Chapter 13: Casualty.
"So… I thought you had the month off," Kaname commented, as she, Sora, Ranma and Tessa sat around the Sagaras' kitchen table.
Ranma shrugged. "Not my mission, part of Sousuke's."
"What does this have to do with protecting me?" the teal haired girl asked, tilting her head.
"Different mission," Sora replied. "A-21?"
Kaname just looked blank, but the grey haired girl across from her fidgeted.
Ranma sighed. "This ain't gunna work," he began, but then turned to his niece. "Kaname, this isn't really related to you, and pretty high level. You should probably go home."
"Oh, right, because whatever it is is going to magically dodge me if I stay across the hall," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, I already know something's going on, and I'm not going to stop until I find out what."
Ranma winced. "That's a good way to get yourself shot or arrested y'know. Just… promise you're not gunna dive-tackle someone in the middle of an armed standoff again. That was stupid, and coulda gotten you shot. By either side."
Kaname maintained a glare into the pigtailed man's eyes for a moment, but then looked away.
"You can't be serious!" the grey haired girl burst out. "We can't involve her in this, it's too dangerous!"
"Kaname does have a point," Sora stated. "If this building is compromised, her apartment would likely be searched along with any others. She may not be any safer going home, so I would like to continue guarding her."
"And we can't pull you out," Ranma nodded. "Kaname, don't suppose you'd be willing to head over to Nabiki's place on your own?"
"I thought I made myself clear before," the girl growled back.
Ranma sighed. "Of course you did. Sorry, Captain, I think we're stuck with her."
"I don't like this at all," the girl who both Sora and Ranma had called Captain grumbled. "But in this situation, I suppose I can't help it."
"So are you finally going to explain that?" Kaname asked, gesturing with her chin to a boy who was sitting in the corner, glaring at them all and handcuffed to a radiator.
"Glad somebody noticed me," the boy griped. "I'd wave, but… you know."
The captain nodded. "He is a member of the terrorist organization A-21. He was captured entering Japan on an international flight, when he attacked a customs agent.
"He should have straightened his tie!" their captive snapped.
The grey haired girl continued speaking as though she hadn't been interrupted. "I was brought in to examine him for…. classified purposes, but the holding facility was attacked."
"And now you're here with him," Kaname finished, dubiously.
"This was the closest area with a Mi… where I could find members of our group," the captain replied.
"Has the prisoner been searched?" Sora asked.
"The captain went over him when we first tied him up," Ranma said, "But it wouldn't hurt for you to search him too."
"Right," the redhead agreed, standing.
"Ah, searched by another pretty girl," the boy said. "It's too bad we're going to have to kill you."
"Unlikely," Sora replied, releasing the handcuff that was secured around the radiator and pushing the boy slightly forward. After a quick, efficient pat-down, her hand stopped, resting on his left bicep. "Captain?" she asked, turning it slightly to face the group.
The grey haired girl moved forward and crouched beside the redhead. "Hmm, a transmitter," the captain announced.
"It's probably been broadcasting his position since you got here," Sora nodded.
"Then his friends are pretty slow," Ranma snarked. "He's been here a few hours already."
The captain gave the older man a disapproving glance. "We're going to have to remove it, then move. Do either of you have any surgical training?"
"Well I do, but it's probably gunna hurt a lot," Ranma offered.
The prisoner paled noticeably at this.
"Um, excuse me?" Kaname interjected, feeling slightly left out. "It's sensitive electronics, right?" At the captain's nod, the teal haired girl gestured at the microwave.
The three mercenaries looked at each other. "That's… actually not a bad idea," Ranma said. "Microwave radiation's probably a lot less dangerous than my surgical skills without anesthetic."
The prisoner shifted uncomfortably, his shoulder at an odd angle due to the way Sora was holding the handcuffs. "If you're trying to psyche me out, it's not working,"
"We're just going through options," Ranma paused for a moment. "Making you nervous is just a bonus." The boy just glared.
HR.
"Move and I shoot you," Sora said, poking the barrel of her pistol through the light fabric that made up the back of the wheelchair and into the brown haired boy's back.
"Paralyzed, got it," he said, his arms twitching uncomfortably where they'd been strapped to the arms of the chair under a thick blanket.
"Are you certain…" the redhead started.
"Sousuke, that's the third time you've asked," Ranma cut her off, leaning back in the couch. "I doubt they're gunna come here shooting everything up, and I'm only going to slow you guys down at the school."
"But they know he was held here," Sora objected.
