Ayumi charged, raising her sword high above her.  "This is IT,
old witch!"  she snarled.
     "It's come down to this!"  the announcer's voice filtered
through the PA system as Ayumi and Cologne launched into a would-be
sword fight.  "The final two contestants in the Watermelon Endurance
Race are fighting it out in a showdown directly in front of the
finish line!"
     Ayumi's wooden sword clashed against Cologne's trusted staff,
again, and again.  Every move Ayumi thought to make was countered.
     "Which of them will be the one to break her opponent's
watermelon and cross the finish line?"
     After about a moment of this she grew tired of the wasted
effort.  The old witch wasn't even bothering to strike back - she was
only blocking Ayumi's attacks, after all.  Time for a different
strategy.
     She lunged straight for the watermelon upon which Cologne stood.
If she destroyed it, the stupid old witch would be out of the race...
and she would *legally* have to turn the fushichougan medicine over
to Ayumi.  The sword found the watermelon; Ayumi took some comfort in
watching the melon shatter into tiny fragments.
     Of course, to relieve Cologne of her watermelon, she had to let
her own watermelon shift briefly through the Chinese elder's range. 
At the precise instant Ayumi tore apart Cologne's watermelon, Cologne
was returning the favor.
     The spectators collectively gasped.  "It can't be!  Both racers
have lost their watermelons at the exact same time!  That officially
makes this race a tie!"
     Shampoo blinked, breathing out a soft "Aiyaa..."  Did this mean
she wasn't going to have Ayumi as her prize... er, be Ayumi's prize?
     But Ayumi wouldn't stop trying to break through Cologne's
defenses.
     "What?  Apparently, the two racers still insist on fighting each
other!"
     Cologne seemed to buckle slightly from the force of Ayumi's
repeated strikes against her staff.  "You... you destroyed my
watermelon.  There's no need for you to attack me any longer..."
Ayumi couldn't be sure if the hint of a pleading tone she heard in
Cologne's voice was real or a product of her imagination.
     "Oh, yes there is!"  she corrected.  "You've dragged me through
Hell, first with the curse and then making me go through a lot of
trouble trying to learn some stupid technique..."
     She knocked Cologne's staff out of her hands with a broad sword
sweep, disarming her opponent.  "...and now, it's *over*!  No more
games!"
     Many of the spectators watching this exchange were again
surprised... some by Ayumi's words, others by the fact that such a
young girl was angrily fighting a woman many years her elder, and the
remainder was surprised that someone who had repelled Ayumi's earlier
attacks so easily fell prey to such a simple tactic.
     Ayumi reached out to catch the errant staff.  "Whatsamatter, old
witch?  Losing your grip?"  she taunted.  "Or maybe," Ayumi
punctuated the latter word by leveling Cologne's staff at her,
"you're too old to be a *real* fighter!"
     Cologne swallowed hard, as though agreeing.
     <She's not supposed to be this weak!  What's going on here?> 
wondered Ranma.  All of a sudden Cologne had changed from strong and
devious to cowering in Ayumi's presence.  Something here wasn't right.
     "I want your word, old bat," Ayumi was demanding.  "If I beat
you, you'll give me the real fushichougan.  Got it?"  She pressed the
tip of the staff against Cologne's chest.
     Cologne frowned.  "I guess I don't have much of a choice. 
But..." she sighed, narrowing her eyes intently.  "If I should happen
to win, you will pledge your undying love to Shampoo.  What do you
say?"
     That drew a loud laugh from Ayumi.  "Fine!  'Cause you're never
gonna beat me, anyway!"
     Shampoo clasped her hands to her cheeks, uttering the words "I'm
so happy!"  over and over while Ranma sharply blurted out Ayumi's
name.  Couldn't the baka see she was falling into the trap of being
far too overconfident?
     Ayumi never noticed the glint that formed in Cologne's eyes. 
"Very well.  You have made your promise..." Cologne's hand shot
forth, grasping the end of the staff prodding her and gave it a
forceful twist.  The entire staff rotated - taking Ayumi along for
the ride.  "...now live with it!"

                            Destiny's Wish
                 Part Twenty-Six: Diving Into Trouble
                         written by Mike Koos
                       ------------------------

     Ayumi realized with a wide-eyed start that she'd underestimated
Cologne yet again... a point that was driven home when she landed,
quite painfully, at that, on her back in an impact strong enough to
send pain rippling from one end of her body to the other.  She grit
her teeth, willing the pain away, and pulled herself back to her feet.
