Chapter 28

Accepting the Deal

The next morning Michiru walked down stairs as she made her way towards the kitchen. Seeing Ms. Masaki cook she greeted. "Good morning!" Politely said as she made her way.

Nodoka twisted her hips slightly in order to see the young woman. "Ah, good morning to you as well Michiru." She then resumed her cooking.

"May I help?" Michiru asked over Nodoka's shoulder.

"Of course dear. Can you-" she paused for a moment before continuing. "I forgot the mail. Could you please bring it?"

"Sure."

Walking back inside the house with a couple of letters and advertisements, Michiru noticed one letter was from her father. Setting the other papers on the table she opened the letter. "I wonder what it might be about." Reading the document she scratched her head. "Just what am I reading?" Taking the document towards Ms. Masaki she thought maybe the older woman might know something about the documents content.

"Here's a letter from my father, but I don't understand what he's saying."

"Thank you." Receiving it she began to read. Smiling she finished reading the paper. "It appears we have some shopping to do."

"I don't understand, why?"

"Remember the party your parents are hosting?"

"What?" She stared at the letter feeling confused. Of course. She figured this was a ploit by her parents to bring her closer to accepting the engagement. Slowly shaking her head she could only feel disappointed of her parents.

"I suppose they want you to look your best!" She gave the younger woman a warm smile.

"Great…" Moving her attention to the clock she noticed it was 7 am. "Ranma isn't going to practice today?" She shifted the awkward conversation. Well it wasn't awkward just that she didn't talk about it.

"I think he might off left to practice elsewhere."

"Ah, so...shall we finish cooking."

"Oh yes!" Turning around she began to stir the pan. "Please don't stick!" Michiru lightly laughed at Ms. Masaki's reaction to the unattended food.


Jogging across Juban the pigtail's upper body was soaked in sweat. Breathing out loudly he charged towards the canal. With a single leap he resumed his jog leaving the land mark behind.

Entering the community of small houses he decided to jump high into the air and do a backflip on to the roof of a building. Leaping from roof to roof he had made his way on top of a business structure in the city. Standing over the edge he took a deep breath in with his eyes closed. Feeling the sun rise he smiled brightly.

"This feels great." Stretching his arms he could feel the sun's rays hit his being.

A distance away from him an explosion occurred. Opening his eyes with alert he could see the smoke and hear people screaming in terror. Taking a few steps back he ran to the edge of the building, launching himself to the set destination.

Setting foot he saw that the explosion was caused by a gas station. Moving quickly he aimed to move people out of the danger zone. Transporting a couple people at a safe distance he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Oh no James!" Yelled an older woman, who worked for the gas station. Her voice was made of distress and panic.

Moving to the distressed woman, Ranma figured he needed to do something to clam her. "What's the matter?" He noticed she had teary eyes and covered in smoke clothes.

"My friend is still inside! I saw how you helped others! Please, help my friend!" Getting a grip on the pigtail's long sleeve she pulled on it.

Nodding, and set free, Ranma prepared to enter the burning building. 'Running quickly inside he began to search for the man. Not seeing anything because of the smoke he focused on ki signatures. "Ha! Found you!" Making his way around the corner he punched the wall ahead of him. Pulling the body out of the crumble he placed him over his shoulder.

The woman could only hope that the young man would bring her friend. Ironic how she had turned to a boy instead of the firemen, but they weren't even here yet! Holding both her hands together she saw the young man walking out of the building while carrying her friend!

Jogging out of the flaming building he easily made his way to the woman. Setting the man down he was suddenly pushed out of the way.

"James wake up!" She slapped him, hard. Ranma flinched as he shrugged his shoulders.

Jolting forward the man held his right cheek. "Ay!"

The woman quickly embraced him tightly. "You're alive!"

"I can't feel my face."

Walking away Ranma thought it was great to have someone who cared for you. Seeing them hug he stared wondering if someday he'll be lucky enough to find someone.


"Just now we have received information about an exploration at the east side of Juban. Stay tune after these commercials."

