“Ranma?” Daisuke said. “Someone's controlling Ranma? Who? How? He-”
“How long have you known?” Sayuri asked, looking suspiciously at Hirosho.
“Since this morning. That's when I did the search.”
“And you said nothing?”
“The mind control is only active at night, so waiting made no difference, and we've got to act normal.”
“Very logical,” Sayuri said scathingly. “What I have told you?”
Hiroshi shivered, realising he'd slipped again. “I'm no good at watching what I'm thinking. That takes a different kind of mind.”
“And the Master PC wouldn't have enhanced you that way.”
Hiroshi nodded. If it had increased his capacity for introspection at the same time as his intelligence, he'd have been too likely to notice subsequent meddling.
“Who cares about that?” Daisuke said. “What about Ranma?”
“Hiroshi is your friend,” Sayuri said sharply, “and Ranma can look after himself.”
Yuka smiled teasingly. “So it's not because you're worried about failing the kami's test yourself, Sayuri?”
“She's right to worry though,” Hiroshi said as Sayuri spluttered. “She is supposed to be helping us resist what the master PC did, but she has no idea how, besides nagging. We need to work out how she's supposed to help us.”
“Or we could just ask that priest,” Yuka said. “He did say we should go back if we wanted advice. Who's controlling Ranma?”
“Noboru Miyazawa. We could try that priest again.” Hiroshi paused, eyes widening. “Um, did anyone get the address?”
By the time they'd reached the temple, Hiroshi had been too exhausted to pay attention to little details like that. He couldn't even remember the temple's name, and the priest had never given his.
Everyone shook their heads.
“I might be able to remember the way,” Sayuri said uncertainly.
Hiroshi shrugged. “We found it once. We can find it again, and this time it won't take all day.”
“OK,” Yuka said after a moment. “Who's this Mr Miyazawa?”
“Noboru,” Hiroshi said, with contemptuous informality, “runs a brothel, according to the Master PC.”
“He's using Ranma as one of his girls?” Daisuke said. “He's going to be in big trouble.”
Hiroshi nodded, pulling a second piece of paper out of his pocket. “It's been going on for about six weeks. Ranma sneaks out of the house at nights, and returns a few hours later with all traces wiped.”
“Noboru got another Master PC?” Sayuri asked.”What else has he done?”
“Yes. There are a few indirect effects on Ranma, to stop anyone noticing anything odd, and he's changed the rest of his girls so they don't need food or sleep, which looks like one of the Master PC's tricks.”
“Why doesn't he just make them look like Ranma too?” Daisuke asked. “Everyon knows Ranma is dangerous.”
“Not everyone,” Hiroshi began. “I didn't do any mindreading, just scanned for mind control-”
“He knows,” Sayuri said flatly. “Why else would he pick Ranma? She's not that pretty. Someone is paying for Ranma specifically.”
“Kuno,” Yuka said. “It's got to be.”
“I didn't check,” Hiroshi said. “I didn't look who they were, or what they've been doing to Ranma. I don't know if I want to know.”
There were only two guys he knew of who'd want to do that to Ranma, and Happi wouldn't tolerate a middleman, but ... some things, he just didn't want to think about.
“I know I don't,” Yuka said. “We can't let Ranma find out. Akane would tear herself to pieces.”
“We'll have to stop him ourselves.” Daisuke said, then smiled. “Well, I've learned a few things watching Ranma.”
“New to me,” Hiroshi said. “Stopping him could be a problem. As long as he's alive, he can just download another copy of the Master PC, and then there's his girls.”
“We'll free them,” Sayuri said, then paused, “or is it too late?”
“People need sleep to stay sane, and they still have to get sustenance from somewhere. “They're turning into some kind of sex demon. I don't know if there's enough left of them to reverse it.”
“We've got to,” Yuka said. “We can't kill them, or him. We're the good guys.”
Hiroshi looked silently at Sayuri, remembering the apartment they had torched.
“Sometimes death is a mercy,” he said, “but it's got to be a last resort.”
Sayuri nodded. “So, what can we do?”
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(Posted Sat, 16 Oct 2010 00:18)
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