16cm Short

Toi 16cm (遠い16cm), also known as Quest for 16cm, is the 349th chapter of the manga it is also the third and final chapter of the Mushrooms of Time Arc.

Back at the Tendo Dojo, Ranma, Ryoga and Akane do their best to take care of the mushrooms once again. Unfortunately the little boys keep squabbling over the fastest growing mushrooms and nearly destroy the crop more than once. Akane punishes Ranma for force feeding Ryoga a mushroom that turns him into a three year old. Soon Akane realizes that the only way to ensure the safety of the mushrooms is to hide them.

Ranma vs. Ryoga
After cultivating some mushrooms from Ryoga's backpack, Akane decides to show Ranma and Ryoga that they yet again have lots of mushrooms to choose from so can stop fighting over them. However, one mushroom soon becomes slightly taller than the others, prompting Ranma and Ryoga to begin fighting over it. In order to calm down the pair, Akane suggests they use Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who can claim the mushroom as theirs, but this plan soon fails when the pair just punch each other.

Tiring of Ranma and Ryoga's constant fighting, Akane throws the both of them outside. After getting thrown out, Ranma continues arguing with Ryoga and soon agrees to fight Ryoga, but only if he can catch him first. The two of them then race across Furinkan until they end up at the local play park, where Ryoga looses sight of Ranma who's hiding under one of the structures in the hope that Ryoga will get hopelessly lost. Ryoga, however, takes out a back of breadcrumbs which he plans to use to help him make a trail back home but this soon backfires when a flock of bird's arrive and eat the breadcrumbs.

Believing Ryoga to be well and truly lost, Ranma heads back to the Tendo Dojo when he suddenly gets a special delivery which Ryoga packaged himself in and promptly jumps out to punch Ranma for what he did.

Akane's Intervention
Some time passes and Akane talks with Kasumi about how the mushrooms aren't safe with Ranma and Ryoga around. Just then Akane hears the pair have returned and are still fighting each other.

Back with Ranma and Ryoga, and, after getting hit by Ryoga's "Shishi Hōkōdan", Ranma manages to throw another Mushroom of Time in Ryoga's mouth which causes him to become a three year-old. Despite this, Ryoga starts using a technique called "Baku Chaitenkechu" which is identical to his "Bakusai Tenketsu", but instead of destroying boulders the new technique only destroys wooden floorboards. Eventually Ranma tires of this and hits Ryoga in an attempt to make him stop, however, this causes Ryoga to start crying just as Akane arrives.

Seeing that Ryoga's crying, Akane tries to comfort him before she starts spanking Ranma for picking on the smaller Ryoga. Just as Ranma thinks to himself that he'll get Akane back for this, Ryoga tells Akane he can take care of himself now and reveals he's taken another mushroom, this time making him older than Ranma. After Ryoga beats up Ranma, Ranma turns to Akane to help him as he's now the smaller child getting picked on however, Akane doesn't punish Ryoga because he wasn't the one who started the fight.

Cast in Order of Appearance

 * Akane Tendo
 * Ranma Saotome (male)
 * Ryoga Hibiki (human)
 * Kasumi Tendo
 * Tatewaki Kuno
 * Nabiki Tendo
 * Soun Tendo
 * Genma Saotome (panda)