Each of the more "exotic" locations in the Tokyo metropolitan area -- among them Tomobiki, Fuurinkan, Azabu-Juuban and Shinjuku -- had their own special customs and behaviour, each arising from the unique circumstances that made life in those locations so unique, so extraordinary, to the outside observer.
All of these districts shared one thing, though:
The ability to pass news at speeds faster than the Fastest Man Alive!
Witness events at Fuurinkan High School . . .
"He resisted Akane-chan's mallet!"
"That's impossible! He's never stood up to the mallet before!"
"And what's with the way he talks now?! He's polite!"
"So what's wrong with that?!"
"It ain't normal for Ranma!"
"Yeah! So what the heck happened to him this morning when Akane-chan bashed him earlier?! He wasn't affected by Hinako-sensei's ki-blast when he came into class later . . .!"
A chorus of shocked gasps. "WHAT?!"
"It's true! She zapped him and grew up like she always does, but he didn't even flinch when she did it!"
"Impossible! NO ONE can resist Sensei!"
Hearing those hissed comments, Tendou Nabiki perked as her mind quickly filed away all that information, and then she gazed on the crowd of freshman students gathered around the entrance to the school cafeteria. Hearing these words started to send a tremor of worry down her back. While it was possible for Ranma to have eventually developed a counter to Ninomiya Hinako's ki-draining abilities . . . and it seemed possible that Ranma might eventually harden himself to Akane's ki-mallet strikes . . . and it wasn't even beyond the realm of possibility for him to learn how to speak in more proper Japanese . . .!
That it had happened all at once though . . .!
Possession, the middle Tendou daughter instantly concluded.
It seemed the only answer to this.
What's happening to you now, Saotome . . .?
"Um, Ranma . . .?"
Ranma paused, looking up from the bentou that had been prepared for him by Tendou Kasumi at the start of the day. "Is there a problem, Daisuke-san?"
Hearing him use the general honorific "-san" with his name, Bosabosa Daisuke jolted before he exchanged a worried look with his partner-in-crime, Chanpatsu Hiroshi. They then stared warily on their friend. "Um, are you okay, Ranma?" the former then asked. "You're acting a little strange today."
Ranma blinked as he took in that comment, and then he moved to pick out one of the seaweed-wrapped rice balls from his bentou. "I feel quite fine, Daisuke-san. But thank you very much for your concern."
With that, he drew the rice ball into his mouth to gently munch on it. Daisuke and Hiroshi blinked several times before they exchange another worried look. As Ranma continued to eat his meal, others around him could just only gawk in total disbelief on seeing the martial arts jock they had known for over a year . . . act like he had been raised in the highest echelons of society instead of on the road, alone with just his father as his one source of companionship, for over a decade.
As many people began to moan, gripping the sides of their heads as the sheer dichotomy of this situation overloaded all their senses, Ranma continued to eat as if he simply had no care in the world. Which, in every sense of the term, he didn't, not after his encounter with the Great Crystal of Power two hours before.
When he became Mustang, the Untamable One.
Physically, he was as powerful, as invulnerable and as fast as Superman, the Last Son of Krypton and Captain Marvel, the World's Mightiest Mortal. As Mustang, Ranma didn't have any of the special extra-sensory powers the former could call on much less the clairvoyant senses the latter had been obviously gifted by whatever power had made him the way he was. He could fly, survive in any known environment conceivable, could dead-lift the weight of a whole mountain range without breaking a sweat, and could shrug off the point-blank explosion of a multi-megaton thermonuclear bomb without being bruised.
When the Crystal had offered him this gift, he had grabbed it in an instant.
Given the sea of problems and potential problems he faced as Saotome Ranma, it was the perfect ace to have in his back pocket.
Even better, his newly created sister, as Wildflower, the Wild Warrior of Passion, had the very same abilities as he did.
It was only fair.
