"Here?" Ranma squeaked out. "In the changing room!?"
"Do you think the bath would be more private?" Ukyou asked, smiling brightly.
"Uh," Ranma managed, looking between the girls anxiously, while Hotaru giggled and slipped out the door. "What's going on here?"
"Right!" Shampoo said. "Now we coach Airen so he talk good on television. Not make daughter embarrassed."
"Oh." Ranma paused for a moment. What had he thought they wanted to corner him for? It was kind of odd to be in the changing room, but he supposed it was private enough for their purposes. Maybe new clothes needed to be treated properly and this was part of it. "That sounds like a good idea."
"Glad you agree!" Ukyou said. "Well, we've got a few hours, so we're going to ask you some of the questions we think they'll ask you, okay, Ranchan?"
"Go for it."
***
Back in her van, Nanami tried to restrain a nervous twitch. Sousuke was sitting next to her, in his sharply pressed uniform, disguised as the assistant camera man. "At least Makoto wears a suit," she grumbled to herself.
"Is there something wrong with this mode of dress?" Sousuke asked, not even glancing at his jumpsuit. "It's tactically sound and well suited to the urban combat environment."
Makoto and Nanami exchanged a glance.
"Sempai," Makoto began cautiously, "this man we're meeting might be dangerous, and we wouldn't want--"
"I have been sent to observe and protect my allies," Sousuke replied tonelessly. "If he poses a threat I will subdue him."
"That may not be such a hot idea," Nanami said, shaking her head. "He's someone we may want to recruit."
Sousuke blinked at this revelation. "Why am I here?" he asked.
"Well," Makoto began thoughtfully, "philosophers from the beginning of time have wondered that, Sagara-san, but really, no one's quite certain. I think it's up to each person to find their own--"
"Please," Nanami groaned. "Both of you. Makoto, you're not going to magically fill some void in his psyche by analyzing him. I don't think Sagara's got anything in his skull for your words to hit. Sagara, I want you on your best behavior, because we need to make a good impression with these people. You get me?" She added a surge of emotional calm to her words, which she expected both could probably ignore, but it didn't hurt to try.
"Understood," they said together, sitting down silently.
***
By the time Ranma made it to the backyard, he'd found the dojo transformed. It had only been partially blown up a week ago, he thought, looking at the newly replaced floor. A week ago he'd almost married Akane.
He shook his head to dismiss that thought, and looked at the white curtains that the girls had strung up across all of the walls, and over the ceiling. If he hadn't known better, he might have thought the dojo didn't have massive holes in it. The western wall was left with a gaping void in it, but the edges were swaddled in cloth, so it appeared some form of window, and as the sun set, light from reflection of the koi-pond would paint the walls with flickering bands of golden color.
The center of the room was filled with pillows in a low heap. He was seated in the center of this mess, on the largest pillow, while the girls discussed and considered various possible places for themselves to sit. After a few minutes of indecisive but good-natured bickering, Ranma felt a pressing need to hide in his cloak and whimper.
Shortly after that, Nabiki arrived, and arranged everyone with a few barked commands, and a warning that the camera crew was already interviewing Nodoka and Genma in the living room. The arrangement was so that Hotaru would sit in front of Ranma, on the same pillow, and to the left. Ukyou and Akane got to sit on adjacent pillows on either side of Ranma in the classic kneeling position, while Shampoo lounged behind Ranma on a higher pillow, visible symmetrical to Hotaru's position for the camera.
"Good," Nabiki decided, crossing her arms over her chest and standing in the corner to watch expectantly.
***
"Boss," Nanami whimpered into the cell-phone, "something's up, somehow, some other news channel got here first, and they're already running an interview. I'm going to have to let Sagara take care of them."
"Understood," Masamichi replied. "Fujisawa out." The line clicked off, and Nanami nodded to Sousuke.
The boy didn't exactly smile, but he somehow seemed pleased, and slipped out of the van, pulling a pair of wire cutters from his pocket before he seemed to vanish into the shadows. A minute later, he returned, and said, "It's done."
"That was surprisingly non-explosive," Nanami said quietly.
Makoto peered at the other news-van parked down the street. "Did you cut their satellite transmission feed?" he asked curiously. "Or their power?"
"Brake-line," Sousuke replied, as the van suddenly began to crawl forward, hauling all of the cameras and equipment wired into it down the street, and slowly picking up speed.
"Subtle as always," Nanami sighed. "Let's get in there. I just know someone up there has it out for me."
***
"Blow up Tokyo Tower two days before our date for three other girls, will you?" Urd growled, punching in a sequence of commands at her keyboard. "Well, we'll see how you like this!"
She paused long enough to laugh maniacally, a slew of tiny clones behind her doing the same as they scurried about the local television station's air ducts, subtly subverting the entire news broadcast to her own purposes. Now she'd embarrass the boy who stood her up! Let's see, she'd arranged for him to be on the news ... she just had to--
*ring-ring-ring!*
"Aw, man," she groused, grabbing her cell-phone. "Hey, this is Urd, I'm kind of in the middle of--" Her eyes widened and she gasped, making a tiny squeak of alarm.
"Oh," she said shakily. "Um. Hi, Father."
After a pause, she winced, and said, "Well, I kind of hacked it a little."
Wincing again she said, "Can I rewind time? I already--"
Her face paled, and she held the phone slightly away from her ear, cringing away from the speaker. "Yes, Father," she said quickly, one it silenced, "I'll do everything I have to in order to get this fixed."
Well, first things first, she'd need to go back in time and erase that whole part where she had posted that, "Urd Mocks Ranma!" banner, and that meant pulling strings she didn't like to. Oh well.
She snapped her fingers, and suddenly all of her clones vanished, and she resumed her full stature. Another snap of the fingers and a young girl, perhaps sixteen years old with violet eyes and waist-length green hair was standing before her. "An' I was like totally-- Oh, wow, this is like, so not the ice-cream parlor!" the new arrival exclaimed, looking around the office Urd had barricaded herself into.
"Uh, no, not really," Urd agreed. "Um, you can time-travel, so I need to go back in time to change the past. I could do it myself, but, uh, Daddy says I can't use the Ultimate Force for this mess since I started it. So, I need to go to about five minutes ago."
The green-haired schoolgirl stared, her jaw dropping open. After a moment, she asked, "Is this some kinda put-on? A joke? I mean, who the heck are you? This isn't some sentai--"
"Oh, right," Urd said, snapping her fingers and summoning a frothing vial of some green liquid. "Drink this, it'll restore your memories."
"Memories?" the girl said doubtfully, sniffing at the vial. "I dunno...."
"Face Urd's potion-administering technique!" the goddess exclaimed, pinching the girl's nose shut and pouring the potion in. "Come on! I've got history to rewrite here!"
While the girl staggered around clutching her throat, Urd grumbled, and produced her datacube for Ranma. "Now I've got to make him look good. Great."
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(Posted Sun, 31 Jul 2005 19:49)
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