The boy might have been put into a holding place until he could be adopted, except for several strange things.
Every time he was left alone, if monitored, he had a mysterious epileptic attack that caused him to collapse. On the two occasions where someone hadn't gotten immediately to him, he had started to fade to transparency.
So Ranma was not left alone and the police knew something very unusual was going on with him. Something outside normal police procedures.
The little five-year-old boy was scared and alone, and learned to stay out of the way and watch.
The detective in charge wasn't an idiot, and knew this was beyond his expertise and experience. Still, you did hear about things that weren't quite normal from time to time. If you were good at your job, and Detective Watanabe was, then you kept track of a number of things in case they came in handy some day.
So what was needed was a specialist in things outside his everyday experiences. He made a few phone calls, traded in a debt done when in the course of duty.
Zhang was Chinese, looked fourteen, and had been in Japan since 1961. The favor was simply continuing to look the other way or gently discouraging those who sought to uncover the secrets of someone who'd been in the community for a good long time. She had been of assistance once before, and Watanabe made a point of not bothering her very often. She was a harmless Chinese apothecary, and who was he to bother a taxpayer going about normal business?
Zhang herself examined the boy, came to a conclusion, and told Watanabe that the boy was beyond her own meager talents to safeguard or probe. She would, however, contact someone more capable.
Industry insider calls in someone more capable. Nothing extraordinary about that either. Watanabe knew the names of a few dozen people better than him at guns or at plain old detective work. Not everyone could be the best, after all.
It was in the third day after Ranma, the only name the boy knew, had come to the station that Zhang's referral arrived.
Watanabe learned the referral's name was:
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(Posted Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:30)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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