Ghost Story
by Mike Loader

R1/2 and assorted characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. 


  Now as I sit and talk to you, I see your face go white
  This shadow hanging over me is no trick of the light
  The spectre on my back will soon be free
  The dead have come to claim 
  A debt from thee
  Did you keep a watch forra dead man's wind 
  Did you see the woman with the comb in her hand
  Wailing away on the wall by the strand
  As you danced the Turkish Song of the Damned
                -The Pogues

	Boring. Boring. Boring.

	I sat in class, listening to Hibiki-sensei drone on about 
Ethiopia. Well, okay, maybe drone was the wrong word to use. 
He's one of the more interesting teachers; when he talks about 
these places, you get the feeling he's really been there. A 
couple of kids have tried to get details of his past, but he 
always just gives them the cold, polite stare and they back 
down. I'd back down too. Hibiki-sensei is a big guy, and way 
faster than his size would hint.

	But even with a teacher who's probably been there, there 
ain't no way you can make Ethiopia interesting.

	A message slowly blinked into existence on my desk's 
screen:

		[Are you about to fall asleep too?
                                             -Yukio]

	They stuck in the deskscreens and network back in 2004, 
at least I think that was the year. I wasn't at Furinkan back 
then.

	Now, Hibiki-sensei was a very sharp guy who would 
catch even the slightest physical signal, note-tossing, or 
whisper. But he had all the computer skills of a dead hamster. 
So I carefully moved my fingers under my jacket to the 
keydeck I had tucked under it, and typed out a return message.

		[zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
                                             -Tenno]

	Yukio was my best friend in Furinkan... not that I keep 
best friends scattered around other places. He was the one who 
helped me sneak the pineapple bugs into the old principal's 
office. And the termites into the new principal's office. I don't 
know what it is about principals named Kuno and their 
fetishes...

		[Where do you want to go today, the Ucchan's or the 
		Nekohanten?
                                             -Yukio]

	True to form, Yukio's stomach was going to determine 
the hour's conversation. It wasn't fair. He ate like a pig and 
was rail-thin, and I... well... I wasn't fat, but it took effort to 
stay that way.

		[Nekohanten. I don't feel like okonomiyaki today.
                                             -Tenno]

	Hibiki-sensei began to draw to a close, and I idly 
wondered what the guy had been before being hired as the 
Furinkan geography teacher. I was guessing either army or 
government work. It didn't take much effort to imagine him in 
uniform, and if he wasn't trained in some sort of hand-to-hand 
combat I'd eat my hat. Metal bits and all. Without salt.

	The blessed bell rang, and we leaped from our seats as 
one, roared, and stampeded out the door.

***

	The Nekohanten was a popular student hangout, partly 
from tradition, partly from price, and partly from decor. 
Knives, weird looking Chinese maces, swords... big on the 
whole Kung-fu routine, which was kinda cool.

	We took a seat at a corner booth, and Miki came over to 
take our orders.

	"Usual today?"

	I liked Miki. She was about middle age, with a closely-
cropped short haircut and athletic build that gave her a 
slightly male, very Japanese attractiveness, and was probably 
the best non-Chinese chef in the city at preparing Chinese 
dishes. An upbeat sort of person, friendly and outgoing, and she 
had a good memory for customers. 

	"Yeah, a bowl of ramen for me, and two bowls for my 
ravenous buddy here," I replied.

	"Two bowls and some Teriyaki Chicken," Yukio corrected.

	Miki smirked. "Good old Yukio-san. Always doing his best 
to keep me in business."

	"Well, someone has to. If you relied on Tenno here, where 
would you be?"

	"Out on the street." Miki grinned, and poked me playfully. 
"You need to eat more, boy. I could use more spending money."

	"I have enough trouble keeping my waistline under 
control as it is," I replied. She rolled her eyes.

	"Exercise, don't starve yourself. You kids today don't get 
out in the open air enough." She made three swift jots on her 
notepad, and vanished into the kitchen.

	"I'd call her cute," Yukio said speculatively, "if she 
weren't at least ten years older than me."

	I shrugged. "So're most movie stars."

