[FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma / X-COM] The Road to Cydonia Chapter 27

[Justin Wagner]

As always, Previous chapters of TRTC can be found on FFN
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2314624/1/The_Road_to_Cydonia

or on my site (which also hosts a UFOpedia and Character Info)
http://www.wagnergrp.com/JBW_Website/Fanfiction/TRTC.htm


-----

Author's Note: For organizational purposes, this chapter (although of
normal length) will be considered two "parts" instead of three. The next
chapter, similarly, will be made up of four "parts" instead of the usual
three. This is the last of the "talkie" chapters before The Big Show of
Chapter 28.

-----

For six years, mankind has waged a Secret War against an enemy from
Beyond the Stars. Despite a surge of activity in the Far East theatre,
and fierce battles waged to unseat the Sirius Conspiracy and avenge the
loss of the Joketsuzoku village, UNETCO and the two new squads have
prevailed time and time again. With the threat of Cologne and other
second generation Trenchards (alien human hybrids) looming ahead, the
high command readies for a strike at one of the planet's last remaining
alien bases. For India and Juliet squads, confrontation with these
corrupted master martial artists is inevitable.

-----

The Road to Cydonia

Chapter XXVII
Guns and Roses

-----

Written by:
Capn Chryssalid
jbraveboy at gmail.com

-----

Seiran Mountain enjoyed a rare degree of isolation in an otherwise
rather crowded island nation. Nestled within state owned parkland, its
altitude, ruggedness, and lack of a picture-esque peak made the location
rather unattractive even for the wilderness hikers who could technically
attempt to climb it. No large or significant wildlife made the mountain
its home; for the most part it was an unremarkable tree-covered hump in
the middle of nowhere. Only its use, fifty years prior, as a hollowed
out shelter hangar for Japanese kamikaze planes gave it any distinction
whatsoever.

It was the middle of December and a peaceful blanket of morning snow had
fallen around the mountain peak and the surrounding woodlands. Only a
few trace clouds drifted meekly across the blue sky, remnants of the
snowstorm that had swept through the day before. On the ground, a rustle
of pine leaves and snow heralded the fall of a tree, disturbing the
serenity of the winter scene. Unfortunately for the forest, the tree was
only the last of several to suffer in the face of the morning's
activities.

"You sure we have to take it down?"

"It's an accident waiting to happen right now."

The tree in question stood, but barely. The ground nearby was pockmarked
by scars: sandy craters blasted into the frosted over soil, outcroppings
or rock and giant stones dashed or cut cleanly into pieces, and other
toppled trees. This last old tree likewise had its wounds from the
battles it had witnessed. In its once sturdy trunk one could see sap
leaking from what appeared to be finger marks and a semi-circular hole
torn into its side. Standing next to the tree, Ryu patted it a few times
while looking up at the branches overhead.

"It isn't that bad," he said, craning his neck. "Still pretty sturdy."

A bandaged hand ran over the jagged hole in its side.

"It'll be rotted through by spring." Ryouga stooped down to get a close
look at the damage. "There's no way this hole will grow over."

"It should be fine!" Ryu assured him, leaning against the tree to show
its sturdiness. "Besides, what's the chance it'll fall right when
someone walks by?"

"Someone besides you walks by," he quickly annotated.

"All right. All right!" Ryouga relented, and stood straight again. Like
Ryu, he was wearing scout-class personal armor. Both had their helmets
off as well. Reaching up to his nose, the lost one held his nose and
sucked in a sharp breath of cold air with a loud 'snooork' sound. A
second later, he spat a bloody wad onto the ground and rubbed his nose.

"Haven't had a bloody nose in a while..." he remarked, but there was no
trace of resentment of annoyance.

"You took a Moko Kaimon Ha to the face," Ryu observed, leaving the tree
to walk alongside his commanding officer. Here, outside the base and
between themselves, they switched back to conversational Japanese rather
than English. "I kick down trees and concrete walls with that move, and
you're surprised you have a bloody nose?"

"I'd have blocked a normal Moko Kaimon Ha," Ryouga countered. "You never
used to be this tricky."

"The old Yamasenken was too inflexible," the Kumon heir replied, and the
two headed off to where the rest of India Squad were finishing up their
morning training. Ryouga, of course, followed Ryu to keep from getting
lost. The arrangement was second nature by this point.

"Getting ready for that fight with Ranma, eh?"

"It isn't just the fight with Ranma. The Yamasenken was designed to
break into people's homes. That's why it's so inflexible. The Moko
Kaimon Ha is supposed to kick in a door. Part of reforming the school is
to break out of the original mindset. Making the moves more adaptable to
other situations and opponents... that's just a side benefit."

Ryouga nodded, able to see exactly what Ryu meant.

"You think Ranma will use other moves in our fight?" he then asked.
"Besides the Umisenken, I mean?"

Ryouga crossed his arms, but replied quickly, "I doubt it. Ranma hates
to lose, so I'd expect every dirty trick in the book, but he has his
pride, too."

"A proud man wouldn't use dirty tricks in the first place..."

"There's a difference, at least in terms of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu,
between tricking your enemy into making a mistake and breaking your
word. If Ranma beat you with... a Hiryu Shoten Ha for example, all it
would prove is that he can't beat you in an honest duel between
Yamasenken and Umisenken. But tricking you, outsmarting you, that's fair
game."

"You sound like you almost agree with him."

"I've... started to see his point of view," Ryouga conceded. "But that
doesn't mean I agree with him. Besides, I'm not really clever enough to
trick people in the first place."

Ryu refrained from asking, 'but you would if you could?'

Well, he did for a few seconds anyway.

"But you would if you could?"

"Ha!" Ryouga barked out a rare laugh. Looking to his side, Ryu could see
the lost lieutenant was smiling.

"Maybe," he admitted. "I've thought about it in a few fights."

"Same here," Ryu likewise confessed. "Its harder to pull off than it
sounds."

The two shared a few moments of light hearted laughter as they headed
through the snow covered forest back to the main camp. By the smell of
it, Kuno and Mousse were already finished clearing and cleaning up their
side of the battleground and had settled down to an early lunch. Ryouga
took the opportunity to clear out his nose again, pinching it
experimentally a few times.

"Good job, by the way," he said, satisfied it was done bleeding and
stuffing up.

"With what?"

"Operation White Scar. The Hill type mission."

"That! Hardly even a fight..." Ryu chuckled weakly, not used to praise
of the sort he was getting. "And we were just backup for Delta Squad
anyway."

"No. You made the right call, and I'm glad the Commander gave you a
mission to prove yourself on," Ryouga replied honestly.

Ryu beamed, though with him it wasn't easy to tell. "Thanks, sir."

"Your report was a little sloppy, though."

Ryu took a moment to reflect on the mission: he and India Squad had been
activated to support Delta Squad on a relatively routine mission. Ryouga
had called it a "Hill type" mission, after Betty and Barney Hill, the
most famous early abductees. It was also called an "Indian Head" for the
location one mile north of where they were allegedly picked up. It
usually involved one or more repeat abductees, usually a male/female
pair, picked up in an isolated abduction. It could occur on a ship or
plane, but most often the abductees were in a car.

UNETCO regional policy (in most of the developed world) was to identify
and track as many repeat abductees as possible. Like a criminal
returning to the scene of a crime, the aliens would inevitably come back
to check up on their little experiments and test cases. XCOM liked to be
there when they did, lying in wait, usually with some heavy firepower.
This time, their target had been a deep space large scout and not a
local craft, so they had scrambled and gotten to the abductees' car just
moments after the aliens landed.

Delta Squad, now under the command of Sergeant Kinoshida, had been hog
tied with two rookies with only basic anti-alien training under their
belts. India (minus their normal commanding officer) and newly-promoted-
Lieutenant Feretti's Charlie Squad had been assigned as backup and
overall command. The large scout had a minimal crew, but the Sectoid
bastards had laid an ambush using one of the abductees. One of the
rookies had gotten sloppy, overeager, and he'd ended up killed. The
aliens had counterattacked, leaving their ship almost empty. Guessing
that Delta had bitten off more than it could chew, Ryu called in for
permission to pull his team off the ship assault. They'd made a quick
run to flank the aliens and support Delta while Charlie assaulted a
nearby house the enemy had occupied.

His orders had called for India to handle the nastiest close quarters
fighting, but he'd gauged the situation and took a chance based on the
situation. Luckily Feretti had approved the plan, and it had worked out
in the end; while he hadn't thought much about it at the time, after the
fact Ryu had nearly sweated bullets about making the decision as he did.
If he'd been wrong, then they'd have turned their backs to the aliens in
the UFO, and left Charlie in a bad spot of trouble. Really, it had been
a relief to Ryu to have India Squad's real CO back in action.

