Ranma immediately shot out of bed, and was by Kasumi’s side in a second. He felt for a pulse and her breath.
Nabiki ordered Ranma around as he gently lifted Kasumi, “Put her on the bed, Ranma. Make her comfortable.” Ranma complied and did as directed. “You watch her, I’ll go get some smelling salt.” And without another word, Nabiki ran from the room.
Ranma sat beside Kasumi, holding her hand in his left while patting it with his right hand. She started to stir and groan when Nabiki returned. Without saying another word, she stuck the smelling salts under Kasumi’s nose. The results were immediate.
Coughing, Kasumi sat up. “Oh My!”
“Are you OK, Kasumi?” Ranma looked at Kasumi in apparent concern. Noticing the tray of food that Kasumi had placed by the bed, Ranma picked up the bowl of miso soup. “Here, Kasumi, have some food. Or would you like a drink instead?”
“Nabiki! What happened... you look... do you know you got fur?” Kasumi spluttered in shock.
“I don’t know what happened big sis,” Nabiki replied, “I was not like this when I went to bed last night.”
“Just try to relax,” Ranma gently said to Kasumi, while rubbing her palm and making comforting noises.
Kasumi laid back and relaxed; color returned to her pale cheeks. “Thanks, Ranma-kun, but I am not hungry. I already had breakfast.”
“How late is it, then? Why wake us up so late?” Nabiki wondered out loud as she looked towards her clock.
“I thought you and Ranma-kun would like to have a bit of a lie in,” Kasumi said before blushing, “... you know, being, uh, your wedding night and all.”
“Where’s pops? I think I should ‘thank’ him for such a wonderful picnic, yesterday. Wanna help, Nabiki?” Ranma stretched out, popping his joints.
Kasumi’s blush deepened. “He’s still ... uh ... asleep. Er ... father too.” Kasumi gazed down to her hands, unable to look anyone in the eye.
“OK,” Ranma said pensively, “how about me and Nabiki have your wonderful cooking before it gets cold. And the two of you can fill me in on the wedding, and Akane, and yesterday in general.”
“‘Nabiki and I,’ Ranma-kun,” Kasumi absentmindedly corrected him.
“Yes, that’s right, you and Nabiki. Telling me about my wedding. Unless, no one knows what the hell happened.” Ranma responded, oblivious to the fact that Kasumi was correcting his grammar. Patting the bed next to him, to invite Nabiki to sit, Ranma reached over to put the soup back on the tray and pick up the tray. Doing so, he missed Kasumi and Nabiki both rolling their eyes. Nabiki sat down and Ranma balanced the tray in his lap. Ranma picked up one pair of chopsticks, plucked a piece of fried tofu, and held his chopsticks up to Nabiki’s mouth.
“I can feed myself, Saotome.” Nabiki glared at Ranma.
“Er, your claws don’t get in the way of the chopsticks?”
Pouting pensively, Nabiki picked up the other pair of chopsticks and played with them experimentally. “Nope, I’m fine.”
The newlywed couple began to dig into the breakfast of miso soup, rice, fried tofu, and pickled veggies.
“Sorry for the simple fare,” Kasumi began to apologize, “I did not get much sleep last night.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ranma replied after swallowing some food, “tastes great, and I’m not a picky eater. So about last night?” Ranma then looked at the ring on his had, a puzzled expression crossing his face. With a sigh, he dug back into his food.
Kasumi did not miss Nabiki glancing at Ranma out of the side of her eye, a sorrowful expression momentarily crossed Nabiki’s face. “What do you remember of the picnic, little brother?”
Ranma sighed. “Well, it was about normal, as far as pop’s schemes go. The usual insanity, even though we were trying to get away from that for a day. It started out nice. Sunny day, warm weather, cool breeze. The food was especially tasty. The stir fry was perfect. Just the right amount of soy sauce. The tofu was not too salty. The fish was just the right degree of crispy. The sweet buns and bean jam and - ”
Nabiki interrupted Ranma at this point, “Not the food! Sheesh, was your stomach the only thing you paid attention to at the picnic?” Kasumi just looked extra pleased at all of the compliments Ranma was heaping on her cooking.
Ranma scowled and blushed. “I remember trying to eat in peace and Akane was starting a fight.”
“Akane, huh?” Nabiki smirked in good humor at Ranma.
“Alright, alright. It may have had something to do with Shampoo latching onto me and stuffing me full of ramen. Which was annoying, because even though the ramen from the Neko hanten is always good, Kasumi had outdid herself cooking and Shampoo was getting in the way of my enjoying that. I can have ramen any day. Kinda hard to savor Kasumi’s cooking with a mouth full of ramen, know what I mean?”
“Again, Saotome, enough with the food.” Nabiki huffed in exasperation.
“Er... right. Well, me and Akane fought, I got punted. And then Tendo-san took the potted bamboo with all of our wish cards on it and lit it on fire. Pops shook that ugly head at it, while saying something. Mousse showed up, in the confusion I knocked him into pops, who landed on Tendo-san. Kodachi tried to steal me, Kuno was raving about something, waving something, and I didn’t honestly pay him any attention. He never says anything worth listening too. Who brought the bomb? I remember saving Nabiki from an explosion of some sort. The picnic sort of ended after that.”
