~Febuary 28~
    “ Still engaged to Nabiki.” Ranma thought to himself. Talk about backfires. 
Nabiki went too far and now Akane seems more determined to fight her own 
jealousy than to get him back. Even though he had not so much as hugged Nabiki 
since the day of their charade. Oh well. 
    Now he sat in a examination room waiting for Doctor Yoshitomi to come in and 
tell him just how many years he had left to him.
“ What the hell do I do when I find out?” He mentally asked himself. “ Do I tell 
everyone and hope that they will all let me quietly break all promises and oaths 
to them? To expect them to just let me go off somewhere and die? Since when have 
I known anyone aside from Kasumi that was that understanding? No, they’d try to 
mount some rescue mission to search for some magical cure, or to fight some God 
of death to stop me from dying. It was once tempting to try and go out to see if 
there is a cure somewhere in the world for me. But how many times have I tried 
to have a simple curse cured? There just isn’t any honor in fighting a death 
that has been preordained since my birth, right? Bushido teaches the ultimate 
acceptance of death. Now it is just a question of how many years I have left. 
Ten? five?”
    Ranma stared at his hands. They were strong hands, hands that could tear 
steel and crush stone. They would be dead as the rest of his body before they 
could even fill out into his approaching prime. 
    The door opened briskly and a nurse walked in, scanning over something on a 
clipboard. The woman didn’t look up until she was standing in front of him. When 
she did it was to give him a puzzled look.
“ Mister Saotome Ranma?” The nurse asked.
“ That’s me.” He nodded. “ I’m waiting for Doc Yoshitomi.” 
    The nurse’s eyes only widened. “ But you’re younger than me.” The nurse 
mumbled.
“ Doesn’t matter.” He tried to smile. 
    The door opened again before the nurse could respond. Doctor Yoshitomi 
entered with a stoic mask of a facial expression.
“ How long?” Ranma asked. “ Five or six years before I kick off?” 
    Yoshitomi gestured for the nurse to leave.
“ Doctor?” The nurse seemed confused. “ I was supposed to check Mister Saotome’s 
blood pressure and vitals.”
“ That’s not an issue for the terminally ill.” Ranma waved the nurse out of the 
room, suddenly irate at her continued presence.
    Awkwardly, the nurse left the room. Yoshitomi shut the door, turned around 
and leaned her back against it. The stoic mask no longer covered her eyes, which 
were clouded with troubled thought.
“ This kind of tumor grows like clockwork.” Yoshitomi began. “ If you want a 
more exact date we can take another scan to be sure.” 
    Ranma waited a few moments for the doctor to continue. When she did not he 
stood and approached her. “ How long? You haven’t told me how much time I have 
left.” 
“ Around mid June you should experience sex drive for the first time as the 
tumor stimulates the blocked area by the pressure of it’s growth. You should not 
experience any detrimental effects until late October.” Yoshitomi paused and 
took a breath before finishing. “ Sometime between November first and December 
tenth you will die. No way to make a more accurate estimate without further 
testing. It’s possible you may even die in late October.”
    Ranma found himself clutching the wall as his legs shook under him. All 
strength seemed to have vanished in that final proclamation. “ I don’t even have 
a year left?” He heard a ragged voice rasp. “ I’m not even going to see 
eighteen? I’m going to die seventeen years old?”
“ I wish I could express how sorry I am Mister Saotome.” 
    He looked up at her as he slid down the wall, her image blurred over as 
tears welled up. “ Not as sorry as I am.”

