Author Note: Disclaimer, no contents of Ranma ½ or Sailor Moon have been thought up or invented by me. This is purely a work of fan fiction and is not meant for promotional or finical endeavors. This is meant to be made in respect and admiration for series' of Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi and all the contents of Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon belong, respectively, to them.
Please respect the fans, and fandom of the series by remaining polite and open minded while reading.
Metropolitan Police.
Ranma winced and let her eyes drag over the words displayed proudly over the door a few steps from where she was standing. From the time that she had been two the martial artist's life had repeatedly beat into her the frank lesson that Saotomes and police did not get along.
It could be from the ingrained questioning of authority and need to test themselves that Ranma was pretty sure was a trait that she had inherited – but, more than likely it was all the lying and stealing. Which while Ranma wasn't her father's son enough to have honestly gained a record pertaining the latter she certainly had spent plenty of time with the former.
Besides, the redhead grumbled and almost growled to herself as she thought, knowing how bad the fat ol' panda was half the time there quite likely was a list of crimes floating around somewhere with her name pinned to it.
Sensing someone approaching from behind her Ranma shoved her hands in her pockets and pivoted sharply on the heel of her right foot. The martial artist was slightly surprised to find herself facing a woman decked out in the blue uniform and black protective vest of a police patroller.
Ranma was unsurprised to also see that the brown haired woman – looking to be in either her mid or late twenties – was almost a head and a half taller than the martial artist in his cursed form. The universe was at least consistent about some things.
The policewoman had looked a bit taken back at the martial artist's quick response to her approach and while Ranma could tell that the woman was about to speak the redhead decided she had enough of dancing to others's tunes for the day.
"What's all that abou' then?" Ranma asked casually as she jerked her chin towards the noisily frantic crowd still pushing up against the cordone of officers.
The officer Ranma was facing off with only tightened her lips into a thick line of disapproval at the attitude the martial artist had adopted. "You should not be here Miss. We are currently dealing with a crisis." The woman's glare and clipped, flinty tone of voice laid lie to her polite choice of words.
"You askin' me ta' leave?" Ranma asked with a grin and then took a long, deliberate look at the mass of people at the gate. "Don't look exactly safe ta' me-" The martial artist turned her gaze back towards the officer in front of her. "-now does it?"
The policewoman's pressed down into a firm line once more and while her voice didn't ask how exactly Ranma had gotten in with the crowd being there – especially as the redhead didn't even seem to know why it was there – her eyes certainly did.
All of a sudden the sound coming from the crowd redoubled and this time both Ranma and the brown haired woman snapped their attention towards the gates. The patrollers guarding the redoubt were having to shove people back and the officer with the megaphone was now yelling ineffectively as the new wave of energy that possessed the mob pulled the cacophony to a height that was even capable of drowning out his electronically assisted voice.
Most disturbing of all though, was the fact that almost every pair of eyes seemed to be glued onto either Ranma or the brown haired officer besides her.
A white gloved hand clamped itself around Ranma's bicep and she started to turn even before anymore pressure was applied. The martial artist, once again, beat the other woman to the punch as the redhead spoke up first. "Into tha' station?"
The policewoman simply nodded in response and the two quickly moved up the steps with both a speed and skill in matching each other's pace that spoke of a quiet familiarity in strategic withdrawals.
As the double doors closed with a grateful thud the sounds from outside receded down to a dull rumble. Ranma turned towards the officer – the two having broken contact with each other while opening the doors to get inside – and this time was the one glaring as the anxiety from having a whole crowd turn on her like that sparked into anger
"What was that?"
The policewoman ignored the question for a moment as she stood a quick vigil in front of the two glass doors. As the crowd seemed to call down – or in some cases pushed and shouted down – the woman nodded to herself and then turned her attention towards Ranma.
"You don't-" The patroller clasped her hands together, knuckles standing out clearly against the cloth of her gloves, and her face tensed as she cut herself off. "Those people out there are all missing their daughters – over fifty kids already confirmed missing – and when they saw you seemingly coming out of the station-" The woman's glare pinned back the martial artist's anger as she paused. "For everyone out there right now any girl would do and if we hadn't gotten inside they would have rioted just to get a chance at touching you."