"Did you hear that?!" Asked Nodoka, placing down her chop sticks on the plate in front of her.

"My god! That's horrible!" Responded Michiru. Feeling empathy for those possibly hurt she continued to watch the television.

Nodoka grabbed the remote and raise the volume on the TV.

Just then the door opened to show a pigtailed covered full body in ash. Both women stared at him for a second. Nodoka shook her head slowly expressing knowledge and disbelieve. On the other hand Michiru said "Should've guessed."

Ranma lightly laughed to himself. "What can I say." Walking towards the stairs he said, "I'm going to clean myself up."

A short while later

"and that's what happened."

"But I wonder what caused the explosion? Sure the News said there was a leak and someone threw a lit cigarette, but it all sounds odd."

"Yeah I get what you're saying." Ranma stood up from the seat.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to investigate because Michiru does have a point."

"Wait." Michiru quickly held onto Ranma's back pants pocket and let go, causing him to give her his attention. "If you're going through with this wait till night. It will be easier and there should be little to none authority."

Feeling like an idiot he nodded in understanding. "Guess I didn't think this all the way."

Night

Ranma was in a crouching position. He was wearing his usual wear with a black bandana tied to his face with the knot over his upper lip. Holding the binoculars with his two hands he watched the guards walk in straight line and back but not too far from the white tent.

Arriving on top of the building Sailor Neptune walked up to Ranma. She saw him turn around and the first thing she did was judge his great disguise. She quickly turned around trying to hold the laugh with her hands that was escaping. When it was out of her system she resumed her walk. "How's the...situation." She still had to fight the laugh.

Half closing his eyes he stared at her and went back to his spying. "There's four guards and they're forming a square around the place. Personally, I think this will be a piece of cake. I'm just waiting a little longer in case anyone decides to take a break." Setting binoculars down he stood up, and turned towards her. "What are you doing here by the way?"

"Well, I am a Sailor Senshi and my job is to protect the peace. Also I had to make sure you don't get in trouble." As far as she's been around him, trouble generate and of course she had to keep an eye on him.

"I don't need help." He turned to see her face and couldn't help but gulp. "You stay here and keep a look-out." He jumped off the building before Neptune had a chance to protest. Neptune shook her head and watched him make his journey to the tent.

Landing in the corner of the building he slightly moved his head to where he could see and not get caught. "Let's see, if this works." Picking an aluminum can he threw it across the street. 'Yes! He's falling for it.' Seeing the guard walk slowly to the object Ranma ran and did a spy roll on the ground. He was now behind the guard. "Pss!"

The guard quickly did a 180 only to receive a punch to the face causing him to faint. Ranma then moved to the other three and performed such maneuvers. Once that obstacle was out of the way he ki searched the tent and no feedback was given.

Just as he was going to enter, Neptune landed next to him. Turning towards her he asked, "Shouldn't you be somewhere else?"

"What's there to be on guard for? You already took care of that." She moved past him and inside the tent. Ranma sighed, he followed right after her.

Entering the tent they noticed equipment around the gas pump. Moving towards the pump they saw it had been slashed open, but from the outside. The cut seemed to have been done by a giant and thick knife.

"That's interesting, to find a Sailor Senshi and her assistant in a government restricted area."

Both jumped a little and turned around to see who it was.

"But how rude of me. My name is Lewellyn." The white man had light green eyes, slick black hair and was around his forties thirties. He was wearing a black suit with a purple tie. "You can consider yourselves under arrest." Pulling out two pair of handcuffs from inside his suit he displayed them for the criminals.

Ranma eyed Neptuna and a burst of laughter came from him. "I really don't care who you are but you ain't doing nothing to us." Unconsciously or just out of primal instinct he moved in front of Neptune.

Lewellyn raised an eyebrow. "How sure are you?" He took a step forward.

Ranma calmed down by the threat of the challenge. Stretching his arm across Neptune's chest his eyes met the man in front of him. "Dare take one more step and I won't hold back."

"Very well." The man pulled the handcuffs back where they had been taken out off. Afterwards he placed his hands inside his pants pockets.

