"I'mlateI'mlateI'mlateI'mlateI'mlateI'mlate!" Usagi gasped as she sprinted along the sidewalk.
"Ah, the familiar cry of the odangoed blonde, a rare Tokyo specimen. Every morning this clumsy yet enticing creature emerges from its nest at high speed, eager to begin its daily ritual."
Usagi suddenly froze in mid-sprint, and hung in the air as a subtitle appeared underneath her.
[Odangus lunaris ditzus]
A moment later she unfroze and continued tearing down the street.
Ranma approached Juuban High, his hands in his pockets and Orion perched on his shoulder. It was a bit awkward since Orion was large for a cat, but neither one seemed to mind.
"And here we have the pigtailed warrior, a hardened species relatively new to an urban environment."
Ranma stopped in his tracks as he gave the gray tomcat as odd look.
[Hydrus sexus changius]
"This species possesses a definite predatory cunning of great use to it in the wilderness. However, when introduced to a modern environment, it can find its instincts dulled and interaction with other creatures awkward."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Orion, what are you talking about?"
In response, the moon cat jumped off of Ranma's shoulder and trotted off the sidewalk next to a tree.
Ranma shrugged off the lack of an answer and raised a hand to wave once he spotted Ami and Sousuke waiting by the main gate.
"Though each species has its strengths, one more so than the other, when these two elegant creatures meet, there is only possible outcome..."
Ranma glanced at the gray cat again. "Seriously, what are you going on about?" He sounded like a narrator for a nature show or something.
"... Pain and humiliation."
"Would you sto-" WHAM! Ranma's danger sense inexplicably failed him as Usagi tripped and slammed into the martial artist at high speed, sending the both of them tumbling to the ground.
Sousuke blinked as Ranma and Usagi rolled along in a heap down the sidewalk, eventually stopping right in front of him and an embarrassed-looking Ami.
He rubbed his chin. "I see. So in addition to protecting the targets from outside threats, we may need to protect them from accidentally killing themselves at times." He pulled out the notepaper from his shirt pocket and began writing against his bookbag. Kaname was a natural athlete, so he hadn't had to deal with the idea of her being killed through sheer uncoordination. One more lesson learned. "You're to be commended for your pro-active approach in dealing with this threat, Saotome. Well done."
"Shut up, Sousuke," Ranma mumbled through the folds of Usagi's skirt, and extremely glad that said garment was fairly long. The last thing he needed to start off his day with was for everyone to see him with his face buried in a girl's panties.
Even if his head wasn't up her skirt, Usagi felt some sudden heat and vibration against her crotch from him talking, and immediately rolled off of him before scrambling to her feet, her face a bright pink.
"Omigosh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to... Ranma?" she blinked in surprise as Ranma sat up and rubbed his head, which had managed to absorb most of the impact for both of them.
Orion snickered and dashed away, leading Ranma to wonder why the hell he had tagged along in the first place.
"Miss Tsukino." Sousuke bowed stiffly. "I'm glad you're unhurt. A fall at that velocity might have caused considerable damage."
"Oh... uh..." She sweatdropped. "Yeah, but I'm kinda used to it. Oh! Ranma, are you all right?"
"Peachy," the pigtailed boy grumbled as he dusted off his pants.
"Pardon me... Ranma," Ami said hesitantly. He turned toward her, and she pointed to his outfit, which was the same as she had seen the previous day. "Are you attending school here like Sousuke? You're not wearing a uniform."
"Nah. I work here now," Ranma explained, slipping his hands back in his pockets.
The blue-haired girl blinked. "You... work here? Oh, you mean as a teacher's aide?"
"What? No. As a teacher." Seeing the girls' surprised look, he jabbed a finger at Sousuke. "It's all his fault."
"Saotome expressed a desire to find employment. This was, however, in conflict with our primary directive to protect you at all times," the mercenary explained. "This seemed like the best solution to the problem."
"Isn't he a little young?" Ami said uneasily. "And has he even gone to college yet?"
"Age and credentials are merely letters and numbers on a document," Sousuke explained. Then he looked at his watch. "It's time for class to begin. After the considerable effort Miss Tsukino put forth to arrive on time, it is inadviseable that we be late."
"Ack! You're right!" Usagi said suddenly. Whirling around, she bowed repeatedly to Ranma. "Thanks again for breaking my fall Ranma! Er, I mean, Ranma-sensei! No, wait, Saotome-sensei?"
"You can all just call me Ranma. It's fine," the martial artist said, sweatdropping as the three others quickly agreed and rushed off to class.
'Orion was right about one thing. She's got all the grace of an oyster.' Not that he didn't like Usagi. Far from it, actually. To Ranma, grace was nothing special; his father had plenty, and still managed to be complete and utter drag. But even in the two very brief meetings they had, he could tell that she had an infectious sort of sunniness about her.
