3/7

The second set looked at first like school books about human anatomy but there were others that had title which caused Ranma, with his slowly growing knowledge of this area of the human condition, to blush. "'Romance and You, the Do's and Don't of Dating', 'It's Perfectly Normal', 'How babies are made'? Umm…."

It was the last group of books however that caused Ranma's face to turn red. Though, he was astonished to note, that didn't take all of his bodies blood since his lower portion was still demanding most of it. These were indeed graphic novels, but of the adult kind. Some of them almost reminded Ranma of a few similar books that Ranma had seen Hiroshi and Daisuke bring to school, but they had never interested him before.

Now it was all he could do to tear his eyes away from the images. There was one of some older woman wearing only an apron, another was a school girl sucking on an ice cream bar, and then there was some girl his age in an extremely loose kimono wielding a blade. A few others showed images of various characters from different animes he had seen in situations that they would never be put in in the original.

He looked at the three small piles then muttered hesitantly, "Um, I suppose I should, um, kind of switch off maybe?" Messing up the books in a large pile, Ranma then closed his eyes and waved his finger over the pile, picking out the first book. Opening his eyes, he found he had picked up the 'It's Perfectly Normal' textbook. "Ugh, well, um, I suppose it would help, even if it looks boring…"

For the next hour or so Ranma worked his way through the book, with his own face showing his growing disgust and some interest as well. After the first chapter he took a break, checking out the graphic novel with the kimono-clad girl on it. After about twenty pages he threw it into the wall followed by a Moko Takabashi which incinerated it. "Gah, okay, I might not know what I like, but I sure as hell know what I don't! Blech!"

Throughout the night, Ranma did this, reading the book slowly and then switching to a manga after every chapter. At one point he hesitantly changed form into his female body, and was utterly astonished at how responsive his breasts became, though he was a little too leery to try anything below the belt.

It still felt amazing and Ranma spent an interminable amount of time playing with himself and figuring out what he liked and what he didn't, reaching what he had learned was called 'the clouds and rain' several times, before changing back and doing the same with his penis, or what the mangas called his dick.

But Ranma was surprised to note that when he 'came' as the mangas called it in his male body, it felt more intense than in his female form. Though the sensation didn't go on for as long, and didn't have those little aftershocks he felt when in his female body.

In male form he had far less of what the book called erogenous zones. His breasts and nipples were just there, which was really weird to Ranma, why would one form be so much more sensitive than the other? He found the answer to that out several chapters later, and the answer made him literally retch into one of the corners of the room thinking about Kuno or some of the other freaks out there that had hit on his female form doing that with him.

The thoughts about Kuno and the other assholes started the rage/grief cycle all over again, causing Ranma to back away from what he was doing and force himself into some of the most difficult katas in his repertoire to get his anger out. After that he was tired and ate something before falling asleep only to wake up a few hours later as dawn broke with drenched pants and sleeping bag again. Groaning he took some time to clean both his clothing and the bag before stuffing it back into his ki space, along with the rest of the food Tofu had left him. He hoped to be done this whole thing in the next few hours.

Once again Ranma spent some time reading through the book, surprising himself by actually understanding a lot of the things it talked on, and on how well he concentrated for so long on something that wasn't martial arts related. For some time he simply read the book rather than the mangas, having burned several of the doujinshis. The content of those disturbed him greatly. Then he switched off to Romance and You.

Several times he had to stop, dealing with spikes of anger and rage as he was forced to realize how badly they had all been screwing one another over. Yes, Akane was in the wrong going out with Ryoga and not telling anyone (and now with his heightened ability to concentrate on things, Ranma could actually think of a few moments which might have pointed to the fact, if anyone had noticed, least of all him) but Ranma had also been at fault with how he treated her.

With how I treated all of them, he thought morosely. Especially Akane and Ukyo. Shampoo'd be after me whatever she actually thought 'cause of those stupid laws of hers, but I shoulda never led Ukyo on like that. Akane was right about that damn it. But I wonder why nobody ever told me why name callin' and stuff like that wasn't good. They told me not ta do it, but never explained why! I mean, how was I supposed ta know? Genma always motivated me like that, hell name callin' was how he showed affection too!