Ranma noticed the tent was falling. 'Oh no!' he took a guarding pose with enough room to defend Neptune and himself.

Once the sheets fell the couple of investigators saw they were surrounded by men in robotic body armor holding guns they've never seen before and aiming at them. "One last chance to surrender." Lewellyn confidently said to Ranma's face.

The men in armor began to charge their weapons for fire. The weapons produced a red light at the side and caused a whistle like noise.

"Close your eyes." Ranma said so only Neptune could hear. Seeing her nod he quickly placed his two hands close to his face. "Solar flare!" From him strong rays of light were being produced. He held Neptunes waist and was about to make his getaway when he was hit on the shoulder a couple of times from all sides of the circle.

The Rays died down to show a Ranma bleeding from his right shoulder and still holding on to Neptune. "But how?!"

Lewellyn rubbed his eyes since he was caught off guard. "You see, my men have been equiped to face just about any situation and their helmet's visor is able to adjust their vision if necessary."

Neptune knew they were surrounded and had an injured ally to take care of. She knew it was up to her. Taking Ranma's hands off her she raised them.

"Stop any movement or we will fire!"

"Deep Submerge!" The men fired only for their attacks to be swallowed by the sea of water coming for them. They activated some sort of force field around them and one ran to their unarmed commander and too set a field around them. The water just ran over and around them but they were unable to fight back since they were unable to move.

Getting a hold of Ranma, Neptune jumped over the water and leapt onto a build thus making their escape.

The water finally died and the men were able to turn off their fields. "Sir would like us to track them down?"

"No. Sooner or later we will be face to face with them, but next time we'll be ready."

Neptune arrived at the Masaki home with a girl! She was surprised at first but recalled the curse. 'Some water must've hit him.'

"Put me down!" Yelled the redhead. "Can't believe I set myself up like that! Hugh!" She said once out of Michiru's arms.

Michiru just saw how cute the girl in front of her was, specially now, with all that temper. She moved close to her and gave her a smile.

"Huh?" Ranma was confused. "Michiru? Why are you smiling?"

"Stop your complaining and appreciate we are safe." Taking sight of the girl she noticed the difference between both male and female form. The forms resembled each other very well. "Seems your injury is gone."

"Yeah switching bodies has that effect. Ill have to wait to turn back though." She turned around deciding to do some practice. "Ill be on the back."

Sometime later

Arriving at the second floor Ranma was greeted by Michiru holding a small cup. "Is that warm water?" He asked noticing the stem.

"I know how you don't like to be this form, so I brought you some warm water." She trenched her arm with a smile.

Being a little surprised Ranma slowly took that cup away from her and dumped it over her head. "You didn't have to."

"For what?" He was somewhat confused, then his mood changed to somewhat irritated. "I didn't do much. You did everything." He was upset because being a martial artist meant to defend not get defended.

"That's not true." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Not everything is your fault and stop blaming yourself."

"But I was defenseless. I couldn't even protect you!"

Undoing her arms she was baffled because of the last words. She couldn't understand this feeling she was having when he spoke those words. "Do you mean that?" She asked to ensure she was not misunderstanding.

"Mean what?" He was unsure of what she could possibly be talking about.

"What you just said a few seconds ago."

'Oh shit, what did I say?! Did I do it again? Oh crap!' "Look can we just go to sleep I'm really tired and my shoulder still hasn't fully healed."

Allowing him to pass by her she began to remember those words. Was she just imagining things? And why was she even caring in the first place?!


In a top secret base under the ocean where operations unaware by the worlds governments occurred, and agents from all over the world worked on advance technology left from the ancients. This technology was roughly a millennium years but only small quantities had been savaged for analysis. From the results, people have created many outstanding achievements that helped shape Earth's society. Even then only a very small percentage had reached the surface.

In this base not only were people conducting advancements in technology but also in bio-engineering. Unable to find any DNA from the ancients they decided to manipulate with animals. At first there were many failures and eventually with time a handful survived but no more than one week due to cell disintegration. However, when the youmas and sailor Senshi arrived, that rose to a much greater idea.

