“You’re where?” Akane asked as she peered at the view screen.
“The dojo,” the lizard thing that almost looked like Kasumi replied. The facial features were familiar, the hairstyle tied up with a bow between the backwards curving goat horns was similar. The horns themselves were new, as were the faint redish cast, the flat reptilian eyes, and other traits; but Akane was in no position to comment on the oddity. “At least, we think so. Who can say when the aliens shifted everything around.”
“Nah. There are enough landmarks ta locate the dojo,” the Ranma looking lizard explained. “Even if only a few of the other buildings remain — mostly the older style ones, ya know&mbsp; the lanscape’s close enough. Most everything else has been replaced with fields and forests, with enough new buildings to fit things into villages. But what’s there is familiar enough.”
“Yes, but the house is just not the same though,” Kasumi complained. “It’s similar, but different. Like, the kitchen’s nice enough but… it’s just not how I left it, and we’ve no electricity or anything at all, so all the appliances have been exchanged for old fashioned things.”
“Yeah, and the dojo’s roof wasn’t built as a landing pad for winged fliers, neither. Nor were the compound’s walls strong enough ta keep out the creatures that roam the forests. I ain't gonna complain about that … though the aliens didn't have ta fill the forest with the brutes.”
Akane nodded with worried agreement. People weren’t the only things the alien’s messed with. “Are you sure you’re safe enough alone at the dojo with him?”
“Uhm…” Ranma blinked and tilted his head towards Kasumi. His hawklike eyes split his field of vision between a telescopic far–sighted foreground and the extra–wide near–sighted periferal. It had been disconcerting at first to have to tilt his head to one side or the other to look at close objects, but already he hardly noticed the birdlike mannerism. “We’re not exactly alone then now, ya know. I’ve started teaching people how ta fight properly. Most Warriors used ta be ordinary folk, ya know, not ready ta handle having wings and claws and stuff. A lot of people who had experience wound up in the wrong caste, and some of those in the right bodies, well … they handled it badly.”
“What Ranma means is that he organised a militia to protect people from beasts… and thugs,” Kasumi explained brightly.
“Ranma orgainsed a militia?” Akane asked archly. “Ranma!?”
“Meh. I just flew patrols ta help folk drive off the beasts when they wandered out of the forests. After I helped out a few times, and taught some idiots that just having brute strength and claws didn’t mean they could bully folk, other Warriors started ta follow me, s’all. Then the other castes started ta listen and… Kasumi did the rest.”
“I just suggested we use the hall to hold a few meetings to get the village organised,” Kasumi shrugged. “I didn’t expect to wind up running them. It just kind of … snowballed from there.”
“So that’s how you’re working for the ‘clan lords’ who took control of your Hex then?” Akane asked.
“Ya… could say that,” Ranma agreed somewhat evasively. “Only … we’re not exactly working for the council. We’re that is…” He looked somewhat embarrassed towards Kasumi.
Old national governments had pretty much been dismantled by the simple expedient of spreading political parties across the globe at random. New governments were emerging on the basis of whomever could claim leadership of a Hex by strength, intellect, or charisma. Ranma of the Warriors had one, Kasumi of the Makers had the rest.
“Oh, dear. Like I said,” Kasumi explained with a blush of embarrassment evident even on her reptilian skin, “I didn’t expect to wind up running things. I was just being nice.”
“So, that about you?” Ranma asked to change the subject off of their status. “How are things in your … Hex?”
Akane gaped a little before replying. Ranma and Kasumi had taken control of a confused and disorganised Hex? They had become a pair of the ‘clan leaders’ that had sprung up as the Drconis organised themselves into clans and castes? Ranma and Kasumi?
Akane got a grip on things. Well, it explained how they’d access to the embassy, and possibly why she’d been allowed to contact them. A lot of weird things had been happening since the aliens had arrived. Akane could readily attest to that…
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(Posted Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:06)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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