Lately, I seem to have become ensnared by Final Fantasy 8. While we (or
rather, my younger brother) have had the game for months, only recently
have I actually become interested in playing it. And reading fanfics.
Especially Squall/Seifer. (Seifer is God. ^-^V) Which is what I've been
doing instead of writing.
Oh yeah. I've never owned a cat. I'll likely get one when I move out,
but my father is allergic to them. On that note, I rarely come in
contact with them. If Ranma's not acting like a cat, blame it on my
father's allergies.
I'm trying to keep the postings at FF.net and Lady Cosmos' around the
same time. Which should be about once a week.
False Identity
Chapter Four: Enter Weiss
Li Xiang
"Who the hell are you?"
Saotome Ranma, martial artist, part time demolitions worker, general
pain in the rear, sought after by many a lady, and also known to few as
"Kitty", gave the redheaded assassin a dark look. He didn't recognise
Schuldich at all-- not even the scent he could pick up was familiar, so
it meant that Jei had made some friends over the eight years apart.
Although not unexpected, there was an odd flash of jealousy at that.
Jei was _his_ friend.
"Schuldich," said man introduced himself with a slight bow, and a large
smirk. Oh, how he was going to have fun with this boy! Jealousy was
radiating off him over the prospect of Farfello having gotten himself a
'replacement' for Kitty. All he really had to worry about was the boy's
insane speed-- although he could probably match him, Schuldich would
have to force himself to the level Ranma moved at naturally--, and the
fact that he'd ripped apart a vitual god with his bare hands with no
apparent remorse. He'd have to redirect those feelings so they didn't
end up focused on him.
But, aside from that...
Farfello had snagged Ranma's raised hand, grinning in that creepy way
of his. The one that screamed 'I've found a new way to hurt god'. For a
moment, the telepath was tempted to peek into his pale haired frined's
mind to see what he was thinking, then banished the thought. Right at
this particular moment, he didn't really want to go into Farfello's
mind. When that look entered that golden iris, it was safer to have his
mental sheilds on maxium, to prevent himself from going insane.
Schuldich spoke before Farfello had a chance to even start on one of
his 'Hurt-God' rambles, "I've a proposition for you, bishounen." Sure,
it was his nickname for Nagi, but it fit the pigtailed boy oh-so-well.
Smokey blue eyes narrowed sharply, a quick glance in the direction of
the money-grubbing girl who was currently gaping like a fish, trying to
figure out just what the hell was going on around her.
"What kind of proposition...?"
Schuldich's own eyes flicked to the girl, "It would be best if this was
discussed in private, Saotome."
Ranma nodded, and started to drop into a crouch to bounce to the roof
before pausing, and opening his mouth. Before the question even crossed
his lips, Schuldich's mental voice brushed against him, /Yes, we can
roofhop./
The boy looked at him, clearly startled, confusion jarring his features,
before Schuldich gave him a mental smirk, /This is part of what we have
to talk about, Katzchen./
The martial artist stared at him for a few more moments before sighing
softly, "We'd best leave on foot, then take to the roofs. Nabiki
shouldn't be able to follow us then."
Schuldich agreed, again smirking, and shoved his hands in his pockets,
"Let's go Farf. We've got a lot of talk about, eh?"
"Kitty needs to learn the game rules," Farfello agreed, again with that
distrubing smile, and Ranma gave his friend a strange look. Sure, Jei
had been a little out of sorts when they'd first met, but this was
pretty extreme, even for him. What had happened over the years?
As the trio left the Tendou-ke, Nabiki snapped out of her daze, and
crept swiftly after them, a frown marring her features. She'd been
expecting the two gaijin to attack Ranma, not ask him a couple
questions, and call him Kitty. Only three feet away from the gate,
Nabiki froze.
Kitty? Like on his collar?
Then... her eyes narrowed. One of those men was Ranma's "Jei-sama".
And, quite obviously from his reactions, it was the white haired man
with the eyepatch, Farfello.
Casting her gaze about for the unusal-- even for gaijin-- men. They
weren't on the streets, which left her with the rooftops. And with her
own inability to roofhop-- hell, not even Akane, her martial artist
sister, could roofhop-- it would be impossible to track them. Dammit
all.
As she returned to her room, she persed her lips. Looks like I'm going
to have to call in a favor I was hoping to keep open for a few more
years...
