Star Trek: Ranma's Adventures 1 – by DS Wynne
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and other genres belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre story.
Author's note: This the third part of the "Star Trek/Ranma 1/2" trilogy. This story will feature the "results" of everything Ranma did since coming home from the 31st century (via arriving at the start of the Tokugawa Era, and moving onward). While Ranma has lots of friends, he also has lots of enemies. For now, let us begin our first arc, "The Day in the Life of a Martial Artist" Saga.
Part 1
(The following takes place between 7:00 am and 8:00 am.)
Nerima District, Tokyo, Japan
Ranma Saotome yawned, as he woke up...just in time to avoid getting splash by a bucket of water.
SPLASH!
"How-?" Nabiki Tendo said, as she held her empty bucket.
"Hey, when you are as good as me, a simple attack like yours is NOTHING."
"Uh-yeah."
"Say, aren't you suppose to be away at college or something...?"
"With you and your father around, I can't let you two eat my family out of house and home."
"Actually, I need to talk to you about that."
Nabiki arched one of her eyebrows.
"It's going to cost you 5000 yen, Ranma-baby."
Ranma merely shrugged, as he reached behind his back, and threw Nabiki a roll of yen.
"That's 50,000 yen, Nabs."
"You've been hiding out on me?"
"No...but if you want to know why I'm giving you this amount, it will cost you 10,000 yen."
"Humph. Why not?"
After Nabiki handed Ranma to acquired yen, she leaned against the wall.
"I...recently came into a nice nest egg...and no, I'm not going to tell you the details just yet. Suffice it to say, I'm doing 'outside work', and I need a money manager to make said 'egg' grow."
"So why me?"
"I hate to admit this, but in spite of your meddlesome ways, you are good at finances. You are in college now, but you and I both know that because of your gender, you are at a slight disadvantage in the Financial sector."
"If you're going to insult me-"
"Just listen, will ya? Having said that, you're going to have to make a name for yourself, so-"
"So if I become your 'money manager', I'll already have gotten a start long before my fellow business school majors do."
"Exactly! You can actually be legit."
Nabiki gives Ranma "The Look".
"Or so I've heard..."
"So...how are we going to do this? I don't work for free."
"How's a 40-60 splits sounds, post-capital gains?"
"Sounds good. I accept your offer, Saotome."
"I'm glad to hear that. Draw up a contract, and we can go from there-"
"RANMA! Get your butt down, or we'll be late for school!"
"Sounds like Akane is in her usual mood," Ranma said flatly. "Can you tell her that I'll catch up at school."
"Suit yourself. Oh, and Ranma?"
"Yeah?"
"THAT wasn't on the house, you know."
Ranma merely shakes his head.
After Nabiki leaves his room, Ranma checks the room out for "bugs". He was glad that his father Genma and Soun, Nabiki's allies, were on another "training journey" with Master Happosai, the founder and grandmaster of the Musabetsu Kakuto (or "Anything Goes Martial Arts"). Otherwise, it would be much harder to take care of today's business...
"SELMA?"
Chirp!
A holographic projection of his mother, the sword wielding Nodoka, appears.
"Good morning, Captain Saotome," said the projection
"Give me a break down on the days' events, SELMA."
"SELMA" stands for "Specified Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive". Only the top law enforcers within the U.S. Federal Marshal system of the 22nd century were assigned a SELMA unit. Upon retirement, the officer can keep their units, though having a unit requires "retainer status".
"Okay," SELMA said, as she produced a holographic steno pad. "You have an early morning breakfast with Admiral Tsukino before the two of you have to head for school However, your other appointments will be in conflict with your attendance."
"Hmmm. Send a 'Life-Model-Decoy' in my place."
SELMA gave Ranma an expectant look.
"Alright, send TWO. Knowing the scraps I get into..."
"Right."
SELMA then "looked" at her pad.
"With that out of the way, you have a meeting with General O'Neil at 0900 hrs at the Misawa Air Base in the Aomori Prefecture-"
"Jack? What does he want?"
"He wants to know if you would like to return to 'Project: Stargate' in an active capacity."
"I'll meet with him, but I really not sure if I want my old job back. What else?"
"You have a lunch with Miss Rei Hino, Mr. Clark Kent, Mr. Bruce Wayne and Ambassador Diana Prince at the 'Cafe Americana'. They want to update their records as to the status as to 'the business'."
"Ah," Ranma mused. "I guess they want to see I want to officially rejoin the Justice League Unlimited."
"Not only that, but you have an appointment this afternoon with Mr. Steve Rogers and Mr. Tony Stark about re-establishing ties with the Avengers."
"How do people know that I'm around?"
"That would be because of Admiral Tsukino. Remember, she was the one who helped to sponsor the restoration of her connections with this era's contacts."
