Chapter 6: Mobilization

Dr. Isamu Ando looked out a second story window of the Ono Clinic and pondered the TV crew van parked across the street. He knew they were trying to find out about the disturbances last night throughout Nerima and now they had found the front door of the clinic missing. Chie and her husband had done their best to create a makeshift door, but there was only so much one could do without the proper parts. Despite what some people think, Ando wasn't stupid. He was arrogant and self-centered, but not stupid. He knew the disturbance started here. He could also make a few guesses about who was responsible (or at least involved). Now, he had the chance to get in on a news story and focus attention on himself. Just a few quick words and a few inferences would shake up those bastards at Nerima General who had banished him to this clinic. They would hear the threats implicit in his voice that he would tell the truth about what really happened in Nerima unless they pulled him back to the main hospital.

The thing was, he sort of liked the people at the clinic. They never missed an opportunity to bust his chops, but they also never missed an opportunity to be nice to him either (even if some of them did consider him a pain, which he knew). Did he really want to do that to them? Ono was a demanding boss, but Ando was learning despite himself. And Ono always had your back – you never felt that he would hang you out to dry, unlike some of the clinics about Tokyo. If Ando got back into the hospital by blackmail, then who would really trust him again? Certainly not the people he betrayed or the people he blackmailed.

Ando started to sigh when Chie interrupted him: "Doctor Ando? We have a problem, and it's rather bad."

Ando turned to the Office Manager. "Are you referring to the TV van outside?" he asked.

"The what?" Chie started, and then looked out the window. "Oh, hell," she said. "They've seen the damage."

Ando nodded. "What else is up?"

Chie turned from the window and looked with a worried face at Ando. "It's Ranma, Doctor. He's stuck in a tree locked in his female side and he seems to be stuck in Neko-mode as well. Tofu is out of reach right now and the cops are clamoring for help – they think she may be in pain. The new judge has seen Ranma and has ordered that he been taken to Nerima General, but no one's sure how to make Ranma move safely."

Ando closed his eyes. "O.K. Isamu, it's time for a choice," he told himself. "You can take that news crew to Ranma and escort him to Nerima General, securing your place there once and for all. Or you can support Ono and the Clinic." He paused for a second and thought: "Ranma is an arrogant ass, but so am I, and sometimes we bastards needed to stick together." He blew out a breath and said out loud, "Ah, I'd make a lousy Chief of Staff anyway."

"I'm sorry, Isamu?" Chie said confused.

"All right Chie, listen up. Tell the police not to move Ranma and to keep things as low key as possible. Don't upset the girl, just leave her be. Tell them I'm putting some medicine together to help them and I'll be there as soon as I can, but she'll be fine if no one bothers her. I may need a ladder though."

"You know how to get her out of the tree?" Chie asked.

"Yeah, I do." he confirmed. "Don't worry about it. Next, that news crew will be in here shortly. Keep them away from me for about twenty minutes. Tell them I'm with a patient."

"Won't they be suspicious if no one is with you when you finally see them?" she asked.

"No, because you're going to tell Nurse Kanon to change into her running clothes. She's now my patient. She can also give me a hand prepping what I need to help Ranma." He motioned her to follow him to the stairs. "Then call your husband and ask him to come back. He's knows enough to play maintenance worker for us. Ono's buying us all a nice dinner when this is over."

Chie nodded. She didn't know where Ando was going with this, but she knew he was onboard.

Ando started again: "As soon as you are off the phone with your husband, get me the number for Ranma's friend, Daisuke – the one who built the tasers for us. I need to talk to him. Finally, I need you to call Tofu's friend Hideo, the florist. Tell him Ranma's in trouble and I need some valerian root, some Tatarian honeysuckle wood, some silver vine, and some Nepeta Cataria. I'm sure he has them."

"Nepeta what?" she asked.

"Nepeta Cataria – also known as catnip," he grinned smugly.

Chie hugged him: "That's brilliant!"

He gave her a quick hug back, "Of course it is, now let's move!" He led her down the stairs. "I've talked to Ono about the Cat Fu, and from what he's told me, I'm pretty sure one of those plants will work, but I need to prep some other things. Send Kanon to me as soon as she's changed." He walked quickly to his office.

A short time later, Chie knock on Ando's office door. She went in when acknowledged and found Kanon grinding up some tablets while Ando searched through some files he had taken from Tofu's office. "Doc? Here's Daisuke's number."