	"Huh." He stared absently at a two-handed sword hanging 
across from our booth. "They're gonna tear down the haunted 
temple next week. Bet the ghost'll be mad."

	"The Ooni Temple is _not_ haunted," I told him smugly. 
"Ghosts don't exist."

	"Suuuuure they don't. People have just been seeing em for 
centuries, you know."

	"Yeah, nutcases."

	Yukio shook his head. "Tomi Michiro swears he saw the 
ghost last week. He was walking past the grounds at night, and 
he saw something white moving through the trees."

	"Tomi Michiro is full of shit."

	"Uh-uh, you know he ain't the type who'd lie about that. 
Can you imagine Tomi making up a ghost story?"

	I pictured the big, dim, stolid Michiro in my mind. "No, 
but I can imagine him seeing a custodian in a white jumpsuit 
and thinking it was a ghost."

	He snorted in disgust. "So you don't think the place is 
haunted?"

	"No such thing as ghosts."

	"Okay, then." He smiled benignly. "I dare you to spend the 
night on the temple grounds. Stay the whole night, and I'll give 
you 2000 yen."

	I smirked. "Deal. It's a pleasure to take your money."

	"Okay. I'll meet you in front of the gates at 9 tonight."

	"What, you're coming with me?"

	He shrugged. "Duh. Otherwise, what's to stop you from 
just going home and saying you spent the night there?"

	"Geez. Okay, come if you want." Inwardly, I was glad of 
the company. It'd make for someone to talk to, and the old 
temple grounds were a little creepy at night.

***

	"This place is creepy at night."

	"Yeah, yeah, stop tryin to force the mood on me," I 
snapped, glaring at him through the murk. We sat on the old 
temple porch, well away from the gaping black door that led 
inside.

	To tell the truth, I wasn't sure what unnerved me more, 
the huge, decrepit temple or the dark, overgrown woods 
surrounding it. Most temples have ordered, patterned grounds. 
The derelict Ooni Temple was like a haunted house plopped 
down in the middle of a wolf-haunted forest. If there was 
anywhere in 21-century Tokyo that ghosts hung out, I had to 
admit, this would be the place.

	"They say she drinks the blood of the living."

	"Oh, so now it's a she?"

	"Yup." Yukio leaned closer, his voice dropping to a 
conspirator's whisper. "They say that she was a priestess 
killed in the big war, and now she haunts the temple and kills 
anyone she can catch."

	"Uh-huh." I looked at him skeptically, carefully keeping 
my rising nervousness off my face. "Sure she does. Maybe I can 
ask her to go to the prom with me."

	"She's got a big bloody wound in the middle of her 
chest..."

	"Oh, lay off, Yukio. You're overdoing it."

	"And she's all white and bony..."

	"Quit it."

	"And..."

	Slowly, reluctantly, we became aware that something in 
the darkness of the doorway was moving.

	"Hey... hey, Yuk..."

	A white shape exploded out the door, directly at us.

	We yelled in terror, and backpedaled off the porch, 
falling flat on our asses in the weedy grass. The snowy owl 
that had just emerged from the temple perched on the railing, 
eyed us with mild disgust, hooted, and flew off into the woods 
to hunt.

	We lay on our backs in the grass for a second, getting our 
heartrate under control.

	"Ooooo, help me, Yukio, the big bad ghost came to drink 
my blood."

	"Yeah, you sure thought so, the way you went scrambling 
off the porch."

	"Shut up! I was just startled!"

	"Yeah, you were so startled you prolly pissed yourself."

	I stood up irritably. "This was your stupid idea, coming 
out here to play peekaboo with owls and nonexistent ghost 
women..."

	I froze.

	Emerging from the trees was a woman, a pale, haggard, 
apparition of a woman.

	"Yukio! Yukio!"

	His jaw dropped. "I told you!"

	She came closer, hunched over and moving in a sort of 
bipedal lope, and I could see that she was nude. The hair was 
matted and long, her frame was pale and ropy, almost skeletal. 
A few shreds of cloth still hung around her shoulders.

	She seemed to sense us, suddenly, and looked up.

