Patlabor Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Super Giant Robot Carnival ❯ Chapter 1

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 1


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Captain Ranma Yotsuga was sitting at his desk pondering how he should go about the book deal if at all. 'Do I want to let the public see my past, good and bad? Do I sugar coat it? What if I don't, will I get more 'fan-mail'? "God why does my life have to be so difficult?"

"I'm sorry captain, what was that?" Captain Honda asked, Ranma not being prone to outbursts.

"Oh, it's just this book thing. How much detail should I go into, and what are the consequences of having my life laid bare for the masses." Sighing, he turned to look Shoji Honda in the eye, "Do you know exactly when I become a celebrity?"

Honda chuckled, "probably when you saved some poor girl with your shirt off in front of the press."

"But why me?"

Mei walked up to them. "Excuse me captains, but Miss Megumi Kawamitsu is here to see you captain Yotsuga. Shall I send her in?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Oh and captain, the reason for celebrity is because you're a brave and handsome man." Mei giggled at Ranma's blush.

"Get out, before you're on toilet duty, Hayashi!" Ranma fumed.

"Hello captain. Sorry, but I overheard that last exchange."

Ranma groaned, "ok then, care to toss your opinion in?"

"Well, she is right you know, about being brave and handsome, but there is something about you that makes a woman feel warm inside when you smile at them."

"Captain Yotsuga? I'll leave you to your seduction of this young lady, just try not to make too much of a mess when she ravishes you on the desk." Honda spoke with a wink, knowing full well that Ranma's ability for attracting the ladies was something he considered a curse. Rushing quickly to avoid anything that might be heading his way, he left the two alone.

Ranma growled. "Ever since I was a child I seemed to attract female attention, some of it was not always welcome." he shuddered at a set of memories. "Anyway, Miss Kawamitsu, when do we start?"

"Today, if you like. And as your assistant, you can call me Megumi."

"So you are my helper. Ready to go meet the troops?"

Megumi nodded.

Walking down to the break room, he gathered all of second section for his announcement.

"Now ladies and gentlemen, I would like tell you all something. Apparently I'm some kind of celebrity, and the higher ups want to capitalise on that good publicity."

"Captain. Celebrity. Now that's just crazy talk." Kou Tezuka, lead pilot for second section, had flair for the sarcastic.

"ANYway, I want you to know that people want to know all about me. They want to serialise my life story in some magazine, and then in a book. In order to get me some time to work on it, they have given me an assistant. This is her, Megumi Kawamitsu. She'll be helping me with my paperwork." Ranma stepped aside.

"Hello everybody, please call me Megumi. I will assisting captain Yotsuga with both his police work and autobiography." She bowed to the audience.

"Right, I need to introduce everybody. That one with the smart mouth is Kou Tezuka, pilot for unit 1. His back up is Maaya Yamamoto, that's her with the long brown hair. The sleepy looking one is their carrier driver, Toshiro Tomino. Don't worry about him, he's just not caffeinated at the moment." Pointing at the slightly weasel-like man in glasses, "that's the carrier driver for unit 2, Kosuke Miura. The guy with the blonde dye-job is unit 2's command car driver, Ken Uraki. And you've met unit 2's pilot, Mei Hayashi."

"Nice to meet all of you, " Megumi bowed again.

"Now that you've been introduced, I'll leave to get better acquainted whilst I attend to some personal business. Try not to scare her off, folks."

"Yes sir!"

Megumi turned to the police officers, "So what do you think of the captain?"

"He knows his stuff."

"The captain's a great guy, he's been in the trenches, y'know?"

"You do know that if you hurt him, we are trained in the use of firearms?"

"Zzzzzz"

The crowd turned and shouted "Toto-chan!"

"Wha? Emergency? Wait, why are you all standing there if there's an emergency?"

"There's no emergency, Toto-chan," Ken scowled. "It's just that Megumi here asked us about the captain."

"Oh, sorry. He's a great guy. A bit secretive about certain things. Rumours abound, but most of them contradict each other. I think that's his plan, like his mentor; Goto."

"Oh yes, I know about captain Goto. Quite the thorn in the side of criminals, from all accounts." Megumi mused, then the penny dropped. "What did you mean that you're trained in the use of firearms, Maaya?"

"Heh heh. Well it's that we all owe the captain big time, we're not just talking saving our skins in the line of duty. We're also quite fond of him, we get the feeling that he's been through a lot."

"He does have a certain sadness in his eyes, doesn't he?"

"Yes." The women present sighed, thinking about Ranma's incredibly blue eyes, and feeling the bitter pang of disappointment when the realised that they couldn't be with him.

"Looks like we'll have to tease the captain about the latest addition to his fan club." Kou whispered to Kosuke.

"Leave me out of this one, the captain might just decide to be vindictive about it this time," Kosuke was the cautious type.

"You always seem to be saying that lately, what's up?"

"Well, the man can only take so much, plus he's got the added stress of that book. Who knows what memories that's going to bring up? No, it's best if we leave him alone this time."

"Yeah," Ken chimed in, "besides, Maaya's got the weapons locker keys on her."

That brought them to the attention of the women.

"Nothing going on here, I'm just off to see Shige. Heh, heh." Kou practically ran out of the door.

Megumi turned to Mei, "who's this Shige?"

"Oh, he's the head of the maintenance division here. He's skilled, a bit nerdy maybe, but what do you expect from an engineer?"

"Oh. How long has he been here?"

"He predates the captain, he was working under captain Goto on the Babylon Project incident."

"So why did you join up with special vehicles, Mei?"

"The same reason anybody would choose to be a labor operator - paid to pilot giant robots. Special vehicles was hiring when I needed a job, so I applied. The captain saw the score on my simulator tests and put me on the short list. It was a close call, I almost didn't make the cut. I wasn't focused properly."

"Why not?"

"I'd rather not say. But the captain helped me out." Mei blushed at the memory of trying to hug and kiss the captain in front of everybody.

There was a knock at the door, Ranma stuck his head in, "Megumi, are you ready to start on the book. The rest of you stay here, if you want the story, you'll have to buy the book. Don't worry, I'll autograph it for you."

"But captain, I thought that you didn't want to do the book."

"I still have some reservations about it, but I do want that sweet, sweet cash. Megumi, how much is my advance again?"

"Err, somewhere in the region of a million and a half yen, I think."

"Ah, captain, that explains much. How about buying a round of drinks?"

"Maybe later. Now back to work people."

"Yes captain."

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Once they were seated in the captain's office, Megumi got out her dictation recorder.

"Shall we start from the beginning, captain Yotsuga?"

"I suppose that's as good a place as any. My story begins when I was but a child, knee-high to a grasshopper. Back when I still went by my birth name: Ranma Saotome."



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To be continued

I figured that would be a good place to end the chapter, the next one should be longer as I write up my notes from Ranma's childhood.

Let me know what you think.


Who's who in second section?:-


Kou Tezuka - lead pilot for the new special vehicles
Mei Hayashi - second pilot second section
Ken Uraki - command car back up for Mei
Maaya Yamamoto - command car back up for Kou
Toshiro Tomino - carrier pilot for Mei
Kosuke Miura - carrier pilot for Kou