Chapter Three

By Michael Fetter

Beaches along the southern tip of Olympus were long and popular. There were people to see and talk to just about every few feet in any direction you walked. Closer to the water things lightened up a bit since most of the people were sunbathing or strolling along the boardwalk, playing games and eating junk food.

Ryouga thought it fairly interesting that people over here thought junk food was anything bought in a disposable container and served one. He remembered Ranma keeping on about how Nabiki complained there wasn’t anything to eat. She always wanted him to keep an eye out for a standing candy store or something. Ryouga supposed all of the time she spent doing yoga and dealing with people helped keep her lean.

It depressed him to think how of all the people in the world, those that were left, he was the only to be plagued in such a way. Things still weren’t proceeding as he would’ve liked with Akane, but he’d still rather be at her side than dodging the waves that ran up alongside this damned beach. He tried getting onto the boardwalk but pretty, young women in these little bikinis that stayed put by some invisible means, would walk by and he would have to turn around. Ranma was really the only ‘occasional’ girl he could be around and not pass out from blood loss.

Closing his eyes and just praying to head inland was probably a stupid thing to try, but he was running out of options and it was early afternoon. Too many women out still.

"Damn it." Ryouga muttered, wiping the sweat from his eyes. At least with his backpack and umbrella he could have escaped the sun. Unfortunately that was left behind in Nerima. Blaming Ranma for these things was sort of his thing a long time ago, before the war, when things were more trivial than they are now. He was too mature to keep passing everything off on other people, though Ranma did ask for a beating on occasion when he acted like a jerk.

"Lost?"

"What?" Ryouga looked up and into a pair of barely covered breasts that bounced hypnotically as the woman they were attached to ended her short walk to him across the beach. Passing off the moment of staring as blindness to the sun, Ryouga raised his hand to cover his eyes so she wouldn’t see him keeping them closed and think him a jerk.

"You seem lost, as usual." The girl said. She had this kind of pleasant high-pitched voice that sound like wind chimes.

It took him a moment to realize she had said something fairly unusual that when he finally dared to open his eyes, he noticed his left arm being twined with hers and she was guiding him to a small ice cream shop. "Do I know you?" Ryouga asked, thankful for the help and showing it with a smile and lightness in his tone.

The girl smirked and brushed a hand through her long blonde hair that smacked wetly over her lower back.

Ryouga thought it looked strange with her olive skin and strong, rigid countenance.

She was only slightly shorter than himself and smiled in much the same way Ranma did in his female form. Her eyes had a metallic tinge that made Ryouga shiver slightly, thinking she was some robot underneath, covered in a fake polymer skin. There was an array of tattoos, nonpermanent by the look of them, rising up her left thigh and crossing over her chest, decorating the edges of her bosom and wrapping around her right shoulder to disappear behind her neck. Ryouga wanted to follow that little trail of green and purple art, a beautiful design of spots and stripes. Her arm was dry where she held him so Ryouga suspected the girl had been drying off after recently leaving the ocean.

Bells rang fast, twice, when the parlor doors opened and she led him to one of the booths beside a window. Ryouga sat down, sighing as the cool air-conditioned room helped him relax, forget the heat of the day.

A waitress, short, colored skirt and apron, white shirt, walked up to their table, pink paper cap pinned to her shoulder length black hair, swept behind both ears.

The blonde-haired girl ordered strawberry malt and offered to get him something as well. Ryouga thanked her, but said he had nothing to pay her back with. It was easier to communicate when the subject turned to food. He hadn’t eaten much in the past two days. The girl smiled and ordered a chocolate shake for him. He thanked her.

"You should try walking in straight lines more. At least that way you could just do an about face and start over when you get lost."

Ryouga smiled, uncertain how this girl could know he got lost so easily. She smiled and mentioned some brain chips, new technology you could access for whatever you need. Directions came through GPS; the satellites from the previous American nation were still hanging around in orbit. Still in use with lower systems. Completely safe, she added.

Shrugging, Ryouga let his eyes wander over this tanned beauty’s face and tried to place it within his memories. He could’ve met her in any one of the various nations before the war. Visiting them wasn’t on his agenda, but he likely appeared in about every one of them at some point in time. Anyone he met that long ago though would be far different now. It had been what? Four years?

