S-CRY-ed Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Gray Skies ❯ Chapter 4

-Nerima, Tokyo, Thursday, November 2nd, 1995-

 

Akane stood before a large black obelisk that was set in obsidian and surrounded by various flowers. Engraved in the obelisk were three names, each belonging to the three whom had vanished on the same day, six years prior. There was a gentle breeze that ruffled her dress slightly. The flowers danced in the wind as the now young woman stood with a clutched in her hands.

 

“It fell on a Thursday again…” she said quietly. “Ranma…wherever you are… I hope you're happy. Please continue to keep my sister safe.” The girl smiled softly as she considered the other two people she had come to see. “You too, Ryoga-kun. And Nabiki… I know it must be hard for you, to be in a strange place… but you're a survivor if anything…”

 

“Akane,” Kuno's voice came off from the side. “Your father wants you to hurry up.”

 

“Tell him that he can wait a little longer.”

 

“Of course,” the man's shoes clicked along the pavement as he walked away.

 

“Heh… Ranma… Can you believe it?” The girl had a wistful smile on her face as she knelt down and put her flower down on the ground. She stood back up and hugged herself as the wind picked up slightly, casting a slight chill over the memorial.

 

“I'm getting married…”

 

----

 

Disclaimer: None of the series, characters, or locations mentioned in this story are owned by the author of this story unless stated otherwise.

 

 

 

 

GRAY SKIES

 

-Chapter 4: Murasaji Special Economic District-

 

Note: I know that HOLY's rooms aren't all purple. Just poking fun at something, that's all.

 

 

For a good visual idea of Murasaji city, please check out:

 

geocities com/olderperuruu/grayskies/citynight png

geocities com/olderperuruu/grayskies/holyaerialview JPG

Spaces=Periods

 

The chapter is... well, complete, but I don't feel satisfied with it... I'm really thinking about heavily revising parts of it, but this is what I have right now. Some feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

---

 

Ranma looked around the darkness as the vehicle moved towards the city. She had been thrown into a small room at the end of one of the vehicles that was more of a cage than a room. It was a holding cell, and she was the obvious prisoner. As Ranma recalled for a moment how she had gotten into the position, she frowned. As she looked around and felt the material of the walls, she reasoned that she could easily break out if she had wanted to. But that green haired guy would put a stop to anything of the sort with his cheap alter abilities. `That's why they untied me - they don't need to keep me restrained.' The thought made her scowl - the nerve of these people, adding salt to the wound of defeat by insinuating that she couldn't escape even if she tried.

 

`Kazuma was beaten up pretty bad…' The girl remembered how the Native Alter had looked as they tossed him into a separate vehicle. He was definitely unconscious and his face had bruises developing on it. She was sure that he had more bruises and welts under the clothes where he'd been hit by the invisible alter. `I wonder what they'll do with us… They'll probably find out somehow that I'm not an Alter User. What happens then?' As she considered things, she hoped Ryoga was coming up with a plan to break them out. There was no way she wanted to be subject to whatever horrors the state had developed in the forty some years she'd been gone.

 

-

 

P-chan squinted up at the blue-haired, uniformed girl who had found him wandering around outside. She was riding with the green haired man who'd fought them all and seemed to be fawning over him. The green haired male, whom he had by now learned was called `Ryuho', seemed to be as interested in her as one would be a doormat. The piglet shifted his attention towards the green haired man, whom despite being slightly annoyed by the girl's presence was keeping a cool head. The man was obviously intelligent and observant, but he had an air of single-mindedness about him that Ryoga had found common in Nerima.

 

`I've got to figure out a way to get out of here,' the pig thought in a slight panic.

 

Ryuho looked down at the small black piglet and raised an eyebrow.

 

`Isn't that the same pig I found outside..?' He thought. He narrowed his eyes at it and it quickly turned away. `How strange…'

 

---

 

“They were captured by HOLD?” Nabiki asked, incredulous. Kimishima nodded.

 

“Part of the job was securing Hideki and his kids,” Kimishima explained. “HOLY showed up and Kazuma said to leave it to him, but those boys of yours weren't about to sit back and let the action pass them by.”

 

“I see…” The young woman sat back and frowned. `That's just like them…'

 

“When I got back, HOLY had Ranma tied up and Kazuma was lying on the ground. I couldn't see Ryouga anywhere.”

 

`He probably escaped somehow,' Nabiki thought with a frown. `Likely on accident, too.' The young woman sighed and rubbed her temples. “What a quandary this is. How do you plan on getting them back?”

 

“I haven't had a chance to think about that.” The man frowned and sat back with a pensive look on his face. “I never thought it would be possible for Kazuma to lose an Alter fight.”

 

“Well, it happens on occasion.” Silence permeated the dilapidated clinic as the two tried to think of ways to solve the problem. Nabiki suddenly remembered something Kazuma had told her. “Isn't there a forest that makes alter power?” Nabiki demanded. “Kazuma called it the `Forest of Alter' or something similar.”

 

“Yeah, there is,” He said, looking up at her in confusion. “Why would you want to go there?” Nabiki looked at him directly in the eyes.

 

“If we can go there and get some sort of Alter Power, at least that's another tool at our disposal towards getting those three morons out of prison,”

 

“I see what you mean, but…” Kimishima shook his head. “That's way too dangerous. Even the wildlife in that place has Alter Powers. Supposedly, no one who's ever even gone in has ever come out…”

 

“Well we'll just have to go around the wildlife to find this Alter generator,” Nabiki. “Have to see if we can find something. Anything. It's better than going in half-cocked against an army and a half, especially when they have Alter users of their own,” she said with a frown.

 

“Yeah…I suppose that's true,” Kimishima sighed and stood up. “We should really go right now.” Nabiki nodded.

 

“Every moment we waste, things could be getting further and further out of our hands,” she agreed. “I'll go tell Kanami that we're going somewhere.” Kimishima nodded and opened the front door, walking out. Nabiki stood up and walked over to the stairs, only to see the young girl standing at the head of the stairs.

 

“Kanami?” Nabiki asked as she looked up at the little girl's face. “Did you hear us?”

 

“I-I only heard my name,” the little girl said stiffly. Nabiki raised a brow at that. “You said you were going somewhere?”

 

“Ah… yeah. Kimishima and I are going to go look for something.”

 

“A-alright, take care.”

 

“Yeah. You too.” She turned around and walked toward the same door Kimishima had left through. `Hm. She's a poor liar. I'm going to have to talk to her about eavesdropping.'

 

Up on the stairs, Kanami stared straight ahead as she struggled to stay standing.

