But Ranma finally had a method in his arsenal that would allow him to make changes to Mousse's chain of Logic.
For it to work most strongly, and for it to be less detectable by the other Amazons, it would be wise to tie Mousse's new delusions to his old ones in such a way that he and others might believe they were his own leaps of logic. "It's obvious Shampoo cares for you. Otherwise she would have forced you back to the village. If Shampoo went back to the village with you, everyone there would keep you apart. But so long as she keeps you here, the two of you can live together."
"If Shampoo ever caught Ranma, or if she gave up on him, she'd have to return to the village, and the other villagers would insure you couldn't spend time with her. As it is, you spend many hours a day with her. Aren't you lucky she's chasing Ranma?"
"Of course, she can't show her affection to you the way she shows Ranma, or her Grandmother would ship you back to the village. So she shows her affection by lavishing attention on you. Unfortunately her attention tends to be demanding or violent."
"But over the next few days you'll realize that it doesn't matter to you. Since you know that she's doing it out of love for you, her blows are tokens of her affection. When she locks you up as a duck, it means she knows where you are and is thinking of you."
"And because she is showering you with affection, you're beginning to like the way she's doing it. Over the next few days, you are starting to find Shampoo's punishments sexually exciting and satisfying."
Ranma hoped that by specifying that Mousse's perceptions would change over a few days, it would add verisimilitude to the idea that he was gradually becoming a masochist from Shampoo's treatment. If Cologne could ascribe a reasonable explanation to Mousse's change, she would be less likely to look for one elsewhere.
Nabiki had so far made three trips previously to sell her worn panties, and on each trip she had run into Ranma on the way home. Taken one by one, they might have seemed like a coincidence, but Nabiki had a fictitious memory of having sold her panties many times before; for Ranma to have bumped into her only on her last three trips was beyond the bounds of chance.
Once again she had failed to have a backup pair of underwear handy, so she was without panties under her school's uniform as she walked through a somewhat seedy part of town. She had been visiting a different shop in an effort to throw Ranma off her trail. Unfortunately he was tracking her from the roof of a nearby building.
Ranma was about to make his fourth appearance, when he noticed Ryouga on a path that would intersect Nabiki's, and he decided to wait and see what happened.
Ryouga was oblivious to the love hotels, sex shops, and small corner stores in his search for the Tendo dojo, when he nearly collided with Nabiki. Only her near-paranoid searching for Ranma and her fear of tripping and flashing the world saved her from a tumble. "Ryouga, what are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for Akane!"
Nabiki and Ryouga turned their heads to see the sign for the "Love Shacking Shack," a hotel that boasted customized rooms, and an hourly rate. "You're looking for her here?"
Desperate to excuse his faux pas, he waived his arms to encompass the businesses across the street, "No, I mean... ." Ryouga finally noticed the signs for "Hotel Love" and the smaller stores, "Ginette's Spanking Palace" and "King Stud! Inserting tab A into slot B for over twenty years!"
Blushing crimson, he blurted, "I was looking for the dojo! Are you going there?"
Nabiki was going home to dress properly, but she wasn't sure she wanted to be walking through a red light district without underwear, with Ryouga while she was feeling a bit horny. But she hesitated too long in thinking up an appropriate reply, so Ryouga preempted her, saying "Great! I'll just follow you!"
The two of them managed to walk half a block in uncomfortable silence before Ryouga cupped one of her buttocks through her skirt, and gave it a bit of a squeeze. Had he been aware he had done it, he might have noticed the lack of panty seams. He might have noticed how her sudden freezing in place while he was walking forward meant his hand slipped slightly between her legs, teasing the sensitive skin between her anus and her already sensitive vagina.
He might have known he should have run for it, before Nabiki proved that Akane wasn't the only sister capable of physical violence leading to blunt trauma.
Ranma just watched and enjoyed the show.
"Is it for a cat or a dog?"
"It's for a Mallard."
"I don't recognize the breed, sir. Is it a dog?"
"It's a duck."
"We don't sell duck licenses."
"Why not?"
"Well, for one thing, you can't keep a duck as a pet."
"That's absurd! Why I know a Chinese Warlord who's wife keeps a female elephant named Jasmine!"
"Be that as it may, Elephant's aren't migratory!"
"What do you mean?"
"Elephants don't fly south when the weather turns nippy. If a duck can fly, it'll go south when the weather turns cold."
"Haven't you heard of climate change?"
"The Greenhouse effect doesn't enter into it. Ducks have an instinctive reaction to the changes in the weather!"
"It's an indoor duck. We have central heating."
"I assume it's a living duck? I only ask because there was that news article about a teenage girl that broke into a sex shop, and stole a crate of rubber ducks while giving them French sounding names."
"Why did a sex shop have a crate of rubber ducks?"
"They were battery powered, and vibrated."
"I'm sorry I asked. Yes, it is a living breathing duck."
"Well, we don't sell duck licenses."
"Alright then. I want a cat license for a poor deformed cat."
"Deformed?"
"It has feathers and likes to paddle around in the bathtub."
"I can't allow this."
"Why not? You don't make other people bring their pets in and prove what species they are, do you? Why I bet you allow people to declare that chihuawas are dogs."
"But they are dogs!"
"Oh come on. They're rats wearing sweaters! Anyway, taxonomy is all mucked up already. Did you know, one of the popes declared that the Capybara wasn't a rodent, but a fish? If an infallible pope can make a rodent into a fish, I can have a cat with wings."
"OK, I'll give you a license. Now, are you the owner?"
"No, the cat has two owners. I'm just doing the paperwork for them."
"OK, what's the first owner's name?"
"Shan-pu."
"Last name?"
"She doesn't have one."
"Everybody has a last name!"
"We came from an oppressive communist country. Why, until recently, for the last fifty years it was actually illegal to have a last name in Mongolia. The communists were trying to stamp out tribal loyalties. Now everyone is busy coming up with new family names, and the capital looks like a Mel Brooks movie! 'We're only seeing singing Genghis Khans today!'"
"OK, ok! First owner, Shampoo, with no last name. Who's the second owner?"
"She's also called Shan-pu."
"Two women called Shampoo own the same duck?"
"Don't be silly. The second Shan-pu is the first Shan-pu's cat."
"I can't put a cat down as the co-owner of a duck!"
"You mean someone actually passed a rule that said that cat's can't own ducks?"
"Well, no, but..."
"There you go then."
"OK! You win. Give me an address for me to send the tags for its collar."
"You can't put a collar on a Mallard!"
"You're the one trying to convince me it is a deformed cat! If it doesn't wear the tags, animal control might catch it."
"I'm not worried about them. The mallard carries throwing knives."
"You mean the cat is armed and dangerous?"
"Don't be silly. It's armed and gregarious."
"Be that as it may, it still has to be tagged."
"Fine. I give my word that we'll properly tag its webbed feet."
"Alright. Now, what is the name of the cat?"
"Mousse."
"Moose?"
"Please don't start."
Unfortunately, people are probably never going to write this one, and just treat it as a S.E.
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(Posted Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:05)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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