A Ranma/Futaba-kun Change crossover fan fiction
Started - 1 February 2001 Completed – 1 April 2001
Last revised - 10 May 2004 Reason - typos
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all associated characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. Futaba is also used without permission. This fan-fiction isn't intended for commercial use but is rather a tribute to the 'Ranma-universe' and Futaba ideas.
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Golden Lining by Cloud Dreamer
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Chapter four - Just Friends
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The Ranma Fiancées Club and Nabiki were having an emergency meeting at Ucchan's, in Ukyou's bedroom. Ranma had been gone for almost a month and Nabiki's information network was pulling a blank, not even one sighting of Ranma in either form. Sure that he was planning revenge, after all that was what they would do in his shoes, they were planning defense strategy. They were a bit nervous, as they weren't sure what they could expect from Ranma. The Ranma they had known wouldn't hurt a girl on purpose if he could avoid it and would wimp out at the sight of tears. Who knew if that held true anymore?
"He knows how we really feel. So what do we do now?" asked Shampoo.
Ukyou shrugged, "the cat's out of the bag so we might as well abandon any pretense of wanting that jerk."
Akane carefully stretched the kinks out of her back before suggesting, "The longer Ranma's missing, the more likely your marriage plans are to not work. I think that we had better accelerate the marriage plans like as soon as possible."
"Fine by me." Ukyou looked over at Shampoo. "Looks like the two us are going to get our men anyway. When can you have Mousse 'prepped' for me?"
Shampoo thought about it for a few moments. "Stop by the Cat-Café about two tomorrow afternoon. When I see you across the street I'll pick a fight with him and finish it by knocking him toward you." She chuckled, "Then he's all yours, literally, I hope." She paused, "Kuno?"
Akane smirked, "The rest of us will talk about it after you leave tonight. You wouldn't want Cologne to be able to accuse you of planning to take a 'fall' would you?"
Shampoo merely grinned in response.
Nabiki was unusually somber during the meeting. Her sister finally commented on it. "Nabiki, you look like someone has stepped on your grave. You're not worried about that baka are you?"
"If it was just him, no," Nabiki replied after a carefully measured pause. "But someone has been snooping around my business deals relating not only to Ranma but everything else as well." She shivered, "I've been reviewing what they have been looking at and I'm a bit more vulnerable legally than I realized. It makes me really nervous since there is no way I can touch the investigators themselves. They are much too powerful for me," she smiled slightly, "at least for now." She continued after a moment, "There are actually two teams of investigators. The one that specializes in criminal law doesn't bother me nearly as much as the one that specializes in corporate and contractual law." She volunteered, "That's the one that scares me. If I'm not careful we could lose everything including the dojo."
"So what are you going to do?" one of them asked.
"Who hired them?" questioned another.
"Does it affect us?" wondered the third.
She wearily sighed. "I'm going to have to set up a holding account for all of Ranma's supposed profits." She grimaced, "I assumed I knew enough about the law that my dealings with Ranma were safe. It turns out that there are some special child labor law constraints concerning 'child stars' like I've been marketing Ranma. He's guaranteed a greater profit than I've been giving him. Oh, it'll get resolved. But to beat the investigators, I have to at least set it all up. Later I'll deal his father out of it. If the lazy oaf were here right now I wouldn't have to wait, but as it is, I have no choice but to actually put the money there. That really sucks since even after all the padded expenses it comes out to almost sixty percent of my net profits with him so far." She grimaced in distaste, "that's going to take a hefty bite out of all the Tendou scholarship funds and almost all of my other savings as well." She sighed, "at least it's only a temporary thing."
She looked the other three girls in the eyes, "other than Akane and I, it won't affect either Ukyou or Shampoo. As far as who's behind it, that was a real surprise; turns out to be the Hibiki family."
"WHAT!"
"Yeah, I was surprised too. It turns out that the Hibiki family founded one of the best security evaluation companies in the world. They are so good that nobody but nobody knows how they operate and they have contacts and contracts worldwide." A pencil snapped in her hand as she continued, "Since we aren't dealing with them directly, we can't even use Ryouga's potentially tainted rep against them. Not that it would make much difference in their particular business."
After a few moments silence, Shampoo asked, "How does Cantonese sweet and sour pork sound the next time pig-boy shows up?"
