Chapter Two: Meetings

Inside the large house located in Tokyo...

"Aw. Man. Where in the world are the others anyway? Right about now I'd even be glad to see Heero's grumpy face." A boy, about sixteen, with long brown hair styled in a long braid grumbled.

"I am so bored." The boy looked up at the low ceiling of his house. "I wish that Kami-sama would do something to make this place livelier. Anything would be fine, just let something happen." The boy sighed.

"Aahhh!!"

"Huh?" Duo looked up in time to catch a girl with red hair. Where did she fall from, was his stunned thought, as he looked down at the curvaceous bundle in his arms. Duo was now officially confused. More precisely, How in the world was she able to fall in here? Duo looked at his ceiling again, just to make sure it hadn't suddenly sprouted a hole.

"The cat!" the girl exclaimed as she caught a strange looking feline that fell after her. She turned around to thank her savior. "Thank you very much. My name's Ranko Saotome, and I'm glad to meet you."

Ranko waited a minute for a reaction from the boy. "Hello?" Ranko waved her hands in front of the boy's face. "You can put me down now, I ain't crippled ya know." The boy snapped out of his trance.

Duo blushed slightly and hastily put the girl, now Ranko, down. "My name's um.. Duo Maxwell. Nice to meet you too."

Ranko looked at Duo and began to move closer. She stopped once she was several inches from his face. She touched his forehead. Duo turned beet red. "Your face is so red. Did you get a sunburn or something?"

"Um.. y..yeah. I got it yesterday." He couldn't stop blushing.

"Oh," Ranko replied. She was positive that he didn't have that sunburn a few minutes ago, oh well. Ranko dismissed that thought.

This is weird, why is everyone all of a sudden getting sunburns. Last time, when she had been with, what's his name' that guy, she had accidentally hit him too hard, sending him sprawling to the floor. When she went to help him up, he'd had one a sunburn as well. Now that she thought about it, only the boys had been getting them.

Hmmm, she thought to herself, maybe boys get sensitive to the sun when they start to grow up. She glanced at him at the corner of her eye. Oh well.

++++++++++

Some time later...

"So what you're telling me is that this is the year after colony 196 after project z or m whatever?" Ranko asked, disbelief clearly shown on her face.

Duo nodded confused. Why is she so shocked? She's about my age so there's no reason why she doesn't know that it's the year after colony 196. Does it have anything to do with her.. ahem "sudden" arrival?

At first Ranko frowned slightly as she thought about her predicament. "I can't believe...well, I guess I could believe it but still... I'm in the future. T-that means no O-okaasan, Tendos, friends..."

She trailed off. I can't believe it. No Okaasan...but that also means... Her expression brightened up slightly. "No enemies, jerks, perverts, and best of all..." Her face turned to delight as she thought about the last thing that she left behind, "-no baka Oyagi! Cool. This isn't so bad after all... it just means that I don't have all these people after my head or want to marry me!" She smiled. Maybe this isn't so bad after all. Although I'll still miss Okaasan.. Her smile faltered for a second.

"Wait! What do you mean by enemies, Ranko? And what about people after your head or wanting to marry you?!" Duo asked confused. "And what ya mean by the future?" This must be a joke. Yes, what she said couldn't be true.

"Well, Duo. I'm from the past. Before I came here it was only the year 2000 and I had so much enemies that you couldn't count them all! Plus, my father was a real jerk and engaged me to so many people to save his lazy butt. Once he sold me for a bowl of rice, one fish, and two pickles!" The redhead's face scrunched up in anger at the thought.

"..." Duo was stunned. The idea may have sounded weird but then again him being an ex-Gundam pilot at such a young age was strange too. Besides, this did explain how she got in my house. "Hey, if you don't have anywhere to stay... do you want to stay here?" There was a slightly hopeful tone in his voice. Oh please stay here. Please stay here. Please stay here.

Ranko nodded grateful. "Thanks Duo! I wouldn't have known where to go. I don't think that folks now and days like anything to do with fighting huh?"

Duo gave out a silent 'YES!!' when he heard Ranko accepting his invitation. Duo nodded at her next question. It was true. Ever since Oz had been destroyed there was no need for weapons or fighting. Just when there was some peace and quiet having someone asking for jobs involving fighting would not be appreciated.

Ranko patted the cute kitty that was with her and then sniffed it. "Umm... Duo?" She looked uncertainly at the cat in her hands. It was kind of smelly.

"What?" Duo said, turning to her.

"Can I borrow your towel and shower? I hadn't shower since the morning of my time and I want to bath this kitty too." She smiled brightly holding up the cat for Duo to see. The cat, however, protested with a meow. I wonder why it's so resistant to the thought of a shower?

