This was just a quick thought for a 'fic I had in mind.  Tell me if you
think it's worth pursuing . . .  As a note of mention, Dustin Goeller gave me
this idea, I don't think I'm treading on his idea, but if I am he gets credit
for inspiration.

The Name's Saotome
by Sean Hayden (Maxwell Edison)

I'm a gum shoe.  A private dick, you know?  It's a hot July Friday afternoon
in Chicago.  My secretary got off for the day, and I'm waiting for a phone
call.  My trusty service revolver lies on the desk burried under a clutter of
paper work.  The fan stirs the hot air and rustles old reports and liability
claims.  The name on my door reads Private Investigator: Ranma Sao -  That's
it, the painter found out that my secretary welched on his payment on some
technicality.  It's been that way for two years.  I take a pull off of my
Sake and push aside the demolished remnants of leftover Sushi.  I don't
bother to clean up for my client.  She wont come.

A knock sounds at my door.  I look up in surprise.  The brunette standing in
my doorway is wearing a booper outfit, Twenty-three skidoo and all that.
 That's not what catches my attention though.  I'm staring at the wad of
thousand yen bills she just lobbed at my desk. I look at it suspisciously,
and thumb the clams.  It's the real deal, all right.  Sixty thousand yen.
 Nabiki could've smelled how much it was.  I put the money in my jacket
pocket and nod for her to sit.

"What can I do for you, Miss..."

"Tendo."  She winces at the Miss.  She's got one of those plainly beautiful
faces, the kind that a scowl will give you the screaming heebie-jeebies but a
smile would light up a dark alley like sunshine.  "Mr. Sao, I'd like to hire
you to recover some lost property of mine."

"Saotome,  the name's Saotome." I say.

She looks flustered, she looks back at the door and notices the beginning of
a T at the end of my name. "Oh," She says, "Mr. Saotome, will you take it?"

What does she mean, will I take it?  Of course I will, this is the first job
Nabiki hasn't scared away with some kind of jinxed contract.  I'd fire the
skirt, but she managed to hijack me into a contract of my own.