Arc and Ki

by Miklagaard

A redheaded Japanese girl with an unusual means of getting attention comes knocking at Tony Stark's Malibu mansion bearing surprising insights into a power he barely understands. Pepper worries but Tony was sure opening that door was the right call because: Redhead! Little did he know how past and present would collide to show a new way to the future.

4. Fury Righteous and Self Righteous

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction and no ownership of any intellectual property is claimed or implied. Quotes from original sources are included, but rather than disrupt the flow of the story, I will acknowledge them in general here. All instances of irony are likely intentional.

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(Chapter theme song: You've Got Another Thing Comin' – Judas Priest)

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"This is Agent Romanoff. I am reporting a Code: Zulu Sierra. I am under level 3 security conditions now."

There was a distinct pause on the other end of the secure line, during which the dark-red-haired woman repressed the urge to wince. "Understood. Stand by for the Director."

In moments, Natasha Romanoff, or 'Romanova' when not catering to non-Slavics, heard the tense, annoyed voice of her ultimate superior: Nicholas Fury, Director of SHIELD. "Report!" he ordered. "What happened?"

"Unexpected complication. My level of training in hand-to-hand was outed. They don't know who I am or who I work for... or if I'm really an agent of any kind... but they've been told exactly how well-trained I am in combat and the explanation compatible with my current cover is very thin," she immediately confessed. "It might be recoverable, however. I don't think Stark and Potts really understood what they were told, and I'm not fired yet."

"How were you compromised?" the chief spy asked in a low, deadly tone.

"I strolled across a room," she sighed in exasperation. "Make that half-way across the room. Stark's new hireling was able to figure out how well I was trained just from looking at me walk! I couldn't believe it!"

"What new hireling?" Fury demanded.

"A rather... interesting young woman. She... the only reason my cover is salvageable is she read every bit of my martial arts training like an open magazine... but she wasn't impressed. I was starting to wonder if she was some five-hundred year old paranormal master or something with how knowledgeable she was, but it turned out she was high school drop-out from Japan." She admitted, still in a state of disbelief. "She officially entered the country yesterday and joined the Stark payroll today, her birthday, but I have reason to believe she's been in-country longer than that." The Black Widow massaged her forehead as she gave her report. "A girl named Ranma Saotome..." she stopped when she heard her boss's sudden rasping inhale, something she would not have expected from the rigidly self-controlled man.

"Do not tell me you said 'Ranma Saotome...!"'

"Uh... sir?"

"Do not...!" Fury's voice steadily rose in... well... fury. "Tell me! You said! 'Ranma Saotome!' You had better not be messing with me, Agent! If this is a joke... I will strike DOWN upon you, Agent Romanoff! With great anger and furious vengeance!"

Wide eyed and thoroughly freaked out at her boss's loss of composure, Natasha hurriedly answered: "No joke, sir! Ranma Saotome, from Japan. Five feet tall. Oddly, she's a redhead too, yet it's supposedly all natural. Loos that way, anyway. Just turned eighteen years old today. Insanely skilled martial artist with almost certainly superhuman strength. She apparently came to America just to avoid some sort of marriage fraud scheme."

"Dammit..." Fury hissed, "it's him..."

"Sir?" Natasha replied in utter confusion. "I had a spar with her while she was wearing a tight body suit and got a very good look... and a very good feel when she was handing me my ass in my favorite CQC form. She is very definitely female... even if she's very definitely into girls."

"That's... never mind," Fury growled. "It's who I think it is. New orders! Get your ass over to Location Charlie in exactly one hour for a new brief on your assignment!"

"Yes, sir!" she acknowledged instantly, not daring to ask questions.

"Fury out," the director said before the line went abruptly dead.

Bewildered, the agent stared for a few moments at her SHIELD issued communicator. Finally she pocketed the device, shut down the anti-eavesdropping measures, grabbed a purse that had the other equipment she would need well hidden in it, and exited her cover identity's apartment as quickly as she could while keeping up the appearance of a civilian. It would take a good chunk of the hour she was given just to get to the meeting location if she followed SOP to shake any potential tails, so there was no time to lose. "What the hell is going on?" she muttered as she hit the button for the elevator.

############

"What the hell is going on? Sir?" Natasha repeated nearly two hours later when her boss finally showed himself. She had arrived exactly on time at the Los Angeles branch office of a SHIELD front company and was let into the hidden floor where the real work was done. No one had spoken with her about her current task, as was proper, but they had been giving her the strangest looks. With only a brief explanation that intell was still being collected, she'd been sent to a conference room to cool her heels alone ever since. It seemed the director was in a pissy mood at her, and she suspected it was because she was the bearer of bad news. Add this on top of Nick Fury's earlier outburst, and the Black Widow was as off-balance and anxious among her coworkers as she had ever been since the day Clint Barton first brought her in to SHIELD.

"Losing your cool already, Agent Romanoff?" Agent Coulson teased with a genial smile as he followed the director in. The two men took their seats at the conference table across from her. "And you haven't even heard our intell yet. Shall I be excused to get the agent a stiff drink? Or twelve?" The tall, balding man offered.

"I'd like to see you keep your cool when a kid who isn't even old enough to buy a beer tears into your cover in less than ten seconds without even needing to be introduced, Phil," she shot back acerbically. "It doesn't help when Colonel 'Doesn't-flinch-in-the-face-of-a-gamma-irradiated-behemoth' Fury acts like the Antichrist showed up."

"Funny you should mention Banner's little alter-ego..." Director Fury commented. The bald, African-American man rubbed a spot on his forehead just above his eye-patch in aggravation. "Sit down already, Agent!"

"Oh for..." Natasha sagged in her chair, not concealing her unease at the idea of encountering the Hulk. "Really?"

"Oh Banner's not involved," Fury assured her with a negligent flip of his hand, "but the level of threat we now need to keep tabs on just escalated to his level. And beyond." Activating a controller, a large, flat holographic projection appeared just in front of the blank wall, showing a satellite picture of a cluster of mountain peaks. "Jusendo mountain, located in the western portion of China, way in the back of beyond, far the hell away from civilization. August 19th of last year," he announced.

A click of a button and a very different picture was seen. Natasha's trained eyes picked out some of the surrounding terrain that matched the previous image, but the center was dominated the smoldering ruin of one mountain, with extensive damage to the nearby terrain. "Jusendo mountain... August 21st."

"Volcanic eruption?" Natasha asked.

"You wish," Fury smiled grimly. "Jusendo mountain... August 20th, 2009." He clicked the remote again and yet another scene was shown. The primary subject of this picture was fire. Streaks of fire crisscrossing the area. Cyclones of fire scattered about the landscape. What must have been absolutely enormous fireballs caught in mid-arc above the mountain range like a hell-god's own roman candles.

"Bozhe moy," Natasha breathed. "What happened?"

Her employer did not reply verbally. Instead he worked the controls to zoom the image in. Though the quality suffered and the picture became more pixelated, it was obvious what the head spy wanted to show. There were two man-shaped figures amidst the blazing background, vague outlines of arms outstretched toward each other. One looked like it was made of even brighter, white-hot flames, with fiery protrusions streaming from its back like wings. The other was a dark and blurry body surrounded by a blue nimbus.

Agent Romanova shook her head in perplexity. "What am I looking at here?"

"This..." Fury highlighted the flaming figure with a circle with a flick of a trackball, "is a being called Safuran. Supposedly some kind of immortal phoenix god/king according to the local yokels." His voice was tinged with derision. "Reports indicate he could fly, regenerate in seconds or less from even instantly-fatal wounds, and, of course, toss around city-destroying firestorms like confetti. He's one of the supernatural threats the Chinese are so good at containing and then carefully ignoring. As such, he wasn't seriously on our radar previously... and he still isn't, for that matter. His opponent on the other hand..." another circle appeared around the dark figure, "is your newest subject... Ranma Saotome. Who, I might add, won this fight and killed the supposedly un-killable demi-god, leaving behind the wrecked countryside you saw before."

"How do we know that?" Natasha inquired. "Do we have better pictures of the battle?"

"No," Agent Coulson admitted, "but certain agencies in China and Japan are quite certain. Not only did they get depositions from some witnesses and covert confirmation from surveillance of participants and observers of this event, but there is an impressive body of additional evidence."

"For example... Mount Horai, in Japan. This is from the morning of March 12th, also last year..." another satellite view of a mountain appeared on the floating display to accompany Fury's commentary.

"Oh come on!" Natasha blurted in aggravation.

"You see where this is going," her superior smirked. "A certain distinctive Japanese redhead was seen on her way up this mountain by several witnesses that day. And this..." he changed the picture again and, as expected, another ruined mountain was seen, though this time it seemed to have collapsed instead of burning. "This is what it looked like the next day. Unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to have a spy-satellite looking that way during the battle, but we did get recordings from one of our local sensor emplacements. One of the energy signatures tracked the night of March 12th here is a match for what was seen on August 20th in China. The PSIA has a file on the incident, though the official story of a seismological event was given out. The real story is that somebody called Habu, who came from a place in China a few dozen miles from Jusendo, got in a fight with our guy over an artifact they both wanted. Again, Saotome was the victor according to surveillance on him and his associates."

"You keep saying 'him,"' Natasha pointed out in confusion.

"I do," Fury confirmed as he tapped a series of buttons.

Two new pictures were displayed. One was of the young woman Natasha had encountered earlier that day, though slightly younger and with shorter hair. In the image shown, she was obviously annoyed, no doubt because she was wet and somewhat bedraggled in over-sized clothing at the time. The other was of a young man about the same age with similar features and eyes that made it very probable that they were related, though the male was almost a head taller, and with inky black hair in the same traditional, martial artist pigtail as the girl. Natasha's expert eyes narrowed as she noticed that their clothes were not just exact duplicates in style and color, but also in size if she was any judge.

"Both of these pictures are of the same individual," Phil Coulson explained. "Ranma Saotome was born male, and stayed exclusively male until he was almost 16 years old. Which is when he acquired the female form you saw."

"That'd be one hell of a cover identity. Inhuman?" Natasha speculated.

"Magic curse," Coulson corrected flatly. "He gets doused with cold water, he turns into a girl. Hot water turns him back." At her incredulous look Phil shrugged and went on. "You and I both know there are things that science cannot explain, and there is an entire archive of things in a SHIELD sub-sub-basement that make the egg-heads curl up into fetal balls and whimper whenever they think about them. Whether someone will figure out a rational explanation for this someday or not, for right now 'magic' is as good an explanation as any. Good enough for government work, as it were," he concluded with a faint smile.

"So how does a gender curse let somebody wreck mountains," the redheaded spy asked.

"It doesn't," Fury interjected. "Saotome has been checked... multiple times... for any kind of mutated gene, super-soldier modification, cybernetic enhancement, magical bullshit other than the boy/girl change, radioactivity, or any other kind of upgrade, and nobody has found a damn thing. Not so much as a pair of spring-loaded shoes. The claim is that his abilities come from pure martial arts training." The eye-patched man shrugged. "There isn't a lick of proof to the contrary, so we're accepting it as the tentative conclusion. For now."

