"Ukyou-chan," Nabiki said dryly, "with all due respect, I don't think we'll all fit here comfortably."
"Point," the okonomiyaki chef acquiesced. "I'll get packed, and send Konatsu down in a bit. There's a shower if you want to rinse off, Ranchan."
He grunted, and nodded. "Got it," he mumbled, going to the tiny shower as Ukyou fled back upstairs.
Abandoned for the moment, Nabiki wandered behind the grill, more because she'd never really seen it from that angle than any other reason. Of course, it also let her avoid looking at a certain ... wet stain ... on the floor, but that was only a coincidence. "Oh, who am I kidding?" she muttered; she needed to keep herself distracted. She checked the gas, and saw that it was on, though the power was out.
She turned the grill on, noting that Ukyou's clock/radio was not battery powered, as her own was. Pity, she mused briefly.
Ranma returned, looking essentially the same, save, slightly annoyed. "Hot water's out," he said, shrugging.
"Must have an electric water heater then," Nabiki noted, glancing at the grill. "I'll put a kettle on, just take a cold shower."
Nodding, Ranma vanished again, as Konatsu wandered down the stairs groggily, struggling into a robe as he went. "Morning," he mumbled, heading for the bathroom.
"Whoa!" Nabiki called out, putting a kettle on the grill. "Ranma-kun's in there, Konatsu." The ninja stopped, and then nodded, closing his robe and sitting down at the grill. After a moment, he blinked some of the sleep out of his eyes, and ran his hands across his face and hair, smoothing it back into its girlish style, and somehow seeming to apply makeup with the wave of a hand. If Nabiki hadn't seen the open robe on the way down the stairs, she might have thought Konatsu was really a girl.
"Okay, Ukyou-chan has good taste in employees," Nabiki noted. "Do you have a battery-operated radio?"
"Hai," Konatsu chirped, awake, and trotting around the grill quickly. He retrieved it from his small bedroom (the pantry, Nabiki noted), and turned it on after setting it on the bar before the grill. "...othing new to report yet. So far, ah ... the death toll is estimated to be at about 75% of all males, though, ah, many are in critical condition with no signs of improvement at this point. Ah ... also, we're at ... 4% of all females...."
The radio shattered in Konatsu's hand, his eyes widened. "Pardon me," he whispered, staring at the remains of the radio in shock, eyes wide. "Oh, oh dear."
Nabiki resisted the urge to shudder, and whispered, "Don't let Ukyou or Ranma know yet. I want everyone back at the dojo so we can all hold together before anyone panics."
"Ah. Yes," Konatsu said numbly, collecting the small pieces of the radio that had landed on the grill, and shuffling off to dump them in the waste-bin. Ranma emerged, now female, from the shower, and practically swimming in her kimono.
"This thing's huge on me!" she complained, tying up the excess length with cord, and edging Nabiki out of the way to begin preparing some okonomiyaki. "Hey, Nabiki-chan, can you see if Ucchan's alright?"
"Yeah," Nabiki said, glancing behind herself, and wandering upstairs. She was relatively confident that she wasn't going to die, based on what she'd heard ... but still, things were changing so quickly....
===============
"So," Ranma said, once Nabiki was out of sight. "How do you feel about Ukyou, Konatsu?"
The ninja flinched, and then threw himself on the floor, prostrate before Ranma. "Please forgive me, Ranma-sama," he said, his voice quavering with tears. "I owe my life to you and Ukyou-sama, and I have betrayed your trust. I place my life in your hands, as you see fit."
For her part, Ranma poured some batter out onto the grill, and grunted. "Get up, Konatsu. You're not dying. Something ... happened. I don't know what it was. But it's not your fault. And I'm reasonably sure that while ... whatever was going on happened, no one on either side complained. Now here's the deal, though. I screwed up way worse than you or Ucchan could have. I may be in over my head so deep that even seppuku won't restore me from what I did."
Konatsu sprung to his feet, eyes wide and shining with unshed tears. "That's not possible, Ranma-sama!" he protested. "You're too noble a person to end up like that!"
"You're too kind," Ranma said in a deadpan, dousing herself with the heated kettle, and regaining his proper form. "Now, let's be serious, Konatsu. I can only marry one person, but I'm in a spot where I might be obligated to marry more. I'm not sure how Ucchan would take it, but if it comes down to it, it ain't my choice. I guess you're like Ucchan; an orphan, so you don't gotta worry about it, but it's my mom's call as to who I marry."
"Oh," Konatsu said quietly.
"I always figgered, before, that I'd get to make a choice, and if I had to, could cheat to require honor to make me marry ... well, anyway. Now, that's been done. About ... fourteen ... well, twelve, really, times. If Mom makes me marry someone aside from Ucchan, can you promise me you'll take care of her?"
"If there's no other option," Konatsu mumbled. "I would rather do all in my power to help you and Ukyou-sama together."
Ranma nodded. "Good enough for me, Konatsu. But leave some room to make yourself happy."
The ninja blushed, as Ukyou and Nabiki trooped down the stairs, and Ranma served up a breakfast of okonomiyaki. "Not as good as Ucchan's," he warned, "but here ya go."
After everyone had eaten....
See other episodes by Sgt. Chibi De`Ohki
(Posted Sun, 17 Jul 2005 04:09)
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