 

“Kazu-kun…”

 

---

 

Ranma grunted as she was roughly tossed into another small room, and landed face down on the unforgiving cement floor. The door instantly shut downwards behind her and the room was quickly consumed by darkness. The girl wasn't even able to see right in front of her face as she looked around. Ranma got up to one knee and held up a palm. A small blue sphere of chi appeared in her hand, giving the minimal amount of light needed to see around the room. It was what one might expect of jail cell; a small little box of a room with a raised flat block of cement covered only with a futon along the entire left wall and a western styled toilet and adjacent sink in the far right corner.

 

“Then again, I guess I really am in jail,” She muttered. “I don't believe this. How did this happen again?” She thought angrily. “Those assholes just come out of nowhere and arrest people like that. We haven't even done anything wrong,” she spat out angrily as she looked around. “Hmph. There's got to be some sort of something in here that someone overlooked when they made the place… A loose brick or something, maybe I can open the door somehow…” Ranma started looking around the room.

 

“I could try using a Moko Takabisha to bust the place down, but they would definitely notice that…” She stood up and surveyed the entire room, small as it was, for any sort of weak spot. To her dismay, she noted that while the ground was concrete, the walls seemed to be made of some kind of metal instead of brick. That coupled with the fact that she was sure she wasn't on the ground floor made digging out impossible.

 

The crimson-trussed martial artist took a few steps looking around the room for something else. The sink only had one lever, and she was certain that it was only for cold water, so turning into a male would have to wait. The door didn't have any visible hinges; the door had smoothly slid up to admit her and slammed down to shut her in. It was like an automatic door at a department store, except made of metal and moving up and down instead of to the side. Indeed, everything Ranma had seen on her way to her current cell had reeked of futuristic technology.

 

It was becoming less and less likely that this was some sort of elaborate trick or hallucination, but Ranma didn't want to think about what it meant. Instead, as the girl yawned, she wandered over to the futon and sat down, letting the ball of chi fade away. `That's funny,' she thought. `I wasn't this sleepy a few minutes ago…' The girl sniffed the air around her and blinked. `It's some sort of slow acting sleeping gas… probably to make it feel natural…' she thought as she turned her body and laid down on the futon, yawning again. `Bastards…'

 

---

 

Nabiki narrowed her eyes as she looked out over the infamous “Alter Forest”. Both she and Kimishima were standing on a cliff overlooking the seemingly natural formation. Although the sky was blanketed with dark clouds, the light of the full moon was such that one could clearly see the center of the forest, in which there was a large grass covered mound with several large spikes protruding from the Lost Ground's upheaval all those years ago, along with a giant tree on the tip top of the mound. Everywhere else was nothing but dense vegetation; it was all a dark green color from the perimeter to just below the miniature mountain.

 

“I don't know, Tendo-san…” Kimishima said. “This place is really dangerous.”

 

“We don't have a choice,” Nabiki said. “Hiring other alter users would be unreliable. No one would want to venture into the city to break some guys out of Alter User prison, and replacing those three would be even harder. We have to take care of this ourselves.” She turned around and started for the car. “We can search the perimeter first. Otherwise, we'll have to go in.” Kimishima sighed at that.

 

`She's right. This is up to us. What a hassle… And going into the city too, that'll be a nightmare regardless of whether or not one of us becomes an Alter User.' Once the two were secured in the car, Kimishima looked up as he started his engine. “If this wasn't for Kazuma…” He grumbled as he put his foot on the gas and started towards a visible dirt path.

 

-----

 

P-chan slowly blinked his eyes open from his position on a dresser. In his face was a huge framed mirror with some notes and pictures shoved into the corners of the frame. As the little piggy looked around, he noticed that the room he was in was a comfortable… purple affair; there was a large bed with a purple comforter, the floor was covered with a purple rug, the walls were a nice shade of lavender, and the fancy looking curtains on the window were also purple. There was even a poster of a familiar green haired man in a purple uniform with his purple alter standing behind him. Morning light shone in through several cracks in the curtains, alerting the porcine animal to the fact that it was another day.

 

“Hmm… should I take it to a chef or skin it and cook it myself..?” came a familiar, feminine voice. The pig looked up startled at the sudden voice. He saw the blue haired HOLY girl from before just in time to see her reach down and start scratching his head. She was reading a cookbook. “The time I spent outside of the city helped learn how to do that stuff, but…” She bit her lip indecisively. “What should I do? Would Ryuho settle for average cooking?” She held the book down away from her face and looked at the piglet as she was petting it.

 

“What should I do? Cook you myself, or have someone do it professionally? Huh?” She asked as she bent down to be eye level with the thing. “You're so cute, though. It's too bad I like pork, really.” She blinked as if noticing something for the first time. “And I wonder where you got that cute little bandana?”

 

Pchan stared at the girl incredulously. `You're asking me whether or not you should gut me or some random chef should do it?!' He suppressed the urge to growl and bite the girl's face. Doing so would have screwed up his situation tremendously, far worse than it already was. It would not do to have them thinking he had rabies or something. Instead, he just settled for making some cute little `ernk-ernk' noises while staring at the girl warily.

 

“Oh, you're so cute!” she said as she set the book down on the dresser beside him. “I have to start my shift soon, but don't worry little guy, I'll be back for you!” She snickered and walked away, out of his sight. Ryoga instantly hopped down and padded after her. From his vantage point, he was able to instantly notice just how short her skirt was.

 

As she stopped at the door and turned around, she blinked in confusion at the dazed looking piglet. There was a tiny stream of blood dripping out of its nose and she frowned.

 

“Uh oh,” She knelt down to look at the piglet. “I sure hope you aren't sick. That'd be a nasty surprise.” She grabbed the pig by the snout and looked it over. “You look fine…” P-chan snorted several times and started looking alive again, making more cute piggy noises. The piglet practically gushed cuteness as the blue haired girl watched in adoration.

 

“Aww, you're just fine. Hee hee, you'll make a delicious ham!” she said enthusiastically as she stood back up and turned around, pushing a button on the wall. Ryoga quickly noted the panel and noticed the door slide up as she walked out. The pig trotted out after her and started looking around, when suddenly the familiar feeling of being picked up came upon him. “You can't follow me out here, you're not even s'posed to be in the building,” the female alter user chided as she turned around and set the pig down right inside the door. Ryoga looked up just in time to see her push a button on the wall beside the door. The pig immediately bolted out of the room just as the door started to shut, leaving a surprised Scheris in his wake.

 

“Hey, wait a minute! Come back here!” She yelled as she took off after it. Ryoga lowered his head and kicked up his speed with his chi, hoping his sense of direction would kick in soon. “Hey! Stop running already!” the girl cried out. Ryoga heard some people laughing as he rounded corners. He turned back and saw the girl was gaining on him.

 

`Damn, she's more fit than she looks!' He picked up the speed and turned back around. The chase went on for five minutes, and his pursuer finally started to slow down.

