Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Fistful Of Omake ❯ Another Interesting But Not Quite Mileau ( Chapter 29 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

still working around an alternative on the pokegirls concept...

--1991. Tokyo. Chiba District--

Ranma frowned as the commentator went on and on. Blah blah blah. Like anyone didn't already know this stuff. Heck, he'd been dragged all over the world learning martial arts by that stupid Oyaji of his, and *he* knew most of this!

"We all remember what happened in 1984. I myself was working at Mishima Heavy Industries when the reports first came in. Some American feminist ultra-radical organization had developed a super-plague that would wipe out all men, based on a germ found in an ice sample in the Antarctic. Something that would attack the neural centers dealing with violence and with sex, so that even if some men survived the initial effect - they would be peaceful and gender neutral. At first we thought it was just some new movie's ad campaign, you know how ridiculous Americans could be!"

Ranma snorted. Like much of the Old America had survived. Their "personal freedom over the safety of the masses" stance had died in the first few months of the Plague. The United States had become a sort of pariah to the world communities since then anyway. Still, some of the guys over there were all right. Those months he'd spent hanging around that military base learning some of that Army Ranger stuff had been pretty cool.

"And we all remember," said the speaker, "when the virus mutated. One can't help but wonder what the Feminist Militia thought about it when the 10% fatality rate of men and the universal lowering of so-called male aggression levels that they had aimed for, became the neurophage that infected women. Two years for the Male Plague to go through and the development of the vaccine to prevent further deaths. One year for the Neurophage left in the female carriers to awaken. When *I* was your age, there had been no inkling of the horrors to occur later."

Ranma tried to suppress a yawn. Blah blah blah. Same old thing. He'd never even met any girls, Pops had seen to that, and while he could feel something for the anguish other people went through - he hadn't any emotional attachments himself. All he had to go on was the pictures.

"There are still some women alive, kept in biologically secure environments, under restraint so that they can't injure themselves." Professor Natsume shuddered. "My own wife had been a keenly intellectual woman, a ruthless business executive, but a loving mother. To see the intelligence slowly leave her as the virus ate away at her..."

Okay, this part Ranma could sympathize with. Sorta like going into the Nekoken without any chance of getting out. He'd have *hated* to see that happen to anyone he knew about. To feel helpless while people you care about go through something similar to that Alzheimer's thing. Until the final stage where their whatchamacallit - the part of the brain that kept the heart and stuff running shut down. So they'd built hundreds of those cryo-something coffin things so that when a way of killing the virus without killing the girl was found, they'd be able to revive 'em.

"Which is why I'm pleased to announce the newest development from Mishima, in conjunction with several other major industries." Professor Natsume gestured offstage. Someone got up on stage with him in response.

Ranma was dimly aware of the crowds around him and the television crews waking up and staring.

There was a girl on stage with the Professor. Wearing one of those seifuku style uniforms and with long pink/purple hair.

But all the surviving human women were frozen or in "bubbles" - but why would the Professor be bringing out a crossdresser? Except she didn't *look* like a crossdresser.

"This is Atsuko, the first personacon. She's actually a sort of cyborg, but using some of this very technology - we should be able to develop mass production androids almost indistinguishable from human girls!" Professor Natsume's arms were windmilling wildly in excitement.

Guys just stared. Ranma wasn't sure why, but something about that girl spooked him. How strange. Well, now that the trip to China was called off (international travel restrictions - in China this meant being shot on sight) maybe Oyaji could come up with something special for the graduation from Junior High.

-------

--1992. Tokyo. Nerima.--

"This is my friend Soun Tendo," explained Genma. "We'll be staying here while you attend Furinkan High School."

"S'pose this means I'll be doing the cooking again," griped Ranma on seeing "Cup Ramen" containers everywhere.

"Would you rather eat my cooking?" Genma replied.

Ranma snorted. "Yeah, fine. I'll cook."

