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The FFML Refugee List
The characters of the Ranma 1/2 universe are the
creation and possession of the brilliant Rumiko
Takahashi. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and her
licensees (Shogakukan Inc., Kitty-Fuji TV, Viz
Communications Inc.) No copyright infringement is
intended.
WARNING: VERY DARK!
Contains Graphic scenes of violence.
******************************************************
Tea and Shadows
She padded softly through the blasted steel and stone
that had once been a city. A soft breeze rolled a discarded tin
across the ground with a muted tinkle that died without an
echo. Automatically scanning the landscape, her enhanced
senses looked for the tiniest sign of life. Of infection.
Orange flame crept snake-like through the ruins in a
slow, sullen feast that would last generations. Here and there
nuclear-fire burned blue in frozen puddles of fused glass, steel
and flesh.
Like a cleansing wind she rushed over kilometer after
kilometer of moon-scape and hellish ruin. But the moon had
never been alive. And hell had never been so damned.
The tiny receiver buried in her mastoid vibrated and
the squeal of a burst transmission altered her course.
******************************************************
"Don't wan' this!" Three year old Takeda Tamiko
pushed her bowl away, spilling it's meager contents on the
ground. "wan' rice!"
"We don't have any rice, sweetheart," her mother
answered, scooping the watery barley-paste back onto the
cracked plastic Santa Claus dish. She picked the largest pieces
of rock and dirt from the gruel, resisting an urge to lick her
fingers. This was all for Tamiko and Kentaro. "But if you eat
this, you can have a sweet." She pulled out a small paper
packet of sugar, wrinkled and water stained that still had a
faint impression of two yellow arches on the paper.
"No,nonononono!" Tamiko's pinched face screwed up
in a scowl and she kicked at the gaily coloured plate her
mother offered her again. "want rice. ricericericerice . . ." her
thin wail trailed off into hiccoughing sobs and Shika gathered
her daughter to her.
"There will be rice, darling," she stroked her daughters
matted hair, "bowls and bowls of white sticky rice."
"Rice now?" the little girl asked hopefully.
"Soon, I promise." She lied, heartsick that lies and
moldy grain in dirty water were all she had for her little----
A ceramic needle, wrapped around an iron core, finer
than a human hair, eased her broken heart. Moving forty
times faster than sound there was not the slightest warning.
The second needle caught Tamiko behind her left ear, and she
never knew her mother had died, as the tremendous transfer of
kinetic energy vaporized the contents of her skull and death
shock left mother and daughter frozen forever in their last
moment. Tiny Kentaro died, never waking from his starvation
induced semi-coma, as the whip- crack sound of death finally
arrived on the heels of the third needle.
She brought the heavy coil-gun down out of recoil, still
scanning the area for further infestation.
*Decontamination complete. New orders?* Helmet
mounted sensors made verbal communication redundant.
Discipline, Purity and Family made it a crime.
There was a slight pause as the implanted transmitter
sent her encrypted sub-vocalizations to the ground-support
trailer, from there to a satellite and back down to her "elder
brothers", a continent away.
#Cleaner 447, proceed to grid Alpha-nine-three . . .,"
there followed a string of alpha-numeric characters scrolling
across her helmet HUD. " . . .enforce quarantine.#
Alpha-nine-three, the dead zone. The empty quarter
that devoured Cleaners.
******************************************************
Purity----Discipline----Brotherhood; watchwords of the
Family of Asian Nations. The three pillars upon which rested
the security and stability of society. It was her job, her and
others in the Epidemic Control and Prevention
Department,(The Cleaners) to eliminate sources of infection.
She was good at her job. She had to be.
Biogenetic armor enhanced already formidable natural
strength and senses. Implanted circuitry tied her into a free-
flow tactical link that could weld two or two-hundred into a
single organism, while an MHD powered needle gun gave her
more firepower than a twentieth-century infantry company and
the chamaeleon effect made her almost invisible.
"Hello, Shan Pu."
Almost.
"Nihao, Pervert girl."
