreams finally come true."

Skuld turned in her arms and embraced her as well. "Yes, I do understand. I envy you, you know. You had a choice." This time the hurt was in Ranko's eyes. Skuld held her as she hesitantly struggled to get loose. "Ranko, if this is the price I must pay to be 'yours', this is a price I will always choose to pay. I'm so glad that you chose me. I would rather be male and in your arms than a girl in anybody else's arms ever. I'm so glad you chose me." Skuld hesitated and softly added, "After I fell for you, it was you or nobody for me. That's what I meant by not having a choice."

Ranko sighed as she snuggled into the embrace that refused to release her. "Confusing ain't it? Love makes no sense at all at times." She grinned impishly up at her husband. "That was fun, let's do it again!"

Skuld blushed but before he could say anything, Ranko pulled him on top of her as she laid back on the sweet grass.

Much, much later, Ranko hesitantly asked Skuld, "Do you think I'll make a good mommy?"

Skuld sighed and hugged her closer, "Much better than I would. I saw how you worked with those children at the hospital rehabilitation center. Your patience with their shortcomings was amazing. Our children will adore you. I wonder how much of a father I'll be?"

Ranko's voice quavered as she asked, "What are we going to do when you get cured?"

"We'll be back to normal." Skuld shortly replied. "How boring, it also means I really won't get a chance to be a father." Skuld's eyes were closed as he whispered. "I don't know if I want a kid if it means being normal again; at least not soon. No matter how much I like your boy form and how much I want to be a girl again, I don't want to lose times like this either."

Ranko kissed the tears away that Skuld didn't even realize were falling. "You'll always have me, both of me. I promise."

"I wish I could promise that this form of me would always be there for you, but that's not a promise I can make." Skuld shrugged and grinned, "Well, might as well make the most of it, heh?"

Ranko grinned mischievously, "Only if you can catch me." The naked redhead was gone in a flash, streaking over the meadow and taking a running dive over the falls into the deep pool below.

Skuld grinned, stepped into a nearby pool and rode his media to the pool below and tagged her as she surfaced. "Tag, you're it." He then vanished into the water again; grinning a few moments later as he peered around the edge of the waterfall. Not seeing any sign of his bride he stepped out into the open a bit more.

The air shimmered beside him as Ranko released her 'hidden thief cloak' technique. "Gotcha; tagged," she snickered as she shoved him into the rapids. She then vanished from sight again.

A month later found Ranko and Skuld walking hand in hand down the beach. Both were tanned a deep brown and neither was dressed except for the palm leaf hats they wore. In fact they had not worn their clothes since removing them the first day, a situation that bothered neither of them. Ranko's hair had fallen out of its braid and tended to shroud her upper torso with its sun faded strawberry blond locks.

Each day they wandered the island, playing games and in awe of the natural scenery and each other. Their bed was a thick mat of ferns and grasses and they rarely slept under the same tree twice. In the early morning and each evening, Ranko would work out with Skuld, teaching him a little bit more martial arts while refreshing her own skills. During much of the remainder of the day, Skuld would share some of his knowledge of the world about them, whenever the two of them weren't eating, sleeping, giggling or whatever. Skuld was actually beginning to be worried about Ranko's interest in the 'whatever'; he prayed that his stamina would hold out.

Most days followed the same pattern, after cleaning up breakfast, the two of them would pack a lunch, then Ranko would hop into Skuld's arms and he'd jump into a pool of water and they would ride his media to a random exit point on the island. Twice they had exited in the midst of surging rapids and lost their lunch amid giggles as they battled the unexpected watery maelstrom.

Urd found them sleeping in each other's arms in the early dawn six months later. She brought them home from their honeymoon only two days after they had left local time.

Belldandy's honeymoon had lasted a year but they had arrived home a day after they left so that Keiichi didn't have to miss any of his college classes.

