"What are you doing, Akane?" Nabiki asked coolly. Akane turned to her and blinked in confusion.
"To school, where else?" Akane demanded of her.
"No, you're recovering," Nabiki said. "Stay at home and let's figure this out."
"You don't really believe that Yuka is dangerous do you?" Akane asked. "It had to be some trick that Ranma pulled."
"Nabiki is right to be cautious," Kasumi said bringing in breakfast to set on the table. "Please sit down, Akane."
"Oh my girls!" Soun wailed. "I have let my own folly condemn you to this fate." Nabiki and Akane rolled their eyes.
"Oh father, father, father," Kasumi sighed, shaking her head. "You should really have thought this through a little cautiously." Seeing that Kasumi was giving him even gentle reproach sent Soun into deeper paroxyms of grief.
"So what do we know here?" Nabiki asked, getting to the point. "Very little, there are three supernatural factions at work within the Nerima area..."
"Three?" Akane screeched. "What else is there?"
"Ranma," Kasumi said. "These demons, and...ourselves." She hesitated on the last point.
"Oh..." Akane said quietly. Then she growled. "That's right."
"Yes, and Ranma told the doctor there was a 'bad bunch' out of China that got here ahead of him," Nabiki said.
"That really isn't enough information to proceed," Kasumi said softly. "We need to know what they both are here for."
"Then we can tear that lying pervert to pieces for what he did to us," Akane said angrily.
"By the way, Akane," Nabiki said. "I was his fiancee, he surprised Kasumi, but you never said how he got your kiss." Akane flashed beet red.
"That's not important," Akane said irritably. "What is important now is getting that jerk, from you say he even let his sister get hurt last night."
"Actually I'm not sure of that anymore," Nabiki said. "Ranma's 'sister' had a much more identical scent to his than we do to each other."
"You said they were both foxes," Kasumi noted. Nabiki nodded, though looking around at the three of them, sparrow, tanuki, and dog, made the thought of two foxes in the same family seem odd.
"In any case we need information," Nabiki said. "I think I know how to get some."
"You mean..." Akane paused, remembering how the dogs howling in the night before had been howling words during her brief time in hybrid form.
"I...suppose that is the safest way," Kasumi said. "Oh dear...that'll be hard on you, Nabiki, there aren't all that many tanuki in this day and age."
"It'll be harder on Ranma," Nabiki said smirking. "And sparrows and dogs are everywhere."
"The first idiot to try to send me to the pound gets hurt," Akane promised irritably.
"It's no use, Grandmother," Shampoo said coming back as she dropped from the window onto her feet. The former amazon now had a pair of violet blooms braided into her hair, decorations that carried into her cat form.
"You could find no information then, Granddaughter?" Cologne asked.
"I found too much information," Shampoo said. "The fox is here, the fox is there, the fox is everywhere, the fox is nowhere. They think the fox runs away before the cats can see him. Maybe he knows I am looking for him this way?"
"More likely he is avoiding the cats for other reasons," Cologne said. "Are friend Ranma has suffered the neko-ken training according to his own mouth." Shampoo froze in shock, suddenly worried. "Do not provoke his fear too greatly, and it should not be a problem. I dread to think what a creature like him in the neko-ken would do."
"Perhaps Mousse's bats will bring a different tale," Cologne said
She looked up into the ceiling as the named person dropped to the floor and yawned. Shampoo's yawn matched his, and she followed it by smacking her lips a little.
"You will both be able to get some more sleep soon," she promised.
"You don't have to sound so testy about it," Mousse muttered. "Withered up old monkey." The resultant knock on the head almost sent Mousse into a slumber.
"You respect your elders, Boy," she snapped. "Now did you learn anything of import."
"Nothing more than what we learned last night," Mousse said, shrugging. "Bat's don't spend time looking for foxes in the night."
"That leaves us with our other captive," Cologne said.
"She's just a weak Japanese girl," Shampoo said, shrugging the question of Sayuri aside as she worked on arranging the sofa the previous owners had left. It was the closest soft surface after all, but she still had to get it to just the right amount of comfort.
