Epilogue

Traveling was part of his profession and it was actually one of the things he loved doing. Searching for new cures and bizarre sicknesses was always a learning experience. From mountains to rivers to markets… he loved journeying and passing through it all. He loved them all….All except for checkpoints.

He felt pins and needles in his feet and he realized that he must have been standing for quite a long while on the tiny corner akin to a detention in the customs bureau. Yet he was a doctor after all, and he knew fully well how to control his body movements. He decided hours ago that he would stop moving altogether after the officials looked at every single move that he made. He supposed not budging would benefit them all.

The customs officer was an old man, his eyes mere slits and his uniform perfectly starched and clean. His words were often curt though he though it was because he knew he was dealing with a foreigner, a Japanese man, but still a foreigner no less. Particularly, he knew what was going through the old man's head – that he really was not a doctor and he was merely fooling him – that he was intent on smuggling new concoctions to Japan or into China, wherever be the case. And he knew, after all his experiences with traveling that it was better to just keep your mouth shut and wait for some form of help, especially when your Mandarin was rusty and your accent is at the risk of being all wrong.

He waited and waited, trying to be patient all the while. But he never imagined his help would come in the form of a screaming woman.

"I told you! There is no cat. It's just me. ME!" she screamed, her voice's pitch getting higher than it usually was, and it seemed almost supersonic to him.

"Ma'am, you are aware that here in the bureau of customs, we have very strict rules regarding animals, particularly those of rare strains. We cannot have them just entering and leaving the country without any permits whatsoe – "

"Come on!" the purple haired Amazon seemed like she was almost shaking, almost ready to pounce at an instant. "Have you never heard of Jusenkyo?"

It was odd. He never saw her so outspoken before. Sure he knew about her attitude but … she was always so meek and sweet when she was employed as his nurse.

"It does not matter ma'am, we can't let the cat in the – "

"I am from the Amazon tribe. What your doing seems like discrimination!"

"Well it's not about you ma'am… it's about the cat…"

He could still remember those times she spent with him. She was so gentle, always smiling. She seemed very cordial and the patients loved her. He took her in after seeing how lonely she seemed to be, moving in a new town and feeling like an oddball. He knew the feeling all too well, and then he knew that he must do something for her. Their arrangements worked for a while, and somehow he remembered it fondly.

Yet those calm and easy memories seemed to be ironic, juxtaposed with what he saw at that moment. Talking seemed pointless at one point and suddenly she seemed like a lose firearm. He barely saw the action take place before his eyes – he just stood quietly in the corner, looking at her flawless execution of a technique he saw in a manual not too long ago. And soon, the four men were down, their starched uniforms barely creased with her attack. Then he heard her mutter what seemed to be a very colorful word in another dialect and soon she made her way towards the door.

So this was the woman Mousse loved, he thought, no wonder he fell in love with Kasumi instantly…

Yet as he watched her, he remembered his current situation. He knew he was a doctor and he was devoted to life and honor … and that included keeping everything legal but… he shook his head as he started making his way towards the door. Just then he remembered…

"The security cameras"

She heard a man's voice behind her. It was odd, she knew she had taken them all out… but then again… the man spoke in a foreign language she knew fairly well.

She turned around and was completely surprised at what she saw. She has not seen the doctor for quite a while. Now that she thought about it, working as a nurse in his clinic seemed like a distant memory. Yet vividly she still remembered the moments she spent there with the love of her life, that at that point she actually wished he were beaten to a pulp every second of the day. But besides all that, she could not remember much about her previous employer. It seemed almost odd to see him at that time and place.

"Aiyah! Doctor Tofu!? What you do here?"

A tour gone horribly wrong, he wanted to say, "I suppose I had the same problem as you had. Something to do with a new law regarding wildlife preservation and inflow and outflow of living organisms…"

She shook her head, remembering her annoyance. She loved her country and all, but these urban people were so useless and thickheaded at times. She always thought life would be better if all of China was just like her village. She was almost sorry that the doctor went through what she had.