Blushing, less to do with her greater nudity and more with his memory, Ryouga muttered an apology and tried shaking hands like he’d done with the ESWAT members that picked them up. "I’m Ryouga Hibiki."

"Seraphim." She replied, strong grip.

"Miss Phim." Ryouga acknowledged. She laughed, cheery, warm like her smile and not at all unpleasant to listen to.

"So Ryouga," he liked the way she was so casual with him. Maybe it was her way of saying it was okay for him to do the same. "How are you getting along in Olympus? Third day and you’re already visiting the southern beaches. Nice, huh?"

He turned, following Sara’s gaze out to the sparkling ocean, the waves a good four feet all around, plenty of surfers. People didn’t surf that much in Japan, but he’d seen some contest in Hawaii once, Maui. Looked dangerous with all those rocks near the beach. "How did you know this was my third day?"

She smiled and sat back while the waitress returned with their orders. Ryouga looked at the shake in front of him, but waited for the girl to answer his question. She hadn’t been very good about that so far.

Sara lingered on the straw to her malt for a moment, licking away the extra on her lips when she sat back in her seat again. "I never got anything like this when I was young. Too busy training to enjoy some of the simpler pleasures." Her eyes drifted back to the ocean, seeing something that wasn’t apparent to anyone else. "Missed doing a lot of things when I was younger, took it for granted until I lost it."

Ryouga was lost, but continued to wait for her to make some point. "Lost it?"

She nodded, sipping from her straw. "Technology now-a-days has ways of helping you correct the past. I love spending all the time I can by the ocean now."

"Don’t like it much myself. Always crossing them without realizing." He muttered to himself. This time the girl didn’t laugh, just nodded like she understood and heard it all before. Ryouga took his first sip of the shake and found it pleasantly rich, real chocolate.

"I’ve been following you Ryouga." The girl said. He suspected there had to be something. She continued, like they were old time friends discussing the weather. "You have to go back to the others. Watch them. Someone here in Olympus wants you guys in a bad way. Too many people have been asking questions and it’s making some of the higher ups edgy. You gotta be edgy too." She looked at Ryouga evenly, all humor pushed aside.

Ryouga frowned. Things had seemed strange when they were picked up. And he was certain some of those tests hadn’t been necessary. "Why are you telling me this? What’s it to you?"

The friendly little smile dropped and she leaned over the table slightly, serious and a bit hurt. "I care. It’s been a long time, but I still care. Ranma is probably in this the deepest. Watch over him will you, Pig Boy?"

~

They were walking down a long corridor of lights that radiated with a gas something like halogen because the tubes wound about the corners, seemingly without break. She wasn’t sure how long they had been walking, only that it was slowly angling upwards. Nabiki wondered if they had any stairs that would take them up faster, but didn’t ask.

The woman leading them seemed fairly intelligent, capable and authoritative in all the right ways. It made the city run smoothly to have a woman with some balls to head off the lesser men.

"What did you say?" Nabiki asked. She’d been staring out across the city through the glass walls along the corridor the traveled. She could see clear across the city and into the surrounding area. They were a few hundred feet up after the short elevator ride.

"I was asking how you liked our little island so far?"

Chief of Staff, Nike, was a rather plain beauty much like Kasumi. Her hair was straight and blonde and the clothes she wore was tailored strictly for business, no fancy extras to make you think she was somehow different from anyone else. In her hand, a flat computer with numerous capabilities. It looked to be the size of a notepad, and by the way she carried it, just as light.

Nodding her head in approval, Nabiki said Olympus was a rather magnificent construction.

They came to a pair of large gray doors and entered, Nike holding the door cordially. She offered something to drink; it was declined.

"Well, I’ve been hoping to meet you sooner or later. The Director has been going over the reports Colonel Lance of ESWAT filed with me. You weren’t quite what any of us expected." Nike took a seat behind her average desk in a similar cushioned chair. Behind her was a small row of cabinets, framing some religious painting Nabiki recalled as ‘Tree of Eden’.

"Macey’s work." Nike commented, nodding to the painting. "Like it?"

There was a silence while Nabiki studied the painting, Ranma seemed bored with the etiquette of civilized discussion and looked about the room. Nabiki’s eye went to the outer edges of the painting, finding white where there should have been color. "A good replica." She commented dryly.

Shrugging, Nike leaned back in her chair. "If all we look for is the worth in life and not the art, we miss out on more than we could have gained."

