[Ranma/Xover][FanFic] Retake chapters 5-6

[Gregg Sharp]

Retake
Chapter 5:

Characters by others. Except for some who aren't.

----------

Soun had picked up the postcard and grew immediately excited and tearful.
"At last. At last Ranma is coming!"

"Kasumi!" Soun frowned a little at no Kasumi in the kitchen but found her
asleep in her bed a moment later. "Kasumi, wake up, family meeting!"

Kasumi stirred, then sat up in shock. "It... it was all a dream?!"

Soun was a little puzzled, but this was too important to get sidetracked.
"I'll need to see you downstairs quickly after I get the others."

"Nabiki?!" Soun was even more puzzled on finding Nabiki asleep in her room.
How odd. Well, less odd than Kasumi, at least.

"Whszzzp?" Nabiki blearily focussed on her father, then her eyes got wide.
"What?!"

This was really strange, decided Soun. Not Nabiki taking a nap, but Nabiki
coming instantly awake like that. Maybe there was a cold or something going
around. Yes, that must be it. That would explain Kasumi AND Nabiki both
taking naps. "Akane? Akane? AKANE?!!"

Nabiki and Kasumi came running at the note of dismay in their father's
voice, having changed from bedclothes to normal daywear in record time.
Though if they had any attention to spare, each would have noted the other
appearing rather mussed and tousled.

Akane stirred slightly and brushed some of the purple hair out of her face,
cuddling a little closer to the nice warm body next to her. ?!!?

Shampoo moaned. It was nice and warm and her headache was gone and...
someone was in bed with her?

Akane woke the rest of the way up and shrieked. Shampoo shrieked at the same
time. Both leapt from the bed simultaneously.

"What does crazy pervert girl do?" Shampoo asked in a panic, not even
noticing that she'd gotten Japanese 101 somewhere over the course of the
afternoon.

"That's MY Line!" Akane was wondering what was going on. And why was this
Chinese girl in HER pajamas.

Shampoo decided she needed to get away NOW. That man over there was crying
and that girl over there was covering her eyes and saying "oh my" a lot and
that other girl was just gaping. Nope, she needed this situation about as
much as she needed this problem about the redheaded girl Ranma.

----------

It wasn't generally known, but the current Emperor of Japan chaffed a bit at
the usual ingoings at Court. His was publically a figurehead position, but
behind the scenes he had a lot of power and influence still.

Right now, behind his polite mask of indifference, he was grinning at the
turmoil he'd just caused. A little bit of divinely inspired untruth, but
when one's honored and divine ancestor suggested it, who was he to resist
the chance to scandalize the sycophants and career politicians?

"...b-b-b-but a *gaijin*?!"

Naruhito nodded once. "Yes, I'm afraid it's confirmed. A distant relation to
be sure, but this Greylle Shard is directly related to the Imperial Line and
another foreign royalty as well. I would ask that you be discrete and not
disturb his education."

One could safely say that if marauding Oni had landed on the lawn right now
to challenge them to a tag race, most of those present would actually be
relieved.

"Why is he here in Japan? Is he seeking to 'get in touch with his roots'?"
One woman asked, only a slight tremor in her voice.

"No, actually he's here to learn Japanese and then play baseball. Here are
his stats." Naruhito gestured and a handout was passed out by a darksuited
individual.

"Are these accurate?!" Eyes got large as various people realized what the
figures represented.

"Yes, even though he's a High School sophomore, his fastball exceeds 850kph.
He practices the martial arts, and I've heard he's interested in learning
more of the code of Bushido." Naruhito's right eye twitched as he imagined
the group of reporters as a pack of wild carnivores who had just found
something they weren't sure about.

"but a *gaijin*," repeated a woman for what seemed like the twentieth time.

"Foreign royalty, and the boy has been kept ignorant of his heritage so that
he could develop a more practical education free of the prejudices and court
politics that might otherwise have occurred."

-----------

"FIANCEE?!" This coming simultaneously from three different daughters and
yet had a certain degree of dismay within their tone.

"I hope he's not a gaijin, they're so... foreign," said Kasumi trying to
find a way of stating politely that she thought this was a bonehead idea.

"Is he cute?" Nabiki waggled her eyebrows expressively. "Rich? Tall? A
foreign made all road vehicle with light mileage and rugged good looks?"

"HE IS *NOT* MY BOYFRIEND!" Akane shouted, then turned her head. She had her
heart set on Doctor Tofu, and anyway - didn't they have to figure out why
that girl Shampoo had been in bed with her?!

"He's the son of a good friend of mine: Genma Saotome. We made this deal
years ago."

"Waitaminute, hold the phone." Nabiki held her hands out in a t-shape. "You
don't mean Shard-san then, do you?" Then Nabiki noticed something that she'd
been in too much of a hurry to notice before. When had she gotten a
manicure?

"Oh," said Kasumi, a little disappointed and relieved all at once. Akane
would be a better match for Shard-san anyway. Americans were a little weird
and their women were always beating on their men, so Akane ought to fit in
just fine.

"Huh? Oh good," sighed Akane.

"They've been on a training trip and recently went to China. They'll be here
anytime soon."

*CRASH!*

"That must be them!" Soun began running towards the door, Nabiki just barely
ahead of him.

"Run! Run for your lives!"

"BRreeeeauuugghhhhH! SNORlax!"

------------

Artemis let himself in. "Mamoru-san, Luna's found something!"

Mamoru Chiba visibly restrained himself. "Another false lead on Usako? Or on
Dark Generals that we don't have the manpower to go after anyway?"

"An ally in an alley," began Artemis, going on to a brief description of the
mysterious encounter. "The problem being that Luna suspects a trap."

"Luna's paranoid," said Mamoru. He didn't have much patience left with Luna
since the Senshi had vanished.

"She also isn't sure about the name of the high school, she was so busy
trying to remember the details of that bastard line from Queen Serenity I's
half-brother, that she forgot it."

"Why could I tell that was coming?" Mamoru sighed. "Whenever it's important
she's either getting the details wrong or forgetting them entirely. Such as
coming up with the 'Sailor Moon' identity when she should have remembered
Usagi was 'Princess Serenity' and that there was *no* Senshi of the Moon."

"Yes, well..." Artemis really didn't want to get into this argument.

"Well, we have only one thing we can do. Ignore her."

"Uhm..."

Mamoru shook his head. "Okay fine. We stake out high schools for someone we
have only a vague description of."

"A tall blonde gaijin gymnast? How many of those do you think are in Tokyo?"

---------

"I need a bath," said the redhaired girl with a tone of absolute disgust in
her voice.

Of course, at one point she'd been completely swallowed by the Bear-Thing,
and was currently wearing a slimy coating of drool. So having a nearly
overwhelming desire to bathe was not too hard to believe.

Fortunately the beast had gotten itself under control after a few minutes,
though Nabiki (having spent some time sticking out of the corner of its
mouth like some struggling cigar) was watching it with a manner of both
digust and alarm.

The 1500 pound creature was clumsily writing with a pen and paper, and Soun
was reading it and occasionally nodding and making some sort of comment, but
Nabiki was NOT going near the creature if she could help it.

In fact she was giving serious thought that if the big beast was allowed to
stay overnight, that she should go see Shard-san about spending the night
there. She could help him with kanji or use some similar excuse if nothing
else. Or maybe one of her factors could put her up.

That she'd heard someone (a boy named Konjo) make a remark to a group of
mixed friends that Nabiki couldn't possibly have a relationship with the
foreign boy. Because if he did then he would freeze parts of his anatomy off
required to make a marriage work. Which reminded Nabiki that she needed to
come up with some PR. She'd have just avenged herself if the large crowd
hadn't come up with a number of suggestions and additions to that statement,
indicating that it had become widely accepted as fact.

Akane had gotten very hot and sweaty and announced she was going to go bring
the girl a spare gi and take a bath herself.

Nabiki frowned. SHE wanted a bath too, but you couldn't comfortably fit that
many people in the bathroom. "I'm going to change clothes. Watch yourself
Kasumi."

"aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Akane came running past to grab the table and
turn around to go back towards the bathroom.

"What's wrong THIS TIME, Akane?" Nabiki was getting heartily sick and tired
of Akane always making a scene about every little thing.

"There's a pervert in the bathtub," Akane exclaimed.

-------

"So what do we do?" One reporter asked another.

The press in Japan was decidedly different from the press in the United
States and certain other locales.

The American press, for example, exulted in "digging up the dirt" and "damn
the consequences". Anything done by a public figure of any notoriety that
was even slightly scandalous was to be dragged out in large bold face and
poured over for the maximum effect. There was a common predominant agenda,
though this was less a conspiracy as it was the same sort of "pull together"
mentality that saw police officers covering up each other's gaffes blunders
and outright impropriety. With the addition that those commonly able to work
their way up through this particular rank and file had a certain mindset and
talent that was more treacherous and backstabbing than the majority of
politicos they followed.

The Japanese press was a whole different breed of fish. While they might
"dig up dirt" - they had an overwhelming desire to present their own country
in the best possible light at all times. There was also the desire to not
make waves and not dwell on "petty issues". They were Japanese, after all.

So a core group of reporters were meeting together with editors and working
out a game plan.

An *American* directly linked to the Imperial Line. Scandalous. And not
likely to sit well with the Japanese public.

How to keep it quiet, then gauge the correct time for the news to be slowly
released to the public, that was the problem here.

In an American news conference, the idea that the current president had a
relation who was a foreign national would have been screamed in banners,
there would have been daily updates with computer animation cutscenes and a
fancy name like "Heritage Crisis" to keep the public's interest focussed on
the problem, even if the average member of the public likely wouldn't care
much at all.

These were Japanese, however. Those assigned to work with the Emperor and
the upper strata of the society were not inclined towards rashness or
spectacle.

