Anime Power Rangers - Operation Overdrive: Assembling the team, Part 2 [Episode 209209]

by Jadesparda

“Where’s that blasted baka, Nabiki? I haven’t seen or heard a thing from him since we arrived at school this morning… He hasn’t been this late home in six months, and we’ve still got a month left in school before the end of summer term. And why are ‘they’ here, I didn’t invite either of them and I’m fairly sure no-one else in this house would dare to do so!” Akane growled out as she flexed her hands, limbering up for a fight. She was itching to get her hands on Ranma and get an answer out of him about his recent odd behaviour, one way or another. She turned her glare over to where Cologne, Shampoo and Ukyo were standing. The three had shown up an hour after school, hoping to speak to everyone, including Ranma. They had claimed that they were there to try and apologize for their actions during the wedding fiasco. Akane hadn’t believed a word of it, though…

“Actually, I haven’t seen him since this morning myself… As for why they’re here, I’ve no idea!” Nabiki replied. Truth be told, she was actually a little nervous. Ranma had discovered that Nabiki had not only started up her business of selling cheesecake photos of him again, but had gotten some fresh samples of his cursed form in even more risqué poses then ever before. His response had been totally unexpected: he had grabbed her and dragged her off to one side, not even giving her a chance to speak. His voice had been low, but the annoyance in his tone had been unmistakable. The message had been brief and to the point: he had enough of being used to make a quick yen without his express permission. If she kept it up, she’d find out what it was like to be on the receiving end of her kind of photo sessions, with no respect for her own privacy! Also, if she got into trouble with anyone else due to her own actions, she shouldn’t expect him to watch her back anymore! ‘I wonder why he said I had to watch my own back from now on…? He’s not the type to attack those who can’t defend themselves… And besides, no-one would dare mess with some of my tough new co-workers to try and get to me!’ Covering up her brief attack of nerves, she decided to try and get to the bottom of this mess… “So Ukyo, did you hear anything about what Ranma was doing during school and where he might be now?”

“Well, from what I heard from your new rumour mill at school, Ranma went to the vice-principal’s office a little bit after lunchtime and asked if he’d be allowed to take the graduation test, without ANY interruptions… Since Principal Kuno had gone off early to plan yet another of his crazy schemes for keeping us students in line, the vice-principal had no problem with processing Ranma’s request.” Ukyo replied warily, while she kept a close eye on Akane’s movements. She knew that Akane had really developed a much shorter temper lately, even with her closest friends… Nabiki, on the other hand, was still up to her usual scams. This time though, she had teamed up with other people that were also willing to do shady deals from all the other classes. It had been one of her smarter moves: each person was able to gather blackmail material from their local area and classes. This meant their information gathering skills were much more effective than if they were working on their own, which led to greater profits for all involved... However, some of Nabiki’s new group were even greedier than her and a lot less scrupulous with how they made money! And if any of them ever got the bright idea to try and take control of the group… Shaking those chilling thoughts off, Ukyo continued: “As things turned out, he’s managed to graduate from Furinkan now and he did it with flying colours I might add!” Unfortunately for Akane, she had chosen this precise moment to take a drink of water. At this shocking piece of news, she started to cough and splutter, as the water went down the wrong way. When she had eventually recovered, she shot a look towards Ukyo that clearly screamed ‘Yeah right! The baka could never pull something like that off…’ Ignoring the look, Ukyo continued: “Whether you believe it or not Akane, that’s what really happened. After that, he waited around just long enough to find out what his results were and ensure they were entered into the Board of Education’s database properly. He then cleaned out his locker and left. I don’t know where he went from there though..." With that, Ukyo lapsed into a thoughtful mood.