     How had Cologne accomplished that trick?  Soun heard someone in
the crowd ask.  All at once a fighter who had seemed weak made her
true nature apparent.  He shook his head.  "Ayumi was too confident
and let himself be taken in by her act.  What a shameful performance."
     [Indeed,] the panda agreed by way of a sign.
     Shampoo giggled.  "Fooled you all, didn't she?"
     "It's only because she hasn't been thinking to begin with!" 
Ranma snapped in response.  No matter how much Ayumi tried to think
his way through a fight, if he managed to gain the upper hand, his
overconfidence, pride and cockiness forced his mind to go offline. 
And not bothering to think through many of the decisions he made was
one of Ayumi's shortcomings, as far as Ranma was concerned.  "Ayumi
no BAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKA!!" 
she yelled out loud, hoping to get her point across.
     "Oh, dear... I really don't think you should be yelling like
that, Ranma," warned Kasuga.
     Ayumi shot an icy glare in Ranma's direction.  "Stick a sock in
it!!"  She turned back to Cologne, swinging a pair of kicks through
the area where Cologne stood.  "I said I'm gonna beat you, and I
will!"
     "You'll find that a very difficult task to accomplish," Cologne
near-yawned, neatly dodging the kicks.  Once on the ground again, she
circled Ayumi... gaining speed and throwing sand up into the air
every other step until Ayumi was enclosed within a cylindrical wall
of sand.
     Ayumi figured she had better act before Cologne turned the wall
into permanent *cement*.  The old witch *did* have the raw materials
and the means... She estimated where Cologne would be in her rotation
when she punched, and wound up...
     She missed.  "Perhaps this 'old witch' is a little too fast for
you, hmm?"  came the taunt, just before Cologne upended her into the
water.  Ayumi fell head-first into the water with a splash that threw
water several feet into the air.
     "And now that we have taken this fight to the water... you shall
see what a true master fighter can do in this element!"
     Cologne plunged into the water a slight distance from Ayumi, who
had righted herself underwater in time for Cologne's arrival.  She
pointed her staff toward the young girl and created a narrow water
funnel by swirling her staff in a tight circle.
     The funnel quickly overtook Ayumi.
     Above the surface of the water, a giant, whirling waterspout
rose high into the sky to mark the spot where the battle was taking
place.
     "Omigosh - what the heck is THAT!?"
     "It's a waterspout!"
     "But where'd it come from?"
     "What difference does that make?"
     One man pointed to the very center of the waterspout.  "Look! 
There, in the middle...!"
     It was Ayumi, struggling against a choke hold Cologne had locked
on her with the wooden staff cutting off the circulation in her neck.
     <You're finished now, boy,> Cologne allowed herself the luxury
of a tight smile.  It was a pity Ayumi couldn't see it.
     <I'll never lose to that old witch!>  thought Ayumi, as she
tried to keep from having what little breath she had left strangled
from her.
     On the beach, her father was starting to panic.  "She's got
Ayumi by the throat!"  Soun inhaled sharply.  "Come on, Ayumi, do
something!"
     Shampoo cupped her hands to her mouth.  "Maybe you should
surrender, Ayumi!"  Never mind that both combatants were fighting
within the water and therefore, couldn't hear her.
     <If Ayumi doesn't, she could kill her!>  Ranma realized.
     With the last possible breath leaving her lungs, Ayumi
strengthened her grasp on the staff, snapping it in half.  She used
the momentum the move gained her by levering Cologne into a throw
that sent the Chinese elder tumbling away from the waterspout. 
Without Cologne to maintain it, the whirling waters faded back to
normal.
     Ayumi, suddenly finding herself several yards above the water,
fell back into it, struggling all the way.  Cologne, on the other
hand, touched down gently onto the surface of the water... and
remained standing there.
     "What the...!?  She's standing on top of the water!"  someone
shouted in complete amazement.
     Ranma executed a perfect double-take.  How could Cologne be
standing on top of the water?  No one could do that - not even a
martial artist... right?
     "Perhaps she can," Soun answered her question.  "I have heard
that a true master knows the secret to making oneself light enough to
stand atop a branch floating in water without sinking."  When Ranma
stared at him in disbelief, he added, "Ask your father about it
later."  Ranma's stare changed to a frown.  What did the old man know
about any of this?
