"What did I do to deserve this?" Shampoo wondered, her head pressed into the table in front of her. Mousse was cooking, since Shampoo was too stressed at the moment for it. He felt moderately sorry for Ran-Ran when the girl woke up, Shampoo was likely to tear her to ribbons. Seeing the girl come in sick from an allergic reaction had scared his wife badly. Shampoo did not react to being scared well.
"You spent several months inflicting hairbrained scheme after hairbrained scheme on Ranma and everybody else," Mousse said wittily. Shampoo growled without lifting her head from the table.
"You weren't any better," Shampoo snapped.
"I wasn't the one that asked," Mousse reminded her. He walked over and set a pair of bowls of ramen on the table. Most of the equipment was in, they'd be opening soon. Shampoo lifted her head up and started on her bowl.
"We've been here for two days," Shampoo said. "So far we haven't made any progress on finding enough property for sufficient Amazons to start a colony, Ranma is married, Ran-Ran is completely ignoring me about how to deal with men outside the village, and then nearly gets herself killed."
"She's didn't eat that much garlic," Mousse said.
"She's acting like a total idiot," Shampoo snapped.
"She's acting like we did," Mousse agreed. Shampoo closed her eyes and her face twitched.
"Mu Shu wants to spend the night in the storage closet I guess," Shampoo growled.
"That would be like old days," Mousse said, smirking. Shampoo smirked back and leaned toward him.
"Maybe we should inspect it," Shampoo said huskily.
"Of course," Mousse agreed, shifting closer to his wife. "Because if I'm going to spend a lot of time there, we'll need to make sure it is fit for habitation."
"It would be good to know how much room there is before the rest of the supplies arrive too," Shampoo smiled and leaned closer in, their lips were almost touching.
"Big Sister Shampoo," Ran-Ran called out, her voice accompanying the sound of featherlight steps coming out of the living quarters. Shampoo and Mousse both slumped in frustration. "Ran-Ran feel much better after nap. When I next visit ai..." Ran-Ran presented warding symbols as Mousse and Shampoo both rounded on her and started tag-team lecturing her.
"That Kiyone person is one of your friends?" Ranma asked unnecessarily.
"More like a friend of a friend," Ryoko said, sitting back down on the couch.
"Her partner shot me down on this place. If it weren't for that I would have never have met..." She stared at the television playing whatever came after the soap opera.
"Yeah," Ranma said, agreeing silently with the unspoken question as to whether meeting her lost love was a good thing or not. The redhead sat next to the pirate, not too close even if it was on the same piece of furniture. Ranma stared at the television with Ryoko. Neither of them were really seeing it.
"Is there any ice cream?"
Nabiki paused at the walkway to the Saotome house door as Genma and Nodoka approached from the other direction. Ranma's parents stopped to face her as well. There was a moment's silence from both sides.
"I suppose you've heard," Nodoka said simply.
"Yes," Nabiki answered dryly. "That would explain why I'm here a couple of weeks early."
"Are you here on behalf of the Tendo clan?" Nodoka asked. Nabiki rolled her eyes and was about to answer.
"Her, she's an accountant, not a fighter," Genma started. Both the women turned to face him. Nabiki arched an eyebrow and Nodoka glared and then turned to face each other again, dismissing the comment.
"I'd like to see what is going on," Nabiki said. "Ranma was almost my brother-in-law." She crossed her arms and dared Nodoka to dispute her motives.
"Well, I suppose there is nothing else to do than to introduce you to my daughter-in-law," Nodoka said. "They should still be inside." Nodoka relaxed her posture and walked toward the house's entrance, her husband and Nabiki following behind.
"Tadaima," Nodoka called out as she entered the building. "Ranma, you have a visitor!" Nodoka paused a moment and walked toward the kitchen, groceries in hand. "Come along dear, we should get these put up."
"Of course, Nodoka," Genma said resignedly. Nabiki frowned as she waited for Ranma to call back. She the wandered past the kitchen where Nodoka and Genma were sorting groceries.
"Ranma, are you here?" Nodoka said a little irritably. Nabiki found the dining room and the newlyweds as Ranma called back. Nabiki glanced at the silver hair and arched an eyebrow, and then down at the tail and rolled her eyes. On the table in front of them was a rabbit-like animal chomping away on a load of carrots.
