First time poster here, so curious what kind of feedback I'm going to get.
Prior chapters here:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10534035/1/Catch-me-if-you-can
M-rated for adult themes
Characters adapted from early design elements from source material. Tone changed in adaptation from source with an aim at improving humanity of characters, and overall universe coherency.
Late volume character decay incidents are and will continue to be ignored.
The current year 1987, and it is the end of August. Reagan is the President of the United States, and while he made his speech a few months ago the Berlin wall still stands.
[-]
Chapter 21
[-]
It had been a long day. Kaori sighed as she looked over the papers again, and reached for the latest cup of tea. The pieces just weren’t coming together, and she couldn’t shake the sense there was something she was missing, something important.
Kaori paused and looked around her office at the stacks of files. They were starting to get to the point where she would need to dedicate a filing cabinet to them. Nabiki was up to something. That much had been obvious the second that the girl had proposed the challenge. Normally she wouldn’t bother spending this much mental energy on such a thing, but Ranma had went missing and her agents were having difficulties tracking down where he had gone or what had happened to him.
The basics of Nabiki’s plan seemed obvious enough. The Kansai dish was exotic certainly, and her agents had verified the necessary quality was present. Whoever this Ukyo girl was, she certainly knew her trade. The private investigator was still looking into her background.
The choice to employ lesbians and work a cosplay angle with them was an odd one, but not outlandishly so. Certainly there was a demographic it would appeal to, but there were probably far more who would take exception to such a thing. Kaori couldn’t decide whether she admired her rival’s audacity, or held her obvious desperation in contempt.
She sighed playing with her long brown hair as she put the papers aside. She tired of this delay. Especially when her agents had lost track of Ranma Saotome. Some girl calling herself Ran had, had her records fabricated to appear to be his twin sister. That was impossible as her private investigators had established that Ranma was an only child years ago.
Certainly there was a strong resemblance with his mother, but she was at a loss how to explain this girl that literally had appeared out of nowhere. Based on her agent’s reports there were a number of things that simply didn’t line up. This girl apparently had been freaking out about her period, despite being old enough it shouldn’t be such an issue. Her agent had noted it was like she had just started having them.
It was probably nothing, though. Just a girl who happened to be the chef’s girlfriend, and looked enough like Ranma’s mother. Something that Nabiki had decided to use to play a game with her investigators.
She rolled the thought through her mind again, and decided it still just didn’t feel right. There was something there, something she just couldn’t quite connect the dots with about this. She pinched her nose, and sighed.
Her agent had already verified that this “Ran Saotome” was actually a girl, and that there was no way this could be a disguise. They had already cross checked that Nodoka Saotome had given birth to only one child when she had given birth in 1971, after which her husband had disappeared with the child. That child being Ranma Saotome. So there was no way she could be Nodoka’s daughter, although certainly it could be a cousin or more distant relative.
All of that was a distraction though from the real problem, that Ranma Saotome seemed to have just dropped off the face of the planet.
[-]
Ranma reveled in the feeling of his real body as he lengthened his stride and starting jumping between buildings. The trick was to aim for the reinforced sections. The last thing you wanted to do was try to bounce off someone’s window. There was the screaming, glass spraying everywhere, and nine times out of ten you couldn’t just hop back out because things were just positioned wrong.
He flipped and landed in a handstand on the roof. Straightening his arms he tested his balance, lifting up his right arm, and using the fingers of his left hand to control his balance as he tried to see just how far he could push it. He was mostly balancing on his thumb and pointer finger when he picked up on something and bounced to the side as he felt something move past him.
Crouching on the roof he scanned the area. There was hardly anything up here. The usual A/C units weren’t present or anything of comparable size, which meant there really wasn’t anything someone could hide behind. That meant… Pulling out a bag of flour, he had lifted from Ukyo he primed the charge and threw it. The entire area was blanketed in fine white powder, revealing a small fast moving figure that started laughing.
Whatever the tiny creature was, it stopped in front of him looking him up and down. “You’re Genma’s boy aren’t you?”
“And who would you be?” He shot back. Anyone who knew him through his old man was bad news.
The little humanoid creature puffed up its chest. “Why his Master of course. Didn’t he ever tell you about Old Master Happi?”
“No.” He glanced around while keeping an eye on the creature trying to figure out the best path out of here. Anyone claiming to be his old man’s master was doubly bad news. He probably wanted money for late dojo fees or something.
“Come now, boy. Don’t be like that. From what I’ve heard old Cologne’s been giving you trouble.”
