If you couldn't tell, my computer was back in the shop. It's really
hard to have a working computer when your CPU has literally melted
and destroyed the motherboard. *glareglareglare*
Just to prove that, yes, it really was computer problems, Chapters
Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-One come out today. Yes, that's right!
I'm posting the chapters that were supposed to come out over the
last two weeks, PLUS this week's addition to the world of False
Identity.
At the bottom, there's a list of sites & URLs where False Identity can
be found.
Oh, and I want to say congrats to the one who's writing "Wild Kitten".
An interesting take, even if you _aren't_ pairing Ranko and Farfie.
I like what you've written so far. =^-^= Miiiiyah!
False Identity
Chapter Nineteen: Plans
Li Xiang
The sight that greeted Schuldich as he strolled up the road made him
laugh, long and hard.
The light of the street lamps glared down on the heads of the two men
tied to the poles-- Ken and Yohji. Omi was trying to untie them.[1]
It didn't help that Kitty was still whipping water balloons in their
direction. Both she and Aya were seated in front of the Koneko, a pile
of water balloons between them. Aya was grinning faintly, arms crossed
behind his head as glazed over violet eyes stared up at the sky. He was
ignoring Omi's pleas to (a) help him and (b) stop Ranma.
Schuldich's laughter caught all but Ranma-onna off guard-- Aya's eyes
snapped to his face, Omi stopped untying his friends for a moment, and
a look of nervousness crossed Ken's features. Ranma dropped the balloon
she'd picked up, "Is Jei-sama with you?"
"Not tonight, Bishoujo," Schuldich came to a stop in front of her with
a grin, "Rache told me that you and Balinese know."
"We do," Ranma nodded, "So does Ken."
The redhead nodded, "You going to help?"
It was Ken who responded, "Yeah, might as well." he rolled his
shoulders, stretching, as the rope fell to the ground, and Omi stepped
back. Yohji had been tied with a separate piece of rope. The seventeen
year old sighed as he went back to untying his teammate.
"What are you talking about?" Aya's voice was soft, but deadly, as he
glared at Schuldich. While he wasn't as... distrusting... towards the
other redhead these days, he still didn't fully trust Schuldich.
/The feeling, Abyssian, is quite mutual, I assure you/ Violet eyes met
jade and engaged in a staring contest. It held for a minute, before
Schuldich smirked and broke contact. He turned to face Kitty, "Farf
wants to see you, Bishoujo."
"Don't call me that. Where?" She bounced to her feet, and started
forwards. Abyssian stood, as well.
"At the 'house," Schuldich's smirk widened, /And where are _you_ off
to, Katzchen?/ he got a sharp glare in return.
"I'm coming with you, Ranma."
The feline girl hiked an eyebrow, then smirked, "Only if you can keep
up with me, Fujimiya!" Laughing, she darted off. With a bit of a glare,
the still sweater-less man followed at a rather good clip.
Ken edged away as Schuldich stepped closer to them with a wicked grin,
"I suggest we go somewhere more... private, if we're going to discuss
our options."
Omi looked rather confused-- both by Schuldich's"conversation" with
Yohji, and the fact that Ken had place him between the German assassin
and he.
Yohji eyed the exchange between Ken and Schuldich, recalling Rache and
Ranma's conversation from the afternoon, "Stop teasing him, Schuldich.
As a point, I don't trust-- let alone like-- you. Let's go."
---
It wasn't actually all that hard to keep Ranma in sight-- most likely
because he kept to the streets after having gotten some hot water.
It was when the young male stopped outside the entrance of a familiar
warehouse that Aya actually came up beside him. The martial artist was
smirking, "I made it _easy_ for you, Abyssian."
He didn't doubt it, either. He'd heard Yohji's tale of the fight
between Ranko and Ryouga. He'd seen Ranko's speed during the water
fight. Which reminded him... a quick look down revealed that yes, he
was still shirtless. He felt the unfathomable urge to smack himself.
This was certainly the first time something like _this_ had ever
happened to him.
Ranma smirked at him, then threw open the warehouse doors, "Are you
here, Jei-sama?"
Rache's irritated face bobbed out of the darkness, "Unfortunately.
You've only been gone three hours, and now you're back?!"