The sound of her own voice was shocking. Alien.
Where had those words come from. Why had she broken
discipline? Only Elder Brothers could speak without
permission. Discipline, Purity and Family brushed aside her
sudden lapse.
"Everyone's been so busy lately----"
Locking onto the sound of her voice Shan Pu spun
around, triggering a hundred round burst into----
"---- it's nice to see an old friend."
----nothing!
"I just made some tea."
The jumble of masonry and steel had fooled her ear,
making her think the voice was coming from directly behind
her, rather than to the right, where a shadowy figure lurked
behind a tumble of masonry.
"I've got some sweet rice-cakes ," the voice coaxed,
just as if Shan Pu hadn't just tried to kill her. There was a
pause, then . . . "and some too, too delicious noodle."
Shan Pu choked back a surprised laugh at the _awful_
mimicry, then froze in horror as she realized she had broken
discipline again. The promise of Special Tutoring and an
order to Disinfect ,was almost immediately countermanded by
a second burst-transmission. The super-sonic squeal, like a
mutant mosquito, told her to contain the source of infection.
This had been identified as an area particularly resistant to
disinfection and a sample was wanted for study. A
Containment and Disinfection team was en route.
Containment and Disinfection . . . jumbled images of
sterile white tile, cold surgical steel and pain flashed through
her mind before she could press them back with mantra of
Purity, Family and Discipline.
"Pervert girl try kill Shan Pu with bad noodle!" She
moved suddenly toward the voice. If she could force the other
to attack, to trigger her defense protocols---- there would be
nothing left for----the mono-filament line, invisible even to her
enhanced senses, caught her just below the knee and she went
sprawling.
"The tea is still hot," she looked up from the ground to
see a hand emerge from the shadow, holding a delicate
porcelain cup. "I've only got Sencha," Akane said worriedly,
referring to the most common green tea "I hope that's all
right."
"Is fine," Shan Pu, replied, automatically taking the
cup.
"Have a rice cake," a plate appeared from the
shadows. "I just made them."
Shan Pu stared, stunned, at the globs of mud and
straw, set amidst vibrant dragons and cranes that sported
playfully on the priceless Imari plate.
"Don't you like them?" Akane asked anxiously. "I
worked really hard on the recipe."
Quickly she took a mud-lump. "No . . .no. Is good."
Risking being blinded by a sudden light-bloom, Shan Pu
cautiously let her enhanced vision spool up, almost afraid of
what she would see.
Akane. Wearing a clean, if slightly faded sun-dress
and a broad-brimmed straw hat.
"Have some more tea." Akane couldn't possibly see
her in the darkness, and Shan Pu wondered for a moment if
she were blind. But her hand, holding another treasure of
delicate china, moved unerringly to pour and Shan Pu
automatically moved her cup under the spout as the other girl
cheerfully poured . . . nothing.
"Say when . . ."
"Is good!" Shan Pu squeaked, watching as the other
girl sat back, picking up her own cup and taking a delicate sip,
of nothing.
"Why don't you take off your hat and stay awhile? We
can have a nice talk."
"Ummmm . . ." The only "hat" she had, was her
helmet and she wasn't supposed to take it off.
"Can't you stay?"
There was a slightly plaintive note in the voice that
made her feel----
*Purity* The neural whip lashed her buttocks and legs.
*Discipline* It didn't damage the flesh . . .
*Family* . . .and could cause pain----forever.
The squeal of the manic mosquito dragged her from
her memories with permission to remove her helmet.
# The C&D team is running behind. Keep the infection
localized.#
Her hands were shaking slightly as she unsealed her
helmet and removed it with a slight twisting motion. There
was a sharp pain as the neural interface separated and, for the
first time in years, there were no voices in her head, no
protective eye watching over her.
"And now we can have a comfortable talk." Akane
said brightly as Shan Pu set her helmet aside. For a moment
Shan Pu wondered if the other girl could have known about
the satellite link. Shaking off the unsettling thought she looked
up, glad of the concealing darkness, just as Akane lit a small
lantern. With a hiss she jerked back from the light, flinging an
arm protectively over her eyes.
