Yes, it's back. ^_^ It never really left; I just wanted to finish the
Yay! It's back! This series is such a refreshing change
from most of the stuff on the list.
"Good idea," a miserable voice from the bathroom said.
The plane tilted sharply to the right, and retching noises were
heard. "Genma, if I ever ask to go on a trip with you again,
show some damn backbone and refuse."
Which is presumably why she doesn't accompany Genma and
Ranma on the ten-year training trip?
On a nearby hilltop, a young man in a fedora and leather
jacket watched with interest through binoculars as flaming
wreckage fell from the sky.
I'm having a bit of trouble with either your description or the
terrain or their course here. Most of the Vietnam-Laos border
consists of mountains, sufficiently rough that it would be
difficult to do this.
"They'll come down by the Mekong. My men can be there in
about an hour and..."
The Mekong also doesn't run that close to the border. The
Mekong forms the western border of Laos in quite a few places.
Takashi has beaten me to the Bowl of the Sun, the Ebon Skewer
of Thoth, and the last bottle of the Wine of Pnoth left on earth.
This time, I win. The Sukhothai Tongs will be mine."
Heh. I like this list. I hope you're planning to tell us how
artifacts from Sukhothai ended up in Laos, though.
"Don't look at me," Kiri said, holding up her hands. "I was
busy trying to keep us in the air. I know we were in southern
Laos, if that's any help."
The Mekong _is_ closer to the Vietnam border in southern Laos,
but Luang Prabang would be upriver, not downriver.
"These Pathet Lao," Nodoka slowly said. "They wear black
farmer's clothing, conical hats, and carry machine guns?"
<clip>
"Well," she said, pointing, "In that case, there are about a
dozen nonexistent people aiming guns at us."
Heh. An old gag, but still a good one.
"Yes, and they'd be carrying AK-47s," Soun added glumly.
"On semi-automatic, no less."
Here Soun can recognize and name an AK-47 on sight; later he asks
Genma what "those things" are called again.
"I think he said for us to sit down," Genma said. "I picked
up a little Laotian from Saotome-sensei."
"Grandfather?" Nodoka said.
"Yeah, he trained for a time in the north mountains."
Turning to the guerillas, he smiled winningly. [Hop on a friend,
yodeling frogs dance well.]
Heh. Another oldie but goodie. The language confusion was
very funny.
[No idea. That's just what Dad used to say during the big
war. Of course, he used to say the beginning a lot more at the
beginning, and the end bits more towards the end of the war.]
Heh. Good one.
"You speak Laotian?" Genma hissed.
Takashi blinked. "Of course. I'd have to, you know, for an
expedition to Laos."
It's probably worth remembering here that Laotian and Thai
are very closely related and somewhat mutually intelligible,
just in case one of your characters is to be revealed as
knowing Thai later.
[We are arms dealers. The Laotian market is good for
business, you know?]
[Yeah, it's a bit of a growth industry for foreign
investments. Who are you selling to?]
[All comers.] Takashi shrugged. [Of course, the Americans
are just giving the stuff away, so we don't do much business
with the government.]
This is scary: Kuno Takashi being revealed as extremely
clever when Genma can't hear anything. Of course, you have
a bit of a POV problem here, as Genma's supposedly narrating
the whole thing.
[I don't know. I was told to meet someone in Luang
Prabang...]
[That's on the other side of Laos, man.]
Yup. (Assuming that they _are_ in the south...)
[Do you know if there's a way we could get transport up
the Mekong? I really do want to make this sale.]
Implying upriver...
[There still _are_ pirates. In hordes, really. They
occasionally attack a Pathet Lao boat or a government ship,
and then a firefight breaks out. There's also local militia
fleets, opium smugglers, and I've heard some crazy rumor that
the Americans are going to start bombing Laos.] The guerillas
laughed. [Have you ever head anything so far-fetched? What are
they going to bomb, the Plain of Jars?]
Timeframe? Last I remember this was set in the early
sixties (1961)?
She sighed. "I'm not talking about the accomidations,
moron. Look at the way they're rigged. Those are fishing
vessels. None of their owners are going to want to sail through
bandit-infested waters to the other end of this armpit of a
nation."
These are sailing vessels? For fishing on the river? Is
this close to the Cambodian border, where the river widens
up a bit?
"What the hell is she doing?" Soun hissed. Nodoka just
turned a bright, crimson red and glared angrily back.
Nodoka understands English, then.
She smirked. "I'm joking. She won't lose."
"You... don't... KNOW... that!" Soun snarled, his hands
flexing. "Nodoka-san is a refined, cultured maiden! How on
earth do you expect her to win a card game with that lot of
walking... depravity? Let me GO, Kasigi!"
Heh. Knowing what we know, this is good.
"You shouldn't judge people from other cultures," Takashi
said cheerfully. "For example, the Yamomano people of the
Amazon basin consider hitting each other with large wooden
clubs to be a polite formality."