Yet after what she had done to him, he couldn't find it in himself to really be sad about his not having treated Akane better. Especially since she sure as hell don't have the female equivalent o' the Imperial Favor point or the Youthful Mind point on her, or does she?

For a moment Ranma actually thought about that then shook his head, speaking aloud. "Nah, if she did, she wouldn't be datin' Pig-boy. She might be a bit repressed, and Kuno's crap might've made her paranoid, but that's still no excuse fer going behind my back." Ranma's teeth clenched at that and he hurriedly stood up, moving to go through one of his katas.

After that he went back to the book, blushing at parts and forced to relief some pressure a time or two despite his roiling feelings at the girls he had left behind in Nerima. Nabiki for some reason particularly made him have control issues. He could remember all too easily the number of times she had been doing leg exercises or something else in his presence, wearing those yoga pants of hers…

While Ranma, after reading the first few chapters of the second book knew it would never work between them, she was easily one of the sexier girls he'd meet. Shampoo and Kodachi, the other two girls that fell in that category, scared him more than they aroused him. Kodachi was just insane, and Shampoo, she had gone from hunting him down for several months in order to kill him to hunting him for marriage. While the change made sense to her, it sure as hell hadn't to him at the time, and while he understood it from her point of view now, it was still bizarre to him now more than a year later.

The sun was high in the sky by the time Ranma had finished all he wanted to read in that book. A lot of it he didn't care about, such as how to act in public, how girls should act with boys they like and shit like that, but some of it was actually really helpful. "Have to think about getting Doc some kind of present fer helping me with this stuff. It answered a lot more questions than I had when I showed up at his door."

Ranma sighed, then pulled out one of the bentos that Tofu had left for him, before going through another kata, still needing to deal with some of his anger, strangely enough fueled by the food. He remembered how the others had tried to poison him with Akane's food so many times despite knowing how bad it was. And he remembered how Kasumi would always make him and his father delicious food but never really helped him otherwise, even when it would help calm down the issues all around them.

He sighed sadly, realizing that he wasn't close to dealing with his emotional issues. He felt he was somewhat in control of the other thing, his libido, but the emotional thing was still getting him. Yet even his libido control or whatever might need some work as well before he trusted himself in public. It seemed to come on him suddenly so Ranma wasn't ready to leave the jail just yet.

That was unfortunate because the rest of the world was ready to force him to rejoin it. Ranma looked up in dismay as the walls all around the jail cell were blasted apart. In one of the holes stood his Genma, followed by Soun, Happosai and Nodoka, Ranma was dismayed to see. That group was high on the list of people who evoked the most feelings in him.

The other holes were actually a relief in some ways, not so much in others. In one of them stood the Amazons, all three of them. In another working together for now at least were Akane and Ryoga of all people. And in the last was the two Kunos having made two separate holes in the same wall.

"I'll have to thank you son-in-law, your self-control going out of whack as it did today allowed us to find you much quicker than I had anticipated even with Nabiki, narrowing down our search to this area of Kyoto. Your self-control is normally ironclad," Cologne cackled. "I wonder what happened to make you go out of control like that."

"Boy!" shouted Genma, "You've run long enough, it's time to return and marry Akane as honor demands!"

"Ranma!" bellowed Ryoga from the other broken wall with Akane next to him. "How dare you make Akane cry!"

"You will tell me where you have spirited my air pigtailed goddess foul sorcerer!" Said Kuno from where he had broken through a wall as well.

Ranma glared all around them then noticed Happosai staring at him in shock. The old master and the young prodigy stared at one another for a moment then Happy shook his head, moving back and away rapidly, leaving his two stupid apprentices to deal with this.

How the Grandmaster had figured out at least a little bit of what had happened to Ranma was beyond him at present, though given his skills in other areas it wasn't that surprising. What was surprising was that Cologne wasn't aware, but Ranma guessed that was simply because she wasn't using her ki sight or whatever her version of that technique was.

However Ranma put that minor mystery to the side for now, his lips peeling back in a grin that showed all his teeth. Without Happosai involved, this battle just became a lot easier especially since I'm in no mood to hold back!

"Assholes." Ranma said cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders. "You lot picked the wrong moment to mess with me. I'd suggest ya take yer boyfriend and leave Akane, unless you don't want yer secret boyfriend to actually be good for anythin' in that area for a few months."