“Ah yes, I was wondering why he was carrying his school bag when he arrived to his fight against Happosai for him to be given the right to teach anything goes…" Cologne now spoke, taking up where Ukyo had left off. "I’m just surprised he was willing to wait so long before he threw down the gauntlet. After all he has had the skills to do so since after Jusendo. After all no Amazon, either male or female, had ever even scratched Saffron before… But Ranma not only hurt him, he forced him back into his new-born state!” She broke off there as the memories of the battle as reported by Ryoga came back to her, leaving an uncomfortable silence in the air. Everyone present in the room knew first-hand or had learnt just how badly traumatised Ranma had been by the whole Jusendo affair, both at the fact he’d nearly lost Akane for good and the fact that he’d actually killed a sentient creature in cold blood for the first time to save her. Sure, there had been a few times when he had tried to kill other people in the heat of the moment, Herb for example, but this was the first time he’d ever actually achieved it. Even though Saffron had regenerated into an egg, for a few minutes he’d been clinically dead… Ranma’s entire personality had really changed, which had been obvious to most of the group on the return trip to Nerima. He’d become a lot more serious and thoughtful, while not eating as much or sleeping well. A little bit before the failed wedding though, he seemed to be getting back to his normal, cheerful, personality. After the whole fiasco though, he had gone back to his serious side and that had been the case for the last six months. Shaking her head, Cologne continued: “But I guess he wanted both Happosai and himself to be at 100%... Well, whatever his reasons were, he’s done it! Ranma is now a certified master of Anything Goes…”

“WHAT!” Nabiki shouted, her eyes going wide in shock at this latest bombshell, which was way bigger than Ranma graduating early. After all, even if he had passed all his tests, both Miss Hinako and the principal just wouldn’t accept it! They’d claim he’d cheated somehow. If she placed her guess right, and by this time she had gotten a fairly good idea of how most of the regulars in Nerima would react to almost any situation in the area, they’d be chasing after him to force him to return to school. She did know Ranma wouldn’t make it easy for them though! But if he had beaten Happosai and gained the Master ranking in Anything Goes; that would completely shift the balance of power in the local area. “He fought and beat Happosai… No way! Where exactly did this happen,” she asked Cologne with great reverence, knowing it was best to stay on Cologne’s good side for now.

On the inside though, her Ice Queen side was snarling in rage: ‘I can’t freaking believe this; I only just started accepting bets on his fights again, not to mention selling photos of both halves! And already he’s thrown my new system into total chaos… The fact he’s now the new Grandmaster of Anything Goes means that only Kuno, Kodachi or even Akane will bother to keep trying to fight him. Anyone else will think twice before trying to fight him, or at least train for ages between bouts… Sure, I’ll make big money on the rare occasions he fights, but that won’t be enough to tide over the other members of the group! They’re more used to the quick money-making schemes, like I used to be before I came up with this new plan… After all, I learnt the truth: if I ever want to actually get somewhere with my dreams, I have to learn to plan for the long haul, not just the quick con! On reflection though, I shouldn’t have accepted those long-shot bets that he would beat Happosai so soon. But like an idiot, I thought it would never happen, or that I’d at least have made enough money to cover the loss whenever it finally happened. Ranma’s going to owe me big time for all the money he’s just cost my group!’

At that moment, her dormant conscience chose that moment to speak up. Ever since her mother’s death, it had only surfaced very briefly for a few moments at a time. ‘He owes you? Yeah right! You’re actually the one that OWES him big time, you know! You’ve made his life here over the past two years nothing sort of hell… For example, remember the whole wedding mess? That was your fault! You just had to go and ruin Akane’s special day, didn’t you? And don’t you think this idea to team-up with all the other con-artists is just asking for trouble…? They will turn on you in an instant, if they’re given half a chance, or if they see a moment of weakness from you!’

‘Quiet you! You’ve no idea what you’re talking about… I’m not the only cause of Ranma’s problems. Sure I gave out the invites to all the rivals for the wedding! But they were the ones who over-reacted to the news; I didn’t do anything to make them do what they did… Besides, Akane has managed to ruin her own chances with Ranma just fine without my help! As for working with the other con artists, I’ve taken a few “precautions” to ensure they won’t double-cross me!’ Nabiki retorted heatedly to her conscience. Sure, she had briefly felt a small pang of doubt about telling the other girls, but she had then shrugged it off. After all, she had convinced herself, if Ranma and Akane had truly cared for each other they’d have gotten through this mess… Just like they had managed to do all the other times in the past! But this time, Akane had gone and let her paranoid imagination run totally out of control, totally wrecking any headway that she and Ranma had made in the romance or friendship department over the past two years.

