Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ The dragon amongst wolves ❯ Tofu ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 5

Tofu

AN: Well the Hajime clan is in for the long haul. Please review and tells us what you think.

The Continuing Flash Back Continues to Continue

As Dr. Ikari was being filled in on the details of her patient, on other side of Nermia that a chain of events began to really take off. A lone man sat at his desk enjoying the wonderfully beautiful day as he worked on his patient accounts in his sun filled office. All was quiet outside but the gentleman knew than in Nermia, that peace would not hold for long.

His premonition was proven correct a moment later when his phone began to shrill beside him. He answered it before it managed a second time. ‘I have got to get that replaced,’ he thought irritably as he brought the phone to his ear. “Dr. Tofu’s office, this is Dr. Tofu speaking. How may I help you?”

“Dr. Tofu?” a lady’s voiced flowed down the line. “This is the east Nermia hospital calling. We have received a request from the West branch hospital emergency center for any and all medical records for a,” there was a pause as papers being shuffled could be heard in the background, “yes, here we are. For a Ranma Satome.”

Tofu gasped in disbelief. “What?” he screeched into the mouthpiece. “What is Ranma doing on the other side of the city?”

“Um… sir?” the voice asked hesitantly.

“Yes, I’m here,” Tofu responded. “I’ll have his recodes ready and if the hospital doesn’t mind, I believe that I my self will take the them down.”

“Of course Doctor,” the girl responded. “I believe that a majority of the records are by special request and are not immediately pressing. Please take all the time that you need. Thank you, and have a nice day.”

Tofu said his goodbyes and set the receiver down in its cradle with a puzzled look on his face. Glancing at his appointment book he cursed silently. “Damn, I’m not able to make the trip for at least a couple of days,” he cursed as he stood and made his way to his filing cabinet. Some times Tofu wished he wasn’t such a prominent figure in the town.

A sudden knock on the door startled Tofu from his search of Ranma’s records. He was surprised to see Akane standing there. “Good morning Dr. Tofu,” she said brightly. “You haven’t seen Ranma today by any chance, have you?”

Tofu stared at the girl before him. The child he had seen grow up from child hood. Then he saw the look in her eye.

A look or insane rage and realized that the child had long since left him. “I haven’t seen him all day,” Tofu honestly replied.

Akane’s face morphed into a fierce scowl before returning to the bright, chipper smile. “Okay, I’ll see you later Dr. Tofu.”

Tofu watched the girl as she flounced out the door and wondered exactly how it came to be that Ranma would be found all the way across the city. ‘It’s going to be a long time till morning,’ he thought in dismay as his first customer entered for the day.

And indeed it had been a very long night for Hajime as a rather disgruntled nurse woke him the next morning. She told him that Dr. Kurata was waiting for him in his office before marching back to the main desk.

Hajime glanced around the near empty waiting lounge before rousing Jason beside him. Bankotsu was harder to waken however but they managed after waving a cup of coffee under the man’s nose.

Bankotsu choked on his morning sludge, as the three entered the now familiar office to find both Dr. Kurata and Dr. Ikari waiting for them.

“Good morning,” Dr. Kurata greeted them. “You arrived here early this morning.”

“Didn’t leave,” Jason yawned.

Dr. Kurata startled, “you stayed in those dreadful chairs all night?”

Hajime nodded, “we were afraid something would happen during the night.”

Ikari raised an eyebrow. “You’ll ruin your backs like that,” she told them seriously.

Hajime shrugged as practically collapsed into the plush seats of Kurata’s office. “Trust me, we know.”

“Well, now that we’re all settled,” Dr. Kurata said. “I’ll start off by saying that Satome-san is being moved from the ER to ICU as we speak. We’ll be handing her case off to Dr. Ikari from here on out, so I believe that she should be the one to tell you what we know thus far.”

Ikari nodded as she opened the file that had been resting in her lap. “Okay, there is defiantly something very, very strange about ‘Ranma Satome’,” she announced. “We were able to acquire her medical records from our sister branch as well as obtain blood samples from both Ranma-kun and Ranma-chan.”

“The results?” Jason asked.

