Okay, everyone, there IS actually some new content here for the readers from Weebee's account. It starts when Kaname gets home. Thanks, and please R&R.
Chapter 1: Explosive Feline.
Kaname's eyes widened as she stepped out of the bathroom, noting that there were two people in her kitchen, one holding a gun on the other. She'd started to wrap up her shower when she'd heard someone entering the apartment, though it had taken a couple of minutes to get to the point where she wouldn't drip everywhere.
"You aren't Sousuke Sagara, are ya?" the taller, male figure asked, causing Kaname almost to drop her towel.
"Sousuke?" she asked.
"I repeat, aw crap," the taller man said, causing Kaname to turn towards him.
"Uncle Ranma? What are you doing here?" she asked, confused.
"Uh, Kaname-chan, a little busy with the gun wielding mercenary at the moment," Ranma said, wondering if he could take the gun before it could be fired, or if he'd end up getting yelled at for putting bullet holes in the walls.
"Wait, Sousuke's a mercenary?" Kaname asked, blinking.
"Of course I'm not a mercenary, Chidori-san," the girl holding the gun said, immediately. "Now, you, please identify yourself or I will fire."
"Um, you really want me to do that with a civilian standin right over there?" Ranma asked, rolling his eyes. "And by the way, great way of keeping up your cover."
"Point," the redhead agreed. "We will discuss this outside."
Ranma nodded, turning for the door, before Kaname moved forward and grabbed his arm. "Uncle Ranma, what in the world is going on here? Why is that girl from the changing room yesterday trying to shoot you, and why are the both of you pretending she's Sousuke?"
"The girls changing room?" Ranma asked, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, I've been in some pretty embarrassing situations before, and I'll let you explain, but if the explanation isn't good..."
"Sir," Sousuke looked very uncomfortable now. "Outside, now."
"All right, I'm coming," Ranma said, turning towards Kaname for a moment. "Sorry, I gotta take care of this."
"But I..." the girl started, before Ranma shook his head.
"Shouldn't you be at school now?" he asked, gesturing at a clock on the wall, and causing the girl's eyes to widen. Holding out a mostly packed bento, he nodded as she grabbed it, and charged out the door.
"If Sousuke's not at school today, we'll be having a little talk, Ms. Mercenary!" she called, right before the door slammed, causing the aforementioned person to gulp.
"Five seconds now," Ranma muttered, as she charged back in, ran into her bedroom and slammed its door behind her.
Sousuke just blinked in confusion, until Ranma grabbed her arm and lead her out of the apartment, incidentally removing her gun in the process.
HR.
Kaname's mind was racing. She hadn't been kidding about what she would do if Sousuke was not in class that day, and, low and behold, there was an empty seat. That girl, or Sousuke, had better watch out, because she had her, or his, number now.
Granted, she knew it was possible for guys to turn into girls, two of her uncles did, after all, but it still wasn't something you expected. She'd have to have some hot and cold water on hand for her little 'talk.' Still, something as trivial as the curse could wait. There were much more important things to discuss.
Without really thinking about it, she preformed the morning class ritual. "Stand, bow, sit."
The thing that most needed discussion was that Uncle Ranma had called the girl a mercenary. The girl had, of course, denied it, but she had then immediately threatened her uncle with a gun. And then Uncle Ranma had mentioned the girl's cover having been blown. All in all, it was rather suspicious. Yes, she was definitely going to be questioning that military otaku, assuming that that was all he or she was, something she was beginning to-
"Miss Chidori, are you all right?" the teacher asked. "You seem to have been somewhere else for most of the lesson."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Kagurazaka," Kaname replied, blushing with embarrassment. "I'll try to pay more attention."
"Please do so. You wouldn't want to be a bad influence on the other students, would you?" the teacher asked rhetorically.
"No, ma'am," Kaname said quietly.
HR.
"So, that was a disaster of epic proportions," Kurz observed, as he leaned back in the monitoring chair, taking his headset off.
"Would you be serious for once in your life?" Mao grumbled. "I've got a feeling we've just been compromised to the target, and apparently our special expert's her uncle."
"Wait, that Ranma guy's our expert on what's happened to Sousuke?" the blond asked, surprised.