Soun blubbered. First his wife died and now his three darling daughters were popsicles. Even if a cure were found tomorrow, Akane would be twelve years old, Nabiki thirteen. Kasumi had been one of the first frozen and would be fourteen biologically. Most likely, like the cryogenic suspension process, it would take a couple of years or more just to unfreeze the survivors. So the age gap would be even greater when his daughters were told of the arrangement. Soun HAD to think of it as "when" - he couldn't handle it if it turned out to be "if".

"Son," Genma began, trying to think of a way to put it. Originally Ranma would have been forced to marry one of Soun's daughters. Right now that was not an issue. "Uhm, no. Soun. How bad were your daughters...?"

"They said Kasumi was showing signs of it, but I didn't notice anything more than normal. She was frozen when she was fourteen. Akane and Nabiki were showing signs of the disease - forgetting things and having trouble with tasks they would have done easily a week before when they were finally..." Soun Waterworks. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Genma sighed. Ranma was sixteen, marriageable age. If he understood what Soun wasn't saying, while his daughters might be alive they were in one of those frozen coffins like Nodoka and far too young for Ranma to marry even if they could be cured immediately. Damn scientists, couldn't they put off all this nonsense about "containment of further mutations of the virus" and stupid concerns like "safety of the remaining population" aside so that his son could take over the dojo and he could retire!

Ranma winced. Man, this place was a mess! How many years had it been since anyone had cleaned in here?

"So what have you been up to, Saotome?" Soun asked when he was a little more under control.

"Training the boy most of the time, though in the past year I've been in touch with Natsume."

Soun blinked. "Old 'Wild Bang' Natsume? I hear he's the head of Mishima R&D now."

"Yes," said Genma, "and... you're not going to like this."

"What?" Soun blinked as he started looking around and realized he could see the floor again. Oh, Saotome's son was using a shovel and a trashcan to clean up? He'd almost forgotten what it was like not to step on instant ramen packages.

"Remember when I cheated off Natsume's test scores, remember what Kyusaku said to me?" Genma got ready for it, knowing what was coming.

"Oh yes, he was going to marry a daughter off to your son if you ever had one." Soun nodded absently. "Said that with your brawn and his brains it ought to make a good match. Still, he doesn't have any daughters does he? Any more than I currently do." (sob waaaaaaaaahhh)

Ranma put the water to good use, swabbing grime off the floor with it. Hey, waitaminute?! "WHAT?!"

"Uhm, actually," stalled Genma. "Remember that bit about the android girls, placeholders in our society for when human women would make their comeback? Except that they seem to be gaining a lot more popularity internationally."

Soun shrugged then froze. "...no..."

Genma shrugged. "Heck, one of my nephews is apparently working with a company called Cyberdyne that is specializing in such things."

--------

Keiichi Morisato touched the picture of his kid sister. Megumi. She hadn't shown any traces of the virus but had enough sense to fake it so that she'd be frozen right away. Well, maybe she'd gotten a *little* forgetful. He hadn't seen her since April 3 1985 when she'd gone into cryostasis.

Taking a deep breath, Keiichi turned back to the work in progress. As a college student he couldn't afford a personacon. Or marionette, or cyberdoll, or whatever else. It seemed each company producing them had a different name and different features.

On the other hand, he *was* an engineering student. He was more comfortable with mechanical engineering than the electronic end, but Saotome-san over at Cyberdyne had been in touch and now after three weeks of mainly sleepless work, he would see if the parts he'd gotten and that "Maid OS" worked. Saotome-san had stated that he wanted to help out a fellow engineer, and that while he couldn't *give* away a functioning unit, he could get him some sort of prototype unit and let Keiichi have it in the interests of longterm field testing.

Keiichi might not have been interested, even with the potential for long term employment in a cutting edge technology, but something about the design sketches had stirred him somehow.

Hesitantly, Keiichi reached out and touched a panel. The lights dimmed as power was fed into the unit, bypassing the batteries still sitting on his workbench. He had to know *now*.

