Present, five years since arrival…
Ranma sipped his tea, enjoying the flavor, glad that business had once again taken him to Japan … even if it wasn’t his Japan and was in the middle of recovering from disasters man-made and natural.
He still found it odd, looking about, just the basic difference between people in his world and this one. It still confused him, how there were no natural green-haired girls, bluenettes, blonds…
No one rode their bikes on walls, no one roof-hopped around—unless they sported a cape and such…
Shaking his head at such thoughts of differences, he paused as he felt his phone vibrate. “Yes?” he asked, opening it. He wasn’t worried too much about telemarketers and such, as it was a secure phone line for the company he worked for.
“Sorry to bother you, Mr. Saotome; but Ms. Starr will be delayed towards your meeting in Japan today. She will be making an unscheduled short stop in Italy.”
“Thank you, Somya,” Ranma replied, his mind trying to recall why Karen would head to Italy from Micronesia … and then he remembered that Helena was ‘adventuring’ there. “Will rescheduling for dinner be an option?” he asked Karen’s trusted secretary.
“I’m afraid not,” she replied, “due to the supersonic aircraft currently down for retrofitting.”
Ranma nodded absently at that, remembering that Karen was using her own private corporate jet for a test-bed of technology to reopen the supersonic transport market and make it economically viable.
Besides, if the plane went down, she wouldn’t get hurt.
“The earliest will be tomorrow evening for a late dinner,” Karen’s trusted personal assistant replied.
“That’s good,” Ranma replied. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t enjoying Japan—even if it wasn’t his Japan … and even if neither of his forms could pass purely for the local Asian-type. It was just nice to have something familiar if not a match.
“Reschedule it for the same place,” he continued. “And see if the Boss wants me to do anything else while I am here.”
“She has already placed such a request,” came the assistant’s bland reply. “She wants you to give the new R&D purchase there another once-over, as well as confirm the security around a package she had sent.”
He could only sigh at the request, palming his face. “But I already did a security check of the place.”
“She knows, and wishes me to inform you that the contents of the facility are of the utmost importance to her.”
Ranma just growled at that point. Karen had made him a top-paid Security Consultant for Starr Enterprises. He spent more time securing her facilities from ‘mundane’ threats than most offices. Even LexCorp didn’t go so far—granted, Lex’s ‘security threats’ were of a law enforcement and Kyptonian nature.
But still… “I did this last night,” he replied. “Unless she has a credible threat, or … maybe wants to let me know what Special Package #1 and #2 are, I’m going to pull out my Vacation Card until she arrives in Tokyo.” Well, Karen and Helena did try to instill in him a sense of when to stand up for himself.
“Ah, excellent; Ms. Starr desired you to, as she put it, ‘relax, unwind, and enjoy the sites’.”
… Crap, he’d been tricked again. “You know, do we really need to go through all these tricks to get me to take a day off?” he asked sadly.
“I was informed by Ms. Starr that, yes, we do, and of this, I agree with her.”
No matter the Earth, some things never changed. “Fine,” Ranma groused. Well, he could always—
“I was also to inform you that training or ‘vocational’ activities were not allowed.”
Sighing, he hung up the phone. Somya would already be making the arrangements to extend his stay at the hotel, shuffle around the meal, and even inform the new R&D purchase of the new head’s arrival changes.
So … until dinner, tomorrow, local Tokyo time, he was a free man supposedly on vacation.
Five years ago, he wouldn’t have had a clue what to do on vacation without practicing the Art.
Now, he smiled at the petite waitress that was refilling his tea and asking if he needed anything else.
Flashing a smile that often ended him up with another pursuer, he wondered just how much he had changed, and if life was better truly on the other side.
A bright light flashed as a body reinforced with life energy shot out of the exit, as he prepared for anything. Exiting, the flash of light blinded him, even disorienting him a bit. He had no clue where he would land, on what, or what to expect upon arriving, that may or may not wish to fight/maim/marry him.
He certainly wasn’t prepared to land on something soft, although one side felt oddly lighter and softer than the other.
“Well, this is odd,” came a voice he knew spelled doom for him.
It was spoken in English, by a female. And as such, the so-called soft landing…
SQUISHY X2!
“Well, I think he really is human,” came a second voice, raising the warning bells in Ranma’s head. “I seriously doubt any agent of Darkseid would grope us.”
“The Kami must hate me to keep this crap happening to me,” he sighed in Japanese.
“And that’s what happened,” Ranma stated, finishing his tale, thankful that both his sight had returned, and the females before him spoke Japanese. After classes for so long with Ms. Hinako, he wasn’t certain any English he knew would be proper … or at least not lead to his ass being kicked.
The women across from him continued to stare at him for several minutes, before turning to each other, having a hushed conversation as Ranma focused more on the fire. He still wasn’t certain what to make of the fact that neither had bashed him for the perceived perversion of how he landed—let alone checked what he landed on, but he didn’t want to press the issue. Sure, he probably could have taken the one wrapped in the blanket.
