After Ranma left the plane (carrying Shampoo in her arms), the stewardess she talked to earlier ran up to her. "Hey! Wait a moment!"
Ranma let the young woman catch up and said. "Hey, I didn't thank you earlier for your help."
"Um, I really didn't do anything."
"Yes, you did. You were concerned about me and didn't do anything about my cat. Not every person I know would have done that."
"Well, you're welcome, but I wanted to ask you: Are you really okay now?"
"Yeah, I'm fine! Don't worry!"
"Are you busy? Is someone waiting for you to pick you up?"
"Uh, no, not really!"
"Then how about I invite you to a small cup of cocoa? I'll pay, of course!"
Ranma thought about it. The young woman was really nice to him and he really wasn't that busy, so...
"Sure, I'd like to! Ah, my name is Ranma, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Ranma! I'm Naru!"
----
Naru led Ranma into the airport's café, which was pretty empty for this time of the day. In fact, both of them were the only two people he saw. Well, and Shampoo. Naru took a look around. "Looks like no one is here. Wait a minute, I'll see if I can find anyone of the staff members."
After she left, Shampoo looked up at Ranma. "Wow, finally! I thought I would never get the chance to talk to you in private."
Ranma freaked. "SHAMPOO??"
"Shhh, not so loud," whispered the mooncat.
"What happened?" Ranma asked flabbergasted. "How can you talk?"
"That's a really strange story," Shampoo sighed. "And before you asked: It's the same reason I can speak perfect Japanese! But we must be careful: Other people mustn't know that I can speak like this. And another thing: Neither you or I can change back in our normal forms. Our curses are locked!"
Ranma whimpered. "Great, this day is just getting better and better." All right, shoot: What the heck is going on?"
"Well, right after this bright flash, I had a really interesting dream..."
----
Luckily, Shampoo was able to tell Ranma most of the important things Artemis told her, including the fact that he has to take over Amnar's place from now on.
"Do I get this right: We have to gather all of these Senshi and find their princess?"
"Yes!"
"And we have to go to Amnar's grandfather?"
"Yes!"
"And after all that, we can go home?"
Shampoo shrugged as best as a cat can. "Don't know! But Artemis said it's the best thing we can do, as there is no way we can use the time key properly now. By the way, where is it?"
"Oh, don't worry!" Ranma took something out of her pocket. "I managed to shrink it down to this size by pressing a strange button. Now it's only as big as a pencil. Pretty cool, huh?"
"What I want to know is how long this stewardess is gone, just to fetch somebody from the café's staff. I mean, somebody should be around here somewhere. But the whole place is empty!"
"Yeah, kinda spooky! But you know what surprises me the most, Shampoo?"
"What?"
"How differently you act than normally. You are thinking things through, you don't act like an affectionate idiot - no offense, please - and you come up with pretty good ideas."
"Just because I can't speak Japanese so good (at least in our reality), it doesn't mean that I am a brainless bimbo."
"Hmm, okay... If you say so!"
Actually, Ranma had a good point, and Shampoo DID realize he was right. She was thinking much more rational then she normally did, and the more she thought about it, she didn't feel that affectionate towards Ranma like she did.
Perhaps it was part of being a mooncat? Let's hope that doesn't change my personality that much, she thought. The idea of slowly turning into an entirely different type of person was scarier than turning into a cat.
Suddenly, the door on the wall opposite of them slowly opened.
Quickly Shampoo put down her head and made sure not to be confused with something else then a cute, harmless, NON-TALKING cat.
Ranma, who was expecting Naru to return, was surprised when behind the open door, she saw no regular room or hallway with a clean floor and walls and modern doors, as someone would expect in a normal airport, but something entirely different...
It was a long and dark corridor, lit up not with electric light but with old kerosene lamps, and with wooden doors on both walls. The corridor went straight ahead, without any visible end. The walls and ceiling reminded Ranma of an old horror movie, as if it were inside an old, abandoned manor, and not inside a modern airport. And on that corridor, she could see a man.
It was a tall man with dark hair, dressed in a trenchcoat. Ranma couldn't clearly see his face, it was too dark in the corridor.
And in his hands, he carried a knife.
Ranma quickly stood up while dropping Shampoo on the floor. He didn't know if this man was the same person that attacked Amnar in the plane, but he could clearly see his hostile intentions, and he went into his battle stance.
If the man was impressed or not, they could not see, but he didn't hesitate and slowly continued to approach them.
Ranma was not too worried, after all, he was a top martial artist, and this guy couldn't be that powerful if he had to rely on a weapon. But before the man reached the door, something happened that neither Ranma nor the man himself could have predicted.
A small, dark shape appeared in the air behind the man with the knife, something not bigger than a cat, but clearly something with wings, for it was hovering - or flying - above the ground. And when it reached the trenchcoat man, Ranma saw that it was - a bat!
Pretty big for a bat, but a bat nonetheless!
And it was attacking the man with the knife. He certainly did not see the little attacker until it was too late. The bat clawed at his hair, and the man, totally surprised by this turn of events, tumbled forward. He turned around to face the bat and slashed at it with his knife. He must have missed it, because the little winged animal continued its assault on the man.
Ranma and Shampoo were so astonished about what happened, that both of them didn't do anything but watch, as the man turned around and chased the bat down the corridor - opposite of their direction.
Ranma broke out of her stunned state of mind and began to run towards the door, in the same moment when it was slowly closing itself, as it were moved by invisible hands.
"Hey," called Ranma to the man. "Hey you! Wait!" She didn't reach the door in time before it closed, but she wanted some answers from the man, so she opened it up again.
And could only stare, as the only thing behind the door was a small room with cleaning equipment.
Ranma and Shampoo looked at each other. "Did you just see...?" they both started, then they shook their heads. "Never mind..."
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:34)
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