Ranma hummed to himself as he boarded the train. While rooftop hopping would be faster, it was also a rather distinct method of travel and was sure to draw attention outside of Nerima. Combined with a mild glamore, this was a significantly more discrete method of travel.
He was sure that his transformation would have attracted attention, and that was something he really didn't need at the moment. Not to mention he didn't believe Nerima would let him go so easily.
He didn't really have a plan as such. He needed to find out if anything of the Millenium had survived, but knew his mana reserves wouldn't be up to teleporting offworld, even after he adjusted. Still, there were other sites he could investigate.
But more immediately, he needed a base. Aside from control over his mana and ki, he needed a place to stay and funds. And he needed them in a hurry, so that meant that his mode of income would be less than legal. The Mercury of old would never have considered such methods, but Ranma was... less scrupulous.
He was a student of Anything Goes.
Setsuna swore in a myriad of languages, most long forgotten. The viridian-haired woman really wanted to destroy something, but the Gates were the only target in the immediate vicinity.
The guardian briefly considered blasting the damn things, but some modicum of reason stopped her. Instead, she collapsed bonelessly, her staff clattering from her hands as tears began to leak from her eyes.
Gone. Her queen's utopia was gone, or at least changed so much the Gates couldn't find it anymore. And she couldn't even find out what had gone wrong, since something was interfering with its ability to view the divergence and those directly affected by it.
Which, to her horror, included the Inners, and would encompass the Outers as well before too long.
She hated to admit it, and hated herself for it, but there was nothing she could do. Even with the aid of the Gates, any manipulation had to be done extremely carefully, since every action caused many, many reactions.
Without the Gates, she would be shooting in the dark at best.
But that was for later. Right now, she was going to go and get very, very drunk.
The Tendo home was under a surreal blanket of calm, in stark contrast to its usual atmosphere. It was as if Ranma had taken all the chaos with him when he departed.
Nabiki was listlessly preparing for school. Soun was at his wife's shrine. Akane was staring blankly at the koi pond. Genma was still frozen in the ice his son had created. It was melting. Slowly.
Only Kasumi seemed unaffected by the absence of a pigtailed youth, going about her chores as usualy, though if one were to look carefully, there was a slight aura of sadness about the young woman.
Quiet reigned in the household, its occupants holding their peace as if afraid to break the dream-like silence.
It was Akane who finally broke, turning to her elder sister as she moved past.
"He isn't coming back, is he?"
Kasumi looked at her youngest sibling sadly. She had known about Akane's feelings for some time, but knew that her sister's inability to admit those feelings had meant she would probably lose Ranma eventually.
The situation around the pigtailed martial artist had been a melting pot and would have boiled over eventually. The wish had just been the catalyst.
"No, Akane, he isn't."
Tears appeared in Akane's eyes before she turned and fled to her room. Kasumi just sighed. She disliked that her sister had been hurt, but it had been inevitable. Better that it was done and over with now. Later, it might have been worse.
*
Ami was ready to start swearing in frustration. Nerima was a hot spot for supernatural events, and finding the one she was interested in was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
The residents of the district were no help, the strange was so common here they were rather blase about it; her roofhopping hadn't drawn so much as a second glance, and it certainly didn't help that she didn't really know what she was looking for.
"Where the hell am I now?!"
Ami growled as a travel-worn but admittedly not bad looking young man entered her vision on the street below.
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(Posted Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:02)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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