% And on to the second.

While casually leaning back in the comfortable chair in his office,
Soun stretched.  He set down the newspaper he had been perusing, one he
had picked up during an early lunch he had taken when Kasumi had shown
up at his office unexpectedly.  Seeing her, dressed in the paramilitary
uniform of this Japan's Security Directorate had awakened a feeling of
intense pride within him, and there was a part of him that was pleased
to see her back in uniform.  She had saluted him with a professional
smile, and they had gone out and enjoyed a pleasant lunch together.  He
did not choose to question her decision to return to active duty, since
he knew Kasumi was not one to do impulsive things, but he did wonder
how her husband felt about her decision.

% Odd that S 1/2 Soun feels that way about his eldest working for them.

He tamped

% stamped

out the cigarette he had been smoking.  It was curious to
read about the events taking place in this world and find them both
familiar and strange at the same time.

% Yep. Odd being on top, but with bad guys, sort of.

 He pulled his feet off of

% drop 'of'

No, not dreams.  They were more like nightmares, with voices accusing
him of being weak, a failure, voices that sounded like his own and
those of his family.

% But whose, QD Soun's? If so it's an unusual burden he bears.

To distract himself, he quickly pulled out another one of the files he
had been given to review, one marked 'For Your Eyes Only.'

% Can't resist knowing about other people's secrets. :)

 He flipped
it open and began to read.  It turned out to be a rather dry affair, a
detailed report on business activities by the Sanzenin zaibatsu.  The
name was familiar to him, reminding him of the skating competition
Ranma had been in a while ago.  The Ranma of his original world, he
amended in his thoughts after a moment.  But he quickly grew bored with
reading the file,

% How interesting were tales of murder, rape, and incest after all.

 picked up his signature stamp and inked it, and then
he marked it as having been reviewed.  It joined several others on
another stack on his desk.

% Just another bureaucratic pencil pusher.

This was not the exciting life of a government agent that he would have
once imagined, spending his days shuffling paperwork from one pile on
his desk to another.

% That's because he's not a field agent, if he ever was.

 This was bureaucratic drudgery, not adventure.
Where were the fast cars, the vodka martinis, and the daring feats,
like that English fellow had in those movies he had seen a few of back
home?

% That's because he's British, not uptight, like the Japanese.

However, in his youth, his counterpart here had enjoyed such things
while serving in the field on His Imperial Majesty's secret service.
But, shortly after Akane was born, one mission had gone very badly, one
from which this body still had the scars, so his other self took a desk
job and became a bureaucrat instead, beginning a rapid rise up through
the ranks.

% Interesting. Didn't know about that aspect of his past.

There was even speculation that he was next in line to head
up the Directorate someday, but Soun didn't put much faith in such
rumors.

% What really matters is who else believes the rumors and what actions
they'll take because of them.

Thinking about the past, his other self's past, there were a few things
he had left unfinished out in the field, old scores to be settled and
other matters he meant to get back to someday but never did.  Soun
mused about them even as he lit up another cigarette.  He snapped the
lighter shut with a well-practiced move and set it down, drawing his
holstered service pistol fluidly a moment later, the same one that had
served his other self so well in the field years ago.

% and promptly shot himself in the foot.

% Old momento of the past, eh?

He sighted down the barrel at some of the pictures on the wall for
several moments before quickly reholstering it.  Right up until that
final mission, those had been good days, days of service to the Empire
to be proud of.  He sighed rather wistfully, remembering past escapades
and victories, but he shied away from any thoughts of the occasional
beautiful woman

% women

his counterpart had been involved with on missions, not
wanting to betray Kimiko's memory.

% Oh? Surprised he cheated on her, even in the line of duty.

Too late he realized his mistake.  He quickly closed the file in front
of him and pinched the bridge of his nose, willing back the tears and
sorrow that suddenly welled up within him at the memory of his late
wife.

% Both of them.

 She had been taken from him much later here than his own had
been, but she was still gone and the emotional pain was like an ache.