The answering grins were unanimous.
After Shampoo left, they finalized her 'betrothal' plans. Nabiki provided some appropriate refinements based on her personal knowledge of what buttons to push on Kuno. All of them were snickering in appreciation of their own deviousness as the meeting broke up.
- - - - Yoiko's apartment :
Yoiko sighed as she looked into the mirror. She really, really did not want to go on a date. She was totally soured on romance, maybe permanently. Even if she wasn't, there was no way in hell she'd voluntarily date a guy. 'Except for a friend,' she amended mentally, as she belatedly recalled that she actually had volunteered to do this. That meant she couldn't take it out on the guy.
Hearing a knock on the door, she opened it and hesitantly smiled at him. Futana took in the cute safari look, complete with camouflage pants, which Yoiko had chosen and looked downward at his own tux. 'Note to self,' he thought. 'Remember to coordinate clothing next time.'
He smiled his warm and practiced smile only to pause in consternation as she blithely ignored him and started out of the building.
He watched in awe as she consumed yet another ice cream sunday. He thought he'd be bored watching her eat, but the sparse conversation turned out to be sufficient to maintain his interest. He had to admit that he plain and simply enjoyed being with her.
He was tempted to press her, but, well . . . he'd been amazed when they encountered a half dozen toughs attempting to assault a girl in a back alley that the two of them had decided to take a shortcut through. The toughs had thought that maybe Yoiko wanted to 'play' too. Turned out she did, but a bit rougher than anybody anticipated. Her kicks had ruptured the genitals of three of them and all six had one or more broken bones before Futana had been able to pull her off. Even the girl that they had saved was frightened by Yoiko's ferocity.
Even more frightening had been Yoiko's muttered imprecations. 'I hate betrayals, I hate anyone picking on those that can't defend themselves – guys or girls!' still echoed in his mind. 'He wondered at the depth of what betrayal she must have suffered to have so much repressed anger. He wondered if he was going to get home without something broken tonight. Besides his wallet' he smirked to himself.
"So Yoiko, you're a martial artist?"
At her nod, he continued. "What dan ranking do you hold?"
She grinned, "Which school or style are you asking about?"
As he gaped at her, she continued, "I can qualify for dan ranking in almost twenty martial arts styles." Her smirk grew wider, "at master level in at least two of them," she added.
"Wow," Futana smiled appreciatively, "you almost sound like another Saotome Ranma."
"Ra . . . Ranma," whispered Yoiko. "Where did you hear about him?"
Futana shrugged, "Actually, I meant his twin sister; the one with the scarlet hair who has the same name as he does."
"How . . . who . . . I" sputtered Yoiko.
Futana smirked, "you mean you've never heard of them? Come on" he said as he took her hand and led her stumblingly into a nearby shop.
Yoiko looked at the display of action posters, figures and even photographs of both her forms. She noted the videocassettes touting various fights he'd had with Ryouga, Kuno or Mousse. Her face turned grim as she noted the stacks of 'confessions and conversations'. She noted there was quite a sequence; some of the topics were a bit personal too. She blushed as she recalled feeling flattered that Ukyou was so solicitous of her and had seemed so interested in how she'd felt on so many subjects. "Jackass, doesn't even begin to cover it," she muttered to herself.
Absorbed in looking over the posters, Futana hadn't noticed Yoiko's reactions. Over his shoulder he remarked, "Pretty interesting isn't it." He looked at her and said, "I feel sorry for them though." At her quizzical expression, he continued, "My mom and sister are idol stars. I know how tough that life can be."
"Futaba is an idol star?" asked Yoiko
"Yeah, not very famous like my mom though. She's really just in training for now." He snickered. "Sometimes it gets a bit hectic at school for her. But since she's four years younger than you, maybe you haven't noticed as the younger kids are mostly in a different wing after all."
"Well," he paused to reconsider. "Maybe being a martial artist idol lets the Saotome twins get their own life anyway." He grinned at her, "I've seen some of these videos for comparison. And after seeing you in action, I guess saying that you're pretty good at martial arts too would be an understatement?"
Yoiko's answering smile faltered and slowly disappeared, "Yeah, you could say that."
Futana was confused, "Did I say something wrong? If so, I'm sorry."