"I'm sorry. Are you alright?"
Shan Pu briefly resisted the light tug on her arm, then
allowed it to be pulled away, huge golden eyes blinking as
they adjusted to the light.
"Ohhhh, how kawaii," Akane gently ruffled the tufted
ears that nervously swivelled to catch the faintest sound from
the outer darkness. "I like what you've done to your hair."
Her lips drew back from needle sharp fangs, a side
effect of the search for the right combination of traits to make
the perfect . . . "Cleaner".
This stupid girl was making _fun_ of her. A rumbling
snarl started deep in her chest and claws slid in and out their
sheaths in nervous reaction. She didn't have to put up with
this from _her_! Years of frustrated humiliation and rage
bubbled to the surface and "Elder Brother's" omnipresent
voice wasn't there to tell her "no".
"I always used to jealous of your hair," Akane
continued, oblivious to the snarling death inches from her
throat. She patted her gleaming cap of raven-black with a
deprecating little laugh. "I was jealous of everything about
you." She smiled at Shan Pu, and she grinned back,
involuntarily, her murderous rage vanishing like a soap
bubble. "You were better looking, a better cook . . .a better
martial artist."
"Pervert girl have nice hair," The years rolled back,
and a cocky Amazon once again faced her 'enemy' in an
empty lot. "Soft. Thick." A sudden spring and she was behind
the girl, taking only a moment to savor the look of awed
amazement, before she stole her memories in the opening salvo
of a years long battle. "Good martial artist," the scene
switched and she watched "the girl" and _her_ Airen, moving
as one, in a move that shouldn't have been possible without
years of work. But was, instead, as natural and unconscious as
breathing. "Strong," the jarring stop as her war-hammer was
caught . . .muscles straining to force the other's arm down.
"good fighter." A gamine grin. "Just not good like Amazon."
"Really?" Akane seemed childishly pleased at the
back-handed compliment. "What about my cooking?"
"Akane have nice hair."
"Really? I always knew my cooking was----HEY!"
Akane shot a narrow-eyed look at the other girl, then smiled
sheepishly. "So, what have you been doing, since you left?"
Shan Pu shuddered as the question brought to mind
more recent and less . . .friendly . . .memories.
"How's Ke Lon? Still running the Amazon nation and
teaching everyone about three thousand years of Amazon
history?"
"G . . .great-grandmother?" Shan Pu's mind went
blank as she thought of the unthinkable for the first time
since----"Great-grandmother . . .great-grandmother . . .retire."
"Retire? I didn't think she'd quit meddling until she'd
been dead and buried under a mountain for ten years."
"D . . .doctor," she tried not to choke on the word. "say
great-grandmother work too hard. Strain heart. Send to
. . .send to hospital." Tears shimmered in her voice as she
remembered the last time she'd seen Ke Lun, strapped in a
chair, eyes blank and empty from the "medicine" that had
been prescribed. " . . .maybe never leave hospital."
"Don't worry," Akane squeezed her shoulder gently.
"Ke Lun hasn't lived three hundred years for nothing. She's
forgotten more suff than any hundred doctors have ever
thought of. I bet she's got some magic thingy or secret herb
that no one's heard of in a thousand years that will have her
out of that hospital in no time."
"Thank . . .thank you. But doctor say----"a sudden
thought shook her. No one had been allowed to _see_ Ke Lun
in years. She was too "sick" for visitors. What if ----she sternly
repressed the sudden surge of hope. No, more likely the old
woman was dead. But the tiny ember of hope refused to be
snuffed out.
"Is Mu Si still asking you to marry him? Or did
you----"
"No," Shan Pu said hastily. "Mu Si no ask marry." It
was hard to ask anything, when you no longer had a tongue.
"what Akane doing?" She blurted, anxious to change the
subject. " How Kasumi. Nabiki?" As soon as the question left
her mouth she regretted it. A flash of some undefinable
emotion crossed the other's face, dimming the cheerful open
look for an instant.