So in a group of reporters teleconferencing with their editors, a decision
was reached in quick order.

Ignore for now and dignity would be maintained.

--------

Akane was redefining glare as she stared at Ranma. Relax her attitude about
boys just a little and *wham* here came a pervert trying to take advantage
of it.

"'Spring of Drowned Bear-Demon' seems to be more accurate, actually,"
suggested Nabiki. Maybe she should invest in some spirit wards around her
room.

"Yes, well, I usually have better control," suggested Genma.

"He's either eating or sleeping usually, in either form," grumbled Ranma.

"So cold water turns him into a hungry monster, and you into a girl with
weird ears," noted Nabiki aloud.

Soun laughed. "Well, son, your problem isn't so bad after all."

"Huh?" Ranma wondered what planet Soun was from that turning into a girl
with weird ears and a tail while having a father that was 1500 pounds of
appetite was not considered "so bad."

"These are my three daughters. Kasumi is 19. Nabiki, she's 17. And then
there's Akane. She's 16. Pick any one you like, and she'll be your fiancee."

Three blinks as it penetrated that this not only meant that their father
still was going with this engagement idea, that accepting it meant that the
Bear-Demon would be showing up on a regular basis in their lives.

"Oh, he wants Akane," said Kasumi, trying to push Akane forward.

"Nabiki, he definitely wants Nabiki," suggested Akane, trying to get behind
Nabiki.

"Kasumi would seem the wisest choice," indicated Nabiki as she tried to duck
behind Kasumi.

"No, Akane's the martial artist."

"Nabiki would certainly be the best candidate."

"Kasumi should do it, the duty falls on the eldest, right?"

"Akane!" "Nabiki!" "Kasumi!"

The three girls had not fought since they were all very young children. A
shoving match suddenly erupting between the three was completely unexpected
but somehow inevitable as each sought to have one of the others pushed
forward on this great occasion.

"But Father already engaged me to Shard-sama," said Kasumi realizing that a
small apartment didn't take that long to clean and she might be able to go
on and take some college at last. "And Akane doesn't like boys."

"Uhmmmf," said Nabiki, wondering where Kasumi had developed that kind of
strength. "No, no, I'm going after Shard-san."

"Hey, Greylle-chan is MY boyfriend! ERK!" Akane turned red and flushed as
she realized what she had just said. During her moment of shock she found
herself pushed forward.

"Akane it is!" Nabiki and Kasumi chorused.

Akane hesitated for a brief moment with a "deer in the headlights"
expression before she proved that she was indeed the Heir of the Tendo
School, slipping around her sisters' hands and coming up behind them to push
them both forward. "No, no. I insist. BOTH of you can marry Ranma."

Ranma was of two minds about this whole scene. He wasn't anxious to get
married - hell no! He thought the idea of an arranged marriage was NOT
something he wanted to experience personally. Especially when he had just
turned sixteen and hadn't experienced anything of life other than martial
arts.

On the other hand, Ranma wasn't at all thrilled with the idea of being
passed over like stale bread. What was this, Marked Down from being a Blue
Light Special?

Kasumi revealed that she had remembered some of her martial arts training
and suddenly Nabiki was practically stumbling over the table into Ranma's
lap. "Well, Nabiki, didn't you say you needed a new hobby?"

Nabiki didn't like this. She preferred being in control of the situation.
Holding up one finger, she said in a low voice to Ranma: "You don't want to
be my iinazuke. Trust me on this. Akane's a martial artist and Kasumi's a
great cook. Now excuse me for a moment."

Nabiki turned back to try and send either Kasumi or Akane back. She wasn't a
warrior, but she wasn't a quitter either.

-------

Greylle walked home, a long day but he'd definitely made a potentially
useful contact. He could get more details out of Luna, possibly connect with
Mamoru Chiba and Artemis. Some of those Silver Millenium gadgets could come
in *quite* handy. Just a spare Mercury Computer could increase his
capabilities enormously. A disguise pen or compact could be hooked into a
marionette's circuitry, and possibly result in something like Cutey Honey's
transformations.

"Excuse me, sir."

The transformed dragon blinked as he saw three men approach. Black suits,
black glasses, fairly massive weightlifter builds. They moved like
professionals - military or combat forces, not quite the gliding walk that
ninjas or martial artists often manifested. "Yes?"

The lead suit bowed while the other two looked off to the sides. "Mister
Shard, my employer wants to make you an offer."

"Uh *huh*," Greylle wasn't sure about this. Sure he was fairly strong, and
could always shift to dragon if he was led into a trap, but if this was
Yakuza they'd have access to stuff that could really hurt him. Not to
mention the marionette he was putting together.

"He wants to meet with you tomorrow at 9am, if you're amenable to it."

"i'm in school then."

"Not a problem. It will be arranged."

"Fine then," said Greylle. Didn't sound like Yakuza. Some major corporation
perhaps? But how would they have found out he had gadgets that... Nabiki.
Somehow Nabiki had found out about some of his gadgetry, perhaps she'd seen
his watch, and sold him out. Or at least the info. Clearly he hadn't been
careful enough.

"Tomorrow, then." The three suits backed off and left.

Greylle pondered for another moment, deciding some sort of payback was
mandated against Nabiki, but he'd have to see what developed before he
settled on something. Maybe he could contact the office and have one of the
Curses Of Embarassment hurled on her. Nothing too debilitating, but
something that would annoy her on a regular basis. Hmmmm.

---------

Soun Tendo stared.

There had been long a degree of rivalry between Nabiki and Akane. One of the
reasons Nabiki had abandoned the martial arts, perhaps THE reason, was that
Akane had a greater natural talent for physical violence. Enjoyed it more
too.

Soun had expected that the daughters would grow out of it.

Of course, he was still waiting for Akane to grow out of the "smashing
bricks as therapy" stage and for Nabiki to stop declaring everything she
could to be hers.

Watching all three of his daughters arguing about who would make the best
match for the gaijin as opposed to Genma's son, well, it brought back
memories. In some ways it seemed as if ten years had been stripped from his
daughters and at any moment Kimiko would come in and have to break up the
fight.

Kasumi tried logic. Well, sort of. "Ranma's a martial artist, and since you
hate boys Akane, you're in luck. Ranma's half girl!"

"Gee, thanks a lot," grumbled Ranma.

Akane responded in kind. "Oh no you don't. He's a pervert. I've had more
than enough of perverts. You need someone to take care of, and he certainly
strikes me as needing all the help he can get."

Ranma twitched, just a little. "You know, I didn't ask to be engaged to
nobody."

"On the other hand, Nabiki could really use someone in her life."

"Excuse me? Does little Miss Bouncy here strike you as having two yen to
scrape together? I'm the 'heartless mercenary ice bitch' remember?"

"Uhm," began Ranma.

"Did I say that?" Akane tried to remember. "Was that after you put the frog
in my bed when I was twelve?"

Ranma smiled as an idea occurred. Then he quietly got up and left.

"No it was last week!" Nabiki glared at Akane. "Besides, shouldn't KASUMI be
the first choice?"

"I'll go for that," agreed Akane.

"Excuse me!"

---------

Greylle walked up the stairs, wishing as he had every time he'd done them
over the past three weeks, that he could simply fly up to the landing at the
end of the hallway. The steps were narrow, not meant for the over-tall (he
kept finding that water pipe that hung down over the third floor landing),
and oddly steep.

Unfortunately, even if he "went dragon" it was entirely too narrow for his
bulk.

He opened the door to his apartment and immediately *knew* that something
was decidedly different.

Maybe it was the two sky blue eyes blinking at him.

The familiar-looking girl pointed at him and turned to the Mercury
marionette. "This him?"

"Yes."

Greylle could *see* the grid and crosshairs appear in those otherwise
guileless blue eyes.

"Recording data. Master set. Name: Greylle Shard. Species: Dragon, silver,
transformed to human, nordic. Done." The marionette shook her head.

"Ami? What did you do?" Greylle asked in a very reasonable tone.

"Waiiii!" The marionette who had an extremely close resemblence to Usagi
Tsukino launched herself. "Yes! Greylle-chan sukii desu!"

*WHAM!*

"In English, Usagi." Ami blinked repeatedly and cocked her head. "I can't
understand it, everything seems to work fine except for her balance
adjustors."

Usagi picked herself up again and succeeded this time in latching onto her
target.

"Ami, what DID you do?"

Ami quickly explained that she'd found some notes about using a pokeball's
matter/energy transformation to finish manufacturing processes.

"That hasn't been experimented on because there's some serious dangers
involved. Such as producing defective units." Greylle let out a deep breath
and tried to extricate himself. He was finding it unusually difficult.
"Uprated strength?"

"Unit Usagi has 1,200 horsepower," bragged Usagi. "Tritanium frame.
According to my specs, I can run at a top speed of 140kph with a cruising
safe speed of 75kph."

"I noticed that your design replaced her odango with twin ponytails. Why?"
Ami asked.

"More practical." Greylle rubbed his forehead and wished that Excedrin had
been on the budget. "Okay, Usagi, i'm going to need to do an exam and see
what isn't working."

--------

"Well, I guess the only solution is to have Ranma engaged to all three of my
daughters. If a primary one must be selected - it should be Akane since she
*is* the Heir to the Tendo style." Soun proclaimed in his infinite wisdom.

The three daughters let out a simultaneous sigh. Being engaged to a gaijin
hadn't sounded nearly so bad after they'd seen a sullen girl turn into a
surly boy.

"Just wonderful. I... Say, where's Ranma anyway?" Nabiki being the first to
note that the "prize" had escaped sometime during the argument.

Genma blinked as he realized he'd fallen asleep during the scene and hadn't
realized what was going on. "That ungrateful boy!"

"So, Ranma's a catgirl, huh?"

Kasumi blinked "Catgirl, Nabiki? Like in 'Hyper Police'?"

