I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi or Steve Jackson Games.
Smile!"
Toshiko smiled where she nestled against her husband on their couch, his arm around her shoulders, as the camera in Mercedes' hands flashed once, then again.
Her friend stepped over to plop down onto the couch beside Toshiko as she and Win straightened, and handed them the camera. "What do you think?"
Toshiko examined the two photos on the tiny screen on the camera's back, of Win in his dress uniform, her in a white blouse with her braided red hair hanging over one shoulder and her legs tucked up under her blue skirt as she leaned her head on his shoulder, her baby bump clearly visible. Both blouse and skirt courtesy of a shopping expedition Mercedes had taken her on that had encompassed way too many stores (items purchased to her old waistline measurements, the skirt's top button closed by string through the button hole and around the button), but from the way Win's eyes had lit up when he first saw her worth the effort. Mercedes' work on her makeup had helped with that, and Toshiko could hardly recognize the lovely young woman in the photo. But she just shrugged. "They look fine to me. Win, what do you think?"
I think you don't have a romantic bone in your body," he retorted, "I thought that was the man's thing. You look magnificent."
Toshiko poked him in the side and snorted as he squirmed away. "No, I look beautiful, you look magnificent. You're supposed to be the native English-speaker."
"I'm not physically abusive, either, I think I'm going to have bruises!" He leaned forward so he could grin at Mercedes across his wife. "Is the Guardian going to protect me?"
"Nope, sorry," Mercedes replied with a grin of her own. "Your wife might be supernaturally fast and supernaturally tough, but she's not actually supernatural, so she's out of my jurisdiction. I'm afraid your on your own."
"Aw, is the big tough warrior afraid of a few fingers?" Toshiko held up her hand with her fingers bent into claws and wiggled them at him.
A look flashed through his eyes that would have had Toshiko going weak in the knees if she'd been standing, but he just replied blandly, "Those deadly weapons aren't the kind of thing I can deal with strapped into my fighter, but I'm sure I'll manage." He would, too, by now he knew every one of his wife's ticklish spots and he wasn't afraid to use them ruthlessly. She looked forward to it.
But that was for the shower in a few hours (which from the look in his eyes when he'd first seen her dressed up, was going to be a memorable one), and Toshiko sobered as she took a deep breath. Time to face the music, as Mercy says. She rose to her feet and turned around to face friend and husband. Switching to the Japanese they all had in common, she asked, "Mercy, when you print those out, could you make two copies? I want to take one with me when I make my run to Nerima." (She didn't really think the Company had bugged the apartment—she hadn't spoken to Jared in weeks and he'd been grateful for the help with the ice worms, but why take chances? Maybe—just maybe—planning to return to Nerima was making her paranoid again.)
The others stiffened. "Nerima?" Win repeated carefully. "Why would you want to go back there?"
"Because believe it or not, there are a few people there that actually care about me, and they must be gettin' frantic after all these months with no word." Waving a dismissive hand, Toshiko added, "Yeah, I asked Ryoga ta tell 'em I'm all right whenever he gets back, but who knows when that'll be? He might not make it back there for months. Besides, they really deserve ta hear it from me, I don't know any of their email addresses, and I found out the hard way a phone call is too dangerous. Besides, I miss 'em—outside of Mercy and maybe Ryoga now that he's not obsessed about me and Akane, they're the only real friends I have, I'd like ta tell 'em about the baby. And I want a photo for the time capsule." And I need ta talk ta Mom. Not looking forward ta that part.
Win and Mercedes exchanged glances, and her husband sighed and leaned back in the couch. "There's no talking you out of this, is there?" Toshiko shook her head, and he sighed again and ran his fingers through his hair. "How long will it take?"
"Three days. One day each for down and back, another for infiltration and exfiltration, some buffer for missed connections between trains."
He chuckled. " 'Exfiltration?' You've been listening to the men at the gym. Okay, I can't stop you. But you aren't going alone. I can't go, we aren't on alert but things have been ... tense since since that Charlie Foxtrot a few months ago, the dogfight—they're keeping all the pilots close to home."
"I'll go."
Win turned to look at Mercedes, still sitting stiffly on the couch. Toshiko was already shaking her head. "No. I'm gonna time the train rides so I get to a station far from the dojo after dark. I'll roof hop ta the dojo and back ta the train, no one's gonna be following me through all that without me seeing. But I'm not leaving you alone at a train station after dark while I go hopping around the town."
