“Just sit right back
And you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip,
That started from this anchor port,
Aboard this tiny ship.The mate was a mighty sailor senshi,
The Skipper brave and sure,
Eight other maids set sail that day,
For a three hour tour,
A three hour tour.“The Change Winds started blowing rough,
The tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Minnow would be lost.
The Minnow would be lost.“The ship set ground on the shore
Of this uncharted flux anchor
With Hotaru,
Her Skipper too.“Ami, Mina-chan
and Rei, too
Usagi, Makoto,
Setsuna, and all the rest.
Here on Hotaru’s Isle.“So this is the tale of our castaways,
They’re here for a long, long time.
They’ll have to make the best of things,
It’s an uphill climb.“The first mate and her Skipper too
Will do their very best,
To make the others comf’terble
In their tropic anchor nest.“No phone, no lights, no motor car,
Not a single luxury
Like Robinson Crusoe
It’s primitive as can be.“So join us here each week my friends,
You’re sure to get a smile,
From ten stranded castaways
Here on Hotaru’s Isle!
“Hotaru, would you puhleese stop singing that tune. You’ll give us the jinkies!”
“That’s ‘jinx us’, Mina-chan. And yes. Please stop, Hotaru-chan.”
“Awe! Meenies.”
Haruka had an all too excellent view of prow of the Minnow parting the white mist and sailing out swiftly into the wine red void; being lashed to said prow—arms spread eagle and bust thrust out—as if a rubber clad figurehead. “Mffit!” she protested as wide open space opened up before her, above her, and beneath her. Vast emptiness streaked with half-seen flashes of light.
“Steady as she goes, Cap’n!” Ami called from somewhere behind Haruka’s head. The girl’s voice seemed muted and strangely distorted; soaked up by the silence. “There’s a thick green string dead ahead, curving to the starboard side.”
Haruka looked up, and still saw nothing but vast, empty, nothing.
“Aye, aye, Mister Ami!” Ranma called back. “Batten the hatcheries! Hoist those petards! Cast off the shackles! And somebody clean the poop deck!”
“Goshunjin-sama, please don’t mangle sailing commands! We have Minako for that.”
“Hey! I resemble that remark!”
‘We are sooooo doomed!’ Haruka thought behind her gag.
The anchor quickly faded behind them; bright light from the mist unable to penetrate far into the void, leaving only the String to guide them. This was deeply troubling to those of crew not able to see it.
Ami had quickly polled those who could, and it wasn’t a long list. Ranma could see could see the line clearly stretching out into the void. Hotaru, Minako, and Makoto could only make out a streak threading through the sails overhead. The rest—who hadn’t fully reintegrated with their new Roles, and thus remembered how to manipulate the Flux—couldn’t see it out at all.
Ami herself could only do so through her visor; and was still finding it disconcerting how she’d summoned it by reflex, as though from long practice.
Which Setsuna had concluded quietly to the rest, meant that a mutiny was very much out of the question for a while.
As long as Ranma kept concentrating on following the String, the Minnow clipped along at a steady pace. When he grew distracted, the sails dropped and the ship drifted, for it was only his Will that moved the ship.
“There is only one kind of wind in the Flux,” Ami mentioned when the question came up over brownies that Makoto had brought up from the galley—which had quickly distracted Ranma. “From what I’ve read, we don’t want the Change Winds to blow.”
“What are the ‘change winds’?” Usagi asked. At least, that’s what Ami figured was trying to escape between mouthfulls of muffin.
“Just what it sounds like: a storm in the Flux currents. When the Change Winds blow, everything changes.”
“That’s bad,” Usagi guessed.
“It’s very bad, “ Ami confirmed. “Not good at all.”
“Okay, what else do we have to look out for?” asked Setsuna.
“Besides the Flux itself? Rogue truckers, mostly.”
“Rogue… truckers?”
“Oh, duggers,” Hotaru piped up. “Traders between anchors who’ve flux-changed. Well, they mostly use wagons and boats now, but I guess they started out trying to use trucks and vans and stuff. That wouldn’t have worked very well.”
“Exactly so,” Ami continued. “It takes a true mage to drive a truck, or ship, through the Flux, but anyone can walk or ride as long as they have a guide along to follow a String.”
“How do you walk on nothing?” Usagi asked, frowning out at the void extending in all directions.
“The same way you breathe in the Flux. Air, light, gravity, and a surface beneath your feet are said to be easy to conjure in the Flux, even if you don’t have any touch of the Power.”
“Sheesh,” Ranma sighed. “We really need to practice if you can’t even do that much.”
Ami frowned slightly. This from the boy whom she had to tell what Flux was. “It’s as you say, Goshujin-sama. We all need to practice.” And that seemed to be the nearest she could bring herself to critisizing him; another troublesome thing. “But anyway, as I was saying, we need to watch for rogue truckers.”
“Why would truckers go rogue?” Rei wondered.
“Mostly because they’ve been driven insane by being immersed in the Flux too long.”
“Oh, now that’s a cheery thought.”
“Yes, isn’t it. You don’t want to wander out in the Flux for long, because of the subconscious transmogrification feedback effect…”
Ranma interupted. “Uh, Ami, can we have that in plain Japanese, if you please?”
“Sorry, Goshunjin-Sama. Let’s see. Out here in the Flux, anything that isn’t maintained by someone’s Will, will simply revert to a state of Flux. It will just fade away.”
“Yes, we got that,” Ranma sighed. “You went over the need to hold things stable before we left. Repeatedly.”
“It is important! And then there’s the opposite, of course. Anyone with True Talent can change anything in the Flux, unless it’s locked by someone with greater power. So anyone without a strong sense of self, will eventually end up changed by their own subconcious desires and fears, and often driven a little insane by the erosion of self identity, which only accentuates the effect.”
“You mean, make your own dreams and nightmares come true?” Usagi asked.
“Pretty much so, yes.”
“Okay, new plan. Let’s not stay out here.”
“Pft! We gotta train. ’s why we’re here.”
“No, I really think we should get out of here.”
“Meh! I’m sure well be fine. We just got to …”
“It’s not that,” Usagi protested and pointed, “it’s that!”
“Now, that does makes a good case for leaving, Goshun-sama,” Ami agreed.
“Yeah. I guess it does.”
“Goshunjin-sama!”
“What now?”
“You’re piloting this ship!”
“Oh, right. Right! Stations everybody!”
“Mpfht!” sagged a relieved Haruka, who’d been trying to get somebody to pay attention for several minutes. Then the Minnow began to turn slowly away from the approaching threat.
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(Posted Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:18)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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