Lids blinked and blank blue eyes briefly regarded him before they blinked again. This time they focussed directly on him and a hesitant smile crept across the android's face.

"Hello. I am Virtually Engineered Robotic Domestic Android - Neural Intelligence. A Prototype unit from Cyberdyne Corporation." Her head cocked to the side slightly as she regarded him. "Thank you for activating me."

"Virtually..." Keiichi shook his head. "Don't you have something easier I can call you?"

Still smiling pleasantly, the android blinked. "Well, my acronym is VERDANI, Master."

"Belldandy?" Keiichi frowned. "And don't call me Master. It sounds... wrong."

She blinked again, storing the new name. "Yes. Do you want to be my boyfriend?"

Keiichi smiled, even as he felt all that missed sleep finally catching up with him. "That sounds nice..."

Belldandy blinked again, then took out one of her access jacks and connected to the Internet. She had to find out more about the duties of a girlfriend. Also her own construction. The poor dear hadn't even finished hooking her up.

-------

Ranma sighed. Just his lot in life. Suffer, suffer, suffer. He kinda missed hanging with Ryouga and wondered if the boy was still wandering around Japan. At least they'd gotten their fight out of the way. Back to suffering. School+Ranma=Trouble. Even with *his* math scores he knew that was the way it worked.

"Happy birthday to me," sang Nuku Nuku. "Rannie, why are we walking on the fence again?"

"Balance practice," mumbled Ranma. Well at least she was cute. And not a slouch in the strength or speed department either. A bit ditzy - but that wasn't nearly so bad. "And don't call me Rannie."

"Oh," said Nuku Nuku. "Koibito? Iinazuke? Anata? Darling?"

Ranma shuddered at each of those. "Just *Ranma* - okay?"

"Oh," repeated Nuku Nuku. "Wai wai! We're here!"

LOTS of boys stared as Ranma walked in, but none were looking at him until Nuku (following Genma's advice) started hanging on to Ranma's arm. Then those were quite obviously looks of unbridled jealousy.

"Who is this fair angel who attends Furinkan?" A boy stepped from concealment. "A fair beauty such as this deserves to decorate the arm of someone far nobler than this base peasant."

Nuku Nuku blinked. "Huh?"

"Give it a rest, man. We're two new students and we got enough hassles without some moron playing like they're all that," responded Ranma. Just his luck he gets a fiancee and he *still* has to take on all the household chores. Not that Nuku Nuku hadn't tried to help. It was just that her help was more work for Ranma.

"Oh, right. Bai bai!" The catgirl android bounced into the building. "We got to speak to da Principal and get enrolled."

Kuno pondered this development. How could a girl have returned, free of the Plague that had claimed his twisted sister, and *not* thrown herself into his arms? "Truly, as the Bard himself might have penned, this situation doth carry a most unpleasant scent."

"Yeah, it stinks," said Hiroshi.

"Nah, it sucks," opined Daisuke.

"I'll tell you what sucks, dude," Hiroshi put in. "10,000 yen for a back issue of Playboy. THAT'S what sucks."

Kuno watched the boys filing into the school. "Truly, these pedestrians with their boorish entertainment. Still, I must think long on this development. Perhaps I should write a haiku to tell the pink-haired angel of my love."

-------

Mousse took a good look around the Amazon Village and shouldered his pack.

There were a few guys left in the village - this was home and where else would they go?

You could tell that something was wrong though. Too many houses empty. Too many shops or cookfires cold and dark. Too many places showing no sign of life.

The Amazons had believed that their eugenics program and clean living would protect them from the virus. To some extent it had. Shooting any Outsider that threatened to come close had probably given them more leeway than other areas.

Cologne out of all the Amazons had recognized that these were temporary measures, that sooner or later that which had destroyed the Outside world would threaten them no matter what they did.

When it had come to the village, it had been as if it had been trying to make up for lost time so fast did it spread. It was found however, that only humans suffered from this manmade and nature altered disease. No other species was affected.

