Hello. Long time no see on this one, huh? JRA, one of our betas, suggests you read the last few chapters over before tackling this one due to how long it's been between updates. We're sorry about that, by the way, but hope you enjoy what we've got for you.
Chapter 11: Tea n' Tie.
"Yikes," Kaname proclaimed, as she looked over Sousuke's shoulder at the paper before him. "I didn't know you were this nervous about meeting your grandparents."
"Hmm?" the brown haired boy asked, looking up at her in confusion.
"This test," she replied, pointing at the paper. "How could you get this one wrong? The entire period is named after the city."
"Oh… That would make sense," Sousuke nodded.
"Wait, so you legitimately got that wrong?" the teal haired girl asked. "Last week you quoted World War II bomber statistics, for each country, down to centimeters in length, and you don't even know what the capital of Japan was called? Were you listening at all?"
"Non-military history isn't my strong point," Sousuke admitted.
"Well I can see that," she grumbled. "That's it! I'm going to help you study for the next history test!"
"That really isn't necessary," he replied, before crossing his eyes at a finger pointed at the end of his nose.
"Oh yes it is," Kaname said, shaking said finger from side to side. "If you get to drag me off to that stupid firing range thing, I get to do this."
Sousuke considered for a moment. "Then you won't keep resisting firearms training if I agree."
She grimaced. "Fine, even though I don't think it's necessary."
Sousuke looked around the room, noting that no one was close to them, most of the other students in clusters talking about their test results. "It would be better for you to have some form of self defence if anyone were to come after you again," he explained. "Since you have agreed, I will schedule the training for this Saturday."
"Fine, and I help with your history failings on Sunday, that way at least Sora might be able to pass this test!" Kaname stopped for a moment. "Wait… with the grandparents thing tonight… did I just agree to spend all weekend with you?"
"Ooh, sounds juicy!" The teal haired girl resisted the urge to jump, noting with annoyance that Sousuke didn't seem to have the urge at all, as she turned to glare at Kyoko. "You've got a hot date lined up, I see. My job here is done."
"It's not a date, and you did not set us up!" Kaname replied hotly.
"That's what you'd like to think…" the brunette said, twirling her camera in her hand and blowing on it like a gun.
Kaname huffed. "Let's just go before she gets any more ideas."
"Right," Sousuke nodded.
"Have fun you two!" Kyoko waved as the others left the classroom.
HR.
"So why isn't Uncle Ranma coming with us?" Kaname asked, as she and Sousuke sat on the train heading for the Nerima district.
"He said that it wouldn't be advisable for my grandmother to see him," Sousuke replied.
"Weird," the girl shook her head. "Then again, I guess something pretty bad must have happened to make him give up his name like he did. I just didn't want to ask before."
"If Sergeant Ranma doesn't have a family name and is not related to you, why do you call him your uncle?"
"It's… kind of strange," Kaname admitted. "I've pretty much always known he wasn't part of my direct family, but, from how he, my mother, and my aunts act, he's pretty much their brother, or something. It's probably from all the times he had to save Mom when she got kidnapped. Apparently it was almost a running gag when they were younger and, well, it's happened to me a couple of times too."
"You were taken before the incident with Gauron?" the brown haired boy asked, his eyes narrowing.
"It wasn't a big deal," Kaname laughed it off. "Some obsessed fan of mom's movies, I think. He was actually pretty nice… if kind of creepy. Oh, there was that time with that guy who tried to extort Aunt Nabiki... that didn't go well. I'm just glad he grabbed me instead of Chiyo-chan… they'd never have found the bodies."
"Chiyo-chan?" Sousuke asked.
Kaname smiled. "Aunt Nabiki's daughter. She's nice; you might meet her one day."
"I see," Sousuke said. "You have a large family."
She laughed. "I haven't even told you about Aunt Kasumi yet, but that's a REALLY long story and we're almost there."
"Hmm," Sousuke nodded, following Kaname as she stood to leave the train.
When the two reached the platform, the Chidori girl looked around and hummed to herself. "From Mom's stories, I'd expect this place to be a lot more beaten up."
