Of course, though such was beyond her narrow worldview to guess, Athena had intentionally chosen the sample appearance of the human models to have less appeal to her 'audience' of almost entirely Japanese souls. The goddess had known from the start that the cultural conformity of Japan was going to impede having a well balanced division of races upon her astral world pet project. Her goal was to have them spread around as much as possible, so while she did want them to be able to choose who and what they desired to live as, she was also prepared to remove overly popular racial choices from the available selection. For example, if the first 1/8th of the soul population all chose Humans, Athena would remove the Human model and the rest would have to pick their preference from the other seven races. Not that she wanted to be so hard-line about it, and would be quite content to have more humans than any of the other Alliance races, just so long as a respectable number of the other races were being represented as well. She expected she would have to be a little less flexible in maintaining a balance between the two factions, however, as a wholly unequal division of souls between the two sides in conflict would result in one faction (most likely Horde, she guessed) being unfairly dominated and oppressed. It would hardly be fair if, every time a Horde ventured alone outside of their home territories, he or she was immediately dogpiled by a half-dozen bloodthirsty Alliance.
Most people who knew her well would say that Akane did indeed have her sweet side, and was a nice person deep inside... others who had been on the receiving end of her bad temper would probably reply that Akane's better parts must be buried very deep indeed. At the very least, both her detractors and her supporters would be forced to agree that she could be very judgmental at times. Being as she was rather stressed out at learning that she was dead, this was going to be one of those times.
"I don't want to look like some kind of monster or freak, and I'm sure my sisters wouldn't either." Akane snorted scornfully at the assembled races. Her presumptive comment brought a raised eyebrow from Nabiki, who wanted to think about it and come to an objective decision, and a somewhat guilty wince from Kasumi, who had been captivated by the strong-yet-gentle appearance of the Tauren. "Of course, I don't want to be blonde either. Are you sure we can look mostly like ourselves?" She demanded of Athena.
The Goddess' eye twitched at the little dead mortal taking that tone with her, and the disgust she demonstrated for Athena's lovingly-crafted character designs, but she resisted the temptation to smite the little brat. "More or less, child. Facial features, hair and skin tone should be as similar as each archetype permits, though I can change your hairstyle or colour for you if you wish. On the other hand, things such as height, build and measurements are unfortunately fixed constants... though in your personal case, perhaps not so unfortunate, hmm?"
Somewhere in the back, the departed spirit of a pig-tailed youth bit his hand to keep from snickering loud enough for the irritable girl to hear.
"Why you..." Akane fumed, her face burning an angry red. Something in the goddess' raised eyebrow, and total lack of concern in her stance, helped Akane recall that she was about to blow up on a War Goddess, and in particular, the one who held her fate and that of her sisters in her hands. With a 'hmph' the little ghost turned her head and stood there with folded arms (which may have been out of defiance, or a self-conscious covering of her modest bustline. Who can say?)
Athena shook her head wearily, and turned to the older two of the former sisters with a frown. "What of you two then? Care to share your thoughts?"
The girls glanced at each other, and Nabiki waved Kasumi to speak first. "I think you've done a wonderful job in creating so many interesting choices, Athena-sama! Though I admit I'm not sure I would personally want to be one or two of them myself, I'm sure there are others who would find them more personally appealing."
Athena's frown slowly melted into a smile. "Yes indeed, dear child, that's it exactly. Clearly you are able to understand what your immature former sibling apparently cannot grasp."
"Ex-CUSE me?"
Athena rolled her eyes. "I think that's about enough out of you. Keep your peace until you have something to say that anyone might be remotely interested in hearing." With a deceptively casual gesture, Athena extended her right hand with only the index finger and thumb extended, the tips of which began to glow with a golden light. She then pressed the glowing fingertips together and drew them across her lips. A glowing line briefly appeared in the air in front of her face, trailing after the goddess' fingers, then faded from sight.
Nabiki blinked. "Um... what was that?"
For an answer, the smirking goddess merely nodded in Akane's direction, and when her two sisters turned to look, their eyes widened at the sight of their younger sister nearly throwing a fit... in perfect silence. A closer look revealed that, although her jaws were moving in an attempt at speech (likely consisting mostly of four letter words) the orifice such words would typically be streaming out of appeared to be missing. That in itself might have explained the lack of intelligible words, but not a single sound, neither grunt nor muffled mumble, could be heard from Akane, though she was turning her face nearly purple in her attempts to do so.
"Damn... it's like in The Matrix... only quieter." Nabiki muttered.
"Oh dear... Is she going to be alright, Athena-sama? I think she's having some trouble breathing."
"That will stop once she realises that trying to scream at me is utterly pointless and remembers to inhale... on the other hand, what's the worst that can happen? It's not as though she can die... again." Athena wryly reassured the oldest girl.
Nabiki discreetly slid closer to the Goddess as Kasumi tried to soothe her youngest sister. The middle former Tendou cleared her throat and whispered. "Any chance I could learn to do that in this world?"
Athena chuckled. "Actually yes. If you decide to become a Priest, and specialise in Shadow magic, the Silence spell is available at level 30."