While Ryoga blustered and moved forward angrily Akane was frozen in shock. "How did you … I mean I don't know what you're…"

"Oh don't bother," Ranma said laughing coldly as everyone else turned to stare at the two accused. Even the wanna-be-samurai stopped pontificating for a moment staring in shock at Akane and Ryoga. "I heard you and Nabiki talking Akane, about how you had to put off the wedding until you could figure out a way to not have to pay the ¥170.5 billion debt that that oyaji somehow built up?"

Now everyone was looking at Genma who blanched. "I-I don't know what you're…"

"Yeah, I know money matters go over your head oyaji. So how about the five families near Osaka that you sold me to, or apparently the two families in Korea? Do ya remember them? By Hachiman, you spout on and on about family honor. What family honor did you actually leave us!?" Ranma roared.

"Quiet boy!" Genma bellowed, getting back into form. "I did it all for you and for the Art, life is hard on the road!"

"The Art is the only thing you ever did right oyaji." Ranma said shaking his head and moving back slightly to the side, so he could keep all the possible combatants within his line of sight. "I'll admit you taught me to be better than anyone else, but after this is all over, ya'll should probably talk to about the pressure points he used on me and what they'd done long term."

That caused Cologne's eyes to widen, and Ranma could feel, (gods he could actually feel it, his ki sense was through the roof! WHY?) when she began to use her ki sight like Happosai might have had done before, though Ranma hadn't felt anything from him. Almost immediately Cologne backed away, her face pale. She was so shocked she almost fell off her staff.

Cologne opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say was overridden by Kuno's haughty bellow. "Your small minded monetary concerns are not mine! You will release your hold on the pigtailed girl and you, you foul cur," he said, now pointing at Ryoga. "You have shown your true colors at last, ensorcelling the most glorious Akane as the pig-tailed knave hast done before. Release her from thy clutches, or prepare to face the justice of heaven!" In his hand he held a real katana for once.

Next to him Kodachi scoffed laughing her mad cackle as she stood there in the leotard that, despite himself made Ranma stare for a moment, though he thankfully did not react physically, her cackle saw to that. "HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Brother dear, if you harm a hair on Ranma-sama's head, I will tie you up and feed you to Mr. Turtle! He's been looking peaky lately. As for your harlot, if Ranma-sama will agree to go out with me, I will deal with her as she should be dealt with, and the pigtailed girl as well should she show such stupidity as to show herself in front of me!"

Ranma's teeth ground together, irritation rising within him. Thankfully at that point Ryoga had enough and charged forward. "How dare you make those accusations Ranma, I'll kill you!"

"Bring it on Ryoga!" Ranma shouted back, leaping to meet him with a kick to the face that Ryoga only barely got his hands up in time to block. Even so the power of the kick threw him backwards. But Ryoga was a good enough martial artist to roll with it.

While fell backwards Ryoga's hands flashed from the front from guarding his face to the back of his head pulling off two of his bandannas. They quickly hardened it into weapons stronger than steel and he hurled them at Ranma.

But Ranma dodged them easily, smirking that arrogant grin that always irritated his opponents. "You're going to have to do better than that Piggy!"

"Ranma don't you dare pick on Ryoga!" Akane said getting over her shock at her and Ryoga's relationship being outed like this to charge forward, her mallet at the ready.

"I attack!" said Kuno, jumping forward with his own blade.

"Ranma, how dare you lead on Shampoo and get in the way of Akane and Ryoga's pure love!" Mousse shouted his hands suddenly full of knives.

"Aiyah, you come home with me now, airen, if kitchen destroyer and spatula girl not interested in you anymore, you and I now can live alone and no one be bothering us!" Shampoo said, entering the fight, though she aimed for Akane rather than moving after Ranma.

Genma grimly charged forward with his friend at his side. "You will come back and do the honorable thing boy!" He neglected to say what the honorable thing was in this case however. Despite not truly being able to control himself from reacting as he normally would, i.e. putting all the blame on Ranma, Genma had actually heard Ranma's accusation against Akane, and even more surprisingly he had seen the truth of them. But that wasn't enough to make him stop thinking about Ranma as his meal ticket.

