Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Hand Maid May Fan Fiction / Gatekeepers Fan Fiction ❯ Retake ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

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

Retake, Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: Ideas contributed by Ed Becerra, White Pheonix, Takahashi Rumiko, Game Freak, Jozo Mutsuki, Darts/Artmic, Masaki Kajishima, Akiko Furuya


--------

Following his failure in his Fourth Labor, Greylle had been stripped of several Aspects or past lives if you wanted a descriptive but not entirely accurate brief.

Which left his new Core Identity here retaking a test.

That Core was, by fitting into the Rules of Aramar and various "nudges" from various factors, an Aramarian silver dragon of the "young adult" category. Also due to events beyond his control, he was a cleric of (in roughly the order of their influence on his spells) Bast, Hephaestus, Toltiir, and Jared Saotome (god of crossovers). He had trained as a gadgeteer under Hephaestus, gone through Valkyrie boot camp, and an operative of the Rival Relief Office - a group of transdimensional misfits and odd ducks who basically tried to do jobs that they were underpowered for by cleverness, pluck, and scavenging anything useful they could on their travels.

After a week of trying to fit into life in a Japanese High School, he'd come to one conclusion.

Though he loved Japan as a home-away-from-home in many respects, and admired their politeness and work ethic and ability to pull together: the Japanese were insane. Especially in Nerima.

Rather more useful observations had occurred from trial spellcasting. AD&D magic was not quite as workable as it was in D&D style universes. In fact, every spell he'd worked in that fashion had turned out to have bizarre side effects. Experimentation had revealed that this was closer to Slayers, which made him a primarily White Mage. Close but not quite. There were also still side-effects, but not as bizarre or as powerful as when trying to cast typical clerical spells.

He was also not able to get a job as it required the permission of his school, which required very special and extenuating circumstances. While Greylle thought this qualified, the administration apparently did not.

It further appeared that the Giants couldn't sign him for a contract until *after* he'd either graduated or married (something his parents had apparently insisted on.) So, most likely, he'd be here in the Furinkan area for another two years and subsisting on what he could conjure up as neither these "parents" nor the "Giants" had taken into account food and extras. Buying a few bowls, a futon, soap, towels, and a change of wardrobe had exhausted the funds he'd brought with him. Unfortunately his Universal Credit Card was missing. Figured.

With the bizarre side effects, he'd only been able to determine a few things. This *was* a crossover universe of some sort, or at least there were other elements besides being a straight Ranma universe. What those were, he had no idea, as every cat within Tokyo had seemed to be drawn straight to his apartment by the divination. An augury had produced less results, except that one of the trees visible from his window was covered in sakura blossoms. Since it was not a sakura tree, this was a bit odd. Even for Nerima.

The mark of a Rival Relief Office operative, more than any other single factor, was that they tended to accumulate little gadgets and doohickeys. Where an agent of the Goddess Relief Office or the Earth Assistance Hotline had raw power and a connection to Yggdrasil, the RRO had the Barely Adequate Force and whatever personal resources they'd managed to accumulate. With spells uncertain, his now typical draconic talents available but likely to cause a Godzilla alert if he changed shape to access them, and *no* allies, this meant he was stuck with whatever oddiments had been left in his pack.

A minor computer, without scan capabilities, about the size of a Game Boy. Something that looked like a rolled up electric blanket but was actually a parts fabricator. The six pseudo-pokeballs had gotten his hopes up until he'd found they were empty. Pity. A cute animal mascot would have done wonders for his popularity as well as providing him someone to talk to who had a chance of understanding this crap.

A Triax cyborg repair kit. A holodisc containing schematics on 24 common Droid types from a Star Wars universe. A book on Elven Mating Rituals that covered four racial subtypes and three major planes that he had never seen before. Four "Otome Kairo" that clearly were within a few simple steps of being completed? Three magic bracers that he'd picked up in that odd AD&D sort of world where he'd picked up those Djinni bracers that had transformed Kasumi into a sort of Djinn and Shampoo into a Marid. No telling what these would do without more extensive study.