"Well, us go?" she started walking away once more and he barely caught up with her

"But the security cameras are working… surely they are on their way now…"

"Not if shampoo run run fast, you too run run."

"But wouldn't that make us somewhat like fugitives?"

Shampoo shook her head once more, exasperated at how the doctor often used words she couldn't understand, and how he seemed like a blockhead at the moment.

"I go, you stay if you no go," she stated almost haughtily and she proved her seriousness by almost jumping out the door.

Dilemmas were common things to him, and he always knew he was often asked to think about his decisions quickly. Although being a doctor often told him to go with the safe side, his gut feel at the moment told him to run towards the other direction. Soon he found himself jumping and trying to keep up with the Amazon girl.

She wasn't too surprised when she found hordes of men in uniform chasing after them. Yet what astonished her was the fact that the doctor was actually keeping up with her. She always thought him to be quite a slow fellow. Sure he was agile and gifted with his hands yet she always thought he did not have the stamina that the usual Nerima crowd had. Yet by the looks of it, she couldn't have been more wrong. Perhaps it was because of that tea he drank… the one she always made for him. It made her think for a while. Perhaps she should have obtained a sample and asked her great grandmother to look into it.

He went to China for his peace of mind yet he never expected to be in that scene at that moment. He never expected to turn into a criminal in this place where he had hoped for solitude, but then again, he remembered that he must not complain. He did after all go through worse situations.

"Is end of line; we jump," he barely heard what she said when he saw the police at his left and the seemingly deep waters before him. There was a moving ferry that was somehow under them and he heard its horn getting louder and louder.

"I go now. Bye bye…"

"Wait!" he called, almost frantically, seeing a purple haze pass swiftly in front of him. First he turns into a fugitive and now a hijacker? He sighed; seeming to lose hope after all the jests fate had with him and just decided to do what seemed to be most illogically logical at the moment.

And so he jumped.

He felt the water by his feet and the turbines were moving quickly, creating something like a suction. He moved his feet, barely saving them from getting chopped off as he hoisted himself up over the ledge. Thankfully, he noted that he landed on the side of the ship that was away from the passengers and he seemed safe … for now. He removed the huge boxes behind his back and rested by the wall.

That was some experience, he thought, a few minutes from a remnant of Nerima and suddenly his world turned upside down again. Just when he was trying so hard to get away from it all …it seemed like he had a penchant for chaos. And he thought Ranma was a bit too crazy at times… it must have been all those men and women chasing after him… after all, a man could only take so…

Meowing. He heard it. Faintly but he heard it.

That's right. Shampoo. She jumped before he did.

"Shampoo? Shampoo?" he called in the deck, trying to see where she had landed. There was something odd about the sound she made. It seemed frantic… muffled… almost like she was…

"Shampoo!" his felt something burst at the back of his neck when he realized that the purple cat was still off the ferry. Cats were supposed to be more agile than humans were… weren't they? But why on earth was she…

He didn't have time to think about it anymore when he remembered the turbines. He reached out to grab her yet realized she was far from his grasp. Four claws were still quite inferior to two hands with ten fingers, he soon realized as he saw her head popping in and out of the water from time to time. He knew that a cat could only handle so much water that he…

"Shampoo?" he shouted once more, panic evident in his voice. She had completely disappeared from his view. It must have been… the blasted turbines. It would suck her in and …

He knew he wasn't that much of a swimmer, but he plunged in the water nonetheless. It was much better than having the images of blood and fur in his head. He reached out for her blindly, as his glasses floated away, and thankfully he felt it… a small ball of wet fur was in his hands … it was shaking … but alive… he did it…. Now all he has to do is swim away… swim away from the torrents and …

….

