Ranma sat on the couch, staring at the images on the screen in front of her with an utterly bored expression on her face. “This is so freakin’ stupid.”
“Ranma, can’t you at least try to have a more positive attitude?” Nabiki asked in mild exasperation.
“I did try. It just evaporated within about ten minutes of the first episode. I mean, c’mon. This girl takes orders from a goddamned c-cat, for crying out loud.”
“Just because you’re afraid of cats…”
“What? Yer gonna try an’ tell me that a normal person wouldn’t totally flip out if a cat started talkin’ ta them? I’d say that the little black hellspawn is probably the mastermind behind the whole thing.”
“Luna is not an evil mastermind.”
“Fine, whatever. Still don’t change the fact that there ain’t nuthin’ I can get from watching this TV show that I couldn’t figure out on my own.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“Oh, please. The heroes face a new monster each week, an’ it only takes ’em a single episode to beat each one until they get ta the end of the season, when they beat whoever’s in charge of the monsters.”
“You don’t know that—you haven’t even watched more than three episodes yet.”
Ranma simply raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Mihoshi, who was poring over stacks of Sailor Moon manga. “Hey, Mihoshi, how long does it usually take these girls ta beat the bad guy?”
“Well, usually, it only takes one episode, unless they’re near the end of the season and they’re facing off against whoever’s in charge of the monsters.”
“An’ they always beat whoever’s in charge?”
“Uh-huh.”
“See? Straight from the fangirl’s mouth.”
“I’m not certain that Mihoshi’s word is necessarily the most reliable of sources. No offense,” Nabiki added in the blonde’s direction.
“None taken.”
Ranma, however, was in a particularly stubborn mood, and refused to concede this point, instead trying to deflect it by changing the subject. “It ain’t like it matters. I mean, someone could find our bottle at any time.”
“And that might take years.”
“You don’t know that.”
It was a sunny afternoon in Juuban—a perfect day for shopping, as far as Naru Osaka was concerned, which was why the redheaded girl was currently browsing the wares of a small antique dealer near her family’s jewelry store. Naru liked poking around shops like this one, for the simple fact that they had all that neat stuff inside. Sure, most of it was firmly out of her price range—not only were a lot of these items somewhat rare to begin with, but many of them were imported from other countries—but still, it was fun to look around. Plus, Naru occasionally found pieces of jewelry that were selling way below market value, and had tipped off her parents on good deals on several occasions. But on this day, Naru had quite a bit more money on her person than she usually had, because today, she was out shopping for a birthday present for her best friend.
Well, Usagi was her best friend, but lately, Naru wasn’t so sure that the sentiment was returned. Oh, it wasn’t as though the two of them had had a falling out, or anything like that, but it seemed that recently she’d been spending a lot more time with her new group of friends, and the two of them just didn’t seem to have the time to spend together like they used to. It wasn’t as though there was any apathetic feelings between the two, as evidenced by her invitation to Usagi’s upcoming birthday party. In fact, Naru was hopeful that this event would jump-start their flagging relationship; at the very least it might give her some hint as to why Usagi spent so much time with her other friends.
But that was something that could wait until later; right now, she had a present to find. She was hoping for something distinctive, something that screamed “the person who gave this to you thinks you’re special, and perhaps you should try to make room in your busy schedule for her.” Of course, when the only quality you’re looking for is something as vague as distinctiveness, you’ll either find too many items or too few that fit the description. Then again, Naru did have another limit on what she could look for: namely, the amount of yen in her purse. And to her mild frustration, most of the “distinctive” things in her price range tended to be odd-looking doodads whose function she couldn’t begin to comprehend. After all, if you give something to someone, and their first response is to ask what the dang thing actually is, you had better have a better answer than “I don’t know, but I’m sure it’ll make a great paperweight.” At least, that’s what Naru thought.
She was just about to give up and head to another establishment when something caught her eye: a tall, thin, blue bottle, ornately decorated with silver calligraphy (Naru wasn’t sure what the language was, but it could have been Arabic) and a large stopper at the top. A little dusty and dirty, sure, but nothing that a good polish wouldn’t take care of. She lifted the bottle to examine it closely. No cracks or chips anywhere that she could see, and the bottle seemed to have a fairly sturdy construction. She looked at the tag attached and discovered to her astonishment that it was well within her price range.
“Well, it certainly is distinctive,” Naru murmured to herself as she continued to look the bottle over. The question was whether Usagi would like it—or, more accurately, whether Naru should buy it for herself and get her friend something else.
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(Posted Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:35)
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