"I suppose." Nabiki looked again at the painting then turned in a show of disinterest. "But I don’t plan on living my life in pretense." The point was conceded. "Olympus and this painting hold much in common in that respect."

This frazzled Nike slightly but she contained her momentary anger, displaying a smile while gripping the seat of her chair in her right hand. "Do not judge lest ye be judged yourself. Olympus is a base point for the future of your species. Things aren’t run the same here as they are elsewhere because of this fact. Aegis is cautious to learn where the light is hidden rather than stumble blindly into that future."

So many years and she could still push people in the right direction without them truly knowing it. Nabiki felt a sense of power in these types of meetings, understanding the flow and tossing in a pebble until the water was moved slightly. "Aegis is looking for answers in a zoo then. The exhibits are nice, but the animals are trapped in very intricate walls."

"Nabs, what’s this got to do with me?" Ranma asked in a bored tone, picking at the seam of his armrest.

Shaking her head, Nabiki saw Nike smile.

"I assume you are referring to our interest in you?" Ranma nodded to her question. "The Orion group planned this island to be a place of hope for the years after the war. They wanted to spread peace and prosperity amongst the many nations and to that end they constructed a new race, who would serve humans as a means to that end."

"That’s pretty altruistic of’em."

Nabiki blinked and looked at Ranma with a bit of shock. She wasn’t sure if he was referring to the bioroids or the Orion group, but either way it was a big word for Ranma to mouth.

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Hey, I didn’t sleep all the time in school."

Waiting for Ranma to turn back to her, Nike hid an amused smile. "Did you know that unlike humans, we bioroids can no longer evolve? We are genetically static, with a limited supply of alterable DNA."

"You’re hoping a new influx of genetic code will give your society a . . . boost of vitality?" Nabiki asked.

Nike shook her head. "Not exactly. We think you could help us out with more than escaping a bottleneck effect in our futures."

Ranma raised his right hand like he was back in the classroom, Nike acknowledged him. "A what?"

"The bottleneck effect is a severe cut into a population as a result of disease, plague. It was commonly observed in the cheetah population of Africa. You see the cheetah has a very small amount of genetic diversity, which makes them less resilient to the effects of sickness. Most of them would die because a very small population of cheetah would have a natural immunity to the plague. We bioroids are in much the same shape. Technology helps us filter many of the dangerous diseases and bacteria in the environment, but we are still human and constant interbreeding will eventually lead to a slow death in our society."

Nike looked Ranma straight in the eye. Though it wasn’t the harsh look most people gave him when they did that, he flinched and turned away. "You are more important to us than some new scrap of genetic material. We believe you have the potential to help us move beyond our shortcomings in the evolutionary path."

"Those tests." Nabiki looked mildly irritated. "The time you made us spend in quarantine, how much of that was actually necessary?"

Nodding, Nike looked back to Nabiki. "You’re right. Many of those tests were not necessary at all. But we-"

"What?!" Ranma stood up, slapping his palm onto the table. "You were using me . . us?!"

"Yes." She replied simply. "Understand that what you have could save more than just the people on this island. You would be helping us help other struggling nations around the worl-"

"No! I have had it with being used like this." Ranma growled and headed for the large doors. "C’mon Nabiki. We’re done here."

The doors opened and slammed against the adjacent wall as Ranma left the room. Nabiki was still sitting in her chair, pondering over what had been said before leveling her eyes with Nike. Nodding, she stood and left, quietly heading after her enraged lover.

~

Nike watched them go. There was no need to hold them here against their will. Things didn’t work like that. Too much pressure and people fight back even harder. No, to get her project off the wall she needed cooperation and they needed time.

Ranma had missed it, not her. Ranma was too busy thinking of himself and the injustice of being used to really notice the look Nabiki had gotten on her face.

It was like that a lot, she realized. No matter how magnanimous a person was, or how in love the couple felt, dissension rose from the smallest cracks. This wasn’t going to divide them, she hoped. Nike needed Nabiki needling Ranma to get what she wanted. She could see it in the girl’s eyes that their needs for greater genetic diversity were being considered.

They’d look into sweetening the deal a little later when Ranma looked like he was going to sway in their direction a little more. The project was high profile, no expense too great, so the Ministry shouldn’t have problems. Getting to Nabiki would be easier with the sentimentality Ranma was displaying for his uniqueness.

