Ranma 1/2 used without permission
The Omega Project, Part Two:
================================
"You two know each other?" Sean asked as he watched the two women
staring at one another. The Commander's face was pale, eyes wide with shock
and confusion. The red-head, the one she called Ranma, wore a mask of
intense concentration as if she was trying to recall something.
"Commander," one of the men said, "what is this? Who's that girl?"
"You're... not really Ranma," Shampoo muttered softly.
"Huh?" Ranma said, "Do I know you?"
"No," Shampoo said quietly as she rose fully. Sean had to admit, she
was in excellent condition for her age. Her body beneath the purple jumpsuit
was lithe as any athlete or cat could want. "No, I suppose you don't. I am
Shan Pu."
"Shampoo?" the red-haired girl asked.
"Close enough," she concented with a small chuckle. She turned to
Sean, who had been watching the proceedings with a puzzled look that
mirrored the other two men. "Where did you find her?"
"On the street, ma'am," he replied in a no-nonsense voice, "she was
having trouble with a fruit vendor."
"And you brought her here because of that?!" said the other man, a
balding overweight nuisance named Sekiya.
"No," Sean replied through gritted teeth, "I brought her here
because Ryo and two of his goons were after her. They stopped us on the street."
They all exchanged worrisome looks, save the girl who just stood
there watching. Ranma? Was her name Ranma? And why did Shampoo seem so
familiar? Had she seen her before? The brief flash of deja vu had long
passed, and nothing new came to light. Did these people hold the key to her
memories, her past?
"Why is Kuno Industries after this girl?" Shampoo asked, the change
from a confused and startled woman to someone who weilded authority
amazingly swift.
"No idea," Sean replied. "They said she stole some papers, minor
stuff. But they say a lot of things." She picked up the bitterness in Sean's
voice as he said that last, a flash of rage in his eyes. She disregarded it
quickly. Whatever it was, it wasn't her business.
"So," Shampoo said, shifting her gaze to the girl. Those violet eyes
stared deep into her own, as if they were trying to search her soul for
something, "what is your name?"
She remained silent for a few seconds, wondering how to respond. The
more she saw this Shampoo, the less she recognized her. Maybe that instant
of recognition was a fluke after all.
"I... don't remember," she admitted, returning Shampoo's stare as
best she could.
"Amnesia," the third man said. His thin white hair hung limply about
his lined face, a kimono draped loosely on his frame, "poor girl."
"How do we know she really has amnesia?" the fat one said
impetuously. "It could be some sort of trap!"
"How do you know she doesn't!" Sean exclaimed. He seemed to really
despise that guy.
"Sean! Sekiya!" Shampoo shouted in annoyance. The two men
practically snapped to attention at her tone. "This is neither the time nor
the place! Sekiya does have a point. We cannot afford to take chances."
Sekiya shot Sean a smug look, the latter's face remaining impassive. "Sean,
you will escort her to Dr. Sato. He will examine her and try to determine if
she actually is an amnesiac. Afterward, you will escort her to the shower
facility where she can clean herself up. Then, the two of you will report to
me in my quarters."
"Yes, Commander!" Sean barked, snapping a salute. He turned to her,
his eyes smiling again. "Shall we be off, miss?"
"Just a second," she said. "Shampoo, you called me Ranma. Do you
know me?"
"No, I don't," Shampoo answered immediately, gazing down at some
papers on the table. "I just thought you were someone else for a moment. I'm
sorry if you thought otherwise. You should go with Sean now."
"Let's go," Sean said, leading her out of the small room. Something
was wrong in there, she could feel it. But what was it?
==============================
"Okay, miss, that should just about do it." Doctor Hoichiro Sato
placed the small tube of her blood in a wooden holder he had set on a metal
tray. The infirmary was nestled in the north end of the Resistance's
compound, little more than a few concrete rooms with a few beds and an exam
table. The examination room was the largest, though scarcely what he would
call comfortable. The girl sat on the exam table in the center of the room,
two cabinets behind her filled with medicines of different types. The usual
wall scrolls, posters of the human nervous and circulatory systems, were
absent. They only took up space, which was a precious commodity in the
infirmary.
"I'll analyze this sample, and give you the results by tomorrow."
Doctor Sato was a man of average height, just over a meter and a half tall.
His white lab coat concealed his somewhat pudgy frame, a pair of glasses
resting on his nose. Kind brown eyes lay behind them, peering at his new
patient with the affection all good doctors felt for those in their care.
