In the immortal words of Samuel L. Clemens... "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi and "The Shadow" of Smith & Street Publications, as written by 'Maxwell Grant', each being used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

-o0O0o-

"Shadows of Men and of Horses"
'Meeting The Middle'
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

-o0O0o-

"You've got some explaining to do, Saotome," Tendo Nabiki snapped, standing behind the seated man with her hands on her hips.

"Well," Ranma muttered as his attention was pulled away from his tea, "That explains that, anyway..."

-o0o-

Saotome Ranma sighed in silent frustration and resignation before he spoke, raising his voice to be heard across the tea room, "Sato-san... two more of my usual, if you please."

A female voice came cheerfully out of the kitchen, "Two usuals, coming up, Ranma-san!"

"You just can't keep girls from chasing you, can you, Ranma?" Nabiki asked snidely, walking around so that she was now standing in front of Ranma, on the other side of the table at which he was sitting..

"I come here a lot," Ranma answered unphased, "Sato-san knows what all of her regulars like, it's part of why we keep coming back, including me. Most of the time, we don't even have to order, she has our preferred blends waiting by the time we reach the counter, it's good for business."

"I know knowing your customers is good," Nabiki huffed, "Remember, Saotome, I'm a business woman."

"Everyone is a business person if they consider what they do a business," Ranma replied casually, "Tea is Sato-san's business; Kuno's business is kendo; perversion is Happosai's business; and your business..."

Nabiki folded her arms and waited to hear just what Ranma thought he was going to call her business.

"...Is your business."

That almost made the middle Tendo sister facefault, fortunately, she was able to keep herself from doing so and instead went on the offensive, "So what's your business then, Ranma, martial arts?"

Ranma's smirk echoed the cocky and arrogant youth he had been, "My business is my business."

"Where have you been for five years?"

"Out of circulation," the corners of Ranma's mouth quirked up slightly, "Kind of like money once you've gotten ahold of it, Nabs."

"Not funny, Saotome."

The dark-haired man actually shrugged, "That's because being able to laugh at yourself is a lost art."

Nabiki glared at him, "And you can?"

"Where did you think I've been for five years? I've been learning."

"Don't try to lie, I had all the other high schools checked, even the cram schools and universities just in case you tried anything, you haven't been in any school in Japan, Saotome."

"There's more ways to learn than teachers and books, Nabs," Ranma retorted with a smirk, "A very wise man once said that the world was his school and every rock and tree and insect were his teachers. I guess you could say I went to that school if you want."

"Don't try to get smart with me, Saotome, you're not equipped for it."

Ranma steepled his fingers, his smirk only growing, "I'm sure."

"You're going to start giving me answers, Saotome, or you're not going to like what happens," Nabiki threatened, causing Ranma to shake his head in amused disappointment.

"A little early to start threats, isn't it?" He asked simply, which made Nabiki uncomfortable; she was used to Ranma panicking and trying to make amends, not calmly deflecting.

"'You haven't changed, Nabs'," Ranma repeated the telepathic message from days before, this time vocally. "But not everyone is like you, some of us have changed, we had to, we didn't have any other choice... it's called growing up, try it."

"Your two usuals, Saotome-san?" Sato Ishiko interrupted carefully, holding a tray with the two drinks as she approached the table.

"Arigato, Sato-san," Ranma nodded and smiled politely as she sat the tea cups on the table, "If it tastes half as wonderful as it smells, it will know no equal."

Ishiko blushed slightly, "Your compliment honors me, Saotome-san."

Nabiki wrinkled her nose up, "I prefer coffee."

Ishiko's face darkened as her eyes dropped to the floor. Without a word, she clutched the empty tray to her chest and spun on her heel, quickly walking back towards the kitchen.

Ranma frowned grimly, "That was rude and unneccessary, Tendo-san."

"So was your running off from your responsibilities," Nabiki retorted, "Your family's honor, our families' promise, my sister's future... all the money you owe me."

As he leaned back in his seat, the room seemed to darken around Ranma until only his blue eyes were clearly visible, "Forget it. I owe you all nothing."

"It doesn't work that way, Saotome," Nabiki sneered at him.

"Any debts are paid in full," Ranma reiterated harshly.

"And I say they're not."

Mentally, Ranma groaned as he realised what the problem was, 'She would be resistant to hypnotic suggestion... Makes me wonder what she remembers of the other night.'

"Which is why you're going to come back to Nerima and pay up," Nabiki continued, "With five years interest added, by the way."

His face hardened as Ranma stood up and crossed the dining room to the counter, pausing to take a small roll of yen bills out of his pocket and lay them next to the register before turning towards the outside door.

"Get back here, Saotome! I'm not done with you yet!"

