*** Earth  0.000,0.000

Even though he normally allowed himself the luxury of sleeping late on 
Sunday, Genma Saotome awoke early on this particular morning.  As was 
usual in the mornings, he discovered Nodoka snuggled up against him for 
warmth, her head resting on his shoulder and one of his arms half-numb 
underneath her.  Turning his head to the side, he smiled as he looked 
upon his wife's sleeping face, only inches from his own and close enough 
for him to clearly see it even without wearing his glasses.  Not wishing 
to wake her, he closed his eyes and relaxed, thinking himself to be one 
of the luckiest of men.

Today Ranma shows me the capabilities of his device, thought Genma 
proudly, feeling Nodoka shifting slightly against him in her sleep.  He 
rolled onto his side facing her, and she quieted with a soft sigh of 
contentment, without even waking up, as he encircled her body with his 
free arm around her shoulder.  He watched her face as he thought about 
the upcoming experiment.  Today I will see another world with my own two 
eyes, he briefly paused as he thought about the inherent illogic of that 
statement, so to speak.  Another world, where the choices of history 
flowed differently, and all the people I know, or knew in the past, are 
different, if they even exist at all.  Such a very curious thing to 
finally have an opportunity to see.

Genma felt Nodoka's breathing change as she slowly woke up.  He smiled 
and gazed fondly at her face, watching as she opened her eyes.  Even 
after all the years they had been married, even the ones spent apart 
during Ranma's education, he still thought her to be the most beautiful 
of women.  His arm slid down to her waist, and he saw her lips quirk 
into a soft smile when she noticed that he was already awake.

"Good morning, my dearest," said Nodoka sleepily.  "You are awake 
early."  She snuggled up more closely against him, sighing once again 
with contentment.  "Are you looking forward to spending the day with 
your son?"

"Quite a bit," replied Genma with a smile of his own.  He felt her warm 
breath against his neck as she rested her head on his shoulder.  As he 
felt his arm slowly going numb from the loss of circulation, Genma found 
that he could not bring himself to move Nodoka from the position that he 
had spent years yearning for her to be in.  "He and I have not spent 
very much time together since our return.  It will be good to renew the 
bonds between father and son that we have."

"It is so wonderful having you both back," murmured Nodoka, her body 
shifting a bit and relieving the weight on his arm.  "I was so lonely 
while you were away, but you brought our son back a man."  She kissed 
her husband on the neck and caressed his face with her hand.  "For that 
you have my thanks.  It partially makes up for the many nights alone 
that I endured while you were off gallivanting around to strange, 
foreign lands with Ranma."

"Gallivanting?" asked Genma, raising an eyebrow in amusement.  "You make 
it sound like we were playing.  I'll have you know that we were involved 
in nothing but serious, scholarly pursuits."  His voice sounded very 
stuffy and dignified at that moment.

"Well," said Nodoka, drawing out the sound, "despite all of my initial 
doubts at you taking him away from me at such a young age, it did all 
turn out for the best."  She made a slight choking sound for a moment, a 
muffled sob.  "I know that the Ministry asked you to do it, but it was 
still hard living without my family."  Her voice firmed, and she said 
with pride, "You promised to bring back our son as a prodigy, and you 
succeeded, as far as I am concerned.  I am still amazed that you were 
able to train him in the martial arts too.  That was a pleasant 
surprise."

"I'm glad that you're pleased," said Genma with a smile.  "I never 
wished to make you unhappy.  It wasn't easy for me to be away from you 
either, dear wife."

Nodoka kissed him a little bit more insistently on the neck, her 
breathing getting a little heavier.  "Would my lord and husband care to 
see how grateful his loving wife is for all of his efforts?"

"I really should think about getting out of bed and getting ready," said 
Genma half-seriously.  "Ranma has planned out a full day for the two of 
us."  Any further statements along these lines were silenced as Nodoka 
moved up and kissed him warmly, but firmly, on the mouth.  Not having 
the willpower to resist his wife's relentless advances, he yielded to 
the inevitable.  She is going to kill me at this rate, he thought 
jokingly, amazed that he had actually forgotten about this particular 
side of Nodoka.  Practically every day since I got back.  Ah well, time 
for me to do my husbandly duties once again.  Ranma can wait for an hour 
or so.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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

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

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

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


The list of worlds reoccurring in this chapter:
Earth  0.000,0.000 - The world of Scholar Ranma (Baseline cluster)
Earth  +0.004,-0.003 - The world of Citizen Ranma & Slave Shampoo 
(Baseline cluster)


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

On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over 
five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world 
and has done so for almost a century.  A young scientist named Ranma 
Saotome, through a device of his invention, is now possessed of the 
skills and memories of a martial artist version of himself.  Also, the 
Nabiki of this timeline later snuck into Ranma's lab and used his 
device, not knowing what it was, accidentally copying the skills and 
memories from an alternate version of herself, one who went on the ten-
year training journey with Genma instead of Ranma.  Now at an equivalent 
level of skill to Ranma as a martial artist, she has achieved her first 
victory over Ranma in sparring.  Ranma also learned some startling 
things about Jusenkyo in this world.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 8 - Sins of the Fathers, Part I

         The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving
         iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the
         guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
         children unto the third and fourth generation.

                                   King James Bible
                                   Numbers 14:18

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


As the sun cleared the horizon, its first rays found Ranma practicing 
his martial skills in the Saotome yard.  The defeat suffered at the 
hands of Nabiki filled his thoughts as he drove himself through his 
workout.  I lost to Nabiki, he thought, a little angrily, throwing a 
series of kicks and punches around his body.  He still could not bring 
himself to believe it.  She had been a little faster than he was, a 
little better in her skill.  Shaking his head a bit to clear it, he 
concentrated on what he was doing and pushed himself.  Speed was the 
answer for the next time he matched himself against Nabiki, so he had to 
get his body to move faster.

"Come on," he grunted.  "Faster, you slowpoke."  His arms and legs moved 
through the air with precision and swiftness, but he was still a bit 
slower than his memories told him that the other Ranma could move.  He 
felt his level of irritation rising once again, remembering his desire 
to wipe Nabiki's smug smirk from her face when she had looked down on 
him after her victory.  There had not been time to talk afterwards, the 
coaches kept them too busy for that, and Nabiki had gone straight to the 
locker rooms afterwards.  He had decided against a confrontation at that 
time, so he had not tried to speak to her after cleaning up and 
changing.

However, he had to admit that he was more irritated with himself than 
with Nabiki.  He had been so confident in his own capabilities, so 
arrogant in his skills.  I can't let myself think like that other Ranma, 
bulling my way through every obstacle, he thought with a grimace as his 
fists drove through imaginary targets.  I just have to refine my 
strategy against her, concentrate on my strengths and try and exploit 
her weaknesses.  He let his emotions give him the motivation to work 
even harder, as the morning grew older little by little.

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

Across the city, far from the familiar sights of the Saotome household 
was a plain, gray, stone building, four stories tall.  It covered an 
area aboveground sufficient to provide offices and facilities for some 
nine hundred men and women.  However, it was still less than a quarter 
of the size of the Imperial Security Directorate, at least above the 
ground.  Beneath the surface of the earth were the true facilities where 
the majority of the efforts performed here were actually carried out.  
Here at this facility, matters of day or night did not affect the level 
of activity.  It was the home of the Mobius Institute, or as it was more 
commonly and simply known, The Institute.

The vast majority of the citizenry of the Empire were unaware of what 
went on here and especially what activities that the Institute was 
involved in, due to a clever combination of governmental denial and 
outright control of the news that the public saw through the eyes of the 
Ministry of Public Information.  All psychic and mystic matters were 
monitored and dealt with by this facility and its special agents on a 
daily basis, all of them nominally under the direction of the Imperial 
Security Directorate.

Two men stood next to a one-way glass in a darkened chamber, both 
observing a woman, perhaps barely out of her teens, who was drawing in 
the next room.  She appeared lethargic to them, perhaps drugged, as she 
used a black pen to fill the white space of the paper with images.  One 
of the men lit up a cigarette as he looked through the glass, and the 
bright glow of the flame from his cigarette lighter illuminated the 
rather tired-looking face of Soun Tendo.

"You appear nervous, old friend," observed the elderly man with him, a 
balding, shorter figure.  A pair of horn-rimmed glasses gave him a 
somewhat dignified appearance, one that was complemented by the Shinto 
priest robes that he wore.  He turned to face Soun with a smile.

"I dislike this place, Kasuga-san," said Soun politely, taking another 
puff of his cigarette.  "When I think of some of the things you have 
contained within here, sometimes, let us say that it does not do very 
good things for my constitution.  May I know why you have requested my 
presence here at this early hour?"  His attitude bordered on insolent, 
but the two men had known each other for many years, and they had 
developed a certain rapport with each other.  Soun had been awakened 
from a sound sleep a few hours before dawn by a simple telephone call 
from the elderly man with him, and he was only informed that there was 
something he needed to see here.  He had done so without question, for 
when the Director of the Mobius Institute called, it was a wise man who 
obeyed.
 
"Do not be concerned about that," said Director Kasuga.  "You should be 
more concerned about what I have brought you here to see.  It is quite 
interesting."

"And what, pray tell, is that?" asked Soun, inhaling absently from his 
cigarette, held loosely in his hand.  "All I am seeing is a young woman 
drawing pictures.  Not exactly what I would classify as a threat to the 
Empire."  He was now experiencing a headache, a result of too much 
stress in his life and not enough sleep.  It made him feel edgy.

The elderly man removed his glasses with a sigh and cleaned them with a 
handkerchief pulled from a pocket of his robes.  He replaced them and 
pushed them up into proper place with two fingers before saying, "That 
young woman is Setsuna Meioh, one of our best precognitives.  She can 
reach farther and more clearly into the future than any other Esper that 
we have here at the Institute.  There is something unexpected brewing on 
the horizon of the future."  He paused and his voice lowered ominously 
as he continued, "A great disturbance in the Pattern."

"So?" asked Soun mildly, watching the older man as a student watches a 
professor.  He concealed the irritation he felt at getting dragged out 
of bed to hear stories of some madwoman and her pictures.  "And please 
don't phrase things using that mystical nonsense you love so very much, 
Kasuga-san."  He waved his arms grandly in the air as he said, "There is 
no such thing as an overriding Pattern that controls everything.  Men 
make their own fates."

"Very well then," said Director Kasuga, nodding his head.  It was an old 
argument between them, one that he would sally forth to fight another 
time, but not now.  Removing a folded picture from his robes, he said, 
"An hour before I called you, she drew this."  He handed it to Soun and 
waited, watching the woman, as Soun unfolded the picture.

Soun blinked and stared at the picture in his hands.  The picture was 
done in the style of a manga, and the artwork was very distinctive, and 
quite good, in Soun's opinion.  In the ink drawing was an image of a 
collection of pathways of some sort, all of them braided together in a 
manner that made it difficult to tell where one ended and another began.  
Most of them simply faded off in the confused mess, slowly merging and 
dwindling in number; others led to branchings that created more and more 
paths, but most of those then led to darkness with a scant few headed to 
light.  Yet, perhaps most disturbing, almost all of the pathways simply 
ended after a short distance, cut off sharply as if by a blade.

Every one of these pathways met at a sort of crossroads in the lower 
center of the picture; standing there were seven indistinct figures, 
five of them shadows only.  Two other figures stood in the center who 
were drawn more distinctly in aspect and form, yet still indeterminate 
as to their age and identity.  Both of them were facing away from the 
artist and looking out towards the pathways ahead of them as if they 
were preparing to choose one, a woman and a man.

"One of our telepaths who is able to handle the whirling chaos and 
constant motion of the images in her mind monitors her on a regular 
basis," said Director Kasuga, his eyes focused on the woman who was 
still drawing.  "From the time she was brought to us as a child, a sad 
failure of the Ministry of Science's misguided attempt to tinker with 
the genetics of an Esper, up until two years ago, her Gift consistently 
predicted the onset of an apocalyptic nightmare that would take place in 
the not-too-distant future, without any apparent chance or hope of 
escape.  In those days, she had to be kept sedated around the clock, and 
the few telepaths who dared to probe into her visions all came away 
muttering something about a Darkness that was going to engulf the 
world."  He watched the woman with great sadness in his eyes as he 
spoke.

"She seems much better now," said Soun, unsure what else to say in the 
face of such a revelation.  "What changed?"

"I am uncertain," admitted the elderly Kasuga.  "I kept the Emperor 
informed, of course, but I do not know if he ever did anything at all 
that might have altered events.  Or if he even believed me.  He was more 
concerned with the visions of the other precognitives, those who saw 
nothing in their inner Sight but the signs that the Pattern of the 
future being crafted by the plans of the Emperor's Advisory Committee 
was still on course.  However, two years ago, something changed," he 
paused and now looked almost fondly at the woman who was still drawing 
slowly but fiercely, "the tiniest grain of sand was dropped into the 
immensity of the Pattern from an unknown source, a change that went 
unnoticed by any here at the Institute, except by her."  He pointed at 
the woman with a gleam in his eyes.

"You have never mentioned any of this in our previous talks," said Soun, 
unable to completely hide the surprise in his voice.  "So, you were 
unable to identify the change?"

"Yes," replied Director Kasuga simply, then sighed briefly.  "It was too 
small, whatever it was, too minute and delicate an alteration of the 
course of events.  I had one of my best and most trusted operatives peer 
into the depths of her visions to try and see what had happened, but he 
was only able to discern a very little bit.  Where before there had only 
been an immense darkness, a void of nothingness that yawned across all 
of the many possible pathways of the future, now there were a few 
timelines beginning to open up that led beyond it.  There were so very 
few of them though."  He leaned against the glass and suddenly looked 
every year of his age.

"So, what happened next, Kasuga-san?" asked Soun, after taking a fresh 
puff on his cigarette.

