This is a bit of a revision, mainly a few little things, most of the
changes occur in the later parts.  Please give me C&C on this, it's my
first fanfic other then spamfics and I want all the advice I can get.

I realize that Ryoga and Ranma are a bit out of character but I explain
some of that as I go, I'll try to straighten them out more as the story
picks up though.

Standard disclaimer: Ranma and all characters are the property of Rumiko
Takahashi and the various publishing and film companies, I'm simply
borrowing them for the time being.

Additional notes:
Words in *X* are in English, Words in <X> are in Chinese and words in any
other type brackets are in some other foreign language that will most
likely be specified within the text of the story.

The suffix -chan denotes the cursed female form of the characters, other
suffixes will most likely be self explanatory.

----------

Lost and Forgotten

Prologue: "Hey Jude."

	Ryoga Hibiki was lost.  This was nothing new to him, he was lost more
often then he preferred to be.  He looked around at the blowing snow around
him and the hard paved road beneath his feet and scratched his head.  He
couldn't recall ever being here before.  Wherever here was, that is.
	This thought sparked the phrase that he had had too many occasions to say
in his life, "WHERE ON EARTH AM I NOW?" he cried out, of course, there was
no one there to answer, there almost never was.
	He started to walk down the road, it would lead somewhere, and from there
he would get somewhere else.  He wasn't heading anywhere in particular at
the moment, Nerima, for all the happy times that it gave him, also supplied
many of the dark reminders of the things he didn't want to think about.  He
had left the Tendo dojo two weeks ago and by now he was far away from
Nerima, far away from Japan even, although he didn't know that at the time.
	His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a vehicle behind him, he
stepped to the side of the road and looked back through the cold blowing
snow to see a pair of headlights speeding toward him.  He watched as the
lights began to twist from their course and as they neared him.  By the
time Ryoga could make out the car it had started to spin out of control.
It began to turn about in full circles, growing closer and closer to the
side of the road, the ditch, and Ryoga.
	As it neared him Ryoga leaped into the air, avoiding the car and severe
injury.  The car, and its driver, weren't so lucky, they avoided neither
the ditch, nor the telephone pole along the side of the road.
	The wind died down and Ryoga stared at the car's path through the snow
filled ditch and into the telephone pole.  Then the sound of the car's horn
reached him and brought him into action, he plowed through the snow and to
the car, the driver would need help, if they were alive at all that is.
	Ryoga got to the car and looked it over quickly, it wasn't going to be
driving anywhere soon from what he could tell.  He looked inside to see the
driver slumped over the wheel, his head pressing against the car's horn.
	Ryoga pried open the door with his umbrella and looked closer at the
driver, checking for any glaringly obvious injuries such as detached limbs
and large gashes.  The only thing that Ryoga could see was the blood over
the driver's face, he had a head wound of some sort, Ryoga knew those
always bleed more then they would seem to.  He pulled the man back from the
steering wheel to get a better look for any other injuries.  The car's
radio was still going, even though the engine seemed to have cut out, and
as Ryoga brought the driver to a position where he was sitting back in his
chair he could hear the radio playing a song in English, *Hey Jude, don't
make it bad, take a sad song, and make it better.*
	Ryoga noticed two things at that time.  One, that the driver was somewhat
awake, he looked blearily at Ryoga and then closed his eyes and slumped
into his seat.  The second was that there was smoke coming from the car's
hood.  "That's a bad sign," Ryoga thought to himself, and he unhooked the
man's seatbelt and lifted him out of the seat, he grabbed the coat from the
passenger side and slipped it on the driver as well as he could and then
walked away from the car as quickly as he could manage.
	Ryoga looked back at the car only when he heard the rush of air as the
engine caught on fire, he saw the blaze consume the front of the car and
make its way to where, just a short time ago, the man he was carrying had
been.  He continued to walk along the road seeking shelter from the weather
and help for the person he held in his arms.  He found the shelter in an
old abandoned house by the road, he started a fire in the fireplace and
then looked over his patient.  The bleeding had stopped and dried blood was
crusted over the man's face.
	Ryoga took off one of his bandannas and soaked it in some water, careful
not to splash too much on himself in the process.  He started to clean off
the man's face and he realized for the first time that he was wearing
glasses, they had somehow remained perfectly intact in the crash.  He took
the glasses off and placed them carefully to the side, noting only in
passing their relatively thick lenses.
	As he continued to clean he realized that this man was only perhaps a few
years older then he himself was.  There weren't any cuts on his face to
account for the blood so he cleaned farther up.  The wound was just above
the hairline and it seemed to have clotted over, he dabbed lightly at it
and then got out the rudimentary first aid kit that he kept in his pack.
Soon the head wound was cleaned and bandaged completely.  Ryoga checked his
patient for any other wounds and found just a few bruises over the rest of
the body, one particularly nasty one was across the chest in the shape of
the seatbelt's strap.
	Ryoga fed the fire and then went about feeding himself.  He looked out the
window and saw night falling upon the country-side.  The wind picked up
once more and the road grew harder to make out.  He watched for any passing
cars for a time and saw nothing at all.  After a few hours he stopped and
looked back over to his still sleeping patient.  Figuring that all was done
for the night he added some more wood to the fire and went to sleep, he was
a light sleeper, and he would know the moment that his patient awakened.