"Yup, redheaded catgirl." Nabiki paused to consider possibilities.

"Just don't say that in front of Ranma," suggested Genma. "He... has a
problem with cats. He has just been assuming he's some sort of magical girl,
if he knew he turned into a *cat*girl, he'd be impossible to be around."

"I sense a story here," said Nabiki. "Unfortunately Ranma seems to have
fled."

"Ungrateful boy," repeated Genma. "Still, he'll be back."

-----------

Ranma grumbled as he walked along. This was not a good day. Bad enough to be
engaged to someone he'd never met, but to be passed around like a hot
potato. Not that he could blame them, this kind of curse would major weird
out anybody.

At least he'd lost Shampoo.

"Excuse please?"

Ranma made a note to never ever think something like that again.

Sure enough, the purple haired girl was wearing a Chinese jumpsuit and
looking nervous about something. "Excuse please, have you seen tall blonde
boy about this tall, fairly strong look? Or redhaired girl with pointed
ears, she about this tall?"

"Uhm, no." Ranma said, grinning and shaking his head rapidly.

Shampoo deflated a little further. "Shampoo having very bad, very weird,
day."

"Me too," quietly grumbled Ranma, then froze as he felt the rain coming
down.

"Shampoo think this day suck wind very very much. Sham... HUH?!" Shampoo's
mouth hung open and her eyes were wide.

"Heh heh," said Ranma, back up a few steps.

"You... is Ranma?" Shampoo's mind went into a whirl. "Ranma is boy or girl?"

"Heh, well..."

"You is girl?!"

"Hey! I'm a guy!"

Shampoo looked thoughtful for a moment. "This day really suck wind something
awful. NOW what is Shampoo to do?"

"Well, I gotta be going, places to do, things to see, you know how it is.
Ri-mfffff?!"

Shampoo leaned back from her kiss, making a brief face. "Would much prefer
do this when you is guy again, but Shampoo screw up too often lately and not
think Great Grandmama understand."

"Hah?"

Shampoo explained patiently. "Shampoo is girl. Prefer guy to do kiss with.
Except boys back in village either wimp like Floss or scruffy looking
nerfherder like Guan Yu, or just plain annoying like Mousse."

"Huh?"

"Now Shampoo marry Ranma and everybody be happy!"

"AAaaaaaaaaaa!"

Shampoo frowned at the dustcloud retreating into the distance. "Shampoo
reitata- reitara- repeat. Today suck wind." Shampoo thought a few moments.
Maybe if her dream had been accurate, she could find *other* airen!

---------

"Okay, Usagi, close your chest panel."

The twin ponytailed blonde android complied. "Well, Master?"

Greylle winced. "Could you use some other term? As to your status. Do either
of you know the theories behind the architecture of the Ishii Kairo?"

Unsurprisingly, it was the Ami unit who responded. "The Ishii Kairo was
developed by you in your lifetime as Mamoru Tengoku, a marionette repairman
who had several theories of alternate developments for the marionettes of
Terratoo. The Ishii Kairo or 'Will Circuit' was developed as an alternate to
the less easily produced Otome Kairo or 'Maiden Circuit'. In addition to the
main neuralnet brain located in the head, the area corresponding to a human
heart is equipped with a set of three linked storage/processing units.
Instead of the Otome Kairo's ability to instantly grant emotion and a
childlike mentality, the Ishii Kairo instead learns patterns of emotive
response and behavioral guidelines."

"There's more to it than that." Greylle sat down and looked around. "Man,
it's gonna be crowded tonight. Don't suppose someone made tea? No, huh? Just
as well, i suppose. Remember that you're not hooked up yet for eating or
drinking. More upgrades to make, oh dear."

"Emot-o whatsist?" Usagi was lost. Available database insufficient. She made
a note to download specifics on her own design. It could come in handy.

"The Ishii Kairo was originally designed to act in a similar manner to human
brains. AnEmotive/Creative part, a Rational/Mechanical part, and an Animal
part. Each relates to the android brain in a different manner, adding its
input and processing regarding a specific aspect of the world around it.
Like the Otome Kairo, it's based on engram technology."

Mercury nodded. "In Usagi's case, I was able to find and download a scan
done of the original."

"Don't do that without checking with me first." Greylle shook his head
again. "In any case, what you did was jumpstart the Emotive, the equivelant
of the human brain's Left Lobe. However in the construction process, a
defect formed in the balance and control sections. Usagi will always be a
bit clumsy and overly prone to extremes of emotion. Not that this isn't
perfectly in keeping with the original."

Usagi scratched her head. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"THAT we'll have to see about. Now i'm going to get a shower and get ready
for bed. You two... try to clean this place up and find a corner to sleep
in."

--------

"RANMA! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" This was followed by the sound of something
breakable getting reduced to smaller pieces.

Ranma stopped. Did she *really* want to continue in this direction? No, not
really. Though a fight *might* actually allow her to unleash some stress,
the way this day had been going would seem to indicate that something *bad*
would result.

Next thing you knew, Pops would be engaging him to boys! Nope, didn't want
to go there. Didn't even want to come close to the neighborhood.

Which meant...

*BONK!*

Genma lowered the streetsign, grabbed Ranma by the collar, and dragged his
troublesome child back to the dojo. The boy wasn't going to upset all his
plans THAT easily.

-------

Ami watched, monitoring the apartment around her.

Greylle slept, after disentangling himself from Usagi's attempts to treat
him as a plush toy.

Usagi's Ishii Kairo was advanced enough to emulate sleep while in a minimal
power mode. Her dreams were attempting to process some of the data she'd
downloaded earlier.

Ami tugged lightly at the cord leading from her "belly button" to the Mister
Fusion (a portable fusion device that ran off water) and which was running
her systems directly while her batteries would continue to keep their
charge.

She wasn't sufficiently developed to emulate sleep patterns, though she was
observing both her Master's and Usagi's sleep in order to further things.

Not knowing what else to do, she hadn't altered the four thieves very much.
She'd scanned files, and had returned them to the home noted in three of
those files. Placing them in their beds, with a suggestion that they treat
their visit as a dream, was a method of putting off what to do with them
until later.

Listening to the radio talk show, Ami had discovered that thieves were
punished. Usually by incarceration, something called "community service",
and/or primitive attempts at behavior modification. Another show had
revealed something called "hypnosis" which could modify behavior to stop bad
habits like snoring, cigarette smoking, or overeating.

There hadn't been time to make many modifications. So Ami had treated it
like a computer problem, which she *did* understand thanks to the files
she'd downloaded on the subject. If you couldn't fix it now, you left a back
door so that you could get in later and fix it.

Hopefully that wouldn't take long.

-------

Kasumi prepared for bed in her usual manner, as if it had been an ordinary
day.

Excluding waking up in her bed in late afternoon with vague memories of a
dream in which she'd snuck into Shard-san's room only to be sucked inside
some kind of softball. (What THAT dream meant was obviously going to take a
lot of figuring out.) Also excluding that she still wasn't off the hook as
far as being engaged to a brash and impolite young man who turned into a
girl at odd times. Also excluding the fact that the young man was currently
chained up in one of the spare rooms, or that Akane was apparently sleeping
around with foreign girls (though she should have seen it coming with all
her talk about hating boys), or that she seemed to have a gap of five hours
of her day.

Her father's explanation seemed the most logical: some virus going around
and she and Nabiki had just taken a quick lie down. She still didn't feel
quite right.

So she had a quick lie down with her current romance novel, sipping on a
chamomile blend tea as she had one of the few moments not involved in
meeting the needs of her family in her day. Her baths, reading in the
evening after her last chores, and...

Kasumi stopped. What else did she do? She was drawing a blank. There was
something though. Oh yes, when she got out her henshin pen and transformed
to Sailor Triton (sailorsuited warrior of love and housework) and fought
evil...

Kasumi set down the romance novel. She was obviously running a fever. HER?!
Wearing a skirt that short and fighting demonic beings? She HAD to stop
reading Nabiki's manga.

------

Akane sulked. Here she was engaged to a baka hentai. Her heart belonged to
Doctor Tofu! Even if Doctor Tofu only had eyes for Kasumi. And Kasumi
couldn't see anything beyond a silly-acting clown since that was how Doctor
Tofu acted around her.

SHE had to be engaged to someone who turned into a girl. Someone who decided
not to bother telling anyone about this, no doubt like those perverts at
school who continually tried to peep. Well, fine. She'd find a way out of
this. Get Nabiki or Kasumi to marry the freak.

If she had to be engaged to someone why couldn't they have been like Doctor
Tofu? With his shaggy blonde hair, and filling out his baseball uniform so
well, and those crystalline blue eyes looking at her in that special way?

Why couldn't...?!

Akane beat her head against the desk. Bad thoughts, bad thoughts!

Taking a deep breath, Akane focussed again on Doctor Tofu. That cute smile
and those red eyes, Chinese dress stretched out over tight curves, purple...
hair?!?!

*WHAM!WHAM!WHAM!WHAM!* Bad thoughts, VERY bad thoughts!

-------

Nabiki stared out at the night. She didn't like this situation much at all.

Most people thought that money was the "be all" of Nabiki's existence. This
wasn't quite true. Money was simply the easiest way to keep score. Her
mischief, the money, it was all about what you could do with it - control.
Control of herself and control of her environment. And if that meant a
reputation as the Ice Queen/Iron Bitch then that was a job requirement she
would have to fulfill. Power as measured in fear, money, and control.

In a perfectly rational world, everything fit within the paradigm taught in
school. And within that paradigm, money and control were the primary things
that translated as Power.

Nabiki had recently gotten a glimpse at a whole different order of power.
Not the martial arts that her sister practiced and excelled at. That had
been demonstrated quite amply to be ineffective in certain circumstances.

Magic was real.

Dragons. Alien time travelling princes. Healing spells. Magic curses.

