“Well, thank you for coming, Miss Kuno,” sighed the doctor. “But, I cannot release your brother into your custody.”
“I understand, doctor,” assured the schoolgirl as she rose from the chair. “It would be quite inappropriate, after all.”
“I would like to see your father,” he added, also standing and moving to the door as she collected her bag. “Or your mother.”
He missed the quirk of her lips. “I would also like for you to meet my father. My mother, regrettably, is dead.”
“Oh. I am sorry.”
“You are in no way at fault,” said Kodachi haughtily as she stepped past him into the hall.
“Release the Blue Thunder, cretin, and I shall grant you a merciful death before I defeat your foul master for the hand of the fair Tendo Akane and the Flame-haired Maiden!”
She turned back to the doctor, her eyes narrowing. “I hesitate to tell you how to do your job,” she began, “but would it be possible to give him something to keep him quiet?”
“Fie, and for shame! To deny a noble warrior his weapons and the means to pursue his destiny!”
“Short of a sedative or a gag, at this stage no,” replied the doctor. “Don’t worry about it; no one will hear him in here save our staff.”
“For the Wrath of Heaven falls mightily, swift and certain; there is no escape from my justice.”
“That will have to suffice, I suppose. I doubt you could give him anything here that would last once he returned home anyway.”
“Free me of these bonds and give me my sword, and I shall prove my virtue upon thy bodies!”
“I anticipate that he will need medication for some time.” The doctor closed the door and led his guest away from the ranting towards the entrance tot eh institution. “Even once he has been discharged, that is.”
“You shall wrest nothing from my lips, for I am the truest representative of courage!”
Kodachi’s lips twisted. “Persuading him to take them will be an interesting exercise,” she admitted. “He doesn’t like taking medicines.”
“Few do. It’s not something unusual, regrettably.” At the front doors, he turned to her again, and asked, “Out of curiosity, have you any idea where he found a panda?”
“Face me with honour, cowards, with bare steel on both sides!”
“I haven’t a clue,” she returned.
“Well, doc?”
“I haven’t got a clue,” said the vet, peeling off the pair of surgical gloves. In the back corner of the cage, the partially sedated panda regarded him with goggle eyes. “It’s not tagged or tattooed; it’s got to be a very black-market import. Wild capture, and sneaked around customs all the way from the back end of China.” He shook his head, lips pursed.
“So who owns it then?” asked the chief keeper rhetorically, running his hand through his hair.
“Good question,” replied the vet, closing one briefcase and opening a second. “Next question.”
“Is it healthy?”
“That, I can find out,” said the vet, rummaging through the second case. “I’ve already taken a stool sample – you’ll need to check its diet, heaven knows what its been fed on but it wasn’t bamboo. I noticed it watched Kosin’s bento until he took it with him, so it probably learned to associate that sort of package with food…”
The keeper grunted shortly. “Right. Well, we have bamboo in plenty.” Both men ignored a faint grumble from the cage.
“In the mean time,” continued the vet, lifting a syringe from the case and inspecting it, “a blood test is called for.”
The panda’s eyes bugged out still further, staring at the preposterously long needle, and it tried to scramble drunkenly to its feet.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:32)
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.