Kasumi was sitting in the castle's kitchen and ate one of Ukyo's famous beef okonomiyaki.
"Well, what do you say, sugar?" Ukyo asked.
Kasumi smiled. "This is the best okonomiyaki I've ever eaten in my life, Ukyo!"
Ukyo beamed. "Glad to hear it. I've tried a new sauce, ya know?"
"It's absolutely delicious," Kasumi assured the young chef as she finished the rest of her meal. "Say, what's the number of the royal bakery again?"
"Eight-eight-twelve," Ukyo said.
Kasumi walked over to the phone and dialed. Shortly afterwards, someone picked up.
"Hello there, Hiroshi-kun! Is Auntie Nodoka… I mean, Mrs. Saotome available?"
"Just a sec…" Hiroshi said. "Yo, boss?"
A moment later, Nodoka was on the phone. "Kasumi-chan! How nice of you to call."
"Good day, Auntie!" Kasumi said. "Say, I'm calling because of the cake… how is it going?"
"Oh, it's going to be absolutely marvelous," Nodoka gushed. "We've already finished baking the lower platform with the feet, and the dough for the other parts is already mixed…"
"Well, that's good to hear!" Kasumi smiled. "I knew you are an artist, auntie… I can't wait to see what the cake will look like."
"You will see," Nodoka said. "So, and how's my dear Ranma today?"
Kasumi remembered her last conversation with the king and decided not to worry Nodoka with the bad news… who knows if she was still able to create her masterpiece if she's worried about her adoptive son.
"Um, he's… he's doing fine, auntie! He's sparring, in the dojo…"
"I should have known," Nodoka said. "Well, I have to get back to work… I'll call you when the cake is finished, Kasumi-chan!"
Kasumi hung up. "Well, it seems the cake is going to be a success," she smiled. "If everything else will be a failure, at least the cake his mother and her employees are working on will be able to put a smile on Ranma's face."
"Yeah," Ukyo nodded. "But the thunderstorm… I fear that's gonna be difficult for Nabiki. It certainly will be a tough nut for her to crack."
"Don't underestimate Nabiki!" Kasumi said. "She will create the most beautiful bad weather you have ever seen, believe me! Well, I have to go now… I just have to see how Ranma is faring."
The young coiffeur left the kitchen and walked outside. When she was walking across the courtyard, she was surprised to see Ami running through the gates.
"Kasumi!" she shouted and waved. "Wait a second… I've got something to show you!"
"Ami-chan?" Kasumi wondered. "What were you doing outside the castle?"
"Here, take a look at this," Ami said and pulled the crown out of her sack.
"I don't believe it!" Kasumi gasped. "That's the royal crown! But how did you find it?"
Ami told her about Ryoga and how she found both the crown and the Flying Agaric.
Kasumi frowned. She still had no idea why in the world Ryoga of all people would want to steal Ranma's crown. "You're not hurt, are you?" she asked Ami.
Ami shook her head. "Nope, I'm fine! I may not look like it, but I'm a pretty good climber."
Realizing that Ami had no idea that Ryoga was the thief, Kasumi decided not to say anything. "Let me take the crown, I'll bring it back to the king. Please don't tell anyone you found it in the forest. Ranma doesn't know it is missing yet and I don't want to cause any unnecessary ruckus."
"Fine with me," Ami nodded and gave Kasumi the crown. While Kasumi was heading back into the castle, she walked over to Nabiki's shack.
Ami had already eaten a small piece of the Flying Agaric, and the effects were incredible: She had been able to run as fast as never before, and she had felt as if she had floated above the ground.
Nabiki, in the meantime, was almost finished with the Storm Machine. All she had to do was to attach the storage unit to the pilot box, and it also was missing some wheels.
"Nabiki!" Ami shouted and made a jump of three meters towards her friend. "I found one!"
"Really? That's great? And, is it working?"
Ami smiled. "You just saw it, didn't you?" She took the mushroom out of the sack.
Nabiki looked at the red spots. "Flying Agaric…" she murmured. "You live and learn… Okay, I'll just attach some wheels, and then we can make our first test flight. I can always attach the storage unit later."
Ami helped Nabiki with the wheels, and then everything was in place. Together, they pushed the pilot box over to the other courtyard, so Ranma wouldn't see them when he looked out of his window.
Nabiki had provided the box with two powerful engines and two big propellers that should easily be able to make the whole machine fly… if the Flying Agaric was working.
They dissected the Flying Agaric into pieces and mixed them with the normal fuel that Nabiki had already filled the engines with. Afterwards, they climbed into the pilot box. "Test flight number one!" Nabiki shouted. "Ready, Ami? Up, up and away!"
She started both engines, and with a loud humming sound, they started vibrating.
