Akane regain consciences, after her evil-sorceress of a sister bespelled her to take away her perverted, evil fiancee, for only weak girls faint, and she, Akane Tendo, the one true Heir of the Tendo Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu, was not weak! Did she not prove that each day by defeating the evil horde of perverts? That she was the best Martial Artists in the World.
After her moments of disillusion worthy of Kuno, Akane headed off to the ice cream parlor, to lose herself in a Death-By-Chocolate sundae, to forget about the pervert and what's-her-name-her-back-stabbing-must-have-been-adopted-can't-actually-be-related-sister.
It took only a short while for Akane to reach the ice cream parlor. She knew the trip by heart, as well as her father knew the trip to the local bar. She went straight to the counter and ordered her sundae. After tasting it at the counter, to make sure the baka counter person got her order correctly, what was so hard about pure chocolate and nothing but chocolate with every topping with a cherry in the exact center of the sundae. But no, they have to use vanilla ice cream or worse that chocolate frozen custard... You have to watch them all the time.
She took her sundae to a table, and sat down to eat it.
She bent the spoon when she realized that some perverted baka must have eaten some of her sundae, since she had just started it and it was already almost gone! She did pound anyone that even suggested that she had eaten it all that fast! She was not a glutton pervert like Ranma! She went up to the counter, got a new sundae and a new spoon. And the nice counter person even gave her a discount!
A minute later, or two-thirds of the sundae consumed, Akane was joined by her friends, Sayuri and Yuki, joined her at her table.
"Hi, Akane-chan," Yuki greeted her childhood friend.
"Hi," Sayuri added. Although, she too was one of Akane's childhood friends, she and Akane had very little in common, save close geographical location. But for Yuki's sake and old time's sake, she tried to remain friends with Akane, even when she disagreed on many issues with Akane, mostly about boys.
Once seated, both girls noticed how Akane was attacking her sundae and that the spoon was slightly bent already. Yuki, seeing the signs, but letting her curiosity getting the best of her, asked, "What's wrong, Akane-chan?"
Akane sighed and stated, "Ranma and Nabiki are back."
Ignorant, Sayuri stated, "That's good, right?"
Akane and Yuri, for different reasons, looked at Sayuri is she was crazy. Sayuri stated confused, "But you said you were better off without Ranma... that Nabiki could have him."
Seeing that Akane was getting angrier, Yuki, the Peacemaker, quickly said, "How's the sundae, Akane-chan?"
Akane smiled and exclaimed, "It's sooooooo good..."
Then she added, "Too bad it's so small."
Sayuri and Yuki just looked at the six scope ice cream sundae in a bucket, then at their own single scoop sundaes, and shrugged.
Like wild-fire, word that Ranma and Nabiki had returned, together, from their mysterious trip spread throughout Nerima.
Many were the rumors going around on the fact that Nabiki had accompanied Ranma on his training trip. It was not lost on the people of Nerima that it was Nabiki, not Akane, that went. Although, where they went, no one knew. Many thought they had eloped in America, others, that Nabiki had been kidnaped and Ranma went to rescue her, while some thought they had both been kidnaped by super-powerful aliens for human experimentations, or by the Government for a super-powerful genetic experiments to create a super army of Ranma's with Nabiki's cunning.
To most of the people of Nerima, Nabiki Tendo was a wild-card. Everyone knew the kind, caring motherly Kasumi Tendo, who put her own life on hold for the sake of her Family, and everyone knew the stubborn, temperamental tomboy-ish Akane Tendo, who took up the Family Martial Arts Style to save the Family History.
But Nabiki? The average citizen hardly ever saw her. Sure, some of the students of Furinkan Koukou, might tell others that she was mercenary, yet, none could say where such money went. Her clothes and personal items were all second-hand, and practical. No one could ever recall seeing her with something luxurious or flashy.
So the rumors grew with each passing day of Ranma and Nabiki's disappearance. And that they had returned, together...
Muttering could be heard from the Ucchan's upon the spread of rumors.
The mutterings came from Ukyou Kuonji as she went about her day. At first, she did not wish to believe that Ranma had taken Nabiki, of all people, with him, when he went on his training trip. After all, Nabiki was not a martial artist by anyone's imagination. She would be even a greater liability on such a training trip then even Akane would be.