"Fantastic," he said. He took the number and dialed the lad. "Daisuke? It's Doctor Ando over at the Ono Clinic…Yes, I know about Ranma, and I'm trying to get there as fast as I can, but I could use your help…How'd you like to be famous for fifteen seconds my inventor friend? I could use a cover story and I think you can help us out…"

When Hideo pulled up to the Ono Clinic, he saw a news crew outside filming the front door. He pulled on his cap and grabbed the bundle of plants, taking time to hide it among some roses to make the bundle look innocuous. Then he got out and walked past the news crew to go around to the back entrance. He saw that Naoki Shimizu and Daisuke were standing with a newswoman and he heard the newswoman start recording:

"Hello, I'm standing in front of the Ono Clinic in Nerima, the site of one of those mysterious explosions that happened overnight. However, unlike many of the other disturbances, this one has a known explanation…"

Hideo's eyes widened and then he grinned as he heard Daisuke start to talk about a prototype door actuator that the young man had been working on. Daisuke said that the clinic had let him use the front door as a test site, but the actuator had malfunctioned when a large power surge hit it last night. "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. When the police hear that one, they'll run with the story of power surges across the city…" Hideo thought. He ran around the back and let himself in.

Chie ran back to greet him: "Did you get everything Isamu asked for?"

"Yep. And I did one better," he answered her. "Where's the Doc?"

She took him to Ando's office, who was alone when he greeted them. Ando asked: "Did you have all the plants?"

"Here's the silver vine and the catnip. Chie, you can keep the roses. I also have the dried valerian root here. But I brought powdered honeysuckle instead," Hideo answered. Chie took the flowers and left.

Ando's grin became absolutely vicious for some reason. "Genius!" he exclaimed as he took the honeysuckle from Hideo.

"You're making a giant cat toy, aren't you?" Hideo said. It wasn't really a question. "How do you know it will work? It's usually genetic whether a cat is sensitive to the plants and Ranma's not really a cat. Even if it does work, the plant toys only hold a cat's attention for a couple of minutes, before the cat's nose becomes overloaded and it loses interest."

"I'm aware. I own four cats myself. All of them are immune to catnip, two are immune to valerian, one is immune to silver vine, and all of them fall for the powdered honeysuckle. But, I know at least one of the cat spirits inside Ranma is sensitive to powdered honeysuckle, something his rivals would kill to know, so keep that to yourself. I don't know why a spirit would be sensitive – maybe it remembers an imprint from the living DNA."

"You know about the Cat Fu?" Hideo asked looking stunned.

Ando gave a short laugh. "Look," he said. "I didn't want to believe in magic, but you can't hang around Ono and not pick up on the idea. Ono is a damn good doctor, but I know he's also a damn good witch doctor. Besides, it's really hard not to believe when you have all these damn shape-changers in Nerima transforming in front of you. It gives me a headache thinking about all the so-called Natural Laws they are breaking, but the evidence says they are real, so they are."

"As for the powdered honeysuckle," Ando continued, "I bought a toy packed with the stuff on my lunch hour one day for my cats, and Ranma couldn't seem to leave it alone. Since then, anytime he pisses me off, I blow some powdered honeysuckle in his face and he sinks to the floor. He stays sitting there for a few minutes and then gets up and goes about his business, forgetting that he was busting my chops.

"Oh my god!" Hideo said in wonder. "Do you know how many people would pay to know that?! His teachers alone would offer a small fortune!"

Ando snorted a laugh, "Yeah, well if word got out, I'd have to tell him the truth. I think if he knew what was happening, he could stop it – he is mostly human after all. So, please don't tell anyone or use it yourself – find another method. Let me stay one-up on him!" Ando almost begged.

Hideo laughed. "All right, but what about the time limit? Once the plants wear off, what are you going to do?"

Ando picked up the plants and began bruising the leaves, then stuffing them into a small round cushion about 30 cm in diameter. The insides of the cushion were also covered in a fine white powder. Ando spoke as he worked: "Kanon helped me ground up some mild sedatives which I dumped into the cushion. When he bats the cushion, some of the sedatives will puff out. According to Ono's files, all the Nerima Martial Artists are affected by the milder sedatives, even if they are resistant to the heavier ones. I'm hoping Ranma will still be affected by them as well. Between that and a little bit of fish, I hoping it may make him pliable enough to move him, but not trigger a severe fight or flight response. I also don't want to knock Ranma out though – it may do damage to him in this state. I know the police want him to go to the hospital, but I'll be satisfied if he just runs home – we can deal with him privately there. I'm not sure he'll do that though if Akane's not there. I'm just hoping that he trusts me enough in his altered state for me to get close."

