"Hey you! We want some answers!" demanded Ranma from the little old man wheeling a cart along the corridor.
"It's working just fine now, young fella," said the old man. "Some idjit flushed a tampon and backed things up. Nobody frickin' reads the damn signs!"
"That ain't it," said Ranma, moving to stand in front of the old guy.
"Do ya freakin' mind? I got lots to do, y'know!" said the old man, looking up at Ranma with a distinctly annoyed air.
"When ya gonna let us go?" asked Ranma.
"Is he for real?" asked the old man, turning around and regarding two of the three women (Kasumi having gone into the facility) who had accompanied the young man.
"I gotta get Akane!" demanded Ranma.
"What?" asked the old man. "Is that your pet or magical mascot or something?"
"What?" asked Ranma.
"'magical mascot'?" asked Nabiki.
The old man nodded, sighing and apparently figuring he was going to be put behind schedule no matter what. "This is Block C, level 24, Corridor D. People with odd talents of one kind or another are in the D corridors. So Magical Girls, Magical Boys, Wizards, Ridiculously Powerful Martial Artists, Espers, and so on and so forth."
"Never mind that," demanded Ranma, grabbing the old man's shirt and pulling him closer. "I gotta find Akane!"
"Let him go," said Mitsuru, moving forward. "Now, Saotome!"
"I don't recall electing you boss," said Ranma, not even looking at her.
"Ranma," said the returning Kasumi, revealing that she'd heard a good part of it. "Akane was at Mount Fuji with her friends. The tsunami might not have crested over it, but..."
"Mount Fuji?" asked the old man. "It's active again."
"What?" asked Ranma, dropping the old man.
"A lot of volcanoes went active with all the earthquakes going," said the old man, glaring at Ranma and directing his comment towards the girl standing in the doorway of the ladies' room.
"You speak Japanese very well," said Mitsuru.
"Hey," said the old man, "I am Japanese. Sansei at least... Kirijo-san?"
"That is I," said Mitsuru.
"Oh, sorry about that, I'm an employee," said the old man with a belated bow. "Anyway, I got to continue getting things ready, if I may?"
"One moment," said Mitsuru. "This is the hub area right?"
"Right," said the old man. "Corridors are like the spokes of a wheel, with the main facilities in the close ends of the spokes near the hub. The hub itself contains all the major maintenance. We'll be keeping things bottled up as much as possible until things have settled down, and I've got everything working."
"Waitaminute," said Ranma.
"Ranma. Let the nice man get back to the business of keeping the machines working that are keeping us all alive," said Nabiki, getting between Ranma and the maintenance person.
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(Posted Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:05)
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