[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 15 -
Differing Opinions
Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the characters from Ranma 1/2, Neon Genesis Evangelion,
Ah My Goddess, or the Lovecraft Cycle involved in these stories. And I'll
put them back when I've finished with them.
C&C , MSTs are welcome
E-mail: dan_s.comments@worldnet.att.net
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(these are the original versions)
What has gone before:
About Book 11, Akane and Soun Tendo throw Ranma out of the house,
Nabiki, in the guise of a wish, follows him. They meet EVA pilots Shinji
Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Soryu Langley and Jeffery Davis.
TheScholarly Dragon arrives in the Waking World, by unknown means.
The Scholarly Dragon meets with Asuka, and gives her plans for a
campaign against Misato.
During a Sunday picnic, the pilots are mortared, Nancy Thompson is
killed, Asuka is slightly injured. The Military discovers the goal was to
capture, not kill the pilots.
Nabiki and Ranma train Ritsuko in martial arts. Maya is forced to
confront the reality of her dead colleagues, and she may be next. Nabiki
admits her fear for Ranma as the cause of her anger with him.
While Asuka is recovering, Rei tries to reach out to her rival. Later
Rei saves all the pilots from an assassination attempt. Ranma and the
Scholarly Dragon save her.
There is a traitor at NERV, one who doesn't know Ranma and Ranko are
the same person. The Commanders have their suspicions.
Cultists transform the pilots into an animal, the embodiment of their
personality. The details of El Nureenen's Curse on Jeff are revealed.
Ritsuko and Rei try to make peace, Rei tries to understand her
feelings for Shinji by comparing them to the feelings of Nabiki and Ranma
for each other.
"If violence is not solving your problems you're just not using enough of
it."
Misato Katsuragi - Neon Genesis Evangelion
"I could never make them understand violence is a precision instrument.
It's a scalpel, not a club."
The Intendant - Deep Space 9, "Shattered Mirror"
Chapter 15 - Differing Opinions
Ranko was glad Dr. Akagi had told her to leave. That Raccoon had
effectively collapsed from over-exerting himself, was more like what she'd
actually said. Ranko was just glad to get out of the apartment. Rei had
asked Maya about her attempt to kiss Ritsuko, while she was still asleep,
and Ranko wanted to get out of the building while Maya was explaining that.
Ranko was jogging towards the medcenter, not a run, but a quick,
distance-devouring pace. She had come to a conclusion, sticking a bunch of
girls under one roof for a night, made them all go nuts. If Shinji was
smart, he'd stay in the room until the sun was well up, and whatever was
affecting Rei, Nab-chan, Rit-chan and Maya-chan wore off.
~So is Ranma going to see Raccoon to get away, or is Ranko because
he's a boy?~ Ranko nearly fell over after thinking that, "GAAAH! It got me
too!"
She had discarded the thought of getting some hot water when she'd
left, she'd thought it was just so she could avoid getting splashed with
dirty water, on the way over. Now she was rethinking things.
She had to admit, Nab-chan's admission hit Ranma pretty hard.
Especially after what she'd admitted about her lost friend, fearing Ranma's
death. Ranma had scoffed at that, then he watched Raccoon die, or everyone
thought he did. ~Figures Raccoon could trick the Grim Reaper too,~ she
thought. What Nab-chan had said, made more sense, a lot more. Ranma
didn't like Raccoon, he was actually a little afraid of him. But watching
him die that way . . . Ranma could understand why Nab-chan _never_ wanted
to go through that again.
"But we all will," Ranko said, "We've been lucky, but if it happens,
it happens." Ranko found it was easier to accept her own death, even
Ranma's `death` and her survival, than the death of the other pilots. It
was with those dark thoughts, she entered Raccoon's hospital room.
"Hello, Ranko-san," he greeted her, he was wearing a full set of
pajamas.
~Typical,~ "Figures you'd be up," ~And dressed from neck to foot,~
Ranko said, "Dr. Akagi told me about your problem yesterday. She told you
I could help, well, here I am."
"Yes," he chuckled, "I was being an idiot, for two weeks I didn't use
my muscles at all, then I assumed I could go back to full function. I'm
surprised I didn't kill myself . . . that's a joke."
"Rit-chan said you nearly did," Ranko shot back, surprised at her own
vehemence, understanding Nab-chan's `insanity` a little more.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, or anyone else," he apologized,
"Men sometimes do stupid things, because they have this image of how
they're supposed to act. It's dumb, and it's foolish, and it was an
indication of how out-of-sorts I was, that I was acting that way, and
didn't even notice. I mean, the last thing I'd want, is to start acting
like Saotome-san!"
Ranko growled at that.
Raccoon laughed, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't tease you like that. I know
how much you love him, but even you have to admit, if both of us started
acting like that - oh, boy!"
Ranko relaxed. She did have to admit, she didn't want Raccoon to
start acting like Ranma, half the time she wanted to punch out the smug
American, the other half she . . . she abandoned that thought, it sounded
too much like what she just run away from at the apartment.
"You okay?" Raccoon asked, "You looked like you just stepped in
something, with bare feet."
"Yeah," Ranko walked over to Raccoon's walking stick, picking it up,
"Let's just say, it's been a scary couple of weeks, okay?"
"Sure," he smiled, "It hasn't been too pleasant at my end either. I
don't even think I can describe what I remember doing, except it could
loosely be called fighting. Anything else - " he passed his hand over his
head, "Over my head, so it's probably over yours too."
"Okay." Ranko was a little nervous, and she couldn't figure out why,
she set the stick down.
"I would like your permission to try something. A little experiment,
one of the things into which I was looking. It may help you dealing with
Tendo-san, and if you can get Saotome-san to listen, it will help him too."
"Sure," then she smiled, stepped up to the edge of the bed, resisted
an impulse to sit on it, next to him, "Are you sure you want to help
Ranma?" she teased.
"Oh, never, but it might deal with Tendo-san's attitude, just a quick
experiment, I don't even have to touch you. If it is too uncomfortable,
tell me, and I'll stop."
"No, no problem, go ahead," Ranko watched him lean over towards her,
she could tell he wasn't trying to kiss her mouth, but she stood still
watching, ready to react.
She giggled as the breath tickled the small hairs on her neck. "This
is serious!" she told him, "How is that supposed to help Nab-chan?"
"That was the first part of the experiment," he told her, "If you're
going to predict something, you need data, to draw a line through, to
predict if another point is or isn't on that line."
"I guess that makes sense, that's it, how does that help?"
"A level of similarity between Tendo-san and Dr. Akagi, I think you
have some of the same characteristics, I just need to verify that, then I
can tell you my hypothesis. If you don't, well frankly, I don't think I
should tell you anything."
"Just do your experiment before I strangle you. Nab-chan's been
acting more nuts than usual, if this helps, I want to know."
"Okay, all I need to do, is touch your face, if at any time, you get
uncomfortable, tell me, I'll stop. But, I will want you to describe why
you're uncomfortable, agreed."
"Yeah, sure," ~Just get ON with it,~ Ranko thought, ~Quit with the
asking permission! If you hurt me, or try something perverted, I'll deck
you, and we both know it.~
He took his index fingers, and starting at the bridge of her nose,
started brushing her eyebrows. Short, soft strokes, like he was coaxing an
ant forward. If Toji, or anybody except Rit-chan, had done the same thing,
she would have belted them, but she saw the look of intense concentration,
he was studying the effect, as weird as it made her feel, it was partially
impersonal. The same short, soft strokes from the end of her eyebrows,
across her temples to her ears. She shivered a little at that.
"Is it all right?" he asked.
"Just finish please," she told him, she felt really peculiar about
this: excited, frightened, repelled by her excitement. ~If Raccoon is
trying something perverted, he sure is going about it in a spooky way!~ she
thought, trying not to enjoy the contact.
He continued coaxing the ants down the outer edge of her ears, then
squeezed her earlobes gently, then sat back, "All done, do you still want
to hit me?"
"Only if you don't tell me what's going on."
"Has Tendo-san ever hit you? I don't mean sparing, I mean just
walloped you, or Saotome-san?"
"Does poking count?" Ranko was trying to remember whether Nab-chan had
hit him or her, some of the things she'd _said_ hurt worse than any punch
or kick she could remember taking. "I don't think so, she usually pokes me
in the chest."
"Straight down the centerline," he indicated her sternum, "Or off to
one side or the other?"
Ranko squirmed, Nab-chan _had_ poked her there, a couple of times, and
touched her there in other ways, always very gentle, usually when they were
`negotiating`, and never in public. Neither Ranma nor Ranko had the guts
to counterattack the same way.
"I'll take that as a 'yes', did you enjoy it? Did it make you feel
good? Did it make Ranma feel good?" Raccoon asked with a clinical tone.
Ranko was too ashamed to nod.
"Hentai BAKA!" Raccoon raised his voice to a shriek, and his hand to
strike.
Ranko froze, eyes squeezed shut, bracing herself to accept the blow, a
righteous thunderbolt. When it landed, it was not what she expected.
"Ranko, I'm sorry," he had an arm around her shoulders, the other
cradling her head against his neck, "I'm so sorry, but I had to know. Some
things are just too terrible to believe, even if they're true. I'm sorry."
~He knows! By all the gods and kamis, HE KNOWS!~ Ranko thought, she
barely heard the pleas for forgiveness from the boy. For weeks, she and
Ranma had had flickers, feelings of the `rightness` or `wrongness` of
something someone said or did, but like smoke or shadows, the sense was
gone before he or she could examine or understand it. Then for perhaps two
seconds after Raccoon's shout, one of those phantoms had a steel-cased,
poured-concrete reality, Ranko would have stood there, and accepted
whatever punishment was meted out, because she deserved it. She knew she
deserved it, as well as she knew her own name! Then with the gentle touch
and apology, Raccoon revealed the monster as so much mist and smoke, blown
away in an instant.
None of the monstrosities she'd fought, nothing she'd heard anyone
say, not even the mortar attack or the cat, matched the terror of that
moment. Then it was banished away, something too strong from Ranma to ever
face, defeated by the weakness of another.
"It's all right, I'm all right," she told him, returning his hug, a
touch of Nab-chan reared its head, "But now you have to tell me."
"Fair enough," he tried to pull away.
But she hung on, he didn't press the issue.
"First, you are _not_ a pervert, not you, nor Nab-chan or Rit-chan, as
you call them," he straightened up, pulling her into his lap.
She wanted to protest, but decided against it, there was still a
lingering fear of whatever Raccoon had summoned from her mind, only here,
it would face Raccoon and that walking stick first. Ranko almost felt
sorry for it.
"This is it," he brushed her hand across his lips, "Touch, all three
of you want it, maybe Saotome-san too. Yet none of you think you deserve
it. So a slap is a caress, and a kick is a kiss. All three, maybe all
four of you, want someone you can trust, to give you what you want, and not
give you what you expect. Try brushing her hair out of her eyes, a pat on
the shoulder, rest your chin on her shoulder, something nonthreatening,
non-sexual. I think you'll like the results."
"Nab-chan or Rit-chan?" Ranko asked.
"Both, either, I'll leave it to you to figure out how to tell
Saotome-san, he doesn't listen to me, and from what you just helped me
prove, belting him is not the path to making him listen." He set her
beside him, off his lap.
"Hey!"
"It's either that, or you help me change the sheets. I have to visit
the euphemism." Raccoon stood up and headed slowly towards the bathroom.
Ranko considered what had happened, she glanced around the room, as if
that specter was lurking out there. Her hand dropped to the bed, and
closed around the handgrip of Raccoon's walking stick. She held it
defensively, looking for a target.
"Thanks," she told it, when she saw the bathroom door open, ~I've got
to get one of those.~
Ranko noticed how slowly Raccoon was moving now.
"I should have taken a shower, before I went to bed."
Ranko wrinkled her nose, "Yeah."
"Thanks," Raccoon said.
"What about the rest of it?" Ranko asked, "The other things?"
"Ranko-san, I said two words, and you would have stood there, and let
me beat you to death with a steel pipe. If you're even half as good as
Ranma, I wouldn't last two minutes against you in a school yard brawl," he
sighed, "Let me sort it out in my head. I wasn't kidding, when I told you
I'd seen some terrible things. Are you ready for _all_ of them?"
Ranko shivered, tried to rub some warmth back in her arms.
Raccoon looked at her distress, "Can I help you with something,
Ranko-san?" he stretched, then instead of relaxing, he stood there, arms
extended to the ceiling, he seemed to be surprised.
For an instant she thought he was pulling a trick, ~Oh crap! Well
this is what I came for,~ she grabbed a chair, "Yeah, sit down," she led
him to the chair, "Easy, it's right in front of you."
Raccoon looked leery, but did as she asked, she guided him down.
"Easy, just relax, I know it hurts," she saw the corded muscles in his
neck, "I'll get started right away, it'll feel better soon, I promise. You
asked me to trust you, now you have to trust me." She saw his hesitation,
"Please."
He couldn't nod, he just accepted her actions, until she tried to pull
up his shirt.
"Ahh!" he twisted to pull it out of her hands, "No."
"But I - "
"No," he said firmly, painfully, "My reasons. Please respect."
Ranko accepted, Nab-chan also insisted that `he`, Ranma, only work on
her through her shirt. She rubbed her hands together, getting some heat in
them to start. She'd start on the spine below the neck, and yanked her
hands back from the arctic contact, falling to the ground in shock and
pain.
Raccoon had thrown himself sideways out of the chair, was laying on
the floor.
Ranko clasped and unclasped her hands. She examined them, the cold
she'd felt, should have left them badly burned. No redness, no swelling or
frostbite. The pain, the memory of the pain was fading. She glanced at
Raccoon. He was kicking the floor, in pain.