"To my eternal shame, I had my man link with her more deeply to try and 
determine more detail," said Director Kasuga, briefly pausing as if 
pained by the memory, "and he almost went permanently mad.  His mind was 
simply unable to deal with the details in the swirling chaos of all of 
those possible futures revealed to him through her Sight.  Until he 
eventually recovered three weeks later, his mind apparently tried to 
interpret the images he saw, and he just kept babbling a single, cryptic 
phrase in his waking moments: 'When the two halves of Tao become one, 
then the dark destiny may be undone.'  He remembered absolutely nothing 
of this afterwards, or of what he had seen, and he refused to probe her 
mind again.  I have not dared to have another probe so deeply since 
then."

"It sounds to me like the ravings of a disturbed mind," said Soun, 
perhaps a bit more coldly than he intended.  "It doesn't even scan quite 
right for a poem.  The riddle of a madman, it seems to me."  He looked 
down at the picture once more.  "So why call me now, so urgently?"

"Because something new has been added once again to the Pattern in the 
last few days," said Director Kasuga, peering upwards at Soun with a 
frown as he continued, "a fundamental change that has altered the future 
possibilities in ways that none of the precognitives here are able to 
determine, and it is growing worse.  A few days ago, the future went 
into temporal flux, and I am certain that we are now approaching a crux 
point of events, if we are not already within it.  Until we finally pass 
through it, the future is effectively hidden to us."

"Why tell me?" asked Soun, perhaps a faint plaintiveness creeping into 
his voice, but it was difficult to pick out of his usual solemn tones.

Director Kasuga looked at Soun pointedly, a frown on his face as he 
said, "Whatever this crux event is, according to my sources it seems to 
be forming within the vicinity of the Nerima region, and it is slowly 
building in power and strength.  Some of our other precogs have caught 
glimpses of events that might be linked to this, and we've identified 
them as occurring in that area.  So I have placed one of my very best 
agents on the scene to monitor the situation and also to provide help if 
any odd situations develop as a result of the event, and I will be 
putting one or two more of my agents into harm's way soon.  But, I 
wished you to be aware of what was happening, out of common courtesy.  
After all, you live in the region, and so does your family."

"What, exactly, is happening?" asked Soun, inhaling deeply from his 
cigarette.  His headache had turned into an icepick behind one eye.

"Well, in simple terms, a sort of Karmic singularity has begun gathering 
energy there," said Director Kasuga, now resting his hands behind his 
back and looking at Soun with a calm expression, "and it has started 
drawing in people and altering local events, which it will continue to 
do until it finally reaches a form of critical mass.  Then, it will 
explode, for lack of a better term to describe the results, and forge a 
new Pattern of possibilities, or what could be called a crux point in 
time.  When, not if, that event happens, future probability pathways 
that have previously been open will close forever, and new pathways, 
ones as yet unseen, will then be revealed to us.  It will undoubtedly 
change the future of the Empire, and I have no idea how the Emperor will 
react to that."

Soun pondered on that, finding that thought to be most disturbing, 
especially when the plans for the New Imperial Order, set in motion by 
the Emperor's father, were less than two years away from coming to 
fruition.  The previous Emperor, not very long after the conclusion of 
the Global War, had begun quiet preparations for the eventual and final 
conflict with the other major powers in the world.  The already rapid 
pace of technological advancement had accelerated ten-fold since that 
time, with massive amounts of funding pouring into a myriad of special 
projects.  The result of these intensive efforts was that the Empire was 
now at least twenty years ahead of the rest of the world in many areas 
of achievement, such as biotechnology and weapons development.

However, there were whispered rumors that an unknown source had been the 
actual provider of many of these advances in technology that the Empire 
now enjoyed.  But to what end? thought Soun, taking another puff on his 
cigarette, as he decided to redirect the conversation away from such 
disturbing things.  Could that somehow be the cause of this event?

"I suppose it was a coincidence then, that your own grandson is at the 
Academy now?" wondered Soun out loud, his gaze trying to pick details 
out of the picture.  The way it was drawn was a little odd, as if the 
images were able to somehow slightly shift around, depending on how the 
light was hitting the paper, a curious effect of artwork.  Just staring 
at it was making his headache feel worse, so he looked up and met the 
eyes of his companion.  "I recall that it was you who pushed the pilot 
project of integrating some of the Specials into the regular Academy 
cadet body."

"Kyosuke is there for another reason," replied Director Kasuga, a little 
curtly.  "Though I am pleased that he has taken such a liking for his 
current assignment, and the Mano girl is quite comely.  Such long 
legs...."  The elderly man trailed off, and then he cleared his throat 
after a moment of embarrassment.

"Ah, you speak of the Devil Hunter girl," said Soun with a slight grin.  
"It all makes perfect sense now."  He was rewarded with seeing his 
elderly companion blink in surprise before regaining his balance.

"I had forgotten that your daughter Nabiki keeps you well-informed as to 
things going on there at the campus," said the older man, a very slight 
chuckle in his voice.  "Yes, his assignment has to do with the young 
Mano girl.  The Imperial Writ that the Devil Hunter line now possesses, 
the one allowing them to operate outside of Institute control, has a 
loophole that I intend to exploit, but one that should increase the 
powers available to the next generation of Devil Hunters if I utilize 
it.  She and Kyosuke are getting along fairly well, so I have high hopes 
for the union.  Anyway, it will make things much easier to have him near 
this crux point now, as it is forming."  He smiled a bit thinly and 
said, "It is a slight drawback to being an Esper.  Odd things tend to 
happen around you."

"A Devil Hunter with Esper powers," noted Soun, raising a single 
eyebrow, making the connection immediately.  "An interesting notion, 
since all Espers are under the charter of the Institute..." he finished, 
letting his voice trail off with unspoken meaning.

"Precisely," agreed Director Kasuga.  "The natural martial skills of a 
Devil Hunter, enhanced by Esper abilities.  It should prove to be a most 
formidable combination, and one that will finally bring the Mano line 
under the benevolent control of the Institute."  The elderly man smiled, 
apparently quite pleased with himself.  His gaze then turned to look at 
Soun craftily.  "Not that you aren't trying to forge your own powerful 
combination with your own daughter and the Saotome lad."

Is everyone aware of what I am up to? wondered Soun with the faintest of 
grimaces on his face.  First that annoying witch, Hinako, and now him.

"No need to answer, Soun," said Director Kasuga with a smile.  "I can 
see it in your face, even one as well-schooled as yours is at hiding 
emotional outbursts."  He paused, his telepathic abilities scanning the 
surface thoughts in Soun's mind.  Ah, Soun, if only I was permitted to 
tell you what Project Phoenix did to those children, beyond what you 
think you already know.  There is far more at stake here than you 
realize.

A brief memory surfaced in the Director's mind, of the delicate and 
rather detailed subliminal programming that each and every one of the 
Children had received here at the Institute, buried deeply into their 
psyches.  Ten years ago, he had been responsible for overseeing the 
process for the imprinting of the subliminals, among which was one that 
would allow them control over some of their special enhancements.  If 
the Mark One subjects were any indication, then these abilities should 
be awakening within Ranma and some of the other Children soon.  That is, 
if it hasn't already done so, he thought during the momentary pause in 
their conversation.  Could Soun know that Ranma and Nabiki were among 
the dozen or so who tested highest?  Is that why he is planning to breed 
them together?  Perhaps, when it does emerge, then I will be able to 
tell him more.

Soun grunted.  His cigarette had burned down, so he put it out in the 
nearby ashtray and lit up another one.

"Please keep an eye on things from your end, would you?" asked the 
elderly man.  "I promise to keep you informed of anything new that I 
come across."

"Very well," said Soun, nodding.  He looked at the woman drawing a new 
picture and wondered about the future.

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

There was a firm knock at the front door of the Tendo household.  Kyoko 
paused in preparing breakfast and went to answer it.  Standing outside 
the house was a young woman with long, brown hair, worn in a simple 
ponytail and tied with a white ribbon. She was dressed in a fashionable, 
but slightly plain yellow dress, and she had a smile on her face as she 
bowed in greeting.

"Good day to you, Otonashi-san," said Kasumi.  "Are my father or my 
sisters at home?"

"Ono-san," said Kyoko, bowing in reply.  "It is a pleasant surprise to 
see you here.  Your father is out on business, but your sisters are at 
home.  Both of them are out in the training hall."

Kasumi blinked.  Both of them?  She bowed to Kyoko once again.  "May I 
come in?"

"Of course, Ono-san," said Kyoko, bowing as she moved aside in the 
doorway.  She watched as Kasumi came in with flowing grace, and then she 
closed the door while Kasumi removed her shoes.  "I will be in the 
kitchen fixing breakfast, if you have need of me."

Kasumi nodded and went out the back pathway into the training hall.  She 
saw Akane sitting off to one side doing stretching and some light 
limbering exercises.  Nabiki was working out with one of the heavy bags, 
currently laying into it with a barrage of punches.  Kasumi took a 
moment to study her younger sister's form and nodded, pleased.  It 
appeared to her that Nabiki had not only completely regained her old 
level of performance, but she had improved a great deal beyond it since 
Kasumi had last seen her train so intensely, several years ago.  Each 
one of her strikes was swift, powerful, and delivered with an absence of 
wasted motion.

Akane looked up at that time and noticed her eldest sister standing in 
the doorway.  She leaped up to her feet and ran over to the older girl, 
while crying out happily, "Kasumi!"  She hugged her older sister warmly. 

Nabiki paused in what she was doing and came walking over to greet 
Kasumi as well.  She absently wiped at the sweat running down her 
forehead with a towel she had kept near her while she worked out.  She 
smirked at Kasumi, currently looking a little uncomfortable in Akane's 
grasp and said, "Hey, Sis.  So, how's married life treating you lately?"

"Well enough," replied Kasumi, smiling.  "I miss you both though.  You 
never come to visit, so I decided to surprise you two, and Father."

"Daddy left real early this morning," said Nabiki, studying Kasumi.  "He 
could be back anytime."

"I missed you, Big Sister," said Akane, smiling happily.  She gave 
Kasumi another spine-cracking hug for good measure.  "But now that 
Nabiki is back in training, I have someone that I can spar with in the 
mornings again.  Isn't that great?"

"Yes, it is," said Kasumi calmly, appearing completely unfazed by such a 
surprising change in her younger sister.  When Akane finally let go, 
Kasumi turned to Nabiki.  "Perhaps you might honor me with a match 
today, while I'm here?  I would be interested in appraising your 
skills."

"As you wish," said Nabiki, a flash of something passing between the two 
older Tendo sisters.  "How about right now?  There should still be one 
of your gis in one of the closets in the house.  Then, after breakfast, 
we can take care of catching up with each other.  You can tell us all 
about your new husband and anything that married life has taught you 
about men.  Right?"  She smiled in a teasing fashion, and Kasumi blushed 
lightly.

"Very well, Nabiki," said Kasumi, after a moment of hesitation.

"Oh, Big Sister," said Akane, interrupting the conversation.  "I've 
finally found myself a great guy!  He's a terrific fighter."  A large 
grin was on her face.

"Oh, really?" asked Kasumi, looking at Akane, whose bruises were now all 
healed.  She recalled one of Akane's secret dreams.  She thought it was 
silly, but it made Akane happy.  "Did he defeat you?"

"We were interrupted," said Akane, looking downcast as she dug at the 
floor with a bare toe, "and then he wouldn't fight me when I met him on 
his way home."  She looked very sad for a moment, but then she looked 
up, a fire blazing in her eyes.  "But tomorrow, I'm going to fight him 
for sure, even if I have to follow him to his home.  I would have done 
it on Friday, but I got sidetracked dealing with an annoying aristocrat 
b- girl and got a little bit hurt.  But come tomorrow, he and I will 
fight for real."

Nabiki said nothing at hearing that, but there was a ghost of a frown on 
her face.

"That sounds nice, dear," said Kasumi pleasantly.  Akane and her violent 
tendencies, thought Kasumi, sighing internally even as she kept the 
smile on her face.  She certainly is eager to test her strength against 
this boy.  I hope she doesn't hurt him very badly if she defeats him.

"I just know he'll show me what he's made of," said Akane with a glow of 
eagerness in her eyes.  "Then I'll talk Daddy into arranging a marriage, 
and then I'll have a husband of my own."  She blushed as she remembered 
the level of skill Ranma had demonstrated lately, such as when he put 
down Hiei Yuukyuuzan so easily during her fight with the Wolf Pack.

Nabiki watched Akane babbling on about Ranma and wondered what her 
counterpart's Ranma would think of the way Akane was acting.  A glint of 
amusement was in her eyes as she imagined his reaction to an Akane who 
acted like this.  She shifted her gaze over to Kasumi and studied her 
older sister as Akane continued to chatter on about her plans.  Nabiki 
was looking forward to finally being able to show her up in martial arts 
ability.  When their mother was still alive, her older sister had always 
seemed like an insurmountable mountain, a challenge impossible to 
overcome.

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

Ten-year old Nabiki grunted slightly as she struggled against twelve-
year old Kasumi.  The two sisters kept shifting their grips on each 
other, searching for leverage as their mother watched them both, a grim 
smile on her face.  Out on the mat, both girls were trying hard to plant 
the other into the floor, a sisterly rivalry that their mother had 
always encouraged as a means of getting the best out of her daughters.

"Give it up, Nabiki," whispered Kasumi, her voice only loud enough for 
her sister to hear.  "There's no way that you'll ever beat me."  She 
shifted her grip as they leaned into each other.

"We'll see about that," Nabiki growled back, thankful that she was 
finally as tall as Kasumi.  She strained against her older sister, but 
the other girl wasn't budging.

It was grappling practice today as both girls were coming up on an 
official test of skill.  Kasumi was testing for her second-dan black 
belt in Jujitsu and Nabiki was testing for first-dan.  They were much 
better in other styles, but their mother believed in a well-rounded 
approach to barehanded combat.  So, today they were forbidden to use 
anything but Jujitsu techniques against each other.