He paused, studying the creature while trying to figure out its angle. “Who?”
“The blue haired woman with the staff who has been giving you so much trouble. She’s a Chinese Amazon.” Happi pulled out a pipe and started non-chalantly puffing away as he took a seat. The creature was clearly confident that it had dangled bait he wouldn’t be able to resist. It was mistaken.
“What’s in it for you?”
“Can’t an old master, help his disciple’s son?” The forced attempt at feigned innocence was just painful to watch.
“Not a master of my old man. What’s your angle?” He asked bluntly, tiring of this bullshit attempt at false helpfulness.
It puffed away at its pipe, probably trying to spin a yarn. “I like Class S.”
Ranma blinked. What was he…
“You know, the Takarazuka Troupes and those poor girls who in admiring them are led astray in their youth to seek the embrace of another girl. Truly there is no purer love.”
Ranma tuned the alleged master out as it kept rambling on. There was really only one reason the creature would be making such a drawn out speech on how wonderful love between girls was. Something about the thing was off, slimy even. It was probably a pervert, and clearly knew about his curse and at least one of his girlfriends. All things considered there were worse things someone could be trying to “help” him for, but just being near it was making him feel unclean.
“How can you help me?” He might as well hear out the offer.
"Well..." It looked up at him while puffing contemplatively on its pipe. “I do know a thing or two about Cologne, and I could use a new disciple now that Genma and Soun have moved on.” He really, really wasn’t liking where this was going.
“You taught both of them?” Well that was new.
“Well of course boy, I’m the Master of Anything Goes Martial Arts.”
Sure you are, and I’m the Prime Minister. He pointed at a billboard for a competition involving Anything Goes Martial Arts Cooking with a guy juggling knives while slicing a variety of vegetables in mid air. “Explain.”
The creature looked at the large advertisement for a long moment. “Nevermind that. I taught your father everything he knows.”
Like he hadn’t heard that one a zillion times before. If had 50 yen for every time someone had claimed to have taught his old man everything he knew… “Then I guess you have nothing left to teach me.” Maybe that would get it to go away. As much as he relished the idea of punting this thing off the building, something warned him that wouldn’t be a good idea.
“You’re a stubborn one aren’t you?” Damn it!
“Hey is that a VF-1 Valkyrie!” He yelled excitedly while pointing behind the creature.
“What? What’s that?”
Ranma quickly made his exit.
[-]
“Hey Mom.” Ranma paused as he noticed a woman sitting next to his Mom with a haircut very similar to Nabiki’s. Given the comfortable way the two were sitting next to each other it was clear they were… close.
“Akiko, this is Ranma.”
Akiko bowed slightly. “It’s nice to meet you. Nodaka’s been a lot happier since you came back.”
“Aki.” His Mom’s tone had an edge of warning, but was warm and playful.
Akiko hugged his Mom and kissed her on the cheek. It felt odd watching his Mom and this strange woman being so close. A memory tugged at him. “Isn’t she the one who…”
“Yes, we’re each other’s first love.” Akiko said happily. “Nodaka thought that you might be able to help me with retrieving my son.”
He nodded and Akiko handed him a manilla folder with NK-1124 stamped on it. “The problem is this Combat Android my husband was designing. Makashima Heavy Industries has sunk _billions_ of yen into the development of this platform for combating foreign superhuman agents. My personal assistants are just no match for this thing.”
Ranma looked over the various sheets covered in numbers and diagrams, he couldn’t make heads or tails of them but it sounded like a good challenge. This thing was some kind of humanoid combat machine designed specifically to fight people like him. “I’m in.”
Akiko pulled out a map and started laying it out on the table.
[-]
It had taken him awhile to locate the school Akiko had indicated her son attended. The upside was still in Nerima-ku, but on the other side of the District from Furinkan-cho. Picking a row of trees on the school grounds he climbed in amongst their branches and started peering in classrooms as he stealthily made his way around the school. As he finished his circuit he noted that there had been no robots, let alone one which had resembled the documents.
This was going to be so cool. He’d never met a robot before. From what he had gathered from the occasional tv show and manga that had passed his way, they were supposed to be really strong, tough, and able to do all sorts of awesome things. Maybe this one would be like Cutey Honey? That would be so awesome. Ranma paused as a thought occurred to him. Was it be possible somehow that the robot didn’t actually look like a robot right now?
It did kind of look like those posters for The Terminator that he had scene a few years ago. He remembered that the posters had said something, about something being wrapped around the robot parts which made it look human. Maybe Akiko knew something about that. In his rush he’d not even thought to ask how he was going to recognize the thing. He resisted the urge to smack himself for running off before he had properly looked through the entire folder.