A sonic screwdriver and his #3 toolkit (brief happy dance). Three changes of clothing, also a baseball uniform and a... speedo?! That *had* to have been from Urd. Something that looked like a 4-dimensional backscratcher that he couldn't remember picking up anywhere. A small brazier, mirror, incense holder, three vials of holy water, and a set of common ofuda.

There wasn't much he could do for the first week. School and trying to make sense of the damn kanji, as well as trying to practice his baseball skills, ate up the time.

But he thought he was beginning to get things to take shape.

-------

"Well, Akane? It's been a week. That's how long Kuno had with his horde to come after you."

Akane winced. Nabiki had been waiting for her after school daily since the gaijin's arrival. Joy. "Well, what, Nabiki?"

"Still think the big bad gaijin is gonna try to 'claim his prize'?"

"No," admitted Akane. The jock had actually been very polite to her in his faltering Japanese. He'd also done some very strange things. Whenever his path crossed Akane's, she'd noticed that he was checking out the exits nervously. And if her temper began to show, he *really* got nervous and started edging for one of those exits.

"So. He's tall, he's handsome, he's gonna be rich as a pro baseball player, he's polite, he got your morning horde of hentai to lay off. Heck, even *Kuno* is laying off him. Something about not wanting to hurt the Giants' future star outfielder." Nabiki knew better, that Kuno's attack on the player had brought enough high powered lawyers that even the Kuno fortune could have dwindled to the point where you could hide it in a teacup, but baiting her sister was *so* enjoyable.

Akane's eyes narrowed. "I offered to spar. He turned me down!"

"Yeah, I heard. He doesn't like to hurt people and he's feeling guilty about that mess on his first day." Nabiki shrugged. She was thinking of making a play for the boy herself. Handsome, exotic, muscular, and potentially rich was awfully attractive. Still, family was important and she wanted to make sure Akane was ready to go back to having Kuno and Company after her. "Still, if you wanted to try to get him to that, he *did* defeat you in combat. Per Kuno's rules, he has to date you if you insist."

"Why would I do that?!" Akane actually snarled for a moment at her sister.

"Because, dear sister, you can then dictate the terms of your date. Including going out and sparring if you so chose." Nabiki watched the idea penetrate. "He's American and barely speaks the language, so he has no way of telling what a typical *Japanese* date is."

Akane stopped. "You think I'd trick some boy to *date* him?"

"No, to spar with a boy who is obviously intimidated by you," responded Nabiki. She'd been observing Shard-san herself. Speculation that he was gay was thrown out by the way his eyes had bugged out during the little incident when Megumi had "accidently" "popped her top" in gym. Operating theory among the more gossip-prone members of the school, based on this and similar incidents and perusal of his student files, was that he was shy. As impossible as that was to believe of an American. "Despite being in love with you." Actually there was no evidence in the slightest of this. Fear, yes. And many wondered what Akane had said or done that had intimidated the gaijin. Nabiki knew from quizzing Akane that Akane didn't know.

Akane was about to rebuke that theory when her eyes widened. The way he edged away from her. The way he flinched whenever she raised her voice. The way he always made a point of being over polite when speaking to her. He *was* intimidated by her. But why?

The youngest Tendo clenched a fist. Obviously it had to be *Kuno*. He'd either said or done something, and now she had a reputation stretching clear to the United States! And now he...

Nabiki was immediately aware when Akane stopped walking and just stared off into space, and wondered what was going on. Akane knew she was just teasing, Nabiki did it all the time.

Akane's thoughts swirled. Love? Someone felt for her what she felt for Doctor Tofu? Not like the boys around her who just wanted to beat her? Things were clicking into place. Of course, Akane had a few strange concepts about love. Her main example for how guys acted around women they loved was how Doctor Tofu behaved around Kasumi, so this was quite understandable.