Ikari scowled at the interruption and Hajime mentally wished that Jason would curb his American habit of constantly butting in. “As I was saying,” Ikari stressed, “we have been able to conclusively identify that our lady Ranma is the same one who has been seen in East Nermia.”

“What of the boy?” Hajime asked intently. “Are they siblings?”

“That’s where it gets interesting,” Kurata piped in.

Ikari frowned. “I don’t believe ‘interesting’ would be the word I use,” she told them. “Comparing the DNA, we discovered a multitude of common chromosomes but far more than just brother and sister.”

“What dose that mean?” Bankotsu demanded irritably. Suddenly the guards cell phone began a rather cheery tune from his coat pocket. Cursing, he answered before holding out the necessary plastic lifeline. “Ooshima-san,” he told them.

Hajime took the phone quickly without even bothering to apologize to the two doctors, “Shirou, what have you found? Do you know where Ranma’s family is?”

“Hajime-sama,” Shirou’s smooth voice sighed in relief. “I fear it’s worse that we thought. It seems the hospital won’t have too hard a time filing abuse charges, there have already been a multitude of reports already in the system.”

“WHAT?” Hajime screeched and the other four exchanged nervous glances at the pure shock in the man’s voice. “What do you mean charges are already filed?”

“That’s just what I’m telling you. There has been a multitude of different charges filed all across the country as well as China. And you won’t believe the audacity of some of them! And get this!” Shirou’s voice pitched upward a few octaves. “There are charges filed concerning both Ranma’s.”

Hajime cursed again. “The doctor’s were just telling us their findings concerning the two, how soon can you be here?”

“I’m just pulling the parking lot now, I’ll see you in five minutes.”

Hanging up, Hajime filled them in on what Shirou had revealed and not a moment later, the man himself arrived.

He didn’t even look at his boss, “have you come across the same inconsistency’s as I have?” he demanded from the doctors.

“Oodles,” Ikari snapped sarcastically. “If I could proceed now?” Shirou had the good sense to look sheepish and she huffed irritably. “The DNA is so consistent between the two samples that except for the X and Y chromosome, I would swear that they were identical.”

Hajime gapped. “Is that possible?”

“Never in all my years of medical school, which have been quite an amount,” Kurata glared at Jason, “I have never even heard of such a thing every being recorded.”

“Now here’s where things really get complicated,” Ikari continued. “When comparing the multitude of x-rays aside from the pelvic bone, you could practically lay one on top of the other and every crack, every fracture lines up almost perfectly.”

“That’s absurd!” Jason snapped. “There are no two people on the entire planet who could have the exact same injuries, it just couldn’t happen.” Kurata pulled the disputed x-rays from his desk and handed them to the irritated man.

Jason snatched the film and a nurse was summoned to show him to an empty exam room to examine them. He was back with in five minutes. “Well call me stupid. They do match.”

“Well sit down Stupid, there’s more,” Shirou told him.

“Jason’s let’s get all the facts before we explode like a volcano, hmm?” Hajime asked his friend as he waved at Jason’s vacated chair.

“What was this about charges already been filed Ooshima-san?” Dr. Kurata asked.

“First thing I can tell you is that at least three law enforcement agents in both Japan and China that are currently on the look out for a one Genma Satome, father of one Ranma Satome for chargers no less than child abuse, the selling of a minor, public lewdness, public intoxication, harassment, a whole book of assault charges, fraud, some sort of violation of Amazon law or something in China and last but not least, tax evasion.” Shirou explained to the shocked room.

The room face faulted. “Hello,” Bankotsu muttered. “Can we say professional scum?”

 “Why haven’t they arrested the bastard?” Dr. Kurata demanded.

“The only reason he’s not in prison right this moment is that no one can find him,” Shirou explained. “According to the reports, he took his toddler son on a ‘training’ journey and has been hightailing it around the country, boy in tow ever since.”

“What did you mean by ‘training’?” Bankotsu asked.

“Well that’s just it. The Satome clan has been famous for their school of martial arts. They call it the school of indiscriminating grappling or something to that effect.”

Bankotsu scoffed and the others turned to look at him curiously. “From what I heard,” he told them, “that school is nothing but an excuse for legal assault and battery!”