                           *         *         *

    Ranma tried to remember how he had gotten here. Or even where here was. 
Nothing. After he had left the hospital lobby all he could recall for the space 
of hours was a feeling of being lost. Lost in a way even Ryouga could not 
understand. It was the feeling of having the decades of youth, age, family, old 
age and all the life of those thousands of days taken away. To suddenly know 
that there would be no prime, he would never even grow to his full height before 
his life ended. Years of adventure, of love, of fighting, of everything, gone.
    Now he walked down some street in Tokyo’s sprawl. Hundreds walked on the 
street with him. Men and women of all ages. He watched an elderly couple walk 
down the street, shoulder to shoulder. Just passing him was a young couple still 
wearing their junior high school uniforms, walking hand in hand and arm in arm. 
A middle aged salary man brushed by him with a murmured apology. A trio of ten 
year old children dashed by, weaving through the crowd. 
    It was as if he were no longer one of them. Like he was the only person 
called out of the game that everyone else still played. Sure, some of the people 
he saw might meet their game’s end before him in some accident, but then again 
he might be the only one in this crowd of hundreds of humanity to drop from the 
game in this year. It was as if he was no longer a person, left behind by 
everyone who had a life to look forward to. He had nothing, but a death as 
unstoppable as the winter it would come in.
    Ranma felt an anger well up from depths he never knew existed. But it slowed 
and stopped well before meeting the surface. Feelings of shock and an emptiness 
he had never known before weighed to heavily on the anger. It only churned under 
the surface, patiently waiting to rage upon this unfair world.
“ Young man, you carry far to heavy a heart for your years.” 
    Ranma blinked and turned towards the voice. He had been walking by the 
courtyard wall to a temple. Through the crowd he met the easy gaze of a old monk 
sweeping the front gates.
    He opened his mouth to say something then closed it and waded through the 
crowd to stand in front of the elder.
“ What makes you say that?” He asked.
    The old monk smiled. “ That it is true. Would you care to tell me what it is 
that troubles you so?”
“ I’m terminally ill.” Ranma found himself confessing. “ The Doctor said that I 
should be dead sometime between October and December.”
“ Of this year?” The monk asked, his eyes wide.
“ Yes.”
“ Now I see how one so young can have such a burden.” The monk nodded to himself 
somberly. “ With such little time you will feel urgency soon.”
“ What?” 
    The monk looked up at him with an expression of understanding. “ Soon you 
will come to understand just how little time you have left to you. Once the 
shock has left you anger will fill your being. Purge it, and seek two things. 
One: to fulfill those obligations you must before the end of this life. Two: 
seek peace so that you may rise to your fate with the serenity of the Buddha-
mind.”
“ I’ve already started thinking about how I’m going to tie up loose ends, but 
what do you mean seek peace? I’ve been a Buddhist my whole life and martial arts 
mediation makes me feel better than thinking about the eightfold path.”
“ Then no one has shown you the meditation that is right for unclouding your 
eyes to your own Buddha nature.” The monk replied.
“ And you can?” Ranma folded his arms.
“ No, but there is one who can. When you feel the need we will be here for you. 
Do not mind with the time of day or night. Simply say that Ashitaka said to let 
you pass.”
“ I don’t know if……thanks old man.” 

                           *         *         *

    This was always the hardest part. Coming home and acting like he had not 
been out pondering his own death. Lying by omission to everyone he cared about.
“ I’m home.” Ranma called as he slipped off his shoes.
“ Welcome home!” Nabiki called as she rounded the corner at a jog.    Now what?
“ Catch!” Nabiki called before leaping at him.
“ Nabikiwhatthehellareyou-OOF!” 
    Fifty one kilograms of flying Nabiki walloping into his chest derailed any 
and all trains of thought as Ranma brought his arms up and his feet about in a 
mad dance to keep from toppling over.
“ Miss me?” Nabiki laughed, practically painted on him.
“ Why?” Ranma asked once he was sure of his balance again.
    Nabiki curled up against him. “ Kasumi suggested that I make an effort to 
warm up to the idea that Akane might not swallow her pride.” 
“ Since when do you listen to Kasumi about me?” Ranma snorted, walking towards 
the living room with Nabiki still wrapped around his upper body.
    Ranma froze when he felt a nibble at his ear. “ Since I actually started to 
think the same thing myself. You wouldn’t believe how long I have been jealous 
of Akane for having you.”
“ Please don’t do that.” If she kept that up he might drop her.
“ Why not?” Nabiki asked, laying her head on his shoulder.
“ I…what if…um…” Then it hit him. “ Waitafricknsecond- you wouldn’t be staging 
this whole thing to manipulate me and Akane like last time would you?” He 
whirled around, inciting a yelp from Nabiki.
“ What are you doing?” She asked, clutching on for dear life as Ranma zipped 
about the hallway.
“ Looking for the hidden camera or whatever you set up.” Ranma explained, 
leaping to the top of the stairs.
“ Put me down!” Nabiki yelped, quite unaccustomed to moving from the first floor 
to the second in a single bound. “ At least put me down first!” 
“ Sure.” Ranma came to a halt and let Nabiki disentangle herself.
“ That’s better.” Nabiki brushed a loose lock of hair out of her eyes. “ Now, I 
can understand your suspicions, due to past experiences. But you have to believe 
me this time. No tricks, at least not on you. Remember the first night? You’re 
going to be in on any plans if there are any.”
“ Oh, I believed you.” Ranma grinned. “ I just wanted you to get off me.”
    It took a few heartbeats for that to fully register in Nabiki’s mind.
“ You tricked me?” Nabiki’s eyes widened.
“ Yup.” He nodded. Now she would either get mad and hit-wait, she is not Akane- 
and yell at him or she would vow to prove her superiority.
“ Touché, my fiancé.” Nabiki smiled.
“ Wait…you’re not mad at me?”
    Nabiki shook her head. “ Why should I be? I’m glad you’re not treating me 
like Akane.” Leaving that as her closing remark, Nabiki turned and strutted off 
to her room. 
    He was absolutely certain that she was accenting her hips as she walked just 
to tease him.
    