"Calm down, Rache," Aya had picked up Schuldich's habit of using the
name she'd taken before being adopted. She turned a burning glare on
the older redhead.
"_You_ put up with Farfie for twenty minutes, and see how well _you_
take it," Rache snipped, then sighed, "Okay, okay, you two can come in.
I wonder if I'm ever going to get those computers in..." The last part
was mumbled as she returned to the darkness, blue duster swirling with
her movements.
Aya and Ranma entered the shadows themselves. While normally this would
be stupid and dangerous-- they could trip and fall and hurt
themselves-- there was nothing to trip and fall and hurt themselves
_on_. The only places furnished were the bedrooms, and the one they
were headed towards had bright light spilling from the open door.
When they got there, it was immediately recognizable as Farfello's
room. The walls had been covered with two inch thick foam mats, the
ceiling and floor much the same. A large, four poster bed-- complete
with shackles and chains-- was tucked into one corner. A nearby chest
lay open, exposing one hell of a lot of wicked-looking torture
implements.
And, of course, Farfello himself sat on the bed, drawing patterns in
his arm with a knife. He looked up as they entered, eyes on his Kitty,
not even noticing Abyssian. Said assassin found himself one of the rare
few who saw-- not Farfello, by Jei, the original personality-- smile in
true happiness.
Then, of course, it vanished when his attention was turned on the bare
chested Fujimiya, "...Abyssian."
"Farfello," he greeted, equally as awkward as Farfello had. What do you
say to the man who you've actively tried to kill? What do you say to
the man who, despite being an enemy, took care of one of your most
precious belongings?
Jei turned an inquisitive eye to Kitty, and the martial artist
shrugged, "He followed me."
This caused the pale haired man to burst into laughter, "The assassin
followed the cat home!"
Ranma smirked, then dropped onto the bed beside his long-time friend.
Once his laughter had abided, Jei tugged the martial artist into his
lap-- or, at least, he tried. Ranma was quite comfortable spread across
the bed, and didn't want to move. Farfello growled lowly, and Aya
interrupted.
"Leave him be, Farfello," the redhead had dropped to the floor, seated
cross-legged, "If he doesn't want to move, he won't."
Jei gave the older man a dark look, "How would _you_ know, Abyssian?"
Violet eyes slid shut and a wry chuckle forced itself out of lips that
_tried_ to refuse the gesture, "I've been living with him for the past
week[2]"
"Don't remind me," Farfello growled, jealousy flaring within him. He
knit his fingers in Kitty's hair, and the martial artist slit open an
eye.
"Don't talk like I'm not here," Farfello hiked an eyebrow, but Aya's
expression didn't change, "Stop being at each other's throats, too. As
much as I _love_ a good fight, I don't feel like being the cause of one
between the two of you, right now."
Jei snorted, "You didn't seem to mind when you were a cause of a fight
for those girls."
Ranma rolled his eyes, muttering, "They beat _me_ up just as much as
they did each other. Helped to make Ryouga's punches hurt less."
"You let them beat on you... to make it hurt less?" Alright, Aya
decided, Ranma's nuts.
"Endurance training," the martial artist shrugged, "Ryouga's one upped
me in _that_-- he had boulders smashed into him!"
---
Outside the warehouse, Schuldich hummed cheerfully, pushing the door
open. Both Yohji and Omi looked a bit wary of being at the warehouse,
while Ken merely looked wary of Schuldich.
Scratch that, Ken was bloody terrified of the German, for all his
teasing on the way over. He was using Yohji and Omi as shields.
A pair of irritated emerald eyes peered out of the darkness, "What's
with all the visitors tonight, Bruder?"
"Hello to you, too, Rache," Schuldich shrugged, "We felt discussing the
deal we've got going would be done best somewhere in... private." to
punctuate hi words, the redhead leered at Ken, and Siberian stared at
him for a moment, before hiding behind Omi.
Rache snickered, "Oh stop teasing him, Schu! I think you've tormented
him enough over the last few days."
"Ah, you're no fun, Kleine Schwester. Where are Farf and his katzchen?"
"You're the telepath, can't you find them?"
"I could," he grinned, "But I'm feeling lazy. Lay on, Macduff."