---
Sprawlled across the branches in a tree above their heads, Ranma lazily
watched Jei lick a knife and stare off into space, and Schuldich make
himself comfortable on the ground. Sure, the redhead could have made a
bed out of the tree branches like Ranma, but what was the point? The
only reason Ranma was really up there was to keep his rivals and
enemies from seeing him. Afterall, with his long hair, Schuldich could
be mistaken for a girl by those blind, 'trigger' happy idiots Kuno,
Mousse and Ryouga.
"So what's this deal?"
Schuldich hiked an eyebrow. He hadn't expected the martial artist to
iniciate the conversation, although with the way previous 'deals' had
ended up, Ranma probably wanted to feel like he was in control of his
own fate. The assassin grinned at this; Ranma had a hard life... he'd
fit in perfectly with the rest of Schwartz.
"We want you to join us."
"Huh?" Great answer, Ranma! he growled to himself, but before he could
go any further into it, Schuldich responded.
"We want you to join Schwartz." The redhead shifted a bit-- the tree
trunk was damned uncomfortable!
"And what's Schwartz?"
"Us," came Farfello's answer, "Schuldich, and Nagi and Crawford, and
me. And hopefully you, Kitty."
Schuldich shook his head, "Just a group of bodyguards for hire,
bishounen."
Ranma ignored the nickname as he pretty much ignored everything anyone
called him (with the nominal exceptions of 'Pervert', 'Femboy', 'Girl'
or 'Osage no Onna'), "Bodyguards?"
"And sometimes mercenaries," Schuldich shrugged, "We do what we're
hired to do, and we get paid for it. Simple as that."
The martial artist thought it over for nearly ten minutes; Schuldich
could hear him weight pros and cons of being a bodyguard and being
paid, verus being an oft exploited martial artist. While he wasn't
exactly the smartest crayon in the box, he was no slouch either. He'd
been taught to focus his considerable intelligence on how to fight for
almost the entire eight years prior, and probably the bit before that
he couldn't remember. It was hard to break out of a years long habit.
Ranma flipped out of the tree with a thoughtful frown on his face, "I
want to meet this Nagi and Crawford, Jei-sama, Schuldich-san."
"Of course," Schuldich nodded. He was pretty sure Crawford would do
whatever he could to have the literal powerhouse of energy standing
before them join Schwartz. He'd be quite the ace-in-the-hole, "Anything
else?" the questions racing through Ranma's mind came forwards as he
opened his mouth to speak.
"How'd you speak without movin' your mouth?"
---
"Well?"
Schuldich looked up from examing his fingernails later that night. He'd
managed to answer the majority of Ranma's questions without giving away
the fact that he and the rest of Schwartz were actually assassins.
They'd spring that on Ranma once he'd joined, and had no way to back
out.
For now, it was best if he thought they were merely bodyguards.
Crawford stood over the redhead, a rather impatient look on his face--
Farfello had immediately gone to his cell/room to plan something
dealing with Kitty, and Schuldich had been dodging Crawford's inquires
all night. It didn't help that where Ranma was concerned, Crawford had
visions of several separate ways things could go. If things were to go
the way he wanted them to, everything had to abide by his own terms.
"Ranma wants to meet you and Nagi before he even considers joining."
Bradley gave a nod of understanding, fully expecting Schuldich to
continue with a 'report' of how the Saotome Boy had reacted to
Farfello's sudden reappearance in his life. The jade eyed assassin just
smirked at him, and Crawford growled in the back of his throat. He'd
had enough of a hard time convincing Estet that Ranma would benefit
from being a part of Schwartz instead of just being part of some random
group.
He wasn't in a good mood.
"Okay, okay. I'm bringing Kitty here, so he can meet you two. The kid's
a pretty talented martial artist-- powerful too."
"Fine." Crawford shot Schuldich one last parting glare, before stalking
out to calm himself down. Nagi hadn't even bothered looking up from his
computer once through out the whole "confrontation".
---
Even without being a telepath, it was obvious what was going through
the young martial artist's mind.
"Farf wanted to stay back," Schuldich shrugged at the dark haired boy's
questioning look. He had done some poking around in the irish man's
mind, but he'd just come away as confused as to why Farf wanted to stay
as he had when he went in. The pale haired man's mind worked in odd
ways, "Come on, bishounen, let's go."
With a nod, the young man bounced up onto the fence to pad alongside
Schuldich as they walked. Normally, the redhead would have taken
Crawford's car to pick up Ranma, but he wanted to figure out the
Martial Artist. His mind was rather odd-- sometimes he thought like
your normal everyday teenager, or a young child, and sometimes he
thought like a wild animal-- a feral cat, persay. Therefore, it would
be easier to simply get the boy to talk about himself.
