It started with one person, a video camera in hand, and a dream: to have the most hits on their website than anyone else they knew.
This number was pretty small—the people they knew, not the hits desired—reserved for those who would talk to anyone on the posting boards the person frequented.
But he had what they wanted, a fight that would attract everyone’s interest. They weren’t thinking that that might include those who wouldn’t want that video to see the light of day, or those who would voice their objections through brute and most likely lethal force. No, all they were concerned about was popularity.
They would have tried to sell the video to a news agency. After all, he knew (heard on the boards) of people who could make a nice little bonus by submitting film of a Senshi battle.
But then you never heard of the ones who got too close and if they were lucky, only lost the footage.
But in Nerima, such footage was easy to come by, but hardly newsworthy.
They jump five stories up? Seen it.
They can fire chi blasts? Been done.
They change genders and species with cold water? Used for a Sweeps Period.
Pervert gnome stealing women’s underclothes? They have more film than the police.
Monster battles? The library has them cataloged.
Crazy battle royals? They are sold in the bargain bin.
A fight with real vampires and loaded weapons? Now that was new.
But it wasn’t worthy enough for news.
So, it went to the public domain, to generate more hits, and perhaps earn him some revenue from his advertisement slots.
So as he uploaded it, and sent out some instant messages to spread the word around, his thoughts were not on the can of worms he was about to open.
The file spread as word of mouth did.
Now, if this had been Britain, then special software used by their agencies would have caught the video, flagged it, and then rendered the host of the website unusable—a DoS (Denial of Service) attack usually worked well, and could be blamed on a hacker who was causing trouble.
But it started on a Japanese server, which did not have the software—the Japanese more used to seeing strange and seemingly unbelievable things that many would lose their sanity over. As such, it wasn’t caught for a while.
By then, the damage would be immense.
“How’s this one, Ranma-kun?” asked Kasumi, offering another prepared ‘drink’ for the vampire martial artist.
Ranma sniffed the concoction, wondering exactly where Kasumi had gotten a cookbook on preparing blood for consumption, and tasted the new broth.
His favorite so far was the one that was almost like Hot Cocoa. “Mm, not bad, nice mint taste.”
“Thank you, Ranma-kun,” said Kasumi, setting off another cup to the side. That was the last she could make, while keeping enough for Nabiki to give her some feedback on, the girl being still in the Dojo sparing with Azusa.
“Spike will not defeat Little Azusa!”
“MY NAME IS NOT SPIKE, YOU SUGAR HIGH FREAK!”
It was so nice that Nabiki was making new friends, in Kasumi’s opinion. “I hope they are about finished. I’m not really sure how long I should leave Nabiki’s drinks out.”
Ranma nodded. He knew she would need it, especially after last night’s fight, as well as the training they had just done. Regenerating still took a bit out of you, even if you had perfect control. I wonder if Carmen has that problem? I’ll have to go use that phone tonight and call Seras for a meeting.
Looking into the dining area, he could see Akane nursing her sore feet—he had warned her for a long time now that she needed to work on her balance and leg work. Across from her was an equally sore panda, the sad recipient of a beating from Akane—she didn’t like being called a weak girl, even if she thought the training was stupid—and a very angry father—who couldn’t bring himself to hurt his daughter, even if she was supposed to be the heir to his school and had yet to teach her any of the advanced techniques of it.
Hell, Nabiki sadly knew more about those moves, and that was only because she had been bored one day, and read then. She had even considered selling them to Ranma to learn, and later sell him the truth that by doing so, he had ‘joined’ the two schools.
“Oh, Azusa’s butler called a while ago,” said Kasumi. “He said he can have some of her stuff shipped her by about four.”
“Her stuff?” he asked, a bit fearful. No, even I couldn’t have that bad of luck.
“She will be staying here for a bit, until she feels she is ready to ... ‘kick bad guy bootie’, was the phrase she used, I believe.”
“But her parents...”
“They’re on vacation in the Greek Isles,” said Kasumi.
“School?”
“Blew up.”
“Matches?”
“Cancelled, seems her partner was lost in the explosion.”
“Is she paying to stay here or did Mr. Tendo go with that ‘guests don’t need to pay’ idea?”
“Oh yes, Father was so happy when she gave him that check. Why, it might even be enough to get those new water heaters I heard about.”
“... Where will she be staying?”
“Oh, she seems to want to share a room with Nabiki. She initially wanted to stay with you, Ranma-kun, saying you made her feel so safe. But I told her that wasn’t very proper, and she suggested Nabiki instead.”
“Nabiki?”
“Well, she called her Spike, but I assume that was a nickname friends sometimes give each other.”
“Oh...” Well, dodged that bullet.
“By the way,” said Kasumi, handing him a note. “You received a call from a Mr. Ido. He said he would be by later on today to talk to you about a job opportunity.”
Ranma blinked, before looking down at the paper. “APD?”
“I haven’t heard of them either, but he said you came highly recommended, and he wanted to make a possible job offer to you.”
Ranma could only blink. The only reason he had been able to even read the paper was because of the heavy wood used in the tabletop he was leaning against. It was one of the few places in the house where he or Nabiki could even read anything—provided they held only a single sheet and nothing was printed on the back of it.
Of course, this only helped for simple things; messages, warnings on a bottle, and sadly, certain kind of contracts.
And despite the fact he was still in High School for one more year, he doubted the latter would be a rarity anytime soon. And Mom was worried about what I would do if I didn’t get into a good college.
Ukyo closed up her shop for the day, leaving Konatsu to finish cleaning up, and preparing for the next day. No class was a nice break, but for tonight, she was not going to be open. Ever since the newest strangeness had hit Nerima, night business had been nil.
Of course, she didn’t want to be out at night either. She didn’t doubt her skills, but she wasn’t going to be foolish enough to expose herself to a situation where they might be needed if she could avoid it.
Even if it might mean her Ranchan escorting her back here, protecting her from what he might have become...
She had to smack herself hard to stop that little daydream.
First thing was first, apologize for the wedding fiasco, work on friendship, and then try to get him to see her as a woman, and not a brother.
“It’d be so much easier if Ranchan wasn’t a virgin,” she muttered. “That would show him the difference right there.”
“Shampoo go now, Great-Grandmother?”
Cologne looked out the window a bit, puffing on her pipe that she used occasionally. She had a good idea what her heir was up to, but she also knew that her heir was still in the dark about the changes in Ranma as well as the middle Tendo child. Happi’s potion may have shifted things beyond what even I would have thought.
She had known a good time about Happosai’s little stunt. But sadly, her great-granddaughter hadn’t been able to convince the boy to sleep with her. Not that she would, the girl still was too indoctrinated at times with Amazon dogma. She had yet to learn certain things about relationships, and that not all males could and would be made sheep. “One moment, child. I wish to tell you something.”
And she decided it had to be today that she discussed a few things with her heir, while Mousse was busy in the back and unable to hear anything—got to love white noise machines, great to mess with spies.
If Shampoo didn’t change her tactics very soon, not only might she lose any chance she had at bedding and wining the heart of Son-in-law, but she also might lose her life.
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(Posted Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:30)
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