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The FFML Refugee List
Flashbacks and a Party
Ryoko slumped forward as the scan finished
playing. She shook her head wearily, taking deep
breaths to help fight down her anger and sorrow. The
pirate gripped the edges of the table and growled,
crushing what was in her hand. She turned to look up
at Mihoshi and Kiyone again.
"Washu couldn't do anything?" she asked.
"Every cell was dead," Kiyone said. "Maybe she
could make a clone, but..."
"It wouldn't be Tenchi, right," Ryoko finished
angrily. "She always has the answers doesn't she."
There was silence for a long moment.
"Do you have any idea where Nagi would be?"
Kiyone asked finally.
"Don't worry about Nagi," Ryoko said, standing
up with her fists clenched. "She's dead."
"Ryoko, you didn't," Mihoshi whispered.
"No, she ain't yet," Ranma said.
"I don't need the back-up, Ranma," Ryoko
growled.
"This has to be done right," Kiyone insisted.
"There's a bounty on her head," Ryoko reminded
them sharply. "A royal bounty. She's open season.
And she should die just for the fact that it was
Sasami," Ryoko slapped her hand hard on the table.
"Who issued it." Ryoko walked out of the restaurant.
"Sorry 'bout this," Ranma said, standing up and
following after Ryoko. He waved to Ukyou and Ryouga
on his way out. "Later guys. Gotta make sure she
doesn't do anything stupid."
"That's almost the definition of Ryoko's
attitude," Mihoshi muttered as Ranma left. Kiyone
gave her a sharp look.
"Yeah," Ukyou agreed walking over to the table.
"I've noticed she's as bad as Ranma."
"As bad as Ranma?" Kiyone repeated.
"Oh yeah," Ukyou said. "Ranma's pretty well
known for hair-braned schemes and thinking with his
fists."
"Well, before Jusendo anyway," Ryouga said
quietly. Ukyou's smile vanished and returned
hesitantly.
"What's Jusendo?" Kiyone asked, not liking
where this was going.
"A spring of magical water," Ryouga said.
"Something happened there?" Kiyone asked.
Ukyou pointed at the player.
"Sort of like what I think was on that," Ukyou
said. Kiyone paled.
"Is he....safe?" Kiyone asked.
"Would he do anything to Ryoko?" Mihoshi asked
nervously.
"Well, he kept her from drinking," Ukyou said,
then flinched. Ryouga blinked. "Uh oh."
"That was Ranma's fault!" Ryouga shouted and
started for the door, snapping the leash. "Ranma
prepare to die!" Ryouga and Mihoshi snapped to their
feet at the same time Ukyou moved to intercept Ryouga,
slicing her spatula in the way.
"Are you still in high school!?" Ukyou
demanded.
"But, I was covered in sake!" Ryouga whined.
"You want to postpone the wedding again?" Ukyou
demanded. "Really, have your fun with Ranma after our
honeymoon."
"Fun?" Mihoshi and Kiyone repeated.
"By that time I'll have forgotten about this,"
Ryouga said. Ukyou stared at for a moment and then
burst out laughing, collapsing to the ground. "What
did I say?"
"Didn't you say he was going to kill that other
guy?" Mihoshi asked.
"Well, yeah," Ryouga said, scratching the back
of his head. "But it wouldn't feel right if I
didn't." Kiyone nodded.
"Yeee-ah," Kiyone said.
"Forgotten..." Ukyou gasped through peals of
laughter. "...by YOU?!" Ryouga sweatdropped.
"I think we're missing something here, Kiyone,"
Mihoshi said.
********
"Back off," Ryoko snapped without turning
around. "I don't need a babysitter."
"Sure you do," Ranma said. "You're wide open."
"Shut up, Ranma," Ryoko growled. "I want to be
alone!" She whirled around, with a punch leading and
frowned as Ranma lightly sidestepped the strike. She
growled and threw another, Ranma ducked past it again
and lightly pushed on her elbow to bring her past him.