"Hey," Ryu began to ask, more tentatively than before. "I'd like to ask
you something else... about Ukyou..."

"This again?" Ryouga grumbled. They both knew that it wasn't as if
Ryouga disliked Ukyou, or talking about her, but relationship related
things in general were complicated and messy, so he tried to avoid them
as much as possible. Plus: "Why do you always ask me about her?"

"Mousse said you two went out a few times, and Akane said you guys were
an item at one point..."

"We did not go out. Once. Twice. Or any times," Ryouga answered, trying
(against all odds) to set the record straight. "Those were all stupid
misunderstandings or plans to break up Ranma and Akane."

"So you didn't escort her through some Tunnel of Love thing in Tochigi?"

"Nothing even remotely like it sounds."

"And you two didn't go on an all expenses paid hot springs vacation
together?"

Ryouga groaned, head slumping in defeat. "I was trying to get to
Jyusenkyou!"

Ryu sounded skeptical. "So you two spent a week together going to
beaches and hot springs... and you weren't a couple?"

"We weren't even friends."

"Did she ever put on a bathing suit and ask you what you thought about
it?"

Ryouga's frown only partly hid an embarrassed blush. "She asked me if
'Ranma would like it' and if 'it would attract customers'... neither of
which were exactly turn-ons."

"I don't know," Ryu said with a half grin. "That whole situation sounds
like an excuse for fooling around to me. You two didn't do anything?"

"We made a lot of money selling okonomiyaki to tourists," Ryouga dryly
replied. "Oh, and she spent a lot of time buying things and making me
carry them. Overall, the whole thing was one huge headache. All I wanted
was to get to Jyusenkyou, damnit!"

Ryu gave the other martial artist a long took. "That must've been a...
hard week."

The other man just growled.

"Still, you can see why I'd ask you about her, right?"

"Yeah, yeah..."

"So I asked Ukyou's father to switch the engagement..."

"You actually went through with that?!" Ryouga stared at him like he was
out of his bloody mind. "Haven't you learned anything from the mess that
caused in Nerima?"

"Don't worry," Ryu assured him. "We kept it quiet. I was just, you know,
testing the waters and stuff. Kuonji-san seemed receptive to the idea,
especially after that fight he had with Saotome-san..."

Ryouga nodded; he'd heard about that. Apparently Genma and Kazuo had
actually come to blows during an argument about Ukyou's stolen dowry.
The problem wasn't that they had a fight, but that it had happened
outside the dojo. Luckily, no one had been hurt and nothing substantial
damaged, but Commander Yasuda had blown a gasket and threatened to lock
them both up in alien containment. Which he could understand... even
though he already had a parent confinement and didn't find the
implication as funny as some.

"...I asked her if she'd like to go with me to movie night."

"Tonight's movie night?"

"It wasn't 'tonight' when I asked her. This was just after we got back,"
Ryu explained, getting to the troublesome part. "So she said 'ok' and I
said, 'it's a date.' And then she just kind of dropped the whole thing."

Ryouga held his head in his hand, shaking it morosely. "Here we go..."

"You think I shouldn't have said that?" Ryu asked, honestly. "Thinking
about it now, I think I should have said 'see you then' or something. I
emailed her later, to make sure we're still meeting up before then, but
she hasn't responded. And it's been a few days."

Ryouga was still shaking his head.

"Man," Ryu grumbled in unhidden aggravation. "This is why arranged
marriages are so much easier!"

"You'd think," Ryouga quipped. "Just go and wait and see. You shouldn't
be thinking about this more than she is."

Ryu thought about that and smiled. "Yeah. Probably not."

"Either way, keep this personal stuff to your off hours," India squad's
lieutenant hastily added. "I don't want to see you glancing at her or
anything like that when we have our Pathfinder briefing later today."

"Yes, sir!" Ryu replied curtly. He knew the regs, just like they all
did. The information had been imprinted into their minds, after all. As
a military organization, XCOM was rather unique; given the stressful
nature of alien combat and the mixed gender armed forces it was seen as
basically inevitable that troops would mix and match a little bit.
Taking the pragmatic view in those early years (coupled with atrociously
high loss rates) Command only set down a few major ground rules.

The code of conduct didn't try and cut all attempts at fraternization.
Most of the regs only applied to soldiers of non-squaddie rank within
the same immediate combat arm. Teammates and officers were taboo, but
any grunt of any rank could hook up with a pilot or mechanic or
scientist or tech. Within the UNETCO community, a few of the 'office
affairs' were even pretty infamous, like the still ongoing one between
Andermatt's (now married) Commander Bennett and Colonel Laurentz.

However, as comparatively free a hand as XCOM squaddies had, 'sleeping
in the ranks' was still pretty taboo among the mostly military base
population. As such, when it did happen, it had to be firmly and
strictly restricted to off hours. XCOM bases were small communities of
typically only a couple hundred people at the most. Like in a small
town, word traveled fast, and even battle hardened veterans tended to
talk (or 'gossip' depending on whether you wanted to lose a few teeth or
not).

As expected, they soon saw Mousse and Kuno sitting in one of the large
craters created during the morning's fighting, already starting on their
midday meal. Ryouga's and Ryu's gear was also nearby, resting at the
edge of the crater. It was dry within the perimeter of the blast. While
most of the ground still had a couple inches of snow to it, in the
crater the ground was more like fine gravel. As such, it made a handy
and convenient place to sit and eat. There was something different this
time, though. Four small saucer like sakazuki cups were arranged on the
ground. Sitting in front of two of them, Mousse and Kuno were grinning
and waiting, but not drinking.

"What's all this?" Ryouga asked, sitting down for himself next to his
gear and in front of one of the little ceramic cups.

"About time," Ryu commented, sitting down cross legged. "I had to walk
around in a circle to buy time for you guys."

And, of course, the directionally impaired lost boy hadn't noticed.

"Just a little congratulatory drink," Mousse answered. He added with a
smile, "Lieutenant."

Ryouga looked from him to Kuno.

"Which one of you two clowns smuggled alcohol off base?" he asked,
sounding neither angry nor amused. "And which one suggested we drink it
on duty?"

Kuno started to open his mouth, no doubt to loudly and proudly proclaim
his guilt in the matter. Ryouga quickly cut him off with a wave of his
hand. The base stocked drinks for off duty; anyone of any rank could
drink, docking the price from their personal account. To go through this
much trouble for India Squad to share the drink just between
themselves... it had to be some of the good stuff.

"One day into getting my official commission to real Lieutenant, and you
guys pull this..." He sighed and picked up the ceramic cup. "Let's just
drink this before I realize what I'm doing."

Kuno happily picked up his cup, and toasted. "Lieutenant!"

"Congratulations," Ryu said, picking up his own cup.

"Yep," Mousse said and then toasted to someone else. "And to our new
Sergeant! Congratulations, Ryu!"

The four raised the saucers and quickly downed the drinks. As the four
started eating packed lunches and chatting like old friends, Ryouga
paused to watch them. He'd been sort of unsure at first, when he'd
originally formed India Squad, but now there was no group of soldiers
he'd rather fight alongside. Tomorrow. Tomorrow was the big day: the
assault on the alien base in Korea. Command had generously estimated 10%
to 20% losses. Out of the eight men and women in India and Juliet squad,
that meant there was a good chance that one of them would die.

The command staff, in fact, everyone in XCOM never really talked much
about the bad times. The first six months of operation, UNETCO's combat
divisions had suffered more than 50% casualty rates. For most
operations, now, that was down to 5% or 10%. Alien bases were another
matter, though. No one would fault India Squad a single on duty drink,
the day before they stormed that alien citadel. Inside, Ryouga felt
torn: part of him wanted to protect his friends, but part of him knew he
had to trust in their abilities and keep faith with the fact that they
had a bloody and dangerous job to do. All he could do was fight and lead
them as best he was able.

Lieutenant.

There was more than just the battlefield commission, too; he'd also
received an honorary Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Psionics.
Which meant Combat Psionics, specifically. Straight out of the hospital
bed, he and Ranma had stood before Commander Yasuda and received their
new rank and privileges. No longer 'special interim lieutenants' of
experimental squads, they were now the real deal, with all the authority
of the older and more experienced officers of their grade. That included
the responsibility to assign a Squad Sergeant. Ryouga had chosen Ryu,
given his high level of general competence, dedication, and developing
leadership abilities. Ranma had (perhaps predictably) chosen Konatsu for
many of the same reasons, though the lost one still thought the genius
ninja a bit too timid when it came to giving orders.

In reality, though, very little changed.

