Yet, she was worried, very worried. Wayne-san, the way he had acted, was different than what she had thought he'd be. She knew about his parents dying when he was young of course, and sometimes his letters could be rather brooding. But, then again, so could hers. For quite a bit less reason than him...at least her parents were still alive.
Yet, last night he had seemed on the edge of the abyss, and that was counter to the very driven, active man he was in his letters. She wasn't sure if the spirit she saw had pulled him back or pushed him to it.
She would need to do some firmer research into the occult. She'd avoided it until now, aside from a fairy tale here or there, as it had brought up certain uncomfortable memories. But if a spirit was interested in her friend, perhaps it would be wise.
By the time she had awakened Wayne-san was gone.
"He does apologize for the rude behavior," Alfred said. "There is a lot on his mind of late. He is to start taking a more active role in the affairs of his family business now."
"I understand," Ranma said. "He must feel a great sense of duty."
"You would understand as well as he," Alfred suggested.
Ranma nodded and felt a twinge of guilt, though she was certain that Alfred had not meant to provoke that reaction. After all, her mother seemed to be of the opinion that she was ignoring her duty with this trip to America.
"I suppose I do understand," Ranma said.
The remainder of her stay at Wayne Manor passed without incident, and true to his word, Wayne-san did not stay at the manor while Ranma was there aside from that one incident. Though this was not so comforting as it had been at first. She did not forget that spirit.
Of course, she soon had a great deal on her mind.
Her new house was, to her mind, still rather more than she needed. And the fact that it had been designed along more traditional Japanese lines was somewhat more accomdation than she felt she needed. It remained dreadfully bare, by most people's standards, for a long time afterward.
This did not concern her. She had a job to attend to, and it was a challenging job even when she was only present as an assistant rather than a full researcher. She had classes. And her unorthodox education had left her knowing more and understanding more than virtually any other starting student, but she was still ill-prepared for the university system. And she was researching the occult, especially the history of the Gotham area.
She did not have another talk with Wayne-san. He was busy, she was busy, their schedules to date had not allowed for meeting, so she talked to him through Alfred.
She was busy enough that she missed the rumors of the newly appeared "Batman." If she had, she would have put it together much quicker.
She was walking home from the university when she first noticed learned of the "Batman" of Gotham.
Ranma felt the thugs make their move long before they themselves did. The first attacker attempted to grab her and ended up against the wall. She was already thrusting the second attacker away by the time the first landed. The third was thrown to the ground an eye blink later, and through it all Ranma seemed to be move slowly and gracefully.
That was when she'd heard the clicking sound and whirled to find the first attacker directing a gun at her.
"Fancy moves ninja girl," the man said. Ranma blinked and bridled at the insult but made no move, worried about that gun.
"My family is not ninja," she said reproachfully as the other two started to flank her.
"Big fucking deal," the man said. "I got the gun, so you're just going to do what we say. Got...?! What the fuck!!?"
That response was prompted by the event of his gun being knocked out of his hands and tumbling to the ground. In the next instant, Ranma had taken her right hand opponent down to ground. She almost missed the blur as a dark-cloaked man virtually ripped through the other two thugs.
When the short battle was over, the man looked over to Ranma, who was dusting herself off and returning to her normal posture.
"You handle yourself well," he commented grimmly in Japanese.
Ranma bowed and smiled before saying...
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:34)
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