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Ranma 1/2 "The Nature of the Curse"
Hard Battle Story by Douglas MacDougall <dougmacd@thecia.net>
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Ranma 1/2 (c) Rumiko Takahashi / Shogakukan * Kitty Film * Fuji TV.
Exclusively licensed throughout the United States and Canada by Viz
Communications, Inc. This fan fiction is for private home use only;
it may be freely redistributed, but not altered or used for profit.
Not Rated. Parental Guidance Suggested.
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Part 4 Soap Gets in Your Curse
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Ranma woke with a start. What time was it? She glanced out the window
and saw the light of early morning. Shit, she'd fallen asleep! Then she felt
a horrible sensation, as if her intestines had disappeared, and her lungs fell
into the gaping hole left by their absence. It was like falling and losing
one's breath at the same time. It was a sinking feeling she had only felt a
few times before.
There was a test today. And she hadn't studied at all!
She scrambled out of bed, changed her clothes, and grabbed her notes out
of her unopened schoolbag. What the hell was she thinking last night? No
time for that, she had to study like crazy!
She started to open her book of crude notes, but realized that she
wouldn't have any time to study, what with sparring and the long walk to
school. However, if she ran all the way there, maybe the guys would be able
to help her out. They certainly had better notes then hers. Making a quick
decision, she shoved the notes back in her pack, and went downstairs.
"Hey, Kasumi, can I have something to go? I need to get to school right
away." Ranma was bobbing on the balls of her feet, pulling the bag over her
shoulders.
Kasumi answered from the kitchen. "I'm cooking some rice and miso soup
now. Fortunately the gas line was fixed last night." Kasumi pushed the
hanging cloth away from the doorway and poked her head out. "It should be
ready in about fifteen minutes."
Ranma thought about it, but she really didn't have time to wait. She
dashed into the kitchen, avoiding Kasumi and grabbing some pickles out of the
fridge. Popping them in her mouth she said, "This'll have ta do."
Swallowing, she added, "Gotta get to school!" and dashed back out.
Kasumi blinked, and looked outside in the backyard, where Genma was
stretching. "But...?"
"Ranma?" Akane stepped down the stairs in her school uniform.
"Gotta go, Akane!"
"Why are you leaving so soon?"
Ranma didn't answer as she picked up her shoes and ran out the door.
Kasumi came back out of the kitchen and yelled, "Don't you want any hot
water, Ranma?"
Ranma either didn't hear or didn't care as she ran out the door.
Akane yelled out, "I'm coming with you!", and ran back upstairs to get
her bag and then chased after Ranma.
Kasumi glanced outside at the two teenagers, face painted with worry.
"But you forget your bentos..."
Akane was used to morning jogs, and had no problem punching up the speed
and catching up with Ranma. The redhead was running along the fence again
(old habits die hard, she thought), with her arms held straight out for
balance. For a second Akane was reminded of a little kid playing airplane.
Akane doubted Ranma would appreciate the comparison.
"Ranma, what's the rush?" panted Akane.
Ranma didn't look back, "I forgot to study for the test!"
"What?"
"I must've fallen asleep last night. I gotta bum some notes offa
someone!"
"You could have looked at mine!"
Ranma's run reduced to a jog, and then a trot. She turned around and
faced Akane. Akane glanced at Ranma's feet, but even walking backwards, she
seemed to be sure-footed on the fence top.
"What? You never let me look at your notes!"
"Well, it IS kinda my fault..."
Ranma scratched her head and glanced behind her, to see where she was
going. "How do ya figure?"
"I... let you sleep in, after... You know."
"Huh?" Ranma had been in a constant state of panic since the moment she
had woken up. The fear of not having studied for an important test had pretty
much driven out all other thoughts. Now she paused to remember just why she
HAD gone to bed early. She was sure she recalled talking to Akane about
studying for the test together.
Akane looked nervous. "Why didn't you change back into a guy this
morning?"
