Disclaimer time: Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty and Viz Communications
own Ranma 1/2. Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Gainax and ADV Films own
Neon Genesis Evangelion.
A big thanks to my pre-readers for this chapter: Eric Oh, Merc-for-Hire and
Thomas Hackwood.
Corwin (ely7@inter.net.il or corwin@virtuallyjeannie.com)
http://www.virtuallyjeannie.com/ranma.html
* Previous chapters can also be found at:
http://phu.anifics.com/
http://tannim.anifics.com/rfics.html
http://ranmaxovers.tripod.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/index.fic?action=directory-authorProfile&userid=43
130
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
A Couple of Angels
Chapter 16
Hearing the front door open and then slam shut despite the music coming from
his mini-DAT player, Shinji walked over to the sliding door of his room and
called out hesitantly, "Misato-san?"
When he got no response, the boy opened the door slightly and glanced
outside, only to recoil in fear at what he saw. 'Misato-san... was that
blood?'
Too scared to go outside, Shinji decided to block the entire episode from
his memory. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his mind
off Misato's bloody clothes.
Listening to the goings on outside, he heard the water in the shower running
for ten minutes, before the stream of liquid came to a seemingly abrupt
stop. Another minute passed in silence. Eventually, when Shinji was so
scared of the unknown that he could barely stop himself from shaking, he
heard footsteps coming towards his door.
The boy leapt backwards and frantically searched the room for his discarded
mini-DAT player. Finally finding it on the floor, where he'd left it upon
going to check out the strange sounds that filtered into his room from
outside, he hurriedly put the headphones into his ears and hit play.
The door slid open several moments later, revealing the Major, who was clad
only in a beach towel. Misato flicked her damp purple locks away from her
face, before giving her male protege a hard glare.
"Nothing happened. I returned home two hours ago and kissed you good night
on the forehead, which woke you up. You managed to catch the time off the
watch on my wrist before your tiredness got the better of you again."
Shinji stood there for several long moments with his mouth hanging open,
before nodding stiffly.
Misato approached the boy and planted a light kiss on his forehead. "Good
night, Shinji." With that, she left the room, sliding the door back on its
hinges.
--------------------------------------------------
"Hey, Rit-chan! Just the person I wanted to see!" Ranma exclaimed excitedly
as the blond scientist entered the mess hall. "Check out the bracers!"
Ritsuko bit her lower lip and looked down at her feet.
Ranma, sensing that something was wrong, looked at the woman worriedly. "Is
there something wrong, Rit-chan?"
Ritsuko nodded, and before Ranma could ask anything else, ordered everyone
to vacate the premises. The few sailors that were eating grabbed their
plates and left, obeying her.
"You're scaring me, Ritsuko," Ranma said when they remained alone.
"Ranma... there is no easy way of telling you this."
"Telling me what? Come on, just spill it! What's wrong?!"
"To start things off, there had been another Angel attack while we were busy
retrieving the Lance. Apparently, the orbital Angel's powerful jamming
prevented us from getting that information sooner by satellite. The
closeness to the Lance probably had the same effect on your keen senses."
Seeing a blue glow spread out around Ranma's body, Ritsuko decided to calm
the boy down with her next words. "The attack was repelled, and all the
pilots are safe and sound." Looking at the pigtailed boy nervously, she
added, "Even the Fifth Child, who attempted to pilot EVA 03."
Ranma's mouth drew into a thin line. "I warned you."
"You won't hear any arguments to the contrary from me."
"I see," Ranma said calmly. "It was _his_ decision."
"What are you going to do about it?"
Ranma shrugged. "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." With a frown, he
added, "I was hoping never to reach that bridge, but I now know that would
be unavoidable." The pigtailed boy forced a smile to appear on his face.
"Hey, it's alright, Rit-chan. I ain't angry at you or nothing." As the blond
woman kept her silence, he joked, "At least everyone's okay, right?"
"Ranma," the doctor began talking over the lump that formed in her throat.