Before Mercedes had a chance to respond, Win said, "Then find someone else to go with you or you aren't going. You are not going alone. I'll have the MPs gin up a charge and arrest you if I have to."
It was the turn of the two girls to exchange glances, and Toshiko hesitantly suggested, "Maybe your mom? She's a mechanic, not a pilot. We can add an extra day, do touristy things around Tokyo during the day, make the run to Nerima come evening, head home after?"
"It's worth a try." Mercedes took the camera from Win and stood up. "Let's go ask."
/oOo\
Several weeks later:
It had taken longer than Toshiko had liked for Sergeant Baker to get permission for some leave—Mercedes' mother may not be a pilot, but even the mechanics were having trouble getting time off away from the base. Her husband hadn't said anything, but Toshiko suspected he might have talked to General Layton, and the eventual approval was a silent apology for the actions of the base commander's son. (At least, Win hadn't said anything about pulling strings, he'd dropped plenty of hints about what a bad idea it was—'hints' heavy enough that even Toshiko had been able to recognize them.) Sergeant Baker had warned them when she'd agreed to ask that even a few days' leave wasn't likely to be granted, and had been as surprised as anyone when the permission came through. Toshiko had just about gone alone when she'd heard that permission wasn't likely, Mercedes had had to talk fast to convince her to wait and see if they got lucky. She was very happy she had, because along with the request being granted they'd gotten an extra day.
And the last day and a half they'd spent acting like tourists in Tokyo had been fun! They'd toured the Imperial Palace and Edo Castle; visited the Senso-ji Temple, with its temple doves said to be messengers of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of compassion; and spent hours (mostly) window shopping in the Ginza district—since it was the weekend everything was open and vehicle traffic barred, though they'd had to leave before evening so Toshiko could arrive at Nerima before it was too late, so missed how the massive advertising panels would light up the district after dark. Toshiko had tried to insist the other two could enjoy the evening in the district and meet her at the hotel when they were done, but they had insisted on traveling to Nerima with her—it had been all she could do to convince them not to wait for her at the station, by pointing out that if she was discovered by the bastards chasing her she needed to be able to run away ... something she wouldn't be able to do with people that couldn't roof-hop.
Now the three stepped off the train at the Nerima station closest to the Tendo dojo, and Toshiko looked around, then relaxed when she didn't see anyone she recognized. She had the hood of her new jacket up to cover her hair so she wasn't worried about cameras, and Mercedes and her mother weren't known by anyone, so she wasn't worried about leaving them alone to make their own way back to the hotel ... much. ('Anushka', she'd been sternly instructed by the sergeant to call her—that by now she knew her well enough to use her first name. Toshiko still wasn't used to how ... informal ... Americans could be, and still hadn't worked out all the cues for when that informality was and wasn't appropriate, but she liked it ... even if she had trouble actually doing it herself, at least when it came to names.)
So a hug from Mercedes (ignoring the worried look her friend gave her, probably because of how quiet she'd gotten after they'd dropped off their purchases at the hotel and left for the train) and assurances they wouldn't mind if she ran a little long, and her reminder she still had to stop by her mom's place before heading back to the hotel but that she'd try to make it quick, and Toshiko walked away down the street. She took a few corners to get out of sight of the station, looked around and didn't see anyone, and took to the rooftops. She was glad she'd changed out of the skirt under a loose blouse she'd worn as a tourist. Her current shirt and hooded jacket were equally loose, but at least she was wearing pants now. She'd finally acquired something resembling female modesty, thanks to her marriage and time in school as a girl. And Mercedes, of course.
When she landed on a roof across the street from the dojo she paused, biting at her lip. She was pressed for time but she really ought to make a circuit, see if she could spot any watchers. Not that any watchers were likely to be out where she could see them, even in the light of the full moon, but ... Yeah, take the time, let's not take any chances with their safety. As she started her circuit, she ignored the tiny voice in the back of her head calling her a coward.
/\
Kasumi lay in bed, but sleep wouldn't come. Like her little sister she had been overjoyed at Ryoga's news about his encounter with Ranma—what there'd been of it, he'd been embarrassed to be able to tell them so little, but Kasumi couldn't disagree with Ranma's secrecy however much she thirsted for more—but the euphoria had soon faded as her worries for Akane returned to the fore.
