Ranma's aura of casual and calm patience was easily discernible to Urd as a facade. All the woman's energies were primed to act even though her mind was forcing her to stay still and wait at least for the one child coming to her.
The woman was almost constantly on edge around the goddesses. Given her experiences with other dieties, Urd could hardly blame her.
Of course, given the brief fight against Morrigan, the fact that Miss Satomi was on edge had Urd on edge, even if the woman was human and unlikely to just suddenly come after her.
It was an uncomfortable silence as they waited. In fact, Ranma had stopped talking much as soon as she learned there was trouble going on with her kids.
Another train rolled in and Ranma stood up, her senses reacting to the familiar chi within.
The doors opened and out among the small crowd of people came two teenagers and another woman, this one wearing a maritime uniform and carrying some modest luggage with her.
"Okaasan!" Eija called out, waving as the crowd parted ahead of her.
Ranma breathed a sigh of relief and walked forward to meet her daughter, hugging her tightly and kissing Eija on the forehead despite the flush of embarassment on Eija's face.
For the two people watching that had some idea of what was happening, they could almost see Ranma checking one name off of her list and shifting worry towards the other two.
"There's going to be some discussion of what went wrong," Ranma whispered.
"Hai, Okaasan," Eija said.
"Thanks for bringing her back, Akane," Ranma said, muscles still tight under the skin and getting ready to spring.
"It's the least I could do," the maritime officer said, glancing toward the white-haired woman standing a little bit behind Ranma.
"And you and Sousuke too," Ranma said, turning to Kaname. "It seems you two are firmly determined to keep my little girl safe."
"Oh it's nothing Miss Satomi," Kaname said with a laugh.
Urd quietly looked over Eija and Kaname, picking out Eija by the conversation and descriptions as Ranma's daughter. As subtly as possible, she opened a many keyboard in her hands, similar to the cell phones and blackberries seen around nowadays.
She was already half-way through making the appropriate connections when the conversation turned toward her.
"Too bad you had to cut your...meeting short," Akane said, with a trace of mild disapproval.
"Oh, don't mind me," Urd said. "Miss Satomi is clearing up some past business with members of our organization and since I'm on sabbatical out this way, I'm being asked to help out with things."
Akane looked notably embarassed in response to Urd's explanation. Ranma smirked a little as he could see the gears turning and Akane silently lecturing herself for jumping to conclusions again.
"Oh, I see," Akane said, she stepped forward and whispered toward Ranma where Eija could here. "This one's guessed you've known us from a ways back, so I'm going to tell right up it was Kuno."
"Kuno?!" Ranma said in something like disbelief.
She turned a look on Eija that was half disappointment and half sudden worry.
"He was on the road injured and I went to see if he needed help," Eija said by way of explanation.
It wasn't an excuse, she should have been able to watch for a person playing possum, or even a hurt person reacting out of reflex.
"And the pervert jumped up and whacked her with a bokken before carrying her off," Kaname said angrily.
Ranma glanced back at Urd, to make sure she wasn't eavesdropping before turning back to the quiet conversation.
However, her coming words were interrupted by a...sensation she felt. A ripple in the chi of the world as the Behemoth's powerful lambda driver was activated.
"What is that?" Urd asked herself as she looked back towards the docks.
It felt like Human chi, just so much more focused and powerful than any single chi adept she'd ever met was capable of.
"So much chi..." Akane started as she looked over to where Ranma and the other woman were both looking.
Eija and Kaname, their own senses not quite as astute as that of of the adults around them were left with senses of foreboding.
Then came the echoing sounds of rending metal in the distance, perhaps two or three miles away into the docks.
Like so many other people at the train station, Ranma moved toward the edge of the platform and looked out toward the docks to see something that most people in area had thought was something that would only happen in a Godzilla movie.
A giant robot stood up and loomed over the dock area. Even this far away, Ranma and the others could make out its form raising over the low buildings near the water.
"What the hell is that?" Akane asked shocked. "An AS that large is physically impossible!"
Urd stared herself in that direction, especially as she felt a rise in demonic power from the same area moving to try and confront whatever that thing was.
"Mara," Urd whispered. "Why are you always biting off more than you can chew."
"So huge," Kaname whispered moving up to the railing.
"You don't think..." Eija asked.
"Sousuke," both whispered quietly.
"Naiki," Ranma said squeezing the bar under her hand and both.
"I've gotta get to base!" Akane declared, hefting her bag over her shoulder and leaping out toward the nearest roof and then continued onward.
"The hell?" Kaname said, "She's another one of you?"
"Stay here," Ranma snapped before sending a look at Urd and had a bit of surprise.
"I need to get a closer look at this," Urd yelled. "Eija's file is all taken care of."
With that, the woman walked to one of the TVs showing the news footage and leaped into it, vanishing in a blink.
Kaname felt a familiar flicker as the woman did that and shook her head clear of the sensation.
"Okay," Ranma said. "I'm heading over there, you two stay here!"
"Like hell!" Kaname snapped as Eija had started to nod in unhappy acceptance.
Ranma turned to face the girl.
"Listen girl, that's a monster on the level of the Orochi," Ranma said. "Maybe worse, so don't think you're going to convince me to let you come."
"Miss Satomi, I don't care what it is!" Kaname shouted. "That military nut is over there right now, I know it, and he's doing something crazy. And I heard say Naiki's name, and she's a...sort of friend. Well she's Eija's sister and that's enough."
Eija looked on at Kaname in surprise as the other girl dictated to her mother what was happening.
"And what are you going to do when we get over there?" Ranma asked, falsely casual.
"I don't know," Kaname said. "But you know that I've got the inside track on these sci-fi bizarros, because I know Eija told you everything."
"Umm, well," Eija tried to protest.
When it was up to her to decide to help someone, on her own or with her friends, she was one of the first to stand up and go with it. However, when mother said don't do anything, or stay here...
Eija hadn't ever thought to protest before.
"But I need to be close enough to get a feel for it and I need Eija," at this Kaname grabbed the smaller girl around the shoulder and pulled her close. "To keep whoever else is in that stuff off my back while I look for answers."
Ranma stared firmly into Kaname's determined eyes for a long second.
"We're going," Kaname added firmly.
Next to Kaname Eija looked nervous as Ranma's eyes turned toward her, but then nodded firmly.
"We have to help Naiki and Sousuke," Eija confirmed.
Ranma took a deep breath and sighed.
"If you keep insisting on stuff like this," Ranma said threateningly. "You'll be convincing me to insist on you getting some training."
"Alright! We're going," Kaname shouted.
"Stay away from it, and I mean as far away from it as you can be and still do your schtick," Ranma insisted as she held out a hand for Kaname to take it.
"That's fine, I think Eija-chan can carry me," Kaname said.