Probably got off on it, she thought.

"Is it going to be okay like that?"

A side door to her office swung open and the good doctor from the Nerima group walked in. He was dressed in the lab-coat he’d likely donned some five years ago. She remembered him joining the Appleseed project long ago to get his mind off the woman, Kasumi.

Nike sat back down at her desk and started going over the analysis of expected changes if the DNA strains could be introduced. This would bring about a new era for bioroid and clone alike, not to mention some further research to the various ‘chi’ and ‘ki’ mecha extrapolations. "All good things come to those who wait. We don’t want to make an enemy of your friends. Rather they accepted and saw the benefit to what could be accomplished."

Toufuu nodded. "I understand that. If it had been any other way, you would not be having my help."

That’s what made Toufuu such an asset. Nike agreed that he was an intelligent and skilled professional, but he also knew the boundaries of morality and good judgement. They weren’t terrorists, hijacking chromosomes of the unsuspecting.

"Do you want me to report this to the Director?" he asked.

Nike shut the pages of Gaia’s research and shook her head. She’d take care of Athena personally, worked better that way. "Where is Cologne?"

"Elder Cologne, honorary amongst her people." Toufuu corrected. "I left her down at the labs, she’s likely explaining to them the basics of ki. Elder Cologne doesn’t like revealing too much of anything, especially when we are still unknowns in her book."

Waving the doctor off, Nike sat back in her chair, lounging as she watched the sun shine off the nearby arcology, red in the evening. It was a beautiful world they created, just needed to keep it going.

~

It was more of a spontaneous decision, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Akane had dragged Kasumi back to the market after dropping off the groceries in their new home. They needed to do a little stalking, make sure things in Olympus were more or less on the level than the impression she was beginning to get now.

The young woman she and Kasumi had noticed earlier was still working cash register at the produce store. Akane never took her eyes from the girl as her sister ordered some coffee from the passing waitress. Maybe she should’ve done this by herself, but Akane didn’t feel safe around all these strange people. She would’ve rathered take Ranma or Ryouga, but neither had shown up at the house today.

"Do you really think this is necessary, Akane?"

She nodded. "We have to know if things are safe here, Kasumi. You saw that girl. She’s a dead ringer for Ukyou, and we know these geeks are all hot on cloning." Some of the local patrons seemed to take offense, but Akane didn’t notice.

Kasumi sighed and thanked the waitress as she returned with their orders. It didn’t look like they were going to make it back for a proper dinner, which was probably best since the rest of the group was out in Olympus somewhere. Well, she knew where Toufuu and Cologne were. "It just doesn’t feel right to . . to spy on people. We could just go up and-"

"No way." Akane stated firmly. "We do that and she lets someone know we’ve caught on, then where are we?"

Kasumi looked blank.

"Lost. That’s where we are. Up the creek without a paddle." She noticed the food. It smelled good. Akane took a bite then returned to her window. "What then, huh? Get caged up by these freaks and force-fed chemicals through our nostrils?"

"Enjoying your meal are you then?"

Akane winced. Behind her was the same waitress, coming by to make sure they had everything they needed. Blushing, Akane smiled weakly and made a show of eating her food. It was good, but she couldn’t taste it with the woman watching her.

"I think you’re going a bit overboard, Akane." Kasumi clucked at her now that the waitress had left. "You have no reason to feel so insecure."

"Yeah, well . ." She was having some trouble thinking of a good reason, actually.

Kasumi sipped at her tea then looked out the window. The girl was getting off work, hanging up her apron in the background and coming out now with a glossy black jacket, shining in the streetlight. Her sister stood then and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?!" Akane demanded.

Pointing at the girl, Kasumi headed out of the shop.

"Hey!" Akane stood up but the waitress was already there, impeding her way with a small black plastic tray.

"The bill." The waitress seemed smug just then.

~

"Excuse me." Kasumi called out to the young woman. She didn’t know what she was doing, but spying simply did not sit well with her. The girl stopped to look back at her. "Hi, do you remember me? From this afternoon?"

The girl seemed blank for a moment then smiled. "Oh, of course! That still doesn’t explain why the two of you were hanging out in that diner all evening watching me."

Kasumi looked embarrassed for a moment and realized she was alone for the moment. "My little sister wanted to talk to you but didn’t know how to approach you. I’m sorry if we caused you any trouble."

