Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / You're Under Arrest Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Officer Saotome ❯ Crime Spree ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

IMPORTANT!!!!!!! If this is the first time you're reading
this fic, you must read starting from Chapter 1 completely
first! This story will seem very ridiculous and out of
place if you don't.

This fic is a crossover with Ranma and the Tenchi
OAV/Universe series. The rest of the Tenchi characters will
be introduced in this chapter, and there will be a couple of
fun surprises as well. Hopefully you readers know some basic
knowledge about both Ranma and Tenchi:) Compared to movies,
I would rate this as a "R" fanfic, because of some of the
harsh language used. This ain't a lemon though, I don't plan
on having any sex scenes at all.

Here are a few things you must know while reading this:

-For all of you readers, PLEASE read the notes at the end of
the fic before you start flaming me for things that you
don't understand or think is bogus, my notes just might
answer all your questions.

-The Ranma aspect of the story takes place after manga 38
and the Tenchi aspect takes place after the TV show/OVA.

-At the end of manga 38 Ranma was at the end of his
sophomore year in Furinken High School and the year is set
to 1992. Don't ask why, I chose that particular date out of
convenience. This is to punctuate the times that Akane and
Ranma met during their lives.

-Also Ranma still has his curse, but his female form has
black hair (like the manga) and is now just as tall as his
male form.

-For now in this universe Ranma's curse is accepted just
about everywhere with a quick explanation by Ranma. Don't
ask why, it just makes the story easier to understand.

-The XXX-XXX-XX and etc. numbers that you read on the
psychology reports are just a fake depiction by me, I don't
really know what the numbers would be in real life, I'm not
a psychologist, but when the characters in the fic (Akane,
Nabiki, Ryoga) read it, they see it as actual numbers, not
X's.

-The depicted show "LAPD: Life on the Beat" is real, except
that after the infamous Rampart scandal in the LAPD last
year, the show was immediately canceled. When it did air, it
was a great show, it got many high ratings, more than
"COPS", and it is one of the most exciting and intense shows
ever made (until it's tragic canceling after the Rampart
Scandal), the programmers edit almost nothing, except for
any swearing.

-Ranma will seem very out of character, but you have to
completely read from the first chapter to understand why.

-SgtRanma

Please visit my website at http://sgtranma.0catch.com! New
fics will always appear there first! And I update often!

------------------------


Chapter 4: Crime Spree


April 17th, 2001.
Akane & Ryoga's Room, Tendo Home - Nerima, Japan. 8:52 PM

"I found out all the dirty little details of the past
five years of Ranma's life," Nabiki said, smirking.

Ryoga and Akane could only stare at the thick jacket
filled with papers and the two videotapes held in Nabiki's
arm. The brown folder had a large red stamp on it, Akane
knew enough English to read what it said, [EYES ONLY! >TOP
SECRET MATERIAL ENCLOSED
[End of Excerpt.]

Diagnosis and Treatment: Standard post homicide depression.
Give a two week paid vacation and anti depressant drugs. Put
under review for possible manic behavior in the future.

Commentary and Recommendations: The subject is experiencing
perfectly normal depression after killing a suspect in
combat. However, subject seems to be more depressed than
average patient, and seems to have other problems other than
the ones diagnosed. Advise caution.

[End Report]

---------------

Nabiki had a cold, neutral look on her face, she looked
calm, but inside she was bubbling with mixed emotions. This
seemed to be the first of many reports made by a
professional psychologist on Ranma, it seemed Ranma was
having post traumatic problems from killing people, and
having behavioral problems from them. The diagnostic
descriptions ranged from insomnia to full blown rage
management, Ranma seemed to have a mess of problems while
being a cop. What particularly interested her though were
that in the more recent reports, Ranma had stated that
killing was part of his duty, he had to uphold his honor by
doing his job.

Nabiki frowned, Ranma was a bigger workaholic than she
was, he had the dedication that ranked him as some sort of
hero.

Almost every report was stamped mandatory as a
precaution to any officer who commits a homicide during the
job, but one report stood out, Nabiki flipped to it, it was
stapled at the very end of the packet, it had a big green
stamp at the top of the page.

---------------

File No. XXXX-XXX-XXXXX-XX-COUNSEL [VOLUNTEERED]
[CAUTION! CONFIDENTIAL! ANY UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS VIEWING
THIS DOCUMENT WILL BE PERSECUTED!]

Los Angeles Police Department - Courtesy Counseling Unit
Metropolitan Division

Time Stamped: December 20, 1999.

Subject: Saotome, Ranma - Badge No. 18991
Post: West LA Division
Rank Status: Patrolman 3 [P3] Officer

Diagnosed by Dr. Mylandah Arkar Walder

Condition: Nostalgic Depression, anxiety and stress.

Cause: Former fiancee of Officer Saotome, anxiety is caused
by the heartache from the termination of a past
relationship. Depression is from a reoccurring memory that
surfaced from Officer Saotome. Officer Saotome was partnered
with P1 Officer Yanagida, Ichino [Badge No. 19179] who
reported that Officer Saotome was experiencing depression
and anxiety when passing by the UCLA campus.

Detailed scripted excerpt from subject interview, Dr.
Mylandah Arkar Walder took notes of emotion and behavior and
recorded conversation:

Walder: So officer, tell me what seems to be bothering you.

Saotome:[Shows signs of anxiety, depression is clearly
visible] Well... I've just... Well... its just that it's
close to Christmas, and I just remembered some things from
my past, that's all.

Walder: Did these memories reawaken fears or bad thoughts
from your head?

Saotome:[Reluctant]Well... its just that I used to have
someone really special to spend it with... its not that I'm
lonely, I have lots of friends who invited me over for their
Christmas but... you know, it didn't feel the same.

Walder: When you and Officer Yanagida passed by the UCLA
campus, did you show signs of anxiety?

Saotome: Yes... I started having this weird pain in my
chest, it wasn't really the kind of pain you get from a
heart attack or someone striking you... just this awful,
numbing pain in my soul.

Walder: Caused by the anxiety of your memories past. It
seems you had a relationship with someone that is causing
you to feel this way. Do you mind telling me who it was?

Saotome:[Looks down, faces twists from anger to
sadness]......... It-i-it was my former fiancee, her name
was Akane Tendo.

Walder: I see. Tell me about your relation with her.

Saotome: Nothing to say really, I loved her, I did a lot for
her, we were supposed to be married together, and I wouldn't
have been here as a cop.

Walder: How did you meet her?

Saotome: My parents arranged it, it didn't work out at
first, but I fell in love with her.

Walder: Ok.

[Side notes, subject showing extreme signs of anxiety, is
having emotional fluctuations.]

Walder: Did you truly love this girl?

Saotome:[Subject shows irritation]What kind of question is
that? Of course I loved her, I-...... I loved her more than
life itself...

Walder: I see. So you were pretty attached to her. Tell me,
are you a virgin?

Saotome:[Startled]What?! That is none of your business!

Walder: I have to psychoanalyze you officer, it is necessary
for me to know some intimate details of your life, so
please, answer the question.

Saotome: No! What is the relevance? I'm in here to talk
about sex?! You call that psychotherapy!?!

Walder: I am only doing my job. Please answer, are you a
virgin or not?

Saotome:[Is showing anger]Why the fuck should I answer a
question like that!?! It's none of your goddamn
motherfucking business! Fuck you!

Walder: Calm down officer, remember it was you who
volunteered for this, don't worry this will all be
confidential.

Saotome:[Gives a hostile glare, sneers]Fine then.

Walder: Now tell me, did you lose your virginity to this
Akane girl or not?

Saotome:...... Yes... yes I did. I gave my virginity to her.

Walder: Ok. When did this happen?

Saotome:[Gives off a hostile glare]When I graduated high
school, right after our graduation. We were excited, we made
love in a forest in the mountains.[Breaths a nervous sigh]

Walder: Giving your virginity to someone is a clear sign of
mental devotion to someone, or in other words love. This is
related to the pain you felt while working, correct? You had
rehashed memories of an old love.

Saotome:[Slumps]Yeah. You know, I never, EVER would have
guessed that would have happened. You know, after that day,
we made love every chance we got for the rest of that summer
until I was gone to the U.S. [Chuckles]I tried my hardest to
sneak into her bed late at night.

Walder: Well that is a good start for now. Let us go more in
depth with the rest of the figures of your life.

Saotome:[Glares]Fine then.

Walder: Do you have any other love prospects right now?

Saotome:......That too is none of your business.

Walder: Please, Mr. Saotome, in order for me to help you I
need for you to answer the question.

[Subject is reluctant to answer, is showing visible signs of
nervous sweating.]

Walder: I have to know officer, this entire report is
completely confidential, no one will hear or ever see this
interview report. So please, answer the question.

Saotome:[Growls audibly]......Yeah, I do.

Walder: Who is it?

Saotome:[Mumbles]I'm...withitchinoyanagida.

