Chapter 2
"Tendo-sama report 330K1 is ready for your perusal" Midori informed the exec. Nabiki was sat in her office, busy informing one of her agents that his life was coming to an end.
"Thank you Midori" Nabiki replied over the office com before turning back to the pale young man in front of her. "Now Soruba-san lets talk about yopur latest report for a moment."
"My r-r-report?" he stuttered, opening his hands to catch the porfolio his boss threw at him. This was the first time he had ever met the infamous 'Ice Queen' of Arasaka Osaka and it was all he could do to keep his sphincter shut. Mere hours ago he had been on assignment watching one of the local go gangs, and assessing them for suitability in one of Arasaka's 'street level ordinance tests.' It was the best job he had ever had, the company looked after everything he needed and more. On the street he walked like a god among sinners, safe and secure that the company had his back. To the gangs he worked with he was THE source of cutting edge gear. What ever he said went, he was king and prophet all rolled into one. But now he wasn't on the street, he was in the Osaka Tower and he was so scared that he couldn't even hold his papers still.
While the young man was rereading his last report looking for where he had slipped up Nabiki turned to her computer and pulled up the report. The words hit her like a bucket full of ice water. There in black and white were the details of her conversation with a dead man.
o
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Report 330-K-1
Project code TN-330-1
Secrecy level Beta One
Contents:
Voice analysis
-accent
-hypothesised link
-psychological breakdown.
Voice stress analysis
Ambient Noise analysis
-weapons used
-room size
-physical contacts
Special requests
Page 1 of 10
o
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Nabiki flicked her eyes to the distressed soon-to-be-former agent and back to her screen. The report was stunning, not in its depth, Nabiki was already accustomed to the sheer volume of information that the tech department could produce from such little information, but in what it revealed. Saotome Ranma had indeed been in a firefight, and had been managing it in style. As Nabiki looked through the pages her smile grew and grew. The final lines of the report were a brief summation of the people revealed on the recording. In all her years she had never seen as glowing a report.
Soruba saw the smile and breathed a sigh of relief, perhaps this wasn't going to be as bad as he had feared. Perhaps she hadn't found out about the slush fund, perhaps…
"Don't even dream that smile is for you Soruba-san" Nabiki said without turning. "So do you have anything you would like to add?" she questioned, finally turning back to him. The look she offered seemed more amused than interrogatory so Soruba made the second mistake of the interview, he tried to joke.
"A few zeros to my salary?" he hazarded, counting on his charm to carry him through, after all Tendo-sama was a chick. His answere was a look that chilled him to the bone. Without apparently moving Tendo-sama's attitude suddenly changed, the smile was gone and the eyes seemed to burn. Silence stretched. Soruba started sweating again.
"I think you have failed to grasp the nature of this meeting Soruba-san" Nabiki said in a voice that spoke of Arctic winds. "We" she began, slowly standing and turning her back on the agent and looking out over the city, "do not look kindly on failure."
"Tendo-sama" Soruba began, only to be interrupted by an upraised hand.
"It is far too late for that Soruba-san" Nabiki said without turning around. "Maybe if you had stolen just a little less, maybe if you had been a little better at your job, maybe if you had kept your mouth shut just a little better…. But no you didnb't"
"Tendo-sama" Soruba started again. This time Nabiki interrupted by whirling around, suddenly the agent found himself facing the very angry looking Banshee.
"NO Soruba-san!" She exclaimed, "There is nothing you can say that I want to hear. You have broken every rule we laid down, have betrayed the Company's trust time and time again. You may think you were subtle, You were not. You may think that you had secrets, we know them all. You may think that you are smart, you are nothing.
"Soruba-san all that remains now is how to break you. What manner of punishment we can deliver to make sure your successor does not make the same mistakes!"
"Tendo-sama, please" Soruba begged, all traces of pride gone. "I'll do anything just don't.."
"Anything?" Nabiki whispered, the word came like a beam of light into his suddenly dark world, he clung to it like a drowning man clutches a raft.
"Yes Tendo-dono anything!" he enthused.
"Good" Nabiki said, sitting back down "There is one service you may yet offer your company….."
0
o
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A week later Nabiki was sat in one of her favourite restaurants reading a paper due out the following morning. On the front cover was a story:
"Araska
wins the right to police their own suburbs.
Following the death of one of their
upcoming agents and his family at the hands of a gang…."
Her smile was small but sincere, it also chilled the waitress pouring her coffee so badly that she shivered all the way back to the kitchen. Nabiki continued reading her paper, uncaring.
"Tea Ma'am?" another waitress asked. Nabiki looked up in irritation, and then pointedly back down again, at her full coffee cup. "It's a Special Blend" the waitress explained before pouring Nabiki a cupful into the separate chinaware. Nabiki was once more caught off guard. She quickly scanned the room, looking for Ranma, nothing. It was only then she turned to have a better look at the girl, only to see instead her retreating back.
Nabiki stood and followed. The girl glanced backwards only once, confirming Nabiki's presence. It was also enough to confirm that the girl was not Ranma, disguised or not. She was simply too tall.
The girl led Nabiki straight through the kitchen and out of the back door. No sooner had the doors closed than Nabiki realised she was alone, the girl had disappeared. She turned and moved to leave, only to be interrupted by a voice she hadn't heard in the flesh for years.
"Leaving so soon Biki-chan?"
"Ranma?" she said, whirling back around. And indeed there he stood, where beforehand there had been only empty street there now stood the figure of a man whose funeral she had attended.
"Hiya beautiful" he said, opening his arms. He was stood there looking healthier than ever. His dark hair was, as usual, in a long pigtail, only differing in that now it reached to his waist. He was wearing a loose white shirt and some black combat pants. Over this he wore a stylish black coat, done in the latest 'Edgrerunner' style and unmistakably armoured. As Nabiki ran to him, unaware that she was even doing so part of her mind noted the twined handguns in undershoulder holsters
"Ranma" she breathed, suddenly wrapped once more in his powerful arms, pressed against his toned chest. She inhaled his unique scent, filling her lungs with him.
Ranma for his part squeezed the woman to him, suddenly taken back though time and space to the last days in Nerima.
"How, who, why?" she murmured, tears falling unnoticed down her face.
"Hey beautiful" he interrupted, lifting her chin and wiping away a tear. He was going to say more but suddenly he found himself trapped by her eyes, his blue locked into her brown. Their lips met and the world fell away. For a few brief moments the entirety of creation was narrowed to two bodies pressed together.
O
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Tendo Nabiki awoke slowly, a smile on her face. Suddenly the insistent tone of her phone cut through the morning haze. She sat up and picked up the phone, mumbling her answers as her mind slowly caught up with her body. Even as she re-organised her day for the late start she looked around.
She was lying naked in her disordered silken bed, his smell still everywhere. Her expensive pantsuit carelessly thrown across the floor, her shoes scattered on the priceless rug, her underwear similarly discarded, but not hanging from the lightshade as she had half expected.
There on the breakfast bar was a single red rose and a note, but no Ranma, once more he was gone with the dawn,