"You feeling okay?" Ranma asked seriously.
~She's used to more reach.~
"Just fine," Ryoko growled twirling out her
arm. "It's closed." She swung hard and wide again,
and jabbed as Ranma ducked under the strike. The
martial artist intercepted it and directed it past him
again. Rolled past Ryoko and stood up behind her.
"Do you always fight like this?" he asked,
shaking his head. ~Her footwork is improving. Though
it can't do much more than improve. It's like she's
never fought on her feet before.~
"Would you get out of my face!?" Ryoko turned
around and faced off full with Ranma before attacking
the martial artist with what was going to be a series
of fast jabs. Ranma caught the third and fourth
strikes and turned Ryoko around away from him. "Let
go of me, asshole!"
"Are you gonna stop acting like an idiot?"
Ranma asked.
"Fuck you, Ranma," Ryoko snapped. Ranma let go
as she pulled against him. "I don't need this
self-righteous crap."
"Who's being self-righteous?" Ranma asked.
"This is stupid and pointless."
"Yeah, what would you know about it?" Ryoko
snapped. Ranma frowned and crossed his arms.
"Everything I've seen says that when something
happens, you clam up. All cool control, no passion!
No rage!"
"I need ta show you somethin'" Ranma said
quietly.
********
"Pathetic," Nagi growled as she watched Ranma
dance around Ryoko. It was hardly like the vicious
pirate Ryoko had been when she'd first seen the woman.
She closed her eyes and remembered.
********
"You don't seem very nervous considering this
is first raid, officer Inagi." She looked up to see
the raid commander looking at her with a sense of
amusement.
"Should I be nervous?" she asked honestly.
"We'll be heading into heavy combat soon," he
said. "And you aren't breaking a sweat."
"I don't think anything is going to happen to
me, sir," she said confidentaly. "They'll probably
fold before I get a shot in."
"We'll see about that, officer." he raid
commander smiled.
********
Contact hadn't even been made when things went
wrong. Some sort of explosion rocked the pirate
stronghold, and suddenly the guards were on full
alert. Pirate forces appeared from the surrounding
hills as the fire fight started and battle broke up
into a confused mass of laser fire and assorted
explosions.
"They were set up for us, Aoi" Koji said. They
had come through the academy and the special units
training together. He was probably the only one
outside of personnel and command that actually knew
her proper name. He was certainly the only one she
let use it.
"Don't be stupid," Ken snapped, he was the
third of their splinter of the original raid. She
hadn't been wasting her breath on speech, listening as
she went through the rapid ritual of point, click and
boom.
"I heard some of them talking about it," Koji
insisted, firing on some laser drones that were trying
to get an aerial position on them. "Somebody in
command called it in, I heard a name."
"Talk about that later!" Hisato, the fourth and
last of them insisted. "It won't matter if we don't
survive."
"Shoot, don't talk," she had insisted. Koji
cried out in pain behind them. Before any of them
could turn to see what had hit him there was an
explosion that knocked them all off their feet.
Inagi rolled up, snapping a few shots toward
the known enemy positions to discourage them
approaching, and saw Ken neatly being slashed in
threes pieces by a girl, no more than six years
Inagi's junior, with a red energy sword. Her face
gleamed demonically under a mane of silver hair.
Hisato lay motionless on the ground to the
side, and Koji lay dead. A massive hole burned
through his chest.
"Damn you!" she had shouted and fired at the
killer.
The laser fire sparked harmlessly off a field
of force around the girl. She lifted her free hand
out toward Inagi and a crackle of red energy appeared
and rocketed past Inagi. It exploded somewhere behind
her, the explosion flavored by the sounds of human
screams and several small explosions as combat drones
were caught in the explosion.
It was then that the cabbit on the girl's
shoulder leaped into the air, and the girl vanished as
soon as the great spiky ship took form.
"Inagi, over here!" she turned angrily to see
Hisato awake and trying to stand. "Hurry before more
come!"
