CHAPTER ONE
Std part 10
(From last chapter - Updated)
'After all that time I spent getting him to answer one stinking question, I leave Mr. "I only ask for an honest chance to grow into the role of your boyfriend" alone for an hour and here he comes with flirty, giggling women hanging off him," Raven fumed.
She had never cared for the romances where one person saw the other in some situation and broke off their relationship only to find out hundreds of pages later that it was a mistake. That is, the person jumped to the wrong conclusion. She clenched her fists and decided if someone was making a mistake about anything tonight it would not be her.
The dark fury stopped as if she was a guard dog that reached the end of its chain. What the hell happened to his eye?' She never, ever remembered him getting a black eye in a fight with a henchman or on a mission. There was this one time he caught an elbow in the face from Jessica while spotting for the squad but getting hurt unintentionally by a teammate didn't count.
"Holy crap, boyfriend, who did you run into?"
"Oh, uh, I fell earlier, and the doctor was afraid I'd fall again, so these two assistants are just making sure I get back OK. There really isn't anything going on between me and these..."
"Your eye, Ronnie, what happened to your eye? You've got one hell of a shiner." Stepping close to her boyfriend, she raised her hand to his eye but was afraid that it would hurt if she touched it.
"I do? It must be from when I hit my head when I fell. Can we talk about the details later, please? I want to get cleaned up and ready for dinner."
"You fell, and didn't cover up?" She asked him. "You've taken hundreds of tumbles, from cliffs, off of buildings, even from moving vehicles and aircraft. You've never gotten a black eye before!" Her green eyes narrowed, telling the blond that this conversation wasn't over.
It was true that Katsumi was young, but she was smart about people, pretty good with a computer and fast on her feet. When Master Sensei retained her after she delivered her first information package from the research group that she was a mere 'runner' for, it wasn't because she was adorable as a box of kittens, which she was, it was because he saw a young Ninja that could become a great Ninja. True, she wouldn't fit in some of the more physically lethal teams like Team Twelve and Team Panther. Maybe a more balanced team like Team Cobra. Or maybe he should start a new team, he could call it Team Indigo in honor of 'Steve' their new Snake-san. Like that snake, this new team could appear docile and mostly harmless. And eat poisonous vipers for dinner.
Right now, Katsumi had seen the misunderstanding, common to anyone who reads anime romance, and decided to defuse the situation to get things moving. She had a dinner appointment with her Master Sensei and these baka were not going to make her late. Stepping in front of Raven she quickly introduced the two women holding onto Ron.
Kiyomizu-san, we can take Stoppable-san from here," she announced. "We will see that he reaches Master Sensei's dinner on time."
"Of course, we really should get back to the clinic. Thank you for your help."
The two women released their charge and with a short bow, started back to the clinic.
Raven pointed at the little winged cartoon horses on the band-aid on the side of his face, "I'm guessing only the most valiant of warriors get a cute band-aid like this." She took one arm and Katsumi took the other and they continued to the dormitory.
"Are you kidding? Raven, I took on the entire mountain, I was walking all over it when it snuck up and hit me on the head..." the blonde bragged, comforted by the tight grip his girlfriend had on his upper arm.
"Who were you sparring with? Hirotaka?" his girlfriend said lightly, but Ron wasn't fooled, he had the image of Raven demonstrating advanced Mantis Style Kung Fu forcefully on someone's butt pop into his head. 'That's odd, Mantis Style isn't one of her go-to styles for butt-kicking,' he thought, but replied, "No, I swear, I just fell over. I was about to get a couple of staffs for a little drill, but we weren't doing anything. Why Mantis Style?"
Raven would have stumbled herself had she not been holding tightly to Ron, "Why what? How did you know I was thinking of Mantis Style Kung Fu?"
"Don't know, just had a picture of you and Hirotaka sparring in street clothes pop into my head."
"Street clothes?"
"Yeah, you were wearing that white crop top tee with the pink heart on the front with the purplish pants, the ones where the top and cuffs are a lighter color, almost pink. Hirotaka was wearing a motorcycle jacket and gloves..."
Raven's eyes grew wide. His description of her encounter with Hirotaka in Middleton was dead on. She didn't remember telling him about their little impromptu sparring session and for sure she wouldn't have described their clothes.