Mousse was reluctant to suggest torturing the girl for what she knew. Suggesting such activity toward any female, even "weak foreigners" such as Sayuri, among even two ex-amazons was tantamount to suicide.
"I have already made arrangements for her," Cologne said, apparently having noted Mousse's thoughts regardless. "I think we should begin to get an idea how to deal with hannya."
"He left me here with these gaijin...things," Sayuri grumbled to herself after listening to the arguing. And after Ranma's escape they had closed and locked the window, and tied up Sayuri. It wasn't as though they expected Sayuri to make it as easy as Ranma had, but they had their pride to think of.
Sayuri was currently working on the tied-up portion of her problem. They may have taken a few extra precautions to keep their remaining prisoner, but they weren't nearly as cautious as they had been with Ranma. It hadn't taken her long to find a suitably sharp portion of the steel chair she was tied to and start rubbing the rop along that portion.
"Warn the Tendos," Sayuri mutters. "And learn how to 'get demons out of people' he says. How does he expect me to do that stuck here? And the pervert KISSED me!! Making me think he was going to make me a werewolf or something, and all he's doing is sneaking a kiss in."
She paused in working the rope to listen to the discussion out in the front room for a moment. Being in Chinese meant that she couldn't understand a word, but she COULD tell that they were distracted. Sighing in relief she cut the last strand of the rope.
Rubbing her hands she stood up and looked around the room. In a moment she was quietly building a small stair to the window that Ranma had escaped out of. It had been difficult for him as a fox to work it open enough, and it would be a tight fit even all the way open for her, but it was the only escape she could see. She wasn't going to stay with these strange foreigners and wait for them to decide she was a liability.
In climbing out of the room she almost kicked over her improvised stair, but managed to avoid that as she slowly dragged herself out of the window. She panted on the other side.
"Okay, I have to find Akane," Sayuri said. "She'll know what to do about...everybody. But one quick stop first."
She failed to notice a small, irritated looking, cat following her and yawning.
Ranma noted the scents around the botanical gardens and frowned. He wasn't sure that he was safe going in there, but the best clue about these things he'd gotten yet was this vulnerability to violets. That old woman probably knew more, but he already knew that would be a bad way to get information.
Then there were his injuries. They were worse than he had at first supposed after the nursing the Chinese had given him.
He was sore all over, and he already realized that he'd have to be very careful or else that first slash would reopen and he'd be in trouble again. Still, he thought he should be combat ready by the end of the day.
He was reasonably certain of it at least.
Then he smelled someone coming and froze, before his fox-face broke into a huge grin.
I knew she'd get out, Ranma said. Then he frowned. Damn, maybe I spoke too soon.
He glanced around quickly to make sure nothing was watching him, and then, with a shiver, turned into the last thing Shampoo would be looking for him as.
Shampoo was chasing after the girl, grumbling about how she wasn't going anywhere they didn't already know about. At least the girl was smart enough to go get some violets before she went too far.
"RRRRRRRRRR!!!!"
The frightened, shaky hissing surprised Shampoo and she jumped away from the source of the sound prepared for a fight. She'd learned that frightened cats tended to do stupid things, like think they could take her. The pathetic red cat that she saw was hardly what she was expecting. There was something strange about its aura, but she expected that was just the terror she was seeing.
"W...w.why..d..did you step on me!?" the cat asked shakily. "I w...w....wasn't doing nothing!" Shampoo relaxed and rolled her eyes irritably at the terrified cat.
"You're in my way stupid cat," Shampoo said. "I didn't see you." She tried to go further, but the cat hesitantly, moving like a superfast, twitchy bullet.
"D...didn't see me," the cat whined. "I was r...r...right in the m....m...middle of the street."
"Get out of my way," Shampoo said, looming in the other cat's face. "Or I'll HURT you!"
"I...if...if you want my territory," the cat said. "I....I'll move..."
"I'm just passing through stupid!!" Shampoo shouted in a roaring, hissing shout that sent the other cat cringing. "Get out of way!"
