[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 40 - The
Cook, By the Way, Is Not an Inmate
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.
C&C, MSTs are welcome
E-mail: dan_s.comments@worldnet.att.net
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per-Morituri
(these are the original versions)
What has gone before:
About Book 11 of the Tankoubon Manga, 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 Jeffrey
Davis.
With the return of NERV Tokyo from the Great White Space, everyone is
celebrating, except Asuka who realizes their enemies are taking a direct
interest in the pilots. Nabiki and Rei are returned to Tokyo separately,
Rei by express, Nabiki aboard the Spruce Goose with cargo for the EVAs.
Shinji, Asuka, Toji and Hikari meet with Yumiwashi.
Rei locates and confronts Jeff on the anniversary of Samuel's
death. She remembers her feelings on the death of Yui Ikari, and how she
arranged Naoko Akagi's death. Jeff wants to be left alone, Rei decides he
needs to talk about events, and doesn't take no for an answer. Including
revealing how he killed her years earlier in Boston.
At the welcome home party for Nabiki and Rei, the Azores mission is
revealed. Ranma will move in with Asuka and Sammi. Three shoggoths, once
fragments of Ritsuko, fight and are defeated by combining Ritsuko, Ranma
and Jeff, there are some side-effects as the trio's personalities
temporarily bleed into each other. Among them: Jeff, under the influence
of Ranma, confronts Belldandy sending her, then her sisters, into a tizzy,
Keiichi managed to defuse it. Ranko, under the influence of the others,
gives Jeff the passionate kiss from the bet he lost to Asuka at the
carnival. Then Asuka and Jeff tickle Nabiki remorselessly. Rei begins
calling Asuka mein Grossfeldmarschall {Gro�e}. All the pilots are giddy
from recent events.
To help Misato and Hiro's relationship, Asuka, Rei and Shinji throw
together a Sunday in the park picnic. Asuka invites Keiichi, Belldandy and
Megumi. Megumi volunteers her services and Belldandy's as caterers. They
work through the night to get everything ready.
The baseball captain Usagi and her allies are introduced, and what
they worship before their softball games.
The picnic is a success until Usagi and Yuki decide to test the
pilots. Ranma easily intercepts the batted ball, but transforms and must
leave. The picnic ends. Asuka and Ranma are sulky after the failed
picnic. Asuka also has a letter from Anna reminding her of home, to which
she can never return.
With the aid of a narrow board and two sawhorses, Asuka begins
teaching Ranma both sword fighting, and how to teach. Only he believes his
first class with the others was an unmitigated disaster.
Asuka contracts Keiichi and his sister to construct several bicycles
for the pilots. She shoots a bug and has her second clash with Skuld.
All four senators from Wyoming and Massachusetts begin investigating
the Boston incident and Misato's part in it. Admiral Simson scrambles to
begin his own investigation of what has been happening in NERV before and
after the war. Shinji and Rei console and watch over Misato.
Asuka and Ranma wash each others hair, Shinji washes Rei's. They
discuss children while doing this. Asuka doesn't want the responsibility,
Rei appreciates her advice.
Aboard the Bennington, Jeff meets with one of his patrons and receives
an update on Sharon. Nabiki is coming to realize the differences in the
way the military treats her and the other pilots.
Major ggreg and Adam Smith arrive, to cover their `spying` on NERV,
they will teach Nabiki and Jeff about explosives. Ritsuko investigates the
unusual way Jeff syncs with the EVA, she is terrified by the
contact. Later she realizes the spirits power the EVAs. Nabiki and Maya
train to operate firearms.
Jeff and the Scholarly Dragon teach Nabiki about control of her
dreams, the Scholarly Dragon prevents an dream attack by Usagi and company.
Admiral Simson asks about Jeff siccing the Senators on Misato, he did
so because the Navy stonewalled his investigation.
Nabiki adds hand-to-hand training with the rifle.
Nabiki discusses Hiroko's death with several of her
instructors. Ritsuko looks over Jeff and Nabiki as Nabiki comes under
dream attack.
Joma and Ritsuko discuss the desires of made things for their
creators/users.
Two days prior to his scheduled space shot, subject officer, while dining
on the base, was observed to pick up a plastic ketchup bottle. Squeeze a
thin red line across his throat, and then to stagger, and fall very heavily
across a table, then being occupied by the Director of the National Space
Administration, gurgling 'Don't order the swordfish.'
The Ninth Configuration - William Peter Blatty
You Can Neither Eat It Nor Make Flannel Out of It
Asuka was all smiles as she let in Little Miss Happy, Megumi, and
Mouse, who looked like Hikari, except for the glasses. Wondergirl looked
like Asuka'd let a lion into the place. Mouse looked at Horseface and
Curly, and blushed. Asuka wondered why she was working instead of in
Junior High.
"The easiest way to learn is to teach someone. Hor - Saotome-san and
Suzuhara-san will be your `students` they are both good cooks and won't let
you make too big a mistake," Asuka told Mouse, she'd also explained it to
the others. Curly hadn't been happy, but with Hikari and Curly's little
sister Yumi eager to help, he'd been unable to refuse. Mouse looked even
more nervous.
"It's all right, Sora," Megumi told Mouse. Wondergirl also nodded to
Mouse, who gulped and nodded back.
"Good," Asuka said, "Don't stand there you two, break out the stuff!"
Horseface and Curly hopped to it, with their friends, the junior-high crew
and the guards all watching.
Mouse looked ready to jump out of her skin at the sudden activity,
Asuka congratulated herself for teaming Mouse with Horseface, most girls
went 'Ranma-sigh', that effect ought to be useful for something. Horseface
and Curly set out the utensils, the vegetables, spices, etc. Asuka had
supervised Wondergirl purchasing them, fixing another bit of her lacking
education. The utensils were the thank you gift for Little Miss Happy,
Asuka had seen the paltry supplied the girl had.
Asuka had thought Horseface was single-minded, he was an absolute
piker compared to Wondergirl as she prepared for the lesson by purchasing
things. _Exactly_ what was called for. Asuka had discussed with Little
Miss Happy on the phone to get the necessary ingredients, she'd let Little
Miss Happy `teach` the class, although she'd keep an eye on things.
Wondergirl and Little Miss Happy didn't seem to get along, that was a
secret Asuka would love to unravel, but all Wondergirl said was 'She
believes I am someone I am not.' Asuka hadn't the faintest idea what that
meant, and Spineless hadn't been willing to help her question Wondergirl,
it was all very frustrating.
"The first thing to do is wash the vegetables," Little Miss Happy told
them.
~Well, so much for the Socratic Method,~ Asuka said to herself, she
preferred it because it got you thinking from the beginning and it was
perfect in these small `classes`. Washing and removing the stems, and
other inedible parts were the first lessons. all closely directed by Little
Miss Happy.
"There's no meat!" Mouse commented in a perplexed tone, bordering on
terror. Asuka was beginning to wonder if that was her default condition.
"I dislike meat," Wondergirl said.
"So since you'll be tasting it, we leave it out," Asuka explained, "I
bet Miss Belldandy eats meat all the time." Asuka wondered at the strange
reaction by Little Miss Happy and Wondergirl, Asuka decided Little Miss
Happy was just weird. ~Must be a side-effect of the happy pills she's on,~
she thought.
Then came the cutting, the reason Sammi had a full service first-aid
kit sitting next to her. Wondergirl of course asked why the different
cuts, why the particular knives, why one end of a daikon and not the other,
etc., etc., etc. Each question seemed to vex Little Miss Happy.
~Too bad, that's Wondergirl's way, and Mouse wants to know too, she's
just too timid to ask,~ Asuka thought.
Asuka had to admit she learned a little too, even the boys were
silently taking notes. They added the vegetables to cold water and the
other ingredients.
"Why not add to the boiling water?" Asuka asked, she'd been taught the
addition to boiling water was to help dissolve the flavors into the soup.
"Some parts dissolve easily in cold water, you want them in the water
before oils and other flavors that only dissolve in boiling."
~Makes sense, osmotic pressure,~ Asuka thought.
The soup was underway, now came time for the dumplings or potstickers,
now the girls would have to tell Horseface and Curly how to prepare the
vegetables, Asuka had never heard of all vegetable potstickers, but Little
Miss Happy insisted she had a recipe. Asuka left it to her, the recipe was
all in kanji characters, Spineless could watch over Wondergirl.
"So," Megumi asked as Asuka sat at the table, "What about the cooking
contest."
"Yes. I'd like to hear about your tragic defeat at the hands of the
cunning Raccoon," Sammi said theatrically.
"Well, Raccoon set me up," Asuka began.
"You set yourself up for him," Wondergirl called from her position,
directing Curly slicing vegetables, "And the cause was much earlier, a
battle fought and nearly lost."
"What are you talking about, Wondergirl?"
"The Inspector," Spineless added, shivered at the remembrance.
Asuka nodded, she'd been frightened and sickened as each pilot faced
Nyarlathotep alone. The only way to beat him was to act as caricatures of
themselves. Horseface was the arrogant martial artist to the hilt. He
returned practically in tears, only Raccoon and Ice Princess together
soothed him. Then Raccoon had gone in as a twit, she smiled at what he'd
later related about the sortie. Ice Princess went against it as a
homicidal ditz, misinterpreting everything and going off on tangents.
She'd returned in disarray.
Asuka remembered that she and Raccoon had challenged Nyarlathotep
before. The Scholarly Dragon had driven him off twice. She took her turn,
as cute, polite and completely math-obsessed. The idea of facing, the
creature terrified her, then and now. Losing her sanity and ability to
reason frightened her more than physical injury or even death at the
creature's hands. She was horrified he knew things he couldn't possibly
have known. She barely made it out without breaking cover. Spineless was
of course Spineless to the ultimate degree, afraid of everyone and
everything, it irritated Asuka that Spineless probably broke the Inspector,
but it was her plan. The person she felt sorry for was Captain Ramsey, who
had to stand there and watch what the pilots were doing, and couldn't react
to it.
"Wondergirl, do you want to tell?" Asuka asked. Wondergirl just shook
her head.
----------------------------------------
Rei considered Mein Grossfeldmarschall's request, she did remember the
fury she felt, how she wanted to kill and destroy it, but had barely
managed to restrain herself. She remembered how Mein Grossfeldmarschall
and Roku-kun had simply accepted what she'd told them, and then she would
have to accept that their plan was the best way to hurt it.
"I had faith, as others had faith in me," she told them. Mein
Grossfeldmarschall seemed to accept that. Her one word answers had
infuriated the Outer God. Then she had rescued Maya from a mental assault
by the Crawling Chaos. She apologized to Maya for not considering her
earlier as she carried her to safety among the pilots, before Ranko left to
the last battle against the monster, by being 'sickenly cute'. Ranko was
as disturbed by the experience as Ranma, giving lie to Roku-kun's claims
they are different people.
Finally, Akagi-sensei had arrived so she and Mein Grossfeldmarschall
could administer the coup de grace to Nyarlathotep by assaulting his bow
tie. Mein Grossfeldmarschall called it a hoop snake.
She recalled with pride the Commander's praise, and with anger
Captain, now Major, Katsuragi's verbal attack for not cooperating, and Mein
Grossfeldmarschall's verbal counterattack that Norris Attergate _was_
Nyarlathotep.
"Was the Captain the only one unaware of Norris Attergate's true
identity?" Rei asked.
"Pretty much," Mein Grossfeldmarschall said, "Maybe some janitors and
maintenance people, but of the people who were supposed to know, yes."
"Who is No-ris A-teru-gata-?" Sora asked.
"An enemy we defeated," Shinji-kun said, shivered even as he smiled.
Rei was glad she wasn't the only one uncomfortable with these
memories.
"Pilot Langley was told that her invention was accepted by the U.S.
Government also," Rei added.
"Yes, the sonic glaive design. _I_ helped perfect it," Mein
Grossfeldmarschall crowed.
Megumi walked over to Sammi-san, "So what were you doing that day?"
----------------------------------------
Sammi sat back in her chair and smiled at that question, decided to
tell the truth. ~No one will believe it,~ she thought.
"I was on a slab getting assembled by Doctor Akagi."
Belldandy let a plate slip from her hand and it shattered on the
floor.
"Does that girl understand what a joke is?" Sammi asked as she marched
into the kitchen to see if anyone had been hurt, then cleared everyone else
out.
"Never," Rei supplied, much to the girl's displeasure, and their other
guests' amusement. Rei was getting more skilled at humor. Sammi knew
she'd get it eventually. The fact was, she _had_ woken up on a slab that
day, Doctor Akagi had murdered a Spawn of Nyogtha by injecting it with the
chemicals to make it a proto-shoggoth, a being nearly as plastic and strong
as a real shoggoth. The good doctor had also removed the brain, or its
equivalent, from the Spawn and installed the brain of the first Rei, the
one murdered by Naoko Akagi. Then she'd `installed` certain cellular
samples from each of the pilots.
The combination proved more effective than `mommy` Rit-chan knew.
Sammi had awakened with many of the memories of the pilots, and most of
their knowledge, fuzzy and somewhat intermixed with others' memories, but
she could `feel` out the currents of each pilot. The Spawn of Nyogtha made
her loyal to the death to Ranma and Rei who were the inheritors of his
mantle, Rei's brain made her incredibly loyal to Shinji, Asuka and Jeff.
The other elements added Nabiki to the mix. So when she awakened that day,
she was overjoyed that the other pilots were present and close. She could
continuously feel them, Ranma and Rei most strongly, but none of the pilots
could ever evade her. She loved them, each and everyone. Even if they
hadn't been so delightful, she still would have loved them as she cared
about herself. She couldn't have been happier to be alive and to be able
to serve.
She collected all the pieces of the plate and was sweeping up, the
others clustered around the kitchen entrance, waiting.
"That was the day that fog rolled in, May 27th," Hikari said, "Hiroko
and I . . . we discussed what to do about it." Hikari hung her head.
"Sorry."
"Yes," Asuka said, "Worse was yet to come."
"How does this have anything to do with the cooking contest?" Megumi
asked, "You mentioned 'the Inspector', and most of you immediately went
white as a sheet."
"The contest is important," Rei explained, "Each event builds upon
another."
"You never said anything about - no never mind," Asuka said, "I never
asked, so you never told me."
"Roku-kun made numerous, oblique references," Rei said as they filed
back into the kitchen.
"Too oblique," Asuka complained.
"Yes, fine," Megumi said as she leaned over the breakfast bar, "But
what does that have to do with cooking?"
"Patience," Asuka and Rei chorused, Asuka glared at Rei for that.
"I think they're trying to tell you to let the elements unfold and
blend as they actually did," Sammi said as she disposed of the plate
shards.
"What about you, Ranma?" Megumi asked, "Do you want to have mercy and
tell us."
----------------------------------------
"Easier answers make later learning harder," Ranma said, "I learned
that sometimes embarrassment and over reaching are useful." Ranma had
caught Nab-chan spying on Ranko and Raccoon who were having a conversation.
Ranko practically threw Nab-chan into Raccoon's arms and didn't let them
separate. "And sometimes asking for help, you have to accept whatever help
is offered."
"And sometimes people will ask for help you never knew they needed,"
Shinji added.
Ranma remembered the help `Ranko` had received after she stole the
Ranma-skin from the pack of loonies in dreams. From `Rei's` massive
artillery barrage, to the cinnamon chicken minefield, to other diversions
and distractions provided by his friends. The real dreamselves of the
other pilots had been waiting in his dream dojo. While Rei and Raccoon
healed Ranma/Ranko, Asuka and ole Shinji slaughtered the pursuers.
Shinji's rabbit-spiders doing the bulk of the work. The result of all that
dream interaction, Rit-chan had been trapped in Maya's dream, and the two
still hadn't fully reconciled over what happened or what Rit-chan saw
there. Also, waking up intertwined with Nab-chan and Raccoon, while being
Ranma, wasn't the best experience.
----------------------------------------
"Yes, the 27th of May was an . . . interesting day," Shinji admitted
as he watched Rei quietly directing Toji, she seemed uncertain about that,
so did Hikari. "The next day, the 28th wasn't much better starting out."
Rei had come to him in the dead of night, and assured him that she'd never
hurt him or the other pilots and left, then he and Megorofeld-chan had gone
to the battle in Ranma's dream and _he_ was the killer, not Rei-chan, she
was a healer. He still hadn't figured that out.
"Well, we ditched school, Pilot Ayanami and me. We went to meet the
orphans," he admitted embarrassedly, "See, pilots are well-paid and we can
get . . . stuff from the military: old blankets, clothes, a lot of stuff,
but sometimes they just want to . . . "
"Be around war heroes," Megorofeld-chan finished his thought. Megumi,
Hikari, and Sora all blushed. So did Shinji.
He'd listened to Megorofeld-chan's AT field talk, after she and Misato
had another fight. He didn't think he should mention that to non-pilots.
"Does anyone know where Ice Princess and Raccoon slipped off to?"
Megorofeld-chan asked.
"They rescued Jeff's friend Sarah from those assassins," Sammi
volunteered.
"The assassins were aimed at the pilots," Rei-chan added, almost as an
afterthought.
"Assassins?!" Sora asked, forgetting to supervise Ranma for the
moment.
"There have been numerous attempts on the pilots' lives. By human and
nonhuman assassins," Rei-chan commented, continuing to supervise Toji.
"You don't think we're just sitting around looking pretty do you?"
Sammi asked, posing cutely at the table.
Sora gulped.
Ranma abruptly sidestepped a kick to the ankles. "Um, you do that
fine," he managed. Megorofeld-chan just shook her head.
"Why Ranma-san, how very gallant of you," Sammi gushed.
Belldandy was looking around so fast, Shinji thought her head would
unscrew.
"I also requested basic cooking lessons from Roku-kun."
"Who's -?" Megumi began.
"Ranking member of 'Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow,' " Ranma
said, "'Langley' here couldn't pass the entrance exams."
"It sounds terrible," Megumi said, "He sounds terrible."
"Oh yes, awful, evil-mean-vicious-nasty and he's, oh he's,"
Megorofeld-chan searched for another inditement.
"He hates okonomiyaki!" Ranma added in horror, setting the knife aside
and covering his face. All the pilots gasped.
The other group just looked around.
"Pilots don't _go_ crazy when they encounter those Angels," Erin
explained.
'They already are/started crazy,' the other guards added.
"Volley fire present!" Megorofeld-chan commanded, the pilots turned to
face their guards. "Bweeh!" The pilots all stuck their tongues out at
their guards.
"Mein Grossfeldmarschall is a natural leader," Rei-chan said while the
non-pilots were giggling.
Shinji smiled, then he remembered the fight Asuka and Misato had that
day, how hurt she was. ~As if the Invincible Megorofeld-chan, SIR!, would
ever admit to mere human weakness,~ he thought. He'd left that night to
find Asuka, and Rei found him.
"You fought with Captain Katsuragi didn't you?" Hikari asked, "You
moved out because of that fight." She looked closely at Megorofeld-chan.
"Yeah," Megorofeld-chan admitted quietly, "She never decided if she
was our commander or our - well, there's a word for it in German, but no
equivalent in Japanese I know."
"You weren't the only one with fighting roommates," Ranma added,
"Rit-chan and Raccoon had a fight too, about Maya's dream."
"Yes, Raccoon showed up, Rei-chan and I spent the night at the base,"
Shinji added.
"What _are_ you talking about?" Megumi demanded.
"Internecine tensions," Rei-chan said, "The build up of friction and
pressure."
Megumi nodded, "I bet there was some explosion."
----------------------------------------
I Suspect His Taste In Higher Matters
Toji nodded. "There was an explosion all right." ~But not the way
you think,~ Toji thought about that night. The dreams he could understand,
after having them himself, why people might fight and argue. He'd seen
billions of Cthulhi attacking Ghroth as it approached. Only the Scholarly
Dragon survived, and sent word to Sour Kraut and Raccoon to warn them of
its approach, Toji _never_ wanted another dream like that again.