"What's with the fence-walking?"
Ranma blinked, then shrugged, "Balance practise. 'sides, I get a larger
view of my surroundings from here. Easier to dodge an attack that way."
Seemingly unheeding of the fact that he was walking along the top of a
chain link fence in nothing more than thin black slippers, Ranma leaned
back to watch the sky as he walked.
"You get attacked often then?"
"Every few hours," again, a nonchalant shrug, "You get used to it." He
scratched at his neck, just under his pigtail, "So where we goin'?"
"To meet Crawford and Nagi," Schuldich smirked, "Or do you not want to
anymore?"
"Of course I do!" Ranma snapped, "If I can get out of this hell hole
I'm living in, I will! No matter what I have to do!"
The redheaded assassin's smirk widened. Ranma might just regret those
words, but who was he to tell? Ranma had killed before. He would have
continued this train of thought, but he-- and Ranma-- found themselves
drenched from a spray of water from above. The martial artist growled,
wringing the water from her red chinese shirt.
Her?
Schuldich proceeded to stare at Ranma for nearly ten minutes, openly
gaping at the sight of a busty redheaded young woman standing where a
black haired young man had been standing. The martial artist looked
down at her equally wet companion and sighed, "Come on. Let's find
somewhere to sit, and I'll 'splain the curse."
---
"Koneko no Sumi Ie, Hidaka Ken speaking, how can I help you?"
Nabiki blinked, rather surprised. She hadn't expected someone she
didn't know answering the phone. Shaking her head, she put the thought
off, "Ah yes, can I speak with Tsukiyono Omi?"
"Just a sec. Hey Omi-kun! You've got a phone call!"
There was a muffled 'okay' in the background, and the sound of many
girls whining as one, before a breathless voice came across the
phonelines, "Omi speaking."
"Hi Omittchi."
"Nabs?" Omi's voice sounded surprised, but she had expected that.
Afterall, they hadn't had much contact with one another over the past
three years, excluding the couple emails they shot back and forth when
they needed help.
"It's me. Look, Omittchi, I need your help."
"You must, if you're calling me instead of emailing," there was a bit
of an amused tease in his voice. As of late, the things Nabiki had
needed help for weren't all that serious. Just some hacked information
in order to keep the 'local loonies' of Nerima out of serious trouble.
Nabiki sighed, fisting her hair, "I had to call in a couple favors that
I didn't want to. Ranma and Ranko seem to have come across some old...
friends. Although I'm not sure if I should really use that word. They
took off with one of them earlier this morning, and I'm worried."
"You need me to look up some information?" Omi rolled his eyes at the
conversation. Really, why would his old partner get so worked up about
something as little as some friends tracking her two borders down?
Their enemies did it all the time.
"I already have. Of course, his friends had to have weird gaijin
names."
"So what do you need my help with?"
The brunnette shook her head, although Omi couldn't see it, "I didn't
get any information on the two that showed up. Nothing what-so-ever,
even when I searched under Farfello's real name."
The young assassin's blood ran cold, and he managed to squeak out,
"Farfello?"
"Otherwise known as Jei, with his friend Schuldich," Nabiki stated, a
touch of panic in her own voice. Omi rarely got that squeaky note to
his voice-- and she'd known him for over six years, "They showed up
yesterday, looking for Ranma and Ranko by name."
"Not good, Nabs. This is not good. Farfello and Schuldich are dangerous
men," Omi glanced around, moving outof sight and dropping his voice. It
wouldn't do to have one of the shop patrons over hear him, "They're
assassins, Nabiki. Whatever they want from Ranma and Ranko means those
two are in danger."
"Assassins?" Nabiki hissed back, her own eyes darting to make sure no
one over heard her, "Are you sure it's the Farfello and Schuldich I
saw?"
"Schuldich was a redhead with green eyes, right? And Farfello has lots
of scars and an eyepatch?"
There was a long pause on the other end of the line, before Nabiki
managed to get out, "Yes. Oh god... I was mad at Ranma, yeah, but..."
"Nabiki," Omi's voice was harsh in it's seriousness, a tone Nabiki had
heard several times, but each one had been in some of the most
dangerous situations the two had gotten themselves into, "What exactly
did those two want?"
"Kitty."
"What?"
"Kitty. It's what Farfello was calling Ranma and Ranko. He kept calling
them his 'Kitties'."