				***

	He awoke in the middle of the night when he heard his patient start to
move, he got up and kneeled down by the young man.  Soon the man slowly
opened his eyes and said in English, *What happened?*
	Ryoga replied in the same language saying, *You lost control and crashed
into a pole, I got you out of your car before it blew up.*
	The man shook his head as if to shake the cobwebs out of it and looked
around, *Where am I?* he asked in a groggy voice.
	Ryoga winced at the familiar question and said, *Some building by the
road, I'm not sure where.*
	The man nodded slowly, he seemed to wince slightly and he closed his eyes
in thought as if trying to access some piece of information that wasn't
quite within reach.  He looked up with an odd, almost scared expression in
his eyes and said, *Uh, WHO am I?*
	Ryoga was startled by the question, it wasn't one that he was expecting at
all.  He questioned the young man and soon found that he had no memory of
who he was at all.  He seemed to remember basic things, history and trivia,
at least as far as Ryoga could tell.  But his basic identity, his name,
where he lived, his family, they were all blank spots.
	They searched his belongings but found no forms of identification
whatsoever.  Apparently the man had taken his wallet out of his pocket as
he drove.  The only thing that came up when Ryoga asked for the man's name
was, *I seem to remember someone saying �Hey Jude' that doesn't quite sound
right, but I guess it will do.*
	So Ryoga and Jude, who hadn't decided on a last name talked through the
night, checking where Jude's memory was intact and where it was Swiss cheese.

				***


	They set out down the road in search of a town so they could get some
medical assistance for "Jude" and so Ryoga could perhaps get some
directions back to Tokyo, or even back to Japan.  Along the way they talked
as much as they good, Ryoga proved to be quite adept at basic English which
was useful since Jude had no knowledge of Japanese whatsoever.  After a
while the conversation turned to names, neither of them thought that just
"Jude" was much of a name.  They both seemed stumped, Ryoga had never had a
knack for naming things and Jude was too busy trying to remember his real
name to think of a new one.
	Finally Ryoga stopped them both and said, *Well, just pick something, if
you don't like it you can change it later, but hopefully you'll remember
before you use your name much.*
	Jude sighed and started to run his fingers through his hair, he was
stopped by the bandages on his forehead so he put his arm down by his side
and sighed.  *I guess you're right Ryoga, how does Smith sound to you?*
	*Sounds okay to me, although English names always sound a bit wrong to me
anyway.*
	*Well, I don't know, it's a common enough name, and it doesn't sound corny
or anything like that, seems to me that there was a character in a book
named �John Smith' who had a car accident too, something about a coma and
psychic powers or something* Jude stopped then and laughed ruefully, *It's
funny isn't it, I can remember a damned book I read better then I can
remember who I am or where the hell I live or anything.  Yeah, a real joke.*
	Ryoga said something to change the subject and Jude accepted the change
easily, he didn't want to dwell on his memories, or lack thereof, for any
extended period of time.  They continued on their way, talking and perhaps
not paying as much attention to where they were going as they should.
	Soon they were lost.
	*Uh, Ryoga?* Jude asked as he stopped walking.
	*Yes Jude?* Ryoga asked as he turned to Jude.
	*Where did all the snow go?  And for that matter, where's the road?*
	Ryoga looked around to see that wherever they were now it wasn't the
snow-covered plains they had been on before.  Green grass was to the North,
East, and West of them and to the South lay a large forest.
	*I have no idea,* Ryoga replied.
	*Oh,* Jude said as he pondered the situation, *Okay, how about if we go
East?  I think we were heading that way before.*
	*Sounds good to me,* Ryoga replied.  He had found that, when he was really
lost, one direction was as good as any other anyway.
	And so the two set off once more on their Journey.  One of them was lost
to the world and the other was lost to his past. And neither of them
realized that they were heading West instead of East.