“What are you looking for?”
Ranma was proud of himself that he suppressed the urge to jump. Turning he noticed a girl with long flowing reddish purple hair sitting on a nearby branch. He felt a surge of envy as he realized she resembled a taller version of his girl form. “I’m just looking.”
“Are you one of those Peeping Toms, Papa-san talks about?” She asked enthusiastically.
What was up with her? He didn’t know that many girls, but he knew enough to know that wasn’t normal. Maybe she was just itching for a fight? He said all sorts of weird provocative stuff to get a rise out of people when he was looking to let off some steam. She looked like she would make for an interesting fight, but that wasn’t what he was here to do. He needed to find this super robot, and pick a fight with it.
“No, I’m looking for someone called NK-1124.” He really wouldn’t mind fighting with her, but priorities.
The girl turned her head slightly and smiled. “Why?” She asked innocently.
“Because its apparently some kind of super robot.” He explained. Surely she could appreciate how awesome it would be to fight a super robot. It probably had eye beams, and stuff.
The girl stood up, casually balancing on the tree branch in a way that spoke a lot to someone who had some skill, reinforcing his assessment she knew how to fight. “Want to play?” She asked with a slightly challenging but playful tone. She jumped a height no normal person could hope to achieve causing the entire tree to flex and sway in response.
Ranma stared at her retreating figure for a moment before giving in and rising to her challenge. He jumped after her and found his altitude fell short of hers. Grinning he put some extra effort in as she started bounding off, but it kept felt like she was starting to pull away.
[-]
Anticipating her path Ranma spotted a shortcut. So far it felt like anytime he started to get close she would pull away. He would need to gain altitude on the building she had just bypassed, but it should give him enough glide range to catch up and catch her by surprise.
It was wonderful to find another disciple of roof running. Ukyo and Shampoo just didn’t fully appreciate the charm of playing hide and seek while running through a city. It got your blood pumping when you were trying to hunt someone down, or evade someone else trying to hunt you down. Then there was the rush of constantly weaving through roof clutter and sprinting from hiding spot to hiding spot as you made your way across the city. The normal people below passing by unaware of you or this world above.
Quickly planning out his jumps he bounced up the building, only to see no sign of the girl. It looked like his gambit had failed and she had managed to give him the slip. Still it had been a good run, and he had finally managed to find another roof runner enthusiast.
"You made it."
He slowly turned to find the girl standing there smiling, while wearing some kind of weird headband antenna things on either side of her head he hadn’t noticed earlier.
“Of course.” He shot back confidently. She smiled slightly.
The girl yelped as her watch caught her eye. “Oh no, I’m late. Ryuunosuke is going to be mad at me.” She quickly bounded off.
Ranma watched her go, respecting that the fight was over. Clearly this girl had put time into mastering the honored tradition of roof racing. He was sure she had to have all sorts of training tricks and techniques he had never even heard about. This was going to be so awesome. Even if he hadn’t been able to find the super robot, finding another skilled disciple of roof running was awesome.
[-]
Ranma stood outside of Ukyo’s place looking at the bouquet of flowers he had picked up for her. He wasn’t sure if she would even appreciate the gesture. As weird as that Kodachi girl had been, she had given him the idea to go with red tulips. The flower girl has seemed oddly enthusiastic about his choice for some reason, asking about his girlfriend.
Well there was no time like the present. He pressed the buzzer, and watched Ukyo come down the stairs and rush over to the door. “Ranma?” Her eyes were red.
“Ukyo.” He smiled at her. After the past few days it felt a little weird, but oh so gratifying, to tower over her rather than the reverse. He held out the bouquet.
Ukyo blushed and accepted it, looking a lot cuter than he remembered her. Maybe it was because of the lights? “Thank you.” Ukyo’s voice broke and she wiped at her eyes. He wasn’t quite sure what to do, but decided hugging her was probably safe.
Ukyo held him close. He rubbed her back trying to sooth her. He didn’t know what to say in a situation like this.
She pulled away and started locating a vase for the flowers. She was wearing that Dirty Pair inspired costume Nabiki had come up with, which was doing a distractingly good job of hugging her butt. Ukyo caught him looking and smiled. She looked a little bit like her old self. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” As the words left his mouth it occurred to him that he had seen her this morning. It felt like so much longer.
Ranma was at a loss what to say to break the uncomfortable silence that descended. He wanted things to be like they were before. It felt so awkward now.