Shaking his head, although one could see a smile on his face, Ranma walked into the now quiet halls and headed to the principal's office. He was showing up several days earlier than expected, but figured there would be no complaints. Best to get this teaching thing down right away.
_______________________
"My name is Sousuke Sagara. I was born in Japan, though during childhood I've spent considerable time in Russia and in the Middle East. I'm fifteen years old and enjoy..." he glanced down at the note written down on the inside of his palm, "... baseball and shounen manga." He closed his hand again and looked out at the class stonily.
The homeroom teacher raised her eyebrow. "You're only fifteen?"
"Affirmative," he lied plainly. Really, he would be seventeen in under two months, but true to his earlier assertion, he hardly thought the age difference relevant.
Throughout the room, various schoolgirls gave the new, inexplicably mature-looking boy starry-eyed looks as he stood still and ramrod straight, as if awaiting orders. The boys all gave the mercenary dubious looks; not only did he tower over them (having nearly complete his growth spurt), but he looked unusually serious for... well, for just about anybody. His expression made the most nasty, discipline-hungry, oppressive authority figures any of them had ever seen look timid and laid-back.
The teacher sighed. First those crazy youma assaults started happening all over the place. Then her vacation flight was cancelled on account of the airport being reduced to burnt rubble. Now she had idiot delinquents too proud to admit that they had been held back a few grades being dumped into her class. She wondered if maybe she should have taken that job offer at Furinkan High instead.
A chill shot down her back.
Suddenly mollified for some reason, she accepted that things here probably weren't so bad and sent the new kid to sit next to Usagi Tsukino. Then she started the lesson.
_______________________
Kalinin sighed and rubbed his temples as Teletha stared at the immaculately printed document with wide, trembling, wet eyes. Specifically, she was staring at the huge red [REJECTED] stamp on the mission brief she had made and sent to her superiors at Mithril.
"I can't imagine you're overly surprised by this turn of events, Captain," Kalinin said bluntly, straightening once the silver-haired girl was facing him again.
"But WHYYYYY?" She said in a painfully cute whine. Behind her, Kaname Chidori scowled with her arms crossed over her breasts.
"Captain, keeping major surveillance on one of our own men when he's operating as part of a third party covert combat team is a blatant and dangerous violation of Mithril's operating policy," the Russian explained firmly.
Melissa snorted from where she was lounging on Teletha's couch. "Oh, c'mon! This is Sousuke here! What's the big deal?"
Kalinin raised an eyebrow, perturbed but not really surprised. Melissa had apparently volunteered to head the operation if it went through, but she wasn't the type to think things through completely. "Lieutenant, are you familiar with Sergeant Sagara's normal counter-espionage measures?"
Melissa snorted. "You bet I am."
"Assuming that you or any commando team under Mithril command could keep up with the sergeant, do you realize what he would do if he felt that his current measures were inadequate?"
Melissa blinked. Then her pupils visibly shrunk as her body went stiff. "Oh. I see," she said in a very small voice. Maybe she had been a little hasty in volunteering. She really did enjoy having all of her limbs, and it'd be terrible to ruin that relationship with her relatively healthy body.
Kaname sighed, understanding the Commander's point. "Sousuke would probably wipe out the whole team without even checking who they were, and maybe take a couple blocks of apartments with him." She kicked the couch Melissa was sitting on in frustration, causing the lieutenant to yelp in surprise. "Stupid loon, always overreacting!"
"Our policies are structured specifically so a situation doesn't arise where our operatives don't come into necessary conflict with each other. We have every reason to believe that significant espionage on our part will provoke that situation," Kalinin explained gruffly. "The presence of others in this arena whose abilities and motivations we know nothing about cements the situation. We can do nothing but procure satellite imagery and government observations. I'm afraid any intelligence on Sagara's activities will be limited to alpha-level and below."
Teletha looked like she wanted to cry. What good was having command of your own submarine and personal army if you couldn't use it to protect your man from the attentions of sleazy harpies out to get their lecherous claws in him. "But there's a substantial threat that needs to be dealt with!"
Kalinin sighed. "The Japanese government has not requested help with these supposed 'youma' from Mithril. You know as well as I do that we are a mercenary organization. Even if your superiors were willing, few take kindly to altruistic acts of destruction in a densely populated suburban areas. And even if the government requested help, there's the matter of retaining secrecy while fighting frequent, scattered skirmishes with such a high number of potential witnesses." The Russian fought the urge to pat his superior officer on the head as she sagged, depression evident on her features.
Kaname frowned and turned away, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
'Okay, so Mithril can't send teams of spies or giant fighting robots to keep an eye on Sousuke. No huge surprise there, I guess we DO have better things to do. But that doesn't mean we HAVE to stay away, it just means we can't get any orders to get close...' the blue-haired girl's eyes narrowed. She needed time to plan. This could be tricky.
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(Posted Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:23)
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