But that was really all they did. They weren't as loud as you would expect from such engines, and the pilot box didn't move an inch. Or did it? Nabiki pushed the accelerator lever forth, and the box slowly rose from the ground… but only for a short while. About one meter above the ground, it stopped and hovered in mid-air.
"I guess that's it," Nabiki sighed and pulled the lever back. The box sank to the ground and Nabiki stopped the engines.
"At least we were in the air," Ami said. "The Flying Agaric is working."
"Maybe, but it's not powerful enough," Nabiki grumbled. "Imagine we had attached the storage unit to the machine… it would have never risen from the ground. The machine is just too heavy for your mushroom."
"And what now?" Ami sighed.
"Well, I'll finish building the machine for now… maybe I can think of something while I'm working on it. You wanna help me?"
"Sure thing," Ami nodded.
hr
Ranma was finished with his training at 15 o' clock. It helped him to distract himself from his worries, but only as long as he was in the dojo.
Now he was back in his chambers and he wondered if there was anything that could bring some color back into his life…
He lay down on his bed and started brooding.
'It's all useless…' he thought. 'Completely, utterly useless! Is it really completely useless? Yes, hopelessly useless… Totally useless, as useless as…'
Wait! There was something else! A tiny, itty-bitty gleam of hope that was invading his thoughts… Yes, there was something else! Hungry! He was feeling hungry!
Ranma took the royal bell and rang it like a madman.
Sayuri and Yuka came running right after that.
"I want everything, and I mean EVERYTHING we have to eat inside the kitchen… and I want it here, at my bed!"
Sayuri and Yuka gasped when they looked at the king's eyes. It was dreadful how much his eyes were gleaming with just a hint of insanity…
"Did you not hear what I said?" Ranma shouted, and the two maids jumped in fright. They ran out of the room, along the corridor and down to the kitchen.
"Th-the-the king wants to eat everything, really everything we have in the kitchen," Yuka stuttered. "I'm telling you, he's going insane…"
Sayuri's teeth were clattering. "I'm not going back in there…" she murmured.
"Calm down!" Kasumi said, who was just sitting there with Ukyo, drinking a cup of tea. "Of course he's hungry after he's finished with his training. You must know how big his appetite can be by now."
"Yes, but he doesn't just want to have ANY meal, he wants EVERYTHING we have," Yuka said. "I'm telling you, he's crazy!"
"Well, if it makes him happy, we'll bring him everything," Kasumi said and smiled. But inside, she didn't feel like laughing at all.
Ukyo, Kasumi and the two maids gathered all the food from the kitchen and piled it up on the four biggest trays they had. Cheese, raw eggs, bread, unboiled rice, melons, pickles, flour, cocoa, honey, herring, apples, soda, horseradish, milk, lollypops, tofu, noodles, chocolate, ketchup, mayonnaise, sausages and many, many more things were being put on top of the trays, until there was no room for anything else.
"Okay, now take a tray, everyone, and follow me!"
She took a tray and walked out of the kitchen. Ukyo, Sayuri and Yuka followed her.
Ranma was already waiting impatiently. "Food!" he said and licked his lips. "Food!"
"Where shall we put this?" Ukyo whispered.
"Just empty everything on the bed," Kasumi said, and they did so.
"We can throw the blanket to the trash when this is over, that's for sure…" Ukyo grumbled.
"Food! Food!" Ranma drooled and started to shovel chocolate and herring into his mouth, with his bare hands. This was worse than the way he usually ate.
"You can go now, I'll stay with him," Kasumi said, and the other three girls quietly left the room.
Ranma was now gobbling down peanuts with ketchup and flour. Not even Genma would eat like this…
"Ranma-kun…" Kasumi said carefully. "Don't you think this could upset your stomach?"
"Food! Food!" Ranma mumbled and stuffed a raw egg into his mouth, complete with its eggshell. He didn't even look at Kasumi.
"Ranma," Kasumi said. "You were at the dojo today, right? Don't you want to tell me how it was?"
"Food! Food!" Ranma said.
"Now, Ranma… I'm sure you must have had enough by now. What do you say we take all of this away and I'll fix your hair… see, your pigtail is a mess!"
She was right: Ranma's usually straight and tidy pigtail was coming apart, and his hair was smeared with all kinds of food.
"Food! Food! Food!" Ranma shouted and looked at Kasumi angrily. He reached for a melon and punched a hole in it, so that melon parts were flying all through his room. "Food! Food!"
Kasumi left the bed chamber. She was unbelievably sad.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Ukyo and the maids were waiting for her.
"What's he doing?" Ukyo asked.
"Eating food! Food!" Kasumi replied as she slowly walked away. But it didn't sound funny. Not at all.
