The Old Ghoul

         Here we meet Cologne, the 300 year old great-grandmother of Shampoo.  With all her years of experience and many secret techniques, this wise old Amazon is very strict in following her thousands of years of Chinese Amazon history.  And thus, Cologne came to Japan for one reason, to make one particular young man her son-in-law... and that (un)lucky lad would be none other then Ranma Saotome!

         After arriving in Japan, Cologne begins searching for her "son-in-law" and soon finds him on a roof.  After a quick fight to see how good he was, she quickly disappears again only to be waiting for him back at the Tendo Dojo along with Shampoo!  There, Ranma learns that the "old ghoul" who attacked him is Shampoo's great-grandmother, and the both of them have left China, moved to Japan, and opened a nearby ramen shop called "The Cat Cafe."   Of course nor Ranma or Akane are too happy to hear this, but to make things worse she announces Ranma's engagement to Shampoo!  And why?  Not only because of the 3000 years of Chinese Amazon history that says Ranma must marry Shampoo for defeating her, but also because Cologne and Shampoo hold Ranma responsible for her Jusenkyo curse.  

         After several annoying whacks from her cane, Ranma chases Cologne all over the Tendo Dojo and through the neighborhood, though he finds that she's very skilled despite her being 300 years old.  And to demonstrate her power, she uses the Amazon Splitting Cat Hairs technique which splits herself into 18 separate illusions, all of which have him surrounded while attacking at the same time.  But after some advice from his father, Ranma tosses up a chicken leg he grabs from a nearby child, and the real Cologne hungrily leapt up for it.  And so he was able to see through her illusion, but Cologne quickly dashes away.

         That evening Ranma finds Cologne on a rooftop, and after refusing to marry her great-granddaughter once again, she pokes him in the chest with her cane and foretells that within a few days he will beg her to marry Shampoo.  Then Cologne vanishes, leaving Ranma confused over her words.  But soon when Ranma goes to take a hot bath, he finds the water to be boiling though to Kasumi and Nibiki the water seems barely warm.  Cologne appears at the window to tell Ranma that the pressure point she touched makes the whole body as sensitive as a cat's tongue.  And thus from then on even the most tepid of water would seem like boiling to him.  This means that if the water's too hot for Ranma to endure, he can't change back to a guy!  Of course Cologne tells him that she'll show him how to change back only if he agree's to marry Shampoo, leaving Ranma in quite a predicament!

         But the next day, Shampoo tells Ranma that her great-grandmother has a Phoenix Pill, which is the cure for the Full Body Cat Tongue.  Determined to become a guy again, Ranma storms over to the Cat Cafe and attempts to take the Phoenix Pill from Cologne (which she wears in a case that hangs around her neck), but unfortunately the old woman is much too fast for him.  So instead Ranma takes a job as a waitress at the Cat Cafe in hopes of getting a chance to snatch the Phoenix Pill from Cologne, but still he is unsuccessful.  

         Finally, however, Cologne shows Ranma a legendary technique called "Chestnuts Roasting Over an Open Fire," in which the person must be fast enough to be able to pluck chestnuts from the flames without getting burned.  Of course, to master this requires incredible speed, and Cologne tells Ranma that when he is fast enough to be able to master the technique, taking the Phoenix Pill from her would be no problem.

         So Ranma vows to master the Chestnuts Roasting Over an Open Fire technique, though finds it won't be easy.  To help get his mind off his problems, however, Soun recommends he and Akane go to a neighborhood fair.  Thus, he and Akane go to the fair, and Ranma really does have fun.  More importantly, one of the carnival games requires plucking goldfish from a water tank, and quite easily Ranma is able to catch them all.  But then, the carnie dares Ranma to pluck piranha's out of tank as well, and seeing it as the same principle as Cologne's technique, he accepts the challenge.  To everyone's surprise Ranma was fast enough to pluck the piranha's from the tank before they could bite.  Empowered that he accomplished such an act, he storms back to the Cat Cafe to again try to take the Phoenix Pill, but he falls through a trap door and has to get past several illusions created by Cologne.

         But that was easy compared to his next challenge, for Cologne hoped into a small wooden bucket inside a huge bathhouse filled with hot water.  But cleverly Ranma is able to avoid touching the water using a staff and then a bucket of his own, and using the Chestnut's Roasting Over an Open Fire technique, Ranma is finally able to take the Phoenix Pill from Cologne.  The old woman was impressed that Ranma had already mastered the technique, however just to be safe the case she wore around her neck did not contain the Phoenix Pill, but instead a ball of candy!  So unfortunately Ranma isn't cured just yet!

         Sometime later, while the Tendo Dojo household is visiting a mountain ski resort, Ranma finds that Cologne and Shampoo are there as well due to their Cat Cafe snow mountain branch.  So again Ranma is determined to get the Phoenix Pill from Cologne, though she advises him to enter the Martial Arts Carry the Snowman Race.  The object being to get to the finish line first with your snowman intact, though other people will try to break your snowman with wooden swords.   The prize being a snow tour for two with Shampoo (the race is sponsored by the Cat Cafe), but as an added bonus the Phoenix Pill as well.

         Of course Ranma enters, and just as he was about to win Cologne blocks his path and tells him that she won't let him to the finish line unless he agree's to marry Shampoo.  Thus it is finally time for Ranma and Cologne to settle things once and for all, though they both wind up breaking each other's snowman at the same.  However, they continue fighting and Ranma is able to obtain Cologne's staff and he believes himself to  have bested the old Amazon.  So they make a deal, even without a snowman if Ranma wins, he gets the Phoenix Pill, but if he loses he'll have to marry Shampoo.  

         So Cologne shows Ranma that she's a lot better then he thought, and with the tables turned it seems Ranma doesn't stand a chance.  But Ranma continues fighting tenaciously until Cologne gets really serious and uses a technique called Fist of the Ice Bear.  Genma and Shampoo advise Ranma to give up, though he refuses and gets an idea of how to win.  He tells Shampoo to hold on tightly to him and not let go, and then leaps into the ice-water to change her into a cat.  And then Akane and Genma realize that Ranma is going to use the Cat Fist, a state in which he is nearly invincible!  You see, due to a childhood trauma, when Ranma's fear of cats becomes too intense, his only way to deal with it is to (mentally) become a cat himself !

         So, using the terrifying power of the Cat Fist, Ranma is able to go against Cologne's Fist of the Ice Bear technique and finally defeats her!  The old woman admits to underestimating Ranma, and for his win she gives him the Phoenix Pill.  And at last Ranma is able to bare hot water and change into a guy again!!

         But even though Ranma has defeated her, Cologne doesn't give up on trying to find ways to get Ranma to marry Shampoo.  However, she's really not a bad person, for her wisdom and knowledge comes in handy many times to help Ranma against his enemies.  

Ranma Saotome, Genma Saotome, Soun Tendo, Kasumi Tendo, Nabiki Tendo, Akane Tendo, Tatewaki Kuno, Ryoga Hibiki, Kodachi Kuno, Shampoo, Cologne, Mousse, Happosai, Ukyo Kuonji

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