”Akane?”
”Hellloooo....Earth to Akane!”
”..!..What?!”
The youngest Tendo daughter looked away from where she’d been gazing out her window to the distant horizon. Off in the distance and high up, a metallic speck caught the last high rays of the setting sun.
”Come on, it’s dinner time. And don’t tell me you’re not hungry. I’ll come up here with Auntie Nodoka and force-feed you if we have to.”
The image that elicited made Akane smile thinly. ”All right, all right, I’ll be down.”
”Look at this way, Akane; Ranma’s just been kidnapped by another magic aristocrat. At least this one’s publicly announced that she thinks the Wild Child’s her kid, so she won’t treat Ranma too shabbily.”
”Until she finds out otherwise.”
”Yeah, but Ranma’s got a way of getting into and OUT of trouble. It will work out. And, hey, at least he’s out of Kuno’s clutches.”
”Can you believe that? That woman put a price on Kuno’s head!”
”Oh yeah! THAT was unexpected!” Nabiki’s face took on a bitter, angry look. “But not unwelcome. Can’t say after these last two weeks I’m sorry to see something like that happen!”
”You’ve already gotten a betting pool on Kuno’s life expectancy, haven’t you?”
”AKANE! Me, seek to profit off another’s death? We’re trying to walk the financial straight and narrow here! We’re going to be scrutinized from all angles! I can’t afford to give Kuno’s lickspittles any reason to come after us again under the law! Besides, Kuno has topnotch security around him, and what with the Imperial ban on weapons in private hands, we’re looking at rather long odds for anybody geeking Kuno from in this country!” Nabiki paused and assumed a thoughtful, calculating pose. “Of course, that doesn’t rule out the international angle. And some of Kuno’s diehard enemies, like we saw interested in the auction, MIGHT decide it would be worth fielding hit teams against Kuno. They COULD spend a lot of money they normally wouldn’t consider on setting up an assassination, since they would make it all back by claiming the bounty, PROVIDED they didn’t get caught arranging it all. Hmmmm...gotta consider this.”
”Good. Maybe one of them will succeed.” Akane’s tone was pure venom.
”Well, I can’t get spies up on that thing anyways, so no point in worrying about it. Don’t worry, Akane, I got faith in my brother-in-law.”
”NABIKI!”
”Now there’s the outraged indignant little sis I know! Com’on, dinner’s waiting!”
The two sisters made their way downstairs. They could hear Auntie Nodoka puttering in the kitchen, Genma in the living room, listening to the news(He’d already repeatedly denied ever meeting this ‘Duchess Cima Haman-Khan’, even under threat of drawn katana) . Kasumi was paused by one of the doors to the outside, looking out.
”I think they’re running out of room out there.”
Just barely visible outside the walls of the Tendo residence, they could see the lights and flashes of cameras, and occasionally the cameras themselves as hands pogoed up over the fence to try to get pictures, or the photographers shimmied up light poles and even onto neighbors’ roofs, trying to get vantage points. Farther back they could see mobile transmission towers from news vans in the back. A substantial proportion of Tokyo’s media seemed to have crammed itself into the streets around the Tendo home.
They could also see the lights and roofs of the many police vehicles that had established a cordon around the house. A very polite police officer had explained when they arrived that the police presence was for the Tendos’ and Saotomes’ protection. One or two officers were actually inside the walls, standoffish but affording the Tendos their space.
“If it wasn’t for the cops, we’d be mobbed!”
”Yeah, real feeding frenzy. Figures; the dojo could have used this much attention a month ago. But drop an alien starship into town, and they beat a path to our door!” Nabiki looked disgusted. “How fickle and sensationalist are the public!”
”And this business doesn’t help our situation very much, what with the auction being interrupted like that. It’s left the whole debt settlement, ah, up in the air.” Nabiki gestured vaguely in the direction of the alien ship hovering over distant downtown Tokyo.
