Interesting Times
By socchan
Prologue: A Cat's Whisker Curse
Nabiki Tendo had no idea why she was drawn into the small out-of-the-way store. In fact, she had no idea where the store had come from, or why she had never seen it before, so perhaps it was curiosity that drove her—but we all know what happens with curiosity. Still, she had gone in, and now she marveled at the strange and rare sights that surrounded her. She bent low to examine the contents of a green persimmon pot with cracked paint near the bottom*; it was a fine pungent powder, gray in color, and it made her fingers itch when she picked up a pinch to identify its smell. She sneezed, abruptly.
"Can I help you?"
Nabiki whirled around, slamming the lid down on the pot to see a vaguely Spanish woman with dark tumbling curls standing behind the counter. She had an accent that Nabiki couldn't place, and her dark eyes glinted with unspoken mischief. "I-I was just looking around…" Nabiki said, frustrated with herself at being caught so unaware that she would stutter. That hadn't happened in years, and she couldn't help but blame the strange woman for it.
The woman laughed, the sound chiming like bells in the tiny shop. "Feel free to do so, then, but be careful what you handle. Some of the items in here are more than a little dangerous."
Nabiki leveled a suspicious gaze at the woman, who met it unflinching. Nabiki was unnerved to realize that she couldn't read the woman's eyes. For the first time in almost as long as she could remember, Nabiki yielded. "I'll be careful," She said.
As Nabiki looked around the store, the woman rummaged around the back room. Nabiki felt almost overwhelmed as her eyes settled on different things: a dagger with large colored crystals on the hilt, an incense burner shaped like a sea shell, a stuffed crow, a back-scratcher labeled 'human bone'. She began to realize that despite its outward appearances, this was far from an ordinary shop. It was when she moved to examine the artifacts in the display case that she was finally drawn in by something other than the persimmon pot.
It was a set of seven claws, each a different color of the rainbow and all about a centimeter long, though there was a slight variation in sizes. It was when she reached forward to touch them that the woman noticed her.
"Oh, you want the Cat's Wishes, do you?"
Nabiki jumped; the woman had surprised her again, which was twice in the same hour. She was certainly a force to be reckoned with. "The what?" Nabiki asked, not taking her eyes away from the claws.
"The Cat's Wishes." The woman replied.
"What do they do?" Nabiki said, moving to get a better view of them.
The woman shrugged. "They cut down on the negative affects of curses and the like."
Nabiki's eyes snapped up at this, drawn away from the claws for the first time since having been caught by them. "Curses? As in, Jusenkyo curses?"
The woman thought a moment. "Well, I suppose it would work… but I'd have to do some research to make sure. To be certain, it would work at least half the time…"
"How much?" Nabiki demanded.
The woman's eyes glinted, but Nabiki did not notice; she was once again staring intently at the claws. "One thousand, five hundred yen for the set."
Nabiki dug two thousand yen from her pocket and set it on the counter. Business was a little slow at the moment, but she could afford it. Nabiki felt she couldn't afford not to buy it. "Here." She said, "Keep the change."
Smiling, the woman took the seven necklaces out of the display case, and wrapped six of them up; the seventh she strung around Nabiki's neck. "For luck," she said, wearing a small smile. "If you come back later, I can have more info on the Wishes' affect on Jusenkyo curses."
Nabiki smiled and nodded, clutching the package close to her chest, not wanting to let go of it. "Thank you," she said, nodding. Quickly, she backed out of the store, almost tripping over one of the objects lying on the floor. She turned around and stumbled out of the shop; no one was going to get this cure from her.
The woman watched her go from the doorway, a familiar smirk on her lips. "May you live in interesting times," she whispered to the retreating girl's back, then went back into her store, dusting her hands off. The store squeezed out of existence, the buildings on either side pushing together to fill the space, but she was unworried. Nabiki would be able to find her again. In fact, she would want very much to return if the Cat's Wishes had any potency left.
In the un-space where the shop dwelled when it was not needed in real-space, the store owner dug up a rather dusty shard of green crystal. Humming, she polished it up, and whispered to it to reveal what had happened in that curious girl's life to make her choose the Cat's Wishes—and to make her handle the Cursed Whisker powder. A smile formed as she watched the events unfold, then she laughed outright. "Oh, this is rich!" she exclaimed. "Just rich! Who would've guessed her sister attracts curses?"
As Nabiki hurried home, a frown creased her forehead as she finally identified the smell of the powder from the persimmon pot. "Catnip…"
=^-,-^=
*Green persimmon pot borrowed without permission from 'Usagi Yojimbo' by Stan Sakai. In other words, not mine.
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is property of Rumiko Takahashi, and therefore, not mine. I make no claim of it, and this piece of fan fiction is written purely for entertainment, not for money. The Cat's Wishes and Cursed Whisker powder are my concepts, so you'd better ask before using them—or at least give me some credit. Thanks much!
Special thanks to my absolutely impeccable editor, Mao, for proofreading this entry, even without any prior knowledge of the Ranma story line. Any grammatical or punctuation errors are probably just me trying to correct the things he pointed out.
Please note that this is my first Ranma fic, so I invite all reviewers to do their worst. Don't go easy on me, or I'll never be ready for the big time. Trial by fire, y'know? Thanks, that's all.
--socchan