                           *         *         *

    Kasumi was surprised to see Ranma walking alone out in the back yard after 
dark. Something in her kept her from calling out to him. Instead she half hid 
herself with the screen door and watched. 
    Long walks alone were becoming a more and more frequent part of Ranma’s day 
to day life now. At first she had thought it was his way of escaping both Nabiki 
and Akane. His way of getting out of the middle. Now she was not so sure.
    Ranma carried himself like a man defeated, confused, and lost in his own 
thoughts. He wandered around the koi pond, staring into the dark water and not 
where he was headed. His steps were more a shuffle than a stride. More a way to 
kill time than to get somewhere. 
    Kasumi found her hand rubbing her throat as the minutes crawled by and Ranma 
only wandered through the trees’ shadows aimlessly. What in the world could put 
Ranma into such a state? Just being tossed from one sister to another couldn’t 
have done it. Last time it seemed to annoy Ranma more than anything.
    A memory scratched at the back of her mind. She shook her head. Feelings she 
could not recognize fluttered about at the edges of her awareness. She focused 
on Ranma again, hoping that whatever it was would pass. 
    Ranma had stopped walking when he wandered back to the koi pond. He stared 
at the water, the expression in his eyes and on his lips let that scratching 
memory tear its way into her with a vengeance. When Ranma reached into the pond 
and changed the memory was complete. 
    Kasumi slid to the floor and hid behind the screen door. Her hands clutching 
her quivering mouth and her shut eyes. Just as he had changed into his cursed 
form, a streetlight had caught Ranma’s face well enough for her to see that same 
expression of despair that she remembered her mother wearing on the nights she 
walked alone around the koi pond, after the doctors had given her five years to 
live.
    It hurt so much to see that face again. To see someone wading into the Sanzu 
no kawa and looking back at you.

                           *         *         *


~March 14~ 
    School seemed so pointless now. He was going to die before the next summer 
break. Why should he have to go to school?
“ Because I still want to hang with my friends.” Ranma thought to himself as his 
eyes skimmed over his history book. “ Besides, it would call too much attention 
if I just wanted to quit for no reason.”
    A small impact caught his attention, idly he let one hand catch the falling 
wadded up note. Making little effort to hide his actions Ranma unfolded the note 
and spread it out on the inside of his open book. 

         ‘ What’s got you in lethargy land? You have barely moved
          a muscle since class started.
                                              Love you,
                                               -Ucchan’

