Ranma was aware of two things, hunger and a weight on this chest. He slowly opened his eyes and frowned at the large, black cat sitting on his chest, looking at him expectantly. "Mrrooowr?" the cat inquired, tilting his head to the side.

"So, you’re hungry too, huh Kuso?" Ranma asked the cat. He looked over to his bedside clock. "Do you know what time it is?" He sat up, the cat moving to his lap and butting his head against his owner’s chin, purring loudly. "It’s 8:30 in the morning, on a Saturday." Kuso merely purred, thoroughly enjoying the absent-minded scratching he was receiving.

"Well, no time like the present," the young man said, pushing the cat off of his lap and getting out of bed. He switched on the CD player on the dresser and started his morning workout to the tunes of U2’s "Achtung Baby". Kuso obligingly helped out his pushup regimen by sitting on Ranma’s back, for which he was oh so grateful.

Workout done, he ambled into the kitchen, fed the cat and poured himself a cup of coffee. He was drinking said coffee and reading the paper when the telephone rang. "Hello?"

"Ranma! You’re awake!" said the other voice.

Akane. “Well, duh I’m awake,” Ranma responded with a chuckle. They constantly baited each other and were the comedy relief of the department. “I don’t sleep the day away like you do.”

"Hmph, I know perfectly well the only reason why you’re up this early is because of your hungry cat! Besides, I’ve been up since six-thirty! However, I did not call to lecture you on your lazy habits, awful as those are, I need you to get down here as soon as you can! I’ve had a breakthrough!"

"A breakthrough, huh? You mean a break through a window, right?"

"No, you idiot! A break through in the project! You know, the one you’re supposedly a lead on?" was Akane’s caustic reply. "Get your ass down here now, Saotome!"

"Okay, okay, let me get a shower first, okay? Sheesh!"

"All right, see you soon!" Akane abruptly hung up on her end, leaving a somewhat bemused Ranma staring at the handset he was holding. He slowly hung it up, turned around and leapt straight up into the air.

"Yahooo!" he shouted with abandon, downstairs neighbors be damned. Bending over, he swept up the unsuspecting cat at his food dish. "A breakthrough! Akane’s had a breakthrough! Do you know what this means? Of course you don’t, you’re a cat!" He put the now thoroughly confused cat down next to his dish and skipped to the shower, hunger completely forgotten. Fifteen minutes later, he was showered, shaved, dressed and heading out the door, waving cheerily to Mr. Soames next door who was coming in with his paper.

A few minutes later, he was standing next to Akane in the university research lab, peering into a microscope. "Do you see?" she asked anxiously.

"I do. Akane, I think you’ve done it," he said excitedly, turning to look at her. "What did you do that was different?"

"Well, I thought about how all of the other experiments were failing, and what types of failures they were having. I noticed we were not really taking that into account and were heading in the same basic direction. I decided that wasn’t working and did this instead." She showed Ranma a piece of paper with various formulae written on it in her neat hand. He took a pair of glasses out of his pocket and studied them, nodding as he did so.

"So, I added the compound to one of our samples and, well, you saw the result," she finished proudly.

"I sure did. Excellent work, Akane," Ranma said approvingly. They had been struggling with this project for 9 months and now that he looked over her formulae and notes, it all made perfect sense and he mentally slapped himself upside the head for not seeing it sooner. He had been hesitant to accept Akane on the team, she had a reputation for defying authority and going full steam ahead for what she thought was right, but she’d behaved herself relatively well and he had newfound respect for her sometimes unconventional ways. "Let’s go into the office and you show me how you came to this conclusion on the whiteboard and we’ll start trying to duplicate this."

"Oh, I’ve already duplicated it," she asserted, leading the way to the office. "I’ve duplicated it about 4 times now. I told you, I’ve been here since six-thirty. I thought of the new formulas last night in bed."

"Hmm, must have been a boring date," Ranma snorted.

Akane whirled to face him, long ponytail almost hitting her in the face. "I was not on a date last night, Ranma!" she exclaimed with an icy glare.

"Okay, whatever, just show me the formula!" Ranma raised his hands in a supplicating gesture and Akane turned her back on him. In the office, Ranma sat at his desk and listed on Akane’s explanations, taking copious notes and asking a lot of questions, all of which were patiently answered. After a couple of hours, he became aware of a feeling in his stomach that could only be described as starvation.

"Akane, listen, I’m famished. Let’s take this to a coffee shop, kay?"

"But there’s no whiteboards in a coffee shop."

"We’ll take lots of paper. Come on, my treat. Think of it as a celebration." Ranma rose and stretched, popping various joints and rubbing his left hand, sore from all the writing.

