“So let me get this straight, Saotome, you claim that this blond haired ninja bimbo buddy of yours is supposedly some sort of genie?” Nabiki said, not quite sold: she was the daughter of a martial artist, after all, and as such had witnessed the old Ninja-smoke-bomb-fading-in technique one too many times to be fooled by it. Naturally, that bimbo comment earned her a slight frown from Mihoshi, who luckily for Nabiki wasn’t the vengeful type.
“Hey! Don’tcha go callin’ people you don’t know bimbos. It ain’t nice, and I jus’ came here ‘cause I thoughtcha could–“
“Alright, alright already. Don’t blow a gasket, Saotome. I’ll play along,” Nabiki cut him off, “So miss genie, what are the rules? Please, do tell,” she queried, watching the girl closely, hoping to catch the ditzy looking ninja off guard, as she waited for the slightest bit of anxiety to surface, by forcing the blond to make up a list on the fly; after all, what was the likelihood of those two bozos going through an effort of prearranging one?
Mihoshi perked up upon hearing the request; this was one of her favorite parts. By now, since reading them to Ranma, she had the rules memorized. Now she could act ‘all geniely and stuff’ and set a good impression with Nabiki with her ‘genieness’. Instead of summoning the blackboard this time, a pair of glasses poofed into existence and onto her face – her ditziness momentarily dissipating. Looking Nabiki in the eyes, she pushed her glasses up with and index finger and spoke.
“Alright, I shall repeat them for you then...”
“...First, absolutely, no wishing for more wishes...”
“...Second, deaths and resurrections need to be approved by a third party of high authority, and may lead to the forfeit of wish...”
“...Third, a wish is to be carried out by the method using the least amount of mana and complexity...”
“...Fourth, no run-on wishes...”
“...Fifth, no intrinsic world-wide changes in personalities are allowed...”
“…And finally, in the event that the granted chooses to have an agent make the wish for them, the wish has to be deemed beneficial to the intended before being granted,” Mihoshi explained, invoking the optional rule to be used by genie’s discretion; that cute boy had stood up for her, after all. Looking at Ranma, she smiled, as her glasses poofed out of existence, causing her to fall into a fit of coughs from the smoke they left behind, while her ditziness returned. She was glad they were off too: somehow, the universe just felt all wrong with them on.
Nabiki frowned in concentration. Ninja tricks usually didn’t involve glasses, and were limited to smoke bombs being thrown to the ground. There was a slim chance here that this was for real. So she had to be careful, if she wanted to benefit from Ranma’s run in with good luck.
The first rule was to be expected, and the fifth rule probably wouldn’t apply to her wish. The problem was the ‘genie’ made it clear that there would be no wish stealing. So she had to wish in such a way that they’d both benefit. The death and resurrection clause brought up some interesting possibilities she wouldn’t have thought of weren’t it mentioned. The possibility of getting her mother back stunned her. She felt a slight bit of hope, along with an anguishing sense of dread of being denied. Of the darker path of the two, there were always people she or Ranma could do without. But in either case, the clause needed approval of some higher power, something which might be improbable to receive and would just lead to a wasted wish, along with much disappointment.
Whatever the case, it was the “no run-on wishes” clause that stood in her way from reaping some of Ranma’s rewards. It made her wonder: what exactly was a run-on wish? Obviously, it had nothing to do with run-on sentences. Her guess was it was any wish that included the word ‘and’ in it. So if she wanted to manipulate a wish into doing more than one thing, she would have to word it carefully, avoiding the ‘and’, keeping it simple to deflect any suspicion of cheating on her part. Surely, the average Jane made such wishes on occasion in good faith, without trying to bypass the clause. And surely, they wouldn’t punish her for something that could have been a honest mistake. The question was: was it worth risking? If she kept it simple enough, it would seem innocent enough, while at the same time avoiding any unexpected result that could arise from the third rule.
(Posted Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:01)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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