C&C is, of course, always appreciated!
*hint hint* *wink wink*

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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: TRTC1-3.txt

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	MORE

	Akari's brown eyes were wide and pleading, tears falling down
her cheeks. He was being held upright, but she was on her back... a
table of some sort. They moved around, making that awful noise of
theirs, like insects chewing on leaves, but one stood still. Ryouga
couldn't see the face, but he could feel its mind, slowly boring into
his own. It already had a measure of control - he couldn't move, not to
save his own life. Not even to save hers.

	MORE

	Ryouga struggled, still. It had his body subdued, but his mental
barriers were still up, just as they had been most of his life. He
repeated mantras that helped focus his ki. There was still the chance
that, if he was subtle enough about it, he could get off a shishihokodan
and free himself. The other mind invaded him, feeling out his defenses,
looking for a means to force entry.

	It found it.

	Surface memories were the first to be taken. Then more personal
ones. Ryouga struggled, but could do little against the attack. It was
after something specific. It pressed him to reveal more that it desired,
stronger memories, stronger thoughts. Martial Arts. Ki. It wanted to
know more. More. MORE

	Ryouga felt it leave him.

	He could still hear its lingering thoughts, cold and callous and
alien. It seemed pleased, and almost eager. One of the smaller
creatures, ones not hidden behind a strange robe like their leader,
motioned towards the other human. He heard one word, one thought, before
the creature drifted away.

	HARVEST

	On the table, he clearly heard Akari whimper.

	Unable to blink, unable to turn away, he saw it all; remembered
it all.

-----

	Ryouga awoke, his face wet with tears and sweat, and a scream
almost past his lips. It was dark, but there were no shadows moving over
him - no shriveled face with hollow eyes looming like death himself.
There were only a few medical instruments, humming and beeping in time
with his heart.

	"Where the hell am I now?" He asked, his voice strained and his
throat hoarse.

	Raising his head, his chin toughing his collar, he saw the heavy
chains attached to his wrists and ankles. Slowly, he recognized the
room. Not that there were many hospitals that used chains to hold
someone down, anyway. So he was in Tofu's Clinic? That was just fine.
He'd been lost for two days in large city hospitals before, and wasn't
keen on a repeat performance.

	He flexed his hands and arms, and tried to get a feel for the
chains.

	They were tough: probably steel. Most likely, they were some of
Mousse's old chains, which ended up strewn around town every time he and
Ranma ended up in a fight. He had three loops around each wrist to deal
with. He felt far from top condition, but was confident he could break
them. Then, a better idea came to him. He felt out with his ki, and
examined the metal for a breaking point.

	"There!" He exclaimed, but kept his voice down. Channeling power
down his right arm, he stopped it around his wrist, before it could
accumulate in his finger or fist. Releasing the ki, it rushed out to his
skin, and then into the metal. Instantly, the chains snapped the
crumpled like old dry paper. He quickly repeated the procedure for his
other arm, and then reached down and destroyed the chains around his
ankles.

	Rolling off the table and onto his feet, he paused.

	He had to warn the others. If he was right, then all Nerima's
martial artists were in danger. The Kunos were out of town, so that left
the group at the Tendo Dojo, at the Nekohanten, and at Uuchans. There
were other Dojos and the like in the area that Ryouga had heard of, but
he didn't have the foggiest idea where they were. Which meant,
hopefully, that the aliens didn't either.

	He looked up and around.

	No lights. That was hardly a definitive proof that none of the
invaders were nearby, but it was something at least. He pulled the
electrodes from his chest, and heard the heart monitor loudly flat line.
A second later, he heard a noise upstairs, and knew it was Doc Tofu.
Ryouga waited, and put on his shirt and tunic. Sure enough, a man in his
twenties with brown hair entered the room in a rush, probably expecting
some sort of medical emergency.

	"Ryouga?" He asked, and saw that the lost boy seemed calm enough
to talk to instead of try and restrain. "What happened?"

	"Fucking aliens." The other man responded with a growl, using
the almost universally understood English swear. He could see that his
answer was not what Tofu had expected, so he elaborated. "They're after
Martial Artists. Probably followed me here."

	"What? Wait. Aliens?" Tofu's voice was reasonable enough, but
Ryouga could read the expression on his face easily enough.