Rache eyed him, stating drily, "Don't quote Shakespear,
brother-dearest. Follow the light-- Irish, Ranma and Aya are in Farf's
room."
"Danke." Cheerful smile back in place, Schuldich guided the Weiss boys
into the darkness. Wary of a trap, Yohji's fingers stole to his watch,
where his monofilament wire was hidden. Omi would have done the same,
had he thought to bring his darts with him-- but they'd come straight
from the scene of the water fight.
Ken continued oblivious to his friends' nervousness. He'd been
throughout the whole of the warehouse the day or so prior, when
Schuldich had been chasing him. Besides, since Omi was the only one
with him that didn't already know, he supposed it didn't really matter
if he found out about his phasing ability. He'd just go through the
floor if there was trouble.
The light spilling from the door was bright in the unlighted warehouse,
almost blinding from a distance. As they came closer, they could hear
Ranma saying something about... boulders?
"That must have hurt," Schuldich put in, announcing his presence to the
trio in the room. Farfello frowned.
"Why are you here?"
Schuldich shrugged with a grin, "I figured we should discuss the deal
with everyone here."
"Then where's Nagi and Crawford?" Ranma questioned with a raised
eyebrow, and Jei snickered.
"They don't know about it yet."
"You're kidding," Yohji still held his kill-wire in a careful grip. He
wasn't about to just _trust_ the men who'd tried to kill him on
multiple occasions-- especially Farfello.
"Nope," Schuldich shook his head, sending flame toned hair flying,
"Neither Crawford nor Nagi know what we're planning on doing."
"I guess that's why Rache said it would be a few weeks," Ranma nodded
to himself, sitting up, "You still have to convince Crawford and Nagi
this is a _good_ idea."
Ken edged away from Schuldich-- who'd apparently decided to stand right
beside him-- and spoke, "Alright, we wait to talk about it until _all_
of Schwartz is here. Can we _go_ now?!"
Ranma almost laughed at Ken's pain, while both Aya and Omi gave Ken
confused looks. Yohji sighed, shaking his head, "Would you relax, Ken?
Schuldich isn't going to hurt _you_."
The implied statement blew completely over Ken's head, as he pulled Aya
between him and the German. Frowning, the violet eyes man snorted,
"What's this all _about_?"
"Schwartz agrees to step out of your way to Kill Takatori on two
conditions," Ranma recited, "the first, Weiss leaves Kritiker. The
second, Tsukiyono is _not_ allowed to go anymore near the Takatori
family with intent to kill."
Aya and Omi shared a confused 'blink', and Schuldich shook his head,
"As long as it's not Omi who takes out Takatori, Schwartz won't stand
in your way. All we want is Weiss away from Kritiker."
A suspicious glare prompted a bit of laughter (from Schuldich, of
course), and a rolling of the eyes (Ranma). After a moment, Ranma began
to explain.
---
The whistle of displaced air was all the warning Ninomiko Kenji had
before he crumpled to the ground, dead.
The katana was raised, a red cloth used to carefully wipe the blood
from the blade, and from black leather gloves. With that complete, the
sword returned to it's sheath in silence. The cloth was tucked into a
small black bag and tucked into the bodice of the red kimono. In the
dark, the crimson tones were muted, but still bright enough that the
black silhouettes of a forest could still be seen.
The woman turned away from her target, walking away from the corpse.
Once away from the body, a simple cell phone was removed from her obi.
Flicking it on, she hit speed dial, and spoke a short sentence, "Target
Eliminated."
On the other end the response was just as simple, "Good. Got to the
pick-up to retrieve the next," She did not say good by, merely ending
the call.
---
Yawning, Ranma trudged back to the Koneko no Sumi Ie behind Weiss. It
was late-- it had taken a while to get Ken out of Schuldich's grip--
and he was tired. A series of late nights and almost constantly in the
feral state of mind was taking it's toll.
Enough that, until he heard a scream of outrage, he hadn't realised his
danger sense was blaring at him.
"Ranma, for killing my Xian Phu-- PREPARE TO DIE!"
Weiss whirled at the shout of challenge, gapping in amazement as a
veritable field of chains arched from the darkness, each of the
hundreds of chains tipped with some form of razor sharp blade. They
were directed solely at Ranma, and the boys relaxed for a moment-- they
expected Ranma to dodge with all the speed he'd previously shown them.