"Please, remain here while I speak with Sean." Seeing the girl nod, he
walked over to where Sean was waiting, motioning him into the make-shift
Post-Op ward.
"So, what's the story Sato?" Sean asked.
"Well, she is healthy," Sato replied. "Physically, she's probably in
better condition than you."
"That's good to hear," Sean said, "but that's not what I'm worried
about."
"As far as amnesia goes," Sato went on, "I am not certain." Sean's
face took on a slightly critical look at his pronouncement.
"What?"
"From her performance on the tests her short-term memory is fine,"
Sato said. "Basic knowledge also seems intact. Shapes, colors, numbers, that
sort of thing. That's a good sign, actually. If she does have amnesia, it
means her memory could return eventually."
"But you're not certain she actually has amnesia," Sean stated.
"Sean, you must understand," Sato explained, "There's not much I can
do. If I had proper equipment, then maybe I could determine it for certain.
Maybe. I'm just a physician, I deal with ailments of the body. Amnesia is
something more suited to a psychiatrist." Sato was surprised he hadn't had
to become one of those yet. Since finidng his way here, he'd had to become
proficient in medical treatments and procedures he hadn't even seen since
residency, much less performed. It was good practice, but it was beginning
to stretch him a little thin.
"If she has amnesia, how long before her memory comes back?" Sean
asked. Sato couldn't begrudge him the question.
"I have no idea," he replied. "It could be days, weeks, months, or
even years before her memory returns. There's also the chance that it will
not come back fully, if at all. The only thing we can do is wait."
"I understand, doc," Sean said, apparently sated. "You have to do
anything else?"
"No, the physical exam is finished for now," Sato said. "I just have
to run a few blood tests. The results will be finished by tomorrow."
"Okay," Sean said with a grin. "I'm gonna take her to the shower
room. She needs one."
"I noticed," Sato said with a grin. Sean smiled back, turning to leave.
====================================
"Y'know," Sean said as the two walked through the brightly lit
tunnel leading to the showers, "we need to give you a name. Until you
remember your old one, that is."
"Shampoo called me Ranma," she said.
"She confused you for someone else," Sean returned, memories of the
Commander's reaction to the red-haired girl playing back briefly. "Maybe we
should pick another one, just to avoid any confusion."
"All right," she conceeded, albeit a little reluctantly.
"How about... Yohko?"
"No..."
"Well then, Miyabi?"
"Ugh, no!"
"Ayeka? Minako? Asuka?"
"Ranko," she said suddenly.
"Ranko?"
"Yeah. It just popped in my head."
"All right, then," Sean said in a light voice, "from now on, your
name is Ranko." The two walked in silence for a few seconds before coming to
a bricked-over entryway to a tunnel, a lone door in the center of it.
"Girl's showers are in there," Sean said. "There're some clothes in
there for you, but don't get mad if they don't fit right. We had to guess at
the sizes."
"Thanks," Ranko said before entering the showers. Sean stood there
for a moment, staring at the door. Ranko reminded him so much of... He
squelched that thought violently. He hated to think about that. The pain was
still fresh, as though the intervening five years hadn't happened at all. He
took a seat by the door, leaning against the cool tunnel wall. Best get
comfortable, this may take a while.
===================================
Ranko stood alone in the shower room, which was little more than a
tunnel blocked off completely at one end with a door at the other. Two long
metal pipes ran along the ceiling, additional pipes snaking down to single
nozzles aimed at the floor. The shower stalls were on her left, separated by
wooden partitions that reached from the floor to almost her chin. Along the
wall to her right were three sinks with surprisingly clean mirrors over each
one. Resting on the hamper by the door was the bundle of clothing Sean had
told her about, with a pair of black boots atop them.
Ranko immediately began stripping off the clothes she had stolen in
the alley, glad to be rid of the foul-smelling things. She left them in a
pile on the floor, striding straight for the nearest stall.
The jets of hot water stung her skin for the first few seconds after
she turned the valves. She stood there beneath the needles of liquid,
staring down at herself as another strange sense of deja vu came over her.
She didn't know how, or why, but she felt that something was supposed to be
happening. Something that involved her body somehow. As quickly as it came,
the feeling passed but a lingering sense of something forgotten remained.
Ranko hoped her memories would return soon. She couldn't stand much more of
these weird feelings.
