A big thanks goes out, as always to my pre-readers: Gary
Kleppe and Arthur Edwards


Spider-Man is property of Marvel Comics
Ranma 1/2 is property of Rumiko Takahashi
Neither is used with permission

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Hikaru Gosunkugi: The Amazing Spiderman Issue Sixteen:
	Slaves of Greed

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Raizo Yamata glowered at the lengthening patch of sunlight
which fell across the deep carpet
of his corporate office - merely a mask for his real business - and
pondered what the best course of
action would be.
	Tatsu had betrayed him. That alone brought death in the
Yakuza, not to mention every other
organized crime syndicate in the world. But what so galled Yamata was
that the bastard had almost
succeeded. Had he not so sorely underestimated Wu Long, then he would
have had control of a
weapons system unlike any the world had ever seen. Raizo had made sure
that the men sent with
Long were his own, not loyal to Ishikawa, yet the act had still proven
futile.
	He had known, of course, from the first moment Pao Leung's
chief torpedo had set foot into
Tatsu Ishikawa's office. Raizo kept his friends close and his enemies
closer. Ishikawa's trade had
earned him - and by extension Yamata himself - a few international
contacts, especially in Russia and
the Arab world. Flesh was the man's stock and trade, and many a
wealthy mogul wanted a nubile
young slave at his beck and call. Men were sometimes real pigs. To
think what some of those loony
bastards would do with the Black Widow?
	At least, Raizo thought with a strange sense of relief, that
genie will never be free of its
bottle. So far as he knew, the entire system went up with the
Yamaguchi Complex four days ago.
He had precious little information about the actual events, save that
Spiderman and a few unnamed
civilians were involved.
	Ah, he thought, there's another issue.
	Spiderman was the walking definition of unpredictable,
especially since nobody had a clue
as to his true identity. His presence at the complex was easily
deduced; Leung had a definite grudge
against Spiderman - why still remained a mystery - as did Wu Long.
Perhaps those girls had been
taken as bait? If so, perhaps he could use them for the same ends?
Raizo filed that away for later.
Besides, Spiderman was not the issue at hand.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Though he didn't know it, Pao Leung's thoughts were on a very
similar track to Raizo
Yamata's. He sat cross-legged on the floor of his office, his body
completely relaxed in the light of
the sun. He drew a deep breath in through his nose - filling first his
stomach and then his chest with
oxygen - and released it slowly through parted lips. The meditative
practice helped little, as his
thoughts kept drifting back to Wu Long's treachery and what it had
cost.
	Years of money and work down the drain, Leung thought. I truly
was a fool for not seeing
this coming.
	The Black Widows would have practically ensured the Triad's
entire takeover of Japan's
crime network, maybe even the government. Now it was all gone. And
Spiderman was still alive.
Something inside told him this, that his adversary was not dead.
	Breathe in... hold... breathe out...
	Pao Leung knew whom Long had kidnapped. That they had seen the
Black Widow's
maintenance bay was a moot point. The entire place was destroyed.
Nothing they said would make
any difference without tangible proof. He would let them live. The
time for pettiness was long past.
As for Spiderman, perhaps the wall-crawler had done him a favor.
	The only matter left was to find a way to deal with the
detestable thug who had helped Wu
Long execute the operation.=20

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	The pain from his injuries had faded over the past three days,
a fact for which Hikaru
Gosunkugi was very grateful. Walking to school and enduring the
seemingly endless hours had been
pure hell with his body still complaining about the fight with the
Black Widows. It wasn't completely
gone, but it was far more bearable than it had been that first day.
Maybe by Friday he would be
good to go webslinging again. After homework tonight, he would put the
finishing touches on his
replacement costume. His old one had taken a worse beating in that
place than he had.
	Gosunkugi pretended to take notes as the teacher droned on and
on about some dead guys
in England, feeling rather pleased with himself. Nobody would have to
worry about those robot
spiders again - especially him - and three lives had been saved. In
fact, Nabiki hadn't once even
tried to harass him at all since. Maybe she had finally taken the hint
and let the whole Spiderman
thing drop? Hikaru certainly hoped so.
	He looked ahead to Miku Tachibana's back, and a dark cloud
came to rain on his parade.
She hadn't spoken to him at all since their last meeting in the school
yard. He had tried, of course,
yet she would toss her head and walk away. Hikaru found himself
wondering just how long a girl
could stay angry at someone.
	Hikaru then thought about the girl he had saved recently,
about her missing friend, and his
parade finally gave up to run for cover. How was he going to look for
this Yuka person? Where
would he look? He couldn't just swing around the city and pray for a
clue to fall in his lap.
	Oh, well, Gosunkugi thought with a trace of bitterness, it
felt good to congratulate myself at
least for a few minutes.

