No, it was more along the lines of 'How stupid does Shampoo think I am?'
That was because it was quite easy for the Amazon Matriarch to figure out what had happened. Shampoo might be a good fighter, but a master strategist she was not. Neither were any of the other girls apparently, but they had managed to spring a trap on Ranma and her husband. That might have been appreciable, had they not been through trickery so that they could murder her.
Which was dishonorable to say the least. No true Amazon would allow for such a thing to happen, but she lacked proof of what she knew happened. And without such evidence, she couldn't act on Amazon terms, never mind the local courts.
Sure, Ranma had put her in the Amazon equivelant of a legal quagmire. After all, as a boy, Ranma was Shampoo's husband by law. On the other hand, the girl was supposed to be killed for the affront on the day that they met. But that was to be dealt with in a face to face meeting on equal terms. Oh, the tricks she had tried to enforce the wedding were problematic to say the least, but they hadn't stepped over the line exactly.
What these four children had done definately did. There had been no honor in the way that the couple had been murdered. Plus, the husband had been Herb, Prince of the Musk, and while that wasn't as magnificent as it had once been, his forces were still something to be reckoned with.
And to be perfectly honest, she had truely liked Ranma. The girl had a spirit that was full of life, and a talent in the Art that she had not seen in decades. She had been a joy to teach, even if she was a bit of a problem student. That time spent with her had brought much enjoyment to her life.
In any case, she could not allow the murderers to go unfound. If only to properly deal with them. But if it was as she thought, and Shampoo was involved, then she had to make certain that what had to be done was.
Sitting in a field on the farm that he shared with Akari, Ryouga looked at the newspaper article in his hands and fumed. He'd never thought that it would come to this, but it had. He'd just gone back to his life, and tried to ignore the nagging feeling that he'd had, but it had turned out that he should have listened to it.
Ranma was dead, and with her was her husband, Herb. He hadn't had any love for the Musk Prince, but he had manged to come to terms with the redhead. They had managed to talk without coming to blows or anything when he'd come across them in the oddest place.
It had been in a park in Yokohama when he'd caught up with them again. They hadn't parted under good terms when he'd heard that Ranma had chosen to marry Herb rather than any of the girls. He'd thought that the pigtailed girl had been betraying Akane, and he'd acted accordingly. That fight had ended when he'd found that Ranma hadn't wanted to fight, though he'd lost her before he'd managed to figure that much out.
But this meeting had been long enough afterward so that they could talk a bit without fighting. Which turned out to be a major benefit as he began to see how Ranma had changed over the time. Gone were the snide remarks and arrogance, and its place were light hearted teasing and genuine smiles. It had taken him a while to realize that this was not an act, nor was it some sort of trick. What he was seeing was Ranma treating him like a friend.
Heck, he could have even have sworn that she was flirting with him several times. Herb had frowned then, and she had calmed him down with acts that bore the mark of long practice. And that made him see that this was not some elaborate staging, but an actual relationship.
That had been the first of only several times that they had talked, but he'd managed to make his peace with the pigtailed young woman. The other couple had even come over for dinner at his and Akari's home once. It had been a fun evening, and he had been looking fowards to more such times.
But that was not to be and he fully intended to find out why. Because when he did, he would make certain that they got what they deserved.
Tatewakei Kuno sat in his room and meditated. A heinous act had been perpetrated and he fully intended to mete out punishment to those responsible. For someone had murdered the pigtailed girl.
Oh, he had known that she had wed, but that most definately must have been a smokescreen, or something similar. He was certain that she would not have chosen one other than him without a reason, even if she had married a prince. But he thought that he had only to convince her to rid herself of that so-called marriage, and she would rush to be with him.
At the very least, the foul sorcerer was gone, driven away from his presence by the force of the heavens themselves. She was well clear of his dark influence, even if she insisted on retaining the cretin's name. It was a small price to pay for the chance to have her free of that fool's power.
Yet, she had still been taken from him, and in the most permenant way possible. Perhaps it was the foul sorcerer returned to snatch away Kuno's ultimate victory in the only way his impotence allowed him. Or it could be another wishing to deny him and the world her beauty. What he did know was that she was gone to a better place, and that the one who had sent her there was still out and about. Which could not be tolerated.
Why, they could find them not satisfied with robbing him of one of his loves and go after the other. Which would mean that the pure and tidy Akane Tendo was quite possibly in danger. And that he could not allow.
So he swore to his fallen love that he would avenge her and protect Akane while:
(Posted Tue, 15 Jul 2003 02:01)
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