Ranko plucked a bar of green soap from the small shelf in front of
her, lathering up the rag as the water rained down. She started on her arms,
scrubbing the right one first. She started on the left one when she finally
saw the tattoo on the inside of her forearm. It wasn't any sort of design,
just a few numbers and letters.
//R-014-F?\\ she thought as she stared at the markings. What the
hell did that mean? Just another mystery added to the ones already piling up.
As she washed away the sweat and grime, Ranko took stock of her
situation once more. She still didn't know who she was, or where, but she
now had a name, Ranko. But what was with that Ranma thing? Was there a girl
out there named Ranma who happened to look like her? She couldn't discount
the possibility, that much was for sure.
These people, whoever they were, seemed willing to take her in, and
that Sean guy was rather nice. But Shampoo, what had come over her when they
first met?
//Well, at least I'm closer than I was yesterday,\\ Ranko thought as
she scrubbed her breasts. //That's something, I guess.\\ She stood still
beneath the shower, allowing the water to wash away the soap and smell as it
relaxed her muscles. Afterward, she ducked her head beneath the water,
allowing it to rinse away whatever was in her hair.
The shower over, Ranko exited the stall feeling clean and refreshed.
She'd really needed that. A thin haze of steam lingered in the shower room,
llightly fogging the air as she retrieved the clean clothes Sean had left
for her. She gingerly picked up her old attire, dumping it in the hamper
with other garments in need of washing.
Over to the sink, she gazed at her reflection in the mirror after
wiping the steam from it. She still didn't recognize the face before her,
but she felt that maybe she was coming closer. She pulled a sleeveless shirt
of light green material over her head, the garment fitting a little loosely.
Her hand reached down to the bundle, brushing against something soft and silky.
//What the...\\ she thought as she gazed at the white panties in her
hands. As she looked them over, she debated whether or not to put them on.
Some part of her was against the idea, though she had no idea why.
//Ah, what's the big deal,\\ Ranko thought angrily as she stepped
into the panties, //it's just underwear, right?\\ They fit her curves
perfectly, feeling as if they were hardly there. Next came the pants, black
fatigues that fit tighter than the tanktop, but not so much so as to
consctrict her movements any. After donning the socks, she stepped into the
black combat boots and laced them to the top.
Ranko looked at her reflection again, feeling that something was
missing. She looked down at the sink, spotting a long piece of string that
another user had probably left there.
===============================
Sean stood when he heard the door open and Ranko step out of it. He
looked her over, almost the perfect image of the anime-cute-girl-soldier.
The fatigues seemed to fit well and while the top was a tad loose, it
wouldn't show off anything.
"Like what you did with your hair, Ranko," he said when he saw the
braided tail she had tied it in.
"Thanks, Sean," she said, "Shampoo's waiting for us, right?"
"Right," he said, "we best not keep her waiting too long." They
walked side by side back through the tunnel, Sean desperately trying to keep
his mind off of how much Ranko reminded him of his Sara when they had first met.
Shampoo's quarters were rather simple, almost spartan. A table sat
in the center, scratched and scuffed from years of constant abuse. Three
chairs were positioned around it, hard wooden things that probably weren't
designed with comfort in mind. On the wall across from the table rested a
lone cot, pillow and blanket folded neatly at one end with a few old books
stacked on the other.
Shampoo looked longingly at the small tray of sandwiches she'd had
brought in for this meeting, pondering just what that girl's presence here
meant. She wasn't Ranma, but the resemblance was uncanny. No, not just
uncanny, that wasn't the right word. Unnerving was a better one. The body,
the voice, it brought back the memories. Memories of the Chinese
Government's final, and sucessful, attempt to crush the Joketsuzoku once and
for all, just to possess the power of Jusenkyou and to show the rest of the
world that nobody stood against them on their own soil. Watching fellow
Amazons she had grown up with getting cut down like wheat under the fire of
those weapons was a nightmare that never went away. And them, her friends
from Nerima, who had come to help. So far as Shampoo knew, she was the only
survivor.
It was the final straw that ended her life as a young woman in line
to inherit Khu Lon's council seat. Now, she was little more than a ghost,
her friends and family all dead around her.
Shampoo didn't know, even to this day, how she survived. She had no
purpose, no reason for living. All had been lost to her. Then, one fateful
day, she had discovered just where the government's awesome weaponry had
come from, Kuno Industries. At that moment, her resolve returned, the rage
that had been smoldering deep in her heart growing into an all-consuming
flame. She had something to fight for and a reason to live. Vengeance had
given her a second chance, and she would not waste it.
