*****************************
FOREWARNING
THIS FIC MAY CONTAIN STORY ELEMENTS THAT ARE BASED OFF OF
REAL EVENTS FROM A REAL POLICE OFFICER CONCERNING OTHER REAL
POLICE OFFICERS. ALL CHARACTERS ARE FICTIONAL AND DO NOT
EXIST. THIS FIC WILL PORTRAY GRAPHIC AND OFFENSIVE MATERIAL
CONCERNING THE REAL WORLD OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, WHICH INCLUDES
VIOLENCE, HATRED, AND A STRONG PRESENCE OF RACISM. THE
DIALOGUE PRESENTED BY THE CHARACTERS ARE NOT MEANT TO
RIDICULE AND DEFAME BY THE AUTHOR, THEY ARE MEANT TO PORTRAY
THE THINGS POLICE OFFICERS EXPERIENCE AND INTERACT IN A DARK
AND VIOLENT ENVIRONMENT. SOME EVENTS THAT OCCUR IN THIS FIC
ARE MEANT TO OFFEND AND ANGER YOU, THE READER, ALTHOUGH IT
IS DONE FOR THE SAKE OF REALISTIC PORTRAYAL OF A WORLD THAT
IS OFTEN SUGARCOATED FOR THE PUBLIC EYE.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
*****************************
This is one part of many little short stories spun off from
my Officer Saotome series. It's sort of a prequel, detailing
the daily life of Ranma during his days as a policeman. You
will have to read Officer Saotome as a prerequisite before
reading this, otherwise don't blame me if the story seems
totally out of line, or if it is uninteresting to you.
Here are a few things you must know while reading this:
-For all of you readers, PLEASE read the notes at the end of
the fic before you start flaming me for things that you
don't understand or think is bogus, my notes just might
answer all your questions. If that doesn't do it, feel free
to pound away at my mailbox.
Ooop, as always, my fics are all R-rated in terms of movie
ratings, and this one is no exception. So don't complain!
Otherwise, enjoy! ^_^
-SgtRanma
Please visit my website at http://sgtranma.anifics.com! New
fics will always appear there first!
****ONCE AGAIN, I'M WARNING YOU. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ MY
PREVIOUS FIC OFFICER SAOTOME UP TO CHAPTER 4 COMPLETELY, DO
NOT READ THIS. OTHERWISE IT WILL NOT MAKE SENSE! THIS IS A
PREQUEL! OFFICER SAOTOME CAN BE FOUND IN THE WEBSITE
MENTIONED ABOVE! However, if you really want to read it that
bad, just go ahead. It's just that a couple of huge details
(such as why the hell Ranma is in Los Angeles anyway and as
a cop, of all things) won't make sense to you.****
------------------------
The Daily Report
File No. 02: Getting Down to Business
February 8th, 1999.
Benito's Homemade Mexican Food - Downtown LA, California.
3:02 PM.
A cute girl looked at the large menu of various
different Mexican fast food items, eager to try out some new
and exciting foods.
"Oooh, I wanna have a couple of those chile relleno
thingies, two chicken enchilada thingamajiggies, a carne
asada quesadilla, a side order of pork rinds, and a large
pine colada!"
"That's PINA colada," her partner corrected. Ranma
looked at his partner with an eyebrow raised. "You're going
to eat all that? It's going to make you blow chunks in the
middle of a car chase or when you're running down a
suspect," Ranma chided.
"Don't be such a pussy," she replied back. Ichino gave
him a playful slap to his shoulder. "Oh, come on. Even
though I've lived in California for almost five years, I've
NEVER tried Mexican food before! I wanna see how it tastes!"
Ranma frowned, giving Ichino a strange look. "You've
lived in Southern California for that long and you've never
eaten Mexican food before? What rock have you lived under?"
"Hey, I can't help it that I haven't experienced
everything this world has to offer. That's why I'm pigging
out right now," she chided.
"Ha, ha," Ranma laughed sarcastically. He had to admit,
his new partner was actually a lot of fun to work with and
she was an even bigger wisecracker than he was.
"Hey Itchan, how good are you with physical ability?"
he asked. He was still curious as to how good she really was
with physical exercises, and why the instructors over at
Elysian and Grenada Hills had stapled her as a "rogue".
"Wha-?" Ichino mumbled while she was carrying a tray
stacked high with food, and a huge 44 oz. cup of Pina Colada
to a table.
Being a gentleman, Ranma took the huge tray for her and
escorted her to a table. "I was asking how good you are with
sports and stuff. You know, running, chasing down stuff, all
the obstacle courses they throw at you in the academy."
"Ha!" she huffed proudly. "I'm the fastest runner and
the most physically capable cadet the academy has ever
graduated. I think you're the only person
who has gotten higher props than me. And even then I bet I
could whoop your ass in a race."
"Oh?" He couldn't resist a challenge, even if it didn't
involve any fighting. "I bet I could out-sprint you, and I
KNOW I can outrun you in a marathon."
"Sprint faster than ME?" she said with her mouth full
of food. "Big fat chance there, I'll smack you down like a
naughty boy getting punished in a Catholic school."
Ranma blinked at that last one. "Whatever, we'll see
later," he smirked. "This past week has been incredibly
boring. We haven't had a single chase on car or on foot, so
I'm betting today our luck is going to run out. We'll see
how good you are when you chase a suspect down."
"No problem, mon!" Ichino said in a mock Jamaican
accent. "I'll make sure you're manly man ass bows down to me
before the day is done!"
He gave another chuckle. "Yep, we'll see." Ranma stole
a slice of quesadilla while Ichino stuffed her mouth.
"Hey! That's mine! Go buy your own!"
-----------------
"12-Adam-14, we have a 417 at a domestic residence,
shots fired. Reports of various handguns, suspect is
considered heavily armed and extremely dangerous. Respond
with caution."
Ichino gulped with both excitement and fear at the
female dispatcher's composed and sterile voice. How could
the dispatcher stay that calm for a call like that? Let
alone acting that way for a full eight (perhaps even longer,
especially in Los Angeles) hours?
"Unit 12-Adam-14, enroute!" Ranma crisply said through
the radio handpiece. He clicked a couple of switches and the
sirens blasted at full wail, and the emergency lights went
code 3.
Ranma sharply turned the steering wheel of the Caprice
and recklessly drove over a large street divider in the
middle of the road, nearly hitting a dozen cars which were
traveling in the opposite direction. With a series of bumps
and heavy scrapes, the abused Chevy literally hurdled over
and screeched its way towards its destination. They were
partially crossing over to another division's jurisdiction,
since 77th Street was almost completely a downtown area, but
it didn't matter. Officers helping out other officers from
different divisions was a common practice.
"Whoo!" Ichino exclaimed, her heart beating faster.
"Finally something exciting happens!"
"I wouldn't get all of my panties gathered up in a
bunch just yet," Ranma cautioned loudly over the loud cry of
the siren. "This is an extremely dangerous call, I'd suggest
you chamber check your gun just in case you didn't pack it!"
Ichino did as she was told. Now she was just plain
scared. She drew out her firearm from her holster and
clicked the slide back about half way using the ambidextrous
safety to pull with her fingers.
Tires screeched as Ranma cornered the Caprice around a
residential neighborhood. The vehicle was oversteering
heavily due to the rear-wheel drive set up of the cruiser,
almost sideswiping a couple of people in the process.
To the surprise of both officers, they were the first
ones on the scene. Ranma and Ichino heard random pop-pops as
they came to a house that was about a hundred yards away
from the corner of the block. The gunfire seemed to be
coming from inside an opened garage.
Ranma carefully drove the car up the curb to get a view
of the garage, and saw a Caucasian male wielding a pistol.
The suspect saw the police cruiser immediately, and ran
around the garage to jump over a wooden fence.
"Shit!" Ranma cursed. He shifted into reverse and
backed away from the lawn, running over a mailbox in the
process.
"I'll catch him!" Ichino yelled while jumping out of
her seat as the car was going in reverse. She didn't bother
to get her PR-24 baton as it would probably slow her down.
"Go get him Itchan! I'll tail you around the block!"
Ranma hollered back in reply.
She gave a thumbs up to acknowledge him and sprinted
towards the wooden fence that the suspect had gone over. In
one swift movement she jumped almost six feet high and used
her hand to gracefully swivel her body over, allowing her to
land on the other side with her transferred momentum into a
full sprint.
Ranma watched her with amusement before he peeled away
to catch the suspect on the other side of the neighborhood.
He blew out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Not,
bad," he mumbled to himself
"You're under arrest! Stop running dammit!" Ichino
shouted.
The adrenaline pumping sensation and the blood rushing
in her ears gave her a feeling of excitement she'd never
felt before as she sprinted forward. The suspect was in
front of her, with about a 15 yard lead, himself being quite
fit and very agile as he evaded her. Ichino ran with the
skill of a cheetah and the speed of a falcon, her running
form was refined and almost flawless after nearly 17 years
of conditioning and training.
Ahead of her was a four foot tall concrete wall that
separated the yard of a home from the open street. The
suspect had to slow down and swivel over it, costing him
valuable seconds. Ichino smirked and merely hurdled over the
boundary and landed on the other side tackling the suspect
to the ground.
"Fuck!" the man yelped. He easily shoved her out of the
way hard, being much bigger than Ichino in mass. He hastily
got up and tried to shoot the cop.
Ichino rolled back gracefully and was back on her feet,
this time she pulled out her collapsible ASP baton and
twirled it faster than the eye could see, and in an instant
it extended a full three feet long.
She spotted her suspect raising a gun towards her, and
while her baton was still twirling she threw it as hard as
she could towards his arm. The spinning baton made its way
to the man, shattering his wrist and fingers and causing his
pistol to fly off far enough that he couldn't reach.
At that moment Ranma was screeching towards the two
from across the street, Ichino had seen him race towards
them from the corner of her eye. Apparently Ranma had gone
down the other street towards the longer way, instead of
just turning around and going around the block.
But something was wrong. A twinge at the back of
Ichino's mind froze her for a moment as she pulled out her
handcuffs to arrest her suspect. Why wasn't he yelping in
pain?
It was then when she got a good look at his face, she
found out why. His eyes were disoriented and visibly
bloodshot, and it looked like some parts of his body were
shaking.
It didn't occur to her that the guy might've been
hopped up on some sort of drug.
Before he could pick up her baton and use it against
her, Ichino ran up to him and kicked him in the balls as
hard as she could.
Although the PCP in his system didn't register the pain
the way it should've, his nervous system forced him to drop
to his knees anyways out of the shock of getting his testes
crunched.
Ichino didn't stop there, as soon as her suspect
dropped like a log she kicked him again, rolling him on to
his stomach. She dropped her knee on the middle of his back
and hand cuffed him while he was immobilized, tightening the
links as close as possible, restricting the blood flow to
his hands.
The speeding Caprice screeched to a stop with Ranma
popping out of the driver's side.
"Great. Let's get this jerk booked," he said.
"Leggo, you gook motherfuckers..." he slurred out of
his mouth while a trail of saliva slimed out of his mouth.