"Nah." The girl waved the apology off. "I had my manager close by."

Kasumi recoiled momentarily. "We would never-"

"You!" Akane charged in, jabbing her finger into the girl’s chest. "What have you done with Ukyou?!"

Very subtle Akane, Kasumi grimaced, desiring the large crowds of this afternoon to lose herself in.

The girl looked down at Akane pushing her finger into her chest. Somehow amused she looked back at Akane with the ‘as-you-were-saying’ twinkle in her eyes.

"This is my little sister, Akane. My name is Kasumi."

The girl nodded. "Miyaka. Nice to meet you. Who is Ukyou?"

~

Hitomi met them on the palisade over the lobby. Elevator doors opened and Ranma just stepped out, more interested in leaving the building than being polite. Nabiki followed, still a bit in her own thoughts.

"Hiya!" Hitomi waved as the doors opened. She was standing there, leaning against the railing, a trench coat over her shoulders like a flasher might think of. Her feet legs were bare except for the one-inch pumps of some sparkling purple-blue material.

Ranma kept walking.

"Hitomi." Nabiki acknowledged the other girl and kept a pace behind Ranma, looking out over the lobby to the large windows lighting the building up naturally with the falling sun. "That Yoshitsune-kun out there?"

Walking beside them now, Hitomi linked arms with Nabiki like some girls did in high school. She nodded after taking a look to be certain Nabiki was pointing to the right motorhead. "How could you tell?"

"You told me he worked with Akechi Motors. Labels all over his clothes."

Hitomi smiled, embarrassed. "He’s got less fashion sense than-"

"You?" she smirked at the flustered bioroid and stepped onto the escalator, curving down the side of the lobby.

"This," Hitomi picked at the collar of her tan coat. ", is just cover while I’m in the building. I was busy getting set up to head back out to Badside when the call comes in and the mission is scrubbed."

"Oh?" Stepping off the escalator, Ranma had apparently been listening to the conversation on some level.

Nodding, Hitomi switched sides with Nabiki, getting in between her and Ranma, and linked arms again. Nabiki wanted to start skipping and sing "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", but endured the girl while she was still good for easy information.

"Didn’t tell us any specifics, but I get the idea the girl (Ranko, was it?) is already in Olympus." She shrugged when Ranma asked how they knew that. "Got me, Athena just told the Colonel to scrub the mission and so here I am. All dressed up and nowhere to go."

"Yeah, nowhere until they give her a few days off. Paid vacation. Now that’s the way to go." The young man, oil greases over shirt and pants, extended a gloved hand Ranma’s direction. "Yoshitsune Miyamoto."

Taking the hand, firm shake, Ranma introduced himself and Nabiki.

"So she comes home, completely misses out on yelling at me for all the spare parts lying around on the kitchen floor and says we have to pick up the new guys and take’em out on the town." He smiled, patting one of the two bikes in his possession. "Course, I insisted on only the best means of transportation."

"It was only a good thing we couldn’t find any of the others or you’d be driving us around in the Akechi van." Hitomi jabbed him in the chest with her finger. Yoshitsune shrugged and passed her one of the helmets, asked who wanted to ride with him.

Nabiki wouldn’t have minded going with either one. Of course, the two-door coup Nike had them picked up in would have been better. She shrugged and waited for Ranma to decide. He’d likely go with Hitomi, knowing how Ranma felt with guys in his male form.

Setting a helmet on his head, Ranma grabbed Hitomi about the waist and tried to speak up over the loud roar of the engines. "Look, we appreciate the ride and all, but it’s sorta been a long day. I don’t know-"

"Walkie talkies in the helmet. Don’t need to yell." Yoshitsune smacked the side of his head to clear the ringing.

The bikes took off like the friction was infinite around the tires. No squeals for the high velocity just pure speed down the road. Hitomi took the lead, winding around the slower cars, almost daring someone to get in her way. "Aw! C’mon! We can go by this really great club down in the plaza."

"Uh-uh. Not again. Let’s try somewhere a little more normal. Those fantasy dress up joints creep me out." Yoshi complained.

They didn’t see it, but Nabiki rolled her eyes and prayed they got home soon.

"Actually, a club might get my mind off things for a while."

"Great!" Hitomi would’ve jumped for joy if she weren’t rolling down the main highway at 140 kilometers an hour. Metric units became standardized through Olympus; no one was going to dispute it usefulness over the other system.

