It was then that the front door opened and closed. Kasumi, being the caretaker of the house, knew the sound each and everyone of the occupants of the house made. She knew from the soft opening and closing of the door that Nabiki was back from school. “Welcome home, Nabiki!” Kasumi greeted kindly. “Dinner isn’t ready yet, but it will be done in another hour. So make sure to wash up later before supper.”
Nabiki walked into the kitchen, looking as calm and collected as always. “How was your day, sis?”
“Oh, perfectly fine,” Kasumi said in her happy tone of voice. “I did the usual errands and cleaning.” She put a ladle into the steaming pot to stir the entrée more to get the meat off the bone. “I’m trying a new recipe I got from the neighbors. A thick beef broth soup that I can serve with the soba noodles.”
Nabiki nodded and opened one of the cabinets to take some crackers. “Is Ranma home yet?”
“No, Nabiki,” Kasumi told her younger sister. “Ranma told me that Kassiopeia and he would try to be home in time for dinner, but may be a little late, since he said he was taking Kassiopeia out for some ‘training’.”
“Really?” Nabiki knew Kassy needed the training for the rematch two weeks from now. She just didn’t think they’d start so soon. “Kasumi?”
“Yes, Nabiki?” Kasumi asked as she was looking for a bottle of spices form the cupboard to add to the broth.
“I’ll be in my room until dinner. I have a lot of homework,” She said as she inwardly thought about her revenge against whoever it was that humiliated her like that.
“Have fun, Nabiki!” Kasumi said as she went back to preparing the evening meal for her family and houseguests; completely unaware of the unbridled rage that stirred within her sister’s soul.
“Oh yes. I’ll have fun, Kasumi,” Nabiki whispered as she climbed the stairs.
Off on the veranda, the two patriarchs were playing shogi. Genma-Panda held up a sign, [Think she saw her image up there in the sky today, Soun old buddy?]
Soun visibly shuddered. “I wish I could say no, old friend... I wish I could say no.”
The panda baka flipped his sign over. [I wonder what this means for Nerima...]
Moving his head, Soun looked straight at Genma seriously. “Be very afraid, Saotome. You’ve never seen my daughter truly mad.” Soun’s unusual seriousness was starting to unnerve the panda.
Shivering, Genma-panda held up a new sign. [Surely, it can’t be so bad as that WE should worry. We aren’t the targets of her wrath...] He then flipped the sign over. [Are we?]
The mustached man’s silence spoke for itself.
The panda visibly shivered. Taking out a marker, it started to write out a new sign. [Perhaps it’s time to go on a training trip? I hear that Kyoto is rather nice around this time of year.]
Soun sighed. “If we’re lucky we could even have the master go with us.”
Raising an inquisitive eyebrow, the panda flipped his sign over. [Having the master with us would be LUCKY!?]
“If Nabiki knows the master is with us she’ll think he made us tag along. We would never willingly go with him, Saotome!” Soun exclaimed and stood up.
Standing up, the big panda held up yet another sign. [Smart thinking Tendo! You’re in rare form today!]
“Let us go, Saotome!” Soun started to run towards his room to pack, until coming to a sudden stop. “And don’t touch that board!”
Genma-Panda “Growfed” in an annoyed-fashion before he followed Soun.
(------)
The half-Salusian collapsed to her knees, sweat was dripping down her body in torrance. “Yeesh, Ranma...” The girl whined. “You call that a workout? I thought you were trying to kill me.” The skunk-eared girl now had more aches and bruises than she did when Ukyo had gotten through with her.
Ranma, who was barely starting to sweat, looked at Kassy in confusion. “Uh... That’s just the warm up.”
Panting, Kassy looked up at Ranma. “You’re kidding, right?”
Ranma shrugged. “Sorry.” He glared at the gravity device. “If this thing didn’t go dead on me, I’d be at least working up a sweat by now. I used to do this when I was ten.”
Blinking her eyes at that, Kassy asked, “What? The batteries went dead already? But I just replaced them!”
The pigtailed martial artist continued to frown. “Maybe something’s wrong with them?”
“Possible...” Kassy said. She shook her head. “I don’t understand, that thing should be able to do 2G’s for at least 72 hours straight.”
Ranma resisted the urge to cringe. “Uh... It didn't...”
Rolling her eyes, Kassy let out a sigh. “Damn. Must have been a defective pair of batteries then...” She shook her head as she tried to stand. “Don’t worry Ranma, when we get home, I’ll make sure to get a new pair of batteries into the device.”
“Thanks,” Ranma smiled. “Now we should stop with the warm up and get to the real workout.”
At those words, Kassy groaned. “No way... I can’t continue on today...” The half-Salusian whined. “My whole body feels like one huge black-and-blue mark.”
Ranma blinked. “That’s weird. You should feel like that after we’re done with the sparring.”
The half-Salusian looked at Ranma in a fearful stare. “Sparring!?” She asked. She had been expecting to make try some light sparring with Ranma eventually, but the first lesson!?
Bowing a little Kassy asked, “Come on, Ranma... Mercy...” After all, Kassy HATED it when her grandmother had tried training her awhile back when she was a kid as to instill some discipline and actual fighting skill. And it seemed like Ranma’s ways of training we her grandmother’s-times-twenty!!!
The pigtailed martial artist seemed to consider it for a moment. “But we haven’t even started running yet. It’s a short ten-mile sprint.”
Looking up at Ranma, Kassy nodded her head. She’d be sore after, but she was pretty sure she could handle that. “Okay... Are you going to be timing me on how long it takes me to sprint ten miles or not?”
“Nope. I’m trying you to the back of the train,” Ranma said seriously.
Kassy started at Ranma disbelievingly. “WHAT!?”
“The old man did it to me so I could run faster.” Ranma smirked. “Let’s go! There’s one train in five minutes.”
“Huh!? Now, Ranma, wait a minUUUUUUUUTTTE...” Kassy could be heard in the distance as Ranma was already rushing towards the Tokyo train station while carrying Kassy. [ZOOM!]
Ranma smirked as he jumped towards the train station. “Don’t worry. I’ll be by your side the whole time,” He said to ease her worries. Although as he ran, he had to wonder if he really saw a mouse with a sign just then.
“And what Else is new, Prof. Beanhead? STEAM!”
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(Posted Sat, 28 Aug 2004 15:23)
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