Walder: What?

Saotome:[Sighs]I said I'm with Officer Ichino Yanagida.

Walder: You...you're dating your partner? Officer Yanagida
is you're lover?

Saotome:[Gives off a hostile glare]......Well, we were...
right now...[Silent]

Walder: Well? Could you continue please?

Saotome:......We're actually engaged.

Walder: Engaged with another girl? Even after you say you
were deeply disturbed with your previous fiancee? Heh, tell
me how you came to this conclusion?

Saotome:[Growls]I didn't come here for you to fucking mock
me you fucking shrink.

[Side note, subject seems to be very sensitive on the topic
of infatuation.]

Walder: I suggest you keep your tongue in check officer,
after all, I do grade your conduct as well.

Saotome: Hmph...

Walder: Please tell me HOW you came into a relationship with
her...

Saotome:[Uneasy]She was partnered to me nearly a year ago,
she was a fresh rookie right out of the academy, assigned to
me to baby sit her. But I actually found it very welcoming
despite having an inexperienced officer under my wing.

Walder: Wait, wait, wait. You're a P3 officer, right? [Ranma
nodded yes]Then how is it possible you got to be partnered
with a rookie? I believe only sergeants were allowed to
supervise.

Saotome: My c/o approved it because Ichino was a Japanese
officer and so was I, her personality was very similar to
mine when I was a rookie, cocky, adventurous, talented, and
full of potential. She graduated at the top of her class,
she ran the 10 mile torture run in an hour and 10 minutes,
she's the second fastest runner ever in the history of this
department after me, and probably close to being as athletic
as me.

Walder: A real battle athlete, huh?

Saotome: Yeah, I guess you could say that. The drill
instructors up at Elysian thought that it would be smart to
pair me up with a wildcat, fortunately they were right, she
became a lot smarter and wiser and more street smart.

Walder: You said before that you found it very welcoming,
tell me more about that.

Saotome: I had made a lot of friends after moving away from
Nerima, Japan, but... I was still lonely at times. Itchan is
from Osaka, Japan, she was actually very timid and shy
towards me because at the time I was awarded with my second
medal of valor, I was seen as a hero by many in Little Tokyo
and by Itchan herself.

Walder: That was helpful but-

[Subject rudely interrupts]

Saotome: I know what you're gonna ask, she was about the
same age as me, but after we got partnered together we did a
lot of things together, she eventually became my best
friend. I guess after about 6 months... I don't know... we
just sort of fell in love with each other. Like I did with
Akane. I don't know, I guess I just got over her somehow...
Not completely, but... it just happened.

[Subject is obviously subconsciously still in love with his
previous lover.]

Walder: Now, officer, let's go more in depth with your
relationship with this Akane Tendo.

Saotome:[Frustrated sigh]Jesus fucking Christ lady, how many
more questions do you have? Damn shrinks.

[Remaining interview script truncated, locate file archived
in directory XX-XXX-XXX, possible attached to this report.]

Diagnosis and Treatment: Anxiety is caused by the heartbreak
of a loved one from the past. Subject is emotionally
unstable but is able to perform regular tasks. Subject was
recommended some prescription anti-depressants.

Commentary and Recommendations: The subject has just had
some deja vu over a fiancee from the past, prescribe an
social anxiety drug and administer some basic conflict
management if needed. Subject is somewhat emotionally
unstable, but is fit and able for duty. Recommending contact
with P2 officer Ichino Yanagida for cross referencing.

[End Report]

----------------------

Nabiki's eyes opened wide. Akane had sex with Ranma
before she got married with Ryoga!? Nabiki reread the script
between doctor and patient, indeed her eyes confirmed what
she had read but her brain refused to compute it. How had
Akane and Ranma had sex with each other often without her
knowing? Nabiki glared at Akane, who was reading a couple of
therapy reports from before.

Ranma must have had some damn good sneaking techniques
to get away from her. But for now she would let it pass, no
use in reliving the past.

And if THAT wasn't enough of a surprise, Ranma had a
fiancee in America after breaking up with Akane? Ranma
HIMSELF fell in love and got a fiancee with another girl off
in somewhere else!? This was a real change from the Ranma
she once knew, the dumb jock who had no backbone when it
came to dealing with women.

Akane saw Nabiki's face shift in surprise and disbelief,
it was an extremely rare thing to see the ice queen show any
emotion other than neutrality.

Nabiki slowly let down the psychology report and
breathed a slow sigh, blinking a couple of times. Akane
narrowed her eyes and saw the report, she snatched it from
Nabiki's hands when she could get the chance.

Nabiki exploded, "Hey!! Give that back Akane!"

Akane shielded herself against Nabiki and furiously
skimmed through the reports that seemed to shock her sister
so dramatically.

"Damn it Akane! You don't want to see that!" struggled
Nabiki.

Akane pushed away her sister with her left arm, she
easily overpowered Nabiki.

She read as fast as she could, going through all the
details the dialogue, but for a moment Akane stopped, she
felt like her heart had just stopped beating and something
had been caught in her throat.

Tears welled up, tears of shame, tears of defeat, tears
of regret. She slowly reread the conversation between Ranma
and the doctor. Strangely Nabiki wasn't doing anything right
now to stop her. Both Ryoga and Nabiki saw as Akane lifted
her head up to see the both of them, Nabiki had on her
neutral ice cold mask and Ryoga's showed deep concern.

She wiped away her tears and gritted her teeth. It
didn't seem quite humiliating that Ranma told another person
a deep secret of theirs from long ago, but she instead felt
shame that Ranma seemed to be traumatized enough to actually
pour his heart out to someone, ANYONE, and a psychologist at
that.

Akane shoved the report back into Nabiki's hand, who
wordlessly took them away and put them back in the folder.

Ryoga was the first to break the silence, "Hey, what was
tha-"

"You don't need to know Ryo-chan, just leave it alone."

"But-"

"Just forget about it you jerk," Nabiki replied coldly.

Ryoga glared at Nabiki, but backed down because Akane
had asked him to leave it alone as well.

Akane could feel a harsh and painful pang of guilt in
the pit of her stomach, deep inside she knew she was still
in love with Ranma somehow, he would always have a place in
her heart. Reading some of the psychology reports described
many things that Ranma just couldn't have done. Running
suspects over with a squad car? Crushing someone's skull
with a baton? Ranma was a goddamn killer!

And it seemed like he had tried to let go of his old
life and moved on by falling in love with someone else. It
really made her sad, but Ranma wasn't hers to claim and love
anymore.

Ranma had pretty much tried his hardest to put behind a
life that he had cherished so much and looked forward to.
Any other person would have broken down pitifully and go
insane after having their dreams and futures utterly
abolished.

But no, Ranma had been stronger than that. He had found
another fiancee, and he had tried to go on with his life.

But something tingled at the back of Akane's mind. If
Ranma was engaged to this Ichino Yanagida, why wasn't she
with Ranma when he had come back from LA? Why wasn't she
with him?

Ryoga sifted through some of Ranma's personal and
personnel profile. Fortunately for Ryoga there was a
detailed description of LAPD procedures attached along with
it. Ryoga was frowning at the posts Ranma was assigned to,
and his general history.

Ryoga frowned, "Nabiki, you better come take a look at
this."

Nabiki had an annoyed expression on her face, she put
down the report she was reading and went over to Ryoga, she
would put off the questions for Akane later.

"What is it?" she asked, peering over his shoulder.

He handed the dossier to her, "Look."

---------------------

Officer Profile No. 18991

Name: Ranma Saotome

Gender: Male

Nationality: Japanese

Eyes: Blue

Height: 5ft 11in

Date of Birth: XX-XX-1976

Occupational Status: Sergeant Detective [S2]

Post: Metropolitan Division, Parker Center - Special
Operations Sector, Investigate Services Unit, Special
Investigative Squad

Work Description: Special Investigative Section (often
referred to as 'Squad') [SIS], created in 1965 for handling
serious robbery-homicide crimes and repeating serious
offenders. Operated inside Parker Center, under the "King"
unit Investigative Services, the current commander of
operations is Captain Gray Davis. The Squad has tactical
power over all street operations, all SIS detectives are
also voided from Internal Affairs investigations.*
*File Note - Check attached message at bottom of transcript
for detailed info on above occupation.

Commendations: Two time Medal of Valor recipient, Tina
Kerbrat Award recipient, high marks from every C/O he's ever
worked with, received Special Weapons and Tactics training
from academy, received unspecified counter-terrorism
training from Camp Pendleton.

-+-+-+-+

History at Los Angeles Police Department:

07-29-1997: Joined Los Angeles Police Academy as a cadet.

01-30-1998: Graduated LA Police Academy at the top of the
class, received marksmanship status and Tina Kerbrat* award,
assigned to Hollywood Division, ranked as P1 patrolman.
Probation period begins.
*Award given at LAPD Academy, awarded to the most
inspirational cadet of a graduating class.