To the frustration of every scientist the Senshi's DNA couldn't be read. There was just no means right now for such complex structure to be analyzed. However the youma samples were not as difficult to breakdown.

Walking past a hall full of experiments on the left and right, Lewellyn got glimpse of a few and continued to make his way. Stopping at a checkpoint he swiped his card, had his eye scanned and entered a code. The door moved up and he entered what appeared to be an operation room.

"How are the subjects doing, Doctor?"

"Stable, but improving done the less." The doctor seemed to be rather old. Perhaps sixty.

Moving to a control board he entered several keys. A hologram screen was displayed in front of him. "Good morning sir."

"Lewellyn, was 09 captured?" Said a man who dressed in all black.

"No sir. The subject attacked a local gas station in the East of Juban and as a result died from the explosion."

"I thought you said that the subjects were able to withstand a tank fire."

"Correct, but the subject had been severely weak after its escape and the explosion completely destroyed it."

"I understand. Very well, continue with the experiments and report back."

"Yes sir."

The hologram vanished leaving Lewellyn with the Doctor. "Why didn't you tell the Sir the truth?"

"Because, it's not part of my plan."

"You know, if they find out you'll be killed."

"True, but they won't." In a flash he was behind the good Doctor with a knife slightly touching his throat. "I wouldn't like being the one to take your family a badge of honor and a uniform now."

Sweating and with his knees shaking the doctor said while stuttering, "I-I won't say anything."


Opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling Ranma realized he had no choice. Slamming his fists onto the side of the bed he took a deep breath. Breathing out he got out of the bed.

Done dressing he walked over to his window. Effortlessly sliding it open he at first admired the beautiful morning. "Time to go." Jumping out of the window the force from the jump caused the window to shut.

Setsuna Meioh was enjoying her Sunday at an open cafe shop downtown. Reading the newspaper she found nothing in particular of interest and that gas explosion was nothing to think about. While reading a young waiter walked towards her and sat the cafe on the small circular table.

"Here's your coffee." The waiter smiled.

"Thank you." She didn't pay much attention.

Jumping from building to building Ranma could sense he was getting closer. "Now where are you? Ha! Gotta cha!" Landing firmly near the cafe shop he walked past the people who stared at him.

Walking to the newspaper that covered most of Setsuna, Ranma slammed his palm on the table. "I'm here to talk."

Folding the newspaper and setting to the side she smiled at him. "Please take a seat." She gestured him to the chair at his side.

Getting a hold on the chair he pulled it back and took a seat with his arms crossed.

"Coffee?"

"No, thanks."

"Very well." She leaned forward and intertwined her fingers together. "I suppose you're not here to socialize."

"You know why I'm here."

"Oh I knew you would come around."

As he opened his mouth he was quickly shut down. "Before you speak let me tell you something. The reason why I want you to train them is for the benefit of everyone. Don't think that I want to take advantage of your condition, even if it may seem as if I am."

He remained quiet, unavailable to respond. 'Does she mean that? She has to be playing with me.' "What would I have to teach them?"

"To fight, of course. You are an excellent martial artist."

After a long pause he responded. "Sure, but what about me?!"

"I can ensure you that I will be working on a permanent counter spell."

Taking another pause to think over the situation he got off his seat and pushed it back into the table. "Where?"

"Don't worry about the location. I'll let Rei inform you at a later time." She gave him a pleasant smile with her arm extended.

"Save it." With those words he shot himself into the sky, disappearing from sight.

Lightly laughing to herself she said, "Not too excited about the idea, are we." She resumed, drinking her coffee while reading the paper.

Walking on the street with his hands in his pockets, Ranma felt frustrated. Kicking the aluminum can he sent it flying out of the district. 'Can't believe I actually accepted! But I had to rely the cheer squad.' Stopping, he scanned the area with his eyes. "Who's there?!"

Twisting his hips he quickly turned around in time to catch a bamboo stick the size of a pencil and just as sharp. Looking at it there was nothing special about it. Keeping it his hand he continued to make his way.