	"And you've have believed me if I said demons? Or evil spirits?
Or half-men half-animals from China?"

	Tofu seemed to consider that. "I see your point, but..."

	"No offense Doc, but I've got to go. I can get to the Tendo Dojo
from here, roof hopping, but someone has to warn Ukyou and the Amazons."

	"About those, ah... aliens?" Tofu sounded skeptical again.

	Ryouga turned to go, but hesitated.

	"They killed her," he said, his voice hard and angry. "They
killed Akari. I'm not gonna let any more innocent people die. Not if I
can help it."

	After opening the wrong door, the lost boy found his way out of
the small clinic, and jumped up onto the roof. Tofu stood motionless.
Walking out, he watched as Ryouga jumped to the next roof, and then the
next, heading towards... towards a bright light, around where the Tendo
Dojo was. The doctor shivered, and not because of the cold night air.
Behind him and to the west, he heard something explode with a distant
rumble.

	Only half convinced that he wasn't going mad, he started to run.

	Uuchan's Okonomiyaki wasn't more than five minutes away.

-----

	Ryouga could see his target.

	He blinked, and remembered seeing a similar strange light
hovering ominously over the Unryu Farm. He remembered wandering back
there, by pure chance, and finding it empty, and the doors and windows
covered by police tape. All the animals were gone. It was like a ghost
house.

	He blinked and remembered being lost in the woods, trying to get
to the only other place he considered home: the Tendo Dojo. He had been
tired and exhausted, and when he looked over his shoulder, he saw a
bright light, just above tree level, following him. And then, perhaps
sensing his hesitation, it came closer. He had tried to run, to escape,
but to no avail.

	He wasn't running away this time.

	Keeping to the shadows, he concentrated on not getting lost.
Fortunately, roof hopping was a lot more straightforward than making his
way through winding, unmarked and unnamed Tokyo streets. With a target
in sight, he was sure that he'd avoid getting turned around. It was how
he had made it to the Tendo Dojo after that first shishihokodan duel
with Ranma in record time. He'd used it several times since then, and
had never regretted the decision. Coping with his directional problems
was second nature, by this point in life.

	Creeping over the roof of one of the taller buildings, he stole
a look out towards the Dojo. He could see part of it, now. Not the Dojo,
but the ship. It looked like it was settled between the koi pond, and
the next-door neighbor's house. It was two stories in height, as large
as the Tendo house at least, and oddly serrated, with jagged corners.
The outer stonewall that Tendo-san always had to repair had been nearly
demolished by the landing, but at least the Dojo and main building were
intact.

	Good.

	That meant, at least, that no one had been killed yet. Probably.
Ryouga frowned, and narrowed his eyes at the small shapes near the end
of the ship that pointed to the Tendo porch. His night vision was good
(good enough to fight in), and from his hidden perch, the lost boy
counted just over a half dozen of the little devils. One of them dragged
a larger body (whose, Ryouga couldn't say) to the ship, where a door
slid open.

	The lost boy was contemplating a plan of action, when he felt a
rising ki.

	Looking back, behind him, he felt it more acutely: rippling
waves of energy in the flow of the earth. It was strong too, which meant
one thing. Cologne. The same ancient Amazon who had taught Ryouga the
bakusai tenketsu, and who had given Ranma the katshu tenshin amaguriken
and hiryu shoten ha, was herself fighting these creatures. Even after
Ranma and Ryouga had gotten stronger, and incorporated other special
techniques into their styles, Cologne had remained stronger than either
of them.

	He wished her luck.

	The assembled aliens seemed to tense up, before five started
running. Ryouga could only assume they were headed for the Nekohanten,
where Cologne was putting up unexpected resistance. He hunkered down,
and watched them go, careful to keep out of sight. He remembered how
they had caught him twice before, how he had hesitated after first
coming face to face with one of them.

	A second later had come the mental attack.

	Ryouga balled his fists. He wasn't about to make the same
mistake a third time. There was only one of the little monsters left,
guarding the front of the ship. Or what Ryouga assumed to be the front.
Who really knew? He mentally cursed as he moved, wishing that Ranma was
around.