"Apparently so, he's from Intelligence. He's also part of the only covert ops team on the boat," Mao explained, setting down a file she'd picked up after hearing the name and thinking that it sounded familiar.
"Well, at least he and Sousuke are coming back... Damn, she's hot!" Weber proclaimed, as he leaned forward quickly enough that the chair gave creaking protest.
"What are you talking about?" Mao asked, looking over his shoulder, to see two redheads, one obviously older than the other, entering their apartment building. "That's... actually kind of creepy."
"Huh?" Kurz asked.
"Well look, the hair's the exact same color. So's the skin, actually. Lemme guess, that's Ranma, after he got splashed?" the Sergeant Major speculated. At Kurz' nod, she shrugged. "It's just, the resemblance is... creepy."
"I don't know," Kurz disagreed. "She's a lot taller, and her chest's not quite as big... or is that just the proportions being off?"
"You do know that was originally a guy, right?" Mao asked, sounding somewhat disgusted.
"Pretty girls are pretty girls," Weber said casually. "Besides, I don't hold it against you for being a complete hard ass."
Mao's eyebrow twitched, but she left that alone. "All right, well keep your tongue in your mouth, we've got some cleaning up to do, and it's starting to look like the conflict of interest paperwork on this mission's going to be legendary."
Weber groaned. "Thanks for reminding me," he grumbled darkly.
HR.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Kurz started, as he, Mao, Sousuke and Ranma were sitting around the table in the apartment they were using as a home base. "So, Sousuke's turning into a girl with cold water and a guy with hot should be impossible for more reasons than just common sense?"
"Remember, common sense isn't," Mao smirked. "Besides, we pilot giant robots, we really shouldn't talk."
"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "The place that gives those curses was destroyed about twenty years ago, so unless some random high school girl was carrying around twenty year old Chinese bottled water, I don't know how he picked up the curse."
"I dunno, I found a bottle of water in the mess at boot camp that'd been there for at least forty years," Kurz offered.
"Well, unless we can find that water and test it, we really won't know, but I doubt its Jusenkyo." Ranma shrugged.
"So, if the water that caused this was destroyed, are there any cures?" Sousuke asked, from where he was sitting across from Ranma, his arms crossed.
"There's the spring of drowned man, but the whole valley was flooded, so it's gone as well." Ranma admitted, looking apologetic. "I haven't really been looking all that hard for the past few years, but no one's found anything else that'll do it."
"I see," Sousuke said, and nodded. "Then I will have to find a way to incorporate the curse into my set of tactical capabilities."
Ranma blinked. "You're, um, not upset?" he asked, a little creeped out as the brown eyed boy stared levelly at him.
"No, should I be?" Sousuke asked.
Ranma looked oddly over at Mao and Weber, who just shrugged. "Well, most people are," he offered. "I tried to make my old man into a panda skin rug when I first got cursed."
"I don't know, adapt and overcome is a pretty positive attitude," Mao, the only marine in the room, offered with a grin.
"I suppose I can help him act a little more feminine when a girl, if he doesn't mind it," Ranma offered. "I've gotten pretty good at switching back and fourth over the years."
"Until we get additional orders, I suppose that's what we'll have to do, and keep Kurz on lookout for Miss Chidori in the meantime," Mao said, and then wondered precisely why Ranma's eyes were narrowing.
"Yeah, about that," the intelligence operative asked, "Why in the hell are you watching my niece?"
"Erm, we have no idea," Kurz admitted. "We were just told to keep her safe."
"Great," Ranma mumbled. "If the Amazons are out to kidnap her or something..." He shook his head, dismissing that thought.
"What was that about Amazons?" Mao asked, curiously.
"It's not important," Ranma said quickly. "Now, Sagara, if you wanna be able to go back to school by tomorrow, we should get to work."
"Right," Sousuke said, nodding and standing, Ranma quickly following.
"Did my question just get brushed off?" Mao asked, caught half way between annoyed and confused.
HR.
"Hmm, interesting," a grey haired girl said, as she sat in a high backed chair, reading over a sheaf of reports. "So they have no idea how it happened?"
"No, Captain. It just suddenly manifested yesterday afternoon. Fortunately it seems that it is this 'Jusenkyo,' rather than something more permanent," a man standing next to her reported, reading over his own paperwork.
"Do we have any information on how Mr. Sagara is taking this?" the girl asked, concerned.
