Right now Haruka was an Oceanid - a sea nymph. Michiru was a mermaid.
Either could survive for a time out of the water. Haruka was the most human looking but could only spend fifteen minutes or so out of the water. Michiru could become more humanlike while out of the water, but would have to return to it and mermaid form within a half hour at most.
The two had been wiped clean as far as their memories were concerned. Nearly at the level of newborns as far as that was concerned.
Two tanks were quickly being rigged within the transport ship and a stop at the ocean allowed for a supply of salt water to be attained. Bubblers and other supplies were either constructed or brought out of storage. One of Mongo's races was not all that dissimilar from Uranus' current form, which meant that the engineers were familiar with the requirements of such.
What nobody realized, what nobody had figured out, what no one had really even guessed was that both Senshi had a considerable amount of guilt they had internalized. They were always going off on their own, talking about duty and angst, shooting first and asking questions later, etc. They rationalized such things even when it didn't work out. It was their role, their duty, they felt they had to act a certain way and do the dirty deeds that were deemed necessary that their princess would not.
The guilt, the pain, the angst, their worries and concerns - were all gone. Wiped clean.
Which had the effect on some level of their psyche of further suppressing their memories. Without the weight of duty forcing them on, they shied away from the pain that on that level they realized that remembering would bring them.
The Nymph smiled a delighted child's smile as she did a quick aquabatic flip in her tank and then came to rest her hands against the glass. She liked boys. She liked girls too. Such pretty girls and boys. What a pity they couldn't play with her. OH! That nice boy with the funny hair had just put a floaty round thingie in the water. A toy! She liked toys. A round... ball? Ball! She liked that. Funny hair boy must be a nice boy! Maybe if she got him in her tank they could play!
The Mermaid smiled at the people looking at her and making odd noises in the air. She stuck her head up so she could listen properly. The noises sounded familiar but it seemed to make her sad to try and figure the noises out so she wouldn't do that. Oh look one of them had brought her a thingie! It was a nice curved thingie with strings that looked kind of familiar. A... a... harp! That was it! It was a harp! Oh! Nice boy who had given that nymph a ball was putting the harp in her tank! Mermaid was tempted to pull the boy into her tank so she could hug him and thank him, but he didn't seem to want to touch the water. How strange!
The transmissions had been voice only so far, and so the transport ship had been the first chance the Senshi had seen the Emperor.
The Captain Harlock costume was a little odd and would have been ludicrous on Umino. It might have worked pretty well on Mamoru Chiba, especially in the eyes of one Usagi Tsukino. On Ranma, particularly after his recent set of workouts in variable gravity?
Minako choked on her own drool (which was better than choking on someone else's but still pretty embarassing) and wondering if her friends would mind if she broke their legs just to keep them away. Not realizing YET that by being too forward she'd likely scare him away.
Makoto had been eyeing a number of Marines and soldiers, almost all of whom were fairly trim and fit. Upon seeing the Emperor she'd mainly forgotten about them. Cookies. She needed to make cookies.
Ami scanned the Emperor with her Mercury computer. Pictures hadn't done him justice. Gee. Maybe he could help her with her medical studies?
Hotaru somehow managed to get between the Inners and her Emperor. It wasn't that the look in several sets of eyes were concerning her. No, not at all. Never crossed her mind.
The looks on Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama's faces were kind of scary though.
Rei wondered about this Emperor. Could they trust him? Would he be a danger to the future? Maybe he could help her with her planned career as a seiyuu and singer?
The Emperor had discussed things with Pluto and made a couple of suggestions. When Akane had been hit with that memory blocking shampoo trick, something familiar had broken her out of it. So he'd ordered a nice ball made with race car designs and a harp (he understood that the blonde liked cars and the mermaid liked music) and so he'd figured that sort of thing would help 'em break through this blocked memory thing.
Now, of course, they had to figure out how to fight something made of seawater.
After some discussion (and Ranma wondering what he'd done wrong that had those girls staring at him) it was decided to try:
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(Posted Sun, 03 Aug 2003 13:35)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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