I know I said I'd have nothing new until February,
but I figured I might as well spill a little of what
I've got to tide the fans over until then.

hope you enjoy.

-Rod M.

The Pursuit of Happiness
       Act 3
        Home

     A Preview

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   He was feeling rather satisfied with himself at the
moment. 

   Several months ago, the Jusenkyou Guide did something he
rarely allowed himself to do.  He treated himself.  It was
the 30th anniversery of the time when he started his job as
The Guide.  It was, he thought, an important moment in his
life.  And so he went out and bought himself a Nissan
Pathfinder. 

   And accidentally (and tragically, of course) crashed it
into a spring.

   Considering the amount of money involved in the matter,
he felt that yes indeed it was a GREAT tragedy.  But then, a
funny thing happened.  He'd spied a frog once, leaping
about.  Frogs, in Jusenkyou, led a most alarming life in the
land of a little over a hundred springs (it had once been a
thousand, but there was a mistake done by the China
bureaucrats involving bypasses and road construction crews
which drastically cut down that number).  One moment the
frog would leap into a spring, and a rather baffled goose
would attempt to croak (and a goose trying to croak, the
Guilde could tell you, was a very strange sound indeed) and
in it's panic leap into yet another spring.  After that, it
would emerge as yet another animal, still behaving quite
frog-like, and repeat the pattern. 

   As stated before, he was once observing a frog leap
about, and watched as it dove into the spring where his car
had, technically, drowned.  Nothing came out.  His curiosity
piqued, the Guide strolled over and had a look.  Submerged
and stuck deep within the spring was a Nissan Pathfinder. 
How odd, he thought, did I not have my car towed away
already?  With a scientific experiment in mind, the guide
carefully filled a cup with the water, strolled over to a
passing ant, and let the liquid drop. 

   Several months later, neighboring communities would often
spot the Guide driving with much reckless abandon across the
wilderness of China.  The Amazons in particular were rather
annoyed and bluntly let him know about it, but things
changed when he made them an offer. 

   Several months after that, a large number of Nissan
Pathfinders were blazing their way through the wilds of
China, raising all sorts of hell, scaring the pandas out of
their wits, and making a general nuisance of themselves. 
Nobody dared speak against them, though.  The Amazon elders
didn't take criticism very well, especially when the subject
was their 'relaxation time'.

   The Musk Dynasty was a tad miffed.  They weren't included
in the deal.

   The Mount Phoenix tribe didn't care, but had firmly
decllared that if one of those vehicles ever hit their
territory, they'd turn it into scrap.

   Everyone in general agreed not to tell the government
about it, since nobody liked them anyway.  Thus, the
legendary spring of drowned Nissan Pathfinder, Nissanichuan,
was kept as only that, a legend, carefully guarded by The
Guide and the Joketuzo Amazon tribe.  Anybody else that came
to town wanting a free car was usually chased out by an
angry stampede of pathfinders. 

- - -

   Much like she'd done for more years than the locals could
remember, Cologne was once again at the front of her abode,
sitting in a self-made rocking chair and watching the sun
rise.

   Mornings in the village weren't what they used to be,
lamented Cologne.  The occasoinal buzzing of Pathfinders was
certainly new, but since her fellow elders owned them there
wasn't much to say on the topic. 

   So much for ultra-conservatism.

   She could have, if she wanted to, raised a fuss about the
matter.  However, living in Japan with modern conveniences
had spoiled her a bit.  She knew it did, but Cologne figured
she'd earned it.  Besides, change was the natural order of
things, was it not?  And so, did not her fellow elders earn
the right to their vehicles?

   Cologne sighed.  Mornings still didn't seem right like
this.  It made the place feel quite a bit like Japan,
actually.

-*-

"Hey, just a minute!  Just 'cause I dress like a guy does
_not_ mean-"

"Will you be my date to the prom?" asked Nabiki. 

There was a sudden blast of silence, punctuated by everyone
staring at Nabiki, who had, in Ukyou's opinion, an
alarmingly sincere look on her face.

"You're kidding," said Ukyou weakly.  "Right?"

-*-

Oh-ho!  A knife!  She liked knives.

"Kasumi-neesan!  Chop-chop!" she said merrily, waving the
knife around.

"Oh my, be careful with that!" exclaimed Kasumi.

"Whada I chop first?  Whanna chop!"  Kyoko spied a few
carrots nearby and didn't hesitate.

*chopchopchopchopchop*

"That's... good, Kyoko-chan," said Kasumi.  "But I didn't
need the carrots to be paper thin."

"Oh?  Oopsie!"

-*-

Ranma sighed.  "Girls."

"I just can't understand her sometimes," grumbled Ryouga.

"Get used to it."

The two of them shared a mutual sigh as they passed through
a cloud, startling a flock of birds in flight.

"Know where we're landing?" asked Ryouga.

"Tai Park, I think."

"Oh," said Ryouga.  "Hey, doesn't that place have a lake in
it?"

"Yeah."

Ryouga thought about this.

"At least we'll have a soft landing."

Ranma gave him a questioning look.  "Ever hit water from a
high altitude?"

"Okay, not so soft."

-*-

"Say, has Ukyou been kidnapped yet?" asked Hiroshi.

"Heard that Muhoshin fella did, a while back," replied
Daisuke.

"Really?  Huh."

"All they need now is some more wacky hijinks, probably with
parents involved, and a big life-and-death adventure."

"Yep.  Or maybe some amusing martial arts type competition,
like Martial Arts Bowling, will come to pass and all will
become wrapped up in the wacky hijinks." 

"Think it's gonna happen?" asked Hiroshi.

"Probably."

"Ah, well, the more things change..."

"The more they stay the same."

- ACT 3 COMING... SOON... SORT OF... -