Yoiko looked up, pulled away from her introspection. "Nah, it wasn't anything you said. I just realized that martial arts is ALL I have; except for the trouble that it brings into my life. What little of a life I have, am allowed to have." She smiled sadly, "before I moved here, I could only claim one friend in my entire life. And we liked our fights best of all. We're friends, but not buddies." She grimaced, "doesn't say much for my social skills does it?"
Futana decided to chance it. He held out his hand, "I'd like to be your friend, if you'd let me." He saw her hesitate and added, "That includes my sister Futaba as well, she's really appreciative of the help you've given her in wrestling."
A merry smile graced her lips immediately; "I like your kid sister. I think it's neat to see her toss about those tubs of lard that call themselves the male wrestlers." She paused, "well, except for Futaba-kun. I think he's ok too." She grinned, "I'd really like to see the two Futaba's wrestle, they are almost identical in skill. Odd though, I've never seen them together. I wonder why?"
At home in bed that night, Futana slowly reviewed the evening. He'd managed to get Yoiko to agree to another date but only if Futaba-chan came too. He wondered, if maybe, 'Yoiko was interested in girls? Well, maybe that could work too,' thought Futana just before drifting off to sleep.
- - - - Cat-Cafe
Shampoo glanced up at the clock. 'It's time' she thought. She looked out the window and saw Ukyou across the street. She grinned to herself and checked the position of the other players. 'Yep, grandma was close by to serve as witness and Mousse was cleaning a table, perfect.' She thought.
She sauntered closer to the half blind Amazon and sure enough, "Shampoo, my love I . . ." At that point he made a grab for her and she knocked him backwards out the front door that she had carefully left half open.
Pulling out both bonbori, she proceeded to work him over. She needed to weaken him for Ukyou but not so that he couldn't accept a challenge. She didn't notice her tongue slightly edge out the side of her mouth as she unemotionally concentrated on her task.
"And don't bother Shampoo anymore." Shampoo yelled to let Ukyou know he was now ready for her tender attentions.
Ukyou hitched up her pants, checked her spatulas and waited until Cologne was close by. "Mu Tsu," She yelled to the awaking Amazon male. Sure that her correct use of his name had caught his and the elder's attention, she continued as Shampoo had coached her, "My name is Kuonji Ukyou, I am an unmarried outsider woman and I challenge you for your hand in marriage."
Mousse groggily stood up, when he said 'what', she charged. That was all the answer she needed. For the most part she deflected each weapon he threw and then used the edge of her spatula to sever the chain attached to it so that Mousse couldn't recover it. As she did so she worked her way closer and closer to him.
Nearly running out of weapons and hesitant to flee from an approaching potential wife, Mousse resorted to his final attack. Well, he tried to. He was still a bit groggy when he attempted to jump to the top of the telephone pole. Instead of landing on it, he hit it face first near the top, toppled backwards and landed just in front of Ukyou. Ukyou wasted no time in ramming the butt of her battle spatula onto the back of his head. He was out.
Ukyou started doing a victory dance, "I won, I won . . . I'm going to get married to him!"
She saw Akane give her a victory sign and saw that Shampoo was barely repressing a smirk. Akane then gave her another sign and she nodded to indicate that she understood and started to play her part. "Ah, well. He wasn't so tough. I mean he was only another Amazon."
Akane's clear laugh sounded, "Yeah, I know what you mean. Did I ever tell you just how dumb Ranma's defeat of that bimbo was when he was in his guy form?"
"What you saying? Shampoo no take bad talk. Hurt kitchen-destroyer and spatula girl if not apologize" Shampoo snarled, feeling betrayed.
Akane waved her off, "Nah, don't make me laugh. I was there when you attacked me and Ranma knocked the head off your bonbori. I can't believe that you considered it a glorious defeat when your own bonbori head fell on you and knocked you out."
"Ha, ha, so that was the defeat she always claimed as justification for getting married to Ranma." She smirked at the fuming Amazon maid, "that's almost as dumb as falling over your own feet and knocking yourself out. Oh, well, SHE is an Amazon. So maybe her desperation makes sense."
Screaming in outrage, Shampoo attacked Ukyou only to have Akane blindside her. Turing her attention to Akane proved to be a mistake she realized, as Ukyou's battle spatula flattened her into the wall.