Off to one side, nine-year old Akane gazed intently at her two older 
sisters, her eyes studying every movement that they made.  She smiled as 
Kasumi finally made her move, her pride in her big sister obvious.

Nabiki went flying to land face-first into the mat.  Again.

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

Now, seven years later, the two sisters faced each other once again.  
Nabiki was dressed in one of her Chinese-style shirts and black gi 
pants, and Kasumi was dressed in one of her old, white gis.  It looked a 
little snug on her, something Nabiki had commented on with a grin.  
Kasumi had simply smiled pleasantly, but there was a glimmering in her 
eyes that left the middle Tendo daughter wondering if she might have 
pushed her unusually calm, older sister too far.

"Ready?" asked Akane to her two sisters, acting as referee for this 
match.

Both sisters nodded, their eyes on each other.

"Begin!"

Kasumi and Nabiki circled each other at first, studying each other for 
weaknesses for several moments, and then they attacked.  Like in so many 
matches before, Kasumi quickly gained the upper hand, her skill and 
technique as near flawless as Nabiki remembered.  However, that was 
before she had gained nearly ten years of intensive combat experience, 
skills layered on top of the well-defined physique that her school's 
physical regimen had given her.  They battered at each other's defenses 
with punches and kicks, each sister remembering the fun that they had 
once had doing this under the stern but loving gaze of their mother, 
their sensei, so many years ago.

"You've gotten better, Nabiki," said Kasumi, pleasantly surprised at how 
good her younger sister was. "I can't believe how much you've improved."

"You'll find I'm full of surprises, Sis," said Nabiki with a grin, her 
leg lashing out in a kick, only to be blocked away at the last instant 
by Kasumi's arm.
 
With that thought in mind, Nabiki suddenly went on the offensive even 
more, her fists and feet pummeling away at Kasumi's defenses in a truly 
dazzling display of martial arts skill.  She managed to take the 
initiative from Kasumi and began to exploit her control of the fight 
with a vengeance.  Nabiki wasn't striking at her full power, as she had 
come near to doing when she and Ranma sparred, but Kasumi was going to 
have a number of colorful bruises to remember this match by.  However, 
she was going to have a few bruises herself; her sister was no pushover 
in a fight.

Where did Nabiki get so skilled? Kasumi wondered, surprised.  She deftly 
blocked Nabiki's arm, sidestepped a kick, and managed to backhand her 
younger sister across the face with a fist, all in a single flowing 
movement.  It was taking her to the limits of her skills to hold her own 
against Nabiki, but she was still slowly losing ground.  In a regular 
fight, a lucky blow could have shifted the balance back in her favor if 
it disabled her opponent, but they weren't hitting each other with full 
power strikes, sparring like this.  However, even though she was losing 
the match, Kasumi found herself relishing the struggle, and it surprised 
her a little that she enjoyed the challenge so much.  I'm acting just 
like Akane, she chided herself.

On the sidelines, Akane watched, alternating equally between wonder and 
amazement at the level of skill her older sisters were demonstrating as 
they methodically pounded away at each other, and outright jealousy at 
how well Nabiki was doing.  Nabiki wasn't this good a week ago, she 
decided, her eyes narrowing a bit as she analyzed her older sister's 
combat style.  There was something very familiar about it, but she was 
unable to say why.  It was some form of Kempo, as her sister had told 
her, but it was like no style that she had ever seen before.  I have to 
find out where she learned this.

Meanwhile, Kasumi continued her struggles against Nabiki, but she could 
not seem to completely counter the large variety of techniques in the 
arsenal that her younger sister was bringing out against her.  She gave 
Nabiki a few rather solid hits that "accidentally" slipped a bit out of 
her control, ones that would leave some bruises.  It was a sign that she 
was growing irritated at losing to one of her little sisters, a reaction 
that again surprised her.  I guess I'm feeling much more stressed than I 
realized, she thought sadly, thoughts of her personal life distracting 
her and causing her to miss a block.

Nabiki's fist thumped into Kasumi's chin, only striking at about half-
power, but it was a solid blow that was sure to leave a bruise.  She 
paused for a single second in surprise, and Kasumi hit back without a 
single moment of hesitation, a combination of a hard right-handed punch 
to Nabiki's face and a quick kick to the hip that broke through her 
defenses and staggered her.  When Kasumi did not back off but kept 
pressing her, Nabiki very quickly went on the offensive again, regaining 
the initiative with a speed that amazed both Akane and Kasumi.

Nabiki's level of mastery is simply staggering, noted Kasumi with great 
amazement, blocking her little sister's punches and kicks more raggedly 
now, her growing levels of exhaustion beginning to show even as Nabiki 
seemed to remain unflagged.  She wasn't getting any more blows in past 
Nabiki's defenses, but at least her own defenses were still holding firm 
against Nabiki's attacks.  The eldest Tendo daughter was beginning to 
look tired, unlike her opponent; they had been fighting non-stop against 
each other for a little over twenty minutes.

As more minutes passed, Kasumi briefly managed to regain the initiative 
a few times, but Nabiki kept forcing it away from her.  Both of them 
were tiring from the intense efforts that they were putting forth, but 
Kasumi seemed to be tiring much more quickly, perhaps due to the greater 
number of hits she was taking, sapping away her reserves of energy.  
Finally, Nabiki managed to crack through her defenses and began hitting 
her with half-power blows, almost with impunity.  A final legsweep 
combined with a blow to the ribcage knocked Kasumi off her feet, and she 
yielded.

Nabiki smiled tiredly with pride at her victory as her lungs heaved, 
scavenging oxygen from the air; it was the first one she had ever had 
against her older sister.  She offered her hand to the fallen Kasumi, 
the look on her face without guile for the first time in a long while.  
With one of her usual smiles, slightly pained-looking though it was, the 
eldest Tendo daughter took the hand and let Nabiki haul her up to her 
feet.

"Good match, little sister," said Kasumi, beginning to feel some of the 
bruises now from Nabiki's pulled blows, as her adrenaline high finally 
faded.  She felt a little embarrassed to see the bruises that her 
younger sister now sported.  However, the sheer intensity of the match 
had given her a cleansing feeling, and she was grateful to Nabiki for 
helping her work off so much stress.  She studied her sister and finally 
said, "You've been studying Kempo."

"Yes," replied Nabiki.  "I recently discovered a new sensei.  He's 
helped me to improve a lot."  Repeating the lie made it easier to say, 
but she still felt a little odd for speaking a falsehood to her sister.

"You've never beaten me before," said Kasumi, not critically, but simply 
noting it as a statement of fact.  "I think I would like to meet your 
new sensei."  She smiled.

"He swore me to secrecy," lied Nabiki facilely, the falsehood coming 
easily to her lips, and yet again it was one that bothered her.  Still, 
it gave her pause to wonder for a moment.  If, on another world, she had 
gone out to train in the Anything-Goes style, with Genma Saotome of all 
people, then perhaps there were other worlds where it was Kasumi who had 
gone, or perhaps even Akane.  It was a sobering realization to think 
about.  She thought that she was perhaps being selfish to hide the truth 
of the origin of her new skills, but Akane was a dangerous enough 
fighter already without them, not to mention how good Kasumi already 
was.  It was nice to finally be the best martial artist in their family.

"Very well," said Kasumi, deciding to not press the issue.  She then 
picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from her face.

"Nabiki, you beat Kasumi," whispered Akane, too softly for either of her 
sisters to hear, rather stunned at this development.  You've never 
beaten Kasumi, ever, she thought, her eyes studying Nabiki with growing 
suspicion.  Her own loss to Nabiki had been surprising, but it had given 
her a new sparring partner to overcome, so she had not looked too deeply 
at the matter.  This was another thing entirely.  To Akane, Kasumi was 
her idol, and to have her lose to Nabiki was sobering.  How did you get 
so good, Nabiki?  I have to find out.  Just think how strong I could be 
if I learn what you know.  That last thought brought a pleasant, quivery 
feeling, and an enjoyable fantasy of crushing all other girls who might 
oppose her goal of claiming Ranma filled her mind.

"Now let us go clean up, have breakfast, and I'll tell you what you want 
to hear about men and marriage," said Kasumi with a smile, draping an 
arm around Nabiki's shoulders.

"Okay," said Nabiki, feeling on top of the world, as if a great weight 
had lifted from her, one that she had not really been aware of before.

The three Tendo sisters cleaned up the training hall and went in to wash 
up for breakfast.

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

Breakfast at the Kuno household was a somewhat solemn affair.  As was 
their usual custom for meals, the entire family ate together, the 
household servants watching from a convenient distance, ready to pour 
tea or serve additional rice as needed.  The mood was even quieter 
today.

Kodachi looked up from her food and hid a smile at the sight of the 
fading bruises on Kuno's face.  She had heard from one of the family 
ninja, the one that she had assigned to watch Ranma for her, that he had 
challenged the scholar boy and lost.  Kodachi was secretly thrilled at 
the thought of Ranma standing up to her older brother and having the 
strength to defeat him, and she wished that she could have seen the 
fight herself.  He is a warrior, as well as a scholar, she thought, a 
very soft sigh escaping her lips, a pleasant warmth in her face.  Her 
musings drifted away into one of her usual fantasies about having Ranma 
as her husband.  They made her feel less lonely.

That cur Saotome shall pay for this indignity he hath done me! was the 
thought currently resounding in Kuno's mind.  He had woken up in the 
Academy's infirmary, bandages on his face from the beating that Ranma 
had given him.  He had forced himself up out of bed and gone to 
Whitehall, despite the pains of his body, and his anger at Ranma had 
continued unabated throughout the remainder of the day.  He had carried 
Mikado's unconscious body to the car, the other boy awakening during the 
short passage over to the grounds of Whitehall.  They had made a solemn 
vow together, to defeat the villain Saotome no matter how many attempts 
were required.

Kuno looked up to see the soft expression on his sister's face, the 
half-smile on her lips, and his rage increased to a level that left him 
almost trembling with emotion.  Ranma Saotome has cast some sort of 
spell over my sister with his honeyed words, he decided.  I am certain 
that he is a seducer of the worst sort, a vile cad.  I must show Kodachi 
that he is not at all worthy of a fragile flower such as herself, 
despite what my father now has planned.

The memory of that meeting with his father last night still rankled 
Kuno, and it only served to inflame the strength of his desires to crush 
the pigtailed boy.  His father had been recently approached by a 
matchmaker about arranging a marriage for Kodachi to Ranma, and the 
Saotomes would be having dinner with his family this week.  Lord Kuno 
was even considering transferring Ranma's name to the registry of the 
Kuno Family if he wed Kodachi.  When he had heard that, Tatewaki simply 
could not believe it.  Ranma Saotome as my brother-in-law? he thundered 
in his mind, careful not to speak aloud at the table.  Nay, worse than 
that, as a Kuno?  As a Lord of the Empire?  I must defeat him.  That 
trumped-up commoner must not mix his baseborn blood with the purity of 
the Kuno line.  I forbid it!

Kuno's chopsticks snapped in half, earning him a very severe look from 
his mother for disturbing the peace and quiet of the meal, one that 
quickly chilled even his temper.  One of the servants quietly replaced 
his chopsticks with fresh ones, and the heir to the Kuno family began 
eating once again in silence, his fury barely withheld.

At the head of the table, Lord Daisho Kuno studied his only son out of 
the corner of his eye.  Oh, Tatewaki, my son, you make your father 
proud, he thought, smiling slightly as he ate.  Your failed efforts to 
best Genma's son have proven that he is truly worthy of becoming a Kuno.  
Any warrior capable of besting you so soundly will be a proud addition 
to this family.  He looked over at his daughter, and felt his heart fill 
with paternal love for her.  Kodachi, my child, you have no idea how 
pleasing it will be to me to wed you to the Saotome boy, and I am happy 
that you have fallen so obviously in love with him.  The offspring that 
Ranma will father upon you will strengthen our Clan immeasurably, not to 
mention the value of having another Newtype under my control.  It will 
make things so much easier for me and my plans for improving our lot in 
the Empire.

Lord Kuno scooped up the last of his rice and held his bowl out for a 
refill.  As a servant quickly refilled it, Daisho allowed himself to 
recall the past, and a stray thought suddenly occurred to him.  He 
studied his son for a moment, remembering an agreement with an old 
friend from his youth.  I wonder if Genma even remembers that promise he 
once made me so long ago? he thought with a smile.  If things went as 
they were planned, then he would have another Newtype under his control, 
a pleasant prospect for the Kuno Family patriarch indeed.

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

After breakfast was over, Genma watched Nodoka cleaning up the dishes 
and remnants of breakfast from the dining area table as he sipped the 
last of his tea.  It was looking to be a beautiful day, and he was eager 
to be off and to see Ranma's laboratory and his invention.  He continued 
to watch Nodoka work with a pleasant smile on his face.  He heard Ranma 
upstairs, gathering up some things for their planned day together.

"How did your talk with Ranma go, Dearest?" asked Nodoka with a rather 
contented smile.  She now stood in the doorway to the kitchen, a pair of 
lunches made up and resting in her hands.

"Quite well," Genma replied with a smile, standing up from the table and 
taking the prepared meals from Nodoka.  His thoughts were on the few 
schematics that his son had shown him over the last several months.  
"Ranma is just going through a phase of sorts.  Nothing for you to be 
concerned about.  He'll be fine.  If you need me today, just call my 
cellular number.  I should be with our son all day."

Ranma came bounding down the stairs with his bookbag.  "I'm ready to 
go," he said, coming to a halt in the front hallway.

"Don't be late for dinner tonight," said Nodoka with a happy smile, 
watching them putting on their shoes.  She kissed Genma gently on the 
cheek, before the two most important men in her life headed out the 
door.  It sounds as if Genma has the situation under control, she 
thought with contentment.  I guess I was worried over nothing.  She 
waved at them, bidding her husband and son farewell as they went down 
the street.