Shampoo woke up with sand in her face…In her whiskers in particular. She stood up almost agonizingly as she still felt the waves hitting her small frame. She walked a bit and stretched her muscles, after which she shook the water and sand off herself. What mess has she gotten herself into this time… and what could have… all she remembered was water… so much water and waves… violent waves around her… she was suddenly so terrified that she ran away from the shore. When she realized what she had done, she closed her eyes angrily – frustrated mostly at her self. Surely she was not acting like an Amazon woman at the moment. All was not lost. She was alive and what happened was nothing more than a worthless experience, one she'd forget about soon enough. Perhaps everything would be much better once she transforms back to her old self.

Tentatively, she walked back to the shore in hopes of finding something…. Anything…

And that was when she saw him once more.

So Doctor Tofu managed to save her after all. She must admit that she doubted the man. After all, he seemed almost hopeless as Mousse was … but then again. Mousse would be able to save her, no matter what. Yet she had neither time nor strength to think about that now.

Idly, she nuzzled the doctor, hoping to wake him up. Perhaps she should not have doubted him. After all, it was plain to see that he was a kind man. Besides, he was a doctor. Wouldn't his vow be something like putting emphasis on the safety and preservation of life of whomever whenever or something like that?

She nuzzled him once more, and almost smiled when she heard him groaning. So the doctor was stronger than she had thought him to be. It was just well and good. After all, he was a good man and he did save her… And of course it would be a lot of help of he managed to see her and actually thought of a way to heat some water up for her and…

His head! He touched his temple and let his fingers run through his unbound hair, thinking about what happened all the while. He wanted to go to China to have more time to relax, to forget, to somehow calm himself yet… this is what he gets?

"Meow," he heard it and the sound almost annoyed him. "Meow" it went again and he almost failed to stop himself from cursing out loud. Then suddenly he felt something snap at the back of his head and everything started to make sense…

"Shampoo!" he gasped as he blindly searched for her, "are you alright?"

"Meow," she replied, hoping to say, "Barely, you could have been better at saving me…"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he mumbled, as he reached out, hoping to touch her, "I'm almost blind without my glasses… but I think I can see when I…" he bent down and placed himself closer to the sand "Oh. There you are."

Cats and water never come together. Usually, shampoo seemed so elegant even in her cat form… yet now that she seemed so wet from ears to tail…

"Nothing hurts, anywhere?" he asked, almost hearing her meow in reply.

No, she was strong, she told herself, and soon, if he doesn't get his act together, he might seriously get hurt, she thought almost vengefully.

Tofu stood up awkwardly, still looking confused and slightly distraught. He tried to reach for his bag and realized he had nothing on him, just wet clothes. Not even a pair of glasses. His papers were gone… his passport, the herbs he collected, his small bag of clothes, his camera… his book… his glasses. He started walking away from the shore, not really knowing what to do next until he heard an insistent meow once more.

"Oh that's right Shampoo," he mumbled, and Shampoo's heightened senses made her hear him. She had the urge to dice him to pieces with her claws yet knew she was too tired to do it. The man was such an oddball; she was starting to doubt him. Was it safe to ask for his help?

"…You must be feeling cold. If I can only build a small fire…" he muttered once more. At least the man had some sense, she thought as she fought the shivers that were starting to creep up her tail.

What now? Tofu asked himself, what kind of mess did he get into this time? Although he was pretty confident with his survival skills, the annoyance he'd go through this ordeal bothered him more. And the fact that he had a cat … no a girl, under his wing kind of bothered him. Surely he cannot go on with his old carefree ways in dealing with this one.

His bare feet hit some twigs as he walked, some causing him small amounts of pain, yet he took it lightly nonetheless. He just gathered as much wood as he could, hoping he still had it in him to start a fire. A few hours later, he already twigs enough for a roast and a can big enough to boil water with. Perhaps the gods were still not completely angry with him. He realized later on that despite losing his glasses, he was better off getting guided by a human cat. After all, when the darkness enveloped the island they were in, Shampoo was the one who could successfully maneuver them around.