	Lunchtime came with its usual rush of students crowding the
serving line for some bread.
Others carried their own boxed meals, preferring not to try their luck
against the horde. Hikaru was
one of them. He stood beneath the leaves of what had become his
favorite tree, eating slowly
despite his voracious appetite. Swinging on webs and saving lives was
certainly hungry work.
	The sky was overcast that day, dull grey clouds muting the
sun's light and promising rain
before long. Gosunkugi hoped it would pass soon. Swinging in the rain
didn't appeal to him one bit.
	He glanced up just as Miku began to walk by, her dark
waterfall of hair billowing slightly in
the mild breeze. She didn't even look at him as she passed, clearly
unwilling to speak. Hikaru's chest
began to ache, knowing that it was his fault, but what could he do?
She wasn't interested in his
apologies, wouldn't even acknowledge his presence when he tried to
talk, and there was no way he
could ever reveal his secret to her.=20
	As Gosunkugi watched Miku walk away, he couldn't help thinking
that if he'd ever had a
chance with her he had blown it superbly. That thought startled him
briefly. He actually had a chance
with a girl? A pretty and intelligent, girl?
	Yep, Gos-man. You *are* a moron, he thought as he turned back
to his lunch. Your one
shot at actually getting a girlfriend is officially ruined, and it's
your fault.
	Hikaru found himself wishing that school was over, so that he
could finish his costume and
start swinging again. He needed some air, and some high places. Maybe
that would help ease his
troubled mind. It wasn't as if he had anyone to talk to, after all.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	William Pate looked over the case file Odaiba Koban had
compiled on Yukio Segawa. She
would have been twenty in a few weeks, he noted with a slight grimace.
Another life ended before it
had truly begun. Just one more statistic, another victim of supremely
rotten luck and bad choices.
Pate pushed his emotions aside, a thing which had become rather easy
over his time in law
enforcement, and studied the pathology report and Yukio's record with
a professional eye.
	By the time she had turned sixteen, Yukio Segawa had left home
for reasons Pate didn't
know but could easily guess. American and Japanese teenagers weren't
all that far removed, after
all. The records showed she had gained employment in a brothel - the
proper Japanese name
escaped him - and had left after hardly two months. Whorehouses in
Japan were, more often than
not, controlled by the Yakuza. The Koban usually didn't bother with
them too much. Just so long as
nobody caused any trouble and the money stayed quiet, then everyone
got along fine.
	After her first stint in that brothel, she had taken to the
streets. Unable to find work aside
from menial employment, she had turned back to her old profession to
earn rent money. A few
arrests later - street prostitution wasn't smiled upon by the Koban -
she had more or less vanished
from the radar until just a couple nights ago when a late jogger had
found her body.
	"Yeah," he muttered to the crime scene photos, "these bastards
had some fun with you." This
was a lesson, obviously, and William Pate was hungry to find out who
the teachers were. A runaway
hooker, nothing more than garbage to these motherfuckers, a thing to
be used and discarded when
no longer profitable. It was enough to make him sick.
	Sachiko Tanemura, Pate thought, I've got to get her to talk.
Where the hell did she go? Ever
since being released from the police station that night, she had been
impossible to find. William had a
very bad feeling about that.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Keiko Megumi waited for him, concealed in the shadows of the
cherry tree. Her pager had
gone off only an hour before, bearing the numerical message 45788. It
wasn't a phone number, but a
message. Her contact had something.
	They always met in the park, surrounded by businessmen on
lunch breaks and mothers
watching over their children at play. Places like this made the ugly
reality of the city seem so far
away, as if it were another world. That reality, ironically, was the
only reason she ever came here. It
wasn't often when this man contacted her, but when he did the
information was always good. Keiko
hoped he stayed careful. Informants to the police were harshly dealt
with by the Yakuza.
	"Been a while, eh?"
	Keiko started as he walked up from behind, the image of a
consummate businessman. He
looked just like anyone else in the park.
	"Yes, Clark-san." It wasn't his real name, and she didn't want
to know what that was.
=46inding an informant like Clark - one whose information was always
good and who knew how to be
discreet - was next to impossible. As for what he did in the Yakuza,
that was none of her business.
They stood near enough to each other to be heard, but not too close.
This was a careful dance.
	"I'll get right to the point," Clark said as he set his
briefcase down. "That hooker who was
murdered last night."
	"What do you have for me?" She knew better than to ask how he
knew she was working
that case. Keiko doubted she wanted to know that, anyway.
	"It seems she had gotten involved with a well-known Yakuza
figure."
	"Tatsu Ishikawa."
	"Right," Clark replied. "She and the girl you recovered were
two of his."
	"Why would he leave her body like that?" Keiko asked. "Was it
a message?"
	"Not a message. A lesson."
	"To the other girls?" Sachiko Tanemura was in serious
trouble...
	"Exactly."
	Keiko suddenly felt ill. "Leaving her in a dumpster like
that..."
	"It was as good a place as any." Clark took another look
around.
	"How can you be so cold?"
	"I have something else on Ishikawa. You definitely want to
hear this."
	"What?"
	A frisbee flew in front of her, two giggling children in
pursuit.
	"I've recently come across some information that he has just
recently attempted a rather
major power play. However, it failed."
	"What did he try?"
	"It appears that he was approached by a Triad man, a rather
high up one, and the two
struck a deal."
	"The Traid's involved in this, too?"
	"No. This man was acting alone. I don't have any concrete
details, but I do know that this
failed attempt resulted in the destruction of the Yamaguchi Industrial
Complex, and that Spiderman
was involved."
	Yakuza, Triads, and Spiderman, Keiko thought. Oh, my...
	"My time's up, Keiko. I'll be in touch." With that, Clark
picked up his briefcase and walked
silently away.