"Are you all right? No burns?" she asked.
"No," he stopped moving, "Should have, burned real bad." He sat up
with difficulty, "This is not fun. Any scorches?"
"Scorches? Frost maybe," Ranko told him, "I've never felt anything so
cold."
"Cold?" Raccoon asked her, she caught the change in tone, and that the
muscle spasm seemed to be subsiding on its own.
~Scientist-est mode engaged, all unnecessary systems locked away,~
Ranko thought, "Yeah, as cold as that, what was it Rit-chan used, liquid .
. . "
"Nitrogen, it wasn't hot?"
"No."
"You didn't use your superfast technique to generate a lot of friction
and heat?"
"No," it was dawning on her, that something neither fully understood,
was going on.
He sat in the chair, facing her, "Show me."
Ranko rubbed her hands together, then reached out to touch his
extended hands, and immediately yanked them back. It was beyond cold. She
expected her hands to break off and shatter, but they were still warm. She
looked up, Raccoon was acting as if he expected his hands to be burned to
ash, but neither of them was injured.
"I think you just got a clear example of the difference between Ki and
mana."
"Ki?!" Ranko was confused, "You said you hadn't figured out how to
teach me."
"I still haven't. How long have you been using that technique on
Tendo-san?"
"A few days after she got here. What's that - ?"
"And why do you do it? Does Saotome-san do it?" Raccoon asked.
Ranko knew she'd not get any answers, until he'd finished questioning
her, until he understood it himself. "I saw she was having trouble, she
was in pain, same as you. Yes, Ranma does it for her, it feels different
when he does it for her, she acts different."
"Would you say you're drawn to it, how about to the other pilots?"
"Shinji and Asuka, a little, stronger for Rit-chan, after all, I live
with Rit-chan."
He rolled his eyes at that. "Not Ayanami-san? Not Captain K,
Katsuragi?"
"No," she admitted, "Not really," she felt a little guilty about Rei,
she should at least try to include her, like Nab-chan and Raccoon did.
"Congratulations, you're manipulating Ki. I think."
Ranko had suspected that when he'd first mentioned that, but having it
starkly confirmed, was still shocking. "But it's nothing like the ball of
. . . whatever I tossed at Nyogtha."
"And it has to be that way?" Raccoon asked, teasing her.
"No, I guess not," she smiled back, "But it's so little, I would
notice, shouldn't I?"
"You're manipulating another body with your energy. The knots usually
just go away when you touch them, right?"
"Well, I have to do a little work," Ranko said defensively.
"Let me show you something," he stood and got a piece of paper,
returned and held it over her finger, when she nodded, he cut her with it.
She winced at the pain, then as he pinched the bleeding wound closed,
and it vanished. The ice that flowed through the pain felt good, soothing.
He displayed an identical wound on the corresponding finger of his hand,
then it healed very quickly. Ranko was amazed.
"That's mana, the energy of magic. I saw, you felt something more
than the feeling of the tissues knitting."
"Yeah, it was cold. I mean _really_ cold," Ranko realized he wanted
_her_ to reach the conclusion, he wasn't going to tell her anything
directly.
"The energy patterns transferred the injury to me, and I healed it."
"And I'm doing the same," Ranko realized, "Setting the - patterns -
back to their correct order." She wasn't sure whether she should cherish
or dread the realization of what she could do, and the implications.
"As it stands, I don't think you're doing any harm, but interfering
with my energy flows repelled you, because I was already healing the
damage, the area was filled with mana, it's a designation for magic's
Universal or Dimensional energies. The interaction you perceived as
extreme cold, I perceived as extreme heat. So you can't help me, without
my consciously adjusting my energy flows. Still, that does mean you could
track the mana flows easily, see if they correspond to the flows of Ki your
body has. Get some insights by comparison."
"You were busy while you were `away`," Ranko joked, "This is all
unbelievable, healing by chi, is legend stuff."
Raccoon shrugged, "I don't know, but if you're interest - "
"YOU bet I'm `interested`!" Ranko blurted out, then quieted, "How does
that apply to . . . what we made our deal about? I know I haven't gotten
my grades up, but haven't I showed I . . . " She withered under his gaze.
"I stick by my contracts," he announced, "Besides, _I_ haven't figured
it all out myself. I don't know how, or if, the techniques translate, and
you have to have fought one of those things. I don't think a normal human,
even one with your abilities, can manipulate the energies."
That chilled Ranko almost as much as the contact had, the idea she
wasn't a `normal` human anymore. Her expression must have showed that.
"How much is your humanity worth? Congratulations, welcome to the
realities of being an EVA pilot," he put his hands on her shoulders, "I
know you want to be the best, but honestly . . . if you had a choice, I'd
tell you to run away, run away and not ever look back."
"You mean abandon you, all of you?" Ranko had heard Nabiki mention
something like that.
He shrugged, "I survived, they will survive," he sighed, "Ranko-san,
this isn't going to be anything other than horrific."
Ranko nodded, but she knew she would stay, she didn't run away from
those flying monsters, even when a slip meant death, she couldn't run out
on these people. She was learning so much: about herself, about himself,
about them.
----------------------------------------
Ranko was at a dead run all the way home. She didn't care that she'd
get home covered in road dust, and Nab-chan's endless teasing about what
she and Raccoon were doing to get all sweaty.
The understanding of Nab-chan made it worth it. She wondered if even
Nab-chan knew why she was reacting like she was. She rubbed her hands
together until the warmth in them was almost painful. Held them apart,
took aim. Nothing happened.
~Well, I can't master this in one morning, even Mr. Know-it-all
couldn't,~ she thought, then considered how she was going to get Ranma's
historical information from Raccoon.
"Just _ask_ him, dummy!" she told herself, as she ran up the stairs to
the apartment. She wanted to share this, with Nab-chan and Rit-chan, she
wondered if either could help, she touched the instruction sheet she'd
tucked in her shirt, the sheet Raccoon had provided, instructions in how to
investigate further.
She noticed the Army soldier standing outside Rit-chan's apartment
door.
"Your ride to school," the soldier said.
Ranko's good humor disappeared instantly, ~School,~ she gloomed,
~There are more important things than sitting around not learning anything
for eight hours.~ She sighed as she entered, saw her school bag and lunch
were packed, even Raccoon's thermos was secured to her book bag. She
stripped off the sweaty clothes and took a quick shower. Ranma would go to
school. That depressed Ranma as he put on clean clothes, noted that Shinji
had rolled up and put away both futons, then folded up the framework,
"Misa-chan sure has him trained."
The man was waiting, and led him to his 'ride'. Ranma was expecting a
jeep, instead, it was a tank, one of the littler ones.
He was seated in the turret, next to the main gun.
"We go fast," the driver yelled from his position. The tank lurched
forward.
It struck Ranma as a rare opportunity, he tapped the main gun, "How
does this work?" He hoped his English was good enough, then he realized
you couldn't hear over the noise of the tank.
One of the crew chuckled, they carefully showed him how to open the
back of the gun where the bullets went in, and where the bullets were
stored, they were heavy things, five to 10 kilos. Then the man sitting on
the other side of the gun, made him look through a periscope-thing. Ranma
didn't understand all the words, but he understood it was some kind of
aiming system.
It would take some actual practice to be any good, he liked the
loader's job, just get the bullets in as fast as you could. If he had to
use a tank, he'd do that, let Nab-chan or Raccoon pick the targets and
shoot. Driving would be a problem. Even 'Ranma' was too short to both
drive and see out, forget Ranko, somebody would have to yell instructions
~That wouldn't work real well.~
----------------------------------------
As they pulled into the school, they had caught up with another tank,
one of the people-carrying ones he and Rei had ridden in. Nab-chan,
Shinji, Rei, Rit-chan and Maya-chan got out while they were parking `his`,
then he climbed out, or would have if Kensuke hadn't climbed halfway
through the hatch, the moment Ranma opened it.
"A Chaffee tank to ride around in!" Kensuke enthused, hanging upside
down in the hatch, "A pilot's life is _so_cool_!_"
It occurred to Ranma, as he pushed the gawking boy through the hatch,
so he could get out, that they were doing this because of the mortar
attack, and the other troubles. That made Ranma feel nervous, Kensuke
might not think it was 'So Cool!' if he'd been under fire with them last
Sunday.
Ranma looked at the other students staring at the tanks, most were
either acting like Kensuke, adulation/amazement, or like he was, worry.
There seemed to be little middle ground, Ranma checked the clock, then
decided he had enough time to find Kenta and Seisuke.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki was helping Rei out of the tank, the girl was still a little
out of breath. None of the girls had enjoyed the hard seats and bumpy
ride.
"Boss!" Hiroko headed over to her. "Boss, Akagi-sensei. I've got the
totals for the last few days, and a detailed report of what you can do with
your job as head of the school, next time you leave me in the lurch like
that." She let out a breath, "Can't these people think for themselves?"
"In my experience, no," Nabiki told her, "If there's anyone else
willing to do their thinking for them."
"That's really Dr. Akagi! My God!" came the shriek from behind them.
Nabiki noticed that Ritsuko looked like Akane had just malleted her.
Natsumi ran up, "Oh Doctor Akagi,
IreadyourpapersonpreparationofdecisionmatricesandBooleanlogictreesandjustlo
vedyourworkontheideaofcomputingmachinesbutIthoughtitwasallsciencefictionand
your . . . "
Nabiki tuned the girl out, let someone stroke the Doctor's ego, give
her a contrast between a real school girl infatuation, and the way Maya
acted. She also wanted to get Rei away from everybody else, the girl
seemed to be going out of her way to embarrass _everybody_ lately. If
Nabiki hadn't physically stopped her, Maya would have run right out of the
apartment, in her nightgown. Nabiki didn't know what Maya and Ritsuko were
actually doing, but Rei had concluded that Maya either was or was trying to
kiss the sleeping scientist, and started asking questions similar to the
ones she'd embarrassed her and Ranma with earlier this morning.
She was glad Hiroko tagged along, she'd need someone logical and
objective, when she confronted Rei.
----------------------------------------
"Are you feeling all right, or have you suddenly gone crazy?" Nabiki
asked, barely keeping her frustration in check.
Rei looked at Hiroko, then back at Nabiki, "No, perhaps."
"Boss, she's just in love. Don't you remember your first time?"
Hiroko asked her.
"This is different."
"Boss, I have a crush on someone, sometimes it's all I can do not to
give some show, say something stupid, that I know will ruin everything
forever."
"Who is it?" Nabiki asked, concerned that her spies hadn't picked it
up.
"Someone you don't know very well, Boss. Someone I love quite a bit.
Maybe sometime I can introduce you two. Ayanami-san, do you think the Boss
would like to meet my 'special friend'?"
Rei stood, considered, "It would be unhealthy not to."
Nabiki was shocked, Rei knew about Hiroko's 'significant other' and no
one had bothered to tell her about it?! That was intolerable, she had to
find out. From Hiroko's expression, asking the girl directly would be
useless.
"On a more serious note, I had to increase the size of the staff. I
can't do your job myself, I certainly can't do it while I'm doing mine, so
I added about 10 more people. Most of them are already 'eyes and ears', so
having them double up shouldn't be a problem."
Nabiki nodded, she didn't like the additional outlays, or the security
concerns, but if she would have to disappear occasionally, they'd need to
keep operating. "Anything from the 'eyes and ears'?" Nabiki wanted the
report, then to get Rei alone, and interrogate her.
"Only the cult, the ones that turned you into animals. I enlisted the
oyabun to look into the mortar attack."
"That was a gutsy move," Nabiki was pleased with her taking the
initiative.
"Boss, there were rumors already flying, keeping them out would have
been dishonorable. As an eyewitness, well, they were _very_ polite and
attentive."
"They haven't turned up anything," Nabiki knew, "Or those . . .
people, would have been shot."
"Shot, Hell, Boss, if the Yakuza got them first, they'd bury them up
to their necks, and charged 10 yen a piece to cut at them with a bamboo
saw," Hiroko assured her, "We'd better get to class."
"I'll be up in a moment," Nabiki told her, took a firm grip on Rei's
sleeve.
Once Hiroko was out of sight, Nabiki glared at Rei, "Who was Hiroko
talking about?"
"No."
"Look," she softened her tone, "Rei, if you want something, something
special, maybe for Shinji, I can get it for you, or help you pick it out."
"No."
"Well that was the carrot. Do I need the stick? You are going to
tell me."
"NO -!" Rei paused, "She knows you love Ranma with all your heart."
Nabiki wished Rei had just stabbed her instead, ~It can't be?!~ "I
don't believe you!" she hissed.
"Her words, I said nothing new," Rei pulled Nabiki's hand off her
sleeve, then tightened her grip until Nabiki winced, "Shinji-kun is part of
me." She released Nabiki's hand and walked off.
Nabiki sighed, felt like crying, ~Even without Genma around, Ranma . .
. and she doesn't dare do anything. I thought the fiance-go-round was
safely buried in Nerima.~
"Oh, Hiroko, I'm sorry," Nabiki wondered how she could ever make it up
to her factor, one of the few people Nabiki had ever met, who was as loyal
as Ranma. She wondered at the perversity of things, and why she hadn't
seen it, ~Because Hiroko had hidden it so well. She's too much like you.~
----------------------------------------
Shinji looked at Maya taking Asuka's usual seat, and Akagi-sensei
taking Raccoon's, he enjoyed the kidding Ranma was getting, like what he'd
had to endure, that first day when Misato dropped him off at school.
'Man, you live with such total babes.'
'You pilots are so lucky!'
"You forgot about Ranko-chan," Shinji told Toji.
