"How come," Ranma asked, "you have a fallout with your parents?"
"No," she replied as her expression shifted from cheer to remembered pain. "They were in an accident. I've been by myself since."
"Oh. Sorry to bring it up."
"That's okay, I've learned to live with it," she replied, her face assuming a more neutral look as she visibly forced the memories away by concentrating on the handsome youth before her. "You said that you ditched your father. How come? And what about your mother?"
Ranma's own expression shifted to slight anger at the first question, only to change to confusion and then uncertainty after the second. "I don't remember ever really having a mom. It's always just been me and pops together on the road. I suppose she's dead or something."
"So you and your father traveled a lot?"
"Yeah. He took me all over Japan and China training me in the family art. Then he had ta go and do something extra stupid in China's mountains, so now I'm not going anywhere with him again."
"What happened in China?" the tall brunette asked, eyeing his lightly muscular form and idly wondering at his martial skill.
Ranma froze up, his thawing expression quickly becoming guarded once more. "Nothing you need to know about."
Makoto backed away in shock at the pigtailed boy's sudden change in demeanor. Shock quickly warred with anger over the sharp rebuttal, before giving way to sympathy. He'd obviously had a really bad experience in China; so bad that he was willing to leave his father over it. Did this have something to do with his earlier reaction to the rain? "Sorry if I raised a touchy subject," she apologised. "I was just curious over why you left your father."
In the face of Makoto's look of hurt and her obviously sincere regret for asking the question, Ranma forcibly relaxed himself and offered an apology of his own before turning back to finishing the remainder of his soup.
The two sat there in silence for several minutes as Ranma finished his soup and the rainshower came to an end. After the shopkeeper had retreived his empty bowl and Ranma set to retreiving his backpack from where he'd dropped it beside his chair, Makoto blurted out, "So, um, what will you be doing now that you're on your own?"
Securing his pack, Ranma replied, "Well, I met a priest at the town where I ditched pops. He gave me some ideas on a few places to stop. One of them is nearby. I figure I'll camp out in the park for a day or two. If things don't work out here I'll try the next place on the list." Checking the clock on the wall he then grunted in annoyance, "Look, it's been nice talking to ya and all, but I gotta run if I want to make it there before they close for the night or something."
So saying, Ranma passed her and took off through the door at a fast jog. By the time Makoto could exit the shop he was already halfway down the street and speeding up.
__________________________
SEVERAL MINUTES EARLIER
_________________________
Booted feet splashed through newformed puddles as three fuku clad soldiers of love and justice sprinted through the pouring rain. They'd been in motion for less than a minute and yet had covered nearly half the district when the sinister green dot superimposed on the blue clad girl's visor simply winked out. "Hmm?" she exclaimed, slowing in bewilderment at the sudden end to the signal without first engaging the source in a flashy and very public battle. Seeing that her companions were now pulling ahead of her she shouted out, "Sailor Moon! Sailor Venus! Wait! The signal is gone."
Two blonde magical girls came to an abrupt halt. One, hair done up in odangos, failed to fall over only because her random flailings brought her into contact with a lamppost she'd been passing, slingshotting her back in the direction she'd come from.
"Huh?" the dumpling haired girl announced, trying to pull wet hair from her eyes while fighting extreme dizziness.
"Gone?" said the other from her position several yards further down the road. "Gone where?"
"I don't know," said the blue skirted Sailor Mercury. "The signal disappeared just as quickly as it appeared in the first place. We weren't close enough to get any clear readings."
"Well, can we find out where it was and track it from there?"
A few moments studying the readouts on her visor provided Mercury with an answer. Shaking her head she replied,"No. We were too far away to accurately triangulate it's position. I couldn't do more than narrow it down to a three kilometer area before it disappeared."
"Damn! I hate it when they get away," Venus exclaimed. "Everyone knows that 'unwatched crooks ALWAYS boil over'."
After a moment's confused thought Mercury replied, "I think you mean 'a watched pot never boils', but I'm not certain how that would apply. Unfortunately, without more information we'll never find the creature that gave off the reading."
"Ohh, I know! I know!" exclaimed Sailor Moon. "We just have to look for the wrecked buildings and running people. Then we'll know where it was. Once we know that Mercury'll be able to track it!"
Looking at each other past their effervescent leader, the other two senshi shared a look of surprise over the exceedingly good idea which Sailor Moon had come up with. Nodding in agreement, the three were again running towards the general area that the signal had come from as the last drops of rain fell from the sky.
(Posted Tue, 30 Sep 2003 03:41)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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