"Apparently he's taking it in stride, as usual, Sergeant Major Mao reports that he is training with Sgt. Ranma to get used to the effects of the change," the man said.
The grey haired girl was silent for a moment, before grasping the end of her long plait in one hand, and bringing it to brush along her lower jaw. "Sergeant. Ranma, he's the one who obtained the data on Russian supply movements?" At the man's nod, she smiled. "Well, if Mr. Sagara's willing to continue the mission, and Mr. Ranma is going to help him adjust, we should make it easier for them both to carry out their tasks."
Flipping through the report, the girl took note of several images and smiled. Lieutenant Commander Kalinin, could you prepare three more false identification packets? One for a seventeen year old female, and two for Sousuke's parents?"
The man she identified as Kalinin looked confused for a moment before realization struck, and amusement crossed his face mixed with something unreadable. "Yes Ma'am, I will file the required paperwork immediately," he answered, turning.
HR.
"Okay, how did he pass for a normal school boy?" Ranma asked, as he sat at the Urzu group's kitchen table, watching Sousuke march around like he was on maneuvers.
"Well, he actually failed pretty miserably at that," Kurz admitted, "but they all assumed he was a military otaku."
"Ah, so they all did their best to ignore him," Ranma nodded. "Half decent tactic, but it probably isn't gunna work when he's female. At the least, she'll have every nerd in school trying to ask her out on a date."
Sousuke seemed to twitch for a moment, and Mao rolled her eyes. "That would interfere with carrying out the mission," the military boy noted.
Ranma sighed, slapping his forehead. "All right, go get some cold water and we can start," he ordered, wondering how he'd been roped into training someone to act like a girl. "I wonder how much I'm gunna get paid for this," he muttered, as Sousuke left the room.
"So you know, if you need a guy for demonstration purposes, I'd be glad to help out," Kurz suggested, from where he was leaning against the wall near the kitchen door.
Ranma's eyebrow twitched, as he began to think that he didn't like this guy. "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere?" he asked, irritably.
"Huh?" Kurz asked, blinking, before his eyes widened. "Crap, Angel!" he yelped, dashing out the door.
"Angel?" Ranma asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The codename was his idea," Mao clarified. "I was going to go for Bluebird, but you made a good point. Kurz and I should get back to work."
Ranma nodded, and groaned as he saw Sousuke marching back out of the kitchen. "You shouldn't walk like that," he noted. At Sousuke's confused expression, he clarified, "Not only does it look weird for a girl, your back's gunna hate you for it in a few weeks."
The short redhead nodded, before beginning to move in an odd, cockeyed gate that sent her staggering vaguely to the right. "What the hell is that?" Ranma demanded, trying not to burst out into laughter.
"I am attempting to emulate the way Sergeant Major Mao walks while not acting professionally," Sousuke responded succinctly.
"You mean when she's totally smashed?" the older Jusenkyo victim asked.
"Affirmative," Sousuke agreed, right before an empty beer can smacked her in the side of the head, and she looked over to see her commanding officer giving her a dirty look from her surveillance terminal.
"Fine, I'll show you," Ranma mumbled, getting up and going to get a glass of cold water.
HR.
The pig stomped down the corridor, as much as a pig could stomp, its little piggy hooves making soft clinking sounds that echoed along the metallic walls. Every few seconds it would let off a bwee that sounded sort of like an irritated mutter, and turn, sometimes to hop over a hatch's lip and sometimes to realize that it had tried to walk through a solid bulkhead.
At this moment, the pig wasn't having a terribly good day, or week, for that matter. For one, it was a pig when it would really rather not be, and for another it had managed to get itself more lost than it had ever been before. It was pretty sure that it had ended up wandering onto an aircraft carrier at one of the military bases or something, but so far had been unable to get off of the ship again.
"Bwee," it muttered dispiritedly, leaning against the lip of a closed hatch, and stopping to rest its tired legs. It stayed there for a moment, thinking that perhaps it shouldn't have reacted so violently to what had happened to it a week ago, but it was traumatizing, and the pig felt that its anger was fully justified.
As the animal was about to pull itself back to its feet, the hatch swung open above it, and it looked up to see a pair of female legs, trailing up to a skirt. "I'm going to go off duty for a few hours," a voice that seemed far too young to be on a ship like this said.
