It's been seven months(!) since part twelve was posted, so I'm
providing a recap of the core plot for those who don't remember what
this thing is about and don't want to reread the old parts. :j
Yay! NATC13! This is one of my favorite series, so I'm quite happy
to finally see it continued. Of course, that measn I had to reread
the entire series up to this point, so this response isn't as
quick as it could've been. ^_^
Oh, and I hope you don't take another seven months for the
next chapter. ^_^
Yes, she'd have a GREAT deal of fun experimenting with this little
baby. Now all she had to do was visit talk to Mrs. Hinamoto's kid in
the morning...
visit talk?
Akira pulled back. "I know that. That's the point." He leaned
over and barked, "That's what I'm, trying to CEBEL-- CELEBRATE for you!
But some reason, you decline to drink."
Heh. So *did* Akira really draw any conclusions from Ryoga, or his
he just trying to convince Ranma he has reason to drink? Heheh. ^_^
I was gonna say I would've prefered that whether Ranma *did* have
a reaction or not was still uncertain, but I think I changed my mind.
After a few minutes of questions and gentle probing, the doctor said
that there was nothing wrong with the girl that a few hours of rest
shouldn't cure. It wasn't a concussion or anything more serious. She
had sprained her wrist, however, which the doctor left to me.
Me? Using this perspective feels odd to me - the scene has changed
from Akira telling the story to Ranma, to a flashback of the events
when they happened - IMO, using standard third-person here would feel
a lot less unnatural.
"You'll be back in time to finish your chores?
Missing a quote here.
"Are you alright?" I took his hand, and felt the wrist. Judging
>from his grimace, it was obvious he'd hurt it somehow. Fortunately, no
bones were broken. "When did this happen? Never mind, let's get out of
here before the rain really starts falling." Indeed, the mist had given
way to droplets, which were starting to fall.
Perfect, perfect. And Akira isn't even being annoyingly unperceptive,
as is otherwise usually the case with situations like these, since
he doesn't know of the pool...
It almost worked. I felt the urge to get off her and scramble away
before anyone could see. It didn't look good, with me straddling him
and pinning his arms down. But this was Rei, not really some girl. He
had to break free of the delusion that he was one.
Considering Akira arrives only shortly after the failed marriage... That
was only shortly after the events in China, and (unless I'm mistaken),
it can't have been too long before that that the Akane-pool was
created. Thus, Rei must have been cursed relatively recently when
Akira arrives in Japan. Considering how much information Akira has
on Jusenkyo, he must've been gathering it from long before this all
happened... in other words, it seems strange that he doesn't already
realize that his friend's mind is being affected by the curse.
Akira started giggling. "Mu-Su blew his chance when he was a kid!
You've been using Mu-Tsu before. I think.
He didn't start to learn martial arts until AFTER Shan-Pu kicked his
butt. Now he'll never get another chance to challenge her for her hand.
He spends his free time trying to convince her to marry him without
fighting. The bitch."
Oh, and just a thought - Akira seems very clear of mind throughout
all his storytelling and this, considering how piss-drunk he seemed
to be when Ranma first arrived at the scene.
"Preciser-- uh, exactly!" He swung his hand about enthusiastically,
spilling the contents of cup at Ranma. "Hey, what do you know? Sake
triggers your curse, too."
Um. Sake. Served warm, you know. ^_-
"Huh? I thought you said the nyannichuan didn't have any mental
effects?"
Umm. He's just been spending the past few chapters trying to convince
Ranma of its mental effects (even if he's admitted that they haven't
affected *Ranma*).
Akira clarified, "You're the first person I've told about the test;
she still thinks your girl-side's one hundred percent girl, right?"
I haven't gotten the impression that they thought Ranma's girl side
was 100% girl, just slightly affected by being a girl... then again,
I'll forgive that for the interesting misunderstandings this here
will cause. ^_^
Akira adjusted his glasses. "Well, it does makes sense."
"MAKE SHENSE?!?" screached Ranma. "You just made it UP?!"
Except he said he'd interviewed one more person who'd also fallen
in the spring of drowned girl...
"Wait. You shouldn't do this, Ranma. You're a guy..."
"Letsh go to your place."
"...OK!"
...
Eep.
The girl disagreed. "You got me drunk, you asshole! You slept with
me, and now I've got morning sickness!"
Bwaahaha. Poor stupid Ranma. Though it strikes me as kinda odd that
he'd *know* of morning sickness, and not think more immediately
of being hung over. Especially considering that he should be feeling
said hangover quite clearly if he actually threw up in the *morning*
(as opposed to, say, in his sleep or *before* passing out, which would
make more sense)
* * * * * * *
Back in his normal body, Ranma was already feeling much better.