	I recoiled. The eyes were feral and glowing, and the 
mouth... the mouth was covered with some dark, reddish stuff... 
as, I suddenly realized, were her hands...

	The expression on her face twisted into a hungry snarl.

	"Run!" I screamed, and dashed for the gates. Yukio let out 
a frightened shriek, and followed.

	I ran, and ran, panicked, sure that the ghoul or ghost or 
whatever the hell the thing called itself was hot on my heels, 
eager to sink its teeth into me. Screaming, I barreled through 
the rusting gates, Yukio only a step behind me, and I didn't stop 
running until I had reached the door to my house and was 
safely inside.

***

	I didn't see Yukio again until Geography, and he looked 
about the same as I probably did. Pale, shaken, black circles 
around his eyes from sleeping poorly. I had maybe gotten three 
hours, myself; all night long I'd kept glancing nervously at the 
window, half-expecting to see a pair of glowing eyes and a 
blood-soaked mouth...

		[Did you arrange that? Was this some sort of 
		prank?
                                             -Tenno]

	He glared at me from across the room.

		[Yeah, I know a bony middle-aged lady with burning 
		eyes and too much crimson lipstick who runs 
		around naked at my command.
                                             -Yukio]

	I glared back.

		[So what the hell was that, huh?
                                             -Tenno]

	He rolled his eyes theatrically.

		[It was the good fairy who takes away old teeth. It 
		was the ghost, you idiot! Didn't she look just like I 
		said?!
                                             -Yukio]

	"Yukio. Tenno. See me after class."

	I winced. In the excitement of the moment, we had been 
obvious enough to be caught talking in class by Hibiki-sensei. I 
could practically feel the disbelieving stares from the rest of 
the class. You had to be really sloppy for the guy to catch you 
passing electronic notes.

	The class dragged on... Libya was slightly more 
interesting than Ethiopia, especially since it got cratered in 
'09... and my mind gloomily wandered over the punishment we 
were going to receive. Hibiki-sensei was of the old school. 
Hold water buckets. Run laps. Clean every toilet in the school 
with a toothbrush.

	Class finally ended, and we stiffly trudged up to his desk 
as the other students filed out.

	To my surprise, he gave us a fatherly smile. "You boys in 
some sort of trouble? Usually you're way too careful to let me 
catch you."

	I reddened. "Well... sorry, sir... we'll be more careful 
next... er... I mean..."

	He chuckled. "Seriously, what's on your mind, son? You 
look like you've seen a ghost."

	"That's just it, sir," Yukio stammered. "We did."

	Hibiki-sensei blinked. "Well, this is a new one. And just 
where did you see this hideous spectre?"

	"The Ooni Temple," I said reluctantly. "She was all pale 
and snarling, like a wild animal, and there was blood on her 
mouth."

	"She was only wearing a few shreds of red cloth, and her 
hair was all matted, except for the tail," Yukio chimed in.

	I saw Hibiki-sensei blanch, and then he quickly 
recovered. Except for his face, which had gone a sickly grey 
color.

	"Red blood, red shirt," he said, tone sounding overly 
casual, "did she have red hair, too? Just to make a match?"

	"Yeah!" Yukio said excitedly. "Well, it was awful dirty-
looking, but it might have been red. How'd you guess?"

	"Just symmetry," he replied, looking shaken and distant. 
He stared out the window for a second, and then glared at us. I 
involuntarily took a step back. Suddenly, he seemed very 
dangerous. 

	"You boys forget about it," he said calmly. "There's no 
such thing as ghosts. It was probably some homeless woman, 
or one of those Cult of Ecstasy freaks out having one of their 
orgies in an abandoned temple. That's the sort of thing they'd 
do."

	"Yeah, that's gotta be it," I said as sincerely as possible. 
"That makes perfect sense. Could you handle it for us, Hibiki-
sensei? I mean, tell the police, if you think that's necessary?"

	He looked relieved. "Certainly! Yes. Certainly." A vague 
wave towards the door. "You can go, boys."

	We left.