They gathered up paper, pencils and research data into Akane’s leather bag and walked out to his car, talking animatedly. "Where to?" he asked as he started the car.

"I want pancakes," Akane said, "that means Sally’s."

"Sally’s it is, then," Ranma said with a smile. Sally’s was a small eatery, well-known to the university staff as being liberal with it’s coffee refills and not prone to running diners out as soon as they were finished with their meals. Also, Akane adored their pancakes. She continued to talk during the drive and Ranma watched her out of the corner of his eye. Although it was no longer early morning, the eastern light caught her hair, making brown highlights in her dark hair and lent her skin a nice glow. For the first time, he noticed she was wearing jeans, sneakers and a T-shirt emblazoned with the university’s mascot, a rather shifty-looking pirate under a dark blue zip-up sweater. As he parked in Sally’s lot, he ruminated on the fact that he’d never seen her dressed so casually before, nodding automatically to whatever it was that she was saying.

Sally’s being a casual, seat-yourself place, they chose their regular booth by the window that faced the main street, not noticing the vigorously non-descript van across the street. Spreading the papers out on the table, they barely noticed as the waitress filled their coffee cups and absently gave her their orders: Steak, eggs (over medium), and hashbrowns for Ranma, pancakes and hashbrowns for Akane. They talked and argued steadily until the waitress came with their orders and quickly cleared a place for the plates.

Ranma dug into his medium-rare steak, and slowly chewed, savoring the taste and noticed Akane looking at him in disgust. "What?" he asked after he swallowed.

"How can you eat that?"

"Eat what?"

"The steak. It’s all bloody and it’s meat for God’s sake," she frowned, cutting a small piece of pancake and chewing it delicately.

"Hey, I’ve seen you eat meat," Ranma protested.

"You have not, I don’t eat meat."

"Well, I’ve seen you eat eggs, anyway. Explain that away."

"Eggs don’t have eyes."

"Eyes? That’s why you don’t eat meat? Because animals have eyes?"

"Yes. Ever since I was a little girl and we went to the farm and I saw all of the cows and pigs and stuff, I’ve never been able to eat meat. It gives me a stomach ache." Akane forked up a helping of hashbrowns and saw Ranma wagging his finger at her. "What?"

"Better not eat that, potatoes have the most eyes of anything I’ve ever seen, you’ll get the worst stomachache of your life," he said mock seriously.

Akane shook her head and muttered, "Freak," and ate her potatoes, chewing ostentatiously for Ranma’s benefit.

They ate quietly, concentrating on filling their bellies and when they felt satisfied, returned to talking. "Well, all you need to do now is write up a report and present it to the board on Monday." Ranma said, sipping his coffee.

"Yeah, now the boring part." Akane pushed a piece of pancake around in the coagulating syrup on her plate.

"Hey, I’m more than willing to come over and liven it up for you, you know," he said, grinning wolfishly.

Akane rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, that’s just what I need, you prancing around my place distracting me."

"'Kane, I’m hurt. I would never prance. Strut, yes, prance? Never." He picked up the check from where it lay facedown on the table and left a $20 bill on the table, enough for the check and a healthy tip. Along with the good food and the tolerant help, they were cheap. "Come on, I’ll drive you back to the lab," he offered, standing up.

"I hope so, you drove me here," Akane said, sliding out of the booth. "You can just drop me off at my car, I’m heading straight home for a nap, didn’t get much sleep last night."

"Oh, so maybe it was a good date after all," Ranma quipped, earning a whack on the head for his efforts. He left her at her car and made sure she got in and it started okay before driving off himself. Deciding on going to his regular comic shop, he did not see the van following him at a distance.

In the shop he picked up the latest issues of Spawn, Pulp and several manga. "Ranma, come here, let me show you some stuff we just got in," said the shop’s proprietor.

"Hatta, you know I’m not into the hentai stuff," Ranma said, shaking his head. He’d known Hatta since high school and he hadn’t changed in the least.

"I know, I know, but you’ll like this," he insisted, setting a largish box on the counter next to the register. He pulled out a comic with a very detailed drawing of a statuesque woman in full dominatrix gear holding a whip.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Hatta. . . ."

"Okay, okay, check this one out." He brought one out with an illustration of a puny-looking man surrounded by beautiful women in full, lurid color. "Hmmm?"

"No, Hatta. Not my style. Come on, ring me up and put that shit away."

"Just you wait, I’ll find one you’ll beg me to sell you," he grumbled, putting the box down on the floor next to the counter. "Maybe one featuring young, shapely researchers with ponytails?"

"Hey, now. What’s that supposed to mean?" Ranma asked suspiciously.

