Keiichi felt a strange, ethereal sensation. He couldn't quite express what it felt like, but somehow he knew that Mercury wanted to be released. He summoned her from her ring, wondering what she wanted.
The marid with the snow leopard ears and tail bowed demurely to her new master. "I may have a suggestion concerning Ranma and who might take her place as the genie of Mars..."
"You do?" said Keiichi. "Who would want to become a genie and trade places with Ranma?"
Mercury raised her eyes and said, "Your sister Megumi might."
Keiichi blinked and looked at the pack of cards. "Megumi? Why would she want that?"
"Actually that makes sense," said an intrigued Urd. "I'd be like trading up, in a way."
"How so?" asked Keiichi, still puzzled.
Belldandy piped in with the answer. "A ring genie has much greater leeway than a being summoned out of a clow card. Unless she is specifically sent back into the ring or uses up all her power, she can stay outside almost indefinitely. I'm sure that Megumi would appreciate that very much."
Keiichi scratched his head. "But she would have to trade bodies with Ranma, right? I'm not sure whether she'd want to leave her own body behind like that. And what about Ranma? Wouldn't she be dragged into the card instead of Megumi? That doesn't sound like a good deal for her, so why should she want to swap?"
Belldandy smiled warmly at her wonderful, caring master. He really did care about all the card spirits and ring genies he had accumulated. Another master could simply have ordered the two to swap, and they would have done it. "Yes, Megumi would leave her original body behind, but she can still look like herself, even as a genie. You can mold her appearance to be identical to her old body, similar to what Urd and I did for Ranma, only much easier. As for Ranma being caught..." She looked at Urd.
Urd took up the explanation on cue. "Well... this gets a bit technical, but basically it's like this: The card that you accidentally created is 'Summon Megumi' - that means it's linked to her, not her body. So after the swap Ranma'll be a normal girl with Megumi's old body and no link to the card, while Megumi'll be a ring genie. The card will try to call her back, but those rings are ancient and their magic is very strong - way stronger than an accidental binding in a clow card. So that card will go blank again, Ranma'll have a new body, and Megumi'll be a lot closer to her old life."
Mercury nodded. "That was my reasoning. After that, you can take all the time you need to find someone who truly wishes to be an immortal protector genie and would willingly trade with Megumi."
Keiichi looked at the ring in which Ranma rested, then back at the pack of cards. He shrugged. "Well, I guess we can just ask them."
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(Posted Fri, 11 Oct 2002 19:12)
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