---
A pair of redheads wandered down the streets of Tokyo. The first had
red hair that bordered on orange, and jade eyes. He was also male. The
second, a female, was short and busty, with dangerously narrowed,
stormy blue eyes. She looked about ready to kill something, most likely
her companion.
"Bishoujo," Schuldich was still grinning over this new nickname that
just made the boy-turned-girl burn with rage, "it's not a curse, it's a
blessing!"
Ranma's glare increased, "Stop calling me that! And it is a curse! Do
you know how many people have hit on me-- or tried to kill me-- because
of this form?!"
"And how many of them still try to kill you in your normal form?"
Schuldich shot back with an even wider grin, "besides, you can get a
lot more jobs with an ability like that, Bishoujo!"
Schuldich found his face firmly planted in the ground, Ranma shaking
with rage as she retracked her fist. Her lips pulled back in a silent
growl, before she managed to calm herself down enough to talk again,
"Arse. When people find out, I get branded a pervert!"
"And you're not, Kitty?" the assassin irritably rubbed his now sore
face, before ducking beneath another attack, "Whoa! Calm down,
bishoujo. All I meant was you live with three lovely young woman, are
engaged to one of them, as well as two other beautiful girls--" yes, he
had gone through Ranma's mind to see what Xian Phu and Ukyou looked
like, "--you can't tell me you haven't thought about it."
"I haven't," Ranma snorted, "I'm not interested in them." Before she
could utter another word (along the lines of 'Schuldich-no-baka') a new
voice interupted. Or rather, a whistle interupted.
Ready, willing, and able to pound the idiot into next week, Ranma
turned on her heel and found herself face-to-face with a tall, lanky
young man. With brownish blonde hair, and a pair of sunglasses hiding
his eyes, "Get lost."
"Ah, is that anyway to treat someone who merely appriecating your
beauty?"
There was a snort from the ground, and Schuldich pulled himself to his
feet, "She's only sixteen, Kudou."
"You know this jerk?" Ranma asked over her shoulder, looking back at
her companion. Who, she smirked, had a bruise starting to form from
meeting the ground up-close and personal.
Schuldich gave a shrug, countance obviously amused, as Kudou Yohji's
eyes narrowed into a sharp glare from behind his shades, "Schuldich."
"The one and only. If you'll excuse us, Kudou, Kitty and I have
elsewhere to be." Ranma rolled her eyes at the look Yohji developed.
Hooking her arm through Schuldich's offered one, in a way that was
clearly designed to insult the playboy-ish young man, Ranma smirked to
herself.
That is, until Yohji grabbed her arm, tugging her away from the other
redhead, "Schuldich is a dangerous man to get involved with,
Kitty-chan."
---
"Alright, Nabs, I'll help you find them."
"When you do, Omittchi, have them stay with you. They'd be safer with
you than here, considering that those two get into more than their fair
share of fights just by opening their mouths."
Omi chuckled, although it was a bit strained, "I understand, Nabs, and
don't worry. We'll--"
"Stop being an asshole, I can take care of myself," came a waspish snap
from the front of the store, and Omi had to blink at the sight. A
redheaded young woman was stalking into the Koneko, followed by Yohji.
Yohji had a red handprint decorating his cheek, but he didn't really
look like he cared. In fact, he looked like he was worried about
something.
"Omittchi? Omi, are you still there?"
"H.. Hai, I'm still here, Nabs. Uh, Ranko is a short, er...
well-developed redhead, right?"
Nabiki's voice sounded confused, "You should know that, Omi, I sent you
a picture of both Ranma and Ranko, remember?"
"Yeah. Uh, can I call you back, Nabs? Something just came up."
"Oh, alright. Just do it soon. I don't have forever, you know."
"I know, I know. Bai bai."
"Bai bai," there was a click and Omi hung up, turning back to face the
front of the store. The redhead and Yohji seemed to be in a rather
heated, but whispered arguement, punctuated repeatedly, by the redhead
slapping away Yohji's hand every so other, or even going so far as to
kick him.
The seventeen year old padded over to where the arguing pair were,
well, arguing heatedly. Their voices became clearer as he got closer.
"I told you-- I can take care of myself!"
"The man you were with is dangerous!"
"Schuldich couldn't touch me if he tried!"
"You don't know how fast he can be! You're lucky you're still alive!"
"What the hell are you talking about? Schuldich is my friend!"
"Only until your usefulness wears out! He's a manipulative little--"
"And your a stuck up playboy who can't get over the fact that I
couldn't give less of a damn about you!"
"Ahem... is there a problem, Yohji-kun?"