"Kasumi left home to work . . ." The light in her eyes
was dimmed and Shan Pu was distressed to see an angry tick
at the corner of one eye. " . . .as a Comfort Hostess," Shan Pu
hissed in shock, doubly shocked at Akane's calm tone. "I
worry that she's working too hard. She hasn't been home in
months," Years, Shan Pu thought numbly. It has to have been
years since---- "but at least she writes regularly." Akane pulled
a carefully folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it
too Shan Pu. The other girl opened the tattered paper, creased
and worn from constant folding and re-folding . . .and bit her
lip, until blood flowed, to keep from crying out. "Is . . .is good
letter. Happy letter." Gently she re-folded the perfectly blank
piece of paper and handed it back to Akane.
"Nabiki . . .Nabiki . . ." Akane rubbed the side of her
head and Shan Pu could see a puckered scar that ran from her
temple around the back of her head. " . . .she was . . .it
happened so fast . . ." Shan Pu moved quickly to support the
swaying girl, now paper white.
"Akane alright?" Stupid question. Of course she
wasn't.
"Headache," Akane whispered, pressing her hand to
her temple. "I . . .I've been getting them . . .sometimes. And
nightmares . . ." Lost, frightened eyes locked onto the other
girls face. "I dream . . .sometimes . . .that everyone is gone . . .
that I'm all alone and it's dark . . ."
"Akane come with Shan Pu," it was crazy. Impossible.
Shan Pu couldn't help herself, let alone a crazy girl, but she
had to-----
"Oh, no," The lost look was gone now. "I've got to
wait for Ranma."
"Airen!" It slipped out, without thinking, but Akane
didn't seem to notice.
"He'll be back any minute."
"Airen?" whispered. So many years gone, so many
dreams lost. And it only took this one name to bring them
back. Of course. Someone had to have been taking care of
Akane. Someone had been eliminating the Sanitation crews.
Someone who could take out groups of heavily armed and
armored "Cleaners"----if Ranma were here then they----
"The baby was crying and he went out for food and
medicines." Akane turned a blissful smile to the cradle that sat
unnoticed and silent until now.
"Baby . . ." Shan Pu went cold. "Baby . . ." she
repeated stupidly. The cradle was dark to her thermal sight.
Dark and cold.
"Aizouma," Akane reached in the cradle for little
'Treasured Horse'. "Ranma was so proud, you'd think he
invented babies and fatherhood."
Shan Pu wanted to shut her eyes . . .run away . . .
"Isn't he precious?"
Shan Pu took a deep shuddering breath as Akane held
out the tiny straw doll, dressed in a miniature gi, complete
with black-belt.
"Is . . .is beautiful baby." She licked suddenly dry lips
as her eyes darted between the doll and Akane's face, filled
with a maternal glow.
"Isn't he? I think so." She cooed softly to the doll,
tickling it's tummy before placing it back in the cradle. "It's
so silly. We've been going to Inaba-san's grocery for years,
but lately he's always out of things we need." She tucked a
blanket around "Aizouma" and started to gently rock the
cradle. "so Ranma decided he'd look for a new store. I wanted
to go with him . . .men _never_ know how to shop," she
confided with a wink, "but he doesn't like me to travel." She
made a disgusted sound at the foolishness of men. "I can take
care of myself. I'm a martial artist too." She blinked suddenly,
looking at Shan Pu. "I'm a martial artist." It was a question.
"Ranma told me to wait. Told me to wait right here."
How long, Shan Pu wondered. How long had she been
waiting. And how had she survived alone?
"He'll be back. He'll be back any minute. . . any . . .
minute."
A noise brought Shan Pu spinning around, her coil-gun
coming up, like an extension of her arm. Her finger was
pressing the trigger, even as she tried to localize the target. She
lowered the gun as a heavily muscled giant stumbled into the
ruins at a shambling run. Massive shoulders, heavy with
muscle and tree-trunk sized thighs bespoke a more than human
power. Power enough to wield the eighty-kilo iron club,
studded with triangular spikes, he held lightly in one hand
Simple and fool-proof, it would never jam, never run
out of ammunition and was completely silent. Blood, bone
and fragments of composite-armor smeared it's surface, a
testament to it's maker and the man who used it.