	Twenty minutes later, the man who called himself Clark - a
name he took from one of his
favorite books - flipped open his cell phone and hit the speed dial.
	"Yes?"
	"The information has been delivered, Yamata-san."
	"Good."=20
	The connection ended, and Clark continued about his business.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Raizo Yamata leaned back in the luxury car's spacious back
seat, feeling rather unsatisfied.
He so wanted to kill Ishikawa himself - it had been a while since he
had dirtied his hands - but there
were even more important matters at hand, such as Anthony Stark.
	Tatsu's betrayal couldn't have come at a worse time. While it
had eliminated what was
possibly the most powerful card in Pao Leung's deck, the man still had
to be dealt with. His own
time and resources were too wrapped up in the imminent arrival of
Stark Enterprises, not to mention
in upholding his other interests. Nor could he simply let Pao Leung
handle the matter. No one else in
the Yakuza knew - though it was certain that many were guessing - at
what had taken place. If
Yamata let Leung kill Ishikawa, then he would be forced to retaliate
to preserve his own standing.
Raizo knew he could ill afford to fight Pao Leung, not now.
	As such, he had called the informant. It was Clark's job to
leak information to the Koban,
particularly regarding rivals and enemies. However, it also served as
a means to cleanly sever loose
ties in his own organization.
	At the very least, it would assuage the chief of Odaiba Koban
and assure that he selectively
assigned cases so that nobody got too close. The price was the same, a
good and tasty case. Raizo,
from time to time, threw him a bone and the Koban stayed out of his
way. Just so long as the matter
was resolved quickly. Once in custody, then Yamata would worry about
eliminating him. Chief Toju
could arrange something along those lines.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Tatsu could feel the proverbial noose tightening around his
neck. He stared out at the city as
if he could somehow see the retribution coming through the window.
Tatsu had risked a great deal
on this gamble, yet somehow the thought of losing hadn't crossed his
mind. How could he have been
so stupid? Yamata had to know, and had likely already given the order.
And what about Pao
Leung?
	Think, Tatsu, think! You can get out of this.
	Leung would definitely move against him and very soon. Even if
the Triad and the Yakuza's
goals were the same - his messy and painful departure from this world
- Raizo wouldn't let Leung's
action go unanswered. A turf war between the two would get very ugly
indeed.
	The most obvious choice was to simply cut his losses and run,
but even that was a slim
hope. He needed a diversion, something to set Yamata and Leung at each
other's throats before
either reached him, but what?
	An idea struck him. A very crazy, overly ballsy idea. It was
insane, utterly foolish.
	And it just might work.
	Tatsu raced to his desk and picked up the phone. There was
much to do and precious little
time to do it in.=20

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Miku Tachibana's bedroom was little different from the bedroom
of any other girl in Japan.
A vanity, a bed, a desk, posters on the wall, and a few stuffed
animals lying about. Miku sat at the
desk, a poetry book open and a decidedly empty sheet of notebook paper
beneath a crystal
paperweight.
	She looked at the characters - Japanese on one page and
English on the other - and tried
again to read them. That night, her mind refused to focus on the
collected translated works of Hiene.
Miku growled in frustration, fingers knotted in her recently washed
hair. This report on the meaning
of Hiene's work was a very weighty influence on her literature grade
for the semester, and for the life
of her she couldn't damnit read the thing!
	Miku pushed the rolling chair away from the desk. Her mind,
for some odd reason, seemed
stuck on Hikaru Gosunkugi.
	She leaned back, attempting to relax her mind and body. Over
the past few days, she had
found herself thinking of him. He certainly was strange - of that
other girls at school had been right -
but Miku doubted they really knew anything beyond that.
	She had been tempted to accept his attempts at making an
apology, but every time their last
real conversation would come back and she'd let anger and hurt rule
the day. What he had said had
wounded her, but was it really worth ignoring him forever over?
	But was it really only over his words? That thought brought
Miku up short. Was what he
said really all? No. Whatever had been in those photos he and Nabiki
Tendo had argued about,
Hikaru had clammed up the moment she had mentioned them. There was
definitely a lot more to
Hikaru Gosunkugi than most people appreciated. Like his connection to
the mysterious Spiderman,
for example.
	Miku's mind drifted back to that night when Spiderman had
saved her from Shigeru
Katsuo's knife. A masked stranger, possessed of abilities that seemed
almost unreal, and who had
searched Juuban Ward solely for her sake. Who was he? And how did
Hikaru know him?
Gosunkugi was the only one to whom she had even mentioned enlisting
Spiderman's help against her
psychotic ex-boyfriend, therefore he was the only person who could
have contacted him. But how
did they know each other?
	Wait a second. Was it... Could it be...
	No way. That idea was just *too* stupid. However, the thought
of Hikaru in those tights
was strangely amusing.
	Hikaru Gosunkugi was definitely an enigma, more than other
people at Furinkan probably
realized. But, if he hadn't convinced Spiderman to help her, then by
all odds she would be dead by
now.
	"Hikaru, I just don't know about you," she muttered to the
walls. But she wouldn't find out
anything if she kept stonewalling him. Tomorrow, she would talk.
Maybe.
	Miku returned to her desk, unaware that an out-of-place shadow
had just moved on a
rooftop across the street from her window.