"Yeah, that's right, Ranko-sama lives with him too," Toji said, "Why
couldn't a real man be so lucky, instead of Saotome?"
"What was that?" Ranma demanded.
Toji backed down, "Hey, no offense, Saotome-san, but, I mean all these
beautiful girls all over the place, and all you care about is Martial Arts.
I'd be wondering about marital arts, huh?" he smiled as Ranma's frown
deepened.
Shinji suspected Akagi-sensei's hearing was better than she let on,
~At least she's a little embarrassed about it, Misato didn't mind when Toji
and Kensuke practically drooled all over her,~ Shinji shook his head.
Nabiki barely beat the teacher to her seat. The teacher was shocked
about Akagi-sensei and Maya being in class, he invited both of them to step
outside, and the three had a half-overheard, hurried conference. The
teacher was sweating when they returned, Maya and Akagi-sensei looked smug.
"Doctor Akagi of NERV has graciously decided to honor us by observing
our classes toady."
~Didn't he mean 'today'? He sure doesn't _sound_ honored,~ Shinji
thought, ~At least they'll see what we go through during the day.~
----------------------------------------
Heaping Hot Coals
The pack of index cards flew through the space his head had occupied,
as Jeff ducked.
"What makes you think I need help?!" Asuka shouted at him.
"You complained about how Captain K was treating you."
"Who told you that?" Asuka yelled.
"You did, I was unconscious, I wasn't deaf."
Asuka's eyes went wide, Jeff took that as his cue to leave.
Asuka slipped out of bed, picked up a few of the cards. A kanji
character on one side, and on the other, the pronunciation and a few words
it featured in, with translations, all in German naturally. She dropped
the cards back on the floor and flopped on the bed, covering her head with
a pillow, "He's doing it, _AGAIN_!_" she shouted into the mattress.
----------------------------------------
Jeff was heading back to his room when Captain K hailed him, "Zifuri."
~Can't you pick _one_ mispronunciation, and stick with it?~ he
wondered, "Yes, Captain?"
"Misato," she said automatically, "I - "
"What is that in your hair?!" he looked at the yellow patch hanging on
the side of her head, "It looks like a bird did its business on your head."
Misato fumed, "Have you seen Doctor Akagi?"
"Ritsuko? Not since yesterday, Captain."
She frowned, "My name is Misato."
"Are you going to continue walking around with that thing on your
head, Captain?"
"What am I supposed to do, short of cutting my hair off?" she crossed
her arms under her breasts.
"Oh, good grief," he grabbed her jacket collar, "This way, daddy fix."
He dragged her towards the nurses' station.
"Hey wait, I . . . "
"Right here, Captain, sit," he pushed her into a chair next to the
nurses' station, draped the affected portion of her hair on the counter.
"Ideally, this should be an iron, but any good heat source." He pulled an
office lamp and several pages from a discarded newspaper over the
countertop. "It's differential absorbsion," he wrapped the affected hair
in the newspaper, "Heat melts the wax, and the newspaper preferentially
absorbs it. You were looking for Ritsuko to get something to remove this,
correct, Captain?"
He ran the hottest part of the lamp over the bundle, like the ironing
of clothes. "Any solvent would have also dissolved your hair or your
scalp." He rewrapped the hair, then repeated the procedure with the lamp,
each pass removed more wax.
"All finished," he unwrapped her hair, examined it. "It's a little
straighter there, but otherwise undamaged. You will, of course, have to
wash the newsprint out of your hair, but that comes out with soap and
water."
"Do you want to help me with that too?" she asked angrily as she stood
up. Examining her hair for damage, found none.
"If you believe you need the assistance, Captain. I'm not exactly
busy right now."
She glared at him and headed off.
"You're entirely welcome, Captain," he smirked, ~Ah yes, give good for
evil, it's even fun.~
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko had never been so glad that lunchtime arrived. She was
beginning to understand why Shinji and Asuka did so poorly, she was bored
out of her mind in the first period, the teachers even managed to make math
uninteresting.
Apart from the social interaction, she could see almost no benefit to
attending school here. The other students had quickly adapted to her and
Maya's presence, the teachers were shocked that a `parent` was sitting in
on the classes, frankly, she would have expected their reaction to her
presence. No one enjoyed being critiqued, especially by an expert.
The trading of lunches was a bit of a surprise, she hadn't expected
`her` kids' lunches would bring such interest, she was also getting a
little tired of being asked questions she couldn't answer. She was
terrified that they were asking about things that should have been
completely unknown.
Suddenly the crowd pulled back. Ritsuko glanced behind her, Rei
stared at the crowd. It was her usual placid stare, but no one wanted to
be around while she swept it over them. Rei sat in the desk in front of
her, and set a little portable chessboard between them. Ritsuko was
grateful for the break, "Thank you."
Rei simply continued her setup.
Ritsuko hadn't considered that Rei could control her presence to such
an extent, most people had shied away from her, until the pilots had
arrived. Today, she'd watched Rei participate, albeit silently, and she'd
seen her use her presence as a bludgeon. Ritsuko wondered what they were
creating, how soon before the others walked Rei's path, or were they strong
enough to make their own, and could they take Rei with them.
She glanced at Maya, surrounded by a coterie of schoolgirls asking
questions, about working at NERV. Most of her answers, treated it as
working at an office, crossed with working at a lab. She brushed off their
questions about secret or sensitive information with a chuckle or a subtle
change in subject, far more at ease with these people than Ritsuko was.
"When are Raccoon and Asuka going to be back?" Hiroko sat down next to
her and Rei, seemingly immune to Rei's `aura`. Ritsuko also noticed Rei
gave her no attention, concentrating on the game.
"It's for the betting pool. I have to help set the odds," Hiroko
whispered.
Ritsuko wasn't sure, but she thought she saw the ghost of a smirk
flash across Rei's face.
"Soon, it depends on the speed of their recovery."
Hiroko nodded and took her leave.
----------------------------------------
"Hentai baka!" Kenta and Seisuke chorused as they attacked.
Ranma dodged both easily, "Again, like you mean it."
His two friends exchanged glances, yelled and attacked.
Even with his eyes closed, he dodged both easily.
"You want to tell us why we're wasting our lunchtime in the gym like
this?" Kenta asked, "If both of us started yelling 'girly-man' or talking
about a wild date with Ranko, that might have an effect on you."
"Yeah, this is useless," Seisuke added, "I mean Toji's right, all
those hot babes. Hell, Misato was practically sticking her tongue in
Shinji's ear that first day, nothing. I took him for a monk, until he tied
up with Ayanami. They act like my grandma and grandpa now, they're too old
to really do anything, but it's spooky they way they act as one person in
two bodies. But you, if there was anyone as unhentai as possible, that's
you. Don't you even care about girls, that way?"
"Of course," Ranma shot back.
"'Me thinks he doth protest too much'," Kenta quoted from English
class, Ranma couldn't remember who said it, "I mean even Shinji and Raccoon
look at girls, like the rest of us, not you."
"Yeah, so what's this 'Hentai baka' and 'Ranma no baka' stuff?"
Seisuke asked.
"It's a trick Raccoon used, he could have clobbered me, I couldn't
move."
"That guy's just spooky," Kenta said, "He could have yelled 'pork
ramen' and did the same. I'm gonna go finish lunch, and watch the
scenery."
~The girls,~ Ranma translated, "One question, what about Ranko and
Raccoon?"
The two stared at him. Kenta scoffing at the idea, Seisuke deep in
thought.
"Naw. Like we said, too spooky. She'd never get close to him,"
Seisuke concluded.
Ranma watched the pair leave. They were the captains of the Judo and
Karate clubs, neither was good enough to give him a decent workout, even
the two clubs together weren't. He also realized, they knew less about
girls than he did. Ranma walked back outside, it felt good to be back with
other people, the few days of uninterrupted practice had been enjoyable,
but he realized he probably wouldn't have wanted to stay that way forever.
He was still confused, those two phrases, one Raccoon had used, the other
kept showing up as an `echo` when he thought about how Ranko had felt, what
she'd expected when Raccoon yelled. She would have stood there, she would
have let Raccoon beat her unconscious or hurt her in a hundred, different
ways. It was a reflex, and he wanted to be rid of it, if some Angel
figured it out, he could be in real trouble in a fight. Cats were bad
enough.
~Then why did I become a tiger?~ he wondered, despite Hiroko's belief,
it wasn't gender, it was personality. Asuka was a lion, because she was,
it scared him a little that Nab-chan became a bear, the one out of all of
them, bigger and stronger than he was. ~Although size, strength and speed
didn't help you against Raccoon-Coyote did it?~ Ranma winced at the memory,
~Next time I fight him, I'm going to make sure _both_ of us fully
understand the rules, and agree to them.~
He headed outside, finding out about his history was even more
imperative now. ~But Raccoon said not yet,~ Ranma thought, ~And I'm not
sure I could trick him into telling me, or that Ranko could.~ He got real
nervous about the `tricks` he knew Ranko could use on Raccoon. He shook
his head to clear it.
He wondered if his lack of interest in girls was . . . "No. I want
someone who can take care of themselves, no matter what, that's Nab-chan or
Raccoon, and while I'm afraid of both of them, Ranko's only afraid of
Nab-chan." ~Well,~ he thought, ~Maybe I should start using the tricks
Raccoon suggested.~ Ranma marched across the school grounds with a firm
purpose.
----------------------------------------
~Lit class,~ Ranma glanced over at Rit-chan, who seemed to be deciding
whether to fall asleep, or toss the teacher out the window and teach the
class herself. Even Maya was nodding. Ranma looked down at the notebook
he'd purchased, Mirei had suggested writing something, Raccoon had told him
to 'document your findings', a fancy way of saying write down all you find
out, no matter how trivial.
Well, the first thing Ranma learned was to occasionally look at the
teacher while writing. Raccoon and Asuka got into trouble for not
occasionally staring at the teacher, as if they were paying attention to
him, while they were scribbling, whatever they were scribbling.
----------------------------------------
Journal of Ki/Chi Manipulation, Entry 1: May 9, 1947
I figured out today, or at least I discovered I was already doing it.
So now I have to experiment. Raccoon explained the scientific method, I
told him that, oh, Raccoon is Jeffery Davis, I told him why test when I
already know the answer?
'How do you know you have the answer, instead of an answer or no
answer?' he's weird, always saying weird stuff like that.
Anyway, I'm supposed to write down everything, success, failure,
accurate observations, ideas, guesses, educated guesses, everything. 'It
doesn't have to be neat, but it has to make sense,' so I can go back and
study it.
My first test was mapping Raccoon's energy paths against my female
form's, oh, I change from a girl to a boy. There were only two major
differences, kind of obvious when you think about it. Making babies would
need a lot of chi, so would feeding them. Otherwise, it was pretty much
the same. It was easy to find the cold from his energy, then find the
patterns in me. I think I have been feeling other people's energy isn't
where it's suppose to be, but I wasn't aware of it consciously. But I was
drawn to correct it.
Now that I have an idea what to look for . . . yes, Raccoon, I need to
run some experiments. Sheesh.
I already ran one: I snuck up on Nab-chan and, that's Tendo Nabiki,
anyway, I touched her, and she tensed up and got defensive, until she heard
my voice, then the tension went away. I can't map the exact changes, but I
felt there were changes. Maybe when I've mapped my own Ki I'll be able to
guess what the changes mean in others.
The second time I touched her, just brushed her shoulder with my hand
like the first time, I made sure she knew it was me before I touched her.
I don't think there was any change, but I have a feeling there was. I need
more practice. I did the same thing to Rit-chan and Maya-chan. Rit-chan
was like Nab-chan. Tense then relax when she didn't know/found out, and no
major reaction when she knew. A slight change in Maya-chan, but I couldn't
feel any difference between the changes. I don't think I'll test Ayanami
or Shinji, I want to live. Well, that's all for now.
----------------------------------------
Ranma set aside his pen, it sounded stupid, he sighed. He couldn't
imagine actually writing all this stuff. He glanced at the sheet Raccoon
had given him, ~Well, it was for a good cause.~
----------------------------------------
"I think I lost about 100 IQ points. I used to love Literature,"
Ritsuko said, she had waited until the teacher had left.
Nabiki chuckled.
"Let me get to those tanks, before I change my mind," Ritsuko said,
"Where's his office anyway?"
"We have to live with it," Ranma reminded her.
"Wait a bit," Nabiki told them, "I have to finish up a few things."
~Like talking to Hiroko.~
Rei said something to Shinji, they collected Maya and left.
Nabiki nodded to Hiroko, as the other three left the room. She led
Hiroko upstairs, "I've found out who this 'special person' is."
"Boss, I think you're bluffing."
Nabiki frowned, "Look, it isn't like I don't know, I've seen this
before," Nabiki paused, "It . . . " ~I'm no good at this,~ "I don't want
this to destroy our friendship. I've seen people fight over this, it's
stupid, but it's human."
"Boss. Don't worry about it. I'm not a screamer, I don't throw
things. I don't want to hurt you either. Why do you think I haven't said
anything?"
Nabiki nodded, ~Saotome, if you hurt her, I'll take you apart.~
----------------------------------------
The ride home felt a little strange, ~I don't like riding in an
armored box,~ Nabiki thought. But Shinji and Rei had to be dropped off
while the Chaffee rode escort.
"So will this," Nabiki tapped the top armor, "Stop a mortar shell?"
"Even a heavy tank's can't stop it, but we really are for protecting
against fragments. Speed protects against mortars," the Marine crewman
answered, in disjointed Japanese.
"This unit isn't as fast as the other one," Ranma said.
~Only he'd want to go faster,~ Nabiki thought the ride was shaking her
kidneys loose.