	'Not that I like his company, but the umisenken would be pretty
damn handy right about now,' Ryouga thought, bitterly. He reached up to
his forehead and pulled down one of his bandannas. Then, he thought
better, and took a second one, too. The time for half measures, hold
back, and mercy toward weaker opponents was over.

	It had ended when they killed the woman he loved.

	Jumping, Ryouga spun the two bandannas in his right hand. He
didn't issue a battle cry, or any other 'honorable warning.' The alien
turned its bulbous head at the same time Ryouga snapped his hand out and
released the cloth projectiles, stiffened and made razor sharp courtesy
of the Hibiki iron cloth technique. It had time to raise its weapon, but
not fire, as the two bladed bandannas flashed by, imbedding themselves
in the ground behind the creature.

	Ryouga landed in a crouch, and slowly reached for his belt
sword.

	A few feet away, the Sectoid let out a high-pitched, blood-
chilling groan, as its right arm slid out of its socket, falling to the
ground with a wet splatter. Green and purple puss flooded out of the
cleanly cut wound, bubbling and foaming. A second later, it fell to its
knees, leaned forward, and the top of its head slid off. Thick pink ooze
spilled out onto the grass, and with a convulsive shudder, the alien
collapsed into a boneless heap.

	Ryouga's hand slowly left his belt.

	"So, you can be killed," he said, softly, and stood over the
body. Then, he smiled, overlarge canines on prominent display. "Good.
Because I intend to kill every last one of you for what you did. Every
last one."

	To his side, the alien ship waited.

	He could see it clearly now, the slight indentation where the
door was. He had expected the humming sound to be louder, but it seemed
the same no matter how far you were from it. Was it possible that the
sound was all in his mind? He found that he didn't care. The dull gray
alien metal was cool to the touch, but not cold, and the texture was
incredibly smooth, like silk. It was strong, however: stronger than any
material Ryouga had ever encountered, even dragonscale.

	Idly, he searched for a breaking point.

	And found none.

	He felt around, trying to find a way to make it open. There
didn't seem to be a button or switch to press. He placed his hand
directly on the door itself, thought it felt no different then the rest
of the hull. He pushed, at first just a little, and then harder.
Nothing. Then, he pulled back his hand, and with a hiss, the door slid
down and away, out of sight.

	He stepped inside.

	A few seconds later, the door closed behind him. The room was
small, maybe large enough for nine good-sized people to stand, cramped,
shoulder-to-shoulder, three by three. There was another door ahead,
different looking. Unlike the outer door, which had been slightly convex
to match the hull, this one was flat, and had a strange symbol on it.
There also seemed to be a faintly glowing panel set into the wall
nearby.

	Ryouga silently prayed the door wasn't locked.

	From what he had been able to determine, he could neither break
through it nor blast through it. If the door was locked, he was (as the
Americans said) "well and truly fucked." He couldn't even hear or see
what was on the other side. Cracking his knuckles, he pressed his palm
to the door. Nothing. He nodded, expecting that. Tensing his body, he
pulled back his hand, and the door quickly slid open.

	Two large oval eyes stared at him.

	Ryouga acted without hesitation. The alien's hand passed by its
sidearm, and reached for the larger weapon on a nearby table. It was a
foolish mistake. Ryouga lashed out with his belt sword, and with a
flash, severed the limb. Undeterred, the creature seized the weapon with
its other hand, spun with remarkable quickness, and took aim. Why it was
so obsessed with that particular weapon the lost boy didn't know.

	He hit the front of it with his palm, and force sending the butt
of the rifle into the alien's left shoulder, before the alien's back hit
the wall. It wailed in pain as the bones there broke. Ryouga cursed to
himself, knowing he was taking too long. His next strike with the sword
was fatal, and it cleanly removed the Sectoid's head from its neck. The
bloody body slumped against the wall, and fell back, leaving a trail of
foul smelling brackish blood behind, like paint.

	Pausing only to catch his breath, Ryouga saw the table in the
center of the room.

-----

	Tears streamed down her face, mixing with blood...

-----

	He shook his head, forcing back the memories. It wasn't
something he wanted to remember. It wasn't something he wanted to see
every time he closed his eyes and fell into a nightmare-wracked sleep.
He looked at the headless alien corpse, and kicked it swiftly in the
gut, spending a new fountain of gore out of the neck.

	"Bastards..." he hissed. "Bastards!!"

