Walking on his own in the company of the two men and the strange girl, Ranma was momentarily dizzy but quickly shrugged it off. More importantly he was able to step onto an elevated walkway between the two buildings and get some fresh air. Breathing in deeply he slipped into the horse stance and refreshed his bruised ki flows. No big problem of course as one of his hallmark abilities was bouncing back from such things as quickly as possible.
A quick glance at the surrounding village led Ranma to dismiss it as some crazy amusement park type place. There was even a parody of that mountain with the faces in it, not to mention the way hand built wooden buildings were interspersed with modern technology like lights.
Shaking his head to clear it one last time and get his game face on, Ranma motioned them forward. "Alright, I'm feeling better now. Let's go see Nabiki."
Stepping into Nabiki's room brought the strange visual cues back into focus. Even the hospital room looked like it was the work of some crazy theme park designer. Like seemingly everything else he'd seen, it was a strange mix of old style stuff that wasn't historically accurate and modern style tech that looked like it had been redesigned.
It wasn't like he'd even seen much medical machinery in real life, but even he thought the weird paper wards on the ends of the wires were a bit odd. Strangely enough he actually understood the readings on the machine to a degree. The readouts were similar, but they were marked as being about specific chakra gate flows. It actually looked like equipment that would have fitted in with Dr. Tofu's shiatsu clinic.
Of course, the good doctor hadn't used such technology, of either type, otherwise Ranma would have at least recognized it.
The machines were only a background concern, notable only because Ranma understood them better that the kind they had in hospitals. The real concern was Nabiki, who didn't look good at all. The girl was apparently asleep, but her breathing was weak and labored. "What's wrong with her?"
"She seems to have suffered from a focused genjutsu effect. The symptoms are quite numerous, but most disturbing is the damage to her chakra flows."
"That seems most similar to an incomplete cursed seal. If that is the case, it will kill her unless it stabilizes."
"If that was the case though, it would be caused by a blood enzyme and we could at least attempt to remove that."
Ignoring the attendant doctor and Hokage guy getting into a debate he didn't understand, Ranma finally realized what was wrong with her skin. She wasn't simple pale or ashen, but rather had some sort of wiggling black stuff just under her skin. The feeling of the stuff as he recognized it was all to familiar, causing Ranma to instinctively focus his aura.
The medical-nin style debate on possible causes between the Third Hokage and the presiding doctor quickly ended as a shimmering white-blue aura flickered into existence around Ranma's right forearm. As the young man slowly moved to lay his glowing hand on Nabiki's near shoulder the doctor spoke up hurriedly, "What are you doing?"
Paradoxically determined to do this, yet unsure about going through with it, Ranma hesitated while snapping back, "I'm doing what I did for her before!"
Stepping forward to observe from a position near Nabiki's head, Sarutobi nodded to the young man. "It's an elemental release. A higher type I haven't seen before. If that's the technique you used to defend her, then seeing it in action might prove the key to diagnosing her."
Seeing the apparent doctor sigh and prepare to observe the event, Ranma carefully placed his glowing hand on Nabiki's shoulder. Much to the surprise of those present, the dark presence beneath her skin pulled back from his touch, leaving a patch of healthy if pale flesh. Somewhat disturbingly the remaining darkness became more noticeable, changing from mottled gray to writhing dark lines in sync with her heartbeat.
The Hokage was surprised. Elemental release was a rather advanced technique with five basic elements. Then there were the rare elements, a composition of basic ones that could only be accomplished with a kekkei genkai. The first Hokage for instance had possessed the Mokuton, or the wood release which combined water and earth. This one seemed to be an unknown type of spiritual energy, perhaps anti-demonic. "It's an opposing elemental reaction. If that's the case, then only that elemental release can oppose it."
The doctor sighed in defeat as that explained why they couldn't treat the cause of her condition. "He shouldn't be using chakra this soon, he can't keep this up for long."
The Hokage saw the point. Having just recovered, the young man wouldn't be able to keep up the release for long, and he was apparently the girl's only hope for treatment. "Yes, if that's the case, I think a seal would be best. Even if it is only temporary, it could allow her to recover."
With half a dozen empty bowls on the counter, Ranma was slurping up his current bowl at normal speeds. Worry over Nabiki was dulling his appetite, and leaving her there in that room to recover while he went out to eat wasn't doing anything to put him at ease.
Glancing over at the Hokage guy that was apparently the town leader, Ranma had to agree with the guy's reasoning at least. Since it was apparently whatever type of energy he'd learned to produce in that hell dimension that could treat Nabiki, the best thing that Ranma could do for her health was keep his energy up. Other than that, only the assurance that a nurse-nin would rapidly find him if Nabiki woke up or needed him kept him at ease.
Also, if what the old man had told him was right, then the strange tattoo on his hand would tell him if the seal on Nabiki was failing. When he'd tried the seal thing the guy had explained, Nabiki had ended up with a seal the color of dried blood above her left breast, while he had one of a matching design in shimmering turquoise on the back of his right hand. Him getting marked like that had surprised the Hokage guy, but apparently made some kind of sense if he was sealing the stuff in Nabiki up with his own energy.
Luckily there were other things on his mind, like that Anko girl that had adopted him as her big brother. It was a bit strange to him that a ten year old girl could be a fighting ninja already, but apparently the girl was already a genin and could go on low risk missions. Glancing over at the girl whom was attacking her own bowl of noodles, Ranma had to grin a bit.
Maybe she didn't do normal little girl stuff, but if he had to have a little sister, having her be a ninja might actually be fun. Who knew what kind of games they could play? It would certainly be more fun than tea parties with stuffed toys or whatever it was little girls were supposed to do.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Valor Phoenix
(Posted Fri, 16 May 2008 10:39)
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.