Not one damn hint of any of these in the courses she'd taken. Yet she'd had
all practically rubbed in her face of late.

Nabiki listened to the rhythmic banging from Akane's room and looked out
into the night. Nabiki also said something to the effect of what the
paradigm taught in the schools could do to itself.

A glance down at her hands, with what appeared to be a fairly expensive
manicure that she *knew* she hadn't paid for. Once she'd had a chance she'd
checked herself over quite extensively, and had gone to have a brief
conversation with Kasumi about doing dishes. She'd examined Kasumi as best
she could without being obvious. Then looked over Akane similarly before
returning to the haven of her room.

Nabiki knew from her self-examination that *something* had happened in the
missing two hours of her day. An old scar from the day she'd given up
martial arts (Akane had "accidently" thrown her through a dojo wall and into
a rock on the other side) was missing. So was a little scar on one finger,
an old burn from where she'd briefly tried to become a scientific genius
(the less of that said, the better as far as she was concerned), and the
callouses on the bottom of her feet were missing.

In short, her skin was softer and smoother than she could remember it. The
tiny fine hairs she'd had along her arms and legs were likewise missing. She
could find no blemishes or marks on her skin. For this to have happened, she
would have had to spend at least a week at a very expensive spa. Just the
repairs on the split ends in her bangs would have taken longer than two
hours.

Which led to the obvious conclusion: Magic.

Could this be something the dragon had done? Some kind of payback for having
put her through the ordeal in the stream? Possibly.

Was she about to let it go? Possibly.

She'd considered getting even with the dragon. The problem was how. She
could reveal the dragon's location, selling it to a news channel. IF the
dragon was still there, and IF it remained where it could be caught, and IF
it wasn't like the dragons of legends and able to change shape, and IF they
remembered to pay her, and IF it didn't get away, then she could turn a
profit on the deal.

However, if any of those IFs went wrong, she'd be destroying her credibility
at the least. At the worst, she'd quietly vanish at some point because the
dragon would track her down and EAT her.

Nabiki didn't like that idea. Not one little bit. She was allergic to being
eaten. Heck, she'd have trouble just with the amount of pain those jaws
could inflict on her admittedly tender little body.

A shadow passed across the moon.

*ZOOM!*

Slowly, the large bump under the bedsheets poked her head out again. Just a
cloud. Silly.

Nabiki got up, turned off her light, and chuckled at the silliness of it
all. There wasn't any reason for her to concern herself with this. No reason
to change her behavior. None at... all.

Nabiki stared at her ceiling.

During her "gonna be the greatest mad scientist in the world" phase
(outgrown when she was twelve), Nabiki had put a few of those nite-glo stars
up on her ceiling. She'd dreamed at that point of becoming an intrepid
explorer of outer space, and Akane could wear a red shirt and be beamed down
onto strange planets while Nabiki wore blue, smirked and said how
fascinating it all was. There hadn't been any particular pattern to what
she'd done with the stars, and her father had discouraged the watching of
gaijin sci-fi programs shortly thereafter.

Except that those stars were now arranged in a pattern. A very recognizable
pattern.

"After school, go to the roof."

Nabiki stared at the message for long sleepless hours.

Retake chapter 6

by Metroanime, who really didn't intend more than 2-6k on this idea.Really.
This was just gonna be an alternate ending to the real ending. As far as
continuity goes this is still a speculative ending: the real ending has
Greylle go off into a relationship where he literally can't return those
feelings and goes on to eventually die in a blaze of glory rather than be a
fifth wheel with no useful skills or purpose. His soul reincarnated
eventually as an Espeon (psychic evolution of Eevee) on a regular pokemon
world.

Disclaimer: aw, c'mon, you know that the vast majority of these characters
are owned by other people. For example the whole 'marionette' concept was
first broached in the old B&W film "Metropolis", though the 'Otome Kairo'
and actual use of the term 'marionette' for a female shaped android came via
a fellow the name of Satoru Akahori in his series "Sabre Marionette J"
though i kinda wonder if he'd recognize it by the time i get done with it...

--------

Though Nerima in Japan in a RM universe was strange, certain things followed
a pattern. Which indicated that while there was a lot of Chaos, it didn't
have complete domain.

And so, even with Ranma in Nerima, day followed night.

Greylle woke up to discover that sometime during the night, Mercury had
somehow figured out what a Furinkan High School girl's uniform looked like
and had made two sets. She and Usagi were discussing the odd raiment, and
wondered at how anyone could indicate they thought the Senshi costumes were
silly if this was the alternative.

Getting ready for class (he still didn't have a Furinkan boy's uniform that
fit) was quick and simple. Mainly because he didn't have a lot of things he
could do in that half hour. Other than try to convince the two to stay in
the apartment and not make any noise. Ami suggested building a television,
and though he'd had this feeling of doom, Greylle had OK'd it.

After reaching school and settling into his cramped little desk, Greylle
began to wonder if maybe he shouldn't have.

"LOOK AT THAT! Akane must have dumped Greylle-san!"

"Wow, he's a hunk."

Greylle blinked and ambled to the window, curious. When he saw the pair
arguing near the gates he tried to keep from visibly reacting. He was so
HAPPY! Ranma had finally gotten his lazy butt here and now Greylle could the
blazes out of Nerima! Yayyyy!

The other students saw the lone tear tracking Greylle's face, saw the gaijin
trying to control himself (not realizing he was trying to keep from laughing
in relief and the tear was actually from biting his tongue). The conclusions
they came to were obvious if completely ludicrous to anyone who knew better.

---------

Akane looked up from her argument with Ranma and saw Greylle at the window.
"Oh great. How am I gonna explain this?"

Ranma glanced up, saw a glimpse of the fellow at the window and frowned. "He
don't look so tough."

"Why are you still talking to me? Didn't I say that 'when we get to school,
I don't know you'? Baka hentai hermaphrodite."

"Hey! You're the one who started it!"

Nabiki walked past the two, uncharacteristically late but then she'd gotten
uncharacteristically little sleep. Even with a largely sleepless night, she
noted the argument in front of the school gates and decided how much she'd
charge to tell people about the "newest couple" and how her sister had
"dumped the baseball star like so much bad rice."

"I did not," responded Akane to Ranma. "You're the one who got splashed,
you're the one who required us to go see Doctor Tofu, you're the one who
argued about baseball not being a valid martial arts style. How can anything
as Japanese as baseball NOT be martial arts?"

"Stupid tomboy." Ranma was REALLY beginning to resent this American fellow,
and he hadn't even met him. "The *Americans* invented baseball. It's just
they didn't know what to do with it afterwards."

"I wasn't referring to it as being a Japanese invention, just that NOW it's
Japanese," Akane sniffed.

*Brrring*

"And NOW you've made me late for class!" Akane was getting really upset now.

"WHO made WHO late?" Ranma growled. He didn't want this engagement, he
didn't want to attend school, he didn't want to deal with his curse. This
was all getting quite frustrating.

Though what he was really tired of the feeling he was getting from three
girls, that he was being measured, and coming up short.

He'd show these girls not to dismiss him so easily before he left. Yeah,
that'd work.

------

The first class had gone about what one would expect.

Greylle had been able to focus on trying to decipher the "bug splats" that
were kanji. During the first half, this had been even easier because both
Ranma and Akane were on bucket duty.

The voices of the two tardy began raising in an argument when Akane made one
of those "engage mouth while brain is out of gear" manuevers that seemed to
occur regularly.

"We are NOT getting married. Just because Dad engaged me to you..."

Greylle continued to try and figure out if that kanji had 23 strokes or if
that was just one stroke that bent as it crossed another one. Important when
your kanji dictionary was looked up by number of strokes.

The *rest* of the class reacted in typical fashion. The sliding window went
open. Girls were excited and babbling about how romantic it was, and how
tragic that Akane's love affair with Greylle was cut short. Guys were
wanting to know when the Greylle Vs Ranma fight was, or if Akane was
planning on trying to keep them both.

"It's our fathers' idea!" "Not my fault!"

Oops. It was only 19 strokes. It really was a bug splat. No wonder he
couldn't find it in his dictionary. Greylle blinked. Oh, that sounded like
his cue!

Getting up, Greylle walked to the window, the crowd making a place for him.
He thought he might as well make this good, it was likely to be his last day
and he could always say he gave it his best shot.

Placing one hand on Akane's shoulder, he looked down into her eyes. "Greylle
understands. You family honor at stake. Guess it not to be. Greylle
relinquish Akane so she find true love and happiness with strange boy."

Greylle turned and walked out the door, trying to keep from laughing in
glee. Of course, everyone saw him shaking and came to conclusions again that
had little basis in reality.

"That is SO romantic," gushed Yuka.

"Huh?" Akane said a moment before Ranma.

"He's giving up on his own happiness so that YOU can be happy and fulfill
your family's honor pledge," Sayuri said with one of those long heartfelt
sighs following thereafter.

Daisuke gaped for a second. "Damn. Just like in some samurai epic."

"Huh?" Ranma repeated.

Akane didn't hear, she was busy staring down the hallway.

The teacher clapped three times to get everyone's attention. "Hiroshi.
Please get Shard-san back here. Class is *still* in session.

-----------

9am began the usual clangor as the class changed. Not that the students went
anywhere, it was just the teacher and the subject that changed.

Of course there were three people (four if you counted the always ignored
Gosunkugi) that were not involved in the gossip and swapping of bets and
notes.

Greylle, who was ignoring the glares and stares directed towards him by any
and all concerns. Merely watching the ticks of the clock and wondering when
and WHAT was going to hit the fan.

Akane, who was no longer beet red, wasn't gossiping but she wasn't sure what
she would say when it came to that. Everything was so confusing! Confessing
that she actually loved Doctor Tofu was out of the question. What THIS crowd
would do to that story didn't bear thinking about.