Sousuke shrugged, not having heard any of the stories she was speaking of, and taking in the suburban station platform, relatively normal aside from the fact that several of the people he saw walking outside of it were causing the hairs on the back of his neck to rise. "There's something wrong here," he muttered, quietly. "These people move as though they've got combat training."
"Yeah," Kaname agreed. "That's pretty common around here."
Sousuke did not look convinced, especially as one woman detached herself from where she'd been leaning against a column and walked up to them. The brown haired boy carefully positioned himself between the woman and Kaname, rolling his shoulder to prepare his concealed pistol for use. "I'd stop there if I were you," he said, flatly, glaring at the woman.
"Pretty sharp, aren't you?" she asked, smiling at him. "But also pretty paranoid. I'm not a threat."
"Then why do you have that?" Sousuke asked, gesturing to a staff-like object on her back, a large circular addition on one end.
"I could ask you about the pistol and explosives," the woman replied, "but I'm here to greet you, not to fight you. My name is Natsume Saotome. I came here to guide you to my father's home."
Sousuke relaxed slightly, and Kaname blinked. "Saotome? Are you related to Uncle Ranma's old family?"
"Ranma…" Natsume winced. "It is… complicated. I am an adopted daughter of the Saotome clan. I would have been proud to call Ranma brother, but things didn't turn out that way."
"Really? How did that happen?" Kaname asked, curiously.
"I… would prefer not to talk about it," Natsume replied. "Father and Mother are waiting for Sousuke-san."
"Right," Sousuke nodded, though Kaname looked unconvinced. Still, when the other two started off without her,, she quickly followed.
HR.
Genma Saotome pulled open the door to see Natsume standing with two people he'd never met, though with what he knew, it was relatively easy to place them. "Sousuke, Kaname?" he asked, stepping back from the doorway and nodding at them.
Kaname nodded back, but the boy seemed nervous, and his arm twitched almost as though he wanted to bring it up. "It's nice to meet you, Saotome-san," the girl said. The boy said nothing.
"You're… Ranma's boy," Genma wasn't sure where he was going, but decided that winging it was his best option here.
"Yes, sir," Sousuke replied. "My… father wished me to visit you and your wife."
Genma looked the boy over, his martial artist's eye cataloguing the stance and several of the weapons instantly. He was healthy, alert, and nervous as all hell, not that the older man could blame him for that. "Boy," he reached up, scratching at the skin under his head-wrap. "Do me a favor, try not to mention your father when you speak with Nodoka."
"Sir?"
"I know it's strange, since I asked you here so that she could meet you; it's just that she and Ranma… didn't part very well."
"I see," Sousuke nodded, though Kaname was looking even more puzzled. Genma wasn't sure if having her involved would be a good idea, but the way the boy moved around her, he highly doubted that asking her to wait outside would work well. As they walked into the living room, he caught himself wondering what could breed that level of vigilance in this kind of situation. Sure, the boy was understandably jumpy, but even Ranma had relaxed when they'd entered cities and he knew that no 'surprise training' was forth coming.
Shaking the thought out of his head, he slid the living room door open to reveal a carefully laid out table, his wife sitting in the center on one side, the materials for tea placed around her. He was just thankful she hadn't tried to start up a tea ceremony, as he was relatively sure that a boy who had grown up on battlefields as Sousuke had probably would barely know which way to hold the whisk.
"No-chan, I've brought Sousuke, and Kaname came to visit as well. You remember, Akane-chan's daughter?"
"Ah, Kaname-chan!" Nodoka smiled, standing and stepping around the table. "I haven't seen you since you were in diapers!"
"Uh, yeah…" Kaname blushed slightly, "It's nice to meet you again, Saotome-san."
"Oh please, call me Auntie Nodoka," The woman in question replied, her smile somewhat forced. "Saotome-san makes me feel so old." She then turned to Sousuke, and looked him over from head to toe. He instinctively seemed to try and straighten up, squaring his shoulders. "Hmm, Sousuke-kun, you're quite the young man, aren't you?"
"Thank you, Ma'am," the boy replied, sharply, and Genma could see small beads of sweat running from under his hairline.
"Why don't you two sit down and have some tea? Genma, you too," Nodoka continued, moving back around to her seat.
"This is awkward," Kaname muttered under her breath, barely loudly enough for Genma to catch. He was inclined to agree.
