The world seemed to fade one moment, and return in the next, colors still drab as the people around them were frozen in place, time was at a standstill all around them, except for those that had arrived with a light pop.
“Well, I hope this is okay,” said Mihoshi with a nervous smile. “You had almost as much Naruto manga and anime as Tenchi, so I figured you must really, really like it!”
“Um … why are we here?” asked a very nervous Ranma.
“Well, she made a wish, silly,” giggled Mihoshi.
“But … wasn’t I supposed to make the wish?” asked Ranma. “I mean, I went to her for advice—apparently crappy advice that I want my money back for—but still, I never gave her the wish.”
“… Oh,” said a suddenly nervous genie.
Nabiki just blinked as she looked around. Sure enough, frozen in time was Iruka, teaching a group of students who would one day be the infamous Rookie Nine of fandom. Apparently—and this was something she was reluctantly admitting—the tanned and busty girl with the apparent personality of Usagi Tsukino had really transported them to another reality.
“Well,” said the very uneasy genie, “you could always wish yourselves back,” she offered.
“But we’re here because of you!” cried Ranma. “That would be wasting my wish! You gotta take us back!”
“Um … I can’t do that,” whined Mihoshi. “WAAAAH! I’M GOING TO GET FIRED AND THEN THEY’LL SEND ME BACK AND I PROMISED TENCHI I’D DO A REAL GOOD JOB AND I’VE ALREADY MESSED UP!”
Nabiki’s hand shot out quicker than anyone would suspect from her and clamped down over Ranma’s mouth. She did like Naruto, true. But like Nerima, she liked watching from the outside. Ninja didn’t get to watch from the outside. No, they got to go to some stupid Academy that didn’t train control, sent out to some Jounin to see if they could work as a team, assigned menial labor, and eventually given a mission to deal with psychos who had no trouble offing a kid. Oh, this was not good. So as such, she needed to shut Saotome up before he blurted out something to try and stop the genie from crying and thus made it all worse. “Just take us back home, then we can all sit down, and discuss what wish Ranma will make. Can you do that?”
Mihoshi sniffled loudly, before nodding her head, preparing to send them all back…
… and prepared …
… and prepared… “Uh-oh.”
Nabiki fought hard not to show an eye-twitch. “Uh-oh?”
“Well,” shuffled the tense genie, “it seems like my superiors are demanding to talk to me and … um … suspended my wishing abilities.
“WAH! I’M GOING TO GET FIRED AND END UP WORKING FAST FOOD LIKE KIYONE SAID I WOULD AND THE MANAGER WILL TRY AND DO HORRIBLE THINGS TO ME LIKE TOUCH ME IN THE FREEZER!”
Nabiki fought back a growl. “So what happens to us?” she spat out.
“Well, they said you’ll be fine until then,” said the genie, adopting a thoughtful pose. “Plus when time resumes, you’ll get all the knowledge you would have gotten if you had been born and raised in these lives, while retaining the knowledge of your old lives.”
Nabiki lost the battle with the twitch, hoping to all the Kami that listened that she was not the dead last in the class, or a dead weight like a certain pink-haired kunoichi. Bad enough this was probably the only school Ranma could be top of the class in—probably had some weird family history and was now wealthy as hell. My luck he’s some damned Uchiha descendent…
“And I should be back soon,” smiled Mihoshi. “I mean, how long could a meeting like this go on?”
Twitch. Nabiki knew just saying such a thing was asking the Kami to strike. But they had a chance as long as she didn’t say—
“What’s the worst that could happen while I’m gone?”
Twitch. They were so screwed it wasn’t even funny.
GLOMP!!!
Nabiki, much like Ranma—at least the part of his face not currently covered by Nabiki’s hand—soon found themselves in a very intimate glomp from the genie. Not only could she tell that as their faces were pressed against the blonde’s scantily clad assets that yes, they were very real—as well as fight down a sudden urge of jealousy that someone so … unencumbered by deep thought was blessed like that—but she had to hope this didn’t result in some lesbians dreams … again. Seriously, she had absolutely no interest in being taken by Ranma’s female form or Shampoo.
Tell anyone about that and she’ll have you in the poor house before noon.
“WAAAAAAAH! I PROMISE I’LL DO EVERYTHING I CAN TO HELP YOU! YOU TWO HAVE BEEN SO VERY, VERY NICE TO ME AND I DON’T WANT ANYTHING BAD TO HAPPEN TO YOU BECAUSE I THINK YOU TWO ARE VERY GOOD PEOPLE AND I WANT US TO BE FRIENDS FOREVER!”
“Mmffph,” replied Nabiki.
“…” Ranma tried to reply, but the lack of oxygen was starting to get to him and he had no real idea how to free himself from the hold without touching the genie in places that would result in him being called a pervert and bashed.
“Okay then,” Mihoshi said as she let them go, allowing Ranma to finally gather some air and pull away from Nabiki’s hand, “I hope to see you guys soon! Have fun! Bye!”
And with that, she popped away.
“… What the hell just happened?” asked Nabiki.
“You owe me twenty five hundred yen!” gasped Ranma.
Nabiki whirled around to face him, anger growing. Somehow, she was going to make him fix this now. Surely if he yelled for that ditzy genie loud enough, she’d show up and get them out of there before they got the Naruto World Welcome Committee coming after them for interrogation and murder.
But she paused as she witnessed Saotome’s outfit shift slightly, even as the man himself seemed to … shrink.
And then yet another thing the genie screwed up hit her: you couldn’t fit perfectly into a classroom if you weren’t the general age of the students around you. And now before the time-freeze wore off, they and their outfits began to shift to the proper appearance. Looking at her own body, she saw her casual outfit slowly shift into something that allowed for more flexibility, her chest shrinking from the developed bosom of someone around the age of eighteen to the smaller—and thankfully as far as she was concerned—starting development she had known at her early teens. Damn genie’s lucky I didn’t end up flat, especially with Kishimoto’s ability to draw breasts…
Before she could comment more on her now less-developed frame, her hands went to her head as she felt knowledge of nearly twelve years of a life she never led being forced into her mind, knowledge of family, friends, home, and the skills she had learned. Her body burned slightly as muscle memory began to be etched into her cells. Soon, it became so much she collapsed into the seat behind her, panting slightly, and cursing Mihoshi’s very existence for not warning her about the painful download. It felt like she had tried Akane’s Tuna Surprise.
The surprise was that Kasumi claimed she had made it first, so no one would be prejudiced against it immediately for being Akane’s. She’s damned lucky I got feeling back in my left leg, or Little Sister would have been married to Kuno-baby by sundown for that trick.
Soon, she was finally able to open her eyes, staring in fascination at the colors around her swiftly became more vibrant. “I guess time is resuming,” she muttered weakly, wondering if it would be okay to fall asleep for a bit.
“Okay everyone!” came the near yell from the only adult—now—in the class. “Sit down so I can get attendance done, and then we can move on to today’s lesson and quiz!”
So much for sleep… Damn genie, damn Saotome, damn panda for bringing this shit into my life…
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(Posted Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:39)
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