Honda Satoshi grinned as he and his fellow gurentai entered the woods on the girls’ trail. While he’d been willing to carry out the hit at the playground and count on shock to keep the onlookers from getting taking any photos before he and his gang had a chance to run, this was a definite improvement—no witnesses, and plenty of directions to head after the hit.
Except ... his eyes narrowed at the sight of a number of tracks crisscrossing through the snow in the ten yards or so he could see into the woods. Okay, so there might be some witnesses. He shrugged at the thought. So maybe a few more targets before they ran — no big, now that Morita had okayed relaxing the restrictions on violence a bit. Satoshi had never really understood those limits, anyway. They were supposed to be afraid of the overweight, doughnut-munching losers passing for cops in this city? Sure, the Citywide Task Force had some scary people, but what was the chance that any of its teams would be assigned to hunt down some low-level thugs? Not many front page stories in that, after all.
Then another thought occurred to him, and he glanced at the rest of his gang, all within a few paces of him. {Everyone, spread out and pick up the pace,} he whispered. {With the number of tracks, we can’t get confused and lose them, so let’s catch up.}
The other five nodded and spread out into a long line, moving through the snow as quietly as possible — none of them looking up as they passed a tree with a little girl sitting high up on a branch, holding her breath and clutching her rock as she watched Satoshi in the middle of the line walk underneath her.
Hirotaka was feeling more than a little disgruntled. He knew he was the newest member of the gang, but he was getting a little tired of the others getting all the fun. He’d been getting the scutwork for months, and now being on the end of the line meant he probably wasn’t going to be in on the kill. Though maybe Satoshi would decide they should have some fun with the older one first? They could tie up and gag the kid and kill them both when they were done with her minder....
Then his eyes narrowed as they caught a flash of red ahead through some brush helping form the edge of a walking path — the same color as the jacket the older girl had been wearing! His lips pealed back in a teeth-baring grin as he crouched and scuttled forward, pulling his semi-automatic pistol out of his pocket and trying not to wince at the sound of his feet crunching in the snow. If she didn’t hear him coming or just thought it was someone else enjoying the woods, he could get the drop on her before she or the brat ran away.
He burst through the brush and slammed to a stop, gaping at the sight of the coat hanging on a bush on the other side of the path. The only reason the redhead would take off her coat that he could think of was to show off the moves kid had mentioned, but here? And where were they? Suddenly he heard the snow-crunching sound of someone landing directly behind him and whirled in place, to find himself staring into a pair of cold blue eyes ... only a yard away. Shouting in surprise, he stumbled back as he raised his pistol.
Munoto grimaced at the sound of a shout and a gunshot ahead and to his right and pulled his pistol out of his pocket. Idiot! I know he’s new, but even he should know that you don’t get much fun out of a corpse, he thought even as he broke into a run toward the sound of another gunshot and rising shriek of pain. If Hiro was stupid enough to shoot on sight, at least he was good enough to hit what he was shooting at, the older girl from the sound — that shriek had been way too deep and loud to be the kid.
{Hiro, you idiot!} he shouted, shoving through the bushes lining the walking path. {What do you think you’re —} He froze when he saw his fellow gurentai lying unconscious on the path. Hirotaka’s pistol was lying in the snow at the side of the path, easily within his reach, but it didn’t matter — elbows weren’t supposed to bend that way. Neither were knees.
Munoto’s only warning was a faint rustling in the bushes he’d just push through before a hand closed on his wrist, another on his shoulder, and it was his turn to shriek, his pistol firing uselessly into the snow as his wrist snapped. Even as he dropped his pistol, gasping in pain, a hand grabbed his shoulder and twisted him around. He found himself face to face with the older redhead, the joy he’d seen on her face when she was playing with the kids replaced by the empty, cold-eyed gaze of a predator. Then the short girl stepped back, and Munoto shrieked again, collapsing to the side as a quick kick shattered his kneecap. As he lay sobbing helplessly on the path, the redhead crossed the path, pushed through the bushes on the other side and vanished from sight.
A viciously grinning Ranma moved as silently as she could in the brittle snow alongside the line of bushes that lined the curve of the walking path, taking it slow to help keep the noise down. Briefly, she considered taking to the trees — they were deciduous and with their leaves gone with autumn she wouldn’t have much trouble moving from one tree to another — but rejected the thought. Kat was in one of those trees, and Ranma didn’t want the thugs she was stalking looking up. Besides, Stacy had strongly suggested that she hide the full extent of her abilities when not in costume — except when in private with Sensei, of course.
