St. Suika Fenderson Roberts
				   Presents
				   Meetings
				      a
		       Shin Silver Millenium Monogatari
				    aside

	Kirika looks up, alerted by that familiar sense of threat -- not a
danger, yet, but worthy of more than her normal caution.  Her hand reaches for
the familiar, comforting weight of her sidearm, a moment's panic sending her
heart rate skyrocketing at it's absence, her eyes darting first to Mirelle,
then casually scanning for the threat.  She closes her hand around her
Surefire flashlight, not much of a weapon, but better than none.

	`I hate flying, have I told you that?' she remarks quietly to Mirelle,
`I hate being disarmed around so many people.'

	The blonde woman gives her a smile, `I don't like it either.  Bear it
a little longer,' she asks, giving Kirika a squeeze on the shoulder.

	`That's easy for you to say,' Kirika scowls, then the threat steps out
from behind a pillar, a tall white-haired girl, and a shorter redhead.
Kirika looks them over, wondering why they seem so familiar, the white-haired
girl's leather cape -- no, wings.

	Girls don't have wings.

	*The readhead, dressed in something white and filmy, is rolling on the
floor, screaming with soundless laughter, the white-haired girl tickling her,
keeping her balance with the occasional flick of her great white wings, a
blonde, her teeth showing as she laughs, watching.  The light off the blonde's
right canine fang, broken short and jagged, sparkling.  The redhead turns, and
pins both of the others beneath her, smiling.*

	`Kirika?' Mirelle grabs her as she sways, `Are you OK?'

	`I know those two,' Kirika points towards the two, but they've
vanished from sight, but not from her threat sense, `They're hiding.'

	`Know?'

	`Flashback.  It felt old,' Kirika shakes her head, and grabs Mirelle's
hand, leading her from the station.

	-*-

	`Kirika?' Mirelle asks.  Even though the younger woman had opened up
considerably since the Manor, she would only tell what she wanted to tell.

	`I think they're friendly, but I'm not sure.  They weren't an
immediate danger, anyway,' Kirika begins checking the room for bugs, Mirelle
following along after a few minutes.

	Once they are both satisfied they turn to their luggage.  Kirika almost
moans, her tension levels dropping as *Snick* she chambers a round and settles
the weapon back into concealment on her body.

	Mirelle isn't as affected, but calms a bit at the familiar weight of a
P99 in her purse.

	-*-

	`I know that girl,' Ranma says, staring into space, `She's
Dragon-half, and old.'

	`Does she have an implant?'

	`I pinged her, no answer, but she's got an interface,' Ranma shakes
her head, `Who is she?'

	`Picutes?' Akane asks, looking up from the puzzle she's working with
Ami.  Beryl lifts her head from Ami's shoulder to look at Ranma, Ami just
giving a distracted nod.

	Three images appear on the back wall of Kirika and Mirelle, `I think
the blonde's Zentraedi, but the dark-haired girl,' Ranma says, frowing,
`Misako's got a 95% match -- Asajima Kiri--' Ranma cuts herself off mid-word.

	`Kirika?' Akane breathes, `She was on Earth, wasn't she, working with
the settlement bureau.'

	`So, that violent little person survived.  That's good,' Beryl smiles,
`I rather liked her.'

	`Didn't show it well, what with the constant polite disapproval and
dazed offers of hospitality,' Akane rounds on her, glaring.

	`I didn't do a lot of things well, then,' Beryl hides her face against
Ami's neck, who pets her hair in long, gentle strokes.

	`So we need to look into her a bit more, then, don't we?' Usagi says.
`Let Minako know we've found another possible survivor.'

	-*-

	`They're staying at a hotel near Shinjuku, paid cash,' Akane says,
leading the way around to the back garden of Hikawa Jinja.

	`Why are they in Japan?' Minako asks.

	`There isn't much evidence, but there's the posibility that they are
the assassins known as Noir,' Akane stops, `So be careful.'

	Reality opens with a shimmer.  Ranma, Rei, Usagi, Minako and Mikumi
follow her through.

	-*-

	Kirika frowns, her brow furrowing, `They're back, more of them,' she
turns towards the window, and looks out.  Six girls, one of them waves, a girl
with short, blue-black hair.  `I should know her,' Kirika rubs her head, which
has thoughtfully started to throb.

	`Which one?'

	`Short blue-black hair.  I need to go see her.  Cover me?' she smiles
up at her partner.

	Mirelle nods, `Always.'

	`Thanks,' Kirika's hands make their familiar checks, gun, ammo,
flashlight, knife, chopsticks, as she walks out the door.

	Mirelle smiles slightly, grabs her purse, and locks the door behind
them.