	He opened the next door, and barely avoided something fast and
round. It whizzed by his head and over his shoulder. Reacting purely on
instinct, he jumped in the direction the shot had been fired. The inside
of the ship here seemed darker, because there was more open space.
Still, the ambient orange light from several nearby cylinders helped
mitigate that disadvantage. In the long deep shadows cast around this
part of the ship, Ryouga could see his foe.

	The alien seemed to be reloading its weapon, or something.

	It didn't even bother to reach for its sidearm.

	Ryouga didn't waste time pondering his good fortune. He hit low,
tackling the smaller creature. In a heartbeat, he head butted the
creature, stunning it, and placed his fist over its small throat. With
his other hand, he slammed his palm down on his fist, driving it into
the alien's neck. Ryouga heard the snapping of bones. On a human, the
move would have collapsed the windpipe, and shattered the spine
somewhere between the third and sixth cervical vertebrae. Here, he
wasn't about to take chances.

	He slammed his fist into the face, and purple blood sprayed from
the creature's nose and mouth. Ryouga hit again and again, temple
strikes. Mortal blows designed to cause irreparable brain damage. He
heard the skull crack, and saw one of the eyes burst, leaking white
fluid. Standing up, he stomped in the rib cage, just to be sure.

	Breathing heavily, not from exertion, but from rage, he looked
around for any other hidden enemies. Picking a direction, he continued
forward, to the right end of the ship. He also got a better look at the
cylinders set into the walls. They glowed faintly orange, and about half
had people floating in them. None he recognized, except for the old
woman who splashed people.

	'The Tendos' neighbors. Not even Martial Artists. Just regular
people,' he thought. 'Or at least as normal as it gets in Nerima.'

	Each cylinder seemed to have a small series of controls set into
the side and at the base. Ryouga ignored them for now, preferring to
concentrate on checking the area. Around the bend, he saw something
strange. It was a bright orange cylinder, relatively narrow, and it
pulsed up and down like a piston. There seemed to be some greenish
colored panels nearby, all set into the walls.

	Regardless of what it was, he knew a dead end when he saw one.

	Turning back, he stopped at one of the trapped people. There
seemed to be a release lever of some sort on the right, near the wall.
He picked the closest one, with a tall man in it, and squeezed what he
assumed would allow him to open the tube. Nothing happened. Ryouga
looked down at the panel, and saw that it had some strange squiggly
script highlighted by a red background. On that same panel, it had a
detailed diagram of the person's body, and strange script pointing to
different parts. Data scrolled by at a mind boggling pace.

	Already unsure, he let it be.

	Continuing, he saw more and more cylinders. Most of them, as he
headed towards the other side of the ship, seemed to be empty: no
bodies, and no fluid for them to float in. Curious, he tried to open one
with the handle from before. He squeezed gently, and it opened, the
clear plastic (or something) front of the tube detaching, and sliding
down into the floor. Ryouga grinned a bit. At least he had been right
about how to open the things, when they weren't locked anyway.

	After a half dozen empty cylinders, he saw a familiar face.

	"Nabiki..." He said, and then he involuntarily looked down and
blushed. She was naked, floating in the orange soup. Next to her, Kasumi
and Akane also floated, eyes closed. Then their father, Soun. After an
empty tube ('Genma's?' Ryouga speculated), Ranma floated in his. Oddly,
he was in his male form. Either the liquid was not cold enough to
trigger his curse, or it wasn't something that affected the curse at
all. Ryouga looked down, to the end of the curving hall. Like with the
other side, it ended with a dead end, but here there was some sort of
lift. It glowed faintly, but didn't seem large enough for one than one
person to use it at a time.

	Ryouga sighed, and looked back at Ranma.

	He didn't like turning his back on a potential avenue of attack,
but he also didn't like the prospect of trying his luck the rest of the
way without help. Facing Ranma's high tech prison cell, Ryouga looked
down at the panel off to its side. It looked similar to before, except
that there looked to be some different scribbles on an orange background
instead of red. Ranma's body was also diagrammed, but there weren't any
things pointing at different parts.

	Ryouga examined the glass... or crystal, or plastic, or
whatever.

	No breaking points.