They made the same amount of money, filled out the same paperwork, had
the same responsibilities... true, there was a bit more leeway when it
came to appropriating equipment, and their authority in a broad sense
was more clear cut, but it was all basically ceremonial. He'd originally
thought of the degree in much the same way. What good was a piece of
paper to someone with his lifestyle, wandering from place to place?
Education was important, but he'd tried attending school; it just didn't
work. For a long time, he'd absolved himself of any notion of higher
education. Now... maybe it would be worthwhile telling his mother. He
couldn't remember the last time he'd come to one of his parents looking
for apropos, but it seemed like something a mother would be happy to
hear.

And all he had to do was categorize and record the "telekinetic"
techniques of himself and others and give copies of the documents to
UNETCO. It wasn't a bad deal at all, really. They funded everything,
opened up correspondences with intelligent people who had looked at the
field from a different and strictly scientific point of view, and set
him loose. He wasn't sure what Ranma was doing, but it was probably much
the same, minus the research into 'special tactics' like his new killing
point...

'I never would have guessed that me and Ranma would be the first to get
undergraduate degrees. We're not exactly university material... Hell,
none of us are, except maybe Akane and Ukyou...'

"Hey, what's that?"

Ryouga perked up, putting aside his thoughts and taking a bite out of
his lukewarm caesar salad chicken wrap. Kuno and Mousse were already
done, and now nursing their bottled water. The former had also taken out
a letter, and kept it in his lap while he read. The former seemed to be
leaning over to catch a look, and conspicuously adjusting his thick
glasses as he did so.

"Knave! Intrude not on the personal space of Tatewaki Kuno!"

"Since when do you get letters?" Mousse asked, leaning in closer to read
despite Kuno elbowing him none-too gently. "And why bring it here if you
don't plan to share what's in it?"

Ryu chuckled at the scene, and Kuno sighed with (false) indignation.

"Tis a letter from mine twisted sister," he admitted with another over
dramatic sigh.

"Ah!" Ryu chuckled again. "Kodachi, is it? How's she doing?"

"By both the tone and inflection of the letter, she seems quite
perturbed," Kuno replied, with some amount of satisfaction directed
towards his sister's discomfort. "She is safe; this much is true, but in
the manner of a caged warbler."

"Translation?" Ryouga asked, plainly.

"She longs for family to experiment on and a paramour to torture with
her affection," Kuno translated. Sort of.

"She misses Ranma," Mousse noted, reading through Kuno's poetic speech
mannerisms. "Well, there's no accounting for taste, I guess. She always
did seem rather attached to him."

"Why was that?" Ryu asked. "She was the fiancee Ranma wasn't really
engaged to, right?"

"Yeah," Ryouga replied. "Now, I was P-chan at the time, but I remember
talking about it later. Kodachi was out to cripple some competition when
Ranma knocked her off a building. He saved her, too, and you can imagine
what happened after that."

"She poisoned him and tried to have her way with him?" Mousse guessed.

"Something like that."

"Alas, my poor sister was most disconsolate going to an all girls'
school. She never did take our father's misadventures in Hawaii well..."

For a moment, Kuno appeared genuinely contrite for her sister's
abandonment issues. Then his mood lightened, and he pointed to the
letter in his lap.

"However, it does seem as though she has made some new friends! She
speaks most viciously about these other two gymnasts with whom she has
developed a heated rivalry. There also seems to be some boy that has
caught her eye."

"Anyone we know?" Mousse asked. "All the martial artists we found were
sent to the same Sanctuary Community."

"These girls go by the names of Natsume and Kurumi," Kuno read from the
letter. "They appear to be sisters. She adds here that I would 'drink
deeply of the former's appearance, as she is most comely, of regal
bearing, and buxom to the point of dressing in the manner of a harlot.'"

For a few seconds, the three martial artists mentally translated Kuno's
words.

"Where the hell did you guys learn to write, anyway?"

"As is the natural order when the father is in-attendant, Kodachi would
often come to me for assistance in her schoolwork, better to emulate my
refined diction and grammar..."

"You had to ask, didn't you?" Ryouga rested his chin on his hand.
"Natsume and Kurumi, huh? I can see those two giving Kodachi trouble."

"Did we bring them in?" Mousse asked, searching his memory. "I don't
recall two girls..."

"Ranma's bunch probably found them," Ryouga answered. "They were food
thieves from a while back. The younger one, Kurumi, had one hell of a
mouth on her."

The three boys stared at him.

"Not what I meant," the lost one clarified. "She ate some pineapples I
was bringing to Akane as a gift from the islands. At least I think I was
in Hawaii when I got them... Either that or Hokkaido... Anyway, she ate
them with a speed that was inhuman... "

"OH!" Mousse snapped his fingers. "Those two! They stole Shampoo's
ramen!"

"Yes, and my unagi bento!" Kuno roared, suddenly remembering. "Those
foul bandits were comely girls?! Curse the fates for not leaving me with
their number!"

"Wait!" Ryu interrupted. "How the Hell do two girls - no offense to our
female friends - manage to steal from you guys?"

Kuno and Mousse immediately sulked, little black clouds hanging over
their heads. For once, Ryouga remained impassive. He held up his hand
finished sandwich wrap.

"Three things," he said, shaking his head at the other defeated
Nerimites present. "They were fast, maybe about Mousse's speed, and they
struck with the element of surprise. Worse, the food was gone, as in
eaten, by the time anyone could realize it had been stolen. While the
Chardin style of martial arts cuisine that Ranma knows is technically
faster, for pure eating speed with no gimmicks, I'd say that Kurumi's
ability is the more terrifying. Kasumi told me that even several courses
of Akane's cooking - bless her for trying - didn't daunt that girl."

"Even Akane's food?" Ryu whistled appreciatively. "That's quite a feat,
all right."

"They use a ribbon in their fighting, too," Ryouga added. "So I'm not
surprised they can face Kodachi in the gymnastic ring. The techniques
are similar."

"If they're strong, why didn't you recruit them?"

"Kurumi was too young, and they're inseparable." The lost one shrugged.
"Otherwise I'd have considered it. In the one fight I saw from them,
though, they lacked a killer instinct... I don't think they'd fare well
in this kind of fighting, even if Kurumi was older."

He remembered that fight well. The girls had given a good showing, and
they were suitably determined, but they were soft, too. He'd trained
Akane practically up to Kurumi's level (minus the special techniques) in
less than a week, despite having to go easy on her and secretly starting
to hope she didn't win at all (since it would mean she would be around
him more). What Kurumi critically lacked was aggression. Even the most
stoic martial artist understood what it meant to harness that primal
emotion. Natsume had potential, but her little sister would never be
able to work up what it took to take another's life. He was sure of it.

Then again, if the war dragged on long enough, maybe the two sisters
would join up and prove him wrong...

"Check this out!" Mousse interrupted, standing up and holding Kuno's
letter. "Guess who Kodachi compared to Ranma in this!"

The two took a moment to stare at him.

Mouse chortled in genuine amusement. "Here's a hint: they're both
arrogant assholes!"

"Pantyhose Taro!"

"Got it!"

"He's the only guy I know who we'd call a bigger arrogant asshole than
Ranma!"

"You'll pardon my ignorance, but who is this Pantyhose Taro?" Kuno
interrupted, a glint of brotherly protectionism in his eye.

"I wondered what happened to him," Ryouga said as he sat back down.
"They said the Chengdu branch got him, so they took him off the list,
but then nothing."

"Another martial artist?" Ryu asked, though it was obviously true. He
wouldn't have been on The List otherwise.

"Pantyhose is pretty good," Mousse grudgingly admitted, as he too sat
down. "He's Chinese so you wouldn't know him. He uses conventional Kung
Fu, mostly."

"That... and his cursed form," Ryouga continued. "He turns into this
huge flying monster. Still fast, but a whole lot tougher and stronger.
Tougher and stronger than me, even."

Ryu could tell it was hard won praise from two stubborn martial artists
that still held grudges. "So why is he sitting back in an SC?"

"He probably wouldn't lose the curse," Mousse answered, when Ryouga took
a few moments to think over the question. "He likes turning into a
monster when he gets wet."

"Ranma's curse keeps him human," Ryouga said, nodding. "That's why
Command lets him keep it. They wouldn't let Taro fight and keep his
curse. Plus, he doesn't seem like the type to risk his life for money or
a cause."

"This does not bode well..." Kuno mulled over the note. "Then again,
mayhap I was mistaken. Though heaven decrees a woman but one love, my
sister is no normal maiden. If any woman has heart enough for two men,
it would be another of the Kuno line! Very well! I will not oppose this
tryst, so long as she resumes her affair with Saotome and keeps him away
from my pigtailed girl and Akane Tendo!"

"Gotta keep things in perspective, after all," Mousse joked giving the
boastful kendoist an incredulous look. "You do know she only called him
cute in that letter. Though the tentacles remark was a little
disturbing..."

