Permanent 14, The Black Rose strikes!

	Gosunkugi sat in his room in his bed clothes. He was sitting at a
small and cluttered desk reading a large tome Ranma had given him for
study. His eyes were beginning to drop as sleep threatened to overtake
him. He yawned and turned off the lamp he had been using to read and
climbed into his bed. He didn't notice the window open seemingly on it's
own.
	Sasuke snuck silently through the shadows and tried to think of
what to do next. "Mistress Kodachi only said to bring him, did she mean
by force? Oh, well," thought the ninja as he emerged from the shadows and
walked over to the bed. He reached up and shook the form under the
covers. He frowned as he realized that the boy's body gave way a little
too much. He flung aside the covers to reveal a pile of pillows. He froze
as a light came from behind him.
	"Who are you? What do you want?" asked Gosunkugi as he stood over
in the other corner of the room.
	Sasuke turned and positioned himself offensively. Surely a boy
would be no match for his skills. He froze in fear as he saw the glowing
orange ball in the boy's hands.
	"I suggest you back down. This won�t feel very good if it
connects. If your lucky you might be able to put the flames out in
time..." said the boy from his corner weakly.
	"How? How could you know?" stammered the ninja.
	"Easy, you stood in the corner thinking out loud fool," said
Gosunkugi with a small smirk. "N-now don't move!"
	"I bring a message for you, Mistress Kuno wishes to speak with
you," said Sasuke as he relaxed a little.
	"Why would she want to talk to me?" said the boy in surprise.
	"It doesn't matter, My orders are to bring you using any means
necessary," said the small ninja as he reached back behind his back.
	Gosunkugi swallowed. "H-how dare you speak to such a powerful
mage like me like that?!" he stammered lamely. Sasuke smiled as he
realized that the boy was posing. He jumped and flung a wire net at him. 
	Gosunkugi reacted quickly and shoved lightly at the air. The net
flew upwards ripping a hole in the ceiling as it exited the room. Sasuke
froze in shock at this. "What the?"
	"Ooops, I guess that was too much..." said the boy as he looked
at his hand.
	The ninja backed away and tossed a small gas ball on the ground.
He frowned and placed a mask around his face as he did so. "This is more
difficult than I imagined," he muttered as the cloud enveloped him and
began to spread towards the gothic boy.
	"Life within the air I summon your power, come into my hands!"
murmured Gosunkugi as he uttered a passage from the book he had been
reading. A small breeze could be felt in the room as he cupped his hands
together, a ball of gas and air filled them. Suddenly he remembered
exactly which spell he had just muttered. "Oh, shit. Wrong spell.
-Tornado blast!-" with that a huge gust of wind shot from his palms and
slammed everything in the room into the opposite wall. He almost cried as
a few pencils, a dresser, and his bed smashed through the wall and into
the hall. "Ooops." 
	Sasuke just sat in the crater he had made in the wall and looked
at the boy in shock. He bed had almost taken his head off. "Such power! I
must defeat this sorcerer to honor my ninja heritage!" he cried almost
with tears of joy in his eyes. He seemed to vanish and Gosunkugi frowned
as he realized that his opponent was probably much more experienced at
this sort of thing than he was. Now was a good time to run. He turned for
the door just as a few throwing knives and shruken embedded themselves in
the floor where he had been standing moments before. Gosunkugi almost
passed out, he stumbled through the dark and barely avoided the multiple
projectiles that were being sent his way. Somehow none of them connected,
mostly because he was stumbling about and falling as he ran through the
darkened room. He often tripped or painfully ran into various objects
that were strewn around in the room in his mad scramble for escape.
	Sasuke finally ran out of things to throw. "Such skill! To think
that he would avoid all my shruken!" he gasped in awe.
	Gosunkugi stopped when he began to realize that nothing was being
thrown anymore. He turned and put his hands over his head. A ball of
light formed in them and he glanced around trying to spot the ninja in
the shadows. He finally looked upwards and saw him clinging to the
ceiling. Sasuke laughed nervously and fell on his face in the middle of
the floor.
	Gosunkugi backed away from him in terror. Right into a pair of
long white legs. He turned and looked upwards to see Kodachi standing on
the remains of his desk twirling her ribbon in the air lazily. Under her
arm was the book he had been reading. "Hey! That's not mine! Give it
back!" he whined as he tried to grab the book. 
	"Really treating a lady so, you should be ashamed," said Kodachi
as she wrapped him tightly in her ribbon. He panicked almost immediately
and began to struggle. "It seems there is some merit to this...magic
after all." 
	"Mistress, I..." started Sasuke, but he was cut off by a glare
from Kodachi�s dark eyes. He hung his head in submission and growled. His
honor would not be fulfilled now until the battle with the young sorcerer
was finished.
	Kodachi pulled the boy up close to her face and smiled at him. "I
may need this one, he has experience in such things as this," she said to
Sasuke as she held up the book.
	"Yes, mistress," said the ninja simply.
	"A bit boring isn't he?" she said as she gazed into the petrified
Hikaru's eyes. He made a whimpering noise and passed out.
	"Ah, surely I am cursed with this humble beauty. I do hope he has
the courage to speak to one as fair as myself," she said as she dropped
him and tried to look demure. "Sasuke, bring him."
	"Yes, mistress Kuno."

