Usagi cradled her forehead in her palms. “Why me? What did I do to deserve this?”
“And to think that she wonders why I have difficulty seeing her as my mother.”
“Shut up, spore.”
“You know what? You really need to come up with a better insult than ‘spore’—I’m way too desensitized to that one by now for it to be effective.”
Before her Queen could reply, Setsuna tried to steer the conversation in a different direction. She began, “Small Lady—”
The pink-haired teen was quick to cut her off. “Don’t call me that. I’ve waited for centuries to hit puberty, and now that it’s finally here, there’s no way in hell I’m ever putting up with that ‘Small Lady’ crap again. If you absolutely must be formal, call me ‘Lady Tsukino.’”
The sudden rebuke left the Time Guardian speechless, which gave Hotaru an opening to ask something of her best friend. “Does that mean you don’t want us calling you Chibi-Usa, either?”
The aforementioned girl’s face softened at her friend’s question. “That’s… a special case. In Crystal Tokyo, I can get away with insisting that people call me ‘Usagi’ or ‘Lady Tsukino’ because everyone calls Mom ‘Serenity.’ I obviously can’t do that here. And, uh, besides,” she continued, blushing slightly, “you guys are the only ones at any point in time that ever call me that, so it’s not really as bad….”
“Yes, well, I think we’d all like to know what you’re doing here, Chibi-Usa,” said Setsuna. “You do have permission to be in this part of the timeline, correct?”
“If I didn’t, don’t you think your future self would have dropped by to haul me back to Crystal Tokyo by now?”
Again, response from the heir apparent to Crystal Tokyo left Setsuna a bit flustered. Apparently, in Chibi-Usa, teenage rebellion had manifested itself by making her something of a smartass. The other Senshi were beginning to find this amusing. “You know what I meant. Why are you here? More training?”
Much to her consternation, Chibi-Usa refused to answer her question directly. “Let me guess. Ranma is messing up the Time Gates again.”
“Again?” asked Haruka with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh yeah, that’s right,” replied the pink-haired girl as if she’d just recalled some detail that had been absent-mindedly forgotten, “you just married him, didn’t you? So this would only be the first time.”
“Chibi-Usa, are you saying that Setsuna’s not going to be able use the Time Gates with any precision for the next millennium?” inquired Ami.
“No, from what I understand, it’s reasonably clear most of the time, but it occasionally fades out a bit—it really depends on what’s going on with Ranma’s life at any given time. Puu explained it to me once.”
“Could we stay on the subject at hand?” asked Setsuna, who wasn’t exactly thrilled with the way the others were talking about her as though she wasn’t in the room.
“Oh, sorry, Setsuna. In answer to your question, yes, I’m here for more training, but it’s probably not the kind you’re thinking of.”
“So, you’re not here to learn to use your powers this time?” asked Makoto.
“Of course not! I think I showed what I was capable of perfectly well during that whole Galaxia mess.”
“So what are you doing here?”
“Well, I’ve been sent here… as an observer.”
“Huh?”
“It’s kind of hard to explain… and if I go into too many details now, it could really do a number on the timeline. Look, you can just have Setsuna ask her future self about it—this whole thing was partly Puu’s idea anyway.”
“Right,” replied Usagi, who was obviously still not thrilled with her offspring’s return, even if it did have the approval of her future self. “I supposed you’ve already gone and hypnotized my family into thinking that you’re my ‘cousin’ again?”
“Actually, no. Puu was pretty insistent that I not do that this time, and she’s usually pretty easygoing, so I assumed that she meant business this time.”
Upon hearing Pluto described as “easygoing,” Haruka glanced over at the Time Guardian. “Well? Don’t you have any comments on your immanent attitude adjustment?”
“Why would I? A person can change a lot in a thousand years. Besides, I’ve been talking with my Crystal Tokyo-era self since the end of the Silver Millennium, remember? I already know that she’s laid-back. A little too laid-back at times if you ask me.”
“Yeah, well, most of those in the know give Ranma a lot of credit for that. But anyway, as to where I’m going to stay, I was just told to come to this meeting and that a solution would present itself.”
“It just might.” Chibi-Usa turned towards the new voice. “Hi, I’m—”
“Nabiki Tendo, right? It’s a pleasure to finally meet you after hearing so much about you.”
“Why, thank you. It’s always good to know that one can leave an impression on a group of people that can last for so long.”
“Um, you’re welcome, I guess. But we’re getting off topic—you were saying something about a possible solution to my housing problem?”
“Indeed I was, and since you happen to be related to one of my best clients, I’ll even give you a discount—you do have yen on you, right?”
Tissue’s journey to her family’s homeland hadn’t exactly been easy, what with the unusually choppy ocean and the love-starved sailors who had taken her presence on the ship as a sign from the heavens that they could finally get their rocks off, but she’d made it to Nagasaki in one piece (and it was a testament to her self-control that those sailors managed to stay in one piece as well).
Now came the hard part: finding Ranma and Genma. She knew that they lived in the Tokyo area, but considering that some 25 million other people lived there, she had her work cut out for her—and the fact that she was a gaijin whose Japanese was still fairly cumbersome wasn’t going to be any help either.
But her biggest obstacle was her inability to answer a single question: Where do I start?
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(Posted Sun, 12 Mar 2006 20:56)
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