    Without even looking up Ranma turned the note over and tried to think of an 
excuse that would stir up the least amount of trouble. It took a few minutes.
          ‘ Bad night. Got no sleep at all. Must have been the fast
           food that I had before bed.’
    Not bothering to look back Ranma tossed the note back to where Ukyo sat. 
Then it was a simple matter of pretending to fall asleep. But, of course, that 
was when his thoughts sprang to fore.
“ What about Ucchan?” Ranma asked himself. “ What do I do? Could I leave her in 
the dark like everyone else? But she is my best friend. Wouldn’t it be something 
that I owe her to tell her the truth so that she could end this part of her life 
and move on? I’m not sure what she would do if I told her. Would she tell 
everyone else? Would she emotionally blackmail me in some way I can’t think of 
right now?
    “ Am I just taking the coward’s way out by not telling her? Or by not 
telling anyone for that matter? NO! If I told any of the Tendos or Pop then that 
would set loose another stupid quest for a cure. The last quest for a damn cure 
for the junsenkyo curses almost killed Akane and us all. That’s just for a 
nuisance curse. What would a quest to cure a fatal disease do to them? I can’t 
allow them to die when I am the only one who has to!
    “ So what do I do about Ucchan? If I tell her then she could run off on a 
quest of her own even if she doesn’t tell anyone. I can’t let her get herself 
killed for nothing. I mean, she’s spent the last ten years of her life on 
nothing but killing me. Wouldn’t it be an insult to all that effort for her to 
die trying to save me even when she couldn’t?”
    Dimly Ranma listened to the voices of the class rise to the murmur of a 
crowd. It must be lunch time.
    “ Well, if I do tell her then I can’t take it back, but if I don’t tell her 
then I can still change my mind at any time. Right, so I won’t tell her unless I 
have to.” His mind made up, Ranma pretended to wake up.
    Everyone had already unpacked their lunches and headed off into their own 
cliques and private groups. On a whim Ranma took his lunch and headed out into 
the hall.
“ Ranchan!” Ukyo called to him as he reached the doorway. “ Where are you 
going?”
“ To the library.” He called back before leaving. 
    There were a few things that were pricking his mind.