"And the scariest thing in the world," Shinji said ominously.
Toji didn't like how Shinji was looking at him. Not angry, just
strange.
"People trusting you completely. As if being a pilot gave us some
special wisdom, and you know you don't deserve it. That's worse than
finding a body - 50 meters off the ground clutching a loaded rifle in its
dead hands," Shinji said, "Just piloting an EVA doesn't give you super
powers, just more things to worry about." Shinji's eyes bored into his.
"Yeah, you mentioned that, before everything went crazy," Toji said,
gulping and turning away.
"Akagi-sensei believed the figure dead several days, but he could only
have died hours earlier," Rei-chan explained, "They encountered other
victims, but we first saw the mechanism."
"MECHANISM! Is that what you call someone dragged underground to
their death?!" Ranma shouted at Rei-chan.
"Easy Horseface," Sour Kraut soothed, "That _is_ the correct word for
it." She turned to the others. "One of the coaches got dragged under and
killed, and Ho - Pilot Saotome here couldn't save him."
"Was that before the school blew up on the 28th?" Sora asked.
"Same day," Toji said, "We didn't know _what_ we were fighting.
Except things kept blowing up, and the fog kept us isolated." He walked
out of the kitchen and took Hikari's hand when he saw her distress, she had
her own bad memories of that day.
"They are the Lliogor, sentient energy matrices who feed on emotional
turmoil," Rei said, "They were cultivating it."
"Fear?" Sora asked, preparations temporarily forgotten.
"Hysteria," Rei amended, "They attempted to drag Roku-kun down and
were nearly successful. We rescued him."
"Then Horseface sent him to build some flares," Sour Kraut joked.
"I was joking," Ranma countered.
"That proves your thinking is a joke, because only when you're joking
do you think," Sour Kraut told him.
"Those statements are not logically reconcilable," Rei said.
"When is Horseface logical?" Sour Kraut asked.
Rei considered, for a while. "Almost never."
"You sent him out there to check on them," Toji accused Sour Kraut.
"That's because he could."
"What, he has some gizmo to detect evil energy?" Toji asked.
"Application forms?" Rei asked.
Even Sour Kraut took a moment to make the connection. "No. Members
of the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow can't eat each other, it's in
the bylaws."
"They abide by their own bylaws?" Belldandy asked.
Toji was beginning to think the girl was as slow getting jokes as Rei
used to be.
"That's when I went crazy," Hikari admitted, drywashing her hands
nervously, "I thought something was burning me and eating me from inside."
She covered her face with her hands.
Sour Kraut hugged her, pushing Toji aside. "It was just a spell.
They used it on you. It has nothing to do with your actual sanity or
insanity. Just a spell to hurt you and scare others." Sour Kraut paused.
"Although knocking Raccoon on his arrogant butt _was_ funny," Sour Kraut
insisted. Hikari laughed at that.
"That's also when we saw them," Toji said darkly, "Like warped,
twisted dragons."
"I remember Rei-san hitting me," Hikari said, still laughing, she
massaged her jaw. "I should be glad my head is still attached."
"No anesthetic was available," Rei said as if it explained everything,
"Then I carried you inside."
----------------------------------------
"I watched Raccoon kill two of them, to let us escape, then while we
ran inside," Shinji said, "He ran for the fence."
"Yeah, he found a barrier all around the building," Ranma said. "What
were you doing all this time?" Ranma asked Sammi and the other guards
seated at the table.
"I was getting cleared, tested and briefed by the Navy," Sammi said.
Tomiyo, Juri and Erin nodded, that's what they were doing.
"We could have used you there," Ranma griped.
"The bomb-making team was sufficient," Rei said.
"BOMB MAKING -?" Sora stammered, "You really did blow up the school!"
She stepped back from the pilots.
"You should continue your preparations, you are falling behind. The
bombs were used on our opponents," Rei explained, "They worked well." Rei
paused, considered, "We did not know why on their first use. That use
necessitated a rescue. You should not distract her."
~Ya don't remember that tree blowing up and having to jump out a
window to rescue Raccoon,~ Ranma thought. "Ya practically set one of those
bombs on top of us and set it off," he accused, approached Rei.
"I knew you would not be injured," Rei replied, ignoring him, staring
at Toji.
"After you got back from putting Raccoon in the infirmity, the Army
arrived, finally, and got wiped out," Toji said, as he reentered the
kitchen.
"It _was_ only one tank," Asuka amended, "The potential fight between
Horseface and me was a lot more dangerous."
"I notice _you_ took Tendo-san's orders," Toji teased as he started
chopping again.
"If someone's orders make sense, and I don't have a better idea, I'll
follow them. Besides, who _else_ was going to plan our counterattack
besides me and Wondergirl?"
"Is that why you went after the medical supplies?" Shinji asked.
"It was that or let Ranko curl up with Raccoon to keep warm and from
going into shock."
Ranma blushed furiously at Asuka's gibe. They'd gotten the supplies
while Shinji and others were getting food and other stuff from the lower
floors.
"The Army did _finally_ arrive," Ranma said, "In force."
"With our Glorious Leader at the head," Asuka said, "All they found
out was they couldn't get past the barrier surrounding the school, and they
shouldn't stand still."
----------------------------------------
"Wait a second?" Megumi asked, "We've only seen four EVAs, and there
are six pilots . . . why isn't there a pilot standing by near an EVA at all
times? For just such emergencies?"
Asuka turned and smiled at Sammi, someone _else_ had brought up the
point she and Raccoon had each made several times.
"Why do two High School and a College Graduate have to repeat Junior
High?" Asuka sneered, "It's `appropriate` for children our age to attend
Junior High. Raccoon and I should be doing research on the EVAs,
developing new tactics and weapons."
"You don't like going to school?" Hikari asked from beside her.
~Terrific, a Ranma-moment,~ Asuka thought. "That isn't it. I could
_teach_ most of those classes - "
"Except Japanese," Horseface said, and tried to look innocent, Sora
directing him again.
Asuka decided a severe beating was inappropriate. "To give you an
example, Raccoon, our American pilot, has to attend English class, he's
more fluent - _Ice_Princess_ is more fluent than the teacher."
"That's nuts," Megumi said.
Asuka agreed.
"As nuts as Raccoon in a skirt?" Horseface asked, again trying and
failing to look innocent.
"It was a kilt," Wondergirl pointed out.
"And no more nuts than when those Lliogor-things finally decided they
couldn't make us despair, so they started blowing up the building piece by
piece? We started herding people to the roof."
"Nothing above to fall on them," Wondergirl added, almost
conversationally.
"Yes," Asuka replied tartly, "I think they figured that out."
"Hikari-san and Suzuhara-san had not," Wondergirl told her.
Asuka guessed Horseface hoped everyone would forget the `curse`
Raccoon had laid on him.
"What was that spell he cast anyway?" Curly asked.
Asuka sighed loudly. "It was a _JOKE_ Curly!" Asuka shouted, then
controlled herself. "With everyone whining 'Oh Woe Is US!', which is
_exactly_ what the enemy wanted, he waited until the South Dakota fired,
and `cast a spell`!"
"He didn't do that?" Horseface asked incredulously. He looked like he
thought Asuka was going to hurt him. Even Mouse chuckled at him.
Horseface frowned at that.
"If he could really do that, why would we need EVAs?" Asuka asked
sweetly, "Try using your brain for something other than an ear spacer."
She turned away, she could guess Horseface felt relief.
"I'm surrounded by idiots sometimes. Like our Glorious Commander
leading the armored charge and winding up with her best feature waving in
the air after the lead tank hit a ditch the Lliogor had dug. Even with the
magical barrier down, they _still_ couldn't rescue us."
"We had to rescue them," Spineless pointed out.
"You better believe _we_ had to rescue _them_!_" Asuka continued, "You
and Curly had to rescue our Glorious Commander. Spraying the whole grounds
with flamethrowers would have been a good start."
"They didn't have the flame tanks up," Curly told her, "They came
later."
"Yeah, instead we did our fire bomb trick with Rei and me as bait,"
Horseface complained, "After they led Misa-chan - "
"Our Glorious Commander," Wondergirl translated.
"Yeah, led her away and put her under guard, I've never seen her so
mad."
"I have," Spineless put in.
"You imprisoned your commanding officer?" Belldandy exclaimed, paused
in stirring the soup.
~Of course,~ Asuka thought.
"She acted irrationally," Wondergirl said.
"We'd discovered fire was the Lliogor's enemy, so we rigged the
explosives to become incendiaries," Asuka explained, "Our fast-running bait
put them on the most heavily armored parts of two wrecked tanks. Raccoon,
and Ice Princess's friend Hiroko Ayami, shot the bombs when most of the
Lliogor closed in. Boom. Then Horseface and Wondergirl scrambled inside,
a few more bombs finished off their wounded."
"You left them out there with live bombs?" Sora asked.
"We were inside the tanks," Wondergirl said.
~She sure is chatty,~ Asuka thought, ~Even if she is only clarifying
things.~
"That's when they blew up the building," Curly destroyed Asuka's
dramatic pause.
"No, the damaged gas mains did," Wondergirl corrected.
~Case in point,~ Asuka thought before she said, "That's the explosion.
We were scattered all over the grounds, some in one piece, others not. We
blew up the last ones - "
"And you got Raccoon buried," Horseface interjected.
"Who's telling this story?" Asuka retorted.
"We are," Wondergirl replied, "Jointly."
Asuka frowned. "We did dig him up, jointly."
----------------------------------------
Belldandy showed them the recipe for the shells for the potstickers.
Rei and Sora began instructing the boys in mixing and adding the
ingredients, after learning the difference between mixing, folding and
whipping.
"That was not the only explosion," Rei said, she regarded the battle
as ancillary to the real point of the narrative. "While the battle
occurred, the housing was rearranged. Captain Katsuragi lost custody of
Pilots Ikari and Langley, Akagi-sensei lost custody of Pilot Davis, and
gained custody of Pilot Ikari. Officer Kraznyzamok received custody of
Pilots Davis and Langley."
"That's a long sentence for you, Wondergirl," Mein Grossfeldmarschall
said as she leaned over the breakfast bar, "Do you need to lie down?"
Rei was going to say 'no', but since she was standing in from of the
tap. "A glass of water would be welcome." She enjoyed Mein
Grossfeldmarschall's frown, she didn't get nor expect a glass of water.
"Straitjackets were optional, but no owner's manual was included." She was
glad some of the people smiled at her attempt at humor. "That, I believe,
caused a greater explosion than the destruction of the school, a mere
building."
"The pilots received personal guards," Kraznyzamok-san said, "To
replace the more distant guard force that had been ineffective against the
Lliogor."
"Most were killed," Juri-san added.
Rei had heard about reaction to the move out. Mein Grossfeldmarschall
had told Shinji-kun 'Remember Spineless, cringe when confronted, any show
of strength will invite a confrontation.' Rei had considered it odd but
sound advice, but had she been warning about Nabiki-kun or the Fourth? She
also remembered Akagi-sensei's stoicism when the relocation was discussed.
She wondered if the older `woman` did reciprocate the feelings Roku-kun had
for her, even in part.
----------------------------------------
While he mixed the flour, eggs and water, Ranma thought Rei's gift for
understatement was working overtime. The _real_ explosion had occurred
after that. In the first part, Nab-chan had accused _him_ of practically
driving Raccoon out of the house, his home, second when she suggested he go
see him, she accused him of hiding behind Ranko to deal with Raccoon.
`Ranko's` visit to Raccoon in the hospital was another part, where
Ranma's certainty that Ranma and `Ranko` were ever and always the same
began to break down: Ranma and Ranko acted differently to Raccoon, just as
Nab-chan had accused him of.
Ritsuko's arrival complicated things, Ranma didn't remember the
scientist ever being that emotional. Raccoon explained his problems, and
why he was leaving, or not fighting the move, he needed time to sort things
out. Ranko had been both glad and angry at the time she had to consider
and the abandonment. Ranma would have been glad to get this scary guy out
of the house, Ranko missed him. _Ranko_ had discussed this with Rit-chan
as they walked back, even Rit-chan needed to sort things out.
~That was a shock,~ Ranma realized, ~I'd never considered what it
would mean to her, and why she seemed almost as messed up about it as I was
over the whole Ranma/Ranko thing. She's an adult and a scientist,
shouldn't she understand these things?~
----------------------------------------
Asuka watched the boys roll out the dough they'd made, considered her
plan and considered that Wondergirl had totally mastered the British art of
understatement. The explosion at the school _was_ a sideshow. The real
battle began when she visited Raccoon. She didn't understand all the
hoopla about the move, considering the number of times she'd had to move.
But she did berate Raccoon for his reckless disregard of his own life and
not acting on his feelings for Ritsuko and to Hell with what anyone else
thought. She'd also visited Hikari where she was incarcerated. She'd told
Raccoon how sick she was of Japan.
They discussed rescuing Hikari and their being together in the
Dreamlands, rescuing each other, supporting each other. They discussed his
relationship with Ranko, and how Ranko seemed to be advancing it. Asuka
wondered if Horseface even noticed.
~I should have _known_ Raccoon would have a surprise up his sleeve,~
Asuka thought, ~I guess I was only surprised by _what_ he was planning, not
that he had a surprise.~
"Anyway, everyone was rearranged, things went smoothly." She watched
the boys fill the shells with vegetables. "Let's getting cooking ladies."
----------------------------------------
Not A Dinner To Ask A Man To
"Not hardly," Ranma continued as he greased the cookie sheets while
Toji set the oven.
Shinji expected an explosion about the 'ladies' crack, or
Megorofeld-chan being interrupted, he got neither. Same as cringing at
Ranma disarmed the other boy's aggressive nature. ~Soon, _he_ was afraid
of talking to _me_,~ Shinji thought, ~What Tendo-san said about the IQ
tests and the bios she'd real was interesting. Virtually nothing on
Rei-chan. Ranma's IQ higher than Raccoon's, it all disturbed her. Like
Megorofeld-chan visiting my dreamscape and seeing me sitting on the front
of the locomotive and Rei-chan as the engineer. She wasn't expecting that,
and _that_ scared her.~
"I have to agree," Sammi said, "I had to go out that night." She
lowered her voice and leaned forward. "Something was creeping up on the
cultists who'd brought and supported the Lliogor." She had everyone's
attention, Shinji thought they were being set up. "I watched the sniper
shoot the heads off two of the cultists, mages, the leaders it turns out.
Then the sniper retreated in a very professional manner. I finally
cornered it, took a rifle, a pistol and a knife away in rapid order, even
fended off a knee to the groin and a thumb to each eye."
Shinji squirmed at that. ~What kind of monster was she fighting, and
why does Megorofeld-chan look like she knows?~
"I'm so proud of Jeff, being so vicious is sooo cute!" Sammi declared
while hugging herself tightly. Sammi looked at her utterly stunned
audience, Shinji saw only Megorofeld-chan wasn't horrified, she was
ruefully shaking her head. "Well he didn't know who I was, he thought he
was fighting for his life," Sammi amended as she pouted and sat back,
probably because nobody agreed with her.
"Thusly proving our guards are shining beacons of sanity, each and
every one," Megorofeld-chan said smugly.
"They're all complete loons," Ranma `translated` as he slid the loaded
cookie sheets into the oven.
"You are what you eat," Rei-chan said. Everyone stared at her. He
understood what she meant, maybe the only one.
"I do remember meeting all our guards," Shinji said to change the
subject, "Why was Tendo-san so nervous about Tomiyo-san?"
"Same name, same kanji, and the name Tendo isn't that common," Tomiyo
explained, "Nor is an intense interest in martial arts. It was probably
jarring for her."
"Isn't martial arts illegal," Megumi asked, "Because of the Peace
treaty?"
"Illegal -?!" Ranma stammered.
~He didn't know?!~ Shinji wondered.
"Yes and no," Juri-san said, "The law prevents the teaching of martial
arts to Japanese, and in Japan. Technically all the pilots are wards of
the U.S. Government and they are sort of in the U.S. Navy. It's
complicated, but common sense broke out regarding the pilots."
"Lucky you're a pilot, Ranma, or you'd be behind bars, or they would
shoot you," Toji said as they waited in the kitchen.
"They don't have a cannon he'd fit in," Megorofeld-chan said, "School
was weird the next day, more weird than usual."
"The school that morning was a lot of tents on the grounds," Toji
said, "Someone blows up the school and we don't even get a day off. Of
course a lot of people had pulled their kids out."
"Do you want to tell them who taught the classes?" Megorofeld-chan
asked. Shinji knew from her tone that Toji better say 'yes.'
"You and Raccoon." Toji mumbled.
"And?" Megorofeld-chan said cheerfully, smiled triumphantly.
"Okay, you did better than the regular teachers," Toji said, as if
admitting a painful secret.
"That isn't sayin' much," Ranma amended. Shinji thought he'd actually
done it on purpose.
"Are you saying we weren't the best teachers that class ever had?"
Megorofeld-chan said as she glowered, marched into the kitchen.
"THE - WORST - LANGLEY -!" Ranma, the soon-to-be corpse, replied,
facing Megorofeld-chan, "I couldn't sleep a wink."
Belldandy helped Megorofeld-chan up off the floor.
----------------------------------------
"All that in three days?!" Megumi seemed incredulous, "And what's all
this about kids, sorry, doing all this. No 14-year-old could know all that
stuff."
"Dreams," Sour Kraut said, divesting herself of Belldandy, "There are
other levels of existence humans touch when they dream. I've been dreaming
that way since I was four, I can remember decades of experiences. Combat,
people, tactics and strategies, so it's like I'm about 40 with patchy
memories."
Toji suspected there was more to it.
"Case in point, Hikari was still held by the spell, so we had to go
after her. Not in the physical world, but in the realms of the mind and
soul. We had Hor- Pilots Saotome and Tendo as our guards, while Spi -
Pilot Ikari, Ayanami and Davis, Curly here and me went after her."
"How did you do that?" Belldandy asked her first real question in a
while.
"Shaman stuff," Toji said, "Amerind, fringed leather jacket with bones
and nuts and knots tied in the fringes."
"Bones and nuts? A shaman, like a Shinto priest?" Megumi asked.
"His token - "
"_Totem_!" Sour Kraut interrupted Toji, "Totem - animal is a spanner.
And don't ask, it works."
"Anyway," Toji said as he glanced at Hikari, he looked away
embarrassed. "We appeared . . . somewhere else, all the pilots seemed to
step out of the bodies we had there and became, something else. Raccoon
became a winged serpent, Sour Kraut became a knight, Shinji didn't change
much, Ayanami-san became an Angel, a real one."
Sour Kraut helped Belldandy to her feet.
"An Angel? A real servant of the Lord?" Belldandy asked desperately,
right in Toji's face.
~Maybe she's religious or somethin',~ Toji thought as he backed away.
"Yeah, white so pure you couldn't look at it," Toji explained, "You really
felt kinda scared and unworthy. What do all those Christmas Angels always
say? 'Be not Afraid!' or somethin'. Well if Ayanami-san showed up like
that, she'd definitely have to say that." Toji paused, considered how far
he could go. "Well, Raccoon and Sour Kraut went one way to attack the
spell, while Ayanami-san, Shinji and I went after the Class rep,
Hikari-san. We found her . . . then we retreated across some really weird
territory, even through a wall of fire. Then Ayanami-san told us to run,
and we had to. Lights flashing on and off, somehow I _had_ to outrun
Shinji, I had to."
"Pilots Davis and Langley were locked in a death struggle with the
spell the Lliogor had cast. The battle would have consumed us,"
Ayanami-san explained.
"The spell was _that_ powerful, Ayanami-san?" Hikari asked.
"The pilots are that powerful," Ayanami-san answered. That put a
damper on things for a while.
"But we got her out," Toji said, "And the guards all acted as if it
happened in an instant."
