The two girls left the station, giggling over the antics of a boy who had flirted with them harmlessly since they had changed tot eh local train. As Akane looked around at the small village sandwiched between the railway and a river, Ranma turned and walked off along the main road.
“Hey! Don’t run off!”
“Oh, sorry.” Ranma turned around, sheepishly running a hand through her hair.
“Where are you going, anyway? “ asked Akane as she caught up. “Shouldn’t we wait to catch the bus?”
“In theory, maybe,” returned the redhead. “The problem is, the only bus to here is only supposed to run every couple of hours, and when me an’ Pops were here a few years back it never seemed to run to time. If you catch the bus straight off, it’s quicker, but we’ll be better off walking the three kilometres to the next town and catching a bus from there.”
“Is that a different service?”
“Yeah. Different company and everything. Then we have another five kilometres walk to where we’re camping.”
“Oh.” Akane adjusted her shoulder straps and nodded “Lead on, MacDuff.”
“Mac Duff?”
“I suppose your father didn’t introduce you to much culture, did he…”
Twenty minutes later, Ranma’s pace slowed, and Akane frowned. The redhead had not held up her end of the conversation since they left the village, and had become steadily less loquacious over the last ten minutes or so.
Now, she looked around, and nodded. She slipped off her backpack and propped it against a fallen tree.
“I’m not tired,” commented Akane.
Ranma’s lips quirked. “First, remember that part of extending your limits is not pushing them too far, so you don’t hurt yourself,” she said. “Second, that ain’t why I’m stopping, an it’s specially not why I’m stopping here.”
“So…”
Ranma looked around again, shuffled her feet, and worked her mouth silently. The second time she repositioned her pack, Akane broke the silence.
“If you’ve brought me here for a gruesome ritual murder I’ll haunt you the rest of your life.”
Ranma starred at her. “Eww. Do people really do that?”
“Not nice people,” was the reply. As her friend nodded in dubious understanding, Akane asked, “So why did you stop, anyway?”
“Ah, yeah.” Ranma fidgeted a little more. “Could we talk abot gruesome ritual murders instead? Didn’t think so.” She tugged at her ponytail once more, took a deep breath, and pressed on. “I can – um. There’s… There’s stuff I only want my feds to know.”
Since that seemed to be her cue Akane said, “I am your friend, Ranma.”
Ranma smiled. “Thanks, Akane.” Se nodded, and swallowed. “Thanks. It’s um, you know how Yuka asked why I didn’t get a Jusenkyo curse? Well, it’s kinda ‘bout that…”
“How your ancestry stopped the curse catching?”
“Yeah.” Ranma rubbed her hands together nervously. “Lotion-sensei explained ta me, at Joketsuzoku, that, ah, natural…” She gave Akane a long, serious look. “All natural shapeshifters can override the Jusenkyo curse, the first time the do their natural shapeshift afterwards.”
Akane blinked. “And you’re a natural shapeshifter?”
Ranma nodded unhappily.
“Like a werewolf?”
Ranma nodded again, firmly.
Akane regarded the nervous redhead for a long, pregnant moment. Eventually, she said,
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(Posted Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:10)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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