“Do you want to play Street Fighter?”
Ranma looked around, sure enough there was a Street Fighter arcade machine. Hadn’t that just come out? How had Nabiki managed to swing that? “Sure.”
Ukyo pulled out a bucket of yen pieces. At the game started up this blond guy punched through a wall. They both put their quarters in and he ended up with a guy named Ryu while Ukyo got the blond guy whose name was apparently Ken. He was still figuring out the controls when Ukyo’s character threw a fireball thing. The fraction of a second it took him to identify the jump button was too long, and it hit shortening the red bar next to Ryu’s name.
“How’d you do that?” Ukyo just grinned, and launched into the attack.
[-]
It took him awhile to figure out the special moves, but he eventually got to where he was able to keep Ukyo on the ropes. He finally took her out, and felt her bump him with her hips.
“What do you think?” She asked playfully.
He looked over at her. She was smiling and she seemed to have her old energy back. “I think you played it before I got here.”
“Of course.” She kissed him on the cheek, and pressed herself against him. He could see the desire in her eyes.
“You are such a perv.”
Ukyo smiled, and grabbing his hand placed it against her butt. “Are you going to punish me?” She asked suggestively.
[-]
Ranma bent Ukyo over his knee, her taut pants giving her butt clear definition. He gave it a squeeze and was rewarded with some squirming on Ukyo’s part. He still couldn’t believe she had talked him into this. He tried to remember what Ukyo had done when their positions had been reversed.
He gave Ukyo’s rump a light but firm smack with his right hand. She moaned slightly, and the look she gave him clearly demanded more. He played with her butt a little before smacking it again.
“Harder.”
Taking the invitation he hit her rear a little more firmly and was rewarded with more squirming. She was clearly enjoying the “punishment.”
“You’re such a pervert.”
He felt something being pressed into his unoccupied left hand, and looked down to see a square foil packet. He stared dumbly at it, the stuff written on it only slowly getting through. He felt Ukyo kiss his cheek and turned back to find she was no longer wearing any pants, and was wearing some rather adult underwear.
He swallowed as Ukyo shifted to sitting in his lap and leaned closer. He could see uncertainty and hesitation in her eyes. His own anatomy was already straining against his pants.
Ranma resisted the urge to take her up on the implied offer. “Will you stop with that?”
“You can’t blame a girl for trying.” She grumbled, uncertainty turning into shame.
He quickly hugged her. “You’re my friend, Ukyo. I…”
He felt her shiver. “Don’t you find me attractive?”
“Of course, you’re…”
“You want to be with that Chinese girl.” Her tone was full of accusation and he couldn’t deny it. He caught her arm, and realized she had tried to slap him as tears started dripping down her frustrated face.
“Ukyo, I…”
“Get out.” Ukyo’s voice was quiet but forceful.
Ranma paused unsure what to do. He had come here hoping he could somehow make things go back to the way they had been before. Now it seemed like he had only made it worse.
Sighing he pulled away and paused at the top of the stairs. Ukyo was hugging herself tightly and staring at one of the walls. He wanted to hold her, to comfort her. Seeing her like this hurt.
“Ukyo, take care of yourself.” He left knowing she would yell at him if he stayed.
[-]
Ukyo put her head down as she heard the door click shut. He didn’t care about her. If he had, he would have come back.
[-]
Ranma leaned against the wall of Ukyo’s place. He didn’t want to leave. He wanted nothing more than to rush back in there, and somehow make it work. If only she would let him.
[-]
“Ranma, what happened?”
He felt his throat constrict at his mother’s question. “Ukyo dumped me.”
[-]
Kaori put down the phone, and sighed. She had reports that Ranma Saotome had been spotted in Furinkan-cho with a bouquet of flowers, and subsequently appeared to be distraught and lost. It sounded like she had just won by default.
She found it unsatisfying. She didn’t appreciate her time and plans being wasted. She would need to move quickly if she was to ensure he did not disappear again.
[-]
Nodoka watched her son trudge into his room. After a moment’s consideration she pulled out her address book, and dialed Ukyo’s place. On the fourth ring Ukyo picked up, her voice was rough as she went through the normal pleasantries.
After a few minutes of pleasant conversation it was clear Ukyo was hurting. She had seen how much the girl liked her son, and while her parents were still alive she could sympathize a lot with her.
“Ukyo, I want to let you know that you can talk to me whenever you need to.”
The line went quiet.
“I know you’re hurting right now, and Ranma misses you terribly.” She paused to allow her words to sink in. “But I’m here for you.”