     As Ayumi surfaced, so did a sleek black-and-gray shape
underneath Cologne, one that took her into the air.
     Cologne had somehow managed to summon a shark.
     "Wasn't that a shark?"  Ranma asked, turning pale.  What in the
world was a *shark* doing in these waters?
     "Yes, I think it was," her 'uncle' replied.
     Ranma exhaled.  "That's what I thought it was."  She stepped
forward, yelling at the top of her lungs.  "CHEATER!  Fight fair, why
don't you?"
     "What makes you think she's cheating?"  Shampoo blinked.
     "Oh, I don't know," Ranma gave a sardonic snort.  "The fact that
she's using a giant SHARK, maybe!?"
     In the meantime, Ayumi had narrowly avoided being caught in the
shark's wake as it passed.  She heard Cologne's bemused laugh.  "That
foolish girl believes I'm using this shark to attack you.  She is
only half right.  But it isn't *this* shark you should be worried
about..."  She brought her hands together under the surface of the
water.  A watery form began to take shape there.  "*This* is the
shark you should be worried about!  SAME-KEN!"
     The water-shark called forth by Cologne's technique struck Ayumi
full-force in her gut, knocking her into the air before dissipating. 
A stunned Ayumi tumbled into the water for a third time.
     "She used a shark made of water!"  commented the race announcer,
no longer carrying around his PA gear and wishing for a second he
hadn't left it behind.  "The water pressure on that thing must be
tremendous!"
     Cologne descended underwater once more to find Ayumi's drifting
body and launched another water-shark into the girl's midsection,
forcing her out of the water temporarily.
     "This is terrible!"  Soun exclaimed.  "She'll kill Ayumi!"
     Ranma blanched.  <I knew it!>  She dashed toward the water and
dived in, yelling, "Stop!!"
     The water changed her to her male form, straining her swimsuit
to its limits, but she couldn't concern herself with things like that
at this point in time.  <Ayumi!  I'm coming to help!>
     Kasuga stared wordlessly at the spot where Ranma had entered the
water.  "I thought Ranma said she didn't know how to swim?"  he asked
after a few seconds.
     Naka shrugged.  "Yeah, but she also said that she'll be fine as
long as she doesn't panic..."
     But that was precisely what Ranma did.  The girl-turned-boy had
almost reached Ayumi's semi-conscious form when her mind remembered
to remind her that she couldn't swim.  She began to wonder what she
was doing in the water in the first place.  Why couldn't she have
come out on a boat or something, instead of diving into the water,
when she couldn't swim?  What was she doing traveling through a large
body of water, yards below the surface, when she couldn't swim?
     She couldn't swim.
     Ranma lost most of the breath stored in her lungs to panic.
     When Ayumi came to an instant later, the sight of a boy in a
swimsuit flailing helplessly upside down a short distance away
greeted her.  She swam urgently to Ranma's side.  With some effort,
she broke free of the water, lifting Ranma high above her head so
that the cursed girl could fill her lungs with air.
     The boy coughed and spluttered while they both fell back to
earth - or water, as it were.  "What d'you think you're doing!?  You
know you can't swim!"  Ayumi practically screamed at him.
     "B-but--" he spluttered through tears which Ayumi couldn't tell
were real or not.
     They reluctantly turned and noticed that Cologne's shark was
bearing down on them.  Cologne peered down at them.  "So, Ranma.  You
suffer from the curse of Jhusenkyou as well, I see.  That must be the
reason why you asked me for the Instant Nyan-Ni-Chuan."  Privately,
she wondered why her granddaughter hadn't told her that Saotome Ranma
was cursed as well.  She was going to have to have a talk with the
girl.  "However, it's a shame you had to place yourself in the path
of danger, isn't it?"
     <Time for action,> thought Ayumi.  She waited until they were
mere inches from being swallowed by the shark - then plunged
downward, dragging Ranma along with her.  Cologne would soon follow,
she knew, though waiting until the last moment had given them a
temporary head start.  A shark could travel through the water faster
than a girl trying desperately to get herself *and* a struggling boy
to safety.
     <Damn it!>  she cursed.  And there was no way to tell Ranma to
remain still, either.  All of Ranma's thrashing about was slowing
them down.