Then she remembered, freezing like a bunny caught in the headlights of an
oncoming car. "Oh, god...!" Tripping, she fell backwards and just barely
managed to cling to the fence before tumbling into the canal. Not that it
would matter much in her current state.
"I want to know what you're thinking, Ranma."
"No WAY!" Ranma scrambled up the fence and started running along it
with a redoubled pace. She tried to forget the scene last night but it kept
replaying in her head. She was sure Akane hadn't said anything at the time,
but Ranma could hear her boy-type voice mocking, "And I'm better built, to
boot!"
Akane was struggling to keep up. "I'm sorry!"
"Huh?" Ranma stopped running and came to a complete halt. He turned
around to look down at Akane, who was rubbing her watery eyes. Ranma grunted.
Must've gotten dirt in them again.
"It's... I just... Nabiki said that sometimes that it just happens.
She thinks it might have been been the robe rubbing against..." Akane
blushed. She sure as hell wasn't going to forward the post-nap 'morning-wood'
theory. Or mention ANYTHING about her dream.
She almost wished Nabiki hadn't been so candid in her talk about what
could... arouse a guy. Which was just about anything. If they were excited
they got aroused. If they SLEPT they got aroused. She didn't want to think
about it. She certainly didn't want to think about how she might have to
learn to deal with the problem herself.
"Anyway, it's not like I'm really a guy. I would never think things like
that about a girl!" Some of her normal anger returned to her voice.
"So, you think I'm a girl?" Ranma's expression was completely neutral.
Akane was startled by Ranma's words. "No! Of course not. It's... It's
just that, yesterday, you were acting... weird. You kept changing back into a
girl, even when you didn't have to. You hate being a girl."
Ranma was silent, troubled by her thoughts.
"Ranma, I want to know what's going on. What are you thinking? Is
something wrong?"
Ranma looked like she wanted to answer, but grimanced and said, "I ain't
gonna talk about it." She started running towards the school again, ignoring
Akane's occasional shouts. There was no way she was going to tell Akane.
Sometimes she thought maybe she did lo-- Her mind steered away from the
thought. She DID like Akane. A lot. But last night when she had been in her
normal boy-type body, she had been watching boy-type Akane sleeping. Akane's
strength was only more apparent in her cursed form. She had been looking at
his body and muscles, and wondering how they compared against his own.
She didn't know what to think when she realised that she liked what she
saw. They were both guys. Guys don't think that way about other guys. So
after she woke up Akane, she'd splashed herself with a bucket of cold water
her old man had left in their room.
She had hoped it would snap her out of it before she had any more
disgusting thoughts. At the very least she wouldn't have to feel the evidence
of her body's reaction to those thoughts. It was easier to ignore the
sensations of her girl-type body, since they didn't really make sense to her,
anyway.
But after she had heard Akane yell... It only got worse when she had run
in on him. When she saw him there... responding to her, she just couldn't
take it. What had she been thinking, anyway?
She remembered her words when she poured the cold water on her head:
"Better to be a girl then a guy, and think this way about another guy." Only
she hadn't considered the meaning of those words. If a girl thought that way
about a guy, it wasn't perverted. But somehow she never made the connection
that SHE would be the girl having those thoughts. And for a moment, when she
walked in on Akane, all the weird signals coming from her body made perfect
sense. She was a girl getting excited looked at a naked guy.
She knew she could barely be considered a "man among men", but after last
night... Worse still, she couldn't believe that Akane had responded to her at
all. If she had lost some of her masculinity, maybe Akane had gotten it. Or
maybe Akane given up some femininity to her. Neither scenario was very
comforting
Pulling herself out of her depressed thoughts, Ranma glanced back to see
Akane struggling to keep up with her. Trying her best. The sight somehow
warmed her heart, and the dark emotions drained from Ranma's face as she let
Akane catch up.