	"He was lying through his teeth," Yukio muttered as we 
walked out of Furinkan. "Did you see his face when I described 
her? I thought he was gonna have a heart attack!"

	I nodded. "He knows something about that ghost, and he 
doesn't want to tell us.

	We made our way to the Nekohanten, and plopped down in 
our usual booth. "This stinks," I finally said. "He's hiding 
something, and he's scared to death of whatever it is. And I 
don't think Hibiki-sensei scares easy."

	Yukio considered this, and solemnly nodded. "You're right. 
It stinks."

	"What stinks?" Miki strolled up, order pad in hand. "I hope 
you aren't talking about the food."

	"We saw a ghost," Yukio told her. "And we think one of our 
teachers is covering it up."

	Miki rubbed her chin. "Boy, you guys have been busy. What 
kind of ghost?"

	Yukio gave her a accurate, if overdramatic description of 
the specter. "And then," he concluded, "when Hibiki-sensei 
heard about it, he went all pale and told us to forget it."

	Miki looked thoughtful. "That's a weird story. I wouldn't 
press Hibiki-sensei, though. I heard a lot about him from the 
old owners of the restaurant."

	I blinked. "You know about Hibiki-sensei? He's the man of 
mystery at Furinkan. People say he was a spy or a commando or 
something."

	She chuckled. "Close. He was one of the best martial 
artists in the world, from what I hear, and he wandered the 
earth like that guy on 'Kung Fu'. He was also supposed to be 
short-tempered, violent, and a killer."

	"Wow," said Yukio, impressed. "Do you think he killed the 
ghost woman?"

	Miki shrugged. "How should I know? I'm just taking you 
two's word that this so-called ghost isn't just a figment of 
your adolescent imaginations. I mean, really, a nude woman 
wandering around dripping blood?"

	I stiffened, stung at having our tale questioned. "We 
really did see her, Miki. Honest."

	"And we're gonna go back with a camera tonight and get 
proof," Yukio added. I stared at him incredulously.

	"Hmm," Miki said, glancing skeptically at us.

	"If you don't believe us, come along," Yukio told her. 
"You'll see."

	She stared at him in disbelief. "You want me to go 
traipsing off to an abandoned temple in the middle of the night 
with a pair of overimaginative sixteen-year-olds?"

	Yukio grinned sheepishly.

	"Aw, what the hell. Sure." She smiled. "I wasn't doing 
anything tonight anyway, and a ghost'd be a neat thing to see. 
Where and when?"

	"Ooni temple, 9 at night," I stammered.

	"Right. And if you tell your buddies that this is a date or 
something, I'll kick your little teeth in. I have cousins with 
kids older than you. Care to order?"

***

	Miki showed up slightly before 9, lugging along a nasty 
looking Chinese sword. We goggled at it.

	She shrugged. "I borrowed it from the Nekohanten wall. 
Muggers and stuff out here. So, where's the ghost?"

	"She doesn't exactly come when we snap our fingers and 
whistle," I explained. "C'mon, we'll go sit by the temple and 
wait. Last time she appeared from out of the woods."

	We found a secluded spot by the temple porch, and 
settled down to wait. And wait.

	After the first two hours, I began to get a little 
embarrassed. Yukio just resolutely stared at the treeline, 
waiting. Miki idly ran a piece of silk up and down the edge of 
the sword, and then broke out a novel and began to read by 
moonlight.

	I was just about to give up and suggest we head home 
when Yukio suddenly sucked in his breath, and pointed.

	There, in the moonlight, loped the pale, nude, skeletal 
apparition. Her gait was a swift shamble, and often her hands 
touched the ground to help her along. In her mouth, we could 
barely make out a small, dark shape.

	Miki spat out a shocked oath, and her hand tightened 
around the sword hilt.

	"Ranma?"

	All three of us jumped, startled, and swung our gaze to 
the other side of the woods. Hibiki-sensei had appeared from 
them, looking shaken and angry.

	"Ranma? Is that your shade?"

	The ghost snarled, her eyes seeming to glow.

	Hibiki-sensei braced himself. "What do you want, ghost? 
One last fight? Revenge?"