 

“No wait, slow down!” The girl started huffing after maintaining top speed for so long. “Wait! Come back to me, Hamu-chan!” she cried out.

 

`Screw that,' Ryoga snorted as he upped the ante even more, becoming a veritable blur, and leaving a panting, disheartened girl behind.

 

As the tiny black piglet continued running, the girl stopped and fell to her knees and hands, panting and sweating heavily.

 

“…There goes… my romantic… dinner with… Ryuho…” She groaned as she fell forward onto the ground.

 

---

 

“Well, we're here,” Kimishima announced to his only passenger as his car slowed to a stop on a hill. Both of them were wearing more expensive looking clothes than before, at Nabiki's suggestion that they'd fit in more easily with a crowd that had money to spend. Nearby they could see the huge walls of the city standing as the barrier between civilization and impoverished, practically lawless suffering.

 

“I can see that, you dunce,” Nabiki said, sticking her tongue out at the driver. The young man rolled his eyes and killed the engine. He opened his mouth to say something as the girl opened the passenger side door, but stopped. As Nabiki shut the door, she noticed the man staring straight ahead.

 

“Something wrong, Kimishima?” she asked with a raised brow.

 

“You sure you want to come back with us? You could stay here with what you have so far.”

 

“It's become too dangerous for me to stay in this city. I'll have to come when I can afford a plane ticket.” She turned away and looked up at the sky. It was partly cloudy, but mostly blue. “…They won't be looking for alter users on the mainland.”

 

“That could be even more dangerous,” Kimishima said as he finally opened his own side door and started getting out.

 

“Could be,” she acknowledged. “But they don't have a police force specifically made to hunt Alter Users there. Hell, they don't even have any alter users on the mainland.”

 

“You don't know that for certain,” Kimishima pointed out.

 

“It's a better chance than staying here. I knew all of the consequences when we went to the forest. Now come on, we're here to do a job.” She effectively ended the conversation by changing the subject.

 

“We still don't have a concrete plan…”

 

“It's good enough,” Nabiki insisted as they started walking towards the wall.

 

“Just waiting around for one of them to make a scene isn't a concrete plan,” Kimishima deadpanned.

 

“Oh believe me, with those two, it is. Especially if Kazuma is anything like them. The explosions will be our cue.”

 

“Right,” he sighed as they stopped at the wall. There was a large screen in front of them and three other people in line before them. “You got the cards?”

 

“Right here,” she said as she reached into her left pocket and pulled out two identical cards and gave him one of them. As they waited, the other three people all made their made their way one by one into the city. “It's a retina and fingerprint scan,” she said as she walked up to the device in the wall. The device asked for identification in a feminine tone that was far from the monotonous one that Nabiki had been expecting.

 

She inserted her own card into the device and held up her hands to the specified area and stared unblinkingly as the device proceeded with its scans. A few beeps and blips indicated that she was done, and she took her card as it appeared in the slot again, pocketing it and walking towards the door as it opened. It shut immediately after she passed the threshold, and Nabiki looked around at the city in wonder. Although they entrance they had used led to the residential area, the skyscrapers that had always been in the distance behind the huge wall were a lot closer now. She sighed as she looked around at the suburban styled homes that lined the streets; there was a bus stop, a bike stall, and a police box on separate corners within view.

 

Although the architecture was distinctly different from Nerima, she could pick out things that were definitely the same. Even though the place was definitely more modern than what she had been accustomed to living in for her entire life, it was far more familiar than the rugged wilderness she had been stuck in for the past few weeks. `I could stay here… but it would be risky…'

 

“I'm guessing HOLY would be the largest building,” Kimishima's voice said suddenly from her right.

 

“Hmm?” She blinked in momentary surprise at his presence. “Oh yeah, probably,” She nodded. “But the question is, would they hold criminal alter users there?”

 

“Eh? Why wouldn't they?”

 

“Well, think about it. HOLY is a subset of HOLD, a government organization. The “HOLY” or “HOLD” buildings would likely be full of nothing but bureaucratic offices and other such,” She said, waving a hand. “It might be better to find out where they keep imprisoned alter users,”

 

“Actually, I think HOLD's and HOLY's headquarters are the same. Since HOLD is basically a police force, it's probable that at least a jail of some sort would be on the same complex, but since they're limited in space it's going to be the same building.” Kimishima pointed out. “Besides, it would be safest to keep criminal alter users in a place where HOLY's alter users can respond quickly enough to keep them from causing massive damage to the city.”

 

“Hmm,” Nabiki held her hand up over her eyes as she looked up at the tall skyscrapers in the distance. “Well, you could be right…” She lowered her gaze down to the police box on the street corner. “Maybe we can ask for directions. How much money do we have?” She asked as they started walking across an empty crosswalk.

 

“Enough to rent a car, maybe get some souvenirs,” He answered.

 

“Scratch renting the car. We'll take the bus and make some investments. The chief hasn't made good on his promise yet, perhaps we can do something about that, weasel some information about HOLY out of him.”

 

“That's not all you want to invest in,” Kimishima insisted with a smirk. “Thinking ahead already?”

 

“Of course.”

 

---

 

Ryoga sighed as he walked throughout the corridors of the HOLD building. The civilian clothes he'd managed to find in the lockers were starting to get itchy and he had the sneaking suspicion that they weren't exactly clean. “It's still better than going around naked,” He muttered. His plan to get hot water via the showers had worked, but he had forgotten the clothes aspect of his transformation and been forced to make due with whatever he could find. Ripping open someone's locker and taking a shirt and pants as well as shoes had been the easy part.

 

Now he had to figure out how to rescue Ranma and Kazuma, all the while with his horrible sense of direction. The worst part of his current ordeal, however, was that he had been wandering around the corridors for the past few hours and he did not appear to be any closer to his destination than before.

 

“Where the heck am I!?” He shouted out as his frustration mounted. He fell to his knees and held his head with his hands. His friends were off rotting in cells, and there he was just wandering around, lost as usual. What use he was! It made him feel like tossing off a few Shi Shi Hokudan.

 

“Who's there?” Came an alert voice suddenly. Ryoga's woe turned into hope and he quickly stood as a man in uniform walked towards him from the end of the hall.

 

“Excuse me!” Ryoga waved at the man and stood up.

 

“What are you doing back here?” The man demanded as he got closer.

 

“I'm sorry, but I think I'm lost,” Ryoga said sheepishly.

 

“Yeah right…” the man muttered. “Alright kid, what are you really doing here? You could get in trouble for this,” the man said warningly.

 

“But I'm really lost,” the lost boy said frustratedly. “The last place I remember is, er, some big room with some exotic plants and a woman at a desk. I went to use the restroom and found some lockers,” He said nervously. “Then I got lost trying to find my way back.”