Nabiki grinned. "Noted." She didn't yet know what all that meant, but she committed the terms to memory.
Athena waved Kasumi back so she could address both the older sisters (making it fairly plain she didn't much care if the third listened or not, though to reduce the girl's panic, she did give Akane back her lips, but the Silence spell remained in full effect). "Now then, where were we? Choosing races, I believe. I gave you a brief overview of all of them. Are there any you would like to hear more details about before you choose?"
Kasumi sighed. "Akane seems rather insistent on remaining human..."
Athena raised a hand to gently interrupt. "I'm afraid it’s not a manner of 'remaining' anything. First, I believe I mentioned this before, but all of you present here are only departed souls, unusual only in that you have a firm memory of your previous life. You aren't exactly 'human' now. The second point is that the Humans of Azeroth are not the same as the humans of Earth. It's more of a convenient title that fits their appearance in comparison to the other races. As you might have noticed from the models behind me, there's a more distinct difference in bone and muscle size between men and women on this world, however I should point out that such is only in outward appearance. In terms of actual strength, speed, agility, etc... there is no difference at all between the sexes on this world. For that matter, beyond certain natural abilities and tendencies, there isn't much of a power difference between the races either. One of those little gnome girls you see there might be a fighter, and if she trained harder to achieve higher levels of power, she could quite easily pound into the ground that giant Tauren male you see over there if she'd developed herself farther than he." Athena blinked. "Pardon me for leading off topic a bit, but there's just so much about this world to tell you, I'm having a little difficulty keeping it all in. You were saying?"
Kasumi smiled, accepting the apology. "Just that while being of the Azerothian Human race would not have been my first choice (I quite like the Tauren) I do strongly desire to stay together with my sisters, so if Nabiki's agreeable, we will likely be selecting Humans."
The middle sister shrugged. "I was trying to choose between a few of the Alliance races. I suppose Humans would have been my second choice preference, after the Night Elves, so I'm not too put out to choose them in order to keep the three of us together... Though I admit that if find deciding my very species because not even death can cure my baby sister of being a self-centred brat is rather annoying."
Akane wasn't able to add her two cents, but she gawked at her older sisters. Kasumi wanted to be a fat cow (okay, perhaps not that fat, proportionally, but certainly a few times heavier)? Nabiki wanted to be purple with giant ears? What was wrong with them? And why was everyone treating her like she was being the unreasonable one?
Athena sighed. She'd been hoping the first group would set a precedent by not choosing Human... and that girl Kasumi would have been a fine one to go first, if they'd been picking individually. Not only a Horde race, but the enormous cow-like Tauren! A very good choice, which Athena would have happily approved of, but she did agree with those she had consulted with on this project that they should all (as much as possible) have the freedom to choose their own destinies. Not wanting to venture out into this strange new world alone was a reasonable motive; buckling under a pushy selfish brat was decidedly less so. Still, it was not for her to tell them their business.
"Nabiki, that's not very nice." Kasumi chided.
"Being honest rarely is." Nabiki shrugged. "By the way, how long is this Silence spell Akane's under going to last?"
Athena smirked. "I'll probably take it off once you're headed on into Azeroth and I don't have to deal with her any more."
Nabiki leaned close. "Any chance you could make it permanent?"
"Nabiki! Really..." Kasumi scolded.
"Oh come on! She'd be a lot easier to live with, and it's not like she wouldn't be able to communicate what she wants at all. She could use sign language for basic stuff."
A scowling Akane gave a concrete example.
Athena chuckled at the exchange. "Tempting... but I think not. I'm hoping that she'll calm down once she realises that she now gets to live in a world with no broad gender stereotypes, no limitations on what she can do or where she can go because of her gender, and not even any physical advantages or disadvantages of being female. I thought I'd make a world where one's gender had no impact on one's life direction other than how intimate you might decide to become with certain individuals."
Akane stopped fuming and blinked. No one telling her to stop being such a tomboy? No one looking down on her just because she couldn't cook or do handcrafts? No one telling her she had to get married to carry on her own family's dojo, so the boy could inherit the school her daddy had trained her in? ...Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
Nabiki wasn't unimpressed either. "No 'glass ceiling'?"
Athena shook her head, grinning. "Nor anything similar. Be who you want to be; do what you want to do with your life. The only limitations you'll experience result from the choices you make from this point on."
Kasumi bit her lip. "But... what if we actually liked doing traditionally feminine things?"
Athena shrugged easily. "Then do them. No one's going to stop you if you want to take up Cooking and Tailoring. The only thing is, you might eventually meet a man with the exact same pastimes."
Kasumi blinked, then beamed. "Goodness! That would be wonderful! We'd have so much to talk about then!"
Athena blinked. "Um... yes. Well that wasn't quite the point I was trying to make but..."
Nabiki waved it off. "Don't worry about it. Kasumi's a dear, but every know and then you get the feeling she's... oh how would you put it... marching to a different drumbeat than most of us are listening to."