"In the building, sure," Ranma shrugged. "I doubt their tracking device is precise enough to get individual apartments, and if it is… I'll handle that when it comes up." He paused for a moment, thinking. "This place isn't wired to explode if someone breaks down the door, is it?"
"I will disarm the automatic countermeasures," the girl said, before turning and leaving the living room.
"You people are screwed up, you know that?" the prisoner asked, trying to crane his neck to see the man on the couch.
Ranma just shook his head. "Says the guy who strangled a security agent over a crooked tie."
"I didn't strangle him," the boy retorted. "I straightened his tie."
"Riiiight," Ranma replied, just as the front door opened and a startled exclamation of pain was heard.
"What were you doing crouching in the doorway?" Kaname's irritated voice came from the front hall.
Levering himself up off of the couch, Ranma moved over and peered down the hall to see the redhead sprawled out on the ground, rubbing her forehead with a small brick of C4 in her hand. "That's disarmed, right?" he asked, quickly.
Sora held the brick up, revealing the holes where the detonator pins had been, and a small outline of what looked like… an ear… on one side.
"Why did you have your front door wired to explode?" Kaname asked, flatly. "Wait… did you ALWAYS have your door wired to explode?"
"I thought you'd stop asking these questions by now," Ranma replied.
"I open that door!" the teal haired girl yelled.
"I am an explosives expert. I assure you the C4 would not go off through normal action," Sora replied, climbing to her feet.
"That isn't exactly reassuring," the taller girl grumbled.
Through all of this, Tessa merely watched, her expression caught between incredulity and fear. Eventually, after fidgeting with the bow on the front of her borrowed school uniform for a moment, she cleared her throat. "Is the captive ready for transport? I've changed into some less conspicuous clothing, and Miss. Chidori has… set up her television recording," at this she gave the other girl an incredulous look.
"Hey, I am NOT missing this episode!" Kaname exclaimed. "Midori is finally going to come out of her coma this week!"
"We are ready," Sora answered, ignoring Kaname's comment and heading into the other room to grab the wheelchair.
"Good luck," Ranma said, as the other Jusenkyo curse victim walked past him.
HR.
"So… what's your name, anyways?" Kaname asked, as she sat across the table from their prisoner, Sora and the captain flanking her.
"Hmm, interrogated in the teacher's lounge?" the boy asked.
"It's not an interrogation," Kaname replied. "I just don't want to call you 'that guy over there' or something."
"Takuma," he answered shortly. The room fell into an uncomfortable silence for several minutes after that, during which time the only motion was Sora getting up to check the window a couple of times.
"So, you're the captain of a submarine?" Kaname tried throwing her conversational hat into the ring again, before she started gnawing off her own fingers from boredom.
The captain in question winced. "We really shouldn't talk about that," she nodded at Takuma.
Kaname sighed. "..of course." She was in the midst of pondering if pulling out her phone to play the game of tetris she'd gotten tired of a year ago would be worth it, and wishing she'd sprung for some extra games, when the device rang and she almost jumped out of her skin. She laughed nervously as everyone in the room looked at her, before answering.
"Hello? Oh! Kyoko! Um, it's really not a good… you're watching it? Really? Well, um, I can't right now and it's being recorded so you probably shouldn't spoil… it's a what? You have got to be kidding me! That's so lame!"
"Kaname..." Sora started, looking at her somewhat irritated.
"I can't believe the producers would do something so hackneyed… but… Sousuke's looking at me and I promised to help him with his homework, so…" She blushed a bit. "Just shut up and enjoy your clip show!" Huffing, the teal haired girl tossed her phone onto the table, glaring at it as it skittered a small ways across it.
"Is… something wrong?" the captain asked.
"Oh, it's nothing important," Kaname replied, shaking her head. "I should have seen it coming really, but damn."
HR.
"No, Kyoko, I don't think Sousuke cares about a soap opera. No, I don't care either. Well I'm sorry Kaname's not around to talk to about it, but…" Ranma raised his head as he heard the sound of the front door crashing open. "Hey, sorry Kyoko, but I've gotta let ya go, the pizza's here," he said, quickly, before hanging the phone up. Wincing at the probable expense, he brought a fist down on the keypad and screen, smashing the device beyond repair.
As the first assault-rifle wielding man entered the living room, cautious and obviously startled by the loud noise, he waved. "So I guess your tracking tech really is that good… even if you took four hours to get here."
The man jumped and Ranma exhaled a sigh of relief when his finger stopped millimeters from pressing the trigger. "I've got one in here!" the man barked. "Room is clear!"
