Her mother, who had sold herself into slavery in order to protect Ami, was being ravaged by a faceless young martial artist with a toned body and a male appendage that was of improbable size.
As ALSO happened frequently, halfway through this nightmare the mother became the daughter.
This left a disheveled and sleepy Ami through much of the morning.
Which also concerned the very real worrying that Ami was doing about her mother. Since both slave and master were currently off-the-map as far as any computer connections were concerned.
Every horrible possibility that could occur to Ami HAD occurred to her, and the constant distraction was wearing her out.
She just hoped that they'd show up again soon.
"Aw, c'mon. What's this for?!" asked Ranma, poking with a fork at the odd mishmash of rice and herbs.
Cologne took a long drag from her pipe, then blew a bisected pair of smoke rings before she answered. "Tradition."
"Weighted clothing I can understand," said Ranma, fingering one of the sleeves of the outfit she'd insisted he wear. "The speed training from earlier I understand. It's this stuff here."
"Tradition," repeated Cologne. Smirking. Lots.
"What kinda tradition?" asked Ranma, taking a bite of the stuff and making a face.
"You need to let your energy reserves build up," said Cologne, explaining slowly as if to someone who was either not very bright or was half-asleep. "That can be accomplished by several different methods, one of which is currently available to you."
"WAK!" said Ranma, eyes wide as something rumbled deep inside him. "What was THAT?"
"It's just beginning to work," said Cologne, getting ready to leave the hut. "Finish as much as you can. Good luck on your endurance training."
Doctor Mizuno blinked, wondering what was going on.
"Why do I have to wear a maid outfit?" asked Makoto, not particularly complaining but not entirely clear on what was going on. Actually, she rather fancied it as it was a Chinese Amazon knock-off of a fairly traditional maid outfit. Functional, tough (if you didn't count the parts that were meant to give way when some Unspeakable Horror (like Happosai) had snagged one's outfit and one had to leave it behind), concealing modestly while remaining sexy, and allowing for all sorts of hidden weapons.
"Tradition," said Cologne before closing the door behind her. This was followed by the sounds of shutters being closed, bars being fitted into place, and some ratcheting sound that none of the three could immediately place.
When that was done, it was dead silent except for the sounds of breathing.
"This is most ominous," said Doctor Mizuno as she tried a bit of the herb-rice mix and made a face herself. "Bitter. I don't recognize the herbs."
"What?" said a distracted Ranma. "I dunno. Feel kinda warm and... odd."
Makoto shrugged, seated herself, and tried the 'energy meal' herself. "Oh. Bitter. There's an undertaste that reminds me of something though. Kind of sweet."
"This world is SO screwed up," said a black cat.
"So?" asked a white cat. "It's what we've got. Have to work within the culture and all that. We've arranged things as best we can, and a little nudge here and there should do it."
"You seem to have adapted to this world easily enough," accused the black cat.
"Look, you couldn't - even with the ginzuishou, just wave a magic wand and fix this society," reasonably pointed out the white cat. "Yes, I arranged for that oh-so-suggestible father to buy Jupiter. If you want to check the recordings, that was at stop 119060. I helped with the paperwork to get Kumori Mizuno in and regularly forward things from the Chains Of Mercy website to Mercury. Which will eventually get her in contact with Jupiter."
"I understand all that," growled the black cat.
"I also arranged for Venus to be on the ship that would be fighting against Ranma," said the white cat. "It went off just as I said it would, didn't it?"
"Yes," hissed the black cat.
"Now they're off at that Amazon Village," said the white cat. "Don't worry so much."
"You're right, after all, what could go wrong?" said Luna, managing quite a bit of sarcasm in her tone.
"Ah, speed and endurance training," said a villager, putting a hoe across her shoulder and watching.
"Brings back memories," said another villager.
The blonde went through a bunch of rickety cages, sending chickens flying in all directions.
"Yeah, the good old days, how glad I am that they are passed," said the first villager.
"Up the ladder," said the second villager as the blonde tried to escape the chicken counterattack by going towards the roofs.
"Down the other side," said the first villager as the chickens continued their pursuit.
"Chickens seem to have gotten better at that," said the second villager.
"How about that," said the first villager. "She landed IN the vegetable cart. Don't think I've seen that one before."
"Shampoo held back until the dust cleared," said the second villager. "Here she comes now."
"And there goes that blonde again," said the first villager as Shampoo briefly caught up while Minako was dazed. Followed by Minako recovering just as a large melon was slammed down on top of her head. Followed by Minako running away again. Followed, inevitably, by Minako running INTO several shelves of glassware on display because her head was still inside that melon.
Just as inevitably followed by Minako running with Shampoo, kung fu chickens, an irate glassblower, a martial arts chicken herder, and others all in pursuit.
"Why is this happening?!" bewailed Minako as she incidently spit out some watermelon seeds.
"I think she'll REALLY be upset when she's heard what she missed," said the first commentator to the second.
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(Posted Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:46)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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