 

“…Kid,” The soldier snapped. “Don't try to shit me. We're still in the locker room.” Ryoga's eyes widened and the boy looked around suddenly. To his shock, he noticed that they were indeed still in the locker room.

 

“WHAT?! You've got to be kidding me!” The lost boy grabbed his head and screamed. “I'VE BEEN DOWN HERE IN THE SAME ROOM FOR HOURS!?” Genuine tears started rolling down the boy's cheeks and he fell to his knees again.

 

“Uh…” The soldier blinked at his display. “Geez, you really are lost, aren't you...”

 

“Oh god, what have I been doing this whole time?!”

 

“Um…Kid, listen, I'll just take you back to the lobby, okay? And I'll forget about this. You won't get in trouble.”

 

“I've been making a fool of mysel- Er, r-really?” Ryoga looked up at the man. “You would do that for me?”

 

“Sure. Why not,” The soldier sighed. “Come on, just follow me.” He said as he turned towards the door and started walking. Ryoga quickly stood up to go after him.

 

“Oh, you don't know how much this means to me, really!”

 

---

 

Nabiki stared out of the window of the bus as it drove deep into the heart of the city. Although it hadn't been more than a month since she had last seen civilization on this level, it felt as if it had been far, far longer, and she had an oddly nostalgic sort of feeling. Perhaps it was the fact that even though for her it had only been two weeks, they were forty years in the future, and the city's level of technology was easily showing it.

 

Staying with Kazuma wasn't bad. Kimishima had enough connections to the point where it was more advantageous than coming to the city and getting some low wage job. But the convenience of the city couldn't be denied. The bus, cars, grocery stores, department stores, other modern conveniences and civilized people… all of these were things that had been common in her past, and even though it was arguably to her benefit, for a while, they had been ripped away.

 

Regardless, although her plans had been moving well along enough, she had been nowhere near ready to start a new life in this place, and although now it didn't appear as if she ever would be able to stay in this particular city, that merely increased the time it appeared it would be taking before she could do so somewhere else.

 

“Feeling homesick?” Kimishima asked from beside her. She snorted and didn't bother looking at him.

 

“Of course not. I came here to make a name for myself, by myself. I don't need help from these kind of people,”

 

“Heh. Of course,” Kimishima chuckled. “But I have to say, this place is amazing. Makes me wish I had been born here.” Nabiki merely continued to look outside the window, contemplating their current plan. The police box had been most helpful in informing them where to go, and as it turned out, the HOLY complex was where they kept imprisoned Native Alter users until they were sentenced, as far as the man had known. An impromptu meeting with the chief of HOLY wouldn't exactly be welcome, but the man did owe them.

 

---

 

KAZUMO INTERRO

 

---

 

“You're right here,” the soldier said to the prominently fanged boy. They were standing in the lobby of the HOLD HQ, and the young man from the past was thoroughly awed. He quickly overcame it thought. and bowed repeatedly, thanking the man sincerely.

 

“Thank you so much, I'm sorry for the trouble,” he said.

 

“Uh, yeah, whatever. Go home, kid.”

 

“Actually, I needed to ask a question…”

 

“Well, the receptionist is over there,” the soldier said. “I'd love to help but I've got work to do, sorry kid,” The soldier said, ready to take off.

 

“Hey, Takada-san,” another soldier said as he approached the two. “Who's the kid?”

 

“Actually, I don't know,” the soldier said. “He was lost, that's all.”

 

“Yeah, you really saved me, heh-heh,” Ryoga said turning away. The second soldier looked at him and blinked.

 

“Hey, I have a shirt just like that,” He said jovially. “Hey kid, you like The Zone, huh? It's awesome that some of you kids still have good taste in music.”

 

“Eh, who?” Ryoga asked as he looked at the man. The man blinked as he saw the teen's face, and didn't register the question.

 

“Hey, wait a minute. Haven't I seen you before?”

 

“Er, no, I don't think so,” Ryoga said hastily as he turned away. “Gotta go, thanks for helping me!” He said as he started walking away.

 

“Hey kid, hold up!” the soldier said insistently. Ryoga merely kept walking. “Huh. That was weird.”

 

“Yeah, kid seemed a lot more polite earlier…”

 

“Anyway, Takada,” the second soldier said as he turned to face his friend. “You remember that kid from last night that got away?”

 

“The native alter with the super strength?”

 

“Yeah, that's the one. They were saying that…” The soldier paused in thought, before looking at his friend. “Hey wait a minute, didn't that kid look just like him?”

 

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

 

“He looked just like him,” the soldier said, turning back around to look at the teen. The boy was walking around with a confused look on his face. “Wait here a second.”

 

-

 

Nabiki and Kimishima both looked up as the bus rolled away towards its next stop. The HOLD headquarters was easily the largest building in the entire city. And Murasaji was a huge city, as she had noticed that they'd crossed into the Downtown district at least twenty minutes before making their arrival. And not only was the building huge, but the architecture was completely different. It was a circular tower, and for some strange reason the some of the higher floors were much wider than the middle. The building looked top heavy, and Nabiki was sure that if it wasn't for the gratuitous support on the sides, it would have simply toppled over.

 

“They must have a reason for the odd design,” Nabiki muttered. “Probably has something to do with Alter Users.”

 

“We should have ridden the train,” Kimishima whined. “I might not ever get a chance to do something like that again!”

 

“I told you it was more expensive,” Nabiki snorted. “We're not here to waste time.”

 

“Fine, fine,” the young man sighed. The excitement of being in the city had notably started to build up in him. “But this place is huge. I hope the guy's office isn't at the top or anything,”

 

“It might be,” Nabiki said as she started towards the building. “Come on already.”

 

“Alright, alright.” Kimishima sighed before muttering something under his breath.

 

“You only need to say that once,” The girl replied as they approached the automatic doors. The doors slid open and the two walked in to find an impressively large room. There were some potted plants in the room, and a sparse amount of people. Two soldiers were talking and pointing at a young man whose back was turned to both Nabiki and Kimishima, and there was a woman with a child sitting on a bench by the side filling out some papers of some sort. The ceiling was at least three stories high, and the immediate above floor was cut off above the service desk with a railing. As the two approached the desk, they were greeted with the visage of a cheerful looking blue haired girl wearing a purple uniform.

 

“Is there anything you need help with today?” their receptionist asked.

 

“Actually, we're here to see Yamashina Masatada-san,” Nabiki supplied her.

 

“Oh?” The girl quickly looked at something on her side of the desk that they couldn't see. “He's not accepting visitors today.”

 

“This is really important,” Kimishima insisted. “Isn't there anyway we can see him?”

 

“He's in an important meeting with the commander of HOLY at the moment,” The girl said, giving an apologetic look.

 

“Is there anyway that you could tell him that we really need to see him?” The girl looked at them for a moment. Neither of them wore looks betraying their emotions.

