[X] So, why'd call me over here in the first place? You know, before the whole exploding ship and terrorist thing...
"Yeah, why don't we start out with the obvious one here; why'd ya call me over? I mean, no offense, but I don't think I'm cut out for the whole 'business' thing and you don't seem to be short on muscle if you got the military on call for ya..." Before you could go on, Raurief chuckled and interrupted you.
"You'd be surprised Ranma, but believe me I think we can help one another to make both of our lives very comfortable. I just need to put in a good word with-" Right then, the doors to the room were opened and Old Man Schnee turned to see who came in, smiling and greeting them happily, "Ah, just in time James; and I presume that this is the pride and joy Polendia's been gushing about constantly these past few months?"
Truning around, you see a man around Old Man Schnee's age, with steel gray hair and a military uniform. You're pretty sure you saw him before you blacked out earlier, but it was hard to say. Besides him, was a redheaded girl around your age; looking at everything with curiosity and wonder. Frankly, it make her look a lot like a little kid; though her outfit didn't help out in that regard either. Maybe 'oversized toddler' was more fitting than 'around your age'. Raurief motioned to the table and they both took a seat, shaking the old man's hand as he motioned his head to a guard; you heard him mutter something about refreshments and the guard leaves the room.
The military guy, obviously 'James' spoke up, "It's good to see you're ok Raurief; and yes, this is the pride and joy of the future of Atlas's military forces, Penny. In light of what just happened, I thought it prudent to being the best we could for both you and your family's safety."
"And I appreciate it James," Old Man Schnee said, "But, I recall Polendia saying that there was a lot more work to be done before 'his little girl' was ready for the world. Is she...?"
James chuckles and waves off the old man's concerns, "Rau, we both know that Polendia's an obsessive perfectionist on the best of days; with Penny he's even worse. I assure you, she's perfectly capable of functioning on the field and for whatever duties you see fit to assign her."
"I'm combat ready!" Penny declares with a salute, inadvertently bumping into the secretary coming in with a platter of refreshments and causing the pitcher to-and you can see there this is going and...yep, there it goes. Hello tits, it's been awhile; several days in fact. You usually swing by more often, is something wrong? Not that you were complaining, it's just unusual is all.
Everyone else, however, wasn't taking it as well as you were. Eyes bugged out and gaping mouths, you decided to nip this in the bud before Weiss gets out the obvious exclamation that was on her lips. With a sigh and a roll of the eyes, you told everyone, "Look; it's a long story but to boil it down: was born a boy, stuff happened, now cold water equals girl, hot water boy. And it doesn't mean that I'm all girly and shit when I am a girl; I'm 100% man, got it?"
The military guys just sighed and rubbed his temples, "...Sure as hell the weirdest Semblance I've ever heard of..."
Weiss clearly wasn't content with your cliff notes, but Raurief just chuckled and said, "While I'm certain there must be a very interesting story behind this, I can agree that it can wait; we have more important matters to discuss. This," he motions to James, "Is General James Ironwood, head of the Atlesian Military. He's here because Schnee Dust has a very close and deep connection with the military, in which 50% of our dust is shipped to them at a fraction of the price. In return, they accommodate our security needs as well as their R&D to bolster our own. It's a partnership that benefits both parties, and more importantly the kingdom as a whole.
Ranma; as a foreigner to our world you wouldn't know this, but mankind is limited to only four kingdoms: Vale, Vacuo, Mistral, and Atlas. Expeditions, roving caravans, settlers and small villages have all been attempted in the past; but all ended in failure because of the Grimm. There's just...too many to fight off, each time attempts at expansion are tried they inevitably swarm the place. People panic, fear and chaos spreads, which in turn feed the Grimm and lure even more in. It's a vicious cycle, and the only reason mankind hasn't died out is because of Dust; our greatest weapon against the Grimm, our salvation and survival. With Dust, we've managed to drive off the grim and forge kingdoms; great kingdoms with both valiant defenders and natural barriers to keep us safe. And thus, we grew and prospered..."