“Why, in the public park, Nabiki… It certainly drew quite a crowd to watch it. I should know, since Ranma asked me to be the referee for it last week!” Cologne replied calmly, while mentally chuckling at the way Nabiki twitched just then, clearly miffed at the thought of all the profits she’d just lost due to this upset. She then composed herself and continued to speak, “It was over well before it really got going though, so it wasn’t very exciting for the spectators… Ranma really went for the quick win. Happosai didn’t even get a chance to use any of his special techniques before Ranma scored the point every time! That’s what had been agreed by all the parties involved, first to ten points would claim the Grandmaster title, with the points scored by trapping their opponent in a position they were unable to get out of… At first Happosai was totally shocked that he’d lost to Ranma so quickly. But he then laughed and congratulated Ranma on a well-earned victory! What really surprised me was the fact that Happosai had been expecting him to win, if not so quickly… He’d even given Ranma a valid certificate which recognizes Ranma’s new status as a teacher of Anything Goes that Happosai had signed several weeks back! After that, Ranma just left, only saying that he was heading home… You won’t have to worry about Happosai hanging around here or causing any trouble for a while though, he’s gone off to Hawaii for the Miss Universe contest and won’t be back for at least two months. He’s been looking forward to that for three months now, but he was not sure if he would be able to make it...”

Just then, Kasumi brought the radio in from the garden back into the kitchen, where she’d been listening to it while washing the windows of the house and dojo. As she put the radio back onto the windowsill while she was putting away everything, the song that had been playing finished up. After a brief ad break, the music program she was listening to started up again with the DJ accepting another phone call: “Hi there caller, you’re on the air! What’s your message and song request?”

There was a brief moment of silence before the caller spoke. His voice was a little more strained then anyone had ever heard it before, but it was clearly Ranma’s voice. Everyone just froze, not quite believing their ears. “Hi there guys, Ranma here! Just to let you know, I’m going to heading over to mom’s house for a while… It’s not that I’m dropping all the agreements that people have forced on me just yet, but I think we all just need some distance from these arrangements to figure out the best way to resolve them all to make everyone happy! So, it’s goodbye for the moment… Depending on how it takes, I might be back again towards the end of the summer, maybe later. It’ll all depend on what we can come up with! As for the song I want, I choose one of U2’s songs: preferably ‘Stuck in a moment’ please?”

“No problem there, thanks for calling and good luck with solving those problems! Well, you heard the man, here’s U2 with Stuck in a moment,” the DJ replied, his voice fading out as the song started:

#I'm not afraid, of anything in this world
#There's nothing you can throw at me
#That I haven't already heard

#It's just a moment
#This time will pass…

As the song ended, there were a few moments of silence as everyone present in the room took in both Ranma’s message and the song he’d chosen to say goodbye with. The silence was finally broken by a loud CRACK! Everyone turned to the source: it was Akane, who had been gripping the edge of the table so hard due to her rage; she’d broken off the edge nearest to her. When she spoke, it was surprisingly calm, but the level of venom and underlying anger was unmistakable.

“That BAKA has some nerve! He just left us and didn’t even have the guts to tell us to our faces. What a coward, running away like this... If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the dojo, practising like a REAL martial artist is supposed to!” With that, she stormed out of the room. No-one tried to stop her, seeing as she was radiating a truly massive amount of anger, making her aura visible to the naked eye. After a few seconds of thought, Genma dashed off without saying a word to anyone. Everyone in the room knew he was heading over the Saotome family home, assuming that was where Ranma was headed. Finally, Kasumi spoke up. Her voice was calm but slightly frosty, which surprised the visitors, none of whom had been around to the Tendo house since the wedding fiasco. Before, even in the direst of situations, her voice was normally kind and gentle.

“I’m sorry Honoured Elder, but you’ll have to leave now… I’ll be getting dinner ready before Akane cools down and since your reason for your visit is done with, I see no reason for you to stay today! That goes for both Shampoo and Ukyo too… I don’t think my sister will appreciate you hanging around for longer then you need to, even if you are trying to be nice...” With that final statemment, Kasumi got up and showed them out. Looking between each other in confusion over Kasumi's personality shift, they then shrugged and started to walk back to their homes. Before they got too far though, they heard someone calling out to them.