********
"She must have been from a rival gang," Hisato
had said in the lonely trip back to headquarters. The
pirate gang had been destroyed, but the cost had been
nearly all the raid's personnel. "Funny how she let
you live." Inagi stared at him, not liking the way he
had said it.
Months into a long investigation into police
corruption, Inagi walked out of the headquarters a
civilian. She was one of the lot that they had given
the option to retire. There was no real evidence
against her, just some hearsay about how she felt safe
on the mission and how her life had been spared. The
could make her life impossible if she stayed on
though.
All because of this the new pirate. Ryoko.
********
Ken-Ohki blinked at the memory that Nagi had
dredged up. That was something new to his experience.
He didn't like that at all.
"Miao," the cabbit inquired.
"You were wondering why I hate her?" Nagi
answered quietly. "There's your answer."
"Miao!" Ken-Ohki insisted.
"If people get in the way," Nagi left the end
of the comment hanging.
********
Ryoko felt a chill as they approached the
cemetary. That was a good thing about space, there
were rarely any burial places. The ship Sasami had
disappeared into was about the closest thing she had
ever run across.
"Something wrong?" Ranma ask as Ryoko hesitated
to follow into the cemetary.
"These places always give me the creeps," Ryoko
explained. Ryo-Ohki popped into existence and lighted
on her shoulder.
"Miaooo," Ryo-Ohki asserted.
"Yeah," Ranma said. "I always thought so too."
He walked through the gates.
"Really?" Ryoko asked irritably as she followed
him. ~Probably not for the same reason.~
Ranma walked along the path stopping at a
particular grave, kneeling down, almost praying.
Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki came up behind him. She checked
the name on the tombstone and wasn't surprised to see
Akane Tendo written there.
"This is her?" Ryoko asked. Ranma frowned,
then bowed to the tombstone and stood up.
"I hope she doesn't mind this," Ranma said.
"Mind what?" Ryoko asked. "Me being here?"
"What else?" Ranma asked irritably.
"Is this what you wanted to show me?" Ryoko
asked, she was getting impatient.
"It was my fault," Ranma said quietly, he
touched the tombstone.
"So it's your fault this girl died," Ryoko
said. "But it's not my fault that Tenchi died?"
Ranma sighed in frustration and looked down.
"Everybody thinks Saffron got one last shot
off," Ranma said.
********
"I'm going to tear you to pieces!" Ranma
yelled. A sudden twister erupted around the martial
artist as he made use of the fire all around him to
start a Hiryu Shoten Ha.
"You think that technique will work against
someone like Saffron, landling?" Saffron asked,
laughing loud and condescendingly. Another twister
joined the first, and another soon after. "It does
not matter how many of these pitiful attacks you
create, landling! I'll not let you touch the Jusendo
water!"
The battle raged for several more minutes
before Ranma hit upon focusing the hiryu shoten ha
into a virtual spear of air to kill Saffron. He ran
with Akane towards the Jusendo taps. All around them
raged fire and tornados, tearing at the surrounding
cliffsides. Ranma had to watch as the wind carried
the fire and rocks into the Jusendo taps, demolishing
them completely.
********
"It was an accident," Ryoko said after a long
silence.
"I might as well have killed her with my own
hands," Ranma said. He growled the next sentence. "I
know what rage is. It took everything from me."
"It was an accident!" Ryoko shouted. "From
what you said she was dead anyway, rhe eyes closed or
something right?"
"It still might have worked," Ranma insisted.
"And that's why you act like a zombie?" Ryoko
shook her head in mild disgust.
"Akane died because of my blunder," Ranma said.
"At least your Tenchi died trying to protect you."
"He wasn't there for me," Ryoko snapped. Then
she continued under her breath. "He was there for
Ayeka." Ranma looked at her strangely.
"You just don't get it do you?" Ranma asked.
"Don't get what?" Ryoko asked dangerously.