STD 2018-
Ron's helpers had eased up a bit by the time they got to the dormitory. Stopping by his room, he grabbed a towel and shower kit from his wardrobe, then went to the bathroom. The bathroom was laid out with sinks and mirrors along one wall with toilets in stalls with doors on the wall opposite. The showers were all individually enclosed with a small changing area separated from the tiled shower with a shower curtain. Stepping into a shower unit, he turned to close the door when he noticed that he was being followed.
"Uh, excuse me, but I can do this by myself," he saw that Katsumi had taken off her tee shirt, handing it to a stunned Raven who was already holding her Ninja uniform jacket and belt, and was now sliding out of her pants.
"Katsumi, just what in the heck are you doing?" Raven conceptually understood the concept of 'mixed' bathing, but not here, not with her Ron and especially not with the nubile Katsumi. (The Goth wasn't sure of the exact definition of the word 'nubile' but was confident that the word fit just fine in this case.)
"I'm making sure that Stoppable-san does not fall in the shower. Normally, you'd have the honor of doing that, but you don't want to get your Yukata wet and if you take it off, it will require at least fifteen minutes for me to get it adjusted properly for you." The young Ninja added her pants to the small pile that Raven was holding.
"Ron! Close the door and take a shower! Katsumi, pretend that this is America. In America, young girls do not help boys with taking a shower!" the definitely green-eyed woman growled, "Especially not my boyfriend!"
"But Onee-san, I helped you! I even scrubbed your back..."
Raven might as well have been glaring at the side of the mountain for all the reaction she was getting from the nearly naked nubile Ninja who was standing there absolutely dripping with reasonableness.
After a short stand-off, they heard the water shut off and a thud from inside the shower. Before Raven could move, the Ninja was inside the shower and could be seen through the open door helping a wet, naked blond.
"I'm OK! Really!" he protested, "I didn't really fall, I just knocked my shower kit off the little stool."
"Come on, Ron, I'll go back to your room with you while you get dressed. Miss Helpful here can get dressed somewhere else and we'll meet in the hall."
Wrapped in a towel, he carefully walked toward the door while Raven handed the smug girl back her clothes.
"Not to worry Onee-san," the observant young Ninja whispered to the Goth, "I've heard that ones of that size and shape expand to a much more useful and pleasing size when you want to use it."
STD 2018-
Dinner was a simple affair. Breakfast might be a sweet or curry roll, maybe an onigiri rice ball grabbed before the Dragon Course, lunch might be sushi or sashimi snatched from tray of the Master Lunch Lady along with a steamed pork bun or a yakitori skewer of barbecued meats with onion, but dinner was where the students got substantial food and time to enjoy it and discuss the day with friends and classmates. Tonight's menu was grilled tuna, Miso soup, chicken and potato curry over noodles, a cucumber salad and brown rice.
Raven thought that dinner was pleasantly relaxed with Master Sensei being a considerate and entertaining host. She didn't have a lot of expectations, the table was low enough that everyone sat on cushions and each dish had its own plate, but she didn't notice any special ceremony. Ron looked a little confused and Katsumi seemed to be out of her comfort zone. Hirotaka was how she remembered him in Middleton, cool and going with the flow.
"Katsumi-kun, you seem to be a little distressed, is something the matter?" their host asked.
"No, Sensei, everything is wonderful," the young Ninja remembered that the senior instructors taught their students to tell the full truth, so she continued, "It's just that I was expecting a more formal dinner. Not that this is bad, it's that I don't want to mess up by doing something wrong."
"Ah, I see. Consider this part of your training in preparation for your trip to America. I believe that dining is much more informal there."
Looking at the Americans, he smiled and continued, "This dinner is to formally welcome Raven Mara née Kim Possible and Ronald Stoppable to Yamanouchi and to make them an offer of a scholarship. Perhaps they may wonder why we spirited them away from their home and family?"
"I assumed that it had something to do with the fact that people were hunting for Kim?" suggested Ron, "since I and my family are moving here anyway, what's one more person to bring along?"
"The Mystical Monkey Power is a thread that ties several people together. Ronald, you are bound to Hana with ties stronger than blood. Yori has reported that Hana seems convinced that Kimberly or Raven is important to you in ways other than as an object of affection. I believe that it is in Yamanouchi's best interest to guide and nurture the Chosen One and his connections as much as we do to the other children in our family. We are sending Katsumi-kun to America to assist another connection and prevent him from being isolated. That connection is, of course, Wade Load."