When they were gone, Nodoka went back into the house and closed the 
front door.  She busied herself with the beginnings of her chores for 
the day.  She wanted to be done early so that she could get in some time 
for target practice at the archery range, as well as a bout with Achika 
at Kendo.  Ranma's little workout that morning had reminded her that she 
had promised to get together with her friend today.  I must remember to 
show Achika the new reverse disarming stroke I learned, she thought as 
she began to clean up the kitchen.  An impish smile crossed her lips.  
After I defeat her with it, of course.

The telephone rang as she was finishing up washing the breakfast dishes.  
Nodoka placed the last of them in the drying rack, wiped her hands with 
the towel she held, and picked up the phone.  She said cheerfully, 
"Hello?  Saotome residence."

"Good morning, Saotome-san," said a female voice over the phone.  "This 
is Otsu Mitsuma calling."

"Good morning, Mitsuma-san," said Nodoka, as a smile broke out on her 
face.  "I assume you have some good news for me?"

"Yes, I do," Otsu replied.  "I have been in contact with the families of 
each of the girls, and they are all eager to have their daughters meet 
Ranma.  I have a tentative schedule made up for you and your family to 
meet the girls.  To start, the Kuonji family was simply overjoyed at the 
prospect of their daughter, Ukyo, meeting Ranma.  I sent them the 
information on your family, and Kuonji-san was on the phone to me within 
an hour to schedule a date for the first meeting.  So, would tomorrow 
evening be too soon?"

Tomorrow? Nodoka thought, pausing to consider it for a moment.  She 
could not think of any reason to delay.  She was sure that Ranma would 
be thrilled.  His initial reaction she attributed to nervousness.

"I suppose that will be all right," said Nodoka finally.  "My son is a 
little nervous about this, but he's agreed to meet all of the girls.  
What time should I expect Kuonji-san and his family?"

"Kuonji-san and his wife will be bringing Ukyo by bullet train 
tomorrow," said Otsu, briefly checking her notes as she spoke, "so you 
should expect them to arrive at your home by five for dinner and the 
preliminary discussions on the matter."  She paused and checked her 
notes once again.  "Kuno-sama and his family will be available on 
Wednesday for a meeting between the families.  Is that all right with 
you?"

"That would be fine," said Nodoka, a growing eagerness filling her at 
seeing each of her prospective daughters-in-law in person.  "What time 
should I expect the Kunos?"

"Oh, His Lordship has extended a personal invitation for you and your 
family to join him and his family at their ancestral estate at six in 
the evening," replied Otsu.

"I-I would be honored to accept this invitation on behalf of my son and 
husband," said Nodoka with only a moment of hesitation.  To dine at a 
Lord's estate, she mused happily.  I am sure that it will be a most 
memorable night.  I wonder if I have anything suitable to wear?  Oh my!  
I have to take Ranma shopping for new clothes!  I know he doesn't have 
anything suitable for such an occasion.

"I shall inform His Lordship of your acceptance," said Otsu.  There was 
another brief pause.  "Lastly, Tendo-san has also asked me to invite you 
and your family to have dinner at his home.  He wished me to express his 
eagerness to have you meet his daughter, Nabiki.  What day would be 
acceptable for you this week?"

"Oh, well, let me think," stammered Nodoka a bit, caught off-guard by 
the suddenness with which everything was happening.  It sounded as if 
all three fathers were eager to engage Ranma to their daughters, and it 
brought a surge of pride within her.  Ranma is so manly, she sighed with 
pleasure, to have so many women seeking his favor.  She smiled at the 
thought of the grandchildren that he would provide her after he married.  
"Friday evening at six would be a good time for my family."  Two days 
spacing between the meetings gave them a sort of symmetry that appealed 
to Nodoka.  That would leave an evening free for Ranma between each 
meeting, to spend time with one or more of the girls and perhaps even 
take them on dates.

"I will inform Tendo-san of your acceptance and the date he should 
expect your family, Saotome-san," said Otsu pleasantly.  "That is all 
that I have for you now.  Have a pleasant evening.  Goodbye now."

"Goodbye, Mitsuma-san," said Nodoka as she hung up the phone, feeling 
happy inside.  I had better telephone Achika and get ready to go now if 
I'm going to get any practice in at all today, she thought as she began 
heading for the bedroom.  I have so much to get ready for tomorrow.

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

Genma and Ranma walked along at a brisk pace, both of them lost in their 
own thoughts as they approached the quiet grounds of the Academy.  Genma 
was pondering the fulfillment of seeing his life's work at long last.  
Ranma was hoping that nothing bad happened today.
 
As the main gates to the Academy came into sight, they saw that the 
school was quiet.  Genma followed Ranma, walking onto the grounds, 
nostalgia filling him.  It is still as I remember it, he thought, 
looking around with a smile.  He paused at the sight of his favorite 
shade tree to study under, pleased that it was still there exactly as he 
remembered it.  He recalled some of the many fights he had gotten into 
on or near these grounds and some of the adventures of his boyhood.  It 
was truly a marvelous time.

"P- Father?" asked Ranma, turning to face Genma.  "Are you all right?"

"Quite well, my son," answered Genma, smiling with a twinkle in his eye.  
"I was just caught up in memories of my own days of youth spent here.  I 
had an interesting adventure or two when I was your age.  Forgive your 
old father for the lapse."

"Sure, Pop," laughed Ranma, amused to see his father like this.  "I 
think I might like to hear about some of those 'adventures' of yours."

"Someday, Son," said Genma with a smile.  "Someday.  You might be 
surprised to hear about some of the things I did when I was your age."

"Oh?" said Ranma.

Genma merely chuckled in reply, and said nothing more.

After shrugging his shoulders, Ranma led his father downstairs to his 
private lab space, and they stopped outside the door.  He searched 
around in his pockets for his key for a moment while his father looked 
around the hallway idly.  Ranma finally found the key in one of his 
jacket pockets and unlocked the door.  He reached around the corner and 
flipped the light switches on.

"Your lab space is rather out of the way, Ranma," commented Genma as he 
walked inside.  His gaze lighted upon the tarp sitting next to a couch 
on the far side of the room.  He pointed at the mysterious pile.  "Is 
that it?"

"It is," replied Ranma, smiling as he uncovered the equipment, flipping 
the tarp over by the wall.  He saw his father eye the small stack of 
devices after they were revealed.  Next to the main computer case was a 
second small casing roughly half its size, with a series of switches and 
a line of small red and green lights arranged across the front.  Genma 
recognized a neural induction headset plugged into the front of the 
case.  The workmanship was clean and simple, and he nodded his approval.

"How does it work?" asked Genma, sitting down on the couch and looking 
over the equipment more closely.

"Well," said Ranma, as he sat down on the chair by the couch and began 
to describe how it all worked, "inside the small case is a series of 
sensors that take a detailed reading on the brain hooked up by the 
neural induction headset at a quantum level of resolution.  That scan 
provides an electromagnetic signature that is used as a comparison model 
for the system to conduct a search for a match along the various quantum 
frequencies.  Every timeline has a unique quantum frequency that is 
associated with it, and the resonator at the core of the system allows 
the operator to synchronize his mind with the mind of a counterpart on 
an alternate frequency.  The system is then able to link the personality 
of the person scanned into their quantum counterpart, and it feels like 
you are really there.  A continuous stream of pulses maintains the link, 
and the system adjusts the neutrino transmission to compensate for phase 
drift between the two realities.  When a reverse pulse is sent at the 
end of the run, the transmission and synchronization link terminates and 
the personality is disconnected and pulled back."

Genma sat there in surprised amazement.  "You used a device like this 
while you were alone?" he asked, after contemplating what Ranma had said 
for a moment.  "That was very careless, Son.  Something far worse could 
have happened to you than what did happen."  Genma picked up the headset 
and examined it.  "Still, it's unquestionably a stunning achievement."

"Would you like to try it, Father?" asked Ranma.  "I went over every one 
of the circuits yesterday, and I can assure you that every one of the 
components is working within specifications.  I even added in new lines 
of code into the control software that will dampen the signal variances 
if the feedback gets too bad.  I'm almost positive that was what caused 
the power surge which copied my counterpart's memories into myself."

Genma thought seriously for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of 
trying it out, then nodded.

Ranma began powering up his system, idly watching the system's checklist 
information as it scrolled by.  I think for safety's sake, I'll use one 
of the ones that I have already examined, he thought, tapping away at 
the keys to call up one of the files from the memory matrix.  I have 
several that Father could try, after all.

Genma occupied himself during that time by picking up Ranma's notebook 
and flipping through it.  The applications of his theories that Ranma 
had used were nothing less than astounding.  Genma lost himself in 
reading.  My son is even more brilliant that I dared hope.

"It's ready, Father," said Ranma after a few minutes.  Genma looked up 
and read the monitor.  "I have the system set up to use one of the files 
I have used myself.  I think you might find this world interesting.  
It's a rather unusual set of divergences, at least as far as our family 
is concerned.  It will give you a feel for the potentials, but the 
differences shouldn't overwhelm you.  I'm only going to set it up for 
ten minutes of time for this demonstration."

"Very well," said Genma.  He sat back on the couch and Ranma put the 
headset on his skull.

"Just close your eyes and relax, Father," said Ranma, sitting back down 
and activating the software.  "You'll feel some odd sensations, but they 
are nothing to worry about.  Here you go."

For a moment, it felt as if the universe had just dropped away from 
Genma.  Or, perhaps a more accurate description of the sensation, as if 
the universe had dropped him into the spaces between worlds.

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

*** Earth  +0.004,-0.003

Genma blinked and discovered himself seated on the back porch of the 
Saotome household.  A warm cup of tea was resting in a tray next to his 
leg, along with the pot.  He was dressed in a set of plain blue robes, 
the only ornamentation the mon or symbol of his family crest stitched on 
one breast in golden thread.

The backyard was larger, and his neighbor's house was absent in this 
timeline.  Instead, now located behind the Saotome ancestral home were 
some new additions: a large koi pond, a Zen rock garden, and a modest-
sized dojo.  The dojo was the home of the Saotome School of Anything-
Goes Martial Arts, a stray memory that popped up into Genma's mind as he 
looked at the structure in curiosity.

There was a sudden, loud cry of outrage, definitely female in origin, 
something that sounded like, "Aiyah!  Stupid boy!"  Then a body came 
flying out past him through the kitchen window with a loud crash of 
glass.  Genma blinked, unsure what to do.  The body in question, clothed 
in a green, sleeveless, Chinese-style shirt with wooden ties holding the 
front closed, and a pair of black gi pants, managed to make a graceless 
landing next to the koi pond by slamming hard into the turf face-first.  
He blinked again, seeing that it was Ranma.

Ranma rolled over onto his back with a growl, not even stunned from the 
powerful throw that had just propelled him right through the kitchen 
window a moment ago.  He flipped back up to his feet in a graceful move 
and quickly charged past Genma back into the house with an extremely 
determined look.  Still, there was the hint of a smile on Ranma's face 
that surprised Genma, who was uncertain as to whether or not he should 
interfere.

The sounds of an intense martial arts combat taking place began to be 
heard a moment later.  More cries drifted out of the house, both male 
and female, mainly 'kiai' shouts, but mixed in with those were the 
occasional snarled remark in broken Japanese (female voice) and slurs 
against Chinese Amazons in general but especially "purple-haired, psycho 
Amazons" in particular (male voice).  That last was usually followed by 
a briefly more intense-sounding round of combat and the distinctive 
noises of furniture breaking, most likely over the head of the comment 
maker who had just cast aspersions upon Chinese Amazons, purple-haired 
or otherwise.

While Genma sat there, a wave of memories suddenly cascaded into his 
awareness, a bewildering rush of thoughts not his own.  The very nature 
of the experience left him transfixed for a moment, as his mind 
frantically sorted through the memories now engulfing him like a tide 
coming in.  He shakily picked up the cup of tea next to him and let his 
mind process the new input.  One memory stood out in particular, 
engulfing his awareness as if it was currently happening.  It consisted 
of what he had managed to piece together from talking with the different 
players involved, the events from last night after dinner....

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

Genma relaxed at the dinner table, watching the nightly news as he 
usually did, when he noticed his son walking into the kitchen.  He paid 
it no mind, though he noticed Nodoka look up from her sewing with a 
smile in his direction.  He saw her lean over to him.

"Ranma is so manly," Nodoka whispered with an approving smile.

Meanwhile, Ranma peeked into the kitchen and grinned.  Shampoo was 
cleaning up the last of the dinner dishes, softly humming a tune that he 
did not recognize.  He took a moment to admire her figure from the rear, 
studying the gentle movements of her swaying hips as she worked.  He 
still could not believe how lucky he was in owning a beauty like her.  
Shampoo was wearing a silk peasant outfit in light purple, composed of 
snug pants and long-sleeved blouse.  It's hard to believe that it was 
only earlier today that I first saw her for sale in the slave auction, 
he thought with a smile.

His brief blackout before and during the slave auction he attributed to 
his excitement.  A few subtle questions had revealed that his father had 
not noticed anything wrong, and Ranma had apparently responded to him 
normally, including picking one of the two Chinese Amazons available for 
sale.  His first conscious memory was almost right after the bidding had 
concluded, and he had seen his newly-purchased slave girl, Shampoo.  
Even with her hands and ankles manacled together, her body weighted down 
with chains, she had looked every inch a princess, even outshining the 
pink-haired Amazon beauty who stood right next to her.  Of course, the 
very revealing white silk outfit that all of the slave girls wore had 
only enhanced his newly-awakened desires for her.

The fact that Shampoo was a Chinese Amazon somehow made her even more 
desirable to him in some exotic way.  He had heard all of the stories 
about the women of her tribe, that they were all expert fighters trained 
in martial arts.  Ranma had hoped that she was pretty good.  It might be 
nice to have a live-in sparring partner to practice with, he had thought 
with a smile.  Of course, I'll have to go easy on her though, since 
she's just a girl.