     On the shore, their family was thinking along the same lines. 
Soun's expression changed to a precarious mix of frustration,
determination and desperation.  "If Ranma can't swim, what does she
hope to accomplish out there?"
     "Not much," Shampoo replied.  There *was* concern in her for
Ranma, however.  What was worse was that Cologne now knew about
Ranma's curse; Shampoo's main fear was that her great-great
grandmother would now trace Ranma to the very first time Shampoo and
Ranma had met - in a fight of honor within the Joketsuzoku village. 
It had been the male Ranma who had set everything in motion... Ranma,
who had come to Shampoo's village as a male, and inadvertently
defeated her, the soon-to-be village champion of the year, unaware of
the village laws concerning outsiders.
     Shampoo tracked Ranma to Japan, where she was subsequently
engaged to Ayumi by way of another defeat... and gave female Ranma
the Kiss of Death for interfering.  There had been another girl - a
strong fighter, who appeared in Ayumi's home after the incident at
the theater, and who eventually fought Shampoo for the special
shampoo that would cure Ranma of her memory block, hindering her
efforts to claim Ayumi as her own.  Wherever the girl was, she had
either gotten herself lost during their fight or run for her life."
     She'd spent some time searching for the girl who wore a bandanna
tied around her head, but could find no trace of her.  Obviously, the
girl had known how to hide the traces of her presence better than
Ranma and her father had.  Oh, well; chances were the girl would
never let anyone know, and Ayumi hadn't known for sure whether she
had given the 'strange girl' the Kiss of Death or not.
     Ranma was a different matter altogether.  Maybe, Shampoo thought
hopefully, if great-great grandmother learned the complete truth, the
honor-pledge she had given to the male Ranma to marry him and the
honor-pledge she had given the female Ranma to kill her would cancel
each other out.
     Cologne had already decided that because Ayumi's defeat of
Shampoo was more recent than her defeat at Ranma's hands, Shampoo was
no longer 'engaged' to Ranma, but to Ayumi.  Fortunately for Shampoo,
Cologne had never encountered the male Ranma at the time he had
visited their village.  It would not be easy to prove that the girl
with a Jhusenkyou curse that transformed her into a boy was the very
same Ranma who had come to the Joketsuzoku village and defeated
Shampoo.
     She hoped.
     Cologne loosed a water-shark that caught Ayumi in the back,
kicking her out of the water again.  Ranma instinctively wrapped his
arms around Ayumi and held on for dear life.  "Kyaa--!"
     This time, she and Ranma arced back over the beach.  "They're
headed this way!"  the cry came from the crowd as people scattered.
     It wasn't necessary, however.  Ranma found herself in her
father's fur-laden arms after landing; the panda concealed her from
sight until he could douse Ranma with hot water from the tea kettle
he'd brought with him to restore her to her proper form.
     Ayumi had landed in Shampoo's arms.  "Ayumi," she said, "you
really should surrender!  My great-great grandmother can't be
defeated!"
     Somehow, Cologne had heard her, even from a distance out upon
the water.  "On the contrary, Shampoo!  Let him come!  I don't want
my son-in-law to miss learning this lesson!"
     Ayumi gazed into Shampoo's eyes.  "Okay.  I'll give up," she
sighed.
     Still lying in her father's arms in a vague attempt to recover
from what had just happened to her, Ranma's head shot up at the sound
of the words.  Had Ayumi said what she thought Ayumi said?  Tendo
Ayumi, give up?  Or admit defeat?  That wasn't Ayumi's style.
     "Will you come out there with me when I surrender?  We're
supposed to be together, right?"  Ayumi clasped Shampoo's hands in
hers, drawing more than one confused stare from those close enough
to see the exchange.
     Shampoo nodded in total agreement.  "I'll never leave your side,
Ayumi."
     For some reason, there was a determined look in Ayumi's eyes. 
"I was hoping you'd say that..."
     "Ayumi!"  Ranma exclaimed angrily as she shot to her feet.  She
confronted the temporarily-cursed boy.  "So you're just going to
throw everything away like that?"  After all they'd gone through, he
would be so quick to abandon her as well?
     Ayumi blinked.  "Don't try to talk me out of this."  No time to
explain her motives to Ranma...