"Bear in mind, Saotome is not the only one demonstrating unusual powers that supposedly derive from martial-arts," Coulson pointed out. "Show her some of the school-yard vids."

'School-yard vids?' Natasha mouthed while her superior fiddled with his controller. Agent Coulson only gave her one of his signature affable smiles.

"Yeah..." Fury drawled. "These are what playground fights look like in Saotome-world." The screen changed to show Saotome in the courtyard of what Natasha recognized as a prototypical four-storey, Japanese-style school. He was in his male form, facing off against two other boys. One wearing blue hakama pants and a gi top, wielding a wooden boken. The other wearing a hodgepodge of worn, hand-repaired clothes and a bandanna while carrying a traditional-looking umbrella like it too was a weapon. It looked like the film was taken with a cell-phone, and there was no sound, but the body-language told the experienced agent that the two unknowns were about to attack.

She was proved right when the boken-boy dashed forward to launch a blurring series of strikes. Saotome danced around them all effortlessly, but she was startled to see that the distortions coming off the weapon she thought were artifacts of the cell-phone's poor quality turned out to be real somehow, as they gouged small trenches in the dirt and smashed off the leaves and branches of some of the landscaping. Saotome paid these extraordinary events no mind, nor did the third boy as he too moved in to attack Ranma with swift, but powerful swings of the umbrella.

"What the hell?" Natasha said aloud.

"Keep watching," Fury instructed.

Saotome spent a bit of time dodging both assailants, then managed to maneuver the boken-wielder into the path of the umbrella. The kid was then launched out of frame by the impact, and the cell-phone wavered around a moment until it steadied at an upward angle, showing the flailing body of the victim arcing high into the air and then falling behind the line of the school roof.

"They're killing each other at this school?" Natasha demanded sharply, making Fury pause the video. As blood-soaked a life as she had led, seeing school age kids casually murder each other was still shocking.

"Nope," Phil denied with a wry smile. "That was one Tatewaki Kuno. Not only did he survive, but the only consequence of that defeat was that he missed his first class of the day, and was late to the second." At the disbelieving look he was sent, Coulson shrugged and said: "Apparently, shrugging off absurdly brutal beatings is something that happens every other day to the boy. And being attacked while on school grounds was an almost daily occurrence for Saotome."

"Yes, it is insane," Fury said, as if answering an unspoken comment. "And yes, it really happened from what we can tell. Twenty analysts, including me and Coulson, have been frantically gathering information since you called in, yet I seriously doubt we've got more than an outline so far." He resumed the video. "Keep watching. That was only the first sample."

What followed was a series of movies of various quality from cell-phones and security cameras. Despite the various angles and conditions, it was easy to see they were all shot in the same. Silently, they watched as trees were sliced in half, grenades were thrown at high-school kids, multiple people were smashed into ballistic arcs high over the city again and again, and energy blasts were traded. In the middle of each incident was Ranma Saotome, either as a boy or a girl, fighting off opponents one-at-a-time, in groups, or even in mobs.

"The hell kind of school is this?" Natasha wondered after the last clip was shown. "And what kind of martial-arts training gets those results?" Natasha shook her head. "I've been trained by the best of the best since I was a little girl... you don't see me blowing up terrain features without explosives."

"Saotome was trained all day, every day of his life by his martial-artist father. Starting when he could walk," Coulson told her. "And he was trained to pretty much the exclusion of anything else that wasn't absolutely necessary. As in... he's only been enrolled in regular school a sum total of forty-two months off and on over his entire lifetime. Furthermore, the schools he did manage to attend were all like Furinkan... the one in the videos. Dumping grounds the Japanese government used to keep the left-of-normal community contained and away from polite society. So he's had more in-field combat experience than a platoon of SEAL veterans. Not only is he likely to be the best martial artist of his generation, but the best of all generations under the multi-centennial range."

Ruby lips twisted in a skeptical frown. "Even that much training wouldn't explain what you showed me." She waved at the screen. "Or what I encountered... that girl was like a force of nature in an extra-small package. I might as well have sparred with a tsunami for all the chance I had."

"Apparently it does explain it when the so-called 'training' he went through as a child was more like a demented Nietzschean experiment in learn-or-die scenarios," Fury claimed. "Just the things we have evidence of from hospital and police records involve things like chaining the kid behind moving trains, tying him up and launching him at trees with catapults, tossing him off cliffs, or even tying him up along with fish products and dropping him in a pit of starving housecats... repeatedly. All that happened before Saotome was ten years old. The reports petered out as he got older, but I doubt it was because his scumbag dad stopped. More likely the kid got better at surviving while the father got better at concealing."

"Jesus..." Natasha murmured. "Is she... or 'he'... even stable?"

"Yes," Agent Coulson said.

"No," the colonel claimed at the same time. The two men looked at each other for a moment before they both shrugged.

"There are some concerning issues," Coulson admitted, tilting his head from side to side. "But I would say the historical record favors concluding he's sane enough. Perhaps only by the standards of a long-term agent or special-forces soldier, it must be admitted, but still well on the side of rationality. Despite what you might think from the mountain incidents, Saotome's M.O. is clearly one of minimal force and only gradual escalation." Natasha nodded in thoughtful agreement, she'd suffered more injury, however infinitesimal, from winning fights against neophyte rent-a-cops then she had being schooled at the hands of the prodigious Japanese girl. It spoke well of the teen's self control and forbearance.

Phil went on: "He also has clearly demonstrated a mind-set that favors protecting civilians at all costs. I would say you have nothing to fear as long as you don't offer a lethal threat to him or anyone around him."

"And I say he's building up for a psychotic break," Fury contradicted. "It's true he's not been a real problem before. But you saw that school... and his family's made up of real pieces of work, too. That crap went on all day, every day. Unrelenting. He's been surrounded by wackos and freaks for years with no stable place to retreat to, and that's gotta take a toll. That's in addition to his 'curse' uncontrollably warping his body out of recognition several times a day. The worst part is that all he does is get stronger with every fight and every day of training... and Jusendo went down nine months ago. If he cracks, it'll make the Iron Monger incident look like a shoving match between toddlers."

The director took a moment to let that sink in. "Using a world-wide face-trace, we have already determined that Ranma Saotome rowed across the Pacific Ocean. He wasn't exactly hiding, yet he bypassed all entry controls and all coherent surveillance to enter this country days before we had any clue he was on this side of the planet. You were right about that, he showed up in California for the first time three days ago. What kills me is how often he was actually spotted!"

"The Coast Guard didn't pick her up?" Natasha queried.

"Too fast. Too wooden," Coulson commented pithily, earning a confused look from his fellow agent.

The director looked like he wanted to throw his remote at a wall, but thought better of it. "I did say 'rowed.' The goddamn canoe he used had no radar or sonar profile to speak of. Even the best sensors wouldn't pick it up more than two or three miles away... if they were looking. He was seen by the Navy and Coast Guard multiple times, but it was only after review that it was clear there was something really there. He was moving as such a ridiculous pace that he was long gone by the time anyone got it in their heads to investigate. Because he used a primitive wooden boat, the reports were filed in the same place they toss UFO sightings. We are only just now starting to dig those reports out. He wasn't even trying and he snuck up on a national asset without a hint of official interference."

Shaking his head in frustration, the one-eyed spymaster went on. "And then? Apparently he flew home to Japan; went through a flurry of legal activity involving hundreds of attorneys, law enforcement, and governmental staff; had an encounter with some yakuza where they had all the forewarning they needed to organize and deliver some souvenirs meant for Stark to him;and flew back to the USA the legal way where Stark managed to successfully suppress his entrance from any official notice beyond bureaucratic form-filling. All that happened and still with none of our people the wiser! In our goddamned own back yard!" He slapped the table with a crack that almost made Natasha flinch. "The goddamn Japanese mafia knew Saotome was signing on with Stark before we did! And we had no damn clue until you literally stumbled over it! We have nothing... no asset, no weapon... nothing short of saturation bombing... maybe... that can stop him! You could shoot him in his sleep and all that would do is wake him up with a bad attitude! So that massive potential for harm is what's entangled up with Stark now... with no way for us to tell how big a problem it will be. Yet." The executive calmed down as he directed a level gaze at Romanova.

"You want me to find out how sane she is for sure?" The lady agent surmised. "On top of assessing Stark's condition and mentality."

"That, Agent Romanoff," Fury leaned forward and pointed a finger straight between her eyes, "is exactly what I want you to do. I wasn't too happy when you were the only agent available at the time with the psych training we needed to go in, since Stark is a waste of your talents, but it seems we lucked out after all. Your assignment is now extended beyond the quick in-and-out we planned. Make a threat assessment of the both of them now that they know each other. Look for handles for containing Saotome, or getting him the hell away from Stark and back to his own country. The Japanese have stuck their heads in the sand all this time, so by rights Saotome is their problem. Assuming you can even continue the original mission."

"That might be a little... unambitious, perhaps?" Phil Coulson offered delicately. "In light of certain possible initiatives?"

Fury scowled darkly, then gave Coulson a short, angry nod. "Fine. Though if it actually pans out, I'm making him your problem." Looking back to Natasha, he added: "When you do your assessment, if you conclude with absolute surety that Saotome is not actually the loose warhead my instincts say he is, then I'll want an evaluation of him as a possible agent or special asset for the Initiative. We'll give you everything we've got on him. I'll warn you, we've only given you the highlights of the chaos that this kid lives and breathes. So make damn sure you know the file backwards and forwards before you come into contact with him again."

"You know how big a fan the boss is of chaos," Coulson quipped. Natasha gave a slow nod as she understood a bit better why Saotome was such an issue for the director.

"Chaos is dead agents in the field. Chaos is civilian blood on the streets." Fury snarled, glowering at the male agent. Switching his glare back to Natasha, he said: "So before you even think of giving any kind of positive report, you had better be sure... absolutely sure... that you can trust the kid with your life and the lives of everyone you love. Because I guarantee that is exactly what will be at risk for plenty of people."

"I understand. Absolutely, sir!" Natasha nodded soberly.

"Good." The head of SHIELD leaned back in his chair. "I am not happy with how blind-sided we were by this development, so I want you to keep an eye out for ways we can better monitor whatever idiot thing Stark does next. You should also be prepared to brief people who would go on-station permanently if we decide to do that. The man's enough of a loose cannon on deck as it is and we need to get him strapped down. With that in mind... tell me, how compromised are you? How did that go down?"

Natasha settled herself more comfortably in her seat as she began her report. "As reported earlier, I infiltrated the legal department of the local Stark Industries office by being hired as a notary public and paralegal. When recent documents needed to be delivered to Stark's home... for the appointment of Virginia Potts to be the new CEO, by the way..."

"Right, we knew about that," Fury interrupted.