Ranma snorted and sent a flippant glare towards the doors and street beyond. "I ain't no girl." Pulling her hands out of her pockets the redhead crossed her arms. "Name's Saotome Ranma an' I ain't one ta' get touched – 'specially not by ah flock a' weepin' salary chasers."
The brunette lifted one eyebrow and smirked at the younger woman's aggravated and cocksure statement. "Sergeant Suzuki." The policewoman's tone of voice and overall demeanor managed to make the short, two word introduction into the equivalent of a loud and clear, 'Sure, whatever you say delinquent.'
Frowning at the rather discourteous treatment she was receiving from a public servant Ranma muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "What's gotten 'er panties in'na knot?"
Hearing the familiar sound of knuckles cracking the martial artist turned her attention sharply back towards Sergeant Suzuki. The police officer was standing with her back towards Ranma; the woman's posture was ramrod straight and both hands were curled tightly into fists and held in stasis by her sides.
When Suzuki turned her head and exposed a single baleful eye in the redhead's direction Ranma quickly mimed zipping her mouth tightly shut.
Following the officer around the block wall that served both as a strategic bottle neck and separated the entryway from the lobby proper Ranma was surprised to see that the receiving desk was unattended. Matching Suzuki step for step the martial artist silently took stock of her surroundings.
The hall they had turned down was both tight and solidly built; combined with the fact that the ceiling was relatively low and a surprising lack of side rooms the station would have been a nightmare for just about anyone besides Ryoga to fight in.
As the hall ahead of the pair finally turned off from its unerringly straight path Ranma's curiosity wrestled with the boredom that had begun to sink in as the myriad sounds of conversation drifted around the corner. The martial artist wasn't entirely certain where things were heading, but knowing how her life normally railroaded itself there was some sort of bizarre challenge coiling itself just beyond the horizon.
Turning the corner as she continued to follow Suzuki, Ranma felt a bit of tension that had subconsciously built in her muscles dissipate at the sight of the high ceiling'ed and open room that appeared to be the heart of this floor of the station. The area was filled with bustling officers working either in small groups or at the various islands of desks that partitioned the room into a clearly defined grid. Past the desks was an open area dominated by a large corkboard tacked to the wall between two heavy oak doors that marked the entrances to what was most likely a pair of private offices.
As soon as Suzuki had walked into view some of the police inside had begun to call out greetings or questions on who her "guest" was; the patroller mostly waved the questions off as her eyes scanned the crowd until locking onto the part of the room to their left that was the ceded domain of the office coffee maker.
Or, more specifically, the middle-aged officer sporting a bad comb-over that was just about to press the lip of his steaming mug of liquid excellence to his parched mouth.
The policewoman's arm snapped out in her contented fellow's direction at the same time as she motion with her other hand for Ranma to stop following her. "Aiba, get the once over on this kid so we can contact whoever needs to know about her!"
The man swiveled with the grace of an expert in being surprised and the liquid in his mug didn't even shiver as he lowered the cup away from his face. The man's face clearly asked the question of 'why' even before his lips started to move.
Suzuki, who had already turned away from the other officer and was stalking towards a chaos-ridden mess of a desk that was most likely hers, only jerked a thumb at Ranma from over her shoulder as she called back to Aiba. "You looked too happy to have any real work going on and I still need to get my set of files together for the Superintendent."
With a heavy sigh Officer Aiba waved Ranma over as he dragged a spare chair from out of the corner and over to the desk that was closest to the coffee maker.
The martial artist, a scowl having set across her face throughout the whole exchange, shoved her hands in her pocket and walked as casually as she could to the chair upon which reaching she practically vaulted over the back and into the seat.
Aiba, looking incredibly bored, simply sipped at his coffee and lazily pressed a few keys on the keyboard sitting in front of the bulky CRT monitor that took up the right side of his workspace.
The redhead crossed her arms over her chest and resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at the man across from her. "I ain't a kid ya' know."
The policeman lifted one eyebrow and then let loose an infuriatingly contented smile as a he took another draught from his coffee before placing the mug precisely down upon a weathered looking ring stain on the wood of his desk.
"Answer my questions and I'll know."