"Damn junky," Ichino muttered. The man was clearly too
incoherent at the moment to even pick himself up. Ichino
fruitlessly tried to lift up his body by grabbing him under
the arms. "He's one tough SOB. I think he was cracked up on
angel dust."
"He gave a bit of a fight, eh?" Ranma helped out
Ichino. "You might as well just take the easy route since
the bastard can't feel anything."
Ranma grabbed a fist full of the suspect's hair and
dragged him although to the patrol car. Ichino nodded and
pulled his arm, the rest of his body sliding across the
ground.
It wasn't long before the man was secured in the back.
Both officers got in and drove away from the area, calling
in another unit to take up a report at the house where the
911 call was made.
---------------
3:50 PM
The two were finally finished handing over the suspect
to another unit and filing out a quick report. Just as soon
as they left the run down neighborhood, the radio chirped
with another call. "To the units in the vicinity of Pearl
and Lexmar street, barricaded suspect in fast food
restaurant. Suspect is considered armed and extremely
dangerous."
Ichino took the opportunity to take the call. "This is
unit 12-Adam-14, enroute. Code 3."
"Good call, this is exactly what I need this early in
the day," Ranma said, a grin on his face. "More excitement
to get the adrenaline glands tired."
"Idiot," Ichino joked. "A job's a job, and we have a
hard day's work again!" she said in Japanese.
Ranma lifted his eyebrows in surprise. This was the
first time he'd actually heard her speak a full sentence of
Japanese. "Whoa," he replied in Japanese as well. "You got a
Kansai accent? You're from Osaka, right?" He'd wondered that
before, this pretty much confirmed it.
"Yep, born and bred Osaka girl." She gave a cute smile
then a wide grin.
The patrol car cut a corner through a busy street and
ran right over a curb, jolting Ichino. She could feel her
kidneys being rocked, but she didn't mind anymore. She had
gotten used to it fast.
"You sure can move though, Itchan. Never seen a cop
move like you did back there."
"Ah, thanks." She loved to hear compliments about her
athleticism. "Like I said, I used to be a real sports freak.
I still am, actually. I try to run on foot wherever I go
instead of riding my bike. Everywhere except for work, that
is."
The radio chirped again. "Dispatch, this is 12-Lincoln-
27, officer requesting immediate assistance for barricade
suspect at fast food joint. Shots have been fired, civilians
are inside being held captive, over."
"12-Adam-27 one unit is on the way, requesting
assistance from other units. Metro SWAT assistance has been
requested."
"Shit." Ranma recognized the unit and the voice of the
officer on the radio. He picked up the radio mike. "Sergeant
Jacobs, this is Saotome. We're rushing over to your
location, ETA 1 minute, over!"
"Roger that, 12-Adam-14. Get your fuckin' ass over here
Saotome, I'm in a bit of a jam!"
"10-4, bud!"
"Crap, there's a gridlock!" Ichino pointed out to the
busy intersection.
"Shit, hang onto something Itchan." Ranma swerved the
car out of the street and into the side walk, plowing
through and causing the panicked pedestrians to jump out of
the way.
The car was forced to messily drift to the right and
merge with the busy street. Ranma barely avoided a large
Ford F-150 but did bump into a divider in the median of the
road.
"Ite!" Ichino cried out as her head slammed hard to the
side of the B-pillar of the interior. "Watch it, dammit!"
"I'm just doing the best I can!" he yelled back. "Get
the boom stick ready, you're manning it. We're almost
there!"
Ichino nodded and pressed a button hidden under the
dash. A loud mechanical ka-chink sounded from behind her
left ear, the shotgun was unlocked from the rack. She
nestled it between her thighs and checked the chamber to see
if it was loaded. Cocking the pump halfway, Ichino saw it
was empty, just like she had inspected when they'd left for
patrol. She cocked it completely and saw a glimmer of brass
and red shell material. Good, she pushed it back up forward
and slid her finger into the loading ramp at the bottom,
making sure that the choke was filled with shells.
The car screeched to a stop into the back alley parking
lot of the restaurant, where a lone uniformed sergeant was
leaning against a cement wall with a military issue Colt M-
16 rifle packed with a 30 round magazine.
The duo ran up next to him with Ichino carrying the
large and bulky Ithica pump action shotgun.
"It's good to see you guys here," Jacobs told them. "We
got a single hispanic male, he has a small Ruger .22, and no
hostages. I don't know what the hell this fucking bitch's
problem is, but he sure likes firing that gun in the air.
Asshole tried to shoot through the windows as I drove by, I
circled around before he could pump me full of lead and came
through the fuckin' back like you two did."
"What're we going to do?" Ranma asked.
"I dunno, still trying to think of something."
Ichino peered around the corner, she could see a couple
of scared restaurant patrons crouching under their tables in
fear. In a reflection of the glass she could see the gunman
around the corner, wielding his pistol and spouting out
incoherent rants.
"I got an idea," she said.
The seasoned sergeant looked at the rookie in surprise.
"What do you suggest we do, officer?"
"There's a solid windowless entrance on the side here,
we can do a quick team entry and try to reprimand him
without any shots if we move quick enough. We use the pump
shotty to take out the hinges and bust through."
Ranma nodded, she'd thought this up pretty quick and
with good instinct. "That just might work. Good plan
Itchan."
"Who's going to take entry first?" Jacobs asked.
Ichino gulped, but decided to take a chance. "I'll do
it. It's my idea, I'll do it."
"What? No," Ranma reproached her. He grabbed her
shoulder. "You're still a pup, you might make a mistake and
get shot." Ranma faced the sergeant. "I'll go, I'll take him
down, sir!"
"Back off!" Ichino shoved Ranma out of the way, fire in
her eyes. "I've been trained for this too, jerk. Don't treat
me like a pushover!" She turned around. "I'll take him out,
sir!"
Before Ranma could fire back, the senior officer
intervened. "If that's the way you want it, you got it
Yanagida. Gimme this." Jacobs took Ichino's shotgun and
handed her the rifle. "You 'boots' trained with these in the
academy right?" Ichino nodded. "This'll be a lot safer and
quicker, in case you have to shoot. I don't think a 12-gauge
is a risk we can take for an entry, just in case he has a
hostage with a gun to the head. We're gonna do this fast,
we're gonna sweep it quick. I don't think we'll have enough
time to wait for fucking SWAT, nor will we really need them.
This is a single person barricade, so it should go without
too many problems, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the two younger officers replied.
The three cops quickly moved alongside the wall to the
door. The huge glass windows of the restaurant were only a
couple of yards away, so they had to be careful, not to
mention quick. The guy already knew there were cops on the
scene, but he didn't know where they were hiding. If other
units came with their sirens blazing through the front, the
trio would loose the element of surprise.
Ranma crouched down first, aiming his pistol at the
lower door hinge. Jacobs stood right behind him, shotgun
aimed at the upper hinge. Ichino was a couple of steps away,
the rifle in low ready position. She faced the doorway,
ready to charge through.
"Ichiban, just the way I like it," Ichino mumbled to
herself. She clenched her teeth and shut her eyes closed
tightly for a moment. Her heart was pounding again, her feet
felt like they were on fire, ready to pounce. With the help
of adrenaline rushing through her blood her senses went on
high alert, her finger was lightly stroking the trigger.
"Ok, we're gonna go on my command," Ranma whispered to
Ichino. His fingers counted down from four, three, two...
With a thundering crack alongside of a dull bang, the
hinges were blown right off. Strangely enough, the painfully
loud sounds of nearby gunfire didn't seem all that loud to
Ichino, under all that tension it was dulled down to what
seemed like a mere ping pong ball dropping on the floor.
Ichino charged hard against the door with her shoulder,
taking it down easily.
She lifted the rifle, the first thing she saw was the
suspect, deranged and panicked.
"LAPD, drop your weapon!" Ichino shouted hoarsely.
Ranma entered next, his pistol raised and immediately
strafed to the left to cover Ichino. Jacobs was next, acting
as the rear guard for both officers.
"Aaaahhh!" the gunman screamed loudly, not knowing what
else to do. He tried to aim his gun at either of the police
officers.
Ichino reacted before Ranma could and shot off a round
at the gunman's hand. The .223 Winchester round blew away
the trigger guard of the pistol and blasted away a good
portion of the man's index finger and middle finger, leaving
the thumb hanging by a mere peel of bloody skin. The gun was
useless now, the trigger and the action were bent out of
shape.
"Fuck!" the man yelled, dropping to the ground in pain.
His hand looked like it was trying to pull a trigger with
fingers that weren't even there anymore.
"Sweep the area!" Jacobs yelled when he saw the suspect
go down and out for the count.
Ranma shifted and took over Ichino's spot by aiming his
pistol down at the injured criminal. The other two searched
the rest of the area for any possible surprises with their
more powerful weapons.
Jacobs yelled out first. "The bathrooms and spare rooms
are clear!"
"The kitchen is clear!" Ichino yelled out deep within
the restaurant.
"Suspect is down, one shot fired to immobilize, zero
civilian casualties, the situation is under control,
Dispatch," Ranma spoke through the radio piece on the left
side of his upper chest. He kicked away the small plinking
gun, although it was already ruined and unable to fire
anyway.
The raven-haired patrolwoman returned back into the
main dining room, the rifle pointed down with the safety
engage. "This place is clear, everything's safe."
The older sergeant was busy cuffing the downed criminal
while wrapping up the busted hand. "Stay still you pecker-
neck motherfucker! Unless you want to bleed to death all
over the fucking tiles," he said with a growl. He got up and
gave a pat to Ichino's shoulder. "That was great work their,
boot. Never seen a rookie move and react like you before,
that was awesome."
Ichino handed back the rifle and took back the shotgun.
"Thanks sir," she replied. Whew... her heart was about to
jump out of her throat from the excitement. She was glad
that the single shot was accurate.
"Come on, let's get outta here before there's a huge
mess." Ranma signaled to Ichino. "We'll let Jacobs take care
of this, there are other units coming anyway. We'll just
wait outside."
"Wha?" She shook her head. "Yeah, alright." She looked
back as she went out the blasted door, watching blood drip
from the man's ragged hand as he cried in pain.
-------------
"Watch commander is enroute for the Taco Bell shooting.
Until then Sgt. Jacobs is in charge of the scene." The radio
chirped
"Yep, and who knows how long that'll take," Ranma
sighed as he stuck his head out of the patrol car window. He
took out a small bottle of water that was stuck in the seat.
He turned his head to hear the shuffling of feet.
Ichino was kicking at the dirt, her eyes down and wandering
slightly.
"Yo, partner. You okay?" he asked in concern.
"Hmm?" Ichino looked up to face her partner. "Yeah, I'm
fine. I just feel a bit...mooky ya know."
"Mooky?" Ranma lifted his eyebrow. "What's that
supposed to mean?"
"Nah, it's just I feel a little weird about shooting
that guy. It's not like I killed him or anything." She
breathed out a nervous sigh, her face was doing a poor
impression of a calm expression.
"Don't worry about it. If it were me I would've done
the same thing. Jacobs over there would've just aimed for
his chest or his head."
