***************
Later, after Genma and Ran-ko had taken a bath and cleaned up, everyone
gathered around the TV in the living room, with the exception of Soun and
Genma who were on the porch playing shogi and Kasumi who was in the kitchen
making tea. Ran-ko was still very much on edge and tended to cling to Ranma
a lot, earning a few jealous looks from Akane. Ranma was obviously
uncomfortable with this attention he was getting but he didn’t say anything
and instead tried to watch the news on TV. 
"…and in reply, the United Nations has stated that it will use whatever
force is necessary…" the TV droned, oblivious to the fact that no one was
really paying attention.
"Ran-ko…what did you see back there?" asked Akane, inching closer to Ranma.
"I…I saw this…this ghost…this thing…" Ran-ko stammered, peering around
nervously. Ranma winced when he felt Ran-ko’s grip on his arm tighten.
"A ghost?!?" Akane exclaimed, eyes widening. 
"…Oh come on now!" Nabiki interrupted. "…You don’t expect us to believe that
do you?"
"You shouldn’t doubt what you don’t understand, Nabiki dear…" Nodoka said
evenly. Nabiki turned to look at her.
"…But Auntie, it’s preposterous!…There are no such things as…"
"We don’t know that, do we?" Ranma cut in, interrupting Nabiki. "…Whatever
it was that could have scared Ran-ko so badly has got to be something mean…" 
"Am I missing something?" Kasumi asked, smiling innocently at the group as
she carried a tray holding a teapot, teacups and some crackers into the room.
"Yeah, you’re missing Nabiki’s deductions on ghosts and the like…" Ranma
replied sarcastically. Nabiki shot him an icy glare as Ranma took a cup off
the tray.
"Maybe it’s time I upped the interest on that money you borrowed off me when…"
"Ok ok ok!, I’m sorry!…I was just kidding! Sheesh!" Nabiki smirked at
Ranma’s hurried apology, sipping her tea. Ran-ko couldn’t help but giggle.
"…And what are you laughing at, hmm?" Ranma peered down at his sister in
mock annoyance, giving her a brotherly squeeze causing Ran-ko to break out
in giggles. Akane shot Ranma a jealous look which he didn’t catch but Ran-ko
obviously did.
"Umm, oniichan…I think you better stop…" She said in a warning tone, looking
up at her brother. "…I don’t think Akane-chan likes it…" Ranma looked up at
Akane to see her scowling.
"Uhh…Akane…I…er" Ranma began. Akane stood up and turned to go. "…Hey!
Where’re you off to?"
"I’m going to bed! Please! Enjoy yourself!" Akane shot back in an angry
voice before storming upstairs. Nabiki gave off a low whistle.
"My my, aren’t we jealous here…" she smirked. 
"Nabiki! It isn’t nice to make fun of your sister like that!" Nodoka
reprimanded. She started to say something about Ranma being so affectionate
to Ran-ko but stopped and thought that maybe it was a good thing he was
giving her so much attention.
"I was just kidding Auntie…" Nabiki replied coolly. "…Really Ranma, you have
to stop making Akane mad like that." Ranma spluttered and spat a mouthful of
tea back into his cup.
"Ranma! Watch your manners!" Nodoka reprimanded again.
"Ow! This tea is HOT!…" Ranma exclaimed, putting his cup down to fan his
mouth. "…and ME make Akane mad?!?…What the hell did I do anyway?!?" 
"…And now, a few comments recorded earlier today by Mr. Jyusei Shimada, the
CEO of Shimada Enterprises and sponsor of the upcoming Tenkai-Ichi Bodukai…"
Ranma immediately perked up.
"Sssshh…Listen to this!" Ranma hissed at Nabiki who was running through a
list of things which he did to make Akane angry. Nabiki pouted and took a
sip of tea.
"…Due to certain…problems that have arisen during the past few days, I am
announcing that the upcoming Tenkai-Ichi Bodukai will be commencing a week
earlier than planned…" the image of Jyusei droned. Ranma’s eyes lit up at
the news.
"Hey! Cool! One week earlier, the sooner we win this thing!" Ranma exclaimed
exultantly.
"Now son…" Nodoka began. "…You musn’t let your confidence get the better of
you…I hear that the competition this year is going to be great."
"That’s right…" Kasumi chimed in. "…It is never wise to let overconfidence
get the better of you…" Ranma groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead,
sighing.
"Ok ok, I get the idea…" Ranma deadpanned, turning back to the TV.
"…As of now, invitations to the tournament have already been sent…I
sincerely hope that this year’s competition will be…" Ranma was no longer
paying attention to the screen.