As the girl's foot came down on the other side of the hatch lip, the pig's eyes widened and it scrambled out of the way with a panicked oink, causing the girl to look down. "Oh! What in the world?"
"Is there something wrong, Madam Captain?" a male voice asked from beyond the hatch, and the girl shook her head, bending down to scoop the pig up in her arms.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Commander, is there a reason we have a piglet aboard?"
"A piglet?" The male voice asked, before the animal in question caught sight of a brown haired man looking down at it speculatively. "I don't think we loaded any of those... Maybe he's part of the galley's supplies?"
"Bweeeheee!" the piglet yelled, struggling violently in the girl's arms for a moment, before she rested a hand on its head and patted it gently.
"Commander, look what you've done! You shouldn't frighten such a cute little thing!" she proclaimed, continuing to pat the animal as it calmed down.
"No, of course not, my apologies Madam Captain," the man said with a soft smile.
"Hmm, well he shouldn't be wandering the ship, he could get hurt," the girl decided. "I think I'll take him with me to my quarters and keep him as a pet until we figure out where he's supposed to be."
"Ma'am, perhaps you should get him checked out at Sickbay first?" another man, this one with grey hair, suggested.
"Oh, yes, thank you Mr. Kalinin," the girl nodded, turning and walking away, idly toying with the pink bandanna wrapped around the pig's neck.
As she went out of sight, one of the bridge techs chuckled. "You know, sometimes I forget her age, then something like that happens and I remember again."
"Hey, it's a lot better than most sub captains," another of the techs countered. "Remember a few months ago, with the shore leave at the amusement park?"
"Do you think she has all the stuffed animals the A.S. pilots got for her?" the first man returned, before the brown haired man cleared his throat, reaching up and adjusting his royal navy baseball cap. Both techs looked sheepish for a moment, before going back to work.
HR.
"But... that was a home run. I know it was," Kaname nearly whined as she walked back into the school from their gym class, Kyoko at her side.
"It's okay," Kyoko said soothingly. "I believe you. The ball must have bounced off of the air, right?"
"This is all Sousuke's fault!" the blue haired girl exclaimed.
Kyoko looked puzzled for a moment before adjusting her glasses and asking, "How could a military otaku like him pull off something like that? He's not even here today."
"I'm not really sure what his deal is, but my Uncle Ranma came over today and that redhead from yesterday showed up and held him at gun point!"
"That doesn't prove anything. Just that there's a psycho girl around," the brunette commented.
"Yeah, but Uncle Ranma asked if she was Sousuke, and her denial was a little off."
"But you said she was a girl," Kyoko pointed out.
"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean much. I mean, my uncles turn into girls all the time."
"Um, Kaname?" Kyoko asked. "Have you painted your apartment without opening the windows again?
"No! I'm serious," Kaname said. "Besides, it was only the one time."
"I don't believe you, so I'm going with you after school!" the excitable girl declared. "I want pictures!"
As the doors that lead into the school closed behind the class, an invisible arm slave sulked. "She hit me. She hit me right in the eye."
"Aw, grow up Weber, it's not like it could have hurt you," Mao's voice came through from the home base.
"Yeah, but still, it's gunna take me hours to check and make sure the thing's lined up right before I'll be able to shoot straight again," the sniper muttered, irritably. Mao was about to respond, when a tremendous crash resounded from somewhere behind her, and Sousuke's cursed form's voice could be heard muttering "I can continue."
HR.
Looking back, Mao's eyebrow rose as she saw Sousuke sprawled out on the floor, the table knocked over behind her, and a dazed look on her face. "Okay, I think we can stop with the walking training for now," Ranma muttered, looking down on her. "Just don't wear high heels."
"Affirmative," Sousuke moaned, pulling said footwear off and dragging herself to her feet with Ranma's offered hand.
"So, no party dresses for Sousuke-chan, huh?" Mao asked, with a smirk that vanished as soon as she saw Sousuke looking at her steadily. "You know, teasing people is a lot more fun when you can find a topic they'll react to."
"Oh, there's some stuff to tell him that'll get a reaction," Ranma noted, causing Sousuke to look nervous. "Have you been given the talk?"
Mao blinked for a moment, and then her eyes widened. "Wait, you mean you..."