                           *         *         *


~April 9~
    Ranma stared at his reflection in the koi pond. He listened to the wind as 
if carried Kasumi’s voice to his ears as she hummed while putting out laundry on 
the line. He felt the regular bass thumps of Akane destroying brick in the dojo. 
“ So do I have to write a will?” He silently asked his reflection. “ Duh, course 
you do Ranma! But, what do I really need to put down? I don’t really own 
anything, there’s not much I’m going to leave behind. I guess I could give all 
my girl disguises to Akane but that’s about it, right?” 
“ Ranma?” Kasumi’s voice sounded like it was the fourth or fifth time she had 
called him.
“ Huh? Yeah?” Ranma twisted around.
    Kasumi was only a few meters away, she let her hand fall to her side from 
where she had been reaching out to him. 
“ What’s wrong, Ranma?” Kasumi took a step forward, but then halted abruptly. 
“ It’s fine, Kasumi.” Ranma forced a smile and made a dismissive gesture. “ I 
just have a lot on my mind lately. Nothing you need to worry about.”
“ You’ve been wandering around the pond at night,” Kasumi closed her eyes for a 
moment and seemed to brace herself. “ and your face just now…”
“ Like I said, it’s just some things have been coming clear to me.” Ranma 
shrugged. “ And I’ve been given bad news lately. Then there is the whole ordeal 
of Nabiki and Akane tossing me between them like a hot potato…again. It all adds 
up, ya know?”
    He didn’t think she was buying it.
“ But hey!” Ranma forced a devil-may-care laugh and smile. “ It’s ALWAYS like 
that for me, right? I mean, aren’t we overdue for someone to come and challenge 
me for the throne of Asguard or Tien-shin or somethingorother? Or even just a 
new fiancée to show up?”
    Whatever powers that be have a sense of humor.
“ TENDO NABIKI!” A male voice boomed from the other side of the house. “ I am 
Glasnost Perestroika and I have come to take thee as my queen!”
“ Whoa, that’s kinda spooky timing.” Ranma said in genuine surprise. 
“ Why Nabiki?” Kasumi asked as she and Ranma sprinted for the house. “ Isn’t 
usually Akane who gets kidnapped?”
“ Yeah! One sec.” Ranma said and leapt for the roof, then a second leap took him 
over the house and landing within four meters of the newest oddball.
“ Who are you?” A man dressed in Czar finery asked, his hand on the hilt of a 
sheathed saber. 
“ Aren’t you supposed to be here for a Tendo Akane?” Ranma asked.
“ Aconneigh?” The man raised an eyebrow and produced a leather-bound book from 
apparently nowhere. “ Aconneigh, Aconneigh…” He mumbled to himself as he skimmed 
pages. “ No, the prophecy is quite clear. To restore my kingdom and deliver it 
from the curse of these past decades I must journey to the east. Through the 
cold of Siberia, through the Muslim lands, through the mountains of China and on 
to that ancient land’s shores. Then I must traverse north through the endless 
shores until I reach the peninsula’s tip. There I must swim unaided to the 
island land. Once there I was to climb the first peak I see and chant my 
ancestry to the sky. Only then could I know the name of my bride to be and in a 
vision atop that lonely mountain her beautiful countenance and location would 
come to me.” With a snap the man closed the book and stashed it in his coat.
“ Wait a sec.” Ranma held up a hand in a halting gesture. “ So you walked here 
from somewhere in Russia?”
“ From my kingdom, deep in Ural mountains.” The man nodded and puffed out his 
fairly broad chest.
“ Yikes.” Ranma stared. “ How do you know Japanese so well?” 
“ What else was I to do?” The man seemed shocked. “ Be unable to speak to my new 
queen? I read at night and listed to the language tapes while I walked in the 
day.” The man pulled a walkman from one pocket and a book with Russian writing 
on the cover, but the kanji characters for ‘In depth learning’ also there.  
    Ranma felt his eyes bulging. “ That’s some dedication there…how long did it 
take you?”
    At the question the man folded his arms and looked to the sky. “ Let’s see, 
I left home about……uh huh…yeah…that sounds about right.” He returned his gaze to 
Ranma. “ I only grew more adept at cross country travel on foot as the journey 
rolled on. But to average my daily travel I would say about sixty four 
kilometers a day. It took me almost nine months to reach Japan. But then, I was 
delayed countless times. I have been in Japan itself for two months.”
    By this time both Kasumi and Akane were beside Ranma and Soun was just 
arriving. 
“ Incredible.” Kasumi nodded to herself.
“ I’m just glad he’s not here for me.” Akane smiled.
“ You and Ryouga should have a world Marathon.” Ranma shook his head in 
amazement. 
“ Now, may I meet my bride to be in person, finally?” Glasnost asked.
“ Wait!” Akane held up her hand. “ You said you saw her in a vision. So describe 
her first, just to be sure.”
“ Ah, the face I have dreamed of since the vision.” Glasnost sighed to himself 
and smiled. “ She has short brown hair trimmed to the same length all around her 
head about here, relative to her jaw.” Glasnost pointed. “ Her hair is about the 
same color as you there.” He gestured to Kasumi. “ She has a very business like 
air and manner about her and her eyes are sharp and cunning.”
    Everyone present gaped as Glasnost went on to describe fine details such as 
tiny childhood scars and the tiny birthmark on her eyelid that she usually kept 
covered with eye shadow. 
“ Now, I go forth to present myself and continue down the path my destiny has 
set since the day of both our births.” With that Glasnost proudly strode forth 
towards the Tendo front door oozing confidence.
“ Ranma, you’re not going to stop him?” Soun blurted.
“ I…I’d feel bad.” Ranma said sheepishly. “ I mean, after all THAT. Just to get 
beaten to a pulp and sent home? Can’t we just humor him for a little while?”
“ Yeah, let Nabiki have a turn at being damsel in distress.” Akane laughed.
“ I mean, we’ll rescue her just the same.” Ranma continued. “ It’ll be just like 
all the other times Akane’s been kidnapped.”
“ I do feel that it wouldn’t do just to render all that poor boy’s effort futile 
without cause.” Kasumi said. “ If we let him actually kidnap her only then will 
we be justified.”
“ I can’t believe what I’m hearing.” Soun bawled. “ My little Nabikiiii!”
    From inside the house Nabiki’s voice rising in indignation reached them. An 
instant later a chill wind tore through the air and a window shattering could be 
heard. Untouched amongst the tempest two figures rose up above the Tendo home.
    On a zephyr of icy fog stood Glasnost, Nabiki stood beside him. A double 
helix of ice kept her from doing more than standing there with her arms folded 
and looking rather less than pleased with the situation.
“ RANMA!” Nabiki shrieked. “ Hurry up and make with the rescuing!” 
“ Farewell my in-laws-to-be!” Glasnost waved. “ Feel free to visit!”
    The wind grew stronger and snow started to whirl in the air about them. 
Ranma leapt to the roof. “ Where do we go to visit?” Ranma bellowed over the 
wind.
“ Oh! I almost forgot.” Glasnost snapped his fingers. “ We’re a month’s march on 
foot north of Yekaterinburg.”
“ Ranma you are NOT just letting him take me aw-“ The rest was lost to the 
raging winds that carried Nabiki and Glasnost high into the sky at breathtaking 
speed. In moments the were no longer in sight, and the winds vanished as quickly 
as they had come. 
    When he jumped down Ranma noted the frost that had formed on his arms and 
clothes. The grass of the lawn glinted with a think layer of ice and the Tendos 
on it shivered.
“ Alright,” Ranma said, rubbing his chilled arms as he spoke. “ how do we get to 
Russia, and who do we know that speaks even a little Russian?”

