"What is?" Akane asked with a frown. "Eating?"
"Heck yeah! I mean, this is really good stuff...."
"Is that the only reason that you agreed to come here?"
"'Course not. But ya gotta admit, eatin' at a good place just makes bein' with people that ya like better."
"Why, isn't that true," Kasumi murmured, smiling brightly with approval.
"Sure is. And I sure as heck don't get ta do it all that much."
"You don't?"
"Kasumi, I don't even get ta eat this good all that often."
Nabiki nodded in understanding. "Ah.... Life on the road can be hard, right?"
"Ya can say that again."
"And your father makes it hard to have something good to eat...."
"Now, I wouldn't go that far," the pigtailed boy replied with a raise of his brows.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. My old man might be a lot of things, but stingy on food ain't one of them. If he got a chance to feed him the best that he could, he'd take it, no matter how much trouble he'd cause. But even he can't be blamed for trail food."
"My father stopped trying to take my sisters and myself on camping trips a long time ago," the middle Tendo daughter commented archly.
"I getcha. Well, it's like this. It don't matter how much food ya get ta eat when ya are 'round stores, restaurants, and farms. What matters is what ya can carry with ya, which means that ya can only take what'll last ya for a while, and what'll be easiest to carry on a really long hike. And no one can make camp fire rice all that good ta enjoy...."
"But what if you put in a small bit of spices, and perhaps some dried meats. I'm sure that you could make a nice risotto if some care is taken...." Kasumi suggested.
"If you're not my big sister," Nabiki finished wryly for Ranma.
He gave a small nod. "Pretty much."
"Well, that counts me out," Haruka commented airily, waving one hand at her companions. "I'm happy with what I already do, and I'm not looking to do anything fancy."
"Not that anyone's asking you to," the middle Tendo sister drawled, leaning her chin on her palm.
"I'm glad that we.... Hey.... Is that supposed to be some sort of dig at me?"
"Of course not. You're the sort of girl who is athletic and competitive, not a homemaker."
"I can hold with that...." the blonde reluctantly allowed.
"Good, since you're only expected to make something that comes out of a box."
"HEY!"
The look on Nabiki's face was "What?"
"Don't start making it sound like I'll be a bad wife...."
"To be honest, that wasn't what I was afraid of. I was kind of thinking about how you aren't exactly a chef...."
"Neither are you."
"Gee, thanks."
Smirking, the married girl grinned at Nabiki. "I have to say that your domestic abilities aren't what's going to get you a husband."
"Funny coming from you," cooly commented a male voice that certainly was not Ranma.
Stiffening, Haruka joined the other four at the table in turning to face this new arrival, and saw that he was not alone. the tall boy in the leather jacket sneered right back at her, and his companions looked rather like they disliked the idea of being around her. They all shared the same sort of mocking looks that the speaker had, with each of them looking to be about the same age and style.
Her eyes narrowing with dislike, Haruka kept her voice on a short leash. "Ichijo."
"Hello, Ten'ou," the speaker commented, flicking a bit of his brown hair off of his forehead.
"What are you doing here?"
"Why wouldn't I be here? This is a restaurant, and there's no law against me coming to eat here with my friends."
"How nice for you."
"Isn't it though? Imagine my surprise when you, who tries her damnedest to force her way into being a man give advice on the sort of role that she should really take up," Ichijo sniffed, and took a moment to leer a bit at the long length of leg that Haruka's skirt was showing under the table. "Though it looks like you're well on your way to being the sort of girl that you should be."
"Dream on. I didn't dress this way for you."
"Too bad. You might have gone a long way to prove that you've finally gotten some sense."
"Haruka," Kasumi whispered, her tones betraying a good amount of concern. "Who are these people?"
"They're the sort of guys from the track that I was talking about earlier. The one in the lead's Ichijo...."
"Yes. 'Ichi' as in 'number one'," the named boy interrupted.
"He and his friends here are all involved in the races, though in different ways."
"And we should be winning, not some girl who's obviously been suppressing her looks just to complete where she doesn't belong, and isn't wanted."
"There are plenty of girls at the track, remember?" the blonde told him archly.
"As fans. Or first aid workers, or helpers, or 'cheerleaders'. Not racers!"
"Too bad for them."
Ichijo tightened one hand into a fist and glared at the blue eyed girl. "Don't you get smart with me! You really should know your place, but you keep on acting as if you don't know when you should be giving up!"
"Really. Because I haven't seen a point where I should wash my hands of something that I enjoy."
"And that's what your problem is. You don't see that motorcross is not a place for someone like you. What exactly can you really do?"
"Um.... Ichijo...." stammered one of his cronies as the boy looked at a spot that wasn't on the familiar blonde.
"Not now."
"But, you really should look at this...."
"Later...."
"I don't think that you'll see it later..."
"That's fine, Harada. But...."
"You have to look now," the other boy insisted, and pointed.
Sighing heavily, Ichijo followed the gesture... and stared. In the hand of the girl with the blue black hair was a fork. But while her face was a picture of frustrated anger, she had squeezed the eating implement until it was a hunk of bent metal. "What in the hell...."
"Ya really should pay attention ta others," Ranma commented as he slid out of the booth to stand in front of the other boys. "For one thing, Akane here's really stong. Powerful enough ta throw the table at ya."
"But...."
"Ya were bein' dumb, so ya couldn't have known it."
"Just who are you calling 'dumb'."
"You guys. I mean, you didn't even realize somethin' important."
"Like what?"
Ranma leaned in towards the "Like the fact that Haruka is my girl."
"Eh?" Ichijo grunted with a blink.
"And ya ain't been nice ta her," the pigtailed boy mentioned cooly, while:
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Wed, 08 Nov 2006 07:55)
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.