“So, what lessons can we learn from last night?” Hiroshi asked the next day, looking at Daisuke and the girls.
“Better planning,” Yuka said. “We got lucky.”
Daisuke smiled. “And we need to know how to fight. We can use the Master PC-”
“No,” Sayuri said firmly. “We shouldn't use that unless it's the only way.”
“Ranma, then,” Daisuke suggested.
“No,” Hiroshi said. “That's asking for trouble, and we don't know if he's any good at teaching anyway.”
“Or if he's really allowed to,” Sayuri said. “Isn't only masters of the school who can teach?”
“Anything goes seldom plays by the normal rules,” Hiroshi said, smiling, “but I don;t want to risk Genma trying to teach me. We've all heard the stories about his training.”
The other three all nodded.
“I still think we need to know how to fight though,” Daisuke said. “Noboru almost won.”
“You're right,” Hiroshi conceded, “but lets find a normal dojo.”
“In Nerima?” Sayuri said sceptically.
“Doesn't have to be,” Hiroshi said, then looked at Daisuke. “We can use the Master PC to make us a bit better at learning martial arts.”
“Why-” Sayuri began.
“Because we have absolutely no talent, and there's a time limit. We can't afford to spend five years at it, only to end up still mediocre. As long as we still have to work hard to get anywhere, I think we'll be OK.”
“See how it goes without help first,” Sayuri said.
Hiroshi nodded, then tapped the pile of papers in front of him. “Moving on-”
Yuka smiled. “We're not going to talk about your mistakes?”
“Did that last night, with Sayuri, over our link up,” which had not been a pleasant experience. “Now, moving on, Nabiki handed me the dossiers today.”
“The secrets of the fiancées,” Sayuri said, smiling. “We can talk about Hiroshi's overconfidence later.”
“I made photocopies too,” Hiroshi said, passing them round. “Read, then destroy. We can't afford to let anyone else see them, literally.”
Yuka leafed through the pages, then blinked. “Why? It looks like gibberish.”
“It's a fairly obvious shorthand” Hiroshi explained. “Nabiki doesn't want people trying to read over her shoulder.”
“142. A1 garem: S1, Y1, et al – min,” Daisuke read. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“There's a rumour that sometimes circulates that Akane has an all girl harem.”
“What!” Sayuri snapped. “Am I S2?”
“Well, when I say rumour, I mean a couple of boys with over active imaginations,” Hiroshi said quickly. “I never believed it, and yes, you are. S1 is Mr Tendo. Everyone with the same letter gets a distinguishing number: romanji, to make it less readable. Anyway, Nabiki doesn't think it's at all likely.”
“Good,” Yuka said. “It's not true. Which boys?”
“You don't know them,” Daisuke said. “Can't you translate all this?”
“It's not that difficult to read-” Hiroshi began.
Sayuri scowled. “Remember, we don't have boosted brains like you. Summarise. What's in these dossiers that we didn't already know?”
“Her opinions of everyone's real motivations, assessment of the possibility of major deception, what she's been able to find out about their lives pre-Nerima. She managed to interview Ukyo's dad, for example.”
“So, where do we start?” Daisuke asked.
“Not Akane,” Hiroshi said, just as Sayuri confidently said “Akane, of course.”
“Hiroshi,” Sayuri said after a moment. “It's only the other fiancées keeping those two apart. If we don;t deal with her first, getting her out of Nerima will be impossible.”
“But if she leaves, so will Ranma,” Hiroshi pointed out. “Genma wouldn't have any reason to stay here-”
“Except for mooching off his friend,” Yuka inserted.
“True,” Hiroshi conceded, “but Nabiki doesn't think her dad would put up with that without the marriage in prospect. If Ranma leaves, Shampoo and Ukyo will follow him, making it difficult for us to help them.”
“Shouldn't we deal with the evil mind-controllers first,” Daisuke asked. “Kill all the bad guys, rescue the girls-”
“And get the traditional hero's reward?” Sayuri said, eyebrow raised. “You do know you'd need a blindfold.”
“We do need to do that too,” Hiroshi said, “but it's a never-ending task. There will always be more setting up shop, so we can't wait until we've cleaned house before we start on the girls. We have to do both at the same time. The question is, what should take priority?”
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:51)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.