It had been hard, as week followed week. As those weeks had rolled by with no attack there had been a drop in the number of those participating in the "neighborhood watch" that had been organized after Nabiki's warning, though it hadn't collapsed entirely. Partly that was because of the continued presence of outsiders that clearly weren't tourists, even though some were gaijin, along with Nabiki's continued recording of the various matches. (Though several practitioners of Martial Arts Photography agreed that she was rather inept at it, suspiciously so—a fact that warmed Kasumi's heart ... when it came to anything that might enlarge her sister's bank account, the last descriptor one would use was 'inept'.) But what had surprised everyone was the number of real tourists that had begun showing up to watch the matches. Nerima's restaurants and food stalls were doing a booming business, and the number of street venders of all sorts had exploded. Original merchandise specific to the district had even begun to appear! Nerima was actually turning into a tourist destination, and many wanted to keep the wealth flowing. But as happy as Kasumi was for those profiting from the unexpected largesse, that didn't keep her from worrying and—
A tnnk from her window broke her circling thoughts from their rut and she twisted in her bed to look that way. A second tnnk came, and then a third. She frowned and slid from her bed. Stepping over to her window, she looked down into the small yard to see a hooded figure standing there. She raised her window just in time for a pebble to bounce off a night-shirt-covered breast. Who could—
The figure pulled back the hood, and all Kasumi's worries were washed away by sheer joy. It was Ranma, she was back! Ranma raised a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture then pointed toward Akane's window, and when Kasumi nodded started around the house. She had to be headed for the dojo.
/\
Toshiko couldn't keep the grin off her face when Kasumi and Akane hurried through the doorway into a dojo lit only by the moonlight coming through the high windows. The grin vanished with a squawk of surprise, though, when Kasumi actually beat Akane to her, pulling Toshiko into a tight hug that Toshiko hesitantly returned—the eldest Tendo sister was shaking! Then she let her go, only to step back, place a hand on each of Toshiko's cheeks, and leaned down to gently kiss her full on the lips.
Toshiko froze for a long moment before forcing herself to relax for a long moment before breaking the kiss and stepping back. She glanced over at Akane to find the youngest Tendo gaping at the scene, eyes wide—no help there, so she looked back at Kasumi. "Kasumi? What ... Why ... ?"
Kasumi took a deep breath, hesitated, then giggled. "I had a whole speech planned out, and now it's all gone. Ranma, dumping the engagement on Akane was the worst mistake of my life, though it took months for me to realize what a jewel was hiding behind your rough exterior. But you and Akane were trying to make it work despite her lack of interest in your female form, so I didn't say anything. Then you were locked and the two of you could be no more than friends, however close ... but I could. But you were in shock, barely able to make it from one day to the next, and I didn't know if telling you how I felt would make things worse or better, and before I could make up my mind whether to risk it the fathers—" She clenched her fists as Akane growled.
"Kasumi, I ... I never knew." It was Ranma's turn to hesitate, but there was no gentle way to say it, she'd just have to rip off the band-aid, as Mercedes would say. She pulled her wedding ring on its chain out from under her shirt and stepped over into one of the patches of moonlight on the floor. "I'm married."
The two Tendos froze, jaws dropping. "You're married," Kasumi murmured, staring at the ring dangling on its chain. "You're pregnant," Akane growled, staring at the clear baby bulge pushing out Toshiko's shirt. "I am going to hunt him down and rip his—"
Toshiko sprang next to Akane and slapped her hand over her mouth, cutting off the rising tirade. "Quiet!" she hissed. "We don't want ta wake up Nabiki or yer father." Akane glared but nodded, and she stepped back. "Me getting pregnant was my idea, not his, he didn't even really want ta marry me—wouldn't have, if he could have adopted me instead. He would'a been satisfied with just consummating the marriage and leaving it at that, I was the one that insisted on us using the bed for more than just sleep and not using condoms."
"You ..." Akane stared at her, wide-eyed. "Ranma ... why?"
"Because we aren't pretending ta be married, we are married, and that's what wives do. And if I started puttin' it off I'd never stop, and then we really would be just pretendin'."
"Oh, Ranma." Kasumi almost sounded amused, even if she just looked tired. "You haven't changed. Is he a good man?"
"The best."
"Then I'm happy for you." She straightened, expression firming. "Thank you for coming to tell us you're all right."