Chapter One: New arrivals and reunions

	It was raining in Nerima when the two travelers finally reached their
destination.  The rain came down hard upon them as they walked down the
streets.  The streets were nearly empty, most people preferred the warmth
of their own homes to the cold rain that was beating down upon the Nerima
ward at the moment.  They finally managed to get the attention of one of
the few people that were on the street.
	"Excuse me, but where are we?"  Ryoga asked a man who was standing under
the awning of a store trying to avoid most the falling rain.
	The man Ryoga had questioned paused at the odd inquiry for a short while,
but not very long, this was after all, Nerima, odd things had become common
place in the last year or so.  He looked over his questioner and her
companion, there was something familiar about them.  As he looked closer he
realized they must be twins, or at least sisters.  He took in an eyeful of
the two cute red headed girls before him, their wet clothes hugged their
impressive curves attractively and he couldn't help but feel that he had
seen one of these two before.
	As the man looked at them he could see that they were both dressed in worn
clothing, as if they had been traveling for a long time.  One of the girls,
Ryoga, was in a yellow sleeveless shirt and blue pants, her short hair was
held back by a yellow and black bandanna, when she spoke the man thought he
saw a glimpse of fangs but he wasn't sure.  The other, Jude, was in a black
shirt with long sleeves and silver buttons down the front and had blue
jeans on, her hair was longer and had a bandanna identical to the other
girls to keep the longer hair from getting in the way.  Both of them
shouldered heavy packs, and each pack had an odd bamboo umbrella on the top
of it.  Although in this weather the question of why neither of the girls
was using her umbrella was beyond him.
	He might have continued to stare had Jude not grown impatient and
interrupted him saying, "Well, where the hell are we dammit?  Quit staring
and answer the bloody question!"  She glared at the man and waited for an
answer.
	The man blinked, startled out of his ogling, and stammered out, "W-w-well
you're in Tokyo, Nerima ward to be exact."
	Ryoga blinked, "Did you say Nerima?"
	"Yes, that what I said, did you expect to be somewhere else?" the man
replied, he glanced from one girl to the other.  He was about to say
something more when they both let out cries of joy.  The man gaped even
more then he had been, the way they were acting it was almost as if they
had just won a lottery or had something else extraordinarily lucky happen
to them.
	Jude started to laugh and said, "If you had said this was Moscow or
Melbourne we wouldn't have been too surprised."
	"One more question," Ryoga said, "Could you tell us where the Tendo Dojo is?"
	The man gave the two girls directions and when he was done he asked, "Are
you two from around here?  I could swear that I've seen you around hear
before."
	As he watched the two girls looked to each other and then the one in the
yellow shirt spoke up, "Well, uh, we've got a sister who lives here, so,
you, um, might have seen her around somewhere."
	The man blinked at that, then he figured if they're twins why not triplets
as well?  The girl in the black shirt finally said, "Thanks for the
directions, and, I'm sorry about yelling at you, but you were staring you
know."
	With that she turned to the other girl and said, "Come on Ryoga, now that
I've got the directions I should take the lead, it wouldn't do for us to
show up in Peking when we've already reached where the right town would it?"
	The other girl, Ryoga? the man thought that that was certainly an odd name
for a girl, grinned sheepishly at that and said, "Alright, you lead the way
Jude," then she paused a bit and glared, "but I don't think we'd get as far
as Peking."
	The other girl, Jude, another odd name, raised an eyebrow at this
statement, questioning what her companion said.  Ryoga stopped glaring and
grinned, "Osaka maybe, but not Peking.  At least, probably not Peking." The
man looked to the two girls with a puzzled look on his face as ninety
percent of this conversation, at least, went over his head.
	None of the many questions he might have asked ever passed his lips as the
pony tailed girl said, "With you, anything is possible, come on, lets go."
And with that they started off down the street.  The man watched the two as
they walked away, he had a feeling that they had a story or two to tell, he
also had a feeling that he wouldn't be the one hearing those stories.

