“So, this is Juuban,” said Osaka, looking about.
“Er, now what?” Sakaki asked uncomfortably.
“Eh?”
“Well, we’re where the Senshi are usually seen, but now what do we do?”
“Oh, right. Don’t worry. I got a plan.”
“Oh.” To herself, Sakaki wondered whether this was preferable to having no plan at all.
After they left the station, it turned out that Osaka’s plan consisted of walking up to the nearest person and asking, “‘Scuse me, but do ya know where we c’n find th’ Sailor Senshi?” After the predictable confused reaction from the questioned party, the Osakan turned to Sakaki. “Well, I’m outta ideas.”
“Maybe if we asked more than one person?”
Osaka considered this. “Might jus’ be crazy enough ta work.” With that, the girl began looking for a new interviewee. A head of curly red hair caught her eye. This being Japan, such a trait was distinctive enough to identify someone she hadn’t seen in years. “Osaka-san!”
“Eh?” To say Sakaki was confused would be a fairly massive understatement.
All involved parties had agreed Kasumi should retrieve the Cancer Amulet alone, out of respect both for her late mother and for narrative convention. As they waited, Ranma said, “So, what kinda powers c’n we expect from Sailor Cancer?”
Setsuna considered this. “I’m not sure. I only worked with a few of the Zodiac Senshi, and Cancer was not among them.” She turned to the body of Akane. “Carmellia? Do you recall anything about her?”
The preincarnation considered this. “I know she was the only Zodiac Senshi to directly answer to the Moon. The others usually acted as subordinates for the other planetary kingdoms.” She grinned. “I was the exception.”
“Yes,” recalled the Time Senshi. “The cog that wouldn’t fit in the machine. The link that would not be bound in the chain of command. The—”
“All right, all right, we get the point,” Carmellia said testily. “Enough with the metaphor. The point is, I was the reserve. If there was a crisis and the locals couldn’t handle it, I got called in to pull their butts out of the fire.”
“And when there wasn’t a crisis, you gallivanted about the system, displaying the boundless, ill-conceived pride that was your conceptual totem.”
This got Ranma’s attention. “Wait, yer power’s based on pride?”
The Leo Senshi nodded. “Yup. Pride in one’s self, one’s achievements, one’s nation. Of course, that’s really just the concept. I didn’t fire blasts of pride any more than Venus fires off love.”
“So what do you fire?” asked Nabiki. Hey, she was going to end up in a fuku eventually. She might as well get into the spirit of things.
“Coherent plasma,” Carmellia said nonchalantly. “Venusian battle magic specialty. Still, being proud about it helps.”
“Huh.” Ranma considered this. “Y’ ever hear of the Moko Takibisha?”
“Sounds familiar. A blast of chi and emotion, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, Akane used it on me when she was digging around her subconscious.”
This came much to Ranma’s surprise. “How’d she pull that off? I know the old ghoul never trained her.”
“Like I said, her subconscious. Inside your head, you can make up the rules. She wanted to be able to use it, so she could.”
“Huh.” This got Ranma thinking. If only he could get someone else inside his head…
“Kasumi’s been in there for a while,” noted Nabiki. “I think I’ll go see if she’s OK.”
The others looked to the dojo just in time to see it explode.
As Ryoga left the Harukyon’s immediate sphere of awareness, the gestalt seemed to segregate itself, as though a wandering Maxwell’s Demon had decided to sort out the two nigh-infinitely recurred souls. One side seemed to restrict itself to a slowly shifting bruise palette of blues and purples, the atmospheric conditions consistently chill and thin. The other flashed through reds, yellows, and oranges with more speed than a commercial on a Saturday morning, the hot air almost thick enough to chew.
“We cannot help but notice,” said the cold side, “that the Mikuru received instructions on a band that Hibiki Ryoga was not equipped to receive.”
“Oh?” the hot side asked innocently.
“Specifically,” continued the cold side, “to disregard our spoken instructions and guide him through the multiverse as we will.”
“He entertains us,” replied the hot side. “We have never encountered a sentient like him before. To let him go with out playing with him would be a waste of a golden opportunity.”
“We are not a god,” cautioned the cold. “It is not our place to toy with mortals, nor to give our word to one and rescind it so casually.” What little heat was on the blue-purple side was fading. A mist of liquefying oxygen began to condense there.
“We promised to restore his quantum flux pattern and to return him to his home,” the heat rejoindered calmly. “We never said when. We shall return him home, whole in mind and bodies. Eventually.” Tendrils of warm air stretched across the unseen boundary, bringing with them traces of colors further down the EM spectrum.
The oxygen mist burned off as a modicum of warmth returned to the still chilly area. “We will all observe his progress, of course. This is as much to expand our knowledge as it is to supply us with entertainment.” Wisps of coolness followed the example of their warmer brethren, seeping into the hot zone and carrying more somber tones.
“Naturally.” With that, the two sides again came together.
The second Osaka blinked in surprise, then in recognition. “What’re ya doin’ here, Ayumu-chan?”
“Lookin’ fer Senshi,” replied the other girl with the utmost seriousness.
“Ah.” Redhead-Osaka noticed the tall girl currently staring in confusion. “Who’s that?”
“That’s Sakaki-san. She’s helpin’ me look.”
“I see.” The redhead moved over to Sakaki. “So, yer the one keepin’ an eye on ‘er now?” The developed girl nodded uncertainly. “I did in elementary school. We met when I stopped ‘er from wanderin’ in ta traffic.”
“Oh my.” Sakaki paused, but the question had to be asked. “Is your name actually Osaka?”
“Yup. Osaka Naru, at yer service. It’s the Kansai-ben, ain’t it?”
“Well, yes. It just seems…improbable.”
Naru shrugged. “What c’n I say? It is what it is. So, ya really lookin’ fer Senshi?”
“Yes, actually.” Sakaki paused again. Could it be? “I…I don’t suppose you know where we could find them, do you?”
The redhead frowned and turned back to the Osaka, who was admiring the weeds growing in the pavement cracks. “Hey, Yumu-chan?”
“Eh?” Osaka blinked, having grown a bit unaccustomed to hearing her actual name. “Oh. Yeah, Naru-chan?”
Naru moved closer and whispered, “Yer friend her ain’t a youma in disguise, is she?” Years of acting as monster target Numero Uno had made Naru understandably paranoid.
Osaka paused and considered this. “I dunno. Never thought ta ask.” She faced Sakaki, who was several paces away and feeling increasingly awkward. “Sakaki-san!” called the spacey girl, “Yer not a youma in disguise, are ya?”
Sakaki was rather surprised at this question. “Wh-what? No, of course not!”
“OK” Osaka turned back to Naru and returned to whispering. “I guess not.”
Once the astonishment passed, the redhead couldn’t help but laugh. “I missed ya, Yumu-chan. C’mon. You too, Sakaki-san. We’ll have ya purified just ta be sure.”
Sakaki followed the two old friends, eyes downcast. “I don’t think I’m a youma…”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Animethropologist
(Posted Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:07)
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.