Ranma snorted in response as she felt herself entering into some stupid little power game that felt awfully like starting up a conversation with Nabiki. "Yah plan on chargin' me with somethin' then?"
The man's smile only widened. "Worse comes to worst and you turn out to be the hot-head delinquent you act like and we'll just have to see you sent home with your parents and a stern warning."
Ranma couldn't help but visibly blanch at that idea – there was no way that Saotome Ranma was going back to Nerima with barely even a few weeks out of it. The martial artist's scowl deepened as Aiba's eyes danced in mark of the point he had just scored.
"And if it all turns out okay you'll just have to keep us company until the lot outside can be sent home." The policeman cracked his knuckles and placed his hands over his keyboard and then lifted an eyebrow once more in Ranma's direction. "Questions then?"
"Wheneva' yah ready yourself baldly."
The officer didn't respond to the sudden change in attitude from the redhead and instead just nodded as if the statement of bravado had been the most natural response in the world. "Name?"
"Saotome Ranma." Matching the man's boredom with boredom Ranma idly looked up towards the ceiling as she responded.
"City?"
"Nerima"
Ranma looked down after responding as the officer on the other side of the desk let out a low 'hmmmm' as he typed idly at the computer. "Quite a bit away from your stomping grounds. You got anything more specific for me kid?"
"I ain't a kid an' sure, just check in under Furinkan and I'll get myself out of both of our hairs."
Aiba slowly typed out the request and then let a momentary frown pass his face before snapping his attention back up to Ranma with the same infuriating, lazy smile on his face from earlier. "Kid you either got a pair of balls-" The smile turned to a smirk as the officer scanned his eyes up and down the martial artist's body. "-under there or you're the worst liar I've met in years.
Ranma gritted her teeth against the insult the officer threw against her, but could do little about the surge in her combative nature that willed her to meet the man's aggression with her own. Gripping her hands against knees the redhead glared at Aiba. "An' I don't care what ya' think – what I'm sayin' is yer either blind, an idiot or both to not be able to figure out who someone is when yah get them sittin' right across from yah tellin' yah who they are!"
Aiba was out of his seat and with his hands pressing down against his desk as he leaned forward. "Watch your tone with me girl – maybe your parents put up with a mouth like that, but much more and you walk a line that will see you finding what a night under lock and key can do for a kid like you." The officer lifted one hand and pointed his index finger uncomfortably close to Ranma's face. "I checked what you said you brat and not only is there no 'Saotome Ranma' anywhere in the entire city of Nerima there also isn't any record of a 'Furinkan' either. Maybe you just get off on lying to the cops or maybe you think a stunt like this is just a joke–"
Ranma grabbed the offending hand stabbing towards her face – her own moving like it was a strike of lightning. The martial artist pulled her legs up and braced off against the chair underneath her; uncoiling like a spring Ranma propelled herself up over the desk and wrenched Aiba's body around violently. The martial artist's feet landed soundlessly on the top of the desk as the patroler's cheek simultaneously thudded loudly against the rose coloured wood – the entire action happened so quick Aiba's voice was clipped off without even a sound of struggle.
The soft clink of the man's coffee mug tipping over following the scuffle set the room ablaze.
The officer's closest moved first; standing up and sounding the alarm to the rest of their fellows as all the eyes in the room peeled away from their previously consuming work to the more immediate problem.
Ranma tightened her lock on both of Aiba's arms and pressed the man's face harder against the desk to quiet both his struggling and his attempts at muffled shouts. Watching the room around her the redhead frowned as she saw some of the officers closest to her reach into their desks and draw out their side arms. No martial artist liked guns – not even the idea of them – but as a group they generally all agreed that they liked them even less when you had a good half dozen of them pointed at what was undoubtedly dead center mass of your body.
Sergeant Suzuki walked her way to the front of the wall of extremely ticked looking police; the tense uniformed mass shifting slightly to accommodate her passage before drawing back to their original positions. The brunette's face was blank and she held her right hand firmly against the butt of her pistol – ready to draw the weapon from its holster at a moment's notice.
"Sergeant." Deciding that she was already one foot in and might as well continue on Ranma quipped the word out in greeting just as Suzuki began to open her mouth. The policewoman's brow twitched for a second as she pressed her lips back together disapprovingly.