Eventually Akane started walking alongside her, down on the sidewalk, but
neither of them talked then rest of the way to school. They arrived a full
hour earlier then usual, which Ranma hoped was enough time to study for the
test. At this time of day, there were plenty of nerds hanging out that could
help him.
"YOU!!!" Ranma wasn't sure she had ever heard Akane as angry as she was
when she suddenly growled the word.
Glancing next to her, she saw Akane staring at a tall boy with fair-
colored hair and glasses. Akane barked louder, attracting the boy's and other
students' attention. "You did this to me!!"
"Re-- Akane?" Ranma noticed that the boy's arm was in a sling, and
there were red marks all over his body. Furthermore, as he backed away, he
appeared to be limping. This was the idiot that had cursed Akane? Ranma
hadn't gotten a good look before Akane punted him, yesterday.
Akane stormed up and grabbed Akira by the collar. He had looked around
for an escape while she had approached, but made no move to actually get
away. "You did this to me. You CURSED me becuase you thought I was your
stupid friend!"
The boy was dismayed that the smaller girl was now holding him up in the
air over her head. He had over twenty centimeters of hight on her, and
probably 50 kilograms. The boy stuttered, "It was an honest mistake! It
won't happen again! I swear!"
"Again!?" She cracked her knuckles. "You've ruined my LIFE because of
your mistake that will 'never happen again'!" She now held him up with just
her left hand. The right coiled back...
"Your life?" he squeaked.
"You have no idea how much you've screwed everything up!" She made sure
not to look at Ranma as blinked away blurriness from her eyes.
"But it'll wash away!"
"You think that helps! I'll just change into a stupid BOY again the next
time I get splashed with cold water!!"
"It's only temporary!!"
"..."
"..."
"What?"
"It's called Instant Nannichuan. It only changes you once!"
"R- Really?" Akane dared to hope.
"Yes! I swear!" Akane still held his collar, but now Akira's feet could
touch the ground. He fumbled through his batered bookbag and pulled out a
handful of packets, including Instant Spring of Drowned Boy power, and several
instant animal powders.
Akane was so relieved that she released him.
He started to catch his breath, when Ranma took her turn. Akira started
babbling when the even smaller girl hefted him off the ground. "Don't you
have any of the REAL Spring of Drowned Man water?"
"Wh- What? No!"
Akane suddenly yelped, and Ranma noticed that her finacee was now dripping
wet. And pretty ticked off.
"Nabiki!"
"How sad!" Nabiki held the back of her hand to her forehead, and spoke
over-dramatically, "I shall never be able to gaze upon my baby sister's
rippling muscles again!" And then she flung the remaining water at Akira.
Akira had been staring at Nabiki, and recoiled with surprise as the water
sprayed him. After blinking a few times, he asked, "Um... Wh- Why did you do
that...?"
"Just testing a theory." And with that, she turned around and sauntered
into school, carying the empty bucket slung over her shoulder. The heat of
Akane's anger started to evaporate the water on her clothes.
Ranma reluctantly put Akira down. He clumsily unbuttoned the wet coat
of his school uniform, and started to take it off, gingerly pulling the
sleeve over the arm in a sling. "Look, I'm terribly TERRIBLY sorry about all
this. It was really just a huge misunderstanding." He repeatedly bowed at
Akane and Ranma.
"So why don't you have any real Spring of Drowned Man water?" Ranma
blurted.
Akane belatedly realised what Nabiki had done. It always worried her when
she considered how many steps Nabiki was thinking ahead of everyone else.
Escpecially when combined with her... unique attitudes.
"Yeah, YOU'RE not cursed, so Drowned Man water should be harmless to you.
And it could help so many people who ARE cursed." Akane licked her lips.
"Unless..." Akane voiced a worry she had held for a long time. She tried not
to look at Ranma when she asked, "The curses don't... mix, do they?"
The blood drained from Ranma's face.