So the Amazon Village had survived, but any man who felt like leaving simply did so. The Amazons and the Elders and the warriors had trouble communicating.

Except for Tigar of course. The semi-feline "independent spirit" whose father had been a Jusenkyo cursed mountain lion was sufficiently different from the usual human that the virus had passed her by.

As for the new glut of goats and cats and little black pigs and ducks and wolves and gorillas and mountain lions and so on, well...

Those that had hands (gorillas and raccoons and such) could still ply their old crafts in a fashion. Those that did not made do as much as possible.

Mousse wasn't content to wait for the Outside World to find a cure. He would be a hero and bring back some cure for the Plague, returning in triumph where he had lived with scorn.

Besides, cleaning up after all the goats and cats and little black pigs and ducks and wolves and gorillas and everything else was getting old really really fast.

------

Ranma did something his father would never do. Something that Ranma himself would never admit to do doing. Yet it was something he'd been doing a lot lately.

Ranma was sulking.

Lots of stupid questions directed at him by the various boys of this school. Yes, he was engaged to Atsuko "Nuku Nuku" Natsume. Yes, she was a 10,000hp cyborg with the brain of a c-c-c-c furry thing. Yes, she was very cute and enthusiastic and was actually able to keep up with him when he ran. No, it didn't bother him *that* much 'cause he was *not* stronger than a locomotive or faster than a bullet train and stuff. She was stronger and faster than him because she was a machine.

She was also a person whose feelings could get hurt. He'd tried showing her affection the way his father had always shown affection to him: insults and yelling. Instead of fighting him, she'd started crying! Something that had caught Ranma completely flatfooted and he'd had no idea what to do about it.

Girls. Even artificial ones. Who could figure them?

More stupid questions. Had they done *it*? What "it" - that was what Ranma wanted to know. He'd given denials - it had sounded like he was being teased. More questions had followed. How was he to know what color panties she had or what her bra size was?

Nuku looked despondent from her place on the field. Tradition and school rules indicated that she had to be with the Girls PE class, she couldn't be with the Boys. Of course, that meant she was on the baseball field by herself.

Hiroshi, or was it Daisuke?, had brought by a magazine. Instead of the expected ecchi thing that would have made Ranma uncomfortable for no reason he could adequately explain, it had been "Popular Science" - dealing with the various androids coming out now.

Ranma had stumbled over the unfamiliar words but there were others who explained some of it. The artificial girls were mainly the province of the wealthy right now. Personacons were essentially computers shaped like human girls and were capable of learning but didn't have a lot of personality or nothing. These were the Mark I models currently in place.

The Mark IIs would be out next year, using downloads from the Mark I's they'd already have some practical knowledge of the world and personal interactions. Plus they'd be complex enough to have something like a personality. Upgrading the Mark I's could then commence. Already there was talk of a Mark III - but the tech just wasn't there to support it at present. In that case they'd have personalities and emotions and all that stuff.

So right now there was only one living breathing emoting girl on the planet, even if she was a combat cyborg. His fiancee.

Lucky him.

--------

"Something's outside the parameters of the test," reported Kosuke to Kyasuke.

"What is? Did Morisato not hook something up right?" Kyasuke grumbled. He'd never been in so much demand, never felt so needed or fulfilled, and never so utterly drained. He suspected that if someone did a blood test on him it would come out as coffee.

"Oh, hello there. My name is Belldandy!"

Kyasuke Natsume blinked and slowly raised his eyes. There was the completed VERDANI unit just like that guy in design, Fujishima, had drawn her. Except this was no blank-eyed automaton.

The android smiled pleasantly at everyone there, then proceeded to hum some kind of music as she waited for Morisato to stop chattering excitedly at Saotome.

Natsume blinked. Humming was not within the original program limitations. "Excuse me, VERDANI unit, why are you humming?"