As she peeled herself off the wall and faced her former friends, she saw her great grandmother shaking her head in disappointment at her lack of concentration. Focusing her rising anger to the task at hand, she proceeded to pound the two girls into the pavement, but not without cost. She may have given each twice what they gave her, but there were two of them. In the end, they collapsed but she was only barely standing. Snarling, she started to curse them both for traitors when she saw Akane wink at her even as Ukyou gave her a weak 'thumbs-up'.
Kuno could not believe his eyes. Nabiki had told him the truth. His glorious Akane, defeated at the hand of a foreign wench. A wench who somehow also held the pig-tailed girl captive, for low, she was missing these past weeks and had not this same low born maid vowed to remove those scarlet locks at the neck. He must challenge her to defend his loves. "Halt, foreign wench, justice is at hand. I, the glorious heir of clan Kuno do challenge you on behalf of the pig-tailed girl."
Understanding came immediately to Shampoo and it was all she could do to not smirk. "You will no defeat me to take Ranma's place," she yelled. She gave him no more time to talk, but immediately attacked.
Konatsu looked at his employer sprawled on the sidewalk and turned angry eyes at the Amazon. For the sake of restoring her pride, he would do as Nabiki had suggested. Using all of his ninja skills he slipped unseen behind the Amazon maid and with incredible speed, placed a small watermelon atop her head. Of course, it was held in place with fashionable hairpins.
Kuno paused at the sight before him.
Shampoo hesitated as his eyes suddenly glazed over.
Kuno's conditioned reflexes suddenly took over and the watermelon on Shampoo's head vanished as it was almost instantaneously diced and sliced. A side effect was Shampoo being knocked unconscious.
Akane and Ukyou hi-fived, then hesitated as they noticed Cologne next to them with a very grim expression. "You all planned this disaster didn't you?" She snarled.
Akane quailed, but carefully answered, "yes, but we had Shampoo's permission as long as her honor was not lost."
Ukyou added, "The defeat by Kuno was an honest battle, both fought their best."
Cologne was about to say more when she heard Shampoo whisper. "Arien, I love you."
Cologne sighed, "well, I guess what's done is done."
Shampoo's kiss broke Kuno out of his trance. He attempted to scream as he felt her tongue; he quivered as he felt her hands grope him. And he finally fainted when he felt her breasts pushing against his chest. When he woke, he was chained to the bed. The chain was released only after he had signed the marriage certificate. Shampoo didn't release him until almost four days later.
By then it was too late. The love potion had already taken effect. Of course, he now talked about having all THREE of his loves. Shampoo sighed, 'oh well, I guess he's entitled to a few fantasies' she rationalized.
A love potion also enslaved Mousse, but strangely enough, he seemed to completely forget about his obsession for Shampoo. Maybe it was the flattery that Ukyou actually wanted him, but his devotion seemed too intense to be due solely to the potion.
- - - - Yoiko's apartment
Yoiko signed as she looked in the mirror. Today was just ssooo busy. She'd spent the morning talking strategy with the Hibiki attorney. And now there was this . . . this damned date again she fumed.
And tomorrow she had a few chores to do for the Hibiki Company to earn her pay. She grinned, her father's 'quiet thief' techniques were really effective in enabling her to penetrate to the secure heart of every company that she had been asked to target this past month. One day a week, two targets each time and yeah, lots of yen just to leave a couple of her business cards in plain sight. She snickered; her favorite place was taped to the monitor screen of the PC used by the chief of security.
She heard Futana knock; she supposed it was him anyway. She turned to check herself in the mirror. He'd asked her to wear a dress last time, she'd told him to stuff it.
She then proceeded to run her mouth off and get herself into trouble. The memory wasn't pretty in retrospect.
- - - - a week ago
"Look, I don't wear dresses, so get off my case." She snarled
"Hum, legs probably too skinny" he finally guessed.
She turned, grabbed his shirt and lifted him up, "What'd ja say" She hissed.
He smiled placating at her. "Hey, it's not a problem. Some girls just don't have the figure for it. It's not their fault," he said as he pointed to a rather over weight woman who was stuffed into pants at least one size too small.