Once the three of them had been settled, Genma next to his wife and the two younger people on the other side of the table, Nodoka spoke again. "So how are your studies going?"
The two teens looked at each other, obviously trying to figure out who she was speaking to before Sousuke spoke. "I just recently received a substandard grade on a history test and Kaname wishes to tutor me. Otherwise, I have been told that my marks are satisfactory but my attendance is not."
Kaname started to rub her temples and mutter something indistinct, as Nodoka took a slow sip of her tea. "So, are you two a couple, then?" As Kaname had been sipping her own tea, she began to choke, before pounding herself on the chest.
For his part, Sousuke concentrated for a moment, and then turned to the girl. "Kaname, as the field expert, do you know if we are a couple?"
"I… uh…" Kaname coughed, clearing her windpipe of the remains of the tea. "ehehe…"
Looking between the nervously giggling Kaname and Nodoka, The brown haired boy took a gamble. "Yes?"
Kaname abruptly tried to choke again without the benefit of tea, but Nodoka simply gave another of her slightly too-wide smiles. "Ah, that's excellent. You really do look cute together."
"Th… thank you," Kaname finally managed to gasp out.
"Are you all right, Kaname?" Sousuke enquired. "Is there something wrong with your tea?" Without waiting for an answer, he dug around in one of his shirt pockets and withdrew a small strip of something which he dipped into her tea cup.
Nodoka raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing, Sousuke?"
"Checking for poisons or contaminants," the boy said, staring at the paper intently.
"My tea is not poisonous," Nodoka's smile had slipped slightly by this point, and she'd moved one hand down to rest on the damned katana.
"Sousuke, I'm fine," Kaname said, rapidly. "It just went down the wrong pipe, that's all."
"The test reads negative," Sousuke nodded, fishing the paper out of the cup and handing it back to her. "I apologize if the taste of the tea has been compromised. However, tell me immediately if you continue to have problems."
"Well," Genma cleared his throat, seeing his wife's darkening face. "I heard you were working for some sort of military group, how is that working for you?"
"I'm afraid I can't talk about that," Sousuke replied. "You don't have sufficient clearance."
"You work for the government, then?" Nodoka seemed to lose interest in the previous events as the new topic was presented.
Sousuke nodded. "Something like that."
"Well, surely someone your age couldn't be caught up in anything serious," Nodoka said. Sousuke didn't respond.
"He's pretty obsessive about it," Kaname cut in. "I can't even get him to talk about a lot of it, so even if it is something minor he takes it pretty seriously."
"Well, it is good that you take your responsibility seriously," Genma said, then flinched at the pointed look that was shot his way by his wife.
"I suppose," she agreed. Putting her cup aside, her demeanor seemed to change. "I wanted to ask you, Sousuke, who is your mother?"
The room went silent for a moment and Genma gulped, knowing what dangerous ground the conversation had just landed on. "I am unsure," Sousuke answered. "According to my records, my adopted parents were killed in an aircraft accident over Helmajistan fourteen years ago. I wasn't aware who my biological father was until…" He stopped, as though realizing that he'd mentioned the thing he wasn't supposed to mention.
"Go on," Nodoka demanded.
"Until the captain of my military unit decided to run some genetic tests and determined my relation to Sergeant Ranma," he finished, quietly.
"And why did they do this?" Nodoka asked, almost as quietly.
"We share the same curse," Sousuke answered.
"I see…" Nodoka said, flatly. "I think you should leave."
Genma cursed under his breath, while Kaname looked on, shocked. For his part, Sousuke was just confused. "I don't understand," he confessed.
"I thought," Nodoka started, clenching her hand around the wrapped sword tightly enough that Genma could see her knuckles whiten, "that after its disgraceful behavior towards me , the… thing… had tried to redeem itself, but then I found out that it seduced a woman and left without even realizing that it had fathered a child, that she had to put the child up for adoption, that you are so AFRAID of meeting me that you assumed I would POISON you, and that… curse… has tainted another generation."
At this point, everything went to hell and Genma watched in slow motion. Nodoka stood, the wrapping falling from her blade. Strangely it wasn't Sousuke who was rising on the other side, but Kaname, an angry scowl on her lips. She didn't get a chance to speak, however, as she was abruptly shoved sideways, Sousuke diving across the table and striking Nodoka's sword hand with a two-finger jab that forced it open and moving to grapple her.