"It's a song I heard on the way here, I thought it was very nice and I memorized the words." Belldandy blinked. "Mister Morisato named me 'Belldandy' by the way."

Saotome and Morisato had stopped to listen.

"Copycat programming through the Maid OS?" Saotome suggested.

"Perhaps," agreed Natsume. "Belldandy-san, would you help us perform some tests. It could be *very* important. Before you object, Morisato-san, we will not be doing anything to damage her."

She looked at Morisato before she nodded her head. "Of course. I'd love to help."

Natsume and Saotome practically leapt for their scanning devices.

--------

Ranma noted idly that Nuku Nuku was looking puzzled as the boy grappled her and decided a few words of instruction was needed. "Nuku Nuku, when a boy touches you like that, you're supposed to yell and hit him..." (Sudden image of him tripping and falling on Nuku Nuku, followed by him attaining orbital velocity.) "...unless you're engaged to him or somethin'." Ranma winced, thinking that came out especially lame.

Nuku Nuku blinked. Oh, that was right. There had been something on TV. (Grab, spin, throw.)

"AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Tatewaki Kuno went down the hall, through the window, across the school yard, past the intersection, over the freeway, and impacted rather noisily into the wall of the cursed antique shop. "I am not injured." (Thud!)

Ranma was glad it had not been him, then noticed the girl was chasing down guys to throw them. "I don't think she's got it yet."

-------

"Coming out of the International Conference of Android Manufacturers, we have come to some basic agreements. The basic unit types are determined by their internal chassis types and their programming focus. You can't always tell by appearance," said the Professor. "Though there will be a letter code and serial number found both on the bottom of the left foot and on major components internally. So just as you know, the types are as follows:
A- All Purpose. The unit is a general purpose one, and may be able to accomplish a number of tasks. Not everything will be expert, as these *are* general purpose units. Also referred to as GP Units.
B- Borg. So far Nuku Nuku remains the only unit in this class, combining biological material and the nanotech of an android.
C- Combat. Sturdily built, relatively good at fighting but not particularly personable. Also called Sabre class.
D- Domestics. Programming is basically on maintenence and roles traditional to Japanese women. Also referred to as the Maid class.
E- Entertainers. Programming and design is for pleasant companions, particularly for the wealthy high end user. Not very durable in combat or similar operations. Also called Idol class.
F- There is no F class. There was a lot of suggestions and arguments but nothing ever got settled.
G- Goddess class. We're still trying to figure them out. Some sort of self-evolving OS. Very odd, but the potential benefits outweigh the risks.
H- Handmaid class. Also known as Laptops. These 1/6 scale persocom can be readily stored in travel packs so that you don't have to pay for an extra seat on the train.
M- Mythological class. This is mainly the sort of thing they're producing at Cyberworks and at Disney nowadays. Mermaids and the like. Waste of time and resources if you ask me.
There may be others added later.
R- Robot class. Just the most basic functions. These are also known as the Mark I models.
As for what the androids are called, that was *not* settled."

-------

Ranma frowned. "Okay put 'em over there. Yeesh. Yeah, I'll sign for 'em."

Three months. Nuku had gone back to her lab and there were personacon being produced in bulk now. Car manufacturers were retooling to meet the demand. The good thing was that Ranma wasn't getting a lot of crap from the other boys at school. The bad thing was that Nuku had been finally getting the hang of housework and her absence was now keenly felt.

Ranma looked around at the crates being set into place. Three by three by three cubes, and really heavy from the look of things. Feh. More crap for him to clean up.

The dull-eyed worker personacon filed back into their truck and this tired looking fellow held out a clipboard with a form for Ranma to sign. "Seven packages."

Ranma checked. Yup. Seven. He pressed his hanko (signature stamp) onto the appropriate line.

"Activation control. Have fun," wearily said the supervisor and trudged off.

Ranma shrugged. That guy looked so out of it that it might be safer to have the personacon driving.

He held up the little metal switch. Eight settings on the bottom? Ranma put it all the way over to eight and pressed the button.

