Note: Jonakhensu has finally started twitching enough about Kaname's hair color to go and ret-con the entire fic. Have a nice day.
Chapter 9: (Adams) Family Reunion.
The weather was peaceful, and the morning rather calm as Sousuke walked down the sidewalk, pushing a wheelchair in front of him in which Ranma sat. This was a rather good thing, as neither of the two were particularly mentally balanced at the moment. It wasn't every day that you found you had a close enough relative that DNA testing could confirm it and you simply didn't know about them despite living together.
To make it worse, Ranma was running through some mental math that gave him a rather disturbing conclusion. "We've pretty much accepted that your curse wasn't caused by Jusenkyo water," he said, causing Sousuke to blink in confusion.
"I found the water bottle, it was made last year," he confirmed, having spent the better part of a night looking at all the ones he had taken from the school, just to be sure.
"Yeah, I thought so," Ranma grumbled. "Ya figured out what that means yet?"
Sousuke shrugged, but realizing that the one in the chair he was pushing couldn't see it, answered "I don't see what relevance that has to what we've just learned."
Ranma winced. "Well, I don't know if Jusenkyo can spread, but if it can, going through a bloodline sorta makes sense. Problem is, if you were my dad's second son or something, you wouldn't turn into a girl, you'd turn into a panda."
"A panda?" Sousuke asked, for a moment, an image of one of those large bears attempting to operate an M9 flashing into his mind.
Seeing that the brown haired boy wasn't getting the implications, Ranma sighed. "If you got your curse genetically, which is a pretty safe bet with how your cursed form looks, I'd have to be your parent, or something even weirder's going on."
Sousuke didn't say anything for a few moments, but the wheelchair came to an abrupt stop. Looking up, Ranma noticed that the boy's face had gained a more unreadable expression than usual. "I see," he said, simply, before beginning to push again. Ranma considered saying something, but had no idea what to say, so the two remained in an uncomfortable silence as they boarded a train for their home district.
HR.
"I told you, I'll be fine," Kaname Chidori sighed, waving down the hall at her mother, who had her head poking out of the teal haired girl's apartment door. Over the past three days, Akane had been doting on her daughter to the point where Kaname was considering taking her Aunt Nabiki's offer to move into her place.
The worst part was that, rather than getting freaked out at the fact that there was a secret military organization watching her, Kaname's mother had actually walked into Sousuke's apartment the day before and started lecturing him on his capability to protect her daughter.
Judging by the few stories she'd heard about Akane and Ranma's days in Furinkan, the teal haired girl was tempted to call her mother out for hypocrisy, but she consoled herself with the idea that the older woman would only be in Japan for another two days.
It was kind of sad, given that she saw her mother so rarely, that Kaname was so annoyed with her now, though she was entirely aware of why, exactly, she was being so frustratingly overbearing this time. Unfortunately, that very same reason had left the teal tressed girl extremely high strung, and the added stress was beginning to press on her last nerve. If the pressure didn't let off soon, Kaname was afraid she would snap and say or do something she would regret later.
Taking a deep breath and releasing it as she stepped out of the elevator on the ground floor, she almost stepped back in as she saw Sousuke standing at the doorway, wheeling Ranma into the building. "Hey, Kaname," the pigtailed man called, waving to her, while Sousuke nodded. It was pretty obvious that there was something on both of their minds, as neither was very good at hiding their emotions, but Ranma was trying to conceal it. "Why don't you head off to class with Kaname, and I'll get myself the rest of the way up?" he asked, turning to the brown haired boy.
"Yes, sir." Sousuke said, nodding and releasing the handles of the chair, while Kaname rolled her eyes, contemplating informing him that it hadn't been an order. Still, Ranma was wheeling himself into the elevator, and Sousuke had already planted himself at her side like an immobile statue.
"You don't have your lunch, do you?" she asked, evenly. Sousuke shook his head. "Your supplies?" He shook it again. Pulling out her cell phone, Kaname checked the time and frowned. "Come on, I'll share mine since school starts soon." Sousuke nodded, and the two charged out of the building.
HR.
Melissa Mao quirked an eyebrow as she watched Ranma roll himself down the street in the surveillance monitors. The man was valiantly struggling to keep up a normal pace, but she knew, having looked at his medical report, that there was no way he could maintain that pace for vary long.
Sighing, she picked up her radio and said, "Urzu 6, this is Urzu 2. Kage has left the building. I am going to offer assistance. The Angel is all yours, copy?"
"I hear ya, Urzu 2. Urzu 6 has the Angel," Kurz' voice came through the speaker. "You go help out our Spook."
