"Masterrrrrr..."
Ranma blinked with surprise when Ami came awake and immediately jumped to curl up on his lap, rubbing herself against his chest with delighted purrs. She was looking very strange to him, and when he looked around so did his other friends.
For one thing, they were covered in fur, even though they weren't in their natural, uncursed bodies. Ami had the tail, ears, whiskers and nose of her natural form, and all the others had similar additions. Ranma wondered whether the wizard had merged their two forms into one. A sharp barking sound drew his attention.
"Master is all right! Master is all right!" Haruka barked, jumping excitedly with happiness and relief. She darted forwards to lick his face, before resuming her excited running-around, waking all the others.
Soon Ranma was ensconced in the middle of a huge pile of cuddling, happiness, and warmth.
After petting all his friends to their satisfaction and reassuring them that he was truly all right, Ranma scouted around the room for signs of the wizard. There was not much to be found. Apart from the glowing source of light that hung unsupported in the air under the stone ceiling, there was only a simple wooden table, upon which lay a clearly visible scroll of paper, obviously intended to be found. Ranma took it, and opened it to read.
Dear Ranma
I am sure you will by now have noticed the small changes I have wrought in your friends. Do not worry - I have not harmed them, merely given them another chance of living out their current incarnation the way I originally intended it.
When I forcibly re-incarnated them, I had hoped that they would get the chance of living the simple, unburdened lives of the animals they had become, able to cleanse and purge their karma before re-incarnating as humans once more - the way re-incarnation was supposed to work. Serenity denied them that chance when she sent them to be re-incarnated as exact copies of their old lives - whether this was out of good intentions or not is anyone's guess, after so many years.
Even now the powerful magic of Serenity's spell is working against my enchantment, and I have no doubt that they will regain the memories at some time in the future, but with luck they will have several years to heal and re-balance their karma, allowing them to focus on doing what they can with what they have where they are, rather than obsessing over the recreation of a lost paradise at the cost of so much else.
Please do not try to talk with your pets about this until their memories return, since the strain of trying to remember what was suppressed would only hurt them.
By taking these lovely girls as your pets you are accepting a great responsibility - but then you have already proven to be more than up to the challenge. By the time we met, you had them pretty well domesticated, and I have merely taken the liberty of making it official. You will also find that people will not think anything unusual about their semi-human forms or the fact that they can talk. Just a little present from me to make your life as a pet owner easier. There is more, but you will find that out yourself.
I wish you - and your pets - the best of luck, and hope that there will be no need for enmity, if we ever meet again.
Farewell.
As soon as Ranma had read the last line, the entire scroll turned blank. He peered at it closely and held it up against the light, but there was no sign that it had ever held any writing. He let it drop to the table and turned back to his friends, who were watching him expectantly.
"So, what are we going to do now?" he asked.
"Hoo! That is your decision, Master," said Setsuna.
"Mrryes," agreed Ami. "We'll go along with anything myou decide."
Ranma scratched his head. That sure had changed - before the wizard changed them, they seemed to have a pretty definite opinion about what to do. Perhaps that was what the wizard meant by "great responsibility". If he had to make the decisions now, he'd have to make sure they were good. "Well, do you still want to go to Juuban?" he asked.
"Juuban?" asked Usagi, wrinkling her nose.
"We wanted to go there? Caw!" asked Rei.
It seemed that, along with the other changes, his friends had forgotten whatever reason they had for wanting to go to Juuban. Still, going back to Japan had sounded like a good idea. "Okay. Then I guess we'll just go ahead and try to get back to Japan. Hey, perhaps we can try to find my buddy Ucchan again! Or we could go to that doujou where Pops is sometimes sending postcards, so that he can find us there."
The girls mewled, barked, sqeaked, cawed and hooted their agreement, and thus was the decision sealed. When they made their way out of the cave, they found that it was almost evening, and the boy and his menagerie set about securing a passage back to Japan.
While they were doing so, Ranma soon found out what happened to the Jusenkyou curses of his furry friends.
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(Posted Sat, 22 Feb 2003 16:49)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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