Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Chained World: The Fall of the House of Kuno ❯ Clashing Honors ( Chapter 55 )

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!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi, or anyone else's published work.

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Okano Taisho frowned as he listened to his scouts' reports from his seat at a table in the warehouse's echoing shell, the rest of the table surrounded by the ronin's team leaders. “So the mob hasn't moved against the watch headquarters or estate yet, just the lording government offices and the slave center?”

“Right,” Kato Min Swun replied. “And whatever they're trying to look like, they aren't a mob. It's obvious that they haven't trained together, but it's equally obvious they are following a plan of some sort.”

“What sort?”

Min Swun shrugged. “I have no idea what they are up to — outside of trapping most of Nerima Law Enforcement inside their headquarters, it doesn't seem to make much sense.”

“Which means we're missing something, because that move was brilliant,” Taisho said thoughtfully, and a murmur of agreement rose from his gathered subordinates. Finally, he shrugged. “Regardless of whatever they're planning, does anyone believe that they aren't going to go over the walls and storm the mansion?” When no one responded he straightened in his seat. “That's it, then — we let them go first and absorb and reveal the automated defenses and weaken whatever security forces might be left, then go in behind them. Anything else?”

“Yeah, I got a concern, boss,” Dan Yuji said. “We're going to have a tough time having our involvement seen as just one more part of the riot. It doesn't do us much good to be using Kuno equipment if we're the only ones using it — the mob's armed with those staves and a few katana, naginata, the usual for Nerima and not a modern weapon that I can see in any of the scouts' feeds.”

“Good point,” Taisho agreed. “Everyone, have your men bring along the extra guns. Then when we've fired off a few clips we can drop the fired guns off with local dead and switch to the backups.” After a moment's thought, he added, “And it also means we can't move into the forward positions, we'd stick out too much, might possibly be taken for Kuno Security in the dark — the last thing we want is for the so-called `mob' to turn on us. We'll just have to wait here in the warehouse until it's time to move, then go from here to over the walls and into the mansion in one long rush.” Glancing around, he saw some grimaces but no disagreement. “All right, we have a plan, such as it is. Let your men know to wait for my word, then let's bring the map up and pick our routes.”

/oOo\

Kuno stared at the image of the Master of Servants on his suite's vidphone monitor, the room seeming to sway as he fought to comprehend what he'd just been told. “A mob? Here? But why?”

Pyo-sensei paused, considered, and finally said, “My lord, there are those in the lording that ... took Ranma at face value. They ... resent ... the perceived injustice in your acqui — in your freeing the lady Ranko from his influence. To them, the destruction of the Cat Café seems to be a strike against the Sorcerer's allies and so perhaps they place the blame on us. But now is not the time for why's, we can study that out after the threat is over.”

After a long moment of consideration, Kuno-dono reluctantly nodded. “You are correct. The automated defenses are active and your people in position?” he asked heavily.

Pyo-sensei nodded. “Yes, my lord, but with our security forces spread out and many of my people away on assignments, we are badly understaffed.”

“I am certain that if called upon to defend our sacred home they shall prove themselves worthy of the trust we have placed in them. But even as valiant as they are, they cannot be everywhere in a domicile so immense. Sound the alarm for all noncombatants to seek out the safe rooms. I will join you in the command center.”

“Yes my lord.”

Even as the monitor went blank, a siren began to wail. Usagi appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, eyes wide in a pale face, hands clenching the white apron of her French maid uniform at the sound of the alert that this time wasn't a drill, then stepped back and to the side as her master strode past her toward his wardrobe, stripping off his shirt he had worn to his office as he went. “Kuno-dono, what's going on?” she asked in a shaking voice.

“Sadly, the mansion is under assault by a mob of my people that have been badly deceived by that foul scourge of my existence,” Kuno replied without looking back. Stepping out of the trousers that he typically wore to his office and grabbing a set of robes like he had worn to his father's school (though of a much higher quality), he continued, “Seek out the suite's place of refuge, all will be well.”

“But what about Ranko?” Usagi demanded. “My mistress's note said that she was seeking a quiet place to meditate, and I don't think anyone ever told her about the safe rooms!”

“If the mob is indeed made up of pawns of the sorcerer Saotome, then my lady will be the safest person in the house — he will be seeking to reacquire the beauty I had freed from his foul embrace, not to kill her. And if he himself is not here —” Kuno broke off for a moment at the thought ... now that he considered it, his agreement with that depraved seducer could be understood to mean that Ranma wasn't prohibited from interfering within the Lording, just entering the Lording. A clever loophole he should have seen, not that it mattered ... between forcing Akane to bear his foul seed and now this attack, the agreement was clearly void. Kuno shook away the distraction, he had more immediate concerns. “— if he is not here, there will not be a person in that mob that can touch her, or any twenty people. Even I can best her only with the most strenuous effort.” He checked the placement of the Kuno Family blade and its companion wakizashi in his obi, then turned and smiled gently at his young slave. “Now go and seek out your den, little rabbit. Your mistress will wish your companionship when this is over, as will the fire of my soul, my lady Akane.”

