It must have been several hours now, since Akane shut down. Ranma had hardly left her side since then, laying against her lifeless body. She hardly acknowledged Kasumi coming in with a small meal, which was left cooling on the desk next to the bed. She barely even acknowledged the sound of a motor rumbling into the Tendou family courtyard and rattling into silence.
Finally, a knock on the bedroom door reached into her consciousness.
“Saotome-san?” The voice of a young male standing on the other side of the door, who couldn't be more than twenty, maybe even younger. “Your hosts sent us! Something about a malfunction with Tendou Akane-san?”
Ranma sat up stiffly from the bed, pulled on a pair of boxer shorts, and walked over to the door. She edged the door open, peering over the edge of the door. “Who are you?”
A pair of narrow eyes stared back. “The name's Daremo. We're with Tomobiki High School. We knew...” He choked the last word down as somebody from outside the door apparently nudged him roughly. “We know Moroboshi, and we know you spoke with him today. We can fix your android friend up in no time, if you'd just let us in...”
Ranma opened the door slightly more, and the youth, a stout looking boy with brown hair in a crew cut, squeezed into the room. He was followed by two boys with lighter hair; one tall with glasses and what looked like an imperious attitude, and one shorter with a face like a runt. The third one who entered was a more average looking kid with a brown quiff. All of them were human; Ranma could tell from their “presence”, a more purer, organic feeling than the more electric auras that Akane, Ucchan and the other girls exuded.
Ranma backed away, but kept herself between the four men and Akane. They all gazed at Ranma, though a couple seemed to be concentrating on her bare chest. “You better not be lying to me. If you're here to do something bad to Akane, I will end you.”
The boys flinched away from Ranma's threat, hastily backing away. They obviously knew what she was capable of. The boy with the glasses straightened first. “We're not going to tamper with her with you in the way. We can fix Tendou-san, but we need your trust. This virus is worse than you think it is, but we can stop it with your help!”
“And why should I trust you?” Ranma replied.
The youth's eyes narrowed through his glasses. “Consider that most of the knowledge that you have been given about this problem was given to you by somebody known across Tokyo--no, the world--as the Cancer of Tomobiki.” He crossed his arms imperiously. “Could you really trust somebody of his reputation?”
“And you're a man, aren't you?” Ranma spat back, her eyes cold. “You could take advantage of her and imprint yourself on her, won't you?!”
“Oh, fuck this! Megane, move!”
Before Ranma could react, she heard what sounded like a sneeze, and felt something cold strike her in the center of her chest. Her eyes widened as the chill started to invade across her body, freezing her arms and legs stiff and rendering her unable to move. Her body toppled sideways to slam onto the floor.
Megane, the kid with glasses, stared at Ranma's prone body, numb with horror. Ranma's eyes moved to see another youth with shaggy black hair, carrying a pistol with a suppressor attached, and felt panic bubble up inside of her. She watched as Megane's hand suddenly slapped the back of this new boy's head.
“Damn you, Ryuunosuke!” Megane spat. “You weren't supposed to tranq her unless she showed physical resistance! That means unless she attacked us, moron!”
“You weren't convincing her from what I was seeing.” Ryuunosuke replied, and Ranma realised from the high voice and the electric buzz of her aura that she was a gynoid, like the Tendous. “We should have tranq'ed everyone and loaded Tendou in the car, so he wouldn't know until it was too late.”
Megane snarled through gritted teeth, and moved over to Ranma's prone form. “We're really sorry about this. Some of us have rather itchy trigger fingers.” Behind him, several more people stole into the room, one smaller boy carrying a large duffel bag around his shoulders, and the room was filled with the mild buzz of frantic whispers.
“Get her open and connected, quick!” Daremo said. “If the sisters downstairs find out about this, we're stuffed! They'll raise the alarm and they'll will be on us like ants on chocolate!”
“We're going to have to get Akane-san out of here and into our bunker,” Megane said to Ranma. “She'll recover, but she'll be on borrowed time afterwards. We're not exactly authorised to be doing this, to tell the truth. If Moroboshi finds out that she's ended up like this, you and her are going to be in serious danger.”
“And why should I trust you?” Ranma ground out through her teeth. Megane blinked, looking surprised that Ranma could force herself to resist the tranquilliser enough to speak.
“Because the Ataru Moroboshi you met isn't the Ataru Moroboshi that we knew.” Megane said quickly.
Ranma stared at Megane. Not the Ataru that they knew?
“It's a buffer overflow.” Another higher, more feminine voice said. “Looks like it was an admin conflict. Somebody imprinted on her and then she was imprinted again.”
“Saotome was the second imprinting. Shinobu. Delete the first imprint data block, replace any circuits with what you've got on you and reboot her. She'll be ambulatory until we can get her back to base and repair her components.”
Megane backed away from Ranma. “We didn't want to do this, believe me. But we are in a crisis that is spreading across Tokyo, and we need to stop it now before...”
“Grunts!” A voice shouted from downstairs. “We've got grunts incoming! About 100 metres north and closing!”
Megane grimaced. “Dammit, not now!” He turned towards the bed. “What have you on Tendou's repairs?”
“We've not got enough parts to fix her here!” The short runty one answered. “We've barely got enough to get her to think straight again!”
“Get them in her, seal and dress her, and get her out of here!” Megane answered. “Kakugari, take your rifle and prepare to defend our escape!”
Kakugari nodded and left the room. Megane approached Ranma again. “That tranquilliser might be wearing off now. Can you walk?”
Ranma rose to her feet suddenly. Her vision was swimming and her feet were unsteady, but the movement was enough to make Megane back away mighty quickly. “I should kill you where you stand...”
“If you kill me, and everyone here...” Megane began, his lips suddenly dry. “You and Akane will become Ataru's slaves. You and all of the women in Nerima, too. That is if the grunts don't kill you first when you resist.”
Ranma stared at Megane, her blue eyes boring through him. She could taste his fear. It surrounded him, like a choking blanket. But despite this, he still stood upright before her. He couldn't have been lying to her. He didn't look like he would have liked what would have happened if he did and she found out. Outside, she heard the low cracks of gunfire carrying through the air.
“Ran.ma?”
Ranma's head turned around to look at Akane, her eyes wide. “Akane?”
“Ran.ma.what.is.go.ing.on?” Akane said softly. “I.don't.feel.right”
Ranma moved over to Akane, hastily dressed in a pair of pink pajamas. “It's alright, Akane...” She said. “We're going to help you get fixed...”
Her words were suddenly interrupted by an explosion of wood and glass showering over the bed. Ranma looked up and saw...
Well...
It must have been a man at some point, the thing that was clinging onto the sides of the hole made in the bedroom wall, but no longer: a twisted wreckage of metal and flesh, on a frame that looked vaguely like a human skeleton if it had about thirty seconds in a taffy stretcher. the joints and veins glowing with an unnatural orange light. Its hands had more claws than fingers, arms and legs rendered into limbs made of steel.
Ranma stared down the creature as it advanced on her and Akane, and brought her hands together. She pooled together all of her feelings inside herself: her pain over what had happened to everyone. Ukyou, Shampoo, Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane, turned into machines. Her own fear at what she had become. She took that fear and anger, and forced it out towards the twisted machine. In an instant, it was consumed in a flash of green energy, smashed into pieces over the Tendou courtyard.
“I think that means she's going to help us!” Megane said. “Get them into the van quick!”
As Ranma carried Akane out of the room...
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(Posted Thu, 14 Feb 2013 05:32)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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