Shouts of shock rose behind her and the redhead chanced a peek through the bushes, and found that the track had curved enough to block line of sight to the thugs she’d taken down. Wiggling through the shrubbery she crept back the way she’d come, faster on the already walked-on snow.
When more gurentai came into sight she froze where she crouched, counting — three ... no, a fourth had just pushed his way through the bushes. She slowly backed up, then crawled through a space at the bottom of the bushes and along the hedge toward the talking thugs. Let’s see, I could just jump over the bushes right into the middle of them ... no, that’s almost as bad as using the trees —
{Forget it, I am not going off alone! The redhead has to be the one that took down Munoto and Hiro, and I’m not running into her by myself. Besides, the sheep back at the playground had to hear those gunshots, the cops will be on their way, we have to get out of here.}
{He’s right, Satoshi, this job’s a bust.}
{What about Hiro and Munoto?}
{We should leave them for the cops ... unless you’d rather try and carry them out? Didn’t think so.}
{ ... All right, we’re out of here. We’ll just have to get the girls’ names and home addresses and try again later when the heat’s died down.}
Ranma’s grin vanished, her face going cold as she listened to the gurentai walking in her direction — they weren’t just after her they were after her sister! If anyone tries later, it won’t be you. Then the four thugs were alongside her, and her leap spung her over the hedgerow between them, her first strike splashed a nose flat as a backward thrusting kick landed between a gurentai’s legs hard enough to push him through the hedge, and she spun out of the way as a frantic thug pointed his shaking gun at her and pulled the trigger.
Stacy barged through the doors into the police precinct building and strode to the front desk. “Where’s Ranma and Kat?” the short-cut blonde demanded as she took the last few steps.
“Uh, well ... she, uh, they ...” the unfortunate officer on duty stuttered. “She’s ...”
“Right now Ranma’s being interrogated.”
Stacy turned at the familiar voice. “Interrogated, George? Interrogated? She’s being interrogated? !”
“Stacy ...” Sergeant Amado gently took her by the elbow and guided her around the desk back into the precinct. “Stacy, the six thugs that went after Ranma and Kat ... Ranma hammered them — I mean really hammered them,” he explained as they walked. “Two of them got off relatively light, just a broken elbow and shattered kneecap each. The dead one was apparently shot by mistake in the scrum by one of his friends. But the other three ... Stacy, they’re going to be in traction for a lot longer than they’d be in jail for anything we can charge them with! And they’ll probably never walk without the help of a cane, if they can walk at all.”
Stacy blanched. “Is Ranma in trouble?” she asked quietly. “Should I be calling my lawyer?”
“Your lawyer’s already with her, and trying with some difficulty to keep her from saying anything too stupid — she was out of control and she knows it, she’s pretty shaken up. But in trouble? Probably not. I doubt the County Prosecutor is going to want to try and sell a jury on the idea that a young girl that fought off six armed men trying to kidnap or kill her and Kat should be the one up on charges. The extended interrogation is pretty much the Chief’s way of impressing the seriousness of Ranma’s actions on her without arresting her.”
But Stacy missed the last part, as her mind fastened on one word and she started to shake: “Kat? My daughter was a target? !”
Sergeant Amado stopped outside a closed door and reached up to gently grip her shoulders. “Stacy, Kat’s fine, just like I told you when I called. She’s here with her mother — her other mother — right now, waiting for you and her father. But yes, from evidence we found at the scene and what Ranma overheard, Kat was a target as well. I’m not surprised Ranma lost control.”
No, George, Ranma didn’t lose control, Stacy thought distantly as she fought off one flashing image after another of what could have happened to her little girl. If she had, those thugs would be dead. But from what George had said about the injuries the thugs had suffered, that was almost worse — but only almost. Kat ...
Sergeant Amado glanced up and down the hallway, then stepped forward and pulled the shaking woman into a comforting hug. “Kat’s fine,” he murmured. “She’s going to be fine. We’re assigning a police guard for her until this is over, serious guards this time, bulletproof vests and all, nobody’s getting to her like they got to Manning.”
Slowly, the woman in his arms relaxed, the quivers running through her body easing away until they vanished. Finally, the sergeant stepped back and reached for the doorknob. “And now, why don’t we give a little girl another chance to boast about how totally cool her big sister is.”
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(Posted Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:02)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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