Kasumi did her best to make "Kaneda" feel at ease, suppressing all
sign of her disappointment that the tall boy turned out to have been
in the same class as Ranma with practiced skill.  Meanwhile Akane
burned with guilt.  She'd almost never lied to Kasumi, and never
about things that were really important.  She couldn't even figure
why she'd lied this time, except...  Kasumi was such a girl.
Whenever Akane was actively trying to be feminine, Kasumi was her
inspiration.  This was sort of the ultimate failure to be feminine.

Ranma got home after an hour or so, calling "Akane?" as soon as he
got through the door.  "I'm sorry Ranma," Kasumi answered.  Akane
isn't here.  But your friend Kaneda is."

"My friend who?" Ranma caught sight of Akane, winced, and covered,
"Oh right, Kaneda, long time no see buddy.  Lemme show you around
Nerima."  He grabbed "Kaneda" by the arm and just about hauled her
outside.  "What were you doing in there?"

"Kasumi caught me trying to come in and get some hot water and what
is your problem anyway!"

"Well excuse me for worrying about blowin' your secret.  You don't
exactly make a convincing guy you know."

"I do..."  Akane suddenly realized this was an argument she really
didn't want to win.  "I don't want to make a convincing guy."

"So that's settled.  Let's go by where the wishing well was, and see
if we can find that little jerk there."  The wishing well was still
there, but a small "out of order" note had been pasted on top of the
the sign.  "Oh, this guy's a riot."  Ranma bitterly snapped.

"Thank you.  I love it when people appreciate my sense of humor."
Ranma and Akane jerked reflexively at the sound of the little man's
voice right behind them.  They spun around as the man took a careful
step back out of arms reach.  "Yeah, well, joke's over.  Change Akane
back."

"No problem."  He raised his hand and a cloud of warm mist flowed out
of it, transforming Akane back to her (damp) natural form.

"It's that easy?" Akane questioned, half-hopefully.

"Oh, you meant permanently?"

"That isn't funny!  Change her back for real, shorty, or I'll-"

"That sounds like a challenge, boy."  There was a look in those blue
eyes that reminded Ranma unsettlingly of Cologne.  "Well, far be it
from me to keep you from trying to solve your problems with your
fists instead of your brain or your heart.  I am Mizu, and I accept
your challenge."

Ranma paused to size up his opponent.  Mizu's pose was languidly,
almost insultingly relaxed.  *I've got a bad feeling about this.*
Ranma took it slow, with a few experimental low power punches.  Mizu
just swayed to the right, the left and then stepped back out of the
way.  "Don't you have a meal in a couple of hours?"  *All right then*
Ranma snarled at his smug opponent and lashed out full strength and
speed ... only to have his momentum smoothly redirected, sending him
flying into the "wishing well".  Ranma was back on his feet
immediately, lashing out with a more complex series of punches,
feints and kicks.  None of them connected, Mizu redirecting them with
prescient ease, drawing Ranma's guard off-line and then using the
opening to deliver a powerful punch.  *He's not that fast, but he's
anticipating my moves like I'm following a script he wrote, and his
moves seem to come from nowhere.  Let's change the script.*  He took
to the air, leaping over Mizu's head, tumbling in mid air to lash out
with a powerful kick at the back of Mizu's head... which cut through
thin air as the water man rolled away.  *An opening!*  Ranma lashed
out at maximum speed while Mizu was still off balance, coming back to
his feet.  *Blast!  Only grazed him.*

Mizu laughed "You tagged me, must be getting careless.  I don't often
fight human opponents of your caliber.  You are good, but to misquote
a former student of mine, you're a few centuries too early to get the
better of me!"

"I was one of her teachers.  Among other things I taught her the
shark-fist.  A girl of rare gifts, that one, and rare beauty.  A good
deal smarter than you two.  And she was shorter than me," Mizu sighed
wistfully, spawning hideous and totally inaccurate visions for his
two listeners who both shivered.  He turned his attention back to
Ranma.  "But now let us finish this exercise in pointless
belligerence."

Mizu fought more aggressively now, striking repeatedly with strange
slow punches that carried tremendous power.  No matter how hard Ranma
tried, he couldn't block them and could barely dodge most of them.
Ranma's counterattacks were repeatedly turned into throws, and then
when Mizu grabbed hold of him, Ranma only barely twisted free,
leaping upward and rebounding off a tree limb back into Mizu.  *At
last, a solid hit!  Gotta follow up now, before he puts me down.*
"Tenshin Amaguriken!"  Mizu just seemed to dissolve under the impact
of hundreds of punches.  Literally.  Then as Ranma stared, stunned,
at the puddle of water on the ground, it suddenly reformed into Mizu,
punching upward and catching Ranma squarely on the chin.  He did a
full backflip before landing on his face in the grass.

Akane rushed to him, "Ranma, are you all right?".  He painfully
pulled himself up by grabbing onto her arm and then pushed her away.
"This fight isn't over."