"The invitations have been sent?!?…Cool, where’s mine?!?" Ranma shouted in
excitement, searching for the invitation.
"Um…Ranma, we haven’t got one yet…" Nabiki stated simply, shaking her head.
"…And who knows, you may not make the grade…" Nabiki said tauntingly as
Ranma jumped, turned and peered intently at her.
"What?!? Me!?! Not make the grade?!?…" Ranma proceeded to outline his
expertness in the various martial arts that he had achieved mastery in.
Everyone else ignored him with the exception of Ran-ko who was trying
desperately not to laugh at this display of haughtiness.
"Son, you must bear in mind that while you are good, there will always be
someone else who is better than you out there…" Nodoka chided, finishing her
tea and putting the cup down. "…Now I think it’s time we all…"
"Hey! Get a load of this!" Nabiki piped up, interrupting Nodoka. "…Erm,
sorry Auntie…" Nabiki quickly caught herself when she saw Nodoka glare at
her. Everyone else turned to the TV.
"Hey! That’s…that’s Togenkyo!" Ranma exclaimed, looking at the image of the
floating island on the TV. The newscaster was droning on about how the
island magically appeared overnight. 
"Togenkyo?…" Nodoka asked, looking at the screen with interest. "…Is that
the island that your friend Ryoga told us about…The one you were shipwrecked
on?"
"Erm…friend?!?" Ranma said incredulously. <Well, I guess he is, sometimes!>
he thought after a moment, scratching the back of his head. "…Not exactly,
we weren’t shipwrecked ON it, we wound up on it when Toma started kidnapping
the girls in our little group…" Ranma said. Nodoka nodded and rubbed her
chin. The newscaster was warning everyone to stay away from the island due
to mysterious sightings of phantoms, ghosts etc. Ran-ko perked up at the
mention of ghosts.
"Ghosts?!? Where?!?" Ran-ko said fearfully, hiding behind Ranma. Ranma
turned around, picked his sister up and sat her on his lap after a moment.
Ran-ko giggled as everyone shot him a queer look but he wasn’t paying attention.
"Hmm…maybe…just maybe…" Ranma muttered, massaging his temples.
"You’re not saying they could be responsible for what Ran-ko saw are you?"
Nabiki asked, peering at Ranma.
"I didn’t say that! What I'm saying is they may know something…" Ranma shot
back, slightly irritated.
"Well, why don’t we go visit them then?…" Nodoka suggested. Ranma’s eyes lit
up at the suggestion.
"Hey! Great idea!…" Ranma enthusiasm deflated when he saw his mother staring
at him. "…Err…Mom, whatcha looking at?"
"Don’t you think you better put Ran-ko down?" Nodoka said, trying not to
smile as she noticed that Ran-ko had fallen asleep in Ranma’s lap. The two
of them looked like such a cute couple, though it would take a little
getting used to since almost everyone except Nodoka was used to ‘Ran-ko’ as
Ranma.
"Ack! I forgot!…" Ranma yelped, standing up and accidentally throwing Ran-ko
off. Nodoka and Kasumi both winced at the *THUMP* that followed. 
"Now THAT is going to hurt for a while!" Nabiki muttered, trying not to laugh.
"Ouch!…" Ran-ko muttered after a while, rubbing her posterior. Everyone
broke into giggling fits.
"Erk, sorry Ran-ko…" Ranma quickly said, grinning weakly at his sister as he
reached down to help her up. Ran-ko shot her brother a puzzled look before
grabbing his shoulder to support herself.
"What did you do that for, oniichan?!?" Ran-ko whined, still rubbing her
posterior. "…That hurt!"
"Sorry, sorry, sorry…" Ranma muttered, grinning weakly at her. Nodoka
watched her two children for a moment before standing up to leave.
"Ok, I think it’s time we all got some sleep…" Nodoka said tiredly, yawning.
"…We’ve got a long day tomorrow…" Kasumi started to clear away the teacups
as Nabiki and Ranma headed upstairs. Ran-ko followed Kasumi into the kitchen
to help her clean up. Nodoka couldn’t help but note Ranma’s worried
expression as he left, it was almost as if something was troubling
him…Either that or something he is hiding.

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

Ranma lay on his futon, thinking of the events that had transpired during
the past few days. It was nothing short of unusual to say the least, he
still felt a pang of guilt whenever he thought about Shampoo, the stunned
look on her face when he’d slapped her and her tear-filled eyes after that.