				***

	The rain had let up a bit when they finally reached the dojo.  Jude looked
to Ryoga and said, "Are you sure this is the place?"
	Ryoga was about to answer that she wasn't sure when they both hear the
yelling from the building.
	"RANMA YOU IDIOT!"
	"UN-CUTE TOMBOY!"
	Then there came the sound of a splash from the back yard.
	Ryoga grinned at Jude and said, "I _know_ this is the place.  I'd know
those insults anywhere.  Come on, lets go in, I want to see Ranma's face
when he sees that he won't have P-Chan to push around anymore!"
	Jude frowned slightly at that but then shrugged, "You lead the way Ryoga,
you know these people, I don't."  Ryoga pushed open the gates and Jude
followed her in and closed them after she was in.  Ryoga was already
rapping on the front door of the house when she was done.  She shifted her
pack on her back and walked up to the door just as a young woman with a
long pony tail over one shoulder opened the door, she looked from one girl
to the other and exclaimed, "Oh my."
	Ryoga scratched the back of his head and said, "Uh, hi Kasumi, it's me,
Ryoga, can we come in?"
	Kasumi blinked, "Ryoga?" she said.
	"Yeah."
	Kasumi processed the information quite quickly, two nearly identical
girls, both looking very much like Ranma did when he was in his cursed
form, and Ryoga being one of them, she came to the obvious conclusion,
"Have you two been to Jusenkyo then?"
	They both nodded.  Kasumi frowned slightly at the thought of more people
cursed by the springs, she had images of countless kettles of hot water to
heat.  But she put those thoughts behind her and smiled saying, "Come on in
you two, do you want me to heat up some hot water?"
	"Yes please," the two girls replied in unison as they stepped into the
entry way.  Kasumi made her way to the kitchen while they stopped where
they were.  Jude would have followed Kasumi but Ryoga stopped her saying,
"Remember to take off your shoes."
	Jude stopped and said, "Oh yeah, Japan, got it."  She took off her shoes,
and got ready to head where ever it was that the woman, Kasumi, if she
heard Ryoga correctly, had went when she heard voices from farther inside
the house.
	"Who was it Kasumi?" a female voice asked
	"Yeah and why are ya setting up more kettles hot water?  Pop and I already
used the last ones ya made." a male voice asked.
	"Well," Kasumi said, "Ryoga has just arrived and it appears that he and a
friend have been to Jusenkyo recently."
	"Jusenkyo?" the two voices replied in unison.
	Then the girl's voice could be heard to say, "Poor Ryoga, what happened to
him?"
	At almost the same time the male voice said, "Ryoga? Cursed? This I gotta
see!"
	Jude watched Ryoga's face light up with joy when he heard the girl's
voice, she stared off into space and quietly said, "Akane, I can see you
again."
	Jude prodded Ryoga lightly, "Come on, lets head in and you can see Akane
again, lord knows you've talked about her enough on the trip."
	"Yeah, lets go," Ryoga said, and they both began to walk the direction
that Kasumi had left earlier.  Before they got very far, two people walked
into the entryway.  One was a tall man in a red shirt with black pants and
the other was a woman in a blue and white dress.  The man had black hair
that was pulled back into a tightly bound pony tail while the girl had her
hair cut in a short style.  They both stopped short at seeing the two
identical girls.    The man just stared but the woman managed to speak,
"R-r-ryoga? Is that you?"
	"Yeah Akane, it's me," Ryoga replied.  She seemed a bit too flustered to
say more then that.
	At that the man who had been staring before finally said, "Wow, it's
strange enough to see that face in the mirror, its even stranger to see it
twice in person."  He then grinned and said, "How's it feel to be cursed
P-Chan?"
	Ryoga's cheeks reddened and she started to say something, then she paused
and smiled at the man and said, "Oh, it could be worse Ranma, I could end
up turning into an animal or something, as it is, I'm still human."
	Akane tried to smile at Ryoga and glare at Ranma at the same time but
settled for just smiling at Ryoga instead, she figured she had done enough
glaring at Ranma for the day, "That's a good attitude to have Ryoga, unlike
_some_ people around here," she said, then she turned to look at Jude and
said, "I'm sorry, we haven't been introduced, I'm Akane Tendo, and this is
Ranma Saotome, what's your name?"
	Jude smiled at her friendly words and said, "Hi Akane, Ranma, I'm Jude
Smith, I don't want to impose but Ryoga said that this would be a good
place to go."
	"Hey no problem," Ranma said, "It'll be good to talk with someone who's
got the same problem that I do, I bet Kasumi has the hot water ready by now
too."
	"Yeah," Akane smiled, "As long as you aren't engaged to Ranma or wanting
to kill him I can hardly see that you'll be any problem at all," then she
paused with a serious look on her face, "You aren't are you? Engaged to him
or wanting to kill him that is?"
	"What?" Jude blinked at the odd question, "Why ever would I want to do
either of those things?"
	Akane smiled at that and Ranma let out a sigh of relief, "Well," Akane
continued, "Ranma seems to draw enemies and fiancee's in equal numbers, in
other words, too many."
	"Oh, I see, wait, did you say Ranma?"
	"Yes, that's Ranma," Akane replied, "Why?"
	Jude turned to face Ranma and drew herself up to her cursed form's full
height and bellowed as loud as she could, "RANMA! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
	While both Akane and Ranma jumped and then fell into slight combat-ready
positions Jude turned to Ryoga and said with a grin, "You're right Ryoga, I
do feel better."
	Ranma and Akane fell out of their combat ready stances and onto the floor
as Ryoga and Jude started laughing loudly.  Kasumi had hurried in to see
what was the matter.  She surveyed the situation and smiled when she saw
that there was nothing wrong.  "The hot water is ready you two," she said,
and then walked back to the kitchen.  Everyone else followed her in.