Yoiko's face blanched to be even vaguely compared to the woman, especially when Futana added, "you know, watching her walk away reminds me of seeing two hogs fighting in a sack that they've been stuffed in."
She reached up and pulled his face down to her level, "I look GOOD in a dress, you pervert."
His nose only an inch from hers, he hissed, "Prove it."
"Buy it," she challenged.
"Wear it" he dared.
About to hiss a response, her brain caught up with her mouth momentarily, 'what the hell am I getting into. I gotta stop this. I . . . I know!' She grinned, "Only if you buy both me and Futaba matching outfits, COMPLETE outfits," she emphasized.
Futana looked at his sister who was accompanying them on this second date at Yoiko's insistence. Yoiko thought she had won. At least until Futana sighed and pulled the two girls into a fashionable women's clothing shop.
She sighed, the next three hours had been hell, and Futana had known so much more than she did about women's clothing too. He had purchased several items that Yoiko had not yet figured out how to wear even.
She chuckled mirthlessly. At least Futaba had gotten a good deal out of it.
She was brought back to reality as someone knocked on the door again. She sighed as she looked into the mirror again. He had dared to buy it, so she was stuck with wearing it tonight. She grinned. She had been right though, she looked GOOD.
"Hey Futana," she sighed. She looked at him as he held his arm out. She was getting tired of this charade but she had promised her friend Futana-chan not to hurt this jerk.
She took his arm and consoled herself. 'Ok, she'd dance with him, but that dinner had better be pretty damn good or she was going to break something, probably him.'
Hours later, Futana had already concluded that he'd had a wonderful evening, an evening that he didn't want to ever end. But Yoiko had insisted on a short date claiming some important work she needed to do for her guardians tomorrow.
Yoiko stopped at the door and turned to say goodbye. Just as Futana was going to chance a kiss, the phone rang. Yoiko hesitated, and then walked over to pick up the receiver on the table at the far wall.
Futana took the opportunity to 'innocently' walk into Yoiko's apartment after her.
As Yoiko took the call he noted that her voice had become strained even as her face lost all color. He heard her whisper 'no, no he can't die. We'll find blood. We gotta doc.' then she was rushing for the door.
- - - - Juuban district
Ukyou was in a killing frenzy. Genma was frenziedly dodging. Genma wasn't a complete hypocrite, just mostly. Unfortunately for his present situation, not hitting girls just happened to be one of the few things he practiced as well as taught. Ukyou had managed to corner Genma in an alley in Juuban away from his home. Alone she thought.
She feinted an over head smash, loosed several shirken to distract him while she reversed her battle spatula into a sweeping uppercut that she first swept behind her to gain momentum before bringing it upward between Genma's legs with the obvious intention of both emasculating and killing him with the same blow.
But Genma was a superior martial artist and managed to avoid most of the blow. Most of it unfortunately meant that the edge sliced his left inner leg and severed the femoral artery. Genma immediately collapsed and grasped his leg attempting to stem the spurting blood by applying pressure with both hands.
This was medically correct, but tactically unsound as it left him unprotected against a killing blow.
Ukyou snickered as she saw her hated foe huddled on the ground before her. She readied her spatula for a decapitating blow when she suddenly felt a blade at her throat.
"You have defeated him. He isn't much, but he's helpless. Leave," stated Nodoka's cool voice.
Parrying the blade and assuming a defensive stance, Ukyou prepared to attack the other woman. "No, he's a Saotome. The only thing a Saotome is good for is for killing." She snarled.
Nodoka placed herself on guard between Ukyou and her husband. "I am a Saotome. And unlike Genma and Ranma, I will fight females."
"Oh, yeah, a dowdy housewife with a family heirloom that she keeps polished for show. Real impressive" she taunted. "But you are a Saotome" she hissed. "I would love to see 'Ran-chan's' face when he learns that both of his folks are dead." Her mirthless grin promised death.
"You can try. I doubt you'll succeed. Even if you do, you'll spend your remaining life in prison." She remarked in a 'mater' of fact voice.
"Not likely," smirked Ukyou. "My claim against the Saotome clan will cover this pretty well, or so my attorney told me. I'm willing to take my chances."