"About time, too," Coulson smirked.

"As you say," she nodded at each man in turn. "When those documents were to be delivered, I drugged the employee who would normally take them so that she went home sick. I then was assigned to courier the documents and witness the signing in her stead..."

############

'Natalie Rushman' trailed a ways behind the soon-to-be CEO of Stark Industries through the mansion of her target, distributing a few useful devices as soon as the other woman disappeared around the curve of the hallway. Ahead, she could hear male grunts and the distinctive sound of boxing gloves striking pads.

"The notary's here!" Potts announced. "Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork?" She used the tone of a parent who fully expected backtalk from a teenager.

"I'm on Happy-time," Stark failed to avoid disappointing as he fired off half-competent jabs at the mitts worn by his bodyguard/driver/personal trainer, Harold Hogan. The larger man gamely accepted hits from his employer on his safety gear before leisurely throwing a slow, telegraphed straight punch. Stark dodged and pushed the ex-boxer's arm to the side, then followed up with an elbow to the forehead of Hogan's padded headgear, sending him staggering back a couple of steps.

"S-Sorry," Tony apologized unconvincingly.

"What the hell was that?!" the bulky man objected with a tone as offended as his expression.

"It's called mixed martial arts, it's been around for... three... weeks..." Stark trailed off breathily as he looked away with a sheepish look, still bouncing on his feet.

"It's called dirty boxing, there's nothing new about it," Hogan declared with authority along with a glare.

Judging there was a break in the action when she could gain attention, Agent Natasha Romanova walked into Stark's exercise room with the confident strut of the ex-model that was her cover identity. Instantly, Stark's henchman fixed his attention on her and less than subtly signaled his boss. The notorious billionaire turned to take in the view she presented as she strategically posed just inside the entrance. The white blouse and black slacks she wore would seem conservative based on their bare description, but that didn't take into account their quality or the way she wore them. The lingering gazes from the two men that followed her as she strode over to Potts was precisely what she expected and sought.

What wasn't expected was extra set of eyes fastened on her form. Perched on the four-inch-wide corner post of the boxing ring was a petite Asian girl wearing a long-sleeved Chinese-style red shirt over a black bodysuit and with hair so perfectly red that the spy considered asking her for her stylist. She sat cross-legged atop the narrow platform as comfortably as if she were on the floor instead. Interestingly, the bored look fell off the stranger's face and she gave Natasha the same round of elevator eyes as the men in the ring.

"Combat SAMBO," the girl suddenly announced. "To start. Shifted to Judo early on. Lots of Judo... looks like mostly Kodokan style mixed with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and tied together with... Catch Wrestling... I think? Huh... weird move choices there. Some Krav Maga. Some Karate... Shotokai, I bet. A li'l Aikido. Some Savate. Some Escrima... mostly with karambits. Western boxing... really? Why?"

"Hey!" Happy protested.

"Sorry, Mr. Hogan!" she apologized over he shoulder before returning her attention to the new arrival. "Hmm..." she tilted her head as she inspected the older woman's form. "Changquan and Xingyiquan... and something else... Aha!" She snapped her fingers and pointed down at Natasha with a cheerful look. "Ninjutsu!"

"Excuse me?" Natasha asked with her best confused look. Inside, she was nearly panicking at was actually a highly accurate recitation of her CQC skills. Still, as a professional, she kept her real emotions well concealed.

"Those are the schools of the Art you trained in," the grinning girl answered. "I can tell... I see how you move," she explained.

Natasha hadn't taken more than a dozen steps in the mystery girl's view.

"She's a ninja?!" Tony blurted. "You're a ninja?!" he directed at the SHIELD agent.

"Uh..."

"Pfft... no..." the youngest woman present interrupted before Natasha could think of a response with a derisive snort and a lazy wave. "She only knows a little Iga-basic crap. Also, only got taught the male side, too. Was a guy who taught you," she eyed the Russian expatriate knowingly, "right?"

"Uh..." Natasha equivocated again.

############

"So..." Phil Coulson halted Natasha's report as he propped his chin on a fist. "Ninjutsu? Really? That's not in your file." To his side, Director Fury rubbed his eyebrows wearily.

Twisting her face in annoyance, Natasha confessed: "Yeah... I got some off-the books ninja training... or I thought I did. The person who taught me made it out to be some deep, dark, cut-your-throat-before-admitting secret and Saotome treated it like it was for the casual hobbyist or something. It looks like my instructor was playing me." She looked furious at the idea.

"Maybe... but maybe not," the eyepatched leader shrugged as he looked up. "Saotome's standards are out past the stratosphere. We dug up some files the PSIA tried very hard to keep out of sight. Apparently he collects secret techniques that predate the Roman Empire the same way a normal person collects novelty coffee mugs. There are credible reports he's able to use some kind of esoteric martial-arts move to turn invisible to the naked eye, though it hasn't been tested against electronic cameras or sensors."

"Christ... no wonder she's such a concern," Natasha said absently as she considered the implications... and the possibilities if she could get the other redhead on SHIELD's side.

"One of very many reasons. Anyway... you weren't blown at that point?" Fury speculated.

"Not quite..."

############

"Uh... yeah. Yeah it was." Natasha nodded slowly, confirming the girl's guess. "Some guy I once knew was trying to impress me so he could get into my panties," she said unashamedly, trying to deflect the listeners' focus with a hint of scandal. "He taught me a few things."

"Figures," the other redhead chuckled. "Some idiot hentai showing off. Weeaaak..." she drawled with amusement.

"So... not a ninja?" Stark inquired with a pout, leaning on the top rope of the ring. Behind him, the agent noticed that Hogan looked perplexed and incredulous until he gave the tiny, mysterious female a considering glance. After which he shrugged and nodded to himself. Natasha noted the reaction for future reference in figuring out just what kind of person had just outed her.

"Nope... she only knows little bit of a few things," the teenager waved her hand casually. "She's like Akane... not real martial artist. She's like... sportswoman," the girl's expression brightened as she found the English word she was looking for.

If she had been dealing with fellow members of SHIELD, Natasha would have been offended by the contemptuous attitude... and she would have been dispensing beatings left, right, and center as punishment. As it was, however, she was thankful for the dismissal.

"I'm sorry... who are you?" Natasha demanded in exasperation.

The young woman raised herself off the post with one hand, then jack-knifed her body to vault into the air. Twisting and turning gracefully in a way to make an Olympic gymnast positively ill with envy, she landed on her feet next to the supposed paralegal. "Ranma Saotome," she introduced herself, sticking out her hand.

"Martial-arts expert extraordinaire and natural redhead... also extraordinaire. She's my new bodyguard now that Happy's been promoted," Stark spoke up to draw the agent's attention. "She just started today and came here from Japan thr... yesterday. She's kind of a refugee from marriage scammers."

Shaking the offered hand with a bemused air, Natasha said: "Rushman. Natalie Rushman."

"Ranma..." Pepper interrupted. "You're disrupting business. Don't pick up Tony's bad habits. Please."

"Ah... gomen," the Japanese native apologized with a shallow bow as she backed away.

"Shall we proceed?" the executive asked with an arched eyebrow. "I promise this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company," she called over to Tony.

"Sorry, ma'am," Natasha apologized as well. Pepper brushed it off with an understanding look. "Here are the forms," she presented the opened leather folio. "Don't forget to initial each box," she pointed. As Potts signed the various lines, she resumed her original plan. She shifted her weight from side to side under the tycoon's gaze and sent him a couple of fleeting glances as if fascinated by his tired and sweaty appearance.

"Hey... are we still doing this?" Happy nudged Tony with his hand-pad.

"Nah, I'm done," Tony waved him off and went to grab his drink. Taking a long swig of green liquid, he regarded the new woman steadily. "Time for others to have some fun. Hey... Rushman-Natalie-Rushman!" he called out. When she looked up at him, he made an impatient beckoning gesture. "Front and center. Come into the church. Ranma... get up here too."

"No," Pepper's voice was annoyed and tired. "You're seriously not gonna ask..."

"If it pleases the court," the industrialist intoned. "Which it does."

Coolly looking over her shoulder at her cover identity's employer, Natasha said: "It's no problem."

Resignedly, the other woman responded: "I'm sorry. He's very... eccentric."

Natasha kicked off her pumps and gracefully mounted the platform. Then she made a production of ducking through the ropes Stark held apart for her, every movement smooth and lingering for maximum appeal. She met his eyes unwaveringly for several moments. He drank more of the green fluid which she knew from the intell packet was chlorophyll intended as a chelation agent for his palladium issue. "Martial-arts fan, huh?" he finally said.

Raising her shoulders briefly, she replied: "I used to travel around Asia a lot for a previous job." Or rather, 'Natalie Rushman' had records of doing so for her job with a modeling agency that was owned through several cut-outs by SHIELD. She had even done a few real photoshoots every so often to increase the solidity of her mask's background. "I took a few classes for the extra exercise and tried several things out to see how I liked them." She hoped Ranma wouldn't call her out on that invention, seeing it would take far more than a handful of classes to mark her unconscious movements. Luckily the teen didn't seem interested in saying anything, but she noticed Ranma had made of point of getting within arm's length when she approached Stark.

Tony looked over at his newest employee. "Can you give her a lesson? I need to talk to Pep for a bit."

"Sure," Ranma agreed with a smile.

Stark nodded, winked, and said: "Happy eighteenth birthday!" Then he exited the ring and hurried over to Pepper.

Blinking a bit at the rapid departure, the martial artist cocked her head at Natasha, asking: "Any old school you want practice? Maybe something new?"

"Something new? Like what?"

Ranma looked her over carefully. "Those some long legs... maybe Taekwondo? Capoeira? That be rough on your clothes, though."

Ironically, Capoeira actually was something Natasha wanted very much to learn given how frequently she had ended up in bonds or some other kind of impediment during sting operations. A combat style made specifically to be used by chained and coffled practitioners would be a big help with her job. However, she had a cover to maintain and wouldn't be able to get the level of training she needed as things stood.

Natasha also needed to make sure Stark was convinced to bring her in closer so she could watch over him better, and there was an easy way to improve her odds standing right in front of her. "Speaking of ruining clothing... you might want to set this aside," she untied the sash holding Ranma's shirt closed and pushed it off the shorter girl's shoulders. Ranma looked rather pleased at the forwardness of the older woman and went along with it, draping the shirt on top of a rope. "How about we just spar free-form?" Natasha suggested.

############

"Whoops..." Phil chuckled.

"Yeah," Natasha sighed. "I had no clue what I was getting into."

############

"Hold up!" Hogan held his hands up in a 'T' shape before they could start. "You girls need to go easy. We don't need anybody getting hurt!"

"Ahem," Natasha coughed to conceal her offense. "I think..."

"How do I spell your name, Natalie?" Tony yelled.

"R-U-S-H-M-A-N," she answered as she looked back at the billionaire. Turning back to the security professional, she finished: "I think Ranma and I will be just fine."

