Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Chained World: The Fall of the House of Kuno ❯ Official Interest ( Chapter 9 )

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling, punctuation and the occasional word choice. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

This is the second of several chapters written by Tman, posted here without modification, except for a few spelling and formatting errors.

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi, Yuso Takada, Masaki Kajishima, Naoko Takeuchi or Tman.

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by Tman

 

In an unpretentious building nestled among the government structures of the Imperial bureaucratic complex in Tokyo, in a rather bland-looking office, an unremarkable-looking middle-aged middle management functionary was looking with great interest at the flow of information in one particularly large case file....

It was no secret that the Imperial government spied on its own people; it was to be expected after all, since the various families that made up the Imperial aristocracy routinely spied on each other. The very existence of an aristocracy with any real power, and an Imperial Family on top of it, that wielded real power over them, invited ambition. Somebody was always looking to gain more and put themselves higher up the food chain. Only fools didn't look to advance their fortunes by hook or crook; to do otherwise was to invite being consumed by those with more ambition and less scruples. Though economic weapons had largely replaced the swords and poisoned daggers of past generations among the modern samurai, the permanent removal of obstacles to power still remained a viable instrument of social advancement. The Imperial Family had kept its seat of power, and its heads, by knowing more about its possible enemies than the opposition did....

But the families of the Imperial aristocracy might be surprised if they knew just how MUCH the Imperial Family's guardians knew about them...or, if they did, they were justly frightened in their place. A thinly-veiled threat backed with some damning information often did the work more effectively than a ninja's blade between the ribs (or course, that blade was always an exercisable option...a threat had to have teeth after all). Besides keeping tabs on possible threats to the Imperial Family, the Tokubetsu Koto Keisatsu (“Special Higher Police”, or the “Tokko” as they were also known) also monitored the currents of activity between the various families, and the up and comers, looking for patterns, trends, and unrest. That way, the Imperial Government would be on top of the various blood feuds, and could play them accordingly, or contain the damage before it upset the balancing act that was the Empire. The Tokko had to know who was angry at whom, who was willing enough to kill, and who to suspect if blood WAS shed. Not surprisingly, the Tokko kept a BIG file on the Kunos. When Old Blood ambition, big economic clout, and insanity go together, the government got VERY interested...and the last week or so had ramped up that interest. While the suspicious death of the Kuno patriarch was still under investigation, it came as no great surprise to the Tokko. They already had files opened up on the many enemies the Kunos had accumulated; from old hereditary rivals to disgruntled economic competitors, to foreign governments like the United States of America, and groups like the Hawaiian Liberation Army, directed by the Queen-in-exile from her headquarters in California, and the DreamTime Avengers down in Australia.

But what really caught the bureaucrat's interest was the last twenty-four hours of activity....The name `Tendo' had come up first, then the name `Ranko Tendo' had come up in connection with a declaration of impending debt-enslavement....and THAT had opened up another flagged file, under `Saotome'; that had been VERY interesting...The Tokko knew the Kunos' likely enemies better than the Kunos did, since one never knew when it would be convenient to play rivals against each other, or recruit old enemies to deal with a problem. The Tokko bureaucrat noted that the name `Saotome' had appeared of interest in the files of a number of other Imperial agencies, from the Ministry of the Armed Services, the Foreign Office, and the Keihokyoku (civilian police bureau).

The whole thing looked suspicious, but not illegal, much as the more vocal liberals in the Ministries might complain...Nothing the government could overtly do anything about, without more obvious cause. After all, it was a legitimate way of resolving an over-long-held debt, and hadn't the Imperial Family used similar clauses to bring others into their fold or defuse possible threats?

However, there had then come the messages over the heavily-monitored civilian internet and blogosphere....Unofficial notice of the imminent auction of one Ranko Tendo to any interested parties, and hints at the reasons for it...The Kuno name figured most prominently in statements that stopped just short of actionable accusation.

And it was getting responses.....

The bureaucrat-agent raised an eyebrow at some of the responses being routed through his desk top screens. Names were popping up, familiar names to anybody who worked on the Kuno files, and he had drafted additional help to haul out the associated files on the names of particular interest.