Ranma was asleep.

------

"LOOK AT THAT!"

The "tragic romantic triangle" that involved "Akane being torn between love
and duty" that was "just like in a samurai movie" was temporarily shelved.

Greylle left his desk, relishing the chance to at least unfurl his legs.
Who'd have thought being tall could be such a problem? Well, at least in
Japan it was.

LOTS of long cars. Flags everywhere. What the heck? Well, it *definitely*
wasn't Yakuza, and the windows were getting crowded. Might as well return to
his desk.

"That's the..."

"There's the Chairman?! And one, two, three, members of the Diet?! And
that's the Emperor!" Sayuri was gushing enthusiastically. About what -
wasn't too clear.

The intercom crackled to life. "W-w-w-w-would Greylle Shard please come to
the office?"

-------

Greylle sat in his chair, unconcerned by all the brass.

In his first life, this would have been intimidating. After boot camp via
Valkyries, fighting dragons, shooting out star cruisers, and interacting
with Greek and Norse deities on a regular basis, these guys were now
somewhat less concerning.

"You guys never heard of subtle?" Greylle said, looking over the crowd. Then
he focussed in on one of them. "You're the guy from the cabin."

"And you are considerably smaller than the last time we met." Naruhito
nodded and bowed. "May we speak honestly?"

Nabiki gasped. The EMPEROR was bowing as an equal?!

"Why the heck is Nabiki here anyway?" Greylle jerked a thumb towards the
girl hiding by the file cabinets.

"Oh heheh." Nabiki smiled up at all the big and imposing types who had just
surrounded her.

"What did you say her name was?" A suit took out a pad and pen.

"Nabiki Tendo. Gambling, extortion, loan-sharking, child pornography, and
wanna-be Yakuza. Oyabun of what passes for organized crime here at
Furinkan," Greylle answered automatically as he was still going over
implications.

"EEEEP!" Nabiki eeped, seeing a future where she was wearing a striped suit
and making small rocks out of big rocks. She clasped her hands in front of
her and turned her most pleading puppy-dog eyes look at her accusser.

"Though she *could* be considering a lifestyle change," continued Greylle.

Nabiki nodded her head so rapidly that she gave herself a headache.

"Unlikely as that might be," continued Greylle, still considering
possibilities.

"Smithu, Jonesu, please escort Tendo-san back to her room."

"Wait! Wait! I'll be quiet! You won't even know I'm here!" Nabiki protested
as she was forcibly removed from the room. "Hey, do either of you want
pictures of my little sister?"

"It was nice of you to provide us a floor show," said Naruhito. "Now though,
it is time for business."

----------

Harry (Hieronomus) the Wizard continued to watch from the shelter of his
"Not Your Problem" spell (an amazingly useful spell that should be part of
any wizard's "on hand" list) as he waited for the right time to send a
Monster out.

Which was mainly because Harry (like the typical Ranma protaganist) had
trouble changing his plans in order to deal with changing circumstances.
He'd already determined (to anyone else's standards) that this dragon was
trying not to upset the Balance.

Now the dragon had been revealed as an alien prince? This was more along the
duties of MiB than his own community. (Though so far there hadn't been any
indications that MiB was real, the wizards had decided that it was best if
they did NOT investigate it as so far any such group had left them alone.)

Harry had decided to test the boy with a summoned generic monster, and
because he was resistant to altering his plans, he still planned on sending
it out. Besides, it would be interesting to see how he responded. The
problem being that in three weeks, every time he'd come by this region the
boy had been out in public or surrounded by people who *would* notice
something bizarre.

The wizard was beginning to consider just hang the consequences and sending
a monster anyway. With the level of weirdness already in place, it might
hardly be noticed.

----------

If Akane's relationship with a gaijin had qualified as a hot topic for the
rumormill, there weren't words readily available to the student body to
describe THIS.

Akane had finally gotten tired of questions regarding her "boyfriend" and
his connections to the Japanese government and had clobbered the unfortunate
boy who'd been asking a question when she'd reached critical mass.

After Suuichiro had been knocked out the window, things finally quieted down
some. Only to come to a crashing halt again as Greylle re-entered the room
with several high-ranking visitors.

"We are sorry that your class was interrupted," said the Foreign Minister to
the teacher.

"It was so nice of you to come to this agreement, Shard-san, it is to be
hoped that a month away from Furinkan will not trouble your studies too
much." Naruhito bowed low, just shy of the degree needed between equals.
Inside he was smirking. Sometimes, he had come to feel, his people needed to
be shaken out of their narrow little mindsets. Japan was a world power now,
and it would not do to have their imaginations or ability to adapt being
constrained. And if all went well with the dragon-prince, then Japan would
be moving even further into the spotlight.

If the class had been silent before, they might as well have been turned to
stone at this point.

"Our thanks for undertaking this mission for us, prince-san." A senior
member of the Diet agreed with a bow. He was rather enjoying the way
everyone's eyes had bugged out. There was something to be said for the
occasional bit of mischief, it seemed.

Akane's eyes had locked on to her "not my boyfriend" and she mouthed the
word for "prince" without saying anything.

Even long after the visitors had left, the silence remained. It was as if
everyone was frightened now of the possibilities that had just been dropped
into everyone's laps.

Even the teacher had trouble focussing on the current lessons.

When school finally ended, the sense of relief was nigh overwhelming. Except
for one person in the senior class.

-------

Nabiki felt like someone awaiting execution. No, someone marching to her
execution.

Class had ended, and now she was facing the dread moment. Going up to the
top of the roof where she'd likely be eaten.

She didn't like to admit that she *could* be hurt, but that *had* hurt. She
hadn't known that her reputation was sufficient that the Americajin with his
faulty Japanese would have known of some of the things she'd done. And now
*everyone* would know some of the things she'd done. And when word of it
reached the *real* Yakuza...

Being eaten didn't sound half so bad.

Nabiki swallowed and opened the roof access door, ready for her fate.

Only there didn't appear to be anyone there. Nabiki looked around nervously
for any sign of dragons, foreign princes (THAT at least hadn't been a
surprise, it was perfectly in genre(1) for the timetravelling alien hero to
turn out to be a prince), or Monsters From Beyond. Nothing.

The only thing that looked out of place was a circle of brighter sunlight
without anything noticeable about the area to indicate *why* it was so
bright there.

Gulping nervously and straightening her uniform, Nabiki reached out to touch
the area of brightness. When nothing happened, she stepped fully into it.

At which point the roof access door closed itself. There was nobody on the
roof anymore anyway.

-------

An interesting day, you could certainly say that without any hint of
overstatement. The rest of the students seemed to be giving him a VERY wide
berth. Even more than usual.

The Emperor and his group had been convinced that he was actually a prince.
Something like Tenchi would be in a "Tenchi Muyo" universe no doubt. The
funny thing was that he had no way to prove or disprove the allegation
himself. For all Greylle knew they were correct.

Greylle was bemused until he felt a wash of magic from the rooftop of the
school then another from nearby. VERY different signatures.

In a typical AD&D setting, magic could only be detected via a spell such as
"Detect Magic". In the Aramar setting, magic was everywhere, but those
sensitive to it (mages, clerics, and creatures of magic for example) could
tell magical signatures were present when they were active. To narrow it
down or tell what *kind* of magic it was, you needed to either be a creature
of magic, a powerful wizard, or have a spell handy to read the lines and hue
woven into the magic.

It wasn't as obvious as if he'd been in dragonform, but he could *feel*
something about the two emanations.

"Rrrraaaaghhhhhh!"

People boggled. Some fled. Yuka swore. Hiroshi screamed. Sayuri clutched
Daisuke. Daisuke fainted. Sayuri saw all the nosebleed decorating the front
of her schooldress and dropped Daisuke to the pavement.

Greylle stared.

Ranma popped his knuckles. "All right, something to *do*!"

Akane stopped trying to approach Greylle and try to find out what was going
on and merely stared.

Nine feet tall, really powerful build, long face, antlers.

"A moose minotaur?" Greylle blinked. He hadn't seen one of *those* before.
"Ranma! Akane! It duty martial artists stop monsters, yes?"

"Yeah, but what that has to do with a sportsjock or that uncute tomboy is
something I'd like to know," quipped Ranma.

Akane blinked again. Ranma had done nothing but make fun of her martial arts
skills. Well, she'd show him NOW! With that thought, Akane ran forward while
chambering one fist.

Greylle watched Ranma leap to a wall, then kick off and do what would have
been a wonderful flying snap kick to the monster's head.

"Antler Toss!" The moose had other ideas. And apparently martial arts
special attacks.

Ranma grabbed, and so didn't become immediately airborne. Just stunned and
holding onto one of the antlers.

Akane ran forward and punched out at a knee joint. *WHAM!* Akane became an
airborne projectile. *SMASH!* Make that briefly an airborne projectile.

However, that *had* been enough time to throw together a spell. If this was
actually a magical construct, physical attacks wouldn't do much (as had more
than amply demonstrated to Greylle's satisfaction when he'd tried to shoot
youma in his first Labor) direct damage. In some worlds, magic was needed to
fight magic.

"Holy flame i implore,
Smite the evil on this shore!
Flame Strike!"

The column of flame completely engulfed the moose. Unfortunately Ranma was
still clinging to it though he yelped and leapt away immediately. The side
effect, which turned the school gates white with frost, didn't actually
change anything else.

The singed moose had decided (big surprise) that the blond guy was the
biggest threat.

Greylle dodged the first punch, only to get set up for a followup that threw
him through a wall.

Ranma was getting upset. First these girls had dismissed him as second rate,
now the damn *monster* was ignoring him as if he just didn't count. This was
only his second day in Nerima and he was already tired of it. (Though he
*did* want to learn that Americajin's special manuever!)