"Yeah, Mom," Ranma snapped. "I heard. Is it another Amazon? Some girl whom Pop promised me as a groom to? A wandering martial artist?" Nabiki shook her head as the redhead shouted irritably.
"That is no way to talk to your mother, Ranma," Nodoka called out dissatisfactorily from the kitchen.
"Sorry," Ranma called out.
"Getting a little snippy, Ranma," Nabiki said in an amused manner. She noted the ice cream and the paired long faces and frowned. Ranma turned to face her and huffed.
"Oh, hey Nabiki," Ranma said. "Sorry, but my life's gettin' crazy again." The silver haired woman turned toward Nabiki and the brown-haired girl's jaw dropped and her eyes bulged slightly.
"Who's this?" Ryoko asked roughly, before spooning up another bite of ice cream.
"How's your friend?" Ranma asked when it looked like Nabiki wasn't going to answer. Nabiki shook her head clear and recovered her normal expresson.
"Ahh Chi's fine," Nabiki said. Good thing she's not here, I'd be in trouble about now. She turned to face Ryoko "You must be the new Mrs. Saotome I heard about." Ranma and Ryoko both winced and glared. She drew out a business card and passed it to Ranma. "We'll be selling insurance in another year or so, might be of interest to you."
"She's like this all the time," Ranma explained taking the card. "Nabiki, Ryoko. Ryoko, Nabiki. Actually the two of you might get along." She frowned as she considered the implications and who she was talking to. "Well...as friends anyway."
"Why is that?" Ryoko asked suspiciously. Nabiki arched an eyebrow and waited for the answer as well.
"You're both pains," Ranma said and took some of her ice-cream. Nabiki gave an amused laugh while Ryoko growled.
"So what's with the ice cream?" she pointed to the collection of tubs in front of the pair. Ryoko and Ranma both tensed and found the ice cream suddenly very interesting.
"Talking about old times," Ranma said quietly. Nabiki's amusement died and she nodded. "Ryoko and I have some stuff in common."
"Mind if I join you?" Nabiki asked, feeling morose as all the memories brought up by recent events caught up with her. Ryoko looked at her suspiciously.
"She's another of Akane's sisters," Ranma explained. Ryoko's expression relented a bit.
"Fine, whatever," she said.
"Good, I'll be right back," Nabiki walked back to the kitchen and grabbed herself a spoon and a bowl. She turned to Ranma's parents. "Mind if we get some privacy for a while?" She asked. Nodoka considered this and then smiled pleasantly.
"Of course, Nabiki," she said, though not without suspicion. "We'll both be in the living room if you need us."
"Thanks, Auntie Saotome," Nabiki said, falling back into old habits as she went to join in the ice cream pity party.
Nodoka peeked in once and saw Ranma and Ryoko, who weren't sitting side by side, but were at least close, sitting across from Nabiki. From what she could see, nothing was being said, or maybe all was being said that was needed. She nodded in understanding as she left the three women to eat their ice cream in peace.
"Excuse me, Ranma, ladies," Nodoka said, knocking on the door half an hour later. "But we really must have the dining room for dinner." She then passed straight through to the kitchen.
"Yeah, sorry Mom," Ranma said gathering up the bowls and tubs of ice cream. With, predictably, a little trouble from Ryoko.
"I'm not finished yet," Ryoko growled holding her bowl tightly. There was a moment's silent conflict before Ranma let go of the bowl.
"Fine," Ranma snapped. "I'm gonna go change." She vanished into the kitchen as well, pausing to give a warning look to Nabiki. Nabiki ignored him, internally amused.
"Well," Nabiki said as she was left alone with Ryoko. "You're not quite what I expected."
"What did you expect," Ryoko asked cautiously as she continued eating her ice cream.
"You obviously not any happier about this situation than he is," Nabiki said, ignoring the question. ~As for interested...we'll see.~
"Why, you want him?" Ryoko asked. "As soon as this little botch gets fixed you're welcome to him." Nabiki snickered and shook her head.