End Chapter
rather, my younger brother) have had the game for months, only recently
have I actually become interested in playing it. And reading fanfics.
Especially Squall/Seifer. (Seifer is God. ^-^V) Which is what I've been
doing instead of writing.
Oh yeah. I've never owned a cat. I'll likely get one when I move out,
but my father is allergic to them. On that note, I rarely come in
contact with them. If Ranma's not acting like a cat, blame it on my
father's allergies.
I'm trying to keep the postings at FF.net and Lady Cosmos' around the
same time. Which should be about once a week.
False Identity
Chapter Four: Enter Weiss
Li Xiang
"Who the hell are you?"
Saotome Ranma, martial artist, part time demolitions worker, general
pain in the rear, sought after by many a lady, and also known to few as
"Kitty", gave the redheaded assassin a dark look. He didn't recognise
Schuldich at all-- not even the scent he could pick up was familiar, so
it meant that Jei had made some friends over the eight years apart.
Although not unexpected, there was an odd flash of jealousy at that.
Jei was _his_ friend.
"Schuldich," said man introduced himself with a slight bow, and a large
smirk. Oh, how he was going to have fun with this boy! Jealousy was
radiating off him over the prospect of Farfello having gotten himself a
'replacement' for Kitty. All he really had to worry about was the boy's
insane speed-- although he could probably match him, Schuldich would
have to force himself to the level Ranma moved at naturally--, and the
fact that he'd ripped apart a vitual god with his bare hands with no
apparent remorse. He'd have to redirect those feelings so they didn't
end up focused on him.
But, aside from that...
Farfello had snagged Ranma's raised hand, grinning in that creepy way
of his. The one that screamed 'I've found a new way to hurt god'. For a
moment, the telepath was tempted to peek into his pale haired frined's
mind to see what he was thinking, then banished the thought. Right at
this particular moment, he didn't really want to go into Farfello's
mind. When that look entered that golden iris, it was safer to have his
mental sheilds on maxium, to prevent himself from going insane.
Schuldich spoke before Farfello had a chance to even start on one of
his 'Hurt-God' rambles, "I've a proposition for you, bishounen." Sure,
it was his nickname for Nagi, but it fit the pigtailed boy oh-so-well.
Smokey blue eyes narrowed sharply, a quick glance in the direction of
the money-grubbing girl who was currently gaping like a fish, trying to
figure out just what the hell was going on around her.
"What kind of proposition...?"
Schuldich's own eyes flicked to the girl, "It would be best if this was
discussed in private, Saotome."
Ranma nodded, and started to drop into a crouch to bounce to the roof
before pausing, and opening his mouth. Before the question even crossed
his lips, Schuldich's mental voice brushed against him, /Yes, we can
roofhop./
The boy looked at him, clearly startled, confusion jarring his features,
before Schuldich gave him a mental smirk, /This is part of what we have
to talk about, Katzchen./
The martial artist stared at him for a few more moments before sighing
softly, "We'd best leave on foot, then take to the roofs. Nabiki
shouldn't be able to follow us then."
Schuldich agreed, again smirking, and shoved his hands in his pockets,
"Let's go Farf. We've got a lot of talk about, eh?"
"Kitty needs to learn the game rules," Farfello agreed, again with that
distrubing smile, and Ranma gave his friend a strange look. Sure, Jei
had been a little out of sorts when they'd first met, but this was
pretty extreme, even for him. What had happened over the years?
As the trio left the Tendou-ke, Nabiki snapped out of her daze, and
crept swiftly after them, a frown marring her features. She'd been
expecting the two gaijin to attack Ranma, not ask him a couple
questions, and call him Kitty. Only three feet away from the gate,
Nabiki froze.
Kitty? Like on his collar?
Then... her eyes narrowed. One of those men was Ranma's "Jei-sama".
And, quite obviously from his reactions, it was the white haired man
with the eyepatch, Farfello.
Casting her gaze about for the unusal-- even for gaijin-- men. They
weren't on the streets, which left her with the rooftops. And with her
own inability to roofhop-- hell, not even Akane, her martial artist
sister, could roofhop-- it would be impossible to track them. Dammit
all.
As she returned to her room, she persed her lips. Looks like I'm going
to have to call in a favor I was hoping to keep open for a few more
years...
