Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Fistful Of Omake ❯ What If Nathan Brazil Raised Ranma? ( Chapter 42 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

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"Uhm, he hasn't been done as a prospective father, has he?"

"No, I'll admit that," agreed the dragon. "But then we haven't seen Ranma raised by Peter Pan for that matter. Doesn't mean I want to see it."

"Actually that was done," said Exe. "It was disqualified because he never came back and met the Tendos, just stayed a Lost Boy with the Lost Boy. Hibiki, I mean."

"Well, what about it then?" Com asked.

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WHAT IF NATHAN BRAZIL RAISED RANMA?

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The ship was drifting with the current, and *might* have been dismissed as abandoned.

The smell of barbequed shrimp would have indicated that abandoned was not necessarily applicable. The radio playing a corroboration of that fact. Nobody was visible on deck, however.

"Are you sure about this, Nabiki?"

Nabiki fixed her gaze on her father coldly. "You wanted me to find 'Ranma Saotome'. You paid the bills accumulated during the search. You listened to the report I compiled."

"Yes, well, my old friend Genma may have committed some poor judgements, but that's besides the point. He *is* a guest and I would thank all three of my daughters to remember that fact!" Soun wasn't happy about the treatment his old friend had been getting of late.

Kasumi looked disapproving but held her tongue. Genma had shown up a few years ago, telling a tale of evil gypsies stealing his son away. Once Nabiki had started the process of uncovering where his son had gone, more and more details of what had actually occurred had been unearthed.

Torture. Theft. Engagements made and broken. The pit of cats. Insanity. Given into the care of a Doctor Mizuno in Juuban, with another engagement made as promise of reimbursement, followed by stealing the child back and breaking another promise. Finally a deal with a ship captain named Nathan Brazil, and a failure to steal the child back.

Akane glared at the portly fellow throwing a grappel across to link the ships. She didn't like boys. Not at all. That didn't mean that torturing kids sat well with her either.

Nabiki finally relented, wanting to see this through. "There's the ship name - Twilight II. A small 'fishing vessel' registered to Nathan Brazil of New Caledonia."

"Then where's the crew?"

*clik-KRAK*

Nabiki, Akane, and Kasumi had all seen "action" movies and knew what particular sound was.

"Keep your hands in plain sight, no sudden moves." The voice was young but not particularly amused.

The three girls complied immediately and slowly looked up. Where each of them could *swear* nobody had been a moment ago, there was a tall young man standing on a section of mast. He also had a gun in his hands. Nabiki could have identified it as a some kind of submachine gun, but was currently unable to get her mouth working.

"Are you Ranma Saotome?" Soun asked the youth, moving to the rail nearest the other ship, knowing that was a gun and therefore this was not a true martial artist.

"Maybe," said the boy, looking decidedly unhappy. "Might of heard of him."

"He's supposed to be on this boat," said Akane, estimating her ability to jump from one boat to the other, cross the intervening yardage, climb up the mast, and take that gun away from the boy before he could shoot her. None. Nil. Nada. Zip. The Big Goose Egg.

"Don't know anything about that," said the boy. "All I know is, I gotta ship with three girls and two old guys come pulling up to my ship and start making accusations."

"You're Ranma," realized Nabiki.

"If you're here about some engagement, bills yer owed, or something like that, git going." The boy with the gun made a slight gesture with it. "You got some other kinda message, I might know how to relay it."

Soun started forward again, he could leap the rail and be on the other boat. A gunshot chewed up the rail in front of him.

"I don't see any reason for you five to get involved, yer pilot there's put up a white flag anyway."

Flinches and the group turned to see that the pilot whose boat they'd rented had a hankerchief on a pole.

Genma saw one chance. "Demon Vaccuum Blade!"

The mast exploded as the chi attack shredded a section. Genma rushed forward to subdue his wayward son.

*Pum!*

Genma slowed down considerably as bullets slammed into his leg and turned bone to fragments. Genma started screaming.

"That was dumb," said the boy, landing lightly on the deck. "Impressive, but dumb. I don't know who you are. I don't know where you came from. I don't care. I'd suggest you get pudgy there to a hospital before he goes into shock."

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"Well, *that* went well," said Akane, her voice dripping with sarcasm. At least with Genma Saotome under sedation they wouldn't be having to deal with his blubbering alternated with blustering for awhile.

"Daddy, you have to keep in mind that Ranma has been raised mainly in international waters and not in what we could call polite society," explained Nabiki. "He's used to hanging around with roughnecks. I told you going in that it would be better to wait until he came into a Japanese port even if it took a few years."

"...but to wait years..." Soun began.

"It would be better than getting your head blown off," said Nabiki. "I'm not sure what kind of gun that was. Maybe a custom made. He managed to hit Mister Saotome while he was falling and Saotome was going at a full run, and precisely targetted the right knee with a burst. Three shots from a .45 caliber *machine gun*. Saotome will need that knee to be completely reconstructed at this point. We got off *lucky* because he apparently decided we weren't a credible threat even with whatever happened to that mast."

"...but..."

"Coming alongside and forcefully trying to board his vessel in international waters without some form of legal authority? That's piracy, Daddy. The plan was to come alongside, maintain a distance, and *talk*, remember?"

"...but..."

"Daddy, when a guy points a large firearm in your direction and tells you to move, you don't go arguing with him!" Nabiki rolled her eyes. "I don't see where the honor agreement is going to make a lot of difference to him. He's not a casual killer - or none of us would be here now. However he's not going to be someone you can browbeat into taking over the dojo."

