Realizing it was getting late, she quickly finished her morning ablutions then began to descend the stairs, schoolbag in hand. Something's not right, she thought. The teenager paused at the bottom of the stairs, waiting. Come on, aaaanndd... "Ranma no baka!" Ah, there it was. A little later today, but all part of the routine. As she entered the family room, Nabiki saw her father wailing, spouting great jets of tears and watering all the indoor plants. As usual. Kasumi had that "Oh my" expression on her face, as usual, and Akane looked angry, as usual. Yup, a normal day. What wasn't normal was the giant pile of hay on the table, that spilled out over the porch and into the yard.
Nabiki looked around and saw an "innocent" panda, passed out on the grass with several signs strewn about his still form. They were obviously the cause of his horizontalness. His son, er, daughter was also unconscious nearby, but from a different source: that of a huge mallet, still resting on his, er, her head. Also typical. She pointed to the pair and asked, "So what did they do this time?"
Akane angrily began. "Can you believe it? Another fiancée! I swear, Ranma! This time..." Kasumi gently laid a hand on the youngest Tendo's arm, silencing her. "It's not quite like that, Akane. Why don't you let me tell it?" Akane swallowed whatever it was she was going to say and calmed down. Kasumi smiled and turned to Nabiki.
"When I woke up this morning, apparently there was a surprise waiting for Mr. Saotome. At the door to the dojo was a messenger who said the documents he had were from a business partner of Mr. Saotome's and now that his child was of age, the partner was coming to collect." She waved at a piece of folded parchment on the table. "When Mr. Saotome woke up and decided to open the letter," and from the back, Akane chimed in "or else! Sorry, Oneechan." Kasumi gave her a chiding look, but continued, "out spilled all of this, pointing at the hay, "and it said that as per their contract, this business partner of Mr. Saotome's would arrive here in three days time to collect the gold that had been spun from this, or he'd take Mr. Saotome's daughter, Ranko for his bride."
Nabiki stared at her older sister's words. Did the unknown person know what was going on or had he made a mistake? She bent down and examined the hay, then looked up, ignoring Akane's continued rants about Ranma's promiscuity and lack of character. "What did the Panda say?" she asked her older sister, who seemed the most rational of the bunch at the moment.
"As soon as he finished reading the letter, he got a weird look in his eye, grabbed a cup of cold tea, and transformed. He denied it all by signs, but Ranma got upset at his father's actions and knocked him out, and then Akane knocked him out. Poor girl, she's so sensitive."
Nabiki blinked. Sometimes Kasumi lived on a completely different planet, she thought. "Is that the letter?" she asked, getting back to the issue at hand. She picked it up and read it, her sharp eyes catching on the word gold near the end of the missive. Hmmm..., she thought. How can I get in on that action? Turning to Kasumi, she said "Let me handle this. I think you're needed here, just making sure the place," and here she glanced first at her father, now drowning in his own waterworks, and then at Akane, test-swinging a new mallet, "doesn't fall apart."
Kasumi readily agreed to her sister's suggestion, and they both carefully gathered up every last piece of straw from where it had exploded out of the letter. Nabiki had realized by now, thanks to all the pokings and scratches, that this was no mere hay, but stiff, breakable straw, with a rougher texture and tencency to split along the grain at the slightest manipulation. "How am I going to turn this stuff into gold thread? she wondered. When it was done and all the straw was in an extra closet, Nabiki carefully wrapped up a few pieces, and decided to head to the Nekohanten to ask Cologne if she knew anything about weird letters that spewed out straw and spinning said straw into gold. Again, as usual.
As she headed out of the front gate, she could hear the call of the bamboo guy in his truck several streets away. He won't get much business today with Mr. Saotome out cold. But, he's been getting too much lately anyway. No one should sell bamboo from the back of a Hummer, or if they are, it should be me. A small smile played around her mouth at that thought. A little farther down and she reached the shopping district, her favorite place. Ah, where money is exchanged at rates even better than what I can manage. Oh, there is the bank. I have to remember to send in my application for summer intern soon.
Walking through the open market, Nabiki smiled at the stall sellers she knew. She might outwardly make a fuss about having to run errands for Kasumi, but inwardly, she loved coming here and haggling over a head of cabbage or a fish for the night's dinner. As she headed towards the restaurants and the Nekohanten, something darted behind a cart, just out of the corner of her line of sight. It was small, like a child or adult crouching. When she saw it again, just at the edge of the market, but deep in the shadows so there was no way to identify it, she began to wonder, Is someone following me? As the rest of her walk was out in the open, there was no chance for her to see it again, but she stored the information in the back of her mind for later reference.
When Nabiki arrived at the Nekohanten, she fished in her pocket for the wrapped bundle of straw. What do I ask her? she thought. Oh well, might as well go for the direct approach. She entered the cafe and looked around. Shampoo was bouncing from customer to customer, serving. Mousse was speaking passionately to a coatrack with a purple ski hat on it, and Cologne was behind the register. Walking up to the old Amazon, Nabiki held out the opened package of straw and asked "You wouldn't have a spinning wheel, would you?"
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(Posted Fri, 11 Apr 2003 05:10)
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