"Well, at least it's Saturday," said Nabiki as her sister began slowly walking again. "So we've got half a day after school, and all day tomorrow. Though the forecast is for rain most of tomorrow. Figures it'd be a day off, eh, Akane?"

"Yeah," said Akane, not really paying attention.

-------

"HEY! STOP!"

Greylle grimaced and stopped. ~Where the hell is Ranma? Isn't he supposed to be here and he can take Akane and I can get the blazes *out* of Nerima and away from all these violent morons?~

Akane took a few moments to examine the boy, using interpretations supplied by Nabiki. Then smiled at the idea. So the big bad Amerikajin was in *love* and she made him nervous? Well, maybe it would at least take her mind of off her current failures with Doctor Tofu. Actually, this was rather like Doctor Tofu around Kasumi. Flattering, even if she didn't really have any interest in the fellow. Still, for getting rid of that morning problem, she felt she owed him something. A little. Tiny miniscule amount.

Grey decided this was nerve wracking to say the least. Akane was *staring* at him. Was this it? She would go into her bloodthirsty berserker attack mode and do her best "squish the male" routine? If she *did*, he'd consider it a lost effort and abandon ship. Or at least this ward. Zoom. Though he'd feel a lot better if Ranma had shown up. In a way he was actually hoping it *was* the case. He didn't like to fail, but he also didn't like much about this current scenario.

Akane put together what she knew of the gaijin, in this new light. Compared to any number of the members of the Hentai Horde, this guy was nearly a knight in shining armor. And if she *did* go out with him, it would keep the Horde from reforming. Taking a deep breath, Akane prepared to do something she'd never done before.

He *knew* it. She had taken a deep breath and started striding forward, looking *very* determined. Now she'd pay him back a thousandfold for his knocking her out last week. Either that or some imagined slight. This *was* Akane, after all.

Akane checked out the nervous looking boy. "So, Shard-san, have you had dinner yet?"

-----

Soun rustled his newspaper, apparently absorbed in the details of the sports page.

Nabiki, however, had eschewed subtle to wait by the door. She hadn't lied to Akane, exactly. She just *had* to see Akane come in. For one thing, she needed a progress report, and how badly the gaijin had been beaten. Then she could help nurse the poor fellow back to health, thereby setting her up for his gratitude. Nabiki felt she could parlay that into either a relationship or possibly set herself up as his manager in time.

Kasumi, likewise, had decided to wait by the door. Her poor excessively violent but nice little sister was finally outgrowing the "beat the world into submission" stage and had gone out on a date! Now if she could just get Nabiki out of her "mine, mine, mine" stage.

Akane opened the door, saw her two sisters, and very nearly turned around and exited her own home.

"Come on, Akane, details!" Nabiki wanted to know which hospital the poor gaijin was in, and how long he'd be in Intensive Care. Akane + date + any guy = squish.

"Greylle was a perfect gentleman," grumbled Akane. "Didn't insult me. Listened to me. Didn't stare at my chest or talk down to me. Excepting for his poor Japanese it went perfectly."

"And this is wrong in what way?" Nabiki smirked.

"Oh dear," fretted Kasumi. It had sounded to *her* as if Akane had wanted her date to do something quite improper. In a way this was good, as it at least proved Akane wasn't a lesbian. Still, she was only sixteen.

Akane frowned. All it would have taken was one improper action, and she would have felt perfectly justified in challenging him to a fight and pounding the crap out of him. Then he'd leave her alone, giving up his schoolboy crush, and she could get on with trying to get Doctor Tofu to notice her. He hadn't even taken liberties with his eyes. "He didn't even *try* to be a pervert. Rrrrrrrr."

Soun twitched from behind his paper, putting things together in the manner of a father hearing this sort of thing from his youngest daughter.