"I formally invite you and Raven to finish High School here and start undergraduate school. We are an extension campus for select students of the University of California at Berkley. Your undergraduate degree would come from there."
"Master Sensei, what would be the price that I would have to repay? I mean in the great scheme of things, I don't think that just being Ron's girlfriend is very much."
Their host silenced Ron's outburst with a glance and replied, "Being Raven Mara or Kim Possible is more significant than you give yourself credit for. You have been a hero in the past, I expect that you will be the same in the future."
"But I don't think I can kill again. I'm not sure I can even fight again if I might have to kill someone."
"Many Ninja spend their entire life without killing another person. A great warrior hero once said "We have a saying, my people. "Don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand at all until you've first extended it." Child, you have a great heart and I am confident that your heart is the heart of a hero," Again, the Ninja Master held Ron silent with a look.
"I have not heard that before. Was it the warrior Toshimiru?" asked Katsumi.
"It was Wonder Woman in the issues written by Gail Simon," the headmaster said, "The point is that wisdom can come from many sources. Raven, you are not a Ninja, perhaps a bit of the wisdom of an imaginary tribe of Amazon warriors could be appropriate in building your personal ethos. Katsumi, you are a Ninja sworn to serve and protect your people, yet perhaps knowledge of a different system of ethics would be in order."
"We need not decide anything tonight. Tomorrow you will have an opportunity to examine our curriculum and take some placement tests. We shall plan to meet the day after tomorrow and talk about your options. Raven, your mother should be here by then and she will surely have advice. Acceptable?"
Raven nodded thinking that now was not the time to mention dreams of Ron dying trying to protect Japan. Perhaps the price to stay here and either fight or die at his side would be something she could afford.
Smiling and becoming the pleasant host instead of the school administrator, Master Sensei continued,
"Now, is everyone ready for dessert? Yori says that Hana is very fond of an ice cream called Rocky Road. Tonight, we will honor Hana-chan with ice cream. Katsumi-kun, if you and Hiro-kun would go and fetch it from the kitchen, please."
"Master Sensei," Ron finally felt free to talk, "Wonder Woman? Really?"
"Of course, Stoppable-kun, we are not isolated barbarians who only have Manga, we also have access to American comics," the headmaster laughed.
The dinner finished with Katsumi and Hirotaka talking about all the odd flavors of ice cream found in Japan, such as Squid Ink, Curry, and Shrimp.
STD 2018-
The American teens walked to their rooms, in late spring, the nights in the mountain grew cool. Ron walked with his arm around Raven supposedly for warmth, but she was watching for another fall. Dressed in her yukata, she felt like a Ninja princess as the couple walked by the central courtyard. 'The black ankle boots probably wouldn't work for anyone except a Goth Ninja Princess,' she laughed to herself
Sensei Tōgai wanted to see them first thing in the morning, he didn't say why, but they figured to look at Ron's brain some more. Or it could just be a school checkup of some sort.
Stopping at Raven's door, they hugged goodnight and then she put her hand on his cheek to pull him close for a kiss. Once again, she had the vision of Eric's face when she closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his. She had steeled herself not to flinch and lost herself in the warmth of his lips.
After the kiss, a very nice kiss as she judged them, he pulled back and looked into her eyes. He saw warmth and affection. Looking back into his eyes, she saw failure and hurt.
"Ronnie... I..." tears made her eyes glisten.
"Goodnight Raven," the blond let her go and went into his room, closing the door behind him.
STD 2018-
Kamiko Kiyomizu, licensed Physician's Assistant, main assistant to Sensei Tōgai Noishi, and one of the main healers of injuries on young Ninja, gently placed the I.V. into the young Goth's left arm.
'This girl's supposed to be a Goth? Don't make me laugh! A Goth is supposed to welcome piercings, yet she flinches at a medical needle. Not to mention that the girl selected a mix of Lindsey Stirling, Halestorm, and Miracle of Sound to listen to while the machine is running. That's not what anyone would call Goth Rock...'
Her patient was laying on a platform with headphones that worked by transmitting sound through plastic tubing allowing it to be made without metal. That was important because she was about to have her head inserted into a hole just big enough to fit it. This MRI was reported to have the smallest bore of any MRI still working in the world. The small-bore was important because it could give incredible resolution. The detail of pictures it would produce would be the difference between a laser printer and crayons.