"Mean? Hey, are you implying something? Maybe you’re implying my best friend is infatuated by a certain co-worker of his? I know I certainly wouldn’t imply anything like that." Hatta was the picture of innocence as he primly totaled and bagged Ranma’s purchases.

"Cut the crap. How much do I owe you?" Ranma griped sourly.

"$38.82."

"You gouger. Is that with the discount?"

"Yes it’s with the discount. Like you can’t afford it anyway." Hatta took the two twenty dollar bills and gave Ranma his change. He leaned his elbows on the counter and eyed his friend speculatively. "You’ve seen her today."

"Who? How can you tell?"

"You know who and you always look extra happy and you have this stupider than normal look on your face. Don’t deny it, I’ve known you almost longer than I’ve known myself."

"Okay, fine!" Ranma huffed. He leaned his elbows on the counter and said in a low voice, "She called me this morning."

"Oh yeah? What for? To set up a hot date?"

"No, to go into to office. She finally figured out where we were going wrong on the project. So we talked for a while about that and had breakfast at Sally’s."

"So what was she wearing?"

"Sneaks, blue jeans, mascot T-shirt and a blue zippered sweater.  You know, the kind with the hood."

"I knew that photographic memory would pay off sometime," Hatta grinned, standing up straight to eyeball the kids flipping through the comics. "Hey, this ain’t a library, you know."

"Go to hell."

"Not if you do first, buddy."

"Anyway, Hatta, I have to run. Gotta go shopping and all that, you know."

"Hey, I’m having kegger next Saturday, you should bring her," he invited.

Ranma snorted. "Hatta my friend, you are not going anywhere near her if I have anything to say about it. See you later!"

"Ja ne! Think about it!" he yelled as Ranma left the shop.

After leaving the comic shop, Ranma went to the store to stock up on groceries. He was trying to be more responsible about feeding himself and not getting too caught up in work. After putting the groceries away, he decided he was feeling really good and dressed in shorts and a T-shirt for a run. Leaving the building, he noticed a van parked across the street from the building.

‘That looks a lot like the van that I saw earlier at breakfast with 'Kane,’ Ranma thought distractedly as he jogged down to the park down the street. Reaching the park, he put the van out of his mind and ran briskly around the sizeable park 3 times, passing mothers with children and frisbee-catching dogs. Stretching after the run, he once again saw the van, this time nonchalantly parked next to a playground area where children frolicked and mothers gossiped.

Narrowing his eyes, Ranma decided to try to get a closer look at the van and see if he could tell who was inside. Stretching some more, Ranma started walking aimlessly in the van’s general direction. As he got closer, he heard the van’s engine start up and watched it slowly drive away. He shook his head and jogged back to his apartment. ‘That’s weird. I wonder what that was all about. Coincidence, I guess.’

Upon reaching his apartment, he saw there was a message for him on his machine. Hitting the play button, he listened as he got a bottle of water out of the fridge. "Hi, Ranma, this is Akane. I really need to talk to you about the. . . research. Please give me a call."

"Akane, huh? Well, she can wait until I finish my shower," Ranma commented as he kicked off his running shoes on the way to the bathroom. He was rinsing the shampoo out of his hair when he heard the phone ring again and turned off the water as the machine picked up the call.

"Ranma," came Akane’s voice, sounding a little shaky, "I really need to talk to you about the project. Please call me." Frowning, Ranma finished drying off and wrapped the towel around his waist. He picked up the cordless phone from it’s cradle in the kitchen, scooping more food out for Kuso who had been meowing for attention ever since he got back from his run. He dialed Akane’s number and was only mildly surprised when she picked up before the first ring was finished. "Hello?" she said tensly.

"'Kane, what’s up? It’s me."

"Ranma, thank God you’re home. I need you to come over right away." She seemed really relieved to hear from him and the tension in her voice let up a little.

"What’s going on? Are you all right?" Ranma was concerned, he’d never heard her like this before.

"Look, I don’t want to talk about it over the phone. Get over here as soon as you can, okay?"

"Come on, don’t keep me in the dark, what’s up? Are you planning a surprise party for me? My birthday’s not until next month," Ranma teased, trying to lighten her mood.

"You idiot! You think everything’s about you! I need you to get over here soon, okay? I’ll explain when you get here."

"Okay, okay. I’ll be there 15 minutes, I just have to get dressed."

"Okay. Call me before you leave."

"Why?"

"Just do it, okay?" The tension was back in her voice and she was starting to sound scared.

"All right, I’ll call you. See you in a few."

"See you."