	"He's nuts!" Yukio whispered disbelievingly. "He's gonna 
go head to head with a dead woman!"

	Another snarl welled up from the ghost's throat, and for 
a second I thought she was going to leap at him. Instead, 
finally, she dashed away into the woods.

	Hibiki-sensei stood there, for a time, and then stalked 
away.

	"Well," Yukio finally muttered. "What do you make of that, 
huh?"

	Miki exhaled. "Some of it actually might have made a bit 
of sense. I'm going to go back to the restaurant, and check the 
notes I made on the old owner's stories. Stop by tomorrow, and 
I'll tell you if I find anything."

	I nodded. "Sure. C'mon, Yukio, let's get the hell out of here 
before that thing comes back."

	Carefully, keeping a sharp eye peeled for flesh-eating 
ghouls and martial artist teachers, we slunk out of the temple 
grounds.

***

	It was a bizzare feeling to be in geography class the next 
day, with Hibiki-sensei up in front droning on about Egypt, just 
as if he was a normal teacher with a normal class and hadn't 
spent last night in a temple picking a fight with a ghost. He 
was a cool bastard, I grudgingly admitted.

		[I say we ask him about last night.
                                             -Yukio]

	I sucked in my breath.

		[You're mad. What do you want us to do, go up to a 
		kung fu maniac who has a grudge with killer ghosts 
		who he might have made a ghost in the first place 
		and who happens to be our geography teacher, and 
		say, hi, we think you've been lying to us?
                                             -Tenno]

		[Well, not quite so blunt, but yeah.
                                             -Yukio]

		[No. No. And no.
                                             -Tenno.]

		[Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiidah. I'm gonna ask him. You might as 
		well come with me. You can stand on the other side 
		of the room by the door in case he attacks us or 
		something.
                                             -Yukio]

	I sighed.

		[Look, let's use some tact though, okay?
                                             -Tenno]

***

	"Hibiki-sensei, we saw you and the ghost last night."

	I winced.

	Hibiki-sensei stared at us for a few seconds, then 
walked across the empty classroom and closed the door. "You 
did, did you?"

	I swallowed. "Yes, sir. We want to know what's going on."

	He chuckled, the sound slightly sinister. "You do, eh?"

	Yukio nodded, looking a little nervous. "Yes, sir. You 
recognized the description we gave you, and then you called 
the ghost 'Ranma'. You know something about it."

	Our teacher sighed, and slumped into his desk chair. "Yes. 
When I was a young man, I was in a rivalry with a boy named 
Ranma Saotome over a girl. Akane Tendo. We were both in love 
with her, and we fought each other like demons for her hand."

	"But you called the ghost 'Ranma,' and the ghost was 
female," Yukio pointed out.

	"He had a curse that turned him female with cold water," 
Hibiki-sensei said. "He got it while training in China."

	We looked at him skeptically. "C'mon, sir. The truth."

	He grinned at us, a frightening, slightly deranged smile, 
and then took a thermobottle from his briefcase. Setting it to 
'chill,' he poured a bit of water over his head.

	His form rippled and changed before our eyes, becoming 
that of a slightly older, Chinese-looking man.

	"What... what..." I stammered. Yukio just stared.

	"The curse from the Spring of Drowned Mongol Scout," the 
Chinese man said, a mocking smile on his face. He flipped the 
switch on the bottle to 'warm', splashed himself again, and the 
familiar visage of our geography teacher returned. "I used to 
have a much worse curse, but I returned to Jusenkyo and found 
one that not only kept me human, but fixed my directional 
trouble. I wish we'd had these handy little bottles back in the 
old days..."

	"So... so this guy was your old rival in love?" I finally 
asked.

	Hibiki-sensei nodded. "Rival and winner. I stopped by her 
house one day only to find that they had eloped together the 
night before. I set out, trying to follow them, but..." He 
shrugged helplessly. "It was as if they had vanished into thin 
air. I tried to get leads from Ukyou and Shampoo... they were in 
love with Ranma... but Ukyou was gone when I finally calmed 
down and returned to Nerima. Out searching for Ranma, no 
doubt. Shampoo was in the process of closing down the 
Nekohanten, poor girl. She said that she had failed, and that her 
great-grandmother was making her return to China. The 
restaurant was abandoned, and I never saw either one of them 
again."