Lights and buildings became a blur as Nabiki hunkered down against Yoshitsune; shorts and a light shirt weren’t the best choice for a night ride. It was fortunate to be wearing the helmet or she’d be sure a heavy smell of motor oil and part lubricant would’ve nauseated her. All she got from the jacket was a sense that Akechi Motors was her kind of place, only a little messy.

~

Strobing lights, stylized mirror walls, flashy neon runners along the railings and stairs, band wailing some techno-symphany piece, rolling and swaying in the air.

Ranma was right, he felt relieved of the day, twisting and grinding along with the music, Nabiki molded to his body in ways that seemed illegal. She smiled at him, arms and hair in a sheen of sweat. It was similar to the way she looked the night before, only this time her eyes were opened and mouth closed.

Somewhere, mixed in with the crowd of youthful dancers, Hitomi and Yoshi were watching. Yoshi wasn’t big on any of this, dancing, making a spectacle. Ranma loved making a spectacle, making people notice him for being more than the next person. It took only fifteen minutes of watching others, getting to understand how they moved, to take some of that spotlight here. All he had to do was look at it like martial arts and everything seemed to make sense, a new kata that he mastered.

Nabiki was wearing something entirely different from what he’d usually seen. The short shorts and thin top was left behind at Hitomi’s place, exchanged for the cotton black dress that barely reached below her butt.

He liked seeing her like this. Happy. Not a care for what might be happening around her. Focused on the here, now. Nabiki sometimes fell back to her old ways, making deals and taking people for all the money she could. It’s been happening more frequently since they arrived in Olympus. That first night had sort of been a deal. She made it worth the wait, but in a way he was now hers alone. It was the way he was; Nabiki knew that.

A song finished and the crowd cheered. It was a rumbling sound through his stomach, an occasional squeal or whistle. Nabiki nodded to the side of the room, indicating where Hitomi and Yoshitsune were sitting. Ranma nodded in reply.

"Wow, you two are hot out there!" Hitomi had a steady red crowning her nose and cheeks. The glasses of some brownish liquid went a ways to explain that. Yoshi was much better, only a beer, half-empty, sat before him.

Flashing a wide grin, Nabiki dropped herself into a chair across from Hitomi, slipping her fingers between the sweat-soaked strands of hair. "It’s all Ranma. I’m just hanging on."

"You do much of this before, Ranma?" Yoshi asked, he seemed out of place with faded, however clean, work clothes.

Shrugging, Ranma grabbed the water in front of him and took a few big gulps. He tried to get something with alcohol, but the bartender kept giving him this strange look. It took Nabiki’s effort to keep him from being thrown out. He still frowned when some nobody asked if she was babysitting him. "Nah, my friends talked about it. Never had much time till now."

Yoshi nodded and took another sip of his beer. They waited the next song out, another fast beat, throb of bass that continued to echo through your skull even when it was over. There was no musical brilliance behind any of the pieces, but the never-changing beat made it easy to learn.

Though it was loud, and the hundreds of milling people made it hard to concentrate on just one individual, Hitomi kept talking to them, going on about how glad they weren’t so reserved as Deunan and Briareos.

Another two songs ended before Hitomi finally felt refreshed and sloshed that she grabbed Yoshi by the collar and dragged him out onto the dance floor. She moved, swinging her arms up by her head and twisting her hips left and right. Yoshi, blushing slightly, tried to get his arms to match Hitomi’s swing, but he couldn’t budge his legs, so he sort of stuttered in position, blushing even more in embarrassment.

Grinning, Ranma looked at Nabiki and took her hand. He didn’t notice it at first, her hand seemed to grow and the sweat on his shirt got colder.

"Ow! You’re a foxy one!"

Someone had sidled up next to her, his body pressing against her side. Ranma was still holding Nabiki’s hand in her right and the falling trousers in her left. She grimaced, trying to cinch the ties at her waist and lash out at the man at the same time. It ended up that she didn’t have to. Nabiki pulled in between her and the assailant, bumping him out of the way.

Ranma screamed that she was going to change. It was hard tell if Nabiki heard, she hardly heard herself, but the other girl nodded and Ranma tried to work her way to the bathroom.

