Chapter 2, Tense Reunions.

Ranko quickly shoved the clip of her seat belt into it's slot, starting the Nerima district police car and driving out of the parking garage. This car was larger than her old one, but thankfully the shot gun was clipped vertically to the passenger seat rather than laying next to the gearshift.

"So, what was THAT about?" Kimiko asked, as she leaned back in her seat, buckling her own belt.

"Nothing." Ranko snapped, as she turned onto Nerima's main shopping street.

Kimiko wanted to ask more, but she'd been working with Ranko for five years and knew when and when not to push. Driving down the street, she took the time to look around. Nerima was a small district, one of Japan's attempts to emulate the American suburbs. Even then, it was crammed full of small apartment blocks and houses but it was a lot more open than the centre of the city.

Ranko herself was looking around as well. 'How can everything look exactly the same?' She thought, as she drove past an iced cream vender that she'd scammed on many an occasion. It seemed like Nerima had been frozen in the early nineties, right when Ranma left. There weren't any fancy billboards or big outlet stores like in the rest of Tokyo, and if it weren't for the fact that the place contained so many bad memories, this assignment would be pleasant.

As their car turned a corner, Ranko tensed. This was the restaurant block, one of the few places she didn't want to be. As she drove down, Ranko began to fidget more and more obviously until she caught sight of a restaurant called "Ukchan's." She almost flinched, but kept going.

Kimiko noticed this reaction and became more and more curious. This was NOT the reaction of someone who was afraid of running into someone because it'd be socially awkward. Then again, Ranko wasn't talking. Maybe she should talk to those two police officers back at base?

Kimiko's thoughts were interrupted by the car's radio crackling. "This is dispatch. We got a call of an armed robbery attempt at the Neko Hanten. The perpetrator has been detained but police presence is needed, over."

Ranko contemplated not answering the radio, but that would be grounds for dismissal if anyone found out and Kimiko would wonder why they hadn't answered. With a sigh, she picked up the receiver. "This is car 2. We're on our way, over and out."

"you know where this Neko Hanten place is, Ranko?" Kimiko asked, curiously.

Ranko shrugged and pointed. When Kimiko followed her hand, she saw a restaurant with a sign on it's front reading "Neko Hanten."

"Well, I guess that works." She said, as the car came to a stop and she got out. Ranko got out as well, but looked uneasy.

"Kimiko, could you take the lead on this one?" Ranko asked, as she shut her door. She trusted her partner to handle the situation, as she had done many times before. Although not up to her level, which she had started to hold back to about a quarter of it's full strength after Nerima, to avoid hurting weaker opponents, Kimiko was still a respectable fighter, and more importantly, a crack shot.

The other woman nodded, looking slightly confused but walking into the restaurant ahead of Ranko. Usually, the redhead liked leading on patrols, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

HR

In the Neko Hanten, Shampoo bussed tables as she looked over her shoulder to see a wide eyed young man who was pinned to a wall by two daggers stuck through the cloth at his shoulders. She really wished that Mousse hadn't done that, since it got strange questions from the police, but the stupid thief deserved it. There had been a rash of burglaries and robberies in the area recently, and the man seemed to want to capitalize on the work of a more experienced thief. As she looked with disgust at the hanging man, Shampoo heard the tinkling of the Neko Hanten's front door opening.

"Hello, I'm officer Najisa of the Nerima PD. You have something for us?" A woman asked, as she walked into the room.

"Yes, He's over there." Shampoo said, shortly. Her Japanese had improved over the last ten years, as she had realized that she wasn't going back to China. It was all, of course, thanks to the horrible mistake she had made ten years ago at the Tendo Saotome wedding. Shaking her head from those thoughts, She noticed a second police officer walking in behind the first and stationing herself by the door. She ignored her at first, looking at the woman who was studying the knives that held the criminal.

"Who did this?" Kimiko asked, fingering one of the blades.

"That was Mousse. He thought it would be the easiest way to keep him from running away." Shampoo explained, shrugging. "I can get him down if you'd like."

Kimiko nodded. "That would be nice, and can I talk to this... Mousse?' She said the last word as if she was unsure that she was really saying it correctly.

"I'll go get him." Shampoo said, as she left the room.

As the purple haired woman left the room, Kimiko looked to her partner, who had remained silent and inconspicuous in the corner. "Strange hair die." She commented, idly.

"It's not died." Ranko replied, before realizing what she had said and clamping her mouth shut. With all of the times that Shampoo had snuck into her bath, she knew that purple was her natural hair colour. For some reason, seeing the Amazon girl didn't make her nearly as angry as she thought it would. After all, she HAD been the one who locked her curse, but she knew that Shampoo hadn't known the kettle had been destroyed when she had done it.

"Oh, and how would you know?" Kimiko asked, curiously. Then a wicked smile spread across her face. "So, is this the old girlfriend?"

"Shut up, Kimiko." Ranko said, levelly.