Oh well, I guess all animals don't like showers now that I think about it. Sayuri did mention before that when she had tried to give a bath to her dog, it had taken her several hours and with a lot of help to get him into the shower.

"Oh okay," Duo said. He stood up, went inside his room and came back with two large towels. "Here you go." He handed the towels to Ranko.

She bowed slightly and walked towards the bathroom. When the door to the bathroom closed, Duo slumped in his chair. He let out a deep sigh. "Man, me and my big mouth for wanting something exciting to happen. Well, I sure got something." Then the doorbell rang. Duo got up and walked to the door. He was surprised at who it was. More like who they were. "Hey everyone." He stood back as Relina, Heero, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei walked in. "What brings you here?"

Relina smiled politely as Heero nodded his head in greeting. Trowa and Quatre both said, "Hey!" before walking over to the couch. Wufei just hmphed and went to turn on the TV.

"Well," Relina began. "You see we figured that you were bored so we just came over to entertain you." Besides, she added silently, Heero and Wufei needs to get out more often. It's amazing how they can stand that stuffy control room all day long!

Duo smiled. "You're the best Relina. Thanks for thinking about me." He gestured for Relina and Heero to take a seat. Too bad, he thought silently, if I had known that they were coming then I wouldn't have wished for something to happen.

While Wufei was turning the television on he heard the shower running. "Maxwell! Do you have company or what?" He said in a commanding voice. The Chinese boy hadn't change much when all the fighting had stopped. He did seem slightly less stern, though.

Duo stratched the back of his head, very like the way Ryouga does. "He, he. Well, yeah. I guess you could say that. Very unexpected actually." He smiled sheepishly. If you only knew, he thought.

Everyone all looked confused at Duo. 'I wonder who it is?' was the exact thoughts of four ex-Gundam pilots and one ex-queen of Earth.

++++++++++

Ranko took off her blue shirt and slacks and neatly left it on the laundry box. She decided that it would be better if she and the cat showered together. Ranko walked over to the shower and turned it on. 'Best if it was warm,' Ranko thought looking at the cute feline.

She leaned over to pick up the cat but it dodged her hand. It snarled slightly, showing its dislike for water. More specifically, hot water. "Now, now. Neko-chan. You have to shower or you'll end up stinky." After a while of unsuccessful coaxing, she reached out and caught the cat. The cat let out a meow of protest.

Ranko stepped inside the shower with a struggling Neko-chan and.. a teenage girl with violet hair was next to her. "Shampoo!" Ranko jumped back outside the shower in surprise. "Wait, you're the cat aren't you?"

Shampoo nodded angrily and got out of the shower too. She reached over to the towels and dried herself. Then she went inside her subpocket and got out her usual Chinese clothes. Ranko also did likewise.

After Ranko finished wearing her white tank top and blue jeans, she turned to Shampoo. "That means that you're cursed too!" Her face saddened as she came to the revelation that the Chinese Amazon was probably cursed because of her. Ranko was about to say more to her enemy/friend but Shampoo had pulled out her bonbori. She let out a tiny "eep" and dodged as the bonbori came by her head.

Shampoo growled as she continued trying to maim Ranko. Ranko dodged Shampoo's attacks as she tried to calm her 'friend' down. "Shampoo!" lean back "Stop, c'mon..." duck "pretty please?!"

++++++++++

Not long after Wufei had questioned Duo about his 'unexpected guest' they heard a commotion going on in the bathroom. Confused, they turned to look towards the bath. "Um, Duo...what do you think is going on I-" Quatre was cut off as the door to the bathroom slammed open. The blond Arabian boy jumped in surprise. "Whoa!" Jeez these people. No respect at all. He blinked at what he had thought. Darn, I have got to stay away from Richard. That old fella is sure affecting me with his complaints about rude teenagers.

A redhead ran out of the bathroom yelling frustrated at someone in the bathroom. They wondered who was in there with her and as they were about to voice their question another girl ran out. The Chinese girl with a unique hair color, purple, was holding what seemed like two macelike bonboris in both of her hands.

Ranko ducked underneath yet another powerful blow as Shampoo continued to growl frustrated at the lack of connection. Ranko jumped over a chair, which was immediately demolished.

"Hey!" Duo yelled. That was one of his designer chairs! He glared at the Chinese girl.

Ranko sighed and glanced at the braided boy. "Sorry!" She stopped and turned to Shampoo. "Stop Shampoo! You're destroying all of Duo's-" Ranko was cut off when a figure raced in front of her blocking her view of her enemy/friend. The figure turned out to be some brunette girl wearing a blue sweater and matching pants.