Heh. (Isn't the early sixties prior to any written info
on the Yanomamo? I guess Takashi's been around... He
can't spell, though.)
Men only, of course. You know, this almost would've worked
better if you'd used their other custom: "For example,
the Yanomamo people of the Amazon basin consider blowing
hallucinatory purple dust up each other's noses to be a
polite formality."
"Very industrious, though," Soun admitted grudgingly.
"They're treating those things under the tarpaulins with a
surprising amount of care."
Genma and Soun are both dim, true; but you've established
that they're paranoid about this trip. Shouldn't they
be more curious than they are here?
"He wants to know if we want to take on the passengers
who'd arranged with him to be taken downriver," Takashi
translated.
Given what we know to this point, downriver should be the
opposite direction to the way our heroes want to go...
Kiri snarled an order. The captain unhappily nodded and
began to shout orders of his own. The crew began to swarm
around the ship like ants around a kicked anthill, rigging the
low, fanlike sails and loosening ropes.
"Rigging the... sails"? Why? For going upstream on a river?
Soun nervously peered over the rail. "I don't see
anything... wait, there's a small band of men heading this way
with... what did you call those things, Kasigi?"
Here. _Soun_ named them the previous time.
"Get below, Saotome!" Kiri hissed urgently. "It's Kuonji
Inji!"
"WHAT?" Nodoka yelped. "Here? Him?"
Heh. Gee, small world. Takahashi coincidence strikes again!
Genma watched the figure coming up the gangplank with
wary interest. He didn't look like much, not at first glance.
Slender, beardless, with sharp, bishonen features. An easy
smile.
The description difference still gives me pause. Are you sure
this isn't Ukyou's _mother_, disguised as a man?
"Biki Kiritsubo, Inji-kun," Kiri said neutrally. "You the
one who booked passage on my boat?"
<clip>
"Pleased to meet you," Inji said, voice friendly. "We'll be
going downriver to Luang Prabang. The former owner told you
that, right Kiri?"
Again, should be upriver if they're in southern Laos. Of course,
we have only Kiri's word for that. Maybe they're in the far
north? But then we have that guerrilla's statement that Luang
Prabang is on the far side of the country...
Seeing that she looked less than convinced, Genma smiled
reassuringly at her. "Yeah. Soun may be a bit of a moron, but
he's almost as good as me. And I'm the second-best martial
artist in the world. So there's nothing to worry about, ne?"
Genma hasn't met Happosai yet, I take it... (can't remember
if we're supposed to know that yet).
"Kuonji Inji collects ancient artifacts used in the
preparation of food," Takashi absently explained. "Sort of a
specialized archeologist. I've, hmm, beat him to a few finds.
He's not very sportsmanlike about it."
Interesting... so the food orientation is not limited to
martial arts...
"Sore? Not really." Something glittered in Inji's eyes. "I
just want to resume the discussion I was having with her. It
was promising to get very interesting." He glanced at Soun and
Genma. "I don't suppose either of you gentleman met her?"
"Who, us?" they chorused in unison, then glared at each
other.
Heh. Trust Soun and Genma to screw this up...
"Mmm," Inji commented, looking somewhat tired. "It
appears so."
"Only met her recently, in passing," Genma said.
"Old acquaintance, haven't seen her in years," Soun said.
They glared at each other again.
Inji sighed. "I'm going above. Why don't you three agree on
a coherent lie, and I'll ask again at dinner."
Heh. _Very_ elegant.
And, of course, I met Kuonji Inji for the first time.
I can't say it was a favorable first impression. I
suspected that I would wind up fighting him, possibly for
my or Nodoka's life, and events proved me to be correct. I
underestimated him badly. I have had many enemies, but
none the equal of Inji in skill or lethal purpose.
Reconciling this with the manga intro of Ukyou will require
some real wizardry. How/why would Genma EVER have stayed in the
area, later, upon meeting a down-on-his-luck Inji working
as an itinerant okonomiyaki seller?
I suppose I should find it amusing that you now
count my foe's daughter as one of your closest and oldest
friends. Mostly my doing, I'm afraid. Ukyou didn't live up
to my expectations, though... I was bitterly disappointed
then, but less so now. Obsession fades, and repentance
takes its place. I used her poorly, as I used so many
others.
The implications here take a bit of pondering. (If you want
them to be clear, you may want to reword.) It _sounds_ like
Genma is saying he engaged Ranma to Ukyou from _his own_
obsession, apparently with getting back at Inji? And he
was counting on Ukyou reacting differently than she did?
Was he expecting Ukyou to try to kill her parent or something?
BTW, I'm a bit surprised that the author of "Ukyou Can Cook"
is using the "closest and oldest friends" line...
Anyway, I'm looking VERY eagerly forward to more of this...