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The FFML Refugee List
"What did I do to deserve this?" Shampoo
wondered, her head pressed into the table in front of
her. Mousse was cooking, since Shampoo was too
stressed at the moment for it. He felt moderately
sorry for Ran-Ran when the girl woke up, Shampoo was
likely to tear her to ribbons. Seeing the girl come
in sick from an allergic reaction had scared his wife
badly. Shampoo did not react to being scared well.
"You spent several months inflicting
hairbrained scheme after hairbrained scheme on Ranma
and everybody else," Mousse said wittily. Shampoo
growled without lifting her head from the table.
"You weren't any better," Shampoo snapped.
"I wasn't the one that asked," Mousse reminded
her. He walked over and set a pair of bowls of ramen
on the table. Most of the equipment was in, they'd be
opening soon. Shampoo lifted her head up and started
on her bowl.
"We've been here for two days," Shampoo said.
"So far we haven't made any progress on finding enough
property for sufficient Amazons to start a colony,
Ranma is married, Ran-Ran is completely ignoring me
about how to deal with men outside the village, and
then nearly gets herself killed."
"She's didn't eat that much garlic," Mousse
said.
"She's acting like a total idiot," Shampoo
snapped.
"She's acting like we did," Mousse agreed.
Shampoo closed her eyes and her face twitched.
"Mu Shu wants to spend the night in the storage
closet I guess," Shampoo growled.
"That would be like old days," Mousse said,
smirking. Shampoo smirked back and leaned toward him.
"Maybe we should inspect it," Shampoo said
huskily.
"Of course," Mousse agreed, shifting closer to
his wife. "Because if I'm going to spend a lot of
time there, we'll need to make sure it is fit for
habitation."
"It would be good to know how much room there
is before the rest of the supplies arrive too,"
Shampoo smiled and leaned closer in, their lips were
almost touching.
"Big Sister Shampoo," Ran-Ran called out, her
voice accompanying the sound of featherlight steps
coming out of the living quarters. Shampoo and Mousse
both slumped in frustration. "Ran-Ran feel much
better after nap. When I next visit ai..." Ran-Ran
presented warding symbols as Mousse and Shampoo both
rounded on her and started tag-team lecturing her.
********
"That Kiyone person is one of your friends?"
Ranma asked unnecessarily.
"More like a friend of a friend," Ryoko said,
sitting back down on the couch.
"Her partner shot me down on this place. If it
weren't for that I would have never have met..." She
stared at the television playing whatever came after
the soap opera.
"Yeah," Ranma said, agreeing silently with the
unspoken question as to whether meeting her lost love
was a good thing or not. The redhead sat next to the
pirate, not too close even if it was on the same piece
of furniture. Ranma stared at the television with
Ryoko. Neither of them were really seeing it.
"Is there any ice cream?"
********
Nabiki paused at the walkway to the Saotome
house door as Genma and Nodoka approached from the
other direction. Ranma's parents stopped to face her
as well. There was a moment's silence from both
sides.
"I suppose you've heard," Nodoka said simply.
"Yes," Nabiki answered dryly. "That would
explain why I'm here a couple of weeks early."
"Are you here on behalf of the Tendo clan?"
Nodoka asked. Nabiki rolled her eyes and was about to
answer.
"Her, she's an accountant, not a fighter,"
Genma started. Both the women turned to face him.
Nabiki arched an eyebrow and Nodoka glared and then
turned to face each other again, dismissing the
comment.
"I'd like to see what is going on," Nabiki
said. "Ranma was almost my brother-in-law." She
crossed her arms and dared Nodoka to dispute her
motives.
"Well, I suppose there is nothing else to do
than to introduce you to my daughter-in-law," Nodoka
said. "They should still be inside." Nodoka relaxed
her posture and walked toward the house's entrance,
her husband and Nabiki following behind.
"Tadaima," Nodoka called out as she entered the
building. "Ranma, you have a visitor!" Nodoka paused
a moment and walked toward the kitchen, groceries in
hand. "Come along dear, we should get these put up."
"Of course, Nodoka," Genma said resignedly.
Nabiki frowned as she waited for Ranma to call back.
She the wandered past the kitchen where Nodoka and
Genma were sorting groceries.