She was caught off guard before taking five steps and dropped the slacks. Hitomi was in her face, smelled of Kaluah, and screaming how she was happy to finally meet her.

Ranma made no response and tried to pick up her pants, but someone knocked into her and she was sent sprawling in another direction, slacks left behind. She was glad the size difference between forms made the silk shirt look like a short dress with her black sash held in place. Nabiki’s dress was short, but at least it didn’t have slits up the sides all the way to her waistline.

It was not her night. Someone else caught her before she fell to the ground. Their hands were under her arms as her face ran into a steel hard stomach. It wasn’t real steel, but some serious muscle definition. "Watch where you’re going will ya?!"

Ranma blinked and looked up at the man. He was in some brown pants, a yellow shirt tied about his waist, and a black and yellow checkered bandanna holding up his bangs. "Ryouga?"

The fanged grin was enough verification. Ryouga helped her stand back up, but she continued to lean into him. He’d grown a lot since their first meeting in Nerima, she realized. The two of them had fought often enough and yet Ranma never took the time to really pay any attention to the ‘Lost Boy’. Boy, she glanced over his chiseled body, was a term that no longer applied.

~

It was all rather confusing at first. Ryouga stepped into the nightclub and was instantly lost amongst the throngs of artificial leather, neo-glo, sweating dancers. The party had been going on for so long that steam was rising over the crowd like a mist, burning with light from pulsing fluorescent tubes running around the room.

Sara had dropped him off at the front door, saying she had friends keeping an eye on things, just in case. He didn’t entirely trust her. She knew things and left so much out that he was still in a haze about everything. It was getting so messed up he wasn’t sure which way was up when he needed air.

Walking through the crowd, surging to the music like seaweed in the waves, Ryouga tried to concentrate on his goal. He had to stay close to Ranma; he agreed with Sara on that point. Everything, problems small and large alike, all had Ranma at its epicenter for some strange reason. Fate was simply unkind to the pigtailed martial artist; Ryouga liked that idea so much he smiled.

He was still smiling when someone stumbled into him. His shirt was off after the long day in the heat and kept that way since it blended with the crowd fairly well. Out of reflex, he caught the stumbling woman in his arms, warm pools spilling through his system at the contact of flesh on flesh. She was a looker. He could tell just by the way she felt in his arms.

It was then that he looked down into the vibrant blue eyes he’d seen since middle school. Strange, but they never looked so deep and enticing, like they encapsulated his very being. Whatever he had said earlier, the other reflex built into his scornful life, was forgotten while he helped the young redhead stand back up.

"Ryouga?"

He just kept smiling. Ranma wasn’t pulling away; instead she leaned into him. Ryouga felt the swell of her bosom against his chest, soft and warm.

No one else in this world, no other beautiful girl, made him feel so strong and controlled. Ranma had her hands on his sides like she needed him to stay steady. The moment could’ve lasted forever and Ryouga would think it wasn’t long enough.

It never was.

~

"When did you get in?!" Hitomi was fairly beside herself with excitement and bewilderment. She wanted to know what kind of person, a human female, could get such attention that she was asked for personally by the seven.

Ranma stepped away quickly from Ryouga, her eyes lingering for a moment. It was good the room was so hot or someone may have asked about the blush that overcame her.

Slacks in hand, Nabiki worked her way through the crowd, close enough that she was pressed against Ranma’s back and crossing her arms in front of the redhead. "Ranko." She said, loud enough to be sure Ryouga heard her over the music.

"Uh, hey guys." Ranma blinked then dragged her attention to the arms around her and pulled herself to the present. Covering Nabiki’s arms with her own, Ranma smiled. Nabiki was no more so comfortable, like a velvet garment, as when she was bigger then Ranma.

Cursed, Ranma came up to Nabiki’s chin. Nabs had grown normally unlike herself. It wasn’t so noticeable when they lied down next to each other in bed, but everything changed when they stood up. It didn’t help that Nabiki was now wearing some two-inch heels she’d borrowed from Hitomi. She ended up looking like someone’s little girl than the twenty-two year old she knew herself to be.

Introductions were made back at the table and Ranma claimed she had come in with Ryouga after running into him on the island. Ryouga went along with the story, very aware of the danger Ranma could be in if the curses were revealed to the wrong people. They had drinks, she still couldn’t get anything from the bar and it was getting to the point that she really needed something now.