Water began spraying out of the hole in the second floor, sufficient
indication that water pipes had been busted. The usual attraction of water
to Jusenkyo victims occurred.

"Why did it HAVE to be water?" Ranma spat some of the offending fluid out of
her mouth. "That's it."

"Flaming Fastball!" Greylle had remembered. Ranma universe = special
attacks.

"That's it. I have GOT to learn this guy's special manuevers." Ranma leapt
up to land on the creature's shoulders then start hammering it in the head.

Greylle leapt down then produced his baseball bat. He hadn't had much time,
but had determined that the bat he'd been given had some qualities in common
with Ryouga's umbrella. Very heavy, almost indestructible, and difficult to
ignore.

*WHAM!* Greylle briefly became airborne before coming down again. THAT had
hurt. Also seperated him from his bat, not that there was much chance of it
being stolen. It *looked* like a baseball bat, except that it weighed 380
pounds.

"Airen! AIYAAA!"

"Great, the whole floor show's here," grumbled Ranma as she held on while
the moose tried to dislodge him. Fortunately, its muscles were so bulky that
it couldn't get much flexibility.

"Bullwinkle go on steroids?" Shampoo summed up after a few moments of
scrutinizing the youma.

"WHAT THE?!" Akane was lifting the baseball bat and turning red. "Ack!
What's this thing (huff) made of (ung) anyway!" THUD!

"Wood," answered Greylle, hefting it with one hand. Then considered that
maybe he could use this opportunity to get Ranma and Akane on a less
confrontational basis early in the program. The problem was HOW. (Another
problem was that he found the combination distasteful anyway.)

Shampoo started using her bonbori on the moose's tailbone. "Shampoo always
have to deal with one annoying moose or another. This get very tiresome!"

Unable to come up with a means at the moment for getting the two closer and
less prone to cutting into each other (and surprised at Shampoo's presence),
Greylle decided to heck with it all. Time to just cut loose. "Akane try to
distract it."

"Huh?!" Akane looked at the big monster and back at the gaijin. HOW was she
supposed to distract it?

"I've got a finishing move to use on it, but it takes some time to build it
up," Greylle explained.

The youngest Tendo nodded at that. Part of some tactic, she could deal with
that. She ran past it. "Yo, monster, over this way."

The moose didn't like this. Not only was someone beating on it from behind,
it still hadn't gotten that annoying flea off its neck, and now someone
apparently had decided it was idiot enough to ignore that there was a
spellcaster over there!

"Power of magic, power of light,
Gather ye here, my foe to smite,
The evil here to - oh heck"
*WHAM!*

Greylle went through one of the school's outer walls, carried in a bull
rush.

The moose finally got Ranma-chan off its neck, and swung her like a club
into Shampoo. "Finally. Now I can get rid of the damn mage."

"I don't think so, Skippy."

The moose-youma blinked. There was a blonde girl with these ridiculously
long ponytails standing in the street before him.

A girl with short blue hair leapt down from a rooftop. "Sailor Moon. Aim for
the center of the chest."

"Sailor Moon?" Akane said, looking on. Okay, the pigtails fit, but this girl
was wearing a Furinkan High School uniform!

"Flying Piledriver!" *THWAM!* "Mongolian Elbow Slam!" *WHAM!* "Bulgarian
Headlock!" *CRUNCH!*

And Akane was pretty sure that Sailor Moon had *never* used moves from Pro
Wrestling All-Stars. "Kickin' Kyoko From Kyoto"'s moves too, not that Akane
ever watched the program.

"Diving Swallow Knee Strike!" *WHACKUM!*

Okayyyy. Akane recognized *that* particular manuever was one of the
signature moves of "Devil May Karen." Not that she ever watched Women's
Wrestling.

The moose dropped, looking *very* surprised before turning to dust.

"Uhm, what am I supposed to do now, Sailor Mercury?"

"Pose and give a speech," advised the girl with short blue-tinted hair.

"Oh," the blonde ponytailed girl considered then gave a wrestling pose. "I
came. I saw. I kicked its ass!"

"Good enough," advised the other. "Now we leave."

Akane walked up, noticing the groaning Greylle and moaning Ranma-chan. She
knew she'd seen that girl with the blue hair before, but where?

---------

Nabiki had been very courageous, samurai ancestry coming to the fore, when
*physical* attacks and threats were not something she was particularly
comfortable in facing.

Though she had *not* anticipated appearing in what was apparently a very
busy office setting, it still was big business enough to catch her interest
and set her at ease somewhat.

The nature of the office workers, however, were not so relaxing. A very pale
woman stepped by her, and the air felt chilled as she passed. Over there was
a three eyed tiger-skin wearing oni who was apparently talking on the phone
with a distributor? Something that could only be a kappa, eating a cucumber
sandwich and checking his e-mail?!

"Na... Tendo-san, if you will follow me?"

Nabiki frowned and turned. The woman looked familiar. VERY familiar. Though
she was dressed in the armor of some ancient samurai, and had what looked
like a very well used naginata, though there was some leather sheath
covering the polearm's blade.

"Tendo-san?" The woman smirked as if at some inner joke. "Amaterasu-sama
wishes to speak with you."

The office wasn't that cold, though Nabiki's blood had just frozen. She was
small potatoes, the Oyabun of Furinkan Senior High School if that. Today
she'd come under the scrutiny of the higher ups in government, and
apparently beyond. Way way way beyond.

Nabiki considered running, the problem was where would she run? She
considered trying to BS her way through it all. And if she failed? That
would be bad. Nabiki finally thought of one course of action she could take
that did not end in disaster.

"Grunch, Miss Tendo has fainted. Can you carry her to Her Lordship's
office?"

--------

"MOTHER!" Nabiki awoke and was on her feet in short order. That oddly
familiar face had suddenly clicked in her memory.

"She's not here right now, child." The woman behind the desk had a Presence
but her clothing was actually fairly "California".

"Uhm," began Nabiki, tallying up details. The room was built to resemble
some ancient shogun's war-room, yet there were holographic displays floating
in the air. "Errr."

"What you see around you is merely your mind trying to relate something that
your senses are having trouble interpreting. Now, can we talk about
something important?" The woman leaned forward over her desk.

"Well, I guess," said Nabiki, doing her level best to act cool and
collected. She could still regain control of the situation. "Providing you
can make it worth my while. My time is very valuable you know."

"Yes, I know. Racketeering and blackmail mainly." The woman looked
exasperated. "You know, I was considering giving you over to the other
side."

"Oh, do they pay more?" Nabiki was getting into this, it was a familiar
role.

The woman held up a hand. Nabiki vanished.

"It's a pity such extreme measures are needed for her to take this
seriously," said a voice from the shadows.

"Yes, it is. Remember that story of Jack's on how you get the attention of
an Army mule?" She checked her watch, then raised her hand again. Nabiki
reappeared. "Now, Tendo-san, if you would take this meeting seriously?"

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Nabiki was a little upset. Most of her clothes
had been ripped away (she still had one shoe, a sock, and her sleeves) a
large number of cuts and varied wounds showed on her skin, and unknown
fluids dribbling from her skin to the soft carpeting below. Some of those
fluids resembled salsa.

"You just answered your own question, Tendo-san. Hell. The exact opposite of
a nice place. The equivelant of a suburb. One could say that it is the
absence of niceness, since concern for the feelings of others tends to keep
the numbers of inductees lower than what you'd expect. Even in a modern
society. Though it is much worse in the major population centers." The woman
made another gesture and the wounds were cleaned and unknown fluids missing.
"This is how you do business, Tendo-san, beware that others do not respond
in kind. Intimidation, threats, blackmail, abuse of power, is it not? I
could have left you there if I thought you were irredeemable."

Nabiki still covered herself as she sank into the chair, shaking. "That
was..."

"Now, Miss Tendo, do you want to make a decision that will influence the
rest of your life?"

Nabiki turned and stared. There was a duplicate of the first woman, except
this one was wearing 15th century clothing more appropriate for a male
samurai, just modified for the different frame.

"I am Amaterasu Omikami," said the samurai. "So is my Fragment there."

The Californian nodded. "I am also Amaterasu. Well, part of me anyway. I
will be showing up every so often, mainly to make cryptic comments and
otherwise fill the role of Sailor Pluto while Greylle is mucking around over
there."

The samurai nodded. "The Gates Of Time need a guardian. That world could use
a few protectors. Which is where you come in, Tendo-san."

"Me?" Nabiki watched the Californian come out from behind the desk and
materialize some clothing which the mercenary Tendo gratefully took.

"Look at it as a ledger, Tendo-san," said the blue-jeans wearer. "Positive
here, negative there. You have a chance at putting some large positives on
your account."

"Are you really that happy with your current life?" The samurai looked her
over.

"So I'm in the Red, am I?" Nabiki decided she could relate to it if it was
on a monetary basis. What strange clothing this was. Padded cloth and
leather armor? "What do I need to cancel my debt?"

"Kiss Greylle," answered Californian.

"WHAT?!"

"I'd suggest seducing him, but I don't think you could manage it."

"WHAT?!"

Amaterasu considered how to explain that the current form Greylle was
wearing had been designed by Urd. Urd had apparently been in a very naughty
mood. "Greylle has some 'talents' that he himself does not know about yet."
Boy was *that* an understatement. Urd had been creative.

"..." Nabiki began to sulk. Everybody chased Akane or loved Kasumi. Here she
was being told that she wasn't up to the task of seducing a guy. Just great.

"You couldn't do it, because you'd have to gain his trust first. And he
knows you too well."

Nabiki startled at that. She was being read that easily?!

The samurai took the vacated seat behind the desk and started putting some
cards out on the table. "Your choices are: go back with your memories of
this meeting purged and you can reclaim your life as if nothing had
happened; go through boot camp with the Valkyries - I understand your mother
wouldn't mind putting you through your paces. She is *very* disappointed in
you, Nabiki. Go back with your memories dulled to dream level, and
eventually become one of the Sabre Team of new heroes running about. Get
sent back where you'll be in 'Magical Princess' training as a member of a
new Sailor Team, though the dress code is a bit tight. Or..."

