Akane looked at the being in front of her, a beautiful young woman dressed in white. "Who... who are you?"
"Please, let me explain," the woman began, but Akane wasn't having any of it.
"I'm gonna rip off your butt, place it in your hands and make you say thank you!" Akane yelled. She leaped at the stranger, but slowed to a stop in mid-air, then softly sank to the ground.
"Oh dear," the woman said. "You poor girl. That machine has corrupted you terribly. Even worse, I sense another soul merged with yours, one of the most base desires. I must cleanse you."
Forgotten in all this, Nabiki watched the woman place her hands on Akane. Whatever she did took about a minute and caused what looked like whiffs of smoke to rise from Akane's body. "Nya?" Kasumi asked.
The woman looked up and smiled. "Yes, she will be fine now, but I must see to you. Oh, you poor girl."
At the woman's touch, Kasumi felt warm. And somehow she could feel the changes made to her being reversed. "Mya..ahh..ahii.. I can speak again! Who are you? What happened to my sister? And why do I still have this catgirl body?"
"Please, let me sit down to rest a minute and I'll explain. My name is Belldandy. I'm a goddess. And that machine your sister was using held a Class A illegal reality altering program. It's an infernal creation that will corrupt anyone who uses it. We've tried to destroy it for years, but it keeps replicating itself, like a virus. Please do not hate your sister for the awful things she did to you. It wasn't her fault."
A few minutes again Nabiki would have clawed Akane to death if she could, but now all that anger was gone. There was something soothing about this woman. She seemed a lot like Kasumi, only on a much grander scale. Just then Akane stirred and slowly sat up. "Ohhh, what happened? AHHH, how did my breasts get so big?!!"
"She doesn't remember?" Nabiki asked.
"She will remember most of it, but not the worst details," Belldandy answered. "She's a good person. She does not need such memories."
Together Nabiki and Belldandy explained what had been happening to a very confused Akane. "Thank you for helping me," Akane said. "But can't you fix my breasts back to normal size? And Nabiki still looks like a cat. And Ranma, he needs you too."
Belldandy nodded. "I will do all I can, but the threads of reality are badly tangled. It's always the way with that cursed program. I will fix as much as I can." Belldandy closed her eyes and the sisters saw a glow form around her.
Tue Sep 19 08:14:37 2000