% might want to add the 'ache'

Not here.  He couldn't afford to cry here.  He had to be strong like
his counterpart had been, holding back the pain of his emotions instead
of giving in to them, damping them out by sheer will, a discipline he
himself had never found the strength to master.

% Got that right.

After a time, he managed to regain

% 'he regained' would be better and more concise.

control of himself and returned to
his work, picking up another file.  He could not afford to lose his
discipline, to let slip the mask and return to being the broken man he
once was.  No, he had been given a new chance, and he would not fail in
his duties as a father and a man.  Not again.

% Interesting that he views it as a second chance.

As he read through the report, the theme music for England's most
famous secret agent played in the back of his mind.

% Johnny English?

Her thoughts quickly defaulted to thinking about the other boy in her
life: Miki Kaoru.  The dance at Ohtori was coming up quickly, and
Kaoru-kun would be calling her this weekend to finalize their plans.
She was looking forward to speaking with him again, remembering with
fondness the last few times they had been together.  The friendship she
had felt for him as children was still strong, only now it was laced
with something extra, feelings of a much more adult kind of attraction
to him.

% They are older now, so that would be natural in any case. With the Phoenix
Effect it's much worse.

Unbidden, images arose in her mind from the life of Sukeban-Kodachi, of
her relationship with that world's Miki Kaoru.  Memories of being with
him came over her, of kissing with him and of being intimate with him,
sometimes gently and sometimes much more passionately.

% He was a muscian. They do have a delicate touch. :)

  A light blush
appeared on her cheeks at such thoughts, and she indulged in them a
bit, fantasizing about Kaoru-kun, wondering if he felt the same sort of
interest in her.

% Oh, I think so.

attention.  Still, he had kissed her, quite deeply and passionately,
and that must have meant something to him.  After all, Ranma was not at
all like her brother's best friend, that vile and disgusting womanizer,
Mikado Sanzenin.

% That's true.

 Still, while the kiss with Saotome-kun had been
wonderful, that other Kaoru-kun in Sukeban-Kodachi's world had been an
even better kisser,

% Comes from more practice. :)

 so gentle and yet so passionate, and she wondered
what a kiss from this world's version of him would be like.

Another fantasy triggered off

% can drop 'off'

Nanami glanced over at the wistfully sighing Kuno girl, and she shook
her head.  The young noblewoman must have been thinking about Ranma
again.  What was it about the guy that had so many girls so wild about
him lately?  She glanced at her watch, wondering how things were going
with the girls from the fan club.  Ranma had better not lose.  That
would be bad for her own plans concerning him.  He was proving to be
quite the moneymaker for her, so long as he remained unbeaten by any of
the girls, like their own local version of that Chinese barbarian girl
fighting in the Arena, the one she had heard Akane Tendo talking about
a few times.

% Interesting comparison.

                    ******************************

The cafeteria areas

% drop 'areas' since a cafeteria is an area.

at Whitehall and Blackhall were more like five-star
restaurants than the humble eateries most schools throughout the Empire
enjoyed,

% True. I hadn't thought of it being so upscale.

"So what's been bothering you this week, Kuno-kun?" asked Mikado, as he
set down his soup spoon to sit back and wait for the serving staff to
bring the main course.  All of the training he had been doing lately,
as well as the many intensely heated encounters he had been having with
Asuka,

% 'encounters with Asuka' would suffice, I think.


"Nay, that is not the cause of my disquiet," Kuno replied.  "While the
Arisugawa girl is no doubt politically-expedient as a choice, which
would suit the aims of my mother and likely further the interests of
the Kuno's

% Kunous (I think)

, I know little of her, or care to.  My warrior heart hath
already been claimed ,

% drop comma


by the clever and skilled Nabiki Tendo, and her
stout-hearted and strong young sister, Akane.  Gods, what women they
both are!"  He clenched his soup spoon in one hand, his eyes glazing
over as he imagined them both.

% And I can imagine it as well.