	Ryoga Hibiki looked at the gates of the Tendo dojo. He frowned
and looked at the map in his hands. "This is it, I'm back," he muttered
to himself. He entered the gates and half expected to find himself in
some strange yard in some other ward. It wasn't though, the Koi jumped in
the pond and he smiled lightly. The dojo stood in the back where it had
always been. Kasumi was in the kitchen cleaning and humming to herself.
He opened the door and smiled a little more as he walked in and kicked
off his shoes.
	"Oh my, We have visitors," said Kasumi as she walked out to greet
him. Soun looked around his paper with slight interest.
	"Ah, Ryoga! We weren't expecting you back for some time," he said
cheerfully. His opinion of the boy was still uncertain. He had seemed
honorable and a nice enough, but his relationship with Ranma was
questionable to him at best.
	"I need to speak with Ranma," he said with a large grin.
	"Oh dear, Ranma is in school right now," said Kasumi looking
worried.
	"That's all right, I can wait," said Ryoga as he sat down at his
usual spot at the end of the table. Soun glanced at him one last time
before settling. Accept for the large stupid grin on the boy's face,
everything seemed to be falling back into the usual pattern. Soun liked
predictability, but that seemed a distant memory since the young
sorceress and her strange family had moved in. 

	Akane sat at her usual place at lunch with Ranma. Yuka, and
Sayuri. New today however were the two newest students of Furinkan, Ko-li
and Talcum. Neither of them had moved very far from Ranma. They seemed to
cling to her for protection from the strange culture around them. However
close to Ranma they say they always held their heads up in almost pride,
most of the boys had started to drool immediately. The two girls took it
in stride and ignored them as they should as Amazon warriors, the boys
didn�t exactly make them want to socialize, most of the girls didn�t
appear to interested either. Ranma at least could speak their language. 
	Ranma and the two girls had become pretty close since she had
started working for Cologne a few months ago. Ranma had even succumbed to
calling them sisters. They had always called her that and made an extra
effort to make her feel welcome to the Amazon tribe. Ranma was wary at
first, mostly because of the nature of her induction into the tribe.
Eventually she realized that they did not blame her for Shampoo's
condition directly. In fact they seemed to think she deserved it. Ranma
had spent more and more time outside work with them as the weeks drug on.

	Akane was a little jealous of the closeness the three had shown
in such a short time. She had known Ranma for much longer than either of
the two Amazons and they had a sort of bond that she just didn't
understand. Ranma was still closer to her than either of the two girls
but it still made her feel a little akward when trying to talk to them.
It was as if they really were sisters, and she was...She didn't really
know. Sometimes she felt like a twin sister, other times she felt like
they were dating. Ranma was very protective of her at times. She didn't
really understand their relationship, but that was probably why she liked
being around her so much. 
	Ranma stopped eating, "Ryoga's back," she said simply.
	"Huh? How did you..." Akane started to say when she remembered
Ranma's strange hobby.
	"Is boy friend?" asked Talcum.
	"More like brother," said Ranma with a mouth full of food. 
	"Ah," said Ko-li with seemingly instant understanding. The other
girls looked at her and Ranma in confusion.
	"It's like that with Mousse. I still understand him like no one
else, even with the way he is now," she said simply.
	<You know Mousse well?> asked Ranma in Chinese stopping her meal.
	<We grew up together if that's what you mean. I always seemed to
understand him, I don't see what was wrong with him. Shampoo would have
been lucky to have him back then. She was more blind than he ever was, I
suppose that's why I forgave you for her so quickly.>
	Akane and her friends just looked at them blankly. 
	"Sorry, it's kind of personal," explained Ranma.
	"It's OK, I sort of understand," said Akane with a shrug.
	"Both of them give me the creeps," said Ranma with a shudder.
	"Well he stay's with her most of the time, he has to really. We
keep them upstairs when you work. They have free run of the restaurant
when your off though," said Ko-li with a friendly smile, she leaned on
Ranma playfully and Ranma shrugged her off.
	"Cut that out, you know I hate hearing about those two," muttered
Ranma.
	"Oooh, Is Ranma scared?" chimed Talcum as she leaned on the other
side of Ranma's back.
	"Hey! I ain't scared of nothing!" cried Ranma angrily.
	Akane and her friends giggled. Ranma saw this and blushed.
	"Meow!" said Talcum in Ranma's ear. The girl froze and shivered.
	Akane looked at her queerly for a moment and smiled. "Is
something wrong Ranma?" she said as she leaned closer to her. She had a
mischievous look in her eyes that Ranma didn't like.
	"No, why would...there be?" stammered the girl pathetically.
Luckily Akane backed away and Ranma sighed in relief. 