     Instead of replying, Ranma slapped Ayumi's face as forcefully as
she could.  Shampoo was gleefully humming notes from a song Ranma
couldn't recognize, but that was only because the girl from China was
realizing her dream to have Ayumi be hers.
     Kasuga drew Ranma aside.  "You shouldn't have slapped him like
that," he admonished her.
     "Yes, I should have!"  she insisted through her teeth.  "He
deserved it!"
     Ayumi, still feeling the effects of Ranma's anger, located a
length of cloth ribbon and, instructing Shampoo to climb onto her
back, tied Shampoo securely to her.  "Shampoo, promise me you'll
never let go, okay?"  Hopefully, the embarrassment was showing in her
words.
     "I promise!"  Shampoo vowed.  Good; now for the difficult part.
     "Come here, you stupid old witch!"  Ayumi yelled, loud enough
for Cologne to hear.  Shampoo's eyes widened as she realized Ayumi
wasn't leading her into a surrender, but a charge!
     <He tricked me!>  She struggled, yet couldn't break free.  Ayumi
had secured her well.  Oh, well... she figured she might as well
enjoy being this close to Ayumi as long as possible.
     Cologne laughed.  "You believe that by strapping Shampoo to your
back, I won't dare to hurt you?  Both you and Shampoo know better
than that."  She led her shark through a flashy maneuver, but Ayumi
kept running, the water steadily rising around her ankles and legs. 
With any luck she'd be completely in the water before Cologne or
Shampoo understood what she was up to.
     "Just because Shampoo can swim in the water and I can't..."
Ranma fumed, choking back the beginning of a round of anger-inspired
tears.  She inhaled sharply as a sudden realization came to her. 
"Huh?"
     Ayumi felt the girl tied to her back shift forms into a small,
furry animal shortly after the water closed over their heads.  She
wanted to get away, be anywhere else but here... What had she been
thinking when she brought Shampoo into the water in order to turn her
into a cat?
     The cat latched her forelegs around Ayumi's neck.  She'd
promised to stick with Ayumi no matter what... though that promise
did not cross her thoughts now.  Both she and Ayumi were thinking
more of survival than anything else... which was why Shampoo never
noticed the look of absolute terror surfacing on Ayumi's face.
     She was too busy contending with her own fright.
     "Ayumi!"  Ranma exclaimed, uttering the boy's name out of habit. 
"She must be trying to use the Nekoken!  *That's* why she wanted
Shampoo's help!"
     Several of the people standing near her wondered what in the
world she was talking about.  "Huh?  The Nekoken?"  There was strong
evidence of martial-arts influences in this fight, and that alone had
attracted quite a crowd.
     "I guess she thinks that changing herself into a cat will help
her win the fight!"  Ranma mused aloud.
     Seconds later Ayumi and Shampoo resurfaced - the now-feline
Shampoo frantically trying to maintain a foothold on the back of
Ayumi's head, while Ayumi lapsed into her established routine of
screaming in sheer terror, flailing her arms and swimming for her
life.
     Cologne gave pursuit.  "You see, son-in-law?  What will you do
now that your tactic has failed?"
     Ayumi abruptly changed direction.  "WAAAAAHHH!"  Shampoo,
meanwhile, let out a strained and irregular series of meows.
     Cologne's anger intensified.  She brought her shark escort
around to follow the erratic girl.
     Watching the scene from a point close to where Ranma stood, Naka
facially shrugged - an effect he had perfected after years of
practice.  "Oh, yeah.  He's winning, all right," he remarked through
a mouthful of the squid dish he had taken the time to buy.
     When Ayumi's scramble returned her to the beach, Ranma made her
way over to them.  "Get over here!"  she growled.  "You're so stupid!
Doesn't it take more than this to trigger the Nekoken?"
     She attempted to pry Shampoo from Ayumi's head, but that only
succeeded in shifting the terrified cat onto the cursed boy's face. 
"Let go, you--"
     Ayumi screamed.
     "Ranma!"  Soun called a warning to her as he and the panda
neared them.  "You don't want to be that close to Ayumi when he's
trying to get away from a cat!"
     Sound advice.  She had been standing next to Ayumi the *last*
time he succumbed to the Nekoken.  And there were a lot more people
around this time...
     Ranma had to turn to look at Ayumi when the girl suddenly
meowed.  Shampoo's eyes widened.  She had heard a few of the details
of what happened to Ayumi under the effects of the Nekoken, and
decided it was a good time to let go.  Slowly breaking away, Shampoo
sought shelter behind Ranma's legs.