Ranma nodded. "Based on how long I stay in cursed form," he shrugged.
Sousuke looked between her wincing commanding officer and her trainer. "This talk isn't the anti-interrogation course, is it?" she asked with obvious trepidation.
"Um, I don't suppose you could..." Ranma asked, looking over at Mao.
She raised both hands and waved them around. "Oh no, I'm not going through that hell until and unless I have kids, and that's really not likely to happen."
"Well, um," Ranma started, "Maybe we should... I'll go get..." He trailed off, throwing another desperate glance to Mao, until she inadvertently saved him, as the radio console next to her beeped, and she reached over to put on her headset.
"Urzu 2 here, go ahead," she said, and listened for a moment. "What?" she asked, surprised. "Um, yes, I confirm." She pulled the mic away from her mouth for a moment, and muttered, "Is Captain Testerossa insane?"
Ranma looked mildly interested at this, walking up behind the Sergeant Major as she went pale. "Oh, you heard that, um, just... I'll pass on the order, clear."
"So what was that all about?" the pigtailed man asked, rather relieved that he had an excuse to avoid giving Sousuke the Talk.
"It looks like they feel that you and Sousuke should split off from Sergeant Weber and I," Mao explained. "Something about you already being compromised."
"Makes some sense," Ranma admitted. "So what's the part you thought the Captain was insane for?"
Mao winced at the remembrance of her possible career suicide. "Well, apparently Sousuke's being issued a second identity to correspond with his cursed form, and you are now Mr. Ranma Sagara, and Mrs. Ranko Sagara. They want us to provide a second name for Sousuke as soon as possible."
Ranma blinked. "Wait, so they want me to..." he trailed off.
"They want you and Sousuke to pretend you're a small family, and move in closer to Kaname to provide on site surveillance." Mao explained.
"You know, Kaname knows I'm ronin and don't have any kids," Ranma objected.
"It's not to fool her; she already knows who you are. It's to explain why there's some older guy, and two redheads that look like differently aged clones running around," Mao explained.
Ranma shook his head. "I've been putting off getting a last name to put on files for a few years now," he muttered. "Long as the kid doesn't mind, Sagara's as good as any other."
"I don't believe my parents would have a problem with it, and it is a good tactic to keep a closer eye on the target," Sousuke agreed.
"Was that..." Mao started, before shaking her head. She was relatively sure that Sousuke didn't go in for morbid humor, or any humor for that matter.
"Well, Kaname will be home soon," Ranma started, either not noticing or choosing to pretend not to notice Mao's aborted comment. "Are they giving us funds to rent the apartment or is it coming out of pocket?"
Mao shrugged. "Save the receipts, I guess," she responded, before turning back to the monitors. "And Weber, I guess your optics are working fine if you can use them to peek into the girls change room!"
"Let's go before I have to break your teammate's arm for spying on my niece," Ranma muttered, gesturing for Sousuke to follow him as he headed for the door.
HR.
"I'm telling you, my uncle's sensitive about the curse, he's not just going to demonstrate it so you can take pictures," Kaname griped, as she and Kyoko walked down the street, heading to the former's apartment after school.
"Sounds like someone's making excuses," the brown haired girl said in a sing-song, twirling her digital camera in her right hand casually.
"Kyoko..." Kaname groaned. To tell the truth, she really didn't want the other girl around for several reasons at the moment, and the biggest of them was the distinct possibility that she could get herself shot. She wasn't very knowledgeable about mercenaries, but was inclined to believe that they didn't like getting their pictures taken.
"Don't 'Kyoko' me," the glasses wearing girl objected. "You've been telling stories about your mother and uncles since you came to this school and I want to meet one of them."
"Right," Kaname mumbled, turning into the front entrance of her building, and unlocking the door. 'Why couldn't this be one of those times that she acts like an idiot?' the long haired girl lamented internally.
As the two girls got out of the elevator five minutes later, they saw a rather unusual sight. Sousuke was standing in the hallway, carrying a large black duffel bag, while an older woman with bright red hair was apparently dragging a dresser with very little effort.
"Sousuke!" Kaname declared, dramatically pointing at the boy. "We need to talk!"
"Aren't you being a little over dramatic?" Kyoko asked, blinking at her best friend as she stalked up to the class's newest military fanatic.