Filling up on the miso soup, pickles, fish, and plenty of helpings of
rice helped, too.
Honestly, after getting that drunk, and the previous events, there's
no way I'll buy Ranma *not* feeling like utter *shit* for the rest of
the day, ot at least a significant portion of it.
"It's because," he paused for dramatic effect, "You're all martial
artists!"
Heh. This guy likes coming up with theories, eh?
"Oh, not just drunk," replied Akira helpfully. "A loss of
inhibitions will do it, but I imagine anything that would make you
forget your training would have the same effect. That's probably a good
motivation to continue training for the rest of your life. Perhaps it's
another reason why Jusenkyo is a training ground?"
Like... getting hit over the head, eh? :)
"What? Why didn't Mother ever-- GAN!"
"Huh?" Ranma turned back around, but Akira was gone. She caught a
flash of movement around the corner, followed by a ripping sound and a
yelp. Ranma rushed to where the noise had come from, but there was
neither hide nor hair of Akira.
His pants and shoes, however, were lying on the wet ground.
Heh. Nice timing. *Just* when he happened to be speaking of the
soap... ^_^
"I didn't find the old guys, and it was so late that I, ah, just...
slept over at... a... friend's house?" Yeah, right. "And it was so
late, I didn't want to call." She was so drunk that she probably
wouldn't have remembered how to use a phone, anyway.
"I left a note!"
Umgumbuh? Who's saying this? Who left a note, and to who? I can't
make any sense out of it.
He'd take what he could get. If Akane thought he was all the way a
girl in his cursed form, and wanted to be 'friendlier' with him, who was
he to tell her different?
Heheheh. Though this strikes me as a pretty un-Ranma thing for Ranma
to think. I'm pretty sure he'd want her to like him as him.
Akane favored Nabiki with a half-lidded gaze. "There isn't going to
be a boy in my room, tonight." Then she produced a glass of cold water,
splashing her fiance.
Mwahaha.
Poor Ranma.
At one point it looked like they were bouncing on the bed. Kasumi's
small brow had furrowed with jealousy. They never let her jump on her
bed! After a short period, the movement stopped, and Daddy started
snoring. Well, they weren't playing anymore, so Kasumi could go back to
bed. Closing the door with a click, she went up the stairs, and started
climbing them back to her room.
No.
While the rest of the chapter have been *skirting* the edge rather
nicely, *this*, I think, has passed it and gone on to being just
crude... and Kasumi's mother explaining to her about what "making love"
is is something I think would be better left out.
Mr. Saotome was so big! And he was on top of Auntie Nodoka! He had
to be squishing her, under all that weight. She was moaning, but it
didn't sound like in was pain.
"Nodoka..." He caressed her hair, hanging loose.
"My dark horse, shouldn't I be riding YOU?" The two rolled and
bounced a bit on the bed, and now Nodoka was on top of Mrs. Saotome,
legs straddling his hips. He smiled, and grabbed her hips, pulling her
against him.
It got more interesting after that.
This *DEFINITELY* is going one step too far.
Ranma noticed the umbrella Akira had left behind on the ground just
before a now-familiar sequence of events occured.
From three stories up a girl cried, "Hey, don't dump that outside!"
Right. We sure couldn't see *that* coming, could we? ^_^
------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Part 13 End of "The Nature of the Curse"
To be continued in "The Nature of the Beast"
First posted 2000-02-14.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I like it. It goes somewhat further than the series has previously,
and I'm not sure I agree that it should - it does feel like the tone
has changed in one big step rather than subtly and gradually (and I
say that based on reading all 13 chapters in a row) - but I still
like it. This remains one of my favorite currently ongoing series.
I find the varying theories about how and why jusenkyo works quite
amusing, especially since you skillfully dodge around having to
confirm or deny whether they're actually *true*; we still have no
way of knowing how close or far Akira is from the mark. I just hope
other people don't take it and use as fanfic cliches without
thinking about why (but that is, of course, irrelevant to this fic).
The varying misunderstandings are, as always, wonderful. Poor,
confused Ranma, and poor, confused Akane. And you still manage to
get in a good amount of Ranma-Akane waff, which is of course always
a good thing in my book.
Characters are behaving closely enough to how I'd expect them to
for me not to be bothered by any slight steps out of bound, except
where so noted in the comments. The language also works well; it's
level (in descriptions and otherwise) and style seems well suited
to the story being told.
Can't wait to see the next part.
---
Ronny Hedin, thark@mangakai.org, http://i99ronhe.island.liu.se/
"Baka baka, minna baka." -Hoshino Ruri, Nadesico
"How embarrassing to be human." -Kurt Vonnegut