"One more thing happened while we were at the South Pole. There was a huge
explosion underneath Tokyo-2, which resulted in countless casualties."
Ritsuko paused for a moment, before continuing. "Ranma... from the
preliminary reports it seems like another Jet Alone prototype."
The pigtailed boy's face contorted into a mask of mixed pain and worry.
"N-Nabiki?" he asked anxiously.
"She is wanted for questioning by the police... who have not managed to get
a hold of her yet."
"Dammit! I told her to stay away!" Ranma balled his fists, and his aura
started to take on an unmistakable orange shade.
"Not all is lost..." Ritsuko bit on her lower lip. "If she hasn't been found
as of yet..."
"I asked her not to get involved... I didn't want her to get involved..."
"Do you want... to talk?" Ritsuko asked awkwardly.
"No," the pigtailed boy replied curtly. "I'm going out for a flight."
The woman could only stare at Ranma's retreating back, until he exited the
mess hall and the door closed behind him, hiding her view of the boy. 'Poor
kid... I hope he'll be alright.'
--------------------------------------------------
"So, we meet again... Saionji!" Asuka exclaimed haughtily while pointing her
bokken at Toji, who was facing her in traditional samurai grab with a wooden
practice sword of his own in his hands.
"With my righteous sword I shall defeat you, fiery villainess, and rescue
the beautatious blue-haired goddess from your evil clutches!" the boy yelled
in return, posing with his practice sword dramatically.
Thunder rolled in the background, and Hikari threw an angry glance at her
impromptu props department. Kensuke shrugged helplessly to indicate that he
hadn't done anything, and the self-proclaimed head of the project turned her
attention back to the set, a nasty scowl adorning her face.
Toji finished posing and charged at Asuka with his bokken held high in both
hands above his head. "Have at thee!" He cried out triumphantly, slashing
downwards.
The red-head nimbly backflipped out of the way, catching the boy in the chin
with her feet. While he recoiled backwards, losing his balance temporarily,
Asuka smirked and charged him. Upon reaching him, she cried out, "Rabid
Mongoose Retaliation Strike!" and kicked him squarely between the legs with
all of her strength.
Toji whimpered and fell flat on his face, both hands going to caress his
burning groin. "Such... prowess..." he muttered in awe, before the bokken
that flew out of his hands when they were needed elsewhere came crashing
down on his head and sent the boy into forced slumber.
"What the hell was that?!" Hikari screamed, running onto the set.
Asuka idly twirled her unused bokken around her index finger like a baton.
"A special attack."
"You fucking kicked him in the nuts! " Hikari screamed, pulling on her own
hair.
"Yep," Asuka agreed with a satisfied smile. "Wasn't that special?"
"An excellent match, Miss Utena," Rei said quietly, walking over to the duo.
"Why, thank you, Anthy," Asuka replied with a smile, patting her friend's
shoulder.
Hikari threw her hands up into the air in disgust. "I give up. Next!" Almost
as an afterthought, she added, "And someone get that moron out of here,"
pointing at Toji's prone form in the center of the stage.
Asuka cracked her knuckles and smiled at Kensuke cruelly. "Get over here,
Miki! I want to try my Treacherous Mongoose Tackled Surprise!"
The bespectacled boy took one look at her facial expression and fainted on
the spot.
"Flawless victory," Rei commented, giving the red-head a small smile.
"I'm on a roll here!" Asuka cried out excitedly, posing with her bokken.
"Yes! I'm da best!"
"I believe it's my turn now," a female voice announced.
Everyone turned to look at the newcomer, who revealed herself to be the
orange-haired Juri Arisugawa.
"I still don't know how she has the exact same name as the girl in the
script," Hikari whispered to Shinji.
"This play was written by my aunt, who was also of the same name," Juri said
with a glance at Hikari, who blushed crimson at being overheard. "In fact, I
was named after her."
Walking over to the equipment, Juri picked up two rapiers and practice
helmets. Throwing one of the helmets to Asuka, she asked, "Would you mind
upping the stakes a bit?"