Raven felt the assistant tuck a light blanket all around her. Because of all the electronic equipment the room was kept cold. Especially if all you had on was a cotton tee and sweatpants. 'It's my own fault,' she thought to herself, 'I had to go and mention that Ron seems to guess images I am thinking of in an office where the doctor is hot to look for any mystical phenomenon.'
Kamiko had been doing a general checkup of the Goth girl and had commented that 'someone looks like she didn't sleep well'.
The next thing that Raven knew, she was telling the "older sister" assistant all about her problems with flashbacks of 'another guy' when kissing Ron and how that upset him. That he somehow was seeing her flashbacks. Her boyfriend hadn't spoken more than a dozen words to her this morning and both teens looked worse for the wear.
"Ready Mara-san?", the assistant looked into the pale face seeing tired eyes and an expectation of boredom.
Unable to move her head, the patient's right hand came up and flashed the OK sign; the ring made using three fingers gesture.
The assistance slid the platform into place and walked out of the room. As part of her duties as the 'older sister', she needed to go have a few words with a certain blond.
'Pretty crappy sound quality, but it does help with the noise,' Raven lay still with her head effectively in a wastepaper basket with gnomes hammering on the outside.
If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly
There's no one to catch me if I take a dive
'I've got Ron to catch me, that's what he's always done for me. For that, along with many other reasons, I choose to love Ron. So why the flashbacks of Eric when Ron is close? Is my brain trying to tell me that I still feel love for Eric? How can that be true? He was a machine that was programmed to abuse and humiliate me. What could I possibly see in that monster?'
We could just go home right now
Or maybe we could stick around
For just one more drink, oh yeah
Letting the next song drown out the hammering gnomes, she imagined herself as the singer and Ron as the other part of 'we'. The singer was talking about going home, alone. Or sticking around for another drink or three while she and her 'ex' talked about successes and failures, including their breakup. 'Not going to happen. I choose to love him and he swore together forever,' she told herself, listening to the songs and waiting for this to be over. But in the back of her mind, a small voice whispered, 'Aren't you selling yourself short by deciding that you will love him without the excitement of feeling the love? Is that fair to him?'
"OK Mara-san, I am injecting the contrast chemical and doing the second pass now." The music cut out while Sensei Tōgai spoke.
Raven felt a stinging cold spread up her arm and focused on the music...
Amnesia
You've got this burden to bear now
Hiding away from the world
But deep down behind that disguise that you wear now
I see a lost little girl
So trust a little science, don't you be afraid
Just a little time gonna make it fade
Your heart is gonna shine
And you're gonna make us proud
She was just starting to ponder on whether she fit the description of that lost little girl in the song when the music paused again and Sensei Tōgai spoke,
'Mara-san, you are thinking too hard. Please try to silence your mind.'
'Whoa,' she thought, 'he's seeing brain activity?' She did her best to quiet her mind and just let the music and lyrics flow past her without thinking about them. Within a minute, she was asleep.
STD 2018-
Not having a snake to get them moved to the front of the lines, the two first class travelers and the two Tweebs from steerage were walking down the sidewalk about an hour after the plane touched down. With Wanda guiding their packing, no one had checked baggage which made one less thing for them to wait on. Approaching the handsome young man with his hair combed into spikes, Anne took a cleansing breath and centered herself. She had not used this technique in a while and she was unsure what defensive techniques her opponent had been trained in. Defeat was always an option, but in this case, it wouldn't be pretty. Jim and Tim had used electronic sleep inducers on the long flight and as a result, were bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and jet lag free.
"Mrs. Dr. Possible-sensei," he said, bowing respectfully, "I am Hirotaka, I have been sent to take you to Yamanouchi."
"Please," the redhead replied, "call me Anne-sensei, The other has too many words in it and in my culture seems a little pompous. About the ride to Yamanouchi, I was hoping you might take my sons, Jim and Tim, on a visit to Akihabara and assist them with some purchases and show them around."
"Anne-sensei, I regret that..."
"You have been there before, yes?"
"Of course, I am quite familiar with the area and know the best shops and the disreputable ones to, uh, steer young men away from. Perhaps later, but now..."
"Please Hiro-kun? It would really make this trip one for them to remember the rest of their lives. Please?"