Kaname ignored her. "Why weren't you in class today?" she demanded, getting close to the boy's face.
Sousuke froze for a moment, before answering, "I was relocating to my new living quarters."
"Wait, you're moving in here?" Kaname asked, and was surprised as the red haired woman gently lowered the end of her dresser to the ground and stepped forward.
"You're Kaname Chidori, aren't you?" she asked.
"Um," Kaname said, confused. "Did you hit your head or something, Uncle Ranma?"
The woman frowned for a moment, and then moved a hand up to her chin. "Young lady, I may be getting a little older, but I don't look that much like a man, do I?" she asked. "I was going to thank you for helping my daughter yesterday."
"Your... daughter?" Kaname asked.
"Wow, you're getting pretty repetitive, Kaname," Kyoko commented, looking between her friend and the clearly confused older woman. "Sorry about her, she's been babbling all afternoon, something about mercenaries holding her relatives hostage."
"Kyoko!" Kaname exclaimed, her eyes widening.
"What, it's true!" Kyoko justified. "Anyways, I'm Kyoko Tokiwa, sorry about my friend here."
"Traitor," Kaname grumbled under her breath, not sure if she was directing it towards the brown haired girl next to her or the redhead in front of her.
"Nice to meet you Kyoko, Kaname, I'm Ranko Sagara, and you already know Sousuke," the older woman said, pointing at the boy who was just coming out of the apartment across the hall from Kaname's, the bag apparently put inside somewhere.
"Nice to meet you Ma'am," Kyoko said, with a bow that Kaname reluctantly copied. "Do you need any help with your moving?"
"Oh, that's fine, Kyoko-chan," Ranko countered, before Kaname interrupted.
"No, its no big deal, we'll help you out! I've even got some drinks in my place we can all share!" she said, her enthusiasm seeming somewhat forced. "Mrs. Sagara, why don't you come in and help me bring them out while Sousuke and Kyoko keep working?"
"Eh, when did I volunteer for this?" Kyoko protested, but was ignored as Kaname grabbed the Sagara boy's mother by the arm, dragging her into her apartment.
She and Sousuke looked at each other for a moment, not saying anything, before he nodded. "Could you help me pull this dresser in, please?"
"Yeah, sure, I guess," Kyoko shrugged, walking over and setting herself to push the thing when Sousuke lifted. "So," she said, as she shoved against the wooden mass, rather surprised at how heavy it was, "it's kind of funny you're moving in here, because Kaname was talking about you for most of today."
"Really?" Sousuke asked, startled. "Why would she do that?"
"Personally, I think she's flipped... at least, gone a bit more over the deep end than usual, but she seems to think you're a mercenary, and that you change gender," Kyoko giggled.
"That's strange," Sousuke said, and then began to chuckle along with her, though it sounded a little shaky
"Yeah, I know," Kyoko agreed, as Sousuke nudged open the door to his apartment with a foot. "I mean sure you're a little strange," she stopped, realizing what she'd said and blushing. "No offense."
"None taken," Sousuke quickly reassured.
"Right, you're a little strange, but..." she trailed off, and Sousuke looked up at her, concerned.
"Yes?" he asked.
"You know, one thing about her story that does make sense, it would explain why that girl yesterday looked taller to start off with, and you did have a gun or something confiscated that morning," Kyoko contributed, mostly as a joke. She was startled when Sousuke's face went pale, and he dropped the end of the dresser with a thud.
"Uh, that? That was my... sister," he said, quickly.
"Oh right, your mom mentioned that, we apparently helped her with something," Kyoko realized. "Is she going to be coming to school? What's her name? Maybe Kaname and I can help her settle in."
"Uh," Sousuke was sweating bullets now. "She might show up, when time permits, and her name is..."
"Her name is?" Kyoko asked, looking at the boy strangely.
"Her name is..." Sousuke said, putting as many syllables together in his brain as he could, and trying to find a set that he could train himself to respond to quickly. "She's Sora."
"Sora, huh?" Kyoko noted, not sure whether to believe Sousuke, but then again, her only other choice would be to believe Kaname's crazy stories about magical curses, and given that Mrs. Sagara, who seemed pretty normal, had mentioned her daughter as well, Kyoko had to believe at least some of it.