     It wasn't difficult for anyone to notice the change in Ayumi;
she hunched down on all fours, hissing and meowing warily like a cat
about to pounce on its prey or a rival.  "Huh?  What's goin' on?"
     Cologne tensed as she saw how Ayumi carried herself.  "That
stance..." she murmured.  "Can it be?"  Surely the boy didn't know
how to use such an advanced and dangerous technique...
     Ayumi sprang from the sandbar toward her.  She created another
water-shark only to see neko-Ayumi 'claw' it into streamers of water.
     "That's incredible!"
     "Don't you mean impossible?"
     "She's slicing up the water like it was paper or something!"
     With a tremendous displacement of water Ayumi disappeared
underneath the water alongside Cologne and her shark.
     Then, silence.
     Ranma watched the churning waters turn calm.  "It... it sure has
become quiet all of a sudden," Soun uneasily remarked after about a
minute of this.
     "Wonder what they're doing?"  a boy asked.
     He got his answer an instant later.  An abrupt explosion of
water washed Cologne's shark onto the beach... along with an
unauthorized passenger.  The Nekoken-crazed Ayumi had actually
dragged the shark out of the water - by clamping onto one of the
thing's fins with her teeth, after having spent some time using it as
a scratching post!  The sight alone was enough to send most everyone
running for safer ground.
     Ayumi - her teeth still lodged within the shark's fin -
peripherally caught sight of those members of the crowd who hadn't
fled, meowing hungrily.
     She heard a familiar voice.
     One that registered in her feline mind as non-threatening.  A
good friend?  The voice was worth an investigation.
     "Ayumi!"  Ranma whistled, repeating her call.  "Here!  It's
okay!  Everything's all right!"
     Ayumi hesitated.
     Ranma drew closer. gesturing for neko-Ayumi to come to her and
making soft clicking noises with her tongue.
     "Hey!  Look out!  She's out of control!"  Ranma disregarded the
warnings.  She held her arms wide, noticing the change in Ayumi's
eyes.  The cat-girl leapt...
     And, to everyone's complete amazement, curled up in Ranma's lap
and began to purr loudly.  "There, there... it's okay," soothed
Ranma.  She stroked the girl's head as she would a real cat - an
awkward feeling, to be sure, but Ayumi *did* believe she was a cat. 
As far as her father or Uncle Soun knew, this was the only way to
calm Ayumi down and bring him out of the Nekoken.
     <This had better work!  And he'd better not try to kiss me this
time!>
     "I don't believe it!"  the same people who had cautioned her
exclaimed.  "She's calmed down!"
     Soun struck a thoughtful pose.  "How strange... so, what I heard
was true.  He does respond to Ranma while under the influence of the
Nekoken!"
     Cologne approached Ranma, causing the cat-girl curled in Ranma's
lap to turn a suspicious glare on the Chinese elder.  "I must admit,
that's the first time I've seen the Nekoken executed so well in at
least half my years."
     <She knows about the Nekoken?>  "Don't tell me you still want to
fight him?  Can't you see he's been through enough?"  Worse, Ranma
couldn't guarantee Ayumi would remain calm in Cologne's presence.  If
Ayumi returned to her so-called rampage, would Ranma or anyone else
be able to bring her under control again?  Ranma was already having
mixed results in holding Ayumi back with an arm draped around her.
     Cologne tossed an object to Ranma.
     Ranma caught it.  It was a faux-gold locket about the size of a
compact, with the kanji of the word 'fushichougan' painted on it. 
"The fushichougan," she breathed.  "Is this the real medicine?" 
Ayumi's previous dose of the medicine had turned out to be an
ordinary ball of candy.
     "He fought well," Cologne nodded.  "I concede this match to
him."  Before Ranma could open her mouth to reply, Cologne offered
them a salute and pogo-jumped away atop a new staff to replace the
one Ayumi had halved.  "Farewell!"
     Ranma frowned slightly.  <She said, 'this match.'  That means
she might come back to start it all over again later.>  But right
now, she hoped, the cure for Ayumi's 'condition' was far more
important.

                               ** ** **

     The setting of the sun that evening found Ayumi relaxing in the
hot bath set aside for men in the hotel which his family and Ranma's
were staying.