Nabiki put things together. Akane had a stubborn streak, therefore she wouldn't quit just because she couldn't bring sparring up on the first date's menu. "So when's the next date?"

"We're going ice skating tomorrow evening. He says he's never done that, so when he starts slipping and grabs onto me," Akane clenched her fist. A perfect plan. Nothing could go wrong.

Kasumi twitched slightly. "...oh my..." It sounded as if Akane had switched from pounding boys for being perverts to being somewhat of a pervert herself. It was nice that her sexuality had finally made itself known, but still this was most improper. "You're not going to go all the way are you?"

Akane winked at her older sister. "Don't worry, Kasumi. I know what I'm doing." Of course she wouldn't pound the boy *that* hard. Just enough that he'd give up.

"Oh dear," Kasumi wondered if she should get the formal teaset out. Or maybe get a packet of "Cupid Latex" for her youngest sister. Maybe it was just a phase she was going through?

--------

Greylle went back to the small (he'd seen bigger utility closets) apartment he had. He was puzzled.

Akane hadn't once hit him. She hadn't insulted him. She'd gotten angry a couple of times, and he was completely clueless as to the *why* as to the whole thing.

This was odd.

He'd seen a few (very few) timelines where Akane Tendo was neither a tomboy nor prone to flashes of overwhelming violence. He'd seen a few more timelines where she was a misoandric (male-hating) psychopath. Those, however, were the two far ends. And frankly, he'd had more than enough of Ranma timelines within the first year of his exploring such things. Watching the same thing, or subtle variants, over and over again had been both boring and somewhat nauseating.

Toltiir didn't much care for Akane, her sense of humor wasn't sufficient for his purposes. Greylle, on the other hand, didn't like Akane Tendo in the slightest. This was hardly the biggest difference between the two, but it was one of many.

So, he was left contemplating the Laws Of Mainline Ranma Universes and considering how to use them to get out of his current situation. They weren't official laws, written in stone, but they were observed anyway and might as well have been such. He hadn't memorized the Big Book Of Ranma Universe Rules, but he remembered some of them. #16 "The Favored Fiancee can break off the engagement, destroy tender moments (Sakura mocchi, Akane gets a bad cut, post hypnotic dim sum, etc) and act like a psychotic, but she will always be right and not have to suffer the consequences of her own actions because by being the Favored Fiancee she is by nature Innocent."

Nope, he didn't like *that* rule at all.

Of course, he wasn't supposed to *be* Ranma here so he didn't have to put up with that nonsense.

Hmmm. Which brought up another problem.

He was, by core nature, an Aramarian dragon. Everything in Aramar, or at least nearly so, was covered by volumes and volumes of Rules. With everything that had been happening, Greylle hadn't been able to read any of these volumes of Rules, so he wasn't as familiar with all the details except a few that he'd had slapped in his face recently.

As a male teenage dragon, basically he was lacking in the lust department. Male dragons were triggered out of their usually mellow state by the scent of a female who was ready to do *it*. Since there were no female dragons nearby, Greylle decided he was safe from *that*. (Was that ominous thunder? Surely not.)

Of more consequence was the need to return to his natural form occasionally. To feed and drink and sleep and recharge his natural magic more thoroughly and efficiently. Since transforming into a 52 foot long dragon in the middle of Nerima Japan was likely to bring out the Anti-Godzilla Forces, that meant taking a "training trip" into the mountains. Maybe on Sunday.

Hmmm. More thunder. He needed to get indoors.

----------

"Shampoo, you may have won the Tournament, but I will get even with you."

"Bring it on, Lufa. I am quite ready to... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

"Such childish tactics, Shampoo. Now face the terror of... AAAHHHHHH!!!!"

"BREEEEAAWWWWW!"

*WHAM!* "Don't just stand there! Run! Run for your lives!"

Shampoo slipped into unconsciousness from the blow to her head, her last sight being of the redhaired girl who had struck her while trying to rescue her from that THING.

