Shampoo looked around her in shock. She was back where she started, and she hadn't even noticed her surroundings change. Whoever this Deus was, he was powerful. And that troubled her a great deal. He had the ability to pluck her out of the middle of a busy town, and none of the people around her seemed to even notice she'd been gone. Suddenly, there was a quick movement behind her, and she spun around to stare at a busy crowd of people haggling over food... Nothing too interesting at a first glance. But at a second, more careful look, she saw the red pigtail sticking out of a nearby barrel, and immediately attacked.
"You're dead now!" Shampoo cried out. Ranma may not have understood what she was saying. Nor could Shampoo's approach be seen, or heard, from the inside of the barrel. But the tone of voice, and an attuned danger instinct, warned enough to get the hell out of there before a large, heavy weapon caved in Ranma's skull.
Fortunately for Ranma, his father had the foresight to hide elsewhere. As Shampoo leaped towards him, attempting to strike with her bonbori, she felt a paw grab her leg and swiftly alter her trajectory in a downwards fashion. She shook out the cobwebs after landing and looked for the perpetrator, but saw no-one. Letting out an anguished scream, she dug out her journal and made to read the next entry.
But then, she stopped. This was the third time she'd used the journal to try and get ahead of her prey, and set up an ambush. But every time, even though she knew what they would try to do, the girl and the panda just... adapted. They distracted her, dodged her every attack, fled into a crowd, and just... vanished like they were never there. It was almost as if she had devoted her obviously considerable martial arts training to fleeing people that were annoyed at her! Well, she'd never ticked off an Amazon before, that much was certain. She was still alive, after all. An unfortunate fact that Shampoo would remedy soon enough... But first she needed to change tactics.
With this in mind, she skipped ahead a few entries, to almost a month later.
I finally caught up with that red headed devil in a place called Nerima. She was eating with a friend of hers, and then...
So that was their destination, was it? Nerima. A quick look at her map told her it was in Tokyo. At the rate the two were travelling, she'd probably arrive there before they did. Which might give her some time to scope the area out, and plan what to do, using the diary. She'd read the rest later, when she found a ship to stay and rest on.
She packed the Hunter's Journal away, and reflected how useful it was. With it, she could tell the outcome of her attempts to track and kill a target. At first, she'd thought it only applied to the red-head, but found that it also told her about a rabbit she'd kill for dinner later that night. And then, right on schedule, it appeared and acted just as the journal said it would. Something like this would be immeasurably useful, not only to her but to the tribe... but she couldn't return without a certain head on a platter. She would have read further ahead in the journal before, to figure out what would happen as a result of this hunt, but time was of the essence. She had to leave. She had to hurry. Her things were packed away, and she rand towards the nearest port.
Meanwhile, on a nearby rooftop, two pairs of eyes were relieved when they saw their pursuer leaving town. "How's she doin' it, pop? It's like she knows where we're headed or somethin'!"
The panda next to him attempted to shrug in response. How the hell should he know how she kept getting ahead of them?
"What was that thing she was lookin' at anyway? I mean, I'da thought she woulda tried lookin' for us a bit first... But she just looked at that, looked at a map, and ran off without searchin' or nothing."
The two stood in silence for a moment. One by choice, the other by necessity. He was still trying to figure out a way to communicate properly while cursed, and felt like he was on the verge of a breakthrough... But eventually, Ranma spoke up.
"Maybe we should change our route a bit. You know? If she's figured where we're headed, maybe we can lose all sign of her that way!"
Genma's ears pricked up, as his son (currently daughter, but he didn't like to think of it like that) jumped off the roof with practised ease, and began looking for some hot water. 'Signs, eh? That just might work.'
Back in Nerima...
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(Posted Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:33)
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