"Ranma, are you here?" Nodoka said a little
irritably. Nabiki found the dining room and the
newlywoods as Ranma called back. Nabiki glanced at
the silver hair and arched an eyebrow, and then down
at the tail and rolled her eyes. On the table in
front of them was a rabbit-like animal chomping away
on a load of carrots.
"Yeah, Mom," Ranma snapped. "I heard. Is it
another Amazon? Some girl whom Pop promised me as a
groom to? A wandering martial artist?" Nabiki shook
her head as the redhead shouted irritably.
"That is no way to talk to your mother, Ranma,"
Nodoka called out dissatisfactorily from the kitchen.
"Sorry," Ranma called out.
"Getting a little snippy, Ranma," Nabiki said
in an amused manner. She noted the ice cream and the
paired long faces and frowned. Ranma turned to face
her and huffed.
"Oh, hey Nabiki," Ranma said. "Sorry, but my
life's gettin' crazy again." The silver haired woman
turned toward Nabiki and the brown-haired girl's jaw
dropped and her eyes bulged slightly.
"Who's this?" Ryoko asked roughly, before
spooning up another bite of ice cream.
"How's your friend?" Ranma asked when it looked
like Nabiki wasn't going to answer. Nabiki shook her
head clear and recovered her normal expresson.
"Ahh Chi's fine," Nabiki said. ~Good thing
she's not here, I'd be in trouble about now.~ She
turned to face Ryoko "You must be the new Mrs.
Saotome I heard about." Ranma and Ryoko both winced
and glared. She drew out a business card and passed
it to Ranma. "We'll be selling insurance in another
year or so, might be of interest to you."
"She's like this all the time," Ranma explained
taking the card. "Nabiki, Ryoko. Ryoko, Nabiki.
Actually the two of you might get along." She frowned
as she considered the implications and who she was
talking to. "Well...as friends anyway."
"Why is that?" Ryoko asked suspiciously.
Nabiki arched an eyebrow and waited for the answer as
well.
"You're both pains," Ranma said and took some
of her ice-cream. Nabiki gave an amused laugh while
Ryoko growled.
"So what's with the ice cream?" she pointed to
the collection of tubs in front of the pair. Ryoko
and Ranma both tensed and found the ice cream suddenly
very interesting.
"Talking about old times," Ranma said quietly.
Nabiki's amusement died and she nodded. "Ryoko and I
have some stuff in common."
"Mind if I join you?" Nabiki asked, feeling
morose as all the memories brought up by recent events
caught up with her. Ryoko looked at her suspiciously.
"She's another of Akane's sisters," Ranma
explained. Ryoko's expression relented a bit.
"Fine, whatever," she said.
"Good, I'll be right back," Nabiki walked back
to the kitchen and grabbed herself a spoon and a bowl.
She turned to Ranma's parents. "Mind if we get some
privacy for a while?" She asked. Nodoka considered
this and then smiled pleasantly.
"Of course, Nabiki," she said, though not
without suspicion. "We'll both be in the living room
if you need us."
"Thanks, Auntie Saotome," Nabiki said, falling
back into old habits as she went to join in the ice
cream pity party.
Nodoka peeked in once and saw Ranma and Ryoko,
who weren't sitting side by side, but were at least
close, sitting across from Nabiki. From what she
could see, nothing was being said, or maybe all was
being said that was needed. She nodded in
understanding as she left the three women to eat their
ice cream in peace.
********
"Excuse me, Ranma, ladies," Nodoka said,
knocking on the door half an hour later. "But we
really must have the dining room for dinner." She
then passed straight through to the kitchen.
"Yeah, sorry Mom," Ranma said gathering up the
bowls and tubs of ice cream. With, predictably, a
little trouble from Ryoko.
"I'm not finished yet," Ryoko growled holding
her bowl tightly. There was a moment's silent
conflict before Ranma let go of the bowl.
"Fine," Ranma snapped. "I'm gonna go change."
She vanished into the kitchen as well, pausing to give
a warning look to Nabiki. Nabiki ignored him,
internally amused.
"Well," Nabiki said as she was left alone with
Ryoko. "You're not quite what I expected."
"What did you expect," Ryoko asked cautiously
as she continued eating her ice cream.
"You obviously not any happier about this
situation than he is," Nabiki said, ignoring the
question. ~As for interested...we'll see.~
"Why, you want him?" Ryoko asked. "As soon as
this little botch gets fixed you're welcome to him."
Nabiki snickered and shook her head.