				***
	They got to the kitchen with no trouble save for Ryoga's brief detour into
a closet and Kasumi directed Ryoga and Jude to the waiting hot water.  The
two accepted the water gratefully and poured it over their heads in the way
that seemed to be the easiest for a complete soaking.  Ryoga appeared to be
his usual self after being restored, although his clothes fit much better
then they had before.
	Jude shivered and put the kettle down on the table and fished a pair of
glasses out of his shirt's front pocket.  "That," he said as he put his
glasses on, "Will take some getting used to."  He shifted his clothing
slightly and looked himself over to see if everything had changed back.  He
was tall, one or two inches over six feet, and had light brown hair.  Brown
eyes stared out from behind his round glasses.  He smiled at Kasumi and
said, "Thank you again for heating up that water, it's been a few days
since we've been able to change back, seems like this rain has followed us
most of the way."
	Kasumi smiled at Jude and said, "You're welcome Jude, it seems that very
few people thank me for the hot water these days, it's nice to hear that."
	At this statement Akane managed to send yet another glare toward Ranma, he
seemed oblivious to it as he was staring at the glasses on Jude's face.
"Why weren't you wearing those before?" he asked.
	"Oh, these?" Jude asked, pointing to his glasses, when Ranma nodded he
said, "Well, apparently Nyannichuan's "Girl what drowned there 1500 year
ago" had perfect vision, that's one benefit of the change at least."  Jude
pushed his glasses up on reflex and said, "I can barely see clearly past my
arms when I hold them out without these glasses."
	"Well, I'm sure the others are wondering what's going on, why don't we
meet them and you two can tell us all about what happened," Akane said.
	"Yeah, I'm sure you two have quite a bit to say, it's been a while since
we've seen you here Ryoga, we thought you mighta been lost for good," Ranma
grinned.
	"I'm not that bad Ranma!"
	At this Jude coughed, "Uh, Ryoga?"
	"Yeah?"
	"You are that bad, trust me, I've been following you for a few months now,
I know."
	"A few months?" Ranma and Akane asked in unison.  They weren't sure if
they were more stunned that Ryoga had been lost that long or that he had
stayed lost even with someone that could be assumed to have an average
sense of direction.
	"It's a long story," Jude said, "I believe you said something about
meeting everyone else Akane?"
	"Right this way you two," Akane replied.  She walked out of the kitchen
and the rest followed.