03-27-1998: Received the Medal of Valor for killing five
suspects in a 211* call, saved the lives of two officers and
some school children.
*A 211 is an armed robbery code.

10-11-1998: Transferred to 77th Street Division.

12-14-1998: Was allowed collaboration for training at Camp
Pendleton.

01-01-1999: Officer Saotome was shot twenty times in the
chest and back in an alley at a New Years day bust for
crowds discharging firearms, was saved by a vest and killed
the suspects who shot him.

01-19-1999: Received second Medal of Valor for fighting off
criminals when he was brutally shot mercilessly. Commended
by Chief Bernard Parks.

01-25-1999: End of probation period, now promoted to P2
rank.

01-27-1999: Partnered with P1 Officer Ichino Yanagida,
assigned as a training officer for new graduate.

06-30-1999: Transferred to Valley Traffic Division over
dispute with Watch Commander. Officer Saotome was not
charged with a demerit.

09-13-1999: Transferred to West LA Division over lack of
officers in the precinct.

10-05-1999: Promoted to P3 detective status, pending a
controversial shooting investigation for possible excessive
force.

10-14-1999: Shooting involving Officer Saotome found
legitimate, no charges pressed.

03-02-2000: Passed sergeant's exam, promoted to Sergeant
Detective

03-07-2000: Transferred to Rampart Robbery-Homicide, cleared
for adjoined operations with neighboring divisions.

06-09-2000: Hospitalized for mental instability after the
tragic shooting death of Officer Ichino Yanagida. Pending
investigation for Sergeant Saotome's ability to function in
the line of duty, the detective is rumored to be berserk.
The killers of Officer Ichino Yanagida were shot to death in
a car during their getaway outside of the city.

06-13-2000: Transferred to Special Investigative Section at
5K90. All allegations and
investigations dropped by Captain Gray Davis.

[History thereafter classified]


Additional Info:[SIS] The Special Investigate Section of the
Los Angeles Pol...


--------------------

Nabiki continued reading to the bottom, her eyes widened
and narrowed several time as she read the additional info of
Ranma's job. "A group that trails repeated hardcore felons
and executes at will"? What kind of group of cops does the
job of a death squad? Undergoing several investigations? His
fiancee got killed? MENTAL instability?!

Ryoga looked concerned, Nabiki wasn't a person who was
easily miffed. Luckily for him, he was pretty good at
reading English, so he understand just about everything in
these documents.

Nabiki frowned yet again. What the hell? History
thereafter classified? She looked through the packet to see
if anything was missing, then found none. Heh, then it
probably meant that NOTHING was written to begin with, she
guessed, probably to hide something.

Nabiki finally put down the papers, "Ryoga, I know you
aren't gonna think so, but I think we're WAY over heads to
be dealing with Ranma. I think he's a certifiable loony."

"What!?! No way, I'm gonna make sure I beat that punk
down for what he did to us."

Nabiki just scoffed at him, "Whatever, lets take a look
at these tapes hmmm?"

Ryoga's face darkened as he saw Nabiki walk right past
him, degradingly ignoring him not giving a second thought to
whatever opinion he had.

She got one of the tapes and walked out of Akane's room
and down to the living room. Akane and Ryoga followed.

Nabiki made sure her father wasn't home, he was probably
sneaking off to Genma's house to drink with him.

The three finally sat together and fired up the VCR. The
TV screen flickered and a disclaimer came up. The three paid
close attention as the screen proclaimed that the video was
unedited and for documentary use only.

-------------------

[Catchy Music Starts, Show opens up COPS! style]

:::: ::::
::LAPD - Life on the Beat::
:::: ::::

Episode #53 [Unaired version]

Wilshire Division, March 22nd, 2000. 2:21 AM. Possible shots
fired call.

[The scene opens up, the cameraman is in the backseat of an
unmarked Ford Crown Victoria. A number of gadgets could be
seen inside, a large bulky computer in the center of the
dashboard and emergency lights on the windshield. The camera
focuses on a female Ranma-chan who is slightly damp. She is
wearing a thick letterman style black and tan jacket, and
has some dark blue jeans on. She is currently in the drivers
seat driving. It is raining heavily outside, the windshield
wipers are having trouble keeping up with the thick and
rapid droplets.]

[The screen captions in white: Detective Sergeant Ranma
Saotome and Detective Ichino Yanagida]

Ranma-chan:[Talks to cameraman, glances back at the camera a
couple of times] We're gonna be cruising around the business
districts of Downtown LA, a lot of stuff goes down around
here, drug deals, psychos, HOMELESS psychos, all those
weirdos come out after twilight.

Ichino:[Scoffs]At least it isn't as bad as the daytime.

[The camera focuses on a sharp looking girl in the passenger
seat. She is very pretty and has a friendly smile on her
face. She has short, pointy black hair and is wearing a
white windbreaker with some gray sweat pants. She looks
about 5' 6" tall judging by the way she looks sitting in her
seat, she has a very slim and athletic build.]

Ranma-chan:[Looks over to Ichino]The graveyard shift is
generally quieter, but some bad stuff happens in the night
too, Itchan.

Itchan:[Munches on some chips]Whatever.

[The radio on the dash beeps and chirps.]

Radio:[Chirps]All units, all units, respond to a possible
417* at Harvard and Olympic, over.
*417 - Person with a gun.

Itchan:[Picks up radio receiver]Dispatch, this is unit 7-
Adam-22, en route to scene.

Dispatch: Proceed with extreme caution, possible shots
fired.

Itchan: 10-4.[Puts receiver back in place]

[Camera focuses back on Ranma.]

Ranma-chan: Harvard and Olympic is only two blocks from
here, I'm betting we're gonna be the first ones there.

Itchan: Don't turn on the sirens though, just the lights,
lets see if we can sneak up on the guy.

Ranma-chan:[Turns on a couple of switches, the blue and red
strobe lights on the windshield flash forward
rapidly]Whatever.

[The car accelerates suddenly and Ranma-chan floors the car
all the way to Harvard, they slow down and slowly approach
the intersection of Olympic.]

Itchan:[Wipes the condensed fog on her window, peers
outside]You sure this is the right place? I don't see
anything.

Ranma-chan:[Points to street sign]That thing says Harvard
and Olympic, don't it?

[The car continues to drive and turns around the corner, all
three including the cameraman gasp in awe at the infernal
destruction in front of them, all the businesses are lit on
fire and there seems to be something far off in the haze
shooting off a stream of flames.]

Itchan:[Looks around]Holy shit, this must be the place, huh?

Ranma-chan:[Puffs]Damn right.[Picks up radio
receiver]Dispatch, come in dispatch, this is unit 7-Adam-22.

Dispatch:[Crackles]Go ahead.

Ranma-chan:[Clicks receiver]We have a fire and a possible
armed 5150* at the corner of Harvard and Olympic, requesting
fire department and backup, officers need immediate
assistance, over.
*5150 - Crazy man on the loose!

Dispatch: 10-4, help is on the way.

[The car drives a little closer, when they get through some
of the fog of the rain they see a crazed person dressed up
in a metal suit with a huge tank strapped to the back. The
man is facing away from Ranma-chan's car and is shooting
wildly at a bunch of buildings with a small assault rifle.
He has another long metal nozzle in his left hand shooting
out flame. Ranma-chan jerks the car to a stop.]

Itchan:[Stares in disbelief]Shit...who the hell is this
joker?

Ranma-chan:[Pulls out Beretta, chamber checks it]I don't
know, a spokesmen for the NRA*?
*The National Rifle Association, a group of gun nuts
basically.

Itchan:[Pulls out her own Beretta and chamber checks it]He's
a regular asshole, that's for sure.[Looks over to Ranma-
chan]So, what're we gonna do?

Ranma-chan:[Looks hard at the nut, smirks]Let's run him
over.

Both Cameraman and Itchan: WHAT?!

Cameraman: Officer Saotome, I really don't think that's
safe.

Itchan:[Nervous]What are you going to do if he turns around
and shoots us with that assault rifle?

Ranma-chan:[Frowns]Come on, don't be a don't-be Itchan, be a
do-be. Think positive!

Itchan: What the fuck are you trying to pull-[Cut off by
Ranma-chan]

Ranma-chan:[Bold]Come on, WILL him with me, "don't turn
around", we're better than him!

Itchan:[Scoffs]Wha...WILL him??

Ranma-chan: Yeah! We're the good guys, and he's the bad guy,
we'll win for sure!

Itchan:[Disbelief]I just hope he doesn't shoot us with that
assault rifle!

[The car slowly accelerates forward towards the armored
man.]

Ranma-chan:[Shakes Itchan's shoulder enthusiastically]Come
on, do it with me! Don't turn around![Shakes fist
victoriously towards]Don't turn around!

Itchan:[Joins Ranma-chan]Yeah, don't turn around!

[The camera view is visibly shaking, the cameraman whimpers
in the background in fear.]