“Just a moment, Elder Kun Long, could we talk for a moment…” Cologne paused and turned around, seeing and hearing Soun call out to her while walking towards her. Seeing both Ukyo and her grand-daughter pause, unsure of what they should do, she waved them on and told Shampoo to take the rest of the day off to spend however she wished… She smiled as they walked off together towards Ukyo’s shop, while having a friendly conversation thanks to having finally buried the hatchet a few weeks back; she then turned her attention back to Soun as he caught up.

“You wish to speak to me Soun Tendo… Is it about Son-, I mean Ranma’s message to us or is there something else you wish to talk about?” Cologne spoke politely to him, but she was reeling on the inside. Soun had sounded so formal towards her and he was wearing a serious expression. Most of the times they’d talked to each other in the past, they had been at loggerheads, with neither of the two sides willing to concede that the other person might have a point. They also never entered into casual conversation. But this time seemed to be different… She wondered just what had changed Soun’s mind about her, before he started to talk.

“It’s a little of both, Honoured Elder.” Soun replied, grateful that Cologne had taken the time to consider his statements, given their track record. “While we might not have always seen eye to eye in the past, I feel that now is a good time to try and start afresh and become friends. Firstly, Ranma’s choice of song to say goodbye was quite appropriate: All of the people that Ranma knows here have gotten into a very self-destructive rut with regard to all the events that surrounded him. What most of them don’t know is that Ranma actually kept the actual chaos level in check. Sure, he may have added quite a bit to the chaos himself, but for the most part he resolved more problems than he created! With him gone, all the other factors that cause chaos around here will have free rein to wreak havoc. And since Ranma won’t be around to stop it, things will keep getting worse, despite what some people might think!

As for the other reason I have is this: lately I’ve been getting the feeling that Genma’s been hiding something major from me. I’m not sure what it is, but I think it’s why he’s been so determined to marry Ranma off to Akane before they’re both eighteen years old. I know we’ve both attempted to marry them in the past, but for this last attempt it seemed that Genma was trying every trick in the book to ensure they’d say ‘I do!’ without anyone stopping the proceedings. Fortunately, I suppose, things didn’t go according to plan. Who knows how things would have worked out?

It was a few days before the failed wedding attempt, while Ranma was still on his way home from the battle with Saffron with Akane, you and everyone else that’d gone with him, that things got odd. Genma got an official-looking letter from somewhere while we were the only two in the house. He took one look at the envelope, froze and then dashed off, saying he had a very important appointment to take care of… He took the letter with him, not even bothering to open it. When he got back, without the letter I might add, he didn’t even bother to explain what this appointment of his had been about… He just simply suggested that since both Ranma and Akane seemed to be getting on so well, according to your phone-call before departing Hon Kong, we should prepare to join the schools and start planning a marriage. He’d already talked to Nodoka about it and she had approved of his plan, since he’d claimed that both Akane and Ranma seemed to want to marry ASAP. When I started to voice my concerns that we were moving too fast without ensuring our facts were straight, he waved it off, saying that it was obvious that our children were in love with each other.

But he was wrong… He’s been wrong about everything ever since he showed up here two years ago. But this time, it was a step too far… It’s been the first time that both the fiancées and rivals have ever used lethal force to try and either claim the people they’ve lusted after or remove a rival for the those same people! Thank Kami that most of those involved have calmed down and are sorry for their actions. But the damage to my children’s relationships was far too high: two of my daughters now have developed a strong dislike for Ranma; while the other only sees him as a business acquaintance. I can also see my youngest has lost her trust in both of her sisters and almost everyone around her. But it’s not Ranma’s fault at all! Things just got a little out of hand in the heat of the moment. It’s just too bad that Akane has let her pride blind her to this fact! She also needs to learn the need for some self-control to truly reach her maximum potential… Besides, if we pool all our resources together, we can expand on what we already know in the field of martial arts and try to make an improved school of martial arts that we can both be proud of. So what do you say Honoured Elder, do we have a truce?”