"The fastest is the Hellcat, but this one's an amphibian."
"That means the water stays on the outside," Nabiki teased.
Ranma glared at her.
----------------------------------------
Asuka was glaring at her dinner companion. The food she was served,
left a lot to be desired, so did the `entertainment`. Misato was nattering
on about her catching up on her schoolwork. Asuka was just glad she'd
managed to hide the flashcards before Misato found them. She also couldn't
figure out why Misato was making such a big deal out of this, it wasn't as
if these classes mattered. Asuka suspected it was important to Misato only
because of how it reflected on her, Captain Katsuragi was afraid of being
told she was a bad parent.
~You aren't my parent,~ Asuka thought, ~You aren't my `guardian`,
Spineless and Pen Pen look after _you_, more than you look after us.~
"You haven't said much, Asuka."
~I couldn't get a word in edgewise,~ Asuka silently replied. "I was
considering hitting you on the head, and swapping dinners," Asuka replied.
"Normally you don't like my cooking," Misato said brightly.
~You didn't cook it, even your cooking has more flavor than this,~
Asuka looked at the rice and plain vegetables, bland didn't even begin to
cover it.
"You getting sweet on Shinji? Teaching Rei how to romance him?"
Misato missed Asuka's horrified expression.
~Should I give you lessons? You've already got Kaji, but _he_ doesn't
seem to think so,~ Asuka stifled the angry retort, remembered the Dragon's
advice, "Is that an inappropriate action, Captain?" She hid her smirk, as
Misato stiffened, as if Asuka had jammed her with a pin. "If it is, I'll
desist immediately," Asuka continued.
Misato frowned at that.
Asuka kept her head bowed slightly.
"I didn't mean that," Misato replied angrily.
"My apologies," Asuka replied, fought to keep from grinning as Misato
growled.
"I thought you'd gotten over your latest snit," Misato shouted and
stormed out.
Asuka waited a few moments, then looked up, "At least she left her
food behind." Asuka grimaced at the choices, but spaced out with the
bland, Asuka managed to stomach the spicy concoction.
~You want little robots, _Captain_?_~ Asuka thought, ~You'll get
robots. All I have to do is answer 'What would Wondergirl do?' and instant
robot.~
----------------------------------------
Ritsuko wondered what the galvanized trash can had done, to deserve
the beating it was getting from Misato. Misato's blows had crushed it down
to less than 1/3d its original volume. Misato was panting, still glowering
at the lump of metal.
"You better finish it off," Ritsuko told her, "They're most dangerous
when they're wounded."
Misato glared at her. Ritsuko watched her remember the last physical
exchange between the two of them.
"Where have you been all day?" Misato angrily asked.
"Looking after the kids," Ritsuko said.
Misato's shock was amusing, but Ritsuko decided not to twist the
knife.
"I wanted to see the actual classrooms, to better determine what's
wrong with Ranma."
Misato's shoulders slumped.
"Do you want to tell me? And how did you get the wax out of your
hair?" Ritsuko asked.
Now Misato hung her head, mumbled something about 'ironed', then fell
silent.
Ritsuko felt a little sorry for Misato. She remembered Asuka-lion
charging to Jeff-coyote's defense, even though she wouldn't have stood a
chance against Ranma-tiger, ~They've been double-teaming her,~ she
realized, remembering how angry Misato had gotten when `interviewing` Jeff
in the cell aboard the Coral Sea, all his 'Captain' and 'sir' had
infuriated Misato.
~So you want to be their best knock-around friend, until you have to
be their commanding officer, now they're treating you as their commanding
officer all the time.~ "You could always apologize to her," Ritsuko said,
watched Misato wrestle with the problem. To her disappointment, Misato
just walked off, as if it wasn't a problem, or no part of it was her
problem.
Ritsuko sighed and continued on, to check on her patients. She was
beginning to understand the kids had a greater depth than she had
originally considered, but not all the time, sometimes they acted as
immaturely as she had expected them to act all the time. An absolute
single standard would never work. ~And since their respect is the only
real control mechanism we have, if we lose that, we lose our only real
defense,~ she thought, ~Summary execution may be a real-sounding threat,
but it assumes we can catch and hold them, long enough to actually carry it
out. Or we'll have the means to carry it out despite them, and survive the
retribution of the others.~
She considered asking the Commander or Kaji to intervene with Misato,
then decided that would make the situation worse. "I'm not dealing with
three full-time children, I'm dealing with seven part-timers."
She also considered that it was also simple stress, for weeks they'd
lived under constant threat, there had to be a way to break the cycle.
----------------------------------------
"Well, are you still causing trouble?" Ritsuko asked as she entered
Jeff's hospital room.
"You heard about the cards?" Jeff asked, "Getting the wax out of the
Captain's hair? Talking with Ranko about her problem, that's a lot like
your problem?"
Ritsuko shook her head, she hadn't known about those at all, "I'll
definitely say that's a 'yes'," Ritsuko sighed, "What did you tell Asuka to
do to Misato?"
"I didn't tell her anything, mistreating the Captain, would be
inappropriate."
~Ah, ha!~ Ritsuko thought, "Her name is Misato, but you don't call her
that."
Jeff shrugged as Ritsuko took his temperature, blood pressure,
pupillary reaction to light, etc.
"Why don't you call her that? Please remember that I can start to
take your temperature rectally."
"It's inappropriate to be so familiar with a superior officer . . .
Rit-chan," he smiled at her wince, then continued, "I don't even know
Admiral Simson's, Captain Ramsey's, Commander Fuyutsuki's or Colonel
Stedman's first names. Nor would I use them under normal circumstances."
"And when she asks to be called 'Misato'?"
"It's still inappropriate. You can be Doctor Akagi, Doc, Ritsuko, or
Rit-chan under fairly predictable conditions, Captain Katsuragi stipulates
to being called Misato, and disciplines when she is called Misa-chan, even
when she was just being Misa-chan. Besides, when does she stop being our
commanding officer? I haven't seen it, for more than a few minutes at a
time."
Ritsuko remembered Ramsey had removed his rank insignia when he was
umpiring aboard the Coral Sea, and did it so people could see him do it.
~I wonder if I told Misato, if she'd try it,~ Ritsuko thought, ~Better
question, would she even listen?~ "You might try meeting her halfway."
"When I see she has any inclination of stepping towards me, I'll
consider it. Her attitude is very much 'I am in charge, and you are not.'
Whoever 'you' is."
Ritsuko frowned at that, Misato merely assumed everyone thought and
acted like her, wanted to do and be how she was, ~She's not commanding,
just thoughtless and overbearing,~ Ritsuko shook her head, she realized
both of them, Asuka and Jeff, were taking the safest route, especially
after Misato blew up at them.
"After all, I know what those five lumps at the base of the entry
plugs are, one false move, and she gets authorization to push the button."
Ritsuko froze at that, "What do you mean?"
"Eight pounds of either torpex or PETN with aluminum powder as a
shaped charge, all converging on the command chair. It just does your
heart good, knowing you've got a battery of heavy antitank guns aimed at
you, while you're doing you're job, risking life, limb and sanity, for God
and Country. The aluminum is a delightful touch, if the projectiles,
concussion and blast, from the shaped-charges don't get the pilots, being
in boiling L.C.L. will," he smiled at her, "Assuming they actually work."
~That's supposed to be so secret no one outside the Joint Chiefs and
the senior command staff knows about it! Even Admiral Simson hasn't been
told!~ Ritsuko tried to put on a neutral mask, "And how did you hear this
crazy story?"
His smile disappeared, he stared at her, "Because I know the
Commander, and Captain Katsuragi, it's how they think, who they are. Now
when should I start calling her 'Misa-chan', through my most sparkling
smile?"
"Never, I guess," she was shaken.
"Doctor, don't feel too bad, I didn't when they rejected my suggestion
to put a concussion charge in the plugs, in much the same place. I thought
that disabling the Axis pilot would be sufficient as a deadman's deterrent.
So yes, I know them, I know them very well. You people are going to have
to get your stories straight. Are we the few, rare, valuable saviors of
humanity from this ancient evil? Or are we kept ignorant and vulnerable,
because we are so dangerous?"
Ritsuko turned and left. She was beginning to understand the friction
between Misato and 'Raccoon', he accepted with tolerance the hypocrisy that
got most people through their lives at NERV. However, he constantly
pointed out that hypocrisy. She wondered if he actually knew, or if he
only thought he knew what was going on here.
As she drove home, she wondered if he assumed that the environment she
tried to create at home was just another control mechanism over the pilots,
"How does anybody get that cynical so young?"
She wondered why she _was_ doing it. Fumbling around worried about
grades and homework, lunches, laundry, sibling fights and mother-daughter
rivalries. She knew the last was her real source of friction with Nabiki.
The girl didn't want to be 'mothered', didn't want to replace the mother
she'd lost, before the Pacific War, according to her bio. But that didn't
explain the odd push-pull relationship. Nabiki seemed to resent being
treated as a child, and resent even more when Ritsuko didn't act like a
parent.
Ritsuko was glad she'd managed to get a jeep, instead of a tank, she
needed the fresh air and wind in her hair, to help her think, "What to do
this weekend?" she asked, "No picnics, unless we hold them on the deck of
the South Dakota, 20 miles out to sea."
----------------------------------------
Nabiki approached Ranma, he wasn't sure, but he thought he was in
trouble. Rit-chan and Maya-chan had gone, and they wouldn't be back for a
while. That left [just] the two of them alone in the apartment, together.
"So, Saotome, should I just spread myself on the floor, or should we
use your bed?"
"Huh?!" Ranma was shocked, even more when Nabiki pressed against him,
pressing him against the wall, her fingers on his shoulders.
"You've been touching me all day. I assume you want something."
Ranma was aware of how Nab-chan felt as she was touching him, how much
of her was touching him, and how she looked this morning, how she'd tried
to find words not to hurt him, and that maybe Rei had realized the same
thing that Raccoon had. He was frightened of Rei, yet she had been careful
to do nothing threatening, whatever she said.
He couldn't get Nab-chan out of his mind, how different parts of her
turned different colors as she blushed. He shook his head, trying to get
thoughts of this morning out of his head, almost impossible with Nab-chan
pressed in close, staring at him like that. ~I mean, she's got nothing I
haven't,~ he thought desperately. The tension in her was the hardest part
to ignore, he couldn't figure out if she was mad enough to fight, or so
scared she wanted to run away.
~Well, since I'm going to get pounded anyway,~ he signed, and was
immediately aware of what the movement did to her and him. "Uh, I thought,
that is . . . " ~You _KNOW_ she's going to get mad and hit or yell at you
anyway, you might as well just say it as you see it.~ "You looked like you
needed it, you've been worried about everything so long, I'm no good with
words, so since you like me touching you, I did that." He looked down into
her eyes, he'd felt her anxiety increase as he talked. "Now you're going
to belt me for being a hentai, cause I liked it."
He watched the look of absolute fury cross her face, the stress build
to a fever-pitch. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the impact,
just hoping he'd survive. He expected a knee in the groin as the opening,
considering how he'd been reacting to Nabiki's close contact. Her hands
closed on his head, pulling it down, the impact on her shoulder was a whole
lot softer than he expected. One hand kept holding his head against her
shoulder and neck, the other encircled his waist.
"Ranma no - BAKA!" she was so angry, her voice broke halfway through.
That he expected, it fit the pattern. But the rest?
"I don't want to hurt you. I just don't want you to hurt yourself
either," she told him.
He felt the tension bleed out of her, smelled the fear sweat and the
faint floral scent of the perfume she sometimes wore. It felt completely
wrong, as if the world had stopped revolving, he didn't _want_ her to hit
him, but saying what he said, then not getting hit . . . he couldn't fathom
it.
"I do want your help with something, Raccoon was helping showing how
he and Ranko were different."
"Excuse me?" Nab-chan asked, "OOO you _are_ a hentai," she dropped her
hands to his butt, and pulled him close, "I'm so happy!" she told him in a
sultry voice.
His thoughts scattered to the four winds as he tried to get control
again. "It's about KI!" he blurted out.
She moved her hands to his waist, "Aaannnnd?"
"I found out some of the differences between boys and girls, but I
want to see how a girl is difference, differENT, from another girl, maybe I
can check Maya-chan and Rit-chan, see how they're different and the same,"
he managed to get out without stammering too much. He looked at her, he
wasn't sure what she was thinking, she wasn't tense, and wasn't relaxed.
"Who are you, and what have you done with Saotome Ranma? Tell me, or
I'll hurt you," she smiled widely, not a friendly smile, "I'll bite you,
there's a precedent for that."
Ranma started sweating, as Nab-chan chuckled, then she pulled his head
back to her shoulder, she rocked the two of them side-to-side, saying
nothing.
He wasn't sure what to do, feeling a little dissociated from reality
by events.
----------------------------------------
Investigations
Ritsuko wasn't sure what she'd walked into. Maya and Nabiki were
lying on the couches that they had pulled to the center of the room. Ranko
would run her hands above a part of one of the girls, then the other.
Scribbling something in a notebook, touching herself in the same place,
then scribble again. A simple command to move a leg or an arm, both girls
moved the same way, as Ranko's hand hovered over the girls checking the
area moving and other seemingly unrelated areas on all three.
Ritsuko said nothing, merely watched.
Ranko noted her, "Oh, hi, Doc. I'm just running an experiment," she
told her.
Ritsuko felt her eyebrows crawling towards her scalp in amazement,
"Who are you, and what have you done with Saotome Ranma?"
Ranko slumped, "I'm not dumb. Raccoon told me about this 'Scientific
Method'," Ranko held up a paper. Ritsuko could see it was covered with
Davis's neat handwriting.