But Ranma had been caught off guard. The martial artist's veneer of
energy and wakefulness had fallen away to leave a worn and tired young
man in his place. His speed had left him as he attempt to dodge the
blades just a little to late.
Blades pierced his skin, some scratching, some slicing, and some
embedding in his body as he moved. Pain lanced through his body, and he
gave a horrible screech of pain, not unlike that of a wild beast. It
was his scream that launched Weiss into action. Omi may have been angry
with the gender-bender-- for the near-death of Akane-- but Ranma was
also a sorta-friend. Yohji was pissed that Ranma had attempted to kill
him-- but the martial artist _had_ taken him to Rache.
Only Yohji had his weapon on him, so the Playboy followed the chains to
their source-- a teenaged Chinese boy. Practiced movements had his wire
arching out not unlike the chains, pinning the young man's arms to his
body, tangling in the wire. For a moment, he mused on the fact that
he'd once done something like this to Aya, before returning to the task
at hand.
Without their master, the flung blades clattered to the ground. Omi and
Aya both snatched up some-- Omi a handful of throwing knives still
attached to their chains, and Aya a scimitar. Ken moved to Ranma's side
as the bleeding youth collapsed against a wall. With careful hands, he
pulled some of the bloody blades from their human scabbard-- others he
left in, to halt blood flow, "Guys, take care of that moron! Ranma
needs a doctor!"
"Take him to Naru!" Yohji barked, even as Aya growled, "Rache will know
what to do."
Ken nodded, hefting Ranma into his arms, "I've never taken someone with
me when I phase," he muttered to the half conscious youth, "Let's hope
I don't make anything worse, ne?"
Ranma gave a pained chuckle, almost snuggling into Ken's arms like a
child.
Hesitantly at first, Ken stepped through the wall Ranma had been
leaning against. When the only thing to happen was that the parts of
Ranma's clothing not directly touching him vanished, he broke into an
outright run. Who cared if someone saw him? So they'd think they'd seen
a ghost or two... Ranma's life was on the line.
---
Back with the rest of Weiss, Muu Tzu was struggling with the wire that
bound him. He didn't struggle hard-- the wires had cut through his silk
robes, biting into his skin when he'd tried. He froze completely,
however, when the tip of a sword pressed against his adam's apple.
An icy voice practically snarled, "Give me one good reason why I
shouldn't kill you where you stand."
"He's not exactly standing, Abyssian."
"Quiet, Balinese," a third voice hissed, and Muu Tzu wished he could
see more than blurs in the darkness. The sword pressed closer, and the
first voice hissed, "Answer."
"He killed my Xian Phu!"
"He killed a bottle of shampoo?" Yohji hiked an eyebrow, and Muu Tzu
snarled, "Xian Phu was her _name_!"
Aya's face blanked, "Killing is what assassins do."
"Assassin?" Muu Tzu scoffed, "Saotome's no assassin."
Without emotion, Aya thrust the sword forwards-- and hit nothing, as
Muu Tzu's robes collapsed in on themselves. Yohji gaped, "...the hell?"
Aya toed the robes, but there was no sign of the amazon boy. With a
growl, the redhead turned away, "Let's get back to the Koneko."
"What about Ranma?" Omi questioned, and his leader turned bright,
violet eyes on him.
"Ken will inform us," he snapped, "until then, we'd just be getting in
the way."
Yohji and Omi stared at each other, then followed Abyssian back to
their shop. After a few minutes, Muu Tzu's robes shifted, and a duck
waddled out.
Thank god, Mu-mu-chan thought, that I had that bottle of water on me.
End
[1] Yes, this can happen. Heh, about three years ago we tied my brother
and my neighbour up like that in the middle of a water fight. Gen
wasn't to happy about it...
[2] Has it only been a week? Seems like much more time has passed,
doesn't it? Especially with my frequent computer problems. *sweatdrops*
Ranchan & Co. - http://tannim.anifics.com/
Lady Cosmos' Fanfic Library - http://ladycosmos.anifics.com/
Strider's Ranma Archive - http://archive.anifics.com/
Faded Fantasies - http://li_xiang.anifics.com/
Fanfiction.net
hard to have a working computer when your CPU has literally melted
and destroyed the motherboard. *glareglareglare*
Just to prove that, yes, it really was computer problems, Chapters
Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-One come out today. Yes, that's right!