But the sense he got from the blond gave him the same feeling he got when something extremely powerful was nearby.
And he wasn’t about to ask if she was an Amazon, lest she might run off and then Cologne, Shampoo, and Mousse would probably be there soon after.
Unless … his senses were still a little off, despite his attempts to tune them. Just … where was he, and who was the guy on the paper the blanketed brunette had? And why was the date wrong on it? It should be March, 1996.
Maybe that box had flung him into the future? Did that mean he could meet his future self, and see how totally awesome he had became, maybe even learn new techniques? Or would this be like one of those sci-fi shows, where he would be apparently missing for those ten or so years? Would everyone be ancient? Would Nabiki be dead due to a bad deal? Would Kasumi be married?
Would the fiancées be…?
“Is there anything else you wish to say?” the blond in the tights asked him in Japanese.
Ranma scratched the back of his neck. “Nah, nothing coming to mind…”
Of course, as is the nature of Jusenkyo curses, the worst time to strike is the time you wish it didn’t. In this case, it was a sudden wave of water hitting the beach, soaking Ranma, but his position spared the camp fire the girls were using.
The dynamic duo from Earth-2 could only blink, as the teen male was replaced with a loudly cursing redhead with two additional floatation devices on her chest.
“Is that your final answer?” asked the brunette.
Twitching, Ranma growled, before removing her shirt, and ringing it out as she looked at the other two with her. Damn it; this was the only clothes I got till I get home. Hope they didn’t throw my stuff out. “Well, might as well start at the beginning…
“Okay, over a decade ago, my Old Man decided to take me on a training trip…”
59 months ago…
Ranma hated how the clothes fit him, as they were not the silks he was wanting, but the girls insisted he didn’t want to stand out too much.
Then again, he was going to be the one who had to explain everything if anyone in the public saw ‘Ranko’ come out,
Helena and Karen were already chatting about plans, who to trust, and what-not. Ranma, however, didn’t actually know what to do with his life now, and as such, was paying them and his surroundings only the barest of attention. Hell, he couldn’t even take a side in their argument, since he didn’t actually know anyone aside from them.
Helena had done a check when she was ‘borrowing’ some funds from what he guessed was the local version of her old man, and discovered that, unlike the people they knew, no one Ranma knew existed on this world. Hell; the Japanese people of this world didn’t even resemble his own! Oddly, if you had green or blue hair here, it meant you were some costumed nut.
The only people he knew here where the ones he traveled with, the other ‘misplaced’ travelers, as Karen called them. They had given him a place to stay, ‘seed’ money—whatever that was, and at least some direction.
But what was left? Yeah, he could probably earn some more funds; go through some fighting circuits, tournaments, but then? The other girls were superheroes, missions for justice or what-not.
What did he have?
“Ranma!”
“Huh?” he asked, turning to Helena, withdrawing his foot that had helped stopped the approaching car with Karen’s help. He hadn’t even noticed he had been crossing a street. But then again in Nerima, there had never been that many vehicles driving about. And with his training, he probably could take a Mack truck.
“I do have a lead I want you to at least check out,” she continued in English.
Ranma furrowed his eyes. He hated how they insisted he ‘learn’ stuff, English being one of them. He hated the school stuff, but considering he didn’t exactly have a busy schedule at the moment, and he wasn’t stupid enough to go stomping off on his own—they kindly pointed out where his options might lie—he dealt with it as best as he could.
Besides, he preferred Helena teaching him—Karen flirted too much and it made him feel like Akane was about to burst through the wall at any moment and pound him. “What?” he asked, trying to keep his English simple.
“There’s a certain tower I think you should visit…”
“Well, Helena, this is perhaps the craziest suggestion you’ve offered yet,” Karen wise-cracked, as the trio stood at the edge of a forest near Salem, Massachusetts.
“If you have any other suggestions, I’m open to them,” the former-Robin replied. “But he needs control over that curse of his, and he’s the only guy I can think of who might be able to help.”
“Anyone want to fill me in?” Ranma asked with a grunt. The only downside about his traveling companions was sometimes, they spoke in what seemed like their own little language.
But then again, they were females, so he assumed it might just be him.
Sighing, Helena turned to him. “In a Tower through these woods, is a local version of a hero we knew on our world, called Doctor Fate.”
“… Strange,” Ranma sighed.
“Nope, Fate,” Karen offered. “Wears a golden helm, blue outfit, and golden cape.”
“Still strange,” Ranma muttered. What was it with these heroes and villains, wearing such weird outfits? Ranma had asked once why, even pointing out that for a guy who worked at night, Robin wore a very bright outfit.
Helena had simply bopped him on the head—twice when Karen asked why as well.