	"So why's Ranma haunting the Ooni Temple as a woman?" 
Yukio asked.

	"I don't know!" Hibiki-sensei snarled, clearly upset. "I 
always thought they'd settled down somewhere together, far 
away. Sometimes I wished they were happy together. Other 
times, I hoped they were in Hell." The anger left, and he 
suddenly looked very sad. "I loved Akane a great deal, and it 
took me several years to finally forgive them both."

	"Could something have happened to him?" I asked. "You 
mentioned this Ukyou..."

	He frowned. "Ukyou... maybe. She loved him, but she was 
also violent, unstable, a bit of a lunatic... and she was getting 
more so, from what I saw. She may well have killed him in a 
fit of jealousy, although how she'd manage it is beyond me. 
Ranma was one of the best martial artists on the planet." He 
scowled. "I just hope Akane..." A dejected look came into his 
eyes, and he shook his head. "No, that's all in the past. Go. You 
wanted to hear what I know, and I've told you."

	I nodded. "Thank you, sir."

	He just stared at his desk. We quickly left.

	"Do you believe him?" Yukio asked as we left the school.

	"I don't know," I admitted. "Some of his story was pretty 
shaky, and he was awfully quick to blame this Ukyou. Maybe 
Miki'll have something for us."

***

	We related Hibiki-sensei's narrative to her in a corner 
booth of the Nekohanten.

	Finally, she nodded. "That mostly matches what the old 
owners said. Only he left out some things."

	"Like what?" Yukio asked.

	"Well, for starters," Miki said, "I bet Hibiki never 
mentioned that he tried to kill Ranma several times, did he?"

	We gaped at her. "He tried to murder this guy?" I 
squeaked.

	Miki frowned. "Not exactly murder. It's not like he was 
lying in wait with a gun or anything. They were both hot-stuff 
martial artists, and he kept trying to kill Ranma in combat. 
Maybe he finally succeeded."

	I frowned. "So what about Akane and this Ukyou?"

	Miki shrugged. "Got me. Hibiki was in love with Akane, 
from what I heard."

	"Mebbe he killed Ranma, and each of the girls thought he 
had run off with the other and went out looking for him?" Yukio 
suggested. Miki snorted.

	"Maybe. I know the owner's girl, Shan Pu, wanted to 
search the whole damn world for them, but her granny wouldn't 
let her. They went back to China, and eventually sold me the 
place. I used to eat here; always wanted to own a restaurant. 
The old woman sure could spin a good yarn."

	I drummed my fingers restlessly on the tabletop. 
"Something's wrong here. Why is Ranma haunting the Ooni 
Temple?"

	"'Cause he's dead?" Yukio suggested.

	"No," I explained, "I mean why the Ooni Temple? Why not 
a graveyard, or a ditch, or his old house or something?"

	Yukio's eyes lit up. "Maybe he died there! Maybe that's 
where the killer hid the body!"

	I rubbed my chin, and thought for a second. I really, 
really didn't want to suggest this...

	"We'd better go back and have a last look," I finally said. 
"To see if we can find any clues."

	"Right," Yukio agreed. "Clues. I've got a flashlight I can 
bring."

	Miki stood. "You boys have fun."

	"Don't you wanna come with us?" I asked, slightly 
disappointed.

	She shook her head. "I'm too old to be out chasing ghosts 
and martial artists at all hours of the night. I'm going to stay 
home and watch game shows." She smiled. "Good luck, though. I 
think you might need it."

***

	We scrambled into our hiding place by the porch, and 
waited.

	After a few hours, like a mist moving through the forest, 
she appeared, darting across the grounds in a low, animal lope.

	Scared to death, we silently followed.

	She darted through the trees, deeper and deeper into the 
forest, and we had to strain to keep her in sight. Finally, in one 
corner of the grounds against a high stone wall, she stopped, 
and hunkered down on the ground. Almost pathetically, she 
pawed at the dirt with her hands, an odd noise emerging from 
her mouth.