About thirty seconds later, Shampoo re-entered the room with Mousse close behind. The duck cursed boy stopped in his tracks as he sensed something in the air. Even though shampoo had become out of practice in Japan, he had kept in shape through training with Ryoga and Konatsu, so he could still read Chi auras and often used them in stead of sight. Running rapidly towards the door, He growled. "Saotome?"

Shampoo looked startled before glancing at the police officer who was standing at the door. Yes, it was Ranma. "Ranma, is that you?" She asked, unsteadily.

"For getting us thrown out of the tribe, prepare to die!" Mousse yelled, as he charged the redhead. He was stopped cold in his tracks as he saw her hand flash down to her belt and remove something, aiming it at him and yelling "Stop!"

Mousse gaped as he looked at the small black pistol that was held in Ranma's hands, aimed straight between his eyes.

"I don't know why you tried to attack me, but if you do it again I will have you charged with assaulting a police officer. Now stand down!" Ranko growled, as she held her gun in rock steady hands. It was a glock 19 pistol, a weapon that the Japanese police forces had only started carrying a few months ago, when the old miroku .38 specials started getting too high maintenance. When she saw that Mousse had put away the small arm scythes that he had pulled out when he first saw her, Ranko slid her gun back into the holster.

Kimiko looked between Ranko and Mousse, blinking stupidly. Finally snapping out of her shock, she pointed at the man who Shampoo had just cut off of the wall. "So, should we book this guy or what?"

Ranko laughed softly as she shook her head. Only her partner could act like that after seeing someone pull weapons out of thin air. "Yeh, let's get going."

As the two began to lead their catch to the car, Ranko was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she saw the face of Shampoo staring at her.

"Ranma, is that really you?" shampoo asked, looking both happy and apprehensive at the same time.

"Sorry, I don't know any Ranma." Ranko said, shrugging out of Shampoo's grip. The Amazon shook her head and turned away, tears glimmering in her eyes. She didn't know that Ranko had one or two in her own that she quickly concealed.

HR

After getting back into their police car, with the criminal secure in the back seat, Ranko started it up and began to head back to the Nerima police department.

"So, you wanna tell me what that was all about?" Kimiko asked, as she leaned back in her chair and fingered a dagger that she had kept as evidence from the crime scene. Although it was in a plastic bag, she could still feel it's sharp edge. It was kind of freaky, actually.

"That was about nothing." Ranko said, as she turned onto the main street.

"So you don't know anything about any Ranma Saotome?" Kimiko asked, sceptically. "I mean, four people have mistaken you for her." Then, she went into a false conspiratorial voice. "I think you're hiding something."

"Look, Kimiko. You ain't gunna drop this, are you?" Ranko asked, frustrated.

"Nope." Kimiko said, smugly. Hopefully, this would be when Ranko would tell her what was going on.

"Well, that's really too bad because I'm not telling you anything." Ranko said, shutting down Kimiko's hopes for an easy solution.

The two sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, until they came to the Nerima Police department and stopped the car, unloading the prisoner and taking him to a holding cell.

HR

Ranko stood on the roof top of her apartment building, running through Kata as hard and fast as she could manage. This was still remarkably fast, and would leave Kimiko, or anyone else who had worked with her, gaping in stupefied shock. That was, of course, why she never used her full power in fights, and why she hadn't really advanced far in her martial arts since she left Nerima. Oh, she could beat any normal martial artist with ease, even holding back, but she was worried about what Nerima held for her. Had Ryoga, Mousse and all the rest trained for the entire time that she was gone? Would she come back to find them heads and shoulders above her? This bothered her a great deal, and she was having trouble concentrating due to it.

As she fumbled a punch, Ranko shook her head. She had to get her mind off of Nerima, but that was getting hard now. She had already run into the Amazons, Hiroshi and Daisuke. How long before she ends up with everyone after her again?

One thing that puzzled her was Mousse's comment about her making it so that they could never return to the village. She knew that Shampoo had been dishonoured by failing to bring home her husband, but was it that bad? With a shrug, she decided that it didn't really matter. Even if she wasn't particularly angry at Shampoo for what she had done, it somehow seemed appropriate that she ended up cast out of the tribe as punishment for it.

Sighing in frustration, Ranko stopped her Kata and shook her head. She was too worried about Nerima to really do anything useful. Walking to the door that was set into the roof, she opened it and headed down to her apartment.

HR

Meanwhile, in the small district of Juuban, a young girl was walking down the street. She'd been forced to stay after school because of an incident involving a spit ball and the teacher's head, and now she was heading home. She just knew that her parents were going to flip out about this and she would have to listen to another lecture about how they never did things like that in their day.

Sniffing in disgust, the girl turned down an alley as a short cut to get home. A few moments later, a shrill scream was heard and there was a massive flash of light, before everything went silent.

END.

The Amazons WILL be explained in more detail later, when Ranko comes clean to Kimiko, as it were.

Sorry this is about 300 words shorter than my usual, but if I put anymore in here it'd seem like I was pushing the plot along, at least to me.