Akane continued, "We know this guy. Taro. He turns into a... flying
minotaur when he gets wet. But when he jumped in the Spring of Drowned
Octopus, he didn't turn into an octupus. Now he has tentacles that can spray
ink."
"There's no cure?" murmured Ranma.
Akira looked between the two of them. "No, no, it's nothing like that;
the curses don't mix."
That didn't explain Taro. "But--"
"Then what's so dangerous about the real Nannichuan!?!" yelled Ranma.
"Well, I mean, it... curses you." He shrugged lamely.
"But it would cure a girl-curse, right?" asked Ranma.
"Well, yes..."
Akira appeared reluctant to talk about the subject, but Ranma was not.
"Look, do you actually KNOW anything about this curses, or did you just buy
a box of those things?" He pointed at the Instant Nannichuan packets.
He straightened his posture. "I know more about Jyusenkyo then anybody
else," he claimed proudly. Then his normal posture returned. "Well, except
for Pii-Chu."
Ranma didn't know who this Peach person was, but the credentials sounded
good enough for her. She started to open her mouth when the bell on the clock
tower chimed seven o'clock. If she didn't start to study soon, she'd fail the
test for sure. But this guy seemed to know about Jusenkyo; she didn't want
him to get away.
"Hey, meet me at lunch, okay?"
Akira was visibly nervous, but answered, "Uh... okay..." He looked at
Akane. "Will you be there, too?"
"I guess..." She looked at the boy warily. She couldn't identify the
intense look in his eyes, but she wasn't sure she liked it. She realised
that even if he HAD been trying to help his friend when he had mistakenly
splashed Akane, it didn't mean that he WASN'T a pervert. But Ranma would be
there, so it should be okay.
She mentally punched herself. She could protect herself; she didn't need
Ranma's help.
"Okay then. I'd... I'd really like to make up for what I did to you..."
"Don't worry about it," she waved at the boy, trying to sound more
forgiving then she felt. Following Ranma into the school she couldn't help
but fume at how long she had been stuck as a boy. Their fathers had spent
hours getting her 'accustomed' to a body she would never have again.
She couldn't wait til she got home. She'd show them just how accustomed
she was to fighting in her OWN body.
* * * * * *
"Sooo... hungry..."
"Geez, Ranma, it's your own fault for rushing out the door without
breakfast. Or letting Kasumi give you your lunch."
Ranma just frowned.
"And you could have gotten hot water, too."
"I was in a rush, okay?"
"Well if you hadn't been so much in a rush, you wouldn't have had to
make such a big commotion during gym."
"What? You think I'm gonna change with the guys when I'm a girl?!" God,
it's bad enough having them lear at me when I have clothes ON!
"And it's better getting hot water on the GIRL'S side?"
"I just used the sink. I didn't go near the lockers..."
"You just wanted to peep. You're no better then Haposai!"
"Hey!"
Before the argument could escalate any further, Ukyo walked over. "Hi,
Ran-chan! Hi, Akane."
Ranma visibly brightened at the approach of his 'cute' finacee, and
bounced over to her, massaging her shoulders. "Hey, you got any food?" he
asked innocently.
"For you, Ran-chan, anytime!" She turned her head and winked at him.
Akane suppressed a twitch in her forearm.
"Great, let's eat outside!" Ranma started bounding away, with Ukyo at his
heels.
"Hey! I didn't say you could stop massaging me!"
Akane moodily stalked after them. "stupid jerk will do anything for food.
just like his father. doesn't appreciate it when i make him home-cooked
meals..." The rest of her words became unintelligble mutters.
When she walked outside, Ukyo already had her portable grill out and was
making okonomiaki for Ranma and other students, earning some money during the
lunch hour. Akane also noticed Akira next to the grill looking high and low
for something. Herself and Ranma, she realised, but he didn't recognize
Ranma in his boy-type body.
Akira saw her approach the grill, and smiled. "Hello, Akane."