"Didn't you hear what that Kogata..."
"His name was Kagato," Ryoko corrected him.
"Whatever. Did you hear what the creep was
saying?" Ranma asked. "He set that all up just to
get a chance to fight your guy. Didja wanna wait for
that asshole to work his way down the list to you
before Tenchi did something? That kinda person ain't
worth a grain."
"What, you're saying he wasn't there for
Ayeka?" Ryoko's voice sounded slightly more angry
actually, as if Ranma had just suggested that Tenchi
had gone to fight for the fun of it.
"I'm saying he was there to protect you all,"
Ranma explained. "Just because you rescue someone
doesn't mean yer going to marry them. Damn, I
shouldn't be talking about this here."
"You mean even if he went to rescue Ayeka,"
Ryoko said quietly. "He might have loved me?"
"I don't know," Ranma said. "I didn't know the
guy. But yeah that's what I said sorta."
Ryoko thought back to the corridor of the
Yagami and Tenchi telling her that he'd love to go on
a trip with her. He couldn't just forsake Ayeka
though. The thought that Tenchi may have loved her
over Ayeka warmed her somewhat, but it was tainted.
Now the loss was that much greater.
"Thanks, I feel so much better now," Ryoko said
dryly. Ranma shrugged and knelt back in front of the
tombstone.kissing the stone and the bowing again.
"We should go," Ranma said. "And stop
bothering Akane like this." The wind rose a little
around them, slapping coldly into Ranma's face and
rustling the leaves in the trees. "See, she's already
getting impatient."
"It was just a little breeze," Ryoko said
before she noticed the strained smile on Ranma's face.
The wind settled around them with a sound that
mirrored the frustration Ryoko was feeling. "Is the
lesson through for the day?"
"Yeah," Ranma said standing up and brushing
himself off. "Let's go."
********
Kuno looked around the forested area trying to
spot any sign of his quarry. What he did see
convinced him that, yes indeed, the foul sorcerer had
been here.
"The demon has used foul magics to create
behemoth monsters from the various fauna of these
woods!" Kuno declared, brandishing his bokken at a
giant lizard. "For the sake of all virtuousness I
must vanquish these foul minions!"
Kuno charged forward. Ten steps out he fell
through the ground and was smashed between a number of
boards. Within another instant several rocks came
pouring down on his head.
"I wonder if perhaps the fair Kasumi Tendo does
not approve of me," Kuno wondered momentarily as he
climbed out. "No, I must be mistaken. Clearly the
evil wizard expected me to follow him. Surely he
fears to face my challenge to avenge the fallen
Akane."
"Hey you!" somebody shouted behind him. Kuno
turned around to face a man wielding a broom. "Go
back! You shouldn't be here!"
"I am here to track the vile sorcerer Ranma
Saotome," Kuno declared. "Obviously he has worked his
foul magic on these forest creatures and made them
monsters to do his bidding."
"Actually its the water of life that does
that," the man with the broom said. "But I know that
name from somewhere. Anyway, you shouldn't be here,
go back to where you came from!!!"
"I see, obviously you are also a vile sorcerer
that Ranma has enlisted to cover his escape from the
righteous fury of my vengeance!" Kuno shouted.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" the man with
the broom yelled suddenly, as if he had just noticed
Kuno. "You should go back to where you came from, it
isn't safe here!"
"If you will not let me pass," Kuno shouted.
"Then I must make you move!" Kuno charged forward.
*******
"Ahh, you're finally home," Nodoka said
cheerfully as Ryoko and Ranma walked in.
"Uh oh," Ranma whispered as he noted his
mother's expression. "Mom, whatever you got planned,
can it wait until later?" Ryoko didn't like the sound
of that.
"I just realized that I have been
unintentionally insulting your wife," Nodoka said
without paying attention to Ranma.
"We're not really married," Ryoko growled. "It
was a clerical error which will be fixed in just one
or two more days."