"I'm already attached, thank you," Nabiki said amused. "And Ranma isn't really my type."
"Not interested in bad-tempered jerks?" Ryoko asked.
"Ranma would probably think I was planning to rent him out again," Nabiki said, smiling. "But again, he's not my type."
"Rent him out?" Ryoko asked, confused. Nabiki took a picture out of her wallet and passed it to Ryoko. She saw a picture of Nabiki and some girl with glasses posing for the camera. "Actually, I think Fem-Boy falls into that type." Nabiki wasn't apparently paying attention, looking at some other photo in her wallet.
"Ranma's a guy even when he's a girl," Nabiki said without looking up. "They were fighting less and less. Maybe if the Phoenix people hadn't shown up one of them would have stopped being stubborn."
Nabiki handed over another picture, keeping a tight hold of her wallet. Ryoko recognized Ranma and a girl that had to be Akane holding hands at a balcony and watching each other while fireworks were going off in the sky.
"If, yeah" Ryoko repeated. ~If I hadn't let Tenchi go, if Kagato hadn't come looking for Ayeka. There are too many ifs.~
"Ranma's family," Nabiki said, who was considering trying to convince Chi not to go on Yohko's devil hunting excursions so much. "I protect my family."
"Don't worry about me," Ryoko said. "I'm not hanging around long." Nabiki arched an eyebrow, but didn't answer as Ranma, in his normal form, came into the room.
"So what is for dinner?"
"This must be the place," Kiyone said looking around. "Let's find a...Mihoshi. What are you doing?"
"Hey, Kiyone! Come look at this!" Mihoshi called out. Kiyone shook her head irritably and walked over to see what had attracted her partner's attention. She found an embarrassed looking man apparently tied to the counter with a leash. "Isn't this the funniest thing you've ever seen?" The young man frowned at the comment.
"You'll have to excuse my partner," Kiyone said. "She's a little...ditzy."
"A little?" the leashed man asked.
"Just to satisfy my curiousity," Kiyone continued. "Why are you tied the counter." The young man blushed and laughed nervously.
"I don't want to postpone our wedding again," a woman's voice called out as the chef came from the back to attend to the grill. "And that's the only way I can think of to keep him from getting lost." She set up behind the grill and grabbed a spatula, similar to the giant one strapped to her back, if smaller. For a moment she looked Kiyone and Mihoshi over, as if matching them to descriptions. "What can I get you?"
"I'm not that bad," Ryouga said. Kiyone and Mihoshi turned to look at each other in confusion.
"Excuse me," Kiyone said. "Why not buy him a map?" The chef sighed and pulled out a box full of odds and ends, she pulled out the shreads of map with multiple penciled marks and angry doodles on it.
"Hey, its not my fault the mapmakers are idiots, Ukyou!" Ryouga snapped.
"Okay," Kiyone said. "Compass?" A small round piece of metal came out of the box and was set on the counter. The needle on the compass was spinning out of control.
"The compass frame got magnatized," Ukyou said dryly.
"How about a plast..." Kiyone didn't get to finish as another compass joined the first. It was cracked and the plastic holding it together was brittle in places. It was almost like it had been frozen and nearly shattered.
"You didn't say I wasn't supposed to follow the arrow," Ryouga said in a huff.
"Locater bracelet?" Kiyone asked.
"Fell off," Ukyou said. "Couldn't find one that changed size enough."
"Ohkay," Kiyone tried to ignore that. "Subdermal microchip?" A collection of bent, shattered and destroyed needles of various sizes.
"The doctors hate giving us shots," Ukyou said.
"Not that we need it," Ryouga hmphed.
"Umm," Kiyone sweatdropped. "Global positoning system?" A hand held GPS joined the other items. Its screen repeatedly scrolled the message "Where on Earth am I now!?"
"I don't know about that one," Ukyou said, she lifted a hand to forestall Ryouga's explanation. "I don't want to know about that one. It just doesn't work."
"Yeah," Kiyone sweatdropped. "We're just going to go sit over here and wait for our friends, okay?" She backed off nervously, pulling Mihoshi with her.