Smirking Ranma dodged Akane's blow, jumping up to meet his father in midair. He batted his hands to either side before mule kicking the older man in the face using the momentum to springboard further into the air. Doing a role in midair Ranma blocked a throwing knife from Mousse then twirled, grabbing the end of the ribbonthat Kodachi had just shot at him for some reason, pulling it out of her hand easily.

Using the same technique that Ryoga had the ribbon quickly hardened into a long pole, which slammed into Mousse's head sending him sprawling to the ground. "If you want me to go back with you oyaji then you're going to have to take me by force!" he said, now standing on top of the ribbon/pole, balancing easily.

His mother had paused thoughtfully, staring at Akane coldly. When she spoke it was in a calm tone of voice as if the battle before her was simply background noise. "Obviously if Akane has chosen to cheat on my son in such a manner, then she is no longer in consideration to marry him. But the Tendo household has two other daughters, and certainly one of them might prove suitable. As for the other accusation, I would have to see proof of that before believing my husband could be so lacking in common sense and honor as to build up a debt of that size. Regardless Ranma, you will be coming home with us."

"I'm never returning to that place!" Ranma bellowed, punching out hard at the Kuno, catching him on the chin and smashing his head into the angle of one of Akane's mallet blows, which sent him flying through the ceiling of the increasingly abused jail. "Besides, I could never inflict my crazy life on Kasumi, as much as she coulda helped me I can't say I wouldn't've done the same if I wanted my life ta be normal. And as sexy as Nabiki is, she and I'd get on like oil and water!"

Ranma used Mousse's back as a springboard to leap over Shampoo who had turned to attack him when he said that. "Silly Airen not talk about other womens like that in front of Amazon wife!"

He landed directly behind her, grabbing her around the waist for a second and whispering in her ear. "Sorry Shampoo, you might've had a chance with me before if I hadn't had those pressure points on me, but there's been too much bad blood and too much damn magic between us."

Feeling daring and still riding the high of having his emotions and feelings and above all his released libido at that moment, he reached down and smacked her on the ass, causing her to squeak a little in a very un-Amazon manner before he leaped away from Mousse's enraged assault. He absently noted that the boy had actually thrown the kitchen sink at him that time. Oh, and several kitchen knives. "Did you ransack someone's kitchen Mousse?"

"How dare you treat Shampoo so?!"

Shampoo for her part seemed to be caught between outrage, some other emotion that Ranma had never seen on her face, and amusement. However she turned, twirling her maces meaningfully. "If Airen want touch Shampoo's rear, all need do is ask, but must take on date first!"

Ranma laughed, euphoric. Not about smacking Shampoo's ass, though the feel of it on his palm was something he knew he'd remember. No what was making him laugh was the fact that he was taking all of his opponents on, every one of his normal sparring partners, friends, enemies whatever the term really was for their dysfunctional group, in neutral! It was so easy! Those pressure points might've helped me learn when I was younger, but it's obvious they were holding me back now!

He knew he wasn't really in his right mind just yet. He hadn't had the time to really get to grips with his emotions completely, simply get them under control a bit, he knew there was a difference in the two. And whenever he looked over at Akane his grief and rage came back, though the rage was slowly receding into simply a dead sort of sadness coupled with a dark humor.

"My son," said his mother in a loud voice to carry over the din of battle. "It isn't very manly to ignore your mother!"

To everyone else there it was as if Ranma suddenly teleported in front of her. His eyes were still red-rimmed from his emotional roller coaster. Indeed, tears were still streaking down his face despite the manic snarl on his face while he confronted one of the people in his life he was most enraged at and feeling betrayed by. "Really? Then exactly, in a single sentence or less, explain what 'manly' is supposed to be! It seems ta change every day with whoever the hell you're talking to and your moods save for the perverted crap that makes it sound like your idea of manly is like a fucking hentai tentacle demon!"

"None of that!" His mother said, making the same mistake that her husband had in falling back into old routines. "I am your mother, you will obey me!"

"That sounds more like I'm supposed to be your slave rather than your son!" Ranma bellowed into her face, then back flipped up into the air to avoid Ryoga's furious charge, watching with a laugh as Ryoga slammed into his mother.