"I'm already attached, thank you," Nabiki said
amused. "And Ranma isn't really my type."
"Not interested in bad-tempered jerks?" Ryoko
asked.
"Ranma would probably think I was planning to
rent him out again," Nabiki said, smiling. "But
again, he's not my type."
"Rent him out?" Ryoko asked, confused. Nabiki
took a picture out of her wallet and passed it to
Ryoko. She saw a picture of Nabiki and some girl with
glasses posing for the camera. "Actually, I think
Fem-Boy falls into that type." Nabiki wasn't
apparently paying attention, looking at some other
photo in her wallet.
"Ranma's a guy even when he's a girl," Nabiki
said without looking up. "They were fighting less and
less. Maybe if the Phoenix people hadn't shown up one
of them would have stopped being stubborn."
Nabiki handed over another picture, keeping a
tight hold of her wallet. Ryoko recognized Ranma and
a girl that had to be Akane holding hands at a balcony
and watching each other while fireworks were going off
in the sky.
"If, yeah" Ryoko repeated. ~If I hadn't let
Tenchi go, if Kagato hadn't come looking for Ayeka.
There are too many ifs.~
"Ranma's family," Nabiki said, who was
considering trying to convince Chi not to go on
Yohko's devil hunting excursions so much. "I protect
my family."
"Don't worry about me," Ryoko said. "I'm not
hanging around long." Nabiki arched an eyebrow, but
didn't answer as Ranma, in his normal form, came into
the room.
"So what is for dinner?"
********
"This must be the place," Kiyone said looking
around. "Let's find a...Mihoshi. What are you
doing?"
"Hey, Kiyone! Come look at this!" Mihoshi
called out. Kiyone shook her head irritably and
walked over to see what had attracted her partner's
attention. She found an embarrassed looking man
apparently tied to the counter with a leash. "Isn't
this the funniest thing you've ever seen?" The young
man frowned at the comment.
"You'll have to excuse my partner," Kiyone
said. "She's a little...ditzy."
"A little?" the leashed man asked.
"Just to satisfy my curiousity," Kiyone
continued. "Why are you tied the counter." The young
man blushed and laughed nervously.
"I don't want to postpone our wedding again," a
woman's voice called out as the chef came from the
back to attend to the grill. "And that's the only way
I can think of to keep him from getting lost." She
set up behind the grill and grabbed a spatula, similar
to the giant one strapped to her back, if smaller.
For a moment she looked Kiyone and Mihoshi over, as if
matching them to descriptions. "What can I get you?"
"I'm not that bad," Ryouga said. Kiyone and
Mihoshi turned to look at each other in confusion.
"Excuse me," Kiyone said. "Why not buy him a
map?" The chef sighed and pulled out a box full of
odds and ends, she pulled out the shreads of map with
multiple penciled marks and angry doodles on it.
"Hey, its not my fault the mapmakers are
idiots, Ukyou!" Ryouga snapped.
"Okay," Kiyone said. "Compass?" A small round
piece of metal came out of the box and was set on the
counter. The needle on the compass was spinning out
of control.
"The compass frame got magnatized," Ukyou said
dryly.
"How about a plast..." Kiyone didn't get to
finish as another compass joined the first. It was
cracked and the plastic holding it together was
brittle in places. It was almost like it had been
frozen and nearly shattered.
"You didn't say I wasn't supposed to follow the
arrow," Ryouga said in a huff.
"Locater bracelet?" Kiyone asked.
"Fell off," Ukyou said. "Couldn't find one
that changed size enough."
"Ohkay," Kiyone tried to ignore that.
"Subdermal microchip?" A collection of bent,
shattered and destroyed needles of various sizes.
"The doctors hate giving us shots," Ukyou said.
"Not that we need it," Ryouga hmphed.
"Umm," Kiyone sweatdropped. "Global positoning
system?" A hand held GPS joined the other items. Its
screen repeatedly scrolled the message "Where on Earth
am I now!?"
"I don't know about that one," Ukyou said, she
lifted a hand to forestall Ryouga's explanation. "I
don't want to know about that one. It just doesn't
work."
"Yeah," Kiyone sweatdropped. "We're just going
to go sit over here and wait for our friends, okay?"
She backed off nervously, pulling Mihoshi with her.
"Uhh, you wouldn't happen to be here to
meet-owww!" Ryouga turned to Ukyou with a confused and
shocked expression. "What did I say?!"