Ranma hung up the phone, feeling extremely confused. "Great," he said to Kuso, "just what I need. A researcher going bugnuts on me. Why me?" Dressing in jeans, a navy polo shirt and his running shoes, he quickly combed his hair and tied his hair back in a neat ponytail, not taking the time to braid it as he normally did. He dialed Akane’s number again and told her he was leaving.

"Hurry, okay?" was her only response.

As he drove out of the parking garage, he saw the van again and made a decision. He made a left turn instead of the right that would take him to the expressway and Akane’s apartment and grimaced in the rear view mirror as he saw the van follow him. "Okay, Saotome, you have your answer. Whoever it is, they are definitely following you. Now, what do guys in the movies do when they want to lose a tail?" He turned to a busier street and began weaving in and out of traffic, watching the van fall farther behind and ran a red light, smiling in satisfaction when he saw the van trapped behind three other cars. He drove down for a block and turned back to the right, catching the expressway at another onramp. 10 minutes later, he was knocking on Akane’s door.

She opened it just a crack. "Who’s there?" she asked.

"Me, Ranma."

"Just a sec." She closed the door and Ranma heard the rattling of a door chain. The door opened again and she said, "Come in," closing the door behind him, locking it and putting the chain back in place.

Ranma stood in the center of the comfortable-looking living room and asked, "Okay, now I’m here. Would you mind telling me what’s going on?"

Akane shushed him with a finger to her lips and motioned him over to a window that had the blinds closed. She held open one of the blinds and gestured him to look through. Ranma put his eye to the slit and saw a van parked outside. Stepping quickly back from the window he turned to her and said, "You too?"

"What do you mean you too?" she whispered, moving back to the center of the room. "It’s been there all day. Ever since I got home from breakfast this morning. I didn’t notice it at first, but whenever I took a break from writing up the report, I would look out this window and there it was. I’m scared."

"I noticed one this morning at Sally’s and then I saw it again when I went jogging. It followed me to the park and it was following me when I drove here. I lost it in traffic and I can tell that’s not the same van as the one that was following me," Ranma whispered back, sitting on the couch.

"What are we going to do?" Akane asked anxiously, sitting on the char to the side of the couch.

"Why haven’t you called the police?"

"I don’t know. I don’t want to sound stupid. Maybe it’s not me they’re following. There are a lot of people in this building. They’ll think I’m paranoid."

"Akane, you’re scared. The police are here to protect you. I’ll call them." Ranma got up to use the phone in the kitchen.

"No!" she whispered vehemently, taking the phone out of his hands. "What if they’ve got my phone tapped? I’ll call the police and they’ll go away and come back when the police are gone. Then I’ll really look stupid."

Ranma sighed exasperatedly through his nose. "What did you call me for?"

"I didn’t want to be by myself and I was hoping you could come up with a plan," Akane admitted in a small voice, looking down at her shoes.

"Okay. Well. A plan." Ranma looked at Akane and resisted the urge to try to hug her, not wanting to seem like the was taking advantage of the situation. "Well, it looks like we have to get out of here and my place is out of the question," he mused. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "I’ve got it. I know where we’ll go for a little while. We’ll go there for a few hours, come back and the goons will be gone. Simple."

Akane gave him a relieved smile. "I knew you could come up with something. Where will we go? The lab?"

"No not the lab, too obvious. I have somewhere else in mind."

"Where?"

"I’m not going to tell you now, just in case. We’ll sit tight until it’s good and dark and then we’ll leave. That’s a couple of hours from now. Have you got anything to eat?" he asked, feeling that old emptiness come creeping back.

"Uh, well, I’m not much of a cook. . ." Akane began hesitantly.

"No problem, I’m a great cook," Ranma declared confidently, no longer feeling the need to whisper. "Can I look in your fridge?"
"Sure. You may not find much in there, though." She followed him to her small kitchen and sat on one of the barstools at the counter.

Ranma opened the refrigerator and peered inside. "Boy, you sure are a bachelorette. Some tofu, mustard and juice. No wonder you’re so skinny."

"Look in the freezer," Akane huffed. "And I am not skinny."

"Ah, that’s better." Ranma took a package of frozen stir fry vegetables out of the freezer and set them on the counter. He opened the refrigerator again and took out the tofu, setting it next to the vegetables. Looking in the pantry, he spied a box of minute rice. "Minute rice?" he asked, shaking his head sadly. In no time it seemed there were tofu chunks simmering in a sauce made of soy, teriyaki and a little mustard and the minute rice was minuting. He added the vegetables and covered the pan with a lid. He turned to Akane with a flourish and said, "Dinner will be served in 15 minutes."

"Wow, you’re amazing. You’re lucky I had those vegetables and tofu in there. I usually eat out or do the frozen dinner thing," Akane laughed, finally feeling relaxed.

