Ranma had originally thought that his last two days in his home universe would become firmly ingrained in his mind, but as it turned out, all the emotional ups and downs that had happened that afternoon had left him so drained that he could barely remember everything that happened immediately afterwards—and he wasn’t certain he was remembering them in the right order, either.
The Amazons turned out to be relatively easy to deal with, though Shampoo was quite obviously dejected, which in turn caused Mousse to attack him for hurting her feelings. This was quickly defused, however, because Cologne stepped in. As it turned out, Ranma had inadvertently managed to find the only loophole that would allow him to escape their tribe’s laws. Apparently, over the course of the Amazons’ fabled 3000-year history, there had been several less-than-pleasant encounters with the Djinn, to the point where a ruling was made that they were to be avoided at all costs. In Cologne’s view, nothing was worth the possibility of irritating a genie, even though this particular genie had never held a grudge for any length of time in his life. Thus, once she’d gotten her charges under control, the Matriarch politely bade Ranma and Nabiki farewell, ending with a traditional Amazon invocation for good luck in their future endeavors—a sign that the tribe harbored no ill will whatsoever towards them, the wizened crone explained. Ranma actually left the Nekohanten thinking that saying goodbye might be much less painful than he’d originally thought.
That notion was dashed when Akane found out about the situation. As expected, accusations of perversion were accompanied by a solid whack with her mallet, but this time, instead of flying into low earth orbit, Ranma only traveled 100 meters before jerking to a halt and plummeting straight down to the ground, as the magical “constraining order” prescribed. Fortunately, Kasumi managed to calm Akane down to the point where the youngest of the Tendos eventually realized that this time, Ranma wouldn’t return to her the way he’d always done before, that things weren’t going to return to the semi-normal status she was used to. At some point over the course of the two days, she and Ranma managed to have their first real conversation on the roof of the Tendo home, staring at the stars. Ranma couldn’t quite remember all that was said—maybe he didn’t want to—but at some point, Akane had said she was sorry (he couldn’t remember what for), and he was pretty sure she had meant it. That had felt good.
The only part he remembered clearly was the very end: “Are ya gonna be okay?”
“I… I don’t know. Part of me wants to be angry, but another part… it just feels like… like I’m glad it’s finally over. I don’t have to spend any more time agonizing over whether or not we’re supposed to be together, because… well, we aren’t.”
“Akane…”
“It’s… it’s nothing against you, Ranma. I just… I just don’t think I was ever ready for a relationship like the one our fathers wanted us to have. Maybe if they hadn’t gotten in the way… but that doesn’t matter.” Akane paused and stared at the night sky for a few seconds before changing the subject. “Take care of Nabiki, okay?”
“I will.”
“And… and if you ever get a chance to come back to this world…”
“We’ll find you.”
“Thank you.” Akane then hugged her former fiancé tightly, which left him wondering about what could have been.
To Ranma’s surprise, the only moment of pure anger came from the last person he’d expected.
“You… you bastard!”
“Ucchan—”
“Don’t call me ‘Ucchan,’ you womanizing son of a bitch! You’ve been leading me on this whole time!”
“No, that’s not the way it is at all…”
“Calling me the ‘cute’ one, being all buddy-buddy, it was all fake! The first chance you get, you decided to run off with Nabiki of all people and some bimbo you’ve never even met! I can’t believe I thought you cared about me!”
“But I do care—”
“Shut up! I never want to see you again!”
“Please, Ucchan, I need ya ta understand…”
But the chef had descended into such a rage that she was barely capable of comprehending anything. Instead, she grabbed one of her spatulas from her utility belt, and with an incomprehensible shout hurled it at Ranma. The sharpened spatula embedded itself in Ranma’s bare shoulder, knocking him to the ground. This caused Ukyo to immediately snap back to reality as Nabiki and Mihoshi rushed over to their injured partner. Her eyes immediately started watering as she realized what she’d just done, and her mistake was made all the more obvious when the blood that had been oozing from his wound suddenly disappeared as soon as the weapon was removed—Ranma’s crazy excuse wasn’t so crazy after all. Unable to face the young man who still called her his best friend, she turned and rushed to the back of the shop, refusing to respond to Ranma’s pleas to come back out.
Dejected, Ranma exited Ucchan’s Okonomiyaki with his fellow djinn, and the trio went to their next destination.
Dealing with the fiancées had been the hardest part, really. Soun cried like a baby when he learned Nabiki was leaving, and Genma was all worried about how the schools could ever join if his heir was off running errands for strangers in alternate universes. Ranma didn’t really care at that point, though. He had too much on his mind.
At least his mother approved of his current setup. Not one but two daughters-in-law who literally had all the time in the world (and then some) to produce grandbabies for her—it was just a shame that she might not get a chance to see some of them. She was so enthusiastic, that Mihoshi simply didn’t have the heart to tell Nodoka that all genies were sterile.
In comparison to Ranma’s goodbyes, Nabiki’s weren’t all that much of a problem. Basically, it consisted of handing over her ledgers to Ryonami and telling her lieutenant to keep up the good work until she returned—granted, Nabiki wasn’t quite sure yet of how she was going to finagle her way out of her current situation, but she was sure she could. She was Nabiki Tendo, after all, and ultimately, everything would go her way. Sure, they’d said it was supposed to be for eternity and at the time she’d been shocked and horrified, but two days of pragmatic reflection had allowed her to see the reality of the situation. Ranma was going through all his emotional turmoil for nothing; she was sure of it. He’d always gotten out of messes she’d put him in before—the only difference now was that she was going to be along for the ride for a little while. In the end, this genie incident would be put behind them, and she’d probably make even more money out of it. As Ryonami left with her orders, Nabiki allowed herself a smirk. It’s good to be the Ice Queen.
With 12 hours left, there was only one thing to do: Ranma had a fight with Ryoga scheduled that day, and he wanted to give his friend/rival a chance for one last fight. The three genies waited all night for him. He never showed up.
Mihoshi had essentially been a bystander for most of the two days, present at all these events mostly because she needed to be physically close to Ranma and Nabiki. However, right before they entered their bottle for the first time, Kasumi pulled her aside.
“Can you do me a favor?”
“Um, sure, Kasumi. What is it?”
“Could you… could you… make sure Nabiki’s alright?”
“Um… okay… I can ask her now….”
“No, no that’s not what I meant. It’s just that I’m concerned about her. When you three came back here, she seemed distraught over becoming a genie.”
“Well, that makes sense, if you think about it. But she looks like she’s already doing better.”
“That’s what worries me.”
“Huh?”
“This is just like what happened when Mother died—that was when she started becoming so… so…”
“Greedy?”
“Money-conscious,” Kasumi said, not willing to think of Nabiki in outright negative terms. “I… I don’t think she’s fully grasped what’s happened to her, and I’m worried that when she does, it won’t be pleasant.”
“So… so what should I do?”
Kasumi sighed to herself as she tried to phrase her response. “If things start getting really bad, please don’t let her give up hope.”
“Um, okay, I guess.”
“Promise?”
“I… I promise.” The blonde genie wasn’t entirely certain what she was promising, but Kasumi seemed really nice—a lot like Sasami, in fact—and if she thought this was important, then it probably was.
“Thank you.”
That had been only a few minutes ago. Now the three had reentered Nabiki’s room and shut the door behind them as the mercenary girl retrieved their bottle from her personal safe where she’d stored it, being careful not to let the other two see the combination. “Well,” she said, setting it on her nightstand and opening the cap, “here we go….”
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(Posted Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:23)
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