“Saotome Ranma?” repeated Nabiki.
Detecting the tone of her voice, the redhead risked opening an eye. “Ah – yeah. Um. You’ve heard of me?”
“You’re a girl.”
“Well, yeah…” started Ranma. She seemed a little surprised by the emphasis the girl in front of her placed on that fact.
“Fantastic,” asserted Nabiki flatly. “We were expecting a Saotome Ranma, you see.”
“Ya were?” Ranma adjusted her weight. She seemed to be preparing to sidle away, but remembered the presence of the tiger in her only obvious route out other than past the two girls in front of her.
“He was supposed to be coming with his father,” explained Nabiki in the same dangerously calm voice. “Daddy said they were training partners. He would have been engaged to one of us.”
“Oh, that’s OK,” sighed the redhead. “I can – wha? Engaged!”
“You see the practical problem,” finished Nabiki, looking into the visitor’s bright blue eyes as her sisters’ eyes indicated their recognition.
“Pops never said anything about engagements!” exclaimed Ranma.
“I thought Pops was the tiger,” said Kasumi.
“Um, welll…”
“Tigers don’t normally talk,” added Nabiki.
“Uh, yeah.” The redhead paused. “Um, Pops is the t-tt-tiger, but it ain’t difficult ta change back,” she explained. “He definitely never said anything about engagin’ me ta nobody. I don’t wanna get engaged,” she insisted, “an’ I don’t see nobody wantin’ ta get engaged ta me, neither.”
“I certainly don’t want to get engaged to you,” said Nabiki firmly. The guest’s shoulders quivered slightly. “I prefer men, myself, and I’m not too keen on getting married just yet anyway. What do you mean by ‘change back’?”
“It’s a curse,” sighed Ranma. “Pops ain’t got no sense, so he took me ta this place called Jusenkyo.”
“How did a tiger take you anywhere?” objected Nabiki. “Especially one as scared of you as it was earlier.”
“Nabiki, let her tell the story her own way,” chided Kasumi.
Seeing the suppressed expression the guest directed at her sisters, Akane reached over and ruffled her hair as she had been doing earlier. In return, she got a surprised glance and a smile, and then the redhead started talking again, absently pressing her head into the caress.
“He is scared of me, when I – um – well, that’s ‘cause of this other training exercise when I was about ten, a special technique called the N-Neko-ken.”
“You learned a special technique when you were ten,” said Nabiki. Her tone indicated exactly how unlikely she thought that was.
“Wow,” breathed Akane. “You must be really good.”
Ranma short Akane a quick smile. “The best. But ya gotta be a kid ta learn the N-Neko-ken. It’s easy ta teach – all ya gotta do is wrap the trainee in fish an’ throw ‘em in with hungry c-c-cats.”
“Oh. Oh, my.”
“That’s a training technique?”
“If yer Pops,” said Ranma with a nod, smiling lopsidedly in the general direction of the middle sister. She butted her head into Akane’s hand, and smiled more freely as the gentle scratching resumed.
“What’s that supposed to do?” asked Nabiki.
“It’s supposed to teach an invincible martial arts technique,” said Ranma. “What it actually does is make you afraid of c-c-cats.”
“What a surprise,” remarked Nabiki, as Kasumi buried her face in her hands. Akane’s hand stilled again. “But what does that have to do with anything?”
“Ah, well, he decided I had ta face my fears, so he threw me back in. An’ if ya do that often enough, ya actually learn the Neko-ken…”
“I suppose that cures your fear of cats,” remarked Nabiki.
“Ah – no.”
“Well, you certainly didn’t look afraid of that tiger!” snapped the middle sister.
“That’s ‘cause when I get f-frightened enough, I start thinkin’ I’m a c-ca-cat,” explained Ranma. “An’ then I start tearin’ stuff up an’ attackin’ Pops…”
“Who’s a tiger,” interrupted Nabiki flatly. Exasperatedly, she continued, “Oh, come on. Can’t you come up with a better story than that? Next you’ll be telling us some magic turned your father into that tiger so you’re scared of him!”
“Uh, yeah. At Jusenkyo…”
“Oh, be serious,” snapped the girl. She pushed away from the wall and stalked back to the telephone, saying, “I’m going to try and get rid of it before it wakes up. Maybe Kuno-baby wants a pet – he’s mad enough…”
An awkward silence fell over the remaining girls. Eventually, seeing her eldest sister biting her lip indecisively, Akane asked, “You are telling the truth, aren’t you?”
The redhead nodded, still giving the departed middle sister a hurt glare. “I ain’t a liar,” she asserted. “Me an’ Pops got cursed at Jusenkyo. It’s this valley with all these pools in the bottom, an’ if ya fall in one ya get cursed ta turn into whatever drowned in them every time ya get splashed with cold water. Pops fell in the Spring of Drowned Tiger…”
“Oh. Oh, my.” Kasumi glanced at the sodden big cat polluting the pond, and asked, “Can he change back?”
“Oh, yeah. It just takes hot water.”
“Oh. Oh, that will be difficult,” admitted the tall girl. “Would he – is he…”
“Did you get cursed?” asked Akane, curious and sympathetic. “What do you turn into?”
“Y-yeah. I fell inta the Spring of Drowned Girl.”
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(Posted Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:40)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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