A look of determination fitted into place on Nabiki's face. "Well, then, I
choose..."

--------

Akane was deep in thought, trying to make sense of all the things she'd
seen. As it was Akane (a typical Nerima resident in some respects) she
already had her mind made up and was trying to work the various details into
that framework.

Ranma didn't notice, still grumbling. Now everyone knew her secret. And
she'd done pretty poorly against the moose. Obviously needed more speed
training, plus maybe some weapon training. Fists and kicks just hadn't had
sufficient penetration. The only consolation had been that Mr Hotshot Jock
hadn't done well either.

Akane suddenly realized where she'd seen the face of that one girl. That
robot that had been in a dream in Greylle-san's apartment! So that meant
that the boy had a connection to the Sailor Senshi and had built a robot
double (just like in that foreign comic "Superman")! No wonder he had asked
Nabiki for information on them! Prince was no doubt some call sign or
codeword and he was a go-between for the "champions of love and justice" who
had vanished last year. Akane grinned. Maybe she could get Sailor Mars'
autograph!

Ranma catalogued the special techniques she'd seen the guy pull out, plus
the damage he'd taken and shaken off. It was enough to revise her initial
opinion of this fellow. He didn't move or project himself like a serious
martial artist, so it was probably an act to get people to underestimate him
in a real fight. There had been that column of flame thing, and then he
threw a baseball so quickly that it had almost looked like it had caught
fire. As the guy used something called "Baseball Martial Arts" - Ranma
expected that bat of his got a lot of use. Probably adapted escrima or
kenjutsu techniques. Of course, the weakness of a weapons based system is
that their skill level went down a lot if you seperated them from their
tools.

Akane thought that Greylle-san being gone a month from Furinkan should allow
her to slide out of this engagement with the baka transvestite, then she
could try to get Doctor Tofu to notice her again, and when "Mr Baseball"
returned he could introduce her to the Senshi. Hold the phone! Was he
interested in her because he was going to recruit her for the Sailor Team!
She'd hate to wear a short skirt, but then it was for the honor of her Art
AND to save innocent lives! Hmmm.

Ranma decided that she HAD to challenge this guy to a fight. Not just to
prove that she WAS better, but because she had to see what other special
manuevers this guy had that could be added to her own portfolio. You never
knew when surprising some opponent with some weird attack might pull your
bacon out of the fire.

It was odd how Ranma and Akane were walking within five feet of each other,
but they were currently worlds apart.

---------

Greylle was a little upset. On the one hand, he'd been *badly* overmatched
by the moose-youma. He could have taken it, IF he'd reverted to dragonform,
but the civilian casualties and damage would have escalated sharply. It had
ignored everyone not attacking it but him, so he'd been reluctant to strike
to that extent.

And gotten his head practically handed to him. So, on the one foreclaw, he
owed his two marionettes.

On the other, they'd placed themselves in danger and more than from just the
moose-youma. Neither of them had any extensive testing, they were still
running on internal *batteries* for crying out loud.

As for the moose-youma, they had been severely overmatched. Usagi had
roughly a 35 Strength with current materials, meaning she could lift around
3 tons. Ami's strength was much less, she hadn't been designed as a
frontline combat unit. Roughly a 20 strength, about the level of Akane
without the rage-adrenal increase.

So far that was it, he'd not finished the various "extras" he was trying to
build into them. Though maybe he'd be able to set up a nanotank now.

The thought of all this prince thing was cool, but the thought of a month
working on these projects and being away from Akane was WONDERFUL! While he
was gone, Akane would forget all about him, then she could fixate on Ranma
or Ryouga or ANYONE! Heck, this could even end up like RN-101271 where Akane
ended up with Shampoo (or at least chasing Shampoo around proclaiming her
love after Shampoo used the wrong shampoo on Akane) and it would be a
relief.

(Actually, he'd long felt that RN-101271 was more amusing than the typical
mainline. What with Akane chasing after Shampoo, Shampoo chasing after
Ranma, Mousse trying to avenge himself against Ranma (for leading Shampoo
on) AND Akane (for trying to do THAT with Shampoo, a bottle of baby oil, and
a rubber duck) while Kodachi chased after Mousse (he'd been in the Saotome
backyard one fateful night) and Ranma often just wondering what the blazes
was going on. Greylle often found himself wanting to head back to Mimir's
Well just to watch that one scene with Akane chasing around Shampoo trying
to give "Kiss Of Marriage" to the Amazon while Mousse was trying wildly to
find his glasses since this had all started with Akane surprising Shampoo as
the latter tried to take a bath. About the time that Soun fainted with a
nosebleed, the insanity had escalated to such levels that Nabiki was packing
her bags to head off for college a year early.)

Back to the two marionettes. They'd pulled him out of the fire, but he
needed to upgrade their systems severely if there were going to be youma
attacks.

-------

Ami blinked. Usagi blinked.

"Stay tuned for more.... 'Whirlwind Of Love'."

They were imprinting with as much information about the human condition as
they could. Early morning had seen the 'Best Moments Of Women's Wrestling',
two cooking shows, a rerun of 'Takahashi's Castle' (a gameshow), and four
Japanese Soap Operas.

There was a lot of data there. Both Ami and Usagi found the male+female
social customs interesting on a personal level.

Ami finished putting together the descrambler/receiver array while the
commercials went on. "Here we go."

"What's that do?" Usagi looked at the odd gadget.

"Three hundred channels. Now let's see.... Oh my! What are they doing?!" Ami
stopped surfing as she saw something that made no sense.

"Is this a program on cannibilism?" Usagi cocked her head as she scanned.
"No, she doesn't appear to be biting off anything, and the male appears to
be enjoying it."

"How odd," said Ami, sitting down so she could figure this out. Human
behavioral patterns were so odd and complex.

TV: "Soup-chan!" "Noodle-sama!"

"What do you suppose the significance of their actions are?" Usagi puzzled
over this. "Some sort of greeting ritual or exercise technique?"

"They do appear to be generating heat, and it would likely be a good
cardiovascular technique." Ami puzzled over the reactions of the male and
the female, as well as their actions. "I think I understand. This is a
'mating'."

"Like in this book?" Usagi held up the book of "Elven Mating Customs" she'd
found in the carrisack. "What is the purpose of 'mating' anyway? Is it done
solely for exercise?"

"From what data I'm able to access, it appears that there are several
byproducts of mating. One of which is the potential development of other
units." Ami accessed a file and shuddered. How terribly messy. "We are not
currently equipped for such duties."

Usagi nodded, her gaze never waivering from the television. "I recall. Soft
tissues will require an upgrade, and these appear to be rather complicated.
Since this does seem to be a fundamental part of human existence, we should
consider making these upgrades soon."

"Agreed," agreed Ami, accessing the appropriate files.

---------

Greylle looked up at the apartment building, rising six floors and no
elevators, a tribute to man's desire to make a quick buck and not consider
certain problems. Such as that nobody even in a crowded place like Tokyo
wanted to live in most of the apartments. Who the heck wanted to carry
groceries up to the sixth floor with steep stairs all the way?

Yet, for whatever reason, he could see that there were indeed people up
there. Or at least some windows were lit. It was only 8pm, and the vast
majority of sararimen were still at work. Typical Japanese workday: 6am to
9pm. If an earlier start wasn't mandated.

There were some things that he didn't envy the Japanese. Their jobs and
living space being among the most prominent. As for driving in Tokyo: not
even on a Bet.

All of which suddenly struck Grey in the form of a single realization. This
*was* home now. He wouldn't be leaving this reality.

Currently he was several people, those who had *not* for whatever reason
seperated out when he had failed the Fourth Labor. The problem was that he
didn't remember any of them that well, and each of them had grown up in very
different environments. Even simple things as goals and personal tastes had
been different.

First, he was the fellow originally known as Gregg - a weirdness magnet
who'd always tried to do the right thing but hadn't exactly been very
successful. His tastes had been eclectic and his environment mostly late
20th Century America, though some odd subcultures had been involved. In this
situation, he'd have likely taken a low profile approach.

Souls not being bounded by time or space, nor necessarily having a gender
themselves, his Second remaining Aspect was that of Noa - a pokemon trainer
who'd dreamed of becoming a big rock musician until her life and career was
cut short by Butch & Cassidy. If it were Noa instead of Greylle here, she
would have immediately done her considerable best to become an idol singer
and from there tried to parlay that into pop music.

Also of the female variety had been Artemis Gray, B-Wing pilot for the
Rebellion who'd died in the Battle Of Endor. Artemis had been extremely gung
ho, an enthusiastic warrior fighting for a cause she had believed in, whose
battle-scarred face and bionic eye had convinced her that nobody cared about
her as an individual. Her spartan and utilitarian tastes contrasted almost
180 degrees from Noa's prediliction for cute. In this sort of situation,
Artemis would have likely joined the Japanese Self Defense Force in order to
become a pilot instead.

Mamoru Tengoku, repairman and experimenter of the female shaped androids
known as marionettes, was the fourth Aspect to remain. HIS memories were
quite a lot clearer than those of the prior three. As Gennai's student, then
Lorelei's pupil later on, he'd gone from being a street survivor to having
access to the Shogun's palace. Then been pulled out of that timeline before
he could really accomplish much. Actually, if Mamoru had been in this
situation, he'd likely have done pretty much what he was currently doing.