Ichino turned a little green at that, realizing how
easily she could've done the same if she had not given her
full concentration of the moment to put a shot into his
trigger finger. But then again, was she really aiming
anyway? With all that blood and adrenaline rushing through
her head, she couldn't even remember it. Was that gun even
being pointed at her?
"Like I said, just forget about it. You didn't kill him
or anything. Besides, you probably saved the lives of those
people in the restaurant. Sorta outweighs the bad parts,
no?"
Ichino felt a bit more comfortable after that, but the
tension was still there. "Thanks, I guess," she lamely said.
Ranma smiled at that. "So anyway, you said before that
you were a 'born and bred Osaka girl.' I don't really know
too much about you, despite knowing you for nearly two
weeks."
Ichino frowned at the unexpected change in subject.
"Um, yeah. I lived a regular life, I guess. I was born in
Osaka, I have a mom and pop, one younger brother, and a lot
of relatives. Went to Hokkaido often to train with a
friend."
"Sounds like fun," Ranma said.
"I guess. It was a bummer when I broke my damn leg
during a practice race, sorta ruined everything." And that
was right before I had a chance to get into the Olympics,
she thought bitterly.
"You know, I was wondering about that. How'd you get to
become a police officer anyway?" Ranma asked. "I was
thinking someone like you would just wait and go for another
chance at the Olympics."
"Well, ya know..." she scratched the back of her head.
"I was already on the team, I was going to be in the
triathlon and the sprinting events. But instead I busted my
leg and I was dropped out."
"Ah," Ranma gulped uncomfortably. "I bet that must've
been hard."
"You have no idea," she sighed. "I was so pissed I just
said 'Fuck it, I'm just going to do something else with my
life,' so I somehow got into the academy."
"Yeah, that's gotta be a bummer," Ranma said, nodding
his head. He looked up. "Shit, it's the lieutenant."
Ichino and Ranma stood up straight to greet Lieutenant
Patchett, who was carrying a clipboard and sporting a very
unpleasant looking scowl on his face.
"It's only a little over four fucking weeks and we have
another officer involved shooting?" Patchett scolded Ranma
and Ichino, shaking his head in disbelief. "What the fuck is
up with you, Saotome? Do you just create trouble on purpose?
Not to mention letting a rookie partner go up against this
sort of shit this early in her probationary phasing!"
"Well, at least he's not dead, sir," Ranma replied with
a shrug.
"Yeah, he's really fuckin' lucky, ain't he? REAL
fucking lucky. You better be lucky this guy is a moron,
maybe he'll sue you or the rest of this department," he told
Ranma. Patchett faced Ichino. "And you. Jeez, if you're
gonna shoot the guy, why didn't you just shoot him in the
head? Or the chest? Or any other bleedin' fuckin major
organ? Didn't they teach you that at the Academy?"
Urk. Ichino gulped. The shooting instructors had told
them before that in the rare instance that they were forced
to shoot a person in the field, you should shoot to kill.
"Yes, I learned that sir, but I didn't take it in
literally."
"Whatever. Ranma, it's your partner. She's under your
wing. Be somewhat useful, will ya?" Patchett sighed. He
pointed to a fiasco of cops that were gathered around the
area, trying to take care of everything before the news
crews came. "I'm going to take over this scene for now
instead of waiting for the damn watch commander. Dumb
bastard, why the hell is he so slow?" He faced Ichino and
Ranma again. "You better get the hell out of here, you two.
Give me thorough written reports on this later. It better be
in my box by tomorrow, got it?"
"Yes, sir," the two simultaneously replied.
"Come on, Itchan. Let's go," Ranma rushed her to the
car, hastily.
* * *
February 8th, 1999.
77th Street Division Resting House - Los Angeles California.
7:43 PM.
"Ichino, it's fine. I think you've pretty much scrubbed
your skin off by now," Ranma tried comforting.
"I'm fine, alright? Just let me do my thing, Ranma,"
Ichino snapped back.
They were in a small resting house, one of the many
designated rest stops that were set up throughout the city
for patrol officer to use for their own convenience. It
wasn't really a house, in all honesty. It was just a small
room with a large comfy couch, a refrigerator that was
always stocked with sodas and water bottles, a small cabinet
that was also always filled with chips and other handy
snacks.
There were also multiple restrooms inside as well, one
of which Ichino had occupied. She had her left sleeve rolled
up, her forearm was covered in soap and lather. Ichino was
furiously scrubbing her forearms with a powerful
antibacterial soap, the kind surgeons used to sanitize
themselves before an operation.
The young woman looked very panicked actually, her brow
was starting to form sweat and her face complexion showed
some loss of color. Ichino had her teeth clenched, and was
mumbling her lips at something out of frustration.
"You can never be too careful with these you know," she
tried to chuckle out with her teeth clenched at the same
time. "Who'd a thought that asshole had HIV, huh?"
Ranma got up from the couch and walked over to Ichino
and got behind her. He grabbed her arms and ran them down
the running water faucet, washing off all the soap.
Ichino tried to protest, "Hey-"
"Hold still," he interjected, saying it firmly.
He continued to wash it down, and wiped it away with
his own hand. The water was almost scalding hot, since
Ichino had wanted to kill ANY trace of a germ or virus if
there was anything left over.
Ranma observed her hand, still behind Ichino. He was
actually quite intimately close, which he himself had not
noticed under the circumstance but Ichino certainly did. She
awkwardly blushed slightly and didn't utter a word as Ranma
observed her arm, although she wanted to.
"You don't have any cuts, scabs, or any other openings
on your arm, Ichino. Don't worry, even though that heroin
junky bled all over your arm it didn't harm you at all, nor
will it ever. You don't have to clean it anymore, okay? Just
relax," he tried to comfort her.
This didn't ease her anxiety. "But-"
"It's okay," he softly said. He let go of her arm and
placed his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them gently, and
then massaging.
God, is she tense, Ranma thought.
"Thanks," Ichino softly uttered out of her mouth. "That
was really scary, I'm sorry. I was nerve wracked out of my
mind."
"It's alright. I have a friend who had the exact same
thing happen to him and he went nuts, went the whole nine
yards with blood tests and everything. He was perfectly
fine," Ranma said.
I gotta remember to do that too, Ichino thought. "Yeah,
thanks."
"Unit 12-Adam-14, Southeast Division is requesting
extra backup for master beat 32. Gang arrest in progress,"
the dispatcher beeped in from both Ichino and Ranma's
radios.
Ichino sighed, and walked over to the fridge. "I'm
gonna get me a Jolt Cola first. Let's go."
"Looks like those boys barged in and got a little more
than they bargained for." Ranma adjusted his belt and
clicked the radio mike on his chest. "12-Adam-14, tell 'em
we'll be there." He clicked off. "Let's go, partner."
--------------
8:15 PM.
"Let go of me!" the black teen screamed.
"Give it up, kid!" Ranma yelled back at him.
The two struggled it out in the middle of a large
abandoned parking lot behind a supermarket. It was dark, the
walls were plastered with colorful gang graffiti, and there
was littered trash everywhere, adding to the dull grey of
South Central Los Angeles. It was a common gang hangout, and
tonight was the time the cops had decided to bust down on
them.
Ranma swiveled to the side, easily dodging a clumsy
punch. He twisted his hip and kicked the teenager's legs and
swept them from under him, causing him to fall on his back.
"Grr!!" The teen reached up to get Ranma's gun from his
holster in an attempt to take it away from him to shoot him.
His older brother who was an OG in this neighborhood had
taught him how to steal a gun from a cop in case he ever got
pinched.
"Hmph." Ranma grinned as the dumb juvenile in front of
him tried to unlatch his pistol and steal from him, only to
see his eyes open wide as the pistol simply refused to come
out of its resting spot.
Ranma shot out his left hand and grabbed the black
teen's hand and twisted it inward, disabling him with pain.
With his right, Ranma reached for his pistol, with his thumb
flicking off a rotating hammer hood, his index finger
depressing a lever that seemed to magically unlock a tension
screw in the holster, and finally he angled his wrist back
to unlock one last safety that held the gun fastened. He
drew his weapon quickly and stuck the muzzle right into his
suspect's eye.
"Stop," he firmly said. "You're under arrest."
"I-I-I'm sorry," the teenager stuttered. "Please don't
shoot me!" he begged with his life, his previous rebellious
bravery quickly disappearing. The kid dropped to his knees
and put his arms up in surrender.
While Ranma cuffed his own suspect, he turned to
Ichino. He gasped. When he'd looked at her just seconds
before she was fending off one small guy. Right now she was
heading off two.
"Bastard!" Ichino yelled. She reached back her arm and
charged her fist as hard as she could to the guy she'd been
struggling with initially. He took it square on right in the
nose, and he fell down, out for the count.
The other gang member she was fighting saw that she had
let her guard drop at the rear and took advantage of it. He
picked up a wooden plank that was on the ground and smacked
it at the back of her head. Hard.
Ranma ran to help Ichino as she squealed in pain,
dropping to her knees and clutching the back of her head.
When she saw her assailant going for an overhead pummel, she
instinctively shot out her left hand and grabbed his groin
as hard as she could. The guy screamed and dropped the
plank, right on Ichino's head, making her even angrier. She
clenched her teeth and squeezed even harder.
"Itchan, he's down, let it go!" Ranma yelled from
behind as he ran up to her.
Ichino let go of his balls when she realized he had
already dropped to the ground, sobbing in pain.
"Fucking asshole!" she growled at him as she got up,
clutching his head.
Ranma worriedly got out a handkerchief and wiped the
back of her neck. "Jesus, you're bleeding. Hold onto this,
put some pressure on it."
"I am?" Ichino replied, surprised. She dabbed the
handkerchief a couple of times and examined. It was indeed
blotched with blood.
"I'll cuff this dickhead and carry all three of 'em,
you just take care of your head wound, okay?" Ranma told
her.
"Alright, thanks," she said. Her head was still
slightly ringing, it felt like one huge migraine.
There were a total of about 10 officers when they all
regrouped near their cruisers. Each unit had gotten their
share of hoodlums, cuffed up and bruised from fighting.
Apparently someone had tipped off police that there would be
a gang brawl in the lot between the Blacks and Mexicans,
with each racial faction prepared to slaughter each other.
"Hey, shithead!" an officer yelled to Ranma.
"Wha?" Ranma looked around, confused.
"Yeah, you, shithead! I'm talking to you, Saotome!" the
officer yelled at him again.
Ranma turned and smiled as he saw a familiar face.
"Hey, Johnny!"
Southwest Division P2 officer John Lee came up to Ranma
with a huge grin on his face to give Ranma a hearty
handshake. "How you doin' man? I wouldn't have expected to
see you here."
"I haven't seen you since Christmas, dude," Ranma said,
giving back the shake.
"I heard about your fiasco on New Years. You're one
hell of a bastard, I gotta tell you that," John said,
laughing. He looked over at Ichino. "Who's your pretty
partner here? Jeez, is she okay? She's bleeding!"
"Oh, this is Ichino Yanagida. She's a rookie under my
wing. Ichino, this is John, we went to college together,"
Ranma said. He introduced the two to each other.
The two exchanged greetings, although John was a little
confused.