Ranko stretched as she looked at the bedroom she now shared with Skuld in the temple. She already missed Hawaii and it had only been a day since they had left. A startled look crossed her face and she made a mad dash for the bathroom.

Belldandy had a pensive look on her face as she watched Ranko wash her mouth out trying to rid herself of the vile taste of bile. She cast a scrying spell on her sister-in-law and was startled at the results. Her "OH, MY!" echoed throughout the temple.

"What!" yelped Ranko, "What's wrong?"

Belldandy hesitantly pointed at Ranko, "You . . . you're . . ."

"Sick," Ranko answered, "Yeah that much I know. I must have caught a stomach bug or something. No big deal. A day, maybe two and I'll be over it."

"Ranko," sighed the now exasperated goddess. "Try a couple hundred or so days, and even then it's just beginning."

"Huh?" She looked pensively aback to where Skuld lay sleeping, "I hope he doesn't get it then if it's that bad." She smiled lovingly, "He can be such a wimp at times."

Belldandy couldn't help it; she collapsed on the floor in near hysterical giggles. Finally noticing the worried look on Ranko's face, she rose and embraced the other girl. "Ranko, Skuld can't catch this from you." She paused in thought a moment, then added with a snicker, "at least not yet; maybe next time."

"Catch, next time?" Ranko pulled out of Belldandy's embrace. "Bell, what are you talking about?"

By this time, Urd, Keiichi and Skuld were sleepily standing around wondering what all the fuss was about. None of them were very happy about being awakened so early. However, before any of them could say anything, Belldandy answered Ranko's question.

"Ranko, you're pregnant." She grinned at the shocked faces surrounding them, "AND it's twins too."

The only thing that prevented Ranko from hitting the floor was that Skuld fainted first and she landed on top of him.

.o0o. .o0o.

Ranko grumbled, her mother was 'mothering' her again and it was driving her up the wall. And did that baka of a husband help? NO! Well, yeah, he was helping to mother her to death too.

Ranko slowly strolled into a part of the temple grounds that was well shaded by the old tall trees that surrounded that part of the yard. The grass was long and lush underneath her bare feet.

Setting herself, she closed her eyes and smoothly moved into the relaxing forms of Tai Chi. As she silently lost herself in the graceful moves she could feel the tension seeping out. Even the twins could seem to feel it as they finally stopped kicking her this morning.

She smiled slightly to herself as she made that observation. A month ago it had been an exciting event when she'd first felt their movement. Man, the novelty of that had worn off quickly.

As she finished up the final moves, she opened her eyes to see a blanket spread out on the grass. Not too surprising, her husband was sitting there, a breakfast tray beside him, patiently waiting for her.

She walked over to him with only a slight waddle, kissed him and said, "Wait, I'll be back." Then she hurried away with that peculiar gait that meant, 'outta my way, I gotta GO now.'

A bit later she slowly wiped the last bits of her meal from her face and leaned into Skuld's chest. He gently held her as he stroked her hair; soon enough she drifted off to sleep cradled in his arms on the blanket in the deep grass in the cool shadows; just another weekend in the current life of Ranko and Skuld.

From the porch, a line of 'in-laws' from both sides nodded approvingly.

School was the pits. Oh, the first half of her senior year had been alright as she had only barely started to show by the time the first half of the term had started.

The reactions of her classmates were varied. The boys had universally lamented that Lil' Red's heart had been taken by somebody else. The girls were generally all excited by the opportunity to be a part of her motherhood by association. A few made disparaging remarks, but not twice. Ranko had more than enough guardians willing and able to 'correct' those types of social errors. That was providing that Ranko didn't pound them first. Sometimes the guardians went ahead and took action anyway afterwards.

But now that the last half of her senior year was starting, well, it could have been worse, much worse. The school guidance counselor had made arrangements for an 'experimental multi-talented self paced group' to be set up. It consisted of Ranko and the four Sailor Scouts in her class with Sailor Pluto herself in charge of them. The chairs were comfortable and Ranko was allowed to doze whenever she needed to. But there was no slacking off on the school work; surprisingly the experimental setting was working wonders for both Usagi and Minako while both Ami and Makoto were doing just as well as usually.