	Yukio finally stepped forward. "Ranma?"

	The bony spectre froze, the moonlight glowing on the 
pale, dead skin. The lamplike eyes bored directly into him.

	"Ranma?" Yukio stammered again. "Were you murdered? 
Who did it?"

	The ghost snarled, then shrunk back. A low, hideous 
shriek burst from her throat, and we quailed back, looking 
away.

	When we looked back, she was gone.

	We quickly dashed over the the spot where she had 
kneeled, and examined the ground.

	"Is it just me," Yukio said finally, "or is this spot sorta 
like a mound?"

	I nodded. "Lots of grass on it," I noted quietly. "More than 
the rest of the place."

	We stared at the earth for a few seconds.

	"There's some shovels over by the gate, for gardening."

	"Let's go get them."

	We quickly memorized the spot, fetched the shovels and 
returned. After looking at each other for a second, fear and 
excitement warring within us, we began to dig.

	One foot. Nothing.

	Two feet. Nothing.

	Three feet, and our hands are a little blistered, slick 
with nervous sweat.

	And then a spadeful of earth was thrown aside, and two 
dirt-choked eyesockets stared back at us.

	"Oh. Oh geez..."

	We slowly, gingerly dug around the skull. Ribs came into 
view, ribs and rotting yellow cloth.

	And then, next to it, another skull.

	"Oh boy," I whispered. "Ranma and his girlfriend. Someone 
musta killed them, and buried the bodies here, and everyone 
just thought they ran off together."

	"Yeah," Yukio said, staring at the skeletons.

	"I thought I might find you two around here."

	Slowly, reluctantly, we turned. "Hello, sir."

	Hibiki-sensei strolled out of the trees, grim-faced. A 
heavy-looking, baroque umbrella was held loosely in one hand.

	"Been doing some digging, boys?"

	"You killed them!" Yukio stammered. "Ranma and his 
girlfriend! You murdered them!"

	Hibiki-sensei snorted, and strolled over to the hole we 
had dug. He glanced inside, and his face went deathly white.

	"Oh God. Oh God, Akane..."

	He fell to his knees, and stared into the hole.

	"Why did you do it?" I finally asked. He seemed to feel 
some remorse, at least... maybe he would just turn himself in 
instead of killing us too...

	He looked at me, and for a second I was sure he was 
going to kill me.

	"I would never, ever have hurt Akane. For anything." Tears 
ran down his cheeks, and the horrible gaze returned to the hole. 
"Ranma must have murdered them. That's why his spirit can't 
rest."

	I blinked. "Ranma? Isn't he the other body?"

	Hibiki-sensei shook his head, and pointed to the rotting 
leather bandoleer that the second body wore. "That's Ukyou."

	Yukio frowned. "Wait a minute. If Akane and Ukyou are 
buried here, and Ranma's haunting this place, and you're 
innocent, who's the murderer?"

	"I am."

	Hibiki-sensei looked up, his face a mask of shock. "A... Akane?"

	A gunshot rang out and he staggered, tried to raise the 
umbrella, and fell.

	Yukio and I stared at the figure who had just emerged 
from the woods.

	"Why, Miki?" I finally asked.

	The Nekohanten's owner smiled. "I was in love with 
Ranma Saotome too, you see. But the other two girls... they 
were in the way. So I took care of things."

	"But Ranma found out," Yukio guessed.

	She sighed. "Yes. He would have killed me. I had no 
choice."

	"So that's Ukyou and Ranma in the hole," I said tiredly. 
None of my guesses were turning out to be right. Which was 
going to cost me my life, it appeared.

	Miki chuckled. "Oh, not really. That's Akane down there, 
feeding the worms along with the damn okonomiyaki girl."

	Yukio blinked. "But... Hibiki-sensei said..."

	"There's a pool in Jusenkyo called Akaneniichuan, where 
the tomboy bitch almost solved my problem herself. I took a 
bath in it, and then locked it by means of a magical pot. My old 
body - and my old name, Shan Pu - was much more attractive, 
but I'm going to need this one to eventually bring Ranma back 
and finally make him mine."