"Hi, Akira." That was the first time he had addressed her by her name
instead of confusing her with his friend Rei.
Ranma wolfed down more okonomiaki.
Akira asked, "Are you hungry? C- Can I buy some okonomiaki for you?"
Akane was about to decline, when her stomach chose that moment to make
sounds of protest. "I guess I did forget to bring my lunch..."
He started to pull out his wallet. "Can I get two pork okonomiaki? With
double meat?" He looked at Akane. "And what do you want?"
"Um. A shrimp, please. But you don't have to pay for my food, really."
Ranma continued to wolf down okanomiaki, eyeing Akira distrustfully.
"Oh, it's the least I can do after what I put you through yeserday. I
insist!"
"Two specials and a shrimp, coming up!" In less then thirty seconds
Ukyo had cooked and seasoned the 'yaki to perfection. "On the house for
the new man and his lady friend." She winked at Akira, who studied the
ground, hiding the reaction on his face.
She handed the three 'yaki to Akira on a single paper plate, which
elicited a glare from Akane. After some fumbling around and apologizing,
Ukyo saw the tomboy slide off her 'yaki onto another plate.
She smiled as she filled more orders. It couldn't hurt to encourage this
guy to hang out with Akane. He seemed to like her, and it would remove her
influence from Ranma. He was just confused of his true feelings becuase she
was always near him. Hopefully this new guy'd do a better job then that idiot
Ryoga.
Ranma finished his okonamiaki and suddenly spoke up, startling Akira.
So, you said you'd talk to me at lunch about Jusenkyo curses."
Akira blinked at the pig-tailed boy he had never seen before..
"You're...?" He held out a hand, palm down, at below the height of his
chest. "Her?"
Ranma frowned. "Yeah. That's me."
"Wow." The boy grinned, "You sure get small."
Ranma frowned some more. He wasn't very happy with his girl-type height.
He was the shortest girl he knew, except for mini-Hinako. And Cologne. His
mind steered away from that thought. Cologne was definitely NOT a girl.
Another part of his brain kicked the first part. HE wasn't a girl, either!
The guy seemed to pick up and his mood and laughed nervously. "Well, you
get small, but you also get big." He bigsweated. "Uh, I mean..."
Ranma's frown became a scowl.
"Uh... Uh... If you would like to take a seat...?" Akira guestured to a
bench with the arm that wasn't in a sling. He was now visibly sweating all
over.
Ranma found himself starting to frown again. If the weirdos didn't fall
for Akane, they invariably fell for his girl-side. And the way this guy was
acting...
He'd have to keep an eye on Akira. Nerima was full of perverts.
"So, about the curses...?" He and Akane sat on one side of a bench,
with Akira on the other. Ukyo's grill was set up at the end of the table,
where she could serve students, but still hear the conversation.
"Well, what questions can I answer for you?"
"The Nannichuan. What's the deal with it? Will it cure me or won't it?"
"Well, yes. It would change your curse so you turn into a boy instead of
a girl." He stratched his chin. "Effectively, you'd stay yourself."
"So I don't hafta worry about turning into some sort of half-boy half-
girl, right?"
"No. You have nothing to worry about." Akira sweated, and adjusted his
collar.
Ranma frowned at Akira's nervousness. "Are you okay?"
"What? I'm fine." He smiled a little uneasily
"What happened to you anyway?" He waved his finger at the sling and some
of the red marks.
"Ah..." He glanced at Akane, and then alternated between looking at
Ranma or the table. "After I... That is, after Akane kicked me yesterday, I
crashed into the canal." He unconsciously cradled his arm.
Ranma blinked. That HAD been a good kick. Still, he was a little
surprised at the damage it had done. "Well, at least you had a soft landing,
right?"
Akira twitched. "Actually, due to my trajectory, I impacted upon the
concrete side of the canal."
Ranma flinched sympathetically. "Ow." Akane looked horrified, and
Ukyo chuckled and shook her head at the grill.