"But he's..."

"I gotta win!  It's the only way I can get you back to normal!"

Mizu interrupted, "Actually no.  There is a nonviolent and not
particularly difficult way for Akane to be free of the curse.  And I
never promised that she would have the curse removed if you won.
Actually the only thing that's been at stake in this contest is your
ego.  Although since that's the only thing equal to your affection
for Akane, I suppose a great deal was at stake.  Sometimes, though,
problems have to be solved not fought, and sometimes you just have to
learn to go with the flow."

Akane started to burn with anger, "Then why did you fight Ranma in
the first place?!"

"It was a good workout against a challenging opponent, and a chance
to teach a mouthy mortal some respect.  After all, he called me
"short"."

"MIZU YOU JERK!"

"Whoops, gotta go!"  Mizu dissolved again out of the way of Akane's
punch, this time without reforming.  The water just sank into the
ground and vanished.

"That was odd."  Ranma commented.

"What?"

"He seemed almost scared of you."

"That was just another of his jokes, I guess.  Still, if he was
telling the truth, there is a cure, if only we can figure it out.
Let's go home and get you patched up.  Maybe we can figure something
out."

"Right."  Ranma was limping noticeably as the two headed home.  Akane
hesitated for a moment, and then put her arm around his waist.  He
looked at her.

"I know, you don't need help.  Just let me help a little anyway, will
you?"

The walk back in the developing twilight was peaceful,  actually
downright pleasant.  It wasn't until they were coming into the back
yard of the dojo that Ranma found something stupid to say, "I gotta
figure out how to beat Mizu."  He repressed the urge to yelp as
Akane's grip tightened on his bruised ribs.

"Not, 'I gotta figure out how to cure Akane' but 'I gotta beat Mizu'?
He's right, your ego is the biggest thing you have at stake, isn't
it?!"

"It's not like that!  If I can beat him, and keep him from running
away, then maybe I can get him to tell us what to do instead of just
dropping stupid hints."

"Well maybe if you worked as hard at-"  Akanes voice which had
started to take on a strident quality stopped dead as a curving chain
arced toward Ranma, the lead weight at it's end colliding brutally
with the back of his head.

Akane gasped "Ranma!"  Putting him down, she took a ready stance over
him.  "Mousse?  Shampoo?"  The weapon reminded her of Mousse, but the
figure that revealed itself was definitely closer to Shampoo.  So was
the voice.

"No.  Am Bie-Deh, Xian-Pu friend.  You give Xian-Pu runaway husband
me now.  I take back to Joketsuzo, Xian-Pu final come home."  Her
japanese was so heavily accented that Akane had to strain to work out
the meaning.

"He's NOT her husband!"

"Is in Joketsuzo.  I take now."

"Over my dead body!"  Akane snarled.

"Bie-Deh can do," the new Amazon cheerfully replied, her chain
whipping out to crack painfully over Akane's ribs and then her
forearm as Akane blocked a shot at her head.  Akane growled again and
charged Bie-Deh.  Her weapon was primarily useful at range, so that
meant get in as close as possible.  But before Akane could, the chain
snaked around her wrist.  Bei-Deh wrenched with both hands, flinging
Akane through the air...and into the koi pond.

"Now, Bie-Deh finish stupid outsider girl!"  The Amazon lunged toward
the pond, straight into Akane's fist.  Akane's punch, always
powerful, was now devastating.  Only Ryouga would be likely to put
more power into a single punch, and Akane's punch was fueled by the
day's aggravation. *Woah.  This turning into a guy stuff isn't _all_
bad.  That's the strongest punch I've ever thrown.*

"Say, you're Kaneda, aren't you?  Kasumi told me about you." Nabiki
called as she came through the sliding doors.  "Hmm.  Judging by
Ranma's condition and that Amazon, you're pretty impressive.  Ever
fight Ryouga?"

"I didn't fight Ranma, Na-, Miss Tendo."  *There I go again, lying to
my family.  Why can't I stop it?*  Akane had the sneaking sensation
that there was something she'd forgotten to consider.  Something
important...

"You seem pretty good anyway.  Mind if I watch you spar with Ranma
some time?"  Nabiki, although not an active martial artist, actually
had a fair amount of expertise in assessing skill levels.  It's a
necessary ability to establish the point spread.

"Ohhhh"  Bie-Deh's eyes fluttered open and she staggered to her feet.
Akane suddenly remembered what she'd been overlooking.

"You strong.  Never defeat by one punch before..."

"Wait, it was just a fluke...I-I didn't..."

"Wo...Ai...Ni"

Yes, Ranma took a pounding this segment.  You gotta problem with
that?  Bei-Deh probably couldn't have gotten him out the way so
easily if Ranma hadn't already been bunged up.

Some people may be wondering why I used the Japanese for Amaguriken,
rather than translating it the way I do everything else.  I just like
the way it sounds.