	Hikaru crawled down the side of the building, inwardly furious
with himself. What the hell
was he doing, spying on Miku like that?!=20
	Oh, come on, a familiar voice said, it wasn't like you *meant*
to, after all.
	That much was true. He had put on the costume to get some
exercise and that was it. All he
had set out to do was swing around the city and get the ol' blood
pumping again. No heroics if he
could help it, just a good workout. Stopping in sight of Miku's window
had been a coincidence,
nothing more.
	Careful, Gosunkugi, he thought as he leapt into space and shot
out a web. You know what
happened the last time you took up voyeurism. Hikaru winced at the
thought while he swung out
over the street and readied another stream of webbing.
	He still felt a little guilty about his former obsession with
Akane Tendo - an obsession
thoroughly broken once he had discovered Shigeru's sick fascination.
All those photos of Miku had
driven home the lesson of what could happen when one simply refused to
let go of an impossible
dream.
	You know you would never...
	Hikaru stopped that thought dead in its tracks as another
swing took him a couple stories
higher above the street which bustled with noise and light. He had
always used those thoughts to
justify spying on Akane. He had learned just what kind of madness lay
in wait down that particular
road.
	"Never again," Gosunkugi whispered. A horn far below blared
out, a muted shout reaching
upward to his ears.

	An hour later, Hikaru found himself crouched atop a
three-story office building toward the
suburbs of Nerima Ward. The streets were far quieter out here, away
from the noise of the city
proper. Cars were few and far between in the wee hours of the morning.
The only sounds which
reached him were the barks of dogs spooked by things that likely
weren't even there. It was odd,
really, to think of Nerima as peaceful, yet this time it actually was.
Hell, even Ranma had to sleep
sometime, right? Hikaru chuckled.
	"I wonder how they're doing?" Gosunkugi whispered into the
night air. He had heard that
renovations were already underway on the Tendo Dojo. If all went well
- and it seldom did - then
the Tendos and Saotomes could be out of that motel by the end of the
month. Maybe he should
check in on them? No, even if he went as Hikaru Gosunkugi, it would
draw suspicion from Nabiki.
If she truly had given up the chase, he didn't want to risk her taking
it up again.
	"I can't even follow up on the people I help," Hikaru muttered
bitterly. "Screw it. I should be
used to this whole misunderstood loner routine by now... Huh?"
	Gosunkugi looked down just as four men ran into the light of a
streetlamp from a doorway
across the street. The four were identical in dress; black pants and
sweaters with full face masks
over their heads. And they all looked to be in an all-fired hurry.
	"I don't think they're here to read the meter... oh, shit..."
The spider sense came to life just
before a ball of flame roared from out of the now-demolished doorway
with a wave of intense heat
and sound that shattered windows from surrounding buildings. "WHOA!"
The light blinded him as
the displaced air slammed into his body and numbed his ears.
	"Wha... what the hell?!" Hikaru blinked his eyes to clear
them. The glare of the rapidly
spreading fire washed everything with its erratic light. After a few
seconds his eyes righted
themselves enough to find the four clambering into a dark blue sedan.
	"Time to do that hero thing again." And it had been such a
quiet night, too...

	"Holy shit!"
	"We did it! We fuckin' did it, man!"
	The car sped off with the screaming protest of tires fighting
to gain traction on the dew-
slickened asphalt.=20
	"C'mon, Yuya!" one of the men shouted. "Step on it! Get us the
hell outta here!"
	"I'm workin' on it!"
	They were all high-strung after setting the bomb. None of them
had a single clue as to why
they had been told to blow up that office, but none were stupid enough
to ask questions either. They
had been given a job by the boss, and they had done it. Now they just
had to worry about escape.
That shouldn't be too hard...
	*THUMP*
	"What was that?"=20
	"Debris?"
	"I don't think so..." Just then, a red-and-blue mask appeared
upside down in front of the
driver.
	"Wash your windshield, sir?"
	"Oh, Christ..."
	"It's him!" Spiderman! It was really him! Why now?!
	"Awright, pull over!" they heard Spiderman shout.
	"Kazu!" the driver yelled. "You've got a gun! Use it!"

	Gosunkugi knew even before the spider sense hit. He scooted
back, ignoring the wind that
ripped at his body. It wouldn't break his grip of the roof, and the
mask kept it from forcing his eyes
shut. He glanced back as the hand emerged, followed by a masked head
and black-clad shoulders.
	"Don't you know that those are illegal?!" A backward kick that
slammed into the man's face
punctuated the shouted question. Hikaru watched as the gun fell from
his limp grasp and the bomber
was pulled back into the car.
	I gotta stop this! Hikaru rose to a kneeling position and
liberally sprayed the speeding car's
windshield with webbing. These guys couldn't drive if they couldn't
see, right?

	"DAMNIT! I can't see!"
	"Shake him, man! Do it!"

