"He not wake up -- Shampoo leave him with Tofu-sensei," she said by way of explanation.
"Good enough," Ranma mused. Now that he thought about it, with Cologne missing, Tofu was the logical explanation. Though, if he could get that Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion.... He discarded that thought after a moment. Tarou had learned to add martial skill -- and a lot of it -- to his monstrous form in a handful of months.
The monster-boy was a lot like himself, Ranma realized. Resilient, and quite likely to bounce back from anything with even more drive to finish what he failed at. That was probably the real reason Tarou had picked a fight he couldn't win; he wanted to prove himself, and even if he failed, he'd at least have a gauge of how much further he had to go.
Still, it had been costly -- Ranma didn't look forward to the government asking him to cover any damages, and he'd also let Tarou get away. He couldn't afford to keep Tarou as an enemy; he didn't show as much restraint or reason as Ryouga. That meant that he needed to take away Tarou's reason for fighting him.
The only ways he could see to do that were to try and crush Tarou's spirit, which he didn't think would work (it never worked on himself, after all), or to just give Tarou what he wanted and hope he went away. "Right," he sighed. "I'm going to get the old freak to fix Tarou's name once-and-for-all so he never bothers us again."
"You're going to help him after all that?" Akane asked, somewhat surprised.
Shampoo nearly choked on a dumpling, and Ukyou had to pound her on the back to breathe properly again. "Yes, Airen. Why you help panty-monster?" she asked.
"Well, I guess it kind of ties in with my speech," Ranma said, scratching beneath his pigtail nervously. "I can't just smash Tarou out of the way and expect a good result. I mean ... I kind of ... blew up Tokyo Tower. What next time, the Tokyo Giant's Stadium?"
"I don't think many would miss that," Ukyou opined. "But I see where you're coming from, Ranchan. So why not just keep him tied down until you can get that Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion again?"
"Thought about that," Ranma admitted. "But let's face it. It didn't work against me."
"Panty-monster with Hiryuu Shouten Ha?" Shampoo mumbled. "Shampoo not like that idea." Then she shook her head. "Who teach panty-monster soul-of-ice?"
"I wouldn't," Ranma said, shaking his head. "And I don't think the Joketsuzoku would." Shampoo nodded agreement. "If Prince Herb knew why Tarou wanted to learn it, I don't think he would teach it, either." After a moment of consideration, he admitted, "Hell, he probably wouldn't even talk to Tarou."
"So is no problem, yes?" Shampoo asked.
"I dunno," Ranma said, shaking his head. "Tarou will go for any advantage, I think. He seems to love his monster body. Super strength soba ... maybe that invincibility tattoo...."
"Invincibility tattoo?" Akane asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think I've ever heard of that one."
"Uh, it makes you ... pretty much invincible," Ranma said after a moment of thought. "I don't think Tarou would randomly find any of those things ... but there are probably ways around the weakness moxibustion that I never really got around to trying. He could find one, and he'd be more angry, because instead of just beating him, I kicked him while he was down."
Hotaru nodded solemnly in consideration of Ranma's words. "Ah," he groaned, running his hands through his bangs. "He's laid up at Tofu's, and shouldn't be running around for a few days. I need more time to think about it."
Smiling, Hotaru asked, "What are we going to do next?"
"Hmm," Ranma mused, looking across the table at his former fiancees contemplatively.
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(Posted Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:11)
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