I'm posting the chapters that were supposed to come out over the
last two weeks, PLUS this week's addition to the world of False
Identity.
At the bottom, there's a list of sites & URLs where False Identity can
be found.
Oh, and I want to say congrats to the one who's writing "Wild Kitten".
An interesting take, even if you _aren't_ pairing Ranko and Farfie.
I like what you've written so far. =^-^= Miiiiyah!
False Identity
Chapter Nineteen: Plans
Li Xiang
The sight that greeted Schuldich as he strolled up the road made him
laugh, long and hard.
The light of the street lamps glared down on the heads of the two men
tied to the poles-- Ken and Yohji. Omi was trying to untie them.[1]
It didn't help that Kitty was still whipping water balloons in their
direction. Both she and Aya were seated in front of the Koneko, a pile
of water balloons between them. Aya was grinning faintly, arms crossed
behind his head as glazed over violet eyes stared up at the sky. He was
ignoring Omi's pleas to (a) help him and (b) stop Ranma.
Schuldich's laughter caught all but Ranma-onna off guard-- Aya's eyes
snapped to his face, Omi stopped untying his friends for a moment, and
a look of nervousness crossed Ken's features. Ranma dropped the balloon
she'd picked up, "Is Jei-sama with you?"
"Not tonight, Bishoujo," Schuldich came to a stop in front of her with
a grin, "Rache told me that you and Balinese know."
"We do," Ranma nodded, "So does Ken."
The redhead nodded, "You going to help?"
It was Ken who responded, "Yeah, might as well." he rolled his
shoulders, stretching, as the rope fell to the ground, and Omi stepped
back. Yohji had been tied with a separate piece of rope. The seventeen
year old sighed as he went back to untying his teammate.
"What are you talking about?" Aya's voice was soft, but deadly, as he
glared at Schuldich. While he wasn't as... distrusting... towards the
other redhead these days, he still didn't fully trust Schuldich.
/The feeling, Abyssian, is quite mutual, I assure you/ Violet eyes met
jade and engaged in a staring contest. It held for a minute, before
Schuldich smirked and broke contact. He turned to face Kitty, "Farf
wants to see you, Bishoujo."
"Don't call me that. Where?" She bounced to her feet, and started
forwards. Abyssian stood, as well.
"At the 'house," Schuldich's smirk widened, /And where are _you_ off
to, Katzchen?/ he got a sharp glare in return.
"I'm coming with you, Ranma."
The feline girl hiked an eyebrow, then smirked, "Only if you can keep
up with me, Fujimiya!" Laughing, she darted off. With a bit of a glare,
the still sweater-less man followed at a rather good clip.
Ken edged away as Schuldich stepped closer to them with a wicked grin,
"I suggest we go somewhere more... private, if we're going to discuss
our options."
Omi looked rather confused-- both by Schuldich's"conversation" with
Yohji, and the fact that Ken had place him between the German assassin
and he.
Yohji eyed the exchange between Ken and Schuldich, recalling Rache and
Ranma's conversation from the afternoon, "Stop teasing him, Schuldich.
As a point, I don't trust-- let alone like-- you. Let's go."
---
It wasn't actually all that hard to keep Ranma in sight-- most likely
because he kept to the streets after having gotten some hot water.
It was when the young male stopped outside the entrance of a familiar
warehouse that Aya actually came up beside him. The martial artist was
smirking, "I made it _easy_ for you, Abyssian."
He didn't doubt it, either. He'd heard Yohji's tale of the fight
between Ranko and Ryouga. He'd seen Ranko's speed during the water
fight. Which reminded him... a quick look down revealed that yes, he
was still shirtless. He felt the unfathomable urge to smack himself.
This was certainly the first time something like _this_ had ever
happened to him.
Ranma smirked at him, then threw open the warehouse doors, "Are you
here, Jei-sama?"
Rache's irritated face bobbed out of the darkness, "Unfortunately.
You've only been gone three hours, and now you're back?!"