	"Well, here goes..." he reached out, grasped the handle, and
squeezed. The cylinder hissed, and the liquid quickly drained, sucked
away in a matter of seconds. The front then slid open, and Ranma fell
forward into Ryouga's arms, coughing.

	"Ranma. Ranma." Ryouga gave his rival a not-so-gently shake.
"Ranma!"

	With a vomiting sound, Ranma retched up several mouthfuls of the
orange slime. He covered his mouth, probably in shock and disgust, and
finished vacating his lungs. The pigtailed martial artist grabbed the
material of Ryouga's tunic for support, and slowly opened his eyes.

	"Oh, man... what the... aw, geez...!" He looked at his slime-
covered left hand, mouth moving but making no words. He saw Ryouga, but
still said nothing, instead looking around at the metallic gray walls
and eerily glowing containment tubes.

	"Where the hell..."

	"Am I now?" Ryouga finished. Ranma pushed off him, and managed
to stand on his own. He spat some remaining goo out of his mouth, and
tried to shake the rest from his arms and legs.

	"Ranma?" The lost boy asked, when he saw the other boy suddenly
notice his nudity.

	"Oh kami!" Ranma twisted, and looked behind him. "They didn't
anal probe me, did they?"

	Ryouga scowled. "Ranma! There's more important..."

	"More important than finding out if I've been probed up the
ass?" Ranma narrowed his eyes, and sighed. He took a little longer look
at the Tendos than was probably proper, before facing Ryouga again. "Ok.
Seriously. What the hell is going on?"

	"We need to clean out this ship. Kill the these things!" Ryouga
then added, almost ad an afterthought. "Then free the people here."

	"Can't we just get them out like you did me?" Ranma asked.
"Like: now?"

	Ryouga shook his head. "Everyone on the other side of the ship
is locked in. We can't let the ship take off when them in it."

	"Damnit." Ranma grumbled. "There isn't really time to argue, I
guess. Where...?"

	"There." The lost boy pointed.  "Some kind of lift to the upper
half of the ship."

	"Ok." A bit of Ranma's normal cockiness returned. "Let's do this
then..."

	"Wait!" Ryouga held his hand out in front of his rival. "Ranma.
Don't pull your punches. Kill them quickly, or they'll screw with your
head."

	Ranma paused at that, considering the lost boy's words. Ryouga
knew about Ranma's determination not to kill, and not to take life. The
pigtailed boy had nearly killed someone on the mountains of Jusendo,
several months ago, and he had no intention to ever do so again. Ranma,
in Ryouga's opinion, had always been somewhat soft, even on evil spirits
and oni. Now was not the time for that kind of mentality.

	"Let's just go," Ranma said, obviously not making any promises.

	Ryouga sneered.

	Entering the lift, Ryouga was glad he had set Ranma free. There
had been two of them waiting, but the umisenken had helped even the
odds. Both of the creatures had the larger bulkier weapons (the ones
that apparently fired those purple balls) trained on the lift. Neither
had expected the lift to activate, and nothing to rise up to the next
floor. Dual moko takabishas had stunned the two aliens, the ki attack
hitting them at the same time Ranma fell out of the cloaked umisenken
stance.

	Ryouga followed the lift up, a flurry of bandannas hitting the
prone aliens. Both screamed, as the razor edged projectiles mauled them,
severing limbs and torsos. Ryouga smirked, but he also saw that Ranma
had a disapproving look on his face. They locked eyes for a few seconds,
before mutually breaking contact. Ranma looked back and forth.

	The way split, following the contour of the hull, left and
right.

	"Well?" Ryouga asked, knowing his sense of direction was hardly
the most reliable. "What do you think?"

	"This way." Ranma indicated left. A few meters later, they saw
that it ended in a dead end, with some writing on the walls. Getting
closer, Ryouga put his hand up against an indented part of the wall, and
pulled his hand back. It slid open, revealing a weapon locker. Not that
either boy had any experience with firearms, much less alien ones.

	Without another word, they headed back and went left.

	And around.

	Finally, after walking around half the inner circumference of
the ship, they came to a door that obviously led to the middle portion
they had been trekking around. The two martial artists looked at each
other, nodded, and got ready to break in. They'd fought together before
numerous times, and knew each other well enough that gestures alone
could convey their plans of attack. The aliens obviously suspected they
were loose, since they had set up an ambush at the lift. There was no
reason not to suspect that opening this door wouldn't lead to another
surprise attack.

