July 2007, Tokyo
"Mom, are we there yet?" A ten year old asked, resting her face on arms while leaning against the train's window. A partly cloudy Sunday was dull even at high speeds.
"No, not yet bud," her mother sighed, "We're an hour away from Nerima still."
"Mama, are we there yet?"
"You should listen to your mother, brat," Nabiki tried and failed to light her cigarette, "And you drop the mama joke brat!"
Rose buffed her face and looked away.
"It's your fault she calls you that," Ranma smiled.
"It was a gag!" Nabiki groaned, "It's your fault she started taking it seriously."
"Is it such a bad idea?" Ranma sweetly smiled at Nabiki, "You, me. A single mother surviving only with help from a dangerous fem fatale. We might even be roommates~
"Oh you two are way past being just roommates," Rose giggled.
"Oi," Nabiki's forehead popped a vein, "We're not together." She huffed and crossed her arms, "Not after we rescue sis anyway."
Nabiki felt a hand grab her elbow, peeking her solo eye open to see a pouting red-head hugging her side.
"Nabs…" Ranma gave the puppiest of eyes.
"Don't give me that!" She blushed while her teeth seemed to sharpen, "The second you set your eyes on her you'll forget all about me. Ten years apart will be forgotten as you two begin to bitch fight a minute after hugging."
"Sounds real romantic," Rose gagged, before stepping over and sitting on Nabiki's lap, "Ya know mom never shuts up about ye. Ya keep worrying her, calls out of ya at night and been making-" a hand clapped over top of her mouth.
"Oi, shut it bud!" Ranma pleaded, "No tattle tailing on your mom!"
"Oh hohoh," Nabiki smirked, "Does this have anything to do with that disaster I saw the other day?"
Rose hopped off Nabiki's lap, rolling over to her seat while her parents flirted.
"Ugh, don't even talk about it, and for your information, it wasn't a disaster, it was art-in-progress. You just-"
"Mom?"
"You just what?" Nabiki leaned closer to Ranma, "Wanted to recreate some of your beloved fiancée cooking?"
"Maybe I was remaking something my sweet lover made one Christmas morning-"
"Mom!"
"What is it, Anko?" Nabiki asked.
"What's that big mushroom?" Rose pointed outside the window towards an enormous mushroom cloud a few miles away.
"Eh-?" Nabiki questioned, just as Ranma grabbed her and Rose, pulling them to the train's floor just before a huge shockwave hit the car, sending it off its rail.
…
…
…
Nabiki gasped before a short coughing fit. Her vision was still blurry when she asked, "Are you two *cough* ok?"
Ranma barely uncurled herself from Rose, "Bud?"
"Yeah *cough* mom," Rose coughed once more.
Ranma released a breath and her daughter.
"We're fine," Ranma looked at Nabiki, before looking around, "Anyone else?"
Nabiki shook her head, "Our car was empty, remember?"
"Let's get out of here then," Ranma started to get up. The three struggled but managed to pull themselves up the diagonal wall and through a broken window with minor scraps. Standing atop the car train, now partially embedded into a building, they were met with black skies, the distant voices yelled for help as an air siren began its cry. The trio's eyes were drawn to the fiery cloud only a few miles.
"Oh god," Nabiki let out.
"That's…" Ranma stood, "Nerima… it's in that direction..."
"This can't be happening. That would be Kuno estate?" Nabiki whispered.
"Akane!" Ranma yelled, "Her kids.. they must've gotten out already?!"
"The Amazons…" Nabiki chuckled, "'A sure fire way to kill Fujiko, eh? Hahaha!" The dark laughed ended when she punched the nearby wall, "Those fucking psychos!"
"They won't have done it. They couldn't have!" Ranma pleaded, grabbing Nabiki's arm, "Right?"
The one eyed woman breathed in, "Last month… North Korea was flipping out that some nuclear materials vanished," Nabiki's lone eye was transfixed by the death cloud. Rage could almost be boiling from her eyes.
"They would have given us the chance to save them first!" Ranma grabbed Nabiki's collar, staring at Nabiki. "We gotta save them!" Ranma was weeping, before looking back towards the ominous cloud of death.
"Mom?" A voice whispered.
Nabiki continued to darkly laugh, "Even the weakest nuclear bomb would have incinerated everything within the estate…" and with each chuckle, she pounded her fist into concrete harder.