"Do you want me to try?" Hideo asked.

Ando shook his head and gave Hideo a very direct look. "No," he said. "I need you here. My local witch doctor is unreachable. Unless you have a way to contact him, you'll have to do."

The two men held each other's gazes. "I trust you'll keep quiet about that?" Hideo finally asked.

"You keep my secrets and I'll keep yours," Isamu agreed.

Hideo relaxed. "What do you want me to do?" he asked Ando.

The doc said: "What ever happened to Ranma happened in this clinic. There are signs that he came here last night to get away from something. I don't know what, but it looks like he set himself up in one of the patient rooms. Please go upstairs to room D and see if you can figure out what happened. There's an odd smell I cannot place – maybe you can. I have my cell phone on me – call me if you find out anything. Maybe Ranma will snap out of this thing by himself, maybe he will need help. If the latter is the case, the sooner we get answers, the sooner we get him back."

A little while later, Hideo was upstairs after having seen Isamu off. He looked around the room carefully. The doc was obviously right – Ranma did set himself up here last night. There were a few manga on the floor and a can of soda by the bed. Ranma's shoes were downstairs and his socks were up here. Ando was also right about the smell. There was a sharp smell that reminded Hideo of a reptile house at the zoo and there was definitely an arcane component to the smell. Hideo looked at the sheets on the bed, and saw a faint grey stain. He could also make out an outline where someone had lain.

He ran downstairs for some gloves and a collection kit. Chie saw him and asked: "Did you find anything?"

"Yes," Hideo answered. "Someone poured a potion of some sort on Ranma last night while he was sleeping. There still traces of it in the bedsheets. I'm going to gather what I can of it, and hit the local practitioners. We need to know what was done. In the meantime, close off room D and send anyone who needs overnight care to Nerima General – don't use the upstairs until we find out what the hell that stuff is. Until we know for certain, let's keep exposure to a minimum. You have a good excuse not to hold any overnight patients with the front door missing." With that, he ran off to get a collection kit.

Kasumi left the local gift shop in Muroran with an upbeat step in her walk. Her trip north had been very productive and, while she was still organizing things in her head, the plan was looking more and more doable. To top it off, she now had a gift for Akane. Once she had something for Nabiki, she could relax. Ranma was easy to shop for; if it was edible, he was happy. She was basically playing tourist now until she took the train/ferry home tomorrow. While her little research trip had been fun and her fiancée was away on "family business", she was still anxious to go home.

Suddenly, the cell phone in her pocket went off, startling her. She was not use to the phone yet. While almost everyone in Japan had a cell phone these days that did not include the Kasumi or Akane (Nabiki was always a law unto herself). Money had been too tight for the longest time. Things were easier with Father's two jobs, but the daughters still didn't have phones yet – Kasumi had her Father's cell phone that the Town Council provided. Soun has at the business conference and wouldn't need the phone, so he had insisted that Kasumi take it on her trip north. "Hello, Soun Tendo's phone," she answered. "I'm sorry, he's not here right now. He's at a conference on the west coast. This is his daughter Kasumi…Oh, hello, Inspector Ojima….I see. Yes, that does sound like a problem…Oh my. Who is with her now?...Well, I've met Officer Ueda and he struck me as a nice man….No, I haven't met Judge Sanu…Oh my….Maybe Ranko should be sent to the Ono Clinic instead? I have great faith in Dr. Ando…I'm sorry?...Oh dear…I see. Well, since I'm of legal age, maybe the judge will release her to me. I'm in Hokkaido, but I'm going to start my way home immediately…Yes, sir. I'll will go immediately to the hospital…Thank you, sir. Goodbye."

Uncharacteristically, she sighed when she hung up. Chaos had struck a lot sooner than Kasumi planned. Still, her fiancé had warned her, so she shouldn't have been surprised. Her usual smile appeared on her face again as she walked to the nearest park. She managed to find a somewhat secluded area and stopped. Once a few people had moved on, she called out sharply: "Tomo!" (1)

Almost instantly, a young boy about twelve years old appeared in front of her. "Yes, Lady Kasumi?" he said respectfully.

"That should be 'Aunt Kasumi', Tomo," she corrected gently. "You're suppose to be undercover."

"Yes, Aunt Kasumi," he agreed.

"It seems Tofu was not being overly paranoid when he insisted that you accompany me north. I need the fastest way to get back to Nerima. Things have taken a turn for worse at home. Looks like it's time to do your penance – go check your contacts and find me the fastest non-magical way home," she requested, although see couldn't stop from saying: "Please?"