	"Well, if it isn't the lazy school girls," said Cologne with a
sour glare at Ranma and her two sisters as they entered the Cat Cafe' and
tied their aprons around their waists.
	"Sorry Goul, we sorta had to stay late for some paperwork," said
Ranma with a quick smile.
	"And they needed you there?" said Cologne with her eyes narrowing
as she gazed at Ranma.
	Ranma laughed a little nervously and backed away. As much as she
liked the other two girls, she had no real love for Cologne.
	"Need Ranma read Kanji," chirped Talcum peppily as she entered
the floor with a tray and headed for a customer.
	"She's right, I couldn't read all of them," said Ko-li as she
followed.
	Cologne snorted, "Just don't let it happen again." 
	That was when a familiar scream came from directly behind her.
She turned to see Ranma standing on a table with a look of complete
terror in her eyes. A small white cat sat and bat at her with it's paw
playfully. It jumped for the chair in an attempt to chase her and missed
by about two inches to the right. It's ears perked up and it jumped
again. Ranma shreiked and jumped back further onto the table.
	Cologne's staff came down on the animal's head and it passed out.
"How did you get out? I told you to stay in you room with your wife you
blind fool." said Cologne as she picked Mousse up by the scruff of his
neck. She pogoed up the stairs and tossed him into the room before
closing the door.
	Ko-li was trying her best not to laugh. "You make sure Shampoo is
not running loose as well. I'd hate to have Ranma freeze up in the middle
of the rush.�
	"Is not funny." snorted Talcum as she helped the still shaking
Ranma down off the table.
	"I'm sorry sister Ranma, I just...you should have seen the
look..." Ko-li fell into yet another fit of laughter.
	"Jerk," muttered Ranma as she stormed off and calmed down a bit
more.
	Talcum walked over and hit Ko-li on her head. "You be nice to
sister Ranma," she growled.

	Kodachi sat in her chambers with the book open before her.
Gosunkugi was bound by chains hanging from the wall and had long since
given up struggling. He simply hung there and waited. Kodachi snorted as
she closed her hand and smiled at the smoking remains of one of her
brother's practice dolls. "Interesting," she muttered as she tried to
find some formula or explanation for what had just happened. Nothing came
to mind. 
	Gosunkugi noticed her look and frowned. "You c-can't calculate
it, Th-that's why its called m-m-magic," he stuttered. Kodachi had not
bothered to change her leotard and the boy was not accustomed to seeing
quite so much.
	"Quite," snorted Kodachi as she realized that there was some
truth to what the boy had said. 
	"Oh, look a demon summon spell!" she said in excitement as she
flipped and stopped on a page.
	"NO!" cried Gosunkugi in shock. "You can't!"
	"Can't I?" she said smugly.
	Gosunkugi almost gave up. "If you can't be sure if you can
control or kill it when it comes we could all die," he said weakly.
	"Perhaps your right, I suppose I should practice some of the
smaller things first. Besides, it will take some time for Sasuke to
gather the necessary ingredients," she said in her most dainty voice.
	Gosunkugi froze. The only summon spell in the book that needed
ingredients was a top level demon summon spell. It could call forth one
of the kings of hell. He had to find a way to contact Ranma, fast. His
mind raced for some answer in the many spell books he had read, none
came.
	"What am I gonna do?!" he thought.
	
	Ryoga sat patiently after Akane and Nabiki returned home. "Well
what do you know, Ranma was right," said Akane as she entered the home
and saw him sitting there. 
	Nabiki just looked at her and frowned. She hated being in the
dark about anything.
	Ryoga stood and greeted them politely before they all settled
into their normal routine.
	A few hours later Ranma walked in and saw Ryoga sitting at the
table. "I thought I told you to take a vacation, I bet you never even
left Nerima," she snorted.
	"Ranma, I did leave Nerima, I went all the way home. There wasn't
anybody there. That's when I realized what had happened to me. Why I felt
no grief at being alone in that place. It just wasn't home anymore, my
family are like distant relatives I never really see accept on holidays.
Your my real family," Ryoga looked close to tears.
	"Thanks, I guess, but still I figured you'd like some time to
just enjoy your manhood," said Ranma with a smirk.
	"I have all the time in the world here, I'm cured remember?"
	TBC...

	Next time:
	This ending isn't quite as emotional as it sounds, find out why
next ch.
	Also Kuno gets some time in the story. More about school life for
the two Chinese girls. Kodachi starts growing more and more powerful and
Gosunkugi is discovered missing. Can Ranma get him back from the clutches
of the evil Kuno sibling? Does he want to leave?
	Ranma and Ryoga have a heart to heart, Ryoga reveals some
surprising developments about his family and himself.
	Maybe even another appearance by someone who hasn't shown up yet.
It isn't Ukyo, I have special plans for her.
Ja!
C&C to Catbert25@juno.com

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]