"Hey, she's a rookie? Ain't you still a P2 like me? I
thought we weren't allowed to handle boots?" John said.
"This is a special case," Ranma replied.
"Hey, come over sometime, both of ya! Janet was just
wondering a couple of days ago if you'd wanted to have
dinner out with us," John told Ranma. "Then you can help me
restore my Chevelle too!" he chuckled.
"Sure, I'll come over. Hey John, I can also use some
help in car buying, I gotta look for another one."
"No problem, dude," John told him. "Glad you guys could
help us. We were only going after some 18th Street gang
members. It looks like them and some of these Bloods were
about to have a street war. Sorta got out of hand."
"Don't worry about it." Ranma watched as John's big
smile disappeared as he eyed another cop coming towards all
of them with another person in cuffs.
John sighed in exasperation and frowned. "God... not
him. Here comes the Third Reich."
The big Caucasian officer was in his late forties, with
large muscles and a shaved down bald head. He was literally
carrying a young black kid in cuffs, almost off the ground.
The pain in the kid's eyes were apparent.
"Hey, this guy isn't one of them. I saw him trying to
help us earlier!" Ranma exclaimed.
"Hey, pig! He's got nothin' to do with this, yo! Let my
lil' bro go!" one of the cuffed black gangsters said on the
ground.
"This lil' cupcake was trying to strike me down, boy.
Sit down and shut your trap!" the officer said. His name tag
read . He looked around at the suspects who had
been arrested. "Jeez, look at this pool of niggers and
beaners."
"Bullshit, he didn't do anything! And don't call me a
nigger, cracker!" another gangster said. "He's not even part
of this man, don't get him involved. Let him go!"
"He's right, Williams," John said. "I saw him. He was
only here because he was concerned about his older brother.
He didn't do anything."
Williams sneered evilly and dropped the innocent kid
flat on his face and stomach.
"This little zit?" he kicked the kid in the ribs,
forcing out a yelp of pain. "Coon tried to punch me. That's
why he's here."
"He didn't do shit, and you know it," John growled.
The black gangsters who knew the innocent youngster
only simmered in anger and stood silently as they saw this
racist Caucasian cop serve out injustice.
Williams kicked him again, and again. "What are you
gonna do about it, huh? Officer Lee?" Williams cackled.
"Come on, sir. Please, stop it," his partner said. He
was a rookie just like Ichino, placed under Williams'
command.
"Eh?" Williams turned to face his younger partner. "Who
gives a fuck? It's only a little fucking nigger."
John tried to practically leap at Williams in an
attempt to knock him out. Ranma had quickly grabbed a hold
of his arms.
"You fucking chicken-shit white trash motherfucker!!"
he screamed. "You call yourself a fucking cop! Let go of me
Ranma! I'll give you a piece of my fucking mind, Hitler!"
John yelled as he struggled with his arms reaching for
Williams.
While this had happened, none of the officer noticed
that the innocent kid's older brother had crawled himself up
to Williams' leg. He clenched his teeth and head butted his
shin as hard as he could.
"Oww! Fuck!" Williams kicked him away. He growled and
kicked him in the face. "Nigger, you just fucked with the
wrong bull!"
"Goddammit, you motherfucker!" John screamed in an
outburst.
Williams faced John and snorted. "Come on, you fucking
yellow gook!" Williams yelled back at him, rolling up his
sleeves and cracking his knuckles.
Ranma's eyes twitched, and he effortlessly pushed back
his friend behind him with his mighty strength, and slowly
walked towards Williams, glaring at him with a ferocity that
would melt a steel wall.
"You got a problem with Asians, asshole? Then take it
up with me, prick," Ranma growled at him. He grabbed a steel
parking lot handicap sign pole and squeezed it into putty.
Williams saw this, and almost choked, intimidated to
pitiful fear. "Hey, bitch, I-I-I don't want any trouble from
you," he squeaked out.
"You don't like Koreans? Hmm? Don't like Asians? Don't
like African-Americans, you Nazi wannabe prick?" Ranma
barked at him.
"......"
Ranma got right in front of his face and poked him in
the chest. "Don't ever mess with my buddy again, and don't
ever act like a white-supremacist wannabe coward, EVER. Or
else I'll fuck you up. You got that?"
Williams hastily nodded and turned away, taking off the
innocent kid's cuffs and walking away.
"Thanks, Ranma. I appreciate you backin' me up there,"
John said.
"It's no problem, man." Ranma frowned. "I can't believe
there are still guys like that on the force."
"He's an A-1 cocksucking prick. Don't even bother
associating with that stupid fuck. He's been like that as
long as I've known him. I've had it up to here with his
shit."
"I didn't even know there were people like that in the
department," Ichino said. "That was really cruel of him."
"Yeah, it is, Itchan." Ranma gave a pat to John's
shoulder. "We're going to head off too. I'll catch you
later."
"I'll give you a call," John said. He turned and walked
back to his own car, Ranma could tell by his heated ki
signature that he was still piping mad. "Maybe we'll cook at
home, or go out."
"Right. Later."
---------------
9:02 PM
With all the suspects booked at the station, and with
Ichino's wound treated, the duo was back on the streets,
cruising around. It was surprisingly quiet at this time of
night, especially in this area of the city. Things were
usually busy around the clock. Right now, Ichino had the
wheel, with Ranma sitting in the passenger seat.
So far, it had been a quiet ride. Neither of them had
exchanged many words.
Ichino tapped the steering wheel with her finger as she
waited for the traffic light to turn green on this one-way
street. She glanced over at Ranma, who seemed to be staring
at nothing in particular.
"I've never seen you that mad."
"Hmm?" Ranma lifted his head to look at Ichino. "What
was that?"
"I said I've never seen you that mad," Ichino said. "So
far I've seen you as nice and funny guy. Didn't think you
were that powerful either, squeezing that steel pole like
that," she said.
Ranma tried to cover a blush from her compliment by
turning his head at the door. "It's nothing, really. I'm not
one to get mad easily. John is just a good friend of mine.
We went to college together, he was very friendly to me when
we first met and I was bumbling with my English."
"I guess. I'm still feeling a bit antsy about shooting
that guy's hand earlier. Although this pain in the back of
my head is sort of watering it down."
"Heh," Ranma chuckled. "The day we first met, I had a
steel beam clock me in the head."
"What? No shit?" Ichino laughed at him.
"Yeah, I ain't lying," he replied, grinning. He looked
out on the street, which still had quite a few pedestrians
walking to and fro. "Man, it's quiet tonight."
"I guess there's still a lot I haven't experienced,
huh?" Ichino said, her eyes still on the road. "Just a
couple of weeks into duty, I've already been forced to shoot
someone, and then I also see something like that racist cop
tonight."
"Welcome to the City of Angels," Ranma replied. "When I
first came here, I thought this place was great. A bit
dirty, but a neat place to visit."
"Yeah, me too. I'm seeing a whole different side of
it."
The two didn't seem to have anything else to talk
about, creating an awkward silence inside the cab. Ranma
continued to stare out his window, perhaps looking for some
idiot who was purse snatching or selling fake id's. Ichino
kept on driving, humming softly to herself.
Ranma's stomach growled at that moment, loud enough to
be heard by Ichino.
"Hey. There's nothing to do right now. You want to sneak to
7-Eleven and get some hot dogs?" he asked, grinning.
Ichino snorted, turning to a different street. "Sure,
why not."
"Unit 12-Adam-14, CHP just gave a traffic assistance
call, your beat is the closest one by," the radio chirped.
"There goes my appetite," Ichino sighed as she flicked
on the sirens and emergency lights.
[End of Report, File No. 2]
Disclaimer: This is fanfiction, I don't own Ranma, nor do I
own Ichino Yanagida. Don't sue me. I don't own the LAPD
either, but I will one day, and I'll stow upon my own
anarchy everywhere! Bwahahha...
Author's Ramble: Jeez, it really took me long enough to come
out with this, didn't it? To all the people who have read my
fics, I humbly apologize for the unreasonably long delay. I
won't go into the excuse of saying real-life events delayed
me, so I'll just straight out say that I'm a lazy piece of
shit. There. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it.
On a serious note, what you've read just now contains
seriously offensive material concerning racism. Now, I'm
just saying right now that I did NOT purposefully put that
in to piss off anyone on purpose, it's just that I wanted to
portray some of the darker aspects of the police business.
That incident with officer John and Williams is based off of
a real incident. Where is it based off of, you ask?
Well, from me. John is a self-insertion character of
myself (no, my name is not John, and I don't work at that
division. Or perhaps it is, and maybe I do.), and Williams
is also (not his real name either) a portrayal of a real
officer that I had to face once in a gang arrest. Folks,
whether you like it or not, there ARE bad, racist cops out
there. I actually exploded in front of this jerk in real
life when he kept making derogatory remarks and kicked an
innocent black kid in handcuffs. Anyway, enough of that. I
hope that dark scene gave you a glimpse of some of the evil
that is out there, and that a lot of this is masked from the
general public. And in case you were wondering, yes, that
racist officer was punished in real life. I personally saw
to that.
Author's Notes: Hmm, let's see. Not too much to explain.
First off, a code 417 implies that there is a person with a
firearm. Also, "angel dust" is another name for PCP, which
is a powerful hallucinogenic, and one of it's side effects
is that it alters nerve signals, causing pain to not
register in the user's mind.
The shotgun that is carried in the police cruiser is
always kept unchambered whenever it is unused and locked in
place. The reason for this is because most police shotguns
(which are cheap Ithica or Winchester pump-actions) are made
with a free floating firing pin. If a loaded shotgun is
dropped on the butt stock or on the muzzle, it could
accidentally fire. For this reason, shotguns are always
inspected before the start of a patrol.
The M-16 that Jacobs carries in his patrol car is
really issued to single man patrol sergeants in real life.
The reason for this is because back in 1997 North Hollywood
Division police officers were engaged in a famous Bank of
America robbery with two armed robbers toting armor piercing
AK-47's and 100 round drum magazines. After the incident,
the US Army kindly donated over 600 surplus military issue
M-16's to the LAPD.
In case you were wondering about the circumstances of
the barricade with Jacobs, Ranma, and Ichino, yes, it could
really happen. Although the suspect getting his hand shot
off is a bit of a glorification from myself, it is a harsh
reality that LAPD officers (and most likely many other
officers in big, busy cities) often conduct their own
barricade raids. SWAT isn't a very large unit, and they are
deployed around the clock in situations which are really
grim (such as that bank shootout with the automatic AK-
47's). They are indeed a very quick deployment unit, but
SWAT can't possibly handle every hostage or barricade (or
both) situation there is (Although it is interesting that in
NYC the NYPD's ESU response team has over 500 working
operatives, which is tremendously larger than LAPD SWAT). It
is very common to see a few patrolmen units conducting their
own negotiations and raids.
Hmm... don't think there is anything more to explain.
But in case I forgot to mention something (which I probably
did), feel free to flame and gripe to me (or send
compliments and suggestions) to sgtranma@yahoo.com .
Visit my website at http://sgtranma.anifics.com . I
always update there often, and fics always come there first.
Finished August 18th, 2002.