---
Sprawlled across the branches in a tree above their heads, Ranma lazily
watched Jei lick a knife and stare off into space, and Schuldich make
himself comfortable on the ground. Sure, the redhead could have made a
bed out of the tree branches like Ranma, but what was the point? The
only reason Ranma was really up there was to keep his rivals and
enemies from seeing him. Afterall, with his long hair, Schuldich could
be mistaken for a girl by those blind, 'trigger' happy idiots Kuno,
Mousse and Ryouga.
"So what's this deal?"
Schuldich hiked an eyebrow. He hadn't expected the martial artist to
iniciate the conversation, although with the way previous 'deals' had
ended up, Ranma probably wanted to feel like he was in control of his
own fate. The assassin grinned at this; Ranma had a hard life... he'd
fit in perfectly with the rest of Schwartz.
"We want you to join us."
"Huh?" Great answer, Ranma! he growled to himself, but before he could
go any further into it, Schuldich responded.
"We want you to join Schwartz." The redhead shifted a bit-- the tree
trunk was damned uncomfortable!
"And what's Schwartz?"
"Us," came Farfello's answer, "Schuldich, and Nagi and Crawford, and
me. And hopefully you, Kitty."
Schuldich shook his head, "Just a group of bodyguards for hire,
bishounen."
Ranma ignored the nickname as he pretty much ignored everything anyone
called him (with the nominal exceptions of 'Pervert', 'Femboy', 'Girl'
or 'Osage no Onna'), "Bodyguards?"
"And sometimes mercenaries," Schuldich shrugged, "We do what we're
hired to do, and we get paid for it. Simple as that."
The martial artist thought it over for nearly ten minutes; Schuldich
could hear him weight pros and cons of being a bodyguard and being
paid, verus being an oft exploited martial artist. While he wasn't
exactly the smartest crayon in the box, he was no slouch either. He'd
been taught to focus his considerable intelligence on how to fight for
almost the entire eight years prior, and probably the bit before that
he couldn't remember. It was hard to break out of a years long habit.
Ranma flipped out of the tree with a thoughtful frown on his face, "I
want to meet this Nagi and Crawford, Jei-sama, Schuldich-san."
"Of course," Schuldich nodded. He was pretty sure Crawford would do
whatever he could to have the literal powerhouse of energy standing
before them join Schwartz. He'd be quite the ace-in-the-hole, "Anything
else?" the questions racing through Ranma's mind came forwards as he
opened his mouth to speak.
"How'd you speak without movin' your mouth?"
---
"Well?"
Schuldich looked up from examing his fingernails later that night. He'd
managed to answer the majority of Ranma's questions without giving away
the fact that he and the rest of Schwartz were actually assassins.
They'd spring that on Ranma once he'd joined, and had no way to back
out.
For now, it was best if he thought they were merely bodyguards.
Crawford stood over the redhead, a rather impatient look on his face--
Farfello had immediately gone to his cell/room to plan something
dealing with Kitty, and Schuldich had been dodging Crawford's inquires
all night. It didn't help that where Ranma was concerned, Crawford had
visions of several separate ways things could go. If things were to go
the way he wanted them to, everything had to abide by his own terms.
"Ranma wants to meet you and Nagi before he even considers joining."
Bradley gave a nod of understanding, fully expecting Schuldich to
continue with a 'report' of how the Saotome Boy had reacted to
Farfello's sudden reappearance in his life. The jade eyed assassin just
smirked at him, and Crawford growled in the back of his throat. He'd
had enough of a hard time convincing Estet that Ranma would benefit
from being a part of Schwartz instead of just being part of some random
group.
He wasn't in a good mood.
"Okay, okay. I'm bringing Kitty here, so he can meet you two. The kid's
a pretty talented martial artist-- powerful too."
"Fine." Crawford shot Schuldich one last parting glare, before stalking
out to calm himself down. Nagi hadn't even bothered looking up from his
computer once through out the whole "confrontation".
---
Even without being a telepath, it was obvious what was going through
the young martial artist's mind.
"Farf wanted to stay back," Schuldich shrugged at the dark haired boy's
questioning look. He had done some poking around in the irish man's
mind, but he'd just come away as confused as to why Farf wanted to stay
as he had when he went in. The pale haired man's mind worked in odd
ways, "Come on, bishounen, let's go."
With a nod, the young man bounced up onto the fence to pad alongside
Schuldich as they walked. Normally, the redhead would have taken
Crawford's car to pick up Ranma, but he wanted to figure out the
Martial Artist. His mind was rather odd-- sometimes he thought like
your normal everyday teenager, or a young child, and sometimes he
thought like a wild animal-- a feral cat, persay. Therefore, it would
be easier to simply get the boy to talk about himself.