Old Man Schnee paused, took a breather, and continued; "Which brings us to the biggest problem, Dust. Of the four kingdoms it is Atlas which has the fewest natural barriers to keep us safe; we lack Vale's cliffs and ravines, the deserts of Vacuo, or the mountains and volcanoes of Mistral. All we have ice; desolate ice which is near impossible to inhabit. The glaciers we could use to defend ourselves are too inhospitable to actually live in, it's a miracle we found the few natural barriers we did find in founding our kingdom.
Fortunately, what we lacked in protection we were compensated in power; of the four kingdoms, it is Atlas which has the largest and most numerous Dust deposits. We quickly learned and adapted, using the Dust to forge weapons and walls to defend ourselves. Others decry the fact that our military is the largest, the most cutting edge, and always prepared for total war; but we do it not as warmongers, but as desperate people doing what they can to ensure our safety. The walls of our kingdom and the military is all that would keep the Grimm at bay were they to strike.
However, like with anything in life, Dust doesn't last forever; we've had to constantly expand and dig deeper in our mines for Dust, endlessly searching for more deposits to mine. It's not soon, but it is inevitable for the Dust to run out; especially when we've become the world's single largest supplier of Dust throughout all four kingdoms. The moment we run out of Dust, is the moment the world does."
Well...that was certainly a downer, not exactly the most pleasant of introductions; but it still didn't answer your question. "So...what does that have to do with me?"
It was General Ironwood who spoke up, "Your arrival definitely stirred quite a ruckus, but it was the aftermath that grabbed our attention."
With that, he flicked a switched and a holographic screen popped up, and what was on it was simply...breathtaking. Radiant ice covering all of the earth, fiery crimson seemingly descending from on high as if to counter it. Or balance it, maybe even both; like a yin and yang, fire and ice sorta deal. But it was what was between them that was truly beautiful.
A swirling pillar of airy emerald, flecked and streaked with crimson and azure; like a tornado caught and immortalized in crystal. Withing the frozen green currents was a coiling dragon of ice, rising up to meet what was at the apex of the pillar of emerald wind: a dragon of rubies and fire; western to contrast with the eastern blue dragon. The rising dragon had risen above it's western counterpart, and seemingly belched a cone of frost right as it had lunged and tore at it's foe's neck with it's fangs. And from that cone erupted more crystal wind along with ruby streaking out of the fire dragon's neck; blood from the wound it took.
Then, you realized what you were looking at; the green you saw before you passed out was the green pillar in the picture you were seeing now. You...you and Blondie, you both made this. Whatever 'this' was.
Old Man Schnee fills in the blanks, "That's Dust; all of it, highest quality Dust ever recorded in history and in quantities unheard of. Fire, Ice, and Wind Dust, enough to engulf the entire southeastern district of Vale City; enough to make a hundred thousand paupers into millionaires.
And as of yesterday, it's all mine; all property of SDC. Ranma, in one night you made me enough money to make up for nearly a decade of deficits and sabotage. One night. I can tell from the look of your face that you don't know how you did it, but you did; and we can work out the 'how' later. Together, as partners."
...Yeah, you were still processing the whole 'hundred thousand paupers to millionaires' thing he mentioned; so you didn't have anything to say right now. Old Man Schnee, however, took it in stride and continued talking, "I propose that you become a partner of Schnee Dust Company; you will provide us with high-quality Dust to sell on the market, and we will compensate you with whatever you desire. Money, Fame, Women; name it and it's yours, I guarantee it. And all you need to do in return is make us a set quantity of Dust per month; enough for both my company to make a profit and the military to not have to worry about any shortages anytime soon."
The shrewd businessman chuckled, "But given what you made in a night, I doubt you really have to worry about that. So, we have a deal?"