"I know what you mean."  Mikado nodded at the thought of Nabiki Tendo.
Akane didn't interest him that much, but Nabiki was a different matter.
It was rare for a girl to reject him as forcefully as she had, but that
rejection had only served to fire the intensity of his own interest in
bedding the middle Tendo daughter.  There was just something innately
attractive about her that he yearned to experience, to feel her body
against his as he took pleasure from her.  Then, once he was done with
her, his friend Tatewaki could have her for a concubine, but he wanted
her first.

% What a friend, breaking her in like that for Kuno. :)

                    ******************************

In the next booth, Kinnosuke Kashuoh paused in what he was doing, his
hearing having picked up the conversation despite his being somewhat
distracted.

% My my, what timing. I think Kuno is about to end up in a world of hurt.
And Kinno is a walking libido, isn't he? ^_^

  Lynx and Panther both sat next to him, and the

% him. The


                    ******************************

"I have dedicated myself to preparing myself these past days," Kuno
said in fierce tones.  "If Nabiki Tendo will only accept a conqueror to
her arms, then I shall conquer her.

% Yep, he's asking for it on all fronts. He'll have as many people after him
as Ranma soon. :)


The last word seemed to awaken a new thought within Kuno.  "Yes, a
thunder, but thunder alone is not enough of a sobriquet for my most
puissant skill at arms."

% Not even I was able to follow all of that.

 He paused in thought, distracted for the
moment from his true concerns.

"Perhaps a blue thunder?" Mikado asked jokingly,

% Ah, so I see.


"A scene too vile to endure."  Kuno closed his eyes, feeling his rage
build up within him, but he forced himself to remain calm.  "I caught
the knave forcing himself upon Kodachi, right there on the floor of her
own bedchambers."

% Heh. That should enrage Mikado as well.

Mikado's gaze narrowed as he listened to Kuno continue to rant about
Ranma Saotome.  A cold rage filled him.  Something had to be done to

% 'done about' might be better because of all the 'to's around it.

the pigtailed boy, to show him that the noblewomen of the Empire were
not for the likes of him, least of all Kodachi Kuno.

% More like 'especially Kodachi Kunou'


Ranma Saotome would pay for his crimes, for daring to sully the virtue
of that precious, innocent jewel of womanhood, Kodachi Kuno.

% After all, Mikado wanted to sully that precious, innocent jewel first.

 Mikado's
hand clenched into a fist, one he yearned to use to totally shatter
every last bone within Ranma's body.

I shall defeat you, Ranma Saotome, Mikado mused darkly, even as Kuno
continued to vent his hatred for the pigtailed boy.  I will prove that
your victory over me was merely bad luck on my part.

% Well, a combination of bad luck and lack of talent.


                    ******************************

Kinnosuke went back to kissing with Panther

% can drop 'with'

 as the conversation in the
next booth continued on, hearing her purr softly with pleasure into the
kiss, but his thoughts were more on what he had just heard.  So Ranma
had feelings for the Kuno girl and had acted on them, he mused.  That
could be potentially useful, and it seemed the two imbeciles in the
next booth did not care for what Ranma had done.  Perhaps his search
for allies to crush the pigtailed boy would be much easier than he had
imagined.

% Allies, or canon fodder? He did beat Ranma already, so he would hardly
need allies to do it. Maybe more like lackies to manipulate against Ranma so
he could humiliate him totally before crushing him once and for all or
somesuch.


"Um, I'm sorry," a chastened Ryoga replied,

% My, he gets around. At least he found a school.

"Well, be more careful next time," Akane replied, her tone softening a
bit as she looked the stranger over.  She felt a familiar, pleasant
tingling sensation running along her nerves, one she had only felt a
handful of times before, most notably with Ranma or that rich idiot,
Kuno, and it was equally powerful to the sensations the pigtailed boy
awoke within her.  She studied Ryoga intently for a moment, seeing by
his clothing that he appeared to be some kind of wandering martial
artist.

% He's dressed distinctively as a fighter? Maybe she should be able to tell
by the way he holds  himself or something.


only felt before around Ukyo.  Desperate to think of something to keep
the conversation going with the girl, he wished he had some smooth line
to use on her, but all he could stammer out was, "I-I'm Ryoga Hibiki.
Nice to meet you."