"Mom!"
"What Rose?!" Ranma yelled at her child. Rose's eyes remained locked up towards the sky.
"It's raining…" the child muttered.
Ranma's eyes widened with horror as she watched the droplets of black rain begin falling. She shut her eyes and howled in pain as black droplets joined her tears on her face. A few last moments of anguished was all she allowed herself, before opening her eyes and kneeling down to Rose.
The laughter had ceased, Nabiki's voice reduced to mad muttering. "Two ten pm sharp… we had a getaway van parked by the old school. We'd drive south for two wards before-"
Ranma picked up Rose into her arms before looking at Nabiki.
"Nabs…" she whispered.
Nabiki smashed her head against rubble, "A train would loop east to Yokohama, where a shuttle would take us to the airport. The flight to the States would be fifteen hours-"
"Nabiki!" Ranma grabbed Nabiki's hand, to no response.
Blood dripped from Nabiki's forehead, "Kasumi would be waiting in terminal-"
"Mama?"
Nabiki stopped and turned to Ranma and Rose.
"Nabs… I know, I know," Ranma breathed in, "But…" the rain began to pour, "We need to protect what we have left…"
Nabiki's gaze turned to Rose.
"Mama?"
Nabiki nodded.
The next day in an emergency ward
"-The world will know our suffering!"
"These were the last words of infamous terrorist Mu Shu, an important figure in radical Sǐwáng Nǚjié, or Death Amazons as they are known in the west. The video was delivered five hours after the detonation. Their target was the famous Kuno Fujiko, the sole survivor of her family, due to an unplanned visit to-" the news anchor was cut off by the screams of a woman entering the ward.
"We found her trapped beneath her home… and the body of another inhabitant," the paramedic explained.
"Has the body been identified?" Nabiki asked.
His lips tensed, "Officially no, but it's likely the other listed resident. A man named Kunoji-"
"KONATSU!" the woman screamed again before being rolled into a room.
"How is she?"
"She'll likely live, but the initial diagnosis suggests… she's lost all feeling in her legs from a very bad hip wound. I can't tell you if it's permanent or not yet," the man gulped, "Normally she'd go in surgery but as her life isn't in danger, we will have to just sedate her for now."
"I understand," Nabiki nodded, "Thank you. I don't have any other requests. Let me know if my people can help. Sanchi has already been instructed to help you in any way."
"Thank you!" The paramedic bowed.
"Even a demon has a heart…" she said, walking away. She tried to send several texts off but expectedly, all such services remained down. She groaned before walking to the temporary shelter five minutes away. It was a massive recreation centre. Originally, its closeness to the hospital was suggested to be mutually beneficial, helping recovering patients from the nearby hospital, but now it felt morbidly convenient being next to a designated emergency shelter. Inside the rec centre's gymnasium, among a sea of hundreds sitting and sleeping on the floor, she spotted her family curled up atop sleeping bags against a wall. Rose was fast asleep on her mother's shoulder. Her lover's eyes perked up at her arrival.
"So?"
"We found Ukyo," Nabiki lightly smiled.
Ranma breathed a deep sigh of relief, "Thank goodness. Anyone else?"
"Not yet," Nabiki took a seat next to Ranma. She looked at Ranma, analysing her face and mannerisms.
"Have you slept?" Nabiki asked.
"Have you?"
"Touché," Nabiki huffed, "All these years and I'm still astounded at your strength."
"My strength?" Ranma seemed repulsed by the notion, "Nabs, the only reason I'm not bathing myself in radiation while searching for them is her."
Both their gazes turned to the ten year old, "I hear you, but there's those that'd forget even their children in grief. I nearly did, just like my old-ah shit, speak of the devil."
"What is it?"
"Look down the lane," Nabiki stood up.
Ranma followed her eyes to an older man stomping down the small lane. The man ignored the countless people he was waking or disturbing in his mad rush. One officer even tried to stop the man, but he was thrown to the floor hard.
"Tendo-san?!" Ranma stood immediately forgetting that her daughter was asleep on her. "How is he here? Shouldn't he be in America?"
"I'm guessing he was waiting at the rendezvous airport as a pleasant surprise, the old fool," Nabiki snarled as he came within speaking distance.
"What's happening?" A sleepy Rose asked.
"It's-"
"SAOTOME RANMA!" Soun yelled.