"That's going to be a rough marriage," Mihoshi
said as she sat down.
********
Kiyone saw a young women walk towards Ukyou and
whisper something. Immediately there was action. The
chef moved to the customers that were already in the
store and politely talked to them. As the customers
finished up, each leaving with a coupon that Ukyou
handed out with an expression near to pain, Kiyone
frowned.
"Hey, where's everybody going?" Mihoshi asked.
The blonde stood up and started walking to the door.
Kiyone, on the other hand watched Ryouga, still
leashed to the counter.
"You didn't really have to shut down for this,"
a voice said from outside. Kiyone turned her
attention to the door and nodded, satisfied that she
was correct. Ukyou was holding the door open for the
last of the customers, and two newcomers. Ryoko
walked in while a man Kiyone recognized as Ranma
talked to Ukyou.
"You kidding?" Ukyou asked. "Anything
involving you can get dan..err..out of..uuhh..exciting
fast." Ranma frowned as Ukyou tried to find a safe
phrase to use. His own answer was cut off as Mihoshi
recognized Ryoko.
"RYOKO!!!" Mihoshi yelled loudly. The blonde
rushed towards a suddenly nervous Ryoko, and gave her
a crushing bear hug. "I'm so glad to see you alive!
Everyone said you had died!"
Everybody else in the room paused for a moment
in shock as Ryoko winced at the blonde's expression of
relief. Then there was a dash to pull the excitable
blonde off of the silver-haired pirate.
"Mihoshi, you're gonna hurt her like that!"
Kiyone yelled as Mihoshi was finally convinced to
release Ryoko. The pirate staggered and clutched at
her side for a moment.
"Hey you okay?" the young man was asking Ryoko,
moving to help steady her. Ryoko shook off the
offered help and steadied herself.
"I'm just fine," Ryoko growled, turning to face
Kiyone. "You cut your hair."
"Washu did that," Kiyone explained. "How long
have you been here?"
"This'll be the fourth day," Ryoko said.
"Let's get off the small talk. I want to know what
the hell happened. The news said you were all
captured and Ayeka died, Nagi says Sasami has a bounty
on her and that it was HER that fucked everything up.
All I know is Tenchi is dead for nothing!" Everybody
stared at her in silence for a moment.
"You want to talk about this in front of them?"
Kiyone asked, pointing at the three Nerimans.
"We don't want to tell them we're not from
Earth you know," Mihoshi insisted. Kiyone smacked her
forehead.
"Actually, we already knew that," Ryouga said.
There was a clanging sound as Ukyou hit him over the
head.
"This is a dramatic moment," Ukyou said. "Not
time for comic relief!" Ranma slapped his hand to his
face, lacking a nearby surface to bang his head
against. Ryoko was glaring at them, wishing for her
powers back to blast the both of them. Kiyone was
looking them in a manner she usually reserved for one
of Washu's untested inventions. Mihoshi just blinked.
Ryouga and Ukyou turned embarrased looks to the
other four people in the room and at the same time
gave an ashamed. "Excuse us." Ryoko growled and
turned to face Kiyone.
"Well?" she demanded. Kiyone nodded and
started walking back to a table. Ryoko followed,
pausing when she noticed Ranma heading for the counter
away from her. "Not going to stick your nose into
this?" Ranma looked at her confused.
"Do you want me to?" Ranma asked, honestly
surprised. Ryoko produced her own surprised
expression before frowning again.
"You're not as much of an asshole as I
thought," Ryoko said, as if reluctant to admit it.
Then she moved to join Kiyone. "Now..." Ryoko paused
to look at Mihoshi cautiously. Mihoshi was directing
a sly, knowing look her way that was quite frankly
making her nervous. Attention from Mihoshi was
usually a precursor to bad things. "What happened?"
"Everything was fine up until Washu's virus
destroyed the combat stations around the planet,"
Kiyone explained. Ryoko narrowed her eyes.
"Washu's virus destroyed the drones?" she
asked, idly picking up a knife. Everyone tensed at
the motion. Kiyone blinked and looked at her.
"Didn't it?" Kiyone asked. "That's how you got
through right?"
"I destroyed the drones," Ryoko said. She
tossed the table knife at Kiyone, and the police
officer easily caught before it hit her head. Ryoko
stood up as the three Nerimans across the room got
ready to move if the conflict escalated. "Who the
fuck are you?"
