Continued from part 21
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RANKO 1/2
Part 22
"I have realized something"
Akane is sitting motionless on a stool in Nabiki's room. Her eyes
are wide, her fingers splayed in shock.
Nabiki: You heard me correctly - I said: seduce Ranma!
Akane shakes her head violently.
Akane: No... No way.
Nabiki: Listen. It makes perfect sense. I told you that we
should try to awaken Ranko's suppressed personality
aspects, right? Obviously her female aspects will be
harder to suppress, since she is really a girl. So if
you tried to seduce Ranma, his female side would *have*
to rebel. Thereby we can force him to remember both his
sides and restore his memory.
Akane looks still sceptical and reluctant.
Nabiki: Look, you don't even have to carry through. Just look
for signs of mental stress and concentrate on that.
Still not wholly convinced, Akane slowly nods.
Akane: You're completely crazy... but OK, I'll do it.
Nabiki: So you *will* seduce him?
Souun, who was walking along the hall, hears the last sentence and
stops dead in his tracks. He drops to his knees and scrambles to
look through the keyhole.
Akane: But how do I *do* it?
Nabiki: Akane, I'm just one year older than you...
Akane: [interjects] One and a half.
Nabiki: ... and I have to *tell* you? You who had half of the
school running after you?
Akane: Pah! Those jerks were just after me because of the
challenge. And anyway, none of them was good enough to
beat me.
Nabiki: You never fail to amaze me, sis. Did it never occur to
you that you could just have *lost* to one of them?
Akane: [puzzled] But they weren't good enough to win.
Nabiki: Never mind. I have something for you, when you put the
move on Ranma...
She walks over to the wardrobe and rummages through it. When she
emerges again, she is carrying a red dress - or rather a Rrrred
Drrressss! It's a strapless one-piece that bottoms out in a very
short mini-skirt.
Akane: Oh god, I can't wear that. It's skin tight; I'll look
like a sausage!
Nabiki: Yes, but a sexy sausage. One that makes men want to take
a bite. Trust me, the way to a man's heart may lead
through his stomach, but there's a short-cut through his
eyes.
Akane holds the dress against herself to try it out, and blushes
almost as red as the cloth.
Souun is bounding down the stairs and skidding into the living
room.
Souun: Genma! Our dreams come true!
Genma: Kasumi and Ranko are cooking dinner again?
Souun: Akane is going for Ranma!
Genma jumps up. The two old men join hands and begin to dance in
a circle.
Souun: I overheard that she is out to seduce him.
Genma: No doubt, because of his new manliness.
Souun: Waaah! Our children will finally marry.
Ranma is coming in through the front door and is immediately set
upon by the two fathers.
Genma: Son. We have important things to talk about. We have to
prepare you.
Ranma: Prepare me? For what?
Souun: For the most joyous experience in a young man's life.
Ranma: Moving out?
Genma: [smacks him over the head] Girls, Dummy!
Ranma: Oh no! You're not sending me on another date with Akane!
The last time, I got splashed with hot tea and we had to
hurry home... to... uh, change my shirt. Besides - she
doesn't like me that well. Whenever I'm with her, she
seems so... distant. Like she doesn't really see me as a
boy.
Souun: She's shy.
Genma: Listen, son, when she mmmblft...
Ranma's hand, clapped about his mouth, silences Genma in
mid-sentence. Ranma slowly edges past him, his eyes fixed on the
stairs. Akane stands at the foot of the stairs. She is wearing
the Dress and smiling at him.
Akane: Oh, Ranma! Would you come up and help me with this dress?
I want to make sure how it looks on me.
She pronounces "on" with a certain tone of voice, implying that
"off" is definitely an option. Like a robot operated by
remote-control, Ranma walks up to her. Hidden at the top of the
stairs, Nabiki gives Akane a thumbs-up sign.
Nabiki: [whispers] Perfect! [thinks] That last-minute coaching
really did the job.
She rushes back to her room, before the two teenagers come up and
enter the door marked "Akane".
In Akane's room, Akane sits down on her bed and crosses her legs.
She flutters her eyelids in a totally overplayed gesture, but
Ranma is incoherent already, anyway. He fidgets with his fingers,
pulls up the chair and, after three unsuccessful tries, sits in
it.
Akane: [thinks] Those must be the signs of mental stress, that
Nabiki talked about. I'm on the right track. [out loud]
Well, Ranma. How *nice* to have you here in my room alone
with me.
A flash interrupts her train of thought. Outside the window hangs
Souun, upside down, with a camera in his hands. Akane walks over,
shifts open the window and stares at him.
Souun: Just taking a little photo for the memory of this
wonderful day, heh heh heh...
Akane takes the camera from him and places a *heavy* dumbbell in
his hands. Immediately his arms are pulled down. A second later,
Genma, who was holding him up by his feet, is pulled from the
roof after him. Akane closes the window again. From outside
comes a metallic <CLANGG!>, that signals the fathers' landing.
Akane: Where was I?
Ranma: You um... err, ah, you were... uh...
Akane: Ah, yes, I wanted to tell you how long I've waited for a
chance to have you all to myself for a moment...
Kunou: [entering by the door] Saotome Ranma! How dare you
accost Akane in her own room! I came to offer her these
roses, and I find *you*!
Akane: Oh, Kunou-*sempai*! How nice of you to visit. Say, I'm
sure I heard something outside. I'm *so* scared - could
you look out the window, what it is? [ushers him over and
opens the window]
Kunou: Fear not, my beloved Akane! I will make sure that you are
undisturbed. [he leans out of the window] Ah, there are
two men lying down there. It seems, that one of them is
your esteemed father.
Akane: Are you sure? Lean out a bit more and look closer.
Kunou: [complies] Yes. It is indeed your father, I am
completely suooooaaaaahhh!
<CLANGG>
Akane: [looking after him] Right onto the dumbbell. [turns
around on her heel] Right! As I was *saying*, how nice
that we are here together all alo...
Souun: [peeking over the windowsill] What? Are you still not
any further?
Genma: [bursting in through the door] Do we have to help you
with everything?
Souun scrambles in through the window. Both fathers push their
respective children together.
Souun: Now, come on, ha ha ha!
Genma: Don't be shy, Ranma! Kiss her.
Suddenly Ranma breaks out.
Ranma: No!
Akane: [thinks] That's it! His female side is rebelling against
the situation.
Ranma: You interfering old geezers! You have no business here.
He grabs them and boots them out of the open window, towards the
horizon. He then turns to look at Akane.
Akane: [thinks] Has he regained his memory?
Ranma: Akane. I am sorry that I let it come this far.
Akane: [thinks] Yes!
Ranma: I have realized something, just now.
Akane: [thinks] Yes!
Ranma: If I am ever going to do it, it should be of my own free
will - not because I am pushed by our fathers.
Akane: [thinks] Huh?!?
Ranma: Finally I can say it without shame... This is what *I*
want.
Akane's eyes bug out, as Ranma sweeps her up in his arms, looks
her into the eyes and plants a deep, passionate kiss on her lips.
-- End of Part 22
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Concluded in part 23
Heh heh, good enough, Kun-chan?
Sebastian
--
<http://enterprise.mathematik.uni-essen.de/~bastian/>
Comics reviewed
--
PL/1, "the fatal disease", belongs more to the problem set than to
the solution set.
- E W Dijkstra