Taking the subway to one of the farthest stations in Tokyo, Ranma and the Tendo sisters afterwards paid a cab that should bring them to Rose Manor. Or rather... Nabiki paid for the cab.
Normally, she wouldn't do such a thing without any good reason, but she was just too curious about this matter. She wanted to know more about the mansion. And more important: She wanted to find out what Ranma was hiding from her. If he was lying to them - and on Ranma's face, she could see a lie from a mile away - he would have to hand over at least an adequate amount of hush money.
"Are we there yet?" Akane asked in a bored voice. It was half an hour ago since the taxi left the station, and still, they hadn't reached their goal.
"Just a couple of miles," the driver said. "In this district, Rose Manor is the building that's the furthest away from central Tokyo. What business do you kids have there anyway? I always thought the manor was just a pile of ruins?"
Akane, who was sitting next to the driver, looked back at Ranma with a frown. "You better ask that Mr. Lottery Winner back there!"
"Oh, so you won the manor as a prize, eh? Well, congratulations! I never knew that old shack was chosen as a lottery prize."
Ranma looked at the letter he got. "According to the letter, the old owner of the mansion died without having a legitimate successor, so Rose Manor became the property of the city council of Tokyo. And in the end, they offered the mansion as the main prize of the national lottery. And finally, the lucky was none other than Gen... um, I mean..."
"Who?" Kasumi asked curiously. "Uncle Saotome?"
"I didn't say anything!" Ranma stuttered and hid the letter in his pocket. "You must have misheard, Kasumi!"
"Ah, if you say so, Ranma..."
The taxi driver and Akane looked at each other with raised eyebrows, but didn't say anything.
But for Nabiki, her suspicion was confirmed. 'So, Genma really is the actual winner,' she thought. 'Well, Ranma certainly will have to give me a nice offer if he wants me to stay quiet about this. Still, I don't think Genma has deserved to be the owner of such a mansion. Damn, I wish I had taken part in this lottery... if I were the new owner of Rose Manor, think about the possibilities...'
Nabiki didn't quite know how much the building was really worth, but she could imagine a sum that would be more than twice the amount of what she was currently gaining by her usual business transactions.
Finally, the cab stopped in front of a huge and very old mural which was covered with rose vines.
"Here we are," he said in a cheerful voice. "Rose Manor! You want me to wait here?"
"Um, wouldn't you have to keep the taxi meter running?" Akane asked.
"Nah, that's all right! Winning the lottery doesn't happen every day, and I certainly don't want to spoil you the rest of the day with a ridiculous taxi prize, buddy!" The driver grinned. "I'll just stop it for now and start it again when you come back. Take your time!"
"Okay, thanks!" Ranma nodded, and together, they searched for the entrance.
Akane looked up the huge wall next to them. "Well, with all those roses, the manor really lives up to its name... but why is the wall so high? I can't see anything! And the trees behind the wall..."
"A true jungle, isn't it?" Nabiki murmured.
"Eh, that's just the park surrounding the mansion," Ranma said, looking at his descriptions. "Nothing somebody with a few skills of gardening can't handle. Just wait until you see the manor itself!"
A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the mansion itself.
Ranma grinned. "Well, what do you say?"
Akane gaped. "Well, it is a mansion... but that's about it!"
"You think it will survive the next storm?" Nabiki huffed.
"Now don't be so negative about it," Kasumi scolded. "It might be a bit... shabby, but if we call a few carpenters, everything will look much better."
Ranma winced. "Okay, I didn't know that it would be THIS run down..."
Run down it was. To be honest, Rose Manor was a dump! The walls were awry, the windows were shattered, the small tower in the middle of the roof was totally bent. The thorny rose vines covered nearly every part of the building, and the whole building looked like it would collapse as soon as somebody sneezed.
"M-maybe we should go inside," Ranma suggested, hoping that it wouldn't look quite as bad from the inside.
But his hopes fell when they entered through the nearly unhinged main door. A thick veil of spider webs stuck to Ranma's face when he walked inside the huge entrance hall, and everything as covered by a thick layer of dust. A broken chandelier was lying in the middle of the room, and the stairs that were leading upstairs were creaking ominously.
"What a big pile of rubble!" Nabiki huffed. "You really wanna live in here?"
"Oh my..." Kasumi murmured. "Dusting in here would certainly take a while..."
"Can't you ever see anything positive about this situation?" Ranma sighed.
"Well, is there anything positive?" Akane asked. Ranma admitted he had no answer for that.
"Why don't we start with letting in some fresh air?" Kasumi suggested and went to open the window (whose glass panel was broken anyways).
She blinked. "Well, would you look at that, there's an inner courtyard out there!"
"Looks more like a prison yard," Akane frowned. "High walls, no door..."
Ranma sighed. "I'm starting to think that this prize isn't really as fabulous as I thought..."
And he sat down in the big armchair that was standing behind him.
As soon as he did that, a huge cloud of dust came out of the ancient piece of furniture and filled the whole room. The three Tendo sisters coughed and wheezed and ran out of the main door, gasping for air.
"If you want to take another look at your ruined mansion, be my guest," Akane coughed. "But I'm not staying in here until I can be sure that the roof won't collapse."
Ranma coughed as well, but he stayed behind and waved the dust clouds away with an old rag he found on the floor (the remains of the mansion's curtains). "Those girls can't stand even a bit of dust..." he grumbled. He lifted the armchair's cushion, so he could all the dust that was in there down to the floor.
To his surprise, he found an old book lying under the cushion. It looked like an old diary in surprisingly good repair. Surprised, the pig-tailed youngster picked it up and squinted his eyes to make out the title.
"The secret life of Phantomias..." he murmured.
Intrigued, he opened the book and looked inside. "First chapter: The secrets of Rose Manor."
He looked around. 'So there are secrets hidden within this old shack?' he thought. 'Interesting...'
"Ranma, how long do you plan on staying here?" Akane shouted from outside. "Let's go back home already!"
"Okay, okay!" Ranma shouted back. "In a minute!" He carefully hid the diary under his shirt and put the cushion back on the chair. Then he went back outside, where the Tendos were waiting for him.
"I changed my mind," he sighed. "Let's go home!"
"Finally, a good idea!" Nabiki grumbled. She was in a bad mood. It was obvious that the mansion was nothing but a ruin, and she doubted she could get any income from this. She was sorely disappointed.
When they were back on the subway, Ranma spoke up: "Say, has anyone of you ever heard of someone called 'Phantomias'?"
Nabiki and Akane shook their heads, but Kasumi nodded. "Oh, yes! I once read an article about him in the library. There's an old tale about a nobleman who felt betrayed by his friends and family, so he started a life as an outcast. He somehow was like Robin Hood, he stole from the rich and gave it to the poor."
"Sounds logical," Ranma chuckled. "He wouldn't get much from the poor. But did that guy really exist?"
"Well, it's just a legend, Ranma... but who knows? Maybe a man with that name really once existed. But why are you asking this, all of a sudden?"
Ranma scratched his head bashfully. "Oh, I heard a few things about him... and when we were in this old mansion, I just got reminded of what I heard."
"Ah, I see!" Kasumi nodded.
But actually, Ranma had never heard the name before... not before he read it in that old diary, that is. But now that he was the new owner of Rose Manor, he felt that he should find out more about those secrets that were hidden within the ruined building...
While he was sitting in his seat, pondering about what happened today and what he found, he didn't notice how Nabiki was eyeing him suspiciously...
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(Posted Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:10)
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