They chatted quietly as dinner simmered away, resolutely staying away from the topic of Ranma’s real reason for being there. "You’ve changed a few things since the last time I was here," he noted, taking a look around. The last time he’d been there was a department function a year ago and the place had the sparse look of a newly inhabited apartment. Now there were some nicely framed Japanese prints on the walls along with several hanging scrolls. "I like the scrolls."

"Yeah. Those were presents from my family the last time they visited. They said my place looked too American."

Ranma snorted softly. "Your parents are traditional too, huh? Every time I go back to Japan for a visit, my mom trots about a dozen women for me."

"My father is very traditional. My mother. . . died when I was very young," Akane said quietly.

"I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t know," Ranma voiced awkwardly.

"It’s okay. It was a long time ago."

"So was it just your dad and you?"
"No, I have two older sisters. They raised me more than my dad did."

"Oh, so you’re the baby of the family. That explains a lot," Ranma quipped with a smile, glad to see her smile in return.

"Ha ha, Saotome. If we’re talking family, I’m going to say that you’re an only child. You act just like one."

"Oh, and how is that?"

"Let’s see, you’re bossy, always insisting things are done your way, you carry yourself like you’re the owner of the world and can’t understand when women don’t automatically offer themselves to you," Akane smirked.

"You say that like it’s a bad thing." Ranma laughed. "Yes, I am an only child and I was doted on by my mother. My father on the other hand, wanted me to follow in his footsteps."

"Oh? And what were those? Wage slave?"

"My father? A salaryman? No way, not for Genma Saotome. He is a martial arts master." Ranma said with no small amount of pride, turning the fire under the pan off and lifting the lid, poking the vegetables and tofu inquiringly. "Ready to eat?"

Akane nodded affirmatively and moved off of the stool to get plates and watched Ranma scoop the tofu-vegetable mix over the rice. "Do you have any wineglasses?" Again, Akane nodded and got two from the cabinet over the sink, placing them in front of Ranma and smiled as she watched him fill them with fruit juice.

They ate quietly on the small dining table, Akane complimenting him on his cooking. "Thank you, when I came to the United States, I didn’t have a lot of money, so I learned how to make the strangest things taste good," Ranma responded with a laugh.

When they finished, Ranma insisted that they clean up. "I don’t want whoever it is down there to think we were leaving in a hurry or running away from them."

"That makes sense. I’ll dry," Akane offered, getting a dishtowel from under the sink. They finished quickly and Akane looked out between the slats of the blinds. "They’re still there, Ranma. What next?"

"Let’s see, you should gather some things for the next couple of days. I know we have the board meeting on Monday, but we may need to stay in a hotel. Grab your laptop as well. Do you have any notes on the project?"

"Yes, in the office. They are all in one folder on top of the laptop. Give me 5 minutes to gather my stuff."

"Okay. I’ll get the computer and the folder together." Ranma entered the office and saw the computer on the desk, surrounded by family photos. One very old black and white one stood out and Ranma surmised it was her mother. He found the carrying case and secured the laptop and the folder along with the other computer accoutrements and went looking for Akane in her bedroom. "You almost ready, 'Kane?"

"Yeah, wait right there, okay?" she said from the bathroom.

Ranma stood by the bed and looked around this room. He saw more family photos on the dresser and a large decorative fan above the bed, which he thought was a nice touch. Akane emerged from the bathroom with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder and Ranma felt a little guilty about looking around her room, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. "I’m ready."

"Okay. Let’s go down to the lobby and I want you to wait there. We’ll take my car. I’m going to check in the garage and see if I see anyone waiting there and come back to get you. Don’t go anywhere, okay?"

"Okay."

"Let’s go."

They made their way down the hall to the elevator after Akane locked her door securely and, leaving Akane in the lobby, went to check the garage. Seeing no one obviously around the car, they went to the garage and got in the car. "Akane, I want you to put your head down so they don’t see you and I’ll tell you when it’s okay to sit back up."

Ranma exited the garage and as he expected the van stared up and began to follow. He told Akane to hang on and executed a sharp right turn, once again heading toward busier streets. He followed the same tactic he’d used earlier in the day and to his satisfaction, lost their pursuers handily. "Okay, you can sit up now."

"Whew! Where did you learn to drive like that?" Akane asked, looking behind them.

"Kinda picked it up on the way over to your place. Did I tell you I was followed myself?"

"You did. You sure do tend to repeat yourself," Akane teased, feeling a need to break the tension.

"Smart ass. Anyway, the place I thought of is my buddy Hatta’s place. We can hang out there for a few hours at least, maybe even overnight. Sound okay?"