Ranma-chan: Yeah! We're gonna get this guy!

[Ranma floors the accelerator and the car surges forward,
the loud rain drowns out all the noise made by the cruiser.
However, as the car heaves forward the armored guy slowly
turns around to face them with his flamethrower puffing.]

Ranma-chan:[Smiles nervously]Heh, he's turning.

Itchan: SHIT!

[Ranma-chan slams the brakes and swerves the car completely
to the left, the camera shakes wildly.]

Itchan:[Yells]Let's get the hell outta here!

[A barrage of machine gun fire can be heard, the camera view
shakes as the cameraman rushes to jump outside and take
refuge behind the car. Ranma-chan and Ichino can be seen
clumsily tumbling out of the driver's side and falling to
the asphalt. The two cops scurry to hide, Ranma-chan ducks
near the front of the car under the hood and Ichino hides
under the trunk. The camera focuses on bullets piercing
right through the door, striking the pavement and splashing
the puddles of rainwater.]

Camerman:[Stutters]Holy shit!

[The cameraman straddles over to Ranma chan and cowers, the
camera view shakes uncontrollable and the sounds of machine
gun fire and empty shell casings falling on the floor can be
heard.]

Itchan:[Trying to take cover]Damn!

[Ranma-chan cringes, behind the car, trying to avoid the
gunfire. However, Ranma-chan hears the firing stopping and
the clacking of a spent magazine falling to the floor.
Ranma-chan immediately stands up, and the camera view
follows with her, Ranma-chan fires off four rounds from her
pistol into the armored guy's chest. The camera switches
back to Ichino who has also stood up and is furiously
emptying her gun on the suspect, however all the rounds
merely flicker and cause sparks to fly. Ichino immediately
drops back down.]

Ranma-chan:[Drops down, crouches]Shit![To Itchan]They just
bounce right off him!

Itchan:[Tries to peek over the trunk, hides as she sees the
flamethrower flames her way]I know, we're in trouble!

[A loud siren can be heard, the camera peeks over the hood
and a police cruiser can be seen, it blasts through the
street from a corner and rushes towards the armored man with
lights flashing and sirens blaring.]

Ranma-chan:[Looks over the hood]Here comes some help!

[The police car blares by and tries to swerve around the tin
man, but the armored guy shoots flames at the car making the
back catch on fire.]

Itchan:[Looks over the trunk]Holy shit...

[The cameraman shivers as the armored man shoots flames
wildly everywhere, the police cruiser that caught on fire
swerves to a violent stop. Two uniformed men in jackets can
be seen struggling out the passengers side. The armored man
shoots up the cruiser, but the officers hiding behind don't
get hit.]

Ranma-chan:[Eyes wide]Shit![To Ichino]We gotta help them!

[Ranma-chan gets up and shoots off the remaining 12 rounds
in her gun, the armored man bounces back a bit from the hard
hitting hollow points of Ranma's gun.]

Itchan:[Shoots off a few rounds, ducks again]We're not doing
much except stalling him!

Ranma-chan:[Pulls out a loaded magazine from her left hip
and snaps it in the gun, clicks slide back in
place]Argh![Snaps finger]I got an idea. We're gonna have to
make a wild diversion.

Itchan:[Fires off about three more rounds, looks over to
Ranma-chan]How the fuck do we do that?!

[The armored man retaliates with another round of bullets
hailing on their now battered Ford, the tires can be heard
popping and hissing. Ranma, Ichino, and the cameraman, cower
for whatever cover they can muster.]

Ranma-chan: Here's the plan! You take off your clothes, run
out there in your underwear, and when flame-o over there
turns around I'll shoot the valve of that napalm tank when
he's distracted!

Itchan:[Yells]Hell no! You do it![In Japanese, with a thick
Kansai accent]Dammit Ranma, you're not even a real girl! I
am!

Ranma-chan:[In Japanese]Yeah, but I'm not gonna advertise
that I'm a girl slash guy either!

Itchan:[Growls, starts taking off shirt, reverts back to
English]Damn you! Why do I even have to strip my clothes?!

Ranma-chan: It'll distract him more! I know it'll distract
me!

[Ichino continues to strip off her clothes all he way to her
bra and panties. The cameraman focuses closer on Ichino's
femininity, who catches him staring at her.]

Itchan:[Slaps camera away, grabs cameraman by his
shirt]Don't you fuckin' get this on camera![Shoves away]

Ranma-chan:[In Japanese]Don't worry, you're chest isn't big
enough for anyone but me to notice!

Itchan:[Shouts]Shut up!!

[By now there is a mess of police cars and fire trucks
racing to the scene, there is a police helicopter shining a
big floodlight on the armored man, the camera focuses on a
bunch of red and blue lights that are coming towards them,
meanwhile the two patrolmen in the flaming police car are
busily shooting the armored man, but the bullets can be seen
bouncing in sparks with no success. The armored man merely
points his assault rifle and shoots up the car the two men
are using for cover, sending them to the floor, cowering.]

Ranma-chan:[Sees armored man coming towards them with his
flamethrower]He's coming back!

Itchan:[In only her bra and panties]Now what do I do!?!

Ranma-chan:[Shoots off a few more rounds to distract]Now run
out there! And flap your arms like a chicken!

Itchan:[Prepares to get up]What? What the hell for?!

Ranma-chan:[Shoves her away]Just trust me! Go! It'll
distract him more!

Itchan:[Shivers in the cold]You're gonna shoot that itty
bitty little valve before he roasts me?!

Ranma-chan:[Pushes her away]Trust me! Now go, go, go!

[Itchan runs out almost naked and runs in a semicircle to
turn away the armored man. The guy only just watches and
stares, the camera man moves to where Ichino was by the
trunk and focuses on her running and flapping. Meanwhile,
the two officers from the flaming patrol car run for cover
behind a building.]

Itchan:[Squawks like a chicken, flaps arms]Bawk, bawk,
bawk![Cries]I don't wanna die in my underwear Ranma!

[Ranma-chan gets up and smirks, he sees the tin man turning
around dumbly, he aims his Beretta carefully on top of the
hood of the car.]

Itchan:[Sees the armored guy shooting flames at her]Ahh!!
Saotome! What the hell are you waiting for? Shoot the
bastard! Shoot him![Dives toward the curb, barely dodges the
flame.]

[Ranma shoots rapidly at a little valve on the bottom of the
tin man's fuel tank, the valve blows off and the sparks
light up the spewing gas. The guy is rocketed straight in
the air.]

Ranma-chan:[Smirks]Heh.

Itchan:[Runs toward Ranma-chan]What the hell are you doing?!
RUN!!

Ranma-chan:[Frowns]Huh?[Looks up]

[The armored man is screaming loudly even over his steel
helmet, he's in flames and is dropping straight down to
Ranma-chan's police car.]

Ranma-chan: Holy shit![Grabs cameraman]Let's get the hell
outta here!

[The camera shakes violently as the three run away
frantically towards the awaiting fire trucks and flashing
police cars, the camera is swung back so that the car can
still be seen while the cameraman is running away. The
armored man pummels down on the roof of the car like a
meteor, crushing the entire top, the remaining fuel in the
man's tank explodes, causing another explosion from the fuel
in the car's tank. A huge fireball is made, and nearly hits
the three runners as they dive to the ground.]

Ranma-chan:[Gets up from the asphalt, looks at the burning
car]Whoa ho![Starts laughing]Ha HA!

Itchan:[Gets up, joins Ranma-chan laughing]Yeah![To Ranma-
chan]You think that bird shit helped man! You think that
chicken shit helped![Laughs, flaps arms a couple times.]

Ranma-chan:[Laughs harder, stares at Ichino]No, naw![Puts a
hand on Ichino's shoulder]I just wanted to see if you'd do
it!

Itchan:[Smile transform into a weak smile and to a
frown]Wha-what?

[The camera focus is on the two from a floor view looking up
to Ranma-chan and Ichino, the cameraman is still paralyzed
from fear on the ground.]

Ranma-chan: I just wanted to see if you'd do it![Points with
his gun]Cute panties.

Itchan:[Punches Ranma-chan hard across the face, fumes]Damn
you! The entire fucking department has seen me in my
underwear!

Ranma-chan:[Wobbles for a bit, still laughing]Here.[Hands
her letterman jacket to Ichino]Wear this.

Itchan:[Snatches jacket, hastily puts it on]You
asshole.[Notices Ranma-chan still laughing]What's so funny?

Ranma-chan:[Puts her arm around her]Come on, at least you're
mainly responsible for getting the bad guy. Come on, I'll
buy you a donut.

[Officers can be seen running towards them from far away,
they kept away in fear of the explosions.]

Itchan:[Brushes off arm]Hey, hey, hey, keep your hands to
yourself, what are people gonna think? Two wet girls with
their arms around each other?

Ranma-chan:[Smirks]Come on, surely you're not ashamed of
your body.