There were a few problems at first. Surprisingly enough, Ami turned out to be the first one. She got into the habit of setting up her Scout computer to monitor Ranko during class. Every once in a while she would be heard snickering to herself, 'Ah how cute,' as she watched the display of the twins. This turned out to be very distracting to the other girls who immediately attempted to crowd around and see it too.

Eventually, Setsuna set the computer on HER desk and watched it during the few quiet moments in the class.

Shampoo had started attending college at the same time, but she timed her classes so that she could escort Ranko to and from school every day. Usually one of the other girls did as well. The time gates didn't seem to show any threats to Ranko but the Amazon and the Scouts weren't about to take any chances. Shampoo reported that she really enjoyed her theater classes and she was getting a lot of attention after she was recognized as one of the dancers from 'The Challenge Dance' nearly a year ago.

Ranko loved her mother. But there were times when she almost dreaded going to visit her. It was the main reason she choose to dwell in the temple with Skuld instead of the two of them moving in with Nodoka.

Ranko did have to admit that she missed her dojo and the temple was a bit crowded at times. But the sense of tranquility and the open grounds were something she needed now more than a training hall.

Ranko was sitting in a garden swing that Skuld had made for her under one of the largest trees on the temple grounds. She was too uncomfortable to go to school so the class had been coming to her these past ten days. The twins were healthy, that she was already very sure of. She sighed, 'just two more weeks' she whimpered to herself.

Belldandy approached her with a large lemonade and a couple of cookies on a tray. As Ranko reached for them she felt a flow of water around her ankles. Looking down in embarrassment, she stuttering apologized, "I'm sorry about that, I think they must have kicked my bladder once too often."

Quietly giggling, Belldandy leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. "No, that's not it."

"Huh?"

"It's somebody's birthday, a pair of them in fact. Come on, let's get you to the hospital," she suggested as she sat next to Ranko.

Ranko looked confused for a moment, then excited, and finally terrified. She clung to the goddess, tears leaking. "Wha . . . what am I going to do?"

Belldandy just held her and soothed her, "You'll be Ok, come on let's get you up and on your way."

Many hours later at the hospital, Ranko almost angrily squeezed Skuld's hand nearly in half as with a final push she delivered the second child, a girl. The child's wails eerily harmonized with her elder brother's.

Ranko exhaustedly snarled at her spouse, "The next kid we have, you're going to be the one doing this. YOU hear me?"

The delivery nurse chuckled, "It's odd, almost half the new mother's make that threat. I've never seen it happen yet." She shook her head, "but this is Juuban so maybe I'll be surprised one day, heh?" She didn't notice that Skuld's face had paled.

Ranko contentedly watched the babies sleeping beside her. She had nursed them to sleep after granting Skuld the 'pleasure' of changing them. They were ten days old and friends and relatives were starting to gather. It would soon be time for the christening ceremony.

Given who they were; the Norns had opted to create their own ceremony. Standing in the open meadow like part of the temple yard that she loved, Ranko held her first born, a son while Skuld held their daughter. Facing them as representatives of both family and heaven were Urd and Belldandy.

Ranko began, "Elder sisters, I present to you the newest members of our family. This is your nephew, our son Tenma."

Skuld completed it, "friends and family, I present to you our daughter, Kikuko." With those words Skuld shifted to female. Apparently the fact that Ranko was now immortal didn't affect the lifting of Skuld's gender problem.

Shocked, the two new parents could only stare at each other, wondering. Prompted by something unknown, Urd and Belldandy stepped forward and each took a child to hold and bless.

A light mist blew in on the couple from a very localized late summer shower and Skuld shifted back to male. Ranko and Skuld were suddenly in each other's arms crying with both joy and relief.