Several more men entered the room, and then fanned out to make quick checks of the bedrooms and closets before taking up quite professional looking covering positions. "You! Down on the ground!" the man who was holding a gun on Ranma demanded.
The pigtailed martial artist smiled nervously. "Look, I'm pretty badly injured. You want…" He was responded to by a quick step forward and a rifle-butt across the head. Going with the force, he rolled sideways off of the couch and winced as he felt stitches straining. "Guess that answers that question," he mumbled, his face buried against the carpet.
A second later, he felt the cold steel of a gun's muzzle pressed against the back of his head. "From what you said when I came in, you knew we were coming, and knew about Kugayama's transmitter. Why are you still here?"
"I told you, I'm injured," Ranma said, wishing they'd gotten less deep-pile carpeting. The stuff tasted horrible. "Figured I'd slow them down too much."
"One hell of a bad outfit you've got, then," the man replied. He sounded almost… sympathetic. "Just tell us what we want to know, and we'll leave you alone. Where did your friends take Kugayama, and what group do you work for?"
Ranma risked moving his head to the side to stare at someone's boots. "It might be a bad outfit, but I'm loyal," he responded. "Not gunna tell you that." That statement immediately got him a kick to the face from the boot he was staring at, and he let out a pained cry, biting down on his lip in order to send a trickle of blood running down his chin.
"Sir, we can't stay here much longer," another voice came from the hallway. "The people in the other apartments are starting to notice, I think."
"Damnit…" Ranma's questioner growled."You still aren't going to talk?" Ranma shook his head. "You two, secure this guy. We're taking him with us."
"Watch the ribs!" Ranma said before he was abruptly yanked to his feet by the arms, gripped firmly on either side.
HR.
"Kaname, where are you going?" Sora asked, from where she'd been sitting, quietly checking the condition of a seemingly endless stream of weapons she'd gotten from… somewhere as the other reached for the door handle.
The teal haired girl looked back irritably. "The washroom."
"You shouldn't leave this room alone," Sora objected.
"It's just the washroom. I'm not going to get jumped on my way there." Kaname rolled her eyes as she saw the redhead's narrow. Of course she thought that would happen. Sora started towards her, holstering the weapon she'd just been working on. "Before you say anything, you're not going in with me."
"But I…" the shorter girl started.
"Someone has to stay here and look after him, right?" Kaname retorted.
"I'll go," the captain spoke up. "I need to use the bathroom anyway."
Sora nodded reluctantly, but then produced the pistol again and held it out to Kaname.
The teal haired girl took a long look at the weapon before huffing and grabbing it. "Let's go before Mr. Paranoid here tries to give me a SAW," she snapped.
When the door swung closed with a startling bang behind the gray haired girl, Sora turned back at a chuckle from the prisoner behind her. "It seems like neither of your friends get the gravity of the situation, do they?" he asked, conversationally. "Kind of funny for the blonde. I mean, she saw one of her comrades killed right in front of her. Maybe she's in shock. Or a sociopath."
Sora shook her head. "It's the kind of thing you see in noncombatants," she replied. "So relieved to be away from the shooting that it takes a while for the consequences to sink in."
"You seem to know a lot about that," the boy observed. "I was pretty sure you're not a 'non-combatant.' It's a shame, someone like you… or maybe that just makes you a bit cuter."
"My physical appearance has nothing to do with the current situation," Sora said, flatly.
"True," the boy nodded. "Especially when you're holding the gun." He squirmed slightly, trying to get comfortable despite his trussed up position. "I've got to ask, though, why Jindai High School? That's what this place is called, right?"
Sora didn't respond.
HR.
"So," Kaname said, leaning against the sink and studying her reflection. "Will you tell me your name now?"
"I still really shouldn't," the captain's voice came from within one of the bathroom stalls. "If you slipped and mentioned it to Takuma-san, it could be very bad."
The teal haired girl rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm carrying around enough secrets already, but it's really awkward calling you 'Captain' all the time, especially since I'm not a part of your crazy outfit."
"You really think we're crazy?" the other girl's voice sounded hurt.
"Well, you guys did hire Uncle Ranma," the Chidori girl replied. "Not to mention Sousuke."
"Sergeant Sagara is one of our most skilled people," the captain shot back, a little too quickly.
"Maybe, but it doesn't stop him from being nuts," Kaname replied. "I mean, he's a nice guy and all… when he's not being a jerk, but this afternoon he 'apologized' to me with a several hundred thousand yen engagement ring in front of the whole class!"
"He… what?" The door to the captain's stall flew open a second later, the girl looking more than a little dishevelled.