Usagi stiffened, then took a deep breath and nodded. “Of course, Master,” she said.

Kuno chuckled. It hadn't taken long after Usagi's purchase for her to start using that particular title when she was less than happy with him. “You do not have like it, only do it,” he said as he strode past her out of the bedroom and toward the door leading to the rest of the mansion.

/\

Usagi watched her master leave, mind whirling. Why was the mob gathering now? Had Kuno-dono finally moved against Akane-chan as he had hinted? Did it have anything to do with Ranma vanishing? When the blonde had woken up from her little afternoon nap and found the note from her mistress saying that Ranma was seeking some privacy for meditation she'd been suspicious ... And there isn't a thing you can do about it, whatever has happened. All you can do is run and hide, and wait. The normally bubbly blonde wiped at watery eyes. She was not going to break down — when it was all over, whatever happened, Ranma and Akane-chan would find her ready to help them however she could.

Resolution made, she patted at a pocket of her apron, then began to hastily look around the suite. There was no way she was going hide all alone in the suite's safe room. It might be different if she was authorized to use the hideaway's computer for more than registering her presence and playing games while waiting for the all-clear, but she wasn't ... besides, she suddenly felt the need for a friend. Ami's safe room was halfway across the mansion so she'd have to run to reach it before they closed and locked the door, and she couldn't remember where she'd put down her slave chain when she'd taken it from around her neck....

/oOo\

In her private suite/prison cell, Kodachi leaned back in her chair, staring at the computer monitor as she considered the figures and statistics she'd been compiling, comparing and considering over the last few weeks. Much as she hated to admit it, her brother had had a point about finding a purpose for her existence beyond embarrassing her father. In truth it was a point easily made, because she had been getting a little bored — bored with public scandal, bored with meaningless sex, bored with teasing the Saotomes and Tendos (well, not so much the latter, though making it something other than simply a rehash of previous encounters had been getting difficult).

The “problem” (read, opportunity) was that her brother undoubtedly expected her to “come to her senses” and take up the activities of others of her class and social position — running the household, promoting some popular charity or other (something the Christians had first popularized but had proven remarkably popular with a large segment of the common people, at least when the alternative was selling off family members), and looking graceful and well-mannered in the service of her husband. Though perhaps not the last, her previously eager (not to say vigorous) pursuit of her reputation as a slut hadn't done much for her marriage prospects. That had been the idea, of course, and it wasn't as if there were any men out there that she actually wanted ... or women, for that matter. Perhaps dearest brother is right, if not the way he intended it — when something as pleasurable as sex starts to be more trouble than it's worth, it's time for a break. Perhaps by the time I convince him to lift the house arrest it will have regained some of its appeal. The limits placed on my opportunities by the need to be discreet ought to help. Not that she was entirely pleased with her enforced celibacy, but Hahn-chan had refused her subtle — and then not so subtle — hints. And if she even hinted an interest in that cute, bubbly-happy blonde slave the only question would be who would kill her first, her redheaded friend or her brother.

Shaking herself free of the tangent her mind had wandered down — it wasn't like she could do anything about it even if she wanted to — she returned her focus to her monitor, and its fact and figures. The truth was that the only aspect of her former lifestyle that hadn't been growing stale was her Art, and that was what she'd decided to focus on ... the promotion of Rhythmic Gymnastics beyond a diversion for the limited number of teenagers that currently practiced it in school and promptly dropped it upon reaching adulthood, to make it into a respected form of adult entertainment and exercise. Yes, that could work. The mix of exercise and practiced grace would be attractive, and she could mix in a very basic level of unarmed combat — enough that her students could deal with any but trained warriors. And my stick-up-the-ass brother won't be able to complain, no matter how frivolous he thinks it is, Kodachi thought gleefully. Yes, this new game of playing with her brother while appearing perfectly respectable had real possibilities....

Then an image flashed across Kodachi's mind, of a redhead standing braced for action in one of the estate's gardens in the moonlight of her first night at the Kuno mansion. The younger Kuno's moment of humor drained away as her shoulders slumped. The likelihood that she was going to get the —

The ponytailed girl jumped as the siren sounded that she had previously only heard (and ignored) during the occasional drill. But those drills had always been preplanned and announced, to make sure none of the servants would start something that couldn't be shut down.... Kodachi whirled in her seat. “Hahn-chan! What's going on?”

Her purple-clothed minder stepped away from her usual place against the wall. “Mistress, a mob has been gathering around the estate, and your brother has ordered all servants not tasked with defense to the safe rooms.”

Kodachi gaped at her shadow of the last few weeks, then whirled back around to her computer.

“Mistress, please, you must get to safety!” Hahn protested.

Without looking up, Kodachi replied, “The trapdor to the corridor to my safe room is four paces away. Unless that mob has tactical nukes, there's no way they can stop us from getting away whenever we choose. Now, where's — ah! Found it.”

Hahn walked over to look over her mistress's shoulder, but she already knew what she would see from the chant coming through the computer's speakers. Rather than the feral snarl of an angry mob capable of weakening knees and loosening bowels, there was a line of people stretching along the sidewalk across the street from the wall surrounding the estate, and a deep, rumbling chant: “Cat Café! Cat Café! Cat Café!”