"It did," Ranma said, "You nodded off, then the fire went out and you
all woke up."
"They're both right," Sour Kraut said, "It did take hours, and it was
all over in an instant, that's the nature of dreams."
"The strong are not necessarily strong in dreams, and the opposite is
also true," Ayanami-san added as she put on tea while everyone waited.
----------------------------------------
Sammi watched the interaction. ~Power, like the cults Ramsey found
out about that day,~ Sammi thought. The knowledge had been kept from the
pilots. ~But if those two tapped into it, even unconsciously, we don't
know the upper limit of what they could become.~
"After you checked on Hokari Hikari-san, you went home," Sammi said,
"You still weren't sure of me Asuka."
"I'm still not. Anyone who would put up with Horseface and keep
smiling isn't human." Asuka turned to face her.
"He seems very nice," Belldandy said with a smile.
"An ALIEN!" Asuka shrieked, "She can't be human!" Asuka rushed into
the Kitchen and dragged Sora and Megumi away from the stricken girl. "Have
you heard or seen or been around when something weird or inexplicable
happened? Anything? It may mean the difference between life and death of
the entire civilized world! Don't worry Horseface, you aren't included."
"She's an Angel," Rei said, staring at the girl, "Of the type 'Friend
of Man', a goddess of the First Order."
Belldandy looked at the shocked faces around her in panic. Sammi knew
the girl was a little strange, but felt sorry for her.
"We have to get the EVAs!" Shinji exclaimed, in a good Asuka
impersonation, one fist on his hip, the other in the air.
"They will have no effect," Rei said as she advanced step by
deliberate step to reach the refrigerator, "We will have to eat her here."
Rei pulled a bottle of ketchup from the fridge. "Mein Grossfeldmarschall
will lead the attack." Rei removed another jar. "We have German mustard."
Erin cracked first, laughing at the elaborate set up. "They aren't
going to kill and eat you, Belldandy. So much weird stuff happens, there
has to be a release," Erin managed between gasps.
"So that's why you keep putting off the story," Sora realized, clearly
glad she wouldn't have to rush to physically defend her friend. Belldandy
still looked anguished, she clearly wasn't used to the rough and tumble
humor of the pilots.
"Tension must be relieved," Rei said, apparently considering pouring
some ketchup on Belldandy's hand, then replaced both bottles in the fridge.
"You had me _so_ scared!" Hikari stammered.
"Not as scary as Asuka is in the morning," Sammi said, "Such a
disposition."
Asuka stuck out her tongue at Sammi.
"We even went to the trouble of preparing her favorite breakfast, and
she was still a grouch."
"Until you told me about it!" Asuka protested.
"The Great Asuka Soryu Langley is supposed to know these things,"
Sammi replied, "Angles whisper them into her ears at night. That's why she
likes math so much. Acute angles, obtuse angles don't know anything."
Asuka didn't even bother to glare at her.
"You have failed," Rei told Belldandy and walked away. "She refused
to help Nabiki-kun plan for a candle-lit dinner with Pilot Saotome."
"I was scheduled for a sync test," Asuka replied, "What happened to
the 'duty is all' you usually spout."
"You could have prevailed on your friend to reschedule. It was left
to Roku-kun and myself to rescue her. They will strip you of your
knighthood, for failing to rescue a maiden in peril. For failing to
support Romantic Love."
Asuka glared at Rei who seemed completely unperturbed.
"Oh woes is me!" Hikari said, "My friend betrayed True Love!" She ran
to Toji and put her head on his shoulder. There was only one person more
confused than Toji and Belldandy.
"What are you guys talking about?" Ranma stammered, "Nab-chan's nice
and all -"
"Oh, he doesn't know how she pines for him," Asuka said, taking the
spotlight back for herself. "How truly Romantic!" Asuka swooned
theatrically, both Shinji and Sora stepped aside, Rei caught Asuka.
"I prefer Shinji-kun, although you are very beautiful." Rei drew
Asuka close for a kiss.
Asuka scrambled to get out of the kitchen and way from Rei. Sammi
noted that Belldandy's gaze rarely left Rei, and Rei seemed as if she was
deliberately trying to pick a fight, doing things specifically to irritate
Belldandy, although nearly everyone else missed them, or took them as
jokes. ~Something to look into,~ Sammi mentally added to her already long
list.
"Now we can start telling you about the actual contest," Sammi said.
At the morning meeting that day, they thought the kids were calming down,
not realizing it was the calm before the storm, or that the storm was
carefully planned.
"Pilots Davis and Langley had a confrontation over the quality of
Pilot Davis's cooking," Rei said as she added the tea bags to the boiling
water, Belldandy didn't correct her.
"They solved it by challenging each other to a contest with the NERV
staff as judges," Toji added, "Scared the rest of us, we thought there was
going to be a fight."
"Pilots Saotome and Tendo could have restrained them," Rei replied.
"You're leaving out that you agreed to be the adjudicator," Asuka
pointed out.
"It was not a central theme," Rei replied, "Initially."
"The heck it wasn't," Ranma argued, "You looked like you were going to
faint when he asked, and again when Asuka agreed."
"Then the rules," Hikari said, "Each Pilot picked two assistants, then
the opponent picked the third assistant." Hikari snickered. "Both
Ranma-san and Toji-san were chosen."
"As the third," Asuka interpreted.
"You believed you were doomed," Rei said, "You had not realized
Roku-kun had another motive." She opened the cabinet with the tea cups and
saucers, and pointed at Toji.
"Oh yes I did, when we went to Misato's to determine the ingredients,
he practicality admitted it," Asuka replied, turned away.
Sammi knew how broken up Asuka had been when she returned to the
apartment, and how Jeff comforted her. Then they had gone to the roof to
practice fighting, she'd known that Rei and Ranma had watched Asuka and
Jeff for some time. Asuka had been laughing when they returned to wash up
and go to bed.
"The next day, they were in Asuka's room, thick as thieves, working on
some project. Better you ask, I didn't understand half of what they were
saying. So I don't know," Sammi told them, she did know it had something
to do with AT fields and Asuka was blushing at the mere mention of it, and
at Sammi being enthused about their cooperation.
----------------------------------------
"I remember the next day," Hikari began, as she helped pass out the
tea cups and saucers, "That sinkhole that opened up. The Lliogor riddled
the campus with holes." She shuddered. "One tried to swallow a girl.
Ranma's sister Ranko caught her, but couldn't pull her back out. So
Raccoon unwound the handgrip of his cane as a rope and the rest of us
pulled on it to lower Ayanami-san to try to pick up the pair. We couldn't
lift high enough, so Tendo-san sent Raccoon across the field to help, while
all the people holding the rope dragged them out sideways. It was like a
tug-of-war, except we were moving up-and-down, then side-to-side to rescue
her. Once she was safe, Kraznyzamok-san ordered _everyone_ off the
grounds." Hikari shook her head, trying to forget the girl's scream. As
bad as the Lliogor attack had been, it was worse thinking the things had
suddenly returned. "The school was closed that day."
"The campus was to be their forward base," Ayanami-san added, "Also
Ibuki Maya agreed to participate in the contest and the location was set at
the NERV banquet kitchens."
Hikari was glad Ayanami-san had broken the dark mood, but she thought
Ayanami-san was leaving something out. She wasn't sure what it was. ~It's
a NERV secret,~ she thought.
----------------------------------------
Ranma considered the rest of that week, ~More testing, then on the
4th, Raccoon showing Ranko the shapechanging powers that I'd taken from
Nyogtha.~ He was still nervous about how happy `Ranko` was about spending
time with Raccoon. ~Ranko went from enjoying spending time with Raccoon to
passing out because I am a monster, then I nearly squeezed the life out of
Rit-chan when I realized I was loved, despite being a monster,~ Ranma
remembered, ~Then I hugged Raccoon while he and Rit-chan explained about
the powers the pilots were developing, and that Raccoon actually went
looking for them.~
~It's embarrassing,~ Ranma thought, ~Acting like that, worse, they
never made a big deal out of it.~
~And how shocked Ranko was when Raccoon told her that Rit-chan thought
she was a monster herself~ Ranma thought, ~And I denied it.~
"As for weird, dreams, on the 5th I got turned into a mini-Unit 04 and
had to fight a dragon, a big, nasty, scary dragon. I lost. A bunch of
times."
"Did it . . . eat you?" Megumi asked and gulped.
"No, it would have been too merciful, it just humiliated me for a few
hours." He accepted the tea pot from Rei, who followed him out of the
kitchen with a tray of sugar and milk.
"Good training though," Asuka said neutrally, letting him pour.
"Getting humiliated?" Ranma asked sarcastically as he poured for the
others, "Yeah, _great_ training. Better than the Search and Rescue
training Raccoon and Nab-chan were going through. All that time in the
water, cold water, deep. The range-of-motion tests are better. How far
can you bend on your own, how far can you bend without screaming in pain."
Ranma stopped, considered, a glance to Sammi, who nodded, told him he
could tell the rest. "They graduated the next day, June 6th, I don't know
if Rit-chan was the most nervous, or somebody else I won't mention."
"I was jealous, not nervous, after all, deep diving is a useful
skill," Asuka protested.
"How deep?" Megumi asked as she accepted the tea.
"About 100 meters," Ranma said, "I think, I never figured out meters
to feet, but the tank is taller than this building."
The girl paled. "You could die from that."
"Yep," Ranma agreed.
----------------------------------------
No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
~That is not all they nearly died of,~ Rei thought as she poured milk
and spooned sugar for the others, ~Healing your injuries from the escape
into your dream dojo also severely injured Raccoon.~ Rei had located the
Scholarly Dragon supervising the recovery process, then she'd found _all_
the Reis waiting in her dreamscape to add their strength to the healing.
~I had never realized `we` were so powerful working in concert,~ she
thought, ~Why are the other pilots so endlessly fascinating, but each other
could be disregarded?~ she wondered.
"The actual contest was June 7th. Roku-kun had already revealed that
cooking for many isn't like cooking for a few."
"We know that, right Belldandy, Sora?" Megumi asked and got answering
nods.
"Pilot Saotome's speed was one advantage for Roku-kun, better
understanding of time management was the other." Rei and the Fourth
returned to the kitchen to make more tea.
"What she's trying to say is while I was running around trying to get
things done, he had a schedule he was calmly following. Experience and
preparation rather than superior, natural talent. Even a yellow alert
which cost him Maya didn't derail him, he smoothly redirected the effort
and kept going," Mein Grossfeldmarschall said.
"The contest was the day that giant spider attacked?" Megumi asked.
"The hour of the spider," Rei answered.
"I hate spiders," Sora said, shivered, gulped her tea.
"One as large as an EVA is frightening," Rei agreed.
"So all the regular pilots went racing for our EVAs while Raccoon and
his team stayed behind," Mein Grossfeldmarschall complained.
"His `team` was only Natsumi Matsuda," Shinji-kun pointed out.
"He came over and got me and Hikari better organized," Toji noted, "He
didn't actually threaten us."
"He was very polite," Hikari agreed went to help Rei make the tea.
"He just kept making reasonable suggestions . . . and smiling. You'd
do anything so he'd quit smiling at you," Toji said.
Mein Grossfeldmarschall was glaring at the floor. "Did he suggest any
changes to my recipe?" Mein Grossfeldmarschall asked.
"Only - the order we did things," Hikari said and began examining the
floor.
"Doesn't anyone want to hear how we killed the spider?" the Fourth
asked.
"No," Rei told him as she began heating the water, "The fight was
trivial," she amplified. She noted the Fourth's disappointment, that too
was trivial. "Pilot Langley did believe she had utterly failed due to the
Angel," Rei said.
"Nothing we said could make her feel better," Shinji-kun added.
"I did note the ease she felt with Roku-kun during decontamination,"
Rei said, stared at Mein Grossfeldmarschall, who was squirming.
"We're old friends."
"You are more," Rei corrected Mein Grossfeldmarschall. She watched
for the other girl's reaction, and was amazed that she retreated rather
than counterattacked. "Her `old friend` would not allow her to fail
utterly," Rei explained while Hikari dug out a second, larger kettle.
"Yeah, all that complaining, and she won," the Fourth said.
"He threw the contest, Horseface!" Mein Grossfeldmarschall shouted
angrily, "He made sure _I'd_ won, and only our teams would know."
"Why would he set the whole thing up, only to intentionally lose?" the
Fourth asked, clearly not understanding.
"Because the contest was one of humanity," Rei said. Neither the
Fourth nor Belldandy understood.
"He wanted everyone to have some fun," Yumiwashi said brightly, "Some
entertainment, and to get people together." She stared at Toji and Hikari,
who looked away.
"He won what he was after," Rei said.
Hikari prevented her from putting the tea bags in the boiling water,
pouring the water on the bags in a separate pot. "Like that," she
suggested.
"It was all an excuse to have a party after all the bad things,"
Megumi said as she put it together, "I thought you said he was evil?"
"I don't understand why you didn't tell the others," Mein
Grossfeldmarschall accused Hikari.
"He said he'd make my sister into soup if I did," Toji admitted, "You
know, I believe him."
"He told me all my daughters would act like Ranma." Hikari covered
her face at the horror of the threat. "Such a terrible fate for poor
innocent girls."
"But why not be honest?" Belldandy asked.
"A battle joined is not a party," Rei told her, without illuminating
her at all.
"Say Wondergirl, why didn't _you_ say something," Mein
Grossfeldmarschall accused, "You can't lie."
"He bribed me," Rei said and thoroughly enjoyed the shocked look on
Mein Grossfeldmarschall and Belldandy's faces, "Delicious noodles."
"You lied for noodles?"
"Delicious noodles," Rei reminded Mein Grossfeldmarschall, "He asked
me to consider I did not understand what was happening. On July 15th I
under - I fully understood, and felt silence served better." She watched
Mein Grossfeldmarschall back away.
"So things quieted down after that?" Yumiwashi asked.
"Not hardly," Shinji-kun said. Rei watched as each pilot recalled
Hiroko discovery of the Fourth's transformation.
----------------------------------------
Erin remembered that Ramsey had met with all the cult leaders the
following morning, and they had warned him about a possible threat to Units
05-09, that warning resulted in a security upgrade.
"We worked on school stuff the next day," Toji said, now he was
helping Rei serve the tea, "Hiroko was with us, and Kensuke."
"Hiroko is one of your classmates?"
"Was," Rei said.
Sora looked away, bowed. "I didn't realize."
"Wondergirl was going to eat her, with enough ketchup," Asuka said.
"We needed a psychiatrist more," Rei said.
"She wanted to study psychology," Asuka explained, accepting a refill.
"Why?" Megumi asked.
"Why do you want to study automotive engineering?" Asuka asked
pointedly, "Without a major change, you aren't going to Detroit to work.
It may be a decade before Europe is working again, compared to those two,
Japan's car industry may never amount to much. Everyone has impossible
dreams. Even your brother's girlfriend. Without your parents' approval,
she'll never marry him. Has she even _met_ your parents?"
Megumi shook her head. Belldandy looked stricken, refused tea.
"See, impossible," Asuka said, "But that doesn't mean you give up."
That seemed to calm the other girls down.
"You just have to be persistent, a way will present itself," Asuka
added, "If you are prepared for it, victory will result."
----------------------------------------
~Like us finally getting some answers from Raccoon,~ Ranma thought,
~After 36 hours simulated locked in an entry plug filled with jet noise,
and a massage from Ranko and Nab-chan, he told us a lot. Especially why
Raccoon hated Ranma: for Ranma's treatment of Ranko.~ Ranma considered the
exchange with some amazement, that normally subtle Nab-chan had nearly
messed it up. ~Ranko made him promise not to hurt Ranma, as a favor to
her,~ Ranma thought, ~Weird.~
They had discussed the Scholarly Dragon and SEELE. ~And most
important,~ he thought, ~That other humans are the real enemy. And the
monsters didn't even care about humans as individuals or as a species.~
"After all, on the 9th the sonic glaives, a weapon I helped design,
arrived," Asuka told them, "A German girl designing weapons for the United
States Navy."
"Sometimes plans don't work out," Ranma countered. ~Like my plan to
reveal the change to Raccoon, except Raccoon lost his glasses and couldn't
see,~ Ranma thought, ~Should I mention the poker game and Rei asking about
how to cheat at poker?~ His ankle began to hurt in anticipation, so he
kept quiet. "We did study psychology and mathematics," he offered, and
watched both Hikari and Toji nearly choke and drop the tea.
Ranma thought Rei was again frightened by having so many people over,
as much as she enjoyed it. ~Weird,~ he thought, ~Almost as weird as
Nab-chan and Hiroko after everyone else went home and Raccoon started the
English drills with Ranko. How easy he made it, after all the failed
effort Rit-chan and Nab-chan took. I really don't know why Nab-chan
screamed 'I am not jealous!' Why would Raccoon being a better teacher make
her jealous?~ Ranma wondered, ~Of course Nab-chan dousing me with boiling
oil wasn't fun, but it _did_ get Raccoon to admit he knew about the
transformation and the `curse` was attracting water, and that part he'd
neutralized. And he _still_ insisted Ranko and Ranma were different
people. Really weird, but I guess he has a point, at least he treats them
. . . us . . . me differently. It's also nice having a private joke nobody
else gets. Teasing Nab-chan that night about the scalding was pretty fun.~
"Sometimes you have to know what you want," Ranma said, remembering
Rit-chan's talk about why Nab-chan acted the way she did, that she wants
Ranma but feels she doesn't deserve him.
----------------------------------------
"Thank you Horseface for making absolutely no sense," Asuka said, "At
least you aren't being insulting, I think."
"So assassination attempts are common?" Yumiwashi asked.
"The pilots are the first line of defense," Asuka explained, then
changed the subject, "The day we tested the sonic glaives - "
"The day I beat you with your own invention?" Horseface asked.
Unfortunately her tea cup was empty.
"I liked you better incoherent, on June 11th we all had a rough time.
The attackers this time were people who could be tigers or people or
something in-between." Asuka noted Horseface's shiver.
"Gunfire proved effective," Wondergirl assured the others, "Special
arms."
"Oh," Megumi said, "Special NERV weapons?"
"In a manner of speaking," Erin said, "Standard ammo in a BAR had
little effect, special pistols with ammo took only two shots to kill them."
Asuka nodded, she still wondered about the strange phone call that
sent her charging to the defense of Wondergirl and the gunfight she,
Wondergirl and Erin engaged in. ~With Wondergirl somehow keeping track of
Raccoon and Horseface's battle across town,~ Asuka remembered, ~How she did
that . . . I wish I knew.~
She glanced at Horseface again, he was still shaken up by the events
that day. "Considering his attackers, and his and Raccoon's `rescuer,"
Asuka said under her breath, "I wouldn't expect otherwise." She'd heard
the rumors of a giant saber-toothed tiger who carried both boys to
temporary safety on the roof, then disappeared without a trace. The phone
call worried her even more, ~Mysterious strangers, allies or enemies or
worse?~ she wondered, ~As bad as Misato's dreams of self-torture. What a
sick bunch we're stuck with.~
"There is no truth to that rumor," Sammi said.
Asuka wondered what she'd missed.
"I did help Dr. Akagi kill that tiger, although the part about her
ripping its spine out with her bare hands . . . well, that's a caring
mother for you."
Asuka wondered who was paler, Wondergirl naturally, or the other girls
who'd heard that story for the first time.
"B - b- bu - bu - but nothing human could tear a tiger apart with its
bare hands!" Megumi insisted, glanced at Little Miss Happy.
"An angry mother could, I watched her," Sammi said, as she finished
her tea, "Tomiyo smeared one all over the concrete with a regular shotgun,
and it kept moving, although not very well. A helicopter with a machinegun
loaded with special ammo finished off the creatures," Sammi concluded.
"Could we be attacked here?" Mouse squeaked, looking around
desperately.
