Forcibly United

Yubitsume Fugitives: Chapter 5

oOo

It had been only a few hours since Rokuro Okajima had seen his two contractors last, and the trio were repeating something they'd done once already in the evening. Though it was later at night and the bar was much less crowded, the trio were casually sipping drinks while their leader tried to piece together precisely what events had led to them being wanted fujitives.

Well, wanted fujitives again. Because his pair of idiots had somehow managed to become wanted men twice in the span of a single night. While the personal camera footage showing the two was far more blurry and less revealing than the last set which had damned them, the shattered gate they were walking towards as hundreds of millions of yen worth of European and American sports cars burned in the foreground was far more dramatic.

"I can't fucking leave you two alone for a minute, can I?" Rock grumbled harshly, glaring at the two younger men sitting at the table with him. Ryouga, calmly sipping a beer, looked almost amused at the way Rock was directing most of his attention towards Ranma. The pigtailed boy was nursing a rum and coke, looking defeated behind his fake glasses and combed-back hair. Rock winced as he sipped his scotch, before continuing. "It was three hours ago that you two said you were going to go find out why things went to shit. Now here we are, three hours later, and one of the two families we were supposed to be negotiating a cease-fire with has functionally been decapitated of any and all of the remaining leadership it had after being decimated just a few hours ago."

Rock slugged back the rest of his drink, glaring at his temporary underling.

"Ranma, what the fuck happened?" Hotel Moscow's Japanese second in command demanded with a scowl. The pigtailed boy frowned before downing the rest of his drink, glancing around the bar to ensure nobody was in earshot.

"Long story short, my stupid old man had me set up for an omiai with a Yakuza princess. I missed the meeting," Ranma began, and the former Black Lagoon courier's mind tilted sidewise at the fact that simple-seeming statement was merely the beginning of the explanation. "So when I went to go check on my mom, I found out that she'd been taken by some of the Yakuza we'd seen shoot each other up earlier today."

Rokuro Okajima was not a stupid man by any stretch of the imagination, and he knew how Ranma and Ryouga had tended to react towards casual disrespect by the stupider elements which frequented Roanapur's underbelly. Someone stupid enough to actually put one of two two boys loved ones in danger wasn't something Rock had ever seen happen in his city, but... He mentally scaled up their reaction based on what Ryouga had done to someone for just pouring a beer over his head in the Yellow Flag.

"I'm not going to say I agree with your response," Balalaika's right hand noted, waving to the waitress and indicating the empty glasses in front of the trio and making a tilting motion with his hand. He paused as the young woman came over, collecting their drinks and returning to the bar's master. While the girl was getting their drinks refilled, he continued. "However... I'm not going to say I'd have done anything different in a situation like that, if I was as strong as you two. But how many of them were there?"

"Not enough," Ryouga muttered with a dark smirk, smiling politely to the waitress as she set a fresh beer in front of him. The stocky youth picked up the glass, sipping it once and waiting for their server to walk off before his smile turned feral. "Not nearly enough of them to handle just Ranma in the mood he was in. I was overkill."

"You two are good, but what if you'd been shot?" Rock frowned.

"Funny you should mention that," Ranma chuckled, scratching his jaw before grinning broadly. "I kinda did get shot. Several times."

"Did you two stop by a back-alley doctor on the way to meet me?" The oldest of the trio asked, sipping his second scotch with a frown. "You didn't look like you were moving stiffly. No way I'd buy you were injured."

"He's not," Ryouga noted with a grin, as Ranma undid the top few buttons of his shirt, glancing around quickly before jerking it back to reveal a grouping of slight bruises on his chest. He tilted the false glasses on his face forward to perch on the tip of his nose, gesturing to another bruise between his eyes as he buttoned up his shirt once more.

"Bullshit," Rock declared, frowning.

"You wish. The pecking order's changing when we get back to Roanapur," Ranma countered with a smirk.

"Oh fuck, this is going to drive Revy nuts," the former Black Lagoon employee groaned, setting his drink down so he could use both hands to properly face-palm. After a moment, he raised his head from his hands to stare at the two young men. "Seriously, that's bullshit. I'm officially calling bullshit on your existence. God forgot to turn on actual physics when he made you two. You were already considered stupidly strong when people thought they could kill you if they could just, you know, hit you."

"We believe this might have a slight impact on our fees," Ryouga noted with a broad smile. He tilted his head. "After all..."

"...if nobody can hurt you even if they get lucky, hiring you two gives anyone who does the ultimate trump card. You're a win button for any situation where anybody needs one," Rock grunted, frowning a bit. He crossed his arms, frowning. "You will, of course, give Hotel Moscow first hiring privilege when considering jobs which might cause you to come into conflict with us. I would hope you'll do the same for the Lagoon Company as well, even if I'm not officially associated with them any more."

"That won't come cheap," Ranma noted casually.

"Anti-tank rounds aren't that expensive, and Hotel Moscow's got plenty of anti-tank rifles," Rock countered with a slight smile as he gestured to the bruise on Ranma's head. As the two boys scowled, the nominally average young man shrugged. "Look, from that bruise I'm guessing it was a pistol shot. Bulletproof to a pistol is a lot different than bulletproof to a tank-killing weapon."

As Ranma bristled, the sole Japanese man in Hotel Moscow raised his hands in a placating manner, waving lightly.

"I'm not saying we're going to ignore the value you bring to the table, but just pointing out that it's not an absolute guarantee. You should be thanking me for pointing this out before you found out the hard way in the middle of a firefight," Rock noted.

"He's right, Ranma," the Lost Boy interjected, sipping his beer. "We always thought bullets would hurt us, and treating them all the same now that we know some can't would be even more stupid. Getting killed because we're cocky wouldn't be a good idea."