"Great, just great..."
"And you have a dinner date with Jean-Paul Dupree at the French Embassy, as a favor to 'Section One'."
"Ah, don't remind me," Ranma thought, remembering that he had to go undercover to learn a Hydra plot as a favor to 'Operations'...as a girl. Leave to Nikita to make it hard on her former task master-
"Sir, you should leave now if you are to arrive at your breakfast in timely fashion."
"Right!" Ranma said, as he placed two finger (his index and middle fingers together) at his forehead, and-
ZIP!
Disappears in a flash of light, as he utilizes his "Shunkan Ido" (or "Instant Transmission") technique, a martial arts technique learned with two other close acquaintances on a planet after escaping the destruction from another. Ranma hated wearing those god-awful clothes (courtesy of Yardrat), as well as the increased gravitational field, but at least his wife Usagi and his foster son Goku were there to keep him company...
Sakura Tea House (Juuban Public Park, Azubu Juuban, Tokyo).
Usagi Tsukino sipped her tea, as she read her morning paper. She had to be careful about what information she comes across, for fear of contaminating the future. Then again, after the incident involving last years "Demon Tournament", she didn't care to follow the "rules", if it meant people she cared about would get hurt.
The Sakura Tea House was situated in the middle of the Juuban Public Park, owned by the humanitarian group called the "Rantsu Foundation". The foundation was partially managed by the Mishima Zaibatsu, which is ironic sense this conglomerate was known for its hardball business tactics. Supposedly, this arrangement was set up after the end of the official US occupation of Japan, post-Second World War, as a way to allow one party free hand in running the business. The Rantsu and Mishima clans, the original proponents of this arrangement, have had a love-hate relationship in this regard. The Rantsu clan, headed by Ranma and Usagi, believe that the Mishima clan are a necessary evil, while the Mishma clan, headed by Heihachi Mishima, thinks that Ranma and Usagi are naive fools. Recently, a brawl between Heihachi, his son Kazuya and his grandson Jin resulted in Ranma and Usagi taking over the the daily operations at the Mishma Zaibatsu. They didn't trust Heihachi's adopted son Lee Chaolan to handle the business wisely, nor did they think that the young Ling Xiaoyu was experienced enough to handle important matters (in spite of her success at running her amusement park). So, until one of the Mishma clansmen have sorted their family squabbles, the Rantsus will have to deal with things "on hand".
At any rate, the Sakura Tea House was a favorite spot for the rich and powerful to have their meals and to socialize. Usagi, who also goes by the name "Usashinko-dono Rantsu", since royal titles, save for the monarchy of Japan, were abolished during the American occupation), has a permanent table in the upper terrace, since it was her clan that built the establishment during the Meiji Restoration. Every morning, Usagi would leave her home to go for a daily jog, and then stop by for a morning breakfast. As far as the normal world was concerned, Usagi was nothing more than a high school student in her last year of Secondary Education. Her legal status was a bit sketchy, since, technically, she was married to Ranma, and has been for 1000 years. However, she has two of her doppelgangers running around; one is a version of her who didn't travel across time and space to become the warrior-mystic that she ended up becoming (who behaves as the klutzy sweetheart that everyone expects her to be, and is dating graduate student Mamoru Chiba...also known as the superhero "Tuxedo Kamen"), while the other version is in deep space, working with the United Nation's International Aeronautical Space Agency (or "IASA", which oversees the "UN Spacy" program), as a liaison from the United States Air Force's "Homeworld Security" program (this version of Usagi is USAF Lt/Col Serena Tsukino, PhD, MD, an identity that was approved ten years previously by the United States government as a favor to the legendary Col. Nick Fury of SHIELD). It was easy to juggle the identities, having learned to be duplicitous by necessity over the years, but certain emotional issues, such as creating a "meat puppet" of herself for her "Mamo-chan" made things...bizarre to say the least. Thus, Usagi deals with things one day at a time.
ZING!
"Ah, good morning, Ranma," Usagi said, without bothering to look up from her read. She was dressed in a light blue sun-dress with comfortable shoes.
"'Morning," Ranma replied, as he kissed Usagi on her right cheek. Instead of his usual Chinese outfit, he was now wearing a long-sleeve white shirt (rolled up sleeves), a wife-beater undershirt, gray-khaki pants and black semi-casual shoes. He then sat down, where a waiter appears.
"May I take your order, sir?"
"Yes," Ranma said, as he took a peek at the menu. "I'll have a 'beef bowl with noodles' and some 'orange juice'."
"Aye, sir," the waiter said, as he motioned a female server to bring the usual 'earl gray' tea to the table. There's always someone waiting to serve "Mr. And Mrs. Rantsu" each morning.
"Thanks," Ranma said, as he accepted his tea.