"As I was saying I should have given more
thought to the situation," Nodoka continued. "So
tonight Ryoko-chan..."
"...chan?" Ryoko repeated in shock.
"Miao?"
"Mom's weird," Ranma explained.
"Tonight I will allow you to cook the evening
meal," Nodoka said, smiling. "Ranma and Genma both
have large appetites, so perhaps you should cook
for..."
"Ehh?" Ryoko blinked. ~That's a privilege?~
"Uhh...Mom," Ranma said.
"Ten people," Nodoka said finally. "No, make
that twenty, this is a special occasion."
"How is this a special occasion?" Ryoko
demanded.
"Well, I must explain matters to your father,"
Nodoka said turning around and walking into the house.
"Did she hear anything we said?" Ryoko asked.
"No," Ranma said, exasperated.
"Miao?"
"No, we probably won't get food unless Ryoko
cooks," Ranma said. The cabbit and Ryoko both seemed
to grimace. "You can't cook?"
"What do you think of instant meals?" Ryoko
asked.
"I've had worse," Ranma said, being curiously
nostalgic. He looked at the cabbit. "All you ever
eat is carrots, what's your problem?"
"Miao, miaooo." Ryo-Ohki said with a shiver.
"They make processed carrots?" Ranma said.
"Do you think bad cooking will get your mother
off our backs?" Ryoko asked.
"I don't know, maybe," Ranma shrugged. "We
could tr..." Two stomachs growled and two people
started weighing the benefits of trying to get Nodoka
off their backs and having a good meal. Food won.
"We could try ordering out and saying I made
it," Ryoko suggested.
"She'd catch it. But....uhh, I can cook,"
Ranma said hesitantly. Ryo-Ohki and Ryoko stared at
him for a moment. "What?"
"Miao." Ryoko nodded.
"I am not effeminate," Ranma protested.
"Wait," Ryoko said. Stomachs growled again.
"Never mind, after dinner."
*******
"I'm going to show Ryoko where everything is,"
Ranma called out. "Okay mom?"
"That's nice of you to help your wife in the
kitchen, Ranma," Nodoka responded.
"Look she's turning you into a weakling
house-servant already boy!" Genma shouted. There was
the sound of drawing steel, and then Genma shut up.
"Is all this really worth just one meal?" Ryoko
asked. They considered the question for a moment.
"Yes," was the unanimous decision.
"Okay, so what am I cooking?" Ryoko asked.
"Teriyaki chicken and rice with steamed
vegetables," Ranma said.
"Is that all you can cook?" Ryoko guessed.
"Of course not," Ranma said. He continued
under his breath. "But if Ukyou hears I've been
making okonomiyaki she'll have my head."
*******
Nodoka stood outside the kitchen and smiled in
satisfaction as she listened to Ranma and Ryoko
plotting and cooking. Her plan was working perfectly.
All she had to make sure of was that her idiot
husband didn't get in the way.
"Our son is helping in the kitchen," Genma
said. "I hope you are aware of that."
"Yes, I think its very manly to want to help
his wife get used to a new kitchen," Nodoka asserted.
"I hope nothing gets in the way, it would be a shame
to miss dinner." Genma stared at her a moment, and
the gears in his head started to turn.
~Nodoka says Ryoko must cook, Ryoko doesn't
cook, no food,~ Genma thought.
~No food means NO FOOD!!~ "I shall endeavour that
no-one interferes with the cooking of the day's
dinner!" He declared loudly.
"That's fine dear," Nodoka said. "But all I
ask is that you leave them alone. Excuse me." She
stood up and walked to the phone.
*******
"You and that panda can't really eat this much
food can you?" Ryoko asked as the meal started to take
shape. "I can't even eat that much."
"Umm, actually," Ranma said nervously. "No.
Mom knows that we can't eat this much. I wonder..."
"Why did she ask me to make so much then?"
Ryoko asked cautiously. They heard the front door
open and close again. "They're going in and out a
lot."