"So I'm running experiments on Ki manipulation," her finger scanned
down the paper, "Uuum, yeah right here, obtain a baseline if possible.
I'll need your help with some other work, but I guess I wanted to get
started."
"You're volunteering for time in the lab?" Ritsuko asked, she was
considering she'd arrived at the wrong apartment, maybe in the wrong
universe. Then she brought herself up short. Ranma/Ranko wasn't stupid,
just uneducated, Ranko was probably following the instructions she had,
exactly. She walked over, examined the jumble of notes, she hoped Ranma
could understand what it meant.
"That's just notes, it's not done yet."
"I think I can show you how to put this in a more understandable
format," she was feeling a little boggled, the chuckles from Maya and
Nabiki didn't help, they'd been hammering simple concepts into Ranma for a
week, and they just bounced off. Somehow, Ranma had the basics of running
an experiment by scientific method from just a page of instructions.
"Okay, let me get some of my old notebooks, to show you how to set
your data in a more understandable way."
Ranko set down the paper, "Okay, but not yet."
Ritsuko went to get a couple of her notebooks.
----------------------------------------
>From the Journal of Saotome Ranma
Nothing much before, finally got something to write. I ran the
experiments. I got a lot of information, Rit-chan calls 'raw data',
Raccoon had a different name. I like 'raw data' cause now I have to cook
it, looking for patterns, looking for flaws in the patterns I'd expect.
Raccoon's notes say this is the longest, hardest part. Rit-chan agrees.
That's why she's constantly 'running tests', and we only get tested every
few days.
I think she flipped out when I told her I was manipulating Ki, and
that it was the first step to figuring out how I did, what I did against
Nyogtha. It still spooks me that I know the thing's name, and can spell it
correctly, even though nobody ever told me. Like the other one was Rhan
Tegoth.
One other thing that I'm glad of, I think the close contact with
Raccoon, I think `Ranko` is a lot less friendly with him, that and the
tension she automatically caused in him every time she touched him. I
remember that ghosts have 'cold' Ki, I guess it's because they use mana
instead, so at the back of my mind, I kept assuming that Raccoon was a
reanimated corpse, considering what happened, I couldn't get it out of my
head.
It dampened some of Ranko's feelings. I still don't understand the
difference between my two forms, I can understand why people react
differently to me, why would I react differently to _them_?
There's little difference between Ranko and Nab-chan, Maya-chan was
slightly different. 'Look for similarities and differences.' Her age, and
she's not a martial artist. I don't know why Rit-chan wouldn't let me
`map` her, it would have been useful, and I wouldn't have to touch her.
Learning to feel the flows and patterns of Nab-chan's energy, was useful in
figuring out when she's really angry/emotional and when she's acting, I
can't figure out _which_ strong emotions she was feeling. Maybe later.
----------------------------------------
Rei opened her eyes, she felt the cozy, silk pillows, she was still
tired, she let herself relax into the warm softness. She recognized the
trap rug, although it wasn't `on`, so she could leave anytime she wished.
She had nowhere in the Dreamlands she cared to go just yet.
"You had us worried," Alwyk told her, "He isn't here."
Rei relaxed, "I should go."
"Rest. You've been here a while. We took the urn back, Dragon's
orders I'm afraid," Alwyk said.
Rei noted she was clean and dressed in _red_, silk pajamas, she
decided nothing was perfect, "Is he all right?" she asked.
"A bit of a temper, but it has nothing to do with you."
Rei relaxed, let sleep take her. She doubted the Meliorist would
attack her in her sleep, "The mortar attack," she murmured as darkness
enclosed her.
----------------------------------------
"We have to increase resources in the field," the Dragon told his
comrades, as they met in the huge meeting hall contained inside the
impossibly thin tower they had taken.
Anna and Asuka were considering, it was obvious who would likely be
sent: dragons who could take human form.
"I thought the Council had forces in place," the Meliorist pointed
out.
"They were annihilated," the Dragon said, "The idiots, the Council
hasn't been able to agree on replacements."
"Do we have the resources in the field already?" Anna asked.
"I don't think we can arrange for your transfer," the Meliorist joked,
"Besides, we don't have the EVAs for seven pilots."
"What about Tendo's organization?" Anna asked.
"They have no real sorcerous aspect, and no trained
counterintelligence, counter-terorism, or even a strike arm," Alwyk told
them, "And no likely candidates."
"What about the Allied military?" the chief cartographer asked, he
didn't have a vote, but they wanted all the minds here for the discussions.
"The U.S. Military's vow is to protect and defend the Constitution,
that is a long-term goal, it may hurt the Children in the short-term."
----------------------------------------
Nabiki walked into Raccoon's hospital room. Ritsuko and Ranma were
off in the lab, jointly running tests, rather than attending the Saturday
half-day of school. The idea itself was jarring beyond anything she'd ever
considered: Ranma as a scientist, even a very junior one. Nabiki had come
here after the tank dropped them off at headquarters, to get some answers,
then she'd continue to school.
"Are you going to stand there trying to shake your head loose, or are
you going to come in?" Raccoon asked.
Nabiki caught sight of the watches, walked over to them. She opened
them together, listening to the synchronized tunes.
"Scotland the Brave," Raccoon told her.
"Like I said, quite a family resemblance. The older one looks just
like you. Both look like their, mother?"
"My older brother Samuel and my mother," Raccoon said quietly.
Nabiki was aware how closely he was watching her, she knew enough to
be very careful here, "What makes these worth dying for?"
"When I was six, Sam nine, we got these, they were to be ours on our
eighteenth birthdays. They were lost sometime between my brother and my
parents' deaths. It was the last gift from my grandfather, and the last
really happy time before my brother died. Maybe I'm stupid for wanting
that, for having possession of an object manipulate me," Raccoon shrugged,
"So I was stupid, and manipulated, it's not written somewhere, that I have
to be perfect."
"It just doesn't seem like you," Nabiki replied, setting the watches
back on the table, "And there's a lot of that going around."
"Ranko-san was curious about how to investigate something, I wrote a
procedure. As much as I think he _acts_ stupidly, Saotome-san isn't
stupid, Ranko-san's definitely the brighter of the pair, by a wide margin.
She'll eventually get a good enough feel for the procedure to leave out the
steps that don't apply. Right now, a rigid form is probably the best."
Nabiki stared at him, "I guess I just never looked at it that way."
"People around here, tend to hear what they think should be said, and
see what they think should be there."
"Except you?" Nabiki raised an eyebrow.
"I'm an engineer, our job is to turn dreams into reality. I have to
know the difference between what is true, what is real, and what is
factual."
"It's too early in the morning for thoughts like that, I'm going to
school." Nabiki left.
----------------------------------------
Ranko walked up to Raccoon, as he practiced on the roof of the
medcenter. She recognized the slow fencing moves, practiced with his
walking stick. She didn't know how to open the subject politely, "Would
you be interested in learning how to fight? Better?" she hastily amended.
"I guess you heard," he replied.
"I heard you nearly got killed," she replied.
"Not nearly," he replied.
She'd watched him fall, and the unsuccessful efforts to sustain him.
Part of it was Ranma's, her, fault, she felt. If he'd been trained,
Tulzscha would never have gotten its attack in so successfully, "You can
still get better."
"You studied for years, so did I. What can you possibly show me in, a
few weeks or a few months?"
It was the same question, almost the same words, he'd asked of Ranma,
before Ranma beat him up.
She searched her memory, then smiled, "Kneel down. I can show you
something today. It may take a while to master, but it will have an affect
on your fighting and your magic, today. Not much to start, but it will
build."
He stared at her, set his stick beside him as he knelt.
She knelt next to him, facing his side. She put one hand on his solar
plexus, the other on the small of his back.
"Getting a little fresh?" he asked, "I thought we cured that."
She felt a slight cold form under her hands, she ignored it, "No," she
said, "Breathe from your center, instead of through your chest. Also,
learn a different pattern of breathing." When she felt he was breathing
through his center, she moved her hand to his throat, feeling his pulse.
"Okay breathe in," waited four pulse beats, "Hold," for two pulse
beats, "Breathe out," for four pulse beats, "Breathe in and out as
completely as possible."
She stayed that way, calling the beat, until she was satisfied he
could do it on his own.
"A little dizzy," he smiled.
"You aren't used to breathing properly, it will pass. Once you're
used to it, you'll have a lot more energy, and more clear thought, and
you'll heal quicker. From what you and Dr. Akagi have said, more oxygen is
better."
He nodded, Ranko smiled, he did look a little wobbly.
"Satisfied?" she asked.
"I take it you want to teach me Martial Arts, it's urgent to you, am I
right?"
Ranko nodded. ~Patience,~ she warned herself.
"Why?" Raccoon asked, "I neglected to ask your counterpart, much to my
regret and Shinji-san's."
Ranko worried at that, then had to think. She knew what she wanted to
blurt out, 'You were me, I want to know.' She also knew it might scare him
into never revealing what she wanted to find out. Beyond that, she didn't
know. She was aware that Martial Arts was important to her, and she wanted
it to matter to the others. They understood it was important to
Ranma/Ranko, but had no influence on _them_._ She wanted to change that.
She also had a strange bond with Raccoon. He _hated_ Ranma, but he wasn't
alone in that. Rei hated him, as much as she hated anything. So did
Asuka. Shinji was afraid of him, which was almost worse. He couldn't
figure out how Nab-chan felt about him, it seemed to change moment to
moment, but it always ran strong.
But Ranko . . . Ranko could trust Raccoon, he wasn't safe, not at all,
but _Ranko_ could trust him not to drool all over him, . . . her, and tried
to teach her. Unlike the teachers at school, he taught her enough she
could continue learning on her own. He pushed a lot harder than she was
comfortable with, but never to the breaking point, and more often than not,
in the direction she wanted to go anyway.
This simple affection, and the expectations of excellence that went
with it, touched something inside Ranma. He wanted to do well, he wanted
approval for doing well. Being without a sensei, didn't feel right. She
also felt she owed him, for the lessons, for the acceptance.
For being the one place `she` could run, to hide, to get answers and
explanations. But how did she put that into words. Especially words that
didn't sound too mushy, ones that didn't make her sound like a smitten
schoolgirl, a complication neither of them wanted, for their own reasons.
"It's important to me," she said, "So are you," she added quietly.
"Is my fighting _that_ bad?" he asked.
Ranko sensed the trap. She knew how proud of her own skill she was,
and expected Raccoon was the same. "Compared with me, or regular people?"
she asked. Getting a smile in return.
"Touche. I'm sorry for putting you on the spot. I don't like not
trusting people, but around here . . . I can trust almost no one."
Ranko nodded, uncertain what to say, ~Was his knowledge of the curse
enough, that when he finally sees it, will he assume `she'd` been lying to
him? Or does he already know, and is trying to square it in his own mind?~
she sighed, ~More complications.~ "So we can train in the dojo?"
"No," he said quietly, "The dreams are good for training the mind, the
muscles have to be trained in the Waking World. Like when you were me,
your techniques didn't work, but my techniques did, correct?"
"Yeah," she patted the back of her head nervously, "How'd you know
about that? Kinda weird that."
"Ranma told me, when I was `away`," Raccoon smiled, "Everybody assumed
that since I was asleep, I was also deaf. Believe me, I was well aware of
what was going on."
She paused to think, "So can you tell me about it, I mean if you were
me, I mean . . . I don't know what I mean."
"You aren't ready to hear it all. One thing I will tell you, don't
meet Nabiki-san's parents, they'll make you marry her, or one of her
sisters. Honor, don't you know."
Ranko frowned at that.
"I fulfilled that honor by marrying Ritsuko," Raccoon smiled, "It gets
weirder and darker from there. I told Doctor Akagi and Maya a little
about, our, ahem, wedded bliss. You might want to talk to them about it."
Ranko could see the pain on his face, swiftly hidden.
"But you also learned it, the Art I use," she waited for him to nod,
"But why can't you use it?"
"Because it's all `book learning`, the muscles still need to be
trained."
She smiled, "So, do you want to start now?"
"No. I want to finish my practice, then later, you can show me the
basics. Let's see if you know how to teach."
Ranko smiled again, glad that she could do something to contribute,
something that the others would accept.
----------------------------------------
Jeff was wondering how _his_ room had become the new meeting place, on
this early Sunday morning. He had already decided to let the two `sides`
get to loggerheads before he struck.
"That's a girly film!" Ranma complained.
"It's a nice movie!" Hikari shot back.
Jeff was glad the girl was standing up for herself, he also watched
the changing players and alliances. Toji wanted to support Ranma without
opposing Hikari, Nabiki and Shinji were trying to figure out some kind of
compromise, each independently, not realizing the other was working on it
as well.
"What, watching one little movie will destroy your precious manhood?"
Asuka attacked.
That decided it for Toji, "We just don't want to waste a Sunday.
There's some real good - "
"Real dumb!" Asuka interrupted, as she and Toji went nose to nose.
"Before you two consummate your relationship!" Jeff shouted, forcing
an embarrassed silence between the pair, and quiet snickers from the
others.
"Hokari-san, Hiroko-kun, would you like to see a movie with dance and
unrequited love?"
Shy nods.
"Langley, Shinji-san, how about a movie full of classical music?"
Wary exchange of glances. "Yeah, okay," Langley said.
"Toji-san, Kensuke-san, how about a battle, dinosaurs eating each
other? Sound good?"
Kensuke nodded enthusiastically, Toji looked sullen, but wasn't
arguing.
"Ayanami-san, Saotome-san, how about an epic contest between Evil and
Good?"
Saotome-san and Ayanami-san exchanged confused looks, not realizing
their similarities.