Mousse and Akane attacked him from behind while Shampoo was ensnarled by Kodachi's second ribbon. Dodging under some kind of pole-weapon seeking his head, Ranma angrily shattered Akane's mallet with a single finger. He stared furiously into Akane's shocked eyes for a moment. "I thought I loved you! Lucky me I think I was wrong, you cheating, lying shit! You and Nabiki are so alike it's not even funny!"

There was a bellow behind him as Genma extricated himself from the rubble of the wall that Ranma had thrown him into. "Boy, you will come back to Nerima with us!"

The battle went on from there, moving through and destroying more of the prison, until they broke out into what must have been the exercise area. Watching as the remaining combatant's chased out Ranma sighed sadly, a sudden realization hitting him. They'll never stop. They'll never stop coming after me. The Amazons can track and Genma ain't exactly a slouch in that area. They'll just keep following me rather than admit I don't want anything to do with them!

For a moment his eyes flicked over to where his mother was being helped along by Cologne, glaring angrily at Ryoga who had rejoined the battle without even making certain she was alright. I don't want ta have anything to do with any of them, users, abusers, deluded fools the lot! I'll be the first to admit I ain't perfect, I know I've got problems, but at least I'm starting to get over 'em. But none of these people'll ever let me go!

A sudden thought hit him. The Nanban mirror!

By this point his father and Ryoga were both on him again. But Ranma weaved between their blows, a snap kick lashing out before becoming over 500 similar kicks hammering into Ryoga's chest throwing him backwards into Mousse. The male Amazon had been trying to use Ryoga as cover for a moment to get in close with a pair of extremely large sabers of some kind.

Ranma was now moving faster. No longer coasting in neutral he dealt with his father brutally. Even so, Genma was a martial arts master. Say whatever you would about his morals, his ability to think things through, his personal courage and his general attitude towards women, he still was one of the finest martial artists living. He kept up with Ranma blow for blow for a time, but he didn't have the sheer endurance or the depths of ki that Ranma had.

He began to falter somewhat as the two dropped back to the ground and when they landed he made a mistake. Genma looked down wincing at his hands for just a second, and Ranma pounced.

"Moko Takabashi!" he bellowed, thrusting out his hands. Rather than a basketball sized ball of ki or even an ovoid with a similar circumference what came out of Ranma's hands was a wave of power, slamming into Genma and carrying him up backwards roaring in pain.

For just a moment everyone paused in shock and Ranma took advantage of it. Reaching into one of his ki pockets he quickly pulled out the shattered mirror, which he kept in a small specialized segment of his ki-space. The mirror had originally been a tool that Happosai had used to try and return to the past for some reason Ranma couldn't remember, but Cologne had said it was also able to travel in space as well. All the user had to do was cry on it, wishing to be somewhere else, and it would do the work.

Unfortunately, the mirror had been broken slightly when they went to the past after Happosai, and it had barely been able to work long enough to get them to back to their own time. Even so, Ranma had carefully gathered the pieces of the mirror, gluing it back together over time and keeping it safe in his ki space, which he had learned from observing Mousse a few weeks before that.

Ranma knew it was a long shot, but what else could he try to completely throw his oyaji and the Amazon's off his trail? Ranma thought he might have to force himself to cry or something, only to lift a hand to his face and wipe away a tear realizing with a jolt he had never stopped since confronting his mother. He stared hard at all of them, lingering most on Akane and his mother and said simply. "Take me somewhere, take me somewhere I can find acceptance, where I'm needed!"

The mirror began to glow, shaking in Ranma's hands as bits and pieces of it began to glow brighter than others and he winced as it somehow began to drain ki from him to power it. It was obviously on its last legs, and for a moment Ranma feared his desperate gamble wouldn't work despite feeling the drain.

But that wasn't his only problem because he had stayed in one place for too long. "Shi-Shi Hakoden!" Shouted Ryoga, having pushed himself to his feet again.

Like Ranma's earlier attack this wasn't a sphere of power but a wave, powered far more by Ryoga's depression than raw power in this vase. Even so Ranma couldn't dodge it, and the blast zoomed towards Ranma. Yet instead of hitting him it disappeared as if being sucked into a vacuum cleaner by the mirror, merging with the light coming from it. There was a sound of breaking glass, then a tearing noise, and suddenly Ranma was gone.