"Roger that. I will maintain radio contact. Urzu 2 out." Standing from her position in front of the monitor banks, she stretched, arching her back to get the kinks out, and grabbed what she'd need for her little outing. Once she was set, she left the building and made her way down to the street and behind Ranma.
"Damn ribs," the pigtailed martial artist grunted as he forced the wheelchair onwards. "Stupid drugs, stopping me from healing properly." He jerked slightly as the chair began moving faster than he had been propelling it, having not noticed anyone coming up behind him in his moment of griping.
"You should be taking it easy, there," Mao said, as she began pushing the pigtailed man along. "Those wounds aren't going to heal if you keep abusing yourself, you know."
"They will eventually," Ranma replied.
"Smart ass," the younger woman responded. "You should be happy a pretty girl like me cares so much about you to help like this."
"Pretty girls usually end in pain," Ranma said flatly.
"Yeah, probably," the sergeant major agreed. "But I usually don't beat up on invalids."
"I could still take you in a fight, you know," Ranma grumbled.
With a smirk, she asked, "Without ending up back in the hospital?"
"Oh, sure, make fun of the guy who saved your ass a couple days ago," Ranma shot back. "Oh, and take a right here."
"So we aren't just out on a random walk," Mao cheerfully noted as she rounded the corner. "Good to know. So, where are we heading?"
Leaning back and looking towards the sky, Ranma answered, "I'm going to the zoo to see a panda about some stuff."
HR.
"Okay, what's wrong with you?" Kaname finally asked, as she and Sousuke sat across from each other at a lunch table, the military boy seeming to methodically pick at the portion of her bento she'd offered him. While methodically and suspiciously doing things was a normal thing for him to do, when his food came from trusted sources he usually wolfed it down as though someone was going to swipe it. "Don't worry, I didn't poison it."
"I didn't believe that you had," Sousuke replied, lifting a small portion of fish from his plate and regarding it evenly.
"Then why are you eating like that?" the Chidori girl demanded. "Come to think of it, you've been acting weird today in general, you didn't even check your desk for traps like you usually do."
"There is nothing for you to worry about," Sousuke said, turning his eyes away from her.
Frowning, Kaname stroked her chin for a moment, before nodding. "You know, if there's something bothering you, it could..." She stopped for a moment, as if picking words carefully here, "It could compromise your ability to carry out your mission."
"Of course not," Sousuke said, looking back up at her and almost looking offended. "But... given you are the mission specialist in this area, perhaps I could ask you for some advice."
'Right, he can't ask for help like a normal person,' Kaname thought, but then nodded, as this was, after all, what she wanted to know. As the brown haired boy told her, she began reconsidering that wish.
"So... you actually are Uncle Ranma's son?" she asked, trying to grasp the core details of the situation. As Sousuke nodded, she smiled. "That's great!" she said, excitedly. "It's like an old Samurai drama, where two warriors fight together to defend the Shogunate only for it to be revealed that they are kin as one lays dieing... Um, without the dieing, of course." As the boy in front of her gave her a blank look, she tried, "Besides, it'll make your cover identity a lot more realistic, right?"
Sousuke just looked at her as though she were insane.
Huffing, she replied, "Okay, even if it isn't that dramatic, I don't know why you're so shaken up about it."
"I'm unsure how to react," he admitted. "I haven't really had a parent before, the closest thing was Lieutenant Commander Kalinin."
"Oh," Kaname said, suddenly realizing how seriously Sousuke viewed the situation. "I've really got no idea what to tell you," she admitted. "But you really don't have anything to lose, Uncle Ranma's pretty easy going, so if you want to stay in touch or go your own way, he probably won't stop you."
"Hmm," Sousuke said, picking up some of his almost forgotten lunch and chewing it thoughtfully.
"Just see what comes and don't worry about it too much," the Chidori girl smiled, and for some reason, Sousuke gulped hard. "Now, are you going to finish that? We've got class in a few minutes."
"Right," the brown haired boy said, nodding and attacking his meal as he usually did. Kaname just hoped she'd given him good advice. Also, she had an uncle to talk to when she got home.
HR.
"Grah!" Ryoga hollered, pulling as hard as he could and sending the Sumo Pig he was currently training rolling across the ground. Watching as it struggled to its feet, he nodded in approval. The animal, Katsuhito, appeared to be well on its way to taking the aging Katsunishiki's title as Yokozuna of Pigdom.
As the pig trotted up to the bandannaed man, he bent down and offered it a treat, before leading it back to the house. Opening the barn door on his way past to let Katsuhito in, he tilted his head to the side, as he heard a low buzzing sound in the distance.