Ranma stepped forward.
"Oh sure, shout our names to the whole world…" Nabiki was already seething.
"WHERE IS SHE?!" He yelled. The countless people were now watching the drama unfold.
"Tendo-san, she-" Ranma tried to speak.
"WHERE IS MY BABY GIRL?!" Soun tried to grab Ranma, but was stopped by Nabiki's arm.
"WHERE IS AKANE? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HER!" he screamed at Ranma.
"Sis is fucking dead!" Nabiki tried to push the old man back, but struggled against his desperation in her tired state.
"YOU HAD ONE RESPONSIBILITY SAOTOME!" He cried out, "YOU, WEAK MAN, FAILED MY DAUGHTER!
Nabiki punched Soun, "She did everything she could unlike you pathetic waste of a father!"
Soun looked at Nabiki, as if seeing her presence for the first time, "You! YOU!"
He tried to grab Nabiki. Ranma tried to stop him but he kicked her in the leg, causing her to collapse onto the ground.
"YOU SOLD HER!" Soun held Nabiki by her collar, "BECAME A DEMON YOUR MOTHER WOULD NEVER LOOK UPON! The two of you killed Akane-!"
Soun's face met a kick from Rose sending him flying down the lane.
"I'd have kicked ya harder, gramps if there were less folk here!" Rose strutted, not unlike her mother.
Soun pressed his hand to his wounded cheek, before his furious gaze turned onto Rose.
"You! Inhuman bastard child of a monster and sorcery! You shouldn't even exist-!" Soun's mad raving ended when a taser struck him. Holding the taser was a red suited man with a goatee, a police officer standing next to him. Another suited man, this fellow large and bulky, grabbed Soun by his shoulders before dragging him away.
"Sorry for the delay, boss," said the red suited man, "Smoke break was poorly timed it seems."
"Then quit Tanji," Nabiki growled.
"Will do boss," he tipped his hat, before looking to the crowd, "Apologies folks, family affair. I'm sure you all know loss at the moment, so be kind and be there for one another!"
He bowed, "We public servants will protect you all in the meantime. We sincerely apologise for this incident."
"God, gramps turned into an asshole," Rose grumbled.
"Grief's a , he's just a coward unable to face his own mistakes," Nabiki snarled, looking away, "Mh?" Her eyes caught something moving in between the crowd. A lone cat that seemed to pause and look at her before continuing on its way.
Rose's attention meanwhile was taken to her mother still laying on the ground, "Mama, mom's having an episode!"
Nabiki looked to her lover, seeing frightening familiar dead eyes. Ranma had gone catatonic. "Fuck!" Nabiki swore, biting her tongue before looking distantly, "Anko."
"Yeah, mama?"
"I need you to be a big girl for a few minutes and take care of your mom," Nabiki began to walk away, "I need to go smoke."
"Ah, hey wait-!" Rose yelled but she was too far, "Great…"
Nabiki bobbed and weaved through the crowd to the stairs. In the stairwell, a waiting suited man looked at her, "Trouble?"
"Going for a smoke break," she said walking upstairs, "Watch my daughter and wife."
"Oh, so you are family now~" the man's teasing was ignored as she pressed upward.
Eventually, she climbed to the top floor where she spotted a purple furry tail go through a nearby door. Stepping through, she found herself on the rooftop. The view was a hellscape despite the distance away. The air smelt of fire and toxics. Out of habit, she pulled a cigarette pack and lit herself one, before relaxing her free hand on her sword hilt.
"Ok, Shamps, tell me why I shouldn't be alerting every authority in the area to your location," she put the cigarette into her mouth.
"As if they could catch me," a twisted purr emitted from the shadow of a nearby wall.
"Fine, then tell me why I shouldn't cut your head from your body," Nabiki looked at the shadow.
"As much as I'd like to see you try, I want to let you know some facts first," a pair of yellow cat-like eyes reflected in the dark.
"Then talk quick," Nabiki tossed her cigarette and pulled out her sword, "My hand's starting to frost."
"You'd use my own tribe's technique against me?" Her lip snarled, "Tch, have you no shame?"
"Do you?" Nabiki pointed the blade at her, "Talk."
Shampoo's eyes narrowed, "Mousse was given precise instructions to not denote the device until two hours past allotted escape time. Based on the last schedule I saw, you all would be on a flight at that point, and well past the emp radius."
