Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental multi-fandom project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. For more details, see the relevent section in my profile. This is The 365 Project, 7 June.

In the immortal words of Samuel L. Clemens... "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."

Disclaimer: "Love Hina" is the creation and property of Ken Akamatsu and "Mission: Impossible" and all associated characters and situations are the property of Paramount Pictures, used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit. Strangely enough, the inspiration for today's entry came from re-reading one of my own stories - "Reality or Bust".


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"Mission: Inconcievable"
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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Urashima Keitaro glanced around to make sure that none of the more frustrating aspects of his life - to wit, the tenants of the Hinatasou Girls Dormitory which his grandmother owned and he managed - were in the area before he quickly unlocked the door to the officially unused Annex building and slipped inside out of sight. With practiced ease, Keitaro moved across the ground floor's main room to the steps and up them to the second floor where a few steps took him to room 201 of the Annex - the equivilent to his own manager's room at the Hinatasou itself. Once inside the room, Keitaro took extra care to make sure he had locked the door behind him before walking over to take a seat on the bed and open the top drawer of the nightstand to remove a manilla folder and a cassette player. Sitting the cassette player on top of the nightstand, Keitaro pressed the play button as he opened the folder and found himself immediately confronted with a picture of what he could only think of as some kind of mutant monkey.

"Konichiwa, Urashima-san. You are looking at a picture of Ku Lon, one of the leaders of a small independent state in the middle of territory otherwise occupied by a hostile foreign power. The people of this state have been responsible for a series of disappearances and murders stretching back at least three hundred years, but with no verifiable proof to permit an international response. At this time, Ku Lon is in this country, masterminding an operation for the abduction and imprisonment of this man; Saotome Ranma."

Keitaro flipped to the next sheet of paper in the folder and looked over the picture of Saotome Ranma; male, late-teens to early-twenties, dark hair, blue eyes indicating a hint of foreign ancestry.

"Saotome-san is the acknowledged heir to the Founding Grandmaster of Musabetsu Kakuto martial arts and because of this will soon be declared a Living National Treasure. Should anything happen to Saotome-san before the declaration is made, the political and diplomatic repercussions could be disasterous. Unfortunately, assassination of Ku Lon has been abandoned as potentially resulting in similar repercussions. Your mission, Keitaro, should you choose to accept it, is to find a way to force force Ku Lon and her associates to abandon their plans for Saotome-san and vacate the country. As always, should you or any member of your team be caught or killed, the Minister will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This recording will self-destruct at the end of the tape. Good luck, Keitaro."

Keitaro watched as the cassette reached the end and pulled the tape itself free from the first spool, activating the acid capsules inside that melted the tape into an unrecoverable mess in a cloud of bitter smoke. His nose wrinkled up at that.

'I wish they'd come up with a disposal method that didn't leave such a smell behind, really..."

Replacing the cassette player in the top drawer, Keitaro closed it and opened the bottom one, extracting a black leather briefcase which he laid on the bed. Taking another look at the pictures of Ku Lon and Saotome-san in the folder, Keitaro laid it aside and turned his attention to the briefcase, opening it to remove a collection of agent dossiers from which to choice operatives for this mission. The very first dossier he saw made Keitaro cringe...

Tsubasa, the 'Man of a Thousand Women's Faces'. Keitaro shook his head before tossing that dossier back into the briefcase and moving on to the next potential operative.

Furuhata Motoki... mid-twenties, worked at a family-owned arcade and juice bar in Azuban-Juuban... Keitaro thought for a moment before tossing Furuhata's dossier into the briefcase, he couldn't think of a way that a juice bar and arcade could help protect Saotome-san.

Tendo Nabiki, Keitaro looked at the next dossier, had accepted 'community service' under the Ministry's supervision when charged with violations of certain laws. Tendo was a book-maker, blackmailer, and perhaps most importantly she was also Saotome-san's fiance; she had a personal stake in making sure he was kept in the country. Keitaro laid her dossier on top of the mission folder as his first selected operative and moved on.

Aoyama Kuroryu, the corners of Keitaro's lips quirked up slightly as he came across Motoko's brother-in-law's dossier. Kuroryu was a photographer and amatuer scientist in addition to being skilled in kendo and cane-fighting. He was also someone whom Keitaro knew personally and trusted, his dossier joined Tendo's.

The next dossier which Keitaro selected was an interesting one because it covered two operatives; Tsujimoto Natsumi and Kobayakawa Miyuki were both members of the Tokyo Metropolitian Police Department stationed at Bokuto Precinct in Sumida Ward. In addition to their assignment to Bokuto's traffic division, Tsujimoto was a member of the Special Assault Team and Kobayakawa was one of the top police forensic specialists in the country. Their dossier joined the other select operatives'.

Keitaro looked at and turned down several more agents - including a Masaki Tenchi, a Hanabishi Rekka, and an Ikari Yui - before finding one final operative he thought would round-out the team properly. Fuji Hayata, a second-generation member of the Science Special Search Party whose mother had been the Search Party's original linguist and communications specialist had several dialects of the region from which Ku Lon's people came listed in his dossier, which could come in handy. Keitaro added Fuji's dossier to the other confirmed operatives and tossed the others in the briefcase before placing it back in the bottom drawer of the nightstand. Closing the folder on the mission information and the agent dossiers, Keitaro tucked it under his arm and prepared to leave the Annex to start contacting them for the mission.