 

“What are your names?” She asked, resigned to at least try for them. They didn't seem to be anything less than serious. Kimishima looked over at Nabiki, who frowned.

 

“…Tendo. Tendo Nabiki.” The girl's eyes widened at that, before she assumed a skeptical look. “He should be expecting us.” The receptionist looked at them twice more before looking down at something on her desk.

 

“Right… I'll see what I can do, Tendo-san…” The girl picked up a phone and dialed a number.

 

`It seems Kunihiko here was right. The Tendo name does seem to be fairly renowned…but why would I be…' Nabiki frowned as the girl started talking.

 

“Sir,” she said stiffly, “There's a Tendo Nabiki here to see you.” There was some silence for a few moments as the man presumably responded. Kimishima folded his hands and started thinking about something, and Nabiki took the time to look around the lobby some more and found that it had since been vacated by the two soldiers and the young teen. The only other person there was the woman with the papers and the young boy that was beside her. Now that Nabiki got a better look at her, she was able to notice the other woman's features.

 

She didn't appear to have ever gotten a haircut in her entire life, and her clothes seemed a bit cheaper than what had been the norm around the city. She seemed to be finishing up and soon stood, leading the boy towards the desk. The woman smiled at her as they both waited.

 

“Are you two here to join HOLY also?” The woman asked politely.

 

“Join HOLY?” Nabiki asked, surprised. This woman was an alter user? Nabiki frowned to herself. She didn't have the appearance of a fighter. “Oh, no. We're just here to see someone,” She said honestly. “Wouldn't want to join HOLY anyway. They seem a bit restrictive, don't they?”

 

“Really?” the woman asked politely. “I suppose. I was told that I could get premium health care for my little brother if I joined,” the woman admitted. “I guess I wouldn't be here otherwise.”

 

“Premium health care?” Nabiki asked, confused. `Isn't that already…'

 

“We're from outside the wall,” the woman explained. “They don't have healthcare out there.”

 

“Oh, really?” Nabiki looked surprised. A native alter, to boot. Explained the clothes. “Haven't you heard what they say about HOLY out there?”

 

“Well yes, but…” The woman looked equally surprised. “How would you know about that?”

 

“I know a lot of things. It's my job.” Nabiki said with a smile.

 

“Ah… well… Actually, I have heard those things, but it doesn't matter,”

 

“I see,” She nodded. Of course. The two siblings were orphans. Nothing mattered to the older sister but her brother's health.

 

“Tendo-hime,” Nabiki blinked at the honorific attached to her name and turned to look at the desk where the blue haired girl was standing and waiting for them. “Yamashina-san is going to take a few more moments with his meeting,” She said. “He suggested that I personally give you a tour of the building while you waited.”

 

“A tour?” Nabiki asked, looking at Kimishima. The man was looking at her intensely, but merely shrugged when he noticed that she was waiting for a response of some sort. “It wouldn't hurt,” She shrugged. The blue haired woman nodded and turned to look at the other woman.

 

“Terada-san, someone else will be by to help you in a few moments,” She said. The woman merely smiled and nodded at that.

 

“Well then, see you later, Terada-san,” Nabiki said with a smile to the other woman. The woman blinked in momentary surprise, and then realized that the receptionist had just said her name. She smiled at the younger woman in return.

 

“You too, Tendo-san.” Nabiki smirked and turned away, walking after the blue haired girl with Kimishima in tow. She blinked and noticed that their guide was leading them towards an elevator. `This could be advantageous, actually,' She thought as she and her accomplice followed the blue haired girl in purple and white. `The layout of our potential enemy's fortress.'

 

-

 

Ryouga frowned at the two unconscious soldiers in the darkness. The soldier who had lead him to the lobby and the one that they'd found there had chased him into a hallway, at which point he happened upon a convenient door. Inside was a large custodian's closet, and as he stood cursing his luck at the dead end, the two men had cornered him in the room and ask that he stand down and allow himself to be captured.

 

“How did they figure it out, anyway?” He grumbled as grabbed a nearby mop. After ripping off the mop's threads, he used them to tie the men's wrists together. Satisfied with the knots, he lumped their bodies in the corner and turned around, walking out of the room, making sure to shut the door behind himself. As he stood outside in the hall, he looked around.

 

“Now for why I'm here in the first place,” he growled as he chose a direction and started walking.

 

-

 

“…And beyond there you'll find HOLY's offices,” The blue haired girl said as she gestured towards an open hallway. They were standing in a large, comfortable cafeteria. “HOLY member quarters are on this floor as well,”

 

“You mean HOLY members live in this building?” Kimishima asked.

 

“That's right,” The girl nodded. “The rooms are very comfortable, none of that military bunker stuff,” She answered cheerfully.

 

“Hn.” Nabiki acknowledged her with a thoughtful grunt rather than a coherent thought. “What's the average age for Alter users?” She asked.

 

“Oh?” The girl looked surprised at the question. “Well, seventeen, I think.” Nabiki nodded to herself; If the upheaval had only occurred some twenty two years ago, then the majority of Alter Users would be that age or younger. Their guide absently looked at a clock hanging on a wall and noticed that almost twenty minutes had passed since they'd started the tour. “I think the Chief should be ready for you now, Tendo-hime,” the blue haired girl said, walking back towards the elevator. “Although he's the new chairman, his office is not in HOLY's department,” she explained. “If you could just follow me,”

 

“Ah yes, of course,” Nabiki said as she and Kimishima started towards the elevator after her. Once the three of them were on, the girl pushed a button on the elevator and Nabiki felt it start moving up as quickly as it had before. `This place is just oozing technology. If only Ranma and Ryouga weren't back-country hicks, they'd see their chance here.' She frowned. `Now to figure out exactly what is going on with my name. Apparently, someone with the name `Tendo' is very famous. Kimishima knows the name, the Chief of HOLY knew the name from how he reacted, and this girl started calling me “Tendo-Hime”. I'm missing a very important detail here…' The young woman decided to find out as much about her own name as possible.

 

Things had been extremely convenient so far and while she wanted to believe it was her own plotting at work, she was no fool. Something outside of her knowledge, let alone control, was allowing her to bypass what should have been an immense wall. She had honestly not expected getting to meet the chief would be this easy. `It looks like there's a big, prestigious family with the name `Tendo' Or something, and everyone seems to think I'm a part of it.' Then for a moment, a thought struck her. With 40 years behind her family instead of the two weeks behind her, it could be true. But who in her family would become so well known, let alone have an entire family? Her father had been near forty when she'd left. That, and what she knew and expected of him prevented her from considering him for even a few seconds. Kasumi had a lot of hidden potential, that was for certain, but the older woman had seemed complacent in her lifestyle and content to marry a man, manufacture some children and call it a life.