"You could be attacked anywhere," Tomiyo said, "But the people most
able to defend you are assembled in this room. A direct attack would be
suicide."
~Yes, _that_ settled the girl,~ Asuka thought, ~She's smart enough to
know if somebody knocked the whole building down where she'd be: mixed in
with the rubble. We weren't so sure we were safe, I barricaded the door,
had another pistol loaded and ready and jumped at every sound. Wondergirl
camped on top of Spineless's roof at Ritsuko's apartment, Raccoon and Sammi
killed one outside our door and called in an airstrike on the remainder,
then Raccoon had to shoot the corpses in the head, but that's just
Raccoon.~
"Of course before we went home, Spineless, I'm sorry, Pilot Ikari,
actually confronted his father and Admiral Simson, about returning to the
job of looking after our Glorious Leader," Asuka said. ~Although it took
Wondergirl and me backing him up before he did it rather than turn and
run.~ Asuka chuckled at that and glanced at Spineless, who'd moved to
Wondergirl's side, she handed him a tea cup and they exchanged a glance.
~Robot Love, how touching,~ Asuka thought disgustedly.
----------------------------------------
Ranma shivered again at the memory of the 11th and 12th. The
attackers had been bad enough. The talk with Raccoon about what happened,
about Ranma/Ranko and the cat all fighting for dominance until Raccoon went
down, then collapsing on the roof after Ranko licked his hands and face
clean of blood . . . . He'd wanted to talk, but Raccoon was too worried
about being alone with Ranma, more than Raccoon had been about the ti -
attackers.
~I nearly lost it when he suggested that _Ranko_ likes Rei. That
would make anyone faint,~ Ranma thought defensively. Although only he and
Raccoon knew about the incident. ~Then Raccoon explained Ranko liked being
around other people,~ Ranma thought as he glanced around the mainly female
group and how most of them were interacting, ~Except Rei and Belldandy,
I've seen people fight who weren't as hostile as those two.~
Ranma denied any crush on Rei, and accidentally admitted Ranko's crush
on Nab-chan and Raccoon. Then Raccoon had explained that Ranma hadn't
moved forward because he didn't trust Ranko or the neko, that he needed to
find a new balance, that Ranma was acting appropriate to the people of
Raccoon's dream, not the current reality. ~Nobody's trying to possess
_RANMA_ to beat anyone else, they look at me,~ Ranma thought, glanced
around again, ~Like or hate me, they look at the person.~ Ranma openly
looked around, examining each person. Sammi was his guard, but also his
friend. Shinji was neutral, but backed him up in the EVA. Rei hated him,
but had sacrificed to protect him. Asuka had ordered him to `attend`, and
he had. ~Maybe I do prefer to be ordered around, that I am scared of
taking control of my life, being completely responsible for everything,
good and bad, that happens. It's easier to let someone else have that
responsibility,~ he thought, ~But it's hardly the attitude of a martial
artist, _we're_ supposed to be in control of ourselves.~ He also
remembered Asuka's comment that she'd follow orders that made sense when
she didn't have a better plan, he glanced at her. ~But did any martial
artist ever run into anyone like _her_?_~ he asked himself, ~But if Raccoon
could control minds, why doesn't he chose for us, instead of laying out the
choices and the realistic consequences, including those of not making a
choice, and let the others decide,~ Ranma thought, still frightened of the
limitless possibilities available to him.
"Yeah," Ranma told Sora, "It's a pilot's job to rescue people."
~Sometimes from themselves,~ he didn't add aloud. He remembered
finally putting together what he'd done as a tiger, and getting violently
sick, Nab-chan had tried to help.
----------------------------------------
I Have Eaten Your Bread And Salt
Shinji took Rei's hand, she smiled shyly and released his quickly, as
if one of the others would catch them.
"Sometimes you really have to know what you want to do," Shinji said,
after the attack Ranma had asked him what he wanted. He still thought he
had what he wanted, why should he worry much about a future that might
never come. ~We could be dead tomorrow,~ he thought, then smiled at Rei
again, she'd stayed atop the apartment until the morning of the 12th,
guarding him, and the others. She mentioned she'd gotten the blanket he'd
found her wrapped in, from Raccoon, when he, Sammi and Hiroko had arrived.
"Safe isn't always safe," Shinji said, "Hiroko tried to help, the look
after us . . . " He couldn't finish.
"She was Nabiki-kun's friend and assistant," Rei took up the story,
"She even asked to be one with us."
"A pilot," Megorofeld-chan amended, "And you tried to talk her out of
it."
"I did," Rei replied, "Pilots are for killing and dying." She looked
straight at Belldandy. "A truly merciful Heaven would have found another
way."
Shinji wondered why Belldandy blanched and turned away, almost like
she was embarrassed. He thought about how embarrassed Tendo-san and
Hiroko-san had been when Ranma had suggested they practice together, and
with them laughing at everything. The whole practice degenerated, until
Rei-chan and Akagi-sensei used Sammi and Tomiyo-san as an example of
'Rei-fu', pick up your enemy and throw them at other enemies. It had felt
good to just laugh at everyone, except Ranma, being silly. Later Sammi
took Ranma aside to talk with him while he'd told Akagi-sensei that he was
moving back to Misato-san's. Akagi-sensei wailed in distress, and even
Rei-chan continued the joke, the ketchup joke came up again. Rei-chan said
something to Akagi-sensei and Hiroko-san before she went to his room to
help pack.
----------------------------------------
Rei had conversed with Hiroko-san on the rooftop, she had been
ineffective, she had enlisted Akagi-sensei to convince Hiroko-san she did
not want to be a pilot. Then she found she could not assist with the
packing, the memories attached to whatever she handled intruded. Whatever
she touched, she remembered good and bad things that included her,
Shinji-kun and the item. It had embarrassed and frustrated her that she
couldn't put such thoughts aside as she normally could. She could not
continue, so she escorted the Fourth into the bathroom to remind him his
job was to survive, fight, and if he had the means to ensure the others do
as well, he should employ or distribute them. She was furious each time he
seemed to put _his_ honor above his life and the lives of the other pilots.
~He has no right to sentence the world to death to avoid personal
discomfort,~ she thought angrily, feeling the riptide of anger over the
Fourth's arrogance. The Commander's plan was to enable the survival of the
human race, what would matter the deaths of a few volunteers? ~If he
wishes honor, death in the Last Battle would provide it in vast amounts,~
she thought.
"Did you like the job we did?" Mein Grossfeldmarschall asked, "At your
apartment?"
"Yes, thank you," Rei said.
"Clean up after the battle," Mein Grossfeldmarschall explained, "We
had to take off some of the concrete to get all the stains up."
"Stains?" Sora asked, "Not blood - "
Mein Grossfeldmarschall simply nodded.
"What did you use?" Megumi asked.
"Something Raccoon mixed up. It _stank_, even with a gas mask you
could still smell it. I nearly passed out." Mein Grossfeldmarschall shook
her head.
"Mathematics did the same," Rei commented. The pilots laughed,
remembering the `lampshades` that were the 3-D representations of the AT
field mathematics.
"Hey! I didn't - "
"You did," Rei interrupted the Fourth, he still irritated her. "You
overexerted and lost consciousness."
"I'm surprised Curly hasn't thought himself into a coma," Mein
Grossfeldmarschall joked, "I guess I shouldn't have pushed, it's a muscle
he so seldom uses, except to break boards with his head."
"That would have been useful with the loading and unloading,"
Shinji-kun said, "I moved back to Misato-san's that day."
"He's a finally tuned fighting machine," Toji-san said, "You can't
expect a perfect weapon to stoop to moving furniture like a mere mortal."
"I did," Rei replied.
"But you're designed for work too," Mein Grossfeldmarschall said,
"He's just designed to fight and look pretty."
"None would accuse me of that," Rei said, caught her fellow pilot, "Do
not hate me because I am beautiful, find a better reason."
"Anyway," Mein Grossfeldmarschall said as she disentangled herself and
retreated, "She was hauling boxes and furniture around like they weighed
nothing, that's why we call her Wondergirl."
"You call me Wondergirl as an insult, Mein Grossfeldmarschall," Rei
said, "As you call Spineless, Horseface, Ice Princess, Raccoon and Curly.
Are you jealous of his beauty?" Rei leaned close to Mein
Grossfeldmarschall, as she did when confronting others.
"Hey wait a minute!" the Fourth protested.
Sora blushed.
"He's not as pretty as Shinji!" Megumi insisted. Shinji-kun blushed,
his hand found hers. "They're so KAwwaaaiii!" Megumi insisted, causing
both to blush.
"More like Siberia, frozen and boring," Mein Grossfeldmarschall said
in low but disgusted tones as she turned her back on them.
"Asuka-chan," Hikari seemed confused, she leaned close, "Are you
jealous?"
"Of the robots of NERV! Don't be ridiculous!"
"Yeah, she's jealous of Ranko and Raccoon," Toji said, then glanced
around as everyone fell silent. "It was - you know, just a thought." He
covered his head with his arms.
"That's just frightening, for all kinds of reasons," Hikari said.
----------------------------------------
"Hey!" Ranma protested, not able to put any protests in words, not one
that would reveal his real relationship with Ranko. He frowned at the
others.
"Yes," Sammi came to his defense, as was her job, "Don't pick on the
girl who isn't here."
"Thanks," Ranma said, gratefully. Then he half-expected her to say
'Pick on people who are here.' She didn't, for which he was also grateful.
"Look, those two get mushy enough it bothers me, sneaking off to NERV
in the middle of the night to `work` on something. I can guess what they
were really doing," Asuka complained with a sour expression.
"If they are in love . . . " Belldandy began, "You object?" she asked
the pilots, who had been trying to figure out why Ranko had been doing it,
and couldn't simply demand clarification while the others were here. Asuka
was clearly uncomfortable with the entire idea of Ranko and Raccoon having
a relationship. ~Almost as uneasy as _I_ am,~ Ranma thought.
He had been . . . she, Ranko had been with Raccoon that night at NERV,
Ranma had dreams of a dancing flame, and had asked if there was a way to
turn math into movement. Raccoon knew of one in the Magi, he set it up for
Ranko while he was digging through the machine for other stuff. Ranko even
learned how the Magi's sensing system worked, and looked in at the `party`
Misa-chan was having, and Misa-chan losing badly at Strip Poker.
~I bet _that_ went well,~ Ranma thought, ~Everything on our end was
going well until the Magi shut down, and Gendo caught us as we were
leaving.~ He finally managed to quit shivering.
"You haven't seen some of the weird stuff I've seen," Asuka said, "If
you think that's weird: A Roman banquet hall with all the debauchery from
some of the movies about it. Someone trapped in a central pillar, watching
and crying that they aren't part of it, they get kicked out of that pillar
and a huge food fight ensues."
"Asuka," Hikari said, looked at her strangely, "You're right that is
weird." She patted Asuka's head. "You should be more careful of what you
eat before bed," she said sympathetically.
Asuka stumbled through a denial but wound up just fuming, Hikari still
looking sympathetic patting her head.
"If you want really scary," Erin suggested, "A meeting with Ikari
Gendo takes the top prize." Erin steepled her fingers and stared at the
Tokyo U. group, most shuddered under her gaze.
"That is not correct," Rei said, "May I?" She pointed at Sora's
glasses. Once she had them, she sat at the table, adjusted the glasses and
just _stared_ at everyone. No one could meet that gaze, Not Ranma, Shinji,
Sammi, Asuka, no one.
"Thank you," Rei said as she returned Sora's glasses.
Ranma shook himself free of the spell, and thought of the real meeting
on June 13th. The discussions about the AT field, mathematical
manipulation and generating it without an EVA. ~I thought Gendo was going
to have hysterics or a screaming fit. It's only amusing once you survived
it, after that it was kind of funny,~ Ranma thought.
"Well, if you're talking about meetings," Toji said, "Hiroko and the
'eyes and ears.' - "
"Ice Princess's and Raccoon's spy network," Asuka told the others.
"They'd been tracking guys takin' pictures of the city," he said, he
glanced around nervously, "Stuff that would burn or blow up."
"You knew it would happen?" Asuka stood and shouted at him over the
breakfast bar, "You knew and didn't tell us?!"
Toji backed up deeper into the kitchen. Hikari moved to intercept
Asuka and keep her out of the kitchen. "We told the Navy, Hiroko went
specifically to tell Admiral Simson," Toji said defensively, "We figured
he'd tell you."
"Well, he didn't," Asuka replied angrily, letting Hikari lead her away
and sit her back down.
"That's not my fault," Toji said.
"It is no one's fault," Rei said firmly.
"People do what they think best," Ranma said, pacing the kitchen, he'd
had an argument with Nab-chan, and Raccoon, about making choices for his
life, about denying him what he needed to know. ~Both left rather than
continue to fight with me about it. I thought they were too afraid to
fight with me,~ he thought, ~Now I realize they didn't want to really hurt
me.~ He had been extremely shaken by the events Raccoon described, and how
'right' they sounded.
"That wasn't the worst of it," Ranma said, "_That_ happened June 15,
1947."
----------------------------------------
Pride That Licks The Dust
"The battle against Cthugha," Rei began as she poured a small amount
of flour on the breakfast bar counter and drew a map of Tokyo, "At 0253 the
alert came in, NERV Headquarters." She noted the spot. "The EVAs launched
at 0320, Units 02 and 04 raced ahead to engage the Great Old One." She
drew their route. The others drew close to see the details.
"Units 00 and 01 were drawn to large numbers of the servitor race,
Flame Vampires. Three targets, all inflammable to explosive materials
storage." Rei noted the position of the targets. "Cultists attacked
additional targets." Rei indicated those. "All of those targets were
intended to allow them to incinerate some portion of the city, perhaps all
of it."
She paused to examine the faces around her. Only Mein
Grossfeldmarschall and the Fourth had fully analyzed the battle
independently. The others were horrified, ~Appropriately, considering,~
Rei thought before continuing.
"Cthugha interception at the Ara River, the ships Star of Bremen,
Penelope Smith, Randolph Martens were fully aflame and sunk due to
proximity of Cthugha. Fourteen other ships suffered minor to serious fires
that did not sink them. Action at Ara River destroyed Cthugha, the corpse
fell here, where it entered shelter PH37-KISK-AF, one of five in this hill.
The corpse detonated, killing all within and injuring those in two adjacent
shelters. Units 02 and 04 were called to reinforce Units 00 and 01 at this
paint factory, then were moved to prevent Fire Vampires from reaching this
aviation gasoline storage or this oil field. They were successful. The
surviving Flame Vampires fled Earth. The EVAs were recalled, time 0329."
"A nine minute battle?" Megumi breathed, almost too quiet to hear.
"NERV Search and Rescue, including Pilots Davis and Tendo moved to
shelter PH37-KISK-AF, now redesignated Charlie, they commenced rescue
operations in Baker and Dog, the adjacent shelters. An explosion in Able
redeployed teams to deal with the aftermath. A secondary fire flared in
Dog, incinerating many, nearly trapping the rescue teams. They were able
to escape through a narrow corridor where the flames did not catch.
Coordinated efforts from above and below put the fire out and allowed the
rescue to continue. Easy remained an accurate designation, few injuries,
no special problems."
Rei noted the comprehension on the faces of the pilots and guards, an
AT field prevented the flames from advancing, only she and Raccoon could
deploy a field without an EVA. "While the pilots of EVA Units 00, 01, 02,
and 04 were debriefed and tested, NERV SAR was transferred to a hospital
here, that was treating casualties. While this was occurring, fighting
between members of the U.S. Military, Tokyo Police and NERV forces against
the cultists continued. Armor and air strikes were of limited value due to
the proximity of dangerous and/or inflammable materials. Casualties were
extremely heavy. Much of the fighting was hand-to-hand."
Rei steeled herself for the next. Many considered her emotionless,
because she didn't show them. Truthfully, she didn't know how to
appropriately express them, her emotions ran away at times. Now she seemed
calm because a monotonic delivery of the facts was all she could manage out
of the maelstrom of pain and sorrow she felt.
"During the afternoon, while assisting with triage: separation of the
salvageable from the dead and soon to be, Pilot Tendo encountered the
corpse of her friend, Ayami Hiroko." Rei paused, all of them, even those
who know what to expect, gasped in horror.
Rei didn't want to continue, even now the pain threatened to overwhelm
her. Sora was taking solace from Belldandy. Both Mein Grossfeldmarschall
and the Fourth were horrified. Hikari-san and Suzuhara-san were turning to
each other, enclosing Yumiwashi in their circle. Rei let the moment pass,
there was more she could describe, more she had found out about the filth,
the smells, the screams of the wounded, the stoicism of the dying, the
condition of the dead. None of that mattered now.
"At 0307 on the 16th, NERV SAR, including Pilots Tendo and Davis stood
down. Most of NERV SAR returned to base, the pilots were returned to
Akagi-sensei's apartment." Rei left out the lack of disciplinary action
for the failures, of both the pilots and the senior staff. Rei decided not
to mention the final casualty count, which stood at nearly 10,000 dead and
missing, presumed lost, nor the 3500+ cultists killed in nearly suicidal
attacks on military positions. Such facts were now of no relevance to her
narrative.
"For their actions that day, NERV SAR received many commendations, the
highest signed by General Douglas MacArthur and the Emperor himself, for
heroism and valor in the face of the enemy and great personal danger," Rei
concluded. She still felt angry that none of the EVAs had been released to
assist in combat or rescue operations, that the critique had to be done by
the pilots themselves, that neither Nabiki-kun nor Roku-kun had been told
about the commendations awarded them for their actions. The lecture about
greater and lesser goods and evils by Commander Ikari and being more
selective about whose rules to obey and whose confidences to break was not
germane to the current discussion, although they did cause her to ignore
the customs that otherwise would have prevented her from burglarizing the
Ayami apartment. Nabiki-kun's survival and recovery were more important
than the sanctity of a dead family's apartment. She didn't regret
following the Commander's orders after the return to base, however much she
might still wish he hadn't issued them.
----------------------------------------
Ranma stood and listened to Rei's lecture on what actually happened
that day. He didn't react, he only felt empty about the events, the simple
assumption he'd done right, then wrong, then assurances he'd done far
better than could be expected left him numb and confused. Charging into
Rit-chan's kitchen at lunch time to confront Raccoon and Nab-chan on the
16th, that he could solidly put down as a mistake. ~You were so proud of
yourself, you didn't bother to read the signals that should have been
screaming at you. Some martial artist,~ he thought, ~Then I was so
ashamed. I should have realized how they were really reacting to my
boasting, but I was so blinded by what I had accomplished, I assumed they'd
appreciate it. We'd all worked so hard on it.~
~Instead I insulted them and rubbed salt in their wounds. Nab-chan
ran away to her room, then into herself, and Raccoon told me part of what
happened, and then to get lost,~ Ranma thought guiltily, ~All my skill at
reading people's moves in a fight, and I couldn't do it once when it really
mattered.~ He'd been grateful Rei had discussed that he and Asuka had
screwed up, he was glad now that she'd sent him to Sakura Street, as a
punishment.
"Sakura Street . . . " Hikari began, "Was that the principal morgue
for the . . . dead."
"No," Rei replied.
"You knew Hiroko had . . . died?" Hikari asked.
"Yes," Rei replied, "And our other classmates."
"The shelter was for an apartment where a lot of our classmates lived
with their families," Shinji said.
The pauses between sentences had gotten longer. The flour map looked
too tiny to him, to contain the disaster. A few square kilometers that
changed things for all the pilots so much.
"The Ayami family was completely wiped out, no one to pay for a
funeral or visit the graves," Toji said, primarily to Yumiwashi.
Ranma hadn't considered that Toji and his sister might have known
Hiroko for a long time, Rei had known her for years.
~I lost Kenta and Seisuke that day,~ Ranma thought, ~I never asked if
they died in the initial attack or that fire Rei mentioned, I'd never heard
about that, but Raccoon wouldn't `burden` others if _he_ was on fire, 'it
just isn't done.'~ "Jerk," Ranma mumbled under his breath, and knew Ranko
would have far harsher words, and the guts to say them to his face.
