Back at the Tendo home, Setsuna had seen a woman get thrown over the wall and knew she was at the right place. She knocked on the front gate.
Kasumi opened the gate with a hardness in her eyes that quickly departed as she saw this was not the woman she had ejected by proxy. The surrogate housewife took in the woman with hair the color of oak leaves holding an emerald the size of a pineapple and came to a logical conclusion. “I take it you’re here to see Ranma?”
Setsuna was a bit surprised, accustomed as she was to being the one who guessed the other’s actions. She hid it well, though, simply nodding.
“Ah.” Kasumi followed with the next logical question. “I suppose you’re engaged to marry him?”
This succeeded in breaking the time Senshi’s cool demeanor. She gave an involuntary snort as she held back her laughter. “Sorry. No, not at all. Just returning something of his.”
“I see.” Kasumi gave an amused smile. “Silly me. My next guess would’ve been a revenge quest. Well, do come in.”
As she ushered the elder woman into the house, she called “Ranma! One of your friends is here to return your giant gemstone!” The resulting rumbling brought a rare look of anxiety to Kasumi’s face. “Oh dear. I really should have phrased that better…”
Phrased as it was, Kasumi’s call had sent every other resident of the house charging towards the entry hall, each with a different thought in his or her mind, and in some cases, lips.
For example: “RANMA! How dare you hide such bounty from your poor, deserving father!?”
Of course, Genma was not alone. “RANMA! How dare you not convert this jewel into wedding rings for you and Akane!?”
Since the various interested parties had met before any of them could encounter their guest, these and similar exclamations were all Setsuna could observe. She decided now was a good time to introduce herself. “I’m Meiou Setsuna, by the way.”
“Tendo Kasumi,” replied the surrogate housewife. “You’ll have to pardon my father and his friend. They’re really quite nice men, it’s just that sometimes they act like a pair of…” She trailed off, looking for a polite way of expressing her honest opinion of the disciples of Happosai.
“Bonklers?” suggested Setsuna, using an old Venusian expletive.
“As you say.”
“Ha-CHO!” Osaka sniffed. “Wonder if someone’s talkin’ ‘bout me. Ah, Sakaki-san!”
“Hello.” The tall girl was still rather deep in thought over this Senshi business. “Why did you want us to meet here instead of the train station?”
The spacey girl shrugged. “Seemed like th’ kinda thing t’ do when yer bein’ all secret like.” As Sakaki pondered this, Osaka opened the bag she’d brought with her. “I’ve been doin’ research on the Senshi. Internet, newspapers, th’ works.”
This didn’t seem to mesh with Sakaki. She asked, “When did you have time to do that? I had that dream last night.”
“I woke up real early today. All that dream sendin’ musta tired me out of bein’ tired.” Once again, Sakaki found herself butting heads with Osaka logic, and decided to let it pass for the sake of her sanity. “Anyway, there ain’t much on the Senshi,” summarized Osaka, “not even online. But everyone seems ta agree on a few things:
“One. Th’ Senshi are almost always in Juuban.” Sakaki nodded. This was by and large public knowledge. Juuban was known for its energy draining demons and sailor suited superheroines, just as Nerima was known for its overpowered and highly destructive martial artists.
“Two. Th’ Senshi wear seifukus.” This tidbit, while also widely known, was not one with which Sakaki felt comfortable. She already disliked her overgenerous form. Plopping it into what amounted to a fetish outfit did not sound at all enjoyable.
“Three. They fight fer Love, Justice, and punishin’ people who target lovey-dovey folks or who are unjust.” Now this the bishojo liked. Love and Justice were certainly ideals she could get behind. As for the punishment…
Once again, Kagura was terrorizing the local cat population, running about like a girl possessed, flailing and shouting. Soon enough, she had her quarry cornered. She slowly approached the trapped kitty, who mewled piteously. The tanned girl paid no heed to this cry for mercy, snickering wickedly as she prepared to perform whatever unthinkable thing she did to captured cats.
