Nabiki was not Keitaro Urashima, who would barely be fazed. She was not Ranma or Ryoga, who would suffer minor injuries from such a thing.
A normal person falling that distance and landing badly was a mess.
One could look at the mess and tell that all the king's horses and all the king's men weren't going to put Nabiki together again.
Cyberdyne, on the other hand, was much better at such things.
"Now, about payment," began Kumiko as the bits and pieces of Nabiki were carefully gathered up.
"I thought I'd already arranged that," said Ranma with a scowl.
"You arranged for your contract with Ifurita," said Kumiko. "I'm talking about the repairs for Nabiki Tendo. She did step off the obvious walkway, over the rail, and for whatever reason decided to take the fall that she did."
"It's going to cost to fix Nabiki?!" Akane exclaimed as if the entire idea was ludicrous.
"Yes," said Kumiko without any visible reaction to Akane's voice reaching the upper registers. "The price depends on how much reconstruction. Ah, we've isolated the usable original parts."
| Subject: Nabiki Tendo | |||
| Age: 17 | Height:5'5" | Weight:130# | Cup: C |
| Blood Type: A+ | Lanitype: HuJaFeVx | ||
| Usable with minor repairs: right arm and hand. Primary cranial region. Right lung. Right femur. Right eye. Right kidney and adrenal gland. | |||
The list continued on much longer.
"Okay," said Ranma. "How much are we looking at?"
"A nearly full cyborg replacement," said Kumiko. "Too many damaged internal systems for anything else. Her rib cage apparently sliced up her intestinal tract."
"Money is no object for my little girl," began Soun.
"Easy for you to say, Daddy. We don't have any money!" said Nabiki's voice.
"NABIKI?!" shrieked Akane.
"We're keeping her brain alive on life support, though we'll have to begin operations soon if we want to have any hope of avoiding further brain damage and resultant memory loss." Kumiko tapped a few keys and an image of what was left of Nabiki's head appeared.
"I've looked better," remarked Nabiki's synthesized voice.
| Subject: Nabiki Tendo | |||
| Simple Prosthetic Body | $35,000 | ||
| Plastic Cyborg Body | $75,000 | ||
| Marionette Cyborg | $145,000 | ||
| Full Marionette Conversion (Basic) | $5,500 | ||
| Full Marionette Conversion (Saber) | $25,000 | ||
| Clone Body | $21,350,000 | ||
| Liquid Metal | $9,000,000 | ||
| Used Chassis | price varies | ||
| Combat Cyberdoll/Steel Angel | $31,000 | ||
"Ah," said Nabiki as a computer model of the two appeared briefly. One showed a Nabiki as she might have been fixed with modern medicine, which would leave her in a wheelchair. The other showed a Nabiki that looked more like a very articulated doll than anything else.
"The Marionette Cyborg option would leave you with a noncombat marionette body merged with the remains of your human body." Kumiko brought up a normal image of Nabiki, except for the odd lines on her left upper arm. "There are problems with this, mainly that your human body may attempt to reject the cyborg parts."
"What's the full marionette and why is it cheaper?" Nabiki asked.
"We discard the physical body," said Kumiko. "Your mind, soul, personality, and memories are transferred to a marionette body we prepare on the spot. Since we have all the proper equipment here and can be prepped within five minutes - it is the cheapest option for us in terms of time and resources."
"You can turn Mercenary Girl into supergirl android?!" asked Shampoo.
"It would be far easier than attempting to do the clone body," admitted Kumiko. "The Saber Marionette merely means combat grade. Uprated strength, speed, reflexes, physical durability. The only drawback is some additional programming we usually insist on to avoid the Rogue Destroyer problems that could crop up later. The Clone body takes about two months to develop and would be nearly indistinguishable from your original body."
"Would she be able to have children?" Kasumi asked, having begun to recover somewhat.
"That would take full Marionette replacement, with an additional $5000 charge for the specialized equipment," replied Kumiko. "The Liquid Metal is not recommended. It would allow you some shapeshifting abilities but a strong enough magnetic field will destabilize the nanobots."
"What about the Used Models?" Nabiki's voice asked.
"Mainly the bodies of Triax and similar nonhuman cyborg stylings meant for people living in really hostile environments. Their previous owners traded them in for Clone bodies or advanced specialized models." Kumiko cycled through a few of them just to give the customers/patient an idea of what to expect.
Soun stared, the thought occurring to him that if this had been available earlier - his wife could have been saved.
"How do I pay for this?" said Nabiki's voice. "I know Daddy doesn't have the money."
Ranma wondered if he should offer to add the tab to Ifurita's purchase.
Akane wondered if Nabiki should go to work for the company in order to pay it off.
Kasumi wondered if these androids could be made in human image, then maybe Nabiki could sell her image to the company in order to pay for her repairs.
Kodachi wondered if she should offer to pay for the Mercenary Girl's cure, and then make the stipulation of Ranma's marriage to herself, perhaps transfer of the Tendo arrangement to herself?
"We'll work on payment arrangements after you've decided what body to go with, we'll need to begin work immediately," said Kumiko.
"In that case," said Soun, realizing he was Head Of House and he needed to act the part. Otherwise it all fell on Kasumi's shoulders. "I choose:"
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sat, 18 Oct 2003 12:47)
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.