				***

	They were all seated at the table after a quick round of introductions
with Jude meeting the rest of the Tendo household.  "So," the man that had
been introduced as Akane's father said, "Ryoga, tell us, just how did you
end up in Jusenkyo?  And how did you end up getting cursed at all if you
knew where you were?"
	"Well Mr. Tendo, a few months ago I left for a training trip, as you may
know," Ryoga started.
	"Training trip?" Ranma broke in, "Is that what you're calling it now?
What's the matter? Don't want to admit that ya got lost heading to the
bathroom  again?"
	"Shut up Ranma!  This time I really was on a training trip!"
	"Yeah Ranma, just let him talk and quit teasing poor Ryoga, he's been
through a lot lately," Akane crossed her arms over her chest and glared at
Ranma once more.
	Ranma took a look outside into the backyard and saw that the rain was
still coming down outside.  He figured that he didn't need another trip to
the pond, or even outside for that matter.  He was also just as curious as
to why if Ryoga had been to Jusenkyo he wasn't totally cured.  "Uh, yeah,
go on Ryoga."
	Ryoga calmed down a bit and started to explain once more, "Well, anyway, a
while later, about a week or so later I ended up meeting Jude in the U.S."
	"Meeting?" Jude said, "You didn't just meet me you saved my life."  Jude
grinned for a bit, then his face grew serious, "Well, you go ahead Ryoga,
you had a better view of the situation anyway."
	Ryoga went on to describe the accident and Jude's memory loss and their
getting lost the next day.  He detailed a bit more but didn't get far
before getting interrupted.
	Kasumi let out an "Oh my" when she heard that Jude had no memory.  Ranma
muttered something about "Shinnosuke" that only Akane seemed to hear
clearly, this merely earned him a frown instead of the glare she seemed to
have grown so attached to.  Then the frown faded as if she remembered
something else about what he said.  She turned back to where Jude and Ryoga
were sitting with a sympathetic look.  Soun and Genma looked serious and
told Ryoga to continue with his story.  Nabiki, the person Jude pegged to
be the most suspicious of the bunch, said, "So you have no memory about
your identity at all?"
	"Just a few jumbled images, but I can't call up anything specific at all,"
Jude frowned, "When we finally did find a doctor he wasn't much help, he
just checked out the cut on my head which had healed up by that time and
said that my memory may or may not come back."
	Nabiki frowned in thought and then said, "By the way, how did you learn
Japanese?  You said that you didn't know it when you met Ryoga, the way I
see it you must be a fast learner.  Either that or Ryoga here is a
wonderful teacher."
	"Actually there was an extra factor in my learning Japanese." Jude said,
"It was, well, magic."
	Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that statement and said, "I find that hard to
believe."
	Jude blinked, then he grinned, "You're telling me that, while sitting at a
table with four people that change form with hot and cold water, you're
having trouble believing that a person could learn a language by magic?"
	"Well," she said, "I suppose you do have a point."
	"Okay, well, this is how it happened . . . "