Kodachi stared at the scene for a long moment. “`Cat Café'? Why would they be ... ?”

Hahn felt her heart sink as her mistress brought up the search engine for the `net and started typing. “Mistress, please ... !” And the monitor was filled with an image of a massive hole half filled with water, the buildings around it collapsed into ruin.

Kodachi was still, staring as the water level in the hole slowly rose. In a quiet voice, she said, “My brother has finally made his move, hasn't he?”

Hahn fought to keep her shoulders from slumping in despair. “Akane tested positive on a pregnancy test,” she responded just as quietly. “When Kuno-dono learned of it, he ordered her to be brought in and the pregnancy terminated. Pyo-sensei knew that when the rest of her people found out about it — especially Ranma-chan and her father, and Ku Lon-san — they would take this mansion apart wall by wall until they found her. So he ordered a preemptive strike.”

“It looks like the Amazons have been dealt with. The rest?”

Hahn hesitated briefly, then sighed. It wasn't like her mistress (and friend, a part of her added) wouldn't learn later, or that refusing to tell her would change what was inevitably coming. “Konatsu-san and Ukyo-san are dead. An assault on the Tendo dojo is taking place as we speak. Their orders are to leave Kasumi-san and Nodoka-san alive if possible, but Nabiki-san and especially Genma-san are major threats to be eliminated.”

Rising from her seat and turning to face her minder, Kodachi asked, “And Akane-san? Has her pregnancy been terminated yet?”

“No. Pyo-sensei decided that Akane-san's ... attitude adjustment could wait until after Ranma had been ... readjusted, and that is being taken care in the subbasement right now.”

Kodachi stared at her shadow, suddenly lightheaded as she blanched, and caught hold of the back of her chair to hold herself upright. “And after that, Akane will want the abortion,” she whispered.

“True, so Pyo-sensei believes,” Hahn agreed. “And he believes that handling it in that order will strengthen Akane's Adjustment.”

Kodachi straightened and strode toward the door. “Come on, we have to stop this travesty —” she started, only to slam to a halt as Hahn stepped in front of the door, her stance very familiar to Kodachi after their weeks of sparring. “Hahn-san, you cannot think this is right,” she said. “I know you follow Bushido, but this ... this is evil!”

“I know, mistress,” Hahn replied, her voice shaking slightly. “But I have no leeway in the matter — I am sworn to the service of the Kuno Family as represented by its accepted head, and I cannot in honor choose which of my sworn lord's goals and orders to carry out.”

“Then if you can't join me, just step aside and leave stopping this abomination to me ... please,” Kodachi begged, voice tight as she fought to control her rising desperation.

Hahn shook her head. “I am sorry mistress, I truly wish I could,” she said, the shaking in her voice even more pronounced. “But unlike me, you have choices. Two, to be exact — you can either use your suite's safe room, or you can fight me.”

Kodachi stared at the ninja, desperately trying to think of some way to convince Hahn that she was wrong, some way to acquire the packets of the knockout powder she had smuggled into her room from her greenhouse/chemical lab, and her despair grew as she came up empty ... and realized just how important the ninja had become to her since being assigned as her minder. Finally, she laughed bitterly. “No, Hahn-chan, I have no more choice than you do. Funny, isn't it? Thanks to you and Ranma I have less freedom now than I did when my dearest brother stuck me in this nunnery.” Stepping back, the Kuno heir rotated her arms and shoulders, felt the twinges left over from her “demonstration spar” with Genma, but only twinges — her bout with the Anything Goes master had indeed been as painful as she'd feared, but he had been careful not to do her any lasting damage while actually drawing out her various attacks and counters, making it the learning experience for his students he had said it would be. Satisfied, she again shifted her gaze back to her friend, suppressing a frown. Hahn should have taken advantage of her mistress's apparent distraction, it would have been her best chance to take Kodachi down quickly and mostly harmlessly, but she hadn't. It was possible she'd seen through her mistress's act, but Kodachi had years of practice. And the ninja had been awfully talkative for someone supposed to keep her charge away from the action.... What at you playing at Hahn-chan? Kodachi shrugged the thought away as she stepped forward. Whatever her bodyguard, jailor, and friend was up to, she didn't have time to figure it out. “So, let's see which of us is the best when it counts.”

/oOo\

At the sound of the siren coming faintly through the shiny steel walls of her brightly lit prison, Akane raised her head from where she sat curled up on the steel-framed, lightly padded bed that along with a sink and toilet were the room's only fixtures. Letting go of the legs pulled up against her breasts, she stood up and scrubbed at puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. After how brutally Ukyo had been killed and the efficiency with which the youngest Tendo had been taken down, Akane was deathly afraid that this time Ranma wouldn't be coming to the rescue — surely people that had put as much thought as they had into her capture had done the same for how to deal with her lover (a label ... a hope ... she clung to even as she shivered). But something was happening, so perhaps this time she would be able to rescue herself.