Cologne nodded, as she mulled over what Soun had said. It was true that Akane had a lot of potential in quite a few areas, including martial arts. Her main weakness though, both in training and everyday things, was a simple lack of patience and quite a bit of arrogance. She just refused to take things slowly and carefully, always claiming that she was every bit as good as Ranma. The only problem was Ranma had a highly advanced learning curve for most marital arts and was also able to break all the moves he saw down for only the most relevant details instead of being dazzled by the flashy flourishes that some of his opponents added to their moves to both wow people and make the moves harder to copy. Once he had done this, he’d experiment with the move until he had it down or figured out a way to make it work for him. This was the true reason why Ranma could learn a move after only seeing it done a few times. Akane, on the other hand, was always trying to re-create the move exactly as she saw it without taking a look at the individual steps that made up the move.

However, the price Ranma paid for this ability to learn fighting moves with ease was a total lack of social tact on his part. He just couldn’t pretend to like something to save a person’s feelings, no matter how hard he tried. This was the cause of quite a few the beatings he’d received from Akane when he’d refused to eat her cooking or pointed out her flaws a little too bluntly. From the way Akane would describe him at times, you’d think he was nothing but a cocky jerk that didn’t care for anyone but himself and was always blowing his trumpet about how good he was at martial arts. But anyone who actually met Ranma and also bothered to get to know him better would see the truth: he was just a shy, insecure person who’s only vice was his pride in his fighting skills. But that was understandable really; his skills were one of the few things that were truly unique to him and him alone.

Genma’s actions though, were most peculiar... She had a few theories about this, but nothing solid. Until then it would be best to wait and gather more information… And to do that, she would have to work with Soun. This made a lot of sense: since Soun was still trusted by Genma for most things, he might eventually confide to Soun the truth of what his private meeting was really about. Besides, he had made a very good point about expanding the village’s range of martial arts skills and gaining more allies to help protect its way of life. “Alright then Soun Tendo, we have an agreement! I was already planning on getting permission from the other Elders to make the Cat Café a full-time outpost here in Japan to let members of the village see what life is like outside the village walls. Your point about sharing knowledge was also a valid one. If you would kindly help me out with getting planning permission to both extend and renovate the Cat Cafe, I’ll see if I can get permission for both you and any of your future students to learn some of the Amazon’s special techniques. Akane, I’m afraid, will have to prove that she has the self-control not to use whatever we teach her for selfish purposes.”

“That’s fair enough, Honoured Elder. In fact, I was going to have that be the case. She’s just not ready yet for those techniques…" Soun replied, nodding his head in agreement. "First things first, I need to see where my skill level is at now; after all, I haven’t trained properly in several years! I think I will probably need to get back into proper fighting form before I can learn the more complicated moves… So until tomorrow or whenever you actually want to meet me, goodbye...”

“True enough. That’s a good plan of action you have there… Tomorrow sounds fine, see you at four at the Cat Café,” Cologne replied. Mentally, her new-found respect for Soun increased: ‘Nice to see that he’s at least willing to admit the fact he has room for improvement.’ After Soun had walked off in the direction of his house, she sighed and looked up to the heavens: ‘Well Ranma, I’m sorry for me and Xian Pu causing you so many headaches over the past two years! I wish you the best of luck, wherever you are now…’

(At the same moment, on the other side of town…)

Ranma sneezed again, the third or fourth time in as many minutes, while he checked to ensure no-one was tailing him as he got off the bus. He had planned this course of action out for the past month, but after having several plans of his get messed up in the past, he had learned never to think a plan was totally fool-proof until after it was finished. But so far, it was all going like clockwork!