     He was male again, never to change back.  For nearly twenty
minutes Ayumi had alternated between spraying himself with cold water
from the faucets and hopping into the hot bath to make absolutely
sure he would not transform into a girl again.
     He had also weathered another episode of the Nekoken without
embarrassing Ranma or himself... well, too much.
     The matter of apologizing to Ranma remained.  Kasuga - with much
help from Naka, who was fairly skilled in this field - had laid an
extensive guilt trip on him.  Ayumi had toyed with Ranma's feelings
and hurt her, yet Ranma *had* tried to help Ayumi a number of times,
up to releasing him from the Nekoken.  Pride and honor, not to
mention his two elder brothers, dictated he apologize to her for
everything and thank her.
     "Ranma...... san..." It felt odd saying her name in this manner.
"I understand everything you did... you were only trying to help. 
That's why... I thought... I should say thanks."
     He sighed and let himself slip a few more inches into the bath. 
<That doesn't sound right, either.>  "I don't want to have to thank
her, but... I'm obliged to."
     The next thing he knew, a girl was in the bath with him.  "Don't
worry about it!  You're welcome," Shampoo smiled, after popping up
from within the hot water to drape her arms around his neck -
properly, this time.  "I'm glad I could have helped you."
     Ayumi tried not to stare at her unclothed body... but soon, the
embarrassment and the blood rushing to his face proved to be too much
for him to handle.  A stream of blood escaped his nose just before he
fainted.

     Seven minutes later, a fully clothed Shampoo cradled an
unconscious Ayumi's head in her lap, in the main section of the hotel
room Soun and Genma had rented.  After Ayumi had fainted, Naka had
come into the bath and stumbled onto the scene.  He'd been the one to
dress Ayumi and hauled him back to their room, because technically,
Shampoo wasn't supposed to be in the men's bath.
     "*Ayumi*!"  Soun berated his son, who was still not responding. 
"I thought you were going to be a gentleman and apologize to Ranma!"
     Ranma, who was in the process of splitting a watermelon in half
with her bare hands so that everyone could have something to eat.  "I
don't care, Uncle.  He doesn't have to apologize," she said, avoiding
the others' gazes.  It was Shampoo she was the most angry toward this
time; ordinarily, she might have blown up at Ayumi, but the hentai
had been minding his own business in the bath and fainted right after
Shampoo tried to make a play for him.  Did Shampoo know *anything*
about modesty?
     Shampoo lifted the hair away from Ayumi's forehead while Kasuga
changed the cold compress there.  "I didn't think he could be knocked
out by a nosebleed."
     "You shouldn't have startled him like that by going into the
men's hot bath, Shampoo-chan," Kasuga gave her a stern look.
     Ranma closed her eyes.  <You are SO trusting, Kasuga.>
     Unseen by anyone, Cologne watched the proceedings from the
balcony railing.  She laughed quietly to herself.  <I hope you know,
son-in-law... I'm not finished with you, yet.  Not for a long while
to come.>

                                (end)

                               Credits:
                               --------

Written by: Mike Koos
Pre-readers: Richard Beaubien, Tom Williams, David Wills

With apologies to Takahashi Rumiko...

Note: I'm going to be taking a slight break from writing Destiny's
Wish.  No, I'm not quitting - I've already got the next 2-3
installments lined up in my notes.  And just to prove it, there's a
bit of a change looming on the horizon... coming up, Ranma will
finally learn the truth about something which has been kept a
secret from her.
But, I have been writing this series almost non-stop since last
February, along with a handful of other projects at the same time, and
I decided I needed a little pause before I continue.  :)  I'd
originally planned to take the break after Shampoo's initial
departure, but I moved it up to this point.  That it happened to fall
right after the one-year anniversary of the series has nothing to do
with it.  ^_^ So, I apologize to the readers, but I'll be back as
soon as some of my insanity returns.  :)

All parts of this series are available at the RAAC archives at
ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/anime-fan-works
or from my WWW pages at http://www.fanfic.net/~makoto/
Comments and questions welcome.

* Mike ('Kino Makoto') Koos: makoto@cal.net
* http://www.fanfic.net/~makoto
* 
* "I can do nothing to stop you.  Your background music is too strong
* for me." - Sam Johnson, Whose Line is it Anyway?