Xian Pu’s aura was nearly literally split in two- one part almost child-like in its innocence, while the other a hodgepodge of what he had come to recognize as the darker emotions of man. Ruthlessness, ambition, and some sadistic tendencies were the most prominent.
In other words, she had a case of schizophrenia that bordered on MPD.
Ranma was at a lost as to how he was going to deal with this. All of his plans concerning Xian Pu had been made on the assumption that what he saw was what he got, as it were. On hindsight, that was an incredibly stupid move on his part. He blamed that little bit of his old self; this was just the kind of stupid, ego-fueled mistake he would have made just the day before.
He needed time to think on this new development. His original plans had mostly consisted of pointing out certain facts about the laws of her village when dealing with the outside world- namely, her laws didn’t count for jack shit outside of her village. If that didn’t work, contingency plans also included beating it into her, reporting her to the authorities for sexual harassment, or, if worse comes to worse, disabling her in a semi-permanent manner (break all her limbs, dismemberment, paralyzation, etc.). Obviously, those weren’t going to work now: he doubted she would understand if he were to tell her Japanese laws wouldn’t support her claim, and he was absolutely NOT going to hurt a disabled person- he had morals, damn it!
How come nobody had noticed this before? Her own grandmother, with nearly three hundred years of experience under her belt (if she were to be believed, that is), should have picked this up and done something about it! And if she couldn’t, she should have been taken to a psychologist! Had the old ghoul left her great-granddaughter like this on purpose? He needed answers, if for no other reason then because he needed to account for everything if he was to develop a new plan.
“Airen?” The question jolted him from his thoughts. His attention turned back to the girl that had finally gotten a hold of him sometime during his shock, and many of her mannerisms suddenly came into a new light. The glomps became the hugs of a child. The constant badgering became innocent bids for attention. The lacking of hesitance in usually immoral acts… the actions of a child who didn’t know any better.
(Of course, this raised the question of just what her concept of marriage, and the entailed baggage, was. He filed it away as one of the questions he would ask either the elder or Xian Pu herself later.)
He gently disengaged her arms and stepped out of her hug. “Xian Pu-chan? How ‘bout a rain check?” he asked, giving her a warm smile. In light of the recent revelations, he couldn’t bring himself to hold her past actions against her; it wasn’t exactly her fault, after all.
“You say name correctly!” she squealed, literally jumping for joy. But she soon stopped and gave him a confused look, as the rest of the statement made it through her mind. “But what ‘rain check’ mean?”
“It’s a baseball term; it’s the ticket given for a make-up game in the event of a game being rained out. In general usage, it means I'll make it up to you.”
She blinked and tilted her head to the side, as if wondering about something. “Ranma, when you get so so smart?” she asked after a while.
Ranma just shrugged; she may have been mentally disabled, but she was smart, so he’d seen the question coming when he’d practically recited the definition from a baseball documentary he’d seen several days previous. Like with Kasumi, he decided on a partial truth… only less emotional this time. “I did some thinking, didn’t like how my life was going, and decided to change it,” he said, before quickly turning back to the previous subject. “So, rain check?” he asked again.
“Err… yes. Rain check,” she answered, still slightly off-balanced.
“Cool. See you later, Pu-chan. Got to get to school,” he said, throwing a wave over his shoulder as he walked away from her. He was a little surprised she didn’t follow, but wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth; he wanted to make it to school on time at least, and he still had a few possible encounters left.
An easy jump on to the chain-link fence, and Ranma was on his way again, leaving a slightly confused and wondering Xian Pu behind.
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(Posted Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:19)
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