% And that would be about all the conversation he could come up with.

"I'm Akane Tendo," she said simply in reply.

% replied simply (perhaps?)

Ryoga felt a bit of irritation at the question.  "Of course I am," he
growled.  He noted her posture taking on a more combative air to it.
"But I don't fight girls," he quickly added.  Well, except for Ryoko,
he amended in his thoughts, but she was a special case, almost like she
wasn't really a girl, since she acted so macho all the time.

% Oh, she'd just love it if he verbalized that one.

"I-it's just not right for a guy to fight a girl," Ryoga explained,
stammering a bit, wondering what he had said wrong.  He decided to try
again, deciding to define it how his grandfather had once explained it
to him.  "It's a man's duty to protect women.  So it's wrong for a guy
to fight with a girl."

% That'll go over well too.

intensive training sessions spent with Sakura had been building up her
fighting abilities, and she was eager to test them out on someone, to
see if she was ready for Nabiki yet.  Her goal of joining the Combat
Club still hovered out there,

% Oh yeah, she still needs one victory, doesn't she?

 but it had been temporarily pushed aside
until she had dealt with the much more immediate issue of her sister.

% Right, she knows that too. Really need to find the time and reread this.

Ryoga backed away, waving his hand.  "N-no, no, that's okay.  Um, I'm
sorry for bumping into you."  He quickly departed, a heaviness in his
heart.  He would probably never see that girl again.  But that sadness
quickly transformed into more anger at Ukyo.

% Surprised she would back off so easily and let him go, but I guess he is a
total stranger.


 Shielded from the rain by his umbrella, Hikaru Gosunkugi gazed through
the chainlink fence surrounding it at

% Awkward. Perhaps ...fence surrounding Mobius Institute... (sounds better
to me)


Gosunkugi waited for the metal to cool before touching the gate, and he
pushed it open and shut it behind him.  He whispered the words of a
spell, setting it in place here at the gate, a subtle illusion that
would draw the Saotome boy within.

% I wonder what 'subtle' illusion Gos is using.

The storage facility was on the
path that Ranma normally traveled,

% What a coincidence. :)

 and it would trigger when he was
within a few hundred feet.  Gosunkugi was so focused on his need for
revenge against the pigtailed boy that he did not think to question how
he knew such magic, drawing on it by instinct alone.

% Heck, he's been doing that since Simon was running around in his head.

Ranma relaxed a little as the last girl stumbled back from his punch to
her solar plexus and collapsed.  Today they had varied their routine,
waiting until lunchtime to attack him in the hallways as he made his
way to the cafeteria to buy some food, since Kodachi was still not
speaking to him yet,

% drop 'yet'


"Yeah, I'll say," Ukyo agreed with a grin, as she stood leaning against
one wall.  She had been standing off to one side during Ranma's battle
today with the female cadets, since he had explicitly told her to stay
out of it when it erupted.  It was true he hadn't needed her help, and
she could understand his pride as a martial artist in wanting to deal
with it on his own.  It had actually been quite interesting to her

% can drop 'to her'

it, nodding at what he saw there.  After the events at Ohtori a while
back, and at Yohko's more recent urging, he had been making an effort
the past few days to become friends with Ranma.  And he was also
getting to be good friends with Ukyo in the process, since the other
boy seemed to hang around Ranma quite a lot, but that was okay.  He
rather liked Ukyo, and he was a little envious of the other boy's good
looks.  Even Yohko had once remarked on them, not that she appeared to
be interested in Ukyo.

% Thankfully for her sake.

Asking for help on his homework had seemed the easiest approach to
talking with Ranma,

% True


"Uh, yes," Ami replied, feeling a little frightened.  Some of the few
cadets who were within earshot gave her sympathetic looks.  There had
been some kind of shakeup in Nabiki's organization recently, and a
rumor floated around that someone had tried to poach on the Tendo
girl's turf.  There was another rumor that it was a science cadet, and
so there was an uneasy tension now forming between the two groups of
students.

