A young man with a neatly written sign hanging on him reading ‘the Author’ sits by his VCR equipped TV, wearing a T-shirt with R.O.D. on it in big red letters. He talks quietly, while not looking away from watching Read or Die on the screen “ I really enjoyed watching this series, so I decided to write a fanfic on it!” “This story takes place after the three episode Read or Die OVAs, so as you can guess, if you have not yet seen the series, there are some major spoilers in here! This is a shoujo-ai story set a few months after the battle with Ikkyu and his Ijin army, and deals with the developing relationship between Yomiko Readman and Nancy Makuhari. It may get a bit mushy, but probably will not be lemony. Enjoy!” May 26/ 02- The Author blushes brightly, “Oops. Somebody pointed out to me I may have misunderstood the ending, and, after seeing it again, I realized they were probably right. Damn those poor quality subtitles! Mis- timed, too. I’ve done a bit of a rewrite, to take that into account, and I’ve expanded the chapters a bit.” ------------------------------------------------------------ Joker ------------------------------------------------------------ The hot sun beat down on a empty section of the open sea, where the ruined pieces of a rocket gradually floated to the surface of the water. A helicopter dips low; a blond hared man hanging on a cable descends, and carefully recovers a single black clad person, clinging to the wreckage. Several hours later, Drake nodded respectfully to Joker and led him down the hallway of the private hospital. “The recovery operation went fine, Joker,” Drake said, hands in his pockets. “The biggest problem we had was keeping the other governments involved in the dark. But the cover held, and they all think it was just war games.” “Good work,” Joker congratulated him absentmindedly. They stopped at a unmarked door. “Are you coming in?” Joker asked. Drake smiled a bit sadly, “I’m not as ready to forgive people as Yomiko is. I’ll catch you later, if that’s all right.” Joker nodded, watching him walk away. He opened the door, and headed in, waving to the doctor waiting there. “What’s the prognosis?” Joker asked, looking down at the sleeping figure of Nancy Makuhari, the original Miss Deep. “She suffered some brain damage, from the exposure to space and the landing. In simple terms, she’s amnesiac, like her copy.” The young doctor looked nervously at Joker, to see how he’d take the news. Joker looked over at the doctor a moment, then he nodded sadly, “Is there any chance of recovery?” “The brain has a miraculous ability to recover from damage, sir,” the young doctor said. “It will take time, however, for the brain to reroute its functions around the damage, and she may not fully regain what she’s lost. I think exposure to figures from her past might be beneficial,” the medic suggested. Joker nodded thoughtfully, “But I think Yomiko must not be told she’s alive Let them meet, certainly, but tell Yomiko it’s the clone.” “Why...” the doctor started to ask, only to be cut off. “If Nancy doesn’t recover, I don’t want Yomiko to know the one she cared for will never remember her. Even if she does recover, there will be consequences to her actions.” Joker looked intently at the doctor, “She is to get the best care possible, for Yomiko’s sake. Do you understand?” The young man saluted, “Yes sir!” Joker’s cell phone rang, and he answered quickly. “Ah, Yomiko! It’s been a while. How has your leave of absence been...”
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