I mean, there you are, trying to grub out your meager existence and get ahead if at all possible - working long hard hours and scrimping where you could to do it. All so that maybe your children would be better off and you could take it easy once in awhile.
When into your life blows these three wastrels. A very short one whose entire philosophy in life is "if it feels good - do it." A rather portly one that mainly follows the same path. Finally the third, who might not exactly agree all the time, but certainly doesn't disagree all the time either.
At which point your savings, your business, your farm, or your village resembles the city of Tokyo after Godzilla hit it. Or a wheatfield after a plague of locusts. Or a... well, you get the picture.
Sometimes you can catch the students long enough to exact a small measure of payment, only to find that after they're done washing dishes - the broken plates and additional stealings have doubled the cost of their stay.
And so you spend five years or however long it takes trying to recover from the economic disaster. The whole basis for the monetary system being an exchange of goods - often time worked in an endeavor in order to cover the time invested by other methods. Time spent out in a field growing crops versus time weaving baskets for example.
Three who take large amounts and contribute nothing in return by their very nature cause the actual producers of those goods hardship simply because the initial investment (time+effort+raw materials) has no return.
So when the word reached certain ears that payback was a possibility, and in that payback the theft of those resources might gain some accrued interest?
Soun screamed in horror as the backhoe crashed through the outer containment wall of the Tendo compound, and with one swipe of hydraulics ending in a scoop shovel, turned the precious dojo into kindling. Subsequent uses of the shovel turned the rubble into a pit. The rumble of a crane being set up in the street outside the remaining walls merely punctuated the event.
Setsuna Meiou raised an eyebrow as Hitomi sought to comfort Soun in this moment. Hitomi, it should be noted, could pass for a male pro wrestler in some respects. She towered above Soun Tendo at a height of 6'11" and had thick muscles that showed from years of bodybuilding.
However, this was just physical appearance. Actually, Hitomi was a very nice girl once you got past the fact that she was three times stronger than Ryouga Hibiki. Her hobbies were bodybuilding, martial arts, and knitting. She also had a fondness for karaoke. Other than her appearance, her only real flaw was that she had an alcohol tolerance of nearly zero and a tendency to get amorous when under the influence.
Having discovered that Soun had tricked the girl years ago under direction from Happosai, and that the girl was still pining for the martial artist who'd confessed how much he liked strong women, Setsuna had decided that the poor girl deserved better than to be discarded like that.
Setsuna gathered her teacup and went to the kitchen, checking her watch. 3... 2... 1... and now:
(Posted Fri, 03 Jan 2003 16:09)
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.