"Saotome Ranma." The woman's stern face was blank again as she spoke out in a gravelly, grinding tone. "Release Aiba immediately or I will have someone shoot you."
Ranma's eyebrows raised at that, but the redhead shrugged anyway and with a barely audible 'hup' plucked her hostage up by the back of his shirt and flipped him into the air. Aiba himself let out a half choked shout as the one-armed toss sent him tumbling through the air
"Sure." Ranma responded as she caught the now falling Aiba on the palm of her raised hand. The man groaned as he tried to pull himself tightly into a ball as he was suddenly balanced solely in a single hand of what had just moments earlier seemed to be nothing but a rather thick delinquent. Ranma smirked as she surveyed the crowd. "Who wants to play 'Catch the Ass'?"
The martial artist's head whipped around at the rasping ke-chk sound of a round being chambered into a weapon. Sergeant Suzuki had taken one step forward and now had her pistol braced firmly in both hands and an almost sublimely happy looking grin had turned up on her face.
Sweat broke out on the back of Ranma's neck and she found herself laughing nervously. Glancing quickly to her right the martial artist saw that the two officers closest to her where unarmed and tossed Aiba towards them.
Suzuki stopped stepping forward as the two men caught their fellow patroler by the shoulders and lowered him to the ground gently.
Flipping backwards off the desk so that it was between her and the mass of police Ranma frowned as she looked at each of the still very unhappy faces turned her way. "Now what?"
Sergeant Suzuku, her face blank once more, holstered her weapon and reached her gloved hands towards the handcuffs clipped to her belt. "Now I get to–"
Every head in the room turned as one of the office doors slammed open with a booming crack that sounded as if a grenade had gone off. Eyes tracked the thick, metal cored slab of wood as it shook the wall it crashed against and sent tremours down through the floor.
Then they tracked back towards the figure framed by the doorway that had just been so roughly used. One hand outstretched and the other grounded firmly on a cane the man who had just made his entrance was dressed in an immaculate uniform of blue. He was short and with a lean musculature that belied the strength that he had just displayed.
Dark eyes glared from out of the man's craggy face and his eyebrows pressed down in a thick line of grey as he looked at all of his officers. His well groomed mustache bristled itself out of place as the older man's eyes passed themselves over Ranma. The man placed his cane up against the door way in which he stood and then clasped his hands behind him and spread he legs out in an almost parade ground stance. His eyes made one more roving, disappointed survey of the scene in front of him before he looked up towards the ceiling in sudden disinterest.
"Back to work! If I don't see what I want to see when I look back down there will be hell to pay!" The older man bellowed his orders out with an air of authority and his voice only rose in power as he continued. "Do Not Forget What Is Riding On This Investigation!"
The officers surrounding Ranma favoured the redhead with a few more angry glares before ripping their attention away with a few shouted calls of, "Yes, Superintendent!" and "Sir!" as they turned their backs on the martial artist.
Watching the room devolve into the chaos of everyone returning to what they had been doing before she had had her 'discussion' with Aiba, Ranma peered around and noticed that even Sergeant Suzuki was gathering a disorganized pile of documents back into a folder she had picked up off the floor. Realising this might be her only chance to get out of dodge Ranma took a deep breath– and froze as a wave of concentrated will power pressed itself up against her own reserves of ki.
"Boy!" The Superintendent's voice bellowed out once more with such accuracy that Ranma knew beyond the normal confines of logic that she was the one getting yelled at. "If you have so much as MOVED from that spot before I look back down I will make you regret it more than the day you found out you had been born to Saotome Genma!"
Ranma gulped and tried her best to even still her thoughts of fleeing from the station. The old man was obviously strong. Hell, Ranma berated herself in the confines of her own mind, she should have seen that as soon as he had powered his way out of his office; too small for the force he had so casually used, gripping a cane and with a wrinkled old battlefield of a face capped with lush amounts of grey hair that would be the envy of most middle-aged men – the entire list was there to denote one annoyingly strong and well trained geezer.
When the room had returned to almost exactly what it had been when Ranma had first entered the Superintendent inclined his chin down and let his gaze scan over his officers before giving a short, satisfied nod. Unclasping his hand from behind his back the man put his left hand back on his cane and strode stiffly back into his office.