~I'd never seen Rei so mad, but at the time, I was glad it wasn't me
she was mad at. Now, I wish she had kicked me around instead of standing
there not condemning me,~ he thought.
"I - I confronted Admiral Simson about not telling us about Raccoon
and Ice Princess, about not sending the EVAs in to help - "Asuka said,
"Fortunately it was in German so they didn't understand. The English
translation contained all the important points, but had been tempered. I
also insisted on getting a rundown of the battle, it was roughly the one
Wondergirl gave you, in all its horror, which she didn't give you. As
cultists of a 'god' of fire, I'll let you figure out their weapon of
choice."
Ranma blanched along with all the others, he hated burns. He'd gotten
ones that faded, but he remembered Raccoon talking about pulling burnt
clothes off of flesh, he shuddered at the reminder.
----------------------------------------
"I can understand why they kept it from us," Shinji said, "Pilot Davis
and especially Pilot Tendo were . . . hurt by what they saw and did . . .
what they lost. We looked after Pilot Tendo for a few days. Rei-chan and
me - looked after her."
"The problem is there was no enemy to hit to fix things," Ranma
summarized Rei's statement at the time.
Shinji nodded, he'd also learned that the remains and memories, and
powers of the things they killed bubble up, he still wasn't happy about
that.
"No," Rei said, "The chosen target is - " she said then she touched
herself, "Roku-kun sought to hunt down and kill the leaders of the cult who
had escaped, it required physical restraint to dissuade him."
~She said she'd had to take Raccoon to Megorofeld-chan to put to bed,~
Shinji thought, ~She _hadn't_ mentioned she'd had to fight him first.~
"You attacked a fellow pilot?" Megumi asked incredulously.
"I," Rei supplied, "Was gentle, but firm." She smiled, held it long
enough for Megumi to see it.
"Pilots are so stubborn, they're crazy," Toji added and cringed when
Megorofeld-chan opened her mouth to speak, and smiled instead, which
worried Toji and Shinji a lot more. The alarm on the oven made everyone
jump. Toji removed the trays from the oven.
"He's oversimplifying things. But determination in the face of
overwhelming odds is necessary, or we'd collapse," Megorofeld-chan said,
"You've read how hideous the creatures are, well, they _are_ hideous, body,
soul, _and_ mind. Why God lets them exist, I don't know." She shrugged.
Shinji noted Belldandy's start at Megorofeld-chan's statement. Shinji
couldn't understand that, he'd discussed religion with Raccoon and
Megorofeld-chan, and their `loving God` was a Christian concept, the gods
in Shinto just made sure things working in harmony. If you got caught
between the grindstones of the Celestial Bureaucracy, it wasn't your fault.
~Except we're _always_ getting caught and catching others between the EVAs
and our enemies,~ Shinji thought. He hadn't heard the 10,000 dead, but he
had heard dozens to hundreds hurt or lost in almost every mission. This
one brought it home, it also steeled the pilots' determination that
_next_time_ it would be different, they wouldn't just kill the bad guy and
dash off home. ~We'll stay and help clean up the - _our_ mess,~ he thought
steadfastly.
"You went to visit her every day?" Belldandy asked.
"We went to heal her," Rei said with more anger on her face and in her
voice than he had ever seen. _Everyone_ noticed this time, and everyone
drew back. "Every day," Rei concluded.
"I'm sure Belldandy-san didn't mean anything by it," Sora said.
~And no apology,~ Shinji thought, ~Even Ranma would apologize after
insulting someone like that, even if he didn't understand what he'd done.~
"She meant it," Rei replied, again her quiet self. Everyone relaxed
at Rei's return to `normal`, Shinji stepped beside her, to let her know he
was there, she leaned into him slightly.
"We went," Shinji said. ~And on the 18th Misato teased me about my
`harem`,~ Shinji thought them smiled, ~She didn't like me saying we'd help
her next.~ She'd grumbled and quit teasing him about that.
~The real trouble was the dreams, that was Rei-chan's suggestion. Let
Tendo-san rest by preventing her dreams from attacking her. I have to
wonder what was Megorofeld-chan's reaction to getting a call from Rei-chan,
'There is a window of vulnerability. Good rest is needed for healing.'
Rei-chan probably used the same words for all three of us.~ He still felt
guilty that he and Rei-chan hadn't suffered as the others had, and that
what they did to help Tendo-san seemed so minor. ~I guess I'm also jealous
of how protective Rei-chan is about the other pilots,~ he thought, enjoyed
her brushing up against him as she worked, ~But that's one reason I care
for her, she'd never abandon me or any other pilot if she had any choice.~
"I wish that - " Ranma began, then hug his head.
Shinji had heard about Raccoon's written apology to Ranma from
Megorofeld-chan, and how it had infuriated Ranma that he'd been asked for
forgiveness.
~I wonder if he was more angry at the implication he'd been forgiven
or that he was being asked to give forgiveness to someone he owed,~ Shinji
wondered.
Then Ranma had watched Megorofeld-chan diagram the battle as Rei-chan
had. ~Except Megorofeld-chan used the entire school grounds,~ Shinji
reminded himself, ~And the conclusion hasn't changed, they'd done their
best, better than they had any right to do, it just wasn't enough to save
all those people. We were failed as much as we failed.~
----------------------------------------
Eat Breakfast Three Times A Day
"The funeral was the 21st, a rapid burial due to the decomposition
from the presence of the dead Great Old One," Rei told them, it seemed an
inadequate statement for all that occurred that day. It had also been
Mirei's birthday party, which seemed an odd counterpoint. Rei had shown
Nabiki-kun the diary, told her that Hiroko loved her, she hadn't realized
at the time that Nabiki-kun had felt particularly unlovable, that she would
attempt to take her life, for her failings which were mostly illusionary.
Rei couldn't understand it because she couldn't understand why she
loved, and others loved her, she accepted it as an odd mystery that defied
comprehension. It had taken a direct confrontation with a goddess and a
demon to display her error and to demand action. ~I sent Raccoon to save
Nabiki-kun, and he sent Mein Grossfeldmarschall to save me, and she brought
Shinji-kun. Sammi and Captain Katsuragi had attended them,~ she thought
warmly, ~Raccoon confronted and saved Nabiki-kun, comforting her while
Shinji-kun comforted me.~ She glanced at Belldandy, it hadn't been her
who'd brought the message, so Rei saw no reason to bring it up.
----------------------------------------
"On Monday the 22d, I took Hor - Pilot Saotome to the University.
With Sp- Pilot Ikari, Ayanami, Davis and Tendo having their therapy
session, he was feeling left out, the poor dear," Asuka said, patted
Horseface's cheek, as she checked the potstickers.
~Not cool enough,~ she thought.
"She is thoughtful," Wondergirl added, "But acting on _my_ request."
"You set Sour Kraut on Saotome?" Curly asked and drew back in horror,
"What did he ever do to you?"
"Both, Saotomes," Wondergirl corrected, "He exists, that is
sufficient."
"She's either gonna marry or murder you," Curly laughed.
Asuka watched Wondergirl put her fists on her hips, the gesture was
familiar somehow. "Don't be disgusting Stooge!" Wondergirl said it in a
not-too-bad imitation of Asuka.
"You have to sort of _throw_ the word at him, _dis_-_GUST_-_ING_!_"
"Thank you," Wondergirl said, bowed.
Asuka replied, "You're welcome." She turned to the rest of her
audience, "It's impossible to insult her." She shook her head sadly.
"Call me Ranma," Wondergirl suggested.
"Hey!" Horseface protested.
"No food fights!" Sammi thundered as she stood up, no joke this time.
"No, Rei-chan," Asuka said sweetly, turning back to the girl, "You'd
give me a ketchup shampoo and eat my brain."
"Too high in fat."
Asuka thought it was Spineless who'd said it, only Spineless was
pointing at Curly, who was pointing at Horseface, who was pointing at
Sammi, who was pointing back at Asuka. Asuka turned back and saw
Wondergirl pointing at Little Miss Happy, with Megumi, Yumiwashi and Mouse
all giggling.
"Do you have an explanation?" Asuka asked sweetly, advancing
menacingly, before the other girl could answer, "Sammi-chan open the
window, I may have to throw something through it."
Little Miss Happy seemed a little confused by the byplay and
everyone's amusement. "The human brain is mostly fats and proteins," she
managed under Asuka's withering glare.
"So you _DO_ think I'm a fat-head!" Asuka thundered in RIGHTEOUS RAGE
(tm), "Death is too good for you, feed her Misato's cooking!"
"EEWWWW!" the pilots and guards chorused.
Hikari ran into the kitchen and knelt before Asuka, sniffed
theatrically, "Please, show the girl mercy, I'm _sure_ she didn't mean it
as an insult."
Mouse got on her knees beside Hikari and bowed, "Please oh Great and
Noble Pilot of Unit 02, whose name I am unworthy to speak, Belldandy is my
best friend." She looked up at Asuka with tear-filled eyes. "I don't want
her to go insane and die!" she wailed and collapsed to the ground.
Asuka could see Little Miss Happy hadn't the faintest idea what was
going on. "I am not without mercy."
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you," Hikari and Mouse said, both
hugging Asuka's legs.
"You're getting my knees wet," Asuka intoned, both scrambled away.
Hikari snagged a potsticker, and passed it hand to hand as she left
the kitchen.
Asuka turned and advanced purposefully on the confused girl, while the
others helped themselves. "I resolve to forgive you of all crimes
committed against NERV and my person this day. I absolve you in the name
of the father and the son and Misato's spirits, although what Gendo and
Shinji can do, I don't know. You are sentenced to no braunschweiger for
three weeks. Harsh, but survivable."
"I don't -" Megumi covered Little Miss Happy's mouth.
"She doesn't deserve such mercy, Asuka the Merciful!"
Mouse took up the chant, bowing, she offered Asuka one of her
potstickers and one of Wondergirl's potstickers. "Asuka the Merci . . . "
and fell silent as Asuka glared at her and no one else took it up. Asuka
did take the potstickers.
"Langley the Merciless," Wondergirl suggested, received a
well-deserved pat on the head. The others took up the chant, even with
some prompting Little Miss Happy joined in. Asuka cut it off with a hand
wave.
"Ranguri the - mer- ci - less," except of course, Horseface.
"That's it, you need some culture," Asuka said.
"Dip him in yogurt," Juri suggested, as she sat back at the table with
her sample.
"No, I'll have to take him to a concert, pound it in with a
sledgehammer," Asuka said, "All right, commercials are over, back to work."
"Not bad Mouse, Wondergirl, not bad at all," Asuka said of the
potstickers.
"She called _me_ Mouse," Mouse said proudly, turned to Megumi, "She
calls _you_ Megumi." Mouse stuck out her tongue at Megumi, who was mock
weeping.
----------------------------------------
Belldandy hadn't the faintest idea what the scene had been about, but
everyone seemed to enjoy it and participate. She wondered how - that girl
- had managed to do what she had done, both reaching out to pilot
Ikari-san, and the others. It shouldn't have been possible.
"You and Pilot Saotome-san were assigned to Keiichi-san as tour
guide," Belldandy told them, Keiichi-san had been a little intimidated by
Asuka-san, Ranma-san had seemed much more subdued then, she suspected that
Asuka-san had been teasing him and he hadn't been able to adequately
respond. "Your knowledge of engineering rivaled anyone else in the motor
club, even Keiichi-san." Asuka-san had been polite, but it was clear she
was disappointed by the facility, and Ranma-san had been unimpressed, until
they came upon the school Karate and Kendo clubs, technically illegal since
the surrender, they met in secret.
"I believe it was no accident you happened upon the clubs," she said,
smiled at Asuka-san covering her face, still ashamed of Ranma-san
challenging the entire 40 members to a battle. She had no idea what
Kami-sama had in mind.
"It was very polite of you to thank them," Belldandy said.
"The one's still standing," Asuka-san mumbled.
"He certainly felt better," Belldandy asserted.
"Never mind," Asuka-san told the guards, then turned to Ranma-san,
"And you, you want to get them in trouble, then - say - nothing."
Ranma-san held up his hands and retreated.
"He didn't hurt them," Asuka-san said to the guards.
~Except their pride,~ Belldandy thought, ~And it was all they could
talk about, even speculating whether pilots were human or not.~ She'd
confided in Keiichi-san how terrible it was to let the pilots suffer, but
it was necessary, it was to force them to draw on each other's strengths.
She was sure the One Above All had a plan that included all of them, but no
one without His wisdom could ever see it all before hand.
"I am glad you decided to dress up and attend the Wednesday Festival."
She started instructing on the clean up, the soup would take a little while
longer.
----------------------------------------
"You also came to visit me that day," Yumiwashi added.
"I thought you were unconscious," Asuka stuttered.
"I couldn't respond, but I wasn't deaf. It ought to be interesting
when big brother and Hikari-san realize I heard every word they said, even
when the other left the room."
Hikari and Toji stared in terror at the smiling girl.
"Asuka, help," Hikari said, head bowed.
"She hasn't hurt me or NERV you're going to have to do this yourself,"
Asuka told her friend sympathetically, patting her shoulder.
"I also heard everything _you_ said about Ranma and Ranko," Yumiwashi
added smugly.
"There's nothing I said that I wouldn't say to his face," Asuka
purred.
"_AND_ Rei."
Asuka considered, then looked at Rei's curious and expectant
expression. "Curly, you get her arms, I'll get her legs. There's a
flagpole we can impale her on."
"Ketchup?" Rei asked hopefully.
"Yes Wondergirl, she's been a vegetable once, we'll make her a
vegetable again."
"Goody," Rei said without emotion.
"At NERV there was an investigation going on into the victims of
Angel's Malaise, you and about 500 others were the victims of enemy action,
not a disease," Asuka said.
"I hate that name, it sounds like I was taking long naps or
something," Yumiwashi commented, "I'm glad some experts were working on it.
I'd like to punch that Angel."
"I kicked him right off a planet," Asuka said, "Good enough?"
----------------------------------------
~I had discussions, discussions with experts, experts in war
fighting,~ Ranma thought, ~They put a premium on logistics: 'beans, bullets
and black oil.'~ He'd noticed how worn out Asuka, Shinji, Raccoon and Rei
were, after the talk he understood they were staying with him or Nab-chan
all day, and protecting Nab-chan's dreams at night.
~But they _weren't_ paying attention to logistics, fighting as hard as
they could to avoid losing either of their charges,~ he thought, ~All I had
to figure out was where they were getting the `fuel` to fight their
battles, and realize how much I had, more than the rest of them combined,
and all uncommitted to the battle.~ He blushed as he remembered sneaking
into Raccoon's room as Ranko, giving him a massage to relax him and laying
down atop his back to let her `feel` the battle in terms of Ki and mana
expenditure.
~Not to mention finding out that why `he and she` am - are? - so
strongly drawn to Nab-chan and Raccoon, the way their Ki made my chi
react,~ he thought, ~Finding out that living people moving were _the_
reality to me, others might trust science or words or numbers, not me, I
don't.~ Realizing that each of the pilots saw the world in such
fundamentally different ways had been a shock.
~Feeling Raccoon use up his mana reserves and much of his Ki,~ Ranma
thought, ~Letting mine flood into them, until I was too weak to move.~ He
glanced over at Sammi, she'd found `Ranko` on the floor of Raccoon's
bedroom and carried her to one of the spare bedrooms and tucked her in.
~Kinda humiliating, and kinda nice,~ he thought, ~Next morning, me weak as
a ki - small, furry helpless thing, Raccoon and Asuka back to full
strength. Raccoon even fixed and fed me a bunch of okonomiyaki. Made me
feel like a little kid, him wiping my chin and face every couple of bites.~
Ranma had enjoyed the `excuse` and luxury to be helpless and protected by
others.
----------------------------------------
"Did you enjoy the carnival?" Little Miss Happy asked, obviously
trying to get on firmer ground.
Asuka decided to have mercy on her. "I especially liked the shooting
gallery, and the guess the marbles game was mildly diverting," Asuka
smiled, wondered how much of that would get back to that smug kid, Skuld.
"She beat you, hm Saotome?" Curly asked, up to his arms in dishwater.
"Not at everything," Asuka said magnanimously, before Horseface could
answer.
"You didn't beat me at _everything_," Horseface said, "I noticed the
guards were gone before you did."
"Someone or something captured the guards," Asuka said and gestured to
the embarrassed adults at the table, "We had to drop all our winnings and
run."
"You did not suffer the fate of Roku-kun and Akagi-sensei," Wondergirl
said, "Both were temporarily out of action."
"They bounced back quick enough," Asuka commented, "She called us in
and sent Raccoon out in an EVA to find father and son Ikari."
"They were in danger," Wondergirl agreed.
"Even with you guarding them, Wondergirl? It was more dangerous than
I thought."
"Why was Ritsuko-sensei trailing Raccoon?" Spineless asked, "It
doesn't seem like her." He seemed nervous that others were washing up,
instead of him.
"She wanted to get him alone in a secluded spot and - "
"ASUKA!" Erin shouted at her.
"Give him a manicure and pedicure, right?" Horseface asked while
putting away the dishes.
"Oh, exactly," Asuka said in an aggrieved voice, "Didn't you go with
your dad to visit your mom's grave?"
"Yes. Rei-chan arranged it," Spineless said.
"You _are_ spooky," Asuka told Wondergirl.
"Thank you," Wondergirl replied.
Asuka glanced to where Wondergirl was staring, and wasn't surprised
when it was straight at Little Miss Happy, who was staring straight back.
Asuka licked her finger and touched the `line` between the two. She yanked
her hand back and waved it as if to cool it. "Don't step between them if
you value your life," Asuka warned the others, "You'll get burned to a
crisp."
"You mean a ca - ca -," Horseface stammered.
"No," Asuka said, wondering what she'd stirred up.
"Is he all right?" Megumi asked.
"No," Asuka answered, "Cat got his tongue, 5 meters long,
black-and-white, saber-toothed." She leaned close and whispered,
"Sometimes he _hears_ it." She enjoyed the matching looks of horror on
Horseface and Megumi. She did wonder why Horseface hadn't teased her about
her feelings for Raccoon, for all the teasing he was suffering about Ranko
and Raccoon.
"Unit 01 arrived to destroy the attackers and take the Commander,
Ikari and me to safety," Wondergirl explained.
"Leaving Raccoon behind," Asuka said.
"At his insistence," Wondergirl said, they shared a look, Asuka
understood that Wondergirl had an inkling what Raccoon was capable of.
Asuka _hated_ the risks he took, as if because of El Nureenen's curse, his
life didn't matter.
"Once adequate forces were available, they were deployed."
Asuka noted that Wondergirl left out the part where she, Horseface and
Raccoon swung by his weapons' bin and loaded up with all he had, before
rescuing Security.
"Well, I went out with Unit 02 to find the enemy while homebody
Spineless stayed to guard the base," Asuka said.
"We still had to battle our foes with hand-weapons until you arrived,"
Wondergirl pointed out, "Then you left."
"I had orders to get them to safety," Asuka said, she turned to
Wondergirl, "And where did _you_ and Horseface run off to?"
"I recovered Roku-kun's cane, while Pilot Saotome sought battle."
"You still didn't get him, all three of you couldn't get it I -"
"Had to be led to it," Wondergirl interrupted Asuka.
~Wondergirl actually interrupted . . . _ME_!_ The end of the world
must be approaching,~ Asuka thought, ~The end of the night went back to
tedium from screaming terror. Drilling Horseface how to present the quilt
to Ice Princess and the _SAY_NOTHING_!_ during the presentation.~ "So,
Horseface, did Ice Princess like the quilt?" Asuka asked.
"Oh, yeah, a lot," Horseface stammered, he looked at his feet.
