“Alright, we’ll see you there.” Akane smiled as she replaced the pay phone’s receiver and walked back over to her date. “I just got off the phone with Ranma. He’s going to meet us in front of the theater at 6:30.”
Gosunkugi looked a bit relieved at this, but he was still nervous (though whether that nervousness came from the possibility that Kuno would somehow interfere with his date or from the simple fact that he was actually on a date with his dream girl wasn’t entirely clear). The two of them had made it to Juuban without incident, but in Nerimans like Gosunkugi, the lack of incidents has a tendency to generate uneasiness, mostly because they aren’t used to having significant stretches of time unoccupied by eventfulness.
He tried to cover this disquiet up by changing the subject a bit. “6:30, huh? Well, that gives us about an hour to eat, so… what are you in the mood for?”
“Well… we’d better keep things simple. How about an American fast food place? You know, just in case Kuno is trying something.”
That suited Gosunkugi just fine — his wallet wasn’t really well-padded enough for him to afford anything much higher on the price scale. “I think I saw a McDonald’s logo somewhere around here.”
“That sounds fine.”
“I don’t understand, Ranma-papa,” Hotaru said as her father figure began doing some stretches before heading out to meet up with the couple from Nerima. “Why are they worried about Kuno when he’s confined to a hospital bed?”
“Well, Hotaru,” Ranma replied as he stretched his quadriceps, “Kuno may not be able ta do anythin’ to ’em directly, but when yer as loaded as he is, ya don’t need ta. Ya see, most of the servants ta the Kuno family’re ninjas, an’ if that bokken-wielding baka sends some of them ta after Akane an’ her date, there could be trouble. Maybe not for Akane, since I know she can handle ’em, but definitely for her date.”
“Oh, so you’re concerned that they might be attacked by ninjas?”
“Well, not necessarily — Kuno might just send them there ta monitor them, so he can find out who Akane’s date is. That’s actually the main reason I’m gonna be taggin along. At the very least, if I’m there, then Kuno might not come after the poor guy for bein’ some sort of sorcerer, ’cuz as far as the moron’s concerned, I’m the better candidate for that. I mean, I can bear the brunt of Kuno’s righteous indignation pretty easily — whereas I doubt this guy could handle it even if he was a sorcerer.”
“Gesundheit,” Akane said as she handed her date some tissues. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Gosunkugi replied as he wiped his nose. “There must be some dust in the air, or something.”
Ranma’s explanation seemed to be sufficient enough for Hotaru, who nodded her head in response. “So, basically, you’re going to be on the lookout for ninjas, then?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And what are you going to do if you find any?”
“I’m actually not too sure about that. Whatever I do, the whole purpose is goin’ ta be ta distract them from whatever it is they’re doin’, ’cuz likely as not, they’ll be up ta no good.”
“Oh… um, are you sure you don’t want help? I mean, I may not be that strong in this form, but if I tagged along as Sailor Saturn….”
Ranma chuckled as he began stretching his upper body. “Thanks for the offer, Hotaru, but if yer as powerful as everyone says ya are, anythin’ ya do against these guys would probably be overkill. I mean, we don’t really have any reason ta believe that Kuno knows anythin’ about this yet — this is mostly just a precaution. But in any case, I doubt any ninjas I come across tonight are gonna be youma.”
Contrary to what one might expect, Check did not sneeze — mostly because he didn’t actually have lungs, and was therefore incapable of rapidly expelling air through his nose (and he didn’t have one of those, either). However, the nose-like bump in the middle of his face did start itching something terrible.
“Are you alright, sir?”
“Yes, I’m fine — continue with your report.”
Check’s subordinate immediately straightened up. “Of course. As I was saying, Llobewu has just departed from his home and looks to be preparing to travel to this plane of existence. As expected, he is woefully under-prepared and overconfident — I’d put his chances of success at approximately zero.”
“My friend, his chances of success are exactly zero — there is no such thing as the Orb of MacGuffin.”