"Calm down, Rache," Aya had picked up Schuldich's habit of using the
name she'd taken before being adopted. She turned a burning glare on
the older redhead.
"_You_ put up with Farfie for twenty minutes, and see how well _you_
take it," Rache snipped, then sighed, "Okay, okay, you two can come in.
I wonder if I'm ever going to get those computers in..." The last part
was mumbled as she returned to the darkness, blue duster swirling with
her movements.
Aya and Ranma entered the shadows themselves. While normally this would
be stupid and dangerous-- they could trip and fall and hurt
themselves-- there was nothing to trip and fall and hurt themselves
_on_. The only places furnished were the bedrooms, and the one they
were headed towards had bright light spilling from the open door.
When they got there, it was immediately recognizable as Farfello's
room. The walls had been covered with two inch thick foam mats, the
ceiling and floor much the same. A large, four poster bed-- complete
with shackles and chains-- was tucked into one corner. A nearby chest
lay open, exposing one hell of a lot of wicked-looking torture
implements.
And, of course, Farfello himself sat on the bed, drawing patterns in
his arm with a knife. He looked up as they entered, eyes on his Kitty,
not even noticing Abyssian. Said assassin found himself one of the rare
few who saw-- not Farfello, by Jei, the original personality-- smile in
true happiness.
Then, of course, it vanished when his attention was turned on the bare
chested Fujimiya, "...Abyssian."
"Farfello," he greeted, equally as awkward as Farfello had. What do you
say to the man who you've actively tried to kill? What do you say to
the man who, despite being an enemy, took care of one of your most
precious belongings?
Jei turned an inquisitive eye to Kitty, and the martial artist
shrugged, "He followed me."
This caused the pale haired man to burst into laughter, "The assassin
followed the cat home!"
Ranma smirked, then dropped onto the bed beside his long-time friend.
Once his laughter had abided, Jei tugged the martial artist into his
lap-- or, at least, he tried. Ranma was quite comfortable spread across
the bed, and didn't want to move. Farfello growled lowly, and Aya
interrupted.
"Leave him be, Farfello," the redhead had dropped to the floor, seated
cross-legged, "If he doesn't want to move, he won't."
Jei gave the older man a dark look, "How would _you_ know, Abyssian?"
Violet eyes slid shut and a wry chuckle forced itself out of lips that
_tried_ to refuse the gesture, "I've been living with him for the past
week[2]"
"Don't remind me," Farfello growled, jealousy flaring within him. He
knit his fingers in Kitty's hair, and the martial artist slit open an
eye.
"Don't talk like I'm not here," Farfello hiked an eyebrow, but Aya's
expression didn't change, "Stop being at each other's throats, too. As
much as I _love_ a good fight, I don't feel like being the cause of one
between the two of you, right now."
Jei snorted, "You didn't seem to mind when you were a cause of a fight
for those girls."
Ranma rolled his eyes, muttering, "They beat _me_ up just as much as
they did each other. Helped to make Ryouga's punches hurt less."
"You let them beat on you... to make it hurt less?" Alright, Aya
decided, Ranma's nuts.
"Endurance training," the martial artist shrugged, "Ryouga's one upped
me in _that_-- he had boulders smashed into him!"
---
Outside the warehouse, Schuldich hummed cheerfully, pushing the door
open. Both Yohji and Omi looked a bit wary of being at the warehouse,
while Ken merely looked wary of Schuldich.
Scratch that, Ken was bloody terrified of the German, for all his
teasing on the way over. He was using Yohji and Omi as shields.
A pair of irritated emerald eyes peered out of the darkness, "What's
with all the visitors tonight, Bruder?"
"Hello to you, too, Rache," Schuldich shrugged, "We felt discussing the
deal we've got going would be done best somewhere in... private." to
punctuate hi words, the redhead leered at Ken, and Siberian stared at
him for a moment, before hiding behind Omi.
Rache snickered, "Oh stop teasing him, Schu! I think you've tormented
him enough over the last few days."
"Ah, you're no fun, Kleine Schwester. Where are Farf and his katzchen?"
"You're the telepath, can't you find them?"
"I could," he grinned, "But I'm feeling lazy. Lay on, Macduff."