"I am glad," Little Miss Happy said, clasping her hands together.
"I don't know if she took it with her on the voyage," Horseface
admitted.
~That's also when Raccoon found out he was going to Osaka with our
Glorious Leader,~ Asuka thought, ~To investigate Natsumi's Angel sighting.
I wonder where Kaji was, why he didn't go, nor was he there to wave
goodbye, probably on a secret mission for Gendo.~
----------------------------------------
Ye Diners-Out From Whom We Guard Our Spoons
Rei had arrived early the next day at the ice cream parlor, to find
Roku-kun already there. ~He discussed the `straight man` in telling jokes,
what I had been during our performance aboard the Coral Sea. We even
practiced the routine to use when Akagi-sensei arrived,~ Rei thought, she
smiled briefly.
~Akagi-sensei seemed disturbed when she arrived, explained what she
was, and neither I nor Roku-kun was disturbed by her origins or her history
as a shoggoth. We only felt sympathy for her, for her punishment by the
Elder Things, for her attempts to be human,~ Rei considered, Rei couldn't
really understand why Akagi-sensei couldn't understand their acceptance.
~I still do not know who the 'Valusians' that Roku-kun mentioned are, and I
have not been able to ask the Commander for fear of breaking the
confidences the others entrusted me with. I know the Commander made it
clear my trust for him is paramount, but betraying such a confidence
without contravening good to the Commander seems a poor balance. I wish I
knew.~ She hated keeping secrets, but being trusted allowed her to make
the Commander's job easier, it was a difficult balancing act. She relished
being of use to him.
"Do any of you fully understand who you are?" she asked. ~Neither
Roku-kun nor I fully understood. I because I had no words for what I
understood, he because he lacked the details,~ she thought as the others
stared at her or stammered half-answers that had no use.
"Didn't you say I was a weapon?" the Fourth managed the only
intelligent comment. It mirrored what Roku-kun and she had concluded about
themselves that day.
~We are to defend this,~ she concluded, watching the others interact.
Then she glanced at Belldandy. ~Roku-kun revealed his multiple, or many,
`patrons` and the loyalty balance he must maintain.~
"If a race we created, was enslaved by another, would it be our
responsibility to free them?" she asked, "Would we ally with an ostensible
enemy to free them?" ~The Dragons, our dream creation, are slaves of the
Elder Gods,~ Rei thought, ~And Yig, a Great Old One wants them freed.~
"The Allies already did that, Wondergirl," Mein Grossfeldmarschall
told her, "A guy with a hat and mustache called Stalin killed Georgians,
Ukrainians, Cossacks, etc., by the millions. 'The Enemy of my Enemy is my
Friend', or some such nonsense. 'The Enemy of my Enemy can usually be
Eaten in Peace', that I can believe."
Rei concurred. ~Odd that Akagi-sensei, Roku-kun and I are all results
of Antarctica and the Elder Things' civilization, or the tools they
created. We are tools, but Roku-kun urged me to 'exceed my design
specifications',~ Rei thought, ~He also suggested that Akagi-sensei begin
shapechanging again to teach the Fourth. I too absorbed some of Nyogtha,
was the message also for me? Was that why he revealed his magical powers,
and I revealed mine, that we two could teach each other? I have not even
revealed those powers to the Commander.~
~I had wanted to know who the real enemy was,~ Rei looked at
Belldandy, wondered if she was an enemy as Nyarlathotep was, manipulating
things to her ends, or like the humans were, deluded and foolish. ~Doing
what she thought best with flawed or incomplete understanding?~ Rei
wondered, ~Akagi-sensei reminded us that Cthulhu and his spawn took one
uninhabited continent, and Roku-kun added that in 50 million years the
stars will be right and Cthulhu and the others will rule,~ Rei thought,
~Implied was that we would not oppose them. Would the human race join
them, be overwhelmed, both, neither?~ Rei shook her head to clear it of
such thoughts, no one had that particular answer.
"Have any of you ever fired a pistol?" Rei asked.
Sora looked embarrassed, as did Megumi, but she spoke, "We all learned
a little, for the invasion."
"Pilot Langley and I began teaching Pilot Tendo," Rei confided, "Her
training will continue aboard the U.S.S. Bennington. It was difficult - "
"That's because you intimidated her by cutting the center out of all
your targets," Mein Grossfeldmarschall accused.
"You were equally shaken," Rei countered, "And adamant."
"We've had this discussion before," Mein Grossfeldmarschall warned,
"Now is not the time for it."
"Is that what you two were doing?" Shinji-kun asked, "I thought you
were talking or shopping . . . or something." He wilted under Mein
Grossfeldmarschall's gaze.
"That was the day I saw you in the park!" Megumi chirped.
Rei squelched the pang of jealousy, she trusted Shinji-kun.
"Yeah," the Fourth added, grimaced, "With Miss High and Mighty Creepy,
right?"
"She's all right," Sora said.
"She's in charge of Student Services, her boss is actually, but she
does most of the work. Her family used to be super rich, the war ended
that," Megumi explained.
"She's just confused," Belldandy added sympathetically.
Rei immediately had doubts, the girl had a fine grasp of human
goodness, but no concept of human evil.
"Yeah, we went to see Mirei," the Fourth said, "Boy did you - OOWWW!"
Mein Grossfeldmarschall smiled as she pulled her foot back from the
Fourth's ankle. "Don't mind him, he has a congenial defect."
"Congenital," Rei corrected.
"I said what I meant, Wondergirl," she cooed, then smiled at the
Fourth, "The girl meets a celebrity, no reason to embarrass her about it,
right?" She nodded to clue him in while she prepared for another kick.
"Right, sure, my mistake," the Fourth admitted as he moved out of
reach.
"I didn't mean to . . . embarrass you." Megumi hung her head.
"You see us as we are," Rei said, "You saw us as you wished before."
"But I . . . " Megumi stammered, Rei's words flustered her, "I really
was pleased meet pilots, here it's nice to see you're real people."
"I was assembled," Rei told her, "As was Kraznyzamok-san." Rei paused
to let the shock settle. "Mein Grossfeldmarschall is a German
computational system, Pilot Saotome is long-dead martial artists,
Shinji-kun is Stradivarius reborn." Rei waited, staring, until Megumi
smirked then laughed, then Rei nodded.
"Okay, okay. I don't _want_ to know, but I'm glad to be here," Megumi
said. Still laughing, she turned to Sora who nodded.
"That reminds me," Shinji-kun said, "Have you heard the 'Ghost of
Tokyo'?"
"That wailing cry?" Megumi asked, then shuddered, "Everybody's heard
it, do you know what it is?"
"No," Shinji-kun admitted, "I was hoping you did. I've thought about
going after it, when it plays."
"It sounds like bagpipes," Belldandy said, "Just like the Navy
explained."
"Of course, someone's going to get into an inaccessible place . . . "
Mein Grossfeldmarschall began and considered, "And play bagpipes,
sometimes, for an hour . . . ," she added in a soft voice.
Rei watched Mein Grossfeldmarschall look around. "It couldn't be,"
she said without much conviction.
"It might," Rei suggested, she had come to the same conclusion, but
there were problems with the theory.
"We'll certainly find out," Asuka said.
"What are you two talkin' about?" the Fourth demanded.
"Who in Tokyo would know when NERV won and has a set of bagpipes?"
Mein Grossfeldmarschall asked angrily, the Fourth's eyes widened.
"Naw, it couldn't be him!" The Fourth shook his head.
Sora opened her mouth to speak, and shut it quickly after a glance
from Megumi. Rei read it as 'Don't ask.'
"What was the NERV investigation down in Osaka all about?" Megumi
asked, probably to change the subject and reduce the tension in the room.
The pilots looked at their guards, then looked to Megumi, none could
answer.
"I'd like to know why Misa-chan was in such a rotten mood," the Fourth
said.
"He probably refused to service her," Mein Grossfeldmarschall muttered
in German.
"Asuka!" Erin scolded.
"What?" Mein Grossfeldmarschall asked in Japanese, "They don't know
German."
"I do," Belldandy said innocently.
Mein Grossfeldmarschall blushed and fell silent.
----------------------------------------
~What's with all the weird questions from Rei the silent?~ Ranma
wondered, ~Koan or mondo, a question requiring meditation or immediate
action. Like confronting all those me's and other pilots that the
Scholarly Dragon whipped up in dreams. Did I want to fight thousands, or
do something else? I don't think he expected me to disguise myself as
Asuka and start shouting orders like the original. I hope the Dragon never
mentions it to her, or I am really, really, really dead.~
"That was about the time NERV HQ disappeared," Sora said, "I never did
find out when it happened exactly. The Navy said that Pilot Tendo and
Ayanami were at Matsushiro, instead of clear out of the country. I don't
suppose you could tell us about that. Could you?" Sora asked.
Ranma doubted they could. He remembered seeing Rei and Nab-chan in
their gray suits on July 1st, before he could say how dumb they looked, his
ankles had started to tingle, as if anticipating the kick he'd receive if
he spoke. The test the next day was the real terror. He remembered
watching Nab-chan and Rei waddle into the EVAs to test the S2 engines.
Then the alarms, and seeing the two ejected entry plugs disappear through
the ceiling, then everything went mad. The invaders appeared. Initially
they were harmless, then they started hurting and killing people.
"We were transported to another reality," Sammi said, "There we
encountered two Outer Gods and were involved in the battle between them,
unfortunately, they both got away."
Ranma almost choked when he heard that. Nothing Sammi said was
untrue, but it was a complete lie as well. If left out desperately herding
the noncombat people into the power core for protection, it left out Asuka,
Rit-chan and a combat team trying to get to the EVAs despite the dangers,
it left out his hazardous attempt to locate his sword, and the hours of
battling to protect the Magi from the invaders.
"How did Pilots Tendo and Ayanami wind up in Las Vegas?" Sora asked.
"When important experiments are done, not all the pilots are present.
Before the peace, Pilots Ayanami and Langley were separate. At that time,
Pilot Davis was in Osaka, Pilots Tendo and Ayanami wound up surveying the
new EVAs being constructed in Las Vegas," Sammi said, again lying without
lying. Ranma felt extremely dizzy listening to this without speaking.
"When it disappeared, " Megumi began, "The base - there was no
explosion, no flash of light, no cloud of smoke like when it returned.
Just convoys of troops heading that way. Nobody found out for two days it
was gone. That's scary."
"How do you think we felt?" Toji asked.
"You came to get me." Yumiwashi stared at her brother. "You and
Jeff, how did you do that?"
Toji looked over to the guards. Toji's fear of being revealed as an
EVA pilot seemed comical and security evidently didn't want the truth, or
at least the whole truth out.
Sammi spoke, Ranma didn't know what kind of whopper Sammi was going to
tell this time. "It was the process that the pilots used to rescue Miss
Hokari," Sammi said, "I wasn't on the `transmitting` end, but I understand
their bodies stayed here, in this world."
"We spotted one of the - Outer Gods?" Toji asked for clarification.
Ranma found himself nodding along with the other pilots. He had no
idea where he'd learned the term, but he knew it.
"Well, it was big, planet big and you and the others were on it," Toji
told her.
"How did you find them?"
"Magic," Asuka said, "We told you Raccoon is a master sorcerer steeped
in ancient arts and bull droppings."
Sora and Yumiwashi frowned. "If you aren't going to tell us the
truth," Megumi complained.
"Would you prefer a story about hypergeometric fluxes and
transdimensional multiphase space conversions?" Asuka waved her hands
theatrically.
"Yes," Sora said with a pout.
"Anyway, after Curly here arrived with Raccoon, we coordinated their
efforts with ours and found you. While they were rescuing you and the
others, Spineless, Saotome and I were fighting the second Outer God that
had set it all up. Then the two _Outer_Gods_ fought and left, abandoned
the field to us."
----------------------------------------
Have We Eaten On The Insane Root
"On the 6th of July," Rei began, "While that was occurring, in Las
Vegas, Nabiki-kun and I were likewise convinced of the loss of NERV Tokyo."
Rei recalled how devastated she'd felt at the news, the loss of Shinji-kun
and the Commander. Nabiki-kun had talked about the new EVAs and told Rei
about the color scheme for Units 05 and 06. "I prefer blue for an EVA."
"That orange is pretty hideous," Mein Grossfeldmarschall agreed.
"The orange is correct," Rei said, "But not for combat." The orange
was appropriate for testing.
"What are you taking about?" Mein Grossfeldmarschall said with a
furrowed brow.
"Red is a good color for you," Rei replied, leaving her fellow pilot
completely perplexed. Rei was actually rather pleased. "We discussed the
possibility of having to begin again, call up Pilot Langley's friend to
pilot."
"Anna, I can just see _you_ training Anna," Mein Grossfeldmarschall
laughed.
"We have trained you," Rei told her, Mein Grossfeldmarschall advanced
towards her.
"Okay!" Erin commented as she stood up, "Before one of you kills the
other, let's go on."
"I was winning," Rei told her politely.
"Yes, you were," Mein Grossfeldmarschall said and patted her shoulder,
"And I'll punish you for it later. Basically we had two EVAs operational.
One went and repaired the other two, while Unit 02 rescued the noncombat
troops. Toji was very useful." Mein Grossfeldmarschall had noticed Toji's
terrified expression. "There's a lot we can't tell you, both for security,
and certain details aren't important. Then we helped plan the attack on
Ghroth, where you were rescued from," Mein Grossfeldmarschall told
Yumiwashi.
"You said the Sixth, the base didn't come back on the Sixth," Megumi
pointed out.
"We did a few things before _we_ got back," Toji said, "Weird dreams."
"Tell me about it," Mein Grossfeldmarschall said.
"I dreamt of the end of the world," Rei said, "A death by fire."
"Not me, you Horse - Saotome?"
The Fourth shook his head 'no'.
"The enemy influences the unconscious, manifesting in dreams," Rei
explained. Rei had also waited for the dying Rei of a dummy plug to arrive
in her dreamscape, trying to welcome the frightened girl to form a bond
with her, as none of the other `Reis` had with any other Rei. She'd sent
the Meliorist to help the Fourth's nightmares and the Scholarly Dragon to
aid Mein Grossfeldmarschall, while she went to find Shinji-kun. She'd
found him, a baby in the womb dreaming peaceful dreams, but she had also
realized that Shinji-kun had discovered something the Commander had wanted
to keep hidden from him, and Rei fervently agreed, it was something she
dreaded he'd discover.
~So I fled,~ she thought.
----------------------------------------
"An old friend rescued me from my nightmare," Asuka admitted, felt
herself shivering. Death by hanging was a particularly terrifying
nightmare for her. Her mother had died that way and Asuka would always
remember finding the body dangling there, swaying as if in a breeze. The
hypocrisy of the funeral. That had been bad.
The Meliorist had watched Horseface go through one cat-related
scenario after another, each one reducing him to near impotence. Even the
arrival of three Reis and both her bodyguards hadn't allowed Horseface to
break out. Altara had to send Horseface in blind and deaf to combat the
enemies himself.
~Where I can't forgive myself for not saving my mother, he can't
forgive himself for anyone getting hurt in his defense,~ Asuka thought
ruefully, ~We're _both_ stupid.~
She decided _not_ to describe Spineless's senselessness on morphine,
although she preferred him that way, loopy but unafraid.
Asuka stopped. "Sammi, Erin, that meeting, where we discussed how to
get the base back where it belongs . . . did Captain Ramsey speak German?"
"Yes." "Of course." The women answered.
~But when I confronted him and Admiral Simson on June 16th . . . he
couldn't speak German. How do you become fluent in about 20 days?~ She
had no answer. "Can I tell them how?" she asked Sammi and Erin in German.
The two considered. "Yes," Sammi said as Erin nodded.
"We molded an AT field into the appropriate shape. While we used
coils, like the coils of an ignition, to generate the massive magnetic
field. Hor - Pilot Saotome wove the Faraday cages to protect the people
and equipment. Kaji wouldn't give me an atom bomb, so we had to do it the
old-fashioned way, by discharging a battery into the coils."
"An atom bomb." Mouse _and_ Little Miss Happy seemed equally
surprised.
"Of course, an atom bomb generates a powerful electromagnetic
disturbance," Asuka told them, "They said it wasn't feasible, ha, it would
have worked perfectly." Asuka enjoyed the shocked looks on all their
faces.
"You don't need an atom bomb," Horseface said as he rubbed his cheek,
"One slap is destructive enough."
"Maybe if you hadn't grabbed me!" Asuka shouted back, fists on her
hips.
"You didn't enjoy it?" Spineless asked, totally clueless.
"Getting groped by this . . . this . . . " She waved her hand
dismissively at Horseface.
"Pervert?" Horseface asked angrily, arms folded.
"Stinking, sweaty oaf! I wouldn't insult perverts, they don't smell
like you. A _dead_ horse doesn't smell that bad," Asuka shot back,
pinching her nose closed.
"I mean slapping him, I never saw you looking so . . . ," Spineless
said.
"Radiant, beautiful, excited . . . fulfilled," Wondergirl suggested.
"Fulfilled," Spineless agreed, smiled, then retreated behind
Wondergirl, who braced herself for Asuka's attack.
"There's too many breakables for Rei Fu!" Sammi announced.
"Rei Fu?" Mouse asked, and was answered by Wondergirl hoisting her
over her head.
"Throw the enemy at the enemy," Wondergirl explained then set the
stunned girl down gently, "You have weapons as long as you have enemies."
"I . . . see," Mouse stammered, edging away from Wondergirl and behind
Little Miss Happy.
"I think she really objected to where you grabbed her." Spineless
seemed to be belying his name. "You should have asked."
"How 'bout you faking bein' loopy," Horseface shot back, "I ain't deaf
you know."
Asuka waved her hand, she'd forgiven him, especially for his laughing
at Gendo's beard.
"It was kind of fun," Spineless guiltily admitted, "It was also a
little research."
Asuka dropped the subject, glared at Horseface to make him do
likewise, there was only one reason to `research` that, Spineless's
roommate. "We'd been working on a solution, after explaining all our hours
of painstaking labor, our deep understanding of mathematics and the
structure of the universe."
"In a few sentences," Spineless added, not exactly helpfully
"We went to bed, blissfully unaware he would betray us so deeply."
She sniffed and `swooned`.
While Spineless was stewing, Horseface told the next, which is what
Asuka wanted to know.
"All he did was talk about all the math and the AT field problem,"
Horseface insisted, when he got a nod from Sammi he continued, "I just
typed them into the Magi."
"The computing engine!" Mouse brightened. "I bet it just solved the
problem instantly!"
"Not quite," Juri said, "It took a couple of hours."
"Why didn't you use it yourselves?" Mouse asked looking at Asuka.
"Because no one wanted to type in 50 pages of simultaneous equations
dear," Asuka told her, managing not to scream. "Our martial artist here
learned how to type in a few hours, so fast he'd melt a regular typewriter.
I still haven't figured out how you actually ran the program." Horseface
got a head shake from Sammi, Horseface just smiled at Asuka. "Jealous?
Biggest math problem of the age and dumb ole' me solved it? Not you?"
Horseface asked.
Asuka was dimly aware of Spineless and Wondergirl dragging Megumi and
Mouse out of the path of the explosion, she didn't see if Curly saved
Hikari or not. Horseface stood with that stupid smile on his face and
awaited his destruction.
----------------------------------------
"That's quite a vocabulary," Sammi commented, she wondered if Ranma
had deliberated provoked her. ~Who am I kidding, of course he did, and
never responded,~ she thought. "Asuka dear, you can't insult him in German
until you've taught him some."
The furious redhead looked like she'd been hit on the head with a
frying pan, her entire carefully crafted, exquisitely nasty tirade had
fallen on deaf ears.
~One reason Ranma kept smiling,~ Sammi thought, ~He didn't understand
one word if it.~
"Misa-chan gave Raccoon orders to do that," Ranma told the others,
"Since he's not here . . . "
"You perform his duties," Rei realized, nodded.
