"Ranma-kun?"
"Ranma! Hey, Ranma, wake up!"
Ranma blinked. He was lying on the roof of the Tendo home, hoping he could take a little nap here. "Whazzup?" he murmured sleepily.
He looked down, where Akane and Kasumi were standing. "We're going to the market now," Kasumi said. "We just wanted to inform you, as you're the only one in the house. Nabiki's at a friend's place, Father and Uncle Saotome are helping your mother with finding a new apartment to stay, and Grandfather Happosai... well, I don't really know where he is."
"I doubt anyone wants to know that," Akane growled. "Anyway, I'm going with Kasumi today, Ranma!"
"And that's the reason why you woke me?" Ranma muttered. "Why do you want to go with Kasumi anyway?"
"If you have to know, I want to learn how to cook," Akane grumbled. "And she said that I should know which ingredients to buy if I want to cook a nice meal."
"Please, spare our stomachs!" Ranma groaned. "Can't you just admit you're a terrible cook and leave the kitchen work to Kasumi?"
"Baka!" Akane growled. "Fine, if you feel that way, I'm not gonna let you have a taste of my cooking."
"Thank god," Ranma whispered, but in a hushed voice, so that Akane wouldn't hear him.
After Akane and Kasumi left, Ranma tried getting back to sleep, but now that he was awake, he couldn't quite fall asleep anymore.
"Aw heck, I'm gonna go through my training routine once more," he sighed and slid of the roof.
When he landed on the ground, he saw the mailman stopping in front of the premises. The young man in the post uniform pulled a small envelope out of his bag and when he looked up, he saw Ranma. "Um, hello!" he said. "I have a letter for a 'Ranma Saotome'."
"Yup, that's me," Ranma nodded, wondering who would write him a letter. Most of the friends he had were all residents of Nerima.
The mailman walked up to him. "Please sign here," he said. Ranma complied, and the mailman gave him the letter. Before Ranma could take a good look at it, the mailman also handed him a small parcel. "Here, this belongs to it as well."
Ranma nodded and took the parcel. The mailman tipped the brim of his cap, turned around his bike and left.
Ranma went back into the house. "What's this?" he murmured. In the living room, he first opened the parcel. He was very surprised when he found a very huge key, wrapped in an old newspaper. He frowned and started to read the letter.
While he read, a smile started to appear on his face, which got bigger and bigger. When he was done, he let out a whoop of excitement. "Whoohoo! I can't believe it! Finally, finally my luck is about to change!"
He took the key, looked at it, grinned and looked back at the letter. Then he started a little dance in the middle of the room and sang: "Never gonna have bad luck again, never gonna have bad luck again!"
He then sat down with a sigh and shook his head, still with a wide grin on his face. "When I tell the others... my old man won't believe it! Well, too bad for him! He always told me how disappointing I have been for him and his 'family honor'. And Kuno... Hah, he's gonna be green with envy when he sees the prize I've won!"
He leaned back against the wall and chuckled. "Just wait until I tell Akane that I won something... and a mansion, of all things!"
The front door opened. "Hey, we're back!" Nabiki shouted, as she entered, followed by Akane and Kasumi, who were both carrying several shopping bags. "Yo, anybody home? Saotome?"
"Out here!" Ranma called from the veranda. The Tendo sisters looked at each other curiously. Ranma sounded like he was in a good mood.
Akane and Kasumi went into the kitchen to unpack their bags, while Nabiki walked out to where Ranma was sitting, looking at some piece of paper with a wide grin.
"Hey, Ranma!" she said. "You wanna hear what Ryonami told me about Kuno? And I only want to have 300 yen for it..."
"First of all, I have something to tell YOU about," Ranma smiled. "And I'll even tell it to you for free, I'm that generous today."
Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh! And what could be so important?"
"Take a good guess!" Ranma grinned and waved around the paper and a big key Nabiki had never seen before.
"Um, I dunno... did you win the key to an old chest which contains some ancient scrolls with martial arts skills on them?"
"Close, but no!" Ranma smirked.
Nabiki crossed her arms. "Okay, I give up! What is it?"
"Ranma-kun, where did you get that key?" Kasumi asked as she appeared behind her sister.
"Yeah, and what is it for?" Akane added.
Ranma cleared his throat. "Well, if you have to know... I'd like to inform you that from today on, I am the sole owner of Rose Manor!"
"Rose Manor?" Nabiki asked with disbelief. "No way! Not the big mansion at the edge of town? That vacant house where nobody has lived for years?"
"I dunno, but I doubt there are many mansions with such a name in Tokyo, so I guess it's the very same. See, this is the key to the mansion, and this..." he showed them the paper. "Is the deed of ownership that proves that I am the sole owner of the building and its premises. It came with this letter..."
He pulled the letter out of his pocket and read: "...therefore, we are proud to tell you that you won the main prize of our lottery..."
"Lottery?" Nabiki asked with a frown.
"Yes, lottery! What's so strange about that?"
"But Ranma... you never took part in a lottery before," Akane pointed out. "How can you be the winner of their main prize if...?"
"Aw, shut it, ya tomboy!" Ranma grumbled. "If I'm not the winner, how do you explain that there is my name on the package..." He took the parcel and looked at it. Then his eyes went wide.
'Uh-oh,' he thought. 'This parcel is actually meant for 'Genma' Saotome... Pops is the winner of the lottery?'
He thought about it for a while, with a deep frown on his face.
"Ranma? Is something wrong?" Akane asked.
"Nothing, nothing..." he muttered and hid the empty parcel behind his back. "It's not important."
Nabiki looked at him suspiciously. "Can it be that this package was meant for someone else?"
"O-of course not!" Ranma stuttered. "Mailmen never make mistakes!"
He had made a decision. 'Pops will never get the mansion from me,' he decided. 'And as long as he and Mr. Tendo are still helping Mom to find a new apartment, he won't find out that he won. And when he returns, he will most likely have forgotten that he ever took part at a lottery. For once, I want to have something that only belongs to me!'
"I think this is fantastic news," Kasumi smiled. "If you are now the owner of a mansion, don't you want to take a look at your new domicile?"
"Good idea!" Ranma grinned and looked at the letter. "Here's the address, and even a small picture. Look at this!"
"Wow!" Nabiki whistled. "Almost looks like a small castle!"
"But Ranma, what do you even plan to do with a manor?" Akane wondered. "Do you want to live there? I doubt you can take care of such a huge place all by yourself!"
"Well, I'm pretty sure I can do much better than you," Ranma grumbled. "Now if you excuse me, I'd like to go and take a look at my new mansion now!"
"Can we come too, Ranma?" Nabiki asked. She just had to take a look at that old building. If half of the rumors she heard about Rose Manor were true, there had to be something hidden there, hopefully something of value..."
"Yes, I'm sure we all would like to take a look at it, Ranma," Kasumi smiled. "Akane too, right?"
"Yeah, whatever..." Akane murmured.
Ranma shrugged. "Okay, why not?"
And so, the three Tendo sisters followed Ranma on his way to his new mansion.
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(Posted Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:35)
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