FOREWARNING
THIS FIC MAY CONTAIN STORY ELEMENTS THAT ARE BASED OFF OF
REAL EVENTS FROM A REAL POLICE OFFICER CONCERNING OTHER REAL
POLICE OFFICERS. ALL CHARACTERS ARE FICTIONAL AND DO NOT
EXIST. THIS FIC WILL PORTRAY GRAPHIC AND OFFENSIVE MATERIAL
CONCERNING THE REAL WORLD OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, WHICH INCLUDES
VIOLENCE, HATRED, AND A STRONG PRESENCE OF RACISM. THE
DIALOGUE PRESENTED BY THE CHARACTERS ARE NOT MEANT TO
RIDICULE AND DEFAME BY THE AUTHOR, THEY ARE MEANT TO PORTRAY
THE THINGS POLICE OFFICERS EXPERIENCE AND INTERACT IN A DARK
AND VIOLENT ENVIRONMENT. SOME EVENTS THAT OCCUR IN THIS FIC
ARE MEANT TO OFFEND AND ANGER YOU, THE READER, ALTHOUGH IT
IS DONE FOR THE SAKE OF REALISTIC PORTRAYAL OF A WORLD THAT
IS OFTEN SUGARCOATED FOR THE PUBLIC EYE.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
*****************************
This is one part of many little short stories spun off from
my Officer Saotome series. It's sort of a prequel, detailing
the daily life of Ranma during his days as a policeman. You
will have to read Officer Saotome as a prerequisite before
reading this, otherwise don't blame me if the story seems
totally out of line, or if it is uninteresting to you.
Here are a few things you must know while reading this:
-For all of you readers, PLEASE read the notes at the end of
the fic before you start flaming me for things that you
don't understand or think is bogus, my notes just might
answer all your questions. If that doesn't do it, feel free
to pound away at my mailbox.
Ooop, as always, my fics are all R-rated in terms of movie
ratings, and this one is no exception. So don't complain!
Otherwise, enjoy! ^_^
-SgtRanma
Please visit my website at http://sgtranma.anifics.com! New
fics will always appear there first!
****ONCE AGAIN, I'M WARNING YOU. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ MY
PREVIOUS FIC OFFICER SAOTOME UP TO CHAPTER 4 COMPLETELY, DO
NOT READ THIS. OTHERWISE IT WILL NOT MAKE SENSE! THIS IS A
PREQUEL! OFFICER SAOTOME CAN BE FOUND IN THE WEBSITE
MENTIONED ABOVE! However, if you really want to read it that
bad, just go ahead. It's just that a couple of huge details
(such as why the hell Ranma is in Los Angeles anyway and as
a cop, of all things) won't make sense to you.****
------------------------
The Daily Report
File No. 02: Getting Down to Business
February 8th, 1999.
Benito's Homemade Mexican Food - Downtown LA, California.
3:02 PM.
A cute girl looked at the large menu of various
different Mexican fast food items, eager to try out some new
and exciting foods.
"Oooh, I wanna have a couple of those chile relleno
thingies, two chicken enchilada thingamajiggies, a carne
asada quesadilla, a side order of pork rinds, and a large
pine colada!"
"That's PINA colada," her partner corrected. Ranma
looked at his partner with an eyebrow raised. "You're going
to eat all that? It's going to make you blow chunks in the
middle of a car chase or when you're running down a
suspect," Ranma chided.
"Don't be such a pussy," she replied back. Ichino gave
him a playful slap to his shoulder. "Oh, come on. Even
though I've lived in California for almost five years, I've
NEVER tried Mexican food before! I wanna see how it tastes!"
Ranma frowned, giving Ichino a strange look. "You've
lived in Southern California for that long and you've never
eaten Mexican food before? What rock have you lived under?"
"Hey, I can't help it that I haven't experienced
everything this world has to offer. That's why I'm pigging
out right now," she chided.
"Ha, ha," Ranma laughed sarcastically. He had to admit,
his new partner was actually a lot of fun to work with and
she was an even bigger wisecracker than he was.
"Hey Itchan, how good are you with physical ability?"
he asked. He was still curious as to how good she really was
with physical exercises, and why the instructors over at
Elysian and Grenada Hills had stapled her as a "rogue".
"Wha-?" Ichino mumbled while she was carrying a tray
stacked high with food, and a huge 44 oz. cup of Pina Colada
to a table.
Being a gentleman, Ranma took the huge tray for her and
escorted her to a table. "I was asking how good you are with
sports and stuff. You know, running, chasing down stuff, all
the obstacle courses they throw at you in the academy."
"Ha!" she huffed proudly. "I'm the fastest runner and
the most physically capable cadet the academy has ever
graduated. I think you're the only person
who has gotten higher props than me. And even then I bet I
could whoop your ass in a race."
"Oh?" He couldn't resist a challenge, even if it didn't
involve any fighting. "I bet I could out-sprint you, and I
KNOW I can outrun you in a marathon."
"Sprint faster than ME?" she said with her mouth full
of food. "Big fat chance there, I'll smack you down like a
naughty boy getting punished in a Catholic school."
Ranma blinked at that last one. "Whatever, we'll see
later," he smirked. "This past week has been incredibly
boring. We haven't had a single chase on car or on foot, so
I'm betting today our luck is going to run out. We'll see
how good you are when you chase a suspect down."
"No problem, mon!" Ichino said in a mock Jamaican
accent. "I'll make sure you're manly man ass bows down to me
before the day is done!"
He gave another chuckle. "Yep, we'll see." Ranma stole
a slice of quesadilla while Ichino stuffed her mouth.
"Hey! That's mine! Go buy your own!"
-----------------
"12-Adam-14, we have a 417 at a domestic residence,
shots fired. Reports of various handguns, suspect is
considered heavily armed and extremely dangerous. Respond
with caution."
Ichino gulped with both excitement and fear at the
female dispatcher's composed and sterile voice. How could
the dispatcher stay that calm for a call like that? Let
alone acting that way for a full eight (perhaps even longer,
especially in Los Angeles) hours?
"Unit 12-Adam-14, enroute!" Ranma crisply said through
the radio handpiece. He clicked a couple of switches and the
sirens blasted at full wail, and the emergency lights went
code 3.
Ranma sharply turned the steering wheel of the Caprice
and recklessly drove over a large street divider in the
middle of the road, nearly hitting a dozen cars which were
traveling in the opposite direction. With a series of bumps
and heavy scrapes, the abused Chevy literally hurdled over
and screeched its way towards its destination. They were
partially crossing over to another division's jurisdiction,
since 77th Street was almost completely a downtown area, but
it didn't matter. Officers helping out other officers from
different divisions was a common practice.
"Whoo!" Ichino exclaimed, her heart beating faster.
"Finally something exciting happens!"
"I wouldn't get all of my panties gathered up in a
bunch just yet," Ranma cautioned loudly over the loud cry of
the siren. "This is an extremely dangerous call, I'd suggest
you chamber check your gun just in case you didn't pack it!"
Ichino did as she was told. Now she was just plain
scared. She drew out her firearm from her holster and
clicked the slide back about half way using the ambidextrous
safety to pull with her fingers.
Tires screeched as Ranma cornered the Caprice around a
residential neighborhood. The vehicle was oversteering
heavily due to the rear-wheel drive set up of the cruiser,
almost sideswiping a couple of people in the process.
To the surprise of both officers, they were the first
ones on the scene. Ranma and Ichino heard random pop-pops as
they came to a house that was about a hundred yards away
from the corner of the block. The gunfire seemed to be
coming from inside an opened garage.
Ranma carefully drove the car up the curb to get a view
of the garage, and saw a Caucasian male wielding a pistol.
The suspect saw the police cruiser immediately, and ran
around the garage to jump over a wooden fence.
"Shit!" Ranma cursed. He shifted into reverse and
backed away from the lawn, running over a mailbox in the
process.
"I'll catch him!" Ichino yelled while jumping out of
her seat as the car was going in reverse. She didn't bother
to get her PR-24 baton as it would probably slow her down.
"Go get him Itchan! I'll tail you around the block!"
Ranma hollered back in reply.
She gave a thumbs up to acknowledge him and sprinted
towards the wooden fence that the suspect had gone over. In
one swift movement she jumped almost six feet high and used
her hand to gracefully swivel her body over, allowing her to
land on the other side with her transferred momentum into a
full sprint.
Ranma watched her with amusement before he peeled away
to catch the suspect on the other side of the neighborhood.
He blew out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Not,
bad," he mumbled to himself
"You're under arrest! Stop running dammit!" Ichino
shouted.
The adrenaline pumping sensation and the blood rushing
in her ears gave her a feeling of excitement she'd never
felt before as she sprinted forward. The suspect was in
front of her, with about a 15 yard lead, himself being quite
fit and very agile as he evaded her. Ichino ran with the
skill of a cheetah and the speed of a falcon, her running
form was refined and almost flawless after nearly 17 years
of conditioning and training.
Ahead of her was a four foot tall concrete wall that
separated the yard of a home from the open street. The
suspect had to slow down and swivel over it, costing him
valuable seconds. Ichino smirked and merely hurdled over the
boundary and landed on the other side tackling the suspect
to the ground.
"Fuck!" the man yelped. He easily shoved her out of the
way hard, being much bigger than Ichino in mass. He hastily
got up and tried to shoot the cop.
Ichino rolled back gracefully and was back on her feet,
this time she pulled out her collapsible ASP baton and
twirled it faster than the eye could see, and in an instant
it extended a full three feet long.
She spotted her suspect raising a gun towards her, and
while her baton was still twirling she threw it as hard as
she could towards his arm. The spinning baton made its way
to the man, shattering his wrist and fingers and causing his
pistol to fly off far enough that he couldn't reach.
At that moment Ranma was screeching towards the two
from across the street, Ichino had seen him race towards
them from the corner of her eye. Apparently Ranma had gone
down the other street towards the longer way, instead of
just turning around and going around the block.
But something was wrong. A twinge at the back of
Ichino's mind froze her for a moment as she pulled out her
handcuffs to arrest her suspect. Why wasn't he yelping in
pain?
It was then when she got a good look at his face, she
found out why. His eyes were disoriented and visibly
bloodshot, and it looked like some parts of his body were
shaking.
It didn't occur to her that the guy might've been
hopped up on some sort of drug.
Before he could pick up her baton and use it against
her, Ichino ran up to him and kicked him in the balls as
hard as she could.
Although the PCP in his system didn't register the pain
the way it should've, his nervous system forced him to drop
to his knees anyways out of the shock of getting his testes
crunched.
Ichino didn't stop there, as soon as her suspect
dropped like a log she kicked him again, rolling him on to
his stomach. She dropped her knee on the middle of his back
and hand cuffed him while he was immobilized, tightening the
links as close as possible, restricting the blood flow to
his hands.
The speeding Caprice screeched to a stop with Ranma
popping out of the driver's side.
"Great. Let's get this jerk booked," he said.
"Leggo, you gook motherfuckers..." he slurred out of
his mouth while a trail of saliva slimed out of his mouth.