"I know, right?" Kaname returned, frowning. "The worst part was that it was HER who gave it to me, and I'm pretty sure she didn't even know what it meant."
"Oh, well…" The captain paused for a moment. "That must have been really awkward," she laughed nervously.
Kaname was about to respond, when the door next to the captain burst open, and two men holding assault rifles entered the room. "Raise your hands over your heads!" The lead one barked, his weapon trained on the Chidori girl's forehead.
"Damn it, not again…" she grumbled, raising her arms slowly.
HR.
"Squad 2 in position," an armored man said into his headset as he struggled for breath. He didn't want to sound winded over the communications line, even if it was somewhat understandable given the fact that he'd run four city blocks in full gear to get to the school. Since Takuma's signal had vanished an hour and a half earlier, dozens of A-21 members had been combing the district, and it was only a matter of luck that he and his squad had been close enough, along with the assault team who had apparently secured two hostages, to arrive quickly.
"Two-Two, you in position yet?" He asked into his radio, as he crouched behind a large spotlight on the roof of an athletic supply building near the school's rear entrance.
"This thing's heavy," he heard an annoyed grunt from a man setting up on the other end of the roof, the dark bulk of his rocket propelled grenade launcher easily visible in his arms.
Team two's leader raised his hand to his ear as he heard one of the guys holding the hostages make a call on a cell phone. There were some calmly exchanged words, and then the waiting began as his hands trembled very slightly where they were holding his rifle.
When the girl emerged, Takuma walking before her with one hand cuffed to hers, the man wanted to stifle a laugh. She was so short it was ridiculous, but the gleam of light on dark metal in her hand as he turned his spotlight to illuminate her more fully suppressed his mirth slightly.
"Don't try anything stupid!" one of the men on the ground called.
"I don't intend to," the girl called back. "How shall we proceed!"
"We'll send one of the women over," the man on the ground, who had apparently appointed himself leader of this whole operation spoke. "When she gets to you, you will release the handcuffs and we will exchange Takuma and the other woman at the same time."
The red haired girl nodded so slightly that team two's leader had a hard time seeing it. "Send over the caucasian woman first!" she called. "And the Japanese second!"
Said woman, the shorter one with grey-blonde hair, started across the distance between the A-21 members and the door, though her body language almost seemed angry. Still, everything went as routinely as a hostage exchange could. As Takuma and the other girl began to walk towards each other, a sense of foreboding began to build in the armored man's gut. When the two crossed, the feeling paid off in the redhead suddenly hurling something that she'd pulled out of her sleeve into the air, a bullet coming so close to his ear as it knocked out his light that he heard the whistle of displaced air, and then a blinding flash of light.
HR.
Kaname's hands were shaking like leaves as she hunkered behind the stone bench near the school's rear doors, The captain and Sora next to her. "I can't believe that worked," she panted. She half expected some comment from the redhead on the craftsmanship of the flashbang she'd just thrown, but Sora was apparently far too distracted firing a large rifle over the top of the bench.
As if the thought had been heard, the armed girl looked down at Kaname. "Do you still have that pistol I gave you?"
"What?!" the Chidori girl asked, incredulously. "They searched us; of course I don't!"
Sora frowned. "You have a disconcerting habit of losing my firearms," she complained, almost sounding as though several bullets weren't impacting their cover-bench from their recovering enemy.
"Well I'm sorry!" the teal haired girl retorted. "It's not my fault they…"
She was abruptly interrupted by the captain's indignant voice. "Sergeant! Would you two stop fighting each other and concentrate on them?"
"Yes ma'am," Sora replied, immediately. She raised her gun back up with one hand and her shoulder in a fashion that looked ridiculously unsafe to Kaname, and pulled a pistol from her blouse with the other. "Covering fire," she said succinctly, handing it to Kaname.
The Chidori girl gazed at the weapon dumbly for a moment, before she felt a stinging sensation on her leg. Looking down, she saw a shallow, but still bloody gash from what she guessed had been a ricochet under the bench.
Strangely, the pain and blood didn't seem to scare her any further, though maybe that was because doing so was impossible. Performing the actions she'd memorized just days before, she ensured that the gun was in firing condition, paying no mind to the captain checking her own weapon next to her.
Poking her head over the top of the bench, she spotted a humanoid figure on a rooftop, aiming a rifle in their direction. Running through all of the steps she'd been taught in her head, she matched up the probable ballistic arcs and windage flitting across her vision and pulled the trigger. The dark figure stumbled backwards, and then collapsed out of sight.