Genma could have stopped it. He could have easily intercepted the boy in mid-air, but he had been frozen in surprise at precisely how badly things had gone, and how quickly. Instead, he watched as the boy patted his wife down, and the pins holding her hair fell to the wooden floor with a soft clink. "No other weapons," he reported, succinctly.
"I don't think those were weapons," Kaname replied.
"Let me go, you... " Nodoka yelled, her eyes flashing angrily.
"I have the sword," Genma said, picking the blade up and moving across the room. "You can let her go."
Sousuke reluctantly loosened his grip and backed off to stand in front of Kaname.
"How could you even THINK to do something like that in my home?" Nodoka demanded, pointing a shaking finger at the boy. "It was a mistake to let Genma talk me into seeing you! You're just like…"
"That's enough!" Genma roared. "I…" He turned to the two young people. "I'm sorry about this."
"Husband?" Nodoka asked, appalled.
"No-chan, you… You drew a sword on them. He was responding to a threat," the balding man said, more gently. "A martial artist like me would find it hard not to react to something like that, and Sousuke is military trained."
"My mission is to protect Kaname," Sousuke confirmed. "I'm sorry, perhaps I shouldn't have brought her here, but in this situation fast disarming was the only option… short of termination."
"And now you threaten to kill me?"
"To clarify, that was not a threat," Sousuke interrupted.
"Leave. Get out of my house and never return," Nodoka hissed. "And if you ever see that cowardly thing you call a father, tell it that it should have died years ago."
"Are you listening to yourself?" Kaname spoke up. "You're calling those two cowards? You're nuts!"
"Excuse me?" Nodoka asked, turning her acid glare to the teal haired girl.
"Almost a week ago, that 'thing you call a father' jumped out of a troop transport at cruising altitude and fought a new-model Arm Slave to save my life!"
"That's classified…" Sousuke protested, trailing off as the Chidori girl pinned him with a glare.
"As for Sousuke, He and ONE other person went against an entire base full of people to get me out alive. I don't know what that is, but it sure as hell isn't cowardice!"
"Kaname, we should go," Sousuke said, turning towards the door.
"But…" She protested.
"This venture was… a failure," he responded. "I want to get home before dinner."
"All right," Kaname sighed, though she threw another glare back towards Nodoka before following him out.
HR.
"Y'know, I never thought shooting things could be this boring," Kaname muttered, as she pulled the ear protectors from her ears and let them settle around her neck. "How many of these things have you got left?" she asked, ejecting the clip, checking the chamber and carefully laying the small black pistol she'd been handling next to a line of ten others in the preparation room next to the shooting range,
"I have twenty six man-portable firearms at the moment, if you count the squad automatic weapon," Sousuke replied, "but that was the last of the pistols."
"I am not training on a SAW!" Kaname scowled, turning to see him studying the shot groupings from her last run.
"You may one day be required to lay down covering fire," he responded, "though today we're only working on the pistols."
"That's good, so are we finished now?" she asked, planting her hands on her hips.
He nodded. "I would like you to clean each weapon and make it safe, then we're done."
"You are NEVER talking me into this again," the teal haired girl grumbled, before picking up the weapon she'd previously put down. "How did I do that time?"
"None of your shots missed the target, and several fell within the central circles. You're improving."
"Woopee," the girl replied, sarcastically, shoving the small wire brush down the barrel she was cleaning with perhaps a bit more force than necessary. "If you're mad about what happened yesterday and taking it out on me, it was totally not my fault."
"This is proper training in any pistol that you may be required to use or dispose of," Sousuke responded. "There's nothing to take out."
"Aside from your grudge over that gun I threw out, you mean," Kaname jabbed.
"That was not a grudge."
"Whatever you say, gun nut," she replied, snapping two parts of the weapon back together. The two fell into silence for the next few minutes, Kaname methodically working while Sousuke watched, and she was pretty sure she was doing all right since he hadn't stopped or corrected her. Still, her task was mind-numbingly boring, so she eventually spoke. "You sure there's nothing bothering you about yesterday? I mean, your grandmother pretty much told you she wishes you were never born. That's… pretty bad."