 

That left Akane, or some obscure cousins. Or maybe even someone outside of her family. That was possible too, but she was sure Tendo wasn't a common name. The sound had different variances to, so perhaps if she could find out the kanji that was used in this other Tendo's name…

 

“Come on, Tendo-Hime,” Kimishima said with a smirk. “You're going to get left behind.” Nabiki jolted as she noticed for the first time that the elevator doors were open and the blue haired girl was walking away from them towards a door. The door almost instantly slid up into the ceiling to admit the blue haired teen. Nabiki shook her head at the door and saw that Kimishima was still grinning at her. She snorted and quickly walked passed him, out of the elevator. He only took a second to catch up and started walking beside her. “What were you thinking about?”

 

“Three thousand,” She said simply. The man merely grinned again and shrugged, deciding it wasn't worth it. When they made it into the chairman's office, both were impressed. There was a large window in the man's office that showed the entire city in the background. Kimishima was literally awestruck by the sheer size of the district they were in. Nabiki merely blinked as she noticed what looked like a thirty story building somewhere in the distance that didn't even compare to the size of the building they were in. She quickly counted and recounted the floors again before nodding. `I didn't know we were that high up. This place is taller than I thought.'

 

“Thank you, Adjani,” the chairman's voice could be heard to the side. “You may get back to work.” Nabiki turned away from the window, quickly taking in the rest of the posh office before her eyes landed on the other three figures in the room. An older looking man in a HOLY uniform was sitting in a large cushioned chair on the side, while the blue haired girl stood before the desk of a familiar rotund man in a gray suit. It was the man that their imprisoned cohorts had rescued only days before. Hell, it hadn't even been two days - they were arrested the night after he was returned to the city. It was good to see that he was mostly in good health, although he did look a bit ragged. The girl bowed before leaving the room, and the HOLY member that was sitting down also stood up.

 

“I suppose I'll be leaving too. I have a division to oversee,” the man sighed as he started after her. Nabiki watched the man out of the corner of her eyes as he walked out of the office.

 

`He's too old to be an Alter User,' she thought with a mental frown. `The upheaval occurred twenty or so years ago. He can't be less than thirty.'

 

“Tendo-san, it's good to see you again,” the man said as Nabiki watched the door. She could hear the thinly veiled displeasure at her being in his presence again.

 

“Likewise, Yamashina-san,” The girl said with a small smile as she turned to look at the man who's time she was taking up. “I see you're doing well already.”

 

“Let's get straight to the point, shall we?” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his hands. Nabiki suppressed a frown at the motion and the beer-belly it nearly exposed. “What can I do for you?”

 

“It's really quite simple,” Kimishima said as he continued looking out of the window at the city life below them. “The guys who we had rescue you a while ago were wrongfully imprisoned just last night,” The man seemed surprised at that, but a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

 

“…I don't have the sort of power you need,” He said with a frown. “Once they're-”

 

“Didn't think you would,” Nabiki interrupted with a sigh, raising a hand to look at her nails. They needed filing. “Since you can't help us with that, could you answer a few questions?” The man was only slightly bothered by her interruption.

 

“What do you want to know?”

 

“For one, who was that man just now?” Nabiki asked. Kimishima blinked and looked over at her.

 

“That was Martin Zigmar, the commander of the HOLY division. He is the first Alter User on record. Anything else?”

 

“We need a device that can get information. We don't have any TV or Radio where we go. Or at least, we don't happen to own one, and if we did, we might not even get the broadcasted channels. Can't be too sure out there. We need something inexpensive.”

 

“Hmm…You probably want something that connects to the Internet,” the man said simply.

 

“What is that? Internet?” Kimishima asked bluntly.

 

“The Internet… How does one describe that to a couple of inners…” The man muttered to himself for a moment. “The Internet… is an information network. Many devices can connect to the Internet. Usually by cables, although many devices are capable of using the Internet by establishing a wireless connection with nearby service areas or satellites.” Both teens got the gist of the message.

 

“So this Internet is what we need?” Nabiki asked.

 

“More or less.”

 

“Where can we find a device that can connect to the Internet?”

 

“You'd have to be more specific. There aren't too many devices made purely to connect to the Internet. It's more of a secondary feature.”

 

“Is it?” Nabiki asked. She was not surprised. “Well then, what would you recommend?”

 

“Hmmm…” The man sighed and rubbed his temples. “This is not my area of expertise. You need to be very specific with this sort of thing, or you could end up with something completely useless. If you have money, you can go into any electronics store and ask an employee.” he said.

 

“One more thing,” Nabiki said as she turned to look out the window one more time. “Why did that receptionist call me `Tendo-Hime'?” The man snorted.

 

“She must have thought you were a daughter of that tycoon. We've been getting a few of those over here recently. Some from the Kiryu family, and by proxy, the Kuno family… Tendo is just the name of the woman who currently runs-“ The building shook suddenly and both Nabiki and Kimishima stumbled over. The man was bewildered as he quickly sat up and rolled over to his desk, pressing a button on his phone. “What in the world was that?!” He demanded.

 

“The building seems to be under attack from an Alter User, sir,”

 

“There's an Alter User on the loose?” The man demanded.

 

“I think this is our cue to leave,” Nabiki said as she stood up. Both the chairman and Kimishima looked at her. “Thank you for the wonderful, informative meeting, Yamashina-san. We'll be off to find out more about that Internet thing,” She said as she started out of the office. Kimishima only took one look at the brisk pace that she had taken before shrugging and running after her.

 

“You sure this is them?” Kimishima asked as soon as he caught up to her in the hall.

 

“No doubt in my mind,” Nabiki said as the elevator door opened for them. She blinked at that, not having pushed any sort of call button, but merely kept walking.

 

-

 

Ryoga growled as alarms started blaring all around him. The hallway had turned red from the light, and his ears were already starting to ache from the obnoxiously loud sirens.

 

“Damn. Either they know I'm here or someone else is doing something.” He blinked as he heard some mechanical sounds behind him, and turned to look in time to see wall mounted turrets with large barrels popping out of the walls. They immediately started firing blue energy bolts at him and the boy shielded his face as he jumped at the nearest one and simply tore it out of the wall before tossing it at another one hard enough to destroy it. There was a miniature explosion as one of the devices overloaded or something - he wasn't sure - and fire started where the device had once hung out of the wall. He barely registered the sounds of more turrets coming out of the wall before he yelled and jumped at the nearest one.

 

-

 

Ranma groaned as she opened her eyes. Everything was completely dark, and something was roughly holding each of her arms and waist. Her entire body was sluggish and her head felt like someone had been pounding on it with a jackhammer. Sometime during the night she had been tossed from one cell into another, and then she had fallen asleep in the strange facility. Whether or not she was in the city, she had no way of knowing, as she had not been allowed to see outside at all.