Itchan:[Shakes her head with a frown at first, then starts
laughing]Just shut up.

Ranma-chan:[Puts his hands up]Hey, whatever.[Notices
cameraman on the ground, goes closer so her face is close up
to the camera, she slaps the cameraman's face a couple of
times]Was that too much for you?

[Scene fades to black, with the LAPD: LIFE ON THE BEAT logo
popping up with police light flashing in the background.]

[End Episode 53, section 1]


-------------------

The three sat there in front of the television, in
silence. Nabiki, Ryoga, and Akane were sweating profusely,
they had trails of sweat down their faces.

Nabiki slowly lifted the remote and stopped the tape
player. "......"

Akane tapped Nabiki's shoulder, "Oneechan, was that
really Ranma we just saw?"

Ryoga only sneered, but kept absolutely silent.

"Yeah, that was definitely Ranma," replied Nabiki. "I
think that girl Ichino was your ex-fiancee's girlfriend."

Akane breathed a heavy and nervous sigh, "God, Ranma has
turned into Rambo," her face cringed for a moment. "Then
that was Ranma's fiancee in America huh? She was very
pretty." Yeah, Akane told herself, it reminded her of
herself actually.

"That crazy bastard," growled Ryoga, he looked over to
Nabiki, "What's on the other tape Nabiki?"

Nabiki slid a condescending look over her shoulder to
Ryoga as she took out the tape from the VCR and put the
other one in.

"Jeez, did you hear those thugs? They were swearing like
damn delinquents! Even I never cussed that much! Now can you
see how bad he's changed!?" yelled Ryoga.

Akane tried to pull him down next to her, "Calm down
Ryo-chan, let's watch this video for now."

"Hmph," derided Ryoga. He sat back down on the mat and
crossed his arms.

"Hmm, this tape says it's a news clip," Nabiki said
while pressing play on the VCR.

The three hunched up closer to the television screen as
some logos popped up.

----------------

KNBC Channel 4: Southern California's Number One News
Station

NEWS CLIP PROVIDED COURTESY OF ADELPHIA COMMUNICATIONS

DATED: JUNE 9, 2000.

[Screen opens up to large KNBC logo with NBC rainbow in the
background. A grim looking news anchor is sitting down in
front of a big desk with some papers in his hand.]

NewsAnchor: Hello, this is Paul Moyer, and this is the 6
o'clock news on NBC 4. We have more continued breaking news
coverage on the drug bust gone bad with the LAPD at a
Rampart used car dealer. At around 2:00 PM a shootout
occurred between four drug dealers and two detectives when
the dealers panicked while being caught. The shootout
dragged on for about twenty minutes until it ended, nearly
10 minutes of amazing footage was caught by our sky cams,
LAPD SWAT was unable to respond in time because they were
deployed in a hostage situation that occurred earlier today
in Venice Beach. Here is some footage from the shootout.

[The screen switches to an overhead view of a car lot, two
cops are shooting it out with three others who are across
from them, separated by some cars. Five other officers are
hiding behind a big SUV outside the lot trying to shoot the
suspects. One suspect is down in the middle of the lot next
to a table, a puddle of blood forming around him.]

Moyer:[Talks in the background of the video clip] Two
suspects were shot and killed, however, two of them have
escaped and are being searched rigorously around the Rampart
area. One officer, Detective Ichino Yanagida, was shot
several times and was treated in a local general hospital in
critical condition.[Switches back to newsroom] There is no
word yet currently about how she is doing, but some rumors
indicate that the outcome is looking grim.

[A sudden scurry and some shouting orders can be heard in
the background, some lady runs up with some papers and gives
it to anchorman Paul Moyer, he shakes his head and frowns in
confusion, as soon as he takes a look at the paper his eyes
widen]

Moyer:[Voice shakes a bit]Oh my god...ladies and
gentleman...I've just received tragic news that Officer
Ichino Yanagida has just died a few minutes ago at St.
Vincent's medical hospital, due to complications in her
internal organs and unsuccessful surgery. On a more tragic
note, her partner in the drug bust, Sergeant Ranma Saotome,
was her fiancee. Doctors found that Ichino Yanagida had died
when Sgt. Ranma was heard crying and screaming loudly next
to Officer Yanagida's bed in the Intensive Care Unit of the
hospital.

[The lady comes back again and hands Moyer some more papers

Moyer: Currently, the officers of the LAPD are in an
outrage, Station Captains everywhere in every division have
just issued a state of Tactical Alert, I've learned that
police officers who are off duty at home are rushing to
their precincts to join the huge manhunt in progress for the
fugitive cop killers.[Reads more]Los Angeles Sheriff's
Department and the California Highway Patrol officers have
also joined in, this marks one of the biggest hunts ever in
the history of the LAPD for a cop killer since the Radical
Federation Army of the 1970's. A $50,000 reward is being
issued by Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks, anyone who
can help out is being encouraged.[Signals someone]We have
some live video of the frenzy the police are getting
involved in right now.

[The screen switches to some scratchy live footage of some
unidentified part of Los Angeles, however there are black
and white police cars everywhere with lights flashing and
sirens blaring, they are racing across streets with their
searchlights in daylight, trying to find cop killers. The
camera switches back to Paul Moyer in the newsroom.]

Moyer: NBC 4 will bring you more breaking news updates on
this tragic death of Officer Ichino Yanagida, please stay
tuned.

[Screen blacks out, there aren't any more news clips.]

------------------

"......"

"......"

"......"

The three of them just sat right in front of the TV in
silence, each with their own facial expressions and
emotions.

Nabiki finally reached out and turned off the TV. Her
face was an unreadable neutral mask. "I guess there was a
lot more to Ranma then he let on."

Akane's eyes were filled with tears, she sighed, "Poor
Ranma. It must've been quite a loss for him."

"I guess so," Ryoga said, even he seemed to be a little
depressed after watching that video.

"I still don't get it though Akane," Nabiki said. "How
does a guy who is as spineless as him when it comes to girls
actually find ANOTHER fiancee, after he breaks up with you?"

Akane said nothing to that, but Ryoga did, "I bet he
must've been lonely someway or another. Loneliness can do
that to anyone, Nabiki. I feel more sorry for the girl than
him though."

Akane glared at her husband a bit for his insensitive
comment.

Nabiki huffed, "Whatever. Now at least we know what
happened to him."

"And now I can plan my revenge against him," replied
Ryoga.

Nabiki turned and glared at her brother-in-law, "Forget
about it Ryoga, it's not worth it."

Ryoga growled, "I don't care. I'll get him back if it's
the last thing I'll do."

"You won't be able to take him on, look at how easily he
took you out last time," Nabiki said coldly.

"I DON'T CARE!! My pride and honor is at stake here!
I'll get that bastard for all the times he made me
miserable!" yelled Ryoga

Nabiki whacked Ryoga hard on the side of his head, and
gave him a menacing glare, "Ranma is UNTOUCHABLE Ryoga!! Get
it through your thick head! You read and saw all of this too
didn't you!? He's practically a trained assassin! Look at
him! He's gone through more depressing shit than you ever
have! It's no wonder he turned out so damn cold!"

Ryoga was taken aback by Nabiki's slap, but he shot
right back, "And I'll make him pay for it damn it! I'll do
whatever it takes!"

"Come on oneechan, Ryo-chan, let's calm down here..."
Akane tried to tranquilize the scene.

No, no, no. Ryoga wasn't gonna drag her into one of his
stupid little vendettas. Nabiki Tendo was smarter than
getting into something she just couldn't handle right now
and would threaten some of her own business prospects. She
decided a little threatening would be in order.

"You gonna test me Ryoga?" asked Nabiki in Korean. It
was a useful business language to learn, especially since it
was from a neighboring country.

Ryoga grimaced himself, unfortunately, he knew Korean
too, he had been lost there once for three months, maybe
more.

"Why the hell are you speaking Korean, Nabiki?"

Nabiki gave an evil smirk, "The fact of the matter is, I
still know all of your dirty little secrets." Nabiki saw
Ryoga's eyes widen. "Did you forget that already?"

His eyes tightened. "You wouldn't."

Her evil smile grew wider. "First I'll tell Akane how
you used to have some kind of sick obsession about her, how
you used to spend all your time trying to find her."

"Stop it!"

"Hmph. I'm not finished," she poked Ryoga's chest with
her index finger. "I'll tell her the truth about what REALLY
happened with Akari, and whatever happened to little ol' P-
Chan." Nabiki scoffed at him, "Pride and honor my ass."

Akane just looked back and forth between her husband and
sister, they seemed to be talking in a language that sounded
familiar, yet she couldn't understand a word of it.

Ryoga simmered, Nabiki only puffed a breath at him in
triumph. Ryoga looked furious, but he backed down.

"That's a good boy," Nabiki said.

Seeing how things were probably gonna get out of hand,
Akane decided to interject between her sister and husband.

"Alright guys, lets just forget about it and focus on
Ranma," Akane said.