"Ranma will be," he agreed. "Not sure about you, though. Ranma spars with Tony..."

Looking confused, Natasha replied: "O...K...?"

"...While he's wearing the armor," Happy enunciated warningly.

Natasha's face went blank in shock and she whipped her head around to look at the younger woman for confirmation... only to see an otherwise empty ring. "Where...?"

"Above!" Ranma's voice rang out from the ceiling's direction. The agent looked up to see an axe-kick descending on her head. Before she could block or dodge, and before Pepper could finish a fearful gasp, the leg suddenly swerved to the side and the teenager landed on the balls of her feet instead, her hands clasped behind her back and a mischievous grin on her face. "Juuust kidding...! My control is good! Don't worry! But you might wanna pay more attention." There was a challenging glint in the short young woman's eye. {"You are three hundred years too early to risk taking your eyes off me,"} she taunted in Japanese.

Natasha's lips thinned as she answered in the same language: {"I'll take that under advisement."} Ranma's eyes widened in delighted surprise. Though she had been trying to indulge her old habits without actually antagonizing the other redhead too much by speaking a foreign tongue, the fact the other redhead understood her was an unexpected treat. JARVIS could speak her lingo well enough, but she had started to realize the computer had limits when it came to casual conversation.

"Do I want to know what you two ladies are saying?" Hogan wondered worriedly.

"It not a problem," Ranma turned her head to reply. Then she swayed back to allow a single precise centimeter between the tip of her chin and Natasha's foot as it passed. "I just encourage her the old-fashion way," the redhead continued, somehow not being in the path of the leaping side-kick she hadn't deigned to look at. {"So when did you want to start the spar?"} she inquired politely of Natasha in Japanese, her torso instantaneously profiling around a series of punches without once moving her hands from behind her back.

Natasha's mission had nothing to do with Ranma. Her task was to captivate Stark enough to get close to him and get a good read of the man's mental and physical states. In that she could tell she was succeeding as he commented on her cover's history of modeling while she was occupied with the new bodyguard. Winning the spar gained no advantage. In fact, winning would show her to be suspicious. All she needed to do was give a good enough showing to pique the man's interest beyond her mere appearance. However... something about the young woman drew her in... compelled her to just once land a hit to justify her pride and the worth of her lifetime of training. Unconsciously she sped up, each punch and kick getting faster and faster. Strike after strike accelerated toward an infinitely receding horizon, and she couldn't help but think that if she just stretched her hand out a little more, wrung just a little more speed out of her muscles, she'd brush her fingers against her goal. All to no avail. Ranma Saotome was as untouchable as a mirage. Natasha might well have thought she was attacking a hologram if the air weren't stirred by the smaller woman's swift movements.

"H-holy god...!" Pepper stuttered loudly in shock.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Tony exclaimed from the edge of his seat, clapping his gloved hands once.

If she hadn't been flushed and breathing hard, Natasha would have paled as she suddenly backed away from Stark's new bodyguard, who in turn looked as unruffled as if she had merely been minding her own business on a street corner somewhere. Not even a few minutes previously, the agent had been determined to downplay her combat abilities, yet for who knows how long she had exceeded the normal capabilities of a civilian or even a regular soldier by a large margin with her conditioning and training. Checking expressions out of the corners of her eyes, she saw that Potts was still flabbergasted, but Hogan was starting to look suspicious and worst of all, Stark was looking very thoughtful.

Ranma's face, however, gave her a ray of hope that she could recover from her blunder. The Japanese immigrant looked intrigued, but also happy and entertained as she asked: "So... spar? We starting one? You not say, yet."

Stark barked a laugh and began to approach the ring, so Natasha implemented her hastily devised plan. {"You said,"} she panted, {"I could pick the type of martial arts."}

{"Yeah, I said that!"} Ranma nodded cheerfully.

{"Judo. I pick judo. And I win if you fail to pin me in a minute,"} she challenged.

The braid-wearing martial artist grinned at the stipulation. {"You got it! Call it whenever you want to start it!"}

{"Start!"} Natasha yelled as she lunged forward to wrap her arms around the other woman's waist, squatting a little and pressing in chest to buxom chest with her legs sort-of straddling Ranma's as she planted her feet to lift her opponent. The move was a valid one from competitive judo, and made a lot of sense in that it would let her use her greater height and weight, but the real reason she picked it was found in Stark's gleeful expression and slightly glazed eyes as he ogled their feminine chests mashed together.

Her plan came to an abrupt halt as the warm body in her arms failed to budge even a fraction of an inch. Ranma hadn't even bothered to take her hands from behind her back, yet. Too incredulous to think of something else to do, Natasha thrust her hips forward and up to try again. This time, when she reached maximum strain, the impossible resistance suddenly disappeared as Ranma gave a little hop into the air. The taller redhead's world pinwheeled crazily about her as she found herself tumbling and spinning around and between Ranma's legs before she was ejected to sprawl across the mat with a far gentler impact than she would have expected given the speed she was moving.

Pushing herself up from the ring's floor, Natasha noticed that Ranma's hands still hadn't left where they were clasped behind her back. She asked: {"What the hell kind of move was that?"}

{"Uh... dunno? I made it up just now! I'm pretty sure it was legal... maybe I should name it?"}

{"Just so you wouldn't have to use your hands?"}

{"Yep!"}

Natasha set her hands on her hips and glowered at the impudent teen.

"Ms. Rushman? How were you able to...?" Pepper started to ask.

{"You know you have, like,"} Natasha interrupted as she glanced as a convenient clock display, {"fifteen seconds to pin me, right?"} She actually had no clue how much time had elapsed, but she needed to avoid the question Potts was about to ask.

{"You have a good point,"} Ranma pursed her lips thoughtfully. Then she suddenly slid across the mat like she were riding a snowboard down a winter mountainside, not somehow gliding frictionlessly along a flat canvas surface. Natasha only managed a startled yelp as the martial artist's leading leg swept hers, sending her through a mad series of gyrations again. At the end of it, she found herself half-lying on the mat, her arms spread out helplessly above her head. Ranma's legs were entwined with hers, one of the smaller woman's knees hooked around one of hers as the still-standing teen crouched a little to keep Natasha's shoulders pushed into the ring's floor. {"There. Pinned."}

"Nice one, Ranma," Tony congratulated her for something other than her victory.

Natasha smiled internally, but put a disbelieving frown on her face. "You're still not using your hands?" she switched back to English.

"Nope," Ranma smirked down at her, shoulders shrugging as her hands remained clasped behind her back.

"Im-impossible!" Natasha struggled against the unmoving martial artist, incidentally pressing the joining of her legs to Ranma's as she squirmed. The immodest show that resulted was from a complete lack of accident.

"Hey, Ranma?" Tony asked as he tilted his head to track the new spectacle, "how moisture-proof is that new outfit?"

"Uh..." Ranma looked over at him in confusion. "No idea. Why?"

"I was just thinking you might be showing a spot soon if she keeps that up, but don't let that stop you," he nodded to where the two redheads legs were scissored together.

"Tony!" was Pepper's scandalized protest.

Ranma glanced down, then blushed furiously as she released her hold and stepped back. "Ah... sorry about that," she apologized shamefacedly.

"It's... it's alright..." Natasha said faintly. She held up a hand for the victor and said: "So that's what the bodyguard for one of the world's richest men is like." When Ranma pulled her to her feet, she pretended to stumble forward, pressing herself into the petite fighter as her hands grabbed on for balance. "It was an education," she concluded breathily as she met Ranma's eyes for a moment before stepping away and subtly nudging a blouse button so it finished coming loose.

"Um... yeah," Ranma bashfully helped her to the edge of the ring where Tony was 'helpfully' holding the ropes apart in order to ogle Natasha again while she slid between them. The redness of the martial artist's cheeks had barely started to fade before blossoming again at the agent's provocative moves.

"I think that's quite enough of this nonsense," Pepper said as she crossed her arms. Her eyes were beginning to narrow suspiciously as her shock faded away.

"Sorry... sorry..." Ranma apologized again, bowing. "I shouldn't be having fun. Jobs aren't supposed to be fun."

"One of the many reasons why I never bothered to have one," Tony quipped as he dropped down to the gym's floor.

"Sorry, Ms. Potts," Natasha apologized as she quickly grabbed the folio she had brought and gained control of her breathing. Turning to Stark, she said: "Just... um... I need your impression." She had regained her poise despite her tousled state and was riveting his attention with her gaze again.

Tony eyed her studiously. "You're an amazing athlete, yet you have a quiet reserve," he murmured. "I don't know... you have an old soul."

"I meant your fingerprint," Natasha replied, pretending that he had forced a smile out of her with his charm.

"Right," he nodded before inking his finger and pressing it into the appropriate rectangle on the form.

Pepper slowly walked over. "So, how are we doing?" she asked with a fixed smile, her gaze flicking over Natasha.

"Great," Tony immediately declared. "Just wrapping up here." Tapping the paperwork, he added: "Hey! You're the boss."

Brightly, Natasha asked: "Will that be all, Mr Stark?" while moving a bit further into his personal space... chest-first.

Tony glanced down before saying: "No..."

"Yes," Pepper interrupted, "that will be all, Ms. Rushman. Thank you very much." Looking over Natasha's form as well, she continued: "You might want to stop by your home on the way back to clean yourself up. I will let your supervisor know you will be delayed."

Natasha looked down at herself, then hastily re-did the button she had dislodged earlier. "Err... right... thank you Ms. Potts," she said as she pointlessly tried to brush her disheveled hair back into place with the fingers of one hand while clasping the folio under the other arm and making her escape..

"We've got showers right through there," Tony offered as he pointed. "I was about to take one myself!"

"That's OK," she looked at him one last time over her shoulder. "I need a clean set of clothes anyway."

"Its fine if you don't bother with the clothes!" he called after her as she vanished around the bend. "I want one," he muttered out the side of his mouth.

"No," the new CEO instantly denied with an amusedly sardonic expression.

"Ranma wants one," he waved his hand at the martial artist, whose eyes widened at being put on the spot.

"Uh..." the teen mumbled as she shuffled her feet and blushed some more. As much as a treat the trio from the plane had been, there was something special, a sense of gravity, about the slightly older redhead that drew Ranma's attention like a neutron star. Tony's 'old soul' comment wasn't one she'd heard before, but she understood it immediately. She very much wanted to see more of Natalie, but it seemed like a bad idea to admit that.

"Still no," Pepper concluded with a mocking smile.

############

"So..." Fury drawled as he leaned back in his chair and inspected his agent. "That was kind of pathetic. Fracturing your cover because of a civilian. Who wasn't even trying, right?"

"No, it was definitely inadvertent on Saotome's part," Natasha shook her head in self-recrimination. "And you're right, I've never been that sloppy on a SHIELD op before. There's just... something about her that gave me tunnel vision. For a crucial moment, all I could think of was proving myself."