He knew it was wrong, leaving her like that after what they’d done. The
pangs of guilt and unease tore at him every time his thoughts wandered in
that direction.
Ranma sighed <Shampoo…I'm sorry…But…> he stopped, not really having an
excuse. It was plain and simple, she was now technically his responsibility
as dictated by honor. <…Damn! Why did you have to let me do it Shampoo?!?>
Ranma thought furiously, cursing himself for his lack of control more than
her for letting him do what he wanted. Shaking his head, Ranma got up and
walked over to the window. He pushed it open nonchalantly and breathed
deeply of the cool midnight air. He could smell the aroma of the cherry
blossoms in the garden on the slight breeze that blew into the room, wafting
his hair about. He’d tried to ignore it before, but it kept coming back to
him, that sad look on Shampoo’s face when he walked out of the Nekohanten,
the look in her eyes that screamed betrayal. How could he be so cruel? Oh
sure, he’d wanted Shampoo out of his hair for a long time now, but if he’d
just simply left or told her to back off before leaving, it would had been
ok. But no, he had to go have his fun first! He had to go ‘prove his
manhood’ so to speak! <You damn perverted jerk!> Ranma cursed himself,
leaning his head on the window sill. <…Why did you do it?!?> His conscience
and his sense of honor screamed at him. He clasped his hands around his ears
as if trying to block out the sound that echoed dully through his head.
"Because…" he muttered to no one in particular.
<Because what? Because you had to get laid before dumping her is that it?!?>
"No! It’s because of…of…Akane…" Ranma mumbled, feeling a lump at his throat.
"…She…she doesn’t love me…I thought…"
<You thought that you could get back at her by latching onto Shampoo, is
that it?>
"…"
<I'm waiting…>
"…Y…yes." Ranma mumbled shamefully.
<Oh, now that’s just fine, yep, just great…The Great Ranma Saotome, Master
of the Anything-Goes Style of Indiscriminate Grappling…Having to resort to
low-down tactics like that to get your point across…>
"…Shut up!"
<Oh, what? The truth hurts does it?!?> Ranma’s conscience railed
unmercifully at him. The worst thing was that it WAS all true. The only
reason he took after Shampoo like that was that he had wanted to show Akane
a thing or two. But when Akane had come and apologised, he’d simply dumped
Shampoo like yesterday’s news, not thinking about her feelings at all.
<Shampoo was more than willing to give herself to make you happy. You know
that? All she wanted was to help you when you were down-and-out…And what do
you do? You took what you wanted and left the rest like it was taking out
the damn trash!…>
"Hey! Don’t forget she was the one who came after me in the first place! Did
I ask her to follow me? Hell no!"
<That’s beside the point!>
"Oh suuuuuure it is! So when she goes around dumping ‘passion spice’ or
other crap like that into other people’s food, oh it’s cool. Go right
ahead!…Then when I give her a bit of what she’s had coming to her, oh it’s
wrong! Is that it?!?"
<That’s beside the damn point and you know it!…Playing with a person’s
feelings like you did was completely unacceptable, regardless of what
they’ve done in the past! She asked you, back then, she asked you whether
you loved her and you told her you did…Now she trusted you!>
"Aww, come on! You’re telling me that just because I said ‘the words’
doesn’t mean that I was serious now was I?"
<She trusted you, you insensitive jerk! If you’d come out and said you
didn't love her instead of stringing her along just to make her happy for a
moment…You had to go let her build up her hopes then shatter them
completely, didn’t you?!?>
Ranma sighed "Like I said…"
<Quit trying to get out of it damn you! It was wrong, 110% wrong and you
know it!…I don’t know how you can live with yourself now!…Just wait till
Akane finds out, boy are you going to get it!…I don’t know how in hell you
expected to get away with this one Ranma…>
"Arrgh…SHUT UP!" Ranma screamed, grabbing his head in both hands. There was
no excuse to cover up for what he did, the dishonor was bad enough when he’d
taken Shampoo when he was still engaged to Akane, but then leaving her
afterwards was doubling the mistake. His conscience wasn’t about to let him
forget it too.
"Ranma-oniichan, are you okay?…What’s wrong?" Ranma turned at the sound of
his sister’s voice. Ran-ko was standing in the doorway with a worried
expression on her face. Ranma hung his head in embarrassment when he
realised that he was thinking out loud.
"Damn! Hope Nabiki wasn’t taping any of this!" Ranma muttered under his
breath, a cold sweat forming on his brow at the thought of being found out.
He knew there was no way in hell that Akane was going to be able to forgive
him if he found out, and not only her.