"There was... some sort of explosion. At that point I had become
submerged in the cold waters of the canal, so I escaped the brunt of the
blast. As it happens, there was a gas main running along the canal wall."
Ranma remembered Kasumi mentioning something about an explosion yesterday
cutting of the gas service. He smiled to himself when he realised that it
was Akane's own fault that she didn't have any hot water.
"Anyway, some passers-by fished me out of the canal and took me to the
hospital. Only a sprain of the wrist, with mostly first degree burns." He
scratched a bandage, which made it clear that not all of the burns were
first-degree.
Akane finally spoke up. "I'm REALLY sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you.
I just..."
Akira held up his palm, laughing nervously. "Don't worry about it. Like
I said, it was a big misunderstanding. Besides, the doctors say I should be
alright in a few days."
"A real firebrand, isn't she," remarked Ukyo from her grill.
Akane scowled at her, and Akira started fidgeting. Before things could
get worse, Ranma asked, "So what about Taro?"
"Taro? Oh, that fellow Akane said turns into a flying minotaur?"
Ranma and Akane nodded.
"Well, that would have to be Niuhomanmaorennichuan, the Spring of Drowned
Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a-Crane-and-Eel." The tortuous word came off his
lips as if he spoke it every day. "That's a combination pool."
"Combination pool?" asked Akane.
"A pool where multiple creatues drowned simultaneously. There's only
three that I know about. the Pool of Drowned Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a-
Crane-and-Eel, The Pool of Drowned Frog-Man, and The Pool of Drowned Hawk-
Seizing-Sow. There are 108 pools altogether. Or 109 now that there's the
Akanenichuan. So only about 3% of them are combination pools. Another 9% are
'personality' pools, and the rest are normal."
Ranma tried to remember what he was talking about. This guy seemed to
like to go on to tangents. "So... These combo pools. They're different from
normal pools?" He couldn't believe he had just called any of the pools in the
Cursed Springs 'normal'.
"Yes. You see, each of the pools tries to imbue its curse onto the victim
that falls in. Normally, one curse will just supercede an older curse."
Ranma blinked.
Replace it," he clarified. "But in the Niuhomanmaorennichuan, there are
actually four simultaneous curses. One to turn you into a Yeti, another for
a Bull, and so on. All simultaneously mixed together in the same pool as they
are, the... magical surface tension, if you will, has broken down between the
curses."
Ranma stared.
"You know what surface tension is, right?"
"Uh, something to do with facials?"
Akane covered her face with her hand.
"Uh, no. Surface tension is a force caused by the tendency for similar
molecules to attract one another."
"I thought opposites attracted." Ranma was sure of that.
"You're thinking of electromagatism."
"...Okay." Ranma didn't argue the point, but he was pretty sure Akira
was wrong. He knew opposites attracted. Right? He glanced at Akane.
"Well, anyway, two curses are normally like... oil and vinegar. They
don't mix. Oil sticks to oil, and vinegar to vinegar. But you can MAKE
them mix if you add a surfactant, like soap. So, you can consider the
combination pools 'soapy'. When you add a new curse to a combination-pool
curse, instead of staying discrete, the curses mix together."
Akane seemed to be following the gist of the conversation, while Ukyo
frowned at the idea of adding soap to Italian dressing. Ranma had no idea
where the conversation was going. He attempted to summarize what Akira had
said. "So basically, new curses replace old curses, unless you already had a
multiple curse, in which case it just all gets mixed together."
"Correct!"
Ranma scratched his head. "Why did I ask you this in the first place?"
Akira facefaulted.
Akane reminded him, "Now we know that you don't have to worry about
turning into a hermaphrodite if you go the the Spring of Drowned Man!"
"Didn't I already say that?" asked Akira.
"So why don't you carry Spring of Drowned Man water around? Or Spring of
Drowned Woman?" asked Ranma. "Geez, you could make a killing off of selling
a cure to Jusenkyo victims like me."