[-]
Prior chapters here:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10534035/1/Catch-me-if-you-can
M-rated for adult themes
Characters adapted from early design elements from source material. Tone changed in adaptation from source with an aim at improving humanity of characters, and overall universe coherency.
Late volume character decay incidents are and will continue to be ignored.
The current year 1987, and it is the end of August. Reagan is the President of the United States, and while he made his speech a few months ago the Berlin wall still stands.
[-]
Chapter 21
[-]
It had been a long day. Kaori sighed as she looked over the papers again, and reached for the latest cup of tea. The pieces just weren’t coming together, and she couldn’t shake the sense there was something she was missing, something important.
Kaori paused and looked around her office at the stacks of files. They were starting to get to the point where she would need to dedicate a filing cabinet to them. Nabiki was up to something. That much had been obvious the second that the girl had proposed the challenge. Normally she wouldn’t bother spending this much mental energy on such a thing, but Ranma had went missing and her agents were having difficulties tracking down where he had gone or what had happened to him.
The basics of Nabiki’s plan seemed obvious enough. The Kansai dish was exotic certainly, and her agents had verified the necessary quality was present. Whoever this Ukyo girl was, she certainly knew her trade. The private investigator was still looking into her background.
The choice to employ lesbians and work a cosplay angle with them was an odd one, but not outlandishly so. Certainly there was a demographic it would appeal to, but there were probably far more who would take exception to such a thing. Kaori couldn’t decide whether she admired her rival’s audacity, or held her obvious desperation in contempt.
She sighed playing with her long brown hair as she put the papers aside. She tired of this delay. Especially when her agents had lost track of Ranma Saotome. Some girl calling herself Ran had, had her records fabricated to appear to be his twin sister. That was impossible as her private investigators had established that Ranma was an only child years ago.
Certainly there was a strong resemblance with his mother, but she was at a loss how to explain this girl that literally had appeared out of nowhere. Based on her agent’s reports there were a number of things that simply didn’t line up. This girl apparently had been freaking out about her period, despite being old enough it shouldn’t be such an issue. Her agent had noted it was like she had just started having them.
It was probably nothing, though. Just a girl who happened to be the chef’s girlfriend, and looked enough like Ranma’s mother. Something that Nabiki had decided to use to play a game with her investigators.
She rolled the thought through her mind again, and decided it still just didn’t feel right. There was something there, something she just couldn’t quite connect the dots with about this. She pinched her nose, and sighed.
Her agent had already verified that this “Ran Saotome” was actually a girl, and that there was no way this could be a disguise. They had already cross checked that Nodoka Saotome had given birth to only one child when she had given birth in 1971, after which her husband had disappeared with the child. That child being Ranma Saotome. So there was no way she could be Nodoka’s daughter, although certainly it could be a cousin or more distant relative.
All of that was a distraction though from the real problem, that Ranma Saotome seemed to have just dropped off the face of the planet.
[-]
Ranma reveled in the feeling of his real body as he lengthened his stride and starting jumping between buildings. The trick was to aim for the reinforced sections. The last thing you wanted to do was try to bounce off someone’s window. There was the screaming, glass spraying everywhere, and nine times out of ten you couldn’t just hop back out because things were just positioned wrong.
He flipped and landed in a handstand on the roof. Straightening his arms he tested his balance, lifting up his right arm, and using the fingers of his left hand to control his balance as he tried to see just how far he could push it. He was mostly balancing on his thumb and pointer finger when he picked up on something and bounced to the side as he felt something move past him.
Crouching on the roof he scanned the area. There was hardly anything up here. The usual A/C units weren’t present or anything of comparable size, which meant there really wasn’t anything someone could hide behind. That meant… Pulling out a bag of flour, he had lifted from Ukyo he primed the charge and threw it. The entire area was blanketed in fine white powder, revealing a small fast moving figure that started laughing.
Whatever the tiny creature was, it stopped in front of him looking him up and down. “You’re Genma’s boy aren’t you?”
“And who would you be?” He shot back. Anyone who knew him through his old man was bad news.
The little humanoid creature puffed up its chest. “Why his Master of course. Didn’t he ever tell you about Old Master Happi?”
“No.” He glanced around while keeping an eye on the creature trying to figure out the best path out of here. Anyone claiming to be his old man’s master was doubly bad news. He probably wanted money for late dojo fees or something.
“Come now, boy. Don’t be like that. From what I’ve heard old Cologne’s been giving you trouble.”
He paused, studying the creature while trying to figure out its angle. “Who?”