At this point the other cat seemed to be shivering uncontrollably.
"Hey, you," a shopkeeper said, batting at Shampoo with a broom. "Shew, shew, get out of here!"
Shampoo grumbled angrily and let herself be chased away. That girl couldn't be useful anyway, so why bother going through all the trouble. It wasn't as if she HAD any Amazon honor to maintain anymore. She didn't see Sayuri step out after the cat had left.
"Thank you, sir," Sayuri said, then bent down to the shivering cat, which strangely seemed to be calming down.
"I've heard of being afraid of mice," the man said. "But alley cats?"
"I've had problems with that one before," Sayuri said grimmly, and then looked to the cute little red cat that had alerted her to the shapechangers present. "Poor dear, did that mean little bimbo scare you? Ahh! You're cut up all over, that little foreign bitch!"
"Err...how could you know that cat is foreign?" the shopkeeper said.
"I know who her owner is," Sayuri said, picking up the cat. The cat looked up at her blinking and meowed quite convincingly before snuggling comfortably in the nice human's arms.
"Oh, I see that," the man said. "You said you were here for violets?"
"Yes," Sayuri said.
"Well," the man said. "Somebody had a fight in here last night, and most of the violets were scattered about. The police wouldn't come, said they had bigger problems than 'vandals.' You can have what you can find. I can't sell them."
"Oh thank you," she said. "I'm not really using them for decoration anyway."
"Warding off evil?" the man asked jokingly. Sayuri blinked and looked up.
"Hmmm?" she said. "Excuse me?"
"Just a joke," the man said. "There are a lot of legends about violets from many parts of the world."
"Like what?" Sayuri asked.
"In one myth, they came about from the blood of a slain god who's mother took the flowers and set them as decorations to remember him," the shopkeeper said. "The greeks thought that they were created when Zeus turned the tears of one of his mistresses into flowers to provide her food while she hid in the form of a white cow. There are many such beliefs."
"But the warding off evil thing?" Sayuri said.
"Just one of the mythical uses," he said. "You don't believe in that do you?"
"No..." Sayuri said. "That would be silly, wouldn't it kitty." She blushed as she found herself talking to the cat. At least this one won't talk back to you. And when I get my hands on that fox, he'll give me some better answers than just, 'this is war.'
In Sayuri's hands, the person in which the hope of the world lay calmly considered the tantalizing way that Sayuri's bangs hung down toward him.
"Oh stop playing with my hair, you," Sayuri said.
"You know girl," the shopkeeper said. "You seem familiar."
"Well, I live around here," she answered, noticing a paper blow by with the headling "girl kidnapped." She did not want to be found publicly yet, not until she got somewhere safer, like with Akane.
"The sparrows were...confusing," Kasumi said. "They had a great deal of information about the changing of the seasons and the where the best meal worms can be found, though they've been competing with the bats for such insects. At least they were all quite polite. Oh yes, I am to watch out for cats since they have been much more active since last night."
"Okay," Nabiki said. "I struck out too, none of the tanuki saw a fox in the last week, but they said they'd keep an eye out. How about you Akane?"
"A fox fought a demon on Yuka's street," Akane said soberly. "The dog said the fox was losing badly. Whoever she was she's probably dead, and Sayuri with her." Nabiki turned to her sister and laid a hand on her sister's
"I really don't think so," Nabiki said. "Otherwise Yuka wouldn't be trying to draw them out with that news story. She or it'd make something else up."
"That still leaves Yuka," Akane said quietly. "My two best friends, and ones missing while the other is taken over by some demon, while I'm in bed because some pervert wanted to satisfy some weird wet dream."
"Everything will work out fine," Kasumi promised her.
"Tadaima!" a desparate and nervous sounding voice called out. "Is anybody here?"
"Sayuri?" Akane blinked, then she was up and running as the caller's scent was brought to them. "What are you doing here? The news said you were kidnapped! Oh, what a cute cat!" She leaned down tickled the yawning cat.