Without thinking, she moved on to the next target, only to realize that she could see a puff of smoke and fire coming from their position. Abruptly a weight smashed into her side, and reality rushed back in around her. "Down! Incoming!" Sora yelled, followed by thunder and heat.
HR.
"Honestly, the Russians are way better at this," Ranma commented, as he sat back in the rusted steel chair. He had to admit that was a nice touch, his back was killing him. "I mean seriously," he continued. "Repeated punches to the face? Gotta switch up the routine a bit or something."
"Is this guy some kinda sadist?" one of the two men who loomed over the pigtailed man in an attempt at an intimidating pose asked.
"That's masochist," Ranma corrected, helpful, "and it depends on who ya ask."
"He wasn't nearly this mouthy in the apartment," the other man commented.
"Guh," the man who'd spoken first shivered. "That's it, you take over for a while."
The other man sighed and pulled out a knife. "All we want to know is where your friends took the kid," he started. "We'll let you go if you answer the question."
"It's none of your business," Ranma responded. When the man abruptly stabbed him in the upper arm, he winced. "Hey, I thought you said I could go if I answered the question?" he asked with a perfect air of wounded innocence, ignoring the small trickle of blood.
The knife wielder's eyebrow twitched."I think he's fuckin' with us," he growled.
"Not enough alcohol on the planet," Ranma interjected.
"You little bastard," the knife wielder snarled, preparing to stab again when the large, hatch-like door to the dark room they were in swung open.
"We found him," a female voice carried into the room.
"Great," the interrogator without a knife said. "Can I kill this asshole now?"
"No," the woman replied. "We'll need him for something else. Pick him up."
"Yes, Ma'am!" the two men agreed in unison, grabbing their prisoner under each arm and hauling, uncaring that the chair he'd been tied to came up with him. When he made a slight whip-cracking noise under his breath, they cared even less.
END.
End note: Lotta Sora in this chapter. We actually wanted Sousuke male for this due to Tessa's crush starting to intensify here in canon, but then Mr... erm, Ms. Practicality had to butt in.
"Why would I change forms and clothes when there is a hostile in my apartment?"
"Well, maybe it's because the others could watch him."
"Yes, but that would result in fewer eyes on the prisoner, and as the end of this chapter has shown, that is inadvisable. My mission performance isn't significantly impacted, and I would prefer not to give an A-21 member any data on myself or Mithril, no matter how minor."
"Yeah, we guess... damn. I knew we should have had him change back in school."
"Affirmative."
On another note, sorry for the shortness of this one. We had to stop it around here or we'd end up having to write the entire arc in one chapter, and that would probably kill us. Besides, the cliffhanger was too good to pass up, despite almost everyone likely knowing how it will turn out.
Omake! - Omake! - Omake! - Omake!
Knowledge of Fumofu may be required to make this funny, sorry.
"W...what did you do?" The A-21 member lowered the rocket-propelled grenade launcher from his shoulder as he heard the anguished cry. Peering tentatively over the edge of the roof, he saw that his targets were buried under a blown out portion of the stone bench they'd been hidden behind. It hadn't been his best work, really, the rocket had gone wide and the crater showed that it'd almost smashed into a small, traditionally decorated meditation pond, but it'd done the job.
"What… you destroyed… CATHERINE!" The voice was somehow loud and strangled at once, and the A-21 member eventually traced it back to a balding middle-aged man who stood in the school's rear doors, a bowl of instant curried rice smashed at his feet.
"Catherine?" one of the guys on the ground called. "Was one of those girls named Catherine?"
"Doesn't matter," another called. "He's seen us, get rid of him."
"How dare you kill my Catherine!" the man yelled, in that same strained voice, before his face seemed to literally be engulfed in blackness, only visible in the darkened doorway due to the outline of green energy surrounding it. "She was like a granddaughter to me!"
"Wh… what the hell?" One man yelled, before raising his rifle and firing. His bullets intersected with the man, but then just vanished, not even producing a flinch or spray of blood. Slowly, the man reached behind his back, and came out with a running chainsaw. Then he charged.
MISSION REPORT: A-21 Incident.
A-21 was stopped due to the fact that one of their key assets went missing. We were not able to find them, and believe that they disappeared into the wilderness. Several other members of the group were found in a traumatized state. Unfortunately, no intelligence could be gained from them save the fact that they were attacked by something that was impervious to small arms fire.
Captain Testarossa, Sergeant Sagara and Kaname Chidori were recovered with only minor injuries, but were incapable of shedding any light on the chain of events.
END Omake.
If you didn't get it at all, but want to try to, look up "Live ammo has no effect… no fighting…" on youtube.