 

“N-P-Three-two-two-nine,” Ranma's head jerked up as she suddenly heard the voice of an older man. The sound assisted her in regaining control of her mental faculties. An immediate glance around allowed her to notice three things; that three men with masks and uniforms identical to the ones that the green haired man had been holding before were holding her arms and waist with some kind of floating hand, and the source of the voice was a man sitting at a raised desk. The rest of the entire room was cloaked in absolute darkness; it was as if only she, the men in the uniforms and the man sitting at the raised desk were the only things that existed in the entire room.

 

“Your destructive ability has killed or injured seven people, and it has caused massive damage. We also have a report that links you with the kidnapping of the chief. For these crimes, you may receive capital punishment. But there is one way to save yourself. If you register as a regular citizen, receive proper education and join HOLY…” Ranma stopped paying attention to the man and started examining her body more closely.

 

`They drugged me,' She thought hazily as he continued to drone on and on. She could feel it - Her body was just feeling far too off balance and her mind was a bit more sluggish than usual. `It's nothing too bad, I could probably get it out of my system if I focused…' The girl closed her eyes as the man continued to drawl on and on in what sounded like some sort of recruitment speech to the world's saviors. `Feh. No way I'd join a group of people who just show up and arrest whoever they can just for minding their own business. I'm not even one of those stupid Alter Users!' The girl cried out as she let out a burst of Chi that knocked back the three men who were holding her with the floating disembodied hands. All three of them were knocked to the ground along with the floating hands, as she quickly assessed how her plan had worked.

 

“Get HOLY in here!” The man's voice cried out in a panic. Ranma looked around at the three downed men in uniforms and noticed that they had started to stand up already.

 

“Hey hey, calm down you old geezer!” She yelled out. `Damn, that didn't get it all out of me. `s some potent stuff.' “Listen, I'm perfectly willing to talk with you and whatever, but this one-way thing ain't working for me. Call off your clones and I won't bother moving another muscle,” She said, looking up at him. Everyone in the room stopped moving at that. The man seemed to calm down a bit as it became more obvious that she was not planning on rebelling in any way. The three uniformed men on the ground looked up at the man for instruction.

 

“…Stand back,” The man said. The three clones all acknowledged the order by moving at least ten feet away from Ranma.

 

“Now then, here's what I have to say. I haven't killed anyone. I don't do stupid crap like that; it's totally against my morals.” The man looked slightly taken aback at that, and Ranma tried to remember something about a kidnapping. She blinked and then raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. “As for the kidnapping, if you're talking about that fat guy, I helped save him.”

 

“The reports state otherwise,” The man started.

 

“Well they're wrong,” She said angrily. “Now I've been playing the good sport here, thinking that maybe you guys would see reason or something,” She said, pointing at the man. “But I don't think that other green haired guy is going to come in here to try and stop me anytime soon. That and the fact that I don't have any reason at all to stay here mean that I should be leaving now.” The man narrowed his eyes at that.

 

“If you think you can escape HOLY…” He started.

 

“Then you are sadly mistaken,” finished another person. Ranma immediately turned around and noticed not only the three uniformed men but some other strange looking people wearing the same uniform or variants of it had walked into the room at sometime. There was a strange sound and she turned back to face the man at the desk. Behind him, she could see light from another room and the silhouette of another person as they walked in. The door shut immediately behind them and as Ranma's eyes readjusted to the darkness, she was able to make out a familiar figure. The blue-haired girl from the previous night walked right up to the desk and started speaking.

 

“It might get dangerous in here, so you should leave,” She said without looking at the man in the suit. He nodded and walked out the way she had gone in while Ranma started looking around the room. All the people in uniforms had surrounded her by that point, giving a very clear message. The blue haired girl frowned as she focused on Ranma. “Now, NP-3229,” She started. “You have two choices as of now. Either become a regular law abiding citizen and join HOLY, or be sent to the mainland for forced labor.”

 

“You guys can't stop me,” Ranma snarled as she took up a martial artists stance. “I wasn't prepared for you guys last night, but I'll go all out against your cheap tricks today.”

 

“Is that so,” The blue haired girl said with a half smirk. “Well then I think you've made yourself clear-“

 

“Wait.” Everyone blinked and looked up at the source of the voice. Behind the blue-haired girl was standing the familiar green haired man from last night. “NP-3229…No, Ranma.” Ranma blinked at that.

 

“How the hell did you know my name?” She demanded. The man ignored that, however.

 

“Why are you doing this?”

 

“What?” Ranma blinked.

 

“Why are you fighting HOLY, when our intention is only justice? If everything you've said today is true, then you could easily rise up in the ranks of HOLY fairly quickly.”

 

“Uh…” Ranma blinked at him. “What the hell are you talking about? Join HOLY?” Ranma snorted. “What kind of person would I be if I joined a group of people that arrested people for being born and then gave them the choice to either join them or do forced labor?” She looked at the blue haired girl. “If anything I've said today is true, then with the fact that not only are you people holding an innocent person against their will, but you're giving them an ultimatum like that in mind,” She resumed her stance and frowned. “I don't want any part of HOLY.”

 

“…I see. And even with all of these people surrounding you, you refuse to stand down?”

 

“Damn straight,” she grinned. “Like I said, I'm going all out, and I'm leaving this place.”

 

“I don't think I understand how you intend to do that,” the man said as he was encompassed by a rainbow colored glow. Chunks of building material that it was too dark to see broke away and formed into his humanoid alter. “You've got nowhere to run.”

 

“Heh, is that what you think?” She said, looking around at all the people gathered in the room as the stand off continued. `They all had to come from somewhere. I didn't see a door open or close. Maybe if I go over there and sort of feel my way around…' “Watch me!” The girl suddenly leapt straight up into the air and most of the people in the room were suddenly already enveloped in a rainbow colored glow as she reached the peak of her jump and suddenly vanished. Everyone of the gathered started looking around in confusion and alarm.

 

“Is it a Harmonizing type?” the blue haired girl asked frantically.

 

“She didn't do this yesterday. Scheris, go check the readings outside.” The green haired one ordered. The blue haired girl nodded at that and quickly went towards the door that she had used to get in. Ranma noticed this and grinned under the cloak of the Umisenken. She landed on the ground noiselessly and in one more bound was heading for the door that the other girl had opened. As she passed through the air and over the raised desk, a far off explosion rocked the entire room.

 

“What was that?!”

 

Ranma smirked as the blue haired girl fell down to her knees in the doorway. She passed right by the green haired man and landed for a brief second before jumping over the fallen girl out of the doorway into the lit room. An immediate observation told her that she was at the end of a hallway, and she quickly noted a woman sitting before a computer screen that was showing the other room and a picture of Ranma's face as well as some other things that looked like they had come out of a science book. She snorted and looked back at the room she had just left in time to see the green haired man helping the fallen girl up while looking around.