The shouted - and half-snarled - command didn't phase Ranma, he continued step by step until he had passed through the door to the outside world, leaving Nabiki to growl before following him. The cups of tea that Ranma had stopped for only a moment to pay for were left behind, untouched and still faintly steaming as they sat on the table.

-o0o-

Ten years of pure martial arts training and then another five involving focus and control allowed Ranma to walk down the sidewalk, seemingly flowing around people and moving faster than he should have been for the pace he was going. The Tulku had taught him to harness the chaotic and destructive energy inside of him, to use it for better purposes, but it was still a part of him. Right then, it was a part of him that was roaring like a wild beast in a cage, demanding to be freed to maul the arrogant humans poking at it with sticks. The Tulku had told him that what was inside him would be the greatest enemy he would ever face and more than once over the years the holy man had been proven right. For years he had avoided the darkness lurking inside of him, focusing on being easy-going, ever-hungry, forgiving; but for him to learn to use everything that he possessed, he had first been forced to acknowledge it and ever since then he'd found himself fighting to keep that wild beast in its cage, only letting it out when necessary for the mission. Dealing with Nabiki's demands and dictates, though, had seriously dented the bars of that cage to the point where if he hadn't exited the situation, he couldn't be entirely sure that he could have kept control of the beast.

It reminded him of the lesson that had resulted of him asking the Tulku why he was being taught rules about how to fight and when to use his powers, controlling his inner chaos and focusing on the mission when he was supposed to be learning to be a good man. Ranma would never forget the way the Tulku had corrected him, that he wasn't learning to be a good man, good men didn't need rules to remind them to do the right thing; he was learning to be a dangerous man and the rules were meant to remind him who and what it was for which he was supposed to be dangerous. To prove it, he was taken away from the Temple to another location, stripped of all clothes and possessions and told that he was to survive and make an eighty kilometer trek back to the Temple and was not to take any offensive action, even if attacked by wildlife, until his return. When someone didn't have warmth or food, they became dangerous as survival instincts began to take over, the desire to live against all odds and opponents; the restrictions which the Tulku had placed on him for the lesson had forced him to go beyond that. He could have hunted for food, killed animals to eat and use their furs for warmth and protection, but if he had done so he would have failed and back then he was still so strongly driven by the concept that he couldn't fail, couldn't lose. Even four years later, he still wasn't entirely sure what the Tulku's thoughts were behind the lesson, but by the time he was back at the Temple, he understood what the Tulku meant the lesson to teach; the difference between simply a dangerous man and a controlled, focused, reasoning dangerous man; a man who had bent those desires and instincts to his will instead of succumbing to them.

-o0o-

Nabiki was annoyed when she exited the tea shop only for Ranma to have already vanished out of sight, without even a trace for her to follow him. At least she knew where to find him, though; he had a 'regular', which meant he came here a lot, he'd come back, all she had to do was wait. She could wait, it just meant the interest would go up that much more and he'd deserve every sen he had to pay. She was angry and insulted; how dare he think he could walk away from her when she was collecting what he owed. She didn't really care about Akane's future, or their fathers' stupid promise; she only cared about family honor as far as it would help her in her endeavours, but the money he owed her for her time, her efforts, her losses in the betting pools, the fact that she hadn't been able to sell pictures of him or information or charge him for hot water since he had disappeared five years ago, that she took personally. That was her reputation, her livelihood, her money and she damn well wanted it where it belonged; in her bank accounts, both the 'public' ones that people knew she had and the private ones that she kept to herself to hide her 'retirement fund'.

It wasn't that Nabiki was a particularly evil or even cruel person, it was more subtle than that. Eventually, most people learn as they grow that survival extends beyond the self to the family unit, local community, even up to a greater community such as a country or to the human race itself; and, in so learning, accept that one increases the likelihood of their own personal survival by ensuring the survival of the other, larger, units. At this point, primitive survival instinct begins the transformation into evolved consciousness. With the death of one parent and the collapse of the other into a self-absorbed depressive state, there had been no one to teach the daughters of the Tendo family to put their own immediate interests to the side and support a larger unit in order to ensure long-term survival - or worse, to prevent them from falling into a foolish and self-destructive mindset of completely subsuming their own survival and well-being to the greater good, despite a result of no gain for self or family - which caused them to develop personalities focused on selfish interests and instant gratification. Nabiki was not evil or cruel, she was simply selfish and short-sighted; which was, perhaps, in its own way, even worse.

In Ranma's case, the Tulku had taken over where Genma and Nodoka had failed to teach Ranma such things and - though it took the form of a mission - helped him learn those lessons. Nabiki had no one to do the same for her. Effectively, despite becoming an adult by age, she had not developed the virtues of adulthood to go with it; instead retaining the selfishness of childhood.