				***

	About two weeks into our travels we found that, while we could communicate
relatively well with each other, we had trouble with other people.  Ryoga
knew bits and pieces of quite a few languages, usually just enough to ask
"Where is the Tendo Dojo?" but we seemed to be running into places where
even that didn't work more and more often.  We might have had some serious
problems if we hadn't run across Mac.
	I'm not sure what really happened, but somehow we ended up in a desert.
As with all the odd travel jumps Ryoga and I went through, it seems like it
happened when neither of us were looking.  One moment we'd be in one place
and the next time either of us looked we were someplace else entirely.  At
first it gave the whole thing a bit of a spooky feel, but anyway.  As I was
saying, we stumbled across this guy, Mac.
	He seemed to be in pretty sorry shape, when we reached him he was dying of
dehydration, or near enough to it at least.  We set up camp by him and
started to nurse him back to health, neither of us could just leave someone
like that.
	We were surprised to find that he knew both Japanese and English fluently,
and he spent most of his time recovering in conversation with us, his
speech increasing as his health did.
	After a few days he said, "You two boys saved my life, and for that, I
thank you.   I've noticed you two seem to be having some trouble
communicating, well, I'm going to help you talk to each other and everyone
else.   Language is handy for world travelers like you two you know."
	We both agreed heartily at that, the language barrier was something that
was getting harder to work around.
	"Well, I've got just the thing for you two," he said, and with that he
reached into a bag and pulled out two simple golden rings.  I refrained
from making any references to the One Ring, but if the ring turned me
invisible I vowed to run it through a fire to see if there was any writing
on it.
	(This comment drew blank stairs from everyone around the table except
Nabiki.  Jude hadn't thought she would be the type that would read the Lord
of the Rings but he couldn't fault her taste.  He made a mental note to try
to cut down on references that would be a bit on the obscure side and
continued on with his story.)
	Anyway we both slipped on the rings.   Then Mac muttered something in a
language neither of us understood and the rings started to glow with a
faint yellow light  After that I heard a rushing sound in my head and, in
what seems to have happened way too often in these last few months, I lost
consciousness.
	I awoke to a hand shaking me, "Are you alright now?" someone asked.
	I shook my head and sat up, "Yeah, I'm ok, what happened?"
	"The ring's spell activated, it works best on people who are sleeping
though, so it knocked you out."
	"Did it work?" I asked, I looked around to see Ryoga shaking his head as
if to clear out any cobwebs that had accumulated.
	"Well, it seems to have worked, we're speaking Japanese now," Mac stopped,
"*And now we're speaking English.*"
	Ryoga said, "Wow, this should help quite a bit, thanks Mac."
	"Remember you two, if you ever need help, just get a hold of MacDonald
Guffin," after he said that he walked over the edge of a dune and when we
went after him, he was gone.  Of course, it would have been nice to ask if
he could restore my memory as well but I only thought to ask when he was
long gone.

				***

	"He gave you two those magic rings and then just... disappeared?" Nabiki
asked.
	"We weren't too surprised.  There was something , I don't know, mystical
about him.  So after that we went back to trying to find some place that
one of us knew.  Too bad we ended up in Jusenkyo on the way here though,
that we could've done without." Jude replied.
	"Yeah," Ranma said, "Just what did happen that got you two dunked in
Nyannichuan?"
	Jude looked down at his hands and seemed to flush a bit, then he said, "I
think I'll let Ryoga handle that one."
	"Yes Ryoga," Akane said, "Tell us what happened."
	Ryoga took a drink and then said, "We ended up in Jusenkyo about two
months ago," beginning his part of the story.  He made a mental note to
avoid any references to his being P-chan and gave a slightly edited version
of what happened at Jusenkyo.

				***

	We walked into the valley of Jusenkyo and soon we had been greeted a
figure that should be familiar to Ranma and Mr. Saotome.  He was a middle
aged man in a green mao suit and he greeted us in Chinese saying, <Welcome
to the Accursed Training grounds of Jusenkyo, you do not want to be here
young travelers, it is a very tragic place.>
	Jude and I looked from each other to the guide, "Jusenkyo?" we both said.
	<Yes, are you here to train?> he said in a sad voice.
	<Train? No, we've heard about this place from people who have been cursed
here,> I said, <We have no plans to be cursed at all.>
	The Guide breathed a sigh of relief at that, from what he said later he
had quite a few people come through here and get cursed because they didn't
know what they were dealing with.