"Yeah, yeah..." Ranma grumbled, frowning a bit at the thought. "Getting my head taken off because I didn't bother to duck would be embarrassing."

"It would," Rock agreed smugly, before pausing as the gigantic block of plastic on the table began to ring. The man eyed the cellular phone warily, nudging it with his glass of scotch once before ignoring it completely.

"Are you gonna answer?" The pigtailed boy asked, sipping his rum and coke as he glanced at the device.

"It's Balalaika," Rock grunted, before casting his voice slightly lower. "Rock, your two boys are a treat. I'm going to pay them even more money for turning that corner of Tokyo's Yakuza into pretzels, and why yes, I do love the fact your plans are all going to shit!"

The phone stopped ringing, and Rock immediately reached out, yanking the battery free and sliding it into one of the inner pockets on his suit, sliding the actual phone into the other.

"Not expecting any calls?" The Lost Boy noted, draining more of his beer.

"Balalaika's the only one with the number," the former salaryman noted, frowning at his scotch. "I really don't want to talk to her right now. I'm more worried about what I'm going to do with you two, to be honest."

"Whaddaya mean?" Ranma grunted, scratching his jaw. "We go back to Roanapur. Simple."

"Not really. First off, we have to get you out of the country. The videos weren't too distinct, but there was enough security footage of you two that I don't really feel comfortable with just trying to get through customs with your passports," Rock noted, raising one finger. Another rose a moment later. "Secondly, I assume that you two eventually want to come back to Japan. I don't really give a damned, but we're going to have to muddy the waters a bit about this whole case if you ever want to come back without any issues."

"Damn," the Saotome heir muttered, frowning a bit. He set his drink down, scratching his hair a bit. "Me an' Ryouga never really had to deal with any serious consequences for stuff like this, before. We'd tear up a part of Nerima and cops would just... ignore it."

"They'll be paying attention now," Ryouga grunted with a frown.

"I'm going to give you two the next two hours to say your goodbyes," their boss informed them, draining the rest of his drink. "I've got a contact Balalaika gave me for an emergency extraction from the country, but I won't take it out of your wages. We did a lot more to stem the pressure on Hotel Moscow here in Japan in a few hours than we ever planned. But I'm going to be swinging by your fiancee's place in a car in two hours, Ranma, and you'd better be ready to go. Unless you're going to be going with Ryouga to visit someone he wants to visit?"

The Lost Boy paused for a moment, considering, before he shook his head.

"Akari's farm is too far away. Even if Ranma knew exactly where we were going, you'd be trying to catch up to us in the car before we even got there," Ryouga grunted, frowning a bit to himself. He turned to Ranma, and Rock caught a flash of a fist and the sharp crack of an impact as Ranma winced. "Damn it, Ranma. I wanted to see her."

"...Sorry, Ryouga," Ranma finally muttered, frowning at his own drink as he rubbed his arm with his unoccupied hand. He slugged the rum and coke back, wiping a stray droplet from the corner of his mouth with the back of his wrist before setting the glass down and glancing back to his employer. "I guess I should go back and say goodbye to the Tendous and my old man before we head back to Roanapur for a couple months, right?"

"...Ranma, expect it to take half a year, at least," the second-in-command of Hotel Moscow cautioned, wincing to himself. "Last time I had to deal with a debacle like this, it took months of bribes before I would have even considered coming back to Japan and my involvement was a hell of a lot more subtle than yours has been tonight."

"...You're kidding, right?" Ryouga demanded with a snarl, frowning at Ranma. "It's already been months since I've seen Akari! How much longer should I expect to wait, damn it?"

"We're in this together, P-chan," the Lost Boy's rival snapped, frowning at him. "The whole reason we're even in this damned mess is because of Happosai, not me! We never woulda had to go to Roanapur in the first place if it weren't for these stupid bracers!"

"And as soon as these are gone, so am I!" The fanged boy grunted, rattling the guard on his arm as he glared at his partner. "I've barely even been in school or otherwise used my ID in years. I don't give a damned about worrying about the police looking for me. Once I'm free of these, they'll never find me and I can find Akari again."

"You find anything? That's a joke," Ranma sniped, his eyes narrowing as the other boy roughly grabbed the front of his shirt.

"That's enough!" Rock snapped sharply, causing both boys to pause. "Fight when it's not going to get you caught. You two can spend hours beating the shit out of each other once we get back to Roanapur. Nobody there will care unless you don't pay for what you break. Here, that'll get you busted, deported, or worse. So cool it."

They sat in silence as Ryouga finished his beer, Rock settling their tab as they exited the bar, standing in the cool night air as the traffic lazily drifted by.

"So Ranma... What are you going to tell Akane?" Ryouga finally asked, the frown not leaving his face, but willing to extend an olive branch...

For the moment.

"I dunno, man," the youth in question finally muttered, beginning to walk towards an alleyway where nobody would see the duo jump up to the rooftops. "I've got no idea at all."

Within moments, they were racing across the rooftops of Nerima towards the Tendou Dojo.

oOo

Author's Notes:

It's a day early. Next week's won't be, because I'm still tweaking it... For what should be very obvious reasons.

In a way, it's fitting that it's this chapter which breaks the 100,000 word mark for this story, because in a way everything that's happened to Ranma and Ryouga up until this point is about to come to a head in the next chapter. For Ranma, at least.

This is where it gets real, folks.

Fair warning: The Rock's Little Sister arc is gonna be bunnies and sunshine in comparison to what I'm about to do to a certain pigtailed bastard.

See you all next week!

- Gaming Ikari