	"HEY!" Hikaru yelled as the car began to violently swerve. Why
in the hell were these
morons trying to shake him off when they couldn't even see... where...
	"Oh, fuck ME!" The lights burned into his eyes from the front
grille of the panel truck that
was speeding their way. Its horn bellowed as the two sped closer to an
almost inevitable collision.
	Desperate, Hikaru punched through the thin roof of the
speeding sedan and grasped the
steering wheel. With a prayer, he jerked the wheel to the left and out
of the truck's way.
	Right toward a parked car.
	"Uh-oh..." It was too close! Gosunkugi removed his arm from
the hole he had made in the
roof and leapt away. The sedan slammed into the parked truck with
horrendous force, the latter
moving upward slightly at the front from the impact with the screech
of crunching metal. Hikaru
sailed forward and flipped in time to land hard on the sidewalk.
	He looked at the smoke wafting from the front end of the
now-stopped sedan, at its ruined
frame, and feared for the men inside. What if he had killed them? One
of the doors flew open and a
black-clad man stumbled out.
	"Hey! You okay?!" The man simply looked at him before falling
to his knees and raising his
hands. "Guess so." Hikaru walked over toward him, pausing to check on
the other occupants. The
two in front were unconscious against rapidly deflating airbags, still
breathing. On one's hand was a
ring. A black onyx rested in a cradle of what had to be high-karat
gold, a strange kanji carved into
its center. Hikaru passed by and glanced at the left hand of the
keeling man to find the same ring.
	"Please, Spiderman," the man blubbered, "don't kill me!"
	"Kill you?"
	"Don't eat me, man! C'mon!" He was obviously panicking. "I
taste terrible! The guys in the
car! They taste a lot better than me!"
	"I don't know," Hikaru sang. Maybe he could use this. "I
haven't eaten since breakfast..."
And who the hell was spreading rumors that he *ate* people, anyway?!
Oh, well, if it made this guy
talk then he might as well capitalize on it.
	"C'mon, man!" The guy was practically crying, now.
	Jeez, what a wuss. "Look, tell me who you work for and why you
blew that building, and..."
	"I can't! He'll kill me!"
	Go figure, Gosunkugi thought. Sirens wailed in the distance,
growing rapidly closer. Bending
down, Hikaru grabbed a fistful of wool sweater and yanked the man off
his knees.
	"Gah, when's the last time you brushed?"
	"Listen, man, let me go!"
	"Who do you work for?" Hikaru asked as he removed the ring
from the man's left hand.
"What's this kanji mean?"
	"I don't know what the hell it means!"
	"Hey, it's Spiderman!"
	Hikaru nearly cursed as other voices joined the one that had
just shouted his presence. Of all
the times for him to finally draw a crowd of gawkers, why did it have
to be *now*?! Worse yet, the
cops were closing in...
	The screech of locked brakes announced the presence of the
police and the end of his time.
Hikaru dropped the still-yammering bomber and turned to face two very
bewildered policemen.
	"Stay where you are, Spiderman!" one shouted, likely wishing
he had been given permission
to carry a gun that night.
	"Um, gee, let me think. No!" A standing leap carried him up
enough to springboard off the
building behind him. Hikaru tucked into a roll, coming out in time to
rebound off the roof of the next
structure and out into the night.
	He aimed toward the light of the merrily burning building, a
fierce orange glow accompanied
by shouts and sirens of emergency services personnel. Might as well
get a few pictures to sell. The
rent was due this week.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	"And in the news this morning," the disgustingly cheerful
newswoman said from the television
speakers, "Nerima Ward was rocked by a massive explosion at the
offices of Masaki, Ritsuko, and
Tsukino at about two-thirty a.m. The financial firm..."
	"Yeah, yeah," Gosunkugi mumbled over his fourth bowl of
cereal. Why did those guys blow
up the building, anyway? What had been the point?
	"Police have the four bombers in custody, however all of them
claim that Spiderman was the
cause of the accident which halted their escape.
	"Oh, boy, here it comes..."
	"Nerima Koban is unwilling to speculate on Spiderman's
possible involvement in the
bombing, yet have stated that he is wanted for questioning."
	"Wonderful," Hikaru groused.
	"I saw him!" said a man Gosunkugi had never met before as the
news story shifted to pre-
recorded footage. "He walked up to one of those guys, all menacing
like. The dude was screaming
his head off..."
	Hikaru turned the TV off. He was getting very sick of the
news. Wanted for questioning!
Jeez. He'd *stopped* those guys from getting away!=20
	Oh, well, he thought as he pulled the ring out of his pocket.
At least he had a lead on who
those guys were. All he had to do was find out what that kanji meant.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Tatsu Ishikawa resisted the urge to smash the television, but
barely. He had intended for that
attack to make the news, but he hadn't figured Spiderman to show up.
As far as he had known, the
freak was dead!
	No matter now, he thought. Spiderman's still alive, and he
just involved himself in my
operations. Again. Had it just been strange coincidence? Or had it
been more?
	This was something he hadn't counted on. Ample evidence was
left to implicate Pao Leung,
as he had planned, but with Spiderman involved, it was unknown whether
Raizo Yamata would bite
the hook.
	Tatsu shook his head. He didn't know if it would work anyway.
Why should Spiderman
complicate something that was already convoluted? The wallcrawler had
just shown up at the wrong
time, that was all. So, the four men he'd sent on that job were in
poice custody. Who cared? They
wouldn't talk, so long as they believed that he'd spring them. By the
time they realized that he would
leave them to rot, he would be long since out of the country.=20