Wanda was standing off to the side and only caught a small part of the surgeon's assault on her teammate. It was incredible. She saw Anne subtly tilt her head to the side, widen her eyes and push out her lower lip, which trembled a little. Even the small part of the wave of psychological force that Wanda caught nearly buckled her knees.
Hirotaka folded like a house of cards in a hurricane,
"Of course, Sensei, it will be my pleasure and my honor..."
"Thank you very much, dear. Take the van, it will be handy for hauling purchases. Wanda assures me that she knows the way to the school."
Waving at her sons as the van pulled away, she turned to ask Wanda about their transportation only to find the Ninja kneeling in supplication before her.
"Sensei, please teach me that technique! I will give you anything that does not interfere with my responsibility to Yamanouchi."
The redhead laughed, "The PDP is a fell power, young Ninja. Not all can master it and its effectiveness lessens with repeated use. If you swear a mighty oath to not use it too evilly, I will attempt to teach you."
Laughing and shouldering their backpacks, they walked to the rental car area where Wanda used a key card to gain access to a private office.
Walking to a counter staffed by an older brunette, Wanda called out,
"Obachan! It's been too long!"
"Don't 'Obachan' me, you little Ninja reprobate! It has been too long, I've been right here, where have you and that Suzie friend of yours been? I hear that you got rid of that boyfriend of yours, I always said he was no good. So, what can this old gaijin do for you?"
"Gaijin!" Wanda put her hand to her heart, "Obachan, you are as dear to me as my own grandmother!"
The brunette with streaks of gray now visible, stepped around the counter and hugged Wanda. Looking at Anne, she held out her hand,
"I'm Sherry Rice, consider me an equipment specialist. Has Wanda described the rides we can set you up with?"
"Anne Possible, pleased to meet you. No, I figured some sort of small car..."
Wanda looked like a kid on Christmas morning, "Sherry-sama, did they come in?"
"Yes, they did sweetie, I have a two shiny new black Honda NM4 Vultus bikes, ready for Team Cobra's use."
Wanda squealed a little. One of the deadliest, most capable Ninjas from Yamanouchi, living or dead, actually squealed a little bit.
"So, Anne," asked the 'clerk', "How are your motorcycle skills?"
"Twenty years out of date?"
"Let's go look at the bikes, the Honda NM4 Vultus has an automatic transmission, think of it as a scooter with a 745cc engine..."
STD 2018-
Anne took another loop around the cargo loading and storage area she was using for practice. There was an access road, long, straight and paved for her to get some speed up. Wanda cruised by her side, talking over the bike-to-bike radio system connected to their helmets,
"Anne-sensei, you need to remember, there is no right on red anywhere in Japan, you stop at all railroad tracks. Japanese drivers are usually very polite, but they will go through a red light for a few seconds after it has turned. If you want to thank someone for letting you in, turn on your flashers for a few seconds."
This was pretty exciting for an almost forty-year-old mother of three and a surgeon. The 'bikes' were full-blown motorcycles that looked straight out of a science fiction movie. Her sons would definitely approve.
"And I have to remember to drive on the left. I don't know Wanda, it seems like a risky way to get there..."
"Onee-sama, cut loose and try something new! You only have to follow me. I swear that I will lead us as if I wanted us both to live forever. I know an inn that's a short ride from here. We can take an easy ride there, no highways. A nice soak in their spa, a good night's sleep, then another easy ride to Yamanouchi."
"I don't know..."
"Team Cobra gets two bikes. I usually ride behind Suzie, Yori rides behind Hirotaka. If you take the other bike, then it will be waiting for him when he gets back with your sons. It would be a very nice way to say, 'Thank you' for dealing with them."
"Tim and Jim?" their mom said with a straight face, "My sons are good boys, they never get into mischief..." and then burst out laughing, "OK, you win, I'll drive it back for him."
"Yatta! Let's go back and tell Sherry-san, she should have your license ready by now."
STD 2018-
Hirotaka paid for his purchases. He was a closet fan of the "Cells at Work!" manga and picked up the latest issue. He figured that an emergency would prevent Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell from confessing their love as usual, but a guy could hope, right? He had spent over an hour browsing and picked up some manga that others back at school would appreciate. Time to meet up with the twins and see how their shopping was going. Pulling out a small smartphone-sized device, his heart nearly stopped when he called up the map and located the twins. The map showed them in M's, one of the largest sex shops in Akihabara.
