Ahmed sat alone in his office trying to figure out what was eating at him; by now, the millennia of servitude should have sufficiently jaded him so that he could put all sentimentalism out of his mind, but this case… seemed different somehow. It was a good two hours before he was able to put his finger on it. Quite simply, Ahmed had to admit that Ranma had really gotten the short end of the stick on this one. Sure, the "official" explanation held that her current predicament was a result of trying to "avoid responsibility," but he'd been working for the Council of Djinn long enough to know bullshitting when he saw it. In all likelihood, somebody in the chain of command had been stretching to justify Ranma's situation, which in turn implied foul play of the nastiest variety, since becoming an eternal could not be revoked. Sure, djinn were supposed to be miserable, but not to the point where this could be justified, right?
Still, there wasn't much he could do to help Ranma—not even with his curse, since those results had been determined by the laws of magic. It said so right there on the report… Ahmed's eyes went wide as he reread the report—he'd only glanced at it before, but now he noticed something that he hadn't before, and he immediately realized that there was some good news for Ranma, after all.
He immediately dissipated to go see the three eternals and tell them the (relatively) good news, but when he appeared in the middle of a Japanese home, he saw that his news had been learned without his help: standing before him, along with Nabiki, Mihsohi, and a kind looking human girl in an apron holding a steaming teapot, was a wet, bare-chested male genie with finely honed muscles, black silk drawstring pants which ended at the ankle cuffs, a pair of intricately detailed manicles on his wrists, a distinctive black pigtail on his head, and an utterly stunned look on his face. "I'm a guy… Ranma said slowly, before his face brightened up: "I'm a guy!" he shouted as he began jumping around, joyously repeating his discovery. "I'm a guy! I'm a guy! I'm a guy!" He turned and grabbed the nearest person, who just happened to be Mihoshi. "I'm a guy again!"
"You're a guy!" the blonde genie confirmed.
"Yes, you're a guy," Ahmed said, announcing his presence. "Congratulations."
"Ahmed," Mihoshi said, "you said Ranma would be stuck as a girl forever."
"First of all, I never said 'forever.' And second, I misread the report. You see, the Jusenkyo magic in this universe is a hell of a lot stronger than it is anywhere else I've ever seen. In most universes, someone like Ranma would have been stuck in his cursed form. But the curse magic here is so strong that it's practically equal to Djinn magic, which led to your rather unusual circumstance."
"So, I ain't gonna be stuck as a girl?"
"I didn't say that, either. You see, since the two magics are equal, that means each is given precedence in its own domain."
"Uh…"
"When you're in the bottle, you're going to be female, and you won't have any way to change into your male body, even though there's hot running water inside. But when you're outside, hot water can change you back to a man, provided that it isn't hot water that you summoned using your powers. You see, your genie magic wants to trap you as a girl, as it were, so anything produced using it won't have any effect on your curse, except maybe turning you back into a girl if you summon cold water."
"Well, that explains why the teapot Mihoshi produced didn't work," commented the girl in the apron.
"Right, um… what was your name again?"
"Kasumi. I'm Nabiki's sister."
"I see."
Nabiki had a few more questions to ask. "So, what if Saotome uses his powers to heat up water that he didn't create himself?"
"I have no idea. It should work in theory, because the hot water is physical, but at the same time, he would have used genie magic to make it hot, which might mean that it has precedence instead of Jusenkyo."
"Oh. Okay. Is there anything else?" Ranma asked.
"Well, I'd be cautious about trying to get a cure for your curse at the moment, at least until we have a better idea of how these two forces interact. Like I said, this is unprecedented. Hell, damn near everything about your situation is unprecedented."
"Okay, so I should wait on findin' a cure for now." That was okay, sort of; if he was immortal, he could wait as long as he had to. "Anythin' else?"
"Officially? No. But… off the record, you guys have really been screwed over here."
"No kiddin'."
"Look, I'm trying to be nice here. It's not easy to have sympathy for anyone when you've been a genie as long as I have—I'm not used to it, okay?"
"So, you really are sorry for us?" Mihoshi asked.
"Yes. And I'm going to find out who did this to you. Quite frankly, this should not have happened. The Council has already ordered an internal investigation, but I'm going to be doing some snooping around on my own time as well, because anyone who could pull this off can easily stall an official inquiry. My best guess as to what happened is that somebody really has it in for Mihoshi, and Ranma and Nabiki got caught in the crossfire."
"But… but who could be that mad at me?" the blonde asked.
"I have no idea—though there's always the possibility that a powerful genie has gone insane, which is just loads of fun," Ahmed replied sarcastically. He glanced at the clock on the wall and cursed: "Shit, I've got to get back to work. For right now, I suggest you spend the next 46 hours saying your goodbyes—don't waste time with eating or sleeping, since you don't need to do that anymore. When you get back to your bottle, I'll make sure you have some instructional material so you can learn about our existance yourself. History, magic, that sort of thing. I'm pretty sure it will answer most of your questions… Look, I'll talk to you soon, okay? Once I get some more information, I promise I'll let you know."
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(Posted Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:51)
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