That shut the four of them up.

"Damnit," Ryouga mumbled, wiping a bit of blood from his nose. Not that
he was thinking anything perverted, of course. He was still an injured
man.

"That's pretty kinky," Ryu observed shamelessly; causing the other three
men present to shift in discomfort.

"She does seem like the type... to you know..." Mousse added in,
snickering. "Bondage and whips and stuff."

SNIK

"Not to imply she's anything but a chaste maiden," the Chinese martial
artist amended, using a finger to inch away the sword held up to his
neck.

"Wearing a leotard under your clothes at the airport is sort of..." Ryu
made a back and forth motion with his hand. "You know. Still, with a
body like that why wouldn't you want to show it off..."

SNIK

"With all due respect," Ryu added, the blade of Kuno's sword now held a
little too close to his throat for comfort.

"Kuno, weren't you just saying you were ok with someone like Ranma
hooking up with your sister?" Ryouga inquired. "What's with this then?"

Surprisingly, Kuno smiled and jammed the blade into the ground. Crossing
his arms, his smile grew into a smirk.

"Fool!" he remarked, assuming a lecturing tone. "Saotome deserves the
affections of my sister, and as I feel no camaraderie towards the knave,
so be it. However, to hear one of you make remarks... it is altogether
an offense to the sensibilities."

Translation: it's weird to have my friends talking about my little
sister.

"One last thing then," Mousse said, unable to help himself. "Ryu. I saw
you chatting up Kodachi before. So: her or Ukyou?"

Ryouga sighed at the ever-dumbing-down of the conversation. "Oh, come
on!"

"Hmmm..." the Kumon heir pondered the question deeply and thoroughly
before answering. "Well, I'd say Kodachi is a little sexier. Plus, you
know, the kinkiness, and she has that regal aristocratic thing going on.
Ukyou's more like 'girl next door;' she's cuter I guess. I can't say
much for Kodachi's personality, since I don't really know her... but in
general, I'd take Ukyou there, too."

Kuno growled something inaudible.

"What about you?" Ryu asked. "Shampoo or Ukyou?"

"Shampoo. In a heartbeat."

"Really?"

"Are you kidding?" Mousse cocked his head to the side as he saw Ryu
wasn't totally seeing what he meant. "Aside from the fact that I love
Shampoo, she beats Ukyou in every category. Her hair is perfect, her
eyes are deep enough to get lost in... and she has incredible legs."

"I don't see how they're nicer than Ukyou's. Plus I'm pretty sure Ukyou
has bigger tits."

"You know," Ryouga observed. "This is the kind of stupid conversation
the girls suspect we have and probably get mad about. Can you imagine
what they'd do if they overheard us?"

Kuno didn't agree; he said as much, too.

"To my regret and eternal trauma, I would share with you this: I have
heard my sister speak of boys many times with her earstwhile companions
over the phone. Such conversations, overheard only in passing, still
chill me to the bone to this day... that fair women of good breeding
would speak in such a manner of such debased a subject is most
improper."

"Exactly," Ryu echoed the swordsman's sentiments much more clearly and
in fewer words. "This isn't some manga where the teenage protagonists
have no interest in women. This is real life! And I bet that when the
girls get together they talk dirty about us, too."

"When they get together, they probably just fight over Ranma..."

"I would take this moment to speak up for my two loves," Kuno jumped in.
"All of you know the fair Akane Tendo... her hair, short or long, is as
lustrous as the morning dew catching the first rays of sunlight; her
voice is a melody that teases the spirit and taunts the flesh; her eyes
are pools of mahogany; in temperament, she is as unpredictable as the
most capricious cloud; her embrace is strong, yet soft, gentle, yet
firm; she is a most wondrous study in contrasts."

He then went on, as was his way:

"The pigtailed girl is likewise a rare and alluring orchid in the garden
of life. She tantalizes by appearing one moment and disappearing the
next; to grant her a favor or boon is man's lament, for who could resist
her bright blue eyes and exotic garnet locks? Oh, how she teases me...
she is like a cherry blossom in winter, a spark of color against a white
washed world..."

Kuno took a deep breath, and seeing as he had the attention of his
comrades, finished with:

"Finally, let me say that both women possess the most nubile and supple
of bodies. I consider myself quite the expert in this, as not only have
I a great collection of pictures from which to draw comparison, but
first hand experience as well. The pigtailed girl in particular is
bounteous in proportions and quite fond of the camera. Akane Tendo, the
fierce tigress, is most beautiful when she has worked up a sweat, I
find. Less fully endowed, her expressions are as powerful as her blows,
and to see them is a wonder."

In the distance, a clump of snow fell from a branch.

"You've thought about this," Ryu noted.

"I have," Kuno proudly admitted. "What say you, Lieutenant? I remember
well the fights we have had over Akane Tendo, and you have fought at the
pigtailed girl's side many a time. Do you still pine for one of them, or
have your eyes fallen nearby but on someone else?"

"It's a sad day when I get subtle jabs from you, Kuno," Ryouga replied,
leaning back against his pack and the edge of the crater.

"None-the-less..." the kendost urged him on. And, despite their silence,
so did Mousse and Ryu.

"First, let me say this about 'Ranko' - you know what? The body is
pretty nice. I said as much when I first saw it. It isn't a bad curse to
have at all..." Ryouga's frown slowly gave way to a smirk. "But it
looked better on Herb."

Mousse suddenly broke into convulsions of laughter, leaving Ryu and Kuno
with question marks over their heads. It was a stupid kind of in-joke,
but it had lightened Ryouga's mood enough to talk about stuff he
otherwise wouldn't have. He'd never really had friends before, much less
other guys who wanted to talk about girls. His only other point of
reference, Ranma, tended to complain (or gloat) about them and their
attentions more than anything.

"Akane-san's cuter than most people give her credit for, I think," he
said, struggling to phrase his thoughts properly. "Kuno's right,
actually. She's very expressive: happiness, sadness, compassion...
they're all so clear when you look at her. It's her most attractive
feature, I guess, even though she... she... she has a very nice body,
too. But she's always smiling and kind. And she's got a mean punch."

Ryu made a 'hmm' sound.

Ryouga cut him off. "Before you ask, if I just saw them lined up or
something without knowing them beforehand, I'd say Ukyou is probably the
most attractive. Provided she's dressed up like a girl and not a boy. I
find Shampoo's hair a little too... vivid, and I'd say Ukyou does have
bigger... ah... breasts. Which is why she usually binds them. I don't
really like showiness, fancy Chinese dresses and stuff; that's Shampoo's
only real physical turn off for me."

Mousse seemed mollified by this, and nodded in understanding.

"And what of that avaricious entrepreneur, Nabiki Tendo? I have seen you
chatting with her quite often."

Ryouga laughed at the notion, as he did more and more frequently it
seemed. "Nabiki's the scariest girl I know. I'd storm an Ethereal
battleship by myself before I get on her bad side!"

"Nabiki..." Ryu pursed his lips, considering the unspoken question.
"Hard to say. She's always wearing tight business suits and stuff, so
she's got that 'secretary' look to her which is pretty sexy. Kind of
intimidating, though. So more like a 'secretary who wants your job' kind
of sexy. You guys know what I mean."

"She looked good in that bathing suit... back when they had that
swimsuit contest at the beach," Mousse remarked, adjusting his fogged
over glasses. "Remember that? All the girls were there."

"You don't forget things like that," Ryouga agreed, clearing his throat.
"As I recall, Kasumi won that event, didn't she?"

"Ah yes," Kuno mused. "That was an interesting day."

"You three can stop trying to make me jealous, you know!" Ryu fell back,
the back of his head resting outside the crater and on a couple inches
of white snow. "Man, I did not come to Nerima at the right time! Hot
springs adventures? Bikini contests? Now that's the life of a martial
artist!"

The four teammates laughed easily.

Amid them, Ryouga smiled in true happiness. It had taken years to find a
group of friends he actually related to and felt comfortable around. In
a way, it was something true to all of them. Mousse was alone even in
the Amazon village, rejected by the matriarchal community and shunned by
the brow beaten males. Ryu had spent most of his life in brutal training
to master the Yamasenken, living a life much like Ryouga's own, except
by choice and obligation rather than necessity and chance. Even Kuno,
pampered rich boy that he was, had only his kendo cronies and
dysfunctional family.

'20 percent losses? 20 percent chance of losing a man? No!'

Ryouga's thoughts left no room for doubt.

'We'll destroy everything in our path, and we'll all make it back!'

-----

"This is it. Alien Base 17: Codename Alpine Echo Seven."