It was that simple, after the noise and the lights receded enough to let everyone see there wasn't anything there. The mirror was gone save for a few small fragments of glass falling from where Ranma had stood holding the mirror but they disappeared before they even landed on the cobblestones. There was no rubble, no hint that Ranma had ever been there. He was simply gone.

Cologne and happy looked at one another from where they were sitting on one of the nearby rooftops giving them a birds eye view of the battle. "That was odd," Cologne said blandly, though her face showed her shock. "I wouldn't have thought the old mirror had any power left to it."

"Do you know when was it made?" Happosai asked.

"Sometime during the Xia Dynasty, that's about all I know for certain. Why?"

"Sometimes those old magic devices are able to use ki as a secondary power source. In the early days there wasn't much of a difference between the two disciplines I've heard. Before even my time!" Happy cackled, shaking his head. "I think the wild horse has well and truly found a way to get out of the bridle."

"And that doesn't bother you?" Cologne asked cocking her head.

Happy smiled blandly around his pipe, holding out of the pouch of tobacco which Cologne took gratefully. "It bothers me somewhat I'll admit. He was the finest martial artist of his generation, and certainly the finest one my school's ever produced at such a young age! Still, it isn't as if Genma's without his good points, and there are a few other practitioners out there."

"And the fact that two of those practitioners are young and nubile girls has nothing to do with your attitude?"

"Of course not!" Happosai said with a laugh shaking his head. "I'll miss the boy, but after those pressure points were released…" He shook his head. "I couldn't control him, I simply couldn't have kept up with him for very long. I'm old and even with my ki-leaching technique I doubt I'd have the endurance to last long. The Boy had as much ki as Herb for Kami-sama's sake! I'm a letch but I'm not stupid. What about yourself? You've tried for even longer that I've been around Nerima to get him to pair up with your granddaughter, haven't you?"

"Yes but now I know at least part of the reason why our ploys never worked." Cologne said glaring down to where Genma was moving around rapidly, trying to pick up the trail while angrily shouting at the others. "Genma and I will have words about that, and given the events here, I doubt the Council will be angry with me. Especially if I have Genma's testimony however willing or no."

"Leave him in enough pieces for him to be useful to me my dear, and I won't get in your way."

Down below people were beginning to realize that Ranma was really gone, and they had no clue as to where he went. From Ryoga, Mousse and the returned Kuno there was jubilation though in Kuno's case it was tempered by the knowledge that the pigtailed girl might well be out of his reach as well. Kodachi was still unconscious elsewhere in the former prison.

For Akane there was anger, a lot of anger. She'd wanted to pound Ranma herself, his disappearing like this was a copout in her opinion. On the other hand, he was out of the way for good apparently. That meant she and Ryoga could come out into the open about the relationship and she wouldn't have to deal with the pervert's actions, or his freaky-ass friends. In other words, her life might actually return to normal.

She conveniently neglected to remember that Kuno had been bothering her long before Ranma had shown up. Or that a lot of the other craziness seems to revolve around an area itself rather than Ranma.

Shampoo however was looking crestfallen and angry. She turned to glare angrily at Genma and Akane, her maces gripped in her hands so hard their shafts almost warped in her grip. Mousse's glomping onto her however gave her another target. "With Ranma out of the way we can be free to act on our feelings for one another, my love! Now let us GAHHH!"

While Shampoo proceeded to make a very bloody mess of her would-be-paramour Nodoka slumped to the ground, staring at where Ranma had been in shock, rising horror and, far more powerful than either of those emotions, guilt. "What have I done, what have I done?"

Chapter 1: When in an Unknown Land…

Ranma groaned through parched and cracked lips, woken out of the deepest sleep he had ever had be the feeling of something nibbling on one of his fingers. "G-get off…" he muttered, trying to turn his head, but found that he felt as weak as a day-old puppy. Worse actually, Ranma couldn't remember a time when he was this weak, not even when that damn moxibustion weakness point had been used on him.

It took him several moments, but Ranma was finally able to open bleary eyes. Looking up he hoped that the mirror had done its work, and that he wouldn't see the Tendo house or anywhere else he recognized. And he certainly got that wish.