Hagemoto was in trouble. No, actually that would be an understatement. He was in deep trouble. No, that would be even more of an understatement. He was in deep shit. An understatement too.

He was in Hell. Yeah, that would be more accurate.

It had been a simple transporting assignment. Just bring the item back to Tokyo so that an appropriate candidate could be chosen. Just take it from Kyoto to Tokyo. It was as simple as that.

The item in question had been in his briefcase the whole time. He went into a café to get a cup of coffee and left it at a table. When he was gone, the briefcase was gone. The briefcase he didn't care much about. It was what was inside that made him panic. It was newly developed, a prototype, and he had lost it. Technically it was stolen, but it was the same thing.

Now, he held the cell phone in his hand, gulping and sweating. To call or not to call? There were many outcomes that he could see. On one hand, if he did call, he might get some help, on the other hand he might just get yelled at or worse; fired. If he didn't call the item would be jeopardized and he would be stuck looking for it on his own. He weighed his choices. He sighed. He straightened his suit and called on his cell phone, anticipating the worse.

"This is Smart Brain Corporation," spoke a female voice on the other line. "How may I help you?"

"This is Satoru Hagemoto," he replied. "I'd like to talk to the boss, please. This is an emergency."

"Please hold."

Hagemoto's heart pounded. The music wasn't helping him one bit and felt more like a death march than anything. Finally, he was connected to the CEO's line. The CEO's voice spoke, "Yes, who is this?"

"Sir," Hagemoto said as he gulped. "There's been a problem."

"What kind of problem?" the voice sounded calm, but the boss' voice always sounded calm before he ripped you to shreds. Hagemoto found his voice again and said, "I've lost the item."

25 seconds of deafening silence.

"YOU WHAT?" The male, slightly young sounding, voice shouted out to almost echo in the winds.

Hagemoto recomposed himself and muttered while holding his phone away which emanated some sort of cursing in a foreign language, "Well, that could've gone worst." He placed it back to his ear when the cursing died down. "Um, boss?"

"Where are you now?" The voice sounded calm, too calm, and Hagemoto thought he was in the clear.

"I'm in Nerima…"

Ranma Saotome was walking along the road, cursing his life again for the umpteenth time. Life just seemed to be getting crazier and crazier. For one he wasn't even close to getting the cure to his unique 'condition' and secondly the wedding disaster just made life even more crazier.

'Stupid dad, stupid engagement, stupid rivals, stupid fiancées, stupid A-' somehow, he couldn't finish his train of thought.

Hands in his pockets, he absentmindedly kicked a can without looking down. He couldn't call Akane stupid, even in his mind. Even though he wouldn't admit it he did love her. Sure their relationship had it ups and downs, mostly downs, but it did have its fair share of ups as well. He liked training with her despite her being so stubborn and talking to her despite her being so pigheaded, but those were the qualities he liked. She was strong and wouldn't back down from a fight. Sure she had anger management problems but she looked really cute when mad.

He kicked the can again but this time it didn't feel like a can at all. He looked down and saw not a can but some sort of metal belt.

"What's this then?" he asked no one in particular as he leaned down. The belt looked like it was made from sort of metal. It was solid looking but felt light as well. He turned it over to look at the buckle. Now, Ranma wasn't the most techno savviest of guys but even he was smart enough to know that this was hi-tech in appearance. The surface of the buckle was smooth with ridges on around the edges that looked to function for something to latch on to it. The small symbol on it, that looked like a half black and half silver hexagram with an S and B in it with alternating colors, didn't seem all too familiar to him. Ranma was used to magical artifacts and this didn't look magical to him. It looked more hi-tech, almost alien, to him. With a sigh he slung it over his shoulder and continued on his way home. He would figure this thing out later.

He did not notice a golden beetle with three horns buzzing after him from afar.