"Uhh, you wouldn't happen to be here to meet-owww!" Ryouga turned to Ukyou with a confused and shocked expression. "What did I say?!"
"That's going to be a rough marriage," Mihoshi said as she sat down.
Kiyone saw a young women walk towards Ukyou and whisper something. Immediately there was action. The chef moved to the customers that were already in the store and politely talked to them. As the customers finished up, each leaving with a coupon that Ukyou handed out with an expression near to pain, Kiyone frowned.
"Hey, where's everybody going?" Mihoshi asked. The blonde stood up and started walking to the door. Kiyone, on the other hand watched Ryouga, still leashed to the counter.
"You didn't really have to shut down for this," a voice said from outside. Kiyone turned her attention to the door and nodded, satisfied that she was correct. Ukyou was holding the door open for the last of the customers, and two newcomers. Ryoko walked in while a man Kiyone recognized as Ranma talked to Ukyou.
"You kidding?" Ukyou asked. "Anything involving you can get dan..err..out of..uuhh..exciting fast." Ranma frowned as Ukyou tried to find a safe phrase to use. His own answer was cut off as Mihoshi recognized Ryoko.
"RYOKO!!!" Mihoshi yelled loudly. The blonde rushed towards a suddenly nervous Ryoko, and gave her a crushing bear hug. "I'm so glad to see you alive! Everyone said you had died!"
Everybody else in the room paused for a moment in shock as Ryoko winced at the blonde's expression of relief. Then there was a dash to pull the excitable blonde off of the silver-haired pirate.
"Mihoshi, you're gonna hurt her like that!" Kiyone yelled as Mihoshi was finally convinced to release Ryoko. The pirate staggered and clutched at her side for a moment.
"Hey you okay?" the young man was asking Ryoko, moving to help steady her. Ryoko shook off the offered help and steadied herself.
"I'm just fine," Ryoko growled, turning to face Kiyone. "You cut your hair."
"Washu did that," Kiyone explained. "How long have you been here?"
"This'll be the fourth day," Ryoko said. "Let's get off the small talk. I want to know what the hell happened. The news said you were all captured and Ayeka died, Nagi says Sasami has a bounty on her and that it was HER that fucked everything up. All I know is Tenchi is dead for nothing!" Everybody stared at her in silence for a moment.
"You want to talk about this in front of them?" Kiyone asked, pointing at the three Nerimans.
"We don't want to tell them we're not from Earth you know," Mihoshi insisted. Kiyone smacked her forehead.
"Actually, we already knew that," Ryouga said. There was a clanging sound as Ukyou hit him over the head.
"This is a dramatic moment," Ukyou said. "Not time for comic relief!" Ranma slapped his hand to his face, lacking a nearby surface to bang his head against. Ryoko was glaring at them, wishing for her powers back to blast the both of them. Kiyone was looking them in a manner she usually reserved for one of Washu's untested inventions. Mihoshi just blinked.
Ryouga and Ukyou turned embarrased looks to the other four people in the room and at the same time gave an ashamed. "Excuse us." Ryoko growled and turned to face Kiyone.
"Well?" she demanded. Kiyone nodded and started walking back to a table. Ryoko followed, pausing when she noticed Ranma heading for the counter away from her. "Not going to stick your nose into this?" Ranma looked at her confused.
"Do you want me to?" Ranma asked, honestly surprised. Ryoko produced her own surprised expression before frowning again.
"You're not as much of an asshole as I thought," Ryoko said, as if reluctant to admit it. Then she moved to join Kiyone. "Now..." Ryoko paused to look at Mihoshi cautiously. Mihoshi was directing a sly, knowing look her way that was quite frankly making her nervous. Attention from Mihoshi was usually a precursor to bad things. "What happened?"
"Everything was fine up until Washu's virus destroyed the combat stations around the planet," Kiyone explained. Ryoko narrowed her eyes.
"Washu's virus destroyed the drones?" she asked, idly picking up a knife. Everyone tensed at the motion. Kiyone blinked and looked at her.
"Didn't it?" Kiyone asked. "That's how you got through right?"
"I destroyed the drones," Ryoko said. She tossed the table knife at Kiyone, and the police officer easily caught before it hit her head. Ryoko stood up as the three Nerimans across the room got ready to move if the conflict escalated. "Who the fuck are you?"