“Stop right there!” Shocked, the enemy of felines turned to behold a fuku-clad vision in pastels. Every bow and ribbon was a calm, soothing pink or lavender. The stranger assumed a dramatic pose. “Cats are meant to be loved and petted, not to be terrorized for one’s own amusement. In the name of adorable animals everywhere, I, Sailor Kawaii, shall punish you!”
Kagura sneered. “Foolish girl. Take this!” She charged forward.
Sailor Kawaii focused her energy and extended her arms. “PLUSH CRUSH!”
Hundreds, nay, thousands of stuffed toys appeared from thin air and fell on Kagura, burying her in an avalanche of felt and stuffing. From somewhere deep within the pile of playthings, a barely audible voice cried, “Curse you, Sailor Kawaii… Cuurrrsssse yooooouuuuu…”
“Hmph.” The Senshi of Cute Things strode purposefully to the cat and knelt before it. The creature shied away at first, afraid of more sensory torment, but saw that this was a different girl. Slowly, an innocent smile on her face, Sailor Kawaii extended her hand, preparing for petting.
Suddenly, the cat spoke! “Sakaki-san.”
Sailor Kawaii froze. The cat could not only speak, it knew her secret identity!
“Sakaki-san!”
“Eh? …Oh. Sorry, Osaka.” The tall girl shook off the last vestiges of the daydream.
“It’s fine. I always wondered what it was like to shake someone else outta a daydream,” said the amused Osakan.
“Oh.” Sakaki recalled their earlier topic of conversation. “Did your research uncover anything else?”
“Not really. We’ll have ta go over ta Juuban an’ see if we can find some o’ th’ Senshi ourselves.
“Ah. But what about the others?”
“I’m s’pposed ta wait ‘til they remember on their own.”
“Who told you that?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell ya on th’ train.”
Normally, when Ranma tried to argue with the fathers, it was worse than futile. They were impervious to points of view that didn’t follow their desires, refused to accept answers they didn’t like, and blithely ignored such minor obstacles as logic, possibility, and the world around them. Fortunately for the young martial artist, his fiancée’s preincarnation was familiar with an argument that had served her admirably in past conflicts with similar foes.
Still, Ranma was hardly impressed by said tactic. “Y’know, I coulda just knocked their heads together.”
“Yeah,” acknowledged Carmellia, “but would you? Before they got you to agree to their very whim?”
“Maybe…” Ranma couldn’t look her in the eye as he said this.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no,’ ” retorted the ex-noble.
“Hello, Ranma,” Setsuna said finally, having waited until the risk of getting caught in a haphazard melee had passed before entering the room.
“Oh, Meioh-san.” Surprisingly, Ranma immediately stood and bowed.
Nabiki raised an eyebrow at this. “When’d you get so formal, Saotome?"
“She don’t look it, but she’s older ‘n Carmellia,” the pigtailed boy whispered urgently. “If she don’t deserve respect, nobody does.”
“Wait a second…” Carmellia tilted her head, considering the figure before her.
Said figure was not comfortable with this level of scrutiny. “Can I help you?” she snarked.
“You… You’re Clotho. Clotho of House Moira.”
Setsuna bore an expression of sincere surprise. “No one’s called me that in almost ten thousand years. Who are you?”
“Carmellia d’Eros.”
“The last Sailor Leo?”
“Bingo. And the current one, once we find that freaking Amulet.”
“This is most unusual. How did this happen?”
“It’s a pretty long story,” said Ranma. “I’m gonna go lock these two in the dojo first.” With that, he hoisted the fathers.
“I should make some tea,” Kasumi decided.
“And I’ll hold to that giant emerald!” Nabiki said just a bit too eagerly. The faint trace of drool wasn’t helping matters.
“My crystal, ‘biki,” called Ranma from the yard. “And I ain’t sellin’ it.”
“Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?”
Setsuna chuckled. “Indeed. I suppose there’s no harm in you holding it. I suppose it’s safe to say you’ve been let in on the little secret.”
“Oh yeah.” Nabiki smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll be keeping this way under wraps. The fate of the world’s worth more to me than a few thousand yen.”
“Too true,” noted the Senshi of Time, handing the mercenary girl the Zodiac Crystal.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Animethropologist
(Posted Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:54)
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.