Ranma stood before the display screen as he had several times before.
The two squads were all together, being briefed by their officers
together. By now, it was the normal order of things, since all their
major operations tended to be done in tandem. They had only shared
briefings with the other squads on a few occasions, so when the
Lieutenants ordered them to show up, they usually met in the halls and
walked over in pairs or triplets. Ranma and Ryouga had been waiting,
everything set up, and things had begun without delay.

They were on the verge of Operation Mountain Boomer.

"Doesn't look like much does it?" Ranma turned around and fiddled with
his pigtail as he seemed to consider the picture. "Looks kinda like a
golf course to me. They got one of those... what's it called? The
'green' in the middle there, and a water hazard..."

"So, yeah. It doesn't look like much!" He turned around again to face
the assembled two squads. "But this is it, and tomorrow, we're all going
to get to see it first hand. Let's take a look at what Intel has to say
about this place."

The slide changed, this time to the same picture, but with captions and
markers.

As Ranma went on to explain, the top most part of the base really wasn't
much to look at unless you knew what to look for. Just like with
UNETCO's bases, the aliens tried to keep theirs hidden underground. The
cleared out area, the golf-course sized "green," as Ranma called it, was
an open area that Intel believed supported a secondary lift structure in
one of the nearby hills. The water hazard was an expanded natural lake
that the aliens used as cover for a hangar, flying into or out of the
waters in typical UFO fashion. The woods nearby were expected to conceal
at least three or four alien patrols at any given time, along with four
caches the patrols could fall back on.

Surrounding the area in a slightly broken and uneven square was a fence
erected not by aliens, but by the alien's local allies and thralls...

"Now, let's take a moment to look at our other target for Operations
Mountain Boomer and Pathfinder," Ranma said, and the slide changed again
to show an airstrip and numerous buildings, all surrounded by another
fence, and directly adjacent to the 'ant farm' (as many veterans would
call the alien base).

"What you're looking at here is a relatively small airbase belonging to
the Korean People's Air Force. The limited technical assistance the DPRK
gets from sleeping with our alien friends all comes out of this base
here. Needless to say, Command intends to send the same message here
that they do in every case of collusion."

"We're going to level it," Ryouga explained from his seat nearby. He had
a calm, unapologetic look on his face. "Everything they got from the
aliens, we're going to destroy. We're going to wipe them off the map."

It was brutal.

Excessive.

It was also a clear cut message to those governments that sold out their
humanity and their fellow man for a few shiny trinkets and a couple
alien promises that only their neighbors would be harvested in the times
to come. As UNETCO members, they were all already subject to immediate
detention and execution in North Korea, given its pact with the aliens.
Now that the time had come to finally make a big push, XCOM sure as Hell
wasn't going to pull its punches. Not with the entire world at stake. If
the DPRK didn't like UNETCO operating on its soil, it could feel free to
try and stop them.

"You can see outlined here the fuel depot, this is the main air strip,
these are hangars, there are four bunkers for the staff and the guard
company, this is the supply depot... and this is the separate
engineering area with facilities for infiltrators and alien-human
hybrids. Communications center, weather station... and these are base
defenses in red. Note the surface to air missile batteries, guard
stations, and pillboxes..."

"Now, keep this layout in mind," Ranma said, and the slide changed to
show another picture of the overall area, including both bases, along
with target markers.

"These are the areas Command is going to hit before we land," he
explained. "Expect things to be rearranged a bit by the time we make our
assault. We should have complete air superiority for the entire mission,
so don't worry about missiles or helicopters or anything like that. They
might fire off some artillery, though, but there'll always be a ship
overhead, so we should be fine. Watch for mortar fire, though."

"We'll be working with Alpha, Beta, Delta and Charlie to clear the area
out, while Captain Banks' four squads secure a foothold on the alien
base itself. Technically, this is Operation Pathfinder. Once we've
secured the area outside the base, and made it impossible for anything
to escape, we will participate in Mountain Boomer, which is the final
assault on the alien base itself. Colonel Butler will assume operational
command, and we'll work with his forces in clearing the mountain.
Colonel Kalinowski and the boys and girls from Dongchuan will be our
backup."

Ranma looked around to make sure they were all up to par on the overall
mission plan. Most of them had their briefing materials laid out before
them, and a few - Ryu and Konatsu most specifically - were taking
additional notes for themselves.

"Ryouga?"

The lost one stood up and took Ranma's place in front of the screen.
"Next we're going to go over our objectives and Operation Pathfinder in
detail, starting with a few tertiary targets Intel would like to get
their hands on: the airfield chief of staff, political deputy commander,
and engineering deputy commander... but before that, there's one special
issue we need to talk about."

India Squad's lieutenant looked around the room, seeing a glimmer of
confusion on most of their faces. So far, the briefing had gone pretty
much as expected, though the operation was far larger than anything
they'd been involved in before. Then, suddenly, something 'special' had
to be brought up? Of the six, only Mousse and Shampoo knew what he was
going to say next.

"Ranma and I both feel it is all but inevitable that some or even all of
us could run into the local Trenchard population at this base. These are
the martial arts masters that the aliens have corrupted, and experience
has taught us both that in these sorts of situations, like will attract
like. It isn't in the original battle plan, but... it is prudent for all
of us to take steps to prepare for a likely confrontation with these men
and women."

He narrowed his eyes, and behind him, the picture changed: to that of a
shrunken old woman, juxtaposed with a blurry picture of a raven haired
beauty in a rain slicker.

"Cologne," he said, pausing to let the name sink in. "The most powerful
martial artist I've ever met. As far as we know, she's already killed
Happosai and a dozen others, all at or above our own level of mastery in
the Art."

Though half those present never knew Cologne, certainly not like he or
Ranma or Shampoo or Mousse did, Ryouga's words and the anxious looks on
the faces of their comrades were ample description. The thought of
facing Cologne, that ancient master who taught them so much...

"Are any of you scared of this woman?" the lost one asked, pointedly
looking from one to the next. "I'll be honest. I am. But if we meet, and
if we fight, I have no intention of losing. Or dying! And thanks to the
diligent work of Mousse and Shampoo, we know what she's capable of, and
what her weaknesses are. Let's all review this information as if our
lives depend on it."

"Who are you kidding?" Ranma interrupted with a rude smirk. "Our lives
do depend on it. But I bet you're still looking forward to it anyway."

"Well," Ryouga said with a low chuckle, oversized canines plainly
visible. "It just isn't in my nature to run from a fight, no matter how
bad the odds. Bet I find her before you do, Saotome..."

Ranma's arrogant grin grew only wider. "We'll see about that, Hibiki."

-----

Konatsu was sulking.

It wasn't particularly hard to tell. For all his ninja skill and
training, the young man tended to wear his emotions on his sleeves. When
he was happy, he lit up like a star, and when he was sad, he sputtered
like a burned out light bulb. In this case, his moping entailed picking
and poking at the meager seafood salad he had picked out from the mess
hall's buffet. Sitting across from him, Lieutenant Mario Feretti had
long since finished his meal, and had instead taken out his laptop to
polish off some work.

It didn't take a mind reader (which Feretti wasn't; his psi strength was
above par, but his skills were pretty meager) to see that Konatsu was
trawling for some attention and a chance to talk about what was making
him miserable. Mario had three children himself, back home in Milan, and
one of them just happened to be turning into typically angst-ridden
preteen, so he knew the score. What he was waiting for was that unspoken
sign that his young friend had finished mulling over what was bothering
him, and how he wanted to say his first few words.

Konatsu sighed.

'And there it is!' Lieutenant Feretti slid his laptop out of the way,
but didn't close it. Peeking out from behind the back of the screen, and
pretending he'd finished whatever work he was engrossed in, he tapped
the computer's tablet pen against the scar on his lower lip.

"Something bothering you, Konatsu?"

The sulking ninja poked his salad a little more vigorously.

"Yeah..." he muttered. "I'm just... you can probably guess..."

Mario could, but he didn't.

Instead, he let Konatsu catch his thoughts and continue, "I mean, I told
Ukyou I wasn't going to, you know, try and convince her to like me
anymore. And I was so sure I meant it when I said it was what I wanted,
too, but... I guess I knew Saotome-taichou wasn't interested in her like
that, but now..."

The genius ninja impaled a little red cherry tomato.

"I... I can't help feeling a little jealous... like when I heard about
the adventures she had with Hibiki-taichou. Yet never once did we do
anything like that when I worked with her. I can understand why - he was
after Akane and she was after Ranma, so they worked together a few times
and they both had goals that sort of complimented each other - but
still...! And now Ryu's trying to... to be with her... it's all very
frustrating!"

"Konatsu," Mario replied, asking the question seriously, "You're only
eighteen. How many guys do you think end up with the first girl they
have a thing for?

The younger man could imagine, but he didn't answer.

"Look, you kids are... late bloomers, in a lot of ways. I get that you
didn't really have childhoods like most normal people did. But you're
adults now, and sometimes things don't work out like you expect them
to."