Ran-ko walked up to her brother standing by the window "Oniichan…What were
you yelling about?" she asked, mopping his brow with her sleeve. Ranma
smiled at her kind gesture. 
"I’m ok, really…Go to sleep ok?" he said gently, patting her on the head.
Ran-ko looked uncertain but nodded and walked over to her futon. Ranma
turned away as she undressed. Of all the strange things that have happened,
Ran-ko had to take the absolute cake. After all it wasn’t every day that you
get a sister by way of an accident.
"Oniichan, you coming?" Ran-ko asked. Ranma got up after a moment and walked
over to his futon, flopping onto it with a dejected sigh. Ran-ko smiled
cutely at him before turning onto her back and closing her eyes. Ranma
turned to look at her, a smile creeping onto his face. No matter how he
looked at it, it was strange. He’d been so used to having a female body for
so long now that it was almost as if he were looking at, well, himself. He
also noted, with some satisfaction, that his thoughts on how he looked when
he was a girl were mostly correct after all.
<Heh, this is the first time I can sit back and look at…me…And I can
honestly say that I was *damn* sexy!…No wonder Akane’s jealous of her.>
Ranma thought, grinning. At first he didn’t know how to react to Cologne’s
solution of the problem by making her his sister. To his own surprise, he
found out that he actually didn’t mind having a sister around, if anything
he liked it. He didn’t want to dwell on the topic too much at the time
because Akane was around but still, he had to admit that he was getting
rather fond of her. 
<Heh, I’ve always wanted a brother or sister> thought Ranma, staring up at
the ceiling. <…Who would have thought this would happen though…> He turned
at the sound of footsteps echoing along the corridor outside. <Probably my
sad excuse of a father coming up.> Ranma shut his eyes and slowly waited for
sleep to take him as a large panda noisily entered the bedroom and crashed
onto it’s futon. Moments later it began to snore loudly.
"Grrr…I think I’ll go borrow Akane’s mallet!" Ranma intoned softly in a low
voice. The snoring stopped. Ranma turned to see that Ran-ko too was awakened
by the racket.
"Oniichan…what was all that noise?" Ran-ko yawned. 
Ranma jabbed a thumb toward the sleeping panda beside him, eyes still shut.
"That!"
Ran-ko giggled "Noisy for a panda isn't he?"
"I don’t think he fits the class." Ranma replied, smirking. The two fell
silent after a moment of snickering, both of them trying to get back to
sleep. Ran-ko, however, found that she couldn’t fall asleep even after an
hour of tossing and turning about.
"Mmmm…Huh?!? What?!" Ranma exclaimed, waking up when he felt something touch
his arm. He looked up to see Ran-ko half draped over his chest.
"Mmm, oniichan, I can’t sleep…" Ran-ko mumbled, half-hugging her brother.
Ranma hesitated for a moment then wrapped his arms around her in a warm
embrace. He felt it was strange he could be so ‘open’ with her. There was
something about Ran-ko that he found reassuring. Normally with any other
girl he’d be breaking out in a clod sweat and putting his foot in his mouth
by now. Still, that didn’t mean that he didn’t enjoy the feeling of being
able to get familiar with a girl and not get punted into Lower Earth Orbit.
Though that still didn’t make it easier when he realised what those soft
things were that were pressing into his chest. He hoped to hell that she
wouldn’t notice the hard object trapped between her stomach. 
<Ack! Not now!> Ranma cursed silently as he looked down at his sister after
a while and found that she was already fast asleep. <…And here I thought she
said she couldn’t sleep…> Ranma mused. <…I must be comfortable or
something.> he grinned as he shifted his hold on Ran-ko slightly, causing
her to stir a bit but she didn’t wake up. <Damn it’s going to be hard to
sleep with this…> he thought, realising he still had an erection. <…Hope she
doesn’t kill me later.>

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

Toma peered around in the gloom as the mine cart rattled on downward. The
area beneath the island of Togenkyo that housed the magical spring wasn’t
very well lit, only a few bracketed torches here and there along the descent
to the spring itself. All around him flitted ghostly shadows cast by the dim
light, it appeared as if they were dancing around him.
"The feeling is stronger down here…" Toma muttered as he peered down at the
spring. From his vantage point, he couldn’t see anything unusual about the
faintly glowing pool.
"Though the pool isn’t supposed to glow like that." Toristan said, clearly
feeling uneasy. The ride continued for a while longer until it reached the
bottom. Toma, Sarutoru and Toristan disembarked the cart and walked around
the small clearing, looking for signs of anything out of place. The three
searched the area for an hour, ducking the occasional bat that would flit
out from between the stalactites that hung extremely low to the ground,
almost touching the rocky surface.