"BREEEAWWWWWW!"

----------

"What's the matter, Soun?"

Soun Tendo seated himself in his usual place and looked at the bartender. "Sake, Shiro. Bring the bottle."

Shiro did and waited for Soun Tendo to get to the point. He'd seen Soun bawling his eyes out, usually over something silly, or some other extreme of emotion regularly. Soun looking merely mildly upset meant something was up.

"My youngest daughter is trying to get some gaijin in the sack."

Shiro almost fell over. "The lesbian?!" Making a warding gesture at Soun's glare, he shrugged an apology. "Hey, you know the stories as well as I do. 'I hate boys' at *her* age usually means she either really really likes boys or is contemplating an 'alternate lifestyle'."

Soun nodded. That had perhaps been the only good thing to come out of this little problem. He knew his little girl wasn't actually a man-hater after all. "She not only asked this boy out, but she was talking about how disappointed she was that he wouldn't be a pervert with her."

Shiro nodded. "Okay. Well, at least this boy's got some self-control."

"Damn gaijin, the Tendo family line is pure," began Soun.

"So what's this gaijin's name?" Shiro didn't want to listen to Soun ranting for hours about gaijin or the purity of his racial line.

"Akane said something like 'Grail' I think." Soun glared at his bottle of sake briefly. "When I catch him..."

"Greylle? Greylle Shard?"

Soun and Shiro looked over at this third figure.

"That might be so," agreed Soun.

"Haruhiko," introduced the third figure. He then went on to explain that the Giants had brought this boy over to try and lock him in as a baseball player.

Soun stopped bawling about "damn gaijin" when he put together foreign talent with baseball. That was a little different, as pro baseball players such as "Randy Bass" were tolerable. Though obviously not as son-in-laws. Then the money was mentioned.

Soun stopped crying altogether. Genma hadn't been heard from in years, so he wasn't a concern at present. Neither had (thankfully) the Chardin group.

Maybe his daughter's happiness should take precedence over his old fashioned ideas of racial purity. Though Akane was the Tendo Heir, and one of his other daughters might well be better for the match. Hmmmm. How to arrange it though?

Shiro and Haruhiko wondered if Soun had meant to speak all that out loud. Well, as long as he was going to ask.

-------

Greylle sneezed and felt a chill. Best to get indoors before it rained.

-------

Harry studied the fellow from a distance and sent a quick report back to Pungo.

:Dragon. Young one. Obviously well practiced to being in human form. Primarily a White Mage, though very clumsy and not guarding well against spell side effects.:

The decision now was to confront the Mage or not. Harry had sufficient power that the dragon would die if it was a threat. Dragons were tough, tricky, had very keen senses, could fly, breathe flame, and had those claws and jaws and natural armor. Adolescents were just beginning to come into their power, and being in human form reduced or removed most of those talents. So killing the dragon wasn't a big deal, IF it were necessary.

Just that it was IN human form indicated that it was inclined to keeping a low profile. Though to be sure, Harry decided what was needed was some confrontation. A low level summoned monster ought to reveal what the dragon was up to.

---------

Ignoring the feeling of being watched, mainly because he couldn't do jack about it, Greylle went up and worked on his current project.

Constructing a mini-fusion reactor had been difficult. Once *that* had been done, it was easy enough to build a few other things.

Records had been checked. There *had* been a group known as the "Sailor Senshi" in the Azabu Juuban/10th District of Tokyo. They had vanished last year. More records translated for him had revealed the usual basic plot of the first season of Sailor Moon.

There were some missing students since a period of about six months prior to when he had shown up. A few stories and blurred pictures of a *new* menace, which was the usual buxom female shape but animorphs, and that was it. No Doom Tree that he could detect.