                           *         *         *

    “ Welcome to your new kingdom, my queen to be.” Glasnost spread his hands to 
present a valley framed on all sides by snow-capped peaks. Green hills and wheat 
fields spread before them to finally yield to a fairly modern city centered 
around a castle of the dome capped architecture of Russia. 
“ Wow…” Nabiki gasped at the sight.
“ Lovely, isn’t it?” Glasnost sighed. “ But not as lovely as you.”
“ Hold it right there.” Nabiki growled. “ In this case flattery will get you 
nowhere. You are just a freakish kidnaper as far as I am concerned.”
    The man seemed a little confused. “ Did you not have visions of me as I did 
you, dear heart? I thought for sure that the prophesy would have-“
“ My liege!” A older man interrupted in Russian as he crested a nearby hill at 
the head of a royal guard. “ You have been successful! WE ARE SAVED!”
“ Why does he sound so happy?” Nabiki asked Glasnost.  
“ The end of the curse, my dear.” Glasnost smiled. “ The curse that you and I 
shall lift from this land the day we are wed.” 
“ And that would be?” Nabiki asked.
“ On the Sabbath.” Glasnost said. “ I hope you don’t mind an Orthodox wedding? 
I’m sure we could arrange a more Japanese traditional ceremony if you so wish.”
“ Why did I get out of bed this morning?” Nabiki asked herself.

                           *         *         *

    “ Now how did you talk Kuno into this?” Ukyo asked Ranma while the young man 
in question talked to a local Ural man.
“ I told him the situation and promised that Nabiki would reward him handsomely 
for a rescue.” Ranma said.
“ So?”
“ And I promised that the pig-tailed-goddess might make an appearance or two if 
he were to act as the samurai hero and rescue helpless Nabiki.” Ranma admitted.
“ Ah. I thought it had to be something like that.” Ukyo giggled.
    At length Kuno returned from his conversation to the awaiting group of 
Genma, Ranma, Soun, Ukyo, Akane, and they had picked up Ryouga somewhere along 
the line, but Ranma had trouble recalling exactly when and where.
“ What did he say?” Soun demanded.
“ Yon Peasant speaks of a idealic but presently cursed valley kingdom deep 
within the Urals.” Kuno began. “ He does not know the way, however, he has said 
that by following thither path we shall eventually happen upon a village where 
one might yet live that does know the path we must take.”
“ Then let’s go!” Soun bellowed and led the group on a gallop up the mountain 
path.
“ Kuno!” Ryouga called. 
“ What reason have you to call upon me?” 
“ Did the man say what kind of curse?” Ryouga asked.