His eyes opened wide on seeing Shan Pu and he
opened his mouth to speak. Blood fountained from between
his lips, as he fell forward, showing the hideous wound in his
back. The shot had caught him, Shan Pu observed clinically,
just under the arm . . .probably as he was turning, and taken
out the lung and aorta. Killing him instantly. It just hadn't
been enough to _stop_ him. He'd always been strong, she
thought, watching blood soak into his bandanna.
"Ryouga?" Akane looked at the fallen man, white
faced in shock, hands pressed to her head as if to keep it from
exploding. "I . . .I . . ." She shuddered and a tear leaked from
her eye.
At least she knew how Akane had survived. And what
had happened to the other "Cleaners". He'd been good, very
good. But the Family was large, and only had to get lucky
once. She looked at the other girl, staring at the body as if the
world had come to an end, and for her it probably had. Shan
Pu's thoughts were racing, like a squirrel on a wheel, when the
matter was taken out of her hands.
#Cleaner 447, report!#
The sudden return of the "voice" stunned her. An
Elder Brother was close enough not to need the relay mounted
in her helmet. Before she could reply ,five heavily armored
figures burst into the ruins. By their battered appearance they
had been badly used, and they were four short for a standard
C&D team.
"Oh . . .you've brought some friends. Would you like
some----" An armored fist caught Akane on the cheek,
knocking her to the ground.
#Tag it and bag for transport# Elder Brother's cool
tones echoed in her head. One of the armored giants grabbed
the fallen girl by the hair, while a second shook out a mech-
bag, used for carrying specimens.
"No!" Shan Pu came to her feet in protest. "You don't
have to do that. She's injured. Something's wrong with----"
She screamed as the neural-whip lashed her nerves with fire.
#Discipline#
Spasm snapped her spine, until only her head and heels
touched the ground.
#Purity#
The fire lashed her again, convulsions shook her like a
terrier shakes a rat and her own muscles battered her against
the unyielding ground.
#Family#
"NO!" The third blow never came as Akane erupted
from the ground like a lioness defending her cub. "Leave her
alone." A palm strike caught the armored figure that held her
under the chin. The armor was articulated, to allow free
movement of the head, which moved, freely, ninety-degrees
with only a slight snapping sound. Even as the first figure was
dropping ,a flashing spin-kick caught the second figure against
the temple as it dithered, trying to make up it's mind to drop
the capture bag and reach for a weapon. The armor was proof
against the blow, but the sudden acceleration of _just_ the
head, sheared the brain from the spinal cord.
The advantage is always with the attacker. Two were
down before the survivors realized they were under attack. A
hand was just dropping to a weapon when a hammer-hand
strike thudded into an armored chest, with the sound of
breaking bones. The armor held, but the force of the blow
transmitted through the composite material, pulped internal
organs, like a stick of dynamite in a fish pond. Three down.
The forth figure was smarter, backing away from the
fight while swinging his weapon into battery.
Too slow. Too far away, Shan Pu's thought crawled
sluggishly through her pain numbed mind. Akane obviously
thought the same thing, as she grabbed the man she'd just
killed and spun him, one handed, through the air. The human
club smashed into the forth man, shattering his spine like a
rotten stick, just as a snap shot from his capture-gun slammed
into Akane, breaking her hip and throwing her to the ground.
#Animal!# Elder Brother snarled, spinning the power
setting of the lash to level two. #I will teach you!# The sight
of the whip, snapping and hissing like a snake, paralyzed her
with horror.
#Disgusting beast.# The whip fell again and she threw
herself out of the way, frantic to avoid the lash.
