"You don't recognize us?" Haruka asked.
Setsuna shook her head nervously.
"She doesn't remember anything beyond a month or two ago," Nodoka said, moving next to Setsuna and hugging her comfortingly. "Let's find someplace to have lunch and a little privacy."
"I know a place," Rally said, good mood dampened a little. "Come on. Let's get your luggage."
"We don't have much," Nodoka said. "We left in sort of a hurry." Rally nodded, that last bit of information was definitely not a good sign.
"Then the place we're going is all the better," Rally said.
****
The reason for Rally's last statement was obvious as they walked into the bar-restaurant. The men and women there all shared the same look, and the majority recognized Rally as soon as she entered the door.
"They're cops," Nabiki said tightly under her breath, not having much trust for law enforcement after her failed attempt to get herself freed from her sister through Kinnosuke.
"Hey, Jake, I need the card room," Rally said to the bartender, jerking her thumb to the back. "That okay?"
"What are you doing?" he asked, eyeing the girls that had come in with her.
"Family business, we need some privacy," Rally said. The man seemed to consider it for a moment and then nodded.
"Nobody's using it right now," the bartender said, returning to his task of cleaning the glass in his hand.
Rally nodded and smiled a thanks to the man before leading her mother and sisters, blood and otherwise, to the back room.
"Are you some kind of cop?" Nabiki asked when they were in the room alone.
"Bounty hunter," Rally said. "You have a problem with the police?"
"Let's introduce everybody," Nodoka said. "Before we get to any further discussion." She fixed both Nabiki and Rally with a pleading stare, and the near argument subsided.
"Right," Rally said. "I'm going to go out and place an order for some food, be right back." She left the room and was back just as quickly as she said.
"Girls," Nodoka said. "These are my oldest daughters, Rally Vincent, born Aileen..." Nodoka smirked a little.
"You don't need to tell everybody that," Rally muttered under her breath.
"And Michiru Keioh," Nodoka finished without seeming to notice Rally's protest. "And I believe this is my first time meeting this girlfriend I've heard so much about. If you are Haruka, that is."
Michiru blushed demurely while Haruka shuffled nervously.
"That's me," Haruka said. In response to this Nodoka gave her a deeply appraising look, a twinkle in her eye. Then Nodoka's face turned serious and she turned to the five girls with her.
"These are Nabiki, Akane, and Kodachi," Nodoka said. "I've adopted them into the family."
"They're welcome," Michiru said, her eyes were still drifting towards Setsuna. Haruka's as well.
Setsuna noticed the appraisal and fidgeted in such a nervous, un-Setsuna-like way that the two senshi wondered if they were correct in their identification. It had been months since they last heard from the Senshi of Time, but Setsuna had taken longer disappearances, always returning eventually.
****
"What about them," Rally asked, pointing to the two unnamed girls. One was between her and Michiru's age in physical appearance, the one that Michiru and Haruka had recognized. The other was a shade older than Kodachi seemed.
"You named, Setsuna for us," Nodoka said.
"You really can't remember anything," Haruka asked.
"No," Setsuna said. "The lady who...helped us said it didn't look like something dont to me." She looked around nervously at that. "More like...I did it...to myself."
"She described it as sort of a suicide memory wipe," Nabiki said leaning forward and regarding the two. "Last resort sort of thing."
"Sounds like the Setsuna we know," Haruka muttered under her breath. It was also very bad news, and she was hoping and praying that whatever had happened to Setsuna had happened while she was untransformed. Or else the senshi were in trouble. She was surprised as it seemed that Nodoka had heard her.
"I'd like to hear about what you're involved in that would require that," Nodoka said. "But I'm afraid I have a second shock for you," Nodoka said. She gestured to the one of her group that hadn't been named yet. The small girl brought her shoulders together and waited for what she knew was coming. "This is Ranma."
"Ranma?!" Rally called out, coming out of her seat.
"I thought you said Ranma was a boy!" Michiru said in protest. Ranma seemed to cringe further.
"She was," Nodoka said, her voice turning cold. "It seemed your father caused this transformation. I'm not entirely certain I believed him when he told me it was an accident."
"The bitch got one of us after all," Rally said sitting down, and shaking her head.
"That explains why Genma isn't here," Michiru said she wondered where he was, and what their mother may have done in retribution. There was a knock on the door and conversation stopped as food and drinks were delivered. Then started again.
"Michiru is a violinist," Nodoka said, having changed the topic of discussion away from the depressing subject for the moment. "She's going to be performing this thursday. Did you manage to get tickets for us?"
"Yes, of course," Michiru said. She noticed Kodachi's interest had been peaked. "Prime seats."
"What sort of music will you be playing?" Kodachi asked.
"Mozart and other such composers," Michiru said. "Do you like that kind of music?"
"Yes," Kodachi said. "I used to listen to it a lot when I was younger. It would be interesting to hear without...anything in the way. How about the others, any interests?"
"I was kinda interested in acting," Akane said sheepishly.
"Martial arts," Ranma said, after a long pause. Then she seemed to consider it for a long moment and nodded again. "Martial arts. I'm going to be the best. I'm still going to be the best."
Setsuna shook her head, of course. Haruka and Michiru each independently decided to get the green-haired lady away from the others at some point to try and talk to her.
Nabiki kept silent, not wanting to bring up her studies of the magic that had been used to bind them. It was all she had known, from several different sides, through all her life so far. She just had no plans to use it as her blood sister had.
Akane's interest in acting was real. Their mother had chided her on it. But Nabiki was too busy keeping up with Kasumi to develop any other interests.
After Kasumi had taken over, she'd spent all her time trying to think of ways around their bonds with her incomplete training, and trying to keep the lot of them as mentally healthy as she could.
Nabiki fumbled around for a moment and lit upon the first thing that came to mind.
"Comic books?" she half-asked, half-said. It produced a number of half-smiles from around the table.
"We can pick up some later, if you want," Rally said. "Personally, I like guns. The bounty hunting is just what I do to pay the bills. I'm a gunsmith, I run my own shop. I more than half those people out there are my costumers. Or else I've worked with them while bounty-hunting...or both." She frowned. "And sorry to come back to this , Mom," and the word seemed to lighten her mood. "But you said you left in a hurry. If the Tendo Brothel is closed...why?"
Michiru and Haruka looked to her then.
"Our...owner had associates," Nabiki said. "They tracked us down once already. That's when she...Setsuna joined us."
"I was supposed to be muscle," Setsuna said quietly.
"The girls were used as assassins as well," Nodoka said reluctantly. "Magic was used to make them more powerful as well as enslave them. And magic was being used to track them as well. They can't track us again, though, those magics were removed."
"Do you know the names of any of these associates?" Rally asked, thinking of one specific person already, who's methods were similar.
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(Posted Mon, 06 Jan 2003 15:37)
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