"...but..."

"I don't see why we need some guy to take over the dojo anyway," said Akane reasonably.

Soun seemed to lose himself in thought for a few moments. "It looks like I'll have to go to Plan 2."

"Plan 2?" Nabiki didn't like this. "What 'Plan 2'? If it's a worse idea than 'Plan 1' I don't want to even think about how bad it is."

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"I hate it when I'm right," grumbled Nabiki seventeen hours later. "Great going, Daddy."

"...b-b-but they seemed like such nice pirates!" Soun wailed from his cell down the hallway.

Nabiki decided that she really ought to investigate her family tree better. She could *not* be related to that man. "Kasumi, is Akane conscious now?"

"She's still unconscious," came the reply. "They weren't very gentle."

"They're slavers, Kasumi. They don't put up with the merchandise trying to start a fight." Nabiki sat back on the cold metal of her floor and wondered what next they'd do. Probably do their best to break them. Well, there had to be some way out of this prison and she'd find it!

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The boy looked down in the cells and thought for a minute. "Oh. You're those pirates from earlier. Have a falling out?"

The girl didn't answer. Her head had come up to look at him, but her eyes were blank.

Ranma debated briefly. On the one hand, he'd have no problem killing pirates. Problem was, that group hadn't struck him as being experienced enough or adventuresome enough to be pirates. They *had* tried to illegal board and attack him. On the other hand, most of 'em had just given up without a struggle. Still, he couldn't let people who *might* be innocent suffer, could he?

The others he found and likewise freed. Oddly enough there was no sign of the two older guys.

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Soun Tendo continued swimming. Ah, it brought back memories. They'd thought chaining his arms and forcing him to walk the plank would kill him.

Fat chance. This was just a refreshing swim compared to some of the things the Master had put him through.

He'd bring back friends and rescue his little girls and then he'd *never* set foot on a ship again.

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Ranma had quickly determined what had happened to the girls. Any guilt he'd felt about killing all those guys on the ship had quickly vanished. Not that there had been much in the first place. Looting their little ship had just been sauce for the goose.

They hadn't been sexually violated. Too much money for virgins probably.

However, they *had* been "prepped" for work. All three were so strung out from drugs that it'd take a week just to get them lucid again.

Ranma wasn't happy. This wasn't how he wanted to spend his time. Now he was involved though. Oh well.

Once they were "dry" again he'd be able to turn them loose without any longterm effects.

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Nabiki twitched as the boy came by the improvised cell. "Dinner already?"

"Nah. You haven't been as much trouble as that one sister of yours, so you get some time on the deck today." Ranma opened the door and gestured to the stairs. "That older sister of yours already got her sunning and stuff in. That younger one's still clamoring for the juice."

"Akane is... self-indulgent," admitted Nabiki. The craving didn't seem as strong as it had been. The knowledge of the opiates and where that lifestyle led, plus that they'd only had three days of the injections, were enough to strengthen her resolve.

The sunlight outside was almost blinding after her confinement and the fresh air was enough for her to hang over the railing and dry retch until she got used to both.

Seeing one other item set out drove all other thoughts out of her head. A shower?!

"It's a good thing it's just you two, after your sister used it we'll run out of water soon."

Nabiki realized she had stripped and was fiercely scrubbing even as she realized that the boy was still watching. A glance revealed nothing hentai, he was barely watching her. That concern eliminated, she went back to scrubbing, occasionally pulling the cord to wash off the suds as another layer of grime came off.

"Fresh clothes over there," indicated Ranma. "Just another old pair of boxers and an old t-shirt, but I figured you wouldn't want to put the old one back on."

Nabiki shuddered at that thought. Another glance towards her newest captor, this time with gratitude.

"We'll be setting into port near Kobe in two days. Just a small dock near one of the local parks. I can let you and your sisters off there and be gone before you can reach a phone. By then all three of ya ought to be over the effects. There was an opiate and some other stuff they used. Had to consult with one of my contacts. Nasty stuff. You've probably figured out some of the more permanent side effects."

Nabiki winced. "I thought they were temporary."

"Nope." Ranma picked up a book by a strap and waved it at her. "Made sure I had gloves on when I was reading this. It's in Chinese. They made yer father walk the plank. You three were gonna be sold as prostitutes after ya were 'hooked'. Some of the other stuff was to help ya get trained. Nasty people you decided to hire. Hope ya learned not to trust people like that. There's a dark and nasty underside to the world, and yer better off not getting too chummy with it. I'll leave the book with ya, if you file some report ya might be able to get someone to listen if ya got evidence. That'll help that sister of yours get further treatment and not just arrested."

Nabiki nodded, still dealing with the horror.

"Yer young yet, you'll get better," said Ranma. "The ones who did this are all dead. That don't mean there's not even bigger fish out there, cause there is. Just a little advice. Go home, get over this little adventure, and count yourself lucky."

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It took Ranma three years after that before he visited Japan again. It was a big world and he wanted to see most of it. His father, Nathan, kept in contact every so often - and off they'd go on another adventure dealing with some problem or just kicking back with a few six-packs and enjoying some exotic locale.

It wasn't a lifestyle that'd suit everyone, but it offered a measure of freedom darn few had.

He'd almost forgotten the girls and those two stupid guys.

He'd only been in port a day when a familiar-looking woman showed up at the berth, looking over his old battered fishing vessel and raising an eyebrow at the new scars on the paint.

"Well, hello, again."