"Yeah, sounds fine. As long as I’m not alone." They made good time and soon were at the comic store Ranma had visited earlier in the day. "He lives in a store?"

"No, he lives above the store. He’s done pretty well and owns the whole building." Ranma pulled the car to the back of the store and killed the engine, looking around the area to see if anyone was about. Not seeing anyone, he got out of the car and motioned for Akane to do the same. They walked to the steel door in the back of the building and Ranma pushed the button on the intercom.

"Yeah?" said Hatta.

"It’s me, Ranma. Can I come up?"

"Ranma! Yeah, sure. Hang on a sec, okay?" A few seconds later, they heard a buzz and Ranma opened the door, holding it for Akane. They climbed the stairs to Hatta’s apartment door, which was open.

"Hatta?" Ranma called from the doorway, not wanting to just barge in.

"Ranma! Come in! C’mere, you gotta see the boobs on this. . ." Hatta said, coming into the room. He stopped abruptly when he saw Akane standing in the doorway next to Ranma. "Uh, hello," he smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"Hello," Akane said cooly.

"Uh, Hatta, this is Akane. Akane, this is my friend Hatta." Ranma introduced the two, feeling supremely lame. Ranma moved in the room, motioning for Akane to follow. She did so hesitantly and Ranma saw her taking in the pizza boxes, beer cans, comics and girlie mags strewn around the apartment.

"So, what brings you two here?" Hatta was asking, clearing room on the couch for the two of them.

"Well, it’s kind of an odd story. A van has been following me around all day, and one has also apparently been following Akane around too. She was kind of spooked, so I was wondering if you could let us stay here for a while," Ranma explained, watching the play of expressions across Hatta’s face.

"Wow. Sure, sure! Stay here as long as you like! I have plenty of room!" He swung his arms wide to encompass the whole mess. "Do you know why they’re following you?"

Ranma shook his head. "No, no I don’t. I’m hoping they’ll just go away." Next to him, Akane nodded silently. Ranma and Hatta continued to talk and he noticed Akane’s head beginning to droop. "Hey, you wanna go lay down?" Ranma asked her.

"Yes, I’m tired. I think it’s the extra stress." Akane looked around at the room, not relishing bedding down in a mess of boxes.

Hatta noticed her look and said, "Akane, follow me. I have an extra bedroom." He got up and moved down the hall. "The bathroom’s over there and here is the room." Ranma, who was following as well, saw an excruciatingly neat room with a small double bed and raised his eyebrow at Hatta, who only shrugged. "Everyone’s gotta have secrets, Ranma. If you need anything, just ask, okay?"

"Yes, thank you. I really do appreciate you letting us stay here for a little while. I’m sorry if I seem bitchy, I’ve never had anything like this happen to me," Akane apologized as she went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Ranma and Hatta went back into the living room and sat on the couch. "So that’s Akane," Hatta said, leaning back on the couch and turning on the TV. "She’s quite a looker."

"Yeah, that’s her."

"Those big brown eyes, that beautiful long hair and that figure! Wow."

"Hatta."

"What?"

"Shut up."

"Oh. Having a bit of trouble, are we? Some of that ‘damsel in distress’ action going on, huh?"

"Shut up." Just then, the door to the bathroom opened and Ranma quickly said, "And that’s why they call it DNA."

"I’ve always wondered that," Hatta said, faking fascination. Akane just shook her head and walked to the bedroom.

A few minutes later, they heard Akane walking back into the room. Ranma looked over and his eyes widened when he saw her in shorts and the same mascot T-shirt, but things seemed a little less under control under there. "Ranma? I think you’d better come look at this," she said quietly.

Ranma got up off the couch and followed her into the bedroom. "I looked out the window, you know just to make sure, and, well, take a look." He moved the curtain a fraction of an inch to the side and saw a van parked outside across the street. "It’s not the same one that was outside my place," Akane was whispering.

"Shit," Ranma cursed softly, turning away from the window. "You’re right, it’s the one that’s been on me all day. Hatta, do you have a black sweatshirt and black sweats?"

"Yeah, you need them?"

"Yeah. I’m going to sneak out and take a look around," Ranma said, taking off his shirt. Hatta returned with the sweats and he put on the sweatshirt, moving into the bathroom for Akane’s sake when he put on the pants. "Can you let me out front?"

"Yeah, come on."

"Ranma," Akane said, "be careful, okay?"

"Don’t worry. Be ready to call the police, just in case." He left the apartment with Hatta, surprised at Akane’s admonishment. Hatta unlocked the main door and Ranma went out, sticking to the shadows of the buildings. Luckily there was no moon out tonight and the van was parked just at the edge of a streetlight.