So the question now was, why was Sousuke so nervous? "Hey wait, you aren't used to hanging around girls, are you?" Kyoko asked, snapping her fingers. "That's gotta be it, you were acting all up tight and nervous yesterday. What, did you go to an all boys school or something before this?"
"Um, yes, that's right," Sousuke said, quickly. "Could we please get back to work now?"
Kyoko giggled. "Okay, let's finish up. Where are those guys with the drinks?"
HR.
"What in the world are you doing?" Kaname asked, whirling on Ranma as soon as the door to her apartment had shut completely behind them.
The redhead sighed, reaching up to rub at the bridge of her nose. "Sorry Kaname, but it's complicated."
"How complicated?" Kaname asked. "People in standoffs in my living room complicated?"
"About there, yeah," Ranma agreed, as she walked further into the apartment, slumping down on the couch in the living room.
"So you stood out there and pretended you didn't know who I was?" the teal haired girl demanded angrily.
"Look, Kaname, there are people out there who would recognize me from a description of the curse. They're pretty rare, you know," the Mithril operative explained. "We've been sent out here to keep you safe, and I don't need the people who don't like me coming out to pick a fight."
"Here to keep me safe?" Kaname demanded. "What from?"
"We don't know," Ranma admitted. "We weren't given that information."
"'We?' Who's 'we?' You're talking like you've been sent from some secret spy agency or something." As Kaname saw her uncle, notorious for being unable to lie to anyone he or she cared about, twitch, she blinked. "Um, that was a joke... right?" she asked slowly.
"We aren't spies," the older redhead assured quickly, before continuing on rather sheepishly. "We're a private defense organization." Kaname slapped her forehead, and began shaking her head from side to side. "I got sent in to help Sousuke when he manifested the curse," Ranma continued, trying not to notice what her niece was muttering, something about her mother, blunt objects, and being right.
Standing, the former Saotome looked Kaname straight in the eyes. "I'm sorry, but I really couldn't have told you, and as it is, you really shouldn't know, so don't tell anyone."
"So," Kaname started, her mind running several hundred miles over the legal limit, "you're some lackey sent by my dad to babysit me or something? You're not my uncle?"
"Um... what?" Ranma asked, startled. "No, of course not!" she exclaimed. "I'd rather punch your old man in the jaw than work for him!" She then raised one hand, clamping it over her mouth for a moment. "Erm, don't tell yer Mom I said that," she mumbled sheepishly. "And I'm not technically your uncle, but you knew that already. If they knew I knew you, they never would have assigned me here. Conflict of interests, and everything."
"Oh," Kaname said, her derailing thought process finally grinding to a stop. "Um... oh."
Seeing the shocked expression on the teal haired girl's face, Ranma shook her head. "I'll give ya some time to chew on this, in the meantime, I should probably get out there before Sousuke blows one of the closet doors off."
"Before he..." Kaname started, confused.
"There's a half pound of plastique in his sock drawer," the super-human martial artist rolled her eyes. "He's some sort of fanatic." As if to prove her point, a loud yell rang through from the outside hallway, and Uncle and Niece both broke for the door.
When it opened, they saw Kyoko standing in the hallway, glaring at Sousuke, while something small and grey lay on the ground between them. "What did you do that for?" the dual-pigtailed girl demanded, inadvertently emulating one of Ranma's own signature phrases.
"Sculpting with that is not recommended," Sousuke replied, seriously, pointing at the grey mass on the floor, which Ranma was doing her best not to look at.
"I was only sculpting a little cat," Kyoko complained.
"Then it definitely isn't recommended," Kaname muttered, bending down and grabbing the surprisingly well rendered animal and hiding it behind her back. Her best friend sniffed.
"Well, if you're going to be strange too, I'm going home," she declared. "I'll see you in school tomorrow."
Kaname sighed, staring at the brown haired girl's receding back for a moment before turning and leveling a glare at Sousuke. As he didn't seem to notice, she huffed, turned and entered her apartment, slamming the door behind her.
"What is the matter with Miss Chidori?" Sousuke asked, after a few moments of silence.
Ranma looked at him incredulously for a moment, and then, only to herself, admitted that Akane may have been a bit justified with some of the stuff she'd chucked at his head in Nerima. "I'll tell you later," she decided. "Let's get everything moved in."