A few days later, Belldandy released the lock on Ranko and shortly afterwards Ranma took his wife Skuld out on her first date.

.o0o. .o0o.

Urd's 'problem resolution plan' that she and the others had come up with turned out to be particularly effective. This was a bit surprising as it incorporated some input from the underworld as well.

Ukyo had sworn revenge for being led on and had left town with Konatsu and the cart to train. Along the way she had met with Ryouga who endorsed the idea of revenge. The two of them decided to train and travel together. So far, so good, but it was not to last. Major changes started to happen after Nabiki had told them about 'Ranko' marrying a kami. They had sworn angrily and vowed to ruin the marriage. Didn't happen.

Surprise, one of Urd's love potions actually worked, too bad it wasn't Ukyo. Talk about being in his own reality, Ryouga fell in love with Konatsu. They married and Ryouga still hasn't figured out his wife's secret. He's still fainting at even a hint of intimacy after three years of marriage. Both these lonely and hurt people now have each other; besides, Ryouga is very good at pulling the cart which Ukyo gave them as a wedding present after teaching Ryouga how to cook. Cologne had snuck a few packages of instant 'girl water' to the bride at the wedding so who knows how that will eventually turn out.

On a side note, learning that dear Ranma-chan was pregnant; Happosai threw a tantrum and dragged Soun and Genma off on a 'training trip' with him. They accepted Ryouga's offer to help pull the cart through some steep hills in exchange for free lunch. Ryouga and Konatsu returned later with some odd tale about this strange land where all the girls were actually robots. Of the three old farts, nothing was ever seen again.

Happens that Akane really did hate boys and the reason she malleted Ranma when Shampoo glomped him was jealousy. She wanted to be glomped by Shampoo. Turns out that Shampoo really did have a thing about kissing girls as well as guys. The kiss of death was only a cover. They became a couple, Akane took up theater and Shampoo was her agent and they found success when Akane became business manager for super model Shampoo. Shortly after they became an official couple, Cologne slipped Akane a box of instant 'boy water' packages with the comment that her granddaughter really liked guys too. The pair also founded a worldwide network of dojos that taught a hybrid version of Amazon Wu and Anything Goes under the guise of aerobics studios.

With Akane and 'Ranko' unavailable, the True Blunder was left in the lurch until Ukyo made the mistake of wearing girl clothing to celebrate her 'freedom' after the near scare with Ryouga and Konatsu. You know how blood calls to blood? Turns out that blade calls to blade too. They 'sparred' around for a year and then eloped.

They got a particularly effective revenge on Nabiki. She had a chance to get in on the ground floor but declined. But with Ukyo's business sense and culinary talents and Kuno's wealth, well, let's just say that every time Nabiki saw a new 'Ucchan's' franchise open up with that 'Millions upon Millions Served' sign, she mentally kicked herself again. Oddly enough, Kuno's image went a long way toward making Ucchan's Okonomiyaki almost a household name; sort of the way 'Colonel Sanders' did for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Strangely enough he seemed to be saner because of the adulation.

Mousse glomped Shampoo and seduced her when she didn't resist by immediately pounding him, only it was Kasumi frozen in shock. Turned out he was an honorable man and they actually seem happy now; I guess that since they were both somewhat blind to the world around them, it makes sense. He took a job as an entertainer/bartender in a posh night club and put Kasumi through Medical school.

With her world going crazy, Kodachi decided to marry her best friend. They put her in a padded room when she showed up at the city clerk's office with Mr. Green Turtle though. Sasuke once again rescued her and in desperate appreciation, she married him. There have been unconfirmed sightings of the couple since then and it is rumored that that his screams still echo in bowels of the Kuno Mansion.

Gos decided to 'rescue' Akane and accidentally made an effective magic love powder. He put it in a spring loaded folded paper 'bomb' in a letter, but it was fate that Nabiki was the one to confront him with it when it went off in their faces. Unfortunately, it only lasted a month, but by that time, they were married and she was pregnant, with triplets, the first of three sets in the next four years before she got her tubes tied. When she held her first child to her breast, she finally released her anguish over her mother's death and her tears washed away the old Nabiki, her kids adore her and everyone agrees that she is definitely (still) a mother.