"You sound like my mother," murmured Akira, adjusting his collar again.
"Look. You're right, I could give people a cure. But I don't want to take a
chance at accidentally cursing a normal person. The instant packets are
bascially harmless, but real Jusenkyo water... I don't want to subject anyone
to that."
"What's ta 'subject'? If you accidentally splash them, just splash them
back with the other water."
"Uh... well..." he glanced about as if looking for an explanation "But...
Would that really be a cure, or would it just be a curse to turn into yourself
when splashed with cold water?"
"What's the difference?"
"Well, I mean... It's a curse. Bad things happen to people who are
cursed. And there is the whole psychological aspect, the 'blind spot' it
puts into your mind. Would it stay? Only a handful of people have ever been
cured, so there are no definative answers."
"Only a handful?!" asked Ranma.
"Psychological aspect?" asked Akane.
"Yes. The curse leaves a subtle 'blind spot' in your subconscious, like
the blind spot in your eyes."
Ranma looked confused, so Akira continued.
"There's a spot in your field of vision that you just can't see, but your
brain adapts to it, so you aren't aware of it. Curse victims often find
themselves getting splashed with cold water. They're not actually drawn to
it, or it to them, but when they are about to be splashed, the water
approaches in their mind's 'blind spot'. They're not consciously aware of it,
so they can't react to it by ducking aside or pulling out an umbrella.
Likewise, they might walk into an area where its more likely for them to GET
splashed without being consciously aware of it.
"It's the same thing with finding a cure. Many Jusenkyo victims come back
to the Cursed Springs looking for a cure, but they are distracted by some
inconsequential thing or another. And because of the 'blind spot', they
forget to go back to the springs. Only after they get home, and someone asks
about it -- pointing out the 'blind spot', as it were -- that they realise
what they've done."
Things started clicking for Akane. "Like the woman who keeps throwing
water on you in the morning when she splashes her walk. You should be able to
dodge, or at least walk around, but she still gets you a few times each
month.
And when we used the Nanban mirror, and fought the Seven Lucky Gods in China.
You all kept on forgetting to go to Jusenkyo."
"Yeah, well, you didn't remember, either!" quipped Ranma.
"I don't care about the curse. You're the one who's so uptight about it."
Akira nodded. "I'm afraid the only real hope for a cure is to have
someone else, who doesn't have a curse themelves, to collect the proper water
to cure you."
Akane noted, "Like Dad."
Ranma raised an eyebrow.
"He got the barrel of Nannichuan for you. It really could have cured
you."
Ranma lay his head on the table. "That makes me feel SO much better. If
everybody hadn't tried stealing it for themselves..."
Akane tried to put the best light onto it. "It probably had something to
do with your 'blind spots'. I mean, with you and your dad and Mousse, you
probably would have accidentally spilled it anyway, if the master hadn't
drunk it all."
Ranma wallowed in self-pity.
Akane mused, "It's too bad Ryoga wasn't able to get the barrel. He
doesn't have a 'blind spot' to worry about."
Ranma started chewing the table. The only one more stupid then Ryoga was
Akane.
Ukyo glanced at Ranma. "You sure you had enough okonomiaki, honey?"
"..."
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Author's Notes
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Lest anyone think Akira is actually some sort of authoritative source, let
me clarify some stuff. The Spring of Drowned Frog-Man is in the manga, and
an explanation of the difference between Taro's curse and everybody else's is
in the Ranma FAQ:
http://www.wot-club.org.uk/RanmaFAQ/things/jusenkyo.html
Sun, Dec 8, 1996 6:43:43 PM GMT
I made up the Hawk-Seizing-Sow pool, the number of pools, and the idea of
a 'blind-spot': the as-of-yet unexplored premise of "The Nature of the
Curse".
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End Part 4 Next Time:
"Akane: Strong Enough for a Man, But Made for a Woman?"
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