"Affirmative," the boy responded, before heading for the elevator.
HR.
In a clean, grey medical room, a dark skinned woman with dreadlocks smiled down at Captain Tessa Testerossa as she placed a small, black pig into her hands. "Ma'am, this is the healthiest pig I've ever seen." She shrugged. "Of course, I haven't seen many live pigs, but they're pretty close to humans in a lot of ways."
The girl nodded, patting the animal on the head. "He doesn't have any diseases that we would have to worry about then, Doctor?"
"None that I could see, of course, you might want to check him out with a vet somewhere, get him fi..." She was half way through the final word when the captain raised a hand for her to stop, and she could have sworn that she heard the animal sigh in relief. "Right..." s said,shrugging. "I've got some information on the feeding of pigs, but I'm pretty sure you can feed him almost anything."
"Thank you," the grey haired girl said, accepting a small sheaf of papers that the doctor held out to her, and turning to leave the room. "I'll get you settled in, and then relax before the operation tonight," she muttered, mostly to herself,
Several moments later, as she was reaching for the panel that would open her bedroom door, the seventeen year old captain heard the intercom crackling to life. "Captain Testerossa to the bridge, please." The girl just barely bit back a curse that she had heard Sergeant Major Mao use a few times, looking down at the pig with an irritated look that it seemed to empathize with before turning to continue down the corridor.
HR.
"Yeash, I told you she was just spacing out again," a young girl with wildly pointed hair muttered, as she looked backwards towards another, who had turned and started wandering down a side street.
"We should go and get her, we don't want her wandering around alone," a taller girl with brown hair and glasses mumbled, preparing to turn around,
"We're gunna be late for the monster movie marathon, though," the wild haired girl objected, "and she said she's going to meet someone."
"Yeah, but we've been around her almost all the time when she wasn't at home, and have you heard of anyone named Sakaki?" the glasses clad girl objected. "C'mon Tomo, we're going to check on her."
"Aw man," Tomo objected. "Yomi, why do you have to be so worried about the small stuff all the time?"
"Maybe if you were a little more worried about the 'small' stuff, you wouldn't have to worry about failing out of school," Yomi grumbled, the two teenagers heading back towards where their friend had turned off into the side street.
As they turned a corner, noting that there was a black van parked at one of the telephone poles, they noticed that there were three rather bulky looking men standing around a short, black haired girl who was staring up at one of them with a dull expression.
"Hey, somethin wrong?" the girl asked, in a slow, Osakan drawl.
"Nothing at all miss," a tall, spiky haired man in a brown trenchcoat responded, in a low voice that the other two girls could barely hear. "You're just going to have to come with us now."
"Would you look at those guys?" Tomo asked, pointing frantically. "I bet that guy's a flasher or something! I'm gunna go kick him in the head!"
Yomi caught her friend by the arm and glared at her. "Are you nuts? He's got to be over six feet tall, and there are two others with him, we should probably call the police."
"Besides," the third girl chipped in, looking over to her two friends and causing the three men surrounding her to look as well. "He's wearin pants and a shirt, I can see 'em from here. Oh, he's got a gun, too. Is that a Makarov?"
"No, it's actually a..." the spiky haired man started, before his cheek twitched and he chuckled. "You know, I like you," he quipped. "Girl, get into the van, now."
"I'm thirsty, can I have a drink of water?" the girl in question asked, looking up at him.
The man rolled his eyes. "Yes, you can have a drink of water," he muttered.
"Hey! We aren't letting Osaka go with a bunch of perverts!" Tomo yelled, stepping forward and pointing dramatically. "So say I, Mythical Detective Tomo Takino!"
"Excuse me?" the spiky haired man asked, drawing a short, mean looking pistol from inside of his jacket and leveling it at the girl.
"Um, she didn't say anything," Yomi said quickly, grabbing Tomo by the arm and pulling her back. She wanted to protect her friend, but had no illusions about their chances versus three large thugs.
"That's what I thought," the man said, putting his weapon back and ushering Osaka towards the van. "Come along now, little Whispered."
The girl nodded, hopping into the vehicle, and the men piled in behind her before driving off. As they did so, Yomi exhaled a massive sigh of relief, and immediately pulled out her cell phone to begin dialing the police.
END.