"Hmm, interesting," Fury narrowed his eye as he stroked his goatee. As Romanoff said, she had never screwed up during a mission like that before. She was famous, notorious even, for being coldly pragmatic in the field. "At least it looks like your blunder isn't completely unsalvageable."

"No. Not with that bit of improvisation," Coulson's lips twitched into a brief, wry smile. "Giving Stark a show while you were sweaty, disheveled, and tangled up with another attractive redhead dressed in a skin-tight outfit? I think we all know what he's thinking about now." All the intelligence professionals at the table rolled their eyes. They had no doubt what Tony Stark's libido would demand of him in those circumstances.

"Right," Natasha agreed. "The part of the plan of getting his attention worked fine. Stark will want to find an excuse for me to stick around. Hogan goes with whatever Stark says, even if he officially works for Potts now. Saotome seemed genuinely glad to have me there. Partly for the same reason as Stark... even if she's far less obnoxious about it... and partly because I speak Japanese. Another reason for her favoring my presence was that, even if she's far beyond my ability in the martial arts, I'm a lot closer than anyone else she's likely to meet in Malibu. A basis for some commonality that she seemed to want. Despite that, it's not like she can't annihilate me anytime she needs to, so she won't think of me as a threat, either." She shrugged, then went on more seriously: "Potts is the one I am worried about. She's perfectly capable of quietly firing me when Stark is distracted by something shiny."

"That's... if she's inclined to do so..." Coulson slowly offered as his eyes went unfocused. "My interactions with her have been rather positive. Indeed, we worked together rather smoothly during the Stane contreps. She impressed me as an intelligent, level-headed woman and there is no doubt she would favor any course of action that protected Tony Stark. We might get her to stay her hand, or even actively help you, if we simply tell her the truth." When the director threw him a sharp, disapproving glance, he clarified: "A carefully selected sampling of the truth anyway."

"You mean, about the palladium poisoning?" Natasha asked.

"No," Fury countermanded. "As long as Stark is dumb enough to keep hiding it, it's something we can use as a handle on him.

"Not that," Coulson denied. "I meant let Potts know the truth that Romanoff is a bit more than a regular ex-model-slash-paralegal-slash-fight-hobbyist. Not an agent, of course, but something more useful than her cover."

Cocking her head in consideration, Natasha reviewed her own impressions of the new CEO of Stark Industries. "That would have to be one seriously selective truth. I'm not sure how happy she would be with a trained assassin nearby. But I agree she would welcome all the help she can get in managing Stark."

"What are you proposing, Agent Coulson," Fury inquired, propping his elbows on the table and steepling his hands in front of his face.

"We give Agent Romanoff a secondary cover as, hmm... a U.S. Marshal would be best, less chance of a negative impression that way. I'll call Ms. Potts if and when necessary and tell her I made arrangements for the Service to provide a discreet extra layer of protection at Stark Industries' office, and have her ask you for credentials. We can attribute the need for extra security to the strange behavior Stark's been indulging recently. It does look like the kind of things someone might do if they were threatened or blackmailed or something. The palladium thing can be heroically 'discovered' at some later point if we think it's useful. I'll also chuck you under the bus by saying a real SHIELD agent wouldn't have been so unsubtle... just to enhance your cover, you understand." He waggled his eyebrows playfully. Fury sat back and nodded slowly in approval.

Natasha winced and raised a hand as if acknowledging a point. "Fair enough."

"You show the badge and the written orders we will create for you before you leave," Phil continued, "and that should take care of her concerns in all likelihood. I will back you up by making arrangements with the Marshal Service as well, in case she calls them. We'll simply not mention anything else you might be doing." Looking back and forth between his two colleagues, he asked: "Sound good?"

Natasha nodded her agreement as Fury said: "Sounds good, but I also want you to start preparing a backup asset in case Romanoff gets kicked out anyway."

"I already have a contingency plan in a holding pattern. It can remain viable for the next three weeks," Coulson told them. "Agent Romanoff should either be able to firmly establish herself in that time, or the need will no longer be relevant."

"Preferably the latter," Fury added. "There are plenty of other things I would like to have you two working on." Popping the data-chip from a slot in the conference table's computer, he slid it over to Natasha. "The complete file is on that, use your SHIELD creds to open it. Get a handle on Saotome as fast as you can, I want to see a useful report within 24 hours."

"Yes, sir," she agreed.

"Now get out of here and make it happen, Agents."

############

Special disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, but I did my best to sound lawyer-ish in the following. I doubt I sound so authentic, but for the love of Frigga's armored bustier, don't look to me for valid legal expertise!

############

Kisaki Eri could not help but note the wary glances sent her way, or rather the wary glances sent the way of the company limousine with darkened windows she was currently riding in. {"Hmph, they must think we are the Kunos in this car. I don't think any other local family would have the money or inclination to own a vehicle like this,"} the brown-haired lawyer commented as she adjusted her glasses. She had to admit, she would be doing exactly what some of the women were: quickly evacuating away from the road if she thought the real Kunos were approaching.

{"It seems likely,"} her co-passenger answered serenely, though he did not open his eyes to confirm or deny her observation. {"Those three are possessed of highly disturbing, as well as disturbed, mentalities. I can see why you commissioned my aid if they are representative of the persons you must deal with today."} Koetsuji Akisame had been on the list of recommendations Eri's client, Saotome Ranma, had made for her to protect her when she acted on his, or her, behalf in Nerima. In fact, the Jiu-Jitsu master had been on the top of that list. He was skilled, powerful, and respected amongst high-level martial artists.

He had easily proven to be worth his hire when the Kuno siblings and their father had each attacked her as she visited them at their respective schools to serve court orders on them. Tatewaki had professed an eagerness to 'date' her, which apparently meant he first needed to render her unconscious with a strike from a boken. Kodachi had declared her a 'libidinous hag' out to steal away 'her Ranma-Sama,' then attempted assault with a spiked gymnastics club. It had almost been a relief in comparison when the patriarch of the clan, Kuno Kocho, had merely declared her hair-bun to be anathema and brandished hair-clippers in order to inflict a bowl-cut on her.

Then he'd brought out the pineapple bombs, and things got even less humorous than they had been at the start.

Koetsuji had shut down the attacks easily, however, and protected her as thoroughly as she could ever have wished. Unfortunately, the three lunatics were not all in the hands of the police as they should have been after their mad assaults. An attempt to call in the local precinct had only gotten them advice to leave Nerima at once, or to get some of the more notable local martial artists to beat up the Kunos further. Apparently, the Nerima law enforcement saw anything beyond duly recording damages to be outside their bailiwick. Nor would any outside police intervene, citing the 'expertise' of the ineffective Nerima officers. She'd had to settle for pictures of the Kunos holding the paperwork she gave them and leaving them subdued and restrained.

Eri could easily see Maeda-San's point about Nerima. And objectively she agreed in full. But right now she just wanted to be done with her self-appointed tasks for the day. At least her final objectives were guaranteed to all in the same place at this time.

The car stopped in front of the Tendo household. Instead of waiting for the driver, Koetsuji immediately stepped out and offered a chivalrous hand to help the lawyer out as well. Kisaki nodded her thanks, then followed him toward the front gate.

{"Their sign is gone,"} Koetsuji noted in a murmur as he opened the gate and nodded to a bare peg.

{"What?"}

{"The sign for the Tendo school of martial arts, it's gone,"} the jiu-jitsuka explained, as one of his distinctive jagged eyebrows lifted. {"This would indicate they are no longer functional as a school. Either they lost it in a challenge, or they voluntarily decline to identify as an active school anymore."}

{"Hmph. From what I understood from Saotome-San, he had been the only one to deal with challengers, or anything else Tendo-San found inconvenient. It doesn't surprise me,"} Kisaki said dismissively as she started up the video recording app on her phone and pocketed it, letting the lens peek out over the top of her blazer's pocket. Next, she took a few manila envelopes out of her briefcase and held each one in front of the camera briefly to show the addressing. Now prepared, she then tugged the old-fashioned pull next to the front door to ring a bell.

After a few moments, they heard a young woman call out {"Coming!"} A little while after that, the door opened to show a dark-haired brunette in her early twenties wearing a house-dress and apron. Kisaki and Koetsuji both recognized her from Ranma's description. {"Good evening,"} she greeted with a polite bow. {"How can I help you?"}

{"Good evening,"} Eri replied, bowing in turn. {"Sorry to trouble you. You are Tendo Kasumi, correct? My name is Kisaki Eri, and I have information about Saotome Ranma to pass on to his parents and your family."}

{"And I am Koetsuji Akisame. Here to escort Kisaki-San."}

{"Oh my,"} the eldest Tendo sister said mildly, though she didn't seem to express any particularly strong emotion about hearing about someone who had been missing for several weeks. The two visitors gave each other a look at her tepid attitude. {"I believe my father and Uncle Saotome would like to speak with you then. Please come in."}

{"Thank you,"} Kisaki responded as she stepped into the genkan. She and her protector shed their street shoes in exchange for house-slippers, then followed Kasumi toward the back of the house. The hallway opened out to a washitsu where all other residents of the household were seated with meals in front of them, except for Happosai. The grand-master of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu had supposedly skipped town after Ranma defeated him, but her client had warned her that he might have returned. Fortunately, that was not the case, it seemed.

{"Who are they, Kasumi?"} asked a man with long, black hair and a mustache. Tendo Soun according to Kisaki's information.

{"Father, these are Kisaki-San and Koetsuji-San. They came to tell you something about Ranma-Kun,"} was the bland reply.

From Kasumi's abstracted demeanor, one would expect the others in the house to react in a similarly placid manner. One would, as it happened, have been very wrong.

There was a lot of shouting from all three parents at once. Tendo Soun leapt to his feet and nearly bowled Kisaki over as he rushed toward her, but Koetsuji was as vigilant as usual and planted a palm in the middle of the far weaker master's chest to halt him. Saotome Genma looked as if he was contemplating joining his friend, but a glance down at his food kept him in his seat. He still added to the cacophony of questions and demands between rapid bites from his own bowl and his host's.

Saotome Nodoka also remained seated, her voice adding a strident, piercing tone to the noise. The woman's frown deepened as Kisaki simply stood and waited for the tumult to die down with a look of polite attention of her face. Finally, Ranma's mother had enough, and stripped the cloth wrapping from around the sword at her side. Though it was a quiet act, it was enough to immediately shut the two men up, who then eyed her warily. Eri noticed her guardian didn't tense at all at the implicit threat, as if he regarded it as inconsequential.

{"Tell me where my son is, now!"} Nodoka demanded now that her voice could be made out. {"He has responsibilities he must fulfill as a man!"}

{"I can only say where he was two days ago,"} Eri replied calmly. {"I do have information prepared, if you would be so kind as to allow me to present it,"} she noted while waving the stack of envelopes she had.

{"Then give it over, if you please,"} Nodoka insisted.