Your brain had finally rebooted at that point, "YES! Er-I mean, I would love to join as a partner of Schnee Dust Company, Mr. Schnee. All I want is for someone to cover my tabs and a place for me to practice my martial arts. Oh and maybe stuff like equipment for whatever dojo you can find for me, new clothes, those little hot-dog thingies in croissants rich people eat, a place to stay, uhh...hmm what else...uhh-"
Mr. Schnee just laughed and put a hand on your shoulder, "Oh, come now lad; you can call me by my name. Or Jack, all my close friends call me Jack; and with everything you've done and are going to do for me, I believe we're going to be very close friends. Consider all you requests done; you'll stay with me and my family in our estate, we have plenty of facilities both there and at headquarters for you to use. Weiss, as you've seen, is training to be a Huntress so you'll find the finest equipment already available to you. If you need teachers, sparring partners, or anything of the like; just ask and I'll have them delivered."
He then motioned to the secretary, who handed you a credit card and one of those hologram tablet thingies. Mr. Schnee, or Jack explained, "The card is linked to my personal account, feel free to spend as you wish; cost is definite not an issue. The scroll is a gift, use it to contact me and I'll try to respond as soon as possible. Now, I believe that settles everything; save for the eventual contract legalease and unless James here has anything to add."
The general shook his head, "No, I believe you've covered everything that needed to be covered; though if possible, the Atlesian Military would humbly request for you to work on producing Lightning Dust. It's the one type of Dust we haven't seen you create yet, and it's arguably the most useful for our purposes; though we can work around it with the other Dust types provided."
"Uhh, I'll...definitely give it my best shot," you told him. Then, you heard a ringing sound and saw Weiss pulled out her own scroll. She talked on the scroll for a bit before hanging up and telling her father, "That was Winter, she's woken up and recovered from her panic attack. I'm going to-"
Jack raised his hand up, "I understand princess; go on, I'll join you in a bit."
Turning to you, he said, "You're free to do whatever you want here Ranma; the scroll has my secretary on speed dial two, she'll tell where everything is. I just have some things to discuss with James and another associate coming by in a minute; he's someone else I have to introduce you to, but it can wait for later if you don't want to right now."
Well, you've gotten your answers; now you're going to...
[X] Head out and train, it's been almost two whole days since you last trained; and that's too days too long. (Pick 1~3)
-- [X] You just pulled the Splitting Cat Hairs out of your ass yesterday, now it's time to actually practice and master it
-- [X] You've fought a Saffron-level opponent and a terrorist organization in the span of two days, and you doubt it's going to be any better anytime soon. You hate to do this, but perhaps it's time to unseal the Umi- and Yamasenkens so you are prepared for fights of that caliber in the future.
-- [X] You got bisected; let's repeat that, you got bisected. Shit, that right there is some serious damage and you just barely lucked out of not dying. Unfortunately, you never really got the chance to bum any techniques from Tofu; but hey, how hard can it be to heal with ki right?
-- [X] It slices, it dices, it extends and hardens; and best of all it ignites on fire! Get your own Magical Flaming Hair for one easy payment of Ass-kicking from Blondie, tax and shipping excluded. Seriously though, the damn hair was a wonderful improvised weapon that's been pulling it's weight; maybe you should look into it a bit more?
-- [X] Neko-ken ahahahahahaa...no. Nope. Nuh-uh. Now way no how, not gonna happen.
-- [X] So, since everything in this world runs on ki...and you've started figuring out some serious ki manipulation...maybe you should try some stuff on the robots or something? Hey, maybe it'll lead to something; who knows?
-- [X] Dust. Crystallized ki used to empower people, blow stuff up, and overall do just about anything. Sounds legit; maybe you should experiment with the stuff.
[X] Go with Weiss to see Winter. Panic attack? That sounds pretty serious, and last you remember she was behind the ice wall. Did something happen...?
[X] Stick around with Mr. Sh-er, Jack and James, see who this other guy who's coming is and what exactly they're planning.
[X] "Uh, hey; not to bother you or anything Jack, but why does your secretary have a collar on the platter she brought everything with? And why's it blinking? And why does it have Blake's name on i-oooh. Oh..." Maybe try to...um, you dunno, help Ms. Kitty out here?
[X] Write-in
Author's Note: Computer issues and writer's block is a horrible, horrible combination; I was so close to committing ritual sudoku seppuku over being such a total failure about this, but what's done is done. It's out and hope you like it. Blarg.