There would be differences, of course. Wildflower had twenty incarnations before his sister was gifted that power; Mustang only had twelve. So, even though his present mode of speech was quite formal to his peers' ears, he clearly had to defer to her when it came to experience and intelligence. That, added onto the fact that his sister's core psyche had been forged from those elements of the original Ranma's mind that Genma had steadily beat out of him -- the "yin" of his soul, not to mince words -- would make her the real brains if they decided to maintain a partnership when they returned to Yiziba.
Return . . .?
Ranma blinked, and then a heavy sigh escaped him.
Around him, everyone instantly tensed, some making warding signs with their hands.
He ignored them.
"Possession?!"
"It's the only explanation I can see for this," Nabiki stated. She was meeting now with Ukyou and Akane in the hallway outside the cafeteria. The three ignore the growing crowd of onlookers standing at the windows of the cafeteria to gaze wide-eyed at their schoolmate. "While it is within the realm of possibility that he could eventually develop a resistance to Hinako-sensei's power, strengthen himself against your delightful Mallet-sama, Akane-chan, and learn how to talk with some degree of education, that's it happening all at once goes way beyond what even we would consider 'normal.'"
"So how do we make Ran-chan 'normal,' anyway?" Ukyou asked before she shrugged. "And why should we, anyway?"
"What does that mean?!" Akane demanded.
The chef gave her rival a knowing look. "Well, given the fact that ki-vamp was originally brought into this place by the Hawai'i-loving idiot who runs this insane asylum, seeing her put down actually might not be a bad thing in the first place! You know the chances are there she might try to use her fifty-yen power on someone who might not take up to having his life sucked right outta him . . . "
Nabiki hummed. "That is true . . . "
Ukyou glared briefly at her before turning back to Akane. "And besides, seeing your chief means of putting Ran-chan down get turned into instant splinters actually isn't such a bad thing, either! How's it feel to know that you just can't bully Ran-chan like you used to?" Before Akane could say anything in response, the chef turned and walked off back to their classroom.
Nabiki sighed as Ukyou departed, and then she turned to look on Akane. She then jerked on seeing a frightened look deep in her sister's eyes. Realising that, the middle Tendou daughter tried not to moan.
Oh, shit! Ukyou just had to bring that point up, didn't she?!
Nabiki knew that Akane did care for Ranma. While calling the feelings between them "love" might be pushing it at times, she knew that if Ranma just vanished from Akane's life, never to return, it would devastate her as badly as the loss of their mother Kimiko had devastated the whole Tendou family.
And pretty much because of that, Akane also felt much in the way of insecurity when it came to her relationship with Ranma.
And with all this happening now, that insecurity could instantly blossom into something far worse.
NOT a good thing.
Not at all . . .
"Excuse me!"
A chorus of shocked screams and cries of disbelief make the Tendou sisters spin around to see . . .
"NO WAY!" Akane gasped.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Nabiki yelped.
The crowd by the doorway of the cafeteria parted like the Red Sea before Moses as the beautiful redhead -- currently dressed in a button shirt and slacks provided to her by the power of Infinity -- walked through the doors. Once she was past the crowd, she then waved her hand. "Onii-chan!"
Ranma perked on hearing her call out, and then he smiled. "Hello!"
With that, she headed over to sit down beside him, and then she leaned up to whisper into his ear. Around them, the whole crowd was hushed silent as they stared at what many of them -- especially the boys -- had dreamed of for so long, but never thought they would ever see! He blinked as the message came through, and then he nodded. "Sounds pretty good to me, Kanami-chan," he then said before turning back to his meal before he paused. "Oh, did you have something to eat?" Without hesitation, he offered the rest of his bentou to her.
Kanami waved her hand in dismissal. "Not hungry, Onii-chan. You eat that." She then leaned up to whisper into his ear, switching instantly to Yizibajohei to ensure they would not be understood by those around them, "<<Besides, it just might be the last meal you'll ever eat from the Brain-Dead One.>>"
Ranma laughed, and then he shrugged. "<<Perhaps, sister. Perhaps.>>"
Both then smirked as he turned back to his meal, just as . . .
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(Posted Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:32)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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