Asuka caught the helmet and gave her opponent a victorious smirk. "Not in
the slightest."
Rei approached Juri with two flowers in her hands. Putting the orange rose
on the front of Juri's uniform, she took one of the rapiers from the other
girl's hands, and returned to Asuka's side. "Here you go, Miss Utena." She
offered the rapier to the red-head, whom eagerly accepted it. Rei put the
white rose on Asuka's shirt and backed away, her duty complete.
Asuka, with the helmet already covering her head, took a fencing stance
opposite of Juri. The other girl put her own helmet on, and saluted her
opponent with her sword.
"Wait a moment, you just can't..." Hikari started saying, having finally
recovered her wits.
She found her mouth covered by a male hand. Turning around in indignation,
she saw Shinji looking at her sternly.
"Hikari, I love you... but shut up already."
The girl boggled at him, before sighing deeply and shrugging off his hand.
"Let them do what they want. I couldn't care less!"
Seeing that there would be no further interruptions, Asuka copied Juri's
salute. "Let's get this show on the road! Attack me!"
The next moment, the only thing that saved her from a quick defeat was a
sudden rush of wind coming at her. Asuka jumped sideways, rolling away while
protecting her rose with her free hand. Her crouched position allowed her to
jump out of the way of another strike aimed directly at her head, when Juri
gave her no chance to rest before launching another attack.
The two girls continued their duel all over the stage, which had been
vacated by everyone save for Rei, who kept on standing on the sidelines and
watching the proceedings passively. After merely avoiding the first several
strikes, Asuka started counterattacking, but her lack of skill with a rapier
played against her. Only the red-head's keen reflexes and martial arts
training were able to allow her go head to head with the other girl.
Quarter of an hour after the beginning of their match, the two duelists
stopped temporarily opposite each other. Asuka was crouching with her free
hand resting on her bent knees for support and gulping air hungrily. Juri,
however, seemed as refreshed as at the beginning of their mostly one-sided
match.
"Still think you're going to win?" Juri asked calmly, with no hint of
arrogance or mockery in her voice. "You can admit defeat and we'll stop
right now."
"I'm going... to beat... you..." Asuka got out between gasps. Smiling
underneath her helmet, she added, "Nothing... personal... of course..."
Concentrating on her confidence in her upcoming victory, Asuka tried to
force her battle aura to become visible to the naked eye. It was taking a
lot out of her to duplicate the other red-head's trick, but it would all be
worth it if only...
The onlookers gasped, as a faint blue glow surrounded Asuka, and even Juri
took a step backwards.
That was the opportunity Asuka had been waiting for. Springing forward from
her crouched position, she literally flew at her opponent, launching her
sword at the other girl's helmet. Her free hand was reared backwards, the
fingers curled like a cat's.
Time seemed to crawl, as Asuka's rapier approached her opponent's helmet
slowly. Her other hand came forward in a wide arc, the fingers swiping at
the orange rose - the real attack, the strike with the rapier being merely a
decoy. It was a kamikaze attack, relying heavily on Juri's reaction and
leaving herself wide open for an attack. But in her present situation, Asuka
felt that was her only option... and a risk she had to take. An all or
nothing attack.
An attack that backfired, when Juri allowed her helmet to be struck by the
red-head's rapier. Just as her head was rearing backwards from the powerful
strike, her own rapier snatched the white rose from Asuka's chest at the
stem and sent it flying with an upwards slash.
Steadying herself after taking half a step backwards, Juri glanced at the
front of her outfit to see her own flower gone, orange rose petals floating
to the ground slowly. "Air pressure?" she guessed, taking off her helmet and
brushing a hand through her long hair. "Nice job." Holding out her hand, she
said pleasantly, "It's a tie... too bad your miracle didn't work."
"A tie? Not if I can help it!" Asuka cried out. Throwing away her rapier,
she leapt into the air, just as the white rose reached the apex of its
flight and gravity finally caught up with it. She overshot the flower and
landed on the floor, the rose continuing it rapidly speeding descent.