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Pao Leung could only stare at the newscast that morning.
Ordinarily, he wouldn't have cared
overly much if someone had taken out a front business of Raizo Yamata,
save for the fact that an
insignia had been left behind. Several, in fact.
	The character was the symbol of the Black Lotus Society, of
which he was a part.
	This was just impossible. He had *not* ordered such an act.
Nor would he have left such a
calling card. No one, at least in his branch of the Triads, was that
careless.
	Someone was trying to frame him, but who? Why? And how good
were they?
	Why the hell would they leave his own mark at the site? What
was the connection?
	Pao Leung picked up the phone and started issuing orders. He
had to know all the Koban
did. At the same time, he had to prepare for the reprisal from Raizo
Yamata. This could get very
messy, very fast.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	"It was Pao Leung," the voice on the other end of the
telephone connection said, "there is no
doubt about it."
	"Very well."
	Raizo hung up the phone, fury burning in his chest. So, Leung
had managed to strike first. He
wouldn't just be satisfied with Tatsu Ishikawa, but wanted to take
Raizo down as well. Did that
lunatic think that Ishikawa's actions had been sanctioned by him?
	Like it matters now?
	The phone rang, startling him out of his thoughts. It was his
direct line, the one not screened
by his secretary. Just what he didn't need, one of his backers calling
with concerns...
	"Yamata."
	"Good morning, Yamata-san."
	"Leung!" Raizo's blood set to boiling. "First you attack me,
and then you insult me by calling
my office! I'll..."
	"I did not order that bombing, Yamata."
	"Is this some kind of a joke?!" Yamata roared. "Don't lie to
me! I know you were behind it!"
	"Calm yourself," that cool Chinese voice said. "I have no
intentions of..."
	"I don't care! First you kidnap my wife for that case, and now
this! Pao Leung, I *will* kill
you!"

	Leung snorted before hanging up. He knew that trying to reason
with that rancid Jap would
be a waste of time. At least he had tried to explore that option.
Leung knew that Yamata still wanted
to even the score for that job several months ago, where he had
kidnapped the Oyabun's wife in
order to gain the second case of components the man had held. Of
course, Leung still wanted to
take vengeance for Yamata's kidnapping of Pao Lan, Leung's daughter.
	But that wasn't the issue.
	Yamata firmly believed that Leung was behind the bombing.
Yamata would stop at nothing
to avenge that - however false it may be - and for the kidnapping of
his wife.
	I was wondering when that would come to a head, Leung thought
with a bitter laugh.
	Pao Leung cleared his mind. The truth was somewhere in this
rapidly spreading mess. He
just had to find it. Someone had blown up a front business belonging
to Yamata, and had left Leung
holding the blame. Who would want to do that? Pao Leung could think of
several.
	Now, who would have the wherewithal to actually pull it off?
None of his immediate Triad
rivals came to mind. They all knew how severely he punished anyone who
slighted him, for any
reason.
	Had Wu Long's betrayal already reached them? Did they see that
as weakness? It was
certainly possible. But why the subterfuge?
	That clinched it. The other Triad warlords would have come for
him directly rather than
setting him and Yamata against each other. Was this some kind of a
power play? Someone hoping
that they would take each other out? But then, who would even attempt
it? The answer seemed so
elusive, but instinct told Pao Leung that said solution was closer
than he thought.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Aw, man. This is gonna take years! Hikaru Gosunkugi rested his
head in his right hand as his
eyes scanned the book on kanji characters. None of the two hundred
he'd seen so far matched the
design on the ring. How many kanji were there, again? Three thousand?
Yeesh...
	Hikaru slammed the book shut before eyestrain could set in. He
had thought that finding
such a book in Furinkan's library was a stroke of luck, and all it had
done was stymie him. With
authority. He didn't have time to look through all those characters.
He needed another way...
	Wait a second, he thought. What if this wasn't kanji? What if
it was actually a Chinese
character? But why would Japanese men wear a ring with a Chinese
character on it if it *wasn't*
kanji? It just didn't make sense.
	Regardless, it was a new angle on his only lead. Hikaru had to
follow it, and he had an idea
how.

	School ended with its usual rush of students eager to re-enter
the world and resume their
own individual lives. Miku Tachibana walked among them, wondering
where Hikaru had gotten off
to. He hadn't been in his usual spot at lunch, beneath the tree under
which she had first introduced
herself to him. In class, she hadn't been able to even send a note.
She hoped to catch him out here.
Miku looked around, unable to spot him... There!
	"Hikaru!"

	Gosunkugi almost froze at Miku's shout. Of all the times for
her to want to talk, why did it
have to be now?
	Hikaru kept moving through the crowd of students. Maybe if he
pretended not to hear her...