% Heh. This should be interesting.


He turned to talk to Ukyo about it, and he was startled to see that the
ninja girl had vanished.  He scratched his head.  She was really good
at her stealth skills, much better than any of her counterparts in
those other worlds, and she seemed to enjoy startling him each morning
by suddenly appearing next to him while he left his house.  He wondered
where she had gone off to.

% Heh.

"Damn that Hikaru Gosunkugi and his spinelessness," she muttered darkly
in between bites.  The coward had skipped classes, going off somewhere
to hide from her righteous wrath.  "That- that womanizer, playing with
my feelings and getting involved with that emotionless doll, Frost."
She took a swig from her juice box, sipping on the straw noisily.  "And
damn that Ukyo Kuonji, too.  Why hasn't he noticed me?"

The day could not get any worse now, as far as she was concerned.

% Ah, then it's about to get worse.


Scorch marks were visible on walls and the pavement in places outside,
and there were burned out cars on the roads, the signs of some kind of
battle damage.  She had also seen corpses in those vehicles, so she was
no longer looking in any of them.  Whatever had happened here had
apparently happened days before her arrival on the scene, but she
didn't care.  She just wanted to get off this creepy world as soon as
possible now.

% Probably a good idea.


Bullets began whining and ricocheting past her down the hallway as she
ducked and weaved while running to make herself a harder target to hit.
Who were these guys?  Was Japan fighting a war?

"<Now there's a good-looking breeder female,>" commented Centurion
Ranma Saotome in the guttural language of the Musk Dynasty,

% Ah ha. now we know what happened here.


He still relished the memory of that first battle with Perfume.  His
rifle had jammed after he had been forced to kill the lavender-haired
Amazon he would have preferred taking as a prize, and a savage struggle
had erupted between him and Perfume that could have gone either way.
The strength and spirit she had shown during their fight had captivated
him.  Even after her defeat, after dragging her all the way back to his
home timeline in chains,

% Oh ho, continum jumpers as well.

However, his pride and joy was Kasumi Tendo, Kaneda's older sister by
two years, the one who kept his house in order and the other girls in
line, and who was such a wicked delight in bed with her fondness for
leather and bondage.  There was definitely something to be said for
more mature women, and she was indeed a proper Musk woman through and
through.  His father's purchase of her from Legate Tendo to unite their
two houses had been a wise investment, and he was looking forward to
bringing this new girl to her as a gift when he returned home, for
proper training at Kasumi's hands like she had done with Perfume.

% How wicked and evil.


Off balance from her diving entrance into the quantum tunnel on the
other end, Ranko went from being in a dimly lit corridor to a much
brighter one.  Even as the portal immediately snapped shut behind her
with a brief flash of light and a fading distortion of the air, she
slammed full tilt into Minami, knocking the other girl to the ground
and stunning her as they fell down together.

% So Ranko has finally arrived.


Ranko knelt down next to Minami and began removing the Ghost Sweeper's
clothing.  When the girl started to stir, Ranko grimaced and slugged
her in the jaw, sending the Ghost Sweeper back into unconsciousness.

% That'll go over real well when she comes around.

Ami and Yohko walked by, and Ranko wondered where the pair was going.
Yohko looked just as she remembered her, and Ami had been a friend, a
pretty good one, actually.  Curious, she stealthed after them.

% 'stealthed'? 'Stalked' or something would be better.


A little ways down the corridor, Ukyo also took to the ceiling area,
quietly moving closer.  Whoever this other girl was, she moved very
well, almost like a ninja herself.  Without a sound, she crept closer.

% This could get messy.


"Because I've been hearing some things about you and that Jinnai girl
somehow being behind this matter," Nabiki replied.  "Now, I thought I'd
start my questions with you before I dealt with her.  So, what can you
tell me about it?"  She smiled, but there was little pleasantness in
it.  "This will go so much easier if you're honest with me."

% Ami: It'll go much easier on you if you tone it back, if you ever hope to
have a credit rating. I do know computers, after all.