He’d passed all his tests to graduate early with flying colours, thanks to spending most of his recent free time studying the subject matter. He was quite pleasantly surprised that he’d actually passed with such a comfortable margin, given his past difficulties with written exams. Now he wouldn’t have to deal with Miss Hinako constantly trying to drain his Ki, even though he’d been actually paying full attention in class for this term. She just kept assuming that he was planning some sort of delinquent activity and was biding his time. ‘Well, that’s to be expected, I suppose… Especially given the fact that Principal Kuno exaggerated how bad I was behaving and that first impression I gave her!’ Ranma winced at that memory, remembering just how stupidly he had acted in the past, before sighing softly. ‘Well, what’s done is done and there’s no point to think about what might have been!’ And since the vice-principal had entered the data into the board of education’s database, if either Miss Hinako or Principal Kuno wanted to challenge the results, they would have a lot of red tape to deal with, giving him enough time to prepare…

Fighting Happosai to gain the right to teach Anything Goes was a late addition to the plan, only added three weeks ago. His reasoning for this was simple: it would reduce the amount of people chasing after him by at least one person. Another benefit of having the title of master of Anything Goes was the fact that Genma wouldn’t be able to pull rank on him anymore… The only thing that had been completely spur of the moment in the plan had been the phone call from a payphone to the local radio station in Nerima after he’d gotten off the bus and was walking the rest of the way to his mother’s house. He then shrugged and continued walking along.

‘Oh well, I was going to have to let everyone know I’d gone to spend some time with my mother sooner or later,’ he rationalized. ‘It was probably best to do it now, before they tore up the town up looking for me! Fortunately, they’ll all be expecting to find me at the old Saotome family house over in Azabu Jûban… None of them have realized Mom actually has gone and bought a new house on the outskirts of Tokyo, after the girls trashed the old one. She only moved in temporarily with the Tendos because she had to wait until all the rooms were ready and she also wanted to spend some time catching up with me… Since they are probably expecting me to head over to the old house, it’s a simple matter of actually travelling in the opposite direction! Good thing she told me about this and gave me her new address before I got out of the hospital six months ago, otherwise I’d have gone straight to the old house and gotten caught by everyone else before I’d even had a chance to search elsewhere… This way, I can vanish without leaving an easy trail for them to follow. There are still a few traces of my trail, but only those with a lot of patience will find them. And since most of the others are much too impulsive when it comes to me, I should be okay until the trail goes cold. I also know that they’ll be focusing their search for me over towards the Jûban side of Tokyo, so that means more time for the trail to cool off.’

As he came up to the house, he let out a low whistle at what he saw. ‘That’s not a house; it’s more like a mansion! I didn’t think mom was as wealthy as this… Guess that her job paid really well...’ The mansion, for that was the only word he could think of that could describe the property properly, was much larger then the original family home. For starters, it was three storeys high, with a modern American style exterior which was painted white. Ranma went up to the door and was about to knock when he noticed it was slightly ajar and there were some muffled sounds coming from inside. Ranma tensed slightly and entered cautiously, his senses in high alert.

“Does anyone have a clue why we’re here? How about you Bakura… Got any info on this Nodoka lady? After all, she seems like the type of person you’d be working for in your line of work.” A timid voice, obviously female and the source of the sounds, seemed to be coming from the double doors at the end of the hall. Ranma walked towards it, but paused outside it, deciding to listen for a few seconds. He had learnt back in Nerima, to never enter any situation unless he had a clear picture of it, the hard way.

“Well Serenity, this Nodoka character could be some wacky rich person! She asked a friend of hers to hire me to break into their bank vault in London, just to test my skills in gaining access to things I’m not supposed to! It was definitely one of my more unusual tasks in the security testing market so far…” a male voice now spoke up, followed by the sound of a snooker cue hitting a ball. This voice was friendly enough, but Ranma was a little annoyed that the person thought his mum was a bit eccentric, although she could give that impression at times. But the fact that she’d asked a friend to test his skill in breaking and entering, even if it was legal, raised a few questions… ‘Huh, why on earth would mum be looking for someone with skills like that? I’ll have to ask her about it when I see her…’

“Me neither! I got an invitation, so I decided to show up… After all, she must have her reasons. Just one thing is bugging me, I just get the feeling I should know her surname from somewhere!” another female voice replied. This voice was also female, but she seemed to be a lot more confident then Serenity was, maybe even a little too confident. “I know that it’s on the edge of my mind, but I just can’t seem to connect the dots!”