When he closed the door, the sound got louder, and he shaded his eyes to try and find the source. When it turned out to be an obvious military transport helicopter, his eyes widened and he headed for the house to get Akari. He just hoped the chopper didn't mean what he was pretty sure it meant.
As the Hibikis exited the house about three minutes later, all hopes were dashed, as they saw Ino stepping out of the chopper that had just landed on their training ground, followed by a grey haired girl about her own age, and two people in uniforms, one male, one female. "Well, I told you she'd find her way back," the lost boy said hopefully to his wife, who gave him a disapproving frown.
As the military group advanced into earshot, Ryoga began a speech that was rather well rehearsed, though it had only had to be used for Ino a few times. "We understand that anything Ino has seen is likely classified, and as she has likely already done, promise not to inquire into her whereabouts, and to ensure that she doesn't talk about anything she's seen."
"They are used to this," the grey haired girl said, almost sounding astonished as she looked over at Ino, who laughed nervously and scratched the back of her neck in a way that her father always twitched when he saw. "Mr. and Mrs. Hibiki, we aren't here to ensure your daughter's silence."
"Oh?" Akari asked, suspiciously, as Ryoga's fighting stance tensed from invisible to obvious.
"We're here to offer her a job." Both elder Hibikis hit the ground, hard.
"Excuse me?" Ryoga asked, first spitting out a mouthful of dirt.
"Perhaps we should come inside to discuss it," the grey haired girl said, smiling slightly. "I am Teletha Testerossa, and this is my First Officer, Commander Mardukas, and Ms. Smith, a security officer."
"Her... first officer?" Akari asked, looking slightly stunned, though Ryoga seemed to take a teenaged naval commander in stride.
"Come on in," he said, moving towards the house.
HR.
As she pushed Ranma along, Mao looked around the zoo's food court dubiously. "Are you sure this is where we need to be? The panda exhibit is on the other side of the marmosets from here."
"Don't worry, the old man always meets me around here," Ranma said, looking around the area. "Go over to the Magnetron Burger hut. I think I see him."
"So we're not here to see a panda?" the dark haired woman asked, a little confused. They were actually in a zoo, so using a codename like Panda would be good in terms of counter intelligence, but even then, the meeting would probably be held near the actual pandas, just as an added layer of subterfuge. Of course, even if she and Kurz had decided to unofficially semi-adopt him as a member of their little guard group, Ranma was a dedicated spook, and spooks never made any sense.
"Well, that sort of depends," Ranma hedged. "Is it supposed to rain today?"
"What would that have to do with..." Mao started before trailing off. "He turns into a panda, doesn't he?"
"Yeah," the spook confirmed. "And here he comes." As a man wearing an off-white gi approached them, Ranma called out, "Yo, Pops, you're looking pretty good."
"Can't say the same for you, Boy," Genma Saotome returned. "What happened? Did an Arm Slave step on you or something?" Seeing both Ranma and his female companion flinch, he sighed. "So, you still haven't settled down."
"And you have?" Ranma shot back. "I heard you were in Romania about three months ago."
"Yes," the older man nodded, "and I found the lack of vampires to be quite annoying."
"So you're a horror fan?" Mao asked, having finally found a place to insert herself into the conversation before she got even more confused.
"Of course not," Genma scoffed. "I wanted to send the girls after some of the broody blood suckers for training." Mao had no response for that.
"Yeah that sounds about right," Ranma chuckled. "You forgot about the whole hypnotizing thing, didn't you?" Before Genma could spout denials, Ranma continued, "Anyways, I have something important to discuss with you."
"Oh? Genma asked. "We haven't had a serious meeting for quite some time. So, what is it, boy?"
Ranma opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to figure out how to tell his father what had been going on recently, before blurting out, "I have a son."
"I see," Genma said, completely seriously. "And I suppose this is the mother?" he asked, looking over Mao. "By her stance I'd say special forces, Ex-United States Marine Corp?" As Mao growled at the implied insult, Genma continued, "Well, at least she's a proper Marine, though her stance is so obvious it hurts, and I can see the shoulder holster... She's acceptable, with some improvement."
"Acceptable?" the woman all but roared, throwing a vicious roundhouse at the man's head. "As what?"
"Hmm, maybe a little more than acceptable," Genma noted, as he grasped the younger woman's leg casually, and Ranma groaned, bringing a hand up to rub at his forehead.
"She ain't the mother, old man,"the pigtailed martial artist growled irritably, as Mao suddenly realized what Genma had meant, and contemplated trying to bring her other leg into the fight.
"Wait," Mao began, twisting around to look at Ranma, "you have a kid?"
"Yeah, the docs say that Sousuke's mine," Ranma explained.
