In the office of the Kada Brahma, the cult leader was doing his work, when his secretary Vision came into the room. "Sir, I just received a message from one of our... spies. We have more informations about the martial artists from Nerima."
The cult leader smiled. "Excellent! Go on..."
"They say that the two boys are called Ranma Saotome and Ryoga Hibiki... they are often seen together, although our men cannot say for sure if Hibiki really is a resident of the area. It looks like Saotome is living within the household of a family called Tendo...
Also, there are many other people with interesting abilities living nearby... An old woman from an ancient Chinese clan of female warriors seems to own a restaurant in Nerima, where she lives with two of her people. Also, a girl called Ukyo Kuonji seems to be the fiancee of Saotome..."
"Interesting..." The Kadabra scratched his beard. "This could have some uses..."
He made a decision. "Vision, gather all information you can get me... regarding Ukyo Kuonji... and make it fast!"
"Right away, sir!"
----
Nerima, at Ucchan's, early Saturday morning...
Ignoring the 'closed' sign, a young Dratini girl came into the restaurant.
Ryuko looked around. The room was empty. No Ukyo behind the grill, no customers sitting at the tables...
"Ukyo?" she called. "Are you there?"
Suddenly, dropping down from the ceiling, Konatsu appeared. Startled, Ryuko took a small step backwards.
"Sorry if I startled you," the cross-dressing Sneasel ninja said. "Ukyo-sama is upstairs... I think she needs some time alone."
"I wanted to visit her," Ryuko said. "She has been missing from school for the last three days now... Is she okay?"
The kunoichi sighed. "I believe it has to do with something Ranma said to her on Tuesday... Though I don't know what they were talking about."
"Now what did Ranma do?" the dragon-girl wondered. "Can I talk to her, please?"
Konatsu hesitated. "She... asked me to leave her alone for a while..."
"I won't upset her too much... Please, it sounds to me like she needs a friend..."
Konatsu sighed. "All right, go ahead..."
----
Ukyo sat on her bed and sniffed. In her hands was a small picture that showed Ranma, back when he still was a human, in his male form, grinning and making the 'peace' sign. Next to her, a big pile of used tissues was lying.
Someone knocked at her door. "Ukyo?" a voice said. "It's me, Ryuko... can I come in?"
After a small moment of silence, Ukyo responded: "Come in..."
Ryuko entered and closed the door behind her. She sat down next to the distraught Cyndaquil.
"Ukyo, is something wrong? I missed you at school... Can I help you in some way?"
Ukyo sniffed again. "It's Ranma," she finally said. "I talked to him on Tuesday..."
"Yeah, Konatsu said it was something like that," Ryuko nodded. "But what did he say?"
"I... wanted to be sure about his... his feelings to me. I reminded him of what his mother told him on the day of changing, so I asked him if he loved me." She sobbed. "I thought... I thought that having turned into a Pokémon of the same type as Ranma would have been fate... that he just didn't want to upset Akane, because of his honor, and because she's a friend as well... but then he... he..."
Ukyo burst into tears as she was reminded of the conversation a few days ago. Ryuko gave her a comforting hug. After a few seconds, Ukyo calmed down again.
"He... he said that I was his friend... his best friend! He wanted so much that I would accept him as the friend of our childhood days, but... but I just couldn't! I couldn't accept the fact that Ranma didn't love me... He said he likes me... he likes me very much, but not as a fiancee, but as a good friend. And I just couldn't accept it. I got angry. I told him to change his mind, wanted to remind him of all the negative parts of Akane's personality, of all the bad things Shampoo had done to him. I got really, really furious..."
The young chef looked down at the ground. "And then..." she whispered. "He said: 'Ukyo, as I told you, you're my best friend! But if you don't stop being so obsessed with me, I'll stop seeing you. I will stop visiting your restaurant and I won't talk to you at school. But if you decide to accept me as a friend, then... I would be very glad. Because I like you very much Ukyo, just not in the way you're wishing for. And I would hate to see all of our friendship going down the drain just because of this.'
I knew he was serious. I couldn't believe my ears... Ranma never spoke to me like that. I wanted to know why he said those things that sounded so... so cruel in my ears. He reminded me of a single fact: Fighting each other would be dangerous enough, but being martial artists, we all were able to keep the damage down to a tolerable degree... But now, with those new powers, it would be just too dangerous. We don't know everything yet about our abilities, he said. We have to be careful with them. And if we continue to fight over such things as we did before, we could easily endanger innocent bystanders. He knew he wouldn't be able to convince Kodachi to stop her assaults on Akane and us others, and Shampoo would probably be hard to deal with as well... but he said... he said he would trust me. That at least I would have the right mind to know what's right and what's wrong. I think... I think he had been thinking about it for a long time now. And I think... he already has made his decision."
Ryuko didn't say anything, but inwardly, she sighed. This situation had to be really hard for poor Ukyo...
"And... how do you cope with it?" the Dratini asked her friend.
"It... it's hard to live with the idea of never being able to become Ranma's fiancee, honor or not... but... his words made me think as well... And I belive he's right. Although I'd have preferred he would have made a different decision, we can't keep trying to force him into doing something he doesn't want. And if he really, really likes me as a friend as he said... then I don't want to lose his friendship."
Ryuko hugged her again. "I'm glad you think so, Ukyo... I feel sorry for you, but the point is, I'm really happy about your decision. I would have felt very sad if I would see two of my best new friends like this, seeing each other every day at school, but never talking to each other again..."
Ukyo hugged her back and sniffed. "Thank you... thank you, Ryuko! Just for being there... You know, I'm feeling much better now, just after saying all of this... you're a great friend!"
Ryuko smiled. "No problem! If you ever have problems again, call me!"
----
An observant pair of eyes was watching Ryuko, as she was leaving Ucchan's.
"The dragon girl has left. She is alone now! Your orders?"
Out of a small communication device, the voice of the Kada Brahma spoke: "Continue with the operation! Capture her... and bring her to meeting point L3!"
"Roger that! Over and out!"
And so, the mysterious agent of the psychic cult begins his mission...
But, who is this person?
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(Posted Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:51)
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