				***

	"Or because _Someone_ couldn't read Chinese and was too stupid to listen!"
Ranma interrupted.
	"You should respect your elders boy!" Mr. Saotome shouted, he dived toward
Ranma over the table.
	Unfortunately for him Ranma was expecting that, he had been ready for it
and used Genma's own motion against him to toss him outside, through the
rain, and into the koi pond.
	Jude blinked as a panda crawled out of the pond and tossed a sign at
Ranma.  Ranma and everyone else in the sign's flight path managed to duck,
except for Jude.  He watched as the sign flew toward his face.  Something
told him he should move out of the way but before he could the sign managed
to make contact with his forehead.
	"Ouch," he muttered from the floor.  Seeing that he was still conscious
and thus, not hurt too badly, everyone else went back to what they were
doing.  Akane came over and looked down at Jude.
	"Are you ok?" she asked as she helped him up from the floor.
	"Yeah," Jude said as he took her hand, "I've had worse training with Ryoga
on the road."  As he looked up at her he realized that Akane was cute when
she smiled.  He grinned and said, "Thanks Akane."  He sat back down at the
table and said, "Well Ryoga, the tale is almost done, we can't keep
everyone in suspense for long can we?"
	"You're right, there's not much to tell really," Ryoga continued his tale.

				***

	We camped that night away from the pools and warmed ourselves by a fire we
had set up.  The guide was eating with us and he was filling us in on a few
pools that hadn't been encountered in Nerima.  We both winced at the Spring
of drowned Idiot, and other very tragic stories.
	This wouldn't have been a tragic story of our own had it not been for the
trip Jude made to get some firewood, as he was returning we saw him trip
and fall into one of the pools.
	The guide and I ran up to the spring. <Oh no,> the guide said, <He fell
into the Spring of Drowned Girl.>
	He went into his typical "very tragic story" speech here and we both made
our way to the pool.
	A few moments passed, <Hey!> I said, <Why hasn't he come up yet?>
	<I don't know,> the guide replied, <But these pools do have many people
drown in them, there are many rocks for a person to hit their head on when
falling in.>
	I frowned at the thought of cursing myself but I had no other choice.   I
jumped into Nyannichuan to pull Jude out and get him back to the land of
the living.

				***

	"And the rest, as they say, is history," Ryoga said, "The guide gave us
the whole hot water cold water speech and we left the next day.  And now,
two months later, we finally get here."
	"Hey! Wait a minute Ryoga!" Ranma exclaimed as he jumped up to his feet,
"Why the heck didn't ya just hop into Nannichuan?"
	Ryoga frowned and started to answer but was cut off when Jude quietly
said, "It didn't work."
	Ranma froze for a moment and then sat back down on the floor, "What do you
mean it didn't work?" he asked.
	"We asked the guide, and then tried it anyway, Jusenkyo people pools can
cure animal curses, but not other people curses, and vice versa I guess,
although why someone would want to jump in an animal pool voluntarily is
beyond me," Jude replied.
	Ranma blinked at that and then reached out and shook Jude's hand, "Well,
welcome to being cursed I guess."
	"Thanks Ranma."
	"So," Soun said, "What are your plans now boys?"
	"Well, uh, Ryoga?  What do you think?" Jude asked.
	"I was, well, um, kinda thinking of staying here for a bit, if that's ok
that is, I don't want to impose but I also don't want to end up lost
somewhere far away from here when I try to find someplace else to go."
	"That sounds like a fine idea," Soun said, "Why, you can sleep in the
training hall, we have plenty of room, don't we Saotome?"
	Genma-Panda merely held up a sign saying, "But of course Tendo."
	"Oh that's good to hear father," Kasumi said, "I'll be sure to cook more
tomorrow morning."
	"Wonderful," Nabiki said quietly, "More freeloaders."
	"Honestly Nabiki," Akane said, "The only reason that Ranma and Mr. Saotome
cost so much is because of all the property damage they cause, you know
that, I doubt that Jude and Ryoga will knock each other through any walls
at all while they're here."  Akane of course neglected to mention all the
property damage she herself caused, thinking to herself that all of those
times were Ranma's fault anyway.
	Kasumi smiled sweetly at Akane and said, "That's right Akane," at the same
time that Ranma and Genma voiced their protests.  This of course lead to
them blaming the other about who really caused the most damage.  Jude
watched in astonishment as the two broke into a full scale fight.
	"Do they always do this?" He asked Akane.
	"Yeah, but don't worry about it, you should see them eat."
	"Oh, ok, just as long as I don't get hit with any more signs it's ok I
guess," he replied as he rubbed the spot on his head where the sign had
connected.



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