“Oh… I didn’t realize that,” the ninjamarketer replied with some embarrassment, but he soon managed to shake it off. “In any case, I had already assuming he would fail his mission from the outset. When I spoke of his chances of success, I meant his chances of winning a fight with the Senshi.”
“Ah, I see.” This made a bit more sense. “And what of young Miss Osaka?”
“She and her friend are still in the Crown Arcade — they just recently shifted their focus from the Sailor V console to some sort of light-gun game. When we last checked, Miss Osaka was doing very well. It appears that the anxieties about youma attacks she’d expressed earlier today are receding for the moment.”
“Very good. Keep me posted — if there’s any unexpected change in her behavior, I’ll need to know immediately.”
“Of course.”
As Akane and Gosunkugi took their Big Macs and sat down in one of the booths, ready to enjoy the artery-clogging goodness of the signature sandwich of their fast food restaurant of choice. And enjoy it they did — in fact, it wasn’t until they were about halfway through their burgers that Akane started up the conversation again.
“So, Hikaru, what do you like to do?”
As Gosunkugi had a mouthful of two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun in his oral cavity, he finished chewing and swallowed before responding to Akane’s question. “Um, what do you mean?”
“Well, what are your interests? Do you have any hobbies?”
“Um, well, I really like photography….”
“Really? That must be interesting.”
“Well, it sort of depends on the subject of the photos.”
“Are you into that artistic, black-and-white kind of photography?”
“Um, not really — I just sort of like to document the world around me,” Gosunkugi said, though he thought he felt a slight bit of disappointment coming from Akane. “Though, I have been thinking about taking up that kind — you know, to give my hobby a little more depth.”
Akane smiled. “Well, maybe you could show me some of your pictures when we get back to Nerima — perhaps they have more artistic value than you think.”
This sounded good to Gosunkugi, until he remembered what (or rather, who) was the subject of most of his photo collection. Red alert! Take evasive action! “Uh, as much as I’d like to do that, at the moment I’m still a little nervous about spending a lot of time in Nerima — um, sorry about that….”
Akane sighed. “Don’t worry, I understand perfectly. You know, if it looks like this relationship will last for a while, you might want to consider taking up a martial art for self-defense.”
Gosunkugi had to pinch himself underneath the table to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Akane was already talking about a long-term relationship? “O-oh… um, r-really?”
“Uh-huh. In fact, given the huge number of specialized styles in our area, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a school of Martial Arts Photography that you could learn.”
“Oh. Um, okay. I’ll, uh, look into it.” There was a pause, and suddenly Gosunkugi realized that it was his turn to ask questions. “So, uh, what about you?”
“Well, outside of school, I’d have to say that my main interest is the Martial Arts. You might have heard that I’m the heir to my family’s style.”
“Um, yeah, I think I did hear something like that. You must be pretty good, then.”
“Yeah, I suppose I am, compared to most people anyway. Of course, I spend a lot of time with other people in martial arts circles who are a lot more skilled than I am, so sometimes, I guess I lose perspective and forget that most people can’t do a lot of things that I can.”
“Like what?”
“Well, the Tendo School of Anything Goes is power-based, so I’ve spent a lot of time doing strength training — that doesn’t mean I can lift cars over my head, but I could probably punch through the door of one without injuring myself, if I really focused my ki.”
“Whoa. You’ll have to show me that sometime.”
Akane smiled. “Maybe I will… but only if you promise to take pictures of me while I’m doing it. After all, that’s the kind of thing most people won’t believe unless you have proof.”
Her date got a nervous look in his eyes as he realized that his dream girl had just given him permission to do something he’d been doing illicitly for the past few weeks — the irony inherent in the situation was rather obvious. But more importantly, Akane had just made a suggestion which, if things went well tonight, would provide them with a pretense for a second date. Given these circumstances, Gosunkugi could really only give one response to this. “Um, okay.”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Kwakerjak
(Posted Sun, 05 Nov 2006 07:22)
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.