Asuka cursing, when inspiration suddenly struck her. Jumping backwards, she
slid over the floor just in time to catch the flower's stem in one of the
holes of her helmet. Taking the head gear off, careful not to disturb the
beautiful white rose resting on it, she looked up at Juri, who stood staring
at her, frozen in her place. "If you want miracles to become a reality, you
have to work for them."
A long silence followed that statement, until Rei walked over to the center
of the stage and announced, "Another match to Miss Utena."
--------------------------------------------------
Ritsuko entered her dark cabin and turned on the lights. She had waited for
Ranma's return for over four hours, but eventually decided to call it a
night. Just as she sat on her bed tiredly, the doctor noticed a shadow on
the floor. Raising her head frantically to glance at the ceiling, she saw a
familiar pigtailed boy floating cross-legged above her.
"I want... to talk," he whispered simply, as if it explained everything.
And for her, it did. Smiling at Ranma gently, she lay on the bed, never
taking her eyes off him. "I am here for you."
Ranma uncrossed his legs and floated into a horizontal position, laying on
the ceiling directly above Ritsuko.
"Your skills have improved by inhuman leaps."
His face darkened at this, and she immediately regretted her words.
"That's because I am inhuman."
Trying to alleviate the tension, she smiled again. "I wouldn't say that.
Superhuman, perhaps..."
"It's all the same. I'm not normal."
Ritsuko cursed herself. Her first plan to cheer Ranma up backfired. However,
inspiration struck her on the spot. "Who is normal? And whom is to say what
is normal and what is not?"
Ranma seemed to mule this over, and Ritsuko's breath caught in her throat.
It was working! All he needed was just one little push...
"If I'm normal, what does that make you?"
She wasn't ready for that kind of an answer, and looked stupidly at the
pigtailed boy for several brief moments. Getting pensive, she replied, "I
believe we are all normal, more or less. Everyone in their own separate
ways."
Ranma made a face, which looked so funny on him that had she seen it in any
other situation, the doctor would have laughed out loud. Ritsuko immediately
regretted that things were always so serious lately between them. Couldn't
they be like a normal, happy family?
Ritsuko blinked, her mind freezing as the last thought played itself over
and over in her head. Was Ranma her family? Did she think of him as such?
And with that came a sudden realization that she couldn't fathom a future
without him. What else was there for her? Cats no longer helped, and
stooping to using alcohol and men to soothe her aching heart wasn't an
option; especially when the only man who waited for her back at Tokyo-3 was
Gendo.
Another realization quickly followed. She had never thought of Tokyo-3 as
being her home... it was where she worked, and lived, merely that. However,
when she thought of Tokyo-3, Ritsuko immediately compared it with her home.
A home, that was, as corny as it sounded to her, where the heart was. With
Ranma.
"...rry I'm boring you, Ritsuko. I guess I'll go back to my cabin or
something."
Ritsuko's brain caught up to the present, and she realized that she had
daydreamed while Ranma tried to pour his heart out to her. When she saw him
push off from the ceiling - in preparation to leave her room, no doubt - she
knew she had to act, and fast. She couldn't let him out of her room... out
of her life.
"No, Ranma! Wait!" she yelled desperately.
He stopped and looked down at her, his face a mask of confusion.
"I love you!"
His eyes widened, and with an indignant squeak, he fell down on top of her.
They lay there as the seconds ticked away into oblivion, neither daring to
even breathe.
And then, time resumed its course.
"R-Rit-Ritsuko!" Ranma stammered, scrambling off her quickly.
Seeing his utterly panicked expression, she couldn't help but laugh. Rising
into a sitting position, she put both of her hands around the confused boy,
gathering him into a gentle hug. "I meant what I said. I love you. I don't
ever want to let you go."
Ranma, for his part, remained completely speechless. His eyes, however, got
even wider, if that was possible.
"Say, Ranma... would you like to live together with me from now on?" she
asked him suddenly. "I could..."
Unable to take any more of it, Ranma's brain shutdown and the pigtailed boy
slumped in a dead faint.