"I haven't thought about my family for… a long time," Sousuke responded. "Knowing who my father is is pleasant, and Sergeant Ranma is helpful to my mission, but it doesn't bother me if other members of my family don't want to associate with me."
"It'd bother me," Kaname growled. "It'd really piss me off."
"Yes, but that's because you would be sad at losing them, right?" Sousuke questioned. "Thank you for defending me, even if you mentioned classified material to do so."
"Yeah, I guess," Kaname agreed, looking down at the weapon in her hands to hide a slight blush.
A few moments later Sousuke spoke again. "I've checked your target hits, and I think I've decided on the type of holdout weapon you should carry."
"Excuse me?" Kaname asked, her head shooting up to look at him in astonishment.
"Now that you're trained in their use, you really would be safer if you carried one," he explained.
"Wait… this entire thing wasn't to try to get me to like guns or something so I'd carry them around everywhere like you, was it?" The teal haired girl asked, her eyebrow twitching. "If it was, it really isn't working."
Sousuke held out a sheaf of papers. "I'm only suggesting that you would be much safer if you carried a weapon for self-defense,"
Kaname paged her way through the printouts, barely looking at them. "Let me guess, this thing's full of shotguns and stuff, right?" She then blinked, and flipped back a few pages. "Walther PPK? James Bond's gun?"
Sousuke just looked at her blankly.
"You know, 007, Licence to Kill, The Spy Who Loved Me, Golden Eye?" she asked, making a finger gun with one hand. "You haven't seen any James Bond movies?"
"Does this mean you'd be willing to carry the PPK if I obtained one? They are readily concealable, and the recoil is low, but they don't have much stopping power."
"Well, it is kinda cool," she admitted, and then shook her head. "I'm not going to carry a gun to school."
"Not a problem," Sousuke replied, nodding his head.
Kaname blinked. "So… you're just giving up on this?"
"Yes, that seems acceptable," he answered.
"Well," she snapped the barrel back into place on what she was relatively sure was a Beretta, "I'm glad you saw common sense, finally."
HR.
Yoshi Takamura yawned, reaching down for his coffee cup as the last customer passed his post. He glanced up towards the clock, thankful that it showed only five minutes until the end of his shift. For a moment, he fantasized about a nice, home-cooked meal, before the sound of paper hitting his desk and a clearing throat brought him back to reality. "Ah, hello," he said, hauling his attention back to his job and taking in the young boy in a white button-down shirt and black pants that stood in front of him. "Let's see here."
"Straighten your tie."
"Hmm?" He asked, looking up from the boy's passport and other papers to see him looking fixedly at him. The glassy stare was a little bit disconcerting, but it was six in the morning. "Long flight, huh?" He asked, trying to make conversation.
The boy didn't respond, just staring fixedly ahead.
"Well… I'll just get this processed and you can get on your way," Yoshi said, starting to get a little nervous. This was stupid, he reassured himself, as the boy was rather small and skinny, and there was a security guard behind him. Passing the kid's records rapidly through the system, he found no problems and looked up. "Looks like you're free to go, pal. Have a good time in Tokyo."
"You're tie, it's crooked..:"
Offering the kid's papers back to him, the customs agent blinked. He was clenching one hand at his side, and his eyebrow was rhythmically ticking.
"Are you all right?" Yoshi asked, just before the boy leapt across the table at him, one hand lashing out for his throat. The next few minutes were a confusing blur of yelling, kicking and yanking, but eventually the security guards got the kid off of him, dragging him towards the doors to the holding cell. "Why didn't you straighten your tie!" The kid bellowed, his head flailing back and forth rapidly.
"My… tie?" Yoshi asked, as one of his coworkers helped him up. Looking down, he saw that though the rest of the front of his shirt was torn to pieces, his tie lay perfectly straight, secured by his tie bar.
END.
Wow... Being completely serious here, we did not see Nodoka being that... insane. The scary part is that she springs from the same characterization starting point as the Nodoka in "Jonabee Fanfic." Bet that breaks your brain because it sure as heck breaks ours.
In any event, we hope you enjoy and leave us feedback.. or don't enjoy and leave us feedback, or... Yeah, you get the point.