Gos became a nationally recognized paranormal expert. His job kept him away from home and his nine daughters not nearly as much as he wanted.

In desperation those first years, Nabiki took over the dojo and turned it into day-care real estate office instead. She parlayed her family's momentary notoriety into college scholarships for the nine kids and she still had enough left over to hire two full time nannies to help her out.

Urd sat before the Yggdrasil monitor and watched the system as it processed the operations plan review. She was surrounded by Belldandy, Skuld, Aphrodite, Thor and a host of other kami. They watched as the pale blue background of the screen faded to gold and these words appeared.

"Operational Plan complete and approved – Well, done – Kami-sama."

A wild party broke out as the file saved and closed itself into the permanent archives.

.o0o. .o0o.

Pluto sighed as she finally fit all the pieces together a year after she'd gotten the first clues to this puzzle from the Norns. Thank goodness the time gates were stable again since Urd and Skuld had been restored to their former status. She slowly crept to her bed for a week of lazy days and healing nights. She was going to need all her strength to explain this mess to the other scouts.

Rei frowned at the cryptic note that Setsuna had left on her desk at home. 'Oh, well,' she thought to herself, 'I guess I might as well start calling everybody for the meeting that she wants me to arrange.'

Later that week, Pluto made her appearance just as the perennially late Usagi arrived. She down-powered and began without preamble, "I finally figured out what Kami-sama did to Crystal Tokyo. I thought I'd let you know, not that we can do anything to change it. But I saw no point in keeping any secrets about what is going to happen as it affects us now."

Usagi whined, "I thought you said that He wouldn't do anything to affect the Silver Millennium?"

Setsuna clarified, "That's true as far as direct intervention is concerned, but then everything He did was indirect rather than direct. In short, what He did was use the goddess Skuld to save the life of the mortal warrior Ranma Saotome, whom you've all met." She rubbed her head before continuing, "Ranma Saotome is one of those rare persons who is a nexus of destiny. They have the power to change history if they live long enough. He was originally fated to die later this year at the hands of his wife but now he is the wife of Skuld, god of the future and the future is totally screwed up as a result."

"HE's the 'wife'!" screeched Usagi. "How is that possible?"

"Forget that!" asserted Haruka, "If he's the crux of the whole timeline change, can't you do something to make sure he dies young or better yet never gets born?" Haruka really missed the hope of Crystal Tokyo.

Pluto cast a distasteful glance at her and shortly replied, "No. Doing that is even worse. Ranma grew up to eventually kill the immortal Phoenix God Saffron several years ago. Saffron was reborn as a different person, but without Ranma's intervention, the earlier incarnation ends up conquering the world and two of the scouts become his concubines." She grimaced as she pointed to Usagi but grinned as she pointed to Haruka. "He takes the princess as a prize, but he takes you, Haruka for spite just before casually killing Michiru after forcing her to watch." She added, "Even with all your power, you scouts couldn't defeat him. And I'm forbidden to directly attack him."

Michiru shuddered and then asked, "I thought all our problems were caused by that redheaded girl that Skuld almost killed? That was your friend Ranko wasn't it? The same one that we ended up defending I believe."

Pluto snickered slightly, "Yeah; turns out that that was the female form of Ranma Saotome. Seems that he ran afoul of some ancient transformation magic; when he is splashed with cold water, he becomes a girl. Hot water changes her back into a guy. It's made his life miserable." She grinned a bit, "When the goddess Skuld attacked 'her', Skuld had already locked Ranma's curse. Because of all that, Kami-sama changed Skuld into a guy. But because the change wasn't really all that obvious on Skuld, very few mortals realized what had happened, meaning me in this case." She sighed, "At least until I met Skuld in the time gates; even then I still didn't know what had happened but the beard was a dead give away that Skuld was no longer a goddess."