Rache eyed him, stating drily, "Don't quote Shakespear,
brother-dearest. Follow the light-- Irish, Ranma and Aya are in Farf's
room."
"Danke." Cheerful smile back in place, Schuldich guided the Weiss boys
into the darkness. Wary of a trap, Yohji's fingers stole to his watch,
where his monofilament wire was hidden. Omi would have done the same,
had he thought to bring his darts with him-- but they'd come straight
from the scene of the water fight.
Ken continued oblivious to his friends' nervousness. He'd been
throughout the whole of the warehouse the day or so prior, when
Schuldich had been chasing him. Besides, since Omi was the only one
with him that didn't already know, he supposed it didn't really matter
if he found out about his phasing ability. He'd just go through the
floor if there was trouble.
The light spilling from the door was bright in the unlighted warehouse,
almost blinding from a distance. As they came closer, they could hear
Ranma saying something about... boulders?
"That must have hurt," Schuldich put in, announcing his presence to the
trio in the room. Farfello frowned.
"Why are you here?"
Schuldich shrugged with a grin, "I figured we should discuss the deal
with everyone here."
"Then where's Nagi and Crawford?" Ranma questioned with a raised
eyebrow, and Jei snickered.
"They don't know about it yet."
"You're kidding," Yohji still held his kill-wire in a careful grip. He
wasn't about to just _trust_ the men who'd tried to kill him on
multiple occasions-- especially Farfello.
"Nope," Schuldich shook his head, sending flame toned hair flying,
"Neither Crawford nor Nagi know what we're planning on doing."
"I guess that's why Rache said it would be a few weeks," Ranma nodded
to himself, sitting up, "You still have to convince Crawford and Nagi
this is a _good_ idea."
Ken edged away from Schuldich-- who'd apparently decided to stand right
beside him-- and spoke, "Alright, we wait to talk about it until _all_
of Schwartz is here. Can we _go_ now?!"
Ranma almost laughed at Ken's pain, while both Aya and Omi gave Ken
confused looks. Yohji sighed, shaking his head, "Would you relax, Ken?
Schuldich isn't going to hurt _you_."
The implied statement blew completely over Ken's head, as he pulled Aya
between him and the German. Frowning, the violet eyes man snorted,
"What's this all _about_?"
"Schwartz agrees to step out of your way to Kill Takatori on two
conditions," Ranma recited, "the first, Weiss leaves Kritiker. The
second, Tsukiyono is _not_ allowed to go anymore near the Takatori
family with intent to kill."
Aya and Omi shared a confused 'blink', and Schuldich shook his head,
"As long as it's not Omi who takes out Takatori, Schwartz won't stand
in your way. All we want is Weiss away from Kritiker."
A suspicious glare prompted a bit of laughter (from Schuldich, of
course), and a rolling of the eyes (Ranma). After a moment, Ranma began
to explain.
---
The whistle of displaced air was all the warning Ninomiko Kenji had
before he crumpled to the ground, dead.
The katana was raised, a red cloth used to carefully wipe the blood
from the blade, and from black leather gloves. With that complete, the
sword returned to it's sheath in silence. The cloth was tucked into a
small black bag and tucked into the bodice of the red kimono. In the
dark, the crimson tones were muted, but still bright enough that the
black silhouettes of a forest could still be seen.
The woman turned away from her target, walking away from the corpse.
Once away from the body, a simple cell phone was removed from her obi.
Flicking it on, she hit speed dial, and spoke a short sentence, "Target
Eliminated."
On the other end the response was just as simple, "Good. Got to the
pick-up to retrieve the next," She did not say good by, merely ending
the call.
---
Yawning, Ranma trudged back to the Koneko no Sumi Ie behind Weiss. It
was late-- it had taken a while to get Ken out of Schuldich's grip--
and he was tired. A series of late nights and almost constantly in the
feral state of mind was taking it's toll.
Enough that, until he heard a scream of outrage, he hadn't realised his
danger sense was blaring at him.
"Ranma, for killing my Xian Phu-- PREPARE TO DIE!"
Weiss whirled at the shout of challenge, gapping in amazement as a
veritable field of chains arched from the darkness, each of the
hundreds of chains tipped with some form of razor sharp blade. They
were directed solely at Ranma, and the boys relaxed for a moment-- they
expected Ranma to dodge with all the speed he'd previously shown them.
