In fact, considering the goal wasn't really as much to snare Ranma as much as make sure Urd didn't snare Ranma, that meant there was that much more reason to try! Pausing to shift her streetclothes into her senshi uniform, she produced a stick of gum from a pocket of space. "Okay. I think I'm going to want to take a good long look at this."
***
Meanwhile back at a certain temple, Belldandy and Skuld looked up with mild surprise. "Stop time?" Belldandy asked. "I suppose I could do that, but why do you need to, Urd?"
The mini-Urd in front of the television groaned. "I've got someone with time-travel powers working against me! I've got to stop her!"
"Well, how did this happen?"
"Did you use one of your potions?" Skuld asked suspiciously.
"Actually, yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"
Skuld shook her head and began walking away. "Urd, your potions never work," she sighed.
"Hey!" Urd protested. "That's not true at-- Ah! I'm running out of time! Please, Bell, I really really need time stopped. Just for, uh, an instant."
"Oh," Belldandy sighed. "I suppose if I must."
***
Setsuna watched Urd freeze time at some point in the future. "Well," she grumbled. "This will be annoying. Can't get past me, though, so I'll just change the past." That in mind, she set about changing a few factors in the background lives around Ranma, setting things in motion that would appear to the boy to be completely out of the blue.
"A change of living situation, Urd," she mused. "We'll just put him a biiiit further out of your reach."
***
While time was frozen, Urd activated her datacube. "First things first," she grumbled, "find out who screwed up his love-life so much."
She scanned across the file quickly, cringing at each entry. The culmination was so severe she had to look away and shake her head to clear it. "Uh-oh." Skipping to the end, she read the name of the one who had originally made all the changes. "'Trainee Urd -- Experimental file, do not actually apply'."
"Well," she decided, pocketing the cube. "Time's frozen. I can manipulate the future. I can work with this." That in mind, she set about changing a few factors in the background lives around Ranma, setting things in motion that would appear to the boy to be completely out of the blue.
"We'll just fix one annoying little problem, and make sure that whatever Setsuna does, you still come out looking like a hero."
***
Makoto counted down the last three seconds silently, and as he reached 'one', Ranma shuddered involuntarily, unable to ignore the feeling that somehow, there was a momentous catfight, one which could shake the very foundation of his universe ... and he was missing it. After a moment, realizing that the three most dangerous seekers of his affection (bar, perhaps, Kodachi) were already in the room with him and getting along, he dismissed that thought. Surely nothing could be going wrong.
***
Watching the temporal readings on her monitor spike, Hakubi Washuu rubbed at her temples and sighed. "Love in Tokyo is always messy," she muttered. Brightening, she realized that she could make a few subtle manipulations in the narrow band of time between the two warring force's interjections, and smooth things out so that, with any luck, they'd forget to fight one-another.
"Subtlety's for wimps," she declared, setting to work quickly.
***
Nanami had only just finished getting her makeup applied when the lights came on and the camera began to roll. She retreated into the background of her mind, allowing her reporter persona to surface while she projected calm and confidence to everyone else in the room. Interviews always went more smoothly without stage-fright. "Hello, I'm Jinnai Nanami, here with channel eight news, pleased to announce our exclusive sun-set interview with Tokyo's hero, the J.S.D.F.'s own ... Saotome Ranma!"
The boy in question seemed to soak up the projected confidence like a sponge, and nodded, smiling brightly at the camera as the first light of the setting sun bathed the wall behind him with wavering bands of crimson and gold fire. He bowed to the camera, and said, "It's a great honor to be called a hero, but fighting ... monsters like that is the duty of a martial artist."
"Indeed!" Nanami said brightly. "Now, Saotome-dono, we're really curious about the fight you had, and we'd like to show a clip of the footage, could you offer your commentary on it?"
"Ah, sure," Ranma said, nodding. "Though, I've never seen video of myself fighting before."
"Well, you're in for a treat," Nanami said with a hopeful grin, as a monitor between the cameras began playing back footage of the battle earlier that day. Tarou appeared on the deck, and Nanami asked, "What can you tell us about this monster? And what's his association with the Chinese boy?"
"That's ... Tarou, one of my sensei's rivals," Ranma said. "He came to try and settle a dispute."
"Ranchan was forced to mediate," Ukyou supplied helpfully.
Nanami blinked, and then shrugged, as Ranma picked up Akane and Hotaru, while Tarou punched a girder wrapped in a shirt. "And how did you do this?"
"Ranma is very fast," Shampoo said, smiling. "Tarou is easily distracted."
Ranma nodded his agreement.
Nanami frowned. She wanted to talk to Ranma, not this trio of rivals for Ranma's affection! "Ah, there ... that flash of golden light, what is that?" Nanami asked, when Ranma attacked Tarou with a projectile.
"That's the Mouko Takabisha," Akane offered when Ranma couldn't quite explain it. "Ranma developed that move to fight a rival of his, to counter a chi move he made on his own."
"Really," Nanami murmured. "Your martial arts allow you to throw energy -- that's impressive." The camera jostled, and when the screen settled again, Ranma was rebounding from the pantyhose screens and calling in a titanic storm. "And you did this with martial skill as well.... But, you did defeat the monster, and more importantly, thanks to you, no one was killed. So, you protect because you're a martial artist, is that right?"
"That's part of it," Ranma said, smiling down at Hotaru when she looked up at him quizzically. "It's also kind of like they say. Some people learn to become powerful martial arts for themselves, or so they can try and say 'might makes right'. But my father always told me that martial artists trained to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. When that monster kidnapped my daughter, well, I had to protect her.
"But even if it weren't my daughter and my...." Ranma glanced at Akane hesitantly, and smiled. "My friend, I'd still stop someone who had done what Tarou did. Because it's the right thing to do. At least ... I think so."
"Wow," Nanami said. "And there you have it, folks! That's Jinnai Nanami with Saotome Ranma, Tokyo's Hero from channel eight news!"
Makoto made a sign with one hand, and said, "And we're off the air."
"Nice work, Papa-san!" Hotaru enthused. "I had fun today! What are we going to do tomorrow?"
"Well," Ranma said quietly. "I like the idea of napping until next week."
Hotaru giggled again. "You're so silly, Papa!"
See other episodes by Sgt. Chibi De`Ohki
(Posted Sun, 31 Jul 2005 23:13)
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