Gendo Ikari saw how quickly trained professionally nasty intel officers had met his son, and been thrown around like rag dolls. He saw Agent Higurashi, all 6'3" and 480 pounds of him, try to tackle his son. He saw Agent Higurashi slam-dunked into a wastebasket. He saw Agent Sumizu draw a gun and... ouch. Apparently his son had felt threatened. Threatening his son physically was bad.
Having seen the injury occur, Gendo decided to OK the man's medical leave. It was quite likely that hand would be useless for a few months, so he was no longer of use in the current situation.
Yet, despite this newfound prowess in combat, Ranma was quickly disabled and pulled along by Captain Katsuragi.
Gendo went through the capture process twice, but his only conclusion was that Katsuragi somehow got Ranma to lower those defenses.
Gendo pondered. There were a number of women and girls around here that he himself, were he still a teenage boy whose hormones were a barely controlled wild horse pulling his intellect into all sorts of situations, would have found attractive. Of course, he'd quickly learned control and self-discipline and that sex was merely another tool to be used. There was no such thing as love, merely the human need to abate their own loneliness combined with cultural conditioning and mind-affecting hormones coming together to produce such an effect. Understanding that humanity were mere meat-sacks, doomed to die and be lost, was one of the reasons he'd gone into his particular research fields. His was a purely Darwinian moral code, centered upon his own success.
When he triggered Third Impact and became a god, he would change a few things.
For now though, he had to rein in his son, who was apparently living up to his name. He remembered where fifty yen in coins of assorted denomination had been imbedded in safety glass. Yes, he would have to use methods less direct than he used on Ritsuko and others. Less stick, more carrot.
Hence the 'Operation: Ranma's Girl' but the first question was who to use.
Rei would follow any order he gave her, and while physically attractive - even looking similar to Yui, her skills at personal interaction were sorely lacking. She might manage to accomplish that mission though.
Katsuragi was someone he himself had less control over. She had her own reasons for going up against the Angels, her own personal vengeance quest. One of Akagi's duties was to keep an eye on her longtime friend, and Ritsuko would hesitate all of five minutes to have Katsuragi killed if it was ordered. The age difference, even if Ranma looked much older than he was, and her self-destructive tendencies complicated the situation.
Ritsuko Akagi was already in a relationship with him, it was his major control over her. Requiring her to seduce and control his son might actually fit in with her kinky streak. Yet Akagi had her own flaws, like an ice-cold diamond that would shatter if you struck it just right. She knew the most of anyone in the Geofront, with the exceptions of himself and the Vice-Commander. Fuyutsuki loved Yui, and the thought of Yui reborn and humanity surviving its current straits were enough to motivate HIM. Akagi though - she could be a bit more fragile. He already planned that when Third Impact loomed close that she would be in a holding cell, something to keep her out of the way. Until then though - she was an indispensible part of the plan. No, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi was not a good choice.
Maya Ibuki was attractive enough, and didn't have Doctor Akagi's grasp of what was going on. She was besotted with Dr. Akagi in fact, though Gendo knew that the "admired sempai" scenario between two professional women was more often completely non-sexual. In Ibuki's case though - Gendo and Dr. Akagi had discussed the matter and they'd agreed that it went a bit further. She had a strong moral code, which was being eroded away slowly by Akagi. Akagi actually found the younger woman's hero-worship somewhat amusing. If her "sempai" asked, she would object but probably go along with such a plan, but the woman was unlikely to be a sufficient actress to pull off that role.
Which brought him to the case of Asuka Langley Soryuu. Fragile mental state. Knew nothing of what was really going on. Her desire to be #1 in all things, to constantly prove herself, made her almost laughably easy to manipulate.
Yes, she'd have to do.
Ranma watched the video with Misato, making faces at various points in the movie.
No, this was not fun. Oh, Nabiki and Akane and even Kasumi had all debated various meanings and stuff, but Ranma took a far far simpler approach. This was a movie about a bunch of people, and how they'd been screwed over right royally.
Ranma was an individualist. The idea of turning into goo and losing your identity to become part of some literal tide of humanity did not have appeal. What was it that Nabiki had said? "Socialist heaven, Capitalist hell" or something like that? Kasumi had said something about never hearing that "Just Imagine" song and being able to get that image from the end of the movie out of her head. Whatever. It was taking every accomplishment he had managed and throwing them out the window.
He might be stuck as Shinji here, but hell if he was going to let himself get led around like Shinji did.
"Why are they acting like that?" asked Ranma. Everyone was so happy to be turned into goo. Except for that guitar-playing guy who was one of the bridge operators, who apparently saw what was really coming after him.
Misato paused the tape and considered her co-conspirator briefly. "They see what they want to see. If everyone was turned into that stuff, then the most pleasing face was put on it. Don't you think they would have embraced it if, for example, they saw a naked Mao Tse-Tung offering to be one with them?"
"Bleah," said Ranma.
"Exactly," said Misato. "Now look at this."
"Yeah, that's Shinji, aw man," said Ranma, looking as Misato held the manga up and he compared the kid on the video with the kid in the manga. "This guy's in MY life?"
"I was an anime character in your world, you're a manga character in mine," said Misato. "Though I'm suprised you'd want to go back with this kind of life."
Ranma began flipping through. There was the Tendo house, arrangement the same, but - "waitaminute, Akane BEAT him in that 'friendly sparring match'? This guy..."
"Gets beaten on by nearly everyone for forty-three volumes," said Misato. "His father tried to raise him to be a martial artist, but he just never had any talent for it. Damn near indestructible though."
"Whoa," said Ranma. "Man, Akane comes in when he's... what IS he doing there?"
"Masturbating," said Misato after a glimpse. "They don't show it directly, but it's pretty obvious."
"Akane never beat me THAT violently," said Ranma after a minute. "Well, hardly ever. Not that often."
Misato nodded absently. "Then Mousse shows up, having been engaged to Shinji..."
"BWAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"It isn't funny," said Misato with a scowl. "I remember this series because Shinji is clearly shown to be bisexual and he's fully into yaoi by the end of the series because all the women treat him so rotten."
Ranma stopped laughing abruptly. "Say what?"
Ranma quickly found the last page of the last volume. There was Shinji, walking off to school in the early morning, with... "ick. double ick. triple ick."
"The series was considered ground-breaking in Japan," said Misato. "Started out as slapstick with Shinji getting beaten on regularly by nearly everyone, then he ends up with this Konatsu boy-that-thinks-he's-a-girl because of various factors. People thought he'd end up with Ryoga, but that was just hinted at for awhile then Ryoga found Akari."
"This is just so WRONG," said Ranma, putting the book down when he flipped back to a page that didn't show anything too objectionable but only because drifting flower petals blocked off certain parts. "ick."
"So did you come in before you met Konatsu or after?" asked Misato.
"I've met him, he's UKYO'S kunoichi," said Ranma. "He's always over there doing... oh man."
"So in the original series, at least in the movie," said Misato, pointing at the screen. "Shinji ends up falling for Asuka except she falls apart, then he turns to this guy named Kaworu?"
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(Posted Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:42)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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