"And Nabiki-san, the tickets are already paid for." Jeff pulled the
envelope from his coat pocket.
"Oh yes! A wonderful movie!" Nabiki chirped with joy, then gave him a
gimlet eye, "How are you going to arrange this little bit of sorcery?"
"Funny you should mention sorcerers," Jeff handed out the tickets, one
to each person, "The movie is on the Naval Base, so there will be ample
security. And there will be little language barrier."
----------------------------------------
Shinji smiled as Rei clung to him tightly, the 'Night on Bald
Mountain' scene had frightened her.
"Who would have thought you could do cartoons like that," Shinji said.
"Fantasia has always been my favorite," Raccoon said, finishing off
the popcorn he'd purchased, he offered his arm to Hiroko, who considered,
then took it.
Then Hiroko took Nabiki's, Nabiki in turn took Ranma's.
Shinji offered his other arm to Hikari, she then added Toji. Neither
Toji nor Ranma understood, but weren't willing to fight.
Kensuke and Asuka exchanged looks, then both started laughing, they
weren't willing to walk arm in arm with each other.
Their military guards stayed close enough to intervene, but far enough
away, to preserve the illusion of a free day.
----------------------------------------
Bad Day
They walked around the school, Nabiki watched each one trying to work
some of the kinks out. Asuka and Raccoon had recovered enough to go to
school, but they both looked a little green after the tank ride.
"Jeff," Nabiki waited for a private moment before confronting him,
"Who are Henry and Rica Lincoln? Were those the people who wrote the will
you were in, and had to attend to?" She discarded subterfuge and subtlety.
"What you `didn't` go after that night, it killed them, didn't it?"
"Your conclusions are entirely logical," Raccoon replied in a composed
tone, "And I don't want to discuss it. They were good friends, they're
dead now," he sighed.
"Like Sam and your parents."
Raccoon scowled, "What did you do? Wait until I was unconscious to
rifle through my personal effects?" His voice was tightly controlled, but
she could feel his rage.
"I caught Misato and Ritsuko going through - " Nabiki said, "If you
want to talk about it . . . I'm willing to listen."
"I'll censor my first reaction, say 'thank you', and thank you to stay
out of my personal affairs." He stopped, "Quit trying to get close to me,
Tendo Nabiki-san. Our business arrangement is quite sufficient. Now and
in the future!"
"'Everybody who gets close to me leaves or sends me away,'" Nabiki
said angrily, "Sometimes it's just coincidence. You aren't responsible."
"What isn't in the set of photos, are the pictures of me and the other
two American pilots, and the six British ones . . . I should have spurned
their insistence we socialize, they might have lived longer." He turned
and marched off.
"You can't blame yourself for that!" Nabiki shouted, then lowered her
voice as she caught up, "It's _just_ a coincidence, you said it yourself,
this is a dangerous occupation."
"Once is an accident, _twice_ is a coincidence, _FIFTEEN_TIMES_,
that's directed action." Jeff increased his pace.
~Yeah, your manner surely drives people away,~ Nabiki considered,
~Makes people avoid you like the plague.~ She'd never seen him so angry,
but he wasn't angry at anyone except himself.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki was following Raccoon as they headed into the classroom.
Nabiki immediately realized she should have kept a closer eye on Asuka.
Asuka was standing near Shinji, who was blushing furiously. Most of the
other people in class were laughing at Asuka and/or Shinji. Rei was
looking from one to the other. Hikari was snickering into her hand.
Hiroko gave Nabiki a look, that told her she'd just walked into a hornets'
nest someone had finished whacking with a stick.
~I hope Rei hasn't continued saying embarrassing things,~ Nabiki
thought.
"You just admitted it!" Toji laughed, "So, was she any good?"
Nabiki noted Ranma's arrival, she signaled him to follow her. She
considered kicking Hikari as she passed, the girl was the class president,
and was supposed to be Asuka's friend. Yet she couldn't see the pain on
Asuka's face, or she thought it was funny.
Raccoon circled in from the other direction, Nabiki hoped to defuse
the situation, before there was a homicide.
Shinji's eyes bugged out as Asuka dragged him out of his seat, and
kissed him. He was more surprised than hurt, when she broke off the kiss,
and shoved him back into his seat. What surprised him, and everyone else
in class who was silently watching, was Rei standing up, and silently
slapping her fellow pilot.
"Okay, dolly, you asked for it," Asuka rubbed the red mark on her
cheek. Her fist traveled perhaps an inch before Nabiki's hand grabbed her
arm.
"No, Asuka, she's hurt. So are you," Nabiki told her in a reasonable
voice. She got an elbow in the side of the face, for her reasonableness.
She crashed through several desks, she glanced at Ranma who seemed frozen.
Her head was still ringing, she felt more like throwing up, than standing
up.
"Keep your hands to yourself, Tendo," Asuka shouted at her, "Nobody
tells me what to do! Not you, not the invincible Shinji, nobody!" She
turned to face Raccoon who had approached.
"You keep claiming to be a grown-up, and yet you act like a spoiled
brat," he told her, he was shaking with rage, "You aren't so old I can't
turn you over my knee."
"You wouldn't dare!" she said hatefully.
"You know better." His anger replaced with cold composure.
Nabiki could see only disaster unfolding before her, she couldn't
clear her head fast enough, and the others seemed unwilling to intervene.
The only movement was the non-pilot students clearing the field.
Asuka hit him, as hard as she could, he took the punch in the face,
blinked once, then grabbed her head by her hair, bending her over his
upraised knee. One, two, three, only the sound of the swats was heard.
Everyone watched in a terrible fascination. Nine, ten, and Raccoon shoved
her to sit in a chair.
"Does everybody put up with your violence, because they like looking
at you? The same reason as the Captain? Well not me, not any longer. You
two aren't human beings, you're just comely mean-streaks we plug in, and
send off to go kill things. It's good that's all you want to be, 'cause
you're no good at living, or anything else. You two just hurt everybody
around you who's weaker, and kiss up to anyone stronger. Kiss up and shit
down!" Raccoon seemed to notice Asuka's outrage and trembling lip, "Oh, is
Langley-dolly going to cry to Captain K about mean ole Raccoon? Boohoo?
When you beat up everybody, and never expect to get some of your own back,
who's the stupid one? Poor little dolls all broken inside, now going to
cry. I expected better of _you_, at least. You're a real disappointment,
Asuka."
Asuka covered her face with her hands and ran from the room. Raccoon
took his seat, he looked furious and sick to his stomach, both at once.
Nabiki had regained her feet with Hiroko's help. She had watched the
goodwill of the last few days evaporate in an instant. Hikari stared
reproachfully at Raccoon. Nabiki wished the girl had intervened before
this spun out of control.
She was angry she'd been taken out of things so quickly, a cooler head
might have influenced the course of events. She'd always thought the
disasters in and around Nerima, only needed a bit of reasonableness and
awareness to avoid, now she'd sat there and watched one of them unfold.
She hadn't seen it coming, nor had she acted properly to stop it.
She looked at Raccoon, sitting there in a fury, ~At himself, at Asuka,
or all of us?~ She looked at Ranma who was glancing from one pilot to
another, with a look of complete mystification on his face. ~He doesn't
know how this happened any more than I do,~ Nabiki thought, ~And he doesn't
know why.~
----------------------------------------
Jeff saw the reproachful looks from the others. He admitted he
deserved them, ~I should _never_ have lost control that way, I could have
hurt her a lot more than I did, and a lot more than I intended to.~
He hadn't the faintest idea where the rage had come from, he'd had a
headache ever since he'd woken up that morning. ~But that's just making
you short-tempered, not stupid,~ he reminded himself. That Ranko and
Nabiki had been relentlessly picking at things he'd really wish to leave
buried, hadn't helped, but when Langley had . . . he should have just been
irritated, not so furious he could barely think straight.
~At least it should get back to the one who really deserves it,~ he
smiled inwardly at that.
He noticed Nabiki surreptitiously checking her teeth, he wanted to
offer her some comfort, but between his own growing headache, and her
hate-filled looks, he wasn't inclined. Ranma looked like he wanted to kill
him at the earliest opportunity. The way he felt right now, he might let
him. The rest of the class seemed to be divided into for, against, and the
majority 'I want no part of it.' The arrival of the teacher ended any
chance for anything further to develop. Hikari's voice cracked during her
'stand, bow, sit' speech. Jeff figured there would be a reckoning before
the end of school.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki left before lunch, she had a few loose teeth that kept
bleeding, Ranma went with her. Rei had asked Shinji to take her home, he'd
gratefully agreed. If Hikari had vengeance planned, Jeff's continuing foul
mood curtailed it. That, and the two huge black eyes that had developed as
the day went on. Jeff toughed it out for the rest of the day, he didn't
want to go home, and get an earful from Ritsuko, Nabiki and Ranma, no
matter how much he agreed he probably deserved one.
It was pouring rain by the time school let out. Jeff decided since he
had nowhere else to go for the moment, he'd go let off some of his anger
before he had to go be civilized.
The gym had a few items that the Karate and Judo clubs used regularly.
He thought it was not the least amusing, that both groups abandoned the gym
in haste, when he walked in, "And you accused Langley of picking on the
weak." He changed into his gym uniform and began a workout.
He acknowledged that the Saotomes were his superiors in any form of
hand-to-hand combat, ~Probably Tendo as well, but I've `lived by the sword`
for longer than they've been alive. Compared with `normal` people, I'd hold
my own.~ The workout had attracted a few of the Karate and Judo club back
to watch, none of them offered to spar. ~I'm probably still scaring them.~
An hour later, he'd run out of strength and anger, his headache had
gotten worse if anything, as if activity had exacerbated it. ~Perhaps it
had,~ Jeff realized he wasn't thinking as clearly as he should. He didn't
hear Maya come up behind him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked politely, in a `tolerant` voice.
"That is the question, isn't it?" he sighed, "Trying to get in the
right state of mind, to accept the punishment I know I deserve and am going
to get. It just doesn't seem to be working, I'm less angry, but my head
hurts worse." He turned to face her. She grimaced. "That bad?"
Maya reached out, and very carefully touched his nose, he backed away
with a sharp cry, then staggered and swayed.
"Oh, that was not a good idea on my part." He held his head, afraid
it was going to explode, or fall apart.
"Your nose is broken, and I think you have a concussion," she told
him.
"Langley hits harder than I thought," Jeff admitted.
"Come with me, I'll help you change, then drive you to the infirmary."
She draped his arm over her shoulder.
He was too dizzy to protest, "Do you drive like the Captain?" Jeff
asked.
"No, nobody does. Why?" Maya asked.
"I just want to know if I'm going to ride with my head out the
window," Jeff replied as he walked unsteadily to the locker rooms.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki watched Raccoon stagger in, with the black eyes, he looked like
a raccoon, and he was looking rather green, ~He's drunk,~ was her first
thought. Misato had been grilling her and Ranma about the events of the
day, for nearly an hour, after the NERV dentist had checked her teeth for
permanent damage.
It hadn't been easy answering Misato's questions, with a mouth full of
cotton packing. Misato's mood was growing fouler by the moment. Nabiki
knew it was unfair to say, she was angry at having to punish one of `hers`,
since only the 'Second Three' had been hurt, but that explanation, would
fit the profile all too easily.
Misato rounded on Raccoon immediately, "Do you have any idea what
you've done!?"
"Yes."
She shook him, "And what do you intend to do?"
"Captain," Maya warned.
"What? What's he going to do?" Misato shook him again. Raccoon
answered her.
Maya leaned out the door of the infirmary, calling after the cursing
Misato, "Nausea is a common side effect of concussion, Captain."
"I'm not winning anything today," Jeff rinsed his mouth out, looked
around for a mop.
Ranma chuckled, "As bad as you looked walking in here, your head could
have fallen off, and she would have kept screaming at you. You should have
done that to Asuka."
"Ranma!" Ritsuko shouted at him, but Maya and Nabiki were chuckling.
"Asuka, you make me sick!" Nabiki announced, and laughed.
Maya whispered something to Ritsuko, she instantly won her war to keep
from smiling, and frowned as she led Raccoon to a low bench. She got a
tray of tools. The flashlight was first. Whatever she saw, she didn't
like it, a very careful touch of the area around Raccoon's broken nose, and
his reaction made up her mind. "Maya prep him for a complete skull series,
the damage is worse than I thought."
"How can you tell?" Ranma said.
"Ranma!" the woman yelled at him. He shrank back.
"I agree," Raccoon chimed in, "Stealing my lines, no class!" Ritsuko
and Maya shook their heads.
----------------------------------------
Nabiki saw that Misato was on a slow boil by the time Raccoon walked
out of the x-ray room. Nabiki and Ranma noticed she stayed a good two
meters away from him, at all times.
"Well, that's two pilots out of commission," Ritsuko announced, "Two
minor skull fractures." She put up the x-rays, indicating the breaks in
Raccoon's and Nabiki's bones. Misato was still furious, but she was trying
to be reasonable.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I lost my temper," Raccoon replied, "When she grabbed Shinji-san, I
thought she's just being cruel. Then she tried to hit Ayanami-san, and did
hit Tendo-san, I told her to grow up, then she hit me. I lost my temper.
I was so angry, it was like being outside watching this crazy person scream
at her."
"Are you willing to apologize?" Misato asked.
"If she is, to everyone, pilots and classmates," Raccoon replied,
Misato frowned.
~She'd been hoping to get others to apologize first,~ Nabiki thought,
~And force Asuka to work up to it. I gave much the same answer.~
"How are you feeling Tendo-san?" Raccoon asked, he looked worse now,
then when he walked in.