“Anyway,” Helena continued, silencing her friend with a glare, “he is one of the most powerful magic users on the planet.”
“Uh-huh,” Ranma nodded, before turning around and starting to walk away. He knew he should have run instead, as Karen gripped his shoulder and refused to let him go. Damn sun-powered Amazon! When I figure out how to do that, you won’t hold me anymore!
Did he mention how much he hated being tutored by Karen? “Why you stopping me?” he asked. “I thought you said to trust no one!”
“He’s also the most likely person to help you with a cure for your curse,” Helena continued, as Karen turned Ranma around to face the woods.
“And as much as a pain as it is for you now, what happens when say … you change on some news network or whatnot?” Karen asked. True, she didn’t want to reveal themselves … to anyone, really. But Ranma’s curse was magic; and magic and Kryptonians never mixed well.
“Frankly, if he can’t cure you, he’ll at least have some options,” Helena continued.
Ranma just glared at them. “And where will you be?” he asked.
“We have a few more things to finalize about or seed money and some side projects,” Helena started, “as well as brainstorming some plans for the future.”
“… And I can’t be involved in that?” Ranma asked.
“Not so much that, Ranma,” Karen said with a kind smile. “More of the fact that unlike us, you actually have something you can be doing, as a better spending of your free time.”
Ranma gave them both a hooded glare, turned towards the woods, and back towards them. “I ain’t getting a choice in this, am I?”
“No,” they stated together.
He grumbled incoherently, but turned back to face the woods. True, this might be the break in a cure he had been waiting on—not that he would shove it in the faces of the others when he returned, no way…
But he had to trust some magical doctor strange enough to call himself, ‘Fate’. And really, did he want to tempt fate by messing around with a magical guy named after it?
“Fine,” he grumbled, facing them and trying to ignore the too-sweet smile Karen was flashing him. “But I want something in return!” he demanded.
Helena was quick enough to cover Karen’s mouth before her friend could release an innuendo. “What?”
“I wanna pick a place for us to eat, my choice, and when it says all I can eat, I ain’t leaving till I eat all I can eat! And no stares, glares, or anything when I do it!”
Karen just glared at her friend. “Really, he gave me such a perfect opening too!”
Karen sighed, before facing Ranma. “Within reason, and it has to be a place that won’t have to shut down afterwards.”
“Feh, I’m not a Saiyajin,” he muttered, as he jogged off into the woods. For some odd reason, the trees on this Earth didn’t grow enough to let you use them for travel via leaping from branch to branch.
As he disappeared, Helena turned to her friend. “What is a Saiyajin?”
Karen shrugged. “No clue.”
Present…
*BEEP!**BEEP!**BEEP!*
“… I swear to the Kami, whoever invented cell phones should be hurt … badly,” Ranma growled, reaching out from under the blankets of his hotel bed, and grabbing the offending item off the nearby stand.
If it’s a telemarketer, I’m gonna need a new phone, he muttered, before blearily looking at the number.
Sighing, he tapped a button on the secured line. “Yeah?” he muttered, sitting up in his bed.
“As requested, currently in New York City, about to engage four beings of immense power, with the city surrounded by some defensive energy shield,” spoke Somya, before the line went dead.
Ranma snarled as he tossed the phone on the bed. “Great, never when I’m awake, always before a meal, or a bath, or even sleep!
“Never when I need them to actually barge into my life,” he growled, heading towards a dark corner of his room. And he had been hoping to do something he rarely got to do anymore: sleep in!
Guess it had to happen he thought.
After all, Helena wasn’t the only one to get a new identity, he thought with a smile. With a flicker of movement, his night clothes were gone, replaced with a black outfit—hey, some people might want to stand out, but he wanted to blend in with the shadows, covering him from head to toe, only a few red lenses showing where his eyes should be. Strapped to his back and around his waist were utility pockets, twin katanas, and a pack of senbon.
His only identifying mark was a small symbol on his belt, the Japanese character for what he called himself in this form: Shinobi.
Let’s hope what I learned from studying how Karen stores energy and what the Nelsons taught me, he thought, as he entered the dark corner. The shadows seemed to pulse, before stilling.
Once the rising sun entered through the closed curtains enough, the room illuminated enough to show that Shinobi was no longer there.
As a shadow of a back alley pulsed, Shinobi stepped out, looking around, and took a deep breath. Shadow Teleportation was still hard, nowhere near as flashy as what Fate used, but still…
“I always end up in the stinkiest location,” his digitized voice spoke to further hide his identity, looking around. “Now, if I were a newly arrived Kryptonian, in trouble, in New York City, where would I—”
A small explosion nearby answered his question.
“Well, time to help the new girl,” he muttered, as he jumped to a nearby roof. Flying was cool, but he had four baddies he didn’t want to see him coming.
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(Posted Tue, 02 Oct 2012 04:02)
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