Genma finally caught up with his son when they were halfway back to their campsite. “What are you doing, boy?! We have to get you cured!”
In the time afforded by the Saotome Secret Technique, Ranma had barely begun coming up with ideas to allay his father’s questions. Thus, he stalled for time. “Why?”
“Why?! Because it’s not natural, that’s why! Are you saying you want to be cursed to become a cat when you get splashed with cold water?”
“I didn’t say that… it’s just that, ya know, I was thinkin’ that this could, uh, help me, um, get control of the Neko-ken again! After all, I was pretty powerful when I first went inta it, right?”
Upon being reminded of his greatest blunder (though he still steadfastly refused to admit any fault on his part—he was pretty sure that showing weakness in front of his son would interfere with the boy’s development as a “man amongst men”), Genma shuddered. “Uh, son, are you really sure about that?”
“Of course I’m sure,” said Ranma, who was gaining confidence as he realized that his father was buying into his impromptu rationalization. “After all, I’m supposed ta become a powerful martial artist, right? An’ considerin’ what I could do with the Catfist when I was only eight with just two years of martial arts trainin’, imagine what I could do if I could use it now.”
From the paling on his face, it was clear that that was exactly what Genma was imagining. He laughed nervously. “Ah, Ranma, are you sure that’s wise? I mean, if you were to let your emotions got out of control, you might hurt someone.” Namely me, Genma didn’t add. “Perhaps it would be better if you simply dropped the subject—”
“Weren’t ya the one who said a “man amongst men” always finished what he started? An’ right before ya put me in there the third time, said that there were no exceptions?”
“Oh… right… but that still doesn’t explain why you used the Saotome Secret Technique on me, boy!”
“Well… that was mostly ta get far enough from the springs so ya couldn’t toss me inta that curin’ spring before ya heard me out.” Ranma paused. His father still looked uncertain about this situation. Time to seal the deal. “Look, this don’t hafta mean this curse’ll be permanent. I can always come back an’ get cured later, right?”
“I suppose… well, good job, then… I think….” Genma trudged back to the guide with a very confused look on his face.
Nice job, Ranma.
Thanks, White.
That was very clever of you to come up with that bluff about the Neko-ken.
Who said I was bluffin’?
This was not exactly what Artemis had expected to “hear” from his host. Ranma, you can’t be serious about this…
Ya better believe I am. I figure if there’s anyway we can activate the Neko-ken again, yer mooncat form’ll be the key ta doin’ it.
But… it’s dangerous…
Of course it is. That’s why we’re gonna try and figure out how ta control it—maybe even come up with a way ta train someone in it that doesn’t involve, ya know, so much nasty stuff. Besides, if we can do this, we don’t hafta worry ’bout bein’ a liability for Sailor Venus.
Artemis hated it when Ranma invoked Sailor Venus to get him to agree to something—mostly because, often as not, his reasoning was valid, even when his actual motives (which Artemis was always fully aware of) had little to do with it. He projected the mental equivalent of a sigh of resignation to his host. Fine… but you’re the one who’s going to have to figure this out—I won’t stop you, but I’m certainly not going to actively help.
That’s just fine with me. Now, we’d better get back ta Pops before that guide can change his mind.
From her vantage point at the Time Gates, Pluto breathed a sigh of relief as her biggest blunder in centuries managed to almost resolve itself. She was still kicking herself for ever giving that damned manual to Genma in the first place. It was supposed to be the way that she would take Ranma and the chaos that surrounded him out of the picture, leaving a clear path for Crystal Tokyo. Her intention wasn’t to kill Ranma, but to simply implant a distaste for the martial arts on the boy so that he would give up his training, but that moron of a father had actually decided to use the first technique in the book—without even reading far enough into it to reach the warning to never, ever teach the Neko-ken.
Merely being the cause of the boy’s death would have been bad enough, but Genma had somehow managed to capture Artemis and put him in that pit—and without Artemis, there would be no chance of Crystal Tokyo coming about. Unfortunately, she’d been away from the Gates while Genma went through with the training, so by the time she’d discovered the mess, it was too late to do anything… well, she could probably do something, but quite frankly, she didn’t want to risk making things worse than she already had. Fortunately, Artemis had somehow gotten both Ranma and himself out of the situation, but at the cost of the Mau’s original body. As a result, her entire plan had backfired—instead of taking Ranma out of the equation, she’d made the boy an integral part of the Senshi’s future. Crystal Tokyo required Artemis, and now, that meant that it required Ranma. At least they’d regained Artemis’ mooncat body, which meant that they’d have access subspace, which in turn meant they had access to the various Senshi devices.
But Pluto still had to figure out what, if anything, she would do now.
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(Posted Sat, 18 Mar 2006 21:25)
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