"Come!" she exclaimed once the knock sounded. The door opened, Sean
and the girl stepping through. Shampoo looked at her, the pigtail
completeing the image of Ranma. The sight of it stabbed into her heart,
threatening to bring her to tears. Did that girl have to wear her hair in a
pigtail?
"Commander," Sean said, "allow me to introduce to you Ranko."
Another stab of pain lanced her heart at Sean's announcement, she was even
using the name Ranma sometimes used as a girl. Looking at her, it was almost
like looking into the past, or at a ghost.
"So, you remembered your name?" she asked in a surprisingly steady
voice. Might as well stay in character.
"No," Ranko answered as she eyed the plate of sandwiches, "I just
picked another name. Ranko sounded best."
"It suits you," Shampoo repiled. "Please, sit. Have something to
eat." Sean and Ranko took the other two seats, Ranko practically diving into
the food. //She even eats like Ranma!\\ she thought as one sandwich after
another disappeared into Ranko's mouth. If she didn't know better, Shampoo
would have sworn that this was Ranma come back from the grave.
"Now that we're through eating," Shampoo said after the plate had
been cleared, "let us get down to business. What's the last thing you remember?"
"Well..." Ranko said, "the last thing is waking up in some weird
room with a bunch of things around me. Then some guy dressed in black shows
up and sets off a bomb after trying to kill me."
//X,\\ Shampoo thought. "Nothing before that?"
"I already said it before, no!" Ranko shouted angrily.
"It's okay, Ranko," Sean said, "we believe you."
"Well, then," Shampoo said, "it seems you have a lot of catching up
to do. Let's start with Kuno Industries."
"Why them?" Ranko asked.
"The building in which you awoke was their corporate headquarters,"
Shampoo replied.
"But what was I doing there?" Ranko asked, confusion in her eyes.
"I do not know," Shampoo lied. She knew perfectly well what Ranko
had been doing there, but now was not the time to say. "In any event, Kuno
Industries is a world-wide manufacturer of mech and armored units."
"Of what and what?" Ranko asked.
"K.I. makes all sorts of mechanical devices for use in construction,
business, and law enforcement," Sean explained, "but that's not all."
"Kuno Industries is also the leading arms manufacturer in the
world," Shampoo went on, "you can find their weaponry equipped on just about
every organized military unit in every nation."
"If these guys just make and sell weapons, why do you guys hate them
so much?"
"If K.I. was just an arms company, none of us would be here," Sean
said, the anger in his voice plain as day. "Truth is, they own most of the
frickin' world."
"I am afraid this is true," Shampoo said, "Wataru Kuno is rapidly
becoming the most powerful man in the world..."
"Let me get this straight," Ranko said, "you mean that this Kuno guy
is out to take over the world?"
"It sounds strange," Shampoo replied, "but essentially, yes."
"Wataru Kuno has instigated wars in Indonesia, South America,
Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere just to expand his sphere of
influence and power," Sean said in disgust. "He sells the weapons to both
sides, using dummy corporations under his control. If you ask me, he's the
devil himself."
"It is also rumored that Kuno Industries is engaging in illegal
experiments," Shampoo said.
"What kind of experiments?" Ranko asked. Shampoo could see that the
girl was having a hard time understanding everything she was being told, but
she would learn.
"Unfortunately, we do not know," Shampoo replied. "The fact is that
Kuno Industries is involved in nearly everything vile and illegal. They are,
unfortunately, powerful enough to cover everything up and keep it from
public view."
"If they're so powerful," Ranko asked, "then what makes you think
you can stop them?"
"Because if we don't," Sean said, "who will?"
"Everyone here has suffered at the hands of Kuno Industries,"
Shampoo said. "If they are not stopped, then the entire planet will suffer."
Silence reigned in the small room as the last sentence hung in the
air. Shampoo could see Ranko considering everything that had been said, and
still hardly believing it. Shampoo couldn't blame her. Were their positions
reversed, she wouldn't be able to believe it either. It had to be hard on
her, waking up in a strange world and landing in the middle of a war with a
power-hungry corporation without any memory of who she was or how she got
there. Shampoo only hoped the girl would learn quickly.
She had not told everything, of course. She had lied when she said
that nobody knew what K.I.'s experiments were about. She knew, as did a few
others in the Resistance, but the time to disclose it to her troops wasn't
yet right. Besides, one of those experiments was sitting right in front of her.