The girl stared back.
"Sempai, this is the help you wanted me to have?" asked Hotaru, turning a gaze towards Ranma that was curious.
"Yes," said Ranma, fiddling with his fingers. "Well, she's kind of..."
"Why does she look like me?" asked Hotaru.
It was a valid question. The two could almost be twins, though one of them was wearing a maid costume and had cat ears and a tail.
"I wanted her to be able to cover for you?" tried Ranma.
"Oh?" asked Hotaru, thinking maybe that there was some other angle at work here.
That isn't it, said a voice in Hotaru's head.
"Huh?" asked Hotaru.
"Would you believe that it was a coincidence?" tried Ranma.
He can't hear me, said the voice in Hotaru's head. We share a connection, you and I.
"Oh. Nothing," said Hotaru to Ranma. "Just looking over your lab. It's been awhile since I've been here."
"Oh," said Ranma. "Okay, well, this device you see here-"
He used a photograph of you and a hair he found in my creation, sent the cat-maid Hotaru. He was originally working on supergirls to play back-up and fire support for you and the other Senshi. Since you were off with your friends so much and not spending any time with him, he got lonely and during a late-night session came up with this 'twist' in the process.
"Really?" said Hotaru, nodding as if she was paying attention to Ranma but wondering why her sempai would use HER image for such a thing.
You're not that dumb, Hotaru-chan. He LIKES you.
"I don't understand," said Hotaru.
"Well, it's quite simple actually," explained Ranma, "this is where the overdimension and astral pattern data is input and -"
You are the first friend he's had, the first person to break through the walls he's erected against the world, someone who has suffered as he has - in his opinion at least. He regards you as precious and sweet and beautiful... and completely unobtainable because he views himself as twisted and ugly and crippled.
"That's not true!" blurted Hotaru.
"B-b-but honestly, that's all it does," said Ranma.
Hotaru, he can't hear me. You spending time away from him convinced him he was going to be alone again, hence my being a magically enhanced genetically modified clone of you. He also doesn't know my full capabilities such as our ability to converse.
"Oh, I'm sorry sempai, my mind was wandering," said Hotaru, unconvincingly.
"Uh huh," said Ranma, wondering what was up.
Hotaru glanced at the cat-maid, who winked at her.
Now, the question is, sent the cat-maid, what are you going to do about it?
Hotaru tried to pay attention to Ranma's explanation of the large egg sitting on a cushion of packing foam, but was thinking that-
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(Posted Wed, 15 Feb 2006 18:05)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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