Tomo bowed respectfully, "Immediately La- Aunt Kasumi!" With that, he vanished.

Still smiling, Kasumi returned to the gift shop to find a gift for Nabiki – she no longer had the time to browse at her leisure…

Daisuke shot into the back yard of Hiroshi's house and ran up to the back door. He rapped on the door sharply, and Hiroshi stuck his head out a second story window. "It's open," Hiroshi called out and then retreated.

Daisuke entered and ran up the stairs. He flew into Hiroshi room. "Dude, did you see me on the TV?" he yelled out.

"Yep," Hiroshi answered as he was packing a backpack. "You looked good, but you're going to have to invent that actuator now."

"Ah, why the hell not," Daisuke said throwing himself into a chair. "It will keep me out of trouble for a bit." He shrugged. Then he noticed the backpack and asked: "Are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I'm going to the spa the girls are at," Hiroshi said.

"Excuse me? You know where they are? Why the hell didn't you say something?" Daisuke asked with exasperation.

"I did. I told the cops. They are trying to reach them discretely, but they are on Jinaito Island off of Niijima. There's no cell coverage there and no ferry – you get there by chartered boat. Since Ranma's stuck as Ranko, she doesn't really have a legal guardian. That judge has taken control of things for some reason and will only release her to her Mom and Dad. The cops don't think they can order a boat out to get Mrs. Saotome without the judge finding out, although I'm not sure why. Then it has to be explained how Mrs. Saotome is Ranko Tendo's mother."

"For heaven's sake, everyone knows about Ranma's curse, what's one more person?" Daisuke demanded.

"The judge is a complete unknown. And it's not so much about Ranma as it is about Nerima itself. You have noticed things are a little weird here, right?" Hiroshi asked.

"It has occurred to me, yes," Daisuke acknowledged sardonically.

"Some people like to pretend it's normal though. Others have secrets they want to protect. Yet others are afraid of what's hidden in this city. No one wants the judge poking around in case he finds something they don't want found. They are afraid Ranma will give the judge an excuse," Daisuke explained. "Everyone wants to maintain control."

"Good bloody luck," Daisuke snorted while rolling his eyes.

"I agree, but that's not my problem right now. The police may be handicapped, but I'm not. And the difference of getting Akane back here a few days early may make or break things," Hiroshi stated.

"Hold on, how do you think you are going to get out to the island?" Daisuke challenged.

"My mom's brother is a pilot," Hiroshi answered. "My mom heard what is happening and she asked him to go. I'm going with him. We are going to fly down to Niijima and either rent a copter or a boat. Jinaito's an easy distance from there. With luck, we can be down there by this evening and go out first thing in the morning. We can probably get back here tomorrow afternoon with Akane and Mrs. Saotome."

"Sounds good. When do we leave?" Daisuke said.

"Aren't you helping the Clinic? You need to be findable for that cover story, especially since the police are going to run with that power surge angle to explain all the sounds last night. You better work on keeping your story straight instead," Hiroshi told his friend.

Daisuke was going to argue, but his brain was quick enough to see his friend was right. He slumped dejectedly.

"Cheer up," Hiroshi said as he picked up his backpack. "The other news channels are going to be looking for you too. Your fifteen seconds of fame may become fifteen minutes..."

The Mayor of Nerima sat in his office cursing his idiocy. He couldn't raise anyone at the conference because he had forbidden them to break protocol and take their cell phones to the conference. The conference organizers also refused to interrupt the sessions. Soun wouldn't get his messages until he got back to the hotel. The Mayor called and booked tickets for Soun on the first train back to Nerima in the morning. He just had to try and maintain things until tomorrow afternoon.

He called the Records Department, "Is it done?" he asked the first person who picked up the phone.

"I think so…" the person asked.

"What do you mean 'I think so…'?" the Mayor demanded.

"Someone swiped the file as soon as it went back to Records. We are hoping the ink had time to dry…" the voice on the other end answered.

"Oh hell…" thought the Mayor.

Akari looked out over her domain with a sigh at what Ryoga had done this morning:

A winter's worth of wood chopped and stacked – check.

The winter hay all moved into the barn loft – check.

The north grain field harvested, separated, composted and turned for the winter – check.

All mature apples picked and stored in the silo – check.

The tractor, the combine harvester, the composter, and any tools cleaned and idle (not that they had been used today) – check.

