"Magical Girl Academy?" Ami asked weakly.
"Weird isn't it?" Ranma confirmed. "If you had asked me a few years ago a place full of teenage girls and magic would have been the last place I thought I would end up."
Ranma continued rambling on about getting involved with magic and young girls and why he thought both would be a very bad idea and then proceeded to complain about the overabundant presence of cats and water at Pretty Heart. Ami was not really listening. She was still trying to come to grips with the revelation of just what kind of school this was.
A school for magical girls. She wished that she could say that it all made sense now, but it didn't; not really. At least she knew that she was very qualified for the job.
Ami was brought back to reality by Ranma announcing that they would have to walk to the castle.
"Yeah, I am afraid we will have to go there on foot," Ranma confirmed. "They have been trying to get one of the rides back up and running for transportation around the grounds, but it isn't ready yet so I guess we will have to walk back. Since I am already going to take the heat for you being late we might as well take the scenic route. It will give me a chance to point out some of the sights."
"Thank, you Saotome-san, That would be nice," Ami agreed.
"Its a bit ironic, but this whole thing was originally a small and not very successful theme park that finally went bankrupt a few years ago after some magical girls wrecked the place fighting some monsters. It stood empty until people came to make a magical school out of it because people thought that it was haunted and unlikely to ever again make a profit," Ranma began telling her about the history her potential new work place.
Ami tried to remember whether Sailor Mercury had ever been involved in wrecking a monster attack on this particular theme park, but she honestly could not recall without looking it up on her computer. All the fights tended to blur a bit together after a while.
"This is Main Street," Ranma said steering them on the cobblestone promenade leading from the entrance area to the castle. "It was the place where they would sell snacks and souvenirs and have all sorts of stands to bilk visitors out of their money back when this was still running. They are fixing it up to turn it into a magical shopping center now."
The main-street looked like what must have been an uniformed artist's impression of what a medieval European village matching a large pink fairy tale castle would have looked like. It was all very colorful, campy, strange and unrealistic. A number of new businesses appeared to already have or where in the process of moving into the existing premises and none of them seemed to have seen any reasons to change the kitschy decor.
"That place over there is going to be the bank for this place," Ranma pointed out while at the same time moving them away from the side of the street that the large strange looking building was on. "You will probably have to set up an account with them if you are taking the job. Just be careful when you go there."
"Is there anything dangerous in there?" Ami asked. She thought she could see some strange not quite human shapes moving around inside.
"Well it is set up by some European goblins who are very professional." Ranma explained. "But they hired locals to do most of the work. The kappa are very polite and nice even if they carry around cold water on their heads and the guard oni are supposed to be trained not to eat customers. And there are some really interesting beasts guarding the lower vaults they have dug into the ground. The only real problem is that they also hired some humans and some of them can be a bit predatory."
Ranma shuddered and continued to mumble something about a sister-in-law that Ami did not quite understand. She was still to busy grappling with the realization that this place apparently was for real. According to the signs many of theses businesses were honestly preparing to cater to the needs of young magical girls in training. She goggled at the sight of a shop that seemed to actually purport to be selling magic brooms. Ami pointed it out to Ranma.
"That's Whirlwind Racing brooms," Ranma identified the business. "They are for real. Bell-chan works there. She is one of the nicest persons you will ever meet but she has a sister who is a bit of a mallet-happy tomboy."
Ranma looked around a bit fearfully as if expecting said sister to show up at any moment.
"Over there is the place where you can buy work robes if you take the job," Ranma pointed out a large shop on the other side of the street called 'Madame Daidouji's Magical Fashions' with several yet unclad mannequins in the window . "I am just glad that they aren't making me wear anything from there. The owner also designed the school uniforms and stuff and they are a bit much if you ask me. Young girls really shouldn't wear such short skirts."
Ami flied that Information away for later, but was distracted by the sight of what would likely be her one of her favorite of shops on this road.
"A book store!" she exclaimed enthusiastically.
At least it was one according to the sign the long-haired bespectacled man on a ladder was nailing over the store entrance. She wondered why he was nailing part of it upside down though and if there was any relation to the internet retailer of the same name.
She wanted to walk towards it to investigate and perhaps say hello but Ranma fearfully steered her towards the opposite side of the road while giving a strange non-explanation about not disturbing blind ducks, old ghouls and something about hair care products. It seemed she would just have to wait until later to visit this "S,NOZ∀W∀ BOOKSTORE".
"Is there a special reason why we seem to be walking down the street in a slalom," Ami could not help asking when only a few moments later Ranma again crossed back to the other side of the road.
"No special reason," Ranma replied in a tone of suppressed terror. "I just thought that it would be more interesting here."
Since almost all the shops and stands on their side still stood empty or were in the process of being renovated Ami rather doubted that.
"Hey is that a cat shop over there," she pointed to the side that Ranma seemed to be trying to avoid. "Two of my friends have pet cats maybe I could get something for them there."
"Uh, uh," Ranma exclaimed shaking his head. "It's not about pets and those aren't c-c-cats anyway."
"Sure looks like cats to me," Ami insisted pointing at the many pictures of cats in the window underneath the banners inviting people to 'adopt a kitty'.
"They only looks like c-c- those things. They are aliens really," Ranma assured her earnestly.
Ami was a bit sceptical about that claim to say the least. If anything aliens would have freaked out most people more and not less then cats.
Seeing Ami's doubt Ranma decided to elaborate. "The aliens can talk and do tricks and everything. The guys in charge think that they might make good mentors or companions to girls who don't already have one so they let them hire out their services here. Honestly, that's the Mau consulate!"
Ranma continued on about how he had already made it clear that there would be no pets or companions allowed in his class while Ami's mind whirled. Now that she thought about it the white-haired man that she had briefly caught a glimpse of inside the store had looked somewhat familiar, but surely somebody would have told her about something like this, wouldn't they?
But there was no way to find out now because they had already reached the end of the street. After passing a large round plaza with a huge ornamental fountain at the center which Ranma also veered to avoid they had finally reached the castle.
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(Posted Wed, 31 May 2006 15:26)
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