Shutaro Mendo—Young lord of the Mendo clan, who'd assumed command of his family in name several years before the young Kuno had. Mendo was apparently every bit as vain, obsessive, lecherous, and borderline crazy as Tatewaki Kuno was, but where the Kunos bent towards delusional obsession, the Mendos had cultivated a cold calculating aggression instead. The Mendo family was heavy on supplying the armed forces with both men and equipment (the bureaucrat made a note to consult his opposite number in the Kempeitai to see what else they had on the family), and Shutaro himself led the armored section of his large family guard, having spent time as a military cadet before family obligations had led to an honorable discharge from enrollment. His vanity and womanizing aside, Shutaro Mendo had assumed and revived the long smoldering family-feud with the Kunos after his mother had died under suspicious circumstances. There were also hints that the Mendo lord's painful claustrophobia was blamed on the Kunos. It all had the makings of a classic duel of opposing equals, the sort of potential flash-fire situation the Tokko had to keep an eye on....

Akiko Natsume—The strong-willed (some would say insanely obsessed, dictatorial, and possibly maniac) female power behind Mishima Heavy Industries, the powerful military-industrial corporation that held several large defense contracts with the Imperial military. The Natsume-Mishimas had clashed with the Kuno-run consortiums on numerous occasions over resources, government contracts, and industrial espionage, but Akiko seemed to hold some extra special grudge against the Kunos...Rumors had it that it somehow involved her estranged husband and son...A hot-headed organizational genius with access to cutting edge weaponry and a private army of loyal mamluks, getting interested in the sale of a mere slave, that just happened to involve a hated rival? This warranted closer watching.

Mikado Sanzenin—He'd apparently run into `Ranko Tendo' before, as a matter of very public record, and while the Tokko analyst might have dismissed the blond skater-idol's interest in the slave auction as a mere longing for revenge on a rival, there were other hints of movement in the more widespread Sanzenin family....As empty-headed as Mikado might be, and as spoiled-rotten as his habitual partner Azusa Shiratori might be, or appear to be, one ignored the closeness and combined economic clout of the Sanzenin banking cartel and the Shiratori mercantile groups at one's peril...and both families were known to have long-standing grudges against the Kunos. Whether it would be merely bankrolling a spoiling attack, a bid for some tail that got away, or whether Mikado Sanzenin was being groomed to take a more serious role in the simmering feud, it bore looking into...

Katsuhito Masaki—A humble monk, but one who had several `classified' stamps on his file...enough to draw the interest of the Tokko bureaucrat, but not enough to satisfy his curiosity. The old man had come to Tokko attention some years ago for public and vocal opposition to the Kunos shortly after the death of his daughter Achiko (also under suspicious circumstances....the bureaucrat made a note of that). After some turmoil and protest and legal haggling involving Kuno lawyers, the old man had been quiet since, apparently tending to his widowed son-in-law and his orphaned grandson.

Now there seemed to be some activity again on the internet from the Masaki temple; inquiries and requests for more information. A lot more than an old angry temple priest should be generating. Something was up, and it bore watching...

Setsuna Meioh—The `Witch of the Nikkei', the financial sorceress and fashion maven who, it was claimed, rivaled some of the blue-blood aristocratic economic blocs for sheer wealth, even though she lacked the court contacts and family connections to have any real political pull. Many had sought her, and some had tried to break and claim her via the same tactics that Kuno had used with the Tendos, but she'd evaded the traps, and left her would-be enslavers broken financially and sometimes physically...money might not be enough to buy a blood-name, but it could buy muscle, and silence. Meioh's record had as many classified stamps on it as the Masakis, and what could be viewed made it clear she was mysterious as hell...and that she LOATHED the Kunos. It might have gone back to the entrapment attempts and possible involvement on the part of the late elder Kuno, but it really seemed to have started during the Kuno expansion into and economic `reorganization' of the neighboring Juuban district...Something had apparently snapped in Setsuna Meioh, and the few occasions she'd been anywhere near the Kunos in public, Tokko informers had observed the security escorts of both the Kuno and Meioh contingents had been at near-combat alert....Like Masaki, there was increased activity and apparent interest when the Tendo tale had been `leaked', and hints that money was already being shuffled around....

The bureaucrat-analyst would have whistled at the accumulating files, had it not been unprofessional to do so in front of his staffers. Individually, any of the aforementioned parties might have been at best an annoyance to the Kuno personal empire, but their sudden attraction to this one event looked to him like an approaching critical mass situation. He'd have to alert his superiors higher up if it showed signs of greater increased activity. And it showed signs of exactly that, if the data-miners calling in with additional contributions were any indication. He prepared to order more files opened and pulled...