Great episode. I really love the battle scenes- they're simply superb. Especially the Ranma/ Sayuri & Yuka duel. Can't wait for the next part...
And...
"I'm not sure this is such a great idea."
Yuka looked her friend over. She had expected Sayuri to get cold feet
a little sooner than this.
"Do you want to go home or don't you?"
"Of course I want to go home," Sayuri replied. "But not in chains."
"We aren't going to kill him," Yuka assured her friend. "We're just
going to scare him a little. Put him in his place, as it were."
"But a duel?" Sayuri protested. "Just because we're not out to kill
him doesn't mean he'll feel the same way. This could get out of hand
before we know it."
Yuka gestured to their CSR-V8 Corsair fighters. Akari's Tech Shed had
just craned them out of their launch bays in the DropShip's bow section,
and set them on the tarmac for takeoff. "Come on," she returned. "What can
a LAM do to one of these things? We have twice the armor and firepower, and
we're faster than him too."
"I'm still not convinced that this is the best way to go about getting
rid of the Saotomes," Sayuri said to her. "If we kill him, we're in big
trouble. We know that Akane's angry with Ranma, but what if she still
loves him?"
Yuka pursed her lips in thought. It was not her intention to kill the
worthless piece of crap, but it was possible that it could happen. Akane
might not take it well at first, but she would get over the loser in time.
As for any legal problems they might have, she had an angle for that.
"If we kill him, then so be it. We have the right as aerospace pilots
to challenge others to duels the same way mechwarriors can."
Sayuri wasn't so sure. While the Succession Wars had conferred upon
mechwarriors and aerospace pilots a status approaching that of the Chivalry
in the feudal periods of pre-Jump Earth, dueling wasn't exactly condoned by
the Nerima Confederation the way it was in the Furinkan Combine or the
Jusenkyo Commonwealth. They simply couldn't afford to waste their fighting
resources the way the larger, richer Successor States could. She didn't
like Ranma any more than Yuka did, but was this really the only way?
"Are you with me or aren't you?" Yuka pressed.
Sayuri closed her eyes in dread of the next few hours. Yuka would go
whether she did or not, and by herself, she could get killed. Neither of
them had ever fought a LAM before, and in the hands of a skilled pilot,
LAMs were known to be as unpredictable as enemies came. Ranma was a total
asshole for the way he treated Akane, and he also had every reason to hate
both Yuka and herself.
"I'm in."
"Good. Let's get cracking then."
Someone's really, really asking for it ;)
Eshin
eshin@friko5.onet.pl
eshin@dragonmount.com