"It's Kiyone, Ryoko," Mihoshi insisted.
"Bull," Ryoko snapped. "Even Mihoshi knew that
Kiyone is..." Ryoko turned to her "friend" and
snarled. "Was right-handed, so who are you?"
"Damn," Kiyone muttered under her breath. She
turned her head towards Ryoko and pulled back some of
her hair to show a circular scar in the side of her
head. Ryoko blanched, but remained suspicious. "Ask
Ryo-Ohki, I am Kiyone. Just, well maybe Washu didn't
put me back together just right." Ryoko looked down
at the cabbit that was constantly with her and it
nodded. She sat down again, drawing several sighs of
relief from about the restaurant.
********
"Guess she's who she says she is," Ukyou said
under her breath, resheathing her spatula. Ryouga sat
down and nodded.
"Think we'll see more of that," Ryouga asked
sitting back down. Ranma shrugged, but remained
standing, watching Ryoko. His fists were clenched at
his sides. Ryouga and Ukyou nodded on seeing that and
turned to quietly watch the discussion between the
three aliens.
********
"Did that happen in the crash," Ryoko asked.
Kiyone growled angrily, something Ryoko had only seen
from Kiyone when it had to do with her partner.
"My peers in the Jurai Intelligence Service
decided they wanted to interrogate people as quickly
as possible," Kiyone said. "Comatose or otherwise.
Meaning Ayeka and I were trea..."
"Wait, Ayeka survived Kagato. Survived that
blue haired bitch," Ryoko said angrily. "Tenchi dies
to save her, and then some over-eager spook decides to
skull-fuck her!" ~Tenchi really did die for nothing.~
"And Kiyone," Mihoshi reminded her angrily.
Ryoko glared at Mihoshi and then shrugged
apologeticaly.
"Yeah, how much did you lose?" Ryoko asked.
"I don't know," Kiyone said irritably. "Bits
and pieces. Obviously the battle, pretty much none of
my skills, Washu saved those well enough..." she
paused. "In fact, I'm not sure that she didn't add
one or two."
"You have Ayeka's scan right?" Ryoko asked
wearily.
"Yes," Kiyone said, slipping a disk out of her
pockets and handing it over to Ryoko. "Mihoshi, the
player."
"Hmm, oh right!" Mihoshi put a small flat
rectangular piece of plastic on the table and pushed a
section. The rectangular popped open and Ryoko put
the disc in and slapped it down. Almost immediately a
hologram screen appeared and showed the inside of the
Jurai throne room.
Ryoko watched Kagato play with Tenchi and
almost completely ignore Ayeka. She couldn't actually
see the princess, but her hands were visible, and her
voice was easy to recognize. It was quite obvious
that Kagato had the advantage. Then the Jurai trees
in the illusion about the throne room seemed to become
Earth trees. Tenchi, on a second wind, and Kagato
charged each other.
"Ranma?" Ryoko reached forward to hit the pause
button on the player. She shook her head and
continued. "Come over here."
"Sure," Ranma said, breezing over to stand next
to her. "You sure you want me here?" Ryoko snorted.
"I just don't feel like having the story
dragged out of me lighter," Ryoko said irritably. "I
don't NEED you here, got that?" Mihoshi arched an
eyebrow and gave Kiyone a knowing look.
"Got it," Ranma said. Ryoko nodded a good and
started the hologram again.
Ryoko leaned forward as Tenchi and Kagato
charged each other, biting her lip as if in
anticipation. Ranma, standing next to her, caught a
muttered "please" repeated over and over again and
sighed resignedly. In the hologram, the ceiling caved
in and the view shifted upwards, along with Tenchi's
focus.
"Damn it Tenchi!" Ryoko yelled, tears forming
at the corners of her eyes. "The old man's told you a
thousand times never to take your eyes off an
opponent! Never! Turn back your eyes damn you!"
Ryoko felt someone gripping her shoulder and looked up
to see Ranma. She frowned and shrugged her shoulder
away from him, but not before giving a slight nod.
Certainly enough the view switched to show
Tenchi impaled on Kagato's black blade. Ayeka
screamed, causing Kagato to turn as Tenchi got one
more shot in. The blade cut through Kagato and both
fighters went up in a swirling blaze of darkness and
light.
Then all was dark.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my
father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to
be psuedo-evil." - my brother
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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