"What happened to Ranma?" Yoshitsune asked, staring at the pants Nabiki had thrown over her chair.

"Passed him on the way in." Ryouga claimed. "Said he needed to leave. Cologne called I think."

"Do you think we should go back too?" Hitomi asked worriedly.

Shaking her head, Ranma said it was some private matter and he’d likely be back later.

They concluded the evening anyway on the count that Yoshi couldn’t dance, Hitomi couldn’t walk, and the band couldn’t sing. It was more trance. The music was just giving everyone a headache the longer they heard it. Ranma didn’t even notice she had grabbed Ryouga’s arm until Nabiki threw the black slacks in her face.

~

The building for the Ministry of Internal Affairs was semi-circular in design. A long sloping face of glass that stopped two floors above the lobby was angled just so to catch the evening light and maintain a certain natural illumination. There was no sun any longer, only a moon surrounded with stars. The lights on in the building were few in number at such a late hour. Akane was fairly surprised anyone beyond the guards to be working at all.

She and Kasumi decided to come here after the embarrassing incident with Miyaka. Her sister was still fiddling with the phone number the girl they had been stalking gave her. So maybe it had been easier to do things Kasumi’s way, but Akane wasn’t so easily satisfied that there wasn’t a hidden agenda somewhere.

"Do you think we missed them? It’s kind of late." Akane commented, depressed now that she had time to think. Thinking often led to Ranma one way or another. At the moment she was thinking of the lurid things her sister, Nabiki, would be making Ranma do at such a late hour.

"Toufuu said he and grandma would be here until nine." They’d both heard the message on the answering machine when they checked in at the house. No one had been home, only a message from Toufuu and another from Nabiki calling from Hitomi’s.

Akane soured. "She’s not really our grandmother."

A look of slight irritation crossed Kasumi’s face. "I know that. But it makes Cologne feel better and she’s been living with us for so long she may as well be."

Snorting, Akane leaned against the dead fountain piece in the courtyard.

"Now my presence hasn’t been all that troublesome, has it?"

Akane missed her seat and slid off the concrete slab, hitting her butt on the ground. "Ite. Don’t scare me like that."

Cologne smiled down at Akane who glared crossly back at her. "Well, Toufuu. I must say that was more fun than I thought it would be."

"Fun?" He asked, pushing his glasses up his nose more securely. "In what way?"

"Things have come quite a long way." She commented cryptically. "All this technology. The people here are capable of quite a range of amazing things."

Toufuu nodded in agreement. "It rather seems like paradise. I had my doubts, but things turned out quite nicely."

"You should know, shouldn’t you." Cologne eyed him harshly, all humor dead in her voice. "Were you ever going to tell us or did you hope we simply wouldn’t notice. I’m certain Nabiki at least would have figured it out when Ranma goes missing for nine months."

"Missing?!" Akane blinked in surprise, allegiance quickly sliding to Cologne as she gazed hard at Toufuu. "What’s she talking about?"

Kasumi also looked a bit startled by Cologne’s accusation. She was still loyal to Toufuu, having never had any reason to distrust him, more the opposite, in fact. Still, she couldn’t help but eye him carefully.

Smiling, Toufuu leaned down until he was at a closer eye level with the withered old woman. "It’s not so bad as you make it sound, Elder."

"Isn’t it?" Cologne arched an eyebrow. "I for one am not likely to respond kindly to being experimented upon."

"Really." He waved a hand to calm her Cologne down. "It’s not like that. We were going to give you all the option after you settled in a little and recovered from the ordeal in the war."

"What’s he talking about?" Akane asked Cologne.

Kasumi wanted to know as well. She was about to ask when something hard and metallic was pressed against her head.

"That’s what we would like to know too."

Cologne gasped.

End Chapter Three

* * *

That took longer than it should’ve. But it’s better late than never. This chapter was based mainly about the Ranma gang because nothing has happened within the story to really require our usual Appleseed heroes. Fear not, Deunan and Briareos shall return ‘decked to the nines’. A phrase I heard somewhere, probably misquoted it though.

Minor information on bioroids of Olympus. At least in my story they are not really suffering from the lack of genetic code. They can’t propagate in the usual way anyway. Nike was right when she said they couldn’t evolve. They are reaching the ends of genetic manipulation with the number of viable donors. However, they could continue to clone people, but no progress would truly be made.

Ja ne.