Her friends fought monsters.
Thinking back over the week, she had to admit she had been startled by some of their revelations. Her idea of what was feminine had been expanded somewhat.
It began to rain, just a few drops at first before it became a steady mist.
Sitting on a rooftop in the rain, looking out across the streets at the normal people scurrying for shelter, Ranko wondered exactly what was her place in all this.
"It's all the same, yet it is different now, isn't it?"
The soft voice caused Ranko a moment of panic before she realized who it was. "Setsuna-san?"
The woman nodded from under her umbrella, far enough away not to intrude too much. "You'll have to sort out this tangle on your own, everyone has to come to their own terms. I'm just here to provide you someone to talk to, and give what answers I can."
"The others?" Ranko asked.
"Are looking for you, but haven't thought to check rooftops," said Setsuna. "They won't suspect the fourth floor of a department store for a little while at least."
Ranko went silent, her thoughts whirling around each other for a time before she hesitantly spoke again. "They're fighting monsters?"
Setsuna hesitated before speaking, choosing her words carefully. Part of Ranma's current trouble was caused by organic injury, part psychological, part temporal instability that she herself had caused. It was the psychological part that was the tricky one at present. "They do what they can to protect others, because no one else can do the job they can and because they have that ability."
"I could." Ranko's voice was so soft that if Setsuna hadn't known what she would say, it would have been impossible to make out over the constant hiss of the drizzling rain.
"Yes," responded Setsuna. "You could. There's more there, but I'm not sure you're ready for it. So many changes in your life, so many problems to sort out. For what it's worth, I'm truly sorry."
Ranko looked up curiously, trying to remember when anyone had sounded so sincere in their concern for her. Had there been anyone?
The silence returned, and only Setsuna holding out a hand and bringing one finger to her lips indicated that the first of an audience had gathered. Saturn stopped her forward charge and merely stood and waited.
"Who am I?" asked Ranko, her stomach hurting from the emotional turbulance.
"That is a question with no easy answer, and one that each of ultimately decides by ourselves. Others will often seek to define us by other means, to label and categorize us, but there is a core self that we must determine and recognize by ourselves for ourselves." Setsuna twirled her umbrella absent-mindedly. "Great philosophers have debated aspects of that question for millenia, and no single easy answer has come out of it."
"Ah," said Ranko, briefly wishing she could just go find a magic fortune cookie or something that would have the Answer To It All written on it.
"I think our time here is about done," said Setsuna. "You should go home, take a hot bath despite the consequences, change back and get some sleep. You can try tackling eternal questions tomorrow and I'll try to run interference so that you can figure it out."
Ranko sighed and examined a strand of now thoroughly damp hair. She probably looked like a drowned rat, or so she thought to herself.
"Ranma," said Setsuna, deliberately using the correct name. "Don't forget that we're your friends. You have to be true to yourself but we only want to help you."
Saturn nodded and stepped forward, glaive banished for the moment to offer her hand to the martial artist on the rooftop.
Ranko considered it briefly before taking that hand.
The next day:
(Posted Sat, 27 Mar 2004 06:52)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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