"Nothing…" Toma muttered in annoyance. "…Sarutoru! Toristan! Find anything?"
the other two responded in the negative. After a few moments worth of
further fruitless searching, the three sat down on the stalagmites around
the spring to take a break.
"I don’t understand it, what could be causing this…disturbance?" Toristan
asked, scratching his head.
"If I knew, I would tell you." Sarutoru replied in a tired voice. After a
few minutes resting, Toristan stood and hopped over to an overhang on the
nearby face, jumping onto it and lying down.
"I hear that so-called tournament in Japan is going to begin early." He said
nonchalantly. "Will you be entering in it, Lord?"
Toma shrugged "Maybe, it really isn’t high on the list of priorities and
there won’t be much competition anyway."
"Pardon my saying Lord, but you do know that Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo
will be participating?" Sarutoru asked. Toma’s eyes lit up at  the mention
of Akane.
"No I didn’t! How did you find out?" Toma demanded. Sarutoru cringed slightly.
"I…It’s just a guess Lord, I would assume that martial artists like them
would be unable to refuse something like that." Sarutoru said quickly. He
breathed a sigh of relief when Toma nodded and looked away.
"Hmm, most likely…" Toma muttered, sitting back down and staring into the
glittering surface of the mystical spring. Within the brilliant field of
blue could be seen twinkling pinpoints of light, much like stars. "…It would
be nice to see them again, I’ve been wanting to challenge Ranma again for a
while now…Uh?" Toma blinked at what he saw in the pool. Two tiny pinpoints
of red light were staring directly at him from the surface. Toma’s gaze shot
up to follow the light and saw two glowing orbs staring out at him from
directly above Toristan’s perch on the rock face.
"Toristan! Above you!" Toma yelled. Toristan immediately jumped off the rock
face, throwing several razor sharp feathers at the shadow as he did so.
Sarutoru conjured up a ball of light that dispelled most of the darkness
around the area, enabling them to see who or what their assailant was.
"What the?!?" he muttered, staring up at the shadow creature in shock. It
was not dispelled by the light though it was apparent that it was affected.
It flitted about madly, trying to escape into the shadows. Toma’s hand fell
on the hilt of his illusion sword and moments later a ki-blade was heading
for the creature above them. It managed to avoid the attack but was not fast
enough in it’s weakened state to avoid all contact. A hollow scream echoed
throughout the cavern as a part of it’s being was severed. The segment of
darkness hit the floor and faded out of existence.
"Sarutoru! Toristan! Quickly now!" Toma snapped at his two followers. The
complied by conjuring two halves of a magical sphere in their hands. 
"We have it!…Uh?!?" Toristan muttered as the shadow vanished before their
eyes, a split-second before they could trap it within the sphere of containment.
"It’s gone?!?" Sarutoru exclaimed, half in shock. Both halves of the sphere
vanished as they descended to stand beside Toma.
"Well, we found it all right, though it probably isn’t the cause of the
strange magical disturbances…" Toma muttered, throwing his arms into the
air. They could still feel the presence of another in the air, though much
weakened with the disappearance of the shadow creature.
"Let’s go back up…" Toma sighed. "…Tomorrow we find out what is going on
here." Sarutoru and Toristan nodded and followed their prince into the
portal that had appeared on Toma’s command. Moments later it closed and
vanished completely, leaving no trace that anyone had been there. As the
ball of light conjured by Sarutoru faded, two glowing pinpoints of red light
appeared in a corner of the cavern, glaring with hatred at the spot where
the three masters of illusion last stood.
"Grrr…Seijiiku kill you all! You see!" it breathed before vanishing into a
black portal that had appeared behind it.

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

Ok, that ends yet another chapter in Jusenkyo's Curse. Ranma basically knows
that what he did to Shampoo was wrong though he also knows that he's in for
a world of hurt if anyone finds out.

In the next Chapter, Shampoo busts up one of Akane and Ranma's intimate
moments and spills the beans. You all can guess where it goes from there ;)
Also, the invitations for the tournament are sent out. But will Ranma accept
the invitation or doesn't he care anymore? 

C&C on this much appreciated :)
      K  u  s  a  n  a  g  i       K y o
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       +-----+     /-, +-+-       +-----+
       |-----|      |  |-|-       |     |      
       +-----+     -|- |-|-       +-----+
      ----|----    / \ +-+-       /  J  \
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  "Kusanagi Flames, Yagami Tears, Orochi Blood"