"Allow me to recap, please: To be a 'fiancée' is to be in a binding bond with a potential mate for the purposes of raising children. When the mating is emotionally and legally satisfied in a ceremony called a 'wedding,' you are then considered 'married.' Am I correct so far, Mister Ranma?"
"Yeah, that's right," Ranma affirmed with a nod. After being given a drink of something that reminded him of American-style root beer by the Unseen Lady, he had been invited into the lounge of the Fabulous Quartet's courier ship to relax and recuperate from his latest contact with his fiancée's mallet. Along the way, he was getting an interesting introduction to Yizibajohei society and teaching a lot about Earth society to his current hosts.
"But because this state of 'marriage' only allows one male and one female, the fact that you presently have multiple 'fiancées' precludes you -- because you believe making a choice in favour of one would cause grievous emotional and psychological harm to the others -- from engaging in this process, correct?" Madame Fabulous said as she held up a finger to emphasise her point.
"That's right."
"Hence your question about our being 'fiancées' when you first awoke aboard our ship."
"Yep."
The Quartet nodded in understanding. "It's just like it was in certain tribes on the Homeworld prior to the Dawn of Power," Blaze noted.
"Exactly, old friend," Madame Fabulous said, nodding. "Truly, the Crystal's decision to allow a Terran to become Destructo becomes clearer. Much less his choice of Moroboshi Ataru to become the mould for Rake and Infinity."
Ranma jolted. "Huh?! What about Ataru?! What are you talking about?!"
Madame Fabulous explained the situation with Tomobiki's most infamous resident and how it currently pertained to Yiziba. Hearing that, Ranma's eyes went wide, and then he nodded in understanding. "Oh, I get it now! That's why all the aliens vanished from Tomobiki last night, not to mention those mushrooms that got dumped there a week ago. Since he didn't wanna give in to Lum's demand that he said he loved her, taking Destructo-sensei's offer to become Rake -- with the bonus of all that extra ki inside him allowing him to get a sister in Infinity . . . hey! Wait a minute . . . " His voice trailed off.
The Quartet stared curiously at him. "Are you okay?" the Yoke asked.
Ranma hummed. He knew Moroboshi Ataru didn't have a Jusenkyou curse, though there was that one time he mentioned where he got transformed into twins after eating space candy given to him by Lum, and then (to cool his mouth off) eating a curse cake made by the Buddhist monk known as Cherry. That had been a temporary thing -- but it had been enough to give Ataru a sister when he had been exposed to this Great Crystal of Power these Yizibajohei had.
"There's something else I gotta tell you," he then said.
The Quartet perked. "And that is?" Madame Fabulous asked.
"By the sounds of it, Mister Keitarou, you suffer from much in the way of bad karma. And this has come to affect almost every aspect of your life."
"Hai, that's true, Courtesan-san," Keitarou affirmed with a tired nod before he took a sip of his own drink. So this was what root beer tasted like. Very nice. "I mean, running a dorm -- an all-girls dorm -- atop trying to get into Tokyo University and seeing if Naru-san is my promised one or not . . .!" He shrugged. "Things just happen to me . . . "
"And to date, none of the females you live with now have tried to understand why these things happen to you," Courtesan concluded.
Another tired nod. "Hai . . .!"
Looking at how depressed the man had become, Courtesan shuddered before she stood up to walk over to his side. Sitting beside him, she reached over to gently draw him into a comforting embrace. Feeling that soft, supportive touch, Keitarou shuddered as the emotional dam holding back his feelings began to break. Sensing this, Courtesan gave him a small empathic push.
It was enough.
As he began to sob into her bountiful bosom, Courtesan smiled as she reached up to gently stroke his hair. Watching this from the doorway leading into the lounge, the Matron nodded in understanding before she turned to leave.
"That . . . is a most interesting ability you possess, Mister Ranma," Madame Fabulous said after Ranma had dumped a cup of cold water on himself.
"Or should we say 'Miss Ranma?'" the Unseen Lady then mused.
Ranma sighed, and then she nodded thanks as Blaze handed her a cup of water she had just heated so she could revert back to her birth-form. "Yeah. It's been also a huge pain in the butt for me, too," she said before dumping the water on herself. "Can't tell you how much trouble I got with Mom, not to mention Shampoo and the old ghoul (to say anything of the old letch), because of this."
"Is there a reason you showed this to us?" Madame Fabulous wondered.
A nod. "Easy. Ataru got himself split into a guy and a girl when he got exposed to this Crystal of yours. And this only happened after he got turned into twins just once. I've wanted to be rid of this damned curse since I got it. And with Jusenkyou having been flooded thanks to what happened between Saffron and me, I can't hope to get a cure that way."
The Quartet took that in, and then they exchanged looks. "We do have a need for more females on the planet," the Unseen Lady noted.
"That is true," Madame Fabulous said. "Alright then, Mister Ranma, we can take you back to Yiziba to allow you to be gifted by the Crystal. In fact, Blaze, I want you to handle this. We'll proceed groundside to establish a place of operations near where Rake and Infinity are presently based."
"No problem, boss-lady," Blaze affirmed with a nod.
"Excuse me?"
Urashima Haruka perked on hearing that voice, and then she automatically called out "Irasshaimase!" as she turned around . . .
To see a woman in early middle age standing there, she draped in what appeared to be a simple blouse and knee-length skirt, a home-knit shawl covering her almost to her knees. She had what appeared to be reading glasses over her eyes, yet Haruka, for the life of her, couldn't see the frames holding them in place. The sheer sense of alien-ness surrounding this strange woman was quite too apparent to Keitarou's aunt. "Uh, y-yes . . .?"
"You are Urashima Haruka, are you not?" the stranger asked, her accent quite noticeable.
"Uh, y-yes . . .?"
"Excellent. Where is Hinata House?"
Haruka pointed to the stairwell leading away from her coffee shop towards the main courtyard of Hinata-sou. Noting that, the Matron nodded. "Thank you."
With that, she floated on what appeared to be a flying skateboard of all things out the door. Haruka watched her go, her cigarette dropping from her mouth as the strange woman joined two others -- a dark-skinned beauty in tank top and torn jeans and a woman with what Americans would call a "Mohawk" haircut, she dressed in a tank top, leather slacks and vest, plus metal-studded neck choker and arm bands. "What the hell . . .?" she gasped.
"The others have landed?"
"Yes," Madame Fabulous said as she held up a portable scanner. She, the Unseen Lady and the Yoke were standing in the middle of Nerima's Hikarigaoka Park, having beamed down from their ship moments before. "It appears the male that caught their attention is being transported back to Yiziba as we speak. Courtesan must have gone with them; I can detect the Matron, Euphoria and Muoti at the very habitation that male came from."
"Should we go over to meet them?" the Unseen Lady asked. "Even if they don't personally get along, the Archaist and the Preacher are pretty much on the same side. Their mission's no doubt the same as ours."
"That might be a consideration," Madame Fabulous mused as we . . .
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(Posted Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:09)
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