                           *         *         *

    “ Almost sixty years ago to the day a man lived that loved this kingdom.” 
Glasnost explained to Nabiki over dinner. “ As in the rest of Russia, we depend 
on the cold of winter to keep us strong, wary, and to freeze our enemies. But in 
this modern age war can be too fast. What if a enemy were to attack during the 
height of summer and conquer fully before the first snow? So this man, who was 
great an powerful in the ways of nature, devised a way of calling upon the snows 
of winter for a short time during warm weather.
    “ This same knowledge is what allowed me to whisk us both from your homeland 
to here in a matter of hours. It is what allows me to endure any amount of cold 
and wind without discomfort or disability. But it is too personal, too much 
magic and not enough science. 
    “ Magic is powerful and mighty, but it is like ones own physical prowess.  
It is something that can only be earned, and not given to others even if one 
needs to. But this man desired to protect this kingdom even after he died. So he 
called upon the spirits of nature and had dealings with forces and powers that I 
have no knowledge of. The deal was struck and the agreements made. Of old age, 
the man passed on. But the promises and dealings were perverted soon after his 
death. Men from the fringes of the Red government knew of magic and our 
knowledge. They made dealings of their own, seeking to bury this kingdom in a 
glacier before any could become aware and escape. 
    “ But all their work came to only the curse that still stands today. A great 
grievance to us, but far from the total destruction that could have befallen. 
The curse is that any born here cannot leave for long. For if they do it as if 
they have left the warmth of their own bodies behind. Even if their very clothes 
are set afire the process is unstoppable. The warmth bleeds away from their 
flesh and cannot be supplemented by heat from the outside. Even with their 
clothing afire they freeze to death. This has been the curse that has laid upon 
my kingdom for the past forty years.”
“ But I thought you walked from here to Japan?” Nabiki said. “ We were over 
China or something and you commented on walking through the whole country.”
“ Yes,” Glasnost nodded. “ as I said, my own strength in the ways of winter 
allows me to endure any cold. Only the few of my countrymen who are as 
knowledgeable or more knowledgeable and strong in such ways can endure the 
curse. The vast majority cannot.”
“ So how will our marriage break the curse?” Nabiki asked.
    Glasnost reached into his coat and pulled out a leather-bound book.
“ This is the product of thirty nine years of research and dealings with spirits 
and such. To know the full details you would have to read all three hundred 
thirty eight pages and know enough magic to understand them. But, what it all 
boils down to is that I must marry a certain girl from Japan. That act will 
break one of the key contracts that the Reds made to bring the curse about. In a 
chain reaction the curse will fall apart. But it cannot be just any Japanese 
girl. It had to be the one that was shown to me in my vision atop the mountain 
in your homeland. The –I think they are called the snow women by your people- 
were the ones to give me the vision. They chose you Tendo Nabiki, and so only 
you will do. They also gave me more than just a vision of you. They gave me my 
love for you.”
    Nabiki was glad that she had placed her drink down a moment before. 
Otherwise she would have stained her clothes quite thoroughly as she sputtered 
and gesticulated in denial.  