Ranma was the first of his friends to own a female slave, and he had 
enjoyed the envying looks of many of his peers attending Furinkan 
Military Academy.  His best friend, Ryuu Kumon, was already making plans 
to purchase one of his own, using money given to him from his parents 
and relatives for his birthday.  He had shown Ranma quite a number of 
photos from one of his catalogs, mostly of the types of slave girls 
available from the Western American Prefectures.  Ryuu had long been 
fascinated by them.  The girls in outfits of fringed buckskin were sort 
of interesting and exotic-looking, but Ranma was sure that a girl like 
Shampoo would be able to satisfy him for a long time.

There had been an unexpected problem with Akane Tendo.  As she was a 
student of the rival Tendo School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, he had 
been fighting with her for years.  He had never thought of her in any 
sort of a romantic way, but she had apparently seen things quite 
differently.  So when he had been showing pictures of Shampoo around 
earlier that afternoon, she had gotten extremely angry at him, beat him 
up, and then stormed off.

Forget about Akane Tendo, Ranma thought with a rather lecherous grin.  
Just look at the incredible body that Shampoo has.  Immediately taking 
his own advice on the matter, he went back to ogling her callipygian 
derriere from his position standing in the doorway.  It truly was a 
magnificent sight, especially encased in snug silk.

Ranma had originally decided to let Shampoo adjust to the house for a 
day or so before he made his move, but after dinner he found that he 
couldn't wait any longer.  After all, she was his slave now, and he was 
allowed to use her in any way that he saw fit under Imperial law.  He 
couldn't keep his eyes off of her lithely muscular build, and her pidgin 
way of speaking Japanese was incredibly sexy to him.  He was looking 
forward to the next few hours so much that he hadn't even been able to 
concentrate on his dinner.  Tonight was going to be the night that he 
became a man.

Earlier that day, after Ranma and his father had first brought a very 
solemn Shampoo home, she was presented unchained to Nodoka, still 
dressed in the wispy bit of white silk and nothing else.  His mother had 
immediately assumed that the Chinese Amazon had no practical skills and 
had only been bought for her looks, but Shampoo had very quickly proven 
her wrong by fixing an incredibly tasty lunch.  Nodoka had warmed to the 
girl quite a bit by that point, almost treating her like a daughter.  
She had been pleased to have a girl to help her around the house with 
the chores, and the purple-haired Amazon had done any chore that she was 
asked to do.  She also seemed to like Ranma's mother, especially after 
Nodoka had taken her out shopping for some second-hand but nice clothes 
that would be appropriate for the new addition to the Saotome household.

They had given Shampoo her own small but comfortable bedroom, and she 
had smiled at seeing it.  Seeing that smile appear on her face was like 
watching the sun coming out from behind a cloud for Ranma, and he had 
taken it upon himself to show her around the house.  He noticed that 
Shampoo had seemed rather fascinated by the family dojo out back, so 
Ranma had shown off some of his better martial arts moves, honed through 
many hours of training.  She had watched him with an interested 
expression, and he felt that things were progressing nicely between 
them.

His parents were in the next room, but that didn't matter to him at that 
moment.  While he could have continued to watch her for a long time, his 
desires for her were becoming difficult to ignore.  He cleared his 
throat.

Shampoo turned around with a smile.  "Yes, Ranma?" she asked him 
pleasantly, pausing in wiping one of the dishes dry with a white towel. 
"Shampoo almost done.  Ranma want Shampoo do something?"

"Yes," said Ranma softly, watching her with a slight smile on his face.

Shampoo noticed him watching her and gave a very slight smile in return.  
When he said nothing more, she shrugged her shoulders, an action that 
did marvelous things for her chest, and turned her attention back to 
finishing up the dishes in the sink.

Swallowing slightly in sudden nervousness, Ranma closed the door to the 
other room and approached her from behind.  He put his arms gently 
around her, and Shampoo's posture suddenly stiffened.

"What Ranma doing?" asked Shampoo in a serious voice.

"Shh," Ranma whispered into her ear from behind.  "I just want to show 
you how attracted I am to you."  He moved his mouth down to kiss her on 
the neck when he felt her body suddenly shift in front of him, and her 
elbow slammed back into his solar plexus with surprising force.  His 
breath whooshed out of his lungs, and his body forgot how to breathe for 
a brief time.

Shampoo pivoted around gracefully, and her fist drove hard across his 
face, powered by the lithe muscles he had been admiring earlier.  Her 
body rested lightly on the balls of her bare feet as she watched him 
fall before her.  The towel that had been in her hands dropped onto the 
countertop.

Ranma's body hit the floor of the kitchen, and he was stunned for a 
moment at the unexpected violence.  He had never expected her to attack 
him like that, and he could only look up in shock as Shampoo glared down 
at him angrily.  She decked me! he thought, surprise evident on his 
face.

"Read contract!" Shampoo commanded him while he was laying on the 
ground.  "Shampoo not allow kiss unless Ranma defeat Shampoo in single 
combat!  Shampoo Amazon warrior!  Ranma read contract!"  After saying 
that, she stomped off, muttering something in Mandarin.

Ranma picked himself up off the floor.  Shampoo hit me! he thought, his 
mind still not quite grasping the fact.  I can't believe that she 
actually hit me!  He watched her as she went out to the dojo and began 
performing katas, an angry look on her face.

What did she mean by reading her contract? he wondered with a frown.  
Isn't it a standard slave ownership contract?  He ignored the puzzled 
look on his mother's face as he went up to his room to get the contract 
on his ownership of Shampoo.  He was surprised, to say the least, as he 
read through one of the sub-clauses in it, and he read that section 
twice to make sure that he understood it correctly.

The section in question read, "Be it known that an Amazon of the 
Joketsuzoku Village is only required to give herself to a man who has 
defeated her in single combat.  Be it also known that resistance against 
such advances is protected under Imperial law pursuant to the Treaty of 
Surrender signed between the Empire of Japan and the Joketsuzoku 
Amazons."

Father is not going to be happy that I got beaten up again by a girl, he 
thought, staring out the window of his bedroom and seeing Shampoo now 
driving punches and kicks into one of the heavy workout bags in the 
dojo.  Ranma gingerly touched the bruise on his cheek for a moment as he 
held the paper in his hand.  I could have bought one of the quiet Korean 
girls, but no, I had to buy myself an Amazon.

He hadn't read the fine print on her ownership contract when he had 
bought her.  How was he supposed to know that the Empire would ever 
leave such a clause in a slave contract?  The Joketsuzoku Amazons, under 
the terms of their treaty with the Empire, allowed a number of their 
unmarried girls to serve five year terms of slavery, in exchange for 
money paid to the village treasury.  One of the few limitations in their 
contracts was the iron-clad condition that they would only give 
themselves to a man who had defeated them in combat, so Shampoo was 
within her rights under Imperial law to resist any of his romantic 
advances.  He also couldn't even sell her for a full year, another 
clause he discovered while reading her contract.

When he admitted to his parents what had happened and told them the 
whole story, reactions had been mixed.  Nodoka actually found it amusing 
and had gone out to talk with the Amazon.  While his mother was out with 
Shampoo, his father had told him that he was ashamed to have his only 
son beaten by a girl again, even if she was a Chinese Amazon.  To have 
his son and heir lose so easily to a teenaged girl was more than Genma 
Saotome could handle, so he had ordered Ranma to do three extra hours of 
training each and every day until he could defeat Shampoo.

Ranma was never told that everything was actually going according to 
Genma's plan.  When Ranma finally defeated Shampoo, as Genma knew that 
the boy eventually would if he trained hard enough, then the Amazon 
would be a most formidable mother for the next generation of the Saotome 
Clan.  They would be strong heirs to its proud martial arts traditions.

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

Genma heard more angry shouting, distracting him from the recent memory, 
and two bodies suddenly came flying out of one of the upper windows, 
locked together in what looked like mortal combat.  Before they touched 
ground, Genma counted about twenty-odd blows given and countered on each 
side of the furious melee.  He wasn't quite sure what to make of the 
struggle they were having.  They appeared to be stopping just short of 
trying to kill each other, but both were giving their all to the fight 
otherwise.

The fight raged around the yard, as much an aerial duel as taking place 
on the ground.  Cuts and bruises were mounting on both young fighters, a 
fairly even match going on between them, and Genma was impressed at the 
level of skill that they were demonstrating.  He was joined at his 
seated position by Nodoka.

"Isn't young love wonderful?" asked Nodoka, watching the two teenagers 
apparently trying to maim each other.

"Are we watching the same two people here?" asked Genma, a bit surprised 
to hear Nodoka say such a thing.  He wondered how his own Nodoka would 
react in the same situation.  She was such a refined and gracious lady 
in his eyes.

"Don't you remember how we once were?" said Nodoka, taking an empty 
teacup and filling it from the pot.

A sudden rush of memories assailed Genma at those words, and he recalled 
the many fights his counterpart had with Nodoka when they were much 
younger.  This life is so different from my own, thought Genma, his mind 
now filled with clear memories of a younger Genma mercilessly teasing a 
younger Nodoka.  Of course, the then-teenaged Nodoka would often then 
proceed to brain him with her ever-present bokken if he wasn't careful.  
She had been promised to be his wife by their parents, but she was a 
fiery-tempered young girl.  The two of them had fought intensely with 
each other, using both words and fists, for over two years before 
finally declaring a truce and admitting that they cared for each other.

"Well, she is also Chinese," noted Genma, watching Ranma take a couple 
of solid punches to his face from Shampoo and then deftly dodge the kick 
that immediately followed them.  He then saw the boy counter with a 
combination elbow strike and knee strike that knocked the wind out of 
the Amazon for a moment.

"If Ranma defeats her, then she becomes eligible for Citizenship by 
marriage," said Nodoka, leaning against him.  "I think she'd make him a 
fine wife.  The Empress is a Chinese Amazon, after all."

Before Genma could phrase any sort of reply to that most surprising 
statement, his vision grayed out and the nothingness between realities 
briefly claimed him.

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

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

"How do you feel, Father?" asked Ranma, noting that the system had 
achieved successful recall.  There hadn't even been a significant level 
of feedback, so he was encouraged by that.

"That was simply incredible, Ranma," breathed Genma, his eyes staring up 
at the ceiling with an amused expression.  He turned his head to look at 
his son and suddenly started to chuckle.  He saw the look on Ranma's 
face turn from concern to consternation and began to laugh.

"What's so funny, old man?" growled Ranma, before shaking his head for a 
moment.  "I mean, what are you laughing at, Father?"

"Your counterpart and that pretty Amazon girl," said Genma.  "You should 
have seen it.  The two of you," he broke off into chuckles again.

"Shampoo?" asked Ranma, confused.  "What happened?"

"Oh, your mother was already making plans to wed the two of you 
together," said Genma with a last chuckle, taking his glasses off for a 
moment to wipe a tear of mirth from his eye.  "When I last saw your 
double and her, the two of them were locked in combat, and I would say 
having the time of their lives."

Ranma blinked and looked very surprised.

"It seems that a Citizen wedding an Amazon is an acceptable sort of 
practice in that timeline," said Genma, replacing his glasses.  "Even 
the Emperor, a practicing martial artist of quite some skill, has a 
bride of his own.  A Chinese Amazon named Silk, of all things."

Ranma blinked again, trying to picture the current Emperor fighting and 
couldn't.

"There was a different Emperor on the throne in that world," said Genma, 
suddenly having a puzzled expression on his face.  "The name suddenly 
escapes me.  Curious."

"I guess the memories from your counterpart didn't carry well," said 
Ranma.  "Some of the worlds I have visited are more vague in my own 
memory as well."

"The disjunction between realities is an interesting sensation," said 
Genma, but he shuddered for a moment at the memory of not existing for a 
moment or two.

"It took me a few tries to get used to it, too," said Ranma.  "So, now 
you've tried one of my pre-tested worlds.  Do you want to try for a scan 
of a new world?"

"Why not?" asked Genma.  A sudden smile lit his face.  "Why don't I try 
that same region you keep connecting with, son?"  He adjusted his 
glasses.

Ranma looked at his father in surprise.  "Are you sure about that, 
Father?  It's a rather significant divergence from our world since it's 
a fair distance across superspace.  The changes are going to be far more 
dramatic than the one you just visited.  This is five hundred years of 
alternate history that we're talking about, after all."

"I'm curious to see what sort of father I would have been in this region 
of tangents," said Genma with a smile.  "Indulge your father's 
curiosity."

"All right," said Ranma, nodding.  "Don't say I didn't warn you though."  
He grinned at his father.  He saw Genma settle back with the headset 
resting on his skull and then turned back to type away at the keyboard.

*SELECT QUANTUM REGION FOR SCAN:  +1.6,+1.5

*SET CYCLE INTO ACTIVE MODE:  YES

*SET TIME DURATION FOR TEST:

"How long do you want to try it?" asked Ranma.  "I would not recommend 
as long as I did, but it's your decision."

"Set it for thirty minutes this time," replied Genma.  "That should be 
long enough to get a feel for this other Genma's life."

"Okay," said Ranma, typing away.

*SET TIME DURATION FOR TEST:  30.00 MINUTES

*RECEIVING SIGNAL FROM NEURAL HEADSET

"You're all set, Pop," said Ranma, watching the software begin to scan 
the timelines.  "All you have to do is lie back and relax."  Ranma 
briefly looked down at his father with concern.  "Be careful, Father.  
You should know that some of your other lives aren't pretty."

"I'll be fine, Ranma," said Genma with a smile.  "Let me see what sort 
of man Genma Saotome could have been."  He rested his body back on the 
couch and closed his eyes.

"Good luck, Pop," said Ranma quietly, watching the screen as a second 
sine wave suddenly appeared.

In the background, the soft computer-generated voice suddenly said, 
"Quantum signature match found.  Initiating upload cycle."