He slowly approached the van, knowing the watchers hadn’t seen him yet because the van was still quiescent. He paused to watch and consider his next course of action when the sliding door on the side opened and a person with long, dark, unbound hair came out to stand next to the van, taking care not to be seen by anyone who might be watching from the window. Ranma snuck a little closer and crouched, ready to spring.

The person turned their back to him and Ranma leaped up into the air, bringing his fists down hard on the base of the skull. The figure staggered and tried to whirl around to face him. Ranma quickly grabbed the person and crushed his forearm against the windpipe, trying to subdue the thrashing person. "Who are you? Who sent you?" he asked harshly between clenched teeth. He never heard any response, because his world suddenly went black.

**

Hatta watched in horror from the comic shop doorway as his friend fell under the assault of another attacker behind him, and froze for a moment, unsure of what to do. "Hatta?" came Akane’s voice from behind him, startling him.

"Akane? Akane!" He whirled around to face her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "We have to get out of here!"

"What? What about Ranma?" she asked, frowning at Hatta’s sudden insistance.

"Ranma’s been caught by whoever it is out there and if you don’t want to get caught too, you’ll come with me! Ranma can take care of himself." Hatta let go of her and ran for the door in the back of the shop, springing up the stairs. Akane, concerned for Ranma, took a look out of the window and, not seeing Ranma, turned and fled after Hatta. In the apartment, Hatta was hastily gathering up clothes and threw Akane’s jeans at her when she came through the door. She put them on and jammed her sockless feet into her shoes, running into the bedroom to grab her bag and laptop.

She joined Hatta at the door of the apartment where he waited nervously and gave him a nod to indicate her readiness. He took a deep breath and opened the door, looked out into the hallway and moved out, indicating Akane to follow him. He locked the door and headed down the hall, moving to the door Ranma and Akane had come up earlier. Coming to the door, he cautiously unlocked it and slowly opened it, sticking his head out in what was probably not his brightest move of the evening. Akane saw his body to stiff and sag to the ground.

"Hatta?" she questioned stepping up and opening the door wider. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw his limp form sprawled on the ground, the lenses of his glasses cracked.

"I think your friend has decided to take a short nap," said a shadowy figure in front of Akane perched on what looked like a long stick.

"Who?" was all Akane had time to say before she too knew the world of unconsciousness.

**

Ranma felt like he was swimming in a thick mass of molasses, fighting desperately to surface, and slowly opened his eyes, shutting them quickly again when white light stabbed his pupils painfully. "Oh, man," he mumbled, opening his eyes again, gradually becoming accustomed to the light. He started to sit up and realized his hands were securely tied behind his back and his legs were tied at the ankles. "What the hell?"

"Ooohh, my head," groaned Akane to the left of Ranma. He looked over and saw her hands and feet were tied just like his.

"Akane, open your eyes slowly, it’s bright in here."

"Ranma, what happened?" she asked quietly.

"I don’t know about you, but I got hit on the head." He looked around the room and saw they were on the floor of Hatta’s extra bedroom. "At least we haven’t gone far." He saw Hatta starting to stir to his right and noted that he too was tied. "Akane, what happened after I went out?"

"Um, well, I got curious and went down to the store and saw Hatta standing by the window, looking out. I could see the van, but not you. I said Hatta’s name and he turned around, babbling about having to get out. I put my jeans and shoes back on, we went to the back door you and I came in, Hatta stuck his head out and I guess he got hit on the head, ‘cause he kinda slumped to the ground. I opened the door and there was this thing, I guess it was a person, and they hit me too. Then I woke up here."

"Mommy, I don’t want to get up yet, 5 more minutes," Hatta groaned, trying to turn over.

"Hey, bozo, wake up," Ranma said to Hatta, trying to nudge him with his feet and not having much success.

"Nnnnnngh," Hatta said in response, squinting his eyes. "Ranma? You all right? Is Akane okay?"

"I’m fine, Hatta," reassured Akane.

"Yeah, thanks for trying to get Akane outta here."

"No problem, I think." Hatta grimaced some more, trying to get adjusted to the light. "Man, does your head hurt this much?"

Before Ranma could answer, the door opened and a young girl dressed all in black stood before them. He could see that the clothes were not exactly designed to conceal her figure in any way, but rather to accent it. Her eyes were fierce and she glared at Ranma. "You," she voiced, pointing at all three of them, "get up now. Follow Shan Pu." She wordlessly watched their struggles to rise with bound feet for a few moments before sighing exasperatedly and removing a large knife from a sheath on her thigh. She quickly cut their bonds on their legs and repeated her earlier command, stalking out of the room. The three captives looked at each other and followed mutely.