	-*-

	`Did she see you?' Ranma asks Akane.

	`Yes.  She's coming this way.  Her interface seems to be dead . . . '

	Ranma glances around at the sudden burst of actscan.  She whistles at
the image in her head.

	`What could do that?' Akane wonders aloud, staring at the scrambled
neurons and splintered semiconductors making up Kirika's brain.

	`Electro-convulsive Therapy,' Ranma says, relaying for Noriko, `The
use of large ammounts of electricity to fry someone's brain in order to change
them.'

	`Why?' Akane murmurs, shocked by the damage done to someone she'd
loved dearly before.

	`Maybe they wanted a Dragon-half under their control, maybe she
actually went nuts, maybe she talked to the wrong person,' Ranma shakes her
head, `You talk to her, and I'll look after her friend.'  Ranma carefully
doesn't point out the nearly circular scar in the bones on each side of her
skull, nor the many smaller, less regular, ones.

	`Right.'  Akane stalks up to the girl in the white hooded sweatshirt,
Minako and Mikumi following a little behind.

	-*-

	`Hello,' Ranma says from behind the blonde woman, `Mirelle, isn't it?'
she asks, pronouncing the name Mi-re-le.

	`Mi-re-yuu,' she answers, turning to face the shorter redhead.

	`We knew Kirika a long time ago, and are wondering if you know what's
happened to her?'

	`She doesn't remember much of anything that's happened before, wow,
it's been three years now, since we met, so that would be four years ago,' she
turns her gaze on the woman who doesn't appear to have changed since the day
they met, `And she still looks like she's fifteen.'


	`We're like that,' Ranma nods, `We don't age much, and are very hard
to kill.  I think someone or someones has tried very hard with Kirika,
though.'

	`What do you mean?' Mirelle sounds a little scared.

	Ranma pulls out a small screen, and puts the actscan image of Kirika's
skull up on it, `Entry,' the image spins slowly, `And exit.  Those are old, by
human standards, almost a thousand years.  That's about when Minako's group lost
contact with her.'

	Mirelle turns her eyes towards Kirika, something much like fear
flashing in them for a moment, `Will she ever get her memories back?'

	`I don't know.  Hopefully.'

	-*-

	Akane gives Mirelle a comforting hug while they watch Kirika sleep
fitfully, eldritch machinery blinking in comforting shades of blue lighting
the infirmary room.  Mirelle snuggles closer, the two of them waiting while
Kirika's brain is carefully re-wired, her interface long-since fixed.

	`I think that's the last of the disconnected clusters,' Nanami says,
ghosting into view, `She should wake up in a few hours.  I'd sleep, were I
you, both of you look awful.'

	`OK,' Mirelle slips a little, onto the floor, her head pillowed in
Akane's lap as she begins to snore softly.

	Akane gives Kirika a worried look, even though the older woman is
sleeping peacefully.  She pets Mirelle's hair, the gesture comforting her more
than the sleeping blonde, and eventually drifts.

	-*-

	Kirika stirs, her head aching softly, and glances at her beloved,
startling at the sight of her --  she winces at the double-image of her lover
with a strange blonde head in her lap, and her lover sleeping in the lap of a
strange dark-haired girl.  After a moment the doubling fades, and she looks
again, glad, this time, that they seem to be on friendly terms.

	*Come back soon!* *Take care of her, of my Mirelle* *Oh no, they did
it, they fucking did it, they blew it all up again!* Kirika whimpers at the
sudden assault of flashbacks.  Four hands clutch hers, and she drags them up
to nuzzle them gently as her memories continue to flash through her head.

	-*-

	`Come back soon!' Ranma calls to his former fiancee, who was his niece
in a prior life, and her partners.

	`I will!' Akane calls back, turning to walk backwards for a moment,
waving, `I'll send you a postcard from the Eiffel Tower!'

	`Do that!' he calls, before settling pensively back into Rei's waiting
arms, `Do you think she'll be OK?'

	Rei wraps her wings around him, `Yes, I do.  They killed people for
money, not any sort of idealism.  They should adapt easily.'

	`True,' Ranma twists, smiles down at the, for once, shorter woman,
`Shall we go find Usagi before she eats our lunch?'

	`She's only done that twice,' Rei protests.

	Ranma gives her a look.

	`We'd better hurry,' Rei smiles, and runs, catching his hand as she
goes.


---
log:
This one just sorta appeared in my head yesterday.  Kirika's amnesia is almost
certainly not from natural causes, and ECT seems likely.  That she's an
ancient non-human who got captured into the whole Noir mess a long time ago
just fit in well with SSMM, and it's not like she or Mirelle would pay for a
specialist unless it was life-threatening.
3172/Bureaucracy/13:				Written