"I'm Ranko," the redhead said simply, meeting the older girl's look
levelly.  She paused and thought a moment about what name she would
give, then decided to use one that Nabiki would probably never have
heard of before on this world, not wanting to get her own analog in
trouble, if she had one here.  "I'm Ranko Kuonji.

% Oh, that'll go over really well.

Something had happened in the past with her Aunt Yumi, something that
the rest of the clan would not speak of.  A child born out of wedlock
made sense, and the girl seemed to be the right age.  That would mean
that Ranko was her cousin.  That was great, she mused with a grin.  It
would be fun to have another girl around to talk with, and she was
looking forward to seeing the look on her aunt's face when she told her
that she'd figured out her secret.

% Heh. Cute and very wrong conclusion.

To Ranko's accelerated awareness, Nabiki's fists suddenly seemed to
blur in at her, almost too fast to perceive each individual punch, and
she strained to keep up with the sheer volume of strikes coming at her,
recognizing the technique even though she had not trained herself to
use it yet.  Ranko ducked and wove her body among the blows, her hands
deflecting still more, and she just soaked up the damage caused by
those that did hit her midsection and face by virtue of the stew of
endorphins, adrenaline, and other serums surging within her.  But the
effort was taxing her more than she could have ever imagined.  Luckily,
it was over quickly.

%And Nabiki should be pooped.


"Uhn!  Uh!  Uhn!"  Nabiki grunted as the smaller girl's fists and feet
slammed into her again and again without letup.  She tried to rally,
but it was too late.  Her knees buckled from the damage, and Ranko
quickly grabbed her shoulders and drove a savage knee strike up into
her belly, followed up quickly by a second one and then a third.  Then
everything went black as the last thing she saw was the redhead's fist
coming straight at her face.

% That was quick and to the point.


"Y-you know him?" Ami asked with sudden hesitance, fearing that the
redhead was another girl romantically interested in Ranma.

% No, she's aware enough of the situation that I doubt that.


Ranko's mind immediately summoned up images from the erotic dreams she
kept having about her male analog.

% Oh, that's right. They have 'met' before. I forgot about that.

 She blushed and quickly stammered
out defensively, "O-of course not!  I'm not interested in him at all
like that!"

Above them, Ukyo relaxed, putting away the small throwing spatula she
had unconsciously drawn out.

% Heh


"Oh, let me buy you some lunch!" Ami replied quickly.  "It's the least
I can do for you helping me out like that."  She took Ranko by the hand
and started leading her down the hall, smiling at the redhead.  "You
were very brave to stand up to Tendo-senpai like that.  Are you a new
transfer student?"

% Until she can 'transfer' out of here, she is.


Kodachi eyed the pigtailed girl that Ami had brought back to their
class, her arms laden with food.  The girl had given her a startled
look when she first came into the room, as if recognizing her, and
Kodachi was sure she had seen the other girl before, somewhere, perhaps
on another timeline visited by that part of her that she referred to as
scholar-Kodachi.

% Oh ho, so Kodachi is sort of aware of her as well. Interesting.


Feeling a bit jealous of how easily the pigtailed hoyden

% hoyden? Don't know that one.

"So, Ranko," Nanami said, leaning over the girl's shoulder.  "That's
impressive that you beat Tendo-senpai.  Aren't you worried about her
wanting to get back at you?"

% Ranko: I'll be gone long before that happens.


The sun was lowering in the cloud-filled sky as Ryoga paused next to a
wall and leaned against it with one hand.  He had been walking all day,
feeling cold and wet from the rain, trying desperately to find either
Ukyo or Ryoko without having any luck.  He shut his eyes, tears of rage
threatening to burst forth.  It just wasn't fair!  He had no idea where
he was.  Ukyo could be anywhere in this city.

"Man, today has been one bad day," Hiroshi grumbled to himself

% Or closer than Ryouga thinks.