“Yes, and we all came home. Where father and Uncle Genma,” Kasumi paused as she looked away before continuing, “... quickly, er, retired for the night.” Kasumi’s voice trailed off.
Nabiki picked up where her older sister left off. “So, we all went out, going out separate ways. By the time I got back, Kasumi was already back, drinking some tea. Then you, Ranma, arrived shortly after. You didn’t look very good, but you didn’t say what happened either. I can’t explain it, but I did feel a little worried about your condition. But before I could get you to talk, someone was at the door.”
“Yes, so I went to answer the door,” Kasumi interjected into the story. “Seems, Father and Uncle Genma had asked a priest to come over, the day before.”
Ranma looked amused as he responded, “Let me guess. Pops and Tendo-san had plans to unite the schools with the picnic. The fools were so sure this time that they even set up a surprise wedding.”
Nabiki smirked as she replied, “Got it in one. Well, Akane was not seen since she left the picnic in a huff, stomping away to parts unknown. Well, I would guess she went to Yuka’s or Sayuri’s place. And so there was just you, me, and Kasumi. I was feeling mischievous and not very clear headed. I sort of joked that since the priest was paid ahead of time, we should get our money’s worth. You know me and money.”
Ranma pondered this for a moment. “Didn’t I raise a fuss.”
“Between the explosion, the fighting, and the general mess, I convinced you that you owed me one because it was all your fault,” Nabiki replied with a smirk. “You were, surprisingly, easily convinced. Though, you did seem a bit out of it.”
“So,” Ranma thought out loud, “feeling piss drunk from all that love voodoo, we threw caution to the wind and got hitched?”
“That about sums it up, Saotome.”
Ranma, finishing his breakfast and placing his dirty dishes back onto the tray, “So, now what?”
Kasumi grabbed the tray with the dirty dishes and stood up. “Why don’t you two go take a bath. You can figure out what to do for the rest of the day after that.” With one last smile directed towards the newlywed pair, Kasumi left the room.
Ranma blushed, and looked down to his hands. Fiddling his thumbs, he cleared his throat and shyly broke the silence. “Ah, Nabiki? Should I wash your back? You know, being your husband now and all.”
Nabiki blushed in response. “Well,” Nabiki said before pausing to clear her throat, “I suppose we better get used to being married. And we would get done a lot sooner if we bathed together.”
“Er, yeah, OK. But, you know ... what if someone walks in on us?”
“It’ll be OK. You’re my husband now. We’re not doing anything wrong.”
Ranma, having at some point noticed that he was in Nabiki’s room and not his own as he first assumed upon waking, got up. “Let me just get my things from my room. Meet you there,” He said, blushing shyly. Nabiki just nodded in response, as she gathered her stuff.
Soon after, in the furo, Nabiki was sitting on a stool wetting herself down with a bucket of cold water when Ranma walked in.
Stammering, Ranma tried to speak while not looking at her. “Uh... uh, so, um ... need any help with the shampoo? You, er ... seem to have a lot more hair, now ... that is, I mean ...” Ranma trailed off in embarrassment.
Nabiki let out a sigh. “Thank you. I could use a bit of help getting the hair on my back.” Ranma, tentatively, started to lather her back with some shampoo. “See, Ranma. Its not so bad.” Ranma responded with a noncommittal grunt.
“Ranma,” Nabiki started to say, “... can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Now that you seem to have come to your senses, you don’t really want to be married to me, do you?”
“Nabiki, I know I’m not really the kind of guy you want to be with. If you want to end this, I won’t get in your way.” Ranma said easily, though he grimaced as he said it.
“That is not what I was asking. I mean, it’s not like you ever loved me,” Nabiki began to complain.
“Hey. I made a vow, it would not be honorable of me to break it now.” Ranma protested.
“So, is that the only reason why you’re here? Honor?” Nabiki sounded angry and hurt.
Ranma sighed. “Look, I’m no good with words and stuff, touchy feely stuff.” Ranma frowned. “Maybe it’s the magic. Maybe it just made me aware of something I was unaware of. But, I don’t feel any problems with this. Before, well ... Pops was trying to control my life. Also, what 16 year old wants to marry. I never had much of a childhood, but I was in no hurry to be all growed up. I planned to marry older and in love. Now, well ... what is done is done. And I feel nicer, like I was carrying something heavy but not anymore. And also ...”
“What, what?” Nabiki questioned as Ranma grew silent.
“I think you should switch to my shampoo. I use ‘Mane and Tail for Horses’. Get great hair, and the bottle is huge. Economical, even.”
“Ahem, Saotome. You want me to use something made for a beast? Your family must really have a horse fetish. And don’t change the subject.” Nabiki’s harsh tone turned accusing. “You don’t love me! And now, we’re married and the man I love will never love me back. Is this suppose to be some kind of karmic payback?” Nabiki broke down crying.
Ranma, at a lost for what to do, just held Nabiki in his arms as she cried into his shoulders.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:16)
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.