“The blue haired woman with the staff who has been giving you so much trouble. She’s a Chinese Amazon.” Happi pulled out a pipe and started non-chalantly puffing away as he took a seat. The creature was clearly confident that it had dangled bait he wouldn’t be able to resist. It was mistaken.
“What’s in it for you?”
“Can’t an old master, help his disciple’s son?” The forced attempt at feigned innocence was just painful to watch.
“Not a master of my old man. What’s your angle?” He asked bluntly, tiring of this bullshit attempt at false helpfulness.
It puffed away at its pipe, probably trying to spin a yarn. “I like Class S.”
Ranma blinked. What was he…
“You know, the Takarazuka Troupes and those poor girls who in admiring them are led astray in their youth to seek the embrace of another girl. Truly there is no purer love.”
Ranma tuned the alleged master out as it kept rambling on. There was really only one reason the creature would be making such a drawn out speech on how wonderful love between girls was. Something about the thing was off, slimy even. It was probably a pervert, and clearly knew about his curse and at least one of his girlfriends. All things considered there were worse things someone could be trying to “help” him for, but just being near it was making him feel unclean.
“How can you help me?” He might as well hear out the offer.
"Well..." It looked up at him while puffing contemplatively on its pipe. “I do know a thing or two about Cologne, and I could use a new disciple now that Genma and Soun have moved on.” He really, really wasn’t liking where this was going.
“You taught both of them?” Well that was new.
“Well of course boy, I’m the Master of Anything Goes Martial Arts.”
Sure you are, and I’m the Prime Minister. He pointed at a billboard for a competition involving Anything Goes Martial Arts Cooking with a guy juggling knives while slicing a variety of vegetables in mid air. “Explain.”
The creature looked at the large advertisement for a long moment. “Nevermind that. I taught your father everything he knows.”
Like he hadn’t heard that one a zillion times before. If had 50 yen for every time someone had claimed to have taught his old man everything he knew… “Then I guess you have nothing left to teach me.” Maybe that would get it to go away. As much as he relished the idea of punting this thing off the building, something warned him that wouldn’t be a good idea.
“You’re a stubborn one aren’t you?” Damn it!
“Hey is that a VF-1 Valkyrie!” He yelled excitedly while pointing behind the creature.
“What? What’s that?”
Ranma quickly made his exit.
[-]
“Hey Mom.” Ranma paused as he noticed a woman sitting next to his Mom with a haircut very similar to Nabiki’s. Given the comfortable way the two were sitting next to each other it was clear they were… close.
“Akiko, this is Ranma.”
Akiko bowed slightly. “It’s nice to meet you. Nodaka’s been a lot happier since you came back.”
“Aki.” His Mom’s tone had an edge of warning, but was warm and playful.
Akiko hugged his Mom and kissed her on the cheek. It felt odd watching his Mom and this strange woman being so close. A memory tugged at him. “Isn’t she the one who…”
“Yes, we’re each other’s first love.” Akiko said happily. “Nodaka thought that you might be able to help me with retrieving my son.”
He nodded and Akiko handed him a manilla folder with NK-1124 stamped on it. “The problem is this Combat Android my husband was designing. Makashima Heavy Industries has sunk _billions_ of yen into the development of this platform for combating foreign superhuman agents. My personal assistants are just no match for this thing.”
Ranma looked over the various sheets covered in numbers and diagrams, he couldn’t make heads or tails of them but it sounded like a good challenge. This thing was some kind of humanoid combat machine designed specifically to fight people like him. “I’m in.”
Akiko pulled out a map and started laying it out on the table.
[-]
It had taken him awhile to locate the school Akiko had indicated her son attended. The upside was still in Nerima-ku, but on the other side of the District from Furinkan-cho. Picking a row of trees on the school grounds he climbed in amongst their branches and started peering in classrooms as he stealthily made his way around the school. As he finished his circuit he noted that there had been no robots, let alone one which had resembled the documents.
This was going to be so cool. He’d never met a robot before. From what he had gathered from the occasional tv show and manga that had passed his way, they were supposed to be really strong, tough, and able to do all sorts of awesome things. Maybe this one would be like Cutey Honey? That would be so awesome. Ranma paused as a thought occurred to him. Was it be possible somehow that the robot didn’t actually look like a robot right now?
It did kind of look like those posters for The Terminator that he had scene a few years ago. He remembered that the posters had said something, about something being wrapped around the robot parts which made it look human. Maybe Akiko knew something about that. In his rush he’d not even thought to ask how he was going to recognize the thing. He resisted the urge to smack himself for running off before he had properly looked through the entire folder.