Feretti sighed, and a wan smile crossed his features. "You know I went
out with the same girl for more than two years in college. We thought we
were in love, but I think it was mostly just the routine that kept it
going. It was easy being together with the same person instead of
looking for someone new. We'd break up, get together, break up, get
together... then, the year before I graduated, I met one of her
friends... and six months later we got married. Things work out like we
can't imagine. Just don't let the disappointments run your life."

"I wouldn't be getting jealous if my feelings weren't genuine..." the
ninja boy started to argue, but his mentor just shook his head.

"Yeah," the older man cut him off. "You would. That's just the way we're
hard wired. Besides, how many girls do you even really know? Three?"

"Hey! ... more like five..."

"Not counting your step sisters."

"... ok, fine. Two, I guess. But still...!"

Feretti laughed, and finger flicked the corner of Konatsu's plate.

"Let me put it this way, then," he said, glancing over at his laptop. "A
man should eat his food, not pick at it. You want something? Get it.
Otherwise just leave it for someone else."

Konatsu stared at the tomato impaled on his fork for a few seconds.

"You'll excuse me for saying so, sir, but that advice was vague and not
very helpful. Women and food are totally different things." He speared
some lettuce and some of the blue cheese dressing and took a somewhat
dainty bite.

"...One spoils far more quickly than the other, after all."

"Well!" Mario remarked with a mirthful Mediterranean chuckle. "Maybe you
do know something about women after all!"

Konatsu twirled the empty fork between his fingers in a blur of motion.

"I guess I'll just wait and see," he finally decided, his tone still
serious but no longer dark with unspoken frustration. "Are you worried
about tomorrow, Lieutenant?"

Mario closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and looked up at the ceiling.

"Who wouldn't be?" the question was, of course, rhetorical. "I remember
the last base assault I took part in. It was down in the south
pacific..."

"Easter Island?" Konatsu guessed.

Mario nodded; a far off look on his face. "I saw three men disappear
right in front of me. Golden BB came out of nowhere. We were under psi
attack the moment we landed. It... wasn't pretty. Every instinct you
have screams at you to stay put, to find cover and trade fire, but there
isn't any cover. Not really. The only thing you can do is press forward,
keep killing... you advance or you die. In the end... sometimes you're
lucky, and sometimes you're not. I think... luck sometimes counts for as
much as skill."

He stared at the screen on his computer - at the desktop, with the
picture of five people standing on a beach at sunset. For a couple
seconds, he thought back to that day. It had been only a few months
after he'd been assigned to UNETCO, on his first non-combat rotation...

"Listen to me! Worrying about luck..." he pulled up a folder on the
projected layout of the alien base, and the battle to come. "How stupid
can you get?"

Konatsu just nodded and finished his food.

'Tonight... I guess I'll just turn in early...'

-----

Eighteen twenty hours.

Eleven hours and forty minutes prior to Operation Mountain Boomer.

Nabiki stood at the entrance of the dojo's private sparring room,
looking down at a pair of brown eyes. Shirokuro stared right back, her
tail vigorously wagging back and forth. The black and white dog motioned
to the door with her snout and scratched it once. The meaning was clear.

"No wonder that idiot lost track of time!" Nabiki couldn't help but
shake her head; without his dog, he really was lost in both time and
space.

She checked the door and confirmed it was locked from the inside.
Normally, she wouldn't have minded asking him to open the door, but
feeling more than a little put out, she just entered his log in and
passcode. Which, by the way, wasn't exactly some great secret: what kind
of top secret operative of a worldwide alien fighting conspiracy used
his numerical birthday as a passcode? Sad, really. Maybe, if she felt
generous, she'd point that fact out to him sometime... after she had a
good idea what code he'd replace it with, of course.

The exotic alloy door unlocked and retracted into the walls with a
secure "cha chunk!" Being only a minimally secure door, it used a
standard electromechanical lock. Inside, she saw the object of her
aggravation standing in the middle of the room. All around him were a
dozen or more pieces of paper - on the floor, walls, and even the
ceiling. Four machines stood on tripods in the four corners of the room,
doing what, she couldn't tell.

Ryouga glanced over his shoulder with no small amount of surprise.

"Nabiki?" he asked, and went back to the diagram on the floor. "What are
you doing here? And how did you get in...?"

"You didn't lock the door, Ryouga-kun," she lied, and then added with
more than a little reprimand. "And its 6:20."

"Already?" he stood up, and turned to face her. "I guess I... ah..."

"Lost track of time?"

"Ha ha ha," he intoned humorlessly. "Just give me a second to turn this
stuff off."

"What are you doing in here, anyway?" she asked, approaching one of the
tripod devices. "You're supposed to be relaxing a bit. Isn't that what
you told everyone else?"

He shrugged, and quickly moved to get to the device before she could.

"I just wanted to finish this up..." he explained, as he turned the
machine off. "I have a responsibility to document my techniques."

She left him to the contraption, probably some sort of sensor or
spectroscope, and kneeled down to get a close look at one of the pieces
of paper. She couldn't read the characters on it, though, and it looked
like the ink had been distorted somehow. It wasn't Japanese, at least.
She took a guess.

"What's with the paper? Some sort of pa-k'ua divination?"

"Oho?" he made an impressed sound, half born of shock and half born out
of happy realization. "It is! I didn't know you knew anything about Feng
Shui!"

"It used to be 'cool' to know about it when I was little," she replied
offhand. "And Daddy has all sorts of weird books and scrolls he
inherited from the old man...."

'Old man" meaning Happosai, which in turn meant most of the scrolls and
books had probably been stolen from various monasteries and other
archives. Naturally, Nabiki had had them appraised some time ago. Still,
just because she could recognize a little and guess accurately, didn't
mean she really knew any of the intricacies. All that mumbo jumbo was so
outdated, now. Her father believed in it though, thinking it brought
some sort of 'harmony' to the dojo when they did remodeling. Which was
often.

"You're lucky! I wish I'd had that much passed onto me when I was
younger!" Ryouga ducked down and picked up one of the pieces of paper.
"I picked up a little here and there in my travels, but I only recently
thought to use it in my training. With these papers, I can chart the
flow of my ki and..."

"Ryouga-kun," she cut him off, not wanting to endure a long and far too
in-depth discussion on esoteric martial arts. "The time?"

"That's right! Sorry," he quickly apologized, and started to collect the
papers. For a few seconds, Nabiki just stood by and watched, but then
she joined in. Not out of altruism, but just to save time. As he then
moved to turn off the tripod sensors, she examined another of the pieces
of paper.

'Using these to chart the flow of ki?' she wondered, noting the
direction of the smeared ink. 'I don't think I've heard of that before.
It must be part of that research project he never goes into detail
about...I wonder if its related to the martial arts calligraphy I've
seen him practicing?'

Not that she really cared about the martial arts stuff and how time
consuming it was, but a part of her was still curious. The Tendos were a
martial arts family, and seeing the lost boy (or Ranma) training so
annoyingly hard always reminded her of when she was little. The feelings
those memories carried were mixed: happiness and bitterness, mostly. In
the end, none of her daddy's girls had quite been able to live up to his
expectations in the Art. Though he had never said as much, she knew it
was true. Still, it hadn't all been long hours and hard work, there had
been those fleeting moments of pride and expectant accomplishment...

"I'll need to finish this later, so we can just leave these here..."
Ryouga patted one of the tripods. "That should do it! Let's head
over..."

"Not like that you're not!" she tossed the handful of papers at him, and
he deftly caught them in midair with his free hand.

"What?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"You're as sweaty as a pig!"

"Pigs don't sweat, they use mud or water to cool off," he corrected her,
but became abruptly uncomfortable immediately afterward. "It's just an
expression. I know."

"... you know a lot about pigs, I've noticed."

"Ah..." a prominent sweat drop inched down his brow. "I did work at a
pig farm, you know."

It is worth noting here that while Ryouga Hibiki was normally a
functionally impotent liar, particularly when it came to women, years of
hiding his Jyusenkyou curse had honed that one very specific survival
instinct to a razor's edge. Either that or he had uncanny luck when it
came to girls simply being unable to figure things out despite how
bloody obvious they actually were.

"Well," Nabiki, amazingly, continued talking none-the-wiser. "You're
going to be late at this rate, and I don't think Ranma will let you hear
the end of it when he finds out."

"This is a lot of trouble to see some stupid movie..." the lost one
grumbled, but hastily headed for the door at the thought of his rival
poking yet more fun at him. Nabiki just shook her head and urged him on
as she led him back to his room. Along the way, the middle Tendo
daughter mentally lamented the work she put into getting such a pig
headed martial artist to socialize, even for his own good. Such were
charity cases, however, and with his recent promotion she was sure he
was a long term investment that would pay off in good time.