"Damn junky," Ichino muttered. The man was clearly too
incoherent at the moment to even pick himself up. Ichino
fruitlessly tried to lift up his body by grabbing him under
the arms. "He's one tough SOB. I think he was cracked up on
angel dust."
"He gave a bit of a fight, eh?" Ranma helped out
Ichino. "You might as well just take the easy route since
the bastard can't feel anything."
Ranma grabbed a fist full of the suspect's hair and
dragged him although to the patrol car. Ichino nodded and
pulled his arm, the rest of his body sliding across the
ground.
It wasn't long before the man was secured in the back.
Both officers got in and drove away from the area, calling
in another unit to take up a report at the house where the
911 call was made.
---------------
3:50 PM
The two were finally finished handing over the suspect
to another unit and filing out a quick report. Just as soon
as they left the run down neighborhood, the radio chirped
with another call. "To the units in the vicinity of Pearl
and Lexmar street, barricaded suspect in fast food
restaurant. Suspect is considered armed and extremely
dangerous."
Ichino took the opportunity to take the call. "This is
unit 12-Adam-14, enroute. Code 3."
"Good call, this is exactly what I need this early in
the day," Ranma said, a grin on his face. "More excitement
to get the adrenaline glands tired."
"Idiot," Ichino joked. "A job's a job, and we have a
hard day's work again!" she said in Japanese.
Ranma lifted his eyebrows in surprise. This was the
first time he'd actually heard her speak a full sentence of
Japanese. "Whoa," he replied in Japanese as well. "You got a
Kansai accent? You're from Osaka, right?" He'd wondered that
before, this pretty much confirmed it.
"Yep, born and bred Osaka girl." She gave a cute smile
then a wide grin.
The patrol car cut a corner through a busy street and
ran right over a curb, jolting Ichino. She could feel her
kidneys being rocked, but she didn't mind anymore. She had
gotten used to it fast.
"You sure can move though, Itchan. Never seen a cop
move like you did back there."
"Ah, thanks." She loved to hear compliments about her
athleticism. "Like I said, I used to be a real sports freak.
I still am, actually. I try to run on foot wherever I go
instead of riding my bike. Everywhere except for work, that
is."
The radio chirped again. "Dispatch, this is 12-Lincoln-
27, officer requesting immediate assistance for barricade
suspect at fast food joint. Shots have been fired, civilians
are inside being held captive, over."
"12-Adam-27 one unit is on the way, requesting
assistance from other units. Metro SWAT assistance has been
requested."
"Shit." Ranma recognized the unit and the voice of the
officer on the radio. He picked up the radio mike. "Sergeant
Jacobs, this is Saotome. We're rushing over to your
location, ETA 1 minute, over!"
"Roger that, 12-Adam-14. Get your fuckin' ass over here
Saotome, I'm in a bit of a jam!"
"10-4, bud!"
"Crap, there's a gridlock!" Ichino pointed out to the
busy intersection.
"Shit, hang onto something Itchan." Ranma swerved the
car out of the street and into the side walk, plowing
through and causing the panicked pedestrians to jump out of
the way.
The car was forced to messily drift to the right and
merge with the busy street. Ranma barely avoided a large
Ford F-150 but did bump into a divider in the median of the
road.
"Ite!" Ichino cried out as her head slammed hard to the
side of the B-pillar of the interior. "Watch it, dammit!"
"I'm just doing the best I can!" he yelled back. "Get
the boom stick ready, you're manning it. We're almost
there!"
Ichino nodded and pressed a button hidden under the
dash. A loud mechanical ka-chink sounded from behind her
left ear, the shotgun was unlocked from the rack. She
nestled it between her thighs and checked the chamber to see
if it was loaded. Cocking the pump halfway, Ichino saw it
was empty, just like she had inspected when they'd left for
patrol. She cocked it completely and saw a glimmer of brass
and red shell material. Good, she pushed it back up forward
and slid her finger into the loading ramp at the bottom,
making sure that the choke was filled with shells.
The car screeched to a stop into the back alley parking
lot of the restaurant, where a lone uniformed sergeant was
leaning against a cement wall with a military issue Colt M-
16 rifle packed with a 30 round magazine.
The duo ran up next to him with Ichino carrying the
large and bulky Ithica pump action shotgun.
"It's good to see you guys here," Jacobs told them. "We
got a single hispanic male, he has a small Ruger .22, and no
hostages. I don't know what the hell this fucking bitch's
problem is, but he sure likes firing that gun in the air.
Asshole tried to shoot through the windows as I drove by, I
circled around before he could pump me full of lead and came
through the fuckin' back like you two did."
"What're we going to do?" Ranma asked.
"I dunno, still trying to think of something."
Ichino peered around the corner, she could see a couple
of scared restaurant patrons crouching under their tables in
fear. In a reflection of the glass she could see the gunman
around the corner, wielding his pistol and spouting out
incoherent rants.
"I got an idea," she said.
The seasoned sergeant looked at the rookie in surprise.
"What do you suggest we do, officer?"
"There's a solid windowless entrance on the side here,
we can do a quick team entry and try to reprimand him
without any shots if we move quick enough. We use the pump
shotty to take out the hinges and bust through."
Ranma nodded, she'd thought this up pretty quick and
with good instinct. "That just might work. Good plan
Itchan."
"Who's going to take entry first?" Jacobs asked.
Ichino gulped, but decided to take a chance. "I'll do
it. It's my idea, I'll do it."
"What? No," Ranma reproached her. He grabbed her
shoulder. "You're still a pup, you might make a mistake and
get shot." Ranma faced the sergeant. "I'll go, I'll take him
down, sir!"
"Back off!" Ichino shoved Ranma out of the way, fire in
her eyes. "I've been trained for this too, jerk. Don't treat
me like a pushover!" She turned around. "I'll take him out,
sir!"
Before Ranma could fire back, the senior officer
intervened. "If that's the way you want it, you got it
Yanagida. Gimme this." Jacobs took Ichino's shotgun and
handed her the rifle. "You 'boots' trained with these in the
academy right?" Ichino nodded. "This'll be a lot safer and
quicker, in case you have to shoot. I don't think a 12-gauge
is a risk we can take for an entry, just in case he has a
hostage with a gun to the head. We're gonna do this fast,
we're gonna sweep it quick. I don't think we'll have enough
time to wait for fucking SWAT, nor will we really need them.
This is a single person barricade, so it should go without
too many problems, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir!" the two younger officers replied.
The three cops quickly moved alongside the wall to the
door. The huge glass windows of the restaurant were only a
couple of yards away, so they had to be careful, not to
mention quick. The guy already knew there were cops on the
scene, but he didn't know where they were hiding. If other
units came with their sirens blazing through the front, the
trio would loose the element of surprise.
Ranma crouched down first, aiming his pistol at the
lower door hinge. Jacobs stood right behind him, shotgun
aimed at the upper hinge. Ichino was a couple of steps away,
the rifle in low ready position. She faced the doorway,
ready to charge through.
"Ichiban, just the way I like it," Ichino mumbled to
herself. She clenched her teeth and shut her eyes closed
tightly for a moment. Her heart was pounding again, her feet
felt like they were on fire, ready to pounce. With the help
of adrenaline rushing through her blood her senses went on
high alert, her finger was lightly stroking the trigger.
"Ok, we're gonna go on my command," Ranma whispered to
Ichino. His fingers counted down from four, three, two...
With a thundering crack alongside of a dull bang, the
hinges were blown right off. Strangely enough, the painfully
loud sounds of nearby gunfire didn't seem all that loud to
Ichino, under all that tension it was dulled down to what
seemed like a mere ping pong ball dropping on the floor.
Ichino charged hard against the door with her shoulder,
taking it down easily.
She lifted the rifle, the first thing she saw was the
suspect, deranged and panicked.
"LAPD, drop your weapon!" Ichino shouted hoarsely.
Ranma entered next, his pistol raised and immediately
strafed to the left to cover Ichino. Jacobs was next, acting
as the rear guard for both officers.
"Aaaahhh!" the gunman screamed loudly, not knowing what
else to do. He tried to aim his gun at either of the police
officers.
Ichino reacted before Ranma could and shot off a round
at the gunman's hand. The .223 Winchester round blew away
the trigger guard of the pistol and blasted away a good
portion of the man's index finger and middle finger, leaving
the thumb hanging by a mere peel of bloody skin. The gun was
useless now, the trigger and the action were bent out of
shape.
"Fuck!" the man yelled, dropping to the ground in pain.
His hand looked like it was trying to pull a trigger with
fingers that weren't even there anymore.
"Sweep the area!" Jacobs yelled when he saw the suspect
go down and out for the count.
Ranma shifted and took over Ichino's spot by aiming his
pistol down at the injured criminal. The other two searched
the rest of the area for any possible surprises with their
more powerful weapons.
Jacobs yelled out first. "The bathrooms and spare rooms
are clear!"
"The kitchen is clear!" Ichino yelled out deep within
the restaurant.
"Suspect is down, one shot fired to immobilize, zero
civilian casualties, the situation is under control,
Dispatch," Ranma spoke through the radio piece on the left
side of his upper chest. He kicked away the small plinking
gun, although it was already ruined and unable to fire
anyway.
The raven-haired patrolwoman returned back into the
main dining room, the rifle pointed down with the safety
engage. "This place is clear, everything's safe."
The older sergeant was busy cuffing the downed criminal
while wrapping up the busted hand. "Stay still you pecker-
neck motherfucker! Unless you want to bleed to death all
over the fucking tiles," he said with a growl. He got up and
gave a pat to Ichino's shoulder. "That was great work their,
boot. Never seen a rookie move and react like you before,
that was awesome."
Ichino handed back the rifle and took back the shotgun.
"Thanks sir," she replied. Whew... her heart was about to
jump out of her throat from the excitement. She was glad
that the single shot was accurate.
"Come on, let's get outta here before there's a huge
mess." Ranma signaled to Ichino. "We'll let Jacobs take care
of this, there are other units coming anyway. We'll just
wait outside."
"Wha?" She shook her head. "Yeah, alright." She looked
back as she went out the blasted door, watching blood drip
from the man's ragged hand as he cried in pain.
-------------
"Watch commander is enroute for the Taco Bell shooting.
Until then Sgt. Jacobs is in charge of the scene." The radio
chirped
"Yep, and who knows how long that'll take," Ranma
sighed as he stuck his head out of the patrol car window. He
took out a small bottle of water that was stuck in the seat.
He turned his head to hear the shuffling of feet.
Ichino was kicking at the dirt, her eyes down and wandering
slightly.
"Yo, partner. You okay?" he asked in concern.
"Hmm?" Ichino looked up to face her partner. "Yeah, I'm
fine. I just feel a bit...mooky ya know."
"Mooky?" Ranma lifted his eyebrow. "What's that
supposed to mean?"
"Nah, it's just I feel a little weird about shooting
that guy. It's not like I killed him or anything." She
breathed out a nervous sigh, her face was doing a poor
impression of a calm expression.
"Don't worry about it. If it were me I would've done
the same thing. Jacobs over there would've just aimed for
his chest or his head."