Asuka looked like another explosion was imminent, but there was
nothing left to back it up.
"Besides you yourself suggested using his abilities to make the
Faraday cages to protect the rest of us," Sammi pointed out, Asuka didn't
perk up at that.
~I hope she's just tired,~ Sammi thought with concern.
"You break it you bought it," Rei warned Ranma.
"I am not broken, Wondergirl," Asuka managed.
~Just humiliated,~ Sammi thought, then sat up when she realized.
"I heard that you had returned and I was pleased," Rei told Asuka, "I
suspected the entrance was your doing."
"Oh yes," Sora asked enthusiastically, "You sneak out and return with
a big entrance."
"We just burned some cables getting back," Asuka said, sounding more
like Rei than Rei had today.
Sammi knew what was bothering the girl, she'd lost control much the
same way she just had, after they returned. Asuka proclaimed she was a
monster, that someone would have to put her down like a mad dog when, not
if, she truly became a monster. Sammi personally thought the chances of
that remote, for the same reason Asuka reacted the way she had. Asuka took
things deep inside and kept the world at bay with a mask, that mask and her
need for the mask to be the truth would eliminate any chance of Asuka
slowly falling to corruption, she'd either hang on until the end, or be
destroyed when she collapsed completely.
~And I don't really know if I should let that condition persist, or
change it,~ Sammi thought, she could recall all the conversations Rei had
overheard about the AT fields, she could make many of the connections Asuka
and Jeff had made. But it still left the question whether bottling things
up or giving them something to fight for was the best way to increase the
strength of a pilot's AT field.
"There were parties and fireworks and all kinds of celebrations," Sora
continued breathlessly, "You must have done something fun!"
"Yeah, getting yelled at's lotsa fun," Ranma grumped.
"I was more scared than when I was facing Ghroth and Nyarlathotep,"
Shinji admitted, "Toji was so happy to have his sister back, he didn't even
notice."
Toji looked ready to reply, then saw his sister's smug expression, he
turned his back on her, missing her giggle. All of which were driving
spikes into Asuka's heart. Belldandy saw her distress and headed towards
her.
~That got Asuka moving,~ Sammi thought as she watched Asuka put
`Wondergirl` between her and her self-appointed comforter, ~Which
effectively ends that effort,~ Sammi thought. Rei glared at Belldandy,
taking a more active role as barrier, ~Or defender,~ Sammi thought, noting
that Asuka had lost none of her tactical skill. ~Except that,~ Sammi knew
Asuka wasn't expecting the hug from `Wondergirl.`
'Thank you for bringing them back safely,' Sammi's lip-reading picked
out what Rei had said, she doubted anyone except Asuka had heard it.
"You didn't celebrate at all?!" Sora asked as if the natural order of
things had been upset.
"I practically cried myself to sleep," Asuka admitted, looked
warningly at the others, "I said _practically_._"
"I did weep, as did Nabiki-kun," Rei said, "Are all tears sea water?"
"After a fight," Ranma said, "You don't feel like celebrating, you
just want to sleep."
Sora was joined by Megumi and Hikari in looking from pilot to pilot in
disbelief. Hikari got a slight nod from Toji which increased her
amazement.
"You do all the bragging later," Ranma added, returning the world to
its axis, and getting frowns from everyone, except Belldandy, who didn't
seem to understand, and the guards who did.
"The closest that came to a party-er was Misato-san," Shinji said,
"She met her friend Takemono-san at a party. I think she had a little to
drink."
"What a surprise," Asuka announced.
"Both Pilot Tendo and I flew back, I aboard the XB-36, Pilot Tendo in
the HK-1," Rei said.
----------------------------------------
The Proof Of The Pudding Is In The Eating
"I remember waking up on the morning of July 8th, before that it was
March the 2d," Yumiwashi said, "I saw Toji and I knew I had to see the
pilots who saved me, to tell them how much it meant." She frowned at Toji.
"How did you forget to tell them what I asked?"
Toji squirmed and looked at his feet. She winked at the others. She
could imagine why the pilots weren't turning cartwheels after their
victory. She'd seen and experienced what they fought. ~It isn't something
you celebrate,~ she thought, ~It was something you survived.~ "I know you
wanted to rest, and I am glad you came."
Asuka nodded. "I do wish you spoke quicker, that laconic delivery is
worse than Wondergirl always chattering away."
"Oh! I forgot," Yumi' exclaimed, "Did Shinji bring his cello?! And
one of your compositions?"
Shinji looked shocked, Megumi looked interested.
"I forgot my violin, we could have played together," Yumi added.
"I don't have mine," Rei-san added, "I should have asked."
"I couldn't teach and play," Asuka explained.
"Why doesn't Ranma play, if he can pick up movements, why can't he
play an instrument?" Yumi asked.
"Music serves no purpose to martial arts," Rei said, "A paraphrase."
"I never said that," Ranma protested.
"Rei-san, you were supposed to arrive," Yumi asked, "Why didn't you
come by?"
"Rescue," Rei said, "Roku-kun's brother died July 8, 1939."
"Oh," Yumi said, "I didn't know."
Rei nodded, "None did," she said, "I could not abandon him that day."
"What did you do?" Ranma whispered as he leaned towards her.
Rei turned to face him. "Provoked a fight," she said, "Your need."
"Huh?" Toji said, "How does starting a fight help him . . . ?"
"To initiate communications," Rei said.
"How?" Asuka asked, "By letting him tap Morse code on your skull?"
"Someone said, 'People in distress require others', and that 'danger
invites rescue'," Rei said, "And another that truth can take a route
through combat."
Yumi watched Asuka frown and glance at Ranma, she guessed those were
the people who'd told Rei.
"Couldn't you have talked with him?" Belldandy asked, in faintly
disapproving tones.
"If you've ever talked with him, you'd know, he can spin words until
he's convinced you black is white, up is down and you're the Queen Mother
of Hindustan," Asuka said, "Making him mad enough to take a swing at you
strips that away, and it's very dangerous Wondergirl."
"I was prepared," Rei replied.
Asuka glanced around, Yumi realized she wanted to tell Rei-san
something important, but couldn't without breaking security. "Okay," Asuka
said, "It worked, what are you doing _next_ year?"
"Enlist Ranko," Rei-san said.
Ranma started choking. Shinji and Toji had to slap him on the back.
"Saotome disapproved of his isolation," Rei said, "She is not tolerant
of hypocrisy."
"So when he got back, she read him the riot act," Yumi said, and
laughed. She could imagine the diminutive redhead telling off the tall,
austere gaijin.
"He spoiled it by apologizing before Saotome could hurt him," Asuka
said, sounding extremely disappointed. Yumi thought Asuka liked fighting a
little too much, like Ranma, she hoped Ranko wasn't like that, she sounded
nice.
"I thought they liked each other," Toji said, "And why didn't you
break them up." Toji accused Ranma.
"He has never beaten her in a fight," Rei intoned, "I do not believe
he could." Everyone seemed shocked, especially . . .
"Ranko can beat up Ranma?" Toji stammered.
"I don't hit girls!" Ranma shouted back, terribly embarrassed.
"Really?" Sammi asked, "Isn't the real reason Jeff and you are at
loggerheads, is because of the way you treat Ranko? Besides, you've hurt
Ranko plenty of times."
Ranma was looking around desperately, at all the angry girls around
him.
"You should be ashamed of yourself!" Sora told him.
"Hey! I stopped doing that!" Ranma said, "Ranko even got Raccoon to .
. . "
"To - what, Horseface?" Asuka asked, the paragon of innocence.
"What about you giving kissing lessons?" Ranma stammered as he
regained his confidence, "How about that? Kissing Raccoon and _demanding_
all of us watch?!"
Now Asuka blushed and looked around at the others nervously.
"Cheating on poor Ranko," Hikari said, "The poor girl would never have
a chance against your charms, Asuka how could you?"
"She is very beautiful," Rei agreed, Asuka suddenly backed away from
her, "But I prefer Shinji-kun. The lesson was informative."
"But it was probably like kissing your brother," Sammi added after her
seat at the table.
"EWWWW!" Yumi said and Megumi's grimace meant she heartily agreed with
her.
"We also began civilizing 'Horseface'," Rei said.
"How did you do that?" Hikari asked in mock amazement.
"We started kicking him in the ankles when he says something stupid,"
Shinji said.
"Ice Princess arriving also helped," Asuka added, "You'd almost think
Horseface missed her."
"We missed you," Rei said, making Asuka squirm again.
"We also found out about the trip to the Azores," Shinji said, "Ranma
objected to being moved here."
"He couldn't handle the beauty surrounding him," Sammi added
theatrically.
"I was afraid of what you'd teach Ranko," Ranma replied, "Did you
finally get Misa-chan loose? Her bedroom door trapped her inside."
"Yes, Pen Pen opened it," Shinji said, "Just pushed it open."
"Who's Pen Pen?" Megumi asked.
"Misato's pet penguin," Sammi said, "He just pushed the door open?"
Sammi sounded shocked. Shinji nodded.
----------------------------------------
"That wasn't the only weird thing that night," Ranma said, "Something
started following Rit-chan and Rei on their way home. I trailed them to
find out what it was, so did Raccoon," he added with disgust.
"Your attack did not succeed," Rei said.
"Neither did the tank you brought," Ranma retorted angrily, "We ran
away and set up our ambush," he was embarrassed by that.
~By combining into one being,~ Ranma thought, ~It was weird seeing and
feeling all those things. All the colors that came with words, the
incredible strength, the easy AT field manipulations, all that and more.
It was like I could finally see the world clearly, think clearly and use my
abilities without any limitations.~
"The attacker never had a chance," he said and was ashamed by that.
He didn't want to reveal that they gave the third one a chance to be
reasonable. The death of the first one was horrible.
~Disentangling my thoughts from Rit-chan and Raccoon's was a _lot_
more work,~ Ranma thought, ~Talking like Asuka was not fun, nor was writing
everything I discovered in my journal, only to realize it was in German.~
Ranma smirked at that, he'd done it to himself, ~But it's typical of
Raccoon, subtly assuring that he gets what he wants.~ Then he considered
what Rit-chan really was, one of the shoggoths, he couldn't understand why
more of them weren't like her.
Catching Raccoon walking in had been a coup, after nearly scaring
Nab-chan by accident.
~And getting thoroughly scared in return,~ he thought, ~I wonder what
he did to who. I wonder what I'd do if I caught whoever was threatening
Rei,~ he thought, he knew he couldn't kill someone, but he could beat them
up. He was well aware both from his training and a few lingering bits from
the joining, that there were places and ways to hit people that wouldn't
kill them, but killing them would be more merciful.
"Say, 'Langley', you ever hear of anyone who ever went up against
Raccoon, and lived?" he asked.
"He _kills_ his enemies," Rei said with conviction.
~When did _she_ ever see him shoot somebody down?~ he asked himself.
"When it mattered, never, when he couldn't reach them for some reason
. . . you don't want to know the ten kinds of Hell he put them through."
Asuka seemed frightened by the prospect.
"One of you has killed . . . people?" Sora asked horrified.
"Yes," Ranma and Rei told her.
"I watched him, an assassin," Ranma said, "Bang, one shot, then - then
escorted me home, gave me a snack and put me to bed. Scary."
"He shot the enemy several times, beat the foe's head against a
chimney, then hurled the victim off a six-story building onto a wrought
iron fence."
Sora and Megumi both blanched at that.
"It was another assassination attempt," Rei added.
"Who was he trying to assassinate?" Megumi asked with a nervous
chuckle, "Say, Bell, are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost."
"Just - remembering," Belldandy admitted, shook her head.
----------------------------------------
Belldandy _had_ encountered Pilot Davis that early morning of the
10th. She'd gone to tell - that girl - something when `Raccoon` had
intercepted her outside - that girl's - apartment. He'd told her his
training, and trainers, frightening enough, then he'd said things, things
she interpreted as a threat to Keiichi-san, possibly Megumi, Sora . . .
Kami-sam alone knew how many. He'd said he 'could cut out her heart'.
She'd raced back to the temple in terror, enlisted Urd and Skuld to
search for anything that might be the spell or curse he'd used.
Keiichi-san had found the mirror, the same one she carried in her pocket,
the thing all three goddesses had repeatedly _failed_ to notice. Then
Keiichi-san had told them it was a bluff and a warning. For hours she had
been in Hell, a Hell of her own making, so frightened she'd barely been
able to think clearly. Rearranging the kitchen after Skuld, then Urd
searched it, had taken hours, all the while wondering if Keiichi-san was
right, if the threat was just an illusion. She was still catching herself
wondering if every injury, misfortune, lost or misplaced item was due to
the universe or a malevolent spell.
~The 'Human Condition' indeed,~ she remembered his words. It
frightened her to imagine herself the plaything of something malignant, and
knowing she was personally immune but couldn't protect Keiichi-san, Megumi,
Sora, or the others.
"I was remembering a warning someone gave me, and a gift," Belldandy
told Megumi, "Someone very much like your friend."
"My condolences," Asuka said with real sympathy, "I'd hoped there was
only one like him in the world."
"Perhaps there are thousands, copies of one original, huge legions all
awaiting activation," That girl - said in a tone that made everyone
shudder.
"Remind me not to let her talk while I'm cooking," Asuka said,
"Stories like that could collapse a souffle. Stories like that could
collapse a cracker. Where do you get such wild ideas?"
"Have you never wondered if you are the original or a copy?" that girl
- asked, "You have said that pilots are valuable, wouldn't they make
thousands?".
"When they made me, they broke the mold," Asuka said proudly.
"You do not look moldy," That girl - said.
"What's gotten into you today?" Asuka asked, "You take your garrulous
pills or something?" She leaned towards - that girl - and sniffed. "You
don't smell like our Glorious Leader. Why don't you pick on someone else?"
That girl - turned to Hikari, "You remind me of Ranma."
"Hey!"
"Oh, boo hoo!" Hikari said, covering her face, "Rei-san is so cruel!
What did I ever do to deserve such an insult?!" Hikari glanced angrily at
Toji, "Why aren't you de - fend - ing me?" she wailed.
"She'd probably tell me I'm as pretty as Sour Kraut or something,"
Toji responded, cowering in fear, "I'd never survive."
"_VAS_!_"
Belldandy couldn't understand how they could be so cruel to each
other. Skuld and Urd were sisters, but they would still care for each
other. Belldandy could understand that, but not friends being this way.
"Aren't you going to do something?" Belldandy asked the guards.
Kraznyzamok eyed her coolly. "When they go after someone who can't
defend themselves, yes," she said, "In the meantime, I remember how I was
when I was 14, and cut them some slack. Don't you remember how silly you
were at that age?"
Belldandy realized the woman had spoken in German, limiting the number
of people who could understand. Belldandy never remembered acting in this
fashion.
----------------------------------------
What In Hell Have I Done To Deserve All These Kittens
"Yes," Asuka said, "But you put up with us even we go beyond silly."
She grinned widely.
"You're just sore 'cause I beatcha," Horseface smiled widely back at
her.
"He lost a bet, Ranko had to give Raccoon a passionate kiss," Asuka
explained, "She decided to give the payoff a theatrical delivery. She's so
sly, I never thought she'd give Raccoon a goodbye tonsillectomy."
"I guess she really _does_ like him," Curly said, he turned to Hikari,
"You said, 'When a girl gives a boy a kiss like _that_ she more than likes
him." Hikari blushed.
"Have you ever kissed your Keiichi that way?" Wondergirl asked Little
Miss Happy, who instantly became Little Miss Mortified.
"What about what you two did to poor Nab-chan," Horseface shot back,
"Talk about silly."
"We couldn't let her strangle you, no matter how much you deserved
it," Asuka said. She thought about tickling Ice Princess until she finally
broke down and started laughing. "Aren't you really embarrassed about what
she did to you? No, Sammi, I'm not going to reveal it."
~Explaining how the little control freak peed all over her beloved
would just confuse everyone,~ Asuka thought, then started laughing at how
she and Sammi had teased Ice Princess about it. "I also won't reveal your
part in events."
"I just stood there and watched," Sammi said and glanced nervously at
the other guards, embarrassed _for_once_.
~Yes, point to Asuka,~ Asuka thought.
"I thought you were killing each other, then I realized the noise had
gone on too long. I bet Rei and Shinji are sorry they missed it."
"I am not," Wondergirl said.
"Me, neither," Spineless added.
"You pilots are just plain weird," Megumi said, shaking her head,
Mouse nodded her agreement.
"Well we weren't all being silly," Asuka said, "I took on a grave and
difficult responsibility, to teach Horseface to be human."
"Oh Asuka, you're so noble," Hikari said, hands clasped under her
chin.
"Can I kick her in the ankle?" Horseface asked Sammi, pointing at
Asuka.
"We only kick you when you're being unintentionally hurtful. Mein
Grossfeldmarschall or Megorofeld-chan is doing it on purpose," Sammi said,
"So insult her back."
Horseface considered, "You don't look half bad today."
"That's - "
"For a horse's other end," he concluded.
"You should have skipped that lesson," Yumi suggested, "Mein Goro - I
can't even say it."
"Mein Grossfeldmarschall," Wondergirl supplied.
"How do you come up with all these names?" Megumi asked, "Horseface,
Curly, Ice Princess, Roku-kun, Spineless, Megorofeld-chan, Raccoon,
Misa-chan, Rit-chan. Maybe they mean something to you, but I'm lost."
Asuka sighed, this was going to take a while to tell.
"Analyst Ibuki stated calling and thinking of Pilot Langley as 'the
Second Children' was disrespectful," Wondergirl said.
"Wondergirl, you have to stop talking in cliffhangers, you tell half
the story and we have to drag the rest out of you." Asuka paused. "All
right, I'll set it up. We were packing for the recent move. Ranma and
Ranko had packed up Racoon's room, that is Pilot Davis."
"I got that. I want to know how he got that name," Megumi said in
exasperation.
"Mein Grossfeldmarschall gave him it," Wondergirl said, again as if it
explained everything.
"Anyway, I was helping Horseface, because calling him something else
is more accurate and less polite, since Saotome was moving into Sammi's
place."
"Both of them?" Yumi asked.
"They wear the same clothes, I mean _all_ the same clothes," Asuka
managed, "Speaking of that, we need to take _her_ shopping, we can use
Spineless and Curly as pack mules. Everyone else, except Wondergirl, Pilot
Ayanami because she's _so_ amazing - "
"I think she is," Spineless interrupted softly.
Asuka cleared her throat. "Spineless because he's so bold and
intrepid in the face of im - minent - and - cer - tain - doom," Asuka said
as she smiled at him. He muttered an apology and fell silent. "And Doctor
Akagi were helping Ice Princess, because it fits, right?"
A chorus of 'Langley the Merciless' rang out, half-heartedly.
"I'll kill you all later," Asuka reassured them, "So Dr. Akagi,
Raccoon, Ice Princess and Maya Ibuki were sailing for the Azores, Horseface
moved here. That's the correct set up Wondergirl."
"Raccoon is a corruption of Roku-kun, with implications of tanuki,"
Wondergirl said, "Mein Grossfeldmarschall does not wake quickly or easily,
so she misspoke Roku-kun because Jeffery Kevin Davis is almost
unpronounceable."
"Misato Katsuragi keeps trying," Juri added, "Very trying."
'Pick one mispronunciation and stick with it,' the guards chorused
their lament on the subject.
"We could be a barbershop quartet," Erin suggested. No one thought
much of the idea.
"She was disturbed by the 'little black dress' both you and Nabiki-kun
stated was mandatory," Wondergirl said.
"Is _that_ why she looked like she wanted to rip your faces off at the
going away party?" Yumiwashi asked.
Asuka exchanged a glance with Wondergirl. "I don't know what you're
talking about. The pilots and support staff are always amicable and
respectful of each other, shut up Horseface, or _ELSE_."