All the animals fed, watered, bathed, and living in fear of anything walking on two legs – check.

Six farm workers terrified that she would lay them off – check.

"All right," she addressed the farm workers, "Where is he?"

Jun spoke up: "He's in the east field ma'am."

"Fine. And relax, please. This is a farm; there will be more work to do tomorrow and I have a few projects we can get a start on. In the meantime, please check everything he has done and make the proper adjustments. Then see if you can coax the animals out of the barn and back into their outdoor pens. I'll have a chat with him," she told him.

"Actually, there's no need to have a chat with him," she thought to herself as she walked to the east field with her faithful sidekick, Katsunishiki – the (extremely) large Sumo pig. "He didn't do anything wrong, but he doesn't usually wake up like this, so something's up. Besides, I need the farm workers to realize that this is not normal and I still need them too. I have some busy work I can give them for the day…"

She found him in the cherry grove sitting on a rock. He sometimes came up here to think. The GPS unit she had given him was hanging around his neck. With his family curse broken, it now worked and was set to lead him back to the farm house. As she approached, she noticed that weeds in between the cherry trees were systematically vanishing. "Whoa, has his power grown that much?" she wondered. As she got closer though, she could see that something was indeed up. Even in the bright sunlight, she could see the bright blue aura surrounding him. "Oh crap," she thought. "Ranma's in the Cat Fist – that's what this is about."

His posture told her that he knew she was there, so she walked up behind him and put her arms around him: "What's up sweetie? And don't tell me 'nothing'. I can see the aura," she told him.

He looked slightly surprised at that. "You shouldn't be able to. I'm not trying to project it. Even if I was, the sunlight would wash it out. You might be 'gifted' yourself. Your training with Kasumi might be awakening it."

She shrugged. "I am who I am. I'll worry about that later." Then her voice hardened: "Now stop trying to change the subject."

Ryoga started to protest that he wasn't trying to, but that would be counter-productive, so he dropped it – he was learning slowly, but surely. She was concerned about him, so he answered: "Ranma's been in the Cat Fist since I woke up early this morning. Given my power reserves, he's been in it for at least a few hours before that. It's now the afternoon and he hasn't come out of it. Akane's away at that retreat, so I'm starting to worry that he can't come out of it without her."

Akari nodded her head. She knew about the retreat since Akane had invited her as well, but Akari couldn't be away from the farm that long during harvest time. However, that was before Ryoga had done his two-yen worth. "I think it's time for us go to Nerima," she told him.

Ryoga shook his head. "We can't leave until the harvest is done," he said firmly.

She laughed then. "My, my. You have been distracted this morning, haven't you? Jun and the rest are scared I'm going to lay them off. We are several days ahead of schedule at this moment. They can maintain things for a few days."

"Ah, hell. I didn't mean to take their jobs," Ryoga said.

"Relax, there's still plenty to do," she said. "I think we will use Katsunishiki to go to Nerima though. If Ranma is still stuck when we get there, we may need Katsunishiki's strength and they won't let me take a sumo pig on the train for some reason."

Ryoga grinned at the small mountain standing next to his Beloved. "Gee, I wonder why…"

Akane was feeling very restless. She couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that hung over her. It wasn't that she was missing Ranma (she was, but that wasn't it). It wasn't that she felt alone (hard to be alone with all the women about). Still, ever since last night, starting about midnight, she felt something was out-of-sorts.

"What's wrong Akane? Aren't you feeling well?" Nodoka asked her.

"I'm not," Akane told her. "I'm feeling off, like something is wrong back home."

"I'm sure everything is fine, Akane. Maybe you just miss Ranma?" the mother said hopefully.

Akane heard the teasing tones and smiled, "Yeah, I do miss him. When he's not about, I feel as if I've misplaced something valuable. But this isn't that. I hope everything is all right. I wish I could call home…"

Nodoka pulled Akane into a walk and tried to make her feel better, but deep down, she was worried too, and wished they really weren't so isolated.

Tatewaki walked silently toward the train station trying not to attract attention. Hopefully, it would be several hours before his uncle noticed he was missing. He had to get back to Nerima and celebrate this great day. His spies informed him that Saotome had been captured by the police and locked away for good. He must go and claim his Fierce Tigress, now that she was free of his evil.

Footnotes:

(1) Tomo was introduced in Chapter 7 of "The Date" and played a significant part on that night.

Next up: Dr. Ando has to walk a fine line between perjury to a judge or getting lockup in a mental hospital. See you for "In The Neko"...