He grimaced, thinking that he hadn't been given any instructions for where the boys were allowed to go. He wasn't sure, his recollections of his agreeing to bring them here were hazy. But at any rate, he did not want the red-haired sensei angry with him, one didn't become a senior Ninja by pissing off a sensei.
Expanding the map into a three-dimensional view of the building, he saw that they weren't in the main part of the store, but in a meeting room in the basement. Stuffing his purchases into his backpack, he hurried off after his charges.
STD 2018-
Anne smiled at the young pink-haired biker sitting across from her at the noodle shop where they had stopped for a late lunch. She had to be careful not to eat too much and get sleepy, but the noodles, served cold with various dipping sauces, were very good. She and Wanda had gotten through Tokyo and onto more rural looking roads without incident. Anne had been surprised when they were riding down a lovely road and suddenly surrounded by garishly modified motorcycles decorated with lots of pink designs. Later she would realize that Wanda had moved from leading her to riding protectively beside her just before the bikers arrived.
"Anne-sensei," Wanda explained using their bike-to-bike intercom, "these are Bosozoku, a motorcycle gang sub-culture. They take pride in being rebels. We will pull into this noodle shop ahead on the left. I don't expect a fight, but if there is one, I don't want to get these bikes scratched up." The Ninja pulled back in the lead and soon pulled into a small noodle shop.
The surgeon's Japanese was pretty weak, she might have been able to stumble through a surgery discussion, but the young woman across from her wanted to talk motorcycle stuff and Anne's Japanese vocabulary was not up to the task. Fortunately, Wanda was sitting next to her and was able to both eat and carry on the engine displacement, automatic dual clutch transmissions and all the other details that the half-dozen Bosozoku girls wanted to talk about.
STD 2018-
Anne was still in a thoughtful mood when they arrived at the inn. The encounter with the Bosozoku girls had her thinking about the life she had chosen. Certainly, she did not envy the rebel girls, they lacked direction and more importantly, they lacked strong connections to other people. She checked off her connections; James, that one seemed weak lately, but she would strengthen that one; Kimmy, she would move out one day, given recent events it appeared that day would be sooner than she expected; Jim and Tim, she still had several years of them underfoot. Doing some quick math, she figured that she would be an empty nester before she was fifty. Then what? Concentrate on her work as a surgeon and mentor? Travel would be nice, she envied Wanda who seemed to travel all over the world taking care of Yamanouchi business.
The pair checked into the inn. Having an hour before dinner was available, the two dropped their backpacks, helmets and body armor in the room and found their way to the baths where they soaked and talked of inconsequential matters surrounded by a beautiful garden.
STD 2018-
Erica's four threads of software execution dedicated to digging through her deleted memory areas had hit pay dirt. One found a collection of environmental sample data collected by the synthodrone Eric including data on scents of people. She had a slow data connection to her body and was able to program sections of the skin to emit a blend of Anne's scent along with a little of Kimmy's. A long-term pressure test for her body was planned tonight. That would activate her skin, plus ensure that James would be close by. Her Internet research calculated an eighty-seven percent chance that the subliminal scent of his loved ones would relax the scientist enough to get some real sleep. In the meantime, those four threads of execution searched for more information...
CREDITS
All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.
The three songs mentioned are
'Shatter Me', by Lindsey Stirling with Lzzy Hale. (Not misspelled, there is no 'i' in her first name) Amazing YouTube video, look it up.
'Here's to Us', by Halestorm. I claim that this is a defiantly proud, but sad song
'Amnesia' by Miracle of Sound. Written for a friend suffering from depression, if I remember correctly.
While you are on YouTube watching the videos from these three excellent artists, try searching for (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli) I'm not a big fan of metal, but this guy is good, has a bazillion covers, and the guy just looks like he is having so much fun making music.
Suzie Chin (Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his "Once Again" stories.
Authors Note: Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and sanity checkers. Believe me, I need a lot of sanity checks. Actually, a Raven/Ron scene was working out so that got moved to the next chapter.
I won't be publishing once a week as I have been trying to do. The combination of my daughter not starting her new job for a couple of weeks with the release of Monster Hunter World on PC, the new Celebi thing on Pokemon Go, and the general desire to go a little deeper into these characters are going to slow me down.
M's is a real store.
Posted September 2nd, 2014