Ichino turned a little green at that, realizing how
easily she could've done the same if she had not given her
full concentration of the moment to put a shot into his
trigger finger. But then again, was she really aiming
anyway? With all that blood and adrenaline rushing through
her head, she couldn't even remember it. Was that gun even
being pointed at her?
"Like I said, just forget about it. You didn't kill him
or anything. Besides, you probably saved the lives of those
people in the restaurant. Sorta outweighs the bad parts,
no?"
Ichino felt a bit more comfortable after that, but the
tension was still there. "Thanks, I guess," she lamely said.
Ranma smiled at that. "So anyway, you said before that
you were a 'born and bred Osaka girl.' I don't really know
too much about you, despite knowing you for nearly two
weeks."
Ichino frowned at the unexpected change in subject.
"Um, yeah. I lived a regular life, I guess. I was born in
Osaka, I have a mom and pop, one younger brother, and a lot
of relatives. Went to Hokkaido often to train with a
friend."
"Sounds like fun," Ranma said.
"I guess. It was a bummer when I broke my damn leg
during a practice race, sorta ruined everything." And that
was right before I had a chance to get into the Olympics,
she thought bitterly.
"You know, I was wondering about that. How'd you get to
become a police officer anyway?" Ranma asked. "I was
thinking someone like you would just wait and go for another
chance at the Olympics."
"Well, ya know..." she scratched the back of her head.
"I was already on the team, I was going to be in the
triathlon and the sprinting events. But instead I busted my
leg and I was dropped out."
"Ah," Ranma gulped uncomfortably. "I bet that must've
been hard."
"You have no idea," she sighed. "I was so pissed I just
said 'Fuck it, I'm just going to do something else with my
life,' so I somehow got into the academy."
"Yeah, that's gotta be a bummer," Ranma said, nodding
his head. He looked up. "Shit, it's the lieutenant."
Ichino and Ranma stood up straight to greet Lieutenant
Patchett, who was carrying a clipboard and sporting a very
unpleasant looking scowl on his face.
"It's only a little over four fucking weeks and we have
another officer involved shooting?" Patchett scolded Ranma
and Ichino, shaking his head in disbelief. "What the fuck is
up with you, Saotome? Do you just create trouble on purpose?
Not to mention letting a rookie partner go up against this
sort of shit this early in her probationary phasing!"
"Well, at least he's not dead, sir," Ranma replied with
a shrug.
"Yeah, he's really fuckin' lucky, ain't he? REAL
fucking lucky. You better be lucky this guy is a moron,
maybe he'll sue you or the rest of this department," he told
Ranma. Patchett faced Ichino. "And you. Jeez, if you're
gonna shoot the guy, why didn't you just shoot him in the
head? Or the chest? Or any other bleedin' fuckin major
organ? Didn't they teach you that at the Academy?"
Urk. Ichino gulped. The shooting instructors had told
them before that in the rare instance that they were forced
to shoot a person in the field, you should shoot to kill.
"Yes, I learned that sir, but I didn't take it in
literally."
"Whatever. Ranma, it's your partner. She's under your
wing. Be somewhat useful, will ya?" Patchett sighed. He
pointed to a fiasco of cops that were gathered around the
area, trying to take care of everything before the news
crews came. "I'm going to take over this scene for now
instead of waiting for the damn watch commander. Dumb
bastard, why the hell is he so slow?" He faced Ichino and
Ranma again. "You better get the hell out of here, you two.
Give me thorough written reports on this later. It better be
in my box by tomorrow, got it?"
"Yes, sir," the two simultaneously replied.
"Come on, Itchan. Let's go," Ranma rushed her to the
car, hastily.
* * *
February 8th, 1999.
77th Street Division Resting House - Los Angeles California.
7:43 PM.
"Ichino, it's fine. I think you've pretty much scrubbed
your skin off by now," Ranma tried comforting.
"I'm fine, alright? Just let me do my thing, Ranma,"
Ichino snapped back.
They were in a small resting house, one of the many
designated rest stops that were set up throughout the city
for patrol officer to use for their own convenience. It
wasn't really a house, in all honesty. It was just a small
room with a large comfy couch, a refrigerator that was
always stocked with sodas and water bottles, a small cabinet
that was also always filled with chips and other handy
snacks.
There were also multiple restrooms inside as well, one
of which Ichino had occupied. She had her left sleeve rolled
up, her forearm was covered in soap and lather. Ichino was
furiously scrubbing her forearms with a powerful
antibacterial soap, the kind surgeons used to sanitize
themselves before an operation.
The young woman looked very panicked actually, her brow
was starting to form sweat and her face complexion showed
some loss of color. Ichino had her teeth clenched, and was
mumbling her lips at something out of frustration.
"You can never be too careful with these you know," she
tried to chuckle out with her teeth clenched at the same
time. "Who'd a thought that asshole had HIV, huh?"
Ranma got up from the couch and walked over to Ichino
and got behind her. He grabbed her arms and ran them down
the running water faucet, washing off all the soap.
Ichino tried to protest, "Hey-"
"Hold still," he interjected, saying it firmly.
He continued to wash it down, and wiped it away with
his own hand. The water was almost scalding hot, since
Ichino had wanted to kill ANY trace of a germ or virus if
there was anything left over.
Ranma observed her hand, still behind Ichino. He was
actually quite intimately close, which he himself had not
noticed under the circumstance but Ichino certainly did. She
awkwardly blushed slightly and didn't utter a word as Ranma
observed her arm, although she wanted to.
"You don't have any cuts, scabs, or any other openings
on your arm, Ichino. Don't worry, even though that heroin
junky bled all over your arm it didn't harm you at all, nor
will it ever. You don't have to clean it anymore, okay? Just
relax," he tried to comfort her.
This didn't ease her anxiety. "But-"
"It's okay," he softly said. He let go of her arm and
placed his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them gently, and
then massaging.
God, is she tense, Ranma thought.
"Thanks," Ichino softly uttered out of her mouth. "That
was really scary, I'm sorry. I was nerve wracked out of my
mind."
"It's alright. I have a friend who had the exact same
thing happen to him and he went nuts, went the whole nine
yards with blood tests and everything. He was perfectly
fine," Ranma said.
I gotta remember to do that too, Ichino thought. "Yeah,
thanks."
"Unit 12-Adam-14, Southeast Division is requesting
extra backup for master beat 32. Gang arrest in progress,"
the dispatcher beeped in from both Ichino and Ranma's
radios.
Ichino sighed, and walked over to the fridge. "I'm
gonna get me a Jolt Cola first. Let's go."
"Looks like those boys barged in and got a little more
than they bargained for." Ranma adjusted his belt and
clicked the radio mike on his chest. "12-Adam-14, tell 'em
we'll be there." He clicked off. "Let's go, partner."
--------------
8:15 PM.
"Let go of me!" the black teen screamed.
"Give it up, kid!" Ranma yelled back at him.
The two struggled it out in the middle of a large
abandoned parking lot behind a supermarket. It was dark, the
walls were plastered with colorful gang graffiti, and there
was littered trash everywhere, adding to the dull grey of
South Central Los Angeles. It was a common gang hangout, and
tonight was the time the cops had decided to bust down on
them.
Ranma swiveled to the side, easily dodging a clumsy
punch. He twisted his hip and kicked the teenager's legs and
swept them from under him, causing him to fall on his back.
"Grr!!" The teen reached up to get Ranma's gun from his
holster in an attempt to take it away from him to shoot him.
His older brother who was an OG in this neighborhood had
taught him how to steal a gun from a cop in case he ever got
pinched.
"Hmph." Ranma grinned as the dumb juvenile in front of
him tried to unlatch his pistol and steal from him, only to
see his eyes open wide as the pistol simply refused to come
out of its resting spot.
Ranma shot out his left hand and grabbed the black
teen's hand and twisted it inward, disabling him with pain.
With his right, Ranma reached for his pistol, with his thumb
flicking off a rotating hammer hood, his index finger
depressing a lever that seemed to magically unlock a tension
screw in the holster, and finally he angled his wrist back
to unlock one last safety that held the gun fastened. He
drew his weapon quickly and stuck the muzzle right into his
suspect's eye.
"Stop," he firmly said. "You're under arrest."
"I-I-I'm sorry," the teenager stuttered. "Please don't
shoot me!" he begged with his life, his previous rebellious
bravery quickly disappearing. The kid dropped to his knees
and put his arms up in surrender.
While Ranma cuffed his own suspect, he turned to
Ichino. He gasped. When he'd looked at her just seconds
before she was fending off one small guy. Right now she was
heading off two.
"Bastard!" Ichino yelled. She reached back her arm and
charged her fist as hard as she could to the guy she'd been
struggling with initially. He took it square on right in the
nose, and he fell down, out for the count.
The other gang member she was fighting saw that she had
let her guard drop at the rear and took advantage of it. He
picked up a wooden plank that was on the ground and smacked
it at the back of her head. Hard.
Ranma ran to help Ichino as she squealed in pain,
dropping to her knees and clutching the back of her head.
When she saw her assailant going for an overhead pummel, she
instinctively shot out her left hand and grabbed his groin
as hard as she could. The guy screamed and dropped the
plank, right on Ichino's head, making her even angrier. She
clenched her teeth and squeezed even harder.
"Itchan, he's down, let it go!" Ranma yelled from
behind as he ran up to her.
Ichino let go of his balls when she realized he had
already dropped to the ground, sobbing in pain.
"Fucking asshole!" she growled at him as she got up,
clutching his head.
Ranma worriedly got out a handkerchief and wiped the
back of her neck. "Jesus, you're bleeding. Hold onto this,
put some pressure on it."
"I am?" Ichino replied, surprised. She dabbed the
handkerchief a couple of times and examined. It was indeed
blotched with blood.
"I'll cuff this dickhead and carry all three of 'em,
you just take care of your head wound, okay?" Ranma told
her.
"Alright, thanks," she said. Her head was still
slightly ringing, it felt like one huge migraine.
There were a total of about 10 officers when they all
regrouped near their cruisers. Each unit had gotten their
share of hoodlums, cuffed up and bruised from fighting.
Apparently someone had tipped off police that there would be
a gang brawl in the lot between the Blacks and Mexicans,
with each racial faction prepared to slaughter each other.
"Hey, shithead!" an officer yelled to Ranma.
"Wha?" Ranma looked around, confused.
"Yeah, you, shithead! I'm talking to you, Saotome!" the
officer yelled at him again.
Ranma turned and smiled as he saw a familiar face.
"Hey, Johnny!"
Southwest Division P2 officer John Lee came up to Ranma
with a huge grin on his face to give Ranma a hearty
handshake. "How you doin' man? I wouldn't have expected to
see you here."
"I haven't seen you since Christmas, dude," Ranma said,
giving back the shake.
"I heard about your fiasco on New Years. You're one
hell of a bastard, I gotta tell you that," John said,
laughing. He looked over at Ichino. "Who's your pretty
partner here? Jeez, is she okay? She's bleeding!"
"Oh, this is Ichino Yanagida. She's a rookie under my
wing. Ichino, this is John, we went to college together,"
Ranma said. He introduced the two to each other.
The two exchanged greetings, although John was a little
confused.