She had also snuck back downstairs and retrieved her quantum tunneling
device, and after examining it had determined that the damage done to
it would require special parts to fix, parts she could not get outside
of the Science Ministry.  Realizing she needed help, she had been
biding her time for the remainder of the afternoon, waiting for a
chance to talk to Ranma in private after he was done with classes.  He
was the only one who could possibly help her, even though she also
suspected that he was the one who had messed with her brain.

% Oh? Did Ami mention his work on quantum mechanics? Otherwise Ranko
wouldn't know if this was the right one or not.

                    ******************************

Spotting his pigtailed nemesis leaving the grounds of the Imperial
Academy, Mikado emerged from the limousine he had been waiting in.
With a grim look on his face, determined to make Ranma pay for his
assault on Kodachi, he headed over to where his target was apparently
being confronted by another boy.  Not that it mattered to Mikado.  If
the boy wearing the bandanna had a grudge against Saotome, he'd have to
wait in line.

% This is going to get messy quick.


"Damn you!" Ryoga roared, sprinting after Ranma, angry beyond reason
now.  First he was going to pound on this guy a bit, then he would beat
Ukyo's location out of him, assuming the other boy's jaw wasn't broken
first.

% Leave his finger intact and you can make him write it out.


"Ah, but let me introduce myself properly.  I am Mikado Sanzenin."  And
with that, he pulled Ranko into an embrace and promptly kissed her.

% My, that's forward, even for him.

Ryoko had finally made her way back to familiar territory, grateful for
the easing of the rain.  She was looking forward to her revenge upon
Nabiki Tendo, savoring it a bit in her mind as she walked along.  It
was going to feel so good to pulverize the other girl for daring to
insult her like that.

% And after she's been softened up, too.

As she was getting to her feet, Mikado ran over her next, slamming her
face back into the concrete.  He never even paused.

Ryoko growled as she got back to her feet, deciding that pummeling
Nabiki Tendo could wait.  First she was going to pound that redhead
into mulch, not to mention the guy chasing her.  And then she was going
to find out why Ryoga was picking on Ranma.  She took off at a run
after the group.

% Heh.

                    ******************************

Up on the rooftop of the Institute's storage facility, Gosunkugi
watched a small parade of people that were apparently chasing after
Saotome, two boys and two girls.  He had been laying subtle spells of
illusion all over the building all afternoon, being very careful to
avoid the vats of Jusenkyo water, and he was feeling a bit tired by his
efforts.  He walked over to peer through a skylight into the dim
interior, hoping to see Ranma's downfall with his own eyes.

% It should be coming along soon.


"I don't got time for this!"  Ranko bounced off a nearby wall and came
surging back towards Mikado, knocking him back into a pile of crates,
stunning him.

% Poor boy is still recovering from his shot to the nuts.


A recovered Mikado had just started out across the catwalk when it
suddenly pitched violently to one side, propelling him off it.  "Wha-
Ahhh!"  He tumbled headlong into one of the vats of water below and
vanished with a noisy splash.

% Hmm. Wonder what he got hit with.

Across the warehouse, on the next catwalk, Ranma still danced around
Ryoga, but he was finding it much more difficult than he remembered it
as

% drop 'as'


Below them, the water in one vat stirred as first a stream of bubbles
and then a small black piglet suddenly broke the surface.  It gasped
for breath as it struggled to stay afloat.

"Bwee!" the piglet called out fearfully, paddling as best it could with
little cloven hooves.  "BWEE!"

% Heh. Well, I wonder if Mikado will end up as someone's pet.


Ranko twisted her body around, catching sight of a fire sprinkler pipe
behind her that she could land on.  Ryoko was in for a surprise as soon
as she touched down.

Ranma caught a brief glimpse of a pipe behind him that he could use to
land on, and he twisted his body around to spring off it.  Ryoga was
about to get a surprise.

% Oops


Ranko and Ranma slammed into each other full force, and they tumbled
together towards a vat of water below them.  Half-conscious from the
impact, they instinctively clung together.  Both of them vanished
beneath the surface with a large splash.

% That should be interesting.

* MIDGARD REALITY PARADIGM ADJUSTMENT: 43% COMPLETE.