	Ranma took up the umisenken stance, and gradually faded away.

	'Handy little trick.' Ryouga had to admit, though he kept his
thoughts to himself. 'I will have to figure out how he does that.'

	He heard Ranma take a few steps forward, and Ryouga ducked out
of sight a few feet away. If one of those exploding purple gas balls did
fly through the moment Ranma opened the door, Ryouga didn't want to be
hit by collateral. Ranma's invisible hand mimicked Ryouga's, and the
door slid open.

	Sure enough, there was a muffled 'baff' sound, and a cloud of
purple gas hit the wall behind Ranma, only missing him because of the
invisibility granted by the Thousand-Seas Stance. Both martial artists
hit the ground and rolled, Ryouga pushing off the wall with his right
arm. The action forced Ranma out of the umisenken, and Ryouga saw the
other boy out of the corner of his eye. In front of them were two of the
creatures, one with a weapon in its hand, and the other working at some
sort of computer console.

	Ryouga reached for a bandanna.

	When suddenly a numbing pain shot into the back of his mind like
a railroad spike. The alien, not even one of the horrible cloaked ones
Ryouga remembered, but just one of the so called 'gray' aliens... held
up its other hand, and a powerful telekinetic force hit him square in
the chest, and caused his lungs to seize up. It wasn't a physical blow,
like being hit by air pressure or a vacuum wave, it was like an
invisible intangible hand had reached through his chest and started
squeezing the air out of him.

	He heard Ranma let loose another of his trademark ki attacks.

	"Moko Takabisha!" Ranma yelled, and the ki ball streaked towards
the closest alien - the leader. It hit square on, but paused in midair
in front of the creature, as if encountering some sort of barrier. The
pigtailed martial artist gasped, in disbelief, as his attack was
repulsed and hit the ceiling, doing no noticeable damage to the alien
metal.

	"Kill it, Ranma!" Ryouga snarled, clutching his chest. "KILL IT
NOW!!"

	With a battle cry, Ranma charged, closing the distance. The
alien leader quickly threw down its larger weapon, and reached for its
more deadly sidearm. It took aim a second too late, a green ball of
plasma missing Ranma by mere inches, passing under his arm and left of
his torso. Even still, he winced, as the near contact scorched his skin.

	"Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranma's right hand blurred as he
struck over and over, more than two dozen times in the blink of an eye.
The alien writhed, and let out a banshee wail, before flying back
against the wall, its back breaking in several places to the sound of
dry timber. Ranma's problems, however, were not over.

	The last alien had left his seat by the console, and had another
alien sidearm trained on the proud martial artist. Ranma froze, muscles
coiling for another rapid evasive motion, when something fast struck
with a buzzing sound. The alien's hand fell from the wrist, and an
instant later, the rest fell forward in two halves, cut clean through
its pale abdomen. White coils of intestine and other misshapen chunks
drowned in a pool of sickening ooze, as the body twitched, groaned, and
died.

	Ranma blinked, and frowned a little.

	He'd never seen Ryouga use his bandannas like this before. Sure,
he knew they were dangerous, and he had received the occasional cut, but
he'd never seen them seriously hurt anyone. The closest was when lost
boy's belt sword cut Akane's hair. A part of Ranma was sure that those
same bandannas could have an identical impact on a human body.

	It was disconcerting.

	"Rest in Pieces," Ryouga spoke up, his voice laced with hatred.

	"Well, at least that's over with. Can we get the hell out of
here now?" He looked at Ryouga, and then past him, to the open door that
they had used to enter the control room. "Oh... oh no..."

	"What?" Ryouga turned, expecting another attack. What he saw
was, in some way, much, much worse. Past the door, a previously closed
'window' in the hull had opened, shining some light in from outside.

	Except that outside was, in this case...

	An endless expanse of tiny stars against a black background, and
below it: the curvature of a familiar blue and white planet.  The two
martial artists, just eighteen, exchanged worried looks. Then Ranma
looked down at himself, and back up as his companion and long time
rival.

	"Hey, Ryouga."

	"What?"

	"I'll fight you for your clothes."

	"...I don't think so."

-----


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