"Yeah ..." Toshiko reached up to rub her neck behind her ever-lengthening braid. "Ryoga was supposed ta tell you, but ... well, has he even managed ta make it here?"
"Yes, he did, but he didn't have much to say."
"Naw, I asked him not ta—not to say much." Akane giggled at her self-correction and Kasumi's lips twitched in what might be a hint of a smile, a crack in her stiff expression. "Harder to find me if nobody here knows anything about where I am. I figure once the baby's born I can come back and we can settle this, but I didn't want to wait that long to let you know I'm okay. And ..." She unzipped her belt pouch and pulled out her camera. "A bunch of the girls at the school I'm finishing up at put together a time capsule for the baby, to be opened on his-or-hers eighteenth birthday, and I want to include a picture of you two—the only real friends I had before I met my husband and went back ta school."
"You've made more friends?"Kasumi's stiff expression softened at Toshiko's smile.
"Yeah. Just one, really, though everyone else's friendly, but she's a good one."
"Then I know just the picture, wait here." Kasumi hurried out of the dojo, leaving Toshiko and Akane to wait in awkward silence, only to return in a few minutes. She handed Toshiko a framed photograph. "This will be perfect." It was a photo taken on their trip to the beach, with Ranma's smiling redheaded female form in her orange-and-red one-piece swimsuit with "BOY" written across her abundant breasts, Kasumi and Akane in their own one-pieces on each side of her. "I still have the swimsuit in my dresser if you want it."
Toshiko ran a finger over the figures under plastic, smiling wistfully at the memory. "Kasumi, are ya sure?"
"Yes. Akane has it on her computer, I'll get another copy printed out. Take it."
"Okay. I'll leave the swimsuit, pick it up when I come back after the baby's born. From here I'm gonna check in with Mom. I'm gonna tell her the truth, I never should'a let ... Genma convince me to go along with telling her I'd died. Can one a' you look in on her tomorrow, make sure she'll be all right?"
The two sisters exchanged glances, and Kasumi slowly said, "That ... might not be such a good idea. Your mother hasn't had the same experiences with magic that we have, she won't have any reason to believe you. And we don't have any way to prove it right now. So visit, let her know you're all right—she'll be happy to hear that, when she asked where you were the last time she visited we told her the truth and now she's working on getting divorced—but leave the rest until you can back up your claims somehow."
Toshiko opened her mouth to reject the suggestion, but closed it without saying anything. Kasumi had a point. "All right, I won't tell her I'm Ranma yet. Could one a' ya look in on her anyway?" Kasumi tsked with a faint grin, and Toshiko winced. Let things get a little stressful, and I'm right back to 'hillbilly Japanese'. But The eldest Tendo just said, "I'll be happy to."
Akane sighed in relief, then wilted when Toshiko simply kept a level gaze on her. She reluctantly said, "I'll go with you."
Wha'd'ya know, that doesn't just work for teachers. Toshiko hid her grin (though from the suspicious look Akane gave her, she suspected her former fiancée had sensed her fleeting amusement anyway). She just said, "I'll pick up the swimsuit when I come back after the baby's born. We're gonna get this mess sorted out, and get on with our lives. You'll see." Stepping over, she pulled each Tendo into a heartfelt hug, ignoring the tears running down her cheeks. Missed you guys." And she was gone
Akane stared at the empty doorway and the night-covered yard beyond. "You didn't tell Ranma about the so-called 'tourists' haunting Nerima."
Kasumi stepped over beside her sister, also staring out at the night. "Neither did you, or about the threat to kidnap you in her place."
"If I had, she wouldn't have left."
"No, she wouldn't have, and she has the baby to think about now. Let's go to bed."
Kasumi strode out of the dojo toward the house, and Akane hastily followed her. As the pair reached the door to the kitchen, Akane hesitantly said, "Kasumi, you and Ranma—"
"Have no future as anything but friends," Kasumi stated firmly. "You heard her, she's married, and happily so, and that's the end of it. Please don't mention it again, to me or anyone else. There's no point, and it would ruin my reputation if it got out."
"I ..." Akane examined her sister as best she could in the dark, Kasumi's expression serene in spite of the single tear that had escaped her control. "I won't." She pulled Kasumi into a gentle hug, and whispered into her sister's ear, "I'm so sorry."
After a moment Kasumi melted the hug for a long moment. "So am I, little sis, so am I. It's late, let's go to bed."
/\
"—and she has the baby to think about now. Let's go to bed."
