The girl was wearing a man's shirt, and what looked like a lab coat over that. Neither really fit her, and both were torn and bloody. The girl herself looked like she was in really bad shape too - not just physically but had that whole 'stunned by events beyond her comprehension' thing that he'd seen a few times. Mainly on normal people after they'd witnessed one of his fights.
"What happened to you?" asked Ranma, trying to project as much 'friendly' as he could. This last mainly because he'd learned the hard way that this approach worked better than his previous methods. Naruto, of all people, usually managed better results with such things.
"I... I was a failed product... so... I was scrapped. Thrown out."
There was a momentary flash of anger and annoyance, but at the girl's visible flinch - Ranma buried both. Answers first, then go kill whoever had done this. "What's that mean?"
"I... broke," said the girl.
"Okay," said Ranma, letting the last syllable trail off as he tried to make sense of that. As the girl started collapsing as if her legs just couldn't hold her up anymore, Ranma blurred and reappeared holding her up. "Let's see... I saw a park this way."
He HAD considered for a moment getting the girl inside the Tendo house, but figured that loud and confrontational wasn't going to help. And that likely would be the result.
The girl weighed hardly anything as far as Ranma was concerned. He supported most of her weight despite being a lot shorter than her, and got her to the park and a bench without difficulty.
"What's your name, anyway?" asked Ranma along the way.
"Akitsu," said the girl after a long silence.
"So what do you mean, you're 'broken', and where do I find the guy that 'broke' you?" asked Ranma, ready and able to lay some serious smackdown on someone.
"I... I can't be winged," said Akitsu. "I can't have an Ashikabi."
"'Ashikabi'?" asked Ranma. "'Winged'?"
"Broken... my fault," said Akitsu, blinking and then seeming to really see Ranma for the first time.
"Ain't your fault, and if you tell me who 'broke' you, I'll go break THEM," said Ranma. "Eh? What are you looking at me like that for?"
"Strong," said Akitsu, immediately scoring a number of points with Ranma.
"Yup," admitted Ranma. "Nobody stronger. Well, excepting maybe a couple of people - maybe. Not that I said that. So, what's this 'winging' stuff and why don't you think you can do it?"
"I... am broken," said Akitsu, returning to her dazed and depressed expression.
"Well," said Ranma, beginning to get a little frustrated as he leaned close to Akitsu so he could look her directly in the eyes. "Why don't you show me what you're talking about?"
He wasn't ready for the girl to take advantage of that closeness and kiss him. He wasn't sure what to expect, but that hadn't been it. He was still waving his arms around frantically when he felt the tug on his chi, and started trying to analyze that. In fact, he reflexively reacted by PUSHING a spike of chi the better to see what he was facing.
He missed, due to proximity and angle of his vision, that the tattoo on her forehead vanished and moved. He DID see, though only partially due to the large amount of his vision being obscured, seeing wings of ice form behind the girl.
Oh, realized Ranma. That's why she's calling it that.
"Number Zero-Seven was scrapped, right?" asked Hiroto Minaka. "Then why is it that I show she was just winged?"
"That's impossible," said Takami Sahashi.
"Nonetheless, that IS what I show," said Hiroto, pointing at the display.
"Nerima?" asked Takami. "What could have drawn her that far away?"
"It's just over the river," pointed out Hiroto. "And we knew she fled here on the train."
"Well, still..." muttered Takami.
"So, how did she get winged?" asked Hiroto.
"In order to break that buffoon's mistake, it would have required a power level beyond human," said Takami, frowning.
"Hmmm, according to this, over nine thousand," muttered Hiroto. "This was not in my scenario, but I am sure it is of no import."
Takami scowled for a moment, then looked thoughtful. "Did you just get the sudden feeling that the universe was laughing at you?"
"No," lied Hiroto. "Not at all."
"I... You cured me," said Akitsu, her voice full of wonder.
"What the heck was that?" asked Ranma.
"I am yours, my Ashikabi. Forever and ever."
Looking at the barely clothed woman, Ranma decided to deal with this one bit at a time.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:23)
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.