Relina swung her arms wide in front of the redhead. "Stop all this fighting! You can not solve problems with violence!" She yelled out, determined to get the two to stop.

Shampoo and Ranko sweat dropped. No violence? A scary image of a Kasumi-like Shampoo smiling at Ranko and knitting some kind of sweater flashed in her mind.

*Image*

Shampoo stopped for a moment to rub her large stomach and cooed at her unborn baby. "It much more better to stop fighting. Shampoo glad Shampoo no longer warrior and agree to Mousse Airen. Ranko smiled at her doing the same to her-

*End Image*

Shampoo shook her head to clear the 'pacifist' thoughts out her mind. "Unviolent girl get out of way! Shampoo must kill Ranko!" When Relina had refused to budge, Shampoo charged at her reluctantly. She didn't really want to kill this girl since she was really after Ranko but anything that was in the way of her regaining her honor must be eliminated.

Heero's eyes widened slightly as he lunged for Relina in vain. He was too far away from her though. An image of a bloody corpse that used to be Relina filled his mind. "Noo..RELINA!"

Relina closed her eyes, bracing for a violent attack. *SPLASH!* It never came though. She opened her eyes slowly and saw the redhead, Ranko, standing before a soaking purple cat. She let go of the breath she had been holding unconsciously. Then she looked at the cat, confused at why it was standing there soaking wet.

"But-bu-but..how..cat--water..shampoo..butbutub" Duo babbled as he stared at the wet cat. The other Gundams were in similar states.

Relina looked at the boys and raised one of her eyebrows. "Where is Shampoo?" She asked. They all pointed dumbstruck to the furious feline. "..WHAT?!" No, no, no. She thought over and over in her head. It can NOT be true. No, no, no. This isn't possible. They're kidding I know it, yeah. Yeah that's right, but why are they still pretending to be so shocked?

Ranko sighed as set the bucket down next to her. "Shampoo.." She muttered shaking her head. "I'm sorry..but I couldn't have allowed you to harm that girl..." She turned to look at the other people in Duo's house. She guessed that they were his friends and sighed heavily knowing that she had some explaining to do. She glanced at the cursed Amazon and gasped. A hole opened up underneath her and swallowed her. She ran desperately towards where the Amazon had once been horrified. A piece of paper emerged from the floor next to her foot. She grabbed for it and read it frantically. Her jaw dropped. "What?!"

Duo stopped babbling incoherent words when he heard Ranko shout. He left a slack jawed Wufei and walked over to Ranko tentatively. Seeing that she wasn't going to lash out at him he slowly took the letter out of her grasp. Thank God she didn't do anything rash, or I'll probably be dead by now. He glanced nervously at her. Yup, thank God.

The others snapped out of their shock from seeing the violent 'Shampoo' be swallowed by a 'hole.' They walked over to Duo and read the paper in his had.

Ranko Saotome,

Sorry to scare you but Miss Shampoo is fine. She is back in her time now since she was not supposed to follow you to the future. You must be wondering why you are there in the future, huh? I am sad to say that you not being here in the past is crucial to the survival of the planet. See here, you have the most chaotic energy and it will surely wreck havoc all over the world. At least in the future there are already crazy advanced technology to do all the trouble for you. IF you do find a way back...don't go after us! We are just following orders!

Sincerely,
Bart and Sayuka

Duo bunched up the paper. "Hey! Our world is NOT messed up!" The others just nodded mutely. Then, in unison, they turned to the redhead standing not too far from them.

Ranko was shaking in fury. A faint red glow surrounded her and was growing in size. The ex-Gundam pilots and one ex-Queen stepped back anxiously. Then to their relief Ranko stopped still. The weird yet scary glow that had surrounded her disappeared too.

Ranko stood there depressed. Why did they have to leave her here? Her parents are probably dead by now. I knew that I was trapped in the future beforehand, but that doesn't ease the pain one bit. Especially not when I'm sent here because some stupid 'boss' of theirs decided to get rid of me. She sighed sadly and mumbled quietly. "Am I all alone here?"

Relina who had been the closest next to Ranko heard what she had said and immediately felt sympathy for the redhead. She walked up slowly to her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Ranko, you are not alone. I personally know how you feel and that you will never be alone here."

Ranko stiffened as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Was I that distracted that I couldn't sense her coming? She relaxed, however, when the hand just rested lightly on her shoulder. When she heard what the girl said she turned around and looked at her. "Really?" The girl nodded.

Relina took her hand off of the girl's shoulder and put it out before her. "Hi, I'm Relina Peacecraft. Would you like to be friends?"

Ranko nodded smiling and took her hand. "Yeah, friends." As she said those words, a thought popped up in her mind. I will never be alone, will I? The question is, is that bad?

End Chapter Two.