"Coffee, sir?"
"Hmmm...afterwards," Ranma said. "And bring the 'special blend'."
"Ah, yes, sir," the girl said, as she jotted down the note. The "special blend" was Ranma's stash of "Raktajino": Klingon coffee. When Ranma returned from the future, he made sure he had his own crop from which to make more. So potent was this drink, that it has been known to make certain alien species into caffeine addicts. For humans, the effects are immediate, which is why first time drinkers of this non-Colombian brew typically need to nurse their drink.
"It looks like our 'Google' stock is coming along nicely," Usagi mused. Then, she handed the sports section to Ranma. "And 'Blacky' says our more...illicit ventures are coming along nicely as well."
"Blacky", real name "Hung Tanaka" (half-Chinese/half-Japanese), a was the contact person to the criminal underworld of the Far East, from O-Ren Ishii's Tokyo Yakuza to Master Pai Mei and his branch of the Triads, the White Lotus Society. Ranma was uncomfortable with Usagi's willingness to consort with criminals, even go so far as to save O-Ren and Pai Mei's lives on a few occassions, when, by right, they deserved their fates. Usagi insisted that if the world does succumb to the "Second Dark Age" in the 21st century, then every available resource will be needed to salve the damage.
"Great," Ranma said, as he smirked. "Like I need to know what that freak is up to..."
Usagi lowers her paper.
"Ranma, is there something the matter? I know Blacky is a toady to you and all, but he's a nice guy."
"I KNOW that. But...it's bad enough that we have to deal with Heihachi and his family, but...we're suppose to be the good guys, you know!"
"I know that, Ranma. At least with my way, we can keep an eye on things."
"Yeah, yeah. 'Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer'. I GOT that. That doesn't mean that I have to like it."
"I know."
Silence.
"So...how's the love life?"
"Feh, you know how it is, Ranma. Because of YOUR situation, I'm relegated to pretending to be ME."
"Hey, it's not my fault you insist on creating our present predicament."
"Yes, I know that. Because of your Juraian heritage, due to your Mother's side of the family, YOU can legally marry two wives. I'm obligated to make sure that there is an heir between myself and Mamoru, who is to inherit the power of the Earth and the Moon."
"Do you...love the guy?"
Usagi sighed.
"Ranma, I will always love Mamoru...but not in the same way that I will always love YOU. I'm not the same silly girl with a crush on some 'hunky' guy. And I'm certainly not some silly girl with dreams of princes and majestic kingdoms."
Ranma shakes his head. He still couldn't believe how pragmatic Usagi has become. She certainly wasn't the same girl that he first met centuries ago. Now, Usagi was like an aristocrat, who was both prim and proper, and was more comfortable in diplomatic circles than at the local penny arcade (though she can "act" like a ditz when need be). And yet...he still loved her because, in spite of her practical nature, Usagi still possess a caring nature that was palatable.
"Ranma?"
Ranma reached up to hold his wife's hand.
"Of course I care about you. I also care about Akane. And, in a small way, Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi. When the time comes, I'll be that they are taking care of."
"But Ranma...you already did marry Akane...150 years from now. Wouldn't that screw up the timeline, or something, by making a move now?"
"I know that, which is why I will have to back off of the Tendo engagement."
"Really?"
"Really. We've built too much of THAT timeline to let a temporal paradox be washed away for love."
"I see. Don't you think that you'll have problem with your parents and the Tendos?"
"Yep."
"Hmmm. Then it's a good thing that I've talked to our son.
"Which one? The good one, or the bad one?"
"You know what happened to Genshin. I'm speaking about Kenshin."
"Ah, yes. The 'Playboy'."
"He does take after his father," Usagi smirked. "Anyway, I suggested that he should settle down with one of the other Tendo sisters, but would need to ask you for your approval first."
"What's he doing now?"
"He's suppose to be working today at the foundation with Nodoka on improving the security system at the foundation."
"I thought that General 'Hawk' wanted her back with 'Project: GI Joe'?"
"That is something you will need to speak to him about," Usagi replied. "He will be on hand to witness Nodoka's ascendancy as a 'Jonin' within the Arashikage clan."
"Great," Ranma smirked. He didn't particularly care for the Shinobi, in spites of the fact that the Rantsu clan has a close relationship with the Hidden Leaf Village, located near the family estate in Hokkaido. In fact, most of the Shinobi villages and lands are located in and around the most northern of Japan's island. He did have to admit that he has seen some pretty impressive tricks.
"Alright, just let me know when and where to attend-"
"It's actually tonight."
"But I got something to do, already!"
"Then YOU tell Nodoka that. She is hoping that you will attend her ceremony. In person."
"Alright, I'll BE there."
"Good. I'll let her know."
And with that, the two ate in silence.
Tbc.