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

*** Earth  +1.612,+1.509

Genma became aware of himself as he was about to put some food into his 
mouth.  He paused and set the morsel down, not really feeling hungry.  
He only had a limited amount of time in this life, and stuffing his face 
was not how he wanted to spend it.  It was a humid day, and he appeared 
to be seated in a park somewhere.  He looked down at the dish of food 
and was disturbed at the oddly wrong smell emanating from it as it 
warmed in the sun.

How curious, thought Genma.  To be on the safe side, he scooted down the 
bench a little ways away from the objects in the dish.  A vague feeling 
of wrongness filled him as he eyed them, and he scooted a little bit 
further away from them.  He noticed one of the digital clocks in the 
park out of the corner of one eye and made a quick note of the time.  It 
was 9:43.

Genma looked up at the sky and took a deep breath.  Even the air smelled 
quite different from home, he noticed, somewhat surprised.  I guess the 
last one was too much like home to notice something as relatively minor 
as that.  This seems like such a peaceful life.  He watched some of the 
children in the park, playing on the swing set off in the distance.  He 
studied the well-worn, white gi that he was wearing, noting with a 
little distress that he seemed to be about twenty kilograms heavier in 
this body, even more overweight than his own, but it also seemed to be 
in good shape underneath the thick layer of fat.  I guess I'm some sort 
of martial arts teacher here as well.  That's two lives that happened in 
now.  I wonder if my own life might be some sort of statistical anomaly?

All of a sudden, a torrent of memories from a life so very different 
from his own surged through him.  The memories were much more jarring 
and different than the first alternate had been.  It was both intriguing 
and more than a little bit frightening.  This Genma had traveled for 
over ten years with his son to teach him martial arts.  He bore witness 
to the memories of the places that they had been, and he felt the deep 
pride for this Ranma's achievements.  Then he began to frown as the 
stupid mistakes made by this Genma were revealed to him, more of them 
than he would have believed possible.  So frighteningly many of them.

This life is not as I pictured myself as ever being like, Genma thought 
sadly.  He cringed mentally as he saw in his mind's eye how the Cat Fist 
training was inflicted on Ranma, again and again.  The feelings of sheer 
determination to make Ranma the best washed over him with that memory, 
and they had apparently drowned out any semblance of common sense in his 
counterpart.  The sheer terror engendered from his promise to Nodoka to 
make Ranma 'a man among men' followed, and he witnessed the tragic fate 
of his son at Jusenkyo, cursed to turn into a girl.

They had gained a companion in their travels at that time, and Genma was 
surprised to see that it was Shampoo.  She had been as cursed as his 
son, only she turned male when cold water was applied.  The girl had 
been good for Ranma, helping him to adjust by providing a sort of mirror 
for his own Jusenkyo-induced gender difficulties, but this Genma had not 
looked at it that way.

Father and son returned to Japan, with Shampoo in tow, and then the real 
troubles had begun.  This Genma had an agreement with the Soun Tendo of 
this world, to unite their schools of martial arts through a marriage 
between Ranma and a Tendo daughter.  Shampoo had been initially mistaken 
for Ranma when they had arrived, as both children had shown up in their 
cursed forms, and by the time that error was finally corrected the 
damage had already been done.  Akane Tendo was finally named as Ranma's 
fiancée, but the two got along very poorly.  And this Genma did nothing 
while his son suffered, only played innumerable games of shogi with Soun 
Tendo.

From that point onwards, the problems had begun to snowball in number, 
many of them the fault of his counterpart.  One of the worst offenses 
was that he had sold Ranma to an incredible number of stupid fathers, 
under the guise of engaging the boy to their daughters, for as little as 
some food or money.  The sheer short-sightedness possessed by this 
version of himself honestly stunned Genma, and he felt truly ill at the 
memories of the empty mouthings of honor that fell so easily from the 
lips of his counterpart.  This life was his worst nightmares given form, 
and he could hardly wait to leave it.

Genma looked into the heart of his quantum alternate, and he was seized 
with remorse.  This Genma had been so abysmally stupid, so narrowly 
focused on forging Ranma into a supreme martial artist that he had lost 
his honor, if he had ever had any to begin with.  Ranma had been the one 
good thing he had ever done with his misbegotten life, and he had almost 
destroyed it.  Cowardice, selfishness, stupidity, and many other 
weaknesses to which man is subject; so many of them were present in his 
counterpart, and it made Genma feel an ache that went to the core of his 
soul.  Oh, my quantum brother, he thought mournfully.  What have you 
done?

As Genma was sitting on a bench in the middle of the park, the dish with 
the odd-smelling food beside him, his ponderings left him open to an 
unexpected attack.  A giant spatula slammed down and impacted hard 
against the top of his head, and the bench splintered underneath him 
from the sheer force.  He blearily turned around, a headache like none 
he had ever felt before splitting his skull.

Standing there, her battle spatula raised like a samurai warrior of old 
holding a katana, the sun shining behind her back, was Ukyo Kuonji.

Oh, damn, thought Genma.  One of those very same girls wronged was now 
standing, armed and dangerous, right behind him.  He blinked at the 
weapon in her hands.  A spatula?  He studied it for another long moment.  
Correction: a giant spatula.  Somehow, laughing at the sight of the girl 
and her enlarged cooking implement did not feel very prudent at this 
time.

"Well, well, well," purred Ukyo in dangerous tones.  "If it isn't the 
old man who made my life a living hell.  And here, I was just thinking 
how I never got a chance to properly thank you for that."  The smile on 
the young girl's face did not bode well for the displaced scientist.

"I can see that you're angry," ventured Genma, hoping to defuse the 
situation with some properly chosen words.  Unfortunately, he could not 
think of anything to say, this experience having left him out of his 
depth.  "Perhaps there is something we could work out?"

Ukyo grinned even wider as she said, "I already have something in mind 
for that.  Just hold still.  I'm going to enjoy this."  As Ukyo's 
righteous anger was meted out to Genma, albeit the wrong Genma, only the 
squirrels in the park witnessed the sight.

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

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

Ranma looked up from his book when the system beeped.  Recall was about 
to commence.  He studied the two merged sine waves, a few small power 
fluctuations had occurred, but they peaked out at 0.8%, and they did not 
last long, only a second each time.  He set his book down and watched 
the last seconds tick down to zero.

There was a puff of smoke from within the casing containing the 
resonator, and the system flashed an alert.

*WARNING!  HARDWARE FAILURE.  RETRIEVAL CYCLE ERROR.

"WHAT?!" shouted Ranma.  He hurriedly pried the top off of the case, 
releasing a large puff of acrid smoke and setting off a sinking feeling 
in the pit of his stomach.  He looked at the recumbent figure of his 
father, and he did not appear to be breathing.  While his attention was 
distracted, the sine waves on the screen moved apart.

"Retrieval cycle complete," said the computer's soft voice.

Genma coughed, his breathing returning to normal after pausing for 
several of the longest seconds in Ranma's life.  He blinked his eyes and 
looked upwards, seeing an unfamiliar ceiling.  Wh-where am I? he thought 
with some confusion.

"Father!" shouted Ranma, relieved that Genma was awake.  "I was afraid 
that I'd lost you."

Genma stared up at his son, at the different clothes that the boy was 
wearing, and at the equipment in this strange room that he suddenly 
found himself in.  His body felt a bit odd, off balance, and he sat up, 
shaking his head in confusion.  He looked at his hand, and it looked 
different from how he remembered it.

That sight seemed to trigger a surge of memories, filling his mind with 
a myriad of images that he had never before seen, of experiences that he 
had never lived, terrifying him far more than anything that Happosai had 
ever done to him.  What has happened to me? he cried out in his mind, 
his terror and confusion growing greater.  He suddenly realized that the 
boy leaning over him was somehow not his son, and he lashed out, almost 
blindly.

The fist caught Ranma flat-footed, slamming up under his jaw and 
knocking him unconscious almost instantly.  His body flew across the 
room, impacting into the bricks of the far wall and falling down in a 
heap.  A few pieces of paper, disturbed by the passage of his body, 
fluttered to the ground.

Genma stared at the unconscious body of the boy who was his son, yet was 
somehow not his son.  More memories assailed him, confusing him even 
further as to where he was.  He stumbled to his feet, a need to flee 
filling him as he headed towards the door, his balance still off, his 
body feeling weaker than he remembered it as being.  He pulled open the 
door and stumbled out into the hallway.  Within moments, he was gone.

Behind him, Ranma remained unconscious, and the smoke from the resonator 
slowly faded.

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

*** Earth  +1.612,+1.509

Genma opened his eyes, finding himself half laying on the remnants of a 
park bench.  What the hell happened to me? he thought with a grimace, 
feeling painful bruises all over his body and a dribbling of blood from 
his face.  The answer suddenly came back to him.  Oh, yes.  That Kuonji 
girl is a menace.  He felt his scalp and his hand didn't come away 
bloody, so he was reasonably sure that he was not too badly hurt.

Genma looked at the digital clock on a nearby tower in the park.

It now read 10:51.

Genma had been in this life for over an hour, so something had gone 
grievously wrong.  As he clambered to his feet, his vision wobbled as he 
felt the aches from his beating at Ukyo's hands, and there was a slight 
sinking feeling in his stomach.  He had to get back home.  The question 
was, how?  Knowing panic would do no good, he decided to find a nice, 
quiet place to think and plan.  If Ranma couldn't bring him back, then 
this life, with all of its many mistakes, would become his.  It was not 
a comforting thought.

Wishing that the world would stop wavering, Genma stumbled off in the 
direction of the Tendo Dojo.

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

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

Ranma groaned from the severe ache in his jaw as he blinked an eye open.  
He found himself staring at a cockroach, eye to compound eye.  It 
scurried away as he jerked up off of the floor in surprise, and the 
quick motion made his vision swim for a moment.  It steadied down 
immediately, and he took in several sights at once.

The door to his lab now stood wide open.

The resonator showed a last few wisps of smoke still coiling up from the 
case.

His father was gone, or at least the man he thought was his father.  
Ranma suddenly wasn't sure.

Stumbling to his feet, Ranma quickly checked the corridor to see if 
anyone was still there, but the hallway stood empty.  After checking the 
outside of the building and finding no signs of his father anywhere, 
Ranma returned to his laboratory.

"This is bad," muttered Ranma.  "This is very bad."

Ranma glared at the resonator as he slumped down on the couch.  Unsure 
as to what he should do next, he checked his equipment, looking for the 
fault.  He quickly found the problem, yet the answer left him feeling 
even more depressed.  The main capacitor had blown.  In fact, it blew 
during the exact moment of retrieval initiation.  In the process, it had 
scrambled his father's mind somehow.

Or had it?

Ranma wasn't sure why he suddenly had that thought, but it refused to 
leave him alone.  His mind very quickly ran through the probability 
calculations and power feedback computations and kept coming up with 
almost the same answers each and every time.  It was very possible that 
his father's mind wasn't scrambled.  If that was true, then something 
far worse might have happened.

His father might not be the man he appeared to be any longer.

There was a way to determine the truth, but he was extremely loathe to 
attempt it because it meant that he would have to use the untrustworthy 
machine again.  Eyeing the resonator, he pulled a replacement capacitor 
from his supplies and began installing it.  This is one of the stupidest 
ideas that I have ever had, he castigated himself.  But I have to know 
for sure.  I have to find the other Genma and make sure.

He ran through every one of the circuits, strangely unsurprised to find 
that everything else checked out fine.  The capacitor discharge had done 
absolutely no damage to any of the other circuits, not a single one.  He 
checked the circuits for a second time, very carefully, and then closed 
the case up.

"If I'm right, then what am I going to tell my mother?" Ranma asked the 
empty air.  When no answer was forthcoming, he sighed and began setting 
up for the test.  He programmed the machine for an hour, hoping that it 
was enough time to make sure that what he now feared had happened, 
hadn't.  He lay back on the couch with a faint groan and hoped that his 
instincts were right about this.  Unfortunately, they were all he had.  
He settled the headset onto his skull and waited.

"Initiating upload cycle," said the computer voice.

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

*** Earth  +1.612,+1.509

As Ranma became aware of his surroundings once again, he saw a brick 
wall seemingly careening towards him.  Reflexively holding his arms in 
front of himself, he impacted the wall with the realization that it 
wasn't moving but that instead he was on roller skates.  Stunned by the 
impact, he heard the brickwork crack in a hairline pattern around his 
body as he stood spread-eagled against it, his face planted into it.  As 
it gave way beneath him, he fell in a heap to the ground.

"Ow," muttered Ranma, already feeling that this was not a very good 
beginning to his reconnaissance efforts.  He slumped down, shaking his 
head, as he heard someone come skating up behind him.

"Ranma, you okay?" asked a concerned-sounding female voice.  It was very 
familiar, yet his brain's current state of confusion barely left him 
able to remember his own name.  So he could not quite place it.

His host's instincts guiding him, Ranma sprang to his feet in a macho 
gesture of bravado.  Smiling with bemusement, he amazed himself that he 
stayed there.  Spinning around, he saw Shampoo standing behind him.  He 
blinked his eyes, unsure what to make of this situation.  Are we on a 
date? he wondered.  Why am I skating with Shampoo?

"Ranma?" asked Shampoo again, concern for him on her face.

"Uh, I'm fine," said Ranma, smiling to reassure her.  He was still 
waiting for his new memories to kick in and clue him in as to what the 
situation was in this particular timeline.  He relied on the natural 
balance that this body had as he glided back away from the wall that he 
had come very close to becoming one with, especially at the speed that 
he had impacted into it.

"Ranma scared Shampoo when you hit the wall going so fast," said the 
purple-haired Amazon.  "You showing off again?"

"I just got distracted by something," said Ranma.  He eyed the clock on 
a building nearby and saw that it was after noon.  He turned back to 
face the Amazon.  "It's lunchtime."  He was rewarded with Shampoo 
looking at him with an amused smile, so he was apparently acting in 
normal character for his counterpart.  He just acted much as the other 
Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist Ranma would; he imagined that it was the 
same as this Ranma was.