With that, she suddenly thrust forward with her battle spatula even as she tossed two shirken spatulas at Nodoka aimed so that when she dodged them, they would kill Genma. She paused when Nodoka sliced the shirken out of the air with a slash almost unseen.
Ukyou felt something sting her face. She backed up and rubbed the back of her hand over her cheek where she fell something trickle downward. Surprised she looked at the fresh blood there. Respectfully she re-examined the older woman in front of her. This time she noted the experienced pose and more telling, the numerous notches on the katana blade. "Dan ranked kendoist?"
Nodoka nodded, "fourth dan, regional women's champion."
Ukyou slowly backed away as Nodoka began a smooth advance toward her. The older woman's face was a frozen mask, her movement a deadly dance.
Ukyou suddenly tossed a flour bomb and fled, no longer sure of victory.
After quickly verifying that Ukyou was gone, Nodoka hurried to her husband, momentarily worried to see someone bending over him.
Her worry ebbed in a flood of relief as she recognized Dr. Tofu. Her relief was short lived as she noted the large pool of blood under her unconscious spouse.
Tofu hurriedly commanded two passerbys to fetch a stretcher from his office next door and carry the older martial artist into his clinic.
After quickly fashioning a tourniquet on Genma's upper leg, Tofu ran and fetched a bag of chilled whole blood that he quickly began warming. Once that was started he attached an IV to Genma and started a saline solution. It wasn't blood but it would help keep the blood pressure up.
"Thank kami Ranma stopped by here last month." Sighed Tofu, "or Genma wouldn't have had a chance." At Nodoka's surprised expression, he explained. "Ranma and Genma both have a very rare blood type. I convinced Ranma to keep a supply of his own blood available should he ever need it. Fortunately, Ranma was here about five weeks ago and gave a couple of pints since he thought he might be staying in this area from now on."
He massaged he head tiredly. "Even if I can contact Ranma and get him to give blood immediately, it won't be enough unless we can find some more somewhere else."
Tofu sighed, and after starting the blood flow, he turned to his office, he had some phone calls to make. Both to Ranma and the blood banks, he had little hope of either being successful by itself. Time was of the essence as Genma had little time or blood left.
- - - - Yoiko's apartment
Futana was worried as he watched Yoiko talk on the phone. He overheard only a couple of words, 'dying' and 'blood', both of which informed him that the matter was serious.
Yoiko hurriedly grabbed a small backpack and started to leave, but Futana blocked her way. Before Yoiko could protest Futana asked, "anything I can do to help?"
A scared expression on her face, Yoiko shook her head, "no, not unless you know a couple of people with this blood type." She gestured to the pad next to the phone where she'd scrawled her blood type out in anxiety as she was listening to Dr. Tofu.
"What?" exclaimed Futana, "You have MY blood type?"
Already half way out the door, Yoiko was suddenly rooted in place. "Your blood type," she whispered disbelievingly?
Futana nodded only to have Yoiko suddenly in her face. "Ya gotta come and give blood or my pop is gonna die, please."
"Pop? I thought you were an orphan?" questioned Futana.
"I . . . I disowned him because he sold me out too many times. But . . . but I still care for him and I don't want to hurt my mom even if she don't care about me. I . . . I, please, I'll do . . . I'll do anything you want if you can save my pop" pleaded Yoiko.
Futana was startled. Victory was this easy? He looked at the miserable eyes before him and made the hardest decision in his life. "You've already done all I wanted. I want to be a friend, just friends, OK?"
Yoiko's smile was wonderful, but as she started pulling him to the door, Futana asked, "How much blood does your father need?" Seeing Yoiko's confusion, Futana clarified, "my, ah, sister Futuba has the same blood type as well. I'm sure she'd be willing to do this if I asked her. She likes you too."
The hope shining on Yoiko's face was almost unsettling in its intensity. She hurriedly scribbled Tofu's address on a piece of paper. "Meet me here as soon as possible. I've got to go NOW." And with that she was gone, a blur over the rooftops, her dress flaring at times.
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Author's note: Additional Ranma fan-fiction can be found on my Web Pages.
C & C to cloud (underscore) dreamer2000 (at) yahoo.com
Web-page - www.geocities.com (slash) cloud (underscore) dreamer2000
And - mysite.verizon.net (slash) cloud-dreamer/index.html
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