Her problem was that, after a wholly disquieting and mostly useless discussion with Cologne, she'd come home to wait out things for a bit, and had discovered that there seemed to be a growing danger out there. It was hard to contemplate any real strategies if one could doubt that they would be breathing long enough to implement her plans. Not that she wasn't sure that she could out think any trouble, but being on the run was most assuredly not on her list of things to do. But at the start, her plan was to stay right she was at the beginning.
By the time that there was a family meeting, she knew that there was a shift in opinion.
"Kuno tried to take me out of the air again," Akane grumbled.
Genma crossed his arms over his chest. "The news says that people have been thinking that this is some sort of sign of coming trouble..."
"They might kill you girls!" Soun sobbed.
"I had to save Ucchan from those guys who'd ganged up on her..," Ranma murmured, his eyes flicking to the stairs that would lead to the room to where the mentioned girl lay.
"I got harassed at the market..." Kasumi said in a near whisper. "So we have a clear understanding of this. It's not going well," Nabiki told them all, "We have to figure out what we'll do."
"But to go to a whole other country..." her father began.
"'But' nothing, Daddy. Look at what's happening. There's talk of quarantine camps for girls like us, and talk of 'protective' camps for the girls who are still 'human'. Some people have taken to idiotic attempts to 'capture' us, and others will outright want to kill us. Even if the fact that this isn't some plot is getting to some people, it's already a mess. I, for one, don't want to be a statistic, or to have the neighbors realise that they've hurt Kasumi when the news that it's just some change that's going around gets out."
The Tendo Patriarch's nose flared. "They wouldn't dare..."
"We've heard of family members doing this to each other, so do you think that they'd merely let a resemblance sway them if they got really hot under the collar? They might not know who they were after until it was too late, and I don't want to risk it. Do you?"
When her father hung his head, she knew that she had won.
It was just that it was a hollow victory, and one that she really wished that she'd never had to press for.
If being back at her village was a major shift from her time in Tokyo, doing so as a reasonable facsimile of her young self was even more of one for Cologne. Everything looked pretty much the same, which reinforced her awareness of how isolated things were. At one time, she'd been happy to go outside of it, but right now, being there was something of a relief. With the only difficulties being in identifying herself, and returning with more than she'd left for, it had been complicated in the beginning, but it was working itself out for the most part.
But they were there, and hopefully would be safe from the problems that had racked the outside world. Some concessions had been made, of course, since they would need reliable sources of information and things like radios made for useful items. And since the folks who'd she brought were possibly there for a long stay, they'd brought everything they could, with an emphasis on their most cherished items.
She didn't blame them, and let them bring it, as at a time like this, one needed all the comforts one could get.
Sighing to herself, she watched them try to settle in, while:
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(Posted Tue, 12 Apr 2005 05:15)
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