There being a need for the Senshi, but a big mystery with the Senshi, Greylle could only come up with one basic plan. He couldn't get away and investigate as is. Nor could he fill the role of the Senshi by himself. When he was rejected by Akane and Ranma was her fiance (if someone had to be stuck with her, better that it was someone who could survive her) he could investigate *then*. Clerical abilities might make up for Sailor Moon's absence, and his breath weapon could fill in for Mercury's cold attacks, sort of. Later. Right now he couldn't.

So what was needed was a *substitute* Senshi.

Which was what he was slowly building. Marionette technology combined with a little tech-wizardry. He couldn't build a Silver Millenium Crystal or transformation pen. Typical magic attacks - not possible without a lot more research. So he was building a Sailor Marionette that worked a little different from the human Senshi. The first unit was an ersatz Mercury.

That in the last Labor he'd had an unrequited crush on Ami Mizuno did not enter into this decision at all. Greylle told himself this repeatedly and was beginning to convince himself.

Ice beams, concealing fogs, and magical disguise fields were *not* possible. With what he could design and build here without lots of R&D at least. On the other hand he *could* add a suit of fibers that would do a nice job of cloaking the android, and a suite of battle sensors to give extremely attentuated senses, and an internally based force field mechanism to add a measure of protection.

Though there'd be another problem, he didn't have room for a nanotank to do the skin and soft tissues up properly. How he'd manage *that* was another problem for another week.

At least. Camping trip, homework, school, and now a part-time job (an Import/Export company that could use a fluent English speaker) that he had to keep secret from the school. Time? What time?

------

It had started out innocently enough.

Greylle had told Akane about his camping trip. Needed to stretch after his teeny tiny apartment, get away from the city for a brief time, fresh air and all that, and practice the more powerful moves of his martial arts away from where people and property could get hurt. He had told her simply because he didn't want her making any plans like another date. (He was still puzzled as to *why* she wanted to date him. Didn't she hate boys? And where the blazes was Ranma?! Though if Ryouga showed up, he thought the two would be a better match.)

Akane, trying to make sense of Greylle's patchwork Japanese, particularly what a "shoebox apartment" was, told Yuka and Sayuri. Then mentioned it to Nabiki.

Yuka told Hitomi about the gaijin asking Akane to watch his apartment while he was away.

Sayuri told Yukie about how the baseball player had offered to take Akane up on a camping trip to teach her special manuevers (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more).

Hitomi told Asako about how Akane's boyfriend was planning on spending the weekend with her in his apartment.

Nabiki confronted Greylle about it, asked a few questions, then started selling the truth to those who knew what was going on with the usual gossip.

Asako told Hiroshi about how Greylle was going to tie up Akane's weekend.

Hiroshi told Daisuke about how the gaijin baseball player was going to tie Akane up over the weekend in his apartment and then do... and then some... and THEN. Daisuke openly doubted that Akane would go along with that sort of thing, but he hoped that someone could get pictures.

Yukie told Sakura about how Akane was taking her boyfriend up on a martial arts training trip into the mountains.

Sakura asked Akane if she had enough bug spray. When Akane asked why, Sakura filled Akane in on the details. At which point Akane shouted to the class that didn't they have better things to do with their time and that none of this was true anyway. Since class had been in session at the time, this resulted in Akane standing in the hall with a bucket of water. While there, Akane decided that maybe that some of this was accurate and Greylle had actually been asking her if she wanted to practice martial arts on a training trip.

Akane leaned back against the wall and sighed. At last, a boy who took her seriously as a martial artist and wasn't a pervert. Too bad her heart belonged to Doctor Tofu.

Meanwhile, Nabiki had sold the planned route and camping area to half her class. Kuno was standing in the hall after standing up in class to declaim the incipient deflowering of the "pure and tidy" Akane.

Which, of course, started yet another wave of gossip and innuendo.

Also meanwhile, Mitsuki was telling her friends about Akane's plans to elope with Greylle-san over the weekend.