                           *         *         *

    “ I hear a fell voice upon the air!” Kuno shouted back at the party.
“ Please tell me that he did not just say that.” Ryouga rubbed his face.
“ I’d hit him if I could move faster.” Ranma snarled as he trudged through the 
hip deep snow.
“ Move out of the way, honey.” Ukyo tapped Ranma’s shoulder as she readied a 
throwing spatula. 
“ Whoa! None of that.” Genma restrained Ukyo’s throwing arm. “ Do you speak 
Russian? We need him.” 
“ Less arguing, more rescuing my little helpless Nabiki!” Soun managed to 
actually run past them.
    Ranma watched in amazement as Soun overtook Kuno and their guide, continued 
to barrel along until he reached the rockslide that the guide had said kept the 
path impassable. Then the party was treated to the most volatile demonstration 
of Soun’s demon head technique to date.
“ MOVE!” The word vibrated their very bones from fifty meters away. The 
rockslide was all but blasted free.
    Before the last pebble could fall away Soun was already trudging onward. 
Everyone else looked to the higher slope for the expected avalanche. But none 
came. Their guide laughed and exclaimed something before continuing on.
“ What did he say?” Ranma asked Kuno.
“ I am inclined to agree.” Kuno smiled. “ Our esteemed guide expressed his 
sentiments in a rather colorful manner. To put it in the colloquial, he thinks 
that the snow has been scared beyond the capability to relieve itself.”
“ It’s got no oomph when you draw it out like that.” Ryouga shoved his way 
through the snow past Kuno.
    Ranma and the others struggled to catch up to the raging force that Soun had 
become. After a few hours of no stop hiking they finally rounded on last bend to 
find Soun standing on a boulder, tapping his foot impatiently. 
    From there the party continued deeper into the mountains. The hiking 
stretching on into hours as the day aged into evening and then to twilight.  
“ How are we supposed to get there in time?” Ryouga asked Ranma when they had 
found a cave suitable for making camp for the night.
“ We will.” Ranma assured him. 
“ But didn’t you say that his Prince Glasnost guy said that it was months into 
the mountains?” Ukyo asked as she started a fire.
“ Yeah, but he said it was that far from Yercaterbug or something. Kuno had the 
copter drop us off as close to the Urals as he could find a landing spot.” Ranma 
answered.
“ Still, who knows how far it is to this place?” Ryouga said.
“ Hey Kuno.” Ranma called.
“ What do you want of me foul one?” Kuno sneered.
“ How far did the guide say we were from this kingdom place?”
    Kuno quickly conversed with the guide.
“ We should reach it by tomorrow evening.” Kuno told them.
    The news brightened everyone’s mood. Soun fell asleep smiling. Genma tried 
engaging the guide in a ‘friendly’ game of dice. Ryouga busied himself with 
distracting Akane so that Ukyo could cook a meal. Kuno practiced his swordwork 
at the back of the cave. Ranma took the moment to find a seat alone near the 
narrow mouth of the cave.
“ Now this is what I call a distraction.” Ranma thought to himself as he watched 
snow drift along the crisp winds and through the crags of the mountain they were 
on.
“ I feel like my old self again. The worry, the uncertainty, it’s all at the 
back of my mind now. I’m actually having fun again. For a while there I might 
have even been able to convince myself that it had been a lie, and that the 
cancer doesn’t exist.   
    “ But then again, wouldn’t that be running away? Wouldn’t that be losing the 
fight before I even started? This has got to be your last hurrah, Ranma. This is 
going to be you last fun and adventure vacation. After we save Nabiki I got to 
start doing something. I’ve got to start preparing. Make a will. Tie up loose 
ends and figure out how I’m going to die without dishonoring my family.”
    Ranma felt someone come up behind him. 
“ Isn’t it beautiful?” Ukyo sat down beside him and slipped an arm around his 
shoulders.
    Ranma heard a involuntary yelp of protest from Akane. Ryouga loudly doubled 
his efforts to distract Akane. Ukyo prepared to let go at Ranma’s expected 
defensive outburst.
“ Yeah, but it’s like the ocean.” Ranma said as if he had failed to notice 
anything out of the ordinary. “ It’s only beautiful when it’s calm. At a 
moment’s notice all that beauty could turn into a terrible and deadly fury. A 
fine day turns into rain, and just one slip could kill you. Or that same rain 
might be just what you needed to save you from sunstroke. Life’s like that.” 
“ You alright Ranchan?” Ukyo drew back in surprise. 
“ Yeah, I’m just kinda worried.” Ranma gave the snow outside a wry smile. 
“ About Nabiki?” Ukyo asked.
“ Her.” Ranma nodded. “ And other people, and other things.” Ranma added 
silently before standing up. 
“ I’m going to take a look at path ahead while there’s some light left.” He 
announced before trudging out into the snow.

                           *         *         *

    “ This is just like a dream.” Nabiki said. “ It’s all just too surreal not 
to be.”
    Her chambermaid smiled and continued to work on lacing the corset. Nabiki 
had seen many western wedding dresses. She had even seen Akane in a few. But 
what was being constructed on her as she stood before three mirrors of silver 
twice her height was a marvel. 
“ I’ve been here for two days and in three hours I’m getting married to one of 
the nicest barbarians I’ve ever met.” She continued to babble.
    The middle aged chambermaid gave a short reply in her native Russian. 
Neither woman understood the other save for in tone and facial expression.   
    Finished with the corset that looked like it was made of faintly blue ice. 
The woman picked up a veil that had to be magic. It was made of falling snow 
that felt like warm silk. 
“ Just as I was getting to like the idea of having Ranma, too.” Nabiki sighed as 
she looked out through the light snow as it settled at her nose.
    The chambermaid took a step back, sighed contently, and shook her head with 
a nostalgic smile as she muttered something in Russian. 
“ Thank you.” Nabiki replied. “ I think I look good in this too. Now, where is 
my rescue?”