At the door, she'd almost made the mistake of opening it herself.

Luckily, she caught herself and let him use his secure ID card to key it
open. His high security passcode had been much harder to figure out,
after all, and it wouldn't do to let slip that she knew that one, too.
Not that she would abuse that knowledge... it was just useful to have,
just in case it became necessary to have. Ryouga stepped in, carefully
put his papers on his word desk, and headed off towards the privacy
curtain by his bed. The layout of his room was pretty much the same as
hers, and Kuno's, and almost everyone else. A few paired rooms had a
door between them, like with Nodoka, Genma and Ranma, and she had heard
that the Command staff (Colonels and the Commander) had impressive
accommodations with a totally separate bedroom, bathroom and a study.

A moment later she heard running water, and gave the screen a glance. Of
course, she couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean she wouldn't try
anyway. Ranma and Ryouga were both pretty easy on the eyes, at least
compared to the guys she'd run across over the years. They also tended
to be annoyingly modest... the exception being when Ranma was in his
girl form, since he had the habit of wandering around topless as if he
were still a guy. While she'd been able to get that modesty to work in
her favor, as it drove up the prices of the racy pictures she'd taken of
them over the years, it also made getting those pictures more difficult.
Thinking back to it, she fondly remembered when she'd snapped that
picture of Ryouga trying to choke Ranma to death in the dojo, their
clothes mysteriously wet and torn up.

'Kind of gay, but...' Well, there had been plenty of female classmates
willing to part with their hard earned money for a little bishy
fanservice. 'What had he been saying back then? Damn you Ranma! Stop
calling me that in front of Akane! It was something like that.'

Regardless, familiarity seemed to breed out most of the prudishness. She
took another look at the back of the room, and the blurry curtain. She
could see his bed in an indistinct way, but without x-ray vision to see
through the wall any real peeking was basically impossible. No doubt
even the slightest rustle of the curtain would send him into a panic,
too. Which would be amusing, but...

Instead, she focused her attention on his computer.

Turning on the monitor, she saw with some dismay that he still had a
totally uncreative screen saver on it. In fact, it was probably the
default one the boys down at IT had assigned. Who else actually used the
little twisting pipes? She knew one of the more popular ones around the
base was the SETI online screen saver, mostly due to the irony of it
all. Nabiki had gotten a custom one where different currencies morphed
into one another. True, most people rolled their eyes when they saw it,
but she thought it was very pretty.

She resisted touching any of the keys. There was no point and no time to
fiddle with it anyway. Part of Ryouga's maximum security password was
randomly generated, and really the only way she'd figure it out would be
to milk the information out of him. It hadn't been forthcoming. She'd
even thought about not prying that deeply into his affairs. The
challenge of it all was very tempting, but she couldn't go on like she
had before. There had to be some boundaries this time...

She busied herself looking around for a few minutes, until the water
turned off and she heard him step out and into the bathroom floor.
Examining a strange wooden box with an ofuda seal on it, she took the
opportunity (while it was on her mind, and while he was sort of
indisposed) to ask a question.

"Ryouga-kun. What do you want for Christmas?"

His voice came from the bathroom. "Christmas?"

"Yeah," she replied, putting the mystery box back on the shelf. "You
know. Santa Claus and the birth of this Jewish guy, I think his name was
Jesus or something. That holiday?"

"I know what Christmas is! Are you and Kasumi hosting another party this
year?" He chuckled softly as he thought up a little quip of his own.
"It's unlike you to buy other people stuff. Last year, didn't you just
give everyone a one month interest-free extension on their loans?'

She laughed, too. "And that act of unparalleled generosity cost me a lot
of money!"

"Maybe I'll just get you some coupons then."

"Coupons!" Nabiki tried to sound as if she actually wanted them. "A
girl's best friend! You're so practical, Ryouga-kun! So what do you
want? And keep it under five dollars."

"The last Christmas present I got were stickers for my lunchbox. A
lunchbox I lost in the Gobi desert."

"Are you saying you want a new lunchbox?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. I want a Transformers lunchbox."

"Those are like fifty dollars on eBay," she replied, quite enjoying the
banter. Ryouga had proved to be a better source of it than she had ever
expected. Usually he was too indignant with Ranma-related outrage or too
befuddled by Akane-related infatuation to have much of a talk with.

"I guess I'll just try and surprise you," she decided on. "Something
cheap, yet homicidal."

It took a second or so for him to think up a good reply. She didn't
mind. What mattered more was that he tried. Kuno could banter pretty
well, too, but he usually didn't want to put much effort into it.
Eventually he just grunted in annoyance and told her to get to the point
and stop beating around the bush and/or cheating him out of his money.
Mousse had a sharp wit, too, but she found it hard to develop much of a
repertoire with. He tended to prefer silence around strangers.

"And I'll get you something with high resale value," he joked, a couple
seconds before he emerged wearing some rather familiar clothes. It was
the 'mustard' yellow sleeveless ensemble he liked to wear back in
Nerima. He'd gotten changed amazingly quickly, and she'd meant to lay in
a joke about it, but another comment emerged before she could catch
herself.

"I haven't seen those in a while," she remarked, without even thinking
about it. With the words out in the open, though, she suddenly found
them surprisingly intimate, for lack of a better word. Like she knew him
back then in the same way she thought she knew him now.

"Most of my stuff is actually out being cleaned, so..." he shrugged. The
relatively small combat population - in fact the entire population - of
Seiran were generally expected to take care of their own laundry, rather
than have uniforms and the like collected in bulk. It reduced the number
of personnel needed, among other costs, and the whole thing was tied
into the base's state of the art recycling system.

"I'm surprised you don't have Shirokuro do your laundry," she joked,
glad to get past the 'seen those in a while' comment.

"She already cooks and cleans, so laundry is the least I could do," he
smiled at that, appearing quite proud of his cleverness. He was holding
up pretty well so far today.

"Ok! Let's get going!" she said, leading him to the door where Shirokuro
sat, watching them with doggy patience, her head between her paws.
Nabiki scratched the dog behind her ears while Ryouga slipped his shoes
back on. On the verge of leaving, Nabiki caught a look at herself in one
of the room's mirrors. She'd arranged to have some clothes brought in
with the latest base shipment, including a new soft-blue poplin blouse
with poet sleeves. Unlike certain martial artists, both male and female,
she understood the benefits of a diverse and appropriate wardrobe (that
didn't involve Chinese dresses and variations on the cooking apron and
little else).

They walked side by side, alone in the hall, and right away Nabiki
noticed something seemed to be on her associate's mind. With Ryouga it
was often difficult to guess exactly what he was thinking about... at
least it became that way once he started thinking about more than just
beating Ranma, losing Akane, and cursing the existence of aliens. Her
first guess was that he was still thinking about his work, and that
thought in turn made her a little irritated.

Their work was important - critically important - but they were off duty
now, and looking as a very threatening battle tomorrow. They had just a
few hours before everyone had to get to sleep and prepare for tomorrow
morning, both mentally and physically. That was just a small window of
opportunity, in the whole day, to be with friends or family and remember
just what they were risking their lives to protect. She'd read reports
on how, especially in the first year of operation, the stresses of
mental attack and physical danger had cracked so many hardened veterans
of more conventional fighting. At least a sliver of daily rest and
relaxation was all but mandatory.

"Nabiki," he finally said, just as she was contemplating how to provoke
him into lightening his mood. He sounded typically serious, but it was
quite a change compared to just a little while before when they had been
joking back and forth in his room.

"What?" she asked, and gently nudged him with her elbow. "Spit it out,
already!"

"Nabiki," he said her name again, working up towards what he had to
really say, "You're... you know, you've been acting a little different,
ah, since we got here."

"Really?"

"Well, you've still been pretty money obsessed and greedy," he admitted,
and she pouted at how he said it like it was a bad thing. "But you've
been... well nicer. To me at least."

"So?" she asked. Pointedly.

"So... you know..."

"No. I don't know."

It appeared then that he had noticed the tone in her voice.

"Look," he began again, trying to sound more conciliatory. "I'm not
complaining or anything, but to be honest... I mean, you're being nicer
to me than I think you've been to most of the people back in Nerima."

"I treat my friends well," she replied after a few long seconds. "You
just never met any of them."

He glanced at her, but didn't stare.

"I'm not a bad person," she blurted out, not liking the critique he was
directing at her. Even silently.

"I know you're not," he replied, and for some reason it felt really good
to hear. She closed her eyes for a step or two as they walked.

"Nabiki," he continued, while her eyes were still closed. "Do you...?"

"Want to talk about anything? No," she answered.