Shan Pu led them to the living room and Akane saw a young man with long black hair and glasses pushed up on top of his head studying the screen of her laptop and what she surmised must be a woman perched on the arm of the couch peering over the young man’s shoulder, puffing slowly on a long-stemmed pipe with a small bowl. Akane applied the term ‘woman’ loosely because of the extremely long silver hair flowing from the creature’s scalp. The body was very small and conveyed a sense of extreme age, as did the wizened face. Shan Pu cleared her throat and addressed the woman in a sing song language Akane thought was Chinese, but not a dialect she had heard before.

"Thank you, my child," creaked the old woman in an ancient voice, surprising them with her use of the English language. Shan Pu nodded and moved to sit next to the young man, farthest from the captives. When she sat down, she removed the tight black watch cap and Akane gasped as she saw the long spill of purple hair fall down the girl’s back. The old woman continued to survey them unblinkingly and addressed Ranma. "You showed no small skill outside. You are trained in the Art. Who was your teacher?"

"Genma Saotome of the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts," Ranma said proudly, standing his full height.

"Saotome. . . who was his teacher, boy?"

"I would rather not say."

"And why would that be?" she asked, eyes now narrowed to piercing slits.

"To say his name would bring unspeakable evil down upon us," Ranma answered confidently.

The wizened elder looked thoughtful. "You show wisdom for all of your youth. I know of only one master so feared by his students. You are wise not to speak his name." She puffed her pipe in silence for a few moments while Shan Pu leaned in close to the man at the computer and whispered something to him in their dialect and listened intently as he whispered his reply. The old woman gestured to the pair. "My great-granddaughter, Shan Pu and her fiancee, Mu Tsu. I am their elder, Khu Lon."

"That’s great. What are you doing here?" Ranma demanded a scowl darkening his face.

"What is he doing with my computer?" Akane asked, emboldened by Ranma’s demand.

The elder merely blinked slowly and tapped some ash from the bowl of her pipe onto Hatta’s carpet. "We are here to protect you."

"Lady, I don’t know what you’ve got in that pipe of yours, but we don’t need any protecting," Ranma declared angrily.

Khu Lon patiently refilled the bowl of her pipe from a small pouch concealed somewhere on her person, tamped it down, lighted it and began to puff away. "Ah, sweet oblivion of youth," she mused. She hopped up on her staff and hopped closer to Ranma, studying him intently. Suddenly and without any change in expression, the drove her small, pointed hand into Ranma’s gut. He doubled over in pain, an explosive breath escaping his lips in a loud grunt. The two at the computer looked up briefly and then back to the screen.

"Stop it!" cried Akane, not brave enough to walk over and give the ancient woman a piece of her mind.

"Hey!" came from Hatta and he actually took a step towards the woman, but was stopped cold at a glance from her. "Uh, you okay, buddy?"

"Yeah," Ranma gasped, straightening back up to stand erect. "I’m okay. Just surprised."

"You see? A withered old woman can surprise you. How long would you survive those that are after you?"

"Okay, Khu Lon. I’ll consider your statement that you’re here to protect us while you explain what’s going on." Ranma’s voice was steadier now and he had recovered some of his earlier confident demeanor.

Khu Lon turned to the Mu Tsu and said, "Mu Tsu, will you please explain to them just what kind of situation they have researched themselves into."

Mu Tsu stood up and settled his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He came around the coffee table and stood in front of them to address them. "First, let me apologize for your current situation and let me assure you that it is only temporary. Dr. Saotome, Dr. Tendo, you are currently involved in working on a project for the department of agriculture, correct?" Akane and Ranma nodded while Hatta looked confused. "This project is to find a solution to the problem of topsoil replenishment in the American Midwest, the ‘Bread Basket’, if you will." Again, more nods. "There are certain peoples in this world who would like to have this technology for themselves."

"We have no problem with that, topsoil depletion is a problem the world over," Ranma interrupted.

Mu Tsu smiled. "A noble sentiment, if that was all your new compound did. You see, what you have found is a simple, portable, non traceable way to decompose silicon." Here he paused for a moment. "One can turn the Sahara Desert into the world’s largest farm, or one can destroy all of the world’s computers, plunging the world into complete chaos." He paused again and saw the dawning comprehension on the two doctor’s faces.

"Ranma. . ." Akane said, turning to look at him, a horrified expression on her face.

"Bind the compound to a harmless gas, put some in the New York Stock Exchange ventilation system, instant Armageddon," Mu Tsu said slowly. "Fortunately, there are few in the world who would want to do that. We know of one madman, George Iversson, who knows of your research and is willing to sell it to the highest bidder. As far as we can tell, he’s the only person who knows what it’s truly capable of."