Athena considered that for a minute, then decided she should get back to the matter of choosing. "Well... alright then. If you're all certain this is what you want, circle round behind the human female model and walk into her back. You should come out the other side with your own physical body... or rather a new physical body." Somewhat hesitantly, the three souls walked around the models and did as instructed, stepping into and through the intangible model of the Human Female. One by one, they all emerged looking much the same as before, but now wearing the same dress as the model. There were other differences too that took a moment or two to notice. For one thing, they were now all of the same height, perhaps around 5'8", and possessed the same figure. For Kasumi, there was almost no change at all in her shape, though she did feel a bit more toned than she was used to, as though this body had seen a bit more exercise than her last one. For Nabiki, she was slightly taller and slightly more curvaceous, but not to any drastic degree. Certainly, she wasn't about to complain.
Akane, on the other hand, had gained several inches in height, several more at the bust and hiplines, to the degree that the Silenced ex-Tendou girl looked down at herself with wide eyes. Blinking, she tentatively reached up to touch her new breasts... checking their heft... bouncing them a little...
"Akane! Stop that right now!" Kasumi cried, alarmed.
Akane dropped her new bouncing bosoms and grinned sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders as if to say 'Oh come on! What's the harm?'
"Yeah Akane, I mean, if you're going to play with yourself, at least face the audience so they can get a real good view." Nabiki grinned, taking her sister by the shoulders and turning her to face away from the models and back to the SEVERAL THOUSAND souls standing behind the rope watching the whole thing. A lot of the males were grinning.
Akane's face turned bright red and she shrieked... which kind of lost a lot of its effect when the shrieked is under a Silence spell. She ran and hid behind her eldest sister... not that there was any point to it, since she was fully dressed. Mostly it was a reflexive action.
"Right then, if we're all done with the public masturbation, shall we continue on to choose your classes?" Athena said wickedly. Akane replied with more sign language.
The goddess ignored the rude gesture and waved an arm. At her silent command, the line-up of races vanished save for the human female, who then multiplied into 6 versions of herself, each differently dressed and holding a different weapon.
The Warrior, dressed in a simple white jerkin and trousers held up by suspenders, and holding a simple short-sword and buckler.
The Paladin, dressed in worn blue squire's livery, wielding a very big if splintery wooden mallet.
The Rogue, wearing close-fitting black cloth, with a simple dagger in hand.
The Priestess, wearing a light, off the shoulder white robe, and carrying a short mace.
The Mage, in light blue robes, holding a cheaply-fashioned staff.
The Warlock, in scarlet robes, wielding another simple dagger.
One by one, Athena explained each class, what their talents, abilities, and roles were, as well as each class's basic fighting strategy.
Akane, whom Athena had assumed would pick Warrior, surprised the goddess slightly by choosing to become a Paladin. Perhaps, beyond her selfishness, the youngest of the sisters saw herself as her family's protector. The goddess wondered if perhaps she should re-evaluate her opinion of the girl.
...or perhaps it was just Akane's endearment to large mallets. Who could say?
Nabiki's choice to become a Priestess surprised both her sisters (and the floating isle shook from the face-fault of every person who'd known her during their previous lives as well). Kasumi found it unexpected, but certainly approved. Akane just stared at her immediate older sister like she'd grown another head. At her suspicious look, Nabiki merely grinned. "I just have a feeling this is a class with many hidden advantages to exploit."
While Akane admitted that sounded more like the Nabiki she knew... she wondered about the strange chill that ran down her spine when she said it.
Kasumi's choice, however, was a far greater surprise than even Nabiki's. Given the girl's temperament, Athena had expected another Priestess, though probably specialising in Holy magic as opposed to Nabiki's likely Shadow speciality. If not that, her second guess (which actually would have been her tactical suggestion for one of them if both the oldest choose priests, to round out the party) would have been a Mage. She knew Kasumi was a gentile girl, and the thought of hitting others with sharp or blunt objects wasn't likely to be very appealing to her; therefor, casting magic spells from a distance would probably help her mentally separate herself from the harm she was inflicting.
No one... not of her family, friends, or any of her acquaintances watching, Athena was sure, would have been easily able to see Kasumi Tendou as a Warlock.
It did make a kind of strange sense in retrospect. Rather than inflicting immediate and frightening amounts of sudden damage as a mage, Kasumi's Warlock spells slowly weakened her opponents over time, which might be far less of an ugly shock when they fell to her. What other's might term "insidious", Kasumi interpreted as "gentle". If she absolutely had to hurt someone, the gradual, easy approach seemed to her a better way. Her spin on Athena's explanation "Summons demons out of the underworld to serve the Warlock" sounded more like "Can call up little friends to help you".
Perhaps whatever spin doctor had been working overtime inside Kasumi's brain for the last few years to keep her from curling into a ball and sobbing while pulling out her hair in clumps (as people smashed and destroyed portions of her lovely house, had daily screaming arguments, or stole her underwear in order to do revoltingly unimaginable things with them) had given her such a different perspective on the most 'evil' seeming class that it actually looked quite appealing to her...
Or perhaps Kasumi was merely bored and hoping to have a more exciting life this time around. Who can say?
At any rate (after Athena asked the girl for the fifth time if she was certain) the goddess instructed all three girls to stand behind their class models of choice and step through, as before.
Then...
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Ron Hino
(Posted Tue, 16 May 2006 06:36)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.