"Sergeant Suzuki, I believe you have some information – and an unexpected visitor – for me. If you would see both to my office as soon as possible." The Superintendent's voice, while no longer bellowing, carried itself just as far and seemed twice as sharp. His calm tones seemed to home out from his workspace and each syllable was a razor edged resonance that cut across the murmurs of the gathered policemen and women.
A digging, vise like grip latched itself to Ranma's shoulder as the Sergeant somehow replicated Chaos's materialization trick to get within the redhead's defenses was enough for the martial artist to get that; one, she was still in deep as far as it was concerned when it came to the spat with Aiba, and two, 'as soon as possible' despite its appearances meant 'immediately'.
As the two walked through the gridlocked series of desks Ranma could feel a bit of sweat bead on the back of her neck. If the whole scene had been done with martial artists than more than likely the redhead would have been already forgotten in face of some other 'great indignity' or half of the lot would be offering to buy her a meal – with another half of those with their mind on creating their own fight with her through a lunch that would resemble a battefield more than anything else.
The frigidly professional looks that did nothing to curb the hostility displayed by the few officers they had to actually pass by and the fact that Suzuki herself hadn't loosened up on her grip at all spoke that the police were quite a bit different on such matters.
Or, Ranma jerked both herself and the Sergeant out of their walk as she blinked a few times, considering that both groups in the end would be acting out some sort of violence maybe then they were more of a 'kinda' different.
"Sorry 'bout that." Ranma muttered to a glaring Suzuki as he started walking again. The only response the Sergeant got was an insufferably confident grin as the martial artist waved to one of the officers she recognized from earlier as having a gun aimed at her a few minutes before.
Walking into the head-honcho's office with her confidence buoyed back up to its normal levels, Ranma almost stopped again as the image she was faced with was nowhere near what she had expected from someone who had had the attitude to brazenly dress down his subordinates in mass when they hadn't even been reacting wrongly to the situation. It wasn't that the office was overly furnished – the place was spartan to a level that as the redhead let her eyes crane about she was pretty sure there might actually be nothing of a personal nature in the whole room – it was the fact that the entire room had been arranged so that stacks of brooding steel file cabinets had been shoved wherever was spacially possible. It was like they had walked into a reference library and somehow gotten lost along the way.
The effect wasn't helped either by the fact that, unlike the rest of his officers who had well-cared for and waxed matching wood desks, the Superintendent sat behind a clunky metal behemoth which Ranma was pretty sure served both as a work surface and as more file space.
"Sir." Sergeant Suzuki announced as she finally let go of the bones of the martial artist's shoulder and came to attention. The brown haired woman clasped both hands in front of her while still holding onto the folder she had had tucked under her arm for the walk and somehow managed to make the whole ensemble look as formal as it could get.
Ranma, for her part, reached across her chest and started massaging and working the kinks that had sunk their talons in to her flesh under the direction of Suzuki – a woman who apparently had more claw than hand. The martial artist deliberately didn't try and spy on whatever paperwork the Superintendent had been reviewing when they had entered the room.
Seeing how her meeting with Doctor Tomoe had gone – and knowing her luck – Ranma could only hope it wasn't a colouring book.
"Sit." The Superintendent's voice commanded as the man looked up from the papers he had been reading to gesture towards a pair of wooden seats with blue upholstery that had to have been leftovers from the previous owner of the room.
Nodded and making sure to seat herself properly as one of the man's heavily eyebrowed eyes watched Ranma's every movement, the martial artist opened her mouth as soon as she had scooted up against the cushion along the back of the chair.
"Questions can wait for later." The Superintendent tersely rapped out. When Ranma didn't close her mouth immediately instead and instead met the chief's steely gaze with her own challenging one the older man frowned. "I am Shibazaki Kaito and both myself and Saotome Genma have tried to see the other dead on multiple occasions – well before you were born though boy."
The Sergeant seemed a bit put out when Ranma grinned at the announcement that the head of the police station the martial artist was in had admitted to multiple attempts of murder against the redhead's father. Ranma though was simply happy that she hadn't managed to somehow walk into another engagement that would end with multiple attempts of murder on her own life.