Nabiki sighed as the last of the conversation came through her headphones, and leaned back in her chair. She'd set up the bugs hooked up to motion sensors, all wirelessly connected to her computer, well before the fathers—and you, that annoying voice in the back of her head added—screwed so badly. With Ranma, so much of importance, and therefore potentially financially lucrative, involved the dojo. Unfortunately, she'd mentioned that particular information stream early on to her current masters (she was long past pretending they were anything else, at least to herself), when she was trying to convince them she was worth as much as she was demanding, and now they didn't just want her to pass on whatever she learned, they were having her send them weekly batches of the recordings. Though admittedly, there wasn't much since Ranma had fled the second time, Akane was avoiding home as much as she could and not even her friends visited now.
Really, is it really that unfortunate? Give them this and Ranma's back in the picture instead of Nerima. It'll take the heat off Akane. All the exhibition matches going on will just be for the tourists that are showing up, and we can all get on with our lives.
True, but her sisters would never forgive her if they found out ... and whichever way it worked out, her masters were probably vindictive enough to tell them.
And you'll never forgive yourself.
Nabiki grimaced at that, because it was true ... however poorly it fit the self-image she had cultivated to the point that she had believed it herself, until things had gotten real. Finally, with a sigh, she right-clicked on the audio file and selected 'delete'. Little sis, I really hope all of you know what you're doing.
/\
"—and she has the baby to think about now. Let's go to bed."
Tony Hopkins gusted out a sigh. "Well, at least Toshiko didn't give out her husband's name or where she's been living," he said, looking for a bright side of the whole mess.
"Yes, and she didn't bring a marching band with her," Saniyah Vaughn replied testily. She was not a morning person, and morning was more than a few hours away ... they hadn't been in bed they'd shared for the past several weeks when the little program she had somehow slipped through Nabiki's firewall had alerted them to the activated audio feed from the dojo. "But what she did say is more than enough to point a skilled investigator in the right direction."
"Yeah," Tony reluctantly agreed. He might not be an investigator himself, but his squad had guarded a few in the past and so he'd seen what the best could do—enough to turn Sherlock Holmes green with envy. "I'm glad Ben and Guile are out of Medical, we can use—" He broke off when Saniyah sucked in her breath. "What?"
"Nabiki just deleted the audio file."
"She did? Good for her!" Tony smiled broadly, only for the smile to die when Saniyah didn't. "So why isn't that a good thing?"
"Do you think I'm the only one that's managed to slip a trojan onto her computer?"
"Oh. Well, shit."
"Yes, merde."
/oOo\
Genma was well beyond frustration by this point. He knew every place that the boy—the girl—knew, he'd taken her—him ... whatever—around to them himself! But since the fiasco at the Nakadan dojo (he had told them they needed to wait for him, that they couldn't handle the girl on their own, but had they listened? no!) there hadn't been so much as a hint of her anywhere. And word was spreading of what he and Soun had done through the Martial Arts community (though the most common version was that Ranma had always been a girl, raised as a boy, and he'd turned on her when she finally got fed up with pretending to be engaged), and his professions of concern were being met with the cold shoulder. One master had even laughed in his face! (The beat down he'd handed out for that had felt intensely satisfying after months of frustration, but hadn't helped his standing with the community.)
And so when Genma had been hoping to spend the winter relaxing with his old friend in the beginning of his well-earned retirement, he'd instead been camping in the cold as he wandered Japan looking for the daughter that had run away from her responsibilities. And those months had not only been cold, rough, and miserable, they'd been silent and lonely—he couldn't even bring his old friend with him. Not only had Soun held responsibilities on Nerima's local council, before he'd been relieved of hid duties anyway, but Genma had to reluctantly admit that his friend wasn't the man he'd been when they had served under their cruel master. If Genma had needed any proof of how women could weaken a true Martial Artist, the devastating impact on Soun of the death of his wife would have been more than enough.
But as miserable and frustrating as the long months of fruitless search had been, he needed to find Ranma if he and Soun were going to—
The cell phone that Ranma's masters had given Genma when he'd set out on his search rang for only the second time, and it took him long enough to dig it out of his pack that the ringing had stopped only to start up again a moment later. He pressed the 'accept' key and raised it to his ear. "Yes?"
"We've found her."
Author's Note:The chapter title comes from the song by Emily Smith on her "too long away" album, the video is on YouTube.