Ryoga softened the look on his face, messing with Nabiki
was too dangerous. "Let's forget about Ranma for now Akane-
chan, we'll think about him later," he reverted back to
Korean for a moment, "I'll settle this with you later
Nabiki."

Nabiki did the same, "I know YOU will, right Ryoga?"

His only response was to give her a glare when Akane
wasn't looking.


* * *


April 18th, 2001.
Apartment #420, Okayama Luxury Condos - Okayama, Japan.
7:00 AM.

A beautiful morning in the land of the rising sun, birds
chirping, the cool morning breeze, and of course, the
traffic and honking of people trying to go somewhere, even
if it is a Sunday.

Ranma got up from his futon with a yawn and a smile on
his face. He sprung out of his bed and stretched his back
for a moment. He had a window right next to his futon, it
let the sun shine through in the morning and the calm breeze
whiz by at night.

"Damn, I miss sparring with someone in the morning to
get my blood pumping."

Ranma walked over to his closet and put on a white tank
top and his trademark string drawn pants. He also pulled out
a huge hiking bag. He opened it up and inspected the
contents.

"Alright, let's see," he ruffled through, the entire bag
was filled with heavy weights. "Uh huh. 350 kilograms, that
should do it."

Ranma hefted the bag onto his shoulder with a grunt and
locked the straps around him for extra support. The bag was
made out of tough nylon and lined with polymer, so it took
the heavy load without tearing apart. He groaned a bit at
the heavy weight, but he just shrugged and walked to the
genkan and put on his running shoes.

Ranma looked at the door for a moment and then looked at
his window. He grinned, surely no one would mind if he
jumped out the window instead of going out the door?

Without a second thought Ranma awkwardly dove out his
open window and flipped in the air to land on his feet four
stories below. The cement sidewalk made a small crack when
Ranma landed, after all, he was hefting over 755 pounds
along with himself.

He looked up the street which led to a steep mountain
path after about a hundred meters, he could run a good seven
miles up and down and be back with enough time to practice
some katas.

He slowly started jogging to gain some momentum with the
extreme load he was carrying, when he got to the dirt path
he sped up quickly, running straight up the mountain. Other
people might've thought he was sprinting full speed, but he
was actually running at a pace that he could endure for
hours on.

Ranma just ran and ran, one thing he learned while
training with the 707 was to exercise rigorously while
carrying something heavy. This explained why Ryoga always
used to be stronger than Ranma when it came to brute
strength. Ranma usually trained his body with agility and
practiced katas for skill, but it didn't hurt to do this.
While running with heavy stuff wouldn't make him much
faster, he did become stronger and gained endurance.

After about 50 minutes and seven miles later, Ranma came
back to his apartment, drenched in sweat. He went on the
floor and did a quick set of 200 pushups, a hundred each
with only his index finger on each hand. He took off his
backpack and put it back into his closet, he went to the
living room and moved some of the sofas and other furniture
to make some room.

He practiced a couple of katas, most of them stuff that
he learned from long ago, and some that he just incorporated
as time went by. By the time he was done, it was already
8:40.

"Damn, Ucchan opens up her shop in twenty minutes, I
better hurry."

Ranma took a quick shower and put on his Chinese
clothes, he latched his badge and guns onto him and ran out
the door to the parking lot. He started up the Chevy and
blasted out of there to race to Ucchan's Okonomiyaki.

-------------

April 18th, 2001.
Ucchan's Okonomiyaki Restaurant - Okayama, Japan. 9:02 AM.

"Welcome everyone to the grand opening of Ucchan's
Okonomiyaki of Okayama!"

A small group of people who were waiting anxiously
walked into the restaurant. In a matter of minutes the 3
chefs who manned the large wraparound square grill were
already taking up orders from hungry patrons, the restaurant
quickly filled with the delicious scent of yakisoba and hot
okonomiyaki.

Ukyo smiled and greeted each customer at the door, even
though it was only morning a slow steady stream of customers
were going through the door to have a taste of the newest
restaurant in their city.

"Irrashai, irrashai mina-san!" Ukyo chirped happily.

A big black truck came racing through the street towards
Ukyo, it stopped at the curb and the driver executed a
perfect parallel park.

Ukyo grinned, only one person in Japan who could
possibly drive that car. "Hey Ranchan!"

Ranma popped the door open and jumped over to Ukyo. She
grabbed him in a bear hug and he returned it, they both let
go after a couple of seconds. "How ya' doin' Ucchan?"

"I'm great! I'm glad you made it here!"

"Heh, I wouldn't miss the grand opening of your
restaurant for anything in the world."

"Come in, I'll give you some Okonomiyaki."

The two of them walked inside, Ranma sat in front of one
of the grill seats while Ukyo went behind the counter and
put on her cooking apron.

"Hey Ucchan, I have a friend of mine coming here too,
should be here any moment," Ranma said.

Ukyo lifted her eyebrows, "Oh really? Do you already
have a girlfriend?"

Ranma blushed a bit, "Sorta, she's very nice and
friendly, and a cop to boot," he chuckled.

"Neat! I'm glad you found someone Ranchan," Ukyo said
happily.

Ranma smiled, he was glad that Ukyo had finally given up
on him long ago, she had been ashamed years ago for almost
killing him and Akane at their failed wedding after Jusendo,
and after that their relationship turned out for the best.
Ukyo now knew that her Ranchan loved her, not intimately,
but it was still love either way.

"Yeah, she's quite a person, real unusual."

"Oh really? As unusual as we are Ranchan?"

Ranma laughed, "Yeah, maybe more."

----------------

"Hey Mihoshi, did you get that report I told you to
get?"

Mihoshi opened up her bag and pulled out a yellow
folder. "Yeah Kiyone, I have it right here."

Kiyone kept one hand on the steering wheel and took the
folder, "I need to hand this to Ranma, he's heading a
narcotics job in our sector."

"I wonder what it is?" asked Mihoshi.

"It's supposed to be the facts from the interrogation
our guys did with a suspect Ranma arrested, we'll find out
more later." Kiyone pointed out to the sign of Ucchan's
Okonomiyaki, "Hey, we're here."

Kiyone parked their Toyota behind Ranma's Chevy, the two
of them got out and walked into the restaurant. Mihoshi
spotted Ranma immediately sitting close to the grill, both
of them walked over silently to surprise them.

"Yeah, she's quite a person, real unusual."

"Oh really? As unusual as we are Ranchan?"

"Yeah, maybe more."

Ukyo chuckled, "Is that so?"

Kiyone grinned, "Oh, you wouldn't be happening to be
talking about me, are you Captain?"

Ranma froze for a second, a big drop of sweat forming at
the back of his head. He had to learn to keep his mouth shut
one of these days. "Heh, I wouldn't dream of saying anything
bad about you Kiyone," he said, slowly turning around.

"Hi Ranma!" Mihoshi chirped brightly.

"How you been Mihoshi?" Ranma smiled.

"Fine! Thanks!"

Ukyo poured some circles of batter onto the grill, "How
are you guys doing? I'm Ukyo Kuonji, Ranma's best friend,"
she put down one of her spatulas and stuck her hand out.

Kiyone shook Ukyo's hand, "Hi, I'm Kiyone Makibi and
this here's my partner Mihoshi Kuramitsu, we've heard so
much about you from Ranma."

Ukyo gave them a friendly smile and let go of Kiyone's
hand, "Did he really? Here take a seat, I'll make you guys
some of my deluxe okonomiyaki, the best in all of Japan."

"No, you mean the best in the world!" Ranma mumbled with
a piece of okonomiyaki in his mouth.

"Thanks Ranchan."

Mihoshi's eyes widened and her mouth started to water at
the tasty okonomiyaki, one of her favorite foods from earth.
"Oooh, ooh, can I have one now please? Can I?" she asked
anxiously.

With a flick of her wrist Ukyo flipped the spatulas onto
two plates and landed them on Mihoshi and Kiyone's places.
Mihoshi grabbed her chopsticks and dug in, her eyes
sparkling with joy. Kiyone didn't eat as ravenously, but she
enthusiastically ate the tasty okonomiyaki.

"Oishii, this is the best okonomiyaki I've ever tasted!"
exclaimed Kiyone.

Mihoshi mumbled the same because her mouth was stuffed
with food.

"I told you, didn't I?" Ukyo said. She made a couple
more, "Here, you can have all you want, it's on the house."

"I thought you wanted some help when we got here
Ucchan?" Ranma asked.

Ukyo looked up, "Oh yeah, but it seemed the constructors
actually finished furnishing the restaurant on time, and I
was able to do the rest of the work myself. It was no
problem," Ranma nodded in response. "Thanks for coming
though Ranchan."

"Heh, I wanted some okonomiyaki too anyway. You won't
believe how much I missed your cooking when I was back in
America!"



The four of them chatted with each other for awhile,
talking about each other and their past. Ukyo, Kiyone, and
Mihoshi got along quite well with each other, they became
quick friends.