#I will teach you to fail# Whimpering like a child,
Shan Pu curled in a ball. #You will learn to die before
allowing an elder brother to----#
It was a moment before Shan Pu realized the lash was
no longer chasing her across the floor. Forcing her eyes open
she saw Elder Brother on the floor, Tendou Akane astride his
chest. She had only one good hand, one good leg. But that one
good hand had him by the throat, slamming his armored head
again and again against the ground, while her good leg blasted
knee strikes between his legs with enough force to shake the
ground. It was brute strength and savagery that would have
ground an unarmored man into a furry guava-jelly and given
pause to a person in normal battle armor. But Elder Brother
was wearing heavier armor than the elder brothers who
accompanied him. Speed and suprise had knocked him off
balance for a moment only. Even as she snarled her hate at
him his free hand reached for his holstered coil-gun. The one-
second burst blew her clear of him in a spectacular fountain of
blood that left her sprawled on the ground with a hole in her
belly you could throw a dog through.
Elder Brother was almost hysterical with anger. His
person was inviolate. And now---- to be spattered with the
disgusting fluids of an Infected!
#I'll teach you!" He spun the whip to maximum and
the ceramic-alloy whined, glowing red hot as it tried to handle
maximum over-load. #DISCIPLINE!# Shan Pu watched the
lash fall, trailing fat blue sparks, only to see it miss as Elder
Brother stumble.
"Leave . . .her . . .alone." A bloody trail marked the
ground where Akane had dragged her dying flesh to grab
Elder Brother by the ankle. "Leave----"
With a snarl Elder Brother brought the whip around,
intending to burn the disgusting piece of garbage to ash.
Shan Pu flinched away from the whip and as she did so
her hand brushed against her holstered coil-gun.
The whip came down against it's unprotected, dying
target. And Elder Brother's spittle flecked snarl vanished,
along with Elder Brother's head as Shan Pu walked the
muzzle of her gun down his body, unzipping him from crown
to crotch as she emptied the magazine. The click-snap, click-
snap as the gun attempted to recycle an empty magazine
finally penetrated her consciousness and she forced her
cramped finger to release the trigger.
Stumbling to her feet she staggered over to the bloody
wreck that had been Tendou Akane and dropped to her knees
in a pool of blood that seemed to big to have come from such a
small girl.
"Not . . .too slow ?"
"Not slow," Shan Pu couldn't understand why she was
still alive. "Not slow," she repeated, squeezing an ice cold
hand between hers.
"Ranma?" Akane looked past Shan Pu. "I've been
waiting and wait----"
******************************************************
Shan Pu looked at the two mounds of earth with some
satisfaction. There was a bigger stack of helmets on the larger
mound (she'd been amazed at the sheer number she'd found in
a crumbling out-building) but only the smaller had the
heavier, more elaborate command helmet of an Elder Brother.
Shouldering the sack filled with scavenged magazines
and power-packs, she scratched the still healing, self-inflicted
wound behind her left ear. Things were much clearer now.
She held up a broad, muscular hand and watched
gleaming obsidian claws slide smoothly in and out. She no
longer feared the lash, but embraced the pain.
Discipline
Moving down the road at a half-jog she thought about
a half-blind boy and an old woman with a sharp tongue, who
were waiting for her, somewhere. And about a slow, stubborn
girl laying under a mound of freshly turned earth.
Family
But, mostly, she thought about the Elder Brothers, and
how surprised they would be to see her. She stroked the
neural-lash at her belt.
Purity
*****************************************************
I would like to thank Bert Miller, who suggested this
story with his C&C on Cherry Blossom and who graciously
pre-read the draft of this story.
I also wish to thank Adrian Tymes, Bastet's Chosen,
Bjorn Christianson, Gary Kleppe, Jamie Wilde, Karjalainen
Esa Tapani, Kyhdin, Richard Robinson, Skyfire, and
Thiemo Guenther for their instructive comments that
contributed to the birth of this story.
And, of course, many thanks to all the kind readers who read,
quietly. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this story.
And, now that this is out of the way, I'll try and get
back to BF and Sukeban. ^_*
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