Nabiki Tendo had become a survivor, not an acquirer. Little possessions were better than a lot of possessions. Money was worthless. Death a constant threat. She had been stubborn at first, choosing to keep those old values up until the Tendo home had become a battleground and her face had been ground into this new reality.
Survival, food, shelter - these were her priorities now. The bodies had been collected, leaving blasted cars and buildings behind - an oddly sterile landscape. The only bodies the collection machines left behind were those who had burned or were buried. Nabiki didn't know what the mechanical soldiers did with those bodies, only that she didn't want to go there herself.
As for her family - the last she had seen of them, all had been alive. It had been a flame-thrower mech which had seperated them, and she had simply ran until she couldn't run any further.
One thing hadn't changed. Nabiki Tendo's number one priority was Nabiki Tendo. Family came in a distant second place. Hunkered down inside a section of storm drain, Nabiki Tendo was oddly content at the proximity to a food market's scattered prepacked meals.
Having nearly become a grease spot on several occasions, Akane Tendo was convinced her father and sisters were dead. As well as her friends. She was Akane Tendo, the last girl on Earth.
So she had fled the city and fled the entire region. As she crested a mountain, she stopped and looked back across the long sprawl that was Tokyo. Somewhere back there was her past.
Her future lay elsewhere.
Kasumi set aside her medical kit and got up to stretch the kinks out of her back.
She had hidden and gone to ground shortly after seperating from her family. She had been dazed and confused, and it had taken some time before she was thinking rationally again.
It had been a patrol of mechanical soldiers that had snapped her out of that daze. As it was, Kasumi had taken some wounds in escaping that were slow to heal. For some reason the machines had gone off to hunt something else, and Kasumi wasn't sure what - only that it took the enemy from her. For that, she was grateful.
The nine units went about their duties with precision. Save one.
"Researching..." said the unit.
The blue-haired unit designated Ami was less frontline infantry than researcher when compared to most of the other units.
Cold water splashed Ranma. A change occurred.
"WHO THE HECK DID THAT?!" yelled a wet Ranma-chan as she tried to figure out who'd dumped a bucket of cold water over his head.
Ami remained hidden, her eyes staring unblinkingly at the boy she was to "befriend and seek approval from." While it was necessary to verify existence of involuntary transformational ability designated "curse" - tonal analysis of disclosure and involuntary nature of transformation indicated a high probability of target becoming agitated and hostile if openly confronted.
Subject Ranma Saotome went to the sink, got a cup of hot water, and dumped it over herself - becoming male.
Transformation and reversal having been witnessed, Ami went to the awaiting units and all linked their hands to exchange data.
"Mass alteration, energy source unknown, mechanism unclear," noted Setsuna.
"Confirmed existence of 'curse' as well as target's dislike of same," pointed out Ami.
"Course of quartenary mission unclear," stated Haruka. "Procedural database incomplete."
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(Posted Tue, 03 Aug 2004 10:10)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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