What was really going on with Ranma? Has he indeed gone insane, as Ukyo feared?

No, on the contrary! Ranma was feeling great! Over the past few days, he had been living close to the abyss of insanity, but now he was over it.

While the thunderstorm was raging outside, he made a decision: "I don't want to be king anymore!"

And after he had said that, it took a massive load off his mind. He laughed out loud and wondered why he hadn't done this earlier.

While he watched the thunderstorm, he thought about everything that had happened during the following past days.

"I'm going to leave all of this behind," he said. "Sure, there are many people here who really like me… but what have I been, except for a living statue? I did nothing but to be a piece of… furniture that everyone could adore. There was no action here, no thrill, no adventure, no…"

No wonder he had gone crazy!

Thousands of adventures were waiting for him out there and here he was, sitting in this old castle, bored to death!

"But not any more! End of the line! I wanna live! I wanna LIVE!"

Ranma took use of his personal bathroom one last time. He took an extensive shower and searched for his old Chinese clothes.

But before he put them on, he hesitated. Everyone in Nerima would recognize him the way he was now, royal clothes or not. He needed some sort of disguise, at least until he was out of the kingdom.

He decided to go to Juuban, where pretty much everyone knew him, but where nobody knew about his curse. After all, it wasn't the first time he had used his female form as a disguise.

So he splashed himself with some cold water and turned into a red-headed girl. She then undid her pigtail and let her hair fall down free. She searched around her extensive, royal wardrobe until she found some shorts and a top for girls. She also put on some sneakers.

When she was finished, she looked into the mirror and smiled. A cute, red-headed girl looked back at her, a girl that could have easily been a tourist from Juuban.

"For the following days, I'm just gonna be Ranko," she stated. "At least until I decide to come back. Hello there, Ranko!" she said to her reflection. "How are you today?"

"Wonderful!" her reflection seemed to reply. "Absolutely wonderful!"

----

In the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep, Ranko left the castle. She strolled down to Saotokyo, followed the river and walked across the bridge that was leading to the forest.

She stood still for a while, took a deep breath and smiled up at the stars. Yes, she really had missed that…

In the forest, she searched a nice patch of moss where she lay down and slept until dawn.

When the sun was rising in the morning, Ranko got up and kept on walking. The water of the river was sparkling in the morning light.

Near the riverbank, she found a marvelous, white mushroom that was growing there. She took a few bites of it, that was her breakfast. She then threw the rest of the mushroom into the river.

Shortly after that, she met a donkey who was standing on a clearing and grazed.

"Hello there, buddy!" she smiled. "Nice day we're having, don't you agree?"

"Hee-haaaw!" the donkey replied.

Ranko approached the donkey and stroked its back. "How does a fine animal like you get in the middle of the woods? Well, maybe you'd like to come along?"

The donkey nodded. Ranko climbed up on his back, and she rode away, under the gleaming light of the sun…

----

After Kodachi and Akane awoke the next morning, they realized that Ryoga hasn't come back.

"Looks like he bailed, the wimpy pig…" Kodachi muttered. "I bet that he's gonna tell on us."

"Don't be so unfair," Akane said. "I can guess that Ryoga has lost his nerves. He never really liked what we did, and he only joined us because he wanted to stay near me, I can see that now. Somehow, I must admit, it was kinda sweet… And the way you treated him… No wonder he left! Knowing him, he could have very well passed through several kingdoms by now. And you know what? I'm going to leave you too."

"You can't do that, Akane!" Kodachi shouted. "We have to find that cat and the treasure… you can't abandon me now!"

Akane shrugged. "I never have been very interested in treasure, you know? Somehow, I've been running from what had been in front of my eyes the whole time… someone who likes me the way I am. And if Ranma doesn't want me… the heck with it! I'm going to do the same thing he has once done: I'm leaving for a training trip through the kingdoms, and if I should meet Ryoga on my way, I'll stay with him. It has been an interesting time with you, Kodachi, but don't get too greedy, you hear me? Or else you'll land in prison!"