Then:

"Maybe. ...Yes. I don't..." she caught her breath, and sighed. Looking
at him, she saw he'd stopped walking, pausing to let her catch her
running thoughts. She stopped walking, too, and faced the usually lost
boy, who, just this once, seemed to have been right on target. "What
makes you think something happened?"

"'I'm not a bad person,'" he repeated, watching her with a measure of
understanding. "You've said that a few times. And I know what it sounds
like... when you say things more to yourself than to others."

She frowned, but only a little. "You're more perceptive than you look."

"Not really..." he muttered for lack of a reply.

Nabiki looked down the hall, and in that split second, she made a
decision. Taking his hand, she pulled him over to the emergency
stairwell near the elevators. Opening the door (which, despite the
warning sticker, did not trigger an alarm) they had a measure of privacy
to talk. Most people didn't bother with the stairs, even though access
had been changed to unrestricted just weeks after the base had been
built.

"Promise me nothing I say here ever leaves this stairwell, Ryouga-kun."
In fact, she was already composing just how she would say what she now
felt she had to say. "Actually, there are too many loopholes in that, so
maybe..."

"Nabiki," he interrupted, saving her from starting to fumble. "I won't
tell anyone."

She couldn't help still feeling a little anxious. "...Make it a martial
arts vow. The kind you can't break. Ever. No matter what!"

His frown drew down just a little. He'd likely had experience with those
sorts of promises, and didn't take them lightly.

"I won't," he said it like it was a vow. A martial arts vow he would die
before breaking. The kind that he would destroy man and machine to
protect.

He was just that kind of honorable martial arts idiot.

"Thank you. Ryouga-kun..." She took a deep breath. Nabiki knew what she
wanted to say, but knowing it and doing it were very different when push
came to shove. She was afraid, and not just of what telling this secret
to someone would do to her carefully cultivated sense of personal
security. She'd never been the type to have friends worth confessing to,
and she'd never really felt the need for it before, but now... she badly
needed someone to trust.

"I... I did something bad at Meiji," she began, licking her lips and
fighting with herself to admit it.

She looked over his shoulder at the door, and bit her lip.

"Meiji University?" he asked, mostly to prompt her to continue.

"Yeah. Meiji University..." she took another deep breath. It was a
little easier, once she'd started. "When I got there, I... I did a lot
of the things you probably heard about back at Furinkan. No one knew me
there, and Kuno-chan wasn't around, so.... I got a little... greedy. The
people there had so much more money, and they started off so gullible...
I mean, as gullible as you, even!"

"Gee, thanks."

She laughed weakly, and pressed on. "I knew this girl there. She was the
kind of girl you'd probably like: nice, and polite, and kind and very,
well, girly. The kind who'd go 'eee' if she saw a mouse or something. I
could tell that she was hiding something, though, so I got to know her.
We hung out, sort of became friends, but not great friends. At a party I
found some stuff about her... some stuff about her I could use."

Ryouga closed his eyes briefly; she could tell that he had some idea of
where this was going. But having started, she knew she had to finish.
She had to.

"I... I won't say what I found out, but I tried to use the
information... to get her to work for me, do me favors, things... things
like that. She tried to get me in trouble but I had my bases covered,
you know? I got... she made me angry, and I... I just wanted to teach
her a lesson! I mean, she tried to get me expelled!" As she spoke, her
voice rose with anger, but there were tears in her eyes. She wiped them
away, hard, ashamed and angry that they were there, betraying her.

"I didn't want... I..."

She took a ragged breath meant to calm her, to steady and control
herself.

"She jumped off a building, and..."

"No one..." she screwed her eyes shut, hiding the tears behind her
hands. "No one ever did that before! No one ever did that before! I
didn't know it would happen! You have to believe me! No one ever did
that before!!"

"Nabiki..." he tried to say, tried to think up something appropriate.
His lips moved a few times, but no words came. She'd expected him to at
least reel back in shock and disgust, to see her for what she had did,
but his expression remained inscrutable to her. Was it because he'd
killed people, too? Was it because he didn't understand just how
terrible it had been to hear the news shouted down the dorm room hall,
and know deep down that he had driven an innocent person to suicide? Had
all those depression powered ki blasts addled him to human suffering in
general?

"I was so scared!" she gasped and turned away from him to hide her face.
She couldn't stand that impassive expression! It wasn't what she
deserved. It wasn't! She wanted to yell at him to be angry, or shocked,
or disgusted or ...anything!

"I panicked... if anyone found out... I...! So I... I arranged it to
look like two other girls had done it! I ruined their lives so... so I
wouldn't get in trouble, and... and I killed someone..." she choked back
the words, but they came out again, almost painfully, "I killed...!"

Ryouga's experience with the opposite sex may have been minimal, but he
knew when to shut up, and when to try and comfort someone. He didn't try
and explain away what she had done. He didn't try and justify it, or say
it wasn't her fault. He took her by the shoulders and let her cry into
his shirt. Buried in his chest, Nabiki sobbed, lost in the cathartic
release of finally being able to share what she'd done with someone
else. It hadn't just ruined three lives.

Just a freshman in college, she'd all but sensed her own oncoming pariah
status and had felt powerless to stop it. Even at home, pretending her
studies were going as well as her grades indicated, she'd seen her
future, and it wasn't what she wanted it to be. The collapse could well
have been weeks away, or even months, but by the time that alien light
had streamed through her window in Nerima, Nabiki Tendo's life had
already been spiraling out of control. Struggling to keep it to herself,
to handle it herself, she hadn't dared even hint about her culpability
in the tragedy to her family.

Not to Kasumi, so good, so kind, so gentle - the perfect and dutiful
daughter.

Not to Akane, so popular, so beloved, so young - the baby daughter and
dojo heir.

And certainly not to her emotional and high strung father.

To her, that terrible night, that alien ship, had been the greatest
opportunity of her life. It had taken her away from that place, away
from the fear and the uncertainty and the guilt. It had taken her
somewhere where she could do good, atone, and yes: do well for herself,
too. And she would do good; she would atone, so why had she bared her
most shameful secret to... to anyone? Why did it feel so good to
finally, finally, be able to tell someone?

"I'm sorry..." she cried into him, the one person, against all
circumstance she felt she could trust. He could never forgive her,
couldn't absolve her of her guilt, but maybe, just maybe, he could
sympathize with her and not hate her for her something horrible that she
truly regretted. She'd seen how he had changed, and it had given her
hope that she could change too.

"I never meant for this it to happen..."

"I know," he said, his voice soft enough to hear the compassion in it.
But at the same time, it offered no platitudes. No emotional escapes
from responsibility. Still, she found comfort in it, and she knew he
wouldn't tell anyone, wouldn't turn against her, wouldn't curse her
behind her back.

"Thank you. Ryouga-kun..." she stayed in his arms just long enough to
start to compose herself again. She hated getting emotional - there was
never any profit in it, and it made others think you weak and lacking in
conviction. Even towards someone who had truly saved her life, in almost
every way, she didn't want to seem unable to deal with her problems on
her own. He let her go, and the two stood in the growing silence.

It soon became clear that, more than anything, he had no idea what to
say.

And after telling him what she'd done, neither did she.

-----

"Look at this!" Ryu checked his watch, and not for the first time. "I
thought Nabiki and Ryouga were coming."

Standing next to him, Ukyou crossed her arms under her chest. She'd gone
out of her way to look as boy-like as possible, even tying her hair
together at the bottom instead of close to the back of her head. Not
that Ryu had seen cause to complain.

"The movie's about to start," she said, checking her own sports watch.
"And I don't think we can have half the base wait for them."

"I guess not," Ryu replied with a casual shrug. He'd dressed casually in
jeans and a shirt... after nervously changing his clothes four or five
times and cursing loudly in his room once or twice.

"Should we go in?" he asked, coughing to clear his throat. They were
standing outside the conference room that the recreation and support
staff had appropriated for this week's show. Ukyou's 'half the base'
remark had been a total exaggeration, but more than a few groups of
friends and pairs of 'friends' had shown up. It was XCOM tradition to
show a particularly stupid and usually alien-related movie before any
base assault.

"Might as well. The jackass probably got lost or something!" Ukyou
turned to head inside. "They could be in Mexico by now."

Another slight exaggeration.

"So who is M. Night Shyamalan anyway?" she asked, as stepping through
the door.

"Some American director I think."

"You do know this isn't a date right?"

"It's absolutely not a date."

"..."

"I'll just shut up then..."


-----

Somewhere within the Changbai Mountain Range

Above ground, the wail of sirens filled the breaking dawn air.

And deep within the bowels of the alien base, a pair of eyes leisurely
opened, accompanied by a picture perfect smile.

"Ah," a dulcet voice remarked in the dark. "It's about time my cute
little students came to see me."