“Okay, I think I’ve got something simple. I w—”
“Before you finish saying that word,” Nabiki interjected, “might I suggest you run your idea past us to make sure it’s as simple as you think it is?”
“Huh? Oh. Okay. Well, you see, it’s about my boyfriend, Umino. He has the most gorgeous eyes ever, but you can hardly tell thanks to his coke-bottle glasses.”
“That sounds familiar,” Ranma said flatly. “Lemme guess, he never wears his glasses ’cuz he’s too vain?”
“Uh, no, just the opposite. He almost never takes off his glasses, and as a result, everybody treats him like he’s an annoying dork. Heck, I used to treat him that way, too, before I got to know him, though I have to admit that seeing him without his glasses went a long way in helping me take him seriously.”
“Gotcha,” Ranma said with a nod. “So what’re ya plannin’ on doin’ with yer wish?”
“Well, I’d sort of like to fix his eyesight so he won’t need those glasses anymore. I’m sure it’ll give him a huge boost in his self-confidence.”
“Hmm. That doesn’t sound too hard. Ya think ya could handle it, Mihoshi?”
“I think so. Here I g—”
“She hasn’t actually wished yet,” Nabiki pointed out.
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
“Um, is there a reason she’s going to grant the wish?” Naru asked warily. The way the other two were acting, it seemed that asking a wish of the blonde genie carried some element of risk with it.
“You bet,” Ranma said. “If Mihoshi goes first, you’ll still have two wishes left in case she screws up.”
“What? How bad can she be?”
“Last week, Ranma and I were still human,” Nabiki responded.
“I see. So, uh, Mihoshi, how exactly would you go about granting that particular wish?”
“I’d give your boyfriend 20/20 vision,” Mihoshi said. “I’d also get rid of any stigma… um, stigma…”
“Astigmatism?” Naru offered.
“Yeah! Heck, I won’t just get rid of one stigmatism, I’d get rid of any that he had.”
“Maybe it would be best if you didn’t try and think in optical terms,” Nabiki suggested. “If she gives you a simple wish, you should stick to a simple interpretation.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s practice,” Nabiki said. “If Naru here wishes that her boyfriend had perfect vision, what would you do?”
“Um… give her boyfriend perfect vision?”
“Right! Okay, Naru, wish now, before she forgets.”
“Um, alright. I wish my boyfriend had perfect vision.”
“Granted.”
It was a pleasant afternoon in Azabu-Juuban, and Umino Gurio was taking advantage of the weather by taking a stroll on the sidewalk. He wasn’t going anywhere in particular, but that wasn’t really a problem. He just wanted a chance to be alone with his thoughts for a while: Naru, school, Naru, video games, Naru, the Giants’ upcoming game against the Tigers, Naru, that thing his mother wanted him to do that he couldn’t quite remember at the moment, Naru, and Naru. All in all, a pretty typical mental landscape for a love-struck teenage boy, really.
Umino had no reason to expect that anything out of the ordinary would happen during his walk (though it must here be pointed out that Umino, like many residents of Juuban, did not consider an unprovoked demon attack to be “out of the ordinary”), which was why he was totally blindsided by a sudden fog that descended directly in front of his face.
“What the heck?” the boy said as he tried to find his bearings in the suddenly fuzzy world. Where before he had deftly maneuvered away from the personal space of other pedestrians, now it seemed he was bumping into every single one. “Oof… sorry. Excuse me. Sorry, didn’t see you there. Sorry….”
This continued for about thirty seconds, earning the bespectacled teenager a bevy of odd looks from nearly all passersby. “Sorry. Sorry, ma’am—I mean, sir. Sorry. I didn’t mean it. Sorry—ow!” When you accidentally violate someone else’s personal space, your reward is usually nothing more than social embarrassment. When you violate the personal space of a lamppost, your reward is a lot more painful. Umino went sprawling down to the ground, his thick glasses coming off his face in the process. After several seconds of seeing stars, someone finally walked over to help him up.
“Are you alright?” asked the Samaritan.
“I’m fine. I just need… my… glasses.” Umino opened his eyes, and he couldn’t believe what he saw… or, to be more accurate, he couldn’t believe how he saw.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Kwakerjak
(Posted Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:34)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.