"Wait a minute," Ranma said. "Could you keep
an eye on that?" He pointed to the stove.
"Yeah sure," Ryoko said. "I can watch it cook,
easy." Ranma walked to the kitchen door and opened it
looking out into the dining room. He came back a
moment later looking very irritated.
"You should see this," Ranma said. Ryoko
frowned and followed Ranma to the door and peeked out
at the crowd of people.
"Ohhh, shit," Ryoko said, shocked.
"Oh, Ryoko-chan," Nodoka piped up cheerfully.
"Is dinner almost ready? The guests are waiting."
"Mom, who all's here?" Ranma asked.
"Well, Kasumi and that nice doctor of hers,
Nabiki and her...friend, Ukyou, Ryouga, they brought
some friends of your wife's by the way," Nodoka
paused.
"Kiyone and Mihoshi are here too?" Ryoko
groaned.
"That Tarou fellow and the serious girl with
the rugbeater," Nodoka said. "Did you know they have
a phone in that temple up there? Soun and his new
wife. Kodachi-chan and...you are certain that ninja
person is a boy, Ranma?"
"Yes," Ranma said, somewhat shell-shocked.
"Well, you two should really hurry with the
food," Nodoka said. "It is not polite for the hosts
to keep the guests waiting."
"Right," Ryoko said, eye twitching angrily.
Ranma and Ryoko backed there way into the kitchen.
"She tricked us."
"Yep," Ranma said. "We're trapped."
"Want to run out the back and find somewhere to
hide for two days?" Ryoko asked.
"You don't want to know what will happen if
that group is promised food that is not delivered,"
Ranma said.
"We'll just have to make sure that everybody is
aware that we are NOT staying married," Ryoko said
reluctantly.
"Do you think that will work?" Ranma said
doubtfully.
"Just finish the cooking and let's get this
over with," Ryoko snapped.
*******
"So fem-boy finally woke up and got back in the
game, eh?" Tarou called out as Ranma and Ryoko started
bringing the food out. The girl next to him sent an
elbow into his gut.
"I am pleased to see you feeling better,
Ranma-san," Natsume said. "And congratulations."
"Congratulations Ryoko!" Mihoshi yelled
cheerfully. Sitting next to her Kiyone had her head
in her hand, and was shaking her head. "Gee they
don't seem too happy."
"I wonder why," Kiyone said as the comments
continued going around. ~Why did I come to this? Oh
yeah, keeping an eye on Ryoko.~
"Excuse me," a girl with brown hair and glasses
said, catching Kiyone's attention.
"Yes?" Kiyone asked, trying to beat down her
developing headache.
"How long have you and your girlfriend been
together?" Chigako asked.
"My girlfriend?" Kiyone repeated.
"Oh, Kiyone and I have been partners for
years," Mihoshi chimed in. "Since the academy."
"Mihoshi!" Kiyone snapped.
"You two must really cae about each other,"
Nabiki said smirking.
"Oh yes," Mihoshi nodded, hugging a mortified
Kiyone. "We'd do anything for each other."
"Mihoshi...." Kiyone whined desperately.
~Gee, thanks Mom,~ Ranma thought as the dinner
turned into a collection of random conversations.
Most of them were trying to involve him, Ryoko or
both. ~I'll have to remember this when you hit
forty.~
~If I get stuck in this relationship,~ Ryoko
thought. ~I hope she likes babysitting.~ Though she
was amused by the situation Mihoshi was putting Kiyone
in.
*******
Nagi watched the party with something akin to
anxiety, which was new for her. According to Ken-Ohki
a number of the people that arrived carried large
amounts of a power similar to the Jurai. Ranma most
of all of them, but she had already known about him.
Then there was Ryoko's power added into all that.
She would never imagined that a mudball like
Earth could produce people of such power. And an
investigator like Makibi was not a lightweight threat
either.
"If they plan on cooperating against me," Nagi
whispered. "I'll have to change my plans."
=====
"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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