"What's with the fence-walking?"
Ranma blinked, then shrugged, "Balance practise. 'sides, I get a larger
view of my surroundings from here. Easier to dodge an attack that way."
Seemingly unheeding of the fact that he was walking along the top of a
chain link fence in nothing more than thin black slippers, Ranma leaned
back to watch the sky as he walked.
"You get attacked often then?"
"Every few hours," again, a nonchalant shrug, "You get used to it." He
scratched at his neck, just under his pigtail, "So where we goin'?"
"To meet Crawford and Nagi," Schuldich smirked, "Or do you not want to
anymore?"
"Of course I do!" Ranma snapped, "If I can get out of this hell hole
I'm living in, I will! No matter what I have to do!"
The redheaded assassin's smirk widened. Ranma might just regret those
words, but who was he to tell? Ranma had killed before. He would have
continued this train of thought, but he-- and Ranma-- found themselves
drenched from a spray of water from above. The martial artist growled,
wringing the water from her red chinese shirt.
Her?
Schuldich proceeded to stare at Ranma for nearly ten minutes, openly
gaping at the sight of a busty redheaded young woman standing where a
black haired young man had been standing. The martial artist looked
down at her equally wet companion and sighed, "Come on. Let's find
somewhere to sit, and I'll 'splain the curse."
---
"Koneko no Sumi Ie, Hidaka Ken speaking, how can I help you?"
Nabiki blinked, rather surprised. She hadn't expected someone she
didn't know answering the phone. Shaking her head, she put the thought
off, "Ah yes, can I speak with Tsukiyono Omi?"
"Just a sec. Hey Omi-kun! You've got a phone call!"
There was a muffled 'okay' in the background, and the sound of many
girls whining as one, before a breathless voice came across the
phonelines, "Omi speaking."
"Hi Omittchi."
"Nabs?" Omi's voice sounded surprised, but she had expected that.
Afterall, they hadn't had much contact with one another over the past
three years, excluding the couple emails they shot back and forth when
they needed help.
"It's me. Look, Omittchi, I need your help."
"You must, if you're calling me instead of emailing," there was a bit
of an amused tease in his voice. As of late, the things Nabiki had
needed help for weren't all that serious. Just some hacked information
in order to keep the 'local loonies' of Nerima out of serious trouble.
Nabiki sighed, fisting her hair, "I had to call in a couple favors that
I didn't want to. Ranma and Ranko seem to have come across some old...
friends. Although I'm not sure if I should really use that word. They
took off with one of them earlier this morning, and I'm worried."
"You need me to look up some information?" Omi rolled his eyes at the
conversation. Really, why would his old partner get so worked up about
something as little as some friends tracking her two borders down?
Their enemies did it all the time.
"I already have. Of course, his friends had to have weird gaijin
names."
"So what do you need my help with?"
The brunnette shook her head, although Omi couldn't see it, "I didn't
get any information on the two that showed up. Nothing what-so-ever,
even when I searched under Farfello's real name."
The young assassin's blood ran cold, and he managed to squeak out,
"Farfello?"
"Otherwise known as Jei, with his friend Schuldich," Nabiki stated, a
touch of panic in her own voice. Omi rarely got that squeaky note to
his voice-- and she'd known him for over six years, "They showed up
yesterday, looking for Ranma and Ranko by name."
"Not good, Nabs. This is not good. Farfello and Schuldich are dangerous
men," Omi glanced around, moving outof sight and dropping his voice. It
wouldn't do to have one of the shop patrons over hear him, "They're
assassins, Nabiki. Whatever they want from Ranma and Ranko means those
two are in danger."
"Assassins?" Nabiki hissed back, her own eyes darting to make sure no
one over heard her, "Are you sure it's the Farfello and Schuldich I
saw?"
"Schuldich was a redhead with green eyes, right? And Farfello has lots
of scars and an eyepatch?"
There was a long pause on the other end of the line, before Nabiki
managed to get out, "Yes. Oh god... I was mad at Ranma, yeah, but..."
"Nabiki," Omi's voice was harsh in it's seriousness, a tone Nabiki had
heard several times, but each one had been in some of the most
dangerous situations the two had gotten themselves into, "What exactly
did those two want?"
"Kitty."
"What?"
"Kitty. It's what Farfello was calling Ranma and Ranko. He kept calling
them his 'Kitties'."
