In addition, if he failed, he was leaving himself in a fate worse than death. They wouldn't let him leave; they would force him to stay while they got their revenge in the form of abuse and contempt. Plus Nabiki might not survive their initial displeasure.
What he needed was a simple plan. He was good at those. His whole martial arts was based on figuring out what to do for the next minute and a half, maintaining control of the situation while someone else actively tried to derail his plans.
The next day, Ranma managed to get Nabiki alone, by saying the magic words "Let's talk business."
Nabiki snickered, "Your business or mine?"
"I want you to arrange something for me, and I'm willing to pay you to do it, but I need you to promise that no one else will ever know what we discuss, even if you refuse to do it."
Nabiki frowned slightly. "I can't promise that people won't find out from other means, and I don't like keeping secrets that might be dangerous."
"The only person who knows what I wanna talk about is me, and I'm not gonna tell anyone else. I'm willing to tell you only if it stays between the two of us. You know I'm not gonna tell you something dangerous. Besides, how would you feel knowing I've got a secret no one else in the whole world knows, and you passed up on the chance to find out what it is?"
"OK, you have my sworn silence, as long as keeping it doesn't lead to someone being injured, or a crime is committed."
"I guess that'll do. You know I'm probably going to have to marry someone whether I want to or not, eventually."
"That's hardly a secret, Saotome."
"I'm getting to it. It's just complicated. If I'm lucky it'll be someone I can learn to love, or at least like. But I'm never going to have the kind of courtship everyone else takes for granted. Just once, I'd like to go on a normal date, without being forced, or having to deal with fiancees and rivals or the possibility of marriage. You know, two people who like each other getting to spend some time together, and if they wanna, to make out, without it meaning that we gotta marry."
"You'll never pull it off."
"No, but you could, and I'm willing to raise the money for you to arrange it. I'm not asking you to pay someone off to go out with me, or nothing. I just want you to find out discretely if she were willing and arrange it so no one else finds out if we do go out."
"So you have someone in mind. Akane? Or one of the other fiancees?"
"Are you crazy? If I go on a date with one of them, they'd brag about it all over town! Naw. I want someone who wants to spend time with me, not score points off of other girls. Besides the girl I'm thinking of isn't a martial artist, and the other girls would kill her if they found out. I'll try to protect her, of course, but I don't dare risk her if you aren't protecting her by keeping anyone from finding out."
"You're willing to risk all this for the chance of a single date with a girl that isn't a fiancee?"
"You'll understand if you agree to do it, and I tell you who I wanna date. She's worth it. You know I've seen enough gorgeous women naked to know I ain't picking someone based on looks. She's smart, and intelligent, and worthy of respect and on top of that, she's beautiful. She doesn't even know I wanna ask her out. She may say no. But I won't risk it without you running interference."
Nabiki tries to figure out what she'd have to do to keep a Ranma date secret, and how much she should charge. Eventually she names two figures. "The first is for me asking her out for you, and explaining what you plan to do. The second is in addition if she agrees."
Ranma frowns at the amount, "OK, it's a deal. It's gonna take me a while to raise it."
"So tell me, who's the paragon of women that you have your eye on?"
"It's you, of course."
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sun, 22 Aug 2004 22:07)
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.