Finally there had been more fragmented identities. He'd grown up as "Orion",
a replacement Ranma Saotome that had actually been a transformed dragon who
had fled Genma Saotome in the shape of a cat only to run into a girl named
Minako Aino. He'd spent years growing up as her friend, a talking cat, then
rediscovered his ability to shift into human shortly after Minako met some
of her new teenage friends. He'd also been another Ranma, one who had grown
up with his childhood friend Ukyo and a pyrolion named Akane. Not to mention
a buddy named Makoto and a less rough-and-tumble playmate named Rei. He'd
been the artificially born son of Gendo and Yui Ikari, crafted from genes of
a dozen different sources including Adam. THAT version of himself had been
the childhood friend and lover of the cram school ace and likewise
genetically engineered "Scout Pilot" Ami Mizuno.

While trudging up the stairs, Greylle wondered what it would have been like
if he'd lived one of those other lives to its destiny. Noa and Artemis had
lived their lives and died in violent circumstance - cut short by someone
else. Would Noa have realized her dream of being a pop singer? Would Artemis
have eventually realized that it wasn't the scars on her face, but the walls
she erected around herself that kept people at bay? Would Mamoru have found
contentment and happiness with his Otome Kairo installed marionettes Apple,
Grape, Honey, and Blueberry? Would Orion have eventually settled down with
Minako? Would that Ranma have been content with the second place position as
Heir of the Saotome School, and would Ukyo have rescued him from that
marriage to the Tendo version of Akane? Would Grey Ikari have continued as
the best friend and boyfriend to Ami even through the youma attacks and
Machiavellian intrigues of Tokyo-3?

Finally, he was Grey, sometimes known as Greylle. Trained under Hephaestus
as a Techwizard and mechanic. In a different Star Wars universe than that of
Artemis, he'd operated a repairship from the time of the Battle Of Yavin to
a few years later. He'd visited dozens of universes, helping out where he
could. Sometimes he'd been successful, sometimes less so. He'd fought at the
side of Senshi, freedom fighters, and soldiers of fortune. He'd piloted a
Sopwith Camel, a B-17 Bomber, an A-10 "Warthog", and a variety of starships
and gravitic vehicles. He'd fought with fists, stones, swords,
manriki-gusari, revolvers, lasers, particle beam weapons, and pokemon.

Greylle came to a conclusion. As soon as Akane dumped him (inevitable though
he wasn't above hastening it), he'd do some of that again. From what he'd
heard from the Japanese government they'd be amenable as long as they could
send along an observer or two. Go out and explore the universe, see what was
out there. He could build enough marionettes to crew a ship and take care of
the less difficult tasks. Help out where he could, and let enough info come
back to Earth that it could improve lives all over. Like in that Star Trek
universe he'd briefly been in, there were plants that could grow in the
Sahara that could eventually form the basis of a new ecosystem that would
feed millions. He'd have to be careful as it could all backfire, but if he
kept the changes as small steps it might work out.

Greylle stopped with his hand on the doorknob. Premonition of doom. Hmmm.

The problem was that if he didn't go in there now, where *would* he go? The
Tendo Dojo? No way in heck! Camp out? No doubt quieter but still
unsatisfactory. Gritting his teeth, Greylle just decided to face it.
Whatever the marionettes were planning couldn't be *that* bad.

Greylle opened the door, stared for a moment, then closed it behind him.

"Would someone mind telling me WHAT you two are doing? Ami, put your skin
back on, that's very disturbing. HEY! HEY! What are you doing?!"

Greylle opened the door, stepped out, closed the door, went to the landing
at the end of the hall. Then jumped off and shifted on the way down. Yes, it
panicked the hell out of the neighbors, but he was getting out of there NOW!

*sniff* *sniff* hmmm. that smelled pretty good. Maybe a brief snack. He'd
have to go back to the apartment sometime but a meal might give the two a
chance to realize THAT had not been appropriate behavior.

-------

Hotaru blinked and looked around. "Papa said..."

"Yes, Hotaru, I'm here to train you as a miko - a shrine priestess." The
woman gestured at the shrine around them. "This could be fun, right?"

"This place wasn't here yesterday," said Hotaru. "This was an abandoned
warehouse. I remember the broken windows and there was that rusty metal
sheeting hanging from nails..."

"Gripe, quibble, complain, is this *really* how you want to spend your time
as my apprentice?"

Hotaru considered, then shook her head. She still studied the area. Trees
that looked hundreds of years old thrusting up from a natural landscape. No
sign of aged concrete, metal sheets, or broken windows. "Did you do this?"

Amaterasu nodded. "The shrine is actually a small but tasteful building in
the center, surrounded by a small pond that I've stocked with koi. We'll be
staying there."

The little girl looked around. Somehow the idea that people considered her a
monster for healing people seemed even more clueless than usual. "This is...
impressive."

"Perhaps. Kind of homey." Amaterasu shook her head. "Look, it's still the
set up. I can do minor stuff like this without screwing things up too much."

"Minor?" Hotaru looked at the red torii arches that led to a brick path.
Both looked as if they'd been here a lot longer than one day. "This is
minor?"

Amaterasu ran her fingers through her hair, frowning slightly. "Yeah. MAJOR
would have drawn too much attention to the place."

"So, about this fiancee..."

"Oh you'll like him," Amaterasu assured the girl. "Nice boy. If a bit
defeatist at times. He's older than you, but after a decade or so you'll
catch up."

"Decade?"

The Japanese sun goddess nodded. "Oh yes. You're Sailor Saturn, you see. Or
will be. The nobility of the Silver Millenium have lifespans of about 10,000
years. He's a dragon, Aramarian silver to be exact, so he's got a similar
lifespan."

"A dragon?!" Hotaru made a face. "Like Gojira?"

"He can take human form, Hotaru-chan." Amaterasu shrugged and looked
slightly embarassed. "Urd designed his new human form. She went a little...
overboard in some respects. Still it *should* make for a good match with
you. You'll understand more when you're older."

"Huh?"

"Never mind Hotaru-chan." Amaterasu led the way to the shrine bridge. "Oh,
and I think the first thing we should do is start you on increasing the
power of your healing abilities."

"Uhm, how do I do that?"

"Well, this is a 'magical girl' universe, so to do it efficiently you either
need to transform to a 'super' identity or have a magical focus or both."
Hotaru's teacher pondered briefly. "I wonder if Greylle's figured that out
yet? Anyway, what we need is a healing focus."

"But I'm not Sailor Saturn... I'm not Sailor Anyone!"

Rolling her eyes, the sun goddess made a gesture. "Oh and for the record,
Metal'la was *not* Sailor Sun. There was *no* Sailor Earth. There was no
Sailor Vulcan, Sailor Oort Cloud, Sailor Vespa, or Sailor Nemesis. None.
However, in the Silver Millenium, there wasn't a Sailor Moon either so
there's a precedent for adding Senshi. You, however, are Sailor Saturn - the
Senshi of Destruction and Death."

"Do I have to be?" Sailor Saturn looked down at her uniform and wondered why
she couldn't have a longer skirt at least.

Amaterasu made a waving gesture. "Actually, no. But we can talk about that
after we've gotten most of your training done. I... what the blazes is he
doing?"

Saturn looked overhead as something big and glittery passed overhead. "Is
that him? He's very pretty."

"Yes. Oh well, it's a mess of his own making this time. Let *him* sort it
out. Now, on to your training."

---------

The crowd around the okonomiyaki stand had melted away before Greylle
realized "Gee, maybe i ought to get out of sight, change back, and THEN see
if i can buy one."

Having done so, he thought the cart had been abandoned until he saw movement
from behind dumpster. "Speak English you do?" It seemed that being tired and
trying to manipulate an often difficult to inscrutable language did not mix
well.

"I'm from Kansai, sugar. Of course I speak English." The "boy" straightened
up, looking around as if just daring anyone to suggest that he'd actually
been hiding.

"UCCHAN?!"

Eyes narrowed. "Who the heck are you? Ain't hardly anybody who calls me
that. I'm Ukyo Kuonji."

"Greylle Shard. How much on a shrimp okonomiyaki?"

"850yen," responded Ukyo, immediately going into businesswoman mode. At
Greylle's producing of the requisite coins, she immediately started
producing it. "So how do y'all know me anyway?"

Greylle wondered if he should. Oh heck, why not? "Well, just something i've
heard of. Maybe you can tell me how accurate it all is. Seems this guy named
Genma Saotome was bragging in a bar one night about how he'd made this
incredible deal and pulled the wool over everyone's eyes- especially his own
son's."

Ukyo listened to a tale of how Genma had mislead his son into believing his
fiancee was actually a boy, and then forced the two apart. Greylle continued
to spin the tale, not really making any major changes in the story except
for Genma bragging about it. It was the way he presented it that was
different, making it sound like Ranma was an clueless little kid and his
father a gluttonous louse who'd sell his son off whenever there was food
involved.

"Waitaminute, Ranma doesn't know?!" Ukyo served up the pancake-like item.
"Are you sure about this?"

"Well, i dunno. That's the way it was related to me, and i just met Ranma.
He struck me as pretty clueless." Greylle found this kinda nice. He could
talk in English without struggling over those damn particles or which
verb-ending to use or whether you used this word with this other one. Though
Ukyo's southern accent was thick enough to cut. Why Ukyo had a Southern
accent when she switched to English was a mystery he decided not to pursue
at this time.

"How could he be *that* dumb?"

"He was raised by Genma, wasn't he?" Greylle shrugged and decided to leave,
it was close to 9pm now and he had his new job starting in the morning.
"Besides, if he knew you were a girl (even with that crossdressing), how
could he leave such a cute fiancee?"

Ukyo watched the stranger leave, her emotions a tangled mess as she
considered whether or not Ranma *intended* to leave her behind, and had one
word rolling around in her consciousness. "C-c-c-cute?!"

---------

(1) - of course, Nabiki is thinking of an entirely different genre than
pun-oriented martial arts with the occasional bit of angst.

OK That's it for now with Retake. Hopefully i can get to "pokegirls" now for
a little while.