Kisaki glanced at the owner of the house in response. Taking his cue, Soun acted as if his houseguest hadn't taken charge without his input and said: {"I think we'd all appreciate any information you have. Please be seated."}

{"Thank you,"} Kisaki replied as she sat seiza next to the table.

Koetsuji followed her example, though he looked ready for battle despite the formal kneeling position. He silently pointed a finger at the face of the nineteen-year-old girl with the bob haircut, Tendo Nabiki according to the profile provided them, who had been trying shuffle behind Eri with a crafty expression. The girl stopped positioning herself for a snatch at the paperwork with a surprised and offended expression, but backed off. Her father and Saotome Genma looked startled and gave the man narrow-eyed looks, only just now realizing just what quality of a man had entered their home. The corner of Akisame's mouth twitched in an infinitesimal smirk. Genma, at least, was a decent match for him, and really should have noticed the level of the visitor sooner, even though the jiu-jitsuka was wearing a suit and tie instead of his preferred hakama pants and gi top.

Eri noticed that the youngest woman present, Tendo Akane, was slowly sidling back away from the rest of her family. A faint smile was growing on her face. Kasumi, on the other hand, showed herself to be oblivious to the tension in the room as she offered to fetch tea for the attorney and her guard, which they both politely refused. The eldest sister then sat at the table to eat and seemed to ignore the proceedings.

{"As stated, the materials within these envelopes will tell you where Saotome Ranma was two days ago,"} Eri restated as she handed the marked envelopes to the proper people in a carefully planned order. Soun, Nodoka, and Genma were handed theirs in that order, Eri's camera catching the acceptance of each packet in case they tried to deny receipt later. {"I even have one for you, Tendo Nabiki,"} she added while proffering what happened to be the second thickest envelope to the middle sister (as her father, Soun had the thickest due to getting the materials relevant to her in addition to his own.) The girl took the envelope with a confused, but curious expression, but then her eyes widened and she paled as she guessed what it was she was holding in her hands.

The parents had opened theirs and slid out the papers within, though in their cases they only looked perplexed. {"Excuse me,"} Nodoka spoke up, {"but how exactly does this tell us where my son is?"}

{"What you have evidence of in front of you is where Ranma was during the 21st of this month. Specifically, it shows that he was in the law offices of Kotonami, Shinozaki, and Orimura, the firm at which I am employed, as he retained our services,"} she informed the group precisely. {"When he was not at our office, he was in the court of the honorable Judge Chitose Tadashi, who signed several orders on his behalf."}

If Nabiki had been pale before, she was on the verge of fainting now. She recognized the law firm as one of the most high-powered and notorious in Japan, and she really didn't want to be anywhere near a representative of that company unless she was the one hiring them. {"It seems like you all have a lot to talk about,"} she said weakly, starting to rise to her feet. {"I'll just leave you to it, right?"}

{"Tendo Nabiki!"} Kisaki's strict voice stopped the grifter as abruptly as if it were a whiplash cracking in front of her face. {"You of all people should carefully listen to what I have to say. A large share of your father's liability is due to you, so you should at least have the decency to stay for this. It would be highly advisable that you all acquire lawyers of your own, and you will want to relay information to that lawyer as accurately as possible."}

{"As a point of information: what would be the consequences of ignoring the documents and not seeking legal advice?"} Koetsuji interjected suddenly. Eri turned bodily to give him a questioning glance. {"I ask because Saotome Genma has already fled."} The lawyer turned again to see that the bulky martial artist was indeed missing, his envelope left behind on the table with just enough of the paperwork inside having been slid out to show the letterhead of her firm. His escape was so abrupt and subtle despite him having been within her field of view the entire time, there might as well have been a blinking outline tracing where he used to be. Soun looked betrayed and alarmed, while Nodoka's expression closed down entirely.

Kisaki sighed heavily. {"It would seem Saotome-San has an extreme aversion to the law in any way shape and form."}

{"I did not think it appropriate to hold him here,"} Koetsuji apologized, {"and he left too quickly for me to discuss it with you, Kisaki-San."}

{"That is quite alright, you did the correct thing,"} she assured him. {"Very well. Saotome-San has already been served, and is now liable. He will now be ignorant of any actions he is required to take and any actions he is forbidden to perform unless he returns and reads the filings, but he will be held responsible for them nonetheless. My only required role is to serve the processes before you. I am under no obligation to explain the particulars to any of you, but I am willing to do so as a courtesy and to better serve my client's interests."}

{"How did that moron manage to hire someone like you?!"} Nabiki exclaimed. She wasn't sure if she had ever even seen a lawyer in Nerima before, though she had certainly paid attention to who the players in the legal world were. Having such an expensive and effective example of the profession show up in her house was as shocking as a loose bull at a glazier convention.

{"I am not required to answer that question,"} Eri denied firmly, {"and I resent the implication against my client. Defamation of character is specifically listed in the civil injunctions against you, Tendo-San, as are extortion, coercion, and unlicensed image usage."}

{"Unlicensed image..."} Nabiki was confused at first. {"You mean the pictures? It's not my fault the idiot runs around topless."} Now very worried about what kind of pitfall she'd stumbled into, she went on to dig herself in deeper. {"Saotome was practically begging for it! I just took the opportunity!"}

Before Eri could respond to that, Nodoka cut in. {"Excuse me! I require an explanation,"} she glanced through the pages she had been given. {"What exactly is this nonsense? Order of protection? Writ of emancipation? Power of attorney? What does this have to do with finding my son and bringing him back here?"}

Kisaki Eri's head turned to face the woman like the turret of a battlecruiser coming to bear on a target. "It has nothing to do with finding your son. To the contrary, you are now subject to a judge's order to maintain a minimum distance of 50 meters from Saotome Ranma to the best of your ability. As are your husband and Tendo Soun. You are all also to refrain from trying to contact Ranma-San in any form. In short, it does not matter where Ranma-San is, for you are forbidden to go there. By Japanese law, he is now an emancipated minor, having proven economic self-sufficiency and relevant need. You no longer have any legal claim to him. Or her."}

Giving a significant glance to a grinning Akane, she continued to elaborate: {"This means that he has full control to enter into or, more importantly, refuse any marriage. He has further empowered me to act as attorney-in-fact on several matters, including betrothals. By prior arrangement with Judge Chitose, Ranma-San cannot be married legally without triggering judicial scrutiny for the next two years without both him and me going before the judge to cancel these precautions."} She smiled slightly at the Akane's silent cheering that the remaining parents did not notice. {"So it would not be possible, for instance, for a parent to give fraudulent approval for a marriage and then forge their child's signature to try to make it official, Tendo-San."} The last was directed to the head of the putative household, who froze with a guilty expression. {"You could say I'm doing you a favor by setting this up. There are many counts of marriage fraud attributable to you already, you do not need more."}

{"That's ridiculous,"} Nodoka spat. {"Ranma is my son and he has obligations to me, to his father, and the Saotome name. No piece of paper can change that."}

{"The government of Japan disagrees with you,"} Eri pointed out coldly. {"However, the contact information for Judge Chitose is in the materials provided, and you are free to try to convince him to cancel his orders. In fact, you will be required to present yourself to him in court to review this situation. If you can persuade him that there is an undue hardship in maintaining the restraining order, then he will end it."}

{"I have been separated from my son! That is in itself a hardship!"} Nodoka claimed triumphantly.

{"You went over a decade without any contact at all with him, starting when he was barely more than a toddler, I might add,"} the lawyer stared down the other woman implacably. {"No one will be convinced there is any hardship now that he is effectively an adult."}

Nodoka was taken aback long enough for Soun to speak up. {"Surely this is all some misunderstanding. Ranma must marry Akane to join the schools! Just let me speak to the boy and I am sure we can work this all out."} He tried to present a winning smile and a self-assured air.

{"Tendo-San, do you not recall that I just mentioned marriage fraud? As in the felony crime? I've already found dozens of witnesses, and I expect I can find hundreds more, who all say they have personally witnessed numerous attempts at marriage fraud committed by you and the Saotome parents,"} Eri cut his bravado down with a single sentence. {"Beyond being immoral, it is something the government takes very seriously, and they are quite capable of prosecuting should they so choose."} Her final phrase collapsed him entirely, and he slumped in his seat, streams of tears falling from his eyes.

His anguish gave Nodoka time to regain her equilibrium. {"I say this is all nonsense. I insist that you tell me where my son is at once!"}

{"Insist all you like,"} was the irked response. {"Until I hear from the judge that things have changed, and confirm no other judge will hear an appeal of that possible change, I have no intention of handing Ranma-San over to you. You and your husband have no claims on him whatsoever right now."} Her tone hardened and her eyes narrowed as she observed the Saotome woman had picked up the sheathed sword. {"And what, exactly, do you plan to do with that sword?"} Koetsuji also looked more alert, but the alertness was that of a lazy tiger eyeing a small, yappy dog that might be stupid enough to attack instead of just bark.

Nodoka sniffed in offense at being called out for her habit of brandishing the blade whenever things didn't go precisely her way, but she put the sword back down. {"If you were an honorable woman with a respect for our homeland's traditions, you would not need to ask."}

{"Saotome-San,"} Eri replied in a low, hostile voice, {"The fact of the matter is that Judge Chitose is one of the most conservative justices on the bench. Just the publicly accessible information on your actions, particularly from this one's videos and information peddling,"} she jerked her head toward Nabiki, {"was still enough to make even him grant one of the fastest emancipations I've ever heard of. Your actions were just that repugnant, and that dishonorable. In fact, the way you kept yourselves and your son as far away from government and law as you could possibly manage meant my client had barely any legal status to change in the first place. There was serious discussion of simply declaring Ranma-San to be an abandoned minor to simplify things. I am confident that further investigation will just make the necessity of emancipation and separation even more clear."}

While Nodoka's face began to purple with anger and she sputtered incoherently, Nabiki quipped: {"If you liked the videos so much, why are you getting on my case?"}

{"Just because you publicized your wrongdoings doesn't mean they were not still criminal,"} Eri riposted. {"And I do use 'criminal' advisedly. We have turned all the evidence of bribes, embezzlement, illegal gambling, privacy violations, and other such activities over to various prosecutors' offices. I would be very surprised if you didn't appear before a judge for a warning and effective parole at the very least."} Nabiki instantly lost her resurrected brashness and looked like her legs wouldn't support her if she tried to leave again. {"That will be for them to decide. My concern will be collecting damages from the profits you have made from Ranma-San's image and making sure you take down, erase, or destroy all such content. I will also be monitoring to make sure you do not slander or libel my client in any way from now on, nor continue to sell his or her personal information or the results of your illegal surveillance."}

Nabiki was reeling from the rapid-fire delivery of ultimatums, but she fastened on the part that mattered to her the most: the money. {"Damages!? Just how much...?"}

{"Look at the last page of the second set of stapled documents."}

The notorious pseudo-gangster hastily flipped to the identified page. {"YOU WANT HOW MUCH?!"} she suddenly shrieked.