Mao almost fell to the ground laughing, as it was hard to balance with one leg being held three feet off the ground. "You thought I could be Sousuke's mother? Completely impossible. He's much too uptight for that." Catching her balance as her laughter subsided, she coolly looked towards the man holding her and asked, "Can I have my leg back now, or should we see how well you dodge bullets?"
"I like this one," Genma guffawed as he released the leg. "She's got spunk." Turning back to Ranma, he asked, "So, where is the little tyke?"
"Little... Tyke..." Mao started to snicker again, as she moved her leg a bit, suddenly starting to think of key steps in Sousuke's raising, like his first automatic weapon or fragmentation grenade.
"Sousuke's sixteen," Ranma deadpanned. "He's currently watching over Kaname."
"Akane's brat?" Genma asked. "Why'd your son be watching her?"
With a wince, Ranma replied, "She's following in the Tendo tradition."
"Ah, so kidnapped again," Genma nodded.
"This happened before?" Mao demanded in shock.
"Yeah, after the third time Akane had me give her a bit of training, to try to stop it from happening again," Ranma explained. "I'm not sure it helped."
"Well, she almost escaped on her own," Mao said charitably. "She'd already dealt with her captor before Sousuke and I got to her."
Genma nodded. "Sousuke, that's Ranma's boy," he said, shaking his head. "How in the world do you have a sixteen year old son?"
Ranma sighed. "That's the biggest problem," he admitted. "Until today I thought I was still a virgin."
"So, you've come to your dear old dad for advice, huh?" the older man said with a cheesy grin.
"Y'know, Pop, for once you're right," the pigtailed martial artist grumbled. "But I'm starting to think it was a bad idea."
"Have some sake and a celebration," Genma suggested, before seeing Ranma's unamused expression. Sighing, he said, "I really don't see what you expect me to tell you, with how well I did on the parental crap last time I was responsible for it. What's this Sousuke like, exactly?"
"I'm not really sure about most of his history," Ranma admitted. "He doesn't talk much and his files are classified."
"You aren't lying about this, are you, Ranma?" Mao asked, causing the other two to turn towards her. "Right, forgot, from what I've seen you can't lie worth a damn. Sousuke was pretty well raised on battlefields, and spent most of his early life fighting in Helmejistan and other mid-east conflicts. That translates into pretty powerful paranoia, expertise in improvised weapons use, and being a damned good shot with anything that fires bullets. He also picked up Arm Slave training, but I've got no idea where."
"Reminds me of you if I'd concentrated on lethal combat," Genma muttered to Ranma. "Probably a lot more high strung than you were as a kid, too."
Ranma nodded. "So, how'd you handle me as a teenager?" he asked.
"Very badly," Genma responded, before sighing. "I'll tell you this, though. Guide him, don't push him. Give your suggestions, try and reason them out, but pushing him into something's probably going to be about as easy as getting the long dead master away from a bra."
"That... actually kinda helps," Ranma said, nodding. "Thanks."
"Well, of course it helps, boy!" Genma proclaimed. "I said it!"
"Right," Ranma said, slowly turning his chair away from his father. Seeing what he was trying to do, Mao moved up behind him and started pushing. "I'll talk to you later, Pops," the pigtailed martial artist called as he was wheeled away.
"Oh, and boy?" Genma called, as Ranma and Mao slowly exited the area. Ranma turned, looking back at his father, who was looking serious. "I know you may be reluctant to do this, but your mother deserves to see her grandchild, if you could..." he trailed off, looking hopeful.
"Maybe," Ranma said, noncommittally.
HR.
"How do you two get in these situations?" Akari Hibiki groaned, as she sat on the couch in her living room, staring across at her daughter, and throwing a few irritated glances towards her husband. Of course she knew, and she'd known when she'd married Ryoga, but the near complete impossibility of some of the things that happened still took her by surprise.
"I'm tempted to forbid this outright, but I understand their security issues," Ryoga agreed. "It's a better solution than those Russians tried, at least."
"Then you'll let me do it?" Ino asked, excitedly. She had been all set to join up with Mithril when the idea had been proposed to her three days before, but hadn't realized that they would have to run it past her parents for permission first, due to the fact that she was under-age. Once she'd found out about that, she'd been convinced that they'd flat out say no, and she'd end up with a Mithril assigned tail for the next five years or so.
"We will let Ino do it," Ryoga said, after sharing a look with his wife. "But we'll need to keep her here for about a week before she can really start."
"May I ask why?" Tessa inquired, curiously.
"She's going to need some extra training," Ryoga said, and as Ino saw the gleam in his eye, she gulped.
END