Shampoo was getting more and more worried about her current situation. She started to think she made a wrong choice after all. Maybe she should have just left early on when the sun was still bright and left he doctor to fend for himself. After all, with the way he acted at the moment, blindly stepping on twigs and whatnots, surely he would not be able to help her after all…

But how could she leave the man, after seeing how helpless he was. He might fall off some place and he never would have seen it coming. She cursed her luck for getting stuck with weak men – particularly weak men with eye impediments. Why can't she at least end up with someone decent, even just once? She always had fantasies of getting stuck in a seemingly uninhabited island, and of course it was her Airen she was with. Yet why did her ancestors always toy with her? And now she's stuck with another pathetic excuse for a man…

She sighed as she noticed him crouched down and fumbling with the twigs. He does not seriously think he could build a fire with that. Come on, he could barely see and those twigs he got were so thin and surely a man like him wouldn't know of these things … she would laugh if he even managed to make a spark. Maybe she should have left the man already. He seemed hopeless. Yes, that's right, maybe she should just slip away without him knowing, surely it would be much better than…

She can't believe it. She heard it first before she saw it…cackling fire! Wha.. how… did.. what?

Perhaps this one man is exceptional. Perhaps he was truly a genius?

"Shampoo?" Tofu called worry evident in his voice, "Shampoo, are you still there? I can't have you walking around alone here… we won't know what lurks in this place… I wouldn't be able to protect you if you stray away…"

Protect her? Suddenly she felt her ears burning in anger. It was just well and good, after the way she had felt the coldness for a while now. Protect her? She was an Amazon woman! She needed no protecting! All her newfound respect for the man suddenly faded into nothing. This man was no different from Mousse after all…

"Shampoo?" somehow he felt a heavy feeling in his chest. His instincts were always making him inclined to care and protect, and despite getting surrounded by powerful warriors, he still managed to remain that way. Even during his days as a fighter, the inclination never left him. Which was why he was often advised to become a doctor instead – and that he did become.

Shampoo was fast and strong, even in her feline form. Yet he knew, still, she needed protecting. She can be vulnerable too. She could be gentle. She was still a girl after all, a girl no different from Kasumi.

He heard her purr beneath him, yet it sounded more like a growl than a sign of contentment. Perhaps she had stayed in her cat form long enough.

"If you could kindly direct me to the shore, I would fetch some water for you so you can transform back to your old self."

Finally, Shampoo sighed in her head. At least amidst the doctor's seeming idiocy, he can still grasp some things after all. She walked ahead of him and meowed to let him know at which direction he should move. For a while the two seemed to be playing a game of Marco-polo and the Amazon girl couldn't help but feel annoyed.

Oh ancestors. Please help me out of this one. She mumbled in her mind, almost like a prayer, If only my future-husband were here…

"Sisters! I bring with you good news!" The young girl exclaimed, as she entered the clan hall, "Our Shampoo has returned!"

Several heads twirled at the mention of the purple Amazon's name, some of them asked excitedly if their sister did not kid, yet they were well aware that Amazons didn't lie about such matters.

"And I have better news!" a girl suddenly piped up behind her, "seems like she brought her future husband along, the strong Japanese man! Remember?"

"Oh you don't say…" one gasped from the crowd half unbelievingly, yet half pleasingly. The other girls were starting to look less like warriors and more like giggling schoolgirls after hearing the news.

"Yes, truly I saw them, getting intimate by the fire" the girl continued, and with the words "intimate" the crowd seemed to get even more excited.

"Then we must be prepared with a celebration!" one of the older women said, "Our sister is bound to return from a successful quest – and with her, she brings a good strong warrior to be amongst us."

And with that, the whole village seemed to liven up in an instant, preparing for a feast that is yet to come.

And not too far away were two people, walking together, yet completely clueless as to what was about to unfold before them.