 

“She's invisible,” he started. “I felt her pass right by me and through the door.”

 

“What? That's impossible, don't they give mild sedatives to the captives?” the blue haired girl asked.

 

“She's strong. Giving her a C-level rating may have been too low. But what was that explosion?”

 

“There's an alter user attacking the building from the inside…” the woman minding the computer said in response.

 

“Attacking the building?”

 

“I see… at any rate, Kuno-san, you need to alert the commander that there's a native alter running loose. I'll go after her myself right now,” the man said as he took off running down the hallway. Ranma fought the urge snort as the man took off in a direction that was presumably `after her'.

 

“Wait! Ryuho, wait for me!” The blue haired girl, Scheris, if Ranma remembered correctly took off running after him.

 

`The `alter user' must be Ryoga or Kazuma,' Ranma thought as she too took off after the green haired man, Ryuho. `I'll just follow you out of here, heh heh.'

 

---

 

Ranma cursed as she looked around. She had decided to stop following Ryuho after they came into a big cafeteria like room with a large number of soldiers. He had gone into an area that was HOLY only as far as she could tell, as there were no soldiers or other civilians going beyond a specific point in the room- only the young teens dressed in the purple and white uniforms that classified them as HOLY members were meandering about in that area. She looked around and noticed an odd soldier walking towards the area as if he had the intent to go in and blinked.

 

“Excuse me, but this is HOLY only,” a young purple haired HOLY member said as he approached the soldier from behind. The soldier stopped, and Ranma blinked as she saw what the soldier was looking at; apparently Ryuho had returned from the HOLY section with another, older man in tow. `They're pulling all the stops here, aren't they?' Ranma thought as she suddenly heard the sound of flesh meeting flesh. She looked over in time to see the purple haired boy flying backwards through the air and the soldier's elbow extended as if he had hit him.

 

She winced; the sound had been incredibly loud and she would not have been surprised if everyone in the huge room had heard it. The soldier had, at that point, however, leapt high up into the air extended his right arm as he was surrounded by a rainbow colored glow. His uniform vanished and the soldier in mid-air was replaced by the figure of Kazuma as the atoms that had once been his stolen uniform converged on his arm into his Alter power.

 

“Shougeki no First Bullet!” He yelled as he fell down towards Ryuho. Ranma watched as the green haired man managed to summon his alter in time to block the native alter's attack. The purple and white humanoid's ribbons extended quickly and completely surrounded the man that had accompanied Ryuho as Kazuma's fist crashed into the other alter user's stomach. Kazuma jumped back after the hit.

 

“Thank you,” the older man said after the ribbons retracted away. Ryuho clutched his stomach in pain, hunched over.

 

“It is my duty.” Ryuho said before he glared at Kazuma. “Do you really think you can get away with what you have done here?”

 

“I don't care about any of that,” Kazuma said casually.

 

“Is that how Native Alters think?” The older man said as HOLY alter users began to surround Kazuma.

 

“That's how I think! Now, come on, I'll kick your asses!”

 

“You sure are loud, aren't you?” Kazuma turned to his side and noticed for the first time that he was surrounded. “There are still idiots who pull stunts like this around?” A particularly rotund alter user holding a watermelon was the one to speak.

 

“You've thrown dirt on our faces,” the blue haired female alter user said angrily.

 

“You hit me without warning like that…I can't forgive that. Commander, is it alright if we take him out?” Kazuma looked over his shoulder and noticed the purple haired alter user holding his face where he'd been hit.

 

“It's fine. If you do it, do it all the way. Show him why it's not a good idea to start trouble here.” The older man said in an authoritative tone. The purple haired boy smirked and opened his mouth.

 

“I think you're all forgetting something,” Ranma called out as she seemed to appear in the air above the purple haired boy. She kicked him in the back of the head and sent him flying forward. Kazuma sidestepped the flying body and glanced at Ranma from the corner of his eyes as she landed gracefully where the purple haired boy had been standing.

 

“Ranma, you're alright,” The alter user said with some enthusiasm.

 

“You don't look too shabby either,” Ranma smirked as she knelt in a Kenpo stance.

 

“You're trained?” Ryuho asked as he noticed. He hadn't gotten as good a look at her at all before.

 

“More than anyone you'll ever meet,” she said with a grin.

 

“That won't help you,” The rotund one snorted. “Even with two, you're out numbered here.”

 

“And yet the odds are in our favor,” Ranma said with a playful sigh.

 

`This must have been why you were talking nonsense last night. There are other Alter Users here to help you escape.' Ryuhou said as he narrowed his eyes. “I see.” He turned to his commander. “The other native alter user attacking the building is their accomplice.”

 

“Yes, that's right,” The older man said. “He was identified as the one that got away.” Ryuhou turned back to the two before him. Most of HOLD and HOLY's forces were already going after the stray native alter in the building. Both Kazuma and Ranma had used the opportunity to escape, and in Ranma's case, find Kazuma. They had something resembling a strategy.

 

“Enough talking,” came an angry voice from the side. The purple haired boy was standing up with a furious look on his face as he held his hand over a table. The table and everything on it dematerialized and formed into eight floating neon green spheres the size of a tennis ball. Two balls shot towards both Ranma and Kazuma, spurring everyone else into action.

 

Ranma and Kazuma dodged the incoming spheres in a series of flips. Kazuma frowned at the number of alters on the ground below them. The only two who had not yet formed alters were the blue haired girl and the commander. `We're strong, but all it took last night was that green haired freak to beat us. We'll have to take our loss here,' the Native Alter user thought as his eyes rapidly searched the room. He spotted an elevator, and nodded to himself. `That's our chance!' he thought as he punched the ground and flipped through the air to the door, dodging two purple ribbons just as he did so.

 

Ranma spotted the movement out of the corner of her eye and realized what her friend's plan was. `Saotome Secret Technique it is then,' she thought as she moved to follow. The large man, who'd shoved his fist into the watermelon as he went after her, blinked as she seemingly vanished again. The girl reappeared at the elevator doors, and they opened in time for Kazuma to land inside the elevator. The Alter User immediately punched the floor of the elevator cart, and it shattered allowing him to fall down the shaft.

 

“They're insane!” The fat one yelled out as he pointed at them. Ranma quickly jumped down after the Native Alter user, ignoring the shout. Ryuho quickly ran over to the elevator and looked down, but could only see the shaft.

 

“Let's go after them,” He said resolutely.

 

“You can't mean through there, right?!” The fat one demanded again. Ryuho stood up and turned around to face them.

 

“Of course not. We do have more civilized ways of going after them,” He snorted.