Eri calmly replied: {"We based our estimate on the wages a model of Ranma-San's quality would have earned with a legitimate agency and a legitimate client. Note that Ranma-San now has a contract with such an agency, who will also be on the lookout for anyone misusing his or her image. Still, we expect a fair share of the estimated profits to be turned over."}

{"Fair share!? Even I didn't make this much!"} Nabiki yelled. {"I was just picking up some pocket money! You can't do this!"}

{"The senior partners of my law firm, a duly appointed judge, and the independent experts we contracted all agree that we can do this."} She gave the girl a glare that had her trembling in fear. {"Make no mistake, this situation is very serious, as is the monetary claim estimate. That you failed to extract as much illegal profit as you could have had you operated in an aboveboard manner does not change that,"} Kisaki expounded with a grim tone. {"The only thing I can think of that would eliminate the claim would be if you have evidence that you paid Ranma-San a share."} The sick look in Nabiki's eyes made it clear there would be no such evidence. Almost casually, she suggested: {"I suppose if you have records of how much you did make, the amount we would seek could be lowered."}

Nabiki looked relieved at the idea of a reprieve. {"I do have records!"} she admitted eagerly. {"I'll go get my books!"} She scrambled up to hurry to the stairs and was soon gone. The adults seemed to dismiss the girl from their minds as they continued to leaf through the paperwork.

Eri traded glances with her escort. Nabiki was willing to give up evidence of crimes... even after the lawyer had warned her... in exchange for the immediate reduction of possible fines, showing she had no capability of weighing long term benefits against short term advantages. From the standpoint of her firm, the money was almost meaningless... even the maximum estimated damages quoted wouldn't cover the fees Tony Stark was paying them. However the point was punishment and deterrence, not profit, and the girl was just about to incriminate herself thoroughly. As Eri was not a member of law enforcement, she was not under any obligation to advise against self-incrimination. She wish she could say she was surprised that the alleged grownups weren't saying a thing to stop her. However, the fact Nabiki's guardian was present and not objecting put Kisaki on firmer legal footing.

Putting the petty crook out of her mind for the moment, Eri focused on Nodoka again. {"Saotome-San, you held your pre-literate child liable for a suicide compact he couldn't possibly have truly understood at that age even if anyone had read it to him. Which no one did. We at Kotonami, Shinozaki, and Orimura will devote our considerable talent and resources to making sure you never have a say in our client's life again."}

{"It was a pact of honor,"} Nodoka countered with an incensed tone. {"It doesn't matter how much Ranma understood, he still chose to accept. It proved his capacity for manliness and his commitment to his path. Like a boy choosing a blade over a ball."}

{"Choosing a...?"} Eri did not rub her brow, but she dearly wanted to. {"That's... that's from a movie! Nobody does that in real life! Nobody does that in real life, right?"} She directed the last question to Koetsuji, who shook his head to confirm her assumption.

{"You're not a martial artist,"} the insane woman said dismissively. {"You couldn't comprehend the lengths a martial artist would go to prove himself."}

{"Nor are you a martial artist, Saotome-San,"} Koetsuji joined the conversation, his deep, calm tone stopping her from speaking over him. {"I, however, have been a martial artist all my life. I've trained martial artists. Worked with martial artists. Lived with fellow martial arts masters. I have fought life and death battles against martial artists. I assure you that none of them, not even the most heinous or depraved, would have subjected a child to a seppuku pact."}

{"And following that, you engaged in attempted marriage fraud to make your unprepared, uneducated, and unemployed son support you even though you never provided the means or guidance as he grew up to make it possible for him to do so."} Kisaki added. {" Filial piety is one thing, but leaving a posterity of nothing but sabotage and debt is something else entirely."} She noticed that while Akane Tendo still hadn't said a word, the girl was nodding fervently at the statement.

{"Obligation is obligation,"} Nodoka insisted. {"Tell Ranma to return here immediately. If he doesn't, then he has failed to uphold the contract..."}

{"That he finger-painted on before he could read,"} Kisaki threw in.

Nodoka continued as if the lawyer hadn't said anything: {"...And he must either regain his honor with seppuku, or he will be cast out from the Saotome family. Unless he wants to spend the rest of his life as a nameless untouchable, he'll come back here right now."}

Soun was shocked at the declaration, his mouth quivering, and Akane looked incensed, but Eri and Koetsuji did not react. For good reason. {"Emancipated,} Eri emphasized the word as she gave her reminder. {"You can't do anything that can affect my client's legal status, including identity. Oh, you can write anything you want into your family register, but no one of any importance will give it weight. All you can do is plead your case before the judge to try to get that changed, but with the way you act and the way your husband up and ran away, I can't see that happening. I would also say this should have happened years ago."}

{"I don't have to listen to this,"} Nodoka snapped. {"I'll thank you to leave immediately!"}

{"As you wish,"} Eri agreed, starting to rise to her feet.

{"Wait!"} Soun interrupted. {"Nabiki hasn't brought back the information to make you drop the case against her!"} He quailed at the venomous look Nodoka gave him, but before he could cave in to her unspoken demand, his daughter pounded down the stairs and ran into the room.

{"Here we go,"} Nabiki announced as she carried over a notebook and several print-outs, ignoring the tension in the room. {"I'll want to keep these, but you can see there really wasn't all that much money from the pictures or videos."} Nodoka grimaced at losing control of the conversation. Rather than stay and observe, she stood and left in a huff, heading for the 'guest' room she had shared with her husband and child for over a year. Eri noted she took her paperwork with her, at least.

{"You may retain the documents, that should not be a problem,"} Eri promised as she held out her hand, accepting the stack. With precise motions, she set the papers on the table, then brought out her phone to begin capturing stills, though she kept the video recording going as well.

{"Uh..."} Nabiki started to interrupt, but froze at the look Kisaki sent her over the tops of her glasses. {"Uh, yeah... never mind, then."}

Silently, the attorney leafed through the loose papers first, which showed the incoming receipts from online sales, then she looked through the bound notebook. Creasing her brows, she said: {"This doesn't make a lot of sense. Where in this is information on the picture sales?"}

{"Oh, um, that's a lot of my other... stuff. Just look for the entries that read 'SaoP' or 'SaoV' for pictures and videos to see who bought what for how much,"} Nabiki explained.

{"I see other 'Sao' entries, like 'SaoWa' and 'SaoBM,'"} Eri pointed out. {"What are these?"} Based on what her client had told her, she rather thought they were charges for water and blackmail.

{"Um... nothing?"} Nabiki said nervously. {"Not pictures or video, anyway."}

Eri didn't do anything as overt as raise an eyebrow, but she was seeing a lot of notations for 'Bet' and 'BM' on the pages. All of it was for petty amounts, but there were enough of them to add up to what would be big money for a teen. Not enough, however, to make the trouble the Tendo girl had bought for herself worthwhile, in her opinion. Dutifully, she recorded each page. She couldn't use most of the data, but she knew people who could. It might not be admissible in court as-is, but it could at least be a reference to make sure they recovered the proper documents later. That was all assuming Maeda-San made as much progress as he hoped.

{"OK,"} she finally said, handing back the papers as promised. {"I can see you didn't make as much as it was guessed that you could have."} At her announcement, Nabiki grimaced sourly at the missed opportunities, but her father looked elated.

{"So we can drop this whole thing, right?"} Soun asked hopefully.

{"Not a chance,"} Eri instantly denied. {"The fact remains that your daughter did profit off of unauthorized pictures and video of my client. As a minor, she would be extremely unlikely to do jail time for this, but it isn't completely impossible. And we will claim appropriate damages regardless. We will be back in touch with a new settlement request. I would suggest you discuss this with your daughter to prepare. As her parent, you will be liable for the money."}

{"Surely we can come to some kind of arrangement?"}

{"Of course we can,"} Eri offered with a chilly smile. {"The arrangement will be that we calculate the amount that should have been paid to Saotome Ranma, then appropriate damages, and you will pay the amount. Otherwise, you can hire counsel to persuade us otherwise, or we can all go in front of a judge to settle this. And don't even think about selling this stuff again."}

{"This can't possibly need to go that far? This was just kids messing around!"} The Tendo patriarch pled with more tears brimming in his eyes. {"I can have a talk with Nabiki about making sure this never happens again."}

{"We would appreciate that, but you didn't rein her in for two years. Had she been an adult, this situation would be a lot more serious, but it is bad enough as it stands."} She saw the man was collapsing in on himself, so she adopted a more gentle tone. {"Speaking as a parent of a teenager myself..."} and speaking as someone legally separated from a husband that was pretty much as useless as the man in front of her, but there was no point in bringing that up, {"...I would suggest using this as a learning opportunity for your daughter by making her take a job to pay off the amount. It is quite possible she will come out a better person for it."}

{"I..."} the dojo owner clenched a fist, but soon released it and slumped even further in his seat. {"When is Ranma coming back? I'm sure I can talk sense into the boy. We can even move the engagement to Nabiki again, and he can deal with getting her to make recompense."}

{"You have got to be kidding me, Daddy,"} Nabiki broke in incredulously. {"How the hell would that even work?"}

{"We can work this out!"} Soun claimed. {"We can fix everything if we can get the betrothal back on track!"}

{"I am... so out of here,"} Nabiki shook her head and grabbed her records before heading back upstairs. {"Let me know when reality has been restored!"} she called out over her shoulder.

{"Get back here!"} Soun demanded. {"As your father, I am telling you to come back!"} He was soundly ignored.

{"Dad. Nabiki's been out of control for years,"} Akane spoke up for the first time. {"I was complaining about the stuff she pulled back even before the Saotomes showed up. Kisaki-San might be right. She needs to deal with some consequences for a change. Remember how she nearly wrecked this family a bunch of times during the ten-yen challenge."}

{"She's just... high-spirited,"} her father countered lamely. {"Perhaps you can have a word with her?"} He earned another incredulous look from a daughter with that one.

Eri had lost patience with the man who so desperately clung to fantasy and avoided responsibility. At the start of the day, she had planned to rub things in by pointing out that she was only handling the civil side of things, and going into more detail about how the justice system would likely be adding criminal charges at some point in the future. However, Nerima had made her very tired, and she was no longer willing to spend time and effort on something that might turn out to be a bluff in the end if the status quo in Nerima held. {"I do believe our business is concluded for today. I will be back in contact with the updated claim."} She and Koetsuji both stood up to leave.

{"No! Wait! We can still make some kind of deal!"} Soun was not ready to concede yet. He reached out as if to grab her arm, but Akisame interposed himself and made him huddle back. Atrophied his skills might be, the supposed master of the Tendo school still recognized when he was outmatched.

{"Ranma-San is not coming back. He has no future here. You should get legal counsel, then we can discuss things again,"} Kisaki suggested. Tendo gobbled helplessly at that, but didn't try to stop them anymore.

