Ranma eyed the bottle in his hand and then shrugged. He wasn't familiar with "Awamori Shochu", but sake was sake, and he needed a drink. He rummaged around the bag and picked out two sake cups; he wanted to get drunk fast, but not THAT fast. Drinking himself to sleep was good; dying of alcohol poisoning, while having a certain appeal in this situation, was not.
His temporary roommate &ndash concubine (bleh!), whatever &ndash Meanwhile, Ranma's mind was racing for more excuses to get out of here, or to distract Herb, whose curious stare was starting to get to him. It kind of reminded him of one time during the chase to the mountain, when Mint and Lime had-of course!
"So," he asked the Musk prince (princess, he had to remind himself, and shuddered; he'd had nightmares about stuff like that. Usually involving Kuno), "where's Mint and Lime?"
Herb scowled. "Lime made a... mistake in judgement and is paying the consequences," she said darkly. "Mint took Lime's lapse and compounded it; both of them aren't leaving for the outside world for a long time. If ever."
Ranma let his shoulders slump in defeat as he poured the slightly cloudy liquid into the cups. He'd hoped the two would burst in or proposition some girl or do something to provide an excuse to fight. Then he could 'accidentally' damage the place and be forced to leave. Although, and here he slumped further, mom wouldn't take that very well... especially after their 'discussion' earlier.
He could feel Herb's gaze resting on him again and consciously forced himself to straighten up. He was going to face this like a man, damnit, and get drunk and fall asleep! Then, when he woke up, he could sneak out and figure out what was going on with his mom and the other girls.
"Here," he offered a cup to the dragon princess, who took it and looked at it dubiously. "Usually the heavier stuff is poured into a glass and drunk; you can drink beer directly from a bottle, but people tend to look at you funny if you do the same with sake." He paused. "You've drunk alcohol before, right?"
Herb shrugged. "Rarely; alcohol doesn't mix well with martial arts or the usage of chi."
"Heh; remind me to teach you about Zui Quan; it's a style that uses the effects alcohol has on chi flows to do some pretty cool things. Just take it slow though; usually you have to get used to the taste too."
Ranma drained the cup in a single movement and then coughed as his throat caught on fire. Strong stuff!
Nabiki leaned back against the wall and watched as the room dissolved into three different conversations. Mrs. Saotome was talking to Kasumi about something in a low voice; she'd tried to get closer to hear, but Kasumi had stopped mid-sentence and has just stared at her until she had moved across the room.
Those two together made her nervous. Really nervous. Ranma's mother had a couple screws loose, she knew that. And Kasumi was rather quiet most of the time, but somehow always knew how to get her to do something. If she left them alone together, she'd probably find herself probably find herself in the permanent role of "Ranma's Sex Toy". While the idea was fun for an occasional fantasy, it was completely out of the question in real life!
Akane and Shampoo were eyeing each other from their positions against opposite walls. They'd started arguing almost immediately, but Mrs. Saotome had somehow knew when Akane was about to blow up and had separated them. Nabiki had actually hoped for a scuffle; while it would put her little sister in hotter water with Ranma' mother, it could break apart this little meeting and let her start working on damage control. Drop a few words in a conversation or two with Ryouga and Kuno to delay things for a couple days, then find a way to get herself out of this... this absurdity!
Ukyou and Kodachi were huddled together, with the former slowly explaining to the latter about Ranma's curse with little success, and the latter completely getting neither the point nor the overly-patient and somewhat condescending tone being used.
"Okay, let's try this again. Ranma is cursed."
"Yes. Alas for&ndash"
"Ahem! The curse is triggered when he's splashed by cold water."
"Yes, yes, you said that before. How the&ndash"
"When it activates, he turns into a girl."
"The red-head."
"Exactly! I think you've got it at last!"
"That... that... that witch desires to steal away my poor Ranma's body for her own diabolical use! And he, innocent man he is, cannot understand the depths to which she will&mdash"
"No, no, no!"
A smirk threatened to creep its way onto Nabiki's face, but she valiently suppressed the impulse.
Unfortunately, the crazy 'fiancee' was the most likely to go along with this ridiculous contest made by the equally unstable (if less obviously) mother. Shampoo was the next most likely; she didn't really know all that much about how the girl, or, more importantly, Cologne, felt about it. They might withdraw in disgust or they might embrace it with glee. Ukyou was fairly normal, as the martial artists she'd seen in the past couple years went, and Akane likewise. Her little sister was prone to getting herself bamboozled though, so she wouldn't be much help.
And now "auntie" Nodoka and Kasumi were walking over to where she stood. Taking a deep breath, Nabiki managed a slightly strained smile and started running over arguments.
The prospective victims were lined up in a row, but only three of them had as of yet fallen prey to the executioners, and a fourth was on its way.
"So then-then he decides that the bear ain't that tough and tries to get the food back. So I hear this roar and a kind of 'squeak', then pops comes running back through the clearing, the bear hot on his tail."
Both of them were red in the face and Ranma was swaying slightly as he moved his arms dramatically as he told his story.
"After he got out of the hospital, we started on the big trip around China. Did you ever go on a training trip?"
Herb shook her head, re-filling both cups.
"No, I never had the time. I might've been the future Emperor &ndash Empress, now," she said with a hint of bitterness, "but there never were more than a few dozen of us. There was training. In fighting, of course, to uphold our supremacy of the chi arts, but also in statecraft and rulership. Not that diplomacy mattered much; we avoided the rest of the world like frightened sheep."
Ranma sighed. "Maybe I should take you on one; there's nothing quite like it. Going from place to place, no burdens or worries beyond your next meal or bed, constantly training and learning. It's like... it's like... it's like nothing else in the world. Freedom..." he trailed off, looking up at the ceiling in silence.
She leaned in closer to get his attention and his eyes snapped back down. Then they darted away and his entire face turned beet-red.
"Err... your clothes..."
She looked down and hastily sat back and covered her breasts with her arms. At some point she'd apparently spilled something down the front of her dress and was now displaying evidence of her now-permanent gender to the world.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Tue, 02 Jan 2007 08:01)
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.