Once their deliciously unhealthy meal was finished, Akane and Gosunkugi headed to the Crown Arcade, where they’d arranged to meet up with Ranma. It didn’t take them very long to find him.
“Hey, Akane!”
“Hi, Ranma. How are you?”
“Just fine.”
“How’s Setsuna?”
Ranma smirked as he responded “Well, there’s been a few things that were sorta… unexpected, but for the most part, it’s been goin’ pretty well, I guess.”
“That’s good to hear.” With this small talk out of the way, Akane shifted the focus of the conversation to her companion for the evening. “This is my friend, Hikaru Gosunkugi.”
“Hey, there,” Ranma said.
“Um, hi,” the pale-skinned teenager replied nervously.
“So how has yer date been goin’ so far?”
“Pretty well,” Akane replied. “We had a quick bite to eat, and we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well.”
“Heh. Reminds me of my first coupla dates with Setsuna.”
“Ranma, you didn’t even realize the two of you were dating at the time.”
“That don’t change the fact that that’s what we were doin’ — but maybe we oughta quit talkin’ about me. Hikaru here don’t look like he’s followin’ the conversation real good.”
“Oh, um, I’m sorry about that….”
“Don’t worry about it,” the pigtailed martial artist reassured the nervous teenager. “My life’s so complicated that most people can’t follow it unless they spend an hour or so learnin’ the backstory, and there’s large chunks of that that I don’t like tellin’ in the first place.”
“Oh. Alright.”
“So,” Ranma said, turning back to Akane as her date was clearly nervous — and with the potential of running up against the forces of Kuno, who wouldn’t be? — “yer gonna be seein’ yer movie here, right?”
“Yup.”
“Well, then ya better get in line — it’s startin’ ta get pretty long, an’ I’d hate for ya ta miss it.”
The ninjamarketer was stationed on the perimeter of the staging area, assigned to detect and, if possible, prevent any outside interference with the evening’s activities. Granted, it wasn’t the most glamorous job, as no such interference was expected, but then, he was also a rookie who’d just recently been called up into Anthracite’s prestigious Ninjamarketing Division, so he couldn’t very well expect to get all of the plum assignments without first paying his dues on the boring ones. Besides, he also knew that being the one who stopped any unwanted intrusions would make it all the more easier for him to climb the ranks in Anthracite’s organization, given the former Dark General’s penchant for meritocracy.
Thus, when he spied a familiar-looking pale-skinned teenager out of the corner of his eye, he immediately used his skills to get closer to investigate. The youma’s suspicions turned out to be justified, as the nervous young man was, without a doubt, Hikaru Gosunkugi. The youma didn’t know why the silo was here, but he did know that Gosunkugi was not supposed to be here — and unfortunately, he wasn’t in a position where he could do anything about it without causing a scene, which was the last thing that anybody wanted.
But when Gosunkugi and his female companion got in line to buy tickets for their movie, the youma knew that something had to be done — he just wasn’t sure what that something was. Fortunately, he could just report this to Check, and then the squad’s commander would come up with a solution (and he’d still get points for being the one who spotted this mess). Unfortunately, he was a little too eager as he tried to slip away, and as a result, he was a little sloppy, and made a bit more noise than he should have — not enough for most people to notice, especially in a place with this much background noise, but then, Ranma Meioh wasn’t most people.
The pigtailed martial artist noticed that something was off almost as soon as Akane and Gosunkugi got in line, and as he was already on the lookout for ninjas, it didn’t take him long to figure out what the likely source of the disturbance was. Crap, Kuno’s goons musta shown up. He soon spotted a figure moving in the evening’s shadows and immediately began to give chase.
Ranma didn’t want to cause a disruption unless he had to, so he waited until he and his adversary were in an isolated alley before making his move. Quickly and stealthily, he crept up behind the ninja, who looked like he was about to scale the walls of the alley so he could take to the rooftops of Tokyo. Ranma didn’t let him, however — as he suddenly grabbed the ninja’s leg, throwing him off balance and taking him to the ground, after which the pigtailed young man grabbed one of the ninja’s arms and put him into a submission maneuver. It wasn’t exactly flashy, but as an experienced martial artist, Ranma knew full well that “effective” beat “cool-looking” any day of the week. Surprisingly, though, the maneuver didn’t seem to have much effect on Ranma’s opponent — in fact, it seemed like he could break free at any moment. Thinking quickly, Ranma changed tactics, and released the ninja’s leg so he could deliver a chop to the side of his neck. This turned out to be far more effective, as the ninja immediately went limp, but this, too, was confusing — the chop hadn’t been hard enough to damage the ninja’s spinal cord, and Ranma also knew that the human body didn’t have any pressure points capable of total incapacitation in that area. Still, he wasn’t about to complain.
The martial artist wiped some sweat off of his brow as he leaned the incapacitated ninja against a dumpster. Despite his quick victory, Ranma was impressed that his opponent had been able to put up that much resistance. “Whoa. Kuno musta hired some new guys — I don’t remember any of ’em bein’ this strong.” If Ranma didn’t have the element of surprise on his side, this might have been a very tough battle indeed.
But there wasn’t time to dwell on these particulars, as Ranma had to remain vigilant — often as not, where there was one ninja, there were more ninjas.
“Has that new scout come back to report yet?” Check asked one of his subordinates.
“No, sir — should we send someone to check on his situation?”
Check thought about this for a minute, and dismissed it. “No need. It’s probably rookie enthusiasm; more than likely, he just forgot. I’ll just reprimand him once we’re done here.”
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(Posted Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:09)
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