	"Bring him back?" I whispered, aghast. "You killed him! 
What are you going to do, raise the dead or something? Stick 
the ghost in another body?"

	Miki smiled again. "I'd explain, but it's a long story. And, 
quite frankly, you're out of time." She gestured with the gun. 
"In the hole. Now."

	We meekly complied. What else could we do?

	The gun came up. "Sorry about this, boys. You were good 
customers."

	I began to close my eyes, hoping that dying wouldn't hurt 
too much, when a snarl slowly built from behind Miki. I saw 
terror bloom in her eyes, and she spun around. "Ranma! Ranma, 
no, wait! I love y-"

	A pale shape slammed into her, almost faster than I 
could track, pinning her to the ground. I saw the mouth open, 
saw the feral, glowing eyes fix on Miki's throat, and then...

	Blood sprayed the two, and the screams of terror turned 
into gurgles, and then into nothing. I looked away.

	Silence for an eternity of seconds, and finally I looked 
up.

	Ranma sat crouched atop Miki's body, mouth wet with 
blood. Even from where I stood, in the trench, I could see that 
most of the restaurant owner's throat was gone.

	Slowly, not knowing what else to do, I raised my hands. 
Yukio fainted.

	Ranma looked at me for a second, then gave a long yowl, 
pain and horror and despair in one animal scream. And then she 
darted into the trees, and was gone.

	A low groan caught my attention, and I scrambled out of 
the hole. "Hibiki-sensei?"

	"Call... call an ambulance, son. I think the bitch got a 
lung."

***

	We shuffled into the hospital room, and put the fruit 
baskets at the foot of the bed.

	Hibiki-sensei looked up, and smiled wanly. "Oh. If it isn't 
Hiroshi and Daisuke."

	I blinked. "You knew our dads?"

	He blinked. "They're your fathers? I was just making a 
private joke."

	"Oh." I tried to picture dad consorting with ghosts and 
killers and martial artists. I failed. "I hear you're going to be 
okay."

	"I'm tough. Bullet or two, no big deal."

	"Look," Yukio finally said. "We don't mean to poke into 
your past and all, but since we almost got killed, well, we 
kinda wanna know the whole story."

	He glared at us. "Shampoo told you the whole story."

	"Not everything. Not what happened to Ranma."

	Hibiki-sensei looked away. "Something horrible. It would 
have been better if she'd just killed him."

	"But didn't she? The ghost..."

	"That's not a ghost," he snapped. "That's the live Ranma 
Saotome."

	I stared at him. "But... but she's just skin and bones, and 
her eyes, and she ripped Miki's... Shan Pu's throat out with her 
TEETH..."

	"Ranma had an obsessive fear of cats, son. If you 
confronted him with one, and he couldn't get away, he went 
into a sort of cat state. He'd think he _was_ a cat, until one of 
two things brought him out of it - the curse activating, or 
Akane talking to him."

	He gazed out the window. "Shampoo must have activated 
the Neko-ken while he was in female form. If he had been male, 
he would have turned back the first time in rained, but this... 
and the shock of Akane and Ukyou... he's probably been prowling 
around that grave since 1998, living off the same stuff cats do. Birds, rodents... probably hid in the temple or a hollow in the woods during the day, and came out to hunt at night."

	"So the blood, that first night..."

	"He'd probably just killed a badger or something."

	We just stared at him, picturing what he had just 
described.

	"So what do we do?"

	Hibiki-sensei sighed. "As soon as I'm out of this place, 
I'm going to go out there with a hot-water sprayer. Maybe the 
curse will still turn him back, bring him back to humanity. If 
not... if not, I'm going to buy a gun. He was my friend, sort of, 
and I owe him that much. Either way, I'm not going to leave him 
like that.

	Yukio nodded. "If you... if you need someone to help..."

	"I'd be pleased and honored."

	We nodded, and left.

	Tomorrow, we will go into the temple grounds, and wait 
for our ghost to appear. One way or the other, we shall lay her 
to rest.