"Did you leave that threat vague because meaning can only be
approached with words?" Wondergirl asked.
"Oh no," Horseface moaned, "More words that don't mean anything, then
why have them?"
----------------------------------------
Ranma still distrusted words, and Asuka effectively admitting they
didn't mean anything made things worse. It reminded him that he'd been
packing away his pictures, pictures that _he_ understood instead of those
static posed shots. At the party where Asuka said words only _approached_
meaning.
"Relationships, rather than words, matter," Rei restated her argument
from the party, "This is an example. Megumi is here for Sora, Hikari and
Yumiwashi are here for Toji, you are here for Mein Grossfeldmarschall, they
are here for us." She indicated the guards.
"Also she threatened me," Ranma said, frowned at Asuka.
"You would succumb to physical violence?" Rei asked, raising an
eyebrow perhaps a millimeter or two.
~You're extra speaky today,~ Ranma thought. "No, not really," Ranma
said proudly, "She couldn't hit me."
"Then the threat is to your relationship," Rei said.
"I don't have a _relationship_ with him!" Asuka shouted.
"Then why do you teach him? Why do you want me taught? Why do you
thrust Shinji-kun and I together whenever you can?" Rei asked, actually
curious.
Asuka stammered something, he doubted it was in any language. ~Kind
of like I felt while Raccoon told me what a gentleman was, scary,~ Ranma
thought.
"Mein Grossfeldmarschall began teaching Pilot Saotome the proper use
of swords on the 12th, after the Azores Mission had sailed," Rei said.
~Yeah, she only had to knock me cold,~ Ranma thought, rubbed the back
of his head, ~Trust that looney Raccoon to give her a _magic_ weapon.
Although she _is_ pretty good with it,~ he admitted grudgingly, to himself.
He'd never let her hear him say that.
"You also planned the baseball picnic," Rei said, "I first called you
Mein Grossfeldmarschall, because while openly respectful, it also contains
a sting."
"Ha!" Megumi said, "That's what I thought. Do you tease each other
constantly?"
"Yes/No!" the pilots said. "No/Yes!" a different mix.
'Yes,' the guards shouted in chorus. The pilots glared at their
smiling guards.
"So you came to the motor club to see us?" Belldandy asked.
"Certainly, I thought I was delivering an invitation - "
"Soyouhelpedusbuyournewequipment!Thankyou,thankyou!" Sora said.
"Yumi is she your younger sister?" Asuka asked, backing away from Sora
in mock terror.
Sora glanced around in confusion.
"I talked like that when I first met the pilots," Yumi admitted,
smirking at the others.
"Why was the kitchen in such a state?" Megumi asked Belldandy, "In
fact the whole temple looked like it had been ransacked and you were still
cleaning up."
~Boy is _she_ nervous,~ Ranma thought about Belldandy.
"Oh, we were searching for something," Belldandy told her, smiled
disarmingly.
Ranma thought he caught a grin, teeth and all, from Rei, just as
swiftly gone. ~If I could move as fast as her smiles appear and
disappear,~ Ranma thought, ~I would be the greatest martial artist who ever
lived.~
"So why did you insist on continuing to teach me the next day, before
the picnic?" Ranma asked, trying not to sound confrontational.
Asuka gritted her teeth before answering. "I gave my word. You know
anything about keeping promises? Well I keep mine."
"I - " Ranma began angrily, but his ankles started feeling pained, he
glanced around and noticed Sammi, Erin and Rei were staring at them,
considering how well Sammi and Rei could throw, he changed direction.
"If you listened, you'd know I was tryin' to say 'thanks', or don't
you like bein' thanked."
"You are welcome, sir." Asuka gave him the most sarcastic curtsy he
had ever seen. "Last time yes, your `thanks` _were_ unwelcome," Asuka told
him.
~The massage `Ranko` offered,~ Ranma thought angrily, ~I could see how
bad you were hurtin'. Was I supposed to just ignore it?~
"Well, I want to thank you for the work, the money and the invitation
to the party," Megumi broke in, breaking the tension between him and Asuka.
Ranma still didn't know what her problem was, she was a good, if
demanding, teacher, yet she never let him get close to her, ~Nobody,~ he
stopped the thought, ~Rei said she let Raccoon and Nab-chan do the
decontamination, which is pretty intimate. Terrific, an answer and to get
the rest, I gotta wait or get to the Azores.~ "When do those two go
through the Panama Canal and can I talk to them when they do?" Ranma asked.
"You could probably radio them at anytime, if it's important, or write
them a postcard if it can wait," Tomiyo told him.
Ranma thought about how smitten the 'old man' was with Mirei, he
wondered what their kids would be like.
----------------------------------------
"Do you remember our preparations?" Rei-chan asked Shinji. He had, at
the time he hadn't realized why Rei-chan kept brushing up against him, the
times he brushed her had been due to tight quarters and his own clumsiness,
he'd assumed the same was true of Rei-chan. At the party he realized
differently. They'd arrived as Megorofeld-chan had been unloading. He and
Rei-chan had immediately been surrounded by the entire softball team.
"I remember you picking up that gorilla!" Sora laughed, "He looked
_so_ scared." She paused, "Now I realize you'd never hurt him or anyone
else."
"I intended to frighten him," Rei-chan said, "He would not obey Mein
Grossfeldmarschall, unacceptable."
"Lemon." Shinji offered Megorofeld-chan. ~As sour as you look now,
it would be an improvement,~ he thought as she turned her sour look at him,
instead of apologizing, he kept smiling. He wasn't exactly sure what would
happen, but was prepared for the worst.
His revelation that anything that occurred _in_the_universe_ made
Asuka Soryu Langley mad gave him he had a vast freedom of action with her,
more so than Misato-san who got mad randomly and inconsistently.
"Should I dab that behind my ears to smell nice?" she asked acidly.
"Whatever you think best, Megorofeld-chan," Shinji said, and prepared
for the explosion.
It didn't come, Megorofeld-chan returned her attention to making
lunch.
"I though Megumi-san was going to die when we started doing 'Who's on
First'!" Sora said to Rei-chan.
"I am pleased someone knew it," Rei-chan replied.
~I'm glad it gave us some room to breathe,~ Shinji didn't say, ~Being
closed in like that is . . . scary.~
"Did you notice anything . . . strange?" Belldandy asked, "Before that
foul ball?" She looked around uncertainly, like she had at some of the
teasing.
Shinji hadn't, neither had the other pilots.
"So, did we talk you brother's ears off?" Megorofeld-chan asked,
sounding almost apologetic.
"No, I think he liked it," Megumi said.
~So did you and Sora,~ Shinji remembered feeling left out as Rei-chan,
Megorofeld-chan, Keiichi-san, Sora, Megumi and Skuld all talked completely
over his and Belldandy's heads. They were having such a good time, he
hadn't had the heart to interrupt.
"Skuld _hated_ it," Megumi admitted, "She thinks she's the only female
engineer in Japan, or at least Tokyo."
"HA!" Megorofeld-chan replied. But the reminder of how the fun ended,
quieted everyone.
"Well, Megorofeld-chan's original plan worked," Shinji said, "Although
Kaji-san and Hiro-san arguing was . . . interesting."
Tomiyo laughed once. "I particularly liked Ayanami-san's 'You have
not considered children', as she walked through. Major Katsuragi was
oustandingly pleased."
"That's where the question came from!" Megorofeld-chan realized.
"Yes," Rei-chan said.
"I think it was fun while it lasted," Toji said.
"But you and Hikari-san never kissed!" Yumiwashi said. That stopped
everything.
----------------------------------------
The Worm That Hath Eat Of A King
Erin cleared her throat. "You were still teaching Ranma on the 15th
when I drove you around."
"Yeah, even in my nightmares," Ranma said and got a glare from Asuka.
"He didn't eat all of your pancakes. Sammi made sure there were
plenty," Erin said with a smile. Everybody assigned it to the Asuka vs.
Ranma file folder, and didn't ask.
Ranma received another glare from Asuka. "She set up a 4.6 meter
board 2.5 cm by 20.3 cm on the narrow edge and had me practice while
walking on it," Ranma said, "Good practice though," he added in approving
tones.
"That's tough," Toji said.
"Naw, putting it across a couple of sawhorses so it could wobble just
made it interesting," Ranma said. Everyone stared at him except Asuka.
"I knew it would keep him occupied for a couple of hours," Asuka said,
"Making sure he'd stick with it, _that_ was the interesting part." Now
Asuka received the glare, gave a grin in response.
"Aren't they ccuuuuutttteeeee?" Sammi squealed, mortifying the
combatants and ending the battle. Erin envied the other woman's easy
handling of all the pilots, that ease made her the de facto leader of the
guard force, she could always get them to cooperate or defuse situations
that looked on the verge of violence. Asuka alternated between needy and
prickly, the deeper the need, the thicker and sharper the prickles that
Asuka threw up as a defense.
"I never expected you'd have your friends build you some bicycles,"
Erin said, "Don't you think the military could provide you transport to
school?"
"Always keep your options open, besides I want to watch Spineless
teach Wondergirl how to ride, and see if Mr. 'I Can Balance Anything' can
even ride a bike." She grinned, Erin and Hikari joined her.
~Case in point,~ Erin thought.
"By the way, Megumi, how is that going?" Asuka asked, smiling - but
malevolently.
"Uh, it should be ready soon, we, uh, have ordered the frame, we, uh,
still have time," Megumi stammered as she backed away from Asuka
step-by-step and Asuka advanced step-by-step, smiling all the while, "You
wouldn't really step on our house, would you?"
"Of course not," Asuka said with truly radiant innocence, "I only get
out in my EVA during an alert. There hasn't been one of those in a while."
Asuka waited until Megumi relaxed. "Doesn't that mean we're overdue?"
Asuka asked the guards. Megumi nearly hit the roof.
"I still need experience in Unit 02," Rei said.
"You stay away from _my_ EVA!" Asuka shouted as she advanced on Rei,
"Don't even joke about things like that."
Rei wasn't giving ground. "With Major Katsuragi occupied, who else
could function as Tactical Commander?" Rei asked, all innocence and
curiosity.
Asuka stopped, stunned. "They wouldn't let me . . . would they?"
"I have already recommended it to the Commander."
"You _WHAT_?_!_" Asuka shrieked, backing away from `Wondergirl`.
"I recomm - "
"I _heard_ that part, Wondergirl!" Asuka shouted, "What would have
possessed you to do that?!"
Rei considered for a moment. "Common sense?" Rei offered.
Asuka stared slack-jawed at Rei. "You're joking," she said softly.
"No," Rei said louder that Asuka, "It is a logical conclusion. Has
anyone gainsaid me?"
Asuka looked at the others who were mulling the idea over, but nobody
simply laughed at her. Asuka looked completely stunned.
"We were picked up by Erin-san and Mein Grossfeldmarschall," Rei said,
"She had promised to wash Pilot Saotome's hair, and that I should learn to
wash Pilot Ikari's."
"She washed Ranma's hair," Toji said.
Rei stared at him. "Did I say that?"
"Oh." Toji nodded, obviously thinking it was Ranko. "Shinji you
lucky dog!" Toji elbowed Shinji, who winced and smiled.
~Sneaky Rei,~ Erin thought, ~Who'd you learn _that_ trick from?~
"The process relaxed Saotome almost to the point of sleep," Rei said.
Hikari stepped next to Asuka, "I'll need your help with Toji, he likes
long hair, let him help take care of it," she said, then snickered.
"I still want to know what was that thing I saw that morning, and the
cold I ran through," Ranma said.
"I don't know," Sammi said, "It's just another weirdness surrounding
the pilots."
~That doesn't satisfy anyone,~ Erin thought.
"We discussed children, whether each of us wanted them," Rei said,
"Mein Grossfeldmarschall wanted us to understand the responsibilities."
~I noticed you didn't mention her vehement denials to wanting any kids
of her own,~ Erin thought, ~And you always bring up what you think is the
most important part.~
"I guess it should be discussed," Megumi said.
"You have not discussed it with your paramour," Rei said.
~Accused,~ Erin thought, ~And doesn't Miss Belldandy look like a worm
on a hook. What are you doing, Ayanami?~
"He wants to complete school." Belldandy looked at the faces around
her.
"If you do not agree on such fundamentals, you should not continue a
relationship which will only hurt your partner," Rei said softly, glanced
around for agreement, which she got in abundance.
~Whoa, Rei is really on the attack, ~ Erin thought, glanced at the
guards who were also ready to intervene.
"Rei, people have to advance their relationships at their own pace,"
Juri said.
For an instant, Rei looked like an attack dog that had been pulled off
a steak. Too polite and trained to snap at its owner, but displeased in
the extreme.
"So why don't you want kids?" Ranma took up the attack.
~Now it's got him,~ Erin thought and glanced at Sammi, who shook her
head. ~Logical, part of why we allowed this is to let the kids interact
with other `normal` people,~ Erin thought, glanced at Asuka, wondered if
she was maneuvering to attack or just observing the exchange of fire.
"I didn't think about it because I always thought I'd be a martial
artist, just a martial artist, but me . . . and Ranko, have something to
think about," Ranma admitted softly, "But you're an adult, you should have
thought about that kind of stuff - "
"Ranma." Megumi tried to defend her friend. " I'm sure Belldandy - "
"Shinji's dad abandoned him when his mom died, Rei doesn't even know
who her parents are, Raccoon's dad and mom never wanted him and told him
so, Asuka's dad used his daughter to rise in power and was going to leave a
pretty, 12-year-old girl to the Russian Army to save his own skin, I don't
know if I've got parents, Nab-chan's are both dead, she's had to fend for
herself, I don't want to know what she's had to do to survive. Don't tell
me that you can 'wait' for the subject to come up," Ranma said vehemently.
Megumi and Belldandy backed away from the force of his anger.
Erin had never heard Ranma so passionate and rabid. Belldandy looked
like he'd been physically pummeling her, Megumi was silent. Ranma backed
away without offering or looking apologetic.
"I'm _glad_ Rei-san brought it up," he said finally.
----------------------------------------
Ranma had figured out whom Raccoon had attacked for attacking Rei, and
that Rei had been trying to signal them all day, trying to be provocative
to one person in particular, as if she were restrained from physically
attacking the same way Raccoon had been from killing. He wondered why
Raccoon hadn't just gunned her down, but he hadn't and Ranma only had his
suspicions. The things he had just spilled out in his anger had come from
his own speculations on the memories from Raccoon and Rit-chan, and a
little reading he should have done a long time ago. The idea that anyone
had attacked Rei made him _furious_, not because Ranko had a crush on Rei
or any such nonsense, it was because Rei would defend another pilot, to the
death if necessary, and would not adequately defend herself.
~So somebody else has to,~ Ranma thought, ~I guess that's what the
others were so mad about, my skills didn't defend them. I didn't _use_ my
skills to defend them.~
"I started teaching classes on the 16th," he said to get himself under
control. "I had a lot of help from 'Langley'," he laughed at the
absurdity, "Because I can't teach."
"Yet," Asuka said sternly, "If I can't train you, Raccoon and Ranko
can teach you."
He had to smile at that.
"It seemed okay to me," Tomiyo said, "And I want to found a dojo, I'd
be glad to have you as a teacher, Saotome-san." He bowed. "I went back
and scribbled down pages of notes about how to do it."
Ranma was embarrassed and silent. He glanced at Asuka, the real
reason for his success, she was smiling but not looking at him. ~Just like
the Cooking Contest. That part that got you so mad, you do to _me_,~ he
realized, ~Give somebody a goal and a boost.~ He wondered if he'd ever
understand his fellow pilots.
"That can't have done much," Toji said
"No?"
Toji turned at Shinji's odd tone and Shinji feinted with his right,
and nearly connected with his left.
"Two lessons," Shinji explained.
"What were the moves, right and left?" Asuka asked.
'High guard, medium cut, head thrust to High guard; Plough guard,
powerful cut, below cut to Oxen guard.' The pilots intoned.
Toji was aghast.
"Careful Toji," Yumiwashi teased, "If you hit him again, you won't
like it."
Toji gulped and nodded.
"See Horseface, they paid attention," Asuka told him. Ranma nodded.
"I feel sorry for the next Angel," Hikari said.
"I thought that," Ranma said seriously, "And others paid the price . .
. last time."
"We did our best," Rei told him.
Ranma smiled at her. "Being the best isn't good enough," Ranma said,
"I guess I never thought of that before."
----------------------------------------
Belldandy was uneasy about the escort home, even moreso about all the
fine pots, pans and utensils - that girl's - thank you gift. The pilots
had insisted leaving them alone that way 'Simply was not done', then they'd
all laughed. That girl - had to know who and what Belldandy was, but there
was no way Ranma could have discovered it.
~Yet he attacked, as if I was an enemy,~ she thought uneasily. Of all
the pilots, that he would turn against her was the most powerful
disappointment. She had seen the effect her presence had on the others,
she was terrified that her missteps might have cost them the very element
he'd been brought in to provide. The other pilots and guards seemed
neutral to polite to her. Fortunately Megumi and Sora were still approved
of and were still interacting, laughing and talking with the pilots.
They reached the gate of the temple grounds, Belldandy felt something
wrong, something very wrong. She opened the door to reveal Skuld, running
desperately around the corner of the temple proper, tears in her eyes, her
mallet in hand.
"Big sister!" Skuld shouted as she ran towards Belldandy and the
group.
Belldandy's eyes widened as Skuld was pursued by literally hundreds of
bugs, some following her around the corner, others leaping over the temple
roof. She didn't know what to do, she couldn't reveal her powers.
Ranma was already sprinting forward, he grabbed Skuld and raced back
to the group. Sammi grabbed Belldandy and thrust her behind the line of
guards and pilots.
"FIRE!" Sammi commanded as she fired her B.A.R., Asuka and - that girl
- began a steady fire with their pistols. Ranma had drawn a sword and slew
the few bugs that got through the relentless fusillade. Shinji caught the
boxes of ammunition and metal bits - that girl - tossed to him, and he
loaded six fresh bullets into them and handed it back, likewise he handed
six bullets to Asuka as she emptied her pistol and punched out the spent
casings one at a time. Juri reloaded the magazines of Sammi's B.A.R. while
Erin and Tomiyo stood by, firing occasionally with their shotguns. It
resulted in a continuous noise, so loud it was felt not heard.
Belldandy looked at the terrified faces of the girls and Toji as the
almost continuous fire and Ranma's cries of rage echoed around the street.
The astringent gun smoke curled around them.
The silence abruptly descended, it seemed so alien for a moment.
Belldandy coughed at the gun smoke, but none of the bugs were in evidence.
The guards and pilots stood there, scanning the area, determining whether
it was safe or not. Not safe for them, but safe for those that lived here.
"Spineless!" Asuka said angrily as she methodically reloaded.
Shinji shook his head, he seemed as surprised as anyone.
Belldandy dreaded the possibility of ever explaining this, not to the
pilots, but to Megumi and her friends. She had no idea how she would keep
Megumi and Keiichi-san out of interrogation or prison for disguising her
and her sisters' presence.
"Uh . . . " Asuka began, "I think it would be a good idea if this
never happened."
Belldandy stared at her, utterly stunned.
"One question," Megumi said, "Does this happen often?"
"It didn't happen," That girl - told her.
"Okay, how often _doesn't_ this happen?" Megumi asked as she slowly
recovered from the shock.
"Too often," Sammi said, "But only to the pilots, you should be safe
after we check the place out."
Belldandy didn't know why the pilots had kept staring angrily at
Shinji during the exchange.
"Right it didn't happen," Megumi said as Sammi and Tomiyo moved off to
make sure it was clear. Megumi coughed at the acrid smoke. "No bodies and
you're collecting the casings. Nothing happened. Right Sora?"
"Ham, haram, har, hamra, ham, . . . " Sora said, staring at the kids
who suddenly became combat troops.
"So," Asuka said brightly, "Do you want to schedule another lesson?"
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