At that moment, Ranma's new memories finally leaped up and grabbed him 
by the throat, leaving him appearing dazed for a moment or two.  With an 
ease born of a growing familiarity with the phenomenon, his mind quickly 
sorted through the chaotic blizzard of images and memories to pick out 
all of the most important points.  One of the things that he noticed 
immediately was that, in this particular timeline, things had gone 
almost identically to his other counterpart up until the training at 
Jusenkyo, and then things had taken a radical turn.

Shampoo had been dueling with Mousse over the cursed pools when he and 
his father had arrived at Jusenkyo valley.  Instead of Genma knocking 
him into a pool, he had accidentally collided with Shampoo, both of them 
leaping backwards for the same pole, neither of them seeing the other, 
and they had both fallen into two separate springs.  Shampoo had landed 
in Nannichuan, the Spring of Drowned Man, and he had once again fallen 
into Nyannichuan, the Spring of Drowned Girl.  Mousse, not that it 
really mattered to Ranma in the slightest way, had ended up getting 
knocked into Shonmaoniichuan, the Spring of Drowned Panda, instead of 
his father, who had managed to escape uncursed in this version of 
events.

In this life, Shampoo had accompanied him back to Japan, unable to 
return to her people due to the nature of her curse.  The vagabond trio 
had arrived at the Tendo Dojo, and Shampoo was mistaken as being Ranma, 
both of them being in their cursed forms at the time.  For a brief 
period, Shampoo was engaged to Kasumi, but then things had been 
explained and this Ranma was engaged to Akane.  The poor bastard, he 
thought as he examined that sequence in this particular version of the 
comedy of errors.  Here, Shampoo was a good friend, and maybe even a 
little more than that.  She was certainly the one girl he knew longest 
and trusted the most, which was a strangely comforting thought.

However, he had to find his father now, and he only had a limited amount 
of time to do it in before retrieval kicked in.  If that happened, then 
he would have to come back again, but that also increased the risk of 
something bad happening.  The worst case scenario might be him switching 
places with the Ranma of this life, if what he feared had happened to 
his father turned out to be true.  With that thought in mind, Ranma 
skated over towards the exit to the park, Shampoo following along behind 
him.

"Sorry to cut this short like that, Shampoo," said Ranma, briefly 
skating backwards.  She gave him a friendly smile, and he smiled in 
return.

"It all right, Ranma.  Shampoo no mind."

"We'll just have to go skating again soon," said Ranma.  "After all, 
there's nothing better than spending time with a cute girl."  That last 
just sort of slipped out, and he saw Shampoo blush.  

"R-Ranma think Shampoo cute?" said the Amazon softly, looking a bit 
surprised.

"Sure, Shampoo," answered Ranma absently, his thoughts more on the 
problem of locating Genma than the presence of the girl next to him.  "I 
think you're very cute.  Beautiful even."  He ran through the possible 
places in his mind.  Now where would my father go if he thought he was 
trapped?  The Tendo Dojo?  Well, it is the most likely place.

The Amazon got an astonished look on her face, but it was quickly 
replaced by a warm smile.  She felt giddy and bubbly inside, like she 
had just been carbonated or something.  She hurriedly followed Ranma's 
example and took off her skates.  Tonight, she would go to Kasumi and 
ask to make everyone's lunches for tomorrow.  That way, she could help 
Kasumi and at the same time make a very special lunch to show Ranma
how much she appreciated his compliments.

The pair headed off from the skating park, and Shampoo took hold of 
Ranma's arm as they walked.  He smiled at her and patted the hand on his 
arm.  He liked the feeling of having her at his side and was not really 
considering how things might look to others.  Arm-in-arm, they began 
walking back to the Tendo Dojo.  Unfortunately, Akane found them before 
they arrived at their destination.

Akane saw the two walking down the street in front of her, both of them 
looking happy.  She had been searching for them for quite some time, and 
her mood had deteriorated in that time.  She wanted their help to rescue 
a kidnapped Minami, taken by Mousse that morning, who had confused the 
ghost sweeper for Akane.  If that was not bad enough, he had then 
proceeded to mistake the horrible-looking statue in the middle of Nerima 
for her as well, which only made Akane all the more irritable.  Now that 
her hours long search had finally turned up the missing duo, she found 
them walking arm-in-arm, looking like they were a couple or something.  
What did Ranma think he was doing?

Ranma was still thinking over the problem of how to correct the 
situation with his father, both he and Shampoo carrying their roller 
skates slung over their backs.   He was not even paying particular 
attention to the fact that he had the young Amazon's arm linked with 
his.  However, suddenly sensing danger, he glanced up and saw Akane, and 
she was clearly in one of her "This is all Ranma's fault" moods.

"Ranma," snarled Akane, noting that he was making no efforts to withdraw 
his arm from Shampoo's hold.  She narrowed her eyes at the sight, a dim 
blue glow beginning to burn around her.  "What were you two doing roller 
skating?"

Great, thought Ranma sarcastically, frowning.  She's angry with me.  
Seems just like back home.  He sighed mentally as he thought, I don't 
have time to deal with this.  He looked at Shampoo, finding that to be a 
much more pleasant sight than a fuming Akane.  He saw the Amazon looking 
back at him, an unspoken communication passing between them, and then he 
turned back to face Akane, the words just seeming to flow from his 
mouth.  He made no efforts to correct the grammar, just letting the 
personality of the Ranma of this timeline temporarily guide his actions.

"Well, after that little brawl with 'The Golden Pair', Shampoo and I 
discovered we liked skating.  It ain't no big deal.  Why you gettin' 
mad?"  He looked Akane squarely in the eyes, leaving his arm linked with 
Shampoo's.  With the much bigger problem of his father facing him, 
appeasing an alternate quantum Akane was not a priority.  Even if it 
was, he had no desire to try.

"I am not angry!" shouted Akane, but neither Ranma nor Shampoo bought it 
since she was still glowing a dull blue.

"Whatever," said Ranma, shrugging his shoulders.  "Come on, Shampoo.  
Let's go.  I wanna get back home."  He walked past an astonished Akane 
leading Shampoo, tugging on her arm.  He let his mind drift back to 
examining the power surge problem, wondering what might have caused it.  
Akane and whatever she wanted from him were already forgotten issues.

Blinking for a moment at being disregarded so casually, Akane felt her 
fury grow.  The fact that Ranma was still walking arm in arm with the 
Amazon was not lost on her either.  Her anger increased as she ran to 
catch up with the departing Ranma.

"Don't ignore me!" growled Akane at Ranma.  "I need your stupid help to 
rescue Minami, since it's all your fault that she was kidnapped in the 
first place!"  She saw him stand there for a moment before turning 
around to look back at her, releasing Shampoo's arm in the process.  
Akane ignored the glare that Shampoo leveled at her.

"How is that my fault?" asked Ranma coolly.  Every moment that he wasted 
in this little exchange was one moment less that he was able to devote 
to the problem facing him.  He waited for Akane to answer.

"Well, it was that stupid Chinese guy, Mousse, who did it," snapped 
Akane.  "He probably wants revenge on you is my guess."  She folded her 
arms and glared at him.  Not that I care if anything happens to you, you 
flirting jerk! she thought, intensifying her glare.  To her surprise, 
Ranma broke eye contact with a last, neutral look and headed back down 
the street.

"Then I guess we'll have to plan a rescue," said Ranma.  To show his 
displeasure with Akane's general attitude, he purposely offered his arm 
to a bewildered Shampoo.  He smiled at her when she took it.  "Let's go 
back home first though.  There's something I need to do first."  Without 
another word, or a single glance backwards to see if she was following, 
Ranma walked away from an astonished Akane.

"Why Ranma do that?" asked Shampoo, both confused at his actions and yet 
feeling happy to walk with him like this as well.  She looked back at a 
still stunned Akane, no longer glowing blue.

"<Because it was worth it to imagine the look on her face,>" said Ranma 
in only slightly accented Mandarin.  A frown briefly crossed his 
features.  That was stupid, he chastised himself.  Why do I keep showing 
off like that?  Oh well, I have to think of a cover story now.  Maybe I 
can fool her.

"<When did you learn how to speak Chinese?"> asked an even more 
bewildered Shampoo.  She felt a little irritated with him hiding such a 
thing from her, knowing how poor her own ability with Japanese still 
was.  However, the thrill of walking arm-in-arm with Ranma was too great 
to let that damper her spirits.  Walking with him like this, she felt as 
if they were on a real date.  She was too happy to be angry with him, so 
she decided to hold back her irritation at his unexpected language 
skills until later.

"<Try to learn something about everything and everything about 
something,>" replied Ranma with an enigmatic smile.

"<You quote Sun Tzu too?>" said Shampoo with puzzlement in her voice.  
Her great-grandmother had made her learn the lore of war from many 
sources, martial arts being only one of them.  She saw Ranma's smile 
turn into one of his more playful grins.

"<Did ya think I was just some dumb jock martial artist?>" asked Ranma, 
a twinkle in his eye.  "<This is our little secret, okay?  If you tell 
anyone, I'll pretend ignorance.>"  He patted her hand on his arm once 
more.  There, he thought with a smirk, that should cover up my little 
blunder, and make my counterpart seem to have a bit more to him than 
meets the eye.

Shampoo was more bewildered than ever now.  She was surprised to see 
Ranma showing off a deeper learning than she suspected that he 
possessed, but it was a pleasant surprise.  She snuggled a bit against 
his arm, acting on a sudden whim.  When Ranma did not react in any sort 
of a negative way, she assumed that he approved of her actions.

Behind the pair, Akane trudged along.  The angry glare she directed 
towards the pair had intensified since Ranma had dismissed her.  An 
uncomfortable feeling washed over her as she watched the two.  It was 
dejection over being rejected for another, that she was not able to hold 
onto Ranma's arm like a certain Amazon was doing.  That fueled her anger 
and kept it burning at a moderate level.  After they rescued Minami, she 
planned to show him her displeasure with his actions.  If anyone had 
suggested that she was showing signs of jealousy at this point, she 
would have denied it vehemently.

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

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

Inside Ranma's lab, next to his comatose form, the video monitor 
flickered when the power suddenly died.  The fluorescent lights went 
dark, and the room was now lit only by the dim light of the computer 
monitor.  The screen cleared suddenly.

*MAIN POWER FAILURE.  INITIATING EMERGENCY RETRIEVAL...

*RETRIEVAL ATTEMPT FAILED.

*ALERT!  PRIMARY CAPACITOR LACKING SUFFICIENT CHARGE FOR RETRIEVAL.

*SWITCH TO EMERGENCY FUEL CELL BACKUPS HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL.

*SIGNATURE LOCK MAINTAINED ON TEST SUBJECT.

*FUEL CELLS CURRENT POWER OUTPUT INSUFFICIENT TO ACTIVATE RETRIEVAL.

*CAPACITOR TRICKLE CHARGER ACTIVATED.

*TIME REMAINING FOR SUFFICIENT CHARGE:  09 HOURS, 59 MINUTES.

*POWER FAILURE NOTED IN SYSTEM LOG.

*POWERING DOWN MONITOR TO CONSERVE ENERGY.

The screen went dark for a time, but, several minutes later, the monitor 
blinked back on with a new message.

*ALERT!  ENERGY SURGE IN QUANTUM FLUX COIL NOW PASSING DESIGNATED 
*BORDERLINE.  NOTING ALERT IN SYSTEM LOG.

*FILE CORRUPTION IN MAIN SOFTWARE MODULE DETECTED.  SWITCHING TO BACKUP.

*POWER LEVELS +5.12% OVER BASELINE.  DURATION OF SURGE:  2.13 SECONDS.

*ATTEMPT TO ACTIVATE EMERGENCY RETRIEVAL... FAILED.

*TIME REMAINING FOR SUFFICIENT CHARGE:  09 HOURS, 27 MINUTES.

*POWERING DOWN MONITOR TO CONSERVE ENERGY.

The screen went dark one more time.

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

*** Earth  +1.612,+1.509

The trio entered the house and immediately felt that something was 
wrong.  Ranma and Shampoo left their skates by the front door along with 
their shoes.  Ranma was feeling a little disappointed and also worried 
that his father wasn't there.  After a disturbing lack of replies to 
their shouts that they were home, they began a search of the house. 
Shortly after it had begun, a much battered-looking Genma entered the 
house.  Shampoo noticed him first.

"What happen, Pop?"

Genma blinked at the sight of the trio that quickly surrounded him.  It 
was still strange being called "Pop", but his memories were allowing him 
to adjust.  Thinking quickly for a moment, he decided that for now he 
would answer as his counterpart would have, "Oh, I'm just suffering a 
little bit from a bludgeoning by a spatula-wielding maniac."

Ranma blinked as he noticed the much beaten upon condition of his 
father, if this was his father.  He still wasn't sure.  He was down to 
less than half an hour until retrieval occurred for him, and the sight 
of the elder Saotome was a welcome relief.  The pigtailed scholar, now 
turned martial artist, had been afraid that he wouldn't find him before 
his hour was up.  He restrained a sudden urge filling him, to hit the 
older man for his comments, and he was surprised that he felt so 
strongly about the remarks about Ukyo.  Swallowing the initial impulsive 
words, he began to speak more calmly, tempering his speech a little.

"Don't call Ucchan a maniac, Pop," he said with a little irritation, 
studying the fat martial artist's eyes for any trace of the other Genma.  
"You hurt her pretty bad, and I still haven't forgiven you for stabbing 
her in the back like that.  I'm just lucky she realizes I didn't know 
what was goin' on and forgives me."  When he saw the older man wince at 
the words alone, he relaxed a little bit.  Time to put my theory to the 
test, he thought.

