Thinking about it, Ranma considered the situation briefly, now reaching the end of his own meal. There were a lot of girls there and he just didn't know when was a convenient time for them to bathe. Worse, he didn't know what his schedule would be, so he didn't even know what time would be best for him. "Well, I've actually got a little private bath with hot water, so I think I'll just use that. If I did want a nice soak, I think a sign to put up with be best, though fat lot of luck that would do me. Besides, the hot spring is kinda too open for my taste. I can see Shampoo loving that as an ambush spot."
Nodding, Nabiki could see the merit of his thinking. "Good point actually. I still need to establish the condition of the building and rooms and find out who's living where and all those particulars. We may have to put things off for a few days in that regard."
Shrugging, Ranma kept to finishing his meal. He didn't really give a damn about inheriting this place, he was just here to get out on his own for a bit. He had the sinking suspicion that this would turn out to suck pretty bad, but so far it wasn't too bad.
Picking at what was left of her own food, the token Tendou girl decided to do something more useful with her time to amuse herself. "Why don't you girls tell me about this place?"
Struggling for a moment, Makoto thought about how best to explain things in such a way that it wouldn't lead to revealing they were magical girls. "Uhm, well we all kinda needed a place to stay, and Haruka found something in her family. We're all kinda friends, and the location was real convenient, not to mention the hot springs."
Hearing that, Nabiki had the surmise she wasn't going to get a lot of info out of the girls, though something sounded strange about what she'd said. From the references Makoto made it was almost as if the girls were some kind of group entity outside of merely living in the same building.
A bit further down the hall now, Rei was fuming in barely restrained anger. "That pervert makes us out like we're the ones in the wrong here, and that girl is taking his side!"
Haruka, somehow elected to the job of 'voice of reason' was feeling very tired with that position as she could see Ami and Michiru agreeing with Rei. "Even forgetting the fact that he has the power to evict us, outright close the place around, or make us work here as maids in frilly little outfits if it amuses him, I'd have to say we probably are in the wrong here."
Ami was the one to speak up, the nerdy girl both flustered and upset which only served to make Haruka more suspicious. "He was waiting in the hot spring for us!"
Sighing, Haruka found it really strange to be playing devil's advocate, particularly for a guy. "My nephew is honest to a fault, and I doubt he was told this place already had tenants. We found his clothes folded up on the changing bench, so we can assume he came in and found the hot spring and decided to check it out. My nephew doesn't wear glasses, and you should know that wearing glasses like those would make him more blind than you without your glasses, so if he was peeping, why keep them on? Better yet, if he was peeping, why wasn't he hiding himself and actually peeping?"
Fixing Ami with a look, Haruka decided she may as well get a definitive answer on the matter. "So, before the screaming started and he started trying to run away from you girls, what happened? What caused the screaming exactly?"
As Ami was the girl to start it off, everyone stared expectantly at her as she blushed deeply, seeming to be incredibly shy about answering. Eventually however she caved in to peer pressure, hesitantly answering quietly. "I...uh...grabbed him."
Sighing, Haruka wondered what she had done to deserve this. "So let me get this right, you molested him, freaked out and screamed, causing him to run and get into more incidents. Then you girls ganged up on him and beat him. Then we chased him out of the house, presumably from overhearing us plan his downfall or just from earlier actions. Now we have to deal with a landlord that is apparently not kicking us out immediately only because he's a nice guy. Does that about sum it up?"
Seeing Ami look away, the short haired blond heaved a tired sigh at having to get on her case like that. It might have been a bit of a stretch on her part to have said all that, but either way it would be bad if the girls kept antagonizing Ranma. For the moment at least the girls seemed mollified, particularly Ami. On the other hand, Rei just didn't seem to be ready to give up just yet, though she was holding her tongue for now.
In a prime example of just how much a first impression can stick, Setsuna's quiet entrance into the inn was welcomed by the girls. Some of them were relieved at the thought of having a intelligent voice of reason home to sort this out. Others like Rei were thinking more along the lines of getting Setsuna to kick the imposer out and fix this mess.
The residents were by and large surprised however that the green haired woman in the skirted business suit paused as she seemed to recognize their new landlord. "Ranma? Ranma Saotome? Is that you?"
Ranma apparently took it in stride, leaving Nabiki to be the one that showed visual interest in the new arrival as Ranma hesitantly answered. "Uhm, yeah."
It was at that point that Rei's hopes were dashed as the rest of the tenants were treated to quite the shock as Setsuna lit up in joy. "Oh wow! What are you doing here? It's been so long since I've seen you last."
As the tanned woman came to kneel down at the table beside him, Ranma snapped his fingers as he finally placed her. "Oh, Setchan! I think I was just telling Nabiki about that stupid roach demon that kept bothering you. How have you been?"
Cheered up immensely, Setsuna chatted amiably with her old friend. "Oh, I've been fine, though I've been hoping to run into you again. Is your father still being a pain in the ass?"
Shrugging, Ranma got into the swing of talking with a girl that was actually pleasant and safe company. "Eh, the usual. Right now I'm supposed to be the manager for this place because of one of my relatives. I guess you're living here?"
Hearing that, the young woman lit up even further, looking extremely pleased with the prospect of living together. "Really? That's great!"
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(Posted Tue, 26 Sep 2006 07:01)
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