No, he was upset that his family had done this to him. It would have been nice if he'd at least had some sort of say in the matter. But no, once again they went off and made arrangements for him without ever even asking his opinion.
He paused as he saw the woman stop at a phone. He turned to look around for a moment. They were still in Nerima, pretty close to Tofu's old place. Not really paying attention to it, he listened in on the woman's call.
"Hello, Michiru." "I just wished to inform you that I will pick dinner tonight on my way in so you needn't cook." "Yes, and I will need you to set up an extra place." "No, nothing like that." "I can't explain right now." "Yes, I'll answer your questions when I get in." "Yes." "Goodbye."
The woman turned his way and addressed him. "We will need to take the bus to get to our destination."
He nodded tersely, and followed her to the nearby bus stop, hoping they wouldn't have to wait long.
Surprisingly almost as soon as they reached the stop, the bus pulled around the corner. The fact that the woman he was following seemed neither surprised nor hurried by this occurrence was noted as strange, but he dismissed that thought almost as soon as he had it. Very little in his life wasn't strange, and he was convinced that trying to catalog all of the oddities could only lead to trouble.
The bus was empty when they got on. His new employer walked to the rear of the bus, as far away as possible from the driver, and sat down, motioning for Ranma to sit down beside her.
"I'm sure you have questions," she addressed him after he was settled.
"Uh, yeah," Ranma responded. "Who the hell are you?"
"Yes, I suppose our meeting was rather abrupt," she responded. "I suppose I should give you a full explanation then. I am Setsuna Meiou. I and my two roommates are guardians of a young orphaned girl by the name of Hotaru. She has had considerable difficulty making friends at school, and is often in poor health, which has made her a prime target for bullies. My roommates and I have tried various things to correct this situation, but to no avail as yet. Hence I have acquired your services."
Ranma frowned. "How old is this Hotaru?"
"She is just a couple of years younger than you," Setsuna replied.
"Look, if this is some kind of engagement..."
Setsuna raised her hand. "Are you suggesting that I would need to hire someone to be with my daughter? You do not even know her to insult her like that." Her voice carried no anger, but Ranma didn't pick up on that.
"Gak!" Ranma practically choked on his own tongue. "That's not what I meant! I'm just tryin' ta make sure my old man didn't try selling me off or nothing." He mumbled under his breath, "It ain't like I'll see any of that money anyways."
"No, then. You father has not arranged an engagement between you and my daughter. And yes, you will see every yen. I will be paying you directly. We will start by setting up a bank account for you when you receive your first paycheck. And when we set up that account, I will make sure that you are the only one capable of extracting money from it, so your parents cannot take what they did not earn."
Ranma blinked, impressed that she had heard his mumblings. "Oh. Okay, I guess." He really didn't have a clue what he'd do with money like that anyway. "So why pick me? I ain't got no experience teachin'."
"True, but your teaching abilities were not the primary consideration. And you gain experience by doing. Hotaru will simply have to be your first student."
"Yeah, sure. But that still ain't told me why you wanted me?"
Setsuna sighed in frustration and looked eyes with him for a long moment before answering. "There were many reasons, most of which should not be mentioned here and now. The one I will tell you now is that Hotaru is related to a god similar to Saffron, though very distantly. That means you are uniquely qualified to teach her what she needs to know."
That thought sobered Ranma considerably. Someone else like Saffron? And he was supposed to teach her?
As the bus slowed to a stop, Setsuna rose. "Come, we are almost there. We just have to stop to get dinner for everyone."
Ranma nodded and followed her off the bus silently.
See other episodes by Brian Drozd
(Posted Thu, 31 Jul 2003 01:24)
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