"Cracked cheekbone," she said, hiding her anger, "I should have
expected that elbow, I just didn't."
"I should have spanked her in front of the whole class, the first day
she laid a hand on any of us, I apologize, Tendo-san," he bowed.
Misato seemed to be sputtering.
"She's lucky you laid into her the way you did, deprived me of any
plans of revenge. I may never forgive you for that," Nabiki told him
gravely.
"That's enough. You're supposed to be a team!" Misato told them.
Nabiki took Ranma's and Raccoon's hands, "_We_ are a team, there's
only one prima donna." ~That's you,~ Nabiki thought, ~Captain, you're
rubbing off on her.~
"You don't follow orders," Misato countered.
"I follow your orders," Ranma told Nabiki, "Don't I?"
"You'd better," Nabiki said.
"This isn't funny."
"Don't say anything," Nabiki warned Raccoon, who put both hands over
his mouth. "Captain Katsuragi, considering Jeff and I are in the
infirmary, and Rei and Shinji might have been too, and someone else is only
feeling picked on, I think you're screaming at the wrong people, person."
Misato quickly realized she was facing a united front, Nabiki could
see she thought what Asuka had done was inexcusable, but what Raccoon had
done in return was worse.
"Damitsu, I suggest you prepare a written apology, to Asuka and the
rest of the class."
Raccoon nodded.
"I'll talk to Asuka," Misato left.
"Words fail me," Raccoon cursed.
"That's a mouthful," Ranma crossed his arms, "So, we're in trouble
again. What were you thinking anyway?"
"Would you believe I wasn't? Yes, I was in trouble," he looked at
Nabiki and Ranma, "Now _we_ are, not smart, either of you."
"Deservedly so," Ritsuko said.
Nabiki suspected she hadn't intervened because 'it wasn't her place',
it also made her disciplining them later unnecessary. ~For which I and she
are grateful,~ Nabiki thought.
Ritsuko called Maya over to the x-ray, "Maya, do you see this?" It
was a dark spot on the x-ray with an odd `halo` around it.
"Is it 1.3 centimeters across, and wedged between the cerebellum and
the Pons?" Raccoon asked with the air of someone answering a question for
the hundredth time.
"Yes." Ritsuko stared at him.
"It's a previously diagnosed pilonidal cyst, in this case, they think
it's an unborn twin," Jeff told them, "It's too close to the spine and
brain structures to be removed. It hasn't changed since it was first
diagnosed in 1943."
"Maybe it's causing your sense of humor," Ranma said.
"At least I have an excuse," Raccoon shot back, "What's your's?
Sorry."
Nabiki shook her head, the two of them fought more than Asuka did with
anyone, yet they never had a problem working together, she wondered why,
~Maybe because they both can fight back, making it a contest of equals, or
at least a contest.~
----------------------------------------
Misato had assembled Asuka and Daifisu in the conference room, the
other pilots were watching from the sidelines. Misato watched the pair,
like a pair of cats wanting to fight, but neither sure about who should
deliver the first blow. She also had the terrible thought that she'd need
the other pilots to separate them, if they started fighting, before they
killed each other. Misato was realizing having them here together, was a
very foolish idea.
"You had no right to do what you did!" Asuka shouted.
Misato scowled, her plan gone up in smoke. Ranma tensed, she'd need
his help in a moment.
"You gave me the right," Daifisu replied coolly.
"How do you figure that, you hentai baka!?" Asuka shouted right into
his face.
"A cavalry commander I respect, once explained, 'To maintain
discipline, punishment for an infraction must be applied swiftly, without
apology, and a clear link between the violation and the sentence must be
made. It's good advice, and it works. Would you care to comment?" Dafisu
asked mildly.
Misato watched Asuka go ashen, when Dafisu had started speaking, then
livid, when he asked for comments. With balled fists and gritted teeth,
Misato thought Asuka would throw herself at the boy to pummel or kill him.
She braced herself to physically intervene.
Instead, Asuka said mildly, "You're right," turned on her heel, and
marched out with her nose in the air.
"That went rather well," Dafisu tipped his hat, "Excuse me, Captain."
He walked out.
Misato frowned, "My name is Misato." She glanced at the other pilots,
who seemed as perplexed as she was, "How does he do that?" she shouted.
----------------------------------------
Jeff caught up with Asuka. "For what I said, I apologize, Langley. I
lost my temper, that's no excuse of course," he told her in Greek.
"And spanking me, in front of the whole class!" she started quietly,
and ended with a shout, also in Greek.
"Oh, that you deserved. Picking on Shinji and Rei that way, that's
beneath you. Besides, I thought you'd forgive me. Especially because it
made sure neither Rei nor Nabiki would take counter action."
"How do you figure I'd forgive you?" Asuka demanded.
"You told Captain K what I said?"
"Every - single - word!" Asuka turned and hissed at him.
"Then you got to roast our good Captain's hindquarters, you even got
to watch," Jeff told her with a smile, "And she didn't stop you, probably
insisted you continue, and she won't blame you in the least."
"You complete and unutterable bastard!" she breathed.
"I'm glad you appreciate it, and I am glad of your help in this."
"Klugscheisser, als ob DU die Weisheit mit Loffeln gefressen hattest."
[Know-it-all (evil), as if YOU ate wisdom with a spoon.]
Asuka knocked his 'Stupid hat!' off his head, and pushed him down, "I
HATE YOU!!" She walked away.
Jeff picked up his hat, replacing it on his head, and waited until she
was ten feet away to yell, "I know that." He looked `up` from where he was
sprawled on the floor, at Maya and Ritsuko, who had heard the shouting, and
wondered if they would need a medic or a priest.
"You'll notice she used no closed fists this time. Dramatic
improvement, I'd say." He stood, tipped his hat, brushed himself off, and
walked away.
"Misato's right," Ritsuko said.
"He's crazy?" Maya asked.
"No, I need a beer."
----------------------------------------
Rei had decided to dispense with her injuries, enough time had passed,
that little comment would be made. So Rei approached a rail line that
crossed her route home.
She knew the schedule of the passenger and freight lines by heart, so
she crossed over the rails, and sat a few yards away. She knew that in two
minutes and 10 seconds, for a few moments she'd be blocked, sight and
sound, from her watchers. The fast freight thundered by, five seconds
late. Then she stood and returned to her apartment to eat and sleep.
----------------------------------------
Asuka wasn't happy when Raccoon found her again, she wasn't hiding,
she was just staying near the base, in case there was an alert.
"You should contact Ayanami-san."
"I'm not going to apologize to that - "
"Fellow pilot, I just said contact her, she's feeling vulnerable right
now. Just point things out, put them in perspective. Remember, I didn't
say apologize, you did."
She knocked his hat off his head, again, and stormed off.
----------------------------------------
Asuka couldn't believe she was doing this. Invoking the Meliorist to
_her_, was dirty pool. Worse was revealing he'd used her to run an
operation against Misato, worse still, it had worked beautifully. Despite
her defiance, Misato had reduced the pressure she'd been applying to her.
Misato was actually sympathetic, ~Probably because she has something _else_
to focus her anger on. Raccoon you take too many chances.~
She knocked on Wondergirl's door, wondered if even a flamethrower
could clean the yuck off it. She remembered Spineless had mentioned it,
and the lack of answer.
Asuka sighed, and barged in, "Hello, I - Oh Gott!" Now she remembered
the other thing Spineless mentioned, Wondergirl ran around her apartment
with no clothes on.
Rei froze on seeing her.
Asuka thought fast, "I wanted to congratulate you. I was hoping you'd
pick up on the game. You hit me harder than I expected, but, well, it
probably did Spine . . . Shinji some good, two pretty girls fighting over
him." She watched Rei's hostility change to confusion.
"Like when you were a mountain lion," Asuka tried to explain, ~And I
was a _real_ lion.~
Rei still looked confused.
"Tokyo to Wondergirl! I'm _NOT_ interested in him the way you are,
but only you need to know that."
Finally, Wondergirl stopped being tense, "Thank you."
"Don't mention it," Asuka told her, "To anyone. Let Spine - Shinji
think, well . . . economics: anything under more demand, is more valuable,
do you understand?"
"Yes."
"So I artificially raised the demand, he's still yours, but he sees
himself as more valuable. Understand?"
Rei nodded.
Asuka was glad to get out of the filthy apartment. She was tempted,
next time Wondergirl disappeared on her secret missions, to collect all the
pilots, and clean the place. ~Nobody deserves to live like that,~ she
thought as she walked home.
----------------------------------------
Aftermath
Dr. Akagi picked at the last of her dinner, she glanced at Maya and
her three charges. She was glad the day was finally over. The last straw
was the results she'd gotten on Jeff's medical tests. She didn't like
those at all. The skull fracture shouldn't have caused the blood changes
she had seen. The sensitivity to light was unexpected, simply turning on
the light in the room he was in, raised his blood-pressure 10 points and
his temperature 3 degrees C. She reminded herself, it didn't excuse his
behavior, but it might explain it. The continuing 39 C fever was worrying,
but she'd seen no reason why she should keep Jeff in the medical wing.
None of the other doctors could formulate any explanation, except blood
poisoning. The preliminary blood tests confirmed it, there was spmething
else in there. She took more samples, and gave them to the Navy labs to do
complete work up on. Preferably before morning.
No one knew the biological half-life of the L.C.L. components. But
the other medical experts agreed with Ritsuko, they wanted the fever kept
down, push fluids, and check for any other symptoms. Most importantly with
the concussion, no sleep for at least 24 hours, then only closely
monitored.
She hadn't expected such a difficult patient. She should have, but
she hadn't.
"I am not going to do that," Davis said adamantly.
Ritsuko glared at him, he proved as invulnerable to her glare as to
Misato's and Gendo's.
"Doc," Ranko piped up, "I gotta agree, resting in the furo while
staying awake, sounds kinda a dangerous."
"That is not the point," Davis enunciated each word.
"So are you going to keep an eye on him?" Nabiki teased.
Ranko blushed, nodded, "That's what we do, isn't it?"
"Absolutely not - " Davis stood.
"I agree," Ritsuko silenced him, "As chief medical officer, I'm
ordering it."
The four women watched Jeff surrender. That in itself worried
Ritsuko, he quit fighting because he'd run out of steam.
"Don't be so worried, Japanese bathe together naked all the time,"
Nabiki told them.
"That I will not accept," Davis rallied.
"I agree," Ritsuko glared at Nabiki, who subsided.
"I'll wear a swimsuit," Ranko said, daring Nabiki to say anything,
then considered, "I'll have to borrow one of yours."
Nabiki frowned at that.
"I withdraw my previous objection, but I'll rest alone," Davis
managed, Ritsuko thought he was fading faster now, he wouldn't be able to
argue much longer. ~He'll argue until he passes out though,~ she thought.
"Wear a full set of clothes, if it will make you feel more comfortable.
Heat transfer is the key," she told him, "You'll be soaked through fairly
quickly. So don't wear a three-piece suit."
Jeff looked put upon, but he acquiesced, a sure sign of ill-health
from any of her three charges.
When Davis left, Ritsuko turned to Ranko, "Why?" she quietly asked.
Ranko sighed, "It should have been _me_ in Unit 04, not him. I should
have seen Ayanami-san wasn't following."
"You owe him," Nabiki said, Ranko nodded.
~You aren't the one who owes,~ Ritsuko thought, ~But the one who does,
will never acknowledge the debt.~
"Besides," Ranko stood, "I know better than you do, how a guy feels,
when he's that helpless, and loses control."
None of the three wanted to argue.
----------------------------------------
Asuka sat in her personal dreamspace. Davis called them dreamscapes,
except she rarely used hers, so it hardly needed so grand a name. Today,
she didn't want to dream as the Meliorist.
~You wanted to sulk,~ she told herself firmly.
The place looked like a cross between a clockmaker's shop, a small
library, and a coffee shop. The room was filled with the steady tick-tock
of dozens of clocks that adorned the walls, tucked in between the
bookshelves, all of different styles, some keeping the time of other
planets, other places. The workbenches with their neat racks of tools
patiently waiting. The tea she drank as she read, felt good, going down
hot and bitter. She could have sweetened it, ~Hell, I could have made it
hot chocolate,~ she thought, but she had chosen not to.
"He called me 'Asuka'. He actually called me 'Asuka', like I've told
him to for years," she didn't know why it made her feel the world was
ending. She understood that her behavior had been unacceptable, and that
Raccoon had turned the whole thing into a knife, to plunge into Misato's
heart. But he had called her Asuka, Misato would never understand why that
hurt so much, maybe Anna would, but no one else.
She smiled at the expression on Misato's face, when Raccoon quoted the
Meliorist to her. "She thought I was going to kill him." She got another
cup of tea. ~Where'd that statue of Pallas Athena come from?~ she
wondered, then she realized it was wearing a gunbelt, and had red eyes.
She gave no sign, until she vaulted a workbench, desperately trying to
reach the weapons' rack.
The spear shaft blocked her progress, mere meters away from her goal.
She turned to face the apparition. The soft eyes and gentle expression
belied that this was the creature of her deepest nightmares. When she saw
Wondergirl, all she could remember was this monster. Nearly 3 meters tall,
soft sensuous curves that made Misato look like a gawky 10-year-old, the
Grecian-style robes and plate armor that seemed as much a part of the
creature as its alabaster skin, long blue hair and soft red eyes.
She whimpered in spite of herself. The thing had been chasing her for
years. Only glimpsed at a distance, never where others could see it. It
made her feel inferior the moment she laid eyes on it. She knew her hatred
of Wondergirl was partially due to the similarities, although truthfully,
comparing them was like comparing a Rembrandt with a kindergartner's crayon
copy.