"...adopt you. Ranma? What do you think? I could be your new mother?"
Ritsuko frowned. "Ranma? Are you listening to me?"
Concerned for him, Ritsuko shook the pigtailed boy until he regained
consciousness, yet remained nervous to the extreme. Only the extensive shock
to his system prevented him from bolting out of Ritsuko's cabin.
When Ranma recovered somewhat from the bombshell Ritsuko had dropped on him,
she repeated her offer to him. After her explanation, Ranma looked up at the
blond doctor with a curious gaze.
"Why you? Why me?"
"Because I am I, and you are you."
Ranma chuckled. "Fair enough."
"Does that mean you want to go through with this?" Ritsuko asked excitedly.
"A mother..." Ranma mused, closing his eyes. "I don't think I could ever
have another mother."
Ritsuko's face adopted an expression of defeat.
"You know, Rit-chan..." he said suddenly. "I've always wanted a big sister."
The pigtailed boy's eyes opened, staring directly into Ritsuko's happily.
"So, how about it... Rit-chan?"
"You've got it, Kiddo!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him again.
Avoiding the over-zealous blond woman, Ranma asked, scratching the back of
his head, "Hey, Rit-chan... can you ease up on the hugs?"
Laughing at his plight, Ritsuko used Ranma's momentary distraction to tackle
him to the floor, where she proceeded to tickle him and hug him for all she
was worth...
--------------------------------------------------
"The Tenth Angel had been defeated," Seele 02 stated calmly.
"Indeed," Seele 04 agreed, the monolith representing it glowing slightly as
it did.
"Incredible," Seele 05 commented, admiring his neighbor.
"Indeed," Seele 04 repeated rather proudly.
"Pompous idiot," Keel said in distaste, appearing without a disguise. "This
is no time for special affects."
"Indee..."
The monolith for Seele 04 flashed a few times, before disappearing.
"You killed Four!" Seele 07 exclaimed.
Seele 05 wasted no time in adding, "You bastard!"
Their monoliths flashed in very much the same way their colleague had
previously.
"Anyone else wants some time to cool off?" Keel asked, sweeping his gaze
over the remaining Seele members, as if daring them to speak. "Right. We
have important business to discuss."
"Ind..." Pausing, Seele 02 chuckled nervously. "Yes. The Lance has been
retrieved and should arrive to Tokyo-3 shortly."
"And Instrumentality?" Seele 06 inquired.
"Is going according to schedule," a new voice answered.
All the monoliths swerved to see Gendo Ikari, seated behind his desk and
smirking at them.
"I... didn't know... he was here..." Seele 08 said dumbly in the resulting
silence.
"D'oh!" the rest of Seele, minus Keel, exclaimed.
Keel, for his part, sighed and slowly massaged his temples. 'It's like
managing a freaking kindergarten.'
--------------------------------------------------
"Hello."
Juri looked over the blue-haired girl that approached her at a small part a
little way off school grounds. "Hey. You're Rei, aren't you?"
"Yes."
Both girls remained silent for some time, looking at each other impassively.
Realizing that the other girl wasn't going to say anything else, Juri
outright questioned her, "Was there something you wanted to ask me?"
Rei nodded, but remained silent.
Trying a different tactic, Juri smiled disarmingly. "Go ahead and ask me."
"You know about the play."
"I... participate in it, yes."
Rei frowned slightly. "No."
"I got kicked out?" Juri asked confusedly.
"You know more. I wish to know that."
Juri sighed, and led the other girl to a nearby bench in the shade. "You're
right. A few things in this play do remind me of stories my aunt used to
tell me." Letting out a laugh, the orange-haired girl added, "But I always
thought those bedtime stories were just that."
"Now, you are not sure."
"You seem to know about this as well," Juri commented, narrowing her eyes at
the pilot of EVA 00. "Even more than I do."
Rei nodded curtly. "I heard a few stories as well."
"Well, how about this? I'll tell you what I know, and you fill in the gaps.
Deal?"
Rei nodded again. "Deal."