Ranma now chose this moment to enter the room, having heard enough and deciding to meet these people face to face. He put on his most friendly face, opened the door and said: “Hi guys, what’s going on here?” As he entered, he looked over the four occupants of the room as they turned to see him. The group consisted of two males and two females. The first person he looked at was a white-haired teenager with chocolate brown eyes who appeared to be about the same age as Nabiki or slightly older. From his position near the pool table, Ranma figured he was Bakura, given the sounds Ranma had heard during his conversation. He was playing a game of pool against a brown-haired girl, who was more then likely Serenity, especially since they seemed to know each other and were now talking about some kind of card game called Duel Monsters. Serenity herself was actually a quite cute girl, with her long, brown hair, sparkling brown eyes and a well toned... Ranma caught himself there before his mind could finish that statement and gave himself a mental shake: ‘Hold it right there buster! Remember what happened in the past whenever you thought some girl was cute, it always ended up with her chasing you for one reason or another… Besides, knowing your luck, she’s got an overprotective brother.’

The final two members of the group were located at opposite ends of the room. Miss confidence herself was standing near the pool table, watching Serenity and Bakura play. She was a little shorter then he was, but she had a no-nonsense aura about her. Her hair was a dark shade of black, as were her eyes. The expression on her face was a bit of a grimace, as she seemed to be trying to be racking her brains, trying to find an answer to just how she knew the Saotome name from somewhere. Ranma could sympathise, having worn the same kind of expression himself while trying to figure out a way to resolve all the arrangements that he had hanging over him in a way that left everyone happy… The final member of the group was also the youngest looking. He was a blond spiky haired, blue eyed kid with six thin whisker marks on his face, three to each side. At the moment Ranma entered, he seemed to looking over some old pottery that was locked up in a cupboard, wearing a serious expression on his face that didn’t feel natural on him. Everyone looked up as they heard him enter and called out a greeting, each of them shifting into a defensive posture, before relaxing as they saw he wasn’t a threat.

The black-haired girl was the first to speak to him: “Come on in, join the party…” From her voice, Ranma identified her as the girl who had said they’d received an invite and decided to show up. The way she carried herself with a fair amount of self-assured confidence implied she was a martial artist like him. The faint traces of bruising on her hands and palms indicated she’d put in quite a bit of varied practise (unlike Akane, who focused on just basic punches and kicks) and was quite possibly at one of the higher levels of skill in her art, if not the highest. She continued on: “The name’s Tatsuki Arisawa! We each got a message from Mrs Saotome asking us to meet her here today for some reason; did you…?”

Ranma was lost, not to mention slightly baffled by this comment: “Message? What message?” He started to sweat with the way the others were looking quizzically at him. Just then, his mother and Doctor Tofu entered the room. Seeing some familiar faces, Ranma decided to get some answers from them: “What’s going on Mom?”

Nodoka froze slightly, a look of shock on her face clearly visible as she caught sight of her son. “Ranma…? What are you doing here...?” ‘Oh, that’s just perfect! Out of all the times he could have shown up, it’d have to be just now…’ She then turned to Doctor Tofu. “Could you go and give Ranma a quick physical, please?” Doctor Tofu nodded with a small smile on his face and gently took Ranma by the shoulder, gave it a small squeeze and started to guide him out of the room.

As Doctor Tofu was escorting him out of the room, Ranma still had enough time to fire off some more questions to his mother: “Why are all these people here mom? Just what is going on here…?” The door slammed shut, cutting the rest of the questions he had off. Nodoka then took a deep breath, turned to her guests and started to talk.

“Hi there, I’m Nodoka Saotome… I’m very glad you all decided to accept my invitation. I’m sure you all have many questions and I promise I will answer as many of them as possible, but first… I really need your help, because without your talents, without your intelligence; our world and maybe even our universe could be destroyed!!!”

• Nodoka explains why she's called the group together!
• As above, but some of the group need a little convincing to sign up...
• What are Uyko and Xian Pu doing with themselves now?
• How did the normal people in Nerima take the news of Ranma's departure...?
• Either Flurious or Moltor make their first move.
• Something else..

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(Posted Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:38)

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