Only Ranma and Cologne, of the others, could feel it however, as Nabiki's soul began to match her body. And her aura grew with the changes. She was acquiring a good deal of potential power and, presumably, the spell was teaching her the basics of how to use it.
One thing that comforted them was that she was not yet showing evidence of that darkness of being that implied a being of evil. Cologne considered it silently for a moment and recalled what the children had told her of the dead woman's words.
She nodded at that. If the woman sought out "tame and toothless" demons then she sought out those demons that had stood with mortals. What that meant was that the worse demons, the ones that fed on souls and flesh, might not come about from this plague...unless someone opened the gates of the world to let them back in.
The van pulled to a stop at the shrine and let them off. Nabiki slithered coolly out of the van, blinking her eyes slowly as she exhaled with calm annoyance. She turned toward the cabbie and spoke with a slim smile and sinuous gratitude.
"Thank you for your sssservisssesss," she said languidly. "I believe thissss isss the cosssst of the matter."
The relatively sudden shift from the angry and irritated girl at the outset to this sinister friendliness surprised the cabby. He accepted the money carefully, not taking his eyes off the girl in the "snake costume."
"Thanks," he said hesitantly.
"Don't mention it," she said and then waited for him to drive off. She turned back to the others leisurely and her voice returned to the coolly irritated hiss. "Let'sss take care of thisss."
Much of the look in her eyes by this point was quite alien even to the casual observer. But not necessarily disconcerting. In fact, there was something alluring about those eyes. Staring too long in them almost seemed to pull all thought away.
"Oh dear," Kasumi said fretfully. "I hope she's home."
Her soul had not yet begun on the change that had almost totally overswept Nabiki already. Soon after the next girl was affected, however, that would change.
"SSssshe'd better be home," Nabiki said. "We have to ssstop thisss from affecting Ranma and Akane, and fix you. Sssshe'd better be home."
"What about you?" Cologne asked as they proceeded up the shrine steps.
"Hmmm?" Nabiki asked.
"We need to change you back too," Cologne reminded her sharply. Nabiki blinked for a moment and then frowned deeply.
"Thank you," she hissed.
They knocked on the door and received no immediate answer. Of course, Ranma decided to fix that.
"Hey! You in there!" Ranma called out. "We gotta see this Kagome chick!"
"Ranma, you dolt," Akane groaned. The door cracked open and an old man stepped out to talk to Akane and Ranma, not noticing the others yet.
"I'm sorry," he said. "Kagome is ill at the moment and can't see any visitors."
"Oh, she'll see us," Ranma insisted stepping forward only to be blocked by Akane.
"Please, we have to see her," Akane said. "This is a matter of life and death...sort of."
"I'm sorry," the old man said. "She has a bad case of halitosis and can't have vistors."
"Bad breath or not," Nabiki said. "We need to ssssee her."
"And what is so..." the old man turned toward Nabiki and got an eyeful of the elder two Tendos. "...important?"
He scanned over their bodies and finally came to meet Nabiki's stare, which was were his gaze remained for a long while.
"We must see Kagome," Nabiki said.
"You can't," the old man said, a little dazedly. "She's not here. Back in the past fighting demons."
"When will she be back?" Nabiki asked.
"She's been gone for two days," the man said. "So maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day."
"How do we get to the past?" Nabiki asked.
"Kagome jumps in the Bone-Eater's Well, doesn't work for everyone," the old man said.
"Thank you," Nabiki said, turning away from the old man who quickly shook his head out, dazed. "So what do we do now, go to the past, or wait?"
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Mon, 09 Jun 2003 18:41)
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.