Juri sighed, leaning backwards and stretching her arms. "Where to start..."
"At the beginning."
Juri smirked at the honest response. "Good idea." She turned towards her
companion. "The play, just as the stories I remember hearing during my
childhood, centers around a girl - Princess, really - and her Prince." Juri
chuckled. "Is that corny or what? Anyway, this pair is separated by fate,
and several suitors for both of them that would fight until their last
breath to keep them apart."
"The duelists," Rei interjected.
"In a way," Juri agreed, continuing her story. "The duels also represent
challenges the Princess must overcome... with the help and support of her
Prince, of course. First, the aggressive yet dimwitted kendo team Captain
that feels everything must be taken by force. He doesn't get the hint on the
first time and needs the truth beaten into him repeatedly, though even such
drastic measures are not enough to dispel his illusions."
Rei listened intently, sitting with her hands folded in her lap.
"The other is the false friend, the one that cannot decide between justice
and love." Juri scratched her forehead in confusion. "In the stories aunty
used to tell me, it was a girl, Kozue Kaoru. However, they cast a guy for
the part for some reason. I think I heard your friend call him Miki."
"Miki Kaoru is the part he plays," Rei explained.
"Ah, that settles it," Juri said with a knowing nod. "The script must've
been adjusted. Maybe they didn't have enough girls willing to participate...
whatever. Where was I?"
"The third duelist," Rei helpfully supplied.
"Right. The third one's tricky. You see, aunty never talked about her much.
It was supposed to be an obsessed girl that fought dirty and tried to
assassinate the Princess to get the Prince for herself."
"You mean Juri?"
"What?"
"Juri is the third duelist," Rei clarified calmly. "It's in the script."
"Methinks I should take a look at that script," Juri said with a smile.
The blue-haired girl reached into her book bag and gave Juri a copy of the
script without any unnecessary words.
Juri accepted it with a 'thank you', and skimmed through it briefly during
the following five minutes. Finishing her task, she opened the script to the
third duel and showed that part to Rei. "This isn't supposed to happen; at l
east, it doesn't happen in the version I heard. The third duel I was talking
about is actually the fourth duel in this script. And since when is Nanami
Kiryu Touga's sister? Younger one, at that! I'm pretty sure they were
supposed to be roughly the same age."
"Interesting."
"I'll bet. Touga's character is way off. I mean, he looks like the complete
opposite of what my aunt told me about him, all the way till the end."
"The end?"
Juri nodded. "Yeah. He's supposed to try and save the Prince, not the
Princess. See what I mean by him being the complete opposite here?" The
orange-haired girl suddenly looked down, becoming somber. "The ending itself
is off too. They died, all of them."
Rei glanced at the play's ending. "Perhaps the play implies that as well,
only using surrealism to carefully mask that fact."
"I see your point," Juri agreed, after mulling this over. "Aside from the
Princess, the Rose Bride and the Prince, everyone seemed to remain in
Ohtori... that dead world where time and physics don't apply. Unfortunately,
this might go over most people's heads." Juri scrunched her face in
confusion. "In any case, I thought Saionji was the one to escape, not the
Rose Bride. Oh well, my memory isn't as it used to be... or, maybe I'll just
talk with the director and offer to make a few changes to the end..."
"What other differences have you spotted between the script and your aunt's
stories?" Rei asked the other girl, shaking Juri out of her little reverie.
"Well, there are other minor details, like the Rose Bride being the
Princess's willing companion and servant instead of a contestant to the
Prince's heart. Besides, I'm pretty sure she even went as far as loathing
the Princess ever since the two had met," Juri said absently, listing them.
"The part concerning Akio seems about right, though there's something...
off... about it that I just can't put my finger on." Juri shrugged. "I guess
that about covers everything."
Rei nodded slowly.
"Now, it's your turn to talk!" Juri exclaimed with a wide smile.
Rei stared at her blankly, before blinking.
"Riiight..." Juri drawled out with a heavy sigh. "I see this is going to
take some time..."
--------------------------------------------------
End of Chapter 16.
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