"Is it supposed to be reassuring that you were being thoughtful enough to not include my sister in your mass murder of an unprecedented scale?!"
"It was intended to kill Fujiko," Nabiki swore she could see Shampoo's sharp teeth as she talked.
"And you couldn't even fucking do that!" Nabiki took a swing, but Shampoo dodged. Leaping onto the roof's water tower. The feral warrior sat like a cat ready to pounce.
"We were out of options. That woman had survived every other method. Five elders tried and failed. Gallons of poison, countless lethal gunshots, a room filled with napalm. We dropped a skyscraper on that demon and she walked out without a scratch!"
"I watch the news, Shampoo!" Nabiki yelled, "Better improve this sob story before I have my men take up cat hunting nationwide."
"Fujiko must die!" Shampoo hissed, "The point is Mousse would not have dared to set it off with Fujiko not even being present in the ward!"
"So what the fuck happened?"
Shampoo's stoic face wavered, "I don't have a certain answer…"
"Oh wonderful," Nabiki pulled a handgun and fired at Shampoo but hitting a superhuman proved to be difficult. She unloaded the entire magazine and left the tank with nine bullet sized holes now pouring water.
"But I have an idea," Shampoo voice's hissed from elsewhere on the rooftop.
"You have until I reload," Nabiki remarked, searching herself for a magazine and for her target.
"Mousse wouldn't have been able to set the bomb off early, save for one failsafe," Shampoo explained, now facing Nabiki directly, "We had it ensured that the bomb would detonate if his heart stopped."
"So someone got him, or like you, he's fucking crazy and off himself in some heroic suicide."
The click of the magazine sliding into place was heard before more bullets were fired where Shampoo once stood. Fucking cat's too fast, Nabiki thought before she was grabbed from behind and felt a gun pressed to her head.
"Thiscrazy bitch is still better than a yakuza bitch," Shampoo whispered in her ear, "Mousse would not have killed himself unless it was a last resort. My people are now too few in number for wasteful heroics. Especially without knowing for certain that Fujiko would die."
"So are you saying? That retainer Maya got your duck boy?"
"The tanuki is very skilled but no. I was remotely watching her from a safe distance. I did however see another one that may have caught him."
"Satan?"
"Fujiko."
Nabiki's stomach dropped, "That's…"
"Impossible? I have verified proof, photos just how you like, from ten minutes prior of her walking her garden before vanishing from view. Even she would have struggled to make her way to her beloved hospital in that little of time."
"It's gotta be a trick, a shadow clone or some magic bullshit of hers as usual!" Nabiki cried, "Trickery is her game!"
"Her game is entertainment, and she loves tragedy above all else," Shampoo released Nabiki, "We both know that."
An envelope fell next to Nabiki, photos spilling out.
"Even she couldn't have…" Nabiki unable to move, "Her own family, beloved retainer…"
Shampoo chuckled, "I just did similarly, and from my understanding, she may have less of a heart than I."
"IT WAS GODDAMN NUKE!" Nabiki's throat bled, "HOW THE FUCK SHE IS NOT DEAD?!"
"A ninth tail bestows divinity. Can a god even die to mortal weapons?" Shampoo remarked, "She will require something to die, something more up and personal I believe."
"How many more lives are you going to destroy, Shampoo?!" Nabiki questioned, "Do you not realise you have become a monster far worse than Fujiko ever could be?!"
Nabiki turned with her gun aimed but Shampoo was nowhere to be seen. The door opened, Tanji leaning out.
"Hey, boss, uh, we heard the gunshots, but we got it covered with the police and any witnesses. Weird noises are to be expected in such a thing, am I right?"
Nabiki made no response, moving to a nearby ledge in view of the destroyed ward.
"Meeting go bad?"
"The rain's starting again," she remarked.
The man looked up but saw no rain. Looking back at his boss, he saw droplets falling from her face.
"Understood, we'll make sure no one comes up here for a while," he nodded and shut the door.
Nabiki stayed up there for another hour. Her snobing drowned out by the city's own cries.
Below, a daughter comforted her mother. The woman had began to mutter the same words over and over again.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
Her sapphire eyes remained unshut despite the circumstances, staring up at a figure only visible to herself. A young man with black hair tied into a pigtail. His silver eyes looked down at her with eternal judgement.