Sitting back deeper into the cushion behind her and crossing her arms the martial artist decided perhaps it wouldn't be so bad then when the Superintendent dropped whatever anvil he was holding up at the moment.
Nodding to himself for a moment Superintendent Shibazaki exhaled slowly and then flipped the folder before him closed and slammed a clenched fist down on it with a reverberating metallic thrum.
"Sergeant Suzuki-" The woman next to Ranma went ramrod straight as Kaito called out her name. "- I just read the latest report we have from Lieutenant Ieiri and his observation team. The bus arrived at 18:00 and left the Hikawa Shrine after all passengers had loaded. The Lieutenant continues to report the bus turning onto its scheduled route, but-" Shibazaki's voice dropped into a half snarl as he spoke the last word. "- Sergeant Kataoka positioned to watch the very other side of the corner reports it never arriving." Lacing his hands in front of him the Superintendent shook his head before darting a sharp gaze first at the Sergeant and then at Ranma. "The official count is now 73 – seventy-three high school aged girls missing without even a trace."
"Sir..." Suzuki trailed off and instead busied herself with placing the files she had brought on the edge of Shibazaki's desk. The woman shook her head in almost a perfect imitation of her superior before she rested her clenched fist back against her knees. "Sir, how is that possible?"
"Magic." Ranma hissed out with disgust while the Superintendent only reached out and took the folder laid on his desk with a grunt.
Suzuki's hand stopped just short of grabbing Ranma by the shirt as a look of fury briefly filtered over the woman's face. "Do you think this is a joke?"
Ranma met her cold glance with one of annoyance and was on the edge of speaking when the Sergeant apparently lost interest and turned to address her superior who had so far watched the exchange quietly from behind his desk.
"Sir! Why is she even here and what – what has this been about?" Suzuki had stood upon her exclamation and was now gesturing futility with her arms in a manner that, while nowhere near clear, communicated her confusion due to the things that Ranma had done and what had been said about the martial artist with little room for doubt.
The Shibazaki Kaito let out a heavy sigh and then momentarily turned his eyes towards Ranma to give the redhead a baleful glance before turning his attention back towards Suzuki. "Saotome Ranma of the Nerima-Furinkan Semi-Autonomous zone is a formidable martial artist with a reputation of being a danger to the public even if rendered unconscious-" Ranma's pride couldn't help but puff up as she heard that – even if the Superintendent's choice of words for saying she was the best kept the usual cocksure smirk from appearing. "- and a survivor and participant of more magical events than anyone even two decades his senior."
At that announcement Suzuki sent another hate filled glare at the redhead in the seat next to her. Ranma had to choke back a snort as her mind immediately matched the expression the Sergeant was currently showcasing to her memories of Ryoga and any of the pig-boys various problems he hoisted onto the redhead.
A sharp clap brought the two visitors attention swinging back towards the Superintendent as Shibazaki brought his hands together in a single decisive motion. The aging man didn't smile, but the wrinkles around the corner of his eyes crinkled upward in a show of liveliness. "Which is why as of now – in penance for his fortuitously ill thought actions from earlier – Saotome is conscripted in the name of solving our current and all further cases which go beyond the pale." Nodding curtly to first one then the other of his guests the Superintendent turned his attention once more to his files with barely a half wave in the direction of his newly minted pair of subordinates. "Dismissed!"
Ranma and Suzuki sported matching shell-shocked expressions hanging limply across their faces as the Sergeant mechanically withdrew from Shibazaki's office with Ranma drifting along in her wake.
A longer chapter than I normally handle - I hope it hasn't suffered because of that. This was a rather difficult chapter in multiple ways (as I've already spoken to some of you privately about in PMs) due to some decisions I came to here to support the framework of things to come later.
But, also personally, I recently have had more than a happy share of familial trials. My Great Grandmother passed in her 94th year a few weeks back and while not sometimes the norm with someone that far out in age she was quite close to both myself and my siblings. There was some other stuff too, but none of it really worth talking about in good company.
As always, thank you for reading and I hope I have entertained! Also continue to feel free to PM me - those that have can probably tell you that I'll happily talk back at length if maybe not really any amount of value!