The Black Rose sighed. "As you wish, Tendo… I'm really disappointed that I have to look for the treasure by myself, but I wish you luck. I will stay here and search for my gold and that accursed feline!"

And Akane left. Kodachi really stayed in Saotokyo Forest for some time and searched for the treasure. She never found it. Finally she got sick of it and wandered southwards, where she wanted to form a new band of thieves.

----

Early in the morning, Kasumi walked up to Ranma's bedroom. As she wanted to knock, she saw that the door was open.

'Finally he's back to normal!' she thought to herself and sighed in relief. She opened the door. "Good morning, Ranma-kun!" she smiled.

The bed was empty. Kasumi only found a small note on the night stand.

"Dear Kasumi," she read. "Please don't be upset or sad that I left. I'm starting a new chapter of my life, I don't want to be king anymore. I am very happy that I made this decision. Thank you for everything you and the others have done. Please tell Mom and Pops that I'm gonna come back some day, but for now, I'm gonna be on a very long journey. Take care of yourselves!"

The whole letter was signed with 'Ranko'.

Well, Kasumi took the news surprisingly well. She arranged for a big meeting and told the residents of Nerima about the king's decision. During this meeting, she was appointed the first president of the new Republic of Nerima.

She was head of government for many years to come and was becoming even more popular than Ranma ever was.

----

Genma and Soun were forgiven for their hapless cannon shot. But as there wasn't much of a treasure to guard anymore, they were fired. They found new jobs at the library of Saotokyo. For the next few years, they read hundreds of books and were known as the two most scholarly men in Nerima.

----

Ami Mizuno travelled back home to Juuban, where her friends and family were living. She had to tell her adventures with Nabiki and the Storm Machine again and again, and how she had found the Flying Agaric and the crown. Yes, Ami was the most famous girl in all of Juuban at that time.

----

Nabiki stayed in the castle where she kept on working on dozens of new inventions, and every one of them was more ingenious than the previous. So she invented a vacuum cleaner with reverse gear, an electric frying pan, a petting machine for pets, a steam-driven food mixer, shoes with built-in brakes and a relaxation device which she called Purrophone, because of the purring noises it made. Nabiki was a true genius, and nothing in the world would change that. And over the years, she even started to lower her prices…

----

Mousse stayed in Saotokyo and tried to forget his arduous mission. During that time, he arranged a few magical shows in the theater of Saotokyo, where he pulled rabbits out of his robe and sawed apart a few ladies, nothing extraordinary. But when the time was coming for him to leave, the population of Saotokyo didn't want to let him go, as they liked his shows so much.

Still, in the end, his yearning for his one true love turned out to be stronger than his friendship to the citizens, so he started to search for his Shampoo…

----

And what happened to Shampoo? Our green-furred feline ran deep into the woods until she found a small den in which she decided to stay. But her poor kitty mind, which had already been fragile after being locked inside the treasure room for such a long time, started to crumble entirely… and the withdrawal of paper money only made it worse. In the end, she believed herself to be nothing more than a normal wildcat.

When a young man with wide robes one day stumbled across her little den, he didn't realize that she was his Shampoo, as he didn't recognize her because of her green fur. Still, as he still wasn't able to find her, he decided to take the little animal along with him, as it reminded him so much of his love…

For many years, Mousse didn't find out that the girl he was looking for was actually the pet that was living with him. Shampoo turned out to be a very quiet pet, but there was one habit Mousse would never be able to break her of: Every time when he pulled out his wallet, she pounced upon it and tried to take a bite from the green bank notes that were in there. It made him wonder where she picked up that weird habit…

----

And what happened to Ranma? (Sorry, I meant to say: Ranko) Where did she ride? What happened to her? And did she keep her promise and came back to Nerima one day?

Those questions will stay unanswered for now. But here's my advice: Try eating some 'good-night-okonomiyaki'… I'm sure it will help you to have some nice dreams. And if you're lucky, you'll meet Ranko in your dreams, and she will tell you more of her adventures.