So, after the first day, she had thought that maybe it was just a consequence that Nabiki and Ranma were gone at the same time. That maybe, Nabiki was scouting out colleges or something. After a few days, she thought, maybe, Nabiki had conned her poor, stupid Ran-chan into taking her along, and after awhile, would see that such a City-girl like Nabiki could not cut it, and return. After a week, she began to believe the rumors that, maybe, Nabiki had sold her naive, ignorant Ran-chan to the Government for genetic experiments and was hiding out from her righteous wrath to avenge her abused Ran-chan. After a couple of weeks, she realized that was silly, after all, she and Ran-chan would make a better genetic experiment then Ranma and Nabiki would. And so, maybe, Nabiki had been kidnaped and taken to a far off land, and Ran-chan was doing the noble thing and off to save the girl, whom everyone might have been better off without.
Once the rumors that the Saotome-Tendo engagement had been, once again, switched from Akane to Nabiki. Ukyou became slightly -- only slightly mind you -- worried. Akane was too wrong for her Ran-chan, she could not cook, she did not train, she did not take the Art seriously, she had no disciple, and she was too girly. But Nabiki, sure, she was not a martial artist, unlike Akane, she never claimed to be... Nabiki was intelligent, too clever with her words, and too bossy. She could see Nabiki railroading her Ran-chan into some kind of dark, kinky sexual slavery, twisting her perfect Ran-chan's Honor against him. Making him her boytoy, ties her Ran-chan up naked, and covered with whipped cream...
Ukyou shook her head, and headed to her private bathroom.
For the next several orders after her return, whipped cream was added, free of charge.
The Nekohanten was busy that day. Not that it mattered to Cologne of the Joketsuzoku Amazons. Over a month ago, she felt a disturbance in the Wa of the area. Upon investigating, someone had used a magical device to cross the dimensions. At first, she had thought someone had used it to bring something or someone here, but could not find any trace of such an occurrence. The next logical thought she had, it involved her son-in-law. How such a weak boy caused such damage to the Joketsuzoku Amazons was beyond her. The boy had Talent, she gave him that, but he was a typical male... Such a shame.
Although, the boy's struggles were amusing, but in the end, two thousand years of Joketsuzoku Amazons Tradition and Will, will prevail. Time was on their side, after all.
It was simple to find the predictable Happosai and get him to tell her what had happened. The fool, of course, did not know what he was playing with, but what male ever did. She was surprised that the middle Tendo daughter had willingly joined with the boy in his foolhardiness. She had thought better of her. But these outsiders were a stupid lot, lacking disciple and care for the Future.
Bidding her time, she sought more information on the girl, as she had when she thought the youngest Tendo had a chance of interfering with her plans. Her sources informed her that the middle Tendo girl was a typical city-girl, very materialistic, and very independent. Although, she had a mind, in keeping with an Amazon, she lacked the Will and Drive of one. She spent too much time worrying about the local currency and material stuff.
When she found out that the fools had switched their meaningless engagement from the youngest Tendo to the middle girl, that caused her some worry. It was possible that the middle girl could force the boy to wise up about the useless, self-destroying Honor that the boy held too. Although, after having been with his bumbling father for so long, that scenario was unlikely. Of course, many scenarios she had visioned had been thwarted through highly unlikely occurrences. Although, she would not admit it to anyone, barely to herself, an Honorless, Uncaring Ranma was the stuff of her nightmares and echoed, too closely for her liking, some of the dark legends and stories of her people's past.
Despite her musings, she always kept an ear towards the dining area, she always heard the most interesting gossip that way. And today was no exception. She heard several patrons confirm that it was known that the boy was indeed engaged to the middle girl and, surprisingly, that the boy and middle girl had returned.
She frowned slightly in puzzlement, at no time did she feel any disturbance in the Wa that should have signaled the young couples return. She shrugged, and guessed they had simple goofed up, as to be expected by such foolishness, and returned elsewhere, only now able to cover the distance back to their home.
Options:
| Previous | Index | Next |