(POOM!)(POOM!)(POOM!)(POOM!)(POOM!)(POOM!)(POOM!)

Ranma stared in abject horror as the tops of the crates popped off and seven personacon stood up, turned to face him, and began scanning him. "WHAT THE HECK?!"

"State name for registry," said the closest.

"Ranma. Ranma Saotome." Ranma blinked rapidly. "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"

Mass blinking and the personacon seemed to relax.

"Unit: Kasumi. Domestic unit. I am very pleased to meet you," said a tall personacon in a maid's outfit.

"Unit: Nabiki," informed the second unit - this one having a cat tail and cat ears. The effect was a little spooky but as she was otherwise human-like, not too hard to deal with. "Specialization - information gathering. Domestic unit."

"Unit: Akane. General purpose unit." The personacon in the yellow sundress stopped and frowned. "What?! I wanted to be a combat unit!"

"Unit: Ukyo. Domestic unit," said the fourth wearing a black pair of cutoffs and a shirt that left her midriff bare. "Though I've got some combat upgrades for bodyguard duties. Hiya Ranchan!"

The fifth clasped her hands in front of her and bowed. "Unit: Shampoo. Combat unit. Purpose: bodyguard."

Number three was still griping about how she was *sure* she'd requested her engrams be used for a combat unit.

The sixth unit turned a sultry expression on Ranma. "Master. Oh, I think the Black Rose will surely assist you in the arts. I am Kodachi - an Entertainer model, but don't think of me as fragile. Oh ho hohohoho!"

"Mute," commanded Ranma.

Number six looked startled but complied.

The seventh unit smiled and looked around briefly. "Oh. Pardon me. My name's Usagi."

Ranma quickly picked up the paperwork and actually looked at this time before running outside. "WAIT! WAIT! WAITAMINUTE! Your dropped off too many of them!"

"Master is very excitable," said Usagi with an eloquent shrug.

------

Ranma listened carefully on the phone, nervously eyeing the personacon who were waiting patiently for him. (Except for number three who wanted to call someone and complain that she had specifically requested that if her engrams were going to be used it would be a beautiful combat model.)

"Well, their Maid OS is based off of brain recordings of the originals. However they don't have much experience assimilating their experiences into everyday existence. Think of them as children who are still figuring out the world," said Kyosuke over the phone.

"What about the extras?! And why did I get *any*?!" Ranma tried not to panic. Man, the guys at school were going to give him all sorts of crap for this. And since they weren't martial artists he couldn't hit 'em. Much.

"Your father ordered one. Your 'head of house' ordered three. Anyway, the order and delivery system got a little messed up. Yours is hardly the worst setup."

------

Sasuke blinked in consternation as he was defended from Tatewaki Kuno. Right after he'd opened her box, Akane Tendo had asked his name and...

So now he was trying to comes to terms with the helpful and protective Akane Tendo fluffing his pillow and rubbing his shoulders and offering to fix him lunch. Which was odd enough by itself. Mistress Kodachi giving him a foot massage? Not to mention the other Akane Tendo. And the other one. And the other one.

He was Sasuke, a humble ninja. Having four personacon, three of whom were Akane Tendo, was just so bizarre he couldn't handle it.

Though poor Master Tatewaki had just about had a stroke and had to go into the hospital for treatment. How sad.

Sasuke held his cup out and Akane-3 poured him a refill of lemonade.

How he was going to deal with this situation, he had no idea.

------

Ranma started running along the fence to school. Nothing abnormal there.

(Thump)(Thump)(Thump)(Thump)(Thump)(Thump)(Thump)

Except that he was currently at the head of a parade that kept pace with him. The tail car of this train having two ridiculously long ponytails flapping behind her.

Ranma wondered why his existance was so cursed.

-------

This was just yet another exploration into the weird while i try to find something suitable to replace the pokegirl mileau. Think i'll put this all on the backburner for now though.