"G̷u̴e̸s̶s̴ ̶p̸o̷p̸s̵ ̵w̴a̷s̷ ̴r̵i̵g̶h̴t̶.̸ ̸W̶e̷'̶r̵e̵ ̸j̶u̴s̷t̸ ̴a̸ ̸s̵c̵a̶r̵e̸d̴ ̷w̷e̸a̷k̸ ̷l̴i̴t̸t̶l̵e̴ ̷g̷i̶r̸l̵ ̸t̸h̴i̷s̷ ̸w̴h̶o̴l̸e̵ ̷t̸i̷m̴e̶,̴ ̸a̵r̶e̷n̷'̷t̵ ̵w̷e̴?" He said.
"I'm sorry."
"S̶h̸e̵ ̸c̸a̷n̶'̷t̸ ̵h̴e̸a̸r̷ ̴y̸o̴u̵.̶ ̴O̷n̶ ̸t̵h̵e̷ ̴b̵r̷i̷g̷h̵t̵ ̵s̸i̷d̴e̴,̸ ̷y̴o̵u̴ ̴c̴a̷n̸'̴t̵ ̶f̶a̵i̷l̷ ̷h̸e̴r̴ ̷e̶v̶e̷r̶ ̷a̴g̵a̶i̷n̴.̴ ̴Y̴o̵u̵'̸r̶e̶ ̷h̵a̷p̸p̷y̵ ̵a̴b̵o̴u̶t̴ ̴t̶h̴i̴s̴,̶ ̴a̷r̸e̶n̴'̶t̸ ̸y̵a̴?̸"
She shook her head.
"Happy you don't have to see the disappointment in her eyes. To feel deserving punishment. To be beaten to death. How lucky we are," the boy lowered himself to her eyes, "Remember, every happy moment we ever live was stolen from her. And don't let the others' sweet lies fool ya. Nabiki would have an eye and sister without you. Even Rose deserves a real mother, not a fake freak like you."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
Her body was tightly hugged by her daughter.
"Mom, you're gonna be ok…" Rose choked up, "We have to be, right?"
The child's eyes looked to the room, filled with hundreds of asking the same to no answer.
53,734 was the estimated total count given half a year later. Among the many, there were a few familiar names. Kunoji Konatsu, the partner of famous okonomiyaki chef Kunoji Ukyo, was crushed in the collapse of their restaurant. Dr. Ono Tofu, beloved local physician, died due to radiation sickness obtained while helping survivors of the blast. Mousse, infamous "magician" terrorist and believed denominator, was instantly incinerated. The entire Kuno household, including the head of the family, Kuno Junji, his son Tatewaki, daughter Kodachi, daughter-in-law Kuno Akane, and grandchildren Genji and Ken, as well the household servants Sarugakure Sasuke and Maya, all perished. No bodies were found. Three non-fatal casualties were Ninomiya Hinako, who suffered scarring burns on her left shoulder and arm, Tsubasa Kurena, badly burned while hiding in a refrigerator, and Kunoji Ukyo, who became paralyzed from the waist down after becoming trapped under a wooden beam. Miraculously, Kuno Fujiko was "unexpectedly away from her home that day due to an emergency in a children's hospital two wards over", which she was well-known to regularly visit. Another affected by the bomb was Saotome Nodoka, whose home became uninhabitable due to fallout. The terrorist Xian Phu was quickly discovered to be the mastermind behind the operation and remains at large as the world's most wanted criminals and history's worst killers. Many began to think our country was cursed to suffer nuclear devastation eternally. The devastation and aftermath sent the country into a state of mourning with lacking foreign aid due to the global recession that year. Nuclear power came under heavy protest and many facilities were shut down even at the cost of homes going dark. Organised crime became a greater issue as the yakuza became more powerful and violent while infamous criminals like the Yuki-Onna and the Burning Onryō came to haunt news stories in the following years. Xian Phu was never caught either. This period came to be known as the Black Days. It was like the sickness of depression had infected an entire nation. Those already suffering or deeply connected suffered the most. Suicide rates soared. You were one of them in the end. This was the future we came from. This is what we came to prevent. I hope you never come to know it mom, even at the cost of other things such as myself. Whatever comes, know I love you. I can't lie and say I had a good life due to forces beyond anyone's control, but know what good my life did have, all of it was because of you and your efforts. I love you,
- Your daughter, Saotome Rosemary