Greylle wondered why everyone was whispering and shooting looks his way. Must be some Japanese thing. And why had Akane been sent out into the hallway? She'd gotten upset about something and yelled, but that had been kind of excessive. Now if she'd pulled out a mallet, that'd be different.

Kuno raced down stairs to confront Akane in the hallway. "Akane! How can you have given the flower of your womanhood to anyone but myself!"

This was followed by Kuno flying outside the window, fortunately breaking his fall by landing on a visiting policeman. Whose partner was quite unhappy about this suicidal attack on an officer of the law when all they had been here for was to investigate reports of crazed martial artists destroying Mrs Yamani's shrubbery. Tatewaki Kuno was disarmed and led away.

Those members of the school watching cheered for this phenomenal turn of events, and many suggested to Akane that she ought to elope more often.

Akane repeatedly denied anything about an elopement, they were just friends, and further stated something about how her elder sister had more in common with the gaijin. This was just a momentary temptation on her part, to try to get either Nabiki or Kasumi together with Greylle, especially Kasumi as that would then leave Doctor Tofu open. She immediately discarded the idea, as she couldn't really picture Kasumi ending up with someone so young. Nabiki didn't have any feelings that didn't involve money.

Nobody realized what was going through Akane's head, or that they were all talking too quickly for Greylle to understand any of this. Conclusions were quickly reached.

That nobody had any reason to believe that Greylle had even met either of Akane's sisters was beside the point. It was a juicy story, after all.

After class, Akemi congratulated Nabiki on her upcoming marriage to the gaijin. Nabiki smiled, nodded, turned back to her factors, and wondered what the heck was going on. She was supposed to be the one with the answers but the questions kept changing and some of the rumors were getting quite strange.

Kasumi got a call from Hiroko's mother, congratulating her on finally getting out of the house though didn't she think that a gaijin was slightly scandalous at least? Kasumi expressed her surprise at her impending marriage to someone she hadn't met yet and wondered exactly what her father had done this time.

Akane denied to everyone and anyone that she was eloping with the gaijin, it was just a training journey that she'd been invited on, and that Greylle would be a much better match for Nabiki.

Greylle was complimented by a group of boys on his having relationships with all three of the Tendo girls at the same time, as well as questions about what kind of foods he ate. Greylle wondered what the heck they were talking about and didn't have to lie when he said he was getting a headache.

Kuno declaimed the evil sorcerer that had stolen the heart of Akane Tendo and swore he would kill Greylle for the injustice of it all. As he was currently in a room with several police officers, a psychiatrist, and a representitive from the American Embassy, this qualified as perhaps the single most stupid manuever in a life filled with such.

That night, Nabiki sold Akane the information of the fate of Tatewaki Kuno (wraparound sleeves and medication figuring heavily into the equation) and there was much rejoicing.

Greylle showed up at the Tendo household, and it turned out Akane had forgotten completely about ice skating that night. It *did* give Soun and Kasumi the chance to meet the young boy. That he looked like a young Terry Bogard was well noted, by Kasumi at least, who was still operating under the unfortunate assumption per the earlier phone call that her father had engaged her to marry her youngest sister's boyfriend. While he was younger, he didn't look boring at all.

Nabiki studied the young man speculatively as she tried to unravel the mystery of how he felt about Akane. Pecuinary interests collided with the fact that this boy seemed good for her sister, though Akane frequently protested her lack of interest in same.

Akane took Greylle out, forgetting that she wanted to spar with him in her joy over the prospect of a Kuno-less life.

Nabiki and Kasumi, for their own private reasons, and Nabiki's public rationale that they needed more information on this boy who was dating Akane, decided to investigate Greylle's apartment while Akane kept him busy. Something that Nabiki had been planning to do ever since she'd discovered the address in his student file and after today had even more reason to.

There is no recipe for chaos: she brings her own ingredients.

==========

okay, that's it for now. i _may_ eventually write more but i'm trying to get back to some of my more pressing/older works that need to be finished/continued.

-gregg