“What are you looking for?”
Ranma was proud of himself that he suppressed the urge to jump. Turning he noticed a girl with long flowing reddish purple hair sitting on a nearby branch. He felt a surge of envy as he realized she resembled a taller version of his girl form. “I’m just looking.”
“Are you one of those Peeping Toms, Papa-san talks about?” She asked enthusiastically.
What was up with her? He didn’t know that many girls, but he knew enough to know that wasn’t normal. Maybe she was just itching for a fight? He said all sorts of weird provocative stuff to get a rise out of people when he was looking to let off some steam. She looked like she would make for an interesting fight, but that wasn’t what he was here to do. He needed to find this super robot, and pick a fight with it.
“No, I’m looking for someone called NK-1124.” He really wouldn’t mind fighting with her, but priorities.
The girl turned her head slightly and smiled. “Why?” She asked innocently.
“Because its apparently some kind of super robot.” He explained. Surely she could appreciate how awesome it would be to fight a super robot. It probably had eye beams, and stuff.
The girl stood up, casually balancing on the tree branch in a way that spoke a lot to someone who had some skill, reinforcing his assessment she knew how to fight. “Want to play?” She asked with a slightly challenging but playful tone. She jumped a height no normal person could hope to achieve causing the entire tree to flex and sway in response.
Ranma stared at her retreating figure for a moment before giving in and rising to her challenge. He jumped after her and found his altitude fell short of hers. Grinning he put some extra effort in as she started bounding off, but it kept felt like she was starting to pull away.
[-]
Anticipating her path Ranma spotted a shortcut. So far it felt like anytime he started to get close she would pull away. He would need to gain altitude on the building she had just bypassed, but it should give him enough glide range to catch up and catch her by surprise.
It was wonderful to find another disciple of roof running. Ukyo and Shampoo just didn’t fully appreciate the charm of playing hide and seek while running through a city. It got your blood pumping when you were trying to hunt someone down, or evade someone else trying to hunt you down. Then there was the rush of constantly weaving through roof clutter and sprinting from hiding spot to hiding spot as you made your way across the city. The normal people below passing by unaware of you or this world above.
Quickly planning out his jumps he bounced up the building, only to see no sign of the girl. It looked like his gambit had failed and she had managed to give him the slip. Still it had been a good run, and he had finally managed to find another roof runner enthusiast.
"You made it."
He slowly turned to find the girl standing there smiling, while wearing some kind of weird headband antenna things on either side of her head he hadn’t noticed earlier.
“Of course.” He shot back confidently. She smiled slightly.
The girl yelped as her watch caught her eye. “Oh no, I’m late. Ryuunosuke is going to be mad at me.” She quickly bounded off.
Ranma watched her go, respecting that the fight was over. Clearly this girl had put time into mastering the honored tradition of roof racing. He was sure she had to have all sorts of training tricks and techniques he had never even heard about. This was going to be so awesome. Even if he hadn’t been able to find the super robot, finding another skilled disciple of roof running was awesome.
[-]
Ranma stood outside of Ukyo’s place looking at the bouquet of flowers he had picked up for her. He wasn’t sure if she would even appreciate the gesture. As weird as that Kodachi girl had been, she had given him the idea to go with red tulips. The flower girl has seemed oddly enthusiastic about his choice for some reason, asking about his girlfriend.
Well there was no time like the present. He pressed the buzzer, and watched Ukyo come down the stairs and rush over to the door. “Ranma?” Her eyes were red.
“Ukyo.” He smiled at her. After the past few days it felt a little weird, but oh so gratifying, to tower over her rather than the reverse. He held out the bouquet.
Ukyo blushed and accepted it, looking a lot cuter than he remembered her. Maybe it was because of the lights? “Thank you.” Ukyo’s voice broke and she wiped at her eyes. He wasn’t quite sure what to do, but decided hugging her was probably safe.
Ukyo held him close. He rubbed her back trying to sooth her. He didn’t know what to say in a situation like this.
She pulled away and started locating a vase for the flowers. She was wearing that Dirty Pair inspired costume Nabiki had come up with, which was doing a distractingly good job of hugging her butt. Ukyo caught him looking and smiled. She looked a little bit like her old self. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” As the words left his mouth it occurred to him that he had seen her this morning. It felt like so much longer.
Ranma was at a loss what to say to break the uncomfortable silence that descended. He wanted things to be like they were before. It felt so awkward now.