After about 3 hours of laid back relaxation, Kiyone
finally remember that she had to give Ranma his folder.

"Hey, Ranma, the report from your perp came in this
morning, I brought it in for you," Kiyone handed Ranma the
yellow folder.

Ranma took the folder and read the contents of the
reports inside, "I guess they finally beat some info out of
him?"

"Yeah, his name is Misano Hashimoto, it seems that he
was just a drug courier, he has a chain of command to
follow."

"I'm guessing this is all critical information to the
bad guys?"

"Probably. By the way, he was released on bail last
night, I guess someone paid the steep bill for his release."

Ranma frowned, "I wish governments would just abolish
bails and keep suspects and criminals in jail."

Ranma read the reports carefully, meanwhile Mihoshi and
Ukyo were talking about different ways to make good food.

"Hmm, at least he gave us some info on who his own
supplier is, even though I'm betting there is most likely a
bigger source."

"How big a source do you think?" asked Kiyone.

"Who knows? I found about 10 million yen's worth of
heroin and crack, and it looks like there's a clear sign of
an organized gang or something." Ranma got up from his seat
and took the folder with him. "I guess I'll get going,
thanks for letting us come over Ucchan."

Ucchan paused from conversing with Mihoshi for a moment
and turned to Ranma, "Leaving already Ranchan?"

Ranma chuckled, "If you haven't noticed the time, it's
already noon."

Ukyo looked surprised, she looked at her watch, "Really?
We must've been rambling all this time."

"I think we ought to go back to the precinct too, come
on Mihoshi."

Mihoshi took a sip of her coke and got up, "All right
Kiyone," she turned to Ukyo, "Thanks for the great food
Ucchan!"

Ukyo smiled, "Anytime Mihoshi-chan, I'll give you guys
the police officer's discount every time you come!"

Ranma started walking out the door, Mihoshi and Kiyone
followed, "I'll see you later Ucchan, bye!"

"Later!"

The three cops walked out to the street, being the first
day of the restaurant's opening a large line was forming
outside the restaurant, people were waiting to get in. News
of the place had spread quickly.

"I guess we'll be going then, come on Mihoshi," Kiyone
threw the car keys to her, "You drive."

"Okay!"

Ranma fidgeted for a second, he desperately tried to
think of something to say, but his mind just didn't seem to
work. "Hey Kiyone--"

Kiyone immediately responded anxiously, she stepped
closer to Ranma, "Yes?"

This is it he thought, you've done it before, just take
it like a man and do it again, "You wouldn't want to have
dinner with me tomorrow maybe, do you?"

Kiyone tried hard to hide her smile, "Sure, I'd love
to."

"Then I'll meet you, let's say, here, tomorrow at seven,
how about that?" Ranma's heart leaped for joy, it was a
feeling he hadn't felt in years.

"Sure. See you then."

The blond headed ditz Mihoshi decided to pop in right
next to Kiyone, "Oho, are you guys talking about another
date?" she giggled.

"So what if I am, huh?" Kiyone retorted playfully.

"Whatever. I gotta go back to Tokyo and pick up some
stuff from JNSA headquarters. See you later." Ranma said, as
he walked off and waved to the two.

"Bye!" the both said simultaneously.

They both drove off in their own opposite directions,
two of them thinking of happy thoughts of what would happen
tomorrow.

Pity what would happen though.


* * *


April 19th, 2001.
In some anonymous back alley - Okayama, Japan. 1:29 AM.

"Misano, Misano, I am SO disappointed in you. Why did
you have to go and tell them the lieutenant's name?"

Misano shivered in the cold, he was half naked with
bruises all over his body, "They beat the fucking shit outta
me! I couldn't hold on forever!"

"Tsk, tsk, that's no excuse," the man in the dark
pummeled him in the stomach, "You know that. Now it's
possible you might've exposed some of our methods of
operation."

"It won't happen again, it swear I won't! The cop who
arrested me in the first place had a gun! What else could I
do?!" he cried while clutching his stomach. "I swear,
please! Give me another chance, it won't ever happen again!"

The man in the dark sighed, "Fine then, can you tell me
at least the officer who was in charge of your
investigation?"

Misano cringed for a moment, "I don't know about the man
who arrested me, he doesn't know anything, but the guy who
interrogated me is Sergeant Juzo Kanemaki."

"I know, we already knew that, someone already took care
of him. But we didn't kill him though, I'm not sure killing
a cop would deter them from this case." The man kicked him
in the stomach again, "I guess you're off the hook for now."

Misano slowly tried to get up clutching his stomach,
"Arigato gozaimasu, I swear it won't happen again."

The man in the dark kicked him back down, face flat on
the floor. "I know you won't Misano."

The last thing Misano heard before he saw complete
darkness was a click from the back of his head.

--------------------

April 19th, 2001.
Apartment #420, Okayama Luxury Condos. 1:58 AM

RING RING, RING RING.

Ranma opened his eyes and clumsily picked up his cell
phone next to his futon.

"Moshi-moshi, Captain Ranma Saotome here," Ranma said
drowsily.

"Hi, I'm Detective Daizaemon Kanzaki, is this Detective
Saotome?"

"Yeah it is," grumbled Ranma.

"We have a 187 concerning the suspect you arrested, a
Misano Hashimoto?"

Ranma's foggy mind cleared up in an instant, "Yeah,
that's my guy, what about him?"

"I think you should get over here immediately sir."

Ranma got up and hurried to his closet to get his
clothes on, "Alright, set up a media blackout since it's
late at night, and make sure you keep my updated on my radio
instead of using my phone number."

"Hai."

---------------------

Ranma arrived at the scene with his siren turned off but
with his emergency lights flashing.

Several officers and a few forensics scientists were in
the alley, analyzing the dead body in front of them. There
was a small trail of blood next to the head, flowing to a
drain.

Ranma stepped out of his car and flashed his
identification to a detective, "I'm Captain Saotome, are you
Detective Kanzaki?"

A big man with white hair and a scar on his face turned
around and greeted Ranma, "Yes sir, I'm the officer in
charge for now."

"Good, I'll give you priority on this case for now. Has
anyone touched the body?" Ranma asked.

"No, we waited until you would come, we were given
explicit instructions to follow your orders sir."

"Very good, now let's take a look at what happened
here," Ranma said while walking over to the corpse on the
ground. "Any of you have any gloves?"

One of the forensic scientists handed Ranma a box a
surgical gloves, he took a pair and wore them on his hands.
"All right, let's see," Ranma said while getting a closer
look at the body.

There were bruises everywhere, half of them were
probably from the detectives who tortured him for
information. He examined the entire body with his hands,
until he came to the head, he examined more closely.

"Fuck, this poor bastard was shot with a gun," Ranma
said. He grabbed the hair of Misano's dead body and jerked
the head up, a gooey string of blood and saliva was flung
across the pavement.

"Yuck, shot in the back of the head, and exit wounds on
his face," Ranma said. He twisted the head around to take a
better look. "How did you guys find out about this?"

"Some lady made a complaint thinking that a bunch of
teenagers were playing with firecrackers in the middle of
the night. A two man patrol arrived here first and then
panicked, I was called in immediately along with forensics,
and I recognized his face as the drug dealer that was
released yesterday on bail," Detective Kanzaki said.

"Damn, looks like we lost ourselves a source of info,"
Ranma said.

The detective and the two officers who were standing
near by turned their heads in disgust, their face was
turning green and there was a horrible stench coming from
the body.

Ranma took a good look at the mutilated face, "Jeez,
looks like one of the bullets blew open his fucking nasal
cavity and exposed the sinus," Ranma said, pointing to the
bloody and messed up face, "See that yellow shit right
there? That's from his fucking sinuses, that explains why
the hell he smells like shit right now."

The front of Misano's poor face looked pretty bad, his
right eye was missing along with a portion of some skull
bone of his eye socket and his upper left cheek was blown
away exposing the yellow sinus cavity that Ranma had pointed
out. There wasn't much blood, most of it had already drained
out or clotted messily, and the rest of his bodily fluids
like his saliva had just pooled in with the blood.

Detective Kanzaki rolled his eyes and took a deep
breath, he may have been a homicide detective but it was
usually limited to stab victims or people hit by cars, not
gory gunshot wounds.

With a sigh, Ranma put the head back down and took
another look at the back of the scalp, touching everything
with his fingers.

"I say this was a close range, execution style death,"
Ranma finally said. "See this rupture of his scalp? The way
his skin is torn apart and the flesh is burnt?" he pointed
out, "It's probably from the muzzle blast of the damn
firearm."

The forensic scientist took note of what Ranma said and
continued to take pictures and write things down.

