Oddly enough, that left him unable to do anything save for one thing he never thought he'd be in a position to actually say and mean. "WHERE AM I NOW?!"
After his initial outburst, he pulled himself out of the asphalt crater and started looking around at where he had landed. Of course, a parking lot was still a parking lot, and those were all over the place. So that didn't help much, and since he hadn't heard of this place before by what he could recall, it didn't help him at all. It didn't give him much assistance to see that there wasn't exactly a whole lot in the way of other things in front of the mall, where he'd landed. There seemed to be stores close enough to walk to, but other than the trees across the large street, it didn't look like anyone lived nearby. However, he couldn't exactly remember why the name seemed to be so familiar....
Then it came to him at once, as he remembered that he had heard of the name before. It was on the side of a ferry that he'd seen in a movie that Nabiki had always liked for some reason. The fact that she couldn't exactly explain why she'd enjoyed that movie wasn't a major problem for him right then, as he had just needed a point of reference. To tell the truth, the only reason that he himself even remembered it because of the fact that he'd seen two of the actors in it in movies that he'd actually liked.
But that didn't matter. What was important was the part that had to do with what he'd just read was that those words were pasted onto the side of a ferry heading in to Manhattan that the main character had been heading in to work on. That meant that the place had something to do with New York City, though exactly what that would be, he didn't know. It wasn't like he was a student of American geography, and he had never heard of this 'Staten Island' place. He wasn't even sure that it had even been mentioned in the information that he'd heard about the 'Big Apple', given that he couldn't recall any times that it'd really happened. For all he knew, the place could be a simple nearby island where office workers stayed when they got enough money.
Still, that was neither here, nor there. All he knew was that he had to move out of a crater in asphalt to get to a relatively level surface. When he did so, he discovered that there were two things that he should be rather aware of. The first thing was that there was a crowd of people around him, likely attracted by the oddity of having a boy probably literally 'drop in' on their area, and crash into the ground with enough force to bend it. It was the other one that was important though, as he could understand why they might be concerned about his presence, given the fact that he had been in a rather large depression in the asphalt, but was not only still alive, but in as perfect health as could be wished for.
"Uhh.... Hi," he murmured weakly at the various people hesitantly gazing in on the strange new arrival, waving a little at them. "How're ya all doin'?"
None of them tried to speak, but a few laughed nervously and crooked their hands uncertainly as they returned his greeting.
Aware that he was being reacted to, rather than answered, Ranma tried to figure out what to do. Fortunately, no one seemed to be having a major problem with him, but out of the sea of faces of different sizes, shapes, and colors, there would only need to be one individual who would cause him all sorts of grief. He could only hope that such a thing wouldn't happen, as he knew that it would be more of a headache than he needed right then. What he did know was that this was drawing people out of the mall, which wasn't too bad... save for that it made him even more of a spectacle, and he didn't need that sort of attention at the moment.
So, he turned about, looking from the mall to the parking lots, to the busy thoroughfare nearby, to the greenery across that large street, all to seek out some sort of answer as to what he should do, while:
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(Posted Mon, 23 Oct 2006 07:36)
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