“Do you want to play Street Fighter?”
Ranma looked around, sure enough there was a Street Fighter arcade machine. Hadn’t that just come out? How had Nabiki managed to swing that? “Sure.”
Ukyo pulled out a bucket of yen pieces. At the game started up this blond guy punched through a wall. They both put their quarters in and he ended up with a guy named Ryu while Ukyo got the blond guy whose name was apparently Ken. He was still figuring out the controls when Ukyo’s character threw a fireball thing. The fraction of a second it took him to identify the jump button was too long, and it hit shortening the red bar next to Ryu’s name.
“How’d you do that?” Ukyo just grinned, and launched into the attack.
[-]
It took him awhile to figure out the special moves, but he eventually got to where he was able to keep Ukyo on the ropes. He finally took her out, and felt her bump him with her hips.
“What do you think?” She asked playfully.
He looked over at her. She was smiling and she seemed to have her old energy back. “I think you played it before I got here.”
“Of course.” She kissed him on the cheek, and pressed herself against him. He could see the desire in her eyes.
“You are such a perv.”
Ukyo smiled, and grabbing his hand placed it against her butt. “Are you going to punish me?” She asked suggestively.
[-]
Ranma bent Ukyo over his knee, her taut pants giving her butt clear definition. He gave it a squeeze and was rewarded with some squirming on Ukyo’s part. He still couldn’t believe she had talked him into this. He tried to remember what Ukyo had done when their positions had been reversed.
He gave Ukyo’s rump a light but firm smack with his right hand. She moaned slightly, and the look she gave him clearly demanded more. He played with her butt a little before smacking it again.
“Harder.”
Taking the invitation he hit her rear a little more firmly and was rewarded with more squirming. She was clearly enjoying the “punishment.”
“You’re such a pervert.”
He felt something being pressed into his unoccupied left hand, and looked down to see a square foil packet. He stared dumbly at it, the stuff written on it only slowly getting through. He felt Ukyo kiss his cheek and turned back to find she was no longer wearing any pants, and was wearing some rather adult underwear.
He swallowed as Ukyo shifted to sitting in his lap and leaned closer. He could see uncertainty and hesitation in her eyes. His own anatomy was already straining against his pants.
Ranma resisted the urge to take her up on the implied offer. “Will you stop with that?”
“You can’t blame a girl for trying.” She grumbled, uncertainty turning into shame.
He quickly hugged her. “You’re my friend, Ukyo. I…”
He felt her shiver. “Don’t you find me attractive?”
“Of course, you’re…”
“You want to be with that Chinese girl.” Her tone was full of accusation and he couldn’t deny it. He caught her arm, and realized she had tried to slap him as tears started dripping down her frustrated face.
“Ukyo, I…”
“Get out.” Ukyo’s voice was quiet but forceful.
Ranma paused unsure what to do. He had come here hoping he could somehow make things go back to the way they had been before. Now it seemed like he had only made it worse.
Sighing he pulled away and paused at the top of the stairs. Ukyo was hugging herself tightly and staring at one of the walls. He wanted to hold her, to comfort her. Seeing her like this hurt.
“Ukyo, take care of yourself.” He left knowing she would yell at him if he stayed.
[-]
Ukyo put her head down as she heard the door click shut. He didn’t care about her. If he had, he would have come back.
[-]
Ranma leaned against the wall of Ukyo’s place. He didn’t want to leave. He wanted nothing more than to rush back in there, and somehow make it work. If only she would let him.
[-]
“Ranma, what happened?”
He felt his throat constrict at his mother’s question. “Ukyo dumped me.”
[-]
Kaori put down the phone, and sighed. She had reports that Ranma Saotome had been spotted in Furinkan-cho with a bouquet of flowers, and subsequently appeared to be distraught and lost. It sounded like she had just won by default.
She found it unsatisfying. She didn’t appreciate her time and plans being wasted. She would need to move quickly if she was to ensure he did not disappear again.
[-]
Nodoka watched her son trudge into his room. After a moment’s consideration she pulled out her address book, and dialed Ukyo’s place. On the fourth ring Ukyo picked up, her voice was rough as she went through the normal pleasantries.
After a few minutes of pleasant conversation it was clear Ukyo was hurting. She had seen how much the girl liked her son, and while her parents were still alive she could sympathize a lot with her.
“Ukyo, I want to let you know that you can talk to me whenever you need to.”
The line went quiet.
“I know you’re hurting right now, and Ranma misses you terribly.” She paused to allow her words to sink in. “But I’m here for you.”
[-]