"All right," Ranma snapped off his rubber gloves and
threw them in a biohazard basket nearby and looked over to
Detective Kanzaki, "Alright Detective, I want you guys to
search for anymore clues around this area then bag him. I
found some slugs on the ground under his head, they looked
like they were in pretty good condition, so I want you to
take them to a lab and get a ballistics test, and continue
to find shell casings or something. This is a huge problem,
we have clear evidence that there are fucking firearms on
the loose in the city."

"Yes sir."

The radios of all the officers there including Ranma's
cell phone radio chirped, a garbled voice came through.

"This is unit 4-King-52, we have a 187 in front of the
Okayama Police Department, Detective Kanzaki please
respond..."

Ranma's eyes opened wide as he noticed that it was
Kiyone's voice, "You guys worry about Misano, I'll take this
call." The others nodded.

"This is Captain Saotome, what's the situation?"

"Ranma is that you?" the voice asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it is Kiyone, what's happened?"

Kiyone's voice turned serious, "We have a homicide in
front of the police station, right in the middle of the
street. We got some HEA-VY shit right here, get over here
quick."

"Special Agent en route, cordon off the area and make
sure there's a media blackout, I want everything to be
discreet."

"Roger."

-----------------

Ran ma hastily arrived in front of the Okayama Police
Department in a few minutes, there were several officers
surrounding the area, but there were no forensic scientists
this time. Kiyone was standing in the middle of the street
next to a dead body.

Ranma parked the car next to a patrol car and walked
over to Kiyone. All the other officers had turned their
heads around so they couldn't see the corpse.

Kiyone's face looked grim, she was writing something on
a notepad. She looked up and saw Ranma in front of her.

"This is some pretty serious stuff, I've never seen
anything like it here," Kiyone said while pointing to the
dead body.

Ranma looked down, and sighed deeply.

It was a young pregnant woman, she had a big knife stuck
right through her belly, she had bruises all over her neck
and face. Ranma circled around a bit and saw her head, it
looked like someone had bashed it in with a club, the skull
had cracked and caved in, tearing the flesh of the scalp.

"Jeez, when did you guys find her?" Ranma asked.

"About twenty minutes ago, an officer saw a van dropping
off a pregnant woman in the middle of the street. When he
saw the body he panicked and didn't even occur to him to
chase down that van," Kiyone said. "I arrived here just a
few minutes ago with Mihoshi, we were woken up in the middle
of the night. Mihoshi is in her office right now, she was
crying when she saw the body."

Ranma shook his head and sighed, "Do you have any idea
how long she's been dead?"

"Probably a couple of hours, her body is still giving
off a little bit of heat."

"What about the baby?" Ranma asked slowly.

Kiyone sighed and looked up at Ranma, her eyes were red.
"The fetus was about 32 weeks old, almost ready to be born.
It was probably killed instantly when the knife was pierced
through, and it's definitely dead by now since the mother
has been dead for over an hour."

Ranma looked around, Kiyone had done a good job of
locking the area down and keeping out unsuspecting people.
He looked back down at the dead woman.

"You guys have any idea who she was?" Ranma asked.

Kiyone nodded, "The tragic thing is that she was the
wife of one of our Narcotics Detectives."

Ranma's eyes widened, he grabbed Kiyone's shoulders.
"What did you say? She's the wife of a narc?"

Kiyone was startled, "Yeah, she was."

Ranma breathed slowly and carefully, "What was the
detective's name?"

"Detective Sergeant Juzo Kanemaki."

"He wouldn't have anything to do with the guy I arrested
right?"

Kiyone nodded again, "He was the detective in charge of
handling your drug dealer, he was also the one who handled
the interrogation and all the info."

Ranma let go of Kiyone and put his hand on his forehead.
"Shit." Ranma turned to Kiyone again, "Did you hear of that
homicide behind some alley a couple of minutes ago?"

"Yeah, I heard that Kanzaki was handling that one,"
Kiyone said, she was a little confused as to what Ranma was
thinking.

"I just came back from that scene," he sighed. "Remember
Misano? The druggie I arrested and got released on bail? The
one you told me about? He just got two bullets through the
back of the head about thirty minutes ago."

"You think there's a connection?"

"Definitely. I think we stumbled onto something big
here."

The two were interrupted as they heard a cry from
behind, a man was crying out and screaming to see his wife.

"Oh boy, there's Juzo." Kiyone watched as the man tried
to punch the officers who were holding him back from the
crime scene. She shook her head, "I feel so sad for him,"
Kiyone grimly said.

Ranma pointed out to a couple of officers, "Get that man
restrained and calm him down, I want someone to brief him on
what happened," he turned to Kiyone again, "I don't want him
to see the body right now, he'll go berserk, I know how it
feels."

Kiyone looked confused with what he just said, but
complied anyways. "All right. Are you gonna take this case?"

"No, you have tactical command for now. I'm gonna have
to deputize you to lieutenant status for now, ANYTHING that
comes from this investigation will come to me, not to your
given superiors."

While a promotion as big as that would've excited Kiyone
to no ends, she was in no mood for celebrating right now.
"Understood, I'll get the body to a forensics team and
analyze everything."

"You go and do that," Ranma said. "Do you know who I
think did this?" he asked.

"I might be thinking the same thing. If these two
homicides are related..."

"There's a good chance a Yakuza family is involved. This
is all too professional and violent for average street thugs
to be doing. I can't think of any other crime related group
that would do something like this or have the resources to
possibly pull it off."

"Organized crime indeed."

Kiyone walked off and started talking through her radio,
Ranma crouched down to the dead corpse to get a better look
again. It was such a shame to see anyone getting killed
this way.

"It looks like someone decided to have their own crime
spree tonight," he looked back down on the body and he grit
his teeth. "And that motherfucker is gonna pay for it!"

[End Chapter 4]



Disclaimer: Yadda yadda yadda, none of this shit don't
belong to me, I know. I'm not using anything for profit.
It's only fucking fanfiction, what money can I make out of
it? o_O

Author's Ramble: Now, I know I promised many that I was
gonna have maybe 60 to a 100 pages for the next chapter, but
as I kept writing and plotting things out, I just found that
it just wouldn't work. I was originally planning for
something much darker, put I decided I should end this
chapter for here and continue on in another chapter so that
the story would flow better.

Author's Notes: Several things, the psychology reports are
my best efforts at trying to construct something realistic
enough to pass as the real thing, and some of the names of
the officers I used were taken out from the movie "LA
Confidential". Also, you may have noticed that some of the
names in this chapter were taken from the anime "Battle
Athletes Victory", or known to some as "Daiundokai".

I know many of you might flame me for trying to add some
more drama to Ranma's life by giving him a fiancee who had
died while he was in Los Angeles, but I felt it necessary
because it further explained why Ranma has become so
sadistically cold and ruthless when it comes to law
enforcement.

The show portrayed "LAPD: LIFE ON THE BEAT" was a real
show that was quite popular in Southern California until it
had to be canceled due to bad publicity from the LAPD
Rampart scandal. The action scene I portrayed was actually
inspired by the movie "Lethal Weapon 4", for those who
recognize it. ^_^

I also wanted to include a detailed description of how
Ichino was killed in the line of duty, what I wrote actually
reflects on what would really happen if someone decided to
kill a cop in LA and somehow escaped. Police officers, all
they many might not like each other or even hate each other,
somehow miraculously band together like a tight family when
it comes to losing one of their own. What I described is not
too far off if there was ever a situation where someone
killed a cop and got away with it. There would be a fucking
county wide manhunt to kill his ass. Not one person in the
history of the Los Angeles has ever gotten away alive from
killing a cop. They always get hunted down.

Also, the description of the dead bodies (like the way
the face is mangled and how the shot looks like) is an
extremely accurate depiction of what gunshot wounds and
deaths look like in real life, depicted from my experiences
on the job. My first homicide response during patrol looked
sorta like the description I gave in the picture Akane was
holding and the way Misano looked like when he got shot. Of
course, the first time I saw a shot up body up close in REAL
LIFE was shocking enough for me to vomit in a street when no
one was looking. In real life there isn't blood splattered
everywhere, just this nasty...shit, in front of you. And
like Ranma described, it smells REALLY bad when a bullet
strikes the wrong part of the human anatomy. The sinus area
in your skull is one of the worst (at least in my opinion).

From now on, my preceding chapters are gonna keep having
more dark and gruesome events, I'll focus on Ranma and
Kiyone slowly, but I'll focus more on the action as time
goes by.


A big praise to my prereader Kenneth Payne, or KPJAM,
who made sure that I edited this fic so I don't look like a
fucking moron.


PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE SEND ME FEEDBACK!!! I write way
faster when people give me feedback! My e-mail is
SgtRanma@yahoo.com . However, if you're one of those people
who say I write things that are too dark and gruesome or
some shit like that, don't bother, because I don't force
anyone to read this fic if they don't like it.

Visit my website at http://sgtranma.0catch.com, or go
to http://sgtranma.0catch.com/guns.html to take a look at
some of the weapons Ranma uses in Officer Saotome. I always
update there often, and fics always come there first.