"<Can you understand me, Father?>" Ranma said in Russian, and this 
prompted some mixed reactions in the people around him.  He saw Genma 
suddenly look surprised.  Behind Ranma, the two girls looked at the 
pigtailed boy with puzzlement, both of them unsure what to make out of 
the unknown language that he was speaking.

"<Son?  Is that you?>" said Genma, his Russian quite a bit more heavily 
accented than Ranma's, but still quite understandable.  "<Did something 
go wrong with the experiment?>"

Ranma almost cried with relief at the words, but his pride refused to 
let him show such weakness.  He nodded, stepped closer to his father, 
and said, "<I'm afraid so, Pop.  There was some sort of a power surge 
when the main capacitor blew during the retrieval sequence.  'You' woke 
up and knocked me out with a blow from your fist.  When I came to a 
little while ago, 'you' were gone.  Based on what happened, there was a 
strong probability that either a severe imprinting of memories or even a 
total switch in personalities might have occurred, but I had to make 
sure.  So I took a gamble and transited to this reality after fixing my 
device, to check.  I am so glad that I found you.  Now I just have to 
figure out how to fix it.>"

"Ranma?" interrupted Shampoo, stepping near him.  "What you and Pop 
talking about?  Shampoo no understand words.  What you say?"

"Oh, uh, it's nothing for you to worry about, Shampoo," said Ranma in a 
nervous tone.

"Well, I think it's just plain rude to speak in a foreign language like 
that when there are other people in the room," huffed Akane, still 
feeling angry over Ranma's recent actions.  Not only had he been 
blatantly flirting with Shampoo right in front of her, but he didn't 
even have the decency to act repentant about it.

"I don't recall asking you for your opinion on the matter, Akane," said 
Ranma stiffly.  He turned back to face his father, and a small end table 
collided hard with the back of his head.  He fell to the ground, 
stunned.

"Jerk!" muttered Akane, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the 
prone form of her fiancé.  That casual dismissal, combined with his 
previous treatment of her and the stress of having her family abducted, 
was the final straw.  Ranma had no right to act that way.  She ignored 
the glare Shampoo shot her through long practice.

Genma frowned deeply for a moment at the sight of the violence done so 
casually to Ranma.  He turned a cool gaze to study Akane, his hand 
adjusting his glasses slightly as memories of previous violence done to 
Ranma at her hands now surfaced in his mind, and extreme shame at his 
counterpart's inaction accompanied them.  Especially since he seemed to 
think there was nothing wrong with it, instead blaming Ranma for not 
treating Akane right.  They had been a frequent occurrence since the 
three of them had arrived at the Tendo household.  The girl has no 
restraint at all for her anger, thought Genma with annoyance.  He bent 
down to check on Ranma and was relieved to see that his son was already 
shaking off the blow.  He stood back up and studied the fuming Akane 
idly.

Ranma levered himself up off the floor, a cold anger filling him at the 
attack that blindsided him, courtesy of one Akane Tendo.  Ranma was 
really tempted to knock Akane on her rear end for that cheap shot, but 
he also did not wish to disturb things for his counterpart more than he 
needed to.  Still, he was not going to let himself be a punching bag 
while he was in this body either.  That was your only free shot against 
me, Akane, he thought.  He rose to his feet slowly, noting her watching 
him with an angry gaze.  He stood up to his full height, his eyes like 
chips of ice, a chill in them that even dimmed Akane's level of fury a 
bit.  Even Shampoo was somewhat taken aback at Ranma's reaction.  He 
started to head over towards her when a hand fell on his shoulder, and 
he turned to see his father slowly shaking his head.

"<This is not the time for that, Ranma,>" said Genma calmly in his 
accented Russian, but a note of sympathy was in his voice.  "<There are 
more important things to deal with.>"  He removed his hand from Ranma's 
shoulder, smiling gently at seeing the anger ebbing from his son's body.

"<Very well, Father,>" said Ranma.  He rubbed the sore spot on the back 
of his neck and glared coldly at Akane.  His eyes caught sight of a note 
on the floor, and he picked it up and scanned it quickly.  He cocked his 
head slightly to one side in amazement and read it quickly a second 
time.

The note was relatively simple.  It read, "Dear Ranma and Akane.  Kasumi 
and Nabiki have been kidnapped.  Do not call the police.  Bring Shampoo 
and come to 'The Black Rose's Floral Shoppe.'  If these demands are not 
met, something terribly not nice will happen to them.  Bring three 
thousand yen for the ransom.  Love, Kasumi."

"Huh?" Ranma blurted out, a puzzled look on his face.

Akane became concerned and asked, "What is it?

"It says your family has been kidnapped by..." said Ranma, an amused 
look appearing on his face as he concluded, "...Kasumi."

"What are you talking about?"

Ranma read it over again, the vaguely amused look remaining on his face 
as he said, "Well, it appears to be a ransom note, but it's also signed 
'Love, Kasumi.'"  He handed Akane the note and watched her read through 
it.
 
"Those jerks!" Akane cried out.  "They must have made Kasumi write the 
note.  When I get my hands on them..." her threat trailed off as she 
clenched her fist and started glowing bright blue.

Wonderful, thought Ranma wryly, grateful that silly things like this 
didn't happen to him in his real life.  A kidnapping intended to force 
my counterpart into a challenge, pretty obviously.  Looks like somebody 
is going to get a very big surprise.  He found himself actually looking 
forward to dealing with this little problem.  It would allow him an 
excellent opportunity to work off some of his frustrations by pounding 
on the kidnappers a little bit, since he still had no answer to the 
bigger problem facing him.

"You know what this means?" Ranma asked suddenly, looking his 
compatriots over.

Genma stared him in the eye, surprise evident on his face as he could 
somehow tell what Ranma had in mind and said, "You're not seriously 
going to go along with this farce, are you?"

Akane and Shampoo hit Genma.

"No!  We go rescue Kasumi, Mr. Tendo, and Stupid Mercenary Girl," 
Shampoo corrected him, and she would have added another blow for good 
measure but her hand was held back by a frowning Ranma solidly gripping 
her forearm.  He quickly released it when she ceased trying to hit 
Genma.

Akane wasn't going to let the reference to her older sister pass and 
shouted at Shampoo, "Don't call Nabiki stupid!"

"She not responsible for you get attacked everyday by girls that try get 
date with you.  Shampoo call Mercenary Girl whatever she want!"

Ranma, not wanting to waste time with needless argument between the two 
girls, decided to step in and play peacemaker.  He addressed them both 
seriously, "Look, why don't we rescue them first, then you two can 
argue."  With a slight smirk on his face, an image of the Nabiki from 
his own world briefly appeared in his mind as he then addressed Shampoo 
directly, "Besides, Stupid Extortionist Girl is a much more accurate 
description than Stupid Mercenary Girl."

"Ranma, you jerk!" shouted Akane.  She had specifically said not to call 
Nabiki stupid, but Ranma had dismissed her once again by doing exactly 
what she had said not to do.  She quickly hefted another heavy object 
and swung it at him, but the blow never connected.

That's it, raced the thought through Ranma's mind as he noticed the 
aggressive move out of the corner of his eye.  I am tired of being her 
personal punching bag.

Ranma pivoted on one foot, and he knocked the weapon from her hands with 
a well-placed kick.  He followed up the disarm with a precise strike to 
one of Akane's undefended nerve clusters, and she sank to her knees when 
the strength gave out in her legs for a few moments.

Shampoo stood there in a state of complete surprise.  Ranma was acting 
differently for some reason.  She was secretly a little pleased to see 
him standing up for himself like that though.

Akane blinked at the numbness that was already fading from her legs, and 
she was doubly shocked when Ranma hauled her back up to her feet with 
his hand tightly gripping the front of her outfit.  Wh-what just 
happened? she thought, bewildered.

"I have had enough of you hitting me, Akane!" growled Ranma, his 
concerns for disturbing the life of his counterpart vanishing in the 
face of his anger at her abusiveness towards him.  For a brief moment, 
it was the Akane from his own life that he was speaking to, and his 
anger surged even greater.  But he quickly forced himself to calm down, 
and his voice calmed as well.  "Try to hit me just one more time, and 
I'll knock you unconscious before you can even get close to touching me.  
Do you understand me?"  His eyes were cold as he stared into Akane's 
shocked gaze.

"L-let go of me, Ranma," growled Akane, her voice firming as her 
astonishment faded.  The numbness had almost completely faded from her 
legs already.  "I'm warning you..." her growl at him faded off when 
Ranma pulled her in close, a look in his eyes that she had never seen 
before stealing her voice.

"Don't ever try and hit me again," said Ranma coldly and simply.

"Son," said Genma, uncertain if he should interfere, but feeling the 
need to say something before this got too far out of hand.  He relaxed 
as he saw Ranma release his grip on Akane and stand back, but the cold 
look remained in the boy's eyes.

"Ranma?" asked Shampoo, greatly surprised at the sudden change in him.  
She saw him look at her and was relieved when the hard look faded from 
his gaze.  She glanced at Akane, who seemed reluctant to begin 
hostilities again.

"I'm all right, Shampoo," said Ranma, smiling at her.  "We should be 
thinking up a plan to rescue the others."  He paused and thought for a 
moment.  "I think I have an idea or two, but I want to get a look at the 
area first.  Now, let's go."  He headed for the door, and the others 
followed his lead.  I don't have much time to stay in control of this 
situation, he thought, a little worriedly, as the four companions set 
off for the Black Rose's Floral Shoppe.

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

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

Genma signaled the waitress for another bottle of sake, his hand pulling 
out his wallet once again.  It was still fairly full, a welcome sight to 
his eyes.  The bar that he had finally found himself in was a dimly-lit 
establishment that appealed to his needs at the time.  It was a welcome 
port in a storm of confusion, a familiar sight that was much needed.  He 
had thought he was in some weird hell at first, confused by a city that 
he did not recognize and assailed by the memories of a stranger who wore 
his face.

After a bottle of sake had gone down his throat, paid for by some of the 
money in the fat wallet that he found on himself, he had calmed down 
enough to deal with things a little better.  The new memories had 
settled down into his awareness, and he had spent most of the last few 
hours doing something almost all would have thought to be extremely 
uncharacteristic of him, thinking.  A smile lit his face as he thanked 
the kami once again for the unexpected blessing that he had been given, 
all of his past actions wiped away.  It was a very good day to be Genma 
Saotome.

This is a wonderful life, thought Genma, letting the girl pour him more 
sake into his cup until it was almost filled to the brim.  He waved her 
away and downed the cup, spilling only a few drops, enjoying the feeling 
of the burning sensation running down his throat.  He was well on his 
way to becoming drunk, and he was happy.  However, instead of dulling 
his mind, the alcohol was simply giving everything a rather pleasant 
haze.  He let his thoughts drift.

In this life, he was Professor Genma Saotome, a respected member of the 
Ministry of Science and one of the undisputed experts on the planet in 
the fields of Cosmology and Ontology (words that, for the first time in 
his life, he could now understand), and a pioneer in the theory of 
quantum mechanics applied to the possibility of the existence of 
multiple worlds.  He had recently returned home from a ten-year long 
"training mission" with his son, Ranma, who had been educated at 
Ministry expense at the finest institutes of learning around the globe, 
in dozens of areas of scholarly study.  That is all well and good, Genma 
supposed, but the boy spent no time studying what was truly important in 
life.

Martial arts.

However, recently the boy had created a device that let him visit the 
worlds of alternate timelines, what this Genma called tangents, and from 
one of those he had absorbed knowledge of the Anything-Goes School that 
seemed to equal that of the son he had left behind.  Apparently, they 
were somehow imprinted into this Ranma from his counterpart.  The 
memories of the boy's performance that morning surfaced in his mind, and 
they made it abundantly clear of that.  The movements were clearly those 
of Anything-Goes style, but his 'son' here was not quite as highly 
conditioned as his own son was.  But this one doesn't turn into a girl 
either, he thought, swallowing another cup of sake with glee.  He was 
very confident that he could train this Ranma to be a true heir to the 
School, especially when he suddenly remembered what had been done to the 
boy while he was a child through Project Adam.

Plans began to fill Genma's mind to take full advantage of his new life, 
and chief among them he would forge this Ranma into the ultimate martial 
artist.  When he thought about it, this boy was as much his son as the 
one he had left behind, at least in the ways that mattered.  Perhaps he 
had not raised him, but this 'new' son was similar to the old.  Both 
were children born of Genma and Nodoka Saotome, so they were essentially 
the same.  Already, thoughts of ever returning to his home across time 
were forgotten, but he would miss Soun a little.

Here's to the new Genma Saotome, he thought, raising his cup of sake up 
with a smile.  May his new life be a very long and prosperous one.  He 
swallowed the liquid in the cup and sighed contentedly.

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

The cellular phone buzzed as Soun walked towards his office to deal with 
some minor paperwork before returning home.  He pulled it out of his 
jacket pocket and flipped it open.

"Tendo here."

"Sir?" said a male voice on the other end.  "This is Hikashi.  I think 
there is something going on that you should know about."

"Tell me."

Soun stopped in the hallway and listened to the voice speaking on the 
other end of the phone, nodding as a cold smile blossomed on his face.  
When the report he was receiving was over, he quickly snapped the phone 
closed and replaced it back in his jacket pocket.  He turned from the 
direction he had been walking and immediately headed to the garage area 
to requisition a car and a driver.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Special thanks goes out to D.B. Sommer for his kind permission to borrow 
from "Shampoo 1/2" for Earth  +1.612,+1.509 (Ranma 1/2 cluster).  For 
the original way that events played out on that alternate world, this 
took place in chapter nine of that story.  The switch in Genma's that 
has taken place has caused a crux event, splitting off a new tangent 
with a new destiny that will play out differently from the path of the 
original timeline.


Thanks to my pre-readers for all of their help and advice:

Michael Allen
Jim Bader
Donny Cheng
David Eddy
Doug_W
D.B. Sommer
T.H. Tiger