But Ranma had been caught off guard. The martial artist's veneer of
energy and wakefulness had fallen away to leave a worn and tired young
man in his place. His speed had left him as he attempt to dodge the
blades just a little to late.
Blades pierced his skin, some scratching, some slicing, and some
embedding in his body as he moved. Pain lanced through his body, and he
gave a horrible screech of pain, not unlike that of a wild beast. It
was his scream that launched Weiss into action. Omi may have been angry
with the gender-bender-- for the near-death of Akane-- but Ranma was
also a sorta-friend. Yohji was pissed that Ranma had attempted to kill
him-- but the martial artist _had_ taken him to Rache.
Only Yohji had his weapon on him, so the Playboy followed the chains to
their source-- a teenaged Chinese boy. Practiced movements had his wire
arching out not unlike the chains, pinning the young man's arms to his
body, tangling in the wire. For a moment, he mused on the fact that
he'd once done something like this to Aya, before returning to the task
at hand.
Without their master, the flung blades clattered to the ground. Omi and
Aya both snatched up some-- Omi a handful of throwing knives still
attached to their chains, and Aya a scimitar. Ken moved to Ranma's side
as the bleeding youth collapsed against a wall. With careful hands, he
pulled some of the bloody blades from their human scabbard-- others he
left in, to halt blood flow, "Guys, take care of that moron! Ranma
needs a doctor!"
"Take him to Naru!" Yohji barked, even as Aya growled, "Rache will know
what to do."
Ken nodded, hefting Ranma into his arms, "I've never taken someone with
me when I phase," he muttered to the half conscious youth, "Let's hope
I don't make anything worse, ne?"
Ranma gave a pained chuckle, almost snuggling into Ken's arms like a
child.
Hesitantly at first, Ken stepped through the wall Ranma had been
leaning against. When the only thing to happen was that the parts of
Ranma's clothing not directly touching him vanished, he broke into an
outright run. Who cared if someone saw him? So they'd think they'd seen
a ghost or two... Ranma's life was on the line.
---
Back with the rest of Weiss, Muu Tzu was struggling with the wire that
bound him. He didn't struggle hard-- the wires had cut through his silk
robes, biting into his skin when he'd tried. He froze completely,
however, when the tip of a sword pressed against his adam's apple.
An icy voice practically snarled, "Give me one good reason why I
shouldn't kill you where you stand."
"He's not exactly standing, Abyssian."
"Quiet, Balinese," a third voice hissed, and Muu Tzu wished he could
see more than blurs in the darkness. The sword pressed closer, and the
first voice hissed, "Answer."
"He killed my Xian Phu!"
"He killed a bottle of shampoo?" Yohji hiked an eyebrow, and Muu Tzu
snarled, "Xian Phu was her _name_!"
Aya's face blanked, "Killing is what assassins do."
"Assassin?" Muu Tzu scoffed, "Saotome's no assassin."
Without emotion, Aya thrust the sword forwards-- and hit nothing, as
Muu Tzu's robes collapsed in on themselves. Yohji gaped, "...the hell?"
Aya toed the robes, but there was no sign of the amazon boy. With a
growl, the redhead turned away, "Let's get back to the Koneko."
"What about Ranma?" Omi questioned, and his leader turned bright,
violet eyes on him.
"Ken will inform us," he snapped, "until then, we'd just be getting in
the way."
Yohji and Omi stared at each other, then followed Abyssian back to
their shop. After a few minutes, Muu Tzu's robes shifted, and a duck
waddled out.
Thank god, Mu-mu-chan thought, that I had that bottle of water on me.
End
[1] Yes, this can happen. Heh, about three years ago we tied my brother
and my neighbour up like that in the middle of a water fight. Gen
wasn't to happy about it...
[2] Has it only been a week? Seems like much more time has passed,
doesn't it? Especially with my frequent computer problems. *sweatdrops*
Ranchan & Co. - http://tannim.anifics.com/
Lady Cosmos' Fanfic Library - http://ladycosmos.anifics.com/
Strider's Ranma Archive - http://archive.anifics.com/
Faded Fantasies - http://li_xiang.anifics.com/
Fanfiction.net