{"I'll walk them out, Kasumi,"} Akane offered when her oldest sister moved to join the visitors.

{"Thank you, Akane,"} Kasumi said placidly, then went back to eating and ignoring what was going on.

Akane shook her head a little at that, then smiled at the lawyer and her guard. She accompanied them to the front door, and lingered in the genkan as they recovered their shoes and went back outside. {"I heard from Ranma that he got a job with... a certain person. But I wasn't sure how much I could say."}

{"In legal matters, it is a good policy to not say anything when in doubt,"} Kisaki advised her with an approving tone. A thought struck her, and she fetched out a business card to had to the girl. {"My firm is being paid by a certain third party, and we might be a bit pricey for you, but if you give my office a call in a day or two, I can make some recommendations about who you can go to for legal advice."}

Akane took the card with a worried look before pocketing it. {"Does that mean you think I'm in trouble too?"}

{"Oh no,"} Kisaki hastily reassured her. {"The only role you would have in this mess would be as a witness. I'd still recommend representation even for that, but the real reason I suggested it was in case you wanted a way out yourself. Saotome-San's situation has been intolerable, and if the same is true for you..."}

{"Ah! No... I'm not having any problems like that."} Akane waved her hands to ward off the idea. {"Things have been seriously calm since Ranma left. For me anyway. Some of the maniacs have been... well... they could have used some of the old Ranma treatment, and I've only been able to step up in a couple of cases. But me? All that lot,"} she tossed her head in the direction of the house, {"expects of me is to sit around like a princess in a tower somewhere waiting for a random prince to show up. They leave me alone almost completely. It's given me time to get a job and start saving up for college. I'll take a gap year after high school, earn some cash, and after that I'll be set. Hiring a lawyer could set that back."}

{"Hmm..."} the mother in Kisaki Eri did not much like the idea that being left alone was the best the girl could hope for. However, Akane's situation wasn't as blatantly bad as Ranma's had been, so she would need to seek help before too much could be done. {"You do seem to be handling this well, but still please call. Even if it isn't for yourself, I do know some people who would like to hear your take of what has been happening in this district. In fact, you might be able to get a fair bit of free advice by doing that. I won't be joining in on that part,"} she shook her head ruefully at the idea of deliberately charging fully into the madhouse of Nerima, {"but I know some crusaders who do plan to restore some order to the area."}

{"Well,"} Akane sighed, {"I don't know how well that would work, this place has been nuts for as long as I can remember, but I'm glad someone wants to try. I'll talk to them, but I won't hold my breath. Honestly, as long as long as the whole Ranma mess gets settled, I'm good. Anything beyond that would just be icing on the cake."} The girl shrugged with a twist of her lips. {"The fiancee battle has just dragged on pointlessly for so long. I'm just relieved it looks like things are shaking out at last."} She hesitated, then asked: {"I know what Ranma's been e-mailing me, but if he's let his pride off the leash, the baka would tell me he was fine even when he had broken bones. How is he really doing?"}

{"Hmm..."} Eri thought it over a bit. {"He's a bit overwhelmed with everything that's been happening, but it seemed like he was looking forward to his new situation. The future is looking bright for him, I would say. Also, as a Japanese citizen, I for one am hoping to see him in the news."}

{"Oh yeah!"} Akane looked startled and thoughtful. {"I guess he's gonna be a bit famous, considering who it is he'll be working for. That's really weird to think about."}

{"I'm sure you will get used to it. Thank you for seeing us out, and have a good evening, Tendo-San." Eri gave the young woman a small bow.

{"You have a good evening, too. I hope things go as well as you say."} Akane bowed back and then closed the door.

Kisaki shook her head again and sighed. Walking out the short path to the gate in the perimeter wall, she commented: {"What sad, strange people."}

Accompanying her, Koetsuji responded: {"I'll be the first to admit martial artists tend to live in their own little worlds, but what I've seen to day has been... delusional beyond all my prior experience."}

{"Yes it was. I am not looking forward to when they show up at the office to make demands. Which they will,"} she predicted fatalistically. {"I..."}

Before she could go on, a sweep of her protector's arm moved her behind him. Craning her neck a little, Eri looked over his shoulder to see an absurdly wizened woman perched on the wall that surrounded the Tendo's yard. The ancient simply looked at them with a quizzical expression, her cane propped between her crossed legs and tilted to the side as she clutched it. The lawyer recognized the person, though it was still startling to see someone so impossibly aged.

{"Good evening,"} Ku Lon greeted them with a nod.

{"Good evening, elder,"} Koetsuji replied on behalf of the both of them with a brief, wary bow. {"Was there something we could help you with?"} he asked cautiously.

{"To the contrary, it was in my mind to help you by collecting one of those lawyerly little packets and save you the trip to my cafe."} She waved her staff for emphasis. {"The young ones would likely respond in a fairly silly fashion, should you show up at our door."}

{"Indeed, we would prefer to avoid any such issues,"} Eri spoke up. Taking a breath, she stepped out from behind her guard. Happy Hogan had shown them the video he'd taken of the fight between Ranma and Ku Lon, the advanced technology of his phone having done an exceptional job of capturing the action despite the darkness and the speed of the combatants. Koetsuji had been very impressed by the demonstration of gravity-warping martial prowess, and made no bones of the fact he was not up to operating on that level. Yet even without that warning, Eri would be on alert. There was something distinctly uncanny about the matriarch and she could readily understand her protector's warning that if it came down to a fight, Koetsuji did not expect to win, but would rather try to buy time for her to escape. However, it seemed they would be able to avoid conflict. {"As a matter of fact, no one from my firm will be contacting you, Shan Pu, or Mu Su. Instead, you will be contacted by representative's of Japan's National Police Agency. My understanding is that you will be asked to leave the country instead of being charged with anything."}

{"Oh?"} the elder challenged. {"I seem to recall the police in this district being so diffident and inconspicuous that they might was well be wisps of vapor. Do you expect me to believe such as they will intrude on our business?"}

Eri shook her head. {"It won't be that lot. As I said, it will be the national police. Ones who have been looking for an opportunity to assert themselves for quite some time. Not everyone has agreed to make Nerima a legal no-mans-land."}

{"I see,"} Ku Lon nodded again. {"Were this my home village, I would happily crush any such interlopers. However, with this being Japan, and with Nerima being so pathetic, I will say instead that it is about time. In any case, I would appreciate it if you ask the responsible parties to call ahead or otherwise give me some warning so I can meet them under calmer circumstances and get things taken care of as expeditiously as possible."}

{"You do not plan to object?"} Kisaki asked tentatively. If so, that would be good news. Her understanding was the NPA was planning a reconnaissance in force just to serve deportation papers.

{"Hardly,"} Ku Lon said dismissively. {"As amusing as our stay in this country has been, it has dragged long enough. Acquiring young Ranma for the tribe might have been to our benefit, but then again it might very well have been a chaotic disaster. The events in Nerima would lean the balance of evidence toward the latter. Either way, it is obvious it is very unlikely to happen now, and he was our only real reason to stay. My only real concern was the status of my great-granddaughter, but not only have circumstances changed on that front, but sufficient time has passed that few will care why we left in the first place. Indeed, evidence of official notice will cause some to question if we should have withdrawn earlier."} She paused thoughtfully, then added: {"Do be sure that whatever officials come also give me something in writing. It would make things go more smoothly."}

{"I will certainly pass on your words to the relevant authorities,"} Eri promised with a bow.

{"See that you do,"} Ku Lon said with a distinctly high-handed tone as she stood atop the fence pole. {"Good evening, children,"} she took her leave. Then her form wavered like a mirage and the ancient was suddenly done.

Eri let out a long sigh of relief as it felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Frowning, she realized her heart was pounding and she felt the back of her neck to find a cold sweat had broken out. {"That was..."} she trailed off as soon as she started to speak, not sure how to put it in words.

{"Peaceful intentions aside, the elder was very definitely indulging in some intimidation,"} Koetsuji explained. The martial artist did not sigh as obviously as Eri had, but a notable sense of tension was relaxed. {"Very definitely indeed if an untrained person such as yourself felt it."}

Eri stared at him a moment, then sighed again as she rubbed at her eyes beneath her glasses. {"I'll make damn sure the right people are warned like she wanted, then. I'll do that in the car,"} she nodded toward the parked car and the oblivious driver.

Upon her prompting, Koetsuji escorted her to the limo and the chauffeur quickly exited in order to open the door for them. Once seated and on the way back to the office, Eri called her contacts in the national law enforcement agency to pass on the particulars of her conversation with the Joketsuzoku elder. Done with that, she took off her glasses and groaned a bit as she leaned her head against the glass of the car window. "Yare yare..." she sighed. {"If Maeda-San really plans to bring order to this madhouse, then more power to him. He's a far better person than I am. I have no plans to take on anything Nerima-related ever again."}

{"It has been a long day,"} Koetsuji said sympathetically.

{"Yes it has. And it could have gone much worse if you hadn't been there. I greatly appreciate it and I will be authorizing a bonus,"} Eri said firmly, not opening her eyes.

{"Well, thank you very much. Though it isn't necessary,"} the jiu-jitsuka chuckled.

{"Yes, yes it is,"} Kisaki declared fervently. {"As soon as we get back to the office, I am officially done with this day."} The corner of her mouth twitched up briefly as the chuckles of her companion continued. {"Tell me you don't feel the same after that last bit."}

{"It was a bit... fraught,"} Koetsuji admitted genially. {"Ku Lon is formidable without question, though I would not mind a spar at all as long as it remained strictly friendly. Still, I am glad to be done with the matter. I do not envy your continued involvement."}

{"'Fraught.' Right."} Eri shook her head, then open her eyes and gave the man a considering glance. {"As soon as we get back, we're off the clock, right?"}

{"Indeed, if you say so."} Koetsuji cocked a quizzical eyebrow at her.

{"Want to head to a love hotel and forget Nerima even exists for a while?"}

The martial arts master had seen and done too much in his life to be profoundly shocked, but the lawyer did manage to get him to blink a few times in surprise. He then sent a meaningful look to the slightly paler patch of skin where her wedding ring used to reside.

{"Legally separated for two years. He hasn't stayed in one place or even come close enough to Tokyo to make a full divorce worth the effort. Yet."} She explained flatly. {"So how about it?"}

{"In that case, I shall be pleased and honored,"} Koetsuji agreed urbanely.

############

Author's notes: I always thought Nabiki was a lot less smart than other characters gave her credit. She was more transgressive than actually clever. This might have given her an advantage over people who were trying to maintain civilized norms, but it depended entirely on their forbearance. She also relied on Ranma to keep anyone from doing anything about her. Had any of the absurdly talented martial-artists she cheated, lied to, or betrayed ever used their skills in retaliation, even non-violently, she would have been toast. It was also short-sighted from an enlightened self-interest point of view. The ways she could have profited legitimately by working with Ranma and giving a fair deal could have far exceeded what she grifted with her petty-minded scams.