Pluto's explanation was interrupted by several expressions of surprise. Usagi was the one who managed to get the comment out though. "What do you mean, Skuld was a goddess. I thought everybody knew that Ranko's boyfriend was a guy named Skuld. Oh, wait is this maybe the same goddess Skuld who was supposed to make me her avatar and . . ." She ran out of steam at that point.

Pluto glared at her once future queen and continued, "Yes, it is the same person. I recently found out that Kami-sama also told Skuld that he would remain in that form until Ranma bore him a child. That poised quite a problem for Skuld since he had not only alienated Ranma but he had lost his powers as well and Ranma was stronger than him in any case."

"Oh how romantic" sighed Minako, "two lover's fated to hate each other forever."

The others looked at her weirdly for a moment, and then Pluto continued yet again. "Well, somehow it happened that they did get married almost a year ago. In fact, we all were invited to the wedding. I just didn't realize the significance of it then. A couple of months ago they had a set of twins. In about four years they will have a second set of twins. These four kids help their parents totally obliterate any hope of Crystal Tokyo happening."

Seeing the frown on Haruka's face, she forestalled the anticipated suggestion by saying, "And don't even think of suggesting that we mess with the kids. They are, after all, Kami-sama's grandkids." Haruka slumped in final defeat.

"I wonder what they will look like?" mused Sailor Moon.

Pluto pulled out two family photos. "That I can answer thanks to the time gate now that it's working a lot better now." As she held out the first photo she said, "Here's the happy couple with their eldest kids when they turned 16." Everybody studied the photo of redheaded, seemingly demure Ranko and the taller but still slim Skuld still sporting a short beard. The two kids were a redheaded girl and a black haired boy. The girl was a slightly taller but petite reflection of her mother while the slim boy with the athletic build towered over his father.

"Here," Pluto slyly continued, "Is a photo of the happy parents when the younger twins also turned 16 four years later in about 20 years from now." The assembled sailor scouts studied the photo, looked aback at the first, then the second and . . . didn't have the faintest idea of what was happening until Pluto clarified with a snicker. "After the couple regained their birth genders, well, they had another set of twins, same parents, but different mother and different father."

Makato got this dreamy look on her face and then she sighed regretfully, "The guys look great. It's too bad that they are younger than us." Several of the other scouts nodded in agreement.

Pluto grinned broadly and remarked, "You know, these four kids all have something in common with you girls." Seeing their puzzled expressions she slyly added, "They are all immortals just like we are." She mused out loud to herself, "I wonder how much difference a couple of decades will make after the first century or so?"

Pluto glanced back fondly at the second photo. She had found that she was going to be these kids' godparent and she already thought they were really neat even though she hadn't met them yet. She could hardly believe she was indulging in a bit of matchmaking for kids not yet even conceived. She chuckled at the scene of a matured Ranma towering above his tall but elfin wife who had her arms loosely wrapped about their black haired second daughter while their redheaded second son stood next to the two gals, a bit shorter than his father but with the same athletic build. The twins were of nearly the same height.

Hotaru hesitantly asked, "Mama-Setsuna, what did these kids do after they were born that changed everything so much?"

Setsuna sighed and said, "They were instrumental in helping their parents stop the 'big freeze'. Something that I didn't even think was possible. Without that, there was no 'millennium sleep' and resultant chaos for Sailor Moon to rescue the world from and gain their universal support for a new government."

Venus sighed, "So what do we do now if we aren't going to rule the world?"

Pluto grinned, "What all the rest of the super powered heroes of the world do. Serve the world instead of ruling it. Make sure the 'bad' guys don't take over the world and meanwhile just enjoy the ride." She grinned, "In other words, get a life."

.o0o. .o0o.

Author's note: Additional Ranma fan-fiction can be found on my Web Page.

.o0o. .o0o.

.o0o. .o0o.