Nabiki then looked nervously over at a distant van down the street with several suited figures standing dourly next to it. It was small comfort that it appeared to be surrounded by its own small cluster of police and official-looking vehicles and their crews, glaring back at them.
”Admittedly, though, all this attention does have a few advantages. We’re under ‘protective custody’, while they figure out if there’s any more to Ranma’s link to us. But it also means we’re effectively trapped here.”
Just then a large pole swung over the wall, an unusually acrobatic journalist hanging on for dear life to the free end, press credentials clutched in one hand. As he swung around and met the Tendo girls’ gaze, he began yelling.
”Nihon Today National News Network!”
Police could be heard running to intercept the intruder in Tendo airspace, but the man kept on with his spiel.
”We’re willing to pay you for exclusive rights to your story! Starting at seven hundred thousand yen per person!”
”-And maybe it won’t be so bad. Smile for the cameras, sisters, maybe this won’t be so bad if we play the opportunities right.”
Across town at the Cat Cafe, Cologne was huddled next to the television, Shampoo and Mousse looking on with concern.
”What we do now, Great Grandma? We return village or stay here?”
Cologne didn’t look up as she watched the umpteenth rerun of footage of the giant black and purple alien craft hovering over Tokyo, paying particularly close attention to the close-ups of the vessel. She watched as the cameras played over armored flanks, mysterious appendages and devices, and markings on the hull.
”We’re going back to the village, great grand daughter, but we’ll be returning. Yes, we’ll definitely be returning, but first there’s some people I’ll have to see in the village, and maybe some outside it, too.”
”You want me to WHAT?!”
Upstairs at a a certain okonomiyaki shop, Konatsu heard the yell from a floor and several rooms away. Followed by a stream of obscenities.
Miss Ukyo is MAD!
*SLAM!*#jingle!#
Miss Ukyo is PISSED!
RRRRIIIPPPPPPP KA_DUNGE!smashclatterclangshatterSNAP
BREAK!CRUNCH!SLAMSLASHCRUNCHDESTROYDEFENESTRATEOBLITERATE
Miss Ukyo is BERSERK!
The destruction downstairs continued for a while, before slowing down and finally ceasing. Finally, after some settling of debris, Ukyo came storming upstairs, sans her traditional baker’s peel and spatula, muttering all the way to her room, where she proceeded to gather her things.
”The NERVE OF THAT MAN!!! Wants me to storm a freakin’ damn alien STARSHIP to kill Ranma-chan?! Am I even RELATED to that man?! Mom musta had an affair, yeah, that would explain a lot!”
Finally she turned around, somewhat more calm, and saw Konatsu looking at her with concern.
”Oh, sorry, ‘natsu. Look, come on, we’re leaving this place. The stupid ol’fart disowned me for the last time; I’m cast out of the clan for not casting myself in front of plasma rayguns to smooth the bastard’s wounded butt-hurt, so I’m no longer welcome to use the family name or style! ”
Konatsu gasped. “But what will you do?”
Ukyo wanly grinned; “ Ran-chan’s father and mother offered me a place as their daughter! Would you believe it? The stupid pandaman finally does right by me. Com’on, maybe they got a place for you too, or you can establish yourself here; though the downstairs is a little messed up. I ain’t spending another night here.”
”Where you lead, I follow, Miss Ukyo.”
Somewhere in northern Japan:
”HOT DAMN! Alien women in Tokyo?! And she looks STACKED! Yeah! I gotta keep this until I can get me back to Tokyo!”
Happosai casually stole the newspaper, ignored the outraged cane swing by the stall owner, and merrily ran his way down the street, reading the screamsheet.
”-alien military commander stormed Mifune’s Slave Auction House, intent on rescuing her child, a slave being put on auction, the young woman identified as one Ranko Tendo, formerly of Ner-”
”What the %^*&K!? ‘SLAVE’?! What the HELL have those dumbass students of mine been up to?!”
Happosai put on a burst of speed; for more than one reason he wanted to get back to Tokyo.
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(Posted Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:31)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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