It was in practice when the roadblocks to her plan started showing up, the first of which was the distance that she had to travel. When she was human, going across the ward did have some problems, but as a ferret, it seemed much bigger. She was a little furry animal, and had to get across many blocks to get to her home. There was no easy way to deal with this, as no one spoke 'ferret', so she had to make do with running and trying to get to where she could go. At the same time, she had to dodge various flying monkeys running a search pattern for her. So she had to duck and weave through alleyways, busy streets, and hidden little areas like under bridges.
With all that, she was tired, mentally weary, and her fur needed a washing. If she'd been human, no one would have been able to see the bedraggled form as the same girl who was always cool and collected. As it was, she had to be concerned about being swatted at when being mistaken for a giant rat.
It was simply not her day.
However, she did get a stroke of luck. A delivery truck that she recognised from her neighborhood was nearby, and she climbed on to hitch a ride. It was a tight squeeze getting onto the attachement between cab and cargo space, but she didn't care. After all, she wouldn't have to walk, and she was relatively hidden there. That alone made it worth it to stay on the truck. The only thing that she'd have to worry about would be to stay on the truck long enough to get to a place close enough to her home to make it easy to get there. And it didn't seem that it would be hard to do.
Unfortunately, it also meant that she had to stay bent almost unnaturally in a space without cushioning, or a guard against any exhaust fumes or puddles they might run into. Not only that, but she had to deal with Tokyo traffic, which wasn't the best in the world.
By the time that she got off in a place she recognised, she was so wiped that she had to roll into a bush just to recover. She lay there, hoping that she would stop feeling the bumps that the truck had gone over. It took a while, but she was able to uncurl from her travelling position, and stretched out so that her legs could actually move as they were intended to. With the effort it took to be able to get into a position where she could walk again, she swore that she'd never complain about being in a compact car again.
Spotting a birdbath, she scampered up it and rinsed herself off as best she could. As she did so, she noted that this place was closer to the high school than her home, but that wouldn't be a problem. If nothing else, she could get someone else to bring her home.
And that seemed to be a distinct possibility, as she heard the ring of the bell for the closing of the school day. That meant that students would be heading home soon, and she wanted to take advantage of that, given her current state of exhaustion. It would be easier on the little feet of her cursed form, and she could hopefully get hot water sooner.
With such an impetus, she found a new reserve of energy, and ran as hard as she could. It wasn't as quickly as she could do in all, but it was quite a feat for a ferret who'd wanted to curl up in a ball and go to sleep. She dashed towards the school, and even allowed herself to perch on the property wall near the gates in order to get a better view. That proved to be a benefit for her, as she spotted a familiar pigtail amongst the sea of students.
Racing over to him, she cut around to get ahead of him, and bounced to the ground where he was walking in the hopes of communicating with him. Taking a leap, she landed on the sidewalk before he got there, and mentally prepared herself for dealing with the situation. She got ready to communicate with him, and:
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:17)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.