"It's Kiyone, Ryoko," Mihoshi insisted.
"Bull," Ryoko snapped. "Even Mihoshi knew that Kiyone is..." Ryoko turned to her "friend" and snarled. "Was right-handed, so who are you?"
"Damn," Kiyone muttered under her breath. She turned her head towards Ryoko and pulled back some of her hair to show a circular scar in the side of her head. Ryoko blanched, but remained suspicious. "Ask Ryo-Ohki, I am Kiyone. Just, well maybe Washu didn't put me back together just right." Ryoko looked down at the cabbit that was constantly with her and it nodded. She sat down again, drawing several sighs of relief from about the restaurant.
"Guess she's who she says she is," Ukyou said under her breath, resheathing her spatula. Ryouga sat down and nodded.
"Think we'll see more of that," Ryouga asked sitting back down. Ranma shrugged, but remained standing, watching Ryoko. His fists were clenched at his sides. Ryouga and Ukyou nodded on seeing that and turned to quietly watch the discussion between the three aliens.
"Did that happen in the crash," Ryoko asked. Kiyone growled angrily, something Ryoko had only seen from Kiyone when it had to do with her partner.
"My peers in the Jurai Intelligence Service decided they wanted to interrogate people as quickly as possible," Kiyone said. "Comatose or otherwise. Meaning Ayeka and I were trea..."
"Wait, Ayeka survived Kagato. Survived that blue haired bitch," Ryoko said angrily. "Tenchi dies to save her, and then some over-eager spook decides to skull-fuck her!" Tenchi really did die for nothing.
"And Kiyone," Mihoshi reminded her angrily. Ryoko glared at Mihoshi and then shrugged apologeticaly.
"Yeah, how much did you lose?" Ryoko asked.
"I don't know," Kiyone said irritably. "Bits and pieces. Obviously the battle, pretty much none of my skills, Washu saved those well enough..." she paused. "In fact, I'm not sure that she didn't add one or two."
"You have Ayeka's scan right?" Ryoko asked wearily.
"Yes," Kiyone said, slipping a disk out of her pockets and handing it over to Ryoko. "Mihoshi, the player."
"Hmm, oh right!" Mihoshi put a small flat rectangular piece of plastic on the table and pushed a section. The rectangular popped open and Ryoko put the disc in and slapped it down. Almost immediately a hologram screen appeared and showed the inside of the Jurai throne room.
Ryoko watched Kagato play with Tenchi and almost completely ignore Ayeka. She couldn't actually see the princess, but her hands were visible, and her voice was easy to recognize. It was quite obvious that Kagato had the advantage. Then the Jurai trees in the illusion about the throne room seemed to become Earth trees. Tenchi, on a second wind, and Kagato charged each other.
"Ranma?" Ryoko reached forward to hit the pause button on the player. She shook her head and continued. "Come over here."
"Sure," Ranma said, breezing over to stand next to her. "You sure you want me here?" Ryoko snorted.
"I just don't feel like having the story dragged out of me later," Ryoko said irritably. "I don't NEED you here, got that?" Mihoshi arched an eyebrow and gave Kiyone a knowing look.
"Got it," Ranma said. Ryoko nodded a good and started the hologram again.
Ryoko leaned forward as Tenchi and Kagato charged each other, biting her lip as if in anticipation. Ranma, standing next to her, caught a muttered "please" repeated over and over again and sighed resignedly. In the hologram, the ceiling caved in and the view shifted upwards, along with Tenchi's focus.
"Damn it Tenchi!" Ryoko yelled, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "The old man's told you a thousand times never to take your eyes off an opponent! Never! Turn back your eyes damn you!" Ryoko felt someone gripping her shoulder and looked up to see Ranma. She frowned and shrugged her shoulder away from him, but not before giving a slight nod.
Certainly enough the view switched to show Tenchi impaled on Kagato's black blade. Ayeka screamed, causing Kagato to turn as Tenchi got one more shot in. The blade cut through Kagato and both fighters went up in a swirling blaze of darkness and light.
Then all was dark.