	Miku watched as Hikaru Gosunkugi vanished into the sea of
students determined to rejoin
the free world. Had he heard her?
	Maybe he didn't, Miku thought as she drew near Furinkan's main
gate. Oh, well, she could
find his phone number. She'd call him later.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

	Thirty minutes later, Gosunkugi found himself inside the
Nekohanten restaurant. He had
seated himself at one of the ten vacant tables in the establishment -
perhaps their dinner rush started
late? - and picked up a menu.=20
	"Welcome! How Shampoo help?"
	"Hi, I'd like the um... chicken ramen supreme, please."
	"Coming up!" Shampoo enthused as she bounced away, shouting
something in Cantonese.
	Hikaru had to force himself not to look at the shapely rump
that Shampoo's capri-style pants
so effectively showed off. Seeing her run toward the kitchen to
retrieve his drink showed him that the
great food wasn't the main reason why the Nekohanten had so many
patrons. Was Mousse out on a
delivery? Nah, more likely just out cold...
	"Here tea, sir," Shampoo almost sang. Gah, she was a knockout!
"What Shampoo get
next?"
	Here goes nothing... "Hi. Shannn pooo, right?"

	Shan Pu didn't allow her surprise to show. After all this
time, a patron was making an
attempt at properly pronouncing her name? Okay, so it wasn't a very
*good* attempt, but this boy
certainly gave it the old college try. Shan Pu allowed herself a small
smile. If nothing else, this could
be one bright spot in an otherwise boring day.
	"Name is Shan Pu."
	"Shampoo?"
	"Ah, close enough. You really try." She gave him one of her
best smiles for the effort. In
return, maybe this guy would leave a good tip. Shampoo knew that her
shapely body and tight
clothes were what drew so many customers, great food notwithstanding,
and tips more or less made
up her wages in this place. A little pocket money never hurt.
	"Yeah. Listen, Shampoo-san..."
	Shampoo-san? she thought. Usually, the only ones who called
her that were the ones she
had to open up a can of whup-ass on after they had pinched her butt.
	"Yes? How Shampoo help?"
	"You're Chinese, right?"
	"Yes." Well, *duh*! she had the good grace not to say.
	"Yeah. Well, I have something I want you to look at."
	Shampoo tensed as the guy reached into his pants pocket. If
he...
	"What do you make of this?" he asked as he pulled the ring out
of his pocket.
	Shampoo squelched the sudden urge to kick this guy's ass when
he pulled out the ring. The
band was solid gold, with a black onyx set inside. On the stone was
carved a symbol. One she had
seen before.
	Can this be? she thought as she beheld the symbol.
	"Hmmm... is interesting...." Bloody hell... "Wait here.
Shampoo show to Great-
grandmother."
	"Um.... Okay..."

	Cologne stopped stirring the noodles when Shampoo bounded in.
	"Yes, child?" she said at the look on Shampoo's face.
	"Great-grandmother," Shampoo said as she held out a ring,
"look at this."
	"Well, what can it... oh, my..." This could not be! "Who gave
this to you?"
	"Some strange guy out in the dining room did. He wanted to
know what it meant."
	"Did he?" Cologne twisted the gold ring around the stone.
"Tell him to come out back. Take
him yourself. Afterward, prepare his meal and watch the front. This
won't take long."
	"Yes."

	Hikaru looked up as Shampoo came bounding back, the epitome of
cheerfulness. He had to
force himself not to stare at her bouncing breasts, even though the
Chinese woman had to be used to
it by now.
	"Please, sir, follow Shampoo."
	"Huh?" That was weird. At least his spider sense wasn't
raising hell. Yet...
	"Follow Shampoo. Great Grandmother want speak to you about
weird ring."
	"Okay." Hikaru rose from his seat and fell into step behind
Shampoo. And speaking of a
behind...
	Damnit, stop staring! Hikaru shouted at himself. He followed
the Chinese woman through
the cramped kitchen, where she opened a door for him.
	"Great Grandmother out here. Shampoo finish customer's food."
	"Yeah." Hikaru stepped out into the shadowed alley, waiting
for the spider sense to hit. The
door clicked shut behind him just as he caught sight of a diminutive
woman on a stafft just to his
right.
	"So, you're the one who brought this ring," the woman said.
	"Yeah. You're Cologne-san, right?"
	"That I am, son."