She balled her fists, gathered her wits. In the waking world, she
might be no match for Saotome or Tendo, but she was in dreams, her dreams,
and she'd killed with her bare hands before. This thing would find her no
easy meat.
It reached out at her, she prepared a counter attack. This thing
extended a Colt Peacemaker and gunbelt, hers, butt-first.
"What kind of trick is that?" she shouted.
"Shinji-kun, Spineless, is in desperate trouble. I alone, am not
enough. I need assistance."
"Wondergirl? You really _are_ Wondergirl?" ~I may kill her, just for
that! What did I ever do to you, Wondergirl, that caused you to chase me
all over the Dreamlands and Waking World for nearly ten years?!~ she
couldn't ask.
"Only as far as you are the Meliorist, we have little time," the
voice, like a lover's whisper, and the pleading tone touched her.
Asuka shook herself, "Okay, nightmare, if you aren't enough, what good
am I?"
"As I am, I might prevail, and harm him, as would the Meliorist, none
other are available."
"I have one person I can call, discreet help," Asuka said, ~This is
_insane_!_ You _know_ it's a trick! It's been stalking you for years, and
you're going to trust it?~ "No," she said quietly as she picked up a
strange amulet, two pieces of mica sandwiching what appeared to be a piece
of blackest stone the size of her palm, a pledge given substance.
"All right, let me get some other things," she wanted the armor sized
for her, and the sabre-halberd. The whole idea still filled her with
dread, but she couldn't let Spineless die, because she was afraid, however
properly.
----------------------------------------
Ranko was uncomfortable in Nab-chan's swimsuit, but Rit-chan's were
just too big. She'd told Nab-chan it was too tight at the hips, pinched
her bust something awful, and had a lot of room at the waist. Maya-chan
had nearly killed herself, laughing at Nab-chan's expression. None of that
had been completely true, but after Nab-chan's constant teasing, she'd
decided to start cautiously hitting back.
The furo heater was on low, and Ritsuko-sensei had demanded she
monitor the water temperature and Raccoon's skin temperature every 15
minutes and every hour respectively, and make sure he drank plenty of
liquids. ~And didn't pee in the furo,~ she looked at the eight liters he
was to drink. Ranko thought of the other reason she was here, helping him
in and out of the furo.
She hadn't told anyone, she had another motive. The dream worried
her. The aftermath of the killing the monster, 'Ranma-Jeff' had picked his
way back across the grisly floor covering. He'd taken several days to
confirm it, some of those faces had been NERV employees. One, rather
thoroughly violated and mutilated, faceless corpse had worn a weird, star
necklace, like the one Misa-chan wore. He didn't think they were very
common.
The other aspect was that Asuka and Nab-chan had been like a couple of
spooked cats, always staring at the other. From whispered comments and
some asides, he proved they'd 'swapped', Asuka had gone into Nab-chan's
past, and vice versa. Then Raccoon had all but confirmed he'd gone into
_Ranma's_ past: Raccoon now probably knew more about his parents, friends,
history, everything about him, and her, than Ranma did.
~Do my parents miss me? How did I get my curse? And what reduced
Raccoon to tears?~ Ranko almost believed the last wasn't possible.
As she adjusted the suit, she remembered thinking that Raccoon would
never talk to Ranma about it. But he'd pried enough embarrassing secrets
out of Ranko, she could demand a little return candor, she would insist on
it, she also had a few tricks to use as well.
~Besides, it's your fault that he'll never talk to Ranma,~ she accused
herself. It was weird, finding a use for the curse, spying almost, it just
felt weird.
----------------------------------------
Raccoon entered, wearing a robe that covered him from throat to
ankles, and sleeves to the knuckles, "No questions, or orders or not, I
leave."
"_No_ questions?" Ranko's heart sank, and confusion increased, Raccoon
would talk your ear off, about nearly anything.
"About what you're about to see. I figured you had ulterior motives
for this."
"I agree, but you can't hold it against me, if one of my questions was
from before my promise," she said, "I don't think my motives were ul . . .
ulter . . . "
"Ulterior, hidden, usually hidden for bad reasons."
~That's sounds more like the Raccoon I'm used to,~ Ranko stepped into
the furo. It was warm, but below skin temperature, and well below
neutralizing temperature.
Raccoon nodded, and dropped the robe, revealing the T-shirt and long
shorts he wore, "It isn't just prudery."
Ranko was staring at the scars on his legs, at least six big ones, and
a bunch of smaller ones. "This isn't a question," she said. To tear her
stare away, she looked at his face, he looked worried, "You told Asuka a
horse turned over on you, in June? Of 1945?"
He nodded as he climbed over the rim, Ranko had to stabilize him, as
wobbly as he was. Ranko caught sight of another scar high up on his left
arm, encircling it.
It worried her that she was asking about April of 1945, and he got
hurt in _June_ of 1945.
He lay down in the water, she could feel the heat coming off his skin.
She felt really way-out doing this, but _she_ trusted Raccoon, or rather,
Ranma knew his girl-form was safe around Raccoon, felt safe talking to him
about anything. When she asked about things only a boy would be
interested, he'd smile, answer the question, `knowing` she'd go tell Ranma.
Who was too proud or stupid to ask.
She rested his head in her lap, keeping his face above water. When he
relaxed, she felt anxious about doing this, all the girls at school talked
about `romantic` dates with boyfriends, or dates they wished their
boyfriends would take them on. She wondered what they'd think about this,
~If they ever found out . . . I have to remember to threaten Nabiki before
we go to school.~ She suppressed her shudder, she didn't want to disturb
him, ~I'm a _NURSE_!_~ she told herself, ~I've got a doctor's orders and a
patient, and everything!~
She had to admit, she was cold in the water, he was radiating heat
like a furnace. She took his skin temperature, marked it on the little
chalkboard Ritsuko had given her for that purpose. She thought about how
to best broach the subject, decided to just go ahead. "The dreams we had
Sunday night." She felt his neck muscles tighten. "I was at Harvard, in
April '45. There were demons all over the place, you were fighting them."
The silence dragged on for a while, it worried her.
"Yes," he finally said, she thought he'd taken a punch, from the way
he said it.
"I'm guessing that Asuka and Nabiki traded places, and I was you and .
. . ?"
"I was you," he paused again, "And Ranma. I think I've got it sorted
out in my head, what do you want to know?"
She sighed, relieved, "Everything. Everything you can tell me. If
you were me, you know more about me than I do."
"It was a parody, it had to have been. First, it wasn't your past, it
was your future, you were 16 years old. Believe me, unless you could take
control of it completely, it wasn't a future to look forward to. The curse
worked exactly as described. Gendo, as your father Genma, changed into a
Panda Bear."
"Gendo was there!?" ~Talk about a nightmare, trapped with Gendo!~
"There were three Tendo sisters, Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane. The year
was 1992, that's ninety-two, and your father, and theirs, affianced you to
one of them," Raccoon continued to describe his/her travails and battles,
without Ranma's martial arts skills, but with the reputation of a master.
He had to depend on magic and cunning, neither was completely effective.
The troubles with other students as a female, mirrored Ranma's own. She
got a few ideas about dealing with it. The relationship with
Nabiki-Ritsuko and Kasumi-Misato was an odd one, and he could hardly
believe his mother would act that way. Or that Gendo would suddenly become
a human-being when his wife showed up.
Raccoon stopped suddenly, and unexpectedly. Right in the middle of
telling how Akane, Ranko, Gendo, Kuno and his Amazon wife, had been holding
off the horde of outraged suitors and general nuts, until Jeff-Ranma and
Nabiki-Ritsuko could get officially hitched. Ranko had been diligently
doing her job, while Jeff had been telling her the story. If it had been
anything like Ranma's real past, and the bits and pieces sounded `right`,
Ranko could understand why Ranma didn't remember, ~With my luck and lack of
social skills, they would have thrown him to Akane's 'tender mercies', and
my injures would almost support that.~
The silence had gone on long enough to worry Ranko, from the way the
tale had gone, `Misato-Kasumi` was having a relationship with a doctor, and
Raccoon was chasing 'Nabiki-Ritsuko'. That worried Ranko a bit, made Ranma
jealous, ~Maybe it's because he knows Nabiki and Akagi-sensei he went after
them.~
Ranko looked closely, Raccoon was - crying? Even after seeing it
twice, Ranko still considered it an impossibility.
She was almost afraid to ask, "What happened?"
"Gone." He wiped his eyes, "Wife, kids, all gone." He sat up and
moved away. "Figures," he covered his face again.
Ranko didn't know _what_ to do now. She couldn't imagine where the
pleasant story, ~Well, relatively pleasant,~ would go so wrong that would
cause such a breakdown. She knew what Raccoon had done when she was in
distress, he'd made sure she knew she wasn't alone.
Ranko couldn't do that, ~You're not secure enough in your manhood to
start to hug another man?~ she cursed her cowardice. Then steeled herself,
~I'm not a _guy_ now, I'm a girl, now,~ she felt as skittish as when she'd
faced the wall of cats. ~I'd better not wet myself here,~ she moved
slowly, to where Raccoon had retreated to, watched him silently sobbing.
"I'm here." ~I _hate_ this!~ "I won't leave." ~I can't believe I'm
doing this.~ She was terrified he'd turn and hug her, ~Like that idiot
Kuno or his wife Shampoo.~ She extended a hand, ~I act like I'm trying to
grab a red-hot stove,~ she felt silly about the tentativeness.
"Yes. You will," he said calmly. "Everyone does, one way or another.
I apologize for embarrassing you with my foolishness. I should have known
better." He got out of the furo, "Henry and Rita, those good kids."
Ranko nodded remembering that he kind of liked them.
"They got married, moved to San Francisco, they were murdered. You
will leave, everyone does. Although my enemies get some help," he headed
for the toilet, completely calm and composed.
Ranko had admired the calm he could 'put on', seemingly at will, now
she wondered if it were really so admirable.
~He had a home, a family,~ she remembered, ~His 'wedded bliss', 'Gone
. . . , all gone.' How long was that dream, months? It sounded more like
years!~ Ranko considered the ends she'd just gone to, over a family she
didn't even know she had, humiliating herself for any scrap of information,
he'd lived it, all of it. ~Wife, a kid, maybe kids, all taken away, except
for the memories. And all closed behind the same door in his mind.~ Ranko
sighed inwardly, she knew how much bottling things up had cost her,
actually him, Raccoon and Shinji's friendship, almost Nab-chan's. She let
that thought drop. Knowing all this hadn't helped, while it all sounded
`right`, none of it told him what would happen if he wasn't there, or
implied he'd ever left.
----------------------------------------
Shinji's relapse
Asuka was a bit disgusted, she'd hoped that Spineless would have
bounced back after the dreams. They'd won the `Western`, they'd done well
with the stupid cultists. Instead he backslid. The little town and the
rail line surrounding it, were overrun with the white, long-eared
`spider-rabbits`, all wiggling their cute, little pink noses at you, until
they attacked.
The Dragon landed nearby, "Be vwery, vwery quiet, I'm hunting
wabbits," the huge creature said in an Elmer Fudd voice, then laughed.
It gave Asuka chills. "How many have you killed?" There seemed to be
no end to the things.
"Too many, and not enough," the Dragon answered, "My recommendation
would be to evacuate the source, and fight any that come with."
Asuka nodded, "I'll get Spineless. Can you cover our retreat?"
"Of course, where are you going? Don't say the Dreamlands."
Asuka felt her guts tighten up, there was only one alternative, "Does
Wondergirl even _have_ a dreamscape?"
The Dragon smiled, nodded, and leapt into the air. Asuka looked at
the sabre-halberd, it was covered in blood, halfway up the haft, she'd been
busy. That didn't bother her as much as going to where Wondergirl's will
and desires would, or might, overwhelm hers. She almost wanted to stay
behind and fight. The girl frightened her more than those things closing
in on them.
The revelation about Wondergirl still staggered her. No spell or
charm held the creature at bay. Her terror at this _thing_ relentlessly
pursuing her was more terrifying than death in battle. Sometimes she had
thought she saw it in the Waking World, a glimpse of a nightmare. No
threats or pleas would it answer. It simply was, a living, breathing
example of what she could never be, nothing human could be that strong,
that beautiful, that stealthy, that poised.
Yet she also knew the instant she accepted the inevitability that she
was second-rate as a woman and as a warrior to this _thing_, she would die.
It would wait until she was alone, step out of the darkness, and tear her
heart from her chest. Wondergirl wouldn't even need solitude or darkness,
only orders.
~And the way _Captain_ Katsuragi has been acting, she would give the
order, if she knew she could,~ Asuka thought as she looked around, found
where Shinji had hidden from the Dragon.
"Come on Spineless, up and at'em." She hauled Shinji to his feet. He
wasn't very good with any weapon, although he was a good shieldman,
guarding her back as she fought.
----------------------------------------
Rei crushed the life out of two of the things that threatened
Shinji-kun. The temples and villages were overrun with these small, furry
monsters. She had seen the Dragon and Asuka fighting them with Shinji, she
hadn't believed that they knew she was here.
Then the Dragon landed near her. After her dream, she was still
terrified, but she could at least talk to him.
"Prepare your dreamscape, we retreat to there."
Now she was terrified, _her_ dreamscape. The Dragon stared at her,
there was no hostility, but the gaze prevented her from protesting, before
it leapt back into the air, to destroy concentrations of the things.
~Exactly like the battle we fought,~ she thought as she left
Shinji-kun's dreamscape. She didn't _want_ the others in hers, especially
not Shinji-kun and the Second Children. The Dragon hadn't given her any
choice.
----------------------------------------
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