"Hey, she's a rookie? Ain't you still a P2 like me? I
thought we weren't allowed to handle boots?" John said.
"This is a special case," Ranma replied.
"Hey, come over sometime, both of ya! Janet was just
wondering a couple of days ago if you'd wanted to have
dinner out with us," John told Ranma. "Then you can help me
restore my Chevelle too!" he chuckled.
"Sure, I'll come over. Hey John, I can also use some
help in car buying, I gotta look for another one."
"No problem, dude," John told him. "Glad you guys could
help us. We were only going after some 18th Street gang
members. It looks like them and some of these Bloods were
about to have a street war. Sorta got out of hand."
"Don't worry about it." Ranma watched as John's big
smile disappeared as he eyed another cop coming towards all
of them with another person in cuffs.
John sighed in exasperation and frowned. "God... not
him. Here comes the Third Reich."
The big Caucasian officer was in his late forties, with
large muscles and a shaved down bald head. He was literally
carrying a young black kid in cuffs, almost off the ground.
The pain in the kid's eyes were apparent.
"Hey, this guy isn't one of them. I saw him trying to
help us earlier!" Ranma exclaimed.
"Hey, pig! He's got nothin' to do with this, yo! Let my
lil' bro go!" one of the cuffed black gangsters said on the
ground.
"This lil' cupcake was trying to strike me down, boy.
Sit down and shut your trap!" the officer said. His name tag
read . He looked around at the suspects who had
been arrested. "Jeez, look at this pool of niggers and
beaners."
"Bullshit, he didn't do anything! And don't call me a
nigger, cracker!" another gangster said. "He's not even part
of this man, don't get him involved. Let him go!"
"He's right, Williams," John said. "I saw him. He was
only here because he was concerned about his older brother.
He didn't do anything."
Williams sneered evilly and dropped the innocent kid
flat on his face and stomach.
"This little zit?" he kicked the kid in the ribs,
forcing out a yelp of pain. "Coon tried to punch me. That's
why he's here."
"He didn't do shit, and you know it," John growled.
The black gangsters who knew the innocent youngster
only simmered in anger and stood silently as they saw this
racist Caucasian cop serve out injustice.
Williams kicked him again, and again. "What are you
gonna do about it, huh? Officer Lee?" Williams cackled.
"Come on, sir. Please, stop it," his partner said. He
was a rookie just like Ichino, placed under Williams'
command.
"Eh?" Williams turned to face his younger partner. "Who
gives a fuck? It's only a little fucking nigger."
John tried to practically leap at Williams in an
attempt to knock him out. Ranma had quickly grabbed a hold
of his arms.
"You fucking chicken-shit white trash motherfucker!!"
he screamed. "You call yourself a fucking cop! Let go of me
Ranma! I'll give you a piece of my fucking mind, Hitler!"
John yelled as he struggled with his arms reaching for
Williams.
While this had happened, none of the officer noticed
that the innocent kid's older brother had crawled himself up
to Williams' leg. He clenched his teeth and head butted his
shin as hard as he could.
"Oww! Fuck!" Williams kicked him away. He growled and
kicked him in the face. "Nigger, you just fucked with the
wrong bull!"
"Goddammit, you motherfucker!" John screamed in an
outburst.
Williams faced John and snorted. "Come on, you fucking
yellow gook!" Williams yelled back at him, rolling up his
sleeves and cracking his knuckles.
Ranma's eyes twitched, and he effortlessly pushed back
his friend behind him with his mighty strength, and slowly
walked towards Williams, glaring at him with a ferocity that
would melt a steel wall.
"You got a problem with Asians, asshole? Then take it
up with me, prick," Ranma growled at him. He grabbed a steel
parking lot handicap sign pole and squeezed it into putty.
Williams saw this, and almost choked, intimidated to
pitiful fear. "Hey, bitch, I-I-I don't want any trouble from
you," he squeaked out.
"You don't like Koreans? Hmm? Don't like Asians? Don't
like African-Americans, you Nazi wannabe prick?" Ranma
barked at him.
"......"
Ranma got right in front of his face and poked him in
the chest. "Don't ever mess with my buddy again, and don't
ever act like a white-supremacist wannabe coward, EVER. Or
else I'll fuck you up. You got that?"
Williams hastily nodded and turned away, taking off the
innocent kid's cuffs and walking away.
"Thanks, Ranma. I appreciate you backin' me up there,"
John said.
"It's no problem, man." Ranma frowned. "I can't believe
there are still guys like that on the force."
"He's an A-1 cocksucking prick. Don't even bother
associating with that stupid fuck. He's been like that as
long as I've known him. I've had it up to here with his
shit."
"I didn't even know there were people like that in the
department," Ichino said. "That was really cruel of him."
"Yeah, it is, Itchan." Ranma gave a pat to John's
shoulder. "We're going to head off too. I'll catch you
later."
"I'll give you a call," John said. He turned and walked
back to his own car, Ranma could tell by his heated ki
signature that he was still piping mad. "Maybe we'll cook at
home, or go out."
"Right. Later."
---------------
9:02 PM
With all the suspects booked at the station, and with
Ichino's wound treated, the duo was back on the streets,
cruising around. It was surprisingly quiet at this time of
night, especially in this area of the city. Things were
usually busy around the clock. Right now, Ichino had the
wheel, with Ranma sitting in the passenger seat.
So far, it had been a quiet ride. Neither of them had
exchanged many words.
Ichino tapped the steering wheel with her finger as she
waited for the traffic light to turn green on this one-way
street. She glanced over at Ranma, who seemed to be staring
at nothing in particular.
"I've never seen you that mad."
"Hmm?" Ranma lifted his head to look at Ichino. "What
was that?"
"I said I've never seen you that mad," Ichino said. "So
far I've seen you as nice and funny guy. Didn't think you
were that powerful either, squeezing that steel pole like
that," she said.
Ranma tried to cover a blush from her compliment by
turning his head at the door. "It's nothing, really. I'm not
one to get mad easily. John is just a good friend of mine.
We went to college together, he was very friendly to me when
we first met and I was bumbling with my English."
"I guess. I'm still feeling a bit antsy about shooting
that guy's hand earlier. Although this pain in the back of
my head is sort of watering it down."
"Heh," Ranma chuckled. "The day we first met, I had a
steel beam clock me in the head."
"What? No shit?" Ichino laughed at him.
"Yeah, I ain't lying," he replied, grinning. He looked
out on the street, which still had quite a few pedestrians
walking to and fro. "Man, it's quiet tonight."
"I guess there's still a lot I haven't experienced,
huh?" Ichino said, her eyes still on the road. "Just a
couple of weeks into duty, I've already been forced to shoot
someone, and then I also see something like that racist cop
tonight."
"Welcome to the City of Angels," Ranma replied. "When I
first came here, I thought this place was great. A bit
dirty, but a neat place to visit."
"Yeah, me too. I'm seeing a whole different side of
it."
The two didn't seem to have anything else to talk
about, creating an awkward silence inside the cab. Ranma
continued to stare out his window, perhaps looking for some
idiot who was purse snatching or selling fake id's. Ichino
kept on driving, humming softly to herself.
Ranma's stomach growled at that moment, loud enough to
be heard by Ichino.
"Hey. There's nothing to do right now. You want to sneak to
7-Eleven and get some hot dogs?" he asked, grinning.
Ichino snorted, turning to a different street. "Sure,
why not."
"Unit 12-Adam-14, CHP just gave a traffic assistance
call, your beat is the closest one by," the radio chirped.
"There goes my appetite," Ichino sighed as she flicked
on the sirens and emergency lights.
[End of Report, File No. 2]
Disclaimer: This is fanfiction, I don't own Ranma, nor do I
own Ichino Yanagida. Don't sue me. I don't own the LAPD
either, but I will one day, and I'll stow upon my own
anarchy everywhere! Bwahahha...
Author's Ramble: Jeez, it really took me long enough to come
out with this, didn't it? To all the people who have read my
fics, I humbly apologize for the unreasonably long delay. I
won't go into the excuse of saying real-life events delayed
me, so I'll just straight out say that I'm a lazy piece of
shit. There. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it.
On a serious note, what you've read just now contains
seriously offensive material concerning racism. Now, I'm
just saying right now that I did NOT purposefully put that
in to piss off anyone on purpose, it's just that I wanted to
portray some of the darker aspects of the police business.
That incident with officer John and Williams is based off of
a real incident. Where is it based off of, you ask?
Well, from me. John is a self-insertion character of
myself (no, my name is not John, and I don't work at that
division. Or perhaps it is, and maybe I do.), and Williams
is also (not his real name either) a portrayal of a real
officer that I had to face once in a gang arrest. Folks,
whether you like it or not, there ARE bad, racist cops out
there. I actually exploded in front of this jerk in real
life when he kept making derogatory remarks and kicked an
innocent black kid in handcuffs. Anyway, enough of that. I
hope that dark scene gave you a glimpse of some of the evil
that is out there, and that a lot of this is masked from the
general public. And in case you were wondering, yes, that
racist officer was punished in real life. I personally saw
to that.
Author's Notes: Hmm, let's see. Not too much to explain.
First off, a code 417 implies that there is a person with a
firearm. Also, "angel dust" is another name for PCP, which
is a powerful hallucinogenic, and one of it's side effects
is that it alters nerve signals, causing pain to not
register in the user's mind.
The shotgun that is carried in the police cruiser is
always kept unchambered whenever it is unused and locked in
place. The reason for this is because most police shotguns
(which are cheap Ithica or Winchester pump-actions) are made
with a free floating firing pin. If a loaded shotgun is
dropped on the butt stock or on the muzzle, it could
accidentally fire. For this reason, shotguns are always
inspected before the start of a patrol.
The M-16 that Jacobs carries in his patrol car is
really issued to single man patrol sergeants in real life.
The reason for this is because back in 1997 North Hollywood
Division police officers were engaged in a famous Bank of
America robbery with two armed robbers toting armor piercing
AK-47's and 100 round drum magazines. After the incident,
the US Army kindly donated over 600 surplus military issue
M-16's to the LAPD.
In case you were wondering about the circumstances of
the barricade with Jacobs, Ranma, and Ichino, yes, it could
really happen. Although the suspect getting his hand shot
off is a bit of a glorification from myself, it is a harsh
reality that LAPD officers (and most likely many other
officers in big, busy cities) often conduct their own
barricade raids. SWAT isn't a very large unit, and they are
deployed around the clock in situations which are really
grim (such as that bank shootout with the automatic AK-
47's). They are indeed a very quick deployment unit, but
SWAT can't possibly handle every hostage or barricade (or
both) situation there is (Although it is interesting that in
NYC the NYPD's ESU response team has over 500 working
operatives, which is tremendously larger than LAPD SWAT). It
is very common to see a few patrolmen units conducting their
own negotiations and raids.
Hmm... don't think there is anything more to explain.
But in case I forgot to mention something (which I probably
did), feel free to flame and gripe to me (or send
compliments and suggestions) to sgtranma@yahoo.com .
Visit my website at http://sgtranma.anifics.com . I
always update there often, and fics always come there first.
Finished August 18th, 2002.