--- Brian Randall <brian@azurite.org> wrote:

	Haruka began to smile softly. 

Haruka smiling softly is like Kanako smiling softly. You know you're
dead meat.

"I have just the thing, Keitaro,"
she 
assured him. "Now, do you remember the summer play I had everyone
put on?"

	"Yes?" he hazarded meekly. "Thankfully, that's all over now. A
long 
forgotten memory that never needs to be dredged back up."

	"Time for another one to raise funds," she announced.

	Keitaro winced. "Um... wouldn't it be easier to plead 
bankruptcy?"

...or sell a kidney?

	"I can hardly wait," Keitaro and Naru said in unison, neither
looking pleased at the thought.

Gratuitous fan service ahoy!

	Naru frowned. "Umm, I'm a princess, apparently." She looked at
Haruka. 
"I don't remember this story having a princess in it."

	"I took some liberties," Haruka dismissed. "It's a play for 
kids, after all."

Yeah, just like the last one was. Definitely PG13!

	They all nodded, Shinobu quietly mumbling some of her lines. 
"'And today we present to you the heroic legend of Raiko and the 
ground spider,'" she quoted. Looking up, she asked, "Who's supposed

to play the ground spider?"

Mecha Tama! Mecha Tama! Mecha Tama!

	"I don't think Oe-san is like that!" Shinobu blurted out, 
turning him a fearfully questioning glance.

	"Not a chance," he said quickly, shaking his head.

Not having any clue as to what he was denying, of course.

	Motoko's voice reached them faintly from where she practiced,
outside, 
piercing the suddenly awkward silence. "Strike! Strike! Strike!"

	Ranma shuddered, and looked briefly haunted, glancing over his
shoulder 
fearfully, then turning back and insisting, "Never. Ever."

Ghosts from the past.
 

	Mitsune raised an eyebrow, then reached for her copy of the
script. 
"Seems to me we should be able to come up with something," she
reasoned. 
"After all, being the narrator, anything you say goes, right?"

	"Does it?"

	"It should." Mitsune looked thoughtful for a moment. "I have 
an idea. 
See, in this scene here...."

Have you ever read "Mustumi Writes a Lemon"? ^_^

	"And is it also true, young Kaidomaru, that your caretaker is 
the wicked Yamamba?" he asked, one hand going to his sword. "The
dreaded and 
vile man-eating hag?"

	Before Kaidomaru could reply, a woman in a tattered and torn
kimono 
emerged from the hut, making a motion towards Raiko. He reeled as
though 
struck, and sunk to the ground, dazed.

	***

	"Watch your mouth," Haruka grumped, preparing to throw another
rock at 
Keitaro.

	"It was in the script!" Ranma shot back under her breath.

	"I changed that line," she countered just as quietly.

Heh.

	"The poor villagers were terrorized by villains of the rudest
sort!" 
the narrator exclaimed, as two men in armor jumped out from behind
the 
stage, looking as though they had leapt from a rooftop. They
landed, one 
tall and lanky, the other shorter and more rounded, both with long
hair.

	"Ah!" the tall one exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips, 
and 
offering a maniacal laugh. "This village is ours, for our strength
is 
uncontested!"

	"Indeed it is!" the other chimed in, grinning wickedly, and
leaning on 
his spear to leer at the peasant girls. "And now, let us claim our
bounty!"

	***

	"We get to tussle with those cuties!" Haitani whispered to 
Shirai.

How did I know it would be these two?

	"Let's hurry before anyone else shows up," Shirai countered, 
as
the 
pair advanced on Mutsumi and Naru.

	"Naru-san?" Mutsumi asked quietly enough not to be heard off 
the
stage. 
"Is this in the script?"

	"They couldn't be that dumb," Naru said in disbelief, while 
she and 
Mutsumi cowered away from the approaching villains.

Naru (whispering to Mutsumi): The first one that touches me gets
launched into next week!

	Sadamitsu dodged to one side, and waved her staff at the 
demon.
"You 
can not defeat me, vile thing, for I fight for justice!" she
proclaimed.

Is she quoting Amelia, or The Tick?

	Still in peasant costume, Naru shook her head. "We're holding 
in 
there," she finally managed. "I think the last play went better
than this."

How can she say that!? At least she's kept her clothes on this time.

	"Okonomiyaki!" Seta announced, bearing one in his hand, and
smiling 
genially. "A friend of yours, I think, Oe-kun."

Ouch.

I liked this chapter a lot. Very much a Love Hina feel to it. It's
probably my favorite chapter so far.

Brian Welch

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