	Cologne stared at the boy before her, feeling as if she had
seen him somewhere before. His
face was awfully familiar. She could see spots where dark circles and
sunken cheeks had recently
filled in. The uniform seemed a half-size too small for him, as if his
body had suddenly started to fill
out on him. No, the muscle tone she could discern meant the boy was
working out, and the posture
indicated confidence. Where had she seen him...
	"May I ask your name?"
	"Hikaru Gosunkugi."
	"Oh." The information came to her brain. This boy had
certainly done some improving since
the first and only other time she had seen him, when he had asked
about Chinese love potions, a
thing which had completely slipped her mind until now. She had told
him the same thing that she ad
later told Ranma. "Do you still practice the mystic arts, my boy?"
	"Nah. I guess I just don't have that magic touch."
	"I see. Not everyone is cut out for magic." His attitude had
changed as well. Something
wasn't quite right, though. "Tell me. Where did you get this ring?"
	"Ah, well, it's... I took some pictures of that bombing last
night, and one of the guys dropped
that ring."
	"All right, then." His aura... could it be? Cologne decided to
test her idea. "How do you
know these people?" she hissed, reaching into her sleeve for the
dagger she always kept concealed.
	"What?!"
	There! Cologne felt it lock dead on her as Hikaru Gosunkugi's
body shifted from relaxed to
tense to battle-ready all in the space of a half-second. It was the
strange feel which had almost found
her out at the Tendo Dojo merely five days before.
	"How did you truly get this ring?"
	"I told you!"
	Cologne paused for a few moments. The boy seemed confused, as
was expected. Probably
trying to decide if he could use those abilities of his without being
found out later. As far as how he
had gotten the ring, she could easily deduce that. She had read the
newspapers, after all.
	"Very well," Cologne said after a few moments. Hikaru still
stared at her, the strange feeling
focused on her like a gunsight. Martial artists - competent ones,
anyway - developed a sense to
warn of an oncoming attack. But none she had seen compared to what she
felt from Hikaru
Gosunkugi. It was instant, powerful. What else could it do? A question
for another time.
	"You seem tense, Hikaru." Better to try and ease this
situation.
	"Just nervous."
	"I won't harm you, boy, rest assured. I was merely testing
you. I haven't seen this ring in a
long time, and I never thought to see anything like it in Japan." Like
all good lies, it had a grain of
truth to it. It had been almost ten years since she had last lain eyes
on the symbol carved in the ring's
stone.
	"You know what it means?"
	"Of course." Cologne released the hilt of the small concealed
dagger, and the sensation
against her aura lessened considerably. It faded even further when she
brought the hand out in the
open, but she could still feel it against her as if being scanned by a
radar. "This ring bears the symbol
of the Black Lotus Society."
	"The Black what?"
	"The Black Lotus Society is a secret organization in China,
one of the many groups of the
Triads. You do know of the Triads, don't you?"
	"Not much."
	"The Triads are criminal organizations, much like the Yakuza
in some ways," Cologne
explained. "Their antecedents can be traced back to ancient groups in
China's imperial times."
	"Okay," Hikaru said. "Now, what about this Black Lotus?"
	"Ah, they are among the most ruthless. Black Lotus members are
feared throughout the
Triads, from Beijing to Mongolia."
	"What're they doing in Japan?"
	"To be perfectly honest, they may not be here at all."
	"Um... come again?"
	"This ring you found is a forgery."
	"You're kidding me, right?"
	"It is a rather good counterfeit, except for one small thing,"
Cologne said as she twisted the
gold band around the onyx. "True Black Lotus rings contain a small
needle embedded between the
stone and the gold band. The tip is coated with a lethal poison,
usually cyanide or arsenic."
	"Pass someone by you don't like, poke them with the ring, and
walk away. Slick."
Gosunkugi was surprised to find himself actually impressed.
	"Actually, no. When the Triads mark someone for death, they do
it - what's the term...? -
creatively."
	"C... creatively?" Hikaru asked weakly.
	"You don't want me to elaborate on that."
	"Yeah. So, what's the poisoned needle for, then?"
	"Members of the Black Lotus often use the rings not only as a
symbol, but to take their own
lives in the event of capture."
	"You're kidding me!"
	"This way, they cannot be made to give over any information.
The Triads in general - and the
Black Lotus Society in particular - have rather severe punishments for
that. A quick death by poison
is far preferable to what they would suffer if they were to talk."
	"Oh, jeez..." these people were nuts! "But, they have to be in
Japan. I mean, why go through
the trouble of framing them if they're not even here? That doesn't
make any sense."
	Very good, Gosunkugi, Cologne thought. "Yes, that is true."
The boy was more observant
than she had first thought.
	"Anything else you know about them?"
	"Nothing that you would find useful."
	"A name? Anything?"
	"I did not stutter, did I?" Cologne asked, becoming visibly
irritated.
	"Okay."
	"Tell me, young man, what will you do with what I have told
you?"
	"Huh? Well..." Why don't I like that question? "Maybe submit
it later, get a sidebar or
something..."
	Bullshit, Cologne thought with an inward smile. Outside,
however, her expression remained
as neutral as ever.
	"Listen, Hikaru Gosunkugi. Tread carefully. The Black Lotus
Society is not an organization
to be trifled with. I would hate to see anything unfortunate happen to
you."
	"Uh... yeah... listen, I gotta go, now. I'll just take that
ramen to go, thanks."
	"Of course."
	Cologne watched as Gosunkugi walked back inside the
Nekohanten's rear door. She had
learned something rather interesting today, and could begin to deduce
several others. She allowed
herself a good chuckle at that, and at how it had fallen into her lap.
It really was the last person one
would ever expect, wasn't it?
	Do not underestimate these people, Hikaru. Or should I say,
Spiderman? Cologne had a
good idea of just how tough the boy truly was - he could likely be
able to hang with Ranma and
Ryoga in terms of agility and strength - but the Black Lotus Society
was notorious for crushing
opposition.
	They were in Japan, that much was certain, but who was running
the show in the Land of the
Rising Sun? Cologne had a few names of their higher-ups, all of them
with a reputation for
intelligence and ruthless brutality. Whomever had tried to frame them
wasn't afraid to grab the tiger
by the balls, were they?
	Cologne hopped over to the door. That matter was of no import
to her, at least not yet.
Besides, wouldn't Ranma just *love* to know the real name of who had
saved him, Akane, and
Nabiki that night?
	Heh, heh, heh... She was almost sad that she had to keep that
knowledge to herself. For
now, anyway.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'