The nearly naked Ranma rushed at the eldest sister. "If those things mean I gotta wear dresses and girly junk, I'll scrub them off myself!!"
He missed her.
'He' spun around on a 5-yen piece and reached of her again.
He missed her.
Again. He missed her, again. Again. He missed her, again.
"That's impossible! Even I can't read moves that fast!" Ranma cried, pulling at 'his' bra, again, in frustration.
"-Wait!" 'He' thought a tactic had come to 'him'. Maybe she was, somehow, using 'his' own lightning reflexes against 'him'. The old "Turn Your Opponents Strength into His Weakness" ploy. Okay, then, 'he' would slow down.
Forcing 'himself' to move in slow motion, 'he' was able to come within inches of grabbing the placid girl. This time, 'he' saw it.
Kasumi moved without moving. She was there one fraction of a second; she was just out of his grasp the next fraction.
"Wow! I've never seen anybody come so close to actually touching Kasumi, before," Nabiki said, impressed. {Mental note: Ranma has the speed to get out of ordinary traps.}
"I still say, it'd be cheating, if Kasumi ever did get into a fight," Akane said, trying not pretend she wasn't jealous.
"Kasumi! My Poor Daughter's hands have been mutilated!" Daddy continued in his crying panic, unable to change topics.
"The Space/Time Continuum Technique!" Ryunosuke said. "In martial arts lingo, "Prop Space"! Our surveillances made us aware of Akane Tendo's "Hammer Space", and Nabiki Tendo's "Camera Space", but we totally missed this one!"
"We call it "Kasumi Space"," Nabiki said. "The rarest form. And it's a condition, not a technique." She turned her eyes away from him. "Daddy?"
Daddy, though, was still running back and forth, wailing.
"It's something Soun and I learned while researching the manuscripts we could find of our mutual master," Mr. Saotome said. "It told how, by using certain pressure points and exercises while the candidate was still young, and open to benefits of its effects, they could gain the ability reach past Earthly limitations. I had no idea, though, that Soun had experimented with it on his own children."
Ranma had still not given up on the challenge of tagging the girl. "Why didn't you do that to me! You tried just about every other dumb thing!?!"
"I did," Mr. Saotome said.
"What!?? Then why can't I do what she's doin'!?!!" Frustrations piled on frustrations; if 'he' didn't get some relief, soon, 'he' might just snap, with or without any phobia-inducers. Then his biggest secret would be out. ('He' knew now that the whole world knew he had been changed.)
"Because you can't control what happens!" Soun had finally found something else to cry about.
"How the child uses the space depends entirely on what is on their minds when the condition takes." Mr. Saotome said. "And thereafter, it is quite difficult to modify that use."
"My poor, poor daughters!" Daddy's lamentation became more piercing as he remembered the original horror. "My poor Kasumi!! I almost lost her to this world: Gone!! Disappeared!!" He rushed at Ranma, and violently threw the 'girl' out the door. "Don't ever try anything against Kasumi! You're making her more unstable!!" His guilt gave his threat a very serious note.
(Posted Fri, 10 Nov 2006 20:16)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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