"He got in a fight he shouldn't have," Sayuri said, she glanced at the speckled brown color of Akane's hair and sighed nervously. "Akane, I have to tell you about Yuka." Akane turned grave and looked up.
"I know," Akane said. "She's possessed by some demon, and it's all that Ranma's fault!" The cat in Sayuri's hand seemed to look at her strange as she said that, but that had to be imagination.
"There's more Akane," Sayuri said. "Umm, is Kasumi awake yet? I'd like her to see to...um...Cat here." Oh, real original name there.
"Yeah, sure," Akane said. "Hey, wait, how'd you know about Kasumi."
"Ranma," Sayuri said simply. Akane nodded and narrowed her eyes.
Nabiki saw the girls come back in with the cat, and just to be on the safe side looked the cat's aura over carefully. Everything seemed perfectly cat like about the little creature. Nabiki watched a little longer just to be sure and then paid it no mind.
"Oh my," Kasumi said. "What happened to the poor thing?"
"He got into a fight with something like Ranma," Sayuri said. That brought the attention of all in the room. "Can you patch him up, Kasumi?"
"Of course, please," Kasumi answered. "Take a seat." She accepted the cat, which reluctantly left Sayuri's grasp to allow itself to be held by a new human. Kasumi blushed as the cat sniffed her and proceeded to happily lick at her hand.
"Well, seems like he likes you Kasumi," Nabiki said. "Or at least how you taste." She smirked as Kasumi gave her a firm reproving look and walked into the bathroom to find the first aid kit.
"So what were you doing with Ranma?" Akane asked. Sayuri took a deep breath and began to tell the story of what had happened to her last night.
Ranma blinked awake with a feeling of warmth and looked about. Suddenly he froze as he smelled the cat in the room. It was a few moments before he remembered that he was the cat, and his terror was reduced to mere discomfort.
Then the terror came back as Ranma realized where he was. In Tendo tea room. With the three AWAKENED Tendo sisters. In Sayuri's lap. This was not good, how had he gone so long undetected. He didn't think he could fake a cat aura for much longer than a minute or two.
Unless, of course, he had fallen into the neko-ken. Ranma would have smacked himself in the head if he could.
"Settle down, Cat," Sayuri said gently, stroking Ranma soothingly. "Kasumi said you had to take it easy for a few days." She sounded somewhat worried.
I wonder where she got that name, Ranma asked as he puzzled out the English word.
Ranma would have purred if the fact that he was currently a cat in a room with people that would skin him alive the moment they recognized him.
"So there's a fourth faction in town," Nabiki said. "And Kuno is one of the demons, too."
"Ranma said there were three of them," Sayuri said. "Then he left me to get myself away from those gaijin."
"He's a perverted jerk all right," Akane said, trying to work around the whole fact that Ranma had been female for most of Sayuri's rescue.
"He's going after six more people then," Kasumi said.
"And the question is," Nabiki said. "Do we stop him?" The table was quiet for a moment.
"Well, of course we stop him!" Akane said. "Otherwise we're just as bad as he is! And if he REALLY only did it to keep us from being possessed, what about Yuka and Sayuri?"
"He said it would kill me," Sayuri said irritably.
"Pervert probably just didn't want to bother with you," Akane said, unaware that that was pretty much an insult to Sayuri and Yuka.
"Sayuri," Kasumi said. "Why don't you take Cat upstairs and make him a box and then we'll get back to this."
"Hai, Kasumi-san," Sayuri said, giving her friend a hard look that Akane missed. Wonder what she would say if I included that kiss in my story.
She realized that Akane was going through a hard time, but so was she damn it. She'd just spent a day thinking one of her best friends was dying, been attacked by her other friend, chased through the streets by a demon and held prisoner by Chinese barbarians.
She had finished settling Cat into a bed and was leaving the room when a rustling alerted her. She turned about to see a little red fox with a sheepish expression look at her apologetically and then jump out the window.
He sat there in my lap the whole time, she thought. And at my chest...and I....ARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!
"THAT PERVERTED LITTLE FOX!!!"