A few moments passed, then another line appeared.

* MIDGARD REALITY PARADIGM ADJUSTMENT: 44% COMPLETE.

% That sounds bad.

                    ******************************

*** Earth  0.000,0.000

At the Mobius Institute, Setsuna Meioh paused as new futures suddenly
arose before her vision.  She immediately crumpled up the piece of
paper she had been drawing on and cast it aside.  A small smile lit her
face.

"It has begun," she whispered, quite softly.

% And only after a couple of megs as well. :)


A sudden impulse seized her, and she ripped open her shirt, staring in
apparent shock at a pair of breasts.

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

% Heh. Wonder where the 'real' Ranko is hiding now.


Ryoko, seeing that the redheaded bimbo had just flashed her chest at
Ryoga and then attacked him while the idiot was offguard, started to
leap from the catwalk she was on when the remaining support suddenly
gave way.  The entire catwalk began plummeting to the floor of the
warehouse.  Desperately trying to leap clear, Ryoko pushed off the
already descending railing.  She reached out and just missed the
handhold she had been aiming for by millimeters.  She fell to land in
another vat.

% Oops. Curses for everyone.

                    ******************************

Gazing down through the skylight, Gosunkugi felt triumphant.  Ranma
Saotome had apparently drowned in one of the tanks, but luckily the
girl had survived.  He laughed maniacally for several moments.  Then he
felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Eh?"  He turned around to see Frost standing there, her robes slowly
billowing in the light wind.

"I have spent all day preparing a nutritious dinner for you, Airen,"
she said with a serious look.  "You will come home and eat it now."
With that, she grabbed him in a hug and flew off.

% About time he found out he was married.

In the tank where Ryoko fell, the surface of the water began bubbling,
and then a small cat with greenish fur broke the surface, looking
panicked.

"Meow!  MEOW!" the cat cried out, struggling to stay afloat.

% Shouldn't be a problem. Cats are natural swimmers, much better than dogs.
They just don't like water as a general rule.


"Rest now, little ones," he said, his bald head gleaming slightly in
the dim light.  "Fate has apparently chosen you."

% Fate: It was a game of musical chairs, and I'm afraid you didn't have
anywhere to sit down when the music stopped. Sorry.

"Growf?" murmured the large panda, quickly running paws over his face
and body, his ever-present bandana tight on his skull.  Closing both
paws into fists, Ryoga bellowed his rage to the sky.  His rage at Ukyo
was forgotten for the moment.  It was the girl.  That girl would pay
for doing this to him, whoever she was!

"GROWRRRRR!!!!"

% Ryouga's hate list is growing by leaps and bounds.

                    ******************************

Sometime later, soaked to the skin by the icy rain, Ranma-chan sat all
alone, huddled against one wall of an alleyway, sniffling.

As she sat there, a figure came into the alley, shielded from the rain
by an umbrella, drawn by the sounds of human misery emerging from the
alley.

After a moment, Ranma-chan looked up, rain running through her hair and
down her face and neck in cold streams.  The lights of the street shone
brightly behind the sudden apparition, and Ranma-chan tried to make out
who it was.  Her eyes widened in recognition, and she started to run
away, not wanting anyone she knew to see her like this.

Barely going a step, the shock and stresses of the day's events finally
seemed to catch up with her, and Ranma-chan passed out.

% Hmm. Interesting


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tried to get this one done before the end of the year, but holiday
festivities and work intervened.

Stay tuned for the next chapter, already underway: "Secret Identities"

% Yes, by all means, let's see it.

% Well, Ranko's fate is revealed and some curses finally got handed out.
Interesting to see Ryoko and Mikado in the mix. Interesting way or working a
curse in for Ranma as well with the whole Ranko being a part of him thing.
Fairly unique, to my knowledge. If Ranma's life was bad before, he's going
to have a worse time of it now that Ranko has made so many 'friends' in so
short a time. And the people that dislike him hate him more than ever, now.

% Prose flowed well, and it was a joy to read, as always. Very eager to read
the next part, as always.

DB Sommer








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