The door creaked open, and a figure slowly leaned out to look down the corridor. Nobody in sight. Perfect. She inched towards her target, hoping that she would finally be getting the answers that had plagued her curiosity. No trouble at all. Just a turn of the handle, and who knew what she might find out?
"Nabiki?"
Damn damn damn! Nabiki turned around and saw that Kasumi had just walked out of her own room. How did she always manage to be in the exact wrong place at the right time?
"If you're looking for Akane, I sent her to return a book to Doctor Tofu's."
Well if that was the way she wanted to play it, that was fine too. "Oh, no. I let Akane borrow something of mine, and I wanted to get it back." Technically, that was sort of true. From a particular perspective.
"She shouldn't be too long. I'm sure she'll give it back to you when she gets back."
"Don't worry, sis," Nabiki replied as she turned the handle. Turning away from Kasumi as she entered the room, her lips crept into a cruel smile. "Akane won't even know it's gone."
It was a very difficult situation for her to reconcile. According to what she had read, Shampoo was a very determined, powerful warrior, who had designs on first killing and then later marrying Ranma. And because of the stupid engagement, Shampoo would come to view Akane as a threat. According to the information granted by the diary, Shampoo was not only a great deal faster than her, but knew a variety of tricky techniques that could easily incapacitate an opponent. These facts combined would make her an extremely dangerous enemy, or at best a dangerous distraction while she tried to deal with the other diary users. Akane had hoped that with the diary, she could figure out a way to get rid of the girl before she became too much of a pest, but instead...
"Where this?"
"That's the school, Shampoo."
Instead, the girl had shown up two months early. And Tofu had said to her "Be a dear, show the girl around. She's alone in a strange land, doesn't speak the language... She could use a friend." What could she say to that? It was just a good thing that he'd managed to get her a translation guide before they'd set out. Otherwise, this would be an impossible task. As it was communication was slow and the conversation was simple. But as far as Akane was concerned, that was fine. It let her think about just how and why she arrived here so darned early. Was she another diary user?
"Shampoo wants mee- to meet strong fighter. Who is the stron-strongest fighter?"
A string of names floated through her head. Her father, Doctor Tofu... But then again, if she beat either of them, that would mean...
"Kuno! Yeah, Kuno's probably the one you want to meet. I spar with him every day," Whether I want to or not, she finished internally. That should be safe enough. Shampoo ought to be good enough to trounce Kuno if they fought. And if not, it wasn't the worst thing that could happen anyway. But why would she ask about who the strongest fighter was?
And not only that, but the girl was acting as though she had no idea who Akane was. She was being.... nice, respectful, polite. That stood completely contrary to the image of how Shampoo treated her, as the diary detailed it. Maybe... just maybe she didn't have a diary after all. Maybe one of the other diary users somehow directed her towards Nerima, and she just happened to arrive here early... Yes, that sounded about right. This made things much easier for Akane.
"Spar... spar... Ah! You fighter too?"
Uh oh. She hadn't meant to let that one slip. Why was she so happy about this? She was flicking through that book again, trying to figure out the best way to phrase what the wanted to say...
"I need to keep skills good. You know a place can train?"
Oh, was that all? No problem there then. "Sure thing," she replied. "My family has a dojo. You can train there, if you want..."
Nabiki threw the recorder against the wall in frustration. To an extent, her plan had worked. Akane had been thinking out loud, and it revealed a little about her thought process. It all seemed to be going fine and she'd soon have it figured out... Right up until one point, where Akane started to say something.
"But why would it always open at the right paaaaaaaa..."
And then the sound would slow down, dragging out that one letter for the rest of the tape. She couldn't hear a damned thing! As far as Nabiki could tell, the tape hadn't been interfered with. And neither had the recorder itself. Whatever questions she felt had been answered weren't important anymore. Instead, now she had a whole new mystery to deal with. What the hell had happened in that room to cause that sort of distortion? Was it related to Akane's weird behaviour? She couldn't assume that they were, but every instinct was telling her that this was almost certainly the case.
One thing was certain, she thought while watching Akane walk out to the dojo with some girl Nabiki had never seen before. She needed more evidence.
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(Posted Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:21)
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