---
A pair of redheads wandered down the streets of Tokyo. The first had
red hair that bordered on orange, and jade eyes. He was also male. The
second, a female, was short and busty, with dangerously narrowed,
stormy blue eyes. She looked about ready to kill something, most likely
her companion.
"Bishoujo," Schuldich was still grinning over this new nickname that
just made the boy-turned-girl burn with rage, "it's not a curse, it's a
blessing!"
Ranma's glare increased, "Stop calling me that! And it is a curse! Do
you know how many people have hit on me-- or tried to kill me-- because
of this form?!"
"And how many of them still try to kill you in your normal form?"
Schuldich shot back with an even wider grin, "besides, you can get a
lot more jobs with an ability like that, Bishoujo!"
Schuldich found his face firmly planted in the ground, Ranma shaking
with rage as she retracked her fist. Her lips pulled back in a silent
growl, before she managed to calm herself down enough to talk again,
"Arse. When people find out, I get branded a pervert!"
"And you're not, Kitty?" the assassin irritably rubbed his now sore
face, before ducking beneath another attack, "Whoa! Calm down,
bishoujo. All I meant was you live with three lovely young woman, are
engaged to one of them, as well as two other beautiful girls--" yes, he
had gone through Ranma's mind to see what Xian Phu and Ukyou looked
like, "--you can't tell me you haven't thought about it."
"I haven't," Ranma snorted, "I'm not interested in them." Before she
could utter another word (along the lines of 'Schuldich-no-baka') a new
voice interupted. Or rather, a whistle interupted.
Ready, willing, and able to pound the idiot into next week, Ranma
turned on her heel and found herself face-to-face with a tall, lanky
young man. With brownish blonde hair, and a pair of sunglasses hiding
his eyes, "Get lost."
"Ah, is that anyway to treat someone who merely appriecating your
beauty?"
There was a snort from the ground, and Schuldich pulled himself to his
feet, "She's only sixteen, Kudou."
"You know this jerk?" Ranma asked over her shoulder, looking back at
her companion. Who, she smirked, had a bruise starting to form from
meeting the ground up-close and personal.
Schuldich gave a shrug, countance obviously amused, as Kudou Yohji's
eyes narrowed into a sharp glare from behind his shades, "Schuldich."
"The one and only. If you'll excuse us, Kudou, Kitty and I have
elsewhere to be." Ranma rolled her eyes at the look Yohji developed.
Hooking her arm through Schuldich's offered one, in a way that was
clearly designed to insult the playboy-ish young man, Ranma smirked to
herself.
That is, until Yohji grabbed her arm, tugging her away from the other
redhead, "Schuldich is a dangerous man to get involved with,
Kitty-chan."
---
"Alright, Nabs, I'll help you find them."
"When you do, Omittchi, have them stay with you. They'd be safer with
you than here, considering that those two get into more than their fair
share of fights just by opening their mouths."
Omi chuckled, although it was a bit strained, "I understand, Nabs, and
don't worry. We'll--"
"Stop being an asshole, I can take care of myself," came a waspish snap
from the front of the store, and Omi had to blink at the sight. A
redheaded young woman was stalking into the Koneko, followed by Yohji.
Yohji had a red handprint decorating his cheek, but he didn't really
look like he cared. In fact, he looked like he was worried about
something.
"Omittchi? Omi, are you still there?"
"H.. Hai, I'm still here, Nabs. Uh, Ranko is a short, er...
well-developed redhead, right?"
Nabiki's voice sounded confused, "You should know that, Omi, I sent you
a picture of both Ranma and Ranko, remember?"
"Yeah. Uh, can I call you back, Nabs? Something just came up."
"Oh, alright. Just do it soon. I don't have forever, you know."
"I know, I know. Bai bai."
"Bai bai," there was a click and Omi hung up, turning back to face the
front of the store. The redhead and Yohji seemed to be in a rather
heated, but whispered arguement, punctuated repeatedly, by the redhead
slapping away Yohji's hand every so other, or even going so far as to
kick him.
The seventeen year old padded over to where the arguing pair were,
well, arguing heatedly. Their voices became clearer as he got closer.
"I told you-- I can take care of myself!"
"The man you were with is dangerous!"
"Schuldich couldn't touch me if he tried!"
"You don't know how fast he can be! You're lucky you're still alive!"
"What the hell are you talking about? Schuldich is my friend!"
"Only until your usefulness wears out! He's a manipulative little--"
"And your a stuck up playboy who can't get over the fact that I
couldn't give less of a damn about you!"
"Ahem... is there a problem, Yohji-kun?"
End Chapter